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Ladder Line Installation

V

vo1ks

Active Member
Feb 11, 2012
280
48
38
Nova Scotia, Canada
members.rennlist.org
I'm planning to install a HF dipole fed with 450 ohm ladder line. At the center point I have a Ladder-Loc center insulator by WA1FFL. It looks very good, but I question how much stress it will handle. The copperweld wire will be held in a Pyrex center insulator and the Ladder-Loc will be a strain relief.

Any thoughts on the house end? I'd like to keep the ladder line fairly high and then let it form a drip loop before raising to the 4:1 balun mounted under the eave. Any thoughts on some sort of strain relief or method of attachment?
 

vo1ks said:
I'm planning to install a HF dipole fed with 450 ohm ladder line. At the center point I have a Ladder-Loc center insulator by WA1FFL. It looks very good, but I question how much stress it will handle. The copperweld wire will be held in a Pyrex center insulator and the Ladder-Loc will be a strain relief.

Any thoughts on the house end? I'd like to keep the ladder line fairly high and then let it form a drip loop before raising to the 4:1 balun mounted under the eave. Any thoughts on some sort of strain relief or method of attachment?
Click to expand...

You'll want to keep the feedline at as close to a right angle coming away from the dipole for as far as possible. Consider also twisting the line just a bit, maybe half a turn every 2-3 feet. This will tend to keep the line from flopping around when there's a breeze. Try to keep the line at least ten feet off the ground so people and pets, apart from the occasional domestic giraffe, don't come into contact with it .

If you have some sort of overhead support, you can use it to hold a thin line near the house to take some strain off the feedline and balun. If not, you'll probably want to use your ingenuity and fix something to one of the eaves. Have fun and take lots of pictures.
 
I made a non-conductive dipole hanger and ladder line retainer using 1" PVC pipe and fittings. The hanger at the top is a 1" elbow with a small hole drilled in it to allow a 1/4" eyebolt and nut to be installed for a hanger.
ladderline.JPG

I sawed several 1" "tees" in half (below) and used hose clamps to fasten them to the mast to hold the standoffs.
ladderlineTee.JPG

Then I inserted 14" PVC pipe standoffs into these mounting tees, with another tee at the opposite end and ran the ladder line down through the tees.
Next I cut several narrow (about 1/4") pieces of pipe and notched them (as below) to form a "C".
ladderlineClamp.JPG

These were inserted in to the tees at the end of the standoffs to hold the ladder line firmly in place.

The hanger and standoffs have been in the air for almost two years, have sustained some heavy "Santa Ana" winds and have never budged. I'm in to the whole thing for less than $10.
 
Warren, you could do like in the picture below. Just make the ladder line slack enough to drop down to form a drip loop. You could house the balun in the box as shown too.

DSCN0555.jpg
 
Warren, judging from the question your not planing on using a tuner on this?
I bring my ladder lines directly into the shack via a 1 1/2" PVC sleeve. I removed a single brick just below the eve. Then tied the sleeve to the eve with a small 3/16th's Dacron rope sling.
Then straight to the double "L" tuner. My second ladder line comes in the same sleeve via a 1" PVC simply slid inside of the other( 2 lines One sleeve) and it goes to the Palstar AT4K, which is a "T" match. So I have no need for the Balun.
I did not worry about securing the line from the eve to the feedpoint. I just let it blow and move as nature dictates, the run is about 75ft. I secured it just outside the sleeve similar to CK's pic, again with Dacron rope.
I get very little change when wet(slight cap adjustments), wind only effects tuning when it's in excess of 25-30 mph. Then once again only slight cap adjustment is needed to bring it back down to range.
I check tuning each time I get on a given band, once tuned no need to make further adjustments.
The last antenna I built (now up) I built a W8JK, cut for 75/80m...Works well 80-15m...really excels 20-17-15. I use almost no inductance with the double "L" on those bands.
The other antenna is just a center feed doublet cut for 75/80m also.
I used the DX Engineering T bars on the W8JK and the 300 ohm, KW+ line on it. I really like the way that package works. I will most likely never go back to the old style 450 again.
This 300 Ohm line reminds me of the old BELDEN 300 Ohm line, they use to make it for the Military.(y)
All the Best
Gary
 
Warren has an Icom HF rig and an Icom auto tuner. I believe he plans to do the same as I have done in the past and that is to use just a very short run of coax into the shack where the tuner is located.This si still a lot better than running coax all the way and having high losses on the feedline all the way. I did this for a while and later I remembered that I had a Yaesu FC-40 auto tuner designed for outdoor use. I ran coax from the shack to the other side of the house and just outside to the tuner. The output of the tuner was connected directly to a 1:1 balun and then the ladder line to the antenna.
 

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