Posted: 12/22/2013 10:11:24 AM EDT
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So I have been dealing with common mode noise on my dipole on 20m ever since putting the antenna up. It is a common (no pun intended) problem with windom OCF dipoles. My antenna has worked fairly well on 20m I have been able to work 163 countries on the band but have always dealt with some noise that wasn't an issue on other bands. On transmit the common mode noise showed up as erroneous high SWR on the K3's SWR meter.
So I bought Balun Designs 1:1 isolation balun and wanted to see if it would make a difference on my K3's very hot receiver. 
I hooked the thing up to the entrance of my coax inside the shack and saw at least one S unit of improvement. Before, the S meter was fluctuating between S-4 and S-5, which is "normal" on my antenna system. In my opinion unacceptable. 
Afterwards it was fluctuating between S-2 and S-3 which is a huge step in the right direction. So with each S-unit being 6db I am 6-12db in the right direction. 
More testing on the low bands tonight will prove just how effective this $80 experiment was but initial results are quite pleasing. |