[TenTec] Openwire feedlines

[JimN0OCT@aol.com]

<<While open wire line just won't work in this situation because pipe
underground isn't going to stay dry or hold the open wire line a decent
distance from the conductive (e.g. very lossy) earth there has been a
balanced line that will work fine along side coax and in under ground
conduits. It used to be called 8290 Color line by Belden. Its a shielded
twin lead rated at 300 ohms. >>   <znip!>

If you're not running huge amounts of power [say under 100 watts], I would
have to venture that 100 twinax [belden 9207] would also be a good choice.  I
currently use this to a 40 meter dipole [up about 40 feet] and 20 meter
vertical dipole.  I run barefoot, mostly QRP CW, but also run 50-100 W on RTTY
and haven't had any problem.  It is shielded balanced 100 ohm line commonly
used in older computer networks [like AS400 systems].  I got all of mine
*free* from work, as they no longer use that computer network.  The best thing
[other than the fact that it is shielded and free] is that the loss of this
material is on a par with RG-8.  Not as good as twinlead, but not as bad as
RG-174, either.

So, you could bury this stuff easily and wouldn't have to worry too much about
loss.


Just my 2 cents.

73, Jim n0oct

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