[Antennas] Home Brew balanced line

Tue, 17 Dec 2002 21:00:41 -0800

I like your suggestion Mike.  I saw another one where the ham put a small 
nick in both ends of the pipe spreader, then took a soldering iron, touched 
the wire and melted it into the plastic.  I was wondering how this would work.

How did you remove the curl in the pipe, just stretch it out in the sun?

Long time ago I helped a ham make some ladder line using the plastic Toni 
Hair permanent curler sticks.  They looked like a bone with V grooves in 
the end for the elastic band to slip in to keep the hair curled while the 
chemicals did it job on the hair.  The wire slipped into the V groove 
neatly and a little airplane glue made it solid.  I now wonder what the hot 
iron would have done.

Chris opr VE7HCB

At 07:44 PM 2002-12-17 -0600, you wrote:
>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 Tue, 17 Dec 2002 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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