Radio Balun Antennas 1-30Mhz Shortwave Radio HAM Equipment NXO-100 Magnetic Balance Kit DIY

While much has been said about the incorrect wiring diagram, I thought I’d mention that I’ve purchased two of these so far.The first one I set up for my ‘extended G5RV’ (sometimes marketed as a ‘G5RV MAX’ and with my IC-756’s internal tuner I get great matches across all the bands (I haven’t really tried 160m) and have had great success both regional and DX’ing on SSB, CW and a few of the digi-modes.I picked up the second one, intending to try another dipole-style configuration but ended up winding it as a 49:1 transformer to use with an end-fed random-wire (I’ll probably trim it to a specific length at some point).I did a 35-wind secondary and 5-wind primary using the supplied wiring (it’s rather nice and the enameling is thick enough to not worry about damaging) and so far the resulting performance has been AMAZING.Yes, you can buy the parts separately cheaper or whatever, but this is a GOOD kit and it’s at a good price.If you take care with the construction and seal it and seal your coax correctly it’s darned near bulletproof. I’ve had the first one out in the open for about a year now and it’s endured all types of weather and still works like a champ.

The kit is well made and is worth the money. But the wiring diagram for the 9:1 UNUN is wrong.See my picture for the correct diagram

No surprises as to the contents. It has everything I expected and needed for my project. But...Is there a trick to soldering the wire included with the kit? I've been soldering one thing or another for 40 yrs. I've done this once or twice. No matter how I prep the wire, the solder runs off like water on a ducks back. Tried no flux, low solids flux, acid flux, strip/scrape/sand, various type of solder. Nothing is making it behave like normal copper wire.EDIT: The coating on the wire is quite thick. Tried again with coarser emery paper and it came off w/ a bit of effort. After that it soldered as expected and went together quickly. Changing review to 5 stars.The kit is kinda hard to build if the solder wont stick to any of it.

Constructed and wound this little kit with the 4:1 option exactly as shown. Tested with two 100 ohm resistors in series using a vna 50 ohms into 200 ohms resistive load across the terminals. Core appears to not like anything lower than 40 meters, but has a very low swr well past the 6 meter band (50 mhz). See the vna sweep. Not sure how much power this litte core can handle, but for qrp, it should work well. Nice waterproof case, and comes with stainless steel hardware. Will throw it on a loop and see how well it actually performs. Manual that came with it said "high power can bear 100W-200W..." but the core is so small that I would be wary of pushing it with that much power.

I built this unit in about 30 to 40 minutes. All the parts were in the package and it worked perfectly after assembled. I put an antenna analyzer on it and swept from 14 Mhz tru 28 Mhz and was between 1:2 to 1:5' The assembly was straight forward, but the wiring diagram was incorrect. Look through the other reviews and you'll find the correct one.

Liked that no parts were missing, instructions were in color and included photographs. Did not like that the box is pretty small. I would advise to really study the instructions carefully before building. When soldering connections use a very small size iron, and DO NOT let it touch the edge of the box or it will melt, affecting your weather proof seal.

UPDATE: I'm upgrading my Review from 4 Stars to 5 Stars. I just finished building the 9:1 Version, and the Hardware and Parts Supplied are first rate. This is by far the BEST Balun Kit Amazon carries. It was Unavailable, but seems to be in stock again. Despite the wiring diagram being incorrect, I'd rather purchase this one than any other. I'm now using it on my EFHW Antenna and it's performing very well. I ran a Counterpoise from the Ground Terminal, 35 feet down the side of my apartment building. This is the first time in years that I've had no TVI or RF back into my apartment. I added another 33 feet to the antenna leg today and the performance is just phenomenal. i highly recommend this product.I'm a long time Amateur Radio Operator and SWL(Shortwave Listener). Been a SWL since1960 and a Ham since 1977. This is a good product, but the Owner fails to read the many Reviews here stating that his diagram is incorrect. I have attached 2 examples of the correct wiring for a 9:1 Unun. I haven't built mine yet, but will be soon and I will update this review. 73, KG7M

Instructions lack critical information. Example - Where does the brown wire come from in the main photo? These details really matter..