By S. W. Pai
For years, the technique of tapping off signal from CATV feederline to the customer's set has mainly relied on the pressure tap. Although the design and construction of the pressure tap has been constantly improved -- such as, from capacitive tap to backmatch tap. However, the inherited problem both in the circuit design and mechanical construction of the pressure tap limit its performance in today's sophisticated system, especially since the information carried by the CATV system and the length of the feeder line are constantly increasing, coupled with the increased demand for better color signal by the customers. Therefore, a better method of tapping off the feederline must be devised; and the directional tap is the most feasible answer at the present time. The advantage of the directional tap vs. pressure tap is, of course, obvious; and also the characteristics of the directional tap probably are well known by this time in the field of CATV: Unfortunately, even today, the advantages of the directional tap have not been fully utilized by many of the system designers. It is the purpose of this paper to present some of the 282 advantages of the sloped directional tap and the distinct characteristics of the directional tap as a feederline tap off device.