[Boatanchors] Re: GB> An Old Idea - and a caution!

[Glen Zook]

Back in the "goode olde dayes" many baluns did not make it much down below 50 MHz.  However, those manufactured in the past two or three decades should be fine for HF use.  This is because certain functions on cable television utilize frequencies below 5 MHz and the baluns had to pass this frequency.  Even though I wrote an article that was in Electric Radio a while back about using TV baluns (it can be found on my website) I did "check" with a friend who was in the cable television field for decades.  From him I learned about the frequencies below 5 MHz and the fact that the baluns had to "pass" these frequencies.

I obtained a number of baluns from him to use on my equipment.  They cost like $3 or $4 from places like Radio Shack and like 10 cents each in the quantities that the cable television people used to purchase.

The baluns that came from the cable television industry definitely make it down to 160 meters and do a pretty good job all the way to the bottom of the AM broadcast band.

Glen, K9STH

Website:  http://k9sth.com


--- On Fri, 8/1/08, N2EY at aol.com <N2EY at aol.com> wrote:

From: N2EY at aol.com <N2EY at aol.com>

That depends on what balun you use. 
 
Some of those baluns are useful down to 80 or 160 meters. Others become very lossy below Channel 2.