Sources for Balun Components

Most people are afraid to build their own balun. They fear they may do something wrong and it will not work right. As a result, they prefer to buy a commercial balun.

The problem is, usually the person selling commercial baluns does not understand the common mode current characteristics of all the different types of antennas that we may be interested in; thus they often recommend the wrong type of balun. Notice i said "wrong type", not "bad" balun.

For many applications, common mode current is not a huge problem, so most likely most any balun will do the job.

For some applications (i.e., Off-Center-Fed-Dipole, often called "Windom"), the balun is the most critical component in the antenna. Choosing the wrong balun here will lead to poor results.

IMO, it is far better to build your own balun, tailored exactly to the requirements of your specific anternna, rather than to buy a commercial balun and play Russian Roulette.

Home-Brew / Do-it-Yourself (D-i-Y) has 3 REQUIREMENTS:

Choose the right design
Source the right material
Self-Confidence

1. Choose The Right Design:

Guanella? Maxwell? Ruthroff? W1JR? W2DU?, etc.
Which Toroid? (Iron Powder or Ferrite? - Which Ferrite Mix? - What Size Core?)
How many Toroids?
Which Wire/Coax? How many Turns?

All of this depends on the applications and will be explained in other sections of this web site, where applicable.

2. Source The Right Material:

Toroids
Wire
Coax
Enclosures

"THIS" will be covered here in this section.

Chose region (Europe or USA) in the menu on the left.

3. Self-Confidence

Well I can't help much here. You're on your own, but what I like to tell people is, many years ago I had the same fear . . . but eventually just tried it. It turned out to be very easy and I can honestly tell you that anyone with at least average intelligence and two hands can do it.

NEXT STEP: CHOOSE YOUR REGION

<> EUROPE <> USA