Antenna Rotor RFI Kit - fits all Wired Rotors up to 1/2" cable sizeProduct DetailsYour rotor cable and control box can cause RFI into your radio station and you need to suppress common mode RFI induced into the cable from your antennas. In many cases the rotor cable acts as an unintended counterpoise for your rotated antennas and can cause weird SWR issues since the control cables become part of the antenna,
The SOLUTION is simple: isolate the cable from RFI by adding the Palomar RFI kit for antenna rotors. Add 3 snap on filters near the rotor and another 3 snap on filters at the rotor control box and a ring filter for AC powered rotor control boxes to suppress RFI common mode currents that can affect the antenna SWR and radiation patterns. In addition, these filters may also help reduce station receiver noise since many rotors are connected to the station ground and the rotor cable acts as an additional receiving antenna.
Isolating the rotor cable works on the same principal as isolating coax cable - keep the TRANSMIT signal on the antenna by proving a feed line choke at the rotor itself and keep noise out of the station on RECEIVE by choking the cable at the rotor control box ( by suppressing noise pickup on the cable).
Kit includes 7 filters -six 1/2" snap on filters for the cable and a ring filter for the AC/DC power supply for the control box. Simple to install and cheap insurance to solve both the TRANSMIT and RECEIVE issues caused by rotor control systems.
Your rotor cable and control box can cause RFI into your radio station and you need to suppress common mode RFI induced into the cable from your antennas. In many cases the rotor cable acts as an unintended counterpoise for your rotated antennas and can cause weird SWR issues since the control cables become part of the antenna,
The SOLUTION is simple: isolate the cable from RFI by adding the Palomar RFI kit for antenna rotors. Add 3 snap on filters near the rotor and another 3 snap on filters at the rotor control box and a ring filter for AC powered rotor control boxes to suppress RFI common mode currents that can affect the antenna SWR and radiation patterns. In addition, these filters may also help reduce station receiver noise since many rotors are connected to the station ground and the rotor cable acts as an additional receiving antenna.
Isolating the rotor cable works on the same principal as isolating coax cable - keep the TRANSMIT signal on the antenna by proving a feed line choke at the rotor itself and keep noise out of the station on RECEIVE by choking the cable at the rotor control box ( by suppressing noise pickup on the cable).
Kit includes 7 filters -six 1/2" snap on filters for the cable and a ring filter for the AC/DC power supply for the control box. Simple to install and cheap insurance to solve both the TRANSMIT and RECEIVE issues caused by rotor control systems.
TECH NOTE: We also stock RFI kits to protect effected devices such as garage door openers, computers (laptops, desktops), dsl/cable routers, ethernet hubs and many more devices. If you run a high powered RF amplifier in your ham station also consider a linear amp RFI kit which will cut down RFI transmitted by your station. Remember there is always a “transmitter” and a “receiver” of RFI and the quest is to find and choke the “path” the RFI has selected – you need to add ferrites to both the transmitting side and the receiving side to eliminate RFI problems. The RFI-HTS kit only helps suppress RFI on the receiving side.
Typical RFI Problem/Solution:
Hello, I am Larry, a ham operator and I am having interference issues with my Direct TV system. My station is a FT450D through an Ameritron ALS-600. From the amp through a coax switch to choose between an OCF dipole or an Hustler 5BTV vertical. Any power over 100 watts and my DTV goes off the air and must completly reboot/format. Coax is RG-8. The DTV dish is pointed away from the dipole and separated by about 25'. DTV was totally useless! They suggested I not talk on the radio while she is watching TV! Please help me with a reasonable, cost effective soultion. (The wife gets really pissed when I shutdown the tv!) Thank you, Larry
Hi Larry,
Your RFI problem is quite common and is usually a sign of either a radiating coax feed line or reception of your radiated signal (source) by the Direct TV (the victim) through either the AC power lines acting as “antennas” for your ham signal or the coax braid of the satellite antenna acting as an antenna for your signal.
The solutions are straight forward:
1. To make sure your feed line is not radiating you need a feed line choke at each antenna feed point (also makes your antenna work better since it is not using the coax as part of the antenna). You can use our simple Kit 110 with 5 snap on chokes on each antenna for this purpose. Part # Kit 110 at $27.50 each – one for each antenna. These chokes will keep your feed line from radiating and coupling into your ac power lines. INFO HERE
2. The radiation from your antennas themselves may also be getting into the ac power lines and coax braid of the Direct TV antenna so you need to protect the victim receiver. Depending upon the sophistication of your direct TV setup (e.g. home theater, dvd, tape player, sub woofer speakers, etc), the path of the RFI may be coming thru the AC power lines of any connected device to the video including the video monitor itself! To help solve this problem we have a home theater RFI kit for up to 5 devices (you need a minimum of two – one for the Direct TV receiver(AC and coax input) and another for the video monitor AC power lines and HDMI or video input cable. Our kit part # is RFI-HTS. INFO HERE
These items should help reduce the RFI and let you operate on the air while your wife watches TV.
Bob Brehm, AK6R
Chief Engineer