[Boatanchors] Antenna Question...

[Jim Haynes]

How long is your 450 ohm ladder line?

A popular antenna is an 80M dipole center fed with about 100 feet of
ladder line.  100 feet is sort of a magic number for being easy to match
on all bands 80M and down.  See www.w5dxp.com/notuner.htm    I have a
friend who bought a commercially made antenna of the same general design,
except it was shortened from 80M with loading coils in the centers of the
legs.  It works nicely on all bands with a tuner, and in the instructions
they warn you not to cut the feedline to less than 80 feet.  He runs it
with an LDG autotuner and a balun near the tuner.

But I wouldn't expect it to do anything for you on 160M, unless maybe you
tied the legs of the ladder line together and fed it against ground,
essentially as a vertical with a top hat loading.

Jim W6JVE


jhhaynes at earthlink dot net