Baluns not working

I made a 49/1 balun. I checked it several times but its not working. When I plug it in to the transceiver the receive goes right down and can't hear incoming signals but if I bypass the balun and connect the long wire directly to the coax then I can receive.

I decided to buy a balun because I thought maybe I didn't build it right but the one I bought is giving the same results and no says tuning required written on the balun so I know it doesn't have to be tuned.

Why am I not getting signals when using baluns? 

I tested another type of balun unun just to get the same result again. What am I missing? There is obviously something I'm not doing?

Hi (sorry don't know your name yet),

Sounds a bit weird. If you had just tried the one you made only, then I would of asked for a photo so we could see if we could spot a possible issue. But as you've tried a couple of others and they're doing the same it probably isn't your handy work.

Presuming it's for CB/HF? And, that you have a radio connected to it with some coax and then a long wire, be that a random or a half wave length, strung from the balun / unun? If yes on both then other than possibly some dodgy coax or coax connection, or the long wire not connected to the hot terminal of the balun / unun, struggling to think of anything obvious you are doing wrong.

Neal

It would help if you tell us what antenna you are trying to tune random or half wave and on what band(s).

Deb