Info on this “multi coupler”

[fasteddy64]

I picked up a couple of these and have been searching for info unsuccessfully.
Does the HF on it indicate the frequency range?
Are they useful for anything?

 

[prcguy]

It appears to be a 4 port passive divider and probably for HF. It also has a gas discharge tube to clamp high voltage like from a nearby lightning strike. It would have at least 6dB loss per port so you would probably want a high level low gain preamp in front of it.

If you can find someone with test equipment they can sweep it for loss, frequency response and port to port isolation to give you the exact specs.

 

[N9JIG]

It appears that it was built by PG Electronics in Ontario. They used to be a military contractor for the US and Canada during the Cold War but now sell mostly cellular infrastructure components.

I agree with PRC Guy, it appears to be a passive splitter for HF, it was probably paired with a pre-amp and perhaps other gear.

 

[Ubbe]

The design looks a bit strange. There's a three 47 ohm resistors between each of the 4 output ports and there's a RF choke in parallel with each resistor. The yellow things has to be de-coupling capacitors to ground, to make it a HF only coupler and not VHF or higher. It would have only 3dB isolation between ports and the RF chokes connects DC between the output ports, and the forth RF choke passes DC to the antenna?

/Ubbe

 

[prcguy]

It looks like a typical transformer divider with one transformer splitting into two outputs then two more transformers splitting those into two more outputs with a resistor bridging each pair of outputs. You can see the dual windings in three of the transformers. The capacitors could be DC blocks for each port and there looks like either a choke near the input, possibly a shunt to ground for static or it could be an impedance matching transformer at the input.

The design looks a bit strange. There's a three 47 ohm resistors between each of the 4 output ports and there's a RF choke in parallel with each resistor. The yellow things has to be de-coupling capacitors to ground, to make it a HF only coupler and not VHF or higher. It would have only 3dB isolation between ports and the RF chokes connects DC between the output ports, and the forth RF choke passes DC to the antenna?

/Ubbe

 

[Ubbe]

...with a resistor bridging each pair of outputs...

Hopefully it's a standard transformer design, but I can only see one solder hole at each end of a transformer and that resistor at the bottom shure looks as if it goes between the jumpers that connects to the two outputs. But there's only three resistors to bridge four outputs? It's a lot of windings on those transformers, if they are transformers, so it has to be a HF only splitter due to the high inductance.

/Ubbe

 

[prcguy]

The resistors bridge between the transformer hot outputs not from hot to ground, so there would be two resistors bridging across the hot pins of the output connectors and one resistor across the output of the first transformer splitter.

Hopefully it's a standard transformer design, but I can only see one solder hole at each end of a transformer and that resistor at the bottom shure looks as if it goes between the jumpers that connects to the two outputs. But there's only three resistors to bridge four outputs? It's a lot of windings on those transformers, if they are transformers, so it has to be a HF only splitter due to the high inductance.

/Ubbe