Date: Wed, 19 May 2010 11:15:30 -0400
From: "KB1H" <kb1h@ct.metrocast.net>
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] BN-86 Balun
I believe the answer is simple. It has to be cheap (not expensive) for the
ham market. A quality product can be made but those that would spend the
extra cash are too few thus making the product even more expensive.
## The BN-86 was junk back in 1963... it was junk in the mid 70's.. and it's
junk today. Hy- gain has no right to even build it. Pure fraud.
## I incinerated 3 x bn-86's [ on 3 x different ants] back in the mid
70's. Any bozo can see what the design flaw is... once you open one
up with a bandsaw. 9 x more BN-86's got blown up around town here
within 2 x yrs. 1976-1979.
American thinking is the product has to do the job not necessarily with the
highest quality or best technology. I run up against this everyday for the
last 30 years!
## so where is the cost savings ??? Joe ham replaces one BN-86
after another after another ?? Why doesn't the ARRL lab just test it
with a 2 kw cxr.. and 2:1 swr.... poof.. bye bye balun. Then don`t accept
any advertising on the BN-86... until they fix the problem.
We measure power output at the ant.. AFTER feed line loss. There is at least
25+ blown up BN-86 baluns here in town. The Attorney general
for what ever state these pieces of junk are made in... should be
tossing MFJ-Hi-gain-shue in the slammer...for false advertising. Heck, they
are not even 1:1 ratio on 10m.
## I had Ken Hirchberg at Cal-AV labs custom build me 5 x new
baluns several years ago. They worked so good, and are so reliable,
I convinced Ken to perhaps make it a standard product...EB-3. Pumped
full of silicone goop... done in a VAC chamber. Special 7-16
DIn connector's used. Silver plated Teflon 10 ga wire. I wanted 8 ga, but the
thought was the RG-393 teflon coax used is only 13 ga. Everything is silver
soldered...and all teflon is 1st etched in a lab in Colo. They are 17 inchs
long.. and will function from 7-60 mhz. I have the 80m version as well.. which
is
24 x inchs long. The 160m version is 30 x inchs long.
You can`t get water into em.. and you can`t blow them up. The EB1 and EB2
baluns are excellent as well. Array solutions has a lot of other good baluns..
like the W1JR versions.. which use 393 coax as well as 7-16 dins, etc.
If you want to buy half a doz BN-86`s.... go for it. One good balun is a lot
cheaper than 20 x BN-86`s. If you want to HB a balun... just slide type-43
large beads over your 213-U. Having to remove the yagi from the top of a
100`tower.. just to change a BN-86 balun is plane nuts. They should never have
to
be rerplaced. In some cases, cranes are used...and pro -installers used. I`d
send the
Bill to martin himself.
later... Jim VE7RF
Dick - KB1H
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