[NJARC] Antennas, Old Ham Radios :)

[Scott Roberts]

Well, Friday I finally got a chance to mess about with my alz-whire antenna in the attic. I haven't done so in quite a while- it was hot up there in the summer. Anyway, I trimmed back my 2nd antenna, which parallels my initial antenna. Both are a split dipole arrangement, and now both are about 32 feet long. One feeds the workshop, the other feeds the living room(upstairs) ham desk. Rough figuring puts that about 1/4 wave for 40M, and 1/2 wave for 80... However, it runs east-west, and is fixed. I was picking up the AWA 80M net this afternoon, very nicely, on the BC-348Q. Now both antennas are twin, I imagine one will be acting as a reflector for the other...

I have a few questions- 

1.Should I have a balun at the antenna end of the feedline as well as at the radio end? I am running RG-59/U currently, feeding directly at the antenna, and going through a balun at the radio(s).

2. Would it be better to run ladder line than the RG-59/U?

3. Is it better to use a center fed dipole, or an end fed, for attic work? 

At this point, if I can get the antenna sorted out properly, I would like to use it for transmitting also. My thoughts are to run more wires up there- Actually, other than the test antenna(which feeds the workshop room) I think I could put a couple runs in, and orient them in four different directions- N-S, E-W, NW-SE, and NE-SW. I am also thinking of putting a couple different length runs in- I have about 35' in any given direction, wall to wall, to work with. There are no concerns with accessibility, because the attic area is useless- it is a pre-fab house, and they have these high-pitchy roofs with lots of wooden substructure supporting it, and 2' deep fluff insulation, so it can't be used as a storage area. Thus there is no reason to worry about a bunch of wires being strung about the place. This is about all I can do at the moment, as putting up an outside antenna will probably be a problem, because of the neighborhood association rules, etc... I
 probably could put up a simple one, but haven't gotten that too looked into yet.

I have been researching this- just thought I'd see what you guys had to say...

Comments, answers, etc, requested!

Thanks!
Happy Holidays!
73
Scott
KC2TYV