on Wednesday (Its Friday today) I placed an order for my first Toroids (T200-2) from these guys http://powermagnetics.co.uk/ – I received the package Thursday – some times the postal service astounds me – getting stuff over to Guernsey can be a bit hit and miss postal times wise – nothing you wouldn’t expect from living on an island though. Regardless, what amazing service from Power Magnetics too (thanks Michael). I will most definitely be back and more toroids etc. will be purchased :-).
So why do I need Toroids? Well I want to play antennas, off centre fed dipole / end fed etc. and a balun is most definitely needed. I’ve been reading a fair bit and some time back Patrick @M0ZPK / (qrz.com M0ZPK) took the time to give me some help in what to do / look for…
4:1 Balun – http://www.m0zpk.co.uk/4-1-balun/
40m Off centre fed dipole – http://www.m0zpk.co.uk/40-meter-off-centre-fed-dipole/
Common mode choke – http://www.m0zpk.co.uk/commonmode/
Toroid specifications – http://toroids.info/
I found these as well..
Toroid winding calculator – http://www.66pacific.com/calculators/toroid-coil-winding-calculator.aspx
1:1 Current balun – http://vk6ysf.com/balun_guanella_current_1-1.htm
Thanks Patrick for imparting your wisdom and taking the time to answer my stupid questions – and thank you for publishing your designs etc on your website so that even I can understand them – I think the ease of obtaining information these days has made this hobby so much more accessible and its only through people such as yourself posting their findings, designs, mistakes and experiences etc that the learning curve is softened for those that want to learn but that are not as sharp as some 😉
I still have so much I want to do and nowhere near enough time – however this weekend I hope to get up a 40m OCFD and the 17m inverted ‘V’ I have been promising myself for ages 🙂