You shouldn't be seeing a dead short.
If you're wrapped around a metal ladder you'll never get the thing to work.
You've got to be away from metal. Also, that antenna usually likes to see 50ft
of coax and an 8-10 turn choke will help with the coax. They're good little
antennas so don't give up yet but also keep in mind that you won't get the
performance with a sloper that you will with a flat top configuration. You'll
have more of a vertical takeoff angle.
Tom
Tom Brennan KD5VIJ, CCC-A/SLP
web page http://titan.sfasu.edu/~g_brennantg/sonicpage.html