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RF Distro Advice


saadasound

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I'm looking to upgrade my bag's wireless distro and looking for the right distro box. Anyone have any experience with the smaller BSRF or the PSC rf multi? I know the newer rf multi covers 941, but there aren't any antenna's I know of that cover both UHF and 941, skipping the in between cellular channels. I'll be using src's and 411's, for reference! Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

Thanks,

 

Steve

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20 hours ago, saadasound said:

but there aren't any antenna's I know of that cover both UHF and 941, skipping the in between cellular channels

 

The Shure UA860SWB covers 470-1100 MHz for an omni pattern, the Wisycom LFA covers 410-1300 MHz for directional. If you want to "skip" a particular range, you could either combine multiple antennas before your distro or use a filter inline.

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The minis are way cheap, way small and work very well, but having two separate boxes +cables is a little messy (I've made 3 rigs with them for various setups.)  Unless you roll your own, you'd end up spending much more on the cables for two of those than on the boxes themselves.   That little French box is very cool looking, would make for a much neater rig.

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  • 3 weeks later...

To filter or not to filter that is a question....?
I'm convinced that the high performance (increased range) given by my Zaxcom Micplexer 2 is the result of strong (user selectable) filtering, I have no hard evidence for this, but I'm inclined to believe it anyway......:)

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6 hours ago, pindrop said:

To filter or not to filter that is a question....?
I'm convinced that the high performance (increased range) given by my Zaxcom Micplexer 2 is the result of strong (user selectable) filtering, I have no hard evidence for this, but I'm inclined to believe it anyway......:)

 

Definitely filter! For me it has solved a range of issues, most importantly strong interference from walkies. Don’t know if they help increase range. 

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I’ve been happy with the mini-circuits splitters.

 

@Philip Perkins Not sure if I’m missing the point, but wouldn’t the number of cables be the same regardless if using one box for two antennas or two distro boxes...?

 

Regarding filters:

Has anyone here tried these?  http://www.professionalwireless.com/product/uhf-in-line-filter-new-range/

 

 

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Although I am sure top manufacturers include extensive filtering, filtering is still mandatory if you use some kind of amplification.

 

For example if you use splitters, which imply some attenuation, you may need an amplifier between the antenna and the splitter. And that amplifier should always have a properly filtered input. Otherwise all kinds of evil can happen. 

 

 

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2 hours ago, bary555 said:

do you use any amplifiers with mini-circuits?

 

I am rarely going above 8 channels, so I personally don't. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe even passive LPDA fins add roughly 6 dB to the signal, so with the 4-way splitters, it's generally fine with cables 12ft or shorter.

Now, if I were to add band-pass filters, such as the ones I linked above and/or some longer cables - then yes, I would add an amp.

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On 8/11/2019 at 6:26 PM, Constantin said:

 

Definitely filter! For me it has solved a range of issues, most importantly strong interference from walkies. Don’t know if they help increase range. 

 

PWS reckons it can increase range, and that is my strong impression with my Micplexer 2

http://www.professionalwireless.com/product/uhf-in-line-filter-new-range/
"Other benefits include increased RF range due to lowering the noise floor the receiver “sees”

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57 minutes ago, pindrop said:

 

PWS reckons it can increase range, and that is my strong impression with my Micplexer 2

http://www.professionalwireless.com/product/uhf-in-line-filter-new-range/
"Other benefits include increased RF range due to lowering the noise floor the receiver “sees”

 

Alright, even better. 

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Speaking of filters, I stumbled upon a small company in Italy (I think it's a one man show) that makes some really nice ones. I just purchased a FM broadcast notch filter for a project at the university and the specs are unbelievable. Although he lists several filters on the web page, I think he can make custom ones. 

 

Not the kind of filter needed here (our challenging use case, a wide band listening post which comes closer to ingelligence gathering operations than motion picture filming) but the attenuation figures at 108 and 118 MHz are pretty spectacular. 

ZNL_ScreenShot_2019-05-29_10-41-37.PDF

 

He was slow to ship (took longer than a week) but I think this filter (which is not listed on the web page) was custom built on demand. So no complaints in that department. And the prices are very good.

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On 8/11/2019 at 5:33 AM, igomarsound said:

Really happy for bag work with my BSRF AS 62 splitter

Very tiny footprint. Excellent handmade artisanal stuff. I fell very confident with it.

 

If you got questions about it I'll be happy to answer

 

Does it perform any filtering or just lossless distro? Manufacturer’s website isn’t too clear. 

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