Balun

Related wiki pages : Antennas, Tuners, Impedance, Feedlines

What is a balun
Balun comes from the words BAlanced to UN'balanced, and is a device to connect balanced and unbalanced parts of a circuit together. Hams frequently use baluns with antennas.

A balun has two purposes:
 * to isolate a transmission line
 * to provide balanced output current

What is involved in effective balun design?
Effective balun design will include:
 * high winding inductance
 * low stray capacitance
 * very short internal transmission lines, less than 1/4 wavelength
 * high power components that can withstand high power and mismatches
 * large wire guage to reduce power losses
 * large cores to prevent saturation and help provide high winding inductance
 * effective weatherproofing
 * rust proof hardware
 * robust case that will withstand physical stress

What is saturation?
If the current through the balun is too high, the core is said to saturate. This means an increase in current does not result in a corresponding increase in magnetic flux. This is a bad thing, because the inductance of the coil decreases - resulting in ever increasing current.

When a ferrite core balun saturates, SWR will increase - possibly to excessive levels before the balun fails. Core saturation can be caused by too great a mismatch at the load (antenna) or by running two much power or a combination of both.