Inherently balanced ATUs – part 4

Inherently balanced ATUs reported an experiment to measure the balance of a simulation of Cebik’s “inherently balanced ATU”, and following articles explored balance in some different scenarios, but none of them real antenna scenarios.

As pointed out in the articles, the solutions cannot be simply extended to real antenna scenarios. Nevertheless, it might provoke thinking about the performance of some types of so-called balanced ATUs,  indeed the naive nonsense of an “inherently balanced ATU”.

(Witt 2003) goes to some length to calculate his IMB figure of merit based on a similar load of two not necessarily equal series resistors with the mid point grounded to the ATU chassis. Witt’s IMB is equivalent to the factor |2Ic/Id|that was calculated in earlier articles in this series, and equally useless in inferring behavior in a real antenna system.

(Duffy 2010) gives an explanation of the behavior of baluns in an antenna system, and it becomes apparent that simple linear circuit solutions of a couple of resistors does not give insight into the behavior in real antenna systems.

The bottom line though is that while NEC models might be informing, there is no substitute for direct measurement of common mode current (Duffy 2011)… and it is so easy.

References

  • Duffy, O. Dec 2010. Baluns in antenna systems. https://owenduffy.net/balun/concept/cm/index.htm (accessed 21/02/12).
  • ———. May 2011. Measuring common mode current. https://owenduffy.net/module/icm/index.htm (accessed 21/02/12).
  • ———. Feb 2012. Balanced ATUs and common mode current. https://owenduffy.net/balun/concept/BalancedAtu.htm (accessed 18/03/2019).
  • Witt, Frank. Apr 1995. How to evaluate your antenna tuner In QST May 1995. Newington: ARRL.
  • ———. May 1995b. How to evaluate your antenna tuner In QST May 1995. Newington: ARRL.
  • ———. Sep 2003. Evaluation of Antenna Tuners and Baluns–An Update In QEX Sep 2003. Newington: ARRL.