Making Choke Balun (#797)

Tom, is getting back into ham radio. He has a question about the coax wound Balkan and the differences in the number of coils needed. He is wondering how he would figure that out.

Edited and Videographed by Aidan Jakeman

Twitter: @dcasler

[tomw]

Dave, thanks so much for answering my question. And you responded quickly. I enjoy your OGy sessions and have watched many of them. The choke was something we used when I was stationed in Panama in the late 70s. I don’t remember having antenna analyzers or even antenna tuners (matchers) them. If they were around, I couldn’t have afforded them back then anyway. Glad to be considered an OGy and keep passing out that knowledge in an understandable fashion. Tom

[julianrobertson]

Thank you for sharing . Here in England we have the ham radio licence for life .

[glenmartin]

Thank you, Dave. A good quick explanation. Have a great week. N0QFT

[gary]

Hi Dave . I am new to Ham Radio I am putting up a Tri-band HF antenna they said it needs a coil of 12 turns at 6 inches in diameter. I have RG213 coax . I wasn't sure how to make a coil of that size with such thick coax. I noticed you had used a piece of plastic tube to wind the coax around. I thought this was a great idea maybe obvious to you but being new it was a great hint. I intend to leave the coax in the sun for a couple of hours to soften it up before attempting the coil. As a new amateur I have found your videos very helpful thank you for taking the time to produce them.
Gary (VK3VAG) Australia.

[AlanElBee]

Thanks Dave, for a great explanation. Cheers, K7KS

[frankbaron]

i built a homebrew dipole for 10 meters. because i am in an apartment, i don't have great grounding so i bought a balun from ebay, or ali epress. i forget which. it worked but narrow banded on 10 meters. i have a resonat point of about 100k then the swr just flies out of range. dould it be caused by too many winds in the balun? i've bought myself a torroid for making my own. i got an ft-140-61 as i want it good for 10 meters. any ideas on how to go from there? i've seen a few videos but they seem to contradict each other

[murphybrown]

So if your swr is 1:1 and you show 0 return how do you tell if you need one of these? Does it cut down on noise? I am running a super J with no problems.

[MaciejBaur]

This is strange for me why we call this choke balun but not choke unun, because in many cases it is made out of coax wounded on nothing (air coild) or around toroid but coax is on input and output side. So unbalanced coax enters choke and unbalanced coax leave choke.

[ybarferry]

Dave, very interesting and useful. 73 De YB0AR Ferry

[vkwl]

l'm a firm subscriber to the K9YC Common Mode Choke Cook Book.

[reynaldobetances]

Good morning, i have an IC-746pro and It does not tune with traje pre amp on, what can be done?thank you.

[ACHT]

Thanks, Dave. Appreciate the video. 73, AC3HT

[GeorgeAdams]

If you were to use snap-op ferrites for a UHF J-pole, would type 31 work? I’m no expert in reading those data sheets but it seems like it would but I might need near half a dozen.

[researchcapt]

Dave, you can get cardboard shipping tubes that I think the antenna might fit into. You might also be able to ship it in some PVC pipe with end caps that are taped on. I'm sure a lot of people would like to have an antenna that was shown on one of your episodes. 73 KO4KYI

[brandonh]

I really want to send this to a amature friend of mine but there are so many crotch shots I'm worried he would think I'm a perv