Just because your feedline is 450 ohm doesn't mean that the antenna
impedance is 450. A center fed zepp is a high impedance feed,
probably above 1000 ohms. The reason for using open wire is to
minimize loss in the line, open wire is very low loss.

Also, depending on the length of the open wire, it could act as a
transformer, changing the impedance.

Feeding it into a 4:1 balun will drop the impedance but if the balun
is feeding a 1600 ohm load, the other side of the balun will see 400
ohms, certainly not a match for coax, or for your rig.

73, Ken WA8JXM

On Fri, 05 Aug 2005 23:00:23 GMT, S.Fritts wrote:

I dont think my post got posted...I want to use two seperate antennas
such as center fed zepp types.....can I feed each antenna with ladder
line such as 450 ohm and then teminate each ladder line to two 4:1
baluns (one balun per line) and use 50 ohm coax to the shack? In
other words, one balun per feed line the have 2 coaxes running in to
the shack with an antenna switch.

Thanks

Steve
W4SEF