[hpsdr] rave review: Gerd's T/R switch

[Ken N9VV]

In April I purchased the NT Electronics T/R switch board
without the 6M LNA or ribbon cable. I do not operate 6M so the
switch selection from Gerd was perfect for my little HFPackerAMP 
setup.

Ebay webpage: <URL: 
http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-NT-ELECTRONICS-HPSDR-ANTENNA-SWITCH-BOARD-1-/280381889306?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4148101b1a
 >

Ebay Item number: 280381889306

I needed a straight through DB25 <---> DB25 cable to connect the 
Penelope and the T/R switch.  Of course that came from my SDR-1000 
junk box :-) It sure was fun to put the cable
back in use again. Gerd recommends a ribbon cable with crimp
on connectors, but this one is working fine for me while I prepare
my chassis and end plates.

I received my T/R switch without documentation and could not quite
figure out what connectors went where. I sent email to Gerd and he 
promptly send me FULL DOCUMENTATION in a zip file. The 
instructions are written in English and they were easy to 
understand and implement.

I found that the T/R switch requires 12vdc to operate. I did not 
have a handy source of 12VDC so I substituted a 9vdc common 
battery for testing purposes. The battery worked great. I was 
nicely surprised.

My first contact with Penelope driving a little old HFPackerAMP
with 300mw gave me about 10W PEP on PSK31. I worked KF7FDQ in the 
middle of Washington State, and then 4B1FZE in Guadalajara, Mexico 
(west coast of Mexico) on 20M. Both gave me 599 reports and IMD 
readings of -29 or better from here in Chicago on my dipole.

The T/R switch worked perfectly and I am looking forward to 
testing on CW tonight. Both 17M and 15M are open so this should be 
a good night for DX :-)

Thank you Gerd DJ8AY and Ron W9KFB for creating NT-Electronics
and offering these essential add-on devices for the OpenHPSDR
platform.

73 de Ken N9VV