[TowerTalk] Terminate unused ports on remote antenna switch?

Raymond Benny rayn6vr at gmail.com
Wed Aug 11 04:03:38 EDT 2021


I did not detail my situation at all, sorry.

And, I do understand not needing to terminate the unused port on a remote
coax switch.

In my case, I am building an 80m 4 SQ TX antenna system. I have a Comtek
80m 4 sq phasing controller switch and remote box, and have 2 of the
diagonal verticals working independently.

Soon, I plan to connect the two verticals so to get correct 2 way phasing
and matching. And,  so I don't possibly mess anything else I plan connect
1kw dummy loads to the the ports that do not have a corresponding antennas.
In doing this, no matter where phasing box is set, there should be no
possible damage anywhere.

However, I do like the idea using high wattage incandescent bulbs. They are
less critical to weatherproofing.

Knowing my full situation now, are there any other thoughts or ideas?

BTW, I have done much research on designing and building of my 80m 4 sq tx
antenna system. There is a lot to read. The two most beneficial for
building; first, is a write by Gary,  WA60, on their rebuild of the 80m 4
sq at N6RO, a very big west coast contest station. 2nd, is a write up for
1:1 baluns by Jim, K9YC specifically for 4 sq antenns systems.

Tnx and 73,

Ray,
N6VR/W7YA


On Tue, Aug 10, 2021, 6:29 PM Wes <wes_n7ws at triconet.org> wrote:

> Bingo.
>
> Wes  N7WS
>
>
> On 8/10/2021 6:22 PM, Earl Morse wrote:
> > Terminating multiport devices in their characteristic impedance is
> desired
> > when those ports are still part of the circuit.  In the case of the
> antenna
> > switch, which disconnects the undesired ports and either just leaves them
> > hanging or shorts them to ground, termination with a dummy load doesn't
> > really do anything except to prevent you from transmitting into an unused
> > port that is either open or shorted and not properly terminated.  It
> would
> > probably be cheaper to use a switch with the proper amount of connections
> > rather than buying dummy loads for each unused connection.
> >
> > It is common to terminate unused ports in various multiple port devices
> but
> > really doesn't apply to the coaxial switch as the unused ports are
> > physically disconnected or shorted or both.
> >
> > Earl
> > N8SS
> > _______________________________________________
> >
> >
> >
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