Antenna Switch

NOT RECOMMENDED

A vendor at an amateur radio convention sold these for $10, labelled as a 3-position coaxial antenna switch with a 1000 watt capacity. These switches are listed on the web under various brand names such as Opek and Workman, in the price range from $12 to $25. The two sections of a two pole three position switch are wired in parallel, apparently to increase the current capacity. The stray capacitance and inductive coupling between the unshielded hook up wires adversely affects the impedance and isolation between the ports. The random reactance of the wiring results in greater than 3 dB insertion loss between 18 and 32 MHz when switched to Output 1 and between 14 and 43 MHz on Output 2, with a maximum insertion loss of 11.5 dB at 25 MHz. The worse case Output 1 to Output 2 isolation is 42 dB at 3.5 MHz and 24 dB at 28 MHz. A 100 watt signal on port 1 may couple nearly 1/2 watt of RF power to port 2 at 28 MHz. - Amazon.com Review