Terry I am surprised you don't know this answer after you holding your general for 5 years. No you don't need the balun. Direct feed will work fine. But you will need a swr bridge to make sure you cut the dipole to right length. Mfj makes a great 6 meter antenna tuner with swr meter which would be a good choice for you. This way you can get a good match withthe dipole or any other wire antenna for your rig. Have fun
John ka1yuw

At least they worked when set up right.

Ya. Should prove interesting while I do it in steps. First just the coil and vertical. Then the stubs. then the 105 wire added. I'll try the cap at different intervals.As far as I know there were only 3 companies that made base loaded verticals in the past. Gotham 23' Hornet 23' with cap hat and Hygain 18' and they also sold it to WRL and Laffiet so I was told by Al Kaplin who use to work at Hygain years ago who is SK now. I'll also put down 50 radials. More than that does not make much difference.

I'm going to make a combination Gotham and Hygain vertical this summer. It will be 23' tall with Hygain mounting bracket. I'll put the coil inside a metal box using the gotham v-160 coil and a rotary switch for all the taps on the coil. Later will add a varible capacitor around 200 pf or higher. Also at the top of the vertical I will add a switch or trap along with a 105' of wire at a later date. I'm also going to add 1/4 stubs on for higher freq. This way I'll be able to use it from 160-6 meters. It will be very interesting to see how it works out and I can compare it to my other Hygain verticals. dx88 and av640.  I'm getting to old to climb trees and latters with my arthuritis. So no more wire antennas. And no room to swing a beam because of to many trees.

WX7G you are very wrong! A multiband vertical ground mounted you use 1/4 wave length radial of the lowest freq. and the more the better.

I used this vertical for many years ground mounted with 67' radials so I could operate on 80-10 meters and had 50 of them. WX7G is wrong about the 20 foot length. It would be ok if you only operated on 20-10 meters with a 20' length but will not work on the lower bands. On the roof mounted he was correct. I plan to build a 23' vertical this year something like the av18vs and operated it 160-10 just like the old Gotham vertical I use to use also. If you use an antenna tuner make sure you mount it right next the the antenna to replace the coil. If you plan only to work 20-10 you can add 1/4 stubs for the other bands and make the main part of the antenna 1/4 wave for 10. Then you won't need any antenna tuner. I have done this before and works great.you can use wire for the stubs. And WX7G I suggest that you go to HRO or AES and pick up the ARRL Antenna hand book and read up on the chapter on ground mounted verticals. I think you just might learn something so the next time you can give the correct answer to someone else who needs help!

if you want to work on 80 meters make sure your radials are about 67 ' long and the more the better.

Get the Hygain av18vs vertical. It's only 18' tall and put it on a tilt over base. Put it in back of house and near it. Put down plenty of radials and it will work about as good as any vertical on the market. I used one years ago and you could not see it from the street. Put the coil in a metal box with a rotary switch for all the taps and your all set. This antenna works 80-10.
good luck
John ka1yuw

No it was not the 14avq. this vertical had a base loading coil you had to tap for each band.

Does anyone know who made a multiband vertical base loaded with a capacitor hat? IT was over 20 feet tall.
It was made in the 1950's or early 1960's. I know it was not a Hygain or Gotham vertical because I have both of them. This vertical worked on 80-10 or 160-10. I remember seeing one when I was young.

As Lou McCoy W1ICP always said. Make a dipole as long as you can and feed it with twin lead, latter line or open wire feeder and as high as you can. Mine is 140 feet but if I had the land I would make it 500 feet.
Let us know how it works out.
John ka1yuw

I have owned this antenna for many years. for 80-10 it only requires 14 foot radials and for 160, 28 foot radials. You don't need any thing longer.
John

No it not made for all verticals. Would work on the HyGain DX88 because the antenna is made for this. It has a lot of capacitence.

connect the tuner directly to the antenna this way you will have less losses.

You want the best than get the HyGain 18ht. 160-10.