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Electronics => Projects, Designs, and Technical Stuff => Topic started by: Vgkid on December 29, 2014, 03:50:30 am

Title: Using power splitter at lower frequencies.
Post by: Vgkid on December 29, 2014, 03:50:30 am
I have noticed that there are a bunch of power splitters in the 700-900 Mhz range. What issues would arise if it were to be used at 10 Mhz, at highest 100 Mhz. Or should I bite the bullet and find a lower rated one.
Title: Re: Using power splitter at lower frequencies.
Post by: T3sl4co1l on December 29, 2014, 07:52:42 am
700-900MHz sounds like a "wideband" splitter, in that, for its design, it works over a relatively wide range... but still, it's a tuned design (perhaps with 1/4 wave elements?), and only works over that range.

If that's what it is, I would expect it behaves as a lump of metal at very low frequencies (i.e., all ports shorted together, so the mismatch at all ports sucks, and the coupling coefficient is equal).  Or if it's a fractional power splitter, like the kind with coupled 1/4 wave traces, the coupling coefficient will be 1.0 for the "through" ports and 0.0 for the "coupled" ports.

The (truly) wideband splitters use transformers with permeable cores to enforce matching over a very wide range of frequencies (several decades).

So, the correct answer is: depends on design, but most likely, it's not going to do anything like what it does in the rated bandwidth, and there's probably a good reason why, even if we don't know what's inside the black box.

Tim
Title: Re: Using power splitter at lower frequencies.
Post by: Vgkid on December 29, 2014, 11:39:31 pm
Thanks for the reply, i figured that much. To bad lower frequencied ones are less numerous.
Title: Re: Using power splitter at lower frequencies.
Post by: TSL on December 30, 2014, 02:55:51 am
What do you need one for ?

Are you trying to split high power? i.e. over 1w or more ?

Are you feeding antenna's or splitting signals before buffers ?

Knowing what you want to do might get you a more detailed response :)

cheers

Tim