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Re: [TenTec] bill orr article

To: <waltk8cv4612amos@att.net>, "Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment" <tentec@contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [TenTec] bill orr article
From: "Bob Close" <rclose@nhwisp.com>
Reply-to: Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment <tentec@contesting.com>
Date: Sun, 1 Feb 2009 16:31:52 -0500
List-post: <mailto:tentec@contesting.com>
Drilling through a window--wow, you are a pretty confident person! I took a different approach, where I drilled two 5/8 holes through the side of the house at the same approximate spacing being careful not to grab the insulation. I carefully pushed two 1/2 plastic conduit through the holes, and cut them flush with the inside and outside walls, caulking them carefully. Inside and outside, I mounted a couple of porcelain insulators designed to pass a wire through a chassis. I ran a piece of 12 AWG solid copper wire through the conduits to join the outside insulators to the inside. I know that there are probably some impedance bumps, but that is a problem in theory only at HF frequencies. At 2KW there is no warming at all, I am well insulated from any wooden structure, and outside I have a little piece of siding to act as a "roof" to keep the terminals dry. I connect the window line to the insulators using a gadget I made up out of a couple of dual banana plugs/jacks. When not using the antenna I pull the connection off and plug the banana plug into a well-grounded copper plate with holes the appropriate size and distance. Clean, fast and it's worked just fine for ten years. I had the ladder line vaporized by a direct lightning strike while grounded with no damage to anys inside equipment. amazing and/or lucky!
K1SRR
Bob

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From: <waltk8cv4612amos@att.net>
Sent: Sunday, February 01, 2009 3:56 PM
To: "Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment" <tentec@contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [TenTec] bill orr article

Open wire through GLASS ........... now there's an OXYMORON :-)

Get tape and a carbide tipped drill bit ! I used 1/ 16 I think.

Water on the bit and drill the tape marked spot on the glass at about the
ladder line spacing.

Feed #18 tined wire through the window and solder the open wire to it inside
and outside.

Find a way to tie off the outside open wire to take the strain off the
glass. I tied off to a metal clothes pole with a couple of strings, leave a
drip loop too. I use a knife switch inside to ground the mess. Yes, there
are other ways but this has worked well for me. I think MFJ has a panel you
can shut the window on. Might work too ?

Walt K8CV Royal Oak, MI.


----- Original Message ----- From: "Ken Brown" <ken.d.brown@hawaiiantel.net>
To: <wb2vuf@arrl.net>; "Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment"
<tentec@contesting.com>
Sent: Sunday, February 01, 2009 3:39 PM
Subject: Re: [TenTec] bill orr article



it is possible to mount a 1:1 balun just outside and run coax
into the building. The swr on the coax will be high, depending on band,
antenna length, and feedline length, but if the coax is kept short and
is of good quality, the losses will be low, certainly much lower than
the  68-70 feet of RG-8X or RG-58, commonly used with G5RV antennas.


Yes you can do this and it will work. What will the loss through the
balun be when the load is highly reactive? Probably greater than the
loss through the same balun when the feed line appears as a resistive
load.

Is a 1:1 balun the best choice here? Maybe for frequencies where the
dipole is near resonance ( odd multiples of half wavelengths long, not
the resonances at even multiples ) and the open wire feed line is a
multiple of half wavelengths long. At other frequencies maybe not.

Running open wire feed line from the outdoors to the indoors does
require some additional problem solving skills, compared to using coax.
In many cases it is not really that hard to do, and worthwhile. I'm sure
glad I am a homeowner and no longer a renter. Makes a big difference
when it comes to drilling holes.

DE N6KB

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