DXE also warn us that 'tuner' style baluns such as the one you used are
more likely to be reactive an higher frequencies... presumably a
consequence of thicker wire insulation which increases the Zo of the TL
sections which results in less ideal impedance transformation with
increasing frequency.


Thanks for the input. The strange thing is that the system failed at
ALL freq's. The original use of the balun was with a folded dipole and
a feedline of 300 ohm twinlead cut to an odd multiple of the lowest freq
desired...which I did and it worked reasonably well. I cannot
understand how this application (the CW OCF) is significantly different
from the original one, at least in terms of using a 4:1 balun.

Allow me to put this to rest. I can live with it as it is, theoretical
considerations notwithstanding. I don't want to go over to the dark
side, but, hey, it works. Maybe I have a new "Magic" Antenna.

John
AB8O