Hi Bill

The monster cable I had was ultra fine stranded to about size #8
copper, very thick.
It was only 8 years that it was up before I moved, and in that time it
did not get brittle although it did change from clear to amber over
that timespan.
I was able to roll it up and bring it with me and saw no signs of
cracking. But even if the insulation came off completely, it wouldn't
affect it as far as ladder line goes. I was even thinking of
stripping the insulation before using it for ladder line, but it was
somehow molded onto the wire braid which would make stripping it quite
hard. So I used it as is.

FWIW: My son who is a Hi Fi buff, is now using something similar in
appearance to our RG8U but in a twin housing, like some twin Cable TV
cable. I have no idea of the impedance or actually what it is he is
using. But he seems to like it better than the Monster Cable.

TTUL
Gary

Bill,
I used a loop fed with ladder line through a tuner for
years. Worked pretty well on all bands but 15 meters. It
wasn't the highest thing at all, but did fine for my uses.
I placed a board in a window to feed the ladder line through.
Drilled a couple of holes, fed a couple of short sections of
wire through them, sealed them with 'hot glue' and had no
particular problems for years (no water leaking in, etc.).
I couldn't tell you the exact length of the feed line, I never
knew, and since there were no problems, I really didn't much
care how long it was. My tuner has a balun in it (suspect a
4:1?) and handled the impedances well even at full legal
limits.
My loop came down in an ice storm a couple of years ago
and as soon as I get over my 'bout' of lazy, I'll put it
back up. I didn't have any unusual FRI problems (the neighbors
did, but that's a different story, and one that was solved).
The phone and computer are only a couple of feet from the
entrance point of the ladder line and radio/amplifier. Curing
telephone and computer RFI isn't what you asked about so I
won't go into it (mine's solved anyway).
Have fun...
'Doc


zeno wrote:

Seems like everyone I talk to about using ladder line to my
proposed 540' horizontal skywire loop does a double take when
I say I want to use ladder line into the shack. I was curious
if there are any fans of ladderline feed systems who can
relate positive experiences, or am I about to really court
disaster here.

The ARRL antenna book says that coax to this type of antenna
is not as "multiband" friendly as was once fantasized....they
recommend ladder line.

Anyone actually have such a loop? What is your experience?

Bill, K6TAJ