Antenna switch quality?

What does a ham do when the weather is bad and there is nothingDaiwa CS-201 exciting going on on the bands?

For some tests I needed a coax switch and I found my old Daiwa CS-201 in my drawer. I vaguely remembered there was something wrong with it the last time that I used it.

As soon as I connected a coaxial cable I noticed one of the N-type connectors on the switch was loose. So it was time to get out the screwdriver.

This is what I noticed:

inside Look at the contact at the red arrow! Due to the top right coax connector rotating when connecting a cable the contact was barely touching the post it should touch. Not visible on the picture was that the bottom contact had the same problem but of course this was rotated in the other direction.

And, this is a switch rated for 1 kW!

I could pretty easily fix the problem by unscrewing the little black screws and rotating the coax connectors back to where they were supposed to be. But I guess this will only last until I have connected and disconnected the coaxial cables a few times again.

One thought on “Antenna switch quality?

  1. This is one of the first lessons I learned when I started on HF (2000?). I had bought a Daiwa with PL-style connectors. It didn’t switch at all. The center block was loose and if I remember well I couldn’t fix it because it broke off or parts were missing. Poor Q/C. I couldn’t take or send it back because I bought it at a ham fair with the vendor unknown. So I just threw it away and home-brewed a relay switch that I placed outside.
    I never looked at one of these again.
    Also, I have used ‘rated kW’ stuff before that burned even when I didn’t have an amp yet. Never trust the label ;o)

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