Topband
[Top] [All Lists]

Topband: Buffaloed by a bias tee

To: topband reflector <Topband@contesting.com>
Subject: Topband: Buffaloed by a bias tee
From: Pete Smith N4ZR <n4zr@contesting.com>
Date: Wed, 22 Jan 2014 15:32:24 -0500
List-post: <topband@contesting.com">mailto:topband@contesting.com>
I'm still wrestling with the bias tee for my 1-of-8 remote beverage switch. If I use a cliplead to connect a 270-ohm dummy load, bypassing the relay, and connect an MFJ-259B to the receiver port on the controller, the impedance looks completely reasonable - with a 3:1 binocular transformer, 89 ohms R and X=5, measured by the MFJ. However, as soon as I connect a 12V regulated supply to the bias tee - one of the little radio shack variable wallwarts - the measured R drops to 5 ohms and the X goes up to 19.

My history major's diagnosis is inadequate isolation between the DC supply and the RFline, but why? The series RF choke in the DC line is 7 turns on a ferrite core, measures 45 uH at 2 MHZ, and the bypass capacitor is a 0.01 uF disk, on thesupply side of the choke. Theseries cap between the Antenna and the RX jacks on the controller is a .1 uF disk (it was what I had). I do not yet have a safety choke between the RX side and ground, but will add one before I deploy it, if I can ever figure out what's going on.

I'd really appreciate some ideas of what to try.  Thanks in advance!

--
73, Pete N4ZR
Check out the Reverse Beacon Network at
http://reversebeacon.net,
blog at reversebeacon.blogspot.com.
For spots, please go to your favorite
ARC V6 or VE7CC DX cluster node.

_________________
Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>