no not as a choke just tring to make it more "compact" i had the thought of standing it on end (floor to ceiling) but only have 8' to work with.
just having ideas going though my head.
my balun is abit different then most as i built it years ago before i have the knowage i have now. i have a 12" long 2 1/2" pvc pipe with 18' of coax coiled inside of it with couplers mounted on each end in the end caps. i have been told by many that it should not work, then they are amazed that it works better then the ones they have made by using the right theroy. chalk one up for over kill.
First of all, let's break down how a choke coil works.
A choke coil is a
tuned circuit. It will work because it offers
resistance to common mode current on the coax
at a particular frequency. This resistance keeps this 'current' from flowing on the outside shield twards the radio. In particular, the 27mhz/CB band.
We could make another choke for one of the Ham bands freqs; but this would require more coax winds in the choke in order to tune it for that wavelength/freq. Even the diameter of these chokes will have an effect on how much resistance we can squeeze out of them for any one freq. We need to get all of the resistance we can
and where we need it to be.
More turns won't make more resistance at our desired freq. In fact,
it may well have far less resistance. Because it will have tuned it to have more resistance at a lower frequency than the one that you need!
Using a narrow coil form - as you claim you are doing - is not going to offer the amount of resistance to common mode current that you seek. In truth, it will have less. Chokes use formulas and need to be used - word for word - to reach the goal of maximum resistance to common mode current at any given frquency.
So; your choke may be working. But I can assure you that it could be better that what you have now. These things that we use didn't just fall off of a turnip truck; they are arrived at by/thru scientific observation. Which means, that the results are consistent and repeatable.
I suggest that you try to 'repeat' what is known to work.
These results can only be better for you.
As a side note, resistance is a term used for DC circuits. With AC or RF output circuits, it is called 'impedance'. So, what you really doing is changing the impedance to the maximum. That is; if you follow the formula and build your choke for the CB band - as you should for best results.
5 tuns of tightly wound coax on the outside of a 4.25 inch diameter coil form.
No more; no less . . .
http://www.worldwidedx.com/cb-antennas/48415-ugly-balun.html