I will be constructing a 135' doublet (14ga. copper 7 strand) fed with
ladder line. I am trying to decide what type of ladder line to use:

1) 450 ohm commercial 14ga solid wire
2) 450 ohm commercial 14ga stranded
3) 450 ohm commercial 16ga stranded
4) make my own from 14ga stranded

I am leaning towards the commercial 16 ga stranded, partly for
convenience, also I am only running 100 watts or QRP, and I think it
might be a bit more flexible in the wind. I only need about 50' of
feedline. Any comments from hams who have actually used any of the above
and how it faired over the years would be greatly appreciated.

Larry VE7EA

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to reply via email remove "fake"

On Wed, 16 Jun 2004 14:41:30 -0000, Larry Gagnon
wrote:

I will be constructing a 135' doublet (14ga. copper 7 strand) fed with
ladder line. I am trying to decide what type of ladder line to use:

1) 450 ohm commercial 14ga solid wire
2) 450 ohm commercial 14ga stranded
3) 450 ohm commercial 16ga stranded
4) make my own from 14ga stranded

I am leaning towards the commercial 16 ga stranded, partly for
convenience, also I am only running 100 watts or QRP, and I think it
might be a bit more flexible in the wind. I only need about 50' of
feedline. Any comments from hams who have actually used any of the above
and how it faired over the years would be greatly appreciated.

Larry VE7EA

I'm using either 14 or 16 guage solid 450 ohm commercial line, and it
works fine w/100 watts, and has no probems in our moderate climate. I
don't bother to twist it every few feet, and haven't noticed anything
adverse. I'm about to put up a longer dipole with 600 ohm open line to
see if that works even better on a multi-band dipole -- you might add
that to your list of possibles; see www.w7fg.com

bob
k5qwg

On Wed, 16 Jun 2004 14:41:30 -0000, Larry Gagnon
wrote:

Any comments from hams who have actually used any of the above
and how it faired over the years would be greatly appreciated.

You can get some good information he

http://www.vaxxine.com/phil/ladder_line.pdf

Danny, K6MHE

I have seen the "solid" fatigue off fairly quickly.

I have used 22 guage and 14 guage stranded (soft not copperweld) and niether
one has broken on me yet.

Use a center device to stop help control the rotation. Commercial devices
(ladder lock) are about $11. I got mine at the hardware store for under $1.

http://user.mc.net/~jdewey/Ham_radio/doublet.jpg

KA9CAR



"Larry Gagnon" wrote in message
...
I will be constructing a 135' doublet (14ga. copper 7 strand) fed with
ladder line. I am trying to decide what type of ladder line to use:

1) 450 ohm commercial 14ga solid wire
2) 450 ohm commercial 14ga stranded
3) 450 ohm commercial 16ga stranded
4) make my own from 14ga stranded

I am leaning towards the commercial 16 ga stranded, partly for
convenience, also I am only running 100 watts or QRP, and I think it
might be a bit more flexible in the wind. I only need about 50' of
feedline. Any comments from hams who have actually used any of the above
and how it faired over the years would be greatly appreciated.

Larry VE7EA

--
********************************
to reply via email remove "fake"

I would think the 16g would be fine. 50ft is not all that long IMHO.

GL !

jw
K9RZZ

J999w wrote:
50ft is not all that long IMHO.

If any of your appendages were 50ft long, you would be
in the Guinness Book of Records. :-)
--
73, Cecil http://www.qsl.net/w5dxp



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On Wed, 16 Jun 2004 08:32:14 -0700, Dan Richardson
wrote:

|On Wed, 16 Jun 2004 14:41:30 -0000, Larry Gagnon
wrote:
|
|Any comments from hams who have actually used any of the above
|and how it faired over the years would be greatly appreciated.
[snip]
|


Gad Danny. Why are you promoting getting my stuff there. I've
politely asked him to remove my papers from his site but never even
got a response.

Had he actually asked for permission, I would have gladly given it,
although he, as did I, should also ask ARRL since they hold the
copyright. As it stands, he *does not* have permission to have the
material on his site. (Could this be the "Phil" of Fractenna fame?)

The original work can be found he

http://users.triconet.org/wesandlinda/

Wes, N7WS

On Wed, 16 Jun 2004 12:31:29 -0700, Wes wrote:

Gad Danny. Why are you promoting getting my stuff there.

I did a quick google search and that was the first URL I found and
paid no attention other that the content looked okay.

Begging your forgiveness Sir.

Danny, K6MHE

On Wed, 16 Jun 2004 13:31:05 -0700, Dan Richardson
wrote:

|On Wed, 16 Jun 2004 12:31:29 -0700, Wes wrote:
|
|Gad Danny. Why are you promoting getting my stuff there.
|
|I did a quick google search and that was the first URL I found and
|paid no attention other that the content looked okay.
|
|Begging your forgiveness Sir.

Well....okay.