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[TowerTalk] Ladder Line and Coax

To: <towertalk@contesting.com>
Subject: [TowerTalk] Ladder Line and Coax
From: K7GCO@aol.com (K7GCO@aol.com)
Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2001 00:43:59 EDT
In a message dated 8/20/01 1:32:47 PM Pacific Daylight Time, 
mpride@us.ibm.com writes:

<< 
 Why not keep the ladder line all the way into the shack and put a tuner on
 it to conveniently cover the bands of interest.  To run the open wire into
 the shack (like go through walls or windows, etc.), use some equal length,
 short runs of coax, and connect two coax lines in parallel, center
 conductors connected to the openwire, then direct into the tuner - ground
 the braids together of the two parallel lines.
 
 Stay away from the baluns - creates loss.
 
 OR, Consider a simple 3 element tribander pointed south (30 or 40 ft. high)
 and an inverted vee for 40 M on that tower - either a relay on the tower to
 one feedline (coax) or two feed lines.  Don't think you will benefit much
 with a wire on 10 or 15 and still be competitive to the south.
 
 Regards,
 
 Mark, K1RX
 
 
 GALE STEWARD <k3nd@yahoo.com>@contesting.com on 08/20/2001 03:33:11 PM
 
 Sent by:  owner-towertalk@contesting.com
 
 
 To:   towertalk reflector <towertalk@contesting.com>
 cc:
 Subject:  [TowerTalk] Ladder Line and Coax
 
 
 
 
 Have been thinking of installing a simple antenna to
 cover the SE in contests and as a backup in general.
 Was considering a inverted vee hung from the tower and
 fed with ladder line & tuner.  I want to cover only 10
 thru 40.  My question is this: my tower is about 100
 ft ftom the house and want to feed this antenna with
 ladder line near the ground, how do I handle that
 transition to coax?  A 4:1 balun, a 9:1 balun, other?
 Is it even worth doing with the losses incurred due to
 the mismatch in 100 ft of coax?  Maybe a trap dipole
 or inverted vee would be more appropriate?  I just
 wondered if anyone had tried something similiar and
 how it all worked out.
 
 73, Stew  K3ND
  >>
Running balanced coax through the walls has the problem that a high voltage 
area may be in that area on some or all bands.  The way you control and or 
know what the Z at the end of the feedline is to have a length that is a 1/2 
wave or multiple on all bands with the open wire length of 137' or 123' of 
450 ohm ladder line.  If you know what it is at the antenna it's the same at 
the end of the feedline.

You may have a Lo-Z at the end of a 450 or 600 ohm feedline and a 9:1 balun 
wants to see 450 ohms.  Random lengths of open wire line that ARRL always 
suggests-- creates problems and Z's that some tuners may have arcing problems 
won't match.  

With the feedline I suggest and a trapped dipole you will have a Lo-Z at the 
end of the feedline for the tuner to match.  Link coupled finals would match 
it directly.  I've run open wire line right through walls and floors without 
a problem.  To go through walls and floors I've used various 3/8" hollow 
insulators for the open wire line to the tuner.  It works just fine with the 
least losses and minimum values of reactance on the various bands.

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