Hi Steve and Howard,

I'm not using 600 Ohm LL yet but considering it if I make an antenna and
antenna site change.  If I change to possibly an 80 meter dipole or
something similar, my reasoning is that weather conditions won't affect the
600 ohm line very much and I can run it for a longer distance than coax and
it exhibits extremely low losses.

Presently I have an Alpha J-pole 6-160 which is a wire antenna more or less
end-fed with a match box installed on the feed point of the antenna.  
The maker, Alpha Antennas, says that it should exhibit very low SWR just out
of the box between 6-40 meters.  They also said that a tuner should easily
tune to 80 and  160.  That may be true for others but it hasn't done that
for me.  
I have it installed as a sloper hanging between 17 feet and 30 feet.  The
antenna is 75' long with a match box on the feed end that connects to RG213
coax and runs about 30 feet to my LDG KT-100 tuner and TS-590S and I run a
max of 100W.
The SWR was lowest in the range of 34MHz and closer to 2 to 1 and 3 to 1 at
other frequencies in the bands.  As a note, we did take the SWR measurements
with an antenna tuner at the control point and not out at the feed point.
We didn't think that the 25-30 feet of RG213 would make a great difference
although I may be mistaken.  It won't tune 160 meters or 6 meters at all
(why am I surprised).
Often my signal reports are "weak" to very weak" except from reports from
some of the contesters who always say my signal is 5 9 and I know better
than that!

Before I go the ladderline and different antenna route, I'm going to elevate
the feed point to about 35 feet instead of the 17 feet presently and see
what happens.  I was considering the 600 ohm ladderline to eliminate loss in
the 30 foot coax run but I've almost decided that that may not be as much of
the problem as the elevation and I would still need to get a balun etc. if I
use ladderline.  


Comments are welcomed and Thanks for your interest,

Kent

-----Original Message-----
From: For blind ham radio operators [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Steve Forst
Sent: Thursday, February 06, 2014 1:56 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: 600 ohm ladderline

Kent,

No experience here with 600 ohm line although I've used 450 and 300  ohm at
different times.  Just using coax now.

I'll be interested to here what others say, but am curious what antenna you
are using, and why you are  thinking of going this route.

73, Steve KW3A

On 2/6/2014 1:45 PM, Kent Plemmons wrote:
> Do any of you all use 600 ohm ladderline and if so how do you like it 
> and to what is it connected.
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> Thank you,
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> Kent KK4FFF
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> Clyde NC
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