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Make your own Ladder Line with Ladder Snap Kit Spreaders or Purchase Ready Made?
If you price out a 73CNC 100' spreader kit, it's $29.99 plus $6.85 shipping for a total of about $37.Purchase 200' #14 THHN by the foot for about $.25/ft will be $50, plus tax, depending upon your state.The total is about $87 to $90. Then you have the assembly time and the fun of spraying [...]
Which One Makes Sense? G5RV, Cobra Ultralight or W7FG True Ladder Line All Band Doublet
I get asked this question all the time, especially at ham fests that I attend. Last night I presented a talk at one of our local club meetings about ladder line and open wire doublets.Guess what? Many of the newly licensed General’s had G5RV’s and one had a Cobra Ultralight. A couple of hams bought a ready-made, [...]
The origin of open wire feedline
The following is excerpted from an old article about Parallel Transmission Lines, by L. B. Cebik."Parallel feeders go back to the beginnings of radio. By 1930, the "two-wire un-tuned feeder system" was a standard ARRL Handbook feature. The Jones Radio Handbook of 1937 provides a table of line losses showing the advantages of open-wire feeders (a 440-Ohm line in [...]
Antenna Modeling and the Great Forums Debate
I have been part of a few, heated discussions on various forums regarding the modeling of an open wire fed, True Ladder Line doublet. After bantering back and forth for weeks on the subject, I decided I had to quit beating a dead horse and move on. Yes, there are people that are quite analytical and NEED to go [...]
HAMRADIO.WORLD website is online!
Several months ago I was approached by WX4TV and asked if I would be willing to create an antenna "kit" so his children could assemble it themselves and learn something in the process. They built it, erected it and tested it all on the same day the box arrived! This is his comment to me [...]
YouTube Videos Added to Show How to Use a Balun and a Counterweight System
Check out these two videos that show how I have my balanced feedline connected to a balun on the side of my house as well as my counterweight & pulley system to suspend my 10-80m doublet between two, tall trees.
Why use open wire feed line for a dipole instead of coax?
My good friend Mike sent me this information when I asked him about open wire fed dipoles. He knows a thing or two about antennas!In my opinion, there are 2 reasons to use ladder line over coax.Loss and Tunability. 1. Loss:There are three kinds of loss in RF transmission lines. Resistive losses from wire resistance, Reflective losses from mismatched [...]
MFJ-993B Tuner on Sale at Ham Radio Outlet $218.95!!
I already have the MFJ-998 legal limit tuner however, it doesn't have a balanced output. I thought for this price, I'd give the MFJ-993B a try. It arrived yesterday. This one has a high power limit of 300 watts so it will most likely be used on my 100 watt AM station.MFJ-993B Auto Tuner at [...]
Use The Contact Form For International Shipping Quotes
Until my store host, BIG COMMERCE, figures out the shipping problem, I have to quote International Rates, one at a time.Contact me with the particular antenna or feedline that you would like and I'll respond promptly.USPS International Flat Rate Priority goes just about anywhere today.Thanks!73, Brian Duerr
It's Easy to Use a 4:1 Current Balun With True Ladder Line Open Wire Dipole
Here's a couple of photos showing how I installed the 4:1 current balun on the side of my house. Since we need a coax entry anyway, it's a simple, ten minute step to include the required balun. You can see that I secure the balun to the outside of the house and use two screws [...]