Has anyone used a solid-state microwave RF switch to switch between different antennas (eg omni vs directional patch) on a ground station?
Analog Devices makes a number of high frequency (6GHz+) RF switch ICs that are available on inexpensive carrier boards with SMA connectors. Insertion losses are reported to be <1dB, and switching happens on the order of nanoseconds. Any reason these wouldn’t work on a ground station for switching between antennas (eg omni to directional)? Or even on the air side it could be used to switch between directional antennas. I’m thinking mostly in terms of receiving a video signal, but it could obviously work for telemetry/RC link as well. Switching is done by setting inputs high or low, which can easily be done with a switch or flight controller using 3-5V.
Thoughts? Assuming I’m not missing something that makes this a non-starter, I’ll probably order one to try out.
A/D Product Selector:
https://www.analog.com/en/parametricsearch/11148#/p4467=6G|50G&p4278=0.3|1&p4466=0|35G
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