In the past when we 've discussed Transmatches, some

VHF experimenters have felt left out. This month W11CP

discusses Transmatches for 2 meters and shows us how
to build one.

How To Build A Transmatch

For 2 Meters
BY LEW McCOY' , WlICP

I 've had many requests to do an arti-

cle about construc tm g a Transmat cn
that c an be used on 2 meters. I find that
many amateurs wish to experiment w ith
rhombics or v -beams or just oddball
antennas on 2 meters , To do so, be-
cause the feed impedances of such
antennas can vary wid ely, it is neces-
sary to use some type of adjustable im -
p edance transform er . Such a devic e wi ll
take the unknown im p ed anc e of the
antenna and convert it to 50 ohms-a
value required by modern transceivers .
This d evice is usually an adjustable
Transmat ch.
The only reason I have held back in
describing such a circu it is that it is
almost impossible these days to buy
small variable capacitors, O r if such
cap acitors are available, the y are very
e xp ensive. When ever I mentioned that
fact to would-be constructors, however, Here is the trensmetcn described in the text.
the reply was always "Let us worry about
that. "
That may sound like a simple answer,
but I still wasn't sausueo. I made it a To try 10 make this clearer to the neo- tube. the meter pointer would -op.' indio
point last year to see what was available phyte. I have shown two circuits at fig . cating a resonance spot. A frequency
at tleamarkets. and to my surprise there l(A) and (B) . In the case of (A), the coil meter was used to calibrate the grid dip
were plenty of small variable capacitors (LA) is "fixed" tuned by use of a fixed meter. We therefore ended up with a
to be had . While not required. another value capacitor. At B we use the same known frequency checking device that
item that p roves very helpful is an old- coil an d a variable capaci tor so th at we c ould be used to check an un known Cir-
fashi oned g rid dip meter, c an cover a "tunable" range of fre- cuit.
For the scores of newc omers to ama- quenc ies. One of the more vexing prob- The OS T d evic e was so large, how-
teur radio, a grid d ip meter require s lems with such c irc ui ts is knowing , after ever, that it was impractical to use. A
some explanation . In those good old making one , what the frequency hap- b rilliant amateur named Bill Scherer,
days when amateurs built their own pened 10 be . W2AEF. one of my p redecessor 's here
equipment (receivers and transmitters), Just a spot of history is appropriate at CO (he is now a Silent Key), then
most of the work consisted of making here . The first grid dip meter was came up with a small grid dip meter. It
circuits that would either be fixed tuned described in the early 1930s in OST. I was so small it could be held in one hand
or tunable to a d e sire d frequency. This bel ieve that this first model is still in the and brought very close to the circuit to
was usually accomplished by using a ARRL museum. The circui t was simple be checked, For years the Millen com-
coil of a certain inductanc e , and that coil enough. It consisted of a tunable tube - pany manufacture d the Scherer g rid dip
was re sonated to various desired fre- type oscillator that would be c oupled to m eter, calling it the Millen Grid Dip
quencies via a variabl e c ap acitor. another c irc uit. A chang e in the grid c u r- Meter,
rent would occur when the two c oupled One of my prob lem s- if it can be
"Technical Editor, CO, 1500 West Idaho circuits were re sonant to each o ther . called a problem-is t tee! strongly that
Street, Silver City, NM B806' When metering the grid current in the history should be p reserved. I was

40 • co • June 1993 Say You Saw " In CO

 and discuss antennas and matching
Today most of the amateurs on 2
meters use a coax-fed vertical , while
C, C, others use beams, All of the current 2
meter rigs are designed to work into a
50 ohm load . Otherwise. either the rig
(A) ( 8)
won't put out rated power. or it won't
load at all . Th is is done to protect the
Fig. 1- At (A) is the fixed-tuned circuit solid-state circuitry . This Transmatch
using a fixed value of capacitance and was not really desig ned for these 2
resistance. At (B) the cap acitor is veri- meter verticals or beam types o f anten-
able. p ermitting tuning of the circuit to na s simply because these antennas are
various frequencies. already matched and d o not need a
tu ner. However, in the e vent one has a
problem, I have provided fo r coa xial
feed matching .
L2
J> Essentially, the Transrnat ch is lor
To ng Ll antennas fed with open-wi re line or TV
and SWR ' _ ..." Antenna
bndg' cr r feed
twin lead , but it will work with coax feed.
Let's face it' coax in long runs, say 150
feet or more . can be quite lossy at 2
meters so some amateurs may wish to
use a low-loss line, such as open wire.
A lso. one doesn't need a lot of room 10
p ut up a 2 meter rhombic or v-beam 10
ob tain a d irectional 10 dB gain signal.
Such antennas can be fed with the insu-
lated-type open-wee line with great suc-
c e ss. I am thinking now of amateurs who
may be marqmat into a given repeater,
and the sub se q uent answer is a high-
ga in d irectional antenna (that doesn't
cost muc h!).
Th is Transmalch also c an be u sed
With random end -fed wires, or lor exam-
p le, a m ultiband. c enter-led. tow- band

C2
COLORADO
Fig. 2- This is the circuit diagram of the
Transmatch. L 1 and C2 comprise the
input variable link circuit. and C, and
COMM CENTER
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see from the photo , it is nothing lane y.
It took me about two hours to cut up the
NO SURCHARGE!
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porents. Let me break away again here

June 1993 • CO • 41
say You Saw It In CO
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is another configuration that will work end, trying to match at each point. I did
L3 and does not require a dual variable not find an antenna-system load I could
J1 such as I used in the shown unit. Dual not match perfectly, but mat is not to say
andSWR
_.
To ng Ll

C3
Antenna
teeo
C2
Fig . 3 Single-section variable version
of fig, 2. (See text for details.)
dipole such as an 80 meter dipole, One
of the antennas I use lor tests is an 80
meter extended Zepp red with open-
wire line. Using this antenna on 2 meters
I was surprised to find I could trigger
several repeaters tha t my verti cal would
not access, I tried all kinds of "2 meter
antennas," I ran a wire out to my tower,
connected the single end 10 the Trans-
match. and found I had a reasonably
good antenna system. I also tried my 20
through 10 meter multiband beam,
which also worked on 2.
All this experimenting was a lot of fun
and provided interesting results . The
Transmatch doesn't cost much, de-
pe ndinq on wh at you pay for the vari-
able c apacitors and the coax fitting s.
The two variables I found at a tleamar-
ket cost $3.00 for both.
Fig. 2 is the circui t I used. and fig . 3
variables may be harder to find,
Study fig. 2. The output 01 the trans-
ceiver or transmitter is connected to J 1
that such a condition doesn't exist. I
would simply add 19 inches of wire 10
the feed end at the Transmatch, which
where the signal is rou ted through L 1 would change the load, and in all prob-
and C2, For newer amateur s, this is an ability woul d put it within matching
ol d-fash ioned meth od of cou pling rang e.
wh ich provides considerable matching
flexibility. L 1 is a link tha t is link-coupled
Construction Details
to L2. L2 is tuned via C 1. The unknown
feeder/antenna load is lapped onto L2 As I stated earlier, I made the "box' that
via two clip leads. An SWR indicator is holds the Transmatch from copper-coat-
connected in the line from the rig to the ed circuit-board matenat. Any metal
Traosmatch. The SWR indicator is set In chassis or box can be used. My only rec-
the renectec reading mode. While feed- ommendation is that you keep the two
ing power 10 the Ttansrnatcb from the variables as close together as possible
rig, both Cl and C2 are adjusted for a to avoid long lead lengths, My home-
null, or zero, read ing , II a zero reading made bo x is 5 '/2 inches wide and 5 inch-
in the reflected mode is not obtainable, es deep. The front and back panels are
then the clip lead taps are either moved 2 1/ 4 inches high. (None of these dimen-
in or out of the coil until a zero reading sions are cnncat)
In the reflected position is achieved. The If possible, in your search for variables
entire procedure is really quite simple. try to lind a small dual variable. The one
In tne event of single-wire feed or end- shown is a Hammarluncl 35 pF per sec-
feeding a wire, tne procedure is simple. tion unit To be used on 2 meters. how-
Connect the single-wire terminal feed ever, you need to remove plates. USing
via the clip lead to the coil. starting at needle-nose pliers, carefully bend the
the outside of the coil or hot, unground- outside plates out and back a few times
ed end of the coil. (In the fig. 2 con fig- and they Will come loose, Do this until you
uration the grounded end is at the cen- leave only four rotor and four stator plates
ter , or rotor, of the stator.) Try mat ching on each ca pacitor secuo n
and if you are not successful, gradual- If you ha ppen to get a slightly larger
ly move the tap towards the grounded variable from a fteamarket. then you

42 . CO • June 1993 Say You Saw It In CO

 may have to remove more plates. Your
goal in the plate removal is to get a
capacitor that covers 144 to 148 MHz
with the coil described below . None of
this is as difficult as it sounds. particu-
lariy if you can beg or borrow a grid dip
meter. Marean this in a moment . C2 and
C3 should also have a min imum value
of 35 pF. You may have to remove plates
on these as well.
Coils L 1 and L2 were made from ordi-
nary No. 14 copper insulated house
wire. I had some Romex No. 14 handy.
so I stripped Ihe insulation off a leng th
to make L2 . L2 consists of four turns of
this wire (wound on a 1/2 inch diameter
dowel and then slid off the cowen. The
turns were then spread 10 cover a total
of 1'/2 inches. This coil was then mount-
ed to the stator connections of the d ual
varia b le. one lead going to one stator
and the other coil lead going to the other
stator. I must emphasize that none of
this is critical if you have a grid meter.
Once the coil is sold ered to the
ca pacitor. take the grid d ip meter and
couple the g rid d ip coil close 10 L2. and
then tune the grid d ipper to 144 MHz .
Tune C1 and L2 through their range and
watch for a dip m the reading , indicat-
ing the circuit has hit the 2 meter band
You can determine the range of this tun-
able circuit by selling C 1 to maximum
(plates fully meshed) and then tunmq
the grid dip meter , looking for a d ip .
C!..... v..... c:.",_ .. I ... ,...n
Likewise, open the plates fully (mini-
mum capacitance) and again use the
d ipper to lind the other end 01 the range.
Next you need to make the link. It is
made from a piece of insulated No. 14
solid wire. The link is also '/2 inc h in
diameter , and the turns are inserted at
the center of L2 (this isn't critical). One
end of the link goes to the stator sec tion
of C2. and the other end is connected
to the coax inp ut litting _
II you make the version shown in lig .
3, then the only c hange would be to
make the L3 three turns instead of four.
Spread the turns as described above,
and use a grid d ip meter to c heck 10
make sure the CIrc uit is hilling 2 meters.
The link is coup led to the bottom , or
ground end , 01 L3.
Some newcomers may be confused
by circuit-diaoram symbols- particu-
larly ground connections. Fig . 2 shows
the rotors of both capac itors being
grounded . This ground indicates the
c hassis. and in rea lity the rot ors are
g roun ded to the circuit -board c ase via
their mount ing points Ihrough the front
panel.
You may find that in actually match-
ing an antenna system the tuning of
either capacitor may be too sharp, Indi-
cating too much capac itance in either
variable. You can remove more plate s.
I c annot tef you how much simply
because there are so many d ifferent
types of variables to be found . Use the
grid d ip method . (And pleasedon'twnte
asking me , as I don't ha ve time to
answer and probably would not be able
to help anyway.)
Sometimes , but not always, when
using certain types of wire antennas one
may encounter tuqh-impedance loads,
which could lead to RF getting into the
rig via the Transmatch. A simple cure is
to add a quarter wavelength of feeders
(19 inc hes) in series with the feed line
at the Transmatc h. Or if it is a single-wire
feed , then add 19 inches of wire as I
mentioned earlier. This c hang es the
load of the system to a low or d ifferent
impedance. and in all likelihood gets rid
of the problem. Another thing to do is to
use a complete enc losure for the
Transmatc h bo x.
The important thing here is that with
this Transmatch you can try any anten-
na on 2 meters, and I do mean any
antenna . Anyone for a hig h-ga m morn-
b ic? A rhombic lor 2 meters would only
have to be 12 teet on a side to produce
one heck of a lot 01gain. to trigger that
remote repeat er, and I am talking 12 to
14 dB of good . honest gain. Like I said ,
however. don't write. Use the antenna
books. I'm getting too darn old, and time
is become more and more important to
me . I will , though , add this: For repeater
work and wire high-gain antennas , think
vertical polarization. Good luck ! •
June 1993 • CO • 43