Something to consider.....
Go to your local hardware store and into the area where they sell bathroom
tile. Buy their specially shaped drill for drilling holes through bathroom
tile, they come in 1/8" and 1/4" size. With either hole, you can run your
wire directly through the drilled hole. Take your basement window out and
lay the side your going to drill on a folded up wet towel. Use a power drill
(for it's weight) and run the drill at its slowest speed (preferably a
variable speed drill so you can really slow it down.) Have a partner squirt
water on the spot where you are drilling, while you are drilling. Do not put
any pressure on the drill while making the hole, allow just the weight of
the drill to do the work. Cost of drill bit = $2.00; time to do all the work
and reinstall window = 45 minutes. Make sure the wires you pass through the
holes HAVE NO STRESS ON THEM. Works like a charm and if you goof and break
the glass, you have the option of replacing the glass or replacing the glass
with Plexiglas. If you do use Plexiglas, I suggest you use two feedthru
insulators and just connect your wires on either side.
By the way, W7FG open wire line is NOT cheap. It's much more fun
going to hamfest and buying all the ceramic spacers and #14 copper wire and
building your own open wire line....after all, hams are noted for building
some part of their gear!!!
Tom/W4BQF
-----Original Message-----
From: Rob Atkinson, K5UJ [mailto:k5uj@hotmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, October 15, 2002 2:03 PM
To: tentec@contesting.com
Subject: [TenTec] TWINCOM feedline ?????????????
I'm planning on putting open wire feed through a basement window by knocking
out a middle window pane (removing it with care actually) and putting in a
plexiglass pane with holes drilled through it for the feedline.
Titanex also makes a wide spaced open wire line. I think it is sold in the
U.S. through Array Solutions (www.arraysolutions.com). The spacing is
around 100 mm and the impedance is 700 ohms. See
http://www.titanex.de/acc.html#TWINWIRE for specs. It isn't cheap--around a
buck a foot I believe. I am not sure what the advantages are of such a wide
space and 100 ohms higher impedance (comparing with the W7FG line--600 ohms
(see www.w7fg.com) which is much cheaper). Anyone know?
73,
Rob Atkinson
K5UJ
k5uj@hotmail.com
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