[TenTec] bill orr article

[Bob Close]

Drilling through a window--wow, you are a pretty confident person!  I took a 
different approach, where I drilled two 5/8 holes through the side of the 
house at the same approximate spacing being careful not to grab the 
insulation.  I carefully pushed two 1/2 plastic conduit through the holes, 
and cut them flush with the inside and outside walls, caulking  them 
carefully.  Inside and outside, I mounted a couple of porcelain insulators 
designed to pass a wire through a chassis.  I ran a piece of 12 AWG  solid 
copper wire through the conduits to join the outside insulators to the 
inside. I know that there are probably some impedance bumps, but that is a 
problem in theory only at HF frequencies.  At 2KW there is no warming at 
all, I am well insulated from any wooden structure, and outside I have a 
little piece of siding to act as a "roof" to keep the terminals dry. I 
connect the window line to the insulators using a gadget I made up out of a 
couple of dual banana plugs/jacks.  When not using the antenna I pull the 
connection off and plug the banana plug into a well-grounded copper plate 
with holes the appropriate size and distance.  Clean, fast and it's worked 
just fine for ten years.  I had the ladder line vaporized by a direct 
lightning strike while grounded with no damage to anys inside equipment. 
amazing and/or lucky!
K1SRR
Bob

--------------------------------------------------
From: <waltk8cv4612amos at att.net>
Sent: Sunday, February 01, 2009 3:56 PM
To: "Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment" <tentec at contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [TenTec] bill orr article

> Open wire through GLASS ........... now there's an OXYMORON :-)
>
> Get tape and a carbide tipped drill bit ! I used 1/ 16 I think.
>
> Water on the bit and drill the tape marked spot on the glass at about the
> ladder line spacing.
>
> Feed #18 tined wire through the window and solder the open wire to it 
> inside
> and outside.
>
> Find a way to tie off the outside open wire to take the strain off the
> glass. I tied off to a metal clothes pole with a couple of strings, leave 
> a
> drip loop too. I use a knife switch inside to ground the mess. Yes, there
> are other ways but this has worked well for me. I think MFJ has a panel 
> you
> can shut the window on. Might work too ?
>
> Walt K8CV Royal Oak, MI.
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Ken Brown" <ken.d.brown at hawaiiantel.net>
> To: <wb2vuf at arrl.net>; "Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment"
> <tentec at contesting.com>
> Sent: Sunday, February 01, 2009 3:39 PM
> Subject: Re: [TenTec] bill orr article
>
>
>>
>>> it is possible to mount a 1:1 balun just outside and run coax
>>> into the building. The swr on the coax will be high, depending on band,
>>> antenna length, and feedline length, but if the coax is kept short and
>>> is of good quality, the losses will be low, certainly much lower than
>>> the  68-70 feet of RG-8X or RG-58, commonly used with G5RV antennas.
>>>
>>>
>> Yes you can do this and it will work. What will the loss through the
>> balun be when the load is highly reactive? Probably greater than the
>> loss through the same balun when the feed line appears as a resistive
>> load.
>>
>> Is a 1:1 balun the best choice here? Maybe for frequencies where the
>> dipole is near resonance ( odd multiples of half wavelengths long, not
>> the resonances at even multiples ) and the open wire feed line is a
>> multiple of half wavelengths long. At other frequencies maybe not.
>>
>> Running open wire feed line from the outdoors to the indoors does
>> require some additional problem solving skills, compared to using coax.
>> In many cases it is not really that hard to do, and worthwhile. I'm sure
>> glad I am a homeowner and no longer a renter. Makes a big difference
>> when it comes to drilling holes.
>>
>> DE N6KB
>>
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