Radios are cool, but they don’t make contacts by themselves. you need antennas and other accessories to complete your station. Here are a three sources that I’ve come across recently.
True ladder line
For the past four years, my main HF antenna has been a “Cobra” doublet. It’s a great antenna, but one issue that I have with it is that when the 450 Ω ladder line gets wet, it’s characteristics change, and I have to retune the antenna as is gets wetter or dryer. Supposedly, this doesn’t happen with open-wire feeders. I guess because there’s less area between the actual conductors to get wet.
The big ham radio stores don’t sell open-wire feedline, but there are two sources for it. TrueLadderLine.com sells 100-ft. of 600 Ω feedline for $75. They also sell an 80-meter doublet with this ladder line for $125. The unique thing about the antenna is that there are no wire splices. The antenna element and the feedline are one continuous piece of wire.
To make your own open-wire feedline using 14 AWG THHN wire (solid or stranded) sold at home improvement stores, you might want to purchase Ladder Snaps. To make a feedline, you simply snap the wire into the spreader (shown below). A kit of 100 spreaders costs $35.
Devices distribute DC to PowerPoles, USB connectors
I’ve been using a RigRunner to distribute DC in my shack for quite a while now. I have since soured on West Mountain Radio. So, when one of my Elmerees asked about how to connect a DC power supply to several rigs, I did some Googling and found K9JEB’s website. He offers a number of different power-distribution products similar to, but with more features, at a better price, than other suppliers.
For example, you can get a simple power distribution kit, with just PowerPoles on it, or you can get a version that has both PowerPoles and USB connectors for devices that are powered via USB. He also sells what he calls the Power Transfer Charger Kit (shown below) that sits atop a sealed lead-acid battery or gel-cell battery. It includes a battery charging circuit, as well as up to six PowerPole ports and three USB power ports. Very cool!
Bas PE4BAS says
Hell Dan, I work with a inverted-V and “true” ladderline for a couple of years already. It is homemade and no splices as well. 2 pieces of wire 50m long. 20m for the antenna, 30m for the ladderline to the shack. I didn’t know it is sold as a commercial product. But unique? Not at all I think ;-) . 73, Bas
Mel says
I would be very interested in hearing why you have “soured on West Mountain Radio”. It is very helpful to hear about other people’s expereinces.
Dave New, N8SBE says
Mel, just click on the link (the phrase you quoted in the original article above is actually a hyper-link to the article concerning West Mountain Radio).