The MFJ-993B auto antenna tuner includes an internal balun, this article is a review of that balun.
The schematic shows the balun as a Guanella 4:1 balun with the usual external link to one of the coaxial antenna sockets. (The label “Z balanced” is misleading, clearly one of the terminals is grounded and this is the unbalanced connection to the coax connector via a link. The antenna connects to the left hand terminals.)
Unlike almost all ATUs with an internal balun, this is a current balun (to their credit), but a 4:1 balun.
There are two aspects of balun behaviour that are of particular interest:
- choking or common mode impedance; and
- impedance transformation.