How to Build a 4:1 Balun Start to Finish with Mike and Callum
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 2 апр 2022
- Mike and I built a 4:1 balun from scratch. Tag along, enjoy the banter and maybe even learn something! Callum (and Mike-M0MSN)
Mike's channel is here: / hollyend01
More videos:
• Antenna Modelling Antenna Modelling
• Tips and Tricks Tips and Tricks
• Antennas Antennas
• Live Streams Live Streams
• Commander World My Stuff
• Foundation Training Ham Radio Training 
Наука
In the USA, solder is pronounced "sawder". My dad corrected me on this when I was about 8 years old and he gave me my first soldering iron. "Unplug it when you're not using it and don't burn our house down," was all he asked. And as he taught me to solder, he said, "Heat if first, then introduce the solder." So of course I said, "Solder, meet wire... wire, meet solder."
You provide a WONDERFUL video, all the time, Callum! Thanks! (I lived in Gloucester, each summer, for some 20 years, building barometers with an English craftsman, now passed on.) You have a WONDERFUL country!! Now that I found you, I watch you every day, to learn something new, that is so vital to know! Mike does a GREAT JOB of winding the toroids, and a FUN MATE as well! I enjoy building antennas as you do!! Thanks again, for all that you provide for us with, out here, in 'Yank Land'!! ....K6PAM
Brilliant! Well Mike lives very close to Gloucester.. He often pops up to the shop too. He's good fun! PS - Welcome!! :)
this came up as a recommendation again this evening… it’s always good to see you and Mike hanging out and having fun together!
Yeah that was a fun day!
love this, not seen two grownups have so much fun making a transformer ,thanks guys
Our pleasure!
Much appreciated for all the work you do and sharing your wealth of knowledge 👍
This is some of the best hands on tech lesson I've ever seen. The light hearted way you work is so refreshing. This stuff should be fun and you both make it so. You also keep the details clear so those of us watching really get what happening. Thanks you!
Wow, thank you!
Bloody top job there fellas. I'm going to build one this weekend!
Great video with both of you. Enjoyed this video. I learn a lot from you two
Glad you enjoyed it!
You two are like my brother and I when we work together, our customers get a free dog and pony show. You make me laugh. So how we pronounce SOLDER is SODER. We do that with many words here in the US, it change's from state to state. We are a strange nation. I'm enjoying the build, keep them coming.
We are.
You guys are a hoot to watch.. Great build..
LOL ..... Two of my favorite channels.
Entertained and learnt something at the same time. Thanks.
great video you two make a great team great humour thanks
Ha! The "Dave-Joke" had me rolling over here!
Haha, me too. I enjoyed that.😁👍
2 of my fav channels combined😉👍
Mine too!
Loved it . Great video guys.
Glad you enjoyed it
Very enjoyable video. Thank for making this. Also ordered the bits to make one myself. 73's
Cool, enjoy!!
Mike is a hero! Saved me from Covid terror! I love what you du, guys! 73 de LA6UOA!
Good video guys! Essential stuff!
Thanks for watching!
You remind me of the comedy series "The Two Ronnies." Enjoyed very much. Now ship that balun to me in N.Y.😄
Haha!
This is timely. Had just decided today that I wanted to build a yagi for which the driven element will be a full-wave folded dipole, & I will use these instructions to cobble a 4:1 onto it!
remember 300 ohm folded with one refl becomes 150 ohm, then add a director it becomes 75 ohm.
Very Professional construction gentelmen .
Enjoyed this video and paused it to see the windings step by step, it helped allot and I also had to cut another length of wire lol. If you have a signal generator and oscilloscope put the frequency you want into the balun and look at it on each side of the output you will see it looks very even on both sides if it is made correctly. I tested another one this way and found it to be very faulty so from now on I think I'll be making my own whenever I need one. There is also a way to combine two of these into one for even more better performance if need be.
OK, thank for the lovely comment. And good idea too!
show us the photos!😄
You're a character Callum!😁
Thats some serious torroids and wire you guys got, no half arsed stuff on this channel.👍I bought some copper wire like that from a motor rewinder, I was required to re secure a fresh air intake on a defence facility, alarm wire to prevent climbing through. I like to build my own gear too. I like instructional videos.🍺👍🤓
Photos.. I will take it apart some time..
Excellent. Wish I had seen this before I built one a few years ago.... Great to see a fine sense of humour to accompany - too many humourless Amateurs around! Now going to build another one to go with the Doublet I am planning. Al GM4ENF.
Many thanks!
Great video and fun. Mike is one of the best builders I have found here. I’d love to see you two build the final version of the 12.4. Or just mine 👍
Very enjoyable video nice work
Thank you very much!
Really good Job👍
Thank you! Cheers!
Outstanding and entertaining! Thanks, 73, AA4EZ
You are correct sir, US Americans do say Solder with the l silent, yet hearing you two saying it with the L plainly tucked within it, to me it sounds rather gigglish.
This was my first time watching any of your videos and I will definitely watch more as the two of you are both entertaining and engagingly funny. Greatly educational and fun to watch and learn. Being a ham for 40-plus years but for the most part, doing it from a Lorry, I think that is what you call trucks there, my building of such things was not needed as most of what I installed on the cross country vehicles was bought from stores or hamfests here in the "colonies".
Yeah, we use the term "lorry" too. Truck is probably more common - but YOUR trucks are often big cars with flatbeds. Very good. And welcome!
Wonderfully enjoyable to watch you chaps working together. Most amusing. Only thing that moisture might cause an issue with over time is the ring terminals on those studs... maybe. Would be worth a smudge of vaseline.
Good idea!
I just took down a matching transformer from an end fed antenna that had been up for at least five years. It had a "weep" hole drilled in the bottom (probably 1/16") and it was clean and dry inside. I recommend drilling a hole. . . .
So do I.
Thank for the information and the fun. Yes we don't do English right! But we do get things done! I thought about sending you information about the Hamfest on this side of the Pond!Florida! There are some Hamfest in the winter here. Thought you may like to go to a Hamfest and stay some and check out the beaches! Just an idea! 73 W4DES
I would need a pass-out!
Great entertaining video Callum and Mike.
Can I suggest you do what I do when winding any toroid, I use a bit of string first to get the length, then add the fiddle factor to avoid Murphy...........
I love the METRIC ADJUSTABLES...
I appreciate the Two Ronnies too.. LOL
Great tip!
This is the first Balun video that’s started to make sense. It’s literally a power transformer, where neither side is conducive to each other. They make red and gold enamel wire. It might be even easier to understand if you use 2 colors (colours). I’m trying to make a true multi-band HT antenna using a fan-vertical. I’ve made a dual band resonant on 2M and 70cm. But the SWR is at least 4. The same problem the Signal Stick has. So I’m hoping to fit a 11mm torroid in the base…. Some how
G'luck.
I would liked to see two different colors of wire. Say dark reddish and lighter yellowish color. This helps in matching up the otherside, and get the connections not confused. Experience told me that whem you use red and black plastic coated wires its ver easy. Enjoyed your interaction during the video. Greatly done guy's!
I made a 4:1 balun with a half-wavelength of coax. It seemed to work fine, but it was for a specific frequency. I used that to couple a 50-ohm transmitter output through a quarter-wave shorted matching stub to two end-to-end dipoles.
Lovely!
"sodder" is about the way we pronounce it over on this side of the pond.
Great video guys i did enjoy it I have to ask though what would be the maximum power you would throw at this balun
Hi Andy.. Mike and I think probably around 500W. Need to test it out. Will do shortly..!
I love the fun. Your design looks like a guanella / current balun which is also a transmission line balun. i.e. dual 100 ohm windings in parallel (50 ohms) on the so239 50 ohm end, with the output 100 ohm windings in series (100 ohm's x 2) at the open feed antenna end equaling 200 ohms. it will be very good at not only the impedance transformation but also as common mode rejection keeping the coax from being part of the antenna etc. A quick check on how well it goes would be to use a nice low 50 ohm output signal source (a QRP transmitter), resistors making around 200 ohms on the balanced output and check the transmit impedance and SWR. If the radio sees low SWR across the bands you have done the job right. I would interested to see how much of the HF band it would cover, I expect it would do 80 through 10 meters or even more before the SWR begins to rise using a 200 ohm restive load.
I use a 4:1 current balun with a 160 meter horizontal loop which is both resonant a similar match on the 2nd harmonics as you go up the bands.
Hello Richard.. This was all Mike's doing. I'm not a choke or balun sort of guy. But I love it! We will be installing soon :)
besides being entertaing, very informative thank you!
Glad to hear it!
Fun video to watch and learn how to do 4:1 practicaly. Question: Where did you get that big box for balun? :D Where can I get one?
Oh.. I don't know.. Just a google search probably turned it up. "small waterproof enclosure" (maybe RS Components..?)
Nice video. I would like to know your opinion on winding teflon tape or just plastic covering for those baluns before applying bare wire or enamel coated wire. I have burned a few baluns and some tech guy tell me one doesn't need to "isolate" your ferrite from the wire.
OK.. Now that one is out of my league.. I'm sorry I don't know.
I’ve, made several baluns lately, it’s fun. I don’t know if I’ve seen this exact style, so good to see a different one. On pushing the wire through, I found it easier to put the end of the wire through and pull it through. Any advantage of doing it the way you are doing it?
Oh heck. I don't know. I leave this sort of thing to Mike! LOL
I put a drain tube in the 4:1 balun I use and some ants decided to seal it closed with mud. They probable had plans to make a nest in it.
Beautiful 👍. So does coax size matter and if so why? Reason is we have a bunch of RG 59 in stock.
Don't know.. See if Mike comes along. He's better at that than I am.
Ages ago, I made one of these using ordinary speaker wire. Seemed to work fine.
As vezes eu fico na dúvida, 4:1 ou 1:4 ? É consequência do idioma ou características do balun ? Boa noite.
I love you cal and Mike y’all are historical. I’m a Mike too we are the best chow de N2dbi ny
Awesome!!
Thanks!
@@DXCommanderHQ Ya over here it is Sodder!! 😋
Same fun at second time watching this! Does Mike wears mismatched shoes?
Always!
I want to build my first off center fed dipole. How would I wire that? Using the disgram on his phone, is it just one dipole to "hot" and the other to "cold," or is it more complex than that? Thanks!
I'm surte you worked it out by now..!
OMG OG was best
just a 1k pot or 500 ohm pot, (variables) connect to antenna side, run the analyser , turn the pot to the 1:1 indication, read the pot with a multimeter, done!
Aqui no Brasil é difícil encontrar um núcleo toroidal com boas características.
In my area we have several large electrical shops that rewind large industrial motors and alternators, such as those used for locomotive traction. If they have the correct diameter would that be suitable wire for a balun?
Sure!
The worst thing about enameled wire is that, besides chipping nails, it burns the skin of your fingertips! For me, it is usual to get blisters from winding baluns...
Could you fill the inside of the box with epoxy to weatherproof the balun, or would that effect it negatively?
No, I think that would be inert..!
Hi Callum/Mike….the wrapping of this impedance transformer appears to be different than the way Mike wrapped his 49:1 and 64:1 transformer. I am guessing that there are more ways to wrap them. I always thought that Mike like to save copper when making these impedance transformers…..Yes? Are all three of these transformers known as Current or Voltage devices? WD4IFT
Talk to Mike on his channel - but yes, it's totally differnt to his 49 and 64s.. Well spotted.
did you setup a kitchen counter top for Mike to work on ? you could have at least put a Keurig or maybe a toaster on the bench to make him feel more at home.
HAHA
If you worry about moisture, would it is possible to pot this in resin?
Hmm. Actually, I don't worry about moisture, some folks do. Guess you could, sure.
I had forgotten about the window pane song! Or is it window pain?
Erm.. Pane?
FWIW: I use Super Glue to stack Toroid Cores. Works great with a Good Sized Dot at each of the 4 quadrants. To be safe, wear disposable vinyl gloves if you don't like living on the edge. Haha...
73 Y'All
Living on the edge! LOL
An antenna I'm interested in building is supposed to have a resistance at the feedpoint of 600 ohms! Is there such a
thing as a 12:1 BalUn?
Interesting! I don't know.. What about a 4:1 and a 2:1 together!?
That one at the end of the video is an instrumental test ?!?
'MSN has the wrong glasses frames to be a proper Ronnie. Callum, you're fine. :-D
Can you please let us know where you got the wire and cores from.
Oh heck.. Pop over to Mike's channel and ask him. He knows everything.. RUclips seach: Mike-M0MSN :)
Those toroids look larger than 240 ? If they talked about that I might have missed it.
Erm.. no I think they are 240s..
As a newbie and have never built anything I now find I'm in need of a 4.1 balun.
So instead of buying 1 I would like to give this a try ,so my first question is does it matter on the size of the Ferrite Ring,s or not and do I need more than 1 , in this video what is the reason for sticking 2 together.
I hope nobody minds my question.
Hiya David, for a simple home-brew and a first time, no - you will be fine. The only reason we built this so big is that I wanted very high power capability.
Cores don’t conduct, but that enameled wire can be nicked on the sharp edges of the core.
Also, it would have been nice to see a test (swr and common mode attenuation) of the balun.
It would. Let me tell you it works :)
It is interesting to build your own, but now see why a good balun costs so much
What software was Mike using in his phone?
It was just google.. He did a search for a 4:1 balun I think.
Eureka! Dremel for doing the part I really hate about making coils - getting the #£$*Ing varnish off 😡
In the US we say "sodder". But tht has a different meaning where you are. ;-)
haha yES!
I just built a 4:1 balun today using a single FT240-43 apparently it should be good for 800w, triple ferrites should be able to do 2400w.
Haha.. OK!!
Hi cal! Love you videos! Next time someone asks you for a dummy load, offer to stick your finger into the coax for a laugh. 😂 (In all good fun)
Great idea!
How not to get confused where to put the radial in the 2 slots?
I am so sorry but I don't understand.
Spell it solder and say it solder. For a while I would keep almost spell it like soldier.
In American English, while kind of dialect itself, we have several within it.
1.8mm means which Guage enamel copper Wire Sir...?
No idea.. There are calculators on the internet - I have never used the term guage so I can't even guess a little bit :)
call yourself CBer's. use a decade box set at 200ohm or 2 x 100ohm resisters in series connected on the out and connect your analyser to the so239 should get low swr and 50ohms.
Good for you!
Nice video, i will built one myself. (I like the 90% stupidity and jokes) When you put the screws not on top but a the sides, water will not leak in as fast.
I really enjoyed watching this… some of the explanation about the winding lost me because I’m not the brightest bulb in the box, but that doesn’t matter, the engineering of it all was good coz I’m an engineer albeit a third rate one, but that doesn’t matter because I can still build, it’s the science and theory that cocks me up, as it does many others, but that doesn’t matter because we all love it dunwe eh!.
Best wishes to everyone… mind how you go!
73
Me too.. Ask Mike!
In ‘Merica, we say ‘saw der’. 😄
saw der! Funny :)
how powerful is that balun ?
You mean how much power does it handle before it oversaturates / melts etc. Don't know. Probably 1kW. Maybe more.
Thank you for presenting this, but I need to respectfully provide a word of warning - while this balun will give you excellent SWR on a test jig with a 200 Ohm resistive load, its performance will disappoint. I made one based on the TRX lab design and while I could get an excellent match on all HF bands using my 132' doublet, the noise was unacceptably high. After researching the issue, I discovered Owen Duffy's blog that explained why this design would fail. It's essentially a Guanella balun, but the flaw is in the use of a single core. Guanella's design assumes two cores. The Elecraft BL2 is a perfect representation of his design. The schematic is freely available. The difference I observed when substituting one for the other on my doublet was profound.
Great
34:14 🤣
I'll see your Solder and raise you an Aluminum 😄
And I'll see you with this bar of gold!
😄@@DXCommanderHQ
a 6:1 or a9:1 may be a better choice on a random wire instead of the 4:1
Erm.. might be. But ideally not random!
Like whatching frick and frack solder or soder
34:14 LOL
I'd forgotten about that sound byte!!
You need to do more videos together.
Yeah, it's all about time.. Mike and I are always so busy.. We would like to.
Yes, here in the US we say it like saw-der.
Weirdos! LOL :) HAHA
LOL, yeah. In New England they'd likely drop the R too and turn it into sawda.
15:08 400 ohms to 200 ohms will not work properly As the basic equation for transformer ratio is in place the line impedance does not match. Two wires next to each other have an impedance of around 100 ohms. If you twist those wires depending on the parameters of the twist you can lower the impedance, if you separate wires you could get a higher impedance. that's why on 49:1 you will twist wires to be closer to 50 ohms. Of course, it will work, but the transceiver (if you have 200 ohms one) will see a different SWR as some power will reflect from the balun itself but only if it's unintended. There are intentional uses of such a mismatch like a quarter-wave transformer. Fun facts: RJ45 is twisted to 50 ohms and RJ11 is twisted to match 75 ohms. Until recently I lived in the world of bliss not aware of it. I did know how to make 600 ohms line but I did not think about the first rule of making antennas "Everything affects everything".
Hi- I’m rusty on this, so apologies if I’m wrong … but for these transmission line transformers the maximum power transfer occurs at the geometric mean of the input and output impedances, being 100 Ohms here for 50 to 200 Ohms. By calc these closely wound turns of 1.8mm diam wire will be about right then, I think :) .
@@davidw460 I said about 100 ohms because that takes into account the size of wires and spacing between them. You can find an online calculator to be accurate. The first thing about amateur radio is that "about" is good enough to make a QSO. What you can always do is connect 200 ohms resistor and use NanoVNA to measure SWR, input loss, impedance etc., and then spread or tighten spacing. The formula for a Quarter-wave impedance transformer can be found on Wikipedia, but the wavelength is frequency bonded so if you are expecting a multiband antenna you will have to just test it. or calculate for every point of your interest on a frequency scale. Or just use some software.
@@davidw460 And yes 50 to 200 is a perfect match, I was talking about the hypothetical situation he mentioned, and that other realistic of matching 1000 to 250 ohms.
A good 4:1 wideband RF transformer for 50 ohms (to 200) will not perform as well with different impedance of source and load as you claim @ 0:33 (1,000 to 250 ohms): its performs will be much worse. This is due to the different ratio between the reactance of the self-inductance and the source or load impedance.
Yes. Thanks.
Dave Cassler mention +1
WITH music x10!
Are you guys drunk?
Why not?
Always.
Callum, N. Americans pronounce solder this way: imagine you were complaining to your mate about some lady who pissed you off. You would say "well, sod 'er". You're welcome. ;-)
Sod'er.. Got it!
And that's why Palomar engineers and others charge $100 for a good balun!
Absolutely!
See ham radio hobby should always be this fun not a bunch of gate keeping tech snubs.
sawda
I'm Callum didn't slather vaseline all over it to waterproof it