We’re betting you don’t spend a great deal of time thinking about rotary attenuators, except when you need one. Then it pays to be familiar with the good options available.

Trilithic's RSA (News - Alert) series rotary attenuators are generally acknowledged as good, reliable options for durable, precise signal level control. They’re particularly noted for their wide frequency range, high accuracy rate and low VSWR, as well as for being fairly competitive on price and flexible with design configurations.

As company officials explain, the series is divided into both 50 and 75 Ohm units with attenuation as high as 110 dB dynamic range (in 10 dB steps), or as low as 1 dB range (in 0.1 dB steps).

“A firm, snap action detent locks in the desired attenuation as indicated on the supplied control knob,” Trilithic officials say, adding that low VSWR and insertion loss is assured throughout the range of each unit “with tightly controlled pad values and machining tolerances.”

In fact, company officials say, the Trilithic's new state-of-the-art rotary step attenuators are designed for precision control of signal levels in the DC to 3.0 GHz range. They also come in a wide choice of values and increments.

“This new design allows for greater automation of assembly and unprecedented low cost,” Trilithic officials note.

Earlier this month TMC wrote that if you’re looking for a leakage detector Trilithic is offering a pretty good option, the Seeker CATV.

It’s designed for in-the-field cable TV leak locating and troubleshooting, and according to company officials is designed to be a high performance, frequency-settable leakage detector ideal for drive-outs and leak location and troubleshooting.

It has a large numerical measurement display, provides sensitive, stable measurements, is channel tag (News - Alert) compatible and can be used for data storage and upload for documentation.

In the words of company officials, “The New Seeker Leakage Detector is specifically designed for efficient distribution leakage management, displaying numerical measurements of leaks on up to ten selectable channels and emitting a tone proportional to leak strength.”