Baluns and why we need them
BALUNS
Simple devices though they are, baluns are not well
understood. Choke baluns, voltage baluns, 1:1
baluns , 4:1 baluns are not every day topics. How
then can you figure out when you need one, why
you need one or which type makes most sense?
I am going to try and answer those questions but
while I will focus particularly on the Buddipole
antenna system bear in mind that this topic is
generally applicable to antennas of all different
shapes and sizes.
The earlier Buddipole feed cable and the later coax
adapter assembly both include a compact balun. In
addition I will discuss the versatile variable ratio
balun known as the TRSB.
DO I NEED A BALUN?
Let me get to the bottom line right away and then I
will fill in the details. The quick answer to the
question is that if you are using coaxial cable then
you probably should be using a balun and that
applies to more situations than you might suspect.
This topic is more about the transmission line and
the transmitter than it is the antenna a point which I
intend to explain further. The usual discussion of
the need for a balun focusses on a center fed
horizontal dipole (presumably ½ wave dipole) with
coaxial cable attached to it. This is accompanied by
a perfectly good explanation about unintended
current flow in the coax (an unbalanced feed line).
While this is entirely true, it is a little misleading
because it leaves the reader thinking that the
balanced part of this topic refers to the symmetry of
the antenna. What if the feed point is not in the
center (Off Center Fed Dipole or OCFD) the antenna
is no longer strictly symmetrical, but does that mean
it doesn’t need a balun? Well you certainly should,
in fact only a few antenna configurations do not
need a balun.
So let’s get straight to basics and I will move on to
more advanced topics like the TRSB later.
WHAT IS A BALUN?
A balun is a simple device that converts between
balanced and unbalanced electrical signals. The
word is derived from the terms balanced and
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unbalanced, but what does that mean? Balanced in
this context refers to electrical balance between two
signal wires, which are carrying differential signals.
Examples of this type of signal are telephone lines
and the Ethernet cables (surprised?) that you use
between different parts of your computer network.
If you have ever looked at CAT5 cable you will know
that it consists of several pairs of wires that are
twisted together in a common bundle.
Consider just one pair of wires. In a balanced system
when the voltage on one wire goes positive, the
voltage on the other wire goes negative by the same
amount. The signals are balanced around some
average voltage which is not necessarily at ground
potential. This is typically what happens with the
antenna terminals as they are typically not
referenced to ground. In fact
they are said to be electrically
floating. Notice that
regardless of what method we use to connect to the
signal to the radio, the current in both wires must be
equal and opposite. This might seem obvious but I
should point out that this is regardless of whether
the antenna is physically symmetrical (like a
horizontal dipole) and connected at the center or at
any other point. Hang on to that point as I will
return to that later.
On the other hand unbalanced signals typically use a
common return line, more often than not at ground
potential.
The signal is carried by a single wire and the return
current is carried through a common wire which is
usually connected to ground. The advantage of this
system is simplicity, but otherwise it has some
serious disadvantages. One that concerns us is that
we cannot connect to a differential
signal such as we get from the antenna
without upsetting the natural balance
between the two terminals of the
antenna. Modern day transceivers all have
unbalanced antenna connectors because they are
made to work with coaxial cable. Both the radio and
the feedline are unbalanced, but the antenna is
expecting a balanced feed and that is the reason
why we need a balun. The myth that it is only
symmetrical antennas that require a balun is based
on the flimsy explanation based on the center fed used.
horizontal dipole. This is far from the truth, in fact
the majority of antenna configurations are
electrically balanced, and if you want to use them
with coax you really should be using a balun.

When used with an antenna a balun is connected

On the face of it, the issue of differential currents is
between the coax and the antenna feed point in
handled pretty well in coax. Current flows up the
order to isolate the antenna from the effects of the
central conductor and returns down the outer
feed line.
conductor and as long as that is true the differential
current is balanced.
FEEDLINES
Although coaxial cable was in use in undersea cables
The important dimensions of coax cable are the
even before radio was in full swing, the earliest types
outside diameter of the inner conductor and the
of feedlines were open wire parallel conductors such
inside diameter of the outer conductor. The ratio
as twin lead or ladder line. Because the current
between them D/d determines the coax impedance
could flow only on those two conductors within the
(50 ohms in our case) and is independent of the
feedline the current will be balanced. One effect of
length. If we look at the cross sectional view we can
having closely spaced parallel wires carrying
get our first glimpse at a subtle yet important point
differential currents is that the field created by one
that leads to a surprising difficulty in
wire is opposite to field created by the other.
using coax cable in a balanced
application.
Look at the adjacent figure and you
see two separate conductors but as I
will show next it isn’t quite that
straightforward. At high frequencies,
you can actually have three separate currents
flowing, not two as it first would appear. How could
Notice that the antenna radiates because the wires
that be? This is the result of something that is called
are not parallel and the currents flow in the same
the skin effect. RF current does not flow down the
direction.
center of a conductor but on the
In a moment I will show you that despite the fact
surface and penetrates into the
that coax cable has a shield, it can radiate. Standby
conductor for only a small depth
for a big surprise!
known as the skin depth. I have
exaggerated the size of the center
COAX – secrets no one talks about
conductor in the figure below and
Coaxial cable provides a lot of convenient features
show the current flow in red. Notice that the
so it is no wonder that it became so popular. It has
current gradually falls off towards the center.
relatively low loss as well as low characteristic
Deeper into the conductor there is virtually no
impedance which suits it well connecting to a simple
current flow.
½ wave dipole or ¼ wave vertical.
As the frequency of the current increases, the depth
becomes even less.
Coaxial cable is constructed by surrounding a central
This illustration is not to scale, the depths are in fact
conductor with an outer conductor. Since the
remarkably shallow. For example the skin depth in
conductors are on the same axis the term co-axial is
copper wire on the 40m band is only 25 m (just

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under one thousandth of an inch) which is only 6% of
the radius (d/2) of the center conductor of RG 58U
cable. This effect does not appear at DC don’t try to
check this out with a DMM!
The illustration below shows the ideal case when all
is working as we would like it.
Take a look at the current
distribution in the outer
conductor (shield) and you see
the current only flows on the
inner surface of the coax shield.
If the material is the same type as the center
conductor the skin depth will be the same as the
center conductor.
The shield is however different from the center
conductor because it has both an inside and an
outside surface.
Because the skin depth is
so shallow, the inside and
outside are electrically
separate.
This may at first seem
surprising but this also the
reason why we can use metal shields around
electrical circuits.
Because of this shielding effect different currents
can flow on the outside and the inside of the coaxial
braid. When coax is working in the intended fashion
the center conduct carries the current to the
antenna and the return current will flow on the
inside surface of the shield. However let’s consider
where the antenna is connected to the shield.
Effectively the inside and the outside of the shield
will be both connected to the same side of the
antenna (as we thought all along). This means that
the return current will split into two parts. One will
flow on the inside of the shield, and the other will
flow on the outside of the shield. How much will go
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down either path? The answer to this is that current
will split such that the largest current will flow down
the path with the lowest impedance. It gets tricky
here because determining which is the lowest
impedance path is not simple. The outside path is
connected to the antenna at one end and effectively
to ground at the other end (via the radio). It acts as
a transmission line so the length of the cable has a
significant effect on the impedance at the antenna
end. A transmission line acts as an impedance
transformer. For example if the cable is ¼
wavelength long, the connection to ground at the
transmitter end looks like an open circuit at the
antenna end and little current will flow on the
outside of the shield. However if the cable is ½
wavelength long the impedance of the outside of the
shield will be low and significant current will flow
down the outside of the shield.
Now we get to an important point. If all of the
current is contained within the coax then the coax
will not radiate. However current flowing on the
outside of the coax will radiate since it is not
canceled by the currents flowing inside of the coax.
This radiation will combine with the radiation of the
antenna so while it is not lost it will distort the
radiation pattern.
We can correct this anomaly by using a balun which
effectively isolates the coax from the antenna.
BALUN TO THE RESCUE
Now that we know the problem, how do we solve
it?, well a balun will do the trick. There are many
designs for baluns, but I will focus on a current balun
which works to ensure that the currents in the coax
are balanced.
The current balun can be implemented in different
ways but the most common and compact method
works by surrounding the coax with a material that
increases the impedance of the outside of the coax.
If current cannot flow down the outside of the coax
then it must return down the inside surface of the
shield which is exactly what we need.
The standard Buddipole Versatee coax adapter
includes a ferrite bead choke providing a built in
balun. Ferrite is an unusual material because not
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only does it increase the inductance of a wire
passing through it but it is also as resistive loss so it
effectively adds both inductance and resistance to
the wire passing through it. In this regard it is quite
different than a ferro-magnetic material with which
it is sometimes confused. In terms of bandwidth this
type of balun can have a range that covers all of the
HF bands. Since the purpose of a balun is to isolate
the antenna the balun should be connected at the
antenna terminals.
I will discuss the other features of the TRSB in the
next section but I should point out here that the
TRSB provides better isolation than the standard
Buddipole choke balun.
IMPEDANCE TRANSFORMERS
In addition to ensuring isolation between the coax
and the antenna, baluns can also be designed to
provide impedance transformation. A 4:1 balun
converts a low antenna feed point impedance by a
factor of four which will provide a good impedance
match to a 50  coax with an antenna that has a
radiation resistance of only 12.5  (or thereabouts).
MEET THE TRSB
It is common to find 1:1 baluns and 4:1 baluns, but
more unusual to find 2:1 baluns. The TRSB is very
unusual in providing the ability to switch between
1:1, 2:1 and 4:1 simply by means of a simple front
panel switch. This gives rise to its odd name, the
Triple Ratio Switched Balun. It is so much of a
mouthful that it is usually
referred to as the TRSB.
On the low frequency bands it
is often difficult to find
enough space to construct a
full size antenna so it is
common to use a shortened
antenna. Unfortunately
reducing the size also reduces
the radiation resistance. On
the lowest frequency bands
the radiation resistance of a
shortened antenna may be as low 12 ohms or even
less. In a 50 ohm system this means the SWR at
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resonance would be 50/12 which is about 4:1.
Switching the TRSB to the 4:1 setting solves this
problem. Likewise if the antenna is resonant and the
feed point resistance is only 25 ohms the SWR would
be 50/25 = 2:1 and selecting the 2:1 position would
solve the matching problem.-What if you had an
even lower feed point resistance of say 10 ohms? In
that case the 4:1 setting would increase this to 40
ohms which means the SWR in the coax will be
50/40 = 1.25:1 which is still excellent.
The Buddipole system encourages the idea of
experimentation so it not surprising that some users
find the need to transform radiation resistance down
from some value higher than 50 ohms. It is tempting
then to think that if you turn the TRSB on its head
you would be able to transform say 100 ohms down
to 50 ohms on the 2:1 setting. It is reasonable to
suppose that the TRSB would then be acting as a 1:2
transformer. It does in fact work like that, but there
is a caveat. The TRSB is designed to cover as wide a
bandwidth as possible. One result of this
optimization is that the balun works best when the
transceiver port is connected to a 50 ohm port and
the antenna ports are connected to 50 ohms or less.
When you turn the TRBS around in order to
transform a high input impedance down to 50 ohms,
this requirement is not true and the high frequency
performance of the balun is compromised.
THE BOTTOM LINE
What we have learned is that if you are using coax
cable as a feed line it is best to use a balun. There
are only a few antenna types that won’t benefit from
the use of a balun, and there is no serious downturn
to using a balun anyway. Baluns are particularly
important for dipoles (horizontal or vertical), Yagis,
Inverted Vees, L configuration, Moxons, Delta’s
Quads and so on.
Forget about the idea that a balun is just for special
cases. Most antennas are balanced although they
physically may not appear to be. If you experience
strange results with tuning the antenna and are not
using a balun it is possible that you are experiencing
interaction between the antenna and the coax
because of common mode current on the outside of
the coax. Not only will that make antenna tuning
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difficult it will distort the antenna radiation pattern
and might result in your radio becoming hot with
unwanted RF.
TROUBLE SHOOTING
The fastest way to get to the bottom of puzzling
results is to get back to basics. Problems with
antenna tuning can result from a bad cable,
problems with the TRSB or bad connections on the
antenna. The most puzzling of all is when more than
one of those points is an issue. Follow these steps to
help figure out where the problems is.
1. Check the coax cable
2. Check the TRSB
3. Check the Antenna configuration
TESTING THE CABLE
You can use an ohm meter (or Digital Multimeter) or
an antenna analyzer to check out the cable.
Using a Digital Multimeter (DMM)
1. Use DMM on the resistance setting to measure
the resistance from the center conductor at one
end to the center conductor at the opposite
end. The resistance should be low.
2. Repeat the measurement between the shield
and one end and the opposite end and this
should also have a low resistance.
3. Finally check the resistance between the center
and the shield. This should measure as an open
circuit.
Using an Antenna Analyzer
1. If you have an antenna analyzer and a dummy
load, connect the dummy load at one end of the
coax and the antenna analyzer at the opposite
end. You should be able to measure an SWR
close to 1:1.
TESTING THE TRSB
You can perform simple testing on the TRSB using a
DMM, or more complete testing with an antenna
analyzer.
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Using a DMM
1. Select the resistance range on the DMM and
select the 1:1 setting of the TRSB
2. Measure the resistance between the center of
the TRANSCEIVER BNC and the center of the
ANTENNA BNC. It should be a low resistance
3. Measure the resistance between the outside of
the TRANSCEIVER BNC and the outside of the
ANTENNA BNC. It should be a low resistance
4. Measure the resistance between the center of
the TRANSCEIVER BNC and the outside of the
TRANSCEIVER BNC. It should be an open circuit.
5. Switch the TRSB to 2:1 setting
6. Measure the resistance between the center of
the TRANSCEIVER BNC and the outside of the
TRANSCEIVER BNC. It should be a low
resistance.
7. Switch the TRSB to 4:1 setting
8. Measure the resistance between the center of
the TRANSCEIVER BNC and the outside of the
TRANSCEIVER BNC. It should be a low
resistance.
If all of these measurements are correct it is likely
that the TRSB is working correctly. It is probably
surprising to see that in steps 6 and 8 you will
measure what looks like a short circuit. To
understand how that might be you need to know
that the balun only works at HF and not at DC.
Using an Antenna Analyzer
You would expect that it would be a more complete
test of the TRSB using an antenna analyzer, but it is
important to perform the tests correctly or it is easy
to misunderstand the results. You will need to have
a dummy load or better still a 50 ohm BNC
terminator and a short test cable in order to
properly test the balun. You will need more to do a
fully comprehensive test, but let’s just look at the
simple method first.
1. Set the antenna analyzer for a test
frequency of 7MHz (use a low frequency to
avoid confusion that might be caused by
the test cable.
2. Set the TRSB to 1:1 setting
3. Connect the 50 ohm dummy load to the
TRANSCEIVER BNC and connect the test
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 cable from the ANTENNA BNC to the
antenna analyzer (yes this does look
backwards!)
4. Measure the SWR, it should be close to 1:1
5. Set the TRSB to the 2:1 setting. The SWR on
the analyzer should read close to 2:1.
6. Set the TRSB to the 4:1 setting. The SWR
should read close to 4:1
The reason for setting this up in what is apparently
the reverse direction is that this ensures that the
TRANSCEIVER connection is connected in 50 ohms as
it will be in normal use. This shows the only valid
use of connecting the TRSB in reverse.

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