I saw that almost immediately I posted and corrected it, I wonder why it didn't show up, very strange

Colin, good luck whatever you decide

I thought about a 10ft aluminium pole for the top and I have some conduit for the 6ft poles,I forgot to say before that where the Discone was there is now Comet G15N it's not active at the moment,so would it interfere with wire,at the rear of the bungalow the conifers are full grown now and about getting on for 10ft,I think I would like a crack at Paul's idea first,but how do you get the ladderline to the radio,this G5RV I have been trying to get going is a Moonraker one,would it be ok to use the wire off that


Cheerd

That G5RV is much too big for your plot Colin, it just won't work, as I think you have found out. Use the wire, just shorten it. Remove the coax from the end of the ladder line, you can easily extend it if needed using electrical connectors.

To give you some idea, my doublet is 100ft long and is supported in the middle with a fibre glass pole, the 300 Ohm ladder line runs down the inside of the pole then from the bottom of the pole inside 20mm plastic electrical conduit for about 60ft towards the bungalow, try and keep the ladder line away from any other metalwork or other wires, I have run the conduit along the outside wall of the bungalow for about 20ft and it doesn't seem to make any difference. Before anyone asks, yes it is OK to run ladder line in plastic conduit, it is fine for RF. If in doubt, stick a sample in a microwave oven for a couple of minutes with a cup of water along side it as a load and see if the sample melts, being bombarded with a few hundred watts at 2500MHz and it doesn't melt I'm sure it will take a few watts of HF OK.

The G15N shouldn't interfere with it.

Paul. You have got me lost a bit from when the ladder link comes out of the bottom the pole,is where you say that you run the conduit for abouts 60ft towards the bungalow,where abouts are suggesting to put the pole,the pole is it a telescopic one,as I have had a look Sotabeams and they seem to have the telescopic ones.

Colin

I was describing my set-up which basically is the same as yours but on a larger scale, my pole is a Spider Beam pole so they are quite large and I'm able to run the ladder line up the inside of the pole till it pops out the top and joins the legs of the dipole. If you are looking at the Sotabeam poles then you would have to run the ladder line down the outside of the pole because their poles are much more slender and there isn't enough room to run on the inside.

It doesn't matter, it's just me being lazy bones running the line inside the pole because there's enough room rather than taping it on the outside. The conduit runs from the bottom of the fibre glass pole to the bungalow.

I can take some pictures if that would help?

Hi Paul, Yes photos please, another one that's got me puzzled is how do I get the signals to the Radio


Colin

Paul. Forgot to mention now the coax ladder line is off what do i fit to the bare wires at the bottom of the ladder line,to go through the brick work into the bungalow.

Cheers

No problem, give a while and I'll draw some pictures for you and re-size the photos of my set-up.

No hurry Paul

Cheers

This is a picture of the middle fibre glass pole, you can't really see it but the ladder line but comes out the top of the pole where it joins to the dipole.


This is the bottom of the mast where the ladder line comes out of a little hole in the side of the pole and joins a connector, this is so I can take the pole down I can disconnect the ladder line to make life easier.


This is the conduit making its way through the trees and bushes, sorry about the state of the fence.


This is the other side of the tree, the conduit runs along the bottom of the fence then goes up and loops over the side passage of the bungalow then along the outside wall.


Around the corner, where it then dives through a window. The scaffolding is nothing to do with the masts, I'm having my roof replace, oh what fun.


And finally into the matching unit in the shack.


I'll do the drawing now to show you how you can get the signal into and out of your radio.

That's brilliant Paul


Cheers

Paul. The last photo with the ladder line in the photo, have you connected the ladder line to the power pack

Colin

No, the last photo is a home made ATU to match balanced line, I can see the confusion with the terminals on top. This is a picture, not very pretty, but it works a treat.

OK Colin, this is the diagram on how to set everything up, I know you are going to have lots of questions, don't worry, ask away, that's what we are here for.



Here is a closer look at the Balun. Can you see the way it's wound? You can wind a straight 9 turns if you want, but I like to cross the turns after the fourth because it allows the input and output to be opposite to each other. It doesn't need to be in a box, just put electrical connectors on the ends of the wire so the ladder line goes in one side and the shot bit of coaxial cable in the other, with a coaxial connector on the end to plug into the matching unit.

The core can be obtained from Qbits in the UK for £6.25 plus postage, they get cheaper the more you buy, I find it's always useful to have a couple around to cure any EMC problems I come across, just a thought.

The wire I use is just 1.5mm mains cable with the insulation stripped off so you get the bare copper and sleeve it with PTFE sleeving, I get mine from Wires.co.uk quite cheaply, a couple of 1 metre lengths of the 1.80mm inside diameter will be adequate.

I use cable ties to hold the windings, because PTFE is pretty slippery stuff and it's a pain trying to hold it any other way.



I think the most expensive part of all this is going to be the ATU, as I said earlier, keep an eye open on the for sale forum, some of them come up on there.

I think that's me done for tonight, I went for a 7 mile fast walk around the Hertfordshire countryside and I feel whacked out, early night calls

Have a good nights kip Paul

Colin