The Pawsey Balun (or Pawsey Stub) is described as a device for connecting an unbalanced feed to a balanced antenna.
Above is a diagram of a Pawsey Balun used with a half wave dipole (ARRL).
Whilst these have been quite popular with VHF/UHF antennas, the question arises as to how they work, and whether they are effective in reducing common mode current IIcm) for a wide range of load scenarios. Continue reading Pawsey Balun on an asymmetric load
Around 10 years ago, a friend gave me a Nagoya NA-771 2m/70cm antenna to suit hand held radios for the purpose of testing it. He had bought two of them on eBay for around $10 each.
These are often sold without specifications, but where specifications are given, VSWR is given as 1.5, though not stated as maximum so should perhaps be read as typical.
This article looks at 2m performance alone.
Above is a VSWR sweep around the 2m band.
Continue reading Nagoya NA-771 2m/70cm antenna
I purchased a further two replacement batteries type NB-6L for a Canon camera from yet another supplier.
Above, the batteries are labelled 1000mAh. They appear to be well made externally, and fit charger and camera fine.
Note that these have different labeling to that shown in the eBay listing. It is naive to expect that the supplied item matches either pics or description, bait and switch is a standard Chinese technique. Continue reading Capacity test of aftermarket NB-6L batteries #2
A balun puzzle asked several questions of this VK5AJL balun which was cited online.
An online expert quoted the following diagram from VK5AJL.
It is labelled as a simple 1:1 voltage balun, which is to imply that it is NOT a current balun (they are mutually exclusive). Continue reading A balun puzzle
I purchased two replacement batteries type NB-6L for a Canon camera.
Above, the batteries are labelled 1050mAh. They appear to be well made externally, and fit charger and camera fine.
Note that these have different labeling to that shown in the eBay listing. It is naive to expect that the supplied item matches either pics or description, bait and switch is a standard Chinese technique. Continue reading Capacity test of aftermarket NB-6L batteries
A correspondent having read my series Measuring balun common mode impedance – #1 related difficulties with his Rigexpert AA-230Zoom.
The articles showed some techniques for measuring common mode impedance of a current balun.
The following examples are of a test choke wound on a BN43-202 binocular core, and the results are quite similar to what might be expected of a broadband HF current balun. The measurements were made with a Rigexpert AA-600.
Above, the measurement result using RigExpert’s newest software Antscope2. Continue reading Measuring balun common mode impedance – #3
The project is design, implementation and test of a small common mode choke for use with an analyser for antenna measurements.
The choke must have medium to high Zcm from 1 to 30MHz. It is intended to be used with analysers supporting SOL calibration, so effectively any impedance transformation within the fixture is compensated and the reference plane is the load side terminals of the device.
The candidate core is a low cost #43 binocular ferrite core that is fairly easy to obtain.
Above is a first pass check of the likely Zcm at 1.8MHz using a Fair-rite 2843000202 (BN43-202) binocular core. These chokes have relatively low self resonance frequency so a value for Cs is supplied that delivers self resonance at around 5MHz. Zcm at 1.8MHz needs 8-9t, 8.5t will be used (ie the twisted pair enters one end of the binocular and leaves the other end for convenient layout). (8.5t is not strictly correct, but it is a close approximation in this case.)
Continue reading Small common mode choke for analyser antenna measurements using 2843000202 (BN43-202)
For a lot of experiments, knowledge of the Effective Noise Bandwidth (ENB) of a receiver is necessary. The ENB is the bandwidth of an ideal rectangular filter with the same gain as some reference frequency.
Though filters are often specified in terms of bandwidth at x dB down, that metric is of relatively little value, the x is often 6dB but not always, the filters depart significantly from ideal or even common response.
In brief, a white noise source is connected to the receiver input, Filter2 (nominal 500Hz bandwidth sharp response) selected and set to standard PBT, and the audio output captured on a PC based audio spectrum analyser, Spectrogram 16 in this case.
Spectrogram is set to integrate over 30s to average the variations due to the noise excitation. The resulting graph and text spectrum log are saved.
The method is explained in detail at Measure IF Bandwidth.
Above is the spectrum plots, as receivers go this is relatively flat.
Continue reading Effective noise bandwidth – IC-7300 CW Rx Filter2 – (500Hz sharp)
For a lot of experiments, knowledge of the Effective Noise Bandwidth (ENB) of a receiver is necessary. The ENB is the bandwidth of an ideal rectangular filter with the same gain as some reference frequency, 1kHz is usually specified for SSB telephony receiver sensitivity measurement.
Though filters are often specified in terms of bandwidth at x dB down, that metric is of relatively little value, the x is often 6dB but not always, the filters depart significantly from ideal or even common response.
In brief, a white noise source is connected to the receiver input, Filter2 (nominal 2400Hz bandwidth sharp response) selected and set to standard PBT, and the audio output captured on a PC based audio spectrum analyser, Spectrogram 16 in this case.
Spectrogram is set to integrate over 30s to average the variations due to the noise excitation. The resulting graph and text spectrum log are saved.
The method is explained in detail at Measure IF Bandwidth.
Above is the spectrum plots, as receivers go this is relatively flat, lacking the usual tapering off above 1kHz (a technique to cheat on sensitivity specs).
Continue reading Effective noise bandwidth – IC-7300 SSB Rx Filter2 – (2400Hz sharp)