AMERITRON RCS-10, Instruction Manual

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Ameritron RCS-10 Instruction Manual
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Ameritron RCS-10
INTRODUCTION
The RCS-10 is a versatile antenna switch designed for 50-ohm systems. It handles high
power, and sealed relays offer excellent life and connection reliability. It requires only
three small isolated control wires, plus a ground return that can even be the coaxial cable
shield. The relay box can be mounted indoors or outdoors.
The RCS-10 Remote Antenna Switch selects one-of-eight “antenna” connectors or
“ports”, and connects those ports directly to a single common port for a feedline.
The RCS-10 will work well in nearly any system requiring switching of unbalanced or
coaxial lines, especially those requiring good quality 50-ohm RF switches. The RCS-10 is
a remote controlled switch using relay contacts. The control head can be conveniently
located and only requires use of small low-voltage low-current telephone-type four-
conductor control cable. Any switch port can be used as either an input or output, so you
can select one-of-eight radios to one feedline or one-of-eight antennas to a radio.
The Main Advantages of the RCS-10 are wiring cost, appearance, and convenience .
The RCS-10 uses low voltage and low current, and can use inexpensive and easy-to-route
control cables. Bulky and expensive coaxial and control cables are not required, and
wiring is very simple. Since all cables route through one common point that can be
grounded, lightning protection is almost always significantly better than conventional
wiring methods using multiple coaxial lines into the operating position.
The RCS-10 Relay Unit reliably handles power levels of 5,000 watts below 30MHz,
and power levels of 2.5kW at 50MHz.
Port-to-port isolation is typically in the 40dB
range, but varies with frequency and the ports being used. Loss is very low, and this
switch can be considered lossless below 30MHz. More performance details are in the
Remote Relay Unit section of this manual. The RCS-10 Relay Unit can be used with any
BCD (binary coded decimal) 12-16 volt dc 400mA control system.
The relay box is
available with or with out lightning protection. The RCS-10L uses the same RCS-10
control box. The relay box is labeled RCS-10L for lightning protection. Each antenna
port is protected.
The RCS-10 Indoor Unit (shipped with this unit) has antenna indicator LED’s and a
manual rotary selector switch.
We have included an area where you can label each
antenna. It normally operates from +12 to +16 volt dc power supplies, and consumes less
than 600mA. When used with other relay systems, the RCS-10 (and RCS-12C) control
units are capable of switching up to 25 volts with one ampere of relay current.