Joe Tyburczy, W1GFH provides some sensible insight and advice, he writes: "I am a big fan of "balanced line" (twin lead, open wire line, etc.) vs. coax. By using balanced line and a tuner you can have one, single-element antenna that works well on all bands. You can't do that as easily with coax. The basic "W1GFH $4 SPECIAL" shown below is a variation on the type of versatile skyhook I've been using for years......Now at this point, some of you may be looking at the diagram and muttering, "Jeez Joe, that's just a dipole fed with twin lead and used with a tuner". Well of course it is. Virtually all antennas are "di-poles" (i.e. "two sides") in some form or another. This one just happens to be made from low-cost materials......I won't go into the theory here, but trust me: balanced feed line, properly used, does not "leak" RF and is less lossy than coax. I've tried the commercial 450-ohm ladder line, but prefer 300-ohm TV twin lead, and the cheaper the better. Radio Shack TV twin lead is ideal. Home Depot has some good stuff, too. Forget all the obsessive junk about standing waves, impedance and velocity factor. What you really need to concentrate on is getting an interesting set of antenna insulators."
Read Joe's excellent article in its entirety here: http://www.qsl.net/wb1gfh/antenna.html
4 Dollar Special by W1GFH
http://www.qsl.net/wb1gfh/antenna.html
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