FERRITE RINGS

Good evening to you all.

Now I will put it plain and simple....I AM A SKIN FLINT. If I can save a buck by making it myself then so be it. Now I wish to sort my noise situation out as well as do a bit of balun/ unun making also. I NEED FERRITE RINGS. I have an attic full of junk. Plenty of old PC's collected over the years amongst other things. I'm just wondering if the rings found in  PC PSU's will be of any use to me for radio balun/unun  projects. 

Thank you for reading and i hope you can help

Not sure if they are any good for the job.
I have been playing around with balun making for the last 3 or 4 weeks now could be a bit longer.
I had some rings lying around 2 yellow ones and 1 i took out of a moonraker 9:1 unun.
Tried winding them for 49:1 balun but on testing they where no good at all.
Ended up on Ham goodies buying the right mix rings and on testing them when wound they worked fine.
Victor might know if the psu rings are any use for the job.

I wouldn't bother Paul and I've got to be the stingiest git here.


Ferrite rings or toroids come in all sorts of flavours and are easily just bought for the job to hand, but even then so called 'experienced' people get caught out by trying to utilise the wrong types.

The site below will show you the typical types of ferrite toroids available :-

http://toroids.info/


You'd think you could simply measure the size of the toroid, identify its colour and "Bob's your uncle" but you'd be wrong......they can paint it any colour they like (or whatever colour was lying around) and you'll never know what the ferrite material is unless you have test equipment to help. Even if armed with simpler gear up for the job like a NanoVNA you still will have to know what you're doing.

If making an EMC filter type choke you can if you know what you're doing make them out of simple steel bolts (although flipping big ones!) so might press one or two into use but for RF usage I simply wouldn't bother.


That'll save you a bit of wasted time if nothing else and learning by 'failing' is not always the best use of our time.


I hope that helps Paul. 

Remember I tend to write replies to postings not just as a personal response but also in full knowledge that others may be reading and gain some info too.


All the best,
Victor

Thanks for the info gents. That saves me a lot of time and effort ripping stuff apart, and after checking that link out Victor, I realised I need to learn a lot more first before I dabble in the creation of balans and the likes. But hey, that's what the hobby is all about after all. I think I'll just stick with antennas for now and purchase ready made addons as required. A lot more reading and Youtube for me I think

Have a great day fellas

Paul

No worries there Paul, just trying to do my best to help.

There's an abundance of information available on the old internet but unfortunately there's also a lot of poor knowledge. It's usually a case of sifting through it all until you get to where you wanted, which is why places like Charlie Tango can help out because either we posses such knowledge or can point out our experiences.

For example a lot of toroid based projects usually specify big expensive FT240's, T200's and the like which are fine for high power usage but not required for reception purposes or lower power. Cheaper types like the FT140's etc. will do a great job for low power transmissions or reception only. The main reason for such fat toroid are so there's room to wrap thick wire or coax around it but there's many other winding options available.

It all gets complicated with end fed antennas but for dipoles a simple 1:1 current winding can and does do wonders even for reception only reducing local noise. (I never used to use one until I tried and saw my 'noise' drop several S points!)


Keep inquisitive, keep learning and most of all keep enjoying yourself.


You have a great day too there Paul.

All the best,
Victor

Paul
Don't think about giving up you can do it well if i can you can.
I have been using bought antennas well i did have 3 HF ones.
A 7 band cobweb love that.
A multi-band vertical gave up on that on that it's in the old shed.
And the end-fed that i used most.
Few weeks back i stared having problems rf knocking my internet out swr went up not over the top but up.
This was a bought antenna 10-80 shortened version with a coil for the 80m part.
20m meters of wire connected to a 49:1 balun then the coil and 2.5mtr wire on the end.
Well it did my head in what could go wrong.
Cutting this short now.
I made my own 49:1 and changed them over and bingo back to working plus a big smile as i didn't think i could do it.
More internet reading video watching and i bought some more stuff wire 240-43 toroid's box and so on.
Now running a 6m to 160m end-fed and no tuner required swr under 2 well under.
All that in a few weeks so like i said not hard if i can do it anybody can.
Hope that all makes sense.

Edit
No more RF problems no internet dropout since.   

I use mix 43 ferrites on every lead in the shack.
USB leads to the laptops and radios, all power leads ac and dc.
Made GM3SEK's mains filter with the huge 31mix bead and line filter.
I have a large container with many different types and sizes.

These all help with noise and RF in the shack, the Hustler is only 8feet from the shack
and the Cobweb is 24feet above

Need to change my geggs, flicking through I saw the original post and thought it was about ferrets, as a avid keeper of the furry biting little bleeders, thought I may have an input, but seeing it's about ferrite rings I'm out.
Andy
CT345