Ladder Line to coax transformers
Ladder Line baluns are used to match the impedance seen at the end of the ladder line to a coaxial cable, usually 50 ohms, but a ladder line balun can also be used to match to 75 ohm coax like RG-6/U used for cable and satellite installations. While RG-6 doesn’t have the same power rating as larger cable, it is very useful for beverage antennas or receiving antennas which don’t carry a lot of power.
The impedance seen at the end of the ladder line will not be the same as the characteristic impedance of the ladder line (typically 300 or 450 ohms). Good ladder line antenna designs try to have the impedance at the end of the ladder line attachment to the balun close to 200 ohms so that a 4:1 balun can be used to match to 50 ohm coax.
A typical ladder line antenna is shown in the picture below:
Palomar Engineers has ladder line to coax 4:1 baluns in both kit form and also assembled in a variety of 1 watt to 10KW power levels to suit the needs of many customers. The ladder line baluns are designed for balanced output and are generally used at the end of a run of ladder line from the antenna. The baluns connect to the ladder line and then transition to coax cable to you antenna tuner or radio station.
Often it is difficult to slip beads on a cable because of a plug or connector. Split beads solve this problem. They come in two halves that fit over the cable. A plastic snap cover holds the two halves together and holds the assembly on the cable.
For RFI use, mix 31 is effective from 1-300 Mhz, mix 43 works from 20-250 Mhz, Mix 61 is for 200-2000 Mhz, and mix 77 favors .1-20 MHz. These frequencies are those of the interfering signal to be eliminated, not the operating frequencies of the equipment to be protected.
Not sure of what sizes you need or solving a RFI problem with devices using multiple size cables? Try the Ferrite Snap On Combo Pack which has sizes from 1/4″ to 3/4″ with either Mix 31 (1-300 MHz) or Mix 61 (200-2000 MHz) or Mix 75 (150 KHz – 10 MHz).
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Bead dimensions are shown in the picture below and in the table as A, B, C
Ferrite Split Bead Dimensions
Application Notes
Application Note for using these Snap On split beads: How Many Chokes do I need?
You can very effectively increase the choking impedance of smaller cable by using a large hole ferrite bead and wrapping the cable through several times. For particularly difficult common mode current/RFI problems you may need a choking impedance as high as 5-10K ohms. Using multiple beads and multiple turns through each bead will give higher impedances up to a point. At higher frequencies, when the number of turns approaches an electrical wavelength, the choke becomes resonant due to stray capacitance and the inductance of the cable and limits the high end impedance values to less than the above table points.
Some example of ways to wrap cable are shown below.
 FSB-1/4 – 1 turn |
 FSB-1/2 1 turn |
 FSB-1/2 Open Shell |
 FSB-1/2 2 turns |
 FSB-1/2 3 turns |
 FSB-1/2 4 turns |
—–//—–
More examples of split bead use
Ethernet Cable on FSB-1/4
Ethernet Cable on FSB-1/2 – 3 turns for 9X Impedance good filter for 15-30 mhz between 2K-3K ohms choking Z
Three Effective Radio Interference Filters
 FSB-1/4 or FSB-1/2 4 turns for 14-50 Mhz 2K-3K Z |
 FSB-1/2-5 turns for 10-30 Mhz 2K-4.5K choking Z |
 FT240-43 – 14 turns for 3-14 Mhz or use two FT240-43 for 1.8-10 Mhz |
These snap-on chokes are useful for reducing RFI in public address system amplifiers, speaker wires, mic cables, mixer panels, coax cable, telephone wires, computer sound card speakers, dsl/cable connections, remote control heads for ham transceivers (Especially FT-100, FT900, IC-706, IC-7000), AC power cables, DC power cables, home theater cables, video cables, HI Fi cables, guitar amps, linear amp cables, etc.
They are also helpful in suppressing common mode noise/RFI in radio and TV receivers, audio and RF amplifiers. They can also help suppress noise generated by treadmills, exercise equipment, fish tank heaters, oil heater pumps, fluorescent lights, motors, cable modems, DSL modems, computers, and many other electrical devices. Common mode current reduction in computer cables often helps speed up computers.