First part of the lightweight outdoor radio antenna: the balun / 2016-09-09

After building and testing the Sotabeams dummy load I had time to work some more on the ordered parts. The main part of the order at Sotabeams was parts for outdoor antenna building: an antenna centre and 1:1 balun and linked dipole portable HF antenna kit.

The HF antenna kit does include parts for a simple centerpiece/balun but I decided to get a separate balun that should make these things easier and/or sturdier.

The balun build was doable, but soldering coax on the connectors gave a bit of a problem as the solder did not want to flow on those connectors very well. Maybe clean them next time or even sand them a little to make that easier.

Next part will be the rest of the HF antenna for which I will need an antenna analyzer and time outdoors in the daylight.

And I wanted a nice picture of the Sotabeams balun to go with this post, so I found the time to walk out with the camera myself and share it via flickr: Sotabeams balun, CC-BY-SA.