Overview

InnovAntennas Ferrite Bead Baluns

InnovAntennas Ferrite Bead Baluns are fully assembled and ready to install, to achieve the absolute best performance from an InnovAntennas Yagi or other balanced terminal antennas. In contrast to wound baluns, ferrite bead choke baluns have the advantage of covering a wide frequency range for multiple bands. As required for most Yagi antennas from InnovAntennas with 50 ohm direct feed, ring terminals are installed on one end for the studded feedpoint connection. The other end is terminated in either Type-N or SO-239/UHF Female for the appropriate band coverage and impedance. Heat shrink filled with a UV-resistant adhesive provides a waterproof cover over the ferrite beads on the cable and the connector.

Why do I need a Balun on my Yagi? Ferrite Bead Baluns offered by InnovAntennas provide very important functions of a balun, which is not well understood. For proper antenna performance, a ferrite bead balun inhibits common-mode current two important ways; A) it prevents RF flow on the outside the coax shield cable when transmitting, and B) it prevents stray RF noise picked up by the coax cable shield from entering the antenna system and affecting the receiver.

What happens on the antenna without a RF choke balun? Several problems can occur. When an unbalanced feedline is connected directly to a balanced antenna with no BALUN in place, common-mode currents will run on the outside of the coaxial cable shield. The Yagi feedpoint is forced out of balance causing a skew and diminished beam antenna pattern and gain. A loss of Front-to-Back ratio (F/B) can occur, as well as detuning that affects antenna frequency, potentially causing increased SWR. In addition to the pattern distorting performance drop, radiation from the antenna feedline can cause interference to home and business electronics. The other very important benefit of using a wideband ferrite bead balun is to reduce received noise in certain situations. While the noise produced by many household products is normally at very low levels, sensitive ham radio receivers can be affected, which can prevents weak signals being heard. RF noise picked up on the coax cable shield will enter the antenna system feedpoint when no ferrite bead choke balun is installed at the feedpoint.

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