[TenTec] balun noise?

[Jim Brown K9YC]

DJ0IP said (among other things):

>This is an unbalanced antenna.

ALL ham antennas are unbalanced by their surroundings, even those we 
like to think of as balanced. The feedline is only a small part of 
balance, which is defined by the impedance to the reference plane 
and objects connected to it (for most of us, EARTH, trees, 
buildings, towers, etc.). 

Several wrote about winding better coils of coax, and how expensive 
ferrite "baluns" are. 

You guys need to STUDY the work I've done on ferrite choke 
"baluns." If you follow my recommendations, you can build choke 
"baluns" performance is FAR superior to any coil of coax, and, 
especially on 80 and 160, far superior to "string of beads" baluns 
as originally developed by W2DU and improved a bit by W0IYH. 

Really good ferrite choke "baluns" can, when properly used, greatly 
reduce the receive noise that we all experience. See the tutorial. 

Another point. Ferrites are only expensive if you buy them from ham 
radio vendors, like Palomar and Amidon. Virtually all ferrite parts 
they sell are MADE by Fair-Rite, a very good US company in upstate 
NY. Check out their website and on-line catalog, then search it for 
their distributors. 

Finally, put together a group purchase of the ferrite parts listed 
in my tutorial. You'll buy them at wholesale, which is about one 
quarter (or even less) of what Amidon and Palomar charge for the 
same parts. You'll need quantities in the hundreds to get started, 
but any ham who is active on HF can easily use a dozen or two to 
good advantage in a year or so. 

http://audiosystemsgroup.com/RFI-Ham.pdf

I sure don't mind good retailers making a fair profit, but 3-5X 
markups are well beyond that, especially when they've done NOTHING 
to earn it. Rather, it's guys like W2DU, W0IYH, W8JI, and me who 
have done the massive work to show hams how to use these parts 
effectively (and WE have all done it for FREE). 

BTW -- you guys need to STUDY the tutorial -- a quick skim won't do 
it (unless you're W2DU or W8JI). It took me YEARS to learn what's in 
it. You should expect to put some time into doing the same thing. 
And W2DU has read it and likes it. 

73,

Jim Brown K9YC

On Sat, 24 Nov 2007 08:27:17 -0500 (EST), chip_brown at isp.com wrote:

>This works Great.