[Elecraft] Tuner/Balun Question

[Parker Buckley]

I just read the Aerials article by Krusty Kurt in the October issue of World
Radio.  Near the end of the article, Kurt is describing a well known method
of running parallel coax through the wall to connect ladder line to the
antenna tuner.  His method ties the shields together at both ends to get 100
ohm feedline, while I've always left the braids near the ladder line
floating.  What really caught my attention, however, is his comment that you
can run the parallel coax lines straight to the tuner without a balun.  I've
always used a balun in this setup; either 4:1 or 1:1.  I recall emails to
this reflector in the past describing connection of ladder line straight to
an Elecraft tuner with no problems.  I'm now wondering if I could ditch the
baluns in my installation.  Any thoughts/experience with this?  Is the
output from a tuner balanced at the coax connector up until such time that
it's connected to an unbalanced load like a single coaxial line?

 

Parker 

WD8JOL K2 #2636