Balun Antenna DIY Kits for HAM Balun Balance Equipment Amateur DIY

I bought this to make a shortwave antenna not realizing how involved the entire process was going to be. Had I known, I wouldn't have bought it. That said, I am glad I did. Having never wound coils or hung a horizontal antenna before this was a learning experience, and the entire process took a lot of thought and some engineering to get it from the kit form to hanging in a tree. It was actually really fun to build and figure out how to hang it.I wound mine as a 9:1 UnUn which is 10 wraps of 3 wires. Omitted the heat shrink because that seemed like the wires would twist and there's no way to tell. The wire is heavily enameled so as long as you don't scratch it hard it's not going to short out as the toroid isn't a conductor. Tested after winding with DMM to make sure there were no shorts.Figuring out how to bend the wires, where to bend and where to solder was a puzzle in itself. Soldering this was an adventure, and if you aren't seasoned at it it's going to be tricky.Overall, the most difficult and time-consuming part was sanding the enamel from the wire to create soldering points. The wire is actually really high quality and the enamel dense. If you're struggling winding the toroid then just take your time and unwind it and redo it if necessary. You will figure it out with some patience.The drilling requires precision as the box is so small, and some engineering for the placements. Arrange parts in desired positions, measure a few times then drill carefully. I filled in the areas I drilled with silicone as this is a permanent installation.The two complaints I have are that the binding posts are low quality. You can see in my pics I removed the thumb screw and put nuts on. Also, the center of the PL259 spins, it's low-quality, so make sure the coax is put on then screwed in before you move it or you'll break your connections. Tip: make sure the notched solder point of the PL259 is facing UPWARDS inside the enclosure when mounting it. It's something I forgot and it made soldering more difficult.If you weren't emailed the instructions then you can contact the seller and they'll send them. They were quick to reply and sent them immediately.I chose 53' of insulated 18 AWG stranded copper wire as the antenna and about a 25' radial for the "ground" (I don't actually have it grounded). Using 75 Ohm coax. First time I turned my shortwave set on I received BBC London here in Boston. I have picked up China and Japan as well.This isn't a kit to buy if you want a quick fix. It's a kit you buy to learn the entire experience.Overall I'm very happy, the experience of the entire project was a very welcomed and constructive use of a lot of time during this pandemic. Great project for these times when our options of doing things is limited, and it was interesting learning about coils and how to wind them. I recommended doing research on different types of windings and their uses.I also recommend Googling for the article "9:1 Magnetic longwire balun / unun" by M0UKD as it helped me quite a bit. If you're stuck you may find it useful.Enjoy!

Decent DIY Unun, likely using better parts than some of the manufactured ununs.The enameled copper wire/cable provided is apparently 18 gauge (AWG) enameled copper wire. Provided enameled copper wire gauge seems suitable for RG-6 (18 AWG) cable feed line(s) and a 14 AWG long wire cable antenna(s), and/or larger gauge cable antennas as long as using RG-6 cable feed or smaller gauge feed cables.If using a larger gauge feed line (eg. RG-11 commonly better than RG-6 for receiving) and larger long wire antenna gauge, might want to purchase a larger gauge enameled copper wire. However, doing so will likely cause a significantly tighter wrap around the included toroid ferrite part.Have not tested the parts or the already manufactured unun yet, and simply just wrapped some coils of antenna long wire through a snap-on ferrite bead. Also used snap-on ferrite beads on the RG-6 before entering into the radio. Seems to be, when us guys are constructing antennas, we more so use what we have on hand at the time, rather than waiting for parts to be delivered. The next long wire antenna, I'll likely throw one of these ununs onto the line, as the antenna assembly will likely save time soldering, however I do enjoy a good soldered connection, especially when engineering antennas as connectors almost always incur significant signal (dB) loss.From many posters, using snap-on ferrite beads with small wraps of cable/wire, basically the same theology of a unun with the exception of the ground connector, and should be no different. Only encountered one poster stating they had significant problems until using an unun, likely also grounding the antenna at the time of the installed unun. Shrugs...Assemblers likely have two choices, either assemble for a balun or unun, balun is for a balanced antenna (eg. dipole) or unun for unbalanced inputs such as long wire antennas. For the later, unbalanced, I'd suggest using the excellent instructions on the ARRL website for End-Fed Half-Wave Antenna Kit, with an included URL to the original HFKits instructions containing the wiring diagram for the 48:1 unun. After reading other reviews here, I opted for wiring according to the HFKits 48:1 unun diagram. Purchasers of this balun kit, will likely purchase these for test installations, however subsequently will likely build their own using the higher quality parts of the ARRL/HFKits Unun. The ARRL/HFKits Unun requires a simple additional 100pf capacitor, however I think the capacitor is optional, likely only used only for noise reduction.HOLE DRILL SIZES5/8 inch diameter hole for SO-239 solder adapter 0.61 in/15.5mm1/8 inch diameter holes for SO-239 mounting bolts 0.11 in/2.8mm5/32 inch diameter holes for (speaker female banana) binding posts 0.14 in/3.7mmPROS1) Likely good for test/learning, building/engineering baluns/ununs, hardware likely suitable for balanced antennas or wired as a unun for small portable long wire antennas. Have not tested the hardware yet myself.2) Parts are not too small, whereas already assembled baluns/ununs use very small and likely cheaper parts and costing twice as much.3) Very affordable!CONS1) No hole markings for commonly placed hole placements. (eg. No drilling templates!)2) Instructions likely require additional research, verifying wiring diagram layout according to assembler's intended purpose. (eg. balun or unun)3) Parts are not the best; small ferrite, poor conductivity stainless/plated connectors. As I've stated, if you're really interested with long wire antennas, probably best to move onto the ARRL/HFKits version.4) Weird, some balun/unun kits contain no method of additional mounting, such as large mounting/tiedown holes on the plastic casing, for a quick mounting screw or wire ties. There are mounting holes below the case cover, for wire ties, likely need to drill case cover holes and use very tiny width wire ties.5) Centering of the SO-239 solder mount connector is extremely difficult, see below tips for ensuring good centering of the SO-239 connector and binding posts.6) Takes about two days to build. One day winding and initially preparing/soldering the ends of the enameled solid copper wire, along with drilling holes. Another day performing the final soldering and cleanup.7) Generic parts, ferrite toroid still likely too small. Really good sealed box though!TIPS1) As another reviewer mentioned, pay attention to installation locations for the SO-249 mount and binding posts, as the junction box interior capacity dimensions are extremely small! See further below tip.2) Soldering the enameled wire is extremely difficult without first removing (some of) the enameling by sanding. Burning the enamel is almost impossible, using a Weller 200/300 watt soldering gun! I did the best I could sanding, then burned the remaining enameling, using plenty of flux. Holes of the soldering tabs are only suitably large enough for one ~18 AWG wire, so if doubling-up the wiring with the leftover copper wire as this monkey did, ensure leaving an small extra ~1/4 inch length for soldering to the existing solder tab holes.3) Leave plenty of excess wiring for soldering the wiring. If wiring according to the ARRL/HFKits 48:1 unun, will only be using two pieces of solid copper wire, with an additional small ~6 inch section for the loop feed. So leave plenty of excess wire after wrapping the ferrite toroid, for cutting/soldering mistakes. If you do as me the monkey did, you'll only have a very short 0.5 inch wire stub for soldering to the ground of the SO-249 mount and binding posts, requiring soldering left-over solid copper wire for additional length!4) Center the SO-239 solder mount connector according to the base of the unit, leaving about ~1mm of clearance on the near box sides of the square base of the SO-239 connector, so as to ensure the screws/holes remain on the interior of the box. Need to again recenter for the offset clearance of the interior of the box, although the engineer provides two extra long screws for mitigating an absolutely centered SO-239 mount connector. Use the same centering method for the binding posts, however likely best to move halfway between center and bottom of the interior of the box, so as to leave more clearance for the ferrite toroid circular shaped mass.

This was the first balun/antenna I ever built completely from parts. The instructions were clear. I made this into a 1:1 balun for a 20 meter dipole. Once I got the solder joints connected properly and elevated the antenna, I had a 1.2:1 SWR and a very low noise floor. My first two QSOs complimented me on the clarity of my signal. This is a very small balun and the size made it a little more challenging to work with, but for the price I can't complain.

This kit came as described with all parts included. The materials seem to be of decent quality and after some drilling went together easily. The included instructions leave much to be desired, although there are plenty of other sources online to help you through the preparation and assembly. If your looking to save a bit of money and know your way around a soldering iron this shouldn’t be an issue. Note what you see is what you get. The box has no holes drilled so keep that in mind. I paid full price for this unit and was in no way compensated for this review.

Great affordable learning experience. But you best be good at soldiering and drilling holes. The housing wasnt quite suited to holding the terminals well but as a machinist I was able to drill in the right place. But again, for low money and a little patience you can at least learn some of the basics of antenna design.