[Elecraft] Performance of baluns.

[Geoffrey Mackenzie-Kennedy]

Hi Bob,

Many thanks for comments - much appreciated. When I got my first licence in 1946, not in the UK, ATUs were usually big beasts with hefty plug-in coils, widespaced air variables, swinging links and lots of big insulators. Usually the ATU was at some distance from the Tx and its pi network output ' tank ', and both Tx and ATU homebrewed (also the antenna of course). If you were very lucky, you used coax between the ATU and Tx, but to most of us in the southern hemisphere at that time, coax was a word only and never seen. The swinging (or fixed) link of the ATU presented a balanced load to the Tx - not like a link at the grounded end of a L-C tank. And that's where the balun came in, if you were fussy.

It is the ' old habit ' problem I am afraid Bob. I hope that your K2 is behaving. My K2/100 worked right off, thanks to the good engineering at Elecraft. First ' commercial ' rig ever owned here.

All the best,

Geoff    GM4ESD
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: G3VVT at aol.com 
  To: gmk at gm4esd.fsworld.co.uk 
  Sent: Friday, August 06, 2004 8:01 PM
  Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Performance of baluns.


  Hi Geoff,

  Not really sure how you could put a balun or indeed what it's use may be between a TX and ATU as all of these devices that have been produced for quite a long time now are for unbalaced coaxial lines. You would have to go back long before you got your licence and myself for that matter to the 1940's to 1950's to see otherwise for amateur equipment. Military equipment may be a different story for which I have no experience.