YES! This a great example of systems engineering, and of which I posted
in my personal experience earlier in this thread from nearly 20 years ago.
73, Jim K9YC
On 5/17/2022 11:56 AM, Gene Smar via TowerTalk wrote:
In commercial (cellular, LMR) services, the decision of where to put the power stage
(in the equipment hut or on the top of the tower) depends on the cost to generate
enough power to compensate for dB loss in the coax. At today's mm-wave freqs
for 5G operation, e.g., Freq Range 2 from 24-52 GHz, it would be costlier to put a
PA of sufficient power in the hut at the tower base to yield the necessary ERP at
the antenna than it would to put a smaller PA stage at the tower top and run a
fiber/copper cable assembly to it from the hut.
It's a different story at HF and even V/UHF. The coax losses are significantly less
in this freq range than at mm-wave so the advantage (coax loss reduction) of remoting the
RF components is not as great. For us Hams it becomes a matter of personal taste -
how loud do I want to be? - vs how loud MUST I be?
On another hand, running fiber vs coax to the tower could eliminate much of the
danger from lightning strikes. The problem then becomes (a simpler?) one of
protecting the power feed(s) going to the electronics from inside the Ham shack.
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