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Re: [TowerTalk] Common Mode Choke

To: towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Common Mode Choke
From: Jim Brown <jim@audiosystemsgroup.com>
Reply-to: jim@audiosystemsgroup.com
Date: Sun, 22 May 2016 18:37:13 -0700
List-post: <towertalk@contesting.com">mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
On Sun,5/22/2016 5:42 PM, Don W7WLL wrote:
Has anyone some experience with the use of a CMC and typical single band mobile 
whip antennas?

Hi Don,

Yes. We use ferrite chokes at the feedpoint of the verticals we use for mobile operation, including the recent 7QP trip through 7 counties in NV. Simply follow the winding guidelines in my cookbook. k9yc.com/RFI-Ham.pdf

The designs using 5 cores are for use with high power (up to legal limit). For 100W, a single 2.4-in o.d. core is big enough, but you'll need more turns -- use the graphs in Appendix One of measured data for 1-14 turns small diameter wire on a single core as a guide.

Or simply wind five turns through a 1-in i.d. clamp-on. Use #31 for 80M, #31 or #43 for 40M and above.

Another VERY important point. Modern cars go nuts with excessive paint, so much so that most parts of the body of many vehicles are insulated from each other by that paint. This can make it VERY difficult to find and connect to enough of the body to form a return for antenna current.

Also -- with respect to that mag mount -- the ones I've seen often fail to even make an electrical connection between the cable shield and the metal mount that couples to the vehicle roof. When this happens, there is, for all practical purposes, NO return for antenna current. For that antenna to work, it MUST have a return. If it doesn't return to the body, it will return via the coax. But we're choking the coax, so it doesn't have that either.

And, BTW, the likely reason you had RFI issues with your mag mount is that the mag mount failed to provide good coupling to the body. :)

Does this sound like there's no free lunch?  :)

73, Jim K9YC
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