Stridsberg MC202

[bearcatrp]

Have a R8500 with dedicated HF antenna port and VHF/UHF antenna port. Will be hooked up to my discone for continuous coverage without changing coax. Will the MC202 fit the bill? Does stridsberg sell adapters for pl259 to this or do I need to hunt down adapters. Until I get a loop with dedicated coax, will run it this way until spring. Thanks.

 

[dlwtrunked]

Have a R8500 with dedicated HF antenna port and VHF/UHF antenna port. Will be hooked up to my discone for continuous coverage without changing coax. Will the MC202 fit the bill? Does stridsberg sell adapters for pl259 to this or do I need to hunt down adapters. Until I get a loop with dedicated coax, will run it this way until spring. Thanks.

Adapters are for PL259 to BNC are easy to find for under $5 on eBay (do not let the anti-eBay folks scare you away)

BNC Male to UHF PL259 Female Coaxial Adapter Connector | eBay

These adapters have a female UHF jack on one end, and a male BNC plug on the other.

www.ebay.com

(Personally, I would ditch PL259 on the ground end and go to Type-N and you would still need an adapter.)

 

[Ubbe]

Will the MC202 fit the bill?

Probably not. It goes down to 10MHz and have a 4dB loss. Just connect both ports to a T-connector and there will be less loss and only costs $5. I use a $10 CATV splitter and that goes down below the 80M band 3,5MHz and will have pretty much equal performance to Stridsbergs $75 splitter, although it's 75 ohm it will only add a 0,2dB loss if you actually have a mismatch to 50 ohm.

/Ubbe

 

[bearcatrp]

Ubbe, am looking at these:

https://www.amazon.com/GE-Amplifiers-Compatible-Connectors-33526/dp/B0054EILOE

TNC Male to PL259 UHF Female Adapter Connector | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for TNC Male to PL259 UHF Female Adapter Connector at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

 

[Ubbe]

Do the 8500 have dual VFO so that you can monitor HF and VHF/UHF at the same time? If not then you do not need any splitter, just a T-connector.

/Ubbe

 

[bearcatrp]

It doesn't. Has separate connections for HF and UHF/VHF antenna ports. Currently using just my discone for both. The discone does surprisingly well on HF. BUT, I have to switch the coax from one to the other port. Just received my other coax so now have coax on both. Still have to switch to my LMR400 coax. With a splitter, I can be continuous without switching coax. Once I get a loop, if I sell my R75 (not sure yet), will run the coax to the R8500.

T connector like this?

Amazon.com

 

[bearcatrp]

Came across this T connector thats PL259. Will order this and see how it works.

UHF Female T Adapter

Metal Body | Nickel Plated | Change the Connector

www.showmecables.com

 

[Ubbe]

Came across this T connector thats PL259. Will order this and see how it works.

I think it would be more suitable with this type, a one male and two female version, and put that on the 8500's antenna jack.
Amazon.com: UHF Male to UHF Female Tee Connectors PL259 T Connector pl259 Coaxial Cable Adapters SO239 Splitter for Ham Radio CB Antenna : Electronics

/Ubbe

 

[bearcatrp]

All my coax has male ends so needed all female ends. Did see that one though. thanks

 

[Ubbe]

You put that adapter on the receiver and don't need the extra coax and you don't need to have the adapter dangling from the coax.

/Ubbe

 

[bearcatrp]

Can’t put it on the receiver. Receiver has 2 antenna ports. One for HF, one for vhf/uhf. 2 coax out of R8500 to one coax to my discone.

 

[Ubbe]

You put that T-connector on the receivers HF PL259 port. Then the discone coax to one end and a coax with N connector, or BNC or PL259 and use an adaptor to N, to the other end.

/Ubbe

 

[bearcatrp]

The T connector disappoints me. I lose 3.5db with both ports hooked up in the 119 mhz area listening to the airport tower about 20 miles from as the crow flies. Running the VHF/UHF coax alone works great around 4.5 s on the meter. A little over 1 on the s meter using the T. Wondering if the HF causes some interference.

 

[prcguy]

Unless there is the equivalent of a diplexer on each port of the radio to only allow VHF/UHF to pass on one connector and HF to pass on the other providing a high impedance everywhere else, each unused port of the radio would load down the output of the T adapter and cause additional loss. You would probably have to use an external diplexer to make this work.

The T connector disappoints me. I lose 3.5db with both ports hooked up in the 119 mhz area listening to the airport tower about 20 miles from as the crow flies. Running the VHF/UHF coax alone works great around 4.5 s on the meter. A little over 1 on the s meter using the T. Wondering if the HF causes some interference.

 

[bearcatrp]

Thanks prcguy. Just wanted to be able to scan continuously without having to change coax connections between HF and UHF/VHF. The 8500 was to be my overall radio to go through the bands. Looks like will have to use separate cables for now. Got a recommendation for a diplexer?

 

[Ubbe]

Got a recommendation for a diplexer?

Pretty much all diplexers have an almost zero attenuation in the passband, something like less than 0,5dB. Which one to pick depends of the frequency ranges you want to go to each antenna port. Most of the diplexers are made for transmit at 500 watt levels and gets unnecessary expensive. But Diamond MX-610 at $70 might be suitable. There are probably others as well that are made for HAM use.

Making a filter from components that stop everything above 30MHz and another that stops everything below 30MHz costs just a couple of dollars and there are online calculators that give you the values for the components to buy, if you can solder. One option could be to get the ready made $35 filters from Mini-Circuits. One lowpass filter BLP-27 and one high pass BHP-25. There's also a $40 diplexer from them that might work, if you can sacrifice the 40MHz band from the VHF/UHF port.

/Ubbe

 

[bearcatrp]

Instead of dealing with multiport gizmos, I'll just get some coax and hook it up to my super antenna until I get my loop. Have a great christmas folks.

 

[prcguy]

I guess a diplexer is a multiport gizmo but it is the correct device to use in your situation. Is your super antenna the little short loaded tunable HF whip thing sold by Bonnie Crystal? That would be a real headache to use as a general purpose HF/SW receive antenna having to tune it to every frequency you want to hear.

Instead of dealing with multiport gizmos, I'll just get some coax and hook it up to my super antenna until I get my loop. Have a great christmas folks.

 

[bearcatrp]

Super Antenna - Wireless Accessories - Apparatus - Networks - Digital - Voice Transmission - Reception - Voice - Image - Data Communication Apparatus - CW SSB FT All Modes - HF Portable - Mobile - Telephone

NewSuperAntenna is the Official Super Antenna Systems Corporation website. Manufacturer of Wireless Accessories - Apparatus - Networks - Digital - Voice Transmission - Reception - Voice - Image - Data Communication Apparatus - CW SSB FT All Modes - HF Portable - Mobile - Telephone. SuperBeam...

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This is it. Used it before by putting it in the middle of HF. Worked ok but not tuned. Put me over until I get my loop. If your sure on the diplexer would do the job without any loss, Could try again. Would not have thought I would have such loss on the T connector since its HF or VHF/UHF and 2 separate coax and ports on the back of the 8500. I'll search around and see what I can find but if you have a suggestion which one to get, I trust your opinion prcguy.

 

[prcguy]

That's the one, its got a lot of history I won't go into but bottom line is its a very small, sharply tuned antenna and I don't think its well suited for general HF/SW reception.

I have several diplexers that work fine for seperating HF from VHF/UHF and I'll post the mfr and part # when I get back home next week. Most will have a cutoff for HF at 30MHz and some at 90MHz to pass 6m then the other side coves VHF and UHF up to about 470 or 480MHz. If you need to go much below 1MHz the specs may fall off some and if you need 700/800MHz the specs don't make it up there. Let us know the upper and lower frequency range that is important to you so we can see if the diplexer will cover it.

Super Antenna - Wireless Accessories - Apparatus - Networks - Digital - Voice Transmission - Reception - Voice - Image - Data Communication Apparatus - CW SSB FT All Modes - HF Portable - Mobile - Telephone

NewSuperAntenna is the Official Super Antenna Systems Corporation website. Manufacturer of Wireless Accessories - Apparatus - Networks - Digital - Voice Transmission - Reception - Voice - Image - Data Communication Apparatus - CW SSB FT All Modes - HF Portable - Mobile - Telephone. SuperBeam...

newsuperantenna.com

This is it. Used it before by putting it in the middle of HF. Worked ok but not tuned. Put me over until I get my loop. If your sure on the diplexer would do the job without any loss, Could try again. Would not have thought I would have such loss on the T connector since its HF or VHF/UHF and 2 separate coax and ports on the back of the 8500. I'll search around and see what I can find but if you have a suggestion which one to get, I trust your opinion prcguy.