SMA Attenuator set - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / rf-microwave

author: TheUnnamedNewbie
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 18, 2018, 09:26:16 am
content: Hi guys,I'm planning on extending my lab at home in the summer with some building blocks like attenuators and filters. I wanted to start with attenuators.Most of my cables are SMA or 3.5 mm, so I was looking at getting some attenuators for those frequencies. I don't do high-power stuff, the most I ever generate is 20 dBm.I can get individual attenuators online, but I was wondering if anyone knows a place where I can get a nice, decent quality set of attenuators, say 1 dB, 2 dB, 3 dB, 10 dB, etc... in a single box or something.

author: PA0PBZ
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 18, 2018, 10:20:17 am
content: I have no idea about the quality but the price seems righthttps://www.ebay.de/itm/OLED-6G-Digital-programmable-attenuator-30DB-step-0-25DB-RF-Module-USB-Cable-mj/311923894382

author: TheUnnamedNewbie
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 18, 2018, 10:35:53 am
content: Thanks, but that is not really what I was looking for. I am looking for a fully passive SMA-SMA attenuator, something like this:https://www.pasternack.com/3db-fixed-sma-male-sma-female-2-watts-attenuator-pe70a1009-p.aspxbut without costing 130 bucks a piece. When I say "set in a single box" I meant a set of say 5-6 of those withdifferent values in a single box I can buy, similar to the box a calibration set comes in (at least the fancy expensive ones).

author: yl3akb
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: June 18, 2018, 03:41:18 pm
content: Take a look at Designer kits from Mini-Circuits:https://ww2.minicircuits.com/WebStore/Attenuators.html

author: TheSteve
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: June 18, 2018, 04:16:20 pm
content: Unless you buy used it is going to be pretty tough to beat the Mini-Circuits VAT-xx+ series as yl3akb has suggested. You can buy them individually or they have several designer kits with various included attenuation levels. They work pretty good as long as you're staying under 6 GHz.Measured data for a VAT10+ attached.

author: medical-nerd
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: June 18, 2018, 08:49:27 pm
content: Quote from: yl3akb on June 18, 2018, 03:41:18 pmMany thanks for this.I've found :https://ww2.minicircuits.com/pdfs/K1-VAT2+.pdfamongst that list - $61-95 is very reasonable for a kit of 5 sma attenuators.Cheers

author: rhb
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 18, 2018, 09:12:10 pm
content: Quote from: medical-nerd on June 18, 2018, 08:49:27 pmThat looks like a great deal to me too.

author: EVS
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: June 19, 2018, 04:02:06 am
content: Perhaps it's better to buy only what you need? For example, I bought on ebay my own "sets"(New Old Stock each).

author: TheUnnamedNewbie
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 19, 2018, 05:09:21 am
content: Those Mini-Circuits kits seem like great deals, will definitely be looking at those.I've been looking on ebay etc. as well, and I am sure I can get better value there, but I would like a decent starter set and it seems like a kit is a better deal there. Also, the problem with the "buy what you need" is that attenuators are one of those things that are just usefull to have laying around and I don't want to have to wait a week to do an experiment because I didn't have a good attenuator at had.