[TowerTalk] Sources of Coax Relays

[Jim Lux]

On 7/11/12 8:58 PM, Jim Brown wrote:
> I'm looking for good quality coax relays for use at the 1,5kW level.
> Some will be used only on 160M, most will be used on the HF bands. I may
> have a use for a few at the 200W level on 2M.  Some will be used for 6-
> or 8-position switching to radios, while others will be used with very
> different logic.  I'm hoping that I can do everything with 12VDC or
> 24VDC. Nearly all will be used indoors, but I need at least one or two
> that are easy to weatherproof.
>
> I've got a couple of the Array Solutions products, but I'm not thrilled
> with the relays that are used.
>

What about those doesn't thrill you?


I assume you're looking for something reasonably inexpensive, that is, 
you're looking to repurpose a conventional DC-60Hz kind of power relay 
to RF.

There's been quite a lot of discussion on this list (and others) over 
the years about which relays seem to work better or worse.  Complicating 
this is that a model number that worked 10 years ago might not work 
today: it will have the same pinout, contact configuration, and 60 Hz 
performance, but the RF properties could be quite different.

It sounds like you're going to need a lot of relays in the long run 
(dozens), so maybe the thing to do is to build some little PC boards 
that hold one relay and do some testing?