Well I was right to suspect the balun! I dropped the OCFD today and inspected solder joints in the wire where I made previous adjustments. I inspected rope. I redid a couple of joints and made them stronger with more wire and solder. Not that it necessarily needed it. It was just to make myself feel better.
The SWR readings ranged from 1 to 2.5. 2.5 being the highest on the voice portion of 75/80 meters. 40m was 1.8. 20m was 1.5. 17m was 1.2. 12m through 10m was nearly 100% flat and even 6m was reading at 1.3. I did not even build it for 6m.
[edit]: At no time did I have to use any preamp on any frequency during the auditory receive test. 10 and 12 meters were booming in from all over. 11m was impossible to listen to because I could hear Michigan stations as clearly as I could the Aussies.
Dimensions: 88.7' long side. 42.2' short side. 4:1 KB2 balun from Amazon. I noticed that some antenna builders used a 1:1 choke wired directly to the 4:1 balun. I did not consider this practice but I could change my mind next week.
I have never built a balun. I have built chokes that acted as 1:1 baluns, sort of. Here is the Amazon link to the balun I'm using. Looks like it was designed and built in America but it's 100% Chinese. So far in my limited testing it is a very good product and is in the price range of flimsy, 100 to 300w PVC enclose baluns.
https://www.amazon.com/KB2-Enterpris...0B754CC14?th=1
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