After watching TRX Bench on Youtube, I learned how to make a balun. I am still a bit fuzzy on all the technical terms, but it is to convert an unbalanced load to a balanced one, hence BAL-anced to UN-balenced.
It is really neat to see all the different types, and to figure out what you would use them all for. To be honest, I haven’t got it all figured out yet. For now, I’m building baluns for specific antenna projects, where some other HAM has already charted the waters. In theory, then the antenna setup should work, it is only a matter of testing my home made balun.
For this project, I’m making a 1:1 balun, and two 4:1 baluns. The 1:1 is wound on a FT130 and the 4:1’s are wound over a FT140 toroid. Thus the slightly different sizes. I followed the Youtube video pretty closely, although I did use different wire, so I hope that they work well.
I also learned that I can double them, such as these two 4:1 baluns can be put together in series to make a 16:1 balun, or backwards to make a 1:1 balun. Either way, it’s fun to experiment and learn!
Linux – keep it simple.