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Message from AceB at Monday, 01-Feb-10 05:14:54 GMT

Thanks for the theory lesson Calico but as Paul was asking specifically about two frequencies on VHF I thought he might want to hear some real world experiences of using a toy DA. I got the impression from his original posting he wasn't looking to spend hundreds of quid on a real 'splitter'.

Message from PaulD at Monday, 01-Feb-10 08:28:27 GMT

Correct ACEB

Little as possibe. :p

Message from Calico at Monday, 01-Feb-10 16:21:03 GMT

If we are NOT fussed into getting the most out of our radios and antennas, then I agree with AceB. Go for it! Yes, something is -usually- better than nothing,

If we are careful though re.performance, radio-theory and sound practice still do go hand-in-hand.

Maybe this Maxview DA "appears" to be good.

But has any A/B testing been done with a proper radio specs preamplifier and a balanced splitter to support there is no intermodulation or signal degradation in your "numerous tests"?

Does the Maxview amplifier give any specs, such as 2nd and 3rd order
Intermodulation, Intercept Point 2 or 3, noise (dB) in any frequency area, let alone the frequency areas we are interested?

Also a good-ish passive splitter can still be found for less than £ 20.oo (obviously second hand) with some patience on eBay, e.g. Item number:
280448648648 or a more broadband variation to cover VHF/UHF. (nb.this splitter has been used in the ARRL labs too)

So why go for a lesser product which potentially will halve what we can hear when it comes to weak signals?

Personally?
IF I had a good antenna and good radios I wouldn't compromise them by introducing a weak link in the form of either lossy or out of specs components.

Message from db1 at Monday, 31-May-10 16:13:57 GMT

Hi all,

I am going to be making a splitter soon to allow 3-5 hf rxs to run off one antenna. I am not intending on using it for that many at once much, as I am also wanting to put up a number of antennas- one for each, but it would be good to share a directional antenna sometimes between rxs, so thats my reason. I am going to use a preamp, but at the moment haven't decided which internet preamp schematic to use. The problem I have is that I have some iron cores but there are no details for them on the internet, and they are all I can really get locally. I suppose I'll have to order some in so that I can know for certain (or nearly) how many turns of wire I need around them.
I am going to just follow designs on the internet and they seem to think that there shoudn't be intermodulation, so hopefully it will work fine.

A couple of days ago I had to use 2 rxs in a hurry so I had to just connect some audio wire onto the plugs on the coax and then connect it to the other rx. Losing some db I suppose but didn't seem to notice any discernable drop although now I am hardly picking up anything as conditions are bad.

Message from db1 at Tuesday, 08-Jun-10 22:28:38 GMT

The problem is getting round to it :) Some day I'll start, hopefully.

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