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Feeding non powered Antennas Power via Lectrosonics Venue


ProSound

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I am currently re working and re wiring my cart. I have always been told it is not advised to feed non-powered antennas power and to put Bias-T power supplies on my cart if I need to switch between both types of antennas. I am just curious how many mixers feed non-powered antennas power and if so does it really cause any problems or real world issues. I'd like to avoid the cost of the Bias-T if I can. 

Thanks 

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Feeding power to non powered antennaes can cause big problems.  I know this first hand.  I attached a whip antenna to my venue with power on.  Phantom power stopped working.  Not all antennaes create a problem.  Lectro modified my venue with an external switch to activate or deactivate Phantom power.   Worth it.  

 

 

Hello Larry......  

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Hi John,

All currently manufactured Lectro antennas have a blocking cap or are open DC circuits by design to prevent antenna bias problems. This includes our whips. Venue units built in the last few years have polyfuses and/or current protection circuits to limit fault current if the BNC's are shorted by the antennas. We had polyfuses from day one in the Venue but a certain engineer (ahem) neglected to double check instantaneous current when an antenna was plugged into an already live Venue mainframe. A little inductor in the antenna input blew before the polyfuse coud react. Protecting the polyfuse from surge currents by blowing the inductor was not the original idea. Later units used a heftier inductor plus a current limiter. All future designs will make the antenna bias selectable from the front panel plus protection circuitry. We may learn slowly but we do learn.

Best Regards,

Larry Fisher

Lectrosonics

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While LL said: " All currently manufactured Lectro antennas have a blocking cap or are open DC circuits "

but others may not (easy to check) so John Gooch is correct: " Feeding power to non powered antennaes can cause big problems. "

so the mod may be a good idea for you.

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Thanks for the clear answer 

I know that some Venue users in the UK have fitted switches to the rear panel so that antenna power can be switched on and off without opening up the Venue. The next generation of Venue with Dante and wide band tuning and ..... antenna powering from the front panel will certainly be worth buying. Perhaps 8 receivers rather than 6 will justify any extra cost?

 

Tim

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