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Reviews For: Radio Works

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

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Review Summary For : Radio Works
Reviews: 21MSRP: 49.00
Description:
4:1 Remote balun
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.radioworks.com/
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00212.5
VK3AJJ Rating: 1999-10-22
My previous post was truncated. Time Owned: unknown months.
This was an email from Radio Works to explain why their balun failed with my log periodic array that has less than 2:1 SWR throughout the bands. I replaced it with an Array Solutions Balun which is rated for true full power duty and then some.

Paul Vk3AJJ

----------------------
Earlier 1-star review posted by VK3AJJ on 1999-10-22

Paul,
The label was made in 1995, so the balun was made in 1995 or 1996. None
of
our baluns are rated for RTTY or AM service at the 1500 watt carrier
level.
The rating are for SSB and CW service. It's a matter of duty-cycle. We
use
Teflon insulation and such to withstand lots of power, however, since we
seal our baluns with an insulating foam to keep the water out, the
insulation also keeps the heat in. Generally, this is not a problem,
even
at high duty cycles since both the core and internal windings and
transmission lines can all handle at least 200 degrees C. Actually, it's
the ferrite that fails at 250 degrees C. It takes a lot of energy to
generate that sort of heat, but current baluns are susceptible to
overheating because they easily absorb spurious and parasitic energy
generated by the linear. Other balun types just pass the energy along to
other antenna components.

One thing our current baluns do is to warn you that they are overheating.
The SWR will drift upward long before failure, providing an indication
that
a problem exists.

I hope this sheds some light on the subject.

73,
Jim, W4THU"