current Balun

[4600turbo]

Do current 1:1 baluns really work? Do they keep RF out of the coax? I already have a benchers YA-1 low pass filter inline. I'm thinking of buying a MFJ-915.

I'm trying to keep RF away from a neighbors TV set.I had cured the problem with TVI on the neighbors set until I put in some more grounding rods.

I had one ground rod near the pole and the antenna sits at 35' at the bottom. The antenna is a a99.

Now I have the one near the pole and 3 other ground rods about 2ft away from the center rod in a triangle shape. I probably should have gone abit longer like 6ft but because of restricted space I went shorter. What should have I done different?

With these grounding rods in place I've been able to work skip with just 4-10watts. I would like to keep them in place. Just cure the TVI issue. If I have to get rid of the ground rods or add more I guess I'll have to do it.

 

[Hamnut]

I used 3 fiberglass antenna's Shakespear NBS2010, Antron A99 & lastly Imax 2000, all of them bled like crazy. when first installed I had no grounding on them. Even when running 50watts RF was everywhere coming out the telephone, speakers on the Hi Fi system as well as the television. I used double shielded coax put in lightning arresters and even grounded The radio and amp and the supporting tower all of this helped but never totally elininated the problem. I eventually went with a large aluminium groundplane antenna called the Coily Enforcer and right from day one no more stray RF I even put my low pass filter back in the cupboard.

 

[W5LZ]

4600turbo,
It would seem to me that if you had cured a problem, then made some change in your set up that brought that problem back, that un-doing that change might be a reasonable thing to do to see if it's causing that problem to re-occur. If the problem is again 'cured', then don't do that 'change' again.
I would think that adding a few ground rods would be very unlikely to cause such a thing, are there any other changes you've made after 'curing' that TVI?
Bencher low pass filters work. I think I'd leave that alone, I very much doubt if it would do any harm at all to your system even if it were not affective.
Would that MFJ-915 "Line Isolator" (or any other 1:1 balun) do any good for you? It might, but it/they are not a sure cure for unwanted RF on the outside of a feed line. A much better solution would be to figure out why that RF/CMC stuff is there to start with, then fixing that problem. It probably wouldn't hurt to add that balun, just don't count on a 'cure'. (You are aware that it would go at the base of the antenna, right? Going to have fun taking down, then putting that antenna and pole back up.)
- 'Doc

And just for grins, those ground rods are not the reason you may/may not be able to 'work skip'. That's entirely a matter of propagation.

 

[Moleculo]

You realize that the A99, Imax 2000, and other end fed vertical antennas without any counterpoise (radials) use the coax shield for the counterpoise, right? You can try adding the groundplane kits that are available for these antennas to start with. They're not expensive and might help. You can try adding a 1:1 current balun also. You can do both. You can also make a coax choke "balun" to see if that helps. Don't forget also that getting the antenna higher in the air will probably help reduce the amount of RFI that the neighbors are experiencing.

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

I agree with Doc,W5LZ, 100% If it ain't broke, don't fix it is my rule. In your case you broke what was fixed. Do not think that those couple extra ground rods are what enable you to shoot skip with just 4-10 watts. If Mother Nature is friendly you can do it with less than one watt (I have many times). If she is in a bad mood then 1000 watts is not enough. Been there too.