[TowerTalk] Antenna Swittch - Grounded or Open Unused Contacts

[Jim Hargrave]

Keith,

I would ground the spare ports.
I have a remote switch in a box at the base of my tower. 
I have one spare port and I installed a dummy load on the spare port. 
It really comes in handy for testing. It also helps me verify the
 buried cable to the tower is still good. 
During bad WX, I select the dummy load port in addition to
 disconnecting the cable in the Shack.

     73's Jim
      W5IFP 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: towertalk-bounces at contesting.com
> [mailto:towertalk-bounces at contesting.com]On Behalf Of ac9s at mchsi.com
> Sent: Wednesday, September 08, 2010 9:18 PM
> To: towertalk at contesting.com
> Subject: [TowerTalk] Antenna Swittch - Grounded or Open Unused Contacts
> 
> 
> I am about to replace my 30 year old Ameritron antenna switch 
> with a DX Engineering unit.  It will be placed at the top of the 
> tower to select between the various antennas - wire slopers for 
> 160 and 80, inverted vees for 75 and 40, and the Steppir ( 
> currently under repair) for the rest of HF.  I will not have 
> multiple antennas selected at the same time.  What is best - to 
> wire the switch so that unused ports are normally grounded or 
> open?  My inclination would be to ground all the unused antennas, 
> but since the switch is shipped normally open I have an element of doubt.
> 
> Thanks --
> 
> Keith
> AC9S
> _______________________________________________
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