Intro to Baluns

#HamRadio #AmateurRadio #Balun #KensProSound
Fiori Films Presents Ham Radio TV: How to make homemade baluns.
In this video Kevin N6VLF and Bruce N6THN, talk about baluns.

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[mrmrlee]

@ 10:02 I'm not sure what sort of explanation that is, but a balun is basically an RF choke that eliminates, or chokes via the toroid element, stray signals and RF from traveling down the feedline back to the transceiver. This RF can be produced from an unbalanced antenna. Strangely enough, an inverted vee is a balanced antenna if properly cut, so no balun is actually needed. Also, their saying you get 500 to 2000 miles from a balun is kind of hyping it as a magic box. You get the distance from your antenna and transceiver and feed line, the balun simply allows you to use an unbalanced antenna and/or feed line.

[techtopics]

The title of this didn't live up to the video name. Nothing about wire gauge, insulation, bifilar, core permeability, impedance matching the list goes on. This was the equivalent to I bought a toroid core used a chart to wrap wire around the core I bought and used Teflon wire but further explanation.. How often is your balun going to be on fire? Anyway, really enjoy the geek sphere around radio - good work guys!

[Joe_KSI]

I used a FT240-31 ferrite toroidal as described with 12 AWG PTFE stranded wire and wound it according to the instructions on the video. The Balun didn’t work. I got what appeared to be infinite SWR on all bands and could not tune with my antenna tuner. First thinking that my coax was shorted, I used my DMM and eliminated that thought. Next, thinking I wound it incorrectly, I double checked and everything was wound correctly. Next, I shorted the winding on the Balun to bypass the toroid and my SWR dropped to under 1:3. I rewound the toroidal using the Guanella current 1:1 style and everything worked fine. I am wondering if the design is incorrect.

[InssiAjaton]

The ferrite ring (toroid) catalog data gives the inductance foe each. BUT it is a little confusing, because they can vary their units. Some give it per 10 wire turns, or per 100 turns and so on. The important thing to learn is that the inductance increases by the SQUARE of the number of turns. And then you naturally want to use the frequency dependence to get the impedance at your desired frequency. Here is just one arbitrary example. Assume you see a listing of 4 nH/ turn squared. So, with two turns you get 4 * 4 nH = 16 nH. 3 turns makes 9 * 4 nH = 36 nH. 5 turns produces 25 * 4 nH = 100 nH. Ten turns then is 100 * 4 nH = 400 nH or 0.4 uH.. That last one at 14 MHz represents 35.2 ohms impedance (not resistance). That is the core of the required knowledge. Beyond that, you are going to pay attention to the frequency range that the selected ferrite is specified. And for the kilowatt implementations also thermal issues. Different ferrite materials have different maximum temperatures. But that is enough for the basics.

[darrellwofford]

W5ESH Darrell what size wire is used to make the Baluns

[DesertFernweh]

Great Video, I am just getting into Radio (not even a HAM yet, just planing around with some SDR's). Thinking of building one of these for a 15M Dipole using strands of solid copper Ethernet cable.
As a network tech it's something I have in ready supply. I'll let you know how it work.

[sausagefingers]

i really love HF over in america, after listening to a few online SDR setups.. Americans seem to stop and chat a lot more compared to here in Europe, we just seem to CQ wait for a response, take call sign and then move on :(. i really like the 40m band too, i've spent a few evenings listening to some really interesting conversations between people in america

[Devinm]

I love your videos, but can you guys provide details in the description like suggest parts to buy? The presentation really didn't provide any detail at all. It was more along the lines of here is the magic device and kind of how it works, but you will have to guess on what materials you will need to buy it.

[richarde]

9:30 where might I find this Balun Chart (that Bruce references) on the internet ???

[andrewhill]

Thanks for posting an interesting and informative video on a choke balun. M6APJ 73's.

[eddy]

Excellent all your video, only one question.For 20 and 40 meter a can use ft240-43 or ft240-31 wish one work better thanks in advance Eddy

[ranger]

Where did you get the electrical box for building the balun. I can't seem to find them. Henry

[ElecTechie]

On a 1:1 current balun like the one you described, is the connections to the SO-239 critical ? Can they be wired either way as long as I have the right ends soldered to each other ? ( which I do )

[princearthur]

This was an excellent presentation with good teaching material! Thanks!

[rumsin]

Excellent presentation on baluns. Thx,

[davidb]

I built the Balun and is good at reducing received noise, but it acted like a loading coil and reduced the resonant frequency by 2 MHZ. I would have to trim maybe 6 feet of antenna on both sides of the dipole to get back to 40 meters.
Did anyone else have this problem

[colinmartin]

Everytime i hear someone say 3 to 1 swr is ok then use the atu. I have designed antennas professionally, and reject anything over 2:1. Even then i carry on to get 1:1 at the center of the required frequency and under 1.5:1 for at least 80% of the band in the case if ham hf bands. Teaching people that 3 to 1 is ok is not good. Everything has a ressonant frequency, so its down to the basics of making it resonate at the desired frequency, then design a feeder network to get the desired impedance. Do that and you have a happy antenna, with a 1:1 swr and some bandwidth. Even situations where there are physical restrictions to length, there are allways options available to get a smaller loaded antenna working at a low swr with a correctly designed feeder network... If you havent done that, then you havent finished designing the antenna... I have no room for an ATU in my shack. My radio runs straight through a swr meter, a low band pass filter, an antenna rorary sw, and to any one of my hf antennas, that comprise of a choice of 3 windoms, 3 verticals, and a 5el 6 meter beam with my own dual drive design. Please don't t teach people that 3:1 is ok.... Its a poor compromise at best...

[joeshmoe]

Why not just put the toroid on the thin jumper wire between the tx and antenna tuner? Can easily get 10 turns in, and don't need a box assembly.

[BonumMalumSuperate]

can you all do a video/class on using an icom ah4 on yaesu and kenwood radios, such as the yaesu ft.450d and the yaesu making a unit to start the tuning process.

[geirha]

Will baluns in general make RX improvements as well?