Building my own balun, part 5: First tests of the result / 2018-04-16

Homemade balun SWR scan 1-60 MHz 20180415

Homemade balun SWR scan 10 meter band 20180415

Homemade balun SWR scan 20 meter band 20180415

So I removed the old balun and installed the one I made. Removing the old one wasn't easy: the Fritzel balun has a cover over the SO239 connector which makes the heavy duty connector I used very hard to unscrew. So I had to break bits of that cover to get the needed access. And the connector ended with a lot more scratches from my attempts to get access to it.

But now the balun is replaced, and measured. And it looks like some things have changed now causing the antenna to be 'mistuned'.

Update: Just some measurements and thinking: adding the big common mode choke in the mix makes the combination show better SWR curves (still not what I want) but with the frequency with the best SWR still too low. This suggests (to me) two things: I need more windings on the ferrite core and less extra wire length from the core to the connectors. Time for a rebuild.

Other parts of this project:

• Building my own balun, part 1: idea and parts needed
• Building my own balun, part 2: measuring the 'old' balun
• Building my own balun, part 3: First work on the case
• Building my own balun, part 4: Deciding on where to put dipole ends and finishing it