Monday, January 6, 2020

Will an unbalanced antenna coupler work with a balanced tuned feeder dipole

We're always told that if you used a balanced antenna, such as a tuned feeder dipole, one should use a balanced antenna coupler rather than something that's simple and unbalanced eg a single L-match. 

In this video I do some tests on WSPR with a tuned feeder dipole (20 metres end to end, 8 metres feedline) on 14, 18 and 21 MHz. I swap between a balanced antenna coupler and an unbalanced coupler. Are there differences in signal reports? Watch and find out!  



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1 comment:

  1. Interesting post and experiment. The OM that are wise and should know always say that a balanced coupler has less loss. But your experiment shows something else. Personally I only use a Palstar AT1KM T-match unbalanced coupler with 1:4 balun inside to feed bij balanced inverted-V with homemade open line. I never tested it with a balanced tuner because I don't have one. But I'm busy to convert a old coupler to a S-match and will repeat your experiment. 73, Bas

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