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Re: [TowerTalk] Lexicon of Balun and Transformer Configurations

To: towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Lexicon of Balun and Transformer Configurations
From: Jim Brown <jim@audiosystemsgroup.com>
Reply-to: jim@audiosystemsgroup.com
Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2025 03:03:13 -0800
List-post: <mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
Hi Maximi,

Thnaks for hMiniCircuits is a well established mfr of quality products. I've specified the for projects and used them myself for at least 40 years, and their engineering catalog has been on my shelf even longer. It is the sort of catalog that REAL engineers love -- a lot of data in useable form, like Fair-Rite, Electro-Voice, the RCA tube manuals, and the app notes from a great semiconductor mfr.

BUT -- the word "balun" has been used in the last 30 years to describe at least ten sorts of things that were physically VERY different. In other words, "balun" has NO physical meaning -- it is a "concept" of somehow, in those en different ways, interfacing systems that are called "balanced" and ""un'balanced," in at least ten different physical forms. One is a common mode choke. Another is a transformer. Another is a section of transmission line. At least three are electronic devices. Some deal with audio, some with video, some with radio.

Erase the word "balun" from your vocabulary. It is nonsense.

BTW -- I was elected a Fellow of the Audio Engineering Society, where balanced and un-balanced transmission is a very big deal, a member of the Standards Committee of the Audio Engineering Society for for 40 years, and my work on RF systems has been in the ARRL Handbook and Antenna Book for since about 2011.

73, Jim K9YC

On 11/13/2025 1:29 AM, Máximo EA1DDO_HK1H wrote:
FYI

https://blog.minicircuits.com/lexicon-of-balun-and-transformer-configurations/

73, Maximo EA1DDO

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