RF (Antenna) plumbing

[Don Y]

Hi Joerg,

They are junk, IMHO. Once during an EMC debug job I had trouble getting
a panel off a large machine. So I pulled some more, then even more ...
*CRUNCH*

The panel suddenly gave up and I flew backwards into a wall. My shoulder
made a major hole in a wall and bent some of those coke can strength
"studs". The guys from production (on the other side of this wall) came
running out to see if I was ok. I did not feel any pain whatsoever, the
wall just went like that, as if if was cardboard.

They won't "support" anything. And, rely on other "members" for
their strength -- e.g., the drywall spanning the gaps between
the studs. In commercial environments, *all* of the associated
framing is usually of a like kind (I've found tying them *to*
a lumber framework greatly enhances their utility as the lumber
doesn't have the same sort of give/flex that a purely metal
framework does).

They are also a PITA when it comes to stringing wire as any
unprotected edges (i.e., cutouts) will shred insulation in short
order.

We had some metal 2x2's (!) that were well designed. A heavier
gauge of metal, "curled" ("rounded under") edges, longitudinally
ribbed, etc. Coupled with their smaller dimensions, they proved to
be excellent to work with (as I said, relying on tin snips to trim
things to size instead of running back and forth to the chop saw!)

Unfortunately, I've not been able to locate a source for these,
locally. :<

 

[Don Y]

Hi Michael,

Most of those so called 'Bullet'

Yeah, similar to the CATV "filters"...

amplifers that I've tested were around 10 dB.

Yeah, that's what mine are. I suspect putting one on each
"drop" plus one on each "feed" (ahead of the splitter) will
prove to be a physical mess. Ill look into the other module
you pointed out.

THanks!

 

[Don Y]

Hi Michael,

Your welcome. I used to maintain CATV headends, and designed one in
the '80s to connect two non compatible community loops. The lead tech
radioed the office to inform me that my calculations were off. By .1
dB.

Those little amps tend to overload easily, so you don't want to
cascade a bunch of them but the units I've tested were fairly clean. I

I figured 10 dB upstream of the splitter -- to compensate for losses
in the splitter. And, another ~10dB downstream to compensate for
losses in the drop itself.

But, if I can find those distribution amlifiers that will tolerate
the environment, I think that a better solution (if only for the
reduction in "cruft" that I will have to mount, connect, etc.)