Re: LF: Antenna relays

[Andy Talbot <andy.g4jnt@gmail.com>]

The Vacuum relays that used to be plentiful at rallies may be good enough.   They were designed for high power auto ATUs and cpuld certainly withstand many kV.   The currents in such ATUs, at teh kW level wold be many amps so they may work.

If you can still get them, they were a cylinder, typically 12 - 17mm diameter, about 40 - 50mm long with connection lugs on the side extending over the length of the body

Andy  G4JNT

On 19 November 2015 at 13:56, DK7FC <selberdenken@posteo.de> wrote:

Hi Chris,

I would avoid doing this step. It may be comfortable but it's hard for most relays to carry RF currents of a few ampere and voltages of a few 10 kV :-) There may be some vacuum relays though, i don't know. Could be interesting....

73, Stefan

Am 19.11.2015 13:00, schrieb Chris Wilson:

19 November 2015


I am currently running a bottom strapped windowed ladder line feeder to
my  horizontal  quad  loop  as  the  vertical for LF, the loop as the
capacitive  top hat. It means I am unable to use it for HF though. I am
wondering if I might add a remote switched relay at the bottom of the
ladder line, so it has two states. One connects my co ax feeder to the
ladder  line  with  the  bottom strapped together. the other opens the
strap and connects the 2 legs to a balun and then my co as feed line.

Given  the voltages involved at LF, what sort of relay would I need to
be looking at? Thanks.