MILES OF Ham Radio COAX & FEED-LINES

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There are miles of feed-lines at the K0UO antenna site.

Consisting of open wire balance ladder feeds 300 ohms to 900 ohms,

50 ohm hard-lines 1 5/8", 7/8" & 1/2" , 50 ohm coax mostly LMR 400/600 type.

72 ohm Hard-lines 7/8", 3/4/", & 1/2", RG11 with a 12 gauge steel messenger cable for overhead, RG6 for receive antennas (all 72 ohm) along with hundreds of jumper coax cables.

A skid steer loader is positioned next to a large wire spool 1800 foot of 50 ohm hardline, ready for transportation or installation work in an outdoor, rural setting.

ABOVE: HARDLINE, I USE IT BY THE SPOOL!

Above: On the fence RG11 for some of the RX antennas, 7/8" hardline to one of the main rhombic control boxes, overhead from the barn to the house is a number of coax lines with messenger cables for overhead. Also see the 100Ft tower on left,195 Foot tower in mid photo, and a 50 ft by the house.

Above: 7/8in Hard-line with grounding every 200 feet.

I have Coax and Hardline feeders going over the creek and under the U.S. Highway

Some feeders on tee post going across the flooded creek!

The 7/8" hardline feeders on tee post going across the flooded creek!

They have since been reinstalled on 10 high steel pipe to keep about the water

Floodwaters rise in a rural area, submerging roads and surrounding greenery as heavy rainfall continues to impact the region.

ABOVE: With some of the antennas over 1000 to 1500 feet from the shack, you need a lot of feed-lines!

BELOW: RX ANTENNA 75 OHM, I USE ROLLS OF OVERHEAD COAX WITH A MESSENGER CABLE FOR SUPPORT

ABOVE: 1/2 IN OVERHEAD COAX WITH A MESSENGER CABLE FOR SUPPORT

ABOVE: RG11 WITH MESSENGER CABLE FOR SUPPORT

One of the control boxes which is over 1000 feet from the station

ABOVE: OPEN WIRE FEEDERS FROM THE ANTENNA, an exponential taper feed  800 ohm balanced to 50 Ohms balanced termination. The K0UO Arrays are using 3/8" Triple Galvanized Wire Rope Cable for the antenna wire.

ABOVE: OPEN WIRE FEEDERS FROM THE ANTENNA, an exponential taper feed  800 ohm balanced to 50 Ohms balanced termination.

ABOVE: BUILDING OPEN WIRE BALANCE FEEDERS (880 OHMS)

ABOVE: 3 WIRE OPEN FEEDER, I JUST SWITCH THE TOP OR BOTTOM WIRE, TO CHANGE FROM EITHER OF MY TWO 1200 FOOT LONG V-BEAM ANTENNAS.

ABOVE: OPEN BALANCE LINE TO THE CONTROL BOX

Above: Open wire feeders with 10 amp relays and lightning protection. 

My Setup uses the same DPDT relays for 180 degrees switches

SEE:

Ladder Line Static Bleeder with Ground Lug (palomar-engineers.com)

DXE has them now also

ABOVE: A RF CURRENT METER TO RF CHECK OF OPEN LADDER LINES, you are trying to achieve equal current on each leg.

The old Twin-Lamp tester below

Old Time SWR Meter!

https://www.rfcafe.com/references/qst/twin-lamp-qst-october-1947.htm

ABOVE: Station 2, Look under the desk-top at the roll of Alpha Delta antenna switches with center ground, which is the final lightning protection point. With thunderstorms possible on any day from spring to fall here in Kansas you can unhook dozens of cable all the time. I also have a master switch which kills power on all the remote control boxes, and shunts all the antennas to ground in the field. I never leave my shack with out turning off the master switch, which also disconnects all 220 AC, 120 AC, and 12 DC power to all equipment. Storms can pop-up fast out on the High Plains of Kansas.

ABOVE: A roll of Alpha Delta antenna switches

ABOVE: A COAX PATCH PANEL

lightning strike counter

ABOVE: Is a lightning strike counter, which attaches to tower structures, with a good ground system sometimes you never know that lightning hit your site. With a counter you know. Then you will need to check out your grounding, and make repairs before the next hit.

ABOVE: UNDER GROUND LINES CAN BE HARD WORK!

OPEN WIRE FEED-LINES

OPEN WIRE FEEDER

ABOVE: 1000s of FOOT OF LADDER LINES IN USE, 800 to 400 ohms

2" Hard-line

ABOVE: SPARE HARD-LINE, IT IS BIG!  If you have high noise, use Hardline, the reason, is signal to noise.

Hardline is worth every penny.

ABOVE & BLOW: REPAIRS ON THE HARD-LINE DIN CONNECTORS, Sweeping the line with a RigX

7/8 DIn connector

7/8" DIN Connector

The K0UO antenna test range site makes use of the 4KS Walz airport and its surrounding area as a practical learning environment for STEM (Scientific, Technical, Engineering, & Mathematics) antenna projects in a real-world outdoor setting. If your group has a university aerospace or antenna research STEM program, please let me know.

TO SEE the complete Blog list check @  https://www.k0uo.com/k0uo