Air Choke (Ugly Balun) for Ham Radio

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Introduction: Air Choke (Ugly Balun) for Ham Radio

By My YouTube Channel
About: I'm a ham, a tinker, a maker. I like interesting things. I'm a technophile, a wood turner, and a pen maker.

An air choke, also known as an ugly balun, is used to prevent RF current from flowing down the outer conductor (shield) of your coax and back into your shack. This is useful both from a safety perspective, and a practical one. If your coax is not properly isolated, it may become part of your antenna system, which could affect the performance of the antenna. If you have RF current flowing back into your shack, you could end up with harmful interference.

The only materials you really need are about 20 feet of coax for the winding, a form to wind the coax on, and whatever connectors you want to use to attach the choke.

More information can be found here: http://www.hamuniverse.com/balun.html

Building an air choke is easy and inexpensive. Watch the following video on how I built mine.

Step 1: How to Build an Air Choke (Ugly Balun)

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    Tip 5 years ago on Introduction

    I did my chock with a piece of 4" pipe , drilled two holes, ran the coax from the middle out bottom hole and then wound the turns around the out side, then drilled a hole were the coax into the middle Using RG8. found the turns started to sag after the winter so dropped it down and put ty-wraps around the form top and bottom. Second winter and works great.. I tune every morning. very happy