On Fri, 15 Apr 2005 13:48:15 GMT, "Henry Kolesnik"
wrote:

I need a sanity check. I fellow told me he was getting a balun to get a
better match between his receiver and antenna to get a better signal to
noise ratio. I told him he was wasting his time and money because a better
match increases transfer of both signal and noise. But since he already can
hear the signal he doesn't need any more. Now if he was to get a more
directional antenna he would get a reduction in noise from the undesired
direction.

Generally true if the external noise dominates the internally
generated receiver noise. This is the usual case in the hf region.
At vhf it is normally not so. Improvements in antenna gain
(directivity) and matching and reduction of transmission line loss all
can improve vhf SNR.

A balun *might* improve SNR at hf if the "feedline antenna" is more
susceptible to locally generated noise than the "real antenna" is.