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Reviews For: DX Engineering Baluns

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

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Review Summary For : DX Engineering Baluns
Reviews: 67MSRP: 29.95-79.95
Description:
High Power Transmission Line Transformers and Baluns with Patent Pending Maxi-Coreā„¢ Technology
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.dxengineering.com/search/department/antennas/part-type/baluns-ununs-and-chokes/product-line/dx-engineering-maxi-core-20-baluns-and-feedline-chokes?SortBy=Default&SortOrder=Ascending&autoview=SKU
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00674.9
PA1HR Rating: 2004-09-16
Very solid baluns Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.

I bought two baluns from DXEngineering: the 1:1 DXE-BAL050-H11-CT and the 1:4 DXE-BAL200-H11-CT. Both are high power (10 kW+) baluns inside Cast Aluminium boxes.

My antennas are an Inverted Vee of 2 x 20 meters for 1.8 till 10 MHz and a Sloping Dipole of 2 x 5.20 meters for 14 Mhz and higher.

My antennatuner is a Palstar AT4K.

After installation of the baluns the 1:4 got warm. So I consulted Bob from DXEngineering.

I got an excellent advise from the engineers. My open feeders were too short. I changed my antenna setup and after both the baluns do a very good job. The two feeders are 3/8 and 5/8 wavelength now.

I advise the 1:1 for one frequency and the 1:4 for multiband purposes. The 1:4 is more a broadband balun then the 1:1. This is the case with both antennas I am using.

I also use the internal antenna tuners of my rigs. With these tuners the 1:4 does a better job too then the 1:1. The 1:4 has a wider range then the 1:1.

Nice stainless steel parts and excellent ceramic insulators.

These high power current baluns use a few high quality ferrit coils.

The designer W8JI is a top engineer!

Really very very good baluns.

W3PH Rating: 2004-09-16
Top quality Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I bought two BAL050-H05-P 1:1 baluns. One feeds an open-wire fed loop, the other feeds a 66' wire (balun connects to wire and counterpoise).

Results have been excellent - the baluns are big and solid, and I don't think my 100 watts is going to stress them at all. Quite a deal for $39.

The DX Engineering web site has an excellent tutorial on baluns titled "Choosing the correct balun" - I learned a lot from this writeup. Example: since most tuners are happiest/most efficient matching high impedances, a 1:1 balun can be a better choice than 4:1 for matching nonresonant antennas.
chris carroll Rating: 2004-09-15
QUALITY PRODUCT Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I purchased 2 BAL050-H05-P Baluns to use on separate 40/80m diples. I have previously used air core voltage baluns and was not happy with them as there was RF present on the shield and also in the shack.The resonant freq was a broad dip and i could not resonant the 80m dipole where i wanted to. After installing the BAL050-H05-P balun on my 80m dipole i was able to resonate it with a sharp dip and on the first night of DXing on 75M at the end of the gray line into North America i had over 17 stations bagged in no time which i have never done before. Was it just propagation?,maybe but the dipole certainly has not worked this well before. The floor noise level in the Rx also dropped after installing the BAL050-H05-P so this is testament to decoupling the feed line correctly. I highly recommend these Baluns. The quality of all fittings is superb and all SS of course! The price is a steal for what you get in quality and performance!
WV1K Rating: 2004-03-26
Built like Battleships (used to be?) Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
These baluns are unreal. They are big and heavy duty. I agree with all that has been said about them. For more information, check out W8JI's site for his balun comparisons. There is none. Out of the box these are tops. Once again, in stock and excellent tech support that does not have you waiting 30 minutes or shunting you to email.
KB9WIS Rating: 2004-03-11
"Exceeded" My Expectations Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I wanted a decent balun, but for $29.95 for a wire balun, I didn't expect to receive a balun much better than one that came with those "commercial" high cost wire antennas.. Man, I was amazed, and that was just by opening the box they came in.. You can tell just by "seeing" and holding them up, how high quality and heavy duty they are.. They were about 4-6 times bigger and heavier than my windom and G5RV baluns, however were still light enough to be supported by stealthly 16AWG copper wire and lightweight support rope/dacron. Not to say that these hi-quality commercial pre-cut/made wire/dipole antennas come from the factory with a cheaply made balun, but in comparison to the "extremely" heavy-duty and low loss of my $29.95 DX Engineering dipole 1:1 dipole Balun, there's "no" comparison.. I purchased two of these for less then $68.00 (including shipping), and the performance results I received were from a 1-3 S unit increase in both RX/TX on my Windom, and multi-band dipole. I also now (without worry), that if I ever purchase a full legal limit amplifier, these baluns will not fail.. They are rated at 5KW PEP or 2KW (continious), and you can actually tell physically, that they can take the wattage.. If you take in consideration the cost-to-performance ratio of this product, I would say they are the "best" value out there.. (and I've shopped around)..
K9YC Rating: 2004-02-29
The Real Deal! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I bought several of these baluns, as well as some from competing vendors, to use in a major antenna project. While I haven't measured them, I did open up and look at the DX Engineering baluns that are mounted in project boxes for use inside the station (for example, at the shack end of balanced line). These baluns are built like the proverbial brick outhouse, with BIG ferrite choke cores and properly rated coax. The entire interior assembly is partially potted, not to conceal it (it is not concealed), but to hold it solidly in place.

I also compared (but did not attempt to open) the outdoor baluns intended for use at the center of a dipole. The DX Engineering baluns outweigh their competitors by nearly 2:1, and are significantly larger as well. I strongly suspect that if I did open one, I would find construction comparable to those I did open.

I just took down a Spiro balun that had developed a dead short after less than six months operation with a maximum transmitter power of 100 watts. (It was rated for the legal limit HA!). The DX Engineering balun cost me nearly twice as much to buy, but the cheaper (and cheaply made) Spiro balun that failed cost me good operating time in a bunch of contests, as well as two guys working half a day to replace it. How much is three months off the air and two guys working half a day? A lot more than the price of the DX Engineering balun!

Jim Brown K9YC
N1TS Rating: 2004-02-18
Finally, a good balun Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I've just installed DXE-BAL050-H05-P on an 80-meter dipole, and I'm very pleased. Prior to this I've used several other brands, and had strange difficulties of all sorts. This balun is a low loss, correctly designed unit.

DXE makes several others, including those intended for use with tuners. THere is an informative tutorial on this subject, and some important measurements on loss, heating and swr on w8ji 's webpage. This is a superior product.