Topband: Reversible Beverage

[Ford Peterson]

> What has been the experience of a reversible Beverage? I am looking at building two of these to optimize the diagonal of my property and cover four directions.
> I will have a 9:1 Balun  and a terminating resistor at each end; switchable/selectable  by a 12 VDC relay at each end; controlled in the shack. The uncharged direction will be the more popular direction which will be the normal setup; radio---9:1---antenna---terminating resistor--ground.
> For voltage to the 12VDC relays, I will use an Ameritron control box, only, w/ floating ground,  feeding four control lines to the appropriate four relays.
> 
> Does anyone see any problems with this setup and if so, any remedy (ies)..?
> 
> Thanks for any / all critiques and ideas.
> 
> Mike, K5UO


Mike,

I'm not sure of where you got your design ideas.  There is no doubt that there are a hundred ways to skin a cat.  But it does appear that you have made the project more complex than it needs to be for a reversable beverage.  Only one relay is needed, and the system should default to the most used direction.  As far as 'control lines', I think you should look into using a simple bias T design to activate the relay to select the other direction--no control lines needed.  Even if you intend to use one feedline for a remote switch to control both sets of beverages, the bias T could use (+) and (-) voltages to activate two different sets of relays.