On Tue, 6 Jan 2009 14:00:43 -0800 (PST), James barrett
wrote:

I've read some Q&A about ladder line and I didn't see exactly my
question. I want to run 450 ohm ladder line into the house. my tuner
has a built-in balun for a ladder line so I think I can just run the
ladder line all the way to the tuner.

How do I physically attach the ladder line to the house? All I can
think of is to nail it right through the spacers onto the side of the
house. But I don't know if the nails will interfere with transmission
at all.

A second that comes to mind when considering this setup: if I run the
ladder line all the way to the tuner, how do I ground it?


Thanks,
kb1odg
James,
You don't mention whether your antenna is resonant or not.
Nor do you mention where your feed line enters the house.

I use 600 ohm ladder line to feed my 220 foot dipole from Antenna
tuner to Ten Tec L Tuner located near a basement window.

There are a number of problems that I have solved since my antenna
is between two trees about 300 feet apart.

I support it using Dacron rope at both ends. One end is fixed.
the other goes through a pulley to a 40 lb sealed box of cat litter.
This helps to prevent the destruction of the antenna by wind-
whipped trees.


The antenna may be overkill: #10 copperweld and W7FY feed line.
However, 40 lbs does not keep the antenna from flexing +-6-8 feet..
You need spring action of some sort to prevent the feed line from
being ripped loose from the house or point to which it is first
attached.

I use plain string/twine to make an attachment from house to a
spreader in the line. The string is adjusted so that the line is
straight to the point where the string is attached to the house entry
point and so that the line above where the string is attached is
"draped" providing the ability for the antenna to go up or down 6-8
feet from its normal position. Under NE ice conditions it does drop
that much and in high winds it can go up the 8 feet.

I bring the line into the house through a basement window in
which a Plexiglas insert has feed through insulators for external
ground and the feed line. The string limits tension and flex on those
insulators.

Feed line from the insulators goes to the tuner when operating
and to ground when not.

There are feed line lightning arrestors that use spark plugs as
grounding elements. I have not used these as I am worried
that standing wave voltage nodes that I have on the line might trigger
the spark plugs when running high power since I use the antenna
from 160-10 on CW and SSB.

If you have questions about my arrangement, I'll be happy to try
to answer them.

Ed, N5EI