[Hallicrafters] Dipole antenna balun question

[Glen Zook]

Technically a balun should be used.  However, I have seen cases where a balun actually hindered performance.  In the "real world" amateur radio operators have been using coaxial cable to directly feed dipole antennas for at least 6 decades and those antennas have worked very well.

Now you have to remember that a resonant half-wave dipole works on the design frequency and odd multiples of that frequency.  However, on even multiples of the frequency the input impedance is going to be very high and therefore the coaxial cable generally will not even come close to matching that impedance.

Glen, K9STH

Website:  http://k9sth.com


--- On Fri, 1/16/09, Waldo Magnuson <magnuson at mac.com> wrote:

From: Waldo Magnuson <magnuson at mac.com>

My 40 meter half-wave dipole simply feeds a co-ax cable (RG-8X) where the center conductor is connected to one side of the antenna and the shield to the other side.  It seems to work pretty good and the SWR is near one.  My question is:  Would a balun between the antenna and the co-ax perform significantly better?  Or using a twin-lead show any difference? Or even using a folded dipole and 300 ohm line or a 3-wire folded dipole and a 600 ohm line be worth the effort?  Or just go on the air more often with what I have?