Guys,
My simple question about why one would use open wire in these days
generated quite a bit of "noise" for open wire fans.
There are two chief benefits from them:
1) Long runs like 1000' plus are not affordable with coax.
(Like guys on 100'x100' lots care). I can't imagine stringing 1000'
of open wire line. The supports must cost a fortune and the work
involved seems overwhelming.
2) You can load an 80 meter dipole on all bands with it. The same
people pointing this out as a benefit admit to RF in the shack
problems.
It seems that one thing has been forgotten. The line may be lossless.
The tuner isn't. Read QST and you will see that many of the
commercial
units available today have power losses of 30% or more. The best unit
quoted was a Johnson Matchbox.
So you've substituted line loss for tuner loss.
Again where's the benefit?
73 de Brian/K3KO
Tom Champlin wrote:
>
> I got on the air in '58. Open wire, for the most part, had already come
> and gone even then. I have always used a good coax cable. I too had a
> Johnson KW Matchbox, worked great with coax . I cant even imagine trying
> to use those old W.W.II rf ammeters, nor do I care what the readings
> are. I never really wanted to
> string this stuff above my yard and bring it down to my home where I
> would have to cut holes in a perfectly good house or window. Compared to
> those who do use the open wire, my coax may not be quite as efficient,
> but I am glad to make the
> tradeoff. I try to make my antennas resonant in the area where I operate
> to begin with, so I only need a tuner on parts of 80 and 160m. My
> current tuner, the Nye MBVA is very poor on 160m. It's all in what one
> wants to do, if open wire makes a person feel better, then that's what
> they should do. Personally, I seem to envision BC610's and plug-in
> coils, and can almost hear the Andrews Sisters singing in the
> background, when someone mentions "open wire feeders". This is not meant
> as a personal attack on anyone by the way, just my opinion.
> 73, Tom W0HH
>
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