Can you feed a dipole with ladder line?
Can you feed a dipole with ladder line?
Can you feed a dipole with ladder line?
Feed the dipole in the center with 450-ohm ladder line (available from most ham dealers), and buy an antenna tuner with a balanced output. Feed the ladder line into your house, taking care to keep it from coming in contact with metal, and connect it to your tuner.
Is a vertical antenna better for DX?
DX chasers should consider the vertical. They don’t take up much space, many are less than 30 feet high, and most don’t require supports other than a few guy lines. Vertical antennas naturally have a low angle of radiation, meaning you’ll have a good chance of making worldwide contacts.
Why do vertical antennas need radials?
Radials contribute to the radiation efficiency of the entire vertical antenna system. The worse your ground conductivity, the more important your radial system becomes.
Do I need a balun with ladder line?
You don’t need a balun to connect coax to a dipole. This whole balanced/unbalanced idea causes so much confusion. There are differential mode currents and common mode currents. Coax carries both and ladder line carries both.
How long should my ladder line be?
Your dipole is cut for 40 meters or about 66 feet total length and you feed it with ladder line to a tuner to make it a multibander….
| 160 meter dipole | 35-60, 170-195 or 210-235 feet | (Avoid 130, 260 ft) |
|---|---|---|
| 40 meter dipole | 42-52, 73-83, 112-123 or 145-155 feet | (Avoid 32, 64, 96, 128 ft) |
How does a vertical antenna work?
Multiband verticals use several traps or similar circuits to electrically change the length of the antenna according to the frequency of the transmitted signal. (The traps are in the vertical elements, not the radials.) Vertical antennas take little horizontal space, but they can be quite tall.
What is the difference between dipole and monopole antenna?
In essence, the difference between a monopole and dipole antenna, is that a dipole antenna uses an additionally radiator to generate a synthetic ground plane between the symmetric radiator elements, where a monopole antenna requires a physical ground plane.
How many radials do I need for vertical antenna?
Most commercially-made VHF ground plane antennas have four radials, though there is little evidence that four provide any improvement over two, provided that the two are in a straight line (at 180ยบ to each other). I use just two elevated radials, 2m high, on my 40m vertical, Fig. 4.
Does a vertical antenna need to be grounded?
Typical vertical antennas do require a graound though some types such as the GAP Challenger use 3 wires insulated from ground (in this application they are referred to as a counterpoise).
Does a vertical antenna need a balun?
No you shouldn’t need a balun. A balun is to match a balanced antenna to an unbalanced feedline. Your vertical is probablu an unbalanced antenna, so no need. A balanced antenna would be something like a centre fed dipole, so you’d use a balun for it.