[OKDXA] Feed Line Problems

[Roger Simpson]

I agree that the problem is likely a bad connection, bad coax,  and/or relay contacts that have corrosion/dirt. 

The problem I had once with a balun was not actually the balun itself. It turned out to be the the wires from the balun were soldered to an SO-239 and the wire from the balun to the outside of the SO-239 was connected to a solder lug that was screwed down to the SO-239. In my case I took the balun out of the old case and built a new case for it out of some 2 inch PVC pipe with a couple of PVC pipe caps. Then I used a new SO-239 and soldered the wires from the balun to the new SO-239. This fixed my problem. 

The balun I am describing I originally bought back in the early 1980s. It was up for about ten years before it started giving me problems. I am still using the balun today on my 30m / 40m Inverted “V”. So the problem was not with the balun itself, but with a flaky connection. These flaky connections can definitely act differently on different bands. In some cases a flaky connection can look like a leaky diode on certain bands. 

These cases are so difficult to trace that I think it is easier to just replace stuff until the antenna works again. Also, these problems can be so flaky that they are intermittent. So you might think something is OK after checking and that have it to go back again later to its broken state. 

The way I isolated that the balun was the problem was that I replaced it. Once I knew that the problem was the balun I tore it apart to discover the corroded connection to the SO-239.

73  Roger   K5RKS