Splitting Signal Connection

[Cbandguy]

I am looking to split a connection and I need some help on how to do this. I have a scanner antenna with a cable coming into my house with an RG6 cable going into one of my receivers. The receiver's input is an N input so the cable male output has an N connector at the end of it. I'm looking to take this N male connector and split this signal with a splitter which covers 5MHZ to 2GHZ so that I can run two cables into two different receivers, one with an N input and the other with a BNC input. Since this type of splitter accepts an F input only, I would like to adapt the N male into the F female of the splitter and then connect two cables running from the output of the splitter with an F male on one end to a BNC male connector on the other end to a receiver number 1 and then connect a cable with an F male to an N male connector to the other receiver number 2. Can this type of connection be done this way or do I need a power divider to do this? Please offer your suggestions and opinions regarding this kind of connection and where I can obtain the required adapters, splitters and power dividers, if necessary. Thanks.

 

[LarrySC]

This is usually easy up to a point. My system of several ant's and scanners is all RG-6 using spliters and ABC switches. Put "F" on rg-6. Use N to F and N to BNC adp's. Check for Co named AIM. Centronics in Md. Pan Pacicic also. Several good places to get hardware. Use TV/VCR type splitters and ABC switches to start with. If you are in a strong signal area you will not notice any loss. If this works then you only have a few dollars in this project. If you want to dump big bucks into commerical grade splitters then do it. Good Luck, Larry

 

[opus]

You can do a good BNC connector on RG6. Get a bit of RG213. Carefully strip an inch or two of its rubber jacket. It is a perfect size to go over RG6 and give you a perfect basis to put on a BNC plug made for RG213. I have one of these going into my multicoupler. Works a treat.

Opus

 

[W4KRR]

There is a company called Stridsberg Engineering that makes multicouplers that are designed to do what you are looking to do. Depending on the model, you can run from two to eight receivers from one antenna. They aren't cheap, byt they work extremely well. Here's their web site:
http://www.stridsberg.com/

 

[Tweekerbob]

Splitting headache

Keep in mind that splitting your signal involves splitting your signal strength. As others have mentioned, if you are montitoring strong signals, lucky you (I live in a rural area), you will be splitting your signal almost in half, by using a splitter. If some of the signals you want to listen to are somewhat marginal, I would recommend, like the last poster, that you invest in a mulit-coupler.

However, if you find that the splitter (and the accompanying adapters which also increase the signal loss) produce a satisfactory result, then of course, stop right there.

If perhaps, your signal is marginal as it is, you may want to upgrade your coax. There are SEVERAL types of coax with much better performance than RG-6. If this is the case, in addition to a coax upgrade, I would strongly recommend the multicoupler (particularly the active type).

"Sometimes - you don't know what you're missing!"

Ryan - CA
AB6OI

 

[Cbandguy]

Thanks a bunch for the valuable info. I was wondering if using a
DC-2 GHZ antenna switch would be good and if there is any signal loss by using such a switch? I see where Grove Enterprises sells one.

 

[Tweekerbob]

Antenna switch

The switch, in most cases, will probably cause a very small amount of loss; however, it usually is very minimal and really won't really be a factor.

The jumpers you have going from the switch to each radios depending on which connectors you use and what coax you use will probably double your loss, but still won't be too bad