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Reviews For: Antenna Mart Remote RF Coax Switches

Category: Antenna Switching, Phasing, Controllers

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Review Summary For : Antenna Mart Remote RF Coax Switches
Reviews: 3MSRP: AMQ-SW86-6 is 289; AMQ-SW-86-9 i
Description:
Our Rotary Switches are of commercial Mil-Spec quality and are used by amateur radio, commercial broadcast and military customers all over the world. This switch is not a spot contact relay. Through it's wiping action it is self cleaning. Positive connecting silver plated blade members insure maximum positive power transfer with minimal insertion loss ( .01 dB from 0-30 MHZ.). We furnish these switches with a station power supply control that requires 110-120v / 50-60 cycles. Other voltages can be supplied on special order. This switch may be ordered to leave open (standard), or shorted (optional) for unused positions at extra cost, ( please specify when ordering). The station control uses a Ten-Tec aluminum/plastic enclosure with Neon indicator lights. The outdoor enclosures are steel/ Hoffman or aluminum/ GE or machined heat treated aluminum Mil-Spec enclosures. All mounting hardware is included with the outdoor enclosures.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.mgs4u.com/catalog/page1.htm
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0035
AB4ZT Rating: 2009-07-14
No Peer Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Absolutely Positively the BEST. Aviation quality switches, connectors, and a ceramic switch. I got the SW-5 model from an Ebay auction for a steal. If you find one for sale buy it.
W4SK Rating: 2004-01-18
This Is THE One Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I previously owned switches by Ameritron/MFJ, and ICE. By comparison, the Antenna Mart switch is industrial quality. Mine is the 6-position, and I run it exclusively at HF. The control box is larger than necessary, but certainly not obtrusive. The only nit picky thing is that the control must only be operated in a counter-clockwise direction. A small inconvenience for the high quality of this item. Definitely recommended.
W4QA Rating: 2002-06-10
Heavy Duty Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I special ordered one of these 9 position switches from MaxGain systems earlier this year (9 position with an aluminum enclosure) and it took a while to be delivered since all the ones in stock had a steel enclosure. However, the wait was well worth it! Thanks in advance to Alan at MGS for keeping me informed of the stock status regularly....

Having used several remote switches over the past 25 years, I had been looking for one that did not use relays and would handle the full legal limit on HF. This switch fits the bill quite nicely utilizing the genuine Radio Switch rotary RF switch and a motor drive. Silver plated contacts and RF interconnections make this a switch that I believe will last me for several decades (unless it gets hit by lightning!). This thing is really a heavy duty beast. I like the fact that relays are not continuously powered to make connections to the antennas and other relay related issues are avoided.

For my installation, the switch is mounted about 85' up the tower and is controlled via an 11 conductor 18 gauge cable (this was a bit hard to find...but one can double up on rotor cable in a pinch) about 275 feet long. The switch is fed via hardline.

If there is any downside at all it would be that the switch will probably not be very useful above say 50 mhz -- although I have not tried it there yet. The conductors that run from the SO-239 connectors to the switch are silver plated and heavy duty, but some are rather lengthy -- on the order of 6" or so -- so I would imagine that this would cause a bit of an impedance bump at the higher frequencies. On all the HF bands (160-10) I have not seen any signal corruption or SWR impact -- and the losses published are absolutely negligible. Also, it would be nice to have the control box constructed to be a little bit smaller...but that is a minor issue in the big scheme of things.

If anyone is considering a remote switch, definitely take a look at this one, and if you'd like some more detail on my application and experience please drop me an e-mail at w4qa@arrl.net.