[Antennas] Running Ladder Line Through a Wall

Thu Sep 9 19:28:21 EDT 2004

Hi all,

I have not read all your emails but I thought my installation of "wire 
through the wall" would be of help as it has worked for years:

a.) Select a place in your wall where there is no metal, wires, grounding, 
or anything which can interfere with either side of the open line. Otherwise, 
you'll have a serious problem...
b.) Drill two holes, sloping down towards the outside so that rain will not 
come in, same distance next to each other of the 450 ohm line, size to get 
RG213 coax through. 
c.) Cut two RG-213 pieces, 1 foot longer each side than the thickness of the 
wall, connect the inner conductor to the outside shield and stick the two 
coax pieces through the wall. (You can avoid movements of the coax if you put 
several layers of black tape or rubber bands around the coax at each side of 
the hole. (just necessary if your outside line stresses the connection, i.e. 
wind load on the feeder, etc.
d.) Solder the 450 ohm feedline to the two individual coax connections 
inside and outside and you are in business. Reason for the two RG213 pieces: It 
represents such a big diameter and a possible RF current point at the location 
through the wall will not result in extreme heat on the wire.

By the way, you may want to consider going through the window:
Just replace a part of your window with a plastic section and use feed 
through insulators.

Now here is another trick or recommendation:
If you measure your SWR or you adjust it while tuning, swap the two ends of 
your balanced 450 ohm line at you tuner. If you read a different SWR at that 
time, your system is not balanced and your neighbor might call when you are 
getting on the air...

See you on 80M in the DX window, and thanks for using lossless open wire 
feed line.
Regards,
Rolf KE1Y