W[}=(][f

communications
A Publication for the Radio Ama teur
Especially Covering VHF. UHF. and Microwaves
Volume No 17 W,nler EdrtiQn4/1985
Pub!is hl'd br;
Publish.,, ;
Edi tor s;
Transl ator :
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Ver.lag UKW BERICH Te
TC1' ry Billan
Como Bittan
Colin J. Brock (A.... "Iistllnt)
Colin J. Brock
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specat components. advflmSA-
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Pri nted rn Ihe Fed Rep . 01
Germany by A AeOChCfl tt.x: h KG
Kre"ngst. , 39 Nuer r'lOefg .
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ISSN 0177-7505
VHF-COMMUNICATIONS 4/85
Cont ents
Friedrich Kr ug,
DJ 3 RV
Friedrich Krug.
OJ 3 RV
Carsten Vielaod,
OJ 4 GC
Garten viotar c.
OJ 4 GC
Erich Stadler,
DG7 GK
Konrad Hupfer,
OJ 1 EE
Joachimxosne:
OK 1 OF
J. Jirmann and F. Krug,
OB 1 NV, OJ 3RV
MicroSlripl i ne Anlennas
Formul ae and Diagrams f or the
Approximat e Calculation 01 Mlcro- Str ipl ine s
Pow er Ampl ifi ers -
How they are operat ed
Two-metre Power Amp lifi er usin g
Valve 4 CX 1000 A
Behaviour 01 Ref lected Pul $8S
along Cables
SSB Mi ni Transverter 144 / 1296 MHz
Two-Metr e Receiv er Fronl-End
A Microcomputer-System l or Radio Amateur s
194 - 202
203 - 207
208-212
232 240
241 -251
252 - 254
k UJOO0i,berichte T' '', D, Bitlao ,Jahoot" " , Posttach 80 , D 8523 Ba;",dort
Tel West Germany 9133-855 . For Representatives see cover page 2
193
VHF-COMMUNICATIONS 4;a5
Friedrich Krug, OJ 3 RV
Micro-Stripli nc Antennas
In micr o st ri pli ne ci rcuits di scontinuities
occur which may be def i ned as all devi ations
Irom th e uniform st ripli ne struct ure such as
bends, ki nks, branches, impedance tr ansi-
tions, open and short circuits and losses
through radiat ion. Radiation l assos incr ease
with f requency, particula rl y when t he geo me-
tr i cal dimensions of t he line approach those
of an elect rical wavelength. This radi ation is
encouraged i n st ri pli ne antennas by a sui lable
arrangement of these disconti nuit ies. Part icu-
larl y good radialion occurs f rom power reso-
nalors and surf ace resonat or s whose electri-
cal di mensi ons are ,./ 2 or multiples Iher eof.
Thi s f act Is utilised in other types 01ant enna.
Mlc ro-stri pline antennas are th eref or e radiat -
ing surfaces on a t hi n dielectric substr at e
with a conduct i ng gr ound pla ne. The mai n ra-
diation axis i s perpetldicul ar to t he pl ane of
t he radi alor.
1.
ADVANTAGES AND
DISADVANTAGES
Owing 10 itsplaner structure the araeone is manu-
tacrered by the'etchi ng technique in exaclly l he
same manner as lor mcro-st nosne circuits The
'"
demands upon Ih,s technique and the malerials,
particularly for the low-loss dielectric, are ...ery
similar, The advantage of t hese antennas arc
their uniform, thin st ructure and negligible weight
The diagonal measurements 01 the base plane
must , howe...er, be at least a wave1ength. and for
antenna arrays, considerably larger. The arr an-
gement of many radlal iofl elements inlo an array
results 'n a greal er beam cooceonauon and
lherelore a higher gain.
ONing to the geometrical orrnensonarbrmtauons.
there has to be a lower frequency restriction of
about 300 MHz for these antennas The upper fre-
quency limit is set by rising conductor losses and
losses in lhe dielectric and is around 30 GHl for
PTFE dielect ric. Surface wa...e radiations are also
intensified w,th mcreasnq frequency, partlCtlhllly
when the ralia 01 substrate thickness to wave-
lenglh is grealer l han 0. 1.
Since the radialion surface is driven into resonan-
ce. these antennas nave a narrower working fro-
quency range than a horn radiator , Tho obtain-
able bandwidths range from 1 % to 5 % 01the
mid-band frequency in the 3 em band
The effiCiency "1 is also lower than a horn radiator
owing to the nigher losses in the thin conductor
structur e. The gain from a well-matched Single
element is aboui 6 dB and with a lillie more
(worthwile) t rouble With ana vs 01 e1emenls, gains
Vl-lF-COMMUNICATIONS 4'85
! ' J::-!: I ~ / ~ I
_ . _t.. ' ", _
~ , ,9);' 1
ll!7lC?iJI
Flg .1 :
Surfllu radi at ors i n
mi cro-st rip lin. t.-chn ique
01upto 20 ca are possible. The gain, however . is
always a few dB lower than the equivalent sized
hom antenna would be.
Owi ng to the neghgible power handling capar nn-
ties or these antennas. they are not suitable tor
use as high power radiators They are almost
'deal lor receive functions however, as they may
be fabricated on the same substrate ,I S sayan
amphker with direct low-loss connections - all in
the same etching process
2.
FUNCTION
Since tne introduction 01 stripline antenna s some
30 years ago a number ot technical publ ications
about the subject. and the calculationof fields and
radiation conditions. have appeared For those
wishing a more theoretical treatise the retorcnce
books (1) and {2} are recommended. They, in
turn. provide tortber references lor a deeper
stUdy.
In the follOWing arr ete I would like to present a
clear cescnotoe 01the rmcro-strcane antennas
together with a lew formulae 101 the approxima-
tion 01 the dimensions
As already mentioned. conductors radiate pen-
CUlarly powerfully when they complete a ~ I 2 re-
senate circuit or multipl es mcr oct . Through the
nature 01 the radiating ecrtece and the manner in
which they am coupled. they may be categorized
into three groups:
The first group encompasses resonant surfaces
and conductors and the second arc radiating
aperaunes which to many are known as siot ra-
diators. The thi rd group form Iravelling wave an-
toonas. The latter comprise a periodic arrange-
ment 01 discontinuit ies on a noo-radiahng toocuoe
which has been properly terminated As tar as Inc
pnnciple functioo is concerned, travelling wave
antennas are similar to surface resona tor arrays
and will not be considered further ,
A few examples of conduct ing raolatmq elements
are shown in fi g. 1 A I, I 2 concucror resonator
which produces a linear polarised wave with the E
field vector in plane at tho antenna is shown in
l ig,1 a The ring resonator in f ig. 1 b represents
a closed conductor. The basic osci liitory resona-
tor musl have an eiecmcer length 01a lul l wave-
length. requiring an averaqe dramcter 01),, 1x , The
raoaton characteristic and the polarisation. de-
pend upon the way in whiCh It Is fed. This applies
195
Fig. 2: Circular polari sed surtace radiat or wit h a 90'
hybrid coup ler leed in ord er t hat the sense 01
the pol arisatio n may be reversed
atso to the surface radiators depicted in 1 c and
1 d as to whelher Ihey are linear or circular polari -
sed antennas . The circular polarised radiator
must be led simultaneous ly on two sides ottset
physically by 90' by signals h<lving a 90 ' phase
difference between Ihem The arranqement is
shown in fi g. 2. By the coupliuq of Ihe surtaco
radialors with <190" hybrid couplerthe potansnnon
rotational duocton may be chosen remotely If
input t is fed, and input p torrrunatod, Ihe antenna
possesse s a riqth-handed polar isation and vice-
versa a left-handed polarisation is obtained,
The raoiatinq characteristic of the round surface
radiator of f ig . 1 d is dependent upon the type of
resonator field which wit h the aid of cylinder-func-
tions - i. e approximations to Bessel functions -
may be calculated, This cannot be gone into here
but references 111 and 12/ deal wifh if.
Surface radiator elements may be relat ively
easily arranged into an array of antennas as fi g. 3
shows The radiat ion characteristic and the input
impedance of Ihe antenna is determined by the
type and phase disposit ion of t he feed. The arran-
geme nt in f ig. 3 consists of radiating elements
fed in-phase, In the upper diagram /, / 2 radiating
elements are connected by J.. / 2 non-radiating
(almost ) elements in series so that each radiator
leading edge is exact ly one wavelengt h from its
196
VHF-COMMUNICATIONS4185
neighbour. This means that the antenna is fed in-
phase and that the direct ion of polarisation is in
the plane of the antenna
Fig . 3 lower shows another arrangement of in-
phase feeding of radiatinq elements. the feeder
sections are this nme.one wavelength long. The
polarisat ion 01 this arrangement is at right-ang les
to t he feeder section i. e. out of phase by 90" with
t hat of the upper array,
An example of slot radiators is shown in fig_4
which depicts two antennas with differing feed
arrangements. Fig . 4 a shows an arrancemcnttor
symmetrical stripline. known as triplate, in which
the radiat ing slot is coupled by a conductor short -
circuit The cur rent is greatest at t he short-circuit
point and with it the magnetic component 01 the
f ield which lies at rigth-angles to the plane of the
line direction. Since slot antennas have a magne -
t ic field vector which lies int he plane Oft he anten-
na, the H field direct ion of the antenna and that of
t he short -circuited line are the same so that both
slot and line are well coupled .
The arrang ement in 4 b depicts a slot antenna
etched in the ground-plane 01an unsymmetrical
conductor st ructure and coupled by a micro-strip-
line which passes over the middle of the slot and
at rigth-angles to it. The line is left open-circuited
Fig. 3: Antenna arr ays consisti ng of periodically fed
radi ating elements
VHF CO:.1MUNICATIQNS 4,85

c- ....
I
--- q -
fig. 6: Cross secti on through the conductor
sfructuredepict ingthecourse andintensityof
the electrical f ield line E
f ig. 5: Rectangular surface radiat ing elements ot
lengt h L and width WOna dielectric subst rat e
of Ihickness h and a complete metal ground
screen
. C /_,l
t-
<-F-
,/"
",I
.; "il;
Fig. 4: Examplesof slot radiators with Hfield
coupling
a} Triplateconf iguraf ion with short-ctrcult
coupling
b) Slot radiator in the ground surface with an
open-circuit i. :' 4 micro-str ipli ne coupling
at its end t, i 4 from the middle of the slot. The
open-circuit is transformed as a short -circuit in the
plane of the slot The magnetic field component is
thereby gr eatest directly above the slot, which
also has its greatest magnetic compone nt at t his
point, thus providing a good coupling.
The radiati on of the slot from the triplate configu-
ration takes place trom only one side, the other
(ground side) being the reflector, The micro-strip-
line slot feed arrangement, radiates almost equal-
Iy in both directions as apposed to the conduct ing
radiators where the metal ground-plane also acts
as a radiator- part icularly when it has a large area
relat ive to the radiating surface
3.
CALCULATION OF A RECTAN
GULAR RAOIATING ELEMENT
The surface radiator element shown in f ig. 5 may
be regarded as a conduct or of length Land width
W Ignore for the rncment tha narrow l eedline and
consid er it as 01length L = A! 2 L e. a half-wave
resonator.
As the field lines shown in fi g. 6 indicate, at the
open- circuit ends, the field is distorted in respect
to the idea l field structure along the conductor.
This distortion has the effec t of elongat ing the
conductor L by t he amount L L. Thi s short con-
ductor length is effec tively capacit ive wi l h acapa-
cnence C. At the same t ime, the field lines occur in
the free-space from end to end of the conductor
and the end may be regar ded as a radiating slot of
length f:, L and of width W, The radiating energy
can be considered to be dissipated t hrough a ra-
diation resistance R so that the surface radiator
element may be considered as tne equivale nt cir-
cuit shown in fig. 7, It can be seen t hat the re-
sonant frequency faof the resonator is mainly de-
termined by length L and t he effect ive elongat ion
is L:
Since t he wave distribut ion on t he conductor is
In order to simplify this review, the mathematical
details have been omitted but they are available, if
required , t rom ref /3/
(I ) L = O,5i,2l', L
19 7
VHF CO,;\MUNICAl iONS 4/65
AccordIng to lSi for the COnductor W1 dt h W < i. I 2
or lhe radi ation resistance
(6a) R = 180 !lJ (U Wj2
W 01 me conductor in rerencosrsc 10 the wave-
length.
I . r
fig. 1: Equ....lel1l ei reult ot a tOOialin9 elenwnlltOm
Ilg. 5 .. a feed-l ina ol cll aracteri stie
z..,and the eq uivalent efements
Rand C 01t he open end toget her with the
ehs racterist ic impedance Ze..
. .., - ----- --_.""
jJr
LI=:---====-1J
and for the conductor widt h W ;:. 1,5 f, with
"
Fig. 8: Equivalent circuit 01a micro-st ripline radl3tor
In the vieinity ol i lle resonanl frequency
(6b) R =240H.I \ l ,,;:;: (A/ W)
Since the radiation resistan ce is euecuve on both
sides or the con duct or . the resultant value As for
one element is:
(7) R, = R/ 2
Fig. 9: Translor me r co upling of a radialing elemen t
with . coaxia l cable l hrough t he ground plane

The WIdth W of the conductor IS calculated as in
ret /31 which also gi ves the cnarectonsnc impe
caoce z" or the reso nator element ,
For cou pl ing lhe antenn a to the reeonnea know-
ledge of the total imped ance Z IS nocossar v and
rega rding the equivalent circuit of fig. 8. the total
val ue of the conductance Thi s cornpnses the ra-
craton conductance G, . a loss conductance Go.
and a susceptance of the equivalent elements 01
t he conduct or 4., c; and 2 C,
delayed by the eff ect 01 the diel ectric, the wave-
length is giVen by
(2) }. = )..,1\ 'tmr
where i..o is tho rree-specewavelengt h from
wher e c, = velocity of EM wave in spac e,
The effective relat ive permitti vity is dependent
upon tho conductor width Wand the relative per-
mittivity 01the substrate. II is given below and in
equation /4/ ret. I 3J.
(4) r,",,= (f,1 1)/(2 + (E, - 1) V 4+ 48 h I Wj
The effecti ve el ong ation 6 L is calculated as des-
cr ibed in mf. /31equati on ttt.
" the heiglh ot the substrate h < < 1..,
then 6 L is approximately '
(31
(5) I\ L = h / 2
The meltching transfor mer is either accomplished
In the feed-li ne or through cou pling into the racer-
:n9 clements within t he length L (lig. 9) so that
the reso nator lifl(! itself is used as a t raostor ma-
lion el ement.
For the case 01 resonance at !G' mereactive com-
pcooots shou ld tall to zero and the transformed
quantities of Ihe radiat ion cooooct noco and the
loss conductance willformthe desired Input impe-
dance Zo. In order to have a good antenn a effi-
ciency, it is necessary that the loss conductance
is very srnaf in relat ionship to the radiat ion con-
ductan ce. Usable rrucrc-stncnne antennas are
t herefore only built with very 'ow-ross dielectrics.
The normal rracro-smounematerials such as ATI
Ouroid , Dr-ciao or A"O, cera mi c. can be consi-
dered as pracl ically loss-free up to the 3 cm band .
PCB mater ial suc h as G 10 is unusable above
1 GHz,
The radiation re s rsrarce A depends upon the size
of the radiating slot and therefore upon the width
198
Connec ting several radiating elements together
10 form an arr ay, as in f ig. 3. increases the radia-
VHF-COMMUNICATIONS4,'85
tion conductance but also. unfortunately, the loss
conduct ance aswell. Additional losses in the cor-
necting lines have the effect of decreasing the
ratio of radiation-to-loss conductance. The effi-
ciency of large rmcro-stripline antenna arrays is
so poor that themaximum available gain is limited
to 20 dB /6 /, i71and 18/.
An important criterion of an antenna is its band-
width, tM.1is, the frequency range in which it is
usable. In / 1/ the bandwidth for a single radial or
was calculated in detail, Aknowledge 01 the mate-
rial losses is required beforehand, but this can be
very tedious tor arrays having several radiating
elements andcoupling networks , Ameasurement
method ot determining the bandwidt h is very
simple and consists of measuring the input impe-
dance versus frequency by means at say, me in-
putVSWR.
The bandwidlh D. 1will then be defined as the
band over which the antenna is suitably matched
i . e. a VSWR at less than say 2 . 1. This can also
be expressed as the frequency band over which
the return loss is smaller than ~ 10 dB rei. ref,
freq.
Before the measurement is carried out, however,
it must be determined that the antenna is beaming
in the desired direction in this band of frequen-
cies, It is part icularly the case with antenna ar-
rays, it is possible to find that within the usable
band and at a frequency at which the VSWR is
low, that the radi ation beam nas slewed off the
desired direction or that a side-lobe possesses a
qrcater proportion of the input power. Anothor
possibility. is that the coupling network is matched
unintentionally with the loss conductance at this
frequency, The radi ating elements are then not in
resonance and the radiation conductance is neg-
ligible. The antenna is then acting as a termina-
ting resistance'
4.
CALCULATION AND CONSTRUC
TION OF A MICRO-STRIPUNE
ANTENNA FOR THE 3 em BAND
Fig. 10: All tenilaarrayconsistingof 2x 2rectangutar
micro-striptineresonators for the 3cmbsnd
r-
I
I
_L
w
~ ' - l ~
, ,
l ,
In order to demonstrate the appl icability of the for-
muraonn antenna array consisting of 2 x 2 radiat-
ing elements was designed and measured. The
array arrangement is shown in fi g. 10. The array
consists ot two lines at )" I 2 racrators, each line
having two elements. The polarisation lies in the
plane of the feedline L,.
The radiator length L is determined by the reso-
nant frequency 1
0
= 10.35 GHz and the width W
determines the radiation resistance so that an in-
put impedance of 50 H results. In order to have a
feed impedance of 50 n,eachcl ement must have
a radiation resistance R
s
= 200 n on the condi-
tion that each element is sufficiently decoupled
from the others. The coupling lineto the radiator is
L, = ), and has a characteri stic impedance of
100 n i. e. the impedance of two paralleled radia-
tors.
The construction utilises a teflon substrat e RTI
Ouroid 5880 with a..substrate thickness h = 0.5
199

\ I
\
I
OJ
,

C-
-n
,
I
+- -
f--

,
-,
{, .
h ' (I,S m..,

I'-
,
. ..
Fig. 11: Radiati on resi stance R. 01 a 1, 12 surflH:e ra-
diatOl"as a function of the conduct or width W
mm and 17.5 pm copper film on both sides. The
relative permilt ivity r , '"' 2.23 ai iO 35 CHz.
With these materi al data, a cal culal ioo was made
torthe dimensions l and W of a radi ating element
as in f ig. 5 at 10.35 GHz and a radiat ion resis-
tance Rs of 200 n. As Ihe radi ation resistance lay
outsidathe validlty 01the formulae 6 8 and 6 b, the
diagram of fig. II was developed. II contai ns
the transitional range of fhe fwo formulae as an
average value. The diagram directl y supplies the
radiator width W in mill imetres for a given radia-
tion resistance As. Now, with the width W. the ef-
fecti ve relat ive per mittivity is found with equation
(4) and wl\h equation (1) the resonator length L.
The following calcu latloo steps use me diagram
from 13/ and t ho antenna geomet rical data tor
fig. 10 is listed as follows:
Radiator Width
Rs =200n -- fig. 11 __ W... 11mm
200
TION$ 4.'85
Radiat or Length
W = 11 mm with h = 05 mm ...... W t h = 22
W t h = 22 _ diagram ' __ = 2.11
1
0
= 10.35 GHz --- (2) - (3) __ I. = 19.94 mm

n L oete-rmoeoIrom 131, diagram13/
w / h = 22 --- diagram 3 __ d / h - O,SS
c t e o.as mm
L = 9.29 mm
Theteocunes L_and L
1
are loaded with me cna-
racteristic impedance Z. .. 100 n.
LIn e Length L,
ZL...... diagram 2 __ WI h = 0.9
W/h .. 0.9 __ h = 0,5mm _ W
L
= O.45 mm
W / h = 0.9 --- diagram 1 - . r ..... = 1.78
1
0
- 10.35 GHz -- (2) .. (3 ) - 1' 1 .. 21.71 mm
Wit h L, = 0,5 ;", + 2 {j, L for equal phase feeding
at bot h element s,
L, = 11.53 mm
The dist ance A is arbitrary chosen WIth
A =L +L, _ 20.82 mm
For the Li ne Len gth 2< the elongation n I for the
compensatory kink as in /3/ as well as the refe-
rence plane displacement d., must be taken into
acco unt. Here the feed point is. (as oppos ed to
fig. 10) a T-branch with 50 n leed lines.
L
2
= ;., ,,, n L - 2 n l "' d,
This results in l he lengt h L. along the edge 10the
middle of the antenna,
W / h '" 0.9 - 0/3. eq. (9)/ .... 2 n I = 0.Q13 mm
z. vroo u
Z2= 50 n __13. (10) + (11)1- . d, = 0.133 mm
L, - 22. 17 mm
b = 0.231 mm fr om /3.'.
5.
ANTENNA MEASUREMENTS
The input impedance characteristic with ref e-
rence to the teeo point in fig. 10 is shown in the
VHF-COMMUNICAl iONS 4/85
OJ 3RV
.,
,
Fig. 12:
Feed poinl lnpul impedanCll
plot on Smith-Chert. The
values Me lo r iri = 0.1; 0.2; 0.3;
0.4 0.5 al VSWA1 : 2 reI .
"'''
,,;., /
, I ....
,
,"- 0
..... .
\,
/
--1.....
:IJ 3RV
Fig. 13: DlreC110nal cbeeecteereuc in the E-phtne
diegrl m)
Smith Chart plot in f ig . 12. The minimal ref lection
coelfcter nwi th
r "" 0.04 e-
1
/1O'
atl
o
'" 10.343 GHz
Ttus corresponds to an input resi stance 01
Z[ =46 H
A VSWR = 2 ; 1 is measured at 10 255 GHz and
10.445 GHz, giving a bandwidth of 190 MHz
i. e. 1,64 %.
Fig. 13 shows the polar plot in t he El ield plane at
= 10,343 GHz. That is the poteneanon plane
and, normally, the horizont al diagram. II is pro-
bably something 10 do wil h the feed arrange-
ments that there is a + 2" depart ure from the nor-
mal plane symmetry.
The hal f-power poi nt s:
t. f( = + 19' to -17' = 36<
and the first mini ma occurs at
-rm = + 42" 10 - 34" .. 78"
201
OJ ~ RV
Fig. 14: Directional characteristi c in the H-plane
(ve rtical diag ram)
Fig. 14 shows the directional characteristic in the
H plane at I" = 10,343GHz.
The half-power points
L {I '" + 20" to - 19" = 39"
and the first minima occur
o m = + 42"to - 41' = 83"
The Gai n was measured at G, = 10,5 dB;
The cross-f ield polarisation (E component mea-
sured in H plane) = - 36 dB (only).
6.
REFERENCES
111 Bahl , I. J.; Bhartia. P
Microstrip Antennas
Artech House, Dedham, Mass (1980)
202
VHF-COMMUNICATIONS4/85
/ 2/ James, J . R. ; Hall, P S.. Wood , C,
Microstrip Antenna
Theory and Design
IEEE Electromagnetic waves series 12
Peter Pregri nusLtd., Stevenage (1981)
/3/ Krug, F
Formulae and Diagrams for the Approximate
Calculation of Micro-Striplines
VHF-COMMUNICATiON VoU 7 Ed 4/1985
14/ Harnrnerstad, E. 0. :
Equations for Microsfrip Circuit Design
Proc. ot the 5th EMC, Sept, 1975, P 268" 272
15/ Sobol ,H..
Radiation Conduct ance of Open-Circuit
Microst rip Trans.
MTT - 19 November 1971 P 885 - 887
and also
Kompa, G. :
Approx imate calculation of radiationf romopen
ended wide microstrip lines
Electronics Leiters, Vol. 12 1976, P. 22 - 224
Domesdy, A G.
Microstnp Array Antenna Proc. of the 6th EMG,
Rom 1976, P.339 -343
Wood, C., Hall, P. S.. James, J. R.
R<ldi<l!ion conducta nce of open-ci rcuit
low dielect ric constant microstrtp
Electronic Letters, Vol 14 1978. P 121 - 123
/61Saad. L:
Eine Streilenleitunqs-Richtanteone fOrden
Frcquenzbcecich 2 bis 40 GHl
wrs s. BerichteAEG-TELEFUNKEN 51 (1978)
Heft 213, Sette 167 - 176
mSolbach, K..
Autbau unc Skalierung einer 32-Element
Microstrip-Antennen-Gruppe
Mikrowellen-Maqazin. 1981,
Heft 4, Seite 461 - 465
/8/ Menze l, W..
Eine 40-GHz-Mikrostreifenleitungsant enne
Mikrowellen -Magazin, 1981,
Heft 4, Selte 466 - 469
VHF-CDMMUNICAnons 4185
Friedrich Krug, DJ 3 RV
Formulae and Diagrams for the
Approximate Calculation of Miero-Striplines
The design and cal cul at ion of st rip li ne cir-
cuits is st ill, unf ort unately , a speclallst's t er -
ritory. This is partly understandable, as the
development of the circuits is more demand-
ing upon the technological possibiliti es than
that for normal printed circ uit pr acti ce, In
spit e of this, it is helpful f orthe understanding
of mi cr o-strip circuits, if the impedance s of
t he conduct or structure can be del er mined
Irom its geometry. Thi s will enable anyone
with normal radio IreqlH:!OCy experti se 10, at
least , understand the circuit lundion.
That is the aim of the following pt'esentation
01 fonnulae, and in parti cular, lor the under-
standi ng and cal culation 01 micr o- strlpl lne
ante nnas which are described In th is edit ion
of VHF COMMUNI CATI ONS,
Planar microwave circuits, whiCh are relatively
easy to fabricate using etching techniques, most-
ly employ unsymmetrical striplines. The exactcal-
cutauon of this type of circuit is very tedious, and
in most Instances, only possible as enapproxima-
tion. In order topresent a simple method of calcu-
lating microwave conducting sl ructures, only the
mostImportant approximation formulae from the
references f l, 12.13 have been selected and pre--
sented graphically. The diagrams have been cal-
culated based upon the most used substrate,
glass-tlbre re-inlorced PTFE. Typos ind Ude RTI
Duroid 5870 am 5880 Rogers Corp. /41 Of OJ -
Cl fld 870 and 880 Keene /5/ Withdielectrics con-
stants '" = 2.32 and 2.23, resp.
The inaccuracies, consequent upon the approxi-
mat ion approach, are small and well within t he
tolerances for the dielect ric constant and the
thickness of the substrate materials. I found that
the difference between the calculated result s
andt he actual measured results lay within 3 %.
This is not oormauy critical lor simple ci rcuits
(Iiller s and resonat ors). however. a cor rection
may have to be appl ied. The l abricahon must also
be carefully ccouoaec. as Ihe design ol l he mask,
application of !he photo sefl sihve reest. Ihe expo-
sure. development and etching all Inlluel1C& the
width 01the conductor Iracks. These manufactur -
ing tolerances must be known and taken into ac-
counl.
~ O N D U C T O R WIDTH'
Fig . 1 shows a croes-sectcnat view of a mcro-
strip conductor 01 widt h Wand coooocrce t ruck-
ness t , etched from a board 01dIelectric thickness
hand relative dielectriCconstant f,. The conouc-
ling ground plane is cont inuous The calculation
203
VHF-COMMUNICATIONS 4'85

Fig. 1; Cross-sect ion thr ough a ml cro-ll trlpll nt'
01the conduct or dimensons is accomplished by
the aid of 131 equalion (1) using the application
range r, S 16 arc 0.5 $: W I h :s; 20 assuming I '"
o and negl ecti ng trequcncy . They w ppl y fOf the
des ired conductor ct1aract eristic impedance Z.
t ho ratio of track width to substrate thickness W / h
for the given di electric constant e.or nesubstrate
material. Equati on (2) suppl ies the effective di-
el ect ric cons tant j. C, the modif ied value due to
li nes of for ce fr ingi ng.
For an ov erall view, the values for r, = 2.23 and
r , = 2.32 ar e depicted in diagram 1 as a functi on
of W / 1'1.
The conductor characteristic impedance z.. may
be calculated with theaid 01eq uat ion (3) from the
given geomcl ric al dimensions . These values lor
the impedance Z. are ploll ed against the ratio
W / h for f , = 2.23 in di agram 2. The val ues tor
the charac teri stic impedance z.. at f , = 2.32 lie
abou t 2 % tower and canno t bo ceeny depict ed in
t he diagram.
Diagram 1: Effect ive rel ative permi tti vi ty ' .onas a
function of Wih lor an " or 2.23 and 2.32
The influence of the conductor trac k t hickness t
has been neglected in equation (1) to (3) but t he
error is very small for trac k thi cknesses fr om 17 5
m to 35 / A. m Thick conductor tracks al so ver y
narrow tracks, greater lines-of-force fring-
ing effects and the euecev e di electric const ant is
therefor e smaller. Ttus fact or can be taken into
accou nt with eq uation (4) and (5) trom / 1/. The
resu mnq cor rected val ue tor t'mt!' and coococtor
width W' are used in equation (3) toootaman im-
proved value for the chara cterist ic Impedance
The conditions h t: 2 t < Wand t < 0.75
(W' - W) must, however. be observed.
The influence of f requency is derte rmined by / 21
equation (6) This supplms a frequency cor rected
effective diel ectri c permitt ivity t',,,,,{f ) which at
10 GHz and with PTFE substrate is atout 2 %
higher than deter mined by equano n (2) .
2.
END CAPACITANCE OF AN
OPEN-CI RCUIT LINE
'rl- -j

- ; - '
..
DI89ram 2: Charact .....i sl ic imped ancc z.. ol a$triphne
as a Junclion oJ W'll 'Of " - 2.23. Tl'Iedis-
placemen1 01 z... 101 .f.. 2.32 1&smal l
enough to be . nd C8M OI
theref ore be shown li S a sepet81e CUnlC.
An ope n-ei rcuited micro-stripi ir16has. il l its end.
a lringe l iekJ which has a cepecnwe effect This
tends to give the conductor a greater e1ectri cat
length than us physical lenglh by an amou nt d.
20'
VHF-COMMUNICAl iONS 4/85
Fig. 2: Addit iorlal lenglh d of an ope... circuil
stripli ne calise<! by l ho l l i"'9ing 01the Et ield
at ilsend
Fig. 2 shows ltllS fnnglng fi eld and the resultant
elongat ion d. This effect must be taken into ac-
count e. g. wi th probes or rosonators in equat ion
(7) from /2/ and is valid tor o.c t $ W I h:s-: 100 and
1 ~ ' f< 50. The curve is shown in diagram 3 for
r, = 2.23,
3.
COMPENSATINGDEVICES
When des igning rnrcrostnpcircuits. it is frequont ly
necessary to form an angle 'I in t he track to
change direction. A bend is formed as shown in
f ig. 3. which also possesses a fringing f ield which
adds an eff ective additional capacity, A rel at ively
wide-band ccmpensanon mel hod is to cut the cor-
ner as in1ig. 3, In l 1l a corner-cutot lengl h a = 1 8
Diagram3: Elongal ion olleogl h by amount d lor an
opeo-<;lr cuited Slripiine for a rel ative
permitt ivity 01c, = 2.23
Fig. 3: Compensal ion oIlhe ' ringing enect at a bend
by W lti ng 0"the comer
Wfor angles <f "" 30' to 120' is given . The width b
is ca lcul ated from equat ion (8a). My me asure-
me nts shewed that these appr oximations are et -
tscnvelor angles ' I' "" 90" to 120' .
For a right -angled bendq. = 90", the width b is de-
termined according to /2/ also equa tion (8b) , The
size of d must t hen be deter mine d wit h equat io n
(7) for an open-ci rcuited line 01width V2 W
The equlvalent lenglh ill is approx imately given
by equati on (9) .
4.
SYMMETRICAL BRANCHING
The reference pl ane displ acemen t at a line bran-
ching sect ion is shown in f ig . 4. This occurs wil h
probe s, conductor dividers or hyood couplers and
is extensively cover ed in 11/. For a symmetrical
l L
Fig. 4: Ois.p-lacemenl of refeo-ooce planeat a. t ripline
Junclion
205
VHFCOMMUNICATIONS 4..' 85
Equations:
f ur
I"
z
Ti
s
for '"
,
"
,
P I
, -1
,
r:
- , - 1
--,-
' or :;
fOTH > l
il
(2)
[
,",'
-,c;:::rr"
077 ;.,

+ 1,;,'3 +
PI
' 'r - re f f
) ,
(5 )
(I' )
junction the approximations are given in/3/ equa-
tions (10) and (11). The reference plane dis-
placement is taken from the centre lines' of the
conductors, The characteristic impedance Z, is
that of the through line and Z2 is the impedance
of the branch line. These impedances are deter-
mined wifh equations (1) and (2) or diagrams 1
and 2 together with the relevant effective relative
permittivity.
206
5.
REFERENCES
/1/ Mehran, R ' Grundelemente des rechnerge-
stutzten Entwurfs von Mikrost reifenleitungs-
Schaltungen
Verlag H. Wolff, Aachen
VHFCQMMUNICATIONS 41&5
J" "
{-. 0.4 :>1'111 , ,'
(..., rrJ.. ' . 0, ;89
iI , ,,. ,
. D,23/;
iI .. .."
3,8 1
" ,
I . 'I'-ll (1 '
b
, ie,,'12 )
b _Y" _ d
/ 2
(H. )
W , ..
(C. S - _"_ _ - O., ?:
''I
l ., Co

121 Holtmann, R. K.: Integrierte Mikrowellen-
schajtunqen
Spri nger Verlag, Bertin1983
I3J Hammerstad, E. 0 .: Equations lor microsl rip
cil cuil design
Procood ings of the5th EMC, 1975, p 268 V 2
141 Lieferftrma lOr RTlDu roid:
Mauritz GmbH & Co , Posttach 10 43 00,
2000 Hamburg 1
/51Lieternrma l ur Di-elad:
Municom, Posttaetl12 10,8217 Grassau
207
VHF-COMMU"I ICAl iONS 4/85
Carsten Vie/and, DJ 4 GC
Power Amplifiers - How they are operated
Thi s compilation of measures l or the spu-
ri ous-fr ee operatlon of power amplifier s was
written In the hope t hat it would act as a re-
minder and as a source of assi stance, for t he
i mprovement of a l ew - mainl y co ntest - st e-
li ons of dubious output quality. They serve,
also, as a pr el i mi nary l or t he accompan yi ng
arti ck! on t he const ruction at a high ly li near
750 WUHF power amplll ier using a 4 ex 1000
A valve.
A power stage serves only to ampiil y the input
signal and not to generate signals 01 its own ,
Several simultaneous condi tions are to be met
oetore a high power output logether with spectral
purity can be achieved:
1) The PA must be, in fact linear.
2) The transceiver (exciter) driving signal must
also have a clean spect rum.
3) When switching lrom excner to PA. the trans-
mil level must be carefully controlled - 'he
microphone gain is unsuitable tor trns purpose.
4) The output must be properly monitored so that
the modulali oo envelope can be clearly seen in
operation and on a lest signal - a moving-coil
instrument can give a false impression.
These four conditions will be examined in more
detail.
208
1.
THE POWER AMPLIFIER
Valves and uenststors used in linear power
amplifiers require stable supplies in o oer thal lhe
working point can be l ixed. These should remain,
even under the most difficult mput conditions.
(emergency supply generalors. or mobile opera-
lion). If the input envelope is influenced by signal
varying DC supply potentials applied to the de-
vices elect rodes. spurious signals are genera-
ted by the non-linearity - the dreaded intermodu-
tenon. This effect is, of course, desired in mixers
where an interrnedlate frequency is required.
Transistor power emputlers. must t herc'ore. have
due attention paid i o t he base bias supply. lis
stability must be checked by an oscilloscope
during working condilions. For transistors having
a 0.7 Vbias, the input signal should not cause It to
vary by more than 0_1 V peak-to-peak as a work-
ing guideline. Many commercial amateur equip-
ments fall well short of this etanoero.
The screen-grid of a power valve has e'mular pre-
requisites e. g, Ihe screen-grid of the 4 e x series
VHF-COMMUNICATIONSc as
should be stable wIthIn 5 V peak-Io-peak under
dynami c ccocmooe. A point to watch is that,
despi te the required degree 01stabil isation, a ne-
gative cu rrent tows ovor pans of the input cycle.
This necessitates a Ifuge standing ballast current
to be provided.
Monitoring of thi s voltage by means of a multi-
meter is not suff icient owing to its inadequate res"
ponse to speech waveforms. Again, an oscillos-
cope is required to monnor the dynamic ccocr-
lions.
Poor malchl ng 01 the valve or trans istOf 10 me
tul1lx :l output circuit I translormer, or perhaps poor
design or mis-tunil'1g, can al so causa the produc-
tion of intermodulat ion. despite the fact that tho
device is adequate l or amateur out put require-
ments
In cases of doubt . V-MOS transistors or valves
arc to be pr eferred to bipolar transistors. At mode-
rate modu lation, using two equal tnpot test tones.
lhe 3rd order 1M signals are some 30 dB lower
but t he higher orders lall away more quicRly using
valves. In !he crmcar regIon Irom 5 to 20 kH? re-
mov ed from the sender neqecncy. the level 01
int ermodul ation products could be up to 20 dB
lower us ing V-MOS or valve PAs when conparoc
with bipolar PAs driven to t he same out put and
possessing the same level of 1M"
It is well known that some valv es used in t he con-
struct ion of PAs are simply not suitable e. g
QQE 06 / 40 and the 4 ex250 (see test report in
CD- DL 5 / 82). Tho most common cause of inter-
mocctarondislor1iCIn is. unlOr1 unately, the lack 01
sen discipl ine. II is gellCral ly known thal for a
1 dB Increase in aulpul power the level can
Increase from eu e est 3 dB up to 20 dB. II would
appear that attempts are made to drive the PA in
order to achieve the unattainable tnterceot-comt
(rotl ghly same loval of power in speech wavef orm
as in intermodulation products)!
2.
TRANSCEIVER
The output signals of mos t mod ern transceiver
are quite goocl and ttl at CM be confirmed by the
many test reports which have appeared in the last
tew years. The coosweeatoos 01( 1) are val id, bul
improvements are possible in praclically all
eouemems.
Tho noise side-bands of the local oscillators,
however. cannot be said to be good. The out put
signal is superimposed, through the mixing pro-
cess, upon the noise pedastal ot tne local osc il-
lator. As a consequence, lhe low frequency mo-
dulation contans noise, which is vnry simi tar to
lhal of intermodulation b uttends to be much more
oroao-caoced. Tr ansceivers with unlavoorable
norse creraoensucs shouk:! never be used 10
drive power amptiJicrs, as observed in ( 1).
The YAESU transcei ver FT 225 AD, which is con-
sidered to be really good in thi s respec t, courd be
improved by 10 dB at 100 kH? from the midband
signal. a neighbou ring station carried out
tttis modification on his FT 225 AD it was then
poss ible to wor k the band withou t mutual inter-
terence. The modil icalioo . it should be noted. is
also beneficial in the receive mode.
3.
CONNECTING TOGETHER EXCITER
AND POWER AMPLIFIER
Even assuming that a manutact c ree produces a
low d,stor1 lon, low noise transcerecr and a good
matchi ng power ampl il ier. l he polenlial exists for
troubl e when the two am connect ed together. Ba--
sides a rel ay cont act or twofor exlerrlal uso. tne
manufacturers after not hing particul m1y helptut.
Of notable assistance wou ld be an HF drive con-
trol Which gives continuous control over t he power
supplied to the PA. The mi crophone gain control
is as much usc for t his purpose as a handbrake is
in controll ing the speed of a car. The purpos e of a
- mrc. gain" control is 10 enablo rmcropbcoes of
differi ng S8nsiti vili es to modulat e Ihe ua nscewer .
All empls to use it as a drive cont rol could fesu" in
samrenon of lhe high frequency aUdio peaks, as
may be conhrmed by an oscil loscope monilor.
The transceiver actonanc level cocnor (ALC)
counters me effect of the "mIC. con trol The
209
VHF-COMMUNICATIONS 4/85
Fig. 1; Cont inuously variable power cont rol in-
serted into a 50 j) point in the low level RF
dri ve circuits
applicat ion of tuo much ALe nlsn causes cnstor-
tion. In add ition. before the ALC comes inlo ope-
rat ion, narr ow impulses of up to 1 ms in dur ation.
are produced during the ti me tho ALe roman s in-
effective. These impulses have a peak power ap-
proaching that of the maxi mum transceiver output
power, whi ch in the case of t he FT 225 RDis 40 to
SOW.
An " RF dr ive" cont rol can, however, be retrofitted
to most transceivers A 50 Jl impedance point is
chosen (il possi ble) at a low level portion at the RF
amp lifying chain and a suitable ' blocked " 100 n
potentiometer is inserted in the circuitry. If should
be mounted at an accessible poi nt on the equip-
ment' s front panel. The author installed the poton-
ticmeter 01f ig . 1 in the 10.7 MHz IF stages of his
FT 225 RD. It varies the SSB output power f rom
zero to 25 W without other speci ticat ions being
affect ed.
A reduct ion in level in t he front part ol t he process
reduces the intermodulation which wo uld have
been produced in later stages owing to overdriv-
ing. II does, however, have a somewhat adverse
eff ect upon t he dynamic compression properties
olthe ALe.
To complementthe "RF drive " control, a vital part
01the chain should be mat ched by construct ing a
suitable dimensioned 50 JI power attenu ator from
composition or film resistors and include it be-
tween driver and PA. The att enuator should be di-
mensio nc d so that the PA can be driven to wit hin
1 dB of its rated power out put (fig. 2)
The PA cannot now be overdnven and t he dyna-
mic compression of the driver transceiver ALC
remains full y in ope ration. The "mic. gai n" is ad-
j usted for <1 medium to high output level (a pointer
indicat ion may be used). A high-dynamic range
receiver, monitoring the output 01a local, we ll ad-
j usted dr iver I PA combinat ion, is able to tune
wi thin a tew kHz ot the transrmssicn, without de-
lecting appreciable spurious emissions.The
attcnuato r betwe en the transceiverlPA combr-
natio n el isa serv es the important role of termina-
l ing the t ransceiver with a real 50 n tmpcdar cc
The 1M specificat ion of a transceiver is most
favourable. when it has been terminated with a
malched resis uve load and thmcby low retur n
10ssIVSWR Dri ving a PA valve , or a transist or
directly.results in a reactive load which is decen-
dent upon the dyn amic drive leval.
I
I
210
TRX
1 ----
I RXr-8JI
- ~ - ~ ~ - - r - " , '
1
Fi g. 2;
Att enuator pad insert ed in the
"send" arm 01the PA input
VHF-COMMUNICATIOII.: S 4i85
Fig. 3:
Obtaining the ALCsample voltage
fromth' PAoutput
x
A NT
TX
f or.... ard
D.
0 2
to TX ALe
The matChing from transceiver/dr iver into the PA
via the mat ching pad is best carri ed out at tull
drive and output power. At lower levels the PA
input impedance is far removed from the real
50 I I . This causes a distortion of thfl input/output
characteris tic l esulting in tho genelalion 01inter-
modul ation products despite the PA out put load
being a resistive 50 n (antenna or dummy).
A 5 dB pad between a l OW transceiver and 11
4 CX 250 PA can result (in a theoreticall y unta-
vourable case) in a return loss of 10 dB Ii.e. SWR
"" 2 ' 1).
A further auenuauon of intermodulali on products
is possible by taking the Al e sample from the
power ampufter output and feeding It back to the
transceiver with the appropriate level and time-
constant to suit the equipment concerned . The
circuit ol ll g. 3 may be used to obtain the samp le
voltage. but this voltage may have to be con-
toured before it can be applied to the transceiver.
The power output is set to maximum by means 01
the 10 en pre-set potentiometer . The diode D 2
output is fed to the AlC circui t in the transceiver .
In some ci rcumstances the transceiver internal
Ale gain must be reduced or suppresseo. Should
the sampro voltage be insu!licient. or have the
wrong pol artty, it may be corrected by means 01
an operat ional amplif ier.
A directional coupl er is to be preferred, rather
than a capacmve or inductive output tap. as it
functions independentl y trom the an-
tenna matching conditions Tho directional
voltage can also be used for an accu rate power
output indicator
4.
OUTPUT MOOULATION
MONITORING
The transrmtted signa l from the transcei ver I PA
equipment must be! monitored under all work ing
conditions all the t ime. Moving-coil instruments
give a false indication because with speech only
average fluctuations may be shown and never the
peak vanes. The ooly eff ective rormor mol1ltor ,ng
the output of a high power IransmiUer undel work-
Ing {tratttc ] condi tions is to use a simple DC osci l-
loscope.
The individual workings of measures designed to
produce the optimum condit ioning for the trans-
mitted audio. such as Ale , high AF atte nuation
and speech-processing, have Ihe combined el-
teet of concentrating l he power into lhe middl e
dynamic range, thereby increasing its average
211
cap. pr ove
4,1 K
1p
VHF-COMMUNICATIONS4'85
Fig. 4:
Envel ope det ector wi th a hi gh
video freq uency
D[ -[ RG
G, - mODe TOOP
4 7K
value. The peak values, on the other hand, do not
reach saturat ion, The optimi sat ion duri ng tuning,
adj ustment anc operation is expedit iously carried
out whilst observing l he transmitted signal's mo-
dulation envelope. Some radio amateurs would
have the cause at annoying splatter and speec h
distortion, right before their eyes.
A part icularly good indicator for linearity and out-
put is t adl itated hy the two-tone test. as this en-
compasses nearly all aspects ot the out put perfor-
mance, it can be used tor optimising individual
stages dur ing t une-up. Experience has shown,
that a 3rd order intermodutation ot - 30 dB rela-
t ive max. output power can be expected. if the
monitor t race shows no visible departures trom
the ideal detected two-tone pattern. For a suitable
trace, t he demodulati on should be effected with a
short fi lter time-constant in order that the signal
is not distorted. The demodulator should also be
capable of handling video signals ot at least 50
kHz The sample signal must be much greater
than the diode barrier voltage, Greater than 3 V is
required in order to prevent distortion t rom this
cause The detector probe must be adjusted to
the HF pick-up point unt il a satisf acto ry level has
been achieved. A suitable detector is shown in
fig. 4 tor PAs wit hout a reuectomcte r.
Most commercial PAs have a democutatec HF
monitor already built-in but It must be modi t ied
normal ly, in orde r to reduce the detector time
constant.
To faithfully reproduce the two-tone RF envelope,
the diode capacitor should be reduced to about
100 pF and the diode load to about 10 kl1.
212
5.
REFERENCES
(1) Leit Asbrink, SM 5 GSZ
Dynamie Range of 2 m Transceivers
VHF-COMMUNICATION Vol. 14
Ed 1 182 P.49 - 55
(2) Gunter Sch warzbeck , DL 1 BU
Endstutcn tur das 2-m-Ban d
CQ-Dl Helt 5182
(3) GOnter Schwarzbeck. DL 1 BU
Gerate-Eiqenschaft en bei SSB und CW
Besonderheiton zwischen Testbericht und
Praxis
CQ-Dl Heft 9 i 82
(4) GOhter Schwa rzbec k, DL 1 BU
Tcstbe richt VHF Hoctncistonqsonostutc
mit 4 CX 350
CQ-DL Heft 2.1 81
(5) Thomas Mol iere, DL 7 AV
Der Stauoremomtcr 8M 220:
Test bericht unc Mefkiaten
CQ-DL Heft 6 .1 81
(6) Wolfgang Gunter, DF 4 UW
Linearendst ufen-Obersteuerung
CQDL Heft 4 .1 81
(7) Dr. Richard Waxweiler, DJ 7 VD
Niederl requenz- Zweitongenerator
CQ-Dl Heft 8 181
(8) GOnter Schwarzbeck. DL 1 BU
8SB-QRM
CQ-Dl Heft 7 .I75
VHF-COMMUNICATIONS 4_85
Carsten Vie/and, OJ 4 GC
Two-met re Power Amplifier using
Valve 4 ex 1000 A
A two-metr e power amplifier will be described
whi ch wi ll deli ver a power out put of 750 Wwith
a hi gh spectral pur ity. As t he con struct i on of
such an ampli fier requires ski ll , experi ence
and patience, I would rather not repeat to ex-
pert s the var ious ci rcuit tec hniques but con-
line my comments to t he pecu li arit ies of this
part icular valve, The inlermodulal ion free, i. e.
spl atter fr ee, openllion should also be exten-
ded 10 il s use as a mobil e PA wh ere the con-
struction of the power supp ly will merit part i -
cu lar attention owi ng to the st rongly vary i ng
volt ages encount ered.
Contrary to longstanding opinion. the ubiquitous
valvelamily 4 x 150 / 4 ex 250 were not made for
linear operation but lor class e AM and FM appli-
cations some forty years ago. The tetrooe 4 ex
1000 AI JAN8186 (fig. 1). on the other ha'ld. was
especially developed for SSB and television line-
ar ampl ification over a wide dynamICmodulation
range. It is not, unfortunately. quite as robuSI <IS
us smaller predecessors and requires greater
care both in construction and operation,
The e x 1000 A is a beam tetroce f. e, me screen-
grid lies di rectly in the shadowof mecontrol grid_
Thi s calls jar great precision during its manurac-
Fig. 1;
The 4 ex 1000 Aor JAN 8186
,..
,--..- 1".. "",.
" . t,
.._-- -
,
VHFCOMMUNICATIONS 4/85
, DJ4GC
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I
, . -L:' '-:' - '\ -el---1

-,',
. '1 "''' ''', ,'", ,.
:-
(u) ' J ' -1
'r , 0,t., I,
Fig. 2: Final wit h pen ult imate block d iagram
tur e and during its operation, great care must be
exercised to ensure that even a nans.ont over-
load docs nol occur which coukl lead to budding
and misalignment or the beam structure. The
manctacturers specify a permitted control-gri d
power dissipation of zero watt s. Nevertheless, a
peak value of 5 mA occasioned during modulation
may be allowed. In the course of the years I have
tested a number 01 l ubes (including original-
packed) that have dlflering characteristics under
wofking oondil ions II gives \he impression of a
certain "overtxeedinp" .
1.
CIRCUIT DESCRIPTION
The overall funct ion may be determined from the
block diagram of t ig. 2. The actual amplifyi ng
stage is also given in the detailed schematic 01
'"
fig. 3 . According to Ihe manufacturer Eimac, the
maximum frequency ot l he 4 ex 1000 A using Ihle'
CMiginat eccser SK 800 lies ecuoo 110 MHz_The
version 4 e x 1000 K has a maximum worki ng fre-
quency of 400 MHz although both tubes have
identical connections and use the same SOCket.
The airvent holes on the screen grid plate of HIe
socket SK 800 should . through screwed on l in-
plate, be covered just sufl icieotly 10 auowmeiute
to be changed. Aller this modificalioo the 4 e x
1000 A is SUItable fOf use up 10145 MHz. The ai r-
blast from the 80 to 100 W blower is directed info
the anode and then through a teflon or drawing-
cardboard cylinder to the oxrerlor of the enclo-
sure.
The scraen-grid clocking condenser (5 nFl , wh ich
is intl:l9rated into the socket . is insufficient to pro-
vent spurious osci llat ions. Thi s is manifest upon
switch-on by a self-oscillat ion III the long-wave
region caused by t he screen-qric choke fOfming
part 01 a resonant cir con. It may be cured by a
VHFCOMMUNICATIONS4/85
~ p ~ ... , . "",'. ,
t -, "'''' . ' '' '
----, .... p'. ;.
DJ4GC
T
", ,,,,. ,, h '''''''' ' D'
o
,,--,
......y , ' ,. :po<""
0 3 m.. - ,-
"",' ""
I
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-<
f i g, 3: Schematic 01PA s tag e
dempend ctcee cr, at most, 10 pH and a l urthel
capacitor 01 10 nF. In order to avoid noise in
"stand-by". the screen-qnd is switched to ground,
The filter capacitors must not be too large in order
that the rolay contacts do nut have to switch an
unnecessarily large charge current.
As Iho scmen-grid current. in opetancn, is nega-
l ive OWing 10secondary emmeson. it should be
loaded 10 earth by at least 70 mAof bleed current.
The screen-grid line, with its components. is also
protected from voltage surges by a 400 - 600 V.
gas filled, surqo-arrostor.
f ig. 4:
Const ructional details 01
grid circuit and input
eoupling
215
VHF-COMMUII:ICA 4,85
(

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.c,
0 1"", ' ,' '' '''''' ' "..".""
"""
111 '0
'.'I' ''''"''"''
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<1 ex 1000A
['1( :
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Fig. 5: Const ructional details of anode tuned circuit and output coupli ng
The valve has a high lransconduc1ancc ol30mAf
Volt and therefore a high gnd-<:athode capaci -
tance 01about 90 pF. A I, f 4 tcooo-cecot cannot
be used, as the voltage-node will be produced
rigth at the socket A favourable solution turned
out tobe a j., f 2 tuned circui t wh ich is Tuned at the
opposite end of the valve, The drive mput is cou p-
led inductively, a furt her variable capacitor com-
pansaunq the total inductance in tho gr id lead
(l ig. 4).
Each of tho three contror-qnd connect ions of the
soc ket is taken to a 1 kll resistor via blocking
cacecucr l hus for ming a parasi tic stopper which
el1ectively dampens any i ooooocy 10 osc illate at
lowIrequencies. They have liltle enoc r upon the
want ed Signal as at this frequency the resis tors
lie at a voltage node. The geomet ry and coupling
01lI1etuned circuit must be opti mised expcnrnen-
tally.
The valve' s anode tuned circuit has a diamet er of
85 mm. In order to avoid transill ime ef fect s and to
equalise the current distr ibution, tho resonant cir-
cuit should load the anode unifor ml y at all points.
After a few abortiv e attempts. an optime' solution
nnned QU1to be a 65 mm wide, ), f 2 conductor
tunod-circuit with the anode in the middle 01 a
curreot anti-.f1ode and a direct output coupling
(ri g. 51. The anod e supply vol tage 1$ muceucec
'"
at the col d end of a plate {sandwich} cepacitor.
The resonator itself is ccn necacd to ground as far
as DC is con cerned. The valve anode is connec-
ted to the coupling capaceorby means of contact- .
fing er stoc k . The coupling capacitor itself is
formed by SAndwiching a 0,3 mm teflon sheet be-
tween capacitor and reso nator surfaces. using
teflon and ceramic supports. As the anode poten-
tial climbs to <\ kV wh en the amplifier is quiescent ,
it is important to ensure that the construct ion Of
these parts allow no chance lor ionized paths to
occur bet ween and the capacitor .
The tenon supports are therefore so recessed
Ihatlhey pr otrude O. I mm beyond the thic kness of
the capacitor plato. Two furth er teflon supports
hold the resonator at a constant level above the
chassis, The output tuned circuit is so stable that
even after a long period of operation it does not
require ret uning. The circ ui t is brought to res o-
nance by a nn-praie disc. eart nec by a Ilexihle
braid and tuned by a spindle drive.
The output coupling lies about 60 mm from the
" cold" end of the tuned ci rcuit. The contacts ar e
made by a br ass angle piece secured with three
screws . Its position is adjustable over a few centi-
metr es in or der to enect a correc t output match
(Ilg. 6). A low inductance length 01braid. or cop-
per -foil, is soldered to the angle-piece and the
VHF-COMMUNlCAl iONS 4.'85
Fig. 6: 0v9nIll _ 04output circui t with lop CO\/Oef relnOYed
orther ('fId IS coooeoee 10 a l oodl hroogh palnl
wtlich ccosets of the l efloo-w ppor1ed. inside
conouctor or an N-sockel.
Under tho resonator rloor, a !wO-slage low pass
tlhm is situated wI1ichis housed in a 50 mm high
commerCial li np1ale toe. Wil h lhe high-quality
er-specco Inmmers. which woro l Oildy to hand.
the IraqUtl f"ICy limit was 200 MHz. Instead ol the
expected anenual ioo. thore was a sllghl increase
in power altor the react ive Clf!lT1Cfll was funed out
01Ihe outputtee by tne mm-capaotors
Tht! output is Ihen taken 10 a retrectometer via
"N" COnnectors, Antennas with a retorraoss of
mom than 15dB (SWR 1 : 1.5) should not be used
owing 10 the high level of RF mtroouced into the
station via ne high coaerar.screee currents. For
this reason. two seoe-ete meter s showing both
1000ard and return power arBbuill illl.0 the PA.
From me rcflectomeler Iorward-couplet . a
sample is eXlJacted lor the automatiCIcvct con-
Irol (ALe) which IS preoerod and led back 10 !hlt
eXlernal driver (Iranscei ver) sec f ig . 7. A red LEO
illumillil lcs when t he maximum potrmllt ed output
power of 750 W has been exceeded. By means of
the Ale , or a cal el ully adjusted sooccn orocee-
see. Ihls limit should be ditllCUlt 10 attain dUl lng
oper ation.
The forward voltage of tne di rectlonal coupl er
is taken to a mcejtcr output In order t hai t he
operation may be co nstantly monitored wllh a
simple DC osci ll oscop e (CRO). This si mple
met hod of mo nitoring sho uld be not ed by all
high powe r stations, as t he use of a pointe r
Instrument for this pu rpose Is t olll il y fnede-
qUlllte because of it s slow response t o audio.
Conlest s, In particular, seem 10 be itCcompa-
nied by ln1ermodulalion spt ett ee atl 100 Ire-
qUefltly.
217
VHF-CO\1MU!': ICATIONS.f,85
Fi g, 7;
The ALe proc essing crrcurte
t rcm the direct ional ccupter
forward port
~ o
for 750 W
~ ~
'-- ----1+
141
+
10 K
,\ l C
t,
The power gain otthc 4 e x 1000 A is not very high
on acco unt of its low input impedance. An input 01
10 W is necessa ry for an output powe r 01 750 W
The input impedance also, is dependent upon the
signal and is only 50 n resistive at one pre-deter-
mined optimised output power . This optimisi ng is
best car ried out at peak output for SSB operation,
Unfortun ately, on the German market. the re is
hardly a transcei ver to be found which is capable
01deliver ing an accept able quality (1M
3
> 30 dB)
to a dynami c load (i. e. an independance which
var ies wit h the signal) A driver stage was there-
fore included in the PA, which was operated at
wel l below its t dB compression point. The 12 V
transistor MRF 245 used tor this purpose, caused
no appreciabl e distortion to Ihe transceiver,
The gain of this penultimale drive r stage was
measured at 11 dB The transceiver power was
reduced 5 dB by incl uding an attenuator pad be-
l ore the transistor driver. This measure serves
bot h to improve the dynamic load to the transcei-
ver and to reduc e the leve l of return -loss on the
transceiver I PA coa xial cable.
2.
POWER $UPPLY
The power supply for a two- stage power amplifi er
is somewhat involved but the extra ettortensures
that the PA wi ll behave proper ty under all signal
cond itions and also when using mobile po wer
supplies Even so, the HT voltage vanes by some
40 VR" s between extremes 01signal, co sptto its
internal regulation, Special problems were cau-
sod by t he waveform 01this supply volt age. Dur-
ing no-signal con ditions purses occ urred which
had a peak of 2. 8 kV rising to a horrendous 4.4 kV
under ful l load con dit ions despite using a low-
ohm. over-rated, taminated transformer The
complete HV side was tested with a 6.5 kV gene-
rator, All shar p edges were rounded in order to
avoid corona discharges. The se discharges were
made, manifest as sma ll !Jfue spa rks which rot
only pressaged a l ul l scafe arc-over but also cau-
sed severe noise side-band s to be generated.
The HV transformer was conn ected 10the mains
via a bndgeable 10 n protecti on resi!ltor,
The high voltaqefiltering IS carnec out by a chain
01oloclrolyt,c capacitors with a nomir'l1l l vcuece of
6,5 kv. The total capacitance was about 70 p F.
Wit h IhlSarrangement. care should be taken l hat
identical. newty manulact ured capaolor s are
used Also. before use. all e1e<;1rolytics slloold be
"reformed" up to their rated 'o'Oll age. In order to
distribute the vonage equally across each cape-
cuoeand also to act as a protective bleeder , each
capacitor was shunted with 220 ki t , The potcapa-
etters wore mounted upon an msurateo plate. TIl e
power supply enclosure was vanhlated by a
small. low profile fan in order to prevent the buso-
up 01wmm areas.
The screen vo/Iages is 320 V and is
manda10fy Owing 10 the lal 90 vanatlQfl ctee in-
put voltage 400 - 600 V on mobil e, a zene r stabi-
lised suppl y Is hardly poss.ce ceceuse ot l he high
heat loss both in me diode s and their droppi ng
resistors, The efficiency 01 a ltlner stabili sed
supply is also, not parncula rly good.
The stabnsanon method evc ntueuv employed,
was thai typICally used at low vOlt.19OS If lg. 8 ).
1.'>O lnA
.:.(}() - socv
DJ4GC
Fig - I : Scr""'"9.id power ...pply
ThiS requires a careful select ion of the series-
pass tr AnSistors to ensure tnal , a! small current
loads, t ho current amplification teeter lias pnr1ly
under urnty. At the t ime at the const ructi on, there
were no favourably priced, high voltage MOS-
FETs which would serve the purpose , The I N-
4007 diode in the screen-supply. guards againsl
damage to ltle eiecucocs in \Ile event of the
screen-grid gOing highly positive as a result Of
seoorxlaryemiSSion 10 the valve
The conlrol-grid voltage was ad;uSled In order
that the anode qUlescenlC!.Jrrenl was 200rnA and
this occurred at a bi as at - 60 V (approx.). Whoo
switchod to "receiv e", this bias is lucroasnd \0
- 120 V. t he adjustable vo llago stabusanon
being quite conventional .
A partlcul.. \f poi nl to menll on concerns ItIC ua-
meot power. The manufacturer soeoteaa maxi
mum RMS varia tion of .! 5 % wllich Co"l rmot be
acheved tat least WJ1hout soma COmpllcatlQfl)
under rocenecoecucns. Using a normal 230VAC
mains inpulll16fe IS of course . no diHc fCnc6l>t!-
tween sand and receive f ilament voltagtl bul the
problem arises when the filame nt transfor mer in-
put is oonveoIrom mobile sources As thfl DCste-
bueancn at I) V I 10 A Is costly In ter ms of both
power consumed and circuit compleXity. rt was
1N4(Xl 7
..,
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Ve, 'be"x
Iq,[ ,o',
219
DJ4GC
VHF-COMMUNICATIONS413$
Fig . 9:
FilarMnt
arrang_ ta
,
I ''''' ,W'
I (Qrr:l byl
,
,> '

_..
0Ccidcd to COI1Ir(lllh$ lllament in two adJUStable
slages upon operatioo ollhe PTT SWllch lflg. 9).
Theheater voltage is adjusted 10tmtctly the nghl
amount . as showfI on an exlernal II1OVIng"'on
IIOItmetf!l", on rOCClVC. By Ihis moans , me YOI-
lage IS pr evenled from exoeeding the ....the
receve (Xlr'dOOn.1fI moblle operabon
ol lhe wIre -wound potef1loomeler RV ISearned OUI
under modulation condlloons. l he hla -
menl vol tage beir'IgOOJUS1ed10 an average 016V.
The lhe rmal inertia aver ages 001thi" vananons in
heating power. In order to reduce the switching
u
cunent. these filament
eflectcd m the primary. The trans-
lormer Itsel f. ISratec ell U ) VI l OA.
The airbIower lor the PA valve coo be
dt..-lIlQ "recewe" coooeoes 10a lower rCV()l utlon
rate by ffiedllS 01 a!iWl1d1f:'d re5l Sb' irll\s mains
as .... fig. 10. power rallng oIlhtSre-
sl.<;lor may be reeocec by ShlA"11 00g1he motor Wllh
a ceoeceor 012.2 p F lhereby also prolect lng 1he
relay contact In l he "rOCfflC' mode. lheblower IS
so silent t hai it is uooouusive
DJ 4GC
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M 85W
f ig. 10:
810_ M nd {. a<:aoi .... $wrtehmg
VHFCO\1MUNICATIONS 4'85
P'!F 1000
'"
3 ....
,
....... 1
/'
-
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....
1
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Fig. 11: PA output cha rac te rist iC
3.
MEASUREMENT DATA
The indicated amount of output power and cont rol
power is provided by the directional coupler of
which both tile forward and return coupling losses
arc accur ately known, The indicators are two
thermal power -meters. The power output (f ig. 11)
concurs most favOllrably with other methods of
measurcmem.
c urve 1 indicates the adjust ment optimised tor a
power output of 750 W It Will be noticed. that t he
characteristic is still linear at power s tar in excess
01the maximumperrmaebie limit. The absence of
kinks and bends inthe characteristic. denotes the
use of a valvewhIch has beenexpressly designed
for linear operati on. Modulation by a single tone
shows a snarp aaiurenon at 750 Wowing to the m-
nuence of the ALe (curve 2). Speech modulation
reduces tho system gain, according to the time-
constant of the automat ic level conlro l so much,
that only tho peaks are allowed to attain t he rated
output. The triangular shaped area within curve 2
indicates the range of conner of the ALC Curve 3
shows the ampnner adjusted under HF drive con -
ditions to full output where the 1-dB compression
point occurs at 2 kv. The anode voltage is 3 2 kV
and t he quiescent current 200 mAo
A part icularly revealing test of the amplifier's
linearity was made with the two-lone test . The
usual two-tone test. carried out with Iwo audio
appl ied tones and descr ibed in many test reports,
was nat employed. This test is an overall system
evaluation as the low frequency and translation
slages within the exciter I transceiver are also
tested along wilh the inlended subject me PA
alone A spect rum analYSElf 01sulficienl resolu-
tion {"" 100 Hz} was notavailable in any case. The
two-lone test was meretor e carried out at the sig-
nal frequency uSing two sIgnals of the requisite
power and separated by 10kHz from each other.
The mul ual coupli ng between the l est signals was
better than 30 dB rel. n level. The two senders
employed for thi s purpose were, an IC 202 (ampli-
l ied) and an FT 225 RD. They wer e combined by
means of a 3 dB loss, combiner transformer.
221
VH"-eOMMJNICATIONS ~ , 6 5
Fi g. 12:
Irltermodul'!l on
spect rum lor 2 x 188 W
olll put power
(750 W peak power)
' m = OmA
h : l 0 kHz i bo x
v: 10dB ,'box
Fi g. 12 shows l he output spectrum with eacn Sig-
nal frequency at 188 W, This is equivalent to a
signal driv ing t he ampl ifier to 750 W peak output
power. It can be seen immediatel y, that the third
order mtermoourauon side frequencies are 34 dB
and 39 dB. righl and left reso. , retatwe to the level
01ooe of Ihe lest s'gn.l ls Taki ng the 6 dB greater
peak power as a rere-erce. me 1M
3
spuri OUS are
then 40 and 45 dB down respectively. r f-eievcr 01
lhe higher order mterrnodutaucn products fil II ra-
pidly with increaSing di stance Irom the two sig-
nals. The production of unbalanced 1M:! products
is caused by unequal coupling losses trom one
output br anch to Ihe ot her in the combiner t rans-
former.
The next measurement was car ried oul With the
trans istor MRF 245 driver stage incl uded and the
tWQ-signal senders suitably attenuated. The 1M
3
222
Fig. 13:
' " termodul. lI on
spectr um l or 2 ~ 188 W
output power Including
MRF245 driver stage
h: 10 kHz l bo x
v:l0dS 'box
VHFCOMMUNICAl iONS 4/85
Fig. 14:
Intermodulatlon
spectrum for 2 )( 500 W
power out put (2 kW peak)
I
m=
-1.4mA
h: 10 kHz l boll.
v: 10 dB / boll.
result remairled stmjar to t hat of the first test as
can be seen in f ig. 13. The higher order menno-
dulation products however, do not fall away quite
as quickly - a charac tonsfc which is pcc unar to
transistor amplifiers. Since it is the higher order
1M products which are responsible for sproncr
mtarterenco to adjacent channel stat ions, the use
of an over-rated power t ransistor for the penulti-
mate driver staqe. was wel l justif ied.
Another pointto be observed fromthese analyser
oscillogr ams is the dilf ering degree of carrie noise
on each sender used for the test. Alf hough t he FT
225 RD is considered to be good in t his respect ,
the higher reputanor- enjoyed by Ihe Ie 202 (VXO
local osci llator) is well justilied. The latter is the
lower of the two test signals in fig. 12.
The high linearity and dynamic range 01 fhe valve
Fig. 15:
Modulation spectrum of
a spoken "A" driving
amplifi er to 750 W peak
output
h: 10kHz lboll.
vr oaa recx
223
VHFCOMMUNICAn ONS 4."85
Fig. 16,
Harmonic spectrom ov.r
rang e 0 to 1000 MHz wit h
l ingle tone 750 Woutput
h; 100 MHz i bo x
v: IOdS /box
can be seen in fig. 14 where the amplifier has
been driven to an output 01 500 W for each lone,
i. e. a total of 1 kW, The rapid decl ine of the inter-
modulation prodocts testify to the very large reo
serve that the amplifier has. when working at its
rated oulpul 01750 W peak and to its outstand-
ingly clean output signal.
A very appropriate test , which displays the ampli-
fier' s ability to produce acleansignal under actual
tratric condit ions, is shown in f ig. 15, The FT 225
AD driver and the subect PA was modulated by
voce - a prolonged " A". The peak power was
750 Wbut the bandwidth. l aken between the level
01- 60 dB products. was only 5 k H z ~
The harmonic spectrum is displayed in f ig. 16 for
an output signal of 750 W. As an attenuator for
this power was not available, the monitor signal
was texeo Irom a directional coupler. This pre-
sents a rather more pessimistic display than is
merited. because the directional coupler has a f 6
dB falling cooobnq-o ss to 1000 MHz and at 430
MHz the displayed third barmcoic is 10 dB higher
than it actually is. The confusion of light at the ex-
treme right-hand of this trace was not caused by a
signai. Tho extreme spect ral purity of the output
signal testifies, not only 10 the linearity 01the vat-
224
ve. but also to t he high Q at the output low pass
filters,
4.
OPERATING EXPERIENCE
The amplifier. as descnbed in this article. has
been In use for some four years now. Faults have
been confined to changing two valves whICh
showed a tendency to intemal arcing, This oc-
curred despite pre-heating them for several days
before oper ation
On account of its sensitive grid structure and em-
ployment at high power s, this type of valve is far
more endangered by incorrect oper aling ccoo-
li ons than its smaller brothers. Atthesame time, a
high degree of lineanty is attained with it. Despite
the close proximity ot two-metre stations in the
populous Ruhr area, there has been probl ems
only in extreme vicirutyof the signal pass-band,
as even 80 dB suppressed spurs can cause
trouble to adj acent channel stations,
I.
"
4.'85
Fig. 17, Powe r a mplil ie r wltn powe r supply.
Tne blower Inta ke be s een at t he rear ,md the output ven t in t ne topeover .
Most stations are equipped Wi th receivers having
MOS-FET mixers and add-on GaAs-FET pre-
amplifiers - a combination that can easily be
overloaded. The use of a PLL also sets a limit to a
receiver's dynamic range due to increased local
oscillator phase-noise. This applies especially to
the older generation01Pl l oscill ators. The use 01
a clean and powertctnn at stage is only one com-
ponent ot a successful staten. other nanking
measures inctude the station receiver. the an-
lenna and TV-owning neighbours. Many opera-
tors under contest conditions seem to cali (end-
lessly) as a modus operandi. Under the assump-
tion that they all possess a spectrally clean signal,
many moro stations can use tile snrne limited
band tor DXcontest working.
The operation 01 such a powerful nnar stage re-
quires the upholding of a lew conditions:
1) The readiness to accept the high tochnical
cost in exchanqe lor superior linearity.
2) In operation, a constant monitoring on an
oscilloscope, ot the modulation envelope.
3) Never to exceed the st atutory power ocipct
225
4) Self discipline under operating condit ions -
never use the power avai lable to " elbow your
way in" - othe r stations want to wor k DXtoo .
The completed power amplii ier and power supply
is shown in the photog raph of fig. 17. Its construc-
tion should not be undert aken lightl y, or carried
out half-heartedly. but in a spiril of learn ing whilst
constructing wit h the aim, always in mind, to
create a quality li near power amplifier. II should
also be mentioned, that very few of the compo-
nents will be ready -to-hand for most amateurs
and therefore many expensive componentsmust
be spec ially purchased
The problems and snags oncounterec can be
only briefly mentioned here. A projec t of this com-
plex ity requi res individua l ingenuity and optimisa-
tion and that is lhe reason why this article is not
written like a cooking recipe. Insufficie nt expe -
Space-slides
Educational and Beautiful
Fantastic colour-slides from the moon j ourney
programme and from various NASA space
probes supplemented by telescope photographs
from well-known ast rono mical observatories.
We offer a large select ion of various series : Ex-
perience together with your fami ly. the astronauts
on the moo n, the earth photographed from space.
the Mart ian surface photographed from the soft -
landing VIKING pr obe and coloured radio pictu-
res of Jupiter and Saturn together with its ring
system and moons. Above all, wonderful, col our
telescope photographs of the Sun. its planets and
t heir moons as well as planetary clouds and many
distant galaxies.
All slides framed and t itled in English. For more
ini or mation see rear cover.
VHFCOMMUNICATIONS4/85
renee in const ruct ion techniqu es, or in the use of
test instruments, can result in a very expensive
failu re.
5.
LITERATURE
(1) Eimac :
Data fortube 4 e x 1000 AI JAN 8186
(2) Til e Radio Amateur's Handbook (ARRLj
"VHF- and UHF-Tr ansmitting" over several
years
a) A 2-kW PEP Amp lifier lor 50 to 54 MHz
b) A 2-kW PEP Amplifier for 144 MHz
c] A 220 MHz HiqllPower Amplifier
k ,c[fj {b erichte T" e, D Bitta, . Ja'"Ie 14 Pcstfach 80 . D-B523 Ba;" , dmt
Te l. Wes t Germany 9133 -8 55. For Represent at ives see cover page 2
226
VHF-eOMMUNICATIONS 4'85
Erich Stadler. DG 7 GK
Behaviour of Retl ected Pul ses along Cables
Sine waves and pulses have si mi lar propaqa-
tion and refl ect ion behaviour along cables.
The phenomenon of t ot al refl ect ion and of
mat ching 01 pulses is perhaps better under-
stood by usi ng t he mechani cal analog 01per-
t urbat ions along a lengt h of rope. Al so. t he
calculat ion 01 renect jon coeff icient wit h
ohmic loads. is easter to explain with pulses
than with si ne-w<lve energy. The electr ical
pro cess at rel ati vely lowIrequencles and long
pr opagat ion t imes is demonst rat ed more
simp ly wit h a suffi cient ly long cable.
1.
TOTAL REFLECTION AND
MATCHING USING A MECHANICAL
MODEL
A mechanical impulse IS caused on <I length of
rope by the means shown in fig. 1, where the
hammer may be regarded as a pulse generator
The purse travels. from left to rigth, down the line
until its end. Whal happens then is determined by
three cases:
a) The rope ts t ied to an immovable object
(fi g. 1 <I):
The pulse will be reuecreo at the rope's end with
tho same amplitude but at the opposite polarity to
Ihal of the incident wave The end is anchored to
an immovable objcc1: l hOfelore. no energy can be
imparted and the incident energy is renecteo in il S
eoteety. The polarity chall9C is brought about be-
cause the incident and reflected waves simply
cannot existtoqether at the same time because
the rope's end is tied to an immovable object.
b) The end of the rope Is free (fig. 1 b):
The end otme rope is tree inasmuch that it is held
in position by a very muchthinner length of conan,
which allows the rope's end to move when sub-
jected to a mechanical st imulus. The perturbation
travels down the rope. and again. is reflected inits
entnety but as the end otihe rope is nee 10as-
sume any position. the renecieo wave has t he
same polarity as the incidenl wave. The wave IS
totally reflected as in the first case but if a high
speed photograph was taken at t he moment the
incident pulse reached the end 01 t he rope, it
would show that the end flies up to a position
which is twice that of the amplit ude 01the incident
pulse. This indicates mat et this instant l he lolal
227
VHFCOMMUNICATIONS 4.,B5
Flg, 1:
Propagati on of pUlllU
along a tope.
i 1 1 1 l ~ e d end ,
bl 10 0 H end
cl Rope Infinalel y long
amplitude consists of the sum ot both the incident
and tho rettoctod pulses as they overlap.
c) The rope is f ast ened i n a mediu m (f ig. 1 c) :
The medi um is considered 10 be so pl iabl e that all
the energy in lhe pulse is dissipated as heat . tn
this case, no ellergy can be reflected at alt The
same effect would occur If the rope were inl inatety
ton9_The impulse would navcr on and on unt it it
tost att its energy in frictional heat. Refl ected wa-
ves car eot OCCUI. tn the erececeranalogy 'f ls cal-
led a -matcreo'' cooouoo.
228
2.
TOTAL REFLECTION AND
MATCHING USING CABLES
The mechanical analogy Will now be disper sed
wit h by usi ng a cable tosteac 01 a rope and an
electrical square wave qeneretor insfead of a
hammer Thi s may be seen In Ina seres repro-
sooted in li g. 2. The -tnec en d " here 's show'! n
, her! -
(ircu:t
Fig. 2,
Propagati on 01pulses
..Io"'i! a l ou leu eeeeuetce
1I)i h<>rt-ei rcui l &d
b) open- clrcui led
c) mlllch,d
0) equivalent circuit ola
conductor
-,
VHF-COMMUNICATlONS 4185
fig. 2 a and IS fepl'eSenttKl by a short-circuited
cable-end At a short-<:in;:lJIl, no vol tage exi sts
across it l vol lagP. 1l(lIje) This has the effect that
the incidem pulse develops a volt age which is 01
1he same amplit ude but 01 opposite phase. Since
itis at jne end 01 the lme. the pulse has no option
but 10travel. wi th reversed phase. back down t he
line frum whellCe II came , The rewrning wave
tr3f1sports a pra<:tic<'llly rcN:1IVCpower. back into
lI1e gef1ef ator II the grr.stor is not matched to
the cable. lI1e pulse WIll be ' el lecte<l agan t res
1In'le by the gctlCfa1ol" s .,temal ececerce.
Fig. 2 b shows case of the or
Ig.-.onng Ir-epossoblJ,ty 01 ra-
dlatlOO trom the cable end , II may be seen that no
energy can be OS$;paltKl in.ll.noptln-clI'w il At the
open end oI lha cable !tie plJlse can dtlvelop unlit
it has the same amplltudo and phase as the Inci-
dent poise . At tI1e rT'l(lITII#'Il 01 l he
coeo-crcot the Insl <m1.l n&OUS voltages nse to
double l hat of l he II'lcidcnt puiso alQrle. This can
eaSIly be seen wrth the aid of an oscilloscope
This dol.JbIcd voItalJe (X)l"fesponds 10 thai oI lhe
generator when AkJng !he .ne.
each irldMOuaIlIlpUl has an amplitude 01hat! thaI
of the geoef3tor OJ'ICfl-ClIWll voltage (assur nll'l9
that tI1e generalor outpul reSlstancn R, IS Ihe
SilI11C as the dlilrltc1enstic Impedance z.. of the
oable,
The - mat cbed ease- is shown in l}g, 2 c . which
means in thi s. the ereceear analogy. tnat at the
end ofthc aro tho pul se Itods the same conditioos
of and C\JrrCf11 as was encounter ed aloog
l he whole Ieogth of the li'l6 . The .elahollShip be-
tween vol tage ana current on Ihe line is delermi-
ned by lis inductance and I:apacil ance and is of
l he lor m VITC, Thi s is also an expression for the
cnamctc nstc noodence 01the cab le Zo and if it is
equ al in value 10 the load resistor Zo \ 1l i e =
R, then all til e power in the pulse wi ll be oissipa-
toe in this load terminat ion at the end of (he cable.
This is analogous to the mecnarucal case of the
intinately long rope . The electrical t'fltlrgy 01the
Iraveiling pul se would cVf)fl tulllly disappear in
heati ng the smal l, but ubq urtous. copper and di-
el ect ric loss resstaoces along the line
In Fig s. 2 a and 2 b It' e hat ched areas al the cab le
end showhow the reflect ed impulS<!' development
may be imagi ned. The incident pulse p.Jst cannot
grow out of the end at the cable. The prOjecti ng
piece II can be l egarded as foldLng back upotl it-
self in the open-orcuned case and also in the
shor1--cjrcuited case but this lime wil h an Inverted
poIality. The scpeomccsuo n 01 Incident and re-
turn impulses, is however, not shown In hg 2. This
voltage doubl ing be Observed on an OSCil loscope
by moortoring a poi nt along Ittc line wtlere a re-
nectec pulse moots the ne xt irlddcnt pulse i.,
pul.<;e l rain seQ\Jeoee.
2.1. Partial Re lleclio.,
IllS pl;:lo.r.;iOlc lhat between the of shorf-
Circuli and opot;!Il.Qrcult lhere W I. be .. cil-<;C oI pi. '
w l lecll()lll If al a poi nt along ti lt' 111 1() l hol e IS it
OiSCOlllil1lJrty a refll 'dlOrl, I lltl " omt 1$
known as a - Mlt.' 00Iy a Irat:l1Orl wrll l,).Jfl '
Imue clown the line and aJ1OtIlI'f frd(;(1OIl L" l a-
tunlt'd to the gene<aIOf. The s ame sort olltwng
occurs when tho line IS ter lTlll...ted by a !odd re-
S1sLt ncc The load resestance p.-1rl of
lhe erlt'l'qy it!': tsoat and reneces the rest back 10
waras the qcr'Iffl'.ltor. the an1plll1..ock' M iO!J smal0l
Ulall l holl of total rl"! leclion. ThIS collct lllOn IS
knowo a." a "misma tch
w
I he 111I.';nl il l cn can tNld
towmds betnQ a short-<i,cult 01 II can l ond to-
wardSOOlng an optIn--Gircull Record, ng 10 whether
the terrlll nillion ISless than z., 01grcaler than z"
respectively, t he rel at ionsh ip between the ampn-
l ude of tho renen pulse 10 mat of the Inc:Kfenl
putse is known as tf1e "relledJon coe fllcKlflt"
\ l ig. 3)
2.2. Euompla
A pu lse generet or. int ernal imJXl(1ance R 50 II
has an ueter rninated oul pul volt ago 'it" _ 20 V A
resistive load 0175 ! 1i s connected to il via nlonqth
of 'toselees- ca ble hewi ng a cnaracts rtsuc trnpo-
dance of 50 H. What is til e rTHiQJlitu!1o nf the inci-
dent vonaoe V
rwD
and of the return voltage
VtlAC>\ ?
Sotuti on :
Sei ca the generator. at t est does not yel
me termrnat lng tesrstoeat the end 01thecabte. the
. ..
.--
' ..

F'll , 3, Par1lal...Ilecl ion

a,l end""g 10 open:.ci, cull
bj l....dlng 10 shor1-ci. cuil
Magnitude 01 rellection ' ac to .
. _ V.......1V"'D
InCidefl l pulse ampli lude is cetorroooe by the pro-
cornonateoocoaocc existIng bet ween the QElOe-
raio r and the cable. The generatol - sees'' the
cabin impedance (but not the load Impedance) .
Since n z.., then the volt age spits equally
across Ihc-se Impedances (i. e V....., V. / 2
t o V}. Aeuflent pulse i.-vrc is also associated w In
tno IlCJdenI wave which has all amplrlude V...oI
z.., 10 V f 50 II '" 0.2 A. Owing to the ""smatdl
al lhe cable- end. the forward pulse ISpartlaIly te-
f\c(:Ied and a voltage VOlMJ, IS brood logelher
WI th a C\llTcnt illlO< = V....o< I Z,. Whal theIr
magmtude and sign 15 . depends upon the mi s-
match For- this particular case. ttlOding towards
open-ei rcuit t@ffJ1inalion '> z.,). the forward
anl1letum pulses have the same polanty voltage
and they add Vrwo - across the load rests-
lOr. The forward and return cor-ems, however .
have coposue porarmes (high R
L
the/8tom small
load current ) and the tot ar composi te current
through the load is:
I, - Vn...et< {VFwo l Zc. - V""ul Z,)
The fC:,;ul tant forms so that ohm' s law is fur-
filled at the load
llll.CM VN> - V""C!< = (\IFWO I zs -VIlA:>< I z.JR.
I. e the lola! 'o'OlIage at the cable end - the lotal
CUl'l'erll bmes ee load resistance
230
Afte r pun lflg In hgur es. a Slrtlple equation re-
mai ns. which wi ll give the unknown. namely VtlACf<
(10 V + VBAco.) (10 V150 II VIIo'oD< / 50 OJ. 75 n
re-arr anglng :
V&IoC.l< - 10 V (7511 50Hjl t 75 1l * 5OOj = 2V
2.3. Ret 1ectiOfl Co&tflClenl
t nenacnco in me above exampleQlves the lacl or
which. when munlpl loo by mo oco eot \IOIt3O)9.
rosuhs in l he ampi liude of the rotorn voltage, This
rector is known as the renecnoo coemceru r. In
general . the lor-mula in terms ot an ohmic load:
genecuoncoencent '" f A, - Z ,) I (H, I z..,) ,
Refe. ring to IIg 2 c R_ Zoand therelore lhe re-
flection ccerrceot r '" O. (no renecuco ). Illlig 2 b.
A, = ." mereroser 1(lotal reflcct l()fl). The snua-
!lOn depicted In tig 2 a result s al so In total retlne-
lionbutR, = O. ltl eretore r - 1 The sign change
mdica tes rnat although 1000,l rd <lnd return voua -
Qe5 posses equal amplitudes. i . e.toteneuecton.
the potallty 0 1tho rejum pulse 1$oeqanve coropa-
red WIth lIlal of the incident pulse. (see also lig
1 al .
Fig . 3 shows the case of parM I renectco. rig . 3 a
shows that lending 10 IIlhnate resistance. and fig.
3 b shows that lendll1Q to zero resrstance
Example:
In fig 3. 'VFwO "" 2 5 V. The 50 II cable IStermina-
ted with 7511. wnat is the emcntooeof the renec-
fed pulse?
Solution:
1 "' (75 H -50 1I) /(75 11 -50 1I) 0 2.
therefore.
=- 2.5 V x 0 2 - 0 5 V.
Note :
When the nne losses are uruto, quite large errors
can be mtroouceo by the cable ertenoeucn The
return pul se arriving back at Ihe generator has
been attenualed twice , once on me Incident ioor-
ney and then on the return journey.
Example:
The complete cable has an aneooatce 011 5 dB
The forward has an amplrt uded2.5V. The cable
VHFCOMMUNICATIONS4,'85
has a character istic impedance of 50 n and is ter-
minated with a load resistor of 75 n. With what
amplitude does the reflected pulse arrive bac k at
t he generat or?
So lution:
Th e incident pu lse appear s at t ho ca ble end at-
ten uated by

Y".<iD 1' ''''" 1= 2.5 V/ 1.19 = 2,1 V
as a consequence 01 the mismatch
r = (7SD-50n) / (75 1! 1 50 11) = 0,2
and the magnit ude 01the return voltaq e is:
Y
h ACK
(' .." ,) = 2,1 V x 0.2 = 0.42 V
Upon tho return journey Ih is voltage experiences
a further ane nuanon of 1,5 dB
'" 0.42 V/ 1 19 = 0.35 V
This means that. because 01 the attonuaton the
retloction coetl icient r - 035 V / 2.5 V = 0 14 i e
14 % instead of 20 % neglecting attonuauon.
3.
MEASURING WITH PULSES
From t he reci procal of c = 300 x 10" m / s (the
speed of light t hrough spa ce) the time per metre is
obta ined, When the velocity throug h the cable is
co nsidered, it is reduced by a tactor depe ndent
upon the physical char acteristics of the cab le.
Most coaxial ca bles hove a veloci ty factor of 0.66
whir.h means thai the siqnal requires some 1.5 ns
longer totraversa one metre of cab le than nwoufd
rhrouqh one metre of space. Short cab les used lor
pu lse measurement requ ire therefore, pulses
with rise- times of only a few nano-seconds and an
oscilloscope with a handwidlh of a few tell s 01
MH7. tn order to reduce Ihe rcqunomcots upon
the test equ ipment, it is better to li se a longer
cable ot lcnuth say, from 10 100 III. Uy ttu-,
practice. the pulses may he clearly displayed
usinq a oc ncmtor with a rise-li me 010.1 to 0.5 I'S
and an oscrnoscopc ot on ly a few MHL bandwidth.
Colour ATV-Transmissions are no problem
for our new ATV-7011
Spec if ic at io ns:
Frequencies . crystal-controlled:
Video 434.25 MHz, Sound 439.75 MHz
1M-products (3rd order) better than - 30 dB
Suppression of osc.rrec and imflge'
better than - 55 dB
Powe r-output , unrnodutated. typ. 10 W
Delivery: ex. stock to 8 weeks (standard model)
Te", D. 8;11' " . J,hoo" ' 4 Po,lI"h 80 D-8523 B, 'e"dort
Tel, we st Ge rmany 9 133-855 . For Represe nt at ives see cover page 2
The ATV-7011 is a prole,%iondi qup. lil y ATV trans-
mltter lor the 70 CM bano. It is ol' ly necessary to
connect a camera (monochrome or colour), antenna
and rncrophone. Can be operated from 220 V AC or
12 V DC, The slfl nr)!lrOun'l ope-ale s accordmq to
CO R out other stfl ndmds are available on request.
The ATV-7011 is a further development ot our noli-
able ATV-7010 with better specifications, newer de-
s.qr- . and sma 1m cimrmsiors, It uses a new system
of viclf1rl-souno comoi" ation and modulation It is
also sutab'c tor moore operation t rorn 12 V DC or
for lixec operation on 2<'0 V AC.
Pric e . DM 2750.00
The ATV70 11 is elseavailablefor hroadcastil'g use
oetween 470 MHz and 500 MHz, and a nurnbor of
such ur-its are in ccntmuous operation in Atnca.
231
VHF_CQMMUNICATlONS 4/85
Konrad Hupfer, OJ 1 EE
SSB Mini Transverter 144 /1296 MHz
The following articl e describes a small t rans-
verier for the 2 metre t o 23 cm band which
should awaken the i nt erest in SHF home con-
struction and wit h it, the acti vi ty on thi s lnter-
est ing band.
1.
CONCEPT
In order that the Iransverter (Iig. 1) may he
simpler to reproduc e, the construction is earned
OI.It as tar as oosseie using the printed circui t
bo.'ud (PCB) technique, The PCB
is housed in a hnplale of external dimen-
sions ( 148 x 74 30 mm) The well-known 2me" e
transceiver IC 202 is used as the basic equip-
ment for transmit drive and recei ve function s, TIle
rc 202 trnnsmn powe r of 3 W is reduced, by a
si mple means, to about 10 mW which is then
translated by the transverter to the 23 em band at
a power 01 500 mW. This sort 01power is relatively
easy on beneees and the small l otal weighl
makes it ide,11fOI use in mobile and I or held dc1yS.
The Txf Rx switclung in accomplished by means
of a 3.5 V control voltage which is taken
PA stcce,
""
"'''''01
\ I
Mini t ronsverter
-
S-10 \ol med KlrOl ol
t r or i mil nmp
sohd ste te
h lRx
.., SHf - PA ([0 i wi l[ h
!lJ 1H mi'er , c
,
j ," -{>
-
.
001
' ,
r ec. pte llI"4Jl.
, .
'.
--<J-
' e
, "
"', . L r ET Rx pre-amplifie r
osc illn tor
"
T, IR. s",tchlnq

I" D
1- (<)n trO! of PA
OJ 1EE
:,11 'IIJo!1 i l (SSBI
5tll e frora t h@
fig. I : M/lln eonstr ucl lonal layoul 01144 / 1296 104 Hz mlni-transYel1er and its companion PA! preampilliet
(to be described tater)
232
VHF-COMMUNICATIO"l S 4-'85
_" ,
t",,-,' ,eri
I
-H
-
6J: <f re.

LB in o, [ ill at or

sli , ered - _
I .
( 1;00 ,, 13 ...
ore (, " i '( 'I
i
Fig , 2:
Portableoperation
ol lransve rter
Fig.4 ;
288 MHz l. O.
ba nd- p.as s Wter
Fig. 5:
Co nstruct io n ot
L 13inL. O
t-orn t-i e IC 202 on "receive" via Its antenna
SOCket. The only conoocnon bet ween the trans-
verter and the 2 metre equipment. IC 202, is a
SOli coaxial came for the 2 m signals and the
Tx! Ax switching, The 13.5 V transceiver power is
derived froma separate battery supply The smal l
and light-weight transceiver itself. can be
mounted directly at the antenna terminals in order
to avoid cable losses. The author mount ed his
traes vertor behind the reflector of a Short-Back-
fire-ant enna with a gain of 13.5 for port able
operati on (fi g. 2)
The mini transverter can also be employed for
fi xed-station use by the aoomon of a 5 W amplifier
and low-noise preamphher which will be des-
cooed in a later article, Tne necessary supplies
and control l or this appendagebe ing taken via the
transverter.
Just because this trer evener is offered in kit-form
with all the required parts. it does not have to
result in a slavish copying of the aut hors proto-
type Parts which are on hand should be tri ed and
perha ps other transistors should be experi men-
ted with. The first two examples built on the final
PCB did show a few minor cmerarces caused by
component tole rances.
2.
CIRCUIT DESCRIPTION
The cornptete circuit schornatc of Ihe mini trans-
vort er is shown in fig. 3.
2.1. Oscillat or
The crystal oscillator runs at 96,000 MHz lrom a
stabilised supply. 11 uses transistors BFR90 113FR
91 I BFR 91 A and t he outpul cecun L 1 I C 1 is
tuned to 96 MH1. TransislorT2(BFA 90 t91 A) IS
coupled via C 5 and tunctions as a tnplC(, The
resulting frequency of 288 al L 11 I Cv 2) 15
taken via a ba rldf ilter (L t 2 ! Cv 3) to the base of
transistor T 3 which funct ions as a doubl er , The
matc hing fromT 3 to T 2 is opti mised by means of
t he coupling (f ig. 4) f rom L 11I L 12 in order that 'T
3 passed n maximum current. The siqna l at L 13 1
Cv 4 (f ig. 5) is at 576 and is passed to a
further doubler stage T 4. The inductance of tho
output nner is formed by the PCB and at Its output
is a power of 40 mW (BFR 34) at 1152 MHz. The
ban<fj,ll er is tuned tor a maxi mum in the mixer dio-
des at test point M 1/2.
233
COMMUNICATIONS 4/85 VHF
Ireull.chem",tic Fig. 3: Complete Iran,verier c
234
VHF.(X) MMUNICATIONS 4;85
H1
H2
mA
signal. The IF sign al of 144 MHz , devel oped in t he
mixer, is taken via C 64 and TR 1tothe SSBtrans-
cower In order that tile nensrrattcnec-circon L6 /
Cv 14 does not load the rec ei ve signal it is de-
tuned by ccoe D 2
Fig. 6: Test meter l or ~ I i g n m e n t purposes
In thp "transmit" mode the maximal osc illator
power of 40 - 50 mW is pr oduced; the power
supply for T3 aoo T 4 is takP.n via diode 0 5 and a
soloc1ed reseior. This resi stor is selected fOI a
mi xer current of approx 10 mA all " fransrmt" di-
recnv from til e oanewpotential rail ,
On "receive", T 3 and T 4 are fed a reduced votta-
go via P t and D 4. The potenti ometer P 1 is so
eciu sted that a 2 rnA mixer current tlOW5 oeiween
ies too nts M 1 and M 2.
2.2. Tr ansmit ! receive mixer
The same ready-to-hand 180' ringmixer was
used bot h lor transmit and rec eive .
The bridge is remov ed fr om points M 1 and M 2
and replaced withlhe meter test circuit of fi g. 6.
The same proc edur e as in 2,1. is IJs()(/ lor the re-
qctsrtemixer curren ts.
On -t ransmrt- a signal (apPIOX. 10 mW) at 144
MHz is fed from 010 Ie 202 via a 4 : 1 transfnt rner
and C 64 to t re diodes D 12 and 0 t 3. Al l he mixer
out put II the both sidebands I, = 1152 MHz I 144
MHz and r, = 1152 - 144 MHz are prese nt. The
oscillator f requency is suppressed by somo
18 dB The wanted frequency, 1, == 1296 MHz. is
select ed by the parallel circu its in mo l hree- sl age
tl ansmit amplifier . In or der mat no transmitted
signal appears in the rec eiver preamplif ier. th e
circuit Cv 9 ! L 5 is st rongly detuned by diode D 1.
On " receive" mode, poi nt II of the mi xer is led by
the amplified (20dB appr ox. by T 5 and T 6) input
2.3. Tlansmit amplifier
Th e selected Sideband at mix er output II is jed at a
level of 1 mW into a three-st age li near emcutror by
which it is amplified to a power of at least 500 mW
(27 dBm). The newl y introduc ed Va lvo plasti c
ueneetors BFG 90 A / 91 A / 96. intended fOl l he
900 MHz mobi le- telephone applicabon , are used
in this amplifier. They are eminently suitable lor
use et 1296 MHz and. With thei r two emi tter coo-
nocnons. represent a cons iderable mprovement
011 the BFR 90 !96 series ,
The ci rcuit is quite slaighl-l orwar d; as alfeady
mentioned , three tuned AF ampl ifiers ar e In
tandem. The preset A 29 adjusts tile quiescent
ccnentttuouqn T 9 to 20 rnA, A po wer of 10 mW
(approx.) is available at L 7 I Cv 13. In order to
measur e this, C 55 is removed from the base Of
T 8 and son cabl e connected 10 it - the cabl e
screen should be connec ted as directly as pes-
si ble 10 ground. -
Tho pr eset A 25 sets the q uiesccnt current for T 8
fit 25 rnA. This stage deliv ers approx. 120 mW I
SOH on signal peaks and li t a peak COllector cur-
rent of some 40 rnA. The same method is used to
measure the out put power , C 51 being used lor
l ho coupling 10 t he l est cabl e.
The quiescent cul reo t of T 9 is set to 10 mA. l his
being adequate for li nea r operation. On signal
peaks the collector current is dri ven to 110 rnA
app rox. This stage can employ t he BFG 34 if a
power output of 1000 mW is requi red but t ho BFG
96 will suppl y some SOO mW to l he output The
BFG 34 is 10 be pretened, however, owing to its
higher power dissipation capabil ities Al amblenl
ternpe mtures in excess 0155' C, prolonged co n-
tinuous wave outputs should be strictly avoided.
The out put powe r developed at C 38 / Cv 11 I L 9
I Cv 10 is routed in th e "nansmil" coronion vi a
235
,pr
'l ro\l'ld
tp o. y
- PCB..trut k
' housing ..a n DJ'f
Fig. 1: low-lou .......slon 01Rx input circuit
r PCB- t rO(K

\ I 19round

Fig. 8: Proposal l or using chip capa<: itors
at mitrowsves
"'IIn" itn lut_out for
....,
m
Ipce
Fig. 9: Mou"ting the screening walls over
a t ransistt,lr
PI N-diode 0 10 to the output soc ket of the equip-
ment. Whe n opela ting w,tt! the output stage men -
boned oarllCf. the output line is intorrupted alter
C 36 and the 12'96MHz transmit signal is taken to
a specia lly provided BNC panel socket l or the
supplementary output amplifier
2. 4. Rece ive preamplifier
Under "receive" conditions. me PIN-diode 0 9
conduct s and the si gnal l rom the antenn a is led
236
VHF-eOMMUNICAl iONS 4-'85
via a par allel- tuned circuit to the first lownoise
tranestor ampl ifier sl age using a BFG 65. In order
to avoi d the sort of losses inevi table in PCBtuned
circuits. the Q is raised consider ably by construct-
ing the input tuned circuit from a high-qua lity
l eed-through microwave trimmer capaci tor and a
metal strip inductor supported in air as shown in
l i9 7, The preamplifier is capable of a 20 dB am-
plifi cation at a noi se-l igure of abou1 2 dB inclusive
01 diode switch. The mixer conversion loss is
about 10 dB. therefore . in the interests of sun-
plicily . an additi onal IF amplifier was not thoU9hl
neces sary. By means of the preset resrs iors R 12
and R 16 the appropr iate transi stor currents are
set at 5 and 6 mA respectiv ely. L 3 I Cv 7 input
tuned-ci rcuit is adjusted initially tor maxnnon IF
outp ut and tnon for maximum signal noi se ratio
2.5. Transmit ! rece ive swit c hi ng
On the IC 202 t ransceiver "recoivo" cosmon, the
cont rol cilcuit voll age swilche s the TxI Rx relay
RS 1 VI a transistor T 10. The supplies are thereby
switched to the individual circuit s used for recep-
lion. An auxil iary voltage output. tsotat ec by 0 7, is
available for oontrolling other equ ipment . tor ex-
amp le. the inclusion of the mini teereverter into-
toeo-stauon use toqotnor with the proj ected suo-
plf:lmentary output ampl ifier I rece ive prea rnplif er
3.
CONSTRUCTION
The PCB. OJ1 EE 005 is load ed with the com-
ponent s in accordance with the location plan 01
f ig . 15 and the photographs ot l ig.8 16 and 17,
Particuiar con structon point s are high lighted in
f ig s. 7 t o 14, A lew points concerranqihe high-
l requency con str uction and scecer tuning ln-
struchons will now be given.
VHF-COMMUNICATIONS4'85
t' INsing (O'; er c.n g',e"

Fig. 10 : Vertical crces -seeuen through
transvert er
All Seikc-tnmmers are installed in such a manner
that the stator is li tted t hrough a hole in the PCB
and solder ed to t he copper surf ace. The rot or
connection (thin tab) is bent to make contact with
the hot end of L 130r stnpnnes L 1to L 9 acc ording
to f ig. 13 This unusual manner 01 construction,
with the rotor being the "hot " component of
the capac itor , requires the use 01 a non- metal
trimminglool bul has the advant age 01 a rigid
connection to t he appropriate inductance. The
screen ing walls shoul d be soldered to supporting
veropins which have been inserted in t he PCB at
10 mm intervals and which have been'soioereo 10
the copper surf aces ot mo PCB. (see figs. 10 and
11) Figures 9, 12 and 13 should be studied be-
fore install ing the transistors ,
The ceramic coupling cepacirors between stages
are solde red with conn ection leads being fIS short
as possjbtc , see fi g. 13.
The cold ends of l he stripline tuned circuits are
also secured with a t in-plate meta l tab whi ch is l ed
through a slot cut in the PCB, and soldered to the
back surface of t he board
Fig. 11' Grounding and f ixing
01 screening wall s
RF
en(;csure
/1
I
"
I
IoInt:
I","r I ,
1 I

,
:h' o' PUl
Fig. 12: InstaHing the microwave transistors
0, HI
PCS Imck
B EU 'c
c-eer St iKa iT
,
gr:J,nc
Fig, 13: Further detail s of microwave construct ion
PCo- l rQe<
/ //_ epc. y

fnj h r o' ( CP,

qrcv-c
Fig, 14: Inst alli ng feed-through disc capacitors
3.1. Co mponents
Cv 1. Foillrimrner 10 pF (Valvo yelluw)
cv2, Cv 6: Min i l oil trimmers 3 pF (Seiko. green)
Cv 7: Microwave air trimmer (Johanson, Tekelec]
Cv 8, Cv 14: Mini l oil trimmers 3 pF [Seiko : preen]
C 5, C 9, C 11 etc .: Ceramic coupl ing capacitors
(soldered with short leads)
C 39, C 40, C 63, C 65: Ceramic chi p capacito rs
(Valvo, ATC)
Inductance: see sketches
TR 1 Guan ella-trnslr.vt 4 with twin-hole cure ,
Siemens: Mater ial U 17, hI. 8,3 mm or
6.2 mm, twisted CuL wire 0.2 rnmora. 45
mm long and connect as 1 4 transformer,
The 2.5 mm core is also used il 0.1 mm wire
is employed.
D 1, 0 2, D 12, D 13: Hot-earner -diodes HP 2810
D 9. 010: PI N-diodes MA 47047
D 11. 1 N 4001 or similar
All othe r (Hodes: 1N 914. 1N 4148 or simi lar
T 1,T 2: BFR 90, BF 91
237
238
q
L- ~ i
ii
;
VHF-eOMMUMCATIONS 485
Fig. 15:
Printed eire
DJ1EE 0 UII board
eom 05 t howing
ponenltmo
I racl<-slde unted on
VHF-COMMUNICATl ONS 4/85
Fig . 16: Componcnl $idIt 01 "rough" lest COfl&I, uo;:llon
Fig. 17: Undernealh view of protot ype
239
VHFCOMMUNICATIONS 4/85
T 3: BFG 91A (BFR 96)
T4:BFR 34
T 5, T6: BFG65
T 7: BFG 34 (BFG 96)
T 6: BFG 91A (BFG 9OA)
T 9: BFG 90A (BFG 91A)
A 22 : 0,5 Wtypa (0309)
all ot her resisters: smauest type (0207 or smaller)
Instead of the 9 V zener 0 3 with resistor R 4, a 9 V
Ieregul.l tOf can be used.
Post up
On the circuit diagram and component layout
plans there are several alternative transistors in-
dicated tortoo osci llator andthe receive preamp li-
ner . This mean s that the wen-known BFR 90 ! 96
can also be used, but small alterations in the size
of the coupling capacitors must be made, The
transmi t amplifi ers, however, should retain the
higher gai n BFG 90 A / 9 t A types,
New High-Gain Vagi Antennas
The SHF 6964 is a special antenna lor tho space
communi caliOfl all ocal ion 01 the 24 em band
The maximum gain ot ltlis long Yaqiis t 9,9dA"al
1269 MHz and tails off qui te quictJy, as with all
high..galn Yagis, with increasing trcqu ency . We
do not, therefore. recommend this type 01anten-
na tOI operation at 1296 MHz but for ATV app li-
catio ns at 1152 MHz it is eminently suitable.
There is no 24 cm ATV antenna on the world mar-
kat which possesse s more gain,
Tho mechanics are precise, the gain k equency-
swept and optimised MeastJJements carried oUI
during heavy rain show ltlat me antenna IsnOlde-
tuned by moisture.
il
'I
r
3m
18 ea,
16.8"
25 dB
- t7dB
Pri ce: OM398.-
l ength:
Gain: 2O.t dB;. i. e
Beam-width:
Front! Back ratio:
Side-lobes:
Stock-No 0102
h
The SHF 1693 is a special version for the recep-
l ion 01 METEOSAT 2. This unobt rusive alter-
native to a 90 cm dlameler paraboli c antenna
enables, with the aid 01a modern pre-ampl ifier or
down-eonverter, nOisefree weather pict ure
rececton.
5 m
19 9 ee,
13 6"
26 dB
- 17 dB
1.2 ' 1
52mm
Pric e: OM 298.-
l ength:
Gain 22 dB , i. e.
Beam-width :
Front I Back ratio:
Side-lobes:
VSWR rot. 50 0 :
Mast mounting: clip (max).
Stock- No. 0103
k Te"" 0, Billan , Jahn"" 14 ' Po, "a"" 80 ' 0 8523 Baie",,' ,, '
Tel . West Germany 9133-855. For Representatives see co ver page 2
240
VHFCOMMUNICATION$ 4/85
Joachim Kestler, OK 1 OF
Two-Metre Receiver Front-End
The foll owi ng has nol been wrlnen merely t o
swell i he ranks Of two-met re fr onl -end arti cl es
which have become prevetent in recent limes,
Rat her, i t is lin attempt to present II modul e,
which possesses respectable spec ificati ons
and is capable of ali gnment by the amateur
without access 10 prctesstonat test equlp-
ment.
The complete ci rcuil has boon d'vided into two
modules ( l ), lt1e pre-amplifier (2), me mixer com-
plete with oscillator and dnver . This two-part coo-
struction oilers increased neKibility when co mbtn-
ing tile front-ere with other eqoipment e.g UHF f
SHF converters. Also, lhe pre-amplifier may be
separated fromtil e main equipment and mounted
directly behind the antenna in order nol to de
. . ,... a
r-- - - - ., ol ' d S
r------ - - - - --- -1 , - - - - - - - ,
I 'h'. ' (",A. _ .... . - ....... . I I
,, ' t.'\.s<r " "" "to, rn I I c.... ."., I
f-
I : r dBm I I
L __ J 6. L .J
!
I h 'OI'
I .. ' ..............
I

I
o>< _J'.'"
'"

Fig. 1: 2 m_Front-end block diagrlm Indicat ing I tl ge levels
241
grade Ihe overal l noise- figure by a loog cable run.
The muer portion however, has been specially
designed tor use wiltlthe PLL oeiay- ere oscae-
tor described in ( I ) but may be used . of course.
wl1h any oscil lator at appropriate trequency and
1 mWiSOll outpll L
1.
CONCEPT
Tho block diagram 01 the front-end is shown in
fig. 1. A self supporting coil ser ves ns part of the
input tuned circuit and impedance match from
antenna cable (SOU) to t he pre-amplif ier input
transistor (about auun ). The latter is li l ted with II
GaAsMESFET cnabnr q a noise-f igure of 1 ou
(approx.) to be achieved Followi ng a iwo- circet
VHfCOMMUNICATIONS 4/85
helix-liller is a variable PINdlodeanenualor. This
attenuates signals to the next pre- amplifi er stage
and mixer accollrtg to lt1epr evai ling input
tlOOS.!husenabiing high gai n tor weak incomming
signals but preventing receiver O\Iiff1Oading dur -
ing strong signal reception , The second amplify-
'ng stage is a high-ellHIm1. barriOf FEr whos e
output is del ivered to the nell l module, the mill er,
via a son coaeat cable.
II could be asked, at this sl age. why not use t he
pre-ampl ifi er concept suggested by OJ7 YY in (2)
uSing pusb-pentransist ors. Cert ainly, Ihe publ ish'
ed dat a speaks tor il sell and it is able to be repro-
duced with the l ull speci fications, ntteast, when
ter minated by broadb and real son impedances
on input and output. Us ing high Q helix-filters with
thi s circuit however. the auinoc found that spu-
rious Oscillations above about 1 GHz, were not
easily discouraged without compromising the
V"", Or 15V
PI5 Pt G Pl l

,-----.--- " ..,. - - -"'T -- r --r-rl t--- n=- - - --,
, r J b OIt. IOF 1 I I C' I L. OltlOF I
, '0'" ". o,.. I C. '" 0" (' "''' ,
I I .. I 1, _, I .D"' ''
: V T_; Tn;: (1 tI : !
, I I II ' I
, U :ir.i'\L- A- --.-l , " ," :t: ", .r."" C6 '
J I f'O"..:.- \:!;;l;--o- -- n' I ... I IoN :;:: lJp I IO llllxer
I,. L2 1"' 11 s:::::::: I I uu,o;
1,--;- ") " I 51'........., . : ,., 1 , I Ll ' : L9: In lPI}
' , ..' .. , ... ' 0\>1 " l lO'
: "", " I I I .. _- -..,' .... I
, "' :r 1 -H---. I
t c. T 1-";;:' " I I I Rl T} I
1 ' I ' I I>:> I 'eCXXl 1
I I - [ ) , " hI. I 1 I "1. (. , '1\1'. . ' I
L __ --l-,l.:.'------L- _J. __ L _- _ _ .: _ _ ..s.-t t--.J
213 C, d f' l'd IhrD ' COp oa
Fig. 2: P_ a mplifier $Che melic
'4'
.. =smnds t lil'i.t PCBere
f!'oi'd t1n'U1P
5
G' .=O
G:I 530:1)
5GO
esooo
",,,,,
VHF-COMMUNICATIONS4/85
specificati ons. It was decided theref ore, to di s-
pense wit h the "super IP. spec ification concept"
in the interest of reasonable performance with
sure-fire reproduction capabilities.
A high-level hot carrier diode ring- mixer follows
t he two-stage hel ical filter. The necessary oscil-
lator power 17 dBm (= 50 mW) is supplied by a
two-stage amplifier comprising a MQSFET first
slage and a hlqh-cur reot FET second stage whi ch
dr ives the mixer L. Q. port across a 50 11 termin-
at ing impedance. A t hree-circuit input bandpass
filter is provided for the L. O. amp lif ier in or der that
the incoming local-oscillator multi pl ication signals
(fa I 2, 3 fo I 2 etc .) contained in the output of mo-
dule DK 1 OF 047. are suppressed. The mixer IF
port , should be terminated with an IF amplifier
first stage, possessing a wide-band 50 11 resistive
input impedance tcoetner with a noise flqure of
6 dB or lower. The necessity l or a ring-mixer
IF port to be so terminated has been dealt with at
large and in references (3) and (4)
The foliowing two -st age helical fi lter (l 5 I C 3 and
l 6 1 C 4) is slightl y over-coupled (mi dband dip
approx. 1.5 dB) in or der to achi eve the necessary
2 MHz bandpass. For pureSSBICW use, CKmay
be inc reased to some 6 - 8 pF thereby reducing
the coupling and t he bandpass to some 600 kHz .
For ga in adj ustment purposes, the PI N-d iode D 2
is ut il ised which is supplied by the signal-cont rol-
led direct current via pt. 7.ln order t hat the hel ical
ti!ter is pr operly termin ated under all signal condi-
tions, thus preserving its bandp ass, t he PIN-
di ode D 1 has been provided which pas ses a
complementar y bias-current vi a pt. 6. The secon d
pre-amplifie r T 2 with the hiqh current FET , is cc n-
nected in a grounded gate conf iguration and in
order to secu re a high intercept point, a. D. C. in-
put power of atrncst one Watt must be invested.
The amplified input signai is taken Via a pi-f ilter
C 5! 191 C 6 to the oulput pt. 2 where it is connec-
led to the mixer modu le. Fi g. 3 shows t he simple
manner by which t he PI Ndiode attonuator con -
trot-c urrent may be provided.
2.
CIRCUIT DETAil S
Pt6 Pt 7
Fig. 3: Biasing the PIN-diode atte nuatar
switch attenuation overall
pos ition pr e-amp. gain
1
-
'OB + 27 dB
2 - 12dB + 17dB
3 - 22 dB
+
?dB
3
2
"h 1
330k
L - , + - - + ~ _ j J .15V
Gk8 360ft 390fi 68 k
330k
2.1. Pre-ampl if ier
The deta iled circuit schematic of the pre- amplifier
is shown in f ig. 2. The GaAs- FET first stage is
preceded by an input fi lter L 11C 1. The drai n-cur-
rent is 14 rnA, a compr omise between lowest
noise figur e (8 rnA) and high intercept capabi li-
ties. The transistor source and gate 2 elect rodes
are double decoupled to reduce the deleter ious
effects of elect rode lead inductance The choke
L 2 (ferr ite bead) at gate 1 is not absolutely neces-
sary, as in the prototype at least , no spu rious
oscillations broke out when it was removed The
" suck-out " circuit L 31 C 2 is tune d to the image-
frequency (approx. 125 MHz) and presents a low
impedance at this freque ncy . The connect ion pI.
5 is intended for an automat ic gain control butthis
can only be recommended in cases of poor AGC
action in the IF amplifier. The applicat ion of AGC
to pt. 5 wil l compromise the large signal handling
capabilities of the GaAs-FET and it is bett er to
supply it with a fixed + 15 V instead.
243
VHF-COMMUNICATIONS 4/85
3 5 7
2 6 8
SRII-1H
"--'-''-'" SRA- 3H
5G D BF90Q
G'
f rom
I F r,
5Qn _2OoJBm
t t
PI9 Pl IO PtI3 Pt14
I---c:-r---I-- -T- - --- -r -, 1;, -- -,1-,
.. 100 1 c. C' , " 1
I
", I I I = .,
1C7 1. C8 I - - i 1 '" * I
I "i..+-t 6" 1 1 ICKl I 1
I I,, : Ip 1 41 I 1
I I t 2 B "'" I 1
I I I I (),JI I
IPtS I II I I 00 I
I I I " 113 TClO.l.f lClr. I
J 1 SRA- 1H 03 - c::J
1 : I Jill C9 t1lP + I
1 I I l15 ' In 04 "" 1 _ 100_ Tn).' I
I I I J I Xl n Pl I
I I c..r--------l
I I = I

I
TI foOmA
t DK10 F I I I 21W Xl n ....IOn
C
. , '.7 L23 I
I 0[,9 I "I"1)n I 0II - I
I I - 1 l 21 T I
1 1 C14
1
,, 5 1 I
f, rt l G' : l"" ' " I
- Ptl l L11 1 I , I
l mW I Ll6 1 T3 no 1 1
1 I"T 1 n I
I C,; 1 cu t U8 I RZ 1
I np I I 1 (lOIl) .r. I
L L __L ..1 --C'-lil--J
5 c, ':feedthrc' cap. 2nZ Pt 12
<)=D
-- "w
Gl estcnd t ....id 1IJmA
PCB and
P8000 f eed t hro'rop.
P800Z
FIg. 4: Mi..r Ichematic
2.2. The Mi xer stage
The cicuit schemali c of ltle mixer portion Is to be
seen in fi g. 4, The signal delivered by the pre-
amplifier is passed via pI. 8 to t he second helical.
244
l illel (L 11 ( C 7 and l 12 / C 8), This is Clitically
coupled, bUI again. an aueranon to l he value o.
the coupling capacitor c.. enables the bandpass
to be varied. The ring-mi ller which tc uows.rece-
vee the input signal on pin 1 and the generat ed IF
VHF-eoMMUNlCATIONS4185
I
c
-.
I
,
-I
.J
I
I

nr-:--L-.. -j
"'
T
-I
,

,
I ... " . ", T
I . ,
-- ----
I .... " ,
, .
I '
"u
L _ _
Fig. S: Construc tion and "",in layout
of pre-amptifier DK 1 OF048
L
output is taken homooeaand 4 10pt. 9 and 0010
the IF stage. The iocat-cscuator signal is fed to
the modu le via pt. 1t and to a t hree-e ircuit filter
L 161C 11, L 171C 12, L 191C 13, L 18 being t he
coupling element. This fi lter accepts t he local-
oscillator signal f requency but rejects harmonics
and sub-har monics. The fwo-staqe osci llator
consists of transistor s T 3 (dri ver ) and T 4 (power
amplifier). These transistors operate in class A
requiring ahigher current consemouoothan crass
B or C. but having the advantage 01giving a d ean,
noise-free transtali rlg signal. The L. O. si gnal is
10 - L 14 and
from that into the mixer p,n 8. The necessity for
the c oprcxer is di scu ssed in defail in refe rence
(4) . A porti on 01 the L. 0 signal ( - 20 dBm ap-
prox.] is tapped-ott befor e being applied to the
mixer and taken fa pt. 10 lor possible use in a
fr equency counter or the transmitter mixer. The
di odes 0 3, 0 4 produce a DC voltage which is
proooetonal to the L. 0 signal and is taken via an
c peranooal amplifier Ie 1 and p! 13 10 pt . 4 of lhe
osc illator OK 1 OF 047 modute as a control vor-
taqe. In this manner the mixer IIlput power can be
made 10remain constant despit e vari ations due to
agei ng and temperature. The L O. input power is
coononec by P 1 The con trol amp!iflN tc 1 is
supplied with 15 V DC via pt. 14 wIl ilst the DC
supply lor the modul e is introduced at pt. 12,
3.
CONSTRUCTION
For both crcurts. double-sided, through-contact
PCBs have been designed . The use of ti n-plate
tor scr eening the VHF high a circ uit s is not re-
commended (1), t norotoro there was no need to
dimension these PCBs in order t hat t hey would fit
a proprietary shielded box. Inst ead, a st rip at
0,5 mm sheet br ass some 30 mm wide issokf ered
around the edges of the PCBs in orde r to for m a
frame. the PCB conductor side sitt ing some 8 mm
up from the to..... er edge 01the brass frame.
Ftgs. 5and 6 show the dimensions alld the major
part locations lor both modules, and figs. 7 aoo8
245
VHF-{;OMMUNICATIONS 4;85
- - --,
85-
"" I-
r---" - - ,--- - - - -- - -
Pi14 pm
"
'12
o
<
1-
,-
o
L
1"" - - -
I
I PtS
,
,
,
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
L _
I
'"
I
zr- L
0 1" TJ
Fig. 6: eonalr uc li on and mai n component layo ut 01mix.. , OK 1 OF 049
are photographs of the prototypes, Now for one or
two ol l he finer points of detai l: The nate 1 conn ec-
tions of both T 1 and T 3 are fed straighf through
holes dr illed in tne scrmming wall, just above the
PCB surface, thetransistors being fatally surface-
mou nted and soldered on the component side of
their rospectrve boards, The taps on the helical
coils L 5. L e eoe L 12 should be as short as possi -
bl e arKI shoold pass l hrough Ihe screening wall s
on the underside (track-side) oj Ihe PCB albeit ,
just below its sunace. The Inl er-module ocon ee-
l ion pt 2 10 pt . 8 ISeffected by means of thin 50fI
coaxiet cable( RG 174) di reetly soldered. ormiOl-
246
BNC OJ SMC connectors may be employed , The
lcngUl of the int er connect ing cable is not critica l -
within reason. The GaAs-FET T 1 ts tno very last
component to be soldered-in in order to mi nimise
the risk from static damage during t he construe-
lion, The P 8002 transistors have unusually long
cooling tabs whi ch would protrude above the level
ol lha screening wall s. They should be shortened
by 5 mm, cent al l ighl angles and soldered 10 the
screomrq wall thus increasi ng the heal si nkir'19
elbciency The soldering. however, shou ld be
carried Oul as quickly as possIble and w ~ h an
adequately rated. hoi sold erin-iron.
VHF-COMMUNICATIONS 4/85
Fi g. 7: Pre-amplifier module DK 1 OF 048
Fig. 8:
Mixer module
OK 10F049
247
VHF-COMMU"ICATIONS ":/85
T 1:
C 5:
Ml :
ic r:
- X 17) slipped over T rs
gate lead (as requ ired).
12tums 1 mm Cu silvered,
6 mm Int. ore. 20 mm long
7 turns 1 mm Cu silvered,
13 mm int. ora. 15 mm long,
l apped 1.5 turns from cold
end ,
as L 5, bUI tapped 0, 5 turn
from cold cnd
s turr e. 1 mm Cu silvered,
6 mm int. ora. 11 mm long
as L 5, but lapped 0.75 1ums
from cold end.
6 turns, 1 mm Cu silvered.
e mmmt.cna. 12,5mmlong.
1.5Iums. 1 mm Cu si lvered
6 mm int octe. 5 mm long.
Slums. 1 mm Cu snvo. eo.
6 mm mt. ora. 15 mm long.
l apped 0,75 turns from cold
end ,
as L 16, but no tap.
o.snno. 0,5 mm Cu. 5 mm
mt. dia
as L 16, but l apped in the
middle,
7lurns, 1 mm Cu silvered.
Gmm inl. dia.12.5 mm long.
Bturns, 1 mm Cu suvereo.
6 mm inl. dia . 10 mm long,
Ll1 . L12'
L23:
L 15,L 21,L 22:
Chokes'
L4,L7,L B. L l0: ferrite choke 3.31.H RM
10 mm (Siemens etc.)
temte cho ke 1,5...H RM
10 mm (Siemens etc.)
The winding sen se ot the cons may be see n from
the photographs, the object being to chose the
winding sense in order thil t the tap lead is as short
as possi ble.
L2Q:
L 16:
L 19:
L6
L 5:
L 13 '
L 9:
L 17:
L 18:
GaAs-MESFET S 3030
or S 3000 (older type)
(Texas Instr uments)
P 8000 or P 8002 (H )
SF 900 (T.L) or SF 96 1,
SF 963 (Siemens)
LF 356 N (DIP) or
LF 356 H (TO - 99),
variou s mencreciorers
PIN-diodes BA 379
(Siemens)
M 118 0r similal
ee-oooes
Hot-carrier-diode
ringmlxer
SRA-l H or SRA3H or
TAK-1WH (Mini-circuitS)
Ceramic tube tnmrn cr
3 mm dia. 6 pF
Foil-trimmers. 7, 5 mm
dia. 13 pF (yellow)
Foi l-tr immer. 7,5 mm
era, 20 pF (green)
16 VDC, 5 mm lead
spac mq
All olher caoecuoes ceramic disc or multilayer
type
P 1: Preset polimeter tocxu
ncnzleads 10 15 mm
C 1, C3, C 4,C7, C 8:
Electfolyl'c 22 f' F:
c a. t r . 12, 13, 14, 15:
5.
COIL DATA
0 3,0 4'
0 1, 0 2:
T 2. T 4:
T3 :
4.
SPECIAL COMPONENTS
L 1:
L 2:
7.5IuffiS. 1 mm Cu suvoreo.
13 mm tnt. dia. 2Q mm long
lapped for pt. lone turn from
cold end. tapped lor FET 4.5
turns from cold end.
Ferrite bead or twi n-holed
core (Siemens S 62152 - A B
6.
SETIINGUP AND TUNING
Alter connecting the supply potential 15 V DC to
ct. 3, pt. 4. pI. 5 and pt. 12, the work,ng points of
the transistors are cheeked. This is done on T 1
246
VHF-CQMMUNICATlONS4-'85
and T 3 by checking the source potentials to
ground. T 1 . V
s
= 8 V :t O,SV, T3 . V
s
= 2.7 V/ ~
05V1- 1 V. largedeviationsfromthese loleran-
ces rocate a oerect ve dev ice The current
thr ough T 2 must be measured from pt. 4 and the
vo.taqa across R 3 checks T 4, With a suitable
chclse o' source ressiors A 1 and R 2 (sta rt with
10 Il) the drain cur rent is adjus ted to 60 mA (tole-
raocc z 10 mAl , If a cur rent ot less than 50 mA
f1owswilhA
s
""0, irenthe uansetor snould be re-
placed . The PIN-d iode control current supply ci r-
cuit shown in fig. 3 is cor-r-ected bet ween pt. 6
and pt. 7 and the pre- amplifier modul e is ccnnec-
ted mfront on any ava-lable 2 m receiver, C 3. C 4
and C 5 are then tuned for maximum noise
(roughly). C 1 is then tuned, to a (weak) 2 m signal
appl ied to the pre- amp input. for maxi mum de-
flector on lhe "S' meter . A signal generator .
which has been tuned to the image frequency
( 127 MHz lor 9 MHz IF and 123 6 MHz tor 10,7
MHz IF) is then applied to the input and C 2 is
tcooo for maximum attenuation. Ii no signnl ge-
nera tor is avarlabie. just leave C 2 in its mid POSI'
non
The mrxer module is aligned by connecting pt 1t
w:th the outpu t 01the local osci llator moou le and
wll h a 20 k! l / V vol tmeter connected to the D 3 /
D 4 ( + Ve toD3 cathooe. - ve tcu -t anccej . The
oscillator is tuned to its midband frequency and
the suppl y potential 15 V is connected to pt. 12.
C 11. C 12. C 13. C 14and C 15 are then tuned tor
maximal output. Some eorencn must be em-
ployed in tuning to attain a maximum out put. This
should occur at greater than 4 V, Now tho level
regulator can be set up by connecting pt . 14 10 the
supply and pI 1310 pt. 14of the OSCillator module
DK 1 OF 047. Using P 1 the D 3 /D a output vol -
tage is adj usted to 2.8 V which occurs at a local
oscillator power ot 17 dBm (50 mW). This power
should not vary when the VFO is tuned acro ss HIe
band. The control voltage at pt. 13 rises to 6 V at
tl)e band edges and dips 10 about 3 V atthe rmc-
bard. Its exact characteri stic is infl uenced by the
three stage filler (C 11. C 12, C t a toqeuier wen
the coupling L 16 to L 17).
Aft er the pre-amphber and the IF module have
been connected to the mixer modu le the second
helical lilter is tuned by C 7 and C 8 lor maximum
signal level. Ttus corcnrcee the front-end adjust-
ment tor the time being anyway. A fine t uning will
be undertaken at a lat er stage when the modules
are in position in the completed receiver and with
their covers tilt ed. For me adjUslment 01 a Iial
characterist ic across the band - the helical filter
determines trus- the spectr um trom a frequency
cal ibrator can be used (harrnomc-rch 100 kHz
cal ibrator ) , The adjustment 01the input circuitl 1,
C 1 is best done wit h the aid of a weak input signal
(sig. gen. or Iransponder). Tune tor test signal 10
noise rene.
7.
MEASUREMENT DATA
7.1. Noi se Fi gure
Test Equipment: Noise Figure Meter HP 8970 A,
with Noise-Soul ce HP 346 A
Pre-amp. alone : F = 0.75 dB (at l ull gain. switch
in l ig. 3 in pos 1)
Complete trent-end
Switch pas, 1 F =1 .1dB
Switch pos. 2 F "" 2.5 dB
Switch pas, 3 F "" 6 5 dB
(all measurements made wi l h mixcr looking into
anNF ot 3.5 dB)
7.2. Gain
Test Equi pment: Synthes izer SMS, Vector Analy-
ser ZPV (both A & S)
switch pre- amp. complete
positron alone trent-end
1 + 27d8 + 18 dB
2 ... 17 dB
-
80B
3

?dB - 2 dB
7.3. Select i vit y
'r est Equipment: SpectrumAnalyser HP 141 T
with p1ugin 8554 B (VHF I UHF) and 8552 B (IF)
249
VHF-eOMMUNICATIONS.:..1l5
Fig. 9:
Front -end Input f requency characteristic
I
OK1 Of
160 lot H; -eo
" 0
,--
100 . 120
,,', I I ' ! IT
/t l + t l ~
'00 ;14 \ ;Ti 1-~ \
I-H -h
- 120
- 60
_ 20
Image rejecuoo : 105 dB
432 MHz rejection: > 120 d6
and tracking generator HP 8444 A and SMS +
ZPV for values < - 80 dB,
The given data applies to t ho complete Iront-end.
See also f ig. 9
osc nator radiation from anteona inpul SOCket :
- 9-1 dBm wllh module installed in receiver with
covers on.
IP ", - 2 dBm
IP ", - l dBrn
IP ", + 2 cBm
7.4. l nter modulation
Test-Equipment : 2 Sythesizer SMS. Powor ccm-
biner ZSC 2 - 1 (Mel ). Spectrum Analyser HP
141 T WIth 8553 6 (HF) and 8552 B (IF), swecneo
attenuator type 3023 (Weinsche l).
Generator trequencies: 144.2 and 144.3 MHz,
each - 10 dBm.
Mixer with DK 1 OF 046 ! 047 but WIthout pre-
amp. 3rd order \P '" 23 d6m
Complete t rent-end:
switch cos. 1
switch pos. 2:
switch pes . 3:
The method of measurement is disdussed ex-
hausl lvely in (tI).
2 MHz
35 MHz
10 MHz
26 MHz
1 dB bandwidl h:
3 dB bandwidth:
20 dB bandwidth:
60 oal).1ndwldth:
Fi g, 10:
Suggested test sel-up for
bl oeking chock
250
VHFCOMMUNICATIONS 4' 85
7.5, Bl ocking (Gai n compression)
Mode: FM. BW: 15 kHl:. lest set-up as in lig. 10.
switch pes. 1.
The s'gnal noise of II wanted input signal is re
duced ' rom 10 dB to 0 dB when an mtertcrence
signal. 100 kHz removed, reaches a power of
- 11 ogm. The dynamic range can thus be calcu-
lated:
Noise 1100r of hyoerthetrcal receiver of
NF = 0 dB and bandwidth 1 Hz = - 174 dBm
Noise ll oor 01subject front-end with
NF " 1 dR and bandwdtn 15 kHz = - 13 \ dBm
Signal input tor 10 dB signal:
norse ranc - 121 dBm
Interference signalmput tor 10 dB blocking (i. e
ga,n compress>on) - 11 dBm
Dynarr uc range lor 10 dB blocking
", (- t l dB)
7.6. Power requir ement s
A 15 VDC eteoneeo supply is reqUIred tor this
lr ont-cnd. capable 01deli vering 210 lOA,
8.
REFERENCES
( 1) J . Kestler, OK 1 OF :
PLL Oscillators with Del ay Lines, Part 3:
Oscillator Module for the .2Metre Band
VHF COMMUNICATIONS Vol . 17. Ed. 2
Page S112 - 12Q
(2) M Mart in, OJ 7 VY :
A New Type 01Pre-Amplifier lor 145 MHz and
435 MHz Receivers
VHF COMMUNICATIONS Vol. 10, Ed 1
Pages 30 - 36
(3) M. Marlin, OJ 7 VY:
A MOOernBecerve Convener lor
2 m Receivers
VHF COMMUNICATIONS Vol. 10, Ed. 4
Pages 218 - 229
(4) J . Kestl er, OK I OF:
Matching Circuits lor Schottky
Ring Mixers
VHF COMMUNICATfONS Vol. 8, Ed, 1
Pages 13 18
(5) M. Martin, OJ 7 VY:
Empl angereingangsleil mit qrogern
Dynami kbereich
CO DL 1975 Ed 6. Pages 326 336
E
You can now ordor magazines, kit s etc. using
your Eur ocard or VISA Cr edit Card!
We onl y requi re the order against your
signature, the card numbor and its expiry date.
VHF COMMUNICATIONS I UKW-BERICHTE
k ToCCi D. B,ltao Jah n, " 14 Pa,!taoh 80 0-8523 8ai."darl
Tel, Wesl Germany 9133-855 For Representatives see covoepage 2
251
VHF-COMMU'lI CATIO''JS 4 '$5
Jocnen Jfrmann, DB 1NVand Friedrich Krug, OJ 3 RV
A Microcomputer-System for
Radio Amateurs
Many readers will alrea dy be aski ng : "What' s
this t hen, a computer system speciall y f or
amateur use? Surel y, commercial home-co m-
put er s are so cheap t hat it' s not wort h t he
trouble build ing one".
Those, who helve busied t hemselves with these
things, will know that home camp' -ers have anti-
quated circuit concepts and have been pared
down in order to make them as cheaply as pos-
sible, Also customer-speci fied inteoratec circuits
are employed whose inner workings are, to some
extent, a mystery. In order t hat the marer ac-
turers' (expensive) peripheral equipment and
cables are also sold, together with the computer,
the connections arc mado as incomprehensi ble
as possible Difficulties always occur when home-
made accessories and extensions are required to
be added. Even if computer A is to be matched
with printer B and disc drive C, the necessary
cables and interface cards can, if one is unlucky,
cost over hall the price at t he computer itself.
Added to that comes t he cost at additional books
- a l ew hundred marks perhaps - in order that
both the hardware and the software can be used
advantageously tcqemer Jmormaton which is
actually more appropriate in the computer's
handbook.
252
Standard interfaces, such <IS the Centronics prin-
ter interl ace, a serial V 24 connection, standard-
ised drive system connections or a IEC- bus-
interlace could have made furt her extensions to
Ihe system much easier. A direct access to the
processor bus is also desirable for experimental
purposes. Unfortunately. it is not possible to l ind
all til e above mentioned connections on prop-
riet ry computer (the "Serial lEG- Bus" proclai-
med by one manufacturer is more a data brake'
owing to an unbelievably slow information rate
and is not suuatno for serious lISC)
The data given about store capaci ty in home
computers elisa must be taken with a pinch of sa't
because most of t his is utilised Immediately by the
storage requirements of keyboard buffers, picture
and qraphrc displays. A further sad chapl er con-
cerns the radio suppression measures which are
dimensioned tor the minimum consumer de-
mands and t he electronics packed into an un-
screened plastic case making the use 0' any
nearby sensitive receiver impossible
These are all good reasons for consider ing
the co nstruction of a computer specially de-
signed f or the requirements of amateur radio.
VHF-COMMUNICATIONS4185
One should keep his distance from component-
saving concepts in which the CPU additionally
samples the keyboard in multiplex operation and
controls picture reproduction. Some of the single-
board computers, propagated in a few magazi-
nes, are neither sure-fire of reproduce or capable
Of modification and aoaptron even if they have
been successlully buill . They are usually de-
signed on a Euro-format printed circuit board and
contain terminal and floppy controllers, the board
being stackoc with les, perhaps under a 40 leg-
ged IC a few 14 / 16 legged -ooonos' will be hid-
ing, or maybe the store elements are stacked in a
tower and soldered to one-another.
It is much bett er that the computer has a com-
partmentalized system in whi ch each module
has a clearly defined role and tr ansfer plane,
and pr ocessed by a separate micro-proces-
sor. The operating syst em woutd use the uni-
versal Digital Research CP/ Mwhich allows an
unproblematical software exchange between
the hardware of various comput ers. The
microcomputer-system developed by the
university of Erl angen I NOrnberg is based on
t he Z 80 processor. The whole circuit has been
planned so that it operates wit h CMOScircuits
in order that, with suitable low-power con-
suming peripheral s, battery operation is f ea-
sible.
The CMOS stores are, however, more than three
timesthe priceof the equivalenl NMOS stores but
posses the advantage of being uncritical in Iheir
use Addil ionally, the store contents can be pre-
served with a small accumulator during times
when the computer is shut-down.
The individual circuit elements are lilled onto
simple Euro-cards with a reasonable packing
density. An ECBbus is employed as the system-
bus which enables a multitude of non-syst em
peripheral cards to be connected.
The computer consists of three basic units and a
number of special-function cards At the moment
the following cards are in the testing process:
The CPU - card
This can also be employed independently as a
control-computer for many purposes (e. g. an-
tenna rotor- or radio relay I transponders control).
It contains besides the Z 80-CPU two serial V 24
interfaces, a parallel 8-bit-interface from Cen-
tronics-Norm as well as a 16 kByte CMOS-RAM
which is battery buffered. A 4 / 8 kByte EPROM
contains a si mple monitor program for the deve-
lopment ot a simple machine program and tor the
charging of the CP / M from the floppy-disc sta-
tion.
An al pha-numer ical terminal car d
This is normally connected to the serial terminal
interlace of the computer and can of course, he
driven separately from the computer (serial data
transmission).
This card contains a further Z 80 - CPU, a video
controller Me 6845, a parallel keyboard input
(Z 80 - PIO) and a serial computer interlace. In
this terminal it was Ihe intention to rorqot every-
thing which was not absolutely necessary (many
manutacturos put anything in, merely 10 utilise the
EPROM capacity). Instead, we have put more ef-
fort into improving the picture quality
The symbols are represented as a 7 x 12 matrix in
a 9 x 14 field - a doubling at the picture elements
01 Ihe usual 5 x 7 or 5 x 8 matrixes. Also, three dis-
play formats can be chosen by means uf selector
plugs; a 80 x 24 symbol format with an increased
line-Irequency (18 kHz) and two television stand-
ard formals with 64 x 16 symbols (tor monitors)
and 40 x 16 symbols (for TV with video input). As
there is still enough space left over in the RAM
and the EPROM there would be, in addition, a
possibleuse of this card as an autonomous RTTY
terminal. With the two cards already described, it
is already possible to built a computer. If compre-
hensive mass storage and more RAM range (a
further 40 K) is required, the following "store I
floppy disc card" is required.
The st ore I floppy disc card
This contains a further 48 kByte CMOS memory
which may be supported by a battery. CMOS
memories are much dearer than dynamic NMOS-
RAMs but the construction of the card is much
easier owing to thei r simple control requirements
(doesn't need address-multi-plexers and multi-
phase sync-generators). Also, the computer may
be stopped at any time without losing information
253
Dynamic stores. on the other hand must have the
facili ty 10 be "re-activated" in order thaI all the
capaci tive store elements may prese rve their in-
formati on charges . Provisions must be made
when using this type of store, to supply it trom an -
other sour ce during shut-down if the store con -
tents ar e required to be preserved In amateur
operat ions the processor may have 10 be swit-
ched off , for e_ample, In order that the weakest
radio signals are oct drowned in computer hash.
The uoppy-disc cont roller card uses me western
Digital WD 2793 , a single-chi p controller pos-
ses sing a built-in analog PU data separator. li s
employment avoids ee use of hal f lhe thirty or so
chips usual ly used for this purpose and thereby
ut ilising the card space more etle ctively .
AI1 1he popular 8 and 5 If, inch drives can bel con-
nected ns well as compatible 3 'h inch dr ives.
With the tloppy-disc card the calculator is full y
utili sed as a CP I M computer with a 64 kByle
RAM. a ceoncoceprinter interface and a serial
V 24 interlace e. g, lor computer to computer
linki ng.
There are sllli a lew additional cards in the lest
phase in which many users could hnd an interest:
a) A 1 ~ S : : - B u s card
This module contains the NEC 72 xx and
enables HIe connect ion ot test equipment.
printers Of ether per ipheral appa ratus having
an IEC I IEEE 488 I HP interface bus. Three
SOGkC1S arc provided on the PCB for 8 kByl e
EPROMs which can contain the IEC-bus con -
trol software.
b) A univer $" t EPROMcard
All the popular EPROMs up to 16 Byte s can
be programmed with this card and two ":8 10 '
for ce sockets are provided for a readabl e and
programmatl lo EPROM,
c) A ROM sof tware card
11the re-Ioading of extensi vepr ogra ms from the
dlskene is 10 be avoided and i1 the floppy-disc is
not convenient, the ROM In the software card
254
VHF-CO\llMUr-.ICAliONS4BS
,
can accoeocete 64 kByte in eight 8 kByte
EPROMs, This card uses the lop 8 K ot the
store leaving onl y 56 kBytes RAM lor the user's
disposa l By means 01a control circuit. the top
6 K can be gated by any selected 8 kByte
EPROM which can be read-ot t Many readers
Will be asking themselves: "Where is t"e ter
ml nal car d devoted to the representation of
graphics?' A Thomson-CSF graphic proces-
sor, me EF 9366 i 67 is available. butus alpha-
numonca r presentation would satrsw only
modcst demands. The authors have therefore
deci ded that apurely qrapruccard with a further
processor arid a 64 kByte oynarmc picture
store shoutd be developed to woril in paraltel
w,th l he etpha-nurnenc card, The reso lution
amou nts to 720 x 320 pixels and the graphic
video signal ISmapped with the norma l alpha-
numeric video . The necessary synchronisation
and st robing signal s Will be taken from the
alpha card.
Power suppli es
In order to make the computer work. a SUItable
power supply is necessary , A power supply 'las
been dovelooec which ts cecauie or supplying the
computer toqetbc r with two ~ 'I. inch drives and a
mono chrome monitor It delivers 5 V ; 7 A. 12 V I
3 A (6 A peak) and 12 V I O, 1 Afol thcV 24
mrertace.
Perncurar attention was paid to tnorfi suppression
in order that hash does not find Its way Into a
neighbouring recei ver nei ther by direct -actanon
nor by being fed f rom the computer 'li a the rnams
The radio transmitter should not be allowed to
throw the computer into disarray, A furt her spe-
ci atity is thaI atl Slgnats in the computer are deri-
ved from a 16 MHz synchrOniZing generator. It is
t hen possi ble to trec uencv-tock nus With a radio
ti me signal DCF 77 etc , which is a nec essa ry con-
dition for a coherent t ransmi ssion mode. The mo-
dules DJ3RV 006 ,.,.. 00 7 can be regarded as
being the first peripherals of the amateur com -
put er introduced by this article
It is inlended to give a short descnpncn at the
computer sub-uni ts in the following edi tions of
VHF-COMMUNICATI ONS.
4/85
MATERIAL PRICE LIST OF EQUIPMENT
des cribed In edition 4 165 of VHF COMMUNICATIONS
OK 10F
rc-ooa-o
PCboard
Components
Kit
OJ 1 EE
PC-board
PC-boal d
Crystal
Kit
OB 1 NV
Pc-bcero
Two-Met re Receiver Fron t- End
OK 1OF 048 double-sided, thro ' plated
OK t OF 049 double-sided, thl o' plated
OK10F 048 / 049 4 FETs.1 FET-Op Amp
2 PIN diodes, 2 ae-oeocs.
t ringmixer SRA _t H Of
TAK - 1 WH, 5 ceramic and
7 1oiltrimmers, 1 tantalum,
13 FITcaps. 9 ceramic
discs and 25 ceramic de-
coup ceps.. silvered wil e,
t leml e bead, 7 chokes.
I pro-set and 32 resistors
OK 1 OF 048 1049 complete wit h all above
part s
sse Min i Tt ansvert er 144 11296 MHz
OJ I EE 00 5 double-sided, not bored,
silvered, without comp
plan
OJ I EE 005 to vensetor e. a ccoes.
2 PIN diodes. 4 HI C diodes.
1 microwave trimmer, i 3 l oil
trimmers, 6 chip and 25 disc
Ft T caps., 1 tant anc 1
erect. 4 FIT and 29 ceramic
capacitors, 1 pre-set and
3-1 resistors . t twin-hole
bead, 3 sorts 01wire, 10 mini
chokes, 1m lell on coax.
cable, 1 relay, t l in-plate box,
2 BNGsi ngle-hole sockets
96,000 MHz HG- 43/ U
OJ 1 EE 005 complet e with all above
parts
12 v -ucene SWit ched-Mod e-Power -Supply
DB t NV 002 single-sided, drilled, wilh
camp. pian
Art ,Nr.
6935
6936
6937
6938
6939
6940
6224
6941
6932
Ed. 4 / 1985
OM 29.-
OM 36.-
OM 268,-
OM 325.-
Ed. 4 /1 985
OM 25. -
OM 459.-
OM 26,-
OM 490.-
Ed. 2 +3185
OM 83.-
255
Under Development: Interface slave 10
FUlly-automatic antenna tracking system for satell it e communication
uc-_rechn1k.
for the satellite-rotor-systems
KR 5400
KR5600
o '"
an Res " t
Stock-No. 1001
OM 590.-
This interlace, logeltler with a personal coo- cuter and KR 5000 series comrot system, enabl es the exact
positioning 01 U18 antenna to be carried oul The pos itioning pre-set dat a ill provided in ASCIIcod e from
the serial interl ace.
During both horizontal and vertical rotanoos. l he aclual antenna posili on can be inlarrogated as all en as
desi red. Apart 110ml he commands "pr e-set position" and "inlerrogale position" U-Ic inl erface processes
11 seri es of l urtl1ll1'commands such as, left , righI , slop.
The resolution of the twin-channel A/ 0 conv erter amounts 10 10 bit This, converted, results in a setti ng
accurac y of 0.35" ho rizonta l and 0, 18" vertical . Existi ng control- boxes c an be su it ably modruod.
Which Volumes of VHF COMMUNICATIONS are mi ssing f rom your li brary?
As you know, I hs publ ishe"! continue to reprint bad< coores o! VHF COMMUN ICATIONS. Sin ce they arc ful l
technical artICles and littl e news or advertising, they contain a gr e <ll deal o! rl<:m-agalo Informatl<1 o that IS just as
valid lOday. lola,.", 01our read&fs "'i ll al8<J h.iJve lent out copies 01 VHF COMMUNI CATIONS and _ receivOO
l hem eeecAll &<Illions available can be oblained t,om YO'" , epreselll al ive or tram l he publ isher s
Subscr iplion to VHF COMMUNICATIONS 1985:1986 ._ _.,..._ _ _ eac h OM 24.00
VHF COMMUNICATIQNS -VollJme 1983i l 9a4 . " .. aAm OM 22,00
COMMUNICAT IONS - Volume 1981/1982 . " cnch DM 20m
COMMUNICATIONS - Volume ! 979/1980 "" " " "" ,............................ ' " cncrt DM 18J){)
VHr:COMMUNICATIONS Vulum1l1976,1977. and t 978 . , aoch DM 16.00
VHF COMMUNICATl ONS - Vulume 1975 ..__ . OM 14.00
VHF COtJIMUNICATlONS - lndMdual <Xlpies198!i11986 .... ... COChOU 7.00
V1-<F COMMUNICATlONS 198311984 .. . eIlChDM6,50
VHF COMMUNICATIONS - l nd1'11dual cop<es 198 111982 .. . each OM5 50
VHF COMMUNICATIONS Indiw j ual copies 197911 980 . "" " " eAch DM 4,50
VHF COMMUNICATIONS Individual copies 1975,1976,1977,1978 , DM 1.00
... &IIch DM 3.00
........... edch OM 300
.." ... OM 47.00
[) M 48.00
. " ." " DM S{lOO
. __ OM 52.00
. _ OM 56.00
. OM 59.00
. "" ", DM 62.00
" .."" " " " ,,,, "" " , OM 68.00
OM 72.00
................ ....................... , OM 8.00
IndividlJa'l copies OUI ot eki ,,, . incomplele V<1lurnes. as long as sklr:k lAsts;
1/1910. 211970. Z' I 971. 1/19 /2, 211972, 411972 , .
m 973, 4i I 973. 1/1974.211914,311974
VHF COMMUNICATIONS - Di seount pri ce fo r any 3 vo lumes Inc l ud i ng 1 bi ndur:
VHF COMMUNICATIONS -VOlurl'lCS197!>- 1977 ..... ...
VHF COMMUNICAl IONS - Volumes 1918 .
VHF CQMMUNICATIONS - VoIumsl; 1977 - 1979 , "" " ,." .... . " ..
Vt-lF COMMUNICATIQNS-VoIumes 1978 -1960 ", _ ,.
VHF COMMUNICATIONS - Volumes 1979 - 1981 _. ....
VHF COMMUNICATIONS - Volumes 1980 - 1982 .
VHF COMMUNICATlONS - Vol umes 1961 - 1983 .
VHF COMMUNI CATIONS - Volumes 1982 - 1964 .......
VHF COMMUNI CATIONS - VOlurl'lCS 1983 - 19115
Plastic binder!or 3 volumes , "
Al l priQe$ induding surfac 1.
k Toe" D. B;t1ao " '''I' 14 Po,"'" 80 . D 8523 B, ;."dort
Tel. Wes1Ge rmany 9133-855. For Representatives see cover page 2
Space and Astronomical Slides
-
>-
Informat ive and Impressive
VHF COM MUNICATIONS no..... OHef Ssets ot pha'"
taste slide s made during the Geml nl,ApolIO,Mariner
and Voyager missions. as well as slides from leading
observator ies. These ale standard size 5 em K 5 em
sl ides which are trarnod and annotated .
Prices plus OM 3, 00 for post and
Sets of 5 NASA- slides OM 8.50 per set
Set 8103 Apollo 11 Earth and Moon
Sli t 8104 Apollo 11. Man rrlthe Moon
Set 8105 Apollo 9 and 10: Moon
Set 8106 FromCaliforniato c apcansvorm
SeI At O] Apollo l ?: Moon Revi.<;lt oo
$c18108 Gemini l::arlh Views
Sot el 09 Apo11015' Ilovi tlg Hadloy R.lle
$018110 Apol lo 16: jnto tnc HICJhl>lIl11s
$e18111 ApoI10 1! : l ast voyage h,l lh",mOOfl
Set 8112 Apol lo 17: last MoonWalks
Scl!l1 13 Mariner 10: M" ..:..' ury and Venus
5e18141 j upiter encount ered 20 sli des 01VOYAGER 1 & 2 OM 35.00
1 AIpoler and 3 2. The y;'''u pl.." ", J Jop'ler. 10and 4. n,e Ro.-'f1 'S\lOI Tho Bed spot in d"l;oil 6 100
sWirl'ng elouds 7. 10and wtol" ".. "I 8. ThonclQhbooohood o'!h<> ROO SI'" I \I The ""9s of Jupol... 10 G.. UlleMsal<'li-
lo' s 11 A",.. I? CaUoslo 13, 1.... 1,, " . Callisl" 11 "" 10 lu' ,lise 16. Lu' opa ck"", 'up
11. F"jJla dosk,,,1"' '''''' HI. tiar>ym<d"*' ''''''.' 1\1 Ad"I" nl Ganymede 20. TIM' s y!;lom
Set 8100 Sat urn encountared, 20 VOYAGER- 1 slides OM 35.00
I Sal" rn a,ld Gol ils ""o",,, ? R" tlJ,,,I ,,,,,, 11""" mtles 3. Sal"", lror1l8 miornilcs 4. $ al" rn llO'" 1", iu ""k' , 5. $ at" "" ",1
' ing . 1'0 '" flIlO.OOO b S" l u' " s Ht"d l\jX11 7. Ck,,,d b" II' i" ,ld " ,1 B. Oi"". aU" i", ,1 R" I"' '' l) 10
Ril"" 11 C'"1c"",,f Hilca 12, 1:1, Til" ,,' s I"'; " I"">d 15 0 Iher .ltm oI Mi,,,,, , 16 Ap-
proact"nqthc "rYJ s 17. Un<1" , U''' ' ' 'II'; II! 19 ,
Set 8148 ,>VOYAGER2 at satum, 20 VOYAGER-2 slides OM 35.00
I. VOYAGER 2 ;' 11" " .:1"" ? Cioudll ll. rin"" 3. $1"' '' '' Po. , ,, lcl l,t,,,, 4. Cyck>lx,", 1\ J('I streams !;. ("' .. m, vcct 've
" "Ikn> 6. o,"turtmlte 7, n ' kJS'" , I"" w, e The -C ""J 9. n"" l <l l'twls 10, lila _A, ''' WI 11 Looking
l>a<;\( oo Satu", 12. lila" T,lan - w noo 14: Tlx, . F.. ri"9 15. UP. . 16.
", ,, ea ied 17. Encel aoos e ' rk",x! 18 11'10 lel1'11'S carlYon 19. TI", F.. ""'I ;>0. W,It"" ' hl' I nke dlvis,on
Set 8102 The Sol ar 20 NASA-'JPL slides OM 35,00
1 Solar Sysle m ;> formm",n 0I1he Pla"mH 3. TIM' !',,,,, 4 Mercury 5 Venus I> 7 larth
8 f ull Moo n 9. Mars 10. OIyrn(llr; 1\ Mars ' Gr afld C<lny"n 17 Ma rs . $I fl1JOU8 (' .. ..... 13. I'hobo"
14. J"piltlr wilh MtXXlS l!, . J"IXll'f n ee spot 16.l>alu'" 17. full"'" Ri"gs 18. Ur'''''sanc! Nr'Pl une 19 I' lulu ?O Comet
Ikcya Sr>Iu.
$et 8149 The Sun in action" , 20 NASAIJPL sli des OM 35.00
1 SunrtU"lIghl 2. TotalSol"' ed'l', n J Corooalrom SMM""ldl,l" 5.CorooACk.... .....p ;; Sol"'",,,rl""
1"\1' ''''' 11 AclweSun
m01l'flCC 13 G"'qant" an prom"", .", 14. F",pl'''' ' 1"""""'.'flCC 15. 11uge :;;ol;lf f)xplosoon Itl ,n l'
Sun,n 18 . li"ld lQ dose -up 20. spray
Set 8144 Space ehuttte-, 12 f i rst-fli ght sli des OM 24.00
I 8T$ 1 IM' '' ds "" ft 2, V'cw lrom lI' A 3, Tow," <01 ,,,,, 4. (auocil protil e 5. r"yl"" d bay open 6, RTS con n,,1Hou.
, to" 7 In orbit. earth seen lhrotRJ h II'" wi,,,j,, ws H. Roo C,ippen tn mid-deck . .Iulln YOling 10. Al1"o ac hlng 10000,hdown
I I Allar 54.5 in CoI"rntl iR 10 l aolh 12. Crippe n aoo Yc.Jrl!l '''''''''1 '' l,lturt hA rnissin"
Set 8150 Stars and Galax ius.., 30 astra color slides. AAT 1977-1982, OM 46.00
1 TI,. Anglo!\" "t,al.an TlliR....opfI (AA1>? 1llom<> 1 Con" o e 4 An p""", ..s 5 Sta, T,a ,l.
,n''''' 51'1 St", T,,,, . 1f><' 10 A" O\J"n
CluSl'" 0/ Sla" NGC3293 1' .... NGC6J()} 12 , ,"" Tr;ho Net>tJla "' 2IJI NGCft514) 13 S M<mocmo
I" and liGCn64 HeI.. N""ul.1 ,Nl lC7791 16./l VIl <>l I Ra.,.." Slat ' 0 NGC2Ju.l 1'I.A n"'a,y NGC29!l l 18lks,"" 'E
INGCli6 1' ) 19 r.... 0,.", Nebu '" :!OOu.1 ;Of\ll SaqIl..""".NGC651l99(l 11 1"" NetM_OSo' y ............ HD' 4ll93 1
22.OU" C100dard Ope" C....W 23 T"" ""'''' .y NGC253 24.A ",,,, . l o",, s...r, 1C222'O Je.-wtol Bo. NGC-4755
25.lOC<Jl GrouDr.a",.y 21 e."-.,,.I T""''''d'''''' Gal"""" r .... Tfapelium 30 The
k TN'Y 0 B;llan Jahns' . 14 . Postl ach 80 0-8523 Ba;effi dorl
Tel. West Germany 9133-855. For Representatives see cover page 2
You should know
what's behind our sign
We are the only European
manufactuI ers of these
Miniature TCXO's
ceo 102, ceo 103,
ceo 104, ceo 152
modulable t able
higher st"bility than a
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tess tha n :I ppm a VOT
the tomporet uro range
- 30 to ! 6OCC, (types B)
low agein9 rule :
less than 1ppm per
year .
wi de frequency range:
10 Mil? to 80MHz
low su pply voltage;
+5 V
l ow current ccns umpnon
J rnA max, (seri es ceo lOLl)
small outlines: ceo 104 '- 2,6ems, ceo lOUISZ.". 3,3cma,
ceo 103 4,0 em-
widespread applicatio ns o.q. as channel elements or roforo nco
oscrnatcrs in UHf radios (4[,(J finn 000 Mil ? range)
OUI R+ D engineers are
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W e can offer techni cal
advice for your new
projects or manuf act ure
against your speci fi cation.
Quartz crystal unit s in
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from 800 kHz to 360
MHz Microprocessol'
oscillators ITCXO 's ,
VCXO's.., OCXO' s )
crystal cornpone nts
acconiiDg 10 c ustom e r' s
specifications
ceo '02
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eeo '03 ceo 104

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