Jim & others,
I agree, the BN-86 is junk. I fried one too on my TH7
73 Buddy WB4M
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim Thomson" <jim.thom@telus.net>
To: <towertalk@contesting.com>
Sent: Wednesday, May 19, 2010 4:17 PM
Subject: [TowerTalk] BN-86 Balun
> 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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