Bob -
Bob (VUF), I agree with what Bob (TAX) says.
My dipole is fed with 100' of modified Ladder line. I got tired of
re-tuning when it rained so I cut 2/3 of the webs out of the ladder
line. Works great for me.
I have tried the MFJ Balanced tuner, auto-tuners, baluns, no balun, and
the Ten Tec 229. What I kept was a balun outside my window (DX
Engineering 2:1) and 6 feet of RG8 from the balun to the tuner. I kept
the Ten Tec 229. T-matches seem to have lots more loss. A nice L-match
works fine here. The Ten Tec 229 (238, 238B, etc.) has a place on the
back to add capacitance for 160 meters.
So, ladder line to balun to tuner. About the same as half the ham
population.
There are lots of opinions on how to get from the ladder line to the
radio. I have tried them all and can't see a difference. YMMV :-)
73 de K1ESE
John
Bob McGraw - K4TAX wrote:
> This is one of those topics that gets visited from time to time. And as
> always, there about as many opinions, ideas, experiences and preferences as
> there are stars in the universe.
>
> Wire, whatever length you have space to string up, fed in the center with
> some balanced feedline direct to the tuner has always proven to be a good
> working general purpose antenna. Balanced feeds are not near as fussy as
> many will technically profess. I use both the 300 ohm and 450 ohm material,
> {window line} which I obtain from Press at Wireman. Whatever balance method
> that exists in your tuner will likely be satisfactory. Should your tuner
> not provide a balanced output, then add a external balun of your choice.
> I've used a W2FMI 4:1 balun rated at 10KW for my legal limit operation. I've
> also used a Radio Works 1:1 current balun rated at 5 KW for my AM station.
> Both seem to work equally well. My favorite is "the ugly balun" as
> described on Rich Measures website. http://www.somis.org/bbat.html
>
> I only use coax fed antennas for those that are resonant frequency
> applications. Case and point, my 75M dipole, length cut to formula, and
> coax fed shows a 1:1 SWR value at about 3950. It covers some +/-50 KHz
> {3900 - 4000} either side of that frequency with a 1.5:1 SWR or less. The
> radio and amp are very happy with this configuration and I typically don't
> use the tuner on this antenna for operation in the upper end of the band.
> Now should I decide to do some PSK-31 work down at the low end of the 75M
> band, I switch in the tuner, twiddle a couple of knobs and everything is
> happy and works.
>
> For feeding the balanced lines/antennas the Tentec 238 does a very nice job.
>
> Try it, you'll like it.
>
> 73
> Bob, K4TAX
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Bwana Bob" <wb2vuf@gti.net>
> To: "Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment" <tentec@contesting.com>
> Sent: Friday, December 07, 2007 9:27 AM
> Subject: Re: [TenTec] Ten Tec 229 Tuner on 160M
>
>
>> John:
>>
>> How do you feed the dipole? I have a Drake MN-7 (cosmetically almost a
>> perfect match to my Corsair). It loads the my 80m coax-fed dipole on
>> 160m, but not perfectly. I'm thinking of switching to a W7FG "true
>> ladder line" dipole.
>>
>> 73,
>>
>> Bob WB2VUF
>>
>> John Huffman wrote:
>>> Picked up a used Ten Tec 229 tuner through this list.
>>>
>>> Couldn't tune my 80 meter doublet on 160 until I added external
>>> capacitors to the back. Had to add .003uf to get it to tune. Got it
>>> going this afternoon.
>>>
>>> Using my Omni VI (option 3) Plus, my first 160M QSO was ON4UN. Got him
>>> through the pile on second call.
>>>
>>> Elecraft ain't the only one with mojo.
>>>
>>> 73 de K1ESE
>>> John
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> TenTec mailing list
>>> TenTec@contesting.com
>>> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/tentec
>>>
>>>
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>
>
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