"Steve Bonine" wrote

I agree that a random length dipole fed with ladder line makes a great
antenna. I've used one for years with a traditional tuner. My question:
If I put a balun between the ladder line and the tuner, can I use one of
the automatic tuners built into modern rigs? If this works, it provides
the advantages of one simple antenna for multiple bands without the hassle
of having to retune when changing bands/frequencies.

Steve, if the auto tuner can handle very high SWR's.. then sure. ;-)
Seriously, I don't think it'd work. I had one of those in-line baluns
designed for the purpose of being able to run RG8 coax through the wall to
the transmatch. The coax length was maybe 8 feet. My antenna was about 50'
long, fed with 450 window line, and I used it on all bands from 10 - 40m.
The balun was from RadioWorks and was rated at maybe, I forget.... 4KW? I
was running 100 watts and that balun got HOT. After a while, it seemed that
the balun broke down from the excessive heat and was no longer useable. (Can
that really happen?) That should give you an idea about the auto tuner idea
for this kind of setup.

It's really not that hard to re-tune a transmatch. Find the right settings
for each band [segment] and write down the numbers. There are typically just
three transmatch knobs to re-set, and it can be done in five seconds. OK,
maybe seven seconds. ;-)

Howard N7SO