Impedance Transformers (<1:1, >1:1)

Off Center Fed (OCF) antennas are very convenient as they will allow multiple bands of operation with a simple wire antenna which is fed off center. For example, the Palomar Engineers 4010 OCF is a very popular antenna and consists of an off center fed dipole with sides of 55 feet and 11 feet and it will work all bands from 40-6 meters.The End Fed OCF uses the same dimensions but the wire section is 55 feet as in the OCF and the coax outer braid is used for the “other” short side of the OCF dipole. We place a choke on the coax at the 12 foot distance from the matching unit and we essentially have an OCF antenna with its great frequency range, but with only a 55 foot wire length instead of the 66 feet required by the regular OCF. You feed the antenna from one end which may be more convenient for some installations. This antenna will work on 40-30-20-17-15-12-10 and 6 meters. Most bands are under 3:1 SWR and easily tuned by your transceiver’s internal antenna tuner or external tuner used with an amplifier. (see BULLET-4006 for specific details and SWR curves).

These antennas are MUCH BETTER PERFORMERS than End Fed Half Wave antennas because they work the WARC bands, DO NOT HAVE A DANGEROUS HIGH VOLTAGE at the antenna connection and are SHORTER to fit in smaller spaces yet provide more band coverage up to 6 meters!

Palomar Engineers offers a variety of impedance transformers configured as Baluns (balanced coax to unbalanced load) or Ununs (unbalanced coax to unbalanced load) for  matching typical 50 ohm feed line impedances to antenna or other load impedances.

We specify impedance ratios as an output to input ratio where the output (or load) is given first and the input is given second (e.g. 100:50 (2:1) would mean a 100 ohm output and a 50 ohm input; a 25:50 (1:2) would mean a 25 ohm load and a 50 ohm input).  Most all products use a 50 ohm input unless otherwise specified.

We have products that are available as kits for the do-it-yourself (DIY) person or fully assembled and tested units for the “Plug & Play” crowd.

Our impedance transformers are available using two different topologies: Binocular cores or  toroid cores with multiple turns for increased effectiveness and wide band frequency transformations.  We utilize single and multiple core transformers using high order windings when needed to extend product performance.

We rate the power ratings as watts PEP (Peak Envelop Power) with standard duty cycles for various modes. To determine the PEP rating required for your needs, see: Choke & Transformer Power Ratings

This website page serves as a link page to the frequency ranges of our impedance transformers configured as either baluns or ununs.  You can click on a picture to go to the specific page about the products described in the picture.