Homebrew open wire feedline,,,

[N2DTS]

What do they charge?

I have a box of their open wire line, its been sitting in my basement for years, I tried to sell it at fests for $20.00 with no takers....

I think its 100 feet long.

If you was to ask me, its not great stuff, I would want thicker solid wire and better spacer attachment.

Its good to go overkill here, do it once, do it right, and be done with it.

The antenna can break, but you can reuse the open wire line...

I was going to take it to baltimore fest...


Brett
N2DTS

[K7NCR]

OK gang, I got the antenna up and the feedline into the shack and hooked up. I have some basic tuner settings worked out, so will give it a try. I will post some photos, too. The wire loop is made with 14ga green insulated wire. Very stealthy!
Norm K7NCR

[ke7trp]

I was contacted.  I emailed and then purchased 120 feet of this stuff. SHould be here next week.

I will let you guys know.

Clark

[ke7trp]

I still have not recieved my open wire line. However, I did get an email that said it was shipped. 

I did find some of this stuff at a local ham fest. There, sitting on a table was 100ft of this exact line ordered from this same website new. I got it for a steal. I guess nobody wanted it.  The man ordered it when the original owner was still around and never used it.

Yesterday, I lowered my 136ft horizontal Zepp and cut the 450 ohm line off. Good thing, It was cracked and weather beaten after only 1 year in the AZ sun.

I attached the new 600 ohm line with a 2 ft feeder length. Now my overall antenna is 140 ft. I ran the 600 ohm line 2 feet off the ground with it tied to different objects to get it off the ground and away from the house. I removed two of the spacers, drilled two small holes in the wall and pushed the wires through to the shack. Then on the inside, I put the spacers back on. I only have about 1.5 ft in the house where it attaches to the Johnson KW matchbox.

I pulled the antenna back up to 65 ft flat top.

I can now tune FLAT 1.0/50 ohms on 10,15,20,40,80 with the KW matchbox. The nice thing is that the Dials are normaly mid mesh. Before, Some bands where off the dial scale to tune. It tunes smooth too.

I am very happy with this product. Especialy since now, with my Palstar tuner inline, I can tune 160 meters! With the 450 ohm line I could not get even close.

I have an inverted L up for 160. I am going to compare both the inverted L to the Flat top on 160 tonight.

I ran the globe king 500C at 300 watts all night on 75 meters without issue.  The 450 line got over the Computer speakers in the bedroom. Nothing heard with the 600 ohm line. No RFI or TVI that I can find with the 600 ohm line. Nothing is getting hot or even warming up.

As for performance? I cant tell yet. I swear its better but i could have been the band last night. I will have to use it for a week or two before deciding. ITs at least as good if not better. I am seeing some gain but again, I want to reserve that for a few weeks of testing.

Good stuff!

Clark