WW8J Link Coupled Tuner Coil Design

From VE3ERP Hamcalc Software Program

And
W4RNL Recommended Link Coupled Tuner Component Values

I have had several requests for design information of the LCT plug-in coil sets. I would like to say that the
design I have chosen is based upon the layout of the tuner, as well as readily available materials (including coil
forms) and components on hand, as well as the 0.25" copper tubing used for the inductors L1 & L2 coil sets.
It is not necessary to clone the coil design specifications shown below in order to achieve the same values. For
example, a coil set for 40 meters, L2 with a True inductance of 12uH could be wound with 7 turns of 0.25"
copper tubing on an 8.0" form in order to provide an approx. 12 uH value for L2. This particular coil would not
work with my tuner design because the male plug-in pins would not align to the female mounting receptacle.
The physical properties of any given value inductor can be manifold.
In my design, the 12 turns of 0.25" copper tubing for L2 (40 Meters) was chosen to accommodate the length of
the female plug-in support. In fact, the length of all three coil sets vary from approx. 6.0-9.5 inches. You may
have a different layout for your tuner, or may desire a different value for coil Q, and therefore the use of the
free Hamcalc software program would be valuable in designing your coil sets. In the design of each of my coil
sets, I have found that the derived Hamcalc software arithmetic values matched very closely the actual
measured inductance meter values of the finished coil sets.
You do not need an inductance meter to build these coil sets! The information given in the tables below was
derived from Hamcalc software available from George Murphy VE3ERP, and was used in the design of the
Link Coupled Tuner shown on the previous web page.
As previously mentioned, this tuner was designed for 160 - 20 meters The specifications below do not include
the 20 meter coil. I will be publishing the 20 meter coil specification at a later date.

WW8J Link Coupled Matching Network Specifications

40 meter Link Coupled L1 L2 COIL SPECS

L2 Coil Specs.
L1 COIL SPECS.
True inductance.........................= 12.000 uH
True inductance.........................= 1.200 uH

Number of turns........................= 12.000

Number of turns........................= 3.015

Coil form diameter...................fd= 12.700 cm. = 5.000 in.

Coil form diameter...................fd= 10.160 cm. = 4.000 in.

Coil pitch diameter...................d= 13.335 cm. = 5.250 in.

Coil pitch diameter...................d= 10.795 cm. = 4.250 in.

W ire diameter.........................W = 0.635 cm. = 0.250 in.

W ire diameter.........................W = 0.635 cm. = 0.250 in.

Pitch (c.c. spacing of turns)........Sw= 1.250 cm. = 0.492 in.

Pitch (c.c. spacing of turns)........Sw= 1.270 cm. = 0.500 in.

Coil Length/diameter ratio...........Ld= 0.35:1

W ire diameter/spacing ratio........W /Sw= 0.50:1
Turns per inch (25.4mm).............Tpi= 2.000
Self-Capacitance.....................Co= 7.153 pF
Added capacity required to resonate..Cx= 423.634 pF
Frequency.............................= 7.000 MHz
Self-Resonant frequency..............s= 54.323 MHz
Apparent inductance................La= 1.220 H
True reactance at resonance...........X= 52.779 ohms
Apparent reactance at resonance....Xa= 53.670 ohms
Total true resistance................Rc= 0.054 ohms
Apparent total resistance..........Rt= 0.055 ohms
True Q...............................Qt= 984

W ire diameter/spacing ratio........W /Sw= 0.51:1

Turns per inch (25.4mm).............Tpi= 2.032
Self-Capacitance.....................Co= 8.960 pF
Added capacity required to resonate..Cx= 34.118 pF
Frequency.............................= 7.000 MHz
Self-Resonant frequency..............s= 15.349 MHz
Apparent inductance................La= 15.151 H
True reactance at resonance...........X= 527.788 ohms
Apparent reactance at resonance....Xa= 666.397 ohms
Total true resistance................Rc= 0.278 ohms
Apparent total resistance..........Rt= 0.444 ohms
True Q...............................Qt= 1897
Apparent Q.........................Qc= 1502

Apparent Q.........................Qc= 968

80 75 Meter Link Coupled L1 L2 COIL SPECS

L1 COIL SPECS

L2 COIL SPECS

True inductance.........................= 2.200 uH

True inuctance.........................= 22.000 uH

Number of turns........................= 3.5000

Number of turns........................= 15.000

Coil form diameter...................fd= 13.335 cm. = 5.250 in.

Coil form diameter...................fd= 15.240 cm. = 6.000 in.

Coil pitch diameter...................d= 13.970 cm. = 5.500 in.

Coil pitch diameter...................d= 15.875 cm. = 6.250 in.

W ire diameter.........................W = 0.635 cm. = 0.250 in.

W ire diameter.........................W = 0.635 cm. = 0.250 in.

Pitch (c.c. spacing of turns)........Sw= 1.921 cm. = 0.756 in. Pitch (c.c. spacing of turns)........Sw= 1.215 cm. = 0.478 in.
Coil Length...................Lcm Lgth= 7.684 cm. = 3.025 in.

Coil Length...................Lcm Lgth= 18.225 cm. = 7.175 in.

Coil Length/diameter ratio...........Ld= 0.55:1

Coil Length/diameter ratio...........Ld= 1.15:1

W ire diameter/spacing ratio........W /Sw= 0.33:1

W ire diameter/spacing ratio........W /Sw= 0.52:1

Turns per inch (25.4mm).............Tpi= 1.322

Turns per inch (25.4mm).............Tpi= 2.091

Self-Capacitance.....................Co= 6.882 pF

Self-Capacitance.....................Co= 10.948 pF

Added capacity required to resonate..Cx= 933.018 pF

Added capacity required to resonate..Cx= 83.042 pF

Frequency.............................= 3.500 MHz

Frequency.............................= 3.500 MHz

Self-Resonant frequency..............s= 40.904 MHz

Self-Resonant frequency..............s= 10.255 MHz

Apparent inductance................La= 2.216 H

Apparent inductance................La= 24.900 H

True reactance at resonance...........X= 48.381 ohms

True reactance at resonance...........X= 483.805 ohms

Apparent reactance at resonance....Xa= 48.737 ohms

Apparent reactance at resonance....Xa= 547.587 ohms

Total true resistance................Rc= 0.044 ohms

Total true resistance................Rc= 0.301 ohms

Apparent total resistance..........Rt= 0.044 ohms

Apparent total resistance..........Rt= 0.386 ohms

True Q...............................Qt= 1107

True Q...............................Qt= 1605

Apparent Q.........................Qc= 1098

Apparent Q.........................Qc= 1418