Timeline for Why do amateur radio operators call an RF choke a balun?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
14 events
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| Sep 13, 2021 at 13:40 | comment | added | Phil Frost - W8II | "You are saying that a balanced dipole antenna with a DC connection to ground on one side is still balanced" Yes, that's what I'm saying. The implicit assumption, by strong convention, is when we say "this antenna is balanced" we mean "this antenna is balanced at the operating frequency". For example we might also say "this antenna is a good match" but no one expects it to be a good match at every possible frequency. It certainly isn't 50 ohms at DC. | |
| Sep 13, 2021 at 13:35 | comment | added | Phil Frost - W8II | You're free to not like the definition, but no amount of logic or explanation will change the fact that for nearly all people, a common mode choke meets their definition of a balun. Incidentally, the thing you've drawn in your answer is not a common-mode choke, and I wonder if your issue is a misunderstanding about the kind of choke people do call a balun. A common-mode choke has four terminals, not two. | |
| Sep 13, 2021 at 4:09 | comment | added | Andrew | @PhilFrost-W8II And you can't say there are so many issues you will have to be brief, that doesn't help anyone, how about making a new question which deals with the confusion ? I am very happy to post another answer or question if someone explains to me exactly how this answer is incorrect. I'm a nice person in real life :) | |
| Sep 13, 2021 at 4:05 | comment | added | Andrew | @PhilFrost-W8II Just because a choke does one thing the same as a balun doesn't mean it is a balun, a choke is not a balun. | |
| Sep 13, 2021 at 4:03 | comment | added | Andrew | @PhilFrost-W8II And chokes used in this instance are highly frequency dependent, it's much harder to get enough impedance at the frequency you want than to get a voltage balun to eliminate just about all common mode current. | |
| Sep 13, 2021 at 4:03 | comment | added | Andrew | @PhilFrost-W8IIv I don't agree with most of what you say. You are saying that a balanced dipole antenna with a DC connection to ground on one side is still balanced ? I don't know if a choke can be used as an impedance transformer, but i'm not arguing the meaning of a word, i'm arguing that a choke is not a balun, which it isn't, i can't understand how this simple idea is so hard to understand. | |
| Sep 12, 2021 at 17:04 | comment | added | Phil Frost - W8II | I'm happy to downvote and explain. There are many issues so I'll have to be brief. A DC ground for half the antenna does not present any practical problem. A common-mode choke can provide an impedance transformation. Whether a voltage balun or a common-mode choke is easier or more effective depends on the situation. Common-mode chokes can be very effective. But most importantly you're just arguing against the commonly understood meaning of a word. If you want to argue voltage baluns are superior, you can do that without asserting everyone is wrong. | |
| Sep 11, 2021 at 22:34 | comment | added | Andrew | When users of this site down vote an answer without explanation, this can be an indication that the author of the down vote isn't able to intelligently comment on the subject being discussed, so unless there is an explanation i don't take these down votes seriously. I wonder if the Meta site has any comments on these ideas ... | |
| Sep 11, 2021 at 22:34 | comment | added | Andrew | @Mike Waters In my opinion the point system on sites like stack exchange don't work when many people believe something that's false. The perfect example of this is the widespread belief by ham radios operators that inductive and capacitive reactances cancel at resonance for a dipole antenna, which is simply not true. When everyone agrees that a false idea is true and then down vote correct answers the result can be called Propagation of Misinformation. Then anyone who reads the question and answer can become confused because it all doesn't make sense. | |
| Sep 10, 2021 at 21:28 | vote | accept | Andrew | ||
| Sep 10, 2021 at 21:28 | history | edited | Andrew | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Sep 10, 2021 at 21:17 | history | undeleted | Andrew | ||
| Sep 10, 2021 at 21:17 | history | deleted | Andrew | via Vote | |
| Sep 10, 2021 at 21:15 | history | answered | Andrew | CC BY-SA 4.0 |