Ladder Line to coax transformers
Ladder Line baluns are used to match the impedance seen at the end of the ladder line to a coaxial cable, usually 50 ohms, but a ladder line balun can also be used to match to 75 ohm coax like RG-6/U used for cable and satellite installations. While RG-6 doesn’t have the same power rating as larger cable, it is very useful for beverage antennas or receiving antennas which don’t carry a lot of power.
The impedance seen at the end of the ladder line will not be the same as the characteristic impedance of the ladder line (typically 300 or 450 ohms). Good ladder line antenna designs try to have the impedance at the end of the ladder line attachment to the balun close to 200 ohms so that a 4:1 balun can be used to match to 50 ohm coax.
A typical ladder line antenna is shown in the picture below:
Palomar Engineers has ladder line to coax 4:1 baluns in both kit form and also assembled in a variety of 1 watt to 10KW power levels to suit the needs of many customers. The ladder line baluns are designed for balanced output and are generally used at the end of a run of ladder line from the antenna. The baluns connect to the ladder line and then transition to coax cable to you antenna tuner or radio station.
Generator RFI testimonial:
Bob Received your order in a timely fashion. Tried the generator kit on Sunday & it drops the noise from S9 to S5 and took out all the electrical noise. I may want some more toroids from you at some point for other interference problems I have here. Ken VE3KCY
Using an amplifier? Don’t forget our Linear Amplifier RFI Kits
Want to make up your own RFI kits for a particular operation? Here are links to some of typical RFI solutions used in portable operations:
If you use a computer for logging in your portable operations, RFI getting into computers will often lock up your computer and/or radio and a computer RFI suppression kits may be helpful
Make your expedition or portable operation a pleasant and fun outing and remember to take along your RFI kits so you have more time to operate rather then to troubleshoot intermittent or noisy receiver conditions.
Portable Antenna Kits
If you need an effective portable antenna which folds up for transport yet is easy to deploy at your operating site, consider the BULLET series of end fed wire antennas.
BULLET Antennas (click on link or picture for more info)
