[Antennas] Vertical question re current balun
DJED1 at aol.com
DJED1 at aol.com
Mon Feb 5 14:18:45 EST 2007
"What, if any, advantage would there be by putting a current balun a
quarter wave from the feedpoint of a vertical?"
Not much benefit to a balun on an unbalanced antenna. When you've got a
dipole strung up, the balun forces the current to feed the two halves of the
dipole, and discourage the current from going down the coax. When you've got a
vertical with a ground plane, one side of the coax feeds the vertical, and
the shield feeds the ground plane (radials, ground screen, etc). Since, in
general, the coax is on the ground, there is no reason for the current to prefer
the coax to the ground plane. And it doesn't matter much whether the
current flows along the ground on the coax or the radials. So, no real need for a
balun.
Now if you have an elevated ground plane vertical there might be some reason
to suppress current on the coax. Then a current suppressing choke might be
of some benefit.
Ed WB2LHI
More information about the Antennas
mailing list