My weekend project, last weekend, involved 100' of wire and a ladder.
My new random works great and supplements the 50' one I had up
already. Since I have 2 receivers on my desk, I decided to find an
inexpensive way to switch them. Using a pair of DPDT knife switches
(SPDT would have worked also), I wired each radio to the center pole,
the 50' antenna to one side and the 100' to the other. I can now
switch between antennas with ease. I mounted the switches upside-down
to the bottom of a shelf within easy reach of the radios. This lets
the gravity hold the switch straight down when not in use, keeping the
antennas disconnected for an added measure of lightning protection. I
was concerned about signal loss through the switch but I haven't
noticed any compared to connecting the antenna straight to the
receiver. Thankfully I live in a fairly low-noise rural area.

The probem I have is the only knife switches I could find were cheap
Radio Shack models (Universal sells the same ones). The pivot points
are riveted and the metal fairly thin. I'd like to find a more robust
switch, but I haven't been able to locate anything locally or on the
internet. I remember my grandfather having a bunch of heavy, ceramic
based, copper armed switches in his workshop...

Does anyone know a source where I could find some high-quality knife
switches?

Dean

Satellit 800
Realistic DX-160
Sony 7600GR
Grundig FR-200 (junk)
MFJ-1020C