Sr. Citizen Question On Antenna Splitters ?

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BOBRR

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Dec 15, 2004
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1,468
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Boston, MA
Hi Folks,
Thanks for previous help.

Am in my 80's now, so please bear with me a bit.

Am back into hobby, and have the following equipment, etc.:

Do listening only from <30 MHz.

Have a SDRPlay RSP-2, which is my main receiver. Used with the SDR software SDRUno.

I also have a many year old WinRadio Excalibur (G-31), which i would also like to use again, and switch between.

Have only a single outside long-wire antenna.
Adding a second one for the Excalibur is not practical.

So, my main question regards the possible use of an "antenna Splitter". (would have to be relatively inexpensive)
I know nothing, frankly, about antenna splitters.
Sounds a lot more practical for me now, rather than continually switching the single antenna between the two.

The SDRPlay is always active as there is no switch, but the Excalibur has a switch and can be turned off.

Questions:

Is there a "big" insertion loss if I use a splitter ?
Any difference if I am using the SDRPlay, and the Excalibur is either powered On, or Off (but always connected to the Splitter) ?

Are there active vs passive types ?

An antenna splitter a practical solution, or are the losses just too much ? Suggested brands and models ?
Better approache(s) ?

Not too sure what else to ask.
If anyone might educate me a bit on this, would be most appreciative.

Thanks,
Bob
 

TailGator911

Silent Key/KF4ANC
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Feb 12, 2005
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2,687
Location
Fairborn, OH
You will suffer some loss whenever splitting the signal from an antenna to multiple radios in an unamplified (passive) setting. For HF, I run a PAR end-fed 40ft wire from my antenna mast to a backyard tree and coax into my radio room to an RX HF 1-50 splitter (1 ant x2 receivers) mounted on a board behind my HF radios. It allows for 2 radios to share an antenna with minimal loss. I use the PAR wire with my Icom R75 and R8600 and it is a non-amplified. I also deploy a random wire (approx. 75ft) for my Icom 746Pro and my old Yaesu FRG-7 which I run into a Dawai splitter (either/or) and switch between them accordingly. There are amplified HF antenna splitters available as well, but I have found the 2-way passive HF antenna splitter to be adequate for my listening needs.

If you are talking vhf/uhf scanners, then I highly recommend the Stridsberg Multi-Couplers, available in both 4-way and 8-way versions. They are a bit pricey, but worth every penny in my book. I use both with multiple antennas to multiple scanners and they both perform flawlessly. Recently I had one (after12 yrs of use) go south on me. A call to Stridsberg and a nice guy, John, advised me to send it in. A week later I rec'd a brand new one with a short apology note, that it was better for me if they would just replace it. Refunded shipping, too - can't beat that with a stick!

Below is a link to the RX HF 1-50 antenna splitter and the Stridsberg Multi-Coupler website (these can be purchased thru Scanner Master)

Hoping this helps you out!

Antenna Splitter RX HF 1-50 MHz BNC Connectors for sale online | eBay

Receiver Multicouplers, HF VHF/UHF.

JD
kf4anc
 

prcguy

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15,233
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So Cal - Richardson, TX - Tewksbury, MA
To be more specific, you will loose at least 3dB or 50% of your signal with a two way splitter or power divider. However, with a fairly large outside antenna you probably won't notice any change in the signal to noise ratio of whatever you are receiving and you will probably be fine with a cheap splitter. In the case of a really small super inefficient antenna that is already starving the receiver for signal level, using a passive splitter would then make things worse.

You can always try the cheap splitter and upgrade later to an amplified splitter, which can introduce other kinds of problems depending on the mfr and ratings of its internal amplifier.
 
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