Hi Rick,
> With the recent discussion of beverage matching transformers, I am
> curious about why everyone builds their own matching transformers.
> On my 600 ft beverage, I am using a little RF Prime/Mini-Circuits
> 9:1 impedance transformer bought off the shelf. Seems to work fine.
> Do I really need to wind up one of my 2 1/2 inch 43 toroids to do
> this job? Am I missing something here?
While both work, a 73 core takes 1/3 the number of turns as 43
material for the same core style, offering better bandwidth and
easier construction. In either case the transformer certainly doesn't
need be very large at all, and you have freedom to wind any
impedance ratio you need (an exact match is not required however,
unless you are constructing a reflection transformer).
Minicircuit's transformers, while very convenient, do not handle dc
or low frequency currents, nor do they handle more than a few
hundred milliwatts of RF, without core saturation and generation of
IMD.
As little as 20 mA of current starts to saturate the very high ui core
they use. In many cases they work, but in some situations odd
problems like superimposed hum or signals mixing occurs.
I remember building a high performance push-pull preamp using
their transformers, and the weakest link in IMD performance was
the Minicircuit transformer.
73, Tom W8JI
w8ji@contesting.com
--
FAQ on WWW: http://www.contesting.com/topband.html
Submissions: topband@contesting.com
Administrative requests: topband-REQUEST@contesting.com
Problems: owner-topband@contesting.com
|