[Johnson] Baluns on tuners

[In Silvercity]

Lee:

Interesting report.

I have played with my high-pass T tuner both with and without a balun, and 
not surprisingly, no one heard any difference. I decided to use a balun 
because I wanted to fiddle with winding them, and NOT because i was 
especially worried about unbalanced feeders, which is supposed to cause more 
feeline radiation.

That said, I found not all baluns are created equal, and try as I might, I 
never could obtain a balun that was actually balanced (in my test jig) for 
the entire 160-10 meter range. Therefore, I ended up with two baluns, one 
that worked pretty well for 160-80-40, and one that worked pretty well for 
80-10. Since I seldom operate on 160, I use the 80-10 balun. It falls off on 
10 meters, but what the heck.

By the way, an RF ammeter in series with each leg (I had only one meter, so 
I just moved it  between each leg and hoped for the best) is another good 
way to tell if your balun is actually balancing, or just sitting there 
looking pretty.

But no doubt about it, a balun is pretty stressed to work in the typical 
tuner. And sometimes, they just don't. Things are not balanced.

Anyway, those are just my experiences, and I am certainly no engineer, just 
a ham.

Richard
WB5NEN