On Oct 11, 7:25*pm, dave wrote:
On Sun, 11 Oct 2009 18:28:53 -0700, JimK wrote:
Thanks iane. What are the advantages of the balun, vs the long wire?

- The balun drives co-ax cable.

First the Balun effectively 'couples' the Antenna
Wire to the Coax Cable {Impedance Matching}.
[Balun = RF Matching Transformer]

Note the Coax Cable [50 Ohms] is already
'Impedance Matched' to the Radio/Receivers
50 Ohm [LO-Z] Antenna Input.

-*Terminate the random wire away from the
- electrical noise near the receiver by using
- co-ax and the balun.

Generally a Balun works best along with a
good earthen Ground {connection}.