Andy, I want to give you a follow-up. I built the KAT100 in less than three evenings and it is a wonder to me in both its design and operation.
I built the BL1 in the 4:1 configuration. I get a 1.1:1 or less match on all bands except 15 Meters which is about 1.5:1. I find that the balun gets hot enough to fry eggs on 40 meters (even at 50 watts with SWR of 1.0:1), mildly hot on 30 meters, cool as a cucumber on 20 meters (even at 100 watts), and slightly warm on 17 meters. I guess that on 40 meters the balun is at a current node. The feedline is about 100 ft long on the 140 ft Cobra Ultralite 80 doublet antenna. I don't know that I want to get into trimming the feedline as I may affect 20 meters. I am able to make contacts on 40 meters although I would assume I am operating at reduced efficiency. The BL1 when very hot does not desaturate and make the SWR rise above 1.0:1. I want to stay with 300 or 450 ohm ladder line so I may put another antenna up for 40 meters. I manually disconnect the antennas outside the house when they are not in use. Our area has a lot of thunderstorms. I guess I can buy a heavier duty balun from DX Engineers; however, I notice that DX Engineers has a new multiband antenna for sale which is fed with ladderline along with one of their big baluns. I am going to look into it. I ordered another BL1 which I am going to build in the 1:1 configuration. I want to see what if any difference this might make before I decide whether or not to get a bigger balun and/or another antenna. Thanks for your help, Bill WA5KPE Hattiesburg, MS K2 #4454 -------------------------------------------- Bill Strong's Coastal Images Bill Strong's Eclectic Mississippi Photo Tour http://www.phototour.com _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [email protected] You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
