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Reviews For: Van Gorden Engineering

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

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Review Summary For : Van Gorden Engineering
Reviews: 30MSRP: $14.99
Description:
HI-Q Balun 1:1 and 4:1
Product is in production
More Info: http://
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00302.9
WB6ARO Rating: 2017-08-02
Not Good Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Going through my old home made yagi's from the 1970's... and rebuilding them starting with 440/220/144 (done), and currently finishing up my 6 meter yagi. Amazing the 30' boom is still shiny and looks brand new after 40+ years.

Anyway, also looked at my home made 6 element on 15 meters; again, I made back in the 70's and worked well... got me my DXCC and more. Decided to check my 4:1 Balun I used on it by Van Gorden (VGE) and was not happy. Ran a check on it compared to my home made Baluns using new cores and PTFE 14 GA wire, etc.... This VGE seems to be restricted in Frequency -- really sad. Only good from 4 mhz to 21 mhz (with an increase in swr thereafter).

Tried to compensate reactance using caps across the output and still no good.... not worth the time. I guess it is the core material he used back in the days.... as compared to nowadays. I kept the balun protected from WX and still looks good.

I am sure the wiring inside is fine- heavy little thing. Maybe take apart out of curiosity, order a new core and re-assemble... and see what happens, but would not buy one again.
W5RTK Rating: 2017-06-07
Van Gorden 1:1 Balun Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I had a 1:1 Balun in my junk box with the tag worn off. I don't think I ever used it as it appears new. I identified it as a Van Gorden 1:1 balun. I always wondered what was inside and the hardware had corroded so I cut it apart. I am impressed how well it is made with very heavy ga magnet wire with an air core coil form. It had galvanized hardware. I don't like using stainless hardware because of its thread galling characteristics and if you use steel plated terminals or wire the dissimilar metals will corrode over time anyway. I plan to rebuild it going back with the short pcv tubing and end caps but I plan to solder wires directly to the copper balun winding to be brought out through the top pvc cap sealed with JB Weld or silicone adhesive to my 2 band fan dipole. I'll reinstall eyelets to hang the dipole and on the sides of the top pvc end cap for strain reliefs but not use the strain reliefs for terminals. Using the strain reliefs as terminals is asking for trouble no matter if they are galvanized, plated or stainless. I enjoy antenna maintenance as one of my favorite activities in Amateur radio. Its part of the hobby.
WZ7U Rating: 2017-02-07
Satisfactory with limitations Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I had my Hi-Q 1:1 up for almost a year continuous in the Oregon elements on an OCF @ 100w, after previously using it intermittently on field expeditions, when SWR shot way up; discovered like most of you the hardware isn't up to the task. Replaced the eyelets with stainless and put RTV on any possible hardware water intrusion points (I had no water ingress) and I was able to twist the cap off the body since this one had not much adhesive used at the 'factory'. I still have to test the coax to see if the 1.5:1 reading is the rg-213 feedline or the balun itself. Not the best, but for the price what do you expect? I think the next balun I will roll myself. Oh, instead of soldering to the provided wire lugs, I originally opted to use 1/4" wire ring lugs and stainless hardware to attach the ends of the antenna to the balun rings. When I went to repair this time the rust was on/from the VGE provided rings; the stainless hardware and 1/4 wire rings were rust free - imagine that.
W2OSR Rating: 2016-01-21
Cheap Time Owned: more than 12 months.
A few days ago my amplifier gave me an ARC FAULT ERROR when trying to tune on 20 meters. I tried it with my dummy load and my other antennas. They worked well. Next I tested it with my MFJ analyzer and the SWR was OK. The antenna also seemed to work fine with 100 watts. Yesterday I tilted the tower over to look at the antenna. Well Van Gorden doesn't use stainless steel hardware. Everything was badly rusted. Next I dissected the balun. Inside I found a ring of rust that provide two paths that could short out terminals that went to the antenna plus some moisture. RUST + MOISTURE + ARC FAULT.

I have another antenna that uses a Van Gorden balun and I see it is starting to rust. It will be replaced as soon as the weather gets warmer

I'll never buy one of these again.
N4KWO Rating: 2009-10-09
Don't trust the markings on the outside! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
My father gave me a 10 year old Van Gorden 1:1 balun that had not been used. Well it was marked as a 1:1 balun but got suspicious after putting up a 40 meter dipole and couldn't get the SWR near 2:1 no matter how much trimming I did to the dipole. I picked up a MFJ-259 analyzer recently and decided to test the balun as one of my first uses. After putting a 50 ohm load on it, I could not get the SWR below 2.5 at any frequency. Putting a 200 ohm load on it showed SWRs below 1.5 from 4 to 15 Mhz. Looks like a 4:1 that not very broad banded. SWR over 2 at 80 meters and around 3 at 10 meters. Something to keep in mind for those who still one of these baluns in your junk box.
K9FON Rating: 2008-11-19
A bear to solder Time Owned: more than 12 months.
It works but man, what a beast to solder the wires to the lugs! I almost melted the PVC from trying to solder the lugs!
AD4C2006 Rating: 2008-04-01
Very good for just $15 Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have been using this 4:1 balun after purchased it new 5 years ago and I built a homemade OCF dipole cut for 40M,swr is like this:
40M...........3 to 1
20M...........1.2 to 1
17M...........2.8
15M...........2.5
12M...........2.5
10M...........1.2
As you all know,high swr means heat inside the balun,but even using 1300W from a SB-220 for years,this OCF antenna never had any problem,tuned it with an ATR-30 and never saw the flat match changed at high power.The balun is well designed,it holds the power pretty good,only mod I did to it was a small hole underneath for drying out inside humidity.I will recomend anyone this balun,its low price and IT WORKS.
Hector
AD4C
K9AUB Rating: 2008-03-07
A Decent Balun! Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I bought a brand new Van Gordon 4:1 balun and put it in a home constructed Carolina Windom. From the light weight in my hand, I really wasn't expecting the balun to hold up for very long. However, I've had it up for about a year now, and it has performed very nicely. The Carolina Windom gives various SWR's on each band, creating the possibility of high voltages (and heat!) inside the balun, but so far, so good. I've run it at the 1 KW level CW and SSB, and 600 watts AM phone. No problems. I ran the pants off it in the ARRL DX Contests, both CW and SSB. It held up OK. I'd have to say it's never going to compete with the DX Engineering baluns, but it's good value for the money and gives good service. I would buy it again.
W8WTS Rating: 2007-10-08
Not a recommended product. Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have had trouble using the VanGorden Hi-Q 1:1 balun with dipole antennas in two aspects.

(1) The calculated resonant wire length is significantly different from the length trimmed to minimum SWR, and

(2) The best impedance match possible by trimming, as indicated by minimum SWR, is unacceptably high compared to the calculated SWR caused by antenna feed point to coax impedance mismatch.

To investigate, I connected the coax end of the VGE balun to a lab 50 ohm termination and measured the impedance from the antenna end of the balun.

RL = 50
R0 = 50
SWR = 1
f (MHz) SWR Z (ohm) R (ohm) jX (ohm)
1.8 3.1 37 22.6 29.3
3.5 1.9 50 41.2 28.3
7.0 1.4 55 52.3 17.1
14.0 1.2 54 53.3 -8.8
21.0 1.3 48 46.4 -12.2
28.0 1.5 42 39.4 14.7

The measurements show that the VGE balun provides a poor impedance match on 1.8, 3.5 and 28 MHz. On 7 through 21 MHZ, the impedance match may be acceptable, but the VGE balun adds significant reactance. This explains observation (1), where the antenna must be trimmed off of resonance to present a reactance that cancels the reactance added to the circuit by the balun.

The same measurements were repeated using 25 ohm and 100 ohm terminations. The calculated SWR is 2:1 for both cases.

RL = 100
R0 = 50
SWR = 2
f (MHz) SWR Z (ohm) R (ohm) jX (ohm)
1.8 4.5 48 20.3 43.5
3.5 2.8 83 59.5 57.9
7.0 2.2 104 100.3 27.4
14.0 1.7 69 63.5 -27.1
21.0 1.7 38 34.5 -16.0
28.0 2.3 24 22.5 8.4

RL = 25
R0 = 50
SWR = 2
f (MHz) SWR Z (ohm) R (ohm) jX (ohm)
1.8 3 24 18.5 15.3
3.5 2.6 28 22.0 17.3
7.0 2.5 32 24.3 20.8
14.0 2.4 42 30.3 29.1
21.0 2.5 55 38.1 39.7
28.0 2.4 71 53.5 46.6

These measurements show that the VGE balun does not provide an accurate impedance match when the SWR is 2:1 in either the high or low impedance direction, in addition to adding significant reactance to the circuit. This result, combined with the 50 ohm data, explains why antennas trimmed to minimum SWR, where the antenna provides the reactance that cancels the balun reactance, present incorrect SWR. Even with the balun reactance cancelled by the antenna feed point reactance, the resistive match is not accurate, thus the minimum SWR is higher than expected.

I recommend the used of ferrite sleeve type choke baluns (the so-called W2DU style) instead of this product.
W8WLC Rating: 2007-02-18
Excellant product Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have been using the 4:1 balun for years. My last application of it was with a OCF dipole cut for 80 meters. I ran up to legal limit through it and never had a problem. For the price this is one of the best kept secrets in ham radio. Right now the balun is setting in my shack closet waiting for the arctic weather to break and be put back into service with the OCF. Van Gordon keep up the great work