I never found the Philips/Maganavox outdoor balun in (western) Canada myself and looked a LOT of places. Online was the only location for me - I should have mentioned that earlier after 300ohm's post...

.......

Please remember that the Rules of the Forum (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=3746) require us to discuss availability and pricing of OTA Gear in these threads:

OTA: On-Line Parts, Sales (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=78265)

OTA: BC & Western Canada Parts, Sales, Service, Installers (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=51079)

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OTA: Quebec Parts, Sales, Service, Installers (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=51078)

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cheers :)

In earlier posts by mlord, I believe, he mentions about a .5 dB loss with the coax loop balun across UHF,

does the coax loop balun have about the same impact on VHF-HI (that is low-loss also)? OR do we know!


thanks

im using one type of RG-6, copper braid, foam core, to build a coax balun. But this will be attached to my coax cable run of another type of RG-6, which is quad sheild, aluminum braid, foam cored.

does the mixing of cable types affect the loop balun loss. Also, what would be the effect of mixing foam core with PE core cable with respect to the loop balun loss...

thanks

At least I think so? First post, have been a satellite guy since forever and thot to look into the possibility of quality uncompressed signal. Made a 4 bay last week and put it up in the airstream ...WOW! Totally blown away with the freshest signal ever seen! I'm hooked!
I know the protocol within a site like this but a search for a better "quality balun" takes me to the same threads over and over. Is there a better balun or do the dollar store jobs work as well?

thanx, hopefully I can go back to lurk mode and never be heard from again.

Hey shipfaced, greetings from Malabar, FL !!! I recommend the "coax-loop" balun

Here's a start :
http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showpost.php?p=953325&postcount=301

Here's a picture of a fancy one:
http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showpost.php?p=966517&postcount=395

Is there a better balun or do the dollar store jobs work as well?
Yes, and Yes. ;)

There are huge differences between various baluns, and there is no easy way to know which ones are good and which ones are bad.

Amazing, but true. Some brands trend to be better on average, but quality control seems elusive. Some of the dollar store baluns outperform everything else, and some of them are worse than everything else.

Ditto for Magnavox, RCA, and Phillips baluns.

If you want to throw modest amounts of money at the problem, then buy five or six baluns, and try each of them in your setup, cherry-picking the best of a dubious lot.

If you need a balun for a specific band (or antenna) (VHF-lo, VHF-hi, or UHF), then a simple hand-made coax-loop balun will generally perform as good as the best store-bought ones, and you'll have total control over the quality of it.

If you are still in the "I want a single gizmo that does everything" stage of development ;) then go for the store-bought baluns, because they usually employ an acceptable multiband design.

Cheers

mlord,

If you need a balun for a specific band (or antenna) (VHF-lo, VHF-hi, or UHF), then a simple hand-made coax-loop balun will generally perform as good as the best store-bought ones, and you'll have total control over the quality of it.


is it NOT recommended to use such a DIY balun if for say VHF-HI AND most of the UHF...in other words...if I design for #13, will it hurt the UHFs more than if I used a store bought...

thanks

is it NOT recommended to use such a DIY balun if for say VHF-HI AND most of the UHF..
It'll work, but I don't have any data to suggest it would be as good, better, or worse than a store-bought balun.

Store-bought baluns do claim to work across all three bands. The hand-built coax-loop baluns have only been simulated/measured here across single bands.

Cheers

Shipfaced:

If you can go to a flea market, browse around Guys that have old TV sets or Coax cable, If you can get a old Japanese balun ( written Made In Japan on it ), then you can be in luck.

Do a search here on Japanese Balun.

You can also make a Coax Loop balun, sometimes you can make an excellent one; my batting average is around 300. I made a great one for my FM antenna (CH6) and a good one for CH13 VHF, the rest were bad or very lame, my CH52 one was lame.

Good Luck

Thanks for the balun help guys. Noticed that the mods keep this as one super clean site. My original post was moved/deleted and stuck in here where it needed to be.
kkoceski : I'd like to know more about your setup due to our fairly close proximity .... I'll PM you OK?

earlier posts mention that the CM 94444 balun is the same as the CM 0089 balun, can anyone confirm this?

however on one retailers site they sell the 3075 but they list 0089 in parenthesis, whats up with all these models?

does this mean all 3 baluns are the same type?

balm,

I sent that balun question to my pct'intl tech contact. I'll post his reply in this thread.

That was a quick response: :)

########, the cm-3075, cm-0089 and the cm94444 are all the same. They have just changed the number of this balun a couple of times.

Regards,


#########

Technical Sales Support

www.channelmaster.com

OTA,

thanks, prompt indeed, both of you! ;)

I need to try a few pairs of different models, that saves me buying 4 extras for no reason!

is that seen a lot in industries, where they change the model # for the EXACT same item?

I think the Channel Master Spartan #3 preamp has had a few model numbers over the years also. :p

It's hard to find a good commercial balun. I will try to browse the Flea Markets for Japanese baluns.

I had originally a Addison Electronic cheapo 99 cents interior balun last year on my 4228. I made the mistake to change it with a CM balun. I started to have dropouts, so replaced it with the original Addison el cheapo.

Results: Addison's balun gave me a 3 to 5 % gain on the signal meter.

I don't have many dropouts also.

But I would love to test those old Japanese baluns.

I was doing some work last year on used antenna's and new antenna's and I found that the Channel Master CM 94444 was a very good unit and sold at a fairly reasonable price.

Not to preach, buy the load on the antenna goes up and down in resistance according to which frequency you are trying to tune in. At channel 2 the signal might be down as low as 50 ohms and at channel 51 - it might be up around 85 ohms. So there is no right or wrong balun - just that you need to find the right wire and transformer for your application.

Not to preachThat's never stopped me before! :D :D Everyone is welcome to share their OTA knowledge and experience here.