>Just get some decent small diameter COAX. Ladder needs all
>sorts of baluns or a tuner (forget 'em). Kris OA4DBO
Hi Kris, QRP can mask a multitude of evils. If your
resonant half-wave dipole is fed with a natural
number of half-wavelengths of coax, most of the
RF will flow back down the outside of the coax braid
instead of into the other half of the dipole. You
might as well save some weight and forget the other
half of the dipole. At QRP levels, you may not even
notice that half your power is being radiated from
the feedline. Is it bad? Maybe, maybe not. The point
is, even using a half-wavelength resonant antenna
and coax, one still needs to know what one is doing.
If one wants to avoid feedline radiation from a
balanced antenna being fed with unbalanced feedline,
one should install a 1:1 current choke/balun (some
turns of coax) at the antenna feedpoint.
300 ohm ladder-line is lighter, cheaper, and less
lossy than coax. All one has to learn is how to
match it. It is definitely a better choice for a
balanced antenna. It moves any problem to the
operating position where it can be easily solved.
73, Cecil, W6RCA, OOTC
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