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| Reviews Summary for Radio Works |
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You can
write your own review of the Radio Works.
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W4MJA
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Rating: 0/5
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Jul 9, 2008 09:35
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Awful
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I went through 2 Radio Works Baluns, they both never worked out of the box with poor customer support. Radio Works needs to get their act together.
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K2VI
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Rating: 0/5
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Jan 26, 2008 12:30
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CRISPY
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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SMOKED IN A WEEK WITH MY 800 WATT AMERITRON 811H AMP.THIS IS WITH AN 80 METER DIPOLE WITH A PALSTAR TUNER,ON 3.832 WHERE I QSO MY SWR IS 1.4:1 BUT I ALWAY TUNE IT FLAT BEFORE I INSERT 800 WATTS.SO IT'S NOT AN SWR ISSUE HERE IT'S A QUALITY ISSUE.INFERIOR DESIGN.I NOW USE A PALOMAR BEAD TYPE BALUN AND NO LOSS,NO SATURATION AND NO SMOKE!
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KK40A
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Rating: 1/5
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Jul 11, 2007 09:04
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Baluns can't handle power!
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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Radio Works assured me their "Carolina windom 80 short" balun would take full legal limit. I was skeptical but I bought an AL-80b and smoked the balun in the first week! Since the AL-80b is only good for about a kilowatt PEP I can't even imagine what full legal limit would do.Every time I tuned up, the setting on the amps loading control got higher and higher. The SWR was good. I did find them to be friendly when I talked to them at Radio Works but got nothing positive from the complaint. I felt as if I was talking to a high powered lawyer. Because of other problems that I have had with them over the last two years I think I will take my business elsewhere.
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K5YY
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Rating: 2/5
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May 17, 2007 14:56
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marginal
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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Have had 3 different kinds of the RW baluns and all were susceptible to SWR "creep" when running only 600-700 watts. One new balun went up in smoke during tune up with a QRO amp with only 800w for about 15 seconds. This was about 8 years ago, so maybe there are built better now, but not according to recent reviews. I sent the burned balun back for possible R and D help but never got a refund. Was told to always watch the SWR during operation, but one can not always do that. You gotta trust the balun and not be worried about legal power causing high SWR or an explosion which can run a linear in short order.
I do have a 4:1 balun that I used on a 250' center fed dipole and it worked OK at 500 watts through the varying impedances/reactances seen with multiband dipole use. It too had the SWR creep problem with several different applications of the antenna.
The antenna products seem to be a bit better in quality than the baluns
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K2VI
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Rating: 0/5
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May 17, 2007 12:53
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poor product
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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everything is light duty,Thin wires comming out of the balun.with anything over 800 watts be careful.I had to take mine down after 2 years.They do sell nice antennas and accesories but the bauns can not withstand high power,come on guys you can do better than that for what you charge,buxcomm makes a real 1:1 1500 watt balun for 30 bucks.
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KG4HUP
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Rating: 0/5
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Jan 8, 2007 18:56
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Do not buy
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I had one in use for about a year. I have took it down more than anything I've ever had up. The CW-160 first problem with line isolator then the 4:1 balum is toast. Do yourself a favor an stay away from this guys junk. Never again for me.
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KF3EG
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Rating: 0/5
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Mar 3, 2005 21:18
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what a joke
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I have used these baluns for a while and when I had problems (swr creeping up) I thought it was something else, or maybe water, NOT the case.
I just took apart a B1-5K 1 to 1 balun, Its not a balun at all from what I see, its a choke.
What I found inside was about 1 foot of base 2
1/8 inch coax (catv type) with some round beads on it and all kinked up inside the PVC tube and filled with grow foam. Where the coax was kinked was burned inhalf, the wires hooked to the coax didn't even have shrink tube or tape on them, they were bare. 200 watts burned it out from a Icom 775 dsp.(this balun is rated for 5 kw!)
Some turns of coax in a 6 inch circle worked better than this so called balun did and way less money to do it.
So all my antenna system has been changed over, read my write up on the DX engineering Baluns on this site, you get what you pay for.
73
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WA8EBM
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Rating: 5/5
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Apr 9, 2004 08:59
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Works as advertised
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Very satisfied with the 4:1 Remote Current Balun.
I have used doublet antennas in the past but many times had RF problems in the shack from the open wire feeders. I ended up with a G5RV with a coiled up coax balun and cleared up the RF but had mediocre results and still had to use an antenna tuner.
I finally settled on using the original G5RV 102 foot dipole but ran about 60 feet of twin lead to the remote balun and then about 10 feet of 9913 into the shack to the tuner.
My results are fantastic. I can use the antenna on 160 through 6 meters.
I can run 1KW DC through the balun on 80 through 10 and no problems so far. My signal reports are way up and no RF in the shack.
Purists will scoff at the setup- losses etc but the 40 to 60 over 9 reports on 75 meters that I get in the 500 mile range shows that at least the high angle radiation from the low dipole is working fb.
The balun is big and heavy. There is plenty of coax seal shipped with it. WA8EBM
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N9RC
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Rating: 0/5
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Mar 26, 2004 19:38
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5 KW Balun is Poor Quality
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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Balun has performed intermittently for two years. Finally one antenna connection wire pulled out and I took it down. It was sloshing so I decided to dissassemble it. 1.) It was full of water. They had sprayed insulation foam inside to secure things but the foam was saturated with water. The water probably leaked in around the wires and there is no drain hole on the bottom. 2.) All that was inside was a small loop of soggy coax centerconductor with about 10 ferrite beads. 3.) The wire that separated was soldered to the center conductor with no stain relief at all.
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N4GI
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Rating: 4/5
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Sep 12, 2003 10:10
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Y1-5K Yagi Balun
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Normally I don't review things, as too many of them are just subjective emotion.
I bought these baluns for two of my yagis, only because they were a bit cheaper than Cal-Av. They have worked great for a few weeks, but have a couple of objective insites that I thought I'd post.
1) With each of the baluns I received included a big thick booklet, of which 2 pages were instructions. The rest of the publication is "wire antenna construction-101" explaining the theory of how windoms and dipoles work. I only wanted yagi baluns. I already have plenty of antenna theory books, thanks. Why did I have to pay to have TWO copies of a book shipped to me that I don't need and didn't ask for???
2) A page in the big book says "Warranty void if you don't waterproof the balun". Um, DUH? Why not take care of the weatherproofing before sending it out? I had to get out my tube of Marine Goop to seal up the end caps, along with the output wire holes. They ends were apparently hot glued on, I could almost see inside. That's NG in sub-tropical FL.
3) Drain hole. It ends up being on the side of the balun (by the so-239)when it's attached to a yagi boom. Why? Water doesn't flow sideways, it flows down. Back to the big thick book which illudes to sealing the hole with Coax-Seal. Why have one then? Mine are sealed with the goop.
These are just a couple of my observations. They seem to be working fine, but if they blow up, I guess it's back to Cal-Av...
73,
Blake N4GI
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