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write your own review of the Ameritron RCS-8V.
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N2DY
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Rating: 5/5
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Oct 14, 2009 10:00
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Alive and kicking after 20 years
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I have had one of these up for about 20 years now. It has worked flawlessly the entire time. I use it on HF with a 1 KW amp and I feed a variety of antennas for the different bands. Mine was made by Ameritron before it was acquired by MFJ and so I am not sure if the current version is any different.
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N4ZAW
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Rating: 5/5
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Oct 14, 2009 05:19
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Nice gizmo!!
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I had one of these 13years ago, mounted on a 90ft hazer-less tower. It worked flawlessly for years. I sold it, but wish I hadn't. Now, I need another one. You can bet it will be the RCS-8V.
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K5TGS
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Rating: 5/5
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Jun 14, 2009 08:54
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A Great Value!
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I just purchased and installed the Ameritron RCS-8V Remote switch. I will give provide another review after I use some time in place but wanted to provide my initial impressions. First, I was surprised at the quality of construction. I was quite impressed with both units. To make the control connection you will need to use at least a six-pair wire from the switch to the control unit in the shack. I suggest RG-45. You will need to remove four screws to connect the wires inside the switch. When I removed the plate I was really impressed with the workmanship and the quality of relays used. The solder connections were done very nicely. You need to decide at this time whether or not you want the unused antenna ports be isolated or shorted to ground until you switch to that one. The default is isolation, which is where I left mine. They also provide good strain relief on the PC board for your connection and at the remote switch. The connections are simple with regular screws and you are done. Wiring the remote head is again a simple connection of six wires. The only mod I would suggest is to use female RG-45 terminations at the switch and at the control head. You are then able to merely connect the appropriate length of RG-45 quickly. It is also very easy to disconnect the two units if you ever need to in the future. Appears to be a great buy for the money!
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N2QQF
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Rating: 4/5
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Jan 25, 2009 07:45
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Very Good
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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I bought this switch a few months ago and decided to give it a review. I love having one coax running into the shack as opposed to five (5) different coax cables. The switch has been exposed to certain in climate weather already such as snow storms, ice storms and of course rain. The switch has not failed me once either at 100 watts or legal limit. I have not had any issues with the switch as others have complained but the failures could be because of how the switch was set up. If you have lots of power going out but not resonating anywhere it is bound to dissipate heat and that heat needs to be transferred somewhere and if you have a poor grounding system it all leads up to faulty ports.
This is not the case for everyone as I am sure there are bad products leaving the production line every once in a while but so far I have not had any of these issues. Every product has failures it is what the company does to support their product once the failure occurs. I have the switch mounted on the tower and feed to the same isolated grounding system which consist of multiple 8' ground rods ran 10' apart all tied into the same buss bar mounted on the tower but isolated. The antenna switch works great and consistently performs. There are no delays between switching from ports and there is plenty of isolation between ports. I would assume there is about 70db of isolation between ports. The nearest port usually has the least isolation from the last port in these designs but none the less it has not been an issue at all even under a QRO environment.
This switch works great and for the money it is well worth it. You can go with the better switches but you will be spending $400-$500 which could be a drop in the bucket depending on your setup but I guess you have to determine that one for yourselves.
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NB2N
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Rating: 1/5
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Dec 7, 2008 09:17
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Update - it died
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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After limping along with one channel down for over a year, the switch completely died last spring, remaining frozen on one setting. Never again.
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N7ZM
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Rating: 4/5
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Nov 30, 2008 10:29
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Good old unit
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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Have had my unit since the mid 90's.Works great and has never failed me. I live in snow country so there's a lot of weather beating. As far as quality goes, the old units are good, but can't give any recommendations on the newer units built today.
73 Ron N7ZM
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WD4ELG
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Rating: 2/5
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Nov 24, 2007 20:32
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Updated review
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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Got mine in January 2007, reviewed it in March of 2007 when everything was working fine.
Now it is November 2007 and the remote switch has two bad positions. First I thought it might be the connector, when position 2 started going. Now position 4 is going also.
Well, it's off to Array Solutions to buy a RatPak. Lesson learned, my "luck" with Ameritron just ran out.
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VE3LNY
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Rating: 4/5
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Oct 26, 2007 17:04
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Not Quite Excellent
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I've been using one for several years now and it has performed excellently. My disappointment is with the quality of the hardware. I inspected the unit this summer and found that all the screws holding the bottom plate to the case were badly corroded, as well as the U-bolt. Now I have to take it down and clean it up. Why can't the manufacturers use quality hardware? I had similar problems with a ringo ranger which had to be retired prematurely due to a badly corroded SO239 and rusted clamps. They obviously know it is intended for outdoor use, so what's the problem?
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KD5NCO
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Rating: 4/5
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Jul 19, 2007 17:17
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Poor QC (again) Model designation ? :>(
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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Well built, real bad weather here in Central Texas this year and no sign of water problems. The 1 point deduction is for Ameritron/MFJ poor quality control (again). The SO-239 are attached to the chassis with rivets. At least one of the four on every connector was not properly inserted and expanded. This leaves a loose rivet potentially vibrating out and falling into the circuit board. Fortunately this is mostly a shipping problem as in normal operation the vibration would not drop the rivet into the chassis because they are on the bottom in a typical installation. I had to use a small punch and poke the loose rivet all the way out, retrieve it from inside the chassis and pop a new rivet in. Fairly easy but as usual Ameritron/MFJ products usually require some user post purchase corrections.
My other beef is their naming convention--- The RCS-4 (Remote Coax Switch)has one input to 4 outputs---humm makes sense to me. But the RCS-8V has only 5 outputs and should not be confused with the RCS-10 that has 8 outputs and certainly not to be confused with the RCS-12C also with 8 outputs...call me silly but I think model numbers should make some logical sense...I know it is a nit pick...
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