The roller inductor is the beating heart of any fine grained antenna tuner. The Blue Ridge Amateur Radio roller inductor is an air-core based inductor that has a value range of 250nH to 16uH with a Q (quality factor) of 800+. Each inductor core is constructed using plexiglas endplates and internal webbing. Each end of the inductor rides on ball bearings for smooth operation. The RF contactor that connects the front RF connector to the spinning core is our own design. We utilize nickel-silver contact elements for both spring tension and superior electrical connectivity. The coil wire is pure copper, electro-plated with tin in order to eliminate copper oxidation, and to provide excellent solderability.

Our symmetric antenna tuner uses a parallel pi-network for performance and minimum power loss. This is the best possible arrangement for both efficiency and performance. It's also the most expensive to produce, due to the need to have 2 roller inductors within the same tuner.

Our rollers are mounted on a fixture in order to reduce the amount of mounting hardware (bolt holes) that go through the mid-plate, and to help keep our rollers perfectly aligned, synchronized.

These new cores provide a tremendous improvement in construction time and provide the same material strengths as plexiglass. The chief advantage of using these cores is the repeatability of the size and shape of the core. The interior of each core is hollow and the end caps, which are removable, are made from solid material. These new roller inductors can now be completely disassembled in a matter of minutes.