Dx engineering 1:1 balun or ugly balun?

kb8viv

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Nov 3, 2012, 11:52:42 PM11/3/12

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Hey gang, i was working on my full wave horizontal 80 mtr loop and
decided to add either an "ugly balun," or possibly a dx engineering 1:1
balun. The antenna is abt 275 ft long and is currently just fed
directly with coax, and I use it for 10-80 operation with a tuner.

Obviously, i like the cost of building an ugly balun, but will it work
as good as the 1:1 dx engineering balun? Thanks in advance.

73's de kb8viv

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kb8viv

W5DXP

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Nov 4, 2012, 9:34:13 AM11/4/12

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On Saturday, November 3, 2012 10:52:42 PM UTC-5, kb8viv wrote:
> Obviously, i like the cost of building an ugly balun, but will it work
> as good as the 1:1 dx engineering balun? Thanks in advance.

Here's some information: http://www.karinya.net/g3txq/chokes/

As you can see, there are none of the air-core baluns that work very well 80m-10m because they are narrow-banded. Note that 25 turns is not enough turns for 80m and too many turns for 10m. Compare the bandwidth of the ferrite toroid baluns to the bandwidth of the air-core baluns. (We might define that bandwidth as any color except red, i.e. any frequency where the choking impedance is greater than 1K ohms.)
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73, Cecil, w5dxp.com

Wayne

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Nov 4, 2012, 11:34:02 AM11/4/12

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"W5DXP" wrote in message
news:391423c4-7a19-4827...@googlegroups.com...

On Saturday, November 3, 2012 10:52:42 PM UTC-5, kb8viv wrote:
> Obviously, i like the cost of building an ugly balun, but will it work
> as good as the 1:1 dx engineering balun? Thanks in advance.

# Here's some information: http://www.karinya.net/g3txq/chokes/

# As you can see, there are none of the air-core baluns that work very well

80m-10m because they are narrow-banded. Note that 25 turns is not enough
turns for 80m and too many turns for 10m. Compare the bandwidth of the

ferrite toroid baluns to the # bandwidth of the air-core baluns. (We might

define that bandwidth as any color except red, i.e. any frequency where the
choking impedance is greater than 1K ohms.)

Nice link.

kb8viv

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Nov 4, 2012, 2:44:23 PM11/4/12

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Thanks for the reply. At this point I may just forego the balun all
together and continue to just feed theloop with coax. Thanks again es
73's.

Kb8viv

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kb8viv

Boomer

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Nov 4, 2012, 8:18:34 PM11/4/12

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I have a 75 meter loop. I feed it with 600 ohm open wire ladder line. I
have experimented with coax and window line.

The 600 ohm ladder line is extremely low loss. This makes up for the
nasty mismatch on 75 meters. This scheme got me an antenna that works on
10, 15, and 20 with no tuner. The VSWR is less than 1.6:1 on the worst
spot on these bands.

I use this antenna mostly on 75 meters and it works very very well. For
some reason I cannot say, the side null of noise from town increased and
I got less noise on all bands switching from 450 ohm window line to open
wire ladder line. I cannot explain why this happened. It is very nice to
see a S0 noise reading on 20, 15, and 10. My 75 meter noise is still
between S2 and S3. However, that is quite a step up from what I had
originally.

I think the good match on the high bands is because the loop feed point
gets higher in impedance at the higher frequencies.

I checked my worst case losses with a calculator on the web. It is found
here http://www.kc9aop.net/HAM/antenna_facts.htm#trans_line_loss_calc

Mine calculated out to be about 1/2 db at 75 meters.

Michael

kb8viv

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Nov 5, 2012, 7:20:32 AM11/5/12

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Hi Michael,

Tnx for the reply and info. At this point it works well, so I think
I'll just run the coax with a few loops at the feedpoint and call it fit
for service. Tnx agn es 73's.

Kb8viv

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kb8viv

Ralph Mowery

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Nov 5, 2012, 12:21:37 PM11/5/12

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"kb8viv" <kb8viv....@radiobanter.com> wrote in message
news:kb8viv....@radiobanter.com...

I do not ever recall seeing it, but maybe two 'ugly baluns" could be used.
One with say 10 turns (or what ever) and then a few feet away another with
20 turns. One would be good for say 3 to 15 mhz and the other good for 15
to 30 mhz.

However by the time you use this much coax, the bead type choke may be
cheaper.

John Ferrell

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Nov 6, 2012, 11:07:12 AM11/6/12

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An interesting thought. I have not read anything that discussed it
before.
Perhaps both the W2DX choke and the ugly balun?

Or may be one is really enough?

John Ferrell W8CCW

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