Thump Made UnUn's Tested! 49:1 & 9:1

In this video, we take a look at two UnUn's that my buddy made to use for SWL and QRP operations.
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[@Swamp-Fox]

Nice, clear explanation of the UnUn's and another great use for the Nano VNA!

[@TheSmokinApe]

Thanks SF 👍

[@bobkopf227]

Good morning Ape, I always enjoy your videos and have learned a lot from them, I didn’t understand everything in this video but that isn’t a reflection on you it’s more about me and my old brain. Thanks again

[@TheSmokinApe]

Hey Bob, thanks for checking them out. Much appreciated 👍

[@KS0JD]

I like the looks of the work Thump did. Clean looking assembly. 73

[@TheSmokinApe]

Yeah man, he’s good at that stuff 👍

[@WECB640]

Great review and explanation Ape. Congrats to Thump for making these. The 49:1 has the primary in the middle of the secondary and I concur that this is a better design than most designs that place the primary at one end of the secondary. Ape, I see a good LCR meter in your future to measure all the parameters of your loads. Remember to keep the lead length very short. Length becomes increasingly significant as frequency increases, and this may be PART of why we see an increase VSWR at 10M. Keep up the good work men! 73

[@TheSmokinApe]

Fair point. My LCR meter only tests at very low frequencies, 100kHz. If you have a link for one that does HR freqs hook me up!

[@WECB640]

The Nano VNA will measure your inductors, capacitors and resistors at all frequencies up to 1GHz. kzbin.info/www/bejne/iGHQg4efnL6tmdE@@TheSmokinApe

[@technishn]

If you make a resistive divider equal to the load impedance across the UNUN secondary, then you could look at insertion loss using S21 on the VNA as well.

[@BusDriverRFI]

These transmission line transformers are largely resistor networks. It's why they get so hot at higher power levels.

[@signalscout6020]

Good stuff, Ape. Thanks for not busting em this time.

[@TheSmokinApe]

Haha, no worries

[@temporarilyoffline]

Those look really good

[@TheSmokinApe]

yeah, he did a good job with the construction 👍

[@ianliston-smith7921]

Interesting. Using resistors is all very well, but I'd like to see the results using a real-world random wire antenna of the length that has no ham band resonances. Whatever that length is - which you might like to tell us.

[@MikeN2MAK]

The antennas look good!

[@TheSmokinApe]

Thanks Mike, ole Thump did a good job with them 👍

[@mikeZL3XD7029]

Ape, It's really weird, since I've been watching your videos, my nanoVNA has had a real workout, whereas before it was sitting on my top shelf gathering dust. And to be fair, the literature that comes with a nanoVNA, does not lend itself to easy setup and using it off the bat. The nanoVNA Saver software is a great tool that I'd recommend anyone with one of these devices get, this in itself makes it a lot more user friendly. Thanks for another great video.

[@TheSmokinApe]

Hey Mike, glad to hear the videos are helpful. I use the VNA all the time, they are a game changer 👍

[@robertmeyer4744]

them look great. he made for SWL . that 9:1 looks better. for SWL on 9:1 cut your wire different. SWL bands or off set ham bands. want a non resonant length on all SW bands want to RX . I made one with a tap every turn and a muti pos switch. and a 365 PF air variable cap. works super for short wave listing. antenna tuning will help RX signals and reject un wanted noise or signal but changing the resonate point. look at a way to tune a portable antenna with a adjustable coil. turn up radio so you can hear what you tune for ,adjust for max noise. this gets you close for SWR. to bad you did not have 2 the same run back to back sweep them divide buy 2 and this will be the loss. 73's

[@TheSmokinApe]

Great post, love the idea of SWL freqs being considered 👍

[@mattstosh6960]

Thank you for the great video. If these are for sale, can you please list the link? Interested in the SWL capability.

[@TheSmokinApe]

As of right now, he's not selling them 👍

[@MI7DJT]

Thump. Make Antennas Great Again 😄

[@TheSmokinApe]

lol

[@av3510]

Don't call me a banana, Jack!

[@TheSmokinApe]

LOL

[@tmccusk1]

Hi Ape. Thanks for the video. Why do you need a counterpoise if you're not transmitting?

[@BusDriverRFI]

I'm a nobody, but I don't like the term "counterpoise". In reality, it's a part of your antenna.

[@TheSmokinApe]

It can help match antenna impedance with the radio, also but acting as a "ground" is can help with the noise floor 👍

[@tmccusk1]

@@TheSmokinApe Thanks very much!

[@BusDriverRFI]

@@tmccusk1 Having an entire antenna does help.

[@K3JRZOnTheAir]

Has he branded them the “ThumpTenna”?????

[@TheSmokinApe]

Lol, he might

[@oncomics1128]

Does he market those parts?

[@TheSmokinApe]

Not at this time 😕

[@junquecollector]

I see 10 turns on thre 9:1 UNUN, not 9 turns. Am I seeing things?

[@TheSmokinApe]

Son, you gonna make me count them again? I’ll check and post back…

[@stevehansen6068]

So mr. Ape a question. Do you wear ear plugs when you sleep to keep all that shit in your head? Not trying to kiss ass but you are very intelligent bud.

[@TheSmokinApe]

Lol, thanks Steve 👍

[@1979Iceman]

A resistor across the transformer isn’t going to tell you anything about how it will perform on an antenna. You spent most of your time talking about that and then give a very brief mention of testing it on an actual antenna, that is disingenuous.

[@TheSmokinApe]

It tells you how when the transformer transforms…

[@1979Iceman]

@@TheSmokinApe so let me ask you this, if you measure a 3:1 at a specific frequency using your resistor and then attach an antenna and get a 1.5:1 or better at the same frequency do you think this is because of losses?

[@1979Iceman]

@@TheSmokinApe well actually it can tell you something like when you get a “flat” response across 80-10M with a low SWR, it tells you that you have a very lossy transformer and that a good bit of your tx power is going to be lost through the transformer in the form of heat. But hey, your radio will be happy…