[OKDXA] Feed Line Problems NOW BALUN RECOMMENDATIONS

[John G.]

Thanks for the advice Roger.  Do you know what type of balun it was?  Also, 
since I am going to be getting a new current balun, any recommendations as 
to brand?  One that is built to last?  I am only going to be running 100 
watts

73 John AF5CC
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Roger Simpson" <rksimpson1 at cox.net>
To: <okdxa at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Sunday, April 21, 2013 1:38 PM
Subject: [OKDXA] Feed Line Problems


>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
>
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