Mating your coax to ladder line

Like many radio amateurs (hams), I use 450 ohm ladder line to feed my HF antennas.  The only problem is connecting the balanced feedline to the 50 ohm input of my HF transceiver.

While I use a 1:4 balun to transition from the 50 ohm output of my transceiver to the 450 ohm nominal impedance of the balanced line, there are other methods of achieving the rig-to-antenna union.

In this video from AE4VJ, we see another way of accomplishing this goal at a minimum cost. While this method works, you may encounter a terrible impedance mismatch without using an antenna "tuner" (i.e. transmatch) to match rig to antenna.

If you use the method outlined in this video, please use very low power to determine if a balanced tuner or balun is needed.

Here are some comments from AE4VJ:

In this episode, we go over how to transition from coax to ladder line. Its not that complicated really. Sometimes, all you need is someone to spark an idea and it becomes very clear. This is a very simple and clean way to mate your coax to your ladder line fed antenna such as the ZS6BKW or G0GSF antenna. Tools you'll need: Ladder Line Coax End insulator Screws Washers A couple of nuts for the screws above Some ring terminals Heat Shrink tubing or black tape Wire strippers Proper crimper for the ring terminals Parts I used: Alpha Delta End Insulator DX Engineering https://www.dxengineering.com/parts/a... $2.99 ea Ring Terminal Kit https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07... Heat Shrink Kit https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07... Ladder Line https://www.dxengineering.com/parts/d...

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Thanks for joining us today.

Aloha es 73 de Russ (KH6JRM).