[TowerTalk] Force-12 balun construction

[Pete Smith]

At 10:30 PM 11/8/99 EST, KI7WX@aol.com wrote:
>
>
>>His problem with the open leads turned out to be
>>mechanical; a length of unsupported coaxial cable had been pulling on
>>the balun.  He suspects that is what broke the leads, one on the
>>outside, one on the inside.
>
>Does anyone offer a well made choke type balun that incorporates a means of 
>supporting the coax other than by the connector?  

With RG-8/213, I usually loop the coax back and tape it securely to body of
the balun on my dipoles.  Looks ugly, but it takes the strain.  On dipoles
fed with RG-8X, I don't bother, and have never had a failure at that point.
 I have had lots of fasilures involving the pigtail leads, though, and
finally cured that by rolling my own bead baluns, with a PL-259 on each
end, and using Budwig RF-1 center insulators.  They are VERY sturdy. 

73, Pete Smith N4ZR
n4zr@contesting.com 

Sometimes a tower is just a tower

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