[Antennas] Dipole and Balun

[cboone@earthlink.net]

A balun prevents radiation down the coax when SWR is not 1:1...
it WILL NOT improve radiation of the antenna whatsoever....
and a balun should NOT have any effect on the length of adjustment
of the antenna....(provided you have a low SWR already!)

A vertical will give you better lower angle of radiation than
the dipole if you cannot mount the dipole at a reasonable height..

A just as good solution is slip several torroid cores over the coax 
near the antenna connection and tape them down when them touching 
end to end...this makes a good choke balun and may be easier to work
with..

"Alan C. Zack" wrote:
> 
> I am packing for my trip to DU land for the CQWWDXCW and ARRL 10mtr
> Contests.  I go every 2 or 3 years and take a TS-50 and R-7 vertical.
> Not much of a contest station but I have fun and work some DX between
> contests.  I operate from a 1 bedroom beach cottage and so don't have
> much room for antennas.  This year I am taking a B&W AS-20 shortened
> 10/15/20 mtr trap dipole that will just fit my situation.  This ant
> comes with a plain center insulator.  I have a Van Gorden HI-Q 1:1
> balun I was thinking of substituting for the center insulator.  I
> called B&W and the person I talked to wasn't much help.  He just said
> he didn't know if it would help or not but I may have to make
> adjustments on the factory suggested length of the ant and spacing
> between traps.  So anyone out there have any idea on how replacing the
> regular center insulator with a 1:1 balun will affect the adjustments
> of the antenna lengths.  The Filipino Rain Gods always wait until I am
> putting up my antenna to start the rains, so I would like to get it
> right the first or second time putting it up, rather than many tries.
> I am not expecting a big signal from this, just thinking there may be
> times the dipole may work better than the vertical.
> TIA & 73, Alan, K6ACZ