I use #12 insulated wire (scrap from work) and plastic spreaders made from cut cable supports for wires/cables to be wire tied to in telco racks, (also scrap) and to hold the wire to the spreaders I just use plastic wire ties (also scrap).
You dont need many, one every foot or more is fine, everything is insulated as its plastic covered wire. My current setup has been up about a year and looks new so far. My cost was totaly zero for vurtualy zero loss on the feedline. I use a G5RV type setup as I have not made a balanced tuner yet, and have about 15 feet of RG214 modified (UV proof) between the tuner and the open wire line. It seems to work 80 to 10 meters ok, at least it tunes up ok and even with full bore AM I have no problems on 80 or 40, I have not tried it on other bands on AM. The AM crowd seems to prefer open wire line, balanced tuners, and as much wire in the air, and as high up as they can get it. Brett N2DTS ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dave Van Wallaghen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "'Robert 'RC' Conley'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: <Elecraft@mailman.qth.net> Sent: Friday, November 16, 2007 5:41 PM Subject: RE: [Elecraft] Re: KAT100 with Ladder Line > No problem RC. You're right, you can probably use just about anything > non-conductive for the ladder line spacing. I've been toying with the idea > of using polycarbonate tubing for something really durable. I use Lexan, a > polycarbonate, to build enclosures for some of the Elecraft mini-modules. > (In fact, I've been prototyping an enclosure for my HexKey all afternoon). I > get the Lexan from Home Depot, but all the other plastic supplies from a > place called Tap Plastics ( http://www.tapplastics.com/ ). They sell > polycarbonate tubing which I think would make great spacers for open wire > feedline. > > I would like to build a long doublet with open wire feedline from insulated > 14 of 12g wire. I think that using this polycarbonate tubing with a spacing > of around 6" would be ideal and very durable (and certainly usable for more > than QRP purposes). I just haven't yet figured out how to secure the wire to > the tubing yet. The plasti dip would probably be ok, but I need to explore > some other methods I think. > > Good luck & 73, > Dave W8FGU _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
