RF switches from Minikits

Minikits RF Relay

Part of my plan to use the HackRF for amateur radio of course involves adding filtering and amplification. To switch things in and out of the transmit or receive signal path I needed some RF relays and I found just the thing at Minikits in the form of Mark's EME141 2.6GHz relay kit.

This kit comes in a couple of different forms, I elected to buy the version that includes female PCB mount SMA connectors for AUD $25.65 each.

The specifications say they are good from DC to 3.4GHz and the tests I have done tend to agree mostly with the figures on the site.

The quoted insertion loss and my measurements (which were almost identical on both boards I assembled today) are (NQ means not quoted on the site):

• 145MHz, NQ, -0.18dB, isolation -55
• 440MHz, NQ, -0.25dB, isolation -56
• 1000MHz, NQ, -0.47dB, isolation -52
• 1300MHz, -0.25dB, -0.49dB, isolation -50
• 2000MHz -NQ, -0.9db, isolation -49
• 2450MHz -0.2dB, -1.29dB, isolation -46

My measurements were done on a HP 25GHz spectrum analyser with inbuilt 3.5GHz tracking generator and semi-rigid silver SMA patch leads. There is a significant difference between the quoted insertion loss and what I measured at the higher frequencies so I'll redo that test some time.

The relay used on the switch is an OMRON G6Z-1F-A-DC5