[time-nuts] distribution amps for 200 MHz

[ed breya]

The answer lies somewhere between lots and lots of small amplifiers and 
associated parts, and one big one driving a tree of passive splitters. 
Are all the widgets the same? How much isolation is needed? How "good" 
does it have to be? How far away is everything? Are there ground 
loop/EMC issues?

Depending on the performance level, I'd tend to go with the crowd 
recommending CATV distribution type stuff. If the trip is short, then 
maybe you don't have to worry about 75 vs 50 ohms too much. If the trip 
is long, and 50 ohm cable is to be used, I'd recommend a 75 ohm CATV 
line driver power amp, with matching transformers at the in and out, 
then a tree of 50 ohm splitters.

The kind of amplifier I'm picturing would be a modern, non-obsolete 
type. I don't know of any offhand, but would think the function is still 
needed. I'm familiar with the big old hybrid ones that are probably all 
obsolete, like the MHW5342A. If you go with one big amp. then the 
matching only needs to be at one place, and the rest of the stuff can be 
whatever is needed. Depending on budget, it should be possible to find a 
50 ohm COTS (or even custom made) VHF power amp module, and skip the DIY 
part.

If you need extremely high performance provided by using lots of special 
or individual amps, then you gotta do what you gotta do - but that's a 
helluva lot of parts.

If there are ground loop/EMC issues, It may be desirable to use 
transformer coupled and isolated outputs if needed, even if impedance 
matching is already OK. That would be a lot of parts too.

Ed