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One particular practical advantage of a coax balun over other types, is that
it can live out “in the weather” – no sealed box, no connectors no messy
tape or sealants. Yes, coax baluns can be large. Some may consider them
ugly, but they are effective for a very wide range of balun applications. Most
important to many is that they and are easy to make and inexpensive.
Let’s now see how to build one. First you need to choose one of the build-
it-yourself methods above. Next you need to determine the number of turns
and the diameter of the coil for a given band. Some may consider this
difficult; it isn’t. Fortunately, three easy-to-remember math-free rules-of-
thumb that will get you there.
The first derives from the primary responsibility of ALL baluns: to keep
transmitter RF inside the feed coax. Baluns can also serve other functions
other than choking off shield RF, but that is the important one. RF being
carried by coax should exist ONLY between the outside surface of center
conductor and the inside surface of the shield or braid. It should not be
allowed to find its way onto the outside surface of the coax, where it is
technically known as common-mode current. Failure to realize the
importance of this fundamental reason for a balun ultimately forced me to
begin using a 1:1 choke balun during antenna development. Common-
mode current (RF on the shield), before then had been keeping me from
seeing the performance I knew should be there.
You can make it larger, but 200 Ohms is a satisfactory starting point. Many
published designs suggest more, and that is fine.
Let’s now look at two practical examples. Try the the two steps with the
calculators for yourself; the process is straight forward.
Calculator (1) translates the 200 Ohms of reactance at 146 MHz to 0.22 µH
of inductance.
Calculator (2) next translates 0.22 µH of inductance into 3 turns of 0.2 in.
diameter coax (RG-58 or LMR-200) on a 1 in. diameter form.
This balun seen in Figure 1b, wound on a handy 3D-printed quick form.
The 3D printer file (.stl ) for this coil form is available free for download at
w6nbc.com/3d and arrl.org/qst-in-depth.
Figure 2: The minimum 160m and Some may be wondering about randomly winding a
higher ugly balun.
coax balun, Figure 1c & 1d. It’s quite okay. A neat
coil on a form, Figure 1a, is not essential.