my recomendations so far have been for 1:1 /4:1 and 9:1, got nearly a
equal tally of votes on each

leaves me a bit confused however

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Dear m, Confusion is only to be expected.

Its sometimes a good idea to take the average of the recommendations offered
in this newsgroup.

But in your case you should include in the offerings a 0-to-0 balun - ie.,
no balun ar all.

So the most logical thing to begin with is NO balun (because it is the least
expensive) which in all likelihood will probably do fine on 80 meters using
a coax feedline.

But, having an experimental mind, after that you could try an indeteminate
impedance-to-indeterminate impedance choke balun. The sort wound with twin
speaker cable on a ferrite ring. Which in some circumstances MIGHT work
slightly better by doing what a balun is supposed to do but will certainly
not make things worse.

And whatever you use, a tuner will be essential for multi-band operation.
Length of dipole is non-critical, whatever fits into your backyard. Prefer
450-ohm or open-wire transmission line for the best performing HF dipole
antenna you will ever have. Unless you can make it even higher.

Happy experimenting in 2005 !
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Reg, G4FGQ