Re: [amsat-bb] Experience with K3TZ patch (construction question)

[Jonathan Naylor <jonathan.naylor@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Fred at al

> You guys are going to hate me for saying this, but the correct solution is
> to buy a N with a flat bottom, or use an SMA (can be done, but is trickier).

I use an SMA socket on my K3TZ patch feed because of its small size, and lack 
of metalwork extending towards the patch itself (the fact that I had no spare 
N sockets available at the time is a mere detail). The SMA socket that I used 
was the sort that had a long spill with long PTFE insulation, I cut the PTFE 
insulation to be the correct height for the patch so that spacing the patch 
was made a little easier.

The only downside to using an SMA socket is that supporting the preamp/ 
downconverter is a pig. The normal method is to directly attach them using a 
back-to-back N plug adapter, however even with a suitable SMA to N adapter, 
there really is not much strength is the SMA socket/adapter combination to 
support the downconverter and maybe the IF co-ax too.

My solution was to use some horribly expensive microwave co-ax (suitable for 
10GHz) to allow my downconverter to be sited a little way from the patch and 
to be supported seperately. This was only an option because the co-ax was 
already available to me because of my microwave interests.

> Fred W0FMS

Jonathan  HB9DRD/G4KLX

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