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Reviews Categories | Antenna Baluns | WIREMAN - w2du design - Current BALUN Help


Reviews Summary for WIREMAN - w2du design - Current BALUN
WIREMAN - w2du design - Current BALUN Reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.2/5 MSRP: $26
Description: WIREMAN Model 827 BALUN is the w2du design available with So-239 on one end of a PVC enclosure and 6" pigtails on the other end. Teflon type coax is used in this Current BALUN surrounded by ferrite doughnuts.
More info: http://thewireman.com
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You can write your own review of the WIREMAN - w2du design - Current BALUN.

N3AHC Rating: 5/5 May 13, 2008 15:12 Send this review to a friend
Excellent design, really works  Time owned: 0 to 3 months
I needed a good dependable coax fed Balun to use with my 80/40 dipole/Vee, something that could stand full power and not blow up under a miss match with a tuner. After some research I decided to contact Walt Maxwell W2DU himself. Walt turned out to be a very nice man with a world of experiance and knowledge about Baluns and antenna's. My old antenna was a 80-40 dipole/vee without a balun so the coax was part of the antenna, not good but it worked with some RF in the shack running 100 watts. So I built a new 80/40 dipole and assembled it using the WIREMAN brand of W2DU High Voltage balun. I no longer have any RF in the shack and the antenna works extremly well without a tuner. The only time I need the Palstar 1500 CV tuner is when I'm on 20 meters. I haven't tried to tune on 15 as yet. I'm running a Ameritron AL80B full steam into the antenna and not a spark, crackle, or pop. I think the balun cost 34.00 and some scrap wire. Thank you Walt W2DU. The people at the Wireman company are great as well.
 
W7JK Rating: 1/5 Jan 30, 2008 15:15 Send this review to a friend
Unsatisfactory  Time owned: more than 12 months
The W2DU Baluns (2) were fine until they absorbed too much rain water and shorted out. This possibly could have been avoided by appling some sort of sealer around the eyebolts. Regretably the Wireman declined to replace the pair that leaked.
 
NK2B Rating: 5/5 Jul 13, 2007 09:47 Send this review to a friend
Spi-Ro 4:1 Balun  Time owned: 0 to 3 months
Outstanding service. Asked Press a question and got a very quick and accurate answer. Ordered balun on Monday, got it on Wed (OK SC to VA is close). Matching my AT897 to a ladder wire feed to a long wire. My question was do I need an 8:1 balun to match my 50 ohm TX to 400 ohm ladder line. Answer is no, 4:1 gets me close enough. Dont want to start a discussion about baluns, let's just say the 4:1 with AT897 works just fine and loads the antenna. Quality of the balun from Press is great, should last quite a while.

73
Clark
 
WV4R Rating: 5/5 Jan 4, 2005 07:47 Send this review to a friend
Now UP for a YEAR & is still ticking...  Time owned: more than 12 months
my Wireman - w2du design - Current BALUN is now up for One Year this month & still working like Day One according to my MFJ Analyzer and my Mirage Wattmeter.

I am sticking with my Original Product Review for this product.

73 es God bless, murf/wv4r.
 
WV4R Rating: 5/5 Jan 30, 2004 12:06 Send this review to a friend
All 'w2du' style BALUNs are NOT the Same!  Time owned: 6 to 12 months
I am prompted to put in My 2-centz worth because there are so many of the 'w2du' style BALUNs out there now and Not ALL are the Same materials, quality and/or warranty. I lowered the Main Tower last summer to 'SEE' what I could see after 4-years! I noted my 4-element 20m monobander was showing some cosmetic weathering... to be expected. The ole r.f. coaxial choke BALUN I homebrewed by simply winding 8-turns mil-spec RG-213 coax like a rope on a Folger coffee can form (yes i removed the can after winding) was luking jest a bit weathered. The WallyWorld PVC tape was unravelling a bit and there was some moisture migration sneaking up the ends... poor installation on my part. Aside from the WEIGHT of a hunk of heavy coax up there, it was doing the number ok. After i did a minor tweek/tune of the driven element for my favorite spot, I made the earth-shattering decision to go "commercial" on the current BALUN. I read. I touched. I asked all the guyz on the air with current BALUNs. I decided on WIREMAN because of my gud luck with past product from them, competitive pricing, and assurance by the nice lady that WIREMAN BALUNs were made with 'good stuff' where you can't SEE it. I bit. Model 827 arrived in shrink pak (be careful cutting it out). I Soldered on round terminal lugs using the shortest possible leads so as not to affect Resonance TOO much. I used UV cable-ties covered with sum more of that WallyWorld cheapie PVC tape to Double the Pleasure and Double the fun and Hopefully double the reliablilty of the attachment under the boom. After greasing the lugs up with sum Noalox type compound... I wrapped these lugs with 'CoaxSeal' at the mechanical contact points. UP it went... Voila! SWR samo as my h/b cavalier coax glob. Cost of h/b RG-213 blob... coax=$10 + PL-259s=$4 + double female adapter=$3 + cableties=$1 + WallyWorld tape=a quarter? + old Folger's can=FREE... for a h/b grand total of $18.25 v.s. $8.00 more a Real Commercial Product... hmmm... let me think about this for ahhh... a second. Now UP for over 6-months and Earns wv4r 5-star rating for quality, performance, price. 73 es God bless, murf.

Oops... Did I mention LEGAL LIMIT??? From time to time I have Pumped the MAX through the pipe to check for leaks... and it takes the licking and keeps on ticking! 5-star for POWER and No Smoke No Fire... YET! 73 es God bless, murf.

I do Not SEE the POWER Spec. described for the WIREMAN Model 827 BALUN. I SEE on WIREMAN website the Power Spec Is Published: 6-KILOWATTS! I dunno about that but I Can Personally Testify I put a FULL KILOWATT through the pipe from time to time during moments of Rare DX Arousal and I can See NO 'melting' and NO 'fire damage' when I examine it up on the Main Towerthru the wv4r "7x50" binoculars! 73 es God bless, murf.
 


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