:::: My guess? The six pack is notorious for intermittent relay contacts.
I had several of them for years and I was always needing to yank the
feedlines around on them till the rcvr would come back to life or the sudden
high swr would go back to normal.
For a while I found that raising the voltage to 15volts or so would make it
behave better, but ultimately we just learned to notice when it was
happening, go to where the boxes were, and smack them around a little :-)
Seriously though, unless you really need them, like for two operating
positions, I would try to use an old fashioned coax switch instead. This is
just my personal experience, but we found a lot of others who went thru
this. This was 5 years ago, but maybe they made them better now?
BILL K2OWR
## I own six pack SN 001 ! It has never been used outdoors.
Originally, it had only 6 x relays,, then I added the other 6
later on. I only used the left bank. I can see that the interlocking
arrangement between left and right banks of relay's could easily
be a problem.
In any of these box's, u have 2 x choices, let moisture seep out the
bottom.. or seal em up super tight... and use a resistor inside to
apply heat 24/7. I also pack em with silica gel, [desiccant] , but
only if they are sealed shut.
Mine has gold contacts.. so one would think this would eliminate
potential problems. On a similar note... I have had nothing but
problems with all my F-12 relay box's [ 80 and 40m]
They use P+B / deltrol DPST 30 A contacts. My 'fix' for em
was to silver plate em with.. 'cool amp' http://www.cool-amp.com/
all contacts. Then use 'conducto lube' [same co] on em.
Conducto lube is just silver powder suspended in grease......and made
for sliding contacts. You end up with zero ohms every time.
On some of this stuff... I get really fed up... and use vac relays.
I designed a 1 in 9 out remote switch box for a buddy.. which used
surplus 277 vac rated DPDT mech relays [12 vdc] zero problems in several
yrs of use.
It has 10-12 kw stuffed through it all the time. If I can dig up the url of
the surplus place
I will post it here, they have hundreds of em left. All 'wiring' done with
wide flat cu strap.
7-16 dins used every where. Those cheap relays run superb... and no heat,
silica gel, or
silver plating used....yet.
In any event, I'd use high swr protection as well. Mine [a] opens up the key
line,
and also [b] applies neg Vdc to the xcvr's alc buss.... and [c] activates the
xcvr's inhibit
lead. I use the array solution's latest wattmeter.. with a twist. I run
TWO display unit's
in parallel on each coupler.... so I can monitor things in two places. That
also allows u to
use two sets of alarms... like above, for more than one way of shutting down
the amp + xcvr
Both display units read identical, unplug one of em.. the remaining one still
reads the same.
Later.... Jim VE7RF
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