TW20-RX is an active 8-port uni-directional RF signal splitter that operates in 10MHz - 6.5GHz frequency range. Idea of this design came from DEFCON Conference Wireless Village where CTF (Capture The Flag) participants would usually use a combination of different antennas and radio gadgets to cover as much wireless spectrum as possible in order to capture and/or monitor RF signals on different frequency bands. While UWB (Ultra Wide Band) antennas to accomplish this mission are widely available, suitable setup usually requires a number of these antennas connected to a number of different frequency band targeted devices, such as SDRs (Software Defined Radio) or fixed frequency appliances such as WiFi, BlueTooth, ZegBee and other dongles. Idea behind TW20-RX design was to be able to utilize a single UWB antenna and re-distribute it's signal to a number of radio devices that are targeted to a different frequency bands, or in other words one UWB antenna for a number of fixed and different frequency radios. Another practical use case is in-vehicle applications - imagine that one requires to monitor 300MHz, 600MHz, 900MHz, GPRS, LTE, GPS, WiFi and BTLE frequencies which do require 8-10 separate antennas. Porcupine looking vehicle would be the last thing that one would like to have. There are tons of other applications where TW20-RX would fit very nicely. On top of being just a good quality RF signal splitter, TW20-RX is an active device that provides 9-20dB gain per channel depending on frequency (see Vector Network Analyzer data provided).

Design concept behind TW20-RX architecture is a unique combination of Wilkinson and tapered line RF splitter combined with a dual-stage Low Noise RF amplifier. Wilkinson splitter by design allows device to perform with minimal RF losses and 20-stage implementation allows to operate down to sub-100MHz frequencies, while amplification stages compensate losses presented by each Wilkinson-Tapered split stage.

NOTE 1: TW20-RX is uni-directional appliance that meant for receive applications only, and even though transmit will not damage internal circuitry, it is not recommended and should be avoided.

NOTE 2: TW20-RX is an active device with built-in dual stage amplifier that requires proper termination and impedance matching on all ports - all unused ports should be properly terminated with provided 50 Ohm SMA terminators.

NOTE 3: Measurements were taken with calibrated Pico Technology PicoVNA model 108. Readings may deviate a bit port-to-port.

Specification

• Frequency of operation 10MHz - 6.5Ghz
• Number of input ports 1
• Number of output ports 8
• Signal gain per channel 9-20dB
• Power supply requirements 3-15VDC/350mA
• Screw terminal power connector

Package Contents

• TW20-RX device
• x9 50 Ohm terminators