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The Balun Pages
With our Fluke digital IR/Thermal unit we are now able to see the core in real-time operation. The Henry 5Kw and some rather large resistors are giving some really spectacular results.
G Whip Professional Baluns for the Amateur
or
Baluns for the Professional and the Military
If you want real commercial Mil spec' quality, then download the catalogue above.
There's some real junk around! especially on Ebay, just look at this mess below, the connections are not even soldered but trapped behind the nuts, the Tri-filar winding is not even 50 ohm impedance because of the spacing/gaps, and also, a non waterproof box, and yes you are going to use it outdoors!!. The Chinese products are not much better either with water penetrating into the units, running down the coax cable and into the radio causing severe damage.
We have been studying the building and construction techniques of baluns and un/uns for a number of years and reference Jerry Sevicks excellent books on "Transmission Line Transformers", these books are expensive but have over 40 years of knowledge in them, add this information to the new breeds of ferrite mixes and you can come up with some remarkable new results. For instance, look further down the page and notice the visual sweep of a 4/1 G Whip balun, the return loss of 40db gives a 1.02/1 VSWR plot which is superb, and that is from approx 2 to 60MHz. Read the comments from users.
Think before you buy!!!!. So you need a balun? a voltage or current balun, a common mode choke balun? balanced lines? or unbalanced lines? un/un?. Windom? bal or unbal? ratio 1/1, 4/1, 6/1, 9/1 or 12/1?..............yes you guessed it, about 90% of amateurs just go and buy a box off the shelf, but is it the right thing for the job?
And here's another one below loaned to me by a friend, this 6/1 followed by a 1/1 common mode choke for a famous Windom is horrible, the sweep is shocking at 2/1++++ and the construction is just rubbish, common mode choke impedance is only 200 ohms @ 14MHz! so, wonder why your antennas don't work correctly?? The connections are not even insulated rendering the whole unit to short out when the wind blows.
Below is a close up of the right-hand unit, look carefully at the un-insulated connections
Why do amateurs pay £129.00 for this type of rubbish? .... Answer: Well nobody knows what is inside until things go wrong!
Here is another one made by a guy in the UK who sells antennas, we were sent this picture and then the box of what was claimed to be a 9/1 unit for a vertical fishing pole antenna......Really, a 9/1??? impossible!
There's lots more, but this one below was sent to us and wins the worst balun or un/un EVER: A 9/1 with the worst soldering we have ever seen, the SO239 is not even tinned/soldered and the reviewer of the unit said that the measurements are disgraceful (which we confirmed as we have one of the units) all in a non waterproof box with non stainless steel fittings and all hidden with plastic tape and stuck up with super glue so you cannot get into it to have a look!! how much? £32.00!!!.............just look at those terminated sweep figures! and yes the 1/1 and 4/1 units are not much better as we have those too!! Pity really because the core is quite good, the rest is, well, judge for yourself. We have now seen several of these units, full of water and rusty terminals, even some where when the core/wire was inserted into the box the screws punctured the core winding, so if you see baluns for sale without stainless steel fittings, leave them alone.
Many people use Micro-metal Ferrites, and they are good, but we have an in sight to even better mixes of grades of rings including ones used for professional applications using Type 31 or 43 but then F9 and F14 mixes are better for the applications required in dedicated frequency use. There's lots of new ferrite mixes entering the market that out perform the standard Iron Powder cores.
G Whip are able to design new ideas to give better efficiencies, our design work studies here in the UK open up great opportunities for superior products both electrically and mechanically and if you need a unit for professional purposes then look no further than here.
G Whip uses the finest test equipment to produce the BEST results, no expense is spared to get impedance matches the best, we have a vast range of Spectrum Analysers, Antenna Analysers, Sweep Generators, RF Field indicators and even Hand Held Spectrum Field Strength Analysers. We test EVERY unit and offer an analyser sweep.
Quality components including RG316/RG303 Teflon/PTFE coax, Teflon "N" and SO239 sockets all finished with Stainless steel hardware
Below is a G Whip professional 1/1 PTFE RG316 Mil' spec coax made balun, it is a choke balun that helps prevent rf from being returned on the braiding of the feed-line. High choking impedance well over 2500 ohms.
Below we have another of our professional designs, a 4/1 unit, it took many months of work and studying to get this PERFECT and just look at the sweep, the return loss is some 40db which gives a superb match over the whole HF spectrum. PTFE Mil spec wire in a Teflon sleeve ensures superb input impedance by keeping the wires close together, this is serious consideration when designing, not just copying. G Whip prides itself in designing and not like the many baluns found on Ebay that are just copied and never tested correctly. Read the comments from users.
Look closely at the unit, it has a PTFE SO239, total quality, the connections are stainless steel fittings which are potted to prevent coming loose, strain reliefs are fitted for suspension of the 2 lines, and also to support the coax so it is not pulled out of the PL259, a condensation hole is also drilled into the box. Finally, the whole construction is potted for total protection. The sweep below shows a sweep of 2 to 60MHz, the blue line is RL (Return loss) and the red line is VSWR over the range of 2 to 60MHz. Insertion loss is negligible.
1/1, 4/1, 6/1, 9/1, 12/1 in un/un or balun configurations and power levels up to 5kw for those of you who have high power permits, all made with PTFE wire and Teflon tube, plus of course the right cores, current or voltage models available.
QRP 1/1 COMMON MODE CHOKE:
Here's a nice lightweight fully potted 1/1 balun (Common mode choke) dipole centre, 10 watts pep, it uses a super core and RG 316 PTFE coax cable, cost? just £20.00 plus post. Fitted with solder tags and strain reliefs for the transmission lines. And yes it does have a lid, but we thought that we would show you the inside before you part with your cash!
100 WATT COMMON MODE CHOKE:
(Below) A superb in line 100 watt common mode choke to stop rf coming down the coax braid, PTFE low loss SO239 in/out sockets with coaxial strain relief. Fully potted and waterproof. Made from dual cores with fibre glass tape and PTFE coax this 5 + 5 turn should last a lifetime and is only £25.00 plus shipping. (Lid removed to show internals)...............Heavy duty versions up to 1KW.
200 WATT COMMON MODE CHOKE DIPOLE CENTRE:
A superb 200 watt common mode choke dipole centre to stop rf coming down the coax braid, PTFE low loss SO239 input socket with coaxial strain relief and 4mm stainless steel bolts with solder tags. Fully potted and waterproof. Made from a special mix of manganese/zinc and RG 316 PTFE coax this multi-turn unit should last a lifetime and is only £35 plus shipping. (Lid removed to show internals). We also have an in line version (SO239-SO239) which is superb (£45.00), tests were showed to dealers in August 2012 showing them how the returned rf was totally eliminated. We also use this unit as part of our end fed resonant antennas.
4/1 PROFESSIONAL BALUNS FOR THE AMATEUR
A selection of our own design 4/1 potted PTFE wound baluns in Teflon sleeving, PTFE low loss socket, stainless steel connectors and all potted in a special rf type resin. Strain reliefs for your transmission lines and coax plus mounting hook. Supplied with self amalgamating tape for connector etc. Read the comments from users.
4/1 HIGH POWER 500 WATT BALUN:
Another one of OUR own designs we guarantee that this is the best you will find on the market, it is as most say "A work of Art". This unit features IP rated box with condensation hole, MIL spec PTFE wire in Teflon tube, PTFE low loss SO239 socket, Stainless steel hardware with strain relief for transmission lines, all potted in a special resin. The core is Mn/Zi and is a massive 63 mm dia resin potted with an individual sweep.
From QRP to QRO, single cores or stacked cores G Whip have then all. Pictured in the middle below are 3 1kw Average (4 kw PEP) 4/1 baluns made of PTFE in Teflon tube.
We also supply the components, for instance, if you are making an ATU/Matcher and only want the wound core and not the potted core/box then we can supply it for you.
We have the finest components and prices are low!
Common Mode Chokes:
RF in the Shack or just want lower noise?
This has become an interesting subject in recent times. Many amateurs leave the hobby due to the many gadgets around that cause high noise levels, it is an interesting situation to go around your house with a portable HF receiver just to see what is generating noise. One of the biggest noise makers I found was my electric toothbrush base unit, noise could be heard from it at nearly 100 feet away, so, a quick addition of a small core on the mains lead and everything was gone. Another big noise maker is the switched mode power supply that powers those little halogen lights in the kitchen or bathroom, they are horrible things, best to change it for a linear transformer type.
There's dozens of these noise making machines, but they can be tamed with a little patience.
In our quest to search out these annoying RF generators we use a Tri-field monitor (100KHz to 2.5GHz), this is a fantastic little device for tracking down noise generators.
So, many of the problems can be ironed out on the receive side, noise can be killed!, but what about the transmit line? well similar units can also be used to stop the RF being returned to the "Shack", in fact I know of several stations using up to 3 effective common mode chokes, one at the station transmitter/amplifier, one in the feed-line, and one at the feed-point, this results in noise reduction by quite a few dbs on the receive side of things and also zero RF in the operating shack.
Another interesting case was involving interference on a PC monitor, RF was getting in and causing all sorts of problems, I asked the individual concerned if he had installed any ferrite rings on the monitor lead of which he replied "there is already one on the lead", now, the one that is fitted on the lead when it comes out of the factory is to get it through CE standards for it's own emissions and the ferrite used in that particular case is no good for attenuating rf coming in! meaning different cores for different jobs, so don't just go out and buy the "clamp on type ferrite" as most of those are for designed for internal emission problems.
G Whips "Big Boy" below..............Mn/Zi core with RG303 PTFE coax, this common mode choke is superb, it is a Guanella current balun with high choking impedance. If fitted with an "N" socket it can handle powers of up to 5KW pep. Ours is fitted with an SO239 made of Teflon, it has stainless steel hardware and is potted with a condensation hole. Click the picture for a large image and click here for the latest eHam report on this unit
Below is our "Smaller Boy" version available in SO239/SO239 or SO239 to tags, RG316 PTFE coax, 250 watt handling with ease, Teflon low loss sockets with IP rated box/condensation hole.
With our Fluke digital IR/Thermal unit we are now able to see the core in real-time operation. The Henry 5Kw and some rather large resistors are giving some really spectacular results.
Lots more to come.......................
Lots of Guanella Current Baluns!
More to add including Iron Powder Vs Zinc/Maganese & Ni/Zi cores and more on the Common Choke balun situation, in the meantime don't buy Iron Powder cores or baluns made from them. If you need to make a balun to fit into the ATU/Matcher and don't want a completed/potted one then email us as we can supply the finest materials to make your own unit, we stock F9 and F14 Ni/Zi and Zi/Mn cores, plus PTFE wire and Teflon tube.