Yodar wrote:
Pat Whelton wrote:
I've had a store bought (so sue me) dipole fed with 600 ohm ladder line up
35 feet for about a year and a half now and I love this antenna. It's 66
feet in length and I can pretty much tune everything from 40 through 10
meters with a Dentron Super Tuner. This thing came with 50 feet of ladder
line and I have it draped all over the place trying to take up the slack
before it finally feeds into the shack.
My question is can I safely cut some of this excess ladder line off? I
assume that it will impact the tuning but I'm also assuming the tuner will
take care of it. I guess I can always cut it off and if it doesn't work I
can wire nut it back together again. It just looks sloppy with all this
extra feed line drooping off the roof and suspended by the fence (and over
to grandma's house we go) before it finally comes into the shack.
Your thoughts are appreciated.
I'M SHOPPING FOR SUCH AN ANTENNA
Who sells it? specs, price etc.
remove nospam
Yodar in O'do
Yodar, where are you shopping? Go to Lowes or Home Depot and get #14
stranded wire, plexiglas for insulators, and screws, nuts and bolts to
put it together. Get some 450 ohm ladder line (Wireman, w7fg I think),
or make your own from wire and PVC from Lowes. To put the whole thing
together should be 30 minutes or less, I do it every year at field day.
Make the dipole as long and high (within reason) as you have room for,
and the 450 ohm line long enough to get from the antenna feedpoint to
your tuner. There you have what you have been shopping for.
Radioworks among other folks have pre-put together antennas, but
where is the fun in that?
Gary N4AST