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Reviews For: Palomar Engineering CB-4-1500OCF

Category: Antenna parts, accessories, incl. baluns, hardware, etc.

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Review Summary For : Palomar Engineering CB-4-1500OCF
Reviews: 2MSRP: $139.00
Description:
CB-4-1500OCF Off Center Fed (OCF) 4:1 Balun and 1:1 Balun Combo, 1.8-61 MHz, 1.5KW PEP rated
Product is in production
More Info:
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
1121.5
VK4EMM Rating: 2022-12-20
Box floods with water. Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Box flooded with water in less than 12 months (same problem as found by NJ3T). I opened the box to see why the bolt connections were rusty. Water gets in through the unsealed bolts. I removed bolts sealed with silicon and replaced bolts. The box needs drain holes to release condensation.
NJ3T Rating: 2021-11-15
Not good. OK at first then filled with water Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Although I purchased the balun in January of 2019, I did not use the balun/choke until May of 2019 when I built a 80m OCF dipole according to Palomar's design recommendations. I used RG213 coax and I used coax seal and tape at each pl259 to make sure the connectors were weather proofed, as I have done for all my antennas. The antenna and balun worked fine until last month, while chasing DX on FT8 using my 80m OCF, I noticed my SWR creeping up. It was 1:1.2 when I started transmitting and then the SWR shot up to the end of the scale on my transceiver. I checked the other bands I have used it on (80,40,20,17, 12, and 10m) and they all displayed sky high SWR. After dropping the antenna and inspecting the feedline, wire, and the balun/choke I found the balun/choke was full of water. It appeared as if it had water in it for quite some time. I replaced the unit with another 4:1 and the antenna is back to normal and works fine. I am very disappointed in the balun/choke design not having a vent or drain to help eliminate moisture. One would also think that a $140 dollar balun/choke should last more than 2 years in the elements. I have reached out to Palomar customer service however I never received a response. It's been 14 days since I sent the last email.
By the way, I do not use an amplifier. I run not more than 25 watts on FT8, FT4. 100 watts CW and pep SSB. Even with water in the balun, it worked for one or two transmissions with flat swr then it would shoot up to infinity after warm up and with only 25 watts!