[TowerTalk] RCS4 Antenna Switch - Noise

[Roger (K8RI) on TT]

On 11/24/2014 3:29 PM, Ron W8RJL wrote:

IIRC Mine had Aluminum Rivets.  They are also hard wired. No decoding 
required.  Over the years, I've had to rebuild them a couple of times  
because of corrosion of the UHF connectors.   I prefer to keep 
electronics off the tower because of so many lightening strokes.

OTOH  I'm going wireless because of running wires between two buildings 
with separate electrical feeds  Is a bit hard on the network because of 
lightening. That and wireless is finally getting up to a decent speed. 
It's 130 feet from the computers in the shop to the network switch, or 
260 feet round trip..  Backing up to the new USB 3 drives at the 
computer takes 3 to 4 hours. Doing it via the Gigabit network is just 
shy of 24 hours.  Those long runs sure slow it down.

73

Roger (K8RI)


> Tom,
> I think it is better to drill out the steel rivits and install SS 
> bolts, nuts and tooth washers (all stainless) than just solder a wire 
> between all SO-239's. If not you still have a corroded connection 
> which in some situations can produce problems. How do you know the 
> noise is from the switch? does it go away when you remove power to the 
> switch control box? There are diodes involved in the switching scheme, 
> you might replace those as they are cheap. 73, Ron W8RJL
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "K0YR" <k0yr at tomrieff.com>
> To: <towertalk at contesting.com>
> Sent: Monday, November 24, 2014 2:58 PM
> Subject: [TowerTalk] RCS4 Antenna Switch - Noise
>
>
>> TT,
>> I inherited a RCS4 Antenna Switch from an estate.
>> When first installed it generated noise when using the 1,2 or 3 
>> switch positions. The default is #4.
>> Did some Google'ing and found discussion about corrosion on the 
>> SO239's mounted to the base plate.
>> Ran a ground wire across the SO239's to the circuit board. Cleaned up 
>> some of the other connections.
>> All seemed well and much improved. This past weekend the noise 
>> returned and was sometimes intermittent.
>> Switch is located about 450 feet out at the towers. Fed with 7/8 
>> hardline.
>> This unit was manufactured in 1992, so could be anything.
>> Any thoughts on what I may be missing or failing in the switch to 
>> eliminate the noise.
>> Tom, K0YR
>>
>>
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-- 

73

Roger (K8RI)