Topband: Shunt fed twr

[ron21246 at msn.com]

I would like some input. In ON4UN's book, fourth edition, John talks about problems with the KLM antennas in ref to shunt fed towers. I had a 20M5 and converted it over to a 4 element hair pin store bought match on a 42 ft boom. Do I need a 1:1 balun, the hair pin requires a balanced feed or can I get away with "wide spacing" and an input impedance of @ 40 ohms? If I do use a 5K 1:1 balun what is the chance that I will/can destroy it? Would I have to decouple so that the 160 RF doesn't reach the balun? The tower is 75ft with 64 radials in ground. Thanks for any input...Ron  KB7ZR