Hi Stan,
> Tom Rauch wrote:
> >
> > As long as the switch doesn't fail from the heat, why worry?
>
>
> Isn't a lot of heat just wasted energy? I can't see trying to
> squeeze every last db out of an antenna then lose a bunch of
> energy in a coax connector.
We need to keep things in perspective. Even an insignificant
amount of loss can cause a connector or switch to get so hot it
fails.
"Getting warm" does not mean loss is high. We get a real feel for
loss only by considering how warm the thing gets, the power and
duty cycle, how big the object is, and how well it gets rid of heat.
I like to visualize how hot a light bulb would get if all that heat was
in the same size box.
If we lost 20 watts of power in a switch or connector, it probably
wouldn't last a few minutes on RTTY before failing. That would be
0.1dB loss at 900 watts.
73, Tom W8JI
W8JI@contesting.com
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