Simple Ham Radio Antennas: How to make a cheap and easy 4:1 balun. Post #317.

Most of my HF antennas are fed with 450 ohm ladder line going into a 4:1 balun and then continuing on to my Drake MN-4 antenna transmatch with  a short length of RG-8 coaxial cable. Although I have an excellent 4:1 balun in the shack (a W9INN 4:1 balun), I felt the need to have a spare just in case my primary balun fails to work. This article by the Wiltshire Man fills that need. I spent a leisurely hour or so in the shack assembling this simple device. I'm not a mechanical genius, so I just took my time watching the video and putting the unit together. Once I finished this project, I tested it with my 80 meter inverted vee. I was running slightly below 50 watts output from my Ten-Tec Argosy II transceiver and experienced no overheating in the balun, which was connected between the 450 ohm ladder line and the Drake transmatch. The balun worked without any problems on 80, 40, 20, 15, and 10 meters. Following the test, I removed the homebrewed balun and put it in my "go kit" for portable operations. I'll use this balun as a backup to my W9INN 4:1 balun. This was an enjoyable project. For the latest Amateur Radio news and events, please check out the blog sidebars. These news feeds are updated daily. Until next time, Aloha es 73 de Russ (KH6JRM).