Looking for a good A/B switch

[fishman741]

Hi everyone,

I am looking for a A/B or /C switch. Previously I had tried one from Radio Shack, but I think that was made for TV or something. I had to ditch that because it killed all signals to my radio.

I currently have a tri-band antenna which works pretty good. But I also have a home made antenna for the 1 GHZ range. My idea is to add a yagi to point towards New York City for the 400 - 850 MHZ range.

So I 'think' switches have to be specific for these ranges. Any info will be appreciated.

 

[nyair1]

Can't really use those A-B style cable tv type switches for scanner use. Too much signal loss and the radios will interfere with each other. They make a special multicoupler switch that is used for splitting a single antenna lead to multiple radios. There is a company called stridesberg that makes them. I have a powered one that you can run 4 radios off one antenna.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

 

[chief21]

To the OP... What type of coax connectors are you using?

I think nyair1 is referring to a TV splitter or RF multicoupler, neither of which is a "switch". If you are looking for a typical coaxial A/B switch, there are a number of companies that sell them. The less expensive ones (likely made in China) are sold by MFJ or Jetstream. 2-way and 4-way switches with UHF connectors are most common. The higher-quality ones are sold by Alpha-Delta (see link).

https://www.google.com/search?q=alp....69i57j0l3.11323j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

John AC4JK

 

[Ubbe]

You can use CATV LNB switches for satellite dishes that are made to work up to 2GHz.

A simple A/B would be a Vertical/Horisontal polarisation switch. Add 18V to the coax and it switches. It's also easy to open up the switch and solder wires to the relay and do the same with another switch and also put a diod between wire and relay but pointing in different directions. Then when you switch polarity of the 18v (will probably also work with 12v when connected directly to relay) the other relay will engage instead of the first one. Connect the switches in series and you have a 3-way switch controlled from a one pair power wire (+ polarity/- polarity/ no power) for a total cost of $20.

/Ubbe

 

[fishman741]

Thanks for the info. The Alpha Delta - 2 Antenna Switch looks like something I would be interested in. Thanks John!

I use RG6 on everything. I make my own connections.