Ladder Line or Coax For Reception only?


I have a 500 foot SkyWire Loop Antenna, about 30 feet off the ground
and I have it fed with Coax. I will only be using it to receive
Shortwave broadcasts from 2Mhz to 30Mhz. It will never be used to
transmit.


My questions are :

(1) Will using a Ladder Line instead of Coax improve my reception?

(2) If so, where do I change to coax? Or do I just run the Ladder line
into the house and straight to the receiver?

(3) What about electrical interference since the ladder line isn't
shielded?


Thanks.

I'd use coax since it's easier to handle but ladder line will have less loss
but you won't be able to detect it. Twist the ladder line about a turn per
foot and any leadin pick up will be cancelled.
regards
hank wd5jfr
"Walter" wrote in message
om...
Ladder Line or Coax For Reception only?


I have a 500 foot SkyWire Loop Antenna, about 30 feet off the ground
and I have it fed with Coax. I will only be using it to receive
Shortwave broadcasts from 2Mhz to 30Mhz. It will never be used to
transmit.


My questions are :

(1) Will using a Ladder Line instead of Coax improve my reception?

(2) If so, where do I change to coax? Or do I just run the Ladder line
into the house and straight to the receiver?

(3) What about electrical interference since the ladder line isn't
shielded?


Thanks.

On 4 Oct 2003 16:42:36 -0700, (Walter)
wrote:

Ladder Line or Coax For Reception only?


I have a 500 foot SkyWire Loop Antenna, about 30 feet off the ground
and I have it fed with Coax. I will only be using it to receive
Shortwave broadcasts from 2Mhz to 30Mhz. It will never be used to
transmit.


My questions are :

(1) Will using a Ladder Line instead of Coax improve my reception?

Unlikely.

(2) If so, where do I change to coax? Or do I just run the Ladder line
into the house and straight to the receiver?

This begs the question, does the receiver demand (match to) ladder
line?

(3) What about electrical interference since the ladder line isn't
shielded?

Hi Walter,

The last question raises the issue most closely associated with
positive achievement. Use coax with a 1:1 current BalUn at the
antenna feed point (or use the traditional air wound choke - same
thing but heavier/cheaper) and home noise (from any of many sources)
will be reduced IFF you suffer from this problem in the first place.
A modest home-built tuner will also go further to meeting positive
returns.

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC

Walter, you have a 500ft loop?? Wow.. can you provide pictures at some
point? I'd love to see this in action. I'm using a 100ft longwire that is
end-fed at this point by a matching balun. I use RG8 low-loss coax. I'm
tempted to try the more expensive Belden 9913 -- but it's about $100/50ft.

Also, I know that the greater length of antenna will increase gain, but
isn't the noise gain almost as much? (i.e. does a greater length of wire
ensure greater reception?)

-Nick
n7zya

"Walter" wrote in message
om...
Ladder Line or Coax For Reception only?


I have a 500 foot SkyWire Loop Antenna, about 30 feet off the ground
and I have it fed with Coax. I will only be using it to receive
Shortwave broadcasts from 2Mhz to 30Mhz. It will never be used to
transmit.


My questions are :

(1) Will using a Ladder Line instead of Coax improve my reception?

(2) If so, where do I change to coax? Or do I just run the Ladder line
into the house and straight to the receiver?

(3) What about electrical interference since the ladder line isn't
shielded?


Thanks.

Walter, you have a 500ft loop?? Wow.. can you provide pictures at some
point? I'd love to see this in action. I'm using a 100ft longwire that
is
end-fed at this point by a matching balun. I use RG8 low-loss coax. I'm
tempted to try the more expensive Belden 9913 -- but it's about $100/50ft.


For anything below 30 mhz you will see no return for the money by going from
a good grade of rg-8 to the 9913 type. It would be difficult to see much
differance even if the rg-8x is used. Especially at 20 meters and below.
You would be beter off spending the money on a beter antenna than the long
wire.
Or making the antenna higher.

Ralph, that's what I hear from other SWL'ers too. But, there are those that
swear by it. So, it'd just be an interesting test... albeit and expensive
one... ;o)

"Ralph Mowery" wrote in message
...
Walter, you have a 500ft loop?? Wow.. can you provide pictures at some
point? I'd love to see this in action. I'm using a 100ft longwire that
is
end-fed at this point by a matching balun. I use RG8 low-loss coax.
I'm
tempted to try the more expensive Belden 9913 -- but it's about
$100/50ft.


For anything below 30 mhz you will see no return for the money by going
from
a good grade of rg-8 to the 9913 type. It would be difficult to see much
differance even if the rg-8x is used. Especially at 20 meters and below.
You would be beter off spending the money on a beter antenna than the long
wire.
Or making the antenna higher.

Ralph, that's what I hear from other SWL'ers too. But, there are those
that
swear by it. So, it'd just be an interesting test... albeit and expensive
one... ;o)


For a cheaper expirment try adding about 30 feet of some rg-8x or even rg-56
or 59 (I know 59 is 70 ohm coax but it does not mater for receiving) . That
will be about the same loss as you would gain if you switched out 100 feet
of rg-8 to the 9913. See if you can tell any differance.

Not because I wanted to see the differance but because I was replacing some
antennas. I replaced about 100 feet of old rg-8 with some new lmr400 and
could not tell any differance at 50 mhz. I know there is some but it is
light lighting a candle in the sun.. It is there but can not really tell
it.

Yea, I noticed that RS is promoting RG-6 'F' cable for their SW radios on
their web site. I was curious about this, so I check it's loss and it looks
on-par with RG-8x and is much more flexible. I might try that if I can find
a couple of F-PL259 adapters... it's really cheap coax.


-Nick

"Ralph Mowery" wrote in message
...
Ralph, that's what I hear from other SWL'ers too. But, there are those
that
swear by it. So, it'd just be an interesting test... albeit and
expensive
one... ;o)


For a cheaper expirment try adding about 30 feet of some rg-8x or even
rg-56
or 59 (I know 59 is 70 ohm coax but it does not mater for receiving) .
That
will be about the same loss as you would gain if you switched out 100 feet
of rg-8 to the 9913. See if you can tell any differance.

Not because I wanted to see the differance but because I was replacing
some
antennas. I replaced about 100 feet of old rg-8 with some new lmr400 and
could not tell any differance at 50 mhz. I know there is some but it is
light lighting a candle in the sun.. It is there but can not really tell
it.

They swear by it because they don't want to admit they blew a wad of cash
for nothing. You didn't say how long your coax is but you infered about 50
feet. With that short of a length, no matter what you changed to you would
never notice a difference. Look up the numbers. Easy way to test. Take your
radio out to the base of the antenna. Run as short a piece of coax as you
can to your radio. See if you can tell any difference.


"Nick C" wrote in message
...
Ralph, that's what I hear from other SWL'ers too. But, there are those
that
swear by it. So, it'd just be an interesting test... albeit and expensive
one... ;o)

Hi,

As far as photos go I plan on posting some this next week on the yahoo
group for skywires.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SkyWires/

I just put the skywire up, and it is definitely a step up from my
dipole I just took down.

I'm measuring the difference based on the reception of the
International Beacons I can pick up.

http://www.ncdxf.org/beacon/beaconSchedule.html

I can now pick up the one in Russia occasionally , which I could
never on my dipole.

The other thing is that I can pick up some of the beacons on the
higher frequencies, that I never could before.

As far as RG6, I bought some from Radio shack, trying to save a little
money. It was intended for Video use, and not radio, but I figured it
was worth a try.

I had to snip off one of the F connectors to solder it to the Skywire.
The shielding wasn't copper braid, but an aluminum foil type shielding
that was impossible to solder. So I ended up using my old R59. So be
careful what you buy.

I'm very happy with the answers to my questions. Please keep them
coming.

Thanks.