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157
Current to
r i - oq. .h f ha'l f
--
y' of dipole
Tnnan fanndrrnl-nn
Current = CUrrenI
to left half of
dipole Current on
outer surface
of shield
Rte Current on
inner surface ts^r1a | )nd
^ f ^ L i ^ t i
UI JTTIgf,U AnnAcl to
currents
158
cable, it ean be visualized as an RF choke aeting
only on the outside of the coaxial-eable shield,
reducing the current to a very small value. This is
t h e e x a c t f u n c t i o n a b a l u n n e e d s t o a e c o m p l i s hw h e n
u s e d i n a n B n t e n n as y s t e m .
A current balun can be constructedby winding
coaxial feed line into a coil, winding either type
of feed line onto a core, or by stringing ferrite
cores along either type of line.\I[ Even if the
balun is mediocre, there wilL be no effect on the
desiredproperties of the line itself (impedance,
eleetrical length, SIVR,and so on). A less-
than-perfect voltage balun ean have a profound
e f f e c t o n t h e i m p e d a n c es e e n a t i t s i n p u t b e e a u s eo f
I
t h e t e r t i a r y w i n d i n g . I m p e d a n c e - t r a n s f o r m i n( 4g: 1 )
I
b a l u n sa r e d i s c u s s e di n A p p e n d i x 3 .
I
H-7
Fig. 3 -- If the rig were isolated fronr gror.rnd,
the feed-line conductor currents would be equal
and opposite, the jnbalance current would be zero
and the feed ]i-ne would not radiate.
w
OUT
IN
Lr.lJ"A/ .
Fig. 6 -- Current bafun (see text). Both
windings are closely coupled.
Erperiments
A s e r i e s o f e x p e r i m e n t s w a s d e s i g n e dt o t e s t
the validity of the results of the theoretical
investigation.A 10-meter dipole was set about 12
f e e t a b o v e t h e g r o u n d ,a n d a b o u t f i v e f e e t a b o v e t h e
edge of an elevated woodendeck (Fig. ?). One-half
w a v e l e n g t hf r o m t h e e e n t e r o f t h e d i p o l e , a 4 - f o o t
Fig. 4 -- Wlrenthe rig is connected to ground, _ r o d w a s d r i v e n i n t o t h e g r o u n d ,w h i e h w a s e o m p l e t e l y
a ihirO conductor in para1le1 with the right side saturated with water at the time the experiments
of the feed ]lne is introduced. This causes an w e r e r u n ( d u r i n g N o v e m b e r , i n O r e g o n ) .T o f u r t h e r
imbalance in both coaxial cable and twin lead l o w e r g r o u n d - s y s t e mi m p e d a n c e , s i x r a d i a l s w e r e
feed thes. placed on the ground around the ground rod. Two feed
l i n e s w e r e e u t t o a h a l f w a v e l e n g t h :o n e o f R G - S 9 / U
Another type of balun that appears in the coaxial eable, and one of 72-ohm transmitting twin
literature has been called a choke-type balun (Fig. lead. The velocity factors of the eables were not
6 ) . U - 0 I t r e s e m b l e st h e v o l t a g e b a l u n , e x e e p t t h a t t a k e n i n t o a c e o u n t ,s i n c e t h e i n t e n t w a s t o h a v e t h e
the tertiary winding is missing. The analysis of outside of the coaxial cable, or the two parallel
both types of balun in Appendix 1 shows that the c o n d u e t o r so f t h e t w i n l e a d , b e a n e l e c t r i e a l h a l f -
effect of a tertiary winding is not a minor one. The w a v e l e n g t hl o n g . A l o w - p o w e r 1 0 - m e t e r t r a n s m i t t e r
two types of baluns produce fundamentally different l o e a t e d a t , a n d c o n n e e t e dt o , t h e g r o u n d s y s t e m w a s
results. The voltage balun causes equal and opposite used as a signal souree.
voltages to appear at the balanced port regardless Current probes and baluns were built as de-
o f l o a d i m p e d a n e e s ,b u t t h e s e c o n d t y p e o f b a l u n seribed in Appendix 2. Two of the eurrent probes
eausesequal and opposite currents on the conductors w e r e p e r m a n e n t l yw i r e d i n t o e a c h s i d e o f t h e d i p o l e
a t b o t h p o r t s f o r a n y l o a d i m p e d a n e e s .F o r t h i s near the feed point, and a third was used for all
reason, I will call this type of balun a curent f e e d - l i n e m e a s u r e m e n t sA . single detector was used
balun. Intuitively, the cument balun produces the f o r a l l m e a s u r e m e n t sa, n d i t w a s c a l i b r a t e d o v e r t h e
sort of effeet we would expect. When wound with range of encountered output Ievels by using a signal
twisted pair or twin lead, it is nothing but & source and precision attenuator. The results of the
b i f i l a r R F c h o k e t h a t i m p e d e sa n y n e t e u r r e n t w h i c h experimenthave been corrected to aeeount for the
tries to flow through it. When wound with coaxial m e a s u r e dn o n l i n e a r i t y o f t h e d e t e e t o r .
159
No attempt was made to keep the power level or
impedance match constant from one test to another.
When running an experiment with no balunr a current
balun, and a voltage balun, the only -variation in
the system was to change the balun. Initially' the
inteni was to use the antenna current probe readings
as a measure of cument balance in the antenna
halves. However, a case was encounteredin which tbe
antenna halves showed equal currents, but a large
imbalance current was measured in the feed line at
the antenna feed point - a seemingly intpossible
combination! (Tne equal antenna currents were even 7,-7-
more suspiciousbecause no balun was being used, and
the antenna had intentionally been made nonsym-
metrical for that test.) A bit of thought provided
the answer. The imbalance current is measured by
placing the feed Iine through the current-probe
ioroid-. In conjunction with the detector, it
m e a s u r e st h e m a g n i t u d e o f t h e v e c t o r s u m o f a l l
currents flowing through the toroid. Each antenna
c u r r e n t p r o b e , w i t h t h e d e t e e t o r , m e a s u r e st b e
Fig. 7 - Experirental setuP.
magnitude of the current in each half of the an-
t e n n a , a t t h e f e e d p o i n t . W h a t m u s t b e h a p p e n i n gi s e"l. 5
that the currents in the dipole halves are equal in ino barun ! . 1
m a g n i t u d e ,b u t n o t 1 8 0 d e g r e e so u t o f p h a s e . A check
of the current-probe outputs with a good-quality
dual-channel oscilloscope confirmed the hypothesis:
{1 The currents were 230 degrees, rather than 180
H
ltl
l*j
tti
d e g r e e s ,a p a r t , a l t h o u g h e q u a l i n m a g n i t u d e .W h a t a n
interesting pettern that dipole would have! But this
illustrates how misleading the magnitudes of element
currents can be when judging balance. Measuringthe
i m b a l a n c ec u r r e n t i n t h e f e e d l i n e a t t h e f e e d p o i n t
' .q
does, however, provide a good indication of the
. _i
balance of the currents in the antenna halves. If
il
k{
the imbalancecurrent is very small, the currents in
the sides of the antenna must be nearly equal in
Fig. 8 -- Setup arrd results of experirnents 1
and 5. Nwbers are r€asured bal"ance in de.
tu4
magnitude and opposite ih phase. A significant im-
balance current, on the other hand, indicates that Discussion
one or both conditions have not been met.
I f t h e d i p o l e b a l a n c e ( s Y mm e t r y ) w e r e i n d e e d
M e a s u r e m e n to f t h e i m b a l a n c e c u r r e n t o n t h e
will p e r fect for experiment L, we would expect the
feed line also indicates how much the feed line
T h e i m b a l a n c e c u f r e n t a t t h e r i g p r o v i d e s a curents in the sides of the dipole to be unbal-
radiate.
anced, resulting in imbalance current on the feed
H measure of RF in the shack. In the following testst
t h e m a g n i t u d e o f t h e e u r u e n t w & s m e a s u r e di n e a c h
o f t h e i m b a l a n c e
line. This is because the outside of the eoaxial
shield appe&rs as a conductor in parallel with half
hd
conducior, then the magnitude
o f t h e dipole. Also, either a current or voltage
current was neasured by placing the complete feed - rnt to zero.
t o r o i d . A s i n g l e balun should reduce the imbalance
line through the current-probe placed symmetrically relative
Since the feed Iine is
w1 figure of merit, balance, was calculated as:
jr rll
l',.'!
to the antenna, no additional current should be
ii: ':1 induced into the feed line, so the imbalance should
end of the line when
ffi
ffi Experiments 1 through 4 w e r e - d o n e u s i n g a
in experiment f. iVe would also expect the current
balun to do about the same, and the no-balun case to
be considerably worse.
F'i
fi1
nominally symmetrical dipole, although results
indicate that some asymmetry was present' For ex-
Results
intentionally In experiment 1r the voltage balun did not
Hrj feriments 5 through i, the dipole was perform as well as the current balun, indicating
$,i t"O" nontymmetrical b y l e n g t h e n i n g o n e s i d e b y f i v e
s o m e a s y mm e t r y i n t h e d i p o l e . A t t h e f r e q u e n c y
inches, anb shorteningthe other side by the same
* i
I
ffi
t;.
160
erp. 3 .xp. 7
wire of about six inehes in length conneetingthe
4.8 0.3
rig to the ground system' or because the feed line 3.J
was doubled baek on itself for a short distance near l9.l 14.5
161
e x p' 4
L!aBe balun 0, I
b al u n 28.8
o 1
balun 3.5
balun 26.4 n.l.h^6i D^-+
17.3 'rColdi'Side
4 1. 6
L62
Appendix 2z Construetion and Test of Baluns,
Appendix 3: Impedanee-Transforming (4:1) Baluns
Curent Probes and Deteetor
The common 4:1 balun, shown sehematically in
Yoltage Belun Fig. A3-1, is a voltage balun. If used with a eur-
The voltage balun was constructed using the rent balun as in Fig. A3-2, the combination acts
m e t h o d d e s e r i b e di n R e f . 8 . A p i e c e o f n o . 2 6 w i r e like a 4:1 current balun. Or it can be converted to
was laid along a length of RG-178/U cable (smal]- a 4:1 transforming eurrent balun by adding a third
diameter Teflon-insulated eoaxial cable), and winding, as shown in Fig. A3-3. A 1:1 voltage balun
heat-shrinkable tubing was applied over the assem- could be eonverted to a 4:1 current balun by re-
bly. The modified cable was wound on an FT82-61 core eonnecting the existing windings. The difficulty
using ten turns. This construetion method was with using this eonfiguration is that, Iike the 1:l
decided on after trying to wind a balun with two voltage balun, all windings must be elosely coupled,
pieces of coaxial cable in bifilar fashion, the and rather severe impedance changes ean occur be-
s h i e l d o f t h e s e e o n db e i n g c o n n e c t e da s t h e t e r t i a r y c a u s eo f t r a n s f o r m e r i m p e r f e c t i o n s .
winding. The latter construction method was much A better approaeh is shown in Fig. A3-4. Old-
poorer in providing good voltage balanee. timers will recognize this as the eonfiguration used
Voltage balance was evaluated by eonnecting the by the balun eoils commonly used some years ago.
cold side of the unbalanced port to a ground plane This balun does foree equal and opposite cuments at
and the balanced port to two resistors of unequal the input and output, so it is a true current balun,
v a l u e , t h e o t h e r e n d s o f w h i e h w e r e c o n n e c t e dt o t h e and it performs a 4:1 impedanee transformation. Al-
same point on the ground plane. Using resistors of though it does require two cores whieh must not be
27 and 54 ohms, the ratios of voltages appearing at coupledr* it has several advantages:Itrs much
the two resistors were measured as about 3/4 and easier to tightly couple two eonductors than three,
L-1/2 dB, dependingon which resistor was connected itrs mueh more forgiving than the other config-
t o w h i c h l e a d o f t h e b a l a n e e do u t o u t . urations, and it lends itself to easy construetion.
One method is simply to wind eoaxial eable on two
Current Balun cores, with the center conductorsbeing the con-
The current balun consisted of 15 turns of duetors shown on the outsides in the figure. This
RG-1?8/U coaxial eable on an FT82-61 core. Per- balun can also be used in all-eoaxial-cable systems.
formanee was evaluated by connecting the output end Besides effecting a 4:1 impedanee transformation, it
to 27- and 54-ohm resistors to ground, and measuring will greatly reduce any current flowing on the out-
the voltages across them. A properly working current sides of the lines.
balun should generate twice the voitage aeross the
54-ohm resistor than aeross the 2?-ohm resistor, * If ferrite rods or air-core coils are used,
r e g a r d l e s so f w h i e h l e a d i s e o n n e e t e d t o e a e h donrt plaee them end to end. Place them side by side
resistor. The results were within 0.2 dB of theo- and spaced a fair distance, or, better yet, at right
retical, with either lead connected to either angles. Less eare needs to be taken with toroidal
resistor. eoils.
Cument Probe
The current probes were constructed as shown in
Fig.12. The output voltage equals ten times the ui-L
LLL6LL-L
?
c u r r e n t , i n a m p e r e s , b e i n g m e a s u r e d .I n s e r t i o n Low-Z Unbal-anced
r e s i s t a n c ei s o n e o h m . Unbalanced
Deteetor
The detector is shown in Fig. 13. It was #
ealibrated using a signal source and precision
attenuators, at the operating frequency. Calibration Fig. A3-1 - The 4:1-vo:.tage balun.
using a dc source was found to be inaceurate.
Low-Z
curtent-carryinB conductor
lo oe neasured
detec!or
163
\1 A v e r y c l e a r d e v e l o p m e n to f t h e p h e n o m e n o no f
skin effect may be found in Chapter 7 of Elee
tric Tlansmission Lines by Hugh H. Skilling
(McGraw-Hill,1951).
Hi oh-7 "NanosecondPulse
\4 Winningstad,C. Norman,
Transformers,rr IRE tlansactions on Nuclear
Scierrce,March 1959.
\1 Matick, Richard E., I'TransmissionLine Pulse
Transformers - Theory and Applicationrr Pto-
eeedingsof the IEBE' Vol. 56, No. 1' Jan.
1968.
\s Hall, Gerald L.' KITD, ed., The ARRL Anteruu
Fig. A3-4 - A superior 4:1 current ba-l_un. Book, 14th ed., Chapter 5, (ARRL' 1982).
V In practice, there is always an RF path from the
rig to ground, and its impedance should be made
References as low as possible. The rig should alwal's be de
U M a x w e l l , W a l t e r , W 2 D U ' t ' S o m eA s p e c t s o f t h e grounded for safetY.
B a l u n P r o b l e m r t tQ S T , M a r c h 1 9 8 3 , p . 3 8 . \8 See Ref. 6.
\2 If a perfect shield is assumed(a reasonable
\a Nagle, John J., K4KJr "High-Performance
approximation for this analysis),the result BroadbandBalun," IIam Radio, Feb. 1980, p. 28.
follows directly from Amperers Law. For a more u-0 S e e R e f . 1 .
detailed explanation, see Electromagnetic Energy \u Reisert, Joe, WlJR, "Simpleand Efficient
Tlansmission and Radiation, by Richard B. Adler, BroadbandBalun,r' Ham Radio, Sept. 1978' p.
1 t
Lan Jen Chu, and Robert M. Fano(Wiley, 1960).
164