[NCC] ladder line

[Tim Jellison]

Jon,

I'm having good success using a dipole with open wire, terminating to a DX 
Engineering balun mounted directly outside the shack, then running RG8 
through the wall and to the tuner.  The tuner I use has the capability of 
accepting balanced line and that's the method I used to use.  Last winter, 
however, the tuner's internal balun failed due to cheap wire (non-teflon) 
wrapped around the torroid cores.  My old SB220 doesn't put out that much 
power these days, but due to extended CQ'ing and poor design, the insulation 
melted-distored and the wires contacted the cores.  While I was rewinding 
the balun with teflon wire, I decided to look for 'a better way'.

The DX Engineering website has a lot of good information about what you're 
contemplating.  They recommend using a 1:1 balun instead of the customary 
4:1 that is so common inside tuners.  I took their advice and am happy with 
the results.  Keeping the balanced line outside seems to have greatly 
reduced the RFI in the shack, and while the 1:1 certainly loads differently 
than the internal 4:1 did, my tuner is able to match the load just fine.

I've used open wire a lot over the years, yet I never tried remoting the 
balun until now.  I wish I had done it before.  So long as the coax between 
the external balun and the turner is short and of good quality, it should 
work fine.  The DX Engineering balun wasn't cheap but, being a ham, I took 
it appart and liked what I saw.

73,
Tim W3YQ/KL7WV



              We are................Penn State







----Original Message Follows----
From: "Jon Kovacs" <jkovacs at neo.rr.com>
To: <ncc at contesting.com>
Subject: [NCC] ladder line
Date: Wed, 5 Oct 2005 09:23:25 -0400

Guys...

As the leaves are getting ready to fall from trees in my back yard here in 
Howland,  I'm thinking of a 133' dipole fed with ladder line.  I'm running 
out of room on my tower and only need one good dipole for 160/80/40 .    As 
it is now, I have three dipoles off my tower along with the three beams.   
I'm not getting any younger, so I'm not crazy about going up there any more 
than I have to should one of them come down .

I have heard lots of stories regarding ladder line and proper methods of 
installation to reduce rf etc from coming into the house.   One idea I heard 
was to run ladder line down to outside house, place a balun at that point 
and run coax inside???    Others were to simply run ladder line inside to 
tuner....

Guess I'm looking for advice or whatever regarding my issues, especially 
with what kind of balun to use, if that is the approved method.    XYL, also 
getting older, comes unglued when occasional rf tends to mess up her tv, 
even though we have cable.    All my cables run in the ceiling under the 
living room where the tv is.  So I don't imagine this helps any.   But hey, 
I tell here its only four to six times a year you gotta put up with it???   
No sense of humor!!

Anyhow, I'd appreciate your input.

Thanks

Jon k8ly

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