Ladder Line wire ?.....

[Oatmeal]

I used to run this stuff back in the 80s and back then they was calling this stuff track wire...back then the wire was a solid copper wire, inside the insulation...I ran about 1500ft of this stuff up a mountain to the top...and had my antenna about 60ft in the top of a tree..

And instead of using what you guys call a Balun, we used RG 213 coax and made a coil, and also a lead of coax, and at the top one end went to the antenna, and had another one at the bottom going into the radio...and we used the coil and lead of coax, took copper gurney clamps, and connected this to the track wire...

And to get the swr down at the radio end, we would slide the coil up and down the line to get the swr zeroed in, close as we could get it....then from here we would add coax or take it away, in which I always ended up adding coax to mine, to get the swr lower.....but once you got the swr down, then you was able to talk on it....

But today everyone calls it Ladder Line wire.....

What does the Balun do, is this away shorter way of getting the swr down, and using the coax with it ?.....

I looked at the pictures of the ladder line and it all looks the same as when we was using years back.....

This all has got me curious about the wire and how the Baluns works and all this stuff..
So take it easy on me guys, Im just trying to learn here....

 

[The DB]

"Ladder line" predates coax. A more accurate name would be "balanced feedline". It has many names, some referring to a specific type (such as "window line") and others are more general (such as "twin lead").

Coax maintains its energy inside the shielding, and is not considered balanced as the RF energy is not equally given to both conductors.

Balanced feedline is two wires separated by a given amount. The polarity of the signal on those wires at any given time are exactly equal and opposite of the other wire. This equal and opposite charges keeps the feedline in balance this balance keeps it from radiating. If the signals are not balanced this type of feedline will radiate some, possibly effecting the antenna.

The balun is used to connect the unbalanced feedline (coax) to a balanced feedline as it makes sure the signal in the balanced feedline is both equal and opposite. Depending on how the balun is made it can also match to the impedance of the balanced feedline.


The DB