On Sat, 13 Aug 2005 17:38:12 -0700, Roy Lewallen
wrote:

Walter Maxwell wrote:
. . .
However, some moron claimed in QST that steel wool was just as good as
ferrite for making choke baluns, but I've forgotten who the lunkhead
at the League was who believed him, and allowed stupid idea to be
published.

I complained to the League editors, who unbelieveably said 'Prove It'.
So I bought some steel wool and made two back to back baluns with it
and made measurements of common mode currents. The measurements proved
that the steel wool had absolutely no choking effect.

I reported the results of the measurements to the editors at the
League, but I can't remember whether they did anything about refuting
the original incorrect material. Perhaps your memory is better than
mine on this issue.

Walt, W2DU

The results of your measurements were published in "Hints & Kinks" in
September 1993 QST. According to the editorial comment accompanying it,
you were prompted to make the measurements by Tom Rauch, W8JI, who had
done some measurements which indicated that the steel wool balun was
ineffective. The Hints & Kinks editor at the time, who had accepted both
the original contribution by Curt Wilson, W0KKQ and yours, was Dave
Newkirk, WJ1Z. Anyone interested in learning more about it should read
the Hints & Kinks submissions and note Dave's added editiorial comments.


One legitimate use for steel wool was what we used it for as kids.

When the cops cited us with a repair order for a too loud exhaust
system on our hot rods, we would stuff steel wool up the pipe and
secure it with a rusty nail in cross-drilled holes.

We would then find a handy cop and ask him to sign off that we had
fixed the problem. He would usually ask us to rev up the engine and
we would hope like hell that the steel wool didn't come flying out at
the wrong time. I think most cops were on to this but they played
along.