[TowerTalk] Antenna Distance From Shack

[Pete Smith]

Frank and Bill make good points.  For the last 10 years, I have been using 3/4" CATV for most of the 190-foot run from my house to my antennas.  To be specific, I use RG-213 up the tower and across the roof of my house to my 2nd-floor shack, but use multiples of a half-wave at 1750 Hz (measured at 28 MHz) of 3/4" CATV in between.  Contrary to some expectations, this has worked quite well - even fairly large frequency excursions on 28 MHz do not present unacceptable SWRs at the shack end.  I had considered using UNUNs to do the matching, but was never able to build any that were satisfactory.

I am now about to replace my CATV with Eupen's equivalent of LDF4-50A, purchased from the RF Connection (www.therfc.com).  Several reasons - I want to be able to monitor loss from the shack, something that my composite feedline doesn't seem to let me do (the indicated loss on my MFJ-259B varies widely with frequency).  The Eupen cable is noticeably cheaper than Andrew's, but uses the same Andrew connectors.  And it just seemed like a technically sounder thing to do.  I really don't expect any significant improvement, but just decided to do it anyhow.

BTW, I have no connection with the RF Connection - just a satisfied customer.  And man, I wouldn't like to have Bill's moving bill!

73, Pete N4ZR

At 07:38 AM 8/18/2006, Cqtestk4xs at aol.com wrote:
> 
>In a message dated 8/17/2006 2:25:52 A.M. Greenwich Standard Time,  
>donovanf at starpower.net writes:
>
>If  you're a purist, you could purchase 500 feet of Andrew LDF5-50A, but that 
> would set you back about the same amount as your tower and  beam!
>
>73!
>Frank
>W3LPL
>
>
>
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 
>Good point Frank.  If available, CATV is the way to go.  Like  lots of hams I 
>got thousands of feet of this stuff for free and I wish I could  have taken 
>it with me to KH6. 
> 
>Let's remember that that most hams are cheap and scavengers by  nature.  That 
>expensive LDF5-50 and its ends often can be gotten at  ridiculously low 
>prices with some leg work and by keeping your nose to the  ground.  I once picked 
>up 3000 some excellent quality LDF5-50 which the guy  dropped off at my place 
>for $.60 a foot....about the price of new LMR  400.  Lots of that stuff WILL be 
>going to KH6.
> 
>One other thing that CATV and Heliax can be buried, a real plus in keeping  
>the XYL happy.
> 
>Bill K4XS
>_______________________________________________