[Elecraft] Wet 450 ohm ladder line

[dw]

Yes,
I've been using 450 line for years.
I've switched back and forth from this to coax many times.
The very best all purpose antenna that I've ever had is the one I now
use.
A 135' long doublet, up 45 feet, center fed with 75' of 450 ladder.
That is terminated to a k-watt quality 1:1 balun, and then to an SGC-237
auto-tuner.
>From there, 40' of coax to the rig.

This setup gives me operation on 160 and up with an average 1:8 SWR.
On hot sunny day, snow blizzard or rain down-poor.
Yes, the ladder Z characteristics do change with a heavy rain.
But the auto-tuner compensates instantly.

The advantage to this setup is the coax is always being used for what it
is designed for....unbalanced 50 ohms.
And so RF loss due to mis-match is minimized.

I am one very happy camper with this config!
I think its true, a multi-band antenna is a compromised antenna.
And I think the multi-band wire antenna is where ladder-line shines.   

It aint pretty like coax though   ;^D
Duane
N1BBR


-- 
 Bw_dw at fastmail.net