Good deal on 9:1 tranformer

[bill]

I have nothing to do with Grove and my unit did not come from them. It
was given to me by a WinRadio owner who does not do any HF listening.
Grove and WinRadio direct are the only places I found them listed for
sale in the USA.

The WiNRADiO WR-LWA-0130 Long Wire Antenna Adapter has two 9:1
transformers made from,
I am guessing here, different ferrites to give good coverage from
100KHz to 30MHz. It passes RF
all the way up to FM BCB but a 100' antenna is not the best choice up
there.

It is a sturdy little 35mm film canister sized unit made from aluminium
and it has ears with 2 mounting holes. A stainless steel wingnut bolt
are the input and a BNC female the output. I had a chance to compare it
to a home made 9:1 and a RF Systems "Magnetic Long Wire Balun".

The WR-LWA-0130 gave much better LF performance then the RF systems
unit. I could receive
about 3 times as many NDB and DGPS beacons. From 540 through 20MHz the
RF systems
was about the same. Above 20MHz and especially in the US CB band the
WinRadio trounced
the RF systems unit.

The WR-LWA-0130 also beat the home made transformer below 500KHz and
above about 25MHz.
The bigest advantage, other then performance, is the robust and sturdy
case. The home made
unit is about 4 years old and is really showing it's age and it needs a
new case.

For those braver then me, the rf systems magnetic long wire is a two
part case with a good
gasket and it can be opened and serviced or a diagram drawn if one is
skilled enough to
do some minor disassembly.

At $39.00, from Grove's web page, it looks to be a pretty good deal for
those like me with more thumbs then skill. The RF Systems is listed at
$59.95 from Universal Radio. Having tried both, I would not hestiate to
buy the LWA-0130. I may buy one for a antenna running right angles to
my present antenna.

I used a DX398 and a stock R2000 for these tests.

William Fieldstone

[justice]

Thanks for the information about this device. Never tried the MLB, but
I do like RF Systems' T2FD. I woulddn't hesitate to give any of their
products a try (though I will admit it'd cost a lot to try).

The Par Electronics EF-SWL also uses a 9:1 transformer with a 45 foot
wire antenna. Very good performance up to the 16 meter band, but I
rarely tune above that so I can't speak of higher frequency reception.
I'm in the process of reconfiguring the set-up, as I've been limited
with how I can hang it and my ground wasn't the best. Should work even
better when I'm done.

[fcat...@msn.com]

Good info! I use a homemade 6:1 Z-xfmr on an off-center, coax fed
Windom 30M long and the response is good down to about 1.8 MHz because
of the roll off for MW. I would like to make one to include LW but 30M
is insufficient and I'm concerned about local MW overloading if it is
in the bandpass.

Frank
K3YAZ
Tucson

[David]

On 5 Nov 2006 18:02:17 -0800, "bill" <gfre...@hotmail.com> wrote:

>I have nothing to do with Grove and my unit did not come from them.

http://www.palomar-engineers.com/MLB-1/mlb-1.html

http://www.geocities.com/qrp_baluns/LMZ-50.html

[Bob]

bill wrote:
> I have nothing to do with Grove and my unit did not come from them. It
> was given to me by a WinRadio owner who does not do any HF listening.
> Grove and WinRadio direct are the only places I found them listed for
> sale in the USA.
>
> The WiNRADiO WR-LWA-0130 Long Wire Antenna Adapter has two 9:1
> transformers made from,
> I am guessing here, different ferrites to give good coverage from
> 100KHz to 30MHz. It passes RF
> all the way up to FM BCB but a 100' antenna is not the best choice up
> there.

.......
> William Fieldstone

Hi Will -

Thanks for the info. If you ever need just a 1:1 isolation unit to
isolate coax shield grounds, I stumbled across what appears to be a
good unit for $24 at LF Engineering yesterday.

http://www.lfengineering.com/products.htm

Scroll down to the N-300 Ground Isolator; Strange (to me) choice of RCA
phono plugs, but appears OK. I'm going to get one and check it out.

Bob

[yodar]

Go to E-Bay

search RF- Junkie whose 9:1 's and others are all less than $20 they
do FINE

yodar

[bill]

yodar wrote:
> Go to E-Bay
>
> search RF- Junkie whose 9:1 's and others are all less than $20 they
> do FINE
>
> yodar
>
>
>

We, r2000swler, and I borrowed one from a friend in Loiusville, where
the poll
workers try to strangle voters, and while it is acceptable, it has
considerable
roll off below 500KHz and above ~25MHz. The WinRadio is also more
robust
and looke like it will survive for years in KYs nasty winters.

If you aren't into LF/NDB or want to listen above 25MHz the the RF
Junkie will
work fine. I have just discovered NDB and I am hooked!

Will