Your videos are still having a positive effect in the ham radio community. You explain and demonstrate balun designs in the most understandable way that ive found online so far. Thanks for your help.
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.
Excellent video. Please ignore the the people that don't appreciate your effort to communicate, they are trolls; they never have a QSO with anyone outside their own country. I am English, (300+years family history), I understood perfectly everything you said. RF is RF, regardless of the language or the accent. I am always happy to listen, happy to learn!
This presentation (part 100 & 101) is the best I've seen on the principals, theory, testing and practical elements of Balun's. A complete Mythos Zerschlagung tutorial.. Many thanks Peter and Wolfgang for your expertise and effort in bringing this excellent knowledge to the world of Amateur radio.. 73, G4RYO
I'm watching this series of videos for the second time because there is so much good stuff to learn, I need to watch it at least twice to take it all in. You have put a lot of work into this and I'm very grateful. I wonder how many people you have saved from radio interference and how many rigs you have saved from too higher SWR! Thank-you.
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!
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!
Just wound one on an FT-240-31 core using 14 AWG silver stranded with PTFE insulation, got ~-28 dBm flat from 0.5 to ~80 mHz on both the common mode scan and the balun scan. Also checked SWR plot using my AIMuhf from 0.5 to 60.5 mHz with SWR equal to or less than 1.1:1 (mostly 1.05:1) and Zmag practically 50 ohms or so close it's a gimmie, both traces near flat. Thanks for your videos, very informative.
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
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!
Wow, what an excellent job showing the secrets of baluns. Thank you so much and congratulations for doing it in English, I do work more in a foreign language than my mother language, and i know it is not that easy. People who complain can start to do the same in an other language than their own. Thank you so much for your precious time for the Amateur Radio Community ! You have all my respect OM. 73 de chris ha7wx
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.
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.
Great job Peter! I have ordered my parts and look forward to building this and the 4:1. Thanks for an informative and professional quality instructional video. 73, Skip
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).
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.
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
Hi Peter, thank you very much for your very nice implementation. Now everybody should be able to rebuild this important, essential accesory for every amateur radio station. 73 Olaf
Thank you! ALSO: Don't worry about pronouncing things in American, or coverneting to our units. We can convert the numbers ourselves, and your meanings are very clear and you are easy to understand. Your english is quite good. Thanks again for the education.
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 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
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.
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!!!!
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.
Great video. Most thorough coverage of the topic I can recall ever seeing. It would be interesting to also explore the topic at VHF/UHF/microwave bands.
Thank you for the video's. I built two, the 4:1 and the 9:1 both with the common mode current choke. They both work super! I had been using brand XX baluns and i was having problems with the common mode current in my headphones and my shack speaker system. With the new balun it is absolutely quiet in the speakers on TX unless i turn on the monitor. It is also cheaper to build one than to buy one.
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
Outstanding explanations with testing. I'm about to build a couple of Baluns. Luckily I bought the correct cores to make them with. Thank you for taking the time to show us. 73's ZL1HIM
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 RUclips 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 was having trouble with the 1:1 SWR. Then I twisted my pigtails together and it dropped like a rock. Ended up virtually flat and less than 1.25 from 3 to 30MHz. I'll shorten the in & out wires when I install it. I did not use the teflon coated wire but otherwise followed the instructions. The attenuation was better than -32 dB from 3 to 30 MHz and very flat as well. I tried a 1:1 with a FT140-43 core too and it was good but not this good. Thanks.
Hello Peter, an excellent video so thanks so much for posting it. Can you please tell me the values of the resistors you used on the inputs and outputs of the choke as shown on the text jig. Thanks, Jamie VK2YCJ
Is it a good idea to build this without any kind of test / analyzing equipment? It looks simple and straightforward to build. But if I do get something wrong, I wouldn't know. I plan to use this with a dipole. So far this has been the best video I have found on building a current balun.
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!
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"
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?
Hello Peter. Thank you for the meticulous work you have done to help technicians understand baluns. My question is would it be better to cover the core with fabric tape before winding the wire? This would be similar to the your "part 4" video for the 9:1 unun.
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, 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.
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.
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
Peter. A gentle addition to your already 5&9 plus English. The word which you were seeking is Inductance. Just our crazy English language which you handle very well!
Thank you for the hint, Howard. Well it is not your crazy English it is rather more my disability to speak your language in the right way...Thanks for watching 73
I want to thank you for your videos and even more, I want to thank you for taking the time to do them in English! The fact that you are able to do that is incredible to me. I have a hard time speaking one language. You speak English better than some people who are born and grow up in the USA. I love your videos! Thank you and keep up the good work.
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.
Followed these instructions carefully and made one using 16awg ptfe and 240/43 cores. Hope to test in a few weeks after I complete a few other antenna mods. Question about Heating: what heats what? Does wire heat the ferrite or does entire balun warm uniformly? n2eye
I just wound one like this on an FT-240-43 core using the same type of wire. The SWR curve is a bit different (using an Agilent 8712ES), peaking at about 1.15:1 at 30ish MHz and dropping back down to below 1.04:1 at 54MHz. Thank you much for the info on how to properly test these.
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.
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
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)
Obsoletely fantabulous. I'm going to use your balun design from now on. Hope you don't mind. Thank you very much for this awesome video and teaching. 73 DE W5ZX Juan
Hello. Again. Sorry to bother you. I never got your name. Also; I can't find the wire you are using where I live; USA. Most of what I can find is rated around 600 volts. I will like to use the one you use. Please advice as to where I can buy the one you are using on your video. Thanks in advance. Best Regards.Juan
hello! and thank you for nice video to let us learn more! my question is about in your video time 11:47 you say about the best core material you recoment show it in green line mark #3 but mark #4 look better , so my question is what is the material for that ferrite core? and if is better vs the material 43. Thank you!
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 .
Could you please point me where is the theory or calculation to determine the -2 and -4 db attenuation for 1:1 and 4:1 baluns when doing the common mode rejection tests that introduced in your video #100 and #200?
Thank you for the detailed video, I really learned a lot from it! One question I have is how do you know how many turns to do on the core, is it just a matter of utilizing the whole core, it looks like you had 12 turns on that one, if a bigger core was used would you just increase the turns to fill up each side? What is the diameter of that core you used?
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!
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
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....
Your videos are still having a positive effect in the ham radio community. You explain and demonstrate balun designs in the most understandable way that ive found online so far. Thanks for your help.
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!
Well done sir. Interesting and very informative. So much knowledge taught with two videos. Much easier than reading a book!
Excellent video. Please ignore the the people that don't appreciate your effort to communicate, they are trolls; they never have a QSO with anyone outside their own country. I am English, (300+years family history), I understood perfectly everything you said. RF is RF, regardless of the language or the accent. I am always happy to listen, happy to learn!
💖 same here, and I don't have 300yrs english background 😎
This presentation (part 100 & 101) is the best I've seen on the principals, theory, testing and practical elements of Balun's. A complete Mythos Zerschlagung tutorial.. Many thanks Peter and Wolfgang for your expertise and effort in bringing this excellent knowledge to the world of Amateur radio.. 73, G4RYO
I'm watching this series of videos for the second time because there is so much good stuff to learn, I need to watch it at least twice to take it all in. You have put a lot of work into this and I'm very grateful. I wonder how many people you have saved from radio interference and how many rigs you have saved from too higher SWR! Thank-you.
From The USA, thank you for the videos! You are a wealth of intelligence, and an asset to your country.
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!
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!
Just wound one on an FT-240-31 core using 14 AWG silver stranded with PTFE insulation, got ~-28 dBm flat from 0.5 to ~80 mHz on both the common mode scan and the balun scan. Also checked SWR plot using my AIMuhf from 0.5 to 60.5 mHz with SWR equal to or less than 1.1:1 (mostly 1.05:1) and Zmag practically 50 ohms or so close it's a gimmie, both traces near flat. Thanks for your videos, very informative.
What was the OD of the insulation. I made a trial with AVG16 and the ID was not enough. Exact type/source of wire would also help a lot. Thanks,
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
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
Wow, what an excellent job showing the secrets of baluns.
Thank you so much and congratulations for doing it in English, I do work more in a foreign language than my mother language, and i know it is not that easy. People who complain can start to do the same in an other language than their own.
Thank you so much for your precious time for the Amateur Radio Community !
You have all my respect OM.
73 de chris ha7wx
Hello Chris, - wish I know to speak French, but - "milyen kicsi a világ" 😎
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
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
Great job Peter! I have ordered my parts and look forward to building this and the 4:1. Thanks for an informative and professional quality instructional video. 73, Skip
Hi skip, thanks for watching have fun with the project. 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
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
My mother tongue is french and I understood every word without trying. Perfect videos thank you
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
GREAT & detail explanation for old and new hams! Thank you!!! 👍👌
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
Hi Peter, thank you very much for your very nice implementation. Now everybody should be able to rebuild this important, essential accesory for every amateur radio station.
73 Olaf
very good Olaf it is an honour 73
Thank you! ALSO: Don't worry about pronouncing things in American, or coverneting to our units. We can convert the numbers ourselves, and your meanings are very clear and you are easy to understand. Your english is quite good. Thanks again for the education.
Thank you
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
Great video with nice and easy english about balun
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
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.
Excellent series Peter, Thanks for this information, and also the perfect presentation
73
Derek
VO1KC
Enjoyed that tutorial Peter. Now I need to build my new balun for my big antenna. Thanks for sharing your knowledge my friend. 73
Thank you Buddy. Would be great to see you doing the project and replacing the new Balun into your Antenna... Thanks for watching 73
Sounds like a future video Peter! Will have to do that.
Yes absolutely! I'm sure that is going to be a great video! Have a nice evening 73
It will be done my friend :-)
Trx bench and the radio shop, I want to see that video, geterdon fellas, from Earl.
Very informative, thank you Peter.
Thank you Howard 73
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 !
I just learned a lot about baluns! Also learned that telfon wire is $$$ 😂
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.
Thank you for basically translating DG0SA’s web page into English for us. Wonderful video!
Nice finish to a very informative series.Really like these excellent tutorials...
Again thank you very much!
Great video. Most thorough coverage of the topic I can recall ever seeing. It would be interesting to also explore the topic at VHF/UHF/microwave bands.
Hi, thanks for the kind feed back! Yeah also exciting for VHF and up...Thanks for watching 73
This really answers a lot of questions. Very good information, thank you.
Thank you for the video's. I built two, the 4:1 and the 9:1 both with the common mode current choke. They both work super! I had been using brand XX baluns and i was having problems with the common mode current in my headphones and my shack speaker system. With the new balun it is absolutely quiet in the speakers on TX unless i turn on the monitor. It is also cheaper to build one than to buy one.
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
why do you put resistors when testing common mode ? and what the values
Outstanding explanations with testing. I'm about to build a couple of Baluns. Luckily I bought the correct cores to make them with. Thank you for taking the time to show us. 73's ZL1HIM
Great explanation. I got the same results using 18 awg magnet wire with then same size and mix toriod.
Thanks for watching Hank! 73
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 RUclips 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!
Thank you for such an informative video!
I was having trouble with the 1:1 SWR. Then I twisted my pigtails together and it dropped like a rock. Ended up virtually flat and less than 1.25 from 3 to 30MHz. I'll shorten the in & out wires when I install it. I did not use the teflon coated wire but otherwise followed the instructions. The attenuation was better than -32 dB from 3 to 30 MHz and very flat as well. I tried a 1:1 with a FT140-43 core too and it was good but not this good. Thanks.
Hello Peter, an excellent video so thanks so much for posting it. Can you please tell me the values of the resistors you used on the inputs and outputs of the choke as shown on the text jig. Thanks, Jamie VK2YCJ
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
Is it a good idea to build this without any kind of test / analyzing equipment?
It looks simple and straightforward to build. But if I do get something wrong, I wouldn't know. I plan to use this with a dipole.
So far this has been the best video I have found on building a current balun.
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!
[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
Great Peter.. Another excellent guide.
Cheers
John
Thank you my friend! All the best John Cheers!
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?
Great videos, mate! Very informative. Greetings from VK6 (Western Australia).
Thank you Aaron 73 to Australia!
your videos never fail to educate me Thank you
Hello Peter. Thank you for the meticulous work you have done to help technicians understand baluns. My question is would it be better to cover the core with fabric tape before winding the wire? This would be similar to the your "part 4" video for the 9:1 unun.
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?
OUTSTANDING. Good job as usual. Thanks for all you do. Do you have a design for a UNUN for 75 ohm CATV hard line to 50 ohm coax?
Well done. I did find it tickle me a bit every time you said balloon for bal-un.
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
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
Thanks a lot for these videos!! Very nice explanation and example! 73! (R2BBP)
Nice work Peter. Thanks.
Thank you Robert! 73
Thank you TRX bench. Very informative.
If i run 100W maximum, can i use just normal wire at 18 AWG? thank you....
Thank you for another great video !!! Could you do a short video and show the SWR curves with the cores heated up ?
73 N8AUM
Hi, yes a good idea for part 3... Thanks for watching and comment.73
Great video, thank you. Please do a part three and make up the full 4:1 balun.
Hi Ian, thanks for feed-back. Yes I consider to do a part 3 but now I have to do some normal stuff first..73
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
Great video. I helped me so much. 73
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
Thanks for another great video.
Peter.
A gentle addition to your already 5&9 plus English. The word which you were seeking is Inductance.
Just our crazy English language which you handle very well!
Thank you for the hint, Howard. Well it is not your crazy English it is rather more my disability to speak your language in the right way...Thanks for watching 73
I want to thank you for your videos and even more, I want to thank you for taking the time to do them in English! The fact that you are able to do that is incredible to me. I have a hard time speaking one language. You speak English better than some people who are born and grow up in the USA. I love your videos! Thank you and keep up the good work.
Thank you for the kind words! All the best and 73
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
Followed these instructions carefully and made one using 16awg ptfe and 240/43 cores. Hope to test in a few weeks after I complete a few other antenna mods. Question about Heating: what heats what? Does wire heat the ferrite or does entire balun warm uniformly? n2eye
Hello,
Nice video. Everything is explained very well and easily :) Question: Where can you buy this silver plated PTFE wire?
Enjoying the series!
I just wound one like this on an FT-240-43 core using the same type of wire. The SWR curve is a bit different (using an Agilent 8712ES), peaking at about 1.15:1 at 30ish MHz and dropping back down to below 1.04:1 at 54MHz. Thank you much for the info on how to properly test these.
Well shows very good performance nothing to complain I would say.. Thanks for watching 73
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.
Your videos are always the best👊👊
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
Wonderful ... I love your videos observer from Iraq
Thanks for feed-back and best wishes to Iraq! 73
thank you for another great video
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)
Thank You again for a very educational video!!
Thanks Lars! 73
Thank you so much for your videos.
Glad that you like it 73
Obsoletely fantabulous. I'm going to use your balun design from now on. Hope you don't mind. Thank you very much for this awesome video and teaching. 73 DE W5ZX Juan
Glad that the video was helpful to you! Thanks for watching 73
Hello. Again. Sorry to bother you. I never got your name. Also; I can't find the wire you are using where I live; USA. Most of what I can find is rated around 600 volts. I will like to use the one you use. Please advice as to where I can buy the one you are using on your video. Thanks in advance. Best Regards.Juan
Very nice work. Thank you.
hello! and thank you for nice video to let us learn more! my question is about in your video time 11:47 you say about the best core material you recoment show it in green line mark #3 but mark #4 look better , so my question is what is the material for that ferrite core? and if is better vs the material 43. Thank you!
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
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 .
Could you please point me where is the theory or calculation to determine the -2 and -4 db attenuation for 1:1 and 4:1 baluns when doing the common mode rejection tests that introduced in your video #100 and #200?
excellent
Thank you for the detailed video, I really learned a lot from it! One question I have is how do you know how many turns to do on the core, is it just a matter of utilizing the whole core, it looks like you had 12 turns on that one, if a bigger core was used would you just increase the turns to fill up each side? What is the diameter of that core you used?
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/
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
I made this balun for a 10 meter antenna in a delta loop and the swr was 1.06 at 28,400 Mhz. Thanks
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....