[TowerTalk] Help with Ameritron RCS-12C

Thu Mar 20 07:40:19 EDT 2014

I haven't seen this asked could have missed it, but:  How many wires 
have signal and which wires are hot for each position?  IE For position 
1 what wires, pos 2, what wires, pos 3...etc
Regardless of the settings, I'm looking for a pattern in the output.

73

Roger (K8RI)

On 3/19/2014 5:38 PM, Herb Schoenbohm wrote:
> I looks like a design problem since the voltage on any unused port 
> should be zero and not enough to trigger another relay on the 
> DX-engineering switch.  I have, however, come up with a fix and that 
> is to drive a bank of eight 5VDC relays to be controlled with the  4.9 
> VDC that appears voltage that appears on the remote RS-232 out put on 
> the unit. This is a clean 5VDC with zero volts on any unused pin. This 
> relay bank will then send out 12VDC to the DX-Engineering switch.  In 
> looking at the schematic for the RCS-12C it appears to be insufficient 
> bias on the the MJF-3055 switching transistors to cut them of when not 
> triggered.  Or it could be a bad production run of this component.  I 
> tried bleeding off the phantom voltage with a 2.2 Kohm resistor but 
> this had no effect.  So I sent one of the problem boxes back to MFJ 
> for evaluation.I will post the results when i get them.
>
>
> Herb Schoenbohm, KV4FZ
>
>
> On 3/19/2014 5:11 PM, Mark Robinson wrote:
>> MFJ/Ameritron is sort of like Heathkit...but you don't get to build 
>> it from new however you do get to fix it from new...hi hi
>>
>> The customer is the MFJ QA inspector
>>
>>
>> Mark N1UK
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mike Reublin NF4L" 
>> <nf4l at comcast.net>
>> To: <herbs at vitelcom.net>
>> Cc: "Joe Subich, W4TV" <lists at subich.com>; "towertalk reflector" 
>> <towertalk at contesting.com>
>> Sent: Monday, 17 March, 2014 6:45 AM
>> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Help with Ameritron RCS-12C
>>
>>
>>> Herb,
>>>
>>> I had a bad RCS-12 out of the box. Maybe yours is too. The 
>>> replacement worked as expected. I love it!
>>>
>>> Good luck.
>>>
>>> Mike NF4L
>>>
>>> On Mar 16, 2014, at 6:23 PM, Herb Schoenbohm <herbs at vitelcom.net> 
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Joe,  You are always so very helpful in solving problems....but in 
>>>> this case I must have read and re-read the skimpy Ameritron manual 
>>>> 10 or more times.  The jumpers are in the right setting per the 
>>>> manual JMP1 is 1 of 8 and JMP4 is "direct" as the manual suggests.  
>>>> Even on the bench on the "Relay Connection Jack" multiple votages 
>>>> appear on different wire in one setting of the switch in the manual 
>>>> mode.  this is with both my RCS-12C one just purchased to see if I 
>>>> have a bad controller. As I mentioned the previously the RS-232 9 
>>>> pin has individual voltage output 1-8 and no ambiguity.  However 
>>>> this output is only 5 volts DC on either controller as it appears 
>>>> to be for the purpose of switching other external devices. Absent a 
>>>> detailed schematic my ability to troubleshoot the 8 higher current 
>>>> switching transistors is limited.  Any suggestions?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Herb, KV4FZ
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 3/16/2014 6:03 PM, Joe Subich, W4TV wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> Herb,
>>>>>
>>>>> Read the RCS-12 manual.  The answer you need will be found on pages 4
>>>>> and 5.  See the 1 of 8 configuration for the "Relay Connection Jack"
>>>>> and the appropriate setting for JMP 1.
>>>>>
>>>>> RTFM OM!
>>>>>
>>>>> 73,
>>>>>
>>>>>   ... Joe, W4TV
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On 3/16/2014 5:16 PM, Herb Schoenbohm wrote:
>>>>>> I am trying to get my RCS-12C Ameritron antenna switch interface 
>>>>>> working
>>>>>> with a DX-Engineering  8-Port Antenna Switch in a 1-8 configuration.
>>>>>> However the Ameritron box outputs switching voltage on more than one
>>>>>> wire simultaneously even in the manual setting  via the 8 pin 
>>>>>> connection
>>>>>> jack thus causing more than one relay to reference an antenna. The
>>>>>> switching closures from the common main feed port to the various
>>>>>> antennas are all over the place thus causing high VSWR on the 
>>>>>> selected
>>>>>> antenna. One would think that Ameritron would have 12 VDC or what 
>>>>>> ever
>>>>>> the switching voltage might be to only output one wire at a time but
>>>>>> that is not the case.  There is however on the RCS-12C an Auxiliary
>>>>>> Output DB9 connector which provides a single voltage of 5 volts 
>>>>>> DC with
>>>>>> respect to ground and these are all correct and non are duplicatd on
>>>>>> other ports like the Din Relay box port Unfortunately the 
>>>>>> DX-Engineering
>>>>>> box type RR8B-HP Remote Antenna Switch requires a control voltage of
>>>>>> 10-14VDC, not 5 volts. The cable used is CAT 5 of very good 
>>>>>> quality and
>>>>>> I have even made a new run with a new Din connection to the antenna
>>>>>> control port on the RCS-12. All my setting inside the Ameritron are
>>>>>> simple 1 through 8 switching.  I have searched for solution and 
>>>>>> maybe
>>>>>> the only way the RCS-12C will control the DX=Engineering Antenna 
>>>>>> Switch
>>>>>> is by building a board of 8 five volt relays which then send 
>>>>>> 10-14 volts
>>>>>> out to an external supply.  Yes the Ameritron 12-RCSC has 
>>>>>> provision for
>>>>>> inputing up to 30 volts and an internal jumper for a direct feed 
>>>>>> to the
>>>>>> Din relay box connector.  However there is enough voltage on non
>>>>>> switched wires to cause the remote antenna switch to do all sorts of
>>>>>> unfortunate things.  Sometime the 20 meter antenna shows up on 
>>>>>> position
>>>>>> 8 even though the coax is into port 5.  Sometimes the 10 meter 
>>>>>> port and
>>>>>> the 160 meter port are cross connected.  This is all very strange 
>>>>>> and I
>>>>>> would like to know if any other user of this configuration has had
>>>>>> similar problems and discovered solutions.  I have even purchased 
>>>>>> a new
>>>>>> RCS-12C controller and this performs the same way. Again I have a 
>>>>>> BCD
>>>>>> connection to my Icom but this is not the problem  since the bad
>>>>>> switching occurs in manual mode  as well as auto mode.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Please let me know if you have a solution to this.  I would like 
>>>>>> to get
>>>>>> it running before the CQ WPX contest or else try to switch this 
>>>>>> box with
>>>>>> some clip leads and a 12VDC supply.  This must be something 
>>>>>> simple to
>>>>>> correct.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Regards,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> herb Schoenbohm, KV4FZ
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
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>>>>>>
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