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AR15.COM
8/12/2011 12:55:33 PM EDT
My FIL gave me a NIB balun he has had for eons. The paperwork for it says it is broadband from 3 - 40 MHz. Obviously this is from the days prior privileges on 160M. Is there any reason I couldn't use this on 160M?
8/12/2011 1:20:15 PM EDT
[#1]
Might be a bad match at those lower frequencies.  Gets lossy and hot.  Use a lot of of your  RF heating up the balun instead of the ionosphere.  Does the paperwork have any graphs of loss versus frequency?

Pav
8/12/2011 2:03:49 PM EDT
[#2]
No info about losses at various frequencies. Time to hit the online radio shops to find a new balun. Thanks!
8/12/2011 2:29:21 PM EDT
[#3]
It probably just doesn't have enough "balun" to work on 160m, it's a common design compromise.  160m would require twice as many ferrites, so the balun would be twice as long and quite a bit more expensive.  160 isn't a big deal to most amateurs because of the antenna size, noise and propagation, and for those who are active verticals are a lot more common due to the propagation characteristics.  If it's the typical ferrite bead style balun, you could always add a few additional ferrites, or a small coil of coax as a feedline choke.

Or just ignore it, and/or ground the feedline shield at some point before it goes in the shack.
8/12/2011 2:57:58 PM EDT
[#4]
It likely would not predate the authorization of amateur radio frequencies at 160 meters because hams have used that band essentially "forever"...