Here are some notes I’ve received from others regarding this antenna:

 

29-Jan-2008 - From Martin Ehrenfried, G8JNJ:

 

I have now made a copy using 25mm ferrite rings and 15mm copper water pipe as the inner cores.

 

The through loss curves when terminated in 50 ohms seem to be very similar to your genuine unit. See attached photos.

 

As another test I terminated the input with a 50 ohm load and then measured the impedance of the secondary winding with an Autek VA1.

 

Input 50 Ohms

MHz

R (ohms)

J (ohms)

0.5

8

-41

1

22

73

1.5

43

99

1.9

68

112

3.6

143

128

7.1

245

130

10.1

297

99

14.1

279

52

18.1

292

-24

21.1

252

-46

24.9

208

-59

29

193

5

 

So the secret seems to be that it's a very lossy 4:1 balun !

 

I'm a bit mystified by the odd construction though. I wonder if it was wound correctly in the factory. The way the first turn of the secondary loops outside the ferrite core and then doubles back on itself, before connecting to the output is very odd. It's almost like someone made a mistake and then lost the rest of the surplus cable by folding it up and stuffing it back inside the assembly.

 

Pictures sent by Martin can be viewed from these links:

Picture 1

Picture 2

Picture 3

 

 

 

29-Jan-2008 - From Hidehiko Koguchi, JI1AVY:

 

I am JI1AVY, Hidehiko (HIDE) Koguchi from Tokyo, Japan. I was impressed very much with your disassemble report of CHA250.  You did a great work.  For your reference, let me tell you some additional information.

 

JJ1GRK, Takagi OM contributed on CHA250 type broad band antenna to Japanese CQ magazine annex #1, published in August 2007. He defined CHA250 type as MLB(Magnetic Longwire Balun) antenna. According to his article, MLB is originally developed as a impedance matching transformaer at the passive antenna termial of HF radio. Also the transformer has another feature that you do not need an earth side element when you deploy the MLB. (Sorry I can not discribe details of this feature because my technical knowledge is limited.) Then he experimented on the MLB deployed broadband antenna again and again. He finally made his original MLB antenna.Through his experiments he tried to assume a structure of CHA250B based on Xray photograph of its core unit.

 

So I think even he has never seen the disassembled inside of CHA250. Your work must be the first ever in the world, at least, which have been published.

 

I have just sent your PDF URL to JJ1GRK (Hope Takagi OM would read it because he does not like to receive an e-mail).  And attached is a part of JJ1GRK article. Although it is written in Japanese, you can find the figure of MLB and its SWR charts.  Attachment.

 

31-Jan-2008 - From Martin Ehrenfried, G8JNJ:

I built a version of the CQ Ham Radio balun design using some small, long, ferrite tube cores, and measured the secondary impedance as before.

 

It's basically a 4:1 balun. The first set of results is for the balun as shown in the diagram, the second is the same balun with the feedback loop removed and the wire just pulled out of the end where the loop is shown in the drawing.

 

The loop doesn't seem to do much except reduce the performance at the LF end, mainly due to the loss of one half turn. I thought it may have been some sort of 'neutralising' mechanism to improve the performance at the HF end, but this doesn't seem to be the case. Have you any ideas regarding its purpose, other than present the cable at the desired end of the assembly  ?

 

 

Jap balun with feedback loop

 

Jap balun no feedback loop

MHz

R (ohms)

J (ohms)

Z (ohms)

 

R (ohms)

J (ohms)

Z (ohms)

0.5

20

-50

54

 

33

-79

86

1

52

69

86

 

89

92

128

1.5

78

67

103

 

131

86

157

1.9

90

66

112

 

149

71

165

3.6

114

65

131

 

166

55

175

7.1

138

87

163

 

179

48

185

10.1

150

86

173

 

180

51

187

14.1

177

91

199

 

188

64

199

18.1

184

95

207

 

196

70

208

21.1

192

103

218

 

186

86

205

24.9

157

116

195

 

162

100

190

29

161

115

198

 

155

105

187

 

31-Jan-2008 - From Martin Ehrenfried, G8JNJ:

I tried modifying the Comet balun copy to remove the 'feedback' loop.  These are the results. A graph is also attached.

 

 

Comet copy

 

Comet copy no feedback loop

MHz

R (ohms)

J (ohms)

Z (ohms)

 

R (ohms)

J (ohms)

Z (ohms)

0.5

8

-41

42

 

12

-82

83

1

22

73

76

 

43

132

139

1.5

43

99

108

 

87

177

197

1.9

68

112

131

 

134

199

240

3.6

143

128

192

 

294

202

357

7.1

245

130

277

 

435

164

465

10.1

297

99

313

 

459

140

480

14.1

279

52

284