[Elecraft] Feed Line advice to KAT100

[Jim Brown]

On Mon, 5 Sep 2005 20:23:28 +1200, Nigel wrote:

>3) Balun at the ant (?:1) plus RG213 to tuner

This is a good configuration if the antenna is long enough 
to load on all the bands on which you want to use it. BUT, 
with a feedline only 5m long, and a transmitter power of 
only 100 watts, RG-213 is larger than you need. RG-59 or 
RG-8X would work just fine unless you want to run much 
more power. Feedlines must be far longer than 5m before 
losses or standing waves become a problem, and the smaller 
cable will be both more manageable and less visible. 

One other consideration though. If you want to load the 
antenna as a long wire against "ground" or a counterpoise, 
you would not want a balun at the antenna, and would need 
balanced line with a balun at the antenna tuner. I use 
this configuration for a limited space antenna here in a 
Chicago residential neighborhood as my only antenna for 
160 and an alternative antenna for 80 (that works better 
in some directions than the same wire loaded as a dipole). 
See 

http://audiosystemsgroup.com/K9YC/k9yc160TopLoad.htm

and

http://audiosystemsgroup.com/K9YC/k9ycant.htm

73,

Jim K9YC