[Antennas] Home Brew balanced line

2002年12月17日 19:44:30 -0600

Steve et al,
May I suggest a more practical and probably cheaper material for the
spreaders. It is the black polyethylene 1/2" irrigation tubing sold in
coils. This stuff is quite tough, lightweight and impervious to
sunlight and weather extremes. The trick is to drill the parallel holes
somewhat smaller than the diameter of the wires, then cut "V" shaped
notches to the holes from each end. The beauty of this is that the
wires can be stretched out parallel for the desired length and the
spreaders can then be pressed or "snapped" into place at the desired
intervals. You will find the spreader holds very tight to the wire and
is very hard to slide once it is pressed into position. Suggest using
gloves if you are doing very many, as it can make "grooves" in soft
fingers. This eliminates the "threading" and securing hassles associated
with the other method. Having never seen this method described
anywhere previously, I'll take the credit for the idea. Gave the idea
to my friend Gary, www.w7fg.com, who tried it some years ago after me
and now produces it commercially for those who have an interest. I have
no monetary interests in it as I can get or make all I need and dont see
that much of a serious market for it. It is kind of fun (and certainly
cheaper) to make your own.
73, Mike, ac5p
On 2002年12月17日 05:58:28 -0800 (PST) "Steve L." <[email protected]>
writes:
> Hi Kees,
>> 5) the old open wire 4"-6" spaced ladder line is not
> as affected by moisture but is a pain to make and run.
>> I'd like to urge you to take the longer-term view of
> this and make your own balanced line. Use 14AWG
> hard-drawn stranded copper wire and 1/2" (OD) CPVC for
> spacers. Personally I use 2.5" spacing but 4" is good.
> The loss is very low and it's really not harder to
> install than the vinyl-coated windowed stuff (which I
> also use) and it doesn't change w/ weather unless you
> get ICE on the wires.
>> The 10m contest was a real pain for me this year. Why?
> Because it kept raining and drying, raining and
> drying... and each time I had to re-tune my transmatch
> to keep the VSWR good. Not much of a problem on the
> lower freqs, but very noticeable on 10m, especially at
> 1500W, especially when tired.
>> My approach to making a lot of balanced line is to do
> it in stages. Buy the materials and store them in the
> garage. One day, drill and cut the spacers, put 'em in
> a big bag and forget about it. A week or two later,
> thread them onto the wires and use hot glue to hold
> them. Roll the whole thing up on a spool and forget
> about it. Another day, connect it to your antenna and
> dress/support it. Another day actually tune it up.
> When you are done, however, it's good to go for many
> years.
>> OK, now you know why I buy the commercial stuff!
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