Ok forgive me. I must respond to your one question on:
How do you use coax with a single antenna to work all
bands? I used the B&W folded dipole for years and
worked the world. And YES the point about it being not
so good on 80 is very accurate. A dipole cut for 80
works a hell of a lot better. Been there done that
too. Honestly, I have tons of QSL cads from all over
the world which were won using that dummy load people
love to call it.
I was once one of the nerds on 3868, the "nerd net" in
the 80's. I was one of the strongest signals on the
band using two 3-500Z's and a dipole cut for 3868
which was accomplished after one of my miserable
neighbors moved and the other let me use his property
to hang the one end of that kick ass antenna. It
worked great to about 500 miles out but forget DX. On
the other hand I heard more and worked more with the
B&W folded dummy load.
Ladder Line to me brings back memories of RF
nightmares and nasty neighbors calling and bitching me
out. Ladder line, smatter line, you can have it.
Today I use a R8 which some people feel is useless for
the high frequencies and I also use a Alpha Delta as
an inverted Vee up only 45 feet to work 160 thru 40.
With both of these antennas I work the world. I know
what a good antenna can do. I used to work tons of DX
up at W3KWH using monster mono banders.
I also used long wires but there was so much voltage
at the end of the feed line even with an excellent
ground it was lethal so I stopped that nonsense too.
I tried everything. I refuse to spend 10 grand on a
tower and tri bander and why I have what I have.
To each their own, whatever floats your boat, just
don?t tell me mine doesn't work...OLD TIMER :)
Love Curt
--- NJ0IP <Rick@DJ0IP.de> wrote:
> OK Curt, you don't have to respond, but I wish to.
>
> Question: How do you put up a single antenna that
> should cover ALL bands
> reasonably well, and feed it with coax? Please keep
> in mind that my linear
> is transistorized and requires a good SWR.
>
> I accept everything you say as being the truth - in
> the situations you guys
> tried it. There is no question, sometimes RF takes
> strange ways.
>
> I have a neighbor about 5 doors down who was wiping
> out his own TV although
> he was only running 100w.
> We replaced his coax with open wire (ladderline) and
> used a matchbox and the
> TVI was gone. He also claims to get out much better
> now. Prior to that he
> had tried all sorts of things like low-pass filters,
> better ground, etc.
>
> I don't think this is a matter of being an old timer
> vs. being new to the
> game. That has nothing to do with it. I guess I'm
> an old timer, though I
> don't feel like it. All my gear is very modern
> (Orion plus Henry Solid
> State Linear Amp and lots of computers) and I also
> have about 300 meters of
> high quality coax which I use to feed beams or
> verticals when I go on my
> contest expeditions. I have a choice at home to use
> either coax or
> openwire.
>
> Here at home I'm challenged by not being able to put
> up as many antennas as
> I would like and a tower is out of the question. My
> XYL and neighbors
> agreed to one antenna. I sort of hid a second
> (vertical) antenna between
> the trees and got away with it. I feed both
> antennas with openwire so that
> I can run them on all bands. They work great and I
> pretty much hold my own
> in contests and working DX. I'm not sure how I
> could accomplish this using
> coax.
>
> I run 750w, our legal limit in Germany, and I don't
> have any interference in
> the TV, Radio, or telephone.
>
> And finally, "My dog eats Kennel Ration too." :-)
>
> 73
> Rick
> DJ0IP
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: tentec-bounces@contesting.com
> [mailto:tentec-bounces@contesting.com]
> On Behalf Of Curt
> Sent: Saturday, July 09, 2005 4:44 AM
> To: Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment
> Subject: Re: [TenTec] "Radiates like Crazy"???? No
>
> I love it when what happened to me and several
> others
> mostly at W3KHW a ham radio club in Pittsburgh is
> dismissed as silly nonsensical rubbish. I tried
> everything mentioned here to solve the problem:
> Twisting. Lengthening and shorting the feed length.
> Match boxes. Balun and no balun. Making sure it
> didn't
> touch anything. Making sure it had no sharp bends.
> Wrapping it in circles. Straightening it. Name it
> and
> it was tried via advice from all the old timers at
> W3KHW. So finally coax was purchased and problem
> was
> solved instantly. This is why I stated ladder line
> radiates like crazy because it sure as hell did in
> my
> situation and several others at W3KWH. Call me
> stupid,
> misinformed, insane or whatever does it for you, it
> doesn't matter because I know what ladder provided
> me
> and a few others, nothing but nightmares of RFI and
> TVI to my neighbors who lived very close to me back
> then. The other guys had problems with it getting
> into
> their homes with RF flying around the house causing
> family members to complain. I don't care if you have
> been using ladder for 60 years! For me and a few of
> my friends it was nothing but headaches. Coax on the
> extreme other hand was very unforgiving and "never"
> radiated no matter the configuration applied to it
> unlike ladder line. Funny how the old timers are the
> ones who use ladder line, it's not something that is
> wildly popular these days and neither are the big
> bands and Frank Sinatra on the top 40 charts
> anymore,
> they are a distant memory. Distance as in light
> years.
> I will no longer respond to this subject because
> it's
> only vanity going back and forth ad nauseam and for
> what? Mine is bigger than yours..don't think so.
>
>
> Love Curt
>
> --- NJ0IP <Rick@DJ0IP.de> wrote:
>
> > I fully agree with Stuart. Curt must have made
> some
> > strange experience to
> > cause him to feel that way.
> >
> > Ladderline does not radiate like crazy - hardly at
> > all - if the load at both
> > ends are symmetrical. Stuart's tip about twisting
> > it is highly recommended.
> >
> > I've used openwire for over 40 years and the
> > ladderline since about 20 years
> > now. I have often had cases of it radiating.
> > Specifically, nearly every
> > time I tried to feed it thru a balun in front of
> an
> > asymmetrical matchbox.
> > I don't care which side of the matchbox you place
> > the balun, it still did
> > not eliminate this radiation - especially when
> > running a linear.
> >
> > I have also had at a truly symmetrical matchbox
> > (Annecke) for the past 25
> > years and each time I had the problem above, I
> > solved it by using my
> > symmetrical matchbox instead of the jerry-rigged
> > solution described above
> > (and still sold by many vendors as "a symmetrical
> > solution"). Lesson
> > learned. There are no shortcuts in life and
> quality
> > costs money.
> >
> > In the meantime I have 4 symmetrical matchboxes
> with
> > various power ratings
> > and I run legal power here and don't have any
> > problems with feedline
> > radiation.
> >
> > Coax radiates too if it has high SWR on it
> > (everybody knows that and knows
> > how to fix it).
> > Open wire feedline radiates when either of its
> ends
> > are not in balance (keep
> > it in balance and it won't radiate).
> > These are rules of thumb.
> > Of course there are rare exceptions to every rule,
> > but the statement that
> > ladderline radiates like crazy is blatantly wrong!
>
> >
> > Using ladderline or homebrew openwire is an
> > excellent way to build a simple,
> > effective wire antenna which will operate all (or
> > most) bands.
> >
> > If anyone is interested in using openwire /
> > ladderline feedline but wasn't
> > sure how to feed it, here is some useful
> > information:
> >
> > In the meantime there are good symmetrical
> > matchboxes available for all
> > sorts of power level. The are at least 5 or 6
> > vendors offering excellent
> > products for a reasonable price. A recent ARRL
> > (QST) article described some
> > of these, but only focused on the U.S. vendors
> (MFJ,
> > Palstar). There are
> > alse several European vendors with great products
> > too (e.g., U.K. Amp,
> > Hamware, Christian (DL3LAC), and DL1SWR). Just be
> > sure the box you are
> > interested in is truly symmetrical. MFJ and
> Palstar
> > both make good and bad
> > products advertised as suitable for symmetrical.
> >
> > 73
>
=== message truncated ===
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