Below is a zipped file that contains two Word docs. They are copies of the article on commercial splitters that Bill Bowers and I have just completed. One of the .docs has three photos integrated in it and one has those removed… with appropriate reminders as to where the photos belong. There are also two sets of photos. One set is sized for hard copy work, the other for the web. They have self-explanatory titles. After work spanning most of the winter, this is finally ready to submit to you for publication.
Bill ran highly sophisticated tests on 5 or six parameters… I’ve attempted to provide explanations ahead of each set of results that will help semi-technical folks like me understand what is being tested and what the numbers “ought to be.” That makes the article longer than just showing the results, but maybe considerably more useful to most readers.
The bottom line of the article is that the Mini-Circuits splitter is the best in every category, with a homebrew unit coming in second and the RF Systems and Stridsberg units trailing the field. Happily, the Mini-Circuits unit is also the cheapest and the most conveniently sized!!! There is pricing and ordering information for each unit, also.
We will have two more articles coming out in the next three months. The first looks at optimizing the design for a home brew signal splitter (starting with the one that we used in the series of tests on commercial models.) The third article is on another approach to remotely controlling the termination resistors of large loops, EWEs, Flags, Pennants, etc. The latter article is very derivative from the work of Mark Connelly and Steve Byan, but (again) might be useful to semi-technical readers.
Thanks.
John Bryant
