Using group rings and characters as in the theory of abelian difference sets, some nonexistence results for strong difference families are provided. Existences of strong difference families with base block size
3
≤
k
≤
9 are discussed. Via strong difference families, eight 2‐
(
v
,
k
,
λ
) designs whose existences were unknown are constructed for
(
v
,
k
,
λ
)
∈
{
(
3417
,
8
,
1
)
,
(
3753
,
8
,
1
)
,
(
2665
,
9
,
1
)
,
(
3817
,
9
,
1
)
,
(
4393
,
9
,
1
)
,
(
7353
,
9
,
1
)
,
(
12537
,
9
,
1
)
,
(
345
,
9
,
3
)
}.