I'm think of doing a new project.. An antenna switch. I know this *should* be an easy project, but like any good engineer who ignores K.I.S.S. I'm going to over engineer it. I'm think I'll use an Adruino Uno R3 from Adafruit as the controller. I'll probably have to design a shield of my own, since the Adruino control lines put out +5V, and the relays I'm looking at (AC 10amp 240v) the coils use 24v so I'll need some small relays that run on 5v to trip the 24v to the bigger relays. I will keep looking because this solution even for an over engineered project is sloppy. Ultimately I'm looking at a 16x2 LCD display with back light that also has a few buttons that can be programmed. My idea is, instead of using LEDs to indicate your selected antenna (which would be too easy, and far too easy compared to a rotary switch) I'll display your selected Antenna on the LCD panel. With some additional programming I bet I could display forward and reflected power and possibly even SWR. Also I believe I'll build in a dry 300 watt dummy load into the whole thing.
Another advantage with the Adruino design, over a purely mechanical one is the easy inclusion of a two rig setup as opposed to just one (In fact you could have more than two). I don't think you could (at least not easily) allow two transceivers to be connected and assign them to two separate antennas and use them both at once. You probably could actually but maybe not with the Uno R3. I'll have to give that some thought.
The beauty of this is simple, even though at first this design will be a local switch (ie: up by the transceivers) it will be built as two separate units from the get go. By doing this you can EASILY adapt the entire design to be a remote antenna switch. I'm not sure of final cost, but I can't imagine it'll be too expensive. The relay collection will be the single most expensive portion. I'm planning to start with just a 3 position switch + dummy load.
Right now, I've found SPDT 10A 240vac relays which should be plenty for 1Kw or more, the only problem I have right now is all the relays I'm seeing so far use 12V or 24V (or both) coils, which means the Adruinos 5+ vDC lines can't energize the coils directly (and by directly I don't mean directly, I mean +5vDC isn't enough to move a 12v or 24v coil, I don't mean without the diodes). If anyone knows of any relays that can do 240vAC @ 10A with a +5vDC coil let me know. Otherwise you're looking at a mess of tiny relays to step up to work your big boys, it'd certainly sound fantastic (I like relay chatter). Personally I think this project has potential, in conception it's better than any other switch solution I can think of, it might even have commercial viability.
Another advantage with the Adruino design, over a purely mechanical one is the easy inclusion of a two rig setup as opposed to just one (In fact you could have more than two). I don't think you could (at least not easily) allow two transceivers to be connected and assign them to two separate antennas and use them both at once. You probably could actually but maybe not with the Uno R3. I'll have to give that some thought.
The beauty of this is simple, even though at first this design will be a local switch (ie: up by the transceivers) it will be built as two separate units from the get go. By doing this you can EASILY adapt the entire design to be a remote antenna switch. I'm not sure of final cost, but I can't imagine it'll be too expensive. The relay collection will be the single most expensive portion. I'm planning to start with just a 3 position switch + dummy load.
Right now, I've found SPDT 10A 240vac relays which should be plenty for 1Kw or more, the only problem I have right now is all the relays I'm seeing so far use 12V or 24V (or both) coils, which means the Adruinos 5+ vDC lines can't energize the coils directly (and by directly I don't mean directly, I mean +5vDC isn't enough to move a 12v or 24v coil, I don't mean without the diodes). If anyone knows of any relays that can do 240vAC @ 10A with a +5vDC coil let me know. Otherwise you're looking at a mess of tiny relays to step up to work your big boys, it'd certainly sound fantastic (I like relay chatter). Personally I think this project has potential, in conception it's better than any other switch solution I can think of, it might even have commercial viability.