On 02/03/2005 8:57 PM, Roy Lewallen wrote:
Try this simple test.

Tune your receiver to a part of the dial where there's no station.
Disconnect the antenna from your receiver. If the noise level drops,
impedance matching won't help your signal/noise ratio, it'll just make
everything louder. You can accomplish the same thing by turning up the
volume control.

Pulling the wire just attenuates the noise. So, a more balanced match
will not help with selectivity or overworked front-ends?

If this is the case, and a balun is most useful for transmitters trying
to manage SWR, then I guess it doesn't matter.

I'm still hoping that keeping all of the antenna outside may help with
household EMI. I sort of though that since I'm bothering to have a
transmission line, I may as well hack together a matching circuit for
efficiency.