[Elecraft] Ladder line changes when wet (was KAT500...)

[Victor Rosenthal]

Good, long-lasting open-wire line is neither hard to find or expensive. 
I bought some no. 12 super-flexible wire from The Wireman (I'd provide a 
link except that there is some stupid Cloudflare security thing that 
won't let me access the site) and made spreaders out of black PVC 
irrigation tubing. I made a jig to cut them to length, slit the ends and 
inserted the wire. I made a few out of fiberglass tubing so there would 
be solid ones where the line needed to be supported or turn a corner, etc.

It's been up 10 years so far with no problems, in the really vicious sun 
we have here.

It works well. On 40m the SWR is over 90:1. The line is about 10m long, 
and I've calculated a loss of less than 2 dB. 2 dB is not nothing, but 
it's a good tradeoff to make a simple dipole only 10m long work on all 7 
bands between 7 and 28 MHz. It even has a little extra gain on 17m and 
above.

73,
Victor, 4X6GP
Rehovot, Israel
Formerly K2VCO
CWops no. 5
http://www.qsl.net/k2vco

On 20/07/2025 18:07, Wes via Elecraft wrote:
> I never said that:
>
>    A second measurement was then made after wetting the line with 
> water to
>    simulate what might happen in a typical
>    outdoor application. Initially the water tended to bead up and run 
> off,
>    making it difficult to make meaningful
>    measurements. I believe that a typical line used outdoors would 
> quickly lose
>    its water shedding ability as it degrades
>    from sunlight and accumulates dust and other pollutants. To 
> simulate this, I
>    added a wetting agent to the
>    water to create a water film on the surface. The results of this are
>    probably worst case and not something that
>    would necessarily be encountered in a typical installation...
>
> As an aside, my late friend, Danny, K6MHE, sent me a piece of window 
> line* that had been used on one of his dipoles suspended in the 
> redwood trees in Ft. Bragg, CA.  It had moss growing on it. This would 
> not be a problem at my QTH in the Sonoran Desert, especially 
> considering that I would never use the stuff.
>
> * I now prefer the term window line over ladder line, since the latter 
> is used for both true open wire and polyethylene insulated line.
>
> On 7/19/2025 10:11 PM, Jack Brindle via Elecraft wrote:
>> There is no discussion about the effects of that wetting agent other 
>> than a (questionable) general assumption that it had no effects.
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