[time-nuts] GPS Antenna Cable Splicing
Matthew Smith
matt at smiffytech.com
Sat Mar 1 09:22:03 UTC 2008
Hi Folks
I'm not so hot on RF stuff (actually not so hot on anything above
50/60Hz - only studied power stuff) so thought I should ask:
I have a few GPS antennae here, all with 5m (15ft-ish) cables on them.
For me, that won't get the antenna anywhere near the highest ridgeline
of the house. (Australian "Federation Style" house - lots of weird bits
of roof all over the place.) So, I need to extend the cable.
1) Can I actually extend the cables, or is 5m as far as I can go - all
these are active antennae.
2) My normal way of extending a bit of coax would be to splice in an
appropriate length of similar cable. To do this, I would strip the
outer insulation for a couple of inches on both pieces, pulling back the
braid. I would then strip enough of the central insulation so that I
can solder the two cores together. I insulate this with tape or
heatshrink, then solder the two braids together, wrap the whole thing
with aluminium foil and use a glued heatshrink to case the whole lot.
I know that this method works for 10-Base2 Ethernet and UHF Television,
but have no idea if is suitable for SHF stuff like 1.5GHz...
3) How far apart do I need to space my GPS antennae, or can they be
nearly touching? I suppose it would be easier if I used a distribution
amp (assuming such things exist at this frequency), but that sounds
expensive.
Cheers
M
--
Matthew Smith
Smiffytech - Technology Consulting & Web Application Development
Business: http://www.smiffytech.com/
Personal: http://www.smiffysplace.com/
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/smiffy
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