This is pure gold! This the only example of why a balun is necessary, how to build one, and then actually test the finished product. Keep up the great work!
Hi Peter. I'm winding my first 4:1/1:1 balun, to transform impedance and reject common mode currents. Your video presentations are absolutely brilliant for educational and instructional purposes. As an Australian, the race "Down Under", who speak one of the most criticised versions of English (according to some people in England and also the USA), I have no trouble at all understanding your terminologies and descriptions. It is perfectly clear to me, what you mean when you use certain terminologies and words. Thank you for learning English to the standard you speak, as a way to communicate your teaching to others. To the arrogant and somewhat rude posters who make negative comments about your language, I say "get over yourselves and concentrate on the wonderful information Peter is presenting for your benefit." I cannot believe the self-centred behaviours a small minority display towards your work and teaching. Thanks for the myriad of videos you've posted, they're can inspiration, mate. Cheers, VK3PDG.
I greatly appreciate your videos, have learned quite a bit. Disregard those who are critical, you do great and there are trolls everywhere. Keep up the good work!
Built one with exactly the same materials (core and wires) and in the same way as Peter did. I achieved the same results regarding the SWR (1:1.2 or better) and the rejection (21 dB on 1.8 MHz and nearly 40 dB starting from 10 MHz upwards). So definitely it does work (like a charm), therefore if you need a 1:1 current balun, build this one the way Peter did in his video!
Excellent all the way around. I have obtained the parts recommended and built my own 1:1 balun following your advice and directions. My results were excellent which was extremely satisfying - thank you, thank you! Keep up the good work. Unfortunately I do not have access to a network analyzer to check the common mode attenuation - but, since I have achieve the same results with the SWR, I will "assume" common mode currents will be attenuated. Not only do I now have a functioning Balun, I have learned more about balun's and common mode currents they ever before! 240-43 toroid core, 18AWG PTFE wire 31.5 inches long. 12 windings... a recipe for success!
You work hard to teach Americans and they complain about your English! You repeat yourself to ensure you are understood and you get more complaints. I apologize for my country and thank you for putting up with us!
Thanks for your support, Timothy!! Very much appreciated! The only thing I can say is that I always try to improve my language skills but indeed it is a challenge...All the best and have a nice Sunday
@@TRXLab at least, you speak more than one languages, you make the effort to learn and speak another language... many americans absolutely do not care about another language and ONLY speak english... I make the effort to speak english, just as you do, and my first spoken language is french.
Get over it! This man is wayyyyyy too verbose (pause and look up that word) and apparently doesn't know some basic terminology like inductance which he calls "inductivity" and inductive reactance which he calls resistance. This makes it hard to have any faith in any conclusions he arrives at. And then there is balloon lol
@@johninjersey just shut up... if you have an ounce of intelligeance, you will perfectly understand what he is trying to describe in a second language... this is the best video describing baluns bar none... go make a better video then with more view count then if you are that smart mr troll...
Love your videos very informative and I think your English is amazing thank you so much for learning it. I can’t believe people complain about your accent and the time of your videos. I appreciate the tine that’s been taken to do these many thanks 73
Good job on these balun videos. It's an interesting topic that needed some clarification (at least for me). I applaud your method of showing which works and why, and proving it with the spectrum analyzer. It makes you think twice about using cheap chinese components as well.
Im proud to say that i have built 5 balun according to Worfgang Project. I had as well purchased the core and the wires from him. Perfect in all and for all. Have as well introduced your interesting videos to many Ham radio friends. Thanks and bst 73 de i4oqa.
Thank you Peter for awesome Balun 's wiring plan and your great work. This will help all of us in our hobby of amateur radio. This all takes time a good project on a rainy day. This will make a better impedance matching for your VSWR.
Your Balun series are great... Now I can build my homebrew Carolina Windom with confidence. I am going to use a "vertical radiator" of 22' (feet) with the 1:1 at the bottom and the 4:1 at the top (feed point).
Tks fr ur video. Have known in person Wolfgang, DG0sa (SK). He was an excellent engineer as well as you. Every new 🆕 ham radio should see your videos more than once a month. Bst 73 de i4oqa
The most important thing when we want to teach is the intention to carry a simple message. This video is one of the best and simplest that we have found demonstrating construction and theory in real time. Thank you for sharing your knowledge. JR. Aviles / KP4ARN
Thankyou for your help!! 🙂 Everyone else; buy Buy BUY one of these from somewhere. 4 attempts later, my home-brew still needs re-winding. The time and costs I have spent on ordering the wire and toroid + 2x P&H and trying to wind it, I could have bought one far cheaper. It's a right royal PITA to wind so SO much and get it sitting properly. Great concept though!! 🙂 Again, Thankyou for your explanation and help. Very much appreciate it and learnt. Cheers.
A very interesting video. I haven't wound a balun as of yet; my OCF dipole long wire antenna was given to me and my Ham buddy already had the balun wound. All I know is that it works from 160 to 6 meters. I didn't know that they made wire specifically for winding baluns. I think my buddy said he used 2 toroidals to give more wattage @ 800 watts. Of course I'll never go above 100 watts as I don't have an amplifier yet. Cheers & 73 from W Rusty Lane K9POW in eastern Tennessee
100% agree pure gold video but & might debate slightly about the strict necessity for high temp wire. The curie temp of type 43 ferrite is only 130 degrees C & you preferably don't want to be going into that region (non-linearities & harmonics) hence you really don't want the windings much above that. 18AWG seems to get to 60C at 14A or 90c at 22A... P=Isq.R....so 800W/50ohm in requires 4A so 18AWG should be great "cold". There was a video floating around where they first tested a balun at power & all seemed fine on the (short duration) test but the core couldn't take the power properly & slowly warmed (not seen on the short duration test) but in full "on-air" use climbed above the curie temp where it became more non-linear (swr started dropping off), absorbed even more power so got even hotter PLUS being non-linear started radiating harmonics too. If the core is getting hot it may need a bigger core not just "hot" wire. If your PVC wire is melting you may have a bigger problem than just the PVC.
This is correct, the number of turns is how many times the wire goes through the center of the toroid. His balun has 12 turns. I am sure Peter knows better, but he counted the outside and got 11 turns. A simple mistake made by a man who knows more than most of us put together!!!!
This design is close to perfect! I replicated it with same or better results. Amazingly, mine dips to 1:1,05 swr on exactly 50 mhz. I also built one using same toroid core but wound with 7 turns of rg-58u coax on each half, and while swr was just as good on HF, on 50 MHz it was over 2.5. Thank you!
I vote for Part 3 and a impedance transformation design as well. I may have missed something but you mentioned that the performance difference between the original wire and the PTFE (great stuff BTW!) wire was a function of the wire itself; the two wires appeared to have the same gauge so the only difference would have been the heat resistance of the wire's insulation. Did I misunderstand (old, slow brain here!). 73 - Dino KL0S
Hi Dino, NO it is not an old slow brain there it is rather more bad english here.... Yes it is a function of the wire. Only If the pair of wire meets exactly 100 Ohm impedance then we will see a low swr. In part one I have tested a Balun on good core material and right design but with wrong wires and ended up with bad swr due to the fact that the wires simply did not match 100 Ohm impedance. Yes I consider to do a part 3 but first I have to do some normal stuff.... Thanks for watching 73
Hi Peter - I guess that's what I was getting at was what was the difference between the two conductors that changed the characteristic impedance? Was the gauge, metal type, stranded vs. solid, different? I suppose the difference in insulator (plain insulation vs. PTFE) type could make a difference as well. Just curious whether there was a quantitative difference. 73 - Dino
Just in case anyone else wonders about this. Typical PVC is a lousy material for RF, it should newer be used. Next problem is the wire gauge and insulation thickness. There is a calculator for parallel wire impedance here: www.mantaro.com/resources/impedance-calculator.htm
TRX Bench - Dragan Milivojević Yes, I wondered - Despite PTFE, do You think that solid magnet wire (Kupferlackdraht) would be a good choice regarding thermal robustness, RF behavior and of cause cost and accessibility?
Your videos are excellent. Regarding Part #1 video and the 1:1 BALUN, I am struggling with the choke common mode loss measurements and I hope you can help me. In your setup you split the signal source using the (2) 25 ohm resistors (input network) each feeding a leg of the choke which provides a 50 ohm differential load. And on the measurement end you again load the choke differential mode with 50 ohms using (2) 25 ohm resistors (output network) and detect the signal at the center point of the resistors.. I agree so far. However, when we initially calibrate the analyzer, I argue we should leave the input and output resistor networks in place and simply short the two choke legs. This means we now simply have two 12 ohm resistors in series between our source gen and detector. We then normalize the receive display. Then we remove the jumper shorts from the choke and make the common mode signal loss measurement. In the Part #2 video I don't see the input network being used for the common mode measurement. 73
Thanks for feed back. ou may read the article in the link for more insights. Test set-up See test results by Tom PA9T a08.veron.nl/zelfbouw/antennes/800-watt-fd4-multiband-antenna-with-super-balun/
Peter, thank you for additional information. I read the the link. Please let me restate my argument in another way. You are including the parallel 25 ohm resistors on the input and output sides of the 1:1 choke balun into the results of the COMMON MODE loss measurement. WITHOUT the choke involved, you have essentially inserted a 25 Ohms resistance into the transmission circuit. This then introduces a reflection coefficient (Gamma) of 0.2, or, a return loss of 7 dB. Now, inserting the choke balun and making the COMMON MODE loss measurement, we are now measuring both the choke loss PLUS the 7 dB. I ask then, are we not including the 7 dB loss in the measurement result by doing it that way; which is not what we want. I have watched other TH-cam videos where the presenter made the common mode measurement and did not use any network to balance the input/output currents. That kind of setup does not place the choke behavior in a real world setup. Thanks for your patience with me. Walter
I have referred many people to watch this series, it is the best one ever for explaining why the balun is needed and the best design and materials to use. I have fantastic results following your examples making this with my homemade fan dipole running 100 Watts. If I add a linear amplifier, how much RF power can this design with FT240-43 core material and 18 AWG PTFE wire handle? I have just purchased an additional FT240-43 and 16 AWG PTFE to combine to core materials together with the larger size wire. How much RF power should this 1:1 balun handle?
Hi Peter! I know that this is a minor point, but you mentioned that you weren't able to readily convert the 61mm diameter to inches. The measurement is right in the part number. One of my favorite toroids, for 200 watts or less, is the Amidon T-225-2. 225 = 2,25 inches (outside diameter) Hope that helps! Great video!!!! Thanks and 73's
Thank you for these videos. Is there any chance you tested baluns with enameled wire? I would love to see how they turned out since so many baluns are made with them.
Hallo Peter, Du hast eine perfekte Gabe alles bis ins kleinste Detail zu erklaeren so dass es jeder verstehen kann. Falls sich jemand bzgl. deinem Englisch ruegt- stehe ueber der Sache. Ein Australier kann es nicht gewesen sein, denn ich wohne bereits seit 40 Jahren in VK- land u. niemand stoert sich ueber meinen Akzent. Klasse Leute hier in down under! Keep up the good work Mate, 73 de Claus
Peter some of the questions you put up. 80cm =31.4961 decimal inches=2ft 7" 1/2"inches, 4 pieces of 18awg PTFE wires & FT240-43 ferrite core. Google is your friend, I really enjoy when a project comes together so well. "AWESOME MATE! LOL"
Hi Peter, First of all, all the best for you and yours for 2021. By the way, i am a big fan of you. This is actually the best theoretical and practical presentation to understand the principles of a balun! and what material to use making it work right. I am sure now many HAM's have the courage to make their homebrewen baluns! so do i ;-) thank you.
Top video, best for balun I have ever learnt. Ran into same problems with speaker line. What I am interested in the PTFE wire isolation diameter. Congratulation once again.
Hi there Peter...great video...I've learned more and gained so much confidence with your vids...right here is the question that nobody I've asked has been able to answer so here is hoping..Toroid's..they are basically an iron ceramic ring ..can I use round magnets off load speakers after they have been de magnetized.. this would save loads on money and a good source.cheers Ian
Thank you Ian! Well to find out if this speaker magnets are usable for baluns can only be determined by testing the material as I have shown it in the video. Sorry there is no other way..73
This is probably a stupid question, but with the high heat generated how does that affect the solder joints? Very interesting video. Thank you. 73 VK2CHC (Richard.)
Sir, congratulations! 👏 An absolutely excellent series of teachings, very well explained and with your extensive attention to detail it made the whole series very interesting! Thank you so much for your time, effort, enthusiasm and clear presentation of this particular subject. I’m definitely going to have a go at making the 1-1 choke 73s G0DTT
A bit off topic what would happen to a capacitor if u spray painted the comb and stator would it increase the capacity or remain the same I’m trying to settle a disagreement with a friend and thankyou for the videos
What values of insertion loss can be expected or can be considered OK for the 1:1 balun? I think it's also an important parameter, together with the SWR and common mode current attenuation. Anyway, thanks for the video and other ones as well. Impressed with your experience!
I really hope there is a part 3. I am curious how the "ugly" balun performs in contrast and possibly the Ferrite threaded over the endpoint of the coax. Top notch video's, thanks.
Absolute love it! However, for the ones of us, who may not be able to span a good dipole, it would be absolutely interesting how to adopt this knowledge to some 1:5 or 1:9 UnUns, for instance to drive an under the roof-top monopole. You mention in the end, that the only good way is to do a 1:1 as described for CMR and then a 1:X for impedance matching. But are there different problems regarding used cable or optimal way of winding? And may be you could try to figure out a way of testing these BalUn/UnUns without a 1..10k€ equipment at hand. After your great explanation, most of us only need to wind one to three cores and for these rare times buying an analyzer with tracking generator is a bit much.
Well O will do a video on a 4:1 version as well, but it need time...For a full balun test without test equipment is impossible. The minimum is a antenna analyser.. All the best 73
Thanks for that impressive work. The two videos about Balums are quite nice. Perhaps I would enphasize the fact that the device you are talking about is a BALUM+Choke+Transformer, but at least for me it is ok, I don't know why people usually refers as Balums when it could be doing one of these things, or the three at once. But my doubt is about another topic, but related to this, and it is as follows: I have built a QRP receiver Kit, I think it can goes from 0.25 to 1.5 Wats of power. The question is that, I supply it with batteries, and no connection to Earth at all. I am wondering whether, only with respect to the balancing issue, the matching between the board and a dipole antenna could be considered an unbalance-balance matching or not, because, with respect to the real Earth, the complete circuit is floating. Thanks a lot in advance, and have a nice day.
Certainly a choke only. The device does no transformation & doesn't "balance" any physical quantity or such. The effect of blocking backwards common mode current makes the load-end (antenna in this case) appear symmetric but it still ain't a BALUN. It does present an impedance for the outer current only. The usual flat coil of 8-12 turns of coax in 6" diameter is a choke very similar (but bulkier) & also is called "Choke Balun". Still this device is made very nicely & performs well. Nice work OM peter, a little tedious though .
I believe you are using Habia branded wire here. Can you please tell me exactly which item number of theirs that you are using. I looked on their website and there are four different categories of the silver plated PTFE wire in AWG18. I want to make sure I get wire with the correct OD so that the windings fit inside the toroid properly. It is not cheap. Thanks.
Hi TRX, watching your videos gives me knowledge and confidence to build and test baluns. One more question, you mention a 2 Db correction for a 1:1 balun. Could you talk about the reason for that and perhaps suggest a source for further study, please? Thanks so much.
Hello Peter, Thanks again ! Very great videos. Do you recommand to use also this Balun for a simple dipole half-wave ? Could you tell me the reference also from your used wires ? And my last question, could you explain please the difference between a voltage and a current Balun and when they should be use ? Thanks you. 73's. Stephane.
Fantastic videos!!!! I am working on a slightly smaller version of your 1:1 and 4:1 baluns. My torroid is the same material as your but slightly smaller and I am using the same wire mfg except I'm using 22awg wire. I notice I am running out of space for 12 windings per side. Can I go down to 10 windings per side and still get good results. I'll still get 4:1 following your design but am curious as to your thoughts on if this will still work or if I need to stick with 12 turns and get a slightly larger torroid. Thanks again for taking the time to build a great video series.....probably the best available on the net!!!!
Great series of video, lots of good information and tests. The FT number is the diameter in inches. FT240 is 2.40 inch diameter. The #43 mix is used by many amateur operators but Tim Duffy, K3LR, who has one of the top contest stations in the United States uses mostly #31 mix for most of his baluns. (in the U.S. we pronounce it Bell-Un like in Unlock)
Hello Peter, what would be the issue in using 0.8mm magnet wire (that I already have), the one used for transformers? I can't get hold of this PTFE wire... EDIT: I built it and it works amazingly well! my poor atu wouldn't tune on certain bands the EF long wire, and I knew there was RF because It would behave nice on low power and would try to retune and go crazy when I increased the power. Now I can tune all the bands 160 to 10 with no problem. I got excellent reports so I am very happy Thank you so much!
I purchased the same wire you're using for your baluns. It appears to be silver tinned wire. What do you do to solder this wire. I have the heat on my iron cranked up and It doesn't seem that conventional solder sticks....
Peter, well I think one important thing is missing here. What are "insertion" losses\direct attenuation of your baluns you compared in high frequencies for example within range 21mhz-30mhz ? I cant guess but think that coax cable balun you shown here previously may compete here :)
In my opinion, just watch out for the increased capacitance of the paired up wires because the enameled wires would potentially end up being much closer to each other, and take the breakdown voltage into count too as well if high power tx is attempted to be used. Other than that, use an analyser to fine tune it and should work. I'm interested seeing your results. Good luck!
hi peter excellent once again. i have 2 questions to ask with your permission pls 1 . how the impedance of antenna is matched to air? air impedance is around 350 ohm and antennas are usually 50 ohm so how come signals are easily transmitted? 2. The monopole antenna usually used for vhf mobile vehicles are balanced but they have one singular conductor or pole. they lack the second one where ground is connected. so how does this work?the concept is fairly understandable though with dipoles.
Hi Peter - Thank you for these wonderful videos. I am putting up a new 40 meter dipole and wound a 1:1 balun exactly to your directions (all the materials were purchased per your specifications). The resulting SWR (using a 50 ohm dummy load or a small 50 ohm resistor) is 1.6:1 Is there something I did wrong? Will that mean that the final dipole will have minimal SWR 1.6:1 or more? Any advice????? Thanks, Mark W9MS
I am now winding my own 1:1 Balun, planning on using a PVC junction box to install the core and windings, any idea of what or how to secure the core to the box? Thanks in advance.
Two questions and you might answer them later (I'm at 36:22) or in a future video. First, does the size of the toroid matter? You're using 240-43 and I have 120-43's. Second, my scenario is a dipole (comprised of metal coils) connected to the 450-ohm ladder line, which will connect to coax. Would a 4:1, 9:1, or the 1:1 balun that you're showing here be best? Thanks. :)
Great video but a couple questions. You say 11 turns but I count 12. A turn is every time it passes through the center. Can you confirm? Also I am confused how this works you reverse the magnetic fields between left and right. Current flow is reversed. Why doesn’t that just cancel each other out?
Yep, another reply further back noticed too. It's 12 turns as counted through the middle, but you'll only count 11 if you count the outside. Peter made a minor slip on that one, but it's completely forgivable. Have a look at the stop frame 24:26 to see the actual count. We love Peter's TH-cams down here in Australia, they're top notch from start to finish.
What a great series, this really demonstrates the function and methods with the correct materials. I have one question for you, I see many 1:1 BalUn's made with FT240-31 cores and using RG-400 Coax with 6 turns each side crossing over to the opposite side through the center and then 6 more turns coming back for a total of 12 turns. Have you ever tested a BalUN made as I described? Thank you Paul KR5OG
Ok, so I used one of your examples of a common mode choke. Perhaps I did something wrong, but it didn't help with the noise level for my mini-whip antenna. I still have as much noise now as I had before inserting the chokes. :(
I wound my balun just like yours with 14 gauge thhn and I could only get 10 turns on each side (yours has 11) that were side by side. turn 11 and 11 go through the balun as another layer of turns. is it better to be 10 turns, flat and neatly spaced or better to have 1 additional turns overlapping?
Peter, you were testing the magnetic material for suitability by using ten turns on the various cores. RF was passed thru' the ten turns, input from the left and then output was taken from the right hand end of the winding. Graph figures were taken from there to produce the results and attenuation graph. How was the attenuation measured? On the scope ...measuring peak to peak volts or 0.7 of the peaks? Or was there a DC circuit using a diode or a bridge of diodes to view the DC levels of the output. The output coax just disappeared off screen. 73 G3NBY
Howard, we are testing with a vector network analyser. With other words we are sweeping the entire short wave bandwidth and assess the out coming graph. Thus we can tell how the different core materials behave. Hope that helps 73
Thanks for the video. How do you know if the current rejection is due to the high inductance (impedance) or to losses in the ferrite itself? If you look at the complex permeability of the 43 material, you will see a very high loss tangent right over the frequency band your are showing. In gross, what is the insertion loss of this balun ? I'm afraid it attenuates significantly the signal not only the common mode current. I mean putting two 100 ohm resistors, one on the center conductor and other on the shielding will give the same result, i.e. very good matching and as well as low S21. Another point, this is a current balun, the one you are showing at the end is a voltage balun (made by Ruthroff, its theory is presented in Sevick's book). The only argument making the Ruthroff balun useless as you says, is the S21 measurement your are doing, but is this measurement really "simulate" the commun mode current rejection ??
I am having trouble finding PTFE wire here in Australia I did find 16AWG used for high quality speakers but it is 1.3mm diameter and might be too large to fit 12Turns on the 240 core. Enjoyed the Balun videos very much, May be you could do one on the 9:1 that people use on end fed antennas. 73 Cliff VK2NP
Just to let you now Peter I made a low power version maybe 100W of the 1:1 on a FT114-43 using some PTFE wire stripped from a high quality CAT 5 cable , works great . Cliff
Clifford - A lot of the Toroid manufacturers sell Teflon sleeving for toroid winding. (Amidon Associates has it.) Just strip your wire and slide the sleeving over it. As you know, Teflon insulation is very important on baluns due to the heat that they can generate, especially when run at high power. I just thought that I would mention the sleeving in case it could be useful to you. 73's :-)
So when testing these baluns in this configuration with the VNA, one side is connected to DET and the other connected to DUT with the balun in between both test leads?
Excellent video and satisfying my design requirement for a 9;1 balun to feed a Terminated Balanced Dipole. Question is the SWG10 PTFE wire solid or stranded and does it matter?
Thank you very much for sharing these videos. I have a few questions. The first is, if I want to make a 9:1 Balun, I would make 9 wraps of the wire? Also, I want to use SO-239 Connectors on each end, so I would need 3 wire strands? And finally, using two cores would allow for higher voltage through the lines?
If you are planning a 9:1 unun then the turns ratio would be 3. Two cores stacked will increase inductance and probably help with low frequency performance.
I have learned so much from you and appreciate it immensely. Would using a smaller type 43 core and smaller gauge ptfe jacketed wire yield similar attenuation/swr results for use at
Many thanks for the presentation,I am confident now. I know that this is outside the scope of the video, but are you satisfied with the miniVNA analyzer? I am thinking to buy one,but some people have mentioned that it's quite temperature sensitive making measurements unrepeatable. Thanks, 73,Kostas
Hi Kostas, thanks for feed-back. Well I have not noticed yet that the miniVNA is in any way temperature sensitive. But may be it is due to the fact that I'm using this tool in the lab only...73
I saw the wire you were using Peter was stranded tinned, would there be any difference in using solid ? What about using magnet wire with enamel coating, but this would not resist heat that much. What was your parameter in using the wire that you have chosen. Cheers from Canuck land.
Hi Tom, well a lot more variants would probably work but all of that is simply not tested enough. The DG0SA version is tested and we know that this design together with the used material is simply working perfect. Hope that helps. Thanks for watching 73
Thanks Peter for a great design. I build both the 1:4 impedance transformer and the balun. CMMR and SWR is exactly as in the video, insertion loss of the balun is 0.16 dB at 28 MHz. I am planning on writing an article on a website about this with Bill of materials, links to material resellers etc and of course with links to your video's. Would you mind this? Thanks in advance for your answer!
We are useing a vector network analyser here and both sides are terminated into 50 Ohm. We are using short wave transmission frequencies here no DC involved. Thanks for watching. 73
No worries. If you ever find out, keep us posted. The wire you are using appears to be a 19 strand. Do you know the effect of using a similar wire with 41 strands? It should provide more surface area, but i'd like your opinion.
Indeed. I have been researching using stacked cores. If I understand correctly, the cores are just stacked together, then the wire is wrapped around both cores as if they were one. I have also been seeing positive results from FT-240-K Cores versus 240-43. Thank you again!
This is pure gold! This the only example of why a balun is necessary, how to build one, and then actually test the finished product. Keep up the great work!
Hi Peter. I'm winding my first 4:1/1:1 balun, to transform impedance and reject common mode currents. Your video presentations are absolutely brilliant for educational and instructional purposes. As an Australian, the race "Down Under", who speak one of the most criticised versions of English (according to some people in England and also the USA), I have no trouble at all understanding your terminologies and descriptions. It is perfectly clear to me, what you mean when you use certain terminologies and words. Thank you for learning English to the standard you speak, as a way to communicate your teaching to others. To the arrogant and somewhat rude posters who make negative comments about your language, I say "get over yourselves and concentrate on the wonderful information Peter is presenting for your benefit." I cannot believe the self-centred behaviours a small minority display towards your work and teaching. Thanks for the myriad of videos you've posted, they're can inspiration, mate. Cheers, VK3PDG.
Thanks for the kind words Mark very much appreciated!
I greatly appreciate your videos, have learned quite a bit. Disregard those who are critical, you do great and there are trolls everywhere. Keep up the good work!
Built one with exactly the same materials (core and wires) and in the same way as Peter did. I achieved the same results regarding the SWR (1:1.2 or better) and the rejection (21 dB on 1.8 MHz and nearly 40 dB starting from 10 MHz upwards). So definitely it does work (like a charm), therefore if you need a 1:1 current balun, build this one the way Peter did in his video!
Excellent all the way around. I have obtained the parts recommended and built my own 1:1 balun following your advice and directions. My results were excellent which was extremely satisfying - thank you, thank you! Keep up the good work. Unfortunately I do not have access to a network analyzer to check the common mode attenuation - but, since I have achieve the same results with the SWR, I will "assume" common mode currents will be attenuated. Not only do I now have a functioning Balun, I have learned more about balun's and common mode currents they ever before!
240-43 toroid core, 18AWG PTFE wire 31.5 inches long. 12 windings... a recipe for success!
Thanks for feed back Bryan very much appreciated!
Sir! 18 awg ptfe what is diameter? 1.6 mm
You work hard to teach Americans and they complain about your English! You repeat yourself to ensure you are understood and you get more complaints. I apologize for my country and thank you for putting up with us!
Thanks for your support, Timothy!! Very much appreciated! The only thing I can say is that I always try to improve my language skills but indeed it is a challenge...All the best and have a nice Sunday
@@TRXLab at least, you speak more than one languages, you make the effort to learn and speak another language... many americans absolutely do not care about another language and ONLY speak english... I make the effort to speak english, just as you do, and my first spoken language is french.
Get over it! This man is wayyyyyy too verbose (pause and look up that word) and apparently doesn't know some basic terminology like inductance which he calls "inductivity" and inductive reactance which he calls resistance. This makes it hard to have any faith in any conclusions he arrives at. And then there is balloon lol
@@johninjersey just shut up... if you have an ounce of intelligeance, you will perfectly understand what he is trying to describe in a second language... this is the best video describing baluns bar none... go make a better video then with more view count then if you are that smart mr troll...
I live in Scotland, and I find your English is very good, you have no need to change anything, thank you for you vids. DE GM0CQV
Love your videos very informative and I think your English is amazing thank you so much for learning it. I can’t believe people complain about your accent and the time of your videos. I appreciate the tine that’s been taken to do these many thanks 73
Good job on these balun videos. It's an interesting topic that needed some clarification (at least for me). I applaud your method of showing which works and why, and proving it with the spectrum analyzer. It makes you think twice about using cheap chinese components as well.
Thanks for your kind feed-back and thanks for watching 73
Im proud to say that i have built 5 balun according to Worfgang Project. I had as well purchased the core and the wires from him. Perfect in all and for all. Have as well introduced your interesting videos to many Ham radio friends. Thanks and bst 73 de i4oqa.
Hi Yochanan, yes really good stuff! best regards to you and your radio friend! 73
Thank you Peter for awesome Balun 's wiring plan and your great work. This will help all of us in our hobby of amateur radio. This all takes time a good project on a rainy day. This will make a better impedance matching for your VSWR.
Hi Dennis, thanks for feed back. Yea it is really a good project for a week end. Again thanks for watching. 73
Your Balun series are great... Now I can build my homebrew Carolina Windom with confidence. I am going to use a "vertical radiator" of 22' (feet) with the 1:1 at the bottom and the 4:1 at the top (feed point).
Good luck with your project! 73
Well done sir. Interesting and very informative. So much knowledge taught with two videos. Much easier than reading a book!
why do you put resistors when testing common mode ? and what the values
Tks fr ur video. Have known in person Wolfgang, DG0sa (SK). He was an excellent engineer as well as you. Every new 🆕 ham radio should see your videos more than once a month. Bst 73 de i4oqa
The most important thing when we want to teach is the intention to carry a simple message. This video is one of the best and simplest that we have found demonstrating construction and theory in real time. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
JR. Aviles / KP4ARN
Thankyou for your help!! 🙂 Everyone else; buy Buy BUY one of these from somewhere. 4 attempts later, my home-brew still needs re-winding. The time and costs I have spent on ordering the wire and toroid + 2x P&H and trying to wind it, I could have bought one far cheaper. It's a right royal PITA to wind so SO much and get it sitting properly. Great concept though!! 🙂 Again, Thankyou for your explanation and help. Very much appreciate it and learnt. Cheers.
A very interesting video. I haven't wound a balun as of yet; my OCF dipole long wire antenna was given to me and my Ham buddy already had the balun wound. All I know is that it works from 160 to 6 meters. I didn't know that they made wire specifically for winding baluns. I think my buddy said he used 2 toroidals to give more wattage @ 800 watts. Of course I'll never go above 100 watts as I don't have an amplifier yet. Cheers & 73 from W Rusty Lane K9POW in eastern Tennessee
My mother tongue is french and I understood every word without trying. Perfect videos thank you
100% agree pure gold video but & might debate slightly about the strict necessity for high temp wire. The curie temp of type 43 ferrite is only 130 degrees C & you preferably don't want to be going into that region (non-linearities & harmonics) hence you really don't want the windings much above that.
18AWG seems to get to 60C at 14A or 90c at 22A... P=Isq.R....so 800W/50ohm in requires 4A so 18AWG should be great "cold".
There was a video floating around where they first tested a balun at power & all seemed fine on the (short duration) test but the core couldn't take the power properly & slowly warmed (not seen on the short duration test) but in full "on-air" use climbed above the curie temp where it became more non-linear (swr started dropping off), absorbed even more power so got even hotter PLUS being non-linear started radiating harmonics too. If the core is getting hot it may need a bigger core not just "hot" wire.
If your PVC wire is melting you may have a bigger problem than just the PVC.
24:33 if you count wires from the inside, you will count 12 turn exactly like needed. I've always count from the inside of the core when doing baluns.
This is correct, the number of turns is how many times the wire goes through the center of the toroid. His balun has 12 turns. I am sure Peter knows better, but he counted the outside and got 11 turns. A simple mistake made by a man who knows more than most of us put together!!!!
@@ronjones4069 Oh absolutely, I will never doubt anything Peter sais as like you said, he know way much more stuff than most of us in here !
This design is close to perfect! I replicated it with same or better results. Amazingly, mine dips to 1:1,05 swr on exactly 50 mhz. I also built one using same toroid core but wound with 7 turns of rg-58u coax on each half, and while swr was just as good on HF, on 50 MHz it was over 2.5.
Thank you!
Nice finish to a very informative series.Really like these excellent tutorials...
Again thank you very much!
Thank you for basically translating DG0SA’s web page into English for us. Wonderful video!
I just learned a lot about baluns! Also learned that telfon wire is $$$ 😂
I vote for Part 3 and a impedance transformation design as well. I may have missed something but you mentioned that the performance difference between the original wire and the PTFE (great stuff BTW!) wire was a function of the wire itself; the two wires appeared to have the same gauge so the only difference would have been the heat resistance of the wire's insulation. Did I misunderstand (old, slow brain here!). 73 - Dino KL0S
Hi Dino, NO it is not an old slow brain there it is rather more bad english here.... Yes it is a function of the wire. Only If the pair of wire meets exactly 100 Ohm impedance then we will see a low swr. In part one I have tested a Balun on good core material and right design but with wrong wires and ended up with bad swr due to the fact that the wires simply did not match 100 Ohm impedance. Yes I consider to do a part 3 but first I have to do some normal stuff.... Thanks for watching 73
Hi Peter - I guess that's what I was getting at was what was the difference between the two conductors that changed the characteristic impedance? Was the gauge, metal type, stranded vs. solid, different? I suppose the difference in insulator (plain insulation vs. PTFE) type could make a difference as well. Just curious whether there was a quantitative difference. 73 - Dino
Ah now I got.. Yes it must be the difference in insulator and the gauge I guess a mix of it. Have a nice evening 73
Just in case anyone else wonders about this. Typical PVC is a lousy material for RF, it should newer be used. Next problem is the wire gauge and insulation thickness. There is a calculator for parallel wire impedance here: www.mantaro.com/resources/impedance-calculator.htm
TRX Bench - Dragan Milivojević Yes, I wondered - Despite PTFE, do You think that solid magnet wire (Kupferlackdraht) would be a good choice regarding thermal robustness, RF behavior and of cause cost and accessibility?
Your videos are excellent. Regarding Part #1 video and the 1:1 BALUN, I am struggling with the choke common mode loss measurements and I hope you can help me. In your setup you split the signal source using the (2) 25 ohm resistors (input network) each feeding a leg of the choke which provides a 50 ohm differential load. And on the measurement end you again load the choke differential mode with 50 ohms using (2) 25 ohm resistors (output network) and detect the signal at the center point of the resistors.. I agree so far. However, when we initially calibrate the analyzer, I argue we should leave the input and output resistor networks in place and simply short the two choke legs. This means we now simply have two 12 ohm resistors in series between our source gen and detector. We then normalize the receive display. Then we remove the jumper shorts from the choke and make the common mode signal loss measurement. In the Part #2 video I don't see the input network being used for the common mode measurement.
73
Thanks for feed back. ou may read the article in the link for more insights. Test set-up See test results by Tom PA9T a08.veron.nl/zelfbouw/antennes/800-watt-fd4-multiband-antenna-with-super-balun/
Peter, thank you for additional information. I read the the link. Please let me restate my argument in another way. You are including the parallel 25 ohm resistors on the input and output sides of the 1:1 choke balun into the results of the COMMON MODE loss measurement. WITHOUT the choke involved, you have essentially inserted a 25 Ohms resistance into the transmission circuit. This then introduces a reflection coefficient (Gamma) of 0.2, or, a return loss of 7 dB. Now, inserting the choke balun and making the COMMON MODE loss measurement, we are now measuring both the choke loss PLUS the 7 dB. I ask then, are we not including the 7 dB loss in the measurement result by doing it that way; which is not what we want.
I have watched other TH-cam videos where the presenter made the common mode measurement and did not use any network to balance the input/output currents. That kind of setup does not place the choke behavior in a real world setup.
Thanks for your patience with me.
Walter
@@walteranderson7889 you are absolutely right, his setup is wrong!
I have referred many people to watch this series, it is the best one ever for explaining why the balun is needed and the best design and materials to use. I have fantastic results following your examples making this with my homemade fan dipole running 100 Watts. If I add a linear amplifier, how much RF power can this design with FT240-43 core material and 18 AWG PTFE wire handle? I have just purchased an additional FT240-43 and 16 AWG PTFE to combine to core materials together with the larger size wire. How much RF power should this 1:1 balun handle?
This really answers a lot of questions. Very good information, thank you.
Hi Peter! I know that this is a minor point, but you mentioned that you weren't able to readily convert the 61mm diameter to inches. The measurement is right in the part number. One of my favorite toroids, for 200 watts or less, is the Amidon T-225-2. 225 = 2,25 inches (outside diameter) Hope that helps! Great video!!!! Thanks and 73's
Thank you for these videos. Is there any chance you tested baluns with enameled wire? I would love to see how they turned out since so many baluns are made with them.
Hallo Peter, Du hast eine perfekte Gabe alles bis ins kleinste Detail zu erklaeren so dass es jeder verstehen kann. Falls sich jemand bzgl. deinem Englisch ruegt- stehe ueber der Sache. Ein Australier kann es nicht gewesen sein, denn ich wohne bereits seit 40 Jahren in VK- land u. niemand stoert sich ueber meinen Akzent. Klasse Leute hier in down under! Keep up the good work Mate, 73 de Claus
Danke für deine netten Worte, freue mich das dir mein Video gefällt. Alles Gute ins VK Land Take care mate 73
Schaetze deine Rueckantwort verbunden mit den guten Wuenschen. Danke. Weiterhin viel erfolg and all the best, Peter. 73 Claus@@TRXLab
[Applause] Greatly appreciate the work you put into this and sharing your findings with everyone.
Peter some of the questions you put up. 80cm =31.4961 decimal inches=2ft 7" 1/2"inches, 4 pieces of 18awg PTFE wires & FT240-43 ferrite core. Google is your friend, I really enjoy when a project comes together so well. "AWESOME MATE! LOL"
Hi Dennis, I'm glad that you like it.. Thanks for stopping by. 73
Hi Peter, First of all, all the best for you and yours for 2021. By the way, i am a big fan of you. This is actually the best theoretical and practical presentation to understand the principles of a balun! and what material to use making it work right. I am sure now many HAM's have the courage to make their homebrewen baluns! so do i ;-) thank you.
Thank you very much and HNY
Top video, best for balun I have ever learnt. Ran into same problems with speaker line. What I am interested in the PTFE wire isolation diameter. Congratulation once again.
Thanks for feed-back Istvan! 73
Hi there Peter...great video...I've learned more and gained so much confidence with your vids...right here is the question that nobody I've asked has been able to answer so here is hoping..Toroid's..they are basically an iron ceramic ring ..can I use round magnets off load speakers after they have been de magnetized.. this would save loads on money and a good source.cheers Ian
Thank you Ian! Well to find out if this speaker magnets are usable for baluns can only be determined by testing the material as I have shown it in the video. Sorry there is no other way..73
Really excellent! Very good explanation and clarification. Now I know exactly what balun to build for my 40m - 10m inverted vee antenna. 73 de ZS1PL
Thanks for feed back Jacques 73
This is probably a stupid question, but with the high heat generated how does that affect the solder joints?
Very interesting video. Thank you.
73 VK2CHC (Richard.)
Sir, congratulations! 👏 An absolutely excellent series of teachings, very well explained and with your extensive attention to detail it made the whole series very interesting! Thank you so much for your time, effort, enthusiasm and clear presentation of this particular subject. I’m definitely going to have a go at making the 1-1 choke 73s G0DTT
Peter, could you make a video on how to make a 1:2 balun, type wire and include testing for SWR and common mode reject, please? Thanks, Ted
A bit off topic what would happen to a capacitor if u spray painted the comb and stator would it increase the capacity or remain the same I’m trying to settle a disagreement with a friend and thankyou for the videos
What values of insertion loss can be expected or can be considered OK for the 1:1 balun? I think it's also an important parameter, together with the SWR and common mode current attenuation. Anyway, thanks for the video and other ones as well. Impressed with your experience!
Look here: a08.veron.nl/zelfbouw/antennes/800-watt-fd4-multiband-antenna-with-super-balun/
your videos never fail to educate me Thank you
I really hope there is a part 3. I am curious how the "ugly" balun performs in contrast and possibly the Ferrite threaded over the endpoint of the coax. Top notch video's, thanks.
Thanks for feed-back ! all the best 73
Absolute love it! However, for the ones of us, who may not be able to span a good dipole, it would be absolutely interesting how to adopt this knowledge to some 1:5 or 1:9 UnUns, for instance to drive an under the roof-top monopole.
You mention in the end, that the only good way is to do a 1:1 as described for CMR and then a 1:X for impedance matching. But are there different problems regarding used cable or optimal way of winding? And may be you could try to figure out a way of testing these BalUn/UnUns without a 1..10k€ equipment at hand. After your great explanation, most of us only need to wind one to three cores and for these rare times buying an analyzer with tracking generator is a bit much.
Well O will do a video on a 4:1 version as well, but it need time...For a full balun test without test equipment is impossible. The minimum is a antenna analyser.. All the best 73
Hello,
Nice video. Everything is explained very well and easily :) Question: Where can you buy this silver plated PTFE wire?
Thanks for that impressive work. The two videos about Balums are quite nice. Perhaps I would enphasize the fact that the device you are talking about is a BALUM+Choke+Transformer, but at least for me it is ok, I don't know why people usually refers as Balums when it could be doing one of these things, or the three at once. But my doubt is about another topic, but related to this, and it is as follows:
I have built a QRP receiver Kit, I think it can goes from 0.25 to 1.5 Wats of power. The question is that, I supply it with batteries, and no connection to Earth at all. I am wondering whether, only with respect to the balancing issue, the matching between the board and a dipole antenna could be considered an unbalance-balance matching or not, because, with respect to the real Earth, the complete circuit is floating. Thanks a lot in advance, and have a nice day.
Certainly a choke only. The device does no transformation & doesn't "balance" any physical quantity or such. The effect of blocking backwards common mode current makes the load-end (antenna in this case) appear symmetric but it still ain't a BALUN. It does present an impedance for the outer current only.
The usual flat coil of 8-12 turns of coax in 6" diameter is a choke very similar (but bulkier) & also is called "Choke Balun". Still this device is made very nicely & performs well.
Nice work OM peter, a little tedious though .
I believe you are using Habia branded wire here. Can you please tell me exactly which item number of theirs that you are using. I looked on their website and there are four different categories of the silver plated PTFE wire in AWG18. I want to make sure I get wire with the correct OD so that the windings fit inside the toroid properly. It is not cheap. Thanks.
Great Peter.. Another excellent guide.
Cheers
John
Thank you my friend! All the best John Cheers!
Well done. I did find it tickle me a bit every time you said balloon for bal-un.
TANKS for your good tuto for Balun for my Station Amateur Radio FAFH/6W7SS tanks you...! Enjoyed the Balun videos very much 73 MICHEL
Glad that you like it Michel. Thanks for watching 73
Could you please recommend a core and wire for a vhf/uhf balun. Max power 100 watts
Hi TRX, watching your videos gives me knowledge and confidence to build and test baluns. One more question, you mention a 2 Db correction for a 1:1 balun. Could you talk about the reason for that and perhaps suggest a source for further study, please? Thanks so much.
Hello Peter, Thanks again ! Very great videos. Do you recommand to use also this Balun for a simple dipole half-wave ? Could you tell me the reference also from your used wires ? And my last question, could you explain please the difference between a voltage and a current Balun and when they should be use ?
Thanks you. 73's. Stephane.
Can you tell me which resistors you soldered on at 41:30? I cant quite see the colour bars
Fantastic videos!!!! I am working on a slightly smaller version of your 1:1 and 4:1 baluns. My torroid is the same material as your but slightly smaller and I am using the same wire mfg except I'm using 22awg wire. I notice I am running out of space for 12 windings per side. Can I go down to 10 windings per side and still get good results. I'll still get 4:1 following your design but am curious as to your thoughts on if this will still work or if I need to stick with 12 turns and get a slightly larger torroid. Thanks again for taking the time to build a great video series.....probably the best available on the net!!!!
Excellent presentation! Do you happen to know if 20AWG or even 22AWG on a T140-43 would be correct for 100 watts 40m - 10m? Take care, Terry
Great series of video, lots of good information and tests. The FT number is the diameter in inches. FT240 is 2.40 inch diameter. The #43 mix is used by many amateur operators but Tim Duffy, K3LR, who has one of the top contest stations in the United States uses mostly #31 mix for most of his baluns. (in the U.S. we pronounce it Bell-Un like in Unlock)
Hello Peter, what would be the issue in using 0.8mm magnet wire (that I already have), the one used for transformers? I can't get hold of this PTFE wire...
EDIT: I built it and it works amazingly well! my poor atu wouldn't tune on certain bands the EF long wire, and I knew there was RF because It would behave nice on low power and would try to retune and go crazy when I increased the power. Now I can tune all the bands 160 to 10 with no problem. I got excellent reports so I am very happy
Thank you so much!
I purchased the same wire you're using for your baluns. It appears to be silver tinned wire. What do you do to solder this wire. I have the heat on my iron cranked up and It doesn't seem that conventional solder sticks....
Peter, well I think one important thing is missing here. What are "insertion" losses\direct attenuation of your baluns you compared in high frequencies for example within range 21mhz-30mhz ? I cant guess but think that coax cable balun you shown here previously may compete here :)
Great video. First I've seen that actually tests their balun design.
What is the core designation and the gauge of the PTFE wire?
73,
Todd AD0RR
cant i avoid the insulation melting problem by using copper enamelled wire with a similar diameter?
In my opinion, just watch out for the increased capacitance of the paired up wires because the enameled wires would potentially end up being much closer to each other, and take the breakdown voltage into count too as well if high power tx is attempted to be used. Other than that, use an analyser to fine tune it and should work. I'm interested seeing your results. Good luck!
hi peter
excellent once again. i have 2 questions to ask with your permission pls
1 . how the impedance of antenna is matched to air? air impedance is around 350 ohm and antennas are usually 50 ohm so how come signals are easily transmitted?
2. The monopole antenna usually used for vhf mobile vehicles are balanced but they have one singular conductor or pole. they lack the second one where ground is connected. so how does this work?the concept is fairly understandable though with dipoles.
Hi Peter - Thank you for these wonderful videos. I am putting up a new 40 meter dipole and wound a 1:1 balun exactly to your directions (all the materials were purchased per your specifications). The resulting SWR (using a 50 ohm dummy load or a small 50 ohm resistor) is 1.6:1 Is there something I did wrong? Will that mean that the final dipole will have minimal SWR 1.6:1 or more? Any advice????? Thanks, Mark W9MS
I am now winding my own 1:1 Balun, planning on using a PVC junction box to install the core and windings, any idea of what or how to secure the core to the box? Thanks in advance.
I made this balun for a 10 meter antenna in a delta loop and the swr was 1.06 at 28,400 Mhz. Thanks
Two questions and you might answer them later (I'm at 36:22) or in a future video. First, does the size of the toroid matter? You're using 240-43 and I have 120-43's. Second, my scenario is a dipole (comprised of metal coils) connected to the 450-ohm ladder line, which will connect to coax. Would a 4:1, 9:1, or the 1:1 balun that you're showing here be best?
Thanks. :)
Great video but a couple questions. You say 11 turns but I count 12. A turn is every time it passes through the center. Can you confirm? Also I am confused how this works you reverse the magnetic fields between left and right. Current flow is reversed. Why doesn’t that just cancel each other out?
Yep, another reply further back noticed too. It's 12 turns as counted through the middle, but you'll only count 11 if you count the outside. Peter made a minor slip on that one, but it's completely forgivable. Have a look at the stop frame 24:26 to see the actual count. We love Peter's TH-cams down here in Australia, they're top notch from start to finish.
What a great series, this really demonstrates the function and methods with the correct materials.
I have one question for you, I see many 1:1 BalUn's made with FT240-31 cores and using RG-400 Coax with 6 turns each side crossing over to the opposite side through the center and then 6 more turns coming back for a total of 12 turns.
Have you ever tested a BalUN made as I described?
Thank you
Paul KR5OG
Great video, thank you! Do you have opinion about using rg58 instead of two wire strains?
Ok, so I used one of your examples of a common mode choke. Perhaps I did something wrong, but it didn't help with the noise level for my mini-whip antenna. I still have as much noise now as I had before inserting the chokes. :(
I see this is an older video but can someone explain the resistors in the test circuit to the VNA to me?
Where I can order this wire?
Thanks for the video trx. Is the awg18 wire stranded? Or solid. Happy holidays. 73.
stranded
@@TRXLab Can you recommend a european shop for the PFTE wire used? Cedric ON4CKM
I wound my balun just like yours with 14 gauge thhn and I could only get 10 turns on each side (yours has 11) that were side by side. turn 11 and 11 go through the balun as another layer of turns.
is it better to be 10 turns, flat and neatly spaced or better to have 1 additional turns overlapping?
Peter, you were testing the magnetic material for suitability by using ten turns on the various cores.
RF was passed thru' the ten turns, input from the left and then output was taken from the right hand end of the winding. Graph figures were taken from there to produce the results and attenuation graph.
How was the attenuation measured? On the scope ...measuring peak to peak volts or 0.7 of the peaks?
Or was there a DC circuit using a diode or a bridge of diodes to view the DC levels of the output. The output coax just disappeared off screen.
73 G3NBY
Howard, we are testing with a vector network analyser. With other words we are sweeping the entire short wave bandwidth and assess the out coming graph. Thus we can tell how the different core materials behave. Hope that helps 73
Thanks for the video. How do you know if the current rejection is due to the high inductance (impedance) or to losses in the ferrite itself? If you look at the complex permeability of the 43 material, you will see a very high loss tangent right over the frequency band your are showing. In gross, what is the insertion loss of this balun ? I'm afraid it attenuates significantly the signal not only the common mode current. I mean putting two 100 ohm resistors, one on the center conductor and other on the shielding will give the same result, i.e. very good matching and as well as low S21. Another point, this is a current balun, the one you are showing at the end is a voltage balun (made by Ruthroff, its theory is presented in Sevick's book). The only argument making the Ruthroff balun useless as you says, is the S21 measurement your are doing, but is this measurement really "simulate" the commun mode current rejection ??
I am having trouble finding PTFE wire here in Australia I did find 16AWG used for high quality speakers but it is 1.3mm diameter and might be too large to fit 12Turns on the 240 core. Enjoyed the Balun videos very much,
May be you could do one on the 9:1 that people use on end fed antennas.
73
Cliff VK2NP
Hi Cliff , yes sometimes it is difficult to find but there will be a Source. Thanks for watching. 9:1 Max be in the future. 73
Just to let you now Peter I made a low power version maybe 100W of the 1:1 on a FT114-43 using some PTFE wire stripped from a high quality CAT 5 cable , works great .
Cliff
+Clifford Hynds Ah very good to hear, Cliff and thanks for leting is know. 73
Clifford - A lot of the Toroid manufacturers sell Teflon sleeving for toroid winding. (Amidon Associates has it.) Just strip your wire and slide the sleeving over it. As you know, Teflon insulation is very important on baluns due to the heat that they can generate, especially when run at high power. I just thought that I would mention the sleeving in case it could be useful to you. 73's :-)
Wonderful ... I love your videos observer from Iraq
Thanks for feed-back and best wishes to Iraq! 73
What brand is the wire???
What is the difference between 240-43 & 240-31?
So when testing these baluns in this configuration with the VNA, one side is connected to DET and the other connected to DUT with the balun in between both test leads?
Yes you are right. That is the test set up 73
If you have tubed the balun by manipulating the wire can you then fix it in place with hot glue or some kind of silicone without screwing things up?
Hi David, yes you can use hot glue with no problems. 73
the Zip Ties are note heat resisting PTFE - They are nylon and fail wit high temperature
Excellent video and satisfying my design requirement for a 9;1 balun to feed a Terminated Balanced Dipole. Question is the SWG10 PTFE wire solid or stranded and does it matter?
Glad that you like it Martin! The used wire is stranded. 73
Top video Peter, so clearly explained and demonstrated! 73 de M0MZF
Thank you very much for sharing these videos. I have a few questions. The first is, if I want to make a 9:1 Balun, I would make 9 wraps of the wire? Also, I want to use SO-239 Connectors on each end, so I would need 3 wire strands? And finally, using two cores would allow for higher voltage through the lines?
If you are planning a 9:1 unun then the turns ratio would be 3. Two cores stacked will increase inductance and probably help with low frequency performance.
I have learned so much from you and appreciate it immensely. Would using a smaller type 43 core and smaller gauge ptfe jacketed wire yield similar attenuation/swr results for use at
Thank You again for a very educational video!!
Thanks Lars! 73
Many thanks for the presentation,I am confident now. I know that this is outside the scope of the video, but are you satisfied with the miniVNA analyzer? I am thinking to buy one,but some people have mentioned that it's quite temperature sensitive making measurements unrepeatable. Thanks, 73,Kostas
Hi Kostas, thanks for feed-back. Well I have not noticed yet that the miniVNA is in any way temperature sensitive. But may be it is due to the fact that I'm using this tool in the lab only...73
At 44:21 what are the total resistor values you are using on each wire?
th-cam.com/users/postUgzZ99kW0mmV0FVvAQN4AaABCQ
I saw the wire you were using Peter was stranded tinned, would there be any difference in using solid ? What about using magnet wire with enamel coating, but this would not resist heat that much. What was your parameter in using the wire that you have chosen. Cheers from Canuck land.
Hi Tom, well a lot more variants would probably work but all of that is simply not tested enough. The DG0SA version is tested and we know that this design together with the used material is simply working perfect. Hope that helps. Thanks for watching 73
Thank you so much for your videos.
Glad that you like it 73
Thanks Peter for a great design. I build both the 1:4 impedance transformer and the balun. CMMR and SWR is exactly as in the video, insertion loss of the balun is 0.16 dB at 28 MHz. I am planning on writing an article on a website about this with Bill of materials, links to material resellers etc and of course with links to your video's. Would you mind this? Thanks in advance for your answer!
Thanks Tom, glad that you like it! I would appreciate if you link my video and let me know where the article will be find..73
Hi Peter! Article is finished and can be found here:
a08.veron.nl/zelfbouw/antennes/800-watt-fd4-multiband-antenna-with-super-balun/
Nice video, thanks. What type wire on spools You are using? (40:27).
Thanks for feed-back. The wire is PTFE AWG18 with silver finished copper. Thanks for watching 73
Exactly what I needed to know. Thank You!
Peter...A question...Is the output end of the co-ax terminated?
50Ω??
Plus? A decoupled diode to make the DC to be measured?
73 G3NBY.
We are useing a vector network analyser here and both sides are terminated into 50 Ohm. We are using short wave transmission frequencies here no DC involved. Thanks for watching. 73
Hi OM, what impact could potentially happen when metal enclosures are used for encasing the balun. What to look out for. Thanks 73's
Hi, you should use a plastic housing as metal always have an inpact on the magnetic field around the core... 73
This is a very educational series. I would really love to know what core the blue line represented?
Yeah me too :^) No to be serious I don't know. It is out my junk box and I have no clue where it comes from...Thanks for watching 73
No worries. If you ever find out, keep us posted. The wire you are using appears to be a 19 strand. Do you know the effect of using a similar wire with 41 strands? It should provide more surface area, but i'd like your opinion.
You are talking about skin effect and yes with more surface more power should be possible but I would additional stack two cores.. 73
Indeed. I have been researching using stacked cores. If I understand correctly, the cores are just stacked together, then the wire is wrapped around both cores as if they were one. I have also been seeing positive results from FT-240-K Cores versus 240-43. Thank you again!
Yes stacking is that easy :-) Good luck with the project