Mating your Coax to Ladder Line

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 www.dxengineer... $2.99 ea
Ring Terminal Kit www.amazon.com...
Heat Shrink Kit www.amazon.com...
Ladder Line www.dxengineer...

[@JayN4GO]

I always use 1$ cutting board for an insulator. Cut in squares. :)

[@user-ss6zt2mo1l]

From the dollar store

[@FromthehamshackwithNJ4Z]

great video, and a good cost savings from the commercial available product.

[@Scudmaster11]

That's window line

[@stevenlawhon3695]

Heatshrink helps weatherproof.

[@AE4VJ]

Yes sir! It also makes for a cleaner installation

[@KrisDX]

Why not use a 4:1 or a 1.1 balun or run the ladder line all the way to the shack to a balanced tuner? You will get a lot of loss in that coax.

[@AE4VJ]

You can do what you want. This was to answer som questions people had about the transition on the zs6bkw.

[@judd_s5643]

@@AE4VJ perhaps Kris will put out a video showing his improved method!

[@G3PWP]

I prefer to solder onto the tab and i find the solder coats the copper cores ( Capillary effect or wicking ) and protect the core(s) from water corrosion then coat with silicone grease and shrink flex on top seals it perfectly

[@AE4VJ]

I crimp for the mechanical connection and then solder

[@N1IA-4]

Great video. One very minor criticism: you did say to be careful cutting the ladder line to prevent injury...but then proceeded to cut with your utility knife TOWARD yourself. Big no-no. Just kidding. This is a great way to mate ladder line to coax without using a balun.

[@AE4VJ]

😂 yeah. As long as the base is sharp, should be ok. Just be mindful…. Thanks so much for watching and commenting!

[@stephaniestephanie1290]

Thanks for the great demo. The arrl book shows an inside ceiling dipole with a center connector using ladder line down into the automatic tuner. An LDG AT 200pro II has a PL 259 connection for the normal antennae/coax. Does this mean we can connect the new dipole's ladder line to another coax with the right PL 259 connection to go into the tuner? thanks

[@AE4VJ]

Depends on the antenna design; if it’s part of a matching section or just the feedline. If it’s a short run, it shouldn’t matter much however

[@stephaniestephanie1290]

ok Thank you so much. @@AE4VJ

[@ebazz1]

Nice video, learned a lot. Is the any formula that you need to know to determine the length of the ladder line? Thank you. Ernest KC1LKB.

[@AE4VJ]

It depends on the antenna

[@CarlosFelipeRequiao]

Thanks for the video! Sorry to ask, but if we just connect an unbalanced to a balanced feed line without any transformer don´t we get a mismatch with lots of power loss and high swr? Sorry my bad english. 73 de PY5CL

[@AE4VJ]

Depends on the antenna. A lot of doublets use the ladder line as a matching section. Theodore, no transformer needed. Such as the case with the zs6bkw antenna.

[@CarlosFelipeRequiao]

@@AE4VJ Understood, Thank you! I want to use a ladder line as a feedline to an End Fed Zepp but it has to be connected to a coax cable at some point. Can use the same method you taught?

[@AE4VJ]

Sure.

[@rextwelve]

Can you just solder an S0-239 to the ladder line in the case where you have a PL-259 pre-installed on your coax? Then goop it all up with silicon, plastic sealing tape, heat shrink, seal it up in some sort of junction box, ...? I don't really want to pay for, or build, an SO-239 to coax to pig-tail. Neither do I want to cut up my coax with pre-installed PL-259s. Is fitting an SO-239 to ladder line just a bad idea?

[@AE4VJ]

You can. It becomes a bit tricky when you start to heat it up to solder. You don’t want the insulation to melt and short the conductors. The other thing to take into consideration is strain relief. You don’t have to use an antenna insulator, just some non-conductive material.

[@cobrasvt347]

Good info here 👍

[@G3PWP]

my dog would love that to chew

[@Sergey_UB4LDT]

Why do you teach other people to make mistakes ? They will find your video and will connect a symmetrical line and a coaxial cable without using additional matching devices. You connect a 450 ohm line and a 50 ohm line, the difference is 9 times. It is more correct to place either a symmetrical tuner or a matching transformer at this point.

[@AE4VJ]

Ladder line is a used as a matching section for many antennas thus, making the coax transition a necessity. For example the ZS6BKW antenna. If someone is using a 4:1 balun for example, they would not need this as the balun will transition to coax.

[@clems6989]

Because there are many applications where this is used. And without any transformer. G5RV etc..