[TowerTalk] Sources of Coax Relays

Jeff Blaine keepwalking188 at yahoo.com
Thu Jul 12 09:10:30 PDT 2012


Jim,

Check out the Tyco RTD 14012.  Available in a 24v version as well.

Has nice short contacts keeping the L low.  Very tough.

73/jeff/ac0c
www.ac0c.com
alpha-charlie-zero-charlie

-----Original Message----- 
From: Pete Smith N4ZR
Sent: Thursday, July 12, 2012 10:34 AM
To: TowerTalk
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Sources of Coax Relays

I've used dozens of $2 PC board power relays over the years in various
antenna switching applications, and have never had a failure at >1300
watts and SWRs from 1:1 up to over 3:1.  W2VJN reported similar, much
more rigorously tested results at TopTen Devices.  I don't see any
reason to gild this lily further.

73, Pete N4ZR
The World Contest Station Database, at www.conteststations.com
The Reverse Beacon Network at http://reversebeacon.net, blog at 
reversebeacon.blogspot.com,
spots at telnet.reversebeacon.net, port 7000 and
arcluster.reversebeacon.net, port 7000

On 7/12/2012 9:20 AM, Jim Lux wrote:
> 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?
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