[TowerTalk] OCFD

[Rob Atkinson]

> All your problems will go away if you build some open wire line and
> feed with a balanced tuner...HB or Matchbox.

Wilson forget it.  These guys are going to take coax to their graves
with them.  A recent issue of QST could be regarded as the Coax Do or
Die issue.  There were two or three laughable articles describing the
lengths some hams will go to, to use coax.  Might have been March.  I
threw it away so I can't be sure.

What you missed is the OCF part.  Revision:  All your problems will go
away if you build some open wire line and feed at the center of the
dipole with a balanced link coupled matching network (i.e. Matchbox
etc.).  The antenna has to be balanced for balanced line.

Here's some fun:  Beams are balanced antennas.  Go back and read QSTs
from post WW2 to around 1950 and find the interesting ways hams found
to feed rotatable beams with open wire line.   Amphenol and Johnson
made rotators with the fixed to rotation transfer built in.  Hams
using prop feather motors etc. used slip rings and wipers, or closely
coupled loops, the one directly below the beam rotating with both
surrounding the mast.  A beam or quad really ought to be fed with open
wire line, however unbalanced line is okay for monopoles.

73

Rob
K5UJ