$49.

95

, EXPERIMEN~AL METHODS W
in IR F DE!!I~ I :' N L=J
Wes Hayward, W7Z01
Rick Campbell, KK7B
Bob Larkin, W7PUA

pubr shed by'

"
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Basie '01VeSllQ"t on s in Electronics

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Suporhetf!ro " 'ansmitter5 and Recei e
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 'J I i O~ I...;·c ~~, I,
I

EXPERIMENTAL METHODS
•
In ; 11!
, 1

Wes Hayward, W7Z01

Rick Campb ell, KK7B c
Bob Larkin, W7PUA
BRITISH liBRARY
DOCUMENT SUPPPLY CENTRE

12 NOV 2004
Edi tors: Technic al Illustration:
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 CONTENTS

Conlents
Pre fa ce

I G ... t1ing S tarted

1.1 Expe rimenting, " Homebrewing:' and the Pu rsuit of the New
1.2 Getting Sta rted - Rou tes for the Beginning Exp erim ent er
1.3 Some Guide lines for the Experimenter
1.4 Block Di agrams
1.5 An lC Based Direct Co nversion Recei ver
1.6 A Regenerati ve Rece iver
1.7 An Audio Amp lifier with Discrete Transisto rs
1.8 A Direct Conversio n Receiver Using a Di screte Co mpon ent Produ ct Detector
1.9 Po wer Supplies
1.10 RF Measurem ents
1. 11 A First T ransm itte r
1.12 A Bipo lar Transistor Po wer Amplifier
1.13 An O utput Low Pass Filter
1.14 Abo ut the Schematics in this Boo k

1 Ampli fier Des ig n Basi cs

2.1 Mod eling Simpl e So lid State Devices
2.2 Amplifier Desig n Basics
2.3 Large Signal Amplifiers
2.4 Ga in. Power. DB and Impedance Matching
2.5 Di fferential Amplifiers and the Op -Amp 11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111 or Rl1S

2.6 Undesired Amp lifier Characteris tics

4 9 9 6 144 9 se onl y
Return Date'
2.7 Feedback Amp lifiers
2.8 Bypassing and Decoupflng
-BDEC04 02 :3 D
2.9 Power Amplifier Basics FI. ~"e" Ref. NQ,

2.10 Practi ca l Power Am plifiers

OF Zl 1 9 8 4 2 5 43 42 9 LOAN
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3.1 Filter Bas ics
3. 2 T he Lo w Pass Filter . De...ign and Exten sion
3.3 LC Ba ndp ass Filter s
3.4 Crystal Filters
3.5 Active Filter s
3.6 Impedan ce :\fat ch ing Networks

~ Os cilla to rs a nd F re q ue ncy Synthes ts

4.1 LC-O"'cill ator Basics
4.2 Practical Han ley Ci rcuits and Oscill ator Drift Compen satio n
4.3 Th e Co lpit ts and So me Other scillarors
4,4 No ise in Osc illato rs
4.5 Crystal Oscillato rs and VXO s
4.6 Voltage Controll ed Oscillator s
4.7 Freq ue ncy Syn thesis
4.R The Ugly Week ender, MK-JI, A 7-MHz VFO T ransmitter
4.9 A Ge neral P ur pose VXO · Ex tend ing Freque ncy Sy nthesizer
S ~Ii\:l.'rs a nd Fr eq ue ncy Mult ipli ers
5.1 Mixer Basic s
5.2 Balanced Mixer Concepts
5.3 Some Practi cal Mixers
5A Freq uenc y Multipliers
5.5 A VXO Tran smitter Using a Digital Frequency M ultiplier

6 Tra nsmitters and Receivers

6.0 Signals an d the Syste m... thai Proce ss Th em
6 .1 Recei ver Fundamenta ls
6 .2 IF Am plifiers an d AGe
6.3 Large Signals in Rece ivers and From End Design
6A Local Oscillator Sys te ms
6.5 Recei ve r" with Enhanced Dyn amic Rang e
6.6 Tra nsm itte r and Tr anscei ver Design
6. 7 Freq ue ncy Shift". Offsets a nd Incre menta l Tuning
6. 8 Transmit-Receive Antenna Switch ing
6.9 The Lichen Tr anscei ver: A Case Study
6. 10 A Monoband SS8 fC"'! Tran sceiver
6.11 A Portable DS B /CW 50 MH I Station

1 :\'ea'iu r em t'nt Eq uipme nt

7.0 Measurement Basics
t . I DC f\ tesaure ments
7.2 The Osc illo...cope
7.3 RF Power Measure ment
1..1 RF Power Measurement with an Oscilloscope
7.5 Measuring Freque ncy. Ind uctance . and Ca pacita nce
1.6 Sources and Ge nerators '
1.7 Bridge s and Impedance Measur ement
7.8 Spectrum Analysi...
7.9 Q Mea surement of LC Re sonators
7.1 () Crystal Measureme nts
7. J I Nuisc and Noise So urces
7. 12 Asso rted Circuits

8 Direct Co nversion Recetvers

8. 1 A Brief History
S.2 The Basic Direct Co nver sio n Block Diag ram
S.3 Pecu liarities of Direct Convers ion
SA Mixe rs For Direct Co nvers ion Receivers
R.5 A Mod ula r Direct Co nversio n Recei ver
R.6 DC Rece iver Advan tages

9 Ph a sing H. eceivers a nd Tr ansmiU crs

9. 1 Block Diagrams
9.2 Introduct ion to the Math
9.3 fro m Mat hematics to Practice
9. ~ Sideba nd Suppresvion Design
9.5 Binaura l Rece ive rs
9.6 LO a nd RF Phase-Shift and In-Phase Sp litter-Com bine r Netw orks
9.7 Othe r Op-Am p Topologiev. Polyphase Ne tworks a nd DSP Phase Shifte rs
9.S Intellige nt Selectivity
9.9 A Next-Ge neration R2 Single-Signal Direct Con version Rece iver
9. 10 A High Perfor mance Phasing SS B Exciter
9.1 1 A Fe w Note s on Build ing Phasing Rigs
9. 1.2 Co ncl usio n
 10 US.' Components
10.1 The EZ-Kit Lite
10.2 A Program Shell
10.3 DSP Compone nts
IDA Signal Generation
10.5 Random Noise Ge neration
10.6 Filterin g Components
10.7 DSP IF
10.8 DSP Mixing
10.9 Other OSP Component..
10.10 Discrete Fou rier Transform
10. 11 Automatic Noise Blankers
10.12 CW Signal Gene ration
10. 13 SSB Signal Ge neration

11 DSP Applications in Communicati ons

I J .I Progra m Structure
11.2 Using a OSP Device as a Controller
11.3 An Audio Genera tor Test Box:
l l A An 18-.\1Hz Transceive r
11.5 ~ S P~ 10 2-Meter Transceiver

12 Field Operation, Portable Gear a nd In tegrated Sta tions

12.1 Simp le Equipment for Portable Opera tion
12.2 The "Unfinished: ' A 7 - ~1Hl CW Transcei ver
12.3 The S7C, A Sim ple 7-MHz Super -Heterody ne Receive r
12,4 A Dual Band QRP CW Transceiver
12.5 Weak -Signal Communications Using the DSP- IO
12.6 A 28 - ~tH z QRP Module
12.7 A General Purpo se Receiver Module
12.8 Direct Conversion Transcei ver for 144-MHz SSB and CW
12.9 5 2 ~ M Hz Tunable IF for VHF and UHF Tran..ceivers
12. 10 Sleeping Bag Radio
12. 11 1 4 - ~m z CW Recei ver

Contents of CD· R0 1\l

Index

.J
r

PREFACE

The predece sso r for this boo k. Solid SWU' De signfo r the H" di/J the natu ral extension of freq uency' synthesis. Mix ers, inclu di ng
Ama teur (SS D J. was first pub livhed by ARRL in earl y 197 7. T he freq ue ncy mult ipliers, appear in the fifth chapter. Th ese chapters
goa l for thai rcxr was 10 prevent solid stale circuit des ig n methods are laced with projects that can be co ns truc ted. but they also
to a co mmunity muc h more familiar" ith vacuu m tube met hod s. emphasize important basic concepu. Ch apte r 6 mo ves o n 10
But. a no the r goal wa s inte gra ted into the text. thai of prese nting prese nt cc mrmmicaticns eq uipme nt. pre do minantly us ing
the material in 11 way that would allo w the reader to actually supe r-het e rod yne me thods. Sys tem design con ciderat rcns arc
design his or her own circuits. Ha nd boo ks of the day pre.vented incl uded . especially with regard to distorti o n and dy namic ran ge .
only an encyclo pedic ove rview of so lid state device s with brief The ch apter cont ains se vera l proj ect s incl udi ng a high
qua l itative di sc ussio ns abo ut f unc tio nality. SS D described cir cu iI perfor mance receiver. Ch apte r 7 deal s with meas ure me nt
d eme nts in te rms of mo dels t har co uld be used for an alysis. met hod" and incl udes con sidernble test equ ipment tha t the
Design consis ts of more than merely co mbining representative ex perimen ter can bui ld. Chapter 8 the n moves on to a fundam ent al
circuits from a catalog or handb ook. discussion of dir ect con version. Thiv is followed by a thoro ugh
SS!) succ eeded with design becomin g the ke y word in the title , treatmen t of the phas ing method of SS E in Chapter 9. Cha pters
es pecially in later yea rs as the wo rld becam e accusto med to all 10 and I I prese nt fundame ntal co ncepts of digital sign al
electro nic equi pment bei ng predo min a ntly sol id stale. Wha t processi ng and illustra te them with projec ts. The book co nclu des
surprised ma ny is tha t t he hoo k re mained po pular. eve n after wi th Chapter 12 featuring a variety of e xpe rime ntal act ivities of
ma ny of the trans istors used in the ci rcuits were no longer special Inte res t to rhe a uthors.
available. A Co mpac t Disc is included with the boo k. Th is CD co mainv
Exper imenta l Method.\ in Radio Frequency /)e_\-i~n (EMRFD ) come desig n soft ware. e xte nsive listing s for DS P firmware rel ated
is the seq u e l 10 SS D. with design remaining as a cen tra l the me. to Chapters 10 and I I. and a sizeable collection ofj ournal a rticles
Our goa l i ~ 10 present moods and discu ssio n tha t will allow the relating to material pres ented in the text . The de sign so ftwar e is
use r to de sign equipm ent at bot h the circuit and the ..vsre m le vel . written for a perso nal computer using the Microsoft window s
Our o wn i n l .: r': ~ l s are domi nated b)' rad io freque ncies . so the te n o peratin g sys tem . while the jo urnal pape rs are pres ented in Adobe
discusses problems peculiar to rad io cc mmunic ano ns eq uipmen t. Acrobat (PDF) formal.
A final emphasis in EMHF D is expe r-i me nt a t ln n . A vi tal pan of Th is boo k is a pe rso na l o ne in Ihat we have on ly writte n abo ut
a n e xpe rime nt is mea sureme nt. We encou rage the reader to nOI those thi ngs we ha ve actually ex per ie nce d. We spec ifically
onl y hui ld eq uipment. but 10 perform meas urement" o n that gea r a void ed an e ncycl oped ic disc ussio n of materia l that we had no t
a_~ it is being buil l. actua lly ex peri e nced through ex perimen ts. Equipme nl of ime rest
The word "e xperiment:' often conj ures me mor ies of sc hool to the three of us do mi na te s. The amateur bands up to 2 meters arc
exe rcises where a teacher has assem bled equipmen t and we. as co nside red. and are illustrated with CW and SSB gear. The book
st udents. go th rough a prearra nged se t of ste ps to arrive at a use s some math e matics where a ppropriate. It is. howe ver . kept at
concl usion. also predet er min ed. Althou gh efficient. this is a poor a basic le vel.
rcp rc vcmarion of sci ence. Rather. e xperi mental scie nce be gin s Th e boo k cont ains numerou s proje cts th at are suitable for
with a ne w idea. An exp erim ent to te st the idea is then generat ed . du plication . Pr inted circ uit boa rds arc not generally availab le for
the experime nt i~ built. mc usc reme nrv are made , ami the resu lts these. altho ug h boards may beco me available at a later time,
are po ndered. which ofte n result s in ne w ideas 10 test. Th is ca n all Reader. should keep a n eye on the world wide web for PCB
be done by o ne pe rso n work ing alone. EMRFD encou ra ges the informat ion and other matter" related to the boo k. See http ://
participat ing rea der 10 build equipment with an attitu de of www.arrt.org/noteszxtss . We gene rally prefer tha t builders use
connnually see kin g to unde rsta nd the eq uipment and to the projects as sta rting poi nts fo r thei r o wn designs a nd
unders tan d the p ri mitive concepts that for m the basis for Ihe e xpc rime ms rather than dup licat ing the projec ts presented.
equi pment and the circu its co nta ined the rei n. Our greatest hope
i, that the tex t will i llustrate the potentia l of a mateu r radio. a nd
ot her personal science. as a training g rou nd fo r the individual.
Acknowledgments
This leu is aimed at a variety of reade rs: t he radio amateur who The follo wing experimenters have contributed to this book
design s and b uilds his ow n eq uipment: college stude nts loo king thro ug h e xpe rime nts. direct correspondence. e nco urage men t.
fur de sign projects or wiching to ga rner practical e xperience with a nd by example. We gratefull y acknowledge rhcir co ntribuuous.
working hardware: young professionals wishi ng to apply the tr
fresh e ngin ee ring and phy sics co urce wo rk to kitc he n tabl e Bill Amidon fsk); To m Apc l. K5TRA ; Leif Asb rink, S\ f5BSZ;
projec ts: no n-e ngi nee rs want ing to dabbl e in a tec hnic al field : Kirk Baile)'. r.;7CC B; Da ve Be nso n, K ISWL: Byro n Bla nc hard.
engineering man age rs recapt uring the fun of making t hings :" IEKV: De nto n Bra mwell. W7D B: Guy Brennen . K2EFB :
t inste ad o r peo ple ) wo rk: a nd technical exp lorers of alt types, Rod Brin k, KQ6F : Ke nt Britain . WA 5V1B: wa yne Burdick.
The I1 N chapter of EMRFD deals wu h the problems of getting N6 KR:
start ed with e xperi mentatio n. Xumc rcus projects arc presented, Russ Carpenter, AA 7Ql; : De nnis Criss: Bob Culte r. N7F KI:
aimed at asvisti ng the e xperime nter in beginning i nvestigatio ns George Daughters, K6GT: John Da vis. KF6 EDB: Pa ul Decker,
in electronics. Ch apters 2 thro ugh 5 then deal with spe cific circ uit KG7HF : Re v. Ge orge Do bbs. G3RJV ;
functio n". Chup tcr 2 presen ts a mplif ie rs while fi lter s arc Pete Eato n. WB9fLW : Gerry Edson. W AOKNW : Bill Ev an".
di-c uc-ed in Chapter 3, Osc i Haters e merge in Chapter 4, including W3FB:
 George Fare, GJ UGQ ; Joh an Forrer, KC7WW: Dick Frey. the hook and rela ted e xperi mcnrs.
K-lXU; So me fol ks have made special contribution s and deserve
Barrie G ilbert : Jack Glandon. WB-lR:\O; Joe G l a~ s , W B2PJS: spec ial thanks. Co lin Horra bin. G3SBI, Harold Johnson.
Dr. Dave Oordon-Smu h. GJUUR ; ~li k e Grean ey, K3SRZ; W4ZCB : and Bill Carver. W7AAZ, collectiv ely fo rmed the
Linley Gumm. K7H FD: "Triad:' a gr oup build ing the high pe rfo rmance transceiver
Xick Hamilton. G4TXG ; Mark Hansen. KI7 N: Marku s Hansen. partially descri bed in Chapter 6. We sincerely appre ciate the ir
VE7CA: :''It:il Heckr : Ward Helms. W7S MX: Don Hilliard. willing ness to sha re their efforts and results with us . Thanks go
woew. Fred Ho llt:r, W:!EKB: Ro bert Hughson: to Roger Hayward . KA7EX\l, for build ing so me eq uipme nt
Pete Juliano. W6 JFR ; de scri bed in the book as wel l as helping with field testi ng of
Hill Kelsey. N8 ET ; Ed Kessler. AA 3SJ : Paul Kiciak. .\'2PK : numero us design s. Jeff Damm, WA 7MLH. deser ves spec ial
Don KnOlls, W7HJS: O. K , Krienke: thanks for his effo rts. He built equipment describe d in SS/) and
Reb Larkin . W7 SLR : John Lawso n, K5JRK : Roy Lewallen . provided encou rageme nt for this version , Special thanks to Merle
W7EL: John Licb cn rood. K7RO : La rry Llljcqvis t, W7SZ : R. Cox . W7YOZ. and Jim Dave y. KRR Z, for sev eral decades or
F. Logan Jr.. \VB2NRD; bouncing arou nd radio ideas. building the second prototypes.
Step hen Maas. W:,\ Vt lJ : Chuck .\1aeCluer. W8MQW; Jaeob and manning the distant station for co untle ss experime nts . ve ry
Makh inson. N6NW P: Ernie Manly. W7 LHL: Dr. Skip Marsh. special thanks, arc exte nded to Terry White. K7TAU. Ter ry did
W6TFQ (sk I: Mi ke Michael. \\' 31 5: Jim ~I i le s . K5CX: high qu ali ry PC layouts fo r several of the de sign s presented in the
Dave New kirk. W9VES: text and in earlier QST artic les. He also built some equ ipment
Ga ry Olin ·r. WA7SH I; shown in th e book and pro vided meas ure me nt ass ista nce on
Paul Pagel. NIFB : several occasions.
Dave Robert s, G8K BB : ~I i k e Reed. KLl7T S: Don Reynol ds, Special mention should be made ofthe efforts of the late Doug
K7DB A (sk J: Dr. Ulrich Rohde. KA 2WEU : Dr. Dave De'vlaw. W IFB. As co-author of SSD, he provided interest and
Rutledge, KN6EK : Tom Rousseau. K7PJT : encouragement ror th is sequel. On e of Dou g' s greatest qu alities
Bill Sabin. WOIYH: Tom Scott. KD7DMU: Marty Si nger . wa s his intense. since re: interest in rad io communications. He
K7AY P: Derry Spittle. VE7QK: desi gned and built rad io equipm ent. used it on the air . and then
Fred Telewsk i, WA7TZY: dearly wrote about the effo rts, establi shin g a stand ard for all I(l
Paul Wade . W IGHZ: AI Ward, \V5L UA : Dr. Fred Wei ss: Jim foll ow . We missed him often thro ugh the ge neration of this text.
Wyckoff, K3BI : Finally. we wan t 10 thank our famil ies. and especially uur
Bob Zavrcl. W7SX: Rob Zulins ki. WASM A\-1; ....-i ves: Charlene (Sh on) Hayward. Sar a Rankinen. and Janet
Lar kin. A book requ ires time and intense effort that often detracts
We have certai nly missed some fol ks in our list. Please acc ep t fro m other activities. Our "be tter halves" have alltolerated these
our apo logies for ou r ove ....ight and ou r than ks for your help with moments of distrac tio n.

About the Cover Ph o t o g r a p h

The cover ph otograph i ~ an experimental 2.4 GHz Ie dir ect splitter. The passive ci rcuitry is simi lar to Fig 939. and the pho -
conversion receiver front-end on a gallium arseni de die . The die tograp h on page 9.43 shows thi s 1(' co nnec ted to baseband cir -
is a litt le more than one millimeter wide. and less than one mil- cuitry desc ribed in Chapter 9, Note the call signs on the die.
limeter high . Gold-bond wires con nect to the metal squares "r-.1AL,'· wh o was not licensed in 200 1, is no w K7t\.1T1. Photo-
around the edg e. Th e large vpiral is a qu adrature hybrid coupled gra ph hy Dean Moruhei.
inductor. and the match ed inductors at the top are in a Wil kenson

.I
 Abo ut The Aut hors
All thre e of the authors share a s imil ar early exposu re to rad io. obta ining an amate ur licens e as a teen or ea rlie r.
Th ey all started with the novice cl ass licen se. The ir ca rly ham ex peri ences expan ded to become car eer s in science
or
and electronics. All three are members the IEE E Micro wave Theory and Techniques Society and havc pub lishe d
exten sive ly in a wide var-iety ofjournals and books. All three writers c ontrib uted to all cha pters of thi s text, but
each author had a primary re sponsibili ty listed bel ow

Wes Ha y w a r d , W7Z0 1
Wes rece ived a BS in Physics from Washingto n Stat ", Un iver sity in 196 1 and an 1\1S EE fro m Stan ford University
ill 1966. He worked on electron dev ice physics at Varian Assoc iates, The Boei ng Co., and Tektro nix. He then did
Rf c ircu it design. first at Tektro nix and the n at T riQu int Se micond uctor. Wcs is no w se mi-ret ired . dividing his
time betwee n writing a nd co nsulting. wcs "vas the prima ry contrib utor to C hapte rs 1 throug h 7 and large part s of
12 and c an be contacted at w7zoi@arr l.net .

Rick Ca m p bell, K K 7B
Rick received a BS in Physics from Seaule Pacific Uni verviry in 197 5. aft er two years act ivc duty as a US !\' avy
Rad io man. HI: worked for4 years in crys tal phys ics basic research at Bcll Labs in Murray Hill, NJ before retu rning
to grad uate school at the Unive rsity of Washington He completed the MSEE deg ree in 198 1 a nd the PhD in EE
in 19 H4 . He ser ved on the faculty at Mich iga n Tec h University until 1996. Since 1996 he has been with the
Advanced Deve lopm ent Group at T riQuint Semicon duc tor, dexign ing microwave receiver cir cuitry , Rick had
primary re sponsibility tor chaprers x. 9. and large parts of 12. He can be c ontacted at kk7b @llrrl.net.

Bob Larkin, W7 PU A
Bob rece ived a BS in EE fro m the Univers ity of Wa shington and a .\ l S in EE from New York Uni versity . He
work ed for 12 years at Bell Labs in New Je rsey in areas of circu it des ign and signal processing. I n 1973 he and
his wife Janet started Jan el Labs where a variet y of radio freq ue ncy products we re manufactured , They moved the
com pany to Co rvallis Oregon in 1975 where it operated unt il be ing acquired by Cetwave RF in 199 1. He now
works as a co nsulta nt speciali zing in microwave circ uits. Bob was the prim ary contributor to Ch apters 10 and I I
and wrote a sec tio n in Chapter 12. Readers can contact Bob at w7pua@ a r r 1.llct.
 CHAPTER

Getting Started

1 .1 EXPERIMENTING, "HOMEBREWING," AND THE PURSUIT OF THE NEW

Amateur Radio i~ a diverse a nd colorful that a fl y fishing enthu siast would 111'1'1' 1" The inspirurion fur experiment varies . In
a voc ation or h ubb y w her e the pa rtic ipants consider fishing with a tl y that he or she rare cases. the ex peri me nter may fed that
com m unicate with e ach other through the had not tnbricated. The majority la ke an his or her work co uld lead to a new twi st in
u- e o f rad io sig nals. T he co mm unic atio ns. intermediate path. building part, of thei r the stare -o f-the-art. a beuer recei ver. But
whic h c an e ncompass and extend beyo nd radio st ation s while purchasing ot hers. For more ofte n it ..... ill ju st be a casual thought
the planet. arc often rout ine and predict - some. building is an exercise i n craftsm an - tha i "Hey. I' ve never built o ne of these
ab le. but ca n a l times he et hereal. The shi p, an opport unity to gene rate eq uipment before and l'Illcam something: if I do ," The
romance of communica ting with the o the r with an individ ual imprint and perso nality. most common is an effo rt sp urred by a need:
sid..: of the world ble nds wit h the joy of Co mmo n 10 all of the se, amateur radio a ham wants a rig 10 take along o n a hiking
observing a c om plicarcd pan o f nature. Fo r presents an opportunity that is rare amo ng trip when no such thing can be purchased .
..orn e of uv, the wo nder never di sap pears. avocations, a cha nce for indi vidual. unre- 1':0matter wh at the origin. the expe rimenter
Although rad io ca n be fun, our prag - strained investig atio ns in fundamental sci- ca n enjoy the kno wled ge that he or she is
matic soc iety de mand.. mo re tha n exci te- ence lind technology . This is a rarity in an learni ng mo re about the subjec t and about
ment when re sou rces arc used. The virtue age when most research and desig n i~ per- the research process.
that most ofte n j ust ifies o ur use of the formed by team s of invevtigatorv within In thiv boo k we e nco urage a ll levels o f
radio spect r um is the gro wth of a profi- large organizations. be they universitics or what has bec ome kno wn as radio "home-
cient co mm unica ti o ns vys tem tha t can be the engineering arms of corpo rations. There, brewing." rangi ng fro m beginn er projec t,
ca lled upon in limes of emergency. The the subjects chosen for investigation arc of- to sophisti cated multi-mode c reation s. We
e xample s of its use are numero us. ten those of corpo rate or natiunal interest. lt ge neral ly em phasi ze simple equipme nt
But. "ha m' radio is mo re tha n this . II is is increasingly rare that a study is initiated describ ed b)' primin ve expla natio ns. By
a te ch nic al a voc atio n of d iverse ed uce- out o r simple curiosity. fortunately. we are primitive. we intend that the d iscu ssio n
rional pote ntial. It has values that go we ll not so constrai ned within oue perso na l in- re late to the most funda mental and basic
beyo nd that o f a supple mentary co mmu ni- vcsnga tions of radio science. ci rcui t des ig n co nce pts. The equ ipment
cations network. Consider an e xample. An ex perime nta lly and system s prese nted are rhe mselv e v
Most radi o ama te urs have a n inte rest in inclined rad io ama teur env isio ns a new basic. etten witho ut the fril ls, bell s. and
the tec hnical details of the eq uipm ent the y scheme for a recei ver. It might be a better whistle, of com mercial eq uipment. Some
usc . Historic ally . Ihis was a req uire me nt; front end circuit . a ne w block d iagram. or a refi nements will be discussed. allowing the
The only way a rad io a mateur coul d as- way 10 real ize so me receiver fun ctions with e xperimente r (0 add thos e he or she needs.
semble a n ope rat ing station war.. to person - a comp uter . The e xperimenter can analyz e T his book e mp hasi zes equ ipme nt de-
a ll y build his o r he r gea r. Co mm erc ial the sche me. design an e xample. build a pro - vign. Our interes t is in basic cir cuit func-
eq uipment was rare, a nd was often pro - totype. build and ao ernblc needed tesr tions and the und erlyi ng co ncepts th at
hib itivel y expe nsive, HUI today. high qual- eq uipme nt. me asure the receiv er per for- allo w' them to be unde rstood . Thi s book is
ity "ham" gea r is readi ly a vail able in Il1O.<.t mance, compare it with predicted results. generall y NOT a colle ction of projec t, for
of the wor ld. muc h of it at modest prices. and use the receiver on the air. Eac h part of reproduct io n and co nstructio n Although
Altho ugh no lo nger necessar y. it is still the investigat ion can imeract with the ot h- so me of the eq uip ment may be d irect ly
co mmon for rad io amate urs to build at leas t ers. All of the ac tivity can be done without du plica ted. we would prefer to have you
so me of Ihe ir own equi pment. The reason.. interference from othe r sources. The pro- ada pt ou r resu lts to fit yo ur o wn needs.
are varied and a." numerous as the part ici- gram will neve r be cancelled by the chang- T his boo k is. in man y ways . a sequel to
pant s. A fe w purists co nside r buil d ing the ing goal s of a n organization . Nor will it be an ea rlier effo rt. Solid State Designfor thr
eq uipment the)' usc to be a non-opti on al. rushed b)' the economic pressure, of a co r- Rad io Amatl'ur. 1 T hat 1977 book.
integra l pan of the ir ho bby in the same way porat e progra m. co- a uthored with the late Do ug Dc xtaw.

Ge"ing Started 1. 1
W I FB . had goa ls simi lar 10those outli ned ac tuall y bui lt an exa mple of what is d is- ne glec t the m at ou r pe ril. T he litt le rigs.
abo ve. plus ' hal of introd uci ng solid-state c ussed. we will so state in the rel ated te xt. a nd the concepts the y re prese nt. are at the
methods 10 readers wit h experi ence lim- We em phasize the trudirio nal corn mu- core of wirel ess tech nology. It is nOI
ited 10 vac uum lub e electronics. The la ter nicaucns modes of C \\'. the origi nal digi - eno ugh to play wit h the m as a no vice a nd
need has become arguable . for virt ually tal mod e. and SSR pho ne. Building lin k then move on to other things: they nee d 10
all of ou r equipm e nt is now based upon rigs and radiati ng and rece iving comi nu- he revisited over and ov er aga in at d iffe r-
soli d-state tec hnology. cus wa ves are 10 a radio ex peri menter en t ~ la g es of one's voca tio n. each lime
All of the c irc uits prese nted in this text much like pl aying scales and fol k tunes ac hieving a new le vel o t mast ery until fi -
ha ve bee n co nstructed. tested, and used in arc 10 a musi cian . The y are Ihe firs t things nall y one is probing the deepest mysteries
practic al. o n- the-ai r sh uanons. Jr'the re arc we le arn. are important part s o t Inc da ily of the art .
exce ptio ns whe re t he au tho rs have not practice routine thro ugh o ut life. and we

1.2 GETTING STARTED-ROUTES FO R THE BEGINNING EXPERIMENTER

What to build:
A fre que nt question asked hy the pro- thc cop per awa y. le avin g only those BREADBOARDED CIRCUITS
spccuv c e xperimenter regards an initia l regions neede d to for m the desi red circuit. Breadb oard, as app l ied to electronics,
project or subj ect for pursu it. A common After e tch ing. the board is ....-ashed a nd is a term fro m a time whe n ea rly rad io
c ho ice fo r a first project com es fro m a drillcd. Pure co ppe r is easily co rroded. so ex per ime nters huilt the ir eq uipme nt o n
des ire to extend the r apa bifitiev of an ex- it is c om mon 10 pla te boa rds with a tin s tabs of wood. often procu re d from the
isting station. T he future ex perirnemer al- coat ing. fonning a more stab le and kitchen. T he term remains as an ind ustr y-
ready has ex perience ..... ith on-the-ai r ac - sold crable surface . Refined boards incl ude wide descrip tion of a prel iminary ex peri-
tivi ty and a working sta tion. He or she the n cop per on bot h side s. and even plating on me nta l ci rcu it. There are numerous
want s to ex te nd that station to ne w ba nds. the insid e of the holes. Ind ustrial boa rds mod ern method s lhal ca n be used to gc ncr-
impro ved transc eiver perfor ma nce. o r fab- will ofte n incorporate many layers. ale a one-of-a-ki nd ci rc uit.
ricate a rig offeri ng portability. w hile Modern practice features slir/aCt' mount
these goals arc all ....o rthy. they can be d if- te rh notogv, S:\IT. using small co mpo - UGL Y CONSTRUCTION
fic ult. T hey may be con ceptuall y' Imoos- nen ts wi thout wire leads. Thc leads ha ve A panicular ly sim ple met hod was OUl·
cihle for the begin ner. a nd impractica l for bee n replaced with met ali zed rcg rcns on lined in an ea rly QST pape r and i.. no w
the seasoned e xpe rimenter \\ ith other life the pans that are then soldered d irectly to know as " Ugly Construe tio n:'Z Alt ho ug h
com mit ments. A be uer "fi rst" ex periment the board . The so ldering provides physi- ce rtai nly not uniqu e. the scheme wor ks
may well be som eth ing that is much si m- ca l mo unti ng as we ll as electri culconnec- we ll a nd co ntinu e.. as a reco mme nde d
pler. Se veral simp le proj ec ts are offe red lion. The Sfl.fT ho ards arc cheaper to bui ld me thod . T he sch e me co nsist of the fol low -
later in this chapter as sui table beginnings. and usua lly much more dense. S"'IT pam ing:
" an boo: ,0 sma ll tha t the y are hard to hand le I. A g round plane is establis hed usi ng
wit ho ut a good microsco pe. SMT is an a n uri-etched scrap of copper cl ad circu it
How to build i t : inte resting way to bui ld if there is anced hoard material!'
Another ge ttin g-started q uestion re o for really sma ll equipme nt. T he small size 2. Foll ow ing the schem atic for a c ircuit
gards the methods to use i n buildi ng e lec- of SMT cir cuits often results in improved bein g bu ill. grounded compo nen ts are sol -
tronics. The re are several opt io ns. all with high freque ncy perfor mance. dere d dire c tly to the gro und foil with sho rt
the ir asse ts and weakness es . A fe w arc G rowi ng SMT po pularity in man ufac- leads.
di sc uvved belo w. luring mean s that surface mounted is the 3. Som e no n-gro unded parts are so l-
only available for m to r a component. Man y dere d (0 and sup ported by the gro unded
PRINTED CIRCUIT BO ARDS parts don't exi st in leaded for ms. In so me co mponents.
The primary co nstruc tio n sc heme used c ases the y can he ha nd led by the "S urf- ~. Ot her non -grou nded com po nents are
in modern electro nics is the printed c ircu it boards" by Capital Ad vanced Tec hnolo- supported w ith suita ble "tie down poi nts,"
hoa rd lPeB ). Here. pads or islan ds of gies whic h are found in Digi Ke)" cata logs. con sisting of high value res istors.
metal are anached to an ins ulatin g mate - These are small SMT boards with an inte r- 5 . O nce finished and wor kin g. the boa rd
rial. usually epox y-fi berglass. Wir es o n face that will adap t to other board forms. ca n be mo unted in a suitab le box. hidde n
[he parts are pushed thr o ugh ho les in the Circuit hoard s haw been built in a home fro m view if desired. whe re it becomes a
boa rd and solde red to the pads. whic h a re environment by hams for gener ations. The pe rma nen t application of the idea. Ug ly
intercon nec ted by primed metal runs. thus reader should review the subject in The A RRL con ..tr uction is illus rrurcd in Fi g 1. 1.
formin g the circ uit. Ha nd b ook: 10 find OUI morc about the meth- Cas ual ci rcu it ana lysis a llo ws the
_,)" PCB hegins as a fiberglas.... beet with Uth. A major problem with home etc hed build er to pic k the stan doff resisto r values.
copper lam inated to one or both sides. The boards is the disposal of the used ctcha m. Any " hig h R" val ue re..tsto rs ca n be used .
metal curfuce- are then coated with a light usually a sol ution of ferric chloride. Disposal Usuall y, 1- ~1 n res isto rs work we ll an y-
,ensitin: "p ho lo-re, i, t"' material. A pall ern practices commo n in the past arc now que, - where with in RF circu ils. T hc typic a1 l /4
for thc ..:ir,,·u il i, oplicall y tra nsferred to the tioned in this era of enlightcned recycling. W re,i stor ot' a ny val uc has a stray lead -to-
,urfa":l' ilnd the unnpo, ed materi a l is Although some of thc projec ls descrihed in lea d parallel ca pacitance of about 0.3 10
wash ed allo ay. T he board is 11m\' placed in this text use etched boards. few or the hoards 0.4 pF. per haps a lill ie more with longer
a , olutio n thai che mically etches ,orne of were ell.: hed in our ho rne labs, leads. and a serie, inducta nce of 3 10 5 n Il.

1.2 Chapte r 1
 Glu e o r s o ld e r.
100 L

vee~l '~ 1- QJ 1- ,ti SOlder·1

Vee
1 Meg
. 01 1 Me g
22 0
~
, 1SS:.-m-I-I:;;:)
1 0::",0 ~ ~ S ~ S Fig 1.2- An e xam ple of '"Ma nha Ua n"
breadboard ing.
2 20
S S

1 Meg . 01 1 Meg S· solder I S O l d e r. ~

Fig 1.1- A pa rt ia l ci rc ui t ill u str ati ng Wugly" co nstruction. ~ = 'I

~ S O l d e r_!

Reacta nce i ~ linle co nseq uence for ....-o rk method to be especially usefu l for slig htly Fig l.3-A - q uaet-ctrcu tt boa rd"
up thro ugh 150 \ f H7. Or so . High R mea ns massive cornponems such as floating. non- s cheme fo r brea d bo a rding. The
th ai resista nce is high with re...pecl to the gro unde d. trimmer capacitors . The spe - installed re s is tor he re is SOldered to
grou nd a nd to a pad that co nnects to
reactance of the induc tance. We sometimes cific glue type has lit tle impa ct on circuit the res t of the circ uit ry.
use R values as low as IOkQ. It is often pe rfor manc e. Variat io ns of this me thod
surpri...ing j ust ho w few standoff resistors hav e been called "Manh attan Co nstrue-
are needed in an ugly breadboard. tio n," and ca n be mixed with other bread-
T he g rea te st vi rt ue of the ugly me thod is boarding sc he mes . Th e reader can find
low inductance grounding. Any const rue- nume rous e xa mple s nn the Web on sites
tion sche me that preserves this grounding dealing with QRP experiments, as we ll as
integ rity w ill wo rk as well. Pic king a in Fi g 1.2_
method is a chok e that the builder has. a The propone nts of Ma nha ttan Con st rue - when the board is no t etched in a circ uit-
place where he or ..he can deve lop the non often use small round pads that are spec ific pa tte rn . One met hod , call ed
methods tha i wo rk best. glued to a ground fo il with epoxy or simi- "chec ker-board." uses double siocd c ircu it
Integrated c irc u it, ca n he p lace d o n an la r glue. The pad s arc placed so that all board with one s ide func tioni ng as a
ugl y hoa rd wi th leads stick ing up. "dead components are parallel to hoar d edg es gro und foil. The other side con sists of a
bug" style. There is litt le need to glu e the and clo se to the grou nd foi l. This produces matrix of small islands of copper. These
chips do wn. torcomponents and wires wi ll an att ractiv e board resembli ng a co mmer - reg io ns are cre ate d either by et ching or
eventually hold them in place. Gro unde d cial. PC board. This does nut seem to com- ma nuall y with a hack saw Patterns of
IC leads are be nt a nd soldered directly to prom ise performance. squares on ILl- inch cen ters accommodate
the foil. Wit h trad ition al ug ly construction. parts traditional K's . Ho les arc d rilled in the is-
Som e builders prefer 10 maintain ICs can be moved about to make room Cor lands whe re components must reside. A
with the IC la bel facing upwa rd. allo wing ano ther stage. In the ex trem e . an enti re lar ge drill bit the n re m ove s ground fo il
later inspec tio n. They the n be nd all leads circuit ca n be lifte d and mo ved, a stage at aro und the hole witho ut enlargi ng it. No
o ut in a "spread eag le" format . a time, to a nother board. hnles lire re quired wh ere a grou nd co n-
W r: have ne ve r had a prob le m with ugly A primary virt ue of a bread- boa rding ne cuon is need ed . Compone nt s usually
equipment being less than robust . Many of scheme is construction speed and flesih sl- reside on the ground side of the bo ard. See
our ugly rig s have bee n hauled throu gh the ity, esp ecially important when the prima ry FiJi: 1.3_
mountai ns of t he Pacific No rthwest in purpos e of buildin g gear is info rmat ion The do uble sided c hec ker-board ca n
packs witho ut inciden t. An o utsta nding abo ut ci rcu it be havi o r. also serve for breadboarding with surfac e
ex am ple . the wor k of a frie nd. is the W7EL So me folks prefer to reb uild a circuit mo unte d components. Pa rt" then reside
Optimiz ed QRP Transceiver. a rig that has after a brea db oarding phase. rep lacing an on the punem sidc w ith ho les drilled 10
trav eled aro und the worl d in suitcases and ugl y pro tot ype wi th a mure perma ne nt. reach ground. Sma ll lea ded co mponents
pac ks) Fe w if any sta ndoff res istors were production-like ve rsio n. These efforts take can also be surface mounted.
used in that rig. addi tio nal time and rarely prod uce perfor- The checkerboa rd sc he me. " ~fa n h at­
ma nce supe rior to the o riginal bread- fan" variants, a nd eve n do uble- sided
MANHA TTAN BREADBOARDING boards. Eve n loo ks can be deceptive when printed boards have fair ly high capac i-
Se veral o the r construction sche mes of- o ne bide s ugly breadboa rds beh ind mo re tance from pads to grou nd. These arc often
fer sim ilar grou nding fidel ity, incl ud ing attractive front pa nels . poor qua lity ca paci tors with low Q. unde r
those .... her e small pads of ci rcui t board 100 for epo~y fibe rg lass board material.
material are glued or so lde red to th e QUASI-PRINTED BOARDS and arc s ubject to .... ate r a hsorprion. A
grou nd foi l. These pads then have ccmpo- Some experiment er s prefer to build single sided formal i",preferred for critical
nems soldered to them. w e have fo und this equipmen t that looks like a PC B. even sections of a I.e osc ill ator application.

Getting Started 1 .3
1.3 SOME GUIDELINES FOR THE EXPERI MENTER

Wi th Solid-State Design for the Radio consist of sever al sec lions, each design ed -If s not ab out cr ntts manship : A po rtion
Ama tela came considerab le interaction so tha t i t c an be built. test ed, mod ified , and of the home hr ewing community wa s
wi th the re st of the amateur radi o commu- red es igned as needed , with minimal schooled with the idea that "n ice look ing"
ni ty A frequ ent que st ion we heard was change 10 the rest of the system. E ven the circu it cons truction went along with goo d
"How do I get sta rted wi th experiment- simples t litt le rig should he built a stage at performance. But the two factor-s are gen -
ing?" Or, "I've read abo ut and ha ve even a time , t urned on sequentiall y, te sted , and erally isolated. Th is is illus trated in Fi g
bui lt so me ki ts and published projects. but mod if ied as nee ded . Single board tra ns- 1A. There is no relationship between hav -
1 want to go further. J wan t to d o my own ceiver des igns are popular in the QR P in g 11 n ice loo king , ord erly ci rcu it bo ard
de sign . what is the nex t step?" aren a. Bu t realize that the on e s that work and good performance from that board , In-
A set of guide lines is offered in a n at- well are probably the res ult of several rc- deed . those saddled with the cho re of de -
temp t to ans we r some of the se que st ion s. builds, a nd ev e n then, so me don't wo rk si gni ng 11 pri nted board to perform as well
The se are not firm. well establi shed rules . ve ry well; others are superb . as an ugly breadboard may wonder if there
but mere im pres vions and per so nal biases mig ht be an inverse relationshi p)
- Avoid e xce ssi ve miniaturiza tio n: It
that we han: ge ne rated. approaches that tak es much more ti me to bu ild sm all things -Use breadboarding ov er a gro und plane
wo r k fo r us. T hey are offered without than those w here the ci rc uitry can expand for communic atio ns circ uits. e specially
guara ntee, without bound. E ve n when bui lding small when invest igating new idea s. Use vector
port able QR P transc e ive rs. it's often board or wire-wrap methods for slow digital
-K ISS: Th is Bri tish te rm is sho rt fo r circuits, hut treat fast digital circuits as if they
wor thw hile to establish the des ign with a
" Keep It Simple, Stupid. " We often des ign were RF functions. In general. bu ild wi th
larger b read board .
equipmen t that is mo re complicated than those methods that will offer the best . low
needed. It is well worth some extra lime - Ba se proj ect s on your own goals: Our
induct ance, groundi ng while allowing cir -
duri ng de sign to e valuate every part to see central personal goal is le arn in g thro ugh
cuits to be q uickly de signed . assembled, and
if it i s really needed. T he functio n of each experimenta tio n. Henc e , we base projects
tested. If yo u are concerned with aesthe tic
pa rt shou ld be understood and justifi ed. on qu e stions that need inves tigation ra ther
detai ls. build a second version. Alterna-
The circ uit should fun ct ion as inte nded . than what we need or wa nt fo r on -the -air
tively. an attractive panel ca n be used to hide
Th is does not imply that d es igns with the operatio n. Bu t your goals may be differ-
ugly. but highly func tional brea dboa rds .
minimum numb er of parts arc be st. Ho w- ent . It is worthwhi le to rev iew and defin e
the m as a mean s of picki ng th e best _ B uil d what you use. and usc wha t yo u
eyer. it is rar ely justifi ed 10 ov er des tg n by
add ing ext ra components " bec ause a proh- proje cts for you . Is ol at e pr imary go als b uild: T ho se or us in the homebrew end of
le m might occur." For exa mple. designs fr om those that are se rend ip ity amateur radio o ften kid our appliance op -
wi th a prof usio n of fe rrite bead s an d "s ta- era tor friends , suggesting that a "real ham"
_ Be war y of "Creepi ng Features." The
sho uld bu ild instead o f j us t operate . Some
bility e nhanc ing" resi stors may be suspec t. term "ap pliance : often de scri be s the
avid e xper ime nters may take thi s too far:
e A void lore: L ore , in this case. refe rs to transcei ve rs that we purchase for
they b uild a rig , usc it j us t lo ng enough to
"knowledge that is based upo n experi- on -the-air c om m uni catio ns . Appliance s,
confirm f unc tion alit y. and go o n to the
en ces that are d ivorced from carefu l even ones that we bui ld o urse lv es, are
next project, miss ing some ex citi ng dis -
thought. A classic example in am ateur ra- usually expected to have ma ny features,
cov cries a lo ng the way . B y using the
d io regards the thermal stuhili ty o f L C but these b ells and whistles ca n ac t ually
equipment with tem pered intensity, the
o sci llators. Envision the amat eur experi - impede experimental progress . A singl e
experimenter will d isco ver the strength
me nter who b uilt an osci llator using a tor - band , single mode transcei ve r ca n be a s
an d weakness of the rig. allo wing the next
o id. The c irc ui t drifted whe n he opened e xperime nta lly enlightening an d informa -
project to be eve n more successful. The
the wi nd o w to t he wi nte r wea ther. T he ti ve as 11 m ultiple mo de, general co verage
same arguments might be applied to soft-
next evening he replaced the inductor wi th transceive r.
ware de velopme nts !
one wound on a ce ra mic coil form, no tic - _ Use th e li terature . Pe rus e c atal og s, _ Beware of the go lde n screwdriver: A
i ng tess drift when he opened the window. data ma n uals. web sire s, and even instruc-
He concluded that cer am ic forms are bet - goo d frie nd, WA 7M LH , encountered a
tion man uals for circ uit idea s. W hen a cir- fe llow o n the air who se so le met hod for
ter tha n ro roi ds, ha vi ng nev er considered cuit method is not und erst ood, it should be experimentatio n was to adjus t all of h is
the sp ecific coil forms that were used. the stud ied in texts appro priat e to the technol- equi pme nt for maximum o utp ut. H e di d
ot her components in the circuit, or the fact og y. It is useful to bu ild somethi ng with
tha t the we a the r had improve d. Poorly this with a favor ite screwdrive r. wh ic h he
the pa rt as a way to really understand that treated as gol den. Af te r careful tweaking
e xecuted experiments lik e this o ften ge n- pan . of a n circu it clements that c ould he ad -
crate erroneou s conclusions , T he result-
ing lore. although in tere stin g. sho uld - While pla nning is nec essary. d on' t justed. he was a lmost always ab le to co ax
sp en d excessive time in the prel iminary a lOU-W tran scei ver into delivering 110
alway s be que stioned. It is always beuer to
de sig n phase of 11 project. Ra ther, outli ne W of o utput. Unfortuna te ly, what started
do mea ningful measurements.
preli minary ide as and goals , d o initial c al- as a good piece of equipment had become
- P la n yo ur pro je c ts with block d ia - cu latio ns (on a computer onl y if they are a distorted disaster. Wh ile we all tend to
grams: Start wi th small diagrams whe re rea lly complicated), ga the r part s, and adj ust c ircui ts for " maxi mu m smoke." lin-
eac h bloc k is a glo bal element. perhaps beg in hui ld ing . Enjoy the fr ee do m tha t ear circu itr y should be co nfined to opcr-
co ntaining sev era l stages, Expand these to allows yo u to change your min d in the al e under li near conditions. I t is im po rtant
sho w grea te r detail. Block diag rams will midd le of an invesugano n. Refi ned calc u- tha t the lim its be reco gni ze d and adhe re d
be discus sed fur ther below, latio ns c an occur du ri ng and aft er co n- to . This is es peci ally im por tan t whe n
efienerate modul ar equipment: A hig h struct ion and are no t JUSl "design phase" building SSB gea r. Alignmen t mea ns ad-
per for mance receiver, for e xample . should ac tiv ities. j ustm ent to the proper. measu red le vel,

1 .4 Cha pte r 1
 •

0:

Fig 1.4-"N ice looking " circ uit con str uc tion does not always equate to good circuit performance.

whic h may differ from maximum. loca l d ubs to fi nd c ut who is building. Lis- FCC has specific atio ns for spuriou s emis-
. A l w ay ~ keep notebooks for expert- ten 10 the appropriate ne ts a nd uncnd the sio ns fro m US tra nsmitters. These spec ifi-
mems: Record those wild ci rc uit ideas thai specialty cl ubs. Wri te to fello ws who catio ns de pend upo n trans mitter outp ut
come up while you cur the lawn or watch aut hor articl es of interes t, especially if power. Even for equ ipment running full
TV: reco rd important data du rin g exper i- the y live nearby. Watch t he c hat sessio ns po we r, the specificatio ns are ge ner ally
me nu . includi ng the te mper at ure when on the Inte rne t or the Web . Amateur radio easy to meet at HF. Whe n powe r dro ps
yo u o pen the windo w; take notes on the is a bo ut commu nication s. so da n' , hesi- below 5-W o utput. they beco me c ve n
circ uits that yo u build, including changes tate to comm uni cate. easier. Throu gho ut this text we tak e the
thai are mad e during bui lding and "turn • Look tow ard the ordi nary for expla- app roach that ev en greater le v cls of clean-
on" , Dale the notebook and place small natio ns: When a design is not worki ng as liness will be sought. This ho ok includes
dated labels inside the rigs 1\0 you ca n find well as it should, we look for explanatio ns a cha pter o n test eq uipment. One of the
the data when it 's needed. Use bo und o r that will explain the diffe re nces. All too item s featu red the re is a spec trum analyzer
spiral notebooks rather than loose-led ofte n we conside r the co mplic ated a n- thai wiII allow the builde r to mea sure spec -
docume nts, for (hey are mo re permanent . swe rv, o nly to disco ve r that the real an- tra l pu rity,
A lo ng te rm compute r based i ndex of note- s wer is in the ..ob v io us." It i.s alway s A final "rule:" Don' t let any of these
boo k!' is ve ry useful. worthwhile to ret urn 10 fundam entals. ru les ge t in the way of experimenting and
• Find o thers with the sa me pass ion for • Str ive to build eq uip ment that doe s building ! It' s OK if the re are things that
e xperime nti ng: Although this guide line is not po llute the alread y ab used radi o spec - you do n"t unde rsta nd even if that incl ude s
pren y o bvio us, ir's also easy fo r the ex - tru m: Make a n effort to ge ne rate d ea n the proje ct you are about [ 0 build. for yo u
per ime nter to beco me isolated in his o r he r eq uipm ent. mea ning tha t it doc s not em it will unde rstand much mo re whe n you are
0 \\ 0 wo rld. Builder hams are rarely iso- sign als at frequ e ncies othe r than the in- fini shed. The real goal of this pursu it. a nd
lated. Finding the local o nes will give you tended one s. While most of this conce rn is of this hook is to team by doing. The same
a place 10 communicate yo ur ideas, hear with transmitters, the ide as sho uld also be can he said for other "rules" that may ap-
abou t ne w though ts. and to sha re ju nkbe ... app lied to receivers . The diffi cult ques- pear in the literature oron the web : Do n' t
pa rts as we ll as tes t equipme nt. Ad; a t tion is "Ho w clea n is clean enoug h?" Tbe let the m keep yo u fro m experimenti ng .

Getting Started 1.5

1.4 BLOCK DIAGRAMS
F ig 1.5 shows a coll ectio n of e le ments Basic Block Diagram Elements
that can be used in a detai led bloc k dia-
gram of a rad io . This short list i s ge nerall y
e xten sive enoug h to describe th e
no n-digital designs in this book.
--{>- Ampli f i er . Provi d es net po wer gai n .
Sc hemati c a nd block d iagrams serv e a
variety of purposes in e lec tronics. T he Mixer _ Pr o vide s an out pu t f r eque ncy
pur pose o f the bloc k d iagr am is to pre se nt
the func tion s and their int e rcon nection
th at is a s urn/ di f o f i np ut
used in a piece of eq uipment. Schema tic fr eq uencie s.
d iagrams prese nt the deta ils.
A blo ck dia gram is a useful way to plan Os ci l l at or . Gene rat es an out put at
and des cribe the e quipmen t we wis h to a s i ng l e f r equency.
build , The block d iag ra m will se rve as the
startin g poin t for mathem atica l a nalysis
Combin er/ Sp l i tt er . Adds t wo s i gn als or

~
that we may app ly to the overa ll syste m. It
can also em phasize the function s required ~ s pl i ts on e i nto t wo p ar t s whi l e i s ol ati ng
to complete the de sign . This is ill ustrated t hem.
with Fig 1. 6 sho wing a d irec t conversion
trans ce ivc r for the 40-mete r band. Se veral I np ut s / out p ut s . Coax ', s p e aker ,
fil ters are sho wn, illu st ratin g the fu nctions microp hon e , he adp hone s.
that are im po rtant fo r go od perfor mance . [):::
The lo w pass an d the high pas s betwe en
the mixer and au di o am pli fier are sim ple ,
con si sting of one co mpo nent ea c h. Th ere
may be no co m pone nts for the signal spli t-
Low Pas s Fil t er raJ Res onator

ter , but the fu nc tion re mai ns. Hig h Pas s Fi l t er .

Fig 1.7 sho ws a more elabo rate circ uit. a
super-he terodyne SSB/CW tran scei ver for
the 50-MHz ha nd. The phas ing met hod can
also be used: such a 50-MHz transceiver is Bandpas s Fil t er .
presented in Flg 1.8. Designing any of these
sys tems begi ns by forming the bloc k dia-
grams. whic h incl udes speci fy ing each of All Pas s Fil t er
the blocks . Once this is done. the indiv idual (Pha s e Shi f t net wor k)
circuits ca n be des igned. Som e elements arc
missi ng in the block diagram in the interests
of cla rity. It will he usef ul to add block deta il Fig 1.5-Comm on bloc k di agram el em ents.
during circuit des ign.
Some block detai ls ma y d iffer fro m the
fin a l im pleme nta tion, but funct io ns re- Aud i o LC!HPF
main. For ex ampl e, the splitte r and phas e LC!BP F
Re ce ive r~
shift ing fu nc tio ns arc oft en co m bined in I nput High Gaio
q uadrature co mbi ne r ci rcui ts ope rat in g at RF AUd io Amp ,
RF. We somet im e s show a 90 -d eg ree
ph ase shift in one path wit h no ne in a n-
ot her where ac tual circ uitry merel y main-
tains a 90- d egn: e di fferen ce. Aud i o LC! LP F
These fig ure s o ffer a gli mpse of what
the tc xt will cover. T he de sig n of the bloc k TX out put
cle ments will each be d isc usse d in indi-
vidu al chapter s Then, the bl ocks will be
~ - -ern blcd in svste m chapters rel ated to fil-
<c: ;'h :.±-ing. and digital signal proces s ing -.tR e y
,', <em _

Fig 1.6-Block di agram of a d ir ect co n versio n transc eiver.

,... ChIopte r 1
1.5 AN IC BASED DIRECT CONVERSION RECEIVER
Thi s receiver design is one of the sim- lion effort. formance among very low current recciv cr
plest possible that will allow CW and SS B The basis for thi s recei ver is the :,\E602 cornpone ms. The NE60:! contains a miller
signal-, 10 be recei ved. It offers perfor - (or XE 6 11) integrated ci rcuit. Originally and an oscill ator, (WO essen tial bloch
mance eno ug h for on -the -air co ntac ts introd uced by Signericv in the late 1980s. needed for a receiv er. The mixer in a direct
while serving as an introd ucto ry co nstrue - the c hip is c as>' to use and offers good per- conv ersion recei ver servev to heterod yne
the incoming antenna vignal directly down
to audio. Th e oscillator pro vide s mixer LO
(local oscillator] inj ection for this convc r-
sion. The oscillato r within the I\"E601 b a
single trancistor followed by a buffer am-
p lifier of undi sclo sed complexity. The
:-;[602 mixer is a dou bly balanced circu it
of a type known as the Gilbert Celt with
operation outli ned in a later c hapter.
The L tl-B llfiN audio ampli fier follow -
ing the N E 6 0 ~ comple tes the receiver. The
M dlO LM386N will drive a small speak er. or
"",,~ l ~ fiH
headphones of high or low impeda nce. T he
ideal set ofvcnns" to use with this receive r
i~ a lie ht weight pair of the sort used wit h
j ogging receivers or simila r consumer
gea r.
The rece iver is shown sche matically in
f ig 1.9. Our vers io n is built usi ng the
"ugly" methods outlined ear lier. If you use
a pre-etch ed and drille d circuit board. lake
the time 10 study the board layout in deta il.
and tr ace [he ci rc uit while studying the
r:..r n~[ 0$<:~ .1 ~ .. l.<.[
sc hem atic diagram. Merely stuffing parts
' : cr :.v ) and solderi ng will prov ide you with no
more than so ldering prucuc e.
The signal from the antenna connect or
is applied \(I a pot that serves as a gain
control with output routed to a sing le tuned
Fig 1.7-Bloc k di agram of a super-heterodyn e 5SB tran sceiver.
circuit using L1. a toro id inducto r. Thi s
circuit drives the mixerinput at !\ E60:!pins
I and 2. The load within the Ie looks like
a pair of l .;<i ·kn resistors from the input
pins 10 a virtual gro und ,
The NE602 osci llator has a collect or tied
Re ce lv« r ;-; to the posit ive power supply. The base of
raput 11) \.; that transistor is available at pin 6 while
pi n 7 goes to the emitter. Internal bias
I.e / BFf
resis tors set the volta ge and establish a cu r-
rent of abo ut 0.3 mA in the Colpitts oscil -
later . Feedback ca pacitors in ou r circu it
run between pins 6 and 7 and from pin 710
.,,,
50-50 .3
groun d. A 270-pF capacitor then ties the
base to (he rest of the tuned circuit.
A simplified version of the oscillator
circuit is shown in Fig 1.10. This Hlus-
tratcs the way a simplified circuit is used to
calculate the resona nt freq uency. Fig
I .IOA shows the co mple te oscillator. But.
the tWO6RO-pF feedbac k capac itors have a
series equ ivalent of 340 pF. as show n in
part B of the figure. In goi ng from Fi g
I.to8 10 Fig 1.1OC. we resolve the 50·pF
variable and to·pF fixed into IU pF; the
270 and 340 pF beco mc 150 pF. We evulu -
ated both variable cap acitors at thei r maxi·
m um value, Fig J.[OC has nothing bUI
Fig 1.8- Blo c k d iag ram of a phasing method SSB tra nsceive r. para llel capacitor s which add directl y to

Getting Started 1.7

r

form Fig 1.10D . A simple resonance c al-

cel ation show s lunin g [0 0.9 Ml-lz.
'1' \', '0 variable capac itor re i and C2 ) are
used in our oscilla tor. They are near ly the
+5 to +3 same value. The la rge r. C 1, d irectly para l-
+ vee lels the inductor. A detailed analysis show s
100tF1- ~ that it will tune o ver a wide ran ge, the fu ll
6.9 to 7.5-!\1lIl span. C2 i s "padde d do wn"
with a lO-pF ser ies capacitor. C2 has a
val ue ranging fro m 5 to 50 p F. The seri es
---j (
cap acitor then generates a compos ite C
" 1 .22
ranging from :U to R.3 pF, a 5-p F differ-
1 L1 NE602
,T
.1 e nce. Add capacitance in parallel with C2
to create even greater bandspread (resolu-

'1 , 0
.22 tion or low tu ning rate),
All fixed cap acito rs shou ld idea lly be
n ~ 6BO
f--'---l f--O
680 1
NPO c eramic type s. rea dily ava ilab le from
major mail order sources. B ut. don't hesi-
270 T tate to try other c aps if you have the m in
C1 ~?e?'-T-r----i, eo your ju nk box. T he worst that will happe n

reo I 1 0
'
is that the rec e iver will dri ft more t han
desi red. New parts are eas ily subst ituted
later.
These capac itor va riatio ns are doubly
L 1,L2, 20 t. #26 on T37-6 to roid for 6.9-7.5 MHz. sig nifica nt. First, you can ada pt a tuned
circu it 10 work with wha tever you have o n
han d. For example, common 365-pF AM
broa dcast ca pacito rs can be used in both
pos itions with app ropriate padd ing . Sec-
Fig 1.9-Direct conversion 7-MHz receive r using two integrated circuits.
ond, the use of t WO capacitor s is a very
practi cal mean s for buildi ng simple rcceiv-
crs while avoid ing the mechanical com -
plex ity of a dial mechanism . We have used
double cap tuning fur transcei vers in other
parts of the book. Adapt thc circuit to wha t
you have a vail able,
The mixer input network at L I that in-
jccts ante nna sign als into the :J"E602 uses
an indu ctor identical to tha t in the osci lla -
tor , tun ed wit h a mica compression trim-
mer capacitor. Any variable can be used
here. II' a 365 -pF pa nel mo unted cap is
used , t he 270-pF capacitor c ould be re -
duccd in va lue. II't he only availabl e vari-
ab le capac itor is much smaller tha n 180
pf-. yo u may ha ve to resize L l. or add or
subt rac t net ca pacita nce a bi t to hit rcs o-
nanc c. T he ind uctance can be reduced by
spreading or removin g turns, o r increased
by compre ssing t urns. Bot h cir cui ts arc
very tolerant of such changes ,
Once the mixer has been wired. most of
the rec ei ver is fini shed . T he LM 3S6 is a
low power part with no heat sin k requir ed.
This receiver d raws only 7 mA when sig -
nals arc low . with more current with louder
1. 16 uH sig nals . A simp le 5-V power su pply works

~L2
well. A 6 -V battery pac k wi ll ru n the
(D) receiver for ex tended per iods.
( e)
The .'IE602 mixer features excellent LO
/0 RF isola/ion. This means that there is little
LO energy appe aring at the mixer RF port .
and hence . thc receiver uruenna term inal.
The presence of such energy can lead to a
Fig 1.l0-Simplified v er s io n of the oscillator in a NE602. See text fo r explanation . common problem of "tunable hum" with

1. 8 Chapter 1
 100 -0 resisto r in the pow e r supp ly line.
The res ist or se rves us a fuse if you hav e
do ne so mething d rasticall y wrong. Insen -
ing rbe headph o ne.'> whe n the outpu t
ca pac ito r is unch arged will prod uce an
audible po p. If the a udio seems 10 be ....-ork-
ing.mrn [he receiver off. remo ve the e xtra
res istor, and stan again . Att ach an a nten na,
advance the gai n co ntrol and tune CI . Sig-
nals sho uld be hea rd. Adj ust the front-e nd
tuned circuit for ma ximum signal. If yo u
have a ca librated signal gen erator you can
inj ect a signa l and see if the operation is OIl
the rig ht freq uency. If yo u have a general
coverage receiver available, you ca n au ach
the antenna of thi s receiver 10 Ihat of the
ge ne ral coverage rec eiver where you wi ll
be a ble to hea r the LO signal.H an ante nna
is not available. you ca n throw 20 or 30
fee t of wire out o n the floor. Whi le this is
not goi ng to co mpe te with a good o utdoor
Fig 1.11-Dire ct conversion re ceiver a s s e m bly. anten na. il will provide signals in a bun-
da nce ro listen 10 a nd co nfirm rece ive r
ope ra tion.
some direc t co nversion receivers. poor strong signal handling capability of the The recei ver in Fig Lj l was built fo r (he
Thc rece iver a b o ha... problems. So me. rece iver. Ahhough helped a bit by placing -m-mcter band. If you want to try a diffe re nt
the a udio images. arc intrin sic wall simp le the only gain con trol in the anten na lead. the hand. all tha t is req uired is to change the
di rect conversio n recei ve rs. This i ~ the problem is intrinsic to the :-.lE602 mixer .The t wo inductors. Increasing the 1.16-Il H in-
price , but also the thrill of such a design . basic G ilbert Cell is capa ble of much more. ductor to 4.51l H will dro p the reeei ver right
The selectivity is lacking. This can be rem- but only whe n biased to draw considera bly into the 80 meter band. A band switc hing
edied wi th audio filters that can be placed more current. The current is kepi low in the version would be prac tic al.
in the receive r. Examples of a udio filler s NE60:! by' design, for il is intended for bat- The first popu lar rece iver s of this sort
are fo und elsewhe re in th is book . These tery powered consume r equipment and nor appeared in the USA in a QST paper by
filters wou ld go between the mixer and the ham gear. Stron g. high performance direct WA3RNC.-1 Va riatio ns of a similar so n
aud io am pli fier. It is easy 10 add such co nversion rece ivers are described later in were generated a nd pub lished in Europe
things to a breadboarded receiver. but mo re the book. by Geo rge Dobbs. G3RI V. George used a
difficult with a pr inted board. l niriaj tum -o n and adj ustme nt is st raight do uble tu ned circu it in the front end to
The greatest performance deficiency is the for wa rd . Apply po wer initially wi th a impro ve signa l ha ndling properties.

1.6 A REGENERATIVE RECEIVER

There was a lime when si mp le vacuum The core of a regenerative receiver is means that aud io also appears within the
tube rege nerative circuits were the on ly the d etec tor. l-"ig 1.12 shows a JFET ver- circu it. 11 need on ly be co upled OUI and
receivers a vailable 10 the rad io amateur. sio n of a classic regenerative de tec to r us- a pplie d to headp hones or an audio a mpli-
Even whe n super-he terodynes became ing a "tic kle r co il:' S ignals fro m the en- fier to co mple te the rece ive r.
possib le, the reg ene rative design remained te nna o r a preceding radio fre q uency Our receiver uses some slig htly unusual
a.... the e nt ry level radio. amp lifier are app lied to the tuned circ uit, circu its that simplify the des ign. The de-
Regenerati ve rece ive rs have become producing a voltage at the FET gate. This tector is based upo n a litt le appreciat ed
popular aga in. bUI they now generally use prod uces FET d rain curre nts that vary at variation of a traditi o nal Ha rtley oscilla-
sem iconductors. M uch of rhis popularity the RF rate . The RF drain current flows in lor . a variant without tran sfo rmer act ion .
hav been fuele d by the work of Charles the tickle r co il which couples e nergy back Instead. IW O series ind ucto rs. 1.1 and L2 .
Kitc hin , :-;ITE V.5.6 Peo ple no w build reo to the o rigina l coil thro ugh ind uc tive trans- se rve a<; the trad itional "tank." or reso na-
ge nerative receivers fo r the sheer joy of forme r actio n. If e nough e nergy is coupled tor. To roid v we re used. altho ugh Q is not
listening 10 a receiver thai i ~ ex tremely back. the circ uit oscilla tes. Even when the cr itical and traditio nal cyli ndrical co ils
s imple, ye t is capable of receiving sig nals cou pling is weake r. insufficie nt fo r oscil- will also wo rk. Indeed, low Q rad io fre-
fro m all ove r the world. The rad io offe red latio n. the circuit can have very hig h gain. q uency c ho kes offer o ppo rtunity 10 the ex -
here tu nes from 5.5 to 16 MH l , cove ring This ma kes the weakest signal large with in perimenter.
three ama teur bands . 7, 10. 1. and l~ MH z, the det ec tor circ uit, The prese nce of any The det ector, Q2, uses a ju nctio n field
as well as i nterna tional short-wave broad- large signal in a "square- law" dev ice like effec t transistor . Whi Ie we us ed a 2N5454,
casts at fl. 7, 9.5.12, 13.5, and 15 MHz. a I FET will prod uce de tectio n, which t he det ector worked well with any N-chan -

Getting Started 1.9

 C3, each with a large knob . C2 is a " band-
APC set" while C3 is a highe r reso lution "b and -
spread" tuning. an action resulting from
+ 12
Rege neratio~ ~
the ser ies and parallel fixed cap acitors
arou nd C3 . Regeneration is co ntrolled with
a nother 365 -p F vari able capacitor. x o ne
? Fig 1.12-A of t he variable capac itor valu es are terribly
, cla ss ic cri tical . If you find others at a flc a marke t
--l Audio regenerati ve

~
or ha rnfest. you can adapt the circuit 10 use
1 detector.
RF l n
,~ Out them. Thai' s part of the c harm of a person-
alized regene rati \ 'C receiver; it applie s
pos itive feedbac k to yo ur imagination.

--L...
'-
Tuni n9 - ~ 1 This circuit uses an RF amplifier. Q I.
The gain is nOI reall y nee ded . or e ven de-
sired. However, the ampli fier provides a
rel atively Mahle driving impedance for the
detecto r, and i ~ a conven ie nt way of vary-
ing the streng th of the signals arr iving <I t
the detec tor. Th e RF amplifier is preceded
nel deple tion mode FET we could find in using a larg e ferr ite head . A J-mH or by a 5th order low pass and 3rd order high
o ur ju nk hox. This inclu ded the U309, 2.5 mH RFC will work well in this posi- pass f ilters, The high pass rejects signals
1310, 2N441 6, 2N3819. and MPF- l02. as tio n. A I - K resisto r e ve n func tio ned i n from the AM broadcast band that could
well as so me even mo re ob sc ure parts. We plac e of L3 , althou gh the regen era tion co n- overload the recei ver. The low pass an cnu-
co uldn ' t find a FE T that wou ld nOI work . trol was not as s moot h as it was with an arcs FM and TV broadcast signals that
Use what yo u have! Th e co mple te recei ve r inductor. could inter-mod ulate in the RF ampli fier
schematic is s ho wn in Fig 1.13 , and a front The mec hanic al co mplicatio ns of a dia l o r detec to r, producing distortion within
panel pho tog rap h ap pears in FIK 1,1·" mechanism are avoided by tuning the rc- the rece ive r t uning rang e.
We wou nd ou r ow n l- mH c hok e for L3 ce iver with two variable ca pac ito rs. C2 and Audio gai n is provided by Q3 dr iving

'"
i. a 1 11 n ~2

0 2._ "..--_., O'

" " 111'1'2

,
h
., 10
11
R~
3

21 0 10 0
,. I'"'
-

L1: 20t ' 22 T68-6

,~
'" L2 : St #22 T30- 6

)
<}JI----JI-+--K
". . '"'"
13 : 1 mH , 30t #28 FB43- 6301
C2, 3, 4 : 365 pF se e t ext
." L4, 5 : 12t 1 28, T30-6
Phones: L6: 20t '2 6 T50-6 .
" Q1 ,3 ,4 : 2N 3904 , 2N2222, etc .
Q2 : 2N5454 , s ee t ext .
01 , 2 : 1N415 2, o r an y si sw.

Fig 1.13-.0. regene r at iv e r ece iver t unin g f rom 5.5 to 16 MHz. See text fo r discussio n of parts and cons truc t io n .

1 .10 Chapter 1
 l lLn
oW
6 .8- 16 MHz out- in
Detecto r 1.. . n .l..

.~ I
T'" ,...~ .. -h'- m
,._
.
....
I II ..l..
Fig 1.14- Front panel view of the
reg enerati ve receiv er.
, -_ _ - , ow
-e- I~
In

l + 9v
1-.,r:,m¥~"--+--(-C )
we c ee rse ,m
Regen.
,~ ~---.
we ...L

Y1
l' / V W I--0l
- I .1
~ ~ ~
~
Fig 1.16-Alte rnative reg e nera tive de tector.
r- 390 2" 3 9 0 4
0K
--.L
- ~~ sn
- - } '"
the o perator s hands. Ho we ver . the re st of becomes ove rlo aded. red uce the RF gain
Fig 1.15-A s imple c ry s tal escruetor the rec eiver co uld be 11... simple as a bloc k cont rol. Tune the rece iver unt il an A M ..ig-
bec omes a substitut e fo r a sig nal na l is fo und . Then reduce reg e nera tio n
of wood found i n the garage . O Uf receiver
generator.
was built " ug ly" with vcra ps of ci rc uit until the "squeals" subsi de. CW a nd 55 A
hoard material. One sc rap will suffice. arc best received with the rege neratio n
althoug h ou r receiver used three. an indic- well ad vance d. While the recei ver wo rks
tor o f earlier e xper ime nts. Othe r bread- best with an ou tside antenna, it will func-
hoa rds will ....-ork as we ll. but a printed cir- tiun wit h as little as 11 fe w feet of wi re
c uit board ..ho uld never he used tor a tacked to the wal l. The signal ge nerator (If
UI. a co mmon L11386N output amplifier. regenerative receiver, Even if dozens are Fig 1. 15 requ ires no more than a two foot
This will d riv e either low imped ance to he built. such as in a cl ub effort , the piece of wire on its uutput, somewhe re in
"Walk man" ty pe pho nes or a small proj ect sho uld emphas ize ope n e ndcd. the slime room as the receive r.
speaker. walkman is a Sony trad ema rk. Q4 fle xib le breadboarding to encourage ex - There are numerous interac tio n, be -
" a n acti ve decoupling f ilter that provides per ime ntation . tween control s. features tha t offer chal-
hum-free de to the de tec tor. Althoug h the So me e xpe rim en tario n ma y he requ ired le nge and int r igue fo r the e xper iment er
receivcr of t-ig 1.1 3 is sho wn with a l 2-V to se t up the rege neration . Inc reas ing L2 who takes the lime to e njo y them . Nume r-
powe r supply, it wo rked welt w ith von- hy a t urn o r decreasi ng R l will bo th ous circuit refinements are a va ilab le to the
age.. a.. lnw a.. 6. Typica l c urre nt is 20 mA incre ase rege neratio n. Ho we ver. too I11m: h experimente r who wi...he-, to continue the
at 12 V. inductan ce a! L :! o r too little resista nce at ques t. The e xperi menter will discover a
A s i ~ n a l ge ne rat or with freq ue ncy R I wil l prod uce such ro bu st feedback that great deal fro m his or he r efforts i n ope rat-
coumer is usefu l during initial expert- rege ne ration cannot be stopped or easily ing this receiver. The availability of very
ments with the receiver. However , ma ny co ntrolled. high gain throu gh po sitive feedback ca n
builders may not have the m available. Fig Operatio n of thilt. o r an)' reg en... ranve be use d to great advanta ge. Bur o perati o n
1.15 sho ws a suita ble substitute. a c ry sta l receiv e r is a mul tiple co ntrol effort . Begin can be a greater c hallenge than found with
oscillator that will ope rat e anywhe re with the rege ner atio n co ntro l. C..t at mini- a more ad vanced receiver.
within the receiver ran ge. Numerou s me x- mum capaci tance . unmeshed, and set the A more recent experim e nt used a d iffe r-
pe nsive crys tals are a vai lable from the two tuning co ntrols at half. Set the RF gain e nt rege nera tive de tec tor. sho wn in riA
popular mail o rder sources that will pro- for max imum gain. + 12 V on t he a mpli- 1.1'; . This circu it eliminates one of the
vide a sta rti ng poi nt- Fo r ex ample. a fier. wit h the aud io ga in in the middle and variable capacitors used in the other cir-
I O-t-.1Hz crystal available for under S I will anach a n a nte nna. Tuning C2 rna}" produ ce cuit. re placi ng it with a pa ir of potentio m-
mark the I O. I - ~l Hz a mateu r and the 9.5 to a sig nal. No w sh.:......,I}' adv ance the regen- eters. This ci rcuit was featu red in a recent
IO-1,t H7. SW broadcast bands . crutiun. lidding C at C" , It is nor ma] fo r issue of SPRAThy Geo rge Dobbs . GJRJV.
The rece iver ca n be built in a ny of man)" background noise to increas e with a mild altho ugh the circuit see ms to he the hrain-
forms . A met al fro nt pane l is a mu st. af- "plo p" occurring in the headp hone s as the child of GIJ XZ t\t. 7Performance of the two
fording shiel ding betwee n circ uitr y a nd detector begins \0 osc!llate. If the dete ctor cir cuit s is similar,

Gett ing Started 1. 1 1

1 . 7 AN AUDIO AMPLIFIER WITH DISCRETE TRANSISTORS
The ama teur lite ratu re is rich with older
de'l oc" ' u- ing high impe dance hea d-
-vcc .8
phonc -. These designs are often very bat-
ler~ effi cie nt. a vita l performa nce virtue
lo r portable or emerg enc y equi pme nt. But
2.2K
,--~i>----..-~
-f-r:
P 03
20) 90 4
high impedance head phon es that can he
u-ed wit h the mo re effic ie nt des igns have ., ., C'
22
12K C3 t un
becom e rar e. The answer 10 this dilem ma
' .1
I " a simple audio amplifie r that will drive ua
low impedance headphon es while mai n- 203904
taining reasonable efficiency. . 8
I JlPut 01 10K
One solution to (he problem is one of 2U19 04

..
many integ rated ci rcuits. Throughout the
book we used the LM3::l6orop-amps to dri vc t""v' Q4 ~ Outp ut
headpho nes of the Sony "Walkman' vari - ., ~ 2N390 6 ~

ety. An alternativ e circuit is shown in Fig 10K um

1.17. This amplifier uses com monly avail- mu "n
see "'p.
able discrete transistors. The version of the ~-'- ,w
circuit that we built used leaded parts, but
couklj ust as well be built with SMT compo-
+C2~
ne nts, QI functions as a gain stage. T he 2.2-
kC! collec tor load (R8) with lOO-U
dege neration (R4) produce Q I bias curre nt
of 2 mA for an approxi mate volt age gain of Fig 1.17-Sirnple aud io amplifier using discrete co m po nents.
20. Q2 functions as a floating voltage source
that esta blishes bias for comp lementary cuit is similar to many of the simple r in te- How ever, the d iscrete so lutio n i,<' a vailable
emitter- follower outpu t transis tors Q3 and grated circuits. This circuit functions well whe n an IC is not. All ofthe tra nsistor s in
Q4. Negative feedback through R3 reduces with po wer supplie s from 5 to 15 V. this circuit are very ine xpens ive and usu-
gain and establishes overall bias . This cir- An IC is usually the preferred solutio n. ally fou nd in the experimenter's ju nk-box .

1. 1 2 C hapte r 1
 •

1.8 A DIRECT CONVERSION RECEIVER USING A DISCRETE COMPONEN T

PRODUCT DETECTOR
The dire ct conv ersio n receiver de- genera tion . T his circu it. using negative feed - feeding Q 3 and Q~ _ Th e mixer collec tors om:
..... ribed earlie r used a l\ E·602 integrated bac k. uses a form found throu ghoutthe boo k, by passe d for RF.
circ unto fulfill both the detection and the o ne where an added co mpo nent red uce s gain Thedctcctoro utpm feed ..adi fferen tial sig-
local osci llator functions. Discrete (non- 10 impro ve performance . The o utp ut drive s nalro a L.\13l!6 aud io amplifier. De-coupling
imegrated l co mpo nents can alec be used in the mixi ng prod uc t det ector convivri ng of Q 3 beca me jmponar u with this stage. o wing to
these ap plicatio ns. T he rece iver sho wn in and Qt. An RF sig nal is extracted from the the internal re..i..tance found with a norma l
r i~ 1. 18 use s a d iffere ntial amp lifier as the antenna through a gain co ntrol. lo w pa ss fil- 9V battery. A n uncomfort able "h owling " os-
prod uct detector. This design. shown for tered. and ap plied to rhe bace of Q5 where it cillation disappeared with high dcco uplin g
ope rurie n in the -iu-mc rer ba nd. has been is ampli lied and co nven ed 10 a c urre nt so urce ca pacitance fur the audio ampli fier .
built with bot h tradi tional leaded co mpo -
nenrs and wit h sur fac e mo unted tec hno!-
ogy I SMT j parts and appears in I" i ~ 1.19.
Q I func tions as a local oscillator. v olt-
age control is used "...ith any of several com-
mon luning diodes. The Colpitts circui t use s
-mall powder iron toroids for both leaded
and SMT co mpo nent s. Cl is a combination
of NPO capacnors. selected dur ing construe-
no n to reso nate at the desired freque ncies.
With the parts shew n, the recei ver tunes
over abou t a 50- kHz rang e in the a n-me ter
band. T he ra nge may be expande d by paral -
leling additional varac tcr diod es. incr eac-
ing the va lue o f the 82-pF bloc king cupaci-
tor. de creasing the value o f the 2.2-kn
resi ste r in seri es with the tuni ng co ntrol. or
combi natio ns of these measures.
The oscillator is buffe red wi th Q 2. a
co mmon-emitter amp lifier with emitter de- Fig 1.19-1nsi de view of SMT direct conv ersion receiver.

,.
IG G '"I*
JlK

".
I Tuning I
l '

b Fig 1.18--Direct conversion recei ver usin g

disc rete oscillator and detect or co mpo nent s.
Integrate d ci rcuits are used fo r t he aud io

L 7 8 10~

( $I M~ c <o e l e c t r o n ic . ,
.,
2 11 l9 G ~
S G1 -H
OOU G
501- 23
( p n , l l.1 p. ,
D i~ iI'e y )
l llJll l 8 U . Mou n e l
SG-8
out put amplllier and lor volt age regu lat ion,
but could als o use di scr ete components . This
recei ver is suitable l or con struction wit h
either leaded or SMT components.
Mou s er ) 5 0 -8

Getting Started 1.13

 1.9 POWER SUPPLIES
Among the ma ny tools needed by the
ci rcuit expe ri men ter. beg inni ng or sea- AC s ecti.r t e r
so ned. is a pow er supply. In deed. sev eral Cir cui t 1+1
arc always usef ul. Batteries se rve welt for
simple . lo w current appli ca tio ns . Ho w- ~-l ! D~ i 01
ever, the more use fu l pow e r supp ly e x-
tracts ene rgy from the power maim . T hat \~_<,)f -- ~
ac volta ge i s app lied to a tra nsformer. is
rect if ied , fi ltered with a larg e c apacitor, 1l 7A~ ~~
and reg ulated wi th trans isto rs an d/or inte-
g rated ci rcuits.
AC Ci r c ui t Rect ifier + Filter Cap
T wo major des ig n qu e st io ns ar e pre -
. l+)
senred to the beginner : What transfor mer
T1 ~1,-'1"---f--"--
should be selec ted and how large should +,k
the fil ter capac ito r be'! Fig 1.20 sho ws an
~lII Qt
D3 I I::L ~ I
~ , h
e xample ] 2- V, O.5-A de sig n we use to
address the se que stions .
Tra nsformers an: rated for RMS output
voltage wi th a load. T he pea k voltag e
11 7 AC D~ ~~ rn -=-
.,
will be higher by a fa ctor of 1.414 , so a AC Rect1! 1e r , Regul a t or
11.6-V tran sf or me r will ha ve a peak out - Ci r c u1t 2'11 t a r Cap. out p ut
put of 17.8 Y. The tra nsfo rmer curre nt rat- 1+1

Uil!D~~ ~ ~~
in g should eq ual or excee d the maximum

G
de sired dc current, so a 0.5-A transfor me r Df
is adeq uate for this appli c at ion. T his is
show n in part A o f f ig 1.20. A swi tc h and ~
" D1
, ~
1_c+----4 L 22
781 2
~
pro tect ive slow-b low fus e is add ed to the
tran sfo r me r prima ry.
11 7 AC D~ * .Q.~ i« .
=:=
1W
[fJ
l A , S. B. : ac
A br idg e rectifi er using fo ur diod es is
adde d to the circuit to generate a dc out put.
The bridg c is preferred o ver circuits with
Fig 1.20- Fu nd ame ntal po wer su pp ly . Part A sh ows the t ra nsfo rmer and rectifier , B
j ust two d iodes, for a ce nter tapped tra ns - add s the c rit ical o ut p ut filter capa ci tor, w hil e C u ses a 12-V regulator IC.
former is the n not req uire d. Bridg e rec ti-
fie r diodes sho uld have an ave rag e current
, - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - , Fig 1.21- Wave -
rating ab ove the ma xim u m po wer sup pl y lOU - - -
f o rms for a simp le
curre nt. I -A dio de s wo uld be fin e for this ( --------- ~ J~<:--~ ::.~ po wer sup p ly . The
ap plicatio n. , "befo re f iltering"
Some wa ve form , arc shown in Ft g 1.2 1. j shows the raw
The " before fil terin g" voltage is the re sult
of rec tifi catio n for the circui t of Fi g I.lOA. '''''' / rect if ied sig nal
w it ho ut an y filt er
The "V -c ap" tra ce shows the vo ltage ca pa cit o r. The "V-
c ap " s hows the
ac ross the ca paci tor when it is ad de d to the v o ltag e acr o ss th e
circ uit, Fig 1.20 B. The sig nificant deta il is fil ter ca paci to r
the ripple, or va riat io n in un regulated out- •
- 2U _
attache d to th e
p ut vol tage occurring at the filt er capac i- rec t if ier w he n
to r. F ig 1.22 sho ws ripple for two differe nt 0<, U( e 1: 1 ) O( UIl" '·."
'" ) loaded to a modest
curren t.
c ap acit or values when the lo ad curren t is
0 .5 A.
1\ suitable regulator i s the popular 78 12.
Th is three te rminal rcg ulato r Ie will pro -
vide the d es ired ou tput wit h a dropout of : OX u>
V- H' " - 1: · ~ ',o l t s
ab out 2.5 V. Dro po ut is the mi nimum vo lt-
age d iff ere nce betwee n the reg ulate d o ut-
put and the highe r unregulated in put. Wi th Fig 1.22-Wave-
a 2.5 - V dro po ut. the unr e gul ated inp ut forms sho wing th e
m ust be 14 .5 V or mo re ove r the e ntire v ol t ag e ac ross
cycle. hg 1.22 sho ws tha t a 2000-I-lF c a- filter capacit o rs of
tw o values w he n
pacitor wil l be adequate, b ut 500 IlF will '"0, lo ad ed w it h 0.5 A.
not. If we define LlY a s the d iffere nce he - See text
tween the peak rec t ifi ed vo ltage an d the d isc ussio n.
," '
minim um unregu lated val ue, 17 - 14.5 = 'e, ' A." 81)0,
c· U(hi e) "( 'OwC)
2.5 . I as the outp ut curre nt. an d Ll t as the
t ime fo r a half cyc le (.omo sec ond for
60 Hz ). the mi ni mum c ap ac itor val ue in

1.14 Cha pt er 1
 •

Far ads is g iven by

Unr egul at e d Regu lated T- li t
Input C = .1V (Eq 1. 1)
out p ut; \
0 . 22 2. 43 98
• Fig 1.23-Extending
t he output current
For Ihis exam ple. Eq 1.1 p re dic u, a mini-
mum C o f 1700 ~F _ A pract ical value o f
Rl U\. !) Q1 c apablllty 01 a 2500 ~ f .... ould he a 1,:uod choice.
10 regul ator with a The co mp lete circ uit with the reg ulat or
" w rap-ar o u nd" PNP
is sho.... n in f ig l .l OC. Ext ra ca pac itors.
~ Jr 7812
1 11 i treoststor.
placed close to the reg ula tor jC. serve to

1°1
stab ilize the IC. T he: user should check da ta
sheets fo r the Ie that he o r she uses
-JOy v v ~ 10 evaluate stability. The I -l Q bleed e r
R2 ~ ~ re sisto r cons umes lin le cu rrent . bu t g uar-
antees rhut the supp ly turns off soon after
the s....-itch b ope ned.
Th e O,5-A r ating o f the n I 2 becomes II
problem when more cu rrent is nee ded. Fig
1.23 sho ws a circuit tha t will extend the
ou tpu t curre nt fating by addi ng a po wer
tran sistor. Q I no w ca rr ies mos t of rhc cu r-
ren t wi th rhc sp lit be ing det er mined by the
n
~.
~ ra tio o f R2/R I. T he dropout for the total
circui t if> now that of the Ie plus a liule
JIl

=,..,
&(
1;;,! mo re than a volt fo r the: diodenra nvisror

"T~
~

01 and R I a nd R2.
-'~ F ig 1 . 2~ shows a supply usi ng a LM3 l 7.
Thi.. is a progr ammable voltage part that
~ 1812 can supply' output s from 1.2 up to 37 V. set
I . "L
u .~
.". ,wT, ""nh IWO resistors. for an out put current of
~. 1.5 A. The JX)wer su pply we buill. used
" extensi vely fur developing many o f the c ir-
11 : u v, U ' ~.oas f o ..,~
(I , 01 . 1 " I W
cuits in Ihi, book . was variable voltage and
n, UI " or """", IW
also included a 12-V regulator a.. a seco nd
U , Sri'" Recti h o>c , . W , u. UI311 ompur. An 18-V transforme r was used. for
Dt , l1....l EKi l li"'l oIi _ ,
.... e wanted reg ulated out puts up 10 20 V.
Many ot her regulators arc fo und in ven-
dor catalogs. many with con sider ably highe r
.~. h output curre nts an d lower dro pout s. The ex-
perimenter b enc ouraged to build his own
circ uits using them, Switc hing mode regula-
to rs offe r interes ting perfor ma nce virt ues
Fig 1.24- Pract ical dual out put power supply 1eaturing t he LM-317 regula to r. with equ ally interesting challe nges .

1. 10 RF POWER M EASUREM ENTS

Bef ore o ne can do an)' meaningful ex -
penrncnts with transmitters. you mu st be
a ble to measu re RF pow er. A basic sch eme
iu r duing thi-, i~ show n i n F ig 1.25. The RF RF Pea>.
DC
I ' applied 10 the .5O-U termln auon thro ug h Load Voltaqe
Voltnet e r
.I coa xial ca ble . It I,. nec essary Ihal a well
Detecto r
defi ned impeda nce be a vailable 10 abso rb Fig 1.25--A ba s ic
the u a nsmiue r power. Th e load must be RF power meter.
capable o f d iccipa nng that power in the
mil
form of heat. So if the tran sminer is ca-
pable o f de li vering. for e xample , ]()() W, Meter
the 50 - ~ ~ lo ad resis tor m ust be capable o f
dis sipat ing th is po wer. Th e lo ad m ust he a
re sis tor that really appears as a re sister (0

Gell ing Start ed 1. 15

 rhe radio frequency applied 10 it. Th is
means that the us ua l power re sisror-, sold P (m illiwatts)E 10 ( V ... 0.7 )2
by vendors . even if capable of dissipating (1 H scale )
100 W......ill nc r be ... unable. They an: usu-
ally buil t as a "wire wo und" parr. making DC Volt.
4 Wa t t
them high ly inductive fo r RF . It is some-
times pos sib le 10 tune the m. an ime re sring
ave nue for the advanced e xpe rime nter.
Input l HU")2 /
.. 20 1<
Fig 1.26-0 ual
range po wer
Suitable 50-n ter min ation s. o r "dummy meter. The
4-W input uses
leads" ca n he built with pa rallel c ombina-
tions of 2-W carbon res istors. or simi lar 2
,.
"" the fo rmu la t o
ca lc u late power
or 3- W metal oxide power resi stor s such as in m ill iwatts. The
those manufact ure d h)' Yacg o or Xico n. SO-mW ran ge
50 mW uses the c urve o f
So me of these are used in po w er ane nun-
tors described in Chapter 7. Input I HHA Fi g 1.2 3.
1. 51<
T he RF power di ssipa ted in the resis tor
will dev e lo p a corresponding RF voltage.
Th ai is rec tified wit h a sim ple diod e de tec -
.2UI ...L
(Us e Calibration
tor. providing a signal across the ca pac itor " . 0>
Curve )
equaling the pea k RF voltage. less U. 7 V
fo r the d iode tum-on vc hage.
The power meier is completed w ith a suit-
able de vo h meter. It can be as simple as a
O- I-mA c urren t me te r and a resi stor.
a FETvoltmcter. or e 1'1: 0 ad igual voltm eter, ""
Fig 1.26 show s a d ua l range power
"
meter. Essent iall y it is a pai r of power
me te rs sha rin g a single meter mo vemen t. I• •"
The highe r pow er parr of the c irc uit starts I •"
with a 4- \\-' load built from two paralle l • "
100-0. 2-W resis tors. These c an he ca r- ",
bon o r metal fi lm revi stcrs. If 2-W r eci v- • .~.::,;:-;._~.~.c,c.c,c:._;.~.c.-.c_c:•:•-:.o.-
lOT"> are not available . fou r pa rall el 200-0
I_W parts will wo rk a-, well . Th e resulting
Rf vo ltage is rectified with a silicon Fig 1.27--eali b ra tJo n c urve fo r the 50 Fig lo2a-The f ro nt pa nel of the du al .
switchi ng diode. T his sho uld be a I OO· V rnW range o f the pr eviou s po wer me ter . r ange ORP power meier.
pan s uc h as the I :"i41-t8. 1S-t152. or simi-
la r diode. Th e voltmeter pa rt n f the circui t
is a 20-kQre"istor driving a U-} rnA met e r.
Ass ume a transmitte r is attac hed and keyed
on 10 pro duce <In indic r uiou of 0.6 rnA . This
represe nt, a peak D r 12 V. for the meter mul-
tiplier is the 20·kO revistor. The resultin g To H:i.gh Z
power is then calculated frum the formula Voltmet~r

given with the figure. IflU mw. or 1.6 W .

T he 50-mW input to thc po wer meter
uses a si ngle 51·ft ~'~ _ W . resistor with a
mort' sen sitive 11'3 .4A rectifier diode. The
meter mu ltiplier is now jusl 1.5 I n. An *= s t a ndoff
approx imate cali bratio n cur ve is shown in
Fig 1.27, T ho: f inished me ter i-, shown in Fig 1.29---RF pr obe su itable for use with a VTV M, FET voltmeter I or even a DVM.
Fig 1.28. Resistors ma rked with · are standoff resi st ors used fo r probe c o n st ruc ti o n and
O ther schemes suitable for RF po we r ha ve IiU le impac t on circuit o peration.
measu rement incl ude te rminated uscillo-
scopes. micro wave power met ers (usually
us ing ca lorime te r measure me n t methndv.) whe n ins tru mentat ion is l imited. FiA 1.21) meters a nd a small transminer o r simi lar
spectrum an alyzers. lind wide ba nd toga - shows a very simple RF probe. Th e ph oto RF sourc e. The trun smiuer is attac he d tu
rithmic integrated circuirv. Some of the se in Fig 1.30 show s an open bread board ver - the pow er met er and the out put is meu -
wi ll he covered in a la ter c hapte r. sion: it' s the sort of circ uit that one build s sured . T he co rres pon di ng RF voltage i ...
O ften we wish to examine an RF vol tage when a meas uremen t must be done imme- noted and the RF probe i ... att ach ed to the
10 sec if a circuit is "alive." and perhapv to d iately. A lo ng last ing versio n of the same power mete r :;0-11 resistor. pro d ucing a
adj ust it. T he cl assic met hod for doing this ci rcuit mig ht better be built inside a cy lin- resv n that can be co mpared.
used an Rf probe with a high impedance. de r at the end or the coa xial cable. Fig 131 ... bows a high impedance de \'011-
usuall y vacuum lube o r FET volt meter. The probe may require calibra tio n. T his mete r suitable fur use with this probe. II is
The method i-, st ill very useful. especially i ~ bes t done with one of the o ther power also a good ...Iani ng measurement t01l1 for

1.16 Chapter 1
 ,

Fi g 1.31 -Slmpl e hi gh Im ped ance

voltmeter fo r mea suring ee v o lt ag es
In circu its. It can be us ed with t he RF
pr o be of Fig 1.29 an d Fig 1.30.
"

Fig l ,3~ lose u p view o f an RF pr obe

b u ill on a st rip of PC board materi al.
Th e probe is a capac ito r lead.

use in the lab. For gene ral utility, it is useful

to have the .'i. I- Mil resistor at the tip end o r sured without upsetting signals that may be the 6.2-1\0 revis tor if needed.
a prone th ut is inserted into a circuit for mea- pre~e n l in the circuit. Th is circ uit c an be We wi ll hav e mo re 10 cay abo ut RF
surcmcnrs. This allows the de to he mea - cali brated with a rresb I.S·V butter y; vary pow e r me asu re ment in Chap te r 7.

1.11 A FIRST T RA NSM ITTER

This section describes the de sign o f a scrap of ci rc uit board material . Th c crystal The oscillator i" foll owed hy a buffer
si mple tr an sm itt er su itable as a firsl rig. a wa s held on the board with a pie ce o f amplifie r. A buffc r is an amplifier t hat
project fo r so me o ne who has ne ve r b uilt a dou ble sided foam tape r'Tcsa. 6 760 1). The allows power to be ex trac ted from a n
nun-muter. It use s rob ust c irc uits with few o scillato r wor ked r igh t off wit h several V o scilla tor. or other stage. wit hout ad versely
adjust me nts req uired d uri ng constructi o n. pea k-to -pea k observed at be th the base and d isturbi ng il. An idea l buffer ofte n has a
It can be bu ilt with no thing more than a the em itter with a n o sci lloscop e a nd lOX high input impedance so it ca n be att ached
volt meter. ,I pUWCJ meter. a nd po we r sup- pro be. Th e RF probe de sc ribed ea rlier withou t e.\ tras·ti ng any pow er. T he be st
ply. We uced a n oscilloscope and a spec- cou ld a lso he used. T he osci llator t unc - bu tterv ha ve good rev erse isola tion. mea n-
tru m a nalyze r du ring the rig de sig n ph ase lion ed well with supply voltages as low ing tha t any signal pre"ent at the output i ~
and th ( N~ res ult s are presented. Howe ve r. as 2.5 V. A qu ick check with a rece iver hea vily atte nuated at the inp ut.
thi.lt equ ipme nt is not necessary for co n- c onfirmed the frequ e ncy. Th e fiN bu ffe r tri ed was an emitte r fo l-
str ucti o n. T he crystal co ntr olled 2- W low er. II co r nmnn c ho ice to fol low a cr ystal
~O· ll1e l e r tran smitte r is huilt wit h bread - oscillato r. Pe rformance was poor. Whi le
hoard me thod .. ra ther tha n with a printe d +12V DC the loadi ng was lig h t. the o utput was highl y
circuit. d isto rte d. T his p roble m beha vio r is d i ~ ­
The circ uit. shown in r iA L U . heg ins 10 0 cussed in detail in Chapte r 2. The design
wi th Q I fu nct ion ing as a crystal co ntrol led was c hanged 10 the d ege nerated common
o sc illato r. Our crystal had a marked Ire- erniuer am pli fie r sho wn in Fig 1.33. We
qucncy of 704 5 k il l . Thi s v.. as the vpeci- obtain the buffer input from the os c ill ator
1 0K have instea d of the mo re com mo n em itter.
fled freq ue ncy for operat io n v.. ith a 3 2-p F
lo ad c apa ci tance. T his Cnl pi nv circuit use s for the wav eform is cleaner. mo re
7 MHz
a pair of series J9()-pF fee dbac k c apaci- sinewave -like. at thai poin t.
to rs. The equ ivalent 195 pF parallel s the -.D 0K T he buffer iv added to the crystal oscil-
crystal. Becau se th is capaci ta nce is much I I lator by sol de ring the requ ired pans to the
board o r ro o rhe r co mpo ne nt". The boa rd is

I
larger tha n t he spec ifi ed 32 pft. th e operat-
ing frequency will be less than the marked not installed in a box at this lime. Rathe r.
704 5 kil l.. I f ~ ou wam ihe freq ue ncy to be Its loose where it is e asiest 10 b uild and
e xact. a small tri m mer capacitor ca n he measu re. We c a n tack so lder small lo ad
placed in se ries wi th the crystal. we will re sistors o r coax conn ec tor s to me hoard 10
event ually do thi s as a method o f ob ta in ing facil itate e xpe rime ntatio n.
-omc slig ht t un ing. but do n' t bo the r with The b uff e r o ut put tran sfo rme r has a -I: I
this refinement in the begi nning . T he co m- turns ratio. The primary. the 12-turn wind-
plex ity of c ryst als is discu ssed in la ter Fig 1.32-Cry st a l contro lled os cillato r ing on <I FH~ 3 · 24 0 1 ferrite he ad. or a
chapte rs. that is the start of th e beg inner ' S I-'Tn - ~ .1lO roid . which is virtually ident i-
The os cillator ts built o n the end of a tra nsm itter. ca l. has an indu ctance of ab o ut .'i Ou H . T his

Getting Started 1.1 7

hac a 7- ~I H l reac tance of ~. ] -kfl. The load a mplifie r wi ll req uire mod est drive of ~()O drive is re moved from the amplifier .
o n the o utput i ~ transformed from 50 11 up to 300 mW. We could obtain mo re po wer Th e desi red driver output powe r is
by the square of the turn s rati o to SOO n . b)' biasing the seco nd sta ge for higher ga in 'h w. Thi s can he rea lize d by prope rly
the approx imate impedance presented to a nd o utput. A more co nserva tive and loa ding the stage. We must present a rc -
the co llector of Q~. The inductive reac- stable . free from self-oscillation. approach sis tive load to the coll ecto r given by
ranee h much higher. so it docs not impact adds a third sta ge.
t he circuit o pera lion . The output is no r The t'\ o l\'ing design is sho w n in Fig I .~
tun ed . allo wing it to fun ctio n well ove r a with II class C amplifier for Q3. W e want IF:q. 1.2t
wide freq uency range. Ihis third stage tu prov ide a powe r gain of
w e measured the power from the 3-tum 10 and pick: another 2 :-: 3 ~ . With an F1
output link on TI by attachi ng a small lengt h more than te n times the operat ing Ire-
of coax cable that ran to the 5().mW input o f q uen cy, gain wi ll be goo d. The ~)l39Q-1. where Vcr; is the supp ly. V" i ~ the emit ter
the power meter described earlier. The (lUI- also has a beta that ho lds up well at high volta ge, and RL is the load resistanc e in
put was+IO dBm.IOmW.withR l =270n. c urrents, a useful characteris tic fur a po .... 'er Ohms. (Vcc-Vc) is abo ut II V fur th is ex-
and was upto + 15 dBm with R I of 150 11. amplifie r. While we wanted class C opera- amp le. so the equation predict» a desired
Recall that the power meter has a 50-n lion in the y J stage . stability was dee med load of abou t I SO fl. An Lcne two rk. I I
impedance . vital. so the circu it is degenerated with a and the 200 -pf capacitor. is designed
v.' c wa nt more tha n 10 mW from our lo- n e mtue r resistor and a IOO-n load is to trans form a 50-n load III " look like"
transmitter and wi II e ven tually add a powe r plac ed at the base. Class c:
operati o n is 200 n at the co llector. An RF chok e pro-
amplif'ier to reach an o urp ut oftwn W . That assure d. Q3 curre nt disappears when RF vidcs colle ctor bias for the transi stor,
Whil e tu nable compon ent- co uld have
bee n used in the Lnctwork to get the op-
timu m outpu t. we e lected to usc fixed val-
ues . We mea sured LI and set t he value to
.+1 2V DC thai desired . We then used a 5'l value for
the 100-pF cap ac itor. Varia ble elements
100 are only needed in higher Q situati on c. or
1 00 where it is not possible 10 find tight toler-
ance co mponents.
Fig 1.33--Evo lving Power o utput could be me asured with
transmitter
10K schematic sh o wing the .t- W pos ition of the watt meter. We
22K the addition of a used an ahernan ve approac h here. A 5 1-n
7 bu ffer amp lifier, 02. 'h oW resistor was tad. sold ered into the
100 ci rcuit at the ou tp ut po int sho wn in Fig
1.34 a nd the OUtpu t voltage was mea ... ured
with an oscilloscope and lOX prob e. The

Rl.~
4 .7K Q] out put was 123 mw. 7 V pea k -to-peak
at the load. w ith R I""n O n in the buffe r.
27°1 Chang ing R I to 150 n Increased out put to
3 14 mw. The DC c urre nt, 43 mAo was de-
termi ned by me asu ring the vol tag e drop
acros s the 10-0 deco upfing resistor. The
Tl =1 2t #26 , 3t l i nk #2 2 , FB43- 240 1 calculated efficiency is then 6~'I . good for
an amplifie r w hich co ntains resis tor s in
both the emitter and co llec tor. The 21'\ 3(,104
at Q3 is o perating we ll within ra tings. Ge n-
+12V DC~'-'---..-
~. -~\ .0
(' OJ- era lly. a TO-92 plastic transistor like the

;".tt '.~ff-l~Ll~fJ)
2:-;J 90.t ca n dissi pate a qu arter of a watt
1 00 10 0
15 uR for extended limes. or half a wan for the
1 • shorter intermitte nt periods enco unte red in

7 MH:
.~
lO Y.
1':2 a CW tran smitter- Th is "ru le of thu mb"
ca n be stretched ....ith heat-s inking. or cas -
il)' viola ted in therm ally iso lated senin~s .
ffi' I'" 10 0 Q2 J 1'0'0
-e- 1'00 O w ing 10 the good effi ci cncy.jh e di ......ipa-
= ", tion is o nly ~O(J mw in Q3 .

I 4 . 7K ~ R1 ~ ~ 1 Q 3 powe r ou tpu t va ried smoothly fro m

11501
r
~ 390 very lo w levels up 10 the maximum 3 14
mW a... V" was adjusted fm m 5to 12 V.
This is ge nerally a useful met hod fo r ex-
amining sta bility. We will eventually add a
TI =12 t " 26 , at link 11 2 2, FB43- 24 01 "drive co ntro l" III the circuit.
Ll =26t " 28 o n T37 - 6 Bcfore ccntiuuing we need to address the
Ql ,Q2 ,Q3- 2N3904 iss ue of spectral puri ty . Some observed
wavefor ms have departed fro m a stncw avc.
Fig 1.34- A Clas s C driver amp li fi er . 0 3. Is added t o the t rans mitter. This mean s that the se waveform s arc

1 .18 Chapter 1
harmonic-rich. This transmitter use s a ha s a lo w pass char acte rist ic, it has on ly ating harmonic d istortion . Sp ectrum ana -
crystal o scilla tor o pe rat ing at the output two compo ne nts and is not ver y effecti ve ly zer me asu re me nt s showed spurio us
freq uenc y. T heonly s ig nals that should be as a fi lter. If the driver am pli fier is goi ng d riv er outpu ts at - 27. - 30. --43, and --49
pre se nt any where wi thin the transmitt er to be used by itself as a tr ansmitt er. an- dft c for the second thro ugh fifth har-
a re at 7 MH z or ha r mon ic s at 14. 21. o ther low pas s fi lt er should be adde d monie s when the driver wa s delivering
28. .. . MHl. The on ly fil ter ing needed is to th e output. T he re is. however, little full output. Th e harmoni c suppress io n "vas
a low pas s filter at the transmiuer output. va lue in addin g a bener lo w pass fi lte r actually worse at lo wer output le vels. T he
While the Ln etwor k that ma kes a 50-n a fter the dri ver if it is to he used only to te rm dBc refe rs to dB down with re spect
lo ad appe ar a s 200 n at the Q 3 collector dri ve an ot her st age which will also be ere- 10 the carrier.

1.1 2 A BIPO L A R TRA NSISTOR POWER AMPLIFIER

The project now sta rts to get exciting as the collector terminal in most TO -39 pack - tran sistor, Care was taken to keep the emi t-
we begin to exp erime nt with highe r output aged devices. ter lead short when the amp lifier was buill.
powers. Th e transi stor we have selec ted for It's always diff icult to estimate heat sink for ev en sma ll amounts of induc tance can
a f -W power ampli fier (PA) is a 2:"i5321. siz e s. While one can do the rmody namic alter the perfor mance. This is /l ot (l /lI"(1\"S
This is a NPN de vice in a TO-39 case with calcu lations. it ' s ge nerally adeq uate with bad.
a co llector dissipation of 10 W in an infini te small rr ansrnitters to experi mentally treat Tran smi tter test ing a/ways begins by at-
head sink. or 1 W in free air. 50-V break- the pro blem . Touch the heat sink often dur- taching a 50-f.! lo ad to the out put. Th is can
downs. the ability to switch a current of 2 A. ing init ial me asurement s. If it' s too ho t to be a po wer mete r or a resistor of the proper
and a 50-MHz FT, all for less than $1. The touch, the heat sin k is not large enough. W e rating. The PA should ne ver be run without
low FT restrict s the devi ce to the lower alway s seem to err in the con servative area a load.
band s. but it also means that high freq uency with more heat sink than is needed. T he fir st P A we bui lt for this project used
stability will not be an issue. Th e 2-W PA The form ula prese nted in Eq 1.2 shows the sim plified ci rcuit of F ig 1.36. This cir-
schematic is pres ented in Fig 1.35. tha t a 25-H load resista nce presented 10 the cuit suffered from instabilities which be-
Th e firs t deta il we mu st consider wi th collecto r will support the des ired output. A came clear as we varied the dri ve from the
th e PA is a hea t sink. Our intention was to simple pi-network wa s designed , The net- ear lier part of the transmitter. At on e point.
inc rease power by about 10 dB 10 the 2 10 work Q was kept low , but was pick ed to the Rf output and the collector current both
3- \\ ' level . If efficiency turns ou t to be 50 't , gen erate a network with standard. and j unk- chan ged abruptly. The oscilloscope showed
we wi ll ha ve a collector diss ipat ion that is box available, cap aci to rs. A matc hing net- frequenc ies well below the de sired 7 Mj-lz.
the same as the RF out put. The tra nsistor work dcsign is prese nted in Ch apter 3. Changing the col lector RF cho ke from the
can' t support this power without a heat A 33-V Zener diode is attached from the orig inal 15 u.H to a smaller 2.7-!1 H molded
sink. We had a Thermalloy 2215A in the co llector to gro und. The collector voltage ch oke moved the frequency up, but thc in -
Junk box which shou ld be more than ad- will never reac h these levels with nor mal stability was still presen t. However, chang-
eq uate. The tran sistor was mo unted in the Cla ss-C operat ion. so the diode is tran spar - ing the base circuit to one with a lower dri ve
beat sink which was then bolt ed to a PC ent except fo r the sometimes substantial impedance completely solv ed the problem,
boa rd scrap. Hole s through the board made cap aci tance that it adds to the co llector cir- The outp ut powe r and collector current no w
the leads available for soldering . Be cart- cuit. But, the diode conducts jf the out put vary smo othly as the dr ive is varied . Th e
rulto av oid any short ci rcuits that arc not lo ad disa ppe ars. and prevent s collector base transformer is a 2:1 turn s ratio step -
intended . The transistor case is atta ched 10 breakdown that mig ht othe rwise destroy the down that now dri ves the base from a

2 . 7uH
+1 2V DC RFe
L2 .0 1

·'1
T2 + 1 2 V DC

Q 5~
33 --d..
T2, 5 bifi l a r t u r n5 # 22 , FB43- 2401
12=1 2t #2 2 , T50- 6, 5pa ce ov e r ha l f core.
Q5=2N5321 with He a t Sink

Fig 1.36-Earlier s imp lified PA des ign which suffered wit h

Fig 1.35- A 2 W power amp lifier, stability problems. See text for discussion.

Getting Started 1.19

12.5·{} source impedance. The ))-0 bace put. But once the output gt'l ~ much Increases. the botto m of the co llector swing
resis tor ubvorbs some drive and rends til sta - beyo nd 3 W. Q5 begi ns to heat . Although a drops toward zero . Hut at th is poin t the
bilize the amphfier. Changing thb resistor hig her pow er was obse rved with the osci l- amplifier is fully loaded. Further excur-
is one of the experiment al "hoo ks" avail- Jc scopc when the key was firs t prevsed. the sio ns are nOI co nsistent with simple class
able to the ex perimenter fighting power dec reases ove r a period of a C operation . More drive will ca use hig her
instability. few seconds before stabilizing . We inves - curren t with little incre ases in output . al-
The 2· W ampl ifier is installed in the tigated this b)' looking al the collector lowi ng efficiency to dec reas e. Th is ca uses
tran smitt er . An ou tput power of 2.25 W waveform at diffe ring drive levels. w hen the heat ing. Changing both the matching
results from a drive of j ust over 100 mw. driven 10 2,25- W ou rput.fhe collector volt - network and dri ve powe r is neede d for
Inc reasing t he drive produces highe r OUI- age varied between 3 and 23 V. As dri ve highe r outpu t.

1 .1 3 AN OUTPUT LOW PASS FILTER

W hen the 2 -W amp lifier driv e is coax connec tor, for ade quate har monic at- posi ti ve go ing signal opposes the c urrent
adju sted for 2.25-W o utput, the measu red tenuatio n, Ch apt er 3 pro vide s det ail. ex tracted by the .l 9-H l resis tor. Hence,
effi cienc y was 47"k. A spec trum analys is t he co llecto r docs not switch im mediate ly
showed 2 00 and )nl ha rmoni cs at -36 dHc to a hig h state. Ra ther. it ramps upward at
and - 4 7 d Rc. Add ition of an o utboa rd low
Practical Details an app rox imately stead y rare until Q 4 be-
pass filter re mo ved a ll spurio us respo nses The mod ules built so fa r are mer e sc raps comes saturated . Forcing the stage to turn
to better than - 75 d ldc. of ci rcu it board materi al "itli ng on a bench o n vmoorhly over a co uple of milliseco nds
The out board lo w pas s filter is sho wn in with short pieces of wire to tic them to- restricts the ba nd width of the modu latio n
Fig 1.3 7. T his is a 7 th _order Che by shev gether. They need to he refi ned and pack- related to t urning the carrie r o n. Th ai band-
design with a 7.5 -MHz ripp le c uto ff fre- aged to creat e a tran smit ter thai we can put width will ex tend a fe w h undred Hz o n
q uen cy and a ripple of .07 dB. The rat her on the air. An alm ost co mplete schematic e ither side of the carri er. Beyo nd that. no
obscure ripple was pic ked to fit standard of the tran vmitte r i ~ shown in FI~ 1.39 . cl icks will be heard i n a good receiver.
value capacitors that were on ha nd. T he Th e firs t refi nement is a keying circuit. A power ou tput con trol is add ed to the
inner capacito rs are parallel combinati ons This fu nction is pe rfo rmcd by Q4 . a em itter ofQ1 . Owing to the class C nature
of 680 a nd I ~ u pF. T he measured insertion P:\" P sw itching integrator, Thi s is a favo r- or the followi ng amplifiers. the o utput con -
los s fo r the fi lter was 0.1 1 d B at 7 \ IHz. ite ke ying scheme of cu rv. a llo win g a rro l will a llow the truns miue r to run from
T he filter was bui lt into a small a lum inum g rou nded key to corurel the pos itive sup - the maxim um ou tput down to virtually
box. Fi}: J.;\8. a~ an outboard a ppendage ply to a trans mitter stage. Keying in the nothing . T he co ntro l is a sc rewdriver ad-
so it could be used for oth er projectx. Also. positive supply allows the grou nded pans j usted pot mo unted on the hoard.
the pe rformanc e is superior when the of the ci rcu it to rema in grounded without A variable capacito r. C I. is added 10 the
shiddi ng aro und the filte r is abs olute. It' eve r be ing d istur bed by key ing . Q4 serv es cr ystal oscillator. The capacitor used in our
the sa me filte r ..... as built into the transmit- the additional functio n of shaping the key- transm itter tune d from 5 10 80 pf and pro-
ter . there is it greate r c hance that gro und ing . w he n the ke y is pressed. c urre nt vided a tuning range of ,) to .:I kHz. Usc
curre nts lind radiation cou ld pro vid e path, begi ns 10 flow in the 3 .9- k ~ ~ resisto r. T he whatever is in your jun khnx . Whi le ce r-
for sig nals \0 lea k aroun d the f ilter. cu rrent Flows from Q4 base whic h "tries" tain ly nut a subctuu te for a VFO . it allow s
T his ex tre me filtering i s pro bably re- 10 t urn Q4 o n. As the Q-1. collec tor volta ge the use r to dodge so me interferen ce. A
dunda nt. A much simpler filler co uld he beg in , to increase, the c han ge is coupled "spo t' switch. S2. allows the oscillator to
built into the transmitte r. nea r the Ol1lPUI bac k to the base throug h the c apaci tor. T he func tion without placin g a vignal o n the air.
Fina lly. a tra nsmit -recei ve system is
added. T his functio n is pe rformed with a
multi- po le toggle switch, a simple but ad -

L4 L5 L6
=
1
£'0
11 1 1
47 0
SH
1 1 :1
_
86 0
SlI
470
SM
1
L4 , L6=1 . 52 ua , 19t T50- 6 .
L5=1 .7 uH, 21t T50- 6.

Fig 1.38- l nsid e v iew of t he z-etement low pass filt er bu il t to

Fig 1.37-L. ow pas s f ilt e r for us e w ith t he ex peri menta l go w it h t he be g in ner ' s ri g. Th e f ilter Is also used w it h ot he r
tran smi tte r. equ ip me nt .

1. 2 0 C ha pte r 1
 ~~~~~~~~~~~
D. C.

• ~<
spot 52 =- +12V DC
• l
< 2 . 7 uP.
RFC
10 0 . 01

To
. 01
Rece iver
1K Power
output
Input
VXO Freq .
Contr ol I ~
Cont . SIB
To Antenna
or Tuner .
Tl =12 t 11- 26 , 3t l i nk !l 22 , FB43 -2 401
T2, 5 bifi lar t urn s 1/ 22 , FB 4 3-2 4 0 1
Ll =26 t #2 8 , T3 7-6 1 2=12t# 22 , T50 - 6, space over ha lf c o r e .
Ql,Q2,Q3 =2N39iJ4 Q4=2N3 90 6 Q5 =2N5 321 wi t h Heat sink

Fig 1.39-A nearly co m p lete schematic of t he t ra nsmitter. T h is v er sio n c o mb ines t he PA w it h th e earlier stag es, add s shap ed
keying, power o ut p ut adjust , T/R s w itchi ng , and VXO acti o n.

equa te solu tion . S IA applies the + 12 V the supply reaching Q2. S 1B switches the elsewhere in the book.
supply to the osc illator during transmit antenna from the receiver to the transmi t- If this transmitter is to be used with a high
perio ds. T he supply is always ava ilab le to ter. The miniat ure togg le switch at 5 1 is quality modern recei ver with a wide AGe
Q3 and Q5 and does not need to be suitable for powers up through a few watts. range , a two pole switch is all that is needed
switched. The keying circ uit , Q4, co ntro ls More refined T/R method s are presented at S! . T he user can then listen to the trans-
mitter in the receiver as the key is actuated .
T he more co mmon scenario places this
From trans mitter with a simple direc t conv ersion
recei ver such as that described earlier in this
Re c e iver
chapter. It will then be impossible to tum the
+ 1 2V Audio Out gain in that receiver dow n far enough to pre-
~
J?
vent over load. An answer to the problem is
T o Key 100 51
presente d in Fig l AOwhere a sidetone oscil-
L ine T R
lator is added to the syste m. A SSS-timer
R2 Sl c integrated c ircuit functions as the square

1K
1
Jj'

°1
1 OK
7
8 +
;.~~
2 .2 K
To ? wave oscillator v..hich is keyed on and off
with 05. 05 base current routes through a
lO-kn resi stor attached to the key in Fig
tEE
n
3 He adphones
555 1.39. R2 must he adj usted for the head-
l OO K 22 0 phones used with the transmitter. The hcad -
10 K 4
2 pho nes are disconn ected from the receiver

1 0K
-
lN4 1 5 2 I . 01
# 1 0K
~ during transmit inter vals. attached only to
the sidetcnc oscillator. Two phone jacks are
included on the transmitter. A shan cable
- then routes the recei ver audio output from
the rece iver to the transmitter where it is
Q 6 ~ 2 N 39 0 6 switch ed . Th is scheme does not prevent the
receiver from heing over loaded, but guaran-
Fig 1.40- Sid et o ne os cill at o r fo r the tr ans m itter. Th is circ uit is also suit ab le as a tees that you don ' t have to listen when it
code pra ctice o sc ill ator. happens. The receiver won't be damaged by

Gett ing Started 1 . 21

 Fig 1.41-0verall v iew of the complete t rans mitter
c o ns tr uction .

Fig 1.42-0utside view of the Beginner St ation. A t left is the

beginner's direct c o nver s io n re cei ver w it h the transmitter at
t he righ t.

the ove rload. A third pole is needed on the

switch for this refi nem en t. Three pole
double throw toggle switch es arc unusual,
so we used one with four pole s.
The com plete trans mitt er is packaged in
a stan da rd box as shown in Fig 1.41. This
one meas ured 2 x 3.5 x f inc hes. although
wha tever is available will work, Altema-
tively, you can build your own box. T he
outs ide uf the box ca n be fixed to be as
attrac ti ve as you wo uld like it to be. co nsis -
tent with pe rsonal taste s, The variable ca -
pacitor. C t , the spotting switch .S2. and
the TtR swi tch ar c lo cated o n the fro nt
panel as sho wn on the rig ht han d side uf
Fig 1.42. The ke y j ack an d a headphon e
jack are also lo cated on the fron t. The re ar
pan el con tains power re cep tacle s, a ja ck
for the audi o inp ut from the rece iver . and
coaxial connectors for the antenn a and a
ca b le to the recei ver inp ut. T he box we PUT-
cha sed for the transm itt er had gray paint
on it. U nfor tu nately , it had nearly as much
paint on the insid e as was on the ou tside .
Fig 1.43- The in s id e v iew of t he t r ans m itter s hows the capacitor an d T/R swit ch Ins ide pa in t was re moved w here eom po-
mounted t o t he fron t p anel w it h pow er and c o ax ial co n nec t o rs o n the rea r. The left
board co ntains the first three sta ges w h ile t he righ t board co ntains the 2-W po wer
nellis we re grou nded to the ca se. Details of
amplifier. A heat sink is under t hat boa rd. A s ma ll board under t he TtR switch the i nterna l con struction ap pear in F ig
c o ntai n s t he sidetone o sc illa to r. 1.43,

1.22 C h a p te r 1
1.14 ABOUT T HE SCHEMATICS IN THIS BOOK
T he sc hematic dia grams used in this in the ci rcu it with 25 Y be ing typical. In We generally label sc hematics wi th the
boo k diffe r sligh tly fro m other ARRL pub- so me applications we will use C val ues in parts that we use d. But that docs nor mean
Iications in that we use slightly different uF, which stands for nanofarad. 1000 pF = that this is what you migh t wan t to use. An
conventions . Nut all details are presented 1 nF. example is our frequent use the l N4152
in all schematics . RF transformers are specified by turns silicon switching diode, In all cases, vir-
Capaci tors are in microfarads if elec tro- ratio rather than impedance ratio . Often tua lly a ll of these can be replaced by the
lytic or if they have decimal values less this data is prese nted within the schematic more common 1N4 148 or 1N9 14. Wh en
than 1. Val ues greater than unity arc in pi- d iagram rather than as part of a caption. there is a qu estion abou t such details, loo k
cofarad if they are not electrolyt ic . Elec- The same holds for inductance values . \Ve the part up and sec if the part s you have on
tro lytic ca ps always ha ve a voltage rat ing strive to load the schematic with as m uch ha nd are sim ilar. Then try the substitu-
gre ater than the Vcc or VdJ val ue used information as possible . tion.

REFERENCES
1. \ V. Hayward and D. De Maw , Solid St a re Radio , ARRL . 2 nd Edition. lY76, p 144 , for Beginners," QST, Sep, 2000, p 6 1.
Des ign for the Radio Amateur. ARRL 3. R . Le walle n, "An Optimized QR P 6. C. Kitchin, " An Ultra-Simple VHF Re-
1977 . Transceiver :' QST. Aug. 1980, pp 14-19. eeiverfor 6 Meters," QST, Dec. 1997, p 39.
2. R. Hayward and W. Hayward, 'The Ugly 4. J. Dillo n. "The Neophy te Rec eiver." 7, G , Dobbs, " A Stab le Reg e nerative
Weeke nder," QST, A ug, 198 1. pp 18-21. See QS T, Feb, 1988. p 14· 18. Rece iver ," SPRAT, Issu e 105. Dec, 2000,
also G, Grammer. Understanding Amateur 5. C. Kitchin. "A Simple Regenerative Radio p 21.

Getting Started 1.23

 CHAPTER

Amplifier Design Basics

2.1 MODELING SIMPLE SOLID STATE DEVICES

Sma ll signal amplifier s are used in a he or she uses a de vice. What is needed i _~ A re al wo rld diod e departs fro m the
rece iver to bring wea k signals up to the so me thing s imple r, a model with e nough idea l. First. a slig ht voltag e d rop appears
poi nt that they can be hea rd in hea d pho ne s. co mplicatio n to be useful in practical across the forward biased d iod e. C urrent
Large sign al a mplifiers in tr ans miners e re - app licati on s. but with no e xtra frills. re ma ins very smal l until that le vel is
ate eve n larger signa b. that . when applied we use models for e ven the simples t of exceeded. Sec ond. the flow of diode cur-
to an antenna. propagate 10 be heard by the parts. A resistor. for e xample. is modele d re nt c auses a slig ht addi tional vo lta ge
receivers. Clearly. the amplifier function as an idea l ele ment. a part t hat obe ys d rop. A re fined model with these ch arac-
is ce ntra l to allthat we do as rad io cx pcri- O hm ' s La w. with no other c harac te ristics . tcn stic s is shown in F i ~ 2,3 . T he mode l
mente rs . The re al res istor is more co mplica ted: be co me s a n idea l d iode. a O.6 -V batter y.
Before we gel in to the detail s of the even the sma lles t surface mo unted part hes and a diod e res is tor, RD' that is the ratio of
amplifier circuits. we examine devic es that capa c ita nce and ind uc tance. Wi re le ads a small incre ase in app lied volta ge. 6.V,
can amp lify . A prelim inary look at d iode, only mak e the effe cts larger. The L and C and the resultin g sma ll change in c urre nt,
soon ev olves into a discus-ion of bipola r alter circ uit beha vio r. but c an be decc ri bed 6.t. We so metim es refe r to the thre shol d
and field effect transistor s. H Ul , prior to by more elaborate mod els , (0.0 V in the figure) as a diode offs et volt-
that, we examine the modeling process . {/'; I' . T he offset will vary with diode type.
Eve n th e sirnple vt elec tro nic de vice s ca n Silicon j unction switching a nd rect ifier
T he Junction Diode
be very co mplica ted in thei r overall diodes usua lly have a n offset of (J,6 to
beh avior. e speciall y if all po wer level s and The first device we mod el in detai l is the 0.7 V. Germanium and hot- carrie r si licon
all freque nci es arc considered. Such a j unc tion d iode. The d iode is a de vic e that d iodes wi ll ha ve lo wer values. while some
co mple te description ca n be overw helm- has p olarit y depe nda nt properties. Specifi - co mp o und semicond uc to r parts have
ing. Indeed . suc h a complete de vice pic- c ally. if we insert all ide al d iode in a func-
ture wou ld conceptuall y bur y the sa lient tioning de c ircuit that c arries a cu rrent, the
beha vior tha t the des ig ne r may seck when c ircuit will be uncha nged by the pre.-e nce
of [he d iode if the pola rity is for "fo rward
bias." But. c urre nt flo w will cease if the
d iode is re verse biased. T he sche matic d ia- I
gram of Fi~ 2. 1 ill ustrates a forward bi-
R ased d iode defi ned by this behavior. Re-
vers ing the d iod e le ads e lim ina tes cu rrent
flow in the ci rc uit.
The c urre nt in the circ uit of fig 2. I is
show n in Fi~ 2,2. a cu rve called a n I- V
characteristic. The c urren t is that flowing
throug h the diode and the volt age is, that
alTOSS the diod e. Fig 2.2 plots a curre nt
Fig 2.2-IV Characteristics tor an ideal
that is complete ly deter mined by e le ments o r perfec t d iode. The curve shows I t o r
exremal to the d iod e. T his particular part a ny poss ible V tha t might be applied to
Fig 2.1- Forward b iased Jun ct io n d iod e. is called an "idea!" diod e. the ideal d iode.

A mp lifier Des ign Bas ics 2. 1

 '""
0"
I e
e
t OM

;,. ,
V
AV
" t
I
u
I (V)
0"

. " ., -c.s 0 OS
V
Diod~ Bias, Volt.

Fi g 2.3- IV cha racteristic for a ref in ed di od e mo del. Fig 2.4-IV ch ar act eristic for a c om mon junct ion di ode, This
fo llows t he d iode eq uat io n.

thre sholds e xcee ding one vo lt. be have if one mic rovo lt was app li ed 10 it. source with a large base resistor is used ,
T he mo del o f Fig 2.3 is mor e accurate The current flowing in the diode, Eq 2.1. allowing us 10 co ntro l base current. A posi-
t ha n the ideal diode. but is sti ll less than wou ld be esse nti ally zero if a microvolt tive voltage i s appli ed to the co llector,
perfe ct in some s itu atio ns . A much be tter was applied directly. R ut. the diode might reverse biasing the collecto r-ba se junction .
diode repre sen tatio n is a mathem at ical have a much different respo nse if the T he two -d iode mode l wo uld pred ict zero-
mode l where current is given by an equa- diod e alread y had a bia s cur re nt tlowing . co llecto r current. B ut. collector current
tion. :Fig 2.5 show s part of a diode IV curve. doc s flow in propo rtion to the curren t in
T he poi nt corresponding to 5 rnA DC cur- the base. This is transistor ac tion. The ratio
4V/kT
1 == I s . ( c rent flow is marked wit h a tan ge nt line. of co llector to base current is usuall y slg-
_ J qVlkT E<j 2.1 T he slope of this line defines a res istance,
J - S e a change in current for an applied change
in voltage that occurs when a small signal
e eis
where [s is called the saturation curren t in i s applied to the biased diode . T he d iode
amperes, q is the charge on an electron , k has a re sistance of about 5 n when the
is Bousman's constant, and T is the dio de current is 5 rnA, generall y re presented by
O.ol
tempera ture in de grees Kelvi n. T he sec- 26
ond . approximate form is common . This R,, ~ ~
-'"

)
. I ~mA } Eq 2.2
mode l. know n mer e ly as the diode equa -
0 00'
l ion , is illus trate d in Fi g 2.4 for the case of The factor 26 mV (o r .026 V ) c ome s
T= 300 K (near room tempera ture ) and Is '" from di fferen tiat ion of E q 2.1 an d is a very
3xlO-15 A. a value that we inferred f ro m common parameter in semicon d ucto r elec- 0
mea surements f or the popular 1,\i4 1481
IN4152 se ries o f par ts. Changi ng Is
tron ics: e ss
"' ,
0 .65 a.t 0.7J

genera tes new offset values . T he diode Fig 2.5-Sma ll SIgna l mo de l for a
kT '" .026 Eq 2.3 j unc tion diode repre sents it as a
equ ation is also sign if ica nt bec ause it 4 resis to r wit h th e sl ope sh ow n. See tex t.
o rig inate s as a de scription evolvi ng fro m
basic phys ics . Physics bas ed mod e ls are A sma ll sig nal diode mod el is no more
ge nerally preferred beca use they follow tha n a simple res istor. We will make
from fu ndamentals, even though they may exten sive usc of small sig nal mo del s a s we
no t be as intuitive. move on.
More re fined diode mode ls will include NPN

-EQ
rev erse bre akdo w n, h igh frequency
parameters (inductance an d capacitance.) Th e Bipolar Tran s istor b
and e ven carrier life time . No matt er wha t The bipolar transistor is a three terminal
met hods we use to analyz e a circ uit, the device . If we use the same equ ipment that
re sults oft he analysis will onl y be as good Vie used to examine diode s. we might con- !':
as the model s. cl ude that the bipo lar trans is tor is j ust a
pair of diodes in one pa cka ge, attached a s e
SMALL SIGNA L DIODE MODEL sh own in F ig 2.6. T his i s an incomplete.
Th e antenna signals that our rece i ver s yet useful model. FIg 2.6- Ap parent model o f a b ipolar
amplify are often in the microvolt region Let' s pla ce this model in a tes t ci rcuit. tr ans ist or. Thi s is wh at we wo uld Infer
or le ss . we ask how the diode wo uld shown in F ig 2.7. A variable voltage bias by exam ina t ion wit h a VOM.

2.2 C h apt er 2
 n c b Ib
• :::h
e

R-b N
§ I
=-
vcc
b Ib
•I Sib T ,61 b
I~ ~
J. V-in ..;.
(al
,e
ld.. ",l
e
( bl

Fig 2.7-The circuit we used 10 bia s a bipolar t rans is to r fo r Fig 2.8-A c urrent s ource is ad ded to th e diode pair to form a
acti ve ope ratio n. See text. re presentative model. The diod e is often ignored as in B.

nified by the greek letter bela. ~ . A typ ical

value mig ht he 100. e c c
b
T he simpli fied model on rhc rig ht side
of Fig 2.7 is cle arly in error. Th e "collcc-
tor" diode is rever se biased by V,-c' yet
considera ble c urre nt flo ws aga inst thc R-i n 1 b
1 e' b b
1
diode arrow. A he tte r model is shu ....'n in
' b
Fig 2.8A where the ori ginal diode pair is
supp le men ted b)' a curren t so urce propor- e
tiona l to the cu rrent in the base-emtuer
diode. The mod el in Fig 2.8 B is the model
we u...e for eval uatio n of bias ing circuits. It e e
neglects the collector-base diode and rc- (a )
fine s the base-emitte r diode.
(b) (c )
SMALL SIGNAL BIPOLAR
TRANSISTOR MODEL
Wha t happen s with the bipo lar tran sis- Fig 2.9 Evo lutio n of a s mall si g na l transistor mode l.
tor for s mall signals? Ho w do we model it?
The methods used with the diode are ex -
panded 10desc ribe the transistor . as shown
in fi g 2.Y. using r, is more co mmon . Co mmo n em it- Another feature of the mod el is illu s-
In Fig 2.9A. the input diode is replaced te r small signal amplifier input resis tance trated by a s imple a mplifier design. show n
for small signals wi th a restsmnce. Thc is in Fig 2.10A. An I\ P N tra nsistor is biase d
res ista nce is e xactly t hat used with with a base resis tor attac hed to a po siti ve
the curlier diode, 26/ 1 where I is no w the supply. A load re sivtor , Re, is p laced in the
DC cu rrent i n milli amper es for the Eq 2.5
collector. The base resistor is adj usted
base-emitter diode. The curr ent amplify- until the e mitte r curre nt is I rnA. Th e small
ing properties that we disco ver ed ear lier A traditio nal viewpoint emphasizes the signal model sho wn in Fig 2.10 B is used
are pre ser ved for small signa ls. so the sma ll bipular transisto r as a cu rrent controlled for analysis ,
sign al co llec tor c urrent remains at ~ xi". de vice with ~ re prese nting current gain. With I mA e mitter curre nt, the tra ns-
We use a lo..... er case ''1'' to e mphasi ze the But beta can va ry co nside rably for a give n co nductance is gm= 1126. S ignal current is
"m all signal leve ls. transistor type. sugg est ing that the ampli - the n v inx~m ' This c urre nt prod uces an OUI-
An alternative small s igna l model is fie r gain may diffe r for different tran sis- put vo ltage because it flows in Re. result-
shown in Fig 2.9B. Here the resistance in to rs. wh ich is not true. A prefe rred sma ll ing in a voltage gain of gmxRc- which is
series with the base has been replaced with sig nal model is shown in Fig 2.9C. where
one in the emitter. Th is resis tan ce. te rmed the part is viewed as a vohuee driven com - G, = R c / r~ Eq2.S
r~ . is give n by ponent. The o utput current so urce is now Knowing biasing details. vol tage gain
specified by a tran scon d uctance , grn: can be predicted "b y i nspec tio n" as a
26
r~ =- Eq 2.4 resisto r ratio. independe nt of beta. Current
I, gai n. o r It is still of significance. for it will
Eq 2.6
where I ~ is no w the em itte r current in mil - alter the signal cu rre nt tha t flo w" w hen
liampe res. The collector c urrent e xceeds d rive volta ge s a re a pplied. which defi nes
that in the base by ~. and the emitter c ur- The tra nscond uctance. gm' is give n by input imp eda nce .
rent is the sum of the collec tor and base No te thai we have said no thing about
values• .so the de emi tter current is great e r
I, (rnA) transi stor type . Our discussio n has constd-
gm = Eq 2.7
than t he base value by ( ~+ I). Accor dingly, 26 ered the NPN . bUI has ,..aid litt le else of a
the em itte r resistor of Fig 2.'IB is smaller specific nature. This is not an o versimpl i-
than the resistor of Fig 2.9A by (~+ I ), Hoth While ~ may vary among transis tors . gm fica tion. Mu ch of the utility of the bipolar
models are eq ually va lid. alt hou gh that is well defined by em itter curr ent. t rans isto r resu lts fr om properti es that

Amplifier Design Basics 2 .3

 the pusruv e su pply thro ugh a vol tage
divider. R 1 and R 2. Th e eq uivale nt circuit
for the divider is sho wn in Fig 2. 138 . The
base voltage with the: transis to r tempo-
rarily rem o ved is fo und from di vider
act ion as

R,
Eq 2. 10

where the prime ind icates that the base is

open circ uited. and abse nt fro m the calc u-
latio n. The c r uiuer voltage is bel ow the
base by the O.6-V offset placing the emit-
Fig 2.1O-T he sim ple amp li f ie r at A is an alyzed with th e small sig na l mod el at B . tc r voltage at I AS V, Th e em iller current
is the n dete rmi ned by the 330· 0 e mitter
resistor a, 4 39 rnA. The coll ec tor current
is almos t the same as that in the em itter.
depend primarily upon rne ~lan ding emil- will decr ease fro m the red uced collector and the drop across the collector load puts
te r cu rrent. voltage. A lowe r than nominal bela will V~ at 7.61 V.
ca use collector voltage to climb. forcing Thi s analysis. alth ough clo se. is in
BIPOLAR TRANSISTOR BIASING more base c urre nt to flow. erro r. Base current now produces an IR drop
Accu rate tra nsisto rc urre nt is viral to any Applic at ion o f the mod el and some in the biasing res istor chain. This
design. beca use c urre nt determines sma ll algebra prov ides a ge ne ral eq uatio n fo r Fig decreases the base voltage below the value
signal properties. The powe r diss ipation. 2. 12. shown in Fig 2.13 by aho ut O.25 V . There are
the powe r ou tpu t capabilities. the distor - two solutions to this prohle m. O ne would
tion. and e ven freque ncy depende nce arc V e, . R 1 + V~b .~ . R c
Eq 2,9 replace R 1 and R2 with a "stiffer" voltage
also dete rmined by hia, current and volt- ~ Rc + Rt divider. Values of 3.3 kO and 6!-:O n would
age. Biasing me thod s will be e valuat ed work well. but ar the price of greater power
with the mod el of fig 2.8R, whe re the con sumpuon . The othe r alrcm ative is a more
base-emitter j unction becom es an ideal An even be tter bias sche me is sho wn in
t'ig 2.13:\ , where the base is d riven fro m carefu l analysis. If this is perform ed, ibe
diode with a 0.6- V ba ttery. Collector cur- emiuer current is given by
re nt is then ~ )( I t>.
The firs t bias ex amp le we consider h-
that sho wn in Fi~ 2.11. A I-k llioad rests- (v" -R, - V" -(R, +R,)) (~.i)
tor appear, in the collec to r. while the base I,
i_, bia sed from rhe 12- V supply thro ugh a
(R , +R , )- R 3 -(~+ I). R, -R,
l OO-" !! resistor. Th c model assumes a n -<l~---'--'-
+ 12 V F:q 2. 11
offset of 0.6 V, so the base c urrent is 11.4 Re
V acr oss 100 kn, or 114 /lA . If trans istor R1 The r, value for the co mpo nents in Fig
~,,;JUU . thc colle ctor curre nt is 11 .4 rnA. 1K 2,1J is 3.759 m.A .
1 0 0R pJ'\p biasi ng is identical to that of the
Rut. the I -kn collec tor resist or produ ces +-- --ll -
an 1R drop of 11.4 V. leaving a collecto r NPN. except that the voltages are mea-
voltage of o nly 0.6 V. sured with reg ard to the pos itive powe r
Re pea ling the c alc ula tio n with , lightly supply, which may o r may not be
higher ~ pred icts a nega tive collec to r volt- "grou nd," See Flit 2.14.
age, impossible witho ut a nega tive supply . f ig 2,15 shows a natural refine ment 10 the
Recall that earlier models included a Fig 2.11- A si mp le a mplifi e r used f o r biasing scheme. Here another resistor is
coll ector-bast': d iod e that pre ve nted the b ias a naly si s. addcd, a normal pan of a deco upJing scheme.
collec ror from be ing more tha n a d iod e The added resis tor provides negative feed -
d rop be low the base. w hene ver the collec- back like thai used ear lier in Fig 2.12. This,
tor volta ge eq uals or drops be lo w that of Vee • +12 V in combination with the feedback from R3of
the base , fo r an ;-o PN, the tran sist or is said Fig 2. 13 further stabilizes bias.
to be saturated. Re A schem e useful for biasi ng a n ,r.; PN
The sch e me ofHg 2. 11 is, at best, a poo r transistor with a di rec tly gro und ed em itter
bias meth od. Slig ht cha nges in beta yield is shown in Fig 2.16. A PNP tra nsistor
R1 L-; 1K
great uncertainly. Biasing is improved emitter sen ses the de col lector volta ge and
with neg ative feedback , with one fo rm i oox I- co mpares it wi th the PNP bas e at a refer-
shown i n Fig 2.12. The IOO· kn resis tor is ence, Y r' estab lished with voltage divid er
;?
biased fro m the co llector rat her than the ----J R I and R 2· The refe rence divider is usually
12- V supp ly. An intuitive ex amina tio n ~ des igned 10 put most of th e power sup ply
shows that this is an impro ved method . on the J'\PN collector. The O. I - ~F ca paci-
eve n before we "crunch" any num ber s. If
."". tor stabilizes tbe negat ive feed back hias
the bela changes to drive the tr ansisto r Fig 2.12----1mp ro ved b ias IS o bta med loop. With the values s how n. the bias is
toward saturation. the c urrenr rhro ugh R 1 ' ro m t he c oll ec t or. defined by

2 .4 Chapter 2
 Vee 0
+12 v
- +1 2 V
Vcc=1 2
Rc R2 , 6 . 8 K <

~ R3 , 3 3 0

r0F-
lK 5. 6 4:;
3 3K
R1
33K riA
~. 6 1 V)
1
~

( 2 . 0 5v

6. 8F:
--B:
R2 l 1. 4 5v )
3 30
83
6 8K
~
S>
1°5 v R1, 3 3K

-
iRe, 1K

-~
-
~
Ib)
I, )
Fig 2.14- PNP biased to t he same
conditions as we established wit h t he
Fig 2.13-Evolution of base bias from a voltage di vider. NPN e xample.

v, Vee ' R 2 Vee -v v

R] + R2 R- dc pl
Vee - V R - 0.6 Eq 2.12 Rc "
RA
Rl
IV
~
The Field-Effect R2 <
+
Transistor
Altho ugh the hipolar tra nsistor is our
work horse, various forms of f ield effect
tran sistor, or FET, are clo se in popularity .
o~ R3i
Amo ng FETs. one of the mos t common is
the junction variant, the JFET . A JFET is
Fig 2.15-Decoupling resistor add s
muc h like vacuu m tub e triodes of the past negative feedback to t he biasing wit h Fig 2.17- Test setu p use d to evaluate a
and is easily biased and use d in amplifier an emitter res istor. JFET.
applicatio ns. FET s, including the JFET.
generally lac k the uniformi ty and predict -
ability of a bipolar trans istor. JFET s tend
to be lo w noise devices. Not only is the oft en called operation in the saturation
noise figure low. but the lo w frequency Vee reg ion. Scauranon is just the oppo site con-
Ilieker. o r " 1/F" noise is small. This com- 01 ditio n in a FET fro m saturation in a hipo-
Oa lar tran sisto r.
bina tion makes the JFET especially useful 2 N39 06
for low noise osc illators . Fig 2.19 shows the usual source res istor
F ig 2. 17 prt;'st;'nts t he test setu p that al- meth od used for hiasi ng an 1\' -Cha nnel JET
lows us to measure , and then model the at a current below 1<1'>" The cu rrent flo w-
02
JFET. The e xample is a n N-channel ing through the res istor establishe s
De pletio n mode JFET . A dra in pow er sup - a positi ve sour ce voltage. A s c urr ent
ply. +V dd, is appli ed . The gate voltage is incr eases. th e sou rce voltage increases.
then varied while exami ning the current ca using the gate-to-source voltage differ -
that flo ws . Fig 2.18 is a resulting plot of
d rain cu rrent vs gate-to -so urce volt age
T ence to become more negativ e. Th is is the
action needed to dec rease c urre nt, eve ntu-
Input
with constant drain voltage. The gate volt- all y stah ilizing the hia s. The act ion of an
age is negative for mos t of the curv e. The Fig 2.16-A "wrap-around" PNP biase s external source R is a form of negative
gate can he no more than 0.6 V pos iti ve. an NPN wit h grounded em itter. The feedhack, j ust as we used with an em itter
for the gate of a JFET is actually a diode Q.1-1..1 F capacitor stabilizes bias and is res isto r in the case of a bip olar transistor.
j unction. The metal ox ide silico n field t;'f- the dom inant element in the bias loop. Fig 2. 19 includes so me JFET equatio ns.
fee t transistor. MOSFET. has similar prop-
erties. but uses an insulating gate , There is SMALL SIGNAL JFET MODEL
the n no diode clamping actio n. Fig 2.18 showed a co mplete c urve.
Once gate -to-sou rce voltag e drops to an is at -3 V for the example of Fig 2.1R describing la rge and sma ll signal behavior
adeq uate le vel, dra in curre nt goes to zero These data arc typical for the popu lar 1310 as wel l as JFET bias ing . The simplified
and the FET is said to be in "pi nch-off." I FET. A drain vol tage higher than the sma ll signa l mode l is shown in Fig 2.20,
The pinch -off volta ge. the gate-so urce V magnitude of the pinch-off is usu ally Here an ope n gate termina l acce pts an
where c urrent drops to (or nea rly to ) zero. required to ensure linear operation. This is input vol tage , That signal the n con trols an

Ampl ifi er Des ign Basics 2.5

 "'J
"
JFET Amplifier f
H f---

U
-Jf---
" I ri
I (V j
" ~ 11
"
u
/ Pincholfvoltage is negOl ..e
V Bas ic FET equalion for on N-channel FET
./
" V " " .~ (, _ F~:
r;;;-)
" --- ,
v
u

Current with s e1 s ource R

10

Fig 2.18-0rain Cu rre nt vs Sou rce-ta-Gate Voltage fo r J310 Fig 2.19-JFET bias circuit and equatio ns . The lef t circu it is a
type Junction Fiel d Effect Tra ns istor. Idss=35 rnA and Vp=-3 V. practica l amp lifier, while that on t he ri ght is the bias
V p is the vo ltage where drain current goes to zero. Ids s IS t he eq uiva lent. Pick a desired drain current, 10 (must be less t han
drain current when the gate and source are both at t he same loss), and use t he middle equat ion to find the requi red so urce
potentia l. res istor. The resul tin g source voltage is gi ven by Ohm's Law .

out put current so ur ce rel ated to the input Fig 2.20-Simplified small sig nal JF ET
by a transconductance, gill' with model.
D
Td
= 2 . V" ' ( 1 + V,gJ
, ,
o
om V Eq 2.13
V- g
or " am ps per volt." From the equati ons in
For example, if we biased the FE T for a Fig 2. 19, we sec tha t the DC drain curre nt
gate voltage equ aling ha lf of the pin ch-off is then 8 .75 rnA, which is realized w ith a
value. with Idss=35 mA an d Yp=- 3 Y, the so urc e R of 17 1 n. T he low fr equency in-
small si gn al transcondu ct ance is 0.01 17 S, put re sista nc e is es sentia lly infi nite.

2.2 AMPLI FIER DESI GN BASICS

Ha vi ng examined bas ic device models 10-1.8 81= 8.1 19 V. The collector -to-emitter through a 10 -Il-F ca p aci tor wh ich h a s a
and bia sing, we now eval uate so me basic voltag e, VC'o ' is 6.238 an d pow er dis sipation I -kH z re actance of 16 n . Be ing very small
amplifier design s, fir st wi th the bipola r is the product of this vo ltage with the stand - compared wi th the amp lifi er input o r th e
ju nction tran sisto r (B JT) and t hen the ing current. 11,73 m W. source , it may be ne glected for a 1-kHz
j unc tion fi eld effect transistor (JFET). Small sig na l tran sistor ch aracte r isti cs analysis. The same argum e nt may be m ad e
Wc bcgin with a single stag e aud io are es t ab li she d by emitter current. Th e for the out put capacitor. Th e re sul t is th e
desi gn. Fig 2.21. The circuit that we mi ght resul ting sma ll signal mo del is that in Fig small sign al ci rcuit o f Fig 2.2 Id. Th e
build is presented in Fig 2.21a. "..hilc a bias- 2.2lc. The l -kU e mitter re sistor ha s di s- power supply is missing in thc sm all sig-
ing re lated part is shown in Fig 2.21b. T he appeared from the circuit fo r it i s well na l mode ls w here V cc is re pl aced by
voltage divider, 10 kU and 3.3 kr!. cre ates bypassed by the 100-IlF ca pa ci tor. T he gro und: the supp ly is fix ed and d oes not
an eq uivale nt source of 2.481 V at the base . sma ll signal r o is 2611.,(mA)= 13.8 2 Q . The eh angc with audio sign a l current, so it is
This decreases hy 0.6 V in movin g through input res istance looking into th e bas e is effectivel y a si gnal gro und.
the tra nsistor to produce an emitter vo ltage almost 1.4 kD: '= r. x(p+ I). We ch aracteri ze d the BJ T by a tra ns-
of I. RR I Y. The emitter curr ent is then 1.88 1 T he inp ut sour ce is a l -m V voltage gen - conductance, £ m=0.0724 a mp/ vol t. Also,
rnA. Wi th betaelOu, base current is 19 11 A. erator in series with a re si sta nce of 1 k f.!. we negl ec t any effect re lated to th e ba se
we ll below the 75 2 IlA in the volta ge which might represent a pr evious stage. bi as divider on the small signal model.
divider. T he colle ctor voltage is thcn T he source is, AC cou p le d to the ba se Th e I -m Y inpu t signal i s voltag e

2.6 Chapter 2
 op en c ircui t sour ce be hind a l -kf l resis-
to r. so the load th at wou ld al low the max i-
m um a vail able powe r to he ex trac ted

",,-~,. V:c - 1 O
tx
would be a I -k n resistor. T he avail ab le

~---1~'" in put becomes 0.5 mV across 1 kQ . o r 2.5

I OK
'.vE
'"
~
lK
x ]() -IO wa tts . leaving a transduce r guin of
c;;JAY---4 ,.~'"~ 1572 . or 32. 0 dB This is nearly as high as
h _- 3 . 3K
the po we r gain . T he gain difference is a
~ >m,
-: l .JK
, I< ~
1- 11'" [!J
~ ~
~

l~
" consequence of the inp ut imped ance mis -
match . We will have mor e to say ab out
ga ins and dB later in t hi s chapter.
A common prac tice co nve rts a volt ag e

~ ~""=1K
gain to dec ibe l fo rm with the fami lia r
[Q] 20 *Log (G ..). 27 .6 dB for thi s example.

"()
$ ~l"'o~ et
This is /101 a correct res ult, for the source
[fJ ,
.." l.L l j, =r 1 O",, =500
impeda nce i s not the sa me a s t he lo ad
imped ance. Th e deci bel co ns truct is one
that sho uld on ly be applied to power
'" " rat ios , It wor ks with voltage ratios only

~1
gH=·0724

~
whe n the re lated res istances are equal.
r =1 3 .8 I n the amp lifier we analyzed, the in p ut
0
~ ,V (lS applied to the base while the em itter
~

wa s grou nded th ro ug h a large byp ass

cap ac ito r. He nce, the input wa s app lied
..
FIg 2.21 -Slngle trens retor euo!c amplifi er des i g n. See text fo r details . between the ba se and the emitter. T he out-
pu t wa s ex trac ted from the collector-emit-
ter po rt. Thi s is a commo n-emitter (C E )
config uration, fo r the emitter is common
di vide d bet ween the l -kO SOUTce rcs is- sche mat ic show s the in put is tied to ground to inp ut and out p ut. A common-colle ctor
tancc an d the 1.39-k O input resis ta nce . through r e, the 13.x-n resistor, whi ch (c e ) am plifier is shown in Fig 2.22.
The ba se inp ut voltage becomes 0.582 mV wo uld severel y atte nuate the signal Ho w- The complet e am plifier circuit i s sho wn
to prod uce a co llecto r sig na l current of ever, the c urrent source repr ese nting the i n Fig 2.22 A. whil e the small si gnal ve r-
i ~= g ", xvtx: =(l. 0421 rnA . T his curren t nO\\'S transisto r is also attached to the input node, sion is in Fig 2.22B . The open cir cuit d e
thr u ugh a resi stance of 333 n. the parallel and that cu rr en t mo ve s in unis on with base volt age is 5 V. so the emitter bias
equivalent ofthe 500 -r.! load an d the l -kU the inp ut volt age. Th is y iel d s the res ults c urre nt is 4.4 rnA , le ad ing to r e=:'5 .9 1 ,n ,
collector resista nce . The outpUi voltage is o utli ned. T he fol lowe r of Fig 2.22 B is dr iven from
then 0.04 2 1 mAx333. or J4.0 2 mY for a We calcula ted a volt age gain , T he ga ins a I -kn source impedance.It is terminated
circuit voltage guin of 24.1 Note t hat thi s o f greater interest are power rat ios . O ne of in a pai r of l -kn res istors in parall el. The
is a lso exactly the ratio in ter est to the RF d esi g ner is, si mply. in put res istance o f a follower is giv en by
power gain, the o utput po wer divided by
inp ut pow er. T he ou tput power is calcu- E q 2,15
Elj 2.14 Iatcd (for rig 2.2 1) as V"/R where R is the
:'500-n load an d V is the 14,02 -mVoutput.
where the lo ad is the total impeda nce seen O utput power is then 3.9 3 x 10-7 W . The wh ile the output im pe dance is
by the collector. inp ut power is the base voltage (0 .5 82 mY )
The form of this equ ation is espec ially
R,
across the tran sisto r input R of 1.4 kn. o r R OlTT =~+ re Eq2. 16
int uitive. empha sizing the r ule o f r., a s 2.43 5 x 10- 10 \V Th e po wer gain is the \~ + I)
a degeneration resistance. If we p laced a ra tio o r the two powers, 16 14. Using a dB The vo ltage ga in for the emitter foll ower
l O-n re sis tor in series with the IOO-IlF re lations hip, this becomes 32. 1 d B. This is is
emitter bypa ss capacitor. the net e mitter high bu t re asonable ror a single tran sis tor ,
res ista nce would he 1() + 13.X=23 ,X nand fOI' this amp l ifier operates at low frequen- R,
the vo ltage gain would become 14. Th e cies. Such ga in fro m a single trans istor at G, = -::-".L- Eq 2.17
R L + re
role of em itter c urre nt is clear: Increasin g radio freq uencies is more di ffic ult.
standing em itter curre nt ca use s r o to Power gain is fundame ntal but is not Substi tut ing r, int o thes e eq uat io ns
decrease. inc reasing vol tage gain. Emitter a lway s the gain we measure. We usua lly shows that the Iullo wer has a gai n o rO.9 RS,
dege ne ration is a co mm on fee db ac k mea sure transduce r POYl'fI" g ain . es pe - essentially I. ac cou n ti ng rOT t he c irc ui t
scheme. cia lly when wo rk ing wi th R]-' c ircuits , name . Se ttin g I3 lo 100, the inp ut re sistance
Wc have tre ated the bipolar tran sistor as Tra nsducer ga in is ou tpu t pow er de livered is 5 I kD:while the o utput resi sta nce is 15.S
a volt age co ntrolled dev ice. Beta was indi - to a load vs t he ma ximum power avail- n , Th e inpu t re sistance and the volt age
rectly used in the calculation. but only [0 able fro m the inp ut generator, W e have gai n bot h grow if the fo llow er is lightly
set tran sistor in put resistance . This, in tum, already calc ulated output pow er. The lo ad ed. The o utp ut resis ta nce decreas es as
est ablished the fraction o f the l - rnV input a vail able po wer from t he sou rc e i s tile t he so urce impedance drop s.
voltage t hat appeared at the ba se. power that wou ld be de liv ered to a te rmi- It is ver y common to de -couple a rot-
There is a counter int uiti ve nature to the nation that was im ped ance matc hed to the lower to a p rec ed ing am p lifier ; this is
mod e ling pre sented in F ig 2.2 I D , The genera tor. Th e ge nerator wa s a l -mV ill ustrated in f ig 2,23 ,

Ampli fier Design Basics 2,7

 can be very large. Howe ve r. this is so me-
what synthetic fur the inpu t imp edance is
V cc ='10
usually ver y 10\,,'. making the amplifier
'" diffic ult to d rive. The co mmo n applica-
tio ns use a c urre nt so urce to dr ive the Cll
amplifier , realized by placing an extra re-
sistance in ser ies with the input.
The CB amplifier has the usefu l prop-
erty th at it offers exc ell ent reverse isol a-
tio n. That is, the input impedance of a C H
amplifier is not affected by anything that
happens to t he output circu it. The example
B shown in f ig 2.24 is biased to a current or
about 0 ,8 rnA. producing an input resis-
tance of 32 11.
The equations for the small signal prop-
Fig 2.22-Com m o n c o ll ecto r amp lifier, a lso kno w n as an em itt er fo llower .
e rties of the various amp lifiers are de rived
in Introducnon to Rl? De sign ! and arc dis -
c ussed in The Arr of Iitec tronics .e
The CC ampli f ier ha d a low output
Vc c=10 imped ance. Noth ing was said about the
co mmo n em itter and common base a mpli -
"
0
~ " (";:;
fier o utput resistance. Both are esse ntially
infinite [or the simp le models co nside red
~ ~
" where the BJT is modeled as an "ideal
\!'

1"
;j
t:1 current sou rce:'

' '1 Most of the amplif ier analysis we have

' "1 -
'K
-
'00,

I ~
~
done is based upon simple model s, ones
that have but one or two parameters . Beta
has only minor impact on cir cuit perfor -
mance , The domi nant cle ment in <Ill of the
models is r. . the e mitter resistance. This
parameter is directly related to current, a
Fi g 2.23 -Volta ge A mpl ifi e r w it h a DC coup led em itter follower. parameter under the control of the circuit
designer. This would suggest tha t al l
bipolar transi stors are more alike than they
are different and that the on ly major differ-
Vcc- 10 cnccs are in the freque ncy capabilit y and
size. Th is is gene rally an accurate view of
thc sma ll-signal hipolar transistor.

Small-Signal FET
A mplifi ers
The field effect transistor fam ilies are
B sim ilar 10 the BJT: as thr ee term inal
device s. the y can be con figured into three
diffe rent for ms. Fig 2.25 shows the com -
mon so urce, common gate, and common
drain (or source follower) configurations
Fig 2.24- Co mm o n Bas e Amp lif ier w ith sma ll- si gnal eq ui v alent .
fur an ~ Channel l FET.
There are many sim ilarities bet wee n
BJT and JFET circuits. The comm on gate
FET ampl ifier (e G) has a low inp ut
impeda nce with a high output impeda nce.
The third basic amplifier co nfiguration The topology offers e xcellent re verse
Eq 2,19
is the com mon base (CB) amplif ier of l'ig isolatio n. The follo wer (C D) has a [o w
2.2 4. outp ut imp edance with a very high input
whi ch is no rmally very close 10 uni ty. We
The input resistance for the common imp eda nce .
essentiall y assum e that the curr ent injected
bas e (C 8) ampl ifie r is JFET bias current is controlled hy the
into the CB ampli fier appears at the out -
put. The voltage gain is the n designer . j ust as it wa s with the BJT.
1
R tl\=re = - - EC12.18 Resistor values may, how ever, hav e to be
o
om Eq 2,20 devic e specific, picked for a giveri FET to
The current gain for the C 8 ampfifi eris establish performance . With in a given
given by the parame ter cc. The voltage gain for the CB amplifier JFET type, for example. a 3: I variatio n in

2 .8 Chapt er 2
 Vdd V dd
Vdd
Vdd
ut
r-2- ---J 'r - +----,.;"'- --1",---Out
IN
(-
Out
(~
~f--.-r'''2._,c.......J (--- V-control
In ~'\NV-
---), ~+ Out

CS

Fig 2.25-Common So urce, Co mmo n Gate, and Com mo n Drai n JFET Amp lif iers.
i CD Fig 2.26-A JF ET o perating as a series
switch .

....10SF ETs arc usefu l audi o sw itches in

many app licatio ns.
Th e FETs may be used as voltage vari-
able resistors. As such. they can function
in gai n co ntro l ci rcuits .
c
' or-- Hig h Frequency Effects
b 'b Little has been said about the effects of
high frequency. Yet, much of our interest as

1 radio e xperimenters is in the performance of

tran sistor circuits at frequencies well beyond
the range of our simple models.
FS £r
",ew ercv _
The f irst th ing th at hap pe ns 10 the B JT
as freq uency i ncre ase s is that 0 dec rea ses
over the de and a udio val Lies. T his is shown
Fig 2.27-Cu rrent ga in vs Fre q ue ncy fo r Fi g 2.28 - The hybrid-p i t ran s istor in the curve of Fig 2.27 of 0 v, freq ue ncy .
a BJT. model, The lo w frequen cy ~ is shown as 00' The
frequ ency where 0drops 10 a value of unity
is ca lled the curr ent gain ha ndwidth prod-
'J" is common . A similar variat ion exi sts f ET channel (the source -drain path) and uct, or mo re ofte n, j ust as F t. Dropping 10
with pinchoffv ultagc The combi nation of is routed to the output wh en the co ntro l a frequency of F/ :? will produce ~ =2 . Th e
these two variables mig htlead one to feel voltage is puxi tive with regard to the chan - freq uency whe re 0 begins to depa rt fro m
that it wou ld be nearly impossible 10 nel. The cha nne l is the current path be- ~o is called the "be ta cutoff'."
design with FET s. Fortunate ly, it' s not that tween so urce and d rain . T he channel is bi- The role off of cu rrent gain with fre-
bad. for the variat ions are related to each ased abov e ground by the voltage divide r. q uency is mod el ed with an ad ded base
oth er, That is. a given JFET in a family The switch is open circu ited if the con trol cap acitor. Fig 2.28 , The other d ements are
w ith a high Idss w ill also ten d to hav e II vohaece is more ne euauve with reee ard to gen erally uncha nged. so the com plete roll
pin choff with a more negative valu e. pro - the cha nnel tha n the fET pinc hoff volt- on may be attri buted to the ca pacito r
ducing less variation in gm' the dominant age. T he swit chin g FET may he mode led across the input. The circ uit shown in Fig
smal l signal charac terist ic. as a voltage controlled va riable resistor in 2.28 is called the h yhrid -n mod el.
There is goo d reas on for the similaritie s this application . Lo west R occurs wh en At low frequ enc ies an output si gn al
between FET and 81 T amplifie rs. Many of the control voltage is at or ahov e the from a transist or is ei the r in pha se (0
the proper ties result from feedba ck th at is chan nel. The gatc re sist er is us uall y large, deg rees) or out of ph ase (l W deg rees : with
added to a circu it by the configuration. For allowing the con trol to be several volts the input sig nal. These simple phase rela -
example. th e follower has the load in higher than the chan nel. Alth ough the gale tionships no lo nger hold above the ~ cut-
se ries wit h the current source . Th e volt age diode is then forward biase d. current is off where the mathematics change. Liking
developed ac ross the load then gene rate s a small and of little con sequence . on a (for mally) com plex chara cter .
signal that coruributes 10 the contro l of the Virtuall y all FE T type s function well as A typical EJT is the 2N39 04 , Th is NP.'\
current gen erato r. switches . En hanc e ment mode ~I O S FETs tranxixtor has a typical F, of abou t 300
The JfET ha s an add itio nal property not offer the ad vantage of no gate diode to M H/, and a lo w frequency 00 of 100. Th is
pred icte d hy the prec ed ing mod e l. the complicate the circuit. Ga.As /l.fOSFETs places the 0 cu to ff at about 3 M H /. Th is
switc h ac tion illust rared in Fig 2.26 . Th e are useful in very high speed switch ing de vice wi ll have som e phase shift effects
J FET func tion s here as a se ries SPST ap plications where the y may be used for at all frequencies within the HF spectra and
switch. An in put ac sig nal is applied to the micr owave sig nal control. J FETs an d hig her.

Amp lifier Design Bas ic s 2. 9

2.3 L A RGE SIGNAL A M PLIFIERS
Our pre vio us small signal vie wpoint is l -kn impedanc e. We o bser ve an out put rive e xtre me. the tran sistor is cuto ff with
now expande d. We w ill examine ov er- voltage at the collector. The de base volt- curren t having vanished . At the o ther end,
driven rec eive r circuits o nly inten ded for age is app rox imatel y '/4 the po wer supply, the transis tor current is well beyo nd the
small sig nals. A more com mon large so the e mitter is at a bo ut 1.8 V. Tile e mitte r bias value . T he collec tor has dro pped
si gnal a mplif ier is a trans mitter stage. a curr en t is then I .S ntA . producing a de 0:.: 0 1- belo w the bas e volt age and the transistor
circ uit inte nde d to funct io n at high levels . lector bias volt age of 8.2 V , Th e emitter is sat urated for the bo ttom, volta ge -fl at
Distenio n is a conseque nce of large si g- c urrent leads to a s mall sig nal r~ val ue of parts of the c urve.
nal operat ion . Disto rtion in a n amplifier abou t 14 n . Volt age gain is 70 with the Simple mo dels pre dict much of the
merely mea ns that the output is some thing I-k n c o llector load . T he inpu t resistance non linear be havio r, without formal anal y-
d iffe rent tha n a rep l ica of the in put. A dis- will be a little o ver 1 kQ if P is 100 , Th is sis. The base-collector dio de preve nts col-
torting ci rcuit dr iven by a sine wave will means that the base signa l voltage is jus t lector voltages more tha n a di ode -d rop
have non-si new ave outputs wh e n viewed ove r half the ge nerat or value. below the base. B ut. the co llector c urrent
in the time domain . ex peri me ntally with Fr om the bias and sma ll signa l ana lysis . gene rato r i s ca pa ble of inc reasing "as
an osci llosco pe. In the freq uency doma in. we pre dic t that an input of20 mV pe ak at needed" to supply larger cu rrents. but only
the d istortion app ea rs as harm onics. A dis- t he ge nerator wi ll pro duc e a bit o ver of the prescribed pol ari ty. The larger drive
torti ng circuit driven hy tw o or more 10 mv at the base. Th e vol tage ga in of 70 exa mples wo uld so und very distorted if
sign als ma y contain o utputs that are t he applied to this wi ll giv e a peak co llector this audio amplifier was part of a recei ver.
re sult of inter modulati on. fre quenc ies tha t sig nal of 0.7 V. or a pea k-to -pe ak valu e of T he next e xam ple is a fa mili ar em itter
are sums and diffe re nces of input f re- 1.4 V. T he S.2-V ze ro s ign al coll e cto r followe r that mig ht be on the output of
que ncy multiples . val ue will then move betwe en 7.5 V and an oscilla tor. A fo llow er has a lo w output
Th e BJT mo del of grea test pop ularity is 8.9 V. Th is is still a lon g way from the impe da nce, and shou ld , we re aso n, be
an exte nsio n of the dio de equation . + 10-V su pply or the 2.5- V base wh ere capa bl e of de li veri ng pow er to a low
saturati on wo uld be a pproac hed We imped a nce such as a mixe r. Hut this
.'L':: would ex pec t a sine wave in put to generate
IE ", I FS· e
I;, T Eq 2.21
a sine wav e outpu t.
Fig 2.30 sho ws wa veform s for thre e
where IES is called the em itter satura tion
c urre nt. V is the volta ge on t he base-
dr ive leve ls: .02 V, 0. 1 V, and n.S V pe ak.
T he s inusoidal output is very close to
the values we estimated . How e ver. the
.'Wf!
emitte r d iode. The othe r para meters are the
same as app eared with the d iode eq uatio n
ot her two cases are severely di storted. The 3 .,3R ~ 1 2N3 9 0 ~
in Sec tion 2. 1. T his is part of the model O. I-V drive c ase . five time s stro nger than 200 0.1 ;-vo
k no wn co lle cti vel y as the Ebe rs-Moll
e quations . T he non-li near e xpo ne ntial
behavior is intrinsic to the bipo lar transis-
tor . Detailed use of this model takes us
the init ia l 20- mV inp ut. is eno ugh to c ause
the o utput to re ach the 10- V po si tiv e
power supply . causing col lec to r c urrent to
dro p to zero . The other part of the cycl e is
~''0
::; HHz
'\/\-------l

3.3K
~

lK
0.1

Fit.
"q
= 50

st ill well behav ed wi th approxima tely

well outside the realm of this text. but is
high ly recommended for those with such sinusoi dal outp uts .
T he most severely d ist orted out put Fig 2.31- Em ltt er fo llower to d rive a
intere sts .'
resul ts fro m the largest input signal. 0.5 V 50·Q load . This circu it is not biased to
Man y large signa l pro perti es of ampfi-
pea k. also sho wn in Fig 2,30. At the pos i- deliver the needed o ut put power.
fie rs are ext en sions of si mple c ircu it
a nalysis. Altho ugh the detai ls arc always
buried with in refined models. much ca n
he d isce rned from c areful ana lysi s wi th-
out analytic complexity. Some examples ----
r;;
1 0U i \

~ ~ I? ~-
';
will he used to ill ustrate this.
F ig 2.29 sho ws a simple audio ampli-
~ ~,,
02!r
fief drive n wi th a I kHz sig nal behind a
,,
,,
,,
,,
Ve e-lO
1K
su
,,
IV .0 i v
IV
~
IV ,,
,
,,
,,
,

10K ,, 0 5,
~- out ,, nol in OOl o, h
"
rVv'v------l +
ff ,,
,,
~ ~ ~

($) ?- ,, l o ~d

l
10 U No o u t p u t

~ ,,
3.
3y

~
rx
roo
~
u Ou + - -- --- --- --,.--- - - - - - - - - -,- - - - - - -- - - - r - - - - -- - - - - , - - - - - - - - - --, -- - -- - -- - -
2 0 . 011ls
•,
2 0. 5rns
'" U(c ol )
21. ans 2 1 . " "'5 22 _ 0.. , 22 . 5ns za.uns
Ti .. e

F;9 2.29- A sim PIe aud io am PIifi er

exami ned fo r lar g e sig na l performance . Fig 2,30-0utp ut wavefo rms fo r the simple amplifier at several drive levels,

2 .10 Chapter 2
reas oning is Flawed. ing the vo ltage acro ss the capac itor to With the emitter voltage at 4.3 V. we still
T he e mitter foll o we r cir cu it is show n in insta ntaneo usly c hange . Th e c a pac itor have -U rnA Il o....,ing in the 1-U l resistor.
Fig 2.31. A pa ir o f :U-U l res istors bias c ould co nce ptually he replaced by a bat- The transistor current has now dro pped 10
the base a t ha lf the IO-Y po wer su pply. te ry . In no-sig na l con d itions the "A-rnA 2.3 rnA. Because il is sti ll positive. the tran-
and the e mitter is biased with a l- kO resis- tra nsisto r cnrrent flo ws in the I · kn bias sis tor is still co ntrolling the o utput and the
tor. 1~ =4 .4 rnA. sening r~ to 5.9 n. Th e resistor with ze ro current in the 50-0 load. follow er continues to follow.
followe r i .~ driv e n from a 200-n so urce Applying a positive goi ng s tg na tro the Hut what ha ppe ns when the dr ive
res istance for a n output resistanc e o f base me re ly turns the tran sis tor on harde r. reache s the fnll neg at ive val ue of -0.5 V?
7.9 n . If Ibis circ uit w as go ing to be uved As t he base voltage inc re ases fro m the If the li ne ar. small signal model ap plied .
10 drive a 50· n fi ller. tne 50-n resistance 5 -V no-sig nal leve l 10 5.5 V. the crniue r the base wo uld drop 10 4.5 V. leavi ng rhe
would be rea li zed by adding a se ries ..13-n w ill follow from 4 .4 V 10 4.9 V. We now e mitte r at 3.9 V with the out put at -0.5 V.
resistor 10 the OUlp U!. have +0.5 V o n the output load. fo rci ng a n produc ing a cu rre nt in the loa d of - lOrnA .
Thi.. follower circu it is being drive n by a o utput c urrent of l O rnA to n ow. T he c ur- BUI t he c urrent flo wing in the bias resis ter
signa l so urce with a peak amplitude of 0.5 Y. rent in the I-ill bias resistor has increased woul d still be 3.9 rnA. i rn p l ~ i n g thai the
The inp ut impeda nce is well above the 200- to -t.9 rnA. so the tot al transis tor c urre nt is trans isto r curre nt would be --6. 1 rnA. T his
O dri\ ing sou rce. so virtually all uf the avail.. 14. 9 mA . j" not possible ! Th e transistor ca n supply
able generator ..ignal is present at the base. A negat ive-go ing bas e signal prod uces c urre nt v-ia the mod el current generalOr.
The mod eling proce sv is applied to complications. A small negative base drive but that cu rrent canno t be negati ve.
c apac itors. with the sa me im port ance tha r of 0.1 V to ~ .9 V would drop the emiuer 10 Fi ll: 2.32 prese nts the wav efo rms. The
it is to transistors . A ca paci tor acc umula tes ~. 3 V_which drops the o utput to -Od V. The negative goi ng e...cursion is d ippe d at the
c harge through c urre nt flow . neve r allo w- curre nt in the 50-0. load beco mes - 2 rnA. point .... hen the tra nsistor emi tter c urre nt
d rops to zcrc. jea ving a ll OUlpUl c urrent 10
flow in the l -kO resistor.
T his s imple c ircuit has illu srrared the
di fference be twee n small si gna l and large
sig nal mode ls. C urre nts of ei ther po larit y
are a llow ed in a sma ll signa l model. Th e
large signa l beh a vior is rest ric ted to that
d ictated by the model. in this case limited
<. ..
to the pos itiv e c urre nt flo w pred icted by
·• the Ebe rs-Moll eq uatio n.
·• T he low small si gna l output impeda nce

" .5U ~
·• of a follower was a conse q uenc e of ne ga-
the feed back. T he load in se ries with the
• o utput creates a voltage that is appl ied 10
·• , the transistor in opposuion to the signal
d riving it. It we allow the follow er to "r un
·•••
" . Ou + - - - - - - - - - - - - - r - - - - - - - - · · · · - . · - - - - - -- - - - - -, - - - -- - - - - - - - - , - - - - - - - - - - - ..-
o ut of cu rrent ," the transistor is cUIoff with
zero cu rre nt flo w. The low o utput imped -
T. OuS T.2 us 7. 4u5 7 . 0us l . Bus B. Ous uncc is no lon ger prese nt d uring tha t part
• U (b ~ s ) • U(t'lIli) of the cycle when transis tor cur re nt flow
Ti nl'
has ce ased.
Fig 2.32-Fo ll ower w avefo rms. Fig: 2. 33 shows the ou tput after t he
design was mod ifi ed. T he e mitte r bias
re vivtor was changed from I H2 10 330 n.
O. ou T ,, - -- - - - ----- - - - --- - ----- - ----- - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - -- - - - ----- - ------ --., increasing the emitt er hias cur re nt to 12.6
,, rnA . T his is larger t han the ne eded 10 rnA .
,,, so the o utput re mai ns d ean. But. even a
,, slight inc re ase in d riv e cou ld a llo w
,, the dis tortio n 10 retu rn. T he ultimate
S . IU ~ re fine ment mig ht be a complementary ou t-
PUl such as is fou nd with ma ny audio
a mplifiers .
T he ne xt e xa mple considered is a
lU- ~I Hz Class A amp lifier in tended to
II . IU ~, devel op a few milli wau s of o utput po wer.
,, T he c irc uit is in I'ig 2.34 . The base is,
,
,,, biased from a 10-V sup ply through a volt-
age d ivider of 1U H2 and 3.3 Ul. prod uc-
: 330 ohm bt es R
•• ing a DC e miuer volt age of 1.64 V. T he
3.1tJ +-------· ·· · · · . ·· · ----------.-------------, ----· · · -----· .,· ------------oi• :wo·n emi tter resistor se ts an cmi ue r cur-
T. l us 7 . 2us l.4uS 7.0us lo BuS B.tus rent of 8. 2 mA o)'ie lding a sma ll cignal rcof
• U (b ~ s ) • U( u l )
3.2 n . The 50-U output load sets the sma ll
signal voh age gain at 16.
Fig 2.33-Foll ower ou tpu t waveforms after increa sin g the standi ng b ias current. A co mmon apprm.i mation ser s hig h

Amp lifier Des ign Basi c s 2.11

 +10V 15 uH
Fig 2.35- The class
2N3904 A amplifier Is
10K 1. 89 3uH modified with
SO 0.1 li't--;J,7 ok output imped anc e
transformation for

~3Kr~ ~ loo
R L = 50
higher output
power.
] i S9
-
1 0 MIl ,
2 00 1 0.1
-

- -
Fig 2.34- A class A amplifier.

frequency pat F)F, placing p at 30. T his

se ls in p ut re sistance of ab out 100 O. which
'"""-------"(\ ---(\ ---(\ /\ ------(\
,
predicts that about 2/3 of the open ci rc uit ,
,
input voltage will appear at the base . An
1 0 .6U ~ .
inpu t signal of 10 mv peak produces about ,
,
6.7 mV o n the bas e. Applyi ng the small ,
,
,,
si gnal voltage gain. the ou tput will be 105 ,
mV pea k. Pe rhaps of gre ater interest . the ,,,
load current for this outpu t is 2 mA peak. 9 _6 U ~
Th e tra nsistor collector current var ie s ,,
from the quiescent (no -sign al) va lue o f 8.2 ,,, v v
,
rnA up to 10.2 mA and dow n 10 6.1 ntA. ,,, 50 mY peek ope n c i r c u i t inp u t 50 Ohm I c eo
Wh ile sm all sign al characterist ics are pre- ,,
served , the output current is al rea dy 9 .2 U +- -- - -- --- -- --r- -- - -- --- -- - - ,- - - - - -- -- - ---~ - - - - - - - - - - - - - , - - - - -- - -- - -- -,

becoming a sizable fraction of the DC bias 1 . '>us 1. 6us 1.7us 1 .8u 5 1 . 9u s 2 _0u s
o U(coI)
c urrent.
A characteristic found wi th the present
circuitthat we did not see in ear lie r amp li- Fig 2.36-50-0 term illation o n the c lass A amplifier.
fier s re sults from the usc of a collector RF
choke . T he in ductor has the pro pertie s of
a constant current source. As a de cu rre nt 20U .,.- -- - -- -- - - - -- --- -- - -- -- - - - -- -- - -- - - - -- -- - - - -- -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- -- -- - --~
, ,
is establishe d in the ind uctor. the ac tion of , ,
,, ,,
the inductor "trte svto maintain that value. ,, ,'
T his al lo ws t he co llector volt age to exceed ,
V n" whi ch nev e r occurred when a collec-
tor re si stor supp lied hi as current. This is 1 0U .J
sh ow n in plots which foll o w.
\Ve now increase the inp ut dr ive to 50 "
m V peak. This is a fi ve ti mes in crea se ov e r
the I O-Ill V cas e, so we exp ect a similar
in crease in both the output vol tage and
current if small sig nal co ndi tions arc pre- "" ,
,,
,
serv ed. Meas urements and computer ,,
sim ulat ions bo th confi rm this genera l 50 mV d r ive , p i -net mat ch II i t h l K a t co t :
,,
behavior. althou gh the output signals ,
- 1 0 U + - - - - - - - - - - - - - r - - - - - - - - - - - - - T - - - - - - - - - - - - - , ------------- , - - - - - - - - - - - - - ~
'
de part co nsidera bly from stnu so lds. Out- 1 . '>u s 1 _6u5 1. 1 us 1. 8u s 1_ 9 us 2 _0u s
put volt age across the lo ad is abo ut 0.5 V o U( ou t ) " U( col )
pea k. Collector current drops alm o st to
zero at one point in the cycle but reac hes a
max imum of about 19 mA , abo ut tw ice the Fig a.ar-cc ouectcr (upper) and o utput load (lower) voltages with the p i network
bias value . D istortion is severe. output circuitry.
Th e amp lifier with 0.5- V dr ive is current
limi ted . for the c urrent drops to zero at on e
poi nt in the dri ve cycle. However. the volt -
age exc ursion s are still small. The output will be the same . O utput voltage ca n. how- whi le go ing an equal dis tan ce ab ove Vco at
powe r with a 50-0 loa d i s abo ut 2.5 mw . e ver. increase as R I. grows . T o ohtain the the op posite part ofthe cy cle . This voltage
Co nsider change s in load re sist ance maximum power o ut put. we wis h to pick a excursion should occur as the current var -
see n by the collector. I f we mai nta in d rive load that allows the co llector vol tag e to ie s from twice the bias value down to zero.
a t 0.5 V pea k. the col lector signal c urre nt drop nearly to the ba se value (satura tio n) The load resista nce that allows this i s

2.12 Chapter 2
 voltage. and Pout is the o utput i n Watts. desi g ned. Rather. he or she wishes to mea-
Eq 2.22 T his form applie... to Cl ass B and C ampli- sure the amp lifi er o utp ut with 50·n invtru -
fiers as wel l as the class A am plifier under me ntation and perhaps driv e o ther ci rcuit s
d iscuss io n. with a 50- U impeda nce. T he solution is
where If. is the de bias valu e. A mo re Applicatio n of Eq 2.22 predicts a load fo und in FI~ 2.35 when' an imped ance
fam iliar fo rm e xpresses the load in terms resis tanc e of just over 1000 n for max i- transfo rming It-network is in...erred be-
of a desired o utput po wer , mum ou tpu t- C hanging the load to I 1>0 in twee n the 50-0 load and the co llector. Th is
the circ uit prod uces a ]().MHz o utpu l of net work mal e" the termination -too k like"
11 V pe ak-to-pea k cor respo nding to a 1000 n at 10 MHz. 11 also has low pas....
po wer of abo ut 16 mw. Eve n larger resis- filte rin g cha racteri stics. attenuating energy
Eq 2.23 tance would ha ve prod uced voltage li mit- at 20 MHz , 30 Mil t , and higher harmonic
ing, so this is close to o ptimum. Freq uenc ies. Fig 2.36 shows the collec tor
More ofte n than not. 1000 n is no t the waveform whe n the 50-U load is co nnecte d
whe re R L is the load res istance i n O hms. impeda nce that the desi gner wishes to use di rectly to the collec tor. T he wave fo rms a f-
V ce is the po we r su pply. VB is the DC base as a terminat io n fo r the a mplifier ju...t ter matching are show n in Fig 2.37 .

2.4 GAIN, POWER, DB AND IMPEDANCE MATCHING

Aud io and o the r lo w freq uency amplifi - dcterminarion of the Rf power. Cons ide r the simple circ uit of t"ig 2.39
ers a rc easi ly ana lyzed with the low fre- The ot her reaso n we <I re co ncerned with co nsisting of a voltag e source . V, and <I
q uency model' used fo r bia...ing. But m01>1 rower is that it is po wer and not voltage o r sou rce resista nce, R ~ . \Ve will te rminate
of o ur interes t is i n hig her freq uenc ies curre nt that i ~ mo re t undamemal. Po wer is this in a load R. Ohms La w pro vides the
where meas urem e nt diffic ult ies per sist, the rate that ene rgy is transferred. whether net c urre nt. while vo ltage di vider actio n
These e nco urage us to c o nsider power it be a rate of di ssi pation . such as the pow e r gives the voltage across the load, yieldi ng
instead of the vo ltages and curren ts that that bec om es heat in a res istor. or the rate the power
d ominate the vie w of Ihe c ircuit theorist. that e nergy may pass throu gh a surracc.
T his em phasi s is a n integra l pari of RF suc h as the rate that a radio or light wave
desig n and for ms the haf- is fo r this sect io n. pass es thro ugh a pla ne. T hat pla ne co uld
The emphasis on power measurement goes we ll be the capture area of an a ntenna. Th e
back to ear ly methods. Power at radio. micro- unit for powe r if- the Walt (W ). or Jo ules
wave, and even optical frequencies was mea- per seco nd. We are more familiar with it
sured using a Bolometer. The Bolometer i~ bei ng the produ ct of c urrent and vol tage.
based upo n temperature measurements. A An a mplifier applicatio n is present ed in
Fig 2.38 c o nsisting of a vo ltage sou rce
v R
resistive load if- embedded in a thermally
well-insulated chamber. The application of with rel ated sou rce resist ance. the ampli-
RF po wer cause s a temperature increase, fie r. and an o utp ut load. \Vhile 50 n is
\\, hich can be detected with a thermometer. co mmo n for bo th the so urc e and load. th is
But. the same increase in temperature ca n be is certainly not necessary. B UI, i f po wer is
prod uced with application of direct current. 10 be mea sured, we must hav e some re~i ~ ­
Steasurement of the direct current and related tancc, for a volta ge acro ss an ope n ci rcuit Fig 2.39-A vo ltage with a source
voltage then provide a very fundamental pn}\'i de~ no power . resistance Rs deli vers power to a load R.

n- sour ca
R-l oad , Imp~ dan( • .r.1atthin
V- g e n .
r-'\Nv'" """ .
rv 1/ r---- I-----
, ,.,, / t----
•,i p er)
,-•
/
R- sour ce R-in
]

R~ l oad
" •
,, ,
Fig 2.38-Basic amplifier with resist ive Input and outp ut Fig 2.4o-Power delivered t o the load Is maxi mum when the
impedances. load resistance eq uals that of t he source.

Amplifier Design Basics 2. 13

 oc c urri ng whe n borh input and output a rc mW or +30 d Bm. BUI a stro ng received
Eq 2.24 m atch ed . si gna l fro m the termina ls of an antenna
The pow ergain of Eq 2.25 is rare ly mea. might be at o ne mic rowau. 30 dB below
sured d irectly. Instead . we more ofte n the I mW , o r at -30 d Bm.
A plo t of powcr vs R is give n in Fig 2.40 measur e o r ca lculate transducer gain. fi rst Man y instr ume nts are cal ib rated in
where we have normalized the curve. T he me ntio ned in Section 2.2 . Tra nsd uce r ga in d Rm. T he d Bm output of a si gna l ge nera-
ma xi mum powe r is s hown as I and the is: lo r is a measu re of the availabl e o utput
no rmalized resis tance , de fi ned as r"" Rj R powe r of the generator. A vaitnble power.
is I whe n power i" ma xim um. This is th~ G, d isc ussed above, was t he po wer act ua lly
E q 2.26
fami liar res ult tha t the ma ximum pow er tra nsferred fo r the sing le case whe n the
tran sfer occurs when the load resista nce. load matc hed the MI UrCe. It is co mmo n for
R. equals that of the source. R,. We the n the o utput 10 be specified in a 50· ("2 sys-
wh ere Pout is the powe r deli vered to the
sa y that the so urce is matched to the 101ld . tem. a co mrno n RF sta ndard . A sig na l ge n-
load and PA v is the pow e r available fro m
In the general case. the source i mpeda nce e raror set up fo r an ou tput of + 10 dB m will
the so urc e. Power gain and tra nsduce r gain
c an have a reactive part. Then . maximum del iver that po wer to a 50-0 load att ached
arc equal in a perfectly matched a mplifie r.
power tra nsfer occu rs whe n the load is, a d irectly. It will also deli ver that pow er to
A variant of transdu cer gain i.s the inse r-
co mp lex i mpeda nce with the same resis - a 200- H load if an app rop riate 2: I tu rns
tio npower gain o btai ned when a tranvmis -
tance as t hat in the sou rce imped ance. ratio tra nsformer is placed bet ween the
vicn li ne is broken , and an amp li fier is
When a generator volta ge and the load and the ge nerato r.
inserted. T his occ urs when both Rs and RL
re lated source resistance arc specified, the RF de tectio n in<;trume nlS, suc h as RF
a re ide ntic al. usually 50 n .
power ex trac ted whe n the gene rato r is ter- power meters o r spectru m ana lyzers, a re
minated in a mat ched load is ca lled the also cali brated in dfl m. T hese instruments
available power . for it is the maximu m The Decibel, or dB. us ua ll y ha ve a 50-n in put impedance.
power that is available from thai generato r. T hey beha ve like a 50~ f.! resistive load
Gain ca n be ex presse d as a n ume ric
The amplifier of Fig 2.3A ha s an input when attached to a ge nerator. A 50-12 sig-
ratio, hut is more oft en specified in deci-
res ista nce, Ri o, and an \)Ulput res istance. nal ge ner ator set for an out put of - 40 dB m
be ls. given b)'
Row The rest of the amplifie r is modeled sho uld produ ce an ind icat ion of - 40 d Bm

( :~)
with a co ntrolled c urrent ge ne rator. T he whe n attached 10 a spect ru m ana lyzer.
amp lifier will be matc hed at the input when dB = JO. Log Eq 2.27 Widehan d inu rumen rs used for ge neral
R, =R in • T he output is mat che d with a load purpose electronic measu rements inc lude
RL=Rout" Picki ng these sou rce and loa d wideband voltmeter s a nd oscillosco pe s.
resistan ces will prod uce th is pe rfe ct ly where P I and P 2 arc IWO different powers . If The y usua lly have hig h input impedance.
ma tch ed am plifier . While it sou nds eas y an amplifier has a 5 m w output and is being typically I ~m . Wh en use d with a l OX
enou gh. it ca n be very complicated in a drive n by a gene rat or with an available probe, the inp ut resist ance bec o me, 10
prac tica l RF application . In a pract ical powe r of I mw. the power ratio Pou/P,\\, is ~l n . The measure me nt philosophy behind
amp lifie r Rin \I. ill depe nd upon the IO<iJ . 5. for a tran sd ucer powe r gain of 7 dB . the des ig n of these instru me nts is 10
RI.. wh ile R OllI will depe nd on R s . Eve ntu - The dB co nstruct was not invented to con- prese nt such a s mall load 10 a circ uit bei ng
<illy stabil ity beco mes II dominating iss ue. fuse the prospective designer. Rather. it is a measure d that Ihe instru me nt c an be ig-
Cir c uits that are unco nditionall y st able c an natura l conseque nce of the mathe matics. no red. Th e oscilloscope is usuall y used in
eventuall y be matched pe rfec tly at bo th Output power is calc ulated from an input a n ill sit«, or in-place measurement . Thi s
inpu t and ou tput. power and a numeric gain b)' using multipli- co ntrasts with t he measure ment philoso-
Sou rc e and load resista nce s arc not cnnon. It is also calculated from a dB ratio, phy of man y RF me as ure ments. which use
changed directl y as a me ans of ach ie ving but now simpler addition i.. used. suhstitution. For exa mple, we substitute a
ma tched co ndi tio ns, Rathe r. a 50-n gen- The d B const r uc t is usefu l fur o the r po we r meter for the an ten na when we wish
era tor might be ap plied to an impedance co mpariso ns. For exam ple. we might to measure transmitte r o utput powe r.
trans formin g ne twork that prese nts a dif- exami ne the har mo nic d istort ion in an The wid c band osc illosco pe ca n be used
ferent impeda nce to the a mplifier input . am plifier a nd find that for a 3-mW dri ve at fo r me asure me nts in a 50-H system. hUI it
These networks are d isc ussed in greater 7 MHz_outp ut appea rs not o nly a t 7 bUI at becomes vital 10 estab lis h a we ll de fined
del ail in Ch apter 3. 1-; ' 2 1 and 28l\-tHz. lf the 14-l\tHz output input impe dance . Th is is done with a 50-n
v.,'e a l w ays are interested in the "g a in" is less tha n the 7 · ~I H z o utput by a factor of resistive termination . A form that can be
of an a mpli fier. T his usua lly means powe r 5UO. we say tha t the 200 har mo nic is 27 dB buil t fo r the horne lab is sho wn in Fig 2.4 1.
gain. which is the rat io of two power lev- below the f unda me nta l. T he 7- MHl co m- whil e a photo in Fig 2..12 shows a ho rne-
els. Wuh a kno wn sou rce voltage. V. and ponem is often reg arded <IS a carrier and built versi on and a c ouple of co mmer cial
sou rce resistanc e. Rs • and the mo de led the 14- MHz component is the n said to he te rminato rs. The com mercial mode ls are
input resistan ce R J ~ (from Fig 2.38), we at -27 due where the "c " i ndica tes d B with built with low ind uctanc e di sk rec ivrors
can c alc ulate the inpu t po w er. O utp ut regard to a carri er or reference power. that offer higher bandwidth than can be
pow er c an a lso be calcula te d whe n The Another oft en used variatio n of the dB easily ach ie ved with lea ded part s in a
amp lifier is we ll mode led. Kno wing the ideal occurs whe n a power is referenced homebuilt box .
powers. the powe r gain is: aga inst a standard of one milliwatt , We Gam measure mem, in a 50-n e nviron -
then say that the power is in d Bm. meaning ment are srruig btfo rwa rd with the ter mi-
power re fe re nce d to Ofl e m \\-'. T his doe s nated oscillosc ope and a sig nal generator.
Gp Eq 2.25 NOT depe nd upon impe dance. Th e d Bm The genera tor is fi rst au ached di rec tly to
val ue.. will be positi \ e or ne gative depend- the te rminate d oscltlocco pe wi th a le ngth
ing o n their rela tio nsh ip to 1 mw. A on e of coaxial cable. The ' sco pe re spo nse is
T hc ma ximum po ss ible ga in is that wau Q RP transm ine r has a n OUIPUI uf I000 no ted . and po wer is ca lc ula ted to be sure

2. 14 Chapter 2
 100
(61~+----f{))BNC
male
,
BNC
female

c oaxial cable
oscilloscope

50 Ohm /
terminator
'scope
input
Fig 2.42-Homebrew a nd surplus termmete rs.
Fig 2.41-Terminalor s for oscilloscope input loading. See
Chapter 7 for additional detail on power measurement s.

that this is not too lar ge for the ampl ifier. with a lOX probe to study the amplifier, of a rela ted term ca lled voltage reflection
T he cable is then di sco nnected. the: a mpli - Outp ut powe r can be measured from a volt- coefficient, ofte n sig nifie d hy the G re ek
fie r is attach ed , another sec tio n of cable is age determinatio n at a load on the amp lifier letter Gamma. r. Gam ma is given for reo
inserted 10co nnect 10 the ins tru mentation. output. Rut amplifier input power is not de- sisrive loath .
the am pli fier is po wered. and the new fined when the input impeda nce is unkno w n.
response is noted . The' response will Although com mon. it is rarel y valid 10 r 0 "R_- -=:R-,,-
o
Eq 2.2N
(hopefully ) be la rger than it was without mere ly mea sure a voltage ratio to calculate a R ..;. R n
the amplifie r in place. power or tran sdu cer gain.
Several approac hes can he used 10
whe re Ito is the refere nce resistance . In the
de termine gain. Th e fi rst wou ld be to me a- Measures of impedance exa mples we have d iscussed. Rn wou ld be
su re the new vol tage with the term inated
oscilloscope a nd then calculate a new
match and mismatch (he source resis tance while R is the load.
In Fig 2.4 0 'Me sa w that the power tra ns- Ga mma is related to VSWR throu gh
o utput po wer. T he transducer ga in the n
become s 10 Lo g (P l>i>,1P,W)' This scheme
works wel l with a calibrated oscilloscop e
ferred fro m a so urce to a load depen ds
upon t he mat ch be tween the t wo. Thb .
VS\\ R O -
1+ Irl Ell 2,29
operati ng within iI' , ha nd width, curve has a symmetry that is not immed i- J- r
11
The alternative method removes all need ately obv io us. Although the po wer trans-
fe rred from the source to the load ts IOO'l where the bars arou nd r indicate that only
for oscillosco pe cal ibration and acc urate
response at the test freq uency. but places 11 on ly when the match b pe rfect . (he deg ree the magnitud e of r is used. In the gen era l
grea ter burden on the signal generator. The of ma tch depe nds on ly on the rat io of one c asc o r has bo th magnit ude and angle.
res isto r to the ot her withou t reg ard 10 co rresponding to co mple x impedance with
reference is firs t established wi th the signal
which is larger. T ha t is. ifthe source is 50 both resisti ve and re act ive pari s. A 1<,0. the
generator attac hed direc tly to the oscine-
scope . The response is noted . as is the OlJtput O. we sec tha t pow e r tra nsfer is 88.9'K more general form of Eq 2.2K uses com-
setting for the generat or. The amplifier is n loon.
e ffective for loa ds of eith er 25 or p le x impedance 10 defi ne Ga mma.
S imilarl y. 12.5-U or :200-0 loads produce r =(Z- Zo)/(Z +7-o).
then inserted in line. and the signal gene rator
output is reduced untilthe 'scope response is 64'l pow er tra nsfer and so forth. T he ratio Fig 2.40 showed powe r tran sfer effi-
exactly the same as noted ear lier. The new of these resistances to 50 n (al ways with
ge nerato r output is exami ned and fo und to the la rge r number taken) is called the volt-
be lower than the orig inal. The difference in ag e standing lI'al'l:' rat io. or VS WR.
generator settings in dB is then the trans- The term VSWR aris e s from transmis- 0,15
ducor gain . sio n line beha vio r and it relates to volt ages
Ga in can sti ll be de termined. even if the mea sured alon g a transmission line that is wr : OJ
signal ge nerato r is not ca li brated . A step not matched. Whil e we ca n do thi s mea-
0,, 5
aue nuaror is inserted in the generator OUt- su rcment with RF volt meters and suitable
put. Atte nuat ion is increased when the trans missio n lines. this is not the way we
amp lifie r is placed in the syste m unti l a usually measu re the degree of impeda nce
re ference ' scope response is du plicated. matc h. (Actuall y. so me microwave experi-
Th e en e nuator differe nce is then the gai n. ment ers sti ll do JUSl this measurement.) Fig 2.43-Power tra nsfer re la te d to
The oscilloscope ca n. of course. be used Rather. we per form brid ge me as uremen ts reflectio n coeffic ie nt.

Ampli fie r Design Bas ics 2. 15

 Input fr om Amp l i f i e r
S i gna l Generator be i ng
me as u r e d. 50 ohm
" RF "

Si g n a l
,
\ Ter mill a t i o n

j
[>
Ge n e r ator , "RF" Return L oss "X"
:

~
Brid ge
50 :
,
- , "-
-oet.»
:
>?
Fig 2.44-Return Lo ss Bridg e. All
resi st ors are norm all y 50 Q .

ciency as a fu nct ion of the term inating

s tep .>
Att e nu ator
50 Ohm
/-~
Te r mi nat ion
Oscill oscope

re sistance. A similar plot is give n in Fig

2.43 wher e powe r is now plott ed against Fig 2,45-Using a retu rn loss br idge wit h an amplifier.
reflectio n coefficient, r.
Although reflection coeffi cient, l", may
seem like an esot eric impractical parameter.
it is easily measu red (in magnitude) using a
- R.L.
simple appar atus that can be built in the home be measured. The bridge is first ope n cir - E q 2.31
f = 10 20
lab. This circui t. show n in Fig 2.44. is call ed cuited at the " X" port. and the de tec tor
a rerurn loss bridge, or RLB. The three resis- response is not ed. T hen, a 50-12 term ina - While we ha ve illu stra ted the RLB with
tors in the hridg e are SO ,n when huilding a tor is pl aced un the "X " por t. A large osc il loscope det ection, a 50 -n power
hridge for usc in a 50-11 system , The signa l decre ase in detector res po nse sho uld he meter or spec trum analy zer is prefe rre d.
generator is assumed to then have a SOon not iced . T his respons e is a measure of how Both arc descri bed in C hapter7 . T hese are
impedance as well .The transformer is ncom- well the RLB is Iuncuo ning and is called so-n instruments, so they do not require
ilion mode choke (see Chapte r 3.) Construc - the bridge dire ctivity. An amplifier (po wer the e xternal termi nator so vital to the
tion is d iscussed in Chapter 7. on) is now attached to the "X" port through osc illoscop e. T he 'scope suffers from two
Th e brid ge act ion occurs becaus e a ll a coa xi al cab le, and a termi nato r is problems th at co mprom ise this applica-
resistor s are 50 n , Assume that the "X" atta ch ed to the amplifier o utput. Th e tion. First. it is a wide ban d in strument. so
port, the unknow n, is terminated in SO n . detector res pons e will be lo wer than the noise li mits the se nsitivity, making it dif-
The n half of the voltage app lied at the level pre sen t with the "X" port ope n c ir- fic ult to see the wea k sign als th at arc
"RP" port ap pears at the junction of R l cui ted by a rat io ca lled the return loss , a readily seen in a spectrum ana lyzer. Sec-
and R 2. But half also app e ars at the " X " dB value. The ste p uue nuat or in the detec- o nd, ma ny of the ter min ations tha t we
port. T he voltages are eq ual on ei the r side tor can be adjusted to atten uate the re fer- migh t mea sure are narrow ban dwi dth
or the common mode tran sfor mer. so no ence to better measure return loss. loads . As such. they will produce high
signal appear s at t he detec tor. In contrast. Return los s is related to F thro ugh re turn loss at one f req uency. but not at the
a larger sign al appe ars when the unknow n harmonics . T he usual sig nal generato r is
"X" port is eith er o pen or short circ uite d. R. L. = - 20 · Log r Eq 2,3n harmo nic rich ,T he harmo nics are reso lved
Use of the return los s bridge is presented and, hence , ign ored in a spectrum analyze r
in Fig 2.45, where an amp lifi er inpu t will The inverse form is measurem en t.

2 .5 DIFFE R ENTIA L AMPLIFIERS AND THE OP·AM P

The differenti al a mpli fier, or diff -cunp: is the n proportiona l to the voltage (or c ur- d riv e n toge ther. th e composite c ircuit
is the fou nd ation for mo st silicon analog rent) difference betwee n the input s. The wou ld beha ve as one tra nsistor. The two
integ rated circuits in usc today, making it basi l" differen tial amp li fier usin g NP N bi - collector sig nals woul d the n be identi ca l.
a very imp ort ant topology . Here we inves- polar transistors is present ed in F ig 2.46 . Thi s o peration is ca lled common-mode
tigate diffe rential amplifier fu ndam entals We start with two ide ntic al transist ors driv e or exci tation T he large e mitte r
and e xamine a major derivat ive of it. the biased at the same de has e vo ltage. The resistor beco mes a deg eneration e lem ent.
operatio nal ampli f ier, or op -amp . two emitters are attached and re turne d to cau sing the commo n-mode gain to be lo w.
fo llow ing the nam e, the differenti al gro un d through a co mmon re sistance . as T he oth er d iff-am p d rive is the differen-
amplifier is a circuit inte nde d to amplify a in Fig 2.46A. Two ide nti ca l co llector tiel-mode . where one base is driven in o ne
diffe rence . T he di ffere ntia l amplifier has resis tors are attach ed, bi ased from a corn - direction whil e the o ther is driven by an
two in put terminals. T he output, which c an mon s upp ly. This circuit can hav e sign als opposite polari ty Ass ume that Q l a nd Q 2
be between two collectors or from just one, appli ed i n IWO ways. If the two bases arc arc biased with a de base vo ltage of 5 The

2. 1 6 Cha pter 2
vo ltage at the co mmo n e mitte r is then -IA. lio n fo und most often in integ rated c ircu its First. a diffe re ntial a mplifier is very easy
T o ta l current will be 4A rnA for an e mi tte r whe re the e mitter resistor is rep laced by a 10 de couple . With co nsta nt tot a l cu rrent.
resi stor of 1 k r.!, If the two transistors are third tran sistor . Se t V b ~ 10 2 volts a nd pick sign als are not injec ted o nto the VCo powe r
identical. each will be biased 10 an emitter the Q3 emi tter resisto r fur the sa me 4 .4 supply, very important when the diff-amp
current of 2.2 rnA . We now apply a d iffe r- rnA. Thi s leav es bia s con d itio ns for Q ! and is on e of mall)' such ci rc uits wi thin an Ie.
ential si gna l causing V bt to i ncre ase by 02 a ~ the y we re. altho ugh the co mmo n The other co nseq ue nc e of the constant
10 mV whi le V h2 drops by a n eq ua l 10 mode gai n is e ven lo wer. c urre nt so urce is that drive applied to j ust
mv. The emitte r voltage re ma ins evven- Q3 is a constant current source, a cir cuit o ne input will resu lt in diffe rential o utp ut
lia lly cons tant. Vel dec reases while V c2 that ac ts as if the bias fo r Q I a nd Q2 ca me s igua ts. T his is shown in the am plifier of
incre ases by a n a mount rela ted to the gain. f ro m a ver y large negati ve pow er supply Fig 2...7. The two co llector voltages ha ve
A usefu l pro per ty of this c irc uit is that with ,HI eq uall y large resistor. Th e effect equal a mplitu des and lire ou t of phase with
tot al current docs not ch ange wit h d iffe r- of this topology is to fo rce the sum of the each othe r.
cmial drive. cu rrents in Q I and Q 2 to remain constant. Althoug h d iffe rent ial a mplifie rs are
Fig 2046. pan B sho ws the cir cuit varia- Thi s has two importan t co nseq ue nces. ab undant in in teg rated ci rc uits. they a re
a lso usefu l and pra ctic al in d iscrete fo rm .
Fi g 2.-18 sho ws a d iff-a mp with readi ly
availa ble pans that might be used to pro -
vide balanced local osc illator dr ive to a
V~ mixer with ou t tran sfo rmers. T his ci rcuit is

;." 1 1~2
01 02
Vsm'
Vc1
01
Vc2
02

Vb. Vbl +Vcc

VOl VOl
03
Vb3
-v
Fig 2,4 6-D itferential Amplifiers.
1 -Vee
Fig 2.49-Schematlc d ia g ram fo r an
o pe ratio na l a mp lifier .

Vcc =10
1K 1K
Ve l Vc c=1 0
. -_ _ Ve 2 RFC RFC
Vel
Ve 2
~
0 .1 Iq"Q2
,
~
1K 1K
~ J6'
5 V 0.1 1K
Q3 1K «

2 V V-bb
318

Fig 2.47--oiHere nt ial Amplifier that converts a single e nded Fig 2.48-0ilferential Amplifier built with discrete
si g na l into a d iffere ntia l one hav ing two o utputs with a c o mpo ne nts. The emuter re s is tors a re a d jus ted for e q ua l
d ifferenti al re la tionshi p. The 2 and S·V poi nts are fixed c urrent in t he two tra nsislo rs. VI>tI re pre s ents a base bias
vo ltage, usually ge ne rated wit hin the Ie containi ng thi s po wer s u pply, which could be a simple vo ltage di vider fro m
diffe re ntia l pair . t he higher s upply.

Amplifier Design Basic s 2.17

 useful becau se it pro vides a ba lanced ou t- power supply, or "r ail." The "+" input is voltage foll ower with a gai n of +1. Th e
put with redu ced even order harmonics as call ed the no n-in verting input for the out- val ue of the feedb ack res isto r is of no con-
well as power ga in. The use of two em itter put po larity follows it in direction. seque nce for this circuit. for the inp ut cur-
resistor s cases the need to have identic al Cir cuit op eration is simi lar if the non- rent is very small . (A practical unity gai n
tran sistors . inv erting ("+") inp ut is grounded and the foll ow er normally ha s the output shorted
Having examined properties of the diff- positive going signal is applie d to the "-" to the inverting input.)
amp, we will now look at the "ultimate " or inv erting input, except that now the Thc mod ification in Fig 2.51 adds an
diff-amp example, the operat ional ampli - output moves in the oppos ite direc tion. equ al val ued resistor from the inverting
fier. An op-amp is shown schematic all y in That is, the output makes a trans ition from input to gro und. Sett ing Yin In a for ces the
Fi g 2.49 . The intern al circuitry can be the pos itive power supply to the ne gative output to grou nd. However, when we set
ra ther complicated; famili ar exam ple s one . Repeati ng these exp eriments at refe r- the inpu t to +1 volt , we find that the outp ut
such as the 741 or 358, will include a doze n ence voltages other than ground shows that move s to +2 volts. Our circ uit now has a
or more tra nsi stor s wh ile high perfor- the output depe nds onl y upon the milage non-in verting gain of 2. Thi s is co nfirmed
mance variants will have many more . difference between inputs. thro ugh voltage divider act ion. The volt-
The operat ional amp lif ier (Fig 2.49) is The input transistors for most op -am ps age at the "- " input must be half of that
shown with two power suppli es, altho ugh arc biased for low current opera tion, caus- at the outpu t; a voltage other than + I at the
virtu ally all can be used with a single sup- ing the input impedanc e to be quite high. "-" input would produce an inp ut diffe r-
ply . The basic ope ration is, in some way s. We usually neg lect R;ndurin g the analy sis ence th at wo uld mo vc the outp ut.
exactly like the sim ple diff -am ps dis - of op -amp circ uits. Fig 2.52 shows an invertin g amplifier.
cussed above. The op-am p has two inputs Op-amps are rar ely ope rat ed "open The "+" input is grou nded with an inpu t
j ust as the diff-amp has two base inputs loop ," as described abo ve. Instead, they applied to a res istor attached to the invert-
that effect their outputs. The usual op-a mp, are used with negat ive feedback. This is ing input. \Ve star t wi th the amplifier inpu t
however, ha s just one, single en ded out - illustrated in Fig 2.511. Powe r supp lies are at gr ou nd. The ou tp ut must then be at
put. More over, the output vo ltage can be omitte d in the op-a mp circu its that follow, groun d . fncreas ing the ex cit ation to + \
either above or be low the inp ut voltages. but are assu med to be + and - 15 vo lts. volt caus es the in verting input to "try" to
The usua l up-amp has sever al ga in Assume init ially that the "+" inpu t for go po sitive, an action that is inverte d with
stages, all cascaded with the output of one Fig 2.50 is at gro und. If the outp ut was at gain in the op-amp. The syst em is in equi-
feed ing the input of the next. As such, the a diffe rent vo ltage , the invert ing input libr ium when the output is - I volt. The
low fre quency voltage gain is oft en very would then be at a le vel other than gro und. amp lifier (hen has an inv ertin g gain of I.
high wi th valu es ranging from 50 .000 up This wou ld then produce a difference vol t- A general beh avior has emerged from
to over one mill ion. While op -am p gains age at the invert ing input that forces the this dis cussion, cas ing further anal ysis :
are often expre ssed in dB (using the famil- input toward ground. Negative [e edhack aro und all on -amp
iar 20 *LOG(VoutlVin) formula), this is Increas e the non-inverting input to +1 always has the effe ct offorcing the l1-t'o
often incorr ect. The dB form only volt. Sim ilar argu me nts sho w that the out- inputs to have the same voltage. This can
pertains to po wer ratios . The equati on put increases until the inverting input is be used to derive the usua l formu las for
rel ating vo ltage ratio is valid only when also at + 1 vo lt. The circ uit of Fig 2,50 is a ga in of closed loop amp lif iers. The char-
terminat ing impedances are equ al.
A typical op -amp can provide ou tpu t
voltages from near the ne gative pow er
supply up to wit hin a volt or two of the
posit ive supply. The inp uts can also occur
at a wide vari ety of volt ages . A 74 1
Yi n
op-amp will work with inputs that are from
+
about Vee +2 10Ve.,_- 2. This spa n is called
the commo n mod e input range. Op -amp s
using PNP bipo lar input tran sistor s can
have a common mode input range that
extends all the way 10 the negat ive supply.
Examp le s incl ude the LM-324 and l OOK I Jc-J\A
= lOOK
LM-35 8, wh ich arc: especially usefu l with
single pow er suppli es . Fig 2.50-A unity g ain f oll o wer. Fig 2.5 1 A f o llo wer with a g ain greate r
Ass ume that the "-" input in fig 2.4 9 is t han u n ity.
consta nt at ground with power supplies of

~,P
+ 15 and -IS volts. Set the "+" input scv -
era! volts nega tive. The output will then be
very neg ati ve, as low as it can go. As the ~
~r/
"+" input is inc reased. the output rem ains
negative until the inp ut gets cl ose to Vi n1
ground . Th en, the outpu t will start to lOOK l OOK
Yin AA V
increase very quickly. Th e ou tpu t goes i n2
above ground as the "+" input becomes {OOK lOvOvK l OOK
Vi nl
just a few millivolts pos itive. The vol tage
gain may be ev alu ated from a curve of the lO OK
ou tpu t vs the inp ut. Wit h eve n modes t FIg 2.52-A n m v ert m g a mp lif ier WIth FIg 2.53-A s um min g amp lif ier With
inputs. thc output reach es the positi ve un ity g ain. th re e in puts,

2.18 Cha pt er 2
 E
1'--"
/' ou t
/ VOd
~ ~- R • v R, ...
Vi a 1 o t

'\. R,
'-~
Fig 2.SS-The Aa-Ab-C2 network
Fig 2.54-Feed back redu ces an outpu t resistance. establis hes DC bia s with litt le impact
o n AC ga in. Cl a nd the re lated resis tor
the n set AC gain. If C l ha s a s mall
reactance compared with its ser ies
ucte ris tic is mai nta ine d so lon g as all A high ly usefu l effect of negative feed - res is tor , the gain will g row with
inputs and outp uts arc maint ai ned wi thi n bac k is that ofalte red imp edance. The zer o inc reas ing fre q uency.
the afluwed rang es. voltage differe nce at the inverting amp li-
The invert ing input of a dosed loop f ier of Fig 2.5 2 tell s us that the voltage at
amp lifie r is o ften described as a "s ummi ng the ,,- ,. input is ess enti ally ze ro. There is. without feedback} i, ve ry high. Negati ve
node:' ill ustrated in l'ig 2.53 with three how ever. sign al cu rre nt Flowing into the feedb ack is also useful in sing!e sta ge
inp uts. All thr ee ha ve the same input resis- nude. The effect of the reedbuck is LO amplifie rs uving hut o ne transistor. The
to r va lues. so the ga in fo r each input is the redu ce the impedance at that nod e to ncar effec ts are similar: parallel neg ative feed-
<arne al - I. Th is ci rc uit i<, sc me umcs zero. back red uc es gain. ma king it de pe nd
referred to as a "mi xe r" in aud io ci rcles, Feed bac k also dec reases Output resis- primarily on resistor va lues . and redu ces
although the term mixer has II muc h differ- ta nce . t 'ig 2.54 shows an ideal o p-a mp both input and out put impeda nce. :-;ot all
em meaning for the RF experimenter. with a n added ou tput resista nce. R",w form s of oegative feedb ack red uce impe d-
Anal)sis is dir ect. The feedback resistor Feedback is extracted from the output end ance. Emitte r degenera tion in a trancistor
maintains the ' .... 0 op-amp inp uts 0.1 the of th is resistor . Because V00. dr ive s the amplifie r inc reased a mplifi e r input R as it
carne vo ltage. which is grou nd in ,hi" feed back resistor. it is this point IV.....) tha t red uces gain .
e xample. Any si ngle input will cha nge the is con trolled by the feedbac k cle me nt. R(. Placing capac itors (or indu c tor s ) in a
output accordin gly .... hile feedb ack kee ps Cha nging the load (R l Nd ) ma y ha ve feed bac k pa th will fo rce the amp lifi er gain
the sum ming node at ground . w e- calculate impact o n 1:::,...,. the 01' a mp direc t o utput. to depe nd upo n freq uency. An ex ample is
the cu rre nt e nte ring t he summing node for but it has lin le effec t on V,....: the o utput presented in Fig 25::: where C 1 causes ga in
eac h input and note that the total c urre nt impedan ce at VOUI i,s ver y low. a result of 10 be lower at high freq ue ncies . C;: has the
into the summi ng node. incl uding tha t the feedback. effect of allow ing R A and R B 10 set DC
fro m the o utput via the feedb ac k resistor. Th e effects of fee dbac k fro m a para lle l condit ions with lillie effec t o n ga in for AC
must be zero. This de fin es the o utpu t res istor are most d ramatic with op-arnps signa k But, this must done with care to
respo nse. where the ope n loo p gai n (t hai gain avo id q ahi lity probl ems.

2.6 UNDESIRED AMPLIFIER CHARACTERISTICS

The ideal amp lifier is linear with an out- lines somewhere in o ur community, Rather,
put that is an exact replica or the input with we arc conc erned with the noise that is gcn-
the o nly difference being gr eater amplitude crated within the circuitry. The domina nt
and a phase difference. The re should be no compo nent of this noise . "0 called thermal
other output frequ encies. If two inputs are noise. originates frum random motion of the
applied to an ideal linear amplifier, the result elec trons with in a co nductor. This noise Gain=G
shows up as a voltage that appears between
will be 1\'0'0 o utputs. each be ing just what
the two conducto r ends, The ava ilable power
50
would be seen if each input was applied
alone. with no thing else added. Severa l phe- present is kTB (in watts) where k is
nomena compromise amplifiers from thi ~ Bolt zman's constant. T i~ absolu te tempera-
ideal. They include noise. gain com pression. rure in Kelvin. and His the bandwidth we use
harmonic dis tort ion . and intcrmod ularion to observe the noise. Although a power kTB 50
distortion. is avail able from any conductor. the re lated
voltage is very small if the conductor is a
good one. A resisto r. 11 conductor with larger
Noise in Amplifiers resistance, allo ws a larger voltage 10appear,
Noise is a familiar corru ption in an empli- but with the same available poweL (A m i/ -
tie r. The noise of con cern is not what we able power was discu ssed in an earlier
010,t uften hear coming from o ur H~ recei v- scetion.)
ers; that noise generally arise s from thunder Fig 2.56 shows a simple amplifier ter - Fig 2.56- A te rmina ted a mp lifier used
storms somewhere in the world . or power minated in 50 ~ ill both input and output. fO Tnoise a na lys is.

A mp li fi er Desig n Bas ics 2,1 9

 The source and loa d resist ances generate G NOISE Noise fig ure is also a vital parameter
noise. Th e noise ge nerated hy the o utpu t Eq 2.34 within a rece ive r, for ca reful co ntrol of
GS IGKAL
load is normall y ignored during a noise nois e will allow the desi gner to use lo w
a nalys is of the amp lifier. for the c ircu it ga in. wh ich keeps di stortion lo w, Detai ls
des igner is pri mari ly con cerned w ith the where G~OISE is the noise gain , the ou tpu t are d isc ussed in lat e r chapters .
available noi se from the amplifier . The noi se power di vided by the ava ila ble input Rec all that the noi se power ava ilabl e
noise fro m the input source is increa sed by noise po wer. GS1 G.'<AL is the famili ar sig - from a resistor is kT B, A useful nu m ber to
the amplifiergain,just as any signa l wo uld nal gain used above , All forms of these rem ember is that kT = - 174 dBm at " room"
be increased. T here is not hing that can be eq uations are use d in de ri ving some o f the tem pera ture of 290 K . If the no ise was
done to avo id this noise , If the amplif ier results we use with noise figure . ob served in a rec e iver with a ban dwid th of
availab le power ga in is G and the avail able Typi ca l NF va lues ra nge fro m 1 to 10 3 kHz (a vo ice "chan nel"). B would be
noise pO\\ er from the inp ut source is N ;. the dR for the amp li fiers that we frequ e ntly 30 00 Hz and I Ox Lu gB i s 34 .!l dB . T he
o ut put noise will be GxN j • even when the use in RF syste ms. M ixer s tend to have no ise power ava ilable fr o m the res istor
ampli fier i s perfect and noiseless. high er noise fi gures. Mod ern FET amp li- wo uld then be - J74d B m + 34.8 dB =
A re al wor ld ampli fier will have a noi se fiers ar e capable of NF as lo w as 0. 1 to 0. 2 - 139.2 dBm . A rece iver can be tho ug ht of
outputthat is even h igher than the am pli - dB at UHF with val ues u nder 1 dB even as a large am plif ier. If the receiver had a
fi cd inp ut noise. T he output nois e is poss ible at 10 GH1.. 10 dB noise f igure. the output noi se wo uld
gre ater by a ratio that we call the noil'l' we fr equently ask for the noise factor be the same a s wo uld appear if a n inp ut
[actor o r noise f igure. design ated by F. T he of a cascade of two am plifiers . Th is resul t noise of -139 .2 dB m + 10 dB = - 129.2
log ari t hmic form of noise Figu re i s is db m was appli ed to the input of a perfect.
NFi dB l= IO*Log(Fl. The two fo rm s, alge- noi se le ss rece iver.
braic ratio or dB . are used in te rc ha ngeably, F - I The related noi se voltage from a re sis -
although the alge braic ratio is used in all + - 2- - Eq 2.35 tor is
of the e qua tions that fol low . The ex tra G,
nois e i s that generated wi thin the active E q 2.36
wher e F) and F 2 are noi se factors fo r stage
device and ci rcu it components . I an d 2. res pect ive ly. and G ] is the avail-
A forma l trea tment of noise" deals wit h ab le pow er ga in for the first stage. Whi le where k is again B olt z ma nn' s co nsta nt
noise power ratios. Nois e fa ctor is gi ven the noi se from both st ages contributes to (1 .3Rx 10-23 I, T is the res istor temperature
by. the net noise fact or. the 2nd stage noi se in K. B is band wid th in H z and R is the
co ntribut ion is redu ced by the gai n of the resistance in n , Th e a vai la ble power, kT .
f irs t stage , C lea rly. if we can ca lcu late NF is call ed a spe ctral power densu» . usuall y
Eq 2.32
for two stages. we ca n per for m the calc u- in W/ H z. Th e result ing vo ltage, V n• is
lations sev eral times and obtain the re sult a sp ectra l voltage densi ty in vo lts-per-
w here 0i OUT is the outpu t no ise power fo r any numbe r of stages . roo t-HI . Op -am ps often have noise spec i-
delivered to the lo ad , N tN is the noise Nois e figure is a vi ta l amplifier an d fied in terms of an equ iv ale nt inp ut spec-
po wer av ai lable from the input res istance. receiv er charact e ristic at VH F where tra/ voltag e density of no ise. T he sam e
and G is the avai lab le power ga in o f the external noi se (th under storms . etc ) is luw. method is sometimes used fo r trans istor s.
circui t. N jj\ is the noise power av ail abl e While a low no ise fig ure is rar ely needed a ltho ugh noi se fig ure is the mor e common
from the source resis ta nce w hen it has a at lower freque nci es . it be comes mo re parameter used to specify an RF design.
temp erat ure of 290 K. !\ F is the ratio o f impo rtant when small ante nna s are use d. A mplifi er noise figure is not a lways a
two noise powers . T he larger n umber (nu-
merator ) is the noise act ually c omi ng from
the amp lifie r wh ile the smaller (de no mi-
nato r = G :\'I:"' ) is the nois e that wou ld be +12v
coming from the amplifier if it gen era ted ••
no noise of its own. A pe rfec t. no iseless
am plifi er would ha ve F = 1 from the equa -
tion , or conver ti ng to dB, NF=O dB . II 0.1 Ou t p u t
Gai n, G. is the pow er gain we normall y
as sociate with an ampl ifier: o utp ut sig nal Tl ~~
pow er del iv ered to the load. SO UT o di vided 3 . 0K
by S i' an input sig nal power. If we insert
this gai n r atio into the no ise Figure defin-
ing eq uation. and rea rrange the te rms. we
obtai n
lK

Eq 2.33

Thi s desc ribes a co mbination of signal

Fig 2.57-Feedba c k amplifier illustrat ing gai n compression and di st ortion . Thi s
an d noise . Essentially. nois e figure can be
ci rc uit has 20-mA Ie' T 1 co n sists o f 10 bifila r turn s on a FT-37-43 fe rr ite toroid core,
interpreted to be a deg radat ion in sign al to alt hough t he sp ec if ic co re ty pe is not criti cal. Thi s c ircu it fe at ur es a small s ig nal
noise ratio as we progress thro ugh the am - gain of 20.5 dB and a good im pedan ce mat ch to 50 n at both input and output. See
plifi er. T his eq uation can be rearra nged 10 te xt for noise Figure, gain com pression , and intercept result s.

2.20 Chapter 2
 C &1 i b . 4t ~ d
followed hy a 15- MHl low -pass fi lter,
llo1s ~ SO \l . " ~ g uaranteei ng a dr ive free of harmonics.
Th e meas ureme nt results are sho wn in

...~O 01_ Ta ble 2.1 .

11~
The dri ve powe r was varied from - 20 to
~ Receiver '- G +5 dlsm with a step attenuat ur. T he 14-MHI

i
-b
I
Z~~r
~ ~
r.,, ~

Vollae Ur
IIJ'IS
output. a ltho ugh inc reasing with drive. still
showed gain com pression. severe :It the
highest drive. At lo wer le vels the harmonics
d l o d~
(abo shown in dRm ) grow at a level proper-
tional to the harmonic number. Hen ce a 10
FIg 2.58-Scheme u sed to measure receiver noise FIgure. AUdIo vo ltmeter
dtl drive change causes a chance of about 20
examples are th e HP3400A or the Fluke Model 89. d B in ~ 1Id harmonic and ahoui 30 d B in y d
harmonic. This simple beha vior di sappears
a, the amplifier enters gain co mpression.
Mostlinenrcircuits display harmonic amp li-
simple co nstant tha t may he e xtrac ted from A 12.5 dB ENR co rresponds 10 ENR= 178 as tudes proponionalro order with increasing
a da ta shee t a nd ap plied 10 a design . a power ratio. If we measure Y of 19 dR for d rive.
Rather. data shee t noise fig ure i ~ spec ific a rece ive r, the corres pond ing po"' er ratio is II is co mmo n to specify harm o nic (a nd
10 a "t ypical" a mp lifie r, or more often. is 79A. F is then 2.27, or l\f=3.11 d B. other) dis to rrinnc in te rm,,-ofvd fjc ." which
the best NF One can ac hieve . The noise is dB with regard to the desired carrier.
figu re of a spec ific desig n then depe nds He nce. with a dr i ve of - 10 dh m. the
upon de vice bia..i ng and the im pedan ce
Gain Compression des ired output was + 11 d g m. a nd the 2 nd
presen ted to the de vice inp ut. Most no n-id eal a mpli fie r behavio r har mon ic was - 30 d Bm. or -: 1 d lsc .
An exa mple amplifier is shown in r ig 2.57 occ urs nt highe r po we rs wit h a sim ple
in conne ction with our disc ussion of divtor- exa mp le be ing ga in compressio n. Fig 2.57
sho wed a typical amplifier tha t ilIuslnlles
Intermodulatlon
lion . T his a mplifier was measured with an
gain co mpress io n and o ther problems. The Distortion , IMD
HP-R970 Noise Figure test set as 6 d B at 10
and ~O \fHz. T he c ircuit is d iscussed further c ircui t is a feedback a mplifie r with a We next cons ider ime rmodu lation d is-
as we inves tigate feedback amplifiers. 20 rnA co llec tor cu rrent. T his circui t. rortion. (MD. lnre rmodula rion de sc ri bes
The most ( om man method for noise- fig- wh ic h was built and me asu red has the be havior o f an am plifi er when it is
ure measurement is show n in Fig 2.58. This mig rated into n umerou s rec eive; Lind driven with two signals (" lo ne s'") that are
drawing deals with a receiver. However. the trans mitter app lica tio ns. 1"0 heat si nk is ge nera lly d ose to each orber in freq ue ncy.
sa me so urce is used to measu re an a mplifie r needed i n normal app lica tions . Second order 1.\ f O the n cre ate s undesired
by following it with a receive r (or spectrum S mall si gna l amp lifie r ga in was 20. 5 d B_ outputs at the su m a nd the d ifference fre-
analyzer). After a measurement of the cas- Re pea ling the measure ment at se ver al que nc ies. The desi red outp ut of a mixer is
cadc is o btained , the earlie r equation is used in put pow e rs allo ws one to plo t a graph of often a 2nd order TMD product bet ween
to obtain the :'\IF of the amplifier alone. The ga in Vs r o wer. E ven tually a poin t is the R ~ and LO . Thirdo rde r 1 ~1 D fro m two
critica l part of the measu reme nt svvtem is reac hed whe re the gai n m-gi ns to d ro p. Th e to nes at f , and f~ generate.. produc ts at
the noise source. The one used here is a o utput po we r where the gain is I d B below (2f1- f l ) and ( 2 fl - f~) . T he order re lates to
Zener diode. When the switch is open. the the s mall signa l value is ( a iled the l -d H rhc nu mher of freq ue ncie s participating in
diode is off. The pad attenuation, if large. compress ion point and OCCUlTed at an o ut- a di stortio n proc es s wher e (2f l -f 2) can be
force s the out put impedance 10 he close to PUI of + 16.5 dBm. thoug ht of as f l' f l _ and f, . O rde r is a lso
50 n , When the diode h tur ned on bv elm- a mbi g uousl y related to the unde rlyin g-
ing the switc h. the noise increases by ~ large marhc mauca l descri ption ofthc disto rtio n.
Harmonic Distortion Con sider an exa mple where tw o eq ual
a mount. The noise increase is c alled the
A fami liar am plifier distortion appears stre ngth . - 15 dHm ton es at 14_0 a nd 14.2
excess noise ratio, ENR. and is abou t 21.5
dB for our nois e source. which is deccnbed in the form of har mon ics. If an amp lifier is ~1 H l are app lied 10 the am plifie r of Fig
in Chapter 7. driven at one freque ncy . amp lifie r no n-fin- 2.57. T he desi red out puts occur at t he
e arity ge nerates a dis tort ed a mp ul. That o rig ina l freq uencies al a le ve l of +5 d Bm.
with a 22.5 d B EK R. the noi se Output
o utput will co ntain the or igina l input plus 20 dB above the drives. A lso present are
of a perfe c t. no tse tcss receiver wou ld
increase by 22. 5 dB whe n the so urce i ~ harmoni c comp onent s. 1\ harmoni c is an the thir d order lMl) ter ms at 1.1 8 lind 14.4-
turn ed o n. But the rec eiver i ~ co nmbu un g intege r mu ltiple of the input freq uency. ~'I HI . A ske tch o r the spec trum analv zcr

noise o f ilS own . so the noise increase will T he amplifi er of Fig ~ . 5 7 wac measu red respons e is sho wn in Fi ~ 2.59 wit h- the
be less than ~2 .j dB. The Output increase wilh a specl rum analyze r. The inpUl was ana lyze r SC i for a + III d Bm re fere nce 1c\'eI
i.s called the ..y -faelor." No i.<;e fa( lor (a from a crystal co ntro lled 14-M lt /_<,n urce at Ihe to p of the di.splay . T he d i;;to rtion
power rat io rat her thilll d B) i' re lated to the
ENR a nd Y by

Table 2.1 A ll powers are in d Bm, d B with rega rd to o ne mW.

F= ENR
Y- I Ell 2.3 7 Dlive Power 14 MHz 28 MHz 42 MHz 56 MHz
- 20 dBm +1 dBm - 51 dBm - 72 dBm
- 10 + 11 - 30 -46
wher e bot h E:\R and Y are power ratim o +18 + 3 - 7 - 35 dBm
+5 + 21 +11 0 - 1
r.t1her lhan dB \·alues. Consider an exam ple:

Amplifi er Design Bas i cs 2.21

 out pu ts hav e a power of - 45 d Bm . The
+10 d8 m "Reference Level' II-tO products are said to be 50 dB be low

~
one of t""'o eq ual desired output ton es.
T ransmitters are so metimes descri bed
Od8m
by an lMD that is be luw the desired output
by a spec ified amo unt. But, imp licit in such
-10 cem a specifi cat io n is transmitter operation at
rated out put power. There is rar ely a "rated
- ~
output" for amplifiers li ke this one.
~
E Am plifie r inter modu lation d is tortion
•
,,
-20 d8m
•
~ ~ ge ner a lly depe nds up un drive leve l.
Increasing drive by 1 d B will cause thi rd
0 o rder IMD powers to increa se by 3 d B.
-30 d8 m
•
L-
Th is was rea d ily con fir med d uri ng the
tests to obtain the data uf Fig 2.59 . Con -
-40 d8m
tinuing this pro cedure allows us to plot
both des ired output power for each tone
1-45dBm a ~
and distortio n pow er for eac h IMO prod-
uct. This plot is sho wn in Fig 2.60. The
-so cam
c urves an: " log- log" form, with both x and
y ax is in d Bm . The "desired outp ut" plot is
-50 d8m
a line ar stra ight line (slopcelj unt il ga in
I Frequen cy I compression is e ncou ntered. The third
order dis tor tion plot is a strai ght line fol-
Fig 2.59- Spect rum fr o m the fe edback amplifier w he n d rive n w ith two lones. Th e lowing a ste eper path.
small er signa ls a re third order intermod ul at io n d istortio n . If this wa s th e inpu t t o a It is usefu l to ext e nd the two cur ves.
rec eiv er, a ll of t hes e sig nals c o uld be hear d. each heing st ra ig ht li nes on the lo g-l ug
plot , until they in tersect. The point where
the desired and the third order curves cross
is calle d the third-order inte rcept po int or
sometimes just the inte rcept point. Th ere
~ 50 arc two pow er value s (input and o utp ut)
I is econd Order I associated wit h this poi nt . with the values
Intercept Po int~
.... .. .. .. • di fferi ng by the small sig na l amplifie r
, ,i : gain . T hese values are very useful as a
· l,. Figure-of-merit for the amplifi er. The
Third Order
Intercept p Oint ~
l
...
/
/
. high er the thir d ord er outpu t intercept,
IP30 m. the more imm une that amplifier is
+30 j lP3outf - - - - .. - - - .. ....... - - - -~

.· .·· to distortion problems . We someti mes see

E
zn
-o
I Compression
G.;" ,I , . -' "•I :
• ." ,i!f
: Q
thi s c alled OIP3, with the "0 " indi cating
that the number relates tu the ou tput. IIP3
is also pop ula r to indi ca te thi rd order
(1)- +20 •• " ~0§' inpu t intercept. OIP3 and IIP3 differ by
c
j"'-.. / }Ii :,'. • b the stage gain.
"' ,! J;!s
B
o
c.
'- ' 10
~ .: '. . p••
o •· •
I
I '
: Cj
Note that the in tercept is mathematical:
it is usually i mpossi ble to operate an am-
plifier with an output powe r as high as the
~
W ··..
~I '
,0 out put inte rce pt. The amp lifi er interc ept,
[L

'5
.,o ·• ..•
I.• •
IP30ut or OIP3, is more than a mere fig ure
i" of meri t. If the operating outp ut powers
£o " .. are know n and if IP30 ut is specified. the
o
·1 0
1
./ .....
•
/
•

:
dis tortion ca n then be c alcu late d with

[\f UR = 2 . (JP'OUT - POl:T ) Eq 2.38

_20 ~ O
/ . .
•0 10
Input Power per tone, dBm
"
,-"
/
.'
0
:
IP3in
. 10
I
:
where IMDR is the IMD Ratio in dB. the
d iffe rence betwee n the desi red signal and
the distortion ; IP 3 0l11 is the output in terce pt
in dBm , and Pom is the out put powe r in
db m . Both pow ers are "per tone," one of
Fig 2.60-P lo t of a mp lifier o ut pu t v s in p ut w hen two equal in put to nes are va ried
to g et her. Both the des ire d o utp ut amplitude and t he di st ortion p rod uct amplitudes
two identical va lues. For example. our test
ar e plotted, a lt ho ug h o n ly extrapolation distortio n is shown . Ga in compress ion is amplifier ha s 1P 30uI = +30 d Bm . If W I: dri ve
ev ident. The d istorti o n pro d u cts intersect th e desired o utput at t he interc ep t the amplifie r with two tones to an output
poi nts . of - 7 dBm per to ne. the IMD rat io is

2.22 Chapte r 2
74 dB, lea vin g the o utput di stortion prod. d gm. (See sect ion 2.5 for the conve rsion.) (tJ+ 12) and (tj -f2). These distortion fre-
ucts at - 81 dB m. Once we have the cascade input intercept, it quenc ie s arc usually far rem o ved from t he
It is not necessary to actually draw the can he moved to the output hy adding the gain inputs. Hence , they can be remo ved with a
plot of Fig 2. 60 10 obtain the in tercep t. of the cascade. Eq 2.39. deriv ed in tntrodnc- filter follow ing the amplifie r. Thi s is
Rath er, it ca n he in ferred from a single lion To Radio Frequency Design." des cribes not po ssible with th ir d order p ro d uct s
dis tort ion measurement with Eq 2.3 R: th is coh erent volta ge addit ion of third order di s- very close to the frequ e ncie s ca usin g th e
is the us ua l pr actice . tortion products, so it repre sents a wors t case. distort ion ,
Int er cep ts have a no ther very im por ta nt We have experimentally observed that this Th e te st amplifier wa s fo und to ha ve a
use . Ifthe o utp ut inte rce pts of all stages in worst-case behavior is usually real istic. second orde r outpu t interce pt of +4 4 dBm.
a ca scade are know n. a co mpos ite int ercept Fig 2.60 al so incl ud es sec ond order Second o rder int erc ept s ar e ge nerally
can he calc ulated for the ca scade. Con sider 11\,10. A second order intercept point. and numerically highe r t han th e th ir d order
the two-s tage ampl if i er of Fig 2.6 1. Each va lues for IP 2in an d IP2 0 ut are defi ned in on es, alt hough the second order dis to rt io n
stag e has a gai n of 12 d B, bu t thc second the sam e wa y as th os e of the th ird order do es not drop a s quick ly. Second ord er
sta ge has low er IMD than the first. The in- products . If input s occur at f l and [ 2' IM O c an he a major d iffic ulty in wide band
tercept- of each stage can he normalized 10 second or der IM D occurs at frequencie , designs. such as ge ner al coverage receiv-
any desired point in the ca scade , Pickin g ers or spec trum ana lyzers.
It is intere sting to co m p are the I dB
the overall amp lifier inp ut as tha t po int,
com pression po wer with o utp ut intercepts.
the f ir st stage (IP30ut= + 15 db m) has
Our les t amplifier h ad Pout(-l dB l=+ 16 .5
IP3in =+3 dBm, wh ile the second stage has G=12 dB G=12 dB
dll m and TP3 "ut=+30 dBm . a difference of
an int erc ept at the casc ade input of IP3c in=
13 .5 dB. D iffe rences of 13 to 16 dB arc
--4 dBm. 24 dB bel ow that stage ' s o utput
common for am plifier s w ith bi polar tran-
IP 30ut~ )=+ 20
inte rcept. T he second stage will dominate
di stortion, which becomes cle ar whe n thcy
are com pare d at a sin gle non n allzcd plane
!
IP30ut( 1)=+15
sistors. Sm alle r val ue s (7 to 10 dB) arc
mo re common with vificon JFE'fs and with
GaAs FETs. T he diffe re nce is 110 / inte nded
within the c ha in. We can ca lcu la te the
to he a Figure-of -merit. Indeed . smaller
input in tercept o f th e ca scade with IP30ut(1)=+3 =1 9953 mW
nu mhe rs in d icate th at a device c an be
IP30ut(2)=-4 =0 3 981 mW
op erated closer to it' s i nte rcept. Ty picall y
Fig 2.61-A cascade of two amplifiers, any o f the dev ice s we c ommon ly use for
each well specified for gain and output amplifier, c an not operate at powers as
intercept. The composite intercept is high as their ou tput intercep ts.
easily calculated. An extension of t his A te st set used to measure 2nd and 3rd
allows an entire system to be ana lyzed order intercep ts i s sho w in Fig 2.62. The
where all pow ers are now mW rather than fo r IMD.
key to the scheme i s the hybr id comb iner
t hat adds the outp ut of two signal genera -
tors wh ile preservi ng impedance m atch
and isolating the two generators. A 6-dR
6 dB Hybrid hyhr id is the pre ferred scheme owing to
Combiner the ex cellent isolation afforded . But a 3-
d H hyhrid can he substit ute d if good qu al-
ity sign al generato rs a re used . A 6-dB
hybrid is a netwo rk with an output tha t is
50 6 dB lower per to ne tha n e ach input. Note
50 spectrum that th e 6 -d B hyb rid ha s the same schc-
OU T.>--
Analyzer marie a s a re turn loss bridge . Hence. nn e
instrument can b e used to measure imped-
an ce match and to isolate sig nal sources ,
Step E very home lab nee ds at le as t one hyb rid
Att e nuato r combiner.
The int ercep t Formaliz ation is ge nerall y
res tricted to circui ts with co ns ta nt. o r
nearly constant. bia s current . A Class A R
3 dB Hybrid or B ampli fier whe re c urrent grows with
Combiner/Splitter applied dri ve is nut gene ra lly d escr ibed by
Ohm an interce pt. R at he r, it is characterized
with a simple IM D rat io, usu ally at full
10 0 power output.
F urth er inform ation on d istortion and
Fig 2.62 - Test setup for noise is found in Introduction /0 Radio Fre-
measu ring IMD. A low pass f ilter qUeIIC\' Design .6 The rea der is also referred
some t imes foll ows t he hyb rid. to Bi ll Sabin' s pre sentation in the 199 5 (and
later) ARRL Hatldbook7 concer ning disto r-
tion. including that of 2nd order [MD.

Amp lifier Design Bas ics 2.23

 2.7 FEEDBACK AMPLIFIERS
A cir cuit form appearing oft en in this collec tor and ba se . This is muc h like the bias resistor. Compo nen ts that are pre -
hook is the feedbac k amplifier. This is a re sistor be tween an op -ump o utpu t and the do minantly used for bi asi ng are marked
circu it w ith two for ms of negative feed - in vert ing input which reduc es gain a nd wit h '"8 : ' Thi s am pl ifier would norm ally
buck wit h (usu ally) a sin gle tra ns isto r to decreases inp ut res istance . be term ina ted in 50 Q a t bot h the input and
obtain wid e ba ndwid th. well controlled Sev eral addition al circu its <III: pre sented output. Th e transfor mer ha s the e ffe ct of
gain, and well controlle d. stab le input and shewing practical forms of th e feed hac k maki ng the 50 -n load "look like" a larger
out put resi stances . Several of these ampli- ampl ifier. Th at in Fig 2.64 sho ws a com- lo ad val ue . R L=~()O,n 10 the collect or. Th is
fiers ca n be cascaded to for m a high gain ple te circu it. T he base is biased with a is a common and use ful va lue for man y HF
c ircui t that is bot h stable and predictable. resist ive d ivide r fro m the colle ctor. Ho w- ap plicat io ns.
The small- signa l schematic fo r the feed- ever, m uch of the re si sto r is by passed. Fig 2.05 differ-, truru Fig 2.64 in two
hack amp lifie r is show n in F ig 2.63 with ou t le aving on ly R f ac tive for actual sig n al places . F irst. the co l le cto r is b ia se d
b ias co mpone nts or power suppl y feedbac k. E mitte r de ge ne rat io n is ac thro ugh an Rf C in stead of a transfor m er.
details. The des ign begins with a :.iPN trun- cou pl ed to the emi tter. The re sistor R E The c o lle ct or c irc uit rhen -se es" 50 n
sisto r biased to a stable de curren t. Gain is do min at es th e degenerati o n since R E i s whe n th at load is connected Second. the
reduc ed with emitte r degeneratio n, increas- no rma lly much smal ler than the emitte r e mit ter d eg ene rat ion is in serie s wit h the
ing input resi stance while decreas ing gai n. bias. ins tea d o f the curlier para llel conn ec-
Addit ional feedbac k is then add ed with a t io n. E ithe r scheme wor ks wel l. alt hou gh
parallel feedback resi stor, R f • between the the pa ralle l config ura tion a ffo rd s e xp eri -
m ent al fle xibi lity w ith iso lati on between
Vee
RFC seui ng degene ration an d bia sing . Ampl i-
B fie rs wi tho ut an outp ut tr ans for me r are not
,
: 1Ilrt1litier
,
, Out cons traine d hy de grad ed tr an-For mer pe r -
, forma nce an d o ften offe r tlat ga in to sc v-
,, ,
,
,
-I f- era ! GIl/.
Sourc e : R- f ,, L Od d
The vari at ion of Fig 1.6(, may we ll b e
R-f B the mos t gen era l . It u se , an ar hi trary trans -
R- S former to match the collector. Bia sin g: is
r0 R-L I n --J trad ition al a nd d oes no t inte rac t with the
~
1
feed back,
Fee dback j, obtai ned direc tly frum t he
,: ~ B
output lap in the circ uit of fi~ 1.67. While
• R-E ,
,
, R-E this sch eme is com mon . it is lc-,-, dc virab lc
, than th e ot hers . for the trun- tormc r is part
of the feedbac k loop T his could lead to
Fig 2.63-Small sig nal crr cutt fo r a inst abilities . N or mallv . the pa ralle l fee d -
feed ba ck amplifier. B

I
ha ck tends to , tab ili/ ": the arn plifier s. The
equat ion s and cur ve , prc-ented belo w per -
tai n 10 circ ui t> II 1Ih reedb uck take n
directl y from the co llector .
Vee ck The ci rc u it of Fie 1 .M! ha -, -e vera t fea -
B

I II l , out
'-.-,f-
Fig 2.65 -A variat io n of t he feedba c k
am pli fi er with a 50-0: ou tput term inati on
at the co llector.
Ve e
B
~tv-<r<r----,
Vee

In -l
B
Fig 2.64- A practica l feedback
ampli fier. Co m po nent s marked wi th "8"
are pre domina nt ly for b iasing. Th e 50-0:
o utp ut te rm ina tion is tr ansf o rmed to
2000: at th e co ll ec to r. A typ ica l tr ans -
former is 10 bifilar turn s of #28 on a
FT· 37· 43 fe rrite t or oid . Th e inductanc e Fig 2.67-A tee o nac e am pli f Ier With
of o ne of t he tw o windin gs sh ould ha ve Fig 2.66- Th is fo rm uses an arb it rary feed ba ck fr o m the o utput tr an sfo rme r
a reactanc e o f ar o u nd 250 0: at the t rans fo rmer. Feedback is is o lated f rom ta p. T his is c o mmon . but can prod uce
lo we st fr eq uency of op e ration. bias co mponents. unstabl e resu lt s.

2.24 Chap ter 2

teres. Tw 0 nansistorv ar e used , each with res istor s are chosen next. A reasonable input
a sep arate emit ter bia sing resi sto r. How - and output impe da nce match occurs with Table 2.2
e ver. ac coupl ing cause s the pair to oper- Simulated Gain vs Degeneration
R f R ~ = R s ·R L Eq 2.4 0 and Feedback Res istor s for a
ate a s a single devi ce with de ge ner atio n
set by R ~.. T he par all e l fee dba ck re sistor. 2N3904 biased w it h IE=20 rnA where
R j , i s both a sipn al feed had: e leme nt a nd where Rfis the paralle l feedback and R c is r. =1.3 n . Gain was calculated at 14
part of th e b ia s d ivid or. Th is con str ains th e th e net de generation resis tance. rc+ RI' MHz, so ,6=300/14=21. Resistors
val ues sli ght ly . j-inullv , an ar hitrary ou t - He re R F i s the externa l deg ener atiun . were picked as standard val ues and
and r. is the c urren t dep endant val ue, to provide an input return loss
putload can be presen ted III the compo site
better than 10 dB. The first example
co llector thro ugh a n -tvpe matchi ng 26/J,(mA) . For e xam ple. an am pli fier
is t he amplifier described in th e
netwo rk . T his provi de s so me 10\,' pa ss driven by 50 n an d te rm inated in 200.n
previous section.
fi ltering. but constrain s the amplifi er mi ght usc JO-Q exte rna l dege n eration
Load R-degen R-feedback Gain
bandwidth. and 1O-m A cu rre nt for R, == 12.7 O hm s.
200 n ec t .a en 20.3 dB
R r = 7 87 n would produce R in '" R s an d R" 3 ,9 c 3 kn 24.8 dB
'" RL, with R in and R" be ing the in put and 4 ,7 c 2 .7 kn 23.9 dB
De si gn Proc edure o ut pu t res ist an ce s fo r source and load 5 6 12 2 kU. 22.3 dB
Des ig n bq;in s by picking a b ia s current, R s and R L. A practic al choice wo uld be 6. 8 n 1.6 ko 20.7 dB
us ually dictated by ou tput po wer and JM D R f = 820 n . a sta ndard value. 10 n 9 10 n 16. 8 dB
require ments. Next the ou tput load imp ed- 12 Q 7500 15.1 d B
Th ere is still a wide range of valu es that
15 0. 560 0. 12 .6 dB
ance prc scnrcd tu the collector (or drai n) is can be used for degenera tion and feedback. 10. 3 dB
18 0. 4300.
chosen. A value of 200 n is pro bably the The final choice is made on the bas is of 22 Q 3300. 7 .7 dB
most co m mo n, for it affo rd s good g ain desired ga in. which can be determi ned by the 50 c 2.7 Q 820 Q 20.0 dB
wi th re aso na ble current. Wit h tha t lo ad , equa tions prese nted in Fig 2.69 . The choice 3.9 Q 680 Q 18.2 dB
th e out put power will b e restr ic ted to is ease d by example data in T a ble 2.2 , While 4.7 Q 560 0. 169 dB
5.6 Q 470 c 15.6 dB
arou nd 200 mw in t z -vcu sys tem s. Pro- the data in the table is for one current. 20 m.A.
6.8 n 390 n 14 ,1 dB
grcscivcly lo we r impe dance s will all ow it will provide an initial estimate. 10 n 270 Q 10 ,7 dB
h igh er out put power. Mo st feedb ac k a m- Th e equat ion s of f ig 2.69 a ppear lo ng 12 Q 22 0Q 8 8 dB
p lifi ers end up being des ign ed for 50 -n and mes sy. b ut are easi ly programmed for 15 Q 150Q 5 .4 dB
input re sistance . a calc ulato r or com put er.
T he emitter dege neration and feed back F ig 2.70 sho ws the gain obtained when

vcc~ Rre
Gain vs De zeneraticn wnen M atche d

R- f ~~t m

I I
G( d)

~ 0.1 "w i
,~

1
In
---'J - s
0 .1 " ' - -_
,_ ~ ~___l

B
1 '"B0. ' "o.i
o iu

1 B1
- R- E
•
n . ge...,n tion R. sis tance

- - - Fig 2.70 -Gain Vs net degeneration resistance w hen the

amplifier is matc hed . T h is evaluation occu rred at 14 MHz w ith
Fig 2.68-Feedback a mpli fi er with two parall e l transist ors. a 2N3904 biased to 20 mA with a SO-Q source and 200-Q loa d.

G ,- 10 l og

[[(I + ~ )' (R f + R ')] 'R, + R " R f]

[(I +13 ) ·R e+R s + f3 ·R s ]
Fi g 2.69- Tr an sducer Gain G in dB, Input resistance, Rin• and Output resistance, R o• b ot h in Ohms for a feedback amplifier.
The analysis is re stricted to the case where p arall el feedback is obtained from the collect or . RI is th e pa rall el feedback and Re
is t he to tal em itter degeneration (see text. ) R s and R L ar e th e source and loa d res istances, and are arbitrar y for this an alysi s.
~ is the current gain and is approximated as a scalar v a lue, ~ = F/F w here F t is the current gain-bandwidth product and F is th e
ope rat ing frequency, bo th in MHz.

Am pli f ier Des ign Basics 2.25

 (Join .. Do. "n.ntiu" P• • db.,k R -UK Co t R V1 De en, F..dha ck R - l ,3K.

,.••
Kin ,., D,~ en , F" do.ck R- 1.3K _
" :~ I
"s
1',, 1 ///
,. / / // /
'" ,.
,

:~ I
R ",( l ) ,
GC"' ,,/ K .C l )
- --- ,, ~ / -----
, ,
"

"
U,
'- --
/

,.
!' O

"" , '" " '" " '" "

iu , • ,o .... "" , w
" '"
" '" " • '" "
Do.""..",. Ro"...",.
.'" " D. ...." ....
• " '" " '"
D. . . ...."'.,,, ""'"

Fig 2.72-lnput resistance Vs Fig 2.7 3-0utput resistance Vs

Fig 2.71- Ga in Vs degeneration for degeneration fo r fi xed feedback deg en eration fo r a fixe d t.a-kn
fi xed feed back R of 1.3 kil. resistance. fe ed ba ck res ista nc e,

Output R v, Sour C" R (U K , 6 Olnu.) In put R V1LoadR (1.3K , 6 Olun.)

~OG r -- - "
"" '"
••
R. (R.)
_ _ _ J 5tJ
Wio(K L"
-"
'" I
'"0
,," •
,
. "'>-« ==.. "
I
" '" .. ".. '"" '"
'w "" 3~"
"" "

FIg 2,76-Feedback tend s to flatten

Fig 2.74-0utput res istance depends on Fig 2.75-lnput res istance as a funct ion f req uency response , This is even more
the source resistance. of load resistance . d ramat ic w ith low er gain am pli f ie rs.

Eq 2.40 is applie d, forcing a reasonable Feedback ex ten ds the band wid th of

input and o utput im pedance matc h. tran sformer termin ated amp lifie rs. Fig
It is common to build an amplifier only 2. 76 shows gain vs F for the example am- vd d
to then find that the gain must be cha nged plifier with a 2.'13Y04 at 20 mA . G-n de-
a little . The cttcct of changi ng the em itter generation and I 3-krl n, 50-n sour ce
resistor is presented in Fig 2.71 for a fixed and 200 -U load. There is less than a 3-dB
variation over the HI' spectrum. and the
R- f
R f= I ,3 kO , Th e same l 4-MHz . 20-m A
bias case is ass umed. Fig 2.72 a nd Fig 2.73 amp is usable np to 50 MHz, e ven with a
show the related effec t o n termina l resis - modes t 2.\"3904. Highe r F t transi stors can
In r
ranees . prod uce muc h gr eater bandwi dth. espe-
A characteristic of feedback amplifie rs eially when configured for low or modest -----1 rF
(sometimes useful, some times frus trati ng j gain without any transformer s that mig ht \I::::;
is that they are: partially transparent. T he
input resistanc e beco mes a stro ng functi on
of the load while the outp ut res is tance
depe nds upo n the sou rce . Th is is ill us-
tra ted in F ig 2.74 and Fig 2.75. Again . a
com promi se frequency respo nse .
While we usually think in terms of build-
ing feedback ampli fie rs with bipolar tran-
sis tors, they arc j ust as tenab le with fETs.
Fig 2,77 shows a JFET ver sio n of t he
amplifier. This circ uit uses no dcgcncra-
B

~
BI ~ ~
1.3-H l feedback R and 6-rl e xternal FIg 2.77-A feedbac k amplifier usmq a
degeneration arc use d. The amp lifier n on resis tor. The FET is self-biased with a FET. See te xt for design details .
transparenc y is parti ally "fixe d" with the bypassed source resis ter . and the bia sed
additio n of an an enuator at the amplifier I--"l-;-r transconductance is calc ulated using
output. es pecially usefu l when the: am pli - eq uations presented e arlier. Having this
fier mu st interface with fil te rs and value. we can the n ask "what curre nt (r e) in f-eedback ampli fier noise figure is usu -
switching-mode mixers. Pads must be a bipolar transistor would pro duce the same ally g reate r than that from the sam e tran-
adde d with car e, for th ey will dec re ase tra nsconductance ?" Finding that value, we sistor without feed back . Noise avai la ble
overall gain, a vailable o utput power and then use the same eq uations for ana lysis from the feedb ack resistors is injec ted into
output intercept. that were applied to the bipolar, Fig 2.69. the circu it. A feedb ack am plifier was bu ilt

2 .26 C ha pte r 2
using a 2SC I252 tran s!..tor (F,,,,,2 GHz ) The -e amplifiers are specified b) the ir dis- greate r avail able gain. The inpu t resistor
with degeneration a nd feedback resisto rs tribut er for a vonege on the OUlpul pin with sho uld be d riv en fro m a source at DC
of 5.1 0 a nd 1.8 kO . Nois e figure w as a specified c urrent allow i ng the user 10 grou nd . Ba ndwidth de pends on the o utp lll
meas ured with an HP8970B test "et for pick R, for an available YCC' For exa mple. transfo rme r with severe disto rt io n pos -
dif fe ring standin g currents. Th e nois e the Minici rcuits MAR-2 ts specifie d for sible at lo w frequen cies if it doc s not have
fig ure was l.~ dB in the HF spectrum 25 mA at 5 V . He nce. for a 12-V po wer adeq uate reactance . A typica l 7· MHz
for Ic= IO rttA. increaving to 3.3 dB with supply . 2~U 0 would be needed for R, . a pplication use" a 2U-turn primary o n a Ff,
63 rnA. No ise figu re fo r the 2N 3904 This IC should not be used without a d rop. 37-43 to roid with a S-Ium o utput link.
example ampli fier featured in th i.. section ping resi- aor. Th e power di ..vipauon in A common base amplifie r with tra ns-
(20 rnA. 6 12 and 1.3 kit 200-0 load ) was the resistor cbo uld be checked. It' s on ly former output cou pli ng is she.... n in Fig
mea sured al 6 dB. 175 mW in this example . so a lA·\\' res istor 2J UI. This circ uit uses no feedb ack other
f iA 2.78 s ho ws a feed back a mplifie r would suffice . tha n the ·17-n dege neratio n. Thi s is pre -
with two trans istors in a Darlington co n- r iA 2.79 present" another tWO discrete sen ted as ,10 evolutionary step toward a
fig uration. This circuit is typica l of sev - tra nsis tor feed back amp lifier. This is a feed back amplifier. but it is ver y useful as
er al popular silicon mo nolithic integrated buffe r amp lifier designed by W7EL. This shown , Th e co mmon base topology rea-
circ uit a mplifiers tha t arc presently avail- circ uit is sim ilar to MAR circ uits parts. hUI rures exc el lent reve rse ivola tion. lind. a"
ab le. Those co mpo ne nts within the dotted u..es trans forme r output co upling for e ven suc h. it is an excellent YFO buffer. The
line are part of the Ie. Q I and Q2 ucually amplifie r is biased to abo ut -arnA co llec tor
have F, abo ve 5 GHz . so the amplifier, curre nt . so ha s an inp ut res ista nce at the
offer use ful pe rforma nce 10 2 GHl a nd e mtue r o f 6 .5 U. Add ing a series ·17 ~ 0
zu
beyond with gain fro m IUto nearty dB.
V<Co<" f resis tor create" a reasonable input match
to a 50-12 so urce. T he powe r gain will be
determ ined by t he ra uo of t urn s o n the
'"' output auro-r ranstornwr.
An mtere vring variation of th is circuit
Vee R3 "

r
is prese nted in Fig 2.81. T he 47-1'1 inpu t

't
RFC
resistor has been rep laced by a ..ingle tu m
----.. ------ .., ~ link thro ugh t he transforme r co re . Th e
:
~ - - ". o peration is easily understood if we th ink
: : Out of dr iving the input wit h a cu rre nt so urce .
~
, R- F ,
, ". I '% The lo w input impedance ill the emitter
~ Ql
:
~ has nil impact o n the c urrent tl nw ing .
--J
IN
,,
,
~ 59 .
., \b,
,
,. 'b Essentiall y the same c urr e nt flow s in the
coll ector (recall that th e c urre nt ga in of a
,
R2
··----_.
R- E

:r . ··
:
:

~
""

.. the
Fig 2.79-Feed ba c k ampllfter,
~ J co mmon base amp lifie r is unity ). hut it
now flow s in t he high impedance mu ltiple
turn tra nsform er windings. Thi s allo ws
the circu it to provi de powe r gain. We now
"sa mp le" the co lle ctor current with a
.....inding. c reating a voltage ac ro ss the
.....inding . The ne w "v oltage" is placed i n
Fig 2.78-Feedback amplifier with a design of W7EL, often used as an
Darlin gton co nnectio n of t ra ns istors . oscillato r buffer . series with the low em itte r i nput impcd-

Ve c Ve e ~W\r-te---4>-------'
33 ,h
. 01
1 33 ~ m- tu l
~ns

f Ol 47

R- s= 50
51 0
3 . 3K
. 01
R- s =50
510

~
K 3 .3 K

Fig 2.8O-Common bas e a mplifier with an inp ut re s ist ance. Fig 2.81-A transfor mer fee d ba c k ampli fier designed by D.
see tex t. Norto n of Anzac .

A mp lifier Design Basics 2.2 7

 +12 10
0. 1
0.[ 7t
0. 1 •
• •
27
----l I-
It 7t
In 1.5 Out •
0 .1
•
2 N5109 Fig 2.83-Small si gnal c ircui t of a
tra nsformer type fee db ack amplifier
6 .8 usin g a JFET.
560 10 0

Fig 2.82-A modif ied feedback amp lifier where t ransformer fee dback increases
inp ut impeda nce .

ance to create a 50-Q input te rmination. (25-dB retu rn loss) over a 5 to 100 !\IHz
However. this is dune without ally resis- range with no ise figure under 2 d B This
tors. so the no ise f igure is not compro- amplifier. however. suffers from a major Fig 2.84 -A feedbac k amp lif ier example.
mised. This amplifier is the brainchild of problem : the termi nal impedances de pe nd This circuit supplements te st equip-
ment. Wit h V•• =12, 1.=65 rnA and
David Norton of Anz ac.s strong ly on the termi nation at the other QIP3=+42 d Bm, narnets d B, and
T he Fig 2.RI amplif ier will be matched port. The circ uit is worse than resistive band wid th exceeds 50 MHz.
ir feedback amplifiers in th is regard.
2 Transformers can be further app lied to
n =m - Ill - l Eq 2.4 1 extend performance of amp lifiers. F ig ing, prov ide s thc gate voltage neede d for
10 produ ce a tra nsd uc er po wer gai n of 2.82 show s a generally traditional feed - gain and low nois e perfo rmance . Desi gn
20 Log(m) d B. For ex amp le, if m",3. n is back amplifier that is modified by passing details arc given in introduction to kadin
then 5. a nd the power gain is 9. 5 dB. The the input lead thro ugh the transform er core Frequency Design, p 2 16. 10 Bill Car ver.
transformers for these amplifiers are often to alter input impedance . T his topology is W7 AAZ , has buil t practi cal version s of this
wound on a binocular-t ype balu n co re. A early work of Rohde.9 amplifier. See QST , May. 1996,11with fur-
turn through such a ferrite core is counted Ft g 2.83 shows a f ET amplifie r (small ther d iscuss ion in Chapter 6.
as a sing le pass of wire through both holes. signal ci rcu it only) using an input trans- Transformer feedbac k amplifie r design
Po larity is vital to construction of the former. A tapped transforme r teeds signal is a subje ct that contin ues to prod uce
transforme r. If wo und wrong, t he inp ut to both the FET source and the gate . The des ign act ivity. The reader c an find mor e
impeda nce will be negative. almost guar- winding dri ving the so urce sees a low informatio n starting with paper s by
an tccd to create oscillation. I n amp lifiers impedance, so adj ustm ent of turns ratio can Tra sk I2,13 and Koren.':'
of this kind thai we have bu ilt . we mea- ens ure a perfect matc h. The pate winding, Fig 2.84 shows an ex ample of a tee d-
sured excellen t inp ut impedance mat ch eve n though there is no signa l curren t now- back amplifier.

2 .8 BYPASSING A ND DECOUPLING
Our a mplifie r de signs ha ve included the marked value whi le in ductance is a setup of Fig 2.86 . Fig 2.87 shows a test
grounded points tha t were not rea ll y at small value that grows with co mpo nent fix ture with an installed 470-pF leaded
grou nd. Rather. those po ints are "sig nal lead length . Res istance is a loss term, usu- cap acito r. Th e fi xture is used with a signal
groun ded " thro ugh bypass ca pac itors. all y co ntrolled by the Q of the parasitic gen erator and spectr um a nalyzer to evalu -
O bta ining an effective bypas s can be ind uctor. All co mpo nents show som e ate capacitors. Re lativel y long capacitor
d iffic ult and is often the ro ute to design ind uctance, inclu ding a wire. E ve n a leads were req uired to interface to the BNe
d ifficu lty. lca dle s s S:v1 T compon ent will di splay connectors. even thou g h the cap acitor
T he probl em is paras itic induc tan ce . indu ctance co mmensurate with the d imen- itse lf was sma ll . The sig nal generator was
Alt ho ugh we label and model pa rts as sions . A wir e ha s an inductance of about I tuned over its range whil e examining the
"c apaci tor s," a more complete model is nH per mm of leng th. spectrum analyzer res ponse. wh ic h wa s
needed. Th e better mudd is a serie s LRC, B ypass capaci tor characteris tics can be minimum at the seri es reso nant frequency.
shown in Jiig 2.85 . Capacitance is clos e to measured in the home lab with the test Parasitic inductance is calculated from this

2.28 Chapter 2
 -If--- 0 - ,
50 Oh m, 52 1 Ref . 0.00 dB

I I
5
Fig 2.85-Model for a bypass capac ito r. -,
0 ,
I I I - +---
I 470pf I
-,
5
0805 Chip

i ~ , I
I -r r,
Pad -z0
signal ~
Generator
~'
-z5
r.;; "" P anasonlc
'---<-<f-
' -L
- -30
, 470 pF Leaded

§J 50
B~a'l
Cap
Spectrum
Analyze r
-35
40
I
, _ 0. 1" Lea
I
I
,
45
I
-5o L.- l_
I I
~
S tart 0 ,300 MH z St op 3 ,000,000 M Hz

Fig 2.86-Test set fo r home lab measurement of a bypass Fig 2.86 -Nelwork analyzer measu rement of 470-pF shunt
capac itor. capacitors . Both SMT and leaded parts are studied.

'"

aa

470 p F Bypass
Cap with L:::7 nH ,
Qu=2S

Fig 2.67-Test f ixture for measu rin g se lf

resonant freq uency of capacitors. su

Fig 2 .B9-lmpedance of a 470 -pF bypa s s capacitor.

fre que ncy . Th e C value was measured with ranee do minates, keeping the dat a all the Each ca paci tor was assumed to ha ve a
a low frequency I.e meter. Measu reme nt edge ofthc Smith Chart, for the Q is mod er- seri es inducta nce of 7 nH. A parallel reso -
gea r is di scu ssed in Chapter 7. ate at 28. Bypassi ng is "perfe ct" at o nly one nance is approximately fo rmed between
Th e meas ured 470 -pF capac itor is mod- frequ ency, that of series resonance. An idea l the L of the la rge r capaci to r and the C of
eled as 4R5 pF in series with an inductance (no induc tance ) ca pacitor wou ld have a the sm aller. T he Smith Ch ari plo t shows
of 7.7 nH. Th e L is larger than we would capac itive reactance of about 2 n at 150 us that the impe dance is nearly 50 n at 63
see with shorter le ads. A (US-i nch 470-pF MHz. The actual 150-MHI value is induc- Ml-lz. I mpedance wou ld be ev en higher
ce ramic d isk ca pacitor with zero lead tive with a magnitude of abou t 5 0. wit h greater ca pacitor Q. This b ehavio r
len gth will sh ow a typi ca l inducta nce T raditi onal lo re tells us that the band- is a dramatic examp le 01' lor e that is
closer to 3 nH. T he measured cap acitor Q v,..idth fo r by passing can be ex tended by generally wr ong!
wa s 28 at self- resonance of 82 MHz bu t is paralleling a capacitor that works well at Byp assing c an be improved by parallel-
higher at lo wer freque ncy . one frequenc y with another to accommo- ing. However, the capaci tor s should be
Data from a similar measurement, but date a di ffe rent part of the spectrum. app rox imately iden tical. Fig 2.91 shows
wit h a networ k ana lyz er is shown in Hen ce, paralle li ng the 470 p I-' with the result of paralleli ng two capacitors of
Fig 2.88 . T wo 470-pF capacitors are mea- a . (l1 -~F c a pacitor sho uld extend the abou t the same va lue. The y d iffe r slightly
sure d, one surface mo unted and the other bypassing to low er frequenc ies, The cal - at 390 and 560 pF, cre ating a hint of reso-
a leaded part with D.l -inch lea ds. c ulatio ns are sho wn in the plo ts of F ig nance , Th is appears as a small " burble" in
Fig 2.89 sho ws two calculated plots for 2.90. The resu lt s are terrible : Wh ile the the reactanc e plot and a tiny loop on the
the 47D-pF capacitor. The one on the left is lo w frequency bypassing is indeed Smith Ch an . The se ano mali es d isappear
a Smith Chart showing the behavior vs. fre- imp rov ed, a high i mpeda nce resp o nse is as the C values become equal. Generally ,
quency, while that on the right is a plot of creat ed at 63 MH z. Th is complic ated paralleli ng is the scheme that produces the
co mponent reactance vs. freq uency . Reac- behavior is aga in the re su lt of indu ctance. be st bypass ing. T he ide al solu tio n is to

Amp lifier Design Basics 2.29

place a chip c ap on ea ch side of a print ed
circ uit run or wire at a point that is 10 be
by passed.
Additional capacitors were measured. A
",----------,
,Ol- 11F disk (leaded, 50-V, O.2-inch diam-
eter ) was resonant at 20 MHz in the test fix-
mr e shown. indicating an ind uct ance of 6 .5
nH. The Q was 5.7. T wo different o. rur
leaded capa citors were investigated. Ha th
had iden tical capac itance even though one
was larger than the oth er. T he induc tance
was about 4.5 nH with Q=5 for both .
.Marched capacitor pairs form an effec- Panlnel Bypass
live bypass over a rea so nable frequen cy cececrtc rs, 470 pF and
.01 uF, each wit h 7 nH
range. Two of the .Ol -,"-F disks have a ser ies inducta nce
reactanc e mag nit ude le ss than 5 n from 2
to 265 MHz. A pair of the O .l -~F capac i-
tors was even be tte r, producing the xame
by pas sin g im pedance from 0 .2 10 318 Fi g 2.90-The c lassic tec hn iq ue of par alleling bypa ss capaci tors o f two values,
~1 H z. The 0 , l - flF ca paci tors are ch ip co m-
here 470 pF and .01 IJF. Thi s is a terrible byp as s! See text.
poncnts with at tac hed wire lea ds. Eve n
better results ca n be obtai ned wit h multi-
layer ce ramic chip capac itors. Co nstr uc-
tion with mu ltiple layers creates an
int egrated parall eling. We have measured
some 0,2 -!11--' pa rts with an i nd uctan ce of
+~
2 nH. The mu lti-layer component s are
more expensi ve tha n the mo nolit hic
O. l -!-1F parts inve stigated .
Some application s (e.g .. IF amp lifi ers ) 15"
require e ffect ive by passing at even lower •
frequ encie s. Modern tanta lum e lect ro lytic Tw o Parllllel Bypas s
cupacitors are sur prising ly effect i ve • • Capacitors of alm ost
['if] Equal Value (390 & 560
thro ug h the R F spe ctr um whi le offering • • pF), each wit h 7 nH Series
hig h en o ugh C 10 be usefu l at a udio . Induct ance
The parts sho uld be ev aluated for critical
app lic at io ns.
vee have discussed the pro ble m of su
bypass i ng, hut hav e neg lected the rela ted
pro ble m o f de coupfing. T he byp ass
ca paci tor usually ser ves a d ual ro le. first
crea ting the low imp edan ce needed to gen- Fig 2.91-Paralleling bypa ss c apac it o rs of nearly t he sa me va lue . T his re sults in
crate a "si gna l" gro und . 11 also becomes improved bypass ing w it hout co mp licat in g re sonan ces.
part of a deco upl ing lo w pass filte r that
passes de while atten uatin g signals. T he
atte nuation mu st function in both di rec-
tions, suppressi ng information in the
powe r su pply th at mig ht re ach an ampli-
fier whi le kee ping a mpli fier si gnals from
re ac hing the po we r su pp ly.
A low pass filter is form ed with alt er-
nating serie s and parallel component co n-
nection s. A parallel byp ass is followe d by
a series impedance. ide ally a res is tor.
Add itio nal sh unt e lem e nts ca n the n be
added . a lthough th is must he do ne with
c are. An ind uctor betw ee n shunt capac i-
~; ...
tors should ha ve high ind uctance. It will !,!. fR=30 or 500 I :
reson ate with the shunt cap acitors to cre - ,
ate high imp edances j ust like thos e tha t i'•
ca me from pa ras itic L in the by passes . Th is
makes i t desirabl e to have an indu ctance
that is hig h eno ugh that an y resonance is
be lo w the hand of int ere st. Bu t serie s Fig 2.92-Two different re sistor va lues par allel a de c ouplin g c hoke. The lower,
inductor s have the ir ow n prob le ms; they 30 -!} value is mo r e eff ec ti v e. See text.

2 .30 Ch apte r 2
hav e parasitic cap aci tance that create their (Am idon) -43 materia l hav e Q in thc 4 to allel reso na nce ca n be a disaster. Whe n the
o wn sel f-reso na nce. 10 region in the HF spec tru m. One can also ultimate bypassi ng is not pos sible, nega -
A co uple of ava ila ble RF cho kes were cre ate lo w Q circuits by pa ra llel ing a rive feedback that enhances w ideband sta-
measured (now as se ries cle me nts ) with series L of modes t Q with a resisto r. bility is often used.
the equ ipm ent described earlier. A 2.7-J1H Fig 2.92 show s a decouplin g network Ca pacitor s also appea r in cir c uits as
molded c hoke was parallel resonant a1200 and Ihe res ulting imped ance when viewed bl ocking clements. A bloc king capacitor,
M HI., indi cat ing a parallel capacitance of from the "b ypas s" end . The 15-J1 H RFC fo r example. appearv betwee n stages, cre-
0 .24 pF. The Q at 20 ~l H z was 52 . A reson ates with a O.l -j.lF capaci tor to ating a ncar she n circuit for signals while
15-J1 H mo lded choke was parallel resonant destroy the bypass effect ju ~t abo ve 0. 1 acco mmodati ng di fferent de voltage s on
al 47 MHz. yielding a parallel C of 0.79 ~ H L. A lo w valu e pa n~ l lcl resistor fixes the two s ides. A bloc king ca paci tor is nOI
pF. This part had a Q of ~ a l 8 MH l . the problem. as cri tic al as a bypass. for the impedance s
Large inductors ca n be fabric ate d fro m A maj or reaso n fo r careful wide ban d on either side will usually be highe r than
series co nnect io ns of sma lle r o nes. The bypassing and decouphng is the potential that of the block.
bes t wide band perfo rm ance will result fo r a mp lifier osc illat io n. Instab i lity tha t .Emitter b}'p assi ng is often a cri tica l
only when all ind uctors in II c hain have allo ws oscillatio ns is usually suppress ed application. As we ha ve see n, a few Ohms
about the sam e value. The reason s for th is by lo w impeda nce ter minatio ns. The base of e mitte r deg e nera tion ca n drastically
(and the ma thematics that describe the be- and coll ecto r (or gate and d rai n) sho uld alte r amplifie r perfor ma nce . A parallel
hevior) are ide ntical ..vit h thos e for paral- both "see" lo w imped a nces to ens ure sta - reson ant e mitter bypass co uld be a pro-
leli ng identical capa citors . bility . Bu t that must be tr ue a t all freq uen- fo und difficulty whil e a series resonan t
Low ind uctor Q is oft en useful, which cies where the de vice ca n produce gain . It one can be especially effe c tive. Clea rly ,
enco urage s us to usc inductors with ferrite is ne ver eno ugh to merely consider the op- det ail ed modeling is the answer to comp o-
co res . Ind uctors using the f air-Ri te e rating freq uenc y for the a mplif ier. A par- nenr se lect ion .

2 .9 POWER AMPLIFIER BASICS

Th e remainder of this chapter deal s wit h A Class B amplifier can di sp lay good cuu, ope rating in Class C and higher arc
powe r amplifie rs. a subj ect dea r to the enve lope linear ity . meaning Ihal the OUI- tuned at the ou tput. The tuni ng accom-
radio experime nter. The ea rfie st linker put a mp litude at the d rive freque ncy plishes t.....o things. First. it allows diffe rent
amo ng us cUI o ur tee th on attempts to cha nges linearly wirh the input s ignal. The term ina tio ns to ex ist for different frequ e n-
ex trac t more po we r fro m the already total abs e nce of cu rre nt flow for half of the cies. For example. a resistive load cou ld be
stre ssed a mpli fier dev ices of the day. We drive c ycle will create harmonics of the prese nted at rhe drive freque ncy while pre-
all reca ll stories of 6L6 receiving vac uum signal d rive . sent ing a sho rt circuit at so me or all
tu bes being coa xed into pro vid ing hig h A Class C amplifier is o ne that condu cts harm on ics. The second co nseq uen ce of
out put po wer by i mme rsio n in an oi l bath. for less than half of a c ycle. :-;0 c urrent tun ing is tha i reactiv e loads ca n be cre ated
The rest of us ha ve tried 10 e xtract power fl ow s without drive. Applica tion of a sma ll and present ed to the amp lifier co llector or
fro m transistors. on ly to see the devi ce dis- drive pro duces no out put and no current d rain . Th is the n pro vides indepe nde nt co n-
app ear "in smo ke.,. Experience of this sort flew. On ly after a threshol d is reached tro l of c urrent and voltage wav eforms.
is a "rig ht of passage" for all RF experi - does the device begi n to conduct a nd pro- While nut us commo n as A. E , and C,
me nte rs; do n' t miss it! vide outp ut. A bipolar transistor with no Class D a nd E amplifiers are of increasi ng
source of bias for the ba se typicall y oper- inte rest. The Cl,lSS 0 circuit is a halanced
Classes of Amplifie r arcs in Class C. (t wo tra nsistor ) switc hin g fo rmat where
The large-signal models discussed ear- the input is dr ive n hard e nough 10 pro d uce
Operation lie r are su itable for the ana l p is of all squa re wave collec tor waveforms. Class E
Many of the ampl ifiers considered so far a mplifi er classes. Small- signal models are ampli fiers usuall y use a sin gle de vice with
have been "Class A ." The class of o pera- ge nerall y reserved fo r Class A a mplifiers . output tun ing that allow s high c urre nt to
tio n of an amp lifier is determined by the The most co mmon pow er a mplifier flow in t he de vice o nly w hcn the impressed
f ract io n of a dri ve cy cle , o r d uty cyc le class is a cross betwee n Cla. s A and B. the m ilag e is lo w.
where co nduction occ urs. The Cte» A Class AB ampli fier tha t conducts for more Class A and AD ampli fie rs are capable
amplifier co nducts for lOOG- of the cycle. than half of each c ycle. A Cl ass AB ampli- of good envelope li nearity. so the}' are the
It is chara cteri zed by co nstan t supply cur- fier at low drive le vels is indis tinguishable mos t co mmo n formats used in the o utput
ren t. rega rdless of the stre ngth of the d riv- fro m a Class A design. However. increas- of SSB a mplifiers. Cla ss B and, pre domi-
ing sig nal. Most of the a mplifiers we use ing drive prod uce s greate r collector (o r na nlly, Class C amp lifi ers a re used for CW
for RF a pplicatio ns and many aud io cir- d rain) c urre nt a nd g rea ter output. and FM a pplicatio ns. but lac k t he en ve-
cuirs in receive rs operat e in Class A. Amplifie r class le tte r des ignator s were
A Clas s B a mp lifier co nd ucts for 50 '* au gmented with a nume ric subscr ipt. A
lope linearity needed for SS B. Recent wo rk
with a ~ lh meth od of SS B may cha nge that.
of the cycle . wh ich is ISO degrees if we vacuum tube Class AB I a mplifier was one allowi ng di storti ng a mplifi ers to be used
e xam ine the circuit wi th reg ard to a driv - opera ting in AB. but ....,ith no gri d c urre nt in SSB servtce.»
ing sinew ave. A Class B a mplifier d raws flowing. In the absence of grids , the num- Efficienc y varies cons iderably betwee n
no DC c urre nt when no input sig nal is ap- be rs have dis appeared, a mplifie r class, The Class A ampli fier can
plie d. But curre nt beg ins to flow with any While wide band widt h Class A and reach a coll ec tor effi cie nc y of 50%, but
input, gro wing with the input stren gth, C lass B amp lifiers are com mo n. most cir - no higher. with much lower valu es being

Am p lifie r Design Basics 2 .31

 +1 2V
+ 1 2V
22 .1 6 80 .1 Pout Vs Pin at 5, 10, 20, 30, 50 MHz
Keyed 30 ,.--- - - - - - - - -- ----,
• •T f----:L- 15u
f----:L
-= 25 -- -- - - - -- - --- - - - - - - -- -- - -~
- - - -~
- ~
RFC
E 20

.1
3K .1
.t1 ~ 15

o 10
"5

r51~
(L
2N3904 2N3 866 5 -,""u;."
01/-':.....- - - - - --------1
22 300 3.9 -5 +-~~~~~~-_-_-~
- -30 -25 -20 -15 -10 -5 o
- - - P3 at Input, dBm
T = 1 0 bifilar turns FT-37 -43
Fig 2.94-Gain compression characteristics fo r the simple
Fig 2.93-Class AS amplif ier cha in. power chain,

typical . Cl ass AB amp li fiers are capable of as a gen eral purpose ga in block for CW o utput of + 10 dfim per tone , the output
higher efficien cy, although the widehand trans mitters. Total current is abo ut 80 rnA intercept was +32 d Bm . Increasi ng drive
circuits pop ular in HF transceivers typi- with no RFdri ve. rea ch ing 200 rnA or more for +20 dBm per to ne outp ut (100 mW/
cully offer on ly 30% at full po wer. A C lass when driv e is increased with most of the tone ur 400 mW PEP) yielded a high er
C amp lifier is capab le of efficiencies ap- increase occurring in the second stage. Fig value of IP3o ut =+35 dbm. This i s
proac hing 100% as the conduction cycle 2.94 sho ws Pout VS. Pin at 5.10.20.30, and expected, for total current is now h igher at
becomes small. wit h common valu es of 50 50 MHz for this amplifier when operating 180 rnA.
to 75% . Bo th Class D and E are capable of with a 12- V su pply. Th e mea su reme nts The po wer supply for the input stage is
90% an d higher efficiency. were done with <I signal generator and a normally keyed when used for CW trans-
An engineering text treating power spectrum analyzer. Low frequency ga in is mission. T he bias fo r the output stage is
amplifier details is Kraus s. B ostia n, and high at 35 an. dropping to 28 dB at 50 Mllz. derived from the same supply resu lting in
Raaos Solid Stare Radio Engineering.w Low fr equency output power is over half a a typ ical backwave 70 d B below full out-
A lan dmark paper targ eted to the horne watt , with over <I quarte r of a watt available put. "B ack wav c" is the residual signal
experimenter was tha t presented hy a at 50 MHz. However, ga in is severely com - pre se nt fro m a CW transmittcr during key-
group from Ca l Tech in Qsr for May and press ed at thi s level. Higher output power up periods.
J une, 1997. 17 is ava ilable with imped ance matching. T his d esign, although lacking in cffi-
A heat sink is used on the output tran sis- cic ncy. is otherwise very useful and has
A T w o-Sta ge General tor, for dissipatio n becomes high with been used in over a dozen rransmiuers or
large drive. T he dissipatio n in the 2N3904 transceivers in our statio ns. It ea n be
Purpose C la ss A B is 350 m\V, safe for keyed (low duty cycle ) dri ven by a crystal os cillator on any HF
A m plifier C W appli cations. but marginal for SS B or band to form an c ffecti ve QRP tran smitte r.
The circuit of Fig 2.93 operates in Class d igita l mo de s. Preceding it with a feedba ck ampl iFierpm-
AB with an output o f half a wa tt in the HF T he third orde r inrcrmodulation distor- d uces a DSB or SSB chain sui table rOT
spectrum . This circ uit was originally built tion was me asured at 14 :\tI Hl. Wi th an QR P use . or as a dr iver for a five watt PA.

2.32 Chapter 2
2.10 PRACTICAL POWER AMPLIFIERS
Th is se ction pre se nts several desig n the dr iv e cycle whe n the base IS reverse saving the mor e e xpe ns ive out puttransis -
e xample s fa r rower amplifiers . A two wall biased. Decreas ing th is resis ta nce ca n tor fro m dam age . The typ ica l Zener diode
bipolar power amp lifi er was presented in imp ro ve stability at the pric e of ga in. will ha ve a re latively h igh capacitance .
Chapter I with the "B egin ne r-s Tr ansmi t- Rase ma tching occurs with T I, a si mple e ve n before breakdown , req uir ing that the
te r." Some simple power me ter c irc uits tran sm iss io n li ne trans forme r co nsis ting inp ut C in the low pa ss filter be reduced in
were also included. of a hifilar win ding o n a ferrite core . These value .
tran sf ormers arc discussed in the filt er The vi rtue of t his dio de is op en to
chapter. Other impedance transfor mat ion de bate . It is ofte n see n in amateur applica -
A CW·QRP Rig Amplifier circuits can also be used, includ ing tu ned tions, especiall y wi th tran sistor s nOI
A familia r RF pow er am plifier encoun- L. It, or Tee netwo rks . The stage that must intended fo r C las s C RF app lication s. It i s
tered by the experimenter is that used with dr ive this will pr o babl y be loade d wi th not so com mon in co mmer cial app licatio ns
a low power (Q R P ) tran s mitter, The popu- a higher impedance. pe rha ps 200 Q . using transis tors intended for RF. The pro -
lar desig n prov ides about 1.-'i -\V outpu t Ano ther hifilar tran sfo rmer could he used . tect io n fu nct io n is e asi ly studie d with a
fro m a 12-V su pply. The ]O;iU res istance or a single fe rrite transformer with a 4: I high -speed o scilloscop e.
the collector would "like to see" is then turn s ratio could make the transitio n from An RF chok e routes hias to the coll ec-
20U to 12.5 Q i n one step . tor. A n extra ind uctor is plac ed in se ries
It is important that the base drive he pro- wi th the supp ly. pro viding a series imped -
Eq. 2.42 vided hy a low imped ance source. A higher anc e fo r decoup ling. A resi stor the n paral-
source resi stance might sup ply the needed lels the deeoup ling choke. as di scussed in
base current. bu t then de ve lop high voltage an earl ier sec tion . An opti m um dccoupling
Eval uation y ie lds R L=4 8, so clove to during the negative part o f the dr ive cycle . RFC use s lar ge lo ssy fer rite beads.
50 .n that no imped ance matching network This co uld lead to em itte r base breakdown, A 7-MHl series tuned circ uit is formed
i" req uired at the output. Onl y a low pas s a phenomenon that cr eates tra nsmitted hy the 50 -pI'. I O-J.lH co mb inat io n. The
fi lter is required 10 attenuate the stro ng noise and a slow per formance degradation bac k-t o-hack diodes pro vide a sh ort cir-
harmo nics that arc o ften created by the in the o ut put tra nsi sto r. Em itter-ba se cui t for large RF signals, gene ra ting a con -
ci rcuit. The amp li fi er c irc ui t is shown breakdown is eas ily observed with a venie nt e lec tronic T/ R syste m. This
in Fig 2.95. The 7-MHz des ign illustrates wideband oscilloscope. A low d riv ing scheme, and similar T/R metho ds arc dis -
the des ign id ea s, which are freque ncy im pedance also hel ps stability. cussed in C hapter 6 ,
invariant. A small heat sin k is need ed for a TO -39 A low r ipple C he byshev low pass filt er
The amp lifier inp ut is to be dr iven fro m transistor such a s the 2N3866 or 2N3553. with a c utoff fr eq uency of ab out 7.5 I\1H/.
a soon source. Wh ile not required , it pro - A cl ip-o n heat-s ink will su ffic e. The tra n- is recommended . Details appear in Cha p-
mo tes convenie nt measurement. T he sistor c an even he sol de red into a hole in a ter 3. The capacitance at the trans istor end
b uil der ca n then te st and adjust the driver c ircu it hoard. If the latter met hod is used, of the filter should be reduced to accoun t
stages alone. wi th the earli er transmitter the ho le m ust be isolated f ro m c ircui t fo r Zener diode capacitance and the 50 pF
stages, and without the c omplicmiuns of grou nd with extra capacit ance absorbed related to the T/R . No component values
the o ut put amp lifie r. Th is amp lifi er will into the de sign. are shown for thiv example.
usuall y requ ire a dr ive po wer of 20 to 100 T he amplif ier in clude s extra compo- The idcal tra nsm iuer design will incl ud e
mw , de pending upon the tra nsisto r type nents tha t are not alw ay s need ed . O ne i s var iab le RF dr i vc. Be sid ev heing useful for
used in the am plifi er. The SOon drive is the fam ili ar Zener diode at the collector. com municatio ns. it is a very useful experi-
transformed downward tu "look like" a Th is shou ld hav e a brea kdown value of mental too l.
12.5-n sour ce at the base . T h is transfor- about S ti mes Vcc but less tha n the transis- Am pl ifier adj ustmen t con sist s of noth-
matio n provides the hig h base cu rren t tor breakdown. T he diode's purpose is to ing mure than var y ing the dr ive power
req uired for ef ficient operation. The 18-0. load the amplifie r if it lo se s an o utput ter - whi le watch ing the ou tp utto a 50 -U lo ad.
base resisto r ser ves as a widcba nd lo ad for mina tion . T he diode conducts on ly if the Amplifier oper at ion wit hout a lo ad shoul d
the inp ut dri ver , e ve n during the parl of collector voltage becomes too high, th us be avo ided . T he output power should
ch ange smoothl y with drive, wit h any
jumps suggest ing instahility.
Tt is intere sting to mon itor efficie ncy
while dr ive is var ied . D rive is adj usted.
outpu t power is mea su red, power supply
T O RX CC\
current is noted. input power is calcu lated .
RF C
l OuH ! and the resulting eff ici ency is calcula ted .
Efficiency is usu a lly lo w whe n the outp ut
I N41 52 x 2

r*
RFC is considera bly less than the design level.
I np ut , but increases wi th dri ve . It wil l often be
20 t o possible LOdri ve the amplifier to an out put
1 0 0 mill
gr eate r than 1.5 W. usua lly at the pric e of
eff ici e nc y If yo u are intere sted in higher
output. the ou tp ut net wo rk shou ld be
4 0 0mW
re-designed acc ordi ngly .
s ene r 1L is useful 10 examine am plifi er perfor-
mance with a variet y of lo ad s , This is e as-
Fig 2.95-TVpical output amp lifier in a ORP transm itter. il y do ne with a transrn utch . The d ummy

Amplif ier Design Basic s 2.33

 Waveforms of a Cl a ss-C Amplifie r

In an ettortto garner intuition about the voltages in Test points are available at the transisto r base and
Class-C amp lifiers, a low powe r experiment was per- co llecto r, allowing the voltages to be monitored with a
formed with the circuit of Fig A . A sig nal generator high spe ed osc illoscop e, a Tekt ronix 7704A in this case.
provid ed base drive to the 2N3904 amplifier. The collec- The first case examined was the reference for the
tor was bias ed at 5 V thro ugh a 4 .5 -~H high Q inductor. A experiment with results shown in Fig B. The low RF driv e
variable capa citor allowed the inductor to be tun ed to the bare ly excites the base, but turns the tra nsistor on at the
drive frequency, or be detune d for an inductive col lector peaks . The resulting current is a short spike, but still
termination. A Zener diode could be added to the circuit. produces a very clean collector waveform , just reachin g

.w

u
tl
m .lOO4 '" Appro>t Fig A-RF Drive is applied to the base
'" Fiq. Dr i v e c ZenH
of a BJT wh ile the un -te rmi nated
~ MIIz trOJll I
# e 1.6 roW 20 0 p F
"" co llector is biased th rough a tuned

I.. "1
~O Ollm
li<; .... rat
or

T"," ,t c
, au - 2 0 0 pF
""
circ u il. Th e da ta table relates resu lts to

-
operating condit ions.
10 pf M
au -
,..
1 "
e
'"
10 pF

rtc : 1Ut ~ 16 FT2 3-4 3

Fig B- Low d rive produces a c lean collector wa veform in Fig C-Increased dr ive pr o du ces severe c lipping in t he
the upper t rac e. T he lo we r t race shows the base v o ltag e. base v o ltage and an 18· V peak co llector signal .
In all cases, t he v ert ic al sens iti vi ty is shown for eac h trace,
and the O-V line is marked at the left of t he trace.

Fig 2.96-Sch ematic load is placed at t he rransmatch output, a nd

for a 10-W output the collector voltage is ob served wit h an
Class C a mp lifier. oscilloscope and lOX . IO-MO proh e. The
Th e in pu t auto-
t ran sfo rmer mig ht
output power will be 1.5 Vi when the
consis t of 3 turns trans match is properly adjusted. However,
t hr o ug h a binocu lar o utput pow er will drop co nsiderably as the
type ba lun trau srnatch is "tw eak ed." T he co lle ctor
transformer core. A voltage will undergo majo r changes
Thomson 2SC1969
during this adj ustme nt. wi th voltage s
would be a good
transistor c h o ic e, sometime s go ing well beyond the
bu t try ot her parts expected 24-V value ob serv ed when oper-
as we ll . See text. ating in the usual cl ass C mode with 11

2.34 Ch ap ter 2
 Fig D-O peration with an inducti ve load allows the Fig E- The Zener diode is attached, effectively protec ting
coll ector voltage to ri ng up to over 40 V on positi ve peaks. the transistor from excess volt age.

zero at the bottom of the os cillation . The positive Note the change in vertica l scale , The transistor is
collector peak easi ly reac hes twice the supply valu e. probab ly on the ve rge of dama ge at this po int. Note also
Just a hin t of base conduction can be seen at the peak that the base voltage has chang ed, hav ing been altered
of the base waveform. The conduc tion must be occur- by the stress ed collector.
ring only over a sma ll fracti on of the appli ed waveform , The amp lifier has no resistive load other than that
lor the ba se spen ds most of the cycle below 0.6 V. The represente d by the unlo aded resonator Q and provides
Zener diode is disconnected lor the first exper im ents. no output power. The collecto r could be loaded by
The RF drive is now incre ased to 30 mW , more than adding a resistor across the inductor, which would
we would normally use with this small transistor. The reduc e the co llector voltage . Even with loading, an
base voltage exceeds 1-V peak, which caus es the inducti ve component in the collector imp edan ce will
collector voltage to drop to ze ro. The base voltage allow high voltages to be gene rated.
' trtes" to stay on for more than half of the cycle, evi- The final experiment connects the Zene r diode,
dence of charge storage, a phenomenon intrins ic to the p roduc ing the wavefo rms shown in Fig E. The collecto r
BJT. But when the base does stop condu cting, the voltag e is now clipped at the 24-V breakdown of the
collector voltage "rings up" to 18 V, well beyond the 5-V Zener diode . The base cond uction duty cyc le is still
supply. These resul ts are in Fig C. Base vo ltage ringing high , a result of the high drive and charge sl orage . But
at hig her frequ ency is evident. the transis tor is now saved from damage.
The collector resonance of the last exam pie is These expe riments illustra te the eff ects of an induc -
eliminated by detuning the capacitor to a low value . The tive collector term ination, Zen er diode pro tec tion, and
collector now sees a predomin antly inductive im ped- var iab le drive. The experiments could be exten ded with
ance , resulting 'in the over 40-V peak sign al of Fig D , other devices, mor e agg ressive applied stress ,
an d loading that would allow DC col lecto r cur rent
to increase,

" proper" term inat ion. 11 is not unusual to ply is al ways useful, i f not vital. dur ing all angle s. The pad is, of course. rem ove d
see the ampli fier go into osc illa tions dur - exp eriments o r this .SOIl. after the test.
ing the severe mismatch that ha ppe ns with Con sider placing a pad between the
this rra nsmatch experime nt. T he oscilla- tran smitter and the transmatc h. lf we used.
tions shou ld not be des tructive at this for example. a I-dB pad , the wor st-case
A 10·W CW Amplifier
power leve l, so lo ng as the tra nsistor has a return loss wou ld be twi ce the attenuation . w hile the 1.5- \V amp lifier is idea l for
modest hea t sink and is protected against or 2 d B. The corresponding wors t-case the seasoned QRP opera lor. others may
excessive coll ector voltage . Tt is a good YS\\-'R is 8.7: 1 tscc Eq 4 ,ti.) If the ampli- want a bit more powe r. Outputs o r 10 to 20
idea to mo nitor t he hea l sin k temperat ure fier can now with stand all possi ble udj ust- W are interesting. A few db gai n can make
(by touch is good eno ugh ) during these ments of the transmatch. we say that the a big di fferencc in results while still spo rt-
ex periments , A current lim ited power sup - amp lifier c an withs tand an ~.7: I VS\VR at ing and prac tical for portab le o peration .

Amplif ier Design Bas ics 2.35

 There are numero us inex pensive bi polar
To FX ~
transisto rs that will pro vide this po wer in-
clud ing many not normall y used for.Rft .
L3
!
.12v1f\
O ne sho uld look fo r de vices specified for 25uH
a peak current that exceeds twice the an- lN4152 x2
tic ipated lev el (1.5 to 2 A fo r thi s case j.

~~ J-l .,
collector brea kdown vo ltages we ll above o.lII 33 ;1;
Out
t he expected le ve l (24 V here ), and an Ft at -, T1 lN982' L2

* r~
~
least 3 to 5 times the ex pec ted ope rating
freque ncy . Pow er d issi patio n shou ld equ al ""- at r i r. r. cb L1
or exceed the plan ned o utput. A suggested
10-W ampl ifier Is shown i n Fl~ 2.96.
The input reststance is ex pec ted to be
lo wer than for the I·W a mplifier. so ....-c
! ,.f :·l I .r.~ -1-130 6'1"1 "'-1'
- -
~~
D42C9
~
drive the circuit from a lower impedance Input:
source. This can be an auto-tra nsformer, 0 . 5 -0. 7 wat t
a., ..how n in Fig 2.96. or a 3: I o r ..f: 1 turns
7 " '"
ratio cla....ic transformer. Binoc ular type
Fig 2.97-Hlgh effiCien c y amplifier after W7EL. 1 1_3_lurn pnmary, t -tum
ferr ite bal un co res are excellent in this secoodary, 430 wire, o n Fair· Rite 2843002402 Balun core. Count one turn on a
applicanon, noting that each turn now co n- ba lun core as a pass t hroug h both holes. L1_0.71 1J.H= 13 t. o n T44-6; L2: 1.05 1J.H -
sists at o ne full pass throug h roth holes in 19 t o n T37·6, l3=15 mH mo lded RFC. Q Is a GE D42C9 plas tic powe r tra osi s to r.
the co re. O the r widcband transformer con-
fig urations are list ed in the transforme r
d iscussion in the Filter chapter. The input
ca n also be d rlven from a low Q t -C-CTee
.1r-l +12
IRFS 11 -=- RYe
netwo rk li ke that used in the ou tput.
des igne d for an im peda nce ofa few Ohm s. or
A 10-W o utput ca lls fo r a resis tance of IRF510 ~~ Fig 2.98-Simpte

?-O.li'
O~: ~ ~
7.2 U presented to the collector when

=:r- -
HEXFET linear
v cce 12. (Sec Eq 2A 2) This a mplifier uses 10 + am plifie r for ORP
IUnc:J c ircu itry in the fo rm an L-C-C typ e
Tee network. Th is partic ular topo logy is ~ 51 ~ rigs .

excel lent in that co mponent va lues are

usually practica l. network Q c an be kep t r - "-: lK + V (TX)

~ ~:v
low fo r lo w loss. a nd o nce des igned. the
networ k is easil y " twea ked" fo r slight ly
different impe dances. A good desi gn value
for Q is 2 to 3. Th e netwo rk be twr en the
dott ed lines in Fig 2.96 is used for imped-
ance tran sfor matio n while the f Iter aue nu-
ares harmo nics .
T he norm al Te e netw ork is modified + 12
slightly ; a fixed ca paci to r with a reactance o nly 2 1 MHz
mag nitude near the load resistance value l Ou Netwo rk s hown
is placed at the co llec tor. T his kills hig h +v keyed
frequency ga in. he lpin g to ensure VHF 2N2 2 22A
stahiliry . Silvcrnuca c apa citor s are a good
cho ice for ne two rk capacitors with ceram-
ics for hypass and bloc king clements. . 01
A suitable te st load is six pa ral le led
300 -0:. z-w resisto rs. T he dr ive is
increased slo wly while mo nitoring the RF
output and collector current. The out put
Tee netwo rk capacito rs are tuned for maxi-
mum output at each p1,wer le vel. An oscil-
loscopc is es pecially uvefu l du rin g such
experiment s. allow ing eacy observ ation of
oscillations, shoul d they occu r. More
often than nor. osci llations will occ ur at Fig 2.99-0ua l ba od Direc t Coupled HEXFET Amplifier after W7El . This c ircuit
low frequenc ies. so a wide bund 'scope is oper ates at 14 a od 21 MHz. L1 is 7 t ums 00 a 1 37-6 ao d is the ind uctor for an
nor mandatory. Thi... ampl ifie r will prob- l · Ne1wor1t at 21 MHL The 1 NS367 Zene r d Iode s protect ing the FET d rain add about 140
pF to the circu it and a re a vital part 01 the oetwor k. The band-switch adds more series
ably use no morc than 14-w of drive. so the inducta nce tor a 14-MHz l ·Netwo r1t_Both Imped a oce tran s form ing networ ks are
builder may wish 10 add a pad if the driv- followed by low pass filters . R1, 5 ItO. Is ad justed tor about2Q- mA quiescent current in
ing transminer dehvers mo re than this. the IRF511, while R2, 5 ill, s e ts the quies cen t cu rrent In the VN10 at 4(l rnA. The keyed
The amplifier is set up for Class-C driver power s upply is less tt1a n +12 a nd Is varied to esta blish output power.

2 .36 Chapter 2
opera tio n, al though it could bc mo dified Fig 2.98 shows an RF amplifier using interesting op portu nit ies for the e xperi -
for cl ass AB li near operation with Iiule an l RF5 l I or the IR F5 1O, p refe rred fo r menter. Although more expensiv e than
ot her change re quired . Linear biasing is higher breakdown. Ei ther part has a low HEXfETs . some 've ndors bui ld pa rts
dis cussed below. "on" resis tance of 0.6 n , im portant for es pecially for RF power applicatio ns. A
efficiency . This circuit i s set up for an search of the web can yield numero us da ta
output of abo ut 6 W from a 12-V supply. wi th suggested e xperim ents . See, fo r ex -
An Enha nced Effici ency
A 2: I turns ratio transformer generates a ample. an interest ing paper hy K4X U and
Amp l if ier 12-n drain lo ad. T his class AB circuit will the re lated Web site of Advanced Pow er
An interesting and subtle ampli Fier from function in either CW or linear SSB app li- Techno logy at ww w.adva nced po wer,
Roy Lewalle n, W7 E L, is presented in ca tions . T he bias shou ld be adj usted for a corn.':'
Fig 2.9 7. D ubbed the "B rickeue," it was quiescent current o f 100 rnA or more for
inte nded to follow a 1.5 -\V output, 7 M liL SSB whi le lo we r leve ls are suitable for
QRP transceiver. CW o The output tra nsform er is a hifila r
SSB Amplifiers
This amplifier used an un usual tra nsis- winding on a ferrite core and is suitable fo r The bipo lar and FET amplifiers pre-
to r, a GE D42C9 . The available d rive is any of the HF bands . We have used this sented can be adapted for linear operation
attenuated with a 3 -dB pad, which was circuit up through 14 MH z. The FET as shown in fi g 2.100. Bipo lar uansivtor
needed for stability. The or iginal \V7EL should res ide on a modest heat sink. base bias shou ld co me fro m a volt age
applica tion used a 6-d B pad. The ampli- Th e HEXFET amplifi er uses a IO-n sou rce . If the more typical current source is
fie r contai ns the usual Zener protection gat e resi stor 10 preserve HF stability . A used, the DC c urren t ca nno t eas ily
diode , but now with a 75-V breakdown. A fe rrite bead shou ld not be substituted for increase with RF dr ive as is needed for
pe ak co llector voltage of 65 was measured the resistor.u C lass AB o perat io n. A vol tage sou rce
with th is circuit, even with V cc= 12.0 V. An interesting dire ct -cou pled amplifie r bias uses a diode as a shun t "regulator,"
Th e circ uit transforming rhc 50-0 load to appears in F ig 2.YY. This circuit. another Fig 2- 100A. Th e diode is biased with a
a lower value at the col lector is a simpl e creatio n of \V7EL , uses a de co upled resistor fro m the sa me supp ly that powers
L-netwo rk. The resistance presented to the IR F51 1 to generate an output of 5 W at the amplifier. The silicon diode is in inti-
colle ctor is higher than expected, and is e ither 14 or 21 Ml-lz with a mea sured effi- mate thermal communications wi th the
inductive, allowing the high RF voltages. ciency of abou t 75'k. output tr ansistor. Some des igns us a stud-
The net resu lt is a collector efficiency of moun ted dio de hal ted to the PA transisto r
85% or greater with an o utput of 7 to 9 W. heat sink. Ot he rs attach the diode 10 the
What hegan as a Clas s C de sign probably
Higher Powers transistor wi th ep oxy.
no w operates in C lass E. The measure- HE XFET s offer an inex pen sive and The BJT amplifier is usuall y biased at
men ts have been repeated an d confirmed interesting route to higher power. We ha ve the quie scent le vel recommended hy the
wi th several versions o f the circui t, all built single band C\V am plifiers for output tra nsist or man ufac turer. A JO-W part
showi ng high eff icie nc y. powers fro m JO to 50 W on many of the might use an id ling collector curren t of 20
The adjus tmen t procedure was similar H F bands. The inexpensive IRF 530 to 30 m.A. A larger current shoul d flo w
to that pr esented for the IO-W des ign . HEX FET is all excellen t choice for the throug h Rcbias wit h the d iode serv ing as a
However, Roy kep t increasing drive while ba nd s up thro ugh 14 M Hz. A 30 -W 7 -MHz shu nt reg ulator. Increasing the res istor
adjusti ng the output net work for increased CW amp lifier is described later. current increases the standin g current in
power and effic ienc y. T he IRFP440 and IRfP450 hav e bee n th e amp lifie r, o ne o f the ha ndles available
The T/R ser ies-tuned circuit is attached used in high effici e nc y CW amp lifiers dis - to the expe rimente r fo r impro ve d l MD
to the collector. A lthough the netwo rk s cussed later. These parts s ho uld al so offer performance fro m the amp lifie r.
pre se nt an impedance less than 50 n to the
recei ver, the misma tc h is not a proble m at
7 MHz.

HEXFET Amplifiers
+ VCC ·'r-l~dd
RFC
Power FETs became popu lar in the late
1970s. While some manu factu rer s intro- .0 1 (A) ( B)
du ccd devices specified for RF, the mar-
ket was dominated by switching app lica - ~ 10
lion s. A major s upp lier is In ternatio nal RF C
Rectifier wi th a line o f dev ice s ca lled ~
+VCC 10 K n \f:::j-=:b- + V ( TX)
HEX FETs.
Th e HEX FETs are availahle as bot h N Jt n -b t as
t
+ J500 ~F
an d P channel enhancement mode parts 1K
wi th a gate thresho ld around 4 V. The
transco nductance of the typical re-channel
1'V
device is ver y high , often rival] ng that of a
bipolar power tra nsistor at comparable CUT-
re nts . While the in put gale is a very high
Fig 2.100-Biasing sche mes for linear amp lifier o perati on of (A) bipolar transistors
im pedance at DC, high capacitance at all and (B) power FETs. The base RFC used wit h the BJT can have sma ll reactance ,
three terminal s lim its hig h fr equency gain. fo r the in put impedance is low. The diode is bypassed wit h a SOO-JlF electrolytic
HEXFETs are often high voltage devices, capacitor. The base resistor may or may not be needed . a-bras in (A) shou ld have
allowing a wide variety of supply voltages . mode rate diss ipat io n, for the current may be high .

A mplifier Design Bas i cs 2.37

 Fig 2. 1OaR shows FET bia sin g for SSB. region. Second . transformer coupling tially in parallel for bia sing . For thi s rea -
T his is ge ner ally simpler than wi th a RlT. between device inputs will pre ve nt large son . and 10 help mai ntai n RF bal ance. RF
for bias current is low . Th e FET bia s is rever se voltages on bipo lar base -emi tter po we r bip o la r transistor s arc often sold in
ea sily co ntrolled with small tr ansis tors. junctions . One forw ard biased j unction matched pa irs . This has becom e so com-
easing TfR switching problems. As wi th serves to clamp the re ver se voltage on the mo n that the pr ice penalty is mi nimal.
bipolar transis tor am plifiers . the FET ci r- other dev ice . Finally. the balanced op era - The ease of FET hiasing incl udes push
cuits present a compromi se bet wee n effi - tion will reduce even or der harmonic a nd pull amp lifiers, which is illustrated in the
ciency and linearity. Amp lifier IMD can imermodulation d istortion . practical circ uit show n in .....·ig 2.101 T his
be red uced wi th higher standing currents. Negative feedback is o ften used with SSB linear amplifier, the wor k of AA3X
a lthough the heat sink requ irements grow. Class AB amp li fiers. usually in the for m (now K3BT). uses a pair of JRFS11s in a
Ampli fier biasing methods are dis - of a n ac coupled resistor between base and push pull circuit to devel op an ou tput of 30
cusse d in more detail in the text by Dy e collector, or gate and drain. Feedback sta - W PEP. Th e cir cuit uses a solid fer rite bloc k
and G ranberg. 20 Included are sc he me s tor bi lizes gain over freque ncy . T he nega tive for the out put transform er. Fig 2.102 shows
tempe ra ture co mpe nsatio n. feedbac k is ap plied individually to eac h a sketch for the out put transfor mer. T3 .
Push-pull operation is common with dev ice in a push-pull pair. Negative feed - Separate bias lines set up a qu iescent
bot h FET and bipolar li near amplifiers. back is sometimes extracted fro m a wind- current for e ach fET. A DVM measuri ng
T here are se ve ral advantages to thi s. F irst. ing in an output transformer or bias cle - tota l current during bia s adj ustment allows
two de vices are used inst e ad o f o ne . ment in a pus h pull pai r. the two current s to be set equa l to ea ch
spreading the thermal lo ad over a larger Push pull bipo lar transis tors arc e ssen - othe r. W h ile matched tra nsistors might be

To
IRF511 Lo w-Pass
0.1
Input Fil ter

• 10K T2 T3
B ia s~ ~ -=- A c
_ 0 .1 •
Bias2 0. 1 - ·1
uo f-::L- B D
1 0K
2 :3 -
1: 1: 1 0. 1 IRF511

0.1 I v -dd= 28
Fig 2.102-Tra nsfor me r d et ail f o r T3 of
the AA3 X amplifie r. The pr imary, A-B ,
shown here as a single t u rn, but
Fig 2.101 - An amplifier using a push-pull pair of IRF511s. Th is c ircuit, the creation actuall y uses two turns, two co m plete
of AA3 X, is capable of up to 30-W output with Vdd =28 V on the lo wer HF bands. passes through the co r e. The secondary
Reduced ou tput and gain are ava ilable at 14 and even 21 MHz. Input transformer 11 (also just shown as o ne turn) is 3 turns,
is 12trifilar tu rns #26 on a FT50- 43 ferr ite toroid. T2 is 12 bifilar turns of #22 on a three co mplete pass es th ro ug h the
stack of two FT37-50 toreros . This amplifier was originally in Q5T, Hints and Kinks, core. The w ind ings en d o n o pposite
for January, 1993 , page 50. 21 See r efe re nce and te xt for practical details. sides of the ferrite blo ck, a BN-43-7051 .

Fig 2.103-100·W BJT Amplif ier. This circuit, or iginally

described in Motorola Engineering BUlletin, EB63, 22 is capable
T1 of an output power of over 100 W from 3 to 30 MHz. Q1 and Q2
are matched MRF454s mo unted to a lar ge heat sink. L1 is a
p iece of #18 wi re loaded w it h 9 ferrite beads. Both trans -
formers have a 4:1 turns ratio with the winding, consisting of
ferrite loaded brass p ipe, allached to the transistors. The
o ne-t urn w ind ings are ce nter tapped . The 4-turn inp ut and
output wi nd ing s are plastic covered wire wo u nd through the
center of the tubes. Sim il ar tr ansformers co uld be built with
3f16-inch diameter brass tubin g (av ailab le at hobby stores)
+13.5V
load ed with FB-77 -63 Ferrite beads. 11 would use 4 while T2
wo u ld use 10 beads. A la rger bead and tubing size would be
better for T2. The transformers used in our amplifier were
su pplied w ith the kit from Communication Concepts, Inc . of
Beavercreek, Oh io . See QST advertisements fo r a current
address. CCI has several other kits for po wer ampli fie rs.

2.38 Chapter 2
 decir ahle . K3BT repo rts that he has had initially appl ied. the re lay was ac ti vated. thou g h inte nded fo r d iffering application ...
good result s with devi ces with severely Hut a mplifie r current start ed to grow Clas s-C amplifie rs arc des igned by pick-
mis matched thr e shold s . Equal c urren t" of before the o utput wa s properly rermin arcd. ing a load resistance using Eq 2.42 and
abo ut 20 rnA P<'r transistor are reco m- ca usi ng the ampl ifier to dr aw excewive design ing an output network to achie ve
mended. This amplifier has been used on curre nt . T he power supply was c urrent tha t load at the operating freq ue nc y. T he
the amateur bands from 3.5 to 21 M H/.. limited at 25 A. A ~ the s upply went into de vic e is then biased for ze ro current with-
althoug h the ava ilab le ••utput po wer is Ie~." limit ing, the voltage drop ped to 7 V before o ut driv e. With the u..ual thres hold . appli-
at Ihe higher end . starting to recover. The relay the n d ropped c alio n of a n inp ut si ne wave prod uces
The output tran s for me r (3 :2 rums ratio out and the cycle repeated. T he relay chat- Class-C o peratio n.
pre ve nts a load of 22 n between the two terc d fur abou t half a second be fore stabi- Linear am plifier de sign is similar. An
d rains. The resul ting load is low er than liz ing. The RF actuated c ircui tr y was out put net wo rk is desig ned for the pea k
mig ht be des ire d for high effici ency . ;1 eve ntually rep laced with an ele ctronic TJR e nvelope output. agai n with Eq 2.42 . ~10v­
co mmon tra deoff with l inc ar amplifi ers system with diode switching. i ng toward e ve n lo wer load res istance ma y
favoring lo wer divrortio n. Th e K3AT T2 , the output transfo rmer. has a sing le en hance line arity a t the price of efficiency.
amplifie r s hould be built wit h a large heat turn betwee n collec tors with a -t-rurn sec - The linea r a mpli fier is biased for cl ass A H
vink. especially if experiments arc pla nned o ndary. T he 4: I turn s ratio tran sforms the ope ration. This begins with class A bia...
with va ria bl e bias currents. 50· n loa d to ap pear as a 3. 1-0 load. bu t ucually allows de vice c urrent to
Carefu l low impeda nce termina tion of co llec tor-to-collector. T he load appl ied to inc rease wit h a ppl ied RI-" dri ve. Wh ile
the HEXFET inputs provides stability. The eac h co llector i ~ then 1.56 n. Rearra nge- efficiency at the peak envelope power is
power gain is st ill high enough to make the ment of Eq 2.42 shows tha t a n output of 58 poor, th e normal voice has an ave rage
p... rt-, very use ful. even with the redu ced W sho uld be availa ble fro m e ach de vice at power well belo w thc pea k. provid ing 11
gain rel ated 10 the low so urce impedance . V.x""13.5 V fo r a net o utput of 117 W. useful co mpromise.
The stabi lity pro blem is largel y the re sult In spite of the TIR prob le ms. [he ampli- An a mplifier d iscussed earl ier (the Fig
of intern al feedb ack wit hin the FETs. fier is a rec ommended cir cuit . T he 2.97 circ uit by \V7E L) featured imp roved
Wh ile e xtr em ely di ffic ult with bipo lar t\tRF454 is very robu st. and has provided effici ency. It is interes ting to examine the
n ansisto rv. it becom es possible with FET, us with classic po..... e r a mpli f ier expert- net wor ks that produ ced this res ult.
10 neutralize the c ircuits. c anc e ling the cncc. We recommend modified bypassing Fig 2.1114 show s a sc he matic and a
de ..rabilil ing effec ts of internal feedback. to use pa ralle l capacitors of equal value. Sm ith Chart imp edanc e plot for the o utput
These method s wer e co mmo n place with match ing ne two rk the Begtooers Trans-
vac uum tubes. but have la rgel y bee n A Look at some High mille r of Ch apter 1. Frequency swee ps
ignored wit h semico nductors. A neutral- from 3. 5 to 21 Mllz for this 7 · ~111.1.
ized push -pull I S-MH z l ine ar power
Efficiency Amplifiers deci gn. Th e im pedance at 7 MH z is nearly
amplifi er usi ng IRF-5 11;, is included i n All of the power a mplifiers presented real at abo ut 25 n. pro vid ing the needed
Chapter I I . are co nce ptually simp le. many using the load Io r Class-C ope ration . The impedance
A hig h po wer hipola r transistor amp li- same or similar sc he matic diagra ms, even is capacitive fo r all other freq ue ncies. T his
fieri vsho wn in Fig 2,103. T his circuit was
ori gin ally descri bed in a Motorola engi-
neering Imilleti n. EB6J Ire f 22). and was
offe red in kit fo rm h o m CCI ( ww w ,
l·o mmu nica ti on-eo lll·t'pts .co m) T he am-
plificr is cap able of over 100 \V uf outp ut
ove r the entire HI-" spec trum. A mat ched 76 0n
pa ir of .MRF454 , is used with a 13.) · V
power supp ly.
This circuit is a classic. s imila r to ma ny
of the outp ut arnphfierv in typical tran s-
ceiv e rs. Brass pipe transforme rs arc used .:
......
al both the input and t he ou tput . Some .... '

ne gari ve feed back is used . a lo ng: with

capacitive loading to improve gai n flat-
nevs. This ve rsio n of the a mplifier has bee n
.. ~o
tested ov er the 2 to 30~ 1\-lH z band and .. ~ o
fo und to o pera te av described in the app li-
catio ns note . alt ho ug h we d id not mea su re :: ' .
I.\\ D. T he circ uit has been used ex ton-
~l \ cl y on the 40-M ba nd. It performe d well
14MHz
as a SS E ampl i fie r. bei ng easily dri ve n
by a 1.5-W QRP SSB transce iver. It has
see n more service followi ng 11 l -W CW
transmitter.
I 10.5 M", I
T he origi nal version uf this amplifier
zo ~ ~ , o ooo
incl uded an RF ac tuated circ uit to co ntrol a
buin-In T /R re lay. The RF act uated scheme
was fo und 10 be comple tely unsuitable for Fig 2.104-Sm lth c ha rt pl ot of the Impeda nce " seen " by t he coll ec to r of the 2N5 321
e ithe r CW or SSH use . When RF driv e was 2-W " Beg in ner' s T r a n s m it1e r ~ fro m Ch ap ter 1.

A mplifier De s ig n B a sics 2.39

 S11

L------~"'::;:=I:;;;;"'"z~o:_ = :wJ . 0000

Fi g 2.106-50 ·0 Sm it h ch ar i display of
im pe dan ce tor a 400-W am plif ier
o perating 8t 13.5 MHz. See te xt .
Fig 2.10 S-$m it h Ch art p lo t fo r the Br ic ken e of W7 EL, s hown in Fig 2 .97 . The
im pedance is Inductiv e until rea c h ing the se cond ha rmonic . T here is a sl ig ht
change in t he p lot whe n additional C Is ad d ed at the co llector t o ac c o unt fo r the
Zener diode.

TrlU'lRlitt er JUlt e nna

100

5.2 uti

280 nH

' 0,

'"
18 2 0

• •
Fig 2.107-0iplexer. bandpas s-b and sto p ty pe . used fo r Fig 2.108-Top view 0 1 100 -W b ipol ar am p lifie r. T he b oard Is
h ar monic anen uatio n fr o m a 7·M Hz t ran s m itte r. T he re ader b o lt ed to a larg e hea t s ink th at Is als o the to p of t he m odule.
s hou ld co ns u rt the o rig inal QS T a rti c le 23 fo r details.

amplifier C1 MHl . :!.2-W output. l:!-\olt Clasv-C design. Z becomes capac itive only has paved the way for SS B with no n-linear
supply) "01' stab le and reproducible. but above the 2 nd har monic . Th is amp lifier has high efficiency amplifiers.>' The recent
had on ly 50<¥ ef ficiency. excellent e fficie ncy (R5 to 90q. ) at 7 to work of gteurec t inte rest to the expert-
The co ntrast ing ampl ifier was W 7E L ' ~ 9· W output (7 1>IHz. I ~ - V supply ) and has mentcr cvolve.. from the EE department at
"Brickeue" of Fig 2.97. The o utput net- been stable. California Institute of Technology .~~
work is also a It-netwo rk. and the resulting Class-f am pli fiers have beco me of Fig 2. 106 shows an exa mple of a high
imped ance plot is shown in Fig 1 .105 . T he increasin g interest in the past few years. efficie ncy C IOI SS- F. amplifi er. 26 The partia l
plot diffe rv from the simp le Cla sv-C ci r- Recent HEXFET offerings from Inte rna- schema tic shows IWo mod ifications to the
cuit , The impedance has a real part of about tio nal Rectifier provide very high power si mple pi-networ k used in the other IV.'Ocir-
17 n near th e desi gn frequen cy . but is capability at mod est pric e . Whi le the cuit s. rirsl, the normal inductor is repla ced
inductiv e for much of the ..wee p. R L is amp lif iers are now used on ly for dig ital by a sc rie-, Le. This pro vides the same
about twice that \', 'C wou ld use for II applicatio ns (including CW.) rece nt work inducti ve reactanc e at the U .S-MHz .

2 .40 Chapter 2
 of the 13.5- MHz drive freque ncy of this
exa mple. Th is ampl ifier provide s an out-
put of 400 W with a drain effici ency of
B6'k. Thi s circ uit, whic h uses a 120-V
supp ly, could he ad ap ted to the 20 -me ter
ama teu r band. T he load impedance is
13.S+j 19 Q at the 13.5- M H/ oper ating fre-
q uency . h ut is purely ca pac itiv e by the
Fig 2.109-A 1.5-W 7-MHz amplifier
us in g a 2N3866 .
time the 2 nd harmon ic is re ac hed. Eq 2.42
wou ld pred ict an 18-Q load for this output
and V dd ' Th is circ uit is very si milar to the
7-MHz design pre sented in QST for Ma y
1997. 27
Spect ral puri ty is an iss ue with these
amplifie rs. The re sonant trap at twice the
operat ing freq uency included in the
des igns hel ps. O ne wou ld nor mally inse rt
Fig 2.110-An RF po wer am p lifi er usin g add itional lo w pass filters to attenu ate har -
an IRF51Q HEXFET. The o utput network mon ics , However, thi s nor ma l low pass
is an Lee t ype Tee- ne tw o rk. Up t o 10 W fil ter has an input impeda nce that is real
was ob tained fr om thi s c ircu it.
and 50 n at the oper ati ng freque ncy. but is
a lmos t a short circuit at the har monics . An
Fig 2.111-A high efficiency 7-M Hz imp roved harmonic redu ction fi lter form
de vign freque ncy . hut greater inductive re- amplifier (circ ui t of Fig 2.97). is shown in r ig 2. 107. Th is circu it is called
ac ta nce at higher Irequenciex. Thi s pre- a diplc xer and has the charac teristic that
-ents the needed load to the fE T drain voltage across the device is close to zero. the input impe danc e is 50.n at all freq ue n-
needed to allow the volta ge to grow ("ri ng The ot her modification is at the load end cies. Other diplcx cr s are used elsewhere in
Up " ) to values much larger than the supply of the network. The usual parallel capaci- the hook.
and offer the pha se control need ed for effi- tor is replaced with a parallel-con nected F ig 2.108 throu gh Fig 2.111 sho w so me
c ie ncy. A Class.E amplifier is characte r- se ries tuned circuit (RR nH and 390 pFj . of the des ign imp lem enta tion s descrt bed
ized by high current flowin g only when the Th is c ircuit is resonant at the 2 nd harmonic in this secti on .

2.1 1 A 3 0 ·W, 7·M H Z POWER AMPLIFIER

Wh ile QI{ P c an he great fun, es peci a lly input C of the IRFS30. A 1O- Q, 1-W resis - tra ns-match with a peaked high pass ehar-
in a portable app lication. there an: times tor pro vides a wide ba nd termination. ac tenstic is used. T he co mbination em u-
whe n more pow,'er can make a larg e differ- T he drain ci rcuit is sup pl ied with a lates the diplex er descr ihed earlier.
ence in stati on effectiven ess. The amp li- +25-V sou rce throug h an RFC (L1 ) made A T/ R system is incl ud ed to su pply a
fier shown in Fig 2.112 is intended to boost with a large powdered iron toroi d. The signal to the receiver inpu t. As shown . thi s
the outpnt of a Q RP rig to the 30 to 40 -W exac t val ue is not cr itical. The RF resi s- system has a mea sured insertion loss of
le ve l wi th an in exp ens ive HE XFET. A tance that sho uld he prese nted to the drain abo ut 3 dB . the result of the low Q RF
moderate heal sink is used, allowing for a 30· W o utput is 10 Q . This is realive d cho ke at L7 and t he shu nting effect of C 1.
e xtended testi ng and oper ation. with T 2, a bifilar wo und ferr ite trans- T his Joss Of11 0 consequence at 7.\1Hz .
The amplifi er requ ires ahout I Vol of fo rme r. Th is part of the cir cuit is open to An adjustable hias is available for this
drive for full out put. If mo re drive is avail- consid erable experimen tatio n for those so amplifier. provided by a PNP switch cir-
able. it may be dissi pa ted in an input inclined. T2 is follow ed by a lo w pass fil - cuit keved
• with a sisnal
e from the dr ivinu e
atre nuaror . A 3.3-dB pad is shown in the ter fo r har monic atten uatio n. Inductor L5 transmitter. A ground ing sig nal is applied
fig ure. Th is is followed hy T 1. a hifilar is tuned for parallel resona nce at 7 MH7.. at 11 to turn on the PNP swi tch. FET bias
wo und ferr ite transfo rmer providing gate An attached res istor then provides a is adj uste d at R 1 (5 1 open ) for a few mil-
driv e fo r the f ET . T he low impedance term ination for the amp lifie r transistor at liampere s of drain c urrent with no RJ-' dri ve
d rive is needed to acco mmo da te the high fre quencies ot he r than 7 .\1Hz whe n a during key -down period s. T he switching

Amp lif ier Design Bas ic s 2.4 1

 gests stab ility proh lems. We saw no such
,." " ,.", To Rcvr problems wi th this amplifier.
Mon itoring drain voltage with a n osci l-
lo scope (60-MHz bandwidth ) reve a led
some dist urb ing cha racte ris tics. When C I
is ab sent . the d rain vo lt age c ontained
exten sive harmo nic current, evident from
the fin e structure aro und the po s it ive
peaks. While thes e harmon ic s are hloeked
from the o utside world hy the low pass fil -
ter, the y should be co ntrolled or reduced
at the FET where they can compromise ef-
fi cie ncy . The low pass fil ter was tempo-
rar ily remo ved from the system. allowing
the wide band ou tput load 10 appear a t poi nt
"B " in the ci rcuit. This immedia tely
cleansed the si gnal at the drai n. removing
the hig h frequency sp ikes. The lo w pass
b =-fi l ",::- t UEC.5 #22 '~ :l J:;~' - 43 -2 01 cc u.r. ":o rA
: l - ~,
filter appears as a large sh un t capaci tanc e
: :' - l ~
l " h lClr t" [l "! S ~2J 0 :1 FT -C - l l<:
11 - 22t 1'1 8 on 11 :6 - '0 at pla ne B in the figure . Th is load is
Ee r r L t.c r.cc o s , FB4:J- f' 1I1 reflected throug h T2 . allowing the trans-
;' 2 2, TSC c fo rme r le akage inductance 1O app ear at the
FET drai n. T his is the load tha t will allow
the high er freque ncy cu rre nts to flo w.
The idea l solution for this situation is a
"
1i.n
d iplcxcd lo w pass output filter. mentioned
above . Sabin st udied diple xer fi lters
an d pre se nted his work in QEX for
Fig 2.112-Sc hematic fo r t he 30-W, 7-MHz power amplif ier. See text f or details. J uly/A ugu st. l <,l l,ll,l n The amplifier used
with these fi lle rs v..as de scrib ed in the N cvt
De c 1 <,l<,l9 Ql;X :18 both papers are e xcel-
lent an d ar e incl uded on the hook CD.
We electe d not to use- a diple xer filte r in
this am plifie r. Rat her, C I is inclu ded at
the drai n. Wit h C I in pla ce, the drain vol t-
age go es up to abo ut fiO V. well within the
FET rat ings. Alth o ugh the re is sti ll distor-
tion in the drain wavefor m, harmo nic cur-
re rus are no t excessive.
Sev eral transfo rme r stru ctur es were
Fig 2.113 - The tried at 1'2. The most Inte re sting var iation
30-W amplif ier. replaced the wid eba nd tran sfor mer with a
narrow ba nd LeC type Tee-n etwork . also
s hown i n the f ig ure. T his c irc uit was
adjus ted for max imu m ou tp ut while sl owly
ad vancing dr ive power. Over 45 W of OLJ t-
put wa s avai lable wi th this ci rcui t. The
dra in waveform was very cl ean, reaching a
peak of 75 V. C l was still present at the
FET drai n duri ng this experime nt. The
T-uctwur k was design ed lO provide 10 Q to
the drain with a Q o f S. Experimen ts with
othe r net works will allow you 10mov e ov er
action re moves bias d uring rec ei ve, p re- than the inp ut drive . the ill -def ined border between class B or C
vent ing amplifier noise fro m oven,.. helm - Ini tial tu m-on begi ns by termi na ting the operation tow ard cl ass E. fET ~ wit h higher
ing the receive r. The standing current fo r amp lifier in a SO-Q load with at least 30 W vo ltage ratings shou ld be co nside red for
SSB operation can be adj usted to larger of dis sipatio n capability. A c urren t lim- these e xperime nts.
value s. up to 1 A. Monitor hea t sink re m- ited power su pply is attache d. RF dri ve This circuit has bee n used in seve ral
perature to be sure that it neve r becom e s we ll below the required level is app lied variat ions for years a nd on se vera l bands
too hot d uring tran smit periods . w hile the output is mo nitored with an os - up thro ugh 14 Mil l . Higher hands sho uld
Throwing switc h S l to the low power cilloscope or RF detector. Dri ve is slowly al so he possib le with e xper imen ta tion. We
posi tion allows the pow er output to he increased while examining the output have alw ays been im pre sse d with the
dropped to kwh from well be low a watt waveforms. Clean signals with smoothly ro bust character of the de vice s. Th e typi -
up to 5 V.i, controlled by a knob on R2. T his varying levels shou ld be see n with cal power suppl y used is a surplus open-
sche me work s wel l even with an out put le ss changes in dri ve. Any su dden change su g- frame linear regula te d ty pe with 4- A

2.42 Chapter 2
 cu rren t limiting. Typica l current is 2.5 A.
Th e usc of slig ht forward bias he lps to
guara ntee stability .
The present inter est in QRP operation is
ge nerally app lauded as both h ill and
wort hwh ile . Ho we ver . many fo lks mi ss
some exci ting ex peri men tal re ward s by an
o ve rl y stron g adhe rence to a synthetic
5 -\V li mit. This amp lifier is a chance to
exami ne the ot her sid e of th e pmver
sw itch . See Fig 2.113 and Fi g 2.11 4 for
two views of the 30 -W ampl ifier ,

Fi g 2 .114 - lnside t he 30·W amplifier.

REFER EN C ES
1. W. Hayward . In troduction TO Radi o 12. C. Trilsk. "Common Ba se Am plifier QEX, Ju l. 19 99. P 63.
Frequencv Design, Pre nt ice-Hall , 19 ~Q , Linearizatio n Us ing Augme nta tio n: ' RF 20. N. Dye and H. G ranbe rg . Rad io
and ARRL. 1994. Desig n. o«, 1999. pp 30 -34 . Frcqu rncv Tra ns istors: Principl es alii!
2. P. Horowitz and W. Hill, The Art of 13. C. Trask. "Distortion Imp ro veme nt of Practical Applications. Bu tte rwo rt h-
Ele ctron ics, Second Edition . Cambridge Lo vele ss Fe edback Am pli fiers Using Heinemann. 1993.
University Press . 1989 . Augm en tation : ' Proce edin gs of the 1999 2 1. J . Wyckoff. " H ints an d Kinks" , QST,
3. P. G ray and R. Me yer. Ana tvsis and lEEE Midwest Symp osium on Circuits Jan. 1993 , p 50 -51 .
Design of Analog Integra/a! C ircuits, an d Systems. L as Cru ce s. N1I. A ug , 1999, 22 . T . Bishop. " 140W ( PE P) Am ateur
Seco nd Ed itio n, Wi ley, 19 R4 . Vo12. pp 9 5 1-954 . Ra dio L inea r A mplifie r 2 -30 Mllz",
4 . ILEE Standard Dictionary of Electrica l 14. V. Kor en. ../\ Ne w Negati ve Feedback Communications Engine ering Bulletin ,
lind Electronics t erms . AK SII IEE E St d Am plifier," RF De-sign, Feb, 19 89, pp 54- EB63. Motorola Semicond uctor Produc ts,
IOOll n 4, P ubli shed by IEE E and (iO. Inc, Phoe nix. AZ. J ul. 1978 .
Diw ibuted by Jo hn Wi ley. 19 84. 15 . R. Campbe ll, "A No vel H igh 23 . See Reference 17.
5. See Refere nce I. Freq uenc y Singl e-Sideband Transmitter 24. R. Cam pbe ll. '"A No ve l Hig h
Using C onst a nt-Envelope Modulation" . Freq ue nc y Single-sideband Trans mitter
6. See Re ference 1. /99 8 l EEE iUTT-S tnternanonal Using Const ant -E nvelope Mod ulation,"
7. The ARRL Handb oo k for Rad io Micr owave Sym pO.I'illm Digest, 98 .2. 1998 AfTT-S inte rnational Microwave
A.marel/n . A RR L. 1995. pp 17.5 -8, 17. 10. (1998 Vol lIlM WS YM j) pp 112 1- 1124. Symposium, Digest 98 ,2. (1 99 8 Vo L n,
17.22 -25 . 16. H. Krauss, C. Bosti a n, and F. Raab, IMWSY \-1]): pp 112 1-1 124.
8. D. Norto n. "H ig h Dynamic R ange Solid St ate Radio Eng inee rin g. Wil ey, 25 . See Reference 17.
Tra nsisto r Ampli fiers Using Losstcs s 19RO. 26. Ll-. Davi s and D.1:3 . R utledge, '"A Low-
Feed bac k: ' Microwave Journul , Ma y, 17. E. Lim , K . Chiu, J. Qi n, J. Davis. K. Co st Class-E Powe r Amplifi er wit h Sine
1976. pp 53-5 7. Potte r, and D. Rutledge. " H igh Efficiency Wave Drive," JlJ98 MTT-S In ter-na tional
9. U. Rohde . "Eight Ways to Better Rad io Cl as s-E Power Amplifiers" QS T, Ma y, Mir.Tmm \·e Svmpovium ; Dige st 9R.2.
Rece iver De sig n" , Electronics: Fe b 20. 199 7, p p 39 -42 and J un, 199 7. pp 39-42. (1998 Vol. 11, IM WS Y.\1J): pp 1113 - 1116.
1975. P 87. 18. Tec hn ical Correspondence . QST. 27. W. Sahin , "Diple xe r F ilte rs for an H F
10. See Refe renc e 1. p 216 . :siov. 19 89. P 61. MOSFET Power Amplifier," QEX , J ull
11. W. Carve r. " A H igh -Performance 19. R . Frey, ";\ 300- W MOSFET Linear Aug , 1999 , pp 20 -26.
AC Cl l F Subsystem". QST, Ma y, 1996 . pp Amplifier for SO MHz ." QF.X. Ma y, 1999. 28. W. Sahi n. "A lOO-W MOSF ET HF
39 -44 . rr SO-54 an d "Letters to the Editor," Amplifier" , QEX. NovlDec. 1999, pp 31-40.

Amplif ier Design Basics 2.43

 CHAPTER

Filters and Impedance

Matching Circuits
Filters constitute one of the major perfo rm ance and equi pment cost. RC active and c rystal fillers . Filte rs can
bloc ks in a communicat ions sys tem and There are seve ral way!' of segmenti ng also he class ified by the way they dea l wit h
are espe cia lly im portant ( 0 the radio filter s into groups. The usual scheme seg - irnp ulse v of energy. The filte rs presented
experi menter. The performance offered me nts filt ers accordi ng to freque ncy in this ch apte r arc generally "i nf inite
by a fill e r may well de fine the perfor- respo nse, suc h as lo w pa ss \IS high pass . impulse respon se" filters , or IIR . Finite
mance and/or cost of a project. The Ot hers methods segment by the kind of impu lse respo nse filler> (FIR) are de tailed
experimenter who can design and build compo ne nts used . In that reg ard. th is cha p- in a la ter cha pter e mphasizing digital ~i g ­
his or her o wn fil le rs has co ntrol ove r Ihal ter deals first with LC filters. and later .... ith na l proc essing l DSP).

3.1 FILTER BASICS

A fille r is, in the most genera l sense. a
circ uit block thaI linearly modif ies the
o-
~A I
nature of the signals app lied to it. When Insertion Loss at Pea ~
we say linear, we mean that the ou tput is
a repl ica of the input, changed in amp li-
tude and/or pha se . Howe ver. no add itional
frequencie s appear.
The term domain refers to our emphasis
-1 -

11
./ "
whe n describ ing and measuri ng a phe -
no me non . Whe n a filter is exam ine d in the
freque nc y dom ain. we characterize (he fil-
-2 - r
III
I Rlpple ]
I 3dB I
ter by the way it be haves with different 'C
freq ue ncies. We may then change foc us e
and exa mine the time do main respo nse. -3 - ;;; Cwo" Frequen cy I
Fo r e xa mple. we may inv estiga te the lime e
delay imposed upo n a signal as it passes
throu gh a filter. Th e DSP filter designer
h
has the ability 10 simulta neo usly examine
Bandwidth
and o ften co ntrol bot h the time and fre -
q uenc y do main respo nses, V
The response of a filter i ~ measured by
exam ining the tran sfer properue.. of the -5
Frequency •
circ uit. The voltage trans fer function is the
outp ut voltage (us ually across a ter mina-
Pass b an d ) Stopband
tion) divi ded by the input voltage that
caused the output. This is j ust the fa miliar
vo ltage ga in that ..... e used with amplifie rs. Fig 3.1-low pass liIter charac terist ics showing t he pass band and stopband.
In the case of a filter. that "gai n" is usua lly bandwidth , 3-dB cut off , passband ripple, and inserti on loss. This fil ter has
appro ximately 0.5 dB Il at th e frequenc y 01 peak response while passband ripple
a loss, a nu mber less than one, with a cor- is also 0.5 dB . The vert ical exls is the gain through t he filter , output power Vs
resp onding negative dB value . availa ble input power whon the ti ller Is properl y terminated. (Formally. t he usual
Simple filters are built fro m mathemati- gain used is th e f orward scatte ring parameter , 521.) Horizont al axis is frequ ency .

Filters and Impedance Mat ching Circuits 3 .1

 nonal variu uon v in ga in with in the pass-
band occ ur with some fi lte rs: these vari a-
uon-, are termed passband ripple .
.• f-- , A high -p a~s filter is similar 10 rhe 10....·

pa~ ~
pa" evcept that the regions are inter-
• c hanged: the passband. the regio n co ntain -
,
c
ing dcvircd ~i l= n a1s. is no w abov e the
j
Low
ass \ ~ / High Pass
stopband
A ban dpavs filte r is one that passes a
given reg ion . often narrow. whi le reject-
ing mo st freq uencies. The bandw id th of a
ba nd pass filt er is the d ifferenc e betwee n
Bandpass Ban d-Reject
•
"•
r-r-c .r--, ,---- two points J d B be low a peak . A band-
rej ec t fille r is the o ppos ite. ,I fi lte r rhar
,e
j
•1,• pass es most of the spec trum while rej ect-
ing a spec ified regio n, Finally . an all-pa ss
filte r is on e th at passes all fre que ncies
appli ed 10 its input. T he all -pass fil ter is
usef ul becaus e it can utter the phas e ofsi g-
F... q u~n C f
nals pass ing through it without altering
signa l ampl itud e. T he variou s types (e x-
ce pt for the a ll-pas s ) arc su mmarized with
Fig 3.2- The fr equency responses of various filter forms. re gard to fr equency resp o nse in Fig 3.2.
Passive filte rs conserve e nerg y: power
flowi ng into the input must go somewh ere .
If input ene rgy' is at a freque ncy within tile
cally i J~Ol I induc tors and capncitorc , Such fi lters is transduce r guin. filter pass band. thai energy e merges at the
a filte r. one without resistors. is called A low-pass filter is one that tran sfe rs a ll filte r out put where it can be used. ( A frac-
iossless. All of the po we r applied 10 a inp ut freq uencies below a specified c utoff lion of the energy is lost in any rea l. passive
lo~~'e~~ tille r is avail able at the output . frt'4ut'nc~'. T he spectrum below the cu toff fil ter. being dissipated in the losses of the
Re al flhcrs cuntaining revicuve etemenu . is call ed th e passband while the re gion of induc tors and capa cirorv that form the cir-
desired or otherwise. will suffer from some higher anen uanon above the cu to f f is cuit.j In contrast, ene rgy in the fi lter stop-
[1"' . Lo vv in d B is a pos itive numbe r. and called th e s topband . A filter divvi pates band is reflected. Thai is. an imped ance
1m, as a power ratio is greater than I. so me of the availa b le power ap pli ed. mismatch is crea ted by the fi lter ele me nts
T he trudirional filt ers we use are clasvi- called inse rtio n loss. T he fille r of Fig 3-1 such that power is not efficiently del ivered
fied with re gard to freq uency do mai n re- has an insertio n loss (lL ) of abo ut ha lf a from the sou rce, through the filler and to
spon ..e. illustrated wit h a low pass fi tter in d B ,II the highes t freq uency peak . I L is the outpu t. ",10s1 LC filte rs display this
Fi g 3. 1. Th is figure is a plot of fille r guin abou t 0.1 dB 31 very lo w freque ncy. The prop erty. allowing us to use input imped-
vs frequency . We encountered severa l d if- cutoff fre quency is usua lly de fined as that ance match as another way to examine filte r
fere nt kind, ( I f po wer gain in Chapter 2. frequ e ncy where the response is :< d B It's, performance, The primary performance in-
T he one usually used wit h rad io Fre q uency than the pe ak passband resp on se. A ddi- dicator rema ins the transfe r function.

3 .2 THE LOW·PASS FILTER-DESIGN AND EXTENSION

A lo w pass is a fi lter that passes freq uen- la il can be fo und in tmroductionm Radio duc tors wit h o ne sh unt capacitor. With
cies be lo w a specified cutoff freq uency Frequency Design I o r nume rous oth e r prope r design. this fi lter w ill have exactly
while attenuatin g thoc e above. It is a vital te xts. the sa me tra nsfer function as that o f
compo nent uf almost any co mmu nication s :\. simple three-c le ment lo w-pass filter Fig 3.3A . Th is is a common detail of fil -
sys tem, T he low pass is also the baciv for i;; g iven in t"ig 3.3. Thi s circu it consists of ters ; the y often have du al form s.
o ther filte r forms . Once we han: a lo w- a seri es, indu ctor and a pair of shunt ca- we ca n tel l by inspectio n that both fi l-
pass fil ler dcsi~nt'd. cataloged. and under- pac itors. T he finer is drive n with a gen era- ters of Fig 3.3 arc low -pass circu its. The
stood. Ihe properties and the component lo r .... uh a source res istance Rs. and is ter- series inductor is a sho n ci rc uit at de and
values can be extended 10 genera te an y of mtnared in a load of RL. The so urce and has reactive imp edanc e tha t grow s wit h
the other bas ic fil ter type s. O ne extension load are a vital pan of the ci rcuit: the tran s- freq uency. Hence. it will inhib it the flow
c hange'> th e low pass into a high-pass c ir- fe r function de pe nds upo n having bot h of energy throu gh t he circuit more as Ire-
c uit. Anoth e r mod if icat ion cha nges th e end, of the filt er properly ter minate d. A quency incre ases . T he same arg ume nt c an
lo w pass 10 a bandpa ss. A band-reject fil- fi ller that is term inated in resis tive loads at be made about the c apacito rs. T he)' be have
ter is a direc t res ult oft ransfor ming a hig h- each en d. in pu t a nd o utpu t. is c a lled a as a n ope n circ uit at de. Howe ve r, as fre-
pass c ircu it. itself de ri ved fro m a tow-pass do ubly -ter minated fill er..Most of the LC q ue ncy inc reases. t hey show lowe r a nd
prot ot ype. Th e prac tical a pplication de - filters that are i nte resting 10us will he dou- lo wer impedan ce, more effectively sh unt -
rails of these met hods will be presented. bly terminated. ing the energy fl owing in the circuit.
a lthough man y mat hem atic al details will Figure 3.3 B show s ano ther three-ole- A low -puss fi lter will have a number of
he ig nor ed in this tre atment. Ana lytic de- me nt filter. This o ne uses IWO series in- cleme nts eq u;Jling the order, The filt ers of

3 .2 Ch apter 3
 ., kind of erro r. T his fil ter type allow s ripples
of equ al ampfitude to occur wit h in the

r
pa..sban d. Three trans fer func tions fo r

I A
I
LPF~
I ' \ ';\
', ~
Che byshe v lo w-p as . . filters are sho wn in
F il: 3.f.. The three circu its arc aIl 5·po le. or

., I',
Sth-order low-pa.... filters. now using 11 I
MHz ripple cu lnff freq uency . The circuits
have pavsband ri pples of J. 2 an d
., I I 3 dB. b e n thou gh the three filler, !>hoy,
B
I 0.4 0 ,6
Frequency (MHz)
0.8
large ripples. they all show 0 dB loss at
po ints thro ugh the passband , The freque n-
cies arc not a func tio n o f ripple va lue .
T hese filters we re designed for ripple cut -
Fig 3.5-B utterworth fill er tran sler off freque ncy. Th ai iv. a filler with l·dB
Fig 3.3-Thr ee el ement , or Jed-order fun ction s showing the passb an d
low-pass utters. det ail s. passband ripple will ha ve the lasl point of
· 1 dB respon se at the ripple cu toff fre-
q uency . Che bys hev filters ca n he desi gned
fo r eit her a des ired 3 ~ d B cutoff. or a ripple
0
- 10 -
- 20
'" ,
"., ~3
..." "
'
I _-j l'-,J.J\
c uto ff. Odd ordered Chebys he v fi lte rs
ha ve zero at te nua tio n at ze ro frequenc y
while e ven o rde red versions will have a de

tr
":;:"""" , I ~
""
- 30 "

·'··i'~ -2
,! hi/i ' att enu ation equ al 10 the ripple. Stopband
atte nuatio n is a stro ng func tio n of pass-
-<Q ~"'" .
-50
" ,
< ,
-, i
.... 1 \1f
\,. :1
ba nd ripple. Th e more ripple allo wed
wit hin the passba nd. the gre ate r the
- 60 LP~~ sto pba nd is atte nua ted.
- 70 I There are nu merous other polynomial
0 t 2 3 04 0.6 0.8 1 types tha t fo rm useful and inte resti ng
f requency (MHz) Freq u&nCy (MHz) low-pass filte rs. Som e are of direc t inter-
est Inr tow-pass filters while oth ers are of
Fig J.4-Tra ns te r function fo r low-pa ss greater uulity a s the begi nnings of other
filt ers with or der 3, 5 and 7. Add ing Fig 3.6-Ch ebyshev 5th -order low-pass
secti ons w ill i nc rease stopb and filter transfer funct ions sh o wi ng fil rcr types. Fo r examp le. the Bessel fill er.
att enuati on. passband ripple s of 1, 2, and 3 dB . also kno w as the mal Flat delay filte r, is
These e xtreme r ip ple val ues are rarel y often used as a starting poi nt for ba nd pass
used, but illustr ate the conc epts. Note filters wi th minimum rin ging. Th is will be
th at t here is a ha tt cyc le of rip ple fo r
discussed later with LC and qu artz crys tal
each f il ter elem en t.
Fig 3.3 are 3ed-order filte rs. A low pa vs ha nd pacs filter desig n.
.... ilh ,; elements is a Sth-o rder circuit and
of fers greate r atte nuatio n in the stopb and. Lo w ·Pa ss Filter De sign
The compone nt type must alternate as we
prog ress down the low-pass filte r. going The des ign of practical lo w-pass Fitte rs
from ser ies inductor to shunt capacitor and described as a B utt er worth polyno mial. beg ins with ta ble s of normalized valu es.
so forth. If there were. for example. two Ano ther popular sha pe is the Che byshe v. These co mpo nent values, g(Il ). are eithe r
series inductors next to each other. they There are man y more . The ideal is a bri ck ca pacitor or ind ucto r values for the lI·th
would beh ave as one singf e inductor. (The wall lo w pas filter, an unattain able goal part in a lo w-pass filte r with a I n termi-
re rm "or de r" co mes from the mathematic s. wit h an ab solutely flat res po nse thro ugh- natio n and a c utoff freq ue ncy of 1/( 2n ) Hz.
A 5th-o rder low-pass filler has a transfer o ut irs passband. and infinite attc nuanon Whi le this is rarely a filt e r tha t any one
function whe re the denomi nator is a Stb- in the sto pba nd. The res po nses of Fig 3.4 wo uld wish to build directl y. ir i~ a conve-
o rde r po lynomia l. mea ning that the frc- w ggesl that achieving the ideal is go ing 10 nient form for scalin g to practical filters.
que ncy appea rs raised 10 the 5th power.j be diffi cult. Want ing to do as well as we II' s also a mathe matical sim plification .
Fig 3.4 shows response plot s for three ca n with minimum diffic ulty, we acce pt Table 3, 1 sho ws some gln ) valu es for a
different lo w-p ass filters. These circuits some compromise. By pick ing differe nt fe w representa tive low-pass filt ers. Th e
all have a 3-d B eu toff freque nc y of I ~tH z . compro mis es, we will e nd up with differ- Butterworth part of the table gi ve, da ta in
bUI differ in the numb e r of co mponents. em filler shapes. terms of a 3 d B cutoff freq uency. while the
These filt ers have o rde r 3, 5 a nd 7. Odd - The Buu erw r mh fil le r is on e that is Cheb yshe v fil ter data arc ca lcu lated o n the
order pi fillers are popu lar , offering ma xi- des igned to be ma ximall y nat withi n the ba ~ i ,> (If a ripple c utoff.

mum pe rfo rma nce vs the number nf in- pass band. (The slope of she transfe r func- A prac tic al low-pas s fill er is easily
ductors used. tio n is to be zero at zero freq uency.I This designed with data fro m Table 3.1.
is ill ustrat ed in grea te r de tail with Fig 3.5_ Design begins by picking a cu toff Ire-
a rep eat of Fig 3..t ,>ho wing o nly passband qu enc y in Hz and a res istive terminatio n.
Filter Shapes details. All of the f ille rs are flat al zero in n. for each end of the fil ler. The filters
All three of the filter s ana lyzed in f ig freque ncy . Altho ugh the curv es are that arc designed from the table are do ubly
3.4 used a Butte rworth design. This refe rs smooth througho ut the passband. attenu a- terminated in eq ua l values. Having pic ked
to the mat hematical detail s that describe tio n grows as we approac h cutoff. the c ritica l parameters . a low -pass filt er
the filter: this o ne has a tram fer function The Che byshe v filter allows a different has indu ctor and capacitor values given by

Filters and Imped ance Matc hing Circu it s 3.3

 c an pick a nu mber and po sit ion of turn s as fre q uen cies. Thc re qu ir ed passband is
Ell 3.1 need e d to reali ze a re q uir ed val ue . Bu t often no more than 10 o r :l0% in width . It
c apaci tors ten d to come only in stand ard is not nt'ces sa ry to do a good job at very
values . T he non-s tan da rd values ca n be low frequ e nc ies . C hebysh ev o r B utler-
synthes ized with parallel co mbi nat ions of wo rth fi lter s may not bc the be st choices.
Eq 3.2 capacitors. ah hough this often lead s to A n interes ting. and often practi cal filter
bulkier an d more expensive circ uitry tha n typ e i s the alm os t unknown uhra -sphcri -
des ire d. an d par all e l capaci tor s le ad to cal low -p ass filter.":' An ultra-sphe rica l
where g (n ) is the n-th nor mal ized val ue add it ion a l re son ance s. An alte rnative filtcr is li ke the Cheby shev to the exte nt
fro m the ta ble, Ro is the terminati ng res is- ro ute is: that it has passband ripp le s. Howe ver . the
tance in Q . f is f requ e nc y in H z, L (IJ) i s the
n-th inductor in Henries, and Crn) is the • De sig n an init ial lo w-pass filter.
n-th capacitor in Fara ds . • A naly ze the filt er to confir m th ai the
The first part can be an L or C. If the fi rst d es ire d respon se is rea liz ed . Co mpu ter Half-Wave Filt er
part is an inductor. the seco nd one will be pro gr am s su ch as GPLA or ARR I. Radio
Th e popular ha lf-w ave filter is a
a capac itor. the thir d ano ther ind uct or, and D e.l'ign n~ work well. Other analysis pro -
ver y to lerant low -pass filter form.
so forth . Bot h for ms generate the same re- gram s ar e often fou nd on thc Web. L an d C have a react anc e equa l
sultin g transfe r fu nc tion . • Su bstitut e available capaci to rs for those to the l erminat ing resistance. The
C on sider an exa mple. a 4-th or der ca lculated in the des ig n phase and analyze mid dle capacito r is tw ice that at
Butter worth lo w-pass filter. T he no rmal - thc res ults the ends. This filter , a low pass, is
iz ed values from the table ar e • Adjust inductor values to "fix" variat ions designed at l he operating fre -
g( 1)=0.7654, g( 2) = 1.85, g (3)= 1.85 , and that mi gh t have oc cu rre d a s a resu lt of qu ency rat t ie r tha n a cutof f. T his
g (4 )=O.7654 , Le t' s de sig n this fi lter for a usin g pract ica l cap acitors , filte r will have a 3·dB cuto ff that is
3 -dB cutoff of 10 MHl with a termi na tion about 40% above th e design
o f 50 n at ea ch end. The filter will beg in Mos t low -pass fi lters. e specially the frequ ency a nd only offe rs abo ut
with an inductor. Hence, vinrple Hunerworth and Cheby sh ev 25 -dB att en uation at the se con d
devigns, are insensi tive to small com po- harm on ic , A 7-MHz half-wav e
neut val ue c ha n ges . Sl ight adj us tments filter will use L=1 ,1 JlH and

L(1) = _"Il.,',6,,",,'.;, ,Il~6 = " toward practical value s will often hav e so C=450 pF when des igne d for
0.609 . 10 R=50 n. T his filte r will hav e a
2 ' 11".10. 10 little impact tha t there will he no need fo r
phase sh ift of 180 degr ees at the
ad dit ional adju stments. If a refi ned pro-
ope rating freq uen cy ; hence, the
gram is used for desig n, it is easy to vary
c ircuit name .
th e filter order and rip ple to obtain a
de sir ed re spon se , es pecially in a low -pass
fil ter. R s = R L oad
The radi o ex peri menter will often use a
low -pass fil ter at a tran smitte r ou tput, for XL = Xc = R s
a 10\\ ' pass will att e nuate harm o nics, the e,

W predominan t dis tortions created in the out-

C(4) = 2,436I Il- pu t stages . An ideal low -pa ss fil ter, how-
ev er, is not required . Ra the r, the ne ed is
T he res ul ting fi lter is sho wn in F ig 3.7A
for a fi lter that will atte nuate harmon ics
whi le the d ua l form , the variation
a nd will pa ss a relatively narrow band of
heginn ing with a shun t capacit or . is pre -
se nted in Fig 3.7B.
The filt e r exa mple pi cked for Fig 3.7
was a spec ial ca se , a n eve n order ed de-
sign, As suc h, the dual filter. which is the 50 0. 609 uIl 1.412 uIl
one sta rtin g with the alt ernative compo-
"I
~
nent type, is really the same filter . but with 580
the in put and o utput exc hanged. If we had
picke d an od d ord er filt er to ill ustrate the
tw o filter types , we would have filte r (A )
( A) JF I ;41 50

with mor e ca pacitor s th an inductors wh ile

(B ) would be d omina ted b y induct ors .
1 . 4 12 uH -==-
Th e dcno rrnaliz ation equatio ns ar e
si mple and ea sily progra mme d in a _"pre ad - !)80 " I . 0. 609 uIl
shee t, a pro gra m ma ble ca lcu lator, or in
any pop ular computer lan gu age.
W hat mig ht be the o bviou s rout e to a
JF I (5) 1
50

f Iter desi gn ma y not be the most pract ic al.

T he logical sequence c alc ulates the val-
ues. pu rc has es an d or builds the compo-
ne nt s. and then asse m bles the c ircuit. Fig 3.7-Two forms of a 4th -order, 50-0, doubl y-ter minated, 10-MHz c uto ff
Indu c tors ar e not a proble m. fot the user Butterwo rth low-pass filter .

3.4 Ch apte r 3
Table 3.1
Normal ized Value s fo r Butterw o rt h and Chebyshev Lo w-P ass Fi lters. Th ese are used w it h t he Low Pass an d
High-Pass de-normalization eq uations. All of the data pre sented are for doubly terminated f i lters. Butt erwort h
fil ter s are designed on the basis of a 30dS cutoff wh il e a ripp le cuto ff is used for the Ch ebyshev f ilters .

Type N g(7) g (2) g (3) g (4) g (5) g (6) g ( 7)

Butterworth 2 1.414 1.4 14
3 1 2 1
4 0.7654 1.85 1.85 0.7654
5 0.618 1.618 2 1.6 18 0.61 8
6 0.5 176 1.414 1.932 1,932 .1414 0.5176
7 0.445 1.247 1.802 2 1.802 1.24 7 0.44 5
.01 dB Chebyshev 3 0.6292 0.9703 0 .6292
5 0.7563 1.305 1.577 1.305 0.7 563
7 0.797 1.392 1.748 1.633 1.748 1.392 0.797
0.1 dB Chebyshe v 3 1.032 1.147 1.032
5 1.147 1.371 1.975 1.37 1 1.147
7 1.18 1.423 2.097 1.573 2.097 1.423 1.18

ripples arc nor necessarily of eq ual magni- with a 2oo-pt= mic a trimmer.

:~,:j::::;::+=i\J=+=+=1
tude. The Chebyshev filter is a spe cialcase Fig 3.8e presents the resu lt of a narrow
\. 1 of the ultra- sphe rical. The tran sfer func- ultra-spheric al fil ter. Thi s circuit has a
E 1 tiun for th ree varia tion s of the ultra-s pheri- pea k 3-dB bandwidth of about 200 kHl at
-tc,c---j--'----+ ---j- -X-+--+-I
cal filter is show n in Fig 3.8 . All of these 10 MHz while of ferin g 54 -dB attenuat ion
-r s =-----i---+- I --+\--t-+-I
•", -20 ~
', ---'.I-,- r- \ Sth-order filter s are designed at the high- at the 2nd harmonic of the peak .
est peak freque ncy rather tha n at a cutoff While the uhra -sphencal filler s offe r
::ri I-+-+ --f\\. 1- frequency. Eq 3. 1 and Eq 3.2 still app ly.
The g( II ) values arc shown in Tabl e 3.2.
band-pass filter like performance with low-
pass stopband charactcris uc -; they can also
_,; , I I "- Fig 3.8A shows what .... e mig ht ca ll a suffer from high loss with low- Q compo-
";:0 I wide ultra-s ph erica l filler. a circuit with nents. They should be analyzed or measured
o , 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 abou t a 20'1- bandwidth for 0 .2-dB varia- when applied to narrow band app lications.
Frequency (MHz) lion . yet ha ving stopband characteristic s
(A) like those of a very high ripple Chebyshe v
H igh Pa s s Filters
low pass. Th is exa mple circuit was con-
figured for complete cov erage of th e The low-pass filter is the bas i.. for this
3.5-4 M Hz band. sect ion: it is the corn erstone Ihat supports
fig 3.8B shows a mediu m width ultra- all oth er passi ve l C filt ers. Occasion ally ,
a high-pass filter is required in a piece of
-20 F--++ H--+ spherical filler . The main virtue of this cir-
cuit is the extrem e flex ibility offered with equipment . A high pass has a passband that
~
extends upward from a cutoff frequency.
-30H--H-H
[
regard to co mpone nt value. The price of
Thc stop band of a high pass is belo w the
this is the need for an adjus table clement in
cut off.
. 0 ,
F--+--7-I--;-t-'-+t + f+"---1 the middle of the filter. This is especially
l suited to j unk box driven proj ects . The Once we have a SC i of normalized low
-50 t;-'----------L------'-~ example is a filter for a 7- f.1Hz rransminer. pa ss tables. des ign ing a high-pass filler is
o , 2 J 4 5 6 7 8 9 1011121314 an ea sy exte nvion, The conce pt ually easy
Freouency (MHz)
The end capacitors might. in practice. be
I ~OO-pF sil ver mica while the midd le ca- approac h is II two-s tep proc ess: Having
(B)
pacitor co uld he a IOOO-pF part paralleled picked a cu toff frequency . a low pas s of

I"
-"H--+---rY -
f--- - +1---+---+-7--\-+-
-I++---+----,-"H
-20

~-30
Fig 3.8--(A)We might call t his a wide Ultra-s ph erical tilter, a circuit with about a
- 20% band wid th fo r 0.2-d B variat ion , yet havi ng stopband ch aracteri sti cs li ke th os e
of a very hi gh. rip pte Cheby shev low pass . This exam ple cir cuit was con f ig ure d fo r
.o b \-H ---l complete coverage of t he 3.5·4 MHz band. (B) A medi um width ultr a-s pherical

·50 I
N filter. The main virt ue of this circuit Is the ext reme fle xibility offe red with regard to
component value, The price of th is is the need for an adjuslable elemen t In the
I middle of the uue r. This is especiall y sui ted to junk bo x driven projects. The
-60 ~-~"-" " __! "--,,: -:':...h--:-:-,":,J
o 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 examp le is a filter for a 7-MHz t rans mitter. The end capac itor s mig ht, in pract ice,
Freq uency (MHz)
be 1200-pF sil ver mica while the middle capaci tor could be a 100().pF part
paralle led wit h a 200-pF mica trimmer. (e) The resu lt of a narrow ultra- sph er ical
(e) filter, This circuit has a peak 3-dB band width of abo ut 200 kHz at 10 MHz whil e
offering 54-dB att enuat io n at t he 2nd harm on ic of t he peak.

Fi lters an d Impeda nce Matching Ci rc uits 3.5

 the desired o rder and shape is designed.
Table 3.2 Then, e ach lo w-pass e lement is replaced
Normalized Ultra-sp herical tow-p ass f ilter data. with a high-pass o ne tha t has t he same
rea ctanc e at the c uto ff. Series inductors
Case g( l ) g(2) g(3) g(4) g(5)
are replaced with ser ies ca pacitors : shun t
Wide U.Sp. 1.759 0 .704 2.352 0.704 1.759 capacitors become shunt ind ucto rs .
Medium U,Sp. 2.717 1.087 2 .56 1.087 2.717 Alternatively. the tables of g(n ) values
may be used direct ly for high-pass filter
Narrow U.Sp. 3.456 1.382 1.787 1.382 3.4 56
design . The viable equations are then

q(2) q(4)
,(,).R, .,
I
c (,) Eq 3.3
. IT' f

§JRq(li [ R
-r q(1:. L (,)
2
R,
a-t .,(o)
where g(lI ) are the normalized low-pass
Eq 3.4

e lements from Table 3.t, R o is the ter mi-

nat ing resista nce and f is freq uency in Hz.
Th e induc tance value, L(n ), is in Henr ys
and capacitance , C (n ), is in Farads .
,"" As with the low-pass fillers. once a high-
(A) pass filter is designed. it sho uld be confirmed
with some appropria te calculations and.
later. measure d after construction.

Some Simple
Transformations
(8) There are se veral circuits that ca n he de-
signed with relative ease once a low pass or
high -pass filteri s in place . Some will be dis-
cussed here, for they offer co nsiderable flex-
ibility and opportunity to the ex perim enter.
We ofte n need different terminations at
fi lter ends. A me thod fordoing this is pro-
New Lo ad
m=2 vided by the Bartlett' s Bisection Theorem.
illu stra ted in the lo w-pass filt er s how n in
(C) Fig 3.9 .
T he fir st fil ter, shown in Fi g 3.9A , is a
symmet ric 50-C! 5th-order lo w pass. The
filler is a low pass with a 3-dB cutoff of
aho ut ](J MHz. This filter is redraw n in
1 100
2t D
(D) part B with the fi lter split in the mid po int.
The two half section s are identical. We
wis h to change the output terminatio n to
10 0 n while preserving the same fil ter ing
cha racteristics. Th e ratio of the new termi-
Fig 3 .9- l.ow -pass f ille r illust ra tin g Ba rt lett' s Bisection Theorem that all o w s a natio n, 100 n. to the original 50 n is 2.
terminatio n to be changed to a new val ue.
T he fi lter is tra nsformed by increasing
series clements (the L) by me Z in the right
side . The sh unt elements arc decreased by
the same factor of m. T his is illustrated in
Fig 3.9C with the final filter in Fig 3.9D.
0.6 uH 10H T he mu ltiplier m can be any value greater
than O _ ~ T his method is used later in the
200 pF boo k in the design of some filters for a
900pF
SSB tran sceiv e r.

l
Fig 3.10- Chang in g an Inductor to a " t rap" creates a f req uen cy of very hi gh
T he next filter mod ific ation that we con -
sider adds ca pacitors or inductors to a fil-
ter. T his scheme is used in the des ign of
e llip tic, or Caller-Chebyshev low-pa ss fil-
attenuation in th e stopband . ters where add ing components that create

3 .6 cha pte r 3
 -
I Ideal f-. to
I
,'/K
I
I ~
;\.

./ "'I ~
;~
"1-'- ,>-1
l h.
r
-L- 1
1.': '

I e.
1. 4 h.

"'iI
'hi
B ..
"-' . I -a1 ·30
o
~ /1
1 2 3
Frequency IMH<:)
(A)
L
4 5

,\ -,
! Ir, --
i ·:!-I I
I
,
H \--7-+f-- I I
'''h / I -+-f-\+-~ I ' k STOP
With parasitic Land C.
I - 8 0. 0 0 dll
.'5
m .20 - I I I. I I I
SPAS I
0 .00
F R E QUEHC V . ..... 2 0. 00 MH. /Di v .
200 .00 '0
."l-I" "---+-+ +-''-f+' r iI ,
·30 , / r-~"Iot-'_H
-35 !:>"
111 ' c-+-1
1
Fig 3.11- The VHF performanc e of HF low-p ass filters is significantly altered by ... "--l-'---_~.LJ • , ""':,,"--.J
paras itic Inductance and capacitan ce. The parasitic element s are mod eled as be ing 5 6 I 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Frequency (MHz)
lar ger than norma l to illus tr ate t he effects.
(B )

Fig 3.13-Trans fer func tio ns fo r th e low

pass and high pas s (A) and the
-.1 1 pf band pass and band st op f ilters (B).

'M±'~:± _ >-fIT"" ":::1 -

I
so fo,~'
"" aue nuauo n at 1.. M Hz. Unfor tunately. the
anenuurion at the hig he r e nd of the
-~ ~ ~ ~ ~ - sto pband. above 20 MHz. is not as goo d as
it was with the origi nallow-paw fill er: th b
LP BP

n
is typ ica l o f e lliptic filters. A no ther disad-
vanta ge o f the me thod is that com po nent
losse s hav e much greater imp act than the y
di d without the trups, esp ec ially ncar the
HP BS c utoff frequency . All o f these c han ges arc
e as ily modeled wit h co mputer an alysis .
~" ~"

-ITFt g-i
Design table s ar e foun d in numerous sta n-
dard fi lter te xts,"

-;- -:- -=- c;;- -

U8VHlo221VHJ
-
) .'n.v lj

~
T he trap c harac teristics ..'..e descri be Me
always pre-enrrcone exte nt o r another. even
whe n they are not fea tured. Acsume we

~'I
needcxl a low-pa.<.", filler 10 fo llo w a 7 - ~ f H 1.
~'l tra ns mitter. ASth-order circ uit wasdesigned
for a 0.2-dB ripple Chebyshev' shape with
~

a 7.5· MHl ripple cutoff freq uency . T he

Fig 3.12- A lo w-pass f il ter (L P) is t he pr ototype for the hIgh pass (HP). Th e des igned filter is rhe "id eal" ci rcuit in
co mpo nent s in t he low pass may be resonated t o pr oduce a ba ndp ass (BP) fill er Fig 3. 11 .... ith respo nse sho wn as the "refer-
with a ba ndw idt h equaling the o ri g ina l lo w pass. Sim ilarly, t he h igh -pass elements ence:' Th e ana lysis is ex tended o ut to 100
are t une d to p r od uc e a ba nd stop f il ter (8 5) with a 3-dB n otc h w idth equ ali ng the
~l Hz. The othcr circun in the figure incl ude",
band width of the hig h pas s.
the "accide ntal" effects of pa rallel capaci-
tancc across the inductors and ind uctance in
"trap" freq uenc ies al te rs the sto pband of a ranee at the filt er cu toff freq uency. series with the ca pacitors. Bo th improve the
filter. T his is i llustrated in Fig 3.10 where T h is "e llipti c" modi fic at io n ca n be slt:epne<,s of the rollo ff. Bu t the y horh co n-
a Iow-pass fill e r is modified . T he first in- e xte nd ed by converting both induc tors to trib ute to a severely degraded V HF sto p-
duc tor. ori gi nall y a 1-p,H uni t. is pa ra lleled tHlPS and by add ing series ind uc ta nce with band attenuation.
with" 2UO-pF capacitor. The ind uctor is an y or al1 o f the shunl ca pac ito rs . Th e T he ne xt tran sformatio n we co nsi der
reduced to 0.6 IlH su the L C combination modific ation shown leaves the passband rcsount cs the el e ments of lo w pas s a nd
wi ll hav e a pproximat e ly the sa me rcuc - al mo st uncha ng ed. but increa se s t he high -pass fihen . We beg in by des igning a

Filters and Impedance Matching C ircuits 3.7

Srd-order low puss with a cutoffof2 MHz . with the 2-MHz bandwidth of the parent filter. A freque ncy of 12 MHz was picked
A si milar 2-MHz high pass is designed; low pass. This metho d is generally limited for thi s example , The samc restrictions
the filt ers are shown in Fig 3.12 . Once the 10 wide bandwidths, perhaps 20% or more. that accom panie d the wide ban dpass filter
low and high -pass circu its are in place, Impractical component values are some- apply to this design .
each element is resonated. The three -ele - times avoide d by terminating the fil ter in The trans fer f unction for the low pass
ment low puss ma ps into a 6-co mpone nt resistances greater tha n 50 n, and high pass are given in Fig 3.13 along
bandpass filter. Th e new filter is centered A similar tra nsformatio n is applie d to with the response for the ba ndpass and
at the resonance freque ncy , here R MHz, the high -pass filter, resulting in a bandstop band stop.

3.3 LC BANDPASS FILTERS

The I.e bandpass filter is a critical fun c- f
tio n in deter mining the per formance of a BW = - c Eq 3.6
typical RF system suc h as a receive r. An Q
input filter, usually a band pass, restric ts
where f c is the tuned circuit center fre-
the frequency range that the recei ver must
que ncy, Thi s Q is also that of the ind uc tor
process. A late r IF fil ter de termines the
in a tuned circuit if the capacitor is jossless.
o ver all receiver bandwidth . This filter V (t)
The single tuned circuit is pres ented in
ofte n use s crystals. although I.C filters
two diffe rent forms in Fig 3.16. In the top,
were pop ula r in older receivers. Audio fil-
a parallel tuned circ uit consisti ng of L and
ters often use I.C elements, altho ugh RC
active circ uits. or the com puta tion al abili- C has loss modeled by three resistors. The
one labeled by Rp is the parallel loss resis-
tie s of digi tal signal processing add furthe r
tance representing the non -idea l nature of
selectivity and confine the noise to a de-
t the ind ucto r. (Another might be inclu ded
sired spectrum .
to rep rese nt capac itor loss es. ) But the LC
The I.C filters we discuss in thi s section Fig 3.14-The a mp litude of a c hime's
arc narrow with a band width from 110 20 % ring afte r be ing struck by a ha mme r. is here paralleled by three res isto rs: the
of the center frequenc y. Eve n narro wer fil- Units are a rb itra ry. source. the load, and the loss element. Rp
ters are built with resonators with higher Q; would disappear if the tuned circuit was
the quartz cry stal is an exa mple that will be bu ilt from perfect co mpo nent s. The source
discussed later where bandwid ths of less and load remain; they represent the RF
than a part per thousand are possible. The world where a source resistance must bc
circu it is conductor resis tanc e. incl uding present if pow er is available and a load
basic concepts that we exa mine with I.C that in the ind uctor wire. Thi s re sistance is
circ uits will transfer to the crystal filter. resistance must be incl uded if po wer is to
higher than the de value owing to the ski n bc extrac ted ,
effect. which forc es high freque ncy cur- Eq 3.5 and Eq 3.6 can be app lied in sev -
L o s s e s in Filters and Q ren t toward the con ductor surface. Other eral ways. If the resonator is eval uated with
The key eleme nts in narrow filter s are losses might result from the motion of o nly the intrinsic loss resistance (i n either
tuned circuits mad e from ind uctor- magnetic regio ns in an inducto r core or series or parallel for m) the resu lting Q is
capacit or pairs, quartz crystals, or trans- the mo ve men t of diel ectric parts of a called the unloaded Q, or Qu. If. however,
capacitor. the net resistance is used . whic h is the pur-
missi on line sections. These reso nators
share the properties that they store ene rgy, An inductor is modeled as an ideal part alle l com bination of the load , the sou rce,
but they have losses. A c hime is an with a ser ies or a paralle l re sistance . The and the loss in the parallel tuned circuit,
resista nce will de pend on the Q if the the resulting Q is cal led the loa ded value,
example. St riking the chime with a ham-
inductor wa s purt of a resonator with that QL' If we were working with the ser ies
mer produces the waveform of Fig 3.14 . A
qua lity. The two resistances arc shown in tuned circuit form. thc loa ded Q wo uld be
parameter called Q, for quali ty facto r,
Fig 3.15. rel ated to the total se ries R.
descr ibes the rate that the ampli t ude
decreases with time after the ha mmer Consider an e xam ple, a par allel tuned
()l ·L
stri ke , The higher the Q, the lon ger it take s circ uit (Fig 3. 16 top ) with a 2-flH inductor
for the sound to disa ppear. The os cillator tuned to 5 MHz with a 507 -pF capacitor.
amplit ude wou ld no t dec re ase if it were Eq 3.5 Assume the parallel loss resistor was
not for the toss es that expend ener gy stored 12,57 kn . The unloaded Q calculated from
in the resona tor , The mere act of obs erving Equation 3.5 is 200 . The un loaded band-
the osci llation will l:aUSI: some energy to The higher the indu ctor Q, the smalle r width wo uld be 5 MHz 1200 '" 25 kHz .
be dissipa ted. the series resistance, or the larger the pur- Assume that the source and load re sis-
The chime was an acous tic resonator, allcl resista nce is needed to model that Q. tor s were equa l. eac h 2 H2. The net resis-
but the sam e behavior occ urs in electric It really does no t matter which componen t tance paralleling the LC would then be the
resonators , A pulse 10 a n I.e ca uses it is used. combination of the three res istors, 926 n.
10 ring ; losses cause the amp litude to The Q of a resonator is related to the The loa ded Q becomes 14.7 with a loaded
diminish . The most obvi o us loss in an LC ban dw idth of the tuned circu it by band width of 339 kHz . The loaded Q is

3 .8 Chapter 3
 ct: ··1
11-....." o 926 "V
•
o~l
GJI
Eq 3.7

The Q of a tuned LC circ uit is easily mea-

sured with a sign al generator of know n OUI-
12 571<

Fig 3.17-Simplifled pa rall el luned

circuit at re sonan ce. The effect of lo s s
Fig 3.15- ln d ucto r a may be modeled put impedance. R o ' and a sens itive det ec- is iIIu s tr aled.
with either a se ries or a pa ra ll el to r. again with a known impedance le vel.
res is tance. often equaling the generator Ro at 50 n.
The test-set is shown in Fig 3,18. The test
setup of Fig 3.18 usev equal load s uf value
Ro and eq ual capac itors to coup le from the
terminations tu the resonator. Equal capacl-

l
Fl_.
C
I1 '"-:
1<1..:>• • "
tors. C l and C2 guarantees that eac h termi-
nation co mn bute s equally to the resonator
parallel load resis tance. The voltm eter acro«
~ + ~ + the load is calibra ted in dB. Fig 3.18-Test se tup for measuring t he
To begin measurement we remove the a of a resona tor. The source and load
tuned circuit and repl ace it with adirect con- are assumed Ide nt ical . The tw o coupling
nection from generator to load . The avail- ca pacito rs are ad ju sted to be equal to
ablc po wer delive red to Ro is calc ulated eac h other. The ou tput si g na l is
measured with an app ro priate ac "Vo lt
after the voltage is measured. The resonator
met er, a high Im pedan ce oscilloscope,
is then inserted between the generator and o r a spec tr u m ana ly ze r.
toad, and the generator is tuned for a peak.
The measured power is kss than that avail-
Fig 3.16- Two simple fo rms of t he
able from the source, with the difference
si ng le tu ned ci rcuit. be ing the insertio n loss for the simple tiller.
Capacitors C I and C ! are adju sted until the
loss is 30 dB or mo re. w ith Im s this high. the spo use peaks often appear wit h freque ncy
intrinsic loss resistance of the re sonato r will se paratio n becom ing a measure of the co u-
dominate the loss. pling . This is illustrated with the circui t of
also called t he filt er Q. fur it desc ribe s the The generato r is no w tu ned first 10 one Fig 3.19. whic h results in the c urves of Fig
bandwi dth of the sing le tuned circuit. the side of the pea k. and then to the ot her . 3. 20 .
simples! of ba ndp a ss filt ers. not ing the freq ue ncies whe re the respon ce The freque ncy sep arat ion between
Th is fiher has an inserti on loss. Thi s is is do wn fro m the peak. by 3 dB . The peaks is a measu re ofthe cou pli ng bel.....ccn
illustrated in Fig 3.17. which shows the unloaded band widt h. of . is the difference the reso nator s. The utility of th is param-
fi lter wi tho ut the l and C. effec ts that can- bel ween the t wo 3 dB freq uencies. The ete r is in the mea sure me nts that bec o me
cel at res ona nce . We use a n arbit rary ope n unloaded Q is calc ula ted as possible, The filter des igne r needs o nly to
c irc uit source vo ltage o f 2. T he a vailable generate a method for co upling to produ ce
power to a lo ad is then 1 V across a resis- a desired freque ncy diffe re nce in orde r to
['InCI;': eq ualing the 2-kQ so urce . Tfthe reso - F realize a given fill er . Such meas ure ments
= - E q 3.K
nator had no imc m allos ves. this available 6F (or calculation s] a re a vital part of build-
power wo uld be del ive red 10 the 2-kU ing filler s with unusual tuned circuit s. suc h
load. However. the Joss R parallel s the Th is method fo rQ measure me nt is quite as UHF hel ical resonators. A natu ral ell-
load. causi ng the ou tput voltage to be universal. being ef fective for audio tuned tension of th is meas ure men t is a collec-
0.926 V. a bitlees than the idea l I V. Ca l- circ uits, simple LC RP circ uits. VHF heli- lio n kno wn as the Dichal Me thod." The
cu lation of the ou tput power into the 2-kU ca l resonators, or microwave reso nators. Di shal method is extremely useful in the
load resistance a nd the avail a ble ro" er The form of the variable capaci tors. C l adj ustme nt of multiple re sonato r f ilters.
shows {hat the insertio n los s is 0.61 dB. and C2. rna)' be diffe rent for the various Th e met hod is d iscussed furthe r in tntro -
Th is exe rcise illustrates IWO vita l ro i nl ~ part s of the spec trum. but the concepts a re duction to Radin Frequency Design and in
that are gene ral for all ba nd pass fitters. ge ne ral. Indeed. it is not e ven important Chapter 9 of Zve rev's te xt.
First, the ba nd widt h of any fil te r must ho w the coupling occ urs. Th e Q measu re-
always be large r tha n the unloaded ba nd- ment no rma lly de ter mi nes an unleaded
width of the rcso nutors used to build the
Multiple Resonator
val ue, bUI loaded values arc abo of inter- Bandpass Filters
filt e r. Second , an y filte r bu ilt from real eSI when testi ng filters .
world co mpone nts wi ll have an insert ion Bandpass filters with seve ral tuned cir -
loss. The closer the Q of the filt er c uir are des igned with rel ative ease with
appro aches the unloaded reso nato r Q. the Coupling careful appli catio n of so me bas ic steps:
gre ate r the i nse rtio n loss beco mes. Co upling refer s to the sharing of e nergy The resona tors must ha ve an unloaded
A paralle l tuned cir cuit illu strated these between resona tors. Two reso nator s in a Q that is highe r, usua lly by a factor of 3
ideas: the series tuned filte r wo uld have filler are gene rall y tu ned 10 exac tly the or more. than the des ired filt e r Q. whic h is
prod uced Iden tical re sults . Gen era lly. the sa me freq uency. Ho we ver, whe n an cle- fcl.j,f where fc is ce nter freq uency and .j,f
insert io n loss of a , ingle tuned circui t me nt (L or a C) is attached 10 cause e nerg y is ba ndwidth .
relates 10 loaded and unload ed Q by in o ne to be shared with the other. t wo reo A fil te r sha pe te.g .. Butterwo rth or

Filte rs and Impedan ce Matchin g Ci rcuits 3. 9

n.J. dH Chebys hev . ercj is defined by the tuned circuits 10 set end section Q. Couplin g the sidebar on page 3.14.
loaded Q of e nd reson ato rs a nd by co u- between reso nators is establ ished with a Filler shap e o ptio ns arc available in 111",
pling between resonators. small valued capacitor betwee n the "hot" side bar DTC procedure. The Butter worth
These end Q values and co upling valu es ends of the tuned circuits. The DTC in this is ge nerall y a good starling point, for it is
between resonators are o bta ined fro m ncr- fonn is presented. wit h design equatio ns. in easil y rea lized with practical co mpone nts.
malized tables of k and q. So me val ues for
do uble a nd tr iple tuned filters are g lve n in
Ta ble 3.3 .
Bandpass filler d",,.ign with nor malized I Generator I Co~li ""
Capacito r
co upling and loadi ng uses k: and q ta bles.
These are di rectly re lated 10 the no rmal-
ized g" va lu e s use d for low-pass filte r ~
design. The h datil is usefu l for q uic kly
estim ati ng the insertion loss of virtually
~ h

a ny band pass filler we mig hl des ign . The

loss in dB is
I Load

Fig 3.19-Sc heme for meas uring a nd defining co upl ing between two t uned
where F. R. and Q l: w ere defined abov e. circ uits . e1 2 is either 10 o r 20 pF Wh ile t he resonato rs are both 1IJ.H paralleled
with 450 pF. "Pro be" capaci tor s are 1 pF.
The g" values are the nor malized low -pass
ele ment s fo r the shap e in quec rion.
Assume that we wish to build a -tth o rde r
band pasv filter with a O.l -dB Chebyshev ~5 0

shape. Th e 10..... pass parameters a re

g h d .109. g ~ = 1.306. g 3= 1.77, and
+
g-J=O.81 8 . The sum o f the elements is the n
'.
5.003. If we were going to build this filte r
at 1-1.-1. Ml-lz with il bandwidth of 5 ~IH z
a nd we had man aged 10 build reson ato rs
with Q t:=SOO. we wo uld then ex pec t an in-
sertio n loss of 1.25 dB. This formula is
~ 75
,
attributed 10 Coh n.s,"
The si debar eq ua tio ns may be used to +

write a compu ter or calculator prog ram for + ... \ '" ... + + +
design ing the se ci rcu its. Thi s ca n then be "
combined with inducta nce ca lcula tio ns + +

(fo r the number of turns on solenoid or - 1 00 l,----~-~-~-~~;7---~---~~

toroid s. for example) to gen erate tab les of 7 7.5 8
filter design s. Thi s has bee n don", tu form
Table 3A (see sidebar on page 3. 1-1.). The Fig 3.2o-Se paration of res po nse peaks Indicating coupling betwee n two
ind ucto rs used arc all wou nd on toro id reso nato rs. The so lid line us es a 10·p F coupling ca pacito r while t he do tted line
cor es; the ind ucta nce valu es sho wn are uses 20 pF .
ve ry d ose to actual values when the tor -
a ids are wo und with a sing le. evenly
spaced windin g. The Qu valu es a re Table 3.3
ap proxi mat e. although they are typica l of k and q Va lues for 'r wc- and 'three-pet e Filt ers
measured da ta. Large r wire sil e will Passband Ripple. dB n k q
inc rease Q sligh tl y, Th e data in the ta ble Butte rwo rth 2 0.7071 1.414
a re ca lcul ated values. bUI are ty pical of 0.1 dB 2 0.7 107 1.638
those we have huilt and co nfinn ed o n 0.25 2 0.7 154 1.779
numerous occasions. 0. 5 2 0.7225 1.9497
0.75 2 0.7290 2 .09 1
1.0 2 0.7351 2.3167
Double-Tuned Circuits 1.5 2 0.7466 2.452
The doubl e tuned circuit (OTC) can take Butterworth 3 0.7071 1.000
on many forms . all showing the same 0. 1 3 0.6617 1.4328
bacic shape around the passband so long as 0.25 3 0.6530 1.6330
they de velop the same end section Q values 0 .5 3 0.6474 1.8640
and the "arne cou pling betwe en resonators . 0 .75 3 0.6450 2.0498
1.0 3 0.6439 2.2156
A familiar "top cou pled" OTe uses a series
1.5 3 0.6437 2 .5169
capacito r In coupl e termination s to pa rallel

3.10 Chapter 3
The Triple.Tuned Filter 53p
While the nc r-po pular double-tuned '"
circuit i~ ofte n adequate. the re are many
cases where mo re perfor mance iJ,. needed.
T he third -order bandpass is a special case. "'''
easify des igned wi th the same eq uatio n 230 14> 200 II)
(a nd hence. so ftware) used for a double-
tuned circuit. Thi s po ssibility eme rges if Fig 3.21- A tr iple-tuned circuil center ed at 16 .2 MHz w ith a ban dwidth of 0.5 MHz.
you cumpare a double-tuned circ uit ....-ith
the example trip le-tun ed ci rcuit shown in
r iA.\. 2 1. Th is parti c ular filt er is centered
at 16.2 ~I H l with a des ign band wid th of
0 .5 MH J:. Fi g 3.22 sho .... s the response of
~ O . OO
the trip le-tuned fil te r, a long with thaI of a
dou ble -t uned ci rc ui t built wi th the sa me
ind uctors.
The triple-tune d filte r is desig ned with
diffe re nt /.: an d q va lues tha n used for a GA IN , d 8
double-tuned circ uit. Set q=J and k=0.707 ($ -21)

for a triple tuned Butter worth filler. T hen. D D

the co upling ca paci tors and the end match -
ing c apaci tors are the values pro vided hy
the side bar equation s. T he last equation in
tha t erie... prov ides the tun ing capacitor
value for the end sectio ns. The midd le
luning ca pacitor is gi ven hy

t:q 3.9

Build ing a tri ple -tu ned filler is no more ---<>0. 00 dO

difficult tha n one with IWO resonators. If it

is designed for a slig huy w ider bandw idth
than mig hl he use d with a 2-po le design.
ihc filt er is often easi er to align. has sim i-
lar inse rtio n loss . and offe rs im proved Fig 3.22-Res po nse of t ri ple an d d ouble-tuned c ir cuits bu ilt w ith 0.4 mH ind ucto rs
...top ba nd atte nuat io n, the usual primary wit h Ou=200.
goal of ba nd pas s fi lteri ng.
The desig n of hig her orde r (N)3j
bundpas v fill ers is simila r to the DT C.
Coupling betwe e n reso nators (num be red hy Zverev. Th e values may alvo he calcu- The boo k CD inc ludes a tutorial paper
m and m is des cribed hy a normaliz ed co u- lated in computer program s. Somet imes o n the DTeY' T hat article outlines meth-
pling coeff ic ient. k",w The values will ge n- o ne e nc ounters table s of predistor ted k and od. for e xpe rime nta lly real izin g si mp le
e rally di ffer for eac h pa ir of reson ator s. q values. Predi stortinn is a process 10 re- band pass f ilte rs a t any fre q uenc y. Th e
End loa di ng, perhaps d iffere nt for the IWo lain a desired fi lter shape. eve n with loss es meth ods o utlined the re are easi ly ap plied
ends. is descri bed by normalized e nd sec- pre s e n t. lO. l t t ~ to VHF and mic rowave filters. ind ud ing
lion q val ues. 1.1 1 and 1.1 . for a filter with II So me fi lters are mixtures betwee n the tho..e u... ing nan vuriv sio n-h nc resou atorv.
n:sonalors. De no r malizatio n es tablishes fo rms prese nte d. An exa mple is presented Hes\Onators can ta ke on much differe nt
loaded e nd Q valu es that arc then esta b- in t 'ig 3.2-1 whe re the fa miliar small cou - forms at higher freq uency. On e common
lis hed as with the DTC. T he individual pl ing capaci to r is replaced with a shunt and popular form is the q uarte r-wa ve-
para llel-t une d cir c uit s are indivi d uall y ca paci tor. usually large in value. A sma ll length lo ng reson ator. Th is is bui lt by
tune d 10 the filler ce nte r freq uency " irh all value sh unt ind uc tor could also be use d. formi ng a section of tran smission li ne that
othe r parallel reson ato rs short -circu ited , A is j ust ..lightly less than 0.25 wavele ngth.
ca lculator or co mputer program Yo rinen fo r O ne end is then short c ircuited while the
the design of double -tuned circuits rna)'
Filters at VHF and other b open circui ted. The resonator Q
often he u...ed . witho ut mod ificat ion . fur Higher will depend upon freq ue ncy, geometry.
Ihe de,i gn of hig her-ord er fi lters. Ba nd pass fi lters arc so metimes eas ier and dielectric material. Air (or vacu um)
T he ba ndpass fil ters e xa mined so far to reali ze at VHF and above tha n at lower dielec trics offer highest Q . T he conducr iv-
used pa rallel tune d circu its. Se ries reso na- frequ e ncy . the result of higher ava ilable ity of the surface me tal will sig nificantly
to r.~ may also be use d. Thi, variation is reson ato r Q u at VHf. Build ing an a ir-core affect Q. Coppe r surfaces a re exce lle nt.
sho wn in Fig 3.23 with the des ign proce- co il wit h a Q of ev en 200 at 2 MH z re- with silver be ing eve n bette r.
d ure gi ven in the literature. quires a con side rable volu me. Howe ve r, Fig ,l 25 shows a method fo r eval uating
Wit h eith er for m. values fo r no rmalize d one with such a Q at 20() Ml-lz can be very a tra ns miss io n line resonator. Th is is a
k a nd q are ob tai ned fro m a tab le of values small. This res ults from ski n effect c hang- sch emati c, yet prac tical scheme fo r bui ld-
such as tho se published i n the clas sic book ing with frequenc y. ing fi lle r e lements with . for example .

Filters and Impedan ce Matc hing Circuits 3. 11

 Stopband Atten u at ion of Bandpass Fi lters
A 9-MHz bandpa ss filter required
for a mixer experiment was built with
available components . A triple -
tuned circuit was fabricated from
top-coupled parallel tuned circuits.
The filter was exami ned in grea ter •
detail atte r the exper imen t was
finished . Wh ile the lilter satisfied the
immediate need, the performa nce
was far from idea l. A deep notch
appea red in the stopband at about
11 MHz. Then what sho uld have
been an ideal fill er becam e a
disaster with a stopba nd attenuati on .. .
of only 40 dB at 40 MHz.
This behav ior had been observed
earlier in a 7-MHz bandpass filter,
shown in Fig 3A . The circuit was
built on a scrap of circuit board
materia l that was then bolted into an Fig A- Bad filler-This bandpass filter performed well around the 7-MHz
aluminum box. The BNC connectors passband but had poor sto pband attenuation. A very deep attenuation notch
appeared at about 15 MHz_
at each end we re -g rou nded~ to the
board with short wires from solder
lugs under the connecto r nut The
filler was exc ited with a signal
genera tor wh ile exam ining the other
end with a spectr um ana lyze r. We
observed that the stopba nd attenu a-
tion improved slightly when a screw
driver blade short circuited various
spots on the circuit boar d edge to
the aluminum box. This pointed
toward grounding as a majo r
problem with this filter.
A new 9-MHz bandpass filter was
then buill. The components used in
the original, which was buill like the
7-MHz filter "bad filter," were iifted
and used in the new one. But the
new circuit was fabricated in a box
buill from circuit board mate rial Fig B-Good filter-A box built from scraps of cIrculi board material produced
(Fig 38) . The walls were soldered to a response with good stopband ettenuatto n.
the box floor, creating a cleaner
ground . One of the long walls was
initially left off, easing the filter

., .. "Tfl "
construction. Filter performance was r- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ~
improved even bel ore the 4th wall
was added. The wall was added and
the circ uit was measured. revealing
a stopband null at 43 MHz. The
t~
,
-L
'" '" '"
"• '"
depth was at - 110 dBc, near the
" "• ,,
limits of our meas urement capability.
The response at 70 MHz. the top of
the spectrum ana lyzer range. was
--
•• ••
• ••
•
,,
-83 dBc. ,,
A single shield was added to the
filte r that removed the null and 4. pH ,,
dropped the 70-MHz response to -
96 dBc. The filter is shown in the
,,
photo -good tnter ."
~
,
The behav ior obse rved is eas ily L ~- - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - ~
mode led with the circuit of Fig 3C.
The stray coupl ing. related to ground
currents , is mode led by liftin g all Fig 3G-The traditional bandpass filter Is modified with a mutual inductor,
ground connections in the filter and raising the bandpass filler above ground . The resistance in series with the 1-
j.lH inductors represents uu of 250 at 9 MHz.

3 . 12 Chapte r 3
 °T, ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

,,
,
- .. ~~
,
,
,
,,
,
- 60 i

,
-a e i,
,,

,
- 1O~ ~

,
- 12 0 + - - - - - - - - - - - - - - --. _- - - - - - - ..,- - - - - - - - - - - - - ,
l_ ~ MH z 3_ 0HHz 1 0NHz 3~ M Hz 1 ~OH Hz
o , PB(U (fi lou t ))
Fr equency

Fig 3D- The resp o nse of t he id eal filte r and that of th e mutu al co u p li ng induct or are compa red . Th e id eal r esp on s e was
realized in measu r emen t w he n one sh ie ld was ad de d to t he tnter .

a tta c hing the m 10 a c ommon indue- C learly, gr ound inte g rily is a vital a re ide a l, often far s uperior 10
lor . An ind uct a nc e of o nly 40 plco pa rt of a n RF c ircu it, e s peci a lly a a lum inum boxe s, especially follow-
He n ry (ye s; p H and not e ve n nH) ban d pa s s filte r us ing high Q resona- ing ox ida lion . Pa inted a lum inum
pro d uc e d cou pling thaf mafched the la rs . Enclos ure s fa bric a te d from bo xes ar e e ve n worse . Clearly,
me a s ure d pe rfo rma nc e . The "before s o lde re d s craps of c ircuit boa rd measurem ents sho uld a lwa ys be
an d a fter" tran sfe r re s ponses are ma te ria l o r sim ilar so lid conducto r pe rforme d.
sh own in Fig 3D.

O. l -il -i nc h out si de diamet er semi-ri g id Q is meas ured by determ ining the 3-dB tcr frequency . a working fi lter can be bu ilt
coaxial c able like that used in microwave bandw id th. Center fre quenc y may be ad- by placin g the two clo se eno ugb to eac h
-yste ms . The ce nte r con d uctor is mack j usted by adj usting line le ngth . other that t he "ho t" e nds are in close prox -
available at hoth ends. It is shorte d wit h as Tf a bandp ass filte r is to be built with the imity . T his scheme works we ll for filters
li tt le indu ctance as poss ible at o ne e nd. lin es, the end section loa di ng may be rea l- fo r the 43 2 a nd I 296-M Hz bands. Th e line
The n. a 50-U gen era tor and a 50-U load ize d wit h the scheme sho wn in Fig 3. 26 . sectio ns may be be nt to fit avai labl e space .
.. ith detector art: loosel y co upled to the T he "grounded" end of the re so nator is The transm issio n-li ne do uble- tuned c ir-
"hot" end of the resona tor. The cou pling attached to a c oaxial conn ec tor in a gro und c uit j ust described used sem i-rigid coaxia l
ca pacitors may be nothing mo re th an small plane. The cente r wire is attac hed to the c able. Anothe r comm on transm ission li ne
pieces ofwire spac ed a sma ll dis tance from con nec tor and a sho rt is created with a f ilte r use s so -c alled ha irpi n ci rcuits .
the hig h impeda nce end of the reso nator. small inducto r co nsist ing of no thing more Micru-strip tran smi ss io n li nes arc pri nted
The couplings from the generator and to than a ve ry short wi re. The wire length is on c ircu it board mat erial in thi s filter. The
the detector shoul d be on opposite side s of adju sted to set e nd sect io n Q. Th e li ne li nes are eac h a half waveleng th lon g and
the line to reduce d irect in terac tion . The shield sho uld be carefully gro unded ve ry are be nt into a " U". or hairpin shape. An
co uplin g is adju sted for a high insertio n close to the coa xial co nnec tor. e xamp le o r a hairpin filter with three re so-
10" and the frequenc y is swe pt until the On ce prop er end section Q is esta blish ed nators is show n in H g 3.27.
ce mer freq uency is found. T he unloaded and reso nat ors are tuned to the prope r ccn- The de sig n of thes e filte rs is a straight-

Filters and Im peda nce Matc hi ng Circuits 3 .13

 DTC De sign
Pick a ce nte r fr equen cy, F, an d a bandwi dth , B, both in Hz. Pick a n inducto r; it can be of essentia lly arb itrary
val ue, although a good "sta rting value" would be L: 1OIF where L is in Hen ry and F is st ill in Hz . T he un loaded
ind uctor O u sho uld be approx imately kno wn . O ne must also pick no rmalize d k and q values . For a Butterw o rth
shape , k:0 .707 and q: 1.4 14 . For a filt er w ith some passband ripple, but stee per sk irts , use 0.25 d B Che bys hev
values of k: O.71 54 and Q= 1,779 . The des ign equations are :

(' ) =0. 2· j't. F

Co '" I/ (l/ . L)
k ,R
"
.0 L L RO
Cp "'Co ' - -
- F ~
q . F · Q l'
B ' Q L' - q . }'

I I
: ~. r: ::
..; Ro . Ql::: . Ul . L - Ro

Ta ble 3A
Double Tuned Circuits us i ng t he si d ebar c ircu it . A ll fi lter s are doubly terminated in 50 n at eac h en d .
T he c o re d esignators use t he copy r ighted num ber ing scheme of Mic r o meta ls , Inc .
F-MHz BW·MHz Core Turns L'pH Q. " c-eoa C·12 c.ume
1.85 01 i68~2 35 6.98 200 250 pF 41 pF 775 pF
3.55 01 i 68-2 35 6.98 200 62 57 220
3.6 0.2 i 68·2 35 6.98 200 93 11 177
3.9 0.2 i 68-2 35 6.98 200 79 6.7 152
7.1 0.2 i 50-6 17 1.156 250 56 8.7 371
7.05 01 i50-6 17 1.156 250 35 4.4 402
7.05 01 i SO-6 20 L6 250 30 3.2 286
10.1 0.1 iSO·6 17 1.156 250 '4 15 199
10.1 0.1 T50~6 10 0.4 250 20 4.' 597
14.1 0.2 i50~ 6 10 0.4 250 21 32 295
14.2 02 i50-6 10 0.4 250 34 63 271
18.1 0.2 i50-6 10 0.4 200 10 1.5 182
21.1 0.2 i 50-6 10 0.4 200 6.1 1.0 135
21.25 0.5 i 50-6 10 0.4 200 16 23 122
25 0.2 i50-6 10 0.4 200 2.9 0.57 98
28.2 0.4 i50-6 10 0.4 150 5.6 0.8 73
28.35 0.7 i50-6 10 0.4 ' 50 9.8 1.4 68
50.2 1.0 i50-6 10 0.4 150 35 04 21
14.1 0.2 i50-6 5 0.1 200 38.7 12.8 1224
14.1 02 i50-6 7 0,196 200 27 65 617
14.1 02 i50-6 10 04 200 19 3.2 296
14,1 0.2 i50-6 15 0.9 200 13 1.4 127
14,1 0.2 i50~6 20 1.6 200 9.5 08 69
14.1 02 i 50-6 25 2.5 200 76 05 43
14.1 0.2 i50-6 30 3.6 200 64 0.36 28.7
14.1 02 i50-6 35 49 200 54 0.26 20.3
Note: Ooly a couple of core types are needed to cover the entire spectrum from 1.8 to 50 MHz. The last eight table entries describe the
same filter. a 14.1-MHz circuit with a 200-kHz bandwidlh. ihe number of turns is allowed to vary, illustrating the freedom available to the
tiller deslqn et . The builder with a computer program set up tor design can vary inductance and bandwidth to realize a desired utter with
standard (and junk-box available) component values.

3 .14 Ch ap t er 3
 Small Numeric Value Capacitors
Top co upled LC bandpass filters often use
capac itors with smal l numeric value. These
are becoming increasingly diffic ult to obtain.
However, a simple substitution will prov ide
the same coupling , but with large r more
conven ient values, picked with the equa-
t Pick C SER> 2'C JK
tions show n. For examp le, assume a filter
desig n calls for a capacito r with C JK=1.2 pF. Th~
The substitute network can use any value of 1
C SER that is greater than 2.4 pF. Assume we C SER - 2·CJK ' C SER
C PAR =- - ---c;c-- - -
use series capacitors of 10-pF value. The CJK
parallel capacitor is then C PAR=63.3 pF. A
practical vaiue wou ld be either 56 or 68 pF.
The new netwo rk will have an equ ivalent
parallel compone nt at eac h end; you must
reduce the capacitance that tunes the
resonato rs acco rdingly.

forward chore with a mo dern compu ter , tor is res ona nt at Freq uencie s where the

[t 1
altho ugh it's a j ob for professio nal-level line is 1, 2,3 . etc wavelengths long.
micro wave si mulat ion software.
Th e tota l lengt h of each sectio n is O.S
wave length for proper tun ing. Th e tvvo end
sectio ns are usuall y identical. The lengths
Anot her popu lar structure for higher frc-
quenci es is the helical resonator. These
were very popu lar for UHF FI\1 mohi le
radios of j ust a few year s ago . A helica l
t t -

of the e nd sections are 2(X4) + X5 while resonator is a section (usu ally OIlC quarter
that for the midd le section is 2(X4j + X3. wavelength) of line using a helical trans -
En d sect ion loading is determine d by X2. mission line. A helical line is a soleno id Fig 3.24 -Double-tuned c ircu it w ith a
es senti ally the spacing from the ce nter of coil -like structure placed inside a shielded sh unt cap ac itor for coupli ng between
reson ators. Thi s illus tr ates o ne of
the end reson ators. a virtu al gro und point. enclosure . we can think of a wave as propa - nu me rous ba ndpass filte r topolog ies
Conpl ing between resonato rs is estab- gating alo ng the wire at the speed of ligh t. that are mixtures of the two methods
lishcd acro ss the "g ap" sho wn in Fig 3-27 , He nce, the propagati on veloci ty parallel to p rese nted.
analyzed by co nsidering the overlapping the H is is much less than that of light. This
sec tions as direc tional cou plers. 11 is is a slow wave struc ture . Cutt ing a quarter
important for the com pute r analysis to in- wav elen gth sectio n, grou nding one end
elu de the junctio ns to the SO-U lines (Tee with the other open cir cuited. form s a reso-
ju nctio ns) and a proper model for the ope n nator. The usua l helical reso nator is just
line ends. The de sig ner must also ha ve under a quarter-wavelength long. The ex-
good information about the hoa rd mate rial tra length required for resonance is COI11-
including loss. dielectric con stant . and pcn satcd by adding a small adj usta ble ca-
thickn ess betw ee n the patte rn laye r and the paci tor to the end, often nothing more t han
ground foil below. a grounde d metal screw d ose to the "hot'
The hairpin filteri s generally a lossy struc- end of the cen ter conductor. Fig 3.25-A q uarter wavelength of
lure when built on conventional circuit board Nume rous re vie w art icles ha ve transmission li ne fo rms a resonant
materials used by amate urs. This material appeared describing the helical re son ator tuned circuit.
generally has a loss tangen t of .OZ, produc- and filte rs using them . Equat ions are oft en
ing resonator Q of 50. As such. narrow filters gi ven for resona tor dimens ion s, an impli-
are not possible. Hairpi n filters generally cat ion that they must con form to a well -
have J() to 20 % bandw idth unless built o n def ined stru cture. Generally, there is much
so me of the more exotic materials . greater freedom ava ilab le to the builder. A
Hair pin filters have res ponses at har- helical filtcr may still work well if bu ilt in
mon ics fr eq uenci es. A half wave re sona- a volu me that is "too sm all."

Fig 3.26-Load ing (coupling to the

"outs ide world") ca n be contro lled with
Fig 3.2 3-Ba n dpass f ilte r using se ries tu ne d c irc u its. In t h is example , N=4. sma ll wire ind uct o rs.

Filters and Impedance Matching Circuits 3. 15

 A casua l glance may not reveal a true
identity. That is, a heli cal reso nato r with a Line W idth
tuning capaci tor looks like a shiel ded LC - -j -
resona tor. Ho we ver , the difference
becomes clear if wid ehand measurement s
are done with loo sely coupled probe s like f----
X3 X,
the one s that have been descr ibed for Q
measure ment. Suc h measur eme nts will
X1
G'\ Fig 3.27- Three
show a high Q at the fundamental fre- co,onator Hairpin
quency and addit iona l responses (als o ha v- w e hm Lin e tvp e bandpass filter.
width 1
ing high Q ) at 3. S. and other odd harmo n-
ics of the fun damental. l n contrast , a pur e •
LC resonat or will not show these X; I
depa rtur es If capacitance is added to a
helical resonator to decrea se tu ndam ental f-1
freq uency. t he higher freq uencies will nut X5
move as fast. Slight cap aciti ve loading
might mov e the first "sp uriou s response"
to 4 Fu with greater departure as loading
grows . Q rema ins high and excellent fil- usual tap point is very close to the such as the Elliptic can be transformed to
te rs can sti ll be built. gro und ed e nd, often a small fraction of one hand pass form 10 ge nera te bandpa ss cir-
Helic al resonato rs are coupled 10 each turn. Aga in. the loading may he adju sted cuits with transmission zero s nex t to the
other with a variety of meth ods. although to establish an end section loaded Q. pas sband.
the most popular is throug h apertures . or We have on ly scr atc hed the surface with Another varia tion inje cts a transmissio n
holes in the walls betwe en adjacent reso - some filte r types we have built. A detailed zero in a passband with no additional in-
nators. As wi th oth er filter type s, the cou- re view of the literature will reveal num er- ductors. This is realized by an additional
pli ng can he re lated 10 th e frequ enc y ous other filter topologies of inte rest. The coupling ca pac ito r that co uples en ergy
spread be twee n peaks when the resonators bandpass filters presented here are trans- betw ee n no n-adj acent reso nato rs. Thi s
are unloaded. End section loading is real- formed from simp le lo w-pass filters , the method was use d in a 144 MHz transceiver
ized in a vari ety of ways with helical rc so- so-called all-pole low -pass circu its with discussed later in the boo k.!- There is a
nators A small line from a coaxial co n- not hing mo re than series ind uctors and great dea l of work available to be do ne by
nector can bc tap ped onto the helix , The shunt capa cito rs. Other low -pa ss fillers the curious experimenter.

3 .16 Chapter 3
3 .4 CRYSTAL FILTERS
No element is more intimately refuted to sa me way, the resonan t freq ue ncy of a Ta ble 3.4 shows so me measured re pre -
rad io rece ivers tha n the quartz c rystals quartz crys tal is related to the crystal thick- sentative val ue s fo r som e j unk- hox
use d in filter s. The early supe r- ness. T he Q of a quartz crystal ca n be very crystals . A cr ystal placed between a 50-0.
heterodynes of the 19305 obtained single- high, from 10,000 to over o ne mill ion. The signal ge nerator and 50-0. load shows a
signal selectivity with a crystal filter using motions of a quartz cr ystal arc transverse re sponse like tha i of F ig 3.30. If the
but one crystal, a practice that con tinued wit h the crystal vib rating parall e l to the crystal was a simp le series tuned cir cuit
through the 19 70s. T he use ofhigh qua lity surface. Thi s allows the Q and resonant witho ut the para llel capacitor, Co ' the re-
fillers using a multiplic ity of crystals be- freq ue ncy to be alte red by surface effects. sponse would be a simple peak .
carne popular in the 1950s as SS B replaced The reader with an Interest in the physics A crystal filte r c an bc built with a single
cla ssic AM as the rad iotelephone method of quart z crystals is referred to the classic crystal wit h the sche me of Fig 3.3 1.
of choice. tex t by Virg il Bouom.!' L-netwo rks at each end transform 50 n to
Th e quartz cr ystal is modeled as the LC present 500 0. at the crystal. Transformer
tuned circuit shown in Fig3.29. L m and C m T l prov ide s an om -of-phase vo ltage to
Crystal Fundamentals dri ve a phasing capaci tor . T his signal
are termed "mo tiona l" parameters for they
A mo dern q uartz crys tal is usua lly a relate to the mechanical motion of the cr ys- co mbi nes with the energy flo wing through
ro und dis c of single crystalline q uartz with tal. The equivale nt seri es resistance, ESR , the c rystal parallel capacitance to control
mctalization o n each side . T he metal films is an element representing losses: it is rc- the posi tion of the notch . Th e lO-pF ca-
serve to create (a nd se nse ) an electric field lated to the crystal Q. The final element, paci to r inc re ases the eff ect ive parallel C
within the qu artz . The basic structure is Co ' is the parallel. or hol der cap aci tance . of the crystal. moving the notch closer to
sho wn in Fig 3.28. T his C is a simple consequence of the crys - the pea k while the 25-pF cap acito r reso-
Th e basis for the interesting circ uit tal construction as a parallel-plate capaci- nates the ferrit e transformer . Fig 3,32 and
properties of a quartz crystal is the piezo- tor . This value is the sum of the parallel 3,33 show the result of tuning the phasing
elec tric effect. This effect is a ma terial pla te C (the dominant element) and some capacitor
charac teristic wh ere an electric field stray C related to the package housing the Cha nging the terminating L-nctworks
cau ses a mechanical displacement. The crystal. The parallel and the c an alter the fil te r respon se , T he han d-
mechanical mot ion is at right ang les to the motional ca pac itance are rela ted in the width will decrease if th e terminat ing
electric field in the quartz crystal. An ele c- usual AT cut cryst al. (AT cut refers to the impedance is dropped. A li nk cou ld be
tric fiel d occurs wh en a vo ltage is placed cr ysta llog rap hic orientation of the crystal. used on T1 to replace the input L netw ork
between the two mc tal ization layers Many of the crystals we deal with in radio whi le an output could be terminated with
attached to the crystal. The o pposite effect are AT cut.) The rel ation between capaci- another wide band transformer. The modi-
also occurs; a mech anical motio n gener- tors is app roximatel y fied circuit wou ld then function we ll with
ates an e lectric field . a wide variet y of crys tals . Bandwidth will.
The action of a quartz cry stal when sub - Co == 220· C M of co urse, vary considerably as the com -
j ected to an electrical impulse is analogous
to striking a bell or chime with a hammer:
the energy of the imp ulse causes an oscil -
lation to occur, a ringing t hat dies out in
time. The resonant freq uenc y of the chime 0
is re lated to mechanical d ime nsions. In the + + + + +

~~1
+ + + + +

+ + + +

+ + + + +

Thickness - <0 + + .
+ + + + + + + +

+ + + + + +
· + .
+ + + . +
· + +

Metal ilm
- BO
+ + + + +
· + +

4. 995 5 . 00 5 5 . 01 5
Fig 3.28- Cro s s section of a quartz
c r ys tal.
Fig J.30-C rysta l in a 50-Q system w it h respon se. This crysta l has a 5·MHz se ries
reso na nt frequency , L m=.096 H, Q=240,000, and Co=5 pF.

Table 3.4
Freq. MHz Lm • H c.; pF Co' pF Q ESR. !J
3,58 0.13 .0 152 3,35 50 ,000 58
5 .0 .098 .0 134 2,275 240, 000 12.8
Fig 3.29-Symbol and c irc uit model fo r 10.0 .020 .0 1267 2 .B 200 ,000 6 .3
a quartz crystal.

Filters and Imped ance Matching Circu its 3.17

pc ncn ts arc ch anged . This Filter type cou ld a use ful aid in determining bandw idth . Some experimente rs have mounted the
eve n be used ahead of a receiver. A c rystal is inserte d in the test set po t in a pane l and swi tche d it into the
(Pig 3.34 ) and the gene rato r is tuned for a circuit as needed. Th is may give inacc u-
peak output. Note the peak response rate results owing to stray indu ctan ce , T he
Crystal Measurement ampli tude a nd the frequ ency FO where it pot should be mou nted to a suitable
and Characterization occ urs . "dummy cry stal" with short leads.
Ear lier we swep t an LC tuned c ircuit that Ha ving meas ure d peak respo nse. A de tai led anal ysis of the method
was loosely coupled to a generator and a remove 3-dB att enua tio n from the syst em . reveals errors . Thes e can be reduced
detec tor. A ba nd widt h measurement pro - increasi ng the response. T une the genera- subs tantially by shifting to lowe r measure-
duced a Qu' Loose coupling to a paral lel tor upward unt il the response dro ps to the ment imp edance.
tuned circuit occ urre d with a hig h imp ed- level of the prev iou s peak and record the The test se t of Fig 334 is complete. pro -
anc e source and load. The crys tal is a frequency This is one of the - 3 dB fre- vid ing both motional paramete rs and Q
series tune d c irc uit and needs a low im- quencie s. Re pe at thi s step by findin g the infor mation . Howe ver , meas urements
pedance environ ment fo r the loos e co u- lower -3 dB poi nt. The freq uency differ- with this apparatu s become tedious.
pling req uired for mea surement s. \1./e can ence, ~F. is the 3 dB- loaded bandwidth in A simple crystal os cillator c an provide
me as ure a cry st al in the .'l0-n sys tem Hz for this test setup. wh ich will be greater the mot iona l parameters . Th is c ircuit.
sho wn ill Fig 3.34. than the unlo aded cry stal bandwidth. Fig 3.35. incl ude s a se ries capacitor that
The si gnal ge nerato r sho uld he well Kno wing ~r. return the gene rator to the may he switc hed into the ci rcuit to pro -
buffered and extremely stable. T he input freque ncy at pea k respo nse. Remo ve the duce a Freq ue ncy shift. Rela ted equations
of the circu it sho wn beg ins with a 20 -dB cr ysta l and plug the I OO-il pot into the te st arc included with the figure.
pad. compensating for mis matc h. The load set. Adju st the pol for the same meter rea d- The requi red Ou for filter applications
can be a .'l0-U ter minated oscilloscope, a ing: remove the pot fro m the tes t setup and will de pen d upon the filter bandwidth and
spec trum ana lyzer. or a sensitive power meas ure its resistance with a digi tal volt - center frequency as we ll as on the filter
meter. (See Chapter 7 or QST. l une . 2001. ) meter. T his is approximately the ESR of shape and the number of resonato rs . A
A 50-n , switch ed. 3-dB step anenuator is the crys tal. reasona ble rule of thum b fo r most filters
(LC and crystal ) is that the "normalized
Q" must exceed twice the nu mber of reso-
nators . Normalized q. qo. is defined as Q u

10 M ~

!yv~~_-=T- -l< >-_~

1 rD~~
Fig 3.31-A s ing le
4.48 uH crystal filter us ing

Jr"
1 91P~ 1-
Yl .i,
the c rystal of Fig
3-30. T1 is 12 bifilar
turns # 2 6 on a FT- 100

25 . 3 pF -=
1 0 uH
=- ;: .~K= 0.9 9
1 191 P F
_
= 50-61 ferrite toroid.
This filter has a
3-dB bandwidth of
240 rt
~1
1.4 kHz .
1 0 uH

~
<c--1Df---lJ
62
5- 3 0 p F
1 1
62

Fig 3.34-Simp le test set for crystal

0 0 0 0 measurement. The pad is a 20-dB, 50-0
a [§iJ ci rcuit. The output shou ld be term inated
in 50 n. A maximum input power from
~~

~: j
the ge nerator would be abou t -10 dBm ,
resulting in a ma ximum to the cr ysta l of

j I
- 30 dBm. The 100-n pot is substituted
for t he crystal for ESR measurement.

("
- co - 15
See text. App roximate equations fo r
+ • """ - [ 5 mot ional pa rameters are;
. ,~ +
. . . . ",+ 1.2 10
8
.F
u-
+G~~]/
:,+
. Q
b.F . R s
,+
dF
- 30 : _ - 30
1. 9 95 0 5 .0 05
-a ao a
1. 9 3 5- 0 5. 0 0 5 Fo

Fig 3.32-Response of the s ingle Fig 3.33-Response of the s ingle 19.1

crystal filte r of Fig 3.31 whe n the crystal filter of Fig 3.31 when the dF
phas ing capacitor is at minimum va lue phasing capac itor is at ma ximu m val ue
of 5 pF. The s olid line represents the of 30 pF . The solid line re pres e nts the F= Crystal Freq in MHz, t. F=BW in test
case of exact balance when t he phasing case of e xact bala nce whe n t he phasing fixture in Hz, R.= ESR, equ ivalent series
capacitor equals t he crysta l Co' c a pa c ito r equa ls t he crystal Co' resistance.

3.18 Chapter 3
div ided by the filter Q. or small lot (perhaps 10) of a given cry stal paramete rs for se veral cry sta ls to gua ran-
type. He or sho can then measure them for tee that there is small spread between crys -
Q and frequency distribution, If resu lts are tals .It is also worthwh ile to measure a few
Eq 3.10
suitable, another order can be placed for a crystals for Qu . The data is then entered
la rger nu mber. Typical co st for these crys - into a computer spreadsheet where it is
A 500 Hz ba ndwidth filter at 5 MH z tals is around 51 each, so a batch of 10 sorted according to frequenc y, maki ng it
would have filt er Q of 10.000 , If cry stal crystals is still much less exp ensi ve than ea sy to select mat ched crystals for a filter.
Qu= 100.000, qo= IU and the filter wou ld ordering eve n on e special cry stal. How many crystals sho uld be pu rchased
he practical with 5 crystals. Crystals should be matched to withi n 5 to make one filter'.' The ans wer is diffi-
Generally. the most prac tical way to 10 10% of th e filter ban dwidth to build cult, for it could vary a great deal with the
build crystal titters in the hom e lab begi ns effective filters. Hence, crystals for a crystal manufacturer. Genera lly, the pur -
with a largc number of essentia lly identi- 500 -Hz wid e CW filt er should he matc hed chase of 2 or 3 times as many crystals as
cal crystals. These can somett mes he foun d within 25 to 50 Hz ofa nominal frequency. the num ber of filt er resonators is a good
at local surplu s hou ses. often for very low The recommended measureme nt proce - stan . Mere is always useful. A larger lot,
pri ces. Equ ally good so urces arc mail dure begins by numb ering and marki ng all perhap s 100, almost gua rantees a large
or der cat alogs selli ng microprocessor crystals in a set with stick-on label s. The selection of filte rs using most of the crys -
cry stals . Me asure ments (by W7AAZj con- crystals are mea sure d for oscillation fre- tals. Lett over crystal s will be used in
firmed tha t many cry sta l brands offer good quency in the same oscillator. If the oscilla tors , It is rarely practical to bu ild
Q c with a minima l freq uency spread . But "G3UUR" oscillator is used. be sure you homebrew fi lte rs for already existi ng
this is changing, even at this writin g. The specify which switch position is used, and eq uipmen t.
experimenter might consider orderin g a record it in the notes , Me asure motional
De s i gning S i m ple
Cr y sta l Filte rs
Having ch aracterized a set of crystals.
we can now co nsi der a fil ter des ign. Th e
+12V pro cedure will de pend on the qua lity of

10K 0.l-1 47
the filter to be built. Some filters are ea sy.
while others may requ ire ext ens ive and
very careful measurement as wel l as ec r u-
puter simul ation. Bot h ex tremes will be
2N3904 di scussed.
Mo st of the filters we will di scuss use
2N3904 the lower side band lad der topo logy. An
example is pre sented in Fig:3,36 , The crys -
tal s are series ele me nts in a ladder. Shunt
10K. - --. 1K Output capaci tor s couple e ner gy between adj a-
f------- cent cry stals , A me sh is one loop of a lad-
der. one crystal and the two shunt coupling
0.1 ca pacitors on either side of it , A mes h
1K could also be a load. a match ing capacitor.
1K
a crystal, an d one coupling capacitor.
Some mes hes incl ude a serie s ca pacitor to
tune the mesh to the same freque ncy as the
oth er meshe s in the filt er.
The first method presente d ignores the
Fig 3.35-The G3UUR method for m easuring q uart z cr ystal motional par am ete rs A parallel crystal ca pacitance. treating the
s im p le circu it t o measure the motional parameters of fundamenta l mode quartz crystal as a simple series LC circu it. This
cr y stal s . A crystal to be eva luated is p laced in the c irc u it at Y1 and osc illation is scheme is suitable for simple CW filter s.
co nf ir m ed . The frequency is measured. Then the s witch is t hrow n and the
f req uenc y is me asured again. Ty pi cal v alues are C p",470 p F and C.= 33 pF . C m w ill (Alt houg h we th ink of narrow filters as
hav e s am e units as C s. Be sure that C s includes the stray ca pac ita nce of t he bein g more exo tic than wide one s, it is
switc h as welt the circu it part. Th en; ge nerally easier to build narro w crystal
filt er s.) Thi s will he illus trated with an
If
ex ample. a 4th -orde r filter at 5 MHz with
C s « Cp a 400 Hz ba ndwi dth an d a But terworth
then shape. The 11=4 Huuerworth is a sym-
~F metrical filter with q ]"'Q4",0.7654 .
k 12=(Ul409, k n ",0,45 12, and k 14=O .R409.
F The c ryst al s have a 5-MHz ecntcr fre -
,nd
quency . a mot ional induct ance of OJl98
1 H, parallel C of 3 pF. and Q c of 240 .000 .
LM = -, , -'---
w ·eM Nor malized Q is qo",19.2 , so th is is a real-
w here ro=21tF w it h F no w in Hz. 6 F is the F d ifference o bse rve d w hen t he s wi t c h is izable filter. Ca lculating th e mo tiona l C
act iv ated . Examp le: Use c apacit o rs mentioned above, 10 MHz crystal ; F= 1x1 07 , fro m reso nan ce at 5 MHz. we find
DF=1609 Hz, to y ie ld L m",.0239H an d C m"'10.6 fF . (1000 fF '" 1 pF .) C m",0.(}]()339 pF. We calcul ate the cou -

Filters and Impedance Matc hi ng Circu its 3.1 9

piing capaci tors wit h F ig 3.37A . T he fi lter has yet to he tu ned .
The filte r wo uld , oth erwi se . be fi nish ed if
Eq 3.14
we wanted to term ina te in th is res istance.
To ill us tra te the general cas e , we will ter-
minate in a-larger va lue. 4S 0 n. C' is ] 5 3 pF . Ru is 4S0 Q . and R E i s
A termi nation R o will " look like " a 309 n for this example .
Eq 3.11 sm aller value R E if it is sh un ted with a The end mes hes are shown , isolat ed
parallel ca pacita nce . C E where from the other meshes. in F ig 3 .37C while
where B is the bandwidth: F and I:l are hoth
the interio r mes hes are sho wn in i solation
in H z. Subs tit uting, we find C 12=
in Fig 3 .37D _The end me she s have a net
C34= 154 pF and C 2.1=2X6 pf". The end tcr-
seri e s C of 76.7 pf while the int er ior ones
minating res istance is given hy
Eq 3.13 have a net ser ie s C of 10 0. 1 pl-, Both will
h e det un cd from the nominal c ry stal
5 M l-lz, b ut the meshes with th e s ma lle st
Using the values from above . we obtain capacitan ce will he detu ncd by the larg es t
an end capacitor o f 47 pF, produci ng th e am ount . T ho: [o wer m es he s can be prop-
next version of th e filte r a s sho wn in erly tuned by added seri es C so that they
F ig 3 .37 B. Only f ilter tun ing rema ins . have the same net ser ie s C as th e hi ghest
Eq 3.12 The en d me shes. 1 a nd 4. are termi nated freq ue ncy one. Th is will occur with a tun -
in a parallel RC circu it . T he equivalent ing C of
T he e nd re s istance is 309 Q , yie lding series RC co n sists of t he origin al end
th e prel imi nar y fil ter as shown in resistance, R E , and a c apa citance C' where C High · C.\ jc_h
C, Eq 3.15
C \1e, fl - C High

Us ing C\1e, h = lOO. 1 pFand C Hi~h=76.7

pF. a proper tunin g cap acitor is 3 2~fpF. The
final filter circuit is shown in Fi g 3.37 E.
Th e com puter ge nerated re sponse for
th is filler is shown in Fig 3.38,

o_'o_tu~ ~':.: (':-1~~,-)",,,~ _

Fig 3.36-L.o wer sideband lad de r f ilte r with four crysta ls. The fo ur mes hes are
label ed for r ef ere nce in t he d iscussion.
.io ,--I - ---I''--.L\--- -

m
D

40 1--""'='-- '--

, ~r:~r~1e~1~1;"
·00
I
·00 <'---'-
-800 -400 o 400 1200
.. = = = = Frequency (Hz)
FO= 5,00 MHz

Fig 3.38-Response for the cr ysta l filt er

(6 ) designed in Fig 3.37.
450

Acco u nting for Pa r alle l

Crystal Ca p acitance
The quartz cryst a l model of Fig 3.29 is
gene rally an accu rate one. Co has li llie ef-
fect in filters that ar e sufficie nt ly na rr ow.
so was ignored in the pre viou s
desig n. T he 5- \-tHI: CW filter ju st pre-
sented was desi gned for a 4 00-H I hand-
wi dt h with a Butterw orth shape . The shape
is very c lose 10 an ide al Butterworth.
Problems in crea se as the filter b and-
w idt hs grow . Thi s is ill ustrated with
F ig 3 .3 9 which shows the re sponse ofrwo
Fig 3.37-Evol utlOn of a ba ndpass fitte r sho wing th e steps in the desi gn. See text different 3 -k H/_ bandw id th fil ter s us i ng
for det ail s.
3. SS -MII I T V co lo r burst c rysta ls , Tile

3 .20 Chapter 3
 solid curve is the response we would det ai led desig n equations are g iven . The
like . designed with ideal crystals with lew corrections related 10 the effecti ve indue -

,:t:-
zo
1-
Re f. (?~\
(~:;'-'71 -\- -
" \
parall el capacitance. Co"'4 pF produces the
other response . The filter bandwidth is too
narrow and the attenuation is ma rkedl y in-
creased. It i s for this reason that this ci rcui t
tance are incl ude d in the program
Xl AD.exe . Bot h the program and the 1995
QEX paper are included on the hook CD ,
T he effecti ve ind uctance is larger than
~ ·30 is named the lower sideband ladder filter. the normal motional L by a factor o f 2 or
/ I '\ Res ponse distortion result, because the mo re , T his reduce s the effective mot ional
40
Gajn par allel C o makes the serie s reson ators capacitance by the same fac tor . Acco rd-
·50 / (S -2 1) I I ', '\. behave as if they had a lar ger motional L ing ly. the coupli ng c apacito rs m ust be

·00
/ I I than is measured , Thi s effect is plotted in
F ig 3.40 for the 5-M Hz cr ystal s used in the
reduced by the same factor. The cha nge
also a lters the calculation of end res is -
-60 00 -3000 0 ,"00 5000 9000
Freque ncy (Hz)
ea rlier CW filler d esign. T he lo wer curve tance. Th e new ter minations and reduced
FO= 3. 58 M Hz shows the effect of a 2-pF par all e l capaci - co uplin g capacitors will then alte r the fi l-
tance whi le the upper c ur ve is for Co = ter tuning.
5 pF. Here, X is the ra tio of Len lO L rn . The One c an build symmetric filters if the
Fig 3. 39-The response of t wo crystal horizontal axis in the c urve is IlE the off- effect of parallel capacitance is eliminat ed .
fillers built from 3.SS-MHz color burst
se t fro m the serie s reso nant f req ue ncy. One way to do thi s parall els each crystal
cry stals. One uses ideal crystals with
zero CO to produce a symmetrical These effects were discussed in greater with a large in ductance . T he val ue
s hape. The other (w ith dashed line) de tail in QEX for Ju ne . 1995, where required is one tha t re sonates wi th Co'
u ses CO=4 pF crystals. forming a par alle l trap that is then bridged
by the series resonant portion of the crys-
tal. An experimental filler W<lS b uill to
examine thi s idea . The ind uct ance use d
was small er than required fo r resonance,
s so small trimmer capacitors we re ad ded .
The filter, bui lt with 3.5S-11Hz color bu rst
crystals for a 3.5 -kH7. bandwidth. is sho wn
/ in Hg 3.41. Th e measured response is pre-
sented in Fig 3.42 _

./
V Cry sta l filters bu ill with paralleled in -
ductors suffer fro m degraded stopband
re sponse . Althou gh the per fo rma nce

V aro und the filter center is as des igned. it

~
degrade s a few hu ndred kHz away from
cen ter. nece ssi tating the crysta l filler be
sup plemented with an LC ba nd pass .

~
,o ----". 1000) 1500 . 500
The M in·Los s Filter of
C ohn a n d other
Sim p lif i ed Forms
A simplified non-mathemaucal sch eme
Fig 3.40- X, defined as Lef,lL m, is plotted for frequency offset, Sf, abo ve crystal
series resonance in Hz. These 5-MHz c rystals had parallel C of 2 and 5 pF. for bu ilding crystal f ilt ers uses the M in -
Loss circuit. This circuit is the result of
fundamental work by S. B. Cohn where he
de scribed a famil y of eouplcd resonator
fi lters tha t ach ieved very lo w insertio n loss
wh ile maintain ing goo d stop hand att en ua-
C-toim C·jl im
tion. !o A re ally interesting property of
" these filt ers wa s the f act that they used
id entic al resonators that were coupled 10
e ach other with eq ual value s of coupling.
T his means that all shunt co upling capaci-
tors in a Min-Loss crystal filt er are equal.
If the fillers arc des igned withou t shu nt
end loading c apacito rs. tu ning is greatly
simplified. A Min-Los s ty pe cry st al filter
is properly tun ed if

• all crystals ha ve the same freq uency.

Fig 3.41- Experimental crysta l fi lter. • a ll coupli ng capacitors <lre o f the same
Y1,2,3,4 = 3.5S-MHz surplus color burst crystals. (L m=O.l17H, Co=4 pF)
L = 151 I-lH , 48 turns #30 on FT-50-61 Ferrite t oroid.(A midon)
value . C.
C-trim = 3·12 pF ceram ic trimmer. See the referenced QEX paper for adjustment • ser ies cap acitors ha ving the same capac i-
procedure. tance as the coupli ng Care placed in serie s

Filters and Impedance Matching Circu its 3 .21

 with both end crysta ls
Butterwort h Crystal Filter, 3.58 MHz • both terminations arc equal and properly
rela ted to coupl ing.
m 0
TI
'J)-
~

§ -20
-10
········· L
......... 1 '\
\ Fig 3A2- Measured
resp onse for the
A cry stal filter of this typ e, with five
resonators . is shown in Fig 3.43.17
T his filter topology ofte n a ppe ars with
Q
filter shown in the name "Cohn filt er ," titled for the
gj -30
Q'

?,l -40
iii
.:; ! \\..< Fig 3.41. ori ginal c ircu it the orist who co ntributed
so ex tensively to our design methods.
Other filters have also app ea red with the
a5 -50 Cohn name . Here we have divorced the
Q'
00 20 40 60 80 10 0 12 0 140 name from this simp le crystal filter, for it
Relative Frequency , kHz is but one exa mple f ro m Cohn' s body of
work. a collection that is muc h richer and
more ext e nsive than has bee n presented in
the amate ur literature.
Whil e mo st of the Min-Los s crys tal fil -
ters we bui Id are fabricated wit hout de sign
( i.e .. with out any math ematical analy sis),
A t hree element they Jll ay certainly be studied and designed
crys tal fi lter at 10 on the computer. The normalized coupling
MHz. The met al coefficie nts and end section Q for this fil -
can c rys ta ls hav e ter type arc approximately given hy
small wi res
so lde red to the m
th ai a re t he n
g ro u nd ed to t he
k ~.c2 . "p ( L" (2) )
Jk N
)<;(1 3 ,16
f oi l.

I
q ~ -
Eq 3, 17
k jk

where 11 is the number of reso nators. The se

value s are tabulated for 11 from 2 10 10 in
Ta ble 3.5. (The first few points app eared
in the origi nal Coh n pap er, while k and q
for N> 5 arc extrapolations via our abov e
equations.)
Th ree experiment al
Show n in F tg 3,44 A are transf er func-
crys tal fil ters. The
t o p circui t us es 10 tio n plots for two d ifferent fi lters o r this
c rysta ls in a c irc u it typ e, T he wider, lo wer loss one has 3 reso-
w it h eq u al co up li ng nator s while the oth er has 8 cr ystal s. Bo th
between resonator s circuits were des igned for 5 MH z with a
(Cohn ). Th e bottom 5UO-Hz bandwidth using high Q crystals
filter is that fro m
Fig 3.41 .
with L m=O,098 H . Pa rt A of the figure
shows c los e-in de tails while Fig 3.44 B
shows the response to the - so dB level.
Part C ofthe fi g ure shows the group delay
for the filter with 8 resona tors . (More will
be said abo ut gro up delay short ly.) All
three plots arc computer ge nerated re-

Table 3.5
N k q
2 0 ,707 1.4 14
3 0 ,63 1 ,58 7
Fig 3.43- Min-Loss 4 0 ,595 1.683
ty pe cr ysta l f ilter 5 0 ,574 1.74 1
w ith equa l co upli ng 6 0. 561 1.782
an d si mplified 7 0 ,552 1.8 11
tuning . 8 0,545 1.834
9 0,54 1.852
10 0.536 1.866

3.22 Chap ter 3

spouses . although th ey arc in go od ag ree- that th is fil ter may have severe ri nging if fr om the or di nary . The re ar e n um erou s
me nt with mea su rements on sim ilar filters. built for narrow ( C Wj band widt hs. phe nom en o n that ten d to deg rad ed per ter-
We ha ve b uilt Min- Lo ss crysta l filler s up Alt ho ug h the two filte rs (N= 3 and N=8 ) mance and remo ve "crispn e ss ." One that
to 1Dth orde r. described in Fig 3.44 have di fferent can ru in an otherwis e ex ce llent rece iver is
The dat a of Fig 3.4 4 ill ustrat e the res pon se s. the y are re mark ab ly si mila r an If filter with cxcc ssi vc gro up d elay All
salient propertie s of the Co hn filter. The in component va lue s. The N=3 filt er us ed fi lters have time dela y. a truth th at can no t
passband sh ap e is smooth wit h min imal 146- p F ca pacitors and 1RI -n termin ation , he avoid ed . The fi lters that "soun d " th e
ripple fo r the low' order fi lters (N= 3), but whi le th e I, N= R fi lter u sed HiI'; p F bes t are tho se th at have small de lay for a
beco mes d istorted as the number of reso - and ISS n , A filter des igned with two or gi ven band width an d, of greate r import,
nator grow s beyo nd five . The r ipp les on three cr ys ta ls c an be ex tend ed w ith th e behave like a trans mission lin e with lill ie
the pas sb and edg es ne ar th e ski n s bec o me same capaci tor val ues an d ter mi natio ns. variatio n in gro up de lay ov er t he pas sban d ,
ex treme with wid er ban d widt h filter s. The Th is bec o mes extremely u seful for the The group del ay of an ei gh th order Min-
\"=8 da ta of Fig 3.44 B illustrate the excel - exper im ent er . Loss filter was pres ent ed in F ig 3 .44 C. The
le nt shape affor ded by the Min-Los s filter . The Min-Lo ss crystal filter has virtues delay wa~ high . e xceedi ng 10 rni Hiseconds
Howe ver. the lime domain perform anc e a, oflow insert io n loss and good skirts. bu t at in pa rt o f the pa ssb and The gm up delay
depic ted in the grou p de lay plot , uggests th e pr ice of po or passband shap e w ith variation mer the pass ba nd was a lso
higher o rde r s. So me other filters o ffer severe . This filt er. alt ho ugh ver y se lecti ve.
similar non-math ematical vimplicir y and wou ld probab ly no t so und good. cs pe -
b ett er passb and performance. wit h a group cially wi th noise p uls es .
o of cry stals a ll 'It the sa me frequ ency F iA T wo 5 - ~l H l filt ers wer e de signe d for a
3.45 shows such a fi lter. This desig n is a ba nd w id th of 5UU Hi. eac h with five
B utte rwor th des ig n at 10 MH z with nor- crys tals , O ne fi lter us ed a O.I -dB r ip ple
malized pa ram eter s of q=O. 765, ll~ = Cheby shev respon se whil e the other used a
k ,4=O.84 1. and k 2., =0 .54 1. T his filter is linear phase respon se . T he Chebyshev re -
de sig ned wit h a p ure re sisti ve termination sult s are shown in F ig 3 .46 wh ile the linear
at the ends (no sh unt e nd ca pac itors.) The ph ase response is given in Fig 3.47 . 1:30th
equation s pr ed ict the e nd res is ta nc e and plot s overl ay gro up d elay a nd gai n. Th e
the sh unt ca pacitors. The se ries tun ing ca- "ca rs" of the Ch ebyshe v gro up del ay plot
pacitors are yet to he es tablished. How- line up with the 3-d B edge s o f the pass-
ever. the values ar c c lea r from inspec tio n. ban d . , 0 all del ay vari atio ns arc heard . In
If the end ca paci tors ar e set to th e valu e of con trast. the rcg ion of low gro up de lay in
IAI the c ent er ca pac ito r ( 1'; 5 pEl eac h me sh the line ar phase fil ter ext end s well beyond
has the same capacitor s in the rel ated loop . the filte r bandwidth edge s. Both of thes e
" ~F ';-TI Desi gn with th e eq uations doc s not takc filte rs have bee n built an d tried m an
.
10
r '~/l --'
" f---c-~t---+I-''cc;'c;-;cc;:l
1' : - 1 I the p ara llel cryst al ca pacitance e ffects into
acco u nt. Th is I S done w ith curv es l ike
e xpe r ime ntal CW receiver . Th e linear
phase filt er was more d iffic ult to build. bu t
I / \ Ref. 5 -21
·30 / ' _\~ th os e o f F ig 3.40 that estab lish an sounded m uch bet ter. The skirt, wer e steep
inc reased effec ti ve ind ucta nce val ue that in th e Che bys hev . so it prese nted ade qu ate
::g -40 .... ,. "
, ca n then be app lie d w ith the e qua tions se lec tivi ty. We fou nd the Iinear phase f Ite r
Ap pro xima te des ig ns witho ut the curvev in need of more skirt se lecti vity. Althou g h
will still re sul t i n practica l fi lte rs al not shown in the figu re s. the Ch e by she v
the hig her freq uen cies (8 MHz and up) filter group delay was 2 ,5 ti mes as large a s
altho ugh the band width wi ll be a bit nar- the linear phase filter de lay .
woo
rower than the des ign values . We have also had go od re sults wi th an
in te rme dia te filter sha p e, the Gau ssian-
to -6 dB res pon se. Th is is a fil ter with a
Ringing, Group Delay
Group Delay Max GD - 12.33 rou nded pea k shape for the top 6 dB . but
and Filter Pa ssband with steep C he bys hev- like skirts. Tr ansi-
Shape
3 - -~
:-1 A ll serio us recei ve r expe ri me nte rs have
their fa vorite e fforts . receivers wi th sp eci-
ficat ion s diffe rin g lillie from ot hers . but
tion a l fi lter s (Ga ussian -to-o dB , Gaussian-
to - 12 dB . li near pha se. and max imu m n at
del ay) are sli ghtly m ore difficult to build
th a n the Min-Loss. Buuerwonh. or
w ith a " crisp sou nd " that sets them apart Cheby she v filt ers. fo r the y lack the sy m-
I
n '---'-~'L_L""""'_-!
-1000 -500 500 1000 1500
Frequency (Hz)
lei

Fig 3.44-Min-Loss c rysta l f ilte r

res po ns es. A an d B com pa re 3rd and
8th o rde r filter s in respo n se s to - 20 and Fig 3.45-10·MHz SSB ban d wi dt h f ilter us in g c ryst als w ith id ent ic al fr eq uenc ies
-80 d B. C s hows th e g ro up d elay fo r t he and " easy" tunin g. Thi s f ilter has a Bullerworth s hape ; t he s implified tun in g
8th o rd er f ilte r. method often wo rks well w it h N=4 Cheby s hev f ilte rs .

Filte rs and Impedance Match in g Cir cuits 3.23

 ~

Gain
I
!
I
Gain
;
,

y Gro up
Group / Delay
Delay

- 7 I~
Fig 3.46-Group delay and gain for a Chebyshev cry stal f ilte r. Fig 3.47 -Group delay and ga in for a li near p hase cry stal
The gain is plotted over a 20-dB range. fi lter. The ga in is plotted o ve r a 20·dB range.

merry ofthe traditional types. If the transi- review the work of Carver !". Extreme selectivity alway s seems 10 bring
tio nal fillers were commercially available. Int uition wou ld suggest that a FI R some rin ging. Generally, it is the Jess
they would probably be very expen sive. (fin ite impulse re spo nse) filter, usually selective schemes with smooth peak shap es
On the other hand. they offer a challenge realized with DSP. wou ld have s ignifi- that always sound the bes t, without regard
that is well worth the effort for t he ad- cantly red uced ringing , So me do. but some to the method used to ach ieve it, tradit ion al
vanced ex perimente r. The rea der shou ld oth ers still show sign ificant Tinging. hardware or digit al signal processi ng.

3 .5. ACTIVE FILTERS

Wh ile most receivers are sup er-h etero- a value uf 1. 2. 5. and 10. A peak appears in
dyne des ig ns with an IF. some simple the respons e as A exceeds 2. T he circuit pro-
superhets as we ll as virt ually all direct vides a voltage gain of 1.7 when A=lO.
conversion rece ivers obtain much of their T he filter ha s a two -po le Bu tte rworth
se lectivity from audio filtering. Audio fre - response when A=2. Fo r A .-:; 2 and fo r
quen cy inductors hav e become ava ilab le equal R, the 3 d B cutoff freq ue ncy is given
in recent ye ar s, making tradition al LC by
designs viab le at low frequencies. Ev en
prior to the arr iva l of those parts . some
build ers had built audio filte rs with sur - ~A _ 2 +~2 ' A2 - 4· A + 4
plus telep hone toroids. Still, the most com- Fig 3.48-RC active low-p ass f ilter. Th e
mon method for audio filtering uses RC 2 ·j[ · R · C I · A up-a mp is assu med to be powere d fro m
acti ve circuits. An RC active filter com - dual s up p lies around g ro und. Ot her
F:q 3.18 biasing schemes are presented late r.
bine s gai n with res isto rs and ca paci tors to The operat iona l amplifier is co nfig u red
synthesize inductor behavior. for a no n- inverting gain of 1. C2, t he
where A is the capacitor ratio, C2/C l . For
feed back ca pacitor, is A x C1 whe re A is
examp le, with R= IO kO, C l=.O I JlF (.0 1 JlF a va lue greater than 1.
The Low Pass Filter = 10 nf') . and Ae l (equal capacitors) , the
cutoffi s 1024 Hz. Eq 3.18 ca n be solved for
Figure 3.48 shows an active low pass fil-
R for an arbitrary cu toff frequency.
ter for m known as the voltage controlled If A exceeds 2 the filter takes on a peaked
voltage source (V CV S). It use s an opera -
response. It is then more convenient to
tional amplifier configured as a non - Table 3 .6
wor k with the peak frequenc y as a function
inverting amplifier. usua lly with a gain of of R, C, and A. the capa citor ratio. If A>2 , A Voltage Gain A Voltage Gain
one . T wo resistors and two capacitors com - 2 ,2 1.004 6.8 1.4 1
the peak frequency is given by 2.4 1.0 14 10 1.67
plete the circuit. Fig 3.48 sho ws part values
3. 3 1.088 22 2.4
for the two resistors, here assumed equal, 33 2,9
3.6 1 .12
and one capa citor. The other capa citor is a 3.9 1.14 47 3.46
multiple of the first. A representative set of Eq 3.19 4.7 1,22
responses is shown in Fig 3.49 where A has

3.24 Chapter 3
 con nec ted from the amplifier out put to
2.0
ground. T he resis tor should pass a st and -
ing curre nt of about I rnA. Severe cros s-
over di stortion wil l res ult with o ut th is
. ~ loading.

'. 5
r / "

. .'
/
\ High·Pa ss Filters

-
/
Figure 3.52 shows a VCVS typ e high-

-- - "
.
/
»> ':" ,
pass filter . This circuit is the d ual of the
> 1.0 .=- \ , low pa ssju st d iscu ssed . It is de signed with

~.\~
equal valued ca pacitors. The resistors now
differ by a factor '· A'·. The usual filters
. \ have the grounded res istor as the o ne with
. . larger value . Fig: 3.53 sho ws the re sp unse
0 .5

,
! I , , I I ,
,I.~"' ".~
... .
..... .:::-.r- .:.........."
~ . _"=-= ...... . , ,
0.0
0.1 0,2 0.3 0.40,50,6 0.8 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 6.0 8.0 10,0
Frequency (kHz)
.10-
V(4) - - V(14)··· ···· ·· ·· V(24) - - - V(34) _ . _ .
."
'" -30 i
Fig 3A9-Response of the filter sho wn in Fig 3-48 with A=1, 2, 5, and 10. These
curves, and severa l others in this section , were generated wit h Supe r Spice from
Compact Software. The solid line corresponds to A=1 while the highest peak is for
" ~o1~~~~E~~~t~~~~
·50
· 60

:~~ ----l-..1.JJ.Ll.~_._U ~~ IJ t = L I I I
I

A=10.
0.Q1 0.10 1.00 10.00
dB (V(12J) Frequency (kHz)

So me va lues of lo w pass voltag e gain at this type is shown in Fig 3.50, T hree tIVO-
the response pea k are tabulated vs A. the pole sections with A=2 are ca scaded to Fi g 3.51-Response fo r t he c as c ade of
identical lo w-pas s sections presented
c apacitor ra tio, in Ta ble 3.6 . form a 6-pole filter suitable for SSH recep-
in Fig 3·50 . This is a calcu lated reeu tt ,
The re arc nume ro us way s 10 design tion. The res ponse fo r this filter is shown in although we ha ve built several sim ilar
practical low -pas s fi lte rs with the equa- Fig 3.51. The dip at low frequ ency resul ts designs.
lions. A c ascade of sec tion s like those in from the l -I-l F input coupling capaci tor.
Fig 3.48 would form Butterworth or Cascades of peaked low -p as s filters
C he byshev filters of hig h order. Ea ch ( A > 2) ca n be very useful. The gain c an be R
capacito r c orresponds to o ne pnle in the co nsiderable when se vera l stages are ca s-
Co Co
caded. These fi lters lake on a bandpass like
I
,[>
respo nse, one L or C in the tradi tiona l fil- 10 o f 10 o f
ter. Gene rall y, eac h two-pol e low-pass shap e. offering an attractive res pon se for rl

~1V
sec tion will differ from the ot hers in higher direct co nversion rec eivers intended for
R,A
order Butte rworth o r Che hyshev f ilters . CW use .
For details . see the text by Johnson. et al.!" The fi lter shown in Fig 3.50 is biased
Altern atively, se veral iden tical low-pass fo r sing le powe r su pply ope ration . This '.
-ecuons c an be cascade d to form a useful sc he me is especially attract ive with the ~

c ircuit. These fil ters are easy to analy ze low-pass fi Iter, for an en tire cha in of fi Iter
Fig 3 .52-Vo ltage contro lled vo ltage
and design, and off er e xc ellent perfor- se ction s may be biased with on ly one sou rce high-pass filter . The operational
mance, es pecially with simple direct co n- d ivider. If LM-358 or LfI-·J-3 24 op-urnps am p lif ier is again set fer a c lo s ed loop
version receivers. An example of a fi lter of are used, a pull down resistor sho uld be g ain of +1.

+11 +11 +12 +12

20 nF 20 nF 20 nF
10 k
4 ,7 k
0",
10 k

Fig 3.50 -Practica l lo w-pass f ilter that c an be built w it h common op -empa, such as the 741 . 1458, 358, 324, 5532.

Filters and Impedance Matc hing Circu its 3.2 5

 The vev s low -pa ss titter wit h equ al res istors has a transfer function of R

C c

it>
I
, , , ---l
Eq 3.20 Input
s· C · R + s - · C · R - · A p"
where s is now the complex (Lal'Iacc I frequency , sejroin the Frequency domai n. C is

~ nne ~+
the sh unt capacitor while Ax e is the feed bac k capacitor. T he co rres pon ding fre-
quency dom ain respo nse is nne

1
· 12 ~ I
f + R+ C+ . .>\ 2 + 16 r/ !" .R
2
c' Fig 3.54-Biasing method for high-pass
filter sections. A voltage di vider crea tes
a synthetic ground at half of the sing le
Eq 3.2 1 supply.

2.0
-
2.0
1;
/
>

~
10
/ \
15
1_ _\
, -, 0; / \
>
1.0 I
/ .r
I

----
J....,....... ....•.... .. .....
,
' . .
-..::
0.0
0.1

V(62) - -
/
i
Frequency (kHz)
o
\
10.0

/41 Fig 3.5S-The 4x4 fi lte r, a cascade of

four peaked lo w-pass sections (6.8 kQ,
05

•
A // .
.......
..... ..
....-
.==.:;,:;; ..,-,·:1 - ·11 I
,/ 1./ '
.>
I I I I I I I I,
10 nF, and 50 nF) fo llowed by fo ur
peaked high-pass sections (20 nF,
27 kO, and 5.6 kQ)

0.0
0.1 0.2 03 0' 0.50.6 08 10 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.06, 0 8,0 10.0
Freq uenc y (kHz.)
V(4 ) V(14 ) · · · · ····· ·· V(24 ) - - - V(34 ) - ·- ·· cascaded with four peaked high -pass sec -
tion s.
Fig 3.53-Transfer functions for four versi ons of t he high pass section of Fig 3.52 .
The resistor ratio varies, taking on values of A=1, 2, 5, and 10. The solid line A ctiv e B a ndpass Filters
corresponds to A=1 while the hig hest peak is for A=10.
A bandpass-filter sec tion is shown in
Fig 3.5 6 usi ng an operational amplifier in
an infini te gain multi ple feedhack circ uit.
The IGMFB cir cuit is practical with com -
~(2 - A )+b · A 2
for fo ur d ifferent filt ers. a ll with l fl-nf mon op-amps such as the 741. 145H, and
capacitors and a 20-k!:.! ungrou nded resis- - 4·A +4
5532. The topo lo gy is represented with
tor . Th e gro und ed re sis tor var ies to se t 2· II' C · R A two eq ual val ued capac itors and thr ee
ga in and peak ing . The values used are 20 resi stors . O ne of the resisto rs allows the
kQ . 10 kn, 4 kn. and 2 kn , Eq 3.23 user to specify ci rcuit ga in as well as cell-
T he characteristics of the high -pas s sec- ter freque ncy and Q or bandwidth. The de-
tion arc much lik e those of the low pass. sig n begins by picking these values for
T he c ircuit hegins to take on a pea ked re- The vevs high -pass sec tions d o not
vo ltage gain K (a dimensionless rat io). Q,
have a de path thro ugh them that allows
sponse when A exceeds 2. A peaked high f o in Hz. and e in Farad s. The req uired
pa ss will have a pea k freque nc y given by the easy biasing afforded by the luw pass.
resistors are then
A high -pass section may be biased wi th
the methods sho wn in Fig 3.54 when dua l
power sup plies are no t a vailable . Eq 3.24
2 'II 'C. R.~ Eq 3.22
The high pass and low -pass form s may
be co mbined in a ca scade to form bandpass
T here is no peak if A<2. The pure high fi leers with excellent stopband attenuation.
pass the n has a 3 d B cutoff frequenc y gi ven An example response is shown in Fig 3.55 R, Eq 3.25
hy where four peaked lo w-pass sections are

3.26 Chapter 3
 ~ 4. 7K ~ou tPu t B ~ SS Ou t p u t

I :'r_e_~ ~~~_c_~ j ___ ______

e, 4. 7K
, ,
, . 0 47
c I n pu t
" - -I,
,"K
- in ~ •
,

i:ll
,
Input

" V Output v '" 3 .3K

V '" 3 .3K

-o! -
.,. Out p ut
aau
Fig 3.56- lnf init e gain, multiple- ,. [§] >OK :-l
feedbac k (IGMFB) bandpass fil ter. This
to po log y is capab le of moderately high I
Q and ga in w ith prac t ical compone nts.
I;h 1 00 To Op- _

~ ~
10K V~ ~

ee
pi ns .
«-
t1P ou t
>OK
f>-
30 l~ m >OK
0;\ .7K
-I- - t r om , t. ~
, , , , LP out
•
No t c h Output
- 1\ -1- ' · ,
" 1- -j~ ,~ Fig a.se-c-state -vartame a udi o filte r for CW receiver applications . All op-amps are
I
741 or 1456. The cp-arn p pin numbers are not shown . The buil der must also
F 7r- I
/ '- ~
co nnect the power supply line to the Vee point on the op -amps . This circuit wa s
inserted between the aud io gain control an d th e o ut put amplifier in a high
0
0.000 1 000105 0.002 performance CW recei ver .

Fig a.sz-ccercuteteo gai n in d B for

th e IGMFB bandpass fil ter shown in
Fig 3-56 . Th is ve rs io n used t he
re s i sto r and capac it or values
se veral sections are to be cas caded. It is ana lyze the circuit with ma them at ics.
ca lc ulated In the text f or Q=5 at 800
Hz with a gain at resonance of 2. The sometimes useful to provide a rotary much of t he behavior is clear from inspec-
so li d c urve represents t he nominal switch allowin g t he user the ability to tion . At very 10\,' freq uency. the capac itor
re s po ns e while the dashed c u rv e select one of several outputs in a ca scade . is an open circ uit The op-a mp input
shows the resu lt of tuning R2 to a Eac h section of a IGMF B filter ca n hav e a imp edance is very hig h. so the input volt -
lo wer va lue. Changi ng R2 to a 1 kil- Q as high as 10 or 20. age is also that ap peari ng at the po int
v ariab le in series with a 560 -0: fixed
re s i sto r would produce a tunab le
Other bandpass circuit forms arc also marked ·'E." The negati ve feedback
band pas s cha rac te r istic w it h suitable. An especially interesting one is actio n torces the inverti ng op-amp inp ut
essent iall y constant ga in and the so called state-variable filter. whic h to a Lso he E. The o nly way for this to hap-
ba nd wid th. This t uning s cheme wo rks uses three o perational amplifi ers. The one pen i ~ for the outp ut 10 also equal E. At lo w
we ll onl y when R1 >R2. This s weep circuit will simul taneously provide low freque ncy the output i~ in pha se with the
was generated wit h Super-Star pa ss, high pass, a nd bandpass outp uts . input and has the same magnitude for unit y
Pro fes s ion al from Eag le Soft ware.
Adding one more op-ump will even allow gain. Tn co ntrast, at very high frequency.
a no tch filter fun ction. An e xamp le is the capacitor is a short circu it. The o p-amp
sho wn in Fig 3 .5H. This circuit is tunable
over the norm al range used for CW notes
an d has variable Q. The not ch is not
included in the vers ion that was built. but w,
could be added with the circuitry shown. '"
Eq 3.26 The reader interested in mor e infor ma-
tio n o n the sta te-variable fi lter should
exa min e the article by Howard Rerli n. 2o In p ut
e E
<, I
when: % ",l XTC Xfu' y.,'e sec fro m E q ua tio n
3.25 that the gain sho uld he less tha n 2Q2.
The state-varia ble fine r is an espe cia lly
interesting circuit for those with a math -
/ Outpui

For exampl e. a filter using 22-nF ca paci- em atical incl inat io n. fo r the circu itry is an 0
tors with a cen ter frequency 01'800 HI, a Q
of 5_and a gain at re son ance of 2 is bui lt
with Rl "'22 .600 n. R2=94 2 fl_ and
exact replication of the equatio ns.
I
R3",90 .4 kQ . The transfer funct ion for this The AII·Pass Filter Fig 3.59-Basic , single section all-pass
filte r is shown i n Fig 3.57. An especially i nte res ting, but very filler. This circuit has unity ga in at all
The IGMFB ban dpass filter must be sim ple RC active fi lter circ uit is the freq uencies, but has a co ntinually
chang ing phase response. II is usefu l
biased with the meth od shown earl ier for a all -pass of F ig 3.59. This circu it lI SCS an for phase shift net works such as t hose
high pa ss filter if a sing le power supply is op-am p. a single sectio n RC low pass fil- used fo r the phasing 1Tletho d of s ingle
to be used. Thi s f ilter form is idea l if ter. and a pair of resistors. Although we sideband.

Fi lters and Impedance Matching Circuits 3.27

 ap plications. A n unusua l on e is in a 'Pc- earl ie r, will ri ng v irtually fo rev er w hen
cia l band pa ss fi lte r, one wi th a fini te subj ected to a noise im pu lse , T he lon g
im puls e re spo nse. T he has ic , repeated ringing is ev ide nt from the mathematics ; it
0F-== :-r-- - cle me nt in this f ilt er is a dela y element,
sho wn in Fig 3,61. Th e de lay arises fro m
is also evident from liste nin g to such a fi l-
rcr. In contrast . th e FI R fil ter has a imp ulse
a casc ade of lWO all-pass networks. The resp onse that is Ii mited to the tot al de lay of
R C in the all -p a ss is pic ked for 90 degrees the all pass structure , A filter like thi s o ne
of phase sh ift at 800 H z. H ence . the cas- will still "color" noise , but that noi se will
1.0 10 .0 cade of two has 180 c shift at 80 0 Hz , The not bri ng abou t the someti mes terr ible
Frequ ency (kHz) shift is le ss at lower freq ue ncy, but more at ri nging that wo uld occu r wit h a casc ad e of
Phase IVi4 )) - -- highe r frequency, The cir cuit o f Fig 3- 6 1 hig h Q reso nator s. Note the roun ded peak
behav e s like a transmiss ion line with shap e: i t's simi lar to tha t found with filt ers
Fig 3.60-Phase response for an le ngth of one half-wave at 800 Hz. with the be tte r ti me doma in respon se s.
all-pass f ilter . The halfwa ve line s ar e rep eated and cas - The f ilter ci rcuit sho wn in F ig. 3.6 2 is
ended to for m a line tha t is. in this ex ample. not com pletely imprac tical. alth ough it is
4.5 wav el en gth s lo ng at 800 Hz, sh own in not recomm end ed as a construct ion pro-
then behaves as the fam il iar inv ert ing F ig 3.62 . Th e line is tap ped at each half ject. One of the authors h uilt several FIR
amp lifier ( 180 degrees of ph ase shift) with wave point. Bec ause the li ne is h ui lt fro m audio ban dpa s s fi lters in the late 19 70s. In
un ity ga in . se ver al operat ion a l ampfifie r v the tap come. the si gn als fro m the taps had
Th e tran sfer funct io n fo r this circui t is po ints arc low im pedan ce and can be unequal weighti ng. accomplished by
lo ad ed wit hout inte ractio n or other chang ing the summi ng resistors fro m eac h
ad verse con sequence. d iffic ult wit h a rea l tap. The number of taps grew to impra ct ical
trans miss ion line. ext remes. (Don't as k ~ ) Tap s can be added
El l _'-27
A sinuso idal audio sign al at SOD Hz is as the de lay len gth grow s. Th e resu lts were
app lied to the inpu t. The signal loo ks the mixed with the eve ntual conclusion that a
where w = Zxn xf wi th fi n Hz . T his circui t same at all po int s a long the line except for filter of this type was not practical in simple
has an ampli tude re xpunce of unity at a ll cha ngl:s in pha se. H we e xtract two sign als anal og form. The experime nts were, none-
all fre quencie s and a phase sh ift given by fro m two taps on the li ne that an: se para ted theles s. among the mo st enlightening that
by o ne full wavelength . the lWO sig nals we ha ve ever expe rienced !
will be in p ha se. If the two signals ar e A lar ge num ber of tap s is po ssib le and
J ~ I - n~ 1 adde d. they will produ ce a signal that is comple tel y pract ical tod ay in FIR f ilt ers
O= COS- l + " F:II ] .28
twice the origi na l. If. howev er , the two based upo n dig ital signal proc exxing , It is
1 Q
laps arc onc (or th ree , or five, ...) half wave- in formative to co nti nue the anal ogy .
w here n = fl to wi t h to
being the fre- lengths apart. the result is c om plete c an -
ce llat io n. for the tw o com ponen ts are t hen
o A DSP audio filte r begin s by sampling

the in co mi ng sign al. The inco ming sig -

q uency where the ne twork has a 90 degree
pha se. tois g iven hy equal in magn itude, but o ut of pha se , The nal is mer ely a voltage that cha nge s wi th
tim e. Sa mpl ing mean s that the sign al is
cancellation can be turned into po sitive
I reinforcement if we add 180 de grees of captured at o ne instan t intime. Thi s mus t
f o = -- ' - - Eq 3.29
2 ·IT·R ·C pha se sh ift to o ne hefore addi t io n; this occur quic kly a nd o ften , at least twice
resu lt s from an inverter . for ever y c ycle for the hig hest freq uency
The phase re sponse of the network is Fi g 3.62 shows a co mplete filter. All that our au dio sy stem will proc ess .
preve nted in F ig 3. fill for t he ca se of R= tap s wit h even nu mbers arc su mmed to- Each sam ple is applied to an analo g-
10 1; 11 and C=I O nF. get her in a summi n g amplifier VI. V2 to-di gi tal con verter. Th e A to D p ro vides
A com mon application for the all -p a ss serves a similar role for si gnals from o dd a stream of da ta that can be p rocessed , lt
ne twork is to ge ner ate the audio phase num bered taps. U3 inverts one res ul tant can be do ne in a high sp eed ge ner al pur-
shi ft need ed in a ph a sin g type S SB signal with the final output extract ed from po se compUler or in special circuitry d e-
recei ver or tran smi tte r. Exam ples ar c U4 as the sum of the two . An out put re- signed spec if ic all y fo r th is t as k. The
fou nd in Chapte rs 8 and 9 , sponse is di g it ized da ta is st or ed in co mpute r
pres ent ed in Fig 3.6 3. memory.
This filter ha s a characte r isti c that dif - Computer me mory also con tains data that
A FIR Bandpass Filter fe rs from the typic al aud io filte r. the fi nite was sto red from earl iermome nts. Rcmc m-
The all-pas s fi Iter serves as a freque nc y na tu re of the im pul se respon se , The usu al bcr thai we are sampling the signal at least
de pend ent del ay cl ement for a variety of bandpass audio fi ller, su ch as de scribe d twice per cycle for the incom ing data we
wish to proces s. Th e memory has the data
j ust sam pled. that from one sa mple period
back. from two periods back. and so forth ,
io«
'" ex tendi ng into the past by a number of
"taps" co mmensurate with ou r ab ility to
~, store and process.
At ea ch int er val in the p roce ss, we will
In Dl , r multi ply each of the stored nu m bers by

l (A) " ] a consta nt. wei ghting the samples in the

sam e way that they are wei ght ed by the
summing res istors in the anal og filter.
Fig 3.61- Half wav e transmission line em ulato r. They ar e then add ed togeth er to ob tain a

3.28 Chapter 3
 R C Actin r<.n<v~nal Yd' er , 10 1"1'"

";-o':o 'r r'O 'O 'O 'OP'O!' I tu

•
~I I
I
I
\', Q )
I
t 'I \
.
V1 L-II~
. .&.ll h . i. hu e'f'UJ. .
z
•• ..
/
", r .
,
"
0
- ' :--- I
, :~ ,

l"v,~'~=
lto b ... F.........,

Fig 3.63- Tra nsfer fu nct ion of a 1o-tap

l::..v--J l::..v--J FIR fllter.

Fig 3.62- A Fin it e Impulse Response, o r FIR ban d pass filte r b u ilt f rom a cascade
of all -pas s f il te rs . Th is filter has 91aps. Op-amps Ul throu gh U4 serve to add realization that filteri ng is a compa rative
s ig na ls fro m th e variou s tap s. proce ss: a signa l is compared with a rep-
l ica trom an earlier po int in time . The'
nature of the co mparison is direct and clear
fi nal result. Data is elimin ated from memory at eac h in rhe FIR filter . It is presen t in the'simple r
The digital cutput rw crd" b a pplied ro a step in the proce ss. We only go as far filte rs. be it a si ngle: LC reso nator o r c rys-
DAC. a d igita l-to-a nalo g co nve rte r that bac k in time as o ur comput ing power tal. or an active version wit h an ide ntic al
provides a s ig nal (hOlt can be injected w ill allow. [unctio n. The s ignal co mponents [rum ear-
into an audio umphfler and. eventually. Amo ng the significant le sson s tha t lie r times va nis h from the rc-o nator as they
headph on es. eme rge fm m a study of FIR fi lter s is the diss ipate in the tuned circui t I'h ,e, .

3.6 I M PEDA NC E MATCHING NETWORKS

Most fincr s buill from inductors and question docs not ha ve a good a nswer. fo r to transfer as muc h powe r into this a mpli-
capac itors wen: designed 10 achieve a we did not ask the right q uestion. Imped- fier from the source as po,sihle, we will
desired freq uency doma in result: T he} a nces arc directional. A be tte r que stion strive for a conj ugate input match by de -
accepted an input consisting uf many fre- wo uld hav e been , "what is the impeda nce s igning a suita ble input network. One of
qucncics, hut allow ed on ly a fe w to e merge look ing into the ampli fier from the plane 111<111)' pos sible networks that will realize
at the output. Other LC circuits are marked by A :' s uc b a transfor mation is the Lnet work
de sig ned for impedance tran sformatio n. An The circui t in th e figure is a simple sho wn. tran sformi ng fro m 50 down to
impedance transforming or marching net- amp lifier operatin g at. for example. 50 20 n. If we then add an inductance with
work is one that accepts power from a gen- ~,IH l. Th e input impedance lookin g into 10-12 reac tance in series with the indue lor
erator wit h one chaructcrisric impedance, the base is 20 - j 10 O . This valu e would be of the Luetwork. we wi ll ha ve trans-
the source. and de livers virtually all of that reason able for an RF transis tor biased to a formed the 50-0 source to loo k like the
po wer (0 a d iffere nt impedance. the load. few rnA an d operating at FT"IO . Wishi ng de sired 20 +j l 0 needed hy the amplifier.
Bot h soun:e and load may be complex with
both real a nd imaginary t rcecuve r r a rts .
Simple des igns arc performed a t o nly one
freque ncy . Mo re refi ned met hod s c an
encompass a wide band of freq uenc ies.
Imped ance transforming networks gen-
erally haw filter ing propenies . e ve n if
they are nOI designed for that c harac tc ris-
tic. Wc fou nd earl ie r. fo r e xa mple . that a
modified low' pa~ ~ filter co uld be termi-
nated in an impedance that diffe red f rom

...
the orig inal de-i g n val ue. servin g a
w ideb und match ing role.
,~ ~

Direct ional Im pedanc es

Co nsider point A in the circu it of
Ft g 3.~ . A freque nt que-non we hear is. Fig 3.64-An amplifier with match ing networks at input and ou tpu t illustrating
"What i, the- impedance at point A '~" T h i ~ dir ectional impedances . see te xt.

Filters and Impedance Matching Circuits 3.29

 We w ere carefu l to match th e input, hut like" a lower one , R ,.This bilateral nature is
will not seck a co njugate match at the out - a ge ner al c harac teri-aic uf a ll loxxles s net -
put. Th is often occurs with, for exa mple ,
power amplifier> where we pr esen t a sp e-
c if ic loa d. ZI.OAD ' to the co llector in
or der to realize a we ll define d output
wor ks. Th e derivation of these equat ions is
ou tlined in Ch apter 4 of Introduction 10 RF
Design ,:' ]
We ca n de fine a net wor k Q as the ratio
rC
'1l
P2

power . But this lo ad will ge nerally he of the p ara llel res ist ance . R 2 in this
d ifferent th an a conjugate matc h tu the example, to th c react ance of the parallel
amplifi er output impedance. ZOUT ' Al - element. T hat is. we treat th e network as if Fig 3.6S-Schematic and correspond ing
thou gh a co nj ugate outp ut match may well it was a parallel tuned circuit . N et work Q design equations for the popula r
provide the highest ga in and the maximum is rel a ted to the voltage transformatio n of a-network.
output power for small signal conditions, the network, hut is no t always a good
that output load co uld produce li mitin g indi cator of netwo rk b andwidth .
that co nstrains large signal output power. pi-network equations collapse 10 those fo r
Input marching re sult ed from a low -p ass the L. Low Q values arc gen er all y pr eferred
type Lcnetwor k. An input blocking capa ci - w ith th e low impedan ces usua lly found
tor is an integ ral pan of the amplifi er. Eq 3 .30 wit h solid-s ta te circu its, offeri ng more
Output match ing is perfo rmed with a h igh - pr act ic al co mponent value s an d lower net -
pass type l.vne twork. wh ich serves do uble
duty by provid ing a route for V ee to reach R1
, + Xs
, wo rk los s. Hig her Q tends to re stric t hand-
width, just as it wo uld in a si mple tun ed
th e transisto r. Th ere is 11 0 "perfect" ma tch x, Eq 3.3 1 c irc uit. 11 also ex ace rbate s the effects of
a nywh e re throu gh the out put. Recall also Xs
loss in the network L and C parts.
that chang ing the load presented to the As an example. we examine the same
amplifier w ill prob ably alter th e inpu t irn- lO-n lo ad that must bc transforme d 10 50
p edunce. i 1; we pic k a netwo rk Q of 5. The results
Eq 3.32
We oft en bu ild tra nsfo rming ne tworks arc Xc,,=l0 n, X Cl =4 .::l::l Q . an d X 1,=
that will pre sent imp edances for reasons 13.56 n, At 7 M Hz, the resp ec tiv e compo-
other th an matching. Outpu t lo ading for nent valu es are 227 4 pf' , 4660 pF . and
power was mentio ned , \\i e sometimes 0.308 .1IH .
presen t imped a nce s at th e inpu t of low Co nsi de r an example: We wish to trans-
A h igh-pa ss var iant of the pi network is
nois e amp lifi ers th at will np tirnize noise fo rm a 10-0 res istance to lo ok like 50 .n at
also po ssible. The pi -network com pon ent
fi gure, usually d ifferent tha n those that 7 1\-1 Hz. T he series reactance. from the
values may no t be as practical a s those in
provide be st ga in. WI: must be dear in eq uat ions, is 20 n and the parallel one is
some other circui ts, es pecially when Q is
de fi nin g our goals whe n de signing matc h- 25 n. The low -pa ss form, the L-network
high ,
ing c ircuits . an d exercise simi lar clarity wit h a series indu c to r. would u se L=
when ta lk ing abo ut such circu it s. 0.455 ~I H and 909 pF T he h igh -pass form
would use 0.568 J.l H and 1137 pF. Both
networks offer esse nt iall y identical per- R2 ~ R1
Th e L , it and T e e· formance at the des ign freq uency, but d if-
N etworks fer in th eir filtering pro perti es. The Q of R, Eq 3.33
Perhaps the most common LC im ped- this Lvne twork is 2. Q is a charac teristic of
XC2 =0
ance tran sforming network is the L. so the L- networ k that is evtabfished by the
nam ed be cause it us es two el ements . one tran sformed impedances .
as a series e lem ent with the other as a par-
allel one, resembling the capital L on i t' s
Anothe r popular network is the pi.
nam ed because its three elements re semble Xc, ~ R, ~-Q"~'----'--- Eq 3.34
side . B oth L -network fo rms arc shown in the Greek n. T his network is shown in
Fi g 3.65. The lo wer valu e resistor, R t , is lo w pass form in Fig 3.6 6. Again, R] is
tran sformed by add ing a series reactance. re stricted. Q ·R 2 + R, .R 2 / X C 1
The high er va lue, reactive impedance, is Q is now a network para met e r that the
resonated at one frequency with a parallel des igner mu st pic k. It can take on a wide
02 + 1 Eq 3.35
reactance. yielding a lo ad th at looks li ke a va rie ty of va lue s. although th ey are
real im pedan ce of value R ~. hounded . The lowe st Q allowed is defined
The same equation s apply if we wish to by Eq 3.32 , presented ab o ve for the Although less common. a very practical
tra nsfor m a high er resistan ce, R:" to " look Lnetwork . If yo u used this value, the an d use fu l ne twor k is the Tee us ing two
capacitors an d one in ducto r. Componen t
values ar c practical and loss is low. csp c-
cially for the lo w impedances fo un d with
so lid stale circ uits . The desig n beg in s by
picking a ne twork Q.
T he Tcnctwork has the same m in im um
Q as the pi netwo rk, wh ich is the Q of the
Lnctwork given by E4 3.32 . T he Tee
circuit is shown in F ig 3.6 7, Intermediate
variables, l\ and 1:3 . arc used in these culcu-
lat ions.
Fig 3.65- L-Network w it h design equations when R, <; R2 • We pick the same example used before

3 .30 Chapter 3
 is a quarter o r a wa vele ngth lo ng with a
ch ar acte ristic impedance Zo given by

Eq 3.4 1

If. for e xampl e. we wi..hed to tra nsform

a lO-n load to appear as 50 11 at 7 ~1I1 l .
we would use a line with a characteristic
Fig 3.67-lCC lype Tee-n e two rk impedance of12.4 H . The length would be Fig 3.68--Micros trip t ra ns mis s io n line
a nd de sign eq uations. AJ4 at 7 ~IHz . abou t 25 ft in ca ble with a s ho wn in c ro ss section. The die lect ric
\ elocity fac tor of about 0.7. This c harac- mater ial is t he ins ula ted po rtio n of a
printed circ uit boar d. The lo we r
ter isti c im pe dance is imp racti cal. bUI co uld co nd uc to r is usually a s olid g round
with R1= Io, R~ =50. and Q=5. be appro xi mated with parall el sec tions plan e. The d ra wing is not to s ca le .
The re sulti ng reac ta nce values become of higher im pedance line s, ( Line with
Xc =88. 12. Xc. = 102.5. and >.1. =50 . all Zo =15 n can be purchascd. j Tr an srni v-
in h. At 7 MHz: these values corr es po nd sion line transform er s arc some umev prac-
to 258 pF. 222 pF. and 1.I J 7 J.lH. res pec - tica l at this low freq uency. especially in \ arialion that the experimenter can build
tively. Th ese co mpone nts are espec ially ante nna syste m.. where the lines an: without etc hing in the July 1981 QST. ~ )
practica l fo r both inpu t a nd o utput ne t- needed any way. Co axial tran sm issio n Ano ther prac tical transmission line
works of RF po wer amplifiers if mic aco m- line s can be co iled with virtua lly no form is a simple twisted pair of insulated
pression vari able capaci tors are used. impact o n their beh a vio r so far as the fields wires . Wire in..utared with plasti c ofte n
within the line . The qu arte r wa veleng th prod uces lines with a characteristic imped-
lines arc ofte n ca lled " Q· Seetions:· A a nce arou nd 100 n. Ename led #24 wire
R2 > RI will prod uce line with an im pedance near
transmission line need not have a )J4 to
Eq 3.36 ~O n whe n tig htly twisted .
B= R, . (a' + 1) ..er...e as a tra nsforme r. A Smi th Cha rt is
often u..ed for the desig n of these cleme nt.... A variat ion o n the quarter-wa ve line
Transmission line s become more prac- matc hing uses synthetic tra nsmi..sion line...
tical ci rcuit element s at higher frequen- Here. a transmission line is replace d by a
Eq 3.37 cies. One printed line form is mic ro- trip. pi- netwo rk using ind uctors and capacuors.
shown in fig 3.68 . The lowe r co nd uctor is A sidebar earlier in this chapter di..cussed
a grou nd plane o n the back of a circui t the half-wa ve filter . a variatio n ofthis cir-
board while the uppe r co nd uctor is a cuit. FIll: 3.69 sho ws a synthetic quane r-
Eq 3.38
printed run. Electric fi eld line s between the wave exam ple. the same ca ..e co nsidered
conductors arc fo und in the dielectric as earlie r at 7 ~I H z. Transforming from 10 to
B wel l as in air. He nce. these tra nsmission 50 n occu rs with a 22.4 ·£1 line.
Xc, = - - - Eq 3.39 lines have a veloc ity fact or part wuy
a -A between that uf air arulrhar of the higher Po w d e r ed Iron Toroid
die lec tric constant insulator.
Mirrost rip is vers atile. for it ca n he
Indu cto r s a nd
Eq 3.40
de sign ed fo r abou t any characteristi c Transform ers
im ped ance in the 10 to 100-11 reg ion. or Induc to rs arc rea lize d with ma ny struc-
mo re . The wider lines have lo wer Zo ' tures. ra ngi ng fro m straight wire pie ce s to
Increasi ng the indu ctor. then add ing a
Robert Wilson , KUIS A a nd Hal Silver- solen oid a nd toroid coi ls. The soleno id is
se rie s capac itor that cancels the added
ma n. W3H WC. in "Wire Li nc- A New easy tu wind a nd ca n exhi hit high Q. cspc -
inductive reac tance . may modify all the
a nd Easy Method of Mic ro w ave Circu it dally at VHF. Howeve r, the mag netic field
net wo rks desc ribed . The mod ified ne t-
Co nstruc tion ." des cri bed a wonderful of a sole noid exten ds well o utside the coil
works are more easi ly adj usted and can
prov ide narrowe r bandwidth.
We often view' 1t o r T-nerworks as bac k
to back Lnetworks. trans forming from a 0.5t oil
no minal impedance to another. and then
back. This has the effec t of Inc reasin g
o vera ll ci rcuit Q or sele ct ivity . Ca scaded 10_ -
Lnetworks can have the o pposite effect
of de crea sing ..electivity. a n e xtremel y
po wer fu l tool when buil din g circ uits to
--
functio n over wide bandwidrh.tt

The Tra n smi ssi on Line

a s a Tra nsformer
Tra ns miss io n l ines haw we ll know n
impedance trans forming properties . A ter -
minat ion of val ue R. is transformed to a Fig 3.69--A sy nthetic quarter wa velength line is fo rmed at 7 MHz with t hree eq ual
new valu e. R ~ . bv a transmission line tha t react a nc e values of Zo of a Q sec tio n.
- -
Filters and Impedan ce Matchi ng Circu its 3.31
d ime nsions. le avi ng it free to co uple to
oth er circu it el ements in close prox imity.
incl udi ng conductive walls tha t can alt er
Q. In co ntras t. the tor oi d in duc to r has most
St 1St
(h ut not quite all) of its magnet ic field con -
fined to the co re interior. allow ing a toro id
to he mo unted d irec tly against a grou nd
50 ~
I
~
pla ne with minimal change
ind uct ance or Q. T he Q available fur 10\\'
in

h 1 450 Ohms

I
volu me coi ls is generally much higher for
toro ids up throug h 30 M H z.
Toroids arc more d ifficult t han so le-
noid s to wind. creat ing app rehe nsion
amo ng beginn ing e xperi me nters. It is .
however. straight forward , even if t im e
c ons um mg.
1 volt
Toroid ind uctance is almos t exactly pro-
portional to the square o f the numb e r of
3 volts
tu rns , Fig 3.70- CircUit illustrating the transfe r characteristics of an idea l tr ansformer.

F:q ],42

A co mmon cor e is the T 30-6 fro m

• •
J t2
Mic rom erals wi th inductance consta nt. K.
of 3.6 nH/ t-"' (nano-henr y pe r tu rn squ ared.)
Var ious manu factu rers use other un its that
,.!- •
~I
can bc related d irectl y to the K we find con-
venient for RF parts. A coil with 15 turns
eve nly woun d around most of this core has
a predi ct ed indu ctance of 810 nl-l . or O,g I
)lH. Ge nerally . the highest Q will re su lt
I L+ L-
when the cores use the larg e st wire that
will fit in one laye r. It i s important for Q . Fig 3.71-Method for connectmg wmdlngs that allows co uplmg ccertrctent to be
and e speciall y for temperature stability. calcu lated. Thi s method is general and can be applied with powdered iron or ferrite
tha t the wire be tight ly wou nd aga ins t the core t ransformers. The resu lts becom e less accurate when coupling is strong , and
core. A more te mpe rature -stable coi l ca n it is not unu sual to calculat e c-t. This is usu ally an indication of capacitance.
often be huilt wi th a wire size smaller than
tha t prod uc ing the highe st Q.
Micrometalv , Inc cop yri g hts the us ual core s is +/-5 % . The accu racy is usua ll y portion to the turn s r atio and impedance to
tor oid nu mbering sch eme. ill us trurcd he re be tter as induc tanc e and core si ze grow. tran sfor m with the square of the turns ratio
with T] O-6. T he -6 indic at es a specific T he windings we re then c ompre ssed to in an id ea l tran sfor mer. Hence. a 50 -il gen -
co re mate rial or "m ix." while the 30 ind i- co ver onl y 60Cfc of thc c ore. incre asin g era tor attached to the 5-turn link should
ca tes an o utside diameter of 0.30 inc h. A ind uctance to 1.039 f-lH . This 15 to 20% provide three time s the volta ge across the
manufacturer or vendo r ca talog migh t list incre ase is typical and offers a convenien t IS-turn win d ing with the combi nat io n
the in d uctanc e co nsta nt for the T30-6 as 36 mea ns for adju stment . lo okin g like a 4S0-Q so urce to the fo llow-
~H per 10 0 tu rns. The user c an c on ver t T h is ind uct or can be used d irectl y in ing circuitr y. as sh o wn in Fig 3.70. If it
thes e c onstants 10 whateve r form he or sh e im pedan ce matc hing network s, or as part was terminated in a 450-Q loa d. the im-
pre fers. or a LlC filte r. The reader should co ns ul! pcdancc match look ing into the link shou ld
A toroid is wound by c ounti ng the num- the extensive da ta ava ilable from Am id on be perfect. Thi s tran sformer migh t be used
bcr of passes through the c e nte r ho le . Inc. This is found at an e xcelle nt Web site , to match between a 50 -fl ampl ifier and a
Wh ile so le noids can ha \1;' a frac tional num- www. amtdo n- tnduc rtve.com/. 450·fl. 10-\tHz cry stal filt er.
bcr of turn s, this do c s not hap pen wi th tor- A common impedance matching ne t- B ut. the se idea ls arc not realized. F irst ,
a ids. A si ngle turn on a toro id co nsists of wor k uses a po wered iro n ind uct or wi th a the impedance s are highly reactive. This is
the wire pass ing throu gh the hole ju st o ne se cond wi ndin g. forming a tra nsform er. re med ied b y tuning the seco ndary wi th a
time. T he ind uct or we just de scr ibed was modi- parallel capacitor, 244 p F at 10 MHz. This
\Ve huift rhe ind ucto r mentioned by fied hy ad di ng a 5 turn lin k o f #26 wire on hrin gs the voltage gain nearl y up to the
windi ng 15 turns o f # 28 wi re over about t he remaining hare portion or the core. T he predicted 3 w he n the output is termi na ted.
90% or a T3 0-6 core. Using an Almos t A ll meas ured in ducta nce was 206nH. T his is hut imped anc e match is still poor. This is
Digita l Ele ct ron ics Lie Meter ITB. the m uch h ig her than the 90 nH the formula a result of le ss than id eal coupling ,
indu ct a nce was mea su red a s 872 nIL 8St wou ld predict, b ut the coil is se vere ly co m- The cou pling coefficient is e asily mea-
abov e the predictio n. Part of the diffe renc e presse d. (Even with the 5 turn s spread over sured wi th the sumc instruments used to
was prohah ly the res ult o f slig ht bunchin g the complete core. L=1 2 1 nH.) The 15 me asure induc tance. Th is is shown in
of some of thc t urns. The permeabil ity tol- turn windi ng L was unchanged at 1039 nH. Fig 3.71. L j an d L 2 are the 5 and 15 turn
er anc e norma ll y associated with thes e We expect RF vol tage to incre ase in pro - wi ndi ngs and are meas ured with the othe r

3.32 Chap te r 3
wind ing o pen cir cuited . The two windings rhc behavior in Fig 3.72 . colore. simplifying transform er construe-
are men connected as show n in Fig 3.71 Ind uc tor c urrent inc reases wit hout tion . (f\l ultifilar® parallel banded magne t
and the co mposite ind uctance values are bound in the ide al. tossfess case. Lo sses, wire from MWS W ire lnd ustrie s.]
measured as L. and L_. The co upli ng coef- res istance within the wire and t he batte ry. The dots o n the transfo rmer sc hematic
ficie nt is then given wo uld limi t the cu rre nt to a finitc. but large arc useful. An inc reasing voltage at one
le vel i n II prac tical cir cuu. dot produces an increasing voltage at the
Consider now II modi fied structure. The other. Current enterin g the A dot equal,

k -
lL + - L)
-
single winding inductor is replaced with a
pair of windings. shown in FiA 3.73. that are
tha tleaving the B do t. This behavior arise s
because the mag ne tic fiel d van ishes with in
- • . ~L , · L,
Eq3A3
very close together. The wires, although Iso- the core. If the primal),' (AA ' ) had l'\f'tum s
lated from each other. occ upy virtuatl v the while the secondary (BB') had Ns turns.
This me thod was pre se nted by Bill same space and sec essentia lly the same the c urrents wou ld o bey the more ge neral
Carve r. W7AAZ. in t he Ja nuar y. 1998 magnetic field. If we left the- second winding bo undary co ndi tion that
issue of the QRP QlIa rle rly.2~ When the (BB') open circuited. voltage from A to A'
builds up in the same way that it did with the Eq 3..u
met hod was applied to the test transfor mer.
we measured L+==1 533 nB and simple inductor. Measurement across either
windin g will show the same voltage profile. Bifilar winding a nd the use of a hig h
L.=872 nH. lea ding to a coupling coeffi -
But, no current flow s in BB' when it is open pc rmcabilhy mag netic mat erial produce
cie nt ofk =O.357. The input VSWR exceeds
circuited. tight co upling. appro ac hing k= I. Cou pling
2: I for th is transformer , eve n whe n tu ned
The behavior changes when ViC repe at is measured for a ferrite trans former with
and properly termin ated .
the e xperiment with a load at BB ' . As the the same method outlin ed for a pow dered
Ideall y. all ind uctors should be mea-
voltage bu ilds. load current will begin to iron design, Fi g 3.7 1. Str o ng cou pling
sured afte r th ey are wou nd . Whilc
flow. Transformer ac tion begins. The c ur- means that all of the magneti c field Jines
the traditio nal tuned transfo rmer is still a
re nt in the seco nd winding will generate a created by the primary also co uple into the
prac tical co mpone nt. it may requ ire more
magnetic field. j ust as that in the primary secondary. In a prac tical tra ns forme r.
design effort than an impedance transfo rm-
windi ng did . BUI the fie ld fro m the sec- some of the primary field loops o ut fro m
mg net wo rk built fro m disc rete
o ndary is in a direc tion opposite 10 that the co re, o nly to re turn with o ut co mmuni-
eleme nts.
from the first winding. Beca use the net cating with the seco ndary.
magnetic field has bee n redu ced (nearly ) The transformer is ofte n modeled as an
The Fer r it e T r an sform er to zero . cu rrent flow is dete rmined by R. ide al one with adde d compon e nts. sho wn
The po wered iro n cor e transformer dis- the e xtern al toad. in l"ig 3.7.J. The ideal tran sformer has
cussed above had to be resonated to func- The tra nsfor me r descri bed (Fig 3.72) . a vol tage rat io proportio nal to the
lio n as des ired . Eve n after tun ing. it with the two wires in close proximity. is turns rat io and a c urre nt ratio defined by
suffered for a lac k o f coup ling. Both prob - said to be bifilar. Bifi lar wi nd ings arc Eq 3........ L, is the primary ind uctance . the
lems are o ve rcome with higher ind uctance. ofte n twis ted . One manufacturer supplies value we wo uld measure it the primary was
whic h occurs with the much highe r perme- Multifilar® wire with strand, of differin g ex am ined witho ut a seco ndary termina-
abi lity fo und in fe rrit e co res. The toroid ls
the most co mmo n form. but balun cores .
with their binocular shape. arc also popu-
lar. Most of the powered iron cores we use
have initia l pc rmea bilit y under 10 while
typical ferrites sho w J.I i value s between 40
and 5000 . ,-----./'>_---<.-- v (I)

~
Recal l the classic inductor. a co mponent 1(1)
that "tries" to maintain wha tever current is
flow ing at any insta nt. It is the d ual of the
L
ca pacitor. whic h doc s not allow voltage to
cha nge insta ntly. Consider a switch that R
connects a battery to an induc tor. The in- Fig J .72-Princ lple s
d uctor curre nt is zero before the sw itch of a n ideal Inductor,
closed . so it must be zero immedia tely with wav eforms.
The current woul d
afterwa rd. Th ere is no restric tion o n the grow linea rly
volt age. The vo ltage impressed e n L y et )
forev er in an ide al
changes qu ickly , soon reac hing the battery compone nt .
tfme
value. The curre nt conservin g cbaracte ns- Res ista nce

l
nc of the ind uctor is a res ult of the magne tic esta blis he s an
fie ld. When the switc h is closed. cu rre nt ultimate value .

L----j
_~i(
I ~
tl i~fR~=O~I-=-
begi ns to flow . But as soon as the fiel d starts
10 build up. the c hanging magnetic field
generales an electric field (he nce. a volt- i( l ) 1_
age) tha t opposes the electric effect that
ca used the current in the fir st place . This ~ itt) with finit e RI
is a no n-rigo rous statement of Faraday' s
Law, one of Maxw ell's equat ions. The time
inducto r is shown with curves illustra ting

Filters and Impedance Matc hing Cir cuits 3 .33

 A
B

Fig 3.74-A transformer mod el.

Cl
1
'A On A
S

B
; R
highest freq uency, and loss resis ta nce s
sma ll with respect to the source and load.
Inductance of windi ngs on ferrite cores is
pr opo rtio na l to the sq uare of the turns,
although the higher perme ability of ferrit e
produces dramaticall y higher "k" co n-
Jar windi ng. wit h one wire as primary and
the other as a secondary. A pair of wires
a lso form s a transmission line. As such , it
can operate as a transmi ss ion l ine tra ns-
former such as a Q-scetion according to
Eq 3.4 1. Even if it is not a proper 1../4
Cla ssic Bifilar T ransformer stants for usc with Eq 3.42. For example, leng th, it will still transform the
Fig 3.73-Current flow in a bifilar
the popular FT3 7 -43 ferr ite toroid has k of impeda nce see n a t one end from that pre-
wou nd t ra nsfo rmer. about 360 nHt·2 . Core loss ca n he modeled sented at the o ther. The transmission line
as a para lle l res istanc e. whi ch is also pro - properties persist if the li ne is wound in
portionalto the square of n, although this t he shap e of a co il, includ ing a toro id. Hut
formu latio n is no t in general usc. the structure then asvumes a di fferent
Examp les of practical transformers arc extended beha vio r, summarized in a cla s-
found thro ughout the te xt. A won derfu l sic paper hy Rurhro tt.:"
treatment or the modeling of this "s imple" T he simp les t ferrite transm iss ion line
co m pon ent is prese nted by Clarke and transfo rmer is that sho wn in Fig 3.75. This
Hes, .25 A more complete rev ie w of trans- str uc ture . for me d with a bifilar windi ng on
form er mo deling is presented h y Chris a toro id was at one time call ed a halun. A
Trus k.x \\'<.: generally usc po wdered iro n bal un is a struct ure that ge nera tes a bal -
toroid co res for high-Q ind uctors with ance d vo ltage from one that is single
good tem perature characteristics while e nded . Thi s co nne cti on does not fo rce
fcmtcs are relegated to low -Q wide ha nd suc h balance and is, hence , not strictly a
trans forme r applica tion . However, this hal un, e ven tho ug h it does perform some
distin ction IS not require d. Some pow - of the iso lation chores that we might ask
dered iron core s are suitable For wide hand of a ba lun. Perhaps a bett er name is isola -
transfor mers while some te rntes have ex - lion tron sformer, Transformer action.
cellent Q at Hf-. A good example of the described above , docs force eq ual current s
later is - 63 material from l-air -Rite Prod - in the two windings. so this circuit is some-
ucts Co rp (ww w.talr-r tt e.com) , often pro - times also call ed a current balu n,
ducing Q values of several h undred at HF. The iso latio n trans forme r is labeled AH
at one end of the wind ing while the other
end is A'B' Wires A and Bare not an.ached
Ferrite Transmission to each oth er, a use ful de tai l to keep in
RF tr an sforme rs can be bu ill by plac in g
fe r r ite be ads ov er bras s tub ing t hai Line Transformers mind whe n windi ng such transformers
fo r ms a s ingle turn w ind ing . Ci r cuit The example presented abo ve to ill us- without wires of differing co lor . Viewi ng
board material connec ts t he tubi ng t rate has ic tra nsfor mer ac tio n used a bifi- this structure as a transmission li ne, cur-
ends wit h a short at on e end. A mul t ip le
wi re winding is t hen thre aded thr o ugh
th e mi dd le of the tub ing , guara nteeing
tig ht co u pli ng .
(8 )

l ion. T he Lclea kage is the indu ct ance

:nput~Jlh"
~.
~
" Y V-Y-....,
S· "'". ~
_ ~ 25
accoun ting for the magn etic flux tha t docs
not pass through hoth wi ndings. R 1 a nd
R2 accoun t for losses. The trans former is A /
/,10 ·'
.\ -,
I e)
a ba ndp ass circuit with L p prese nt ing a ~, ~ -.
short at de and ver y low fre quenc y ; Lcleak -
age", a se ries e lemen t. prese nts a hig h " . \ I. r4 \

r nput
- A-·
,----,----,- -'-
.;. " ~-.J
,~
<, a-I:

impedance at high freq uenc y

A practic al tran sfo rmer will ha ve a pri-
~]['~y
mary inductanc e with a reac tan ce at le ast 5
time s the term inating resistance at thc lo w Fig 3.75- Part A: Basi c isolati on transf ormer using a transmission li ne on a fer rit e
freque ncy lim it and a leakage ind uct ance toroid. This stru cture has so me ba lun li ke pr op erties. Part B sho ws a ba lanced
rea ctance less tha n 1/5 the resist anc e at the load connec ted 10 a sing le-end ed drive while C show s pol arity inversion,

3.34 Ch a pte r 3
rent at po int A,' is delayed Fro m t hat at A. T he isol ation transforme r of Fig 3.75 twice the cu rrent tha t one transfo rme r
Howe ver, the ferri te co re and traditional has a single ended in put. T he ..ingfe e nded "inding ca rries. res ulting in a true balu n.
transforme r behavior would forc e eq ual drive will a ppea r as a balanced llutput on for it forces equal. but OUI of phase volt-
cu rrent through a winding. and indeed. in a balanced load suc h as that in part B. In ages to a ppea r bet ween the ends . This is a
the other wind ing. this sen se. it is a ba lun structure. Ho wever. ~ : I im pedance 1T<1O.. for ming balu n.
if the load beco mes unba lanced, <1) in Fig T he sa me struc ture is rea pplied in
3.75C , the in put may still be ap plied to the Fi g 3.77. T he transfo rmer forces twic e the
ter minatio n. c urre nt to n ow in the outp ut a_, at the input.
It is instru ctive to ment all y connec t the The iso lation propertie s of the trnnsmis-
two wires at one e nd (A and B I together . slon line transforme r are used In parall el
doing the same th ing at the ot her CA' and an (lutpUl with a "direct connccncn" to the
B' ) end. T he res ult i) an ind uc tor. Several inp ut. T his circuit now serves an unbal-
turn s on a high pe rmeabili ty ferrite would anced-to-unbala nced role. Thi-, c ircuit is
produce considerable inductance. T hi -, is used for transformin g from 50 n down to
ter med a common mod e indu ctance. Sepa- the 12.5-Q input o n a Rf power a mplifier.
rating the wires. a load place d across We a lso sa w it u..ed extensivel y to cause a
'0) o ne e nd. A'B ', is then see n di fferentially ';0 -0 load lO look like 200 n at the ccllcc-
{bet wee n A lind B) at the othe r end. This lor o f a feed back a mplifie r.
structure is oft en c a lled a commo n mode Thece wideband u ansto rmcr-, may be
Fig 3.76-A 4:1 step-up ba lun choke for co mm on mode sign al s at o ne end view ed as eit her transmissio n li ne circ uits
tra ns fo rme r. arc iso la ted from the o ther by the large or as co nve ntio nal tran sfo rmers. Their
inductance . whi Ie d iffe rentia l ..ig nalv arc o peratio n is consistent with either se t of
not impeded . boundary con dit ions. T he tran sformers are
The isolatio n properties of th is structure designed with about )J8 tu iJ~ of trans-

.' "
allow us ttl drive o ne end whi le treating
the other end as if it were a separate ge n-
mission line at the uppe r Ireuuenc y of the
circuit. The characteristic impedance of

~R
eraror. An isol ation trans former t Fig the line is co nsis tent with line behavior
3.75 C I ca n produce a polarity reversal. fo r the te r mina tio ns co ns idered. If. fo r
B B'
It is useful to co nnect the output of an exa mple. we bu ilt a~ : I ste p dow n fro m 50
isolation tra nsforme r in se ries or para lle l n
1012 using Fig 3,76 , z, n_
shou ld be 25
4,1 Step Down wit h the input. An interes tin g example is This could be realized by paralleli ng two
sho wn in F ig 3, 76 whe re a load is con- 50· n win dings on the co re. A 50-n wind-
Fig 3.77- A s ingle ended impe da nc e nccted be tween the input a nd the inver ted ing co nsists of a tightl y tw i..led pair of #24
s tep down tran s former. ou tput. T he com posite input will ca rry enamel wir es.
Th e transforme r of f ig 3.78 i~ a true 1:1
bal un. The te rmination impedance is that
seen at the input. but the ci rcuit c reat es
two voltages that are equal in magnitude.
hut o ut of ph ase.

. ~----, ~ 1 1 I, [ r l , A useful step dow n circui t for high

ptwver single ended amplifie r.. j, the 9:1
~ ~ rr we Cores) c ircuit of F j ~ .' ,7lJ . This tra nsfor mer uses
.~ IWO cor es 10 drop from 5 0 .n down to abo ut
6 n. Se ries conn ec tions at the input si de
R
dr ive parallel o nes at the o utput. A sim ilar
series/parallel circ uit is prese nted in
F ig 3.80 where 1\\"0 cores fo rm a halanced
to ba lanced I :~ impeda nce rauo ..rep up
1:1 Ba lun transfo rmer .
Xu merous other kinds of trans miss ion
Fig 3.79-lIIustra llon of a 9: 1
unba la nc ed tran sf ormer. line rra nsfo rm cr ca n he buil t. some a lmos t
di abolic in the ir cleverness. T he reader
is referre d to Motorola Ap plica tio ns
xo tc AN-593"' for fu rt he r interesting
, ---, " ,
R
, examples.

"r-- -'
" J" ' , ,1..C.-
, OR
Some Multiple Port

,~" , ~R-
R_
• a , Networks
•
{Two Coo:sJ '----J • I
, All of the networks prese nted in this sec -
tion have used but two pons. an inpu t and
4,1 BalllOCed to Balanced T"'"ll:ltmer
a n OUtput. There arc. howe ver, several
muhi port netwo r ks that arc of speci al
Fig 3.78-A 1:1 Impedance rat io tru e Fig 3.8Q-A 4:1 balanced -to-bal an ced interest 10 the radio amat eur . The fin t is
ba lun t ra nsforme r. tran s fo rme r. the so ca lled "Splitter/Combiner" show n

Filters and Impeda nce Matchi ng Circuits 3 .3 5

 25 Ohm I•
r.:-..
100
50
. •
Inp'll
Port 1
:---'1 ,~~,
e nergy availa ble i" proportio nal to the
ene rgy flowi ng fro m the " in put" 10 the
"out pOI.'" A fourth is the "re flected"
cou pled port wit h en ergy pro po rtion al
to th at flowing from the -'OUlPUI" to the
r I
~-
Input
-=- o de g rees
0., "input,' "i~ 3.XS ..ho ws a schematic rep -

• J Port3
rcscnration of a d irectiona l coupler. wh ich
is a lso a practical lo po logy in microstr ip

50
I form. Part B of Fig .U\5 shows a wid eb nnd
variatio n using ferrite tra ns fur mcr s.v' A
pract ical ve r..ion of the widc bun d co upler
Fig 3.83- Phase shift network for RF
using three tran sform ers wa s designed by
-=- phasing in simple SSB equipment. Ro y Lewalle n'! and is incl uded on the
book C D.
Fig 3.8 l -An in-phase spliller/c omb iner
network. Use 10 bifilar t urns o n a FT·37· The d irec tion al cou pler is e xtremely
43 ferr ite toroid lor t he HF spectrum. usefu l fo r a va riety of app lications. When
used with a PO\\e r me ie r or spec trum a na-
lyzer. re flected e nergy is a measu re of the
impedance at the oUfPU! port. le adi ng 10
popu lar in-l ine pe .... er me ters such as the
tw o out puts receiv e drive from a single
input. This cir cuu . a diple xer. is si milar 10
W7EL desig n. BUf the co uple r can also be
a c ros sov er net w o rk use d in a udio lOy!'>- use d to inj ect signals on a li ne. The cou-
L terns. F req ue ncie s below a cu to ff pass pling valu e is the powe r ratio be tween she
o utput and the cou pled ports and is I / N ~
50 > through the ind uc to r and are di ssipated in
the rela ted ter mination . Sig nals abov e cut - fo r the ferr ite version. MoS! direction a l
off pass throu gh the ca paci tor to t he co uplers have co up led en erg y that is in
re lated re sistor. Th e L and C arc picked phase with the output. The microwave lit-
with reg ard 10 the so urce impedance s uch er aru re abo unds with inte resting co upl ers.
that there is always a perfect imped a nce A coupler is a lso characte rized by
matc h prese nted to the ge nerato r. If the d irectivity. Assume that the thru path i<, rer-
cu toff freq ue nc y i!'> f. then the rela ted mina rcd in an open (o r short) circuit and a
an gu lar frequ en cy is (llo=211:f. Then. the L power P I is measured in the reflec ted port.
and C for a perfec t match are If the main pat h is now loaded wit h a per-
feet mat ch. the reflecte d power will drop to
P2. The ratio of Pl IOP2 is called the direr-
L "'~ C=_l _ Eq3A5
tivity. We consider directivity with a num -
Fig 3.82- First-order lo w-pa s s/h ig h-
pass d iplexer.
we (O)c· R
ber of bridge circ uits in Cha pter 7.
T he diplexe r is applied where mixer!'> Direc tional cou plers can be bu ilt with
(e.g., d iode rings ) mu st be ter minated in a lumped co mpon en ts. e ven at VUE A
widcba nd 50 n 10 minimiz e disto rtion , lumped clem ent exa mple with ~ :! 8 dB cou-
in FIA 3. 81. Thi s ci rcuit. using not hing T he diplc xcr shown is an es pecially simple pling with 20-d B directivity at 144 MH z
mo re than a bifilar wind ing o n a ferrit e one where each arm is a one po le low pass is included in a design di-c ussedlarcr in the
tor oid. acc ep ts e nergy from a sing le gen- or high pass fil ter . Nic Hamilto n. G-l-TXG. book and incl uded on the book CD . That
erator with a 25·{} c harac te ristic imped- h a.~ descri bed high o rder low pas s hig h design is <I quadrature co upler , dis-
a nce a nd su ppli es tha t en e rgy 10 l WO pa ~ s dip le xers. ~9 A third-order exa mple of cussed below } ~ There <Ire numerous refer-
outputs. each with il 50-n impe dan ce. A this desig n is show n in the d iplc xc r e nces in the literature to directional co uple rs.
50-0 in put can be transformed down to sideba r. Diple xers ca n a lso be bu ill with See. fo r e xamp le. Andre Boulouard.!'
25 n with any o f the matching sc hemes co mbinatio ns of band- pas" and ba nd stop Th e twisted -wire qua drature hybrid
p re se nted abo ve . v ariauon, o f th is ne t- net .... o r kv. a lso su mmarized in the sidebar . d irectio nal coupler is a very useful varia tion.
work us e tran sm issio n li nes or L-Nel - An int eresti ng. ye t si mple phase sbi ft This cir cuit was described by Reed Fisher ,
works. The 100-0 res is tor abs o rbs e xce v, netw ork is shown in Fl~ 3_83. A gen erator W 2CQH . ~·J.s Fishe r's QST arti cle is in-
pow er that beco mes avai lable when one of dri ves two o ne po le fi lters that arc te nni- d uded on the hook Cf)- RO~·t . Also see.,1t\.H
the two o utput ports h mivs-rcrminared. A nared at thei r output in ope n ci rcuits. T he For information {1Il d istributed co uplers.
co mmon applicat io n splits the o utput uf a two c apacitors. equal in value. arc picked sce.-'H_~\I Th is is a .~-d R co upler . for the
loc al osc illator chai n to drive two mi xers . to have a re ac tanc e il l one freq ue ncy equ a l co upled output is below the input by .~ dB ,
Thc ci rcuit isola tes tbe two out puts . T his to R. the resis tor value used in each arm . prod ucing two outputs of equal strength.The
circ uit is cal led a 3·dB hybrid tra nsformer. Th e phase differe nce for this network is circ uit is called ,j q uadrat ure coupler beca use
for the power in eac h output. neg lecting 90 deg rees at all freq uencies. Ho we ve r. rhc there is a so-degree phase diffe rence
lo vve s. is 3 dB bel ow the input. while two o utput a mplitudes arc eq ua l only at between the two output port s. A III-' varia-
Hy brid re fer s to tra nsfo nner- Hke circuits thc des ig n frequ e ncy. tion. built for the 7-\1 HI band. is shown in
th at provide isol atio n bet....·ee n IWO of three An especiall y interesting fo ur-port ci r- Fig3.~ .
po rt!'> . Hy brids .... e re used in early te !e- cu it form is the direc tio nal cou ple r. T he T he de sign equations for the coupler arc
pho nes to isolate the mic rophon e from the coupler has an input and o utput. usually iden tica l to those prese nted for the
earphone . with lo w loss betwee n them. A third is d iplexer. Eq 3..15. Howe ver. in this case.
Fig 3.82 shows a three port circ uit where called the "forward" coupled port . for the rhe c apacua ncc is the tot al C in the circui t.

3 .3 6 Chapter 3
 50
Input
Porl1 220 pF
Out,
Porl2 I np ut
~ Out pu t

~
L, ',..J
~ :1
+45 degrees
o degr ees
50
,,-
~o Olin
"
"-
COM
""",,.,,to,-
1.1 uH
II ~ ," Olm RetIe cted '0 0 ....

r"o~
Out, Tel."l:lina t i oa Co..,le" Port Te n"li na tion
Out, F Onfirrd
Port 4 Porl3
Co..,Ie d Poet

V=D
-45 degrees
50 50
I nput
@] Out pu t

"
~ ~-
~

10 t.
Fig 3.B4- Quad rat ur e coupler fo r 7 MHz.
IlP n . c t e"
Forward

" 2 2

~
Hybrid I Hy brid 2
3 " Fig 3.BS- Pa rt A shows a general schemat ic for a d irectional
4 3
0 4 coupler while B p resen ts a w ideb and vers ion using fe rrite
Olltpllt ~ co re tra nsformers . The coupling on B is 20 dB owing t o t he
" 10 :1 turns rat io used. Th is is a practica l circu it if wound with
FT37·43 or FT37-7S cores. A s ing le binocular c ore c an be
(A) - used fo r both transformers .

Icput
" 1 2 2

, Hy brid I
3
0
4
Hy brid 2
3 "
Olltpllt
"
Fig 3.86- So me applications fo r quadrature hybrids. Identica l
(8) ~&
~
amplifiers (A) o r filters (B) are co mb ined to fo rm termination
inse nsi ti ve linear circuits. The extra terminations r eq uir ed
are shown in t he circu its.

This must he halved to build the circuit. As

Fisher po ints out. the capacitance of the
tightly wo und hifil a r pair (12 pF in his f " upper freq with 1 dB amplitude balance
e xa mp!e ) is measured and removed from -
I e,
-
the calculated C before cons tructio n. The
inducta nce is that of the two windings in In L hyb c,I c, hyb
out
• -r- • L #1

~Out ~ <p
parallel. essentially the same as that of a
single winding on the core of interes t. C hyb =t C hyb
Fisher used a low -pe rmea bility ferrite
core. while we have generally used pow -
dered iron cores. owi ng prim arily to avail-
#2 0,1 -
C,

-
L hyb

50
a bility. Small po wder iron cores such as
rhc T25 in the -6. -12, or -17 materials are W
cn 0
-
suitable through 150 \1H/. L hyb ' ,'''
-

At the design freque ncy , the circuit is a

3-dB cou pler. providing equal power at 1890
c, 0
'"
C hyb " - f
port 2 and 4. However, the coupli ng is f
different at other frequen cies. The very
fln MHz, L in uH, Ci n pF
interesting properties of the q uadra ture
hybrid are summarized:

I. There is power transfer from port 1 to 2. Fig 3.B7-Extended bandwidth q uadratu re hybr id network.

Filters and Impedance Match ing Cir cuits 3.37

 Typical d ip lexer 2. Power is tran sferr ed from port I to 4.
Third order Low Pass High co nfig u rat io ns and 3. T here is no po wer transfer from port I
Pass Drplexer equat ions .
to 3 when all port s are prop erly te rmi-
nated.
4. T here is 110 reflected power back out
of port L again with proper termina-
tio ns.
5. The pha se d ifference be/ween ports 2
and 4 is 90 deg rees .
Z'!l ~ 50
at ~ F
T he charac teristic of greatest int erest
wi ll dep e nd upon the applic atio n. The
phase difference is important in the con-
suucrion of phasi ng-method SSB equip-
me nt. Ho we ver, it is the isolatio n fro m
reflec tion problems, item 4, that leads to
so me of the more sub tle applicat ions. Two
L and C values shown are reactance examples, each using a pair of co upler s,
at the cutoff frequency. are show n in Fig 3.86 . In pa rt A, two
amplifiers are combined, while in B, two
filters are combi ned. In both ca ses, the two
elements must be ident ical. Howe ver. the
networks to be combined nee d no t be
impedance matched for a good match to
exis t at the input. For example. the two
amp lifiers co uld be FE T circuits that have
an L network at the input. Such a circ uit
pro du ces a ve ry poor inp ut impedance
ma tch, but an excellent no ise figure.
Alternati vely, two conditionally-stable
ampli fiers can become an unc onditionally
sta ble circuit when imbedd ed in quadra-
ture hybrids . T his ba lanced sc heme is
attrib uted to Enge lbrec ht and
1 . P ick c u to f f frequenc y F and Kurok awa. 40 .4 1.4 Z A termination insensi-
Q ( fr om 1 t o 10 ) tive cr ystal filter is described in Chapter 6
2. w ", 2-x-F whe re qua drature cou ple rs arc ap plied.
The ci rcuit of Fig 3.86 is narro w band-
L = _50 -Q
w
_ .. wid th with identical output amplitudes at
only one freq ue ncy. Howeve r, the band-
width can be extended to a n oct ave by cas-
cadi ng two identical q uad rature hybrids
s, ,. wit h a pair of pi-networks betwee n. Thi s
topology, with re lated de sign eq ua tions . is
shown in Fig 3.87.

REFERENCES
1. W. Hayward. Introduction to Radio Filters Using Ultras perical Pol ynomials," 9. G. Matthaei.L. Young.E. M. T. Jo nes,
Frequ ency Design. Prenti ce-Hall , 1982: JEEE Transa ctions on Ci rcuit Theory , Vol Microwave Fitters, Impedance -Marching
ARRL. 1984. Also see The ARRL CT -13, No. 4, Dec, 196 6, pp 364 -369. Net works and Coup li ng Structures.
Handboo k , 1995 or later editions. 5. Tortorclla ,RFDesign,Mar/Apr, 198 3. MeGraw-Hill ,1964.
" GPLA accompanies Introduction to 6. Zverev , Handbook of Filt er Synthesis , 10. See Reference 6.
Radio Freque ncy Design (see Ref. I ) as a \Viiey, 1967 . 11. A. B . Will iams, Electronic Fille r
DOS prog ram. CPL,\ 2002 is a Windows Design Han dbook , McGraw-Hili , 19 RI.
7. M. Di sha l. "Alignment and
versi on incl uded o n the book CD . /I,RRL
Adju stment of Sy nchro nously Tu ned 12. W . Hayward. Intro du ction to Rad io
Radio Des igner was former ly ava ilab le
M ultip le-Resonant-Circ uit Filters ," Elec/. Frequency Design , AR RL, 19 94, Ch 3.
from ARRL.
Commun .. Jun, 1952, pp 154-164. D W . Hayward, "The Double-Tuned
3. »: Ha yward. Ham Radio Mogo -ine .
8. S. B. Cohn, "Dissipation Loss in Circuit: An Experimenters Tu torial." QS T,
Ju n. 1984 , p. 96 .
Multiple-Cou pled-R eso nant Fil ters ," Dec . 199 1, pp 29-34 .
4 . D. Johnso n and J. Jo hnson, "Low Pa ss 1'1"0(". IR""', Aug , 1959 , pp 1342-1348.
14. R. Larki n, "T he DSP- IO: AnAII-Mo de

3.38 Chapter 3
:!· Meler Transcei ver U~i n g a DSP IF and 24. W . Carver. "Measuring C apaci to rs Quadrature UyhriJ s: · It.J:.E Transactions
PC-Co ntrolled Front Panel. Pan I : ' QST. and Ind ucto rs ." QRP Quarterly . Jan. 011 Mic rowave Thcnrv and Techniques,
Sep. 1999. pp .B -.t l . 1998 . p37. Vol. ~ 1TT- 2 I. :'\0. 5. May. 1973. pp 355-
IS. V. Bottom. In tro d uction to Qu art: :!5. Clarke and Hess. Connnuni ranons 357.
Crystal Unit Design. Van Nost rand Circuits: Analys is and Design. Add iso n- 35 . R. H cher , "Twisted -Wire Quadrature
Reinhold . 198:!. Wesley . 197 1. Hybrid Direct iona l Couple rs," OS"!". Ja n.
16. S. B. Cohn. "Diss ipation Loss in 26 . C. Trask. "Wide banJ Transformers : 1978. pp 11 -23,
~ I ul t iple Co up led Resonators". Proc IRE. An Int uitiv e Appro... c h 10 MIKJeJs. 36. J. D. Cappucci and H. Seidel. US
Aug . 19;9. Ch aracteri zat ion and Design." Applied Pate nt 3.4 52.3 00_ Four Port Directive
17. W. Hay.....a rd. " Des ign ing and Micm w;aH' and U'i refen . x cv. 2001. Coup ler Having Ele ctrical S.\·mm elry
Building Si mple Cr ys tal Fill ers" . QST. 27. Rm hroff. " So me Broad -B and with rr spect to Both Axes . iss ued Jun 24,
Jul. 1987. pp 2.t· :!9. Transform ers". Proc. IRt'. Aug, 1959. 1969.
HI. Ca rver. K60 LG. "Hig h-Per forma nce 28. N. Dye and H, Granberg, Rad io 37.J . D . Ca ppueci and H . Seide-! , L'S
Crysta l Filler Design." Communicunons Fr equency Truns i sto rs : Principles und Patent 3.4;2,30 I . Lumped Pa ramete r
Qllarferlr , Win ter, 1993. Pract ical App lin l/ io l1 .l . B utte r....-orth- D i rectiona l COl/pia. issued Ju n 24 . 1969 .
19, D. E. Johnson , J. R. Johnson. and H. Heinemann, 1993. Ch t o, 38. 8. ~l. Oli ver. "Directive Ele ct r o-
P. Moore. A Handbook of A cti \'I' Fitters, 29 . Ham ilton, "Imp roved Direct Magnetic Co uplers: ' Proc. IRE , Oct ,
Prent ice-Hall. 1980. Co nve rsion Rec eiver D e ~ ign ·' . Radio 1954.
10, H , Berlin, "The Stat e-V ari able C onunun ica tions, Apr, 1991. Appe ndix . 39. S. 13 . Cohn, "S hielde d Coupled Strip
Fille r." QST. Apr, 1978. r p 14- 16, 30. W . Hayward, Int roduction fa Radi o Tran smivcio n l ine:' M IT. Oct , 19; 5.
11. W. Hayward. tmroduc tion to Radio Freq uenc y D esig n, ARR L. 1994. Ch 4. 4U. K. Kuro ka ....a. ..Desig n Th eory of
Frequen cy Design. AR RL. 1994. Ch 4, 31 . R. Lewalle n. ··A Simple and Accurate Bal anced T ransis tor Amp lifiers: ' He/I
QR P Directional w attmeter." osr. Feb. Svsrem Technical Journal, Vol. .w. No.
11. G. L. Ma n haei, "Tables of Che byshev
1990 _pp 19-23 , 36. 10. Oct . 196; . pp 1675- 1698.
Impedance-Tr ansforming Ne twork s of
low- pass Filter For m: ' Proc IEEE. Aug. ]2. R. Larkin. " An 8-Wan. 2- ~ l e l er 4 1. K. S. Engel brecht and K. Kumk awa.
1964. pp 939-961. ' Bric kette"." QST. Jun. 2000. pp 43--47. "A Wideband. l ow Xoi sc, Lband
Balanced Tr an sistor Amplifier:' Proc .
13. R. Wi lM) n and H. Silverman . "W ire 33. A. Boulouard. " Lumpe d-E lement
IEEE . Vol 53. Mar. 1963. pp 237-246.
Line - A New and Easy Met hod of Quadrature Couplers: ' RF Desig n. Jul.
Microwave Circuit Con struct ion: ' QST. 1989. 42 . R. S. Engelbrecht. US Patent
Jul. 1981. pp :!1-23 . J. J 71. ~84 . IIiglJ Frequency Balanced
34. R. Fisher. "B ro adb and Twi..led-Wi re
A.mp /ifin . Feb 17. 1968.

Filters and Im pe d a n c e Matching Circuits 3. 3 9

 p
, ;:
CHAPTER ' " , h
"

Oscillators and Frequency

Synthesis

Almost all of the Amateur Radio equi p- promised by La systems that surfer from A frequency vymhesiver offers oct-nand-
ment we bui ld will contain at least one excess pha se noise, cffc ctivcly limiting the ing thermal stability and Frequency accu-
oscillator. It may be a simple crystal con - rece iver dynamic range. while quiet os - rae)' A synthesizer using a handful of inte-
trolled circuit. a tuned LC variable fre - cillators. those with lo w phase noise. can grated circuits, each containing h undreds
quency oscillator, or even a d irect-digi tal he built using traditio nal methods, these of trans istors, is les s expensive to manu -
synthesize r, a circuit that prov ides an out - circ uits ofte n lack the thermal stabi lit y of facture than a high quality mechanically
put simi lar to what we might expect from a syn thesi zer. tune d LO system . lt is more reliabl e. owing
a simpler circuit. A basi c os cillator might Beyond their practical importance . os- to a reduced number of moving part s. Pre -
be a simple one tuned by a mec hanica l ci Haters are ex treme ly int eresting circuits. 4uency synthesis is not, however. the an-
variable cupucitur. Alternatively, it might An effective oscillatnr cun be built wit h a swer to all of the LO problems preve nted to
be voltage con trolled. Combinations of all single transistor. Yet, this simple, primi- the experimenter. Some I'LL syruhesivers
of these are possible and are common in rive ci rcu it wi ll incl ude both po si tive ked- are burdened by excessive phase noise .
modern communications equi p ment. hack, causing oscill ation to start at the Thos e using DD S, wh ile qu ieter, emit spu -
The local oscitknor (LO) is a critical desired freque ncy, and negative feedback rious outputs. often in profusion. Both use
part of any communications system. Mod - that mai ntains operating am plit ude con - an excess of digital ci rcuitry that can often
ern tra nscei ver performance is often COIll - stant with time. co rrupt a rece iver environment.

4.1 LC-OSCILLATOR BASICS

Oscillators may be cla ssified in a num- is applied to the amplifier input. BUL the with a switch or otherwise altered so that
ber of ways. O ne categorizes the circu it by amplifie r output is routed baek to the input the circuit is not oscillating. The swi tch is
the devices used for the ac tive clement and of the tuned c ircuit. then opened, restoring resonator function -
the reso nator, such as the bipolar transis - Assume that the circuit has a po wer sup - ality. The amplifier is operational with
tor, crystal controlled oscillator and the ply attached, but thro ugh some means or normal operati ng bias ap plied: hen ce , it
JFtT LC oscillator. One can also classify another the resonator is sho rt-circuited ge nerates noise . The noise present at the
oscillators according to a historic circuit
fo rm, suc h as the Co lpitts or Han ley. An
oscillator can bc cla ssified by the active
dev ice configuration , such as common-
emitter , Final ly, it can be classified ac -
cording to the method used during design,
such as a negative resistan ce oscillator.
The first questio n we ask (or sho uld as k)
is if an oscillator wi ll indeed oscillate when (AI
power is applied.
Fig 4.1 shows a bloek d iagram of an Fig 4,1-B lock d iagram of an oscillator. Part A shows t he bas ic os cillator while
oscillator. T he cir cuit is segm ented into part B illustrates the method used fo r analysis . This ana lysis can be applied to
two e leme nts: a resonator or tuned circuit. either LC or c r y sta l oscillators, o r even ci r c u its using RC filte rs to replace the
and an amplifie r. The tuned circuit output resonator. Amp lifier inp ut an d output is labeled w it h "i" and " 0."

Oscil lators and Frequency Synthes izers 4.1

 input is amplified to ap pear at the output
with greater amp litude . This noise is spread
more or less evenly over a wide bandwidth.
The amp lifier outp ut is applied 10 the tuned
c ircuit where it is filtered and phas e shifted .
The result ing signal emerges where it is
aga in applied to the amp lifier input. For
each freq ue ncy, the sig nal th at has tra- I CA)
I
versed the ampli fier-reso nator loo p
emerge s with a ne w amplit ude and new
p base.H the a mpli fier has a net gain at the
rP
reso nator cen ter f reque nc y. the signal at 'Ct
th at fre quenc y is larger after having tra - ~ (D)
versed arou nd the c ircuit. It will cont inue
to gro w with each ro und trip.
(C)
The re will be one unique freque ncy
where there is no net phase shift as energy
at that frequ ency traverses the loop . Th is Fig 4.2-Colpitts (A) and Hartle y (B) os cillators. The vers ions at (C) and (D) ha ve
the ground re moved, a llowing an y of the three FET termina ls to be g ro unde d. The
eventually esta blishes the osci llator ope r- bias is e liminated fro m the last two circ uits. Alt ho ug h illus trated wit h FETs , bipo lar
ating freq uenc y. En ergy at fre que ncies t ra ns is to rs are often used .
above and belo w the center carr ier fre-
quency will be shifted furth er in phase
with each tri p arou nd the loop, eventually
eme rgi ng 9 0 de grees awa y whe re it no
lon ger cont rib utes, to the power.
We have ju st descri bed osci llator start-
ing, Oscillation will begin if the signal grows
in amplitude with each pass around the loop
and if the phase is the same as it was in the
beginning. The se arc the so-called Hark-
g] @
(B) T
~

hausen criterion. They an: meas ured or ana-

-LP'
lyzed with the system in the Figure.The loop
has been broke n at 'X" in part "a" or the ©, , , '-'=1

r
Figure . A signa l sour ce and a load are
inserted that allow the gain to be meas ured.
Ie) , (D)
shown in part "b." t
T he amp litude cann ot continue to grow
without bound. So mething mus t occu r
within the cir cuit that will redu ce the over-
f
all gain to the le ve l just needed to ma inta in Fig 4.3-The Co lpitts (A) evolves into the Clapp (B) a nd t hen the Seil er (C). The
a stable ampli tude . T his us ua lly occ urs Vac kar osc illat or at (D) is ye t a not he r va ria tio n o n the Co lpitts whe re the base is
d riven from a lowe r impedance, a ch ieved with a capacitor tap a cross one of the
through current or voltage limiting . wit h usual "Co lpitts Capacitors." These osc illators can be des ig ned with eith er FETs
curre nt l imiting ge nerally pre ferred. (Au- or bip o lar t ra ns istors .
toma tic gai n cu ruro l can also he used. )
Bias ing det a ils usuall y es tabl ish limiting
a nd set oscill ato r opera ting In d . A high
ope rating le ve l is ge ne rall y desired. uses ca pa citors . great er-than-u nit y. zero phase shift start-
W ~ rarely analyz e starting in an HF os- The Hartle y and the Co lpitis oscillators ing gain .
cilla to r WI: wish to huil t for a proj ect. of f ig 4.2 A and B use a so urc e follower Th e Co lpitts ci rcuit (Fi g 4.2A) may not
Rath er. we merely build and exami ne the amplifier. Th is di stinction is an ar bitrary be as in tu itive . Detailed circ uit analysis
oscillator to sec if there is an o utpu t. one. as is illustrated with the two varia- will show that dri vin g the capacitive tap
tio ns of Fig 4.2 C and D, whi ch are dra wn with a lo w impedance sou rce wil l produce
witho ut 11 gro und. The ground and biasing the requ ired vo ltage ste p up in the com -
The Colpitts and can then he inse rte d as nee ded by the posite tun ed ci rcuit. I ndee d, a s im ilar
Ha rtley Circ u its designer. ana lysis sho ws that the same ac tion occ urs
Whi le the re are numerou s named LC The ope ration of the Hart ley is oft e n in the Hartley oscillator e ven if there is no
oscillators . the y c an gen erally be cate go- e xplained with tra nsfo rme r acti on . T he mag netic co u pling be tween the two induc-
rized as Co lpitt s or a Han k y varia tion s so urce follower of Fig 4 ,2B has a high in- tor sec tio ns , Transfo rmer actio n is not re-
with bot h c irc uits nam ed for the ir inve n- put and re lati vely le w ou tput impe dance, qui red! A Ha rtley is easily built with two
tors, ea rly rad io pio neers fro m the Be ll and a vo ltage gain clos e to 1. The ampli - sep arat e coils. an occ asio na lly useful
Labs of the 1920s and 19.1 0s era . The basic Iier outpu t signal is app lied to the tap on vari ation.
fo rms arc shown in Fig 4.2 , A and H. T he the tuned circ uit. Transformer ac tion then Th e Ha rtl ey oscill ator with po siti ve
o nly d iffere nce between the two is in the increases the vo ltage that ap pears at the feedback res ultin g frnm induc tor s c an
mean s for fee dbac k. T he Hartle y (B) use s ga te. Hre aki ng the loop at eithe r the FET have an advantage over the Col pitts: Ifi t is
a tapped indu c tor while the Colpi tts (A) gat e or so urce will show t he req uir ed tuned wi th a variable capa ci tor with mini-

4.2 Chapt er 4
 Clap p oscillator. also c alled a series runed
Col pitt s. The Clapp starts wi th a Colpitts
c ircuit. but re places the usual inductor
with a larg er one. Then, the extra indue-
tivc re ac tance is remo ved with a series
capaci tive reac ta nce. Pa rt C shows yet
ano the r variatio n. the Se iler, where a
Cla pp is modi fied. T he Clapp i nduc tor is
rep laced by a sma ller one paralle led with
a ca pac ito r. T he C lap p is c apab le of
gre ater en ergy storage than a si mi lar
Colp itts while the Se iler allow s the active
device to be we ll decou pled from the reso-
nato r. T hese three arc ana lyze d in greater
det ail in Introducnon 10 Radio Frequenc y
Design; C hapte r 7.
Th is Hart ley Oscillato r is mounted in a stamped bo x. A v ern ier d ri ve is attached to
th e capa c itor shaft and is f ixe d to t he bo x w ith a s in g le bo lt tha t prevent s ro t at ion .
A final variatio n sho wn in Fig 4. 30 is
Spade lu gs allow a lid to be attac hed to t he bo x. the v ac kar. In th is c ircui t, the Co lpitts
capac i tor att ached to the base is e xpanded.
allo win g the base to be d rive n from a
mal fixed capacitance. it will pro duce a The Co lpitts oscill ator has several pop u- lowe r sou rce impe dance. This would pro -
wider LUn ing range than is easily reali zed lar variations sho wn in Fi g 4.3 . The first vide excelle nt dcc uupling be twee n the
with a Colpitts. There is no other fu nda- c ircuit fA) is the basic Colpi tts. now shown ac tive tran sisto r and the reso nato r. The
ment al adv antage of one over the ot her. with a bipo lar transistor. Part B show s the Vackar is discu ssed la ter in greater detail.

4.2 PRACTICAL HARTLEY CIRCUITS AND OSCILLATOR DRIFT

COMPENSATION
1\ good oscillator is ther mall y and me- th rou gh the 2.7-p F hlocking ca pacito r
cha nica lly sta ble in freq uency and has lo w charg es it. The average de vo ltage on the
noise. \Ve ' 11 100k at the stabi li ty issues in 2.7 2N4416 tank side of the capacitor must he zero. for
this sect ion, lea ving noise for later , and ,F the coil is at de groun d. Hence, the charged

---r;t-T-I~'1-",~,t'8- )
will illustrate the ide as with practical ci r- capacitor causes an average negative volt-
cuits sui tab le for du plication. age to appear at thc FET gate . This neg ative
The first c ircu it we e xamine is a simple bias builds towar d fE T pinchoff as oscilla -
LC Hart ley osci llator suitable as a LO in 2 uH
Ll l~~; Me~~ tor amplitude increases. If the osc illator op-
the HF spectru m. We have used this cir- erating level changes during tuning. the
cuit in ap plicat ions f rom I to SO Ml-lz. and negat ive bias will change, allow ing FET
ha ve breadboard vari ati on s tha t ex tend gain to change as needed to ma intain a
tro m audi o to 3 GHz. The 7-MH z c ircuit nearly co nstant output. This automatic gain
presen ted in Fi g 4.4 uses a HO I:T . Fig 4.4-Practic al 7-MHz Hart ley co ntro l (AGC) action is much like the lim-
Generall y, an induc to r with reacta nce oscillator . iting that also occu rs in the Hanley Limit-
of aro und 100 n offers a good start ing i ng will occ ur on a cycle- to-cycle basis
po int in design, a ltho ugh this is very non- around 1 pF, so any series ca pacit or wit h whi le rbc AGC resp onds to an average
critic al. The tap posit io n is s imi larly a simi lar or sl ightly larger size will do. level. T he AGC offers a co arse control,
uncritical; start with a tap u p from gro und The osc illator of Fig 4.4 uses one large leavi ng the limiting to se t the final level.
by abo ut 20 S( of the num ber of turn s , variable capacito r for tuning. A typical cir- T he voltages de sc ribed a re easil y
If this osci lla tor is built with no fixed cuit will use comb inations of fixed and vari- obse r ved with a high-speed oscillosco pe
capac itance other than stray valu es . a fre- able capacitors, con figured to tunc a narrow with a lOX probe Even a high qu ali ty
quency range ap proaching 4: I can be I;:X - range with the variable clement. The cqua- prob e will load the HF oscillator tan k.
peered . Muc h of the ca pac itance in the tank tions arc shown in a sidebar. c o mpro misi ng accuracy, hut qual itative
is fixed to r narrow tun ing ranges . All fi xed The gate d iode is often described as a det ails c an sti ll be seen.
c apacitor s sho uld be N POtypes. NPO is an "clamping clement.' for it does not allow This oscil lato r normall y o pera tes with a
abb reviation for negative positive zero, a the gate to beco me more po sitiv e tha n 5 to 20- V pea k-to-peak signal on the tank .
capacitor type with a capacita nce that docs about 0.6 V. Howe ver, the primar y func- It can be e ve n high er i f an extra shun t
not change with temp erature . The c apaci- tion is a detector to sup ply the FET with ca pacitor is used at the gat e, mimicking
tor betwe e n the hot end of the resonator negative bias . A si gna l voltage present on that des ign feat ure in the Vackar oscilla -
and the FET gate should have a sma ll C the tank circui t ca uses diode current when tor. Thc phase noise capabil ities of the
va lue. T he in put C of the FET is typically the anode is posi tive by 0.6 V. The current Hartley osci llator of Fig 4.4 are goo d.

Oscillators and Freq uency Synt hesizers 4.3

 •
r

cJ 1c,~"
r
t. r

c, • ""
C IlllI 0 :1' C"",
r
Tm t _

Fig 4.5-Squeeglng in a Hartley

oscillator, an on -and-off mod e where
the oscillator is not func tion ing except
du ring short per iod s . The vertical scale
s hows the gate vo ltage. Extreme values
of bloc king ca pacitor an d bias re s is tor
are req uired to prod uce this beh avior In
the FET Hartley osc illator s .

=
when tank Ou 3U. the gale resistor wa.. .
increased to values much larger than I ~H1.
and blocking capacitors of 200 pF or more
were uscd.J
The supply \ol lage used with this osci l-
lator should be larger than the magnitude
of the fETp inchoff. A ..upply of +5 is high
Tunin" R;oD<Je:
enough for a ~S-J-J '6 with pinchoff of
-3 V. The . . upply shou ld be regulated and
come from a moderately low de impedance.
In one experi ment. we buill this oscillator
with a 6- V Zener diode with a 3.9- kU
,., resistor fed from a I ~.V supply. The high
resistance value was picked for overall ef-
ficien cy. The osci llator would not stan. DC
A simple reso nant circ ui t is t uned wit h parallel capacitors as show n in t he lop voltmeter measurements showed that the
section. The tuning range is con tr oll ed by the ratio of the varia ble capacit anc e FET onl y had I V on the drain. The FET
to t he fixe d o ne. was II)'ill,liI1(1 draw a current of Id" . lcading
to excessi ve drop across the 3.9-H l rests-
Ofl en an ava ilable variable capacitor has greater capacitance than required tor. A smatter (470-n ) dropping resistor
for a desired frequency range. While plates can sometimes be removed, a solved the prohlem. hut at the cost of higher
better solution embeds the variable capacitor in a netwo rk of fixed capacitors. powe r consumption. A bener solution i.. . a
The evolution of this network is shown in the middle section. The variable, C, 100-0 druln -decoupli ng resistor supplied
and C2 are paralleled to form the equivalent C2v' This is then placed in series by a de emitter follower with the base ref-
with C, lor the equivalent C' 2v' This is parall eled by C 3 to form the tota l erenced to a Zener diode paralleled by a
capacitor, C NET- The overall frequency is calcu lat e d fro m the us ua l re s onance large electrol ytic capaci tor. A small charg-
re lat ionship. The e quatio ns are shown , with capacitors in Farads , ind ucta nce ing current can then be used. maintaining
in Henrys and frequency in Hz. efficiency. Three termi nal reg ulator Ie . .
There is conside rable flexibility ava ilable to the designer, affor ded by also work well in this application. Thiv i ~
picking C 1 and C" val ues . S ome co mbina tions with C 1 much smaller tha n the one of many exarnplev where eum cir-
va ria ble ca pa citor ca n produce highly nonline ar tu ning . cuitry improves efficie ncy.

Temperature
althoug h not Ihe ultimate. (Pha.. . e noi.. . e is Experime nts were performed to examine Compensation
di ccu.. . . . ed later in this chapte r. j the effec t of revivtnr and blocking Gene rally. the most import ant charac ter-
The I-MU resistor represents a load on capacitor values. and unloaded resonator Q. istic of osci llator.. . built for radio applica-
the tank. II also discha rges the series bloc k- If extreme values uo ng time constant) were tion is frequency stability. Stabi lity relates
ing ca paci tor. If a smaller res istance is used with degraded tank Q. the oscilla tor to a change in frequency other than the
used. the blocking capacitor will disc harge could become amplitude un.. . table, produc- desired ones thai occur with tuning. Th is
more quickly . The energy to maintain biOI, ing a phenome non called $(/ lI(·R li i ll"; . A change. or drif t. occurs in two forms. One
eo Illes from the RF envelope, further loud- sketch of the observed gate voltage is shown is the warm up driftoccurring when an os-
ing the reso nator. Resistor values aro und in Fig 4.5 for an oscillator using a 2.\144 16 cillator i_ first turned on and allowed In
I r.fil are generally optimum. FET. This unusual behavior was observed operate at constant tem perature. The sec-

4.4 Chapter 4
 drift! The heat "OUKe was onl y o perated
JFET Hartley Oscillator inte rmittemly after the 25-minme mark 10
rnaintuin cha mber te mperature . Oscill ato r
d rift continued a:. the internal com ponents
came up 10 temperatu re.
33 Mcasure rnemv a re simpler whe n the
.. . ..l~ -.-:~ -.~~ . test ed osc illa tor is (ml~ a sma ll bo ard with

\ .. /
low thermal mass. c apable of q uicker
.. -\- .
32 N
I
~
temperature cha ngev.
Thermal frequ e ncy stabi lity depends o n

~::::: J 31 u>-
C
•e-
the resonator co il and all re lated ca pac i-
tors. Mo cr oscill ato rs we built use to roid

... . \. . V···
: : : : : : : : : : : • • : : : : : \ : : : : : : :: : : : • • • • n \ : ::

~ ind uc tor s wound on SF ( ----6 ) mate rial. 1\

30 e ne wer material with a - 7 des ignation is
u, repo n ed to be sl ig h t l~, mo re stable. The
z•
/:::::::::~;~
:::::::. :~~~--_ ..:
_--------~
: l\~.
:::::: _--- -
29

28
:;;
•
"'
- 6 material has a permeahility of about 10
and a tem pera ture coefficien t of induc-
tan ce (TCI .i of +35 parts pCI' mill io n per
degree Celsi us (C) . This means that a n
ind uctor of 1 micro -henry will increase by
35 pH (i. e.. O.OO(X)J S IlH) when the tem -
27
o 10 20 30 40 50 perature increas es by I deg ree C. Te rn-
pe rat ure coeffici e nt> <I re generally spcci-
Time, minutes ficd in norma lized. dimens ionless fo rm.
(pa ris per mill ion) allo wi ng con venient
Fig 4.6-Tempe rat ur e and f requenc y vs. ti me l o r a Hartl ey o scillato r operat ing in a
si mple envir o n mental chamber. The heal was t urn ed o n al 10 m inu te s. It was sc alin g. The normali zed rat e of cha nge of
cycled crt and on aft er 25 minutes to maintain an approximately consta nt freq ue ncy . TCF . is rela ted to all of the
temperature. The chambe r tid was removed and a cooling fan was tu rned on at 46 components in the osc illator resonator. If.
mi n ute s. for exa mple. a tan k co nsis ted of two paral-
lel capacitors and an ind ucto r. the temper a-
ture coe fficie nt of freq uency is re tarcd to
Ihat of the components hy
e nd is the drift with chan ging tem perature. posses s. All that is needed is a simp le en-
Both effects arc thermal in origin. hUI rhe vircn mcnral chambe r with a thermom eter . OF I
TCF = - = - - ·
warm up d rift is caused by te mpe rature The c hamber is bu ilt from an ine xpe nsive F ,
changes in individual compone nts result- Styro foa m box. A light bulb is placed in-
ing from heat in g by the ci rcul at ing currer us
with in the circ uit. Warm up dr ift i-, nor -
side the box along with the ci rc uit being
tested . A sma ll fa n ~ l irs the inside air to [
TC!. "' TC Ct ._
C_,_+ Tee:'
Crm
_...£L]
.- Cror
ma lly small compared with the drirt ~ that co mplete the ch a mber . Te mperature is
occ ur whe n an osc illator is su bjec ted to meas ured wit h an integ rate d ci rcuit in- Eq 4.1
even II modes t te mperature change . tended for this purpos e . Leads ~upply
Thermal drift may be of little co nse - po wer to the l C and rou te a de sign al UU! of whe re C 1 a nd C: arc the ca paci tor s with
quencc when equ ipment is buill and used the ch amb er fo r measu rem ent with a temperature coefficients TCc l and Te c: .
in a ty pic al home environment wh ere room DVM. An osc illator to be tested is plac ed Te L is the temperature coe fficient of tho:
temperatures are sta ble. Rut the oscil lator in the c hamber wit h cable s ro uted to the ind uctor. and TeF i" the tempera ture coef-
that was "rock solid" during home opera- o utside for powe r a nd for freq uenc y mea- ficient of freq ue ncy of the oscillator in
tio n may beco me a ve ry poo r performer su rement. Th e oscillator is turned un for II no rmali zed pa ns. C'ror is the tot al capaci-
when subj ected to port able envi ronments. while be for e the heat source is appl ied. ta nce . Cl+C Z ' The nega ti ve sign a rises
The most extreme exa mples we ha ve pro viding a measure of w arm -up drift. because a n inc rease in L or C lea ds 10
encountered occurred 'A hen we took eq uip- Heat is the n applied. causing the te mpera- dec reas ing freq ue ncy . The factor of one
mem on mounta ineering trip s. The temper- lure to increase. ha lf comes from the square root relation -
ature at the summit of a glacie r clad. eloud Dura fo r a 7- ~I Hz Han ley osci llator is ship of frequency to L a nd C.
covered mou ntai n ca n be below freezing. shown in FiA4.6 w here freque ncy and c ham- Co nside r a 7-MHI e xample. using a
even in mid ,> UmmCL But the temperature ber temperature are plo tted \ 'S time. The os- 2-]JH ind uctor carefu lly wound o n a T50·
can quic kly shoot up when the clouds blow cillaror was operated for 10 minutes before 6 toroid . Assu me TC L i.s +50 ppm/"C.
a....-ay for a few minutes. o nly 10 plu mmer applying the 6(}.W bear source. producing a s lightly worse than the qu oted material
downward as soo n as the douds return. lts typical ISO-Hi warm-u p drift. Chamber perfo rmance. whic h will be explai ned
impo rtan t to design for the se e xtre mes if temperature immediately started 10 increase rare r. Initially assu me rhm the ind uctor is
they mig ht be enc ountered. While not as when the heat source was turned on . The pa ralle led with 250 pF of pe rfect ly
seve re. d rift problems are co mmo n eve n frequency did nor respond immediately. fo r non-d rifting ~PO capacito rs. The only part
when we arc o n the fl atlands . the oscillator was housed in it moderately that will d rift will he the ind uctor. From
Osci llator temperat ure compensatio n is tight container, When frequency began to Eq 4. 1. she 50 ppmr'C will prod uce a TCF
surprivingly easy. requiring liule equip- drop. it moved about S kil l for a 15'C tern- of - 25 ppm/ ~C. o r - 25 Hz per ~Hh. Th e
ment beyond the simple frequenc y counter perature increase. The external hea ting tv -degree shift of Fig 4-6 would the n pro -
and DVM that most e xperimenters alread y induced drift was over 30 times the warm up duc e a frequency cha nge of - 2.6 kHz.

Oscillators and Frequency Synthesizers 4.5

 W e no w repl ace the ving'lc capacito r isucs. A mo re te mpe rature stabl e coi l is
with two . a 150-pF Nptj cerami c and a 100- prod uced with a wire s tze tha t is sma l ler ..1-310 +8 Reg
pF polystyrene . Th e nom inal freq ue ncy than that prod ucing max imum Q . The Q
remains 7.118 MHz. Assume that me NPO degrada tion i" usually nul large.
capechor i~ no t perfec t. ha ving a TC of +5 Te mperature coe fflcicms are themselves
ppmf'c. The poly cap ha~ TC = - 150 ppm l temperature dependent. An oscillator that
'c. The TCF for the circ uit is has bee n compensated at one tempe rature
may not be as stable at tem perature'
r
::! _
~ 150 - 150 ·-100]
TCF = - -1 · 50 +:')·-
250 250
e xtremes.
Another subt le proble m has 10 do with
stress built i nto the wire du rin g the wind-
[4 ~.2 ing proce ss . W I:' first obser ved this while
te mperat ure testing bandpass filters built Fig 4.7-A Hartley oscillator u sin g
Th is oscillator has a muc h impro ved from ro roid s. The filler frequ e nc y would so urce bias and two in ductors. The
TCF of +3. 5 ppm pe r de gree C. This ts cha nge as tempe rature inc reased, but large r inductor is 17 turns on a T50·6
3.5 II I d rift per Ml j z of observed Ire- wou ld not come back to the o rigina l Ire- t or oid . Th e smaller one is 10 t urns on e
quc ncy per "c. A t n.dcgrce C temp erature qucncy whe n the circ uit re turned to room T30-6. Output can be ex tracted fr om th e
rise wou ld prod uce a 245-11 /, freq uency te mperature. How eve r. a second e xcursion so urc e or d irect ly f rom the resonat or
Increase. a very stab le v ro. The stability wit h e cee eemve ta p and ap prop riat e
to hig h temp eratur e and back wou ld pro -
re..ults from the use of a corubinntion of buffering .
d uce the expected re turn. Evident ly. the
parts wi th te mpe rature coef ficie nt, that f irst excursion to high tem perature (lI5 Cc)
cancel eac h other. and bac k relie ves the stress es left in the
The te mperature co effi cie nt o f fre- me tal d uring wind ing . W7E L has dropped There are. ho we ver, some var iatio ns thai
q uency . TCF. is redu ced From that of the coils into boiling wa ter after winding; sub- sho uld ulso be cons idered. Fig ".7 sho ws
co mpensating capaci to r to half the ratio of seq uent cooling prod uces a more stable an osci llat or .....ithout li e cou pling into the
the co mpe nsa tin g capac itor to the total ind ucto r. gale. rc mo ving the AGC action of earlier
res onator C. Capacilors with " te mper a- Ka ne of the temperature sta bili ty and o-cilla to rs. The amplitude is deter min ed
ture coefficie nt of- 750 pp mrC arc readily compen satio n argumen ts rela te 10 oscilla- by more trad itio nal c urre nt lim iting . The
available. The y ca n be placed directl y tor to pology. There i~ nothing thai will FET in the ex ample has a pinchoff vol tage
across a re so nator or in ..e rte s with a NPO make o ne Iype more stable than a nothe r so of -3 V. The source resistor places th e
capacitor for rompencat ion. If capacitor long as the circuit does nOI deg rade tank Q sourc e at a pocnive pot ential. even be fore
C I has a known TC. but is placed in series from imp roper limiti ng, The'compensation occitlarion has start ed. As oscilla tion
with a n:'\ PO capacitor. C ~. the resultin g meth ods described here for the Hartley bu ilds. follower action causes rhe source
TC of cap acua nce is given by apply eq ually 10 other circuits pre sented volt age to reach large positive val ues . The
later. Cap acitor variabilit y makes it diffi- zure al so reaches po vitive val ues. but i~
Eq.U cult to predict and control stab ility. e ncour- ; Iwavs offset below the source . During
aging the ser ious builder to measure his or pan ~f the cycle. the ga te-so urce voltage
he r v r o . d ro ps to or be low pinch off : the greater
Fo r example. if we place a 47-pF ca- Po wde red iron toroid core s (- 6 and - 7 the fract io n of each cycl e spent in this co n-
pucitor with "l'C of - 750 ppml"C in Sl.· rie~ ma terial from ~I i t' w - :-' le t al S) prod uce dition. the greater will be the gain redu c-
with u IO-pF :t\PO capacitor. the result i~ stable and re producible ind ucto rs if care - tion . wh ich es tablishes the final
8,2 pF with a Tt : or - n 2 ppm r c . fully wo und. Som e other coil form s may operating lc vcl With a 2.2-kn source
Altho ugh polystyrene capaci tors ca n be produce stable co ils. although the read er res istor. the gate signal was I I V peak-to-
used for cornpe nvation . the ) are not ideal. shoul d not trust poorly docume nted tesu- peak. This dro pped sig nificant ly when the
The TC of - ISO ppm/ "C is not a preci..e me nials (lore) regar ding s lug tune d form s sour ce R wa s increased to III kn ,
number. Th e TC itse lf has a to lerance of or othe r scheme'S that are not easily' dupli- The oscillator of Fig 4 .7 has an addi-
+/-5 0 ppmr C. allowing a polystyrene r u- cated and q uantif ied. tional unusual feature': The usual tapped
pacitor 10 ha ve a TC rang ing fro m - 100 10 The most viable oscillators are huilt coil is replaced .....ith t.....o isolated co ils.
- 200 pp mz- C. Th is vanubilu y h co mmo n. fro m co llec tion , of corn poncme th ai ott This has the advantage that the ci rcuit is
even amon g ;.;- PO ca pac itors. For exa mple . have low drift. A rea lly bad co mpon e nt ea sily hand -vwitched. a sometim es- mess y
o ne of the bes t co mmo nly avu ilable ~PO ca n be co mpen..ate d. hut only ove r a nar- prob lem with tapped induc tor v.
capacitor types is o ne with a so-cal led COG row te mperature ra nge .
charac teris tic. where the Gde clgnatcs a 'l 'C Drift measu rements in a mea-sured. vari -
tolera nce of +1-:'0 ppm/ 0c. able te mpe rature en\ironmc nt arc much
The uH uff 'n Puff"
Our e~a m pl e used an inductor T'C that more meaningful tha n me re warm up drift Freq uenc y cou nter circ uitry ca n be used
diffe red fro m the publ ished va lue fo r the m..asu rcmcms ...), ~uila t>le eha mb.:r ca n be 10 stabili ze a mod erately good ucci llator,
po wdered irtln core. The d i fkr~n ce relales built al verv Inw- eO~ 1 in an c ven ing . Th e achi e\' ing nea rly the stability of a ~ynthe­
to the \\a)" Ihi' core is wo und, If a large chambe r i~ 'desc ribed in a pape r included ~ized oscillatnr.J
wire is hand wound o n a tomid. wilh Ihe o n the book CD ) This sche'me u ~ e s norma l freque ncy
wiri' ~i zc pickl:d 10 fill t he core tv prod uce co unle rci re uitry suc h a~ that in F i~ -IX A
highe" possible Q. there is a good c hance <, table t'fys lal o~c i ll at o r is Ihe fo undatio n.
that the wire win gap awa y from the co re
Variations on the The re sull is di vided with a large co unte r,
for part of eac h tum. This lea ves unsu p- Simple Hartley a straightforwa rd opera tion with C.\10 $
port ed loops that can expand or co ntral.· \ The osc illat or described has been a long circuits such as the 4060 or ~ i m i l ar indu s-
with heat, prod uci ng ill-defi nc:> d chanu;te r· time favo rite' amo ng QRP experime nters. trial tim er par ts. The divi sio n i, e xtended

4 .6 Chapter 4
 ea ting a count of 4. 5, 6, or 7. Tho: negutivc
Fr o m VFO
Output edge of T is det ected and used 10 trigger a
D-Flip-tl op that memoriz es tho: result. The
Cr yst al Os c . COllJlt~ r
sa ved digital I causes Q of the FF to be at
5 V. This si gnal is app lied 10 the input of an
rv }-- ->{ divide by 2 N d l'Vlde by 8 op-amp integrator circ uit which ge nerate s
an out put that ramps down ward, but itt a
= c "
very low rate. T his slowly changing volt-
age cau ses the VFO frequency to dec rease.
Th e freq uency goes down slig htly as a
" D-FF " result of the applied sign al. Fi na lly. a fter a
few cyc les of co unting, it will ha ve
Tr i gger O~
' -_ _-< Tr i g .
talIi ,,!! ~ ...,.,. d ropp ed enough tha t the s ign al held in
me mor y beco mes a log ica l zero, resulting
g or s Volts
in a n integ ra tor inpu t of 0 v . Th is now
cau ses the op -amp ou tpu t to aga in ram p
upward. slow ly incre asin g the freq uency.
fl.'T Op - aJII! . VFO
Th e o ve rall effe ct of the added cir cuit

_ n- Res on at or
ele me nts is to force the oscillator to never
be at a fixed . e xact freque ncy, hut to mov e
(h uff ing an d puf fing ) be tween t wo fro -

Hu t! ' 0 h I!
,, 1 z<;1 Jun. 01
Tl ~ quc ncies . The se two refe re nc es a re 40-H z
a part fo r our e xample, so ch ange s are no t
no ticed in nor mal app licat ions . G rea ter
resolution is avail abl e with a shorter co unt
.6.F ~l kJh
or longer sam ple per iod.
We no w allow a slow ther mal d rift to
occu r. Thi s ha s the effe ct of altering the
time when we reach one of tho: transi tion
Fig 4.8-T hi s scheme us es no rm al f req uenc y counter circu it r y. A sta ble c ry stal
o scill ato r is t he fou nd ati on . fre que ncies. How eve r, th e d rift will he
ca ncelled so long it is well under 40 Hz in
a u.z-sccond window.
A f ET switch is placed acro ss the inte-
grate r timin g ca pac itor. This r ET is turn ed
to prod uce a square wave wit h a po siti ve frequency 300 Hi: a bove 5.0 MHz . and is on whe n the osc illator is t uned.
half peri od of le ngth T . Ass ume T =O. 1 the rmally stable with no drift of it' s own. Thc Huff 'n Puff scheme can be ex tremely
-eco nd. A well- buffered sam ple of the In a 0.1 seco nd per iod the 8 bit cou mer useful for adding stab ility to a circui t that is
\' FO is applied to a co nd itio ning amplifier input will see 500,030 transition s, so it will alrea dy reasona bly solid. TI is a wonderful
follo we d by a ga te controlled by the tim - o verflow again and again. Whe n the gate 1001 for the e xperirnenter, for it can be addcd
109 signal T. Th is allow s timing data to sig nalterminates at the end of the perio d T. to an already existing design. Se veral ex-
reach a counter for 0 . 1 seco nd . Let' s the 8 hit co unter will have overflowed a periment ers have expa nded the basic system
acsume the osci llator IU be st abil ized has a total of 62.503 times and wil l e nd the pe- in recent rimes.>
riod with a logic 1 in the output d igit . indi-

4.3 THE COLPITTS AND OTHER OSCILLATORS

One of the most po pula r oscillator c ir-
cuits among rad io ex perime nte rs has been J·310 +8 Reg J-310 +8 Reg

"~H
Co lpitts in one of its many fo rms. The
basic ci rcu it. a lo ng with several of its 1 1 CIIi
820 p "= J
1 0.1 uF
1"= J
r 0 1 if
derivative fo r ms, was prese nted ut the ezcc
beginning of the c hapter. Some practical -i-
variations are presen ted here.
O~,
- I 1 fkg
-

"
Fig 4.9 sho ws a s imple Co lp itts
oscillator using a junctio n FET . Althou gh
very simple, this circuit is c apable of e x-
1 u

-
IAI

IBI
,l
"'"' I "
3 3k

celle nt performance. T he variat ion shown

operates at app rox imat ely 7.5 MHz with a
-
Fig 4.9-Two v ers io ns of a Co lpitt s os cillator. The v ar iat ion at B is more tol era nt of
co mmo n drai n J FET. Addition of a vari- FET v ariations. The lower noise v er sio n s of t h is oscilla tor ha ve larger C w it h
able cap aci tor and trimmer to this circuit red uc ed l va lues.

Osc illato rs and Frequency Sy nt hesizers 4. 7

 The frequency stability will depe nd upon the
+8 R _ "
+ 8R _ " criterion outlined ea rlier. Th at is. if quality
run '0' :'\PO capachorv and -6 or -7 loroid ind uctors
4.7K
are used . reasonable stabi lity is pred ictable.
!. 33K ~
' OK I
.0 1 u F

:l N3Q0 4
8:;>0 p
1 .1 u H
,0 1 u F I
-~
' 00
820 P
Temperature compensation can be applied
to further improve the performa nce.
A subtlely ha unts the bipol ar Colpi tts
8 20 P c ircui ts of Fig -1-. 10 in the form of ill-de-

I~
-.L?
' 00 5 0 pF fi ned limi ting. The circu it will nearly
~'
OK 'OK :lN 3l;10e
a lway~ osci llate . However. if the .l3-l 0

~ ""11"K
- 1 ("J
820 P

_
-
- _
.0 1 u F 1 ,luH
(8)
.j. -
50 p F
e mitter bias resistor is reduced. the rransis-
tor will go into saturatio n at the negative
e xtreme of the co llector voltage wavefor m.
Th is act ion ex tracts e nergy fro m the tank
~

and dissipates it in the trans istor sa turation

Fig 4.1o-COlpillS os c illa to rs usi ng bipo lar t ra ns is to rs . Althou gh t he se ci rcuits resistance. T his can severely degrade the
were de s ign ed ar ound the 2N 3904 ( NPN) a nd 2N3906 (PNP), tran si s tor type Is not loade d tank Q. compromi si ng phase noise
critic a l fo r ge ne ra l-purpos e applic ation s . The 2 N5 17 9 Is a good ge ne ral·purpose and therm al stability . T he emi tter dcgcn-
cho ice to r VHF applications. The PNP has th e adva ntage that th e ta nk Is at gro und,
removing t he bypass capacito r 01 th e NPN tank from t he Irequenc y-deterrmnlng eration decreas es star ling gain and help s to
loo p. The PNP Is a lso handy whe n verectcr diod e t uning is planne d. esta blish current limiting as the mechan ism
determining o perating lev el. T ransistor
saturation is easi ly de tec ted w ith 11 high-
speed oscilloscope .
A si mple Colpitts should be built with
high ca pacita nce and lo w inductance. stor-
ing the greatest e nergy in the re sonator . But
] -a Reg there is a practica l limit to this tre nd. Even-
3,3K
33 pF
1" tual ly . sITay inductance of the capaci tors
and the wiring in the tank . including by-
pas s capacitors. will all co ntribu te to the
overall L in greater propo rtion . The stray

'::1 L:' 180 pF

( 175 )
"K induct ance ge ne ra ll y has a co nside rabl y
lo wer Q and poo rer stab ility than that of a
powdered iro n toroid ind uctor.
Fi ~ -1-.11 sho ws a Se iler osci llator us ing
a bipo lar tra nsistor. The values sho wn are
for 5-f\IH7 o peration. with re act ance at the
operating freq uenc y show n in parenthe-
4 30 pF
(75 ) I 22 K
ses, all owin g scali ng. As mentioned
e arlier. the Se iler ca n be a naly ze d a., a
variation of the Clap p. which is the famil-
-= -=- iar "series tuned' versio n of the Colp itts,
This circuit has some very useful charac -
tcristics . First. the CO /pill" capacitors (the
Fig 4.11-A Sei ler osc illa to r for 5·M Hz o pe ration. The va lues shown In par e nth es is
a re reactances. allo wing the c irc uit to be s caled to oth e r freq uencies . Tra ns is tor 180 and -1-J(l-p F ca pacitors prov iding the
type is not c ritic a l, altho ugh the c ircu it wo rks well wit h a 2N 3904 . in-phase feedback from co llector to e mit-
ter) are large co mpare d with the JJ-pF co u-
pli ng ca pac ito r to thc induc tor. Th is
de couplev the ac tive de vice. incl uding
will drop il do wn into the -m. mctc r band. Co lpi ns o sc illators and va riations is usu- p ara sit ic ca pac ita nce. fro m the rest of the
The ci rcuit uses a so urc e resisto r to se t o p- ally the 1FET (o wing to red uced lo w fre- ta nk . Seco nd . current li miting is we ll
crating leve l. In thc variant with diode que ncy n oise ), bipolar version s arc still es tahlished wi th this c irc uit. (Co mputer
cl amping. rhe sou rce resi stor ma y be popular and effect ive . Bipol ar Colpitts os - an al p is show s that th e tr ansistor uays
replaced with a c ho ke. a lthough the nega - c illators arc s hown in Fig ~.1 0 . The well away from sa turatio n when the
tivc feed back at low frequenc y from the fa miliar form is thar in A usin g an N P:,\ 100-0 dege ne ra tion is used.t Even
resisto r h believed to improve phase nuive transistor. T he P:,\ P version I Fig -1-. lOB ) is tho ugh me c urrent is sma ll in t his c ircuit.
close to thc c arrie r. While sho wn with a con ve nie nt. for the de grou nded co llector abo ut I rnA, the s ignal vol ta ges ca n he
1-310 FET. FET Iype is nOI crit ical . T he re moves the need for a good bypass quite hig h. We measure d ove r 10 V p k-pk
13 10 used for the measurerne mv on th is ca pacito r th ai beco mes pan o f the Ire- acro ss the ind uc to r. T he co ll ec to r s ig nal
oscillator had a pinchoff voltage of -3. 1 V que ncy-dcrcrmi ning reson ator. is muc h s ma ller at 2.5 V pea k-to-pea k.
and Ids>of 37.5 rnA. T he clrc uud raws ju st The two osc illato rs presented in Fig -1-. 10 O utput c an be obtai ned fro m the j unct io n
o ver 1 mA d uring operation . T he R, value life des igned for operation ncar 7 ~I Hz. Like of the Colpitts capacitors.
may require adjustmc nt if bu ilt wit h a lo w any of the circ uits prese nted. they can be The Co lpitts oscillators prese nted have
gain 1FE T. scaled to any frequency within the HF and all operated at the lowe r end of the HF
While the prefe rred de vic e for HF lo w VHF spec trum . and even dow n to audio, spe ctru m. T he Col pitts a nd Hanle y can

4 .8 Chapter 4
 T
r I ~ "
2N3904
" ,, ~ ' 390 PFJ L

dr
2N 4 ~ 16

001
l ~ C& "l b
~
n
2N 5~
r ~ u 50 pF
" ] 5.8 pF
T Output

I (A) UK
;[dPF S10V 011 +12 Y

lI~ ~'''l,~'CCl
16 pr
~0 5 0 0hm s
" "
c:: -, I 33 pf
~
;,

+1 2 y
~ ~
~

(B)

~ 1i
~1 6PF 1 " ~ 0.6 uH
~Tu e I - 0 01
r"' 2N 3904

Voltage =

Fig 4.12-A Colpitts VHF o sc illator. L1 is 50 nH , 3 turn s of

#22 bare w ire. It is initi all y wou nd o n a 114-20 machine screw
as a former. Th e bo lt is then rem oved. The varactor diode is .
01
r
1 10
10k d

"
S1- '"f = 180 pf

att ached to a tap (approximately center) on the co il in order

to reduc e the t uning sensit iv ity. The diode tu nes the
~ ~

'" (C)

o scillato r b y 4 MHz ar o und 134 MHz w it h a v o lt age fr o m 5 to

12. L2 is a 2.7 ~ H RFC. The tr imme r capacitor aHows the
ci rc u it to tune f ro m 71 101 53 MHz. Po wer outpu t Is - 2 d Bm to Fig 4 .13- Nega t ive resistance o ne-port oscilla tors fo r
a 50-Q t er m inati o n . applicat io n at HF an d VH F. See tex t for d iscussion.

both be scaled for operation at much

higher frequencies . Shown in F ig 4.12 is a 33 0 +1 2
VHF Colpitts oscill ator. Th is circuit was 10 0
+8 Re g . l OOuH
originally set up as a volt age co ntrolled 0.1
local oscillator in a SSB transceiver at RFC J 310
l-l-4 MHz. It can . however, be set up for a
2 00
J310 E-::L-
wide frequ ency range by spread ing or
co mpressing the turns on the coil , which
5
25 OOK
uses an air dielectric.
Numerous other oscillato r form s are C" 1 80 0 lO OK 0.1 lk
available for wide frequency range app li-
cations. Thr ee arc shown in Fig 4.13. The
5 . 1uH -
Q> 20 0 lK to
first bipolar circuit (Fig 4.13A ) is a pri mi-
tive variation of the scheme used in the
Motorola MC- 164X. The version shown 2 00
3 . 3K
I (A)

uses NPN transistors with a negative sup-

ply. The same cir cu it will wor k with a
single pos itive power supply wit h PNP
transistors such as the 2N3906. The oscil-
lator is a one-port type where two no n-
f Reg .

~ ~~
inverting amplifiers, an em itte r follower (B )

m
and a com mon-base. are cascaded. The out- J 310 +1 2
put is returned to the input with a shunt- c , 25 2 00 100
tuned circu it attached at the common point.
J 3 10
This scheme can be built on the bench and
(--t11::) E-::L
5
0 0 "K~-===---F1
made to function over an extremely wide
4 . 3 uH-=- 18 00
frequency rang e. Low Q tank circui ts are Q> 200 r
favored. This circu it suffers fro m very low 100
stored tank energy. the result of voltage 1K to
clipping by the transi stors. 3 . 3K lk
The second circuit uses J-FETs in a varia-
tion of the same topology. This circuit, simi-
lar to one used in the HP-8662 synthesized
generator>, does not suffer from the voltage
limiting found with the simple bipolar ver-
' £ 00

j 100 uH
Fe

sion. The circuit shown in Fig 4.138 is one Fig 4.14-The Vac ka r c irc u it sho w n is identica l t o the Seiler c ircui t pre sen ted
that was breadboarded from available com- ear li er except for the c ho ice of co m po ne nt va lue s .

Osc il lator s and Freq uency Syn t hesizers 4 .9

 esse ntiall y the sa me circu it with the
f8 Peg. gro und point shifted from the source to
1 00 the d rai n. T he inductance value is slig ht ly

J 3 10
!p
h +1 2
lower in B than in A, for variable capaci-
tor C v co nnects to gro und in H. If the ca-

t ! 1~
0.1 100 pacitor had been return cd to the FET
0.1
Vc
I J 3 1:d
>-1f-:l
so urce in B. the L val ue wou ld be the sam e
as at A for 7-I\IHz resona nce.
-
b
f'b ~
The Vac kar ci rcu it in Fig 4 ,14B is iden-
tical to the Seiler circuit pre sented earlier
1 exce pt for the choice of componen t val-
ues. Th e unique co mpone nt in the Vac kar

l RFc "'C is the lar ge cap acitor ac ross the FET

gate-sour ce. T his component is crit ical:
incre asing the value will drop the star ting
- gain to the point that osc illation will not
Fi g 4.15- T h is fi gure sh ow s a va ria nt of t he Vac k ar os c illator w it h a Hartley theme. comme nce. A decrease in i nductor Q will
T he so ur ce a nd gate are both tapped down on the resonator as a means of have a sim ilar effect. The deeou pling be-
isolat ing t he tank fro m t he resonator.
t wee n re so nator and FET is near opt imum
in the Vaekar. Passive component tem -
perature coefficien ts will still dom inate
ponents. With an inductor consisting of 20 the resonato r. thermal sta bility.
turns on a T50-2 toroi d. the circuit operated Fig 4.14 shows the Vackar oscillator. Ftg 4.15 sho ws a variant of the Vackar
at 5.34 MHz with 20-V peak-to-peak on the Part A is a J FET ada ptation of a vacuum osci llator with a Ha rtl ey the me. T he
tank. Changing the resonator allowed opera- rube design appearing in the Sth edi tion of source and gate are both tapped down on
tion up to 200 :\1Hz. the RSGB Rad io Communications Han d- the resonator as a mea ns of isolating the
Figure 4. 13C shows a third vers ion of book with co mpo nents chose n for 7-:\1Hz tank from the reson ator. Th is circuit is a
this oscillator that was built. this time operation." O utput is extrac ted with a high d irect tran sfo rm ation of th at of Fig
usi ng 2N3904 bipolar tran sis tors. Aga in, inpu t impeda nce buffe r attach ed to the 4.14H a nd is often used at VHF for low
the signal was 20- V pea k-to -peak across oscillator dra in Pa rt B of the Fig ure is noise osc illators.e

4.4 NOISE IN OSCILLATORS

Som e me ntion has alr eady bee n made by a factor of 10. the basel ine will further There is of/e n a si gn dis crepan cy in these
regarding oscillator noise . We don' t tradi- increase by 10 dR. We cann ot describe the discussions. requiring care on the part of
tionally think of noise when d iscu ssing ox- noise with a simple "dBm level ." Rather, the readcr.)
cillators. However . noi se is presen t in any noise is specified as a powe r density. the Recall the ear lier discu ssion of oscilla-
practical elec tronic circui t: the oscillator is power that wou ld appear in a I-Hz ban d- tor starting. (Fig 4 ,1) Widcband noise at
ce rtainly no exception. Indeed. exce ss LO width. If we apply a wide band noise sourc e the a mplifier input port was amplified . but
nois e is typ ically the dominant phenom- to a spectrum ana lyzer set to a reso luti on was then filt ered in a re sonator. T he " sig-
enon limiting the performance of most bandwidth of 10 kHz and the re spon se nal" withi n the bandw idth of the reso nator
transceivers in the late 1990s time frame . co mes up to the - 60 dfi m line . we say is transferred with lillie atten uation and is
Befor e dis cussing osc illator no ise . we that the spec tral de nsity of noise is aga in app lied to the a mplif ier input. Wit h
should co nsider some RF measurements . - 100 dbm/Hz; the 10-kHz ba nd wid th is a few "trips" around the loop, the signal
A spec trum analyze r (S A) is the instru- ·'40 dB wider" than a I-HI. wide filter. has grown to the poi nt tha t limit ing he-
men t normally used 10 exam ine rad io Ire- Reca ll that 10oLog( 1O,OOOj = 40 . gins . As li miti ng occurs. t he ne t gai n
q uenc y signals. Th e SA is ess entially a If a carrie r was also present in the noisy around the loop diminishes. eventually
calibrated. swep t receiver. usually with- display desc ribed . we might make refer- sta bilizing at unity . the level nee ded to
ou t audio output. Sig nal strengths arc dis - ence to a carrier 10 /lOi ,II' rat io (CNR.) (We sust ain amplitude-stable oscillation, but
played on a C RT or similar screen. Wh en USI: the term "ratio." for we an: examining no mo re. Unity gain occurs at the res ona -
a si nuso idal ca rrier is a ppli ed to a spec- the ratio of powe r. However, we calcul ate tor center freque ncy (o r very clos e to it)
trum a na lyze r. a response is noted at the this with a simple s uhtrac rio n, for t he where the net phase shift is zero degrees.
f req ue ncy of th at carr ie r. C ha nging the pow er va lues are already in a dfsm for- Consider the ga in charac terist ics at fre-
an alyzer ba nd width will have l ittle impact mat.] If the carrier was - ]5 d Bm wit h the que ncies close to but slig htly rem ove d
as we ob serve the carrier, The amp litude is noise at -60 d u rn with 11 1O-kHz band- from the carrier. For exa mple, suppose we
unchanged. It is spe cified as a power in width, wh ich corresponded to - 100 d Bml build an LC oscillator operating in the
dBm. (Sec Chapter 2 for a discu ss ion of Hz, we wo uld say the CNR was 1\5 dBc/ amateu r lO-m eter hand with a toaded tan k
dBm.) HI . with dfsc standing for d B wit h respect Q of 100. T hl:3-dH band wid th will then be
Noise is differen t. If stro ng. wideband to a carrier . (We usu ally talk of CNR. car - 1'7<' of 14 MHz. or 140 kHz . Si gnals
noise is applied to a spectr um analyzer, it rier to noise ratio. rather than NCR, nois e 70 kHz on eith er side of the carrier are
will cause the ba sel ine to ri se. If we to ca rrie r ratio, for the carrier is much attenuated by 3 dB and shifted in pha se hv
increase the spectrum analy zer bandwidth st ronger than the noise and is the lo uder. + or - 45 degree v. Si gna ls clos er to the

4 .10 C h a pter 4
 -- - ------- --- --- -- -- --- ---,--- - ------- - -- - -- - -
0 d8

0 de9
.---- - 3 dB

'",,;I;'
' t 'l"_I"
. O.' " H
<,
r-:
J 3 10
,,' )'
" " " J
" ~:" "" ,
Frequency
~ '"
:;;')'"
~

~ " :~ "t ~ -1 80 d" Fig 4.17-A spectrum ana lyzer output

showi ng two signals with iden t ical
" " - - - y - - --- - -- - -- -- -- ----T- -------------------
amp litude. The peak at the left is
" perf ect ," having a vert ical sp ike shape.
1 211Hz 1411Hz 16 11H,
The width repr esents the spectrum
upt cut j
Fr equenc y analyzer bandwidth. The rig ht hand
signal has noise, which appears as a
modulati on on eit her side of the carrier.
Fig 4.16- An example circu it of an amp lifier fo llo wed by a resonator. The The f lat ho rizontal line is the
amplitude and phase responses are shown vs fre quency. background noise level of the spectrum
ana lyzer.

carrie r hav e Jess ph ase shi ft an d less than sizer. Tfthe SA ba ndw idth is increased, t he T he phase noise of an osci llator can
3-dB attenuation. Th is behavior is illus- noise will increa se. The re spo nse to the be predicted with the equations gi ven
trated with the amplifier and res onator of carrier pea k. how ev er. will not c ha nge. A in the sidebar."
fi g 4.16. photographed spectral disp lay is also Co nsider a typ ical example, an average
Alt ho ugh amplifier gain in an asci Harer shown. 14-\f Hz oscillator. It uses a loaded reso -
I~ li mited. noise i s still present. That noise T he spectrum of an oscillator wi th noise na tor Q of 100. tan k capacitance or 100
.. ill still be ampli fied and filte red in the is shown in grea ter detai l in a side bar fig - pf', transi stor noise fi gure of 10 d b . and a
reso nator. Each t ime a burst of noise en - ure . A wideband nois e floor ex ists withi n pea k tan k vo ltage of 4 V. Ana lys is with
er gy passe s through the resonator. it is the osci Ilator feed back path. The noi se then the sidebar equatio ns shows a wideband
shi fte d in phas e and attenuated. No ise very grows at freq ue ncies within the lo aded phas e noise floor of - 162 dBe /Hz and. at
clo se to the cen ter must tra vel around the bandwidth of the osc illator resonator. lO kHz. noise of - 146 dbc/Hz
loo p sev era l times before it is phase sh ifted
and att en uated eno ugh to disappear. Sig -
nals further fro m the carrier will di sapp ear
wnh fe wer pa sses around the loop.
Th e noise ari ses from two sources. One is
the wideband noise of the tra nsi sto r. T he C~rrjerpo'/Ver~

1
eth er noise starts at a lower frequency . This
baseband sig nal modu lates the ca rrier to <ill
generate sidebands in the same way that a
10..... frequency sine wave migh t modula te a
(noise sidebands)

\
carrier to gene rate discrete sideband s. Th e
modulation happ ens with in the circuit non -
linear amplifier, a nonlinearity that is always
.... Noise spectrum of

. L,-. ~·--f
-. '0'''''' '').
present in a self limi ted osc illator. an oscillator based
Noise asso ciated wi th an oscillator is upon th e work of
us uall y phase noise, a variation in Ire- 0.8 . Leeson .
ueney or phase. Amplitude no ise is also }-- ~
present, but i t is usual ly m uc h le ss tha n the
phase variation , a result of limiting. Also ,
os cillators arc often used with mix ers with
limiting characteristics with regard to LO NC R ~ u, ( '" )'
2P s
_
2 Qr M ,
po wer, further redu cing the impac t of
amplitude noise. ~ h e ~e k ~ 8 oltz ma n '~ con ~ t an t
! abso l ut e t empe r ature ~ n Kel vl n
R
A ske tched sp ectra of an o scillator ob- f
R ~o ia e fa c t o r (r ati Q, nct d B)
served in a spe ctru m anal yzer is shown in p , ~ Pe wer fl olo'i ng in thco ugh the c e s~n e toc
f . R c e nter f r eq ue :lC'( of r e ao~ ato ~
f ig ~ .1 7 . The left peak repre sen ts a per fect f " = off se t o r - tI\O d u l a t i o n " f r e q u e ~ cy
signal, one without noise . The righ t pea k Q ~ Loeded r e ~on "to ~ Q
Y, ~ p e a k v o l t a g e a c r o ~ ~ r e a or. ato~
co ntains excess noise side bands typical of C = c " p"c it "n c ~ o f ~ ~ ~ O n "t o r
that fo und in a nois y oscillator or sy nthe -

Osci llators and Frequency Synthesizers 4.11

 co ntain the sa me chan ge. the same phase impeda nce then loads the resonator. de -
M freque ncy noi se. Th e phase noise is j ust grad ing Q.
a n instantaneo us change in freq uency of • T he t rans isto rs used in an osc illator
o ne of the oscill ator .... should have 10 w noise at bot h the operat-
-t--t-' ing frequency and at base band. This is
I While our illustratio ns have pre se nted
osc illat or noise as viewed in 3. spec trum important beca use low freq uency noise
analyze r. few analyzers are good e nough 10 is hete rod yned up 10 the ope rating Ire-
ac tually do thi s meas urement for the local qucncy in a working osci llator to modu-
S ~ c tru m an al y zer plots fro m two osciltarorc we need in o ur Hf and VHF la te the ca rrier. For this reaso n.
c scruate rs. The left is es pecia ll y noi s y. transceivers. Like receivers. spectrum ana- MOSfETs a nd GaA ~FETS. no rmally
; ' :xlucin g noi s e sid eba nds where the lyze rs have limited dyna mic range. Con- perceived as lo w noise pan". are not as
s ;"al mer ges into t he noise floor. The sider the oscillator ment ioned earner with a des irable in osc illato rs as qu iet bipolar
: ~ .et os cillator (ri ght) lac ks these transis to rs o r JFETs.
phase noise de nsity of - 1" 6 d Re/Hz 10 kHz
e I cess side ban ds . allowing the si gnal
-e go all the way down 10 t he noise trccr fro m the carrier. 1" 6 dR is the differe nce • T he be tter oscillators are often those
se t by t he spect rum ana lyzer. The left belween the carrier and the noise if ana- withou t e xcessi vely large starting ga in.
· · ~ te
was prod uced w it h an Eps o n lyzer bandwidth is I H7. If we used a more Th is places less de mand o n limi ting
SG· 80Q2 Prog rammabl e Osci llator prac tical ban dwidth or I kHl . the carrie r to within the osc illator. The operating cit-
~ 26 MHz) w h ile th e rig ht trac e ca me
noise ratio is still 116 uti. An a nalyzer ca- cuit is closer to a li near amplifier wh ich
"o m a 7·M Hz crystal co nt rolled
pable of looki ng at this carrier and the nois e ha, less tendenc y ttl mix lo w frequenc y
cscnratc r.
a\ the same time woul d need a dyna mic noise up to mod ulate the carrier. Emitter
range greater than 116 d R, This is close to or sou rce degenera tion is often a useful
the present state of the an . Oscillator no ise mod ifica tio n.
me asure me nts fo r typic al osc illators (at An e xce llen t e xam ple of a low noise
HFI must use modified method s. An ex- oscillator is sho wn in I' ig ·1.18. T his occil-
Th e Effects of Phase ample will he gi ven 1001er. lator wa s or iginally desi gn ed by Linley
N o ise G umm. K7IWD_a nd is a good example o f
\\ IIT:>1 gl ance. phase nois e soundv like a simple c ircu it that functio ns well. It fe a-
Designing Quiet turec e xcellent phase noise performance
-:-otcnc detail that probably has lillie
"lp. I!;1 o n pra ct ical co mmunica tio ns. Thi v Oscillators a nd high out put powe r.
. cenerally true. Few osciua rors are so Many of the methods used to design T he c ircuit was desig ned spe cific ally for
" l i s~' thai they ha mpe r normal commu ni- good LO system s arc implicit in the high stored reso nat or e nergy and high
.Ol l i (l n~ in a band occ upied with weak 10 Leeson desig n eq uanons prese nted in the pow e r. To tal e mitter cu rre nt is ~8 ma. or
.rv e rage s ign als . B UI thi ngs cha nge d ra- ear lie r sidebar. Some rules are : 1-1- mA pe r u ans tsrcr. The e mitte r RF
matica lly whe n a local station ~ hows up on • Use mode rately to w noi se transistors in choke co nve ne the -1-7-11 emitter R into a n
a hand or when a co ntest starts with a ucn- lo w noise ci rcuits. co nsta nt c urre nt so urce.
dam stron ger s ig nals. • Use a high Q resonator so that the noise
A«u me that a rec eive r uses an ideal fiJ- side band wid th is low . It is loadt'd Q thm
tcr (per fec t skins ) wi th 11 ba ndwid th of is impo rta nt. A high unlo aded Q that is
51)() HI.. T he rece ive r uses nois e less oseil- degraded by the circuit docs lillie good.
latorx . Eve n if a very strong noiseless car - If an osc illator is bui lt with a leaded Q
rier is applied to the rece iver . a liste ner clos e 10 the unlo aded Q. the inser tio n
will he ar a strong response when the re- loss thro ugh the reso nator will be high,
ceiver is tune d to it. but noth ing as snon as wh ich increases operating ga in and in-
the rece iver is tuned a way. creases noise. t'Ihis e ffec t was treated in
Consider now a carrier with no ise. re r- the filte r ch a pte r. I Th is deg rades the
haps keyed with ''C Q '' so we can recognize wideband noise Il oo r.
it. As the receive r tunes toward the keyed • T he goa l is a high c arrie r-to-no ise ratio,
ca rrier. we first hear some keyed no ise. The which is enhanced with a hig h ca rrier.
noise gm ws in strength as we get closer 10 il. Hence. the he"t oscitlarors are those op-
until finally the carrier is within the receive r cra ting with high stored e nergy in the
passb and. prod ucing a clean . crisp note. The resonator. Thi s mean s high po wer . Even
noise re-a ppears on the other side. ,;ymmetri- with 8 or I0- V power supp lies. it is not
cal with the first side. unu sua l to find oscitlat ors .... it h
We can' t a lways put the bla me o n "the ov er 50-V peak-to-pea k across revona -
o ther guy: ' Avvume that the key ed c arrier tor c o mpo ne nts . Hig h e nergy also re-
app lied to the rece iver is no iseless. but tha t sults from high capaci tance in s imple
we now use a noivy oscill ator as the 1.0 in resonators.
o ur rece iver , T he perceived resu lt is ex - • Lim iti ng c harac teri stics are c ritic al in an Fig 4.18- Low Noi se 1O-MHz Osc illator
act ly the sa me as we hea rd befo re with the oscillator. with curre nt limiting bei ng desig ned by K7HFD. L1 is 1.2 Il H.
nni"y C W sign al. T he effect that we hea r is preferr ed. The c ircuit should o perate in a con sis ti n g 0117 lurns on a 1 68- 6 to roid
ca lled "reci procal mixing ." way that allo w s the transi stor c urrent 10 core. The ta p is at 1 t urn from the
grounded en d w hile the link is 2 tu rns
T his resul t is e xpected . T he IF response dro p (0 zero o ver part of the cy c le 10 Ii mit
wo und over Lt . The li nk must be
is the difference (or sum) frequency of the gain. Less desirable vo ltage limiting oc- pr op erl y phased fo r oscilla t io n.
LO and the RF signal An y frequ en cy curs whe n a low impedance ls cre ated Alth ou gh not sh ow n, ferrite beads we re
change in eit her o ne will ca use the IF to ov er par t of an operating cycle; that 10\\' u sed on bot h bases an d collect ors .

4 .12 Chapter 4
 Fee",,;;]
Counte~

(9 C
Fig 4.20- Cry s tal
33 oscillator us ed for
· 6 dB
r:--
·- i Ii" I I
I ;::\'j rece iver reciproca l
Spec trum
An alyzer mixing
15 0 measurements. C1
0" . ,""", Crystal 150 is adjusted for a
"-0 0- Fit e,
po we r output of
- 10 to -20 d B m.
Fig 4.19-System used to measure
ph as e noise in the K7HFD osci llator.

ca rrier by 156 dlsc/H z Even thoug h this

circuit was or ig inally bui lt and tes ted in
the ear ly 197 0 s ti mc fr nme . it st ill holds it s
o wn with mod ern eq uiv ale nts.
Other o scillator circuits. many of them
rel at ivel y simple . also offer good pha se
no ise pe rfo rma nc e. For e xample . the
sim ple Ha rtle y circuit of F ig 4. 1, ha s been
mea sured severar umes. Versio ns operat-
Fig 4.21-Easil y buil t example of a noisy
o sc ill ato r that the reader can construct The c ir c ui t of Fi g 4.21 is especiall y ing 'II 5 M l l z often indicate phase no ise of
to observe phase no ise . It is inst ruc ti ve bad for phase noise. This can be built -1 50 d HclH z at 10 k Hz spacing . Ro hde
10 evalua te th is c ir c uit with the design as a simple e xperiment that w ill a llow reports that computer simulation s sug ges t
guideli nes off ered earlier to see just y o u to hear the res u lts in a station this Hart ley topology will ha ve degraded
why th is is such a poor oscillator. rece iver. performa nce closer to the ca rr ier .!''
The Hun ley oscillator results wer e mea-
sured indirec tly by measuri ng a crystal
oscillator wit h a rece ive r using the Hanley.
A di rrerentia l amplifier with heavy base duces a peak collector signal of:1.3 V . T his A typical circ uit used for the tes ting is show n
d rive will be ha ve as 11 limiting s witch . The tra ns forms to a base signal o f 1.6 peak V: in Fig 4.20. This circu it can be used with a
tota l c urre nt will o scillate bet ween the two the signal across L l is similarly calc ulated crysta l filter 10 kj lz away from the oscilla-
transi sto rs with one collector, an d the n the as 56 V peak -to -peak. T hese values <Ire all tor. or with a crystal notch filter at the oscil-
ot he r co nduct ing the to tal current. The sig nific ant. The low collector im ped ance lator freq ue ncy. Assumi ng the cry stal o scil-
high standing current is furt her increa sed establishes current lim iti ng with no chance lator to be perject, all pha se noise o bserved
with an ou tput auto tra nsformer , yieldin g of voltage limi t ing . T he re st ricted base is attributed to the receiver LO. Even with-
a me asure d 1O-~1 H z output power of dri ve guarantees that em itter-ba se b reak- out the assu mp tio n. observed result s will
+ 17 dB m. down will not occur. bound the LO pe rformance. The crystal fil-
The pea k cu rrent in the TI pr imary also A cryst al filter, sho wn in the syste m of ter is req uired bec ause of the lim ited
appears in L2, the 2-turn "tickler" link coil Fi g 4.19 , was used to ev aluate the oscilla - dynamic range of the typical receiver. The
o ver LI. The lo ad present ed to the tran sis - tor no ise . T he outboar d fi Iter had a 3-kHz loaded Q of a cryst al. the " ta nk" in a crystal
to r by the link comes fro m the tra nsistor bandwidth ami skirts that we re steep o scillator, can he a thousand times hig her
base and the intrinsic lo ss of 1.1. Ne glect- enough to provide ov er 50- dB rejec tion to than that of a typical LC tank. The resulting
ing the trans istor fo r the mom ent. the signals 10kHz aw ay from the fi Iter center. phase noise is often qu ite low . in line wit h
unloa ded resonator Q is about 250 for a Th e oscillator was tu ned to the filt er CCIl - Leeson's eq uation.
T68-6 core wo und with hea vy wir e. At 10 ter and the pow er reac hing the ana lyzer F ig 4.21 shows an osc illator at rhc othe r
~ I H z . the effec tive pa rallel res istance wa s mea sured. The 1.0 wa s the n tu ned 10 ext reme . T his 15·[1.1 I-Iz circuit is rich in
acro ss L1 is a bou t 18 kn . Th is value is kHz awa y. The auenuauon in the analyzer phase nois e. It is well worth buildi ng and
diminished by the square of the turns rat io c ould then be reduced eno ugh to mea sur e app lying to a gen eral cove rage rece iver to
to present a 250-.n lo ad to t he collec tor. the noi se res po nse. T he K7 HFD ci rc ui t ob serve fir st hand just wha t a nois y o scil -
The sig nal current thro ug h this lo ad p ro- produced phas e noise that wa s below the lator will su und like in a rece iver.

Oscillators and Freq uency Synthesizers 4.13

 •

4.5 CRYSTAL OSC I LLATORS AND VXOS

O ne of the most c o mmo n os ci lla tor cir cuit is actually a Cla pp osci llator vari - mere ly he e liminated.
fo rm) h that us ing a quartz crY$131 as th e ant. With the components show n. the ci r- Output can be extracted with an emitter
resonator. They may be orde red from a cuit will function with funda mental mode follow er drive n hy Q1-1' emitter. The signal
num ber of so urc es for mode st CO~ I wi th crystals from ebo ut J 10 20 MHl or more . on the base o f" Q I is often abou t the ...ame
o nly a shan manufacturi ng delay . A c rys- Tra nsis tor lyre is 001 c ritic al with the ubiq- magni tude. bUI is spectrally cleaner. It is also
tal c ross-sec tio n. symbol. a nd an eq uiva- uitou s 2N3904 being a good c hoi ce. l f rhe possible 10 insert a small resis tor ( 100 U or
lent circu it are show n in F i ~ 4.22 . Cry stals crystal is spe ci fied fo r a "l oad capaci- so) in the QI collector and to usc the devel-
were a lso d iscu ssed in the fi lter c hapte r. ranee' of 3 2 pF. the osc illator c an be ad - oped sign al vo ltage i!.--; an output. While well
A typ ica l crystal osc tttator c ircuit h. the j usted to the exac t freq uenc y wit h C I . Th is isola ted from the resonator. the colle ctcr sig-
Co lpitt s sho wn in Fig 4.23 . II is the se ries will oc cur whe n the totalloop c apacitanc e nal is usually very rich in harm o nics .
I.e of the crystal mode l. Fig ..1.21 . which is 32 p F. whic h is a pprox imately the serie s Fig ~ .2" ...hews another sc heme fo r e x-
now se rve s as the "inducto r" in this cir- equivalent of the two 470- pF c apac itors trac ti ng a n out put si gnal. He re. C I be-
cuit . Owi ng 10 the se ries mo tio nal C. th is and C l. In ma ny applic atio ns C I can co mes a sele cted. fixed c apac ito r in series
....-ith the crystal. It is no longer co nve nie nt
to adj ust the freque nc y wit h C t , for the
capacitance will vary bot h F and o utput
voltage. Ho we ver , an output ob tained in
Gi ufZ Th O<nASS
'" thi s ma nner ca n be ex tremel y cle an with
\ • 100 all harmo nics being ove r 50 dB belo w the
• •I oI desi red o utpu t. Phase no ise is a lso lo w

f-:l with this top ology .

A po pula r and especially si mp le crystal
oscilla tor i~ the Pierce c ircuit sho wn in F ig
C~ 2.2 K.
" .25. If the ci rcuit is red rawn wit h the
Y gro und ~hi fted to ei the r the base or the

= lOO K
C,
collector. we sec that this is ye t another
version of the Co lpitts. Th is c irc uit func-

r
Fig 4.22-Cross·sectio n, s ymbol a nd tions well with a wide vari ety of cry ...tal s
mod el fo r a quartz c ry sta L from 2 to 2U J\lHl o r eve n hig her. Thc cir-
2N3~4 cu it gene rally operates at the crys tal fu n-

r=
da ment al . O UipUI is e asily o btained w ith a
follower from either the co llector o r base.
It" C I is lifted fro m grou nd. a d irec t o utput
- of a few milliwa us is ava ilab le.
Anot her Col pitts variation is presented
in Fl~ ".2n. This oscillator is c apab le of 10
Fi g 4 .25- Pie rce type c r y stal oscilla to r. to 25- milJiwall s out put and c an function 31
C1 c an be as lillie as 10 to 20 pF . Vee eith er fundamental ur overtone freque ncies
ca n be from abo ut 3 up to 15 V. C r uNE, (e xplain ed belo w). T he ci rcuit uses the
oft en o m itte d, Is a tr immer w it h a
m aximum of 50 o r 100 p F. re latively hig h bas e-e mitte r capaci tance of
the transistor as part of the cap acitive feed-
Fig 4.23- Typical Co lp itts cry stal back needed for oscillation , again as a
oscillator. Power output is low. Extra Co lpitts varia tio n. External C3 va nishes
amplifiers are usuall y used to Increase exc ept fo r the 1.8 and 3.5 -MHl ba nds
po wer to th e lev el need ed to drive a where value s of 330 a nd 200 pF ca n be
r ing m i xe r o r fu nc tion in sim pl e 47
tr ansm in e r s .
I ou tpu t
used . respect ivel y. C2 varies from 100 pF
at 3.5 and 7 MHI to 22 pF at 28 Mlb a nd

~
10 pF at 50 \ t Hl . L1 uses a toro id with a
...12v I reacta nce of about 250 n. The output link
is 10 to 201f the number of tu rn s o n Ll .
" ,--~+-+O Cl This b a very robust oscillator that takes
little experimentat io n to get go ing.
A c rystal ove rtone is a di ffere nt o perat-
ing: mode for an AT-cu t q uartz crystal . Any
c rystal will d isp lay a fundame ntal reso-
na nce as well as o verto ne res po nse s.
Sometimes the cryst als are ma nufac tured
in a way that will substantially enh ance
o ne mode over anoth er. A genera l model
Fig 4.26-Gener al purpos e power for a qua rtz crys ta l incl udi ng ove rtones is
o sc ill ato r for u se f ro m 2 t o 70 MHz. sho wn in F I g 4.27. The model prese nted
Fig 4.24-Method for extrac tin g lo w Q1 is a 2N3904 o r s im ilar m edium Fr
no i se , low di stortion output tr om a device. See te xt fo r co m pone nt va lue sn fa r incl uded on ly the fu nda mental
cry sta l o s cill ator . discu ss i on. mode. rel ated to N o:o ] i n the fi gure. Hut

4.1 4 Chapter 4
 Fig 4.28 -Butler
osc illator fo r 100 MHz .
L=25 nH . Th is is formed
+ 12v w ith a 1.7 inc h p iece of

=
L
.i,
22
c1 " "
r"'l
#22 enameled wi re
wou nd in the t h reads of
a 6-32 machi ne
T 4 70
""c" T'"'
3 . 3K
IU
~
N

N51 " "!

,
,
±
scre w.(3 .3 mm ere, 12.6
turns/em) The wire ends
are stripped and 3 turns
a re wound on the screw ,

1 h'D5~
I
Fig 4.27-More deta iled model for a
quartz crystal, All motional inductance
va lues are identical , w it h motional
capac itance scaling w ith frequency.
39

. 0 01
~
1 ~
2K

5 10
1
=" .t-'- 2
_ T'5
I 2- 22-pF
82 _
I±so l oad
Ohm
w h ic h is t hen removed.
C1 and R1 form a
network to suppress
UHF osc illat io ns at 500
to 1000 MHz. The
suppression ci rc uit
See text. generates a UHF load
that is larg ely absent at
the operating frequenc y.

other odd har mo ni c modes are al so

possi ble . (Ev en order harmonics an: not +12
co nsi ste nt with the mechanica l boundary
cond itions needed so support oscillation.)
An os cill at or operat ing at an overto ne
m us t incl ude add itio na l freq ue nc y depen-
dant c irc u it s th at '>'.'ill select th e d esi red
overtone . Sim ple f undame nta l mod e c ir-
0,
W
I
,[~ ' ~
' _

N
r
Te ~
g

rl
• L1

IlrOut
cuits. such as those presented, will ernpha- 4 . 7K --.1;
size the lo wer freq uenc ies where start ing
gain is higher. Th e circui t of Fig 4.26
in clu d ed a tune d circuit peaked a t the
op erating freq uen cy.
A Butler oscillator. The c ircu it of Fig
F ig 4.28 sho ws a popular and effective Fig 4.29- A n oscillator designed by
4.28 is b readboa rded he re w it ho ut the
ov erto ne ci rcuit. the BUller os cil lator. This inserting a c rysta l in series w ith t he
crystal. Instead, a 51-Q resistor is
feed back path of a Hartley LC oscillator.
circu it is e ssentially an LC Colpitts osc illa- placed in the c r y stal pos it ion. Th is is
The ground point is then sh ifted to the a useful w ay to test the oscillator.
to r wit h a q uartz cry still inserted in the fee d- tap on the coi l. Th e ve rsion shown is
back path. Th e LC tan k sho uld ha ve a set up fo r 10 MHz operatio n , but tuni ng
loaded Q fro m 10 to 20 . A Q that is too low c an be shifted to other f requencies .
cou ld allo w osci llat io n at the wrong o ver - Elim inating the tuning capacitors and
shifted , p lacing gro und at the coi l lap. Th is
to ne, whil e a Q to o high wi ll make luning rep lac ing the transformer w ith one
us ing a ferrite co re a lso wo rks wen. pu ts one en d of the cry stal at gr ou nd , or
diff icu lt. An excellent met hod to ali gn this co nnected to a trim me r. T his c irc u it func -
Y1= 10 MHz fundame ntal ;
circuit replaces the c ry stal w ith a resisto r L1=30t T 50-6, tapped at 7 turns and 6 ti o ns well a s eithe r a n overtone or fu nda-
eq ua ling the equi vale nt seri es re sist ance turns for the li n k. men ta l mode os c ill at or with lo w p ha se
(ESR) of the cry sta l. If ESR is unkn own , noi se and moderate o utp ut. The circu it
use a 33 -Q re sistor in place of third ov er- funct ions well (fu nda ment al mode o nly) if
lone crys ta ls and a 56-.n for 5th ov erto ne will provide an output of 10 mw to 50 n , th e tuned output transfo rmer is repl aced
cr ystal s. Th e oscillator is adjus ted for th e The load is part of the desi g n; if th e load is wi th a fe rri te tr ans tormer.u
proper op erat ing fre quency w ith the resis- ill defi ned . use a 50 -12 pad at the o sci llator
tor in place. The re sist or is the n replac ed out put . Nev er try to adjust the os cillat or
with the crys ta l wit h no additio na l adj ust- wi thou t the lo ad in place . The Bu tl er o sci l- T he VXO
ment need ed . M ost o verton e circu its. in - lato r g en erally exhib its excellent p ha se The cry stal os c illato rs sho wn so far ha ve
eludi ng the BUller, can be used for fu nda - no ise. A lt hough a tr imm er ca pac itor in ofte n inclu ded a trim mer capacitor for fine
mental mode operat io n by proper series with the crystal will allow so me fre - freq ue ncy adjustme nt. If th e tun in g range
adj ustment of the tun ed ci rcui t. q uen cy adjustment, it is m uch le ss e ffec - can be made larger. the circuit can be used
T his c ircu it is so metime s "neutralized' tiv e wi th ov erto ne crystals than wit h f un- a s a h igh stabi lity substi tute for a v aria bl e
by p lac i ng an induc tan ce in parallel with da mental mode p art s. Never tr y to adju st freq ue ncy LC o scill ator. ta king o n the
the cry stal. The va lu e reso nates wit h CO. o sc ill ator freque ncy with the crys ta l by descr ipto r \lXO . A typ ica l VX O circ uit is
the cry sta l parallel cap aci tan ce , If CO=3 chang ing co llec to r tuni ng , for that c ou ld shown in F ig 4.30 ,
pF fo r the JOO-M Hz cryst al of Fig 4 -2!;, cau se the circuit not to start wh en po\\"er is T he circ uit o f F ig 4 .30 was built and
the ind uct ance would be 0 ,84 ml-l. Be su re Fir st app li ed , tes ted wi th numero us cr yst als fro m ou r
th at the inducto r us ed has a self-res onan ce The B utler used a Co lpitt s as the ba sis. j un k box. C rys ta ls at a nd abov e 14 MH l
well above 100 \-1Hz . We have ge ner ally F ig 4.29 pres e nts a us eful vari ation of this could ty pically be tu ned by (l.! 'f of the
fo und that this ind ucto r c an be eliminate d circuit th at begin s as a Hartle y w ith the marked freq uency wh e n 1,=0 . with the bot -
from the circu it. crysta l in the fe ed b ack path from the coil LO rn freque ncy being cl ose to th e marked
Th e Bu tl er o scillator show n in Fig 4.28 tap to th e emitter. The gro und poi nt is th en cr y sta l fr equenc y. f or ex ampl e . a cryst al

Oscil lators and Frequency Synthes izers 4.15

 V
0 .1
100
Id-.l
"
_ 1.5K
+ 5 Reg .

14H C0 4 ~c
2 13 90~ ~
-=-
10K lO Y
-
_ 5 1 6~
~1 0K
i
'" ~
~1°1200 1'"2-lOJf--+-,~
M

-fK-('--!-=- -
~ ~c
't 88
pF r ~ -t.""
K
•

~
~ '
2 0 .1
+ 11 dBm
o utpu t
>O-...., f--~
56

Fig 4.31-Addlng HCMOS Inv erte rs can substant ially fl atte n th e outp ut of a VXO.
Fig a.ao-caeerc VXO c ircuit . C2 IS
Output filterin g w ill be requ ired.
ty picall y twice C1, which is
100 pF at 10 MHz and higher, doubli ng
f or 7 MHz. L is det ermined by
experi ment. C v can be about any
varia ble capacitor, bu t shou ld be on e
with sm all min imum capac itance.
.'.
L may = 0, 2.7 IlH or 5.4 IlH.

marked 14060 kH z tuned from 14059.0 10

A
.'. ±:,
~I
B

I -J070 A kHz ( 1I A -k H z shift] with C I a nd I

C2 o f 100 and 200 pj-. Addi ng inductance
mov ed the botto m of the range downward
with a much s malle r change in the upp er
edge . L=5.4 I-IH produced 1405 3.0 to
14068 .'1. kHz (l5.4· kH7 ~h i ft.) In anoth er
example. an 18-~f Hz c rystal shifted 13.3
kll z with no indu ctance. but shifted ov er
25 kHz when 3.7 J.1 H wa c added. 5.4 J.1H in
1
fhal ci rc uit produced unstable operatio n.
c mphasiv ing the need for e xperi men tatio n.
In so me cases a variety' of crystals were
av aila ble from diffe re nt manufact urer s, all Fig 4.32-Two VXO c ircuits of interes t to the experime nter. That at A is known in
Japan as the Super VXO, and is the creation of JACAS and JH1FCZ. The Circuit at
at ap proximately the sa me freq uenc y. B uses a quarter wave len gth of transmis sion li ne while that a C Is t he lum ped
Result s varied on ly slig htly. L u ger values element equ ivalent.
fo r C I and C 2 wer e req uired for osc illa -
lion at 7 1Ul t a nd tow er .
With eve n great er added ind uc tance, the
low er freq ue ncy drops further and the C MOS inve rter is add ed as an outp ut ter wavelength of trans miss ion line to co n-
range ex pa nds. Ho we ver, stabili ty als o buffer. T he cir cui t shown provides an ou t- vert a crysta l series resonance to appear at
de grades. E ve ntua lly, if oscill atio n is put of + II to + 12 dhrn for a tota l cu rrent the collector as a parallel resona nce. The
mai nta ine d, it may not be crystal co n- of aro und 35 rnA. The output is very rich alte rnative version of this ci rcu it uses a
trolled. Expe rim e ntation and car eful in ha rmo nics . so low pass f iltering will lumped clement equivalent for the trans-
ana lysis can borh pay la rge d ividen ds. often he req uired. Different nu mber s of mission line. The real virtue of this scheme
With zero or on ly modest add ed i ndue- parallel invert e rs may be used to co ntro l is thai the troub leso me crystal parall el ca-
lance. the freq uency st ability of a VXO is Output power. The ..qua re waveform at the pacitance is absorbed into the "line." The
nea rly as good a ~ the o riginal oscilla tor. i nve rter OUiP UI ca n al so be useful for performanc e of this c ircuit can be truly
Thi s makes the ci rcuit es pec ia lly au rae- freque ncy multip licat ion . outsta nd ing. a lthou gh the c ircuit can be
rive for narrow tuning ra nge e quipme nt T wo VXO circuits a re sho wn in Fig .4.32 d iffic ult 10 adjust . In one e xperi me nt we
such 011> VHF/ UHF C W and SS B rig s. Ihal a re of spec ial interest to the e xper i- were able to tune a 7· MHz crys tal by a range
Extreme luning no nlinearity is common menter. O ne add s a second crysta l. pro - of over 100 kHz. The cir cuit has proble ms
with most VXO c ircu its , Mo st of the Ire- duci ng almost double the tuning range of that present challen ge to the desi gner!
quenc v shift te nds 10 he co mpressed atthe the sa mc ci rcui t with o ne. T he c rystals build er . The Q of the equivalent paralle l
high frequ ency (low C) end of the range . shou ld be clos e in f requency, but need not resonator varies drama tically over the tun -
T h i ~ e ffect is so extre me that it is very dif'- be a n exact mat ch . We encountered this ing rang e, ma king it difficult to mai ntain
ficuh to implemcnt a predi ctable shift for ci rcui t in the wurld wide we b where it is clea n limi ting in the transi stor Dr to obt ain
use in, fo r example . a direc t con version know n as the "super VXO."'12 T he IWI) an outp ut with a stab le umplitude . U
tran sc eiv er. cle me nts in paralle l beha ve like one c rys- T he Har tley the me circuit presented ear -
The typical VXO sutte rs fro m con sider- tal. but with twice the mo tio nal and fi xed lier (Fig 4.29) is especi ally we ll suited to
able vari atio n [u nflatt ness} in out put capac itances a nd ha lf the motional induc- VXO ap plic ation s. es peci ally when built
po wer with tuning. T he VXO of Fig 4.30 ta nce. T his is the d irect io n ne eded for with ferrite tran sformers . T his topology is
can vary by nearly 10 dH . This is rel ie ved greater "tu nability." used in a 2!:! ·M Hz VXO transmiue r pre -
with the circuit sho.... n in Fi g 4.31 where a The second VXO of Fig 4.32 uses a qua.r- se nted in Chapter 12.

4 . 16 Chap te r 4
4.6 VOLTAGE CONTROLLED OSCILLATORS
The osc illators pres ented so far have
used mechan ica l va riab le c apac ito rs for U l 78 L 0 5
tuning. Th e othe rtraditionaltuning scheme 12
out in
is ind ucti ve. the permeahiliry-nmed oscit-
laton of Collins fam e. Hoth depend on TO . 2 ~
wel l-e ngineered mechanic al des igns. a de-
sirable, but disappearing charac teri stic.
Th e volt age -controlle d oscillator is replac- ~ 100 7 MHz
1 00 10K 2N3 9,g rJ:
0.1
ing the "simpl e" mechan icall y t uned os cil- \!'
lator of the past. Tha t asc i llator is the n used
as part of a frequency synt hcsizcr.l n a few
.'[ " 11 Q2
+--Outpu t
cases, the veo is used "ope n loop," with -
out synthesis. 1. 5 K
The domina nt component used for vo lt- 1K
age control of oscillators of con ce rn in th is
tex t is the varactor diode . Any diode will
e xhibi t a capacitance. W hen the diode is
reverse bia sed, the capacitance will vary U2
in ver sel y with the app lied voltage . Th e • Sv Reg . lin e
22 1N4 1 52 1 / 2 55 32

f D~o;'lr22t::?o;
rev ers e bias ed diode is inserted in a YCO
circuit to become the tu ning c lement in that
10K 22u
oscillator. \- -===-
Figu re 4.33 shows a 7-MHz voltag e -=- -=- 6 20K
10 K 1 0K
tun ed os cillator. Th is ci rcuit was d esign ed ~

to serve as the mai n con tro l for a d irect K i ne ~T u n e Na an - Tu n e

2 00K
con version tr anscei ve r. (Desc ribed later as
the Western Mountaineer. s QI func tions
as a high C Colpitts oscillator. In ductor L I
is resonated with the 470-pl-' Co lpitts ca -
pacitors and C 1, a fi xed capacitor o f over Fig 4.33 - A va ractor tu ned 7-MHz oscillator wit h a rest ricted tuning ran ge of a bout
60 kHz. Temperatu re compensation is provided with 02, a sense diode . L1 =12
600 pl-. Th e valu e was ha nd pic ke d fo r turns #26 on a T30-6 toro id. L2 is a 15-IlH RF c ho ke.
reso nance. with only a small. lO-p F trim -
mer for final adj ust me nt.
Ea rli er mea surements with a small e n-
vi ro nmental chamber had e sta bli sh ed the
tuning diode te mpe ratu re coefficient at
5 Y as +442 p pm/" C . This is ge nerally
q ui te severe, ove r te n time.. wors e than
NPO oscillator components.
T his osc illator was initially bui lt with -
o ut the diode, stab le operation was con -
firmed. the d iode was adde d , and environ-
ment al chamber measuremen ts were do ne.
The tuning diode D l, a Motorola ~IY 2U9.
was temperature co mpe nsat ed wi th a sec-
ond diode . D2. Th e sen se diode is plac ed in
the same the rmal environment as the tun-
ing diode. Th e complete oscillator and its
buffer are sh ielded from the rest of the cir -
cu itry , for the osc ill ato r runs at the same
freque ncy as the transmi tter PA in this rig. Ins ide vie w of the 14-MHz veo.
The diode standing curren t is adj usted by
picking R l, gene rat ing the need ed volt age
change with temperatu re , R I", lU k.n sense -dio de biasing an d serves a s the sup- ny , p hase nois e. an d tuni ng linear ity. Th is
wo rked well in our ci rcuit . but sho uld be ply for the tu ning controls. occurs wi th low tu ning voltage an d is
picked with the environ mental chamber for The op-amp , U2, combines two tun ing us ually de te cted a" a de c re ase in y eO
individual appli cat ions. This compensation co ntro ls and an uffset vult age while pro- output.
scheme was suggested tu us by WA 7TZY. vid ing a regulated tu ning vo ltage. T he cir- Thc finaltemperature coefficie nt realiz ed
The oscillator supply is re gul ated with cuit is configured to maintain at le ast 4.3 Y with this oscillator was abo ut 2 ppm/"-C The
Uj. a 78L05 three-terminal reg ulator. T he o n the lu ning d io de. In many va ractor- transceiver has appea red 10 he " rock sol id"
orig in a l Ze ner regu lat ion was u ns tab le tuned oscillators, RF vo ltage will be rec ti- during field oper at ion. inclu din g winter
wi th temp erature. add ing ext ra complica- fied by the diod e, a llowing conduct ion snowshoei ng treks.
tion . The regu lated vol tage also prov ides during pa rt of the cycle. deg rading stabil- A 14-M Hz vco is shown in Flg 4. 34.

Oscillators and Frequency Synthesizers 4.17

 lo wer noi se tha n a smaller number of
.!. .1 78L . . higher-capacitance d iodes.

33/ )lU
- '0
"'"
.I T I
'r--:..... II
The phase noise of this oscilla tor was
measured using a 1-l.· \ 1Hz single conver-
~--
n'l
+"'T I'I'! 1;-01-'"12:10
l OOK ci lOO/ :\;fO sio n superhet rece ive r with exte nsive

Ir-~w
T crystal filtering. The veo was bailer)"
10 0 - £",' {. i. i _" -0
J310 *} "~ powered with the batte ry also bi:ls ing the
~'C-WC....,_~ -~-+,"'
O
:+ \... . -(, .1
c •
rn z s -r
10' 1 'J~ 1 0=-Dr 1270..
~ l G OK -
•
...L
=
-=-
~~
;. :>.f/ NF
'50}:
- ::;y
-l -,
varacto r. wh ich was filte red furth er with a
lflO-!1F capacitor. The sig na l was uttcnu-
~ liP O ~ . 2" lK 0 . 1 '_' nted to - 3 I dHm and appl ied W the re-
Tun e EBI04 -- -=- ce ive r inpu t throug h a ste p att cmnuor.
lin e dual Audio outp ut was mon itor ed with an
Ll; l ~t ~ 2 6 n O-6
va~a c to t
1 ua non, H P3400 A tr ue -RjdS volt mete r wit h
receiver AGC set off. T he aud io noise out-
Fi g 4.34-14-MHz veo 'or use in synthe siz er ex pe rime nts . L=16lurns o n a T30 · 6 put in the mete r was noted 5 kHz away from
to roi d coal ed w it h Q-dope t o redu ce m ic ro-phoni c effec ts. the ca rrier. The receiver was then tuned to
the ca rrier and the step atrenuator W :t S
increased unutrhe res pon se was t he same
, VCO Tunin& C WH as ob served with the noise. Add itio nal
attenuation of t I (J d B W,IS requ ired to reach
this response. T he no ise ba nd..... idth was
• Fig 4.35-
SOO Hz. produ ci ng a measured CNR of
, »>: e- Frequenc y v s
cont rol vo ltage for - 137 d RcfHz. It is nOI clear if this noise
14-M Hz veo. An co mes from the veo or from the receiver
, /" av erag e sen si ti vit y
fo r thi s ci r cui t
VFO. hut thi s value is a useful "WOh t case"
l imit. No phase noise co uld be det ec ted at
, o v er t he 2 to 10 V
ran ge is 30 kHzIV.
I 0 kHz offs et. !\\l o utboard crystal filte r
"
/ was used for this meas urement . plac ing us
al the h rnu of what we ca n measu re wi th
" I

.
thi v set up .
D •
. "
v.
•
Vo lta ge tuni ng wn h d iodes ten ds to
co mpromis e noise a nd sta bili ty pe rfo r-
mancc . How e ver, re asonable resu h~ are
I tlRini VO }UI~'
available i f t he tun ing range is ke pt small.
An attractive sche me uvev varactor tuni ng
over a small ra nge wit h PI.\' diode switch-
ing in large r frequency steps . PIN d iode
t\ J310 FET wa s used wit h source resistor tuning characteristics for thi s oscillator ,I
ca pac itor sw itching is illu st rurcd in tr uns-
biasing. T he varactor d iode was a surp lus arc sh own in Fig 4.35. The c irc uit is buill cciv er ( The Lichen ) o ffered in Ch apte r 6.
BD 104, similar to the Motorol a MV !o.I , in a Hammond 1590 A e nclosure w i th co- The reader wo rking o n a synt hesizer fo r
The Toshib a lSV I0 3. USl:U in some axial o utput and feed throu gh capac itor s a high performan ce (w ide dyna mic runge)
imported equ ip ment. mig ht be a suitable for power and tuni ng. A 65-pF pluxtic receiver should revie w the extens ive
su bst itute. T wo ind ivid ual varac to r Ji - trimmer pro vid es co arse tuning . l ite rature en volt age c ontrolled osci llators.
odes ca n also he used . This osc illato r T he usc of bac k-to- hac k varacror d iod e v Numerous met hods ure ava ilable to design
ca n be set up for a wider freq ue ncy range is common in VCO s. for it reduces the these ci rc uits. It is ofte n the varac tor
by pic king CI. O ver I MHz of t un ing e ffect>. of rec tification of the oscillator sig- diodes that ultima te ly limit no ise perfor-
was a vai lable with C I= IOO pF. C I was nal. It i~ also com mon 10 see man y d iodes ma nce. :\'u ise su pp lied to the d iode o n
dropped to 33 pF for a redu ced range. Th e operated in parallel. This tnpology shows tun ing lines ca n also co mpromise per for-
mancc.t-

4 .7 FRE QU ENCY SYN T H ESIS

Virtua ll y all of the loc al osci llator sy...- .-\ PLL for freque nc y s y n t hes i~ in itv capacito r. More ofte n its an ope rational
te rn... u... ed in mode rn co mmunicat io ns si mplest form is sho wn in Fi g -1.36 . T he a mplifier offe ring low freq ue ncy' gain as
eq ui pme nt now usc freq ue nc y synthesis in first c o mpo nent i.. .1 vo ftagc -c o ntrulled we ll as filteri ng pro pertie s. Th e lo w pa,s
on e fo rm or another. T wo cir cuit ty pes osc illator c haracte ri zed by a lu ning senjii- f ilter ing is needed to remo ve signa l co m-
dominate synthesis: the phase- locked loop tiviry in H /'/ V . T his se nsiti vity usua ll y ponents r nming fro m the phase detector.
(PLL) and di rect-d igital synthesis ( DD S ~ . varie s over the tu nin g range . T he ne xt The de from the detector und loop filt er
T he two sche me s are ofte n used toge the r. co mpon e nt is th e pha se . o r phase d ille r- must bc of the pro pe r mag nit ude 10 drive
T he Hut fn Pu ff sc heme described e arlie r cnc c d etector. a ci rcuit that provides a de th.. VCO tu ning li ne . Beca use th is is a
i... a freq ue ncy lock method and is not usu- output pro porti o na l 10 th e phase d ifference ne gative feed bac k sys tem (a type of uno
ally the bars;is for synthesis. T he re aso n iv between two RF inputs. The third element loop. ) the phase of the fe ed bac k signa l av
tha t frequ ency lock allows frequ e ncy is a "loop fi ller : ' In its stmplcs r form. this, it mo ves throug h the loop to eve ntually
errors. whic h are absen t in PLL o r DDS is (for a second orde r loop, a ..ing!e pole reac h th e VCO musl be tail or ed for loo p
vynthesizcrs. RC filt er with a cou ple o t resistors and o ne revpo nse.

4 . 18 Chapte r 4
 A Pl .L that is "locked" forces the vc.O
to be at ex actly the same freq ue ncy as the

~R"qm,e
reference . If th e reference is tu ned . th e
\ T O wi ll follo w. mainta ini ng not o nly the
-ame Ireq uc nc v bUI a ph ase relatinn vhip
th'll de pends on the ch aracteristi cs of the
detector. If the loop dynami cs arc "wrong." vc o
the VCO may not respond sm oothly to a '------< Pha38 Loop
f----, ~
change in the reference freq ue ncy. In th e
e vrrcme. the loo p ca n os cillate.
'U Detector Filter

We begin o ur discu ssio n ofth e PLL wi th

an experiment to evaluate a Mini-Circuits
SBL- I mixer opera ting a s a phase dete cto r.
t • • • •
.\IOSl o f us ha ve no eu-y way to acc urate ly
Fig 4,36 -Bas lc Ph ase Locked Loo p ,
measure ph ase. but we c all do th ing s 10
inter it. In this ve in . \\'1; firs t ch arac terize a
piece of coaxial cable . 11 25-foo t len gth
av ailable in a ho rne lab . A "half wave"
balun wa s fabri cated from the cab le. shown
m Fig 4.37A. T he two halanc ed out put
20 dB Pa d
po ints were attached to IOO-Q resist or s
with th e ju ncti o n att ached to an RF spec- RF- i n (ot+-- - , 1 00
tru m a na lyzer. The si gna l ge nerurcr was
tuned unti l a nu ll was ro und at 12.SS .\1Hz. (A )
This occurs when the cable i, a ha lf wav e-
length long , producing 180 deg rees o f
phase shift betw een the tw o ends . A half
.... avele nprh in Iree space at thi s frequency
I ~ 3,s,2 feet. so the veloci ty facto r of our 10 I nput
coa x is 0.65. which is abo ut what W I; wou ld
51 It To DVH
expect . The pha se del ay in the coax ial cable RF -i n

I
.... ill be di rectl y pr oportional 10 ca bl e leng th .i,
and to freq uency. We kne w the length and 51 51 5 BL -1
frequency that yi eld a phase sh ift of 1SO
degrees. , 0 we ca n ca lcu late the phas e fo r o dB Pa d
.Iny arbitrary frequency. 68
Th e cha rac te rize d coa xia l cable is now
u- ed in the tes t set o f fi g 4 .37B . T he sign al
25 'coa x (B )
gene rator o ut pu t is d ivided in a po wer
-plitter con si sti ng of th ree 5 1-n res istors .
This pre ser ve s a 50-0 environmen t while
eq ually s plitt ing the input po we r , On e sig- Fig 4.37-Part A characterizes the phase sh ift in a section of coax cable thai is
nal is app lied direc tly to the SBL - I LO then used in part B t o eva luate a $B L·1 as a phase detector.
po rt. The oth er is attenuat ed by 10 dR .
pha se sh ift ed with th e cabl e. a nd ap plie d
to the mixer RF porl. The o utp ut wa s lo w
pass filtered wi th a sim pl e RC fi lter and
measur ed w ith a d ig ital volt meter. T he si g- SBL 1 as a Phase Det ector
nal ge ne ra tor a mpli tu de was adjus te d to 100
prod uc e the specified + 7 dR m La drive 150
le ve l. Th IS ov erall circ uit is fami lia r a s a
delay-fin e dis cr im inator. 100
A qu ick tuning of the sig nal gene ra tor 50
1"-
vhnwed tha i the out p ul was ze ro at fiA r-,
.\l Hz where COil X ph ase shi rt is 90 de grees .
o
Data w as ta ke n ov e r the :; Lo In - MHz. spec-
tru m to generate a p lot (F ig 4 .381 showi ng l
o - 100
<,
o utput vo ltag e as a f unct io n of phas e. T h is
is cl ose to a straight lin e over a wide phase - 150 '"
range . wi th the d ep art ur e at lo w ang les -200
re sulting from a vignal ge nerator output 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160
decre a se neal' 3 Ml-lz. (W e used a mode st p
d riv- e at the mix er RF por t: t he mixer is Phase, de grees
ap pro ximate ly line ar to RF driv e at thi . .
le vel.] Ex am in at ion of th e data in Fig Fig 4.38-Dc output vs phase fo r a SBL-1 operated as a p hase detector.

Oscil lators and Frequency Synthes izers 4 ,1 9

~ -3S show-, that the slo pe (phase ga in) is does occ ur. even with a slight freq uency ,I
oth er. With d iode ring phase detector.
-~ .96 millivult per deg ree. or -0.17 VI di ffere nce. Co nsider IWO input signa ls. a the loc ked osci llator wi ll d iffer fro m t he
rad ian . Re peating these e xperiments wit h refe rence and a VCO, separated by I kHz re ference by 90 degrees. A side bar show s
other cab le kn g th<, sho w that th is circuit and applied to th e pilose detecto r, whic h is a practical PLL with a diode ring phase
respo nds 10 pha..e rath er than frequency. the sam e topology as a mixer. The mixer de tect or.
Hon ing: charac teri zed the phase detec - will prod uce I-kH z currents. This low Oth er mixe rs, i ncl ud ing the po pular
tor . we ca n now build a pha" e loc ked loop. freq uency component will generate side- Gilbert ce ll. wo rk well as a phase detector.
We will use the 1 ~ - MHz VCO desc ribed ba nds abo ut bot h the refe ren ce a nd the T he most popular phase d etect ors usc d igi-
earl ie r I Fig ~ . 3~). an o sc iu aIOr wit h an VCO . T hese components appear in the tal ci rcuits . Fig 4.40 show s a co mmo n cir-
a ve rage lun ing sensitivit y of 30 LH1/ V mixer output. One of the VCO sidebands cu u. a so -called phase-freq uency detecto r.
with the: a va ila b le voltages when we use a is now d ire ctly on top of the re fere nce. T his d igita l circ uit i ~ fed with digi tal vol t-
12-V bench s upply. A ge neral-p urpose producing a de component that will pass ages 10 t he clock inp uts of IwO dam
si gnal generator is the "re ference" in the th roug h the loop fi lter whe re it ca n be fl ip-flops. The D-FF is a topo log y tha t
loo p shown in fi g -1.39 . T he SR L- l deta ils a mpl ified and mov e the veo to ward a transfer s the level o n the Data i nput to the
arc show n III e mphas ize the de isolatio n locked co nd ition. A sim ilar sideband is on Q output when a cloc k transition occurs.
pro pcrtic - o f the ring and tra nsfo rmer top or the yeO f reque nc y. T he dat a. in thi s circuit. is j ust a logic I.
\\'ind ing, . An op erat io nal ampl ifie r in- Analy sis like this offers so me e xp fana- for the D input is tied 10 the pos itive pow er
creas es the relative ly low o utp ut o f the ti on. albeit sketchy . of a re la ted phe no m- supply . A NA ND gate resets bot h D - FF ~
detector 10 dr ive the ye o tune- port. Th e enon called injection locking , This occurs whe n both h,l ve a high Q ou tp ut. If the two
L ~135 X used wa s available for the experi- whe n an extern al signa l is a pplied to an input s are sig nals at the- same freq uency
mcnt: a be tter choic e wo uld he an O P-27 operatin g osc illator. If the signal is stro ng and are in phase. thc ou tput wil l he a ver y
or si mila r 10\\ noise pa ri. e nou gh. il c an ca use the oscillator to mo ve narrow spike. defi ned by the logic s peed.
The loop was o rigi na lly teste d while freq uency until it become s loc ked to the If. ho we ver, there is a phas e d iffere nce,
ru nnin g the phase- detec tor ar the low injected freq ue nc y. The sam e mod ulatio n the Q re lated to the first FF trigge red wi ll
RF port le vel use d for measureme nts. sideb ands are created wi thi n the oscilla tor stay pos itive fo r a short pe riod. prod uci ng
Althoug h phase 1000k was po ....ible . perfo r- a nd ope ra te in much the same way. an o utput with a net dc c omponent.
ma nce wa.. poor. Inc re asing the levels to Altho ug h th ese mod ulat io n processes Th is ci rcuit will also com pare freq ue n-
+ 7 d Bm at both mixer port s produced more a rc powerf ul. they are restricted . A sim ple cies . If one fre q ue ncy is higher tha n the
ro bu st behavior. The circuit is initially PLL will have a well-defined pu ff-in range other. the de avera ge of the two outputs
turned o n wuhout se eing any' indication of where ca pture is possiblc.15 will. aft e r Filtering. cause the VCO to
"lock." A n oscilloscope was used to moni - T his e xperi ment a l loop was designed swee p to ward equal frequenc ies. Eve n if
tor the op -a mp output. which ca me up for a closed loo p ba ndw idt h (o pen loo p this d et ect or is not Ihc primar y pha.;.e de-
to about ~ v . the kH~ 1 s et hy the 3.9-k1!1 unity gain freq uen cy ) of 1 kHz with a tector in a PLL. it can s tjll se rve to co m-
L!-k U vo ltage divider. T he s igna l ge n- da mpin g facto r of 5, parameters dete r- pare two freque ncies . a handy feature in
erat or was the n tuned. Lock was ach ie ved mined by t he c hoice of the resisto r and so me app licat ions .
when it passed through the VCO re .:,ting c apaci to r val ues of the loo p filter. Al- T he digi tal phase freq ue nc y detector
frequency. The y e O will the n track the tho ugh we pick loop jilluco mpo ne nts. the uses d igita l log ic. Ho we ver. the si mple
refe rence o ver the full op- am p o utpu t param eters descr ibe the o vera ll PLL a nd loops discuvsed so far have dealt with ana-
ran ge. not ju st the op-am p and related parts. Ing signal s. An analog signal is easily co n-
Intuition sugge st" that ac hie ving lock This see min gl y simple cir cuit is us e ful, verte d to dig ita l for m wit h the circ uit
wo uld be diffic ult. that both signal s wou ld nor on ly as an ill us tr ation of the con cep t. show n in Fig -1.4 1. T he I O - k ~ l and 4.3-kO
hav e to be at the sa me freq uenc y befor e bu t as a way to obtain two sig nals th at have res ist ors form a volta ge divider with a volt-
phav e lock can ev er be reali zed. R ut luck a well-defined pha se rela tio nship to e ach age gain of abo ut 1/.,. Bur . 10 be acti ve, the

.,
aer . in , veo. in ,

;Ji
+7 dBm SBL--I +7 dBm

J
- Ir
~I
+12v
C
~ '1 2 H.-
~
82
~ 'tOOU
Fig 4.39--Phase
loc ked loop us ing
t he ph as e detector.
) . 91" 22K 3~ 1 LM35S

"'1 1 noI 100 • .

"K J47K ~J
~2

0 . 22 c
ToVCO
-=- -=
-= 36 K 0 .22
Fig 4.40-P has e freq ue ncy de tector
using dig ital inte g rate d c ircui ts.

4 .20 Chapter 4
A Pract ica l Fre q ue nc y Multiplying PLL LO System w ithout a Loop Filte r
The phase locked loops we hav e descri bed are second a lower frequency crystal con trolled oscillator. The harmonic
order loops , ones with a ca pac itor in the loo p filter that signal shou ld be between -40 and 0 dBm at the desired
alters loop respon se. A simp ler form lor loo ps is possible , Irequency.
a first ord er circui t. This occurs when we take the dc A dual op -amp provides the rest ottne contro l for the
output from a phase detector. perhaps with some amplifi- system . U1 A is a unity gai n voltage followe r driven by a
cation. and apply it direct ly to a VCO. This is exa ctly the 10-1 tJrn 2-kf.! pot. The output signal, from 0.3 to 6 V. is
sort of negative feedb ack used when we co ntrol the gain applied to the diod e ring in a way that this level als o
of a simple op-amp by connecting the output to the inp ut reac hes the veo. Not e that th is is not eas ily realized with
through a resisto r. The circuit is stable so long as the ga in all ring mixers . Phase detection occu rs in the diode ring ,
be fore feed back is inverting. The second order loop. With creating a de signal that is adde d to the applied de bias .
its additional capacitor. int roduces the possibility of a This is then differentially amplified with a voltage gain of
delay between an output error and the signal reac hing the +1 1 in U t B and routed to the VCO.
amplif ier input to cor rect that error . The syst em is generally very easy to use. Th e 10-turn
An analogy may be appropriate: A rider proceeding pot is merely tuned until a lock is obtained, prod ucing
down a hill on a bicycle controls direction with a f irst order stable output signals in the receiver. A chart of the
feedbac k loop. The VCO represents the bicycle handle- various frequencies vs the setting of the to -tum control is
bars: a di rect ion error is co rrect ed with immediate kept , allow ing an easy return . The capture range (ho w
feedback applied to the handg rips. The secon d orde r loop clos e you must tu ne t he 10 tu rn co nt rol to achieve lock) is
places springs between the rider's controlling hands and about 100 kHz if the corresponding input is at - 10 dBm,
the handleba rs, elt ecting a delay in the feedback. The but drops to 10 kHz for a - 30 dBm input. The reference
syste m with springs might be smoo ther on a gentle hill. spuriou s responses in the output at plus and minus 1 MHz
but clearly needs much more effort on the part of the were at
designer. The consequences of failure are drama tic. -60 dBc when the loop was locked.
We had built a VHF tran sceiver (des cribed later in the This circuit shou ld be buill over ground plane with
bOOk) l uning fro m 52 to 53 MHz that receives mo st relative ly sho rt leads in the AF areas. The U3 10 common
modes . Whil e normally used with microwave trans verters. gate amplili er is critical. While the gain is low, the reverse
we wanted to also use this for cas ual HF reception . We isolation is very goo d. nee ded to prevent l-M Hz energy
nee ded a stable La that would operate in the 48 to 70- Irom reaching the VCO where it can create sidebands.
MHz area that coul d drive a mixer to conve rt HF signals to The ampli fie r is built by drilling a hole in the ground ron tor
VHF. The neede d La could take on freq uenci es that were the FET and soldering it in place. This is poss ible with the
mult iples of 1 MHz . This was do ne with a first order phase U3 10. lor the gate is attached to the metal can . A J31 0
locked loop. shown in Fig 4A . The bas is l or the LO is a could be substituted il caution is dev oted to keeping the
pair of off-the-shelf mod ules from Min i-Circuits : a POS - circuit stable . Such circuits are discussed in Chapter 6.
100 voltage controll ed oscillator l uning from 50 to 100 Capacitor C1 is a VHF bypass that filters the de comi ng
MHz and a SBL- 1 serving as a phase detector. from the phase detector. The value is small enough that it
The VCO outp ut is split with most 01 the energy routed to does not impact loop perfo rmance.
a coax ial output for mixer use. A sample is applied to a The greatest vi rtue of this circui t is Its tol erance to
common gate amplifier, 0 1, and then 10 the SBL -1 phase experimental changes. Because Ihere are no loop filte r
detector with a level of aboul +7 dBm. The AF input to the compo nents to pick , there is little design to be done. Yet
phase detector, the "reference" for the loop, is a harmonic 0 1 the resulting performance can be excellent.

I Phase Det.1 n
b .. ,....---. u
8 0L - l
Int ...·....l

·1'· ":::"I [,1'-.'I'•..,

oe t .. .ih
b '~n...., U3 S BL- l -=¥- :.L -r-
':'~ ,
- r.:::\ ,
I I
r ~ . · . · " J. I -
ooH o • •, -
, -. u
~
r oo=
Y l· ... •• · ,--+-,¥" ,-+-l,f-----< -'-
•
r
_----,~ eb-
---<-0
~ n. "----;."
~
1,::' ~
- -
c. =
• Jr, VIII ~l d B ._

,
Oil ,• output

..
,
""111 1" 1111

Fig 4A-A f irst order PLL allowing I VHF v e o t o lock to harmonics of a l·MHz input.

Oscillators and Frequency Syn t h es ize rs 4.21

 A One-on·one Tracking and is als o "ery stable.
Phase-locked Loop Good long-term vtahifit y meas ured over
per iod s of seco nd s 10 minutes is hut one
The PLL sch eme becom e s mo re tree- virtue. Another is short-ter m crabilny. the

~
:~:K
table whe n a mixer is add ed 10 the vyvtem, cycle-to -cycle beh avio r that we ha ve cha r-
sho wn in Fi g ..1...12 . T hc fr ...que ncies acre rizcd by phase noi se co nte nt. Th e
are those used in a practi cal VFO . a no ise of fhe 1.5- MHz reference oscillator
c ircuit desig ned for a two-be nd output. A is tranvterred to the veo within the ha nd-
0 .1tl0K
--)
'i 2N39 04
1..I·T\lHz VCO is mixe d with a 1:!.j·MHz
crystal osci llator and rhe do w n-converted
out put is sele c ted with a low pass fi ller.
width of the phase locked loo p. O urslde
the loo p bandw idth . the phase no ise is
do mina ted by the intrinsic per for ma nce of
T he result is ap plied 10 a pha se-frequency the yeo.
4 . 3K de tec tor. T he re fere nc e fo r t he de tector The as tute reade r is certainly posing a
co mes from asta blt:. f ree ru nning que st io n a t th is po int: why a PLI. ? Why
1 . 5 · ~IH z oscill ator. T he detec to r o utput nOI me re ly mix the 1 .5 - ~ lH z VFO with the
is filtered in the "loo p filt er" with the de 12.5-\ H l z crysta l osc ill ator to di rectly
outp ut controlling the Yeo. gen erate the desired 14-\-fH /. si gnal? The
The most ob vious \ ln ue of thi s system qu es tion is n good one . as is the method A
Fig 4.41-A n ana log signa l is easily is stabili ty; the Ve o has the freq ue ncy stu- direct heterod yne ap proach. whi ch will he
con vert ed to digita l for m with th e hil ity of the two cs cillntors in the sy ste m, d iscussed in a later chapter. is ideal , Hnw-
circui t shown here. Th e 10·kil and 4.3- T he I :!.5 -MHz osc ill ator is crystal co n-
kQ resist ors l orm a v o lt age di vider w it h e ver. i f the ou tput is 10 be spectrall y d e an.
a voll age gain of about 1/3. But, to be
trolled and qu ite stable . T he free runn ing the filter at 14 M Hz rnu..' he a good one.
acti ve, t he trans istor base must be 1.5-\ I Hz VFO ope rates at a lo w freq ue ncy T he up-co n ver..ion proce .... will ge nera te
bi ased at abo ut 0.7 V. an image at 12.5- 1.5 ::= II \ 11 1/ . Th is must
be wel l su ppressed. T he re arc o ther hig he r
order mixing prod uc t-, that c an a lso co m-
tra nsistor base mU ~ 1 be biace d at about 0.7 prom ise the perfo rmance.
V. Hence. the feed bac k loop hol d~ the col- Another virtue is low co..r The LC fi lter is
lector clos e 10 ::! V. whic h is between a logic a rclali\ ely expensive circuit. A di rect het-
o a nd 1 fo r TTL a nd for CMOS running at erodyne sy..tern wou ld be even more diffl-
5 V. Th is ci rcui t will funct ion with RF ~ i2 ­ cull and expensive if the trequcnci c.. were
nab of -30 J Rm from a 30..n generator. ~r changed to. for exa mple. a 13.5-l\.I HI cry ..-
even less. dependi ng on freque ncy. tal oscillator and a O.5-MHz VFO. But. the
The normal phase-fre quency detector PLL for thc new sche me would be virtuallv
outputs come from Q I and Q1*. unchanged. Xotice in Fig 4....1.2 that there :l~
(Ql*=Not 0 2.) Q1 * is show n as Q2 with no bandpass filters in the ..yvte m. nOI even
a ba r above it i n the schem atic shu wn in Fig 4.42- A prac ti cal on e-an -one or simple ones. A very simple low pa<.'" filter
Fig -lA O. Dur ing phase locked operatio n. offset trac ki n g PlL, picks the down -converted product.
Q 1 and Q 2 are bo th 10 \1 bet wee n clock
pulses . SO. Q2* will be high. When Q J
and Q2'" voltage s are analog added with +12 T
an op-ump . the result is a sig nal at half of
I N4001
till: digital su pply. Eve n when both make
transition s together, the net res ult i~ the 50 1 FT
1 3 . 98 to 14 _3 MH z
sa me as the resting state so long as the re is ,I H ( -----,
no phase diffe rence . T his bala nce he lps to f
su ppress spuri ous pulses from the detec-
tor. T his de tec tor suffers from ga in that
d rill'S with zer o phase d ifference. xtore
refi ned phase -frequenc y detectors usc
logie schemes lhal gen era te a ga in that is
co nstan t .11 all phase d iffe re nces.
The pha se frequ ency detector o utpu t is
sa mpled data. A sa mple occurs o nce per
cycle and then dis appears . Th e ave rage d
de co mpon en t Is extracted and applied to
the cp -arnp thai follow s. T he prima ry
fu nct ion of the loo p fi ller is to atte nuate
the high freque ncy pari of these pulses. In
co ntrast. the o utput of a d iode ring phase
de tector is co ntin uo usly present. so lo ng
as there is s ine wave exci tatio n. But when 11, 13t ':'37- 6
cl ipp ing occurs at hot h inputs. which is T1 , 1 0 b~fil ar tu r n ~ , FT37- 4 3
co mmo n. the da ta hegins to take on
sam pled characteristics. Fig 4.43 -VCO for t he 14-MH z tra ck in g loop.

4 .22 Chapter 4
 The PLL st ill has f ilteri ng pro perties , A PNP guara ntees an ope rat ing lev el that pa ss is a pea ked (ul tra-spher ica l) d esig n,
de tailed a na lysi s will sho w that the loop nev e r forwa rd b ias es the tunin g di od e . A o ffe ring greater than norm a l ha rmonic
-eha ves like a single tune d circuit at the b uffer inc rea ses the ou tpu t to +2 dbm . attcnuanon. A b and-swi tch selects the
\ 'CO freq uency with a band width eq ua l- T here are no large bypass c ap aci to rs app ropriate o utp ut. Ev e n tho ugh the 7-
oag the loo p ba ndwidth . Thi s tracking within the sh ield ed Yeo . for th e +1 2-V !'11Hz circuitry co ntin ues to operate when
"ilta mov es al ong wit h th e output. trans- su pply is ke ye d. t he 14-MHI hand is in use, the 40 -me tef
ferri ng the ch aractcn-aic , o f the re fere nce T he VCO output dr ives a pa ssiv e po wer o utp ut is still 70 dB below the desired out-
10 the VC O output. T hi s fi lter ing charac- splitte r wh e re t he two app lication s are p ut. The O-dBm outp ut was used to drive a
serisuc is nul available to one buil din g the is o late d. sho wn in Fi g 4.44. O ne path two stage. 1-\\' power amp lifier. T his was
eore conventional heterod yn e sy stem. ro ute s 14- MHL energy to Q3 where it is low p ass filtered and used on the air for
Schematics are presented for a practical amp l ified to a 2.5-V pk -pk lev el to ser ve QRP activity. Of app lied to a FET power
unple menrati on of the syst em of fig 4.4 2. as the LO for Q4. a dua l ga te f.,lOSFET ampli fier for more agg res si ve efforts.
ad esign we used for a In- year pe riod. Two mixer. T he 12.5 -MHl sig na l is generated The I.S-MHz ou tput from F ig 4.44 is
ou tput fre q uen c y band s wen: availa ble : 7 wi th Q5 . T he le ve l reach ing the mi xer is ap p lied to the phase freque ncy dete cto r.
lO 7. 1 and 1410 14 ,2 f..·lHz. The 14 -MHz adju sted to pr ev en t ov erdri ving the mi xer. sho wn in Fi g 4.45 . T his then dr ives a loop
OUtp ut wa s also fr equency dou b led to p ro - The mixe r output i s filte red in a 1.7-.\lHz fil ter using a L\1301 op -amp. The loop
duce a 28-;\l Hz signal. The ba sic circuit is low pass filter. was d esign ed for a lO-k H z loop band-
.II 1.J--MH z PLL. b ut the o utpu t is digitally The other sp litter output is applied to Q6 , width. The reference VfO (not sh own) fo r
di vid ed to produce the 7-MHz co mponent . a stag e pr ovidi ng 14-MHz out put. Some th e phase detecto r was a JFET H art le y
Th e 14- MHL veo i s shown in Fig 4.43. energy is "sto len" at the eminer to driv e Q7 bu ffere d \·... ith a /l.fOSFET.
.), 2:--: 390 6 PNP (Q I ) os ci llator is tuned and Ll l . a D-tlip-flop ope ra t ing a s a Keying and t iming deta ils . althoug h not
wuh a ;"1V2 0 9 ab rup t j unct ion vara ctor div ide r. The result ing sq uare wa ve is fur- sho wn . are cri tic a l in thi s system . The
diod e . The gro unded co llector fac ilitate s ther buffered in Q~ and is low pass filtered veo was keyed with a "+ 12T" vo ltage
diod e b iasing. The emitter current in th e to prod uce a cl ean 7-.\f Hz signa l. The 10 1-\' that sta rted as soon as the key was p re ssed .

-L 1'.7MH' LPF I
1-= 01 T2 L2
I C~~~ Pha s e / f r e q .
L3 To

1 0K
1 . 2K

r"C f--".; Q4
II
J-
2 3Do
I 1 1J
500 0 DO O
n et.

3N2 11 SM SM Sl--1
.1 2

47 0
10 K 0 ~0 1 f1'
2 . 2K
L2 ,L 3: 5u , 3 2 t # 2 6, T 5 0- 2 1 2.5
1 2 0K
T2 : 20 t# 28 FT 37 - 4 3 , 4t l i nk .
T3, T4: 1 2 ~ ifi l a r t # 28 ,
FT37 - 4 3 Mi x e r
Dr i v e o d Bm
. 12
1 4 MH z Ou t p u t
10 0

T3 I
! 7 MH z
T4

I +5 Re g
. 01 • •
mx 2 20 'II' . 01
r-l
-=- . 1
. 01 1 0 0 1K
22 O .0 1
L4 L5

. 01

Q6
.0 1
r-J 1K D
U1a
7 4 L5 74
Q
5 IX
2 N3 9 04 '
Q8
47 0
I-::- -
470 I
2 N3 9 0 4
3
II !2'2aL 90- 40 0

'i t
51 CK 47 0

lo~
10K 6
1 00 7
Q7 -
= . 01
4. 3K 2 N3 9 04 L4 , L5 : 3u H, 3 2t # 28 , T 3 7 - 6

Fig 4.44-Mixer sec tion for t he trac k ing PLL.

Osc illators and Frequency Synthesizers 4.23

 -j - •
.,
•
...
,
•• ''"
t 1;; ~

" ( 02 . or - •
"
:~rL"4
~:
~
e- '~l
Hl 4
1
[oJ .
:>1 -I
r
~ ~10
,
I
'~•
1U ca "::U 3a
U2b s
l~

Phase-frequency detector using LS-TTL

., ,
4LS 74 logic. Thi s circuit Is show n in Fig 4.45.
~

~ o, P l 'c -~ h

- -
:K

mcn t wher e signah we re spaced al to-kHz

Fig 4.45 -Phase·treQuency detector and loop filter for the tracking PL L interval s. It wo uld nor. as sho wn. be "cry
usefu l as a ge neral purpose LO .
Mod if icat io ns co uld im prove reso lu-
tion. For exa mple. increas ing R to 2/)()()
Proqr Alml1ng pro duce!'> a I- kHz referen ce. N rang ing
N fro m 9000 10 9500 would the n W H' r the
desired ran ge in I·kH l. ste ps. (A mea ns of
Ph ue pu llin g the 2-MH I cr ystal os ci ll ator by a
veo Fr.qu .ncy me re 22 2 Hz woul d then generate all LO
Detector
F V 'V X F frequenci es within the de sire d range.}
,- Genera lly. l OO-l-Il reso lut ion prod uces
• R
unde rsta nda ble SSB wh ile f O- Hz sreps
yiel d na tura l sounding voices. BUI d ivid-
ers of 90.000 o r 900.000 are imp ract ica l.
even thoug h they are eas il y ach ie ved with
di gn allogic.
Consider Ihc I -k j lz step system wit h
N=9000 10 9500 . T he de tect o r re fe re nce
freque ncy is l- kj lz, the step val ue. T he
Fig 4.46- A single loop Divide-b y-N PLL . loo p filte ring t plus bala nce effects must
pro duce considerable atte nua tio n II I
I kHz. G enerally. a system wi th a I -kH z
ste p would use a loo p bandwidt h of 100
Careful li steni ng and exa m in ati on wit h an where d irec t d ivis ion would prod uce the Hz or less . T he de from the loop fi lter
oscilloscope showed that phase 10(: 1.; was desired outputs. includes a small I -kHz co mp o nent thnt
Iast and always occu rred be fore a signal frequ ency mod ulates the veo carrier al I
was a pplied 10 the antenna. A "hold -off" Divide.by.N Phase kHz. T he spec trum is a carri er with I-kH z
ci rc uit was incl ude d tha t pre vented the sideba nds . The se would he t ransmitted if
keying volta ge from re aching the po .... e r Loc k e d Synthesis the LO was part of a transmitter. If pan of
ump hfi er unt il the key had been down for T he most com mon sc he me fo r frequ ency a receiver , the co ntami na ted LO wo uld
5 milliseconds. Thi .. wa~ ap pli ed only on , ~'n th esi s
is the divide- by- X PLL Fig 4.46, caus e a stro ng vigna l 10 be recei ved in a
initia l key clos ure ... VO X-li ke ci rcu it ry A crys tal oscillator 011 r x is di vided by a co uple of extra frequ e nci es. albe it al re-
then mai nta ined the o;ystem in transm it (uvuall y ] fix ed inte ger R. producing a d uced stre ngth.
mode rv t.O o n and T/~ rel ay etc... ed j fo r refere nce signal at the pha se frequency dc- Ti ming pro ble ms occ ur when :-.: is
hal ta second or .SO. This system would he rector at FxlR . The veo is divided h~' a increme nte d 10 tunc such a synthesi zer.
com pr omi sed if the Veo locking had nor progr amma ble integer. N. The d ivided Wh ile the N chan ge is instantane ous, the
been quick . vee must also appe ar ar Fx /R. so F v=NF xl result is not. A filte r with 1oo- Hz band-
A number of cha nge s would be imp le- R. Cons ider an exa mple: We wish to build width is capa ble of c hange in a rime co m-
me nted it this syst em was rebuilt today. a synthesizer for the 9 10 9.5-.\1Hz range. me nsurate with l IB whe re B is the loop
T he du al-gale mix er would be replaced We divide II 2 - M Hl crystal os cillator hy bandwid th. here 10 milli second s. The ef-
with II balanced c ircuit. The op-urnp wou ld R",::!OO to generate a IO-kHz reference. ~ teet can he a "chir py" so und wit h tun ing.
become lin up-to-da te alte rnative. such as must be se t to 900 to prod uce a 9 -Mll l sig- Th ere is yet ano the r pro ble m, a de gra-
the O PA -2 7. Hig h spe ed C MOS wo uld nal. Increasing S causes Fv to increase in da tio n in pha se noise. T he PL L wit h a
replace the LS -TT L used. Fi nall y. the lO-kl li steps. reach ing 9. 5 MH7 with d ivisi on-by-X i.' a freq uency multi plie r.
Veo wo uld r UD co ntinuously wit hout N=950. Assume. for example, tha t 1-Hz cha nges
ke ying , hut would operate a t a different Thi s system would wor k well as a tra ns- the referenc e al t he detec tor. With
frequency. T his co uld be ::!Il o r 56 r..1Hz cei ver local oscillator (LOI in an env iron- ~=9000, tha r l -Hz shi ft becomes a 9-kHz

4.24 C h a pter 4
 ft in the VCO. If we th ink of the I -Hz load ed in the counter, beg inn ing the cycle availab le for phase locke d loops. One ex-
sete rencc sh ift as a noi se, the resul t aft er an ew. T his over all circuit will d iv ide by ampl e is the Motorola MC 145170 , which
freq ue ncy m ultiplicatio n hy N is a noi se the number loaded at JA to 1D (0 to 15) plus in cludes prog ra mmable N and R div iders,
.crease by 20L og(N) dB . 79 dB [or this 2, Se veral 74HC l93s can be cascaded to phase-fr equency de tecto r, cr ystal osc ill a-
~. Cl early, PL L synthesizers with lar ge realize large div isors . The 74HC74 forces tor, and di gi ta l co ntrol and memory
" sho uld be avo ided . the ou t put to be sync hro nous wi th the in - circ uits .!'' T his IC functions up to 160
PLL synthes izers are still practical. put clock. M Hz, rece iv ing instr uctions as a Hi-h it
wuh large fre q ue ncy steps, per haps 10 Many PLL freq uency synthe sizers use a serial word. While the use of a this chip
iLHz or more, tuning seems ins tanta neo us pre sca ler. a d iv ider that divides by a fixed simplifies a sy nthesizer. it often mea ns that
e hile keeping refere nce sidebands we ll amou nt before reaching pro grammable a microproce sso r or co mp uter mu st be
1oOIppre ssed . G a ps between steps can be circuitry , Th is reduces the complex ity of presen t in equi pme nt usi ng suc h a syn the-
fi lle d in with sc hemes using addi tional the pro grammable parts, but has the d isad - sizer. Th e MC1 45 170 and the Nat io nal
Pl. Ls. VXO t unin g of the reference. or di - va ntage of multiplying the synthesizer LMX 150 l A are used in a synt hes izer on
-ec r digital sy nthesis-a meth od that we step size by the pre-scale value. the book CD, t he DSP- IO tra nscei ver.
_ til discuss late r. T his d ifficulty is eliminated with a var i- The freq uenc y mu ltiplication and the
'c umer ous sc heme s arc available for ahle modulus pres caler. a chip that divi des resulting phase no ise degradat io n between
~ ra mm ablc freq u e n c y division, limited by one of two different values, dependi ng the reference and the YCO is a fundamen-
_ the experience of the de sig ne rs . O ne is on the sta tus of a control pin. For example, tal property of a divide-by-N synthesize r
.oow n in F ig 4.4 7. The inco ming sig na l is the Mo toro la MC l20 15 is a di vide hy tha t ca nnot he avoided with " impro ved"
Ji rici:ed and applied to the down co unting 32/33: it divides the incoming freq ue ncy desig n. For th is re a so n. it is becoming
doc k input o f an Up/Down counter. a by e ither 32 or 33. Ex tra c ircui try is re- co mm on for ma nufac ture rs o f PLL int e-
- .lHC I9 3. The sta te of the counter deere- qu ired in t he programmahl e par t of the grated ci rcu its to specify the phase nois e
Bents by 1 wi th each cl oc k puls e. W hen it synthe sizer to accommodate p re scaler of their IC s at the phase det ect or. Spectral
reac he s 0 , the "borrow" line goes low. This pro gramming . but the programmable cir- noise dens ity in the - 160 dRc/HI region is
l~ fed to the data input of a D-FF. When the cuitry is relati vel y slow, casing de sign an d com mon. The fi nal system desig n is then
Q o f that part go es low . the "l oad" com- reduc ing power. degraded by 20 Lo g( N) , It will he even
man d o n the "193 is execu ted. caus ing the Numerous co mmercially man ufac tured worse if other noise sources come into
i n a on the "jam" inp uts, J ", to J D, to be LSI (l ar ge -s cale integration) chi ps are play , such as a poor YCO.

A VXO Extending
Synthesizer
A simple PL L syn thesizer with a single
~
. 5
" 5 14 1 14 1 4 loop can be used in co nj unc tion with a

m:if~
YXO for numero us spe cia l app lica tio ns.
4 "P h1
7.. HC74
This could be a div ide-by -N design li ke
nvn
74HC193 Ba r
Load
= 2
QP- that of Fig 4-46, or a modified des ig n that

~,: - ~ ~f5 110Y oR~ ~ 7~

incl udes a mixe r, shown in .F ig 4.48 . Tho
crystal oscillator (Y XO ) no w serves as the
La for a mixer and as a divided progra m-
mable clock fo r the phase de tec tor . T he
ste p size is no lon ger uniform, a cunse-
Fig 4.47- A simple programmable d iv ider. See te xt. que nee of the va riab le ref ere nce d ivider.
Ho wever, the scheme is capab le of pro -
du ci ng very small steps wit h a relative ly
RF Ou t p u t hig h reference freq uency.
Consider an example : A 6.892-MHI
Bu f f e r oscillator is placed in the circuit of f ig
4 ,41; with N ranging fro m 32 to 64. Some
ph a se (hut not al l) o utput fr equenci es, step size s.
Fr e qu e ncy
veo De t e ct or
and reference frequencies arc g iven in
Table 4.1.
The reference frequency varie s ac cord,
i ng to the crystal frequency divid ed by X
while the step size varies with FxlN : . Con -

H (8 )

Pr o g rammi ng Table 4.1

N VCO Output Step Size Ref. Freq.
FX (1 + ~)
32 7107.7 kHz 6. 5 kHz 215 .4 kHz
FV = 33 710 1.2 6 .3 208 .9
----
63 7001 .7 1,74 109.4
Fig 4.48-A simp le PL L sy nthes ize r feat ur ing f req uency steps m uch sma ller t han 64 7000.0 1 ,68 107 .7
the referenc e f req uency.

Osc illators and Frequency Synthesizers 4.25

 1 , ,
ce ,,
c6 ,t-J
o ,
o , I
0
, I
-OJ ,
-0 .• ,
-00
, I
- ~,8

\] Jr ,../1 , ~ I-
-1 Fig 4.50-Measured output of a direct
c '"d ;)0
'" digi ta l synthesizer us ing the Ana lo g
Devices 9831 . Meas urements we re
performed with a Tektroni x 494A
Fig 4.49-A s ine w av e is generated in DDS with a stepped approxima tion. Both t he spectrum anal yzer set for a center
stepped, or "sam p led " w av ef o r m an d the des ired s ine w av e resu lt are shown .
freque ncy of 7.0 MHz. The s igna l is at
7.1 MHz. This DDS de vice uses a to-en
p-te-A converter and the manufacturer
reports similar s pu rious responses.

vcrting the cr ystal oscillator to a VXO fills At time zero, the desired. output sine wave 7.1 \ 1Hz was synthesized for thi s example.
the gaps. When this is done, it may nor be will have zero amplitude. But 25 nS later. it producing spuri ou s ou tputs over a wide
necessary 10 use all pos sible N number-s . will have an amplitude calculated by insert- spectrum. Othe r examples produ ced spu rs
Sy nthes izer s of this kind arc useful as a ing 25 nS into the equation . 0.454 Y. At 50 co nfined to l imited regio ns. The re are even
means of ex ten din g the rang e of a VXO to nS. the signal will be 0.809 V, and so forth. some "sweet spots," ou tput frequenc ies
c over a la rger hand. Ho wev er , they are One co uld plot these val ues against n to that are virtu a lly free of spurs '
be st use d with an independent frequency obtain the usua l sine wave. However, this Lim ited DAC accuracy is a common
co unter that provides reado ut. A prac tica l is 1I0[ wha t you would see when examin ing reaso n given to explain spurs in a DDS
projec t usi ng this sche me is given e lse - t he DAC with a high. speed osc illoscope . sy nthe sizer. Wh ile this is usually dom i-
whe re in this chapter. A practical. general- Rather. you wou ld see a line that is flat and nant. it is not the only source of spurs , The
purp ose co unter is also presented. 17 level fo r 25 nS. It would the n j ump almost ana lysis pres ented abo ve assumed a per -
instantaneously to 454 mill i volts and re- feet DAC and still generated spurs. The
main there for anothe r 25 nS. At 50 nS it ve ry stair -step waveform of Fig 4.49 is an
Direct Digital Synthesis wou ld ju mp to 0,809 V. and so on. This approxi mat io n to a more ideal samp ling
DDS. or direct digital svnthes is is very behavior is shown in Fig 4.49 wher e a sine wa veform recon struc tio n. IS
powe rful and is easily implemented with wave is sampled abo ut 10.7 time s per cycle. The widcb and phase noise in the o utput
special. large- sc ale inte graled circuits It we had used an eve n to samples for of a DDS synthc sizer is often very lo w.
T he concept is dccept ively si mple : Digi- eac h cycle of the sine wave be ing ge ner- comparahle wit h the bes t Divide-by -N
tal approxima tions to val ues fo r a sy nthe- ated. the lo west frequency in the overall PLL sys tems . Ho wever, this is of li ttl e
sized s ine wave are calculated or looke d- signal woul d be that of the output. The conseque nce if the noi se is merely
up fro m memory . These values arc loaded o nly distortion would be harmonics . Con - repl aced hy a famil y of coh erent spurio us
into a digi tal -to -a nalog con verte r mAC ) sider a sligh tly diffe re nt c ase. one where respon ses.
with a new val ue he ing period ically ge ner - we usc 10.333 samples for each cycle of Mos t cu rre nt commercial tra nsce ive rs
ated af ter a fi xed samp le time. the fina l osc illatio n. Three cycle s of the use a combination of PL L and DDS tech-
A typical DDS Ie migh t he c locked with output waveform wou ld the n he gen erat ed nology , Unfortunately. it is very diffic ult
a 40-\1HI cr ystal oscil la tor. Th is sign al with 3 1 samples. Th ere is a longer peri - to gain even a basic understan d ing of these
serves as a dock for updating the outpu t odic characte r to the ove rall wa ve fc rm that syst ems from the sketchy man uals. Rohde
with a new sample that will persis t for 25 wo uld create spur ious outputs at one -third described an excellen t e xa mple of a dua l
nanoseconds ( 1/40 \1H z) unt il the next the output freq uenc y. All harmo nics of the tech no logy svnthcsizcr.!'' That de si gn
update arrives. To illustrat e the operation. low frequency arc also avai lable. The used DDS to ge nerate a 1O.7-lvJHl. sig nal
assume we want to ge nerate a 3-\fHz sine spurs become more numerous as the peri - that was tunable in sma ll steps. T he resu lt
wave wit h a I V amp litude. This is given as od s beco me longer. wa s ba ndpass filt ered with a lO-k Hz wide
Fig 4. 50 shows the me as ured output of cr ystal fi lter and the n freque ncy d ivided to
Y"" si n(2 xITx f xt ) f",,311Hz an Anal og Devices AD-l)83 l residing on a 100 kHl ","here it se rved as the refere nce
demo-board from Analo g Devices . The for a PL L con trolling a 75 to 105 -MHz
Eq 4.4 part used a 2S-MHz cloc k. An o utput of yeo.

4 .26 C hapt er 4
4.8 THE UGLY WEEKENDER, MK.II, A 7· M H Z VFO TRANSMITTER
T he "Ugly Wee ke nder" is a viable The VFO is buffe red with a keyed dual - tor voltage between mod ules. Th is co m-
project for both the beginner and the sea- ga te MOSFET amp lifier. Q2. A JFET pon ent was e li minat ed in the si ngle
soned builder. T he major featur e , an d the so urce follo wer driving a feedback amp li- comp artm ent ver sion.
source of the n am e, is the constru ction fier would also provi de the needed T he output power am plifi er. Q9 . an
method outlined in C hapter 1. This sect io n IO-milliwalt ou tput needed to driv e the e ver- reli a ble 2;'\[386 6 with a small he at
describ es a versi o n of tha t tran smi tt er freq uency do ubler. sink. is show n in Fig 4 .52 . Numero us other
that use s frequen cy dou bling to achieve The 2X -fre q uenc y mu ltiplica tion
impro ved oscilla to r iso lation . occ urs with a pair of dio des, as d isc usse d
Th e tran sm itter (Fig 4.51 ) beg ins with a in great e r de tail in Chapte r 5. The do ubler
3.5-MHz variable freq uency oscill ator. ou tput is selected with a single tun ed
The familiar Hartle y topo logy is used. al- circuit. A 10% ba ndw idth dou ble t uned
tho ugh oth ers wou ld work as we ll. Th e ci rcu it wou ld be a better cho ice in this
oscillator, Ql. ru ns continuous ly to avoid po sition . The power lost in the passiv e fre-
repeated warm-up drift, osc jHaring a few quenc y multiplicatio n is regained with a
kHI abo ve the normal freq uency, but is buffe r ampl ifier using Q6 and Q7.
shifte d to the desire d freque ncy dur ing T he 7-MHzoutput from Q7 is applied to
transmit intervals. The VFa is temp era - a 5 0 0-~ drive c ont ro l with output to a
rure com pensated with a combination of keyed feedback amp lifie r. QX, sho wn in
:-" PO and po lystyre ne capacitors i n the Fig 4.52 . The keyi ng voltage is deri ved
3.5-MHz tan k ci rcu it. Th e com bi nation from Q4 , an int eg rat ing waveform sha p-
was pic ked and co nfir med with re pe ated ing c ircu it.
tempera ture ru ns in a home-b uilt en viron- A feed-th ro ugh capacitor in the two box O uts ide v ie w of " Ug l y Weeke nder"
me nta l chamber. version of this circuit rout es the Q4 collec- tra ns mitters for 7 (left) a nd 3.5 MHz.

+1 2 dc p l To e r .ive
+1 2 :::c 5n FT
100
Co n tr o l

L1 ,3 6 t # 2 2 , T68 - 6 )l 7 MHz 51 T3
t a p a t 8t . lK -.0 .1
4 .7K 27 K
50
T1 ~+.
) . 5 MHz
Ql
2 2 4/ NPO 2N441 6
Ll 10 0/ Po l y 2. 7

1K
II 5
1M
5 1
1N4152
2N3 904 18 0

68
2N39 0 4
J2.7 2N390 6 1N4 1 5 2
"T L6 +1 2 d c pl
2 2K To T/ R
'" 6 4u 2. 2K
1 N415 2 6 . 2K
10K
1 2 2K 1N415 2 4 70
~ f--'_._-~""'f-
J
--.L 4.7 K
5 Po t l

0 . 22 + 1 2 Ke y e d to D r i ver

r O-- vr Key
. 01 T1 1 5t wi t h 5 bi fil a r tu rn o u t put , FT3 7- 4 3 .
T2 4 5t # 28 , T5 0-2 , 5 t u m l i n k 5 (2 ) .
TJ 1 5t # 28 o n FT3 7- 43 , 4 t l i nk .
L6 1 5t FT37 - 4 3

Fi g 4.51 - VFO and f req uency m ul ti pli er fo r the Mk II Ug ly Wee ke nde r .

Osci llators and Frequency Synthesizers 4. 27

 Ins ide v iew of a si ng le boar d ve rs io n of t he 7-M Hz tran s-
mitter. A recei vi ng c o nv erter is at the r ea r (left) of the box .

The V FO portio n of the tra nsmitter, inc lud ing d io de

freque nc y double r.

The po wer amplifier for the 7·M Hz

v er s io n.

parts will fu ncti on in th is position with

circu it det ails disc ussed in Chap ter 2. T4,T 5 : 10 ~n : i l a ~ t u ~n ~ H ?~ , , "r3 7- 4 3
Output power is j ust over two watts with [,2 : 34t ~ 2 2 , T6 8- 6
the drive co ntrol at ma ximum. A T/R sys - L3 , L4 : i e c ~2 2 , '1' 50 - 6, 1 . 1 un
tem is i ncl uded for QR P app lica tio ns. L5 : 1 5 ua rr.oldec1 R,,:::
Q.'i is a trans isto r switch that generates a
groun ded li ne when the key is pressed.
Thi s sig nal is time d to hold for a sho rt Fi g 4.52 Drrver and power amp lifier po rt ion of the Mk II Ugl y Wee kend er.
period after the key is opened to control an
electronic transmi t-rec eive switc h with a
100-\\'' powe r am plifi er some times use d
with this exci ter.

simpler solution was sough t, one that was tra nsistor cond itio ner th at drives a gate
A Digital Dial usable without special programming skills. co ntr olled by the co unter time ba se. For
T he freq uency counters we sec in the T hi s c irc uit uses a sma ll num ber of 100 Hz resolution, the gate must he "o pen"
amateu r li te rature are eith er ge neral-pu r- readily availa ble . inexpe nsive int egrated fur 10 mil liseconds. How ever. this design
pose rest instr uments or spec ial desig ns. circuit s. inc lud ing the four-LED d isp lays. has an ext ra divide-by-H) to supp ress last
in te nded as a readout for a rece i ver or T he des ig n was int e nded 10 be cheap d igit fl icker. so a 100 -mS count window is
transceiver. This unit falls into the later eno ugh for repe titive use in a var iety of used , Afte r the co unting is fin ished and
cate gory , but it co uld be exp anded to serve projec ts. The ap proximate S10 parts cos t the ga te is closed. a "strobe" signa l is ap-
general applications . incl uded the time base c rystal. but did not plied to rc s tha t remembe r the co unted
\\'e wanted this design to usc standard incl ude a PC board 2 0 result and dec ode it to a for mal suitab le to
pans. Excellent special purpose co unter Thi s co unter avoid s multiplex methods , dr ive the 7-seg me nt light e mitting diode
chips are ava ilable, hut they are often expen - which are pro ne to RF nois e generat ion. d isplays. T his is follo wed by a pulse that
sive and diffic ult to find . Micr o-proces sors . freque ncy reso lution is 100 Hz . rese ts the cou nters to zero, rea dy for the
such as the popular PIC and Basic Stamp Fig u re 4.53 show s a functional block next cycle .
Series , can be configured as counters. while d iagram for the freq uency co unte r. Sig- The time base. shown in Fig 4.54. he-
serving all rel ated displa y chores. But a nals to be co unted are applied to a sing le gins with a cry stal contro lled bipo la r tran -

4.28 Chapte r 4
 Fig 4.53-Block diag ram fo r counter.

Di y ~. 1
Condrtione,

Gate
1 2168 MHz

A clean way to fabr icate an LC oscillator uses a Hammond

1590B bo x, offering excellent shield ing. DC enters t hrough a
feedth rough capacitor and RF leaves on coax ial cab le. This
oscillator used a differentia l capac itor, but o n ly one side is
con ne cted .

this d es ign , Mo st of the sy stem uses "'HC"'

high -sp ee d CMOS par ts , Th is all ows the
circuit 10 fu nc tion to 50 M Hz or beyon d.
'
+5l1 00
<
b
~

1 "I
Howeve r. there is no need for high speed
in the display func tio n. ,0 the dec oder
3 .27 6 8 H,Z
, Oll b ui m dr ivers use the slower standard C~tOS
,~~~ l HC4 060

P
f'C3 9 G HC4 06 0 par ts , Using slower parts here sho uld help
5 60
tu minim iz e RF noi se and current co n-
i s cs sum ption , WI: used common cathode.
s "
ri: roc Jl .L
" seven segment LE O s. type M AN 4740.

~t
~
2N39'o'?
~
~

r e ~
Early ver sions of this co unter used only
two dig its of displ ay, show in g on ly Oto lj9
kHz. While this worked well <1., a digi tal
substitute for a mechan ical dial. it became
frustrating in some ap pli ca tio ns. We
found ourselves wa nting more resol utio n.
incl uding a di git to the righ t o f the kHz
de cimal place . A more complete dis play
with di gi ts to the left allows complete
Fig 4.54-Time base portion of f requency coun ter. e liminatio n of mechanical dials in many
system s. Th e lower current two -d ig it for -
mat is ava ila ble by eli mina ti ng the rela ted
45 l I drivers and LEO s i n the de s ign pre-
siste r oscillator op erat ing ,II 3.27 6 8 \-fHz. tin ned with Q 1 with the resultin g lo gic se nted.
Th e crystal is a read ily avai lable. off-the- app lied to U4 A, part of a qu ad NAND gate To ta l current dep en ds upon the d igi ts
shelve part . The oscillator is d ivided by with other sect ion s serving as inverters , bei ng displayed. Wit h S-M H z input sig-
2 L~ in VI and V2 . a pair of 74 HC4060 Th e output is then counted by U l l a , US. nals , c urren t was about 80 rnA when the
" timer" TCs. re sulting in the d esired 100 - and U6. 74 HC390 du al dec ad e counters. display re ad ··ggg X ', drop ping to 30 rnA
millisecond ga le window. Further divisio n T he se drive the decoder drivers, U7 with " 111.1'" The sensiti vity was ex cel -
in V 2 p ro v ides a chain of addition al 100 throu gh Ul O. using 4511 B decoder -driver le nt with a 5-MHz input, co un ting rel iably
mS wind ow s. Th es e arc decoded in V3 to Ie s. This configuration will disp la y kHz wit h an input of le ss than ---40 dBm fro m a
generate strob e and reset puls es . to thc left of a decimal place and tenths o f so-n gene rato r. The co unter continues 10
Th e res t of the co unter is shown in Fi g a kHz to the right of the decimal place. fu nction to over 50 MHz. but requi ri ng
4. 55. T he signal to be co unt ed is co ndi- We ha ve use d ICs from two famil ies in hig her RF drive power.

Oscillators and Frequency Synthesizers 4. 29

 Fig 4.55-lnp ut cir cui t, counter delall,
an d disp lay portion o f frequenc y
co unter.

I ,
'.c
...
lCJ-'---='-.
'*-
'-h,-,;--1f--::L
(.1. 1. -
1
1
.
I ,!
U10 ~1J

.. 1

•
4S11 I
."
."
" • ,"

Frequenc y counter Installed in a

rec ei ver. U11 wa s added "dead bug
style" to eli minate f licker.

4 .30 Chapter 4
 4 .9 REGARDING COUNTER A CCURACY

The sim ple co unter desc rib ed above is me asured. Clearly. th is wou ld be a good freq ue ncie s. If th e cr ystal frequ ency is
ab le or good lI(;CUHU:y so long as the application for a microprocessor. changed . the " di al" can sti ll be e xac rly
...tal and the oscillator components arc A sim ple counter that would still be accu- right for one frequency . It mig ht not be too
le. The capacitor ill series with the rate over a wide frequen cy range could be far off at others that arc close .
ct:'<lal should be adjust ed 10 produce the bui lt with circuitry much like that in Fig 4.55 . Consider an example . a 7-:\lHz trans-
pn>per co unt whe n a known frequency is even if the IF is "unfriendly." The simple up ceiver using a crystal filter at 1.98 M H z.
~li ed 10 the co unt er input. co unters would be replaced with prcsctablc The VFO will then be tuned to 5.02 IvlH z
The cou nter as show n is sui table for use up-down counters. In stead of res etti ng the when the tran sc ei ver is at 7.000 MHz.
• cir nple direc t co nvers ion tra nsceivers co unters to zero at the end of each cycle . the U sing the counter w ith the standard
.. -u perhet systems where the iruermedi- counter wou ld he loaded with an appropri- 3.2768-:--'1I1l crystal wou ld produce a
lie frequency is an even mult iple of IOU ate digital wor d that causes the LO counting cou nt of " 20 .0" instead of the desired
lHz. The "d ial" the n functions ac cur ately to produce the right readout. "00.0. " If the clo ck crystal was ch anged to
_D(" II the LO alo ne is counted , except for It is possible in som e appli cations to 3.2899 11Hz . a l Lj -k l-l z differe nc e. the
left most digit. It a "less friendly" IF is obtain reasona ble resu lts o ver a narrow COUll! would be proper at 7 MHz . The erro r
e-ed. othe r schem es must he applied. The tuning range merely by cha ngi ng the crys - at 7 .1 MHz wou ld he 0,4 k l-lz. Th is may be
S"l,IJI transcei ver might have several inter- tal frequency . T his counter uses a cl oc k tolerable for some applications .
.ediate freq uencies. all of them with oscillator of 3276.R kHz. That val ue is di- There are several op tions available to
eae vcn value s. The correspond ing osc il- vided by a fixed value to produce a lim e the h ui lder wanting to usc a microproces-
:.l!or, . incl uding RFOs or carrier osctl!a- w ind ow that drives the counting ga te. The so r cumrolled counter. Simpl e un its ar e
k>f>. co uld all be coun ted . ,A. mixture of up final count is t he number o f cycles that a vailable in kit form , ready For in st allation
md down countin g might be req uire d with pa ss t hro ug h the ga te d uring the time in- in QRP rig s and the li ke. wi th refe rence s
tb< various oscillators , depend ing upon the te rval. T he disp lay is a numher that is a found on the we b. Some examples are al so
e ay the fi na l fre que ncy is calculate d or constant multiplied by the ratio of the two incl uded on the book C D.2!

4.10 A GEN ERAL P U RPOSE V X O-EXTENDING FREQUENCY SYNTHESIZER

Fig 4.56 shows the block diagram for a A. B , C. and 0 in fig 4.57. T he fo ur in puts be hard-wired by the user 10 e stabli sh thi s
u nique fre quency synt he sizer. Altho ugh are connec ted to logic 0 (gro und) . logic 1 frequency .
this ex amp le wa s built for 14 M Hz us ing (+) V). or to the outputs fro m U4. Some T he Up/ Down commands are buff ered
JIl o ff-the -shelf T V color-bur st crystal in p ossible variations are sho wn in Table 4.2 , with U6. Gro un ding an inp ut line (P9 or
the VX O at 14.3 18 M Hz. the system can The fr equ e ncy de term ining up -down PIO) will ca use an lip or dow n p ulse to
be adapted fo r many other app lications. cou nter, U3 and U4 , may also be loaded appear at U3. A ground command on 18
VHF examples are g iven later. Thi s wi th an often-u sed selling, such as a rec - also causes the "c al lin g frequency" to be
exam ple us ed t he VXO design pr e sented og niz ed calling frequency. Each li ne must loaded . The u ser may wish to add more
III Fi g 4.30. The veo used with the syn-
thevizer i s that o f Fig 4.34, which can be
ceal ed to other freq ue nci es.
We on ly d isc uss th e synthesizer circu its ve o
in de tail here . T he VCO provides the 13 . 95 ~-~25 0 kHz
needed ou tput. It wi ll usually be split in a to w
hybrid with one co m pon ent use d in an in- 1 4 .1 5 DC t o
te nd ed output wh ile the other drives the
synthe sis circuitry. A leve l of - 6 dRrn is
V10 veo
vxo
need ed hy the synthesizer at ha th the v r. O Programmable Divider
cresec reo •
1 4 .3 2 D etector
and the VX O input s . MIl, U1 , U2 , US
The programmable frequ ency d iv ider is U B, U9
a versio n of the circuit shown in Fig 4.47 V6
using two 74H C I 93 chips . allowing divi -
sio n by lip to 258 . The de tai led circuit is
"UP.~ Up-D own Counter
5V Regulator
shown in F igs 4.57 and 4j7A. The di vi - "Down " U3 , U4 VI I
sion ratio is de ri ved from two more '-r---'-~=-~
74HC l 9 3 ch ips . now operated as an up-
do wn co unter. P ulses 10 the "up" or the Lo ad'~_ _ ---!
"d own" inp uts increment or dec re men t the "cal l ing
freq uency by one step. Th e user m ust es- Frequen cy"
tabli sh th e di visio n range , con trolle d by
four hard wired points bel ow U2 , marked Fig 4.56-Block diagram for the VXO extending synthesizer.

Osc ill at ors and Frequency Synthesizers 4.31

 Ta b le 4. 2
Ava ilable A B C D
s tares
2 to 258
2 to 130
6610 130
U4
U4
U4
U4
U4
U4
U4
U4
1
U4
0
0
c::",",·~ ,·' I ;: f U10
OPA27
34 to 66 U4 1 0 0
'J~~
"~:~C: tt.l-----·-'T.~~J;
' '~ ''': }''
-- I oi a
eoi

interface cir cuitry to the Up/Down lines;

-.
_
H._I. 'J;u4~C.+~O
"
""'='"
,/Vv-.~,
- TED-
Sn F/ FT ~_
,roo, 03 ' T 3 D' ...L " ~ B D" :I:
standard C W kcyer circ uits work well. as '1 RZ I : o o~r
~.
Q2 9 coa x
does a keyer paddle or an com put er mo use J -I'D 2 4 HC74 'I -.:-' 7 4HCOO t o VCO
as an inp ut dev ice .
U
;,::,4
~
T he VXO and VCO arc both applied 10
U8b 8 ~.
mix e r U7, an :'IE-612. The low freq uency i
,D2 02+ ...,.- -- - -
, s l n ol
output is lo w pass filte red and impedance
\- I~ ~ ',
transfor med with a pi-n etwork using L l. 13 11
In the exam ple , a 200-kHz signal is trans - un
+) 1 t c
form ed from 1.5 kj,J to 500 ,n with the pi c~ - a m ~ . 7805
network formed by Ll , C18. and C19, T he
(iO()-!.iH inductor co nsists of 22t #26 o n a +12 tn,--_*"-,-, +5vout

FH43- 630l fe rri te bead. The low pass fil-

Fig 4.57A- Co nt in uat io n of the
ter compon en ts will change with ot her sc h emat ic in Fig 4.57 .
ap plication s. T he low pass fil ter outp ut is
amplified and cond itio ned for d igital le v-

6 1 4
2N~
3 74H C74 5
\'XO I np ut Q1 10K Q
rz- Ul USa

7cb.
I 00

3 2 7 12 7 6 74HC74
u pQ O Q Ca r 5 QO Q3
7 4HC193 nor 3 4 u p 74HC19 3 1 USb
t e n U3 Lo a d Dwn Lo ad
U4
JO J3 1 00 J3 1 +5
~ 5 1 0 -=M- 4 8 5 o -J- 4 ' l~ 22 K
. ~

!lfl!
- Ex t . Lo a d

j l OO K ' " 81 Il ' 0

Pl 0 ·5
•Ex t•. Dat a Ex t . Da ta
• ~l . 5K
I (t o ue .
I 0.1
600 "H,
f er rit e be a d . 1 . 5K ~
2H3 904
. 5
1 0K
pl n 11 )

I Q3

10~
6 UE512
VCO I . ~
•IC19 ~
'" 0. 1 U7 5 0. 1 c1s1
" 0.1
2 H3 90 4

~ 1 1
] 7
, 1 51 0.1 NO 0 01 0 01 0.1 Q2
2 • •m 4 . 7R
-=-
r-J m 4 . 7K

Fig 4.57-Sche mat ic for the exper imenta l synthesizer. See text for details.

4.32 Chapter 4
cis with Q2 a nd Q3.
Two programm able jumpers arc pro vided
at I- PT)] and I-PD:!. While pin 3 of US is
normally driven from US in applications
with the crystal below the veo frequency, it
may change to drive from Q3 in other sys-
tems. The frequen cy scheme sho wn has the
crystal above the Yeo . A y eO tuning pu-
larity may also require a chan ge.
The loop filler uses a premium up-amp,
the OPA-27. Th is fast, low noise part is ideal
for this application. Thc four input resistors
are all 47 kn while the feedback elements
are 10 kQ and 1.0 IlF for the 14-MHz
example. All of these components are sub-
ject to change with other applic ations and
are marked TBD in the schernaric for "to he
determined: ' They arc picked with the
PLL co mputer pro gram that accom panies
Introduction /0 Radio Frequency Design,
Phase lock loop s must be designed with
some care and component values arc nor well
suited to casual selection.
The 14-MHI. version of this design is
summariz ed in the equation sheet of .F ig
~.58 . The prog ramming sets N for values Fr equ enc y sy nt hesizer in stall ed in a Hamm ond 159 08 8 bo x. Coaxia l in p uts are
from 34 to 66 with some Ircquencies listed f ro m th e veo and reference VXO. A ll in p uUo utput lines are attached to
in the ta ble. The design equations lise a fee dt hroug h capacitors.

Pha, "
f re"""n",
lJ<O"Clor

1. P r 0 'P'u m i n g

M '" JO

Fo" " , "'''"00, "" ""II , :a rt \~th an " ,,, ,ng, ,,,,,,b', 'os. "',1,0 , fo, t" , " ,,,110' ,"" "'" u"
, cr ~ " ' 1 tn,t I. ABOVE ' h, c", pet n-" c" ,'g" th" ' qJ, ,,cn

X · '43JJ [V"O h q!

D(ll ) ' X E«Nj X

RY )
,
X
3(11) ,",1I) +L=
(N'+"j N M(N ) 'H\ ~' )

F Stor R, f hq S" MF"q

d»;Nj - h o 0011:from VXO lunlr Q
,
D",d, b, 6 W,I , o
'.l(~ )

Iimi
,5Cn l.J 1L M
' "' ' ' 738
"",7D8

-~
,"",,' j'"
mn42!" JJ l8
J0020C--.J J,W
50000 J33 1

Fig 4.S9-Summary of avai lab le frequencies and

cha racte rist ics for a 20 -MHz " VXO extender." T he res u lt will
Fig 4.5B-Summa ry of availab le f req uenc ies and be f req uen cy doub led w here it then se rves as the LO fo r a
c haracte rist ic s of the 14-MHz "VXO extender." Th is 50-MHz transceiver based upon a 10 .0-MHz IF. Th is data was
dat a w as generated w ith MathCad 7.0. generated with MathCad 7.0.

Osci llators and Frequency Synthesizers 4. 33

 minu-, -i gn for this case. for the cry vra l Is ceiver with a IO.O-MHz IF. The symhe- for direct phasing at 144 \I Hz. Near ly one
a Nn e the VCO . siler operates in the 20- MHz ran ge with a full MHz of rang e is avai lable at Ihe
The ,~ nth l'"~i l_er boa rd is housed in a 19.8..J7-MHl VXO. It is the n freque nc y 2-meter hand.
mrlle d aluminum box (Hammond 1590B8 , doubl ed and filtered 10provide a 300 kH1. The "VXO Extender" is an experimen -
...ith either coa xia l cables or feedthro ugh range al40 MH:l. The ci rcuit could also be tal sy nthesizer. so me thing of a de parture
capacito rs for all interfaces. The VXO a nd adapted for 25- MHl operatio n: freq uency from the no rma l schemes in use , The
the \ 'CO are eac h ho used in individual dou bling wo uld then allow use with a method is o ne that provide s relati vely
milled bo xes t Hamm o nd 1590A .) While e-mcrcr pha sing tran sceiver. small step sizes with much higher refe r-
11 i-, po ss ible to inclu de both digital and A similar version cou ld be built for the c ncc fre q uen cy. hU I at the pric e of une ve n
Rv/ analog circ uitry on a sjngle board, the two - mete r b and where an inje ct io n Ire- step size.
isolated an d shielded appr oac h is less quency of 144- [0",134 .\1Hz is needed . Single loop syn thesize rs can be config -
prone to spurious respn nse s and is recom- An especially usef ul sche me woul d lise a ured in a more traditional Iurmat vvith mod-
mended. sy n the si ze r o pe ratin g. at a ten th of this est step size while still being used for
On ce the boa rds are funct io ning a nd freque ncy. 13.4 MHl. If N varies f rom 66 general-purpose applications. For e xample,
c hecked o ut. the syste m is turne d on with to 130. the req uired VXO would ope rate the Etecratt K2 CW/SSH transceiver uses a
relative ease. An oscilloscope se nvev the at 13.29 8 ~I H z . Th e sy nthe siz e r o utpu t single loop symhevize r with 100kHz steps.
de un t he co ntrol line while the VCO woul d be multiplied by 5 with a 74HC04 The "clock" is a vonage co ntrolled crys tal
co urse tuning is adjusted , and bandp ass Ii hering, foll owed by a X2 oscillator that is then drive n by a DAC. al-
HI.: 4.59 show s a design for the diode multip lier and I 34-MHz filler. The lowing all gaps 10 be filled in with small
e -mctcr ba nd. It is inte nded to be use d in lOX sch em e leads to s imple frequency steps. Clever firmware on the part of the
it mo no -b and supe r-hete rody ne tra ns - co unting. Th e sys tem can also he adapted designers re move luning ambig uirie...

REFERENCES
I . W. Hayward. Int roduc tion /(J Radio Makhin son. Communirunons Quarra fy . Theory and Design. Jo hn Wiley & Sons.
Frequem-v Design. Chapte r 7. Pre ntic e - Spring. 1999. pp 9· 17. 1976.
Hall . 19 82: R_ Rhea. Oscil lator Design 9. D. B_ Le eso n. "A Simple \ fodel of 16. CMOS A pplication-Specific Standard
and Compute r Simulation, Second Edi - Feedback Oscillator :-:oise Spec tra." Proc. l C.f . Moto rola Inc. Publicatio n D1I 3OJD,
tion. Soble Publishi ng. 1995. ItEE, Vo l 54 . Fcb. 1966 . pp 329-.HO. 199 1. pp 5- 10 I. Data she e t has a good set
2. For a discussion of the sq ucc ging prob- 10. U. Rohde. person al correspo ndence of referen ces. Sec also design equ at ion
le m. see Clar ke. JEtE Trans actions 011 with author. page.
Circu it Theory. Vol CT- 13, No.1. Mar. 17, W. Hayw ard . "Varia tion s in a Single-
II. W. Hayward, "vartauon - in a Single-
1966. Loop Synth esizer." QST, Sep. 19R I. pp
Loop Fre quency Synthe siz er." QST , Se p.
3, W, Hayward. "Measurin g and Compe n- 1911 1, pp 24-26, 24-2 0; Talbot. "Ncov er- M Freq uenc y
sating Osci llator Frequen cy Drift." QST . Synthesu." RF Design. Sep. 199 7.
Vee. 1993_ pp 37-4 1. 12. htlp : llw ww .q ~ l.nl"t l7n3 " .m l
s upervxo.ht ml 18. E.O . Brigha m. The Fu.1"/ Fourier
4 . K. Sp aa rgare m. "Crystal Sta bilized Transform, Sec tion S A . "S am pli ng
13. \V.S. Monley. "F rcquen cy-Modu -
VFO ." RadCom . J u1. 197.' . pp 472-473 . Thcorm." Pre nt ice-Hall. 1974. pp 504 -
lated Qua rtz O..cil latorv for Broadcasting
5. J. Makhinson. "A Drift -Free VfO: ' 510.
Equipment." IEE£ Proceedings, Pari B.
QS T. Dec. 1966. pp 32 -~6; K. Spa arga ren. \la~' . 19 5 7. pp 2 39 -24 9 ; \V _S _ \ t nrtley. 19. U_ Rohde. " A High -Perf orm an ce Hy-
"Freq ue ncy Srahifizarion of LC OSl:ill a· "C ircu it Givin g Linear Freq uency Mod u- b rid Freq uency Synthesizer." QSl". Mar.
tors:' Q£)(. f e b, 1996. pp 19 <:!3. lat ion of Qua rtz Crys tal Oscillator.' Wire- 1995, pp 30-38 .
6. U. Rohde. Di1:i1al PLL Frequency S.'"n - les s World. Del, 1951, pp 399-403 : V. 20. Th is circu it i v vimilar- to on c described
thesi-ers Theory und Desig n. Prenti ce- Manassewnsch. Frequency Syll/heJi:l'rs: hy G. Adcoc k. G4EUK..." Simple Fre -
Hall . 1982. Theo ry and De_Iix n. Third Edition. John que ncy Co unter for DC Rece i... crs.' Spra t
7. "The RF Oscillato r". Ra dio Commu ni- Wi ley & Sons. 1487, pp 40 1-405. 73. Winte r, 1992/93, p 10.
ca tions Handbook, S ixth Editio n, RSGB, 14. Sec, eg , U, Roh de . Digital PL!. "'rl! - 21. For the ultim ate, high perform an c e
199 4 , P 6 .36. qne ncv Synthl!,\i: l! n : Theory and Dn'ix n, circuit, see W, Carver. "The Modu lar
!S . U. Ro hde, Digim t PLL [rcquencv S.I'fl - Prenrice-Hall. 1983: U, Ro hde and D, P. Di al," Commvn icauon s Quarterly ,
thesite rs Th eor v and Design. Pre ntice- New kirk. IU/Mit' rtJII'Q\'e Ci r cui t 1>1',l ig n Spr ing. 1998, pp 35- 44. See also N.
Hall. 1982: U. Ro hde, "Designing Lo w- [or Wireless Applications, Chapter 5. John Heckt. "A PIC-Hased Digital Freq uency
Phase- Noise O"ci lla ton,: ' QEX. OCI. Wiley & Son s. Inc.. 2000 . Display." QST . May. 1997_pp 36-38 : and
1994. Fig 15. P 10: H. Jo hnso n. personal 15. F.M. Gardner. Phasdock Techniq ues, D . Benson . " Freq - \fi le- A progra m-
correspon de nce with author: "Demphano Second Editio n. Wil ey, Apr. 1979: V. ma ble Mo rse Cod e Freq uency Readout,"
- A De vice fo r M e a ~ u ring Phase Noise : ' J. Manassewi tsc h. Freqlfl'nc." S."llthesi:en: OST. Dec. 199 ft pp 34-36 .

4.34 Cha pter 4

 CHAPTER

Mixers and Frequency

Multipliers
5. 1 MI X E R BASICS
' eOirl~ a ll of the eq uipme nt we build plac ed in the ci rc uit. meas uring source
~, at least o ne mi ' CT. b e n the simplest Rl' ( i np u t) vol tage for each. T his allowed us lO form a
rect conversion receiver uses a prod uct I F ( o u t p u t) curve o f drain current \"S gate-sou rce volt-
cetecror. whic h is one form of mixe r. Fi~ age. Fig :; .~ . The data scatter (the hu mps)
~ . I _hO\H the bh...ck-dia gra m sy m bol for a re sulted from therm al effects at higher cur-
mJ.' c r. A mixer i ~ a three -po rt ci rc ui t with re nt levels. T he smooth curve i\ c alc ula ted
"0 input , ignah and one outpu t occur- for an idea l J t' El with a - ~. 2 V pi nchoff
n ng at a frequency that is the sum and/or and I n s s =~ 5 rnA. These par amet er s pro-
ditfe rcncc of the t W O input frequenc ies. du ced a good fit 10 the measured da ta ov er
One input. the {o c'al fI.IdUIJ/(Jr (or C OIII'e/"- most of the range.
Fig 5.1- Block diag ram e le ment fo r a
ion fJ.Irilla /o r) b usu ally m uc h stron ge r
mi xer . Thi s e xerc ise pro vid es a ma the matic al
U1'-l n the ot her. the RF il1f,ut . The o utput in model. somethin g to use 10 stud y the mix -
typical receiver application s is ca lled an i ng proc ess . A 150-r.! res istor prov ides the
uurrmedia tefreqnency, or IF. for it i-, <v •• des ired bias that "et" the sou rce vol tage at
often pan way between a highe r inp ut Ir e- 1- 2 V. ab ou t hal f way betw een full c urrent
qu enc y and baseband. While thi s historic and pi nch off.
relation ship doc s no t alway s ap pl y to mod - Fi ll; 5.5 is a modificat ion of the smooth.
em sy stems. the IF term rem ai ns modeled data. The zer o vol tage point has
Wc begin our e xnmin ntion of mixer, been sh ift ed to the middl e of the graph .
with an experiment designed to analyze a rbe bia s point c ho sen wi th the J .'i O-n
simp le mixer wi th the goa l of e xtra cted source resistor. The volta ge is the ac tual
understa ndin g W hat arc the dev ice char- value appear ing at the gate in F ig .'i.2. Th e
ac te ristics that allow mi xi ng (d iffe re nce to ta l current ha-, been xplit into three ,eg-
and sum frequ e nc ies ) an d w hat are the Fig S.2-Basic JFET mi xer w it h LO and rue nt- . T he firsl is a constant, the bias cur-
result ing sig nal le ve ls? Are the re unde v- RF applied at th e gate. The dra in will rent with no , ig nab pre ve nt. The second i s
t hen have all available o ut puts . It ca n be
ired o utp ut sig nals ? t uned to emphasize o ne mi xer pr o du c t the linear ter m. <I straig ht lin e. The third is
O ur experimental mixer is the si ng le a parabola. T he thr ee co mpo ne nts add 10
JF ET ci rc uit of Fi ~ 5.2. Ro th loca l oscilla- fo rm t he pre vious cu r ve.
tor and RF arc ap plied at the ga te. Wh ile We now co nsider each of the:three curve
+V- d d
this may nOI be the most common scheme. seg ments by the mselv es as "ignat" are ap-
I( le nd s itsel f to analy sis. plied to the mixer input. T he bias is a fix ed
Examin auon begi ns wit h the him circuit valuc: the fixed cu rre nt does not de pend o n
o f Fi ~ 5 _~ _ O ur gca l is (0 model the f ET an d uny ap plied signal. Th is i" eviden t in the bia-,
(0 the n bias il half way between pinchotf curve in Fig 5.5. whic h is flat.
and full dra in current. T he Fig 53 c irc uit is T he li near term becomes more useful. If
built wi thout a "test" resistor. prod uci ng a we apply a sine wa ve to the gate that COlUs.: S
source volta ge of 3. 7~ V. (T hese arc ac tual the voltage to osc illate betwee n -0 .5 and 0.5
meas ured result s with a J 310 t' ET.' The v., I Vpeak -Io-peakswing.theeurre ntw ill
FET cu rre nt is ve ry low owing 10 the high vary by about I I rnA peak -peak. A high im-
valu e vource resb lOr. so me FET pinc hoff pedance in the dra in allows the signal cur-
vohage will be close 10 -3.7~ V. Te st res is- rent to develop an output voltage. Th is is the
10 fS fro m 10 Idl do wn (0 15 !l were (hen Fig S.3-B las mg se tup for FET moa ehng. c harac ten -aic we sec k when we usc the JFET

Mixers and Freq uen cy Multip liers 5.1

 " I I
I
"
Calculated
<, V
....
"
•.
~
II Tot al
II
I
<
I f E
t,• m
~~ V
V
Measu red I
I ./ •
"• "• I ---
Y g -" V \
Parabolic
I

V \

.
-m
~.,
Linnr
I JJ lO I
,- - .
-••
cate-s eurce Voltage
- • •
~

-.0-:%
-"
I
•
I
~,
• " •
I
I
"
,
Gat. Vclta lile

Fig SA- Curve fit of data f or FET mod eling. The bu mps are Fi g 5.S-The FET current Is s p li t Into three component s; a
th e res u lt of t her m al effects in dat a, w h ile the smooth cu rve llxed bias, a li near term and a par abola.
Is calcul ated .

as an amplifie r. a pplied to the pa rabolic curve. the result is

Consider the linear curve when l\\ (l , ig- a prod uct of t w n sine wa ves. Multipl ica-
nab arc app lied to the input: T w o sine \\ ave tio n is the reason our mixer symbo l. Fig
voltages at the gale produce 1\\ 0 sine wave 5.1. uses a la rge mu ltiply vign. High sc hool
currents. but nothing more: no mixi ng trigo no metry ide nrities convert the prod-
occurs as a result of the linear term. There is uct of 1" 0 si ne waves into sine wa ves at
also no distortion. This is the beha vior we the sum and differe nce freque ncies. the
inte nd whe n we speak of linearity. mix ing result that we see k. The sum is
It is the parabo la that beco mes Interes t- o ften called the upper sideband. whi le the
ing. lak ing us beyo nd amplifier beha vio r. difference is the (OK'U sideban d, te rmin ol-
1\ low a mplitude ga te signal causes no og y left o ver fro m modu latio n t heo ry.
cu rre nt. fo r the parabola is zero e very- Most of the circuits that w e ca ll mod ula-
whe re ncar 0 V . But cu rrent flow s as the to rs are actu ally mixer... The po we r a mpli- Fig 5.6-J FET mi xer With a wl de band
sig nal grow s. Moreo ver, it is distorted . fi er in a classic a mplitud e modulated (AM) out put te rmi nati on us ing a 5:1 t urn s rallo
This i .~ evi dent; for a po sitive exc ursio n tran smitter o perates as a po wer mixer. The tra nsf ormer. LO power is applie d to the
will produce the same positi ve curren t that circu it tradi tio nall y calle d a "mod ulator" source , but this slill results in L O
is ge ne rated by a negati ve excursion . A is reall y j ust an audio pow e r am plifi er. between th e so urc e and dr ain , makin g
lar ge a mplitude sin e wa ve will prod uce Fig 5.6 shows a pra ctica l vers io n of the Ihi s circ uit th e equivalent of Fig 5.2.
two outp ut c urrent pu lse s per cycle as the circ uit we have designed. We use a I -V
signal swings both po siti ve and negati ve 1000:al oscillator signal at 10 MH7. with RF
abo ut the hias poin t. We have built a fre- amp litu de of 0. 2 V at 14 MHz, The drain is Table 5.1
que ncy doubler. terminated in 50 Q by way of a wideb and Freq. Power Des cription
we now ap ply the sum of t wo s ig nal transfo rme r with a 5:1 turns ratio. result- (MHz)
voltage- to the gate . Ag ain. the bias curve
prod uces no thing. The linea r CUT \'e will
ing in a dra in load of L!5 kQ . The calcu -
lated o utp ut po we rs for all frequ encies
• - 8 dBm Lower Sideband mixed
(down conve rted) output
gene rate two respon se currents. each a appear in Table 5.1. These are very c1ose 10 +18.9 Amplified LO
(feedth rough)
re plica of the input. bur nothing mo re . No to those measured when we bu ilt the cir -
14 5 Amplified RF
mixing occu rs from the linear respo nse. cuu with the FET we had c hara cte rized. (feedthrough)
BU I the parabolic c urve ge nerates interes t- The calcula tions are in the Mathcad file 20 -0.1 Frequency doubled LO
ing results. NO! o nly do we see eac h i nput mentioned earlier . 2. -8 Upper Sideband mix ed
freque ncy doubled. bu r we now see sum The two conven ed. o r mixed outputs at [up-co nve rteuj ou tput
a nd difference prod uc ts. Th i.. is not ev i- ~ a nd 24 MHl nave equal a mplitu des. 2' - 2. Frequency doubled RF
de nt d irect ly from the curves. but follo ws which arc mu ch less tha n the a mplified Rf
di rect ly fro m the relate d ma thc maric v. o utput. The amp lified LO i.s a large signal.
T his is ava i lable on the book CD as a close to the maxim um poss ible from a JJ I 0 Ge nera lly. FET mix er s (includi ng those
MOIhco,1 rue. mixer-Jfet J.med. A flte is FET with a 12-V suppl y with the drai n usi ng fl. IOS FETs) will have an op tim um
also av ailab le (m ixmll lh.p dj ) rhar can he impedance used . T hic mixe r topology is co nvers ion gain that is belo w the amp lifie r
viewed e ven if the reader doe s nOI o wn norm ally built with a tuned ou tput. Tuning gai n b)' 12 dB whe n the same terminating
Mathcad. wou ld elimina te the large drain volta ge at impedances ure used,
The t.... o-co mponent input uses o nc part. the IO-MHz LO freq uenc y. Thi s wou ld The Jf ET e xam ple presented is but o ne
the "local oscillator," at a high er level than the n allo w a larger LO pow er to be used, of many device s that will prod uc e mi xing
the other. t he "RF."· When this term is wh ich wo uld increase co nv ers ion gain . action. Mixing usually ari ses from 11 0111i ll -

5. 2 Cha pte r 5
rar device behavior. Mix ing can also be input imped ance" prese nted to the local cycle, and off for the rest. Whe n on. virt u-
prod uced in a ~}'~te m with tim e-dependen t oscillator. makin g d rive diffi cult . Emitter ally all of the RF powe r ava ilable ca n he
parameters. B ut. an idea l linear ampli fier degene ration reduces drive powe r. bUI ca n delivered to a load at the Ij- port . But when
will never produ ce mixing. Even-order compromise noise figure. We have not per- the sw itch is off. none of the power ca n
cu rva ture in a devi ce charact eris tic is the formed care ful measu reme ruv on thi... mixer. re ach the load. Wi th the RF reac hin g the
non lineari ty needed fo r mixing . Fig 5.8 she ws a mixer using a single IF load only half of the lim e. the voltage
The virnple "ing1c ended JFET mixer of diode. Such mi xers were once very com- d e velo ped ac ro-,... the load from the RF
Fig 5.6I>ecnme" a practical circuit when the mo n. especially fo r mic ro wave a pplica- generator is only half a, high a:o. it would
drain i~ tuned . Hut. it suffers from the wide tio ns. They have large ly disappeared in be if present a ll of the time. Accordingly.
spread in ~ET characteristics. making il dif- mode rn tim e... the mixer has a 6-dH loss. f ig 5.9 shows
ficult 10 use in a "plug-and-play" mode. A T he usua l d iode mixer has no bias waveforms fo r a .<;ing-Ie diode switching
builder really needs to examine the FIT to app lied. but the LO signa l is la rge e no ugh mode mixer.
determine pinchoff and lnss- to est ablish that it ca use s the d iod e to co nduct. When Switching mode mixe rs are extremely
bias. and to pick the right LO b "CI. The fo l- the d iode co nducts. it 1001.. " li ke a small commo n. with mo vt of the mixers we usc
lowin g procedure may be used : resista nce. allo wing c urrent roIlo ....' as the in com munications operati ng in this way.
(I) Buil d the mixer with a IOO-kO sou rce resu lt of the app lied RF. We e nvisio n the These mixers are typica lly pa ssi ve and usc
resistor . Measure the so urce voltage to d iode as a switch that is co ntro lled by the no pow e r supply: they offer no gain. The
ap proximatel y establish the pin ehoff. LO , T he switch is "on" for ha lf of the LO diode mi xer of Fig 5.8 use s a serie s switch.
(2) Place a sma ll resis tor or e ven a short
c irc uit ac ross the source resistor LO in-
fer ' DSS' (o ptio nal)
(3 ) Find (ma t he ma ticall y o r ex perime n-
tall y) a sourc e resis tor that set, the de
sou rce voltage at ha lf the mag nit ude
of the pinchoff.
( -I.) Ap ply 1.0 po wer from a low Z source
and increase LO amp litud e until the
OF .~
I np ut ~

LO ~
.
"
'1'F Lo ad
Fig 5.8-A si mple d iode
mixer . RF and La inputs
generate a n IF ou tput,
but the o utput is rich in
peak \olta gt: a pproa ches the de bias
val ue . In the 1] I0 exa mple. the opti -
lnput ~ si gnal feedthro ug h.

mum 1.0 ,ignal wo uld be ne arly 2-V

peak , or ~ . V pe ak-to-peak. A high-
speed osci lloscope is requ ired.
The low impedance LO driv e allo ws the
f ET to "look like" the source is grou nded

"')":~
for RF inp ut s ignals. Simi la rly. the RF
tuned ci rcuit should be o ne whe re the gale
looks bac k into a low impedance ar the 1.0
freq uen cy.
The <; i ng l~ JF ET mix er. whe n ca refull y
done. is ca pable o r e xcel lent performance. , -u.s
a • , m
We have measured 4 to 6-dB KF with in-
put in ter ce pts (third order) f rom 0 to + 10
d Bm with a 2N4 4 l 6. T he J3 10 is mo re
diff icult to dri ve ow ing to the increased
loss , but is capable of higher lIP 3.
A bipolar transistor ca n he operated a." a
single-ended active mixer..sho wn in FlA5.7.
s ec 0

Lowes t distortion will resu n from higher

"tand i n~ current. bUI this prod uces very low

. t) 0 ,.-' IL- L- ~ ---' ~ 'L-

-u.a , , • ie
"
Fig 5.9-Time domain wav efo rms fo r a s ingle diode switc hing mode mixe r. The IF
o utp ut at an y ins ta nt Is the RF Input If t he La vo ltage Is positive, but 0 when the
Fig 5,7-Slmple bip o lar mixer. La is 0 or negative.

Mixers and Frequ ency MUlti pli ers 5.3

 '" 'n
<rr
-rP
Cl u
~IF

r
nt
I t tll1z
l"1 ~t .. z
R. c .. l .....
ni x"" L6 KKz IF r u t .. ..
Fig 5.11-Partial

r-lffi®--lT\}c>-
block d iagram of a
LO
1~ - \t:; 14-MHz receive r.
The IF is 3.6 MHz,
- 10K -=_ prod uced w it h a
10.4-MHz loca l

'" '~
- Bi u
o s c illato r.
Fig S.lO -Switch ing mode m ixer us ing a
s ing le FET . Alt hough a J FET is sh o w n, ,m,
t he mi xer can also be im p le me nt ed with LO
a bip olar tr ansistor, a MOSFET. or a
GaAs FET. This ci rc uit ty pically ha s a
conversi o n lo ss of 6 d B. In p ut in terc ept
(thi rd o r der) ca n be from 0 to +20 d Bm ,
de pendi ng on the FET type. LO energy
at the RF port is typic ally red uc ed by 10
to 15 d B. Ope rating f reque nc y will c ircui ts . arc il lu vtrat ed by the sys tem of a lly reasonable impedance match (If the
d ictate t he components in th e d iplexer
FI ~ 5.11. a CW receiv e r for I-l- ~IH z with _H I-MHz b amlpa,~ fil ter. But a ll
filter, C l a nd L1. See text.
1O.-I-\I H" LO and 3 .6-~H1l IF. ~-L.J-\IH l energy is generally reflected by
the IF filter. That en e rgy can get bac k into
IMAG ES. SIDE BANDS, SUMS AND the mi xer "o utput" w he re it might be
DfFFERENCES reconve n ed bad , III 14 I\IHz. but in a di f-
hut sh unt switc he s abo work well FI-:Ts T he example recei ver mix er is preceded fere nt phase tha n the original sig nal whe re
and bipolar tra nvivrors ca n be use d in by <J 1 4 - ~l Hz bandpass filter that ideally it ca n alte r con version ga in and distortion
switc hing mo de mixers, passe s un ly frequenci e s d()s~ ro thc pe rformance . These pro blems a re espe -
F i ~ 5.10 shov.. . s a single FET as a shunt 20-mctc r band . Th e I 0 .4 - ~1 H l LO drive .. ci ally ins id ious with the popu lar diod e ring
swi tc h mixer. St e ve Maa s presented thi.. the mixer 10 produce a n IF output ;11 the mixers , It is for th i~ rea so n that we o ft...n
ci rc uit in detail in a [987 paper. I We have .l 6· 1\-I Hz diffe renc e be twee n the RF and see ex tra resistive pads used with such mix-
used this mixer C\ t~ n,iH'ly in integ rated LO freq uency . I-l- -10.-1. ers. T hey arc often used in a ll three ports.
fo nn in GaA, integrated circuits." T he FET Tempor ari ly remo ve the input bandp asv Active misers suc h as the H T discussed
often has a biav applied to the gate. a n~ga ­ filter and anac h it wide ran ge signa l gcn - ea rlier arc much Ie" pron... to thi.. problem .
uve voltage equaling rhe FET pinchoff. The ereior at the rece ive mixe r RF input. There Assume Thai the inc omi ng I-l--MII I
1.0 is ty pic all y a sin e wave with a peak is now a lso a response al 6.S '1Hz. for signal is modulated. co ntaining a singk
value eq ual to or j ust over the pinchotf All 10 .-1 - 6.8 '= .lb. The res po nse to a 6 .R- uppe r sideband a t 14 .00 2 ~t H ,, _ We ana-
three po ns arc terminated in 50 D:. but the MHI. input is culled the ima ge res ponse . 1)1e the behavior n f th... .s ideband by con -
LO presents a severe misma tch. T he co n- We eva luate the rece iver. now wi th the vidcring it to he an inde pende nt signal. It
figur at ion shown is ,I (Io .... n-co nvertcr wit h bandpa-,s filter recon nected . by atta chi nga will be mixed do wn 10 IF witho ut any dis-
an IF below the RF and LO. Up-converters cig nal generator to the input. Tunc the gen- mrba nce from the or igi na l carrie r. T he
exchange the RF and IF ports. erator to 14 :'vl l-l". deucriv atc rec eiver AGe. sideband end, tip at 3.602 ,\UI ". still ubov e
Th e diplexer f ilter. CI and L1 in a nd meas ure the receive r out put signal the 3.600· [\1H", carrier ap pear in g at the IF:
F ig 5. 10. isolates the IF fro m the RF port . This meas urem ent works best wi th a mod - it is still a USH sign al.
T he ca pac itor is a si ng le ele me nt high pa" evr inp ut signa l. pcrhapc - 100 dBm. Note Our re ce iving mixer wou ld func tio n
fi lter while the inductor is a low pass cir- the audio o utpu t. then tunc rhe gene rator 10 jusr as well if we use d a J 7 .6 -~IH 7. LO.
cuu. A co mmon app lication might usc an 6 .8 ~I H1 . Increa se the gen era tor level until 3.6 ~lH z above the input. An uppe r-side-
IF much low er than the RF . On e can the n the receiver output is identical to the origi- band at 1-l- .002 ~IH z app l ied to such a
calcula te a "c rossover" freq ue ncy that h nal. Th e ra tio of gene rato r pow e r k w h is recei ver would produce an IF response at
the geometric average of the IF an d RF. L 1 the receiv er imug e ,,"pp ression. 3.598 \1H /.• no w below the 3.6- \ IHz car-
and C I are t hen picked to have a reactance It is viruighrforward to b uitd a ha ndpass rier. Sideband illl'U siQII ha s occurred. Th is
at the crossover equal to the te rm inat io ns. fi ller ut 1.... t.fH z thai ", il l ,upp res s poss ibi lity' sho uld be inv ectigated in any
High c r o rder di ple xer filt ers wil l he needed 6 . H - ~I H l si gn a l s h y IOOd Bor mort', Early SSB sys tem . The analysis j .. eq ually valid
if the IF a nd RF arc closer. A ba nd puv..1 receivers. the old invtr ume ms no w so ught when a currier is suppressed. Sideband
ban ds top diplexer can a bo be used. by coll ectors. used intermediate frequen- inv ersion is often a prac tica l advan tag e 10
cie-, nea r 500 kHz . a llo wing 14 :-01Hz to be the builder/desig ner. For example. a pl)PU-
received with a 1 .~ . 5 - ),tH z L.O. T he image lar crysta l fi lter form is the lower sideband
Mixer Specifi c ation and resp onse wou ld the n be at 13.0 r..-1 H,.. It lad der wi th gr eater stop band atte nuat ion on
M ea surement was difficult to o bta in s ignific ant ( by mod - one side than the othe r.
Wc now exam ine m t xer -, in more deta il. ern st:tndard<;) suppres sion of l .~ MH z in a
seeking the pro perti e s neede d to sp ecify 14- ~H1l fi ller. ISO LATION
a nd u nders tand mixe rs fo r usc in a co m- T he rece ive mixe r e xam ple has two we ar e al wa ys concerned about the out-
municarions syxtcm. input<.: 10.-1 a nd 14 ~ IH /.. We usc the put at one port (If a mixc r as signals are
Ch apt er 2 incl ude d some ,·ita!. ) ...t less 3.6- \ I Hz differel/(·t" o utput re sponsc. RU I ap plied to the o thers. for e ~ a m p l e . we
cnmmon "pecifi~'at it>n, fo r amplifier, thc mi~ er output wil l also contain a mig ht ask ho w much LO signal appear, at
includin g noise fi gu r~ and l~fD. T h e ,~ nlln n~'I)(mse. lOA + I-l- '" 24.-l- ~fHz . The a mi'l(er"s Rf port. T his would be impm.
phenomenon. ~·hich a" o occur in mi ,~ r J,6- \ l H /. respo nsc i ~ terminated in the us u- tant in a recc i\'cr; wc don ·t wa n! a la rge 1.0

5 .4 Cha pter 5
signal to be radiated . for the mixer RF port they are co ncerned with port -to -port iso - Eq5.1
may be attached to the ante nna with mini - lation. wh ich can be e nhanced with bal-
mal filtering . Even without radiation con - anced circuits . a method discussed late r.
sideratio ns. isolation can be i mpo rtant , If where nand marc integers. This spurious
excessi ve LO was presen t. it co uld be SPURIOUS RESPONSES response, or spur generation rela tes to
re f'lecrcd by a filter to re -appear at the Consi der the tran smitt e r application harmonics created within the mixer. even
mixer RF port where it would be converte d shown in Fig 5.12. In this exa mple. we when the inputs are free of harmon ics. The
to produce a de o utp ut componen t. This wa nt to build a 7. 1 -~1 Hz tran smitter that upper part of Fig 5. 14 presents wha t we
could, in some mixers, alt er the hias to work s with an exi sting rece ive r usin g a wou ld see if n and m were allowed to take
cha nge the mixer propert ies. S· MHz IF. This will be acco mplis hed by on values trom 0 to 7 with the bandpass
is olation is ea sily me asured for a mixer mi xing the sig nal from a 2,I-MHz LO with filter missing. The lower display is even
that is not already imbedded within a piece that from a 5-M Hz crystal osc illator. The marc ext reme, allowing values of n and
of equipme nt. If you are co nce rned with, output is filtered with a bandpass filter to m up through 15. (These data were gencr -
for example, LO 10 RF por t isola tio n. produce the des ired output. ated with Spurtune .exe. a program distrib-
apply LO at a know n level wh ile examin- The ideal output response fro m this mixe r. uted with lntroduction to Radio Frequency
ing the output at the RF port by atta ching assuming that the output filter is removed, is De s ign. )
it to a spec trum analyzer or mea suremen t that shown in Fig 5.13. The desire d sum These uncali br arcd displays arc dis -
receiver. The LO power at the RF port will product at 7.1 MHz is acco mpa nied by a cou ragmg. Unde s ired outputs in s uc h
be lower (we hope" ) than that available difference respo nse at 2.9 MHz. abundance would discourage anyone from
from the LO source. The difference is the The ideal is rarely realized. Fig 5.14 shows ever usi ng a mixer in a transmitter! Fortu -
suppression. This wi ll depe nd on mixer what we might actually see. This is a result of nately , not all spurio us respon ses are of
tuning ill circ uits such as thc JFET harmonic responses. Specifically, the output equal magnitude. The spurs tend to gel
descr ibed ear lier . Often wc hear folks talk- ofa mixer excited by an LOat L f\-lHI. and RF weaker as the total orde r (n+m) increa ses.
ing abou t "m ixer balance" in dB Usu ally , at R MHz will be at F MH/.. Further suppre ssion can occur with some
spurs as a con seq uence of balance tha t
might be used ill the mixer.
Spurs are also less with some system
archit ecture s over others. For example. if
11m", F il.te r the tra nsm itter considered here used a
"." Mixer 12.1-I\I Hz LO instead of 2.1, the outpu ts of
Fig 5.15 result.
A spur related to order "m" for the RF

2.' Ml1z
1,.1Ml1z I
Fig 5.12 -Mixer sec tion of a 7-MHz transmitter w ith a 2-MHz
LO and a 5·M Hz crysta l " ca rrier" oscillator.

2.9 Ml1z
1.1 MHz
0,0000 ----- - frequency·· ·· 15 ,0000
I 7x7 I

Fig 5.13-ldea tized mi xer ou t p ut for th e circu it of Fig 5.12

withou t the output filte r.

0,0000 frequency 15,0000 1.1 MHz

2.9Ml1z Iv"
5 ' MI1Z

I 15x 15 I

I, II I I I I I I I I I

0,0000 ...... frequency .._- 15,0000

0,0000 frequency···· 15 ,0000
Fig 5.14- Mixer o utputs wi th a variety of o rders allowed, n Fig 5.15- Sp u r spectrum for the same tra ns m itter, but w it h a
and m to 7 in the u ppe r curve and 15 in the lo we r. 12.1· MHz LO . Spur orders through 7 are shown.

Mixe rs and Frequency Mult ipliers 5.5

will gene rally have a stre ng th propo rtio nal port impedances arc us ua lly high wit h ac-
to tho: -m th" po w er o f tho: input at the R
mi xe r po n. He nce. dec reas ing the RF
uv e mixers. but rela ted 10o ther port termi-
nations with switc hi ng mixers . That is, the n e-Q9- If ou t
input by I dB will drop a m-orde r spur by impedance seen at the IF port eq uals t he
In dB. Mi xer ov e rdri ve should be j ud i- value pre sented to the RF po rt. t
LO i n
ciouvly avo ided. The wn rct po ssible case , !,.
.arc those whe re the IF is related to the NOISE FIGURE sse l oi n Ft vuu " .,a s u r . -n t
o utput b)' a "mall integer. IF = k x RF, or
IF = RF/l .
~1 i x e~ all exhibit noise that can be char-
acterized by noi se figure. The measu rement
is sirni lar to thar ofan amplific r. A wideband ®~ .,
LO DRI VE LE VEL
\ 10<.t commerci al mix ers arc specified
with regard 10 LQ d rive le vel. For
exam ple. the typical dio de rin g mixer is
vpecificd for +7 d lj m. This is not the pow e r
resistive termi natio n at ::!90 K is firs t pre-
sen ted to a mixe r input and the no ise out put
is noted. Th en. ,I stro nger but known noise
source is ap plied to the input. again while
observing o utput noise. The "n oise gain " is '"
1 -
K o i~ ., Fi qu r e
" I ,"
" eo ~ u r ~nt

that is actually de livered to the mixer po rt. co mpared wuh normal ava ilable pow er gai n Fig 5.16-Scheme for measu ring mixer
Rather. il is the power available 10 a 5D-U ttl infe r a noise figu re. noise fig ure . The up per circuit
rerminauou from the source thai will even- The procedu res. bot h for definition a nd determines the usual single sideband
NF. The lo wer app li es no ise at tw o
tuall)" drive the mixer. Osc illosco pe for measure ment. arc nea rly identical to freq uencies and es ta blishes what i s
e xamination of the 1.0 dr ive 10a diode ring rhose used wit h an amp lifier . Two diffe r- oft en calle d double si deband noise
shows a seve rely di stort cd sign al wit h less ent mixe r no ise f ig ures a rc available f igure. The bandpass filter eliminates
amplit ude than the original si ne wave driv- durin g any g iven measure men t. a , sh own any image respons e fr om the mi xer
ing a pure 50-n load. Many of tllc mea- in r iA5 .16. with the di ff eren ce being the input. DSB no ise IIgure is typi call y
sureme nts we do with RF upplicancn s are 3 dB lower t han the desired SSB nois e
ima ge- stri ppin g fi ller. (A n im age-s trip-
fi gure.
subs unnions rather tha n the fa miliar in-s itu ping filter is one that prevents an image
meas ure me nts of analog electronics . fro m re ach ing theinp ut of a mixer.j Sing le
Vario us mix ers behave d iffe rentl y as "ideba nd noise figure i;, the desi red param-
LO power is vari ed. A sma ll c hang e in 1.0 eter. for mos t syslems usc fi lters 10
pow e r makes al mos t no det ectable diffe r- el imi na te the image. Ca re is required to inp ut or ou tput interce pt to be calculate d.
e nce with Ihe ty pica l diode ring, In co n- gua ra ntee that SS R NF is meas ure d. for Ga in is a co nsta nt for small sig nals , b UI
trast. the JF ET st udied earlier will show noi se fi gure i, def ined o nly fo r a single even tuall y dec rea se s as the RF re vel in-
o utp ut deercusing almos t linea rly as LO signa l case. cre as e;" A use ful parum ere r is the av a il-
dr iv e drop". Puvstv e mixer s usuall y have a noise fig - able RF inp u t pow e r w here the gai n is
ure equaling the nu me ric va lue o f the loss. bela....' the small sig nal value by I d B.
CONVERSION GAIN (OR LOSS) Hen ce. the usua l diode ring with a 6 -d B M O'-( mixer manufacturers specify th eir
M i .\ e ~ arc all cbaractcrized by a co n- conversion 10" will h ave a no ise fi gure of mixers by an input intercept value. T his is
ve rsion ga in. meaning that we examine the 6 d B. o r j ust a bit mo re . in direct co ntrastro the amp li fie r fulks w ho
converted ou tpu t pow e r vs that available foc us o n the output. Roth forms are fi ne,
10 [he RF po rt. The method o f spcctrytn g INTERMODULA TlON DISTORTION so long as the reader unde rsta nd s wha t is
the ga in will var y slight ly. A diode rin g AND GAIN COMPRESSION being specified.
mi xer , a pas sive circ uit. might be speci - Whi le noi ve fi gure limits the wea kest Irnpliei t in a mi xer inpu t intercep t speci -
fied wit h a loss. with 6 d B hein g a typ ic al vigna l a mixer can proce ss. i nter- ficat ion is an im pe danc e . T he usual sp eci-
valu e. Acti ve mixers such as the J FET con - mod ulation distor tion and gai n cornpres- flcauon uses 50-0 te rmination s at all po rts.
sid e red ea rlie r will be specified by po wer "ion usuall y defi ne strong sig nal beha vior. and those rermm ario ns are wide band on es.
gain in a well -defined circuit or perhaps IMI> measure me nt is the same as is used Th is us ually impl ie s that the mixer was
by a conversion tra nsco nd ucta nce . with an ampli fier. except Ihal the output dri ving the input of a spec tr um a naly ze r
T ermi nal im ped ance is specifie d for a sig nals are observed at the converted Ire - du ri ng the mea sure men t. an instrume nt
mix er. Mo st pass ive mixers show a n RF q ue ncy. Two RF sig nals or to ne" ar e co m- with a go od 50-11 input impedance at all
in put impcda nce thai equ a ls the II" ter nu- hincd in a suita ble hybrid circuit with the frequ encies . Th is occ urs w hen the ana-
nat io n while the Jf ET mixer atthe begi n- re sult ap plied to the mi xer be ing tes ted , Th e lyze r is set for at lea st 10 dB of input a t-
ning of this c hapter sho ws a ne arly o pen outpu t to ne s are then observed atthe mixer ten uati on. T h is bec omes very im portan t
ci rc uit as the inp ut im peda nce at the gale. out put freque ncy . alo ng with the d istortion with switchi ng mode mille r, whe re a poor
or a low im pedance at me so urce like that product s. An lnrermodulation ratio is es - output ter mi nation c an destroy othe rw ise
of a common ga te amp l ifier. a mp ul (I F) tabli shed by the meas urement . allow ing an excellent IM D performance.

5.6 Chapter 5
5.2 BALANCED MIXER CONCEPTS
Some intrinsic mixer prob lems can be Generally. balance improves iso tauon be- behaving as sw itch es. 10 turn o n d uring
reduced or eliminated when circuits arc twee n pon s thn have differing termination the positive hal f of the LO cycle . Th e
modified by adding bala nce . Co ns ide r fo rms. differential vs si ngle ended . diode, are off for the other half cycle . This
F i~ 5. 17 , pari A. w here we start wit h the The mixer of Fig 5. 17. part C. is a si ngly mixe r is co nfig ured as a dow n-co nve n er;
fa miliar JF ET ac tive mixer. Loca l oscilla- balanced circ uit because ba lanced cir- a higher frequ enc y RF signa! is appl ied to
tor e nergy is applied at the so urce. FET c uitry is used in but o ne place. the diod e j unction through C. while lo wer
gate -sou rc e c apacitanc e co uple s the The JFET ba lanced mi xer co uld use freque ncy IF energ y moves from the june-
, OUTee vo ltage to Ihe gate , deg rad ing LO ot her co nnec tion s to o btain s imil ar uon to the IF port .
10 RF isolation. Connecting a spectru m results. For exa mple. a tran sfor me r cau s- It is instructive to ex am ine the trans-
analyzer 10 the RF po rt reveals consider- ing diff erentia l LO energy to be app lied to furmer action in greate r detail. La powe r
able LO energy at the RF port. the sources. while kee ping sing le ended caus es. at o ne instant. a positive vol tage at
The term bal a nce im plies sy mme try, a RF at the ga tes im proves LO to RF isol a- a dot on the tra nsformer. But a postnvc
circuit wn h IW\I sid es or pans . A circ uit tion . It wou ld also aid La to IF isolat ion. voltage o n une dot causes a positiv e signal
beco mes a ba lan ced mixer th roug h dup li - but wuuld not improve RF 10 IF isolation. on the o ther , The windings are wired to
calion, show n in Fig 5. 17. The d uplica tion A variation of the previou s mixer might generate the polarities shown. one posit ive
prese nted in part B di d not improve: L O (0 use a drain transformer at the IF port ,
RF suppress ion, but that in C does. The shown in Fig 5.18. A basic mix er. Q1. is
sources in C are in parallel, hut the two dup licate d in Q2. with a differ enti al o utput
gates arc differentially dr ive n. LO e nergy co nnection through the transfor mer. The
transferre d to the gate o f the first FET is 1.0 is still single e nded. but is now a c ur- I r -oa.
e xac tly d uplicated by that a t the second re m from the drain of Q3 appli ed 10 the

.
FET. resulting in gate vol tage s tha t arc in sources of QJ and Q::! . Altho ugh RF is
phase. But the transforme r gate co nnec- appli ed on ly to the Q I gate. !h i~ is a differ-
tion res ults in no net current. and no La enti al excuauon. for Q I and Q2 are a dif- . ~
freq ue nc y signal at t he transforme r pri- ferential pair. As such. RF m the Q I gate _I I v.. . 1_
mary. Th e LO to RF pon isolation is now causes RF sig nal currents in Q I and Q2 -l /;:::::::l Ql """ Q2 ,c:...,""\

excelle nt. Practicall y. o m: might expect a tha t are equa l. but out of phase. Bala nce in ~ l 'q pi
30-dB impro veme nt with ba lanc e. this mixer imp roves La to IF suppression
The reverse. RF to LO isolation is also (si ngle e nded to differe ntial por ts ). hut
improved. A signal applied at the Rf port
results in ga te volt ages tha t a re O UI of
doe, not help RF to IF isolati o n.
The active balanced mixe rs prese nted
--- - -}l--

co f:hc ,..d Ql

phase. But the sources are paralleled .

resulti ng in red uced output at the La port .
RF to IF isolation is si milarly Impro ved.
are all ass umed 10 be built fro m ide ntical
trans istors . Alth ough bes t whe:: n the cir-
cuits a re fabricate d in integ rated form .
~ ~ 1
for the drain... are para lleled. However . La they ca n still be prac tical with disc rete
to IF isolanon h not altered. LO is appli ed devices. Fig S.13-A J FET ba la nced mixer wi th
si n g le en ded LO an d di ff ere ntial IF
as an unbalanced o r single-ended signal. (-'ig 5. 19 sho ws ba lanced diod e mixers. ports . T his mix er is s imil a r to a bi polar
.... it h IF extracted form a s imilar si ngle- Part A prese nts a s imple. yet very useful cla s s ic , the RCA CA3028A . The RF an d
ended conne ction. There are no balanced two-diode mi xer ci rcuit . LO is applie d to a LQ ports can be Interchanged w ith IItlle
c urrents that can produce any ca ncellation. transformer and causes the diod es. no w pe rfo rma nce d ifference.

Vdd Vdd

[!]
I If ~
I If
I!
VOd
-'J -
•
0+ RF - in
t-

J 1-
r.c- m
-'J
Rf' -i.n - • -
~O-in ~

--l
- RF- i n
t-
- LO- 1n LO- 1n

- -
-
Fig S.H - Ev o lut lo n of balan ced JFET m ix er.

Mixers and Frequency Multi p li ers 5. 7

 .md tho:' ot he r nega tive iit one instant in na red in Fig 5,20 showi ng the t wo LO former, T2. comm unicates the IF rcrmin a-
um c. The diodes arc ident ica l. with polarities. Diodes d l and d2 con duc t with lion throug h to t he RF pon without
marc hed o n-resista nce . Vol tage divid er d .~ and d4 off in part A. Trans former im ped ance uancfo rma tion . The trans-
...cticn then caus es the j unction to he at actio n gen erate s a low impedance co nnec- forme r used at T2 is often tho ught of a)
,::round, or zero LO voltag e. Even whe n the lio n between the diod e j unc tio n and the TI having a .1: I impedance ratio. and it can
1.0 polari ty re vers...s, th e identical diod... center tap. Bold lines in Fig 5.20 empha - certainly function this way in so me appli-
rl'verse capacirnncc value, ge nerate zero sile the c urrent th<.tt now Flo ws as a resu lt calion.". But this is not consistent with the
LO voltage at the junction. LO to RF and of appli ed RF. Pa n B of the figure is the figu re. Rat her . one half o f the ce nter-
t.O 10 IF suppressio n are both e nhanced. sa me, e xcept for an oppos ite LO pol uriry. tapped secondary ca rries c urrent for eac h
The L and C value s Form a di plcxer fil- The diode ring mixer esse ntiall y creates u polarity of the 1.0 . The inactive side has
tcr ( , 1'1' Ch apter 3) in ri g 5,19 A. The usual direc t connection between the RF input, voltage across it from transf ormer action.
crosso ve r frequency use d is the geome tric thro ugh the KF transforme r T2 . to the TF but no current ot her than th at needed to
mean of the RF a nd IF. the sq uare root of load . How ever, the pol arity of the co unce- charge stra y capac itan ce . (Ca re mu st be
I lilt - fit ). The n. if the RF and IF impcd - lio n c ha nges in sync hron is m with the e xe rci sed whe neve r transformers wit h
.I rK' ''-S arc 50 Q . I. and C are picked to haw applied LO. This process is called com- mo re than two windi ngs arc used with no n-
'II n of reac ta nce at the crossov er frc- nu n ation: the diode ring is th e cl assic linea r devic cs. j
quc ncy, Mo re complicated diple xer filtcrs example of a commutation mixer. Time domain waveforms for a ccmrru na-
m J ~ be needed if the IF is not sma ll with Fig 5.20 reveals another int eres ting lion mixe r are shown in Fig 5.21. The LO
rl' ~ ;l rd In the RF. pro pcrl)' of [his circui t: T ho:' RF t rans- does no more than to commute polarity of
Diode LO c urre nt is es tabl ished by the
JI " J e c haracteristics a nd the so urce
Impedance pro vided by the LO system.
Th ..' open circuit ve ltag..: must he high
e noug h to ca use the d iodes to tIIm 011.
Gr eater availabl e LO po we r produ ces
hig her diode cu rrent, whi ch mea ns that the
J i.."k on res ista nce is lo wer and con ve r-
-ion loss is lowe r. Hot carrier diode s are
nor mall y used in mixers of this sort. for
lhe ~ usua lly turn on with less voltage than
J -ilic o n j unction t)'PC, The: absence of a
junction eliminates c harge storage effects .
allowing quicker diode turn-o ff. improv-
ing l'HF performance. This mixer is still n
v .: r~ practic al at Hf with silicon switching
diodes such as the 1)\'"·U48. The diodes in
.. mixer shou ld all til: matc hed for volta ge
•
drop whe n forward biased to a few rnA. u
The local osci llator cssemiully causes the
diodes to switch on and off. This combin es
with the transformer beh avior to gener ate
low impedance between the transfor mer
ce nter tap and the diode junction when the
dio des a re co nd ucting. The impedanc e is
high when the diodes arc off. This behavio r Fig 5.19-Evolutlon of diode mixers , Pa rts A a nd B s how narrow a nd wide ba nd
is extended to form a wideband mixer wuh ve rs io ns of a two-dio de mixer . The mixer is ex pa nded to 4 d iode s in part C, a
the circuit of Fig 5. 198 , circ uit offering a better termination fo r the LO generator . The se e volve into a diode
The mixers in parts A and B of rig 5. 19 ring . doubly bal a nced mixe r in part D.
prese nt a poor load to the LO generator.
for LO current nn l)' flows on hal f 01 eac h
cycle. The add ition of two mo re diodes.
fig 5.19 C, prov ides a load o n bot h halves
of the LO wavefo rm. With lhis co nnec- I!J [!]
tio n. the LO act ion loan he thought of as a
squa re wav e.
These three mix ers (Fi g 5. 19. par t-, A.
H, and C) arc singly bnlunccd with differ-
( +LO )
,. • u
~

( -LO )

.n
enti al co nnectio ns on ly at the LO port . Hut "' " = "
they evo lve into a dou bly balanced mixer
in Fig 5. 19D. whic h is la beled with 1.0 = ., , .,
=.
polarity During the pol arity sho wn. diodes
d I and d2 cond uct while diodes 1.1.1 and d.t
arc open circuit. The diod e rol es inter-
-LO rr- 'LO! "t rr

cha nge when the LO polarit) chan ges.

The switching action is furt her illus- Fig s.ao-cmeee ring co mmutat ing ba lanced mixer s. See text fo r disc us sio n,

5 .8 Cha pter 5
 ... • .~
" 'b&V~
~"
• • . • 1 ~
•
r
. J\/\/\/\/\/\/\J
'0

"
B1u
.
, T '"T~ 0

• • • .

~~.
•

:1
L1r -
T
L O-

Fig 5.21-Wavefo rms for a diode ring commutation mi xer. Fig 5.22-FET rin g m ixer s using MOSFETs . The circu it at A is
The RF and LQ signal s ere those seen w he n t he sources are tha t o rig ina lly d escr ibe by Oxn er w h ile t hat at B is a
examined into resi sti ve loads. The IF signal Is mere ly the RF minimum tran sformer topo logy.
waveform, except th at Ih e polarity is reversed when the LO
is negative.

the RF signal appearin g at the IF pon. some rneas ure rncnt s we saw co nvers fon
c L
Field effect transistors can also he used loss undc r f dB with large area monolithic
in switch ing mode commutatio n mixers as Ga AsFE Ts. bUI 1 ~ID was not as low as
sho wn in F ig 5.2 2. Pan A i" a dou hly bal - observed with the ro.l0S FET".~
anced FET ri ng desc ribed by Ed Oxner of The variatio n in Fig 5.22 pan R uses
Silico nix. J Oxne r' s mixer original ly used on ly one transformer. Pe rfo rmance is
an integrated array of ~I OS FETs . the simil ar to the othe r rin g, althoug h the
S ilico ni x S0890 1. Man y quad a nalog interce pts are usuall y not quite as high .
switc hes are ub,o suitable in this ap pl ica - The pa ssive FET mixer usi ng s hunt
tion , altho ugh o ne sho uld use those featur- FETs . f ig 5.23A . ca n als o be e xtended
ing lo w on-res istance ~1 0S FE Ts . Discr ete with bal ance. Du plica ting the circui t with
MOSFETs will also func tio n in thi s cir - differential LO and IF, but a single ended
c uit. A detailed a nalys is shows that exactly RF res ults in a sing ly balanced mixe r. Fig
the same com muratic n action occ ur" in this 5.23B. Typical LO to RF isola tion is ·m
mixer as we saw with the diode ring. dB. eve n ar lo w mic rowave freque ncies.
Ox ncrs mixer is an e xce lle nt per- Balance i;. an ex tremely powerfu l and
former. offering third o rder input inter- ge neral design tool tha i can often he
ccpts in excess of +JOd Hm. This low IMD app lied 10 enhance pert-re-port isolation .
occurred ....-ith II conversion lo ss of abou t 8 If any mixer i<. lacking in. for example.
10 9 dB. The miller function!' wel l at HF. LO-to -RF isolation. placing two of them
but degrade" significantly III VH F. The in a ba lanced pair will often enhance ivo-
FET ring mixer can be e xte nded 10 higher lation by a nother 30 dB. wit h a bonus of a
freq uencie s with othe r tec hnologies. In 3 dB increase in 1lP3.5
Fig 5.2J- Ev o lulion of th e Maas mi xe r
wher e balance Impro ves LO to RF
iso lati o n .

Mixers and Frequency Multi pli ers 5.9

5.3 SOME PRACTICAL MIXERS

The Gilber t Ce ll
By Farthe most pop ularin tegrated mixer pk -pk at pin 6 1 with the tesl circuit sion gai n dropped 10 14 dB at this level in
circ uit available i~ the Gilbert Cell. named of Fig 5.27. Ear ly Signetic s da ta reco m- ou r measurements.
for Barrie Gilbert of Analog Devices. Gil- mends a minimum LO of 2<KI mv peak - Both the RF and IF ports were floating
ben de veloped a "four quadra nt" multi - peak . - 10 dBm in our test circu it. Con ver- in the It,1 circ uit. allowing ba lanced dri ve
plier circuit a, an exte nsio n ot a ci rcuit
pre sented ea rlie r hy Jon es in US Patent
3..t2 1.07R issue d in 1966. The revised cir-
cuit is descri bed in more detai l in the text
by' Gray and \ k ycr.6
Th e Gilbert Cell is base d upon the sim-
pler mixer circuit shown in r ig 5 .2 ~ . RF
drives the base o f QI (" produce the com-
••
bi ned de and Rf cu rrent tha t is then

. •,
applied to the common emtuers of a dif-
Ierennal amplifier. Q2 and QJ . LO energy
applied differentially to the dit-amp bases
causes the RF to be togg led from one col-
...-
;
t
-
lector 10the other. The IF termination is a ."
ba lanced load. usually created ....ith a
transformer. Thic topo logy improves Rf n~'
J H' ••
to IF and L.O to RF iso latio n, for the RF
input is single ended w hile the IF output
and LO input are diffe remial. This circuit
w as ava ilab le f rom RCA in IC form as the
CA J02!lA. This mixe r su fferv fro m poor
LO to IF isola tion. for differential drive
at the bases of Q2 and Q3 produce direc tly
-' ~~ ,

c-
~
am plified respo nses nt the different ia l
~
;;;d
'I
co llectors. ,
The Gifben Celt in rud imentary form.
~
sho wn in Fig 5.25. contains a pair of these
differential amplifier mix ers. RF is
applied to the lower differenti al amplifie r.
•
Q I and Q4. producing two currents co n- Experimental dis crete transisto r ve rs ion of a Gilbe rt Ce ll Mixe r.
rainin g de bias and the RF signal. These
driv e the emitte rs of idcnricul differential
pair s that are s witched by thc same LO
sign al. The Q3 and Q5 co llec tor cur rents
arc in phase with eac h othe r with regard 10
LO dr ive: Q2 and Q6 sha re the other
phase. However . nne of the two output
co llec tor conn ections is "twisted" before
anachmern. producing: il co nnection tha t
ca ned, 1.0 a ppearing 011 the IF. Pon In port
iso lation i ~ now excellent for all
com bina tions.
" "
Mo~ l Gilbert Cell mixers are imegrated.
The popular ~lC I 49ti and similar device s
have bee n replaced wjth I C ~ that include
internal biasing: resistors. The most popular
"
of these i~ the :-:E-60 2 shown in FlA 5.26 . >.
This vervion includes load rcsisror-, a' ....ell
liS input hiaving, One can actually measure
the collec tor resistors w jfhan Ohmmeter: the
I
RI-'" input resistors do nOI really arrear to be Fig 5.24- The basic bipolar differe ntial
there. althoug h netwo rk analyzer measure- amp lifier mixe r that is the bas is tor the
mente show the resistor'> to represent a good Gilbert Cell. This mixer ca n be built with Fig 5.2S-Fundamental Gilbert Cell mixer.
model. The teet circuit of t'ig 5.27 was Iab- a CA3028A. or fabricated fro m discrete The collect or load is sometimes rea lized
transisto rs. The 2N3904 woul d be with resis tors. although this will deg rade
ricated to cvaluarc the :-:t-:60:!. suitable for HF a pp licatio ns . Bias ing Inte rce pts . for internal load res is tors
The conversion gain for Ihi, mixe r was resistors (not shown ) set the 02 and 0 3 absorb power thai would oth erwise be
20 dB wuh LO drive uf 0 dB m 1631 mV bases at a pproximately mid supply. aveuebre to an externalload.

5 .10 Cha pter 5

 .~
--- .-----~-4"-____1 8
Do o .

,,,I I n
'Of- "
- a

•~ RF 4 : 3 ~ \1l
~ 3~ :4t " rr-
NE602

t?ll~ or
I~
r1
NE612 ~

LO 0 1 ~ :~
T1 3 ~tM 3 0 , link FT 3 7 -61
2
= n
3~t Il 30,
" F T - ~ O B - 43

~---<c--l--4----{[3]
r2
" .Link

-
Fig 5.26- Equivalenl circuit of the Phillips NE602/NE612.8 Fig 5.27-Test circuit used to evaluate the performance of the
NE602. Mo st measurements u sed a 14·MHz RF, 19-MHz O-dBm
LO, and an IF of 5 MHz. The output 1 dB bandw idt h extended
from 0.5 to 10 MHz w ith the transformer shown. The RF port
impedance match was a retu rn loss of 19 dB w hile that at the
IF was 15 dB . The internal o sc ill ator was not used in these
experiments.

to bala nced load s. This balance co uld be T he mixer was hiased to e it her 5 or app ear in the wide hand TF output wi th both
altered expe rimenta lly by bypassing one 15 mA with most expe riments performed abo ut 14 dB below the re spec tive input
end of the transforme r. Bypassing pin 2 at the higher le vel. Sing le-ended dri ve is le vels. Nume rous ot her spurious outputs
reduced e cain .
bv 2 dH and deee rade d the use d fo r both RF and L O inp uts, slightl y are present. all expected mixer spurious
input impe d ance match . A simi lar CXCf- co mpromising port -to -port isolation . res po nses. Mu st wo uld be lowe r in magni-
ri se at the outp ut (pin S] degraded ga in by FiJ:;: 5.29 shows the IF port out put spec tra , tude if the circ uit was actually integrated ,
.: d B. Of greater import . unh a la nce d ter- Co nversio n transd ucer gain for this c irc uit This circuit had a third-order input inter-
mination at either port degraded port-to - was IX d B (15 rnA. P -LO = 0 dBm. F -L O cept of +1 1 d Bm with IS- rnA hias and
port isolat ion. Balanced Rf drive will also = 10.4 MHI. and RF = 14.3 l\-I Hl. ) Increas- D-dRrn 1.0 pow er.
llt... r product detector performance. ing LO drive by 10 d B made no difference Dec reasing the stand i ng curren t to 5 mA
O Uf best IM D per forma nce resulted in ga in. but a drop to - 10 d Bm prod uced a produced a IP3in=-2 dli m. with J 6-dB
uh a single ended Rf drive. IP3in was I-d B gain decrease. RF and 1.0 sign al gai n. still dramaticall y beuer t han the
then - 17.5 d li m with co nve rs ion ga in of
I s an and 0 dllm LO dr ive.
Single sideband no ise f igure was mea -
-ured at 7 dB for this test circuit. T his
measurement was rea lized with a 15-M HL
lo w pass RF f ilter and a 19-M Hz LO .
We usually think of the Gilbert Ce ll as
an inte grated ci rcuit. Ho we ve r. the re is
HW
-

'""
[e at.
- -

FT37 - 43
Ql-Q6=
no thin g fun dame ntalto precl ude building 1i- 24 t · 24t
2N3904
the se mixer s in disc rete form. A disc rete
Gilbert Cellmi xer buill f rom 2N3904 tran- . ,
-i stor s is shown in Fi g 5.28. 1'\0 special
as
I - as
transistor matchi ng was used, a lt hough all Q2
transistors came from the same bag with LO Q'r v "' l:il. ' Q' L "III

I"" ~~ ,.vI
as ax

~t
sde nrica l manufac tur er and da te c odes , .• • l
I" lt
The cha nce is reas o nable that they ca me m
from the sa me silicon wafer.
The circuit pres ented some VHF ose il- "
ja rio n d ifficult y whe n power w as initially
-
.,~ 2. ? 1< -

applie d Although the problems occ urred

.,
RF 5
Q' 2.211
L? S\
.II! VHF. LO harmon ics mixed with the
VHF signa l to prod uce a low freq uenc y
ou tput th at moved in frequ ency as our
t-" 2. 211
" -"
,,"
as

., :I
f
..L
"
and was moved d ose to the circuit. The (R sets I ) 0' s a -
- -
freq ue nc y could a lso he t uned wi th chang-
mg supply voltage. The oscillati ons were
. uppressed with the 10- and 36-fl rcs i s- Fig 5.28-Gilbert Cell mixer built with d isc rete t ra nsi sto rs . A resistor (300 or 62 0)
lOr. inc lude d in f ig 5.28. at the bottom sets t he b ias curren t f or th e o verall circuit.

Mixers and Frequency Mu lt ipliers 5.1 1

 appea rs similar to another discontinued Tl
• • pan . the TL44 2. The Tos hiba TA7358P is
L still in production and could be a viable

."
:'r replacemen t in new desig ns. (Tha nks to
." IG IEADan d JA 3FR forin formarion on Japa-

~
.-"
" , C¢ nese parts.) There is ample challenge a vail-
able to the experimenter.

Du a l Gate M OSFET Mixer s

~ - JFET mixe rs wen: discussed ear lier. A
fIiF", related device i ~ the meta! oxide silico n
E
•o ~ - --
_. field effecttransistor, or MOSFET . While
the usua l JFET is a de pictio n mod e dev ice ,

1 ~ . -
the typical MO SFET is an e nha nce me nt
mode pan . See the Refere nces c hapter of
a ny recent issue of The A RRL Handbook
for definiti o ns a nd fu rth er inform ation.
-- - - ~IO SFET~ were . a t o ne time. ofte n built

I
with two gates wi th tha t closest to the
I, I
,
I I
so urce ter med "g ate I: ' When o ne of the
gates is forw ard (positive) biased with
• • " '6 20 ~
Freque nc y , MHz
30
respect to the source . the devic e be haves
much like a JFET with the re maining gale
Fig 5.29- 0 ut put s pec t ru m observe d wi t h th e mi xer 01 Fi g 5.28. See t ext for as the controlling eleme nt. These de vices
de t ails . are often modeled as a cascade con nectio n
of single gate FET s. Mi xers ca n, of co urse ,
be bu ill with MO SFETs. for they exhibit
l'\E602 . A d iod e no ise so urce was used ( 0 ine the work of Trask." the same q uad rat ic transfer c harac te ristic
measured DSB noise fig ure of 10.8 d Uo Some of the integrated Gilbert Cell mixers see n with the I FET .
This cxtrapolates ro a SSB :-;F of 13.8 dB. that were once popular (e.g.. MC I496. Fig 5_'OA shows a mixer type tha t was
De ge neration (22-n resi stors in the NEW :!) are becoming difficult to find . The very po pu lar f rom the mid 196 0s until
e mfue rs of Q5 and 06) was needed i n the topology remains pop ular and is ofte n found abo ut 1990. Th is circuit uses a du al gate
RF input stag e 10 reduce 1.\i.D . However , as pan of a larger. multiple function Ie. Some ~fOS FET . an insulated gate topo logy with
Ihis degraded the no ise fi gure . Gilbert Cell s are available internatio nally, two parallel gates. A rule-of-thumb b that
Alt houg h the main too l used to impro ve although design data i ~ sometimes difficult a du al gate FET will display a narrow ba nd
IMD performance in a Gilbert Cell is 10 to obtain. One example is the SK169 13P, conversion transco ndu ctance of 'I. the gm
inc rease cu rrent . feedback can also be from Texas Instruments Japan. This device expected for an a mplifier biased ar a s imi-
applied . The experimenter should exam- is slated for discontinuation at this writing. It lar eur rent with similar ler minating imped-
ances. (This gu idel ine is consiste nt with
more re fined aualys is. ) Traditio nal dual
gate MOSFETs req uired an LO drive of
."
.. about 5 V pk-pk at gate 2 to re alize o pti-

0 'I
'IV "'''.
ri·" - .
,
u
.~ t. ZI<
,
..
11: 1
" Jl -U

1)1
u_
mum gam.
Dual ga le MO S FET s. a ltho ugh «m
a vailab le, are not as abu ndant as they o nce
were . The alternative mixer of Fig 5.308
uses a cascode-co nnected pair of I FETs in

~ @] ."",. 9 >IU

.
a simil ar circ uit. This co nnectio n was
~"
e valuated for noise figure. gai n. and inter-
,. nl - I
ce pt. The 2N5454 FETs from our ju nk box

~~ I·f..·.· .
4:lIJ",>t-- -+_ (-tJ

-... I
~" are sim ilar to the popular 2N44 l6. TIS-
:SS. MPF- I02. 2N54:SS. 2:'\5486 , and many
other co mpo ne nts : any of t he se pans

yd lA -=
L O '- ~
-- -
.1
sho uld perfor m wel l in this topology, Our
initia l attem pt with this circ uit present ed a
sta bility prob lem with an oscillatio n
II lIH, 'IV ,,~ -,,~
occ urring at the reso nant freq uency of the
inpu t circ uit. This was observed with a
po wer meier a ttac hed to the IF o utput. The
oscillatio n was elimi nated whe n R l was
inserted acro ss the tra nsfo rmer pri mary. A
Fig 5.3O-Part A sh ows a mixe r us ing a dual gate MOSFET. Best gain occurs wi t h
around 5 V pk-p k at gate 2 fo r LO in ject ion , The mixe r at B us es a pa ir o f J FETs In broadba nd IF output transfo rmer is wound
a cascode con nection . This mixer is eas il y fabricated with n early any ava ilable on relatively low loss ty pe 6 1 ferr ite co re
J FET ty pe. See text . with a turns ratio to preve nt a good o utput

5 .12 C ha p te r 5
 . ":1'
is lo w and imc rcep tv are ge nerally high.
makin g it the bes t c hoke: when dynam ic
"
~ ,•.", range i) c ritical. The lac k of gai n is not. in
itself, a proble m. 11 is imponam to usc thc
rin g with ca fe if bes t perfo rmanc e is to be
= :J- .~ r a reali zed.
6 . BK
'£20 h Pro babl y the most c ritical characte ristic
of a diode ring. and most other switc hing
mode mixers. is the need to ca refully ter-
minate the If pon . A pro per te rm ination
( usuall)- 50 U ) means that o utp ut e nergy
IJl US2 available from the mixer is absorbed. If
po wer is reflect ed from the IF. it the n

: 1"
impinges bad upon the mix e r IF port
whe re it ca n be reconverted bad. to the
10 . 1 mu RF . or 10 ima ge freque ncies. Recon ver ted
~' ll>r~ coruponent-, can the n exit the mixe r RF
'n port whe re the y a re ye t aga in a vailable For
Tl : 11 t T'0 -6 , 2 t l ink
T2 :1 b i tl1 a r t F Tl l _, ]
..r1'00
T4 : 2n
absorption or anoth e r refl ection. Wi th
each refl ection can co me phase shift and
Ll , L 2 : l1 t nO - 6 d is tort io n.
T3 : 11\ r se-e , I t l i nk
F IA 5.3 2 illustrates the te rm inatio n
prob le m. A diode ring is used in a 1 .J- ~f Hz
Fig 5.31-Sc hemat ic for a lo w no ise 10.1-MHz co nvert er.
rccctv er where a to- MHz LO con ve rts the
desired signal to a 4-1>tHz IF. Hut the mixer
o utput also con tain s a 24·MHz signul. T h..
match 10 50 !l An at tcmau ve winding the La inje ction . He nce. noise e nergy mixer i.s t..rmin atcd in an IF amplifie r with
would allo w match ing to a c ryst a l fil ter. within the LO sys tem at the 4· MH 1 IF and t he fi rst selecti vi ty ap pe a ring after th..
T he mixer shown. biased fo r 3.4 mA at 12 a t the 1O. 1-.\ I H/, RF does not reach the amplifier. T ypical amplifiers have an
V, ha s a me asured co nversio n gai n of 8 dB mi xer output. T he sa me mi xer with a inpu t impedance that va ries wit h Ire-
with it noise figure of to dB and HP3 of +5 widcband 1.0 dri ve circu it will usuall y qu e ncy . Even if the am pl i Fier input is c lose
dftrn. There is no bal ance in this ci rc uit. so have a no ise fig ure closer to 10 to 12 d H. 10 50 n at -I :MHz. it probab ly wi ll no t be
La and RF energy is a vailable at the IF We d id nOI meas ure IMD with th b cir cuit. 50n a t 24 ~1 Hlas w ell. T he 24 -~l H / eo m ­
port . This mi xer is used in a si mple Th e trad itio nal du al gale MO SF ET po ne nt will then be scatte re d fro m the
superhe t recei ver a ppea ring later i n the mixer biased fo r 5 rnA at about 10 V will amp lifier i nput bac k to the mixer output
book . have OI P3 of around +20 dbm . T he input w here it can parti cipate in furt her co nve r-
Man y d ual gale MOSFET s sho w very intercept will be this valu e red uced by the sions. a ll undesired .
low amp lifi er noise fig ure with val ues of con version ga in. Th e bes t dynamic range The mixe r needs 10 be prope rly rcrmi-
I d B be ing c ommon. T hey can also fu nc- tor mixe rs of this so rt will occ ur when the nated for any and a ll signals that ernan arc
tio n we ll in mixer application s. FIg 5.3 1 impedance prese nted to gate I IRf input) from it. Assu me the receiv er is tuned to
shuws a receivi ng co nvener with a mea- produces lower gain. Lower impedances will 14.00 MH/ , but a stro ng signal appe ars at
sured NF of 6.6 dR a nd a con versio n gai n also alter noise figure. The advanced experi- 14.01 Mflz . Thal sig nal. once tran slate d
of 22 dR . T hi s ci rcuit need ed an 1.0 of menter (the one willing to mcnsure and to the IF. is pro bably out of the c ryst al til-
14. 1 f\.lHz to conver t 10. 1 ~1 H l to 4 M j-lz . opumi It: resuhs )can expect ou tstanding per- ler passband. It will then be re flect ed by
An availa ble 7.05 -MHz ju nk box c rys tal formance from either mixer in Fig 5.30. the fi ller and retur ned to the a mpli fie r
was used with a frequency doubler. The o utput. pos sibly creati ng excess distortio n
osc illator pro vides 10 mW to drive the there. If the amplifi er use,- neg ative feed-
passiv e diode do ubler. T he single tuned
Di ode Ring Mi xers and hack. the poo r o utput termin at io n to r the
c ircu it then inc re ases the voltage to the Re la ted C ircuits 14. 0l -\I Hz si gna l will be re flected back
requ ired level. Th is mixe r has a Jaw no ise The diode ring has become the work- 10 rhe a mplifie r input . crea ting an
figure bec ause gate 2 "s ees" a low impcd- horse for the com munication s ind ustry. imprope r te rmination for the mix er .
ance at a ll freq uenc ies other tha n that of Although the mixe r has los s. 110 i, c figure The obv io us quest ion that arises when a
good impedance matc h is spec ifi ed is
"How good?" Generally. we look for an
IF termina tio n th ai is bet ter tha n a 2: I
VSW~ . Of a IO-dB return loss. T his matc h
is easily mea sured in the ho me la b with a
U. HHz I N
ret urn loss bridge. signa l generator, and
--. Fig 5.32-A 14·M Hz
rec eive r f ront end sc nstnvc detec tor. The detec tor co uld be a
ill ustrati n g th e special recei ve r. a spectrum analyzer.
problems of po w~r meie r. or even an osci lloscope (sec
ter minat ing a d iode
ri ng m ixer.
C hapter 7 ). T he match should be c xum-
ined ove r a wide freq uency range, a nd with
it si gna l le vel low enoug h to gu arantee that
the termi natin g ci rcuitry is not ovcrdti ven.

Mixers and Freq uency Mult ip li ers S. 1 3

 + 1 2 ..
--'V'' 'rlr----, ''
• IS dB pad I

I
• ""f"r"'"
r eo
-
'"
-
Fig 5.34-Post
m ixer amplifie r
using a med ium
power, h igh r-t
b ipol ar t ransistor.
See te xt.
••
,,- blfU.ar
FT )7 - ,1l
In Kixe r
Fr~
Hix~r RIC

12 0
input mis ma tch. T he amplifier will nor- impeda nce is very close to 50 n and is
mally yiel d an input match (ret urn loss) fai rly flat thr ough the HF spectrum. T yp i-
bette r than 10 dB. Good input match and cal OIPJ is +41 d Bm if the att cnu aror is
Fig 5.33- A post mixer amplifier u sing a mod e..t inte rcepts are fo und o nly with hig h nor part of the me a sured circ uit. The 6-d B
junc ti o n FET. A high 1<1" FET is cu rre nt. wh ich hap pens on ly with fairl y anen uaror dec reases the o verall o utpu t
required suc h as the J310. See the teet high l oss FET s. inte rcep t to +35 dBm. The gain is 2 1 d B,
for transforme r di scu s sio n. A favorite amplifier of o urs I rl ~ 5 .J~ 1 J ropping to 15 d B with the 6-dB pad .
for ter minating a switching m ixer is a This parti cular amp lifier uses the feed-
bipolar transistor feed back ampli fie r fol- back resistor for transist or biasing. so
lowed by a 6-dB pad. Negative feedback is c hangi ng circ uit ele men ts will alter bias-
In man y cituatlons the IF pun termi na- used to se t the gai n a nd to stabi lize the ing as well as feed back . Alteri ng feedbac k
tion require ments may he relaxed if the input and output impedances. This ci rcui t with constant bias cu rre nt will maintain the
match is improved at the RF por t. Geller- was d isc usse d in deta il in the am plifier out put interce pt while chan ging the gain.
ally. distort io n and ga in measurement s chapte r. The o utput termi natio n o n a feed- Input interc ept w ill chan ge accord ingly.
will reveal the prob lems. The agg ressive back amp will strongly influence the input No ise figu re for the amplifie r of Fig
experim ent er c an build the instrume nta- impeda nce. As such. one sho uld avoid 5.3 4 will vary with transistor type and bias,
tion neede d fo r these mea surem ents. drivin g a crysta l filter dire ctly with such an hut values of5 d B arc typical. Care ful mea-
Idoally. jhc bcstarnplifi er for ter minat- amp l ifier. The filter impedance chan ges surements o n one ve rsio n of this ci rcu it
ing a swi tching mode mix er is one with rapidly with frequ ency , espec ially in the showe d lowe r NF with reduced cu rre nt,
excell ent reve rse isolation and a frequency region at the pas sband edges. What may be offering so me DR optimization .
invariant (vflat''} input impe da nce . The II fine ter minatio n in the passba nd becomes An aucn uator at the inp ut of a feedback
amp lifier mu st ha ve good distort io n prop- an open or short circuit in the skins and amplifier will ge nerate stable por t imped-
erties. for it is often subjec ted 10 an entire stop band . The resu lting mix er termi nati on ances as well as good output intercept.
ba nd full of vignals. The noi se fig ure may cause se vere I\1D problem s. However. the input pad degrades noise fig-
shou ld be lo w, fur it ..... ill add directly 10 The se problems arc largel y avoided by urc .
the mixer los s to set the noi se figu re look- placi ng a 6 dB pad in the amplifier out put. So me recei ver designs (with high level
ing into the mixe r. fi nally. the gain should T his then guarantees a n amplifier with a mix ers ) dem and amp lifiers with higher
be high eno ugh to co mpensa te fo r mixer stable, freq uency indepe ndent input imped - interce pts. T hi s is possible wit h hig her
los s and loss in the fi lter that will follow. ance to termi nate the mixer. It also guarun- current. How e ver, the output pad compro-
hut not a lot mo re. Excess gain means that tees 1I good source impedance for thc c rystal mises e fficie ncy. A be tte r solutio n uses
the signals beco me toolarge . stress ing the filter, another vital co nsideration. tWOfeedback amp lifie r stages with atten u-
fo llowing filter (c rystal filte rs can he dam - T he amplifie r of Fig 5 .3~ uses a trans is- atio n bet wee n. T he impedances are stable
aged by excessi ve signa ls. and ca n ge ner- tor usually spec ified fo r RF powe r o r Co m- and no ise figu re and inte rcepts are main-
ate The ir o..... n 111.1 1» and stressi ng the d is- munity TV service. Th ey are bipo la r ta ined .
tortion propertie s of the amp lifier. devi ces wit h a I W or better o utput ca pa- The re a rc so me situ ations where no
A grou nded gate D IO J FET amp lifie r bility and with an FT That is atleast 10 times amplifie r is requ ired . It is still important to
suitable for post mixer a pp lications is the highest frequen cy IF where the y will ma inta in the prop.;"r mixer terminatio ns .
sho wn in I' ig 5. 33 . This ci rcuit has good be used . The 2;'; 3866 a nd 2N5109 are bot h An exa mp le might be the fro nt c od of a
reverse isolatio n. so a crystal filter may be available at this wr iting and work well in spectru m a nalyze r, shown in Fi g 5.35. The
d riven di rectly . Th e ou tput tra nsfo rme r this ..ervt ce. Man y oth er pans lire suita ble . first mixer is prese lected with a low pass
de termi nes gain. A dr ain impedance of Parallel ed 2N 390-1s o r si mila r plas tic filter and prod uces a f irst IF of 1.5 G Hz .
about 12000 yie lds a gain of aboutI Od B. case d devices are also sui tab le and are T he pad in the mixer o utput stabili zes i m-
we measured a th ird -o rder outpu t show n later . The amplifier in the figure pedance in bo th directions. ensuring mixer
intercept of +28 d Bm tor this ampl ifie r uses a bias emitter current of 50 rnA a nd a and fil ter perfo rm ance. The second mixer
when biase d for Id = 1-1 rnA. A noise figu re coll ec tor termi nat ion of 200 n. pro vided produ c es a 50-MHz IF whe re an amplifier
of less th an 3 J H is possible wit h a slig ht wit h a bi fil ar transformer. The input with a pad is now used. Th is topo lo gy has

5.14 Ch ap ter 5
a muc h high er no ise figure than the usua l amplifie rs result from a now classic method ample. the T UF- I H. has a + 14 dlim value
receiv er, but is cap able of excellent IMD describ ed by Kurokawa. er a1.lo Such a fi l- for P-1dB. placing IP3 in at +14 dBm o r
pe rforma nce, the paramete r of gre ate r ter is disc ussed in the next chapter. higher. Even higher power mixers art'
inte rest for mea sureme nts. Par ts like the MiniCire uits SBL- l, T UF- avai lab le. including some " level 27-db m'
Fig 5.36 shows a different a pproac h to l , and AD E-I , a SMT part. represent the de vice s with P-1JB = +24 dB m.
the prob lem . Here, a mix er is follow ed hy stand ard diode rings. There are, of co urse . A recent QEX pap er exami nes the ter -
a di ple xer filter that then dri ves a po st many more listed in thei r catalogs. These mination of high -leve l mixer'; to imp rove
nu xcr amplifi er us ing a du al gate mix ers are specifi ed for a LO dr ive power IMO .I I That pap er considers diplexer fil-
MOSFET. (40673, or 3N2 11 used .) The of +7 dB m. (Recall that this is available ters at both the IF and RF port s. as well as
2.2-k n gate resistor is tra nsformed to look power from the LU source.v T he mixer is some mod ifie d I,C f tie rs. It stri kes us tha t
li ke 50 Q to the mixer thro ugh an L- net- usually well saturated at this +7 dBm and the Engelbreeht-K urokawa methods may
work , L1 and C l. T his only prov ides a ter- LO drive changes do not alter gain , The also be suitab le fo r RF port terminat ion s.
min ation at th e IF . 1.9 :\l Hz in this "+ 7-dBm"' mixer s will c ontinu e to func- T he e xce lle nt pap er by S teph e nsen is
example , Sum pro d uct s ar e ter minated tion with LO dri ves as lo w as 0 to +3 dbm, incl ude d on the book CD ,
with a high pass filt er pa ralle li ng the with reduc ed gain and deg raded int ercepts
Lucrwork. Th e pre se lec tor fil ter wa s a So me Mini -C ircuits parts are available for
triple tuned cir cuit in th is example with LO power as low as 0 dBm . Hig h Le vel FET M ixe rs
about 3-dB lo ss while the MO SFET ampli- Mi ni-Circuits +7 dBm mixers are speci- Ve ry wide dy na mic range rec eivers and
fier has a noise f ig ure of about 3 dB. for a fied for a n input 1 dB compre ssion power lo w noise trans mitt ers both dem and high -
ne t NF of 12 dB. O veral l gain is 9 dB . Mea- of + I dBm. A rule ofthum h states that the le vel mixers. while so me diode-bas ed
sured inp ut int ercept for the sys tem was inpu t intercept of II diode mixer is 10 to design s are suitahle, they demand high I ~ O
+ 15 dfim . This two-decad e-old scheme is 15 dB abo ve P-1dB, placing JIP3 at + 11 to po wer . a pr acticul diffic ulty. Several
not as stro ng as oth ers, but can be an effi- + 16 dBm. T hese valu es are in line with our worker'; have ex amined othe r device s as
cient one fo r buttery operat ion . The broad- measure ments for the TUF- l and SBL - I . swi tches. T he not able example mentioned
hand impedance mat ch is ma rgin al." Mos t mixer ma nufacture rs als o bu ild ear lier was the MOSfET rin g de scr ibed
Perhap s the ultimate IF termination for mixers specified for LO po we r of by Ed O xne r.
the switching mixer is a special cr ystal fil - + 17 dBm . These mixers usually use two Perhaps the most exciting work pub-
ter that presen ts a pro per impedance at all series connected dio des in each leg of an l ished in the past decade in this area was a
freq uencie s. Th is fi lter, and simila r ot herwise co nve ntional ring. One ex - note appearing in Pat Hawke r' s ever popu-
lar and consi stentl y informati ve Technical
Top ics co lumn in Radi o Com mu nica-
tio ns. 12 Hawke r presented prev ious ly
unre ported work on a ne w mixer topology
by Colin Horra b!n. G3S FH. This fo ur-FHl'
mixer. shown in .F ig 5.37 , differed from
earlier circu its . Oxner 's des ign used fET s
as se ries switches whil e Hnr rahin uced
au MHz the FET s as gro unded swit ches. This is still
a commutati ng mi xer. but tran sfo rme r
Fig 5.35-Front end of a spect rum ana lyzer showing ri ng m ixe rs w it ho ut action now genera tes the need ed signa ls.
amp lif ier s. Horrabins circuit used a monol ith ic quad

+l 2 v V -LO V-LO

uz
•
• • "Ou'
•

~
r
ci
'Q' ~ n
ra

V -LO V -LO
'CO-
' + El)
'fl"
rl-
Fig 5.36-A mi xer-terminating am plifier us ing a d iplexer
fi lter. Th is is a co m b inat io n of a lo w pass and a hi g h pass Fig 5.37-H-m o de mi xer u si ng g ro unded FETs. Th is mixer,
fi lter in th is exa m p le, but could also be a bandpass and the wo rk of Colin Ho rrabi n, G3S BI, has produced t h ir d o rder
bands to p filter. Th is example u ses a co ns ide rab le im pedan ce input inte rc epts as high as +55 d Bm . The c ircuit takes its
tra nsfo rmat io n at the amp lifier inpu t. na me fr om the " H" shape presented by t he tra nsforme rs .

Mixers and Frequency Mul t ipliers 5.15

 Q 2 and Q.l tO he on. c re ati ng a low imped-
n ·..... . .. anc e to gr o und . The other I W O r ET
switches arc off. now modeled a.. open ci r-
(A ) cuits. The re suhing c ircuit is she.... n in part
R oft he fi gure. Transformer I I is o ne ith
evcentiall y three identic al windings ith
t w o co nfigu red as a larger center lapped
secon da ry. Each secondary w inding i;, no w

. co nn..cr..d [ 0 se pa rate o utput tra n..Iormerc

1 2 and T.l Part of the tra nsforme rs arc net
shew n, for they arc co nnected to open ci r-
cuns at lh i ~ poi nt in time. The currenrv in
T2 and T3 add at the IF output.
T he polarity c ha nges as we ad vance one
L ~~- v-u
half of a LO cycle. Q I and Q4 are now on
with Q 2 and Q.l Mf. T bc ot her two second-
ar y half- windi ngs are no w connected.
Althoug h not shown in the fi gure, deta iled
exa minatio n conf'irrns co mmutation.
Horrahin ha s measured values as high
as +5 5 dBm for ITPJ . It beco mes challe ng-
ing to build lo w l ~lD amp lifie rs to accom-
pan y th is robu ..t mixer. It is diffic ult to
measure intercepts this high . and co nsid-
e rahle effort has been expended by
Horr ahin and his co lleagues i n Ihis pur-
Fig 5.38- The H-mode mixe r is re dr awn to c lar ify o pe rattc n, See text fo r suit. T hey attri bute the cxcel tem perfo r-
expla nati o n. mance 10 a remova l of RF in put signals
from the gate-source s....itch-on path. The
co nfig uratio n with grounded FE T so urces
of M OS FET~ . the Phillips 5D5000 . ..... hich unde rstood .... -ith the red ra .... n c ircuit of ma kes it muc h more d iffic ult to modulate
is esse nti ally the same ~fO S FE T as used in Fig 5.J!!. Part A of the figu re she w s t he th e LO acti on with applied RF . Practical
O xne r' s S i~YO I. basic ci rc uit. Assume lhal at one poi nt in fro m-end examples u..ing this mixer arc
T he ope ration of the H-mode mixer is time V-LO i.s pos itive. Th is ca uses FET s presen ted in C hap te r 6.

5.4 FREQUENCY MULTIPLlER5

Closel y related to the mi xe r i" a co m- rese mble a sim ple amp lifie r with a single spe ctral pu rity . If the cir cuit is tuned to
mo nly used circ uit. the freq uency mul ti- de vice (bipo la r or FET ). If the output is opera te a" a freque ncy tripter. the domi -
plier, T his is a c ircuit with the predo mi- tune d 10 a multiple of the input frequency nant outp ut w ill certainl y be at :l time s the
nant ou tp ut oc curring at a freq uency that a nd it the circ uit is dr ive n harde r than it input. Ho we ver. the re is a good ch ance that
is an integer multip le of the input. We saw wou ld normally be driven for a mplif ier
f requenc y rnuh ipliea tio n when a loca l os- serv ice . efficient freque ncy multipl ication
c illato r was firs t applied to a mixer: the c an occur. Example circuits are shown in ~
ac tion was a natura l co nseq uenc e of the
circuit nonlineari ty.
Fig 5.39 .
While these circu its a re si mp le and easy r-in •
----, :IF - o u t

n
T he s implest frequency muln pliers 10 implement. the y often sutle r fro m poo r

'" '" ""-

." l~~
I-
.'h ok
I
·'h ok
,I -

J UO
!I-
-
-
Fig 5.40-0 10<1&frequenc y doub ler. The

--1~
d iodes. Ideally ide ntica l. c a n be s ilic on -
1
--1~~"± +
sw itChing types. s uc h as the l N4152 or
l N918 fo r use at HF a nd lo w VHF. Ho t

~ n,
c a rrier d iodes a re recommen ded fo r
~ I, UHF a pplicati o ns. or fo r c ritic a l, lo w
ph as e no is e HF a pplic atio ns , The
- tran s fo rmer c a n be the fa miliar 10
t rifila r t urn s on a FT37-43 core for HF
Fig 5.39- S lmple, s ing le-ended fre q ue ncy multipliers us ing a bipolar tran s istor a nd applicatio ns . Ofte n. th is do ub ler d rives
a J FET. The s e c las s ic c ircuits ca n s llll be useful in mod ern de si gn s , but o nly if a link o n a s ingle t uned c ircu it,
built wIt h ca re ful me asure me nts , e limina ting t he need fo r t he RFC.

5. 16 Chapter 5
 .-
ru

E
2F Output
-
~
"'.:
"C -w
V Fig 5.42-0utput
•~
..-,
power an d
-:0

-
0 f u nda men tal
feed-th r o ug h for
a d iode doub ler

-,
~.
0.
~
.i-> usin g t he c ircu it
of Fig 5.40. Th e
a
-:
-,"
Fundamental d iodes were

.
~.
1N415 2 t hat ha d
been matched
~
,
/ , w ith a DVM .
u • tu ta
Pm " "
Input Power, dBm
Fig 5.41-Basic push-push frequenc y
do u ble r uamq ba la nced bipolar
trans is to rs .

F -in • ro
Fig 5.44 -
Frequency trtpla r
ua

J~ ~ f---
2F - ou t
~
,m.
m
1. !iuJI
"' ,
J 410uH
~ -30
2 . 2uH
us ing four d iodes
and a lar ge
ind u ctan ce choke

~c
r l~oI
T (~~ ±
---lk-"~~
"
to ge nerate a
square wave. The

q
outp ut c ircu its are
"" - 0 . 22uH
.100
-=-
1I}{z,-=-
Out tu ned to the 3r d
R harmonic of the
~ inp ut dr ive .
-
~-

Fig 5.43- lmproved ba lanced d iode

f reque ncy doub le r. Typica l re sis to r
values are from 10 to 220 Q . See text .

blc r shown in Fig 5.4 1. Th is circu it is Odd order freq uency mu ltip lication is
capable of ga in and higher output power also common. Although pos vihle with the
there also be considerable energy at the than is possible with the diod es . A pavsive single de vice circuits presented ear lier, it
funda ment freq uenc y (the input), the 2nd . dou bler followed by an amplifier to regain is gene rally done with a hal anced c ircuit
and the 4th harmo nics of the input. The the pmver lost in the diode, has simi lar that generates a sq uare wave. Mathematics
o nly way to improve the per formance is power con sum ption and spec tral pur ity. reve als that a square wave contains no t've n
through more filtering. The output po wer from the clasvic d iode orde r harm onic s. Fig 5.44 show s a fre -
Not all outp ut components occur at har - duuhler ( Fig SAO ) i s typi ca lly around que nc y mplcr using a dio de brid ge tuned
monics. As with Class C amplifiers, non - +2 d Bm with a + l O-d Hm drive. A curve is for a I u-Ml-lz input with output at 30 MH z.
linear C c~ of a bipol ar tra nsistor can result show n in Fi g 5.42 . Altho ugh output grows The input circ uit prov ides so me impedance
in no n-harmo nic spectral components. with drive, gain dro ps . Gai n tends 10 be transformation from a 50· n source as well
As with mixer s. we reduce the occur- more c onstant wit h the modi fied circuit of as sumc lo w pass fi lter ing that helps to
rence of spurious outputs with balanced F ig 5.4 3 where a bypassed res isto r is preserve a sine wave drive. Diodes d l and
circuits. A ha la nced freque ncy" douh ler j, added to "terminate" the de component. d2 co nduct O il the positive drive polarity
vho wn in Fig 5.40 where two dio des oper- The de signa l also provi de, a convenient while d3/ d4 con duct on the negati ve half of
ate in a ci rcu it that is more tarn:liar 10 us as luning indicator. The ad ded re sisto r the cycle. Note that the curre nt fl owing in
a full- wave power su pp ly rectifi er. Ho w- decre ases multiplication gain at dr ive the inter mediate inductor , shown with an
eyer, we now s hort circ uit the de outp ut le vels below + 10 dBm . However. gai n arrow, is the same for hot h pnlaritiev. T he
.... ith a radio frequency cho ke . ext ract ing is hig her at the highest dr ive levels or mu ltiplication gain for this circuit ca n be
only the 2F output. If t he in put tra nsfo rmer +20 dhm where an outp ut of + 12 d Bm ha s aro und -9 dB, but is level depe ndent. The
I S wel l ba lanced and if the d iodes are been meas ure d. At a drive of +20 db m. rhc circ uit ca n also be tun ed for x5 nmltiplica-
matc he d. it is common for the fund amen- 4x output is -1 dBm. tion with reduced gain. This c ircuit origi-
ta l feed thro ugh fo r this cir cuit 10 be 30 to The drive to a balanced frequ ency dou- nated from Charles Wenze l. t-Thc Web site
..0 dB below the 2F output. Th is c ircu it is bler sho uld be relat ively free of even order in this refere nce is a won derful ly useful site
passive and has no gain. harmo nics. A distor ted drive can destroy wit h many ot her applicanon, listed.
T he diode frequ en cy do ubler idea is bala nce. which co mpromises the suppres- A slightly simpler o dd order mu ltiplier
ofte n ex tended to form the push-push dou- sio n of fundame ntal feed- through . is presented in F ig 5.45 T his ci rcuit.

Mixers and Frequency Multipl iers 5 .17

 2X
1"51 11 2 .2uX 10 nom.
2 . 1 uH
74H C0 4

...L e

m 10~ 3 0 KHz
lUI< 3 3 0u}{ Ou tput
Input
O.22uH 0 .1 ..11 d Bm
2 113904
-l r--s;routput

Fig 5.45-A si mp lified tr lp le r circui t u sing o n ly two d iodes. Fig 5.47- Si mple lim it ing a mplifier u sing a dig ita llC. Her e, B
Th is c irc u it is described in Ihe Web site from Wenzel HEX inverter ge ne rates an ou tput w ith ove r 10 mW at t he
A s sociates. See te xt. f und amenta l d riv e fr equ en c y. Th e inputs to u nused sections
sh o uld n eve r be leN floati ng.

T ra nsm itte rs usin g this sc he me arc pre-

sented later. O ne- e xa mple mig ht use a
1~~;\tH l crystal in a VXO _ The d ivider
output is a 7- MHI sq uare wa ve, h UI o ne
22 ric h in 2 1-M Hl e n ~ rg y. A 5 % ba ndwi dth
rl triple- tuned circ uit band pass filt er se lects
- .,
1K
.,
4 , 0,14
the de sire-d 21 -}'1 1l1. o utput whi le provid-
ing over (iO dB suppre ssion of 7. 14 and
2 8 ~ M H z co mpone nts . This scheme offers
21139 0';
I WO add itio nal adva ntages: First. (he oscil-
K
3 2 lator ope rale s 'It a freq uency that is well
(I x F) / 2 isolated fro m the o ut put. so buffe ring is
~ r /2 1=1 ,3 , 5 ,7 . • extrem ely effec tive. Second. the output is
e 11 7 4HC74
'0
ea vily turn ed o n or o ff wi th the dig ital inpul
Input at - A", allo wing keying wi tho ut disturl:ling

-
-
s. rx
2K
1
5

Iill] 11{ Ba n dpa s s

~
the op erat ing oscillato r. Shaping to rem o ve
clicks mus t be ap plie-d to later amplifier s .
Other dig un l sche mes that ge nerate
sq ua re wave s are use fu l for od d-o rder
Fil ter fr equenc y multi plic atio n. T he buff e r of
Fi g 5.4 7 can serve th is funct io n. For
2 N3904 22X exa mple, lhi ~ circuit co uld be dr iven by a
Q2 V XO at 14.4 MHz and fo ll owed hy a tr iple
2 2K tuned band pass filte r at 72 MHl . Th e sig-

213904 y~A
Q
3
nal wo uld the n be a mplified 10 a le vel o f
+ I 0 d Bm o r so whe- re- it c an be used 10 d riv e
a two d iode f reque nc y double r wit h a
dou ble tu ned ci rc uit at 144 ~l H z . resu lti ng
Fig 5.46-T hi s f req ue ncy multip lier begins w Ith B freque ncy d iv ision by 2 1n a in 0 dB m at 2 m. read)' for use- wi th sim ple
d ig it al Int eg rat ed circuit . The result. aNer d ivis ion . is a very precise s q uar e wa ve . transmit ters or transceive rs .
Odd ha rmon ics c an th en be se lected w ith a su itable bandpass f llter. Th e o ut put Th e e xa mple of r ig 5,47 used a He ,
from the f ilter is typica ll y - 5 d Bm wh en n,, 3. Th e b andpass sho u ld be desi gned l or inve rter. b UI o ther d igital part s arc: a bo
a term ina tion of 1 kQ at the IC end .
usefu l. f or e , ample. an cx c lucive -O g g ate
ca n be used as a d igital ba lanced mixe r,
whic h uses o nly two diodes. ca n also be ccssed with di gi ta l integ ra ted ci rc uit s. T his offer ing 40 d B or g reater su pp ressio n o f
tuned for x5 operat ion. Wh ile we ha ve not provides des ign o ppo rt un itie s for many both "LO" and " RF" input signals be fo re
yet don e- the ex perimen t. it wo uld be ver y intere sting ap plicatio ns , F ig 5.46 shows a bandpass filterin g.
in te re sti ng to e xamin e- the inse r tion o f sc he me we hav e use-d for nu merou s VXO The freque ncy m ultipliers designed hy
revivrancc ill senev with the large indue - based tra nsmit te rs. A sig nal is inj ected at wenzct featu red low phas e noise. Whi le the-
ran ee . Th e tr iple r ci rcu its fro m Wen zel the input to Q I wher e tt is converted to a m ultiplied output has hig her noise than the
work well with either junction d iod es or logic friendly fo rmal. Le ve ls from - 10 10 0 driving source, that noise i ~ wor se o nly by
hot c arrier d evi ce s. alt ho ugh the hoi car- d Bm are suitable. The sign al is then fre- the norma l 20xLo g(N) factor for an ide al
rier diodes are prefe rre d for low noise qu enc ydi vidc d wi th a 7-lHC7-l D-fl ip-Oop. multiplier. The mumphers using digital logic
applica tions. The Wen zel we b site d i...- resultin g in an accura te sq uare wave. Thi s elem ents may well he wo rse Ihan this . We
cusses d iode serecuon. ou tp ut is then applied to a bandpavs filte r huve not performed the me asur eme nts
Sq uare ....'a ves are e-asily created and pro - where the app ro pria te ha rmo nic is se lec ted . needed to cstablivh this perfo rmance.

5 . 18 Chapter 5
5 .5 A VXO TRANSMITTER USING A DIGITAL FREQUENCY MULTIPLIER
The orig inal goal for this project was a
transmi ue r tha t would function on the 3F /2
21-MHz ama teur baud while usin g an 5F /2
available 1 4- ~I H 7. crys tal. The sing le band . .. . . NxF /2

f~~\ uI \ H::{,
/ f'~~'
transmitter d escribed here d evelops an
o utp ut in the 14-MH z band . 28-1IHz and
50 -M Hz designs are presented elsewhere
in the book. . / ~
/ I \'- I -by 2 .. I // / / -: '1
The ba sis for the trans mitter is shown in F ,
the block diagram of F ig 5 .48. A cry stal -s- F /2 \
osc ill ato r dri ves a digita l divide-hy -Z cir- Squarewa ve
cuit to ge nerate a square wa ve at half the
osci lla to r freq uenc y. Thi s waveform is Crystal - F N output F
ric h in odd -order harmo nic s while nea rly 9 _33 3 14
dev oid of even ones. A bandpass filt er is
14 3 21
fabricated to extract the harmo nic o f in ter -
est wh ile suppressing the re st. T he res ul t- 12 . 0 7 3 18.1
ing signal is then amplified to the des ired 18 .67 3 28
powe r. 20
,
5 50
The re ar e sev eral advantages to this
scheme when ap plie d to a tra nsmi tte r
14 . 32 1
20 .57 , 50 _125
72 =1 44/2
de sign. F ir st. the dig ita l di vide r an d re lated
ci rcuitry form a high gain b uffe r. pro vid -
in g exce llent isolation fro m the o utput. Fig 5.48-Block d iagram showing the t ra nsm itt er concept. The table shows some
While a com mo n prob le m with a YXO is possib le applications .

+12V
47 f-::L 0 . 1
3 . 3K O. l , i-

.11. ~ O .1
lN415 2
1K

.2 22
Q5 i~
~+---+-C
.,
f;7 112N39 04
L f--
\lX0 0 ut put
+1 1 d Bm
+ 5V Bi a s t o P . A.<------------- 78 LOS
22 j lK 0.1 ai - e e i .
22

lK
.,
4, 0 , 1 4
_ 100

2 N39 04

I 2N3 9 0 4
2 N3906 7 8LOS

2 N39 04
Q3
~ 2 2K
~ ~ o u t- gnd-in
~r 22 K
EBe

±~
2 N3904
Q4

Fig 5.49 -Schematic f o r the oscillator, d ivider, 14-MHz bandpass f ilter and buffer amp lifier for the VXO transmitter.

Mixers an d Frequency MUltipliers 5.19

o utput variation wi th tu ning , th is ou tp ut is high. and the div ider ge nerates the des ired sequence" keyi ng scheme. sim ilar to one
cons tan t fur th e total tun ing range, T he 4.687-.vl HI out put. 'l he 5 V hias for U : i, ap p lied to v acu um tube tr an sm itte rs of the
os cillator fre q uency is not direc tly related obtained from U2. a low power regulato r. 1950 ', er a .
to the tran smitter out pu t f req ue ncy , so A 2-k U pull up re sistor o n U l ' s Q out - The b uffer ou tput is ap pli ed to a IOO-r.!
th ere arc few pro ble ms relating 10 stray put helps 10 en sure th at th e ou tput goes all pot f unctioning as a Drive control, an d
power amplifier energy in the o scillator the way to 5 V dur ing operation. establish- then to a keyed dri ver, Q7 . This stage and
circu itry F i nauy. the ou tput can be tu rn ed ing the logi c lev el. and hen ce . the RF out - the output power a mplif ie r are shown in
off and on by controlling a di gital reset put level. The com b in ation of the F ig 5.50 , T hese components are on a sep a-
line in the divid er. As such , the re is a pe r- re sisto r an d the ch ip c irc ui try ge ne rate a rate boa rd fro m the earlier c ircu itry . fu r-
fect method fo r keying wi th o ut every load ofap pruximately 1 kn to pro vide fil - ther isolnting the c irc ui ts. Th e dr iver. a
changi ng the osciffator op era tin g fre - ter lo ad in g ill th e inp ut en d. extahlic hin g medium po we r hipo lar feedb ack am pli -
que ncy T he os cillator ru ns continuously the values for C8 and CY , T he fil ter i s fier . is capable of an out pu t or up to
and does no t change frequency during a des ig ne d for a 50-n output lo ad . T he JOO mw. The key ing is do ne w ith QY. a
tra nsmit inte rval, T he u su al mecha nis ms available power at the th ird harmon ic is shapin g int egra to r-switch.
for gen erat ing chirp arc abse nt. about 0 dBm . Th is filter is des igne d for a The ou tp ut amplifier uses an ine xpen-
The os cillator, divider, and f ilter por - bandwidth of 4 00 kH z at 14 MHz. W ith sive HE X FET. So me regu lat ed 5 -V
tion of the 20-m nan smiuer is sho wn in the ind uc tor s used . th e filler inse rtion lo s<, energy i, sto len fro m the oth er boa rd and
Fig 5.49 , i\ cryst al at Y,3731\1JI z rH C-4 9. is about J dB. applied to a pot t hat genera te , hi as for the
20-pf lo ad ) wa s chosen to provide about A bu ffer amp lifie r, Q5. incre ase , the FI--T PA The hia.' is adjusted hy mon itor-
1() kHz of tunin g around the de sired output outp ut fro m the filter to a co mfortab le in g the r ET drain c urre nt wit h a sensitive
frequency of 14,06 MH z. Th e ra nge is ob- + 11 d g m. Q5 is on ly powere d on key -down meter and is set fo r a cu rre nt of close to
ta ined withou t any cry stal series indu ctance . inter vals. controlled by a de laye d switch. I ntA. This amp lifier will run in C lass B .
H ow ever . th e builder m ay wish III add in- Q6. wh ich also provi des the neede d co n- off du ring ke y up co ndi tio ns. all owing the
ductance to exten d the tuning ran ge. The trol sig na l " A" for UI A 4.7 -.u f capacito r usc otc lcctronic TlR switching, How e ver.
outpu t from os cill ator Q l driv es Q2 . co ndi- kee ps th is swit ch "on" fo r a short int erval fo rw ard FE T bia s enhances both gain and
tio ning the signa l for logic cn rnpatihilitv. after key down. T he l -kr.! re si stor in seri es stab ility . T he FET output is ma tc hed with
This then drives <I 74 HC74 divide -by-E chip. with the 4 .7-pF capacitor allow, th e "A" a modified L CC type T -nctwork co nsist -
During norma l key-up conditions. pin I is signal to imm edia tely change with th e in i- ing o f 1.5 and a pair of mic a co mpre ssion
held low by Q3 . Thi s "res et" preve llls any ti al app lication of the k ey while the trans- trim mer capacitors. Th is is foll owed by ad-
out put from appearing fro m the Ie. when mitter o utput is still shaped wi th the cir - dit io na l low p ass fi lteri ng . Th e output is
the key or spot switch are presse d. pin 1 go es cuitry aro un d Q9 . T his create s a "t ime set to 4 Vv' by adj u sting the d riv e and tun-

RF C 2. 7u
P- out = 4W at
+12v ± ! 14 MHz.
E . 22U ; RFC
2 N3 9 0 6
- ~ 2 . 7u 6.2
Spur s:
l ¥ --1~ f
Q9. 22 +5v ~~nl ~lU-O . IU ,.~! O. l u 9 . 373 MHZ , - 7 5 dBc .

680 O. 2 2u ,---. T2 I r-1 f--------+----- ~ 2 811Hz , -60 eae.

, . 7K o. , u ! ·if1 O. l u ~ ~ ~1O; Q8 ~ . ~~~a L6 L7

~
~ 1 °1
Ke y 4L ~ -l
2N386f11 l ~ l~ ~ ~ ~ T l oo
" y~~
~~~~--=- ~:14 I ~~o I ~~41 -
_ 1. 5K I IRF -5 1 0 --=- ~M
f r1 T:0m
vxo ...t? 2 N5 85 9 51 --=- --=- --=-
O. l u Q~li
O" U ~ Dat a f o r 2 0 ne t.e r ve r s a on:

~
Drive
OO 51 0 _~
c
33

1 12 Tl , T 2 , 8 b l f l la r tu r n s o n FT- 3 7- 4 3
L4 , 3 . 3 uH , 2 6 t # 2 4 , T5 0- 2
L5 , L6 , L7, 7 3 0 nn , 1 2t ;; 22 , T 5 0- 6
Ll ,L2 , L3 : 1 4 t # 2 6 o v e r 6 0 % o f T30 - 6
Drive r P- ou t =3 0 0 mW. Cl= 10 0 , C2 = 2 00 , C8=3 .3 , C9=1 0
CI 0 ,C I 4 , CI 7 : 5 - 6 5 F i lmtr i m
CI 2 , CI 5=3 .3 , Cll ,C I 6= 10 0 , C13 =1 2 0
CI 8=33 , c i s - r oc
Y1 =9 .3 7 3 MH z . H~ - 4 9 o r s i mila r .

Fig 5.50-Keyed d river an d po wer amplifier for the tr ansm itt er.

5. 2 0 Ch a pte r 5
 ing the T -n et wor k ca pacitors f or maxi -
mum output.
A subtle ins tabi lity was noted du rin g the
transm itter tum-on proce ss. In a n effort to
make the transmitter as d ean as po ssible,
a n e xt ra 2.7-f-IH RFC had be en inc lude d in
the dr ain li ne. But a low lev el o scillation
was not ed in the PA . A n os c illo scope
ex ami nat io n re vea led a fr equency of
300 kHz. Th is turned ou t to be the result o f
Fig 5 .51-A 21-M Hz ban d pa ss filler. The inductors and the var iab le c apac it ors are a resonance between the 2.7 f-IH and the
ide nt ica l to t hose us ed in the 14·MH z de s ig n .
bypass ca pac itors. A 6.2 -Q res istor was
paralleled across the RFC an d the oscilla-
tio n wa s eli min ated. This ill ustr ates the
sub tlety of wid cband byp assing of pow er
stages in a tran smitter. Sec thc informa-
tion on decoupling in Chap te r 2.
T he only sp ur iou s respo nse s notcd in
the out put wer e at the cr ystal o sci llat or
freque nc y and at the tra nsmitte r 2nd har-
mo nic. b ut the y were below the de sired
output hy 75 and 60 dB , re spec tively . Yc t
the transmitte r i, huil t with no internal
shielding or other complex itie s.
A 21-1\-111 1 versio n o f thi s desig n wou ld
be e specially practic al. for it cou ld m e a n
existing 14- MH z crystal. A 21-l\fHz
ban dpa ss filler is shown i n Fi g 5,51 to aid
the de sign er/huilder in real iz ing a rig fo r
that band.
Altho ugh the di gital divider was ori gi -
nally imple mented for use with simple low
powe r tran sm itters, it le nds itself well to
general-purpose applicatio ns with LC
os cill ators as well as cr ys tal-bas ed des igns .

The 4-W ou t pu t power am plifier is s how n at t he to p of the ph ot o. Th e boar d

inc ludes t he keyed d ri ver, d rive co ntro l po t , an d bi as p ot. Th e bo x ho usi ng th is rig
also inclu d es a 20-met er recei ver (T he "E as y 90-14") d escribed in Chapter 6.

REFERENCES
I. S. Maas, " A GOlAs I\fES FRT Mix er with ofAna lliR In tegra ted Circuits, 2 nd Editio n. Fre que ncy B alanced Amplifier," feb 27.
Very Low l ntc rmo d ulation." I EEE /HTr - Wiley, 1984. 1968: an d Kurnkawa and Englehrechr. "A
35. ;.,ro. 4. April, 1987. 7. B Zavrel. W7SX, "Feedback Tec h- Wtdeband Low No ise L-Band Balanced
~. W . Hayward. " E xperimen ts with Pri mi- niq ue Im prov es Active Mi xe r Perter- Tra nsistor Am plifier:' Proc IEEE. Mar,
tive FET Mixers," RF Design; Nov, 1990 . mancc .' RF Desi gn, Sc p. 199 7. 1lJ65.
3. E. Ox ner. " A Com m utation D o uble Bal- 8. B. Zavrel, \\'7S X, " Double Balanced 1 1 .T . B . Ste phensen.rReducing IM D in
anced Mix er o f H ig h Dy nam ic Ran ge ," Mi xer and Os c ill ato r" . Signetic s NEI High- Lev el Mixe rs : ' Qf""X, \-lay/June,
Prnceed ing s of Nf" J'echnology Expo '<'\6, SA602, Xov 9, 1987 . 200\, pp 45 -50 .
A naheim. CA, pp 309 -3~3 . See also Nt ' 9. W. Hay war d, "Cj-Rvcncrs," QS 1', Ju ne, 12. P. Hal-I' ker . "G3SB l's Hig h Pe rfor -
Design , Fe b, 1986. 1976, pp 3 1-35 . man ce Mi xer". Te ch nica l To pic s.
~ . W. Hayward. "Experiments with Primi-
Rad io Communication s, Sop/Oc t. 1993, pp
to , K, K urokaw a, " De sign T heo ry of B al- 55 -56 ,
tive FET Mi xers." RF Desig n; \"OV, 1990 , anced Tra ns istor Amplifier s," Bell Sys tem
5. Li and Corse tro , Microwave Journal, Techn ical Journal, Vol. 44, No. 10, Oct , 13. C. w enz cl. "1'-." ew To po logy Multipli er
Oct, 1997 . 196 5, pp 1675 - 1698 . See als o R. S. Gen erate s Odd Harmonics.' RF
Engelhrecht, US Pat e nt .' .37 1,28 4, " H ig h Design, J uly, 1987. See also ww w .
6. Gray and Meyer. Anotvsis and Design \V enl ei.co m/docum en ts/ zdtom ul t .h tm l.

Mixers and Frequency MUlti pl iers 5 . 21

 p:
CHAPTER

-
Transmitters and Receivers

6.0 SIGNALS AND THE SYSTEMS THAT PROCESS THEM

The basic building blocks uf amplifiers, microphone input. A recei ver o utput from The act ual signa ls are difficult to handle
filters. oscillators. mixers, and freque ncy a CW signal is gene rally a rathe r pure sine with si mple equations and are diff erent for
multipliers have been discussed . We now wave, per haps at a freq uency of WOO Hz. every voice. So. we a ppro ximate a voice
begin to combine these components to build Mathe mat ically this is signal with se ve ral sine wa ves. The base-
the equipment that pro vides com mun ica- band example WI: use (F igs 6.3 a nd 6.4 )
tions. We begin the chapter with a look at has thr ee tones of f l = WOO, f:" =2500, and
CW, AM. DSB, SSB. and FM sig nals. Block Eq 6.1 [ 1 = 400 H I with re specrive ampli tud es of
diagrams are then show n for the equipment 0-.6. J. and 0.5 V. T he total bas eba nd sig-
we build to deal with these signa ls. Late r whe re vft ] ind ica tes that the voltage is a nal is
sectio ns will present detailed design meth- function of tim e. f is the frequency in HI.
ods and examples . and t is time in secon ds. G raphe d in the
Signals are pr esent ed as equations. We time dom ain, the tone is the famili ar sine · o(t) =O.5,in(2K f,t)
then show graphs in t he time and fre- wave, Fi g 6.1. The en ergy is co nfined to a
que ncy domains , the res ult s we would single frequen cy, so the spe ctr um. or fre- + 0.6 sin (2 IT f r} Eq 6.2
obser ve with either a n oscillosc ope or quenc y do mai n repre sentatio n is a single:
spec tr um ana lyz er. Thi s discussion is not line. Fig 6.2 . T he I-V amp li tude has a
+l sin(2 ITf1 t)
intended to be comp lete. but is mer ely a spec tr um with a height of I V. It is more
ske tch of signal fo rms. A c omplete treat- common with in the radio frequen cy de- Tra di tio nal a mp lit ude mo du lat io n is
ment is fo und in com munications tc xts .! sign arena to see spectra cal ibrated in term s fam iliar as an AM broadcast signal. Th is is
The fi rst s ignal we cons ider is the audio . of po wer. gen erated by cha nging -or modulating at
or bas eband repr esentatio n. Th is mig ht The h uman voice is not a si ne wave, but an audi o rate- the am plit ude of a earner,
represent the outpu t of a recei ver or a vo ice a combina tion of ton es form ing compli- T he carrier is mere ly a single sin usoid.
signal tha t we appl y to a transmitte r cated patt erns i n bo th time and frequency. A frequency o r 100 kl-l z is used in our

Sin ,A udio Tone

, >1--
~ .
E 0.'
~ I-
e
v( t) ,
•f
I-
! "=
- O.J ." I-

-,
0
,, ic
"c,
~ c
c , ..
,
1 0 00 1500
Fr equenc y, H,
,
20 00

tiJne, millise ~o lld5

Fig 6.2- T he 1000 Hz aud io tone In t he

Fig 6.1-A si n g le a ud io tone as a fu nc tion of time . f req ue ncy doma in .

Transm itters and Receivers 6.1

 B as eban d time domain
1. n _

,
"c
~

>
," -
j
-".
>

0
; ,
03""
'"" F l' Aq'"""
uency ,
'"
Fig 6.4- The frequenc y-domain graph of
Fig 6.3- T he time-domain graph o f the three audio tones. the t h ree audio tones.

exam ples , T he graphs and equa tions ar e ex ceeding t he or iginal carrier am plitude A double sideb and sign al resul ts when
the same as the ea rl ier sing le-tone audio for part o f the c yc le . The frequ en cy au dio is applied to a bolcmccd m od ulator
sig na l. except th at the freq uenc y is high er , domain gra phs show that ex tr a e nerg y to dr iven by a local oscill ator. The re sulting
The carrier am p lit ude is mo dul ated to he co nt ai ned in the Frequency domain side - ou tput for a si ng!e modulating audio tone i s
gen erat e the AI....1 signal at Eq 6.3 . ba nds while the ca rrier remain s co ns ta nt
with no audio var iation. Thi s is easily con-
" (t)=(t+OJ'irr(2rr f"",, I)) firm ed by o bservation w ith a spectru m
ana lyzer or receiver that will resolve the El l 6.5
x sin(2 1t(t) carrie r fro m th e sideb and s.
Eq 6.3 A lOG-kHz carrier modulated hy th e wh er e th e first ter m is the audio while the
where fe' is the carr ie r freque nc y of th ree- tone base band signal is sho wn in second is the c arr ier. Th e term with unity
100 kHz and [a ud is the aud io freque ncy of F ig 6.7 a nd Fi g: 6.8 . in Eq 6.4 is mi ssing from Eq 6.5, ind ica t-
I k Hz. The o.s factor is a m od ulat ion The multi-tone ampl itu de modu lation is ing th at th e carrier is no lo nge r pr es ent.
inde x and indic a te s 3 0 ~{ mo d ulat ion. The descri bed hy T he wa ve form s ar e shown in Fig 6.9 an d
time dom ain signal is shown in Fig 6.5 .Fig 6.10 ;
wit h a spectrum in Fig 6.6 . The tw o curve s The resu lt of a double -s ideband gene ra -
are related th rou gh appropriate ma them a t- to r driven w ith the multiple-t one au dio is
ic s , which fol low [rom th e tr ig ide nt ity Ell 6.4 then
sho wn in the Trig laentities [ or Sigrurl
Analvsis sid ebar. A detailed mathematical where the sine tcnu repr esent s the carrier " J; b (t ) = sin ( 2 IT f u t)+ sin ( 2 ;r fu ()
analys is will a lwa ys tie the two doma ins and vbttj is the baseband signal fro m Eq 6.2 .
T he fir st set of parentheses on the right side -o- O,6 sin ( 2 rr f u l ) ->- O.6 sin ( 2 rr fLi t )
together Mo du lations th at are si mple in
one domai n are often complicated and of the equal sign in Eq 6.4 contain s the unity
+ 0.5 Sin ( 2 ;r tU.i 1) -o-o.5 "in ( 2Jr I'u l )
messy in the other. ter m. which leads to the carr ier in the final
The time doma in wa veform shows that result. and the complex aud io signal vb(t) Eq 6.6
th e amp litude of the RF sine wave varies. that ge nerates the sidehands. where the frequenc ie s sho wn represe nt the

100 kHz r an i er 30 % modulate d b 1 kHz

_, '---_ _-'--_ _----" --'--_ _---.J

>
u 1000
,
J OOO socc '00' -"
~

;" "'----+.--"--~;;;_--'--~!o_---'-
99 mo 101
Fr equ ency , k H2
Fig 6.5- The carrier amp litude here is 1 V. Modulation ca uses
the amplitude to depart from this value. The energ y appears
in the f igure to be a so lid mass of energy, but if we zo o m in ,
plotting only a sma ll fraction of the curve shown, w e w ill see
the details of the RF oscillation. This c o u ld be done Fig 6.6-Frequency -doma in representation of an AM signal.
experimentally with an oscilloscope t riggered from the RF The carrier at 100 kHz is modulated at 1 kHz to generate two
waveform . sidebands be low and above the carrier.

6.2 Chapter 6
 T ri g Identities for Signal Ana lvsis
In hig h school trigon o metry c lass you may have lea rned some use ful identities. One of them relates the prod uct of
two sine funct ions:

Our analysis of amplitude mod ulation started with a carrier of amplit ud e A:

A ;.i n( ,)~ t)
where we '= 2nfc is a carr ier freq uency e xpre ss ed in radians/s ec , with f e in Hz. The amp litude is allowed to vary
about a base value.
A '= Au ( 1+ rn sin (wa I) )

wher e OJa is an aud io frequ ency in rad ians/sec and m is a modu latio n ind ex. The modula ted wa ve beco mes:

v(I) '= An(1+ III sin (m" t})~in (w<

.I) which expands to:

v ( t) = An sin (roc t] + An sill (wc I) m si n ((p)o t)

The Iirst term is the carrier , which varie s on ly wit h li me al the carrie r rate , U1c. The second term is the produ ct of
audio and RF ca rrier sine waves. Expansio n with the ide ntity yieldS:

Anmsin (ro, I).,;n ("'c ,) = Ann{ ~ c", [(ro, - ro, )tl-~c", [(ro, + "'. )tl]
and then:

Anmsin (ro, ,)<;n(0), ,) = Anm[ ~ co, [h [r, - r.),]-~ cos [2, (r, + f.)tl]
The two cosine waves on the right are th e low er and uppe r sidebands of th e AM sig nal.

A..'\t Sian-a! ",ill, 3 lone audio 30 ~. mod.

r ier

if ... . ( 1)
•
0
V
>
,
1 -,

II
0

_, L
o
_ _ ---'- '---_ _ ...L._ _ --' -" r

" ,a " 10 0 1111 102 10 3

Freque ncy , kH z

Fig 6.7-A th ree-tone baseband signal modulates a 1000kHz Fig 6.&-Frequency-domain view of amplitude modulation
audio ton e. with a three-tone baseband signal. The two side band
reg ions are now shaded .

, ,• ' f-
- I- - t- - - . 0
> f-
..., f- Supp r e s s ed
Carrier
u
, f-
,
- - - - -i
< ,
.. /
u •
'"
Fr eq ue n c y ,
o ' 000 3000
"'" ' "'
Fig 6.9-100-kHz dou ble-s ideband Fig 6.10-Frequency -do main view of a
output with 1·k Hz audio. time, miero:'iecoJUls esa sig nal with a single audio tone.
Two outp ut frequencies are created.

Tran smitte rs a n d Rec ei v ers 6.3

 upper an d lower sideband components re -
D ou ble Sideb an d fr om 3 tone audio
,I su lling fro m a udio com ponents at f l , fl '
I and fl ' The D SB sign als are sh own in
,
~
"' Ydsh( l )
"
- --- F ig 6.11 and F ig 6.12.
A single sideband (S SB) signal I S
] - de scr ibed by elim inating o ne of the side-

!"
ba nds For this example . we re tai n the
-:u I - - -- uppe r sideband, re~ ult ing in
. , I
o 1M
,
100a soec 1M V "b (t ) = ~in (2Il fL'2 t )
tim. , microspconds + 0.6 sin (2 II fL' ! r} Eq 6.7
+ OJ sin (2 IT f U.1 t)
Fig 6.11-Dou ble sideband with a multi-ton e aud io , t ime doma in.
T he corr esponding gr aph s arc H g 6.13
and .F ig 6.14.
T he SSB signal , when view ed in the Ire-
, quency domain, i.<, really nothing more than
,, Supp r es s e d
Car r i er
Fig 6. 12- an exact rep lic a ofthe origi nal ba seband sig-
nal, except tha t it is no w tran slated lin early
,:.--------
Fr equ ency -d oma in
repr es en tati on of to a higher fre que ncy. If a lower sideband
DSB w it h mu lt iple-
- ,,, signal had bee n ge nerated . it wou ld hav e
ILSB I ,
,
IUSBI to ne aud io. T he
up per and lo we r
been a rep lica of the original wi th an inver-
sion .T hat is. what had started as a high audio
sideb and parts o f
the spe ct rum ar e frequen cy of 2S0{) H z now appears as the
lowes t frequency.
I i' l
h ig h lighted .
A freq uen cy - modul ated signal is de -
scribed by
sa
" 99 1 00
Freq uency , kHz
101 1 02 10J

Vfm (t) ",

Eq 6.8
sin [2 1l Ie (1+Jllsin(2nf" tnt]

If we pick a lO-kHz carrier and mod ulate

Single sideband signal with 3 tone audio it with a I-k Hz audio sign al. we see the time
I
do main signal of F ig 6. 16. The amplitude is
, I con stant. but the freq uency varies.
Extracting the spect r um for this signa l
is mathematically muc h more d iffic u lt
than it was with the oth er signals. Fur t he
., aud io sin e wave is now insi de th e argu -
men t for the bas ic »ig nal be for e modula-
-, I tion . as se e n in E q 6.8 . Signa ls appe ar
about the carr ier. spaced by the aud io fre -
c l ~OO 4QOO
que ncy. However, se veral set s app ear. A
I kHz au d io to ne pro duce s signal s at +/- 1.
time , mic....second.
+/- 2 kHI and so on , as sh ow n in Fig 6.17.
Th e st rength ofthe sideb and s lind the ca r-
Fig 6.13-Si ng le-sideband signa l f r o m a t h ree-to ne bas eban d inp ut . rier depend on m. st ill a modul at ion ind ex,
and arc describ ed by Bess el fun ctlons.?
No FM equipment is described in th is
ho ok. but the eq uation s are included for
s u ppr essed Ca r r i e r completeness.

,~ Fig 6.14-Spec t rum

of a single- B lock Diagrams
, Missi n!J : jussj s ide ba nd si g nal
resu lt ing fro m a
We now ex am ine bas ic tranxmiuers and
,
~ Lowe r receiver s, beginning with simp le CW ge ar.

"
'0
~
"
Sid eb and
' ,, t hree -tone
baseband aud io
in pu t .
A Cv.' transmitter ge nerate s a carr ier at a
single freq ue ncy with no mod ulation o ther

~ '-----+--+--+---+.L...t-
',,' than the off-on keying that im poses the fa-

sa
,--L+-- miliar encoding. A simp le CW transmitter is
shown in F ig (j.18 , The circuit begi ns with
" 99 100
Frequency , kH z
1 01 10 2
'" an osci llator operating at the fina l o ULp uL fre-
qu ency. Typical os cillaLor, are usuall y fol-

6 .4 Cha pter 6
 rive 10 this , With the transmitter output at
10 kHz carrier, 1 kHz audio , Fl\!I
a multiple uf the oscillator fre quency, it no
longer has components withi n the band-
width of the oscill ato r tank, so is not sus-
.•, ce ptible to the pulling mentio ned. Indeed,
.
&
v( t) it is often practical to buil d tra nsmitters
with no inter-stage shie ld ing whatsoever
o" i f mu ltipliers arc use d. A bandpass filter is
used at the multiplier output to suppress
direc t feed -through from the oscillator and
harmo nies- other than the desired one -
that arc often present. The f ilter can often
t he as simpl e as a single resonator if the
time , milliseconds
multiplier is just a ba lanced freque ncy
Fig 6.16-T ime doma in representation of an FM signal. doubler. More often, we use do ub le or
tri ple luning at the output of multiplier s.
A mixer is often used with in a CWtrans-
the frequen cy to change (pulling) wh en the mitter with a band pass filt er to select the
amplifiers are keyed on . The outp ut frc- desired freque ncy, shown in Fig 6.19, This
qucncy then differs from that wh en the example has a 2-MHz variable-frequency
amplifier is off. oscillator. a 5-MHI crystal-controlled os-
T he modified circu it of Fig 6, 18B uses cillator . and an output at 7 M j-lz. Th e VFO
a fre quency multipli er bel ween the oscil - tunes a ISO-kHz range 10 co ver the C W
lator and the power amp lifiers. The hufr- port ion of the 7-MHz hand . The bandpass
crin g action of a fre quency multiplier is filter must bc wide en ough 10 pa ss the
, I I , profound. Si gna ls travelling from the out - ent ire range . but should not he a lo t wid er,
I I I I I I I put backward in a buffer remain at the for sp urio us mixer prod uc ts must als o
1 8910111213
output frequ e ncy. T he butter input, in- bc supp ressed by the f ilte r. Th e :'i-MHz
FI:el£llency, ldb
cluding the oscillator. is not usually scnsi - component will be suppressed by balanc e

Fig 6.17- Spect rum of an FM signal,

10-kHz carrier w ith 1·kHz audio. T his
gra p h repr es en ts what we m ight
o bse rve w ith a typical spectrum t - ou t
an al yzer. We often see p lots like th is
with some components below t he :l'- osc
fre q uen cy axis, ind icati n g a sign
change when frequency is modulated
rat her than amplitude. Fil.ter

lowed hy amplifi ers (perhaps several) 10 in-

crease output power. The [m al bloc k is alow -
pass filter to remove harmo nics.
(TYM;:~~I
1 )Jnl ~ ~ ~ 0 ' 0" " nx F-os c

The amplifiers serve the addi tion al b andl, a s s Lrn.

func tio n of huff ering the oscillator. Buff- t ~ l.te r Pas s
(B ) t _n"'t _o s c Fi l.t er
ers may have low gain. but have much
more gain in the normal forw ard dir ec tio n
Fig 6.18-Simple CW tra nsm itters w ith a master oscillator and a p ower amplifier
(ha n in the reverse on e. A typical 20 -dB are t rad it ionally ca lled a MOPA des ig n . Design " A " has the os cilla to r and amplifier
gain design might have a ga in of -30 d B in operating at the same frequency w hil e that at "8" uses frequency multiplication,
the reverse direction. This serves to pre -
\ ell! large tran smi tter output signa ls from
reaching the osc illator. Com mon -ba se
(gate ) amp lifiers usually feat ure excelle nt
re verse isolatio n. f -out
A crystal or an l.C resonator deter mines
the oscillator frequency Thc osci llator
Cow
should be shield ed from the re st of the bandpass
P a ss
trans mitter to preven t trans mitter output t i l. t .. r
FiH er
components from reaching it. An oscilla- r ~<

tor is mos t sens itive to sign als at freque n-

cies within the loaded bandwidth of the
re so nato r co ntrolli ng the oscillator.
Hence . shield ing is especially important Fig 6.19-A CW transm itter using a m ixer. Freq uen cy stability is im p ro ved owing
for the simple trunsmi trcr of Fig 6.1S. Poor to use of a lo we r frequency for the va riable-frequenc y oscillator. Ca reful bandpass
shield ing or inadequate bu ffering allows filte ring is req u ired at the m ixer output to p reserve spectral pu rit y,

Transmitters and Receivers 6. 5

 in the mixer, but may often nee d to be fur- simple CW transmitters. Heterodyne where it can be heard. This may occur in one
ther atte nuated by the bandpa ss filter. A me thods arc also useful when hui ldi ng lu- step in a direct-conversion (including regen-
typical circu it woul d often use a triple - cal oscillator systems for SSB or sim ilar erative) receiver or in several steps in a con-
tuned fil ter if inte nded to me et modern eq uipment. ventional superheterod yne. The key element
standard s. A CW signal is received by heterodyning in a direct-conversion receiver is the mixer,
Th ese methods arc not rest rict ed to the radio freq uency energy down to baseband or as it is usually called in application s with
an audio outp ut. the product detector. The
input signal. usually relati vely weak. is ap-
bandpas s plied to the RF port of a mixer drive n by a
:filt e r strong local oscill ator. Two mixer outputs
Audi o
Ou t p u t will appear. but only the audio difference fre-
quency is used. The signal is usually ampli-
\ fied further and is applie d to headphones. A
block diagram is shown in Fig 6.20. The in-
,= put preselec tor filter protects the rece iver
Pass from strong signals at frequ encies far re-
F i lt er
moved from those being received. The low-
pass filter routes audio to the amplifiers while
preventing other mixer products or mixe r
feed-through components from reaching the
amplifier. Direct conversion receivers are
covered in much greater detail in Chapter 8.
Fig 6.20-Direct-conve rs ion rec eiver. The incoming signa l is app lied to a mixer An instructive ex peri menr tunes the fre -
where it is con verted directly to audio wit hout intermediate process ing. quency of a signal gen erator attached to a
di rect co nversion receiver. One will then
he ar an audio be at note, th e d ifference
frequ ency between the gen erator and the
receiver loc al oscillator. T he output
freque ncy is shown in Fig 6.2 1 as a f unc -
tion of ge nera tor freq uency . Tuning the re -
These two po ints produce cei ver with a fix ed generator pro duces an
identical output resp on ses. identical result. T he respo nse is doub le
sided: for e ver y tuning of a simple dir ect
conversion receiver, the re are two differ-
en t input frequencies tha t can produce the
same outp ut si gnal. One response is called
the audio image of the other. This mak es it
challenging to use such a receiver in se-
verel y co nges ted ba nds. But the simp licity
and other good qualities of a direct con-
version rece iver will ofte n co mpensate for
this problem.
The traditio nal solu tion to the audio
Signal Genera tor Fr e q u enc y, Hz ima ge problem is the sing le-signal sup er-
heterodyn e rece iver show n in the bloc k
Fig 6.21-Tuning response of a fixed-tuned DC recei ver while vary ing a signal genera-
tor applied t o the input. A 1000-Hz beat note is ava ilable from t he generat or at diagram of Fi g 6.22 . The inco ming signal
two different generator f requenc ies. One response is the audio image of the other . is processed in a presclccto r filter a nd the n
appli ed to a mixer. The o utpu t is still at a
radio frequency. but one that is different
n ..rr_ from the incoming signa l, an intermediate
Pr es ele c t o r
S..,,,tpau pro du c t Au d i o freque ncy, or IF. T his 7-MHz receiver uses
:l'ilt e r
:l'll ter d et ector Au d i o a 1-:\1H /. IF wit h an LO in the 6-MHz re-
Ou t p u t
gio n. The I-MH z signa l from the mixer is
f iltered with a narrow bandw idth circuit. It
is f urther amplified and applied to a second
, =, mixer , now func tioni ng as a product detec -
ban dp a ss tor to produce an audio out put. After some
:l'ilt e r
aud io gain , hea dphones are driven. The LO
6)
6 -6 . 1HlU
for the prod uct detector is c alled a beat fre-
quency oscillator, or BFO.
L o c al Assume that the I-MHz IF filte r has a
Os cilla t or
bandwi dth of 500 Hz , centered exactly at 1
Fig 6.22-A s imple sing le-conversion superheterod yne recei ver featu r ing a MHz . The receiver LO will be tnned to
" single-s ignal response." A narrow utter, usually using a quartz cr ystal , 6.040 Ml-lz. This means that the incoming
follows the mixer . signal s that will produce an o utput arc ccn -

6.6 Chapter 6
 anced mixer. It will bo driven with a suit -
able RF local oscillator and low le vel au-
dio from an amplifi ed microph one. The
output, shown ear lier in Fig 6. 10. cont ai ns
Restricted Resp onse of the two sidebands symme trically spaced
Single Sign al Superhet. about a suppressed carr ier. Further amp li-
fic ation and lo w-pass fil tering completes
the transmitter, A simple DSB transmi tter
is sho wn in Fig 6.24 . A typical simple DSB
transmitter will have a ca rrier that is sup-
press ed by 30 10 40 dB wit h resp ect to ei-
the r side hand. Altho ugh simpl e and com -
patible with exi sting SS B equ ipm ent. DSB
I J I I tran smitters are rarel y used today, largely
d ue to the excess spectrum used.
S ign~ l GQn e r a t or Fre quQno y , H2 Audi o i ntel ligence is impressed o n the
sig nal in DSB and SSB transmitters with a
block trad itio nally shown as a halanced
Fig 6.23-Tuning r espo ns e 10 Ihe single-s ign al supe rhe t. Th e o utput fr om a single
so ur ce oc cu rs in a sing le a rea o n t he dial. modulato r. The mod ulato r is really JUSl a
mix er wit h a partic ular ap plic ation . It is
usuall y a hal anced c ircuit. for that is the
mech an ism use d to suppres s the carrier
tcrcd at 7.04 MHz and occur in a do ub le side band si gn al. (Do ub le-s ide - output. See bala nce in Chapter 5.
SOO-Hz band, 250 Hz on either side of ban d. Full-carrie r amplitude modulation is The direc t-con version rec ei ver shown
7.04 MHz. Signal s within that band arc thc of gre at histor ic interes t, especially to 0::01- earlier (Fig 6.20) will allo w DSB sig nals
only ones that will produce a n IF out put . lectors, but is not the most-used method of to he rece ived. Each of the two sidebands
Set the 1:31-'0 to 0.999 MI-lL, 1 kHI away vo ice communicatio ns today . \Ve won' t will be heterodyned do wn 10 ba se band
from the IF center. An IF sig nal at I .\lHz trea t the me thod in this buok.) The key cl- where the y wi ll add to produce an aud io
will then produ ce a I-kHz bea t not e. But eme nt needed to ge nerate DSB is a ha l- o utput. It is vital that the BfO be exactly
the only hea t notes that are posvihle for this
BFO se tting are in a SOO-Hz wide span from
750 10 1250 Hz. Repe aling the ea rlier ex-
periment perfo rmed wit h the direc t conv cr-
sia n rece iver yields the result of Ft g 6.23.
A singl e-sig na l res pons e ca n also be
_.
Audio
Au d io
L ow p a ss
1'ilt e r
BlI.l.mc e d
Hodula tor
RF Low pass
Fi lt er

DSB Ou t p u t
obtained wit h phasi ng methods. and re- "t 1'0 .
la ted schemes . The se arc covered in detail
in Chapter 9.
Mi cr op h on e
L oc al 'V
DSB
Let ' s return to the transmitt er problem.
Os c .
, ..
but now con sider t he ge neration of a Fig 6.24-A dou bl e side band t ra nsmitter.

Harrow

_.
Aud i o
Aud io
L o w P dS S
fi 1t er
B U llJl c ed
Modu1 at o r
b an dp ass
1'i 1 t e r RF L ow p as s
Fil.ter

SSB Output
f r om ( f c + ] OO)
t.o
RF Ampl 11'i e r ~
rec-a oe-ss . /
Mic r op h o ne

BW
Ca r r i e r

t1' c+ ] OO Hz
ee 1'c+] OO+ OO

Fig 6.25-A t raditional SSB tran smitter using t he f ilter met ho d. A na rrow f ilter fo llows a balan c ed mod ul ator to re move o ne of
tw o sideba nd s p res en t o n t he DSB ou tp ut of the modulator.

Trans mitte rs and Recei ver s 6.7

(In the frequ ency of the sup press ed carrier. is a sma ll pos itive difference f reque ncy. site-sideband e nergy trans mitted hy a
This is so diffic ult in practice that a DC Thi s va lue is greater tha n the carrier, so properly designed and adjusted SSH trans-
receiver is normally not suit able for DS B this is an upp er sid eband. Because the LC mitte r. that does not mean that the spe c-
application s. ban dpass is configur ed for a diffe re nce trum where that opposite sid eha nd wou ld
The mo st popu lar metho d used to ge n- outp ut, the sig na l output will be (FLO - have bee n is not used. That spectrum is
era te SSB is show n in Fig 6.25. Th is is (Fc+o)). which e xpa nds to (FLO - Fe - 0). usu ally occ upied by another SSB stat ion .
traditio nally called the filter method. for a This is less than the suppressed and trans - If a direct-co nversio n rec eiv er was tuned
narrow bandpass filt er is use d to select one lated carri er at (F I,o- Fe), so we now hav e to a desired signal. the undesired signal
of two sideband s ge nerated by a bal anc ed a lower sideband signa l. A designer must would pro duce complete ly garbled audio.
modula tor. See Figs 6. 12 and 6.14 . The always be aware of such inversio ns, They mak ing simple direct-co nve rsio n receiv -
other dom ina nt way to get SSB is the ph as- can be useful for the designer, for cry stal ers unsuitable in a dens ely populated band.
ing method . treated in great detail in Chap- fi hers without ideal symmetry (lowe r side - A superheterodyne receiver like that in
ter 9. The phasing method is based upon band ladder of Cha pte r 3) are easily built. Fig 6.27 is usua lly used to receiv e SSB.
mathemat ics foll o wing f ro m the Trig lden- The simple direc t-co nversion receiver The incoming signal is filte red in a
tiries for Signa! Analysis sidebar ear lier in Fig 6.20 is effective in rece i ving an SSE prcsclcctor. hete rodyned to an IF, and is
in this chapter where multiplication of signal. Th e diffi culty that we encou ntered passed through a handpass filter. The
two sine waves is perfor med with 11 doubly with DSB is no lon ger prese nt, for there is bandw idth of that filter, usually bui lt with
balanc ed mixer. no coheren t information in the spectrum quartz crys tals , is wid e enough to pass all
The SSB transmitter shown in Fig 6. 25 formerl y occupi ed by the sup pres sed side - of the speech spec tr um that is transmitted.
has a seve re difficu lty-it o perates at onl y band to be heterodyned to base band. elim i- but little more. A typ ica l SSB receiver will
a single freq uency, that of t he filter used to nat ing the need for extre me stability . If/he have a hand width from 2 to 3 kHz . The
generate the sideband. A pract ical filter- BFO is in err or by 100 Hz, the received filte r sha pe is fairly flat ove r the pa ssband.
type SSB transmitter topology is prese nted voice may sound un usual . but will still be but then has steep skirts so that energy in
in Fig 6.26 where an SSB signal is gener- intelligible . an adj ace nt "ch annel" wil l not inte rfere
ate d at a n i ntermedia te freq uen cy. The Even thoug h there is negligible oppo- with the signal heing received . The nar-
res ulting SSH is then hete ro dyned to a
des ired o utput freq uenc y where it is
bandpass filtered , amplif ied , low-pass fil-
tere d, a nd app lied to an antenna, Na rr ow
band pas s
Ass ume the narrow f ilter use d to create
f i l t er P ro duc t
the SSB sig nal at If is configured to create Pr es e l e ct or
miK e ~
a n upper sideha nd. For exampl e, let
the carrier freq uen cy be 9.000 Ml-lz with
a fi lter extending from 9.0003 to
9.003 11Hz, a bandwidth of 2.7 kHz . Set
the LO to 37 .4 MHl a nd desi gn the LC
bandpass filt er 10 co vcr 28 to 29 MHz. The
resultin g signal is the n at 28.4 Mllz . The
transmit mixer has bo th sum and differ-
ence freq ue ncy outp uts and t he LC
bandpass has selected the diffe rence. pro -
ducing a carrier ou tput of (F U) - Fe ) for Fig 6.27-A tradit ional supe rh et 5SB rece ive r. Th e response fro m o nly one
the supp ressed carrier. The sideba nd fre- sideba nd is all owed owing to the narrow-band width crysta l fi lte r and the
quency with in the IF will be Fc+o where 0 relationship of the BFO freque ncy to t hat fi lter .

"
_.
Audi o
Aud io
L ow p ass
:t:i l t e l'
Balanced
Modul.a to r
r
h and p a S S
:t:i l t e r IF
, Amp l if i er
RF Powe r
Amp li:t: ier
RF L ow p ass
Filter

s sa
Uu t p ut

(3 m ~)
O U MHz)
Mi c r o p h o n e ( ~I t o B MH z )
Car r i e r
(ls c .
(h aseband )

'0. ~ Loc<>J.
( ~ . UOO U ¥.IIzI Oscillat o r

F -LO
'-_---' (3 4.1 MHz)

Fig 6 .26- A practica l f ilter type SSB tra nsm itter where a mi xer translates the out put of a fi xed-f req uency SSB generator to a
variety of outputs.

6.8 Chapter 6
 Nar row
Balanced b an dpass r, c
Audto
Modula to r ~ t~ t er Bandp a" s
Audt o L ow p a ss Rec e iver RF
:t t 1 t .. r ft1ter
Amp~if i e r

~g
An t e T\Jla

Mic ropho n e RF Low pass

Fi l t e r
O"c. (r )
=,
BFO(R )

TX RF Power
Amp~tf i er

Produ c t
De t ector

Fig 6.28-An SSB transceiver, a system for both rece iving and tra nsm itting an SSB signal. Economy and ope rat ing
convenience are ga ined by sharing elements between fun ct ions. It is most common to share oscillators and a c rysta l filte r,
which is done he re. This circu it also shares a mixe r between the recei ver and transmitter, and uses a bid irectional IF
ampli f ier, a ci rcuit t hat , with dc s witching, will amp lify signa ls moving in either direction. The amplifier circu its are presented
later in t he text.

row bandpass filter in the SSR receiver is throu gh the num bers to confirm the be- recep tion of DSH signals. Th e filter in the
followed by IF amp lifiers. a product de- hav ior. Using pop ular vernacular. "You recei ver rejec ts o ne of the sidebands
tec tor with BFO , and an audio amplifier. do the math. " present at the receiver anten na terminal.
The BFO must be carefully set in the SSB The SSB receiver, although designed to Fina lly, we sec that com bining Figs 6.26
receiver. It should be fixed so that one edge receive SSB . is also well suited to CW oSo and 6.27 will result i n a tra nsce iver where
of the f ilter (a - 6 dB point ) corresponds to lo ng as the filter has good stopband at- many circuit clements can be shared be-
an aud io note of about 300 Hz. The orhcr tenuation. the response will also he sing le tv..een tran smit and receive functions..Most
edge wi ll he determi ned by the filter band- signal. as can be confirmed hy repeating transceivers share all osci llators and the
width, Typically the BFO is at a point on the experime nt we ha ve done with both crystal filter between the two functions.
the filter response that is 20 or 30 dB below the direct conversion and the CW super- Fig 6.28 shows a typica l bloc k diagram.
the nominal, flat respon se. The same con - heterodyne. Readjustment of the BFO ca n here with a des ign that also shares a mixer
straim s arc used in setting up the carrier compromise the sing le signal characteris- between functions, and uses a bidirect iona l
oscillator in the filter method transmitter. tic . An SSB filter is oft en cons idered too amplifier. No matter what schemes the de-
The SSB rece iver can produce sideband wide tor opt imum CW perfo rmance . espe- signer may elect to usc , he or she should
inversio n just as we illu strated in the trans - ciall y in a hea vil y used hand. take car e to preserve performan ce in both
mitte r. The build e r/designer should gu The SS H receive riv also well suited for tran smit and receive func tion s.

6 .1 RECEIVER FUNDA M EN TALS

A receiver is characterized by numc r- from an or ig inal sign al. Hence, local <Ire required.) The expe riment use s a 50-n
ous param eters . It mus t have considerable oscillators must be sta ble with respect to audio-s ignal source with known o utput
gain, for the signals we wish to hear are the stability of the signa ls bei ng proce ssed . power. Sec Chapter 7.
weak. The recei ver must also be selective, Filters that pr o vide selectivity mu st be A larg e coll ection of monaural and ste -
allowing sig nals with only slightly differ- wide enough to pass the des ired informa- reopho nic hea dpho nes were examined, old
ing freq uencies to he isolated, received. tio n related to the received signals . The and new. The two car-piece , were
with useful information pro cessed. The gai n must be ge nerated without adding usua lly op erated in ser ies . Th e typi cal
receiver must also incl ude det ection in one ex ce ssive noise. Re cei ver performance phone s were low (4 Q) to medi um imped-
form or another, producing an output fre - specif ications generally relate to how well ance (20 to 35 n per side), often represe nt-
q uenc y that we can hear. The detection the various requ ired jobs are do ne. ing a reasonable impedance match to the
may co nsi st of a rectifier that extract s We beg in our recei ver inves tigation with SO-Q gene rator. The sig nal so urce W<:IS
informa tion abou t ampli tude variations of a primitive exp erimen t, an examination of adju sted with each headphone set until a
the radio freq uency signal. a discrimina- head pho nes. the gene rally preferre d trans- signal was j ust detectable in a quiet room .
lor that evalu ates signal frequency. or a ducer for conv ening an electric al signal The mo st sensitive head pho nes were
mixer excited by an LO with a frequency into sound. (Altho ugh we all len d to ob solete , inexpensive types consisting of
at or very clo se 10 the inco ming one. assume that headphones are opt imu m, little more than 2-ineh diamete r speakers
All functions must be executed in a way some wil l argu e that a speaker is preferred mounted nex t to eac h ear. Two pai r from
tha t does not compromise the information for weak signals. Individual experimen ts our collection wer e capable of producing

Transmitters and Receivers 6.9

:I de tec table o utput with a n available input em when po wer was firs t app lied . Wh ile in sect ion ::! .6. NF is a mea sure of the deg-
of - 85 dBm. Tha t i c, the applied signal wa~ the noise was not so loud as to be obj ec- radation of signal -to- nois e rat io by a pro-
85 dB belo w one milliwatt from a tio nable. it would obscure some we ak cessing eleme nt. be it II co mple te recei ver
50-0 audio source . ~i .!' n ah we expected to hear. W he n a or a single stage.
Se veral of the phon es we re nearly a... sig nal generator was attached a nd Let's assume that we wish to infcr
se ns itive incl uding so me ne .... e r Kos ... adjus ted, the be st \\ e co uld he ar was about receiver not.. e fig ure by driving the
TD/65 (90 n per side) u...ed for routine -130 dltm. wel l a w ay from the - 140JB m receiver with a signal generator. The input
co mmu nicat ion.... The Kess sensitiv ity ....'a.. . ex pec ted with ma ny sim p le direc t-con - signal powe r is esta blis hed by the avast-
-80 dBm. with better clarit y th an vers io n receivers. ahle powe r fro m the generator . (This may
provided by many othe rs . Several light- w hy is t his receiver so noisy? Litt le differ from the actual po wer deliv e red to
weight ine xpensive pho nes (Sony Walk- no ise is gen erated in the firs! clem ent in the source. j
man cia, s) had sens itivity from - 60 tu the system. the diode ring mixer. a passi ve Input av aila ble noi se pow er is that avail -
- 70 dBm. Ve ry ol d high impedance clemen I witho ut gain. Rather. the nois e in able fro m whate ver resis tor might he
phones ha d sim ilar sens itivity. bUI o nly this des ig n is generated in the a mplifier att ached to rhe input. give n by
after being impe dance matched. that follo w's the mixer.
A typ ical listen ing le vel will be sig nifi - This no ise i.... not the res ult of a poor Eq 6.9
ca ntly higher than ou r threshold, but Mill op-amp c ho ice . but a poor design wi th
...-el l below a milliwatt . from the se e xperi- respect to no ise . Nega tive fee dback in an where I.. is uotumanns constant. T is tern-
men .... w e will assume that a mi nimum am plifier red uces inp ut impedance. The perature i n kel vins. and B is the ba ndw idt h
receiver must he capable of producing an impedance looking into the inverting in Hz in ...hieh the noise is observed . The:
o utp ut of - 50 du m fo r the wea kes t sig nal amplifi er input of a 553 :!. with a 5.6-H l standard te mperature: used for no ise deter-
to be encountered . The weakes t signal ... f eedhack resistor. is about I n . We mod ify minations is ::!90 K. close to a norma l roo m
thai we no rmally e ncou nter in HF C \ V th is with an added series 56-Q resis tor to tempe rature. Thi s noise po...er is inde pen-
com munic atio ns are -J30 to - 140 d bm. ge nerate a 57-n imped ance to approx i- dent of the resis tance. The noise powe r is
indicating a needed gain of aro und 90 dB. mately ma tch the mixer. a requ irem e nt for dicrrib ured uniformly o ver all freque ncies.
Alt hough this is a subj ective result, it rep - low mixe r distort io n. The available ~ i g ­ If receive r bandwid t h is increased. t he
rese nts a desi gn beginnin g. nals from the mix er are all absorbed . but nois e pow er Increases accordingly .
Our fi rst simp le receiver is shown in o nly the fraction of the pow er deli ve red to Auachin g a roo m tempera ture resistor
Fig 6.29. A high-gain audio amplifier with the l -n input i<, amp lified. The re mai ning to the inpu t of a receiver provi des a so urce
low inp ut and output impeda nce was bu ilt powe r is merely co nverted to heat. All of of noise , T he sig nal ge ne rator . with its
with a gain of 87 dB. The am pli fier is the available noi.. e current from the input o utput resis tance . will also serve this func-
co mbined .....it h a n external diod e ri ng resistor flows in the op-arn p input. The tion. If the gene rator level is c han ged by
mixer. 7-:\t Hz local oscillator and input result is poor noise fig ure. a deg rad atio n anenuanon. output re...istance seen by the
75-MHz lo w-pass filte r ttl fonn a com- in the input sig nal- to-noise ratio in the Ptv- rec eiver remains con Slant to maintain a
plete d irect- c o nvers ion receive r. An cess of amplification. Thi s amplifi er is co nsta nt avail able noise power.
a ntenna was co nnected. producing n ume r - co ntrasted with the popular des ign where The o utp ut signal a nd noise are mea-
ous si gnals in the 40-m band. The receiver the first audio amp lifie r is a com mon-be....e sure d by attaching a load (usually a
had the usua l bright res po nse that Il.e bipo lar transis tor. In that decign, almos t speaker or ear phones) mon itored by an ac
expect from direc t-co nversion designs. all of the available power is presented to voltmeter. ide ally o ne that provides a true
(DC recei vers are di...c us sed in much the activ e de vice. rms res pons e. Noise o utput can he mon i-
greater detail in Chapter 8.; The fun dament al rece i ver param eter tored alon e hy mome ntarily t urning the
The ampl ifie r did more than mak e the used to characterize the noise that limit !'> generat or off. When the signal is again
sig nals lo uder. II gen erated noi se . appar- sensi ti vit y is noise figure (1\'1-' ), introd uced applied. alon g: wit h the input 1111 i\ ~ . the

-+ 5 to l 100
100u
I
-+ 1 5 " lOOK 100
27K
lOOK t:;I l I OOU
u2 r1;";'Wv-;~,..J •• ~
,
lOOuH
" ' . ./
~~ + 2 ~~---cl+:I~f-(~
_4 1 10 0 ; OOU

l
~ 0 .22 1 0 K
• 22 5 . 6K 1 3 0K lO OK U3
Medi um Z

U1 e . 6K 5532 dual
c p-amp
I 145B I h e a dp h on e s

.m"

Fig 6.29--A ba ste di rect- co nversion rec etver. An aud io am p ll fl e r w ith a gam 01 87 dB follow s the diode rin g. See text lor
disc ussion.

6 .10 Chapte r 6
 ou tpu t "i ll he an o utput sig na l + no ise T he human car and brain a re a vita l pa n o f
Net UF _ J. ? dB
powe r. An o utput signal-to-noise rat io can me cu rnmu nic ario n, system a nd they an:
then be ca lcu lated. Xoi se fi gure c an then c apable of acting like II f iller of consid er-
he calculated ably narro wer band width than the vo ice
Noise fi gure is usuall y mea sured with a ba ndw idth of the rece ive r. T h is effe ct is
noise sou rce of kno wn power. usually well obse rve d with both widc ba ndwidth supe r- Kf'1.. 3 dB
above the noise pow er ava ilable fro m a he terodyne d esig n.. a nd di rec t conversion Gain 1 • 12 dB
~90- K resis to r. See Section ~ . 6 and noise rece iv ers. Ind eed . many seasoned weak-
Fig 6.3G-Exa m pl e c alculation fo r noi se
measureme nts in Ch ap ter 7. si gnal VilP emhuvia-as including moon - fi g ur e of a ca scad e of t wo staqes.
Th e greut es t virt ue of no ise figure as a bou nce speciali ..ts normally uve ....id er
receive r paramete r is that it is band wid th SSB-ha nd widl h filte rs.
invaria nt . If we inc rease the ba nd wid th Man y argue that noise figu re is rarely a
duri ng a t\ F mcasu rc mcm. wc wil l proc esv sign ifi can t receiver parame te r. especia lly
more noise in the receiv er. Bu t the o utp ut for Hf recep tio n. An :-.If o f 10 ur 12 d js at
.... ill ;IlslI increase in pro portio n. leavi ng ~~ ~ IHz . With m uc h h ig h....r nu mb er s at
the not- e gain. the ratio of o utput noise to lowe r frequ encies will usuall y p rovide as
in put not-e. a co nsta nt. much sensiti vity as one can usc. A pracri- 8-<lH I\ F. Rel ated power ratios arc F l = 2.
..1,nether mea sure of rece ive r sensiti vity cal rec eiver re st is ver y s im ple : while F: = 6.3. and 0 1 = 15.8. y ie lding F '" 2.].\.
j_ minimum discema ble signal. or ~fl)S, lisle ni ng to back ground no ise 011 a ha nd, or NFl\[T '" .1 7 d B T he fir st sta ge noi se
T his is the av aila ble inp ut signal fro m a disco nnect the an tenn a. I f the noise dro ps per fo rman ce dominates in thi s ex ampl e.
gene rator lha! will cause the output power signifi cmllly. the reed vcr ;-';P is a~ good a s On ce we know how to evaluate a cascade
tu increase by ] d B ove r wha t i> present it needs to he. of t wo sta ge s. we c urt appl y the p rocess in
without the a pplied si gna l. In th is condi- N r is muc h mor e imp onum a.. a devign "Ie p" to e valuate an arb itrary ca sc ade ,
lion the sig nal and the noise have equa l pa ramet er. Th e e" e IK'C of mod ern re- incl uding a n en ure recei ver fro nt end.
o utp ut po we rs. ceiv e r de cign i-,a q ueer for dyna mic range. Many of the circuit blocks that we U Sl.".tJ in
~f DS is directly rela ted to roo m tern- and NF specifies the lower end of suc h a receiversand tra nsmitters are roo m tempera-
pera ture .\ f by ran ge. turc p;.l ~sh e pan ~ with no gai n el e ments.
Equation 6. 10 relare-, NF to MOS. vug- These include not o nly the popular passive
\ IDS (d Bm) = -174 d Bm + ;.IFld R) ge stin g that li ttle i" to he ga ined with switching-mode mixe rs. but ane nua tor.. and
... 10 10g1 R) Eq 6.10 nne mel )! lo w noise flgures . Clln~ider. fo r fihers . Generally. the l\""F o f a passive circuit
examp le. a rece ive r with a ~OU-Hl band- equals the insertion lo,s o f that circuit.
We measured the no ise figu re of tine of width and J -d B KF. Equation 6 .10 pre- Hence. a diode ring: mixe r with a 6 dK co n-
our receive rs to be 7 d B with a nominal d icts \fD S of -1 48 d Bm . Dro pping noise version loss (gain =-6 dB) will have a 6-dA
bandwidth of 51X) Hz. Eq 6.10 then pre - figu re to a spectacular 0.5 d R res ult.. in NF. A handpa.'os filter wit h an insertion lo ss
diets !\lDS of - 140 d Rm. ,.\ direc t mea- on ly a 2.5 dB sensi tivity imp ro veme nt to of ~ dO will. si mila rly. have J\'F = ~ d R and
vurement of MDS whe re we loo k for a - 150. 5 <IB m. T his is \\ h,1I a carefu l MDS Ga in = - 2 d R.
.l-d B inc rea se in o utput a bove the noise measurement wo uld de monstrate. But in H~ 6.31 illust rates a receive r front e nd
flo or a ~ we appl y sig nal produced an al- re ality. the pra ctical improve ment co uld where several eleme nts contrib ute to the
mml ldennc a l re cuh of - 14 1 d Bm. he much more th an this , T he d ile m ma noise figure. Th is circ ui t will include an
II i~ i n le n: ~ t i ng to lis ten to lh i_ receiv er co me s about when wc pick a noi se tern - RF amp li fi.:r. fm we ;lre i ntcn:~l l: d in re la-
with lhe sig nal gr:nr:ralor a lt;.ll.:hcd. Wr:fin d perature of 2'J() K for our sla ilda rd. This tiv el y lu I.',' noi se fig ure. T wo ba ndpa _,
that we c an hea r thc MDS. but mIt mU~'h ~'ho ice dd i nr:d lhe "inp ut" T w ise in Eq 6.9. f ilter, are lIsed . The f irst is a s ingle reSOlHl -
furt her into lhe no ise. But if the inp ut noi s.: re sulled nol frum the lOr ah.:ad of the RF am plifier v,.h ile the
We now i ncrcasc thc reccivcr band width 290 K rcs islor rela led ttl o ur mea sure ment, ~ eco lld is a d lluhle tu ned circuit. A d iodc -
to 2A kil l b~' sw ill.:hi ng in a ne" cr y~ta l hut from a n ante nna po imed at a quiet part ri ng mixcr is fo llo wed by a feedb ar \. a m-
filter. ine rca si ng. the ban d widt h fa ~· tvr of lhe ~ ky . lh..: inp ul n"i ..e migh t we ll pli fie r that u..e s a bi polar Ira nsisto r wit h
in Eq 6.10 to ] 3.8 d B. \IDS b~'co lllcs rclate 10 a resistor with ,I te mpc ralure a ~ high d~' em iller e urrt:/lL Th e o ve ral l ca,,-
-133.2 d Bm with a 7-d B noise fi~ u re . A lo w as ~ O K. A mo re refined cakulation cllde ha~ net ga in o f 15 d B an d a net no i~e
meas urement will usua lly confirm this wo uld show Ihlll ~ I DS "uuld be as low as fi!!url:of7 .1 d K.
nu mher. :-.lois.:: m ea~ur ement in II wide r - 15!! dB m fo r this example . A re lat ed con - Fro nt-e nd band pa ss filt e rs us ua ll)' d o
bandwidth i~ ~cncrally casier Iha n it i~ with cept of noiJ(, tt'mprrlllur/' \\oa~ u.sed 10 not im pad o\oerall noise fig ure. In the re-
narrO" band s)~te ms owing 10less fluctua · obtain th is result} eei\'e r e'\ample jusl pres ent ed the s~!st(' m
tion in the meter mme ment. BUI major The no ise fact o r of a two-s tagc cascade ba ndwidth is de tennined by a cl)stal fi ller
errors ca n and often do ()I:cur as a re sult of i, that follow, the allenuator. Th is fil te r is
..light gain \'a riat io n.. wilh frequency in
eilher the IF or Ihe reLei\er audio eir-
le, - I) usuall y nar row (J kHz o r less) and the two
F= F. + E q6.11 UC b,mdpass filtcrs sho wn a ~ Ihe firsl and
l'ui try - erwrs thaI gcnn ate a narrower G,
third element" in thc ca>.cade arc wid e l a
noise bandw idlh Ihan c"pcctcd. " dire!.:t whe re f is the net nuise fac to r. rl and r~ fe" hu ndred !..H I). T he cry"ta l fi lter the n
:\ F measu re ment is ge ne ra lly pret'erred a re the no ise fa('to r'> ti1r the first and sec- "e ts the overall response. Th~' bandpass
lI\'er o ne of \IDS. where only a rat io of two o nd stag e , and 0 1 i" the av ailahle pow e r fil tc rs in the casc,tde ha\ e no morl: impact
noise po we rs must be delc rmin.:d. ga in for the fir st stage. All nu mbers arc on nu ise fig urt:: lh,m ,m alle nual0r \\l)uld.
An ide al t ee e ive r \\ j l h me asu red \1 DS power ratio~ and not dll \"l l ue~ . T he ..ituat ion wo uld he cons ide rahly d if-
co mme nsurate w ith the filter BW will o f- Consider an ex am ple sho \\'n in F ig6.3U, fe rent if thc nys t1l 1filter was r.:pl;.lced wi lh
te n leI a l i~tcne r hea r sign al s that ar e much The fir st a mplifier has II ga in of 12 d B and a wid e LlC fil te r with equal or wider ban d -
wcakl:r th;.ln in diea \l::d by Ihr: :\I DS . Wh) '? ;.I J -dH NF \vhilc lhc _ C ~'ond stagt: has ;.ln width than thos e in the front cnd . ~

Transmitt ers and Recei vers 6 .11

Some RF Amplifi e rs a n d ance to the inp ut if the va lue for opt imum wi th Ll = 1.26 ~H and CI '" 39 pft . The
Nf is k nown. We didn't have that d ata for noi se match point that we inferred was
Attenuators the 1310 , b ut we re able to fin d h ints. Spe- r or-r '" 0.89 at T. ·~
Many modern Hf receivers usc no Rf cific a ll y, Ch ip Ang le. :!\6CA . ha s built A common so urc e JFt T should be
amp lifier , for adequate noise fig ure can be amplifi ers with the U3 1() for seve ral V HF ca pable of lo w noise perfor ma nce. T he
obtained without it. Most commercial gea r bands . The U310 is the same chip. but is p ract ical difficulty in huild ing su ch a c ir-
ha s a NF of 10 to 12 dB at and below packaged in a meta l ca n wit h the ga te cu it is often stab ility Cascodc co nne cted
30 t\.111 z. A practical sensiti vity lest was attached to the ca n. We we re able to ana - JFE Ts sho uld he consi dered. Neutraliza-
ou tline d above . There arc some sit uatio ns ly ze his circuits and scal e his input net- tion is also prac tical. althoug h rare ly used .
where an RF amplifier can be useful . e ve n wo rks to lowe r frequency. T he result was Th e humble source foll ower sh ould not
at HF. This is especially true at 2 1 and an amplifier with a mea sured 1.5-dB NF, be d iscou nted as a low-n oi se amp lifier. A
28 Mill during periods of margi nal propa- but with a poor input matc h and gain of suitable circu it is shoe.. n in Fi g 6.34. A
gation. It is then usef ul to swi tch a low o nly 12 dB . T his occurred at 2 1 MHz link-cou ple d in put drives the gate through
no ise amplifier in to the signal pa th. Such
a n ampli fier is not normally needed and
sho uld no t be used merel y to make signals
louder. We will illustrate a fe w circuits that
we have built, used , and measured .
A favorite RF amplifier is a common I System NF '" 7.1 dB
gate JFET circuit. A 1310 is used for HF
applic ation s, whi le a U31 0 is preferred for NF 1"or e ac h s t aqe :
VH F and U HF. (T he surface mou nted ver- , <ill • <ill , <ill , <ill 6 dIl 6 es
sion of the 1310 should be ex cellent for
bothl) The basic amp lifier is shown in P r e s elect RF Amp . Bandpass Mixer Po s t Amp
F ig 6.32. The FET is bias ed for a cu rre nt
of 12 to 14 rrtA. determined by FET l DSS
an d source res isto r. The ga in is on ly about
2 dB with this amplifier if the d rain load
resistor. R, i s set at 680 Q . In spite of the
lo w ga in. the ampli fier is still very useful.
It ha s a good input and output impeda nce
Gain for each s t a q ,,:
match, so offers a good in terface to fillers - 1 dIl 1 2 dIl -z <ill -s <ill 1 8 dIl - 6 dIl
and mixers. It is mos t usefu l for the exce l-
len t reve rse iso la tion. T he rev erse gain
System Gain'" 15 dB
(5 12) Via s measured as --43 dB. T his is
an exc ellent amp lifier for use with direc t
co nvers ion rece ivers when atte m pting to Fig 6,31-A six-stage cas cade showing a typical recei ver front end , The stages
red uce tuna ble hum, disc ussed in Ch apter con sist of a wide f ilter, an RF amp lifier, a steeper ski rted bandpass fi lter, a d iode
ring mixer , a post-mi xer amp lifier, and fin al ly, a 6-dS attenuator.
8. The circui t is turn ed o n with VCOl'"ROL
= +5 or so. The gain is re duced by 40 dB
when turned off.
Gain goes up to 6.5 dB in this ci rc uit
whe n the drain load resisto r is eliminated. FT-37-43 Toroid

r
Tn that co nf igurat io n, the thi rd or de r OUl- 1 J310 100 15:5 t
put intercept was +28 dfim . measured at RF In
14 M l-lz with fairly fl at gai n up to 50 MHz .
(Intercepts we re introduced in se ctio n
2.6.) Lo wer freq ue ncy per for mance is im-
proved with a larger inductance Rf ch ok e.
Higher gain is available if the out put is
tuned. shown in }'ig 6.33. T he output drai n
27 u "R"
1[1 RF Out

I
120 1
res istan ce for this am plifi er is close to 120
10 kQ , allowing it to form one te rminatio n
of a ban dpass filter. The variatio n shown
v.ccmo 2N3904
+12V
wi th a single tu ned output circu it has a typi- J 310
10K 14m A
cal gain of 12 to 13 dB with a SO-Q load.
Th e 50 -il input mat ch is a IS-dB ret urn 10K -
loss. Noise figure was 5.0 dB at 2 1 MHz.
Th is amplifi er ha s no tuning at the -
input, for C 1 and LI arc bo th large. Lo wer
nois e f igure is oft en obtained with a su it-
able inp ut net work. on e that usu ally
degrades inp ut im pe dance match . Th e DSG
design er can generally design an inp ut Fig 6.32-A common-gate amp lifier us ing a J FET, The 100-0 resi stor al the drain
netwo rk that will pre sent a needed impcd- suppresses UHF oscil lations, See text regarding the dra in load resist or, " A."

6 .1 2 Chapter 6
 a tuned circuit with a sizable impedance
tra nsformation. Th e output is then ex -
trac ted from the source with a ferrite trans-
Close up of form er , An exa mple amp lifier mea sured
co mmon -gate gain o f I I d B with NF == l.Sl dB . No stabil-
lo w-no ise
amplifier us in g ity pro blems were no ted , The output match
a J3 10. was good. although the input is sev er ely
mismatched ,
Dual gate MO SF ETs make excell ent RF
am plifiers as sho w n in F ig 6.35 . T his cir-
cuit was tu ned for bot h the 2 1 a nd the
14 MH z band s wi th simi lar resul ts obtain
wi th eac h. T he 14-M Hz circ uit is shown.
A pi-network transforms the j O-n source
[0 -look like" an impedance of l OOO n at

gate- I o f the FET. The ne two rk was

+ 1 2v '"' des igned for a Q of 10 and used an existi ng
2 .7 -~H RFC. The dra in is ma tc hed wi th a

'n " T '" ferr ite tra nsfo rme r follow ed by a 6- d B

I J310 I --=- Ou t
pad , T his a mpl i fie r provide a gain of

~ l'c~~
16.5 d B (incl udi ng the loss of the pa d) with
a 3.6-d B noi se figu re. The circuit had an
r.i ca output interc ept o f + 12.5 d fim.

-
, T he gain is oft en excess ive wi th dual-
gate MOSFETs. Better overall rece iver
." . ,'".
,
Ll :
ca :
L2: m
nH
~
""
" 2 8 , T3O -6
s
dyn amic range i s affor ded by red uc ed
gain. The pa d help s. but it comprom ises
the amplifier inte rcept performance. for
- - th e amplifi er must have a 6 d B hi gher
cz : 2 - 1 8 pF
in tercept 10 get the quo ted va lue. E ve n the
e3: aa
e4 : ., " 1200 -12 drain lo ad resisto r compromi ses
1.\ 10 performance. Source degene rat ion
" provi des an alternative . achieved by dis -
con necti ng the source by pass capacitor.
Fig 6.33- A 21· MHz RF amplifier. Thi s circuit, w it h t he v alues shown, p rov id es a G ain d ropp ed 109 dB for the circuit shown
gain of 14 dB w it h a S-dB no ise f ig ur e. Redesign of t he input net work produced a (w ith pad ), and the noise fi g ure increased
NF of 1. S d B, but w ith reduced gain of 12 dB . A sh ie ld betw ee n the source inp ut
ci rc u it an d the output drain circu it is ad vised, espec ia lly if high-Q s o len o id coil s
slig htly to 4 .1 dB wit h DI P3 == + 14 dBm.
are used . It is generall y not req uired w hen using tcrolds, although t he gate should The low-Q ind uctor used in the input pi-
be grou nd ed w ith sh ort lead leng th . network compromises the noise figure. Re-
placi ng it with a toro id dr opped the
3.b -dB NF IO 2.5 dB. Even lo wer values are
avai lable if a hig her impeda nce is c hosen

.., for the pi network. The inpu tmatc h is very

poo r with all variation s of this amp li fier.
Ma nv o f the fee dback am plifi ers
" descr ibed thro ugho ut this te xt ar e sui tahle
fo r RJ-' am plifier applic at io n. T he nois e
do Figures can bc in the 3 dB area wi th come
T ~ 0 -6

1 : 23
n::=-
"
2U~ 4~4
I·
-
trans ist or s. For example, we have me a"
sured a 3-dB Nf with a 2SC 125 l operat-
ing with 2 0~ m A e mitter cu rren t.
\t:;
The mo dern trend in amateu r rece ive rs
.,. is to incl ude an R F am plifier that can he
L- •• switched into the ci rcuit if needed. That
switching is best do ne wi th re lays.
+i\\
,.• • y altho ugh PIN diode s can also be used if
done with extreme c are to avoid second -
ord er intcrmodulation lt is also common
Tl : 10 bif ilar tur ns II to include one or two atrenua rors that ca n
FT3? - 43 or siJUlar
he switched ahe ad of a rec eiver. An
att enuaror eq uall y decreases the strength
of all s ignals reach ing t he fro nt end. Often
Fig 6.34-Source foll o wer function in g as a low -no ise amplifier. The drain res isto r the signa ls we are trying to copy are strong
serv es to suppress UHF parasitic os cillation s. The c o mpon e nts sho wn will tune enough that an atten uat ion of 10 d B will
fr o m 6 to 22 MHz. nor cause a sensit ivit y problem. Th e rea l

Tra ns mitt ers and Receivers 6. 13

 T1 - 6 dB
+12 1 0 0
. l I l 0 0K ~
- .

In
:il -1 0o o I
3N211
Tl: 2 0:4 t, F T3 1- 43

.1 Cl: 210 pF Fig 6.36- A 50·n, 10· dB pad usmg

C2 l OOK u{11 C2:

Ll:
51 p F n omina1
2 .1 uH RFC
sta ndard resistors and a togg le switch.
Short lead lengths should be used to
prov ide good performance over the HF
region. Relay swit ch ing could also be
used.
Fig 6.35-Dual-gate MOSFET AF amplifier. This versio n used an RF cho ke at Ll
with Ou = 50. A higher 0 inductor will drop the ampli fier noise figure. See te xt.

Dual-Gate MOSFET
Avail ability
T he dua l gat e MOSFET was a
ve ry popular cons umer device fro m
1970 to 1980 and was read ily
ava ilable fro m a number of sou rce s.
T he part prov ides low noise ,

51 ,
R4
Q1~8J ns 51
mode rate to high amp litie r inter-
cepts , and reaso nable pow er
consu mpt ion. Th ey also offe r good
R9 AGe perfo rma nce. They a re now
mo re difficult to obta in th an they
we re in th e past.
But Dua l-Gate MO SFETs a re st ill
availa ble. Several su ppliers in
Japa n con tinue to ma nufact ure a
R6 variety of co mponen ts . The NEe
15

Ii
3S K 131 is an exce llent pa rt, but it is
ava ilable on ly in a surfa ce-mount
form.
Phillips manufa ctures a la rge
1114152 var iety of dual-gate dev ices . These
.0 1 ;- are ofte n listed in som e US cata -
logs , Aga in , these devices appear
., .> pred ominantl y in SMT forma t.
10. Genera lly, it is quit e straightfo r-
ward to subst itute on e MOS FET in a
V- c on trol
circuit des igned for an other. T he re
may be a few diffe rent biasing
\t: 21170 00 deta ils, but thes e ca n be extracted

~
from data sheets, wh ich are gene r-
ally ava ilable on the Wo rld Wi de
39" ~-~ We b , Expe rimen ts may be requi red

1 if data is not ava ilab le .

Fina lly, most circuits usi ng dua l-
gat e MOS FETs can be bui lt with N-
channel JFE Ts in a cascade
co nfigu ration . T his is illustrated in
Fig 6.37-A 10·dB pad using electronic swit ching. A bridged -Tee pad (R3, 4, 5, 6) is
switched with low-cost MOSFETs . During thru operation, 0 1 is on while 02 is off . the IF amp lifie r part of this cha pte r.
0 2 comes on duri ng attenuated operati on. Current consum pti on is about 1 rnA.

6 .14 Chapter 6
utility of an aue nuaror is that most disto r- The typical miniature toggle switc h works attenuation posi tion with the Q2 gate low .
tions d rop faster with signa l strength than well for pads of this son with 10 to 20 dB The Q I c hannel is then held at 6 V . But
the signa ls themsel ves. Hence. if strong attenuation. when Q 2 is turned on. R6 is switched to
signals within a ba nd are ca using gain A sch e me is sho wn in Fig 6.37 where RF gro und . The de potentials also change
compression or intermodulauo n distor- 2:'\7000 MOSF ETs rep lace a mechanica l to tum Q I off. We mea sured an inse rtio n
tion, a slIl;a1 1decrease in the st rengt h of the switch . The FETfo are both RF and de loss 01'0.38 dB with thi " circuit. with a 10
offe nding signa ls can completely elimi- s w itehes in this application. A pair of re- d B gain step. The 1 ~ - ~I Hz IIP 3 e xceeded
nate the problems. sisto rs. R I and R2 . create a6-V supply. R9 +35 d bm duri ng low attenuation. and wac
A passive anen uator is show n in f ijo: 6_'\6, will bias Q I into conductio n in the 10" +26.5 dB m in the attenuation position.

6.2 IF AMPLIFIERS AND AGe

A super heterodyne rece iver uses an ure. incl uding the la,s of any filter ahead ve rter. The recei ver is (hen completed
intermed iate freq uency betwee n an initial of it, can have a maj or impact on system thro ugh d igital ca lcul ations. Distor tion
mixer and detector. primarily as a means for performance! withi n the IF amplifier and the A-to- O
obtaining selectivuy. h is this selectivity that The di stortion properties of IF amp lifi - converter become vita l.
<elects the sideband received. or provides erv will become more import ant in emerg - In the fol lowing pag es we will co nside r
~ i ngl e-<;i gn a l CW recep tion. The IF is the ing receiver topologies. These receive rs. a number of IF amplifier circuits . We will
usual place for adding and con troll ing re- largely based upo n digital signal process- exa mine them for noise figure. gain. gain
ceiver gai n throug h voltage control . ing. usc wide IF fillers followed by an IF variation. and l MO. Som e co mplete IF
Voltage-control led gain is usually real- amp lifier drivi ng a n analog- to-digital con - systems will be shown .
ized with ime grared circuits. But thc most
POPUbH pan s arc slo .....ly, but surely dis ap-
pearing as the co nsumer mar kets evolve
toward larger sc ales of inregra rio n.
Acc ord ingly, this sect io n cont ains 1.....0 Cr ys t al.
goa ls. First. we ho pe to illu strate some IF F1l.t er
amp lifie r methods that can be ap plied be-
fore the semico nd uctor s dis appear. And of
greater impo rt. we hope to illustrate some
methods that others can usc to develop
their own IF ci rc uits.
Ear ly s uperhe ts used tuned IF amp lifi-
ers, pro viding selectivity throu ghout the Fig 6.38--The trent end prese nted ea rlie r in Fig 6.31 Is combined with a c rys ta l
amp lifier while mod ern de signs us ually tilter of kno wn ins ertion los s , followed by an IF amplif ier . It the tuter has a 10-dB
use local filte ring . Sign als exit a mixer , IL, a 7-d B IF noi se figu re will produce a sy stem NF of 10.6 dB .
pas.~ through a filte r (usually buill fro m
quartz c rystals ) 10 reach the IF a mp lifie r.
As such. the IF a mp lifie rs are protected
fro m strong ou t of band signals. the
so urces of pe rformance-compromising
..,
.,
dis tortions . Reaso nable linearity is still
useful 10 preserv e low in-band distortion. •• u , ..E-:J...
-

.., • ,
~I
Th e import ance of IF noise figure is
illustrated in Fi g 6.38 where we calcula te MC135 0P
• Fig 6.39-Am pti1ier
lor e xa minatio n of
receiver noise fig ure for a system with the
front end treated ea rlier. The front end had • the MC1 350P. Gain
is reduced by o ver
-b' •
a 7. I-d H :-:F with tot al gain of 15 dR. We
stan wit h a Ius;,)' crystal filter with lO-dR I, J-h J- 12 : 1 2 : 5t
60 dB by inc reas ing
the dc c urre nt into

-::bl.J '
insertio n loss and find that overa ll system pin 5.
noise figure is always abo ve IOdH, eve n if
the If NF is as lo w as 3 dB . A more rea l-
istic filter Joss uf 3 dB pro vides an ovcnul
NF io the 8 to 9 dB region . even with fair ly
noisy IF amplifier s. IF Amplifie r noise fig-

Tra ns mitters and Receivers 6 .15

 "
ae J .J K

A..l.1 t rans i s t or s
210 "'0 '\
11 : 111 bifi~ ar
t u r n s I' T37 -4 3

Fig 6.40- Blpo lar t ransist or discr ete IF amplifier wit h gai n Fig G,4l - Slm ple gam-contr olled amp lif ier. The Ins et sh ows
redu cti on using the same mechanism as used in th e the use of two PIN d iod es to in c r ease the co n tr o l r an g e
MC1350P. Con tro l rang e was 70 dB, expe rimentally sli ghtiV w ith the sa me co n tro l c urr ent . Many d iode type s wo rk
controll ed with a 10-kll man ua l IF ga in . with th is ci rc uit ; s ee text. T he lO- kO pot es ta b li sh es ma n ual
IF ga in.

6.6 d B. inc reas ing to 14. 1 dB wit h lO-dB

gain redu c tio n. Chan gin g RT to 220 n wi th
a new ma tch in g tran sfo r mer prod uced Iur-
ther deg radat ion .
Fig 6...JO chows a brea d boa rd c irc uit
wit h inte rnal workings similar to the
·J350. altho ug h the Ie has add itional d if-
fere ntia l input an d o utp ut buffe ring. T he
Q l collector c urrent pa sses throug h Q2
thai op erates as a co m mon base am pli fie r.
Ga in is redu ced by increas ing the base bias
on Q3 '<;0 tha t emitter cu rre nt and signal
curre nt are bo th robbed from Q2. Thi s cir -
cuit p rov ided mea sured gai n o f 16.5 dB.
70-08 ga in-co ntrol ra nge, and goo d TMD
pe rforma nce. Nois e fig ure wa s 7 dB at
ma ximum g ain. b UI degrading 10 19 d13
with 10 -dB gain re duc tio n. We no ted a
no ise pea k whe n Q2 and Q3 c o nd uct ed
Fig 6.42- AGC a mplifi er w ith FETs and PIN di odes. Manua l gain Is cont ro ll ed with equal cu rrents. C areful e xa minatio n re o
the l l)-kn po t.
vealed the sa me effect with the :\fC 1350.
A bipol ar transis tor circu it us ing PI;.l·
diode emitter dege neratio n is sho wn in
The: firer a mplifier presented u<'e<' the termin ated with a ferrite tra nsform er. pro- Fig 6...J1 . Althoug h simple . this ci rc uit
popular Motorola \ tCI350P. Although this ducing a 1O-:\lHz gain of .J7 d B. Th e ga in- otters pro mise. Gai n OIl 1011Hz was mea-
device is. at this wri ting. slated 10 he dis- control range was over 65 d B. T he noise sure d at 30d 8 with a M PN3404 PIN diode.
continued. it will probably be availab le for figure was 5. 1 dB . but degraded to 10.3 dB G ain control range wac al so 30 d R. A
a while from distribu to rs, or fro m surplus. whe n the gai n W3-S reduced by 10 dR . build er may wish to load the co llec tor with
Th e meth ods used in the 1350 can also be Th e relatively hig h input impedance is a resistor to prod uce sli ghtly less gai n per
reali zed wi th d iscre te components. T he ra rel y suita ble for te rm inat io n o f c rys tal stage wit h a better output impeda nce
fo,t C I J50P test c irc uit is sho wn in Fig (d9. fi lte rs. E xtra re sista nce. RT• is o fte n pa ral- match . Noise figure was 5.2 dB and hard ly
Th e input between pin, 4 and 0 (the lele d with the input to ac hieve a nee ded changed with a lO-dB gain reduc tion. Sc v-
input d iffe rential pa ir) looks li ke a impe da nce. R T = 620 n pro duced a net eral d iode lypc" we re ev aluate d in thi s cir-
27()O.n res istance paralleled by 8 p F at im ped ance near 500 n. a ccrnmo n value cuit. Power rectifi er s suc h as the 11'1 4006
10 MH z. Th is was approximatel y matc hed needed to terminate cry stal fi lte rs. T his or 1Nfi47 wo rked well with lo w di sto rtion ,
with a 2: 14 turn ferrite transfor mer with no W<l S matched to 50 12with a 4:14 turn ratio although large diode c apaci tance reduc ed
R r u-ed. The ou tput. consisting of ope n co l- ferrite trans for mer. G ain dr opped to 39 d B, gai n co nt rol HI nge. Whil e a 11\4 152
rectors of a differential tran sistor pair. was as e xpec te d. Full gain noise fig ure wa s wo rked . IMD ""'US severe at some current s .

6 . 16 Ch apter 6
 + 11 11 (A) (8 )
II ".,,",
+"
f1:
H'
10 0 -I 10 0 .I
I nput

<ri'-O';__-t-rJI
"
I
.1 v-o

<O K IG-"
.1
-<O K
V- c

I G_u'
;310
J!-1 I1
'"" 0!I
0" ,

-l -lr:-"'
." Inp u t
".
I n pu t
".
"" .1' 7V
"" .1'
-
Fig 6.43--A s ing le J FET Is bias ed Fig 6.44-Two va ria tio ns of a bas ic du a l-gate MOS FET a mplifie r with va riable
towa rd pinchoff with th e reve rse bias gain. The cir cu it at (8) has the large r ga in va riation. The la be ling of FETs is
eevercpee ac ro ss the Zener diode. a rbit rary . fo r the se circu its are inte nded to be ge ner ic. The 3SK131, a n S MT device
This a mplifie r offe rs 13.5 dB gain a nd a fro m NEe is popu lar a nd is reco mme nded .
37-<lB ga in ra nge. The t ransfo rme r,
wound o n a n FT37-43, was a vaila ble on
the be nch at th e time of te s ting. The
l G-kn pol sets gain.

PIN diodes ca n he combined with FETs

for interes ting IF a mplifiers. Fig 6.4 2
..hews an a mpli fier where a FEr serves as
a co mmon-so urce am plifi er. follo wed by
-hunr PIN diodes d rivi ng a so urce -fol-
lowe r o utp ut . Output cou ld also be ob-
rai ned fro m the flr st FET dra in through a
transformer. Th is topolog y ha s many pos -
sibilitie s. Ga in wa v 13 dB with a 60 -dB
gain range whe n the FEr was drive n from
50 n . J\"F WOlS poor in thi s topology. bUI I nput Inp ut
beca me very good when the first FEr was
driven from a higher impeda nce via a n
L-network. Ga in also increased .
The performance of this amplif ier is
~"'""
critically dependent on diode type , IMD
was very low wit h MA47600 diodes from
. J> IJlH ~ 2 I ll n ~ 1

Microwave Asso ciates. Experime nts with "' "'

devices from HP are reco mmended using
{he 5082 -3080, o r HS\1P- 38 14. We
o bserved some gain co mpression in this
circuit with {he MPN 34()4. Fig 6.45-An IF amplifier us ing e ither a dual-ga te MOS FET or a eeeecoe co nnec tio n
A very simpleJFET IF a mplifier is sho wn of J FETs. These amplifiers us e d iode s trings in series with the FETs for bia s ing ,
in Fig 6.43 whe re gain is reduced as gate allow ing s ubstantial gain reduction with red uced co ntrol vo lta ge . Tra nsforme rs use
#28 wire o n a n FT-37-43 ferrite to roid. Meas ure me nts wer e do ne at 10 o r 14 MHz.
bias mo ves to ward pincholl Th is ctrcun is
configured (with a Zene r diode] fo r a single
power supply. altho ugh a negative supply
for the biasmg would be preferred. The cir-
cuit show n barely has adeq uate power slower than gain. so l ~t D prod uct" are config urations in f ig 6.4·t that at ( A ) is
supply voltage. hUI bas ic per formance is always decreasing with gain reduction . The the mo re funda me ntal. The FET is self-
exceuenr. tmuat gain is 13.5 dB (at I O~I Hz) measurements were done with 50-0 input biased with a source res istor while ga te I
with a smooth control range of 37 dB. Norse drive. An input net w ork presenting a higher is at de gro und . Gate 2 is nor mall y biased
figure at maximum gain was 4.6dB. increas- impedance to the gate .....ill increase gain and at about 1/3 of Vdd to produce maxim um
ing to 7.6 dB w ith 10 dB of gain reduction. drop noise figur e. gain. Moving the voltage o n ga te 2 in
Input intercept W il-' +lO d Bm at maximum A po pular IF device i ~ the deal-gate either di rection wi ll red uce gain . This
gain. dropping eventually to -7 dBm a, ~ 10SFET . See the earlier side bar regard- topology ha-, a limited gain reduc tion (less
gain drops. However. inte rcept degrades ing pan ava ilability. Wi th IwO bav ic than 10 dB) available un less gale 2 is

Transmitters and Receivers 6.17

ex tended to negative vol tages,
r ig 6.44 " shows a po pula r var iation
used in ma ny imported transceivers. Here .
gate I is pos itivel y biase d to abo ut 2 V.
With t hi ~ bias ing on gale I. stage ga in
variatio n exceeds JOd R with positive gate
2 vol tages .
rig 6 AS shows additio nal variations we
exami ned. O ne uses a .1.~ 2oq. The biasing
i~ similar to that in the previo us figu re.
part A. but uses a stri ng of d iodes in the
sou rce lead with gale: I biased at Ihe top of
the diodes. With the JN20lJ circuit shown
and without R r • maxi mum gain was 28 d B
and ga in variauon was nea rly 60 dB. The
noi...e figu re W:l S 2.5 d B with the L network
designed to present an impedance of
2.3 H lto gate J. Inserting a J-kO resistor
for R r generates a prope r terminatio n for
the Lncr.... ur k. cauving gain [0 dro p to
20 d B and :'>l"F to increase to 6.6 d R. but
now with a well-matched input. Xoise fig-
ure deg rade.. only sligh tly wit h gain reduc -
tion. Very' ca reful gate:. 2 bypassi ng is
requ ired with all c ircuits using d ua l-gate IF amplifier using a cascade J FET pair.
MOSFET s 10 preve nt UII-"nsci llation. The
bypa.... capacitor shou ld ha ve fairly sma ll
C ( 1000 pF) so AGe dyn amics arc no t al-
tered. and capacitor lead length sho uld he
short . A d ra in resistor ( 10 to 100 H I will of the curre nt is shifted fro m Q2 to Q I as down vo ltage. but may still ha ve high cu-
also hd p stability . gain is red uce d. increa..ing I in shunt cle - pacit anc e whe n co mpared with "RF parts.'
1~I D perform ance was modest with a ments a nd re mo ving it from the: se ries T he tot a l IF gain needed in a tradinona l
Iyp ical IIP3 be ing - I I d Hm. How e ver , ones . Th is ci rc uit has a gain range of ab out AM receiver can be rel ati vely high. for the
intercep t.. impro ved as ga in was red uced . 50 dB . Pe rfor mance is better (lo wer inver- usua l AM det ector requ ire s high dri ve for
This me ans that distortion prod ucts alway s lio n loss at max . gain) with pre mium PIN reasonable fidelity. T he prod uct detec tor s
drop faste r with ga in redu c tio n than the diodes. but is s urp risi ng ly good wi th used in CW a nd SSB rece ivers are linear to
desired si gna ls. IN4006 rec tifier dio des, Rectifiers ofte n low le vel s. IF gain is the n picked for good
The circuit Oil the right side of Fig 6,45 use a PIN stru cture to secu re high break- se nsitivity wit h the wea kes t si gnals and is
use s a cascodc connection of 1310 JFETs.
A sligh tly larger so urce resistor was used
to o bta in similar stage c urrent. typically
RmA at full ga in. Th is ampli fier pro d uced
a ma xim u m gain of 2H dB with a 34· d B
gai n va riat ion (R r absent.) T he .1·d B K F
" , .,
degraded lin lc with 10 dR ga in red uction . "
A typical input intercept wa.. -.1 d Bm with 1 . 01 . 01 ""'
I~I D products dropping fa ste r than the . 0/ H , T 110 Tn .?1
desired o utput signals,
liD"
U
~r
... <I"
... " Fig 6.46-1 F
attenuator circuit
IF Systems
A" we begin to asse mble a co mplete IF
system. the first que-non we as k is ..Ho....
l' ." ,..
I.. "
off e rin g a 50·dB
ga in -con trol ra nge
w ith an insertion
much ga in i", needed?" Often. the req uired
ga in is very sma ll. In such a case. o ne ca n
..till reali ze AGC in the: IF with a voltage-
U
.. 1 01
... OJ 10 0
loss of about 2 dB
at 5 MHz. The
10·kD pot is a
manual ga in
co ntro lled an c n uaror . Such a ci rcu it is '" ., control.
sho wn in t"i ~ 6Ati where PIN d iodes arc
arranged in a ladde r (If series a nd shunt
clement s. Diode c urre nt is co ntrolled wit h , "
&&e: 1"
... r "
a bi polar d iffere ntial pa ir. Q~ is com- '" ~

11:1 -015 : n uo li. 01 e , <11 , IU 15 2 01 - 0 J , 211)9 0 4

plerely "on" at maxi mum gai n. co nd uct-
Ll - L2, liD lilt .. n :h .. lt~ t unol . 10 0 lilt ar c ...u u h .
in g all th e curren t offered hy Q3. T his
curre nt flows through series dements wit h
no current fl o wing in the chum pa rts. Some

6 .18 Chapter 6
reduced as signals gel larger. The IF in a threshold with no output until a minimum Diodes arc often used to co mbine IWO
digital receiver (one where an IF signal is input signa l is applied. This de threshold control signals applied to an If amp lifier .
applied 10 an A vto-D co nve rter) may have must be exceeded before any ga in reduc- shown in fig 6•..19. The two sig nal'> ca n
more severe require ments relat ed to tion occ urs. resulling in a threvhcld for Rj- come from a manual gain co ntro l and an
matching the input sig nal requirements of de tection, Once the ~i gn ah arc strong AGC detector. or they may originate from
the ,.),, -to- D. enough to excee d the dete ctor threshold. two paris ofan AGC syst em. Similar mcth -
The usual IF system provides IWO ou t- the AGe holds the output nearly constant od-, arc used to mute receiv e IF amphfl ers
puts. One dnves the signal detector while with only a slig ht increase ....-ith louder du ring uansrmr periods.
the other is app lied to an AGC dete ctor . a applied signal c. FIR 6..f8 sho ws a plot for Fi~ 6.50 shows a system with two stages
circuir providing de outp ut in proportion one of our recei vers. show ing output sig- of gain with cascoce con nected JJIU. fol-
to the RF input voltage. Some AGC dete c- nal Vs ava ilab le input po w er. The thresh- lowed by a fi....cd gain differential amplifie r.
tors arc shown in FiJ: 6_.f7. The two out- old was adju stable and w as set to occu r A I: I turns ratio ferrite transformer couple..
puts mUM be well isolated. It is especially with an input signa l of - 97 dBm . MDS for the signal from the cascode to the dif-pair. IF
important that BFO energy fro m the prod- this CW rece iver was unde r - 140 dBm. so output is extracted from one co llector of the
uct detec tor not reach the AGC detector there is a mode rat e range of signals avai l- pair while the AGe derecroris driven by the
where il can be de tected to redu ce IF gain. able before any AGC acuon occ urs . This other isolated output.
x oise on the BFO (sec the oscillat or cha p- is an "car-save r" design , one that prote cts The experimental development of this
ter disc ussion of noise) that reach es the IF the user from loud sign als, but produces a cir cuit started wi th the first stage. Q I and
can also inter-modulate with sig nals 10 receive r sound not compromis ed by AGe. Q2. The gain con trol range was only 300B
compromise performance . Most co mme rcial tran sceivers use AGe with three diod es in thc ch ain, bUI in-
A de sig nal emerges fro m the AGe systems designed to ma ke all sig nals crea sed with 5 diodes . Single sta ge current
detector. II is usua lly ampl ified and pro- sound nea rly the sa me. This is cle arly an was 10 mA at maximum gain. but dropped
ce-sed with op-a mps for application to the ope n area for the individua l devign er/ to abo ut I mA at minimum gain. A second
controlled stages .The de tec tor may have a builder. stage. Q3 and Q·t was added . shari ng the

(C )

., ( A) .t" ( 8) '",
m
2.390f
.~

~~"J\!
-J
,. ., -1- d e out de o ut

'"1.oor. .-.
~
"" 0"
~,

"f - -
R-<

-
- -
-
(E )
(D)

:f-J
I np u t ~
"'
. 01 2
NE602

, ' -- ,r:-- -'

- 12'1

. O:f :f :l e t Audiu Out

...12 " 20k
~

·'h
- t ho

Fig 6.47- Se veral RF detectors s uita ble for examining the output 01 an IF amp lifier. (A) shows a traditional dio de detector
with fast signal diod es. (8 ) is si milar alt hou gh the diode anode is now bias ed for a small direct current. IC) s hows a n emitter
followe r fun ctioning as a detector. As the inpu t vo ltage becomes mo re po s itive , cau sing the normal rec tification in the e-b
diode, co llector c urr ent flows to charge the capacitor. (0 ) shows a sensnrve detector, suitable for AM demodulation as well
as leve l detection . The Gilbert cell miller now function s as a multiplier, for both input po rts are dr iven by the sa me si gnal. A
tn-mv Input yie lds sever al volts of de outp ut. If that inpu t is 40% mod ulated, th e a udio output will be severa l vo lts pea k-to-
peak . This circ uit was designed by W7AAZ. Many c p-emps are s uita ble Includ ing the Tl074 and NE5532. (E) uses a pair of
differe ntia l amplifiers , each with an an-mv Input offset, ca us ing ea ch to operate as a detector . Cross co upling of the outputs
ca nce ls ae In the output through balan ce , producing a c urrent inpu t to an o p-amp. A dual s upply is usu ally required for this
circuit. This detector was used by Ca rver (W7AAZ) in his high-per form an ce IF s ystem."

Trans mitt ers and Receivers 6.19

 .•
0 o
AGCR esp ouse 3 M OSFET IF (A)

1~-¥~~·~I-~-A-mp--
iT.
.•s
- . r
v,

-'" / v,
~
i
p.
- ..
i
J
- .. /'
/
e
.,
i
0 - 140 -100 - 00
-"
Pi
Reeeher lJIput POWl'r, dBm v, v,

( C)
Fig 6.48-Receiver ou t put vs Inp ut tor a CW recei ver. The t hres hold wa s
specif ically set i n acco rd with oper ator prefe rences. The IF amplifier is show n v, - - -1O"'
later in Fig 6. 56.

FIg 6.49-Diodes co mbi ne sig nals appl ied to an AGe am p lifier. AI A, an AGe
signal and o ne from a manual g ain control ar e selected with the more positive one
setting t he voltage applied 10 the amplifi er. In B, two signa ls applied to trans istor v, _ _-j;./
bases establish curr ents that are summed in an op- amp . Bot h Input s contribute in
thi s case. The v er si o n in C uses d iodes w ithin f eed b ac k lo o ps of op-amps to form
" pe rfect recti fiers ," which establi sh a very sharp transition between acti ve in put s. . .. ...... 4Uct U ...1 ..,i
Th is scheme was el egantl y used in Carv er' s IF amplifier!

I Mute 1+) P(t o

.I j C o n t ~ o .l Vo.l t a g e

" r~
Ve l

(1 1.2 1 ) " "' " '"'~1 2N3904 1

,•
l' ..
1 . .1 1 + 12
" , " B u RF C (1 . 94) 22 "="

100 0
'" out In
cl 7--L L_ ,--,;,,1e eas
I, " -a T
~ s 67 )

100 0
v,
3K rj
Q2
Yo
.'11 ax

c1l
1 00 0
'"
. ,..
0
0
~
" ra II
13 : 4
". .2 ~

" rJ r "C1_ J 10 ,n
rTH- U
or d • .
~ IJ3101

.. n,
'"
, .,
•
1
2 N39041
,"
••
.. n, ,2
"
cf4 --L r l
'"
-L x'E '" - '"
J.l K
",
T" - -
T09' "
(12.I )pv'~"_-,-T.
J6 r 33
" '":d , ~:c ".on
\"
SOU l
.I ll O ..,T ( x . xx • • Yo Uaqe l _ ... ur ~ d w i th DVM ,
AGe ott . Gai n . max, no . 1 gna.l 1n .
s

Fig 6.50- A ge ner al-p u rpo se IF A mp li f ier module using cascod e J 310 J FETs. See text for det ail s.

6.20 Chapte r 6
 AGe Response c8Sl:0 de J310 IF
-H
D C VoIta ee at o
:JD-Amp Output
a
~
--- --- r
I
V- I/ •
1'-
~
..~ P 47
• II J! , \
.0
<,
f ·;;- --- V-
.
~

; •
i-- -3l
, I'---
<5 I o
o
,
<,

Ii ~
'/ I'---.
- <0 o
- 10 0 - 9(l - ~ 0 - 10 - ~o - ~o - 40 - 30 - ~o - 10 0 10 -lOO - 90 -ec -70 -&I -so - 40 -30 -10 - 10 0

Pin P,
Input p"wpr , dBm lJIput POWPr ,dBm

Fig 6.51-I F system output vs Input fo r the IF system us in g

tw o cascade-connected J310 stages. The t wo curves are for Fig 6.52- DC level at the op -ernp output. This voltage ma y be
tw o di ff erent values o f " input resisto r" In t he op-a mp , which used direc tl y to drive an " 8 met er," dr ive n with an op-amp de
.lIters system dc gain. See te xt for details. follo we r.

diod e chain wirh the firs t pair. A BIO the op-arnp OUlPUI i, co nnected to the con - slderable outpul variation between thresh-
source follo\\.:r was temporarily added 10 troll ed stages through diode D6. The o ld and the upper inpu t-sig nal limit.
provide an o utput. Th e gai n variat ion was revpo nse is shown in tbe upper c urve of Inpul resistor Rl'>l was dropped to 10 H 2
DOW 93 d B at 10 _ \ IHz. increas ing to Fig 6.51. Although the loo p is well (i ncreasing loop gain ) to prod uct' the pre-
108 1.1 1:1 at 5 MHz. There was a high pas~ be ha ved. il is nOI very tight . allowing co n- ferred response in the lower c urve. But the
eain characteristic. a result of the 15 I1 H
RFC. La rge r values should be used at
sower Frequency. The ga in co ntrol voltage
-ho uld be bet w'ee n 0 a nd 6 V. v a lue s above
6 V produced a sligh t gain drc reose. so
mat region sho uld not be used.
( A' IL -'=:::.:.:..-_----'
(Au d i o )
\
The 9-M HI gain was 28 dB with no
input network other tha n a bloc king ("

D
capacitor. NF was then 7 dB with R I at
IOl .Q, A Y-MHz pi network was then added
to prese nt 3 2-l0 impedance to the first
V- o
gare. causing ga in 10 ju mp 10 -l.-l. dB while
"'- F dro pped to an imp re ssiv e I d B. The SJ-:
_a, mainta ined with !Q.-dB gain reductio n.
r (A~
We then rep laced R l with a 2.2·kO re viv-
lOr. so the net work now causes a good 50-
n impeda nce match 10 appear at the input. v-c
"'-F .... as now up to 5 dB. incre asi ng to 6 dB
wuh a 20-d 8 gain reduction. The designer/
builder needs to design his o r he r own net-
( Audio)
\
works to apply this circuit Itl the fille rs
u-ed.
The rest of the circ uit was now built. v- c 1 ( D) v- c
Initially u~ing of7 kO: for RJO. R t~ at U1.
1- i.f-mom lr====;-\
The no-signal de volt age at the detector
output [e mitte r of Q7) was 6.8 V. so the
urn clvoffset" pot R] I wav se t initially 10
th i ~ value. The Up-am p. U2. buffer s the
co ntrol voltage appear-i ng Ul.:W S. the
~ I' ~ - ( Au dio)

liming CUpJCilO rS, C19 and en.The loo p Fig 6.53-Audio enve lopes and timing capacitor val ues vs t ime. See tex t f or
I ' clos ed. generating AGe act ion , when deta ils .

Tran sm itters and Receivers 6.2 1

 For example, the control gates of the Jf ET
+V- d d +V - dd cuscod e circ uits are co nnected to bypass
cap acitors wit h ser ies decoupling resis -
AGe AGe tors . The bypassing is a necess ary part of
De l a y ed

-.
ACe
\ +V- dd
Cr yst al
F i lter
the cascode connection. The related RC
forms a low pa ss filter that causes the sig-

L~ f
nal at the controlled gat e to arrive after an
To I F Outpu t
an d AGe
input is applie d. The delay is short wit h
Dete c to r the values we used, but can be much larger .

t ..L
I ..L
I
I
Signals arrivi ng at the IF input are delayed
thro ugh II narro w bandw idth filte r, gener-
ati ng an outpu t that grows at a finite ra te•
allowi ng a Iast AGe syst em to keep up.
I
HI -
In some applications we wish 10 app ly
AGC to an RF or IF am pli fier preceding a
narro w filt er, shown in the example of

+} -
Fig 6.54 . The filte r- dela y is no w within the
loop . That is. we detect after the delay of
the filter. allowing the sign al to grow too
large to avoid ove rloading early stages.
Fig 6.54-Syste m with a crysta l f il ter wit hin the AGe loop. See te xt fo r discussion. The delay can ca use severe overshoot or
popping if gain reduc tion is applied
directly to the first stage. Th e pr eferred
solution is to purposefu lly de/a)" the con-
system is nov>' ine ffecti ve at input levels Hav ing observed t he ideal system wit h- trol signa l applied to the early stage with a
a bove 0 dBm . The rea son for this becomes out AGC, we now increase the strength of lon g time constant. Good syste m dynam -
clear if we examine the c urve of F ig 6.52 the dit chain and activ ate AGe. Ge ner ally ics result only when the co ntro lled ele -
sho wing de voltage at the U2 output. The we wish to have a ncar instantaneou s fas t ments afte r the narrow filter hav e enough
dc voltage has re ache d 0 by the time the attack. with a s lo w decay. yiel ding the rang e and speed to reduce the gain far
input gets to 0 dB m, so no further gain same audio respo nse we saw with the ideal enoug h to restrict the output for a short
reduction is possible. Adjustment of the case. But that does not always occur. whi le, on ly to recove r. allowing the
offset pot. R31. will probabl y fix this Fig 6.53B sho ws a si ngle timing ca paci - delayed stage time to ass ume part of the
anomaly. if it beco mes a problem. Suc h to r, C 1. with a modest de tector outpu t overall gain reduction .
levels would rarely be encoun tered in impedance. RA- The resulti ng slow attack We use d a st ring or Mor se code dots as
mos t receivers . allows the audi o to cl imb to high le vel s, a means for e valuation and adj ustment of
The relat ively d ean de variation i n and then drop over the course of the dir as an AGC syste m. This is not a mere ill ustra-
Fig 6.52 sugg ests that a sig nal-strength the cap acitor volt age stabilizes. tion , but a usefu l experimen tal method. A
meter cou ld be dri ven directly by the op- Decreasing the a uac k time. rea lized by simp le PIN diode mo dulator called the
amp . If this is done , addition al circuitry reducing RA . reduces this distorting be- Ditta is pre sented in the mea sure me nt
shou ld be added for any "calihrarion' that havior. Hut in the e xtreme this gene rates chapte r for just this purpose . The dits arc
might he des ired with the S meter. The the behavior shown in Fig 6.53C where created with a 555 time r IC, but could be
offset pot is not intended for this purpose. the tim ing r aparitor c harges very fast genera ted with a functio n generator. now
but only to set AG C thres hold. before the gain is red uced. The audio drops offe ring adjus tme nt ability . The Ditt er
Th e attac k time in the circu it of Fig 6.50 to a leve l he low the pro per one , but grows incl udes an out put to dri ve the external
is determined by the dete ctor (Q7l o utput to the right valu e after the loop "catches triggering input of a dua l trace osci llo -
imped ance. by tim ing capac itors C 19 and up." In the ext rem e, there is no audio for a scope. One ' sco pe ch annel then shows the
C1L and by RD . R2 1 and the capacitors period until the timing cap acitor dis - control voltage while the other mon itor s
esta blish recovery cha racte rist ics. The c harges en ough to allow the IF gain to in- audio o r TF output. Ideally. an AGC loop
values shown were appro ximate and may c rease to a value tha t pro duc es a stable nee ds to be tested over a wide range of
req uire later ch ange s. result . This is the we ll know n "p op" sig nals. for sta bility can vary with 1cve1. 8
A p~p detecto r was used in the pre vi- occurri ng with some AGC system s.
ous circuit. Co nsider a mor e general case A solution is found with two (or more)
with an N P~ (or a diode ) detector charg - timing capacitors. Cl and C2 . C l is smaller
Audio Derived AGe
ing me mory capacitors . Fig 6.53. shows than before and can be charged quickly with Simp le equ ipment sometimes uses
som e aud io e nvelopes and rela ted capaci- the detec tor output impedance. This ma y aud io derived AGC where a detector
tor va lues. Vr The input to the recei ver reduce the gain. but for only a short time. sam ples the audio sign al to charge a tim-
(or IF system) is a ch ain of Mo rse dots Much of the charge un Cl discharges ing capacitor. Th at voltage is processed
(dits .) Even if t he recei ver is to be used through R to be deposited on C2, increas ing and app lied to TF amp lifiers for AGe. The
only for SSB. th is represents a good test that voltage and the resulting Vc value . The attraction of this is tha t audio ampli tudes
met hod. Se t the strength of the dits to be proce ss repeats with each cycle of the IF are large, for mos t of the receiver gain has
low, AGC to "off; ' and the manual gain system. This behavior, close r to the ideal. is been rea lized. Little more gain is requi red
contral to drop the TF gain to prod uce the presented in f ig6.53D. to complete the AG C system . But there is
res ponse show n in Fig 6.53A . Th is is an The process is mo re complicated than a major diff icu lty with a udio derived
idea l audio envelo pe with a we ll-defined the simple picture we have painted, fo r AGe . Th is relates to the sampling nat ure
rise and fall tim e. there are delays withi n all IF amp lifiers. of the detection process . The detectors we

6.22 Chapter 6
 po ne nts us ed . A ferrite trans form er
matc hes the 50-n dri ve to the main crystal
filt er impe dan ce of about ::lO() ~l , T he filter
ou tput is the n transformed lip to 2200 n
with a low Q pi-networ k whe re a 2.2 -kU
input resis tor at Q l term inates the filter.
T his topology guarun tee , a re aso nable
no ise fi gur e with a proper im pe d ance
ma tc h fo r the c rys tal fil ter, vital in pre-
Op -amps LH324 or s i milar serving the sp ecified perfor mance . T he
pi-net work used an exi.sting RF c ho ke,
alth ough a toroid with h igher Ou would he
Fig 6.55- Full wave aud io de tecto r for us e in sim pl e AGe systems. preferred .
T his IF has a band wid th j ust under
500 HI. with a mea su red sys tem sideband
suppre ss ion in ex cess of 120 dB . Th e de
AGe res pons e was presented e ar li er i n
Fi g 6.4lL The threshol d ma y he adj usted
wi th R-th ( 2.5 k~2) show n in the schematic.
have examined obtain o ne sam ple for e ac h shoul d all be of the same type. T he atta ck a nd rec ove ry ar e de termined
peak of the waveform being detected. A u- Th e ini tial adjustment of the IF amp li- by the com ponents in the Timing section
d io wav efor ms have fe we r peaks, es pe - fier starts by removi ng on e e nd of R3 0 of the circ uit. An NPN de tector, 06 .
cially if the signal is a lo w-pitc hed CW from the board. T he AGC is turned o n wi th charges a Iee dthrou gh cap ac ito r that feed s
carr ier. Th is allows the rece iver to he o ve r- no sig nals pre se nt an d the voltage on pi n 6 a sign a l out or the miffe d enclos ure to a
whel med in the per iod between peaks . of U2 is meas ured and record ed in t he CA]140 op-amp that then driv e s inverter
A partial so lu tion 10 the low freque ncy no teboo k. The volt age o n the ar m o f R31 Q8. Th e 08 collect or the n dr ives the t im-
difficulty lie s in aud io filte ri ng. A h igh- is then set for the same value . R30 is ag ai n ing ca pacitors . Th e pr imary o ne is a
pass filt er (w ith se vera l cle ments) ah ead ins tall ed in the c ircuit. R31 can be re- .0 1 ~ F . wh ich is t ied to a () . I~FIJ{) kn
of both the AGC de tec tor an d a udio o utput adju sted later to alter AGe th re shold. co mhina tion paralle led by a l~F/ JOO ld1
will prevent very low beat notes from A sim ilar MOS FET IF a mpli fier is pai r. These val ues wer e esta blis hed with
reaching eit her. A cutoff of around 300 Hz sh own in F ig 0.56 , Th is circui t use s th ree the d iller mentio ned earlier. Th e vo ltage
is su ggested. gain sta ges using 3N209 MOSfETs. a type o n the timi ng capacitor an d the audi o sig -
A typi ca l full wave de tector for use in available in ou r ju nk box . Those wishing nal are show n in a p hoto.
an au dio d eri ved AGC is shown in F ig 6.55 to dup licate this circui t sho uld consider the
with both pos it ive a nd negati ve audio 3SK l 31 or simil ar av ailable SMT pa rts .
peaks con trib uting to the output. A slo w Afte r three gain sta ges, the signal is ap- A Hang AGe System
rec overy is se t h y the lO-M n re sister plie d to a diffe rent ial PNP am plifier. O ne Fi g 6.5 7 sho ws an AGe sys tem with the
across C I. whi ch c an be made faster with side is term ina ted in a 5 i 0 -.0 resis tor, pro - unu sua l c harac terist ic of usin g two timing
a sma ller re si stor. Shorting C I will turn v iding a pro pe rly matc hed drive fo r a "tail sy stem s. On e is dr iven by IF sig na ls. , 0 it
the AG C off. Th e system show n is sui table end" cr yst a l fi ller, T h is fil ter serves to has the adv antage s of qu ic k attac k. Th e
for IF ampli fiers like the MC 1350P. Level eli mina te noise ge ne rate d withi n the IF other co mes fro m the aud io ,
shifting or inversi on ma y be required for amplifier at fr equ enc ies othe r tha n that of Duri ng re ceiver ope ration. signal s
othe r controlle d circ uits. the mai n fil ter . I t also distrib utes the sel ec - wit hi n the IF cause C2 to cha rge. which
Me ntion was mad e earlier o f difficu lti es ti v ity improvi ng the sto pband auen uation red uces recei ver gain. If the signal is a short
with filt er s within an AGC lo op. T his prob - o f the ov era ll sys te m. The noise filter is li ved one or even a noise hurst, C2 will
Iem ca n be especi a lly se ver e when audi o ter minated in a resistor and a FET follo wer qu ick ly di sch arge th rou gh 010, a lo w
filters are included within a lo op . A udio output stage feedi ng a product detect or. pineh off JFET switch. I lo we vcr, if the sig -
filtering is better applied a fte r detectio n Th e ma in IF input selectiv ity is pruvided nal is present for a reasonab le period
for the AGC loop. by a 10th or der filter wi th a SOO-Hz band- (aroun d a hundred milli seconds). au dio
Altho ugh audio derived systems pre sen t wid th, de si gned for a Ga ussian-to- l f -d g will hav e been am plifie d hy Q l 1 to cha rge
maj o r desig n c hall en ges . good perfor- re sponse . (Th is fil te r. a KVG XL-lOti-I. is C I negat i vel y. Th is dr ives (,lI O into
mance is st ill possible. T his beco mes ev i- regrett ab ly no lon ger av ail able The y are pinc hoff whi ch disc onnec ts it from C2.
de nt when high-en d professio nal -level som etimes round on the surplus mar ket. The on ly discharge path for C2 is no...., a
audio-re cording equipment is st udi ed. but few we re man ufac tured.] The IF sy s- 22-I\H l resisto r. so reco very is slo w, cau s-
tem was bread ho ar ded without printed ing the gain to liang at a nearly co nstant
hoa rd s in a mul tip le-sec tion surplus mill- leve l. Hut if the audio disappears fo r a short
Practical FET IF ing. O ne sec tio n co ntains the main fil ter period. C I d isch arge s. Q I O is no longer
System Examples inp ut wh ile ano ther has the o utput a nd the pinch ed off. and C 2 qu ickly di scharge s.
The Cascade J FET amp lifier presen ted first IF amplifier. Ano ther ho use s the 2nd return ing the rece iver to full gain." Th e
earlie r was dev eloped as a co mplete. practi- and Srd IF sta ge s while yet anothe r holds a udi o detect or is an "o pen-loop" proc es s
cal module, F ig 6.50 , for use in a Mono - the d ifferen tia l a mpli fi er and an :'\ P:'; that modifies the basic d osed - loop IF AGe
band SSB/CW Transceiver. This c ircu it can detector. Feedth ro ugh c apaci tor s rou te the sy stem, so doe s not alter system dynamics ,
be built with other FET types, with appropri- signal thro ug h the milling where the de The ha ng sche me can he adapted to o ur
ate circui t ch anges. T he JFETs sho uld be parts o r the AG e lo op res ide. fET IF systems wit h re lat i ve ease . as
roughly matc hed for l oss (+/-1Oo/c) and Th e input circui try is er itical to the co m- sho w n i n Fig 6.58 , T he par tial c irc uit in

Transmitter s and Recei ver s 6 .23

 Perha ps the most impressive IF design
we have veen is that presented by Bill
Carv er . W7AAZ. in QS T. .\fay. 1996. 10
Th is ci rcuit is based upon the AD 600
ser ies of integrated cir cuits from Analog
Tim ing signa ls for Devices. Al thoug h expen sive, these pan s
the MOSFET IF offer ou tstanding performa nce. They fea -
Amplif ier du rin g tur e a wide AG C ran ge that is ex tremel y
AGe tes tin g. dB linear (the gain in dB is direct ly pro-
pon ion al to the contro l volragej. Hill' s
complete paper is inclu ded on the CD
incl uded with this book.
Carver's IF amplifier incl uded a num-
ber of outstan din g features not fou nd in
other circuits . Hi s circuit used three
ampli fie r bloc ks where gain reduct ion
( A ) i~ ,,~ t up fo r NPI\ detector s while (R) IF amplifier usin g a du al-g ate f\.fOSFET occ urred. j ust as on e of the previous cir-
accom modates PNP det ectors. The bui lder input sta ge followed by un \-lC U50P. By cuits shown (Fig 6.5 6) used three sta ges.
must prov ide many de sign details. applying AGC to both fET gutes , he was Our simple ci rcuit had gain red uction
able to onta in a very wide AGe range in a applied to all stag es at on ce, But Ca rver 's
rel atively simple design. PIN diodes ca n If used a sequential gain reduction. The
Evolving Designs also be added to existmg sys tems to stretch last stage had gain red uced by 40 dB
Clearly. many of the method, can be the range of FET or bipo lar amp lifiers, in- before any ot her reduct ion occ urred.
com hined. For example. W7AA Z huilt an tegrated or not. Further reduc tion was app lied the n to the

1
5;/~ ~lOO ~ ) HIl-l-0-0r===t---~~!....~ +8v
5n / FT

T2
5nl r -r 4Hr-. cO 4Hf4
9 MHz I N
KYG XLHlM Ll
AGe Line

L2
X lK
-1-Jf4'
_ . ~ ~~
1-J
.1~
( 27 u
' - ----, . I
110: "7 2 7u
t
Q2
(2::
5 :12t 2 . 7u 2 .7u . 1~?.--, W .1
.1
Q1 ,2 , 3: 3 N20 9
~~820h ~ .I
120 s e e text .

'='-,~ I200 ' -1l5~ . 1~ 11 ~rlj;i~--.J

.1

L1, L2 : 2 . 7uH mo l de d RFCs

11 : 5t :1 2t , FT37- 4 3
*" 01 1
~ 2 =--
03
04 1 T2 : 20t ,28 , 4t '2 S l i nk
FB43- 2401 or FT37- 43 ,
D1- D7 : 1N415 2
r-l1 2N3 906 x2 ~
+ Bv

-s- 2 . 2K 51 0 51 0 51
.x 5n/ FT I Timing I 4 . 71(
Q6 2N390 4
A

1
5n / FT
10 0 ~

24
10K
5 10 I
-
06 ."
(.:i.n

-
B
..L

"1 KVG X:: 9V. To P.ocl .D., t .

IF out p ut
11U'J04

Q10

7- 4 5 1.1 : 5 t f T l7 _ U

L ....-<.~ Gro und to Mut e.

Fi g 6.S6- tF am plifier us ing thr ee gain reduc tion stages w ith dual·ga te MOSFETs . See te xt for di scu ssi on .

6 .24 C ha pte r 6
 +12 V +12 V

I- - 560
IF
I AMP
I
I
I 0.01

1N4152 -
10 k

+12 V + l~V AGe

AGC
AMP AMP
100
~~>-, 9 M Hz 100
DCAM P
0.01
1 -~ :
01 ,1, 3.3 k _
-
+12 V
l23-
~ 1'
~ * 0.01
1 rc-: 2N390 4
2N3904
Q/,::> \ I-A. ~~S4~p +J. 50~F 22k
08 HP2800
r
:e-
1k
I ~
45
Or "--"[ , -r- 15 V

~, r;ci; rh S-Me ter

T 3.3 k 220
2 N3904

1k
\.
22 M
L ---,S 'f'/:'-. r
q+6741 ;.::6+---{ m A
M1

-
10 k
AGC 4'" r ,I, r!, -
b
r 10 k 1k 0-1
500 GAIN r
r SET
r r 20k, [
METER
10 k ZERO r
1k e1 420 1k
+12 v !--- - - -"'''-.,...7"I+ ~ lO~F 15 V ~OF-F-',"A----1 I--~M~...,.----r~ Ground
O, l ~ to
100 k
10 k OCk
R1
rh - Mute

0.56 lN4152 100 k

from 0 ,1
Audio H 10 k 22 k C1 1 o., Except as indicated , Decimal
value s of capac itance are in

1
Am,
microfarads ( ~F ) ; others are in
,I, ,I, 4 .7 ~ picofa rads (pF) ; Resistan ces a re
in Ohm s; k=1 ,000, M=1,000 ,000.

Fig 6.57-A full hang -type AGe system with two lim ing systems. The IF-de rived AGe offers quick attack while "hang time" is
established by the audio.

Transmitters and Receivers 6.25

 V oo

2N 390 6

+ V ee
I F d r i v en
~.
2 20 K ,.,
de t ect or
.i,
•

j;
Au d i o
1 11 --=)
VCC/ 2

+ Iu
I
IH415 2
-
2 2 0K

21154601.

rv]2'rH--,*,. -~>i-l
I
1
Fig 6.58- A dapting a hang AGe to IF am p lifiers w ith NPN o r PNP de tectors . See te xt di sc u ssion.

midd le stage. and after a total of RO-d B mon with e mergi ng receivers: He used a audio amplifiers) or , oftware with a DSP
reduction . to the input stage. Thi s ,vas pos- feed-forward scheme where the AGe deter- system. Delay in filters or amplifiers pre-
sible bec aus e of the buffering II sed wit hin lor nul only co ntroll ed the gain of stages se nted a prob lem with traditional neg-al ive
the .'\D 600 and the use of "perfec t rcetifi- ahead of the detector. but altered the gain in feedback syste ms. hut now becom es an as-
er s" in the co ntrol c irc uit" The Carver slage, following detectio n. In princi ple. one set. providing time for c alculatio ns in a
system a lso used a seco nd gain red uction could ca rry the se meth od, \0 the extreme DSP based system.These DSP methods have
loop with a hand pass filter betwee n stages. where an acc urate detector establish es gain already. at this writing. been used for a few
op timi/ing dyna mic be havio r wh ile kee p- in later stages without a need for negative years in some very - high-perf ormance mili-
ing noise lo w, feedback. Thi s could he realized with hard- Wry equipmen t From Rohde and Schwarz.
The Carver paper included another ware (a log amplifier and detector with vari- and will he described for usc in OS P trans-
unusual feature that will become more com- able gai n IF amp lifiers and step ped gai n ce ivers described in this hook.I I

6 .26 Cha pter 6

6.3 LARGE SIGNALS IN RECEIVERS AND FRO N T EN D DESIGN
T he range of vigna lc available 10 ou r tivit y. But they arc vital in protecting the depe nde nt o n pos ition wit hin the pass-
receivers can be very wide indeed . The receiver fro m ot her responses. hand . Fur the fo ur-c lem e nt filte r. vide-
weakes t signals we can hear are limited The narro w c rystal filterin the IF dete r- blind su ppress io n extend" from o nly 1-*
by noi se. and drop to typic al levels ot mines t he receiver sekcti,il~-'. The d B at t he low audio end to .. 3 d B at th e
-1 40 d Bm or le .... in a C W bandwidth . response of two c ryvta l fille rs arc shown high end. T he x-e teme m filter offers muc h
These are rare OIl Hr . but common ill VHF . in Fig 6.61. Bot h fi llers wert' desi gned fo r better sideband vuppre scion. but is still
BUI sig nals ca n also be H'T) st ron g. The a band w id th of 2500 H, . but one filt e r on ly 27 d B ar rbe low a udio end. It grow s
stro ngest sly'-" ave propa gated sig nals we uses four crystals whi le the mo re sclcc- 10 87 dB a t the high a udio extr e me. Sim i-
enco unter will depend on our antenna. hUI rive one uses eight. Th e beat frequency lar response ca n be ex pect ed in a filt er
can so metimes be as strong as a mic rowan oscillato r (B Fa ) i ~ normall y placed 300 me thod SS M tra nsmill er. T he im proved
1- 30 d Bm.) o r eve n mo re with high gain III belo w th e lowe r pas sban d ed ge for an respo nse of the phasi ng met hod is d ra-
antennas, u pper sideba nd respo nse . T he voice fre- marie for sideba nd sup press io n at /(111'
Mo\ ' o f our concern for (urge signa l que ncies the n rec o ve red hy' this 2500-Hz a udio ! rrtqll£'lJ(·y. This suggests that corn-
performance re late s to the rece iver fro m ba nd wid th fi lter e xtend fro m 300 10 2800 bin mio nv of a su pe r het lind the phasing
end. the part o f a receiv e r be twee n the Hz. Op posite sideband respon se is then method may o ffer spe cta cular perfo r-
antenna co nnec te r and the place where well de fined. Owi ng to the f ilte r skirt mance. an old. h ut still viable optio n
rece ive r ba ndwidth determining sc lcc tiv- sha pe. s ideba nd suppr ession is criticall y Several undesired phe no mena oc cur in
it}' is obtained . usua lly the first cr ystal fil -
ler. T he fron t end usually co nsists of much
more than the "f irst stage ,"
We ha ve two concerns when dealing with
the large signals. First. -How luud ca n the
signals be that we tl")' to co py with o ur rc- o
ceivers? " This problem relates 10 both from
ends and to gain control. Second. "What is
therangeofsignals that ca n be present within I
the receiver front e nd with out causin g prob-
lems "he n we atte mpt 10 rece ive average or
weak signals?" This is the more complicated
m J subtle problem with the more Imerecr-
109 challenge.
"i ~ 6.59 shows a partial rece iver bloc k T
t
•
diagram f or a 1-*-\ f Hl. si ngfe-ccnve rsion j
superhet with a 1-M Hz IF. The c alculated
t rent -end fi lter response is show n in
- t OO
"'i l:, ';.60. The ce nter frequency respo nse
i . normalized to (J dB . so the response at
10 \ l l l z can be used to eval uate worvt-ca ve ra 1+ .l ia
image rejec tion. 76 dB fur this CX1l111 plc, -55.233 6. 2.. - 0 .. -6 5.7 675
The front-e nd bandwidth. over 40() kHz. is
.... ide enough to not require any adju st ment
Fig 6.60- The resp on se 01 t he tront end from 10 to 18 MHz. Th e image rejecti on at
during rece ive r lI SC . These filters co ntr ib- 10 MHz is 76 dB. Th Is Is a com puter gene rated Ideal ptot . Th e 3-dB ban d wi d th is
ute little 10 the rece iver sigml l selectivity 0.41 MHz, cent ered at 14.1 MHz. Thi s resp onse result s fro m a sl ng le- t uned circui t
and UO not impact noise fig ure and se nvi- at th e antenna and a doub le-tune d circuit betwe en t he RF ampl ifi er and the m ixer .

1&-1& . 2 1&- 1& , 2

lOl l' LC IOU LC Pr o <luct Au d io
AOC D et ~ c t .. r

De l.

A Ge bn ~
I ~"
V 1- "v
-,
J 8r o
1 .99 9 MJt r

Fig 6.59-1 4-MHz recei ver wit h a 2·MH z IF. The LQ t unes from 12 to 12.2 MHz. so t he ima ge ext end s f rom 9.8 to 10 MHz.

Trans mitters and Receiv ers 6 .27

 of el im inating sp urio us responses in fre -
U dB qu en cy synthl: si / er<" sometimes quite
l' ' D , ()[J

d B/O . v .
sign ific ant when D DS is used,
• Second-or de r intcrmodulation d isto rtion:
,I Genera lly, ir ue rmn dulation distortio n

,i \\ GAI N ,

,. -21>
d B
(livID) O('·CUl'S when two or mo re signals
are applied to the input of a receiver. cre -

I ating distortion products at freque ncie s

v/
other than the input. Seco nd-or der LMD
\ produ ces sum and di ffere nce frequ encie s,
The sample rece iver of Fig 6,59 used a
2-l\lHz IF, so two inputs that were sepa-
rated by 2 M l-lz could ge nerat e an output

II H}[)()(]. " "

/
FR E ()IJ~N~V . Hz
\ \

[)<lUD.DO Hz / o i v.
"J 1""""' . 00
1
' T :...."
F D, MHz

'"0 . 00 " '

f H C ' O
' 0 MF NU
<.~

r.turnl
=
at the IF. Input s at. for example. 13 and
15 \11Hz co uld gene rate the distortion
produ cts. How ever. this is unl ikclv. for our
receiver is preceded with consider able fil-
tering. Sign als ill the se freq uenci es arc
atte nuated before reac hing the later parts
of the from end. Seco nd -order Il\ID is
Fig 6.61-Respo nse of two cryst al fi lters. Whil e both have a bandwidth of 2.5 kHz , characterized hy an inte rce pt, as outlined
one uses onl y 4 cr ysta ls (tra ce mar ked with sma ll squares) while t he other uses a. in Chapt er 2.
Both were designed for a Butterw orth response. St eeper sk irts are afforded b y a • Harmonic distortion: T hi v is a d istort io n
Chebyshev response . See l ex t fo r d iscussion . created wit hin the receiver wh ere t he
output is a ha rmo nic of an input. For
example . se con d-order ha rmonic dis to r-
11receiver front e nd 10 cornp romive perfor- away from the weak earner by sev eral tio n wou ld occur if a strong I Ml-lz si g-
man cc. The se include rece ivcr bandwidths . It is ofte n 30Cfc am - nal was app lie d to the front end A
Gain co mp re ssio n: If we ex ami ne the plitude mo du late d by an aud io sin e second -har mo nic si gnal wou ld then he
front end <lS a mo dul e and measure pain. wave. We incr eas e the strength of the cr eated within the receiver and p roduce
we find a co nstant val ue for most sig - modu lated c arrie r whi le the rece iver is a sig nal in the 2-M Hz IF. A mor e corn-
nals. How ever. "., the sig nals grow . WI: tu ned to the weaker one. wait ing until mon di stortion mig ht be gen er ated f ro m
e ve ntua lly find a level where the gai n is the modul at ion of the stronger appears a str ong 7-:\1Hz signal. T he I 4-M HI sec-
red uced overthe small ,i gnal va lue . We on the weak er one. o nd harmonic created in the recei ver
usua lly sp ecify the I d B co r npre vvion o Pha se noise blocking , or rec iprocal mix- front end is available for su bse quent
point . that available input powe r in dfim ing : This pro blem was de scri bed in the co nve rsion. But the example front end
where gain is redu ced fro m t he small os cillator chapter. Ph ase no ise blo cking filte ring is ex treme e noug h that litt le 1
, ig na l value by I dB A simple way to occurs when a strong signal is ap pli ed to or 7 Ml-lz e ne rgy would ev er rea ch the
meas ure gai n compressio n USI:S two si g- the rc cci vcr at a frequency sl ightly awa y front end. Direct harmo nic dis to rtio n is
nals or "tonex." On e is of weak to aver- from the receiver's (une d frequency. rare ly a prob lem in a well pre -selected
age str ength an d is the one tu ned by tbe Noise sideband s on the receiver LO will rcce i vel'. one wi th go od inp ut fi lrer s. BUI
receiver du ring the te st. T he othe r i.s mix with the in coming si gn a l to produce mo st commercial rec ei ver». today, are
muc h stro nge r and is pla ce d with in the an IF respon se. The offending e ne rgy is not well pre -sele cted.
fro nt-end ba nd width. b ut well ou tsi de a nois e rather than a carrier, so t he • Third -order inte rmodulation distortio n:
the rece iver band wid th. A ty pical spac - re sponse is proportional to re ceiver Li ke sec o nd-order IMD d isc ussed
ing for an SSE receiver might be 20 to b andwidth. Fur thi s rea so n, the H~­ above . th is d isto rtio n is the resu lt oftwo
50 k l-lv. The strong si gnal is incre ased spouse, when mea sured, is us ually nor - inp ut tone s. T his prod uct is pe r haps the
un til thc we aker oue dropx by Id H Th i, maliz ed to a I- HI bandw idth , Meas ure - most difficu lt disto rtion to eliminate , fo r
ca n be a difficult mea sure me nt to per - ment is complicated by noise on a it oc curs cl o se to a pair of incoming frc -
form. T he IF fil ter mus t have enough generator that might he used to meas ure que ncic s , It is a thi rd-order produc t
sto pba nd attenuation to keep the strong it. It is di ffi c ult to differ entiate between bec ause there arc e ss entially three fre -
si gnal fro m creeping into the If where the two. ju stifying the term reciprocal quencie s that cre ate the p roduct . If two
unde sired AG C detection might occur. mixing. Noi se block ing shows up as a input frequen cies. f l and f 2. arc app lie d
Further. the mea sur e ment is often com- problem on the air whe n a stro ng loc al to a recei ve r, th e di sto rtio n occur s at
prom ised hy reciprocal mix ing . or noise sig nal app ears . If the offending sig nal is (2 f l- f 2) and (2 r2-ft) . In the first
blo ck in g , which is described below . on C\V . the noise show s up as a keyed example, f] is used twice. so the 3 inputs
G ain compre ssion is ea sily defi ned . hu t hiss tha t becom e stronger a s the rccc i vcr are f l , f t, and f 2. (N ot e that order can
rarely a gr eat proble m, is tuned to ward the sig nal. It is a fund a- a lso be relat e d to the e xpo nent o n a
• Cross mo d ulatio n: Th is was a common mental problem that i, "fixed " onl y with domi nanr term in a power se ries de scri p-
speci ficatio n when AM was the domi - caref ul LO de sign . Recip roc a l mixi ng is tion of the di sto rting device, hut that
nant modul at ion mo de. It is measured a majo r p ro h lem wi th frequency synthe- rela t ion sh ip i, ofte n am big uous. 12 )
with two inp ut sig nals , Th e fi rst is an siz ed rad ios an d offers the singl e most Consider two example in puts of 14,04
{/Vi'I'llI{ i' stre nl?iP carrier wi th no modu- [undamentol challenge to the de sign of and 14.0 5 Ml iz , direc tly within our in-
lation of it's own , The sec on d i s a adv anced communication s equ ip ment. put filt er s. The d istortion products now
much stro nge r modulated carrier sp aced An int egra l part or this challenge is that appear at 14.03 and 14 .06 MHz. The fro nt

6 .28 Chapter 6
 sign al in dBm ava ilable to the rece iver is
, the generator o utput less the atten uation
I st ep I Audiu value in dB.
Sour ce : Atte n uat o r : r--r-__-, Vol.tme ter
Afte r meas urin g MD 5. a second sign al
, ,
sou rce is added to the re st set. as sho wn in
F ig 6.62 B. The sources are adjusted to
'A)
have eq ual out puts . T he hvhrid in tha t fig-
ure is a ci rc uit e lement that combines the
eo Otllll
outputs of two 50 -£2 ge nerators to form
Si ""o.l
'OUl'Ce ' one 50 -£2 source while isola ting the two
, ge nerators from ea ch other. (See Chapter
Audio
Att~:::tur : ,~~_-, VoltJl\ete r i under Ret urn Lo ss Hridge.I The l: 01l1 -
, bincd output is adju sted as needed in the
hybr.d
step atte nua tor. The le ve l ava ilabl e 10
the recei ve r input is adju st ed unti l the
", response on the met er is exactly the same
3-dB -above-the -n oise re spo nse that we
saw whe n meas uring 11D5.
Fig 6.62- Set u p fo r measu re me nt of receive r dy na mic ra nge. See text fo r
dis c us s io n. Co nsider an example . F irs t, tu rn AGe
off for all DR and interce pt measurements.
With no inp u t sig nals . the au dio o utp ut
end filt ering do cs nothing to uttenu are the \-IDS was defined earlier and is the from o ur rece iver is 5 mv. RM S. Th is is
original signals that cause the distortion. available power fro m a rourn tem perature the result otrcccivcr noise. we now injec t
11 14.0 1O-11H z signal from a ge nerato r and
nor doc s it attenu ate the products once they sig nal so urce that willc au xe the o utp ut to
have bee n gener ated. Firvr i mpressions i ncr ea se by 3 d 8 abov e the back grou nd adjust the le vel and rece iver tunin g unti l
vuggest that th is distort ion would wi n all noi se. MO S is related 10recei ver noise fig - the audio output is 7.1 mV .3 dB abov e the
communicat ions, hut things are not that ure and bandwi dth by noise level . This happened wi th a ge ne ra-
-evere. The detailthat saves our rece ivers tor ou tp ut o f ~ 1 3 0 dRm. which becomes
is the charac teristic tha t a third- order dis- the .\105 . Next. we set u p the sig nal gen -
MO S (d B m) == - 174 dBm + erators at 14.03 and 14.0 5 M H z, le av in g
rortio n produc t will increase or dec rease
in proportion to the cube of the input sig- 10 log(BW) + :-"F E q 6. 12 the receiver tu ned to 14.01 ;\IHz. We in-
nals . So, if input sig nals become I dB cr ease the le vel of the two to nes until we
weaker, the resulting dis to rtion decrea ses where BIN is the receiver noise bandwidth get the same output that we saw with the
by 3 dR . T hird-order IM U in a rece iver is in Hz and NF is the noi se figu re in dB. \10S mea surement . T his o ccu rs with a
characterized hy a thi rd-order inp ut inter- Noise bandwid th is usu all y close to signal sig nal at the input of ---4 4 dR m per ton e,
cept. Alt hough thi rd-or der 1\ 10 is an ba ndwid th at the - 6 dB points . I.' Fo r Each tone is 86 dB above MOS, so our
insidious proble m. it i, eas y to measure . example, a rece iver wi th a 2.5-kllz two-to ne dyna mic range is ::-:6 dB.
Genera lly. anything we do to 11 fro nt-end ban d widt h and a lU-dB noise Fig ure has a \V e (;" 11 measure the rccc ivcr in put th ird-
design to imp rove 1:<'10 will al so improve - 130 -dB m M OS. Th e test se tup used to order intercept directly with the same
gain compress ion and seco nd-order IMO. meas ure !lIDS is sho wn in .F ig 6.62A . The equ ipment. ( Sec Chapter 2, sect io n 6 , to
For these reason s, the third-ord er input in-
tcrce pt becomes a central design cons id-

-
eration for receivers.

Dy n amic Range and

...
OI P 3- + 2 11
",
OIP 3- + 3 0

>----1_ o u t
I nt ercepts
We often hear [ulks tal kin g about
dvnamic range of an amplifier or rece iver. + 1 dll1IFo 1. 2 ~ 9 rntf
but the ter m is often ill de fi ned. Whe n - 4 tlIlJD-O . 3 98 rntf<-~~~~~~--J
a-ked a bo ut it. the person will say it is the - 6 tlIlJD-O . 2 ~ 1 rntf<-_~~~~~~~~~~~~..J

di fference in dB bel wee n the large st sign al

1
that a circu it can han dle and the s malle st.
But w hat is the weakest signal and what 1 1 1
defin es it'! How large can the lar gest be ( 1.259 + 0.398 + 0.151
and how do we defin e that?
We usc the following rece ive r de fini-

...
OIP 3= + 2 7 .4
tio n: Two-tone dy nam ic ran ge is the dB
--~ -
d ifference be tween lWO sig na l lev el s: The
\lo eakcst signal that a rec eiver can de al with

i-, the minimum disce rnahle signal. or

~ ID S wh ile the stro nge st signal is one of
two sign als of equal strength that pro duce
J. third -or d er di stortion produ ct with a re-
-
IIP 3-- 6. 6 3
k:6
~

Fig 6.63-Three ampli fier s tages a re cascaded. The inte rce pt for the cascade is
ca lcu la ted by norma lizing the intercepts to o ne plane in the system, c o n ve rtin g
va lue s fro m d Bm to mW, combining va lue s in t he way that re si s to rs in para lle l a re
vponsc equal to that o f the MIJS combi ned, an d t hen converting back to dBm . See text for d e tails.

Trans mitters and Receivers 6.29

sec ho w inte rcept i s defined nn d men- l'ig 6.63. T his ca sca de mig ht he pa rt o f a me thod is a wo rst-ca se an alysis whe re the
su rcd.j Se t the anenu ator outpu t for a w ideband amplifier to be used in an SSB imer modulario n voltages fro m ea ch stage
larger ou t put pe r to ne than was use d in transm it te r. Th e o urpu r inte rce pts 01 the add in p hase. Our meas urem ents indicate
the d ir..cct OR measurement. T une the three stages are know n: + I I. +20. an d tha t this analysis works well in practical sys -
rece ive r to 1 ~ .0 1 t-Hll and note an output +J O d Bm. Th e re spec tive g ains a re 10. l -l tems. so lung as the individua l stages arc
of IO() m V in the aud io voltmeter. We note and 12 d B. Rec allt hat the input intercept well-be ha ved. as defi ned ea rlier.
tha t the av ailable vignals at 1 ~ . 03 :'101Hz and of an am plifier is rela ted to the o utput in- Recei ver d y na mic range is related to
1 ~.Oj ~H l l i~ -3 I d Hm per ton e or per te rcept through the stage gain. T his d iffe r- intercept an d MDS by a si mp le equauon.
signal. We nuw tu ne the rece iver to ence is not re stricte d 10 a si ngle stage . The ~ I DS i-, furth er related 10 ba ndwidth
1~.03 M ill where we encoun te r a ve ry o utp ut interceprv fur each stage can he no r- and noise figure. offeri ng a mo re gene ra l
lo ud <,igna1. T he aucnuuror b increased mali eed. or "moved" 10 t he inp ut of equatio n.
until t he ourpur Ie vel is again .11 100 mv. the ov erall syste m. becoming + I. ~. an d
find ing thut this happened when we had
added 60 dR of atte nuat io n. Hence. the
- 6 dfsm. T he indiv id ua l intercepts are
merely adjusted hy the gai ns in the move-
DR(dB)'(f)(11" - 'IDS)
dictortion products arc 60 d B bduv. the men t process. T he normalized value-, are
des ired respons e. Thi s is the IM D Ratin. co nv ert ed fro m d Bm to powcr in milli-
or IM DR. Rewr iting ancquatinn hum sec- wa tts. Th e values arc the n combined in the
= ( .;) (lI PJ + IN - Me - lO wg [nw]
lion 2.6 same way tha t resistors-in-poroltel arc F.q s.rs
l:\lO R com bined. produc ing a net inpul intercept
+--- Eq 6.1 3 of 0.137 mW . o r - 8 .6 d Rm . T he parallel
2 whe re IIPJ is the input third order inter-
re si stor analogy hac no significance o mer
cept. :\F is sys tem no ise Fig ure. BW is
a llo wing us to calculate the inp ut than being a n easily re me mbe red formula. the system ba ndw idth . Reca ll that k'T =
intercept forthe receiver a.. - I d Bm . While T his ca n abo he pre se nted in a general- -17~ d Bm at 290 K. explaini ng that te rm
d oing this measurement. it i-, in- arucrive 10 izcd eq ual ion in the eq uation.
c ha nge the inp ut from - J I 10 - 29 d Bm. or
a similar small amount. With 2-d R-l arger
input signals. we \ee l ~l D products that
ar e 6 d B stronge r. The IM DR beco mes
56 d B. still k'l\ ing an i np ut int... rcept of
1P1 = - 10 log
(i~llIJ "')
1~ - (Ge ne ra l case)
Some Front-End Design
Examples
-I d Bm . If W lin remai ns a constant. the We arc no w in a positio n to e valuat e
fro nt end is sa id 10 be wett behaved, so me rece ive r fro nt-end des ig ns . A reV.
Fwo formats arc used to indic ate int er-
ce pts. T he one we have used for an input
in tercep t is W Jill' T he IP3 pa rt indicates ( ""
= _ 10 log- JO-TO - 10 -Ji) •'" '"
ro- lii ) exam ples will he p re se nted usi n g d ata
obtained from measu reme nts we ha ve pc:r-
f ormed.
(N-3, a-steqe ex a mp le)
that it i.s a third-order i nte rcept w hile ill Th e fi r<.t exa mple is a po p ular on e
signifi cs an inp ut ra ther than o utput inte r- Eq 6,1 ~ amo ng the Q RP cl an. a rec eive r fro nt end
ce pt. An equally valid dl.'sig nat inn is IIP3 based upon the Phillips NE602 or NE6 12.
where the fir st I denore- input. The seco nd O Uf cvatuauoo d ata wa s presented in
where IP3 now represent- the intercept of the
for mat rel nte s to the outpnr interce p t. sym - cascade and IP i is the intercept of the C ha pte r 5 A trout-e nd block dia g ram .
boli zed by IP3"",or OIP3. Avoid nssoc iat- i-th stage with all intercept s being nor111Ol I· F j~ 6.64 . inclu de , gains . interce pts. and
i ng the term inte rcept po i llt with a nu mhe r. ized 10 a single plane in the amplifier. In our noise fig ures for tilt" stag es . T he re sult of
for it i." on ly confusi ng whe n th e plane o f exarnple, we normal ized all intercepts 10the applying the d ynamic ran ge a nalysi s is
definit io n is n<,1I specified . Stri ctly spea k - system inpu t. Howeve r. we cou ld have also incl uded . This is a si mple des ign with
ing . i nterce pt poi nt is the imersecuon o f picked the output , or any interface betw een only one active block. th e mixer. Th e dy-
1\>.'0 curves. stages. (The eq uation is derived in bnrodur- na mic ra nge is modes t 'It 83 dR. alt houg h
lnte rcep rs ar e not mere esoter ic c unost- riOl1 TO R(ldio Fre'll/eIK.'" Design.' T his sens itivit y is q ui te good . T he noise figu re
lie 'i or re<.: c:i ve r figure s-ot-meri t. R'lther.
the y arc {Q(lh . use fu l para meters ava ilable
to Ihe d es igner. Inte rcep t' o ffer two maj or
capa hilitie s:
' I[ the input intercept o f a rece ive r (or an )'
systcm) is known. the iOlermodu lati on
d isto rtio n is well de fined for all input
k \ds.
• If the int e rcep ts and ga ins for all stages in
-
IIn__ l1. '

a syMem arc know n. Ihey c an he com-

hine d to eakulatc the in lereept for Ihe
co mplete system . Input and uutpu l in-
tercep\<, for a singk stage differ hy Ihe lIIe t rou n _ U oI!I
small ·signal stage gain . lIn . - 15. 5 oI!IIIO
Eq ua tion 6.13 leh u~ calculate d istor- MIlS • - 11 0 olBIa
lII!' • 1 oI!I
tion for any input len:! . till _ IJ oI!I
The in len·ept of a ea~eade was trea led
c:arlier a nd is illuslrOltcd here wilh an ex- Fig 6.64-A simple rece ivNtont e nd using the NE6 02. The IF system is est imated
ample: a three-stage amplifier ,hnv.n in to have a noise figu re of 10 d B.

6 .30 Chapter 6
is es se nt ially tha t of th e IC plus the inser- gai n to actu all y increa se input intercept add an R'amplifie r. ln other situ at ion s, an
tion loss o f the handpas-, filler p re cedi ng with only a modest noise fig ure ch a nge . X E602 is used as a second mi xe r in a
it. C are must be exe rc ised in implemen t- So m e builder s claim a 1}()-d B dyn amic rece ive r. having been pr ec eded wi th ga in .
ing th is des ig n if t his DR is to he re ali zed. ran ge with NE602 front en ds with this The trade-off i s ill ustrated in F ig 6.65, A
For example. ch ip intercept could be al- band,.. . idth . C lea r ly . carefu l me asurements ba nd pas s filter w ith a ! -dB lo ss is fol low ed
rcrcd if o utput is extr acted only from o ne are alwa ys w orthw hil e , by a low ga in RF amplifier. T he s igna l then
o utput ter mi nal. On the other hand. c a re - In sp ite ofthe good MDS ob tained from passes throug h th e origin al 2-d B-ioss f il-
ful mis ma tc h at the inp ut ma y dec re ase the :\ E60 2, some builders are tem p ted 10 te r be for e arriv ing at the m ixer. Th is de-
sign offers a 2-dB imp rovement in sens i-
ti vity . but at the pr ice of a 5 -d J3 decre ase in

-
dy nam ic range .
OIP ] _ O dIbn
0IP 3 _ +0 .3 T he next sample fro nt en d , FiA 6.66 , is
To 5 0 0 the opposi te extr em e. Here we usc a di od e

~ ~
"' ~ ring m ixer a s the fir st ele me nt . foll owed
Z Mat ch in g Cl' y " t aJ.

H
NE602 Filt e .. by a po st mixer amp li fier wit h high cu r-
Netwo rk and I F reat. T hi s is th e sort of fro nt en d wt:
- ~ - ---' recommend for the 160.80 or 4 0-m ama-
G ai n ~ -1 dB Gain _ _ 2 <Ill Gain_ 18 dB
teur ha nds where lo w no ise f igure is rar ely
Gain_ l0 dB NF _ 5 dB
NY_ ] dB need ed Altho ugh MDS is 8 to 10 d B
hig he r tha n the prev iou s desi gn s,
Ne t Galn _ 2 3 dB dy nam ic ra nge is ox dB . The mixer in th is
IlP3 _ -2 5 5 <IBm design is a +7 -d Bm -typ e rin g such as the
MllS _ - 1 4 2 . 2 <IBm
I\l in i-C irc ui ts SBL- L TUF - l or TUF -3. If
NY _ 4 . 8 dB
DR _ 78 <Ill an even stron gerTUF - 1H was subs tituted .
IJR ov er 100 d H is eusi Iy wit hin reac h in a
sim ple de sign . The pos t mi xe r feed hack
Fig 6.65 -An RF amplifier is added to the previous desi gn, offering s ligh tly
improved MDS at t he cost of degraded dynam ic ra n ge . am plifier would ideally us e a pa rt sp eci-
fied j ust for t his applicarion . suc h as the
2N 5101} with 4 0 or 50 m i\. Ho wev er. a
parallel pair of 2.'131}{)4s will do a su rpris-
ingl y good job. aga in w ith 40 mA of tot al
OIP]_ +]6
current.
IIp ] - + lJ ( Pa d ) Many builde rs que st io n the use of a
""'" " pa ssive mixer wi th no ga in Bu t it is ex -

tfl\l 0
crys tal.
<, ~ :t i l t er actly th is lack of ga in that leads to th e low

/ l' =" " no rse . T he passive na ture of the circ uit

1!'F-1 Ous elim inate s the noise-gene rat in g cle me nt s
Gain_ _ 6 aa Gai n _ 22 an 11F_6 an th at co mprom ise som e oth er mix er s. There
Gain- -3 ea M _O M _O Gain ~ -6 ,~

"" "" is Ill) suhstiunio n for actual de vign.

T he high noise fig- urt: o f the bare -ring-
N., Gain _ -r m ixer front end is usu ally not suitable for
lIP] _ + l."l . 2 ""
lID S - - 13 2 ""'" tbe higher ban d s. The des ign er will often

""""'"
wan t to add an RF am p! it ier In obtain low er
M
ON ·
- sa un
1 ."i .3
NI-'. T his modification is ill ust ra te d in
l; ig (J. (,7 . T he m ode st RF amp li fi er im -
proves se nsit iv ity hy se ve ra l dB w hil e o nly
Fig 6.66 -Basic front end with a diode-ri ng mlxer followed by a high-curren t re d uc in g dy namic ra nge hy 2 d B . Too
bipo la r feedback amplifier. much RF gain co uld severe ly co mprom ise
per forma nce ,

nlV ,_+ ,. T he Receiver Fac t or

OIP]_ _ 20 IIp ] _ . l l
" The two-ton e dynamic range pres ente d

rV\}---C
>1r \}---@-{)
ny' h l

~,
UUor above has a maj or disad van tage a s a re -
• dfld IF
cei ve r figure-of-mer it: DR is a stron g func -
O ~i n 7_'
..
~
G. i n _ 'O dE

IIF. ] <lB
G~ in __ 2 ~
"~in

~".
_ _6
~
~ 6 <1" .. 02 dIJ
~ ~
""-.
G ~ ; _ _•
oW

""
" ' - 1 0 dE
tio n of ban dwi dth. T his is a di re ct re su lt of
MDS used in the DR equation . A CW re-
ce iver with a :'i O() Hz handwid tb wi ll pro -
...
lIP ] _

~ -

". '" ".

,,
JIB' _ - U .
+. ,"
Gd ; n _

@
"~ - ~
d uce a higher [) I{ than a SSB design with
much wi der bandwid th. Mea surem ents of
.\-I DS arc diffi cul t. o ften co mp licate d by
un-planned filtering in the re ceiver au dio
sec tion. W hile th is filteri ng r nuy or may
Fig 6 .67-An RF amplifier is added to th e bas ic diode-ring fro nt end, signifi ca ntly not have much im pact on the way a recei ver
imp ro vin g noise figu re while compromising DR by on ly 2 d B. soun ds. the mea sured res ults are a ltere d ,

Trans mitt ers and Recei vers 6 . 31

 Bot h inp ut interce pt and noise fig ure for The noise figure , and hence , the recei ver • A bandpass fi lter with two or more reso-
a receiver are generally ba ndwidth in;'ari- fac tor may change slightly with ba ndwidth nators ;
ant pa rameters. The first is a measure of with some receivers . This is usua lly the • A diod e-ring mixer;
strong sig nal perfor ma nce whi le the other resul t of differing fil ter insertion loss as • A pos t-mixer amplifier us ing a low-noise
defi nes weak signal beh avior. They can be bandw idth is switched.!" bipolar transistor with negative feed-
combi ne d b y tak ing the diffe re nce . \Ve ca ll back:
this the receiver factor, R::: IIP3-NF. The • An attenuator that creates a stable im-
A General Purpose
rec eiver us ing a d iod e ring fro nt en d with- pedance at both the output and. thro ugh
out RF amp lifie r, Fig 6,66 , had R:::O dRm
Monoband Receiver the behavior of the feedback circuitry ,
while the N E602 receiver with an RF am- Front End th e input of the pOSl mixer amplifier;
plifier, F ig (di5 , provided R :::- 30.3 dB m. Although th ere ar e numero us routes to • A crystal filter:
While both sample receivers used a C\V the construction of a high performance • And finall y, an IF amplifier.
ban dwid th, the R -va lucs wo uld be the front end, a de pe nd able robust topology Generally. recei vers design ed with thi s
same if they were built with SSE filters. consists of th e following cascade: fron t e nd have prod uce d dynamic range
Lat er in this ch apte r we will describe a • A simple bandpass fi lter; wi thin a couple of dE of the values pre-
receiver with an as to undi ng R ::: +35 d.B m! • A low-gain RF amplifier:

CG
LC IF
FET

I¥-{Q]-{~
S TC

fl u te PIn
Atten.
Swit ch
Fig 6.6B-Block d iagram f o r t he general-p urpose f ront end.

V+ R9

R5

J1
v+~f ~ RF el~~
Amp. e5J LJ Rl5 A

~~~~l I
T i "Tel \f
R6 Q3 Rl6

~" I ,;' "I I I--@;Jf--+--+H

,---+~---+-i PoI F st Mixer
~ -=- e~Hix er Rl Ul R7 J Amp.

MPH3404

~
05 - Rl2 el5 e16
iiii't'e R2 e4 RlO R13

R3 10.21 HC- 49

<~:1f
' ~~- f :,: I T2 R20

e2 0T C2l.::r::- e 22 Yl
.I- -
Crys ta l Filt er (n=6 ) I F Amp.
Y5 Y6 J3

R1 7

Fig 6.69-Schema1ic fo r the ge neral-purpose front end. See text f o r details. Ga1n -

6.32 Ch apte r 6
 dieted by the ana lysis present ed when us- larly with the FET gate lead. re sistance ge nerates e ven beuer stability.
ing mea sured data for the indi vidua l A cur e for the instab ili ty is res ista nce in We hav e used 100 n in this appli catio n,
stages. The block dia gram for th is front ser ies with the drai n. This is nor a mere for it prov ides mar gin without altering the
end is shown in Fig 6.68, experim enta l ba nd-aid, hut a circ uit detail 10\\' freq uency (HF and le w VH F! gain.
A sm all cir cuit board was de signed and ju stif ied with an alytic eval uation. Great er The res istor sho uld be pla ced as close to
fabricated for this front e nd and inclu de s a
crystal filter of up to 6 crysta ls. The 50- 0
impedance of the pad is increased with a
pi-netwo rk to whatev er value needed by Gain of a JFET Amplifier
the filter. The other end of the cry stal lad-
The IF ampl ifier used in the outpu t of the gene ral-purp ose receiver front
dcr is termina ted in the proper res istor and end is a common-so urce config urat ion with a transform er output present-
a common sourc e JFET amp lifier. A PIN ing a 200- n load to Ihe FET drain. Amplifier gain depe nds on the imped-
diode attenuator is also included in the IF ance presenl ed 10 Ihe input.
a mp lifier ou tp ut for tho se app lica tion s
where no other IF gain co ntrol is avail-
+Vd d
able. A muting switch for the RF amplifi er
200 Ohm l oad
is als o included. The compl ete schematic
is given in Fig 6,69.
V-load
The input pre-selector filter is a single J 310 100
tuned circuit. It beg ins as a 3-demcnt low -
so J310
pass fil ter, bu t t he usual ind ucto r is
re placed with a series tuned circ uit. This
simple topology de genera tes into a lo w
"-
I npu t
PardJJU!t .. rs'
Vp _ _ 311

pass filter in the VHF stopband, a useful I d ss- 4 !i mil.

a ttribute wh en trying to avoid spurio us

responses related to stray VHF signals ,
The seco nd ban dpass filter. a do uble-
tuned circu it, appe ars after the RF amp li-
fier whe re noi se figu re has be en estab- The "filter" is the combination of an impedance-tran sfo rming network
lished. Insert ion loss is not as criti ca l as it and a crysta l filter in this instance, The 50- 0. source is transfo rmed 10
might be without the amplifier. This mean s malch a higher resis tan ce, 820 n in the schemal ie above , with the
that the filt er bandwi d th can be narro w compos ite "filter."
enough to ensure very good image rcjcc- If 1 mV is presenle d 10 Ihe input, the volt age at the gate will be increased
lion. It also all ows us to use small toroid by the squa re rool of the impedance ratio, he re a fact or of 4 .05. So, Vg =
cores, if desired . 4.05 mY . The FET bias curre nt is 7,92 mA in Ih is instance. so Ihe tran s-
Two ban dpass filte rs sho uld be used in conductance is gm = 0.0126 S, using equations presen ted in Chap ter 2.
The drain signa l cu rrent is then
designs that include an RF am plifier. An
RF ampl ifie r that is not preceded by a filter
is subj ect to o verloa d from local signals. GM-VG = 0.05 1 mi lliampere.
pa rticularly the st rong VHf broadc asts
This curren t develops an outpu t voltage across the 200 n load, Vout =
that mos t of us exper ience. A filter sho uld
10 ,2 1 mY. (Th e 100-0. resi stor is significa nt only in redu cing Ihe effective
also appear after the RF amplifie r, im me- supply voltage. It is included to suppress parasili c osc illations .)
diately preced ing the: mixer. This circ uit.
ofte n te rmed t he image-stripping filt er, Oulpul power is V2/200 = 5 .21 x 10- 7 W, Bullhe available inpul power
establishes image reje ctio n. If it was only is 1 mV across 50 0. , or 2 x 10- 8 W , SO Ira nsduce r pow er gain is 26 , or
present ahead of the RF am plifier, it wou ld 14 .2 dB. The important detail here is that powe r gain is a strong func tion
not supp ress noise at the ima ge freq uency of Ihe impedance term inating the fil ter , show n in the curve below.
that is cre ated hy the RF amp lifier.
The RF ampli fier we chose is a
common-gate JFET des ign. It is capable of
very lo w noise figure while offering good
inrermodulatio n distort ion and high power ~
output when needed . It also can have very
good reverse isolation. serving to suppress ;l'
signa ls at the mixer that wou ld otherwise •• -GT(R,)
-
find their way 10 the antenna term inal. Bur ~
I

~
it can also be challenging, for the co mmon
gate FET amplifier can tend to oscilla te.
The spuriou s osci llat ions , whic h usua lly
occur at a few hundred !\1Hz. occur when 0 ' -- - - ---'-- - - - -
the layout is poor or leads are too long . o 500 1000 15 00 2000
Gener ally, too much fuss is propagated in R,
muc h of the electronics literature regarding Gate Terminarunt, Oluns
long leads in solid-state circuitry , but this is
a place where it really docs matter. particu-

Trans mitters and Receive rs 6. 3 3

 Output Inter cept and Gain Vs Currant .r>; ,"
"
00 ,/
'
\
\
'c.oo
"""o ;v.

"" i
OIP3
-
C,
- -
-
"soca
00

'"
"'" ,!
!
/
I
I
!
I

\ \
\
\
\
""'H .,•
" -.,

ie \
\
ie
// \
" , \
"tu C,';,",';",,,
!
-
\

u m au se '0
I,
so "0 ru au
/ \ \
co,
.00

--- ..
"c ."" _
Fmitttr CllrI" nt, ntA I """" "" CR£<JO<HCY . 500. 00 1I, 000 ;Y •
' '''''',00 "' 0 t. ~.U'" I
'0 ......
, """'-"' '' .
""""m. '--""""" "-",,,M ''''' , ,,-
>"9 6.70- Gain (low er cu rve) and o ut put inte rc ept for one o r G ~ •• i ~ · ' . · G ,"" , '"'~'or
' ; ".' .
" , " , ' el
~-
~ ....c2N3904s in parallel. Two de vices should be used for
cu r rents abo ve 20 rnA, wh ile total current over 40 rnA is no l Fig 6.71-Calculated response for the Gaussian-to-6 -dB
-ec ornm end ed except as an experiment. crysta l f ilter. The shape is Gaussian for the top 6 dB, but
T1 " 10 b ifil ar turns on an FT3 7- 43. then re verts to a Chebyshev-like skirt res po n se. The k and q
::<9 = 47, R8 = 1kQ, R6 = 1.5 kn, R7 = 680 n , R10=6.a kn, da ta for t his fille r were obtained from Zverev 's Handbook of
::< 12 = R13, w h ic h are p icked to set th e de emitter c u rre nt. Filter Synthesis, Wiley, 1967 .
.. 12 = R13 = 100 n for 30 rnA t otal cu rrent.
C13,14,15,16 ,18,19 = O.1J.1 F.
,
. ~ ( FET as th e board layout or breadboard .F ig 6.7 0. A home sta tion design w here this receiv er. The rece iver arc hitecture is
~.l" " , _ A simple shi elding method fo r a povi er is ab undant migh t u se 30 or 4 0 rnA one w itho ut an IF/A GC amplifier. Fro nt -
J ; j{) RP amplifie r was shown ea rlier in wh ile 10 mA ma y be enough for a portable end parts are tabula ted in the fo llo wing lis t.
'h i- chapter . T he shiel d wa s nor needed on ap p lication. No heat sin k has been needed The 5-el ement 5-M Hz cr ystal filter for
.nr-, c ircu it hoa rd . for a pair of 2N3904s at 40 mA total CUT - th is rece iver was de signed for a 3-dB band -
The RF amplifier outpu t resistanc e is rent . La rg er tra nsistors wit h higher power width of 500 Hz and a Gau ssian -to -
arou nd 10.000 n. Th at va lue was used dissipation r atin gs can. o f cou rse . be used. 6-dB shape. T his shape has the vir tue of a
\\ hilc de signing the input ter m inatio n for Th e designer/ b uilder mus t des ign the goo d time-domain characteristic, keeping
the dou hl e tu ned circui t wh ile the outp ut is cryst al filte r for the de sired bandwidth. ringing to a minimum in a narrow filter.
-c t fu r a 50 -Q ter min ation . Whi le the board will acco mmodate up to The sto phand atte nuat ion is still reason-
The RF amp lifierFET is biased on whe n () crystals , fewer may suffice. i n one appli- able. An added virtu e of trans itiona l fillers.
the I\'PN switch is satur at ed . The b uilder cal ion using a 'i-crystal CW bandwid th fil- incl uding thi s Gau ssian-ro-o -db. is a rete-
chould des ign control circuitr y to app ly a te r, we found that stopban d attenuation wa s live insensit ivity to exact component value .
po sit i ve vo ltage to the cont ro l i np ut du r- le ss than indi ca ted by calc ulatio ns. Tw o allowing a minor degree of "slop" when be -
ing rece ive intervals . measu res res tored performance: First , all ing con structed . On the down side. this fil-
T h is mod ule uve-, m ixers in the T UI-' crvvtal melal cases were grounded to a wire ter lacks the fam ili ar circu it sy mmetry of
fa mily fro m Mini -Cir cuits. Eit her the bus. Second. a shie ld was so ldere d to the Bu tterworth and Ch ebys hev de signs , We
TU F - l or TUF-3 shoul d work well with gro und foil between the crystal filter and bu ilt this 5-MHz filter wi th available crys -
+7 d Bm of LO power. A h igh le vel m ixer the pos t mixer amplifier. tals that had good Q. oft en ove r 200,000.
lT UF-I H or T UF-3H with + 17-dBm LO The builder/designer has co nsiderable Crystal frequ e ncies we re matched to wi thin
power) will al so fi t in the board and will flex ibility available when choos ing the 10 Hz. Design details are presented in
provide e ven higher d ynam ic range , hu t ter minating resi stance for a cr ystal filter. Chap ter 3. A calculated re sponse for thi s
on ly whe n followed hy an adequately T his choi ce imp acts the design o f the i F crystal filt er is shown in Fig 6.71
slrong p ost-mi xer am plifi er. The mixer is am p lifier. The de sig n procedure is sum - Several different fil t er designs we re
generally th e D R defining element wit hin mari ze d in the Ga in of (J in:"'!" Amplifier tri ed in this re ceive r. W hile a C ohn de sig n
the sy stem. sidebar. Higher ga in i s available w ith the worked, it used a term inati ng resista nce
Th e post-m ixe r am plifier is a critical higher impedance va lue s. under 200 n. Th is severely impacted the
el ement. Enough curren t shou ld be used to The PiN diode will pro vide up to 30 -dB If amp li fier ga in as outlined in the IF
guarantee the de sired dynamic range. attenua tion. Th is is especially handy for sidebar. (A Cohn ty pe cr yst al filter is . of
However, too much curre nt can also be app lications where no add ition al If gain is course , po ssible with a higher term inatin g
wa steful. especially in applications whe re used. impedance. hut the simp le design method
batteries arc used. Tile layo ut use d in the presented in Chapter 3 is the n invalid. ) A
gene ral -pu r pose board is for tw o paral- Gaussian-to-e d B fil te r with a 25 0-Hz
leled 2;-.r3904s. shown in Fig fd19 . Re sis - The Easy.gO Receiver bandwidth and 500-!:.! terminations
tor , R 12 and R13 determine the tota l The general-purpose fro nt end was u sed worked w el l, hut was too narrow for the
current. whi ch sho uld he equal. Onl y one 10 build a sim ple receiver for the 20 -m CW intended application
tra ns istor is req uired if to ta l current is h and. du bbed the EZi)()-14C. The 90 ind i- T he fro nt- e nd board ou tput is rout ed
20 mA or le ss , Ga in and out put inte rcep t cates a two-to ne dynamic range in exce ss di rec tly to the product de tec tor. sho wn in
are presented v s total amplifier c urr ent in of90 dB . which is ac hie ve d wi th ease w ith the detector -audio board in F ig 6 .7 2. Th is

6 .34 Chapter 6
 . 6V
m
2N3904

Act i ve Filt e r

.. o. CG 5532 .oV
6.B k 10k
0 22
ct
2N39 04 c, 2N3904
--'l IJ~
~ ~~., \ l
., "
4,7k
3,3k
RF
68 0 "
J310
"17 l Meg
Sicetone Ose 100

22U 10n, 10% 10K

Mute + 22k 10n, 10% ••
] "' '"
5 U28 1458
10K
5
•
1
22k
,. 100

+1 2 01

1Meg
1N4152
".
03 l OO K ~~ 1 41 J310
Key

l Meg

Fig 6.72- Aud io amplif iers, prod uct detector, and s idetone osc illator f or t he EZ-90C rece ive r.

EZ90·14C
Pa rts List for the 20-Meter "Easy 90" Rec eiver
C l,G3: 470 pF 8M or NPO ceramic C29 : 100 pF R7 : 680
C2 ,C6 ,C9 ,C22 : 65 pF, 10 mm air G30: 150 pF R8 : 1 kn
va riable (Sprague Goodman C31:1QOpF R9: 47
GYC65000j C32: 82 pF R10 : 6,8
C4 ,5,13 ,14 ,15, 16, 18 ,19 ,35 ,36,37,39: C33: short circuit R12 , R13: 100
0.1 J-lf C34 : not used R14 , R16: 150
C7:82 pF 0 1,04: J3 10 R15: 36
C8: 2.2 pF 02 , 03 , 05: 2N3904 R17 : 820
C10 : 56 pF 0 1: MPN3404 or s imi lar PIN d iode R18 : 220
C 11: 22 pF L1: 271 #28 on T30-6 R19 :100
C12: 200 pF L2, L5: 4.7 Il H mold ed RFC , 0>=50 R20 : 47
C20: 820 pF L3 , L4 : 1,04 IlH , 16 t #28, T30 -6 R21 : 1 kn
C21: 220 pF T1 :T2 10 bifi lar turns #28, FT37 -43 R22: 680
C23: 470 pF R1: 180 U1: TUF-1 or TUF -2 o r TUF-3
C24: 68 pF R2 , R3 : 10 kn Y1, 2, 3, 4, 5: HC49 crystals,
C25: short c ircu it R4: 100 5 MHz , Lm=98 mH, CO=3 pF (see
C26: 100 pF R5: 47 text)
C27: 150 pF R6 : 1.5 kn Y6: net used ; add short circuit
C28: 100 pF

Transmitter s and Receiv ers 6 .35

modu le desig n has been used in several low in this ver sion. Th e audio is muted EZ90-14C. The osci llator is a voltage-
proje cts . A TCF - l provides the detector with a shu nt FE T switc h. tuned Colpitts circ uit pu rpusefully config-
fu nctio n. Bipolar audio amplifiers drive an The BFO fur the prod uct detec to r is ured for low induct ance. Thc high f ixed -
a udio gain co ntrol. follow ed by an op-amp shown in Fig 6.73. Th is is breadbo arde d tank capaci tance is desira ble for lo w phase
pro vidi ng gain and an RC active low pass on a small scrap of circ uit hoard ma teria l. noise . Thi s LO produces a narrow tuni ng
filter with a peak at 700 H L. The Q is kep t Fig 6.74 shows a 9-l\.l Hz VFO for the range of abo ut 20 kill with the available
tuning diode. Th is receive r is used with a
transmitter with restric ted tuning range . so
the nar row range is acce ptable The
builder/des igner may wish to use a com bi-
natio n of varac tor tuning and a traditional
Fig 6.73-BFO fo r variable capa citor to achie ve a wider tun-
t he EZ90·1 4C. A ing range . Alternatively, hi gher L cou ld
var iab le ca pac it or be used to cover the ent ire CW band with
can be us ed in a varactor diode .
series w it h the
The VCO out put is extracted from a FET
c r y stal fo r f inal
adj us tme nt. It was followe r that the n driv es a pow er ampli-
~ MHZ~
rep laced w ith a fier to provide the +7 dBm La power
= f ix ed cap ac itor in needed hy the ring mixer. Power amplifier
1 4
o u r re ce iv er. de gener ation is adjus ted to set out put
I
18 11 : 1 .1 uH , l2tll l O , ' 3 1 _ 2,
H Hnk . level. An R- V reg ulato r supp lies the VCO ,
se.r
It also prov ides a stable hias for the tune
pot and a stable 4- V for an op-amp refer -
e nce , The gai n and offset in the op-amp
arc set up to supply a 5 to 10 V swing on
the varactor diode.
A recei ver noise Fi g ure measurement
prod uced NF = 6.6 dB . If a noise hand-
width of XOO Hz is used with this . .MDS
of -13X dBm is suggested. Ho we ver. a di-
rec t r neas ure mcnr of lvIDS pro du ced
- 14 1 dBm . The difference is attributed to
the narrow a udio filter that restrict s over -
all noi se bandw idth . DR mea surement
produced a value of 9S dB . fo r HP3
= - 1.5 dBm. Us ing t his va lue fo r IIP3,
Genera l-pu rpo se rec eiver f ron t en d boa rd used in t he EZ90·1 4. recei ver fac tor is R = - X. l dBm.

-
-eaz
L l : 9t *2 2 on T44- 6 . H . " I •
,.
~
m out
.,
Dl : 88 1 0 4
v"~" ,, to~ .
d u <>.J.

. ""
., rx
.,
i.a t.a

J31 0
660 620 -
I
- "
2 . 21'<

2 .2K
.,
62 , A4 j l

m
( BV )

'"' ,.
.01' ., 358
-

(V-"~
-

( BV )

"K '.1 i ux
,
~ " , .~, Fig 6.74- VFO mod ul e fo r the EZ90·14C.
[Tuning I R- i n
>OK R-' 1. 5K

-
'"'
6.36 Chapter 6
 The receiver is packaged with a 14 !v[Hz needed for high dy nam ic range. IIP3 , The amp lifi er is pre ceded by a single
VXO transmitter described in C hapter 5. Th e rece iver is a CW only desi gn using resonator pre selector and followe d by a
The narro w recei ver tuning range clirni- filter s with reasonable time domai n cha r- double tun ed image-s tripp ing filter.
nates most birdies from being a problem. In act eristics . While these fi lters are no The mixer uses a TUF-I with +7 dBm
spite of thi s. one was encountered in the lon ger ava ilable. it sho uld be po ssible for LO dr ive . A highe r LO level is applied to
form of a feedthrou gh of IS-Mllz WWV the agg ressi ve builder to build viable sub- a 3 dB hybrid that splits the sig nal into two
energy This signa l got into the enclosure stitu tes. T he 9-MHz IF syste m was isolated componen ts. O ne drives the mixer
nn the antenna connector whe re it then described ear lier in detail in f ig 6. 56. The while the other is attenuated and available
found it' , way onto the grounds that desig n featu res three stages of ga in using for uansceive appl icatio ns . The mixe r
reached t he pro duct detecto r. There. the d ual-gate ~10S FETs and crystal filters at has two inputs. selected by a small re lay.
normal third har moni c response of the di- hoth the IF input and output. The IF cir- One is the normal 14 MHz signal from
ode ring allowed the 15-MH z co mpo nent to cuitry is buil t with breadboards into a mul- the double tuned circui t whil e the othe r
be directly converted. to prod uce base band tiple sectio n mille d aluminum enclosu re. c omes from other eq uipmen t at either 4 or
audio, The problem was elimi nated with a Th e fron t en d (Fig 6.75 ) begins with a 14 .\1Hl . Th e mix er output is app lied to the
5- MHl low-pass filter inverted in rhc line bipo lar Rl- amp lifier biased to I, = 12 rnA. famili ar feedback amp lifi er and pad com -
between the fron t end and the detecto r au- which produces lo w noise figure while bination. The front e nd is housed in a 4 x
dio hoard. The prohlem would never have mai ntaining an interce pt that is hig h 4 x I inch milled a lum inum box.
occurred if the receive r had not been built eno ugh to not degrade o verall receiver The BfO and Product Detector, shown
with completely unshielded boards.
Generally this rccci vcr will ho ld up well
in a contest environment. a lthough we f ind
it in need of some AGe for those moments
when a reall y strong signal is e ncounte red.
Limiti ng in the audio output op-amp pro -
d uces a clip ped respo nse when the strong
sign<Jl s appear. saving the operator' s cars.
The very "hot" rcc c ivcr (low MDS ) was
designed [or portable s itu ation s where
no ise levels are much lower than we rind
in a home environ me nt.

A 14·MHz Receiver
Th is rec e iver is an updated version of
two earlier des igns ,15T he changes include
repackaging (smaller sile) with improved
shie ld ing, a new frequ ency counter with
lower power require ments. and a redu ced
noise IF system. This receiver is similar to
the E Z9 0 . but feature s the sbiefding General-p urpose recei ver front e nd board ins ta lled in t he EZ90-1 4 Receiver.

4 IDIz Input

14 IDIz
.11.,.
-s ~

I np u t
'" '" :i' S C I 2 ~ 2 or
2 SC1 2 5 2 or 2NH0 9
21l ~1 0 9 Ll , :i', 3: 1 uH, 16t M2 8 T3 0 -6 xs
:i'2 0 1 6.8

~ .r'
L" : 8 00 nH, H t 1126 , T30 - 6
Tl ,2 ,3 : 1 0 blti~ar

5 IDfz LO
tur ns , FT-3 7 - ,13

h~~---+--<~
·11· W"
AllX . 5
HIIz L O
Inp ut , L ,I L- - ...----.~~._-...,'O) Output ,
+ 1 0 dBm
- 1'"T.' 8 0
_

~" "-
5 00 0 FT Kl coil 11~ 11 0~
+12 ~ '-' ;:;;;,,~ ~

B and ~" . ~
~wltcll -

Fig 6 .75~F ron t end for t he 14-MHz rec e iver . The c ircuit is built la rgel y with breadboa rd ing me thods.

Transm itters and Receivers 6.37

 Close up v iew of audio amplifiers.

front pa nel view of rec eiv er.

in Fig 6.76, is tradit io nal. A d iode ring

moves the lJ-M Hz IF sig nal to base band
while a bipolar transistor serves the BFO
function.
The 5 -1IHz local oscill ato r is shown in
.F i g 6. 77. The design uses a Colpitts VFO
wit h a JFET . A JFET buffer d rives a feed -
back amplifier o ut put stage. The out put
power is large enough to drive the hybrid
splitter and mix er in the front-end mod ule.
varactcr dio de luning will even tually be
added to pro vide an RIT functio n. The re-
lated CMOS frequenc y counter was
described in Chapter 4 .
T he receiver aud io system is shown in
Hg 6.78. U I provides audio gain, muting,
and a convenient place to inject a sidcto ne
signal. This drives an audio gain control and
the outp ut stage. U2 and Q 2. The o utput op-
crates as a class A amplifier with a sta nding
current of about 90 rnA. This will drive a
Inside of 14-MHz recei ver . Upper left is the frequen c y co unter, upper right is the small speaker or headpho nes of virtually any
f r o nt end, midd le is If cha in, an d low er right is product de tector/BfO . impedance. The high current is not a prob -

~O O O
rr

ri
16 :4
n O- 6 m
= .,
T31 -6 sa
~
0
no ""'
- no
211390 4 -
-
, .m
,," 9 0 -4 00
sa
0
IT
I Jlllut
, . ~

~
-
- ""
"
10 - 90 H
I
6ao
"
"1
- -
- -

f ig 6.76-BFO and Detector for the 14-MHz receiver.

6.38 Chapter 6
 22 1500p FT
+1 2V
:I:
22

J310

4x 820p
NPO

43
1K

~~--YI/'v------_---.J Outpu t
33
-e- 0.1 ~ 10
1K Counter
•• 01 dB Chebl5 .5MHz
231. #28
130-6 231. #28
1K 130-6
•
0.1

}
1K > 100
-::- 150 s61

Fig 6.n- LO system for the 14.MHz receiver. The N750 capacitor provides temperature compensation as measured with a
sma ll homebuilt the rmal chamber. All other cap acit ors in the oscillator have an NPO temperature coeff icient.

Transmitters and Receivers 6 .39

 +12v
10K 100
10u

tl°
u

10K I
~ ~
+

2 3+
Ula
5532

J310
01
6
5 8
+
+
Ulb =-

2K
1 K
100K
.01
68
§T
U2
70K
1/2
1458 =-Audio
STO-in output

2N3904
4 7K 2N390
07
l OO K

6V 4.7K Q5
To IF AGe Line
Q3
1K 10K ,. r----,-
T:>o AGC Cap

+1 22K 2N3904

Key-line 1 7~ 2N3904 2~39044 71 Side Tone to

Aud io Amp
Key-in +12'0'
o 'lu 1
270
Side Tone Osc. 1N4152
~ Key-out
-0 +
-=- 22u 5 1K 4 7K
2N3906
15K 2N3904
QB
"
22K Key-line

rJ+
-=-4,7u
51

5 1K I
,Of 5%_
5 1K
22K
,01,5 %

Fig 6.78-Audio and control system for the rece iver. See text for deta ils.

6. 4 0 Chapter 6
lem, for the receiver is used only in a home
environment. Q3 and related compone nt... 0
- -
t .- --
generate a time deJa}. establi...hing the time + +

I -- --
/
the rece iver is muted follo wing a key do-
• - + + +
...ure. Placing the funcucn in the recei ver
allows U"C with many transmiuerv that may +
- + + +

not incl ude interfa ce circuir-, The key line

loop.. in and out of the receiver. - - +
- - . - +

Q8 and Q9 for m an un us ual We inbridge -" U 9 0- <1.0 0 t.a 9 0 - 40 0

- -
side tone oscilla tor. In key-u p con di tio n s ,
- ·
the I WO transistors and the l WO S. I-kO emit-
ter resistors form an amplifier with a non-
inverting gain of two, Th is is not high
f
I 2~0 n ' 1
-
J
6 ~0
, ux ,
cz J
I2~0
-
+

- ·
+

enough In ..upport oscillation. Hut when the

key is pre ssed . the a .7-k! l resiston:ause"'lhe
- 3D i.-:
1 1 ,2 :
C1 ,2 : ~c .
'" ' 68 - 2
co-pr• •• lon lc_c - •
\ o llagt' gain to exce ed 3. allowi ng oscilla-
tion to begin. The freque ncy is determined
S2l
3. 5 • '.5
by me 5':£ ca pacitor, and ::!:!-kll rcsi..IOTh.
Oscillatorout put is obtained from the emit- 3. 5
- Z9.9 H 3
•- 1. 7 +'37 1
u
- 1.89152
' .5
- 30_3939
ter of Q8 . Th i.. point docs nor change de 0 0 0 0
value us the circ uit is keyed. preventing a
"eyed voltage ..pike in the aud io. Fig 6.7 9-Filter for use at the o utp ut 01 crystal co nt ro lled conv erters to be u sed
wi th the 4-MHz input In th e 14-MHz rece iv er.

Overall Results
Th is receiver is a design that has evol ved this occ urred o nly a fter a minor struggle . Althoug h a traditional dua l con ve rsion
for several years. '.0 the perform ance is fairly Examin atio n ..hewed that an RF chok e i n system doe.. not offe r the dyna mic range
-table. Prior to a majo r rebuild in 199!i. the the oscillator r ET so urce had poor rem- of a single conversion desi gn. it can be
receiver used an IF based upon :\l C-1350 P peratu re cha racter istics. Remo val o f that clos e if convene r ga in is ke pt lo w. T he
imegrated circ uus. While adequa te, the noise co mponent and fu nher co mpensarion pro- typical conveners con sist of a pre- elec tor
performance wa.. marginal. Receiver no ise duced a stab le osci llator. illu-ararin g the fi lter. a d iode ring mixer wit h crystal co n-
figure is now mai ntai ned as IF gain i.. vir tue of careful test ing and re sponse 10 trolled oscillator. a post mixer a mpl ifier.
reduce d. producing a receiver that continue.. les l resultv. T he LO. alt hough lac king the a nd pad. An Rf amplifier i.. us ed for the
to sou nd " brigh t." when used for weak or co ntro l features of a ..ynthesi zed system. hig her ha nds . Some sort of 4- \ fHl hand-
strong signals. h. co mple tely free of spuriou s re'ponse s. pass filt er i ~ then required to guard ilgilinst
Soise figure wa s measu red us 7 dR . The The receiver is j ust as much fu n to use ill'> any second conversion images. One filter
meas ure d :\ID 5 WilS around ~ I~ I d Bm the ori gi nal wa-, in 19 7~ . \\ e have used is shown in fi~ 6.79 with
w hi le IIP3 wa .. + 1.5 dOm for DR of95 dB. c alculated response. The filter rna)" re cide
The LO sys te m. althoug h diffic ult to with the convener or with the basic re o
eva luate. seems to a have phase no i ..e Jess Converters ceivcr. All of ou r converters usc a crystal
than - 140 d Hc/H I at a 5 kHz c arr ier offset. T he recei ve r has been used with crysta l- 4 M Hz abov e tbc incoming hand. prcscr v-
The rma l st abili ty is excelle nt, alt ho ugh co ntrolled converte rs f or n umerous bands. ing the frequ ency counter accuracy.

6.4 LOCAL OSCILLATOR SYSTEMS

F1~ 6.80 shows a number of uuditional
LO configuration . . fou nd in receivers and
transceive rs. No t show n are the common
synthesized scheme... found in " modem"
commerci al equipment. Frequency synthe-

@iF"''''" ~ (B)
sis was disc ussed in C hapter 4. Many
considerations presented here app l)' 10 syn-
thcsizcrs as well as simpler systems.
The simplest system is that of Fig 6.80A .
A free running LC o..ci llator operates at
3 dB hyb nd
the des ired out put freq uency. lr i.. huff-
ered. someumcs with more than one
amplifie r if high er po we r is req uired. Low
pass or band pass fi lteri ng is inclu ded to
remo ve harmonics. The signa l will even-
tually drive a mixer. with ma n) typev
req uiring LO drive tha t i.. free of even- Fig e.ao-u.ecer-esemetcr systems for use w it h co mmuoi cat lon s sy st em s. See te xt
order har mo nics. Odd harmon ics are lor d etails.

Transmi tters and Receivers 6.41

 allo wed with the fam ilia r d iode ri n g ~ , for be red uced with caref ul nncnricn devoted com pon ent a14 ,5 M j-lz. B ut spu rio us out-
they produce a symm etr ical , ig nal. a In 1.0 mixe r drive le vels. A norma l diode puts may ne t j ust ind ica te a n inadequ ate
~q u a re wave in the extreme. E ve n-ord er ring sho uld be dri ven with a 1.0 slgnat of bandpa.... fil te r. E ven when that filter is
harmo nic, ca n up~el the bala nce nee ded +7 d b m. the 26.5-\-fH l s igna l in ou r improved. The spurs may persist . a result
for good port -to- port iso latio n. De tail s are exam ple . The " RF ' input should he con- of poo r layout.
discussed further in Chapter S. f ined 10 a maxi mum level of - 10 d Bm. The A nu mber of prob le ms are present with
Freq uen cy multiplica tio n b often used. "spec ificat ion s" for the mixer l i~l a much this layout . Large RF c urrents flow in the
Fig b.SUB. fo r the buffe ring offered i ~ <:\ - hig her level. aro und 0 dB m. This is the oscillators. ofte n larger than indic ate d by
ccllent. In so me case-, a multiplier is le\ el a llowe d without damage 10 the mixer. the ou tpu t levels. T hose cu rrents n o w in
needed to inc reave the freq ue ncy of a fun - BUI spurious respo nses gro w dramatic ally ihe grou nd plane. If a so lid ground pla ne is
darnemal- mode VXO 10 rhc VHF region . with drive leve l. II is important 10 ac tually uved. atte nuated oscillator cu rren t will be
While cry stal -controlled oscillators may measure levels. An available RF power of fo und in the ground foil around and be-
be powible at the neede d frequency. ove r- -Ill d Bm should he es tablished with a suit- yond the ba ndpas s filter. no w free to feed
tone modes are usually used at VHF. which able substitutiona l measurement with a into the o utput. T he amp lifie r after the fil-
can ne r be pulled with the ease o f a fu nda- po.... er me ter or 50 0 te rminated ovcillo- ter has a ....'ide ban d wid th and Increases the
menial mode uscilta ror. i\ bandpass filt e r scope . disc ussed further in Chap ter 7. spurious level.
fullow s the frequ e ncy multiplier. T his is The example mixer will hav e - 17 d Bm Ra diated oscillator si gnals reach the
nee ded 10 sele cted the desired harmonic outputs at 12 and 3 1 MH / . A h<lndpass fil - o utput c ua xial con nect or. The cen ter wire
w hill: suppressing all o the r co mpone nts. ler will select the hig her. Eith e r a double and the gruund con nec tio n be tween the
Bala nced frequ e ncy multipliers are recom- or tri ple tuned circuit is sui table. T his ap- box wall and The circ uit hoard fo il fo rm an
mended .... he n possible. for thcy c ase the plicatio n requ ires at least a J OO· l Hi band- open loo p. T hat loo p is no w free to inter-
level of filteri ng and vhielding required . width. A wider fi ller may he prefe rred. for ccp t so me of the rad iated energy. i\ better
111e freq ue ncy multiplication procevs is a l 'i band.... idth L C fil le r is lossy wit h co nnec tion 10 the o uts ide world would
often a loscy o ne. vo more amplifiers ma y ty pica l toroid coils. But a 1 - ~t Hz ha nd- e xten d coaxial cab le on a bul khead co n-
be requ ired . x tor e than o ne gai n ~ta ge may widt h at a J 1-:\-tHz center would he an ea" ) nection until The hoa rd i.. reac hed. A
be req uired. Finall y. a lo w pass fi lter re- fille r to des ign. bu ild . a nd ru ne. A Iyp ica l twis ted-wire pair also works we ll.
du ces the harmonics ge nerated by the a m- fi ller inse rtio n loss might be 3 d B. resu lt- S ing le-point gro unds for eac h stage arc
plifi crs. ing in a filte r output of - :!O cum. If the com mon in audio systems and a re app ro-
A freq uen cy multiplier sys tem like rhar eventual sys tem outpu t mU~1 be + I0 d Bm. priate for RF desi gns. Similar reg io na l
of Fig e..SOB need not a lter st ability . Any a net gain of 30 d B is requ ired . Th is i<, g rou ndi ng c an co nfi ne osc illato r gro und
d rift in the oscillator will be multiplied d iffic ult with o ne ga in stage. bUI ea~ i ly rc- c urre nt to a sma ll part of rhe overal l hoard.
with the ca rrier signal. So a t-kf-tz dri ft in aliz ed with two. Feedbac k amplifie rs with This would a lso pre vent cou pling bet wee n
an oscillator Ihal is freq ue nc y triple d will genera l-purpose tran s ist ors suc h as the the indivi d ual oscillators.
pro duce a 3- kHI vhif't in the output. leav- 2N39U.t o r MPS HI O are <,uggested. Again. The sc he me that prod uces muc h better
ing the frac tio nal c ha nge constant. This measurements a re requ ired . Avo id input per form a nce i;, vho w n in part C of Fig 6.S I .
drift is still lo w with multiplied cry stal os- overd rive as a means of o bta ining the de - The board ends with the mixe r. si tuat ed
citlurors. sired mix er output. ver y ctos e to a n o utput con necto r. The
T he pre mi x sc heme of Fig 6JWC is Layout can be critical with the mixe r loop area related to the out put co nnectio n
popular. using a mixe r to produce an out- sys tem. The filte red mixer output is low at is kept small . A coaxial environment is
put resulting trnm two ovcillaturv. Om: - 20 dltm. Ye; there arc two very strong main tained thro ugh the band pa ss fil ter
input is usua lly from a free running LC signals presen t: an RF input (th e VFOj nt with the follo wing amp lifiers Then built o n
ci rcuit whi le the 0 1her is crysta l contro lled. 4.4 104. 7 M Hz. and a cry stal ge nerated LO an ope n board. Examples are shown la ter
For example. a 2 5 · ~1 Ili trans ceiver with at a robust +7 dlt m at 26.5 MHz . Spu riou s in photographs. A 5-clcmcn t low -pave fil -
a n IF of (j MHz might u ~ e a 3 1-r-.'fH l 1.0 mixer outputs sho uld be ut least 50 or 60 ter fal low s, attenuating harmonil's crea ted
sy<.lem. Thi s .:n uld be reaJil.:J with a -+ .5- dB bcIov. the des ire d le"el af - :!O dBm , p r in the ampl ifie rs. Th e final ele ment ill most
:\-1 Hz free runn ing VFO a nd a 26 ,S-M llz at ~ 8 0 dBm . T he nystal osdllalOr olllpm ~ )'s l e ms is a splitter-combiner. allowing
.:rys tal-wntrolled osc illator. Th e fre- reaehe~ +7 d Bm . It is re asonahle 10 ob tain two 50-12 loads to be dri ven. T h i ~ circ uit
quency d rifI is dom inale d by the I.e .:ir- 50 to 60d H of s u rpre s ~illn beTween po int s usua lly ha.~ a 25-0 iopul impedance . pro-
euil. which ca n ne f:lirl)' ..tah le o wing to on a circuiT tloard _But S7-d B suppress ion v'ided h)" a modi ficatio n to a 5U-fl low -
the low freq uency. present s a gre ater c halle nge. pass fi lte r.
A ~sum e Ih i .~ example sptem is to lune a Fig 6.81 shows one way' we might bu ild ACli v'e mi il.ers wilh low er LO power re-
300 kHI range fro m JO.I) 10 JJ. 2 MH z. th is LO s y~Te m . Th e block d iag ram is in 4u ircm enTs may be prefe rred for pre mixed
The VFO will then tune from -+A 10 -+. 7 part A while part R shows a Iy pical sing le LO app lication;;. While the :\E602 is ~ uit­
MH, . Re fore con~ l ru l' t i o n beg ins . or a board layoul. T his mighl be ei ther a hread- able. hig her-Ic \'e1 Gilbcn Ce lls li ke the
cry~lal i~ ord ered. a .~p u r anal p i.. shou ld board o r a printed l'in:u it board. e ilhl'r us- \fCI -+96 o r the Texa~ Instrumenb Japan
be performed . T hi.. .... as d isc ussed in Ihe ing a near ly soli d met al top foi l. Whe n th is S,\/ 1(1) IJ P arc preferred . Th e laTer pan is
mi'ler c hapter. There <l rt no se v'ere prob- layout is buill and mcasurcd. we see Ihe 1>lIon due to be d i~conTinucd with no sim i-
lems whh Ihe freq ue ncies used in Ihis ex- "purious out puts menti one d carlier. T he lar re place me nT on the horiz on . T he
ample. cry.stal osci llaTor signal C!b.5 MHz ) is AD-S) I or AD·SHJ fro m Analo g De-
Spuri OU1> re sponse ~ . .... hen prcscnt . can prescnl in the o utput. as is a wea ker VFO " ices sho uld be invc<,tigated.

6.42 Ch apte r 6
 Fig s.at c-p c s srbte layouts for
the heterodyne LO system. See
(A) te xt discuss ion.

VFO + Buffer
(B)

---c::::::f-

,, Buffer
Wa l l
l-~------~-----.j ~ f-------"----~-
Crystal Oscillator + Buffe r
Closed OutputLoop

vf O + Buffer Wal l
Ir=-~~~
Closed Output Loop,
reduced area

(e )
Wa l l

,"
L-~ ~~---j
>
Crystal OSCillator + Buffer

Transmitters and Receivers 6.43

6.5 RECEI VER S W I T H ENHANCED DYNAM IC RANGE
All of the e lements within the- front e nd circuit begins with a v-clcmcn t lo w-pass via a S:I spu r. The image and spur rcj cc-
must be enhanced when striv ing for high filter , follow ed by a 3-reso nato r bandpass rion plus the 9-i\f Hz IF teedthmugh rejec-
dynamic range (l)K).!t is usually the mixer wit h a bandw idth of 30() kHz. The rece iver tion could o nly be g uara nteed with an
(or mix ers) that are the- cri tica l elements. usin g this filter was a committed C W extensive pre sel ecto r. Such filter s have
the parts to he upgr aded. Howeve r. as soo n desig n that tun ed only the bottom 150 kHz high insert ion loss. 6.5 dB her e when the
as we improve a mixer ill a typ ical receiver, of the band. so the narrow pre selector was pad is incl uded. It is th is hig h lo ss that
the amplifiers become stressed . It is man - not a limitation. The ci rcuit e nd, in a 3-dB made the RF amplifier necessary
dator y that we examine all componen ts up pad that establis hes filter termin ation and T wo preselec tor networks are required
to and includ ing t he selectiv e fi llers. h~lp, preserve mixer perfor mance . The whenever an K!-' amplifi er is used. Some ini-
Inrcrmodulauon intercept and no ise fig- low-pass filter gua rante es stellar suppre s- tial selectivity protects the syste m from out
ure are ha th vit al ele ments in a wide DR sion of VHF si gnals , a pro ble m in it metro- of band energy. A single net work at the in-
receiver. Any NF improvement will allo w politan e nvironme nt. put is gen era lly insufficie nt. for it would
reduced gain in critical areas. thu s rel ax- O ne mig ht argue that this preselector is allow image noise generated in the RF am-
ing intercept req uir ement s. more ex tens ive than needed . Our goa l was plifier to he co nvened 10 the mixer IF.
A major c hange in recei ver archit ect ure tu realize a "100 db" receiver. That mea nt The next clement is the mixer. an S RA·
can sorn etime -, make a large difference. not only that the two -tone dyn ami c range l H using + 17-dBm LO injection. The
We will sho w a rrom end later that shoul d exceed I00 dB. but that all spu ri- mixer is driv en from a S-.\1l1l LO system .
eliminates all gai n ahead of the init ial ous re spo nses should be suppressed by the A de sign with fewer spurio us respo nses
selectivity, thu s achie ving stellar inte rce pt sa me a mo unt. O ne such spur occu rred with wou ld move the 1.0 to ::'.~ \·f Hz. A hete ro-
perfor manc e while mai nta in ing an ad- 16-I\-'1Hz input sig nals that reached the IF dyne ap proach shown e arlier (Fig 6.H IA)
equate ly low nois e figure.
In the last chap ter we saw that the input
int erce pt (HP3) for a +7 dBm LO type
d iode ring mixe r could he + 1 1to + 16 dBm . 'n s-r ~
Th is i-, the val ue that we might measure mv
with a50-it wid eband len ninatio n. A high
rc T
level mixe r wit h + 17 d Bm LO drive will
sho w UP3 value s 10 dB higher. with typ i-
cal va lues in the vicinitv +2 4 d Bm .
••
Fig 6.82 ill ustrates these de sign COH -
1 <& lOlz RF
AmI1l.i:h er I "
cepts with a fron t-end block d iagram The
.1 Ou t Fig 6.83-RF
first element is a singl e tuned circui t

~
pre selectnr filter. T he wide bandwidth of amplifier wit h
preselectcr
1.5 I\-'1Hz kee ps the inser tion loss (ILl be-
10 v,' 0.5 dB so long as inductor Qu exce eds 1!i°l~;1 ~ netwo rk. This
amplifier us e d
l 5D, Decre asing ba nd wid th to 350 kHz parallel fee dback
wou ld cau se 1[. tu increase to 1.6 dB, again from t he o utput tap.
using inductor with Q lI == 2S0. Fe ed ba c k di re ctly
The next c leme nt is an RF ampl ifier , A from the collector
is preferred.
bipolar feedba ck amplif ier with a pad is
used he re . shown in Fig 6.K3. whi ch
include, the input pre selec tor sc hematic.
The next syste m clement . Fig 6.84 , is L1 :1Bt 822, T~ O -6

the main pre.selec tor filter, the one that T1 : 10 b i~il.ar turns F T37 -43
es tablishe s i mage reje ctio n an d protects
1;11: 2 SC1 2 !i2, 2D!i l 0 9, e t c •
the mixer from spurious re spo nses. Th e

•
~------- 1 <& MHz
- --.'-
•:', - " ""- - - - - - - - - - -
,
,
,
,
U MHz B-1 . !i B-0.3 B-2. !i kJl"z B- O . !i kHz B=O .!i kHz
'n,

-= BPF1 AmI1 , BPF2 SRAI- H P ost BPF3 lN211 BPF <& MC-l l!iOP ><2
Anq, LIlA

Fig 6,82-B lock d iagra m of an early hig h-dynami c-ran ge recei ver. The vario us e leme nts a re shown in schematics . See text fo r
stage-by-stage discussion .

6 .44 Cha pter 6

 To

L1 L2 L3 U 33 ' .7 '.7
D
ra
Mixer

L~L~LP}" 30"
30 "

-
:t r om RF
L1 ,2 ,3, 4 : r ut 112O , T4 4 -6
L5 , 6 .7 : 0 .56 uH , 9tll 20 , T68 -fiA, QU >
""
Fig 6.84-lmage-st ripping crese tectcr f ilter used wi th the receiver. This filter pro v ides over 100-dB suppression of im ages and
ot her sp urious r esponses .

is suita ble . T his would allow a wider pre-

seiectnr bandwi dth with red uced loss,

Iw ,Ir-
allowing less gain 10 be use d in the RF
as
amp lifier. exte ndi ng dy nam ic ran ge .
Th e nex t front -e nd e le me nt is a po st

.11-
-l -
mixer amp lifier. shown in Fig 6.8 5. This
·'I· "., ~ Output ci rcu it use s the tran sfo rmer fe edback
~

I "
-1 ~
Norton a mplif ie r top ology presented in
• • Ch ap ter 2. T hat circu it ha s good noise fi g-
12 ~t ~-------~ ure and low IMD, hut poor port-to -port
RET URN LOSS isolat ion . Moreover. the terminal imp ed-
I n pu t Ou tput ance s are strongly de pe nde nt o n the load
fw ~ ap ~n at the op posi te pon s. This means tha t the
strongly varying c rystal filt er input imped -
'" L24
a i
dB
~
au Ohm
s hor t ance s wou ld app ear at the mixer out pu t,
dcgradiu g IM l) performance. Plac ing a
Dp~ n

~O Ohm
H

21
dB

ua lj Ou t pad between two Norton amplifie r stage s

s hor t H dR solve d the problem here. Overa ll a mpli-
Ql , 2 : M e 2S C12 ~2 or 211H 09 with Ile a t s i nk
fier gain was 11,5 dB with OIP3 =
Tl ,2: wo un d on F a ir -Ril e 2 8 H00 2 ~ 0 2 balun
+42 dBm and NF= 5.7 dB . T he individ ual
CQ<e s . E a ch t u rn i s one pa n th eo o gl>. BOTII stages had a 4 ,l -d B ~ F . T he fig ure
no l e s . AJ.l t h r e e win din g s e x it a t s ome e n d .
incl udes mea sured return loss I'm the
in put when terminated in a varie ty of out -
Fig 6.BS- Tw a -sta g e No rto n amplifier used In the CW rece i ver. put s. and si milar re sults for the output.
Overall from-end gain is low in this
receiver. The main crystal filter that this de-
sign used was a Hl-elemeru circuit
with SOO-Hz bandwidth. which had a
10-013 insertion loss. The high lL was an ac-
ce prable price for the spectacular perfor -
mance. Hut receiver Nl- would be compro -
mised if the IF wa-,driven from the low gain
front end. So. a "roofing filter" was used to
fo llow the from end. This lower loss filter
with a 2.5-kHz bandwidth was followed by a
fairly low noise amplifier that then drove the
narro w C\ V filter. Thi s topology compro-
mises dynamic range for very close tone
spacing. but is an other wise useful technique.
Eva luation of this recei ver produ ced an
R-dB nois e fig ure (MDS = -139dBm) with
TIPJ = + 13 dhm fo r dynamic range =
102 dB and Receiver factor R = +5 dSm .
Th e rece iver served as a sel f-te st vehicle
duri ng de vel opment. The IF system
was built and used with an earlie r rec eiver .
It then provide d the narrow ha nd-
width nee ded for IM lj mea sur em en ts.
Th is a llowed dir ect eva luation of mixers.
Tw o-s tage No rto n Amp lifier . am plifiers, and filters , A key to the

Trans mitte rs and Receivers 6.45

developmen t was the ahilit y to ins ert at- use d, the recei ver wou ld be subj ect to Althougb the n umbers appear go od in
tcnuators betwee n stages. This then al lows o verl oad hy sig nals far removed from the this design . there are a coup le of detai ls
the des ign er/ builder to pinpoint the d is- in put. On t he other hand . it is no w pract i- that can severel y de gr ad e the m. The first
tort ion source . cal to kee p the prcsc lcctor ba ndwidth wide is the 70-MHz crystal filt er. Th is elem ent
Some interesting de ta ils e me rged fro m eno ugh that IL is low. which helps to main- has a bandwidth of 20 k Hz. ea sily re ali zed
th is inves tig at io n. O ur first attempt s to use tain a low noise figure . Co mmon pr act ice with today'< tec hnology. B ut wi th suc h a
the 2.5-kHl roofi ng filt er were fr ust rated uses half oc ta ve filters with two bandpass wid e bandwidth . a tone separat ion o f 50 to
by IMD in the fil ter. con firmed wi th the fille rs for each freque ncy doubling. Th is 100 kHz would he requ ired to achieve the
inse rtio n ofpads in the syste m. A new fil - is ofte n approxima ted with filters of ca lculated intercep t. T he same measure-
tcr from a different manufacture e limi- aroun d 5-l\fH z ba nd width. Na rrower fi l- ments done at 10 or 20 -kHz sep ar atio n
nated th is difficulty, leaving the mixer as ter ba ndw idth cou ld be useful would produce lower 11 1'3 values.
the cr itical e le men t. T he mixer wa s not Ga ins , no ise fig ures . and intercepts are A second ma jor prob lem relates to the
well behaved, show ing better UP3 when give n wit h cri tical stages in F ig 6.86. The bandpass filte rs used in the des ign , Th ey
oper ated at higher levels than it d id when pa ss ive h ig h-l eve l (+ 17-d B m LO) mixer ar c typically sw itched wi th PIN d iodes at
IMD product s were close to the receiver res embl es that of the last rec eiver with the filter input and output . D iodes at the
MOS . Lower level data is quoted. 6- dB NF and co nve rs io n lo ss with an input arc not protected by the ba ndpass
Th e rece ive r was bu ilt with the fro nt end in put intercep t of +25 d Sm. T he post filters and arc then su bjected to a wide fre-
se gme nted into several modules, each in mixer amplifier has 12 d K gai n, a low que ncy spectrum. Bot h second and third-
a shi e lded box and interco nne cted with noise figure 01'2 dB. and 111'3 of +25 dB m or der intermo dulat ion di stortion c an then
coax ial cab le. T he s hie ldi ng c ont inues (OI r3 = +37 d Bm.) Note that this am pli - ge nerate produc ts that severely compro-
t hro ugh the If. BfO. and Product Detec- fier is ac tually weak er (lo we r inte rce pts) mise performance . Perfor man ce ca n
tor. Power is su ppl ied to the module s via than the post-a mp use d in the earlier sometimes be imp ro ved hv incre asi ng the
feedth rou gh cap ac itors. The SO-Q inter- receiver . Thi s is pr actical. for signals are bias current fo r condu cting d iodes . T he
fa ce allows ea sy mea surem ent of ind i- sm all e r, a resul t of using no RF amplifier. bette r sol urio n is substitution of imp ro ved
v idua l modules and qu ick changes in gain ( Also. t he po st -amp in the prev ious diodes . The HP- R052 -30 RI is reco m-
distri but ion . It also p revents the sons of receiver wa s stronger than nec es sary" ) mcnd cd. J'' The Si emen s RA R17 or \ f1204
int er ac tio ns and ins tab ilit ies that can (a nd Some de sig n rul es emerge s fro m these arc also rccommended.!?
usua lly do) aris e when suc h systems ar e st udies : If the ou tpu t intercept of one stage A v ital diode param eter is carric rlifetime.
bu ilt in the open. Finall y. it pro vides equa ls the input int ercept of the followin g which sho uld be greater tha n 2 rns in th is
shielding aga inst rad ia ted and co nd uc ted stag e , each will contr ibute equ ally. If one application. (Ca rrier lifeti me is a measu re of
energy fr o m digital c ircu itry that mig ht be o f the two stages is to be d om inant. it the life of carriers within the diode when
used in other parts of the rece iv er. Shiel d- sho uld have an intercept at the common reve rse biased after a period a t conduction.)
ing "by tho sta ge" is ge ner a lly muc h more plane that i, 6 dB a bove the other. Note Some high voltage rectifi ers d isp lay lo ng
importa nt and useful than sh ie lding that these are not "rules-of-thumb." b ut en ough lifetimes, but tend to be lossy. PH"
afforded by one metal box arou nd equip- re sults of ana lys is. diodes buill specifically for RF switchi ng
men t. Th is is an o ld design and duplica- Data is included in the figu re for cryst al disp lay lower loss, but only some have the
tion is not e ncou rage d. filter IL and IF noise figur e. The resu lt fo r lo ng lifetimes neede d for swit ching at HF
this rece iver is an overall noi se figure of and especially M E The popular MPN 3404
IO.S dB with lIP3 of +26 dR m and R = and simi lar dev ices used in this text are not
Fa st Forw a rd- M o de rn + I 5.5 dBm. In a SOD Hz bandwid th this generall y suita ble for high DR applicatio ns.
Receivers wou ld generate a two tone DR of 108 dB . Diodes need to he measured and ch aracter -
A mor e up-to -d ate fro nt end is shown in The mixer is the cr itical. performance- ived for RF performance so they can be
F ig (j.SO. where the incoming sig nal is COIl - dete rmini ng element defi ning sys tem IM D. incl uded in a system analys is.
vcrtcd to a VHF first IF. T he de sign shown
is not an exa mpl e we have built, b ut one
that sho uld be possible with ex ist ing tech-
nolo gy. I t ha s features not found in ea rlier ,
,
d esigns. b ut also introduces problems.
U p-c onversion is typical wit h most mo d- • 1<1 MHz ~:. 70 MHz - - - -.
•
ern gear. G- - 3 dJl
The first IF in this e xample is 70 MH/. 14 MHz lP - 2 ea 6 -20 kH z
with the LO ru nnin g above the If . These I n put
up-co nver te d de sig ns are usua lly general - - :3 -lD
coverage rece ivers, tnn ing from SO k j lz 10
30 M Hz . The example rec eive r use s a 70
to 100-M H l L O inject io n, generated by
P ost ""
freq uency sy nt hesis . The in put low-pass
filter has a cutoff at J O Mj Iz and es tab -
Freq uency "'"
I1 P3-2 3

Synt hesiz er
lishes image rej ec tio n. The image for this
exampl e is at the sum of the L J and the IF. 70-100 MHz
140 to 170 MH/.. Image s ar e no longer an
issue so long as the low pass fi lter works
Fig 6.86 -Front end typical of mo dern eq uip ment , alt hough this exam p le is
as des igned. designed for pe rformance beyond the no rm. The ban d pass f ilter, shown for 14 MHz
A ban dpass prcs clccror filter is still used center f requency, w ill have a b andwidth of several MHz and will be switched with
in the front end of Fig 6. t!6. If none were rela ys or PIN diodes. See text.

6. 4 6 Chapter 6
 Anothcr Haw with the up co nversion
block diagram arises with the VH F crys tal
fi lter. 111D in these filters is oft en worse
than seen with lower f reque ncy fill ers . It
should be characterized and considered in
cy srcm analy sis. The filter sho uld have
enoug h se lec tivity to allow the VHf If v~
sig nal to be converted down to a lower --.L.
1t

~Ir'
freq ue ncy IF where additio nal processing
occ urs. T he co nversion sho uld be rela-
tivel y spur and image free . It is commo n in
curre nt designs to ampl i fy and heterodyne
the signal to a lo w enough freque ncy that
it c an be applied 10 an ana log to dig ital .,
converte r (ADC ), producing a d igital data
stream suitab le for d igital signal process-
."~~ $~ ."
ing (DSP.)
Additional distortion sources are found in
MRF~8 6
""
~

the low -pass and. more often. in the

bandpass filters ahead of the mixer. Filter
Curr rnt s rt and b alanc r
intercepts depend primarily on the magnetic
properties ofthe inductors used in the Filters . 11 , 12 : Mi ni -Circu1 ts 1 1 - 1 1 , 1 :1
They will also depend on the peak energy 1 3 , 14 : Wi n d with *32 w i r ~ o n BN-4 3 -2 402
stored in the component during operation . balun co r r. The n"""' er of turns i s sh own
in sc ll ffil<l t i c .
Running I mw of power throug h a low-pass
fi lter usually results in relativel y low curre nt
Fig 6.67-High-performance po st -mixer amplifier . The transis tors were biase d to
flowing in the inductors used in that filter. so 40 rnA each for OlP3 = +46 d Bm. Dual pow er supplies are used for amplifier bias .
small cores are suitable . But the same 0 dBm This amplifier rep resents very good performance th at we have not duplicated.
applied to a narrow bandpass filter may pro-
duce much highe r inductor curre nt. produ c-
ing inrermodulation distortion. For-example,
we have observed in-hand HP3 of approxi -
marely +30 dBm for a three-resonator :"'J6:"'JWP. repor ted 7 dB lo « with square Gain = 8.8 dB and no ise f igure under 1
1O-1'l Hz fi lter with 300 -kHz bandwidth. wave LO drivc. t'' T he mixer of greater in- dB ~ The am plifier was at the lim its of his
Changing from T37-6 to large r T50-6 cores terevt is the H-mode mixer generated by NF measurement capability. and l Ml) de-
increased lIP3 to about +50 dBm. We have Horrabin , G3SB r. t9 HP3 of +55 dBm was terminatio n was also stressed He also re-
also observed severe IMD with inexpensive reported with a co nversion loss from 8 to 9 ported that trans formers had to be se lected
slug tuned coils , As with all thing s related to dB when using the samc Fl.Ts as applied for lo west IM D. Nothing is casua l at this
high DR eq uipme nt, meticulous measure - with the Oxne r mixer. A simplif ied version performance level.I''
ments should replace lore. will be describe d later featuring IIP3 > +40 In a later variation of his earlier amp li-
dBm with loss at 5 dB. tier s. Makhinsnn used a push-pull pair of
Moving toward higher One o r thes e high in tercept mixers may Norton feedback amp lifiers that drove <I
well have OlP3 of +35 dBrn or higher. To differential pair of commo n base amplifi-
Dynamic Range be dom inant. post mixer amplifiers should e rs. The second stage common-base ci r-
T he front en ds described can be ex - ha ve TIP3 of +40 dRm or higher. Thi s cuu pr o vided good reverse isolation while
tended to provide eve n bett er performance mo ves the outpu t interc epts int o the +48 to the in put transformer feed back des ign
by sub stitutio n of improved circuit ele - +52 dEm range. Such amplifiers arc pos - afforded low noise. The lo wer second-
ments. Primarily, the high -level mixer can siblc with very high c urrents. or with mod - stage reverse iso lation generated an input
be improved . High er-leve l diode ring, est currents and carefu l design . .F ig 6.8 7 impedance indepen de nt of outp ut termi -
are available. som e using up to 'l: W show s the ampli fier use d hv Makhin son nation for the two -st age design : 1
1+27 dAm) 1.0 power. \Vith another J(} dB in his receiver. T wo Norton -type trans - Anot her approach to ha lance d amp lifier
of LO com es a similar incr ease in IIPJ . fo rmer-fee dback amp lifie rs arc usctl in design is that of Engelbrecht. shown in
Perhaps the more appea ling mixers are push -p ull to achieve a gain of 8 d B with Fig 6.88 Isee C hapter 3.) 22,2:1 T he incom -
those using FETs. They are capa ble of very OI P3 of +4 8 dI3m and Nf = 2.5 dI3. ing signal is spl it in a 3-dB quadra ture cou -
high intercepts. have II. similar to the high- Coli n Horrahin bu ilt a ve rsio n of thi, pler. The t wo hybrid o utpu ts are the n 900
es t-leve l diode mixer v. but req uire little LO amplifier with imp roved per formance . He out o f pha se with each o ther as they are
power. This docs not imply though that LO shifted 10 a sing le ended pow er suppl y. applied to the amplifier inputs. If the im -
drive can be treated with casual abandon. but increased curre nt to 60 mA per transis- peda nce match at ampl ifier # I is less tha n
Passive r ET mixe rs usually have LO sig- tor. He c hanged tra nsi stor type to the perfect. there will be a power reflectio n.
nals applied to the gate s. They mus t be /l.fRF-580A and added ferrite beads to the The acti on at the input to amplifier #2 will
driven hard to ensure fast switch ing: sym- collectors fo r stability consider ations . be ide ntica l. for the ampli fiers are ident i-
metry is critical to prese r ve balance . The Transfor mers were hand wound on balun cal. Each refl ec ted component undergo es
FET ring popu larized by Oxner is capable cores and the transistors were heat sunk to another 90" re fle ction as it pro gressed
of UPJ up to +40 dBm or a bit higher with a copper substrate. He obtained the spec - back 10 the input. The two reflected com -
conversion loss around 8 dB Makhinson, tacular res ults of OlP3 == +56 dEm with ponents are l !;W ou t of phase with each

Transmitters and Recei vers 6.47

 source of RF. T he two res ulti ng si gnals
are then app lied 10 the center taps of trans-
formers T2 and T3. Fou r FETs connect
windings to ground in pairs. Two TF
Fr om Dipl ex er Balano e d Amplifi er
outputs a re generated on the secondar y
Mixe r
windings of T 2 and 13 .
The FST3 125M uses a 5 -V bias,
re quired by the quad logic inverters in-
elu ded in the [C. Th e FETs and re lated
transformers are biased at half this suppl y
with a resis tive divider. Symmetry is em-
phasi ze d in the c on st ructi o n method
sho wn in the photographs. A sandwich of
two ci rcu it boards co nta ins the mix er .
diplexe r and fo llo wing crystal filter de-
scribed be lo w, The mixer chip is on the
lower board while the diple xer and fil ter
so
are on the upper one. The thre e transform-
crs actually reside bet wee n the two boa rds ,
servi ng as the routes from one 10 the oth er
and bac k.
Fig S.BB-Ba lance d amplifier met ho d of Engelbrecht. See t ex t for d iscussion.
The digital portion ofthe mixer circuitry
dealing with the LO is show n in Fig 6.9 1.
A signal of + 10 dBm is applied to the mixer
board at twice the desired LO f requency . It
is converted [ 0 a digi tal form with two
ntb er hy the time they reach the input. so fo rt on the part of Bill Carver . W7 AAZ . .1\"A1\D gates (74 ACOO) and is then route d
the input impedance i s alway s 50 n. Harol d Johnson, W4ZCB . and Co li n 10a di vide -by-two ci rcuit using a 74AC I09
Th e co upler of Fig 6 ,88 generates a Horrabin , G3SBT- c ollectively referred to J-K flip-fl op. The flip -flop contains an in-
'olD' pha se shift at all freq uencies. but eq ual here as the Triad. 2 ~ hihit input, whic h is driv en by the rema in-
output amplitudes at onl y one crossove r ing NA:--J D gates, prov idi ng a co nvenient
poi nt , A bandpass/bandstop dip lexer pro - mean s for turning tho LO off . This may be
vid e-, a ter min atio n at all tr cquc ncics far The Mixer used during rece iver mute periods or as a
from the design ce nter. De pendi ng on the T he key e lement in this recei ver is the noise blan king input. T his method of blank-
nature of the cr ysta l filter . a diplexer may Pi-mode mix er sho wn i n Fig 6.911 , The ing is esp ecially e ffective , for it is out of
he useful at the ou tput por t as well. basic mixer was presented in C hapter 5. the main sign al path and has few of the
This exa mple use s a readi ly a vailable a nd distorting effects usually related to the
inexpensive q uad-rvIOSFET-B us Swit ch, hlanking function. other than that intrinsic
Front Ends Without to modula tio n.
the fa irchild FST31 25\tf. The dev ice is
Early Amplifiers-The also avai lab le from othe r vendor s. (T his An al terna tive logic sec tion is presented
Triad Receiver part was sug ges ted 10 the Triad by in Fig 6.9 2. Thi s sc heme uses a V! IF loca l
Th e up-conversion sys tem of Fig 6.86 is Giancarlo ~Iod a . T7S\VX.) Thc l-l-mode oscillator that is then divided by an y e ven
a child of com pro mise . i llustrating t he mixe r is one with Rf appl ied to a trans- in tege r fro m 4 to 18. T his me thod is used
tradeoff's ofte n taken to achieve genera l form er, TL which generates a balanced in the \V7AAZ version of the receiver.
cov erage. Th e ability to tune the ent ire HF
spectrum was o nce co nside red a perfor -
ma nce virtue . I! is now. si nce the ad vent of
\\iARC hands. merely an eco nom ic ploy.
The aggressive desig ner/b uild er need not
adh ere 10 suc h gui delines . He or she can
conf ig ure a system that will offer hig h
IIP J ~ +4 J dDm
perfor mance o n a fe w se lected hands. T he 1l'F ~2 dB (;00-4 . 8 dB 1>=1 2 . 8 dB
TF can he at HF whe re crystal filt ers can be (;- -2 us Il'Fz 1. 5 ,IB
narro w withou t se vere lo'i'i and with lo w I nput I I P J - + 2 4 dDm
TMD. Pre selec tor filters wit h only modes t
loss can he used with the best ava ilab le
mixers.
Th e prob lem s with pos t mixer a mplifi-
ers remain. The ide al solut ion is to merely
eliminate them. T his can he done with a
switchi ng-mode mixer if a crystal fi lter
with constant. freq uency flat input irnped-
a nce ca n be applied. S uch a block diagram
is shown in F ig 6.8 9. The circu it is the Fig 6.B9- Rec eive r fr on t en d u sin g no amplifie rs before initial selectivity is
result of se veral years of collaborative ef- o btained. Th is is the basis of the W7AAZ!W4ZCB/G3SB I rec eive r de scrib ed be low.

6 .48 Chapter 6
 , x y IF Output

" "
TT4-lA
.5.
, ., . , ,
T2
• , •, FST3125M
Tl
• .,-. --- ... •
U< I· u
- - -~- - -
, - -.- u
, ,
'1-=1'L
u
- _.- - _. '
. ,, -- .. -
- ~

... ,
U<

• , •
T1 , 2 , 3 : MiniCircu it s TT4- 1A l n '
X y

Fig 6.9O-MIKer portion or the hi gh -l e vel f ro nt end . Commerci ally ava ilable tr an sfo rme rs are used in th is de sign. U1 consists
01 fo ur MOS FET switches c ontro lled by lines 1. 4, 10 and 13, li n ked w ith t he dolled li nes in th e rigure . See Chap ter 3 for
des ig n o f the a = 1 d tpte xer at the IF port tor c o m pati bility w ith the c hosen IF.

LO to Mix er
JUL ..r1.F.-.
n .IU1...F___.- ~
•

"0l" ,
"
'r U211P•
"I
s.
0 "

~i
on
U'S
".
". I r' '.
0

"
'1
1,t

U2 _ 1 4 ACOO
U3 - 14l\C'10 9
. '\'0 l B _ Ie 11_ . ,
,I
1 .....-1. 11_ . . .....
.,. I• s ' .
'.11 .."1 .
. ,.
"
""
.«
II
" ~

.....
I••
U3A 0[
r '.
0

'1
Fig 6.91- L.ogic c ircuits pr o vid e h ig h-fr eq ue nc y L Q drive lor the H-mode m ixer. Inp ut Is at twi ce the n eeded LO frequ ency. The
designerlbuilder must add pOwer supply conn ec tion s to the res.

Tra nsmitte rs and Recei vers 6 .49

 2F LO In

.- T4 - 2 : 1 t urn s r atio f errite b al un

1Ji~
LO t Mi x e r
i U4A l " v
l> .., ~ JUu e F-___
0

L
,- i
l OOK ;;

, ~ ,
o I
s, I.
.
1: ' ---L n
I c
, ,---;
~ J Q C-

s ,
O
,, 0

c n n, HI P- U3A
,
U4C
13 ",

/dS~ ENP
U4 :
2

1
Pre set
U5 Lo a d
l ~ I
-e-
U4E
" J
S,
Q " hK c,
Q o-

".
I .,
10 ENT

U' D
o. ~ V

I r"
12

K
U3B
Q
, 1 '1 ~

+ c,
0

g4pF
v , U'F " ."
~ uml ~ xte rl'ld.l

8 1;udi""

" H "'C "

Pulse
~

~'U2D 0

Divider Modu lus A n C

, , , uz
,•
H AC OO
ua 1 4 ACI 0 9

a ,o n , i
_ 1 411C0 4
ao c , 0
"' - 141\.C1 63
r.a "'
t.
0 ,
t. 0

"r s t. 0
0
0
m 0 0 0

Fig 6.92-Log ic circuits ac c ept an input fro m a VHF sy nt hes izer. T he o utput is the n d ivided by an even n um ber between 4 and
18 before reac h ing the hi g h-l evel mi xer. The des igner/bu ilde r m ust add power supply co nnectio ns to t he ICs .

The Roofing Crystal

Filter
A poor mixer termin ation will severel y
deg rade 11P3. A filte r with a 50-0. input
impedance at all frequencies. inside and , ~,

10-60
o utside the passband, is shown in Figo.93 . I n put

The c rystal f ilter is a critica l c leme nt in

the overall front end and requires careful
des ign an d adjust ment by the des ig ner!
builder. The crystal fre quenci es arc picke d
'"
to produce a passband that overlaps that of T2 , J , 4 ,~ : , tur n s e as , DN61 -J0 2 ,
the dominant fil ter in the receiver IF sys - tapp ed a t 2 t.
tem, mea sured be fore this filler is built.
The crys tals will then he ord ered from a
reliable s upplier. Hig h cr ystal Q should be
so ught. for it will dir ectly impact filter l L.
10 - 60
The bui lders saw the ir be st fil ters with loss 1 0- 60
under I d B with others under 2 dB . Even
if the receiver is to be used mai nlyon C\V,
a wider design fil ter bandw idth is used in 49. 9 '\ 9 .9
the int erest of lo w loss.
Carefu l measurements are required to
adjust th is filter. A spectrum ana lyzer with
a trackin g generator is ideal, but should
Fig 6.93-Crystal filt er ser ving a " r o ofi ng" function. Th is circ uit operates at 9 MHz,
have stahilitv commensurate with narrow
but can be red esi gn ed fo r o ther f requenc ies wi t h in the HF spectrum. T he variable
crystal fi lters. Sweep s measuring inp ut capa cit ors w ith Y3 and Y4 are adjusted to match the one filter to the one using Y1
and ou tput impeda nce match should, how- and Y2. Th e quadrat ure hybrid s are adjus ted lor optimum impedance match at both
e ver. extended from near de to VI II--". ports. See text.

6 .50 Chapter 6
An Amplifier t o follo w plifier fe aturing low noi se, high lIP3 , ex- in F ig 6.95 , a top cou ple d set of paralle l
ce llent inpu t and output impeda ucc mat ch. reso nators. Reed re lays are used at eac h
the Roofing Filter and good reverse isol ation. e nd for band switching. Exten sive
Fig 6.94 shows the amplif ier that fo l- T his circui t ca n be adjusted for an input decoupling (not sho wn) is used with the
lows the mixe r. This cir cuit must have rea- return loss grca ter tha n 30 d B in the 3 to relays. The filte rs were designed to have a
sonable performa nce. although no t as stel- 30-\ fH z reg ion. Typ ic al gai n is 12.8 d tt maximum insertion loss of 2 dB A 5-reso-
lar a s wou ld be neede d with out the filter. with HP3 '" +24 d Bm. A heat sink is built nator fi ller wa s used for 160 m wh ile 3 or
With onl y two cry stals per s ide. the roof- for the four FETs by drilli ng fo ur holes in 4 were sufficie nt for the oth er bands. Tor -
ing crysta l filter ha s li mited skirt a piece of I/ <-i nch-thick alu minum. The oids wert: used for all inductors with em -
selectiv ity, allo wing som e large sig nals to FETs are pu shed into the ho les. wh ich arc pha sis Oil larger si le s for hig h unloaded Q
appea r he yond the filler. then f illed with epo xy. Carver has also and low I!'vID. A 6 mix was used for the
The amplifier is a feedback circu it with built sim ilar ampli fiers with s ix FETs. but lower band s with 10 for the uppe r ones ,
four par alle l J FETs. Th e total curr ent is the sa me 100-mA total c urrent. Th ese ci r- Mo st ca pacito rs were J~';; silver mica types.
high at 85 to 100 rnA. so the cir c uit has cuits requ ire no he atsink . 'Jh c o nly varia ble capaci tors were some
good dis tortio n per for mance . The ci rcuit trimmers used for couplin g on the highest
be gan c onc eptually as a tran sf ormer bands . Componen ts were carefully mea -
marched common -gale amp lifie r; a ropol- The Preselector sured prior to insta llatio n and inductor
ogy with a wel l-defined, low input imped - The final element in the front end is the turns were sprea d or compressed slightly
a nce ,2S A wi nd ing is ad ded to th e pre selector fi lter. The basic form is shown fo r fine-tuning. Th is was suffic ient for the
transfor mer to ap ply some sign al to the
gale. The res ult is a circui t that has ne ither
ter mina l as c ommo n, yet has a well-
C-jk C- jk
define d 50 ·.0: input i mpedance whi le fea-
turing lo w nois e fig ure, This circ uit ha s a
typical NF of I ,:; dB wit h so me ver sion s
me asuring 1.2 db. Th e outp ut is trans-
former coupled with a drain 101ld resistor
to ens ure II goo d o utput match,
Bil l Carver. W7 AAZ . mod ified the bifi-
lar output a uto-transfo rmer with another
winding that drives an adj ustab le c apaci-
tor, C-N . to co uple energy back to the ga te.
This cap acitor is adjusted for low re verse Fig 6.95-Genera l fo rm of pre sele ctor filters used fo r the high-performance
cuupling. The re sult is a neutralized a m- receiver. While a a -ele me nt filter is shown, some bands used u p to 5 res on ators .

:1 . 2 MH2: :[rom
c r y s t al filter .

•
:1 .2 MH2: Out
.,

,------ --- - --- - - - - ,

: -4] FB - 4 3 FB

H 2 - 12

•
-::;?- ] . 0 1K
~ ,
, --- -------- - -,
,
78L05
'"
""
+12 , 85 rnA

Fig 6.94-A mplifier t hat follows the roof ing crysta l filter. This pa rticu lar ve rs ion op e rate s at 5.2 MHz, but can be optimized fo r
any freq ue ncy in the HF spectrum. T1 is wo und on a BN61-202 two-ho le ba lun (binocu la r) core. The prima ry (g rou nded
wind ing ) is made from s ma ll cop per o r bras s tUbing through the ba lun ho les . Alternatively, braid from RG174 coaxial ca ble
ma y be used. The 5-turn and t-t urn wind ings are the n wo un d with #28 o r smaller wire . T2 consists of a pai r of bifila r wind ings
on a BN43· 202 two-hol e ba lun co re. One bifilar wind ing fo rms the two 3-tu rn wind ings while the other bifilar pair is con nected
to fo rm t he 6-turn wind ing. Reme mber tha t o ne t urn on a two -ho le balun co re is a pass thro ug h both ho le s. C1 a nd C2 a re
appro ximate ly reson a nt wit h tra ns for me rs T1 a nd T2. FL-1 is a th ree wire monolithic eleme nt, but can be built with d isc rete
c ompo ne nts . C-N is adjus te d fo r best re verse is ola tio n (lowest 512.) All res istors are 1% metal film, 'f. W.

Transmitters and Receivers 6.51

lo wer band s while the Dis ha l method wav
appli ed fo r the uppe r frcquem:ie~.1 6 .2 7
The devign goal for t he preselector 111-
rers wa.. a stopband atte nua tio n of 90 dB or
more. This was re alized. bUI il required
considerably more effort tha t anticipated.
The fihen. were all buill on boards with
components in a long narr u....' line for Ix"t
input to ou tput iso lation . The stopband per- 21 MHz bandpa s s filte r used In W7AAZ ve rsion of th e Triad Rece iver _ No va ria ble
forma nce wa.. on ly rea li zed after rhc tu n ing capac it or s are us ed. The trimmers ad ju s t cou pling .
on-board gro und.. were iso late d. Eac h reso-
nato r was g rou nded dire ctly to the large
met al plate thai ..uppo rted the boards. It of # 12 wire wou nd on a O.75 -inch dia mete r signal is amp lified and runher filte red. an d
was a lso impo rta nt 10 carefully place the tubular form rhar was machined from RF i.. the n detected. The t wo svvtem s offe r
various ti lle rs in the slack. A situation to grade polystyrene rod. Aft er the rod was goo d agreeme nt.
avo id was an adjacent fi lter tha t ope rated mac hi ned to O.S inch outsi de diam eter. Th is osci lla tor. a fter div is ion hy 8. pro -
at an image. f or exa mple. if the rece iver threads were cur at an x-tum-pe r-i nch pitch. vide d phase noi se o f - 155 d Rd HI a t a
used II 5-MHz IF with LO at 9 \1 HI . the The inside ufthe rod was then remov ed wit h 20 kH z spaci ng. The noi s c dropp ed to
4-MHz image is 14. so rhc 80 and 20- 01 a large drill bit, leavin g a wa ll thic knes s of - 16 3 dB clHz at 50 to 75 kH I ; at 100 k HI
filte rs sho uld not he nex t 10 each oth er. De - approxima te ly ' I, in ch, Mate ria l was re- it was beyon d the range of the mea sure -
tail s of const ruct ion are sho wn in the pho- tai ned at one en d for mou ntin g. Th e # 12 men t eq uipmen t. A one- on -one PL L will
togra ph. Thi.. i.. yet ano the r plac e where wire was wound and approximarety "paced pro vid e some close in cl ean-up. T hermal
de tai led measurements are req uired . before bei ng threaded onto the for m. srahiht y was good eno ugh. to a llow direct
T he helix has t w o tap s . O utput i-, use wi thou t any sta bilizatio n. a ltho ugh this
extrac ted from on e 1/, lurn up fro m ground is nOI co mm on an d sh ou ld not be
An Oscillator w hile the dr ain is attached at 'I! turn fro m e xpec ted ..... uh vimitar devignv.
A milage-controlled osc illator de vel ope d gr ound The outpu ts are buffered with a
by Harold Jo hnson. w -,z c n . is presented in quad buffe r. On e o utp ut d ri ve.. the mixe r
Fig 6.96. It has been app lied in a num ber o f while the ot her is for symhesizer use.
The Overall Triad
wayv incl ud ing acting as the controlled os- Detailed inform ation re gard ing tap plac e - Receiver
c illa tor in ex perime ntal synthesizer.. and me nt a nd reson ator constructio n is g ive n We have de scri bed the rec ei ver f ront
one-on-one phase-loc k loops . The circuit in a note from W-fZC8 incl uded on the CD e nd . the ('IOrt ion mar ge ne rates the .... ide
ope rates in the SO to 110 MH I regio n and is tha t accom pani e s this book. d yna mic r..nge . T he fo ur- FET a mplifie r
then divided fro m VHF in the circuit ..hown T wo di ffer ent methods were used for (Fig 6.<)-f ) i s normally fo llo we-d by the
earl ier in Fig 6.92 . pha se noise meas uremen t. In c nc. the V CO maj or crystal filler used in the rece iver.
T he hea rt of the veo is a heli cal reson a- unde r test wa .. pha se 1000ked to an HP- Th e band wid th and pe rfo rmance vary \\ ith
tor. Th is cle ment offer.. an unloa ded Q o f 86-JOn sig nal ge nerator. Th e ba seb and o UI- the member.. o f the T riad. The ma in IF
700. performance difficult to obta in at HF. put was fi lter ed. amp lified. and ana lyz ed syst em is the de sig n offered by C arver in
A metal lathe is need ed for the const rue- with an HP -3 12 sele ctive voltmeter. Th e QST fo r May. 1996. a ci rc ui t based upo n
lion. The resonator i~ house d in a. section ot ot her ..ys tem use s the HP86-J0 as a local the Ana log De vice , AD600. Th e resl o f
l .fi -inch-di amerer copper tubing with cop- o sc illato r with a high level mixer. The o ut- the receiv er is sta ndard . alt hough OSP cn-
per-pipe ends. The he lix cnnvistv of 9 turns put is applied to a nar row crystal filter. The hanc em enrs are planne d. Th e pla ns als o

MAX- 49 6

1lR-' 100
9 t u r ns

I H5U 1B d i o de s , 100
J llO
seye ra.1 u s e d .
~ 't u/ <r n E-©.1O .-
V-tune .. . 1 u y ./2
turn .1 I- to4V4i~ahl.e
~ lOOK " 100
f---tO} tr~
50 Ohas
e- a c h
lO c I
I
I 1~
-
.. . 56u "I 100
.1 ' output

mux 1. ~K

- 12

Fig 6.96-VHF heli cal- res on at o r vo lt a ge- c o ntro lle d oscilla tor . See te xt lo r ad d it io na l d eta il. Althoug h 8 back-to-beck pa ir 01
va ractor d io de s is shown, mor e ma y be re q uired. It ma y a lso be usefu l to swi tc h e xtra capac ita nc e Into the c irc uit wit h re lays
o r PIN d iod e s witc he s .

6 .52 Chapter 6
 high pha se noise of c asual PLL symhe viz-
e rs will drast ica lly limit the perform ance.
Wh ile som ew hat better wideba nd phase
A wo rking noise is availa ble from DDS_this is of liul e
ve rsi o n of the co nsolation when the noise is merel y
Triad built in replaced by nu merou s co he re nt spu rious
the UK , (T NX respon ses. So me ex perim ente r, expect
to Geor ge e'l:iting th ings to happen in ~y n t he~ is in
Fa re, G30 GQ.) the ncar future. which will help.211
But s~nt hes is is nOI the major problem
we face , Rath er. it is the compro mised
nature of the trancmiue rs that we usually
e nco unte r. It doc'> little goo d to build a
rece iver tha t if> so free o r dis tortion that we
become conc erned abcu r receive r damage
call for Fulltransccive ca pab ility . not be en ro uti ne ly applied fo r experi- whe n we mea sure it. only to find that the on
The receiver perfo rmance has been o ut- menter equip me nt. T he methods will wo rk the air sig na ls we e ncounter arc distorted,
-tandin g wit h different triad members j ust as well wit h d iode mixers as with FET Modern communications system s have
having obtained slightly vary ing results. nn xcr s. bee n enginee red with a sense of balan ce.
With ca reful adj ust menr of the prcsclcctor The typica l high dynamic range receive r u, ing compatible transmitters and rece ivers.
and posr fil ter a mpl if ier , sttgtuly under of recent vintage has co nsumed co ns ider- The receives have kep t pace with the trans-
IO-d B noise figure has bee n measured in able po wer. T his was generally accepted miners. but with little extra margi n. T he
.1 rec e iver a lso shu....-in g an input interc ept as the price one must pay for suc h pe rfor- radio amateur service ha.s not. howev er,
of +45 darn. T his is slig htl y unde r the mance. FET mixe r based de sig ns can. grow n in this way. Early stations had scpa-
early goal of achieving a 120-d B DR in an howe ver. pro vide very high interc ept.'> rare eq uipme nt for each function. \VC have
SSB bandwid th . but t he ease o f duplic u- witho ut high pow er. T he osci llator powers had a OX based fetish for rece ivers. tradi-
tion of the F1\fT3125 mixer ma kes it pref- are lo w, and with no ea rly a mpl ifiers, there tionally dealing with the classi c axiom that
erable ever o ne us ing the Si8901. That is no compelli ng rea son to use a high "if you can't hear 'em. you can't work 'em:"
part had a J -d D higher co nve rsion los s, power amplifie r a nywhe re in the syste m, Thi s left us ignorin g our transmitters.
making it impos sible to ac hieve a lO-d B es peci al ly if hig her ord er . Io w loss roo fing ~I a n)' so lutions to rransmtne r problem,
no ise fi gure withou t an amplifie r in the filters ca n be designed . Low l ll~ ~ and sim- arc found in the rec eiver design details .
" wi de o pe n" part of the front en d. The plified matching should be: po ssib le with Improved receiver synth esizers will ben-
prese nt sys tem with ~5 dBm IIP3 and 10 monolithic filter techn o logy, we c an now efit our tran smitter. High -lev el mixe rs.
dB SF (R = +35 d Bm ) will yiel d D R of en vivion a very high dyna mic ra nge re- low-distortion amplifiers . and clean fi lters
121.3 dB in 5OO- Hz OW. ceiver that is as sensitive as we will e ver ere ele men ts common to both . The problem
T here are so me dramatic imp lication s nee d o n the HF ba nds that ope rat t ~ effi- unique to the rranvmine r is in the higher
e mbedded wit hin this wo rk, on e", that may ciently wit h batteries. po wt r slages where d istortio n usuall y
well alter the .... ay we desig n thc ne xt gen- Aut adeq uate c ha lle nge remai ns . The occurs. Even here. there is new technology
eratio ns of rece iver . It is clear that a lossy freq uenc y sy mhevis proble m cont inues to that offers solu tion . Feedforward methods
mixer c an he follo wed directly by a nar - plague us, We cer tai nly wa nt new tra ns- offer o ne route to red uced I M D 29 , ~ I U t
row filter wi rhout co mpro mising large sig . ceivers to i nclude a ll of the refinements Feedback and prcdis tortio n offer alterna-
nal perfo rmance. Use of the Enge lbrecht fo und i n the o lder ones. and mo.'! of the se tive routes.·12..11 Predis tortio n is discu ssed,
technique is nor new with filt e rs. hut it has feature s depe nd o n freq uenc y agi lity The with refe renc es. in Chap ter Ill.

6.6 TRANSMITTER AND TRANSCEIVER DESIGN

System Co n si d e ra t i o n s ; of us used as we be gan our ex pe rime ntal e xample. a push-push doub le r. a balanced
Tr a n s mitte r s with effo rts in radio. It rema ins a good de sign. circ uit with two d iode s. wi ll s upp ress the
Even with freq ue ncy mult ipli c ati on. thc fu nda me ntal d rive co mpon e nt in the
Mixers o nly spurio us respo nses arc either har mon- o utput by 30 to 40 dB . Se lecti ve ci rc uits
A hltll,:l. d iagra m for a simple CW tran s- ics of the output. or harmonic s of the lower a fford a dd ition a l s upp re~"i o n. Multi ple
mine r was present ed at the beg inning of freque ncy osc illator. T he fo rmer are suh- re sonato r fi lters a re reco mme nded over
this chapter , Fig 6. 18. ln the simples t fo rm .stant ially red uce d with suitable low pass single tuned circuits.
an oscill ator is a mplified. lo w pass filt ered fi ltering while the la tte r a re red uced We c a n ca lc ulate the pe rforma nce of
and applied to a n a nte nna. The more elabo- th rough ba ndp ass fi ltering im mediately low pas s f ilte rs that mig ht appear in a
rate sc he me uses a frequ e ncy multiplier, af ter the fre que ncy mu ltipli er. transmitter output. Table 6,1 shows the
allo win g the usc of a low er freq uency T he best freq ue nc y multiplie rs are those sup pression at the second and third har -
oscillator. iso late d from the hig her power wit h ba la nced ci rcuitr y. A pprop riate mo nics of a c arrier that is passed thro ugh
amplif iers later in the sys te m. These rep- c ircuit symmetry will su ppress the funda- a low -pass filler with a cutoff frequ ency
resented the si mple equipment that man y mental and some und esired harmonic s. for 10% above the in put freque ncy. The fll-

Transm itters and Receivers 6. 53

 50-0 parts and arc aligned wirh substitu- sc rvati ve res ults based on our resu lts.
Ta b le 6.1
uo nal mea surements. o utlin ed in the mea- Clearly , spectru m analyzer measureme nts
Atte nuation at s urement c hap ter. A Gi lbert Cell mixer are alw ays preferr ed over simpler power
N 2f 31 (N E602, 1IC 1496) is usually a high-input- level determination s.
3 10 dS 21 dB
5 30 so imped ance circ uit. It operates with a
single-ended local oscillator leve l of 0.3
7 51 79 Linear Power Amplifier
9 72 10B 100.6 V. pea k-to-p eak. usually establish ed
wit h an in-situ (ill piau wit hin the circuit) Chains
measu rement , This is measured wi th a l OX Design hegi ns with a pair of equ al IF
's co pe probe attached to the LO or RF in- vlgnals . or two tones. Reca ll th ai the pea k:
ten were de signed for a O. I-dB -ripple put u fth e mixer l'C . The me a surem en t may enve lope power (PE P) of two identical sig-
Che byshev response. Filters wi th .l 5. 7 also be done with an RF probe and high na ls or runes is 6 dB abov e one ofthe ton es.
and 9 components are cons idered. impedance dc voltmeter , alt hough th is The output from a no rmal (+7-dBm LO )
The simpler filters are poor performers. meas ure me nt is rarelv as acc urate o w ine d iode ring mixer driven wi th RF =
Tho: N = 3 low pasv with tW(1 capacitors to levels rhat ere w d dioJe thresholds. Th~ - 16 dBm per lone is -23 dBm per tone. or
allowed RF drive ca n be 0.3 V peak- to- - 17 dflm PEP. A typical bandpass filler
and one inductor offers '> urpris ingly lillie
harmo nic auenuano n. Other passband peak for a Gi lbcrtCeJl used in a C\V trans- mig ht havoc a 3-dB insertion loss. produc-
ripp les may enh ance performance slightly , miller. also es ta b lis hed wit h an i n-situ ing a < !O dB m PEP OUTput. Assume th i ~
mea sure me nt.
bu t the dominant effect is j U,> 1 the number will he us ed in a transmitter with (I JO W
of components. Transmit mixe rs art: best dr iven with PEP outpu t (+40 dBm PEP or +34 dB rnJ
The more co mmon transmit ter block har mon ically cle an sources. It is oft en lone ). The o utput low pa ss filter usua lly
diagram. Fig 11.19. uses two oscilhuo rvbet- worthwhile to low pass filte r the LO input has ne gligible insertion loss. so a net gai n
crodyned to gether in a mix e r 10 prod uce 10 a diod e ring mixer. mainly for reasons of tlO dB is requ ired . Thi s can be ob tained
rhc d esi red ou tput. A bandpas s filler isof wa veform symmetry . Excess even -or- with three sta ses. alt houeh four. each us-
again needed to sele ct the desired output der harmonic dis to rtion may unbalance: the ing negati ve "; edbacl . w; uld he preferred.
component whi le suppressi ng the i mage mixer. Th e clipping action of the mixer especiall y if wide bandwidth was needed.
as well as various spur ious products. diodes w ill convert a sine wave dr ive into Desig n of the amplifier chain is bas ed
While frequ ency mu ltiplier bala nce en- a squ are wave. rich in odd-order harmon- upo n cascade interce pt ca lculatio n, if SSB
banced perform ance. a ba lance d mixer ics. The Rf input signal should be low in or other linear modes are pla nned. Ass ume
doe s not hi ng 10 suppress an image . The harmonics. for they can m ix to generate our design goal is IMD ar Ieast su dB be-
filler must no w do all of the work. fre- spurio us outputs. The usual diode mixer low each output tone 146 dB belo w PEP,
quencies s hould be chosen wiselv. does not generate these harmonics in the during two-tone trans mitter testing. Each
Althou gh we occ asionally sec; hetero - same abundance tha t it doe s odd -orde r LO output tone will be 6 dB below PEP , or
pro ducts. Simi tar arguments appl y to Gi 1- 2.5 \V (+:14 dBm) per tone . Thc related IMD
dyne tra nsmitte r usi ng noth ing more tha n
a single tuned circuit. two or three resona-ben Cell mixers. must then be over -au dB lowe r at -6 dBm per
tor filte r'> offer much bener performa nce The levelv recom mended arc de riv ed lone. Th e required outp ut interce pt must then
with only slight added com ple xity . l mu- from our obse rv atio ns. and co uld varv he half of thiv ratio. or 20 dB above the out-
wuh differen t mixers. Mixe rs in SSB put. +54 dBm. Such levels are obtainable
ilio n suggests that the added insertio n loss
of a third order filler would complicate equipm ent are driven at an RF level die- with high-level class -A amplifiers . The
de sign. But one can increase bandwidth tared by IM D requirem ents while mixers bloc k di agram for this ampl ifier chain is
in CW rigs are onl y co nstrained by spuri- shown in Fig 6.97. We have assigned the
wit h a triple tu ned filter to realize the same
ous outputs far fro m The desired o utp ut. gain-per-stage values shown across the top
los s with gre ater stability. better stop band
attenuation. and ea se-of-align ment. Some These spurious produ c ts 1;3 n and should of the figure. The intercept values for the
spe cial cases. such as VHf applicatio ns be red uced with filte ring . bUI that i .~ not individual stages were then adj usted 10meet
dema nd even higher ord er filt ers . posvible w it h the closely spaced l :\fD the specification. The final calculated re suh
An often abuse d. sensi tive param eter prod ucts in SS B. The le vels give n are co n- of Ol P3 = +54.2 dBm is less than the value
is mixer drive lev el. A norm al diode rim..
(+7 dBm LO ) should generall y be drive;}
with an RFinpu t less than - IOdBm. Third-
order If\l D is not excessive at thi s level
(i mportum in SSB trunc mi rrersj an d high
orde r mixer spu rious produ ct s arc lo w.
OI P ] _

Golin_
25 dBrn

1 5 cI!l
" ....
. . dB
" dBm
. . dB n dB
" .....
Low PolSS
Howe ver, spu riou s produ cts grow at an
alarm ing rate wi rh greater RF drive .
Inpu t
Mixer drive level should be es tablished
thro ugh c arefulmeasu rem en t. Even if the
huil der does not have a high frequ ency OF_ , dB , dB , dB ' dB
oscillosc ope or spectrum anatvzcr. he or
she can always bu ild and use ~ low-leve l
po wer me ter , oflen used with a step Gol1n '"' 60 ee , KF - 6 . 1 dB
attenuator. See the me a~u re me n l chap ter.
O(P ] '"' 54 .2 cIJtm
A high level (+ 17 dBm LO) diod e ring
fun..:tions wel l with an RF drive of 0 dBm.
Higher-level mixers arc ~' apab l e of even Fig 6,97- lndl vidua l stage parameters are co mbined tor a casca de of four st ages In
greater dr ivl:. Di ode mi xers are usually an ampli f ier.

6.54 Chapter 6
 for the output stage itself of +56 dBm, 011- pha se nois e of - 120 dBe/ HI spaced pa ss filter that would normally follow the
Io..... ing some of the distortion to occur in 20 kHz from the carrier, If the carrier is transmit mixe r.
earlier stages, Increased output stage gain ampli fied to a level of 1000 \V (+60 dBm). Fig (j.9S shows a two -st age clas s-A
.. ould relax the requi red earlier stage per - the tra nsmitted phase noise has a dens ity amplif ier first presented over two decades
jormancc. but wou ld red uce the margin for 120 dB lower, or - 60 dBm /Hz , If received ago. The des ign (like aging des igne rs) is
;,pplying feedback in that stage. As in any with a 500 -Hz-wide receiver . the noise is useful and rob ust in spite its age, The first
practical design. this one is a collection of - 33 dB m. or 0.5 I-l\V. A lo w pow er trans - stage uses a single TO -39 tran sistor biased
trade-off factors. mitter of this level wou ld probahly not be to about 50 rrtA. Emitter degener ation and
x oise figure is also calcula ted for the heard at any distance. hut can he copi ed by parallel feed back cre ate low input and
cascade, 6. 1 dB based upon an ass umed stat ions with in a mile. The noise clo ser to o utput impedance. pre senting a goo d
"F of 6 dB for eac h stage. If we assume the carrier will be much more ev iden t. match at both pons . The second stage uses
I moderately low noise IF followed by a The individual stages in the cascade of a parallel pair of TO-39 o r simila r transis-
IOdB loss in the mixe r and bandpass filt er, Fig 6.97 co uld be simple feedhack am pli - tors biased to abo ut 250 m1\. Th is circuit
the output noise is esse ntially tha t of a re- fiers, biased to a high e nough cu rren t that ha s a gain of 36 dB below 4 ~1Hz. drop -
sivtor attach ed to the amplifier inp ut. Tha t the indi vidual stage intercepts are rea lize d, ping to 29 dB at 29 MHz . The satur ated
eotse is - 174 d arn in a 1 HI- bandwi dth. Th e stag es shou ld pre sen t input and o ut- output is a little ove r 1 W. IMD measure-
Adding 6. 1 dB For the J\' F and 60 dB for put impedan ce, that march the adjacent rncnts at 14 I\I Hz produ ced OIP 3 of
fa in. the wide band output noi se den sity is stag es . especially when wide band width is +43.5 dBm , mak ing t his a good starting
- 107.9 dBm/Hz. lf this nois e was to be desired. On e may he more ca valier for a point for low powe r SSB equipment. Thi s
carnplcd in a receiver with a SOO-Hz hand- s ingle -band CW des ign . alth ough matched circuit can also be used in C\.... applica-
...idth, tota l power wou ld be - 80.9 dti m. feedback amplifiers are sti ll preferred . for tio ns by key ing the povitive supp ly to hoth
This is a very low powe r and would prob- they te nd to preserve wide band stabifuy stag es with a robust PNP switch suc h as a
ably not be a prohlem for others using the The emi tter degeneration ma y he adjus ted 2N5322 or TIP-32.
same frequ enc y. However, if another in a si ng le hand CW design to alt er stage A single-end ed Class-A power ampli-
~O dB of gain was adde d. bringing the gain as needed for the desired out put fie r is shown in Ft g 6.99 . This was built to
output to 1000 W. the noise would be at po wer. Thi s prac tice should be used with investi gate the performance of a var iety or
-6 1 dBm. This noise would dro p into the more ca re when dealin g with SSB FETs as low distortion circ uit s. A l N5947
bac kgro und at a distance . but could be A Class -A RF power ch ain can ge ner- bipolar feedback ampli fier with mea sured
troubleso me for oth er stations in close ally he built on a single boa rd . fo r gai n is OlP3 of +42 dBm preceded the cir cuit.
proximity. Thi s is a common difficu lty mo dest. However. the board sho uld e nd in The firs t experiments used an l RF-51O
...nh many stati ons in close prox imity , a stage of around 1 to lO W o utpu t. Higher - IIEXFET for Q1. With R2 = l n. an input
Transmi tted phase noise is usuall y powered a mpli fiers sho uld have sep arate network consisting of R l == 47 with no in-
rmuch] greater than broad band amp lifier power supply lines and an isol ated ther - put transformer. and with a 15 V power
noise. Conside r a poorly de signed trans - mal environ ment. A straight-line layo ut is supp ly and bias adjusted for 0. 5 A ID' we
mille r with a synthesized LO generating recom mend ed. separated from the band- measu red Ol P3 == +48 dg m. Inc reasi ng the

no
t. ,
"
m
., 'x. m
.I. lK ,
".,I
.,
I· ., .,
(-
no "" ou,
"" ""
"•
2H3."'iB ur
':"1
n m
"" m ,
. ,,~
IT:.
" "" "K
T1 : 10 bi:fila r
t u r n s F T3 7 - 4 3
" •"" Rl 1 6

"u m
N
~-

"" Fig 6.99-C las s-A powe r amplifier ex perime nt. Se ver al
MOS FET types we re tried at Q1 while seeking high o utput
interce pt. L1 is 4 IlH of #22 wou nd on a T68-2 toroi d. T1 is
Fig 6.9B-1·W powe r amplifier. 0 2 an d 03 should hav e 10 bttna r turns #18 on an FT-82-43 ferrite to roid . T2 is 8 bttnar
robus t heat sinks if lo ng operating periods are planned . If turns #22 on an FT-37-43. R1 s hou ld ha ve a 1-W pow er rating .
the 2N3553 is difficu lt to find , a Panasonic 2S C2988 ca n be Class-A amplifiers like this Shou ld be mo unted on a la rge
co ns ide red for substituti on . A s ingle 2SC1969 might be a heat s ink , for efficien c y is not a feature of the design . See
good substitute fo r the Q2 and 03 pa ir. te xt fo r details.

Tr a n s m itt e rs and Re c eivers 6 .55

 _Cc" ., - --i;
,

"

••
• ·•·
Expe rIme ntal cr as s-a FET RF power amplifier.

One -wall output Class-A bipolar -transistor powe r amp lifier.

power supply to 25 V with I D = 0 .75 A current used . With typical speech contain- (lIU'eJ modulato r. the local oscill ator that
yielded OIP) '" +5 1 d bm with 19-dB gain. ing 10 w avera ge po wer co mpared to thc drives it is the carrier, All of the co nsider -
The II EXFET see med 10 want high drain peak value. average cu rrent is low. The ations presented earlier for mixers continue
voltage and did not provide low distortion averag e to pe ak power ratio is usua lly in- to apply. The popular diode ring mixers per-
performance with a l1 -V supply. Experi- c re ase d wi th speech processing. but net form well in this application, onen needing
ments with the: larger IRF-530 and the curre nt is still far be low Class A val ues. no adjustments for carrier suppression . The
alte rnative input netw ork prod uced simi- An outstanding examp le of a medium newer (physica lly small er) TL'F series parts
lar results. The HEXFETs were the rmally power C l as ~- A B FET amplifier .... as from Min i-Circuit s are preferred over the
unstable ar hig h drai n current wirhour rhe offered by Sabin .J.l Tha t des ign is on the older and larger SBL· \. both for size and
source degeneration re sistance. boo k CD. carrier suppression.
The next tests used a FET specified for H g 6.100 shows a simple balanced modu-
RF perfo rmance. a now obsolete Siliconi.... lator design using 1',100 diodes. This is suit-
DV-21HlUT. The: anem anve input netwo rk Balanced Modulators able for simple transmute-s where the ex-
provided a lower dri ving imped ance The voice signal from a microphone is pense of a packaged mixers is to be avo ided,
for the ga le. High dra in voltage was amplified and convened to an intermediate The LO should he high eno ugh to produce
agai n required to ob tain low distorti on , radio freque ncy with a mixer. After up-con- output thai docs not vary with LO drive.
With Vdd '" 25 and In = 0.8 A. this de vic e version. it is usually precesse d with a crys tal usually +7 to + 10 dBm. Diode type is not
prod uced OIP) = +57 d Rm with 21-d B filte r to elimina te one sideband. A halanced critical. Silicon switching diodes such as the
gai n, The measure ments were performed mixer is virtually always used in lhis appli- IN4148 or similar will work well thro ugh
with ou tputs of +30 dBm per ton e. or 4-W cation, a requirement to eliminate the local the HF spectrum. Diodes should be matched
PEP, Slightly hig her sta ndin g curre nt oscil lator feedthrough. The mixer used in for forward voltage drop with a current of a
sho uld be used for a ful l IO-W PEP OUlpUt. thi~ application is usually described as a bol- couple of rnA.
The designe r/builde r could investigarc
other uvailahle FETs or po wer bipolar
tra nsis tors . It appe ars tha t interce pts
arou nd +60 <.I Bm will he available with
mod erately priced devic es. allowing co n- Audio
structio n of Cl ass -A po wer cha ins offer-
ing stellar pe rform ance at the lO-W PEP R
I J'
c:
ou tput leve l when compared with th ai +- •
•
offered by commercial transceiv ers. The
experimental methods present ed can cc r-
":-3
OU
') Ir. '1--[;
~ j
tainly be extend ed to higher po wer levels. LO
Claw-A po w er ampli fiers are very inef- ~
tn
fic ient w ith va lues of 25 or 30o:;.r being the
best one can exp ect with rea sonable di v- ,
to nion. Indeed. 50Q IS the theoretical
ma ximum. Solid-state Class-Aa amplifi -
en. arc also inefficient with values of ) Osr.
1" . .
sa-I• ..... _ T l....

•• , •• ••
being typic al. But the numbers obtained
with two- tone testin g are onl y part of the Fig s. tuo-cstmere balanced modulator •• • • •• ,
for use in simple transmitter s . R can
stor y. The class-As ampl ifier uses only be a small trim pot with R from 100 n
enough bias to tur n the devices on. per- to 2 kn. T is 10 bifilar turns on an Fig 6.101- Addlng ba lance adju stme nt to
haps to a ma ximum of 10% of the peuk FT-37-43 for HF applications. a ba lanced modulator us ing the SBL-1 .

6. 56 Ch apter 6
 Somc builders have built very effective
bala nced mod ulato rs with the SBL- I and
simila r Min i-Circuits mixe rs. But the
topology is modif ied sligh tly fro m the
exp ected where audio would be applied to
pins 5 and 6, whic h were short circuited 10
0
2
~-~ each other. A modific ation used by W6JFR
shown in Fig 6.101. open s rhc short and

J~
I ' inserts a low resistance (SO to 200 Q ) pot
,
01 01 between pins, Adju stment of the pot allow s
.'
0

• , . -4
0
~ ~ the carrie r III be nulled . Drive level consid -
u') ~ ~ '
• a eration s are still important
~~ " The Gilbert Cel l is an effe cti ve and popu-
0_
0
+ ~~ , I lar balanced modulator. f ig 6,102 she ws a
+'f--{ , • "
~~ , " simple speech amplifier and ba lanced
'I" , ~

2 - modulator using the Motorola MC 1496P,

~ ~
The internal circu itry for the !'vlC 1496 is
found in the manufac turer's data , with fun-
damentals presented in Cha pter 5, This cir-

.- .- .- . l.,4
"I"
uo ' .
cuit is capa ble of a car rier suppression ex-
ceedi ng SO dB, Inde ed. one can probab ly
adju st it to even greater suppre ssion , al-
- ," tho ugh it may be difficult to maintain this

-
.- I ' •• ,
~

r- pe rforma nce over time and temp erature

var iat ion s. The output wit h audi o drive
+,
H
0

0
0
"I"
'. shou ld be kcpt to about - 20 dBm with this
circui t. LO dri ve is 30n to son mV peak-to-
8u
0
T• +
:'.,L .
0
pea k. usually mea sured (in-situ) wit h an
oscilloscope with a x l0 prob e.
The speech a mplif ier used in Fig 6.lU2
will accommodate both high and lo w' im-
pcda ncc microp ho nes , FET type is no t
cr itical, Most of the gain is provided by t he

., o.
op -amp . The bu ilder may wish to use a
0
0 ,
0 0 dua l op-ump with the other section co nfig-
0
"

G
0 ured as an activ e lo w pass filter . A project
, 0 §
,• elsewh ere in the book used this topolo gy
0
E
< " with a dio de ring balanced modu lator.
.E
~
0
,, ,
T r a n s m itter IF Sys tems
-
<
" 'I" •
The modulato r output is routed to an IF
+~
E
0
0
~ I> amp lifier . With a level of - 20 dli m from
-"';:' :~
,2 •• the modulator and a requir eme nt for only
- 10 dBrn for a typical transmit mix er. lin k
, IF gain is needed. Indeed, most of the func -
tion of a tran smit [F amplifier is that of sig-
" na l conditioning and level control rather
8 than gain, Fig 6.103 shows an IF system ,
The first sta ge uses a common base ampli-
fier . which provide s good isolation
between the modulator and crystal filter
that follows, The amplif ier also sets the ter-
mination irn pcdanc o for thc crystal filter.
The amp lifier and follo wer after the filter
will cstahlish the pro per out put level and
ga in, The follower provi de, a SOon o utput
impedan ce to drive a ring mixcr while a
lO-mA bias current sets lo w distortion ,
A com mercial cry stal filler was used in
th e IF shown , pa n of a n early trans-
Fig 6.102-Speech amplifier and balanced modu lator using an MC1496P . The
cciver.J> The filter can he as simple as a
tra nsfo rme r is 10 bifilar turns #28 on a n FT37-43 with a 3-turn ou tput link, used at
9 MHz. The carrier- ba lan ce pot is adjusted fo r min imum output at the carrier -lth order Huue rworth design . However.
freq ue ncy. The d ua l in line ve rs io n of the MC1496 is used here. Builders s ho uld we have bee n di sappointed with these
cons ult man ufacturer's data whe n using ot he r va ria nts . si mple fille rs . Fil ters with 6 to 8 crystals

Transmitt ers and Receivers 6. 57

 arc little mo re complica ted tha n a 4-pole
c ircui t once the build er has been through
the c ryst al characterivari o n exe rci se
needed w he n huild ing f ilte rs , (SCI.: Chap -
ter S fo r de sig n deta ils.) Yet the sid eb and
supp res s ion is dramatica ll y hetter. Sup-
pression is illustrated in Fig (j.1U4 where
overlap pin g 4 pole Chebyshe v fil te r
J
o
re spo nses are pr es ented. The le vel 6 ti ll
down from the fi lter top s is mar ked. ind i-
cating the Filter "pa ss.hands ". The worst -
c ase si deband sup pres sion is about 30 db ,
occ urring fur a 300-Hz aud io note. Sup-
press ion appro aches (-iO d B at the highest
audio inpu t.
A Cheb yshev filte r sha pe is tec um-
o me nded for SSH app licatio ns over the sim-
E
< pler Cohn filter. whic h often suffe rs from
poo r passban d shape. A comparison is
made i n Fig 6.105 T he Co hn res pon se.
however, does have steep ski rt attenuation .
comp arable to a I.O-dB-ri pple Chebyshev
filter. Further . Cohn (equal co upling) fil-
ters huilr with lowe r Q" ny sla ls tend to
have a smoother passband shape.
It is interest ing also to com pare a vai l-
able side hand sup prc vvions with the
resp o nses of a phasing tr ans mitte r. The
phasin g sy stem has the virt ue of offering
goo d supp ression o va t he ent ire pass band
inclu di ng the regio n close to the carrier.
Hy brid sy stems with a phasing exc iter te l-
lowed by a fil ter co uld offe r spec tacu lar
perfor mance. (The same ca n he said for
SSB recei ve rs. See Chapter Y.)

CW Carrier Gene ra tion

The IF amplifie r of Fig 6. 103 includes a
crystal-controlle d currie r oscillato r needed
for CW generation. The oscillator and fol-
lowe r are relatively rich in harmonic energ y.
which might normally constitute a problem.
Howeve r. the harmo nics arc remo ved hy
o
o passing the signal through the cry stal filter.
The carr ier is injected into the IF strip at the
curnmou base stage. The l-k U resistor can

, be adjusted so the C\V level is the same a, the

peak SSB powe r. An even simpler IF system
is clearly in orde r for designs intended ex-

4 elus ively for C\\' . T he important criterion is

10 provide the right level for the transmit
'mixer. but no more,
,
N
T hc C\\' c arrie r oscill ator shown in
Fig 6,103 functio ned we ll in this app lica-
tion . This oscillator was turned ott and on
only at the relative ly s lo w T/ R rat e. A
faster rate is needed in many higher speed
applications . Hut key ed cr yvtal oscillators
are su bject 10 chirp. a change in freque ncy
occ urring as oscill ation bu ilds in the ci r-
cuit . T he pro blem oft en gcts wor se at
Fig 6.103- IF amplifier for an SSB transmi tter. Very little IF gai n is usually needed
lo wer frequ ency. The re arc se vera l sol u-
for th is app lication. The trimmer capac itors were needed to terminate the crystal
fi lter used on a transceiver us ing Ihi s amp li f ie r, but ma y not be needed for other tio ns to the prob lem . Th e cry st al oscillator
ap p lications. can he co nfigured fo r lower loade d cry stal

6 . 58 Chapter 6
 isola te it fro m the rece iver. Oscill ator oper a-
( "\ ( 10 . 0 0
tio n at a harmonic is often a conv enient op-
tion. T he signa l is then divided wit h a digit al

" 16 dB d(fflTlrrom I
pe. "
di vider during key down periods. One of o ur
des igns used a 5-t-.IHz IF. but slig ht chirp

I
wa s encountered wh en a 'i-MHz crystal os-

LSB 1 \ GA I N,
( S - 21>
dB cill ator wa s keyed. T he solut ion to the pro h-
lem is show n in Fig 6.W6.

1\ 1 USB 1 H"f. < - 21

Eve n though the f ree ru nning osci lla tor
in this sch em e do e s not o per ate w ith in the

\
rece iver IF . sh iel di ng is still req uired. A

,
steady tone wa, heard when the 10-\fHz
o sc ill ato r wa s physically ncar the 5-M Hz
IF. a resul t of BFO sec o nd har mon ic

1 1\ carrier F O, MH z =
10 . 0 0
energy mixing with th e higher freq uen cy
si gnal. Shie lding and use of feedth roug h
capacitors for power a nd c o ntro l eli mi -
nated the p ro blem .
Th e non -integer freque ncy multip lic a-
r500 0 00
. F R E QU ENCV . Hz WO O . D O Hz/O.v .
""'00. 0 0
tion schem e de scri bed in Ch apter 4 wou ld
T " o "'''0 0 Hz wi d . SSB h l h r s, N =4 , (}. 3 d B Ch e b y s h e v
also be we ll suited 10 generation of a CV./
ca rr ier. That schem e d iv id es a free run -
Fi g 6.104-Two over lapping filte rs illust ratin g s id eb and s up pr essi o n . See text. In a ning oscillnror by 2. then uses one of the
pra ct ic al applicati o n, t he f ilte r res po n se is m easu r ed a nd r ec o rde d in t he b uil derl robust odd har moni c s pre sent in th e square
des ig ner's no teb o o k . The lo w er frequency 6-d B point is no ted (for USB ge neration) wave . In the pr ior ex amp le wi th a S MH z
and the car rier is placed 300 Hz below this po int. The carrier is so marked in t he
IF. a crystal osc illator at 3.3:rB \f Hz
fi gure.
cou ld be used. It would b e div ided by 2 to
pro d uce a 1.667 \-t H l square wav e that ha s
a strong har moni c at S Ml-lz. Th is coul d be
0
"" filtered in a S .\1 H l crys tal or L C filter.

(:;/
'" . 00

--
V d B / D iu .

IF Speech Proc e s sor

The - lU-d13 m si gnal dev elo ped by the
tran smitter IF (F ig 6.1(3) is re ad y to driv e
(lA'N ,

( S - 2 1)
"" a transmit mi xer. Alt ern atively. it can be
applied to an IF speech proce ss or, shown
a
R.. L ," ~,
in Fig 6.H17 .
The voltage rel ated to a - I O-dB m sig nal
in a :'iO-D cahle is on ly 0 . 1 V peak. This is
nOI eno ugh to tur n on a d iode. Howe ver , it
can be increas ed with a transformer unt il
diode cli ppin g occurs . Ar ter the sig na l ha s
C r" ,.t ~l
been di pped . it is amp lified an d filte red
F i 1 t" r The filte ring From t he secon d crystal filler
m . "", 10.00 is necessary: w ith o ut the filt eri ng . inter-
modul at ion disto rtio n pr odu cts ge ne rated
. ' 0 "" ' 0 by the clipping ci rcu itr y wo uld appear
0 .00 4 000. 00
I F R EOU E NCV . ", ' 00 00 Hz / Div .
cop,,.-,gm n".. .
outside th e IF ba nd widt h . Cl ipp ing cann ot
"""' ''-''''LCh"l>",.h
.. u",.. u~"-

,.
LH V IJ "- " .. .. ..L n L > .
Cohn C r ,," h l F i I t ..
H t1 ML be do ne prio r to in itia l filtering. for that
0 .'
"" ev r ~, H= ~ , B=il'500
cl ip ping of th e d ouble sideban d signal
w ou ld cr e ate som e disto rtion pro d uc ts
Fi g 6.105 - Two a-ele me nt c rys ta l f ilters are co mpare d. The s hape m ark ed w ith wi thin the eventual IF pas sband that wou ld
sm all squ ar es rep re s ents the Co h n f ilte r w h ile t he ot her w as designed for a 0.3 dB not otherw ise occu r.
Cheby s hev r esp on s e. Th e two f ilters hav e s im ilar skirt res po nse, wh ich is much
Th e l F spee ch pr ocessor has the effe c t or
better t han a Bu tter wor t h s hape, bu t much wo rse t ha n a h ig her-order f ilter.
inc reasing the avera ge p owe r within the
speech sideb and without increasing the
peak. Th is higher average pow er Increase s
Q. often a difficult desi gn task . A better often a co nve nie nt solu tion. fo r RIT cir - intellig ibility wit hout exce ss d istort ion out
so lut io n us es an osc illator that is no t cui try is already pre sent in the tran sceiver. of the normal passband. This pro cess or. with
keyed . The rec ei ve r BFO usua lly fou nd in Another alternat ive is a non-keyed cry stal the leve ls sho wn. increase s the average to
a tra n scei ver is such an osc ill ator. but it is o scill ator other than the BFO. BUI one can't peak power by about 10 or 12 d B, readily
off set, op erating at the wro ng fre q ue nc y. normally use one within the re ceiver IF observ ed wit h an oscillos cope
Th is s lig ht c hange can be compensated bandw id th . for it wo uld be he ard unle ss T he IF pro cess or has a second adv an-
with a suit able offs et in the YFO . Th is is mo num ent al efforts we re taken to shiel d and tag e : It confines the IF leve l to prev e nt

Trans mit ters and Receivers 6.59

ove rdrivm g the tra nsmit mixer . With out fac tor in a rransminc r IF syste m. With M l a mixer dri ven hy a di sto rted IF signal.
the procevxi ng. it would he desira ble to add little gain required. the IF syste m can
A Le. or "Automatic Le vel Control." Thiv he vimp fe. B UI the huilder/des igne r should
is an AGe loo p in the transmitter th ai be careful to be sure that distort ion h not Bidirectional Amplifiers
main ta ins the lev el thro ugh the overall an iss ue. It wou ld be folly to design an One view of a SSB transm itter says that
power chain. ex treme ly low d is tort io n RF power it is nothing more than a superh eterodyne
Inter mod ula rion divrortio n i~ rarely a cha in only 10 feed it with the output of SSB rece iver with signals moving: in the

aa
+ 12
7Bl05

22J
10lDfz r-: 4 .22
" • ,
10

0 l . .'lK I "
, iji
, ...
l - ,"~.l
ex 22K , 74HC74 , 'K
lK aa 2 .1u 2. 1u
Output.

Ql
19 K 1 -L
C -S~ .l

" I 12 U , 1
1
41 0 82~ niL
I "" 2 H3 9 0 ..l
"
2 H]9 0,l
.
21l1 9 D4 J-J-'VV1r- + 12T

Fi g 6 .106 - A lt ernatlve ca rrie r-osc illato r system fo r CW generation . A fr ee-running 10-MHz crys tal o s cill at or is divided w it h a
di g ital divide r to gen er ate 5 MHz w hen needed. T he di vide -by- 2 c ircui t is controll ed w it h an Ie reset line. See text.

TX IF Amp
Spee ch Processor
+ 12 v. t ra ns m it "
t-- V\tv-"

From TX IF Arr.p
n.a
4.7 I< 9 ~ H.
(C in Fi~ 4 ). 2.S-I<Hz BW
- 10 dBm
0.' C"
JS 510
" 1---1r-r--;;,-----JJ-H:-t:
.
C. Fig S
FILTER
2.2 l< T'ERI.4IN"'lE ,
"
PROCESSOR
CO ,
0"
'" rL 0. 1 ExC<lpl os indiC0 1<ld. O<lCim <:ll
volun 01 c OQ o ci l o n c ~ eee
in "' icroloro d' ( ~ F); olh e<s
O'~ in p;co lorods (pF);
' u ;st on ce , or ~ in ohm s;
k.. 1.000.

Fig 6.107-IF s peech processor . Bac k-l o-bac k diodes clip the IF sig nal. The res ult ing vo lt age is ampli fied and filte red in a crystal
filter . II is then ampli fied and set to p rovide the desired - 10 d Bm to d rive the transmit m ixer. Schonky diodes are u sed in the
c li ppe r circuit. The d iodes ar e dr iven by a 16-turn win ding on an FT· 37-43 Ierrite toroid . The link on the 50-a line is 3 turns.

6.60 Chap ter 6

 RX Inor Out Aud IO
to Input
Brood Band er
XmlrAmp O utpu t

BFO Input

R IT
o
Fig 6.1OS-Partial block diag ra m of an SSB
. '2 V t ransceiver b ased upon bidi rectio nal amplifiers .

1N914 l N914
• 12V . . , 2 V.
Letl lnpvt ' R'Itt ~

1000
"1 " 1" 1000
... ...
:J •
:+; o _{' . 1
..... / In
~
=:
I;J-- ~
~ -

o Fig 6.11D-Sid irect io nal am pli f ier wi th

TO'
~
~
0.1 01 complementa ry tra ns isto rs. Onl y one
tran si stor is on l or each di rect ion.
Operation Is cl ear i1 on e of t he
R, 2 )61
~
R"
330

,
01 02 330
P tr an sistors is mentall y remo ved and the
remain ing c ircuit ry is analy zed. See text

56,1 rh fo r deta ils .

0 1
R1 ~ig neJ for higher c urre nt. the 6 RO-U rests.
ton. are replaced with sm alle r resistors in
Fig 6.109-Bldlrectlon al ampli f ie r wit h bipolar t rans istors. 01 and 02 ca n be series with suita ble indu ctors.
2N5109 s or similar parts , The Inp ut and output im pedances are 50 n In both The j unctio n field e ffec t tran sist or is
direc t io n s. ideally suite d to bidirect ion al amplifier s.
ow ing tv the usua l symmetry of the physi -
cal dev ice where the source a nd d rain
regio ns are identical. The drain only as-
oppovite direc tio n. The tra nsmitte r needs of ope ration is selected by ap plying Vee to sumes drain -like properties when it is pos i-
the same filt er- a nd oscilla tor s as use d one of the two co ntrol input s. tively bi ased A bidirectional a mplifier
in the recei ver to c reatea SS 13 signal. I\la ny Ver y fe w' of the co mpo nents in the usin g Ihis is presented in Fig 6.11 1. A
tran scei ver desig ns ha ve used th is con- am plifier of Fig 6.109 arc sha red with sing le-end ed variation C..A" in the figure }
cep r. A bloc k dia gram is sho wn in ri ~ sw itc hed di rectio ns. W3TS brought o ur "ho ws the res o nant d rain network neede d
6. 108 . All uf the RF a nd IF c hain a mplifi- attention to a simple bidirec tion al ampli- to ge nerate high gain. This circ uit app ea rs
ers are bidirection al: they prov ide gai n 10 fier used in so me -Manpack'ttransceiver s twice in the bidi rect ional versio n (" B"j of
sig nals going in either directio n when a de built by PIe,.,,,ey.'1> We adapted this to the the ci rcu it. A PI;\" diode ..hon-circ uirc
co ntrol signal is changed . Diode-ring mill- 50-11 feed bac k circ uit show n in Fig 6.110. Col when that portion of the circu it i;., used
er s are also bidi rec tio nal circ uits. a~ arc The amplifier sho wn shou ld he o perated as a n inpu l. Thc low impedance the n
both LC and c ryvral fillers. Aud io signals from a low Vcr 10 ensu re that the cm iuc r- effectively short-c ircuit s, much of the
ca n he switched with ease with integ rated ba se breakdo w n of eith er transistor is nor tuned net work.Input tuning ca n be irnple-
or discrete FET switches. exceeded. No em itte r degeneration is used memed. if needed. by replace me nt of the
Fi g 6. 11l9 sho ws a circu it designed by' in the rran sictorv, fo r each transistor is only RFC with smal l ind uctors . Thivcirruiruses
the late Mike ~kl c a l f. W7 UOM . Th is cir- biased to abo ut 3.5 mAo Degener ation can the metal can U-11 0 rather than the more
cuit uses high F-trransistors biased to high be add ed for red uced gain o r improved common ) ·1 10. allowi ng a grounded gate
current in the feed back amplifier drc uit I~{D. This amplifier will pro vid e abou t with ext remely lo w i nductanc e. important
used throughou t this boo k. The direc tion 17 dB gain up 10 abou l.w MH / . If rede - for UHF stability'Y

Transmitters and Receivers 6. 61

 Fig 6.111-Bid irectional amplif ier us ing
a junct io n FET in a com mo n-gate ., U -3 10

'"'"' ~
topology. Part A shows a sing le-en ded
amplifier whe re L, C-v , a nd c -t f o rm a
resonant network th at pre sents a h igh (A ) ~
impeda nce to the dr ain. Part B shows ,' ,
the b idirectional variatio n . See text.

(B)
U -3 10

Bidirec t i o nal Crystal

Fi lter Circu its ., 10K 101'(

Fig 6. 112 sho ws a system wit h

diode swi tchi ng, allo wi ng a c rystal f iller
to be shared between rec ei ve and transmit '"0
functions , Dio de 0 1 route s the signal to
1 11'415 2 1H4152
the fil ter input du ring rece ive whil e ])2
connects to trans mit ci rcuits. R 1 and R2 Ground f or i n,-,ut at right .
Gr o und f o r input at l e ft .
set 01 current during receive. The posi-
+l W for input at right . +1 5V fo r input at left .
tive voltage de veloped across R I serves to
rev erse bias the d iode in the off path .
Par t B of Fig 6. 112 shows an opt ion with
an adde d uan si vtor. Q I. in t he rece :ve path .
Q I helps to re vers e hias the [) I anode and
c reates a 10 \\ im pedan ce to gro und dur ing
trans mit. bo th increasing the swi tch on to
orf ratio. T ypical switch performance at ...V on Receive-
I() \1 Hz will be a 45 dB o n 10off ratio with
a I d13 insertio n loss .
While the d iode switch ing looks si mple Crys tal
eno ugh. it is a crit ical transcei ver circuit. d'
F ilter
Th e switching and rhc interfacing circ uit s
should present the same impedance to the - - - -l
To Receiver
fil ter with switchi ng to pre serve filte r per- D1
Circuit s D3
tor mancc . All co mponents must be e xam-
ined and. if needed. cha racte rized for IIP3 To
a" well as switchi ng perfor mance. Transmitter
Th e bcst diodes to use in this app lica - Ci~~t~ ------j D2 d'
tio n are PIN t ypes. Lo we r cost high
vol tage recti fier d iodes arc often suita ble ,
r rc
a lthough they have highe r off cap acitan ce.
We ha ve measure d IIP3 higher th an ...V on Transmit R1
+50 d lim fo r I N647 and I N4007 d iodes.
Less ro bust. hnt lo wer ca pacitance switch- 41 R3
ing d iodes ar c ofte n use d when cry stal
filters with a 500-Q impeda nce are used 'L "
Careful e xperiments are the n req uired 10
maintain 1l\-10 per formance.
A scheme using a sha red filt er is sho wn +V on Receive

in FiA 6.113 , T his method usin g NE60 2

Gi lbert Ce ll mixe rs is the brainchild of 41 R2 +V o n Tr ansmit
K7 RO ,,'s Part A of the figure show s a par-
tial sch ema tic for a NE602 , Th is part has "'1:. 01
good isolation betw e en po rts. a result ot
balance and the virtual caxcode interna l - - -ll-+--"
To Re ceiver
topo logy This allo ws two mixers 10be tied Circuits D1
tog ether to present a constant compo site
impe da nce 10 a fi lter. sho wn in part B 01" t---~--J~ To ~rystal Filter
rig 6. 11:1 . T he mixer output imped anc e is D2
1.5 kn and remains ev en when the part is
biase d off . The input imp edance is 3 kil.
but is pre senl o nly whe n thc mixer is bi-
ased into operatio n. The output of Ul. a
rece iver fron t-end mixer, and U2, a tran s- Fig 6.112-0 io de sw it chin g of a crystal f ilter betw een tr ansmi t an d rec eive
mine r o utput mix e r. a re parall ele d, pr e- fu nctions. See text fo r details.

6.62 Chapter 6
 •

'1
I
B1'0 r""••

" illo I""••

h''''
nicropho ""

Fig 6.113-A scheme for sharing a crystal f ilte r between f unctions. Pari A shows a pa rtia l s chematic fo r an NE602. Part B
pr esents th e bas ic scheme generated by K7RO wh ile C shows FET buffers that allo w ot her mi xers and fillers of many different
impeda nces. The scheme in C has not been tried. See le xt for details.

,,,
,,, +12 _
( C) +12v
+ 12.

(A)
,,, 2N 3906

r" "'" " 2 "3 9 0 6 .,

"" 2H39 06

--l
~'"/
I
IP .,
~ey
-

I
~ey

I
.,.
"Ke y e d
St age "
"""
"-
.-
'" 2.71<
U

~
". ,
"""
"-
(E)

"Ke y e d

1·:·"
St a g e "
Vee/?
( B)
- ,.,
RF in
--l '"

I Key ~_,:_':_. __

!,,..- (0) IN4 D 2

~
-=- +1 2"
330 I
22K <;
cc-----1
60
1;0;

-=-
Q7

-=- Q3

2 x 2 N3 9 0 4

Fig 6.114-Circ uits used 10 shape key ing of a Iransmiller amp lifie r stag e. Part A is a general case of switching an emitter
curr ent 10 ground. Part B uses a PNP switch to apply a keyed waveform to an NPN amp li fier. If that stage draws 10 rnA with
B V applied, it is modeled as an 600-n resi stor, as in Part C. Anal ysis of C s ho w s an asymmetry . The rise is co nt ro ll ed by t he
eq u iv ale nt of 390 n in para llel with BOO n while the fa ll is the result of the BOO-n valu e alo ne. Par t 0 p rovides nea rl y ide ntica l
ris e and fa ll ti mes. E sh ows a modified switch w he re the PNP now fun ct ions not o nly as a d c switch, but as an integrator that
sh apes the rise and fall. See text for d iscussion.

Transmitters and Recei vers 6.63

senting a I .O-k n impedance to the crystal from the controlling de . and fall in a de-only circ uit with an op-arnp
filter. Loc al oscillator energy is simu lta - The various part s of Fig 6. 114 show a output con trolling the gain of an amplifier.
neously appli ed to both mixers. va riety of sha ping circui ts. outl ined in the Shaping can even be done with OSP fi rm-
T wo more NE602 mixe rs <Ire used with cap tio n. But the most popu lar is the sim ple ware . as presented in later chapters .
<I sim ilar con nection to serve as a product int egrator popularized by W7EL shown in O ne som etimes sees si mple transmi tter
de tector (V3) and trans mit bal anc ed part E. 39The PNP transistor serves a dual circui ts where a cry stal oscillator is key ed.
modulator (U4 ,) Biasing is sligh tly alte red role. Th e dc is swit che d. creating the has ic T he result is ofte n bette r than expected .
in Q4 to adjus t ba lance . func tion. Hut t he tran sis tor is a lso an T his res ults from a gen eral charac teristic
One wou ld ide ally switch the mixers off amplifier that. in co mbination with the of osc illators-oscillatio n cannot start
and on to match their application How- capacitor be twee n base and cnflector immediatel y, hut must overco me the delay
ever. turni ng a mixer off that has an inp ut forms an integrato r c ircu it , No c urre nt rela ted to the bandpas s fil ter intrinsic 10a ll
that is shared with the output of anot her flow s whe n the key is up, bringing both oscillator reso nato rs. The reso nator is the
pa rt will change the terminating imped- base and e mitter to + 12 V. with the col lec - high Q crystal in th is cas e. This beh avior is
ance. The experimenter may wis h to insert tor at ground. As soon as the key is usually not pla nned and sho uld no t be cun-
appropria te bu ffer amplifiers in the sys- pressed. current bcgins to flow in RI. fused with des ig n.
tem to solve these problems . cau sing the ba se vo ltage to beg in to drop Althoug h we emphasize shap ing to
T he transcei ver des ig ned by K7RO use d belo w + 12 V , As soon as it gets to 11.3 . reduce key cli cks, some parts of the key -
a crystal fil ter designed to have the imped- base current begins to t1ow, forcing co l- ing fu nction mu st happen quickly . l f all
ance requir ed by the mixers. G rea ter fl ex - lector current to also flow wh ich increases osci llator is keyed, it shou ld occur quickly
ibility is afforded by the system in part C co llector volt age. But the increasi ng co l- using circuitry isolated from sha ping. The
of the figu re. Q I fu nctions as a common lector voltage is coupled back to the base req uirement for quic k sta rting often pre-
gate buffer amp lifier. presenting a 10 \'. ' in- thro ugh the c apacito r in a dire ctio n that cludes keyi ng crystal oscilla tors . B ut
put impedanc e such as mi ght be needed "tries" to reduce the base c urre nt. T his keyed oscillators oft e n suffer stab ilit y
for a diode ring receiver mixer. Q2 is a negative fee dback does not let the collec- problems. adding challe nge.
simple Jf ET fo llo wer to drive a varie ty of tor voltage increase qui ck ly. but forces it Ge nerall y. the Fulfowing e vents must
mixer types fo r the transmit fu nction . Q3 to ramp up at an approxi mate ly linea r rate occu r in sequ e nce when a transceiver is
is a dc switch that allows Q I to be sh ut until the transi stor begin s to saturate . keyed:
do wn during transmit in terva ls. Re sistor The ac tion is simi lar when the key is 1. T he receiver is operating normally .
R T is the do minant element ter minating the opened. The open R 1 tries to reduce base 2. The key is pressed to star t a character.
cry stal filter. c urre nt. wh ich will let the coll ec tor volt - 3. The rec eive r is muted. pre ve nting fur -
age drop . But as that happens. ba se c urrent ther audi o from exit ing ,
will con tin ue to flow through the c apaci - 4. Addi tiona l receive r mutin g is ac tivated.
Keying
tor as the collector vo ltage drops. again pre venting ove rload by stro ng tra ns -
Keyi ng is the on -off co ntro l that is li nearly . until the tra nsi stor finall y turns mitter signals.
applied to a transmitter stage to gener ate off. R l and C set the ri sing c harac teristic 5. T he antenna is d isco nnected from the
RF in the pattern of Inte rnat io nal Morse wh ile R2 and C determ ine the fal l. The receiver input and is attac hed to the
Code. The keying c irc uitry can also co n- tradition al shap es of Fig 6. 115 approxi- transmitte r output. (In some cases. the
trol 'lage, in a SSR transm itter wh en we mate the Ii near ramp, I ndeed it is the ram p- tran smit te r outp ut is already con -
wish to e li min ate power consumptio n dur - ing part that is more effec tive in red ucing nccred.)
i ng rece ive periods. I n principle. key ing clicks than is the rounded corners at the 6, Bias is est abli shed on important trans -
can be appli ed near ly anywhere in a trans - end of the shaping . mitter stag es ,
miller. I t is usuall y ap pli ed at a n interme - The re are many methods that may be 7. Osc illators are started and /or a fre-
diatc level and more than one sta ge is of- used 10 shape keying . I n a nother W7EL quency synthesizer is shifted and/o r an
ten keyed, esp eci ally when the followin g cre ation (u npublis hed) . a d iode detec tor RLT (detailed later ) is shifted into trans-
stages lise linear am plifiers . It is acc ept - monitore d the o utpu t of a transm itter. That mit mode to establish the transmitte d
able to key j ust o ne stage when the follow - signa l was then compared with an ideal rise frequency.
ing stages arc nonlinea r where bias is de-
rived from RF input . The behavior we seck
is a low backwove, mean ing that the tran s-
mitted RF is lo w whe n the key is o pen .
Backw ave lev els of - 80 d'Sc are easi ly
ac hieved.
.,.U-;---T
Fig 6. 114 shows sev eral scheme s for
key ing. Part A switches the emitter cur-
rent. whi le the base is biased at abo ut half
the po wer supp ly . The e lect rolytic
if
\~--~-=
cap acitor, t he re lated stage current, and the
resistor va lues lime the ri se and fa ll of t he
amp lifier cu rren t. Bot h the rise and fall
time s sho uld occ ur in a period of one or
two mill iseconds , Much shorter times
a llow key c lic ks to he created . Testing ]
is normally do ne by exami ning the RF "
• UP , .d )
''',
envelope with a high-speed osci lloscope ,
ideally wh ile triggering the oscilloscope Fig 6.115-Desire d wav ef o rm tha t s ho u ld be applied t o a key ed st age.

6.64 Chapt er 6
8. The keyed stages are supplied with the Mut ing a rece ive r can h-e a majo r chal- ing. This process can of ten create transient,
sha ped de that cau ses the de sired wave- lenge. especi ally if very high speed is that are as tro ubling as the presence of sig-
form to he ge nera ted. des ired. Th e high-speed o peratio n is espe- nal. The better method of muting a stage
9. The dot or dash co ntinues to be se m for cially use ful for QSK . or break - in CW appl ies a gain altering bias that reduces
the des ired length. o peration where ideally a Cw operator can gai n withou t changin g oth er de para meters.
10. The key is o pen ed . hear oth e r sta tions be tween high-speed Even the "simple" circuit task of
The , e4 uence outlined is reversed . with dots. Th is facility is con-idered an advan - inj ecting an audio sid ero ne can be a chal -
the final eve nt being the unmuting of the tage in co mpetitive operations. but is also lenge . Often a sidetone oscittarcr is keyed
recei ver. allo wing the receiver funct ion to useful whil e exc han ging rou tine or e me r- o n or on in a way that crea tes a de nan-
return to norm al . gency traffic message.... sie nt. Tha t is. the " key' down" waveform
Alt hough notlisted. it may he desi rable The si mp le way to mute a stage in a has an ave rage value tha t differs from the
to activate circ uitry that "re members" the rece ive ris to re move the powe r supply. Un- val ue when the key is up. A better side tonc
gain state of a rec ei ver at the exact begin- to rrunatcly. this does not allow the gain to osc illator is one that has no change in de
ning of a keyed interval so the receiver can dim in ish o r grow immed iate ly. for leve l as it is tu rned o n a nd off, a nd the best
immediately return to tha t state after the bypass ca pacitors within the sta ge must one" have shaping app lied LO the ke yed
trans mit inte rval is fi nished. charge and/or discharge with the switc h- wa veform s,

6.7 FREQ U E N C Y SHI FTS, OFFSETS AND INCREMENTAL TUNING

Oscillator
Mo difications
Both direct c on ver sion and su per he t
transceivers usually inclu de a provision to
shift the freq uency of the main o-ct llato r
whe n the ke y' or push-to -talk bunon is
pressed. causi ng the rig to shift from a re-
ceive to a trans mit mode. The re are vari-
ous reaso ns fo r this sh ift. depe ndi ng o n

I (B) i
the app licati on. =
Fill 6. 1Hi shows se vera l partial oscula- ~

tor schema tics that allow the freq uency to

be shifte d in a discrete step as a co ntrol ControlV
voltage is cha nged . The vo ltage c hanges c.,
between t wo well-defined levels pro duc-
' .3 K 3 .3K
1
m
ing two closel y s paced output frequen cies , C "' C'<I.~ 1t
The ci rcuit in Fig 6. 116A is an LC tuned
VFO, Th e freque ncy is changed when a
small variab le cap acitor. C,'al' is shifted
'1 l-
~
'001 ~
""
'"'

into the circ uit with 11 diode ..witc h. When

the "co ntrol" signa l is pos itive. de cu rren t
Flows in the diod e and Ccvar i.. part of the
freq uency' de ter min ation , Ho we ve r. when
the control milage is set at n. very liule
current flows in the diod e swi tch. so C-var
is re mo ved fro m the circ uit. The same coil
tap used for oscillator feedback is used for (C)
offset. Add itional capaci tance. C". paral-
leling the diode will reduce shift. provid-
ing a n adjustme nt.
A c rysta l-controll ed oscillator wit h a
diode sw itch is sho wn in Fig 6. 1168. Th is
circu it is ideal for shifts of o nly a fe w hun-
dred hertz. The shift will depe nd upon the
crys tal parameters and the circu it design.
so ex perimentation with C Ml1a is req uired .
A t rans istor is used as a s witch i n
Fig 6.1 1tic. The transistor '..aturates when
the switch has base current app lied . c reat- Fig 6.116- 0sc lllator etrcuue, Including a mean s fo r fre quency shifting .

Transm itters and Recei vers 6 .65

 trolto +7 .5. The same resul t occurs when
Fig 6.117-Mo dificat io n of a classic LC osci llator fo r small tu n ing wi t h a the "RIT -o ff" switch is cl osed .
varactor d iode. See the text for discussion of
T he usual sup erhet tra nsceiv er gen er -
c o mpo ne nt values. The tuning d iode is one
w it h a capacitance of 10 to pe rhaps 50 pF ates the transm itted c arrier by mixing the
w hen reverse biased by a few vo lts . VF0 output with a crys tal co ntroll ed
Good choices fo r os cill ato r re siding in the middle of a nar -
HF applications row IF ban dwidt h. Duri ng transceiver
are the 88105 o r constru cti on a nd a lig nmen t, the crysrul
88109, o r
Motorola MV-209 . oscillator is t urned on and adj usted for a
Silicon power freque ncy th at p ro vid e s a de sir ed bea t note
rec tifiers or h igh - in the rece iver. usua ll y ab out ROO H z.
v o ltag e Zener Then, dur in g opera tio n, the trans ceiver is
diodes are also tuned un til an SOD-Hz no te is hea rd. Pre ss -
sometimes used,
in g the key then ge ne rates a si gnal that is
encouraging
expe rimentat ion. ex act ly in ze ro heat wi th the received o ne ,
NO li: that thi s operation and alignme nt
is slightly different tha n that whe n SSB is
ge nera ted in a superhet. I n that case, the
sam e circuit (u sually crystal cont ro lle d)
serves as the receiv er beat freque ncy os-
ing effectively a RF short circui t. When the freq uenc y of both tra nsmitter a nd the ci llutor an d the transmit suppres sed ca r-
bas e current is rem oved, the 100-kQ co l- receiver to he identi ca l. rier. It is impo r ta nt that an experimenter
lector rest sto r ca uses the c o llec tor voltage Th e RIT fu nction mig ht be controll ed unders tand the freque ncy sc heme used in
to r ise, pl ac in g a reverv c bia s on the eo l- wit h the circu it in Fig 6.118 where an his or her tra nsc eiver and the re su lt ing
lec tor . The switc h is then a small c apacito r operatio nal ampli fier determi ne s the VCO op erati ng mode. Also be carefu l to know
(a pico farad or two) that has les s im pac t on con trol volta ge. A 5- Y regulator provides when the RlT is ac tiv e .
the c ircu it. a stable voltage to drive the tunin g po ts
A VFO exa mp le is shown in Fig 6.1 17 and to pow er the osci llator. Th is is di vided Offse t s w ith Direc t
whcrc a tradit io nal osc ill ator is mod ifie d to provide 3 V for the no ninverti ng
wi th the add ition of a varactor d iod e. Fo r
Co nversion
op -amp input. A logic signal that is high
best sta bili ty. the " rang e set" capaci tor is du r ing transmit pe riod s is applied to the Transc e ive rs
kep t smal l. pr oducing no more freq uency NP:-i, Q2 . Th is saturate s Q2 and cuts Q I Th ese basic superhet sche mes will also
sh ift than needed , Also. rhc voltage tuning o ff. disconnecting the I O-k G summing work with direct conv er sion rig s. Consider
range is picked to alw ays reverse bia s the resistor from the R IT pol. forcing the co n- a very si mple 7-M Hz dir ect -conversi on
tun ing d iod e. even in the presence of large
R F voltage s. A ty pical circuit might ha ve
control voltage V r tha t var ie s bet wee n 5
and 10 Y de. If thc co nt rol d rops c lose to
zero. the RF will be re ctifie d in the di ode.
aheriug Yc. T his will often alter the Q of +12 V
the oscillator tank an d. in ex treme ca se s. .5 V
can cause oscillatio n to ceas e. 78L05
Thc by pass capaci tor relat ed to the tun- Re g .""
ing diod e i s show n as a 0. 1 !JF. A smaller
value may be suffic ient to de cou ple the R F.
Val ues that arc too large will slow thc rate
0.1 U
F
IUl '" +12 V
l OOK
that fr eq uenc y can change when the con-
- -
2K
.' I
tro l voltage i s altered . producing CW 2K ( 3v)
chirps or miss ed SSB syllables , + V-co nI. 10 veo
5K
Superhet RIT 1 0K --=

T he most famili ar app lication for the

. 5V ~

r
varia ble offset is receiver incrementa! run- 5K
ing . or NI T. featured in most commer cial .-VV\~
transceivers . RIT is a simple func tion :
Duri ng transmit periods. the transceiv e r RIT R2
freq uenc y is determined hy the main tun-
ing syste m. Hut incremental tuning can
beco me active du ri ng receive , all o wing
the user to adjust the recei ved Frequency Fig 6.116-C ircu itry to co ntrol RIT. 01 is a TO-92 N-Cha nnel MOSFET suc h as a
by a sm all amount arou nd the nomi na l 2N7000 or VN-1 0 or Zete x ZVNL -l 10A. 02 = 2N3904 or si m ilar. R1 sets t he co nt ro l
voltage during transmit. The SPST switc h is c losed w he n t he RIT is off . In thi s
tran smit frequency. A typ ica l ran ge is +/- state, the control vo ltage shou ld be ap p rox imately 7.5 V. T he co ntrol vo ltage
:; kHz. Us ual tran sceiv ers have a provi- should v ary between 4 and 10 w it h RIT o n . Op -amp type is not c rit ical ; it could be
sio n to turn the RIT function off, forcing a 741, half of a 5532 or 358, or similar.

6 . 66 Chapter 6
C W transceiver using a VFO witho ut off- 704 1 kHz 10lis ten 10a sim ilar I-kH z a udio IO-IlF c apac ito r a nd related re sis tor s.
\<:I or RIT c irc uitry. A simple "witch trans- note. aga in tran smi ning off freq ue nc y. On e tun ing me thod emphasi zes the
ieTS the anten na be tween tr an smit and Clearly. yo u mUM do some thing so that S POT sw itch . Whe n a statio n is heard that
receive functions. as needed . The trans- you tran smit on the rig tu freq uen cy . On e yo u w ich 10 call. the SPOT s w itch i~ clo sed
ceive r h turned on and atta ched to a suit- s imple ans wer uses a n offset gene rating and the sialion is tuned 10 zero bea t tz cro
able a nte nna . The VFO is tun ed . prod ucing circ uit like that sho.... n in Fit;. 6. 116A . This aud io f requc nr y.j T his s..... itc h act io n iv the
the expected collection of signals . A sta- ci rcuit shifts the V FO dnwmt-urdb y a fix ed sa me as pushing th e ke y wit h the fre-
lion is found calling CQ on 7~O kHz. amount w hen the comrot is s ....'itched pos i- qu ency shifted to the transmi t state. On ce
Assume [hat )'OU had been vlowly luning tive . The exact shift can he adj usted w irh a the «ano n is tuned to zero beat, t he SPOT
wp the band when YO U heard this station . freq uenc y co unte r. o r by ca r by liste ning s .... itc h is o pened. The statio n should the n
If yo u sto pped lun ing and liste n to an to strong sig nal s. The schematic is d upli- be heard .... ith a l -kH" no te.
audio note of 1 kf-lz, your VfO will he at cated in Fig 6 .119..... hich no w includes A seco nd method is faster. Whe n tuning
i039 kHl . If yo u tried to answer h im. there needed co ntrol circ uitry. and loo king fo r sta rionc to ca ll. be sure
i, a high likel ih ood th at he wo uld miss yo u T he system sho wn in Fig 6. 119 is com- thai yo u are always luning dOlnlthe ha nd.
and would merel y call CQ agai n, He will mo n for D-C tra nscc ive rv. Pre vving the key taking ca re not to tune throu g h n;: m heal,
pro bably listen most inten sely on his trans- ca uses imme d iate p ~ p base c urre nt to h may he useful 10 mark the Fron t pane l
miller freque ncy of 7040 kH/ . flow. The coll ector goe s up to + 12 V. shift- with a s mal l arro w next to the lu ning knoh .
A si milar situatio n would ha ve occ urred ing the V FO f req ue nc y down ward. When indica ting the proper tuning dir ec tion . An
if you had been tuning down the hand, You the ke y is let up . the freq uency remains erro r ill pick ing the righ t lu ning direct ion
....ould ha ve stoppe d with yo ur VrO at shifted for a shor t period co ntrolled by the will no w prod uce a 2-kHl_ er ror.
Extende d use of a D-C transc eiv e r
revea ls a subt le ty : there is often inte rfe r-
enc e when the VFO is on on e side of the
de sired sig nal. but the othe r side is clear. It
w ould be use ful to be able to re verse the
role of the offse t. T his leads to a mod ifica-
lion of the u sual sc he me calle d "Almost
Incre me ntal Tu ning," o r AlT. shu w n in
· l1 V Fig 6.119-0ffset Fi~ 6.I2U .
sy stem for a Like the si mpler syste m. the sys tem .... nh
simp le direct -
AIT is ea sy rouse with a spot sw itch. Upon
con version
tra nsceiver . findi ng a station Ihal Y'UU w ish to work .
SPO T tu ne to rero bear. Th e n th row the A fT
s witc h. H the re ls inte rfe rence. rune 10zero
"- bea t and toggle the sw itch agai n.

'" 1 :'- -;::::vJ

Key Line RIT with Direct
~ ~
Conversion
An RIT system is oft en in c lud ed with a
D-C tra nscei ver. The utility of the featu re
helps immen sely 10 ov erco me the d ctl-
cicncics of the do u ble- sided response. RlT
·w can be acco mplis hed at two diffe rent le v-
els. W7 El po pularized the simple sc he me

~ ±~
1 ~ j~

)
r;oJ Control V

'"'
<u " ""
+12 V
sho wn in FiJt 6. 12 1.40
A varactor diode is coupled 10the o-cilla -
tor through a s mall capacitor. During trans-
mil or "zero" ir nervalv. the bias on the diode
is maximum at the level of the '} V regulated
supply. T he voltage applied 10 the tuning
P diode during receive is less then the regu -

fl'::, '"1
0_ +12R
-rzr lated supply_ c ausing a down w ard shift in
., '" V FO freque ncy. The amoun t of the offset is
c. - tunable via the ::!U--W RlT co ntrul. T his
sche me w orl...s w ell. providing allthe adjust-
"
~
ment needed fur normal operation.

PJ{
.,, Key T he co mp lete supe rhe t sys te m ca n also

"I '"
~
'~I
~
'------? Line be app lied to a D-C rig.
O ne often e nco unters arriclec in the lit-
erature whe re V FO offser in direc t co nve r-
~

sion transcei vers is d iscussed. T he var iety

Fig 6.120- A VFO Wit h offset cap abilitIes and ' AIT," Almost Incremental Tu nmg. of offset op tions pre sent ed are sometimes
This sc heme allows th e do wn ward f req uency s hift in the VFO to occur on eit her referred to as having to d o with "s ideba nd
transmit or rec ei ve, pr o vidin g greater f lex ibility t o avoid int erf er en ce. sele cti on : ' This term is not co rrect. The

Trans mitters and Receivers 6 .67

 usual direc t-c o nve rsio n rec ei vers u ~ i n g
• Reg_
but o ne bala nced mixe r are not sing-I..: vide-
band rece ivers (even though they ca n be
." use d to rece ive SS R. ) More o ver. the y a re
usuall y used to listen to CW s ignals that
do not include side bands other tb an the
clo ..dy spaced l c)" clicks.

ZERO
• Reg ro1 I .,""? Key li ne

'"

Fig 6.121- Slmple RIT syst em developed by W7EL. This is a singie -slded des ig n
where In crementa l tunin g mo ves th e VFO downward in fre qu ency du rIng recei ve
pe rIod s. bu t on ly on on e side of the tr ansmi t f reque ncy. The general f lexIbility for
eff ecti ve RIT Is retain ed. The t uning dIod e u sed by W7EL was actu ally a medi um-
voltage Zener diode, illust rating the simplifications t hat can be reali zed when on e
understands the behavior of the comp onent s. The system built b V W7EL used a
fi xed capa cit or where e -ver Is sho wn .

6 .8 TRANSMIT·RECEIVE ANTENNA SWITCHING

An intere stin g design detail Ior a trans - that in Q I. In the receive mode w ithou t the vides a voltag e from 6 10 12 V.
ceiver. and generally for any «anon is lhe relay en erg ized Q2 base curren t n ow, When the ke)' is pressed. or a push-
w ay the antenna i.. switched bet..... een the re- through R1 and the Zener di ode, 0 1. The to-tail o r VOX line go low. the base curren t
ceiver and tr ansmitter. So mething a.... impi e Zener voltage lev el is not cr itical. but in Q1 is diverted away from the base. Q2
as a manual switc h will work and is used in sho uld he near half the supply. The base thcn ..tops conducting. causi ng Q1 and tho:
some equipment in other chapters. Ho w ever . c urre nt Flows from the pol. R3. wh ich pro- rcla)-to switch on. Pressing the key. etc. ah u
the more common route uses either a relay
or electronic switching methods. A tradi-
tio nal relay switc h is shown in . ·ig 6.12 2.
The RF pan of the circuitry is presented in
parl A. Th e relay can be placed directly at the I L ow Pa ss Finef I
antenn a terminal, but is shown here on the
transmitter side of the usuallow pass filte r.

L ".,,~
Gene rally this sche me i ~ preferred because
the filtering is useful in both receive and
transmit functions. A
rc ..
The exa mple circ uit in fi g 6. 1228 uses I ,.,. t
a 500-il relay coil. The rel ay c urre nt is

,}
s wi tched with Q I. a saturated switch. Gen-
erally . the base curre nt should be thc col-
• . 1:":
c ~
lector val ue diminis hed b)' 10 1010. so RI
is abo ut 20 nrne-, tho: relay coi l value. (The
,~

"
.~ ",. II',,, "
factor 20 is call ed a " forc ed beta" in this
"
'M
,
D1 .UT
example.) Diode DI serv es 10 "catch'the
" "
volta ge spike that will alw a ys occur when
QI is turne d off. Without the diode. the
- Dl4111 II- mu n

current that had bee n flowing in the induc- "T -

T~"
lIfU~~ - - -
th e rela y co il wo uld "try" to con tinue
llo v.ing , gene rating the large sp ike as it
K" y .
PTT .
- -
cha rge.. the collector capacita nce of Q J. O~ v ox ~

This vuhagc surge ca n easily be la rge

eno ug h to des troy Q I. -
If Q2 was nOI present, Q I and the relay
Fig 6.122- Relay TIR s witc hi ng . The RF portion of t he T/A switch is in part A whil e
would be on. The bas e current in Q I is
8 shows a simple means for relay co ntr ol. An expa n ded version is shown at C
shunted to gro und thro ugh the colle ctor of where higher rel ay current Is allowed. Experim enters mig ht wish to repl ace some
Q2 W con tro l the rela y. Thc Q2 bas e cur- of the tran si stor s with some us in g built-in resi st or s fo und In parts catalogs,
rent i-, reduce d by another factor of 20 o ver manufactur ed by Panas onlc an d ot hers.

6.68 Chapter 6
 -chargcs cupacuor C. Res i ~ tor R5 in series w c harge thro ugh R:! until it reach es the much high er. or whe n ad d itio nal c urre nt
IUl C res tric ts the cu rre nt that mu!'.t be eo n- Zener voltage. must be sup plied for lither tran smi t circuit
duo.: ted in the key whe n switched. The circuit Plastic swi tch ing tra nsistors such as fu nc tio ns. R6 is picked to pro vide a Q3
.i>cs not change sta tes immediately "he n the :!N39 0.l are fi ne for Q I an d Q2. have c urre nt of abou t 5 to 1DCJ- of the c ur-
~ key is rele ased. Ra ther . switchin g is F ig 6.l 22C ,>ho"~ a sche me with a P.'\ P rent that mU~1 he supp lied b y tbe Q3 col-
delayed by the time in terval required for C that can be used " he n the re lay Current is lector. Gene ra l p ur pose PI\Ps fo r this
applicat ion are the- 2N53 22 or the T1P32.
F iJ:; 6. 1B shows a common uaromiue r
topolo gy whe-re- the power amplifier r p A ) is
50 Ohllls al ways attac hed 10 the ante nna . The PA i, cut
off during rece ive periods . so it i ~ essentially
Imped ance
Transforme L I Low Pass Filte r
I h L
an open circuit with some parallel ca paci-
tance . Ante nna energy is extracted thro ugh

i fr
""- swit c h SI In the rece iver. Th is sche me- i.~
- - - T co mmon. but it mus t be applied with ca re,

I~ l I
A sr
I -

B
The PA muxt no t be cond ucting du ring re-
ccivc: ifit wa', the co llector resistance wo uld
abs orb some of the signal that would othe r-
wise reach the rec eiver. Also , conduction
/' ...
To Re<::ei would generat e excess noise that wou ld
• )( • I "I
compromi-e the receiver.It is also import ant
to tap the receiver signal from a point in the
Fig 6,123- Th e RF portion of a T/R s witch using a single swnch. Th e tr ansmitter
is always co nnected to the ante nna.
lo w pass fi lter where the response will be
mainta ined. Fo r example. replac ing the
broadband transformer with a tuned network
might lead to a <hunt tuned circuit that wou ld
)'X=500 sho rt some o f the rece iver e nergy to groun d.
i •
t In some devig ns. a t ransmitter ma tching
I
PIN Y:
)
) F.!'C 2N3906 -1 2
network might present an impedance lower
than 50 n 10 the P A. This occurs when the
Fig 6.124--T/R

¥0K
output power is mo re than a watt or so from

lKl i;~111 11O~OI

switCh with a
a 12-V supply . It is often tem pting to tap
shunt PIN diode.
the- rece ive r signal from the PA co llector.
+12 J =-
-=- -=- 10K t This rna) work. al though if the impedance
iv muc h less than the receiver input imped-
ancc, the rt:sulting mismatch can compte-
t owon Tx.open Rx ~ rnise per forma nce. A matc h ing network
rna)' be ne ed ed at the rece iver inp ut In
increase the impeda nce back to 50 n.
T he two sid e s of S I are ma rked wi th A
and H, A va riety of switch circuits may he
ap plied to ge ner ate the des ired func tio n,
O ne is shown in Fi g 6. 124. Here, the
switch is not a series element. but a shunt
one realized with a PIN d iode . The PIN
d iode is a c o mmon type uved for RF
swi tch ing. It d epa rts fr o m a norma l PN
switchi ng d iode with a n inte r me-d iate
region o f intrinsic s ilicon. T his has the
effect of red uc in g vwitc hin g spe ed. now a
Iea rure rather tha n a de ficiency. The d iode
appears as a low val ued resiste r to rad io
frequency signills. but still as a diode for
the de controls. A PI:-l d iode i~ capable of
switching an I{ F current that is m uch larger
tha n the de cu rre nt flowing . In cont rast . a
norma l switching diode m ust be biased to
a d irect current that exceeds the peak I{ F
c urrent that is to be s witch ed . Th e circuit
in the fi gu re biases the diode 10 6 rnA dur-
ing tran smit pe riods .
The shu nt switch is e ffective in sw itc h-
..
, ,
in g because it occ urs within a tuned c ir-
,
c uit. The uxual ca paci to r at the end of a
Inside view of 100-W T/R sw itc h using Ine xpensive diodes. 50·0 lOW- p ' ISS filt er wi ll have a reactance

Transmitters and Receivers 6 .69

 100- W le vel. alt hough only with cir cuit
x- soo X=5 0 0
modificat ion . Th e pri ma ry pa ra me ter to
. ,
' ~- . con sider is the max imum current ca pabi lity
X=500 X=5 0 0
T of the switc hing dio des , The 1.'14 152 that
A -------1~,-~1N:m
i T or s,,",-l.or f+ Dio"". _lJi41, .
o r ~ 1rd lor
we have used in many circ uits has a max i-
mum curre nt rat ing of IO{) rnA. The ex -

11
~ ~ tended de signs are discu ssed in a QEX pa-
per. ~2 This articl e is included in the CD that
accompanies this book.
Another subtle, but significan t problem
Fig 6.126-T/R switch with multi p le PN oc curs with this T/R scheme . Th e seri es -
Fig 6.125-T/R switch wit h s hu nt PN diodes in each arm . Th is c irc uit tuned LC is a tuned ci rcuit that can intera ct
d iodes. features improved IMD. See text.
with the tuned circuit (s) that follow to cre-
ate a mult iple-tu ned circ uit not in the
A desig ner's plans. Th e direc t co nnection at
B (H) ofte n leads to se vere ove r co uplin g. The

. e111~
.n

t"1 ! (w "~I
n

."
, , co upling can usually be adj usted to a proper

r
I leve l by inserting a suitable shunt capac itor
- IlFC (
, ,
'h . t-r at (8 ). Careful ana lys is is requi red.

. r " ; ,-:::@
Alt hough the shun t diode switc hes pre-
1
8 ~
~

sented are very usefu l for low power tra ns-

~
~
we we I ce ive rs, they suffe r from both Tlvl D and
"'
D1 '"
~

-=- RX l powe r limitations. and ar e re str icted 10 a

f-~
~ (
Bios . ) single ba nd. .A. widehan d SPDT switch de -
Ant .
rwe r--:L sign with ser ies di ode s in the tr ansmitter

_.o'v'"~ +!O Ov
'"~
~
.I' m. Ol
and receiver path wo uld be more gener al.
O ur invest igat ion of this topol og y begins

n ~=.~ ~·
with a simple single pole switc h. shown in
"' .fF

J ,'-'"
IRF!lO
Fig 6.12 7 , pan A. This ci rcuit is used to
mea sure insertio n loss and lM D wi th bot h
~ forward and reverse diode bias . Th e n,l D
~
~
meas urements shou ld be done for bo th re-
ceiving con ditio ns and at transmitter powe r
Fig 6.127-Part A s hows t he evaluation circuit. Poor "off" performa nce d ictates the
use of two se ries -connected d iodes in eac h leg of the c ircuit in pa rt B. Pick R 10 level , when SSH use i, planned.
set the " o n" cu rrent in the d iodes . High-powe r RF switching Pl!\ dio des are
availab le and discu ssed in the professional
lit era ture.O However, they are expen sive
aroun d 50 n , The ante nna signa l is ter is turn ed on, the RF causes the dio des to and so met imes diff icult to purch ase , Our in-
ex tracted from the low pas s filt er thro ugh a conduct, fo rming a relatively low imped - ves tigati on. enco uraged by K5CX , was d i-
re latively sma ll valued capacitor, one with anc e path to ground. We have measure d this rcct cd towar d inexpensive solutions. Ma ny
a reac tance of abou t 500 .n, Th ere is mi ni- to po logy oft en (e very time one is bu ilt) rectifier diode s are actually PIN structure"
ma l receive loss, for it is tuned with a seri e s with the same result: The available ou tput for this device topolo gy ten ds to increase
ind ucto r als o wi th a 500 -n reac tance . When powe r at the rece iver terminal is typ icall y - rever se vol tage break dow n. The best inex -
the j unc tio n of the two i, switched to 10 dli m, ea sily wit hin safe rating s for vir- pen sive PU"; diodes we found arc the
groun d d uring tr ans mi t. the cap acito r is tually any rece iver. This powe r is indcpc n- Motorola 6A6 , a po wer su pply rect if ier
me rely paral leled with that in the en d ofthe dcn t of tran smitter po wer. specified for 6-A forwa rd CUITent and 6(X)-V
low pas s filter . which will have litt le im- The shunt diodes in f ig 6 ,125 can rever se breakdown. D iode s Inc manu fac -
pact on transmitter per formance. The in- compromise the rec eiver dyna mic ran ge , tures simil ar parts . A forward bias current of
ductance now in ser ie s with the receive r is Mea sure me nts with a 14 -\1 HI example 200 mA is eno ugh for reli able operation at
usefu l in atte nuatin g tran smitte r ene rgy that produced rIP3 of - 3 dBm for the T/R the lOO-W level . we fo und identical per-
might o therw ise get to the receiver input. switch . cl ear ly a poten tia l proble m with form ance with a .'ITE85 15. We also got go od
A TlR switch of thi s sort is ea sily tes ted high DR rec eiv ers. A solution is fo und results with the 1N4(Xl6, a I -A, 8OO-V pan.
before a rece ive r is atta c hed to guarantee in Fig 6.126 where the single d iodes are Whil e t he forward bia sed performance
that the powe r a vailab le to thc receiver is replaced hy several ser ies dio des. Two was outstand ing , the diode capa cit ance with
low. The rece iver end (H) of the switch is diode s per leg produced HPJ of +7 dAm reverse bia s was rela tively high. m uch
merely atta che d 10 a power meter and com - whil e three di odes per leg , the topo logy hig her than fou nd with de vice s speci fied
pared with the safe value for the receiver shown. yielded []P3 = + 1J,.'i d g m. The sig- fo r RF switching. This made it necessary to
front end. A typical rece iver with a diod e nals ava ilable at the receiver inpu t put two di odes in series to obtai n adequa te
rin g a, the first ac tive e lemen t can usually increased 10 -4 and -1 dAm for the two and reverse isol ati on. The SPDT topol ogy used
tolerate 10 m w witho ut dam age. th ree d iode pe r leg circui ts. These levels wi th a lOO-W a mplifier is show n in F ig
The most commo n variation of the shunt will not cause dam age to a receive r fro nt 6. 127A. Tt was necessar y to go to 150 to 200
T /R switc h is sho wn in Fig 6.12 5:u Two end. hut sev ere ove rload may occur. V of reve rse bias to red uce capac itance of
common switc h ing dio des ( I N4 152 typi- Car e i s also required if thes e si mple "o ff ' di odes .
ca l) are plac ed in opposit ion. Th ere is no sche mes are to he used at higher power. We Thc reve rse capa ci tan ce for the 6A6
cuntrulling de. Rather. whe n the tran smit - hav e bee n a ble to ex tend the met hods to the diod e was still 30 pF at SO-V reverse bias.

6.70 Chapter 6
 1:\ -H.106 dropp ed to 3.6 pt- at the same
~. We also investigated a Motorol a .v .v
'\~7. a J-A. 6OO-V part and meas ured
: J pF at RO-V bias. In o ur fina l design we
eed the NTE8 5 15 for D 1 and 01 of
SWl sW3
F1~ o. 1 :! 5 B . while 1l\ .wo 6 J iuJ es were used
Exter n al
. 0 .. and ~ . The I N4006wasal sosalisfae-
P_ r
~ at 0 1 and 02 011 the 100- \V level. al-
*'ugh this was nOI used for prolo nged o p- A.lpl i f ier
eraacn. The details of the TIR switch are
.... n in the QtX paper mentioned earlier. ·v
/:: uced high-voltage HEXt-: ETs fort he hiav
itching. The switc h insertion Joss was so
S\f2
that we could nOI measure it. Isolatio n
.. , 56 dB between the TX and RX pons
De n the A.'\T port was 50- 0: termin ated .
DP3 was greater -than +4OdBm in the receive
~. The I\fO measurement was limited by
ac spectrum analy rer used and IIP3 may be
C"'O ~ better.
\\'e ofte n wish 10 use a power amplifier
Jl1\ en b~' a transcei ver . A suitable switch-
..go topulngy for this c hore is sho wn in Fig 6.128-A TIR sw itch topol og y suitable ' or use followin g a lo w- power
Fie 6.I2H. Three switches arc shown. Onl)' transceiv er. We have no t built th is circu it.
tnat at the PA output. 5\\' 3. wou ld req uire
tb<' higher current diod es. SW I and S W2
coul d use the less ex pensive 11'\4006 or
, '\400 7.
fig 6_ll'} shows a single band T/K ~ 'o\- itc h
~ llI g shum PIl\ diod e v. suitable for VHF ~.usm.tt er ilnt e nno.
.l~ well a<; HF app lication. Quarter wave-
jength transmission lines interconnect the
ports and switc hes . The di ode~ have rever..e
or zero bias d uring receive. but arc forward
biased during trans mit. DI. beha ving as an
open circuit d u r i n ~ receive. causes a short
circ uit to a rrear at the transmiuer o utput.
.,
Bur opt n circuit Dl allows the nomina l
50-n input of the receiver to appear at the
antenna port. Switching to trun..mit forward
bia..es both diode s. D I, now a short , reflec ts +V on
J .. an open circuit :It the trans mitte r o utput. Transmit
D:!, also II sbort circuit. protect s the receiver '------ - - -+-=
and prese nts an open circuit at tbe antenna

n
port . The antenn a impedan ce now appears L
at the tran smitt er o utput. Thi..circuit call he
implemented with true truusmis ..ion line..
or with pi netw orks as shown in Hg 6.129 .
The pi-netw ork that beha ves like a q uarter
wave 5U-0 lint" has Land C each with a
50-!! reactance a t the operating freq uency.
This circuit is used in a 17-m DSP-ba, ed Fig 6.129-A TIR s wi tch with shunt diodes us ing th e impedance-reflection
transce iver prese nted late r in the hook. properties 01 quarter-w ave length tr enemtestcn Hnee,

6.9 THE LICHEN TRANSCEIVER: A CASE STUDY

The re are several suit able block dia- more pans. all basic functio ns are i..elated Th is form at. used in some ea rly miTi-
grums for sing le sideband tra nsce ivers. with minimal interaction . tary 5S B gear , shares ma ny of the circ uit
The o ne we prefer shares o nly the os cill a- This tra nsceiver, whic h is more efficie nt ele me nts be tween modes with ..ignals
to rs, allo wing receiver and transmit ter in ih urilizano n of components. is a n out- flowing in th e .\U m e dir ection in transmit
op timi zatio n \.\ irhout compromi se of growt h of an architecture used by VE7Q K and receiv e. The transceiver is prese nted
interac tion..... Alt ho ugh thaI sche me ucev in several versi o ns of his Epiphvte ...~.Jot>.J1 he re to illu st rate devign id eas and 10

Transmitters and Recei ver s 6. 7 1

present some of the steps needed to bui ld rece ive r product detector and an IF-to-RF The price of simplified sig nal flow is
such a transce iver. converter during tra nsmit. comp lex LO and carrier oscillator s witch-
The orig inal Epiphyte used NE602 mix - m g. The NE602 mix ers used in the
ers with no IF gain The ri.s was i ntended Epiphy te required littl e power in the
Block d iagram for field usc in the rugged mountains of 3-MHz LO. allow ing switching with
The syst em with two mixers is shown in the British Co lumb ia Coast Ra nge. The CMOS parts. The Lich en performs the
Fig:6.130. The first ser ves as the front end Liche n uses d iode -ring mixers and switching with diode s, a scheme selected
mi xer duri ng rece i ve and as a tra nsmit inclu des IF gai n. Th e 75-m -band Lichen for compatibilit y with higher frequencies .
bala nced modu lator. The second is a can be adapted to many oth er bands.

Audio
Amp . Audio
rr CCl' s h l
TUF -] P os t Filt e r
Ki oropl\on e

A Ge In
Di ode S..it c l\

, c ,~ p~

Carr i er Osc I
BF O I ~put

AGC n et .
/liMe S1I'Hch
I
LO In

Fig 6.130-B lo ck d iagr am for t he Lich en tr ans ce iver.

@-<+-:---'-~•.-/'.-
Audio Tune - up Oscillator TX Mixe r
=d
TX Hic Amp, ax
~ ~~~~o:nd

I
Aud i o ~L"'"'__~ P r od .D e t
AUd io Out - RX

P o s t-Mixe r
Amp l i:fi e r
Crys t al
FLLL<L_,
Ga i n
Swi t c h e d
AGC/ I F - Amp
\ RF Out - TX

AGC I nput
RX bandp ass :filt er
::-c-- c=- ( +5V to Audio
~ lifier
=
+5V trom IF
JI:qIl1fier
R T R T

3 dB Hy b r i d

Spi i t;'~'~''l:=;--~ TfR rel ated

control signals .
L O I n p ut
r--{)
3 dB Hy b r id
S;Plitt~'o'L=;-----'
CO I n pu t
)- -
On t his sheet i ndica t e s
signal l i ne on board .. d ge.

Fig 6.131-B lock di agr am for t he trans ce ive r ma in boa rd .

6.72 Chap ter 6

Signal flow in the "Main
Board" Fron t pa nel v iew .
Sw it c h betwee n
The transceiver is broken int o several tu n ing and a ud io
board s. a definite aid to the tedium of ga in is a sub-band
detaile d meas urements. The " main" boa rd sw itch . T he push-
co ntains the receive r inp ut pre se lector. a b utt o n injec ts an
au di o to ne fo r
mic rop hon e amp lifier, the two mixers, the
tu n ing .
IF syst em including crystal filter, and LO
buffers and sw itchi ng . The hoard incl udes
an aud io oscillator to Facilitate resting. A
block. di agram is show n in F ig (j. 13I. The
co mplete schematic is in Fig 6.132.
The mai n board hegins at 12 where a
,i gna l e nte rs the receiv er input. ( " 1" num -
be r s des ignate pads at the edge ofa board. )
The receiver pre selector is a do uble tuned
ci rc uit using series resonators formed
fro m mo lded RF chokes. The fi lter output 2N3904 post mix er am plifier. Pos t-am p JF ET s Qh a nd QX provi de t F gain .
is a ppl ied directly to the first mixer. U2. ga in i s t 9 db. re duced to 1J dB hy the The se stages arc ga in switched by Q7 and
Bandpass filters [or ot he r bands are listed 6 -d B pad , and has a so-n input and out p ut Q9 with hig her gain during rece ive . Rea-
III Fig (j.13 3 . The 160 and ~O -m filt ers use imp edan ce. 'Ih e six th-order cry stal filter so nable IlvlD performance is vi tal , for the
Q u == 50 RF-c ho ke ind uc tor s wh ile the is designed usin g the me tho ds pre vented am plifier is in the transmit sig na l pa th.
hig her hands use toro id inducto rs with in Chapter 3. This syst em (Q6 and Q8) has a sma ll sig -
oc- 200 . An Lcnct work (L4. C36 ) tra nsforms nal rece ive gain of 27 dB with 70 to ~O dB
T he microphone inp ut is amp lified and the post -amp 50 n to the needed filter source of av aila ble ga in reduction . Ga in drops to
low pass filtered in U 1 An RFC in t he im peda nce. Tra nsformer TJ matc hes the 12 dB in transmit. t MD perfor ma nce is
mi xer line wi th capacitors in the recei ver relati ve ly low filter impedance to the 2.2- go od at OIP3 = + 18,5 durn. drop ping to
inp ut filter for m a dip lexer to combine kQ in put resi stance of the foll owing IF + 14 dR m in tran smi t mc de . JMu degrades
aud io and re cei ve r RF signals for the amp lifier , T J uses a 6 1-materia l ferr ite with gain reduction , but the intercep ts do
mixer. The micro phone-amp is adju sted core to keep the lo ss low T he fi lter sho uld not degrade as fa st as the gai n. a req uire -
for 11 (l ower than normal) signal of -20 be bu ilt and measured before inc orpora- men t to pre se rve output cleanliness.
d Bm ap plied to the mixer. tion in the tra nsceiver. T he exact - 6 -d H Recei ver AGC i s d iscon nected du ring
T he prototype transcei ver used a filter freq ue nci e s should be rec ord ed fo r tran sm it; R58 is switched in to establish a
co mme rci al cr ysta l filter while another later usc. T he designer/ build er wil l ha ve tra nsmit le vel.
(Fig 6 . 132) used a homemade 9.2-MHl to design ma tch ing ne tworks and trans- T ra nsmit mixer, U3. should SCI: maxi-
cryst a l fil ter. The fi lter output drives a formers as well as the c rystal filter. m um dr ive of - 10 dR m for a .sp ur tr ee
out pu t, as discussed earlier. The pos t-amp ,
Q5 , incl ud in g pad has a gai n of 13 dB
whi le typ ica l cr ystal filt er lo ss is 4 d B.
with a ba lanced mod ula tor input of
- 20 dlim. the sig nal at the inp ut 10 T'j.j us t
pas t the cr ysta l fi lter, is - 17 d Bm . Tr ans -
mit gain of 12 dB in the IF brings the level
at U3 10 - 5 dRm . A sligh t IF gai n reduc-
tion and a 3 dE pad in the I f outpu t sets the
- 10 dB m le vel. If the balanced modulator
had been dr iven at its nom inal lev el of
- 10, the IF wo uld be ove rdrivc n, resul ting
in overdrive for t he second mix er.
Th is gai n dis tribut ion degr ade s c arrier
supp ress io n to 30 dB. If the post -amp ga in
could be red uced by 10 d B du rin g tra ns-
mit, the c arr ier sup pre ssio n wou ld be
imp rove d by a like amo unt.
With a U3 mixer dr ive o f -1 0 d Bm . the
6 dE co nvers ion loss produces an ou tput
of - 16 dBm . A 6-d B pad after the mixer
and a bandpass filt er (described later) with
a 2-dB loss prod uce a n event ual o utput of
- 24 db rn. established by R58.
T he audio tu ne-u p oscillator included in
Fig 6 .131 can be used du ring normal
Top view s how ing LO modu le with " main b oar d " t o th e rig ht . The s ma ll box bu ilt opera tion to gener ate a carrier for
fro m scrap ci rc u it boa rd ma te rial co ntain s t he 14·MHz·LO ba ndpass filte r. transmatch tu ni ng. It is also ava ilab le for

Trans mitt ers and Receiv ers 6 .73

 +12 V
tc
+'2 V
'L
""
l '"22~F 1
1Qk 1 1M ~F
'"
'1 rz
~
0.0'5% ' L,
""'"H}"f "eo
20 k 01
, +
"",
5532
10 k 1 10 k s
""
'2.5 vriri]

22 ~ F ,. 27 ~ H o.t
~
-\

;-;( ':::j ~/ '

., L
a + ' Bl<
ua
'"
100 k
" TUF·3
Q;
Q" 270 k
r.
.r»: o r " IV'" 2N3004

RX In
' 5 ~H 5- '6 ' 5 ~H s-es IpA • 20 dBm in Tx l
'9' ;00
~ "
2N5109

L;:~,
1"
I I Ii? dBm_

"'f '45

.,
J:
;:;:; '000

.,
;:;:; 680

"2 V
' 00
, L
ta
'00
. ",
ss
s.a
~

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,. ,.
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r
o
'00 ,f,

,.~
n
J;' ,. zx
l N4' 52 'L

" IV'" ~ ~bi T 2, T5, T6, T7, T8, T9 are I

Q~r! WOO ' 0 bifilar tums #28, FT37-43

f
«
2.2 k
2N3904 h 2N3904 .~

~ "
ZN3904
,. o

~
I§] ' 00 ~
t.p,
'"' r
' 00

1" to

~ JTl ' !rs '-";r

ILo ' l [lQ2J
1: 0,' '" , r-c-r:
' 00
Ll.f b ! '?;
"
l
. 12 V

'1 2.2 k
ra

P
+12 V '" ,or lI lLY
0.'

Except as indicat ed, d ecim al

CarTier I
, I 0'"
2N3904
0'1 T6 va lues 01 ca pacita nce a re in
microfa rads ( ~ F ): others a re
1- 22" dBm l
o.t ~ in picofa rads (p F);

1"
sa 22k

~
res ist a nces are in ohms:

r ' 00
Local OSC I

'"
, I Q"
2N3904
k e 1,000, M " 1,000,000

ro 1-22 dBml
0.'

'" rs

1" to

Fig 6.132 -Schemalic for the main boa rd. See te xt fo r deta iled d iscussion.

6 .7 4 Chapter 6
 1-6 dBI Crystal m er ocmpc nenlS and termination.
determined by builder/designer
ae "
HDTDTDTDTDTDH 0'
"
." '" 1 11111 - 10 dBm
r Audio
' mo
in Tx 15 ~H

"'
TUF-3 1- 6 dB I
ae to RF
Power
Chain
00" '"C

+12 V
H dBm l
ez ez +12 V
o.t c.t

~ ~
;00
' 00
27 ~H 2 .2 Ie
"
14:4 T
FT37-43
II ,+;J"' '0

' 00
13 Determined 0.0 1
by Crystal QC 00
sa
F i~e r Design J 310 J 310
"'
0.01
'"' "
'"

= mm
~
I(F' 1N4152 '"
'"' 0'"
2 70.
W,
2 ,2k

on
2 N3904
22 k
c.t

""" J;. 0.1

"]
l N4 152

., 270 k
sv
" W
OW
2N7WO ., Bias to
Audio Board

D.1 47 k
.,
Front Panel + 22 k <"_--1 ~ tD AF O~c,
75 .
Push Button 22 ~ Fl < ~ ~ Near U1 .1_
1°01
+
122 ~ F
C6 C7 C8 C9

C8,C7,C8,C9 = 0, 0027 5%
t 'TT'
Transm itters and Receivers 6. 75
tes ting du ring hoard dev e lo pment. The mi- 2.5 V peak-to-peak at T P I on voice peaks Mix e r Inject ion
crop hone is attached at the am pli fier wi th a no rma l voice into the micro pho ne .
inpu t, 1 L and the level at test po int T P I is T he tu ne-up o scillator level , R14, is the n
Sw it ching
observ ed. A udio ga in (R 1) is adjusted for se t to prod uce the same leve l. The J O - ~1 H 7. IF ver sio n use s a 13.5 to
14-M Hz LO and a 10 -1IHLCarrier csctua -
toneo.) T he LO m ust be app li ed to U2 in
receive while the C O dr iv es LJ3. Ro les an:
the n reversed in transm it wi th the L O dri v-
in g U3 and the CO driving U2.

'" ~ ~~
Ea ch ring mix er req uires nominal 1.0
"~ I '-'M '"
'-'M
I '-ro'I "~
power of +7 dB m. But 10\\T r power level s
are switched. Drive ampl ifiers Q4 and Q 13
- - -
reduce the sw itc hed po wer 10 - 9 dBm . eas-
Fig 6.133-Rece ive r ily con trolled with no rma l si lico n
F"q.,
MHz
ow,
MH.
c':;c\ C -~F; d, c -~,; e, t , Q " n,
~ bandpa ss f il ter s diodes biased for modest curre nt. D iode s

" "n.sus 0"" rn'00'o '"'"n

2100 ""-nu so
"" us ing series 0 1 and 0 2 switch the signa ls ~o ing to U::!

,,,
no su resonato rs . while Df and 07 ro ute energy 10 U3 The se
' " cou.a '00'
101 uo u
'"'
175 0
0;
' 00
' 00
U

"nzs
switches are co ntro lled by signals labeled
14 2 oro mo
"mm , ' 00 with T or K. indicating positive bias on ei-

,,
131 om rn o >0"
"' '00' n
the r tran smit or receive . These sig nals,
2 13
284 u 'no" ' 00 n
0 .6
i
' 00
' 00 zs appearing often th ro ughout the transce iver.
are genera ted on the RF po wer am plifier
board . Th e diode switche s route a de sire d
sig nal to an intended load, hut do not
present a s m uch atrcnua r ion of the off pat h
as we wo uld like. Shunt transi stor switches
Q2. Q3 . Q l L and Q12 we re added to pro -
vide abou t 50 dB redu ct io n in the ojjpaths.
Altho ugh the sh unt transi stor swi tc hes
im prove performance , they add a c ompli -
cat ion : Ea ch inp ut (LO an d C O) is amp li -
fied an d b uffered in an amplif ier, Q14 and
Q15. If th ose amp lifier ou tp uts were
ro ute d di rect ly to the composi te diode!
trans istor switche s. they would always be
short circui ted. [s o latio n resu lts from
tran sfor me rs T7 and T9 which func tion as
a spli tter -combi ner, des cribed in Ch apt e r
3. Th e se switc hing me thods can be
extended to UHF. LO and CO signals are
req uired at the hoard inp uts with a power
of - 22 d Bm.
The c ircu it board con tains short le ngths
of coax ia l ca ble to route the LO and CO
signals. The two LO components. LO I and
L0 2, move respective ly from J 19 to J5 and
from 120 to JJ4 on cable. T he CO sig nal s
CO l and C02 move res pectively from 116
to 14 and J 17 to J13. T he be st place to
Close up of the main bo ar d . mea sure JJ ) ch ain po wer is j ust before the
mixers . Lift C29 or C59 at the pad e nds
and mea sur e the power com ing f ro m the
1.0 system. Tho se powers should both be
close to +10 dBm . T he 1.0 amplifie rs use
2N39 04s, hut the less robust .\ l PS3904 is
nor suitab le. T he MPSHlO (F airchild and
Philips) is also an e xcellent choice.

Tra n s mit Bandpass

L: l~ uH mol ded RFC, 0> 50 Filter
c - v : 65 pF p l ast i c tr~r .
Th e Main ho ard R F ou tput at 3.5 to
4 M Hz has a 23.4 to 24 \1HI. image , T he
Fi g 6.134- Tri p le· tu ned 3.5 to 4-MHz bandpass f ilter fo r t he o ut put of th e tow er range is selected wi th the fil ter
t rans m it mi x er. shown in F ig 6.134, Thi s cir cu it is t est

6.76 Cha pt er 6
 assembled and tested in it 50-Q en viron -
ment prior to use in the trans mitter. A table
L C - t l.Ul e L C-tune L
C - t lUl e
of computer ge nerated va lues is gi ven in
(2,
Fig 6.135 for several additional bands .
T- -L
l ,nd 1-""d c.""1- -L -L
c,ni .i,

The Local Oscillator

The IJ ) tu nes from 13.5 to 14 M l-lz wit h
>~Mr Fre q B .T,\T e-eoc C-mid C-twl e L Q, IL the he terodyne system of Fig (i.Bo, Q402
!.!fu. MH z pF pF pF "H dB is u 2. 5 to 3-MHl Colpitts oscillator buff-
j :- 0 22 2200 3300 307 27 50 36
ered with a common -base amp lifier. 0405 .
375 07 4 70 1000 14 3 15 50 11
., 15 Outp ut is kept lo w, for only - 10 dHm is
04 820 1750 78 7 200 17
1.\ 2 e 55 50 0 1200 34 4 200 15 needed by d io de ring mixe r U402. The
2\ 2 0. 65 39 0 820 10 3 20 0 32
ou tpu t is cstabfished wit h the pad driving
28 4 II 130 39 0 II 3 20 0 14 the RF po rt. Th is lc vel, and that at the
mixer LO port shou ld be meas ured during
con struction .
A 365-p F variable capacitor tUTII:S only
~ .1 3 5-T r i p l e · l u n e d bandpass filte rs for several HF bands. The required ha lf of the range. The other half is tuned by
ed Q (vi tal) is also give n.
switehing in a n additional cap acitor, C402 .
The switching is performed with a pair of
PIX diodes, 040) and 0 402 , Whe n a pos i-
tive volt age is appli ed to H OI. 040 1 is
saturated, <:.: a using both PIN diodes 10 con -
d uct.
A crysta l controlled 11-l\lH; oscillator
prov ides the dr ive fo r the d iode -ring
mixer. The two oscill ators an: both placed
inside the shielded LO enclosure, along
with the ring mi xe r, T he output is then
route d through coax ial cable to a triple-
tune d LC bandpass filt er, Fig 6.137.
A change in If from 10.0 MHl will re-
sul t in the nee d for a new LO freq uency on
the part of the designer/ builder.

The Carrier Oscillator

A carrie r oscillator (CO) drives the bal -
anced modulator in tra nsmit and the BFO
" in boar d rem oved f r om cabinet. Circu it ry below c rysta l f ilte r is fo r the LO an d in receive. The CO mu st have the same
earri er o sc illato r buffers and switche s. Upper right c o rn er c o nta in s RF Inpu t - 22 d g m leve l as the LO when applied to
::.ndpass fi lter. the Main bo ard . The CO circ uit is sho wn in

RF Power chai n . T he HEX -FET PA is normally att ac hed t o the

View of Lo. cabi net that s erv es as a hea t sink.

Transmitters and Recei vers 6.77

 T4 0 1: 2 3 t 1126 , T ~ 0 -6 ,
2t outpu t link

c40 ~ c 40 7 c409 '14 0 2

r4 0 ~ 71lLQ6 U4 0 1 r4 00
10-36~ J 31 0
c4 06 c 4 00
MPN34 04 2 7 0K
,,"
""'I'
r4 0 3 (MI) 14 0 1
~n FT
r4 0 4
e--.--,. aa m 2 70K
J 402
_ 10K HPN 3 4 04 ~
Rr 4 0
.4 0 1 :g l OOK
2N 39 0~>,,-1~ ---'
~n , F T '14 0 1 - B 1..L;C40
t 1
.40 2 .1 6 >< 82 0 11P0

"" r413
r 4H "~,__+~~,,, ...J
r 41 ~

'"" '"" ., '"" 82 r 42 3

c42 0
""
.4 2 ~
r 4 11
3 . .3K
TUF - 1 b ot t om
r410 2N 3 906
Q40~
y::;; [422 ::he 418
v i ...,

. 10KI~
r42 0
.."... .1 10 dBm
.418 - 1 8 <IBm
a
""r=;:'~
' • ~;'Y
i r4 H Ou t p u t

U 01 r aoa
2.7 u
se-c ace '"" • '"
m
r42 6 220 42 8 TUF - 1 -
L40 2

~r417
- -
U4 02 '"
~ T 4 0 2 : 7 bi~ ilar tur ns ,
1126 , FB4 3 -240 1 +6 dBm I

Fig 6.136-Transceiver LO system produces output at 13.5 to 14 MHz. Th e band pass circu it of Fig 6.137 filt ers t he mixer
output.

FiA 6.138. The output power is se t at

-22 d Hm by adjustment or Rf in the oscil -
LI, 2, 3 : I n 112 6 7 3 0-6
lator collec tor. The power supp ly is
re gu lated mor e as a means 10 stab ilize
amplitude than frequency.
Fig 6.137-LO \Ve measured the cr ystal -filter response
band pass f ilter. during circuit development. Know ing the
exact lower 6 d B passb and edge. we placed
the carrier oscillator at a frequency 300 Hz
below that edge. The res ulti ng lO-MHz
t.:SH sign al is in verted 10 become a LSB
output at 3.H Ml-lz. Slight frequency ad-
j ustme nt may he d one to optimize s ignals .

The Re c eiver Audio

680 +12 v System
,---1~-'--~------:
••.~
c> ., ., Fig 6.139 shows the aud io system. The
pro duc t detector output reaches the boa rd
.'1' " Ll L2

'L ~.--
via coaxial cable where it is amplified by
Q30 1 and Q303, and app lied to an off
Po = -2 2 dBm
board audio gai n control T he res ult is the n
c3 2N 1 90.s
i nto ' 0 Ohm!< amp lified in two op -amp stage s. U30 1. and
'"" applied to headphon es .
The signa l at t he gai n control is sampled
LI ,L 2: 1 uH l101<led RFC. and routed to cp -amps U302 for full wave
Y 1 ~ 1 0. 0 0 8 MHz a t 18 pF rec tification. This ch arges the A Ge sam -
(t une to l OO Hz be low l ower pling cupacitur. C3 15, a 1 uF'stac ked meta l
cr ystal f ilter 6 dB edqe ) f il m type (Panasonic v -scrics or similar.)
c haJuje rl or r~ t o s e t P-out. R325 controls attack time wh ile R324 set s
reco ver y. U303A is a followcrto dri ve the
. Ij-; syst em with de. Normal audio mut ing is
Fig e.taa-ccamer osc illator. no t requ ired. AGe was disco nnected from

6.78 Chapter 6
 ,~

,~ r114 no J lO2
0 1 02 ri ll auu
front panel,
AF Ga , n " ,~ .f-::L
e3 09-=- U10 1 JlIB

r ll2
1456
, j3 04
front
pa ne l
6 . OK 1 0K
• + 1 00

10~« (~ V~
dO l d 04 01 01

~
0 10 1 ,~
r3 U
d1 0 ellO _
j l 01

~ f-
+ ~ .1K eau r 116
rlOO
• cm "m lIlOID

\
Jlu.dio I n iron
Main Board
a. sx
r 301

+W h 'OJIl
j 30 ~
~
on/off
ct;~
. 1~ 11 2
'..L
r 321
'"'tr- - --j-
.1" ell4
2 . 2Me!}

1lI4 U2
rl 24

lI 30 1
""ro',
___,
ffi 'J .

r.aasa
U l03J1
1K r 32 8

llain B oard
• lI 30 2A d3 al
111415 2

1;,
~311
U~
,~
r 320
r l l' ,~

1032 2
-i.
"I
e ai a

Fig 6.139-A udi o system and AGC detec to r.

Audio Am plifier.
n " __ • __ n •• d •• _ • __

~ - --~

y
e
~t

,I
L
Carr ier Oscillato r.

the If du ring transmi t with 0 4 . 0 8. and The first two stages use a 2X J904 while HF spectrum. We realize d another 3-1.1 8
QlO on th e Main board. the thir d uses a 2N3866 with a sma ll heat gain <I t 50 M Hz when Q10 1 and Q I02 were
sink . The three are respectively bia sed at 10, changed to ;\IPSH I ns. 111D was measured
17 and 50 rnA . A 6-dB pad is placed after the at 14 MHz for the driver chai n, produci ng
The RF Power Chain first stage. prov idi ng a convenient place 10 OlP3 = +3 9 dbm with either transistor typ e
A four-stage RF power ch ain , alter gain for use on other hands. Fig 6.141 in the first two .stage s. The no mina l outp ut
Fig 6. 140. co mpletes the transce iver. sho ws gain vs frequ ency for the three stage for Q IOJ is + 10 dlhn per tone with a
Th ree bipolar tra nsistors driv e a H EXfE T bipular dri ver. Alt ho ugh gain is dropping . two-tone lest. or + 16 dlim (40 mw r PEP.
PA for a 5-\V output. the driver chain is usef ul through the entire Thc PA . an IRF-51 0 HEXFET , is b iased

Transmitt ers and Receivers 6.79

!"
co
o
oir
• U O..... 4 vn ..u TO - " P lW
A-, ,,~ "::.:'" h
"0
;; \? )- ~ .nH ~
"eU 2 I
m e ll '
,"
±.. f:;~:~ II
_. u s
. 10 6
" " 11: 1 01 PI01
rU t

d0' ..1 1' 1111

"
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l.~ 1\; 2
'"

Rr
,11 0 '
t - , '"
If il· .", 'I 0 111
~ l·jIC
. ,
d'~
~

rlf-" "
"r
olO S ~ S ·10 a

as rlE;:. =< , I I PTI 1 -

J lI '
( E-
h .... ,1 21
on tr u " p 6

,110 0
'"
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,"
. 10'
1 15 0
Q10 1 . :1.07
<:: Ho
do g
2 . 2K
r110
o 11t

r>----i~ 1
• 101 no
. 101

-
. 10t
1 00
.1 1'"
2113 i 04 ~

6 .S

-
t10~
-'- ,
010 &
. 11,
... 1 n o
0 105 (PA) bolted t o chassis with
Insulat ed washers 0 103 uses
a small clip-on heat sink.
• 12 11
1/1 01 ,,'
70LU
" 18 1a5 Adjust I
" r-T---.. m
I ...L b OI(
•• I l .U t 4 111

' U Y I ' 1 0 1(
,J.
~ , ·'1
-=- Ql ~
r;:; I I 10 0 0
012 7

~
Jl01 1 .1i 04
Det ect or
>-P
0 10 ' 11141 $1

,,~
.~
2 l ie 10K
rn l ,1107

d:".i.
.no

f
.n~
H _ 1 1 p l u h o . d .... .. _ .. 4>." 9' l t 2 WI" H .120 01 o11 :T'°1
Ih _ 01 01 0.1 1 T :l.04 Il. -n-201 Il..:l. ..... o on
. .. \ ~ " t ...;..........." . 24 I<H. uK) 1 22 . ...-...1 . o t t-or o f o oro ' - .:L.
"110 :1._1 1 0 ' 12 H h l u t " "... :>1<43_ 2401

Fig 6. 14 0- RF d river c hain fo r t he L ic he n transc e iv er uses 4 stages f or an o utput of 5 W. Th e T/R re lay is a No ls DS2Y · S-D C12V or sim ila r.
 l.iainV I, Fte Uf ncy, Drivet Chain

, ,
110& 13.5V air! ,om ru ,ion

;
f ron. Output
~tect"r
j ,r ~ ,
----- r-, o
, ,,'"
,
•
• ! M
<, • .",. I

,, I
"'" I n<
.
Fig 6.141-Small signal gain vs
• 6U

Fig 6.143--Gain compression

_~ ~ -#

-
-... -U -lO -l!'
lIIp.. _ •.w..
"'2ll

.,2V
''''
freq uency l or the t hree-stag e bipo lar measu rement for com plete Rf
driver ch ai n. power ch ain .

Fig 6 .144-LED d river ci rc ui t th at can

IMD23 dB below one tone be d riven by th e ou tp ut pe ak dete ct or.
Po", = 5 3 wan PEP Op ·a mp Is a 74 1, 1458, LM358, L M324,
desired carri er down 30 dB or si milar part .
tones
opposite Sideband
·20 down 43 dB

Icarrier
·'0
IIMo,1 liMO,I
.", ! ~
0
~ .~ '--
2000
'--
4000
L......J
6000
,
8000

Fig 6.142-Spectrum analyzer view of transmitter output under two-tone te sting . A v iew of t he 14-MHz bandpas s filter
Fo r so ftwa re, see www.mo n umental.comfrshorne/gramdl.htm l. used fo r LO in tr anscei ver.

from a pot driven by U10 I, a 78L05. Bias A pe ak detec tor i s inc luded at J 107, usc - negati ve fee db ack to the IF.
current with nc dr ive is se t fo r abou t ful du ring transmitte r se tup. 11 c an also he An IF speech proce ssor wa s de scribed
..\.O mA. a level producing excellent gain and used to dr i ve a fro nt-pa nel LED through a in an e ar lier sect io n where li miti ng within
distortion acceptable for QRPefforls. Trans- circuit like that shown in F ig 6.144 where the IF co nstra ined the o utput le vel. T hat
mitter outp ut is sho wn in the two-to ne lest an o p-am p serves as a co mparato r. Alt er- schem e had the ad ded ad va ntage of pre-
spectrum of Fig 6.142 Th i ~ was ob taine d native ly. the det ecto r could driv e an auto venting excessive leve ls in the tra nsmit
....ith a FIT sp ec tru m analys is program. lev e l contro l (A L C) ci rc uit to provide mixe r and foll o wing a mplifiers, e li minat -
Spectrogram . running on a lapt op comp uter.
augmented with a co nve ne r. (See spectr um
analysis disc ussion in Cha pter 7.) Th ird or -
der L\ 1D is on ly 23 dB do wn fro m eac h lone.
or 29 d B belo w PE P. Th e 3D-JB carrier sup-
pression is also sho wn. Opposite sideband
suppressio n was 43 d B for a 17QO.Ht single
audio tone. Ear lier drive r chain measure-
ments con finn the r ET PA as the dis tortion
Pri nted c ir c u it
source. aud io ampli fier.
F ig 6.143 shows power c hai n output (T NX to K7TAU )
powe r as a fu nc tio n o f dr ive power. T h is
gain co mpressio n mea surement was do ne
with si ngle -to ne dr ive . T he ampli fie r is
relativel y lin ea r up 10 the +3 3 to +35 dB m
output. Th is is a measurement t hat ca n be
pe rformed in the home lab that has yet to
ind ude a spec trum ana ly zer.

Tra nsmitters and Rece ive rs 6.81

 ,.•
..
'.co"
,~ . ~

" ..
"
'" ~
,+
~ .
$ i'
••

Partially bu ilt print ed mai n b oard.

Br eadboarded carri er oscillator and TX lo w-pass tuter fo r a

14·M Hz vers ion of t he tr ansceiver by K7TAU.

Fro nt panel of 75-meter vers ion built by AA7QU. One of th e

buttons ecuvatee a ~ F req - M ite" fr eque nc y keyer tha t t hen reads
the frequency and presents it in mc rae code . Printed Ci rcuit Version of RF Power Chain . (TNX to K7TAU)

ing the need for ALe. The IF limite r has Control Circuits vide II similar +12V-R to curu ro l the
th e minn r d is ad vantage of requi ring an- rec eive function . PA bias is short ed with
The transceiver uses push -to-talk (PIT) Q104 during receive periods . Bot h sec-
other crystal filter. H OW C\' t: T, it would he
a dr amatic virtue in th is tran sceiver. Not operation. reali zed with the co ntrul cir- tion, of the DIP antenna relay arc paral -
only would it en hance transmitter perfo r- cuit ry incl uded in fi g 6 . 140 . When the lelcd for the TlR sw itching.
mance. b Ul it wo uld gen era te excel len t microphone PTT button is pus hed. a line
rece iver ski rt selectivi ty. goes low lit 1103 to satura te pr-;p sw itch
A seventh-order low pass filter follow s Q106. That u an-astor pow ers ante nna Extensions and Result s
the I-' ET po we r am plifier. as vhn wn in relay . K I. and feed s a +I ~V ·T vigna l to Once the hoard s are buill and measured.
t'iJ: 6. 1-15 . T he filte r is built on a se parate the many places in the tran sceiver marked the y can be assembled and combined.
bo ard. isolated from the rest of the PA . with .'T:. Q 107. lOR. and 109 then pro- The syvrem using a IO-M H, IF j <, rea.
sonably clean ....'i l h the ..econd harm onic at
-57 dBc as the dominant spur. Three non-
harmonic spurs were foun d with strengt h
Ll U Lil l UN
fro m -67 to - 62 dBe. A 9. 2-MH1. IF ver-
.i,
sion (bui ll hy AA7QU ) had sim ilar perfor-
't... mance. We were d isappo inted in the IMD
L in perform ance offered by rhe II EXFET PA.
Receiver pe rforma nce was ade qua te for
the 75-m band . Th e relatively high noise
LIU ,L IU : ~ . 1loII ~~ d oor pdC~d t u .... . ~~ l!icr omr tals ! -~0-2
figure of IH dB is not a pro blem for this
freque ncy. Measured IIP3 was +16 dB m
Lin : 1 . Oull N t "" .... *~ ~ Mt cr""",tal. t - ~ o- ~
and two-tone DR was 92 .7 dB . The
Fig 6,145-Low-pas s filter f or t he z s -meter Li chen . Capacitor s ca n be silver mi ca dynamic window is skewe d to favo r high
or ce rami c. int ercept rather than low nois e . A lo w-

6.82 Chapter 6
-.oi, e RF amplifie r wi th modest gai n few. allowing the dexigner/builder to mea- and audio hoard are also hand-ind ependent
_ou ld sub stant ially improve noise figure sure those parameters so critical to succe ss. suggesting a multi -hand de sign . Relay
~ lth little DR pe nalty , making this gen- If the Ma in board was built without the input switching is recomm ended in the receiver
eral topology useful at hi gher freq uency. prcselector filter, it would contain no band- front-end over PI N diodes to avoid second -
Several boards were used in favor of a specifi c co mponents . The RF power chain order distortion proble ms.

6.10 A M ONOBAND SSB/CW TRA N SCEIVER

Altho ugh this tran sce iver was de signed proj ect is often less tediou s tha n other side - with up to 6 reso nator s, The next block is
lor o pe ration on an y single band within band transcei vers . for the recei ver can he an IF amp lifier. The recommend ed desig n
~ HI-' spectrum, there is no fu ndamental fini shed and mad e ope ratio na l befo re deal- here is that present ed in Fig 6,50 using
reason it wil l no t als o func tio n at VHF. ing with the transmitte r. cascc de co nnected 1310 J FET s. De sign s
Like the Lic hen prese nted earlier, it is A collec tion of sma ll circ uit boards was usi ng some of the mo re up-to-date inte-
....d upon bcmebrew cr ysta l fi lters fabri- used. So me we re etched while others were grated circu its from An alo g Devices
cared by the desig ner/builder. merel y breadboarded . T he usc of many shou ld also be con sidered. Ne ither the
Th is radio was designed for flexi bility small boa rds rather tha n just a few large fro nt-e nd nor the IF will be d iscu ssed here .
mJ perf o rmance. A com mon loca l oscil- ones provi des imp roved iso lat ion betwee n The RF power cha in is al so shaded in
tor system and co mmo n BFO /Carrier Os- functions and e nha nced testability , A the block d iag ram of Fig 6.146. A simi lar
cillator are sha red between the rranvmit tra nsceiver block diag ram is sho wn in modu le developed fo r the Lic hen tra ns-
UlJ recei VI: function s. The o ther functio ns Fig 6.146 , ceiver woul d be suitable , Substitution of a
m: independent, all ow ing each to be opti- The hloc k diagram inc lude s so me different PA is recomme nded if the sys-
mized to meet the need s of the desi gnerl sha ded are as where cir cu it module , al- tem is built for bands at the high end of the
-eilder/uscr. Th is see mingly ine fficie nt ready prese nte d are app lied. The receive r HF range , or for VHF. The poor 1MO pe r-
approach become. practica l and inex pert- beg ins with the "General Purpose Mo no- formance of the IRF5 1()wo uld also be jus-
l.l \ e when one bu ilds his or her own cr ys- band Receiv er Front-End" o f Fig 6. 68. tification for a new PA des ign .
ul filters. Although more e xten sive , the That board include s a crystal lad der filter The monohaud transceiver versi on

&ener al PIlll' 0"e Re c" iver Fron t End

Pr od uc t
Detector Rec eiver lludio
sx

~
Input

lludi o
Out p ut

~ W"
~SB Carr ier o"c _
O
Hic . A1Jl1 . ¥.i c
I np ut

"0" low p ...."

?J
Hodul.ator
RF Power Chain
rx Jlnt"nna
Output
T/R Con trol
Cir cui ts
l ow p .... "

Fig 6.146-Block d iag ram for the SSB/CW transceiver. The version we bu ilt is fo r t he e-rn band, but can be adapted to any
band f rom 1.8 to 144 MHz. The system shown in the block d iagram uses a non -hete rodyne VFO system.

Transm itters and Rece ivers 6.83

 desc ribe d here was buil t for the 6-m VHF
o 0" hand uving a ] O-MH z If. Howcvc rcthere
10. 00 is nothing special abo ut tha t fre quency.
<lB/D i u .
10.7 Ml-l z is a good general purpose IF
su ita ble for both HF and V HF. 4.9 15 MHz
ha s been used in several H F Q RP trans -
GAIN , dl'
ceiv er c with goo d su c ce ss. ba sed upon
(S -2 1>
available computer crys ta l".
Our 6 -m tran sceiver in itia lly used on ly
e 0
" R~. < -21 a -pole crystal filters. They we re cu r for a
2.S- k HI bandwidth with 50()-n tc rmina-
l ions and a B utte rwor th shape. While the
fi lle rs per form ed "",'e IL we often wished for
bette r stopband attenuation in both func-
tio ns. T he or ig ina l thought. that a cas ual
a- pole fi lter wo uld be su itable for VHF
FD , MHz =
ap plicatinn-. was dear ly not va lid whe n
9 . 20 the 6 -m ba nd opened in the spring month s:
- 60 . 0 0 dB F ig 6. 147 show" the calculated resp onse
- 4 0 0 0. DO "700 0 .00
He t D ro, ' u rn of a 9.2 -MHz sixth-order Co hn filt er with
I FREQ U E N C Y , Hz 100 0 . 0 0 H z/Diu.
' 0 " ENU a 2.5-kHI ba ndwidth. This is an easy filter
GE NERAL P URPOS E L ADD E R AHlll.V< IS> " o p y r i"h t 1994, ARRL
H=4 Butt ., r w o d h Us H =6 Cohn , 8 =2 . " kHz .... h Ou=4 0 l< e~ ,, ~hh to build and duplicate for both functio ns.
The plot also in cludes a plot for a
Fig 6.1 47-Crystal f ilte r responses for two c r y stal f ilte rs. The Cohn is t he prefe rred B uu erworth f ilte r with fo ur crys tals. T he
design for this t ransce ive r even though the low c rysta l au ro unds the passband aggre xsi ve des igner/builder might expand
corners. See text. his or her fiIter efforts 10 incl ude ex tr a fil -
ters 10 enhance receiver performance an d
fo r tran smit If spe ec h processing.

4 MH z VFO ClOl 21!4 411 _.c-~~,,"---

LO System
1 .1 _
The loc a l oscillator syst em for the 6-m
transceiver is sho wn in F ig 6. 148. begin-
ning wi th a con ventional 4-:\IH l Har tle y
VFO. An emi tter fo llower butters the out-
put 10 a diod e ring mixer , A capacitor

.' I~
c".
n _ - 10
(C91 5) is selected to establis h a foll o . v. e r
out put of - 10 dbm . The VFO uses a 9-V
-iF ...".. dB m
reg ulated power supply established wi th a
t-- --+---t-K .

~ "
'0'0/
:rh"
J
Zene r diode. Th at regula ted vo lt age is
routed out of the shiel ded enclosure on a
feedthroug h cap ac itor to a fron t pane l pot.
Till: voltage gen erated is run back inside
the shiel d whe re it controls bia s on a
varuc tur d iode. D900 . T he d iode tuning
:L ra nge is set up to he abou t J() kHz, The
I 111elUtlf I main luning ca p. C9 10. use s a lar ge knob
with no vern ie r dr ive. offer ing mech anical
si mplif ica tio n. This scheme has been sur -
4G 1lH' Ou t.p ut to
\I;o_~ filt or prisingly effec tive , eve n wit h a tuning
" range of 350 k llz , a direc t result of a large
tun ing knob on a smooth cap acitor. Digital
reado ut provides the neede d re setability.
T he diode ri ng mixer an d a 35 ,9-M Hz
third -over to ne cry sta l o sc illator occu py
the same en closure with the VF O. The
n,"""
J rd 0 . T _ mixer o utput is then applied to a coaxial
co nnector through a sho rt r un of coax
cable . T he LO box output is route d on co -
axial cable to a 4 0 1\1 HI bandpass filter.
sho wn in Fig 6.149. A tr iple tu ned fi lter is
used to enhance sp ec tral pur ity. We 111ea-
surcd 80 -dB rejectio n ot the 35.9 -M llz
Fig 6 .148 -VFO fo r t he 6-m tra nsceiver. Ll is unspecif ied , but w ill genera lly be
co mponent and the 32 -\1 Hz image ,
around 5 ~ H . T he many resonator capacitors allow fle xib ility in setting the
f requency. Details are set by t he designerfb uilder. The fi ltered LO signal is relatively wea k

6.84 Chapter 6
 ==')

Front panel of t he 6-meter transce iver. The very large t un ing

knob allows su rprisingl y smooth lun ing wit hout a vern ier
The aud io amplifier and product detector board for t he drive. The knob be low the ma in t u nin g con trol s a v ar ac to r
Un iv ers al Monoband T ransceiver. f ine tune f u nction.

(about - 20 dBm) as it exits the rin g mixer

1 1r~
Jc c1 and bandp ass fi lter. The le ve l is increas ed

r-11 r-
u a.a
'"' ca
i
H L2
with the two-stage feed back amplifier
shown in Fi g 6.150. The second-stage out -
~ ~
pur is low-pass filtered and app lied to a

~ '1 ~
= 41 C1 -'-- -'-- hybrid splitter that de livers two isolated
sig na ls, eac h with a power of +7 to
L l ,2 , 3 : a turJlS 1t211 1 3 0 - 6
+8 dti m. The hybrid input impedance ter-
minated in a pair of 50-n loads is 25 n . .A
Cl,2, 3 : ~-6~ liE' p l astic t r inJer low pass filter. initially designed for 50-0
termi nat ions. was then modified for a 25-fl
Fig 6.149- Trip le-t uned 40 -MHz b and pas s fille r. This c ircuit was buill o n a small
scrap of circuit boa rd material (approximately 1 x 3 inches) with coa xial load using the procedure of Chapter 3.
connectors mounted at each end . Afl er the f ilter was tested, a wall was bu ilt from
...-ln c h b ra s s sheet and s o lder ed to t he boa rd . A lid was soldered to the bra ss B FO/Carrier Oscillator
. all s after filler t un ing . The f ilte r was designed for a 2-M Hz ban dwidth . The
ind uct o rs had a n unloaded Q of 130 at40 MHz. A tradi tio nal Co lpit!'. cryvtal co ntro lled
oscill ator ge nera tes IO- \-lH /. e nergy.
shown in Fi g 6. 151. T he oscillator was
modifi ed wi th indu ctor L3 UU allo wing
oscilla tion below cryst al reson ance . T wo
buffere d out puts are availa ble. prov iding
+7 dBm to the prod uct detector and the
trans mitter balanced mo dulato r. A +12 T
supply is applied to only one buffer during
transmit period s.

SSB Generator
The SSB Generator board. F ig 6.152.
begin s with an o p-amp speech a mplifier
followed by an RC act ivo lo w pass filt er.
A tes t poi nt allows the a ud io signal to be
mon itor ed to prevent ovcrdri vc of the bal-
a nced mo dulat or. T he peak-to-peak
a ud io sig nal at T P60() should he 0,4 V
" '", ' ' ' , " ' , • • >tHor " .." .. o. "'''-' ' "' .u.ilo< ,
for - 10 d Bm availa ble at the balanced
mod ulator input , wh ich uses a TUF- l or
SRI.- l mi xer.
" 01 0 n , "" ",-, Q6{)() ampl ifies the DSB si gnal from
L' 60D and also sets the driving impe da nce
Fig 6.150- LO amplifier feeding 40-MHz energy t o the two ring mixers used for the
rece ive r fr ont en d a nd the transmit m i xer . T200 , 201 , and 202 are al1 10 b if ilar t urns for the crystal f Iter. R6 17 is picked 10ha ve
*"2 8 o n a FT· 37-43 tor oi d . L200 is 8 turns of #24 on a T30-6 c o re . L201 is 6 turns of the sa me value as R61 5, whi ch is the de -
*2 4 o n a T30-6 . sired termination val ue for thc crystal fil-

Transmi tt ers and Recei ve rs 6. 85

 ter. Further gain i s o btained with Q603 ,
1 11L 0 )
604, and 605. R635 allows a level to be
picke d that will not o ver driv e the transmit
" mixer , U60 1.
The mixer output d rives a 50-MH z LC
bandpass filte r sho wn in Fig 6.153 . This
triple tu ned filter is build in an isolated
Rf'O to IlX box with tbe same methods used for the
T301 Prod. D~t .
LO fil ter of Fig 6. 149 and has a ba ndwidth
of 2.5 MHz .
2N39 04
,. ~
T ransmitter Powe r
Chain
Fig 6.154 shows the d river stages for
the RF po wer chain. Thi s is a clas s-A de-
sig n with increas ing curre nt in each sta ge
throug h the chain. A heat sink is needed
, - - - - - -- - - ( <C fo r the second and t hird stages . Gain
for the chai n is 47 dB with an output of
C ar r i ~ r Osc.
30() mw. The output low pa ss filter was
'(3 0 0 10 MIIz T300 to b al. . ..,d . included for QRP usc before a "brick" was

' ~ ~I I H
L 3 0 0 ).4 oil (t1lO 2.1
uII RFC, as ne~ ded.)
added . The low pas s cou ld be elimi nated
(or abbrevi ated) it a higher power am pli-
T l OO, 3 01 : 20t 1128 fier is planned to foll ow Q3. A 2SC 2988
FT 31_ 4 3, s t Link 1126
2NH04 might be a sui tab le substitute for Q3 oper-
ating at 50 MHz.
2N390 4
The po wer amp lifier use d with this
unis sb 04 l OctOl wl zo i
transceiv er is based upo n the Mits ubi shi
M5 7735 hybrid integrated circui t.
.F ig 6.155 The hyb rid (obtained from
Down Eas t Microwave) is an especially
conve nient part to use, providing 2 1 dH of
Fig 6.15 1-B FO a nd ca rrier generator. T301 a nd T300 each have a 15-tu rn prima ry small signal gain from a two -stage clas s-
with a S·turn seco nda ry on FT-37-43 co res. The a mp lifie r input resistors, no w 6.8
kD., can be c ha ng ed to set the output power. AB circuit . Power output is 14 W for the
Te. The chip, which includes a built in low
pass filte r, is built on a flange that bolts
direc tly to a gro unded he at sink. A strip of
scra p cir cuit board material is bolt ed next
to the lC. offe ring a co nvenie nt place for
addi tional cir cuitry .
Three terminals on the RF mod ule re-
q uire a pow er bias. Two use 12 V and feed
the two collectors wh ile the third pro vid es
base bia s netw orks wit h 9 Y. The 9-Y sup-
ply should be regu lated. Tn the proce ss of
setting up a LM- 3 I7T regulator , we real-
i/ ed that it co uld als o function as a pro-
gra mmabl e circuit. Th is modification is
incl uded in 1"ig 6.15 5 for comp lete power
con tro l over thc ampli fier. The hias on pin
3 of the IC module is 9.1 Y in tra nsmit.
dropping to 1.27 V during receive .
The decoupl ing ca pacito rs used are
those suggested by the manufacturer. We
mea sured the se networ ks. find ing that the
22-Il F electrolytic capacitors we used are
mod eled with an inductance of 65 nH with
very low Q. A better wide band by pass
migh t be seve ral parall el 0.0 1 )..IF.
Althou gh the ~1 5773 5 is ideal for gen-
eral-purpo se applic ations. it is an expen-
sive part. Fig 6.156 shows a QRP po wer
. amplifi er that can be used in place of the
The RF power a mp lifiers up to about +23 dB m o utput. hybrid . The out put from this sta ge is 3 W

6.86 Chapter 6
 +1 2V SSB

r--l :' 100

0 , 4 v p k -pl< Audi o
mx
- '''' •
'"'" .,
'>I
Ct:4' ))----1i "'''
TP6 00
f---~
l >1< --I
3
,+ ,
4
'''' ~f
. 00 2 ? , L __
SSE
" '" Ge ner a t or
U602
55 3 2
"
+12 Xm:t t cw U600

-» TUF-'

Y600
'"
''''
(1f Ca1'rier Oscillato r

2N3904
Q601

I'
LO In
., -
-» - - -3...j
3

1"
= 2N3 904
060 2
.,
T"" ""
60

t 2(10. 1

I
''' 1 -
a. '"
1.>1<

-
~
6 . '"
Adjus t
cV
RF Output t o
TX Barutpas s

L~"~il1~)
+1 2V , Xmi t
~ ~
- "'"10

sa
"
CrystaJ.
Filter ~~lO-IE-::L

.,
&615
'"
mx "I 2N39 04
0 603 ""
.,
U6 01
TUF-'
., 2N39 04
Q60'J
.,
'''' .,
2N39 04

2N3904
4.'" 0600
&614

'"
'"
R624 1K ""
4"'1 0604

0 .4V Ill<-pl<

.,
mu
"" Lo c al
Osc i l latoJ.·-
IF Gain Input
Set -..e- '"" 1®5
+? lIBm.

Fig 6.152- 5 5 B generator, R615 and R624 should be pi cked t o equal the d es ir ed term inating res istanc e for th e cr ysta l f ilt er ,
wh ic h is a designer/bu ilder-de term ined element. R614 c an be va ried to c hange gai n, if needed . R635 is ad justed fo r 0 .4 V pea k
to pe ak at TP 60 1 during transmit. That lev el should be identical in CW and 55B.

Transmitt er s and Recei vers 6 .87

 ..
~
~ "I
" k ,~
C1
~
L1

~
,
ce
r " 1{:}.11-
-
~
L'
~
Fig 6.153-Tripl e-
tu ne d 50-MHz
bandpa ss f ilter.

- LI ,2 , ) : • t urns 'N '1 30 - 6

cr.a. a. 5-6$ pf' pI<lStic trUno'r

-

.=
" " ·n

l' n

••
I -
"
.,
'hf--n
.",
L'

U K
.
t 'h
1J(

IT
L2
no
·~ . 1
( . 1_, 1_
L. U L'

"
-r lJ)1
1. 'iR 0 2 214 ". ...l.. 2 14
ra
---)
•• OJ
}" ntI

'" - -
'"
-
U nA
". '"
-
'"
" , .. - ..
-
as M

-
- " M

-
"-
l- ' ·01-

'11,2 ,3 1 'b1tllar t uru MJO, L l . 4. . ~: 1 lullS !t24" t ll -6

Fai r -Ri t e 2143002402 01 , 2 , 3 : 2N~ 1 " Dr s tni l ar .
Us e he.. t . inb "" 0 2 , 0 3 . Fig 6.1 54-Transmitter chain.

- - - - -- - ---:,.--IT.., The large bo ard Is t he s s e gener ato r and transmit mixer. Thi s
version us ed SBL· ' mixers. The tr ansmit bandpass filter is in
t he box fabricated f rom scrap circuit board material . The con trol
boar d Is above t he band pass fi lter.

Clo se up vi ew of sse gene rat o r.

6.88 Ch apter 6
 ,.- " la,

. .' - - - - - - ,
!,~.l:: ; ~ M57735
~~
..". - =-._i[ , ~­
I L\B1 i ~ "I~' C• • I
Fig 6.1S5-Power ampli fie r fo r 50 MHz
~ us ing th e Milsub is h i M5n 35 hybrid
a
int eg rated circu it. L1 is tu rn s '22, '1.
,..
~

t .• ~
in c h 10.

~1'·
L ··
i;
"'" .. ..".
t. lO'

0"

..
Lt . t : It_ .., ~ ' .t.. t l t pi

,.. n , t , I.4 : 11 -114 ,* II1ca Fig 6.156-A QRP Po wer am p li f ier for

f'
{_~ "" tU-t. the 50- MHz band. This c ir cu it is
~ suit able fo r SSB o r CW, an d c an be
Se t bi.... for
adapted 10 lo wer freq uencie s w ilh
uun n su it able network c han ges.

,.
1, - 150 aA
.n _10'-

. ....

Rece iver RF
a mplifi er and
presetector filt er
for the 50-MH z
po rt able sla lio n .
Th e v ariab le
c ap acitor tun es
th e tr an sm itt er
VXO,

View of RF power am p lifier usin g t he

Mits ubishl Hybr id. Outp ut is u p to 14 W.

Transmitters and Receivers 6.89

with a power ga in of 11 d H_ Thiv circuit
can be ada pt ed to any of the lower-Ire -
quency ba nds , with higher power gain
expected. The 2SC I% 9 trans istor is wry
robust. modes tly priced. a nd availab le
".
from Mouse r.

Receiver Circui ts
Th e receiver circu its resemble othe rs
used in th is chapter and will not be
repea ted here. T his transceive r uses a low
ga in RF amp lifier. w hic h wo uld nOI be
requ ired for the lower HF ban ds. We used
1111'''' r;;
a shiel ded do uble tuned circui t b uilt as a
small. meas ura ble filt e r modu le as the
pre-ele ctor ahead o f the d iod e ring mixer
The po-t-mix er amp lifier was a :!~ S I 09
with 30· m..\. bias.

Control Circuits
Fi~ 6. 157 sho ws the co ntrol circ uitry used Fig 6.157---C on tro l circu it s for th e SSB tran sceiver.
w ith this transceiver. T he de sign is quite
general and is suitable for any transceiver
with a relay for TIR . With some modifi cu-
tion . it should also be suita ble for usc with \ig nal, genera te s tho: shaping req uired to Results
PIN diode ante nna switching. , uppress click s .
T he board ge ne rates three o utp uts ; Most of the s ig n J I~ avai lable auhe hoard T his tra nsceive r has generally been a use-
+ 12 relay. + I~ transm it. and +12 ke yed . are input s. These inc lude a +12 V supply. fu l and enjoy ab le add itio n. ha ving pro -
These are prod uced by TO-39 PNP nan- a grou nd -ac tive "e)' li ne. a similar gro und. vided an enj oyable sampling of "The Magic
sictors. We have used 2N5-WI and2 N53 22 ac ti ve p ush-to -tal k (PIT) line. and a Band." But it is an e vo lving desig n that we
in t his app lication. About any P:,\P ca pable + 12 SSB line . S~OO R is a DPDT fro nt pane l plan to modi fy with better crystal fi lters and
of switching ebou r 5f)() rnA ro ftcn k\,,, \" itch that pr o vid e s + I:! SSB dur ing a different recei ver IF a mplifier. Th e cir -
" ill do as well. The Tl P· J 2 sho uld work. receive a nd tran,mil while in SSB . and cu il i~ suita ble for operutirm fro m a battery.
Q~ U J . wh ich provides the + 12-V keyed + 12 CW while in transm it mode in CWo allowing some porta ble act ivit y.,

6.11 A PORTABLE DSB/CW 50 MHZ STATION

A favorite acti v ity for allth ree o f us is - 3 dBm with the wo rs t spurio us resp o nse modulator output is increased to + 14 dB m
VHF o per ation fro m int erestin g loc atio ns. at -{)4 d B,. thro ugh M AR-3 rind M AY - I I a mplif iers.
usuall y areas inacce svible to all but o ne T he V XO OUlPUl is now ro uted to the U6 an d U7. T bl -, the n d rives a 2N5947
tra veli ng o n foot or kay a k. Eq uip me nt trunsmiuer c irc ui t (Fig 6.1591 where it is cl ass A a mp lifie r. Sui table substitu te tran-
must be fa irly l ight weig ht. T his6-m trans- increased to +8 JB m wi th U4. a MAR-3 sts tors wou ld include a 2N5109 . T he
ce iver weig hs 3 pou nds and has an output amp l ifie r. and app lied to a TCF- I operat- o utput is about 0 ,3 W in CW or DSB . Th e
of O.3 W. ing as a balan ced mod ula tor. U-t is driven PTf ..wi tc h o n the mic roph o ne will gro und
Th e rig use s a VXO-I:ont ro lled DSB a nd wuh either aud io from a micropho ne o r de the key line that also acti vates the a nte nna
C \\' trans mi tter. An S- M HI, d irec t-c o nvc r- to pro vide a C W signal. Th e- - 16 d Bm relay c ircu itry.
sion receiv er is coupled with a si m ple
converter . T he- transmitter VXO. shown
in FiJ! 6.15 8 . u\es an off-the- s hel f
I·U IS .\ IHI color burs t crystal. T his os-
dI lator is o n at a lltimes. hut no o ut pu t is
present at 50 ~IH l un til the key or
p ush-t o-talk (P TT) swi tc h is closed. Ul
then d iv ides the siguul by two, pro ducing Front panel v iew
a 7- MHz squ are wave from circu itry pre- of the portable
scnred in Chapter 5 . T he seventh har- DSB/C W
mo nic. occurring in the de sired part uf the tran sceiver.
6-m ba nd. is selected with a double-t uned
c irc uit. amp li fied wit h a M ini- Circ uits
M AR-} amplifier a nd fur ther fi lt ered in
a second ban d pass. Th e fil ter o ut put is

6 .90 Chapter 6
 f"i !~::.
10
Fig 6.1S8-VXQ and frequ enc y multiplier for
portabl e tr ansceiver. L1· L4 are 360 nH, 10
turn s " 26 on a T3()..6.
'----------+JF ,
50
d grn a t;

5 0 MH z

2't~
22 •
+12 V .2 1111.1'
22

.,
' . 0, 14
0 . '1 lK - 240
Q1
21 390 4
.3
2 139 04 2 . 1u
10 K
~ OK
2 , HARZ
7
-
~ ~33 10 Q2
11

t·,:
74 HC74
10
1 ~
I 2
~ 1K 1
1
5-80 -=- 1 1 00 12

o0
~ 21 3 90 4 7eLO S

• .,"cal "
• 51
~ ESC out -gnd - i n

Y1=1 4 . 3 1 8

The rece iving converte r, shown in we were buil ding this station anew . the 6 , W . Cane r, "A High- Perf or mance AG C!
t"i ~ 6. 1611. begin-, .... itf a sin l,d e tuned cir- minimali st phasing SSB tra nsce iver de - IF SUbsys te m", QST. 1\.1ay. 1996.
cui t dri vinga ~lAR - 2 Rf amplifie r with a scribed in C hapter <) wo uld pro babl y be pp 39--14 ,
rJl n of about 12 dB . II dou ble tuned clr- us ed . T he VXO used with Ib;'; rig wo uld
cuirt hen pre sele ct s the signal before it is 7. Ibid
provi de the ne eded Su-M l l z in jec tio n,
~p li c J to a TUF -l mi xe r fnllowed hy a H. For fu rther d isc uss io n of AGC loop
:"51 09 pos t mixer amp lifi er. A switched dynam ics. sec U. Rohde and T . Buche r,
C hapter 5, Communicati ons Re cei vers:
::Q-d B pad can reduc e the signal before REFERENCES Principle s Mid Design. Mc Gr aw-Hill.
k pro d uc t detecto r. A rI ~ d iode at the
cn ef offe rs addi tio na l uuen uauo n. 1. Krauss. Bostian . and Raab. Solid State 198 8.
The co nvert er ou tput i~ ~ .\ 11 II . used Radi o Eng ineering. Wiley. 1980. 9. W. Ha yward . "A Compe tition- G rad e
ee re ty bec ause a 42 · f\.lI Lo: u y'>l al was :!. An exc elle nt su mmar y of modularlon is C W Rece iver ," QST, Ma r , 1974 . pp 16-
"' ailab!e in the j unk box . t\ beu er c hoice given in Krauss. Bostia n. a nd R'Mb. Solid 20.3 7 and Ap r. 197-1.. pp 3-1.-3 9 . Als o se c
would be 43 ~I Hl . T he D-C receiver could Suue Radio Eng ine ering , wncv. 1980, W . Hay war d and J. La wson. '"A Pro gres-
een func tio n o n the 7 -~t H l band . T he C ha pter S. sive Co mmun icatio ns Re cei ver: ' QST.
\ tA R-:! RF a mplifier with i t ~ input fi ller 3. W. Hayward. Introduction to Radio xov. 19S 1. pp I I-::! !.
cootd a bo be eliminated for typical app li- 10. W. Caner. " A Hig h-Perfo rma nce
Frequency Design. AR RL 1994. pp ~ n5
allo ns. keep ing o nly the doub le tuned CiT- and 349. AGO IF Su bsystem". QST. May. 1996.
It preselec ro r. pp 39--1-1.
t'i g 6 . 16 1 ... hn w.. the 8 -f\1I1, Vt'"O -1._ H. T_ l-riis. "N oi se Figures of Rad io
Rece ive rs." Proceedings of the IRE. 31. 7 I I. Perso nal co rres pondence betwee n the
sed with the rece i ver. T hi .. c irc uit
(J ul. 19-1.4 I. pp -I 19 ~411. or R. Pettai, Noi It' author and Ulrich Rohde. 1997.
. n es a fully sh ielded boa rd contai ning
prod uct detector. aud io a mp lifier with in Recei ving SyHem ,l. Jo hn Wiley' & So ns. I:! . W. Haywa rd. introduction to Radio
itched artcnu ator , a nd viderone osctl- 19H-1.. Frequen cy Design. pp 2 19 -232. Also set"
r. Thiv modu le is de scribed in Chap- 5. " " " .h a m- r a d io.cu mfn tica/50 MH 11 K. S imon ... "The Decibel Relation ship Be-
1Ia 12. 5Uapp noteslU3 10.h tml : Sec aha twee n Amplifie r Di stortio n Prod ucts : '
Double sideband offers a very ..impk Gonza lez. Jfi cr m Hl n ' Tran sistor Amplifi- t'roceedings ofthe IEEE. 58. 7 (luI. 1970 1.
;ay tn get a pho ne signal on the VHF ers . A.IIUh- ,l i I and fJt' \ ign . Pre ntice-Hall. pp 1071-1086.
"",I1l(h . o ne that is com pat ible with SSB. If t9 8-t fo r designing for lo west noise. 13. w . Hayward. l nnoducnon to Rud in

Transm itt ers and Receiver s 6 .91

 L-: L-5 II;
To RX
Ant. ~-.-",,_• .A-.~--
......,......_,

82 r 1301
'-'=( .ll? On .l..190n...L

( 2: 65 rnA keyed \
92 1 e--;
It -Ant T

22 u +12

~
-=-
!~
22K
100

+6 +6

~ n o!:
, 1 . 5E
.L ra,
•• S)A
6 . 8R
1liK-Ant

., 1:: 4152
Key Li ne Spot

Fig 6.159-Trans mitter po rt ion of the s-mete r station.

T ran smitter c hain for po rtab le r ig . Aud io m icr ophone

am p li f ier is on t he other s id e of the bo ar d .

T he a ud io a m p lifier and p roduc t de tector f o r 8-MHz direct-

conve rsio n IF system are all in a Ham m ond 15906 ec x with
coa x and fee dth ro ugh capacitor interface cc r mecnone. The
42-MHz cr ystal oscillator and a·MHz low pass filter are on t he
small boards. The lo ng boa rd acros s the bo tt o m of the f igu re
is the VXO and >< 3.5 frequency mult ip li er c hai n .

6.92 Ch apte r 6
 8 11Hz o ut. t o p r od . De t e ct.o r

( Coa x )
( Coa x )

20 dE 560

+12 ,
f--:::L
L12 t "
3 9< 111, 112"'18 t# 26, T30-6 W~
.01 SI 10bf t , FT37- 43 ! ' ~
r-J 18"'12': #26, T30- 6 +12 ~-+-~ lll~ -
240 19, 110"'10t # 26 , T30- 6 01 I~
.L~ L.-A A3A~
3 t 9

~m
'1 Tl:CF"-l~1 R\l~' 11ngo"i,. '--\'~
J!.1AR2 2 .7u
Rx In

b·8~-*~-+
25
10

...L1
(1 8 .
. .L SO
-. .1
h = -
(Co ax )

1 90 I
SO --=
18
I T
-=- 1 lK .> ~~C1 2 52
100
12
01,;,. IK
I 1'.9 2.5109

II
6. 8K> I1 1
l
r--l
L12
~39voVV-~~'"-----t-'
(- 2 dB)
Coa x

2N390 4 - 39 0 1 00
42 llHz 3 rd O. T. ~,~---, Dl "'MPN3 404 PI N di ode
-
I = 3K
50
+12v f o !:' atte nuat i o n.

I - '1 lL5~ 112"'12t ~ 26 , T30- 6 , 2 t link .

F""tg 6.160- Rec eiving co nverter used w ith the 6-m portable station.

Fre quency Design , plOY ,

14 , \V Ha y ward . "f ur ther Th ough ts on
Recei ver Spec i ric atio n." "Te chn ica l Cor-
re spo ndence ." QST, No v. 1Y79. pp 4 8-
49 .
15 . \V Hay wa rd. " A Compet itio n-Grade
C W Recei ver." QST, M ar. 1974 .
pp 16· 20, 37 and Ap r. 1974 , pp 34 -3Y.
Also see V.i. Hay ward an d J. 1.(1\>, 'lOn. "A
Prog re ssi ve Conununicanc ns Rece ive r,"
ost. N o v. 198 1. p p 11-21.
\6. 1.:. Ro hde, ,0K.:y Components of Mod -
ern R ece ive r De sig n: ' QST . May. 1994 .
pp 29 -32 . Ju n. 1994. pp 21 -37 and Jul.
19Y4 , pp 42 - 4 5.
17, P. /J <! \\ ker. ' T ech nical Topics." Radio
Communu-atinns, Dec, 1995. pp 70-73 ,
1k. J. Makhi nso n, "'A H igh- Dy namic-
Ra ng e .\1F/ HF Rec ei ver Fron t End:' QST,
Feb, 1993, pp 23-28 .
19 , C. Horrahin in P. H awker ' s "'T ec hn i-
F""'9 6.161- Eig ht megahe rt z VFQ fo r t he 6-m station r ece iv er. Tank capacitors a re ca l Top ic s," Radi o Communications, On.
eetected to establish reso nan ce at the desired operating fr equ enc y 199 3. pp 55 -56,

Trans mitt ers and Recei vers 6.93

20. C. Ho rmbin in P. ll av.l er" s "T echnic al Technology and Apphc anons: A Re view ~6. D_ Hol man. "R cceiv er vand Transcciv-
Topics." Rad in Commnnicanans, Scp. and Update." (JEX. Sep/Oct. zooo. pp 3-12. crs" reprinted by P. Hawker. "Technical
1993. pp 5-+-56 . Al-, o pe rsonal com:spo n- 29. W. Sabin a nd E. Sc hoc nike . Chap ter Topics:' Radio Communications, Sep.
deuce be twee n W. Hayward a nd C. I3 b)' E. Sila gi. "Ul tra -Luw -Divornon 19 ii6. p 638.
Ho rra bin. x c v 1995 and Oct :WOO. Po wer Amplifiers." Sillgle Sideband svs- 3 7. .\1. Thompson. ··A Bidirectio nal A m-
11. 1. Makhin so n. v'A Te rminatio n ln scn - lena and Circuits, Second Edit io n. plifier for SSB Transceivers." RF Desi gn,
virive Am plifie r: ' QEX . J ut. 1995. pp 2 1- \kGraw-Hill. 11,l1,l5. J un. II,lI,lO. pp 71- 72.
29. 30 , H. Seide l. ··A Mic row ave Feed-For- :< S. J, Liebenrood . · ~r he Cascade: i\ 20175
22 , R.S. En gelbrec ht. U S Pate nt ward Exp eriment." Hell Svs tcm Fcchnol - 11 5S H Transceiver," Q R l' p , Dec. 1~.)l}5 ,
3,37 1.284, "Hig h Frequency Balanced 0KY lnurnat , No v. 197 1. QRPp is the quart erly journ al of:\ORCAL.
Amplifier." Feb 27, 196H, .1 1. R..Meyer. R. Esche nbach and W. the Northern California QRP Cluh.
23, Kurokuwa and Enge lbrech t. ·' A Ldgcrley. ··A Wide-Hand Feed For ward 39. R. Le wallen, "A n Optirr u/ ed QRr
Wid ch a nd Lo w Noise L' Band Balanced Amplifi er." l EE/;' J ou rn al or Solid -S /(II., T ra nscei ver," QS1'. Aug. 1980. pp 14-1 9.
Transistor A m plifi er: · l'm ceed;ngs oftill' Circuits . Vol SC-9 . :'\0. 6. Dec. 1 9 7~ . -+0. Ibid.
I EEE. •\ lar . 19f15. pp 237- 2-+-1- pp -+2 ~A:!8.
-+ I. Ibid.
2-+, C. Horrabin . I), Roberts and G _ Fare. 3l. \ 1. Jo hanccon and T. .M al "'~on . "Trans-
-+2 . w. Hayward . "Elec tronic Ante nna
··The CDG1UOO IIF Transceiver." RaJ io mitt e r Linearization Usi ng Canestan
Switch ing ." Q£X. M a ~' . 199 5. pp 3-7 .
Communications, J un. 2002. pp 19-11. Feedback fo r Linea rT DMA Mod ulatio n: '
I tt'!:' vehicular TecJlIIo/f1K" Conference, -0. w Doherty and K. roos. ·"PIN Diodes
25. U. Rohde. "H igh Dynamic Ra nge
199 1. pp --1-39--+-+-+. Offe r High Po we r HF-B and S witc hing,"
Two-Meter Converter." /Jam Radio. J ul
Mic rowave s and RI-'. Dec. 11,l93,
1l}77. pp 55 -5 7. Also see W . Hay ward, .l 1. E. Pappcnfuv, W. Brucne and E.
pp 119- 11ii.
tntroduc non to Radio Freonencv IJ e.l ig l1 . Sc hoe nike. Chapte r 13. Si ll !: /e Sideba nd
p 2 1fl . Pr incip les and Ctr cuns, McG raw-H il I. -+-1. W . Ha yward. ··A Q RP SS B/C\V
1964. T ranccivc r ror 14 M Hz:' QSJ", Dec . 19S9.
26. ~1. Dishal , "Alignment a nd Adj ust -
pp 18-2 1 and Jan. 1990. pp 2S-3 !.
mcnt uf Sync hrono usly T uned Multiple - ~ -+ , W . Sab in. "A IOO-W ,\ lO SFJ-T HF
Resonant-C ircuit Filte rs." Proceeding s of Ampl ifier." QEX . No vlD ec, 1999 . pp J I· -15 . Q R }'/!. quarterl y jo urn al of the Nort h-
the lR t:'. No v. 11,l5 1. pp 1-+-+S· I-+55. .HI. ern Californ ia Q RP Club. Sep. 199-+.
27. A. b e rev. Hacdboot:of Filter S I"I1III e· 35. W. Haywa rd . " A Q RP SSH/C W -+6. S PRA T. Sum me r 200 1.
.1;'. Chapter 9. Wil ey. 1% 7. Trance iver fo r 14 MHz: · 0 .51'. Dec. 1989. 47 . S. Price. "Sideba nd Ca n He Simple."
28. B.Goldberg. "F req uency Synthesis pp Ilk ! I and Jan. 191,lO. pp ::! 8-3 1. R(l d io Co mmunications, Scp . 1991 .
pp -+ 1--+5.

6.94 Chap ter 6

 CHAPTER

Measurement Equipment

7.0 MEASUREMENT BASICS

vt eas ure men ts are funda men tal 10 all equipme nt needed by Ihe begi nner men- is e xa mi ned in iso lation fro m the re st. with
( '0\ e d o us radi o ex pe ri men ter s . The be - tio ned abo ve. but e xpan d to incl ude the te st equi p me nt subctiru ted for some com-
nne r need.. a volt me ter to debug the kit gea r neede d by the har d -co re ex peri- po ne nts , Clearly. th is is a major dist ur-
k or she has just built . a simple pow er me nter. T his equ ipme nt is based u pon ba nce: the stud ied syste m c eases to func-
meter to eva luate it, and a bridge to use in so me specific guideli nes : tio n d uri ng the mc as urc mcr u. Ho we ve r,
l<1ting up an a ntenn a to usc wit h it. At the l. The expe ri men ter shuuld measure cv- thing s ca n be evaluated tha t canno t he
-eher ex treme is the de signer/ex per i- erythi ng that he or she can. Even if yo u me asured in situ. An example o f a suhs ti-
_ nle r who li ves wi th the eq uipment do no t have the "right too l:' yo u can ruuon measu re ment would be determina-
eee ded for the des ign effort s. ofte n perfo rm an app ro ximate deterrru- tion o f receive r sensitiv ity. An o sc ill o -
There was a lim!" when the test equipment na tio n. The most c asu al meas ure me nt scope or vo ltmeter ca n' t mea sure the sub
eed by the radio amateu r was no more than is "till more informati ve tha n none. mic ro-vo lt signals that are app lie d to the
~ indic ato r level gea r needed [0 build basic "I Tes t eq uip me nt need no t be re fi ned . ant en na termin al of the receiver. So. we
feU (VOM and dipper) with the "hig h emf' That is. s im ple eq uip men t is sti ll ad- examine the receiver out put wh ile apply -
a'lIl, jq ing of service equipment. Today's ex- equate if you c a n pe rform a ca librat ion ing a culibrs ted sig nal source to the input.
~ l al i o n s demand more, Not only do we wish that pro vide s i nfor matio n Substitu tio n mea surem ents pr o vid e the
build some of the eq uip mentthat we use. but 3. T he equip ment in thi s ch apter is d e- basi s for rad io freq ue ncy ele ctronics.
.e want to understand the performance. Our si gned fo r the RF ex pe rime nter with a We lI'il/ often describe 1111' me asure-
e-tions probe further a'i we seek to design pr im ary in teres t in bu ild ing rad io melll,1 WI' (/is(' IIJI us being s ubs titut ion or
. I equipment. placing greater demands on eq uip me nt. It is e asy 10 beco me a -tcst ill situ, It is impo rta nt to iso la te the two ,
:Dea. urcrncnts. Traditionalse rvice gear i ~ U!;U- eq uipm ent ju n ky" by buildi ng and pur- for a pie ce of eq uipme nt suited to c ue
Iy inadequate, lacking range and accuracy. c hasin g a gr eat co llect ion o f go od lest mode ma y be useless for the other. Som e
But it is imp ractical [0 pun-have the lahurillOr)" gear. with no re so urces le ft for the eq uipme nt c an mo ve into both wo rlds so
equipment II ': ....nuld really like to have. The o rig inal e xpe rimen ts. Ind ivid ua l goals lo ng as it is app lied with care.
ecpe rimenrer's measurement gear is often spe- must be the guidel ine.
ctalized, aimed at performing a fe.... fundamen-
~ measurements, but doing so with meaning-
Using This Chapter
" I aeeuraq .
In Situ vs Substitution
We will descr ibe a varie ty of test eq uip-
This represents a re searc h a ttitude. em u- Measurements ment in th e follow·ing pages . Som e is
I.Iting the w ay .... e mig ht exa mine a new Me asu re ments us ually fall int o two si mple while some i, more complex. Th e
fiel d w her e no ins tr umentation exi sts. bu t classes . T he in .i tu ur ill place measure- or d er o f presentanon do cs not generall y
...here the q uest io ns mu st st rll be a n- me nt is o ne w here instru me nts arc attac hed coi nc ide with co mp lexit y o r uurny. feav-
-we red. Th e researcher expects to de velo p to a wo rkin g syste m. A go al is to e xtract a v ing the beg inner sea rc hing for the suitable
k W skills as he attac ks hiv or he r .... o rk. much informatio n as possible without dis- starting po int.
The us ual e nginee r is o nly e xpec ted to t urb ing th e sys te m any more tha n f s abso- T he nov icc e xpe rime nte r sh ould be gin
possess the skills at the beginnin g o f a lute ly nece ssary. ~1 o s t o f the mea s ure - with the simple st gear suc h as a voltmeter
projec t, will ing to deal wit h tech no lo gy. ments we do wit h a n o vcillcscope or a fo r ki t h uild ing. Add a n instrument fur
""ithuul an ex pectatio n to d evel o p it. vo ltmeter o cc ur in situ, Such me as ure - measuri ng indu ctor and capaci tor values a s
This chapter ad dr esses me asurem e nt ments arc th e bas i , o f analog electr onic s. you progre ss beyo nd thes e begi nnin gs. If
needs b y d escribing som e fun da me ntul rest T he co ntrasting me asure me nt uses a yo u are building a ny RF co mmunications
eq uipme nt. We beg in wi th some of the sub sti tut ion. I n t his cas e. part of a system gear yOL! will wa nt a powe r me ter or some

Measurement Equipment 7. 1
other means fur po wer de termina tion . the tim ing measuremen ts o r digital etec- mental concept, tell us tha t it should ? This
As your commitment 10 e xperi me nta- tro r nc s . Th e oscillosco pe the n bec omes me ans that the test eq uipmen t is in constant
tio n dee pens . yo u wi ll want mo re tes t the Io undano n for nu merous other mea- usc during con..rruc uon of a project. Each
equipment. An inexpe nsive oscillosco pe sure rnent too ls. stage in a complicated system is eva luated
is pro bably o ne (If the most useful tools BUL no mailer " hal eq uipme nt j~ being and confirmed as the system grows. The
o ne cou ld acq uire . It IS usefu l for th e d J S- uced . si mplt' or sop his ticated. keep you r user shou ld divorc e himself f ro m the over-
vic in situ analog mea- urernenrs, the sub- goals in mind. Our goa l is 10 undervrand: simp lified idea that tes t equipment is
vntu rion measu rements of It F. and eve n Doe, the gear we build perfor m as funda- merely a too l for final eval uation .

7.1 DC MEASUREMENTS
The most basic instrument of elec tron - sure de and ac voltage and current and de user sho uld be care fu l when ucing DV!l.1s.
ics i'i the galvanometer or fund amen tal re sistance. Some have bec ome so good and for the y c rea te some unique problems.
phyvics. Curr ent flows in a cei l to produ ce <.0 ine xpensive that it is j ustified 10 pu rchase Probabl y t he grea te st is the assumption
a magnetic field. inte racting .... ith another a genera l-purpo se instrument to build into a tha t the y are av accu rate as their resole- (
field to cause fo rce again. t a spring. The special applicatio n.' The typical DV~l will rion. We sho uld no! assume that a met er
res ulti ng motio n nes an attac hed scale [Q have an inpu t resis tance of 10 Mil when rea d ing a vo ltage to I mVor bet ter is ac-
ind icate curre nt. mea..uri ng de voltage. Some tradnicnal c urat e 10 that le ve l. See the me ter ' s
The si mp le 0 to I rnA meter moveme nt VTV ~h also had a J()'-M11 input resistance. manu al . Another often -overlooked prob-
i ~ a modern equivalent. This meter usually but also had a resistance (I ~Hl or more) lem i~ the "burden" of these me ters when
has a very 10.... internal resistance of 25 to buill into the lip of the pro be used with the measuring current. Burden is the voltage
t OO n. Large r correm-, are measured with Instrume nt. Thi s allo wed the probin g or sen- d rop across the me ier when measuring
met er "s hunt " re"i'lOrs while VOl tage i ~ vitivecircn irs with link loa din g.e ve n at high cu rrent . This can often be se vera l tenths of
mea sured wirh a series "multiplier" r<: <,i<,- freq uencies. While the modem D V ~1 will a vuh for high c urre nts. a depa rture from
tor. A I mA meter movement would need not cause proble ms wit h de loading. the long the classic mu hi rne te rs of the past.
a IO-J..:Q resistor 10 measu re 10 V. Hen ce. test lead can certai nly cau se proble ms for We often wish to measure a udio signa ls
a voltmeter 'ill built wo uld load the ci rcuit circui ts containing signals at audio or higher fro m t he ou tp ut of re ceiver-c . Th is is be st
be ing mea sured as if a 10K resis tor " as frequencies. do ne with a true RMS resp o ndi ng voltrn c-
attac hed ro grou nd . See .· i~ 7.1- w hile th e reso lutio n and accu rac y of a ter. Some of the ne wer DV\ -1.s from Flu ke
The loading prob le m, are vlgnifi caml y modern Dv M is o utsta nding . ma ny uverv and other vendors include this highly use -
reduced when actin.' circuit-, appe nd the still prefer an ana log indication when J fu l featu re. The use r witho ut o lder meters
meter move ments. The traditio nal activ e circ uit i , bei ng adj us ted. Some DV M ~ can stil l pe rform true R ~I S a udio measure-
instrument is the classic VTV\1, or vacuum appr oxima te an analog met er mo ve me nt ments by building an appropriate adapte r.J
rube voltmeter, A modern equivalent ts a with a dig ital bar gra ph. This pJ pe r is included o n the CD th at
voltmeter using an op-amp with an example In spite of their j ust ifie d po pularity. the accompanies thi s book.
shown in FIg 7.2. The input signal is applied
10 a very high imp edance volta ge divider.
res ulting in a signal to the non-inverting in-
put ohm up-amp. Tbe 11.. 11 in series with the
meter, RcAl • elm become J 2· 1.. 0 1'101if cali-
bration is requ ired.
Most cxpcrtrncnrers tend to purchase
gcneral-purpo-,e meters rather than build
the m fro m scratc h. The typica l unit f s a
digilal voltme ter . or DVM tha t will mea-
C A -3 14 0 11

si

...
(hI 0_l mA

f •

(A)
e (S)
O·1mA

(e )
~
~

Fig 7.2-A si mple c p-amp based voltmeter. The meter is one normally inten ded for
Fig 7.1-A basic 0-1 mA meter (A); use as a ()..15 V meter whe re .II 0-1 rnA movement is used with an ext erna l 15-kn
measures higher current (8) , or vo ltage multiplier. T he 0 to 15 ind ic atio n o n the meter is now used to register 0 to 1.5 o r 15 V,
(e) w ith the ad di tion o f resistors. but with a 15-Mn input resi sta nce . Th is circu it o pe rates wi th an op-amp v olta ge gain
Resistance can be measu red wi th these of about 7, generating an output of 7 V fo r a full scale respon s e. With a 9-V su pply it
through app licat ion of Ohm 's Law. becomes virtually impossible to damage the meier movement with exces s vo lt age.

7.2 Cha pte r 7

 Y-Deflec t ion
Coth od~ P l at ~5

Hea t er \ Grid Ano de

\ \ I

=~,)~
-I~ /
/
- ---

Fig 7.4- Linear ramp app lied to t he X

ax is of a CRT. A re pe ate d ra mp is ca lled
a saw tooth wa ve for m.

Fig 7.3-C ross s ectio n view of a ca t ho de ray lub e.

7.2 THE OSCILLOSCOPE

The ultimate measure me nt tool for the Fig 7.5- The
u me do m ain (exp lai ned lat er) is the cath- a appearance o f an
od e ray oscilloscope, or just osc illoscope osc illo scope
Of sco pe . Th is is an ins tru me nt that us u ally r.s fa ceplate wh ile
me asure s a voltage that var ie-s as a tunc -
non of time and dis p lays the- re su lt as a , I e xam ining a
s in us oi d. This a c
vo lta ge mo ve s
u me gr aph . Other measurements are also fro m zero to
pos sible and will he outlined. 1.5 V,bac kt o
The basis for a traditio na l oscilloscope "' ze ro , to - 1.5,
. \ the- cat hode ra y tube, sho wn in F ig 7.3. and again 10
Thi s device begins at the le ft with a heater " zero , with th e
seq uence
and a c athode , the electro n-emitting ele- ~,
! re peating for a
.ment in the st ructure. Those unfa mil ia r
.. uh th e basics o f vac uum tube s can ex am-
ee the ir construction and operation in the
-, I lon g t ime . This
s ig nal is
meas ured as 3 V
Io. RRL Handbook, The CRT ca thode is peak-to- pea k. The
much like that in any ot her vacu um rube. -" d isplay shown
ha s a vertical
although it is usua lly a fl at or pl anar sur- sens itiv ity s etting
face. Di rectl y to the ri ght of the cathode is ~
, a , , s s , • • o f 0 .5 V per
I grid . Normal bias sl ig ht ly negative with " , in
d iv is io n.
res pect to the cathode prev ents the elec -
tro ns fro m leavi ng th e region c lose to the
cat hode . C hang ing the gr id b ia s sl ig ht ly in
I po sit ive direction allows som e ele c tron s The electron beam le av ing the gu n axis. A signal app lied to th e gri d next to the
to es cape . T hey are then acc e ler ated to- passes between defle ction plates . often no ca thode is ca lled a l axi s or int en sity modu -
.. ard an element ca lled an anod e . Th is, m or e tha n parall el sh eet s of me ta l. T he latio n.
plus other electrodes not shown, ca uses the beam passes first through the vertical, or Y T here are nume ro us appl icatio ns for thi s
ele ctron s to be fo rmed into a beam. or ruv, plate s. and the n enters the hori vorual or X versati le co nfig ura tio n. For ex amp le, if a
1!I accord ance with the cl assic name . The de fl ecto r. A voltage applied bet we en the fa st ramp is rep eatedl y ap plied 10 the X
pa n of the CRT d escribed is ca lled the p late s gen erates an elec tric fiel d causing axis (call ed a raste r) wh ile a slow o ne
electron gun. the electrons to mo ve toward the more dr ives the vert ical , the entire facep late area
The re gion afte r th e electron gun con- positive plat e . The el ec trons arc moving is sca nned . Modula tion app lied to th e
tai ns th e deflection electrode s . These w ill quite fa st as the y ente r the deflectio n inte nsity co ntro lling grid then allows tele-
Ille r the beam direction and allow it to reg ion, so the change in d irect ion bro ught vision 10 be displayed.
eve ntual ly strik e th e faceplate where it will abo ut by the defl ecto rs may he slight. Hut O sc illoscope measure me nts u su ally
Imp inge on a phosphor. a material that a few vo lts across the horizontal plat es wi ll beg in w ith a ra mp . a voltage tha t gr ows
give s off light when struck by e nerget ic cause a beam o rigin a lly headed for the linearly in ti me. applied to th e X a xi s. A
pa n icl e s. faceplate center to strik e at the edge . signa l hei ng stud ied then driv e s the Y axi s.
Mos t of the electron gun is bia sed ncga- The volt age ap plie d to the X pl ates will If th at signal. fo r example , is a si mpl e s ine
uvety at a po ten tia l of - 500 to - 2000 V cau se the beam position to var y with the wave. the user sees a sine pattern on the
.. hiJe the defl ect io n re gio n is cl ose to a pplie d voltage . If we apply a voltage that face of the CR T . Thi s resu lt is show n in
ground. The res t of the CRT is also nca r is II linear ramp with ti me . shown in F ig 7.5 .
eround potential for simple 'scopes . Higher F ig 7.4. the result is a horizo ntalline ac ros s The op er ati on j ust des cribed wo uld
pe rformance inst r um en ts often incl ude II the Facep late. wo rk wel l if the CRT was very bri gh t and
high volt age pos t de flec tion acce leration The el ectro ns move predominantly just o ne swe ep occu rred . Th e sinuso id
IPDA) region for greate r brightne ss. alo ng what is usuall y refe rred to as the -r wo uld be seen r ight aft er it occurred . hut

Measurement Equ ipment 7 .3

 wou ld the n decrea se in intens uv a <, th e
phosphor decays in lime. MOSl of the signals
we study arc repeated in time and Vie usc a
low inten vitv beam that appears again and
again. If Vie did this without doing some -
thing special to force the horizon tal sweep
and the vertical excu rsion 10 synchrnnive ,
we would have a display like that of Fig 7.6
where no inform ation is conveyed.
Fig 7.6- The sine
Th e elements that cau se this synchron i- wave of Fig 7.5
zatio n arc ca lled trigge r ci rcuits . critical viewed witho ut
part s of an osc illosc op e nnw sho wn in t riggering, See text,
gre ater de tail in the bloc k diag ram of
Fig 7.7 , The trigger is a circ uit that loo ks
at the sig nal, pre sent in t he verti cal chan-
nel. Once a predetermined level set by a
front panel co ntrol (trigge r le vel ) is
reached, a pulse is gener ated that is scm to
two part s of the syste m. Th e pulse reac h-
ing the swee p circuit where the sa wtooth
wave is gen e rated starts the ram p. The
pul se re achi ng the Zcaxis sy stem 1I1l-
blanks the e lec tron gu n. tur ning o n the
e lecrr on bea m. On ce just one swee p is fin -
ished. it termina tes. but st arts aga in when
a new trigger pulse i, gener ated.
1\10 Sl "sc opes have an automat ic trigger
\/er1ical
mode that cau ses a conti nuou s sequ enc e
of sweep s to occur. Ho wever. as soon as a "'"
vali d trigg er pulse is gen era ted by a ver ti -
cal sig nal. that actio n domin ates. Whil e the
vert ic al signal is the most obv ious a nd
use ful source fo r tri ggering, others ca n
also be used. An external trigger ter minal
is usef ul fo r source s that have a well de-
fined assoc iated signa l. It is also useful tu Hm;,""'al
A"",lfie,
trig ge r from the 60 Hz line. allo wing re-
lated (h um) signa l> to be exa mined .
The scope vertica l input dri ves a resi s- Fig 7.7-Partial block d iag ram for an osc illoscope. See text for deta ils.
tive ancnuator th at estab lishes ver tical
sensitivity. The most sensitive position is
typically 10 m V per division . incre asing to
9 He g
10 V per division in a 1-2-5 sequence. All ( B,)~o-_

~(:n j' ruo,

"°'4' J-
modern scopes are de co upled , altho ugh the
user has the option of ac co upling. That is.
applying a de volta ge will prod uce chan ge ';~_ . ~ ~ 5 2 0pF »e
in the sweep posit ion that remains as lo ng CA ) -:::- _ _
1 Hey I 5 0 PF
a, the de is present.
T he ava ilabi lity of two or more vertical
channels i v also com mon. A var-iety of !c ~
schemes are used to share one e lec tron gun Fig 7.8-A 10X osci lloscope probe . Par t A s hows the probe a nd t he input to t he
with the two. attac hed scope while B shows an eq uiva lent c irc uit. See te xt.
Th e hori zo nta l swee p is usually ca li-
brated with a wide range of sweeps. O ne
of the instrume nts used for much o f o ur 20 pl-. As such. the loadi ng imposed by nation dri ves t he in put RC of the scope.
wor k is a Tektronix 45 3 with sweep rate, the ' scop e is not se vere. How ever. it ca n The capacitor is adj usted to prod uce clean,
of 0,5 seco nd to 0. 1 microsec ond per divi- still be substanti al, ofte n do min ate d by the sharp edges whe n dr iving the pro be from
sion. Both the verti cal and the rime base cap acita nce ofthe cab le need ed to connec t a l -kH z square wave. the usual calibrator
c an be operate d in un-calibrated ruudcs in the instr ume nt to a c ircu it bei ng rested. built into most oscillos co pes . Witho ut the
most sco pes. f urther. both X and Y cha n- A ty pica l oscill osc ope acc ess or y is a lOX probe . the sco pe input has a low pass
nels have related posi tio n co ntrols. allow - lOX probe. used to reduce the capacita nce charact eristic fo rmed by the cir cui t resis-
ing the d isp lay to be moved to fit the in- seen by a circuit bei ng tested . A l OX prob e tance a nd the sco pe in put ca pacit ance. The
co min g data. circuit is sho wn in Fig 7.8. A fixed capaci- two c apacitors of Fig 7.SR form a lo w pa ss
The input imped ance of the typi cal ver - tance parallels a 9 -I\H l res istor to drive the - high pass co mb inatio n with effec ts that
tica l cha nnel is ! M ,n para lle led by abo ut cab le and a vari able ca pacitor. T he com bi- can cel (an all pa ss filter), ex tend ing per-

7. 4 Chapter 7
formance to the pr obe tip. they are in phase wit h e ach other. But a duei ng a digital versi on of a pic ture that is
It is common to find beginners who ac- 90 degree phase dif ferenc e will produce a eve ntua lly presented for view ing on an
quire a new oscilloscope , but do not get the circ le ",..hen both ha ve the sam e amplitude , inexpens ive displa y. The perfor mance is
probes to go with it. Don' t! The 'sco pe with- These are calle d Lissaj ous pattern s. The often impress ive, as are the prices .
out the lOX probes is an invitation to mis- X- Y mode is a lso usef ul with other instru- As you be come acc usto med to a new
jeadin g mea surement attemp ts resu lting ments that include their o wn time basis oscill osc ope , you will fin d numero us ways
from the loading from high oscilloscope in- (swecp.) such as a hornebuilt spe ctru m to app ly it. It is effective in measuring de
put capacita nce. Almos t all high frequency analy zer discu sse d later. leve ls as well as the ac sig nals wit hin a
measurements done with a 'sco pe are per- The up-to-date osc illoscopes offered for circuit. Careful triggering and setti ng of
formed with the lOX probe. E ven this load- indu strial and research applicat ions differ horizo ntal posit ion will allow surpr ising ly
mg is ex treme in many applications. from the trad itio nal picture we have accura te freque nc y measur e ment s, al-
Mo st oscilloscope s also ha ve an X- Y painted. Whi le many of the changes relat e t ho ugh not up to co unte r sta ndard s. We
mode where one ver tical cha nnel drives to ex tended reatures , other s deal with the will c omment on vario us applicatio ns
the Y axis , but the o ther is attached to the very nature of the pro d ucts. Modern scopes t hroug hou t the res! of this chapter.
X axis. If you use this setu p with two si ne rarely featur e the high performance CRoTs A good gen era l purpose re ference o n
waves, you can infer something abo ut the of earlier times. Rat her. the in put connec- tradi tional oscilloscope meas ureme nts is
phase relatio nship be tween t hem . Two tors drive amplifiers that then drive high the paper hy K70 WJ. which is incl ude d
sine wave sig nals of the same freq ue ncy speed Analog to Digi tal co nverters. pro- on the CD tha t acc omp anies this book.'
wil l prod uce a slanted, 45 degree l ine if

7.3 RF POWER MEASUREMENT

One of the rirst things the beginning be yon d their normal rating for sho rt inte r- two parallel IOO-C!. 2-W res is tors. In prac-
co mmunic ations exp erim en ter wishes to vals. One terminat ion we use for 100- W tice. I- W res istors would work well fo r
measure is radio freque ncy pow er. usually meas ure ment s consists of 30, 1.5-kQ 2-W short tes ts. The circ uit at (8) is actua ll y
fro m a tra nsm itter. Although not hard in resistors . These methods arc genera ll y two po wer me ters with o ne meter mov e-
co ncept, it c an be a di fficult measure ment co nfined 10 50 MH r. and low er. men t. This scheme func tions beca use the
(0 perfo rm with good accurac y. We can add a volt meter to the cir cuits of typi cal milliampere mete r has a low inter-
The simplest way to measure RF power Fig 7.9 for a stand alo ne instrume nt requi r- nnl resistance.
ce, a termination with a dissipa tion ing no external meter. Tw o versions are The two ranges of the meter at Fig 7. I 0
exceedin g the highest power 10 he measured, show n in Fig 7.10 . T he one at (A ) uses are qu ite differe nt. T he one at the right
.a diode, and a capacitor in a peak detector . a l-mA meter movemen t with a 15-kQ hand inpu t is muc h like the othe rs d is-
Ioho wn in Fig 7.9. A transmitter to be tested resistor to form a voltm eter with a max i- cussed while the left inp ut ha s a 50 mw
r> attached to the load and the signal is recti- mum of 15 V. Using Eq 7. 1, the max imum full-sc ale read ing (+1 7 d hm ). Th is range
fied by the diode, which then charges the power would then be 2.43 W, so the 50-a is bes t c a librated again st a c alibrated
capacitor. The capacitor will reach a voltage load resi stor sho uld have this dissipation signal gener ator. Alternatively . a high er
~arl y equaling the peak ac value. Although ra ting or grea ter. A valid cho ice wou ld be pow e r mete r can be used to mea sure a
virtually an y meter can he used, one with a
iligh de impedance is preferred. A DV:\f
works well, although if adjus tmen ts are be- Fig 7.9-A pea k
109 done, analog action is still useful. 1N4 15 2
detector (A) measures
Assuming a diode drop of O,D Y, the RF (Bl the peak RF vo ltag e
power is given by Eq 7. 1 where R is usually across a load,
To vo l w...t..r allowing calculati o n
50 Q . The breakdown voltage for the
1:\-1 152 diode is JOO V, so de levels of of RF power. Th e
s chem e at (B) allows
50 V can he meas ured, correspondi ng to a
tittle over 25 v,.'. O ne can use higher break-
down diode s or tap the diode part way down
( Al
I higher powe rs to b e
deter m ined w it ho ut
taxing d io de
m... resistor to measure higher power, shown b reakd own Voltages.
m Fig 7.9B. One must, howe ver, alter the
equation to reflect the vol tage divis ion .
~o JJIW Input
3 W I np ut
(Yo, + 0.6)' Eq 7.1
1N 3\1J I or
2 ·R t -c;ar~'ie~'

Rl can be a parallel or series combina-

tion of res istors 10 reach the needed dissi -
patio n. T wo or three watt resistor s can be (Al
(B ) o- o . ~
stacked bet ween parallel sheets of circuit ~
board mat erial to reach the 100-W le vel. If
the resis tors are spaced from each other, Fig 7.10-(A) sh o ws an instrum en t w it h built in meter w h il e t he v er sio n at (B ) has
and open to the air, they can be stressed two RF in puts available. See te xt fo r details.

Measurement Equipment 7. 5
 d B Arithm etic
V ac ros s a 150-n resista nce (7.5 mW ) as + 8.75 dBm ,
Two RF powe rs are compare d as a rat io, or in dB form
eve n t houg h this is not the res ult we would read if the
w ith
relate d pow er source was app lied to a 50-n power me te r.
With most measurements, an increment from one value
dB=1 0 L09 ( :: ) to ano ther occu rs w ith a step va lue of the same units . For
example, we change the length of a 50-inch antenna by
one inch to becomes 51 inches. T he inch unit is used in all
..where the pow ers P, and P2. are bot h in th e sa me cases. But this is not the case with dB and dBm. An
units of W , mW or ~ W . T he dB. as we ll as other logar ith- absolute powe r of 20 mW (+13 dBm ) is increased with an
mic fo rms is usef ul because a change in power rat io is amp lifier by a facto r of 5 (7 dB) to 100 mW (+20 dBm .) A
an alyzed with ad dition or subtract ion. dB is def ined on ly dBm value is altered by adding a dB va lue to bec ome a
w hen two po we rs are con side red . new dBm va lue. T he ratio of two pow ers is obtained by
We often sp ecify a powe r in dB terms with respect to taking the difference of their dBm values to get a power
some ref erence . dBW is dB w ith respect to 1 W . Th e ratio in dB .
familiar dBm is power referred to one mW . T hese are It is usually not cor rect to "inc rease a + 27 dBm powe r
bot h ratios, with the 1 (mW ) understood . Whi le many by 3 dBm ," wh ich wou ld literal ly mean inc reasi ng 500
pow er measurements we perform t hat read out in mW mW by 2 mW. Wh at was probably inten ded was to double
happen in SOon systems , this is ce rtai nly not nec essa ry. (3 dB increase) the power ot a +27 d Bm (one ha lf walt)
T here is noth ing to precl ude us fr om refe rring to 1.5 peak so urc e (500 mW ) to 10 00 mW (+30 dB m o r one watt.]

Fig 7 .11 - This pow er meter , based on

the work of W7El , has full scale
read ings of 0.3 and 3 vo lts RMS wit h
sens it ivity of less th an - 10 dBm. The
circu it can be adapted to other ranges.
R3 can be changed 10 6 kQ if a 0-1 mA
movement is used. See text for details.

suit able source such as a QR P n ansmiue r.

A st ep an cnuator is the n used to de crease
the po wer in kno wn steps to c alibrat e the
50 -m\" input. Th e mor e se ns itive mete r
c an detect pow ers as lo w a s 1 or 2 m\\'.
Thc intended purpose o f pow er me ters
wi th sma ll max im um po wer is not to te st
very small t ra nsmi tter s. R ath er, it is 10
mea sure RF powe r in the early stage s of
transmitters or in rec eiver LO syst ems. A
ve ry common exa mple is when setti ng up
50-n pow er meter usin g the
com pensation method of W7 EL. a diode ri ng mix er usi ng hot ca rrier d iode s
Insi de v iew of the W7 EL ty pe power
for La po wer of +7 dB m (5 rnW. ) Th is is
mete r. a sub stitution measu rem ent wh ere a sou rce
is set fo r an a vai lahle po wer o f 5 m\V i nto
50 n. even though it is attac hed in pract ice
to a less ideal ter mi natio n.

10</,8 PAD
M icrowatt M eter
SOA.S ..... C ircuits
Se ver al met hod s can ex te nd the se nsi -
Thi rty paralleI2-W,l.5-kQ resistors
sandw iched between postca rd-sized ti vity of po wer measuremen ts. all owi ng
pieces of circu it board material form a lo wer le ve ls to he read. O ne use s an
medium power terminat ion. Although op -amp to fo llow the RF detec tor. Th is
the rating is only 60 walts, the wide g uaranree s a high impedanc e load for the
spacing between resis to rs allows 100 A 10-dB pad built into a small bo x is a
watts to be diss ipated fo r modesl li mes. valuable piece of test equ ipm ent as detec tor. The n a match ing d iode is plac ed
The wire hooks are conven ient places t o well as a station accessory su itable fo r in the up-am p feedback path, w hich
attach an osc illos cop e lO X probe . reduced powe r experiments . e ssc n tia lly re moves the effec ts of d io de

7 .6 Chapter 7
 offvet. T h is method was preve nted by
Gre benke mpe r in 19 K7 arid the n app lied
10 a n in -l in e QRP po wer meier by
Le wal len in 1990 . Bo th papers are o ut-
"ta nd ing. and a rc inclu ded o n t he boo k
CD . ~ ··~ Both instru ments included built -in
di recuonal couplers that allow ed them 10
be used for in- line po we r and VSWR mea-
soremenr.
T he simple powe r meie r shown in
Fig 1,11 was ad apted from Lc walle n' v
de sign. T he input is a 50-Q ter minano n
follow ed by the detector. The following
op-amp includes il diode wit hi n the feed-
Ni ne par a llel 470-0 r es isto rs form th e back path . The major effect o f lhis diode is
A F lo ad f o r t he 2Q-W power me te r. The to cancel th e effect uf the vo ltage dru p
One box co ntain s three po we r mete rs di ode d etect o r an d meter multiplie r
hang on one s id e. Th e BNC c o n nec to r
acro ss the detec tor diode, f or c i ng the
-rth f un sca le response s of1 00 m W,
:zW. and 20 W. mounts the bo ar d to a wa ll. mei er to generat e a read i ng clo ser to the
RF value. The p anel meter available whe n
th is was bui ll had 010·3 rnA mo vement. <;0
the instrume nt v..as set up fo r f ull scale
read ings o f 0.3 and 3 V, R11S. This d06
not mea n thai a true R ~IS voltage is being
read. It' s still essentially a pea k reading
.u
n. n. circu it. bu t is calibrated with rega rd 10 the
~.... P ~J" rela ted RMS va lue. R esi ~tor" w ere se-
le cted at R I a nd R 2 to est ablish the ra nges .

.~~1
., -
..... ~ 1
no
Le wallen used pots in his meier. The ci r-
cu it in the figure ca sil) respo nde 10 \ignals
k s" than - 10 dB m.
II ,! : 1II'n11 a . _ 1 . . ... t
Fig 1.12 " howl' a po wer meter using two
c.oI'T'r. ti<>* . other methods In obtain gre ater scnsutv -
ity. Th e first is bias: The d iodes arc
Fig 7.12- Lo w -level po wer meter capa b le of well under 1 ILW f u ll scale. Th is c irc u it biased at about :!O IlA in this sys tem . Two
is cali b rated ag ainst a cal ib rated sign al g en erator, o r ag ainst an anen ua ted C RP diodes arc used i n a diffe re ntial a rrang e-
transm itter tha t ha s been mea su re d wi th a s imp le powe r meter . mcnt to reduce tempe rature drift. The bias

U2
7 8L O ~

Req e, s
"'
~
cor
,. s.a "
""
s.e

j':~
cs cr ss
';+' O , 2~ "+;.22 sr

ce
• is ';+'
e,
R~ ,n~'~"'~...J..xA-j...J'YIL-1 f-_, ".c. "",
1/2 L1.4 358 o- ,
m'
H' +
o.ot
IN P ws ENS , H a
"
6 .e ~

"" r,. ~., .

" " '"'

0 .001

4 .7 ~
'"
Except cs indicot ed. cecjmc r
values of capacitance ore
in microfar ads (jJ.F); others
ore in picofarad s ( pF);
resistcn ces ore in ohms;
k .1,000.
I"I.C. = No co nn ect ion

Fig 1 ,13-Logarithm ic power meter ca pab le of read ing s ignals Irom -&0 t o +13 dBm .

Measu rement Equipment 7.7

auows u-, \0 sec s igna l ~ of - JO dBm or bet-
te r itt R l. Leaded or s urface mounted ho t
ca rrie r diodes are u..ed . I bis circuit
worked with 1!\ 415 1 diodes. although uic
I"".. :
...
t~...- .
1It' _~t o '"

..
•'
.II

roP l~_~IO.
.... I
.I,

~
l1li'-.-
c_ c_
al : ~ ..... .... III GJoo.
ttI- t.' Y
scnsitivity was reduced by it couple of dR.
c
This dctccrortuncno ns wel l 100\·er 10H z. RJ : 51 0.... I.' Y iiI-
An o r-amp pro vides an interface betwee n •• L l : 1 • I . ' . ""' " " " _ . See tnt .
the diodes and the meter. and protects the (Bl
rncrcr against da mage fro m o verdrive .
Second , we enhance sensitivity with Ric .Jl : 6IfC c o"""" t o• .

amplifie rs be fore detectio n. Here. we use C, 5•• o. l wiaal _~< Io n CD.)

so me of the inexp ensi ve mono lith ic mi-
crowav c integrated circ uits ( ~l l\l1 C s) from
Mini-Circuits. Discrete feed back amplifi- "'
ers co uld also be used.
This power meter \.I·ill detect signa ls as
low as -1-0 dBm full scale. This circuit Fig 7.14-Po wer t ap with 4o-dB attenua tion. Part A s ho ws the basic co n c ep t w hile
di spl ay" abou t 10 dB of c ha nge in the B sh ows th e v er si o n bu il t. See text and o ri gi nal pa pe r o n t he book CO.
mete r mot ion, making it ideal for caref ul
adj ustme nt of filter circuits . The simpler
peak detector pow er me ters (Fig 7.9 ) typ i-
cally had 18 dB o r highe r scale range. scri bed can be extended to higher le vels the tap. The designer/builder shou ld run
Eve n greater sensi tiv ity is avai labl e with a variet y of meth ods. One is a power the circ uit o nly for short periods e r full
from the circ uit of Fij:t 7.l.l This po wer auenuator, described la ter. Anoth er is the po we r. for the resis tors us ed in the tap arc
meter is based o n a logarithmic amp lifie r 40 dB "t ap" shown in Fig 7. 14. This is o therwise taxed.
integra ted circ uit From Analog De vices. e xsennally a small metal box with a wire The po wer meter using the AD8 307 was
the ADR307. This circuit func tio ns as a conne ctio n through [ 0 an outp ut attached o riginally described in a QS T article tha t is
logarithmic det ect or. acce pti ng sig nals to a high po wer terminat io n. o r dummv included o n the CD. The tap information b
from audio up to 500 MHz over a power load, But the path is sa mpled with a large in that pape r."
range from aro und - SO dAm up to over value resisto r t hat then d ri ves a 50-a The in-line power me ter referenced ear -
+ 10 dRm . The output is then a de signal termi nated co nnec tor lead ing to the powe r lie r by Grebenkemper used two s imulta-
that tracks with vpec rac ular accu rac y. mete r. The power available a t the tap is. in neous de tect o rs at tached to the forwa rd
c han ging: h~ :'5 mv for each dB i nput rhis example. 40 dB below that flowing in and refl ec ted ports of a direc tional cou -
c hang e. The chip has a sen sitivity that rhc main path . The wirt> between J I and 12 pler. Th is allowed bo th co mponents 10 be
d rops wi th frequency. bu t t he circu it is actually a pi ece of metal. app roximately disp lay ed a l once. Furthe r, calculatio ns
shown is compensated to be Oat to beyond I . . 1.5 inches . trimmed to fit the box. a co uld be perfo nned on the resu lting da ta.
.sOIl \ fH L. This power mete r is de scri bed Ham mond 1590A. With the compe nsated t o p-amps wo uld probabl y be used.)
in detail in a paper on the CD that acc om - power mete r of Fig 7. 13 with a max imum N2PK has used a pair of AD8307 le s to
panies this boo k." powe r of + 13 dBm. signals be yo nd o btain sim ilar perfo rma nce with red uced
Any of the low level po wer met er s de- +50 dBm . or 100 v...' can be measured with po wcrs.

7.4 RF POWER MEASUREMENT WITH AN OSCILLOSCOPE

Fig 7. 15 sbows how RF pow er is mea- pier or ta p (desc ribed earlier ) in the inter- is accurat e.
s ured with an oscilloscope. A key con nec ting ca ble . An often used. hut generally inacc urate
eleme nt is the 50-0 terminator. Th is is a A lOX probe forms the second reco m- measu rement is sho wn in Fi~ 7.17. An ex-
50-U res istance that can be paralleled with mend ed met hod fo r RF powe r measure- ternal dummy load is used. but the intercon-
the oscilloscope input co nnector. The usual me nt. show n in r ig 7.16 . A power nect is real ized with sections of 50-a cable.
'sco pe vertical input is 1 ~ IU paralleled by terminat ion (d ummy load ) is connected !O The difficulty results from tra nsmi ssion line
20 pl-, ess entially an open circuit for low the transmitter with a coaxial cable. The behavior. We wish to examine the voltage
impedance RF. The tcnninaror is effective volta ge across the load is then meas ured across the 50-U termi nation while configur-
in selling impeda nce to 50 O . A termi nator with the probe . This met hod is generall y ing the lines so that a .so-n load is presented
use d tor power measurement should suitable for pow ers up to 100 W at HF. .3 to to the transmitter under test. A 50-0 load at
aIWII.I",I' appear at the scope end of the coax 30 1\-1H f . The ground lead sho uld he one e nd of a coaxial cable with 50·0 charac-
cable and never at the n ans nurtc r end , cl ipped In the grou nd part of the load . teristic impedance presents 50 n at the other
This meth od is limited to the po wer dis- Voltages exceedin g aro und 300 V ca n end. Thes e measurement requirements are
si pation of t he ter minato r use d a nd hy the da mage the usu al osci lloscope pro be. and satisfied by the setup of Fig 7. 15. but not
vertical input limits. Highe r po we rs can addi tional de -rarin g is req uired above with that of Fig 7. 17.
be meas ured by addi ng a 50- U att enuuror 10 ~ I H l. o r so. Fo r e xa mple. a IO-X probe Once a vo ltage meas ure ment ha s bee n
in the line. Muc h highe r power can be may well prese nt an impedance of only perfo rmed. it is eas ily co nverted 10 powe r
measured h~ routi ng a transmitte r output 5 kO hy the tim e you reach 10 )'f Hl., eve n with on e of severa l eq uatio ns, shown in
to a 50- 0 load through a di rectional c ou- thoug h the resulting voltage measurerne r u Fig 7. 18.

7.8 Ch a p te r 7
 I f\ N\ 50 Ohm
'\,v\j\f\
Dummy Loa d
V - in V- in
Coax' Cable
/ /~
50 Ohm Terminato r
at 'sco p e v -mput,
r<.B ?-1 G I Coax ' Cab le from
10X S co pe
P robe

/.,.:'0:.--1 Tran smitt er

T ra ns mitter Unde r
Te st

Fig 7.15-Po we r is mea su re d with a n osci llosco pe and a 50-0 Fig 7.16-A l OX pro be is used with an oscillos cope fo r power
term ina to r at t he scope input c o nne c tor. me asurem ent.

Fig 7.17 Ra ndo m •

inte rco nnectio n of 8 load V R.'IS-
to a s c o pe with c oax
sections can produce
P( walt s I = ---.::::::=-
R
severe e rror, See te xt.
V -•
p(>ak
P ( ,,·at h ). =
2-R

I Fig 7.18- Equ atlons used to calcul at e

pow e r fro m cscmceccce reading s.

Atte nuators
Aue nuaiors fo rm one of the 1l1 0~t im-
port ant and uce ful component... in any RF
... . ."
8e a ~ u n: m e n t laborato ry. Th ey beco me '"
,r ~-
•
~f'("c i a l1 y useful in a hom e lab. fo r the)' Fig 7.19-
.e ca ~i1 y constructed and calibrated with Sch ematics and
do.; Once available. thev can be use d to
". v,.v_ ". Bridged- Tee design equations
evtend numerou s mcasurem emv to lo wer ,
-~-
, ~

L.....-....v.J
for th ree popular
•~ anenuator terms.
"It highe r level s.
Three uuenuaror network fern» arc
'" n in FiA 7. 19_ T he series resistors have
~
I'
~ f • .i •
~
To design an y of
the ettenuatcrs,
pick R and A in dB
alue S and the parallel unev a resis tance P. and calcu late V
when terminate d in R rusually 50 H I atthe R ·t I VJ R .( l - , oJ with the fo rmu la
s_ R·( t - "~I
0

ghr. the input resistance looking in at the

p .. ._ -- S. shown. The
1- Y I _ " v parallel re s is tor,
IC"lt will also be R. This co ndition leads to
2- R P, a nd the series
.. mathemuuc al relatio nship belween the S. _ _~ _
·P R t _ s' R' o ne , S , are the n
p. - - - p- -
-ene-, and the paralle l resi stors. Setting the p' - R' 2-S 5 calc ula te d with
Mlenuation. which estab lished the o utpu t t he equation s.
volt.rg c V for a 1 V input. allows another
equ ation for eac h type to be deri ved. Scl v-

Measure ment Equipment 7.9

 r2'7'Ol
I 10 d B Pad I
I 32.8 W I = (6x ) 560 m ~

l' H ~ -ll2-100 Y
~ L . 1~~
; ..1-1-
_ ---'l~ J- ~~

120 dB pad l
151.9WI ! S.2 W (9x ) 560
470

Fig 7.20- Pow er dissipated i n each re sist or is shown for a

10·dB pad with 100 W applied. The numbers are also
~ fI HIHIi CJ1 510
62, 1\1/
Al l 2\1/ , X i co~ type 262- xxx unl e s s noted .
=

perc entage s.
Fig 7.21- Power 1t attenu ator s bu ll! by Fred, W2EKB. Th e
resi stors were pur chased fro m a catalog of electronic
comp one nts. The 262-KXK num bers are fro m a Mouser ca talog .
ing these two produces de vign equations
included in rig 7. 19. If we pick A=4 dB as
an exa mple, V will be 0.631. resulting in
P=221 n and S=24 n fo r thc pi. P= I 05 n 10 the input. T he pu wers d issi pated in the the Input should be ca refully label ed.
and s= 11.3 n for rhc Tee. with P=fl5.5 n o utpu t and the three re ~ h lOr s arc sho wn. Ca re muvr be exe rcised when pic king
and S=29 n lor the Bridged-Tee. T he numbers are also the perce nt of the resistors fo r auenuatc r applicatio ns. Man y
The pi and Tee both use three resisto rs input power dissipated in each ele ment . power resistors usc wire wound co nstruc-
and are equally useful. T he pi may fit bel - Clearly, for ex amp le. o ver ha lf of the ap- tion. often hidden in ceram ic, ma king them
tcr with switc hes (described be low.] The pl ied pow er appears in the first resistor. too ind uctive for Rf usc. Car bon compost-
bridged-Tee uses 4- resis to rs. hut on ly ' .... 0 Ana lysis of this son .... ill allo w one to de- lion and the various types of film resistors
need cha nging for di fferent attenua tion . so sign high er power anenuarors. T....-o high arc generally suitable for RF through UHF.
il le nds 10 be a good top ology for fun her power pads, huih hy W21::: KB are shown in Fix ed attenuators have two s ignificant
des ign of adj ustable circuits. Fig 7.2 1. Whe n asy mmetric pads a re built. applicarionv for the experime nter. Th e ob-
T he d B att enuation v a lue is a ... eak func-
tion of the actual resistance values. allow-
ing o ne to usc close 5 'it- val ues to build
practic al c ircu its. For exa mple. build ing Power Resist o rs at Radio Fre q u e n cy
the 4--dB Tee pad me ntio ned earlier with
Sev er al resisto rs wer e eval uated wi th an HP-8714 netw ork ana lyzer to
12-n se ries re sistors and a 100 ·U sh unt
est abl ish sui tab ility for us e as RF terminati on s or as elements in
wo uld produce a 4.2 dB atten uatio n with
atte nuators . The result s are shown in the attached figu re. The RF
inpu t resistance of 50.3 n. meas ure men ts were pe rfo rmed at the listed measure ment frequency,
One must lise ca re when designing at· establish ing RF resi stance and inductance . A ma xtmurn fr eq uency wa s
rcnuarors for use wi th tran smitte rs deliv - then ca lculat ed as that wh ere the inductive reactance goes up to half of
ering mode st 10 hig h po we r. Fig 7.20 th e RF resistance. Clear ly, trad ition al wir e-wo und powe r res isto rs a re
shows ,I Ill-d B Pi-pad with 100 W applied not suita ble as RF loads.

G_
,
Spec. R
1- - - ~
~I - l at RF
Fre q. for RF
Measurements
Max imum
Frequency
Pa rt Spec. R I OC R RFR (" H) (MHz) I (MHz)
A 50 52.2 51 .5 6.4 3.5 0.64
B 100 99 6 99.4 0.194 30 40.8
C 50 56 2 59 0.24 30 19.6
0 47 47 .2 49 0.0099 250 395
E 47 46 47 0.0095 250 394

Parts Key
A: Leclrohm 10W Wirewound
This pho to shows some typical termina- B: Tru-Oh m 20W Non-l ndLJCliVe
1
tors . The smaller two are surplus with C : Spraque Kook.)hm 5W
power dissipat ion of 2 and 5 W. The bOK D: Xico n 3W Metal Oxide
is a homebr ew terminator co ntaini ng E: Allen Brad ley 2W Car bon Co mpos ition
four paralle led 200-0, 2-W resi stors.

7.10 Chapter 7
 corres ponds to VS W R= 1.2. T he recei ve r
wit h the pad is no w <I goo d impedance
match. We often use pad s in the o ut-
lOU
r t
put of si gnal ge ner ato rs 10 force a clean I
..
ou tput i mpedance.
'00
The Step Attenuatar
'"--'0- ,
Th e core of ma ny bacement RF labora- " -1,,-
turi es i;,a ste p anc nuato r. Altho ugh si mple -
and e ve n relatively Inexpe nsi ve. vuch an Rl : p lastic insula t e d p~l

.l ste p attenu ator fo r the HF spec tru m inst rume nt allows me asu re me nts per- ft) llJlted linear •
IS easil y bu ilt wi th slide switches an d fo rme d at a mod est le vel where the y are
1/.l·W res istors . Th is des ign u sed a easy 10 be ex te nded to lither pt).... ers whe re Fig 7.22-Con ti n uous ly vari ab le
~a ss bcx wit h the swi tches so ld ered in atlen ua to r with about a 4-d B range .
~a c e . Th is w as hard on t he pla st ic
they are diffic ult. A step uue nu ator con -
part s 01 th e s witches, making hardwar e si~ " o f fi xed pad s that a rc atta ched to a
mo unt in g p referr ed. sw itch. Each pad i~ then switched in o r out
o f a sign al path . all owing a tutal attenua- l'Iy addin g sh ield s across the ce nter of each
tio n to he e stab lish ed by adding the indi- sw itch sec tion." Shriner and Pagel built a
vidual values. similar de sign. using shields be tween sec-
' IO U<' one i;, that o f redu cin g po " ~r hy a Several sw itch types can be used. Most l ions. Bramwell d id a mor e recent versio n
..now n amou nt. T he o ther. o fte n juv t us o f ou r expe r ie nce ic with ine xpen sive of thi v classic whe re care ful auen no n was
un po rtuut. is tha t t hey se rve to es tablish Dl' D'I slide swuc he.. (e g. CW Industries G de voted to mai ntaini ng the 50-n charac-
un pcdancc lev el. Avsume you have a re - and GF se ries } fou nd in c o mpo ne nt rerisnc impedance within the tro ugh «rue-
ceivcr that yo u wish to use for measu re- ca talogs. Use tho se with moun ting flanges . rure.e T he last two papers arc included on
me nt;, in a so· n system. The inpul impcd- The auen ua to r is built in a tro ug h-like e n- the CD th<l t accompanies this book .
ance o f the typic al receive r is rarely well closure fabric ated fro m ;,craps of PC boa rd II is, so metimes usefu l to have a c onti nu-
1I1.lh:hed to 50 n . e ve n if it was des ign ed mate rial. Recta ngular hole s arc cut for the o usly variable aue nuato r. Fi ~ 7.22 sho ws
io r usc with a 50-n antenna. Ho weve r. in - swi tch hand le s and the s.... itches ar e an auenuator tha t we have used in the ou t-
-erun g a suita ble pad alleviate- the prob- mo unted in a li ne. The re sistors are then put o f ho meb rew si gna l ..ou rces. Th is de-
k m. If. fnre\ample. we used a IO·d H pad . mo unted with very chon leads. Sho rt wires ..ig n has an att e nuatio n r<lng-ing fro m 2.510
me return loss .... e wou ld measu re loo king a re anachcd to e ate nd tine switc h sec tion 6.7 d H. The exact range o btai ned ill de -
uiro tha t pad wo uld be 20 d B whe n the to the next. WB6 t\ IG and W A6R OZ de- pend on the s urrou ndi ng im peda nce T his
ou tput was left open . and would im pro ve scribed this c irc uit in a cl assic paper and de s ign will ce rtainl y be co mpro mise d <It
.. ith a ny termi nation. A 20 dB return loss found t hat vh f pe rformance was impro ved high er frequency.

7.5 MEASURING FREQUENCY, INDUCTANCE AND CAPACITANCE

Frequency need ed. We fi nd that 1 Hz or better reso - Some in expens ive counters on ly ha ve
Determination lution is e spe cia lly usefu l wh en mea sur- hig h ( I Hz ) resolution when d igi tal cir-
The frequency cou nter is now tbe most ing parts fo r use in cr ystal fi lte rs . cuit.. are inve st iga ted . An example 'I S from
practical instrume nt for measurement of frc- B attery opera tio n is also a useful fea- RadioShuc k. ca talo g no , 22-306. A sim ple
qucncy up to a few G H1. The ICs that form ture. A battery operated counte r will le t i nte rface can be bui lt (hat will acc..:pt a low
~ bas ts fo r such measuremen ts arc avail- o ne b uild nu me ro us s imple instrumen ts level RF input wh ile prov id ing a TTL or
Uile in virtually all dig ital formats and arc all that can then be c arried into the fie ld fo r CM OS compa tible o utp ut. sho wn in
relativel y easy 10 usc in this ap plication. Wc a nte nna mea su reme nts . }-'ig 7.23 . 'l'hiv circui t wi ll usu a lly fu nction
are not go ing to say much about counters in It has become popular to bu ild coumc rs
lhi;,chapte r. bUI note thai a si mple and inex- fro m ;,ingle c hip mic ropro cevsor of the
pensive counter was de scribed in Chcprer-i. P IC or BASIC Stamp var iety . This offers r ----J~ _,.
That circuit co uld he ada pted for general so me hard wa re ..implification and a use - =. r t..:::;=_L.L "
perpose cou nting with little additional ef· ful tas k to use as a mech anism to learn " I ~ 1 ;-<
fort. We have built vers ions with 2. 3. and-t mo re about the use of these processors. It -s- II< = ~

digits. but wou ld recommend 6 or g for a also o ffers some u nusual pos sibilit ies . For
genera l pUl'Jl'O;,e lab instru ment . ex am ple. o ne " it vendor (Small Wo nde r
... .. ~=-
. 01 §? - . .
Counters <Ire av ail ab le in all price and
freq ue ncy ranges. o ften at less than $ 100
fo r a unit that will count 10 beyond I G H1.
Lab s ) offers a freque ncy counter desi gned
fo r use wi th lo w power transcei ve rs where
the co unter uses no visual freq ue ncy dis-
t ·t .'..... -
Reso lutio n at lo w frequency i;, ty pically play. Ra the r. when a button is pus hed to
10Hz. alth ou gh some units are fo und th<l t start the ctrcuu. the freq ue ncy i.. counted Fi g 7.23-Lo w-l evel RF 10 n UCMOS
co nverter lor si mple co u nt in g app lica-
" ill co unt to I H z. T he hig her re_o lut io n with the valu e se nt 10 the use r in .'vl orse t ions . The 10knt4.3kn resistive di vid er
i;,easy to build if o ne is brewing an in_tr u- code. In anot her design. a single digi t dis- sets t he co ll ector voltag e al about 3
mellt fOf the ho me lah a nd is well wo rth play is u,e d sequ entiall y til rea d up to limes th e 0.7 V em iller-base offset,
(he extra e ffor t for those ca'e.' ","'hen it is I':di git s, of fer ing eco no my and s i m p li ci t y . ~ guaranteeing bi as In the active reg ion.

Measu rement Equipment 7. 1 1

wi th inpu ts of - ::! O dHm al 10 M j-iz or
- 10 d Rill at 30 Mi ll (substitu tion me a- <_.0·"""'
« __ 0_"""
.lOt"
surcmc ms from a 50 ·n s ignal gene rator) .
Csi ng co unt ers i ~ nOI difficult. a lthoug h
it is al.... ayv usetulto read the ma nual. The
longe r ga te times. somen mevconrroued by
the use r. will pro vid e greater resolution.
h ut wit h lo nge r time between readings.
Man y cou nters ha ve a 50-n inpu t
impe da nce. bu t a lso have a max im um
input power. Do n't ove r drive the m fo r it
will dam age the counter. Instead usc an
auc nuator a fte r you have used a po .... er
...........
u,
,
,• .
...to.._', _ ".. .
meter 10 exami ne the source yo u plan o n
counting . Ofte n a lOX I -MQ oscilloscope
p ro be works very we ll at the input to a
counter. eve n wi th 500n inputs.
Some users will attac h a smaltlin k to a
piece o f coax d riv ing the co unte r. T he link
is the n use d 10 vniff the circuit unde r te st.
Th is may work. altho ugh the po.... er to t he
counter is not wel l de fin ed . Moreover. if
the source i." rich i n har monics . yo u can
end up n, untin g a harmonic instead of the
fundamental . Don't try to use the cou nte r
as a spectru m ana lyzer: it may be an inte r- Fig 7_24-" The LC Tesler" off er ed by Blil c arv er. W7AAZ. in Communications
es ting mea sure me nt anomaly. but it is not Quarterly, Winte r, 1993. The two mo des es senUa lly offer identical performance.
See text.
a good method .

L an d C m ea surem e nt performed. (not necessa ry with e\ery mea- boarded the c irc uits. we also tried a Co lpius
T he trad itio nal e xpe rime n ter mea cured suremeru] by placin g- a know n capaci tor be- va riat ion thai a llowed larger capacitor
ind uc ta nce o r ca pac ita nce b y find ing a twee n the C and the gro und posts with L a nd val ue -, 10 be d ete rm ined. Either large C
resonant freq uen cy w ith a d ip mete r. A n C sli ll shorte d . A good c alibration value or sma ll I. be tween the C an d gro und te rrni-
uu kno .... -n C wav paralle led by a kno wn would be a 1000 pF 1'1- capac itor. A l1~ W nals can ca use oscillation to cease. T he
in ductor. the co mbi nat io n was "dipped." frequ ency is mea sured with the CAL cap in two topologies are ot herwis e identical.
a nd the value was calculated. An ide ntic al place. From the two freque ncie s an d the Once the instrume nt is bu ilt and in use.
procc s measured an unk nown 1.. But the known CAL capacitor value . the net fixed a computer or calc ulato r program c an be
Freq uency measurement was poo r, leavin g capacitance and the induc tance: value C<1Il be wri tte n to expedite c alc ulat io ns . Carver
the ex per imenter wondering ab out his or calc ulated. C" and i.; inc lude, suc h a progra m in his pa per.
her re sult s. Measuremcms a rc now performed by Carver's paper also me ntioned a pre-
The sam e ge ne ral me thod can be applied parallel or ser ies connect ions of the un- limin ary ver vion o f t he instrument that
tod ay. but the di pper is comp lete ly elimi- k nuwn c omponent s. T he instrume nt is used a PIC micr oproce ssor. performi ng the
nated from the measureme nt. A stab le LC turned 0 11 a nd an ini tia l freq ue ncy. F l' is co unt ing funct io n as we ll as the calcul a-
o sci lla tor is bu ilt ill i\.'i place with a buffe r co unte d. An unknow n ind uctor is then tions . S ince t hat paper was p ublishe d. a
to dr ive the fr equency cou nter. Unknow n attac hed e ither bet ween C a nd gro und. or simi lar instrume nt has arri ved o n the ma r-
co mponent .. are the n auuchcd 10 the oscil- betw een L and C. The new freque ncy. F~ . ket by Almost All Di git al Elect ronic s.
later to a lter its freque nc y. T his produ ce.. ts mea sure d. Knowi ng Co. a ne w ind ue- which is offe red a, an eas ily constr uc ted
the dat a needed to o btai n the I. or C. T his lance can he calc ulated. If a se ries con- kit. rwww.aa d e.cnm / j
method wa s the bas is fo r a si mp le instr u- nectio n wa-, used. F~ < F l and L is fo und by Th e experimenter has a choice o f building
ment bu ilt by Bill Carver . III T his instru- vuhrrac ting L" from thc mea sured value. his or her own LC Tester or pu rchasi ng the
men t i, shown in Fl ~ 7. 2-& , H a paral le l connection was used . F 2>F I. k it from AADE. Whate ver the choice. the
The inst rume nt is rugg edly built with a nd the me as ured L will he: k~~ than lhal modern experimenter cannot afford nOI to
three bind ing po..ts la beled L C and Ground. o f the one co nne cted. The sa me res onance have tbiv measureme nt capabi lity. This in-
Operatio n always beg in, by placing a wire con ce pts g tve capacitance resu lts . strurncm essentially replaces the cl assic grid
betwee n the L and the C terminals and mea- Carvers or igin a l c ircuit use d the d ipper for the electronics ex perimen ter of
suring frequenc y. Calibr ation can the n be Hart ley circui t shown . Whe n we b read - the::! I ~t cen tury !

7. 12 Cha pter 7
7.6 SOURCES AND GENERATORS
.,),. sig nal sou rce or generator j , nee ded
alig n and adj ust most pro jects . or for .w
st fundam ent al circ uit ex perimen ts 1200 Hz Audi o
I",o o r more arc requi red for ma ny oth er Generator
e vperir uc nts. In this section we present a
"Ide var iety of sources
The one ins tr ume nt that wo uld do most 1>"

·1 ~
what Vi e need is a "lab qua lity RF sig nal
cen eraror." B ut there is mo re to the na me
1>"
2N3 9 0<1
n suspected . A traditio nal signal gcn -
crater used for servicing convurner radio
&ad T V receivers consisted or a wide t un- - --=-
10K 200 JrN pl<- p l<
g range oscillator covering all input and c~ l!ax ou t.p u t. .
tcrrnediatc freq uencies that the service R
ret-on might encounter. These bo xes usu- C= . 0 0 2 7 uF 5%
I ~ had mod ulation capability . allowing
ee user 10 align Al\.l receivers. How ever. R=4 7K 5 %
~ ~ di d not quali fy as the lah q ua lity
-t rume nt we really want , A good signal
fC""eralOr wi ll have the me ntioned eharae-
':Cn ~ t i e ~ plus acc urate freq uency readout. a
~ 11 output impedance, low phase noise,
'" -p uriou, out puts close to the carrie r Fig 7.25-A simple aud io generator for tra nsm itter testing.
freq uency. excellent buffering. good
solation from the powe r supp ly, and
-compro mtsed shield ing. Long term sta-
Ii l ~ and lo w harmoni c' conten t are a lso an RC high pass f ilte r. Osc illation occu rs
e-etut. but are not domi nant specification s. at the Frequenc y where the tota l phase shift
\la ny instruments prese nted as si gnal is 360 deg rees . ha lf pro vid ed by rhe
ten rrutors don 't qua lify because they frequency de pendant feedback ne twork .
,MI' 1 be made weak enough 10 test a re- Out put is ex trac ted f rom the co llector.
ceiver that is useful for communication> , attenuated, low pass filtered . and ap plied
.....hen you di sconnect the generator. hut to an output le vel control This oscil lator
~rh ap s attac h an antenna 10 a receiver un- oper ates at 120DHz. There is nothing spe -
.xr t e ~ 1. the generator is still heard. The cia l abo ut the e xac t componen t value';.
reoblcm may be poor shielding, signa l con- Th is one was based upon a handfu l of
cno n through the power supply, or both, 0 ,0027 uf capa citor, on ha nd. The me a-
The sources we describe in this chapter sured 2nd harmonic wa s 40 dB below the
will no t result in a lab q ua lity inst rume nt. des ired output.
Rather. we will de scribe specia lized The circuit is buill o n a sma ll scrap of
-o urces that wi ll sa tisfv som e of these c ircuit hoard mater ial. Another hoa rd
seeds. but not in one inst rument , The StIT - scrap is mo unt ed 10 the origina l to hold a
rl u, market is full of good equ ipm en t that E NC output connector and a level control
_i ll fulfi ll many of the experime nter' s The maximum output from this circui t A simple aud io os cill ato r fo r tr a nsm itt e r
seeds. Having one of these is useful as a is abo ut 200 mV peak-to-p eak. more than testing .
mea ns to cali brate home built sources. that supplied by mus t microphunes, L se
be gins by attaching a microphone to a
speech amplifier in a t ransmitte r. A few suita ble active low pass filte rs are added.
Audio sources wor ds into the microp hone while loo king The two signals of about 3 V peak-to-peak
A whistle or a fe w words spoken into a at the ampli fie r ou tput with an osci llo - arc added and atten uated in U3A while U3B
microphone may serve as a f irst fun ction- scop e allows us to set audio ga in. The mi- prov ides a liOO-U output impedance.
ality test for a pho ne trausmin cr. J low ever . crophone is then rep laced with the Then: arc many o ther way s to hui ld
"' to need so meth ing more when testing a audio osc illat or with the level set to es tab - aud io sources inc luding som e special
transmitte r. A simple generator is shown li sh the sam e ma ximum level. Th is ca n func tion ge nerator Its . These arc circu its
m Fig 7.25. This circ uit is bat tery opera ted the n be used for extended be nch testi ng. inte nded to generate triangle and squa re
{rom a 9- V cell, a very conve nie nt featur e Fig 7.26 shows a IwOtone ge nerator use- waves . but with modi ficat ions to a lso ap-
\\ hen seeking good isolation from ot her ful for testi ng SS B transmitters. One gen - prox imate a sine wave . The Exar XR-2206
-ources. T his topo logy is called a phase erator opera tes at about (i50 Hz while the and the Maxim MAX03H arc examples. A
-hift osci llator. The tra nsistor is biased as other is at 1650. a non-har mon ic higher fre- DSP-bascd solution is als o presented in
an inverting amplifier (180 degree phase quency. A Wien Bridge circu it. shown ill Chapter 11
~ h i ft) with a voltage gain of j ust under 50. the inset, is used for each source. Eac h os- T he two- tone generator is att ac hed to a
estahlis hed with feed back and biasing. The cilla tor had a measured third harmonic that transmitte r mic input and the lev el is ad -
output is routed bac k to the input through was on ly suppressed by abou t 30 d H. ,0 j usted for the desired output. One tone can

Meas urement Equipment 7.13

 ~
- azv
'n 1000 F T

I
•
,u ~ 'E-i
,~ ,~
Z, 7n

, 2 . 1~ .i. Oil
,
}o. ~
•, m
Ou t p u t

,U
.1 240K
~~~--t
,u 1
L1'
'J
,u '"
1
~
Ul ,2 , 3 : 14 ~ 1

.,

0"
'"" r '"" R

c
•
-r
, ~

,
22K -=-

'""
lIIHH Mate"" " pai r

Fig 7.26-Two tone audio source. Each o scillator uses a matched pa ir of diodes w it h matching done w ith a DVM in the diode
test position . Match ing was done to 10 m V.

be turn ed off with Sl so si ng le to ne power

can be mea sured. Wit h two to nes present.
the composite sig na l mo ves throu g h all
stages of the SSB transmitter to produce a
two tone output that can be observed with
an oscil loscope or spec trum analyzer. or
ideally, both. The intermodu latio n dismr-
lion products (o r Hat topp ing in a ' sco pe
display ) are then the result of dis to rt ion in
the transmitter. It is vita l that the SO U Tc e be
free of these products ,

General Purpose RF
Sources
No lab is complete wit hout a genera l
purpose RF generator. Li ke power sup -
p fie -, and step attenua tors , o ne more is
a lwa ys usefu l. T he earl y sources we built
con sis ted o f a n LC os ci lla tor, link coupl ed
to a feed back ampl ifie r and pad to prov ide
an output power of +5 dBm or more ,
en ough 10 dri ve a diode mixer. Although
the design was useful. the buffer ing was
sometimes in adequate. espec ially for cr ys-
ta l f ilter test in g , The addi tio n o f a corn - Two-tone a udio generator for S S B transmitter IMD measu reme nt s .

7.14 Chapter 7
 5n / FT '-...----"

100 2.9 -10 MHz 82 Co unter

2N 4416 22

~
1N41 52 400 L1

-r 1M
7

1
33 150
.1
• Pi'
0. 1 l S out .

~
-
I
I • 18 T2
51 Low Freq .
-... o sc . Of f
High Freq.
C1A
nC
·'A
. - -l l - 20
-

2' 3 9 04
T1
2 . 2K
330
2 . 2K

D1 0.1 0. 1
2
e-220
·m ·
1 0 - 4 5 lofH z : 2- 5 K

51 2 N4 4 16
:
2:. 2
, 'lC3
:iT
02
2 . 2K 27 0 l' 1 30 330
22
~ ~ I N41 5 2 40b T ~ ~ ~
- ~
-
-
o.{[ c:V ~ 7: 2
- 1M~
~~ r :. J,-: 33 I" I :Jl1,1I ~
,,L ----.--. C1: 10 - 40 0 p F du a l s ectio n c a p .
-=b- 51 J-
} C2: 5- 20 pF d ua l s e c tio n ca p .
;.J) .1 C3: 2-5 pF pa ne l mo unt e d ca p.
1 104 5 MHz 1
' · · - i·~=5:?2~ 1'1, 1'2 : 12 b z f i La r t u r n s FT37 - 43
L1 44 U 2B, 1'50- 6 , ta p a t a t , 3 t link.
1 2 : 1 5t jl 22 , 1'50- 6 , ta p a t 4t , 1t l i nk.

Dl , D2 : PI N swi t c hi ng d i ode . 1N6 47 o r 1N400 6 s u i table .

Fig 7.27- Ge ner al p u rpo se osc illator tuning the range from 3 to 45 MHz in two ranges . See te xt f o r details.

Gener al p u rp o se RF source t u nin g f rom

J to 45 MHz.
Ins ide view of 3-45
MHz RF Generator.
men- base buf fer ampli fier has so lved
these probl e ms.
A wid e t uning range oscillato r is sho wn
i n Fi,g 7. 27. T wo Hartk y o scillat ors are
tuned by dual sec tio n ca pac itors. C 1 and
C.:! . T he Hartley topology is o ptimum. fo r
n uses an inductor tap to ob ta in feedback.
As such, all resonator capacitance can be
variable . prov idi ng th e wide st po ssible
tuning range. T his ci rcuit ach ieves 2.9 to such a way thai the inopera tive oscillator switches 10 grou nd. Th is capacitor wo uld
10 MHz in o ne of the osc illato rs with the doc s not disturb the othe r. T he ban dsprcad the n he switched be twe e n oscillators with
other tun ing 10 to o ve r 45 ~ 1-lL . C1 is afforded by C3 allow s the generator to be the d iodes. B ut beca use it rea ches the reso-
the main l uning while C 2 pro vides ha nd- set acc urately, even at the high end. nator th rough a link, it tunes over a pro-
spre ad Even greate r bandspread IS Anoth er sch e me tha t co uld prov id e po rtion ally sma ller range.
provided by CJ , now a single sec-tion l:a- bandspread wo uld add a variable cap aci- Band sw itchi ng is performe d with a
pac itor. C J is co upled to both resonators in tor from the cathode of the PI""· diode SPDT to ggle switch with a cen ter-of f

Measurement Equipment 7 .15

 RF III"
- 10 dlla no-x

,.F·
'" Fig 7.29-Cryst al co nt rolled o sc illator
u
us ed for rec eiver test ing. T his unit
no
I doub le s as a sp ectrum ana lyze r
c ali b rat ion so urc e with a 7· MHz output
01-20 d Bm .

Ll ,2 : lit U I - '
LJ : l it nl - 6 , It Hu..

Fig 7.28-Signal Ge nerato r Exte nde r.

range may be add..d with the "ex tende r"
show n in "i ~ 7.28. An avail able 19 f\fH l
j unk bo x crystal was used in a crystal con-
Irn ll..d osc illa to r d riving a di ode ri ng
poc ition. T he "o ff' mode: ha-, bee n uveful th e ba sis for m uch o f ou r rest gear. If dual mixer. T he sig nal ge ne rator is applied at
III co mple tely extinguish a sig nal without sec tio n capac ito r, arc no t available... ing le the input above the crysta l freque nc y and
cha nging other scn ings. The wggle switch rang e ve rsion-, of th i.. oscillator may be at a level of -10 d B m or less. T he mixer
app lies po wer \0 o ne- of the two oscillator built. T he c ircuitry i.. ge nerally simple . output is at tenuate d in a pad and lo w pas,
circuuv and biases a PI;,\! d iode Ihal routes tole rant of co mponent value changes. and filtered. T his unit is espec iall y useful. for
the o utput to the bu ffer ampl ifie rs. A h ig h ine xpert..ive exce pt fo r t he varia ble capaci- the origina l gene ra tor a mplitude cali bra-
spee d switching d iode' ( 1N4 152. ctct to rs. These os ctuarors are ru nni ng ,IT tio n is reta ined w ith a 9 -d l\ offse t. w e
shou ld not be substitut ed here. a lthoug h modera te ly high po we r with ove r IO-V ha ve a lso used This sa me box as an aud io
many re ctifier d iodes wor k well. T he peak -to-peak acr osve ach resonator. While source . A 19-MHz VXU c an then be used
d iode switc h o utput is a pplied 10 the c orn- this is idea l for low phase no ise. it mea ns in place ofa signlll generat o r. The lo w pas,
mon base butter amplifier. preferred over that o ne ((III/ lO t casually substitute a filler followin g the mixer has a c uto ff j u-a
a common emitter amplifier or an e mitte r varac tor d iode in these ci rc uits. above J() .\-tH l. the max imum o utp ut fre-
foll ower. T he ou tput sta ge is .1 2N J866 The dua l range sou rce has been used for qucn cy for this box .
commo n emitter Ieed bnc k amplifier with 11 num ero us app licat io ns, rang ing from un- A usef ul variati o n of This instru ment
3-d B pad. A hi t or the output energy is ten na meas ureme nts to l ~t D testin g wo uld usc a high le vel (+ 17 dE m LO )
tapped and supplied to an aux il iary output The re are man y ge ne rators fou nd 011 th e mixer. Murc IY rvl H/ L O energy wo uld be
feed ing a frequency co unte r. T he out put surplus mar ket t hat cov er ra nge s from req uired , This would then allo w o peration
po wer from this , (l UIT e is around + 10 d gm 10 \ 1Hz upward. Exa mple s incl ude th e at 10 d B highcr levels, needed for some
on bo th ban ds uhbou gh it is not as Fla t II p·6 0S and HP -R654. A useful to wer IMD mcasurernems.
(con st ant amplitude w ith frequency1as we
would like, But Th is i> alvo the ca se with
many very goo d signa l gc nc nno rv. suc h as
the cla s - ac HP-tJOR series and the su rplus
URM· 25 line. A PIN diode leve lin g loo p
could be adde d to solve this pro ble m. hut
sho uld be done with co nside rable c are .
fo r suc h loops c an gen e rate addi tion al
proble ms.
Single band va ria tio ns of the o-ctltator
of Fig 7,27 have been built. all with a \'ir-
tu ully ide ntica l ci rcuit. O ne version was
bu ilt into the remains OLl surpluv I\C· 221
frequ e nc y meter. The luning range w av
purposefu ll y re..trictcd 10 abou t 30 k HF
arou nd 5 Mil l. Th e o-cmator is then use d
for crystal a nd crysta l filt er me asu re men ts.
T hese Rf generators do not le nd the m- Outside vi ew of match ing cry stal contr olled RF s o urces us ed tor rece iver testing .
,e!n's to easy d up lication owi ng to the The o utboard amp li l ier s p ro v ide the h ighe r sign als needed for testi ng mixers an d
uniq ue components used . T he ju nk. t.m is hi gh -l ev el am p lifier s.

7 .16 Chap ter 7

 Close up view of
outboard amplifiers
for IMD testing.

An off-t he-s helf 14.318 MHz colo r bu rs t

c ry sta l becomes a co nven ient RF
source for the 50-MHz band. Bu ilt by
KA7 EXM .

within the 7 ....1Hz amate ur band . so it serves pen sive. standard "color burs t" crystal to gc n-
Crystal controlled
well as a gene ra l alignment to ol. The har- crate signals at i .16 MH/ and at50.125 !vlHz.
sourc es mo nic s at 14 . 2 1. and 28 ....1H z are also use - The mark ed cry stal freque ncy is 14.3 18 .\lllz .
.\lo st of th e c ar efu l rece iver meas ure- ful. The 7 MHI outp ut i" - 20 dB m. This This i" frequency divid ed in a 74HCi4
me nts we do req uire good sta bility in both uni t is built into a Ha mmond 1590B box divider circu it to produ ce a square wave at
the receiver and the equipment used to tCSI with a hanery co ntained o n the ins ide . pro - 7.16 Ml-lz . So me low pass filterin g strip s
It. The idea l (affor d able ) snlu tio n us es viding the ultimate pOWCT sup pl y filte rin g . mOSI of the harmonic energy away for use at
':f} slal co ntrolled lest o scillators. Fig 7.29 VH F exp erime nters are alw ays in need of 7 """Hz. Thc 7lh harmonic of the square wave
..ho ws a genera l purpose source that was a so urce 10 test their eq uipm ent, and a crystal is ex tracted with a double-tuned circu it to
ori ginally b uilt as a spectrum analy zer con trol led oscillator will often serve this provide the need ed sou rce for the e-rn band.
calib ration source. The rryv tal cho sen lies need. F ig 7.30 show s a source using an inex- This sou rce was built by KAi EXtvL

+9v
uz 22
•I
78L0 5
L o w Fa ss r ilter
oh loutil

1r -
7 MH z
.21 c!c I 0.2 2 2.7U
HJ 9 out put

t }-'- 2~~·
Note

.oJ'~1000
((14 .321)12)x7=
50 125
390 470
r1
--+-
22 1K

1K
.,
4,
2K

2N3904

3 2

5
2I
12
R1

2113904 7 8LOS

Ll,L2=l Ot # 2 2 o r s o on T3 0 -6
EBC out -gnd-in

Fig 7.3O-Crystal contro lled so ur ce pr oviding output o n t he 7 and 50-MHz bands.

Meas urement EqUipment 7.17

 is att ached to the receiver (AGC still off]
"'12V and the rec eiv er is tuned to the generator
freq uen cy Atten uation is then added to
1--- - - - ~o~~ - --- - _, weaken the source . T he source is mom en-

~f---
tar ily turned off and the noise level is noted
in the aud io meter. The sou rce is turned on
470 agai n and the attenuation is adjusted unti l
0 01
the meter response is 3 dB above the noise.
~ 2.2k
6 .8 V The streng th of the source less the added
TW attenua tion is then the MDS.
14 MHz r It's worthw hile to listen to the receive r
,-iDl- as a means for growing a "c alibrated ear."
Alt ho ugh this signa l is weak, it is dearl y
68k

.z...
audibl e above the noise. even if the band-
1 Shield
wid th is a kHz or more. As receiver band -
2N3904/V' width drops , the MOS will become smaller

~ 1 50
00
bUI there is less difference between the
measured :vlDS and that perceivable by

r
U r

~
: 1k I I 1k I 1 ----,...... car. When run ning a relatively wide SSB
I ,'JT bandwidth. a signal at measu red \-fD S
r" I
I I I I
sounds rat her loud . It is not surprising that
I I I I
I many weak signal VHF en thusias ts includ-
I I I I
I ing EME aficionados will use the wide r
L _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ J
50 ;6 r ban dwidth s when QRM is not an is sue.

Fig 7.31-Crystal c on tr o ll ed oscillator fo r recei ver MDS measurem e nt s. The o utput

is set fo r about - 100 dBm. A b uilde r may w ish to add a sma ll resisto r o r an Crystal Oscillators for
inductor between t he feedthrough capac itor an d the 0.1 IlF cap ac itor. A fe w turns
on a fe rrite be ad sho uld work we ll. L 1 is chosen fo r res on an ce at the cr ystal Intercept M easurements
freque ncy-the one o r two -turn li n k provides o utput . Ha ving measured receiver :vlOS. we
now need "loud" generators that can be
used to meas ure the strong signal perfor-
mance, the receiver input inte rcept, lI P3.
A Weak Signal Source outp ut is set. a shiel d lid is sol dered 10 the The measuremen t was descri bed in detail
for MDS measurement box. If double sided board is used, he sure for an ampl ifier or mixe r ill Chapter 2 and
The source sho wn in Fig 7.31 is simi lar. that the inside and outs ide are attached to the n app lied 10 a receiver in Chapt er 6. T he
hut has co nsiderable attenuation included each other at the lid. basic source we usc fo r receiver testin g is
within the box . Th is unit is predominantly The un it is calibrated with a CW shown in Fig 7.3 2. T he cry stal oscillator is
used as a weak signal source for receiver rece ive r and anot her sig nal generator. The carefully tailored to operate with curr ent
minimum detectable signal ("I'. 'IOS) mea - crystal oscillator is tuned with the rcceiver limiting, avoiding the Q degrading voltage
surements. T he oscillator is hui Itat one end lAGe off) and the output is measu red with limiting. The following buffer has an in put
of a narrow box fabricated From scrap PC an aud io voltmeter. The signa l generator impedan ce domina ted by a single res istor.
hoard . Shields arc then added with sections is then tun ed to the same freque ncy and hut then operate s as a lim iter, de velop ing
or attenuation between. The attenuation is the ampli tude is adju st ed unti l the same an output substantially independent of
the n set to establish the desi re d output. out put response is observed. T he level is drive level. That output is low pass filtered
r.evels arou nd - J J 0 to - 100 db m are goo d, noted in your notebook and is marked on and atten uated in a 6 -d B pad and then
for they arc eas ily aue nuared furt her in a the outside of the MDS generator. applied to a commo n base outp ut ampli-
step auenua rnr to dro p to the 11DS levels :-"10S can then be mea sured wit h the fier. pic ked for good re verse isolation.
often fo und with HF receivers . After the osc illator and a step atrcnuator. The source We usc two identical vers io ns of the
source of Fig 7.32, usu ally separated b~
about :20 kHz . The sou rce s are alw ays
c hecked ahead of each use . con f irm ing
power and match be tween units. The o UI-
put level c hos en is 0 d Bm fo r each source
T hese are usuall y ap plied to 6 d B-pads and
Insi d e one of t he then to a 6-d B hybri d combiner. Th e com-
cr ystal cont ro lled bin er , de scribed late r. is a return los\
RF so u rces. bridge used ill a different way. The hybrid
outpu t is attached to a L'; Ml-lz low pass
filter and the n to a step atten uat or. This
setup. shown in Fig 7.33, provides signal\
of - 12 dBm per tone and lower. The role
of the hybrid is to add the two signal)
while preven ting the output of on e so urce
from reaching the other. If the o utput from
on e osci llator reached the other. inter-

7.18 Chapter 7
 5 nF
~

+15v T- 1 5uH 1 6 4uH 1

l'
1 80

9v
J,-
.1
I
-
1 00
l OO u I O. 5uH
FT- 37 - 6 -
Jo . 1
I -
4 . 7K
13 t
k 4t 100

2 N3 90 4 ,c: 2 20 J lK lK
~ Hn , T
t r .Olb
l K -= 430 1 4 MH z
fu nd.
SM
U ~ _ 4 00
I 4 70
~
9 0-

47
1 0 EFT,
FT37- 43

- =- SM

1K 1 •
(
. 01
.r-JC- f er ri t e
b ea d .
o d Bm
470 . 0 1 I? 2N5 1 09
output
4 7' 0 0h, 82

F"og 7.32- A source w ith an output of 0 dBm su itable for recei ver test ing . See te xt for d iscuss io n.

DXl ulatio n could occur, creating spurious

gna ls at the same freque ncies as pro -
Juced hy the third ord er 11\11) that is
..ua lly me asured with this system. l ow p as s
!i lt ~r
There are alterna tives to the 6-d B Rec""'",
~ brid. A 3-dB Split ter-Combiner is some- unde' tost
("9' off)
um cs used and can offer excelle nt perfor-
aJnce. So me experimenters will eve n usc
~udi o
l soon pow er di vide r. which pre se rves -12 <lBm/tone
l'o1 ~t e r

lIIIl pedances hUI prov ides no iso lation. A

so.n power di vider co nsist s of t hree 50-0.
resistors in a "d " config ura tion, or thr ee Fig 7.33-Test setup fo r determining a recei ver IIP3, o r " in p ut interce pt ." See
I :!>-Q resistors in a " y " The 6-dB hybri d details in Chapter s 2 and 6.
~ reco mmended.
Assume that the tw o generato rs have
crystals to put their freq uencies at 14.03 \Ve tune to e it her of these l\fD ou tput is aga in 50 mv. Vole hav e incr eased
.od 1..1.05 MH7.. T uning to either of these res pon ses to measure them, seei ng a loud, the atte nuat io n by 80 dB to de press the
N!!na ls pro d uces a large met er respon se. but still manageable res pon se. Assum e an mai n si gnals to the point where they pro -
These signals impinging on the receiver audi o signal of 50 mV whe n tun ed to one duce the same response as was seen from
front end will inte rm odulate, gene rating of the d istortio n freq uencies and that this inte rmodu lation. T he intermod ulation d is-
distortio n produc ts above and be lo w the occur s with the step artenuator .'e t at torti on ratio. L'vlDR. is then 80 d l:3. Thl:
",,0 desired sig nals, at 14.01 or 14.07 1fHl. 30 dB. The sign a ls are the n --42 dBm/t one input intercep t is thcn giv en by
These products are created wit hin the re- at the receiv er ant enna termin al. B ut how
ceiver, usually in the c ircuitry ahead of the strong is this respo nse co mpared with the
main TF filter. With the two test sig nals input si gnals? We fi nd an an swer by tun - I'IOR (a n)
separated by 20 kH z. the distortion sig nal ing the recei ver to on e at' the main ton es lIP, (dB.o) = p," (dB.o) + "
will be 20 kHz above the upper desired stg- a nd incr easin g atte nuation . When the net
141 and 20 kHz below the lower one , att enuation in serted is 110 dB, the a udio Eq 7.:!

Meas ure ment Equi pment 7.19

 l-ur this ex amp le, Pin = - 42 dBm a nd a good idea to no! have the headphon es on (A nal yz ers and their des ign are descr ibe d
l r.m R=SO d H. xu IIP.' = - 2 d g m. during these ex perirncrusl) We now ad d late r. ) The te st setup is giv en in F ig 7 .34 ,
L cts r epeat the e xpe rim en t. bUI start att e nuatio n until the res ponse from a Freq ue ncy spac ing is adjus ted as need ed
with le ss att enuati on. Ins tead of .' 0 d B in strong to ne is ag ai n 10 mV Th is occurs fo r the com ponent being inves tig ated.
the beginn ing. st art wi th 24 -dB ancnua- wit h a tota l attenuati on of i27 d l3 This is T he tes t setu p is more illum inating th an
tio n to apply signals that are 6 dB stronger. 9 1 d B lo wer than the sig n als that produ ce d the rece iver ev alu at io n. for it is a sw ept
The re spo nse at the dis to rt io n freque nci es the dis tortion re spo ns es . mea sur em en t showing the ma in signals
is now mu ch large r. sign i fican t ly m ore Th is experim en t ha s ill us trated the rea l and the distort ion pro ducts on a ca lib ra ted
tha n the 6 dB increase ill th e ma in tones. mea ning of recei ver two-rene dyn amic scr ee n. a ll at the sa me ins ta nt . A step th at
Ass um e that i(s about 400 m Y in the au - range: D R is the difference betw een the sho uld a lwa ys be do ne is to app ly th e sig -
dio vo lt met e r. We re cord th is level a nd weak evt .sig na l we can he ar wi th tha t nal from the st ep a u enuator d irectly to the
the n tune the receive r to o ne of the main rccei ver and th e st rength o f unc of a p air of spectrum analyzer. prior 10 inser ting the
sig nals and increa se the att enu ati on . Afte r signals that wi ll produce int ermodulation compone nt. Any disto rtion seen wo u ld
add ing 6S -d B attenuation. fo r a ner auenu- d istorti on at th e sam e level a s that mi ni- the n be occurri ng in the anal yz er or in the
ator sett ing of 92 dB , we ob serve 40 0 mV mum. T his is a se vere te sl . but it is measu r- ge nerators . Once a di stort ion- free te st
of aud io . Th e appl ied POW cf is - 36 dB m! able w ith carefully bui lt te st eq uipme nt. setup i s co nfir med . the am plifier is in -
tone an d l!I.. IDR=6 8 dB . so Eq 7.2 predicts Th e high attenuat ion lev els ne eded fo r serted. the an aly ze r input attenuation is
TIP3= - 2 d Bm. D R me acurerneu ts. e spec ia ll y th e d irect rea djusted to keep the main signa ls on t he
T his exa mple illu stra tes the ut ili ty of the one. m ay be intimi dating. Tt' s hard to ob - screen. and the data is rec orded. The gai n
in terc e pt co ncept. If we kn o w the inp ut lai n over 100dB o f attenuation. esp ecially of th e am pl ifi er (or whatever) is n ow o b-
inte rce pt for the rece iver. we know what in ca sual home bu ilt desig ns . Fo r th is rca- ser ved, equal 10 the ch ange in spe ctrum
the re sponse wi ll be to any inp ut sig nals . son. an indirect mea surem ent is often a nal yzer sensiti vity ne eded to keep the
I f w e allow the math ematic s to get a l itt le ea sier. T h at is, mea su re nPJ w ith two main sig na ls in the sam e positi on on the
more com plex . we can even predic t the mo der atel y well shi el ded str ong sources scree n. We kn ow th e inpu t levels, for we
res ponse to i nput signals uf une q ua l with levels that c an be co nfi rm ed with a mea sured them be fo re insert ing the amp li-
amp litude . j I power mete r, a spectrum analy zer, or ter - fier. an d the IMD ratio can be observed
Let' s say that th is rec eiver h ad MD S of minate d osci llo sc ope me as ur emen t. Per - direc tly o n the scr ee n, so the inpu t int er -
- 139 d Bm, a reason ab le sensitiv ity for a fo rm an indepe nde nt meas urement of cept, lIPJ. can be calculated fro m Eq 7.2 ,
C\V receive r with a band wid th of pe rhaps MD S w ith a sp ec ial genera tor yo u hav e The co rres pond ing output intercept . O lP3,
500 Hl lNF=8 dB}. Th e two-tone D R bu ilt for just that purpose. Th en ca lcu late is j ust lIPJ plu s the amp li fier gai n.
would then be D R fro m Eq 7.3 , 11 is , however. be st to It is very informat ive at thi s ti me to vary
work with wea ke r "stro n g" signals . for the strength or the inp ut ton es used to test
DR (dH) = ~. (HPj (dE m ) - ~mS (dllm)) most receiver m ixers w ill then be "w ell the amplifie r, achi eved by adjus ting the
step uttenuaror. T he des ired out put signals
3 behaved, " as d efi ned in Ch apter 6.
T he proce dure we recommend eli mi - sho ul d chan ge on a dB -fo r-dB basis with
F:q 7.3
nates the MDS meas urement. re placing it the inputs. Ho we ver, the dis tort ion p rod -
w ith a noise fi gure de ter minat io n. T hi s ucts above and bel ow the des ire d two sig -
or, 9 1.3 d B in this example . But what d oes will be dis cu ssed later. na ls w ill mov e on a 3 d B per onc dB input
th is mea n'? ch an ge ra te, It is nut ne cessary to collect
Th e mean in g of two -to ne DR is elari- all of the data to ac tually plot tra di tio na l
C ompon ent In t e r c ept intercept curves. such <JS were shown in
fied with a m ore d irect mea sur ement. st ill
usi ng th e example rece ive r we have been
M e a sure m e nts C hapter 2 of this book
examin ing. Fir st. we us e our weak signal W hile th e receiver bu ilder may wish to Me asure me nts normally p erformed
sour ce w ith the st ep aucnuaror 10 meas ure perform np .~ an d MD S meas ur ement to w ith a spectrum analyz er can also be done
t\IDS. Ass ume that the rec e iver ga ins arc obtain ~R, the des igner is equ ally int er- with a receiver. It w ill be necessary to put
se t to prod uce an output o f 10 mv with the es ted in e va luatio n o f c ompo nent par ts of an ane nuator ahead of the receiver to
we ak signal so urce . Wh en we turn th e a recei ve r 0 1' transm itter. Th e tw o ton e co ntro l the lev el s rea ch in g il, always ta k-
source off, the level dro ps by :3 d l3 to suurcc is aga in used . driving the compo- ing car e th at I:Y10 in the receiver is not
7 mv . Receiver AGe is still off a nd we ncut. fo llowed by a spe ctru m ana lyzer. dom ina nt. One then proceed s 10add an a m-
don't tou ch any of the ga in controls.
";;'/e now repl ac e the we ak source wi th
the two tone ge ne rator setu p of Fig 7.33 .
We tu nc the receiver to o m: of the disto r-
tion produc t freq ue nci es and adj ust th e SJ.>ectr\DII Anal yz ~ r

o
atrcnu aror until we get the same response
we saw wi th the M DS me asure ment.
10 mY on the met er. \\'e tune the rec eiver
Component Under
to one side an d the othe r of the dis to rtio n
Test (Am plifier,
produ ct to be su re th at the res ponse drops Mixer etc )
to the noise fl oo r of7 mV . Th is h app ens in 0 00
our e xample with the atre nua rnr at 36 dB. 00
which places a stro ng sig nal of ---48 dbm at
the receiver input. We record th ese lev els
in our note b ook and then retun e the
receiver to one of the stro ng tones. (Its Fig 7.34 - Test setup for testing components.

7. 20 Chapter 7
 plifier, fol lowed hy further attenuation to
ain tain signal le vels at the receiver in- 1 0 b f t, ? T- 37 - 4 3
+15v
1'Ut. If a receive r is to serve this func tion.
II must have much bette r shi eldi ng a nd s c utee ro dBm
Je coupling than it would for normal use .
tor we don't wan t sig nals from our gen- I nput Pad ,
erators to e nter the rece ive r via any path a s " e ede d.
oth er than the antenna term ina l.
II is even possihle to test receive r corn-
ponents (mixe rs. amp lifiers, etc] that are
part of a receiver whi le using that rec eiv er
tor the meas ureme nts . Essentia lly one
coe s interce pt measurements as described.
followed by a repeat mea sure me nt with a
fixed auenu utor added between stages. If
2N5109 plus He a t Si nk
~ l ~f D R doe s not change whe n the pad is Al l r e ~i~ t o r~ 1/ 2 wa t t .
lidded. the disto rtion is occurring before
til<' pad location. Fig 7.35-Feedback amplifier used followi ng eac h IMD generator to increase the
Some com pon ents may requ ired larger power 10 +10 dBm pe r to ne . Amplifier ga in is 22 dB at 14 MHz, which is red uced to
signals for tes ting , a prime example be ing 16 dB with Il)e W Jp u! JljIdJ ,Us ing a 6·dB inp ut pad with t he sou rce of Fig 7.8
provides +10 dBm/tone o utput.
high level switchi ng mod e mixers. Such
circuits may have JIP3 of +30 dam or
more. To exa mine such circ uits, we pla ce
an amplifier aft er each generator. Fi g 7.35
she ws some sample fee dback amplifiers Fig 7.36-Extra
while the applic ation is shown in Fig 7.36 . a mplifier s

D:f,,;:, ,f-
l. ow l' ass
Even gre ater power ma y be obtained lilt ~ r inc rease the
...ith anot her stag e o r by eliminating the po wer a vailable
o utput pad. Eventually the point is reached for component
testing . This
...here IMD in other eleme nts may crime setu p provides a
into pla y. W7AA Z and the other members . 4 dBJII/t o"", pa ir of +4 dB m
of the "Triad" (see Chapter 6) reponed tones.
-eeing IMD in hybrid comb iners .

7.7 BRIDGES AND IMPEDANCE MEASUREMENT

We are alway s inte res ted in meas uring part, the null is not com plete and an err or are adj usted to produc e the desired perfect
impedance. be it for antenna exp eriments appears at the dete ctor port , nul l. The alte ma rive pla ce s meaning on the
or 10set up a termi nat ion for a filter. These There are two way s that the brid ge cir - ind ication at the dete cto r port. V,'e wil l
measurement s arc diffic ult with home built cui t can be used . Th e trad itional exami nes e xamine both applications here.
equipme nt, but they are becoming le ss so the "de tec tor' port betw een x and y as a We can form simpl e bridge s wit h the
with the changing tech no logy we enjoy. place to see k a null. Th e bridge elem ents circu it sho wn in Fig 7,37. (Th is one e ven
Traditional bridge circ uits included built- works with de .) Whe n all three re sist ors
in diode detectors, a res triction that is no are 50 Q ( USI: 5 1 if building o ne), the input
RF fllP'l t
longer nec essary or eve n desired . will app ear as 50 0. to the RF so urc e whe n
Sho wn in Fi g 7.37 is the circ uit for a (c};---~-----, n a the unk nown beco mes 50 U. The voltage
basic Wheatstone bridge , Assume tha t I Y between points x and y is ro ughly the volt-
"

.,r-(1=~'
is applied to the RF input. If R 1 and R2 are age reflection coeffic ient . wh ich goes to
eq ual. poi nt "x'' will be at 0.5 V. Point "y" zero for a perfectly ma tched 50-0. un-
.... ill also be at 0.5 V if the unkno wn known Z , Such a hridge can be used to
impedance is 50 0. res istive . A detector Dit t~r~ntial. ruac an antenna or tran smatch. We will
D~t ~ ctor
betwee n x and y will show no output and ~
sho w some practical e xam ples later.
a null is detec ted. If the unknow n depa rts A useful variation is adju stable. In this
from 50+jO in either the rea l or imaginary Fig 7.37-A bas ic br idge c ircuit. for m. R 1 and R2 are repl aced by a 100·0.

Measurement Equipment 7. 2 1
pOI with tbe arm se rving D, "x." Assu me gion . Direct ivity is the ch ange bet ween the
the brid ge is loaded with 25 n as the u n- ope n circuit re spo nse an d that whe n the
know n an d the pot is tu ned until a null is unknown -Z port is terminate d in 50 n.
prod uc ed . A na l y ~ j ~ shows th is to occ ur Perfo rman ce was nat thro ugho ut the
whe n the pol arm is 1/3 of the way up fro m lo wer pan o f the HF spec trum. Ho wever.
the gro und e nd. a." the freq uency mo ved to wa rd 30 Mj-lz
RF bridges wi th varia ble resis tors have and high e r. the 50 -0 poi nt o n the sca le
lo ng been popular with the exp e rime nte r. mo ved towa rd the hig h R end . F urther
The trad itional Inst rume nts inclu ded a refineme nt is req uir ed.
huih-in d iod e detector an d me ter J:o. the A se ries-tuned LC circuit c an he ca s-
nu ll indicator. T he y suffe r J c om mon caded with t he unkno wn port for the mea-
proble m: the senvhivity cutters with low surcmc nt of reactive impedances. shown
RF dri ve o wing to the th resh ol d voltage Ext erior view of RF Resista nce b rid ge in "i~ 7.39. Th e ca pacit or (o r ind ucto r) i..
pre se nted by most diod es. Mea surements after c ali b r at io n . then adj usted 10 deepen the d ip. Re pealed
that do nOI rely upo n diode de tecti on of a R l adjustme m may he nece ss ary. A u ad i-
low leve l RF signal arc preferred. tional inst rume nt wou ld ha ve suitable
Fig 7.3R , hows an RF re sistance br id ge scales, hut tha t i s nor necessary. Rather.
wi th an ex ternal detec tor. Th is c ircui t was after adjustme nt of a tr immer ca pac itor. it
de signed 10 measu re RF re sist ance while could be me a..ured with an instrum ent like
usi ng a se nsi tive power met er. spectru m the W7AAZ l.C le ste r o r the simila r
ana lyzer. or soon ter mi na ted oscilloscope Instrument from AAOE. See Fig 7.24.
as the detector. An unk nown resist ive im- If the resistance bridge is used with ou t
peda nce is attac hed 10 the b ridge a nd KI is the auxiliary tu ned ci rcu it. co mplex termi-
adjus ted for a minim um res po nse. The na tion s will produce sha llow d ips. It ' s
bridge i ~ nor mall y driven with a low le vel commo n to loo k OIt the meter sc ale an d er -
source o f arou nd 0 d Bm . Le1>' po we r j<; roneously co nclu de rhat the im ped ance has
use d when the rerrninanon will be an ac- a mag nit ude cl ose to the valu e sho wn. This
rive ci rc uit: mo re ma y he ap pro priate for .' .
, i1> ra rely a valid inter preta tion. furt he r j us-
ante nna measurements. When working tify ing the reactance measuring op tio ns .
w-ith an tenna s. it is use fu l to a lternately Exter ior view of retu rn lo ss brid g e. The bridge of Fig 7.3Kwas calibrated a t 14
tu ne the si gnal freq ue ncy a nd pol K ilo get .\1Hz with a handfu l of carbon resistors wit h
the dee pest null. the values then marked on the panel. While
The instru me nt was calibrated 011 14 .\lH I this i.. handy. it may not be necessary. Con-
wi th re ..islOrs fro m 10 to 1000 n. T! i, sider the variation shown in FiA7.-11). This is
wound on a low peemeebility. Jow loss core. equiv alent to the other bridge at RF where the
Pr imary inductance was about 50 ,llH. al - capacitors are virtua l ,1'1011 circu its. How.
lowi ng uperanon down to 2 MHz or less. eve r, the design with capacitors can be mea-
Tra nsfor me r T2 is II common mode choke surcd with a d igital voltmeter attached 10 the
with abolll 20 J.lH p~r wind ing that Isolates Fig 7.39- Tuned circ ui ts ca n be ad ded "unknown" port . The de meas urement tells
the T l secondary from ground. This brid ge t o the bridge to extract co mplex the user the status of the pot. allowi ng the RF
had over .jOdB directivity over the H!- reo impedance informati on. resistance 10 be inferred.

RF Input
RF I nput

'I '" ~-
Li n
H

~-
" n
'" " ' " U........
"".~ ' Mp

~~,~
, >t p
.>tp

-
71 : m . 10 o a "non . !t outpat 11n.

n : l bl f l 1ar tur.. FB-1 J- I ll

Fig 7.38--RF b ri d ge lor HF measurements. Rt is id eally a

100-0 li nea r po t, b ut all w e had was 200 O. T he Claros t at
112-inch dia meter conduct ive p lastic p art s should offer
r easonable performa nc e. alt h ough we have not used t he m in
this applic ation , Fig 7.40-0ptlo nal variati on o f the re sistan ce b ri dg e.

7 . 22 Cha pt er 7
 Interi o r v iew of return loss b r idge.
This one i s buill with 49.9 n , 0.1 W,
1% res istors. RF im pedan ce bridge wit h bu ilt in
mete r. A refe re nce must be att ac hed
for measu rements .

Table 7.1
Frequency (MHz) o (dB) O/S (dB)
2 44 o
tor of the RF im ped anc e b r id g e.
10 47 o
m et ry and s ho rt lead len gt hs are
20 44 o
tairt ed du r ing co nstruction. Long
30 41 o
.-cis are okay w it h the dc parts of the
50 36 1
144 23 2
~u i t . Return loss bridge for HF range .

Ther e is virtue in the modified bridg e: termi natio n is attached and the ne w det ec- One ca n use a short cir cuit inst ead of an
-e a calib rated d ial is not needed, it c an tor level is recorded . again in dBm. The open for calibration. In prin cipl e, the two
built with smalltrimmer pots with much difference between the two in d B is culled responses will be identical.
ct RF charact eristics than encoun te red the ret urn Ioss . T here arc two freq ue ncy de pen de nt
... ilh pet s wit h sha fts. Th is wi II a llow these II is also inte res ting to obse rve voltage RLR charac teris tics thai ind ic ate p erfur-
.-adn io nal met hods to he ex tended to (rather th an powe r) at the detec tor port. mance . One is ca lled d irecti vity (D . d B),
;her freque nc y. (Th ese ex per im ents rc- Ass ume we obser ve V o when the brid ge is whi ch is the indicated retu rn loss when a
n o n our "to do" li st at this writing. ) ter minated in an open circuit and a small er good 50-.0 ter mi natio n i.s attached to the
t'iJ;: 7.41 shows a retu rn loss brid ge V I whe n loaded. The rat io V /V o is termed unk nown port The o ther is the dB d iffer-
L B. ) a c irc uit wit h no adj usta ble the voltage rctlcctio n c oeffic ien t, often cncc between an oren circ uit and a short
ments. T he signal corning fro m thc sig nifi ed with an upper cas e G reek circ uit (O/S) at the unkno wn port. These
ector port ind icatcs the qu ality of the Gamma. I". Return to ss is relat ed to r by parameters defin e the experime nt, Ive do
.-pedan<.: c march. Bridge use heg ins with RL=-20 Iog f l" }. Also. r is dir ectly related when building a bridge.
, calib rati on. whic h places an open cir c uit to VS\VR by VS\VR=(I +lrll!(I-lril. Ta ble 7.1 show, the resulls obtained with
the unknown por t. T he detector le vel i, Henc e . VS \VR =2 corre sponds to Re turn an expe rimental RI,H. This represents thc best
Qfefully noted in dBm . Then thc unknow n Loss = 9.54 dB and r =0 ,333. transformcrtur H f) we found after examin-

II:!' I np ut
R , R • R c
"
'" se •
1"
Load

'l ll~
R B
T

Detector

T1: 10 nrruer t #32 FT3143

Fig 7A 1-A return los s bridge is a lso

Cl o wn as a 6-dB hybrid. The detector Fig 7.42- A RLB also f inds use in combining two sig nal generators. The power
en peda nce shou ld be 50 n fo r accurate de livered to the lo ad is 1/4 of that available f r o m each generator w hen the bridge is
ca lib rat io n . balanced.

Meas urement Equipment 7. 2 3

 RF In

., ~
. ..
L a nd C s et f or 7 MHz •
......
Terni nat i on ( )t--<~:~ ] -'-jJ(-«_
:»
U"'"""'"
TeI1llinatio R ~ -~
= :J~
\ ~ ~
L_Ut U I - '
=

27 51
~f ~
15 + nun

C.I. = i 2 .4K I -I .s

. 01
Rl .R2: " , I f 2V 111K 15
c: . 111

Dl: Ho t Carrie r o . ~ 1M
diode s tu::ll. as 1N5111

Fig 7.43-A bridg e suit able for use through UHF. The Fig 7.44-7 MHz lran srnalch and r es isti ve bridge 10r portable
sym metry of the sc he ma ti c sh o uld be followed w he n bu ild ing operation . Variab le ca pac itor s are s cr ewdriver ad justed, mtca
t he instrument. nrtve Is 100 mW 10 1 W, The " kno w n" compression types . All res istors are 1f2 W. S1 Is a DPDl
termi natio n usuall y used Is a 50 o r 75- 0 c oaxlal l ermin ato r. slide o r togg le swrt c h. Th is de si g n is su itab le 10r tr an sm itt er s
up to abo ut 3 W i1 the t u nin g Is done quickly .

iO~'a1el
r. 1<_ ,,'"
I , " ,'N . ...
~-: • ""'.
I .~. I
' ,. " •• sr K"
,(
~- •~ J."
• _ •i n I

J ~, ..
•
... .
,
... 'Jii
r .oo K._ ~U I
~
h
UI

1"
.11'''

.r
.- I n ..,.

~
- -=- -=- •• J'
...-._.
., '" . n

32J
••
0. . . .. . ru ' .
n, . ..... ""_r _
.., _ _,
l-' .i-d~d 'r
, 'c.
'
to)

' '''..1..'
••
" . ••
".
••
. ..
,r-~:.uo.
Cl. " .I c ' .-' /1>"' 1.•••" . Il.
m ~

Fig 7.4S- Hig her po wer versi on of a Iransm atc h wit h a

r esisti ve brid ge. This u n it is raled for 40 W o r sli g htly mo r e
fo r sh ort period s. T he to pology sho w n presents a 50-a load
to Ihe t ra nsmitte r wh il e attenuati ng t he sig na l pu t o n th e ai r
by 12 d B. If t he res iste rs spec ifi ed l or R c ann ot be pur ch as ed, Fig 7.46-A ud io mete r re placement scheme l o r Iransmatch
paralle l co m binati o ns of 2·W res is tor s c an be us ed. tuning. See text.

ing several. This bridge used 51-D. '/w·W bridge arc illustrated in Fig 7.-12. Generato r Th is circ uit functio ns into the L"HF ar ea.
resistors and a transformer consisting of JO V1causes voltage s x and y to he equal and in realize d by sma ll lead le ngth and careful
M ilar turns {If #2 l! on a FB73-240 1. The high phase if the hridge is bala nced. Hence. none symmetry. A photo sho ws the im ide ot the
permea bility core ts preferred, providing an of this power ends up in R 2. the impedance of c irc uit. Th is bridge wor ks well at 144 and
inductance of 175 IlH for each winding. the other source. But V 2 al so sees a balanced 4]2 MHz. as well as the HF spectrum .
A different transf ormer imp ro ved V Hr bridge . The power deli vered by V! force, the A simple reslstancc bridg e with
pe rformance at the CO, ! of HF d irecti vi ty. node with R I to he at signal ground. so none incl uded detect or is ofte n used for the
We saw 30-dB d irec tiv ity at 144 I\f Hz o f the V2po wer e nds up in R I. Th ese charac- adjustment o f lo w powe r ante nna tu ners.
when the transfo rme r used 5 o f thc 6 hole, teristics provide the isola tion that we need This is o ften preferre d ove r an in-line
in a m ulti-hole bead. a FB4 3 ~5 1 1 1 . Th is when combinmg signals from two generators direction al powe r me ter, for the trans miue r
confi guration p rodu ce s an ind uc ta nce of for l~ m testing. is alway, property te rminated during lun-
SA IlH per wi nding. A co nventio nal resis ta nce bridge c irc uit ing. A circuit used with po rta ble rran sce lv-
The hybrid q ua litie s of the return los, with buill-in det ec to r is show n in Fig 7.-13. cr s is sho wn in Fi lf 7.44 where the co mpo-

7.24 Chapter 7
 t\ are app rop riate for the -m.m ete r band. balance. Perfor ma nce is poor. es pec ially quency modulated by the brid ge sig n'll
elide or toggle sw itc h is put into the for low power transmi tte rs. tor visual OUl- ...it h the pitch becomi ng higher with
-.ne.. positi on 10 adj ust the circuit for he~ t put is zero unt il abo ut 1.6 V biase s the LE D . greater mismatch. Th e circuit is u..ed by
. II i.. . then retu rned to the "operate" po- But me ters are often hea vy, difficul t to find . sendi ng a vrring of dits into the tran . . matc h.
• A higher po wer ho me . . tario n vercion and expe nsive. Some refined circu its usc T he pitc h become.. ide ntica l for key up a nd
~\\ n in Fig 7.43. The low power varia nt ferrite transforme rs fo r gre ate r se nvitivity . l c y' do wn whe n the ma tch i-, perfect . The
~ d germanium diod e while a . . iticon An alternati ve sc he me i.. "how n i n pri mary purpose uf Q I. the JFET input. h
It.:hing d iode is used at higher power . Fig 7A 6 \\ hen: an audio os cillator replaces to generate a d e o ff set from ground. ' I I
Some builders han: used a lig ht emitting the visu a l o utpu t. The oscill ator . a vim pl e JFET type is ext rem ely non-cruical . A n
:-Je to replace the meter ind icating brid ge muln- vibrator using Q2 and Q 3. is fre - op-amp would also serve this function.

7.8 SPECTRUM ANALYSIS

Wh a t is a Spectrum it swee ps fro m left In right.
o f inter est a nd the tuning control is J I-
Ana lyze r? tac bed 10 01 moto r throug h a suitable pulley, T he o n-sc ree n vem cul pos ition is also
One o f the most useful inst ruments ' he T he mo tor also dr ives a poten tio meter that calibra ted in the la borato ry spectru m ana -
, W IO ex pe ri menter could have is the spec-
m ana lyzer. Co mmer cia l versio n.. . are
de velops 1I vol tag e prcponionnl ro the Ire-
y' uency. Th e vol tage from the pot ind icat-
lyzer. W hile we obtai ned a voltage fro m
the receiver 10 app ly to the -scope \ en ica l
hi.. . ucated and expensive. bu t exce llent ing frequency is ro uted to the hori zont a l axis . we calibrate with regard to the power
examples arc beg inning to ap pear on the axis of a n oscillo sc ope w hile the s igna l re lated to the signal that de ve loped that
owpl us market . And there are no w many fro m the receive r"s AGe. in di cari n ~ signal voltage . The top (If the scree n i~ called the
.. ailable co mpo nents th at allow the en ter- amplitude. is applied turhe 'scope vertical . reference teve t. leaving the bottom with
.." ing e xpe rime nter to build hi.. . or her The resu lt is o ur spectrum analy zer. no spec ia l sig nific a nce , When we sec a
n spectru m a naly zer. Th e ucual spectru m analyzer is c a li- sig nal on screen that ju,",' rea che s the rcter-
The firs t qu e stio n we mu st address is brated in freq uency. so we know the fre- en ce le vel. ...e know tha t it has a strength
rno.. . t fundamen tal: What is a spectru m q uency representi ng the sc reen ce nter. we eq ua l to that level . Th e usual spec trum
J.1 ) ze r·! In the ge ne ra l ma thematic a l also know the freque nc y \ pan. the nu mbe r analyzer displays ~ i g n a 1s logarithmicall y,
lC11 ~e . the signals we e nco unter an: ge ner - of kHz or Ml-l z ussociutcd with the d ot as sothe calibrat ion wil l bein te rms of an um -
Iy co llec t io ns of si ne wa ves of the fo rm:

" . . . in(2 • It • f · t)

. .....'here A is an am plit ude , r i ~ frequency Oscil l osc op e

• Hz lind t is time in second s. We can regard in x-v ncee
I" function as eithe r one o f time . 1. or of

~
frequency. L l n the most gene ral sen-e. any COlmlunl ca t l ons
function of lime has a related spectrum or Receive r
freque ncy do ma in represe ntat ion. The I WO
Jo mllins or viewpoints life related through a
ntthe matic al ope ration called the Fou rie r
Transform. lZo 13 Also see Chapter 10 o f thiv
CJ Q , ./
~ .~

......,
/ 0

3~d!
volume. 1- 000 0 0 0
~.
Sell ing forma li tie s aside. we look at
ckctro nic si gnals in the ti me domain with a V

III o sci lloscope or e xamine them again st

~",
I I
freq uency with a rad io frequency spe ctru m
»r
"'J.I F ~ r. we arc already familiar ...ith ra-
Jio freq ue ncy spectra o f se veral so rts. al-
iIIough they may not have been presented
\ ,
\
~

.b such. A rudime ntary spec trum analyz er. - ~

.a.I ~ i t un-calib rared . i~ shown in F ig 7A7 . Wire Ceo. c ec: e i vec ~s:-_t .. r "
We have extracted o ur communic ations
receiver fro m no rma l se rvice and o pened it
eoanac h wires to the Svmete r. a panel me ter Fig 7.47- A rudimen ta ry s pect ru m a na lyze r forme d by app lyin g mo to r dri ve 10
rece ive r t u nin g and to a pot t ha i generates a vo ltage that Indi c ate s Ihe tuned
indicatin g the slrl:ngl h of rec eived sig nals, frequenc y. This vo lta ge co nt ro ls the X axis of a n osci lloscope. The vertical Y
This voltage is us ually der ived from the ax is is derived fro m th e receiver s -me te r circuitr y, (Tha nks 10 Bob Bales fro m
receiver AGe. Th e receiv er is set to a hand Tektronix, Beaverton, OR who s ugge s te d this ex pla natI o n.)

Measurement Equipment 7 . 25
 put. We st"eno o utput unti l the l ocal sig nal
ge nerator is tuned 10 1"'0 MHz when the
input sign al is convened to the I I D-\fHz
IF. Cha nges in the input amp li tude c an

-
easily be observ ed. We c ou ld use this

.....-
Power
... .
F i ltrr 1'11 t r r
Meter
instrume nt to tune a 30- ~t HL filter o r
amp li fier. T un ing the loc al ge ner ato r 10
170 MHz ano ws 60 MHz to be recei ved ,
a llow i ng us to me asure the sec ond har-
mo nic of the inpu t si gna l. T he 90- M HI:
third harm on ic co uld be measur ed with the
LO set to 200 \1H l exce pt that the 70-MHz
input low pa ss filter wo uld atte nuate thi s
I S10pLal ~,",rdtor re ~ ro n se. (W e cou ld e li minate the input
low pass filt er from thi s instrum e nt to pro-
duce a n instr ume nt tha t would allow the
enti re HF and VHF spectrum to be see n.
Fig 7.4 8--Mea su r eme nl receiver allowing rudi mentar y s pec tru m analysis. Although altho ugh res ults woul d no w be obsc ured
th is inst ru me nt Is presente<l p rimaril y to Illustrate concept s. th is unit could be bunt
hy image s.]
a nd wo u ld be usefu l. The amplifier could be a MA R·3 driving a MA V·11 (bot h from
Min i-Circuits) with a 6·dB pad. The mixer m ight be a TUF· 1 or similar part. WC now attach an anten na to the
receiver-and see considerable energy when
tun ed to the A~ I broadcast band around
I Mf-lz, Ho weve r. we c an't isola te onc
ber of dB per ver tica l di vivion . fo r the dec i- to +30 dBm. or line watt. A " pro per" spec- sig nal t rom the other because the 110 MHz
be l i-, also a log function . If we ha ve our ,I
tru m analyzer uses fn mt en d tha t is strong band pass filter is 2 MHz wi de . The e ntire
spec trum ana lyzer set up for 10 dB per enoug h to produce no internally generated HC hand fills thc fil ter at o nce. This defi -
maj or division . huve a refere nce level of third order 11\.1D when all input sign als arc ciency is altered with a 110 MHz filte r with
-.10 d Bm. and see a sig nal peak two divi - kept belo w the refer e nce le vel , or "on a narrowe r hand width . Whi le crys tal
sions below the to p. we co nclu de that the sc reen . filters a rc possible a t VHF. the mo re prac-
si gnal po \\.'er is -50 d Rm. tica l so lutio n conv e rts t he sig nal to a sec-
Spectrum analyzers come in many ond, lower IF.
A nalyze rs t he A second problem occ urs whe n we tu ne
form" 10 cover many differe nt frequency
ran ges . O ne thai we will di sc uss in more Ex pe r im e nt e r can Build the analy sis receiver to look at a low Ire-
derail tunes [rum 0 10 70 MHz .l n stru ment ~ The eq uipme nt described abov e i ~ not l.j uency: A sp urious respo nse is observed
conrinuouvly sweeping and tu ning from 0 the ul n murc. bu t me rel y the nor m. rep re- eve n wit h no ap pli ed input sig na l. This
to J or 3 G Hl are commo n. Ba nd switch- semtng what has been co mmon within occurs beca use the La is a t 110 \t Hz, tne
ing unit!' ofte n tunc f rom 0 10 2 1 GH z o r indu stry for the pact 20 years o r more. intermediate frequ ency. T his is a commo n
even more . Equ ipm e nt offering this perform a nce is ch aracte ris tic of mos t swe pt front-en d
The properly of selectivity in a rece iver vull rare in the bas e memla b of the typical spectr um analyze rs. Impro ved balance in
bec o mes resolution in a spec trum ana- experi menter. It wou ld be a mon umcn rul the input mixer inc reas es mixe r LO to
lyzer. Res olutio n i~ the ability o f an ann - ta sk to dup lic ate a high pe rfor mance labo - IF isola lio n to redu ce the "zero spur"
lyzer to resol ve lW O sig nals that are clo ve rutory instrum ent . B ut that is not our goal. response .
In eac h other in freq uency. This is spec i- Rathe r. a ll that we ask is to do so me of the Another s ubtle ty be comes ap paren t
fied by the a nalyzer reso lutio n bandwid th. meas urements. as nee ded fo r o ur e xpe ri- wh en ....'e ac tually build the analy sis
RBW _usually eq ua l 10 t he 6-d B widt h of me nts. with instruments that are si mp ler. rece iver of the figu re: Th e balanced mixe r
the filter in use. It b com mo n for hig h hut ma nagea ble. T he con cep ts and so me mus t be re ve rsed fro m the no rmal app lic a-
perform ance spec trum ana lyz ers to have of the methods of t he high end instruments tio n. M OM bala nc ed d iod e ring mixers,
reso lutio n ha nd width select able from will he app lied to realize these goals. such as the TL"F-I or SBL- I. have tran s-
3 MH z down to 10 Hz, Th e extreme ly na r- Co nsider a very simple spe ctru m ana ly- form er coupled " LO'- and " RF' ports with
ro w bandwidth i ~ useful fo r suc h ta cks as sis recei ver . show n in Fi g 7.4 8. T his h a dc cou pled " IP' pone If low inpUl fre -
exa mining 60 Hz sidebands on carriers o r based upon a po we r mete r tha t was que nc ies art" 10 be examine d, the dc
for d igging way into the no ise. descri bed earlie r in the c hapter in Fig 7. 13. coupled po rt muvr be used as the RF input.
T he typica l analyze r is not a ve ry sc nsi - The meter measu red signals from appro xi- The mstrumcm of Fig- 7.48 is not a spec-
rive instrume nt whe n compared with our mate ly - 80 to + 10 dHm. We precede th is trum ana lyzer , for it lacks a graphic d is-
receiv ers. A ro utine co mmunicatio ns mete r .... ith a 2 MH I wide ba nd pass filter at play. T his is usually o btain ed hy sweeping
recei ver might have a no ise Figure of 110 MHz center t req uency .!'' A remote the frequency with time in uniso n with a
10 dO to yield MDS of - 137 d Bm in a signa l generator is the loc al oscillator sig- swee p of the di splay. This begi ns hy reo
500 H z bandwid th. A ty pic al NF might be nal for a diode ring mixer follow ed by lin placi ng t he sig na l generator 1.0 wit h a
25 d B for an a nalyzer. res ulting in MD S of amplifier and pad . T he amp lifier rcrmi- vo ltage contro lled oscillator. The VCO is
-119 d Bm in a I kHz RBW. T he analy zers nates the mixe r and adds gai n, allow ing [hen SWCpl with sui table c ircuitry . VCO
are not lac king in dy nam ic range though. sma ller sign a ls 10 he seen. A lo w pass fi l- design was d isc ussed in Chapter ....
A typ ica l analp er will ha ve a basic re fer- te r with a 7{)~ M Hz cut off precedes the in- A ba sic swept voltage generator is
e nce level of -30 d Bm. but will incl ude strument, eliminating ima ges . shown in Fi J!: 7. -19. beg innin g with the
an in put auenuator with a 6O-d8 ra nge. I.e t' s assu me that we injec t a 3D-MH z i ntegrato r circui t of pan A. Starting with
allowi ng the refere nce level to be e xtended ~igna l from another genera tor i nto the in- the ca pacitor d isc harged . apply a negauve

7.26 Chapter 7
 vo ltage 10 V in. T hi s is co up led to the
inv ertin g inp ut. whic h ca use s U I ' s out put
to begin inc reasing . But th is is cou ple d
IE] back 10 th e invertin g inp ut t hro ug h the

rl'>-,~
.
cap acitor. The equilibri um Vi C require of a
dos ed feedback loop in an up-amp is re al-

'D ~ ~
ized w he n th e U I out put volt age ramps lin-
early u pwa rd . Th e current in the capacito r
R eO tim; the n equ als that in the re sistor. \l in IR. Had
we app lied a posi t ive input we wo uld gcn -
CHItc a negative going ra mp.
U1 U2 Fig 7.49-Part A In part B of the figure. we drive the
[JlJ +
" 5K
+
"
shows an integrator
circuit. T his drives
inp ut of the next sta ge with the r amp.
Assume UI is ramping upward and th at the
II a level detector
with hysteresis, U2 output of U Z is neg ati ve agai nst th e
R in pa rt B. Feedback -1 5 V pow er supply. The no n-i nverting
c 10K then creates a inp ut of L'2 rea ches 0 when U I 's ou tput is
sawtooth gene rator . +7 .5 V, a conseq uence of the voltage divider
See text. action . At thi s instant , the out put of U2
changes state . now "slamming" aga inst the
+ 15 V po wer supp ly. H the 112 outp ut he-
comes th e driv ing source for the integrator
input with the dotted connection. we obtain
the sawto oth waveform shown for V I.
is
A pract ica l swee p circuit grow s slightly
"-rs f-- -
fro m that de vcrih ed . D iode s prov ide dif-
fe re nt s lop e s fo r the positive and neg a tive
time go ing por tions . for we use th e le ft- to -rig ht
• as t he swee p an d th e oth e r as a ret race.
Pot ent iom ete r, or sw itched re sistors and/
or capaci tors ar c ad ded to cha nge swe e p

B _ J OO kHz
70 MHz
LEVEL 17 LEVEL 17
LOW- PASS
MIXER MIXER
FILTER

Step
Al le n
(0 to 60 ) Po. l Mixer
(- 35 )
Am plif ier
B _ 30kHz
Resol ut ion Filt ers , 10 MI-lz
100 MHz
BUFFER
2nd OSC

Video
IF AMP V1 DEO AMP
Y Out
t o Scope
MC3356
Lo~ Amp

V1 DEO
IF CAIN ""m
+ ( Typic al VQlues in dBm wit h Refecence Level
Input ano No Attenuol ion. ) ~
1T
X Out
t o Scop e
S\l'EEP
RATE

Fig 7.50-Block diagram of a spectrum analyzer the experimenter can build. A practical realization of this design is on the
book CD. The 50-dB step attenuator can be an external accessory or built into the instrument.

Measurement Equipment 7. 27
 rates. VI i ~ read y 10 dr ive the Xca xi s of an
os cillosco pe while add itiona l op-amps
buffe r the ramp and offs et it as needed to
drive the VOl.
An analyzer begins to eme rge. sho wn in
the block diagram of rig 1.50. A co mmer-
cially ava ilabl e vaructor tuned veo
serv es Ihe LO function. 'with buf feri ng to
f 1 , f2 ' 19 t 11111 on r a i T Rit e 59 6 111 0 1110 1 OT ""'idon r f - 5 0 - 6 1 ,
l i nk .. H 124 Oyer o t h er lI't nd l n q. reach a level of + 17dBm. D Ui.l1convervion
y , ECS ' -pole til t e r i n two ~ an •• Mou s e r 52 0 - 1117 -15 1 3 is e mployed 10 obta in a resol ution ha nd-
width narro wer th an afforded b y the V HF
C , 1 .8 - 111 pr, Mou."r 2' 2 - 18 1 0 or . :iJnil a r.
filter. Hi gh level mi xers are used for rc-
duced IMD.
Fig 7.51-4th order mono lit hic crysta l fil ler. Th is is a practical design that that has bee n
widely duplicated. IS De tailv are presented
in the articles . which appear on the C D that
accompanies this book. The rest of our di v-
c ucsion of spectrum analyz e rs. is co nfined to

.-nm·e. '".
.-+ ,
<
~
.- -
0
• 'I
-e-
general com ments and thoughts for refine-
rncn rs of the QST design .
Two resolution bandwidths are avail-
ab le in the QST spectrum analyzer . One
with a bandwidth of 300 kHz uses an LC
filte r while the other uses a comme rcial 30
kHz bandwidth crystal filter. Our I-sl :\I1d
2nd IFs wen: 110 ,0 and 10 ,0 M HI , hut
110.7 and 10. 7 allo w com mercial crys ta l
Fig 7.52- Bt h o rder crysta l fi lter usin g two of the fil ter s f rom Fig 7.51. Each f ilter
blo ck consists of a capac ito r-f ilter ele ment -capacitor-filter element-capacitor filt er elements at 10,7 MHz 10 be used .
comb inat ion. These tilter s were t he eff orts of Jack Glandon, WB4RNO, and Fred T hese arc ECS types X703:\' D and were
Holler, W2EKB. purc hase d fro m Mou ser or DigiKcy.

! . ,~

i"
>-j~ Q
,..'''.
LI ' t.n 1M .... U . -I , . " "
... I .1 -=-
i.1 ~ .•

~~ ~1U
f;--
AD603AQ AD 8307AN

i'1
. 1Iy
"
'do
.~
,
1'1' ~
fa
nr -=- CA31 40

,m 111 W·'~
-1 l'~'
.L · IW

UK
i-
M

,m i"
I
._"
.-, .,~
LM
317L

. '- " i. I
n.
u_ ~

:r ,
,. ~~ '" ...L . l
u n

X
~
., ' -1
1H41 ~ 1

.,
~n rT ~

r l'
* --
ix
' 11 . 1 V

Fig 7.53-This IF and Log Amp sect ion using more accurate Integrat ed ci rcui ts and replaces all ci rcuitry of Fig 5 of the
ori gin al art icle (see the book CD .) IF gain is variable f ro m 10 t o 50 dB . Resis to rs aroun d the L M317L can be adjusted to set
t he 10 V level.

7.28 Chapter 7
 which then is routed 10 the added 2 d B per
divisio n bo ard (described below ) and then
I 1
? "+ "
To Y-.ehannel Of.
·sco pe , O,SV/div. 10 the osci lloscope Y axis.
~"
The ana lyze r co nta ins a video f ilter.
~
1458 Dual Op-Amp

0
+ ,
10 dB.'
st
\ whic h co nsi sts of noth ing mor e tha n a ca-
pacitor that is switc hed to paralle l the

20 k
'f}
a
2
+, a
t 10 k
'f}
6
H

2 d B,/
~
video line to the osc illoscope Yvaxis. This
compon ent. with the driving ou tput re sis-
La nce, se rves 10 smooth the noise that
\ ,CO '"' 4, 98 k

sa
otherwise creates a fuzzy line . Th e origi-
nal video fil ter used a SPST tog gle switch
Fro m Arm or R2, ' CO
and a 0.1 uF ca pac itor. This has been re-
o~ 1
Fig5 , p39 ,

-r-
QST Aug 98 1N4 152 I 33 placed with a SPDT/ Ce nter -oft' togg le
{Book CD)
aa I I switch . Two capaci tors uf 0. 1 and 3.3 JlF
1 00~d ? 24 9 k
~ ~ ~
arc available , show n in Fig- 7. 54, T he
heav ily filtered response is es pec ially use-
~

'co "
' CO
"w, I Vid"" Filter I ful for noise measurements . Either filte r
may be usefu l in cre ating a truce that is
" .. .
mor e e asily re ad on screen,
Fig 7.54-Clrc UlI ad ding 2 dB per otvrsron to the spectrum analy zer. The video T he spec tr um ana lyzer user soo n no-
filt er c ir c u it is a ls o incl ud ed. tices that the swee p rate mu st be changed
wit h c hanges in fi lte ring. T his is usuall y a
consequence of swe eping . T he signa l
com ing out of a filter ca n respond on ly as
.,, fast as the band wid th of the filter allows .
, , If. for example , our ana lyzer had a band-
10 dB
,,, \ 2d B
widt h of I II.fHl , we wou ld e xpec t to see
output changes at the log am p commensu-
T ,!
'.
•
.. 1 rate with 1 uS. Any sweep rate available in
the QST analyzerwo uld be slow enough to
!
\ II keep up with suc h a bandwi d th. HUL
switching a 30-kHl fil ter into the sys tem
I will cause the response shape to distor t,
never reaching the pe ak respo nse se en
with a sl ow sweep. Narrow video filte ring
doe s the same thi ng. Modern ana lyz ers
Fig 7.55-A 10 dB /d i v. s ig nal at the left is adjusted to f ill much of t he s c reen .
will auto mat ically adj ust swee p rat es to
Sw itc h ing to 2 d B/d iv. prod uces t he d isplay at the ri ght . Adjust ing t he o ffs et match the se lected reso lutio n an d video
co ntro ls R1 an d R2 all ow s moving the re s pon se an ywhere o n t he CRT sc re en . bandw idths,
Our spectru m analyzer is configured to
produce 10 dB of change for every majo r
d ivisio n o n the C RT scree n, assuming an X
Fig 7.51 shows (he sch ematic [or a 4 pole a pict ure of the filter shape over the com - di vision vertical range . This is in li ne with
filter uvi ng \"""0 packages. (O ne "p roduct" plete dynamic range of the analyzer. so the man y tradi tiona l instrument s. Th ere are
rro m (he cata logs includes two filter pad - fille r sho uld have a clean, spu r-free many sit uat ions when greater a mplitude
agcs .) The ter min ation fo r this filt er is response over t his range. reso lution i v ne eded. One might he , for
3 kil at eac h e nd, rea lized with fe rrite T he QST anal yzer used the rccc ivcd sig- e xample . a measu reme nt of re sonator Q
na nsformer v. O wing to filter 10.' , co nsid- nal strength ind ic ator (RSSl ) f unction whe re one needs to acc urately see a 3 d H
eratio ns, a Type 6 1 c ore is pre ferred o ver fro m an ear ly Moto rol a l C for the log chan ge. This meas ureme nt is Facil itated
the high er permea bility cores , amp lifier. The parts we re inex pensi ve a nd with the ci rcuit of Fig 7.54. A front pane l
Altho ugh the per fo rma nce was impres- available at the time of publicat ion. The switch is added tha t allows the user to
cive. the sropha nd atten uation for the AD8307 fro m Ana log De vices is now toggle between 10 and 2 dB per division.
a- pole filter was not adequate . Tw o stages commonly avail able a nd offe rs sig nifi- The f irst o p-am p of Fig 7.54 is set for all
of the circ uitry of Fig 7.51 are cascaded to ca ntly bett er perfurrn ancc . The AD 8307 inverting vo ltage gain of 2 whi le the seco nd
form an 8th ord er fi Iter, shown i n Fig 7.52. has a wider dy namic ran ge, impro ve d ac- has an inverting gain of2.S for a net of 5 The
This filte r has a stop band attenuation in c urac y. better temperature stability . and is circuit can be offset by a large amount, which
e xcess of 90 d H, a llo wing a wide range of the reco mmended part. How ever. it is not can be dialed in with R l and R2 . Any signal
measure ments. The filter s arc alig ned for a a pin-fa r-pin rep lace men t, and it uvev a that appears o n the scree n in the 10 dB/d iv
co mpro mise of roun ded pea k shap e, lo w d ifferent input po wer window, so the de - mode can be offset to appear anywhere on
insertio n loss , a nd stopha nd att enu ation . signe r/bu ilder will ha ve to do some circuit the screen with the 2 dB per di vision mode,
Alignment c an be done with the working de ve lopm ent. T he ori g inal system used illustrated in Fij!; 7.55.
analyzer and any con veni ent inpu t signal. d iscre te part s for the If amplifi er. An u p- A crystal oscill ator presented ea rlier
IF filte rs for spe ctr um analyzer use arc dated vervion that incl udes an AD603 as (Fig 7.29) is use ful as a calib rator for the
more critical than those used in a receiver. the IF amp lifie r, is sho wn in Fi j!; 7.53 . T his analy zer It co uld he buill in with a fron t
The analyze r operat ion essen tiall y paint s ci rc uit dri ves R2. the "lo g amp ca r' pot. panel HI\C connec tor . or as a battery pow -

Measureme nt Equipm ent 7 . 29

c red 'land alone unit. T he cal ibrator amp li- mu m bandwidth of ;lOkHz and a noi se fig- short leads.
tude i-, adj usted with circ uit component ure a round 20 d H. '0 the minim um In ot her cases it is hand y 10 attach a
changes 10 del iver a leve l of - 20 dRrn while discernable sig nal is arou nd - 109 dB m. R'lC ch ass i, con nec to r with ground lug
usin g a ca libra ted sourc e av a " standard." Yet we routinel y use this inst rum ent with to a sho rl le ngt h of small co axial ca ble
The c ali brato r or a sig nal ge ne rato r can 100 \ .... tra ns mitter... T hai power is +50 ( RG-17-l or simila r' with the o ther e nd of
he used 10 calibrate the ins trument. A sig- d b m. 159 dB above the anal yzer .\IOS. the cab le soldered into the c irc uitry. The
na l of -20 d Bm is applied to the an alyze r T his is the attenuation that must be pro- probing e nd shou ld have a ma ximu m
in put. which is usually run with at least 10 vid ed in th... ov era ll measu rement se tup 10 ground le ngth of perhaps o ne ha lf 10 o ne
d B of input anenuatio n. The IF gai n is set be able to do good measureme nts. Pari of inc h with a sim ilar le ng th for th e center
to ge ner ate a re fere nce level respon se. The this rc suns fmm shielding and part co mes co nd uc tor for HF and low VH f uppfica-
an enuator is then switched ill 10 dB step s fro m tes ti ng the tran smitter wi th a non- no ns . The end of the center insulati on i,
to mo ve the respon se dow n th e sc ree n. If radiat i ng te rminatio n. re moved and soldered to a circuit board. It
the sig nal doc s nOI li ne up on the major The pop ular boxes offe re d by is vita l to solder the cable gro und 10 a vir -
scree n ma rkers t he log a mp ga in i.. Hammond. a va ilable in many cat alo gs. cuit board gro und d ose to thc place wher e
changed and the process is repe ated until afford excelle nt shie ldi ng. T hese cas t al u- the mea s ured si gnal c urre nts flow . For
rea son able log accuracy is rea lized. Ana- minum boxes have tig ht fitting bo lt on lids exa mple. if the o urput of a feedbac k am-
IYlers using the A D8.l07 log a mp are S(l and arc cavily drilled. Abo x i... uved fo r plifier w ac 10 bc exami ned . you mig hi
accurate that the o-ciltovcopcs vertical eac h major bloc k in the RF cha in. so o ne "Iitt" a bluc king capacitor from the output
po~ i li n n co ntrol funct ion s much li ke the box co nta ins the first mixer. post m ixe r signal line . T hai capacitor can then be tack
IF ga in co ntro l. There is no significance amp lifi..r. the VCO. a nd il\ but te r ampli- solde red to the c able ce nte r co nd uctor. The
10 the "screen bo uom' selling in the "sco pe fi er. The inp ut lo w pass reside s in a se pa- ide a l place for the ca ble gro und is the
in thi-, app lica tio n. rate 00.\ with the 110 Mllz firSi IF fi lter in boa rd grou nd foi l directly under the ca-
T he- ADS307 lo g :Imp accuracy is as another. T hc only "open" board in the pncitor posi tio n. Remo va l of ..o lder mask-
good as OJ t etter tha n lhat of Ing amps in analyzer contai ns the tim.. has e. S ignal s ing may be requ ired in so me case'. Alter-
many spec tr um analyzers fou nd on the move into and out of the box on coax ial nat ively. the ground con nection for the
surplu s ma rket. •.llo wing the build er/de- ca ble while de bia s and gain control lines bypa ss ca pac itor relat e d to the feedbac k
.igller to realize out standing per for mance are attached to fe edthrough capa c ito rs, amplifier output could he use d.
with mod est cost. Consumer co nunumcu- T h.. veo tun c line i, on co ax. w ires e x- It is rare !y va l id to mere ly atta ch a cable
tfon s ICs with buill- in RSS I f uncuo ns do te nd ing through rubber grommets in box gro und at rhc edge of a board at. for ex -
not fa re as we ll. But moderately acc ura te walls are IlIIl suita ble and sho uld never be a mple. a mo unting hole. T his procedure
measu re men ts arc still pos vible by ca re ful co nside red fo r RF app lica tio n. wo rks we ll e noug h for hig h im ped ance
applicatio n of the ..tep anc nuator. Use what is ava ilab le for co axial con- prohe s from a n osc illo sco pe while per -
Concider a spurious response c valu a- nectors. SMA or 5MB arc ex cell ..nt , bUI formi ng ill-sit" mea cure mem s. Th e feed-
non of a transmitter a<. a typic al exa mple expensive and nOI gene rally required for bac t, ampl ifie r. in Ihat c ase. su ll ha-, the
of a measurement thilt as"s fo r a d B ratio HF a nd VHF . H:"JC cables ha ve become o utput c urre nts 110 w ing to a foll ow ing
bet wee n two po wer levels. T he tran sm it- mor e a ffordable with the po pularity of stage. Tha t rem un arion was brok e n fo r our
ter is applied to the a nalyze r. tak ing ca re 10 com pUler networks. A c rimping too l is subsutu non me asu rem e nt. Exa mine the
keep all sig nals on screen. An ex ira auen u- need ed 10 lake ad vantage of these pans. co mple te loop vtarnng a nd endi ng with the
ato r or power tap may be needed to safe- Ine xpen sive pho no plugs and socket s place whe re the center conductor and coa x
g uard the anal yzer from the high o utputs l Re i\) are su itable if c are rull y ap plied. cahle bra id ,plil. T h;lt loop shou ld ge ner-
ava ilable from a trans miner. The d isplay ally be sma ll. If you ;lre tryi ng to e va luate
Ie- ve l of the sp ur is cMefull y n o t~ d , per- the prcs cn.: e or ~ p u r i o u s signals. you
haps hy usin g the :! d B/div mode for i m- Application Hints ~hou l d not allow- the lo op to conlain eXira
pro ved accuracy. The analp.er is IlIned to The ~p"c lrum ana lyler is not mcrely an st age, that mighl be carrying some of the
the ca rrier signal and a tte nuatio n is added eva luation tool 10 lesl lhe rigs tha I are fin- contamina ling sig nal.
until the on-~c reen re s pon ~e eq ua ls Ihat ished. a lthough many folks Ireal il as such. Some appli cal ions are prescntcd in lhe
ob~cn'ed for Ihe spu r. Thi" procedu re i.. Rather. Ihe SA is uscd 10 measure Ihing.. paper o n Ihe C D Ihat ac co mpanies th is
enhanced if I d B Meps a rl: a"ai lahle in the Ihroug hout lhe e xpe rimen tal ....periencc. hoo kY' The applieat iom related 10 po wer
ste p altc nuato r. T he spur lc n~1 in dB with Firsl and for emost. il is a sem ili\ e mete r meters. again on the CD. arc al ~o gen er-
respeci to the carrie r (d Re) is t he n the used to .... amine signal Je\'els. e \e n whe n ally usefu l wilh spec tr um ana lyzers . 17
a mOUnl of alle nuation added. T his mea- they are too weak to be see n with an oscil- Spcc lTum anal yze r meas uro:ment of inle r-
,ure me nt is a~ accurate as the ~ lep alle nu- losco pe. The ~.:nsil i\'i ty is the resu lt ofnar- modu lati on di , to n ion was di"c us"ed ea r-
ato r and ha" litt le to do wil h the analyzer row bandw idt h. Utility is mainta ined a ~ a lier in thi s c haple r in lhe .section on ~ i g n al
c haraeteristi<:s. Harmo nic d islOrlion i.. a result of swceping. e liminating lhe need 10 ~ o ur c e s .

spec ial cas e disc uss ed later. relunc for various s ignal l·ornponenls. A commo n prob lem encountered when
The spe ctrum analyzer is al most always hrea d boar di ng a ne w ci rc uit is a spurio us
a 1001 fo r Suh' litution mcas ureme nts. As oscillation. \1 ore ofte n than not. thi , will
Shield i ng suc h. it is usu all y necessary to break a occ ur at very high f req ue ncies. often
One of the fi rsl q uest ions ask whe n a 50-11 si g na l pa th und attach the ,pee- app roaching the FT of the offe ndin g tr:m-
des igne r e mbar ks on thl: construc tio n of a trum ana lyze r. T his is do ne in a hre ad- si"tor. A spe c trum a nalyzc r tuning on ly to
speclTu m ana lper is "h o w muc h sh ield - boa rd hy bol ting a B='C connector to a 70 M Hz will never see th is direc tly . hut
ing is needed:' While di ffic ull to qu anti. grou nd lug and Ihe n soldc ring tha t lug 10 the res ull is ofte n slill appa rent on screen.
tativel y answer . a lill Ie tho ughl show s that Ihe gro und foil nea r Ihe circui l unde r lesl. Thi s ap pea r.. as a 10 \ \ le vel signal Iha l
~ hield i n g must be \'er)' good. The QST The connecto r can he moved later . so it mo\' e~ in freq uency a~ a hand or 1001 is
an al YJ:-er wc ha\'e d i, c ussed ha s a mi ni- c a n be pl ace d e1me en ough In main lai n placed clo ...e 10 the cire uil. Thi s is the rc-

7 .3 0 C ha p ter 7
 con ne cto r. T his is a barrel or bulk head
co nnec tor in RI\C cab les or ihe eq uivale nt
in oher ca ble types. It i<. important 10 uce
the same cab les fo r the ca lib ra tion as a re
used with the ampli fier . T he respo nse ls
noted with the throu g h connecto r. The
a mplifi e r i ~ the n inser ted i n its o rigi na l
spectrum po sition a nd the new respo nse is no ted. 2
d B per d ivision is used for both meas ure-
Analyzer mcn ts . The gai n is then t he- d ifferenc e be-
S l f"ll Jl.Ue n uat o r twe e n the t wo le ve ls.
New er co mmercial eq uip me nt is usually
0 fairly accur ate in the I or 2 d B per di vi sion

II I ranges. so log errors are no t majo r. How -

e ver. whe n a hom cb rew ana lyz er ba ced
upon an IC RSS I functio n is used. the
meas ure ment sho uld be done with a ste: p
0 00 atrenuaror rath er th an with nu mbers from
the: scree n. Th b b a .... ice proc ed ure wi rh
• '~d o lde r co mme rci a l a nalyzers or \\ ith any
measure me nts perfo rmed near the bottom
of the log amplifie r ranges. o r wit h any
m eusu re rnenrs whe re no ise Ic vc t-, a re
be ing co mpared .
Co mmercial spec tru m a nal yz er s fea ture
Hg 7.56- Ret urn los s (VSWR) is easily me asured dur ing ben ch tes ting with a
simple bridge . high ly refined fre q uenc y re adouts , A c ur-
so r fun ctio n ~',111 be activated t h at mar ks a
t race o n screen. The e xac t frequ ency is
then d is played. So me instruments ca n be
Fig 7.57- Low pas s extremel y accurate in this mode. The pro-
filter an d tuna ble c ed ure is much mo re c asual with the: QST
15 MHz ripple-cutotl', .os dB trap ar e us ed to and ot her simple hom e brew instru memv .
ChebYlhey LPF e va luate har mo nic Wh en .... e see a si gna l (In sc reen with an
distort ion in the
front end of an unknow n freq uency, we ca re fully not e the
~ a nal yze r. These horizontal pos itio n. disco nnect the input
1. 3 '..:.H --; circ uits were us e d ca ble and attac h a si gnal sour ce adj usted
r c rcc,o :. to ev a lua te for the same: res ponse. and read the trc-
r'~ an a lyzer
perf ormance lor
q uenc y fro m ;I counter attac hed III the

1-140 pr
me asure me nt of
14·MHz harmoni cs
t ro m a t ransmitter .
so urc e.
T he analyzer can be modified to inco r-
porute a frequenc y coun ter. T he frequ ency
swe ep would be sto pped by ope ning the
line fro m the cente r arm of the swe ep rate
p Ol- Ii< T he re would still he honzonurl mo -
-u h of mixing be- tween the spurio us oscil- meas ure rue nrs. lio n o n sc ree n. hut the a mplit ude wo uld bc
latio n a nd harmonic- \) 1" vigna fs mar e xcue Generally. the best proced ure:i.r, 10 place fixed at that correspond ing 10 scre en cen-
the- circuit. no tru st in Iht' equipmen t th ai has not been Ic:r. T his is ca lled a ",e: rn span" mode . T he
II is ofte n use fulto invevtigatc the qu al- ea rne d. This ap plies es pecial ly to the veo co uld then be co unt ed. S ubtracting
Il ~ of i mpe dance ma tch. even with smatl ho meb rc w spc:'clrum a nalysi s equip ment the first IF from Ihi~ valu e gives 11 "cen ter
vignal amphfierv. A return kl~ ~ bridge- (dis- de scribed in this bock. bur is also impor- Frequenc y ."
cussed ea rlie r in this chuprerj is d riven by tant for the bes t laboratory ins tru mema-
a sig nal ..o urcc and app lied 10 a c ircu it non a vailable .
under test. T he ge nerato r powe r is turne-d Assume that we plan 10 measu re the gain
Harmonic distortion
do wn to a leve l that will not o ve rd rive the (If an amplifier. and that we .... is h to get measurements
ampli fier unde r tes t. T he re turn loss. wh ich the most accurate number possible. The am- Althoug h co mmo n. this see mingly
is dir ectly related to VSW K. i.c, then mea- plifier is set up with the appropria te pol'.'~ r simple chore can he com plicated hy har-
cured as shown in Fig 75 6. supply. a signal ge nennor, and the S P(' ~'l ru111 mo nics created within the spec tr um ana-
unulyzer or power meter .The set up is turned lyzer Mea sure ment , are meanin gful unly
on a nd generally checked. The ca librations when we ha ve: co nf ir med the analy ze r pe r-
Calibration During that have alread y been do ne for the analyze r for ma nce .
Measurements an: enou gh to gel things started. The e valuat ion can he do ne with seve ral
A calibra to r c ircu it was descri bed e ar- O nce the system is wor king <IS ex pected. e xpc rimc ms . T he fi rst applie s a signa l to
lier. a co nven ient me ans, for checking ana- we now do a test set-up calibration . The the a nalyzer fro m a ge nerator and loo kc at
l~ I c: r amplitude and frequency ca libration . a mp lifi er i." disconne cte d fm m the two the har monic le ve ls. T he atte nuatio n in the
BUI the re is mor e 10 calibratio n for Rt-' coaxial ca bte -, and re placed with a throug h analyz er fro nt e nd i~ c hang ed. If bot h the

Measurement Equipment 7.31

 •,

A elcse up photo of a 4t h or d er liIter bu ilt by WB4RNO. creen -cc g ear to redu ce t he h armon ic content of a signal
An y s mall t rim me r ca pacitor w it h a s u ita b l y lo w minimum source . Thi s is used w hen ev alu at ing a t r ans m itter o r ot her
c a pac ita nc e can be used. source for harmonic distortion .

11Pad
0dB I III High Pass
Filter
I
r~ --
--,-
_•.
..•. I~ I ' . - ,"

Fig 7.58-Hig h-pas s filter u sed fo r

harm onic mea suremen t. See text.
~

--
& - -.".. .

Fig 7.59---Fro nt end tor a tripl e conver sion spec trum ana lyzer tuning to t he lo w
UHF s pec tru m. Thi s anal y zer has y et to be buil t, bu t is pla nn ed .
fu nd ame ntal a nd the indica ted ha rmon ic
change in unison. the disto rtion is prob -
a bly rea l and not an a naly zer spur.
A second experi ment places a low pass for di stortion. A me asu reme nt is per- te rv nrc av ailable. A V HF 2nd L O will be
fil le r in the line t rom the generator 10 the forme d wit hout the trap to establish the nee ded. wh ich cou ld be free runn ing or be
ana lyzer. This will improve the generator fund amental power. The trap and pad are multiplied up fro m a lower frequ ency
perro rrunncc . u[lowin g the first experiment then inserted and thc analyzer vensirivi ty crys tal osci lla tor.
to be rep eat ed with gr eate r se nsi tiv ity. is increased by the pad loss , Th e harmon ic A triple conv ers ion version of the ana-
Again . identical trac ki ng of fu ndamental puwer is read to calculate a dlk valu e. ]f lyz er is she wn i n the block. diagram of
and distortion lend to vin dic ate the ana - necess ary, the trap ca n be cascaded with Fig 7.59 . This ve rsion tunes 10 400 MH I
lyzer. now i l l a le vel co m me nsu rate with the high pass for furthe r anenu mo n o f the with a fir st IF at 500 l\ fHz. The second IF
the new harmoni c attenuation level. fund urncnral. is then 110 f\.IHz using the circuitry from
T raps can be used fo r fur ther ana lys is. A the original design. This upgrade cou ld he
tu nable trap is shown in Fig 7.57. The trap built as a su pple ment 10 the QST analyzer
i ~ placed in the line be tween generator and
Expanding Performance without distur bing the functionali ty of the
analyzer and is tune d to aue nuate the fun - The Q5 T spectru m ana lyzer tuned over orig inal. This UH F e xte nsio n uses onl)
da mental signal. If the trap i v sharp. il ca n a restricted range uf Oto 70 MHz wi th ont y +7 d8m mixers. so the new de-ig n will not
dram atically attenuate the fund amental two available resolution bandwidth posi- he as slrong as the firsl with reg ard to dis-
with lillie im pact on the harmoni cs. A 20 tions. The VHF expe rimc mer will wa nt tortion measurement s. The ::!nd LO could
uB or gre ater attenua tion of the fundamen - higher frequency' performa nce. he hornebr cw or mi ght use a seco nd Mini-
tal without a ltering the harmon ic guarun- Expandi ng the tuning range 10 higher C ircu its part .
tee, the fid eluy of the anal yzer. frequ ency is easily reali zed. beginnin g T he present analyzer ca n he supple-
An :maly le r can st ill be useful for ana ty- with a re vie w of the liltes l catalogs rnerued Yo ith a block converter in much the
sis e ve n whe n tr is ge nerating harmonics from Mini -Circuits and other vend ors. A same way that we add con veners ahead of
ofirvown. All that is requ ired i-, to redu ce l 00~ :! OO "1Hz veo wa-, the basis for the rect i verv for the higher I-IF or the V H F
the fundame nta l signal reac hin g the QST des ign IFig 7.50l. bUI thi.s could be ba nds . A ve ry simple block co nverter thai
anal yzer witho ut altering the harmonic replaced with other pans. One variati on we buill U St ~ a POS-:!OO ( 100 -200 MUl l
ene rgy. This can be done with a high pass would usc the POS-535 tuning from 300 veo driving it TU F- l mixer. A ... dB pad
filter . shoevn in F ig 7.58, The high pass is to 5 25 MHl as the first LO. The First IF in the signa l pa th sets the overa ll conver-
prec ede d by a lO-d8 pad , c stablivhing a would beco me 300 Mll z. A good choice sion ga in at - 10 dB. The 144 II.fHz ama-
proper imp edance envir on ment fur the for a second IF would then he 2 1.4 MHz tcur nand is co nverted to 30 1\1 HI when
ge nenuor (or transmit ter) hein g evaluated where commercia l monolit hic crystal fil - thc LO i s at either I J 4 or 174 1\-1 Hz. Recall

7 .32 Chapter 7
 t the 3 n1 ha rmonic of a LO i... ge nerated spo uses. but is no netheless a useful and then drives a log amp. T here are two o ut-
uhin a diode ring mixer. ofte n creating si mple too l. puts. One i s a huilt in meter whi le the other
tpJ r s, but als o allo wing third ha rmo nic Figure 7.60 sho ws a narro w tunin g is a ja c k to d rive a D V~ f . This instrumen t
cing So seui ng the v eo to 157.3 ~1 H I rang e ap proach to sp!:l:uum ana lys is. Th is was ori ginally config ure d to measu re
cre a tes an effective La of ~ 72 MHz. circ uit was... co nfig ured as a me asureme nt carrier and side band suppr ession in si ngle
bieh will co nvert ~ 32 MHz to appea r as receiver. It uses an o utboa rd local oscilla- sideband tran smitt ers . but has also found
\ IHz. Mixer co nvers ion gain is le ss tor to d rive a diode ring mixer follo wed by use in the pu rsuit of spurs f-rom freq uency
uh harmo nic mi xing and de pen ds on the a tra ditional post-mixe r amp lifi er. T he: s~' ntbesizers using direct digita l synthesis.
Mrmonic be ing used. Th e block converter pos t-amp output is then app lied to a nar- The instrument co uld a bo he co nfig ured
rput is filled with numero us spuriou.. re- row ba nd w idt h 5 MH1. crystal filte r that for baseband measureme nts d ose to de . It

N- ~ Gaussian·lo-6 dB e....sl al FJh"r

• -: r-,
•
-.-.
-0
r
M 8 ~sur e d \

.
1-:~.
--..
0

/'
/

/
/
I

\
Ca lculat e d

,,,
I"

-. I
Cry stal tnte r, lo g am p, and ou tput drive r tor
- Y easurement Recei ver. ~
-~

• " " . n

Fig 7.61-C rysta l filter respon se to r t he ci rc uit used in the

measu rement rece iver. See text.

ncpa .
• I SOOO/ n

--L '-
+1 2v ~ + 1 2V Crystal Finer: N=S, 5 MHz,

u,,_ .__ 'n 1 .!t100 -a- ~

.. .-
ceussren-to-e dB Shape

"'Sf:
BW=2S 0 HZ., Sa o Ohm
.. ""_43 • 1.1 J

" ' om-,

( - 30 ma~"
,
rtr;:; isc
36 -~ 0r
f~'
~1
:L
l 'D'1--jDf-l~nH~DH~DHT f
L.. 1 1 180 Y1 Y2 4 00 Y3 190 Y4 :"33 YS 1 41
30°1
,y' 1---=- q71 1 9 01
~ J 66 I
~
Z , ZI<

!O+---1' X ).. } 2 211 510 9 1501. - -- : CO } 33 21 qI

Y
... •
~ (+",
~O _l
- 11: 3lt 112 6, T50-2 -- - - - -
LO~In
~ ("'7 <JBln
-=- 56
-
Tf S. 6 , - - -- -
vi , . t s : 5 MHz acre Q>200K, 10 Hz matc h f or
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
~et.

- - - - - ----'

Tl : 12 cc.r c.rer
t112S . FT3 ?- 43 0l.1''1;X '' l 0 _::'
+:..: de;:l ,,"o:e n,,~ """'.... ~' cl ·COJI
1. 51':..... 0 . 1. T WfI.I~ol!rr.ej:OL "".'n

,,1;:;; ,pc< , ~;JI

~eo ~e 10 mA m;:.t;.r Hi;·
to U;;> .... H IS ~lIl l ocl;>
0. 1 15
NE-604
'i
! OOF:!!O.l
510
5000 1"':
2 F.

2F.
:'0 · 12
dcp: .
•

Fig 7.60- Meas ur ement rec eiver fo r meas u re me nt of sse t ra nsmItters . T h is unit used an av ail ab le 10·mA meter mo ve me nt
with a high resolution scale, but CR n be adapt ed to avai lable meters. Thi s inst rument can be adapted as a narr ow tun ing range
spect rum analyzer, a refinement t hat we have yet to complete.

Measurement Equipment 7 .33

 <-
11 ','
.., s:
'-"
.,.- "

-""
; ~:.
Spe ct ru m An al yzer
.+ t~
Outside of mea surement receiver .

from the a nalyzer could be hrou ght to suit-

able connecto rs 10 dri ve the narrow band-
w idrh uni t. The video o u tp ut co uld
110 - l !1OloIHz 0 - dBm o..tput be ro uted direc tly 10 the Y ax is. The
-",' 0 - 70 "'''1
same sweep circuit and related panel co n-
tro ls wo uld the n control hot h spectrum
analyzers.
Tracking Generat or A stand -alone swe pt yeO wou ld be
needed for the narrow bandwidth adapter.
This. however. is nut a difficult design
Fig 7.62- Funct ion allty of a tracking gen erator and t he matin g spectrum anal yzer task. It is wid e ba ndwidth y eO s that offe r
front end. Th e com plet e des ign is inc luded o n the bo ok CD. greater c ha llen ge .

Tracking generators
and filter measurements
Swept in strum ents arc id ea l for the
align ment of fi her-, of all types. Having a
swept s igna l mea ns that the e ntire fre-
Converter fo r q uenc y respon se ca n I:>e disp layed at o ne
base band spect rum time" A trac king gene rato r (TG ) co nverts
ana lyzer on a PC. a spectrum a nalyz e r to perform this [ask ,
Used fo r eva luation If we th ink of a spectr um ana lyzer as a
of IM D in an HF
transmitter. spec ial purpo se receiver. a track ing ge n-
era tor is nothing more than a tran smitte r
that rransc eives with the receiver. A block
diagr am is sho wn in t "ig 7.62,
A sa mple of the swe pt first osci llator
from the spec trum analyzer is required for
the trac king generator. This s ignal is am -
plified and becomes the LO for a high
lev el mixer . U~ . Th e RF inp ut for th ai
mixer ij. a crystal controued cignal ~.fCICJi.\·
at the vpectrurn analyze r first intermediate
wou ld then be useful for noise meas ure- ind ucta nce ofl}S mH and average unloaded freq ue ncy . This freq uency i.. eavily mea-
mcms in co nn..ction wit h oscillator phase Q over 200.000. Th e c rysta ls w e re sured by injec ting a sig nal from a ge nera-
noise ev aluati on. matched .... i rhin 10 Hz . Th is respo nse tor i nto the first IF wit h the spect rum
The narrow cry stal filter used in the shape is ge nerally very tole rant of com po- a nalyze r set for [he narrow est possib le
mea sure me nt rec eiver i ~ desig ned fur a nent variations . Note that the t raditio nal reso lutio n bandwidt h. This measurement
Ga ussia n-ro-e dB sha pe . Mea sured and sym metry in co mpone nt value , is not nee ds to be don e after the analy zer is fi n-
ca lcu lated respon ses are shown In prese nt in thi s filter. even thoug h the rer - ished and working. but prior to ordering a
Fi ~ 7.6 1. This fil te r shape is ide al for mea - minanons are equal at 500 n at each end. crystal for the TO.
surerne m applicatio ns. a co nseq ue nce of A void narro w C he bysh e v filte rs in ana- This TG ha c a n o utput o f 0 d bm . This
the rou nded. una mbiguous peak with rea- lyzer applic ations. sig nal is a swe pt one that is always tuned
so nable skirt re spo nse . Th e prospect! \'C This mea sureme nt recei ve r co uld be to the sa me freque ncy that the a nalF er
huilder is e nco uraged 10 des ig n his OJ her reco nfig ure d as a spec trum a nalyze r with sees. The g reat utility o f a track ing gc n-
(1\''"" filler. for the component values re lativ e ease . A s imple way to do this e rator o ver a simple r stand-alone swept
w ill depend o n cry stal characterisricv. The wou ld be HI modify the e xisting QST a na- osc ill ator is that the SA-TG co mbination
crystal used in this fi tter had a motio nal lyzer. Po w er supply and a sweep vottage allows o bser v ati on i n the narro ....· band-

7.3 4 Cha pte r 7

 width of the analyzer. This resuns i n a
dr amatic increase in meas urement d y- ro
ec 2. 5 ""
namic range. The e val ua tio n of f iller
stopband attenu ation detail... at levels we ll
~
,
below the - !OO dBc le vel s a re posvihle
with a $ A· TG co mbinatio n. FuJI details of
. _w
-~-
~

ro
,
the TG are incl uded on the CO that accum - o u,... . Hz
,
= sec = ",
pan ies thh boo k .
The ext rem e dy nam ic range comes with
10600 ._- .-'-- .~

a price : The sh ie lding of both the track ing Fig 7.63-Hig h res olut io n spectrum of a signal gener ator. The noi se is phase no ise
ge ne rator and spectrum analyze r must he on the generato r. 120-Hz hum modu lation is readil y obse rv ed as weu.
l'e l)' good. A ,> me ntioned earlier. the
SA -TG combination be haves like a
transceiv er. However . unli ke the usua l
tra nsceiver we migh t build for com mu-
nications . t he receiv er and tra ns miller
must buth function at the some tim e.' S ig-
nals that might lea k from the TO to the SA
(.-t •• l ~·' ~"-
L _ I R 211• • 04
will interfere with the intended one when
tes ting filte rs . The observed res ult will
oft en be a distorted filter shape with the
edges of the filter skirt s dipp ing into the
analy ze r noise floor. Ano the r te ll-tale in-
dica tor of these problems is a filte r shape
that c hanges with the position of some of
the interconnecting coaxial cables .
A... useful as th e SA-TG combination
can be. il presents a pro ble m for the serio us
e xperim en ter : Filters arc so easily
"twcakedtbar builders may be tempted 10
igno re designing the filte rs in favor of
emp irica l method s. Do n' , fall int o this trap! Fig 7.64-Bloc k con ve rter to h eterodyne a n RF sig nal to bas eba nd wh ere it can be
obse rv ed with a spect ru m analyz er runn ing on a PC.
DFT Spectrum Analysis
Th e spectrum an aly zers di sc ussed so far
have bee n of the swept from end ty pe. Th e jo r ad va ntage s o ver swept tool s: Firs t. speed ,>ignal is re me mbered . it can be read
case where a block convene r preceded a they are capable of very high res olution at a lower speed and disp layed as a time
swept fron l end analyzer produced a swept (narr ow ba ndw idth ), Sec ond. the spec- sig nal. Th e dat a can also be prese nted to a
I F ,m ulYZl.' r . The re is anoth er popu lar ana- trum shown represents the spectrum at one FFT "en gin e:' or co mputer to generate a
lyzer that has become very co mmon in insta nt in time. cor res pondin g spe ctr a. While usua lly
recent times, the Fourier Transfo rm Spec - A FFT analyzer is very usefu l a'> a mea- lacking the dyn amic range of a n analog
trum Analyzer. In this type. an incoming surement too l F ig 7.6.' show s an example spe ctru m ana lyzer. a spectra with a dy -
signal is co nve rte d to a digital stream of where a sign al gene rator was being inves - namic range of 50 dB or better is com mo n
data with an analog to digital conver ter. ligated fo r phase noise . The noise sho wn .... ith such osci llos cop es.
The analog data feedi ng the co nve n e r is in the fig ure is indeed noise. fo r a cle aner A block co nve rter can he used to move
filte red with a low pass or ba ndpass filter oscilla tor ope rat i ng with the same part of a n Rf spe ctr um dow n to audio
to restric t the res ulting digital data. The ana lyzer pa ra mete rs pro d uce d a sim ilar whe re il can be exa mined with a J-'FT type
lime do ma in rep re se ntatio n is the n sub- spectru m. but witho ut the noi...e. The reso- spectrum ana lyzer with an example shown
jec ted to mathematical calculations re sult- l utio n ba nd widt h fo r this exa mple is in f ig 7.6-& . An e xte rnal step ane nuator a nd
ing in a freq uency domain representation 2.6 Hz ! The hard.... are and software u...ed (o ptio nal ) ba nd pass filter precede the co n-
of me sign al. a spec tra. Thi s is the n g raphi- for this e xamp le are discussed in much vene r. A diode ring mixer then move s the
ca lly pres ented. Th e a nalysis used is a more dera il in Chapters IU and II . signal down . The res t of the circu itry is
Disc rete Fourier Transform . o r OFf. The Although FFT methods often co ncern very much like tha t found in di rect co nve r-
most po pular OFf form is the so called audio or "b aseband," the co ncepts are ca - s ion recei ver s. This converter can be used
Fast f o urier Tr a nsfo rm . o r FFT .19 pab le of muc h more. So long as a sig na l ahead of the FFf analyz er implemented
The radio ama teur i" famil iar with this ca n be sam pled in lime a nd convened 10 with the DS P hardware from Cha pte rs 10
me thod as a soft ware technique. Audio r-ig- digital dat a. it can he transformed to the and I I . We have als o used it .... ith a per-
nals arc presented to the sound cards of per- freq uency domai n, xtany modern oscill o- son al computer sou nd card and modest
sonal co mputers. The resulting digit al data 'Co pes are built with rela tively low speed cos t so ftware. 20 One must be careful with
is Fourier transformed in suitable software displays. But the i nco ming ana log signa l any ofth ese schemes 10 avoid u ve nl rivin g
programs and display ed in one of several is anything but slow . The incomi ng data is t he Acte -D con verter; ove rdrive can turn
forms including the "waterfall" popu lar with a mplified and /or atten uated and preve nted the ent ire sc ree n to unrecognized gibber-
digital co mmunications mode s. to a high speed "scan converter:' essen- ish ! Sound card solu tions seem les s robu st
Dl-T spectrum analyzers hav e two rna- tially an A to D convener. Once the high than the dev oted DSP tools.

Measur ement Equipment 7 .35

 A block conver ter an d a bas eband FFT incl uded earli er in this ch ap ter, performance becomes im portant when a
analy zer an: ideal fo r evaluation or SSH The narrow res o lut io n a vail ab le from an S SB tran scei ver is used to proce ss narro w
tran smi tter 1.\1 0 . w hat had alw ays bee n a f-f-T bas ed analy ze r will also a llow the bandwidth in forma tio n suc h as enco un-
d ifficu lt lab oratory meas ure ment is now experi menter to measure in-hand tra nsm it - tere d in PSK31. Agai n, the ava ilabi lity of
avai lable to al most all e xper imenters. A ter d istor tion . A tone sp acing of ar ound mea s urement roots p ro v id es the e xperi -
tradi tional two- to ne au d io generator was 100 Hz the n beco mes appropriate. In -ban d menter with great op portunity .

7.9 Q M EAS UREM ENT OF LC RESONATORS

Several sc hem e s have heen used for Q ens ures that the externalloading i s light so of co nfiguring the reson ator as a los sy fil-
measuremen ts overthe years. T hey can all that ba ndw id th is dete r mi ned on ly hy reso- te r. we now configure it as a trap. a circuit
wor k well when caref ully execu ted . T wo nator lo ss , tha t produces hig h atten ua tion at one frc -
schemes ar e prese- nted here for LC tu ned The measurement is do ne with a signal quency . T he gener ator is tuned to find the
c ircuits . T he rirSI met hod mea sures the gen era to r and se nsi tive detector suc h as a null in the output re sponse. Th e null depth.
bandwidth o r a tuned c ircui t co nfigured as spe ctrum ana ly zer, a 50-n termina ted which can be very large, becomes a mea-
a sy m me tri ca ll y lo aded bandp as s filter os cilloscope. or one of the power met ers sure of the reso nator Q .
with very high insert ion loss. T he sche - descr ibed earlier. Th e gener a tor is tuned Ei ther a paral lel co nnec ted ser ie s-tun ed
matic is shown in Fig 7.ciS. for a peak res ponse an d the ce nte r fr e- circn it or a ser ies connected para llel-tuned
The t \NO coupling capacitors should be quency, f o, is read with a counter at tached ci rcui t can be used as trap s. There is usu-
a ppro xi mat el y equal. This prevents heavy to the generator. The oUlp ut am pli tud e ally little virt ue of one type over the other.
lo adin g b y the inp ut with weak output response is also noted. The signal genera- we gener ally prefer the seri es-tuned c ir-
coupling which cou ld create high in scr - tor drive is then increased by 3 d H, ca us- cui t bec au se a gr ou nded and calibrated
lion loss with a wider than minimum hand - ing the output to in crease by the same vari able ca pacitor can he used in the res o-
width. Equal values guar an tee that the amo unt. T he generator is then tuned f irst nator. A photo shows a test fixture with a
inpu t and output each contribute equally above. and then bclow the pea k until the 14 0-pF var iable ca pac itor an d bindi ng
to the load ing. High insertion loss then response is identic al to the orig ina l ampli - posts.
tude. T he f requ e nc ies o f the uppe r and T he generator is tu ned to fi nd the null
lo wer - 3 dB points are no ted an d the dif - respo nse and the level i s care fully noted,
feren ce is c alc ulated as the HW. T hen Qu A spec trum ana lyzer is ideall y used as the
' 0 Utllll
= folBW where both arc meas ured in the de tector and should be in a 1 or 2 dB per
sam e frequency units. If the in sertion lo ss
is 30 d B o r mo re. the measured Q is very
close to the unloaded va lue. Sec section
3.3 Th e mea surement can be don e with
lo wer TL b ut correct io ns will then be rc-
quired to c alcu late Q u from the mea sure -
Fig 7.6S-Me a s urin g a by deter mination ment Q.
of 3·dB ba ndw idt h. The coup ling Another sc heme fo r Q measuremen t use s
capac ito rs , Cin and Cou t, should be
ap p rox imately equal and shou ld be resonato r cle me nts in a trap c ircui t, shown
s ma ll e no ugh that the ins e rtio n lo s s is i n Fig 7.Mi. Again. a tunable ge nerato r and
30 dB o r more. a 50-n dete cto r arc used. However. instead

1 0 . 99 6

Series 'rc "-

a ..:

"
~16 . 9
~.,f-~ ;;"" '_?_~
. :' v
Parallel TC ,

A test fixture s imp lifies a measurement

with t he pa ra llel connected series tu ned
trap method. The inductor s how n was
13 t urns of #14 enamel-covered wire
Fig 7.66-Measu ring a by dete rmini ng the atten uation of a trap . A 7-MHz t uned wo u nd on a 3.5-inch-d iameter PVC pipe
circu it is used in this exa mp le wit h L=1 IlH. The 0.176-12 resis to r in the series-tu ned fitt ing, This coil ha d a mea sure d a of
circu it a nd the a lmost 11· k12 res istor in the pa rallel t uned circu it a re models 371 a t 7 MHz, The tes t fixt ure inc lude s a
rep resenting a 7-MHz a of 250. The series-t uned circuit (STC) will ha ve an gro u nded post a llowing additional fixed
atte nuation of 43.1 dB wh ile t he PTe ha s 40.9 dB . capacitance to be added .

7. 3 6 Chapte r 7
drvision sens itiv ity to pro vide amplit ude
ru ,
resolut ion. The res ona tor is the n dts con - Z- 5 0
0;
aecred and the ge nerator is connected to

~1T:"
i
the detector thro ugh a step anen uator. T he 00

ane nuatin n is adju sted until the anal yzer ss

I
respo nse is exactly the same as produ ced ~

.It the null. T he auenuator value is thc u the ,

,,, " "I R ,

I
a ull atte nuatio n, A, in dB. Values of60d B A(R .) _ _2° '101112'

"i"" ~~i,, ~
Of more are posvihle with so me high Q
eo
I I
tuned cir cuits. .1. (11.1 ss
l - - I i
Th is sa me meas ureme nt setu p can be 1 so
used to determine inductanc e if a cali - ~
1II111
i
brated capaci tor is use d. The unloa ded Q
i5 related to att enu atio n hy
co

"
11
4 ·IT·f · L u
'"s ,I
Eq 7.4
Z e
om 0.' , 'w
" '"
f. :\1Hz; A. dB ; L u ' uH; Z, Ohms Serle, !!O,,,.......
0"""

if the series tuned circuit form is used, Fig 7.67-Atte n uati on vs R for t he seri es impedance. See text.
0'

It is impor ta nt that a solid 50-n load tiv ef y, a very well lo w pa ss filtered signa l
and sou rce impe dance (Z in the equ ations) genera tor co uld be used with any detector
Eq 7.5
be used in this measureme nt. Tfthe imped- with adequate sen sitiv ity.
ance is in que stio n, use a lO dB pad at both The virtue of the trap scheme becomes
f. ~1Hz; A, dB; L u ' uH; Z. Ohms the generator and detector. apparent as soon as the two methods are
It is also important to prevent harmon- compared. The traditional 3-dB bandwidth
ic s from confusing the resu lts. T his is measurement de pends on precisely esta b-
... if the parallel tuned circu it is applied. guaranteed if you use a narrow band wid th lishing the 3-dB down lever. A fract ion of
Freq uency is mea sured in MHz, A is in dB, detector suc h as a spectrum analyzer. A one dB e rror co uld still impact accuracy, Tn
and induct ance is in IlH fur these equations. wid e hand det ec tor (a power me ter ur a contrast. the depth of a null is oft en qui te
Z is the characteri stic impedance of the mea- 50 n ter mina ted osci lloscope) will re- large for high Q resonators . and is eavily
surement e nvironm ent. usually 50 n . respond to harm onic en ergy that is not measured with a step ane nua ror.
It is useful tu plo t series resis tan ce attenuated by the tra p. The spe ctrum ana- An accurate cap acitance measurement
against atte nuat ion for the paralle l con- lyzer used for Q measurement could be too l such as the AA DE or 'VI!7AAZ meters
nected serie s impedance . This is shown in ve ry sim ple , Something as simple as a mentioned earlie r is qui te useful as a
Fig 7.67. The ex per ime nter may wish to sing le tuned circuit preceding an osci llo- supplement to a Q measurement setup .
build a si milar curve for the scnc s con- scope would work so long as a pad was With such a tool. accura te calibration of
nec ted parallel impedance. used to es tab lish impeda nc e. Ahoma- capacitors is ensured.

7.10 CRYSTAL M EA SU REM EN T S

A quartz cry stal is modeled as a seri es with the freq uency and c apaci tor val ue.
RLC paralleled by a capac itance . .F ig 7.68 . yiel d the mot ional capacitan ce. em' The
Crystals are of spec ial inte rest. for they are mot iona l indu cta nce . L m. is then c alcu-
ofte n used in construction of narrow fi l- lated from series resonance, which is well
ters. For this purpose. we need to know all approx imated by the osci llator frequency
of their parameters. G reat precision is whe n the swi tch is clo sed. The desig n
Fig 7.6B-Mode l for a quartz crysta l.
needed in knowi ng resonant freq uency, for equations are i ncluded in the figu re . F is
tha t st ro ngly controls fi lter tuning. T he the frequency while DF is the frequenc y
kno wle d ge of the o ther pa rameters is refin ed measure me nts are des ired for fil- shift . bot h in Hz, when the sw itch is
needed at an accu racy sim ilar to t hat en- ter de sign . An extremely useful, yet simple tog gled; C s and C p . in Farads, are from
cou ntered in an LC filter. oscillator was also present ed in C hapte r 3 the cir cuit. And as usual, w=2rrF.
The re are num ero us mea sure me nt a nd is repea ted he re as I<'ig 7.69 . A Colpi tts If this tes t oscillatori s built with Colpitts
schemes that will prod uce the four val ues. oscill ator with an emitter followe r dri ves a capacitors of C p=470 pF and a ser ies ca -
A 50-n meas urement se tup was presen ted freq uency co unter. A capaci tor in series pac itor of C,=33 pF, the ci rcui t wil l func-
in C hapter 3. Re sult s from it are info rma - with the crystal. C s' may be short ci rc uited tio n (fundamen ta l mod e) with c rystals
tive , especially if a hatch of "j unk box " -wi t h a tog g le switch . Th is produce s a fro m 2 to 25 MHz. Sim ple eq uations are
crys tals is encuuruered. Ho we ve r. more change in freq ue ncy that, when co mbined vali d when C p is mo re than IOxC, . It is

Measurement Equipment 7.37

 D.F GO I N, d B

::::2 ·C ·- (S - ;,H)

-' F - iJ g
Re f . $"- 2 1

1
u/ ·Cm
Fn . MH o!: ~
10 .00

- ao .00 dO
I · 5 00 .0 0

Fig 7.69- Co lpilts oscillator f o r crystal testing, based on an Fig 7.71-Sweeping two cryst als while investigat in g t heir
ins ig htf ul su ggestio n by G3UUR . p ro pert ies as t raps. One has a Q of 40,000 w h ile t he one
produc ing the d ee per notch has a Q of 200,000. Not ch depth
is measur ed to determine Q .

low notch represents a lo w Q crys tal w ith spectrum an alyze r is not necessary . ESR
Qu=40.000. T he de eper a nd narrower can be 100 to 1000 Q for ve ry low Ire-
not ch correspond s to Q u =200 .000. The quency cr ystals . so the series connected
crys tal Q rela tes to atte nuat io n A in dB . parallel tuned circu it method mi ght offer
mot ional L in He nry, frequenc y in Hz. and bett er me as urem ents here .
terminating resistance Z in n with ... Parallel capacitance, Co' is easil y mea -
sured with other tools such as the AADE
Fig 7.70-Usin g t he tr ap nature of t he
or W7 AAZ circu its. Th ey arc effective be -
crystal f or a Q measureme nt.
cau se th ose instru me nts op erat e at lo w fre-
Eq 7.6 quenc y. around 1 Ml-lz, well a wa y fro m
typical crysta l re sonance . With a ll fou r
also impo rtant that the C, va lue be de ter - crystal parameters a va ila ble. the designerl
mined by measu rement s that include the We perfo rmed an experiment with a builder can proceed with the filte r de signs
s witch . T he JJ pF ca paci tor in our test se t cr ys ta l tha t had a lso been me asured with presented in Ch apter 3.
plus switch capacitance prod uced a ne t ea rlier methods . The notch method for Q Th e equipment described has also been
C,=41 pF . measureme nt yielded QU=202 .000 wi th used to e valuat e HF ceramic resonators.
T he crystal is essentiall y a serie s tun ed E SR= 17.5 n. T his was wi thin a few per- 1n one mea surement o n an EC S type
circuit whe n operati ng ncar series reso- cent of th e earlier measure me nts . T he ESR ZT A 358MG (fro m Mouser) we saw
na nce. so the ser ies tra p sche me descr ibed va lues for crystal s are highe r than we us u- L M =76 1 .ltH . Cl\I=2.74 pF. Co=J l pF, and
earlier for LC tun ed circu its will also pro - ally see w ith a n LC resonator, so the Ql,=636 . Series reso nant freque ncy was wei I
vide Q u. as shown in Fig 7 .711 . Com pu ter notches ar e no t as dee p. This allows mea- below the marked 3.58 MHz frequency at
generated plots arc show n for two diffe r- sureme nt with a power meter such as th e 3.38 Ml-lz. Th e part is norma lly used in os-
e nt 10 ivfHz c rystals in Fi g 7.71. T he s hal- AD8307 based de sign de scribed earlier: a cilla tors with a serie s capaci tance .

7.11 NOISE AND NOISE SOURCES

Noise is ge nerally the part o f the fi lte r. the sig nal appea ring on screen is a ci rcu it was design ed by WOIYH a nd
response gene rated by our recei ver s that is pic tu re of the ri Iter res po nse . While not de sc ribed in a pape r included o n the CD
unde sired . Howe ve r. we ca n also use noise nearly as useful as a tracking generator, it th at acco mpa nies th is book. " ! The noise is
as a meas urement tool. By inj ecting noise is sti ll a si mp le and useful way to ex amine generaled by current flo wing in D 1 with
into a communicat ions syste m or co mpo- a fiIter. G ain stages can be added to the S I in the po sit ion shown in th e figure .
nent and examining the response. we can de sign to obt ain e ven higher noi se output. Wh en the switch is toggled . current flows
extract information about the system. T he noise so urce of f ig 7.72 is no t ve ry 10 fo rward bi as the diode . preserving the
Figu r e 7. 72 shows a simple noise flat with frequency . An improved sour ce so urce ou tput im pe danc e in the "off ' state .
so urce tha t is qui te stro ng. Th is circ uit cou ld be bui lt with a Zene r diode biased Pa ul W ade . Wl GH Z. has a lso done
de liv ers a noi se output reaching -50 dB m for a current of a few rnA, wi th co upling some excellent wor k with noi se genera -
at 10 M l-lz on a s pectru m analyzer with a into a hig h gain am plifi er de signed to have tion, whic h is als o included o n the book
30 0 kH z resolution ban d w idth , Th is is gai n tha t is flat wi th freque ncy, CD 2 2 Wade no ted that an excelle nt noise
more tha n 40 dB above the an a lyzer no ise ;\ noise sou rc e suitable for noise- fig ure so urc e ca n be built wi th the emi tter-base
floor: If we apply th is no ise so urc e to a me as ure me nt is show n in F ig 7.73. Th is j unction of a microwave tra ns istor. using

7 .38 C hapt er 7
the diode a.. a Zener. w ade reports good
te..ults .... ith the no ise diodes operat ing as
_.2V
series element... HI , 1I 't eat.t
HI,
The noise sourc e of Fig 7.73 had an r.f -
1I2 1flltt Fig 7.72-Noise in
a n noise ratio (Ef\ RI of 17S in rhc HF 0 1 is amplified in a
spectrum. T his means that the nui ..e po w et noise
D2 two-s ta ge amplifier.
••1
available trom the source is 178 time.. (:!:!.5
dB) stron ger when the diode i<, bia..ed into ." ." ".ill
resulti ng In a
strong no is e
avala nc he breakdown (Zener act ion) than source s uitable for
when it i s fo rward bias ed. If we were to me as uremen ts .
Virt ua lly any diode
attach this sour ce to il per fect amplifier.
o ne with no nois e of its own. the resulting Ql
." o r transi stor types
c a n be us e d In this
o utput noi..e wou ld also c hange by 21 .5 dB s o urce .
01 ,2: 2NH04 , 2N"l119 , et c .
:IS the switch is toggled. An imperfec t, re al
world amplifier will generate some nois e
of its ow n. <,0 the output noise change will
be I I' S! than 178 time s whe n the diode is
logg led . The ou tput noi..e change is called
the Y-Ia ctor and thi s measu rem en t tec h-
niq ue is call ed the Y -Iactor me thod . Xoi se
factor is related Y fac tor by
. E..'\"R
r =- - Eq 7,7
Y- 1
. ..where both EN R a nd Y arc pow er ra-
tios ra ther tha n dB values.
The nois e sou rc es are gen era lly not dif- D1 : N o i ~ Q- Co . NC3 0 2L
fic ult to build . Ho wever, calib ration c an .. - 1 206 SMT p .. rt .
he d iffic ult. We borrowed a noise so urce
Ll .2 : 1 00 uH RJ"C
to calibrate ours . S('C the two C D no ise
pa pers for more ca libra tio n information.
No ise fi g ure fo r" rece ive r is measu red Fig 7.73-Nolse source provldmg a flal frequency res po ns e o ver a WIde bandWid th.
with the test setup sho wn in Fig 7.74 . T he Our source was buil t with surfac e-m o unted compo ne nts whe re possible . The d iode
was purchased fro m No ise Com, East 64 Midland Ave, Para mus, NJ 07652; tel 20 1·
nobe ..o urce is attached to a receiver 261-8797_
antenna port wit h receive r AGC is turne d
off. T he a udio output is then applied to a
true R?\I S rea ding vohme re r. We hale
used a ..urplu v HPJ-IOOI\ and the Fluke
:-'-1odel 89 DV:\'1. Alt e rna tive ly. o ne C,1lI
bu ild an instrument us ing an Ana log De-
vices 1\D636 that converts an arbitrary ac
wave for m to a de sf gnal proportio nal to
l;
~O l se
Source
~
_ -0
Receiver
unde r ,
rest
I
Audio
Voltm eter
VIdM
Fitter
I z.DO
Voltmeter

thc true RMS of that waveform. A pape r Fig 7.74-Tesl setup fo r noise fig ure meas ure me nt. The HP3400A is a true RMS
audio vo ltmet er. This setup incl udes a vide o filte r drivin g a n oscilloscope, a
desc rib ing this instrument is incl uded on
refinemen t that ma y nol be re q uire d. See te xt.
the book C D . ~ ·l T rue R:\fS meas ure men ts
are a l...o don e wirh relative e ase with DSP
soft ware; sec Cha pter I I .
Co nsid e r an example : We toggle the
s.... itch to observe a 15.6 d B increase in Fig 7.75-A s imple video filter red uces
audio ou tput. T h iv corre spo nds to a Y meier-read ing errors when wo rkin g with
fuc to r of 36._~ . From Eq 7,7 . the noise fac - narrow bandwid t hs .
tor is then 5.0-1. wh ich is a no ise figure of
7 dB.
A pract ical detai l co mp lica tes noise
me asurcmems when the bandwidth is nar-
row, such as t he .'i nn Hz found in many
C \V rece ivers : The statistical variation
with time of the no ise fro m the rece iver
causes man y mete rs 10 \ ury. making it d if - Fig 7.76-Test setup
ficu lt to obtain an accurate reading. The Noise fo r no ise figure
vide o filter of Fill.7.75 ave rages the noise Sourcel measurement of a n
to reduce th is prob le m. T he de output is a mplifie r o r ot he r
appl ied to a high impedance voltmeter o r component.
oscilloscope .
The noise fig ure of amp lifiers mav be

Meas ure ment Equipment 7.39

evaluated wit h a spe ctrum ana lyzer in the produce an increase in ou tput noise. Pow - ferred for this measurement. The amo un t
test setup o f Fig 7.76. Th e key elem ent ering the amp li fier under test shou ld again of ad ded att en ua tion is the n the Y fac tor in
here is an aux ili ary low noise ampl i fier increas e the on -screen response. Swit ch dB. Converting th is to a po wer rat io al -
(LNA) placed between the am plif ie r the sp ectrum analyzer \ 0 a I or 2 dB per lows Eq 7. 7 to be used.
under tes t an d the spectrum analyzer. This d ivision vert ical sens iti vity and use exten- The auxiliary lo w no ise amplifier we
is need ed becau se the no ise fig ure of the sive video filtering to rep lace trace "fu zz" used co nsists o f a MRF544 fo llowed by a
typ ical ana lyzer is quite high. The L:--i A with a smooth line rep resenting averaged Comm-Linear C LC425 op er at io nal ampli-
prod uces a cascade with a 10 \ \ combined noise . Carefully note the on screen le vel fier. 24 Another s uitable amplifier cou ld be
no ise figure no t compromi sed by 2nd stage ofthc noise. T hen switch the noise sou rce buil t wi th a cascade of MinrCircuits MAR -
no ise . See the discussion of no ise figure in to the high no ise position. Rather tha n 3 amplifie rs. or sim ilar parts , with a MA R-
Chapter 2. reading a le ve l fro m the scre en. add at- 6 in put stage. a configurat ion that shou ld
Beg in a measu rement with the noise te nua tion in the analyzer front end until ha ve a noise figure arou nd 3.5 dB. Low
so urce and bo th am plifiers off. Applyi ng the trace is at the level see n earlier. An noi se fig ure desi gns were des c rib ed in
power fir st to the aux iliary LNA sh ou ld attenua tor with I d B steps (or le ss ) is pre - Chap ter 6.

7.12 ASSORTED CIRCUITS

Testing AGC in
cu it of Fi g 7.7ft T he crystal co ntrolled re sponse wi th a dio de ring . The receiver
receivers os cillator at 25 M H z drives the d iode ring was tu ned to 2.44 M H /,. T his is the resul t
The circuit shown in F ig 7.77 is use ful at the st an da rd +7 dBm le ve l. Clearly , o f the 11th transmitter harmo nic be atin g
when obser vi ng the dyn am ics of a recei ver wh atever crysta l is available wo uld be with the third LO harmo nic. A chirp-fr ee
AGe system with an oscilloscope. Name d su itab le. re sponse was confirmed. A preselector fi l-
th e "diner." the c ircu it is an ele ct ro ni c In on e applic ati on, we wished to check ter ca n be used to red uce spurio us re-
switc h wit h an off-to -o n rat io of SO dB at a 7-:\1H z tra nsmitter for ch irp, or slight spon ses for man y ap plications .
14 MHl.. The switc hing ele ments are change infrequency wi th keying . T he best
inexpen sive PIN d iode s that are cascaded way to detect this is to listen to a har mo nic .
to o btain the de sired o ff- to-on ratio. The The recei ver was attached to one of the Evaluating Noise in
circu it is bala nc ed for the R F sig nal. How- mixer ports (either on e is okay ) and a l OX Local Oscillator
ever. the de dr ive that turns the RF on and o sci llo sco pe probe was attac hed to the
off is sing le end ed. Th is pre vent s the other through a ste p anenua to r. The: trans-
Systems
co ntrol signal from crea ting a cl ick that mitt er. set for o utp ut at 7 ,04 .\1Hz . was The "critical path" fo r the construction
overwhe lms t he receiver. The topology te rminated in a lo ad and the probe was at- of better communications equipment to-
was suggested by K7RO . tached to the te rminatio n. Th ird harmo nic day is the loc al oscillator system in use.
A slo w pu lse ge nerator using a 555 timer mix ing wa s to be used. so we depend on a Low dis tortio n receiver fro nt ends are
drives the RF switch. Ca paci tor C1 con- 75 -11Hz LO inje ct io n. a naturally stro ng becom ing easy to build. Cryst al fil ters with
tro ls the timing whil e the pot sets a d ut y
cycl e. A sample o f the p ulse provides a
trigger signal for osci llosc ope control. The
I n p u t :f r om
sig na l bias ing the diode s i s filtered with T r ansf o rmer s 1 2 t r i :fil a r t u rns , FT 3 1 - 4 3
S i qnal
C2 to prevent key clicks fro m an other- Ot t -t o - On > 8 0 dB
Gen e r a t o r
IUJ. di o de . Kl'1f34 04 P I li at 14 MHz
wise too fas t ri se and fall time. The circ uit
as shown has ahout a l-mS rise. but a
longer fa ll. Altho ugh the circuit wa s use -
ful in stud ying som e of the recei vers in Output to
this book , a bett er timing c ircuit woul d be Re c e i ye r w ith
A Ge s y s h m.
useful. O ne co uld me an external p ulse unde r te st .
100 0
ge nera tor or buil d a more refined on e, ., '"
p robab ly usi ng more than one tim er. '"
• •
~1,
The dr ive level sho uld be co nfi ned to
,T'M
I
2 1 0K
o dRm or le ss. w hic h is adequate to ov er - 33~2
whe lm almost any receiver. Large r s ignal s I 3 6K
are pa rtiall y recti fi ed with the chose n PIN
, 555
d iod es . , 11< .01~
' s cop e
tri g g er

O
.H} c r , ,
A Experimenter's
Receiving Converter
There are man y situa tions where one
wishes to receive signals at V HF to fac ili-
tate an experimen t. A j unk box cr ysta l and Fig 7.77- The Ditter, a circui t for generatin g key ed rec ei ver input f r o m a s ignal
d iod e ring mixe r form the basi s for the cir- gen era to r.

7.40 C ha p t e r 7
 add itional vignal proccwing can provide
outstandin g selectivity. bo th close to a ~ ig ­
nal and well aw ay from it. The various
forms o f freq uency cynthesis avail able 10
the bui lder all offer good frequ e ncy sta bil-
ily with the added bo nus of electronic tun-
ing. Bur the [.0 systems arc co mpro mised .
Phase lock ed loop IP LL ) sys tems te nd ro be The Ditt er lor AGe
testi ng in a rec ei ver .
plagu ed with phase noise. Synthesizer s us- (Tha nks t o r c ircu it
ing dire ct digita l ..ym hesis (DDS) are often su gg est io n f rom
domi nated by co herent spurious responses. K7RO)
Although diffi cult pro blem s to so lve. the
meas urements arc not that difficult. \ "il' il-
lustrate the prob lem he re wit h two measure -
ment exam ples. the first with a co mme rcia l
receiver using a synt hesizer with both DD S
and PLL. A crystal controlled oscil lato r fFig.
7.29 ) built with an internal b ancry. all
ho used in a wc:ll ...hieldcd 00.'-, was attached
to the recei ver input through a to- d B pad

1Ur . - .n:lI _
and a step attcnua tc r. initially set to 0 d R.
The available input signill was con firmed to
~- .
be -30 d Bm at 7.018 MHz. The receiver. in
"'

! ~
CW mode . was tuned to this Frequency with
the sett ing stored in receiver me mory. The
rece iver was th en tuned dow n ward whi le 'I'
lhtening for response , with a wel l de fined
tone. AGe was on. for there is no prn vi... ion s,~
I' ""1"". I~ dBI
Fig 7.78-
Receiving
con verter l o r
ex pe riments .
to tum il offiu the ccmprornrsed receiver. A

'''l~ -l '?
spur was found wit hin a co uple o f kj-lz. T he
spur frequency .... a~ recorded in out note -
boo k. The ampli tude r':~fX," ~e was noted on JI--.L
-
an audio voltmeter attached to the receiver
Output. The tuning was then ret urned 10 the L1 : 1'" ' 1' fl'·'. U 1:Uk.

main signal and a tte nuatio n was inserted

until the audio o utput equaled that seen wit h
the spur. Thi s occu rred with 58 -<1B ancnua-
lio n•.so we infer the 1.0 spurious respo nse to
be at 58 dB below the carrier . o r at - 58 d Bc.
This proc edure was repea led as we found a
large colle ction of spurious res ponses abo ve
and below the des ired sig na l wi th res ults ~on se of a r ecei ver w it h a " Hy b rid" synth~
L . ~O ? S+P L L I to a c rystal osc il lato r In put s ig n al. I
plotted in F ig 7.79.
Th e re are di ffic ul tie s e ncoun tered with

1~
this proced ure . One must be sure the - ~---
sou rce is spur fre e. T his was con firmed by [ In p ut Si g nal : -30 d Bm
repealing the experiment with a rece iver
us ing a traditional LC o sc ill ator. Yo u must
al ...o be sure that t he vignal from Ihe cource
--
oscillator is not re aching the receive r b)
routes o ther tha n the antenna te rminal.
T his can be confi rmed by disconnecting I
the sou rce from the uue nua to r 10 confirm
that the sig nal d isappears. or d rop s we ll
below the level o r the mea sured spurv. f----
Our second exam ple ev alua tes ph ase
0.. -00 dB
f--
noise with es sent iall y the sa me proced ure. E
Agai n sta rt with a ve ry strong signal. a •
~ =rr-
-30 d Bm in pu t. The n tu ne a way from the
so urce fr eq uency to a spaci ng of. fo r
example. 10 k H / . xore the re spon ...e in ·110

J t rue R \ 1S re ad ing audio vo ltmeter " 1

auached 10 the recei ve r out put. Tum the = ue nc y . k Hz
Freq -
vource o ff mome ntaril y 10 be sure thaithe
noise d ecreases. fo r we w ivh to measure Fig 7 .79--0 0 S· re lated s pu rio us r es ponses fo u nd with a co mmercia l rec erve-

Me a sure ment E q u ip m e n t
 Cont rol bo x, DVM, and board with a suitable byp ass c ap acitor and
" en vi ronmental the thre e wir es needed to both po wer the
ch amber" for de vice an d to extr ac t a sig nal. T he ou tpu t
oscill ator testing. The
is read with a standard DY~l wit h a sensi-
chamber has the lid
remo ved so an tiv it y of 10 mv for e ach degree C change
oscillat or can be in te mperature.
placed in side. The lid T he oscill ato r und er te st i s pla ced in the
is t hen pl ace on the chambe r and the lid is put in place . The
bo x. A light bul b osci llator is allowed to warm up while
heater resides under viewi ng output fr equency on an externa l
t he pres s woo d bas e
wi t h hole s. A 12-V fan counter an d in it ial temperature dat a is
mov es t he air wit hin read. T he li g ht bu lb is then turned on.
the box . Cables t o the allo wing the te mpe ratu re to cli mb . It ' s use-
os cillator under test ful to c ycl e the bulb off and on . Forcing the
and t he IC used for temperature to increase slowly . Once yo u
tempera tur e meas ur e-
hav e in crease T by perhap s 20 deg ree s C
ment are routed under
the lid edge. the fan is tu rned on for a sho rt hurst and
the b ulb is turned o ff. forcing the te mpera-
ture to stabilize . If T seems fair ly sta ble,
new freq uenc y dat a can he measured and
TCF (Tempe ra ture Coeffi c ie nt o f
Frequenc y ) ca n be calcula ted . It is not gcn -
the nois e abo ve the normal receiver back- Th is pro blem disappears w hen yo u do crully nece ss ary to reac h high te mpera -
gr ound flo or. Ha vi ng rec or d ed the your ow n mea surements . tures . although an init ia l run up to perhaps
response at 10 kj-lz off se t. w e return the SOC will se rve 10 relieve stresses in the
in duc tor s resulting from the toroid wind-
tu ning to the in put sign al. Att enuatio n is An Oven for Drift ing . After a litt le data ha s been ob tained,
the n added 10 bring the res ponse do wn to Compensation
the noise re sp o nse lev e l. In o ne mea sure- the lid can be remo ved, the bulb tu rned
ment of this type rep o rte d in Ch apter 4 , A phom gr ap h sho ws an ove n that we use off. and the fan turn ed on . This will force
we obser ved a noi se respon se 110 dB for the eval uation and compensation of os- the temper atu re to dro p to room valu e in
d o wn a l a 5 kHI spaci ng. Th e re ce iv er cillato rs. The hasic measurements were ou t- just a few mi nut es. The lime is used fo r
bei ng mea su red had a 500 H z nois e ha nd-
lined in sec tio n 4.2. T he "o ven" is quite calcula ting the value of the temp eratu re
wid th, so the spectral den sity of nois e was
simple. starting with a Styrofoam box p ur- compensating cap aci tor s needed.
chased at a local super mark et. The volu me The tempera ture compensation pr ocess
27 .ns ( I OxLog[BW1) 100',..er on a per Hz
is approximately 600 cubic inches. The is one that has left us wit h some ver y stro ng
has is. or - 137 dB c/ Hz. 11 is necessary to
low er half of that space is occup ied with a im pressions :
normalize the re sponse re la ted to w hit e
60 -W ligh t bulb mou nted in a cer amic I . An os cillato r that we had regarded as
(evenl y dis tr ibu ted ) nois e , for th at nois e
soc ket attach ed to a wood strip The cord for heing " pretty stab le" wi th normal compo-
will chan ge in pr oportio n 10 bandwidth.
the bulb is run thro ugh a hole in the box. ne nts drifts dramatically wi th the simple
I n th is example we att rib uted the observed
A wo od shel f wi th n umer ous l -i nc h o ven . Thi s is no l a minor . sub tle effect. but
no ise to a YCO be ing te sted. a lt hou g h it holes div ide s the box , T he upper reg ion do minant behavior.
could have bee n the rece ive r LO . It co ntains a small de f an that ca n be turned 2. Once we beg in to apply compensa-
was st ill a clean res ponse c omp ar ed wi th on to circulate the air and enough room for tion to the o sc ill ator . JUSl 2 or 3 ru ns will
a typica l D DS syste m like the on e of the os ci lla tor mod ule being tes ted and the be en ough to produce exc ellent stab ili ty.
Fig 7.79 . te mpe rature mea suring cir c uitry. T hi s 3. A circui t that sta rte d as a "pretty
V.le often sec equ ipment rev iews where ov en mea sure s te mpe rature with a Na - stable" circuit is easily con verted to " rock
pl ots appear show ing pha se no ise. Coher - tion al Se miconduc to r L M3 9 11 in tegr a ted so lid ,"
en t spurs al so ap pear in the se plots , A circui t that is mounted in a small he at sink 4. Circuits usi ng rea lly bad components
per -Hz normalization is usu all y app lied to a nd the n attached to a small ci rc uit boa rd . regardin g dr i ft (s uch as varacto r diod es)
the plot. for that is the mo st usefu l infor- Th e LM 39 11 has be en di sconti nued. can sti ll yie ld practic al pe rformance.
matio n fo rm fo r pu re noi se. T hat nor mal- replace d by a m uch beuer part from Th e whole process is an easy one . The
iz at ion mayor ma y not als o be app lie d to Nati onal. the LM45 that is supplied i n a one dra wback is that it is so me what tim e
the co heren t spur s. Th e nor malization. if SOT-23 surface mou nt package . Th e pa rt consum ing. so we inte grate it with other
app lied. i s not alway s sta ted in re vie ws . ca n be soldered to a sma ll scrap of c irc uit casu al ac ti vi ties.

7 .42 C hapt er 7
REFERENCES
1. W. Sabin . "A Series-Reg ulated " .5- to 9. R. Slo ne, "T he LTniCounte r- A 17. W. Hayward and R. Lar kin . " Simple
25-V. 2-5-A Po wer Supply: ' 200 3 ARRL Mu ltip urp ose Freq ue nc y Counte r/ RF Power Measurement".
Handbook. Ch. 11 at 25·28. Electronic Di al". QST. De ce mber 2000. 18. W. Hayw ard and T. While. " A
2. W. S abin. "Measu ring SS B/CW pp 33-37. Spec trum Ana lyzer for th e Rad io
Receiv er Sen sitivity" , Qsr. October 1992 . 10. W. Ca rver. "The LC Teste r". Co m - Ama teur" .
pp 30-34. municanons Quar/erly. winter J1.)93 , pp 19. R,W Ra mirez. The f F F : Funda-
J. D , Bra mwell. " Under standi ng Modern 19·27 . menials and Concepts , Prentice-Hall .
Oscilloscopes ," QST. J uly 1976. pp 18- 19. I I. W. Haywa rd. introduction 10 Radio 1985.
... J. Grcbcnkem per, "The Tandem Matc h Frequency Design, Pren tice-Hall. 1982. 20 . R.S. Horn e. Spe ctrogram, Ve rsion
- An Accur ate Dire ction al Wattmete r". and ARRL 199.... 6.0.IL 200 1. www.m o nu ment al.co m/
QS T. Januar y 198 7. pp 18· 26. 12. R. Brace well. Tfl t' Fourier Tran s-form rs hor ne/gr a m.ht ml
5. R. Le walle n. " A S imple and Acc urate and its Applications, ~lcGra w·H i li . 1969. 2 1. W. Sa bin. "A Calibrated Noise Source
QRP Directio nal Wattmete r" , QST. 13. M. Engel so n. Modern Spectrum for Amat eur Radio". fjST. May 11.)1.)4. pp
February 19YO. rp 19-23 . J 6. Anll/y-:.er Theo ry and App ticunons, 37·40.
6. W. Hayward and R. Larkin. "S imple RF Anech House, 1':184. 22. P. Wmh::. " Noise Measure me nt ami
Po wer Measurem ent", QST. June 200 1, pp 14. W. Hayward. "Extending the Do uble- Ge nera tio n" , QEX. Nove mb er 1996 .
3R-4 3 . Tuned Circ uit to Three Resonaror c", QEX. pp 3· 12.
7. G. Da ug hte rs and W. Ale xa nde r. " Lo w \1a rch/Ap ril ] I,ll;lli. pp 4 1-46. 23 . W . Sabi n. " Meas urin g SSR/CW
Power Anen uaro r-, for the Amate ur 15. W. Hayward a nd T. Wh ite, "A Receiver Se nsinviry".
Bands," 73 .\t aga zine . January 1967. pp Spectr um Analyzer for the Radio 2-1 , S. D. Smi th. " Bui ld a I-dB Noise
40-41 . Ama teur". QST. August and Scprernbe r Figure Amp lifier for 50-ohm Systems",
8. D. Bramwell. "An RF Step Attenuato r." 199 8, pp 3:'i-·B (Aug). 37-40. June 27.1 99 4 Analog Applica tio n'> Issue.
QST. J une 14,1 4,1 5. PP 33-3.... 16. lhi d. Electronic Design.

Measurement Equipment 7.43

 CHAPTER

Direct Conversion
Receivers
8.1 A BRIEF HISTORY
In the ea rly days of radio, sig n al~ we re neede d fo r A~l. and Ijnc vitu hly ] ea rly RF
collected ( 10 a wire. co nven ed from RF a mpli fier' using vacu um tubes v. ere mar-
volta ge and CUIT en t to audio vo ltage and g inally stable. which le ad d irectl y to
current wi t h a crystal det ector. and co n- the discove ry of rege nerative receivers.
vened to aco ustic ene rgy with he ad phones c, H So me RF amplifi ers uccillared at two Ire-
I FI ~ H.I I. Th is worked well for spark and que ncie-, at o nce-c- which lea d dir ectl y to
later .1\.\1 broadcast sig nals, bUI wit h con- the discove ry of the su pe rregcncrauv e
tinuous waves . the o utput of the crystal rece iver. Cascading I W O regenerative de-
detecto r was j ust a very ....-ea k de voltage. rectors . one at HF and one at a vupera udible
A number of sche mes were u-ed 10 con-
c, freque ncy around J() k Hz. result ed in the
vert the C W 10 AM at t he rece ive r. but the vuperaud io hctcrody ne rece ive r. which
most sen vitive method fur detecting CW was Irick y III adj ust and rece ived eve ry
Fig 8.1- A fundam enta l c rys ta l rad io
sig na ls o n a crysta l detec tor requ ired the d e s ig n. sig na l at two places o n the d ial.
use of an o sc illa tor loc ated nc ar the Rege ner ativ e receivers we re s imple.
recei ver. as sho wn i n Fig S.2 . w hen the inex pen sive a nd wo rked well enough fo r
oscillato r was tune d close 10 the trausmir- a mate ur AI\ l and CW wor k that rece iver
ted , ig na l fre quency, audible heats were • innov ation stalle d for ma rc than a decade.
produced by the crysta l detector, The lise unt il the ha nd, became crowd ed enough
Receiver
of a "loca l oscillato r' has been standa rd in th at mo re se lec ti vi ty wa s need ed. Th e
rece ivers eve r si nce, superheterod yne had heen further dcvel -
T he audible bea t sign a l at the cry stal oped for A~f broad casti ng. and by the mid
dete c tor is ve ry weak. Early e xperiment - 1930s, the transition to the supc rhe tero-
e rs purch ased t he most sc ns ulve he ad - d yne fo r a mate ur h igh freq ue nc y wo rk wa s
phon e , they co uld affo rd . and erected nearly co mp lete . Hig h Freq ue nc y Regen-
la rge anten na, to coll .... ct as mueh si gna l a' e rative receivers rem ain ed i n 711(: ARRL
poss ible . T uners incl ude d adjustme nts for Hm/(Ih",, ~ unt il t he m id 19 fiOs. a nd
both peak ing the desired sig na l and supcrrcgcns are still wide ly used in toy
GeneralOf
ac hievi ng max imu m power transfe r walkie-talk ie c. rad io co ntrolled cars, and
be tween the ant e nna a nd de tector. The garage door openers.
tec h nology fo r build ing hi ~h ly' sensitive Signal guin ahead of the detector is
head pho nes was alre ad y ma tur e in the desi ra ble if a diode is used to en velo pe
e arly day s of rad io, bec ause the te le phone • det ect A\L hUI fo r the linear modes. SS B
sys tem predated vacuum IU~ a mplificu- and C W othe firsl stage of the receiver may
no n hy several decades. T he: fiN app lica-
lio n of vac uu m tubes in recei ver cir c uits
was for a ud io a mplification. T he "cryvta l
1 be a loss)' Freq ue ncy co nvener. d irectly to
audio. Such receive rs arc capable of o ut-
sta ndin g perfor ma nce at very high fre-
detector" d iod e is co nside rab ly less sensi- q uen c ie s- som e thi ng to th in k abo ut the
tive as an e nve lop e detec to r fo r A xtthan it next time a Slate Patro lma n rec o ve rs a
WO L.d d he with sufficient LQ injec tion to we ak ec ho from your speed ing vehi cle
serv e a, a product det ector for CWo bUI with a di rec t-co n ver sio n microw ave
e arly rcc ci vcr lore in vol ved usin g ve ry 10 \\ Fig 8.2-A c lass ic radi o enhanced with receiver.
leve l LO injection . Rl- amplificancn was a lo c al oscillator. All of the tech no logy- d iodes. rruns -

DireetCon verslon Receivers 8. 1

 for mers. local oscillators and aud io
am plifiers- was ava ilable by 192 0 to
build high -p erformance dir ect co n version l ow Noise
rece iver s for ( \V . Th ere was little mo tiva- High Gain
tion for amate urs to deve lop such receiv- Audio Amplifier Headphones
Low Pass Audio Filter
ers at the time bec au se rege nerative
rece ivers we re ad eq uate , simp le and inex -
pe nsi ve. Th ere was also a perception in
that era that voice modes were the real m of
experimenters an d CW the real m o f prac -
tical commu nicators , Th e situati o n is
rev ersed today, wit h mos t technically
advan ced ama te urs experimen ting wi th La
no n-v oic e modes, from mini malis t HF C\ V
Fig 8.3- A block d iagram of a basi c d irec t- co nv e rs io n rec eiv er.
statio ns th ro ug h microwave sy stems for
1000 -k m tropo sp her ic pat hs.
A radio e xperimenter i s driv en no t by
the de sire to d uplicate ex isti ng ci rcuitry, version rec ei ver dynamic ran ge and sen si- A sm all group of experimenters stu b-
but by the ne ed to p ut a station on the air tivity exh ibi ts gap s in unde rstan d ing. bo rnly continued to deve lop the dire ct con-
using wha tev er means are ava ilable. pref- W hile the QRP Society prov id ed th e ver sion receiver. Roy Lewallen's des ign?
erabl y wit hout making e xpe nsi ve trips to dire ct co nvers ion rece iver with a home . fro m 1980 is a time less exa mple of an op-
the part s store. Ma rg tnat f in ance s oft e n their fu nda ment al philosophy also ham - timized DSR de sig n with CW fi ltering. an d
unlea sh a wealth of ideas (the ph iloso phy pered its develop me nt. The QR P co mmu - Ga ry Bree d' s 19X9 design-' nicely illu s-
behind Ph D programs and ot he r mo nas tic n ity e mb race s simplic ity. an d man y o f trates the practi cali ty of eliminating the
experiences) . In the 1960 s. w hen mo st HF the ir de sig ns are indeed simple and o nly audio image. T he KK7 B des igns publish ed
stations operated at the 100 \ V level , the just adequat e. E xamp les of opti miz ing for from 1992thruugb 1995-'-15 were or iginally
QRP Soc ie ty e mb raced the p hilos op h y o f simp lici ty are t he nu merous NE602 intend ed to ser ve as VIIF tunable IFs with
pu tti ng simple rad io st ations on the air and rec ei ver circu its . which have surpr is ing micr owave no-tunc tran svcr tcrs . but were
wor kin g OX usi ng ope rato r skill instead perfor manc e for so few parts. Th e usu al de signed for broa dband operation at any
of transmitte r po wer. Radio exp er imen t- first im press ion upo n 1iste ni ng to a sim ple freque ncy fro m 25 kHz to 5 GHz . Th e se
ers quickly expande d the QRP skill set to direct con version rec eiv er i s that it so unds des igns have mor e componcur s than the
i nclude rad io de sign and co ns tru ctio n. very good . but after ma king a few c ontacts simp lest supe rbets. but offer several per-
with an emphasi s on elegant si mplicity, most operators want someth in g be tter. T he forma nce ad van tages inclu din g fre edom
With the disappea ra nce o r A I\1 fro m the something be tte r is a lm os t always a from birdies . eas e of use- thro ug ho ut the
band s . and the emergence of C W as the superhet. w e s Hay wa rd correctly stared radio spectru m, and superb in -chan nel
expe rimenter's fav o red mo de , the tim e in So lid State Desig n for rhe Ra dio Ama - aud io fideli ty.
wa s ri pe for a reexaminatio n of basi c reur ] tha i a dir ec t ca n ver sio n recei ver with By the year 2000. direct conversion
rec eiver circuitry. T he '60s implem en ta- audi o image rej ectio n is at le ast as co mpli- receiv er de sign s (F IA 8.3 ) pioneered by
tion of the direct convers ion rece iver was cared as a simple sup erhet . This is even amat eurs were maki ng si gnificant inroads
de veloped in para lle l by a numb e r of in de- truer today. after ano the r qua rter century into prac tical commun ication s gear includ -
pe ndent e xper imenter s. A ll o f the pieces of su perhet rece iver evol ution. T he matu - ing fa mily rad io se rvice transceivers.
we re desc ribe d in the mid ' 60 s A RR L rit y of cry stal ladder IF fi lter design has cordle ss phones. a nd cellular handsets. The
Handbo ok , bu t the edi to rs cle arly di d not e lim inated IF filte r cost a s a dra wbac k fo r numbe r of pape rs on dir ect co nversi on pre-
envisi on con necting the m together into a superhets. and ea sy -t o-use [C s have scntcd at profes sion al c onferences has
recei ve r withou t an IF. Even the 1970 s redu ced r arts cou nt be low wh at wa s pos - j umped from a fe w per de cade to ove r a
ARRL Hondboot; de scri ptio n of d irect eo n- sible in the mid ' 70 s. hundred in one year.

8.2 THE BASIC DIRECT CONVERSION BLOCK DIAGRAM

I
F ig 8 ,4 is the block dia gram of a dir ec t noi se floor in a 2-kHL ba ndw idth . duri ng signals c an produce sig nals of ten s of mi1-
conversion rccci vcr sys tem for 40 me ters . the eveni ng, in the nor th ce ntra l U nite d liv olt s in a fe w me ters of wire . T he 13th
U nlike othe r fig ures in this text, the an - St ates. Stro ng foreign bro ad cast stations and 15th ha rmonics of 7 M Hz are 'in the
te nna and he ad phon es are inclu ded in the ma y rea ch millivolt le vel s. C o mp ute r FM broadc as t ba nd. and mo st wide ba nd
diagram. The fir st block is the anten na. Its no ise and " to uch la mp" interfe ren ce c an mixe rs wi ll d ownco nver t sig nals nca r od d
fu nc tion is to coll ec t as much of the de - rea ch I OO-mV lev els if the of fe ndi ng har mo nics o f the LO. T he TU F- l mixer
sire d sig nal. and as litt le nois e and inter- appliances are in the nea r fiel d of t he reco m me nde d for sev eral projects in thi s
fer ence, as possible. While thi s seems ob- di pole. All of thes e sig nal s arc prese nt at book has 34 dB ma rc loss as a I 31h or 151h
vio us. few amat e ur or pro fe ssional the downconver ter. har mo nic mixer than as a fu ndam enta l
enginee rs ac tually th ink about the an tenna An other imp ortant set of si gnals pre se nt mixer, whe n mea sured using a 7-M Hz L O.
whe n des igning a re ce iv er sy ste m. A at the do wnconvene r inp ut are FM broad- A l -m V sig na l at 9 1.5 MH z (easily ob-
40-11 d ipole may provi de a l -m V r ms cast sta tio ns . In ur ban areas. FM broad ca st tained on a few met ers of wire at KK7 B.

8.2 Chapter 8
 66
1 ',

."
Low-f'lOiSe AlIc:Iio' \
6 MHz AuCI,o Preamp Amplifi8f
3 kHz AuClio
Low-pass
T_ u- P~ AuClio Fitter 50 "

1
1 1
VFO

Fig 8.4- Bloc k d iag ram of a eo-me te r direct-c onvers ion receiver.

Portland I i ~ zero beat when the direct eon- with conversion gai n. and more serious re-
version receiver 1.0 is tun ed to 7.038 cei vers have mixers with conversion Iocs. TUF-1
\ IHl. and the .14 dB of excess con ver vion Lossy mixers may he eithe r the com-
loss reduces it 10 th e equivalent of a mo n diod e ring and variatio ns. or made up
:!U-IlV ~O-met~'r signal at the antenna. It is From rran..rstors used as switches. A num-
easy to prevent these s i g n a l ~ from arriving ber of excellent passive f ET mixers have
at the RF port of the mi xer by using a low been de..igned in the past few years. and '"
Noise Figure
13dBGain
'"
NOiMl Figu re
pavs filter rig ht at the mixer . The) are VHF they are now widely used in a variety of S 7 dB Loss
signals. so VHF construction tech niques applic atio ns.
mU!.1 be used. II is also import an t to pre- Mixer ga in or loss does not affe ct Fig 8.5-A preamp diod e ring direc t-
conver sion rece iver.
vent these f .\t broadcast signals tram en- receiver noise figure as much as mi ght be
tering fhe receiver cabinet on po.... er cup- sus pected. Compare two receivers. each
ply .... ires. spe aker wires. headph one leads. w uh a :!-dB noise figure, l3-d8 gain RF
CW key leads and micro phone cords-all preamplifier. Receiver # 1 in Fig 8.5 ha.. a Gilbert Cell
of which tend 10 be the rig ht length to make Mini -Ci rcuits TVF- l mi xer with 5.7-d8
effi cie nt Fl\f broadcast amc nnas. loss and 7-d8 noise figure. followe d by an
The mixe r itself can be any of seve ral
types. but the diode ring is a good choice
for people who want simplici ty. good per-
audio stag e with 5-dB no ise figure.
Receiv er #2 in Fig 8.6 has the same RF
preamplifier in front of a Gilbert Cell mixer '"
Noo.e Figure
13 dB GIIin
, .
Noose Figure
10 dB Ga,n
'"
Noise Fig"""

formance. and understan ding of how the with 8-dB noise figure and 10-dB ga in.
mixer workx. The details of the NE60 2 drivi ng the same 5-d8 nois e figure audio Fig 8.6-Bloek diag ra m of a pream p
-c hemanc are unpu blishe d. and the bias amp lifier. Using the cascaded noise figure Gilbe rt direc t-conversi on recei ver .
controls to improve its perfo rm ance arc furmula present ed elsewher e. Recei ver # 1
locked in place on the die . has a calc ulate d 3-d8 noise figur e. and Rc-
Commonly used mixers have noise fig- ceiver #2 has a 2.5-d13 noise figure.
ures between 6 and 10 dB. and may have Now consider the Iactrhatthe GilbertCell If the ame nna prov ides 1 uv of noise
either conversi on gain or loss. At first receiver has 23-dB gain before any sclcctiv- 110m and the headphones requ ire: 10 mV
gla nce. co nve rsi on gain wou ld ..eeJII IO be ity. and remember that short- w ave Broad- for comfo n ahle listening. the receiv er
an ad vantage. A rece ive r needs about 100 ca st signal s often reach millivolt levels. nee ds tlO-d B gain. Very qui d loc ations
dB of gain between the ante nna con nec tor After the mixer downcc nvens the entire fre- ma y ha ve a O. I-IlV -tu-m noise floo r. and
and headphones. and mixer ga in mal e" the quency spectru m present on the antenna and low- scnsitiviry headphone" might req uire
rest of the receiver easier to design. Hut folds it in half around zero Hz. the circuitry 100 mv-c- which inc reases the gain re-
there is a catch. Mixer gain occurs befo re connected to the IF pon of the mixer selects quire rncnt 10 120 dB . Receivers without
an}' channe l selec tivity. The filter before a narrow portion of the spectrum and then AGC require less gain than receivers with
the mixer in a direc t conversion receiver amplifies it. Selectivity between the mixer AGe . and also need a different listening
pavses an enti re band. and th e fihering and first audio amplifier is needed <;(l that the style . A receiver desc rib ed i n the next
after Ihe mixer "el ects the des ired signa l. fi rst stage of audio docs nor have to linearly chapte r has more tha n SO d B of undistorred
The mixer mu- r linearly handle all of the amplify the entire HF spectrum at once. A head room abo ve the rec eiver noise floo r.
strong and wea k signal ..in the ent ire band . simple lo-kHI. low-pass filter will narrow Some operato rs are accustomed 10 listen-
witho ut distortion. If the mixer ha ~ gain. it the frequency range to j U~1 20 kH7 centered ing for we ak signa ls wit h the rece iver gain
amplifies all of the strong. undesired sig- aro und the LO freque ncy. Further band-lim- turne d all the way up. and the recei ver
na j, rig ht along with the wea k desired sig- uing is normally included in the: audio no ise floo r j ust below the pain thresho ld.
nat. High perfor mance recei vers. whether amplifier stages. bUI a wide-ope n direct If a click. pop or loud signal suddenly
supcrhcts or direct conversion , limit the con version receiver sounds better on CW appe ars i n the passban d. the rece i ver is
amount of gain before the cha nn el filter. and SSB signals than any other receiver type, (theore tically ) cap able of pro vidi ng an
Thus. minimu m-parts-coun t casuall y and ..hould be experienced a, a baseline for outp ut that ....'ill break eardru ms and me lt
designed receiver.. lend to have mixers further receiver experimenting. headp hones. Hum an ears ha ve remarka ble

Direct Con version Receivers 8. 3

 .':'1-<- ..

\
The " ug ly" Mic ro R1. The Mic ro R1 bu ill o n a bo ar d.

dy namic rang e. It is far mor e natural to o n a f B 24 10 ferrite beud. A tm ncfor me r pa ragra ph s is a nice ill ustra t io n o f how
I iste n to weak signals 60 d H below the pain made of te n trifil ar turn, " I' pla stic cov ered s imple a "real" co mm unic ations recei ver
thres hold a nd matc h the rece iver in-band hell wi re on a lar ge ferrite RF[ s uppression ca n he. It also illus trate s sume o f the chal-
dyn amic ran ge In the ea r's c ap ability . core salv age d from a com puter printer kng cs o r ,i ruple receive rs. C rystalco ntro l
In previous yea n the a uthor ha s mere ly cable also wo rks well . Diod es arc I N4 14R st rictly lim its tuni ng ra nge. an d limited
ack nowle d ged that there are di fferent lis - o r simila r. and the three transistors arc sclccri vity req uires skill in d igg ing si gnals
te nin g styles. a nd some slyles of liste ning 2;-':,W04 or similar small -si gna l ~ PNs_ o ut o f crowde d ba nds. T he: c hallenges
req uire AGe 1I10re tha n others . How - The two stage aud io amplifier has mo re: in he re nt in simple eq uip ment arc nOI nee -
cvcr-c-two o f our c lose friends (a nd srrc n- than enough gai n to br ing the -IO-m band cs suril y d ivad va mage s-c-it lakes mor e skill
gc st adv oc ates of AG C ). a re near ing CS We ...t Co a st noise 1100r up tu the 10 cros, a harbor in a vailing ding hy than a
ret irement with serious hea rin g love . Both a udible le vel in portable CD play er head - mo tor boat . Copying sign a ls fro m ac rose
we re licen sed as novices in the ea rl) p ho nes. C oupli ng and fee d back capacitors the oceans wirh a thre e tr an sistor ci rc uit h
1 95 0 ~ . a nd ha n: spent half a century were se lec ted by ear and back-o f-the- sim ilarly re war ding.
de pending on recei ver AGC 10 protect en vel ope calc ulation s fro m avai la ble J USI as sailo~ alwa ys wa nt a bigger boat.
the ir ea rs. Sett ing rece iver gai n so that the value-, in the aumors j u nk box. G ai n is radioex pcrirncntcrs always want to impro ve
noise floor from the amenna is we ll be low inten tio na lly l e pt [0 " for ea r pro tec t io n. the ir receivers. The foll ow ing parag raph ,
the pain th res hold and tra in in g the ears 10 and 10 el imi na te the need fo r special co n- dig into the technica l fundamentals needed
list en is good hygie ne. Weak ... ig na ls will structio n tec hniques. a vo lu me control . o r 10 unders tand direct con ve rsion receivers at
the n be weak. stro ng signals will be "trong. shielding. Th e double tu ned c irc uit o n the a de pth that allow s p.... rformance to he push ed
a nd only rare ly will AG e be de s ired. RF in put solves ;my harmon ic milling o r to superhe t le vels and beyond.
AM broadcast det ection pro ble ms. and the
three adjustments may he tweaked to opu-
A Minimalist Direct mize signal po wer trans fe r fro m the Direct Aversion
Conversion Receiver antenna to the receiver. when sig na ls are Be for e proceeding with the techni cal
Not all d irect con ver vion rece ive rs have strong and shortwa ve broa d cast interfe r- discussion. it is wort hw hile to not e tha t
to be designed for high performa nce. S ince enc e is a prnhle m. the co upli ng ca pacito r many oth erwise rat ion a l hu man bein gs
tilt' historical appea l o f dir ect con version may be red uc ed and the inp ut c irc uit opti- ha ve an emot iona l ave rsio n to d irect co n-
is simp lici ty. it is app rop riat e to present ,I mized for de sired si gnal -to -interfe re nce version rece ivers . The basic blo ck diagra m
smct minim ali st desi gn. Simp le NE 602 ratio rat her than just maxim um signal is so sim ple and appealing than many
bas ed circuitry is prevented elsewhe re in stre ng th. The inde pe ndent 9 -V ba ttery uns uspe cting d esig ner-build e rs and engi-
the te xt. FCIT thi s c ircuit. the usc o f special- supply. balanced antenna an d he ad p ho ne neer ing manag ers have falle n into the tra p
ized co mpune nt-, is avoi ded. Th e receiver connecno ns. and no externa l g ro und co n- of be lieving that dire ct conversion is the
in F ill: 8.7 has each of the functio nal bloc ks nect ion eliminate gro und lt N.'!," and co m- "hol y grail" of receiv ers . able 10 o utpc r-
from Fig IL '. Q I and its ass ociated co m- mon mode problcmv. C urre nt dr ai n from form th e o ld. obsolete super heterodyne
po ne nts is a sim ple Pie rce os ci lla to r, With the 9· V bauery i-, about R mA . architecture at a fraction of rhc cost. Most
the co m ponent valu e s she w n, it oscillates Th is vimple recei ver is fu n tolis ten to . attempts 10 build so methin g cheape r a nd
w irh eve ry c rys tal tr ied t rom the iluthor ' \ pan rcuturty whe n it is open on the be nch belle, tha n an ex isting, mature tec hnology
junk bov . Th e freq ue nc y may be trimmed with all paris vivible. an d signals from will fail . when the hol y grail turn s our 10 be
a few I.: H/. with a small (abo ut ~O pl -) trim- 10.000 km a wa)' are ro ll in g in. T he a crac ked clay cup. the desi gner involv ed
mer c apacitor in se rie s wi th the crystal. acco mpa ny ing photos sho w two d iffe re nt may end up with a Hnge rtng bad ta ste in his
Si nce bulh end\ o f the trimmer e ap<lcilOr const ructio n sty les. Paris ma y hc p ur- mo nth . Exper ie nced profession<l[ <l nd ama -
a rc n oating. <I n insulal ed lUn ing tool (,r c hase d new. or sa lvaged from ol d I:om- teur lec hniC<l 1writers tend 10 e ither lo\c or
shaft shou ld he u\ed. p ut<:r boa rds a nd Iran ~ i ~t or r<ld io;;. hale di reCl co n\ ersion receive rs, an d this
T l is IU-tr ifilar tums of e nam e led wire Th c rccei\er desc ribeJ in Ihe preceding bi<lS has of t<.'n i1 ppeare:d in prin !.
~

8.4 Ch ap ter6
 o
~ ~
Q) s: ,
-0
"' .;;; )
E C.
= .;;;"0
o '"

cJ
g~
(
+ §
8

+ (f -----1I' ,
~ o

,,

n '"
c cQ)
c:: =
Q) "O
-<:: Q)
Q)

"'-
Fig 6.7-The sche mat ic of the MicroA1.

Direct Conversion Receivers 8.5

8.3 PECULIARITIES OF DIRECT CONVERSION

The le vel (If unde rsta nding re prese nted gain. Often osc illations can be cu red by in direct conversion rccei vers with several
in the preceding para graphs is e nough (Q moving aro und the wires carrying aud io layers of magnetic shielding. The Toko 10
build direct co nve rsio n receive rs and usc sign als and po wer. RB ...cr ies of shielded inductors ha s been
t hem 10 ma ke co ntacts o n the a mateur Inductor s in the curly stage... of a direc t used for yea rs, alth ough the sh ielding is
bands, hUI they will exhibit some strange co nvers ion rece ive r ...hould be of a self not perfect and they will pick up hum from
behavior thai is not exp lained tty conven- shie ldi ng type. Con ve ntio nal Iron E co re nearby transformer s. A s mall steel or
tio na! superhet th inki ng . Exp laining the audi o tra nsforme rs are best avoided. mu metal enclosu re arou nd the aud io pre-
peculiarities of d irect co nversion receiv- although they have bee n successfully used amp stage s of 11 direct co nversion
e re. and more important ly, des igning a nd on the input to high gain aud io amp lifie rs receiver can reduce hu m pickup by many
building a ne w generatio n tha t c utper-
forms pre vious attempts. requ ires further
study a nd a deeper understa ndi ng.
•
High Audio Gain
There arc significant diffe rences
I
bet wee n the blOCKdiagrams and gai n d is-
rributic ns of supe rhets a nd dircc t co nve r-
sion receive rs. Direct conve rvion pec u-
liarities fa ll int o two classes : problems
from high audio gain and the effects of
local o.....-iflaro r radiation. AM de mod ula-
lion. a com mon problem wit h direct con-
version recei vers, is a symptom of both •
high audio gai n and 1.0 rad iation.
A typical direct conversion receiver has
about lOCI dB of ga in from the mlxerro the
outp ut. The o utput might he a I-rnA cur -
ren t flowing in a wire 10 the headp hone
j ack . The ground wire coming bad fro m
the headphone" als o carries I rnA. If the
grou nd wire has I mill iohm re sistnncc. the
volta ge drop will be I ~ V . which is 100
li mes larger than the weakest audible sig-
Standard
nals. Th is sets up an ideal condition for
audio oscilla tion or regene ratio n. Sinc e it
is impractical to reduce the re sista nce of
all gro und wir es (#24 copper wire has
about 2 mifliuh ms per inch). it is very
important that an)' gro und return curryin g
ou tput signals be separated from any input
signal gro und return . The easiest way to
insu re thi s is to use a sep arate ground wire
for every compon ent. and connect them
all togerher a single poi nt. It is partic ularly
impo rtant to trea t the spea ke r or head-
phone jack as a co mpone nt. and bring iI' s
gro und lead all the way back to the com-
mon grou nd co nnect ion rather than j ust
gro unding it 10 t he rad io case, Th is bea rs
repeating: use two wires, a signal and a
gro und wire. 10 co nnect 10 the headp hone
jack.. or ... pea ker. and do not grou nd the
speaker or he adp hone jack to c ha-,...is
ground . With a ...implc recei ver. n is +9
0 0
poss ib le to actually co nnec t the grounded
leads of all components to the/ same
poi nt. fi g 8,8 is a sche matic show ing how Single-Point
this can be done w ith the receiver in Fig Schematic
8.7. The re arc also ma gne tic and
capac itive feedbac k mechanisms that Fig 8.8-Compa re t he " sta nd ard" MicroR1 sc he mati c a bov e to t he sing le- p o in t
become impo rtant at audio wirh IQOdB of sc hematic be low ,

8 .6 ChapterS
 LO Leakage Low Pass

I
\
Low Pass
•
- LO
Reflec ted
Lea kage
-,
<,

-
LO Radiation

LO
LO

Fig 8.9- Local osc illator radiati o n. Fig 8 .10-A mi xer/L O w it h ref lecti on c oefficien t .

d B. Goo d direc t con version receiv ers tend T his is not usuall y a prohlem at HF wit h phase, becomes a J OO-I1 V de volta ge at the
to include high-pass filters in the a udio large outdoor dip oles, hut HF direc t co n- IF port of the mixer and inpu t to the aud io
chain, aggressively roll ing off the aud io ver sio n recei vers commonly exhibit amp lifier. T his vo ltage is too s mall to se-
respo nse be low about 300 Hz. di sappointing perform ance wit h wire rio usly un balance the mixer, and is
Microphonics. the loud clicks a nd po ps ante nnas con nected directly to the back of blocked from the Follo win g audio a mpli -
whe n the rece iver is bumpe d. an: often the radio. A chan ging loc al elecr roma g- fier by the serie s input cap acitor. Howe ver.
blamed on high audio gain , but they are netic environment around the ant en na can if the con nection to the load is bro ke n, for
ac tuall y a sy mpto m of Loc a l Oscill ator be a par ticula r problem at VHF and micro - examp le, by d isco nnectin g the BNC con-
rad iation. and c an often be c ured by waves where an tennas arc small and good nec tor. the re flec tion coefficient j ump s
impro ving receiv er shielding. reflector s are numerous. from 0.2 at 45 de grees to ] .0 at som e other
1.0 radiatio n and pickup hy the ante nna angl e. The signal at the RF port at the
hecomes more significa nt when either the mixer j limps from 200 11 V at so me ph ase
Local Oscillator to 1 mV at so me other phase , At the IF
amplitude or phase of the LO signa l at the
Radiation RF por t of the mixer is time depe nde nt. port. the signal j umps from 100 JlV de to
Loca l oscill ator radiat ion raises a whole Ther e are three major cla sses of time varia- 500 I-\V de. T he "before" and "afte r" volt-
new set of proble ms. F ig 8.9 sho ws a tio n in the LO sig nul: transients, Doppler age s art: bot h de, hut the j ump betw een
simp le di rec t-conversion recei ver front and modu lat ed sca rrcrcrs . Eac h of these them is a tran sient. and i~ amplified hy the
end with local oscillator radia tion arriving will he treated separately. aud io amp lifier. The out put of the aud io
at the RF input port of the mixe r. Since the a mplifie r with a s hort tra ns ie nt i nto t he
LO is at the Rf freq uency. there is no pos- inp ut de hloc king c apac ito r is the impulse
sfbilirv to use RF select ivit y to reduce the
Transients in LO respo nse of the ampl ifier . (If we reco rded
le vel of LO at the mixe r RF por t (in a radiation and reflection the shape of the amplifie r output pulse on
superhet, the LO and RF are sepa rated by One of the major annoyance s with a digital oscillosc ope, wt: could the n per -
the IF, so the RF selectivity necessary for direct conv ersio n receiver s is microphon ic form an FFT and sec th e freq uency re-
image reje c tio n us uall y reduc es the LO clicks and po ps when an ythi ng in the sponse of the amplifier. ) 400)lV is a big
signal between the antenna ami RF port of system e xperien ces a mechan ica l cha nge . si gnal. and prohably dri ves the amp lifier
the mixer) . At f irst gla nce, it ap pears that Fi gure 8.10 show s a mixer and LO system into saturat ion . T he o utp ut is a very loud
the LO sign al at the mix er RF po rt will con nected to a high -gai n audio frequ e ncy pop in the hea dphones. The level of LO
have no prac tic al effect, bec ause it is IF am plifier and a load with some arhi - isolatio n in a direct con version re ceiver
e xactl y zero beat. T he mix er multip lies the trary refle c tion coefficie nt. As an e x- c an he quic kly ju dge d by sim ply disc on-
RP port LO signal with the LO, and the ample, suppose tha t the mix er is a Mini- nec ting the anten na wh ile liste nin g. A loud
output is pure de: Cir cuits TUF- I and the LO is at SO .\11Hz. pup indic ate, poor LO iso lation .
The data sheet sho ws 57 dB a t LO to RF As shown in equ atio n Ell 8. L the de
lo w pass {a cosi2n f"t + ¢I) cos(2nf"tJ} po rt iso latio n in th is mixer at SO IvIHz , o utpu t of the mi xer depends not on ly on
= al2 cos til Eq 8.1 With a +7 dBm LO. - SOdBm of LO pow er the le vel of the LO signal at the RF port.
leaves the RF por t of the mixer a nd is but also on its phase ¢I. An abr upt change
.. .where f" is the LO freque ncy. a is the reflected from the load connected to the in phase with no ch ange in refl ectio n coef-
amplitude of the LO leakage, and lj) is the RF port. Let's pick an arbitrary refl ectio n ficient magnitude will also induce a pop in
phase differe nce bet wee n the LO and LO coe ff icient. say 0.2 at an angle of 45 the headphones
leakage. degrees. fo r the loa d. The magnitude of Mixer LO po rt to Rl- port iso la tion is
DC at the IF will unbalance a ba lanced the re fle ction coefficient wi ll stay the only one way for LO to lea k o ut of the
mixer, which cau ses it to radiate mor e LO , same, but the angle will change as we vary sys tem and return to the RF port. Any leak-
The addi tio nal LO ra dia tion migh t be the length of 50-ll transm ission l ine co n- age fro m the LO co mpartment res ults in a
reflected hy nearby objects or an impc r- ncct ing the mixer to the loa d. - 50 dfi m si gnal that may he picked up hy the an-
feet antenna ma tc h. If the new term is in in asoon syst em is I mV pea k. T he mag- tenna. Oftcn a direc t conversion receiver
phase with the original radiated 1.0, this nitude of the retl ectio n is (O.2)x 1 mV or (ha t works ex ceptionall y well in the lab
will further unbala nce the mixer. Thus the 200 JlV. The 200-JlV sig nal re flect ed from when con nec ted 10 signal ge nera tor s ex-
amou nt ofLO rad iation is a functio n of the the load arrives at the mixer. and with hibits a ll man ne r of pec uli ar behavior
physic a l envir onme nt ne ar the anten na. 6-d B conversion loss and the appropriate whe n co nnec ted to an antenn a. As long as

DirectConversi on Receivers 8 .7
the 1.0 leakage is small and doesn't change directf y overhead at 500 miles per ho ur per sq uare meter ) fall s off as the sur face of
with time, there wi ll be no observable er- (nO m!s) would ind uce a Dop pler shift of an expan ding sphere:
t ccts . If the LO leak age c hange s suddenly . ::! x220/40 == 11 Hz. Airli ner s do n't nor -
howe ver . th ere wi ll be an audible re- mally t1y that fast whe n they are close to
Power Density (wauvmctcr"") = 4 1tR
Po
2
spon se A loose screw in a metal rad io the gro und . and II Hz is well below the
cab inet can cause a scratch ing sound when aud io range of interest. so we can ignore
the radio is tuned, hy changing the amoun t Dop ple r effec ts at HF. At 2 m, the Do pple r Eq N.3
of LO that leak s out of the cas e a nd is shift fro m a 500 ),IPH airli ner is 220 Hz,
picked up by the ante nna. Direct con ver- but ai rplanes Hying tha t fast are normally where Po is the to ta l rad ia ted po wer and R
sion receive rs that work well when first a long way fro m the antenna. At micro- is the dis tance between the so urce and the
packaged in a shiny new alum inum cnclu- W,lVI:S, how ever. the story is entirely di f- powe r detec tor
sure often become microp ho nic as the y ferent. A 10368 .MHz d irec t con version At 1 km . the po wer dens ity is about
age and the mati ng surfaces corrode. CW rece iver with LO leakage can detect 10- 10 wan s/ m-. Suppose this rad ia ted LO
Direct con version rece ivers soldered up in all kin ds of movi ng ob jects . with 3 em e ne rgy bo unc e." off of an a irliner 1 km
boxes mad e from copper-clad PC hoard wave le ngth, the Dopple r shi ft fro m the away with an effectiv e radar cro ss section
age more gracefully . airliner becomes 2 x nO/O ,O] == 14.7 kHz of 100 rn2. J() -~ watts wil l be bo unced of
whic h is at the top or the audi ble range. the airliner. The spheric all y expanding
Ca rs at 50 MPH. howev er. ha ve 1.47 kl-l z scattered wave will have a power density
Doppler Effects of abo ut ] 0 - 15 waus/m -' after trav eling the
echoes, righ t in the midd le of the aud io
Since dir ect conversion receivers can pass han d fo r a conventio nal rece iver. An 1-km di stance back to the receiver. A
de tect differences in the phase of a retlcc- audio phase-loc ked loop to recover the 2-m dipo le has an effe ctive ca pture are a of
tion. they are very se nsitive to reflections wea k ec ho and an audio freque ncy counter about 1/2 m:', so the sig nal bounc ed off of
fro m moving objects . Dopple r becomes ca n be used to remotely measure the speed the airliner is a bou t 5 x 10 - 1(, watt s, or
most important whe n the motion is fast of automobiles at ranges out to a mile or - 123 dBm at the rec eiver antenna ter mi-
enough that the Doppler modulation o n the so. with very little radia ted LO power. The nals . T his is about JO d13 abo ve the noise
radiated LO signal is in the aud io ampli - d irec t con vers ion microw ave receiver is fl oor of a typ ic al SSB receiv e r.
fier passband (Fig 8.11 ). T he max imum se nsitive not only to constant motion, hut A mo re typical receiver will have m uch
Dopp ler shift for a sig nal radiated from to vibra tion as welt. Above I GH z ex tra lower LO radiation . hut mov ing obje cts
poi nt A. reflected from a mov ing obje ct at c are sho uld he taken to make ant ennas for within 1() meters of the an tenna often
point B. and rec ei ved again back at point d irect c onvers io n rece ivers mechanica lly res ult in a detect able o utput i n the ante nna.
A is: rigid. Some types of antennas, like horn s, A half-wave di po le with a toggle switch in
arc less susceptible to refl ec ting surface the midd le is a useful VHF d irect conver-
Dop pler Freq uency == 2 V j). Eq lU vihratinns tha n di sh anten nas, and Vag i sion recei ver diag nostic too l. If you ca n
ante nn as with mechanically resonant de- hear the switch click in the headphones,
At 40 r n. an airli ner (Fig 8.12 ) passing you arc detecti ng LO radia tio n,
ments wi ll ind uce spec tra l li nes in the
re cei ver a udio output that ca n be seen

r-:- - -,
using a n aud io FIT analyzer. Tunable or Common
It is a usef ul exercise to es timate how Mode Hum

I ..sL _ : -f;J I far aw ay obj ects can he and still produce

Dopple r effects in a recei ver. Assume we
have a 2-m rec eiv er with ve ry poo r LO
isolation, radiating 0 dBm from the
One of the dir ect conversion receiver
peculiarities that puzzled ear ly workers i.,
the pheno menon of tunable hum. Recei v-
ers wo uld hav e a particularl y ragged
Fig 8,11- A n illustration of RF Doppler, anten na. Radiated power den sity (i n watts
sou nd ing ac line noise hum that varied
wit h ch anges in recei ver tuning. This hum
was part icu larly anno ying in rccci vcrs that
used a single high-Q tuned circ uit at the
RF port of the mixer -the common fo rm
_ v = 500 mph
of earl y d irect conversion recei ver. There
were numerous theories for tunah le hum-
a few of rhcm humorous in hindsi ght, In
typ ica l ama teur fash io n. lore de ve loped
that offered a set of f ixes fo r tunable hum,
incl uding using an outdoor bal anc ed
anten na. using ferrite heads on the po wer
supply le ads, and usi ng a battery power
supp ly.
There is a d ifferenc e between wis dom
(do n' t ea t raw pork ) and understand ing
(Wow! Look what we sec under the micro-
scope "). Wisdom comes from ex per ience.

LO
I. • 1
and understanding com es fro m study. For
pract ical people like radio am ate urs. wis-
dom usual ly comes lo ng bef ore com plete
unde rstanding. Unrort unately. with the
Fig 8.12- 2-m rad iation f r o m an airpla ne 1 km aw ay.

8.8 Chapter8
 \ 1/
~
.:
A C S ideb ands

U
DC
Receiver f---

I
480
I '
360
I :I
240 120
I
120
I
240
I
360
I
480 H,
'0

Fig 8.1S- The spectrum of a re-radiated LO.

Fig 8.13-A t una b le hu m experiment.

-, the LO to the RF port of the mixer (there

N'
I" 'I usually is), then at so me point in the RF
tuning . the hum will drop into the noise
Hoar. Often the hum is eliminated at a
po int in the tuni ng where the se nsi tivity
" " has bee n reduced to an unaccepta ble level .
It is interesting to observe that tunable
h um is absent from image -reject d irec t
Fig 8.14-A power supply schematic.
'"
Time r co nversion recei vers. Co mmon mode
hum may st ill he prese nt, hut it is not tun-
abl e. An image-rej ec t d irec t con versio n

GII~ "V
proliferation of computer design. we are rece iver has two mixers with LO (or Rf )
e ntering an age wh ere folk s are rel uctant ports 90 0 out of phase. After some bas e -
to do anyt hing that can't be mode led math- band phase shifting, the TF outputs of these
ernaticully and simulated . It is a goo d thing Fig 8.16-A hum probe. two mixers are added. If one mix er ha s
our ancestors weren 't saddled with suc h zero common-mode hu m, the other will
nonsense. or the y wo uld have co ntinu ed have maximum hum. The sum will then
sticking their hands in the fire until medi - have constant c omm o n-mode h um , re-
cal science told them to stop . On the oth er waveform i ~ very rich in harmonics . Th e gardless of any phase shifts in spa ce or in
hand, it is under stand ing that permits us to spectrum of a typical re-radi ated LO signa l the recei ver RF path. Expe rimenters with
push the sta te of the ar t. is shown i n Fig N. 15. The LO sig nal itself image-reje ct di rect co nvers ion receive rs
We now und ers tand tuna ble hum well i~ at de, and doesn' t make it thro ugh the who break the r and Q signal path s and lis-
e nough to dis pense with the ferrite beaus audi o amp lifie r (although it may unbal- ten to each channel separately often com -
on bat te ry po wer supplies and use indoor anc e the rnixe r- i ncre asing the stre ngth of plain that "one channel has a lot of hum , but
antennas on di rect convers io n receive rs the rad ia ted LO), hut the sidebands are the othcr is fine ' and try to eliminate the
if we must . but muc h of old lore i~ sti ll recovered by the mixer. and part icularly hum in the "had cha nne l" with improved
good. Ba ttery su ppl ies and a full-size out - the highe r harmo nics at 240 Hz, 300 Hz, bypassing and powe r supply dcco upling,
door anten na arc re commended for 420 Hz etc . are subject to the full ga in of whic h is, of co urse, ineffec tive.
reasons oth er than hnm elimination. the audio amp lifier. It is interes ting to study rece ive r LO
F ig 8.13 sho ws a ty pical tu nable hum This explains the hum , and the harmonic leakage with a "common-mode hum
ex periment. The di rect conversion re- con tent exp lains the raunchy so und, but pro be" co nsisting of an an tenna , diode
ceiver is co nnected 10 an ante nna d irect ly why is it tunable ? Refer aga in to eq uation mod ulator, and modu lati ng signal source .
o n the back panel. Righ t next to the an- E q 8.1. The IF out put of the mixer is a A modula ting tunc should be chosen that
tenna is a power cord going to a plug-in de [ unc tion not onl y of the amplitude of the is not harmonicall y rela ted to 60 Hz. At
power sup ply. T he power supply cor d is a signal at the RF port. hut the phase </I, In HF and VHF. a small loop antenna with a
parasitic e leme nt of the antenna syst em. fact , if the phase or the LO sig nal at the RF diode and a 55 5 timer works wel l. At
The power supply sche matic is shown in port i ~ exa ctly 90° d ifferent from the LO microwaves, a dipole consisting o r a diode
Fig N.14 . Note that the power supp ly sche - drive , the re is no detectio n of the sideb ands and ies leads serves wel l. Fig 8.1 6
matic is al most iden tic al to the d iode ba l- at all. With a sharp single tuned circuit on illustrates the cir cuit. If the prohes are
anced modulator in the previous chapter. the RF port, the phase var ies more rapi dly small enough. they may be use d to find the
The modu lating frequency is 120 Hz , due than the ampli tude response as the tuning LO leaks in a direct conversion system .
tu the full-wa ve rect ifier. The LO is pi cked moves through resonance. At resonance.
up from the anten na wire . and then re- the phase shift through the t uned circ uit
rad iated with the 120-Hz sidebands . This wi ll be zero. but off reso nance the pha se Eliminating LO
wou ld n't be much more tha n an annoy- will smoothly tune from +90 0 to _90°, If Radiation Effects
ance. except that the 120-H l modulating the re is some other phase shif t path from Understanding common mo de hum and

Direct Con vers ion Receivers 8.9

o ther LO radiatio n sy mptoms allows us to lati on at 144 M l tz. while a grounded gate is reco mme nded for all direct conversion
elim inate them . If we do not permit any U3 10 with lO-dB gain has 2S-dB mea- appli cations. The mos t effective way to
LO signal to leak out into the RF environ - sured rever se isol atio n. A cascaded pair of prevent 1.0 radiatio n from components is
ment aro und the ante nna . the n common groun ded gate U310s on the input 10 a to encl ose the ent ire LO in a shielded
mode hum can not occur. There are several direct-conversion 2 In receiver can effec- enclosure. Sm all tin cam work well. and
primary leaks rhat we must consi der: tively eliminate LO energy cou pled can be easi ly soldered in place. A PC hoard
1. LO coupling throug h the mixer to the through the mixer thro ugh the RF ampl ifi- enc losure with solde red seams is supe rior
RF port and through the R. F circuitry onto ers onto the ant en na. At microwaves to a machined aluminum box held together
the antenna. the differences can be e ve n larger. The with screw s.
2. LO energy rad iatin g from LO compo- I2 ,S-dB gain MAR -2 has reverse isolation It is meani ngless to enclose the LO if
nents on the circ uit hoard. of 17 dB at 12% MHz, wh ile the 16-dH there are hole s in t he encl osure with wire s
3 LO e nergy o n wires co nnected to the ga in Tri Quint 913 2 has more than 45 -dB goi ng in and o ut. The wire will pick up
radio cabinet (Fig 8.1 7). rever se isolation. energy inside the box a nd condu ct it
Reduci ng the amo unt of LO energy at Even if the mixer has good LO to RF outside. where it can be radiated or con -
the antenn a connector involves mixer LO port isolation and the RF a mp lifier has ducted onto other wirin g. The LO signal
to RF port isolation, eliminati ng coupling good reverse isol ation, the LO can still itself sho uld come out through coax or a
from the LO components into the RF couple ont o the antenna connector if there coax connector, and de wirin g shou ld use
stages, and the reverse isolation of any is no shieldi ng inside the rad io case. The effective tccdthrougf capacitors and
a mplifiers in the system. Tbere are hig ant enna connector shou ld co nnect to the decoupling networks. Th e mo st caref ul
diff eren ces in the LO to RF isol atio n of RF am plifier input wit h small coax , prop- VFO compartment shielding can be ren-
vario us mixers. Some unhalanced mixer s e rly grounded at each end . dered useless if the VFO capacitor shaft
hav e no LO to RF isolatio n at all. The All of the com ponents in the 1,0 circu it goes through a hole in the compartment
mixer s most suitable for direct convers ion can radiate I"O ene rgy. To gain some intu- wall. Cap acitor shafts can be significant
receivers are balanced. At 7 Ml-lz, the LO ition for how effective component, are as radiators if they are not grounded to the
to RF isolation of a TU F-l mix er is mor e antennas, compare their size in wave - wall near the entry hole (Fig 8.1 8 ). At
than 70dB and the SR 1"-1 is aroun d 65 dB . lengths to the size of a mobile whi p VIIF. a few i nc hes of tunin g control shaft
This is sufficient for acce ptab le direct con- antenna on RO meters . A typ ica l mobile through the radio panel ca n couple LO
version receive r pe rforma nce with no RF whip might he t wo meters tall. 0.025 wave - e nergy to the outside world . A grounded
amplifier. AI 144 ~IHI , the TU F-l LO to lengths at XO m. In a 40 -m VFO, the indi - panel hearing is one option . but the COIn -
RF isola tio n has dropped to 50 dB and the vidual components an: very small in wav e- mon 1/4- inch sleeve types don't provide
SBL - l ha s dropped to 45 dB . This is lo w lengths, and wou ld there fore make poo r reliable grounding. and will result in co m-
enough to caus e proble ms. radiato rs. I n a 2-m VrO . 0.025 wave - mon mode scratc hes as the radio is tuned.
Addi tio nal isolation can be obtained hy lengths is only 0.05 meters, or about two A better soluti on is to use a grounded
using an Rf am plifier ahead of the mixe r, inche s. A two -i nch long PC board trace sleeve hearing with a II4 -ineh no n-metal -
as recom mended in the excellent pap ers cou ld be as effective a radiato r as <In lic rod [or t he tu ning shaft, and a sha ft
by Nick Haminon.ts Th is is good practice SO-mete r mob ile whip. Smull magnetic an- coupler to the capacitor shaft inside the
ev en at lower HF bands where an RF tennas can he very effective . Th ink about sealed VFO compartme nt.
amplifier may not be needed for noise fig - the size in wavelengths of an AM radio The same rules for keeping LO energy
ure . II i.<, imp ortant to note that reverse ferrite loupst ick. Small tuning coils and from radiating to the insi de of the radio box
isolation varies wid ely between amplif ier Rf cho kes arc ofte n the must sign ificant a nd being picked up by the KF circuitry
type s. 1\ Mini-Circuits MAR- 2 with sources of LO energy inside a rad io cahi- apply to keeping LO energy from radiating
12,5-dB gain ha s on ly lS-d H reverse isn - net. The usc of shielded coils and toroids to the outs ide world o u powe r suppl y.
/

Radiated
Outside
Radiation

I
RF

Field in Box

r-.
\ t Cond ucted
Th rough Hole
\ ~
DC

, " 11"' , n'1lJ ~ Q] A / T\

Conduction

I I I I

Fi g 8.17-A wi re p ickup in an LO box. Fig 8.l8-Capacitor s halt pickup in an LO bo x.

8. 1 0 Cha pt er 8
 ~;l k e r. microphone and key le ads. All de
Ilk! aud io le ad s shoul d be prope rl y
~ Mixer
.kl..'oupled for RF. Th is can be a pro blem
AM Non-l inearities
i::Ir speake r lea ds. si nce hypassi ng the m to
Iile chassis of a di rect co nvers io n receiver Signals
»uh hig h audio gain wil l introduce gro und
p feedback, One way arou nd the prob -
em is to usc a separate powe red speaker.
;n-ferably with internal batteries. plugge d y
. ltO the head phone j ack of the rece iver
A co nser vati vely de signed and b uill di- 100 dB
Audio Gain
rec t convers ion rece iver is doubl e
shie lded , with int ern al e nclosu res aro und F ig 8.19-AM demodu lat or.
lhe YFO an d Rf circuitr y. often a sma ll
s ee! or m umc ta l encl o sure to red uce ac
urn pickup around the aud io preamp recei vers with poor sh ie lding ha ve a dif - done c onti n ually in re al lime . it m ust be
md uctc rs, and an outer shielded enclosure. ferent se t of problem s. li ke mult iple inter- recogn ize d that adapti vely nulli ng a signal
\11 RF con nectio ns are ma de us ing nally generated spu riou s respo nses. poor by adding a sine-wave adjusted for preci se
.biel ded co nnec tors. preferably HNC at image and IF rej ection, and responses to amp litude and opposite pha se is a for m of
HF and Sr..fA at V HF an d up, and all de and stro ng out-of-band signals ncar harmon- phase-locked - loop. Since bo th phas e an d
aud io con nectio ns to the o ut sid e world ics of the o scill a tors . Good mec ha nica l ampli t ude arc vari ables. lo o p stabi lity
prope rly bypaxxed. Care is abo exercice d co a st r uc t ion .j--shic ld ing o f ind iv idual anal ysis becomes co mpli cated. De sign ing
;.0 t ha t mec hanical connections like vol-
st a ges . and prop er bypassin g and an LO su pp re ss io n loo p that offer s rea l
ume con trols and the main tu ni ng knob dccoupling o f power supply and audio be ne fit a nd rema ins stable ove r a wid e
-haft do not conduc t signals in to or out o f le ads ma kes a tremendous improveme nt range o r operati ng conditio ns is an amb i-
the receiver enclosure. in performa nce , whet her the rec ei ver is a tious ex er cise . A nothe r d iffi cu lty is that
One technique tha t has been part of the co nventional su perhet. dir ect conversi on. intent io na lly un bala ncing the mi xer to
lore for years is using a YFO follo wed by a or a spec trum anal yzer. Good mechanical obtain a prec ise amplitude a nd phase ca r-
freq uency doub ler. A ba lanced mixer is construct ion is too ex pen siv e fo r mass rier sig nal will null the LO at the expense
Insensit ive to energy at 1/2 or twice the LO p roduced Of even kit radios. but is just a of mixer 2nd ord e r distortion performance ,
freq uency. T he ex pression below sho ws matter of plan ning . care . some worthwhile
multi plic ation o f a Ill ...' leve l 1/2 frequency mec hani c al skills. and time for a d esigner-
-ignal with the LO. There is no outpu t at de. AM Demodulation
bu ilder of a si ngle radi o , Th is is one area
where a designer-builder can far exceed A common pro blem with direct co nver-
J cos f27t(2fu )t + 4>J cos 2ITf ot = the mechan ica l qua lity an d e lectrica l sion receiv ers is demod ulatio n of AM sig-
Ji"2 cos f27t(3 f,,)t + 4>] + a/2 cos (2rrf"t + 4>] in tegrity of a mass-produced rccc ivc r built nals anyw he re in the RF pass band of the
E q8 A u nde r severe time and hudge t co nstrain ts, rece iver. Th is is most often ob ser ved on
for example. a Co lli ns 7SS3 C. 40 m when foreign broadcas t signals are very
Care must be ta ken to avoid radiating the strong. Fig 8. 19 illus trates the pro blem. An y
frequency do ubled signal, but a passiv e do u- mechanism in the mixer that produc es a de
bler right at the mixer port cou ld be: used , Adaptive Mixer Balance output at the mixer IF port from a sig nal at
Then only the actual doubler c ircuitry must Some bal anced mi xer type s may be ea s- the RF port will result in the e nvelope o f an
tit' shielded. and there are not e ven any de ily adjusted for LO rad iat io n. T he familiar Ar.-l signa l appearing as weak audio. rig ht at
power lead s connected to stages carrying the "carrier balance" resistor adj ustment in the inpu t 10 a lOO-dB gain audio am plifier.
on-frequency LO signal. In particular. the Gil be rt Ce ll mixers is an e xam ple. It is DC outputs occu r when a mixer has seco nd
\"1-'"0 shaft and ca pacitor body only ha ve possib le. in concept at least, to measure order distortio n. Secon d order dis tortion is
halt-freque ncy en erg y, and may be left the inst antan eo us LO level at the receiver common when balanced mixer, become
unshielded. The 40 -m sleeping hag rad io antenna term inal, and vary a set of volt - unba lanced. Since the usua l way that bal-
described later was built to test Frequency ages in the mixer to terce the L O leakage ance d mi xers unbala nce is the prCSCtKC of
doubling. and there is no separate shielding to zero . Th is tec hniq ue pe rmi ts elimirtat- LO signal at the mixer RF port , it is ev ident
around the half-frequency YFO. As a fri nge ing not o nly stray LO energy from inside that A~1 demodula tion is a sym ptom o f
benef it. a C\V transmitter using a freque ncy the mixer. but e nergy that arrives via ot her botb poor LO to RF iso lation and high audio
doubled YFO is much less su sce pti ble to path s by canceling it with an equ a l-and- gai n. Improv ing the sh ield ing around the
chirp tha n one wi th the VFO operating oppo site mixer leakage signal. The mixe r VFO , and 1.0 to RF isolation often
directly on Frequency adjustme nt ma y be do ne once. dur ing impro ve a rccci vcr's immu nity to AM
It migh t seem that it take s an awfullot of alignmen t or each t ime the radio is pow - demo dulat ion. Receivers that lise YFO s op-
extra effort to b uild a good dirc c t co nver - ered up. and then the bala nce adjust men t erat ing at half (or twice ) the sign al frequency
sion recei ve r tha n to b uild a go od supe rhet. locked in for normal oper atio n. usually have better AM rejec tion than
Th is i s not true. A good superhet requi re s There ar e soberi ng cau tio ns that need to rece ive rs with fun dam ental YFOs, due 10
exact ly the same con str uction. Su perhet be mentioned. If the balance adjustment is improved LO to Rl - iso latio n,

Direct Conversion Receivers 8.11

8.4 MIXERS FOR DIRECT CONVERSI ON RECEI VER S

The ge neral pro perti es of mixer s arc ration s have d ynami c range and no ise o ther at 17 K. It is very i mportant to mea-
co vered in a separate chapt er. but the front- ad vantages over both Gi lhe rt Cells and sure the resista nce of the cold resistor, to
e nd of a direct conversion receiver is a diode rings. Co nsiderab ly less has been make sure it is still 50 U. Most resistors
uni que app lication that puts so me differ - publi shed abo ut pass ive FET mixer s. change val ue when the tem perature drop s
ent dema nds on the mixcr. To reduce La although they are standard in cellu lar tele- tha t low , A series or pa rallel co mbi nation
rad iation to an acc eptahl e leve l. LO port to phone handsets. This is an imp ort ant area ca n be experimental ly dete rmined that
RF port iso lati on is nee ded. This usually for a mateu r experimentation . Experiments provides a co ld 50-U resistor. The ou tpu t
requ ire s a ba lan ced mixer. but so me other are e ncour aged using both integ rated q uad of the audio amplifier is connected to an
topologies are promising. Thc anti -paral - ana log swi tches and matched FETs on a aver aging true R\-fS voltm eter read ing in
lel diode pair dri veri by a 1/2 freque ncy LO single die in sm all multi- pin packages. d'S, and also a speaker or headp hones . II is
has been report ed to work wel l. bu t has Since the La dri ve to a passive FET mixer useful to list en while making the measure -
limited dy namic ran ge and cri tical LO goes to the hig h-impedance FET gate. Iirtlc ments , because the difference betwee n hot
d rive level requirements. Shunt FET s in LO d rive power is needed. The passive and cold res istor noi se ca n be heard in the
switc h mode have built-i n LO to RJ-' iso la- FET itself doesn't have a power supply. hea dphones , and the measurem ents will be
tion . A numb er of expe rime nters have Thus pas sive FET mix ers for direc t con - corrupted hy any extraneous interfe rence
reported good succ ess with diffe rent con - versi on receivers offer the po tential fo r the pick up, whi ch can al so be heard on the
figurati ons of series FE T swi tches using highest performance at the lo wes t operat- headp hones . Fig 8.20 gives nois e fig ure
CMOS parts for seve ral decades. The most ing current of any mixer type . as a function of the difference between
common direct conv e rsion mixers arc Gil - the nois e o utput from the hot and cold re-
bert Cells like the 1\E602 and L111496. and sistors ill dB. The noise f igure of the
diode rings . both hornebrew and co mme r-
Di rect Conversion gro unded base audio preamplifiers with
cia l. Gilbert Cells have usua lly been used Noise Figure diplc xcrs in the rece iver circ uits in this text
fo r lo w-cost-lo w-performance applica- The noise fig ure of a direc t convers ion ranges from 5 to 7 d B.
tions, hut they should not be ruled ou t for receiver mixe r is generally different tha n The second step in the measureme nt
higher per formance receivers . the noise figure of the same mixer used in pro ces s is to meas ure the conversion los s
The important spe cification s for a a superhe t applicati on . because of Ilf of the mixer. Thi s can be done with a
direct conv ersi o n front-en d mixer arc noise . Mixer noise figure do es not have a known RP signal at the RF port, a low -pass
noise figure (pa rticularly lIf noi se fig ure neat and tid y defi nitio n, and mix er Iff filter and 50-n termi nat ion o n the IF
when used with an a udio TF), two-tone noise is eve n less well unders tood. Be - port . an d a n RMS voltme ter across the
third -order dy namic ran ge, 2nd order cause of IIf noi se, diode rin g mixe rs have 50-f.l re sistor .
dynamic rang e, and LO to RF port isola- nois e figure s in direct conve rsio n rece iver The last step in the mea surem ent is to
tion. Conver sion ga in or loss is less impor- appl icat ions that range from with in 1dB of measure the ex cess 1F noi se whe n the
ta nt, as it can be ma de up with gain their conversion loss to 15 or 20 dB worse. mixer is co nnec ted to rho a udio amplifier
else where. a nd can not make up for poor The increased noise figur e is a res ult of and the La is turn ed o n. The input to the
noise f igurc. exc ess noise at the IF por t when the mixer audio amplifier is switched be twee n a
is driven by the LO with the RF port ten n i- roo m te mperature resistor and the mixer.
nated in a roo m te mperature 50· 0 load, with La drive and the RF port termi nated
Mixer The nui-,e spec tru m is not neces sarily II in a roo m tempera ture 50-J:l load , At 14
recomme nda ti ons smooth l/ f curve , so merely observing the Ml-lz. a small samp le of TUF -1 mixer s
For the simp lest direc t conver sion sha pe of the noise spec trum acros s a re- produced between 1 and 6 dB more noi se
receiv ers, Gilbert Cell s offer good perfor - stricted audio passband is not eno ugh to output than the 50-n room te mpe rature
manc e at lo w current . The gain of a Gilb ert identity l It' noise. Mixe r noi se figure is termi natio n Two ho mcb rc w diod e ri ng
Cell does not e nhance rece iver perfo r- further complicat ed by the prese nce of mixe rs using han d-woun d to roids a nd
man ce. since it occurs befo re any effe ctive nois e o n de sired and image freq uencies, lN 41 84 diodes had less than I-dB excess
channel sele ctivity. but it does red uce the noise in the bands arou nd the harmonics noise . A small sam p-Jc of TUF-S mixers
total receiv er par ts count. For some app li- of the LO, and the fact that the differen t operated at 1296 MHz a nd AD E-35 mix-
cations- carrying a rig into the mountains contr-ibutions to mixer noise figur e may be er s at 2304 \-l H/ had more than lO-dB ex-
for a casual non -conte st week end back- par tially co rrelated. Rat her than attempt- cess no ise. Spec ial low- Iff noise diodes
packing trip. for exam ple-s-m e receiver is ing to precis ely define direct co nversion
far less likely 10 fail from overload than mix er noise figure. this text will prese nt a
from dead batt eries. For such app licat ions, m
few measur e ment s th at prov ide some - -
"performance" takes on a differen t mean- insight into no ise in recei ver syste ms, and .s" 6
ing, and a rece iver that draws 5 rnA outpe r-
g6 -
wi ll at least allow com parison s between c
forms one that draws 50 ntA. For hom e differe nt mixers and direc t con vers io n >, -

station use or any kind of conte st env iron-

u '\ !
receiver front -e nds. 53
ment. a receiver with poor dynamic range
can be as useless as one with dead bauer-
ics. and far more fru strating. For such ap-
plications, diode rings are recommended,
The firs t mea sure me nt is thc noise fig-
ure of the audio amplifier itself. We have
mad e this meas urem ent with a ho t-co ld
noise source. The audio amp lifi er is run at
"i ,
0
-"a
z

0
e--- !

L,
I 2 6 8 W tz
For the desig ner build e r, the y have the full gain in an environment with no hu m or
0 4
Noise Figure "
advantage of a wea lth of applicatio ns other noise pickup. The input to the audio
information and a publi shed sche matic. ampl ifi er is switched between two 50-0 Fig 8.20-Hot-cold resis to r no ise figure
Passive FET mixers in vario us eo nfigu- resis tors. one at roo m tem perat ure and the d iffer ential .

8.12 ChapterS
 are used in IO-G Hz d irec t conversion re- fier with cnoug h ga in to de fine the sy" tem Based on these lim ited mcasur em enr -,
ceivers fo r Dop pler Rada r applica tions. noise figu re. In this ca..e it may he he ne fi- and theory. a fe w gu ideli nes fo r di rec t
Thi~ is a very small data set . and it is un- cial to i nclu de a re cicnv e at tenuator o n the convers ion receiver-s may he sugges ted. A
.... ise to draw firm co ncl usio ns based o n mixe r out put to optimize mixe r dynamic homebrew d iode ring with co mmo n
th i ~ limit ed inform ation . More measu re- range. IN41 -1~ silk-o n s\\il(hing diodes. ac use d
ments are nee ded. When used ahca d of a USB d irect con - in Roy Lewallen's "Optim ize d QR P
When the excess no ise is low. a rea so n- ve rsio n receiver. a lo w-noi se RF amplifier Tra nsce iver"!", wit h low -loss RF in put
able ap prox imatio n to d irect conversion will have cq ual noise output on the devired circuitry and a grou nded base aud io am-
receiver no ise fi gure is just the base band a nd ima ge bands. T he image no ise will pl tfie r. will provide an effective receiver
lIJIplifie r noise fig ure plus the mixer co n- red uce rece iver ou tput si gn a l-to -noise no ise figure around 10 d B. whic h is usu -
version 10 :' :' . Whe n exce ss mixer no ise is ratio by .3 dB Image noise may be s up- ally bener tha n is needed at 7 \I Hz. Be-
pee-e m. the mixe r loss a nd no ise ten d to pressed by a narro.... Filter after the RF c ause the LO to RF isolat ion of homebrew
Jo minatc rec ei ver noi se fi g ure. and am pli fie r (prac tical fo r fixed -freq uen cy mixers may nOI he as good as c ommercial
ea -e band a mplifie r noi se fig ure is tes s app licatio ns). or by phasing. d isc ussed in pac kaged m txc r-, using matc hed q uad s of
rmpon ant. O ne ex per ime nt tha t may be the foll o wing chapter. Schottk y diode s. the use of an RF ampli-
Jo ne o n the be nc h is to add attenuat ion Mixers with con version ga in. for ncr ahead of the mix er is reco mme nded.
between the mixer and base hand am plifier exam ple the Gilbert Ce lls uved in Uv114% T his will lend to negate any l l f noise ad-
.. hile o bse rving-cec ci vcr sensitivity. A and NE602 inte grate d circ uirv. reduce the vantage of the hom c brew switching diode
3-d B 50-0 attcnuator wi II dro p the desired nee d for low- noise audio ga in, The NE602 mixer. 1n o ur HF des ign s. we tend to use
vi gnals by about .3 d B, bu t it may also has lo w noise figu re, which ma kes it small com merci al packaged mixers, and
dro p the receiver noise floo r by abo ut attractive for simple rece ivers without RF ab out 10 dB of high reve rse- isolation RF
3 d B, leavi ng the sig nal -to-no ise ra tio amp lificatio n. Th e L1114 1,1 6, bias ed fo r ga in. T his results in rece ive rs tha I have
unchanged , S ig nah do not drop by pre- imp rove d mi xer line arity. is a better choic e no ise fig ures inthe IO-d B range . have very
crvely J d B. bec ause the mixer impeda nce when an RF amplifie r is used. In DSB lo w LO rad ia tion. and wor k well with co rn-
m d thc baseba nd amplifie r input impe d- d irec t conver vinn re cei ver ap plicatio ns mo n co mme rcial pack aged diode ring
ance arc not ex ac tly 50 n. with no provisions fo r suppresving image mixers. :\t VHf. li e usua lly usc abou t
One way around the mixer e xcess noise no ise. eac h of these has the sa me 3-d B 20 d B of RF gai n. and phasing to sup press
nce rtai nty is to usc a lo....- noise RF ampli- image noise penalty . image noise.

8.5 A MODULAR DIRECT CONVERSION RECEIVER

Thc " Hig h Performance Direc t Con ver- for rece iver sensitivity be low 10 MHz. but the antenna. T hird. with a buffer a mplifie r
sio n Recei ver" published in A ugust 11)92 in a d irect conv e rsio n applicat ion. there bet.... ee n the ante nna co nnec tio n and the
QS T t ~ is a good benc hmark. The ten- year- arc other be nefit>. to using an RF prea mp. mi xer RF pOri . the mixer env iron ment doc s
o ld design stands up well aga inst more first. with RJ-' gain up from. the re is less not change when the antenna mov es in t he
recent wor k. and the de sc ription is reccm - nccd to design for lo w ) O'i ~ t hrough the breeze. Fourth . Direct Conversion Rece iv-
mended read ing. T he circu itry presen ted mixer If termination and diple xer net - ers need good low -pass fi lter s o n the
here takes a slig htly d iffere nt approach. work. This perm its the baseban d cir cuitr y inp uts . and the lo w -pa vs matc hing: net -
and takes adva ntage of a fe w im pro ve- to he optimized for selec tivity and prop er works in and out of the FET prov ide all the
me nts in o ur understanding during the pas t ter mina tio n of bot h the mixer and d ipIcxer att enua tion nee ded . Fi nally . the s impl e
decade. A basic 40 -m c irc uit is show n. hut netwo rk. Seco nd. a gro unded-gate FET mute switch t urns the Rf lo w- noise-
few chan ges are needed fo r ope ratio n on amplifier typ ica lly has over ~O d B of re- amplifier into a stro ng 40-d B arrcruunor.
othe r bands. verse isol ation. which adds di rec tly to the w hich preve nts a ny strong si g nals (fo r
The block d iagram is shown in Fig 8.2 1 LO to RF iso latio n of the mixer. a nd hel ps e xa mp le from a co mpanion tra nsmi nc r )
and the schematic in Fi~ 8.22. The antenna red uce the amo unt of LO radiatio n from from arriving at the mixer d iode s.
is co nnecte d 10 a grounded-gate FET RF
low-no ise a mplifier. The mixer is a \ f ini-
Circuits T Uf -3. with an audio di plexer and
low-no ise headphone ampl ifier. The VXO Low --Pas ~

circuit pro vide s c lea n sine-wave + 7 d Bm Tuned RF

drive to the mixer. For spea ker output. a Am,."" """'.
Ring Mixer
Aud io Output
Amp~1ier
v.~
battery po wered ex te rnal speaker from
RaJ ioS had.. or an a mplifi ed computer
-peuker is reco mmended.

RF Low-Noise Amplifier
T he rece ive r gain dis tri butio n was de-
sig ned for appro xi mate ly lO·d H o f RF
gain ahead of the mixer. RF gain ahead o f
a diode ring mixe r is not nor mally nee ded Fig 8 .21-A modul ar re cei ve r block dia gram

DirectConverslon Receivers 8. 13
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Poly "': Poly..,j,. Poly -!- Poly .J,-
Audio Diplexer standard design, very simi lar to the head- rep lac ed to p ut the receiver on a di fferent
pho ne ampl ifier used in the Binau ral fr eq ue ncy, o r borrowed for II di fferen t
T he diple xer net work is desi g ned 10 pro-
Recei ve r l9 publis hed in Ma rch '99 QST . proj ect.
vid e goo d select iv ity before <lil y wideband
audio guin. This gre atly improves the Genera ll y sp eak in g, rec e iv er circ ui ts
built prototype -style o n sepa ra te piece s o f
receiver cl o se-i n dynamic ra nge. and per- VXO
mits the use of a gr ou nded -b a se au d io LNA un et che d copper-cl ad circuit board work
The V XO circuit is an ot her o ld favori te, better than PC bo ard circ uits. Thi s is
opera ting a llow cur rent (0.5 mA ) to se t the e vo lved o ve r many ye ar s from a ci rcuit
imped anc e 10 SO1:2. Th is audio diplcxer i , because the unctchcd co ppe r-cl ad board
publ ish ed by Joe Re tsertv as a frequency perm it s both the short gro und leads
a little mo re select ive than the one , sta ndar d. There <Ire a n um ber of subtle tie s.
de scribed in the p has ing chapter, because required by RF cir cui try a nd the sing le-
incl uding stiff regulation of the volt age on po int gro und ing req uired by low-frc -
there is no -need to precisel y mat ch am pli- all three termi nal s of the oscillator tra nsis-
tude an d p hase between two channels . qucncy hi gh gain am plifiers , Rece i vers
tor and the usc of a Ze ne r diode opera ted that mu st be ma ss- prod uced using PC
in the 4.7 -V zero -te mperature-co efficie nt bo ard s ofte n requi re ma ny PC layo ut rcvi -
Audio low -no ise swee t-spot. T his VXO circui t tunes o ver vion s to overc o me the problems that arise
a m plif ie r abo ut 5 kH z at 7 MH z. provides +7 dBm .....-be n the prototype circ uits are tran sferred
output an d dr ifts a few Hz at tu rn -on . to PC board con str uc tion.
The re are many au dio lo w-noise ampli -
fiers that wil l wo rk in d irec t con ver si on T he more co mponents a rece ive r mod -
receivers, but this o m: wor ks well and has Construction ule has, the more pra ctica l it is to sp en d
bee n wid ely dupli ca ted for several lime de veloping a PC boa rd de sign . For
T he rece iv er was b uilt on sepa rate
decades . lr has no fla ws that i mpair pe rfor - simple circu itry li ke the mod ule s pre -
pieces of unctched co ppe r-clad circ uit
mance in this appl ication. so the des ign board , The RF amp lifier is on one piece. sen led here , it is o fte n more pract ica l to
e ffort was foc used else whe re , usc prototyp e co nstruct io n. and avo id the
the V XO on a second pie ce. and the mixer
a nd aud io am pli fier on a third pie ce . The he adac hes asso cia ted wi th PC hoa rd
Filters audio fil ters are on separate piece s , Th er e gro und fau lts .

Pas siv e au dio fi lters work well, dra w no ar c a num be r of re asons for building the
curre nt, and use inex pensive co mpo nent s receiver on separa te ho ard s. Th e f irst is Applications
available fr om se veral so urces . Th e SSE entir el y practic al- each pie ce is an
e veni ng pr oject tha n ca n be b uiIt and tested The mod ular high-performa nce d ire ct
and CW band wid th f ilt ers sho w n arc old
as a sta nd-alo ne module . Th e se cond co n- co nver sio n receiver pres ented here works
fa vorites .
si dcrat ion is equally im portant : th e RF equally wel l connect ed to an antenna. or
am pli fie r is good for on ly o ne ban d; the as part of a supe rhet rece ive r. The well-
Headphone amplifier VXO can be e as ily modified for diffe re nt define d ncar 50-0. in pu t im ped ance to the
T he he adpho ne am plifier pro vides HF freq ue ncie s: and the mix er-a udi o RF preamp pro vide s a good terminat ion
audio gain to boost the signals from the low- board ca n be use d o n any fre q uen cy fr o m for simple crystal fillers . and the VXO c ir-
level s in the signal processing componems 50 k H I th ro ug h 250 M Hz. By mak ing the c uit is a good BFO with e nou gh tu ning
up to co mfort able listening volume. Th is is a pieces separa te. any of them may be range to cover both sideb an d s.

8 .6 DC RECEIVER ADVANTAGES
For muc h of their hi story . direc t co n- cuit in Fi g 8.7. BUI ld 11 ugly slyle III a Iev, her if she hear, the k ind of weak, wa rhly
versio n receive rs hav e bee n viewed as an hours the Th ursd ay eveni ng before F ield o ne and she say ye s and then I tell he r he 's
adeq uate, si mple subs titute for mor e ser i- Day or the Nove mber CW S wee ps take " in St. Pet ersb urg . Russia- her ey es light
ous receiv ers , It is tim e to red efine direc t strin g up a temporary -10_m dipole Friday up . Nov.' that' s magi c!
co nversio n as an alte rnative archi tec tu re even ing, and spend a few ho urs ove r the Superhets t or SSB an d C\V have image s.
that po se s a un iq ue set of pro blems . bu t week end listen ing. Simp licit y is appealing . high er order und esired resp o nse s. a nd
also offers significan t adv a nta ge s. Some Much of th is text is devoted to pus hing the internally genera ted bird ies , A di rec t co n-
of thc important ad va ntages arc: per form ance envelope for de sig ner built ve rsio n rec eiv er with a lo w- pass fi lter
rad io equipm ent. Spending two year, between the antenna an d mixe r hea rs on ly
bu ildi ng a rece ive r syst em that offe rs an signals within <I few k Hz of the LO, Period.
I. Simplici ty
i ncreme ntal perform ance improv emen t It is theo retically po ss ihle to desi g n
'1 Fe w spurio us resp o nse s
that mu st be mea sured to bc perceiv ed is an superhet rec e ivers for ar hirr ari fy goo d
3. Hi g h sp urio us-free dyna mic range
inte rest in g activity. b ut with a serious flaw. image and IF rejecti on. bUI in p ract ice
-I.Very lo w distortion of the d e sired
Suppo se the nu mber to be exc eeded is the supcrhct s m ust be designed to plac e
sig nal
magic " lOO-dR SS R Ban dwidth T wo-Tone image s and lFs in part s of the spect ru m
5. Freque ncy range independe nce
Th ird O rde r Dyna mic Ran ge." Mag ic to wit h few str ong signa ls. when ima ge sig -
6. Compatib ili ty wi th DS P-bascd rec eiver
architect ures .
who m'! Cc rtainlv. not mv tcen -asc daush-
~

ter! B ut she 'Will spend u few minute s

~
nals ar e 90-dB stro nge r than the d es ired
signal, they will fi nd a ,va y into the re -
7. Com patib ility with ada ptive rece iver s
poli tely l iste ni ng to C W o n head pho nes ce iver and cau se pro ble ms . T his se verely
and an ten nas
connected to a hand full of part s with a con strains the ch oic es of IF for freq uen cy
Y-V batte ry and some wires goi ng Oll! into hand s in hea vi ly used por tion, of the spec -
Sim plicit y is bes t i llus trated by the cir- the trees in the ba ck ya rd- and when I ask trum. l-or e xam ple . wha t If sho uld be used

Direct Conversion Receivers 8.1 5

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Fig S.23-Advanced receiver a rchitecture.

for a l·g lO 148 ~ IH z receiver? T he indus- to appear in a mateu r eq uipment. the same sen se that the term -w t rctcss..
lry standard IFs at -155 "HI. 10.7 r.1Hz. T he sa me block d iagram wo rks for allo ws peo ple Whll ha ve no unde rstanding
and J lA .M HL provide a select ion of off- direct con version receivers whethe r the of rad io to claim the title Wirde" Ex pert .
the-chelf fil ters. -155 kHI is (00 low fo r frequ ency of Interest is ~-t kHl or ~ 4 G Hz. Such good natured co mpeti tion between
adeq uate image rejection. 10 .7 iv usefu l. A supe r het designer will draw complete ly trad itional rad io des igners a nd digi tal sig-
but J bit II'" for providin g good image diffe rent block diag ra ms fur a SS B nal proce ssing a nists is a natur a l part of
reject io n across a -I-MHz wide frequency recei ver for rho-,e two freq uenc ies . Fur- the evo lut ion . Bo th camps need 10 realize
ran ge- «I rho ut retun ing the RF am plifie r. thermo re. superhet freque ncy conversion thai rece ivers of the futu re will use both
~1. -l f.1Hz is <1l1r3.:11\'e. except that wit h pla ns must be desi gne d with an unde r- skill setv. Th ere is magi c in simple radio
lo w-si de inj ectio n. the image fa lls in the st.mdin g of the levels of a ll the pote ntia l circuits, but there i" als o mag ic in watc h-
H.I broa dcast ba nd. and wit h hig h side in- sources of image. hig he r-o rder spur ious ing a sig nal belo w the noise level appea r in
jec tio n. the image is in T V c hannel I ~ . re-po nse v. and bird ies, A rece iver cpu- a waterfa ll pint o n a c om puter monito r.
Direc t co nversio n offer.. . a tech niq ue for mived for 10 M H z mig ht have a com - Finally , in it' s sec ond hu ndred years.
tun ing acro ss a wide Freq ue ncy range and plC ldy differe n t fre qu en cy conv e rsion radio wil l experience s ignifi cant chungex.
recoveri ng f O.nv sig nuls surrou nded by plan tha n one optimized specific ally for Fo r six dec ades the usual way to cullect
lO-mV interfe ring s ignals. Thai is I ~O d B 14 I\l Hl. For the a mateur in terested in a and process Hf .md VHF <tg nals has been
of spurious-tree dynamic ra nge . the enure spectrum. tne lesso ns lea rned a Yagi-Uda an tenna wit h a single feed line
Becau se d irec t conversio n rc cciv ers and the time spent opti mizing a JO-~I H l co nnec ted to the bac k of a complex
haw o nly one freque ncy conversio n stage. di rec t conversion rece iver app ly jU~ 1 as su perhet re cei ver . Space d ive rsit y and
and it o pera tes before sig nifica nt receiver well 10 a ~ A- GH I cate lltte recei ver. adaptive antenna inte rference ca nce llat ion
gai n. mixe r dis tortion does not s ign ifi- As DSP system, impro ve and become have bee n im pract ical be ca use of th e
ca ntly contribute 10 in-ba nd inter- more widely u,ed and understood. it amo unt of hardwa re required and seve re
modu latio n. T he q ua lity of the recove red becomes kss a nd less attra ctive 10 com- ampli tude andphasc matching co nstra ints.
aud io is alm ost e ntirely dete rmined by the prom ise the sig na l wi th multiple Ire- Th e hard wa; e prob lem is solved if each
d istor tio n pro per ncs of the aud io a mpli- quc nvy co nve rsion. AGe. and c rystal d ipo le antenna cle ment has its ow n d irec t
fie r chai n. Since aud io e nginee rs hav e fi lter delay and ripp le be fo re it e nters the co nve rsion do wn-converter, a ll of them
spent deca des reducin g the divtonio n of DS P. Direct Conve rsion offers a way to dr ive n hy a si ngle LO. and eac h connected
high -ga in audi o amplifiers . simply follow - sim ply trans fute a desired radio si gna l III to a se parate inpu t port o r a computer
ing a d iode- ring mixe r with a low -nois e the frequenc y runge needed by the A to so und c ard . The act ual hardware is very
prcum plif'ie r and high -Fidelity audio D con veners ahead of a OSP engi ne simp le. and with 1110re than two dipoles.
am plifie r will prod uce a recei ver with sig- ( Fi g 8.231. Soft-Radio advoca tes callrhi-, ima ge-reject tec hniq ues can he co mbin ed
nifica ntly lo wer in-c ha nne l d istort ion than Direct Sampling and cla im that there is nil with noise c ancell atio n in the am val- ang le
,In) co mme rcial su per het. Aud io engi- conv e ntio nal rad io at a ll- the co mputer is do ma in a nd adap tive C W interfere nce
nee rs have a bo develo ped low -distortion con nec ted straight to the a nte nna. Such ca ncellatio n in the frequ e ncy dom a in 10
gain control a nd gain comprevcion tec h- claims ob...cure me
truth. Direct Sampli ng pro d uce a n ou tput sig na l-to -no ise a nd
niq ues t hat operate ~rr ic tl), at audio. a nd is just a d ifferent and co nvenient name for interfe rence rat io far bett er than the best
that "a udio A Ge' technology is beg in ning entirely c unvenuonal I and Q mixing. in co nve ntional. single feed line "ptem.

8.16 Chapter8
REFERENCES
W. H ayw ard and D. Dcxta w. Sol id 9. R. Ca mpbell . "Single-Conversion 1995, ARRL Publicatio n Numbe r 200 . pp
SIdle Design for the Radi o A mal t'llr, Micro wa ve SS B/CW Transceivers: ' QST. 94 - 106.
'RRL. 1986. :\fay . 1993. pp 29-3-t 1-1. R . Ca mpbd L "The Xex t Ge neration
: R, Lewallen. "An Optimi zed QRP 10. R. Cam pbel l. "A Sing le Board No- of No-Tu nc Transvcn er s.' Proce ed ing s of
Transceiv er," QST. Aug. 1980. pp 1-1·19. Tune Transcei ve r for 1296 MH, : ' Micr owa ve Updat e '95. Ar lington, T'X,
~ G. A. Breed . "A Xew Breed uf Proceedings of Microwa ve Updme '93. Oct ober, 1995, ARRL Puhlicauon
Receive r." QST. Jan. 1988. pp 16-23 . Atlanta . GA, ARRL Puhlic a rion Num ber Xumbcr 2011 , pp 1-22 .
174. 199]. pp 17-38. 15. R. Cam pbell . "A Small High-
.: R. Campbell. "Geuing Started on the
vlicru wave Band":' OST. Feb. 1992 . pp I I. R. Camp bel l. "S ubharmonic IF Performance CW Transceive r," QS T,
35-39. Recei vers." re printed from thc North Xuv , 1995. rr 4 1-46.
Texas Micron-are Sodety Feedpoint in 16. X. Hamilton.vl mproving Di rec t
~ R. Campbell. "No Tune Microwave
Proce edings of Micro wave Update '9./, Convers io n Receiver Design," Radio
Tra n sc c i \' e ~. · · Proceedings oF~ 'kml\'tll't'
E:-MS Park. CO. AR RL Pub lica tion Communications. Apr. 1991.
l."p J tl Je '92. Roch este r, NY. ARRL
Number 188. 199-1 . pp 225-232 .
Publication Number 16 1, 1992, pp -1 1-5-4. 17. R. Le wallen, "Optimized QR P
12. R, Camphe fl. "S imply Gctting on the Tran sceiver. QST. Aug, 19RO, pp 14·1 9.
R. Campbell . "High Performance Air from DC to Dayligh t," Proceedings of
[)trCI.'I Conversion Receivers." QST. Aug. 18 R. Ca mpbell. "High Perfo rmance
Microwave Update '9./ . Este s Park. CO.
19<)2. pp 19-28. ARRL Publication Num ber i 88. 1994, pp
Direct Co nvers ion Receiver.' QST , Aug ,
- R. C ampbel l. " H igh Pe rfor man ce 57-68. 1992. p p 11,1 -28.
Smglc-Signal Dire ct Con ver sion 19. R. Ca mpbd l. " A Binaural I·Q
13. R. Ca mp hell. "A VH F SS B-CW
Receive rs," QS r. Jan. 1<,l1J] , pp 32- ..1.0. Receiver." QS T, Mar. 1999. pp 44-48.
Transc eiv er with VXO," Proceedings of
• R. Campbe lt. " A Mulrimod c Pha, ing fhe 29" Confe rence of Ihe Centra l States 20. 1. Reis ert. "VH F/ UH F Freq ue ncy
Evcire r for I 10 500 t.IHz: ' QST. Ap r. VHF Society, Colorado Spr ings. CO. J ul. Calibrano n." Ham Radio. Vol I? , Nr 10.
1 ~ 3 . pp 27-3 1. Oc r. 1984, rr 55· 60.

DirectConverslon Receivers 8 . 17
 CHAPTER

Phasing Receivers and

Transmitters

9.1 BLOCK DIAGRAMS

The phasin g method of single-sid eband How times ha ve changed. During the move the un wan ted sideb and. Since the
gene ratio n and reception has been dis- '90s the vintage rad io craze hi t the ama teur fi lte r passband freq ue ncy is fi xed. the rc-
cu ssed in the liter atu re and inco rpo rated in band s. and amat e urs across the L!S began suh ing SSB sig nal must be he te rodyned to
commerc ial products for over 50 years. hearing signa ls fro m ol d Ce ntral Electro n- the des ired fina l OUl p Ul freque ncy . Since it
Th e p ha sing me thod fell iruo dis use in ics tra ns mitters. carefu lly re stor ed. prop - is d iffi cul t 10 build SSB bandw id th fil te rs
amate ur p rod uct s From the la te '60.. erl y a lig ned. and conse rvativel y ope rated. fo r freq ue ncie s above 50 f1. IH l. there may
throu gh the 'IWs du e to the pop ularity of By comparison, the modern transceive rs ne ed to he mult ip le fr eque ncy convers ions
transceivers built around a single I'" CTp - sou nded th in an d d istorted. M odern rad ios to reach a microw a ve freq uency. Fig 9.2 is
tal filter used fo r bot h side band ge neratio n ha ve had to scr am ble to recapture the los t the bloc k d iagram o f a phasing SS B e x-
<lOUrccei ~c selectivity . During this period. sou nd quali ty of the old r igs . So cio logy sti ll c ite r. The signal fre quency net wor ks all
price s of o ld phasing tran smitte rs dropp...d being what it is, there is no v.' a ma rket for have co n vid e rable band wid th. so operat-
unt i l the ) were on ly used o n the air in low-disto rtion transmitte rs. and o ne amu- ing the SSE modulator on the Final output
modest sta tions scraped to gether o n a b ud- leur ma nufacturer has even i ntrod uced a frequ en cy is an option. Heterod yning the
get, often by fo lks wi th no appreciation of f ull-vized transce iver with a Class A power ph asin g exc iter output to the desired out-
the art of maintaining vintage rad io ge ar. amplifier. Th e lore has chan ge d. and phas - put freq uency al so ha s meri t. and was the
Sociology be ing what it is an d amateurs ing tran smi tters and receivers now have the meth od of c ho ice in v int ag e gear. F ig 9.3
bein g human. p hasing transmitters we re re put ation fo r sound ing bet ter than co nve n- shows a co nvent io na l su perhet rece iver
soon as soc i at ed with poor s ig nab. an d tio nal system s that usc filters for opposi te with a SS B band wid th IF filter to pro vide
their unfortunate operators were e nco nr- sideband suppression. As us ual. c areful rejectio n of interferen ce ou tside the de -
aged (0 upg rad e o r get o ff the air. Even study reveals that there is an c lemen t or sired band pa ss. i ncludi ng rej ection of the
'l: holarl y autho rs du ring this peri od o ften tr ut h in co nvent ional wisdom. but that o p po site s ide band , F ig 9,4 show , a
used a lill ie ove r-si mplified ma the matics deeper understanding pro vid es freedo m su pe rhe t recei ver with a pha ving SSB de -
to show th a t the ph a ~ i n g meth od wa s inca- From the bonds of lo re. mod ulator at the If . Note that the p hacin g
pa ble o f generati ng acceptable ,i gnals fo r F ig 9.1 is the bloc k d iagra m o f a con- syste m just rejec ts the o p posi te side -
the mode rn a ma teur ba nds . ve nrio nal SS B e xciter using a filter to re - ba nd-cco nvc n uo na l sel ec tivity is st ill

Balanced R'
"
Sideba nd RF Image p ~,
Modulator low-Pass
Filter Amp
'''''' Filter Filter

Fig 9.1-A b lock d iagram of a c o nventional SSB exc ite r us in g a filter to remove the unwanted sid eband .

Phas ing Receive rs and Transm itt ers 9 .1

 Ba lanced
Modula tor

S """," RF
p- low-Pass
Amp
Amp F~ter

LO
Ptl ase--Shifl
NO', "",

Carrier
OSC illator

Fig 9.2- Block di agram of a phasing SSB exc iter.

I
e Lcca
Oscil lator

Fig 9.3-A conve ntiona l supe rhet receiver with a SSB ba ndwidt h IF.

RF RF Ima ge Ie IF Roofing Ie Ae
Filter LNA Filter Mixer Amp Filter A mp Am p
Analog
Sig nal
Processor

I
e Bea t Frequen cy
Osci llator

Fig 9.4-A superhet receiver with a phasing SSB dem odulator at t he IF.

needed [0 prot ect the rece ive r from inte r- builder needs 10 he fami lia r with the ben- don't app ly to transmitters becom e i m por-
terence a t other freque ncie s. Fig 9.5 is the e fits and li mitations of each before con - tant. T he trea tme nt he re will ta ke the op-
bloc k d iag ra m of a phasing d irec t co nver- eludi ng that a partic ular radio arch itec ture posn e tack . a nd dis cuss phasing d ircet
sio n rece iver (h ig h performance di rect f s best fo r a partic ula r app lica tion . conversion rec e ive rs in detail. Th ere are
con ve r ... io n receiver te chn iq ues arc dis- T rad itio nall y. phasing is presented as a several j uvti ficattons for this. Th e fir st b
c usse d in Chapter 8 of this book.' Phasing transmit top ic. with receivers lac ked o n th at ex plo rat ion of hi gh perfo rm anc e
i.s added in f ig 9.6 .... ith base band proc ess- as an "o h b) the way. yo u ca n also ..." This phasing dir e ct co nve rsio n rece iver s has
i ng functions ha nd led usi ng a pair of ana- is fi ne unt il o ne ....'ants to act ually beg in bee n a major focus are a for the author for
lo g-to-d igital con verters and a d igital designing and building a receive r us ing o ver a dec ade. and many of the observe-
sig na l processor. Each of the systems pha sing methods . at whic h puint none of tions. muc h of the analysis. an d the math-
sho wn in the hloc k diagram s is o ptimum the math re ally makes sense. and signal ematica l trea tmen t have not been previ-
for ce rtain applic atio ns. and a designe r- le vels. noi se. and di st ort io n te rms th a t ous ly p uhlis hed-c-or at lea st not fo r a very

9 .2 Chapter 9
 I Mix"r

I
~
~
I
C\ L= I
\:::J O scillator
Fig 9.5- A bloc k diagram of a ph asi ng direc t co nve rs io n rec e iver .

\
I Mixer

"
Amp

DSP

Fig 9.6- Hig h performa nce di rect co nver s io n re cei ver te chnique wit h pha s ing added- with bas eb an d proc es s ing in DSP.

long time . The second i~ that most of this a./tleos[2 rrf,( + O,(oJ. the discussion be- most likely a hybrid superhet that includes
decade of stu dy has been a purel y am ne ur co mes inde pen dent of mod ulat ion typ e. a band-limiting filter follow ed hy so me IF
acuvuy. pursued becaus e list enin g to thai a nd serio us students nf communication" gain and then a phacing prod uct detector.
fi rst phas ing d irec t co nvervion receive r \ys lem~ will haw no difficulty con vert - This is certainly the approach 1x'ing taken
ten ye ar s ago was suc h a pro fou nd re vela- in g to complex-envelope form. add ing by malt'rs o f high'cnd amateur tra nsce!v-
tio n. Pha sing direc t co nverston receivers c orrelated and uncorrc latc d noise terms. ere. and the technology will tric kle down
arc an o ptimum c hoic e for man }' ap plica- and includin g the effects of va rious type" into the low end of the market. as u is less
tio ns. am a te ur a nd pro fessio nal. when- of di sronion. expenvive than relying solely o n mccham-
eve r cost. d istortio n. s puriou s- free -d y- T he e mphasis will be on direct com er- cal. quartz l;rysta l and ce ramic filters for
namic range . Freque ncy agi lity o r ston phasing rece ivers. rathe r tha n super het selectivity. The major d ifference bet wee n
adaptability 10 d ifferent ba ndwid ths and rece ivers with phasing last-conve rters . be- usi ng the phasing syst em at the front-end
modula tio n types arc im portan t. F urther- ca use the direct co nve rsion receiver gener- of a direc t conv ersion receive r o r as the
more. they are a ric h fiel d fo r expe rtmc n- a ll) pre se nts a more difficult set of prob- product detector for a hybrid superhet is in
ratio n a nd co nt ributio n to th e am ate ur and le ms. However. it shou ld be ment ione d at thegain. selectivity, and noise disrnb unons
pro fess io na l litera ture. Fina ll y. by de - this poi nt that the ultimate recei ver fo r in the receiver. These cons ider ation , will
scri bing the recei ver mathe mat ica lly us - weak CW and SSH <,i gllab in the presence be discussed in detail in the R2pro desig n
ing ,1 ge ne ral band -limite d inpu t si gn a l of noi se and slrong:-"ign al interfe rence i-, exc ret - e.

Phasing Rec eive rs and Trans m itters 9.3

9.2 INTRODU CTI ON TO T HE MATH

Some ma the mat ics is nece ssary for UIl - If the sign al fr equen cy f, is lo wer than 2 cos(2j'[ f o t + qJ,,- nI 2 +o)( 1 +£)
(t)eo, [2, r, '+., (t)]
demanding how phasing recei vers work. the L O freq uency f", then the difference
Fortu nate ly, all of the nece ssary fu nctions 0,
expre ssion (f" - f,) is a pos itive num ber.
and ide nti tie s may be found in a high
= (I H )', (')eo,
school algeb ra and trigonomet ry te xtbook .
T hat sa id, there is nothing trivia l abou t the Lo w -Pa ss Filter [2 1t ( 1'0 + f,)t + (jJ, (t) + 'Pn - n12 + 0]
treatme nt thal follows . Tt is delibera te and In a receive downconvcrter ap pfic arion .
complete. Tt is also much le ss inte re sting the d ifference fre q uency e xpressio n is se- +(I +e)', (,)eo,
than the pictures an d sc he matics o f the lected hy a lo w-pass filter fo llowing the
projects, and many of the subtleti es were mixe r. and the sum freque ncy (I'" + f, ) ex -
[2>(fo- f,),- . , (,)+." - n)2+ o]
n U L app recia ted by the aut hor until lo ng pression is rej ected. The downcon vert er
afte r the fir st sign als bega n pour ing out of output fr equen cy rang e may extend fro m E q 9.7
the wor king receiver's speake r. Rea de rs zero Hz up to the cutoff frequ en cy or
the Onc e again . the lo w-pa ss filter rejects
"". ith an ave rs ion to ma th in any form are low -p a ss filt er , and this freq uency ran ge is the su m freque ncy and pas ses the diffe r-
invited to skip this sect io n. Designe r- refe rred to as "baseban d." The base ban d ence frequency. so we arc left wit h:
builder s who wa nt to procee d direc tly to ou tput i s then:
the R 2pro design and projects sec tion arc
h"(,)=(IH)o, (,)eo,
encouraged to skim quic kly throu gh the h;(,J [2 n (I"- 1,)' - 0, (t)+., - n)2 + oj
= " ; (,)", [2>(ro -fJ,-.; (, )+., ]
mat h. Electrica l Engi neering graduate stu -
de nts shou ld work slowly thro ugh the ma- Eq 9.8
teria l step hy st ep. because this stuff will Eq9.4
he on the ex am. Ref er to Figs 9.7A· (; tha t
appe ar after the equatio ns.
'I') ~ L 1- ---11) b; (l)
" I') ~ L 1f----1I "It)
Th e B asic Im a g e- Lq{t)
Fig 9.7C
Reject Math From Lilt)
Fig 9.78
Receiver Point Of Vi ew
Any ha nd-limi ted basic sign al may be
described as:
A udio Ph a se·Shift
Q Cha n nel N etwor k s
In a p hasi ng sy stem , a second mixe r In a n im age -reject receiv er, the I and Q
mult iplies the ide ntica l sig nal by a LO with o utp uts of the mixers are the n appl ied to
nl2 phas e delay. T he two mixe rs a nd the ir the port s of a pair of all-pass networks tha t
where f, is the signal freq ue ncy: a.m is signals are referred to as I for "in -phase' add ail- ad dit io nal n /2 phase delay to the
the tim e -varying signal envelope: and and Q for "qu adratu re" Since these ex - signal,' at the o ut put of th e Q mixer. A n
qJJl) is the tim e- var yi ng sign al pha se prc ssions represent rea l signals and elec- idea l a ll-pa ss network wo uld introduce no
tronic compon ents, they arc not perfec t. In ad dit ional ampli tud e or phas e errors. bu t
particular, the amplitude o f the signal a t suc h erro rs oc cur in practic e. In add ition.
Mixer the Q mi xer may not be identic al to the 1 the all- pass networ ks at baseband ma y
In an id eal mixer, a lo ca l oscillator mul- mixe r amplitude, and the pha se differenc e hav e man y octave s of bandwidth. and the
tiplics this signal: between the I an d Q mi xers may not be am plitude and phase errors will var y
exac tly n12. We can inc orp orate thes e dif- across the ba sehand fr equ e ncy range . Vole
ference s hy introducing e rror terms into combine all of the amplitude errors in to a
the signal and LO ex pressions . single bas eband freque ncy depende nt er -

"(') ~
ro r term E( t") and all ofthc phas e errors int o
a single baseband freq uency depe nde nt
' " (l) = (I +0)', (')"' [2 nf, t + . , (,)] pha se error term 8(t} We also recognize
E q 9.5 that in prac tice the IQ all -pass netwo rk pa ir
lit!) Fig 9.7A
ood do es no t s imply lea ve the 1 c hannel alon e
and add a co nstant nl2 p hase delay to the
. .. where the con stant 2 si mpli fie s late r
Lq (t)"" 2 co s ( 2 ITf" t + l.Jl o - nl 2 + 8)
Q c han nel, bu t introd uces a frequenc y
expre ss ions . 1'" is the LO frequency , and Eq 9.6 de pen d ent ph ase shi ft to ea ch channel .
qJn is the 1.0 phase. chosen so that the phas e diffcrenee b e-
Multiplying the LO tim es the sign al: ...where E: is the amplitude difference be- twe en th e I and Q channels re mains a
tween the I and Q signals and 0 is the error (nearly) constan t n12. Wc co mbine this
o .,- lpo )a, (t)cos[2;r f, 't', (t)]
2CO,(2l!f I t -'-
in the nl2 p hase dela y. No te that the sig nal
Sq(l) at the inp ut to the Q mixer is the same
frequ ency dep e ndent ph ase shi ft with the
orig ina l L O phase qJ" and de note the res ult
= as (I )cos[211 (f" + f, )1 + lp, (I) + lp J as s;t t) at the input to the I mixe r exc ept for qJo(f). With the add ition al nl2 phase delay
the er ror r .
.,J ,)w;[" (t, - ,J, - . , {}, , , ] Multiplyi ng the phase-s hif ted L O an d
an d all of the modified error and phase
term s, the all -pass network Q baseban d
E{19. 3 signal tog eth er in the Q mixe r: output becomes:

9 .4 Chapter 9
 .. .where 2TC(f o - fs)t - <b,ll) + tp,,(f) = a 'Ne no w use a second approx imat ion, Tf
[' H(f)k (,)" , r an d 8 are less tha n 0.1. the n the ir prod uct
2 ,k -r,),-', (,)' %(f) ] and 0(0 = b must be le ss than (0 .1)2 = 0 .01. T hus the
last ter m ab ov e is always much less tha n
[ ~"I2 - " 1 2 + 0 (f ) the other three terms . Once ag ain. the ap-
proxi mation error becomes vanishi n gly
~ [' H (f )k (, ) ", b q(t)= - a, (t)~o, small for hig h performan ce systems. Di s-
ca rding the las t term. the Q signal at the
[, ,(I"- I,)' - % ( .)-" (1) -" '(f)] [2'(', - f,)' - ' , (,)+., {r)]", [6(1)] ou tp ut of the baseb and all -pass ne twork
IS :
Eq 9.9
The I baseband output at the ou tp ut of
the all -pass ne twork is: ["('"- f, ), - e, (, )+. , {r )]" , [6(f)J b ~ (.)~ - ' , (t)w,
b',(t) = - ' (' )0, (,)" , [2n(f, - f,) t- . , (th " (I)]
,, (t)oo' [2rr(f, - f,) t- . , (t)+., (f)] ["(f, - f, ), -v, (,)"p" {r)]" , [o(r)] +' (f)' , (t),',
E q 9.10 +r. (r)a, (t)sin [2IT (fo - I,) r- ., (r)+." (f)]
[10k - I,)' - », (,) ", (f)]", [6(1)] - ' (f)' , (t}w,
S~t)~b" (I ) Eq 9.15 [2IT(f, -f'). - ., (t)+." (I)]
At th is po int, it is convenient to ma ke
lilli Fig 9.7 0 our first app rox imations. F or phas ing sys- Eq 9. 19
tem s wi th opposite sid eban d supp re ss ion
o f mor e than 30 dB , the a mplit ude and This signa l i s add ed to the I sig nal at the
~ Returning to the ba seband Q ter m. use
phas e error term s e and 8 must bot h be less output of the baseband all -pass network:
the trig identity:
than 0. 1. Sellin g o(f) to a maxim um val ue
of 0.1 and plugging it into the sine and b', (t)=" (,),"'
cos (a - Tel = - cos a Eq 9.11
cos ine expressions: [lIT (,;, - f,)t - . , (,)+., (f)]
to ob tain sin (0.1000) "" 0.0998
to obtain :
b~ (t}=-[I+C(f))., (t)'o, cos (0. 1000 ) = 0.99 50

[2'(f, - f,)t- . , (t) +., (f)+&(f)] ...we may then use the "sm all angle" ap- LSB out = + o(f)a , ( t )sin
pro ximations:
E q 9.12 [lIT(f" - f,) t- . , (t)+., (I)]
sin rp "" rp Eq 9.16
- o(f)" (,),"'
Sqlt)~b" l t) COS lp"' } Eq 9.17 [2rr(r, - ';) t- ", (t)+0, (f)]
Eq 9.2(J
Lq (t) Fig 9.7E know ing that the approximation errors arc
very small in the range of interest. The ap-
proximation errors becom e vanishingly
small when we reduce 0 still further, to the
8" 1
Suppressing the Image limi ts needed for high performance systems.
Usin g the small angle approx i matio ns.
T he baseband r a nd Q all-pass filter
outputs are added to implement the imagc- the fo ur Q ter ms at the output o f the
reje ct f unc tion. To make the add ition base band all -p ass ne t work bec ome:
ea sie r, the Q out put may be broke n dow n
in to sep arat e terms:
b~ (')=-" (t)w, Fig 9.7F

[2IT(f, - f, )t- ", (t )+.o (f)]

No te that the eq ual and oppo site sig nal
[" (f" - ', ),-., (,)+., (I)+O(f)] , o(r )" (,)", com ponen ts hav e added tu zero, and on ly

- ,(f)" (,)", [2IT(lo - r,), - . , (t)+. , (f)] the error terms remai n. Al so note tha t the
effec t of a D. l -rad ian phas e erro r is ide nti-
["(," -1,),-. , (,)"" (f) +S(f)] - ,(I)d r)oo, cal to the effec t of a 0. 1 am plitude erro r.
Finally , no te that the two error terms are
Eq 9.13 [lIT(fo - f') .- . , (t)+."(I)] orthogonal (one is a sine . and the ot her is
We rna)' also separa te the phase error a cos ine ), so that eac h mu st be indepen-
O(f) out us ing the tr ig identity :
+' (f)'(f)" (t),', dentl y red uce d to zero-an a mplitude er -
[2rr(f"- f,),- . , (,)+", (f)] ro r will not cancel a phas e error. The two
co s (a + b}« c os a co s b - sin a sin b error vo lt age s add to make a resu lta n t
Eq 9.14 Eq 9.18 error signa l, wit h magnitude:

Phasi ng Receivers and Transm itters 9.5

 j

thai th e minus ](/ 2 p hase shi ft from the all- pli tu de and phase errors are redu ced.
Eq 9.21
pa ss netw ork ha s ca nce lled the plus Te/2
ph ase shi ft fro m th e LO.
Sideband Suppression
Pe rfor ming the same step s, as be fore to
Re c ove ri ng the Desired redu ce the s ignal at the Q ba seb and all - Expressions
Si g n al p ass net wo rk out pu t to separate compo- In su mmary . it ha s been sh ow n that sig -
Now exa mine th e cas e o f a sign al fr e- nc nts , we obtain : na ls at freq uenci es ahove the Local Osc il-
qucnc y I, greater tha n the LO freque ncy la to r fre que ncy are dow ncon verred and
r., a, (')""["(f, - f t ), • • , (,)+"" (I)] add at the o utp ut of the baseband all -pass
T he expression (fo - f) is nnw a nega- network, whi le sign al s at freq uencie s be-
tin ; number. The T bas e band signal at th e - ii'{f)a, (I),in lo w the Lo ca l Os cillator fr e qu e ncy arc
ou tput of the 1 mixe r is (as befor e) : dow nco nverted and sub tra c t. lea ving o nly
[2'(f, - 1, ),- . , (tl • •, (f)] the amp litu de and phase error ter ms. It is a
bi (')=" (,)"', -' (I)." (tl", straightforw ard exercise, usin g the ide nt i-

[2' (f" -rJ, - ~, (,)+9,] ["(I, - I,, ),• •, (,)+., (f)]

c al steps, to show that rev ersi n g the sign of
e ither term. interc hang ing the LO phase
shifts. inte rc hanging th e input ports of the
...to m ake the frequ e ncy te rm (f,, - fJ posi- Eq 9.27 all-pa ss net wo rk. or subtract ing in stead of
tive, use: add ing th e I and Q signal s at the all-pass
A dd ing th e r and Q ou tput s fro m th e net wor k output will resul t i n addi ng the
((, - I) = -(( - fol to obta in ba se band al l-pass netw ork: lo wer freque ncies and can ce ling the higher
fre que nc ie s.
Si nce the relative m agni tu de of th e
a (t}",+ 2, (1, - 1<,)' - " (tl +~ J ad de d signal is :; and th e m agnitude o f the
E q 9.22
", (')"', [,"(1, - r,, )' +Q, (.)+0" (f)] error terms is :
Using the tri g ide nti ty:

cos a = co s (- a) E(19.23
- «, (')"', [,"(1, - r,, ) , + ~ , (')-.0(r)]
+b(f)." (')'i'
([O(f)]' • [t(f)]' r
... we obtain the 1 m ixer base band out put: ["(I, - f" )1+ ., (,)+." (I)] ..the fam i liar expression for op po sit e
si deband sup pressio n in dB for a gi ven set
H(f)a, {t ).:os of am plitude and phase errors is ea si ly
b; (,)=" (, )en, [,,(,; - f,,)<+ o, (')+00(I)] obta ined :
Eq 9.24 Opposite side han d suppre ssion in dB
[2, (" - f , )' +Q, (,)- , ,,l
Th e Q mixer ba se hand out put i s (as
=2" (')"" [20(" -dl+., (')+0, (,)]
, 5(f),,{' )';0 =2010g l/ 2\[6(f))' + [t(I)]' r
Eq 9.30
before}; [,,(r, - f,, ), ••, (')"Po(r)]
For the effect of ju st an amplitude or
'O (I),,{' )co, phase error. the simpler expre ssions
b, (')= (1 '0)' , (,)"',
["(f, - f )1+o, (')".0 (r)]
t
[2 11-(fo - rJ t- lp s (t)1(10- lt/ 2 + 0] 20 log E/2 (j ust ampli tude error)
Eq 9.31
Eq 9.28
Aga in usin g the (J" ~ fJ = -(f s - f o ) sub-
20 log 0/2 (j ust phase erro r) Eq 9.32
stitution and co ~ a = cos (-a l iden ti ty. the
Q mixe r bas eband ou tpu t i s:
... may be u sed . T he more complete ex-
pres sion above des c ribes th e op posit e
{!+l:)a, {t} I:OS sideband suppres sio n as a fu nctio n of
base band frequ enc y r for th e case wh ere
[2 lt{f, - t-,, )t +Q , ( t) - ~~ o +lt/ 2 - 0] Fig 9.7G the low er sideband is suppressed . These
Eq 9.25 expressions may be used to obtain the
commo n textbook p lot o f sidehan d su p-
At t he out put of the all -p as , network. ...sin ce ,3'( f) and qf) ar e b ot h mu c h less pre ssio n ver sus phase and amp litude er -
which ad ds rc/2 phase d el ay and add itio nal tha n 2. a re a son able ap proximation fo r the ror s. Plugging in a few numbers: if both
errors , th e Q vig nal is : su m of th e 1 an d Q a ll- pass network o ut- the am plit ud e and p hase ha ve the ma xi-
put s for a n inp ut signa l wi t h a freq uency mu m error of 0.1. th e oppos ite sideband
b; (,HI+o(I))' , (,)"" hi gher than the L O frequ ency is : supp res sion is:
[2,(1, -1, ),+\" (,)- . , (1) - 8(1)] USI:l0U1 = 2a, ( t)eos
Eq 9.26 ["(I, - f,, ), +0, (,)+0 " (f)] 10010g[(0.1)' +(O.I)' r 12 1=-23dB
Not e th at the com hine d phase err or term Eq 9.29 E(19.33
o ' (i) is differ en t than the pr e vious cas e, O nce agai n. the acc uracy o fthi s expres-
bec ause of the sign chan ge on O. A lso note sion becomes inc reasing ly good as th e am- 110s t te xtbooks q uote amp li tude and

9.6 Cha pte r 9

phase errors in dB and deg rees. To con vert verting 0. 1 dB to 1;: : Th is is an easy rule of thumb- to obtain
amplitude error I;: to dB . use 40 dB of opposite sideba nd suppressio n,
E = I Orler",r in dll )/20] _ I Eq 9.35 the a mplitude e rror s mus t be kept under 0 . 1
~o log [ l + r] Eq 9.34 dB and the phase errors under I degree.
Tn t he rece ive ca se a nalyzed here.
...for E = 0 .1 i n the exa mple above. the am - = lOO.()O.~ _ I = 0 .0 116 summi ng the I and Q channel o utputs
plitude error in dB is 20 log ( 1.1 ) = 0.8 3 su pp resses the lo wer sideband. T he upper
dB. ...and con verting the 1 deg ree pha se error si deband ma y be suppresse d by f irst in-
To con vert phase error in rad ians 8 to to radians vert ing the Q cha nne l and the n sum ming.
error in degrees, multiply {) by 57.3 (de - wh ich su btracts the I and Q c ha nnel out -
grees per radian ). For the example above. 8 = 1/57.3 = 0.0175 puts. No te that th is is the rev ers e of
the phase error in degrees is 5.73 deg rees . what happens in a phasing SSH tra nsmit-
As an example going the opposi te dir ec- Using the e xpressio n fo r s ideba nd su p- ter, whe re summing the I and Q c hannel
lion. suppose a phasing receiver system pression: RF o utp uts .s uppr esses th e up pe r side-
has l cde gree maxim um phase error and ban d. Th is in teresting resu lt must be co n-
0 . 1 dB maximum a mplitude error. What is 20 log [(I l.Ol l ti )2 + (0 .0 175 )2) \) 12 sidered when desig ning phasing SSB
the opposite sid eband su ppressio n? Co n- = - 39.6 dB Eq 9.36 tra nsce ivers .

9.3 FROM MATHEMATICS TO PRACTICE

It is tempting to believ e that a goo d de- to rece iver des ig n and development , The impedances are d ifferent from 50 O. trans-
vigner dra ws a perfectly analyzed bloc k first ap proach is 10 design each fundame n- formers may be use d . T his tec hniq ue
d iagram. picks the circu it bloc ks out of a tal circui t block as c are fully as possible res ult s in rec ei vers with very predictable
c ircuit ca talog. co nne cts them up, and has usin g whateve r analy sis and meas ure ment perfo rma nce . and many parts , A c onser-
an operating recei ver o n the bench. If the too ls are avai lab le , and then con nect the vat ive freq uency con verter usi ng this
perfor ma nce is not pe rfect. then at least blocks together in a man ner as c lose as ap proach is shown in Fig 9. S.
the fla ws arc perfec tly unde rstood and possible to the way they were anal yzed a nd The second approach is to dec ide what
predic table . The tr uth is tha t the deeper measured. Bec au se RF test and measure- func tion needs to be acco mpl ished. and
one digs into receiv er ana lysis. the more ment eq uipment operates in a 50 -J:l en vi- des ign a cir c uit with as few componen ts as
obvio us the o missio ns and approxi mation s ron ment, all circuit blocks are desig ned pos sible that wiIIperform Ihe task. A mini-
in the mat hematical treat me nt become. A and tes ted to intercon nec t usi ng 50-n mum-parts-count freq uency conve rter is
diode ring mix er is not a pe rfect sine-wave transmission lines. The bas ic rule is that sho wn in Fig 9.9. Clea rly. the second c ir-
mult i plie r. and the ma the matics fo r the connections between c ircuit blocks sho uld cuit is simp ler than the firs t. F rom the pro -
proper trea tment of e ven simp le amplif ie r carry sinu soida l voltages 50 times la rger Iessional ci rc uit de sig n sta ndpo int, the
distortio n is beyond the scop e of a pract i- and in-phase with sin uso ida l curre nts. If second circuit might eve n be c alled "bet-
caltext . voltages are not s inuso idal. sim ple low - ter " beca use is uses fewer parts a nd less
There arc two ver y differe nt approaches pass filter'; will remo ve harmo nics . and i f operating current to pe rfo rm the sa me

r-- - - - -.,...- - - ---.- ---1 +12 V, 4 mA

12T Trifilar
FB 2401 43
1°.1 ~F
Band Pass
4.7 k 50 Ohms
TUF-3 Image Filte r
XL 100
'" 2N3904

10 nF Xc Xc

>O k
JJ

+
1'00 '001
Low Pass
1 1
= • 150 p F 4 ,7 V
I10~F Tra nsformer

22

L ,-J" YL,_ _ -/ "

cc 1 ' 150PF • 220 pF below 10 MHz Low Pass
25 pt
Trimmer
100 p F above 15 MHz
1 1
Fig 9.8- lt vo lt ages are not si nusoidal, s im ple lo w-pass f ilt er s w i ll remove harmo ni c s, and if im ped an ces are d ifferent f rom
50 Q , transformers ma y be us ed . Th is techn ique res u lts in recei vers w it h ve ry pred ictable per1o rmance, and ma ny pa rts. A
co nserva tive f req ue ncy co nverter us ing this ap pr oac h is s ho w n he re .

Phasi ng Receiver s and Transmi tt ers 9 .7

 10 t Trifila r
-v 90

2 .7 k
;t 0.1 ~ F LO
FB 2401-43 l N4 148

TU F-3
0
150 k
15 pF
RF IF
at
2N3904 1N4 148

I 220 p F
IF 10 t Trifilar
90 "
FB 240 1-43
1N4148
Fig 9.9- A minimum-parts-count
f requen cy converter.
R
FHD

l N4148
I 0.04 7
P,'y
~F

Fig 9.10- A min imum-parts-count image -reject detector thai mig ht be used in a
simple CW receiver.

1
~fJ
O.l ~ F •
9V
+
1 100 ~ F 3O~ O,m
2.7 k Ster eo

o
10 t Trifilar
90
1 47k
1000 pF
Headphones

4,7 k
FB 2401-43 1N4148 0.1 ~F
20 pF
15 pF
"'" 150 k

220 pF 1 ] ''----+-*-'
t N4148
I +
W pF

A ll tra nsistors 2N390 4 or eQuiv

10 t rrmer
'9
20 t Prj 20 1 Pri FB 2401-43
s r sec 20 pF st sec.
1 50-2 " -''If,, , T50-2 o
50 O hm
Ba lanced
An tenna
Feedline
.. 10 pF

CRYSTAL PHAS ING

Fig 9.11-A simp le fixed -frequency recei ver using a single crysta l filte r. The two cr ystals are the same frequency , and the
input circui t tunes from 3 .5 to 7 .5 MHz.

9 .8 Chapter 9
 func tio n. The diffic ulty arises when re r-
fo rrnance needs to be imp roved. or the cir -
c uit fu nction is interco nnec ted with other
circ uit bloc ks in a new a nd diffe re nt way .
11 Is imp ortant 10 recognize that both
a pproaches to RF circuit design a re vi-
able-r-the first ufferv high er performa nce
from the outset, and a path to constant
I--~--.--ll-----,.---, "sa, performa nce imp rovement by measuring
et and ana lyz ing distortion and making in-
cre mental changes to the circuit blocks.
The seco nd ap proach involves more e re-
ativi ry and risk ta king: atte mpts at ne w

t=~=+-' SB2
minimu m-pa n s-co un t circui ts of len fail:
a nd ....-irhour .'i0 n ports . it is difficult 10
sr mak e d iag nostic measurem ent- with out
up sett ing cir cu it behavi or. C rea tive think-
ing, either in de velo ping or iginal circu its
or pondering why they don't wor k as ex-
pe cted, i<; the de ligh tful process de sig ne rs
usc to sol ve problem s.
There is a valid argument for both lip-
proachev III rece iver projectc-c-delighrful
si mplicity is always a virtue- hut there is a
compelling argument for taking the
methodical. ana lytical. 50-Q approach to
developing phasing receivers. A phasin g te-
ceivcr is a balanced system thai depend" on
Fig 9.12- U the product de tec tor Is o perated at a fix ed f req ueney . c r ys ta l fi lte r matching both amplit ude and phase across
sel ectivity ma y be c o m bine d with a p hasing product de tec tor. T his fig u re shows significant bandwidths. thro ugh at lea"t one
the basic circ uit with a si ngle-crystal CW tnter co nnect ed directl y to th e prod uct frequency conve rsion. and .... ith vignificam
detector. It doe sn't w o rk as expected.
band limiting needed in both I and Q chan-
nets. Any dev iation from perfect balance
degrades opposite ..idehand suppression.
Since amplitude and phase are both strong
functions of termin ation impedances at
mixer and amplifier pons . defining and con-
10 t Trif,lar
00
trolling these impedances is the first step in
Fe 2401-43 1N4148 building successful phasing receivers,
LO ~-r-J f-,----, As an e xample of the problems Ihal arise
when impeda nce matc hin g is neg lected.
IF let' s look at ,1 minim um-p arts-count irn-
I--.,-- , - -J f- .,----, set age-reject detector that might be used in a
simple CW receive r. Fig 9.10 illustrate-,
the ci rcu it, The Rf POri , of the two bal-

l N41 48
II a nc ed d iode mixe rs arc simp l~ tied 10-
gcthcr, and the LO and IF po n-, are qua d ru-
ture spli t and combined u~in~ h~ brid

10 tTnfila r
'-----+--, SB2 circu it". This ci rcuit provide" a u- eful T<'-
duction in oppos ite sid eband interference
00
FB 2401-43 l N4148 " The selec tivity curve is vCQ similar to the
clacvic receivers with sin gle crystal fillcr~
and phasing co ntrols.
The circuit in Fig 9.10 might be used as
the product detector in a simple superhet
RF
10tTnfilar recei ver . For comparison. FiA 9.1 1 is a
O.047IlF simp le filled- freque ncy If' receive r u"ing

~-
FB 2401-43

l N4 148
1 Poly a single crystal filter. The image-reject
prod uct detector has a few mo re pan".
It' the prod uct det ector is o perated at a
fixed frequency, crystal filte r selecti vity
rna) be co mhined with II phasi ng prod uct
detec tor. F i ~ 9, 12 is the basic cir cuit with
Fig 9.13- 1 h I5 c irc uit, wi th a buffer amp lifier between t he c rysta l liller and ima ge -
r eject mixer, w o rks as expect ed, w it h mor e than 40 dB of op posit e si deb and a sin gle-c rystal C W Filter co nne cted di-
suppressio n at 1-kHz offset . rect ly to the product det ecto r. Th e crystal

Phasing Receivers a n d Transmitters 9 .9

filter selectivit y shou ld add to the image- hand suppre ss ion from the image -reject If adequate performan ce at minimum
reje ct product detector circuitry. for very mixer circuitry is lo st. cost with few parts is the goa l, it is un-
respecta ble performance. II does not work. The circuit of Fig 9.13, with a buffer likel y that a phasing rccci vcr or exc iter ca n
Th e opposite sideband suppressio n is con - amplifier between the crystal fi lter and compete with a bas ic superhet. Mak ing an
side rably less than ex pected. ima ge -rej ect mixer, works as expected . in tel l igent cho ice about whether to use
The problem is that image- rej ect mixer with more tha n 4{) dB of opposite side- phasing techniques in a receiver involves
behavior is stro ngly de pende nt on the im - band suppression at I kHz offset. A cas ual we ig hing a number of factors. A strict
pedances at the variou s mixer po rts. By glance at th is c ircuit wou ld not hint t hat phas ing rece iver c an never ach ieve the
di rectly connecting the crystal filter. the the added broad band compon ents would opposite sideband selectivity of a good
mixer RF ports sec an impedance that var - significantly improve opposite sideband superhet with multiple crys tal filters, a nd
ies rapidly from one side band to the other. suppressio n, a superhet will always have more spu riou s
The impedance in the desired band is re- The most termina tion-sensitive co mpo- respon ses and internally generated spurs
sistive and rea sonably we ll matched . but nents in a phasing receive r or exciter are than a direct con version rccci vcr . Not hing
the impedance on the undesired sideband usuall y the rr uxers. Since prov iding can compare with the sonic clari ty of
is almost perfectly reflec tiv e. A reflective wide band . res istive ter minations to the simple wide audio bandwi dth dire ct con-
mixer termination on one sideband and an mixer RF, LO and IF ports improves dis- vers io n rece ive rs , T he cho ice of receiver
abso rpt ive ter mination on the other tort ion performance in addition to op posi te architec ture may not be made for purely
se verely impac ts image-rejec t mixe r per - side hand supp ress ion. it is simply goo d practical reasons- an Amateur Ra dio de -
formance . In simu la tions. the op posite pract ice in phasing rig s_ Paying atteruion signer-bu ilder has the lux ury of worki ng
sideband suppression of!hejiller is main - 10 term inat ion impedances usual ly adds on a technique purely for the joy of ex -
tained, but almost all of the opposite side - com ponents and compl exity 10 circu its. ploring new territo ry ,

9.4 SIDEBAND SUPPRESSION DESIGN

T he point of adding a phasing system to alignment. A 60 dB c ircuit can be de- DSB is attrac tive whenever simplicity is
a receiver or exciter is to suppress one side- signed . but component tolerance s are more important than spectral efficie ncy or
band , The fir st gen erat ion of amateur phas - unrealistically tight, alignment is difficult. interference rejection. A DSB transmitter
ing circuits from the late 1940s into the and perfor man ce degrades as components may be paire d with a di rect con versio n
195{)s were literally added on to convcn- age. A 40 dB circui t design wor ks well DSIi receiver to build an ultra- simple rig .
tion al receivers an d transmitters . La ter with standard I o/c compone nts. and has A disadvantage of such a radio is that it can
commerci al tra nsm itters from Ce ntra l q uick and easy alignmen t that will ho ld fo r not receive DS B very well, and it's trans -
Electronics, Hatlicrafters. and others use d the life of the rad io. 20 d B sideban d sup- mitted signa l must he received on a receiver
conventiona l heterodyne method s. with pression circuits wor k with junk box parts with some provision for either suppressing
phasing si deb and selectio n and co nven - and no ad just me nts at al l. one sideband or locking to the missing car-
tiona l tuned circuits at a fixed IF , Many Befo re contin uing with a furt her explo- rier frequency. Somehow a radio tha t can -
recenr impruvernents in pe rforman ce have ration of sideband suppressio n. a discus- not communicate with an identically
resulted from des igning the entire radio sion of " how much is enough" is in orde r. equi pped station seems incompl ete.
sysrern . from headpho nes and microphone As in most engi neering questions, the an-
to an tenna. with phas ing in mind. Before swer begins with "that depe nds...." First of
diving into more detail ed system discus- all. we shou ld note that systems with no
Transmitters
sion s. it is use ful to d iscuss the amo unt of sideband su ppress io n at all are enti rely A Single Sideband transmitte r needs
sideband sup pression des ired . f unctional for so me applica tion s. A signa l e no ug h carri er suppress ion tha t the ca rrier
It is relatively eas y to design and repro- from a DSB transmitter is converted to SSB is not evident when tun ing in the sig nal,
duc c phasing circuitry to achieve undes- in the rece i ver. and onc e tuned in the op- a nd e no ugh opposi te sid eha nd suppres-
ired sideband suppression of more than 30 erato r can't tell the difference. Similarly, si on that the opp osite sideband frequ en-
dB With just a litt le more design ca re, and DSB receivers have been used for CW and cies may be used for commun ication s by
we ll-matched componen ts. ju st over 40 dB SSIi signals since the e arly days of radio , oth er stations. 40 dB of carri er suppres-
of undesired side hand suppression may be
routinely obtained. The receivers and ex-
citer in the QST refe rences f ro m 1992 Fig 9.14-Th e spectrum
through 1995 all exhi bit si de band sup pres - 0 of a ty p ic al SS B
sion in the 4 1 to 43 dB range . when the t ra ns mitter w it h two -
circuit bo ards are used as inte nded. The ton e mod ulation , w it h
-20 t he c arrier supp re sse d
receiver and exciter circu its show n at the
50 dB , 40 dB opposite
end of thi s chapter co nsistently achieve
sideband su ppression in the mid -50 dB
range. using 0. 1% match ed components
and very ca reful al ig nmen t. It is worth
c
co -40
-o
-60
I It s ide band suppressio n,
an d am pli fier intermod
pr oducts 30 d B (3r d )
an d 35 dB (5t h) belo w
emp hasizing at this point that the level of eit he r of t he two
desire d o utp ut
sid eba nd su ppres sion de pe nds on circuit -80 fr eq uenc ies.
des ign; pre cision com ponents: and careful

9.10 Cha pter 9

 In thc past few years , d ig ilal mod es that
use a computer so und card co nne cte d to
Voice on
Cassette
SSB or OSB
Attenuator :
I SSB orOSB the microp ho ne in put o f a SS B tra nsmitt er
Exciter Receiver
Reco rder Headphones ha ve bec ome po pul a r. Tran smitters for

SSB~SB
the se mode s benefit from having mu ch
lov..er di stor tion than SSB or ke yed-car-
SSB1 0SB Tier C:W tr an sm itters , Co mb in ing a p has -
Switch Switch
.
in" e xcit er with a cr vst at filter and verv
~ ,

low'divtor tion RF am pli fier woul d mak e it

.
Fig 9.15-This test setu p was used fo r a se t o f ex pe rime nts to in vest igate the pos sih le to ge nerate a PSK -3 1 signa l that
min imu m sideband sup press ion ne eded for go od SSB rec epti o n.
wou ld be stunni ng ly clean. PS K-3 1 opera-
to r s dis play the wh ole spect rum of re-
cei ved in -c hanne l dis tort io n p roduct s on
str ong si gnals . so a clean sig na l is in stantly
recog nizable on the air. Hecauve P SK -31
statio ns op erate in narrow ha nds . wi th tun -
Wid e ba nd
Audio 1-- --1 Passive
RF ing pe rf or med in base han d sign al pro ces s-

"AO""'"'"tH:Y:b':"~__6<r---l_-O-~-T-J
0 0< ing. a ded icated PS K-3 1 exc iter a nd c rys -
'0 ta l fil ler can be huilt at th e fina l out put
frequency . wi th no ne ed for heterodyning .
G iven that D SR tr ans miners arc fUIK-
tional. and 40 d B of oppos it e side ba nd sup -
co pr e o.iun is enou gh for SSE n an smiue r
Q uad rature
Hy brid
applic ationv . are there any bcn cfit-, to ha v-
ing less than 40 dB of o ppo site suppressio n
bu t more than 0 d B"? A set of ex periments
Cryst al was pe rformed to inves tigate the m inimu m
O scillator
sideband suppression needed for goo d SSB
reception. Fig 9. 15 illustrates the te st setup .
Fig 9.16-Th e exci ter block diag ram. Fig 9.16 is the exciter hlock diagra m. and
F ig 9.17 is the receiver bloc k diagr am. T he
e xciter a nd receiver each have a switch to
enable or disah le the sideban d suppression
c ircui try. The appro ximate sid eband sup -
AF Amp press ion available at th e e xciter. receiver.
and the comh incd side band suppression are
RF
shown in Fig 9.18.
" Headphones Here are the co mme nts cop ied from the
lab note bo ok'

DSB -DS B Reo ll.' hard to 111111'. Vel )"

co pnor sound.
Quadrature
Hybrid
[)SB transmit, sing le-hybrid SSR Re-
ceive, /"II1("h beuer IViflt the hybrid ::£ 1"0
VFO

Dua l Quadra ture Network

Fig 9.17- Rec eiver b lock di agra m . Singte Quadratu re Network
Scm
20
10
sian is ge ne ra lly co nside red suff icien t. (3rd ) and 35 db (5th) be lo w ei ther of th e
alth ou gh at this level the carrier wi ll often two d esired output Ireque ncie s. T his tra ns- -./
be noticeable to stat io ns wit h good recei v- mitter wo uld so und very go od on the air. -30 \ r'"
ers and go od ca rs. Opposite sideba nd sup - Th e in termodulat ion products are high- -40 f--- ' \
pre ssion sh ou ld be go od e nou gh tha t in- li ghted in gray. C learly it is not necessary .so
te rfe rence in the opp osi te sid ehand 10 su ppre ss tho: opposi te sid eha nd in a SSB 60
fre q ue ncy band is do minated by amp lifier trans min er hy much more th an 40 dB . be- .ro
~80
int erm od products, and not i nt d ligi ble cau se the intcrmod prod uc ts occu py the
aud io . Fig 9.14 sho w s tho: specrrumrit -a sam e freque ncies and they are only about
o 1000 2000 3000 400 0

typic al SSE tr ans mi tte r wi th t wo-to ne 30 dB bel o w the des ired sideband level in a Fig 9.18- The ap prox imate sid eband
mod ula tion. with the carrier suppre ssed SO wel l-designed uansmiuer. More carr ier suppressio n availab le at the exciter,
dls . 40 dB oppo site sideban d sup pre ssio n. suppre ssion is usef ul, howe ver. bec ause the rece iver and t he combined si deband
and amplifier int er mod prod uct s 30 dB carrier is prese nt during brea ks in speech . suppres sion .

Phasing Receivers and Tr ansmitte rs 9. 11

 near I kH:, tilt' recei ver has at tea n 10
dB sideband supp ressi..n over much of
tire 300 H: 10 3J. H: speech rang e. The f-;;1:
,
receire sign al sounds lile i l has rapid l • " x
S
ole"
m
QSB- idelllim i to the familiar Airplwll'
scatte r QSB (!!ie'l experienced bv FHF
&, " x 3h:';;
~J s
SSR operatol'S, If
c, f-;;1:
"• • "
N ~~~
C, o .
Wide/Hmd pas sive hybrid SSH transmit,
IJ$ H receil 'e. Better slill-not bad mall.
w
! " x
x

f-;;1:
,
,
, .
'C'? ,il
m

Probably quite occeptahlr for speech, Tile x"

hvbrid pml'idr \ 15 to 20 dB of sideband y
supp ressio" across mOJt of tire audio
~1
- 0
m , -W
range. Rapid QSB can still he rusily heard '"
Nm
- 0 ,,0
011 music, hUI at " early 10 dB down, the xe ;;
allloU/lI of QSH is 011/.1' a [e w dB. ,
•" II~~ . ,,•"
L
Wideba nd passive hyh rid SSR trans - x
mit. sin gte-hvb rid rece ive. Fery good,
The combined sideban d SUf'flfen iol1 of
more than 25 dB across lite audio Hln gl'
"0 e I
0

ss
E 'a. ~
00 ,
is good etrollgll thut it is hard 10 de tect
,,0
Xe 'N_
O N ":
any I'ffedI fro m the inadeqmuelv .Ufp - 0 0 "
pressed sidebands.

Late r expe riments using a vingle -hybrid

on both the receiver and e xciter wor ked
well for voice. Fig 9.19 is a complete sche-
matic of a simple voice excit er. Adding a
lo w-noise. high-gain audio amplifier a nd
s witc hing re vuhs in a s imple SSB tran s-
ceo er. a" sho wn in . ·ig 9.20.
The pa ssive SS B modul ato r and de-
modulato r with mod est performance are
vignificarnl y si mpler th an "se rio us" phas- x"
ing rece ivers and exci ters. a nd may be
ap pro priate for so me a pplica tions. fi g
9,21 tltu strares a mod ulato r-de mod ula to r
circ uit using a du al quadrature hybr id that
prov ides 20 dH of opp osite sideba nd sup-
pressio n o ve r a reasonable po rtio n of the
audio ra nge. Wh ile ov er- vimplified for
most applicano nv, its advantages are sig-
nifica nt: ..e
I , It is passive and bi-d irection al ,•
2, There arc no adj ustme nts. ,
3. Co mpone nt values are not cri tical
o
;;
The simple phasing systems des cribed
above do not provi de the sideba nd sup-
press ion performance we ha ve co me to
ex pect f rom co nve ntio nal supc rhete ro-
dy ne filter spte ms. We usually req uire
bener pe rfo rma nce fro m the radios we
desig n a nd build. .e
Good performance i s available from
pairs of 2nd-oTlkr networks. usi ng com-
mon op-amp circu itry or RC network!'> like
the cla ssic R&W 2Q4, 2nd order netwo rks y OI-
I _ :-t
arc cap able of pro viding sideband sup-
pression of mor e tha n 30 dB across a voice
bandwidt h. Pairs ot 3rd orde r networks Fig 9.19- A compl ete sc hemati c of a simple ss e exc iter.

9. 12 Chapter 9
using op-amps easily provide more than site sideband. and they are so simp le that thes e recei vers are appealing as design
-w dB. Since op -amps. res isto rs aud C<I- the questio n "is ad ditional selecti vit y projects revis iting the cbs sic homchrew
pacitors are all ver y inexpensive. the cost desi rab le enough to wa rrant significant projects of the past century. The drawback
sav ing from relax ing the sideband sup - additional circuitry?" must alw ays be to these discre te tran s istor receivers is that
pression specification from 40 to 30 dB is asked. For ma ny portable . emergency. and they don't lake ad vantage of the rem ark-
seldo m worthwhile. On the ether ha nd . ca sual listening requireme nts. the answ er able properties of operational ampl ifiers.
there is interest and value in rev isiting is no , Furth ermo re. the simple receive r is Op -amp-, are little ana log ma thematical
classic circuitry . and a design using mod- such an important standard of co mpar ison processor s. and e ven if you skipped the
ern discrete components and a cla vxic that it is usef ul to period ically design and ma th, it is imp ort ant to remem ber that
passive au dio pha se-shift network is build simp le recei vers for applications o p-amps do ma th with Fewer erro rs and
appealing. As an aside-s-no t every des ign wher e re laxed selectivi ty requ irements or appro ximations tha n discre te com ponents .
should he built. There is tremendous value hett er sou ndi ng audio are the goal.
in notebook designs that wor k the prob - Receivers Designed for
lem without maki ng it to the bench , and Receivers Designed for
experiment, on the benc h that are never more than 40 dB
connected to the antenna. Less than 20 dB Opposite Sideband
Opposite Sideband Suppression
Opposite Sideband Suppression lf op-amps are to be used in a receiver,
Suppression in Having built and experime nted with the there is little point in restricting the audio
Receivers "no selec tivity" variant, a simp le drop-in phase-shift net works to 2nd order, and al-
image-reje ct mixer can make a usefu l im - most nothi ng to be gained by going to 4th
For receiv ers. arguments can be made prov ement in the perform ance of bas ic e\v order , Sta ndard 3rd order netwo rks ca n
for almos t any level of audio image sup - and SSH receivers. The circuit in Fig 9.22 reliably provide more than 40 dB of oppo-
press ion , Fro m 100 dB to none at all. It is can repla ce the diode ring mixer in a 40- site side band suppres sio n. the po int at
hard for a recei ver with any degree of usc - meter direc t conversion rig, Oppo site side - which limitatio ns other than audio phase
ful selectivity to compare with the sonic band supp res sio n will be mod era tely good shift net work phase and amp litude acc u-
appeal of a wide-open direct co nversio n at a sing le freq ue ncy . near 800 Hz , and racy begi n to dominate. The mi niR 2 bloc k
receiver or properly adj usted Regen. On will degrade rap idly as the receiver is diagram sho wn in Fig 9.23, is an example
the oth er han d, ew operators duri ng a t uned away in eithe r direc tio n, The re- of a good baste desig n for an imag e-reject
contest often try to copy weak signal s at ceiv er respo nse sounds ver y much like that dire ct conversi on receive r. For a receiver
the nois e floo r in the presence of sign al, of a 1940 ' s ela ssic receiver with a single withou t AGC. 40 dB of opposite sideb and
90dB strong er only a few kl-lz awa y. There crys tal filter and fro nt panel phasing con- suppression sounds ustoni shingl y good.
is no eas y '"40 dB is enough " answer for tro l-with a single deep notc h in the oppo- ew signals simply disappear when a good
rece ivers. Instead, then: is a comple x rela- site sidehand. The performa nce of this cir - phasi ng rece iver is tuned thro ugh zero
tionship betwee n rec eiver top olog y. spec- cuit is disappointing on the test bench. but bea t. This is a re velat ion to experim ent er s
tral purity. dy na mic range , circuit com- it can soun d ve ry good on hand s with few fam ilia r with con ve ntional superhe t de -
ple xity. expe nse . difficu uy of adj ustme nt. sign als close to the noi se leve l. 1L is prima- signs using SSR ba nd wid th filters. or
the need for AG e. operating habits . a udio rily useful for CW , when combined with a sim ple C\V crystal filters , The 40 dB op-
distortion, LO phase noise...the list is long narro w aud io CW f ilter. Bes ides the o bvi- posite sideban d range is the mos t prac tical
enough tha t virtually every receiver ex- ous ad vant age of hei ng a drop-in rep lace - rea lm for direct co nversi on phas ing
perimenter wi ll come up with a diffe rent me nt for a diode ring mixer in a DSB re- receive rs. Recei vers at this opposite side -
requireme nt. There is. however . one piece ce iver , this circui t is also attrac tive hand supp ressio n level sound very good,
of advice that has been distilled fro m sev- because it is ent ire ly passive. can be reliably reproduced , prov ide mo re
eral ge ner atio ns of SSB and CW receiver than e nough selectivity for mos t HF and
experimenters: time spen t experimen ting virt uall y all VHF app lications. and will
with a good, straight DSB direc t con ver- Receivers Designed for perform withou t adj ust me nt indefinitely.
sio n receiver con nected to an antenna is more than 30 dB
par t of your receiver ed ucation. You can' t
Opposite Sideband Receivers Designed for
be a gourmet if you have never set 1'001 in
a kitchen . and there is a sig nificant know l- Suppression more than 50 dB
edge gap in your rece iver ba ckground if The next level of circuit co mple xity in- Opposite Sideband
you have n't performed the fundam enta l volv es the use of a matched pair of product
e xperiment of collecting radio signals on a detectors and audio preamplifiers , d riving Suppression
wire. conv erting them to au dio wit h a a class ic passiv e RC phase-s hift network . A well-designed 3rd order up-amp al1-
mixer and osc illator, ampl i Fyingthem with Thi s is appealing for historica l reaso ns. pass network built with selected co mpo-
a few transistors. and listen ing 10 them un particularl y if discrete FETs are used 10 nellis can prov ide more than 50 dB of up-
headpho nes. This bas ic exp erience is the rep lace the sta ndard vac uum tube func- posite sideband sup pre ssion . 4th order
common g round sh ared by receive r ex- tio ns. Simple direct co nversio n receiv er networks can prov ide mor e than 70 dB of
perimenters . circuits with good opposite sideband sup- opposite sideha nd suppress ion, on paper.
Since there is no easy sideband suppre s- pressio n- 3DdB across a SSB bandwidth Large polypha se ne tworks are capable of
sion numbe r, we willtake a differe nt ap- or 40 dB acro ss a ew band-may be de- simi lar numbers. The diffic ulty is tha t ver y
proach to rec eiver opposite sideban d sup- signed by opt im izi ng for red uced parts smal l differences in the ph ase- versus-au-
pression : how diffic ult it is to meet a count. Numerous examples of such rccciv- dio freq uen cy and ampli tude-versus -aud io
particular spec. The s imp lest rec eiv ers erv have appea red in Euro pean journals freq uen cy betwee n the two c hannels puts
have no provi sions for reducing the oppo- such as Sprat over the years . Once aga in, a lim it on side ban d suppression . For 40 dB

Phasing Receivers and Transmitters 9.13

 Reverse Co nnections
for Othe r Sideba rld

12T Bifilar TUF-3

FB 240 1-43
3.9 mH

''0

l XC75 lXC25 lXC 75

3.9 mH

12T Trifilar
FB 24 01-43 TU F-3
' LSO

4.7k Xo
' '0
2N3904
'"
2 N3904
33

= '" 220 pF I
+
1 0 ~F

50 pi
Trimm er 1 220 PF

+
'"
'" lO ~ F 1 '" 4 ,7 k
Electre t 2N3904
Mic 0.1 10 k

2N3904 + ""
"'
+
10
"
~F
22 ~F
"
+ +
zz
470 pF 4.7 k roo az ez
M"
GAIN "'
2N3906

4 .7 k

470 pF

9.14 Chapter 9
 22

+
"'" 1100 ~F
2N390 4
1.5 ~ F +
Poly
1 10 ~F
+
68 VF
toe
2N3904
5.6 k
10 ~F 1
+
, e 0.'

- -- "
;~~
2,7 k

I J"
r
8 mH
Es ch W irJd ing
Bifila r Mix 72 33 ~F
+
i ~F 33
ioo«
!-- Wv----!

~
Pot Core 33k
22 0 pF

220 pF

Fig 9.20-558 transce iver sche matic.

L1 TU F· 3
4,7 mH 1 ~F
50 Ohm LSB Rx Au dio Ou t

,(' 11 lJF 1lJ~

50 Ohm U SB Tx Aud io In

371B ilfila r
RF In/Out 1-,--1 PC -22 13-77
Pot cere
WO

TU F-3 O.27 j.1F Q.27 IlF

" 4.7 mH
p , ~F
~
03

1 C4 11 lJF l lJ[
1.2 mH 1.2 mH

LO In / - - - - - -----,- -JI- -I ~7 1J F
371 Bilfilar
" PC-221 3-71
Pol Core

XC 1 35 O hms
Co XC2 , XC3 70 Ohm s , ~F
XC4, xes 100 Ohm s
51 50 Ohm US B Rx Au dio Out
XL 1. XL2 70 O hms
50 Oh m LSB Tx Aud io In
T1 Bifi lar Ea ch Winding 50 Ohm s
I',udio Capacitors Poly Film
Aud io Inductors To ko l ORS Series

Fig 9 .21-A modulator-demodulator circuit us ing a dua l quad rature hyb rid thai prov ides 20 dB of opposite sideband
suppression over a reaso nable port ion of the audio range .

Phasing Receivers and Transmitters 9.15

 'IF ( , ee te xt )
TUF-3
18 ~F Poly
LO (;e e te , t) C4
USB Aud io 1.81"

"
5.6 )f
0;1 0.00 1
Ch ip C5

TUF-3 ;~,1.~"1'~ II , i~"

1
Dm H
LSB Audio ,, 1 12 R2
~1 22

0;1
Fig 9.24-Th e co mp lete schematic of
the ba n d pas s d iplexer used in the R2.

L1, L2 2 11#28 T37 -6

T1 , 17\ #28 Bif,lar T37-6
T2, 50t #32 Binlar PC2 177-77 Pot Core with LO drive, which often changes acros s
the re ce ive r tuning range when using a
quadrature hybrid in the LO sig nal path.
The PSPlCE simulation result in Fig 9,25
shows the var iat io n in phase ac ross the
audi o passban d when the dr iving
Fig 9.22-A simple d ro p-in 40-m ban d image-reject mi xe r can ma ke a useful i mpe dance is 50, 75, and 100 n , f or oppo-
improvement in t he pe rfo rm ance of basic CW and s s e recei v er s. site sideb and suppressio n of mor e than 40
dB ac ros s the 300 - ]000 Hz aud io band
the I and Q chann e l IF port impedances
should differ by no mo re than 6 n. For 60
of sup pression . d ifference s must be le ss If the Ie cir c uit is built usi ng ca refully dB opposi te sideband suppression, the I
than on " deg ree o rO. [ d B ac ross the whole match e d (w ith in 0.1 %j co mpone nts and Q por t mixer IF impedan ces mu st be
audio range, For 60 d B su ppression . dif- throu gho ut. the opp osite sideba nd sup - matched to within 0.6 n . This light control
rerence s bet ween cha nnels mus t be less pression will be limited by diffe rences in o r IF pun impedanc e is more than we can
than 0. 1 degree or 0,01 dB. The errors ca n bandpass diplc xcr d rivi ng point imped- ex pect from diode ring mixe rs ,
o ccur any whe re in th e system fro m t he ance between the I and Q channels . Fig .F ig 9.26 shows the simplified dipl e xer
po int where the I and Q ch ann els split to 9.24 shows the com plete sche matic of the netwo rks used in the miniR2. Note that the
the po int whe re they are summed . Much bandpass diple xer used in the R2 . This is a ]00 Hz High-Pa ss LC circuit has bee n
atten tion has bee n given to the des ign of doubly termi nated net work . inten ded for eli minat ed. and the Low-Pas, corner fre-
aud io phase shift network s with arb itrarily 50 n input and outp ut terminatio ns , The quency has heen moved up to 10 kHz . The
sma ll phase and amplitude errors . but the inpu t term ination is provided by the IF port miniR2 diplex er circuit is a lillie more tol-
res t or the circuitry in the receiver 1 and Q impeda nce of the d iode ring mixer , Th e erant or diffe renc es between mixer IF port
c hanne ls needs to he perfect as, wel l. Sirn- outpu t termina tio n is provided by th e impedances . Fig 9.27 i-, it I'SI'ICE simula-
piy replacing the op -amp third order audio inpu t impeda nce of the gro und ed base tion resul t show ing miniR2 diplc xcr phase
phase shift net wo rk in the January 199 3 amplifier s, which is deter mined pr imarily differences when the driv ing point imped-
QST recei ver (hereafter referred to as the by the biasing . for SO dB opposi te side - ance is Sn. 7.'i . and 100 o. Thi s network is
'"Rl'" J with a ne arly pe rfect DSP ver sion ba nd suppression. even the bias resistors more tolerant of driv ing point impeda nce
does no t significantly impro ve opposite must be matched to within 1'7< . The IF port variations : plus or minu s 9 n fu r 40 dB and
sideband suppre ssion. impe dance of a d iode ring mix er varies 0.8 n for 60 dB oppos ite sideband supp res-

Audio
I Mixer Preamp

All-Pass
Djplexe r
Network

ee ee a o Summer
Audio
Splitter Filter
Audio
Preamp Volume
ContrOl
All-Pass
Diplexer
Nellvark

QW

Fi g 9.23 -An ex ample of a go o d basic d es ign for an image-reject di re ct c on version rec ei ver.

9. 1 6 Cha pt er 9
 ' 0 I Amp litude I
1,2mH

Oiffeferoce

... o ~
• • • VdB(131-Vd 8 (Q3)

''' A _ E: ; ~- Fig 9.26-The s implified diplexer

network s used In th e m ini R2.

."V ~ L I o;::~ I
36~ ("I)_VP (eQ
F-} ~
I I' · 50 Oh m IF e on Driving Impedance

saJ t!J
I -~i===:==
= ~'
. 75 Ohm IF Port DrIving1rJll)eCan<;e
. l 00 Ohm IF PonOriving Impeda nce

:- ~ Passbanc
o ' .0 2.0 3.0 40 5.0
• • • Vd B (13) Frequency in kHz

FIg 9.2 8-To reduce senaftlvity 10 mtxer

~tg 9.25- A PSPICE simulation sh o ws the v ariat io n in phase and a mp li t ude across IF port impedance an d rem o ve loo se
N R2 aud io p assband w hen the d ri ving Imped ance is 50, 75. and 100 n. to le ran ce electrolyti c capacitors from
the I an d Q s ig nal paths , a ne w
bandpas s d ipl exer network wa s
de s igned.
50 ~

Diplexer Driving Point

~~~~~~~~~
Impedance
SEl»
·5 0 - - Measurements
• • • Vd8{13j-VdB (OJ)

'" An experime ntal receiver to st udy the

I -
effect of mixe r IF imp edance was buil t
using the new diple xer circ uit and all co m-
po ne nts matched to within 0.\ c,t. L o d nv c

."IV
l"""
50
I
Vp (AFV. ,-;' (AFoo'= )
at I ~ M Hl was pro vided by a Kanga Uni-
versalIr j VFU with the out put s carefully
adj usted for equal amp litude and 90· d~· ­

~f - - -=-=- -=\_~~J
gree ph ase shift. An ind epe nde nt phase
trimm er was used on o ne mix er RF port .
T hiv receiver pro vided 43 dB of op posite
side hand suppressio n acrovs the 300 10

a
I
1.0 2.0 30 40
Passbarld
5.0
3000 HI audio hand. The n. the mixe r IF
ports were isola ted fro m the di plc xcr in-
o • • Vd8 (13) Fre<lUeney in kHz puts with 50-111O-d H instrumen tat ion at-
ten uators . Aft er readj usting the amplitud e
f ig 9.27-A PSPICE simulati on res ul1 showi ng mi niR2 diple xer amplitude and and phase trimme rs, opposi te cideb a nd
phase dIff erence s when t he dri ving po int im ped anc e is 50, 75, and 100 O. This supp ress ion improved 10 more than 50 dB
network Is mor e l olerant of driv ing po int Impedanc e variations. across the 300 10 3000 Hz a ud io band.
Switching from TO·dB 10 20-dB auc nua-
tors a nd readjust ing mad e a further small
-ion, if everything else in the receive r is ca nrly Impro ve receiv er o pposite sideband improvcmer n-c-however at mor e than
perfect. vuppressi on. because rne o the r source of 53 dB opposite sideb and vupprevsion. all
R ~ receiver s rcu n nely exhihir ~l dB of error will the n limit performance . adj ust ments arc a n orde r o f magnit ude
o ppocite side band suppress ion across the To reduce sen sitivity to mixer IF pon mor e c ritical tha n at the ~O dB le vel .
ba nd. while miniR2 receiver s typic ally are impedance and remove loose tolerance PSJ'lCf:: simula tio ns show Ihal add ing
a few dB bone r. This indicates that sen». electro lytic cap acitors from the I and Q sig- 6-dB pads between the mix er IF po ns and
rivity to mixe r IF pon impedance is well nal paths. a ne w band pass dip lexer network diplcxcr inputs permits the ex per ime ntal
bala nced with the errors o btained fro m was designed. The new network b shown receive r circuit with carefully matched
using I c,f toleranc e co mponen ts in the 1 in liig 9.28. It is simple r than the R2 net- co mponents 10 achieve 50 dB of oppos ite
and Q audio c hannel s. Imp ro ving ei ther wor k by 1 ind uctor . and the AC-coupkd sideband suppress ion with a If port im-
ju st the phase shift net work performa nce output elimi nates the need for a blocking pedance mis matc h of up to 10 Q . fol low -
or just the [ I'" pm t ma tc h will not signif'i- capacitor on the inpu t to the audio pream p. ing standard engineering pra c tice. we

Phasi ng Receivers and Transm itters 9.17

wou ld avo id ad ding att enuation at th is Receivers Designed for ired I-V signals at the op -ump sum ming
poin t. ass uming that it would degrade re - more than 60 dB po int . Wh ile thi s is poss ible using serio us
ceivcr sensit ivit y. but standard prac tice is audio e ngi nee ring techniques. it is clear
incorrect in t hi s case. rn fac t the proper use Opposite Sideband that the quest for eve r- higher opposi te
of attenu ation may perm it us to rcdisrrib- Suppression sideband suppressio n in phasing rece ivers
utc rccc ivcr ga in to improve buth scnsiti v- E ven if eve ryth ing c an be per fect ly has a prac tica l limi t. As in phasing tra ns-
ity and dynamic range . ma tched. baked in. trimm ed. and then op- mitters . very lo w distortio n i~ needed in
erated in a stab le temperature con trolled the I and Q channels of a phasing rece iver.
environment. it is still diffic ult to obtain Th e henefi t fo r the user is that a carefully
Effect of Mix e r IF Port more tha n 60 dB of opposite si deband sup - devigned phasi ng receive r will sound ex -
ceptionall y good. If the ultimate rejection
Attenuation on pressio n in a pure phasi ng rece iver. be -
to close-in interfering ~ ig n als in desired . a
caus e of d istort ion in the I and Q chan nel
Receiver Noise Figure audio ga in. A miniR2 ha s 50 dB of aud io differe nt rece iver archite ctur e is needed .
First we need to ex ami ne receiver noise gai n bet ween the input s to the 1 an d Q A su perhet with a fixed IF and a carefull y
figure. Th e techn iq ues for measuring , preamps and the , umming poi nt. T he ga in designed cornhination of crystal filt ers
calculating and even defining mixer noise control is after the summer. so thi s SO dR a nd/or phasing and/or DSP can prov ide
figures are still evolving. A rig oro us treat- gain is alway s in the syste m. With a 5 dB over 100 dB of opposite side band supprcs-
ment is beyond the sco pe of this text. Stan - audio ampl if ier noise figure and no excess xion across the entire 300 - 3000 Hz ban d
dard practice calls for us to mea sure the mixer no ise. the noise tloo r at the sum -
audio ampli fier noi se fig ure (typically 5 to ming poin t is: Special consid erations
6 dB for the R2 and miniR2 circuits) and
add mixer co nversion loss to o btain -204 dB \N/Hz + 5 dB Noise Figure + 34 d B for CW
recei ver noise figure . The re sulting 12 dB SSB Ba nd wid th + 50 dB ga in = - 1 J 5 dBw Many phasi ng direc t con vers ion rece iv-
noise f igure is usually optimistic in pruc - ers have heen huilt by ded icat ed C\V op -
tice. in part beca use mixers hav e excess Using a ."0-0 refe rence vo ltage. this is craters who have no interest wha tever in
noise when used with low frequen cy IFs. an RMS no ise volta ge o f 13 .LlV. For an HF SSB bandw idt hs . Would such rece ive rs
The excess nois e has a ljf charac ter , hut it ap plic atio n. it is common fo r the hand be nefit from redesig ned a ud io phase shift
is a mistake to as sume that we sho uld be noise to he 20 dB abo ve the no isc floo r of networks"? No. Remember that selectivi ty
able to observe a smooth l /f spect rum in the rec e iver. At VHf. at leas t 20 dB of is imp roved by doing a beuerjoh of reject -
the noise out put of a mixer. Low frequency L NA gai n i, likely to be used. In either ing signals in the stnpbund; nO I passing
diode noise mec han is ms are not well uri- case , the noi se at the summing point wou ld s ignals in the passba nd. Th us it can be ar-
derstoo d, and the noise output var ies be abo ut 100 u.V R\-fS . Peaks co uld be gued thatthe opt imum phas e shift netwo rk
widel y be tween de vic es-even of the much hig her. A sig na l 60 dB abo ve the for a high per formance C\V receiver is
sa me part nu mber and cut fro m the same band no ise would be 0.1 V at the s umming exac tly the sume a~ the optimum network
sem ico ndu cto r wafer. F urt he rmore, the point. On the desired si de of zero beat , this to r SS B. In add ition . a good C\V recei ver
nois e out put may have spect ra l peaks signal would he passed on to the vo lum e has severa l hand widths. from narrow co n-
and d ips that vary c on sid erahly from a cont rol. On the othe r side of zero hea t the test filters to wide open ones used fo r tun -
smoo th l l f curve. Meas urem ent s of a small 50 ill V I channe l sig na l would add to the - ing aroun d sparse ly occu pied bands. One
sample of T UF-l mixers revealed excess 50 III V Q cha nnel s ignal fo r a sum less than major benefit of phas ing re ceivers is the
baseband no ise in an SSB bandwidth of 100 ~V. T his means that the I and Q chan- ease of mak ing changes to the selectivity.
bet ween 1 dB and 7 dB . If a mixer has ne ls have to ampl ify' signal s 60 to SO dB It i, eas y to add f ilte r options it freq uen-
exce ss noise. attenuation after the mi xe r above the noise floor witho ut d istortion or cies from 20{)Hz to 4000 Hz on the opp o-
red uces the mixe r no ise alo ng wit h the co mpression. Harm onics and inte rmo d site si de of zero heat arc suppress ed .
desired sign a l. Thus the signal -to-noise pro duct s generated in the I and Q audio However, some recei vers are optimized
ratio cha nges by less than the attcnuator cha nne ls have d ifferent relative phase. 1t for simplicity. and there arc ot her ap plic a-
va lue. is also unreasonable 10 e xpec t the t wo tions of sim pli fied phasi ng method i mage-
Adding an at tenuator to the IF port of chann els to have identic al d istortio n char- reje ct circui try . If the audio band is limited
a diode ring mixer has an additional benefit. acteristics. Distortion asym met ry i, also to 300 - 1200 HI, it is pos.sihle to o btain
Mix er d istort ion is measu red with per- a n issue in pha sing syste ms. Harmon ic more than 50 dR of opposi te side hand sup-
fect broadband 50 0 termi nations on all distortion is familiar to audio eng inee rs. pre ssion wit h a pair of second ord er net-
ports of the mi xer. It is well known that For harmo nic s mo re than 60 d B dow n. the works . An up-amp 2nd ord er netwo rk o p-
the IF port termination can have a larg e tot al harmon ic distortion lT HD) spccifi- timized for a Cw-only receiver is show n
effect o n mixer dynam ic range . By add ing catio n is : THO < 0.1 '7c. A receive r with late r in this c hapte r. Onc appl icati on for
an ancnuator to the mixer IF ports. dynamic T HO 0.1 cit 1 and Q channels cou ld handle CW band wid th image-rejec t mixers is as
rang e may he improved. and the expected an undesired si gna l 60 dB above the no ise the product de tecto r following a simp le
mixer performance wi ll he similar to the fl oor. but it would have no head room . As CW filte r. The cnmhinatinn of a c rysta l
numbers in the Mini-Circ uits data hook. If soon as a signal was st rong enough lO filter and image- reje ct pro du ct de tector
mixer dynamic ran ge is imp roved . then meas ure on the oppovite side hand. disto r- circuitry can provide be tter perform anc e
ad ditio nal RF preamp ga in may be tio n would begi n to do minate. A bette r than ei ther i, capahle of alo ne. as is dem -
added befor e the mixers. Car eful selection rec eiver wou ld pro vide 60 dB of auenua- onstrated by t he ra dios such as the
of RF preamp gain, noise figure. and inter- tion to a s ig nal SO d B abo ve the noise flo or. Ke nwood TS-5 70. By distribu ting the se-
cept performance may perm it improved and no audi ble disto rtion pro ducts in the lecti vity between a cr ysta l filter before IF
thi rd-order per for ma nce and lower noise wrong s ideha nd. Such signals arc enco un- gain and a pha sing produ ct detector , the
figure tha n the receiver without attcnuarors tered on 20 meters dur ing contevts. T his need for a -rau e nd" fi lter is ge ne rall y
can pro vide . wou ld require TIIO of O.OI'} for unde v- avo ided .

9.18 Chapter 9
9.5 BINAURAL RECEIVERS
In a Binaura l IQ rec ei ver the I and Q
channe ls are preserved all the way to the , ,e
headphones. FiA9.2 9 (see nex t two pages )
is a binaural receiver c ircuit from March )
37t Bifilar
1999 QST. Sort ing o ut the signals and
inte rfe rence is done usin g the ear -brain \ I >- PC-22 13-77
Pot-Core
processor. As il lustrated in the experiment
described earlier. an outboard ne twor k
Rev erse Leads
for Sideband 0.27 ~F r 'I 0.27 ~F
built around an audio phas e-shift network
may be used to further process the J and Q
c ha nne ls. T he network shown in Fig 9.30 Binaural 10 c~ :
~
hrh"
Selection "-

:.-
0--
'rl,
: f--o--o
t.z
' ,e
t.z

02~r
mH Mono
provides some sideband s uppressio n and Rec eIver sse
C W sel ectivity. The networ k in F ig 9.31 ,i-, ' ,e
provides ISH headpho ne o utput. Phasing rJ:;17 1JF L )
cir c uitry and recornhining are no rma lly >-
performed at low signal le vels in rec eiv-
ers, to keep t he amount of circu itry that
must be precisely matched bet wee n the 1
: >->- 37t Bifilar
PC-22 13-77
Pot-Core

and Q channels to a minimum . Binaural

receive rs bu ilt with standard tolerance 51 1, e
compo ne nts do not provide the I Q pha se
and amplitude precision nee ded to achieve
high levels of op posite side band suppres-
Fig 9.30 - T his outboard binaura l ne two rk provides some sideband suppression
sio n with outboard networks . Binaural rc- a nd CW se lectiv ity.
ceiv ers are a delightful way to listen, and
also have many use s on the experimenter's
be nc h. For example . a binaural rec eiver
tuned across a CW signal from a crys tal 1.8 ~F
o scilla tor is a p recise, low-dis tortiu n au-
d io signal generator with marched I Q out-
puts- j ust the ticket for making c ircles on rsa
Binaura l 10
an X-Y oscilloscope. Rec eiver
Stereo

Adjusting Phasing Rigs

1,8 ~F
One of the d ifficulties that renewed in- SOt Bifilar
terest in phasi ng ex ci ters and receivers has PC·22 13-77
raised is that the lo re of phasing rig adjust- Pet-Cor e

ment has literally d ied out wit h the "40s

and '50s generatio n of rad io ex periment- Fig 9.31-Th is outboard binaura l network prov ides IS8 head ph o n e output.
er s. Allhough modern components and
modern component tolerances permit us
to build phasing rigs that perform well
beyond the capa bil ity of the classics . a lign- sights have two adjustmen ts: windag e (or balance adj ustment and a sing le phase tri m
ing the m requires an unfamiliar set of azimu th): and elevation . Hoth have [0 he adjustment to reduce the erred of the re-
skill s. Some techniques. particularly those properly adjusted 10 hit the center. spective errors to zero .
familia r to George Grammer at the AR RL. With two orthogonal error terms . a Unlike most other twe aks in Ama teur
were we ll doc umented, hut others are on ly phasing rig needs two adj ustments for Rad io. pha sing adj ustments can not be
preser ved as vague reco lle ctio ns o f ob - opposite side hand supp ression. This is a tuned for max imum smo ke . The ea siest
ser ving the masters at work in their rad io critically important point: no matter how way to adj ust a phas ing receiver is to tunc
labs. T hose of us who now experiment many small amplitude er rors we have in across a steady CW tone from an exte rnal
with phasing rig ,s have had to start from the system. we ca n tunc them out with j ust signal generato r, adjusting the phas e and
scratch and desig n new adju stment tech - a single am plitude ba lance adjustment . amplitude trimmers for mi nim um re-
niqu es. while remaining pain fully aware Sim ilarly , all of the small phase erro rs in sponse on the undesired sideband. The sig-
that we arc recreating a lost art. the vyctem may he tun ed o ut with j ust a na l generator mu st have adjus table output
In the math section. we found that WI; single phase adju stme nt. We need pre - level so that t he tes t signal can be kept
co uld comb ine all of the amplitude erro rs cisely two adjustments in a phasing rig to between the receiver noise floor and d is-
into a sing le term, a nd all of the phase cr- null the op po site sideband. torti on level on both the desired and nn -
rors into a single ter m. These two erro r The strategy for des igning and build ing desired sidebands. T he rece iver and signal
terms an: orthogonal-no amoun t of tweak - a successful phasing rig comes directly generator both need to he well shielded, to
ing on the amplit ude tnmpot can correct a from the math ematics: desig n the syst em prevent sig nals tram the generator le aking
phase error, and vice versa. The situation is so thai all the amplitud e and phase errors into the I or Q channel.
very much like shooting at a targe t. The are small ; and include a singl e amplitude Th e easiest way to adj ust a pha sing ex-

Phas ing Receivers and Transm itters 9.19

 r - - - - - - -- - -- - - - - - - - - - - - T- - - - - - - -- - - - - - - -
I I
I I
I I
I I
I I
I I
I ~ ~ I
I .. J.. 04 5 rn I I R' R5
I L6 330pF I AF I 3 9 mH 68 ~ F 0 1 10 k
S.6k

I ..J R TUF- l l"--~::.;-r_I__r:'0I...r_:.;I!...T;::.,._I_-...l-~

I +
I
211T30-6
I c,J, ,, " I 04 i ll. J\
122°1 ~F J. C3
,
I
I
pF
C2
51

1~F
Poly 1 2.7 k :
R2
r
\::::;1
+
....--

I J; '"
" C5

1
R3
'"C
Conn ector
I 33 IJF 33k
tt
RF '" 171a,f,18r, 130 -6 I r
is
04'
" r W
I
R45
"
GA," rI.,Y;J..l R'"
too 220 -
, F ~ T TT L ~ I
- I

r r I~ '?I r
I
I

I
I
R2' R27
II AFQ 3.9 mH 6.8 .F
+
04 10k 5.6 k
UI R
TUF-l
211130-6

O4' :r
33O p~

LOCM

1 - - - - C6-;1 ~ - ;;;;~ - - - --- - - - - - C63 ~OOOpF- - ll

I l000pF L - -t:=
- }-- - - - - - .,-- -r- - ,
I
I
6 HOIl! eeee
~~ -: 1 1 1''0
~
I
I I- c" r
I T~ I~ o_~
I
I
C53 0'
JOpf 1N41 ol8
ro 1>-
6~e l )
Il C60 t oco pf

'"
:I 221"'~
1 37-6 Corn C57
IE I
I " >-.:.:::=.:.::::=-.---------!--I ~......_1[~
. 1l ~3810
Tap al 5 Tums

I 10~
" '0 R50'~ h
I R51 C6l
I_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ lOO k 270
_ _ L
1 01 ~ ~

9 .20 Cha pter 9

 Switched <-1 2 V to VFO

Rn
ROO

R" '" R"

'" +
...
C16 RH

U>A 10 IJ fl '" U," RFC1

".""
0.1 4 .7 k
- '50
R22
err Rt8
'" R"
R20 100 k

C 18 220 pF
C15 220 pF
Binaural

R33 22

R" R"
0' +
e28 I car Ie"r-rve-r-r-r-r--
150
+
150
+
'" R"
- - ...><: / + '"
C26J; 10 IlF
R29
l 10 ..,F 100
..,F
100
IlF

U>A
'"
-t--
RJ9

'"
-1
eJ9

I--- J1--r-., 1-...,.., I-- -''-{-

CJ()
" 0.' 4 .7 k
- "'"
+ '50

R'"
RJ5
C37 R40
'" R"
'"
R30
4 .7 k

Fig 9.29- A b in aural recei ver cir cu it from Marc h 1999 QST.

citer is to tune its low level outp ut on a observed on an oscilloscop e. and phase level IUUU-Hz sine wave tone injected into
receiver with low distortion. very good and ampli tude trimmers adjusted to redu ce thc microphone input. the SSB exci ter will
selecti vity. and selectable stdehandv. In- the aud io amplitude variation, in the out- have a lill ie' output at the suppressed car-
ject a pu re sine wave audio tone into the put wa veform . It is diffi cult to reduc e spu- ricr frequ ency f" : a des ired side band OUI-
microphone input and s witch back and rious outputs by mo re than ~(J dB ..... bile pu t WOO Hz a w ay : a suppressed opposite
forth between the desired and undesired obse rvi ng the excite r OUIPUt on an oscillo - sideband 1000 li z on the other side of rne
sidehands w hile adj usting the excite r sco pe. because the carr ier . opposite side- carrier frequency ; and divu'mi un prod ucts.
phave an d amplit ude trimmers. Then ba nd. distortion prod ucts. har monicv on The di stortion prod ucts can be made arbi -
' .... eep the audio tone frequency from the audio inp ut to ne. and power supp ly trarily small by redu cin g the aud io lone
300 to 3000 Hz to verify th at sideband sup- hu m and noise all comrihute 10amplitude level arthe micropho ne input. The decired
press io n holds across the desired a ud io mod ulation of the' de sired sine wave RF side band. carrie r. and oppovite sideband
pass band . ou tp ut . all heat together in the diode dete ctor. and
An SSB exciter with a pure sine wa ve There is a cle ver old tech nique for ad- thc audi ble heats may be heard on the
audio tone into the microphone input gen- ju sn ng op posite sideb and suppression that headp hones. Imperfect carrier supprcs-
erates a sine wan: RF output. Residu al doe s not require a good receiver or oscil - sion result s in a 1000-Hz aud io ton e. and
carrier and op posite sideban d energy am- Iosco pe . The exciter output is co nnected poor opposite sidehand suppres sion re-
plitude modulates the desired sine wave through a suita ble auenoator into a diode sults in a 2000 -H7. audio lone . The SSB
Rf output. The SSE exciter output may be det ect or wit h he adph ones. Wi th a low· exciter phase and amplitude trimmers may.

Phasing Receivers and Transmitters 9.21

be adju sted for minimum 200 0- 11/ lone . I f vcnic nt amp li tude trimme r for recei vers is qucncic s. or that Introd uces phase errors
the exc iter has c arrier balance adj ust- a ten-turn trim pot co nnecting the I and Q acro ss the a ud io freq uency range. wi ll
me nts, they may he trim med fO I' minimum audio channe ls to the inve rting input of ma ke it impossible to obtain goo d oppo -
I oooHz ton e. the Slimmi ng amp lifier. If sideband site sideband suppression acr oss the whole
switc hi ng is implemented hy interchang - audio range . I n exci te rs it is best to include
Amplitude Balance ing the I Q conn ection s at the input to a a se parate op -amp variab le gain stage . to
precise a udio pha se shi ft network pair, avoid ups et ting either the mi xer diplever
Adjustm ent hala nci ng the a mplitudes before the sw itch impedances or the up -am p all-pas s net-
The a rnpli iu de balance adjus tment may re sults in a vyste m rh.u has nearl y equal work d rive impe dances. Fig 9.32 show s
be a variable gain elem ent i n either the I or side hand supprevsinn on e ither side hand . possible locat io ns for the amp litu de bal-
Q chan nel anyw here fro m the poin t where A sig nificant po int 10 watch for is that ance adjustment in rece ive rs. and Ft g 9.33
the two paths se parate to the point where the variable gain clement docs not unba l- shows locatio ns Fur ex ci ters . Remember
they are su mm ed toge ther. 11 is usuall y ance the drive or load im pedance of han d- tha t o nly one a mplitude adjustment is
easie r to use a var iable res istor at pass or a ll-pass net works , An amplitude needed , The amplit ude adjus tments shown
ba seb and, particularly if up-amp ga in adju st me nt that beha ves differen tly at lo w have no appreciable affec t o n phose . When
blocks are inclu ded ill the system. A eo n- audio frequenc ies than at high aud io frc - DSP is used . it may be usefu l 10 do the

I Mixer Low-Pass

Ly>tC{~J-;4 ''''''"
r. Network

Low-Pass

Fig 9.32-Possible locations for the am pli t ude balance adjustment in rece ive rs .

Ba lanced
Mo dUlato r

All-pass
<e
Low- pass
Newark
Filter

Summer
Balanced
Mod ulator

All-pass
Newor!<.

co
Pha se-Shift
Network

Fig 9.33-Possible locations f o r the amplitude ba lance adjustment in exc iters,

9 . 22 C ha pte r 9
 Amplitude
Varying L2 1rom 110 nH
through 810 nH glves:t 2.0' C2 ! ' 60P F R3 7.5 k Tri';
phas e shift with:t 0.• dB rL'I'={yL'1'~}L _ _ I-..__J 50
,,, I
<
amplitude offse t. .»S k
R2 790 nH l eM
R5 V 521

"" V
50 t2 {Ls2}
V 531
,v 790nH

C' 1 160PF
R'
50
V
5 11
{Op}
'" v~
R,
," Varying C3 from 128 p F through 192 pF (20%)
gives t 4 .0' pha se shift WIth less than 0,025 dB
1l'F
.,1 10
10k
amplrtude ceset . r

Va ria ble Ph ase Sp litter/Combiner

Phase
Trim
Fig 9.34- A var iable phase spllller/comb in er net work for a 20-meter receiver or
exciter. Th e PSPICE signal generato rs all o w extra ct ion of 5 11.
'" 5k 10 k
10 k

amplitude balance trimmi ng in so ftware . math ematically independent. but it iv nut 10k I
Ph ase Trim Adjustment
trivia l to adj ust phase without affecting
amplit ude a-, ....e:11 . \\·h.:n mixers with sutu- I' ">; Q O.

There are many possibilities for the 10·

calion of the phase trimmer. Phase may he
rating LO dri ve (for exa mple. diode rings
and Gilbert cellst are used. small changes
in LO amplitu de do not have a large: effect
V
trim med in the I and Q signal path any- on mixer performance. f or th is reaso n. Fig 9.35-Th e c p- am p circuit pe rm it s
.... here after the audio phase-shift net.... nrk includi ng the phase trim adjustme nt in the a small amouot of a-channel signal to
in exciters and an),.... here before the audio be either add ed o r subtracted to t he
mixer LU drive rather than in the RF or l-channel signal.
phase-shi ft net.... ork in recei vers . LO baseband path is good prac tice . On the:
Phase may also be trim med at eit her the I other hand. low-pass fi lte ring i;, need ed at
or Q mixer LO port. As long as the phase the output of phasing exc ue rv and at rhe receive r or exci ter. The variable capacitor
errors in the system are smal l. only a single input to d irect con version recei vers , A trims the phase over a plu s or minus
phase trim adj ustment is needed. and it low-pas" Wilkenson spl itter is a usef ul RF a-degree runge w ith O.1l2 5 dB variation i n
may be anywhere in the sys tem. Som e 10' splitter or combiner for a phasing rig. and amplitude.
cations for the phase tr im adjust ment are using a variable capac itor for one d eme nt II is poss ible to do the phase trimmi ng at
better than others . The amplitu de bala nce allow-s smooth adjus tment of pha se. Fig baseb and. eit her in DSP or using op-a mps.
and phase bala nce in a pha sing rig are 9.34 illustra tes a network fur a :!O-meler For co mplete suppre ssion of the undesired

Invert

I Mixer l ow-Pass

= 1-- - - - - -'

f ig 9.36-A sing le change in sign anywhere in the mat hematical

descrip ti on will resu lt in the s uppr es sion 01 th e lower sideband
in st ead . The sign chan ge ma y be accomplished in pr actice by
u sing a 1800 co m bin er to su m the m ixer ou tput s, in verting the
audio drive to one side o f the audio phase sh ift netw ork,
ioter ch anglng the L O I and a-mi xer con nec tio ns , adding a half-
wavelength of trans missi on li ne t o on e of the LO po rts or bet ween
t he RF sp li tt er aod one of the mi xer RF por ts , o r interchangi og th e
mi xer IF ports. The block diag ram illustrates all of thes e o pti ons.
bu t remem ber that only one is needed.

Phas ing Receivers and Transm itte rs 9 .23

 Fig 9.37-Fo r systems that need to
/ Ampillt.lde perform equa lly well on either sideband ,

I~
Trim the phase and amp litude adjust ments may
0 .47 ~F W, either be front panel mounted and
From
Prea mp 1 H adjusted every t ime t he other sideband is
selected, or an independent set of phase

~" 2V and amplitude adjustmen ts may be used

fo r each sideband .

""
Phase
TMm
" ~,
, .0
'" )I AFPS N 1
rracted to the r channel sig nal. The same
tne L" I
"'w, [
principle may be applied 10 receive rs . It is
nece ssary to do the phase trim mi ng at a

From
P re a mp 2
H
0.47 ~F
tne I t>; [

[
poi nt in the aud io circuitry wher e the sig -
nals in the two channels are 90 degree s
apart. that is . between the mixers and the

~
[
audio phas e shift networks in bot h rccc iv -
[
er s an d ex citers.
[

7.5 k L" .e:u .0 Sideband Selection

f~
Amp litude AFP SN 2
'em In the mathematical de scription of a
'" I r': ph asing receiver, the lower sid eband is sup-
pre sse d when the l}()O shifted audio is mu l-

~ ''''
tip lied with th e 90" shifted LO . and the
outputs of the two mix er s are added. A
single change in sign anyw here in the math -
L" P ha se ematical des cription will result in the sup -
W, Trim pression of th e up per sid ehand ins tead . The
sign change may be accomplished in prac-
t ok
+12V
"'Wk tice by using a 180 0 combiner to sum the
mixer outputs. inverting the aud io dr ive to

''0 toe I F>; one of side of the audio phase shift net -
work. int erchanging the 1.0 I and Q mixer
con ne ctions. adding a half- wavelength of
'"
~
transmissio n lin e to one of the LO port s or
Je w Jew bet ween the RF splitter an d one o f the

1 of
'"r: r m ixer RF po rts , or interchang ing the mixer
IF ports. The block d iagram in Fig 9.36
illustra tes all of thes e options. but re mc m-
bcr thai on ly on e is needed . Switc hing side -
bands will generally introduce a different
se t of amp litud e an d pha se error s. Fo r sys -
sideb and . the I and Q channels after the Q channe l to the r channel. If the ph ase tem s that nee d to perfo rm equally well on
au di o phase- shift network in an exci te r error is ill the op posi te d irection . then a either sideband . the phase and amp litude
nee d to have the same sign ll!. but 90 small amo unt of the Q c hannel signal can adjustments may either be fro nt panel
deg rees out of phase . If t here is a phase be subtracted to ac h ieve exactly 90 moun ted and adju sted every time the othe r
error , the angle bet wee n the I and Q ch an- de grees ph ase sh ift. The op-amp circuit in sideband is se lected. or an inde penden t se t
nels wi II not be 90 de grees . It is po ssible to F i g 9.35. similar to o ne p ublished by of phase and amp litude adjustments may
obtain ex actl y 90 degrees of phase shift by Blanch ard. per-mits OJ. small amoun t of Q be used tor each side ban d. Fig 937 sho ws
adding a small amou nt of the signal in the channe l sign a l to he either added or sub- one way this may be accomplixhed.

9 .6 LO A N D RF P H ASE· SH IFT A ND IN·PHASE SP LITTER ·COM B I N ER

N ETWORKS
Num erou s ar ticles over the years have hig hly re co m me nde d . as th e o nes pre - and phase between the I and Q RF chan-
add re ssed the tu pic of L O phase shift net- sen ted here arc not necessarily optimum, nels. T he LO pa th ha s a pair of sine waves
wo rks fo r phasing r ig s. T he re ce nt wo rk th ey arc just fa mi liar. wi th p recis ely d ef ined ph ase. but we are
by Blan chard is particularly r ecorn - The fir st topic to addr ess is the que stion usu all y not too concerned wi th LO a mpl i-
me nded.In this sectio n we will dis cuss the o f whe re to p ut the 90 de gree phase shift: tu de, an d we ne ver need it to be matched to
requiremen ts and imp lications of diffe r- in the RF path or the LO path . T he re is an h un dr ed ths of a dR. Si m ple ph ase shift
e nt network se lec ti ons. and pre sent the easy answer to th is ques tion th at is usua lly net wor k s prov ide precise l}()" ph ase shi ft
networks that we hav e us ed ex te nsi vely . correct. The R F path co ntains sig nals that ov er a wide ba ndwidth . but the amp litude
Ex perimentation with other networks is m ust he pr ecisely matched in amplitude is only balan ced at a single fre quency .

9.24 Chapter 9
Equa l am plitude I and Q 1.0 may be ob- usc from 300 10 3000 HI . but ....'c wouldn' t me ntors who bu ild the ir firs l phas ing rigs
rained by follo wing suc h a network with a wa nt to use a widcband unity-gain op-amp are often amazed ut ho w muc h d iffe re nt a n
limite r. Phase <;h ifl ne tworks usi ng split- circuit as the RF inpu t :>Iagc of a rece iver. LO phase sh ift pair-wo rks whe n con nected
Iers and le ng ths of t ra nsm ission line, ei- O n the other ha nd. the re are man y simple to millen. than when it is ob se rved with
ther act ual coa x o r lumped cle ment in-p hase spliners that pro vide good phas e 50-0 loa ds o n a n oscilloscope. It is com-
equiv ale r us , ha ve we ll mat ched amplitude and a mplitude accuracy over a wide ba nd- mo n fo r the phace adjust me nt range to be
ever a wide freq uency ran ge. bU19O" phase .... idth. Fur thi s reaso n. we almos t a!.... ay' too small. and add itio nal ca paci tors ofte n
shift at only line freq uency. It is difficult p ut the 90" p hase shif! network in the LO need to be tac ked o n the bott om of the cir-
to build a pa-vive net work that pro vides path a nd an in-phase split ter in the RF pat h. wi t board alone mi xer 1.0 port or the
both precise amplitude balance and a 90" One rea son that we mig ht choose to use other. In many appl ications. the phasing
o utput pa ir o ver a wide RF band widt h. in-phase LO a nd quad rature Rt' is that the receiver o r e xciter only needs to 0Pl:'ralt'at
wit h widcb and op-a mps. we can use [he RF ports of diod e-ring mixe rs a re oft en a s ing le freq uency or over a very narro w
carne circu itry fro m 3 10 30 ~Hl l rhat we better behaved tha n the 1.0 pon s. Ex peri - ha nd- for example. whe n fo llo wing a

n
rmc, Audio
x
R '"
LO
.1 0 dBm
RF H'"
st R
• - -+0 ) Aooio
x r- IF 2

1 J; C'
Minimum Com ponent Receiver Front-End
0e5ign Equa tions
t
n . -so-
,
Ct . C2 " 1000 Capacl\Ml' Reactance Ct . C2 " 100... T1 "50 Q Indudrve Reactanee
w
zc
~ =~Q~~R~C3 "

C4 . C5 = 700 CapaetJV8 Reacta nce C4. C5 "

~
,
-ro;;;
L1. L2" 700 lnciuctive Reactance L1. L2"
where ... ·2nfo
""W
Fo = Desogn Center F, equ ency

Not,": Wind T1 with a pa,r of enamelled _ 95 sode-by-slde, The;# turns lorT1 ,s the number of limes the pair is wound through the
center of the core Tne sa me core type is used tor T l . L1 and l2.

Capacotors C l a nd C2 are the nea- estrcwer SllIfIOard value . to ~p compen~te lor tile capacotance between Ihe windings of T1.
o eee ca pac;l'lon; afe the nea rest standard veue

. 12 V

£,._0' _
Ir - - - - - - - -- -7SL-
06 ~+nrc1'
I ,.
I 2 .7 pF "
I
I ,. ·1 2 V
R R

I 2N3904

I l N4 148 'GO
I
I L c
I
I
0 .01 High-Z
I ' 80

IL Tin box solde red compMely a round VFO 1 ~

I
Minimum Parts Count Single Signal HF Rece iver

Fig 9.38- A good co mb ination of l.O qu adrature ne two rk and RF splitter for HF a nd low VHF single-band recei vers and
exc ite rs.

Phasing Receivers and Transmitters 9.25

 , Fi g 9.39-T he LQ qu adratu re network
has wl deban d pha se ba lance an d
+7 dBm acceptab le am p li t ude balance o ver an y
rr " 50
T, SOClXL =""""W""" amat eu r band, and the c o m b ined low-
pas s lille r-splitter for RF provides a
25 natu ral and wen-beh aved phase
L. ,lz250X , = - -
w
to
• 1QdBm
C,- C. l OO O X C" 1(lOw
, adju stment po int . Here we mo ve th e
ph ase ad j ust men t to t he LO path .

" wI'Ie<e ...." 2TTF Q

--- 0 FO" DesIgn Center Frequency
c rystal fille r o r ..... hen used with a VXO as
+7dBm a tunable IF for microwaves. In thi-, ca..e
L2

l C5 the benefit.. of connecting the quadrature

network to the Rf pons in..read of the LO
mixer pons and u"ing in-phase LO split-
A Passive "Whole Band" LO Phase-S hitt Network ting may outweigh the bandwidt h pe nalty.
A good co mbination of LO quadrature
network and RF splitter for HF and tow
VHF single-band rec eiv ers and excners is
show n in F i ~ 9.38. The 1.0 qua dr ature
network ha s wideb and phase bala nce and
acceptable amplit ude balance over any
amateur hand, and the co mbined low-pass
filte r-sp litter for RF provides a natural and
" 'ClI · beha ved phase adjus tme nt point. Fig
9.39 moves the pha...e adj ustment to the
LO path. Th is arrangem ent has been used
In Pnase Splitler e xten s ively in ama teur phaving exciters
and receivers. and is attrac tive for band
to "witch ed applicatio ns.
+13dBm
• • The bifilar toro id qu adra ture hyb rid
"'''0 des cribed in the reference by Fisher may
be conven ed 10 a hroadhand structu re b)'
con necting a second ne two rk thro ug h a
pair of transmissio n lines. The transmis-
161 fT31-43 lOT B'ftlllr
Tapa! 12T sion lin es are us ually lumped dement
FT37 -43
equivalents al frequencies below 50 f\IHz.
The netwo rk shown in f ig 9.40 is used in
'0
TX Mixen;
a receiver that co vers 6.8 10 I I ~1Hz with-
ou t band switching. Fron t panel phase and
amp litu de tr immer s are appro priate in
Pha sing Transce iver such a receiv er.
LO Phase Shift Network At VHF. a pair oftransmission lines may
he used. either with an in-p hase sp litter or
j ust soldered tcgcthcr.ft will be necessary
10 trim the length for maximum oppos ite
sideb and suppress ion. Th is is a ted ious
proc ess, more so if connectors have to be
unsoldered and reso ldc rcd every time the
line length i ~ trim med. If anything in the
KI Kl ParametefS; K K2 syste m cha nges-any other transmission
iClinear F1 14 Meg K_Lir>ear line length or the V SW R at any port-e-the
Coupling: l PI 3.14 159 ~.,
l3 line length will ha ve 10 he readj usted. Th is
"
L2
t.t to " l3
v hrings up an interesting point: it i ~ gener-
2 ally not appropriate to usc modu lar con -
[l.a} (l bJ (lo) struction and connectors between the
C2 C3
(Co)
R4 50 (Ca)

• , ("')
""
(Lb, (""
R' 50 Fig 9.40-The bifilar toroi d quadrature
hybrid descr ibe d by Fisher may be
3
converted to a broadba nd structu re by
R3
'" ~1 50 connecting 8 second ne twork through 8
pair of trans mission line s . The
Pers mete rs tran sm is s ion lines are usually lumped
(Ca) 11(2 " TT st . t OO) (La) 50/(2 TT ' F1) elem ent equivale nts at frequen cies
(Cb) 0 .409/(2' TT ' F l ' 100 } (Lb) 20.5/(2 1T ' F l )
be lOW50 MHz. This network is used In a
rece iver that co vers 6.8 to 11 MHz
without band switching.

9.26 Chapter 9
 5V.., e nc o uraged. C.\10S logic with a 5 V sup- is of/en no t in the "hi gh-perfo rmance re-
Sql,lareWave ply c an drive +7 d Rrn into d iode mixers ceiver" category. and the miniR2 circuit pro-
X,

I~~""
using the ci rcui t in F i~ 9AI T he pi net- vtdes more than enough signal processing
,, +7 d8m
wor k co nve rts the hig h-impeda nce IC performance. The extra design and consrruc-
squ are wav e o utput into a si ne wa ve and non li me and e'l p<n",,; to use the R2 and
trans form s the impe dance do wn to d rive R2pro circuitry i-, wasted if receiver s~'stem
"
!" x'l
t he 5o..Q load . T he pi ne lwtlrl output c a- performa nce is limited by the La.
l{, ,, X ~ a l 60 0 pacitor is a co nve nient poi nt to trim the Digilal LO ge nera tion. and La buffer
,~ pha-,e. A simp le logic LO phase-vhift net- a mplifie r dictonion generate LO ..ig na ls
I wo rk is shown in r iA 9..12. Instead of a that may be very ric h in harmo nics. Har-
F"~ 9.41-CMOS logic wi t h a 5 V suppl y frequency divi der to obtain the 9()<' output mo nic.. are impo rtant in phasing syst cmv,
can drive +7 dBm into d iod e mixers pair. a n RC net wor k is used. The inve rte rs beca use a phase . . hift in a ha rmonic will
..ing t his ci rcuit . The pi network following the RC net wo rk act as hard lim- shift the phase of the com posi te wavefor m.
convert s th e hIgh-impedance Ie square
ite rs. and the netwo rks on the ou tput pro - Even if the I Q 1.0 provides a pe rfect pair
_ave output into a sine wave and
a-ansfo rm s t he i mpe da nce do wn to vide +7 dBm into 50 n and a con venient of s ine wa vev. har mo nic s arc gene rated in
lIri ve 8 50 -0 load. phase trim . the mixe r. A con servati ve appro ac h to
Some DDS Ies provide I ami Q outputs. co ntrol of harmonic phase is 10 dri ve the
The se may he uved with II broadband RF mi xe r LO ports with wid e hand buffe r
splitter and switched RF low-pass fillers to amp lif iers and res is tive attcnua rors. For
51 bu ild simple general cove rage phasing rigs. must applic ation s. a mo re practic al ap -
and experiments alon g these lines arc en- pro ac h is to ha ve a wide range avai la ble (In
LOIn co uraged. For wideband rigs. it is conve nient the pha se trim adju st me nt 10 co mpensate
to do both the amplitude and phase trimming fo r har mo nic phase effec ts.
al base ba nd, using the op-a mp circ uitry If the phase tri m adj ustme nt docs nOI
Xc· 50 't- -C ><>-I Q shown ea rlier. The phase noise performance have eno ugh range. a common techn iq ue
of wide range DDS bas ed Loca l Owilla rors is 10 tac k a small value (sian wit h a fe w pF I
ca pacitor fro m one mixer La port to
g round . If the opposite sideba nd supp res-
sion improves. leave the ch ip ca pac itor in
Fig 9.42- A s imple logic L O phase-sh ift place a nd readjust. If opposite sideband
netw o rk. I M"'er /--- - -r--lf-r-- ----f 5 8 1 sup pression degrades. mov e t he capacncr
to the other mixe r. Add en ough capaci-
tance that the phase trim adju stme nt range
T2
stages of 3 phasing rig. It is much better 10 permits the opposite sideband vuppresvion
~j u ~ 1 it onc e. solder eve rythi ng in place. to be nu lled . It may be ne cessary 10 add a
MId then leave it alone. lf rhe rig hal> cab les 1.8 I'F surprisingly la rge va lue ca paci tor befo re
.... ith conn ect ors, they will e ve ntua lly be
po, the phase is equalized . 100 pF will shirt a
needed for o ther project" and bo rro wed . ~'::=r----{ 5B2 40- mr: lr:r sign al in a :;O· H sys tem abou t
Then new cables wil l have 10 be made up
Q Mix ef
I 10 degrees.
to get the phasi ng rig r unning again. and at 50! #32 Bifll(lr PC 2177 77 Pol Core
:! meters a few te nths of an inch makes a
differe nce. Three of the most reliable rig>
Audio Phase Shift
Fig 9.43-This s imple qu ad rat ure hyb rid
at KK 7B use p hase shift ne two rks that c irc uit ha s good pe rfo rmance at o nly Networks
were adj usted by sq ueezing turn s o n a tor - on e aud io frequency , but It is tru ly A coll ect io n of aud io phase-shift net-
o id. and then the turns were locked in place elegant in its simplicity a nd pro vide s
trivial sideba nd switc hing. dra ws no works is shown in the ne xt scr of figures.
with nail poli sh. All three still prov ide current. an d offe rs the po ssibility of Th e s imple qu adrat ure hybr id circ uit in
more than -W d B of opposite si de ba nd sup- binau ral inde pe nde nt sideban d Ils1ening. Fig 9A 3 has good performance ur "nl~ one
pression after years of por table operat io n
and wo rld travel .
Dig ital lCs co nfigured as freq ue ncy di·
\ ide rs c an provide acc urate 900 phas e
10 tv 2
shift. a nd ha ve ofte n appea red in pri nt. \ 1.2mH
5 "'" 5 "'"
They have bee n use d less o ften . partly
because logic le wis are not the appropri- 0,21 0.21
ate dri ve fo r any of the mo re co mmon mix-
ers used in rec ei vers a nd ex cite rs. a nd
so
,"' " ," '
1 l'F 1.2mH
I'
F
l ,"' ra
,"' eo
pa rtly beca use man y more people hav e
•
V, 5mH 5mH
writte n about phasi ng rigs tha n have ac tu- 0.21 0.27
ally des ig ned a nd built the m. The re may
be parts of t he bra in t hat. once used to
~4 1"' "'1 ,,,,/
~
so
grasp tu ndamenra l d igita l c o ncept s. are no
longer c apable of understanding basic RF. T1 ana T2: 37 Iums Bifllar on Amidon PC·2213-11 Pot Coffl
If so the n the re verse is also probably tr ue.
Expe rimen ts with logic phase shift net- Fig 9.44-A broadba nd version of the c irc uit in Fig 9.43 pro vides mar gin a l
wor ks and com muta ting mixer s arc highly pe rforma nc e over a wider ba ndw idth, but good performan ce now he re .

Phasing Recei vers and Tr ansmitters 9.27

 2tIc:I orne.. RC All-Pass...m Small SognaI"'l.03iOJFETs 2tIc:I 0 _ RC AI-P."...m 8JTs
~,
~ ,
' 12 V

ses ~
" .n Uri-
' 12 V
y.
,,~ ,,~ ,,~
'" ~'H
0 .1 ';
,~ ,

76 .U ,y ,
H "~ H
.. '00
m. , ~
+H
•• '00
'00 .
"~
+H
~ .H

-e v
_ 12V
'"

0, 1 ~ F
see
1 2.~ ' 6.' of

0, 1 ~F
"2V

01
'"JE
~
... y"
0.1 "F
,~ ,

H '~ .6 '

""
+H
H 1,!lll ,
,,,,
,", +H
'" '00 , ~
10 " ' 00 •
'"

Fig 9A S-FET drive and load circu its lor usi ng cla ssic Fig 9.46- BJT drive and load circ ui t s fo r us ing cla ss ic
seco nd-ord er RC networks in excit ers and receivers . seco nd-order RC networks in exciters and receivers.

aud io freq uency , but it is tru ly elegant in capable of good performance i n bo th ex- the gain from Vi throu gh the non-invert-
its simpl icity and provides trivia l side band citer and receiver app lications. but will not ing inp ut is O. and the gain from Vi through
s witchin g, draws no current . and offers the provi de the same level of performance as the inverting input is sl ill - 1. The sum is
possibility of binaural independe nt side- the co mmon third-orde r op-amp network s - 1. The frequency fo occurs whe n XC 1 ::::
band listening. It offers a real perfor mance or poly phase RC netwo rks , Since net- RI , Th e voltage at the non-inverting input
improvement over the simplest USB di- wor k... with better perfo rma nce arc no at f" is 0.5( I-j) , The gain fro m Vi through
reel conversion and regenerative rece iv- more diffi cult to build. there is no obviou s the non-inverting i nput at fo is I-j . The su m
ers . The broadband versi on in Fig 9..&4 technical reason to use the class ic circu itry of the outputs from Vi through the inve rt-
provides margina l per form ance over a in a rig with mod ern pan s, There is. how- ing and non-inve rt ing inpu ts is - I + (I -j )
wide r ba ndw idth, h UI go od performance ever, an appeal to simple circuitry. and == -i Th us. the all- pass op -am p circui t ha s
nowhere, One difficulty with passive LC eve n the sol id-state cir cuits of the ' fiOs are unity ga in all the way fro m de to high fre-
audio qu adratur e hybrid net works usi ng now old enough to be incl uded in the clas - quencies. and a phase shift of - 90" at fo' A
pot-core indu ctors is maintaining ind uc- sic cat egory. A complete ph asing tra ns- pha sin g rig with j ust one op -amp
tor toleranc es. The indu cta nce can vary mill er using point-to-poin t wiring and all-pass network cou ld have perfect oppo-
ove r a wide range de pending on the light- on ly two and three term inal device s (no site side band suppression at one freq uency
ness of screw holding the pot core halves ICs) co uld be part of a '60s vin tage home- t~. By adding a seco nd all-pass networ k in
togethe r. and a mech anical jolt can result brew station, and more impo rtant ly, could the other channel wi th a d ifferen t fre -
in a big inductance shift. sound exce ptionall y good on the air. It is quency fo. a phase difference of app rorl-
Second -order RC audio phase-shift net- criuca t ro remem ber that the drive and load ma rcly 90'-' ca n be maintained over a s mall
wo rks were used in the cl assic homebre w impedances , and the relati ve drive level s. ba ndwidt h. Thi!> mig ht be useful fo r a
and commercial rigs of the '5 0s . They arc arc part of the network. Figs 9..15 and 9.46 simple CW receiver or a SSB transmitter
sho w seve ral different dri ve and load cir- with very rela xed (20 dB) opposite side-
cui ts fo r using classic second -order RC band suppre ssion requireme nts. Fig 9.4H
networks i n exci ters and receivers . Com - is a pair of all-pass netw orks with the 9Q<>
R pon ents arc sta nda rd l 'k resistor s and frequencies chosen for good supp ress ion
matched capacitors. ove r an audio hand from 470 to 900 Hz.
Fig 9A7 is a singlc stage up-a mp all- and t'ig 9.49 is a pa ir that provides at least
pass ne two rk. This i ~ such a common 2 1 dB suppressio n fro m 360 Hz to 20.50
, ,, circuit in phas ing rigs tha t it is usefu l to Hz. t'i xs 9.50 and 9.5 1 show the phase
ex amine its behavior. At DC. C I is an ope n errors fro m 0 to 4 kHz. The erro rs may be
ci rcu it. The gain from Vi throu gh the non - reduced by adding more sections and re-
in verti ng input is +2. The gain from Vi calculati ng the all -pass network freqoen-
throu gh the inverting input is - 1. These cie s. Adding a second pair of op-amp s al-
IwO add together for a net gain of + I at lows us to ac hie ve better opposit e
Fig 9.47- A single-stage op-amp all - DC. At high frequ ency. C I effect ively sideba nd suppressi on performa nce over
pass net wo rk. shorts the inverting input to ground. Then wide r bandwidths. Fig 9.52 illustrate s a

9 .28 Chapter 9
 ach iev e almos t 60 dB of sideband sup pres-
sion from no Hz through 360 0 H z. if the
res t o f the receiver we re perf ect , with th is
networ k. other re ce iver considerations
wi II set the practical limit for sideban d sup -
pression . For mos t applications. the third-
or de r all- pass network pair shown in Fig
9.56 is recom m ende d . F ig 9.57 shows the
p hase erro rs . Op-umps. resistors and cu-

,F
0.
010
1 ,F
0.
010
1 pac irors arc inexpensive, and this network
has been wide ly duplicated. Note that one
resistor value . 1,52 kfl. is not a .standard
10.0 k 1% compon ent. A 1.50 -kn an d a 20·n
10.0 k
re sistor in series w ill stand side-by -side on
the PC board.

Phase Shift Network

Component Tolerances
,F
0.01°1 010
0., F 1 Wi th 1'j( to leranc e re si stors lind c apaci -
tors right out of the hag, the network in Fig
9.56 will reliably prov ide more than 40 dH
470 Hz - 900 Hz
Max imum phase errOr 1.S· = 0.026 radians,
360 Hz • 20S0 Hz opposite sideband s uppression. .F ig 1).58
Max imum pha se error 9.8' = 0.17 radian s, is a simu lation of th e phase erro r wh en
Mini mum oppo site sideband suppre ssion 37 dB
Minimum oppos ite side band suppre ssion 2 1 dB
components values vary by 1q or le ss.
400 Hz · 10S0 Hz
Maxim um phase error S' = 0.087 radians , 280 Hz - 2600 Hz Selecting the resistors an d capacitors hy
Minimum opposite sideban d suppre ssion 27 dB Maxim um phase error 20' = 0.35 radians. ha nd using an acc ur at e o hm and farad
Minim um opposite side band supp ression 15 dB
meter wi ll improve per forma nc e. F ig 9.59
is a simu lation with U.5Q errors, and
Fig 9.60 is a sim ulation with 0.2% erro rs.
Fig 9.48-A pa ir of all-pass ne two rks
More pr ecise mat chi ng beyond 0 .1 'i(, dues
wit h the 90 frequencies chosen for
0

good suppress ion o ve r a n audio band Fig 9.5O-A pair of all-pass ne two r ks no t provi de any practical benefit with 3rd
from 470 to 900 Hz. that pr ovide at least 21 dB suppress ion order netw orks . because the d es ig n errors
from 360 to 2050 Hz. in the ne twork ar e then larger t han the
component tol erance erro rs. as show n i n
Fig 9.61 . Note that the ca pac itors ami 10 ,0
second -order all- pa ss network pa ir for C\V Hz for SSB operation . F igu res 9.53 a nd k resis tor s all have the same value. and
receivers that pro v ides more than 50 dB of 9.55 sho w the phase errors for these t w o may he ma tched to each other, ra ther tha n
opp osite side band su ppre ssio n from networks. an absolute standard. I C;;-, re si stor s an:
300 Hz to 1120 Hz , and F ig 9.54 is one Adding a third pair of op-amps allows c heap- i t m ay be easiest 10j ust measure a
that pro vides mo re than 36 dB or opposite us to build a network with sma ll enough b un ch of the 6 va lue s nee de d and se lect
side band su ppressi on from 250 Hz to 3650 am plitud e and phase erro rs that we coul d those that are closes t to th e design va lue .

1st Order Op-Amp SSB AII·Pass Phase Error

1st Order CW Op-Amp A II·Pa ss Phase Error 40d
40d
I

'Od
I
'Od ,
1/ <,

-.
Od
Od
7
""1"'"
-.
·2 0d -

~
· 20d

I
40d
I 1 i
4 0d 00 00 ' 0 '5 ' .0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 ss
00 ' .0 ' .0 3.0 4.0 ;0 Frequency (k Hz)
Frequency (kHZ)

Fig 9.51-Phase e rro rs from 0 to 4 kHz. The errors ma y be

reduced by adding mo re sections a nd re c alc u lati ng the a ll-
Fig s.as-gneee e rrors of the Fig 9.48 network pa ir. pass network frequencies.

Phasing Receivers and Transmitters 9.29

 10_O k 10.0 k 1O_0 k
10.Ok

' O.Ok lOO k

' 1.2 k 280 k

0.-'01°1 -'°1
0 01 00 10 0 10
1
-' 1
0.
-'
10.Ok 'O _O k 10_0k lO. O k

10.0 k lO.O k

•
l4 7k 9,53 . l15k

., 1 -' 1 .' 1
00 10 00 10 010 0 010
0_
.' 1
300 Hz , 1120 Hz Ma.im um phase error 0_21' =0 _00 37 ,"d ians, 250 Hz - 36 50 Hz M•• i""-",, pl\alle erro- 1,64' ~ 0,032 radi. ns.
Minimu m opposite sideband I UpPres.&Oltl 54 dB Minimum <lpIXlSITes'deba nd lWpp<e-s..iQn 36 dB

265 Hz· 1360 Hz M.......... ph.1Ie IttOI 1' " 0_0175 """""'" 226 Hz - 4250 Hz ua,"'um pl\alle erTOt 5' ~ 0,087 radians.
Minimu m <lI'POSi1. MAO¥Id IUpPreS$IOf'l 41 dB Minimum oppo$le sideband I Uppreuion 27 d B

Fig 9.S2-A second-order all-pa ss network pair fo r CW Fig 9.54- This second-order all-pas s nel wo rk pr ovides more
receivers that provid es more t han 50 dB 0 1 oppos ite sideband th an 36 dB of op posite side band sup pre ssion from 250 Hz 10
suppr essio n fr o m 300 Hz to 1120 Hz. 3650 Hz for SSB operati on .

2nd Order Op-A mp CW All-Pass F'tIase Error 2nd Order Op-Amp SS B All-Pass pna se Error

"" aoe I
200
,I I I j ~
200 I I _
I I I
oo ~

--..
r-.
00

I I
-
r-
.2Od .2Od -

-
I I
I I
I
0.0 0' ' .0 t.s 20 2.' 3.0 3S '.0 ,., "'" 00 OS LD 20 30 3S
Frequency (kHz)
L' 2'
Frequency (kHz )
' 0
"
FIg 9.S3-Phase errors In . .
the second order all pass networ k
Fig 9.SS-Phase er rors in th e sec ond -order all-pass network
shown in Fig 9.52.
shown in Fig 9.54.

9 .30 Cha pter 9

 10 ,0 k

3rd Order Op-Amp A ll-Pass Phase Error

4.0d
I
I
I
""
,a,o k 10 0 k
--

-.
Od
I <,
I I,
-2.0d
'\
DOlO T
" ,j, 0:;"1
2 70 H< ""00 H, M. " mLm "'"', • • ITO< U. , 34' • 0, 002 36 " do",,, -40d
0.0 LO 30 4.0
-
M,,-- m o"""" i'" , ideNond" '"" "" ' ''" 58 dB ' 0 '. 0 ' .0
23" H. _4300 Hz M"i"" m ,",,'" . ~O ' , •• Q 0 175 ""'io"" Frequency (kHz)
M, ~ mum 0PlXl','O.".0.00 ' UPP'.'''''' ' ' dB

Fig 9.56-Adding a third pair of op-amps allows us to build a Fig 9.57-Phase error s in the network sho wn in Fig 9.56. Note
network with small enough amplitude and phase errors that the change in sca le.
we could achieve almost 60 dB of sideband suppression from
270 Hz throu gh 3600 Hz, if the rest of the receiver were
perfect.

" " "".,,

• ......

" - .--_.

" ", , ',",

. _ ,~ " o: ,~ , ,,, . ," _ "~ " ,, ',~ " " " ,
" "" C ~.C ,
"~ "" '~o' " "" '.~ ''' , . ',~:" , . q
.- ,~: ", - ,~ " ' , ". '-'" " - " ~ , ,, ,- " ) ,

"' O '" ' ~ "

Fig 9.58-A simulation of the phase error whe n co mponent Fig 9.59-A simula tion w ith 0.5% err ors.
values vary by 1% or less. Selecting the resist ors and
capacito rs by han d us ing an accurate ohm and farad meter
will improve performance.

.q"
" ", ',C"" ,,'.- "' "",, ''-'' "'
'"..,.".,'"
_ j( .- . ;~ ; : " '.'0-0" . '" " -" , ,, , _ '.~ , ,, _ ,"

' "" ", . . . . . . . . . . . . _. . . ,;;,:; Fig 9.61- More precise matchi ng beyond 0.1% does not
.- "" " " -'~ ' :' " "n '.'". ...
'.', ,, ,-'-'" ", " .- -,~ : '"
" ,., ~,
,', '- " .- ", provide any practica l benef it with 3rd order networks,
because the desi gn errors in the netw or k are the n larger than
Fig 9.6D-A simu lation with 0 .2% errors. the component to lerance errors .

Phasing Receivers and Transmi tters 9 .31

9.7 OTHER OP·AMP TOPOLOGIES, POLYPHASE NETWORKS AND DSP
PHASE SHIFTERS
Many ethe r passi ve a nd active audio Polyphase networks are 4 phase networks. rcsisu..lrS in the aud io phase-shift network s
phase shin netwo rks arc possible. and and in I Q sys tems, two of the phases are of phasi ng rigs. This is disco ura ged for
have been desc ribed in the literature. The neglected. Th ere are advantages to several reasons. Firer of all. it i.. unnece..-
ones described above a re on es that we -t-ph ase receive r.. and exciters. ho weve r. sar~. A network that ca n support 50 dB of
have used and recomme nd. Th ere a re sev- Pou r-pha se exc iters ha ve inhere nt carrier o pposite side band suppre....ion can be buill
e ral other up-a mp all -pass netwo rks that bala nce. as lon g as the fou r mixer s a re just by measuring fhe pa rts befo re con-
have bee n used in phasing e xciters and te- ide ntica l. This may be: useful a t VHF a nd struc tio n. " I Ihh level . oth e r e rro rs in the
ceivers . Ma ny ot hers are possible. microwaves. where it is difficult to obtain sy..rem will begin to dom inate. Seco ndly.
Polyphase netwo rks, des cr ibed in the adequate ca rrier sup pressio n with an I Q all of the RC combinatio ns in an o p· amp
ARRI. Handboo k: may also be used in re- mixe r pair. Polyphase network pe rfor - ott-pass network interact. The on ly reason-
ceive r and exciter applicatio ns. They are mance degrades rapidly ou tside the desi gn able me thod of tweaking the indivi d ual RC
capable of exc ellent pha se and amplitude passb and. so it is use fu l to des ign the net- time constants involves a specia l phase -
balance across the passband. The re arc a work for a significa ntly wide r ba ndwid th shin test proced ure. and the adj usrmem s
few subtleties tocon sider in deciding be- than will ac tually he used . The biggest might not he co rrect o nce the uct wur k is
twee n IHl op-amp all-pass netw ork and a advantage of pol yph ase netwo rks is that remov ed from the test fixture and ins ert ed
polyphase ne tw o rk. Polyphase netwo rks the y arc symme trical. a nd t he refo re have into a rea l receive r o r ex citer. f inall y. i t is
are lossy. so mor e gain needs to he used selt-c orrccu ng properties. Phase errors in po ssib le tu hav e too man y adj ustme nts,
ahea d of the m i n receiver applicatio ns. the input section of the netwo rk arc cor- l magi ne a car with a V -8 engine . and sep Ol·
Th e side band ca ncell atio n actually occurs rected by la te r sectio ns. This all o ws rate tim ing for the spark to each c ylinder
in the netw ork . so no sum ming amp lifier red uced tole rance components to he used brought bad. to the das hhoard and unde r
is needed afterward . This elimi nates the in pari of the network. Good examples o f co ntrol of the dr ive r. So me things are bet-
possibilit y o f tri mming the summ ing a m- rigs using pol yp hase netwo rks are in t he ter done correc tly the first time. and then
plifie r for amp lit ude balance . req uires that literature. left alo ne. A notable e xcep tion to this is
sideba nd selectio n be pe rfor med hy DSP may also be used 10 gene ra te a n syste ms employing DSP. When the phase
re ver sing the LO drive to the mixers o r I Q pair. Th is option Is disc ussed in muc h shin net work is under software co nt rol. it
inve rting the out put of am: of the a udio more detail in the DSP chapters. is possible to optimize a la rge nu mber of
pream ps. and requires du plicating the Some workers ha ve incl ude d phase uim variables d uring a sel f-tes t rout ine.
phase shi ft netwo rk for ISB applications.

9.8 INTELLIGENT SELECTIVITY

A final philos o phical co mme nt reg ard - sid eba nd su pp ression is needed 10 su p- tional sense is sign ificantl y differe nt than
ing the opt imiz atio n of opposite sideband press interfe ring signals in the unused one with a wide response and a fe w deep
su pprevvio n is in order. The first 20 dB of side band, whi ch may be muc h stronge r nulls. Also. inter fe rence can ta ke ma ny
o pposi te side band suppression pro vides a than the des ired signa l. ln a receiver with Iorrn c. and it has long been recognized tha i
rea l imp rovem e nt in sign .al-tc- noise le vel "intel lige nt selecnvity.t'the available re- optimizing the receiver to vupp tes.. nearby
for SSB and CW signals. by removi ng the so urces can be oprirnive d to suppress the "'ITOng CVl interfere nce makes the rece iver
im age noi se contribution fro m the unused interference . rathe r than to impro ve the less ro bu« to impulse type interfe re nce.
sideband . Onc e im age noi se is :!() d B opposite side hand suppression spe c Spend ing a few hours with a bina ural IQ
do wn. it i ~ hard 10 measure any furtherim- across the audio passband. This i\ signifi- receiver is use ful in unde rst an din g the
pro vemcn t in s ignal-to-noise ratio by sup- cam. because the impulse res po nse of a implication s of sele~·li\ity and interfe rence
pref- si ng it further. Addition al o pposite recei ver with good selec tivity in the tradi- rej ection.

9.32 Chapter 9
 9.9 A NEXT·GENERATION R2 SINGLE·SIGNAL DIRECT CONVERSION
RECEIVE R
T ho: R 2pro is an image-reje c t d irec t co n- nates sensitiv ity to de pow er sup ply vol t- Multiple Circuit Boards
versio n receiver subsy stem c onsist ing of age va riation s.
se vera l ci rcui t boa rds . It i s intended for Ma n y experim ent ers have used the ba- Th ere is a significant proble m with di rect
appli cat io ns w he re a performanc e im- s ic R2 and mi n iR2 circuitry a, the fo un- conver sio n rece ivers built on a single circu it
dati on for ex periments usin g DD S fre- bo ard , RF grounding and shiel ding tech-
provement over the bas ic mini R2 circ uit is
4 uenc y synt hesize rs an d DSP au di o sign al niques arc very diffe rent than the gro unding
desired. or for exp eri me nta l ap plicat ions
pro ce ssing. a, suggested in the or iginal and shie ldi ng techniques needed for high-
where ac c ess to si gn al s thro ug ho ut the
QST artic les. We ha ve built a do zen dif - gain audio amplifier circuit ry. If the low-
syste m is needed . Fo r most appl ic atio ns.
fe re nt R 2 and miniR2 rece ivers an d tra ns- level RF signals, high-level L O signal, all
the min iR 2 circui t pro v ides e xcell e nt per-
c eivers for a wid e var iety of fixed and the rnixcr conve rsion products, and high-
fur m an cc us ing off- the -sh e lf parts . The
por tab le applica tio ns- oft en with o ut- ga in aud io amplifi er are all on the same cir -
R2pro requires ha nd -matched compone nts
stan di ng result s, and some times immcdi- cuit board, there mus t be compromises In
and c are ful me asuremen ts d uri ng con-
a tefy indicatin g direc tion s fo r furthe r gro unding and sh iel din g. The se com pro-
str uctiu n. It is inte nded to he used with RF
work. mises wer e hand led on the R L R2 and
gain. an d its desi g n flexibi lity requires that
Afte r all thi s learning experience , it was mi niR2 hoards hy des ign ing the gr ound
so me engineeri ng dec isions he mad e by
na tural to upda te the original hig h-per - traces such that the audio stages saw an ap-
the builde r.
formanc e p ha si ng rece i ve r ci rcu it. A proximate single-p oin t-gro und and the area
number of revi se d versio ns ha ve be en aro und the mixers was an unbroke n ground
plane. Any of these sing le-board rece ivers
Review o f Pre vi ou s huilt - hut the requiremen t tha t the ne w
can be made 10 oscillate by connecting the
version work bett er tha n the origin al is
Work to ug h. T he or ig inal circ uitr y, and the cir- power-supply or spea ker ground wire to the
The p ha sing recei ver d esc rib ed in Jan u- cuit ho ard layout, wer e o ptimized over a wron g point on the cir cuit boar d ground,
ary 19 Y3 QST V,.<lS developed in parallel even though all ofthe gro unds arc con nected
per iod of more tha n a year of c on tinuo us
with the " H igh Pe rfo rma nce D irec t Co n- togethe r, For a rev iew of audio gro unding
ac t iv ity.
ve rsio n Rec ei ver," des cribed in the A u- techniques. sec Horowitz and Hill. The ArT
gu st 199 2 isvue. All of the bas te circui tr y of Electronics.
fro m the str ai ght DS B receiver was dup li- Updating the R2 The co nfl icting requirement for an RF
ca te d onto the phasing rece i ve r circu it tight enc los ure and a single-po int nudio
T he first tas k in upd ating the R2 circu it
bo ard s, wit h a ppr opri ate add iti ons for grou nd mak e s it d ifficult to package singl e
was to det erm ine what nee ded 10 c hange.
el imina ting the u nde sired sidehan d. The bo ard dire ct con version rec eivers. Ear ly
The fo llowing list was form ulated : versions of the Rl and R1 d irect conver-
audio quality o f the Augu st 1992 DSR di-
rcct co nver sio n rece iver rem ai ns a bench - -Repla ce the SBL - l mixe rs with the sion recei ver s pictured i n QST were en-
mark fo r ama te ur rece ivers. The pha sing TlJF-3 package. closed in soldered-u p cop pe r-cl ad PC
version so und s go od , hut su m min g (\\'0 • Re place the LlvI3X7 audi o IC with a mod - boa r d en c losu res . Other package s. pa r-
c hannels with diffe ren t ti me de lays (as rc- ern low-noise dua l c o-amp tic ular ly those made of alum inum pieces
q uircd by the im age- rejec t cir cui tr y ) - Re vi se the au dio diplexcrs for better 101- held tog eth er wi th screws-c-ar e pro n~ to
mod ifi e s the im pulse re spon se of th e cr an ce to component variation intermitte n t audio ovcillarion s and micro-
cha nne l. and the rece iver lo ses so me of its «Improve oppo si te sideband su ppression p hon ic s . Bre ak in g up the receiver int o
prese nc e. Thi s is exactly t he same e ffec t -I m pro vc rece iver system no ise fig ure separate funct ion al blocks----cach with it s
one encounte rs with a SS B bandwidth -l mpro ve audio stabili ty own circui t board-s-provides more
crystal fi lt er in a convent ional su perhet. -Make it ea si er 10 b uild adv an ced e xpe ri - groundi ng fl exibility. Then the PC boa rd
Aft e r sev eral h u nd red R2 rece ive rs had mental rece ivers wi th the mi x ers c an be completely
been built. the xecund-g ene ration mini R2 ' De sign a rec e iver ci rcu it tha t rewards shie lde d. and the PC boa rd with the audio
c irc uit '-"<I S developed . The min iR2 c ir- component se lecti on with perfo rmance output ampli fier can ha ve a sin g le poi nt
cu it board i s half the size of the ung inal -Elimin ate dis to rt ion from the m utin g grou nd. B y o pumi ving the ga in par tition-
R2. and ha s unl y headphone o utp ut. ci rc uit ing an d pa ckagin g o f the rece ive r. hu m
:\1iniR 2 c ir cu itry is simplified and has -Jmprovc LO reve rse isolation and mic ro phon!c , c an be elimi na ted and
impro ved to lerance of component varia- Th e ne w rece ive r was named the R2 pro . the pla ce ment of ground connections be-
tio ns, so that goo d pe rforma nce ma y be The: phil osoph y is that the R2p ro tra des comes m uch les s cr itic al. As a fr inge ben-
obta ined with out hand-m at ching the au- more ex pensi ve con structi on . more cxpcn- ef it, bre ak ing up the PC hoard ma kes it
di o diplcxcr components. T he audio filter si vc co m ponents . component ma tch ing, ea sie r to build expe ri me ntal vers ions us-
co mpo nent cou nt was red uce d to fit all of de sign tle xih il it y, and a hig her le ve l ing DSP, different mixers . audio pro ce s-
the parts on the sma ll ci rc uit boar d, hut of builder kno wledge an d experience sors and power amplifiers etc .
aud io q ual ity wa s no t compromiv ed. The for s ligh tly impro ved pe rfo rm ance ov er
rniniR 2 i s suit a ble fo r use with hea d- the min iR2. T he min iR2 circ uit is a Block by Block R2pro
phones or an e xterna l au d io pow er a mpl i- bener choice fo r mos t ap plicat ions.
fi er . The comple te sche mat ic for the particul arly w hen sm all s ize or batten' Circuit Description
min iR 2 c ircuit hoard is in Fig 1).62. There operation 'is d e sired. r ue R2p ro is fo·r The R2 pro bloc k diagram is sho wn in
is only o ne mod ific atio n from the original de sig ne r-h uilde rs w ho wa nt to go to the Fig 9,fi3 . Note that the R2p ro sys te m de -
QST article circuit- t he 0.1 Ill-' ca pacitor ex tra effort and ex pense required to push sig n inclu d es an Rf preamp, and that the
in se r ies with the inve rti ng in put to the a rece iver to the limits of the direct con- audio output stage is a comple te ly se pa-
summing amplifier. Th is c ap aci to r cli mi- version arch ite ctu re. rate block,

Phasing Rece ive rs and Transm itters 9.33

 I

0/\
"
"
; , .
,
>
N

e ~ ~ r-H--t
,
o

'T"
;!\:
s ~ ~ f--1H
•o
"o o
o

.Y. 'S. .... 'S.

~eK (. \ ~+eK !)
" - " -
~ --\M-IH ~
"o
o

--
~ ,

Fig 9.62-This simp lified ve rsion of the mini R2 uses some different parts va lues and requ ires matching of the diplexe r
components.

9 .34 Chapter 9
 harmonics of the LO . Th e bia s switc h is
Audio
Filter>;
pa rt of the receiver m ute ci rc uit. and
Audio sw itc he s the amp lifi er gain between +13
Downcon verter Signal dB and - 40 d B The gro und ed g ale topo l-
Pro cessor
ogy is a strong 40·dB atte nuator whe n it i s
reverse biased . and can be- switc hed in a s a
front-end auenuutor whe n very strong sig -
Loca l nals are pre se nt. w ith out introducin g
Oscillator front-end distortion. It is com mon for
direct conversio n re ceivers to experience
Fi g 9.63- The R2p ro b lock d iagra m. audi bl e po ps d ur ing full break-in C W op-
er atio n, One so urc e of these pops is th e d e
shift at the mix er IF por t wh en the strong
TX si gn al appears at t he- mi xer Rf
RFPREAMP rece iver s arc se nsitive to sjgni.ll ~ near the port. On e so lut io n is to switch in a larg e
Th e first bl ock in the R 2p ro receiver od d harmonics of the desired signal. it is uuenuat or between the antenna switch an d
subsy stem is th e RF preamp. Th e use of a necessary to provide ~ignificant attenua- mixer RF port. T he "sleep ing bag rad io "
pream p perm it s ad dition a l m ixer loss in tion to si gnals above the band of interest . de scrib ed in Chapter 12 uses a similar
the de sig n for im proved dyna mic ra nge , Th is is par tic ula r ly impo rt ant in me tro- pr eamp circuit in front of a min iR2 hoa rd.
impro ve d phase and am plitude ba lan ce politan areas wit h many FM broadcas t sig - an d has abso lutely cl ean transmit/receive
o ver the bas eb and fre que ncy range. con- nals . A separate RF-light enclo sure is swi tchi ng at all volu me levels. F ig 9.65
vtant impedan ce at the dow nconvcrter RF appro pri ate. shows the sw ept frequ ency resp onse fo r
port. and lower LO ra diat ion From the re - T he grounded gate circui t in Fig 9.64 several differen t bands. Th e typical input
ceiv er RF port. T he bas ic des ign sho wn in was de sig ned specifi cally to us e in fro nt of intercept of + 13 tlHm is a good match tor
F ig 9 .64 is hi gh ly reco mmended. but any direct co nver sion receivers at !VIF through receivers with st andard level d iode ring
low-noise. mo de ra te -gain 50-n ba ndpass VH F. Low- pass filtering in the input and mixers.
amplifier with h igh reve rse isolation (S 12) output matc h to the transi stor pro vide s the The amplifier noi se figure of approxi -
may be us ed. Bec ause direct conversion neces sary atte nuation of signals ne a r od d mately 4 dB and the relatively lo w gain of

~"

8 8 B 8" 8 . '2 V

CB! o61,l eeD cr

C<
" cr

~909~cDtWc ~"~ "1 r

LNA L:A0----1 f-<"

'1 ,.r '"

rn
0"'

G-
·' 2 V
,~ ot '" "''''' "'
18·:
;+; c.tur
RZ4
10 ,
ce
",; cs ""
4.IK MU'e

'"' 1Ck
1:'
4.H
00 "

""
w,

Band C1 L1 C2 L2 C3 C4 L3 C5 L4 C6 C7
3A 820p 1.3~ 1800p 4 .0~ 820p 100p 20~l 680p 3 .8 ~ 470p 2200 p
6-8 470p 680n 820p 2.0 ~ 470p 56p 10, 390p 1.9.u 220p 1000p
9-11 330p 450n 680p 1.5f-! 330p 39p 6.8f-! 270p lA!J l80 p 1000p
13-15 220p 330n 470 p 1.0f-! 220p 27p 4 .7~1 l 80p 1.0~ 120p 1000p
18-22 l 80p 240 n 270 p 760 n 120 p 18p 3.511 l2 0p 760n lOOp 1000p
24-30 150p 160n 220 p 560n lOO p 12p 2.7f-! 82p 540n 56p 680p

Fig 9.64 -The use of a preamp pe rmits additional mixer lo s s in the design for imp ro ved dynam ic ran ge, impr o v ed phase and
amplitude balanc e over the baseband f req uency range, co nstant impedance at the downconverter RF po rt, and lo wer LQ
radiat ion from t he recei v er RF port. The basic design s hown here is h ig hly recom mended, but any low-noise, moderate-gain
soon ba nd pass amp lifier with high reve rse iso lati on (512) may be used .
Phas ing Receivers and Transmitters 9 .3 5
the preamp stage have the effect of reduc-
ing t he receive r noise figu re witho ut 2' .
se vere ly impacting two -ton e third-order
d ynamic ra nge. Th ird-orde r dyna mic
range near 100 dB is po vvible with stan-
dard level diode-ring mixers and a narrow
CW ba nd width, High-level mixe rs permit
bette r dyna mic range num bers. if t he LQ
system is q uiet e nough .
The direct co nve rsio n receive rs
described by the author in QST in 19lj2- .\ 1 _4 ,
lY95 were all de velo ped using a ful l-si zed , ,-,.,
eleva ted 40-m dipol e in a q uiet lakeside 6 .' 5 3
, ,-".,
_6 " :
loca tion in the Uppe r Peninsula of Mic hi- F ' .' - " , 2

gan, At this loc ation. signals from all o ver

the US and Canada we re quite strong , and
the anten na noise power was alwa ys high - ,,' ~

en oug h that a IS-dB noise figure was

always ade qua te. There are ot her location s
_10 0 , - -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --.
that ca n bene fit from qu ie ter recei vers, "E, ' "J-:, "",,, " Mll ' 2 C~z " ~.H ' ,,"-",
','<13:"'.". ' " ',' OR ': CLl L j " VdBie·c " ·' """I o '-" ~' 'J dB ' ou te ', 'ld e< 0'", , :
even on ~m meters , In the mou nta ins of the 0

, r oqu e m "

Pac ific Nor thwest. ban d noise levels on 40

me ters are commo nly well below the: Fig 9.65- LNA swept frequency plot.

+12V

Fig 9.66-Downconverter schematic diagram. 100

10<" +

1 100
01 ,C

+ ,0
" ;); , C
10' 56 k
6,8 ~ F
31.4 3.3 mH Poly 02

'''' 51 1 .0~F 2.1 k

"'
'1
33 mH
220
'C
1 ''''
1 0 , 68~F

''"' 22
33~FI
+
3.3 k
27 k
100 •

;h 0 ,1 2 ~F

100

RC 100 k
rr
~ 81 bifi lar
FT37-43
03

;+;+ 10 ~ F
6.8 ~ F 10' S.6 k
33 mH Poly 0'
6 37.4
•
150 51 1 , 0~ F 2.lk
33 mH

1
220 150 POIY I

CO
pC
1 0 .68~ F
Poly +
27<
100 k
22
33~FI 3,3 k
1 0'12 1lF

9 .36 Chapter 9
accepted numbers in the amateur and pro - board should bc 10/" mct al fi lm . The in put audio preamp ca n' t i mprove receiver noi se
fessio nal li te rature. For mountain por table splitte r is so me what differen t tha n ea rlier fig ure , but it can re duce the effect of mixer
operatio n, receiver noise figu res should be ve rsio ns. Rath er tha n attempting to matc h IIf no ise . Ad vanced receiver art ists arc
belo w 10 dB for all HF bands, and much to SO Q . the spli tter shown ma tche s the encouraged to stu dy this. The R2pro cir -
belter noise figures may be useful ahove mixer inputs to a lower impedance-but cuit balances prea mp ga in and pos t-mixer
20 meters, part icularly when using direc- ach iev es nearly perfect ampli tude balance atte n uation to set the recei ver noise fig ure
live a ntennas. and very lo w loss over a ver y wide fre - and dyn amic range, so that recei ver per -
For wide -band syste ms. a broadband quency range . T he uppe r freq uency lim it furr nance is re lativ ely indepe ndent of
impe dance transforme r can replac e t he is reached when the wind ing on Tl ap- mixer l l f noi se.
tuned low -pass output on the RF preamp. proaches a q uar ter wavelength. At the The third very importa nt fun ction of the
This wi ll permit co verage of multi ple lower frequency lim it, ampl itude balance post-mixer atten uat ors is to se t the dri vin g
bands , but the low-pass function is st ill is stil l perfect , hut isolation is poor. If point impedance to the mat ched di plex er
impor tant and m ust be included so me- operation do wn to 50 kHz is desired. more netw or ks. I n the original R2, the dip le xers
where in the rece ive r RF path. When a turns on a type 71 co re co uld be used. At are c onnected directly to the mixer IF port
lower noise figure is desired, a two stage 144 MHz and above. a few bifilar turns impedance, which varies wit h La drive
grounded-gate RF preamp is a good through a sma ll ferrite bead work well. T he level. If one mixer has more La drive tha n
cho ice. Two of the Fig 9.64 circuits pack- mixers are type T UF- 3, wh ich offer bet ter the other (a co mmo n co nditio n) the phas e
aged se parately with coax connectors is a port -to-po rt iso la tion and lo we r co nve r- and amplitude respo nse of on e diplexer
high- perform ance cons tr uct io n option . sion loss than T L:F-l mixers from ISOklfz network will be slightly different than the
In summary, here are a few good rea - through 225 MH z. the usual operating o ther. These differe nces are typi ca lly
so ns to include RF gain in any direc t con - range of R2 typ e systems. TUF packaged enou gh tha t the ultimate opposite sideband
version receiver : mixers arc avai lable for direct conversion su ppressio n of R2 syst ems ac ross an SSR
applica tions at frequ enc ies up tu hand wid th i~ about 4 1 dB- e ve n with
1. Impro ved Noise Figure. 2500 11Hz. T he sma ll sa mple of micro- pe rfect aud io pha se-sh ift ne twor ks . By
2. Electronic front -end gai n switch ing wav e diod e mixers we ha ve me asured have con trast, the miniR2 with off-the -shel f
3. Re verse iso lation to elimi nat e La higher l lf no ise tha n we have seen with com pone nts often exh ibits nearly SOdB of
radiation T UF· l, TU F-3 and SRL- l mixers. Micro - opposite side band suppressio n.
4. Improved receiver ga in distribution wav e Doppler Rada r syste ms use special The d iplexer netwo rk s are sligh tly si m-
lo w- l zf noise diodes . plifie d from the or iginal R2 netw orks . The
Fo r phasing direct co nversio n rece i vers After t he mixers are a pair of matche d R2 networks pro vide d rapid ro ll off both
there are add itio na l ad vantages: arrcnuarors. T he 6 d B atte nuators show n abo ve and belo w the 300 to 4000 Hz a udio
in the schematic shou ld be used for most hand. T he roll off below the audio range
1. Provid ing mixer RF port imp edance applications. If mo re gain is available be- doe s no t con tribu te muc h to use able re-
that doesn't change with antenna tunin g fore the mixers. more attenua tio n may be cei ver dynam ic range, but it doe s intro -
2. Op tion to use anen uators on all mix er used . The se attc nuators ser ve three very duce rapid phase shifts in the crit ical 300
ports useful purposes : they ensure text boo k ter - to (JOO Hz frequenc y range . Whe n R2 re-
mi natio n of the mixer IF por ts; they at- ceivers arc optimized for SSR operation ,
DO WNCON VERTER ten ua te mixer II f noise; and the y prov ide the sup pressi o n of the opposite sideband
After the preamplifier is the down-co n- a well defi ned so urce im peda nce to dri ve in the 300 to 600 Hz rang e is often right at
verter block. show n in F ig 9.66. (A layout the matche d diplexe r networks. Mixer IF the 40 dB spec. [f the rece ive r is opt imized
and pho to are shown in Figs 9.67 and ter mina tion has been widel y d iscus sed in for C\V operation . side band suppression
9. 68 .) T he do wncon verte r incl udes an RF the liter at ure. Mi xer I If no ise de gra des re - usuall y falls off at higher audi o freq uen-
in-p hase splitter, two mixers, IF port cei ver noise fi gure. Differe nt mixe rs, eve n cies. The mi niR2 and R2pro eliminat e the
atten uators. a matched pair of d iplexer ne t- matched T UF-3s with the sam e date code, rapid roll 0[[ at the lo w e nd of the audio
works. and a matche d pa ir of audio LNAs. ha ve widely vary ing amou nts of l/f nois e. range, which permits goo d performance
All of the res istors in the downconverter Att en ua tio n betw een the mixer and the throu gh the C\V range when the rece iver is
optim ized for SSB . Anot he r change from
the R2 and mi niR2 ci rcuits is the eli mina-
tion of the electrol ytic capaci tor s fro m the
criti ca l audio signal paths. T he R2pro
has onl y matched polypropyle ne cap aci-
tor s in the audio path prior to the summing
network ,
The roll off above the audio range is
ret ained from the R2, wit h slight changes
to make the rec ei ver less se nsitive 10 com -
ponen t tolerance . For goo d performance .
it is necessary to match the diple xer com -
pon ent s in R2pro to within 19(, j ust as in
the original R2. If this is no t done, oppo-
site sideband suppressio n is li kely to be
poor across the aud io band. By co ntra st.
Fig 9.68-A view of the downconv erter
the d iplexcrs in the miniR2 were designed
Fig 9.67-The do wnconverter boa rd board. to be used with stan dard to leran ce c ompo-
la yout. nen ts . T he be nefi t of usi ng the R2 pro

Phasing Rec eiv ers and Transmitt ers 9 .37

diplcxcrs with matc hed co mpon ents is that
the clo se-i n dy nam ic ra nge is good. Rz pro
two-tone rneasu reme nrs may be mad e at
lo ne sp ac ings of 10 kHz and 5 kHz .
T he usual gro unded -b ase au di o preamp
stages are used fo llowing the d ip lexer net-
wo rks. T here arc ot her audio preamps IhOlI
v. il l wo rk. hUI the grounded bas e stages
ha ve the advan tage o f having a n input
impeda nce that is set by the c urr e nl
thro ugh the transis tors. which may be se l • h
c.
up prec isely usi ng I II resistors. T he
gro unded base st age-, drive the non-invert-
L-- -+-+--lH
•
'N."
in g inp uts of a low- no ise d ua l o p-arnp.
wh ich prov ides low impedance drive 10the o
Io lfuwin g vtagev. xore that the OUiPUls are
N

•
nOI de blocked. This is Ml Ih at the lo w o
im ped a nce dri ve from the dua l up -am p can
d irectly d rive Ihe audio p hase -shi ft ner-
work. Becau se these outputs ca rry de.
there is the potential 10 short them a nd •o
•o •
da mage rhe dua l op-a mp. Ie socke ts are
approp riate .
•
It is cmical rbat everylhi ng in the I e nd
Q channels of the dow nco nvc ne r block h.:
we ll matched. In most cases. n is the I Q
d ownco nverte r block. a nd nOI the au dio
phase -shift networ k. that vetv the ultima te >
N

lim itat io n on receive r opposi te s ideband

suppression. T he ba se band Ll"'A pair is "
ne ar ly identical to the ve r..io n used in t he g
m i n iR ~ . with the exceptio n Ihal Iq resis- 8
tors are used in alllocatio ns and transistor
pai rs Q I - Q] a nd Q ~ -Q ~ sh o uld be
'-----t-+
.,.jt------{
matc hed . 'lhi s rna)' he done hy comparin g •o • oo•
the de voltages o n tho: I and Q output s of
the downcon ve rter bloc k using a di git al
•
voltmete r. f irsl insert a temporary j um per •o o
bet wee n the eminer a nd collec tor hole s fo r o o
transist ors Q2 an d Q~ . T hen se lec t a pai r
of dev ice , fo r Q I and QJ tha t results, in
e-qualoutput voltages . Th e \'llllagt'~ should • •o
o
he- marched to within 2 ~/( . Th e n solder in
Q 1 a nd Q] . re mo ve t he j um pe rs . a nd
sele ct a seco nd pair of devices for Q 2 and
Q4 tha t re sul ts in equa l de voltag e s at the
r a nd Q outputs. Si nce thc gain and input
impeda nce fo r the -e co mmo n base bip ola r •o •o
am pfifie rs are set hy the q uiesce nt c ur- o o

re nte. a nd the cu rre nts re sult in vo ltage H

•o
dr ops ..1I.:n>ss the I 't resis tors. se ll ing the o
de vo ltages eq ual re su lls in we ll-matched o
g ai n and input impedance fo r rhc baseba nd
LNA pair.
T he no ise fig ure of the rece iver i!> d eter-
mi ned by the pe rforman ce o f the ea rly
sta ges. It is necessa ry ttl have enough gain
in the ea rly rece iver stages 10 over-ride the
no ise o f rne la te r stage" o t thc receiver.
·o
o

T he ana log signal procevsor bloc k ha s a

relatively h igh no ise fig ure, resulti ng from o
o
[he cascade o f u nit y-gain up-a m p pha se

Fig 9.69-ASP schematic.

9 .38 C hapter 9
 ~ h i ft networ ks and the loss y band pass fil - o utput signals incl ude de bias for the Op- selecting the se co mpo ne nts. the builder
tering. The downconvc rtcr PC board gain Amps in the ana log sig nal processo r. For can be assu red that the audio pha..e shift
IS set by the ratio of the op-amp series and co nnec tio n 10 the high imp eda nce input!". net work is no t limiting receiv er pcrfur-
feedbac k resisto rs to a valu e tha t o ver- of a DSP proc esso r or oscillosco pe . de mance. The ima ge-reject mixe r pro vides
ndes the noise of the a nalog signal proces- blocking capac itors may be used. Th e de an att enuati on ba nd that cove rs the entire
w e butthat docs not seve rely co mpro mise po wer sup ply lead sho uld be connec ted oppovire side band fro m 200 Hz to ove r
in-band dynam ic range . With the com po- using a feedrh ro ugh cap acito r and ev ter- -tOOO I I I . This auenuation band is ideal for
ae nr values sho wn. the mi xer loss is nal series resistor. CW o r SS B recei vers. and provides very
approximate ly 6 d tJ. there are n-dB pads good ..ele c riv ity when co mb ined with
follo wing eac h mixer . the ba ndpass audio c ha nnel fil ters.
diple xers have j ust under 2-dB loss. ANALOG SIGNAL PROCESSOR Follo wing the audio phase-shift net-
the gro unde d -base L f\ A stages have Th e t hird block in the R2pro syst e m work is a summin g amplifier. Th e ampl i-
a noise fig ure of about 5 dB and approx i- is the analog signal proce sso r (ASP) tude balance adj ustment is convenie ntly
mnely 40-dBl? ain. and the o p-am p L ~ A s show n in Fig 9.h9. (A hoard layo ut a nd located at the input to the summing ampli-
have II -dB ga in. Th us the total gain for photo is show n in Fi)ts 9 .70 a nd 9 .7 1 fier. The sum min g a mplifier driv es a 250
the dow nconv c ner stage is abo ut 37 dB rc spcc u vct y .j Th is hoa rd co ntains the Hz to ~OOO Hz ba nd pass filter. This filte r
and the noise figure at tho: down co nverte r aud io phase-shift network. the summer, ser ve, a.. a roofi ng f ilter, and pro vkte -
RF inp ut is appro xima tely 19 dB . With all and a wideban d passive audiu filter . The opti mum per formance from op tio nal ex-
co mpo nent s matc hed to with in l 'ii,. the a udio gain is low , but the sig nallevels are ternal digital lind analog filt ers tha t may be
amplitude and pha se errors in the 1 and Q also lo w, so this board shoul d not be lo- add ed to the o utput of the ana log s igna l
outputs sho uld be less than 0. 1 degree and cated where it can pick up powe r supply or proces..or bl ock. Roofing filter perfor-
0.02 dB across the base band o utput rang e computer noise. There arc no RF signals mance is good enough that it can ser ve us
from 200 Hz to 4000 Hz. prese nt, so audio gro unding rules apply. the on ly ba nd pa vv filteri ng in the receiver
Since the dow nconvcrtcr block contain, The ..ingle a udio ground rail runs up the fo r high. fidelity liste ning . The o utput of
bo th RF and lo w-noise au dio s igna l, . it middle of the PC bo ard bet ween the ICs. the wofing fil ter d rive, a ..econd gain
must he co nstruc ted us ing good Rf and The power ..upply line is deco uple d by the block that provides an ideal filter termina-
audio practice. Audio signallevel.. are low 100 IlF capacitor a nd 100 n se ries rests- lion for te xtbook bandpass res po nse. The
and the gain is mode rate so co nve ntional tor . Do not bypass t he hot e nd of the 100 ga in of the ou tput gain block is ..et by the
RF grounding a nd shielding practice s may n resistor to gro und. The de bias to the feed back resivror. With the valu es shown.
be used for the downconv erte r bloc k. With non-inverting i nputs 10 the a nalog signal the ga in of the analog signal processor
LO signals floati ng arou nd o n the sa me processor co mes from the pre vious stage . block is approxima tely 13 dB . It is pov-
freq ue ncy as the de si red inp ut vig nal. There is only o ne c hange in the a udio sihle to inc reas e the gai n of [he o utp ut gain
shielding is ve ry i mp o rt ant. The ci rcu it phase-shift network from the versi on used bloc k to d irec tly d rive medium impedance
board i<;, desi g ned to f it in..ide a Hamm ond in t he min iR2. 1.52 kU i<;, not a standard head phones. The ana log signal processor
1590B die-cast alu minum box. An encto- va lue in the l 'k se rie s. It is ob tain ed by bloc k alvo co ntains a mute ci rcuit.
vure soldered up from lin sneer or PC board connecting a 1.50-U land 20- n resistor in Gro unding the mute term in al dro ps the
vcraps is eve n better. The RF and LO in- ..e ries. With the aud io phase-shift netw or k gain of the su mming amplifier to zero. The
puts should enter thro ugh coax connec tors. co mpo ne nts (re,i sto rs a nd capacitors) se- mute circuit uses a reed rela y with c o rn-
Type BNC , Sr>.l A and RCA pbono are a ll lec ted to wit hin 0 , 1'k of their mark ed pletely indepe nde nt power. ground and
acce ptable , The audio output s should leave value, more than 60 dB of oppos ite side - control circu it . This permits the relay to be
thro ugh eithe r coax co nnecto rs or ma tc hed hand suppression co uld be obtai ned- if controll ed by front pane! switches and TR
l nF feedth rou gh capac ito rs. Th e audio the rest of the rec eiver we re perfect. B y switc hing logic wit ho ut corrupting the

Fig 9,71-The analog s igna l processor.

Fig 9.70-AS P layo ut.

Phasing Receivers and Transm itte rs 9 .39

 An alog Signal P roce ssor sig nal gro un d are co m mon . Th is PC b oard sho uld b e response. The ba se band L NA and g ain
and power s upp ly lin es . Usc of a relay also mounted on nyl on sta ndoffs with a si ng le bloc k ha ve wi de band width , to pr es erve
eliminates the low le vel d istort ion intro- wire to gro und at the pO\v e r supp ly. am plitude and phase ba lance bet wee n the
duce d by a FET switch. The sc aled ree d 1 and Q c hannels . After the su mming
relay swi tc hing time of a few millis econds OPTIONAL FILTERS am plifi er. the Srd order Butt erworth lIigh -
is quick enoug h for full bre ak- in o pe ratio n The low o utpu t imped ance of the analog Pass filter and 5th order Butte rwo rt h Low-
on fas t C W or dig ital modes. processor with a series 47 0-0. re si stor, an d Pass filter provi de a fl a t pa ss b and w it h
The analog sig nal pro cessor boa rd has the 500 ·Q vo lume control pro vid e prop~r good im pu lse re spo nse at th e me dium
two isolated . independent o utp uts. The termi natio ns fo r a wi de var iety ofpassive freque ncies . Th is roofing filter provide s
fir st ou tput is normall y con nected throug h filters . Fig 9.72 is a pa ir of useful au dio all the band -limiti ng needed for a high-
option al filt ers and the vo lume co ntro l to 5 {)() -U f ilters usin g standard valu e in du c- f ide l ity SSB or CW receive r-s-and it is
the au dio o utput ci rcuit bo ard. The second tors and capacitors that ha ve be en u sed in re commended tharrhc receiver be put into
o utput may he u sed to dr ive a signal lcvcl a num ber of o ur rad ios . Also sec the pho to operatio n with no addi ti onal filtering be -
meter or au d io d erived gai n contro l sys - in Fig 9.73 . fo re ad ding narrow ba nd w idths, Som e o f
tem. Th is is the ideal take-off po int fo r D SP Si gnal level s are hig h en ou g h at t his the mos t skilled and avid C\V op erators are
filt ers, FFT analyzers , home audio system point th at open PC board constru ction is now usi ng ve ry w ide ban dwid th receivers
stereo am plifiers. outboard au dio fi lter s or acceptable , If w ide SSB. Narrow SS B and whe n ha nd conditions pe rm it. be cause
the com p uter soun d card. Output levels C\V options arc all in stalled, it is us efu l 10 such receivers preserve the qu al ity of
m ay b e in dep end en tly select ed by chang- add atte nu atio n to th e SS B fil ters so that
ing the output stage feed back re si stor s . eit her ga in or rec ei ver outpu t noise remain
Th e l-kf.! inp ut re sistors sho uld no t be constant as fi lters arc switc he d . soo-.n
changed . as they provide the termi natio n artenuators are ea sy to construct. U sc the
impedance fo r the roo fing filter. res istor va lue s from the ARRL Handbook
~' ~
For con structi on hint s on mounting a nd cable s. an d mu ltip ly all resis to r val ues by
connecting to the ASP board . take the 1o. For example, a 500-Q 6-dB pi-network
cover off a stereo receiver or amplifier and pad has a 390-0. serie s resistor and
t) ",
r', I,
look at the c irc uitry aroun d the magne tic 1.5-k Q shu nt re sisto rs .
phono cartridge inp uts . Don't expect to Signal channe l selectiv ity is dist ributed
find RF shielding, but a wcll defined singl e through the baseband gai n pat h . T he
gro und con nection, shielded wire or ba ndpass d ip lexers pass a 300 Hz to 40 00
twi sted pa ir with the ground con nected Hz ch an nel with smooth ro llo ff outs ide th e
only at on e end. and power con nect io ns passband to enhance p has e- shift netwo rk
directly to the big pow e r su pply c ap ac itor p erforma nc e and provide graceful impulse Fig 9.73 -SS8 and CW f ilters.

390

SSB W ide 1.5 k 1.5 k

Fig 9 .72-A pa ir of usefu l a ud io 500-0 sse and CW f ilters using standard v alue in d u cto r s and capacitors that have been used
in a number of our radios .

9 .40 Chapter 9
transmit ted sig nals and al low a mucf bel - pusxihilitv of intelligen t au dio AGe sys- points in the circuit. Do not use the c has sis
rer pe rcepti on of the tex tu re of the ban d, tems that go we ll beyond the be st co m me r- as the negat ive speaker lead connection or
Inte resti ngl y. low-au dio-frequenc y i m- cially av ailable ama teu r rece i ver sys tems . as the negative power supply lead to the
p ulse response is do mina ted by the The R2pro is set up so that soph is ticated aud io out put ampli f ier , The cir cuit board
eff ect ively very stee p ski rts of the rece iver laboratory instrumentatio n may be used to layo ut works wel l when c on necte d di rect ly
respon se due to the hig h-p ass filtering an d obse rve the distortio n at all po int s in the 10 the spe ak er. and to the pDwer supp ly
the operation of the p ha se -s hift imag e- sign al path. Th e ear ca n oft en det ect dis -
reject circuitry. tor tion tha t is d ifficult to measu re. and the
Switc hed-c apaci tor and DS P filte rs may ear-brain qu ic kly learns to rec og niz e dif-
al so be used at this po int in the circuit.It is ferent distortion and nois e mecha nisms.
necessary to observe approp riat e input sig- The ac id test is 10 set up the recei ve r wi th
na l le vel s . and hear in mind that the a sw itch that completely bypa sse s the OSP .
dyna mic range and noi se figure o f the DSP and eq ual gain in the DSP an d non- DSP
may limit receiver pe rformance . At the modes. Wh en the OSP is set tor wide band -
o utp ut uf the analog processor. thc rc - wid th , an d swit c hing between modes is
ceiv er has an in-ch annel two -to ne dynamic cornpletely transpa rent. the op era tor can
ran ge of well o ver 60 dB and tota l har- he con fid e nt that the OSP syst em is not
monic d is toni on lowe r than n.1 'Ie'. B y this corrupting rec eiv er pe rformance.
poi nt in th e rec ei ve r, the noise fl oo r.
d ynamic ra nge an d in-channel d istort ion AU DIO POWER AMPLI FIER
Scale = 1:1
ha ve been set. OS P at this poi nt ca n not An aud io power a mpli fier ci rcui t IS
improve these numbers -c-it can only pro - shown in F ig 9.74 (also see the hoard lay- Fig 9.75-Boar d layout for t he a ud io
vid e wo nderfully fle xible filtering a nd out in .F ig 9.75 and the photo in F iR9.76.) po we r a mplifier .
add itional w hist les and befls . When the Any au dio am plifier wi th enough gain may
d ig ital sig na l proces sing is carefully he used at th is point, b ut it is II shame to
de sig ned. it can add to the utili ty of the connect a low di sto rtion re ceiver to an
receiver with out corr upti ng basic pcrfor - inex pensive [C amplifi er wi th qu e st io n-
mance . lfthc DS P system has too few hits , ab le fi delity. The version in Fi g 9.74 has II
if the A-to-D conveners have a high no ise gain o f 46 d B. wi th the vo lu me co ntrol
fi gure , or if the signal levels are set up arra ngement sh own. Since the aud io
im properly so that the ava ilable OSP power amp lifi er has hig h gai n and is
dy namic range is not used-a poo r rc - capable of med ium power op eration, sig-
ceiv cr with wonderfull y flex ib le f ilte ring nal c urr ents flo w in the pow er supp ly
will resu lt. The aud io recording in dustr y wir es. It is critica l that thc power am plifier
has pu shed the st ate -of-the-art in OS P well usc app ropriat e audio ampli fi er co nstruc-
be yon d the needs of this rec ei ve r. In par- tion practic e. In particular. both speaker
ticular. noise -free dig ital de lay offe rs the wires mus t connect to the appropr iate Fig 9.76-The a ud io po wer amplifier.

+12 V

+
1 10.000 ~ F

+
1 0 ~F 1 4.7k
•
0,1 IJ F 2N3904

4.7 k
m 2N3904 +

:,T
22 1000 ~F 100 IJF
220 pF
4.7 k +
10 IJF
+
22 1000 IJF
4,7k
100 k

2N3906
4.7 k

220 pF

Fig 9.74 -An aud io po we r amplifie r c ircu it.

Phasi ng Rec eivers and Tr ansm itters 9.41

c apacito r with #I18 wires. Feedback pro b- adjus tme nt. S imilarl y, all o f the cumu- Bi naural opera tion is simple 10 add to
le ms. (ho,"- lingl in d irect conversion lative phase erro rs. may be trimm ed out an ISB receiver with I W O ide ntica l aud io
receiv ers can often be cured by usi ng a with a single phase trim. Whe n me side- c hannels, Binaural lS B. with one si deband
sep ara te battery power su pply for the band switc h is thrown . the receiver co n- in each c ar . just require s addi tio nal switch-
audio powcr amplifie r. While thi s is nor figurat io n cha nges, and ihe d islrib utio n of ing . For Bina ural IQ , as descri bed in
al ways attrac tive for no rmal operation. a mplitu de and phase e rrors is lik el y to Ma rch 1999 osr,
ihc I a nd Q Outputs of
tempo rarily opera ti ng the a ud io power cha nge. O ur R2 and miniR 2 rece iver the do wncon verter hoard are amplifi ed by
a mplifi er-cir cuit board fro m a se para te bat- tr immed fo r mo re than -to d B opposite a stereo a mpli fie r. A nnm ber of ex per t-
ter y supply ca n serve as a ve ry usefu l si de band su ppr es sion o n o ne side ban d men ters have noted that Binaura l IQ re-
trou bleshooting too l when tryin g to fi gure typicall y e xhi bitle sv than 30 dB o pposite c eive rs so und bes t w ith ver y lill ie audio
our which grou nd win: needs to be cu t to sideband suppression when co nnections to f Iteri ng. A versati le rec et ver might have a
elimi nate the offending grou nd loop. the analog sign al processor are reversed. switch that provide s wide op en Binau ral
Thi, a udio po wer am plifi er prov ides Readers fluen t in image -rej ect co nce pts IQ for tuning aro und the ba nd and the n a
reaso nable output with head phone s or a ca n inve stiga te op tio ns for side ban d number of narro w ba nd o ptio ns fo r co m-
sma ll speaker in a quie t room. For more switc hing that preserve the di srnbuuc n of munica ti ng with indi vid ual stations.
vo lum e, an e xte rna l power a mpl ifie r a mpli tude and phase e rro rs when switch- So me of the rece ive r circuitry in the
should be use d. Some e xtern a l so und ca rd ing s ideba nds . A good vtra tegy is to trim pre viou s parag raph s adds ma ny pans 10
ampli fication sys tems for co mputers are the e rro rs before the audio phase shift net- ac hie ve a vel)' tenuo us perfo rmance ad-
qu ite guod-. Others are q uite inex pensive . work, so that at th e inpu t to the nearly ide al vantage. Philosophica lly, minimu m part s
Ea ch has it!> me rits. analog signal proce vcor the I and Q cha n- co nsiderations should not ap ply to high-
nels have precisely eq ual a mplit ude a nd performance phasi ng dir ect- conver sion
LOCAL OSCILL ATOR 900 ph ase shifts. Re versing co nnectio ns at receivers. Abo philoso phically, from -
A local osc illator i.s not incl uded in the this po int will the n switch si debands with - pa ne l a mplitude a nd phas e tr im adj ust-
R2pro rece iver syste m, but the c hoice of out rediv rriburi ng the errors. ments arc an ele ga nt sol utio n. and arc re-
LO in large part determines the suc cess of One viable me thod to pro vid e good all y co ol to pl ay with. T he p hiloso p hy
the finis he d projec t. Tw o local oscillators side band supp ression in a switched-sid e- behind ea ch recei ver is differe nt. haw .
th at have been used (('I bu ild excelle nt hand rece iver is to make the ampl itude and ever- whic h may be the whol e poi nt of
dir ect-conversion rece ivers arc a we ll- phas e trim adjustments front-pane l con - this entire book .
shie lded J FET Hartley a nd a moderately trots . T his is part ic ula rly attrac ti ve fo r
we ll-sh ielded JFET Hartley d riving a ha l- receivers t hat cover u wide fre q uenc y
anc ed freq uency doubler. When the d iod e range. as phas e r..h ifts will likel y need to he
Trimming
do uble r is used in a ci rcuit with toroi d tweaked whe n cha nging be nd s . J udg ing Finally, here are a few words o n the ac tual
ind ucto rs. ope n PC hoard cons truc tio n is fro m the front pane ls of ma ny high-e nd proce ss uf trimming a phasing receiver for
acceprablc . The Kanga l)V FO ci rc ui t in radi os . the re is no pe nall y for prov iding hc:sl opposite side band suppression. A "tar-
Chapt er 12 wor\.;<, .... ell a nd pro vid es addi- additional operator contro l over recei ve r get" analog y is a useful ....'ay to think about
tio nal use ful featu re s such as C\\' ofhct fu nctio ns . A we ll-sh ielded externa l crys- trimming a pha!>ing receiver. The undesired
and a keyed auxiliary output. Because of 101 1calibrator with variable o utput is a use-
d iffe re nces in the way even a nd odd har- ful acc esso ry for a receiver wi th front-
mo nics add. d irec t co nversio n rec ei ve rs panel phase a nd amplitude trims. h b AUdio
tha t use odd har mo nic frequency multipli- impo rta nt that the te st "ig-nal en ter the re- Transforme.-
ers mu st be ver y well shiel ded . ceivc r o n the anten na con nector. and that
While a nalog loc al (N:i Haters represent a ll leak age path s into the J and Q RF cir - ASP I
mature tech nology a nd si mple ele gance. c uitry arc 60 or 70 d B down . ~
the state of the synthes izer art conti nues 10 For s ingle- hand switched-s idehand re- Differential I .--f'
~
progress rap idly. T he best hybrid DDS- ceivers. there arc other opno nc h om the
PLL !>y m h e siz e- r~ are ve ry. very good, and
continue to improve. T he R2pro c irc uit
baste theo ry, four trimm ing udj ustme ms
(o ne a mplitude and o ne phase trim fo r e ac h
-
blods provide a convenien t pl at form sideba nd ) a rc needed fo r to op timize su p-
for ex perimen ts wuh d iffe rent types of pression of eith er sideb and. A very co n- .. v
,~ n t hesi/ers. servarive option is to use two inde pen de nt
down-con vert e r and a nalo g sig na l proc es-
"'«'''::t-;r
(~ needed)
~+
ASP
a..
Sideband Switching, sor PC boards, with switch ed (or split ) LO
and RF inputs. An inde pendent LO (o r RF)
J. """', 1100 ~F'
Binaural , and ISB phase tri m c an then be imple mented fo r
Tf'8nsfonner

modes e ac h dow ncon verrer , and one analog sig-

It i ~ not tri vi al to se t up a switched-side - nal proc esxur r au be ser up fo r uppe r sldc - ASP Q
hand and the oth er for lower side hand . Th e :
~
hand phaxing imag e-reject receiver sy:t:>:1l1 Differential Q
....-ith equal sid ehund suppression o n eith er desired sid e band may then he selec ted by ~
switching bet wee n analog processor ou t-
' idt' hand . Th is is parti eu lllrly the casc fo r
puts. Of cour~e . an add itio nal audio powe r ~
the R::!pro. with ll\'a ilah le si deband su p-
press ion of oye r 50 dR. Thl' re ason fo r the a mplifier co uld also he added for full In- ,
d iffic ulty is su btle. In a phas ing sys tem. depende nt Side band operalion. The trim -
ming adj ust me nls fo r suppression of op- Fig 9.T7- A ci rcuit for co nnecting a n I C
a ll the eumulati v'e am pli tud e e rro rs ba lanced mixer o utpu t pa ir into the I
throug ho ut the !»stem may be eom pen · posi te si d t:bands a re co mplete I) inde- an d C in puts 01 the R2pro a na log sig na l
sa red wi th a single amplilude trimming pendent in this impleme nta tio n. processor bo ard ,

9.42 Chapter 9
 0.'
/-----1 " r.-l
~.
AMPLITUDE

". '" 7.5 k 5 k~RIM

~
?
10.0 k

10,0 k
10.0 k
c-.
10.0 k

lv;( V
lOut

~. to e
.'
0 .' 10.0 k

/-----1
,; 1 -

0 .'

/-----1 " r.-J PHASE

TRIM

" ".
,,,
~. '" ".
".
~
100 k

10.0 k
100 k
10,0 k
c-
Iv;( V
, 000'

01
~. '"
/-----1 "
,~
10.0 k I.

<O k +
l lOO IlF
+
10 ll Fl "k
r

Fig 9.78 -Conn ec tlng th e I Q ba lanced mi xer o ut p ut pair into t he I an d a in p uts of t he R2pro an al o g s ig na l p ro c ess o r using a
pair of differentia l c p-amp circuits.

oppocue side band leve l is the dis tance Irom

the ce nterof the target. The two adjustrnentv .
amplitude and phase. are like the windage
and elevation adjustments on a gun sigtn. If
one adjustment i~ way off. adj usu ng the
other one will have lillie effect on distance /
from the center of the larger. Once one ad-
justment is perfect.t he other adj ustment will Fig 9.79-Th e
have a very large e ffec t. interfa c e ci r c u it
In a p ha ving recei ve r. the out p ut we hear boar d con nec ted
between the R2p ro
when tuned (0 the wro ng sidehand is the
ASP an d a
level of the undesired sig nal, whic h rcprc- co mmercial 10
se nts dis tan ce from the target center. Th ere m ixer oper ating at
is no indi ca tio n w he ther am p litude. phase. 2.3 GHz.
or bo th need to be adjusted. If neither ad -
ju st me n! has much effec t. the n both are
way o ff. Adj us t first o ne. then the other.
while li ste ning \ 0 the u ndesired sig nal
level. As the adjustments app roach the
o ptimu m values. the y beco me m o re crui-

Phasing Receivers and Transm itt ers 9. 4 3

 cal. It sh ou ld bc po ss ible to reduce any
33 ~F
sin e wave freq ue ncy in the aud io passband
dow n below the nois e level. If the signal is
AMPLI TUD E
5 k T RIM
~H
7,5 k
:.-

.:
stro ng . i t will be posvible to red uce the
10.0 k
fundam ental below the no ise whil e hea r-
ing the d istortion products . II is important 10,0 k

~
to li sten while adju st in g. bec au se a me ter ,
ca n' t tell the d iff erence betw een the signal '" H
0.047
100 k
33 ~ F

~
bei ng supp res sed , the d esi re d c han nel
" +H
~
10,0 k
noise f loor. and disto rtion products. Onc e
a sing le-frequency tone is sup pre ssed
below the no ise fl oor, tune t he rec ei ver
slowly to cha nge the tone freq uenc y an d
observe its su pp re ssi o n. In a pro perly
adjusted R2pro, the sup pre ssio n will be 10 k 5k
~ I
PHASE
TR IM
10 k
10.0 k
'v
33 ~ F
more than 50 dB over the entire aud io Ire- +H
quc ncy range. If it is not. re-opum izc the 10 k
recei ver us ing a d ifferent rone frequency. 10.0 k
F reque nc ies near the mid dle o f the re-

~
cei ver audio passb and arc most useful. 10,0 k
A phas ing receiver wi ll a lways hav e
sumc opposite sideband supp re ssion . If it
does not. then one of the two ch anne ls is
not worki ng. If t he si gnal has equal
stre ngt h on eithe r side or zero beat , don't
Q'o H
0,047

" ~
10 0 k

A
U
33
+H
~F

tou ch the ampli tude and p hase trim mers.

fix the broke n 1 or Q channe l first .
Once a pha sing receiver usi ng modern
lO ~ F 1+ 10.0 k

co mpo ne nts is optimized. the pha se and

Fig 9.80-A circuit that prov ides de-I sola t ed balanced I and balanced Q dri ve to the
ampli tude adj us tments hold very well. Th e input s of an I Q upccnverter.
prototy pe miniR2 on 20 me ters st ill ex-
hihir, 43 d B opposite si deband suppres-
sion from 300 to 3000 Hz after vix years ,
a ci rc um nav igat ion . num ero us camping
tr ips. and a number o f di sassemblies to
di splay the c ircu itry.

Interface Circuitry For

Other Mixer Types
Much of our w ork in the amat eur band s
use s d iode ring mix ers . D iod e rings work
wel l. are ava ilable in small q ua nti ties in
many dif fer ent varieties. and o ffer good
performance in fa mil iar, ma ture ci rc ui ts.
Muc h of our work in our professi onallives
has been in the de vel opment of passive Fig 9.81-A pro totype mi crowa ve SSB exc iter co nnected to a co mmerc ial passi ve
10 FET mi xer at 2,3 GHz.
1--'I-:T mixers of vari ou s topolog ie s. F ET
mixers o ffer <I num be r of perfor man ce
trad e- off's with diode r in gs. and often the F ig 9.77 Is a circui t for c onnecti ng an I ing at 2.3 G Hz.
pa vsive r ET mix en arc superior. T here is Q balan ce d mixe r out put pair in to'~'~ 1: 1 Passive FET mi xe rs are also used as
abo a wid e variety of other mixe r types and Q inputs o f the R2pro analog sign al upconve rters. and Fi g 9.80 is a circui t tha t
including ac ti ve mixers using Bipo lar an d proce ssor bo ard . The ce nter-tapped float- pro vide s de isolated balanced 1 and balanced
C.~10S trans istors that may he the be st ing transformer primaries may bc used to Q dr ive to the inp uts of an 1 Q upconverter.
c hoice for some ap plicat ions. Cla ssic provide operating bias to t he mixe r i f Fig 9,81 is <I pho tograph of a prototype mi-
vac uum tube bea m deflec tio n mixe rs, and needed , and 6 V hia, to the AS P I and Q crowave SSB exci ter con nected to a com -
futu re optical mixers o ffer interesting ex - inp uts is provided by the transfor mer sec- merci al passiv e FET mixer at 2.3 GHz .
periment po ssib i litie s. T h is paragraph on da ries. F ig 9,78 accomplis hes a similar Alte rnative mixe r types are a rich f ield
pres ents a fe w interface circuits that have task using a pair of differential op -amp for amateur experimentation. and there is
bee n devel oped to in terc onnect pa ss ive circui ts ,T he pha se and amplit ude trim pots much progress to be ma de in this ar ea.
FET bal an ced and I Q mixers to the on the in terface board allow both adjust- Betwe e n the 50-0 inte rface c ircu itr y
baseband circuitry d ev elo ped for th e meri ts to be conveniently don e at base - described fo r d iode r ings a nd the balance d
R2p ro. Mu ch o f th is work ts in the micro- ba nd. Fig 9,79 is a photograp h of thi s cir- circuitry presented here, an experimenter
wav e ba nd s, an d o utSilk the scope of this cuit board connected betw een the R2pro shou ld have the tools needed fo r expe ri-
te xt . ASP and a commercial IQ mixer operut- ments with ma ny d iffere nt mi xer ty pe s.

9.44 C ha p t e r 9
9.10 A HIGH PERFORMANCE PHASING SSB EXCITER
After co mpleti ng the Rjpro de-i gn. it
.... a... natura l to ta ke a ...imila r approach to
the basic phasing exc iter. The design of
the resultin g circuit is descri bed here. In
block diagram form. and even in simple
circuit imp lementations . a pha<, ing SS R ••
o
exciter and SS B receiver have much in
common. but a., circuitry is opt imized for
each applicat ion. significa nt differences
become apparent . A fc w differences are:

I. The audi o d rive sig nals 31 the exciter

diode rin g IF port arc o nly abol~ 10 dH
belo....' the LO dr ive. Th e diode nng rhus
contributes si gnificant disto rtion. a nd ils
IF port impeda nce will vary dynamically
with dr ive .
2. The overall gain from microphon e
inp ut 10 e xci te r outpu t is much lower than
the gain in a receiver. Cur in g unwanted
audio feedback and ovcilla nons in an ex-
citer are not Significant des tg n tavkv.

!\.HH
,l Carr ier suppressio n is an ivsue. and u.
0
••
can nOI be helped by RF amplifie r re ver se
isolation. •
- g
0
0
• t,\ 0 0
-I.. RF feedbac k from the antenna bad
in to the mod ulator or LO tuned circ uit •
g •- N
HH
~~ ••0 " ~ .
"
causes FM
5. There are signifi cant differe nces in " - • N ~

the ha ndling of SSB and CW

6. There are: significantly different
grou ndi ng co nsiderations.

Since there arc so many different re-

quirements bet .... een opti mized receiver
~
-
o
~ !.
and excite r circuitry. eac h exciter ci rcuit •e o•
block was redes igned, borro wing sub-
circuits from the receiver and previous de-
-
signs where performance met the exciter
requirements.

Mi crophone Amplifi er
The micro phone amplifie r input i ~ the
con nection point for a dy namic or electret
mike eleme nt. II needs to inter face to a

.'f------t
wide var iety of signal source" without •c .
changing us gain or pa......band charac teris-
Ii.:,>. The micro phone amplifier defines the
nois e floor inside th... channel during
pause.. betwe en words. or when using an
e vtem al digilal signa l source co nnected 10
the exciter aud io input. Typical inexpen -
viv e etecrrer elements with integral FET
amplifiers have an output voltage of about
•o •
o
\~ I-
~ o mV and a signal to noise ratio of more
than 60 dB. The mike amplifier needs to
L -- - --+--{ I.
Fig 9.82-This sch emati c is a speech U rr
amplif ier and analog signal pr ocessor.
Th e I and Q audi o output s may be L-J..-I~~
directly connected to either the
e
modulato r circ uit sh own in Fig 9.83 or
t he balanced outp ut circ uit in Fig 9.80.

Phasing Receivers and Trans mitters 9.45

ha ve input noise muc h less Ihan 10 ~V crophone ts con nected. the noise ou tput freque nc y f ilter edg e. and a si ng le ser iev
across rhe speec h passba nd to ens ure Incre ase s by 30 d H. up 10 about IU }.IW. capac itor pro vides one high -pass pole at
that the: e xcit er noise is bel ow the micro- T his is strong eno ugh to eas ily hear in 100 HI . The filler ou tput is terminated in
pho ne no ise. Typic allow- noi se Op-Am ps nearby receivers o n the: q uie t VHF bands . the 470-0 input re sist e r 10 the inverting
have input noise volta ge a t' less, t han The: micropho ne a mplifier circu it in Fig input o f the ou tput up -am p.
lO nVlH l l /~ . Th us the eq uivalent input 9.8 2 has an input imped ance of 10 kil. 10 The gain di stribu tio n through the excit er
noise fro m the op-amp in a -t-kl lz ba nd- dB gain. a high-pass characteristic defi ned audio is des igned 10 minim ize off-cha nne l
width is abo ut 630 n V- 90 dB below the by R I and C I and a lo....- pass provided by noive a nd rhe impact of component toler-
microphone o utput. This if> good enou gh R2, C 2. For maximum fidelit y a nd Ile x- anl"e:s nn nprm ite side band suppress ion.
for any microph one likely to be uved in ibility in ta ilo ring the mic rop ho ne re- \1" 0"1 of the: a udio ga in is before the LC
a mate ur service. sponse. the mike am plifier pa vvhaml is Flat speec h filt er. so that the filt er will have
It is usefu l to calculate the: o utput noise from 150 Hz 10 4 k Hl , with "cry graceful maximum effect o n off-cha nnel amplifier
floor of the: excite r when the micro pho ne roll-off abo ve and below. The Output im- noise. The I-dB ripple: Che byshe v speech
is di sconn ected. If the rms input noise of ped a nce of the: Op-Amp is raise d to about filte r ha, rap id phase a nd amplit ude varia-
the mike a mplifie r i, 630 nV acros ~ the 500 n with the se rie s resisto r, to d rive the tio ns ncar the upper passban d edge. so this
speech ba nd width and the tra nemirter lin- LC speec h filte r. filte r is placed be fore the audio c hannel is
earl ~' a mplifies a :!O-mV signal up to. for split into r a nd Q pa ths . A matched pai r of
e xample. 10 W (11,4 V rms l into a 50-n High Fidelity Speech such filters co uld be used at rhe ou tput of
loa d. the n the: trans mitte r has a total of the r and Q phase , hift ci rcu itry to sup--
61 dB linea r gai n from the miero phnne Filter press the op-am p phase-shift net wo rk
input to t he a nte nna. The output noise vol t- The spe ech filter is designed for high noise. but then the component to leranc es
ag e is 6 1 d B strong er t han 630 nv . or 700 qu ality speec h and rapi d roll-off above wo uld have 10 be unreaso nably tight. In-
}.IV rms. The noise powe r at the outp ut is the desired pas sba nd. A I -dB rip ple stead. a pair of sim plified 50-0 LC low-
10 nW- Io...., po wer even by QRP sta n- Chebyshe v low -pass p ro tot ype was sca led pa ss filters is used after the I and Q a udio
dank When the inexpen sive elec tret mi- 10 500 n and 4 kHz to pro vide the high powe r a mplifie r stag es, to re mov e the

~-----.-----.---------,---1 .' 2 V
4,H
1------1- 2N3904
~---iLi

4.7 k
2NJ904 + "00

t +T =~f-r~~-+Lt
jJF 3.3 mH
50,1 30
+
" ,r-:;r-
TUF-J
+ +10 jJF
"T
, F rl, zz 1000 jJF ,SO
4.7k
150

4,7 k
100k 10 bifilar tums
FT37-43

220 pF

' 00

,
4.7 k ~.

2N391l4

4 ,]k
2N3904 + '000
1000 ~F 3 .3 mH
+ so, + , F 30
+
" T
,F rl, 22 1000 jJF ,so
4 ,1 k
O~I " 150
L _ _.j 'Q
2N3906

'00 •
.n
220 oF

Fig 9.8l-The modulator circuitry shown he re is co nn ected directl y to t he output of the audio p haee-s httt net wo rk .

9.46 Chapter 9
broadb an d noise f ro m the acti ve phase - ph ase and ampli tud e er ro r s betwee n th e Measureme nts
ib ift netwo rk an d 1 and Q power ampliti- two channels , Not only do suc h erro rslimi t
A TlJ F-l mixe r was measured with two
ers. T he se 50 £1 LC lo w-pa ss fil ters were the amo unt o f side hand sup pre ssi o n tha t
- 10 d Bm IF tones and a 22 I\-IHz. +7dB m
J e signed for amp litude and phase errors m ay be obtained. they will c ha ng e when
LO . T he de sired outputs dropped to - 15. 3
smal l enough fo r more than 50 dB of op - tuni ng acros s the ban d, and requ ire re ad -
dSm. and the 3rd order inter mod prod ucts
po site sideband suppression when b uilt ju sting th e exciter when switching side -
dropped to 47.5 dB below ea ch des ired
...nh 1% match ed components. ba nds. A significant re duc tion in phase
ton e . - 15.3 d gm outputs fro m - 10 dBm
and amplitude errors caused by diode ri ng
input s indicates a co nvers ion los s o f only
IF port im ped ance variations may be made
Buffe r Amplifi ers by add ing a 6-dB SO -Q auenuator bet ween
5 .3 d B. Thc 22 1\ 1Hz carrier rccdthrough is
at -63 .3 dEm, or a x.OdB be low either tone
The L C speech filter termi nat ion dr ives the I.C filter and the diode ring IF port .
of th e two-to ne ou tp ut. At 7 fvl H l the car-
.1 pair of buffer amplifiers throu gh the T his artcnuaror may also improve diode
ri er suppression improves to 49.9 d B be-
amplitude ba lance pol. T hese b uffer am- ring inrer mod di stortion per formance.
low ei ther of the two tones ,
plifier s provide lo w im peda nce dr i ve 10 the T he ln put tcnni nauo n to the I Q LC fil-
From these experiments with - 10 d hm
audio phase -s hi ft networ k. This i s a ter pa ir is pro vided by a the low im pcd-
two-to ne drive into a sing le mixer. the car-
change from the April 199~~Q ST c ircui t ance o utp ut of the a ud io power amp lifier
rier and intcrrnod pro duc ts arc bo th more
that dro ve the phase sh ift netwo rk dire c tly c ircuitry with a 50- fl serie s re sis tor and than 47 dB belo w either tone. Thi s puts them
fro m the amplit ude ba lance pot. Th e or igi - WOO l-I F de blocking c apac itor. T he de - 53 dB below the PEP output. Combining: a
nal circ uit co uld he adjusted for more th an bloc king cap cou ld ha ve be en used to pair of these mixers as a SS B modu lator
.w dB of opposite sideb and sup pressio n. shap e the channe l, hut th en it wou ld have makes a further improvem ent . T he car riers
but bo th the amplitude and phase ne eded had to be a pr ecision component. Since 10 from the two mixers are 90 deg rees ou t of
vignific ant re -adj ustme nt when switch ing .u J-' ca pacitors w ith the necessary tolerance phase. so the resultant voltage is 1.414 tim e
videb and s. Th e new circ ui t may be ad - arc bot h expensive and very large . t he ca- the voltage of each carrier. The desired side -
juvted for a lmos t 50 dR of oppovirc side - paci to r val ue was increa sed to the po int ban d adds in ph ase, so the resultant voltage
band suppression w ith very litt le trimm ing where a sta ndard to lerance e le ct rol yt ic is 2 ,0 times the voltage for ei ther mixer OUl-
n....ded wh en switching sideba nd s. cou ld be used. A 1000 l-I t capacitor wi th a pUL A passive com biner involves an imped -
50-£1 load has a high-pas s po le at 3 ,2 H L. anc e transformat ion . so the re sultant vo lt-
A +50 % capacitance erro r from lOOO,.rF ages are reduced by 0.707 into a SO-Q load.
Audio Phase Shift 10 150(J u f in just the I cha nnel in trod uces The final ou tpu t to nes arc then 3 dR stro nger
Net w o r k le ss than 0 .1 degree of differen tial phase than the roue s from a sing le mixer. but the
The audio phase shift netwo rks are co p- erro r in the lo w end of the aud io pa s-.hand. combined carrier outputs ar e the same as for
ied direct ly from the R'Z pru ci rcuit. There The a ppro pr iate dri ve level for the d i- a singl e mixer.
jo;; no need to change component va lue s. ode rings is de termined by the desi red The situ a tio n is more c omp licat ed for
There is some degradat ion of sideband sup- amount of third order d istortio n. T he re is imermod products. Some of them add in
pressio n at aud io frequencie s below 200 a trade-off between third-order d ist ortion , pha se . some c anc el, and some ad d wit h 90
Hz . b ut less than one would exper ience carrier le ve l. and exciter no ise . Exci ter deg ree phase sh ift. The wo rs t ease is whc n
with a f ilter exc ite r. U sing the val ues de- th ird order distortio n may be re duced to an the lnt crm od products add in phase, e x-
rived for the receiver provides maxim um arb itrary lo w lev el by dr iving the IF por t at ac tly the samc as the des ired s ideband .
suppressio n of adjacent -channel interfer - lo w level, hut th en the R J-' outpu t is low A SSB modu lator bu ilt with two TU F- I
e nce . Dua l up -a mps arc used in stead ofthc relative to the d io de-r ing LO out p ut, and m ixers operating at a carrier freq uency of
q uad op-a mp s speci fied in the ea rlier QST more no isy ga in mus t he used to re ach the 22 M Hl. with two -. l 0 dBm to nes into each
c ircu it 10 ease board lay out an d redu ce the de s ircd RF out p ut level. With +7 db m LO mi xer IF port. wil l have desired sid eban d
numbe r of parts that need 10 be kept in drive and two 0 d Bm to ne s on the IF ports output tones of - 12.3 dB m (-IS.3dBm + 3
stock. With parts se lected to 0 .1'it to ler - ofa T UF-l m ixe r. th e RP th ird-order prod- dB J. a carri er 5 1 d B be low eit her to ne, and
ancc, this phase shift network pa ir wi ll pro- ucts are only IS dB down from the - 9.0 i nte rmod produc ts at leas t 47 dB be low
vide mo re than SOdH o f oppos ite silk band dBm desi red outputs , Th is might he ac - eac h to ne . T his pe rform a nce is a goo d fit
vuppre svion from 300 to 3500 Hz. cep ta ble fo r so me simple VH F or micro- with a pr ecise phas e shi ft SS E system that
w ave ap p lic atio ns where the mi xer is co n- provid es 50 dB of opposite sideband su p-
nect cd di rec tly 10 th e anten na-b ut it is pression.
Mixer IF Port Driver hardly in keeping w ith a hi gh -per formanc e The IF ampl ifie r dr iv er a mp lifiers arc
Amplifiers phas ing exciter. also potential sources of d isto rtion. With a
The modulato r circuitry shown in Fig Of particular im port ance is the fac t that 6-dB pad between eac h LC low-pass filter
9.83 is conn ec ted directl y to the output of m ixer inte rtno d prud uc ts do no t have thc mixer IF port , filter loss. and the 6-dB loss
the aud io phase- sh ift netwo rk. As in the same phase relation ships bet ween the I and throu gh the 50-1'2 series termination resistor.
R2 pro circu it ry , th i s co nnec tion is de Q channels as th e desired signals that pro - the total loss between the driver amplifier and
co uple d and carries the 6 V bias for the duced them . The larg e st signa ls in th e op - mixer IF port is about 14 dE . Two - 10 dRm
mod ulator op -amps. Th e r a nd Q output po sitc si deband of a ph a sing ex c iter are tones is --4 dB m PEP. so the driver amplifier
aud io amplifiers are chang ed signi fic antly usually i nte rrno d prod uct s. nOI t he sup - must supply a two-to ne + 10 dBm with distor-
fro m the earlier des ig n. One is sue is that pressed sideband . T hu s it is m ea ni ngless tion produc ts well below the level produ ced
diode ri ng If po rt imp edance is a function to b ui ld a phasing exci te r with phase an d hy the mixer Fortunately. a suitable amp li-
of both LO dri ve le vel. an d fo r mo dulator amplitude accu racy to provide 50 d B of fier wa s designed as the audi o output stage
ser v ice . IF driv e level . Sin ce th e diode ring opposite sideban d sup pression. and then for the R2pro . At the + 10 dBm PEP output
IF port is the termination fur the LC no ise over -dri ve the I and Q mixers so that the level, distortion prod ucts are all more than 60
filter, an y change in impedance will create intcrmod products are on ly 30 dB dow n. dB below each of the desired tones .

Phasing Receivers and Transmitters 9.47

M ixer Environment si on when 1.0 con nec tio ns are changed (o r likely 10 need very little trim ming whe n
ca bles arc flex ed) , 1.0 port pads should be switching s ideba nds. The sideba nd selection
To obtain SOd B op posite ..ide hand sup- used if sufficient LO drive level is avail- method chosen de pends to a large e xtent on
pression. amp lit ude errors between the I ahle. Above 20 MHL. the Min i-Circ uits whet her the exc iter is to be used at a single
and Q cha nnels across the emire speech MA V- I l provide.. a simple way of obtain- frequency, or will he requi red to cover a
passba nd m uvt he held 10 less th an about ing + 17 d Bm of LO d rive. After a tw isted - mum-octave range. and whether the J and Q
0.03 d B. and pha.... .. rr or v mu st be held to wire hy bri d splitter. the I and Q LO level s audio drive is obtained frum a DSP chip or
less than D.OU7 ra dians (OA dc~ree~ ) . will both he + 1-4 d Bm . 6 d B pads (and a an analog Ie c hain.
Since mixer port termination s affec t hOlh lill ie ci rcuit lo,,~) will d rop this to the ap-
co nversio n I(J~~ and th e pha se behavior of prop riate d rive le vel for standard le vel di-
any LC networks connected 10 the pon s. it A DSB Modulator
ode ring mix ers. A 6 d B r ad on the RF port
is important fo r the mixer s 10 o perate in a." The same bas ic ci rc uits that are used to
hel ps ma intai n constant mixer behavior
ide a l an environment as po<...ible . Goo d build up a phasing e xc iter may be used to
across a wide Rft band. An anernauve 10 a
50-n te rm inatio ns on all three mixe r po ns_ build up a DS B or filt er-type SS B excite r.
resis tiv e pad o n the RF pon is an amp lifier
constant LO drive le vel. and good isola- with a good, broadband , res istiv e inpu t Fig 9.K.t is a co mple te lo w-distort io n DS B
tion be twe en the RF ports of the I and Q modu lator with 50-0 ou tput. The micro -
match and high reverse isolation. The re-
mix ers are a ll nec essary ( 0 ma inta in side - phone gai n sho uld he set up so thai thc
vers e iso lation pre ve nts c hange s in the a m-
band suppression, Iso latio n between the J o utput level at each side band is - 15 dBm .
plifier output load from appea ring at the
and Q mixer RF por ts is nee ded because
mixer su mmer.
the LO leaka ge fro m o ne mixer is 90 de-
grees out of phas e with (he L tj dri ve In the DSB with Carrier
other mixe r. This is prec ise ly the pha se There are app lications for a very low di s-
that results in max imu m se nsiti vity to (C - Sideband Selection toruo n AM cxcuer. F ig 9.85 is an A~t ex-
co ve ry of phase no ise or o ther Il uc tua no ns There are a number of opt ions for "ide- cuer that generat es a DSH signal and then
on e ither mixer. ba nd selecuon. Re versing thc LO connec - adds the cor rcci amount of carrier to obtain
O n eac h mixer port. 6-d B res istive pad!' tions to the mixers. rev ersi ng the I and Q lOOq. modulated A:\-I at very low distor-
will ge nerally improve o pposi te side band aud io dri ve co nnections 10 the modu lator tion. TII,'o input!' are provided, so that Ihe
suppress io n across the aud io and RF pass- drivers. or introd ucing a 180 degree phas e exciter may be connected directly to the vtc-
band. In tra nsmit appl ication!'. the noise shi h in eit her the I o r Q aud io dr ive will all reo output of a CD play er. With a +10 .,IBm
figure pe nalty is less of a co ncern . !'O the work. One advantage of la king grea t care 1.0 in the I ~tH z range. this exciter may be
usc of a 6-d 8 pad o n each IF port. and a 6 10 operate the mixers in a 50-n environ- used 10 play coltecnons of vintage rad io
d B Increase in a udio drive leve l. is good ment and maki ng the audio phase shift progra ms o ver Im ingly restored A.\f broad-
pract ice. Pads o n the LO port s o t thc mixer network as accurlte as poss ible is that the cas t rad ios. Usc low- pass Pi netw ork s 10
help ma intain opposite sideband suppres- amplitude and plf.bc trim adju stme nts are connect 10 the ::!5-f.! Rf and 1.0 port s.

9.11 A FEW NOTES ON BUILDING PHASING RIGS

So me of our pha sin g rig s have been works in the exciter and receiver modules. they ho ld the ir alig nment when intercon -
learni ng ex pe rie nces, and som e lire fin e This eliminates nucraction betwee n the re- nected , and grea tly redu ce vpu nou.. rc-
radios that hav e displac ed all the commer- ce iver and exciter adju stment s. spo use s and ou tputv. Mod ular con-true-
cia l equipment in the author' s homc and J. Buffe red RF po rts o n bo th the re- no n with 50 n interconnec ting signal
portab le statio ns. The mos t s uccessful ra - ceiv er and excite r. A rece iver LNA with c ables and by pa ssed de c o nncc uon-,
d ios have a fe w fe atu re s in co mmo n, good re verse is olano n a nd a re lat ively shoul d be used wh e never pe rformance i..
broadband. nca r 50· n RF OUlpUI should more import ant tha n co ns truction time.
I . Separate rece iver and exc iter c ir- he hard -wi red to the RF inpul of rhe im- T he philosophy behind o ur phacing rig'
c uitry. Thc individu al components in age- reje ct mixer. T he exciter ima ge-reject is also worth not ing . Early ama teur wo rk.
phasing rigs a re ine xpens ive. and it is false mixe r sho uld be hard-wired 10 a broad- and much of the professional use of phac-
eco nomy 10 include co mplex swi tc hing ha nd. 50 n low-le vel amp lifier input. Th e ing tec hniq ues. has been moti vated by the
netw orks so that a c irc uit block used in the LNA and exciter low -level output ampli- desire ttl CUI costs. In contrast. our ""orl
rec e ive r may also be used in the ex cite r. fier shou ld be bui lt into the receive r and has been primarily d irected to ward im -
Co mplic ated sw itching schem es to re-u ve exc ite r mod ules. proved performa nce compared "" ith fhe
rece ive r compone nts in the SS B exc ite r is .t. Good RF fil tering and a very dean LO. usua l inexpensive narrow-IF- fi ltc r super-
a n obsolete eo nce pl that heca me popular Phasin g circuitry doe, a li ne job of elimin at- heterody ne ap proac hes. It is an interest ing
in the 1960' s to save mo ney o n expensive ing the opposite sideba nd. bur it does noth- exercise 10 build and commun icate wit h a
crystal filte rs, and 10 reduce the nu mber of ing to reduce strong off-channel and out-of- rad io having o nly a fe w pan s. bu t that is a
vacu um tubes and fila ment c urre nt dra in. hand sign als that can cause interference d iffere nt ex perience from using a sys tem
2. A co mmon VFO for full transceive thro ugh vario us distortion mechanisms. des igne d for smoo th ope ra tio n a nd high
operation, but independent LO phase shift 5. M odul a r co nst r uc tion using per fo r mance. Fo r mini mum part s cou nt
networks. A conservative approac h is to dis- tc cdthro ugh capacit ors a nd mec hanic all y proj ects, simplc LJSH direct co nver sion re-
trib ute low level LO signals on 50 n lines sol id RF -tig ht enclosures. Nut o nly are i n- cei vers and simple super he t, are often the
to buffer amplifiers and LO phase-shift net- d ivid ual mod ules eas ier to test lind align. bext cho ice .

Phasing Receivers and Transmitters 9. 4 9

9.12 CON CLUSION
In the 2S year s si nce publi cat ion ot S olid prod ucts do no t. High f ide lity is necessa ry cesvi ng tec hno logy.
State D esignjor IIII' Radi o Amal euI", m uc h for a ph asin g rig. l\~o w that there are many 6. The fina l advantage 10 phasing sys te ms
has ch anged. Some of the most sim ple . publi shed recei ver and exci ter pha si ng c ir - is philosop hica l. A basic superhet rec eiver
light-weight mo untain rigs inclu de micro- c uits to du plicat e. the des ign er-b uilder can with a crystal fille r is fa irly eas y to explain
proce ssor freq ue ncy co ntro l a nd s uper het confi dently constr uct a very Iine so und ing and understand. It is also straightforward to
rece ivers with crystal fill ers carefull y de- radi o sys tem. build. and alignme nt is simple. When bad ly
sign ed fo r optim um C W inte lli gih ility. 3. T he emp hasis on lo w d istortio n a ll co nstr ucted and poorly adjusted. it still pro-
Rack - mou nt d irect co nve rsion rece i ver s the wa y thro ugh the R F 10 au dio c hai n vides adequate performance. 1\ phasing rc-
are use d in hig h-e nd weak-s ign a l trop o- means that there i s nu pe nally fo r usin g ccivcr is no more compli cated than a
sp heri c scatter UHF SS B and CW sta tions. audio filte ring for sele ctivity. H igh-per- superhet, but its underlying princi ples are
E\1E co ntacts have be en made us ing a few formance au dio fi lters may he realized more su btle, Care in co ns truction pays off.
wa tts of trans mi t power an d tr uly aw eso me using conventional L C networ ks or d ig i- and liste ning while playi ng with the phasing
rec eive r signal proc ess ing power. tal sign al processing syste ms , adj ustment s is really very coo l. A n am ateur
At the end o f this chapte r it i" usefulro 4. Phasing rig s inevitab ly have low er in- wh o has built up a phasing recei ver. looke d
ex plore so me of the advant ag es of p hasi ng channel disto rt ion tha n co nve ntio nal super- at the I and Q channel signals a ll a dual-trace
receivers and exciters , he rs usin g narro w f ilte rs. Low in-channel osc illoscope. and tweaked the phase and am-
dist ort ion pro v ides a si gn ifi cant per for- plitude adjus tme nts while listing to an op pn-
I. Phasi ng techn iques wo rk at a ny fre - mance imp rov em ent on any mode that in- site-side band signal drop into the noise ac-
quency . This can be used to eliminate fre- jec ts a baseban d signal into the SSB micro - quire s a dep th of understanding far beyond
que nc y co nve rsion s in he terodyn e re- pho ne inpu t an d recovers the signa l from that of most wireless gra dua te stude nts and
cc iv cr and trans mitte r sys te m. which the rece iver audio output. Th is inc lude s many of their professors,The be st part is that
ma kes it easie r to avoid inte rnal and ex te r- con ve ntion al SSR an d all of tho: presen t and under st and ing of phasing systems comes
nal spu rious re sponses an d achie ve SP I:C- fut ure mod es using Computer So und Card s from experimenting with simple circ uit s and
tra l puri ty. The same baseba nd proc e sso r inter connect ed with the radi o. thi nking- thc tinker ing come s tirst-c-tbe n
may be used with sim ple Rf circu itry on 5. Th e bas ic phasin g rig block d iagram the understanding. In this area the amateur
a ny amate ur ba nd from 170 k Hz thro ug h ha s man y c o mpo ne nts tha t may he re - with his sim ple workbenc h: prim itive test
mill imete r wave s. pla ced by OSP and DDS syst ems. DDS and equi pment; and rime 10 contemplate, has a
2. Phas ing rece ivers and ex c ite rs requi re nsp ar e two ar eas in which the sta te of the profoun d adv antag e ov er hoth the engine er-
low" dis tortion mixe rs and au d io amp lifi- art is ra pidl y ad vanci ng , Phas ing rece ive rs ing stude nt wit h a compu terized bench and
er s. W hile it is possible for a conve ntion a l an d ex ci te rs pro vide the rad io experi- exam ne xt week, and the profe ssiona l engi-
superhet rece iver or exc iter to so und good, me nter wi th tl;.O.: inter face bet wee n anten- neer with a million-do llar lab and a techni-
mos t pu blis hed desig ns and co m merci al nas and the late st adva nces in sign al p ro- cian 10 ru n it.

RE FERENCES
I. R. Ca mpb ell, " La Phase Noi se Es tes Park, CO , Oc to ber 1998. ARRL QS T, Nov em ber 1981, pp 11-21 .
Me asu re me nt III Am ateur Re cei ver Pub lication nu mber 24 1. Newingt on . CT. 9. S. Bedro sia n. "Nor mali zed D esign
Syste ms" , Proceedings I Micro wave 1998 . ISB N: 0 -872 59 -703-2. pp 34 -4 9 , of 900 Phase Differ ence Xctworks". IR E
Updul e '9 9. Pla no, TX . Oc tobe r 1999 . 5 . A. W ard . " No ise F igure Me asure - Transactions on Cir cuit Theo ry , J une
ARRL Pu blic at ion nu mber 253 , mcnt s". Proceedings I Microwave Update 1960. pp 128- 136 .
Xewin gron. C T. 199 9. ISBN : 0 -872 59- '9 7, San dusky, O R Octobe r 1997, AR RL 10. R, Fisher. " Broad -B and T wis ted-Wire
772-5 . PI' 1- 12. Pub lica tio n number 231. Ne wing to n, CT, Quadratu re H vbrids", Transactions 0 11
2. R. C am p be ll, " A B ina ura l IQ 1997. ISB N: O- S7259 -6 38 -9. pp 265-272. Microwave Theory and Techniques, May
Receiv er". QST. Marc h 1999. pp 44 -48. 6. R. Campbe ll . " D irect Co nver si on 1973. pp 355-35 7.
3. R. Camphell. "Medium Powe r Diode Rece i ver No ise Fig ure". QS T. Fe bruary 11. R. Harr ison, " A Re view o f SS B
Freq ue nc y Dou blers". Proceedings I 1996, pp 82 -85. Pha si ng T echn iqu e s", Ham Rad io. Vo l.
Microwave Update '99, P la no. TX . 7. R. Camp bell. " Binau ral Pre se n-tation of I I , No. 1. Janu ary 197R, pp 52 -6 3.
Oc tober 1999. A RR L P uhlic auo n SSH and CW Signa ls Rece ived on a Pair of 12, J. Reise r t. " VHf / UHf freq uen cy
number 253. New ing to n, CL 1999 .1SB1\: A ntenna s". Proceeding s I 18'" Annual Calib ration". Ham Radio. VoL 17. No. 10,
O-!·n 259 -7 72 -5 , pp 39 7-40 6. Conference oj the Cen tral States VH F October 198 4. pp 55- 60.
4. R. Ca mp bell. " Microwave Do w n- Socicrv, Ceda r Ra pids. lA . July 198 4.
13. B Blancha rd, "RF Ph ase Sh ift ers for
con vert er an d Upconvener Upda te". 8 . W. Hay ward and J . L aw son. "A Pha sing-T y pe SS B Rigs"'. QEX. Janu ary/
Proceedings I MirTOWOl"(, Update '98. Prog res sive C om mu nicat ions Receiv er" . February 1998, p 34.

9 .50 Cha pter 9

 CHAPTER

DSP
Components

The basic concepts of performi ng sig nal cnn" l,;,~l e S no power. Ho we ver. in o rder to du pl icat ed by a ny nu mbe r of builders.
pt"ocessing func tio ns in a co mpute r go ac hiev e hig h Q in the indu c tors it may O nce the s igna l ha... bee n c onverted \tl d igi-
ck many l ear". Muc h otrms processing occupy a fa ir vol ume and. particu larl y' ill ta l fonn it is ofte n easy to add other func-
_J" per form ed on relati vel y slow co mpur- lowe r freq uenciev, may become heavy. l ions. such av ArIC. or to increase the per-
erv. where signals were n eared as a sene.. In co ntract. the DSP version has muc h forman ce of the filter co nsiderably beyond
' f numbers. But. Digital Signal Process- g rea ter ha rdwan: co mplexi ty. .\Iost of thi$ that which i:. prac tica l for the analog fi lter.
mg. or DSP. as app lied (0 com mun ications is hidden away inside integrated c ircu its. For this reason. it wou ld be unusual to sec:
~~ -rems is more: It refers to the conversion but e ve n the in te rconn ect wires (PC board a DS P based circ uit tha t wa s 'IS si mp le as
of con vcn uona l a nalog sig nab into d igital trace...) will cou nt in the ten s or hund reds j ust a ba nd-pass fil ter. Th e DSP impleme n-
.. c rds. then process ing these words for fo r most i mplementatio ns. T he DSP latio n is limited in the uppe r frequenc y rhar
some useful purpose and the conversion impl e me ntatio n might co ns ume a few can be used and is mos t ofte n seen fo r Ire-
bac k to analo g signals. In add ition. all of watts of power. as well. However , once qu cncies in the I O's of kttz. T he inc reus -
th is must U(: CUT fa st enn ug h 10 kee p up with the fille r program i, writte n. it is preci se ly ing proce ssi ng ratcs of nspdevi ce, can be
the incomi ng sig nal. TIl:11 is to say. the
computation is "in rea l time:'
The incre ased spee d of d igital cumpU( -
mg hardware a long with impro ve me nts in
Io.... -cost convene rs for input and output
Jc\ k es has brought DSP 10 many ~ \' I' C)' ­
.uyprod ucts. This has made poss ible some
fu nctio ns that were d iffic ult to perform in " ..t
analo g hardw are . In addi tio n. the re a rc
reduc ed prod uction co~t ... associa ted with
lh ing DSP, a ll of whi ch is attractive to Fig 10.1-Alte rn ate Analog Implementation
eq uipment manufactu rers and hom e- ana lo g an d DSP
builde rs alike. Not surprisingl y. there are Imp lementati o ns 01
a band- pa s s filter.
11 "'0 limitations in using DS P to replace Input Output
analog fu nctions . These lie pri ma rily in the
Me al' of speed and dy nami c ra nge.
Ffgu re Ill.l ill ustra tes the imp lementa-
tio n of a ba nd pass filt er first as a co nven -
no nal LC desig n and then as a DSP ele -
me nt. The LC des ig n is o bviously simp le
In o nly requ iring 6 com[)l,"~ n ts . It can be DSP Implementation
built m e r a wide range of freque ncies and

osp Compon ents 10.1

expec ted to p ush these frequenci es up in T his c hap ter will attempt to provide rit hm . such as a digit al fi Iter, the fl ow d ia-
th e future . enou gh detail 10 all o w constru ction o r gram doe s not add c larity ov er communi-
In th is chapter , we will expl ore the types modi ficat io n of wor king " D SP compc - cating directly with a well-commented
of DSP bu ild ing blocks th at can repl ace or nen ts." In the case of ha rdw are co nst ruc - computer program. written i n a re aso na bl y
suppl em e nt analog circ uit ry. where pos - tion . this usuall y requ ires that th e bu ilder cl ear la ngu age. Th is app ro ach will be ap-
sihlc, comparison, with similar ana log is able to write dow n a sch em at ic d iagram plie d here.
functions will be mad e . Th is will he lp to complete with comp on ent values. For o ur T his chapter places emphasis o n work-
give a ra tio nal basis fo r mixing lJ SP func- software case , th ere is no direc t equiva le nt ing DS P components. The background
tio ns into co mmunic at ions ge ar in the o f the schematic d iagram . Man y ha ve tried math ematics is not em ph a sized. However.
p laces w he re it "makes sen se." Exa mp le s to use vario us for m s or "flow diagram" 10 the re are other texts, such as that by Doug
of mix ed ; -,alog an d d ig ital circu itry wi ll commun ic ate the co ntents of program s . Srnitht, KF6 DX. whi ch sho uld be co n-
show ho w the se buil ding b lo cks can be Fo r logic decis ions . th is can be a usefu l su lted to add this perspecti ve .
used for bot h au d io and IF applications . tool. H owe ver. for a c omputational al go -

10.1 THE EZ· KI T LITE

One of th e interesting p art s of c ircuit 2 - Good sup por t manua ls are available million instructions pe r se cond.
design is the selectio n of com po ne nts. For 3 - Th e EZ-Kit L ite ma kes gelling Co mm uni ca tions wi th a PC th ro ugh a
in stan ce, we m ig ht need a ba sic NPX tra n- started simple . serial port requ ires a software UART (Uni -
sis tor to operate at low signallevels and versal Asy nchro nou s Rcccivcr/Trunsrnit-
s inc e the "ju nk-box' has a su pp ly of This. however, is not 10 say that the An a- re t ) 10 he run in the EZ -Kit, but the hard-
2.'\ 22 22 we will use the m. T hese de vice s log Devi ces ADS P-2Ixx series is the best wa re to change to RS232 levels is part of
are re adily available from a nu m be r of solution for a p articu lar problem. How - th e board.
sources. inex pensive and chosen for those ever, th is is a good all-arou nd proce ssor Ana log inpu t and output ta ke s place
reaxnns, as mu ch as tech ni cal o nes , Ho w- and pro vide s a consistent language 10 il- through a dua l (stereo) set of co nv erters in
ever, as the comp lexity of the circu it fu nc - lu stra te the examples that foll ow. a AD 1847 CO DEC. " The sampl ing rate of
tion increa se s. the dev ices become more F ig 11).2 is a block di agram of the the CODEC is programmable up to 48 kl-lz
specialized and the number of sources EZ -Kit Lite board. Th e pro ce ssor is an and supports an analog ba ndw idt h of about
dimi nis hes . For in stan ce, most integrated ADS P-2181 that has bo th 16K on-chip 20 kHz.
RF am plifiers . even at lo w power levels , wor ds o f 16 b it data memory and 16 K Other dig itallines are availab le for con -
are avai labl e from only o ne or two source s. on-chip words of 24-b it prog ram memory.
When we get to DS P d evic es it is a ca se of Th is is mar c than adeq uate fo r any like ly
each ma n ufact urer havi ng a se parat e pro - ama teur project. When the board is pow-
cessor th at no t o nly doesn't substitute for ered down , programs can be stored in a "tne te rm CODEC stan ds for CoderlDecode r
any other. hut that have different internal 27C080. or in a smaller EPRO M. The f irm- and refers to the combination of Ana log-to-
st ructures requir ing di fferent program- ware procedure for load ing fro m this 8-bi t Digita l and Digita l-lo-Analog conve rs ions.
along with oynamc-ranqe comp ressi on
ming lan guages. EP RO M storage to the 24-bit program
algorithms. For the app lications in this book.
For th es e reason s, it is necessary to pic k memo ry is part of the D SP hardware. The no comp ression a lgorithms a re us ed, but
a sp ec ifi c lan gua ge and a spec ific procc s- E PRO I.,1 is nut used after program loading we will s till refer to the convers ion package
sot family when des cri bing the op eration i s completed. T he EZ-Kit Lite ex ecut es 33 by its common nicknam e CQDEC.
o f a DSP fu nc ti on. If th is is not done . the
des cription becomes quite mathematical
and rem o te from an actual wor king pro -
gram. T he Analog De v ice s A DSP-2100
fam ily and specifically the ADSP-2 181
arc used in this chapter to de scri be the DS P 27C080
fu ncti o ns , Th is choice was made for se v- EPROM
era l rea son s:

1 - The assemb ly language is eas y to Fig 10.2-B lock

foll ow diagra m of t he
ADS P-2181 Interrupt Lines
RS 232 Digital EZ-Kit Lite from
Serial Signal Ana log Devices.
Comm. Processor Flags
11 0 lgitai li0 The CODEC has
d ua l AiD and D/A
converters.
Memory in t he
SPort ADSP -2181 can be
loaded trom the
EPROM.
Co, A01847
Analog Codec Analog
,
Inputs Outputs
o to 20 kl-l z AtoO i OtoA
Rig hi Cony, I Cony,

Th e EZ-Kit Li te.

10.2 Chapter 10
trot purp oses and conne ction s are sup pli ed extra time ava ilable for conventional con- the noise . from the AID en coding proce xx.
for adding alm ost any kind of memo ry or trol Functions, suc h as displays or being spread ove r a wider freq uency band-
ua devic e, swit ch es. wi dth and a sm all er percentage of this
From a ma nufacturer's point of view . noise hitting within the commu nications
where a com mercial pro duc t is involved, cha nne l.
Mixed-Modes much of this can result in lower produc - The EZ-Ki l Lite uses the AD I8 47
All real-life signals are analog in their tion co sts a t high volumes. For the exp eri - COD EC for hot h the AID and DIA conver-
nature. This me ans that a signal level is not mente r. produci ng a proj ect for him self. sions. Th is is of the sigmo -dcita " type?
constrained to a fixed set of levels, hut this can simplify the proj ect as well. assum - that is common ly used in DSP applicat ions.
rather may take on a ny level as time passes. ing thai much of the project can be based on The internally generated noise for this con -
Even the outputs of digital logic circ uit s existing programs. However. if one must version process can be considerabl y
<I re not j ust "0" or '" 1" but ins tead co nsist develop the entire progra m. it may well turn grea ter than that associa ted with a least-
of waveforms that have rise-ti meso ri nging out that the time required is consider ably signi ficant bit. Figur e 10.3 is an oscillo-
and other var iatio ns . All of the RF, IF, and above that of similar hardware , scop e picture of the noise associa ted with
audio signals use d in radio systems are, Arguments in fa vor of using ana log the AI D converter run ning with a 48-kHz
more obviou sly , analog. components generally center about the fol - sa mple rate and no input signa l. The levels
DSP pro vides an alternate way to dea l lo wing conside rat ion s: were measure d by usi ng the DSP to multi-
with these a nalog signa ls . Th is involves The AID and DI A conversion pro cesses ply the AID noise by 100, making it of
approximating the ana log signal with a se- te nd to restri ct the dynam ic range of the sufficien t level to cove r the D/A noi se.
ries of digital num be rs, pro cessing these pre cess . The RMS AI D noise can be seen to be
numbers with some sort of computer and • The bandwidth of the pro cess is too 153 uv. or about R times the le vel attrihut-
then creat ing a proce ssed ana log signal great for a DSP , able to the least-significant bit. This effec-
that agai n on ly approxim ates the desired • The basic complexity of the OSP is not tively limits the use ful bits to 16- 3 or 13.
result. It is important to keep in mind that justified , Th e corre sponding 01 A noise. show n in
the signal of real inte rest is the ana log one . • The power consu mptio n is higher than Fig 10.4 . has an nns level of about 200
The digital calculation s are on ly a means the analog counterparts. uv. which is slightly greater th an thc AID
to obtain the processed sig nal. In order to • Programs and deb ugging of progra ms noise. It is more diffic ult 10 qua ntify this
maintain an ade qu ate approximatio n of the requ ires new skills. sinc e the bandwidth of the noi se o n the
analog signa l, one mu st exam ine the com - As with any other technology. one must ou tpu t of the VIA converter is much wide r
puter ro utines and in som e cases take spe- weig h the va rious considerations a nd tha n half the samp le rate . The level give n
cial precautions. The hu man car is often decide if DSP is the best appro ach to a p<lr-
the final j udge of DSP distortion . Mos t ticu far applicatio n. 'S igma-delta AID co nverte rs use low-res o-
peo ple ca nnot hear digiti zed distortion lutio n conve rsions (usua lly 1 bit). ope rat-
when 7 or 8 bits are used in the represen- ing at very high conve rsion rates The very
tation. Even with a I 6-bit processor. care
Dynamic Range high digitizing noise is red uced by digital
must be taken to ens ure that this nu mber of In any commun icat ions system the low - filte ring, which acce pts only a s mall pa rt of
bits is ret ained accu rately. est le vel of a signal that can be hand led is the noise freque ncy s pectrum. Furthe r
limited by noise. and some form of over- noise redu ction co mes from feedback
loops tha t are a ble to s ha pe the noise
load set s the highes t lev el. The ratio of s pect rum to move much ot the noise
W h y DSP? these two levels . usua lly expre ssed in dB e nergy to high freque ncies allowing it to be
Tr aditiona lly signal generation and pro- is the dynamic range of the system. Sys - re moved by the digital fille rs. Similar pro-
cessing has used ana log compone nts . Mos t tems nsing DSP have dy namic range limi- ce sse s a re used to reduce the noise in the
of this book involves thes e techn iqu es. A tation s. as do analog systems. but the form s igma-delta D/A conve rte rs.
tra nsisto r oscillator can create a sig nal of of noise and o verload effects can be qu ite
good spectra l purity . Inducto rs and capaci- different. I n well-desi gned sys tems , the
to rs make fine signal fil te rs , Combined limi tations on dynamic range normally
with a few trans formers and diode s. o ne com e from the conversion s to or from ana -
has a mi xer capable o f hand ling a very log signals. Internally. the DSP can handle
wide range of signa l levels. The simplic ity a wide ra nge of signals, because of the
of this app roach has great appe al and for resolution of dat a words and by the use of
many proj ects , it is clearly the prop er level shift ing algorithms. such as AGe.
approach. The arguments for putt ing some For both AID and D/A converters. noise
portion of the eq uipment into a OSP pro- is introd uced by the minimu m resolution
cess generally are: of the con verters. In additi on. as wil l be
• I ncreased performance in netwo rks seen below . some co nverte rs may have
suc h as filters, 90-degree phase-shift net- higher levels of noise associated with the
works and ban ks of filters. conversion process itself. As con verters
• Better precision in operations such as get faster, they tend 10 have fe wer bits per Fig 10 .3- 0 sc lllo sc o pe t race of the AI D
SSB ge neration. word with a larger least -significant bit and converter no ise in the EZ-Kil Lite. Ther e
• Simpler reproduction of software, rela - this represents more noise. This is not al- was no in p ut s ignal to the con verter
tiv e to hardware. ways a probl em. si nce a fast er converter and the DSP was used to amplif y the
spre ads the noise over a wider frequen cy noise by 100. Th is was then applied to
• The ava ilah ility of functio ns that are
t he DIA converter t o produce th e t race
diffic ult to imple men t in hardware, such rang e. The noise in a si ngle com munica- shown. Eac h vertica l d iv is ion is 50
as adapti ve filters. tions channel may actually be less with the millivolts and each hori zo ntal division
• The DSP pro cessor like ly will hav e wider ba ndwidth con verter. This is due to is 1 m ill is ec o nd .

DSP Components 10.3

 input si gnal by quantizing it into a series
of small steps. On a detai led scale. the se
in put/output characteristics do not appear
at all li near, However. as long as the input
sig nals are within rbc range of the digital
words . the process, on a large scale, is
often very l inea r. This results in the small
step non-finearuies duminating and the
resulting intcrrnodulation disto rtion being
spread ove r a very large number of prod-
ucts . in a noise-like fashion. Thc tcr m
intermodulation ceases to be a good
de scri ptor. As an example. Fig 10.5 shows
Fig 10.4-0scilloscope trace of the D/A Fig 1 O.S-D/A output spectrum for two the spectrum of two sine waves produced
con verter no ise in the EZ-K it Lite . No
sine wa ves at 8.9 and 9.9 kHz . Each by DSP computation and co nve rted to
signal was drivi ng the con verte r and the signal was 2.0 V pop so that the peak
osc illoscope bandwidth had been analog signals by the ADl847 COD EC.
leve l for both sine waves was 4.0 V Pop,
limited to 30 kH z. Each ve rt ic al d iv is ion No con ventional intennodulation pro d-
w h ich is full sca le fo r the D/A con verter.
is SOD JlV and ea ch horizontal di vision The no ise f loor, which is abo ut 65 dB ucts arc observable, alth ough the sine
is 1 mS . be low each of the sine w av es, is mai n ly waves arc using the full availa ble range
from the spectrum ana ly zer. of the OfA co nverter. Although mo st ly
obscured by the spectrum-a nalyzer noise
floo r, if it co uld be seen , the distortion
product from the two sig nals wo uld
above was estimated by placing <In RC The number of bits of the AID converter appear to be simi lar nois e.
lo w-pass filter . down 3 d B at 30 kHz. on limits the top end of dynamic ran ge. In con trast to analog circuit distortions.
the outp ut of the converter. T his limited Dep ending on the typ e of converter, this the ove rload point of the digital sign al is
the noi se to roug hly the hand of interes t may result in abrupt compression or it may abru pt and crea tes severe distortio ns.
(24 kH/. for a 48-kHI sa mple rate} . generate erroneous values. Altho ugh this Depend ing on the nature of the computa-
It is of ten de sira ble that the noise nsso - latter form of distortion can obliterate the tion. eith er the signal output will reach a
elated with the ana log proces ses prior to ability to rec eiv e a signal. e ither effe ct is a maximum value and not go any furthe r, or
the digital hardware he amplified until it is seve re form of distortion e ven worse, it may wrap around between
somewhat stronger than this "digital" Inter modulatio n d istortion in ana log the greatest positive and the most negative
noise. Ho we ver, do ing this red uces the equipment is us ua lly dominated by the values. In OSP proce ssors. such as the
total dynamic rang e. Th ese are the sam e third and firth o rder products (see Chapter AD SP2 l81. this choice of ove rload
tradeoff's between overloud pre ventio n 2). Th is is due to the grad ualnaturc ofthe respon ses is programmahl e. Never-rh e-les,
and signa l sensitivity tha t have a lways non -lineari ties of ana log components. I n consideration must be taken to avoid prob -
existed in analog signal design . contrast. the digital process distorts an lems from operating in these signa l regions.

10.2 A PROGRAM SHELL

We now need to digres s from the si gnal fo r this reaso n. the EZ-Kit manufacturer complica ted mathematical computation .
processing subject to gain a general prov ides a pro gram shell. This is a com - such as a Fast Four ier Tra nsfor m. As muc h
understanding of the process of program- puter program that doe s almost no useful procevving as possible should he put here.
min g a DSf' microproce ssor. T he details wo rk other than to pass data through un- The only requ irement for being part of the
shown here are specific to the EZ -Kit . but changed , It provides a place where a OSP background is that the processing d oes not
al l D5P microprocessor env ironments function can be placed to create a useful require periodic computations at precise
have a correspond ing process. program . time intervals , Examples of background
The EZ-Ki t Li te req uires sizeab le Fi g 10.6 shows the overall flow of the pro CI:SSI:S wou ld be the re ading of a switch
amou nts of programming before it can be she ll. wh ich is the same for any of the pro- or the OUTputting of data to a controlling
used for e ve n the most trivia l OSP func - grams in this book . When first started. the PC. These operations need to be done quite
tio n. Much of this is associated with pro- pro gram initializes the parameters of the often. hut the exact tim es are not critical.
grammi ng the CODEC that provides the hardw are and software . T his is only done Computations tha t must he don e peri-
AID and Of A convers io ns. An example of once. although the prog ram may continue od ically are handl ed by interrupts . T he in-
this is se lling the sample rate to 4R kH/. as to operate for day s. months or longer. Fol- terru pt is a signal se nt 10 the D5P to re-
is used in the example pro gra ms. It is lowing initia lizatio n. the program goe s into quest special processing. In our ca se, the
important that the se hardware initializa- a cont inua l loop . In the fig ure. this loop is reason fo r the in terr upt is that another
tion chores be performed correct ly. but referred to as a bac kground proc ess. 1/4H.()()(} second (abo ut 20 ,H ~s ) ha s
most often the DS P programmer need not The operations in the background pro- ela psed. The specific hardware that gener-
be concerned about the detail s involved. ce ss loop can range from no proce vs 10 a ates the in terrupt is the CO I)I-::C Typ ical of

10.4 Chapter 10
 with very de tri mental resul ts. The program Certain items, such as hard ware interrupt s.

Ini ~aliZe
Paramelers
L
I--
Bat kgrOll ng Process
Wart lor Inlerrupl
must he designed to keep all processi ng
suffic iently short 10 preve nt this. In addi-
tion . the backgro und will ge ne rally he u ~­
require e xtra effort for s imulatio n hut ca n
be om itted for much program tes ting.
When this is thc case, the call to i nit I can
ing u var iety of co mputational registers . If be "commented" out of th e program.

Jo~
the inte rrupt ro utine c han ges these reg is - For our "hel l progra m the backgro und
ter s. rhere will he C:TTor~ in the resulta nt process iv particularly sim ple:
h'l\T PI data in the back gro und process. Thc inter-
rup r rout ines mus t ma ke sur e that any reg -
Isrer rhut it uses i~ resto red before the back - aga in: { We ha ve no ba c kg ro und
Interrup(Process
g round process resu mes . In the case of the proc ess. If we did , it wou ld go he re .}
Every 1 1~.OOO Sec jum p a ga in; { Go round a nd rou nd
Analog De vices ADS P-:!IOO series of pro -
ces so rs. this is very eavil y do ne for one foreve r)
Fig 10.6-Main ' lo w o f th e DSP programs. interrupt. A ll of the co mputatio nal regis-
To g i ve som e feel l or the numbers ter s are dup licated and the y "an be c hanged
invo l ved , the interr upt rate Is sh ow n as Th is starts with a la hel "again:" that is
48,000 p er seco nd . Depe nd in g on the
by the si ngle instruc tio n e na s ec_reg or nOI <I n instruction. but me re ly a name fo r
ap plication, th is rete m igh t r ange f rom d is sec _r eg . As one mi g ht s urmise from the location in me mory where the actual
6,000 to 100,000 Inte rru pts pe r s econd. the instruc tion s, the two register ban ks are instructi o n jump agai n is loca ted. The net
re ferre d to as prim ary and secon dary. re sul t of this ts thai the instr uct io n is
ex ecuted repea tedly . T his doe s not hing
the types of proces s thai m U~1 be done pe-
Programming within the useful, hut does allow the program to wai t
riodic ally are the reading of the AID da ta. Shell for a n ime rru p t to occ ur. When this hap-
pen" . the operation of the pro gram is trans-
the co mp utatio nal update of a dig ita l fi lter. No attempt will be ma de here to go ferred tn tbe inte rrupt routine. The retu rn
or the ce tpuuing of data 10 the D/A con- thro ugh all the det ail s of the ~hel1 program. fro m tbe interru pt rout ine will o nce again
vener. If any of these events do no t occu r A cop y is incl uded on the CD -ROM as
go bad ; to the "j ump again" loop.
on their precise. periodic schedule. there SHLPRG.DSP. Comments have been adde d
Th e inte rrupt ro uti ne. ofte n called a n
will be co nside rable d istortion in the signal to the o riginal Ana log Devices pro gra m
hISR" for inte rrupt service rou tine. is
waveforms coming from the process or. whic h exp lain most of the ope ration . again si mp le:
When the prcce....o r receives a n inte r- Altho ugh it is not necessary to know atl rhe
rupt. the backgro und prog ram instr uction details of this code . it is instruc tive to sec: a
in prcg re.... is com pleted and the program fe w line." of the prog ram to unde rstand the input_s a mple s :
then "jumps" to the loc atio n ass igned fo r overall structure of a DSP pro gra m. e na sec_ re g ; use seco nd a ry
processing the interrupt. Afte r the inter- For those tha t ha ve not yet wri tte n a OSP re g is te r ba nk }
rup t processing is completed. the progra m progra m. th is program ming info rmation
ju mps back to the ne xt place in the bac k- may see m mys ter ious and diffic ult to 1'01- { Ge t left au d io
gro und proce ss and continues wit h the lo w. 1t may he useful for the reader to skim from AID }
backgrou nd co mputation s. This leaves a through thi s section and the following one { Right }
maximum amo unt of time for bac kg ro und on "au tobuffe ring", with the idea of return-
proces sing. while still guara nteeing that ing when it i s time to actuall y put a pro- { Th is she ll do e s no proce s s ing
the periodic nee ds will alwa ys be met. gra m toget her. The co nce pt, he re arc to th e signa ls, other tha n to pass
Recallthat the ba sic processor ca n execute impor tant fo r mak ing the DSP program . th em th ro ugh. Process ing wou ld go
33 million i nstructio ns per secon d. much but not necessary for seeing how nsp fits he re . }
fa ster than the 4X-kHz rate of ju mping to into the "bag of tricks" for improv ing o ur
an interrupt routine ." communications circuit ry. drn(tx_buf+ 1) = mr O; { S e nd left audio
Several thin gs ca n go wrong whe n the When the OSP program first run s. a to D/A }
program is jumpi ng to different p laces in numbe r of hard ware and softwa re param- d m (tx_buf +2 ) = mr1 ; { Rig ht a udio }
the program at see ming ly rand o m times. erers are ini ualized. In the prog ram this dis s ec_ re g ; { Back to pr ima ry
howeve r. The interrupt proce ss co uld lake loo ks li ke: register ba nk }
lo nge r tha n 20.8 mic roseconds. in which rti: { Th is undo.es th e interrupt}
case the next inte rrupt wo uld arrive before
the first process ing was co mple te. Called s ta rt: ima s ke n; { Turn off all inte rrupts }
a n int errupt OWTTlfll. this res ults in o nly call inito; { Ins tructions tha t s imu- The first instructio n switch es all com-
parti al co mp letion of the interru pt process la te e as ily } putatio nal regiq en; to the secondary set.
call init1; { And tho s e thai do not } All computation will be perfo rmed using
the values in the secon dary register set.
'The ratio of the instruc tion rete an d the while the primary rl': gisll': r set is fully pre-
interrupt rate de te rmines the ma ximum The firer ins truc tio n is to pre \'e nt an served for future use. The ne xt instr uction.
number Of ins tructions auc weo in the in- interru pt fro m occurring in the progr a m m rO=d m (rx_bul+ 1). USI':S the co mp ute-
te rrupt routine. For our case. Ihis is o peratio n. before the inui alizano n b.co m- tiona ! reg ister. mrO as te mpora ry storage
33.000 .000/48.000 or 687 instruct ions. Of plete. The two subro utine ca lls, "c a ll in itO" fo r the nu mber thai was in me mory at the
cours e. if the inte rrupt routine alwa ys used
this ma ximum number. there would be no and "ca ll initt do the: initialization. Two address rX_ buf+ 1. T his is the da ta fro m
time left for the background process. The calls a re used as a co nvenie nce when test- the AID for tho: left chann el signal. The n.
balanc e be tween the two processe s is pa rt ing the program s us ing the e mulat or mr l is loaded with the data from the :V D
of the design proce ss . program provided wi th rhe EZ -Kil Lire . for the right channel sjgnal.

DSP Co m po ne nts 10.5

 To make a mo re usefu l program, we the sy mbo lic names rx_ b ut for incoming ju mp input_s a mp le s {14 : SPO RT O rx}
co uld now perform some signal process ing da ta and tx_ b uf for ou tgo ing da ta. Left rti: {Thre e fille r inst ruc tions J
act ion on one or both of t hese signals. Ho w- c ha nn el d ata 1S lo ca ted I ad dre ss rti; { so that t he re are a to tal o f 4 }
ever. since this is only an "e mpty" shell we location past the sta rt of t he d ata areas. rti:
will just send the data to the DJA conveners referred to a s rxb uf + 1 an d the right
for both the left and right signa ls, Putting channel data i s 2 ad dre ss loc atio ns pas t the The ju mp in structio n is all that is needed
the numb ers back in memory at the start of the dat a are a. Th e tra nsfer of the for o ur she ll program and so the remaining
addre sse -, tx_ buf +1 an d tx_b uf+ 2 does data takes place witho ut an y p rocesso r three instruc tions arc fillcd ou t with
this. The pri mary registers are then bro ugh t instr uc tions being requ ired. do -n othing instruct io ns, in th is c ase the y
buck as the active com putatio nal registers Every 1I48JX)Osecond the CODEC which are rti . or return-from- int errupt i nstruc-
and the process ing is restored to the back- includes the AfD, initiate, a serial data trans- rions. The particu lar instruction is not
grou nd proc ess by the rti ins tructi on. fer that is handled thro ugh the autobuffcri ng important. The usc of rti is often inte nded
The com pletion of this tra nsfer causes an to prevent proble ms i n ca se of acc idental
interr upt in the DSP. This, in turn, causes the in te rru pts, but the utili ty of this is qu es -
Autobuffering backgrou nd activity to be stop ped and our tionable and the real rea so n is to comply
A potentially puz zlin g que stion is " who interru pt processi ng to begin. with a convention !
put the data into memor y at dm (rx_buf+ 1) The interru pt rout ine is in program The re are always 11 mo re inte rr upt
and w ho is tak in g it back out fr om me mor y at the symbolic addre ss mini-p rograms . most of which are not
dm(tx _buf+ 1 )?"' Th er e is speci a lized lnputsarnples . This add res s is j umped to use d. As can be seen fro m the full program
ha rdware. ca lled amobuffcring , built in to at the time of the interru pt as the reSU11 o f listin g, each serves a pa rticular inte rrupt.
the process o r that is ab le to exchange dat a a table of instr uctio ns that is placed in the if the interru pt mas k enables it. Each of
be twee n a ser ial port and da ta me mor y. firs t 48 instr uc tions of program memo ry , theses has a sp ecific ad d ress in me mo ry.
The add res s in memory whe re this occurs Th ese mini- progra ms are each 4 inst ruc- Ou r seria l-port prog ram is at addre ss 14
is set up a s pa rt of the initiali zat io n pro- tions long and the one used for the serial hex (20 d ecimal.)
ces s , Th ese mem ory addre ss wer e giv en port used with the CO DEC loo ks like:

10.3 DSP COMPONENTS

When a pie ce o f elec tronic eq uipme nt is into one of the multi plie r in put regis ters.
asse mbled in a traditional way, a num ber call ed myO. T he output is called mr an d
of componen ts arc so lde red together. for the ADSP -2 100 series of proces sors Signal tn
These c ompo nents c an be fundamen tal this is a 40-bit regi ster divided into three
ones, s uch a s a resistor or a d iod e. In som e parts, called mrz. mrl an d mrn. Fo r our
c ase s, thou gh the y w ill be co mple x b uild- case of the multi plicat ion of two 1.15 for-
ing blo cks, such as a pha se- lo cked lo op mat sig ned num hers,* the 16 -bi t sign ed Constant
utc 1
built in a n inte grated circui t. In the sam e res ult is in the m r1 registe r. **
ma nner, one ca n loo k at DSP functions a, The atten uatio n value in m yO is the 1.15 Fi g 10 .7-DSP atten uato r using a
compone nts that can replace, or add to the form at fract ion correspond in g to the volt - multiplier. Thi s m ultiplication o pe ratio n
an alog co mpon en ts . In the following age rati o for --4 dB. In equatio n form this o cc u rs f o r every input si gn al sample.
page s we will explore some of these DSP is:
com po ne nts, a nd see how they fit in to
rad io de signs .

in di cates that "'..e will u,e the closest in te-

Amplifiers and ger to the ca lcu lated val ue. Fig 10 .7 sh ows
Attenuators Eq 10.1
this uttenuator in block d iag ram for m.
As DSP co mponents, amp lifi ers an d at- This sim ple arrangement docs not wor k
tenuators co nsist of mul tiplying the sig nal wher e A is the att e nua tio n val ue in dB. fo r amplifiers , In 1.15 format . the la rges t
b y a co nstan t. I f the constant is gr eater than which in our case is 4.0 . T he (int) op erator number is 32767/32768. which is slig htl y
1.0 we have an am plifi er and if it is less less than 1.0. T his can be ove rcome by the
than 1.0 we have an an enuator. For in- use of shi fting . For instance, a "v oltage"
sta nce . a 4-dB atrenuatcr could consi st of 'See the s ideba r "De cima l numbers in a gain of 4.0 (as a ratio) . or 12.04 dB, is
a signed mu lti pli cation : uxed-pornt DSP" for a de sc ription at the ach ieved by shift in g the bina ry num ber fo r
numbe r formats .
the signal level to the left by two bits . as
myO=20675 : { - 4 d B a s a fract ion ot H The mrO reg is te r conta ins the le as t-s ig- ill us trated in F ig 10 .8. In general. we need
32768 } nificant 16 bits tha t are used if we want to bett er control of gain tha n can be obta ined
mr-rnrt'rnvn (s s ); { T he sig nal is in work with mo re than 16 bits . The high 8 with pow ers of 2 an d th is is achie ved by
m r l a lre ady} bits in the mr2 re gister a re availa ble lor cascading the shi fting op erati on with the
functions that use "multiply and ac cum u- at tenuat ion op eratio n. As a mor e ge neral
lat e." This allows o ne to multiplytwo num-
It is assumed tha t the input signal has al- bers toge the r an d add the product to a example . a gain of 3.5, or 10.88 dB. is
ready be en plac e d in the mrl . Th e previous result. This is common operat ion illustrated in Fi g 10.9. In pro gram for m
instruction m yO=20675 plac es a constant in DSP. this wo uld loo k like:

10.6 Chapter 10
 Sig oal lo
I
Signal In
I Most
Significant
Mo st
Sign ificaot

~--~y " Sig oalO ut

x 3.5
Signal O ut x 4

0,8 75
28672 ln 1,15 Format

Fig 10.8-DSP gain of 4 using a sh ift register. The shift Fig 10.9-DSP ga in of 3 .5 using a shift register and a
o perat io n allows any amount of sh ifting, either up or d own, mu ltiplier. A gain of 4 is first applied by the shift reg ister,
in a s ingle o perat ion . as w as done in Fig 10.8. Fo llowing t he s h if ter, an
atten uation of 0.875 is applied, us ing t he multiplier of
Fig 1 0.7. T his bri ngs the net gain to 3. 5.

sreashttt mr1 by 2 (hi):{ The signa l is in T he e xamples sho wn here arc for con - t hat the number of bits of shift is not
rnrt: sh ift 2 bits } stant values of attenua tion. In man y mnre than nec essary. If a large am oun t of
myO: 28672. {0 .875 in 1.15 lormat } inst ance s, it is necessary to have the gain shift is followed by a large amou nt of at-
mr: sr1' myO(ss): {Mu ltiply the shilted the re s ult of some c alc ulatio n. The s i ten ua tio n. there wiff be a loss of accurac y
sign al by myO } regis ter is useful for this case. allowing (dynamic range ). The attenua tion con-
the number of bits of s hift to depe nd on stant in myO should be between 0.5 and
wit h the result aga in in the m r1 regis ter. a register valu e . O ne should ta ke care 1.0.

10.4 SIGNAL GENERATION

Gene ration of signals usi ng DSP is eas - Other met hods reduce the rable sive fur- memory, but each data poin t requires. for
ily done. T he primary ad vantages are rhe ther by approx ima ting the output wave - our example, abo ut 27 DSP mac hine
acc uracy of the wave form and its stability form. This can be do ne as a series of steps cycles . Th is is quite acc eptable for many
o ver time , DSP signal generators tend to where the output do es not change . application s. Tn term s of co mputing rime.
be limited to freq ue ncies in the low M Hz alt hough the- inpu t phase does : th is has each data poin t ta kes 27 x .03 = O,S I
range, or less, due primaril y to t he eompu- ve ry littl e computational overhead . More mic rosecon ds on the AD SP-2 IS I.
rationalload. Two examples of signal ge-n- ex act res ults are obtained by approxim at- T he method aga in st arts by divid ing the
e- ratio n, the si ne wave and random no ise. ing the sine wav e with a series of stra ight sine wave into four regi o ns of 90 degree s
are sho wn here. lines connecting the loo kup-table val ues. each as shown in Fig In. Ill. For any point
but with higher computation al overh ead. betwee n 0 and 90 degrees . the sine wa ve is
At the other ex treme is d irect calcu la- ap prox ima ted by the fo llo wing poly nu-
Sine Wave Generator tio n of the fu n c:.:( i on . ~ This uses very little mial cquat ion.>
O ne bas ic com ponent that is needed for
many DSP programs is a sine -wav e
generator. Digital generators ca n be impl c-
mer ued eith er as look up tab les or as calcu-
180 270
lated tunctic ns. ,
0 1
Lookup tables co nsist of a large block of
data in memory that has every sine-wave
value stored according 10the phase angle . Tn \
1

/-
/
/ I'
1
'=1 /
/ 1'

it~ pure form this co uld require 65K words 1 \

-
I - / 1

of storage for 16 bit phase angles. This is the- \ / /

fastest imple-mentatio n. hut ohviouvly is
impractical for many applica tions, beca use
of the memory need s, ~ 1
-, -

0
'/
/ 0
-
/ ~

v arious schemes allo w the re duction of 180 no 0 90

memor y usage.' The mos t ohvinus is to Sin(X ) 180 '" X '" 2 70 Invert (Flip Vert ically) Shi ft Left 180 Degree s
usc the sym metry of the sine wave and
o nly compute values for a l)O-deg ree seg-
Fig 10.10- The values of sin (x) between 180 and 270 degrees are seen to be th e
ment from 0 to 90 deg rees , T bis red uces same as those from 0 to 90 degrees, after the cu rve has f lipped v er t ica lly and
the table to a fourth of the original si ze in shifted 180 degrees. This sym metry a ll o ws the values from 0 to 90 degrees t o be
exc hange for a few computer instructions. the only ones that need be ca lc ulated.

DSP Co mpo nents 10.7

 stn (x) = 3. I.w62jx '" 0.02026367:<2 The five coefficie nts for the calcu lation ma): multip lies the first coefficient in mxt
of the- poly nomial are kept in a progra m- by the input value in my t . lea ving the
O. j44677'{1,~ ~
1
- 5.325 196x· ... me mory table calle d Sin_coeff . Acce ss to prod uct in mr. and aha loads the second
5
this table is di scu ssed be low , and is initia l- coe fficient into mx t registce.uverwn n ng
+ 1.800 :!93x ized in the first two lines of the sin routine. {he first coeffi cien t.
The nc vt fou r lines are to divide the input Th e remai nde r of the po lynomial calcu-
Eq 10.2
dat a into fou r 9O-degree segments. Note luticn cont inues in a similar fashion. For
.... here x is the angle in degrees divided
that the program constant s are give n as effic iency in program stze. the middle
by 180 . In the fixed point proces sing of three multiplications are p ut into a loop.
hexadeci mal num bers. Th is requi res a hit
the OS? (see the sideba r), the equation re-
of tran sla tion to the more farnil iar decimal The regi ster cntr control s the loop and it is
quires integer coefficient s and takes the
numbers. Many hand -held calculato rs automatically decreased with every loop.
form Loop initialization is performed by the
have thi s translation. making the task sim-
pler. In the program instruction my 1 ear, i nstructio n do a pp rox unt il ce..
sin ( X ) = 118M X + tl3 X~ _ 2 1R12X ,l both of these co mputational registers will After the polyn omial is calculated.
4 ha ve a value that Is somewhere between 0 the value is adj usted accord ing to the
+223 IX +7374X~ Eq 10.3 and 16383 decimal. or 0000 10 3FFF b e xa - 90-degree segment of the input. Finally
decimal. Th is isthe input value 10 the poly- rts : is a subrou tin e return.
nomial calcu latio n.
Two item s are being dealt with in cr eat - The instruction mtear ' my r (A ND).
mx 1=p m(i4 ,m4 ); ind icates that the mf
U s in g Th e Sine Wave
ing this eq ua tion . Pirvt. the coe fficients
have been scaled up to be 16-digit inte- register will he hold the res ult s of the Routin e
ger". But . in addition. they have been rou nded mult iplication of the ar and my 1 Incorpo ration of this routine into the pro-
scaled back by a factor of 8 10 insure that registers . and thai the mx1 regist er will be gram shell rakes only a few instruction".
ov erlo ad docs nol occ ur w hen the OSP cal- lo ad ed with the first polyno mial co effi - First. we need to initialize t he frequency o f
r ulutio n is onl y partiall y com p le ted. cient that was in program memory cpm.) the sine wave tu some value. which for this
The calc ulat ion of the sine- w ave value The comma shows that both halve s of this example will be 100 0 Hz. A number called
by these equations is valid only for 0 to 90 c om putat io n oc cu r simultaneously. i.c ., "d phase" is set up in memory :
degrees . In fixed-point valu es this corre- this is a sing le instruct ion . r\ ot all instruc-
spends to 0 to 65536/4 . or 0 10 16384. To tio ns can be co mbined this way, hut when .var/dm dphase: {For generatio n of
deal with all possible angles from 0 to 360 it i.s poss ible. the re is quite a hit of savi ngs s ine wave }
degrees. the values are co rrected accord- in processor time. The register mt now
ing 10 the symmetry ru les. suc h a... those co nta ins the i nput value squared. and this is initialized to the nearest ime-
give n abo ve . )lieu mremx t -myt (5 5) , mX1=pm(i4 . ger value to Ihe phase shift tha t occu rs
durin g 1/41:UXlO seco nd. given by
1000*65536148000 = 1365. 33. Th is is put
A sin Routine into data me mory by:
The routine for the EZ·K IT Lite loo ks like the following:
sin : m4= 1; 14 =0 ; { Us e i4.m4 inde x re g is te rs to } a xO=13 65; { 1000.24 Hz }
i4=/ls in_ coeff ; { point to polynomia l co eHs J d m (dphase )=axO;
ayO=H #4000 ; { This is 90 deg re e s}
areaxo. ateaxa and ayO; { C he ck 2nd o r 4th qu a d. } The sine .....ave calc ula tio n con sists of udd-
if ne are -axe: { If yes , nega te inp ut J ing this phase change to the last phase
ayO=H#7 FF F; { This is a ma s k to re plica te data , } value and m illg this i n our sine wave rou-
arear a nd a yO; { while re moving the sign bit } line. The program seg ment tha t goes into
myt ear: the middle of thc 15K looks like:
mt- ar' my t (AND). mX1=p m(i4 ,m4); {mf = input " 2 }
mrernxt -myt (5 5) , mx1 =pm(i4 ,m4); { S ta rt po lyn om ial calculation } axt = d m(dpha s e ); {Pha s e inc re me nt
cntrea: { l oo p fo r 3 of 5 coe fficie nts } fo r o scillator }
do apprcx until ce: a y1 = d m(phase); { La s t phase }
mr=mHrox1"mf (s s); { More po lyn om ial ca lcula tion J a r = ext + ay t : ( Ne w phase )
epc rox: rnfea r'rnf (rnd ), mxt =pm (i4 ,m4 ); { Po we r incre ase ; g e t ne xt co et} axO = a r; { The pha se inp ut
mremr- mxt -mt (s s) ; { Do last polynomia l c a lc ula tion } to s in is re g a xO }
sr- ashltt m r1 by 3 (hi); { Mult -s (shift le ft 3 ) } dm (pha se) = a r; {S ave for next dat a
s r=sr o r lshilt m rO by 3 (10) ; { Convert to ' . 15 for mat } point }
arepass srt : { S e e if re s ult >= 1.0 } call sin; { P hase in ax O, S in
if It ar=pass evo: { If so, satura te , f.e . set to Ox7FFF } returned in er }
atepas s exo: { S ee if inp ut wa s negative }
if It are-ar: { If so , nega te output} Finally the sine wave i s sen t to bot h the left
rts ;
and righ t D/ A :

dm(tx_buf+ 1) = a r; { S e nd s ine wa ve
to Le ft D/A
(Code c) }
dm (tx_ bu f+2 ) = a r; { Rig ht D/A }

10, 8 Cha pter 10

 Index Regi st ers
The sin program use s index registers, in parti cular i4 , ters. named iO to i7. The mO to m7 mod ify registers are
along with the mod ify ing regi sters m4 and 14. These used to change the address of the index regist ers afte r
allow access to sequent ial addresses in memory they are used. With some restric tions, the numbe r of the
without having to spend DSP computa tional time. index regist er need not be the same as that of the
In the sine wav e calcu lat ion , m4 =1 indica tes that alter modify register. For instance. iO can be modified by mO,
the index reg ister i4 is us ed, we want to mov e sequen - mt . m2 or m3. The length regis ters always correspond
tially to the next high er address . 14=0 indicates that to a part icular index register and can be a value such as
there is neve r a wrap -around in the addresses that are 10 = 10 which means that the buffer that starts with the
gene rated by adding on the m4 value . And address in iO has a length 10 , When the 10th value is
i4=" sln_c ooH se ts index regi ster 4 to the addr ess of either read or written , the add ress in 10 will not be
sin_cooN, a table in pro gram memory that was loaded incremented again by mO. Instead the address will be
with five polynomial coetncrents by the assemb ler taken back to the in itial value gi ven to 10 , This is the
directives: mean ing of a circular buffer. If 10 had been given a
value of 0 the DS P would interpret this as a special
case with 10 indexing into a conventional non -circ ular
.verrpm sin _coeff[5];
sl n _coett: H#324000, H#005300, H#A ACCOO, buff er.
.lntt
H#08 B700, H#1CCEOO: Program memory is 24 bits per instructi on. Tables are
often sto red in program mem ory , but mos t ofte n only 16
bits worth of data is used . since this corresponds to the
Th is usage of the index registers is ill ustr ated by the size of most comp utations and of the data memory
instruction mx 1=p m(i 4,m4) ; indi cating that the compu - words. To ma ke the data line up prop erly, 8 zero bits
tatio na l register mx l will be loa ded with the conten ts of must be appended to each table entry stored in program
program me mory at addre ss 14. and then i4 will hav e memory. As an example, the first sin30 eff entry is the
the va lue m4 (one) adde d to it, lor use next time. Other hex number 324000 . The rest two zeros are the extra 8
values of m4 ca n be used , including nega tive ones, to bits . Removing the se we have the hex number 3240,
allow stepp ing thro ugh tables in any equal arrang ement. which conv erts to a decim al value of 12864. which is
The ADSP- 2100 series 01 DS P have 8 index regis- the first coeffici ent of the sin e calc ulation.

We ,ho uld remember that we have o nly need for thi s conversion become mo re o b- co nnnuocs sine wave h ) ' the appriceuon of a
calculated a series of numbers that represent \ iou~ as the frequency of the ,int' .....ave in- low-pass filter at half the varnple rare . o n the
the sine wa ve at spec ific points. as sho wn in creases and fewer poin t, art' calculate d output o f the J)/ A converter . If one studies
ri ~ 10.11. Before thi si s a "clean' sine wave pe r rycl e.* Fi ~ 10.12 illust rates this for an the apparently rando m co ll ection of dat a
It if. necessary that this be convertedto acon- 85()()..Hz sine wave wit h a .J8·L: Hl sample points. il will recorn... apparent that they arc
nnuous curve. In the case of thc EZ-Kit.lhe rate. To a good upprcximation. rhi... eoll...c- indeed sa mple points along a sine Wil\ e with
low-pass flher ro accomplis h this isincluded li on of sample point s willbe converted to a about 48/8.5=5.6 data points per cycle.
in the D/A converter of the CODEC The
• See chapter 4, section 4,7, for further discus-
sion of hardware DDS computations, The
process is identical, except that in the DSP
case,one may need to use the Sine-wave tor
internal functions such as driving a software
mixer instead of always driving a D/A con-
verter to produce an analog output signal.

" XIOO
J()()()() - -.. ..... ··
. ·
1

. r:~
. . :: h=+~ : =:J~
. .. I . l
.. ·· 2000J~~ .. . •~ .
·t b
20000

· ·.1
'0000 . ·· :i . ~ .• I . I ·· .
· ..
e '0000 -

" L::
• a
·· .. ·· • a . .· .
> · 10000 > •
.- . . I
·· I : I ·
·. -10000~

. ..
-20000
I
. y" . ·20000 -
.
j .. . . · ·· . ..
-J()()()()
I····' . . . .
I
-'0000
1
a to
I 1 1
::: ar •
---"------,----,L
·
.
20 30
"
Oata POInt
50 60 70 80
20
30 Oala" POI",
50 60 70 80

Fig to.tt -ccateuterec points for a 100o-Hz sine wave Fig 1O.12-ealculated points for a 8500 Hz sine wave. The
sampled at 48 kHz. The ability of these points to be smoothed sample rate is identical with that of Fig 10.11 . Careful study
to a contlnuous sine-wave curve Is readily apparent. will show that these are indeed sample points on a sine
wave. The abil ity of the low-pass tllter to connect these
points Into a smooth curve Is nol so obvious , yet the
resulting sine wave is exact.

DSP Compo nents 10.9

10.5 RANDOM NOISE GENERATION
Fo r the testing of tra ns miner s and total pred ic ta bil it y of c omputati onal period. the ou tput see ms "n oise-like" by
receivers it is of te n usef ul to have a noi se- result s. T his see ms in consis te nt with gen- most measures . although each successive
like sig nal. In the area of mod ula tio n and erating noise, and in a philoso ph ic al ou tpu t is tota lly deter mi ned by the pre vi-
cod ing, in tere st ing experiments can be se nse, it is! Ho weve r, in a prac tical sense . o us output.
performed by using a control led noise the noise generato r can be made to have a One algorithm, call ed the linear congru-
source. A simp le example is to add :\10r5e re peti tio n pe riod lo ng enough that it is ence met hod .v? produces mos t of the co m-
co de to the noise and test variou s filters fun c tio nal ly rando m. Fo r ins tance , the puter-ge nerated rando m numb ers of the
and si gna l processors for the acc uracy of noise gen era tor that w i 11 he described here wor ld. Three co nstants mus t be selecte d
co py by an operator. rep ea ts its patt ern in abou t 25 ho urs run- for this method. and la rge amoun ts of
On e featur e of a digi ta l c omputer is the ning in the EZ - Kit Lite . Wit hin that study have gone in to the ru les for se lecti ng

Decimal Numbers in a Fixed Point DSP

The fixed po int DSP use an arith met ic sys tem cal led result exceeds 1 instead of when it exce eds 9. For the
2'5 Complement" In this system , posi tive numbers start binary system this occurs when we add 1+1 . That is:
at zero, represented by all bina ry bits be ing zeros , and
progress to larger values by adding 1 to the next lower 0 + 0 = 0 No Carry
numb er. This progresses until all of the bits are 1, 0+ 1 = 1 No Carry
exce pt for the fa rthest left bit that is always a zero for 1 + 1 = 0 Car ry Generated
positive numbers . In the simp le case of a three-bit
sy stem , the pos itive values would be When there are multip le places in addition , the carry
is added as a 1 in fo the next po sition to the lell.
011 bi nary 3 decimal
010 binary 2 decimal So , fo r our 3-bit exa mp le, decimal values 1 plus 2 is
001 binary 1 decimal 00 1
000 binary o decimal ±Q1j)
0 11
The z's comp lement negat ive numbers are created or dec ima l 3. This app lies equa lly well fa negaf ive
by interchanging all bina ry values , bit-by-b it, and the n numbers and extends to subtraction, wh ich starts to
adding 1 whi le sa ving the right -hand three bits. For explain the wide use of 2 's comp lement arithmetic
instance , the decima l value +2 is 01 0 an d if we inter- systems in binary computers!
change the binary valu es, we have 10 1. Add ing 1 to this
yields 110 , which represents the decima l value -2. The Our 3-bi t examp le shows the opera tion of the
same two operations will also bring us back to +2 number sys tem , but it does not conve y a fee l for
indicating consistency, Apply ing th is rule to the four work ing wifh numbers in a te-btt DSP system . The
values above produces the following tab le for the fol lowing t able shows a few of the decima l values , and
negat ive values: their bina ry representations for the larger number
system:
000 binary -0 decimal
111 b i nary -1 decimal Largest positive number
110 binary -2 de cimal 0111111111111111 binar y +32767 decimal
101 b i nary -3 d ecimal
0000 0000 0000 0111 binary +7 decimal
The values for - 0 and +0 are the same, which fits our
idea of "nothing!'" And the three true negative values all 0000 0000 0000 0010 binary +2 decimal
have a leading one , whic h is cons isten t with the pos itive 0000 0000 0000 0001 binary +1 decimal
values having a leading zero . Howe ver , the binary value 0000 0000 0000 0000 binary +0 decimal
of 100 do es not appea r in either tabl e. Since it has a 1111 1111 111 1 1111 binary -1 decimal
leading one , indicating a negative nu mber, an d it fits in 1111 111111111110 binary -2 decimal
the bina ry seque nce eithe r below - 3 or above +3, it will
be assigned the decimal value of - 4. It does not follow 11111111 1111 1001 binary -7 decimal
the z's complement rules for negation, since it produces
the same 100 value. The last tabl e entry is thus: 1000 0000 0000 0000 binary -32768 decimal
100 binary -4 d ec im al
In fixed-point arithmetic, the standard way to use
Now , the operations of addit ion can be performed by this arithmetic system to represe nt decimal numbers is
follow ing the same rules that we have in the decim al to divide the number value by some power of 2. For
system, except that a car ry will be gene rated when the instance, if all the val ues are divided by 32768 (2 to
the 15th power) the table looks like: (see top of next
page)
• Processors, such as the ADSP-2i 81 allow for either "Unsigned"
arithmetic, or for "Signed z's complementarithmetic." Because of
it's greater generality, only the latter type is considered here. See In this case , the last column is the fractional repre -
Reference 4 for details of unsigned arithmetic. sentation of these same z's comp lement numbers. The

10.10 C hapt er 10
these cons tants. as can be read about in the a, c . m an: c onstants,
refe re nces. From the poi nt-of-vie w of the mod m me ans di vid ing by m and tak ing
noise -generator user. it is usually suffi- o nly the remainde r. The lengt h of rime before the random
cie nt 10 borrow upo n others study of these noise repeats is determined by m. The value
constants and app ly them. Th is generator T hc con sta nts are carefull y chosen not used hen,': is the largest that can be used with
co mes from the formula onl y to pro duce go od random number s, a 32-bit word size. This requires do uble pre-
but also to simpli fy the cornp utatiu n us ing c ision calculations. but if we restricted out
vtn-e l ) '" ( ax v t n) + e) mod m our fixed- point processor. One go od set is ca lculation 10 16 bits. the result would rc-
where peat 2 1° =65536 times faster. or abou t every
\,(n+ 1) '" current gen e rator output a == 1664 525 1.36 seconds. For some purposes. this co uld
vm ) '" last generator o utpu t c = 32767 cause strange results .

Largest positive number 0111 1111 1111 1111 binary Fraction al 32767 / 32768=0.99997
0000 0000 0000 0111 b inary 7 /32768 =0.00021
0000 0000 0000 0000 b inary o / 32768=0.0
111111111111 1111 bina ry (65535-65536) / 32768= -0.00003
11111111 1111 1001 binary (65529-65536) / 3276 8= -0.00021
Most negative v al ue 1000 0000 0000 0000 bi nary (32768-65536) / 32768= -1.00000

total range is from - 1.0 to almost 1.0. With 16 bits cases , a formal check of the nume rica l value s is
available, the step size (the fractiona l value of the required with appropriate adjustment of the data .
least-significant bit) is 1/32768 or about 0.00003 . Mu ltip licat ion of numbers occur s frequ ently in DSP
Sometimes the ran ge of numb ers being represented programs , The sign bit adds an ex tra comp lex ity to
do not lie between - 1 and +1. Th is is handl ed by this op eration . For instance, 3 times 2 wou ld seem to
dividing the bina ry represen tations by some othe r produce the following , in bina ry sig ned 1.3 format
power of 2 than 32768. If the numbers were between - nu mbers:
8.0 and 8.0 the divisor would be 4096 (2 to the 12th
power.) The pr ice pa id for this is the reso lution step 0010 Signed 2
size is now 1 1 40 96 or about 0.00024. x0011 Sig ned 3
Note tha t the div isors such as 32768 or 409 6 are 0010
only implied, and not carrie d in any way with the z's 0010
complement num be rs. When writi ng a DSP program it 0000
is necessary to keep trac k of the number form. If a 0000
subro utine is expec ting numbers in one format and they 0000110 Si gned 6
arrive in a different one, erroneous results will occur.
Comments in the DSP program should carry the format But this is not what is found if on e op erates a DSP
information. microprocessor. Instead, the result will be shifted one
The notation describing the divisor valu e is not bit to the left and the resul t, in bina ry, is 0000 1100 that
consistent in all literature. Oft en times a div isor of wou ld seem to be 12 in decima l. The DSP signed
32768 is called Q15 notation . since there are 15 bits to mu ltipl ier has been bu ilt to acknowiedge that ea ch
the right of the impl ied decimal point. The divi sor at number being mu ltip lied ha s a sign bit, but the result
40 96 would be 012 . In their literature, Ana log Devices doesn't need two sign bits. Thus all resu lts of signed
uses the term ino logy 1.15 tor 015, 4. 12 tor 012 and so multiplies are shifted left.
forth. In this boo k we will cont inu e th is notation. This all sounds somewhat arb itrary until it is see n
Addi tion is the operation for which 2's comp lement that if the re is an implied decimal poin t in the numbe rs,
arithm etic fits pe rfectly. So long as the implied decima l it will mov e one position to the right with each multiply,
poi nts are the same for two numbe rs, they can be un less the shifting of one bit occurs . Dividing the
added without regar d for their sign. As long as there are nu mbers in the previous example by 8 turns them into
enou gh bit s for the result , it will be cor rect. How ever, if 0 1.3 format numbe rs. Do ing the example again with
there is not sufficient room for the resu lt, bad things 0 1.3 format and the decim al po int shown results in:
happen. For instanc e if we add the decimal representa-
tions of 15,000 and 20 .000 tog eth er. one would expect
to get 35 .000 . However. this is lar ger than can be 0.010 or Signed 2/8
represented with 15 bits. which is 32767. This will result xO.011 or Signed 3/8
in gen erating a carry bit that hits. of all plac es. in the 0010
sign bit. If we proc eed blindl y ahead we will hav e the 0010
erroneous nega tive value 35000-65536=-30536 . Th is is 0000
call ed wrap around. 0000
DSP program writers must take steps to preven t 0.000110 or Signed 6/6 4
wrap around from oc curring. In many cases , the DSP
microproces sor can cause the resu lts of computations Not ice that only 6 places are need ed to the right of
to go to max imum positive or neg ative values in the the de cima l po int. Along with a single sign bit, 7 bits
case of overflow, preventing wrap around. In othe r are requi red.

DSP Components 10.11

The ge nerator, in DSP code is:
my1= 25: {Upper half of a (1664525/6 5536 ) }
Probability Den sity
myO=261 25; { Lower half of a, the remai nde r}
mr- srn'mvt (uu); { 32 bit multiply: a(hi )"v (lo) } 0.5
m rernr esr t *myO(uu); { and a(hi)*v(lo )+a (lo)*v(hi)} OA
siernr t ; {Temp sto rage to free mr1 } 03
mr1 =mrO; { LS Word of a*v(mid ) } 02
rnrze si:
mrO=h#fffe;
{ 8 bits of
{ c=3276 7, left -shifted by 1 }
01
1 Value

2 3
mr em r+srO*myO(uu); {(ab ove) + a{lo)*v(lo) +c}
sreeshitt mr2 by 15 (hi);
sre sr or Ishift mr1 by -1 (hi); { Right -shift by 1 }
sresr or Ishill mrO by -1 (10); { Now have uniform rn in sr1 Fig 10.13- Gau ssian noi se prObab ility
curv e, sh owin g re lative proba bility of
b eing in the vicin ity of an y value. The
cu rve extend s fo reve r on either side of
This program from the Ana log Dev ices approxima tion s. T he re is always so me the grap h, but the pro bab il ity of
lib rary'' is an exa mple of a routine tha i is ove rload point in real hard ware, and achiev ing thes e val ues rapidl y becomes
carefully tun ed for a part icular ap pl ic u- Gaussian noise does not all ow this! Fortu - insignificant.
tio n. In order 10 make the repeat peri od nately, the prohahilit y of ac hie ving the se
very long . the random number is ge ner - level s is very small. and as a practical
ated as a 31-bit unsigned numb er. The con - matt er ca n generally be ignored.
stant mu ltiplier, a. is 21 hit s long and so One sim ple way to gener ate Gaussian
the product ca n be up 10 32+21=53 bits . noise is to simply add several of the outputs
The final opera tion of the algorithm . as of our uniform random number generator
shown above . is to d ivide hy 232 and then together. Thi s is well fo unded on a math-
take the 32-bit remainder. At this po int the ematica l principle known as the Central
top 32 bits will be disc arded. T he program Limit T heorem." The more numbers we add
does th is. in part. by never generat ing that together, the better the approximatio n
part of the prod uct at all. If one exami nes becomes. Thi s is done in OSP by a loop (see
the construction of a 64-bit prod uct from box at bottom of page).
two 32-bit num bers (us ing a 16 bit proces- Most of the instruct ions in the loop arc to
sor) it is see n that there are four terms to be free up the shift registe r for the division hy R.
added together. The product of the high - The division is needed to prevent overflow
ord er 16 bits or v , with the high -o rder 16 whe n 8 numbers arc added toge ther. One
bits . need never be prod uced. subtle operation is the usc of an arithmetic
T he choice of m as a pow er of 2 is a shift (rather than a logica l shift ) 10
common trick to a void e xplicit divi sio n. A divide by 8. Doing this implies that the ran-
right shift of the data equal to the valu e of dom number that ranged between 0 and
Fig 10.14- 0 scill oscope pic ture of
the exponent is all tha t is needed. 65536 is now being treated as a signed num-
rand om n oi se as gene rated by the
Sel ec ting the desired words docs a shift her ranging betwee n -3276 R and 3276 7. In listings in the tex t. The up per tr ace is
of 32 hits . This makes thc three shifts at fract ional , 1.15 format this co rresponds 10 uniform rand om noise and the lower
the end of the list ing a su rprise. at first. numb ers betwe en - 1.0 and 0.99997 . trace is Gauss ian .
The se three shifts arc really o nly a shi ft of
I bit correspondi ng to a d ivis ion by 2. It is
nee ded to correct fo r the shift in the mul-
Program For Generating Random Gaussian Noise From 8
tiplicr result for unsig ned multi pl ies. as
discusse d in the Dec imal Number sidebar.
Uniform Noise Samples
T he re sulting random numbers . left in get rnd:
the sr1 regi ster. arc eq ually like ly to be my1=25; { Upper half of a (1664 525/65536) J
any where between 0 and 65535 . the full myO=26125; { Lower half of a, the rem ainder}
range ora l o- bit num her. Th is is referred at-pass 0; { Clear the arithmetic accu mulato r }
to as a Uniform Random Number . entree : { The numb er of uniform rn added }
{ Now loop 8 times to ge ner ate a noise sample: }
Gaussia n Random do randloop until ce ; { Decrease cntr until 0 }
sr1=dm{see d_msw); { Get the 32 bit seed from last}
Numbe r s
srO=dm(s eed_lsw) ; { call to this fcn or last loop}
What we have from the Uniform ran - { The Rando m Num ber Generator, show n above, go es here,
d um number ge nera to r i, not qui te the leaving the resul t in the srO and sr1 reg isters}
noise t hat occ ur , in receivers . c alled dm(s eed _ms w)=sr 1; { Sav e new seed, high 16 bits}
Gaussian noise. Gau ssian noise can take dm(seed_lsw)= srO; { and low 16 }
any val ue. but with decreasing prohahility { Unifo rm random number sfill in sr1. Add to accum ulato r: }
a, the magn itud e ofthc value gets greater. sreas httt srt by -3 (hi); { Divide by 8, te, shift right 3 }
a, illus trated in Fig 10.13. There are a sev - randloop: afe sr t -eaf: { Accumulate 8 unifor m rn }
eral ways 10 convert ou r ra ndom numbers rts; { Random 16-bit valu e in af }
into Gaussian noi se. all of whic h must be

10. 12 C hapte r 10
 One of the advanta ges of the DS P ap - + 1.0 un iform ra ndo m n um bers , The generation of each Ga ussian noi se
proach of noi se g en era tion is the ab ili ty to • Th is is diminished in po wer by ( '/,)2= value hy this me thod req ui res 134 instruc-
know the noise power pre ci sel y." This is 1/64 for the shift by 3 hit s. tion cycl es. or ab o ut 4 microsecon ds o f
iound by consideri ng the proce ss used to • Thi s is incr eas ed by 8 for ad di ng the x EZ -Kit Li te processo r time.
gener at e the noise sam ples: numbers together. Fig 10.14 is an oscilloscope plot showing
• 1/3 is the average power for - 1.0 10 • The fin al result is a tot al noise power both the uniform random num bers before
of 1/(8 x3 ) = 0.04167 W . scaling {top) and the Ga ussian noise, bot h to
"The norma lized va lues of num be rs range The proce ss of com bin ing the Runiform the same scale. It ca n he seen that the
from - 1.0 to 0 .99997, which can be thought ran dom nu m bers has reduced the puwer Gau ssian noise clu sters ahou t the center
of as vo ltages. In o rder to thin k ab out fro m 0.333 to 0 .04 167, but the maximum value, much more than the uniform genera-
power in the DSP computa tion we must
possib le value s have been kept at - I and tor. It is not so obvi ous that the attainable
square the voltage and di vide by the "re-
sistance." For s imp lic ity, the resistanc e + 1. Wcare incr ea st ng the pea k-to-a ve rage peak values arc the same for both plots . The
value is chose n to be 1 n and the power is ratio, a nec essary op er atio n if a Ga uss ia n Gaussian generator prod uces these peak val-
just the norma lize d value sq uared. approxi ma tion is to resu lt . ues very infrequently '

10.6 FILTERING COMPONENTS

After AID encoding of a n analog wave- output of a pro pe rly des igned filter will implementat ion con s: cts of ad d: ng a sm a ll
form. suc h as an aud io or an I f signal, we get smalle r with ti me and e ventually fraction of the ncw inp ut to a fraction of
can then appl y fre qu ency se lec ti ve filt er- become smaller than the smalle st number the la st filter output. Tf we c all t he filler
ing to the wav eform . Suc h filters, called our processor can recogn ize . T he simp lest input sam ple Xj and the filter output sam ple
digital[ iltcrs can he implem ented in nsp II R filter is the analo g of the RC low-pass Yi then our filter cons ists of the sin gle cal-
with a ll the co n ven tio na l passb and sha pes filter show n in F ig 10. 15 . T he digital cuiauon :
vuch as Low- Pass, Hig h-P ass and B and -
Pass. The inp ut to the filter co nsis ts of a
seq ue nce o f nu mbers represen ting succes-
sive sa m ples of a vo ltage . Eac h sa mple
period the filt er perform s som e ca lcula-
01
0.7
tions on the ncw sample . T hi s involv e s
value s th at were previous sam ple s an d in
ve rne ca se s the res ults of tile previous cal - 0.6 IIR Filler
Approximation
culations . By car efully des ig ning this cal-
culation it is possible to mak e i ts o utput 0.5
level very sensit ive to the fr equ e ncy of the RC Filler
input, which is what we mea n b y freq ue ncy Response
domain f ilte ri ng.
The re arc LwO bas ic ways to im ple men t
a digita l fi lter. called ll R lind Itf R Inters .
Th e disti nctio n in thc arrangement of the 0.2
ca lc ula tion is no t gr e at. Th e llR f ilt er s
involve the results of previou s calcula-
tio ns an d Pl R filters do not. Neve r- the le ss,
this small di ff ere nce ha s maj or infl uence s
o n both the de sig n and the operat ion o f the
fi Iter.
00 0.0 0' 0.6 0.8 t
1 _

n
_ - - ' - -_ - ' - -_

' .6
Time "

IIR Fil t e r s Fig 10.16-The c har g ing response for the RC filter and the IIR filler app ro ximation .

IIR st ands fo r Infi n ite I mpulse

Res po nse and refers to the fact tha t. in
princ iple, the o utpu t of the filter contin ue s
forever lifte r an in put has been re mo ved ,
In ac tual ity it does not, of course, since the , Output Filtered
~ Signal Samples Fig 10.17-B lock
d iag ram of the simple
Input 17:\_ IIR fi lt er that has the

R
Sig nal t---~
Samples 1 r es po ns e of an analog
RC lo w-pas s filter. The

~outPut
output signal is de layed
by a sa m ple pe riod and
Input , a f rac ti on o f t his is fed
,
(
I ,
t
back to be summed.
Th is use of feedbac k is
characteristi c of IIR
Fig 1O.15-Simple RC low pass fitte r in filters .
ana lo g form.

DSP Components 10.13

Yi = K Xi + (l -K ) Yi-l Eq 10.4 smallest v alue fo r K being 1/32768 0 1' res ponse of the III{ filte rs suc h as unn ec-
0,00003. Thi s mea ns the lon ge st possibl e c ssary rin gin g. Nev er the less, the 11 1{. fil -
wh ere K is bet w een () and 1. typ icall y time co ns tan t is 327 67 .5 times t he p er iod ler has many app lication s wh ere it s com -
0 .00 1 or les s. F ig u r e 10.17 is a block dia - b etwe en samples , To c irc um ve nt th is put ational ef fic ie ncy makes it the filter
gra m of th is fi Iter. Operation o f this si mple pro blem we wo ul d need 10 usc more than type of choice. How e ver. beca use of th e
filt er c an h e calculated fo r th e f irst few 16 bits in our arit hmetic . Th is is available dr awbacks listed . lIT will concentrate on
a
term s whi le th e input rises from to 1. W e as st and a rd ar ithme t ic in som e proces sors . th e alternate category. the FTR filt er.
ass um e that the out put is () w hen we start For 16 bi t p roce sso rs it is imp lem en ted
an d that K=O.1 (thi s big val ue for K makes th ro ug h m ult ip le precision arithm etic T he
pr ice is slo we r pro ce ssing. Th e routine
FIR Fi lte rs
things hap pen fa ste r for our ex amp le ):
given he re computes a ne w fi lte r outp ut in For Filte rs of hi ghe r c ompl ex ity it is
New (l -K)Y i New 0.1 8 microsec onds on the ADSP- 2 18 1 etten de sirable 10 usc the FIR fi her. stan d-
K Xi
Input. Xi O utp ut, Yi wh er ea s a do uble pre cis io n ver sion wo uld i ng for Fi nite Impul se Re spo ns e . T he se
0 .0 0 .0 0 .0 0. 0 be ro ug hly twice as lon g. filte rs never usc the pre vio us o utputs of
0 1 0 ,0 O.1 Th e simple TlR f Iter has li mired per for - the filtcr computa tion . but d o use the c ur-
1.0
1.0 0.1 0 ,09 0 .19 ma nce a nd a fre que ncy re sponse tha t dro ps ren t inp ut along with many of thc previous
1.0 0 .1 0.171 0 ,27 1 o ff at only 6 -dB per oc tave , Althou gh slow in put s. Analog circuit de sig ners have u sed
0.1 0. 2439 0. 34 39 in ro lling o ff the frequ en cy response. this th e co rrespond in g circuit call ed a tra ns-
1.0
I S ade q uate for many ap plica ti o ns. ve rsal fil te r as wa s de sc ribe d in Chapter 3 ,
11 can be seen tha t the out put is gro wing Im pro ved pe r for mance comes from using DSP co nstruction of the F IR filt er is
tow ar ds 1.0 , but with sm aller steps with not o nly th e curre nt input sam ple b ut also very simple . as show n in the block dia-
eac h new in p ut. Th is is the sa me expone n- one or more of the pre vio us input samples. g ram of Fi g ure 10.1 8. Th e sign al is
tia l gro wt h that we associ ate wi th the RC Add itio nall y. one or mor e of the prev ious alre ad y avai lable i n sam pled form fro m the
filter. F ig 10.16 shows bo th the c harg in g out put v alues can be used alo ng w ith the A ID c onverter , A delay line cons ists of
character isti cs of the RC filte r and ou r current out put. Each of the se inputs and pl aces in me mory fo r some qua utiry of
di gi tal eq uiva len t. H we all ow the proce ss out put s has a d iff erent K value by which it previous sam pl es. E ach ti me a new sample
to co nt inue for a ve ry long tim e. the ou tp ut is mu ltipli ed. T his provide s h igh filtering arrive s W I: put it int o th e beginning of the
wi ll ac hieve a value of esse ntiall y 1.0 . A t perfor mance for th e small com put atio nal d el ay -li ne memory . M ulti pl yi ng all the
that po int th e re spo nse i s as fo llow s : com ple x ity involved . As with mo st things, sam ples b y co ns tan t numbers and the n
th ere are some drawbacks. D eterminatio n add ing them together for m new out put s.
New Ne w of the K va lue s fo r a particular filter Th e con st ant m ult ipl ie r n umbe rs ar c
K Xi (l -K) Yi-l
respo ns e involve s so me complexity. Nar- referre d to as the FI R co e ffici ents. or ta p
In pu t, Xi Outp ut, Yi
1.0 0.1 0 .9 1.0 row -b and llR fi lters oft en involve smal l K wei ghts. T he filter de sig n co ns ists o f
1.0 0.1 0 .9 1.0 va lues that end up re quiring multiple p re- choosing the coe fficie nts to suit the par -
ci sio n ari thm et ic. Th is ca n end up negat- ticular app lication. A s w ith analog filters.
Notice that if the input and ou tput arc ing the simplicity arguments. The re can bc th ere are tr ad eoff's bet wee n th e co mplex .
th e same th ere is no cha nge in th e o utp ut. numeri cal stability * pro ble m s associated ity ( numb er of co efficient s }, p ave-h an d
as wo uld be expe cte d for the RC filter. with com putational accurac y as well as rip ple and the out-of-ha nd rej ection.
RC fi lte rs are characterized by th ei r time detrim e ntal effects from the phase T he FIR str uctur e can be us ed to for m
constant . T, in seco nd s that is equ al to th e fi lters that are hig hl y sele ctive to the fre -
pro duct o f th e res ista nce an d th e capaci- q uenc y ofa sin e w a ve input si gnal. A ll of
lance . T his is the lime for the capacitor to • Numerical stabili ty he re refe rs 10 the Inn e r- the res ponse charucte risucs o f L -C f IteTS ,
ch arge to 63':0 o f its final value . Design of ent e rrors in the ca lcu lation s cau s ing the suc h as Butterworth and Cheby shev are
the cqui va lent di gital filter in vo lves c hoos- a lgo rithm to produce e rrors of major pro- po ssible wi th the F IR filter.
po rtion. This mos t ofte n ha ppe ns when Th e actual implementatio n of the Fi R fil-
ing the va lue K ac co rd ing to :
s ubtracting two numbe rs tha t a re a lmos t ter wil l be show n in D SP assem bly lang uage .
the same va lue. For the se occa s ions. s pe-
K = I/[ 0 .5+(T / T, ) ] Eq 10.5 This is not hard to fol low and allows us to see
cial care may be req uired , such as the use
of multiple precis ion a rithmet ic, us ing 32 the ty pe of optimization tha t has been do ne
o r mo re bits in a da ta word. in place of the to the DSP hardware 10 ma ke these calculu-
where T, is the time be twee n su ccessive
norma l 16 bits. nons particula rly effic ient. For a lu-coc ffi-
input sam ples.
T he RC ll R fil te r. implemente d in DS P
ass emb ly language . is shown in the box to
th e rig ht.
Notice th at in convent ional l fi-hit rep - P rog ram for IIR Filt er
re sen tation of sig ned dec!ma l nu mbers the
{ The ne w sam p le is in register m xO. t he p re vio us
va lue 32768 (or :21' 15) wou ld be 1.(} if it output 01 the filte r is in RAM at th e loc a tio n s a ve_ y
was not the wr ap ' around point and there- a nd K is a con stant d e fined at th e top of the p ro g ram
fore 32768 represents - 1.0 . This is wh y it by # d eline K=5 :}
is used for the c alcula tio n o f 1.0-K. Fo r m yO = K; { Load register myO with c harg ing constant }
example, i f the valu e for K in t he D SP mr = mxO • myO (ss); { Multiply the s amp le by K. b ot h signe d inte ge rs }
pro gra m is 5 repres en ting a deci mal value mxO = dm(sa ve _y) ; { G et the la s t output }
of 5132761\ or O.()OOI 526 . th en 32768 - 5 myO = (32768 - K); { Let th e a s se mb le r fig u re o ut 1.0 - K}
wou ld b e 32763 repr esen ting 32763/ mr = m r + mxo'rn yo (ss): { Diminis h la s t output and a d d n ew contributio n }
.' 27 M; or 0 .9998 5 . d m (save _ y} = m r1; { G e t re a d y fo r n ext time , outputlett in m r1 J
0 )] 1: lim itation of our ro utine is the

10.1 4 C hapter 10
 accu mula tor. mr which is a 40-bit regi ster
Input cons isting of mr O for the least significant
S;g1"l81
Samples 16 bits. m r1 for Ihe middle 16 hits. and an
IS- bil ove rflow regist er m ra . In addi tio n
two multip ly input registers mxOand myO
a re loaded wit h data from the delay line .
d m(iO, mO) and a coefficient pm(i4. m4).
He re is where the ef ficienc y of storing th e
coe ffic ients in program memor y occ urs .
Separat e hardware exists inside the I1SP
mic roprocessor for accessing data a nd
prog ram memory. Th is allows t he loadi ng
L -j OU1PUt Filtered
Signal Samples
of rnxOand myO 10 occur simu ltaneously.
The do-loop counter. cntr , is loaded
Fig 10.18-B lock d iagr am o f th e s oftware operation s fo r th e FIR filter. Th e Inp ut
with 9. lhe number of coefficient». Ie" I.
sig nal samples are d ela yed b y mu lt ip les of t he sa mpl e perio d. Aft er multip li ca ti o n Do firloo p until ce: is a n i nstruction tha t
by t he f ilter co efficient s, sh ow n he re as b., the resu lts are su mm ed t o p roduce th e does hou~eJ,: eep i n g cho res necessary 10 do
fil tered ou tp ut s ampl e. Th e o ut put v alues are not br ought bac k into t he ca lculation repe aling calc ulat ions and prepares us for
as was don e with IIR filters . Th e filter c an be extend ed to th e r ight t o inc r ea se the the FIR filt er.
pe rf o rmanc e. Fltte ra w lth mo re tha n 100 c oefficients are c ommon . w ith everything in place we are ready 10
do rne actual FIR filt er calculation:
Firloo p: rnr = mr + mxO • myO (ss ).
cienr filter we start with she iniualizarion and . irnpo na mly . to incre me nt iO to the m xO = d m( iO, mOl. myO = pm(i4. rn4 );
-hown in Hn \ I. next loc utio n in the buffer. S ince the buffer is a nother multi f unction operation that
The se three instructio ns are pan of ini- is circ ula r the new data poi nt wil l rep lace e xec ure, in a single instructio n cycl e. II
nalization of the program a nd are executed the oldest data in the buffer and leave the mult iplies the con te nts of regi ster s rnxO
o nly once . " he n the pro gram i-, first run . addre ss in iO pointing to the ne xt oldest a nd myO. adds these onto the contents of
The first instruction again usee index reg- data point. mr and the n reloads m xO and myO with
isters Ihat " ere described on page IOJI. Ne xt arc three instructio ns to ~elli ng up ne w val ues fro m d ata a nd progra m
:\ 11 three instru ctions set up the regis ters the index reg ister. i4. which iv the add re ~ ~ me mory . The des ignatio n (ss) indicate ,
for the indexed access 10 the input data of a series of consta r u-, thal a re o ur FIR that both mxO and myO are 10 be treated as
de lay line. Thc ' hat" sy mbol seen in filler coefficients . Th ese registers co uld 2' ~ co mple me nt signed num be rs. The
iO = "circ_dat a _bu ffe r should be read as have bee n set up a t initializatio n time by label 'Firloo p :' indicates tha t this is the end
-ui e add ress of ' and c rea tes a co nsta nt that mak ing 14 = 10. b ut are shown lhi ~ way to of ou r do -loo p. In Ih i ~ cas e. the loop is
can be automatically det ermined when the emp has ize tha t the FIR filter calcu latio n only o ne instruct ion long, a nd so this mul -
progra m is assembled a nd linked . always start with the same coe fficient . The tiply and acc umulate operation is repeated
The remainder of the instructio ns tor thc coe fficient s arc . interesti ngly. stored in 9 times.
FIR filler arc exec uted per iodically when pr ogra m me mory. pm (i4 , m4). Thi, is a After the multiply anJ accumulate
ne w data point s arc availa ble, The new s ig~ co nvenienc e for speedin g up the culculn- oper atio n" we fall throu gh 10one last mul-
nal value arrives in the a xO reg ister a, lion as will be see n below. tiply and accu mula te. This one uscs the
shown in Box 2. Pro ceedi ng i n t he program. we cncou n- (rnd ) desig nator thai still treats the inputs
The filtere::d o utput is in the mu ltip lier ter mr c:: 0, mxO = dm (iO , rna ), myO = as sig ned numbers, hut also rounds the mr 1
acc umulator regtster. mrt . The instruction p m (i4 , m4 ): which is a multifu nc tio n regi ste r (the outp ut] acco rding to whe ther
dm (iO , rna ) = a xO:uses the index reg iste rs operatio n executed enti rely with in one mrO is more or lev than a half. Roundin g
10place the ne w data poim into ou r bu ffer instruction cycle. This clears the multi ply is done on only the last accumula te.
Note that at this point we have used all 10
coefficients.

Box 1 - DSP program 'or FIR filter i n itia liza tio n

iO = l\t:irC_d a ta_ b uffe r; { P oints to a c irc ula r bu ffer, i.e. , a delay line } Tab le 10.1
10 = 10 ; { iO po ints to a circu lar bu ffe r of le ngth 10 } List of opera tio ns for 10 coeffici ent
mO= 1; { Inc re me nt iO by mO= 1 af te r use } FIR fllter s howi ng memory
lo c a t io ns

Box 2 - DSP progra m for FI R filter computation dm(3): New data value
dm (iO, mOl = axO ; { Enter th e ne w data point into dela y hne } mr;O
mr=mr+ dm( 4)* pm( 1)
i4 = " fir_coe lfs; { Points to start of a table 0110 constants } mr =mr +dm( S)"pm(2)
14 = 0 ; { This buff er ne e d not be circular } mr =mr+ dm( 6 )"pm(3)
m4 = 1 ; { Increment i4 by 1 after use} mr=mr+ dm(7) ' pm(4)
mr;mr+dm (8 )"pm (S)
m r = 0, mxO = d m (iO , mOl, myO = p m(i4.m4); { Initia l data load } mr;mr+dm (9)'pm(6)
=
cntr 9 ; { Th is sets th e nu mb e r of 'do ' loops I mr ; mt+dm( 10)'pm(7)
do firloop until ce : ( loop 9 tim e s, ie , un til counter empty (c e) ) mr ;mr +dm( 1)·pm( B)
mr=mr+dm( 2)"pm(9)
Firloo p : mr = mr +mxO "myO (55), mxO=d m (iO ,mO), myO=p m (i4 .m4); ( End 01 loop I
m r = mr + mxO " myO (rod ); { Th is is t he te nth c a lcul ation} mr; mr+ dm( 3) ' pm( 10)

DSP Com ponents 10,15

 Table 10. 1 shows w hat is ha ppen ing , FIR Filter Design by th e f L an d f H are th e lo wer and upper band-
Hen: we ha ve used the shorthan d term inol - W indow Method pa ss cutoff fr eq uencies . and f s is the
o gy of d m{i) being the ith memory lo ca- samp le ra te . a ll in Hi . On ly ha lf of the
The relationship t erwee» the frequency
t ion in ou r circu lar buff er . Lik ewi se p m (j) co e ffici en ts are calc ulated si nce the y
respo nse of a FIR filter and the coefficient
i s the j th co efficien t i n th e progra m div ide int o halv e s that are symmetric. as
me mor y table. Vole a ssum e th ar we cam e value s is a mathematical form ula called the
show n in Fig 10.19. Thi s sa me for m ula
di screte Fou rier trans fortn.U ' The de tails of
upon this calculatio n at a time wh en dm (2) ap plie s eq ua ll y we ll to low -p as s an d hi gh -
the tran sform will not he dea lt with here since
h ad j ust b een rea d and we ne xt ne ed to use pa ss filter design by sett ing f L =0 or f H =
lor most p urp oses it is no t nece ssary to actu-
d m (3) . T his is whe re we pu t the new data (f s/ 2) respe ct ively
ally ev aluate it. Ins tead . one can start with a
po int. The mul tipl y an d acc umulates can Un fortu nate ly. filters de sign ed by th is
general transform ofan idea l rec tangular fre-
be seen to occur 10 tim e s. A I the eigh th of formul a ha ve se ver al flaw s. T he re spo nse
these we have reached dm (1 1), which i s
quency respo nse . For in stan ce, if we wi sh 10 c ur ve of Fig 10.20 is the resu lt of ana lyz -
pas s 40() 10 gOO Hz the idea l freq uency re -
outsi de our buffer. so we "wrap around" to ing our fi lter. T he pass -b and is no t flat , the
sponse wo uld be 1.0 within tha t frequency
the start o f the circular buffe r at d m (1). sides of the filter ar e not ver tic al and pro h-
band and 0 el sew here. Th e Fou rier Trans-
Observe that we have increm en ted the iO ah ly wor st of all. the out -o f-ba nd re sponse
va lue II time s for our 10 co effic ie nts , Th is fo rm of this simple response sh ape has bee n
i s on Iy 20 to 30 dB belo w th at of th e pas s-
done for us, and all \\T need to do is to plug
c aus es the up er arinn to sta rt o ne location band. Wha t went wro ng? Well . w e have
in the valu es co rresponding to 400 and 800
f urther around in the cir c ular bu ffer nex t tr ied to de scr i be the fil ter res po ns e w ith
Hz . Since thi s is a samp led da ta operation the
time a d at a po int is pr oce ssed. Th is is too fe w elements , Ou r sampled data ca n-
sample freq uency . say 8000 Hz. is invo lved
eq uiv al e nt to push ing th e data thro ugh a no t de sc rihe the e xtremely fa st trans itions
as well . In eq uation fo rm the coefficient s are:
del ay line . but req uire s no ac tua l mo vem ent suc h as occ ur a t the edg es o f the p ass-band.
of data, on ly the poi nter to the da ta, iO. Thi s d esi g n appr oach c omp ro m ise s th e
The FIR filter calc ul atio n can be seen to
be stra ightforward , In the ADS P-2 18 1 it re-
sin(2rrk~-) out -o f-ba nd at te nuation in favor o f sma ll
tra nsit ion ha nd s ,
quires abo ut IO+l's"f instru ction cyc les for a Fort u natel y , it is po ssib le to easily eu re
nk
filte r wit h ~f coeffici en ts. A complex . hi gh the po or o ut -of-band atte nuation . By sys -
per forman ce filte r of 200 coeffic ients Eq 10.6 te ma tically adj u stin g the ck co efficie nt
wou ld need 2 10 instruct ion t:ycl es.lf this va lues, it is pos sible to p ush down (he out-
was repeal ed at an 8-kHL ra te we wo uld be o f-band re spo nse . The p rocess for do i ng
using 8000x21 0= 1.680.000 cycl es out of a for k=O 10 N fl2 - 1, and N , is the number (an this is cal led wi nd owi ng. Th e price that we
possi ble 33 ,3 milli on , or on ly about 5ck of e ven nu mher*) of co effici e nts to be found . pay for im proved o ut-of-ba nd rejecti o n is
the available proces sing ti me . A spec ial case is k=O: a more gradu al tran sition be tween th e
Su far we have a way to co m pure the pa ss- ha nd an d the sto p-b and . This is usu-
fi lter o utp ut if we c ou ld find o ut wha t a lly an acc ep tab le trade off .
coeff ic ien ts to u se . The nex t sec tion shows Eq 10.7 Mo st F JI{ fil ter d esi g n de scr ipti on "
a w ay to fi nd them . incl ude a variet y of wi ndow ing method s.
Here we will o nly sho w on e method. the
Kai ser wi ndow. Th is is a par ticu larly usc-
ful tec hniq ue :
• T he formulas are show n here tor an even
• It p ro vide s an adju stable met hod for
numbe ro i coeffi cients. T he form for an odd
number is slightly differe nt and although tr ading o ff m axim um n ut -o f-h and re -
not cov ered here, is included in the des ign spon se, in d H, for c utoff ra te at the pass-
progr am. ba nd ed ge .
C,
C,
C,
C,
20.0
Co
Center
Co
C, 00
I
C,
C, -20.0 -- I
C, •" I
Fig 10.19-Tabl e of FIR filter
-40.0 ! ',I'VIV
coefficients for Nr=10. On ly half of the ,
co efficie nts are calc ulated and are -60,0
placed in the second half of the table.
The f irst ha lf of the table is arra nged
symmetr ically as shown . The de sig n -80,0
I
program pe rforms these ope rat io ns 0.0 08 rs 3.' 4.0
automatica lly. If the number of Frequency in KHz "
c oeffic ie nts is odd , the symmetry
re mai ns about the midd le coeffic ient, Fig 10.2o-Respo ns e Curve fo r a 50-co effic ient FIR f il ter designed to pas s 400 to
w hich must t hen be doub led in v alue, 800 Hz w ith an 8-k Hz sample rate. No wind owing function w as us ed w it h a resul tin g
since it o n ly occu rs once. high o ut -of -band res ponse.

1 0.1 6 Chapter 10
 • The o ut-of- hand respon se drops rap- Coefficie nt 5 '" .52·.0738 a" '00' u n the end. each correspon din g to
idly as one rnOH'S away from the pass- Coeffici ent 6 '" . 5 2~ 37 3 8 fou r binary bits each equal to zero. A Ba-ic
ba nd edg e. Typically, close-in respon ses Coefficie nt 7 := . 0 3 799~ 6 progra m to co nve rt the or igi nal decimal
arc not a" troubleso me a" the se far out. Coe fficie nt II '" - .09 7657 1 btj l coefficients \\ ould be:
• The des ign process. though not tri via l, Co effic ie nt 9 '" .03().t184
involves a computation nOI a great deal Coe ffici e nt 10 = .0158 115 DIM HS(301 )
more com plicated than o ther standard FO R j = 1 TO nl
windo wing meth ods . The coe fficient s are decimal nu m bers HSO) = HEX$(bO))
l mplcmcmat ic n of a Kaise r window a nd no t t he int ege rs req uired by man y IF b(j) >= 0 THEN GOSUB POSH ELS E
invol ves c hoo sing a dB level fo r the maxi- DSP. Conversion to integ e r" i.. accom- GOSU B MINH
mum our-of- band attenuatio n respon se, plish ed by the fol lowing pa n of a Basic PRINT H$O)
Kdb. This woul d typically be a nu mber in prog ram that co uld be attached OntO our NEXT 1'%
the 30to llOdR rang e. A HAS IC progra m'! FIR design prog ram: STOP
ca n be used fo r determ ini ng the Kaiser
window as lA. ell as the coef ficie nt value, FOR j = 1 TO ni POS H:
forthe FI R filter. The results of using thi.s b O) = INT(32768 • bO)) GS = HS(I%)
prog ram to apply a 30-d8 Kaiser window IF b(j) < 1 THEN b(j) = b(j) + 1 IF LEN(GS) = 1 THEN G$ = "OOO~ + G$
to uur band-pass fille r can be seen in fig PRINT "Coeff icie nt "; j ; = ": b(j)
U + "00"
to.n . NEXT j IF LEN(G$ ) = 2 THEN GS = "00" + GS
To better understand the desi gn of a FIR + "00"
filter using the Bas ic progra m, we will Thi s ....-orks fo r l e -bir integer ar ith metic. IF l EN(GSI "" 3 THE N GS = "0" + G$ +
she w the details for a si mple 10 coe fficient For 24 bit integer ari thmetic we rep lace ' 00'
low-pass filter . Keep in mind that our per- th e 3!768 whic h is 2" 15 by 83 8860 8 IF LEN(GS) = 4 TH EN G$ = G$ + "OO~
formance will not be parti cularly good and which is 2 " ~3 . Here is what we get from HS(I%) = G$
mos t FIR filters usc more coefficie nts . per- running this program o n o ur lO-coe fficie nt RETUR N
haps 3010 300 . Assuming o ur sampling rare fille r (because of the sj mmet ry we will
is 8 kHz a nd we want the low- pass 10 cutoff only show the first 5 coefficien ts] : MINH:
at 25kHz. we run the program a~ follows: HS(I%) = RIGH T$(HS(I%), 4) + ' 00'
Coefficient 1 = 5 18 RET URN
FIR Fi lter Design, Low-pass, Hand-pass Coeffic icnt Z = 997
or Hig h-pass Coef ficient 3 = -3::!OO Again the resulti ng hex OUlP UI for the
'c um ber of FIR coeffici e nt s? 10 Coe fflcie ut .. = 1245 firsl 5 coefficien ts is:
Sample ra te, Hz'! 8000 Coefficie nt 5 = 17 183
Lower Cutoff Frequency. liz. betwee n 0 020600 H
and ha lf of' sa mple ra te? 0 FI R filler coefficie nts will normall y be 03 E500H
t'pper Cut off Frequency. Hz. between 0 placed into prog ram memory ( PM) for the F38000 H
and ha lf of sample rate? 2500 Analog De vices ADS P-11 00 series of DSP. 04DDOOH
Stop-band Ane nuano n. dB (e.g. 55.0p 30 The asse mbler for the Analog Device) t:Z- 43 1FOOH
Coe fficie nt 1 = .0 158 115 Kil requ ires that this data be presented in
Coe fficie nt 2 = .0304284 24-bit form al, left ju stif ied and right pad- These coefficie nts would normall y he
Coe ffic ie nt 3 = -.097657 1 ded with zeros. This is most easily hand led placed into a sepa rate data file. rathe r tha n
Coefficient a = ,0379926 in hexadecimal since the right zero. appe ar clutter ing up the asse mbly listing

.... '
06 '. f
20.0
I
r. -s - - -

0.0
-20 ,0
I
r;
I

\
=t= I
I
m

~ ·20
"
"
-10

,t -15
'"
:' •
: I
7' - .

I
,\j ·2S f- I
....

I
I ':

I
,
I
I
-

,, I 1,
-40 ,0 u; I \ 20!
-
- I
-30
I zoe ,'""
, I
-60.0 '---
!
~,
h- I I
\ I
-000
00 0.8
I
1.6 2.4 32 ' 0
~O
0 UlOO 2000
Frequency in H2
3000 <000 5000

Frequency in KHz:
Fig 10.22-Response 01 t hree FIR filte rs de signed to cove r
500 to 2000 Hz at 6 dB po ints . The number 01 coeffic ients ha s
Fig 10.21- Res po ns e Curve for the 50-coefficient FIR filter of bee n set to 20, 50 a nd 200. The sa mpli ng rate for the sy s te m
Fig 10.20 whe n usi ng a 30·d B Kaise r window ing funct ion to was 960 0 Hz. The sh a rpn ess 01 t he lIIte r is seen to be
red uce the c ut-or-ba ne res po nse. st ro ng ly de pe nd e nt on the numb er of co efficients.

oss Components 10. t 7

FIR-Filter Performance 680 Hz. Th is cha nge in perfo rma nce is An interesting charac te ristic is that the very
In Cha pte r 3. it wa s vhown that pas sive very much like that seen in Chapter .l as narrow fi lters stan showing insert ion loss.
filters designed from LC components. or the number of resona tors was changed . as ca n be seen with the IOO-Hl bandwidth.
act ive filters using or -amp circuitry . all It might als o he noted from the figure This hap pens whe n the top port ions of the
becom e sha rpe r in response as there com- that the res ponses at the hig h and lo w CUI- response curve fro m the high and lo w fre-
plexi ty inc reased. Not surprisingly. th is off frequencies are nea rly mirror imag es of quency sides crart to ove rlap.
follows fo r FIR fi lte rs ;"IS well where the one another. T he rate of cutof f of the filler Figure lO. 2~ shew s the details of Ihe
com plexi ty is meas ure d in terms of the depe nds on the numbe r of coe fficien ts. the out -of-band response for the SOO-Hz fi lter
number of coe fficients. side lobe le vels and the sampling rare of of Fig 10.23. T he desig n val ue for the side
Fig 10.22 show s the res po nse cu rves for the syste m, but nor o n the widt h of the fil- lobes wa s - 50 d B. As is cha racteristic of
three FI R filters usi ng 20. 50 and 200 ler. This can be seen further in Fig JU.2.3 . the Ka iser- windo w FIR filte rs. th e firsI
coeffi cients . All filters were designe d to whe re the bandwi dt h of the filter was out -of-ba nd side lobe is at the - 50 dB
cove r 500 to 2000 HI at -6 dB rel ative c hanged. but the number of coe fficie mv le vel. hut as the fr equency get, fa rther
respon se. Wit h 200 coefficients. the .... as kept at :!()O. The frequency scale has from the pass ba nd. the side lob<s con -
respon se drops 10 - .\0 d B in about 80 Hi . bee n narrowed to sho w t he response tinue to drop. Fo r ma ny recei ve r applica-
whe reas wit h 20 coefficients the sa me deta ils bett er. Note that the cutoff ..hapc i ~ tions. this is a reaso nable re spo nse. Inter-
amount of attenuation neCOTS ove r about very similar for the different band widths. fering tru nxrniue r spe ctru ms le nd 10 be

0 -
0 ...... ........,. I
I /~I i\' \ ' -"
I
.s
,,- .1 I -20
I
-" I- tn

j
I
•-e "• -an -
1i · 15 /4 W" \
\
•c
,
~ 40 -
,
c
~
•
-20 .-
: 500
f
I
f \

I "~
f-
"~ ·25 - - ,
,, ,I
:~
•

I~
ii : •
-JO
I ,
I
200 '
. I
-3>

....
' 00 500 600
l! 700 600
Frequencyin Hz
900
rI
i

1000
-
\\ 00 1200
: .'ll[
0 500 "lOO
Freq ue ncy in Hz
1500 2000

Fig 10.24-1he c ut-er-band response lo r Ihe 50o-Hz filter of

Fig 10.23-Response of three FIR filter s desig ne d for a cen ter Fig 10.23. The de si g n va lue for t he si de to be s was - 50 dB.
frequency of 800 Hz, usi ng 200 coel1i c ie nts and a samp ling
r ate of 9600 Hz. Th e - 6 dB ba ndwidth was designed to be
1 00 . 200 a nd 500 Hz.

0.1- ,
0.08 I r \ I
0.06

~ 0.04 - ---i\---I-H\--- - ---'

a. 0.02
rvv tt+H1I-f-\;"f'v-.rv--
-

~ 0 I" -
'V
1\ "
1 _
1- r--- - - I
0 .02
_ ----!l_ _
- -0.04 - - - ;-- - -1
-0 06 r--- - -
· 0 08 e--- - - +-
~I_'--­
o e W 20 400 600 800 1000 1200
Time in milliSilconds Frequency In Hz

Fig 10.25--1mpulse re s pon s e of a Ka tser-wtnucw FIR fille r Fig 10.26-Response of a Kais er-wind o w FIR filter desi g ned
d es ign ed for a center fr eq uenc y of 800 Hz, using 200 fo r a cen ter frequ ency of 800 Hz, using 200 c o efficients an d I
coefficients a nd a s a mp ling rate of 9600 Hz. The -6 dB- sampling ra te of 9600 Hz. The -6 dB·b and w id th was de s ig nee
b andw idth was des igned to be 500 Hz. to be 200 Hz. Th e two respon se c urv es c o rres pond to de sig"
s ide-lobe level s of 40 an d 65 d B.

10.18 Chapter 10
 Alt ern ate DSP Device s
T he e xamples in Chapte rs 10 and 11 are all built check the man ufacturers Web sites for the current data .
around a si ng le DSP processor , the Ana log Dev ices In ad dition to speci al ized OSP processors, it is quite
ADSP-2181. This makes the progra ms easier to follow practi cal to use a PC direc tly. High·e nd Intel, AM D o r
since the lang uage is not Cha ng ing from exam ple-to - Motorol a proc ess ors are able to provid e pe rformance
example . However , it obscu res the fact that a numbe r 01 levels co mpa rab le to the bett er de dicat ed OSP device .
exce llent alte rnate devic es are av ailab le form several A sound bo ard provide s the CO OEC funct ion s. Th is is
ma nufacturers. For specific applications, a particular not as comp act a solution as the ded ica ted DSP boa rd
de vice ma y ex ce l over others . and thus can' t ea sily be regarded as a "compo nent."
At 33 MHz , the AD SP-2 181 does not repres ent the The programm ing enviro nment is co mplicated by the
fast est available p rocesso r, eifher. Fo r aud io applica- ge nera l-pu rpose o perating system s in use.
tions , this is often not important. With a littl e care in An exa mple of an alte rnate dem o-board is the
progra mming, it is us ually poss ible to pac k the last IF ~TM S 320C 3x Sta rter Kif from Te xas Inst ruments. The
and au dio functio ns of a commu nications rece ive r and ha rdwa re consists 01 a 3.5 by 5.0 inc h PC board with a
transmitter into a dev ice such as this . Exa mp les of this TMS3 20 C31 az-brt float ing-point processor and a
are in Chapter 11 of this bock . T LC32040 AID an d D/A co nverter. II is bundled wit h an
Bread· boa rd ing of fa st proce sso rs such as used fo r assembler and an emulator ty pe of deb ugge r. An
DSP is not simple. Multi-laye r PC boa rds a re of major inte rface is provided to co ntrol the board fr om a PC .
benettt and the Ie pack ages mo st often use a large
number of fin e-p itch pins, ma king connections unsu it-
abl e for wires . For th ese reasons, the use of a "demo
board" makes ex perimentati on much easier. Most
man ufact ure rs offer dem o boa rds for their DS P de vice s,
often bu ndled with some coll ection o f suppo rt soft wa re.
Befo re select ing a partic ula r DSP device for a project, it
is bes t to de tennine th e curr ent offerin gs of these
boards. The p rices vary widely, oft en reflect ing th e
bundled softwa re.
Rep rese ntative families of low-cost DSP proces sors
are reflecte d in the table below . These are not th e hig h-
end products fro m the vario us man ufa ct urers, since
these olt en rep resent un ne eded exp ense as well as
high er power con sumpt ion. T he chang ing nat ure of The TMS320C3x Starter KIt from Texas
Ihese proc essor families sugges ts tha t one sho uld Instruments.

DSP Number Floating Processor

Manufacturer Processor of Bits Point Rate, MIPS
Texa s Instruments TMS32 0VC54 16 16 No 160
Te xas Instruments TMS320C3 1-50 32 Yes 25
Moto ro la OSP56309 24 No 100
Analog Dev ices AOSP218 1 16 No 33"
Analog Devices ADSP 219 1 16 No 160
An alog Devic es ADSP2 1065 32 Yes 40
"T his is the ADSP21 81 as use d in the EZKIT Lite , put her e for com parison purpose s. Ver sions are av aila ble that
ope rate at 50 MIPS.

• An example of a non-ringing tilter is given

strongest clos e to their center . and arc i mpul se is ea....y 10 fi nd as it is j ust the by C. A. MacCluer, W8MQW, "A Matched
therefore not fi lt erable when cl ose to the val ues of the fi lte r coe fficients. F ig 10.25 Fitter for EME: Proceedings of the Central
receiver pass band. When there is greater show s the i mpul se response f or the 5DO- Sla les VHF Socie ty. 1995, p24 and is
separation betw een the i nterferi ng trans- H z bandwi dth fi lt er o f Fi g 10.24. T he included on the CO that accompanies this
book. These filters have a frequency
mitte r and the receive r pa....... band. where ver ti cal scale shows the coeffici ent val-
response. at frecuency I. 01 sin[2· pl"
filt eri ng is more effective. the auenuanon ues f or a fil ter with a gai n of 1.0 and (f.lo)"T}I( 2"pj·(I·f,J"T]. where I" is the cen-
of the K ai ser- win dow fi lt er is greater. shoul d be ex amined here for rel ative val- ter frequency and T is tne length, in sec·
I n Chapter 3. it was noted that L C fi l - ues. T he hori zontal axi s has been scaled onds,01 the sine-wave burst (CW dotl . This
ters lend to have added group delay near in time to correspond to Ihe 9600-Hl sam- "sin(x¥x" response creates a slow lall-otl
the edges of the p;e,s band. T hi ... i.s associ - pling rate. i.e. a sampl ing per iod of with frequency. but the peak signal·to·
noise ratio of a CW dot is maximized. The
ated wi th undesirable "ring i ng" for the 1/9600=O.IM2 mi l l iseconds. The fi gure non-ringing Characteristic produces an tn-
filters. FIR fil ters are usuall y desi gned show s a consi der able amount of rin gin g teresting and pleasant ' sound" when used
wi th coeffi c ients that are symmetric al stil l exists, alt hough the group delay i s in the audio path 01a receiver. Because of
about thei r center val ues. Th is produces a fl at. Th is ri nging i .~ a fundamental consc- the spectral side lobes, il can be difficult to
group-delay response that is exact ly fl at qucncc of the f ast cut of f characteristic of iune in a signal by ear. However, when on-
frequency. the filler provides excellent CW
wi th frequency . The amount of delay is the fi l ter. Oth er fi lte r designs can have
copy. Another example of this filter imple-
half the number of fil ter coeffi cients. less ri ngi ng. but on ly hy sacri fic i ng the mentation is Included with the DSP·10
multip li ed by the sampli ng peri od. Th c sharp fr equency response." transceiver software that is part of the
response o f the fi l ter to a very short A f urther parameter that i s avai l able to Experimental Methods in RF Design CD.

OSP Co mpone nts 10 . 19

tbc Kais er -window FfR filte r des igner is penal ty for hav in g the lower out-o f-ba nd the band wid th that can be covered depen d
th e side lobe le vel. Figure 10.26 shows sid e lo be s is poorer pa ssband shape . on the size of th e F IR filter, i .c .. th e num-
the freque ncy re, ponse o f filters des igned ber o f co e ffic ients.
to 40 and 65 dB le ve ls. These fi lters ho th The H ilb er t trans form has a fixed delay in
have the same nominalXjn-Hz bandwidth
H ilbert Tran sforms addi tion to the en-degree phase sh ift. In
at -6 dB points . T he- mOSI obv ious fe at ure On e of se ver al spec ialized ap plic atio ns for order to produce two signals differi ng in
is the side lobe response far from the pass FIR filters is the Hilbert 90-degree trans - phase by exactly 90 -degrees. it is neces-
h and . which is abo ut 20 dB low er for th e form. These arc a close co unterpart to the vary to p lac e a fixed del ay in the sec ond
65 dB c ase. l n ad ditio n. it ca n he seen that hr oad hand 90 -degree p has e- shi ft ne t- path. A DSP imple men tation of th e fixe d
the des ign witf the low er out -of-band re - works dis c usse d in Chapter 9. They arc delay requires only a few inst ruc t io ns .
s po nse is also le ss sharp arou nd the pa ss character ized hy a constant en-degree The int eres ted reader sho uld st udy the l~ ­
ba nd . Th e respon se at 40 d B below the pha se shift and an am pl itude re sponse that ~fHf tr anscei ver in Chapter 11. wh ich use s
peak is 296 Hz wi de for the 40 -d B filter co vers a wid e frequency range. T he flat - on e o f the Hilbert tra nsforms in th e SSB
and 34 4 HI for the 6S -d B filt er. Th us th e ne ss of th e freq uency response as well as gen eration and detectio n.

10.7 DSP IF
Computers. and specifically DSP micro-
prucessurs. are limited in their processing
speed. Th e in struction set for the DS P
ma kes it faster for signal processing, b ut '"
Mixer '"'
Mixer
nsp is vtill f-es t suite d fo r sig na ls in the Preselector Crystal
10's of kill or kss ,* Aud io pro ce ssin g is Filters Fillern
casily in thi s rang e and not su rpris ing ly,
9 MHz
has bccu a ma jor app lic ation for DSP in BW = 5 kHz
radio systems. Interesting applications arc
possible by use of a low freq uen cy ]E
howe ve r.
'0' 6)
Synthesizer Fixed
ri g 10.27 is a bloc k diagram of a rad io 1 kHz Steps 8.99 5 MHz
rece ive r. imp lemented with the la st IF in a
DS P at 7.5 kHv.. On e would pr e fer an IF as
Analog t
low as possible . whic h is often qu ite prac - l ast Mixer
DSP t
tical. For instance . if the ana log If h as a
hand width of 5 kl-lz. t he fiO-dB points for
a reasonable cr ys ta l Filter might be 15 k l-lz
apart . Th is will a llow th e u se of an IF as Fig 10.27-B lock d iag ram of a CW I
low as 2.5 to 7.5 kHz wit h th e image rcjcc- SSB rece iver with a DSP-based IF.
lion being a lw ays greater than fiO d B (see
F ig 10.28 ). 'V.' it h the pro per AID con verter.
th is wou ld he sup ported h y a sa mpling rate
of about 20 kH/.
Audio
Audio
Processing
Dc'
Fine Tuning and Filters

A maj or ad vantage of th e DSP IF i.s the

simplici ty of fi ne freque nc y control. We
have a lread y seen that we ca n easily gen -
erate a sine wa ve in soft w are wi th good
freq ue nc y resol ut ion . T his is ideal for usc
as the osc ill ato r for frequency conversion .
This can he a s hi ft in the IF . or more o ften . it is the fina l convers ion often call ed the
Response dB
BFO. As we wi ll see, th e inpu t an d ou tpu t
-7.5 -2.5 01 +2 .5 +7.5 kHz
freq ue nci es of the conversion process c an
overlap and so ther e is con siderable free-
• The ADSP-2181 in the EZ-Kit Li te that ha s dom in choosing the IF.
be e n us ed tor the examples executes 33
instructions per microsecond. Each instruc-
tion can be a s imple ope rat ion. suc h as ad d-
ing at two numbers, or it can be a multiple
pa ri insl ruclion that multiplies two numbers
togethe r, adds these to an ex isting sum . Fig 10.28-The required response curve
fetche s two ditterenl values trom me mory for the cr ystal fil te r used in the receiver
an d upda tes a loop counter. This latte r type of Fig 10.27. The freque nc ies shown are
of ins truction is a n example of the spec ial- relati ve to the IF center. Image respo nse s
ized instructions that allow high co mputation are limited by having 60 or mo re dB of
rates in a DS P microproces s or. rejection at 5 kHz from the ba nd edge .

10.20 Chapter 10
10.8 DSP MIXING
The double-balanced mixer of Chapter is required . If mxO and myO re g j ~le r~ This ve ry hi gh isola tio n allo ws the
5 has wide applic ancn as an analog com- reprevenr sine wave s. theo m r will rep re- inp ut and o utput freq uencies 10 be i n ov er-
ponent. Th e simplic ity of a DS P imp le- sent a signa l conta ining on ly the su m and lapping ba nds. Add itio nal processing i ~
mented mixer ca n be surpriving at fi rst in- d iffe ren ce freq ue ncie s. T he rej ect io n (If nee ded since o ne us uall y o nly des ires
trod ucri on: sig nals passing [rum the inp uts (mxe. o r o nly the ' urn o r the d iffe re nce freq uen-
myO) to (he o utput (me). c al led po rt- cies . An exam ple of this is a Hilbert Re-
m r= m x O~ myO (S5); to -p o rt i so lat io n i n c o nve nuo na l mixe r tune r de sc ribed by Fo rre r. t- This proc ess
d esc rip t ions, is for pr actic al p urposes co rrespo nds 10 t he Phasi ng me thod of
Thai is. only a simple sig ned mu ltipl y per fect. SS B detect ion. desc ribed in Chapter 9.

10.9 OTHER DSP COMPONENTS

There are many function s that lend well into its o perat ing ran ge, while still One of the big adva nta ges of a feed back
themselves to DSP impl ement at ion in a pre ve nting over toad . The di gital pa ri of AGe syste m is its aj nluy to work with
radio. W e onl y Touch upo n many of them the loo p keeps the total signal le vel near a highly inacc urate gain co ntrol func tions.
here. The foll o wing should be tho ught of cons ta nt le vel at the o utput. In the case of rhc DSP. however. jhis is not
as a starling point fo r furt he r e xploration! The res pons e of Ihc filter going to the needed. Gain ca n be co ntrolled by eithe r
analog IF a mplifier . referred to in the fig- multiplicatio n. or mu ltiplica tio n alon g
ure as the slow loop mu st cutoff at a lo w with a binary shift. Either of th eve f unc-
Automatic Gain Control tions arc acc urate to a fraction of a dH and
e no ugh freq uen cy to allow stability.
(AGC) includ ing the dela y effects of th e AID can he used with ope n loop cont ro l. The
FI/:u rc 1lI.29 is a bloc k diagram of a co nver ter. The co nverier delay is ofte n ge neral scheme torthis A Ge sys tem is Fig
OSP implementati on of a classical AGe man y hu nd reds of microseconds resulti ng 10. 30 . The analog feedback slow loop j~
feedback loop. T he comrol point fo r the in a ma xim um AGC band widt h in the mainta ined fo r very st ro ng si gna ls . hUI the
loop. sho wn in the fig ure. is the IF ..ignal tens of Hertz. Th is i<, too slow' to pro vide DSP ga in cont ro l is placed aft er thc d etee-
afte r AID c onvers io n. The functio n of the adeq uate attac k response on a ris ing stro ng lo r. Th is allo ws a delay to be placed in the
loo p is to ke ep the co ntro l-point amplitude signal. and requ ires that the Am co nverter signal path, ,<'0 that the signal revet , an."
close to co nst ant . A detector is used to not be set 10 operate too clos e to it' s over- well known whe n the co ntrol is app lied ,
measure the en velope o trhe IF signa l. Th is load po int. This is us ually po ssi ble to Th at is. the gain is red uced in a "ci rcuit"
is low pass fil tered and adj usted in level by arrange in the des ign. hefo re the signals arrive at that point . Thi-,
the AGC Filter. The fil te r output goe s bad. Improvement come, fro m the inte rnal feed forwa rd app roac h is capable of vet:
thro ugh a 0 1A converter ro contro l the ga in DS P fast loop in Fig 10.29. Th is feed bac k good sounding AGC. .s ince the accuru ... ~
of an IF amplifier. In additio n, the AG C loo p does not include the AID co nve n e r of the con tro l and the rcspon -,e time haw
co ntrols a digita l gain multiplier tha t is and is limited o nly by the sam ple rate of been made i nde pendent . Mcthod -, uf lhi,
within the loop . the data. The s ignallevels should be set so SOT! have been in use for se ve ral ~e>l r~ in
The a nalog gain con tro l is used to that this loop is the gain co ntrolling func- DSP haved tran scei ver s offered hv Rohde
e nsure that the AID co nverter is operated tion for norm al operation . and Schwarz. I ~ •

r - - - - - -- - - - - - - -- - - - -- - - - - - - - ~
I Digital Ga,n I
I-F fillef I-F Amp I MultJpI..r I

R'

AGC I
I
AGC Coo"", I
D. Point I
Fast I
l oop I
I
I
Convers ion I
OSCillator AGC I
Filter I
I
SOw I
I

""'" I
I
I
L DSP I

Fig 10.29-0 SP-based feedback type of AGe sho w ing a co mb ination of an alog a nd digital gain-c on tr o l points.

DSP Components 10.21

 ~ - - - - - - - ----- ----- - - - - - - - - - - ~
I Digital Gain I
RF Amp Mixer I-F Filler I-F Amp I Multiplier I

R, Audio

,
,
,
,,
Del. Feed Forward
Control ,,
,
Conversion
Oscillator Slow
I ,
,
,
Loop AGe ,
Filler ,
,
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ __ __ _ DSP
__ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ JI

Fig 10.30-DSP-based AGe wit h ana log feedback and di git al feed forward control.

FM Reception
As is the ca-,c for ana log Freque ncy
Modulating
Preemphasis Phase to ,M Modul ated (Fr....l ) d iscr iminators. 14 a num-
A udio "R
Filter
Sinewave
(DDS )
Modulated
Wave Out her of methods exist fo r the DSP-hased
dete ction of a n FM signal. FM is a special
c ase of phu-,e modulation and one of the
Delay best PM de te ctors starts with a pha se
1
Sample
det ector, as shown in Fig 10.32 . Th e FM
signal at IF. show n here as 9 to 2 1 k j-lz L"
mixed with a pa ir or co nstant frequen cy
Phase Increment signa ls at mid-band ( 15 kH z ). T hese two
ror mid- han d signals d iffe r in pha se by 90
Center Frequency degre es and . with DSP, can be generated
as twu sepa rate signals . Low pas s filters.
in thi s case at 5 kHz. remove the signals at
Fig 10.31-Direct generation of FM signal. the sum frequency.feavi ng j ust the diffe r-
ence signal s. Si nce thes e two signa ls were
der ived from t he 90-degree mixing pro-
5 kHz cc ss the y arc called qu adratu re sign als (see
~
Chapter 9) and can be show n to retain all
~
of the infor mation that was originally in
~
V, the IF signal.
T he phase ang le of the in put sig nal. re la-
5 kHz
,M Phase tive to the I5-kHz ce nte r sin e wave. ca n be
Signal
9 to 21 15 kHz
A rc Tan
VqNi
• Diffel entiator
~
Detected
Signal Out
determin ed from the two quad rature sig-
nals. Vi and v q hy :
<", "'
- t Vq
qJ = tan - Eq 10.8
5 kHz v,
VO
~
~
~
Arc tangent fun ctio ns ca n be co mputed
by po lynomial ap pro ximat ion s. in a fas h-
Fig 10.32-An FM detector built us ing an arctangent phase dete ctor and a io n very similar to thai used 10 com pute a
differentiator. sine wav e earlier in this c hapter."
frequenc y is defined as the rate -of-
cha nge of ph ase. The mathematical ter m
fo r this operator is the derivative and the
FM Transmission ing the pha se increme nt in acc ordance functio nal block fo r find ing it is the
Earlier in this chap ter the DDS method wit h the modu lation waveform . T his is in- diffcrcntiator. When red uce d to a DS P
of ge ner at ing s ine waves was describ ed herently of ver y low distortion . Most FI...1 program. all that is required is to sub tract
that was based on incrementin g a pha se systems emp loy some prccmphasis for the the c urrent phase value from the prev ious
va lue by a con stant a mo unt ca lled a phas e hig her modulation frequencies thai can be value. In gene ral it is ne cessary to watc h
increme nt. T he Freque ncy of the si ne wave accomplis hed by plac ing a FIR or IIR fil- the ph ase value where pa sses through 360
is proportio nal to the phas e inc rement. FM tcr ahe ad of the modulator. Fig 10.31 degree s. since that po int and 0 deg ree s are
mod ulatio n c an be accomplished by vary - sho ws the ove rall arrangement. the same . If the phase value has been

10 .22 Chapter 10
scaled '0 that 360 deg ree s is t he enure trea ted correctly fo r e it her d ire c tio n of eral. it is necessa ry to place this throug h an
range of me Z-" complement arith me tic (0 roll o ve r. appropri ate de-e mph asis filter to red uce
10 65535 for le -bit a rithmetic) rhen the Thu s the output of the d ifference o pera- t he high freq uency boo st intr od uced ar
rollover at 36010 deg rees is au tomaticall y tion i, the F}.l demodu lated signal. l n gen- transmi ssion tim e. Thi s could be t he
sim ple RC JIR fi lter desc ribed e urlie r.

10.10 DISCRETE FOURIER TRANSFO RM

In Cha pter 7 we ex plo red uving Spec- bined wi th an osc illoscope fo r displaying S pec tr um Analyze r, usi ng the Discre te
trum Ana lyzers to obs e rve the content of the signa l amp lit ude. ana lysis of the s igna l Fo urie r Transform (DfT) . has some at-
vignal s in the freq uenc y do ma in. They spec trum was possi ble. trac tive feat ures. T he swe pt loca l osc illa-
co nsisted of a detect or for mea surin g sig- An alremarc DSP imp lem en tation of the tor and asso ciated mixer are not needed in
nal amplitude coming fro m rece iver ,I
alo ng with a local osci Hater for lu ning rhc
recei ve r. The loc a l os c illator was made Mi.ers Low-Pass Fil1« s
voltage tun able so that it co uld be swept
across a ran ge of freq ue ncies, Wh en com-

Low-Pass
M i~ e' Fi~er Sig rlal R MS
Input Vo ltage
Signal
Magnitude

_.
Input O utput 13 kHz Loca l Oscillator
13 kHz 10 to 20 kHz

O\.Iadrature

500 Hz
Fig 10.33-A fi rsl implementation of a
circuit to measure sIgnals in the 10- to Fig 10.34-An impr oved Implementation of the circui t of Fig 10.33. The in-phase and
20·kHz frequency range. The output of quadrature outputs will never be zero simultaneously, regardless of the input phase
this circuit is sensitive to bot h the relat ive to the local oscillator. Blocks have been added to square the in-phase and
frequency of the inpu t signal and it s quadrature outputs , add these together and then take the square root. This
phase, relative to the toea! os cill ator. produces the RMS voltage of the signal inpu t at the frequency of the local oscillator.

Mathematics of the Discrete Fourier Transform

Mathem atica l formulations of the Fourier transform are Here we have separate d the real and imaginary inputs.
give n in many books . In gene ral, the OFT has inputs and VRn and V ,n as well as having separate equations for the
outputs consisting of complex numbers descri bed as rea l and imagina ry outpu t parts , X RIi and X ,/(. Notice that
VRk + j vl k where VRk an d IIlk are called the "real" and all men tion of j disappears an d the rea l and imaginary
~i magin a ry" parts of the complex numb er. This use of pa rt s are kepi separate by placing a subscript R or I on
complex numbers has cons idera ble con v enience in the variable.
writin g and evaluating equations. How eve r, the mystical We show the kth output pair , but ther e are a total of N
sound of "irnaqina ry" n umbers and associate d use of of these ou tput pairs cor responding to k values from 0 to
j =sqrt(- I) can be removed if an alternate de scription of N- 1.
the comp lex number as "an order ed pair ot real nu m- If the inputs have zero ima ginary parts, such as is the
be ts" is used. This illustrates that ea ch input to the OFT case for a time waveform, the secon d sum in each
is a pair of real numb er s that are trea ted by a specific set equation will become zero and the OFT outputs simp lify
of rules (equation s) to produce a set of ordered pairs of to:
real numb ers at the ou tput. Orde red pairs merely means .\ -]
that the first number (real) is not to be intercha nge d with
the second number of the pair (imagina ry). X II.~ = L VRn · CO~ (2 7tk n J :'\ )
With this in mind. we can exam ine the kth outputs of "~,
the OFT with a complex input:
and ...

" VRn ' ~in (2 1tk n / N )

XI~ = L
and... n ~U

"-I
X I~ '" '_ V' Rn ·'ln [z , I" ) + "'-I
. _1[ " n .~_ \ ' In .,,_(_
Y •.• ., "wl,n/··)
",, l~
These are the version s that are des cribed by circ uit
n~ n~
ana logs in the text.

OSP Components 10. 23

 hardware fo rm. T he o utpu t spectrum is
Low-P ass
being constantly ge nerated ins tead of ,. ~

wailing fo r the luning 10 sweep by, pro vid-

ing highe r sens itiv ity and fas ter upd ate
rates. Howe ve r, the Off is limi ted. by bot h
AID encodi ng and co mputing rates. in the
frequ ency range that can be covered.
The opera tio n o r the OFT ca n be under- Output
stood by a tho ught implementation of an v"
a na logous tra di tional ha rd war e c ircuit . sin 2n 10,OlXlI
Th is starts by ass uming we wis h to exa m-
ine the ou tput of a receiver IF in the 10- 10
20· I...Hz rang e. Initiall y. assume that the
o nly' signal present sits at 13kHl .
We wish to find out what signals a re in
this IF ba nd and what the ir strength mig ht
be. We begin with a ha lanced mi x er
or
capable operation at these low freque n-
c ies. as shown in Fig 10,33. We d rive the
mixer wit h a suitable loc al os cilla tor.
c apable of cove ring 10 to 20 kHz a nd run
the output throug h a ve ry narrow lo w-pass
filt er. As we tun e the LO. we see no o utput
unt il we gel close to JJ l Hz, due to the 5'" 2TJ 11.0001
low- pass filter . The n we sian to see I Il Il.

i
freq uenc y' Outputs. When the LO is ex acrly
at 13 kHz. lhe o utput is a de vigna l thar we
can measu re with a vol tmeter.
We might he tempted to note the de lev el S'9nallnput
11,13 and
co ming from the mixer and use this to
infer the strength of the inco ming 13-kHz
16 kHz
,,
si gnal. Ho wever. this would ge nerally pro - ,
11 Repe<lls Total
d uce an error. fur we kno w noth ing of the ,
phase of the LO with respect to the si gnal
we are trying to measu re. Recall the phase ,,
detector characteristic investigated in
Chapter 4. section 7 shows that the mixer
o utpu t depen ds o n t he pha se ang le
be twee n the RF and 1.0 signals . For
90-de gre e phase d iffe re nces th is o utpu t
v.ill be zer o. clearly the wro ng answe r !
T his dilemma can be solved by rep laci ng Output
the singl e mixe r wit h a pair of ide ntic al v~
mixe rs. both driven fro m a co mmo n signal sin 2TJ20.0001
o r RF pu n. bu t driv en with a pair of LO
sig nals wit h 90-de grees phase d iffere nce .
This is illu strated by the bloc k diagram of
Hg 1tI.34 . where we have simplified the
c ircuit by using a single osc tna tor and a
90-degree phase shifte r. No w. as the phase Fig 10.35-A filte r b ao k ty pe of Sp ectrum Ana lyzer , built fr om mu ltiples o f tne
of the i nput is varied, we will see the o ut- In-phase/qu adrature f itters of FIg 10.34. As di scu s sed in t he te xt , Ihis structure
put of one mixer go to zero while the oth er Is eq uiva lent to a Discrete Fourier Transform , fo llowed by Ihe RMS sq uaring and
sq uar e-ro ot circuits .
peaks. The true (RMSj out put voltage
magnitude is o btained hy squa ring each of
the two mixe r outp ut vol tages. addi ng. and OS P mixers. o ne driven with a cos (21tfl t) 20- kHz band. Th e o rigina l 13-k Hz si gnal
taking the sq uare root. * s ignal while the o ther is driven in quadra- is supple me nted with a w eakcr one at I I
Clearly..... e c an re place the hardw are lure by sin(:!n:fl.t). Th e o utputs a rc lo w kH/ . and perhaps anothe r at 16 kHz. O~
mixers with a OSP version. T he I O-w - :!O- I'a", fil tered to eliminate any sum terms. way ttl e...tima rc the overall spectra wou ld
kHz si gna l i" applied 10 an A-to-D co n- leaving on ly the base-band o utputs. These be 10 add tw o mo re mixe r pairs with a pair
vertcr to produ ce a time- sa mpled version can be used to ca lculat e the OUlPUt volt- d riven a t each of the ne w input freq uen-
of the sig na l. Th is is applied to a pair of age . j usl as we did with the ha rdw are c ies. Ho.... e ver. lor's get e ve n more gen.
mixer. T his is j ust a phasing method re- erat. Instead of adding j ust two more mixer
· If one only wantstne powe r of the signal as
c eiver as discu ssed in C hapt er 9 . pair s. we will asse mble a co llectio n of I I
an output. the squa re-root bloc k can be t.cr's continue our thought imple men- of these circu its with a qu adratur e pa ir at
o mitted. tation by addi ng more signal s in the 10- to eac h l -k j-lz increme nt from 10 to 20 kHz

10.24 Chapter 10
 Fig 10.36-A det a ile d block diagram of the OFT with on ly "rea l"
input data, su ch as from s amples of a time wavefo rm. The Operation Pe rfor me d for All
mU ltiplying (mixing) s igna ls a re calcu lated sine and cos ine V alues of K from 0 to N-1
va lues wit h fre q ue nc ies spaced every f./N Hz, where f. is th e
s ampling ra te for the data. The resu lting outputs a re referred to
he re as "In-phas e" and "Quadrature" data. M ixer
DC Sum
In· phase
Figure 10.35 show s a bloc k diagram of our gro wing co llect io n # 0 Out
of thoug hth ardware . Most outputs will be close to zero. but we
will sec substa ntial o utputs corresponding 10 11. 13 and I f! kH z.
cos 0
We now have a "b ank of filters" ty pe spectrum analyze r. We
co uld ha ve ac hieved the des ired result by act ually huild ing I I
band-pass fil ter s, each follo wed by a suitable detector. Instead.
we ha ve achie ved the same resu lt with mixer s driven hy qu adra- sin 0
rurc-Iocal-oscillator signa ls.
Th ese sy ste ms are fund ame nta lly di fferent than the usu al
"swe pt fro nt-end" spectrum analy zer. If we were to build one of
those for this e xa mpl e. we mig ht usc a swep t loca l osc illator that
tuned from. for ex ample . 60 to 70 kHz.. A single mixer wo uld M ixer

hete rod yne the input up to a narrow band -pas s filter at 50 kHz. M ixer
fo llo wed by a suitable de tec tor. As the osc illator sweeps the
ln-phase
input frequency from 10 to 20 kHz. the sig nal-ampli tude output # l Out
for the incr emental kHz poi nts wi ll be virtually the same as we
obtained from the banks of mixer pairs. How ever, while the swept
sys tem pro vides infor mation for one freque ncy at a time the COS [2n KlN I
filter ban k provi des all o utputs simultane ous ly.
Bank s of oscittators. mixers and low-pass filters become un-
wieldy if built from hardware , But we can build up their equivalent sin {2Jl KiNI
DSPeomponents as is shown in Fig }O.3(j, As shown in Fig 10.37.
oscillators are replaced by quadrature sine and cosine wave compu -
tations. Numerical multipli ers replace the mixers. The low-pass fil- Quadrature
# 1 OUl
ters are replaced by summ ing se veral multiplier outputs . This needs
to be repea ted for eac h of the freq uencies of interest, such as our
integra l frequencies from I U to 20 kHz. Put into this mathematical -aear
fon n . we have recreated the OFT algorithm. " Those inelined to- Input Mixe r
Data Set
wards mathema tical descriptions can also see this from the equa - In-phase
tions in the sidebar, "Mathematics of the Discrete Four ier Tra ns- VO, V" V2. VN_, # 2 Out

form." Most implementatio ns of the DFT would comp ute the

spectral outputs from ato 9 kHz as well as the 10- to 20- kHz outputs
cos [2 2n KIN I
sho wn. but this is not req uired 10 be a OFT.
' As will be discuss e d, the full DFT is more ge nera l and a llows the
input to be a comp lex number , He re , we are dealing with a s impli-
fied cas e whe re the "imagina ry pa rt" 01 the input is ze ro. s in [2 2n KIN]

oua crarcre
Analog Component DS P Component :t 2 Out

Mixer

6)--1 <~_>
Sine-Wave
Sin 2n 1k ---r
Direct Comp utatiD/1
Total of 2 N Ou tpu ts

Oscillator
M ixer

In-phase
x)---1 # N- 1 Out

co s [(N-l ) 2n KIN]

sin [{N- 1) 2n KINI

Lo w Pass Filter Sum 01Data Points Quadrat ure

# N- 1 Out
Fig 10.37-Equ ivalent ana log and OSP components that are M ixer
us e d to create an "equ ivele nt ci rcu it" for the discrete Fourier
t ra ns fo rm (OFT).

DSP Components 10.25

 Te rminolog y for the D j-T d iffe rs from ing . To unde rstand how these data a rc sa mpling freq uency and the second ha lf
that used fo r hardw are . Ou r block diagram used. we will exami ne find ing the fre- arc the ir mirro r ima ge. The practica l res ult
of Fig 10.35 is in the latter term. Restruc- q uency spec trum of a lime waveform . is that one merel y d isca rds the redunda nt
lun~d in co nventi onal UfT ter min ology. The OFf algo rithm o perates o n a block data to the right and uses the left data.
Fig 10.36 show s the sa me filter han k of X input-data points, each of whic h is a An example of this is in Fig 1O.38 ,show-
imp le me ntation. T ho: R\ IS voltage bloc ks sa mple of a time wa vefo rm. such as an IF ing a rime waveform with X=16 and the re-
have bee n re mo ved to ~ how only the OFT . o r A F si g nal. T he OFT is e xpe cting N sulti ng spect ral power from a OFT. The out-
co mple x inp ut numbe rs that are divi ded put powe r values 1(1 the right of ce nter arc
Im plementing the DFT i nrc t wo groups. the " re al' a nd the "imagt- seen to he mirror images of those to the left.
nary" value s. Th ese arc historic name s Fig 10.39 i llustrat cs this o pera tion of the
T he: "discrete" in DF T tells us that the used with comple x numbers and sho uld
system is on ly usi ng data samples, as we: be tho ug h I of as merely a way to keep the
wo uld get an :V D converter, The: Nyquis t groups se parate. For ou r cas e , the N rea l loput Waveform
criteria requ ires rhc sample rate 10 be at
le..st tw ice the highe st frequency of inter-
values .... ill be the wavefo rm time samples '0, -
and the- imagin ary group will all be zero." Oa r
est . Th is wou ld req uire a sample rate After the DFT calc ulatio n is co mple ted. O .6 ~

g reater than 2 x ~U kHz for me thoug ht

~~~.
the re will be no n-zero values in eac h of
imple me ntatio n above. the rea l and imaginar y groups. Th ese rep -
Tile more point s in the <ample . th e resen t the zero -deg ree and 90-degre-e
g reater resolu tio n we can achie ve in evti-
mating the rela ted spec trum. This can be
amp litude compone nts of the fre q uency
spec tr um. referenced to a sine wave at the
~) 11
..()6 .
put inro the for mula: ce nter frequency of eac h of the ou tput .QB ,-
freque nc ies , ,o}--2- '"-6:---:-~""
U= r, 1 :'\ Eq 10.9
T he spacing be tween spec tral data
·1
•
'AI " 14 16

where H is the freq uenc y spacing be- point s is B = f, I N. If we have N output s

tween adja cent spectr um samples (filter - from the DFT these will see m to ext end Estimet"d Spectral Power
bank ce nters ). f, is the sample rate. and N from 0 Frequency to l'\xf, I N or f, whi ch is

,, :1
or
is the nu mber sumplc poi nts bei ng aver- the sampling freq ue ncy. T his is incons is-
age d. O ne d ivided by! B gives the le ngth of ten t with the Nyquist sa mpling theore m, 6,
time: over which samples were collected. wh ich says t he hig hes t freq uenc y for I
6-
Th e freque ncy splici ng B ca n easi ly be whic h we c an extract unambig uous infe r- i ,-
0
marion is half of the sampling freq uenc y.

• ;l,-
made quite sma ll. Fo r example. it the sam -
!
J.-
plin1! rate is 10 kHl and the re arc 102~ T his is r..solved when we loo k a t the OFT
sa mples in the DFT, the resolution B will output. It will be see n that each output
I
be IOJ'IOO/IOH o r 9.77 Hz. By selecting point ap pea rs twice. The first N / 2 data
su ita ble f, and N it is prac tic al to have reso- po ints apply for frequ enci es u p 10 ha lfthe
°0 , , 6 , rc tz .-
lut ions of less than I Hz.
T he stre a mli ned cl ass of a lgo rith ms · Operating the OFT With ha lf the inputs set (BI "
to zero suggests wastefulne ss! It is pes-
movr ofte n used to co mpute the DJ-'-" is s ible to place a second lime waveform in Fig 10.38-Thls d ia gram s hows (A) 16-
ca lled the Fa st Fou rie r T rans form (f FT). II> place of the ze roe d ima gina ry group. The member time wavefo rm and the po we r
These a lgorit hms eli minate the redundant o utput values then conta in co-mingled for the DFT output. To emphasize the
culculatio us that occur whe n N equals :: s pe ctral data that ca n be so rted out with disc rete nature of t he data invol ved, the
simple a dditions a nd s ubtractions . This va lues are shown as dots with att ac he d
raised to an inte ge r po wer. The efficie nc y can be a majo r computationa l sa ving lor ve rtic a l line s . Note t hat the s pectral
of the FFr a llows large numbers of po ints some a pplica tions. but with some pos s ibil- pow er is symmet ric a l abo ut the 8t h
to be incl uded in a DFT co mputatio n. N ity of added noise fo r fixed-point DSP. o utpu t.
values of 64 10 ~096 a re co mmon . Th e
details of the FFT req uire so me study to
fo llow . hut fer most a pplica tio ns this need
not be don e since prewritten su bro utines Otscrete
~eaI · Input Fou rier
can be used. 11 Rat her tha n focusing on the
Transform
details of the FI-T . the importan t element
is to unde rstand the ge neral nature of the
DFT and the mea ning of the resulting data.
FFT imple mentatio ns usually co mpute
:-.; q uadra tur e pairs of outputs. If o nly a
Discrete In-Phase X ' XI1, XI2, XtJ
few outputs are nee ded. it is often simple r lo
Fourier
to imp lem e nt a hand -pass fill er bank . An Transform Quadroture XOo' X01' X02' XOJ
e fficie nt im pleme n uninn of this is the
Gocrtze l a l g ori t hm.l ~
(B) Example of8 "Real" Inputs

The In s a nd Out s of th e Fig 10.39-Block d iag ram of the Discrete Fourie r Tran s fo rm with a time wa ve fo rm
DFT in put. The o ut put Info rmatio n is referred to here as "In-phas e" a nd Qua drature. R

For this case of all "re a l" in puts , t he number of output pai rs Is ha lf the nu mbe r 01
When on e uses the DFT. interpretation In put samples . The uppe r fig ure applies to a ny number of s ample da ta points .
of the input and ou tput dat a can be confu c- The lowe r figu re is s pecific to 8 in put sam ple data po ints .

10.26 Cha pte r 10

OFT on a rea l time series in b lock di agr am q uadrature outputs corre spon d to the sides see n on th e disp lay. T he D SP- ]() also uses
form . Th is is sho wn with a "real" inp ut of a right trian gle and the power to the hy - the D r T outp uts to prov ide weak sign al
sin ce the imaginary inp ut was se t to ze ro. potenuse sq uared: co mmu nic ation s mo des , T his is ill ustrated
To make their ro le more ob vio us. h y examples in Chap ter 12.
the outputs arc now called "i n-ph ase" Eq 10.11
and " quadrature ." 1\ inp uts nu mbered 0 to
Other DFT Applications
N- l wil l pro duc e pa irs of o ut p uts num - An examp le of a spectr um anal y ze r bu ilt
bered 0 to (NI2) -I . Th e lo wer figure shows us ing th e power ou tputs from the DFT
for Signal Processing
th is for th e spe cific case o f N"=R. There arc is the DS P- lO 2-M ra dio. orig ina lly The spectral pow er-data is us efu l for un-
8 inputs, num bered () to 7 an d 4 pa ir s of described in QST.19 Th e narrow bandwidths de r sta nding th e natu re of sign al s be ing re -
out puts numbered 0 to 3. that are achieved with the DIT are useful fo r ce ived , T he re arc characteristic signatures
det ection and observation of weak signals. o r "lou kv' for p arti cul ar mod ulation
Fig 1U.41 is the Spe ctru m Ana lyzer disp lay form s , CW , SS B. l- M and data signals can
DFT Spectral he ide nt ified b y th eir spe ctrum. without
fro m that rad io while rec e iving . . . . eak car-
Frequency Response ri er s , Signals below abou t - 150 dB m are kno wing an y det ails of the i nforma tion
Since the OFT o f a time w avef orm is too weak to be hea rd b y the ear, but narro w conten t. In add iti on , the OF T ca n be u sed
eq uivalent to a bank o f ba nd- pass filters. bandwidths of th e OfT ma ke th es e ea sily 10 provide data for other functio ns. such as
they m ust have a frequency respo nse . We FI'I'f sq uelch. noise bta nkcrs and a tra ns-
ca n u se th e mix er/ low-pass fil ter (LPF ) mitter prcdistort er th at is di scussed be low .
analogy to fi nd th is re sponse. F ig 10,40 In the case of the F\ 1 sque lch, the pre senc e
show s the response of a LP F constructed
by adding 16 points toge the r, just as is g
s 0_9
1_0
of a sig nal causes a redu ctio n in th e high
freq ue ncy noi se from the F M de tec tor. By
do ne for a l n-point OF T . The data samp le ,E 0.8 e xaminin g th e power in various 1)1-'1" o ut-
0'
ra te was set at 1000 H z produc ing a fre - ~ 0_6 f--------/ puts it is po ssible to sense the pr e sence o f
quency bin spacing of: ,5 0_5 a signal. In a sim ilar way. compar ing the
s 0_4
v ariou s o utputs o f the OFT ca n sen se the
g' 0.3
B =f, I N = 1000116 = 62 ,5 HI. E q 10.10 E 0.2 broadban d natur e of impu lsi ve no ise.
~ 0_1
~
:J: 0.0
T he 3-dB poi nt on the response c ur ve is o 0' 128 192 256
Windowing of DFT Data
at 27.8 Hz. Th e mixer input signal that pro- Data Sample
duces th is LP F inp ut ca n he on e ither side A D FT operates Oil a fixed numb er of
of the LO . Thus the o vera ll 3-d B band- Fig 10.42-The Hamm ing window data po ints , collected at a un i form rate . The
funct ion , used to we ig ht da ta sets 10 D FT behaves as though the signal w en t on
wid th is twice the LP F respo nse o r 55.6 reduce spectral spread ing. The data
Hz, or 890;' of the bin spac ing. forever. but w ith the assu mp tio n th at the
po int values a re multiplied by t he
At the hin spa cing the res ponse is dow n corresponding window function t o taper ne xt set of sa mple s w ill lo ok exact ly like
3.n dB The fall- off rate of th is low-pass the va lues to sma ll leve ls at the the se t we me a sure d . And th e nex t. as
filter response is not part icu larly fast, wit h beginni ng and end o f t he da ta sel. well... This is all fine except that it is hig hly
the first side -lo be respo nse down on ly
about 13 dB. T his mean, tha t the outp ut of
the OFT will tend to res pond to signals far
fro m the associated LO freq uency. The use
of "windowing" functi o ns to impro ve this
off- freque ncy respo nse is disc uss ed below.

Power from the DFT

Often it i s desirable to estimate the
power associated w ith e ach of the output
frequencies of th e DF T. T he in-p hase and

30 ,-----
as
0'"
,,
""
a:i 10 I-~
-

.,
§- 0
0::-10 , ,
~" 1-
-20 I
0 '00 ' 00 eoo .00 '500
Frequ ency

Fig 1DAD-Response of a Low-Pass

filte r constructed by summing 16 data
samples together, a s occurs in the OFT. Fig 10Al-A Spectrum Analyzer d isplay while receiv ing weak signals wit h t he
The dala was samples at 1000 pe r DSP -10. Signals below about - 150 dBm are too weak to be heard by t he ear, bUI
second . the narrow bandwidths of the DFT make t he s e easily seen on the display.

DSP C o m p o n e n t s 10.27
 un like ly that th e la st point of the data set ing a win do wing function . Each o f these
will end o n the "a rne val ue as it sta rted fu nctions represe nts a d is IOn io n of the
with. or ....-irh the same slope. and the same input data a nd a tradeoff must he made
>.0 curva ture a.. it started. As a result. there is be twe e n di sto rti ng the data and the spread-
08
almost al ways a majo r ju mp rdisco ntinu- ing of the spectru m fro m leakage . The
"0.' ity) when p a ~l>i n g bet w cc n the end points.
The spectra l energy of this ju mp is spre ad
usua l data d i...tortio n makes spec tra l widths
appear wide r than they are : this is often
o.a
over all freq uencies and te nds to he stro ng quire a n accept able co mpro mise.
.o,~ 1 eno ugh 10 o ve rwhel m a lo w-le ve l sig nal Figure 1O.~3 sho ws the DFr of a cosine
-0.4 near the frequenc y of a st rong one, T he wave . with and witho utnHamming window .
-0.6 j ump causes a "s idelo be structure" th,l1 The waveform without wind owing (a) has
dro ps off ver y ,low ly in frequen cy. T he been chose n tu not han : the las! data point
< ' ,j,-'--'oU -l,,1-IU , !
-1.00'
, term "leakage" is oft en used. as the s ignal line up with the first one. This results in the
50 '00 '50 zoo ZOO
at one frequency appears to leak to other "ide and poorly defined power spect rum in
,AI
freq ue ncies. T his makes fo r a measuremen t tbl , Application of the Hamming window
of limite d utility. res uns in the tapering of the data 3!> see n in
The best sol utio n to this j ump proble m (e). T he improvement in the associated
is 10 ta per rbe data towards zero in the power spectru m is see n in (dJ. Seve ral
region near the edges of t he sample imperfections remain. The spectral width is
period. If the data at the edges is zero. then nOI a single narrow line. bUI ove rlaps 2 bins
the j um p will also be zero. There are e nd- at the lop and more down the side.s of the
less w ays to taper the data and they arc spect ral es timate. In add ition. once -W d B
culled windowing 111II(·tim /,I. A c lassic below the peak of the spectrum, the widt h
cu rve. sho wn in Fig 10,42. is the Ham - gets q uite broad. To some exter n. these
·w
'ZO.a~I~~-cc--~­
ZO 80 80 100 120
I ming wind o w, It has a first sidcl obc down
43 d R. Many a lternative wi ndowing tunc -
tion s have been devised wit h an e xcel le nt
impe rfec tions are part of hav ing only a
sample of the waveform and therefore mak-
ing only an "estimate:' However, by chang-
,BI summary in the boo k by de l-ana. el.apl,1 ing the window ing function. o ne can trade
Hamming Wind~ CO$ine Wavetorm
Experim e ntat ion is in vo lve d in select- off the areas where a co mpromise is made.

50 100 150 ZOO ZOO

leI 10.11 AUTOMATIC NOISE BLANKERS
Hamming Window Power Spectrum
Noise blank crs artcmpt to determin e when seco nds. Th e fastest rise time for a 3- kHz
a broad band noise pulse is prese nt and d ur- SSB sign al is over 200 micro seco nds, A
ing that period 10"tum off' the receiv er pro- satisfacto ry bla nker ca n result if o ne is
cess ing. Bo th of these functions can be per- able to pro vide the wider ba nd width a nd
formed in DSP. Two ge neral problem s exisl ide nti fy t he strong signals with fas t rise
in the operation of this type of noise blan ker. times. Often DSP IF bandwidth... may not
Signals can be interpre ted as noise. eau~ing be as wide as des ired and this ca n he a
cross mod ulation onto the desired signal limitatio n of the noise blan ker operation.
(rom the interfering sign al. and the blan king The blankin g operation is idea l for DSP
process may introduce unwanted signals thar impleme ntation. As was d iscussed in mixer
resemble the interfe rence. The design must operation. the si mple aCI of multiplying two
20 .((I 60 80 100 120
attempt to minim ize these problems. but to ...ignals together is "do uble balanced" and
(0)
some degree noise blankers will have these neith er input sig na l is fed through to the
characterist ics. output. When the blanking operation is in an
Most noise blan kets atte mpt 10 usc the off state . the sig nal can be comple te ly
Fi g 10.43-lI lustratlng the use of bandwid th of the interfering no ise as an removed. Alternatively. a substitute signal
w ind ow in g to minimize spectral idc ntifyi ng criteria. Impu lsi ve type s o f ca n be created that is the prediction (If the
leakage, the figures show (a) a c os ine no ise tend to ha ve short duration . and to desired signal. based o n its past cha racreris-
wa vefo rm, cho sen to not meet up at the he qu ite stro ng in a wide r-band receiver. tics. For a simple exa mple. if the input signal
e nd po int s, (b) th e res u lling un- Thi s type of signal prod uces a rapidly ris- was a CW tone. it wou ld be logica l 10
w in dowed OFT po wer spe ct rum, (e) Ihe
ing pulse. li mite d by the ba nd widt h of the contin ue the l a ~t lone that was not hlanked.
same co si ne wavefo rm with a Hamming
w ind o w a pplied. and f inall y , the m uch measure men t. Fo r instance. an IF band- Some delay is needed to give time for the
narrowed OFT power spectrum f ro m the wid th of 10 kHz can pass an impulse noise blan king decision 10 be made. This delay
w indowed wa veform (d). signa l with a rise time of abo ut 70 mic ro- can be implemented in DSP in a few proces-

10.28 Chapter 10
sor incuucrious. More gene ral predictors are
also possible for cases such as noise input or 12 kHz
a SSB signal.
Fig 10."'''' show s a blIK'1; diagram of a
DSP implementation of a noise bla nker. Full-Wave
Envelope
The e nvelope detector de termin es the
ma ximum a mpli tude of the It-' signal. It
Do""o<
would 1001; at both the positive and nega-
rive excur sions of the signal in order to 2.5 kHz
respond. as q uickly as poss ible, to an)" rap- Input
Digitized I-F
idly rising noise burst . A 2500-HLlo w-pass 9to21 kHz
filters extracts the sig nal envelope . In a
sim ila r fashio n. the output of a
12-kHi: filt er responds to all signals
prese nt in the pass band. It' only the de..ired Mase-BlarWled
signa l is present. the outputs of the two I-F Signal
filte rs would he very similar. Ho.....e ver, a
noi se burst would produ ce a greater rc- """"
spouse from the wider -band filter. Thi s dif-
Fig 10.44-Block d iagram of a noise-bla nke r suitable for imple mentation as a DSP
ference can be sens ed by tak ing the rati o· function . An e nvelope detector follows the a mplitude of the wide- ba nd (12 kHz)
of rhc IWO o utputs. A co mparator can sense signal. Two low-pass tuters are used to de te rmine th e presence of a noise bu rst,
if the noise respo nse is o ver a thre shold wh ich th en gates the received s ig nal. A signal dela y allows tim e for th e de cis io n
and the n prod uce a blanking signal. makin g.

10.12 CW SIGNAL GENERATION

We have discussed the generat ion of a cine
w ave and gating this on and off can genera te CW Key AM
500 Hz Modulator
crude CW .signals. IIis well known thaL spec-
tral broade ning (key clicks) will result from CW
sudden on/ otf trans itions. The keying can be Signal
made to have much bette r tra nsitions by
treating the proee <,s as amp litude mod ula-
tion as shown in Fig 10.45 , Here the logical Smeweve
signal fro m the keyin g devi ce is placed Generator
through a low-pass filter to con vert itto an
analog signal of limited bandwi dth. The pro -
cess of amplitude modulation then pnulu ces Fig 10.45-Block diagra m of a CW gen e rat o r usi ng pulse s hap ing and an ampli tud e
a spectrum that is twice us wide as the lim- modul a tor . This limits the s pectrum of the ke yed wa vefo rm. The AM modulato r in
ited band width. its DSP Implementation Is a multiplica tio n of the two s ignals .

10.13 SSB SIGNAL GENERATION

All of the techn iques for SS R genera- ca srly ach icved. ne nts. An example of this approac h is the
tio n shown for an alog eq uipment in Chap - As an alternative to the phasing method. l8 - ~IIIL transceiver of Cha pter II.
ter 6 can be imp le me nted in DSP. O fte n it is practical to impleme nt a filter type of
the most attract ive approach is the phasing SSB ge nerator. Typically this would ut i-
method as was di scu ssed in Chaptcr v. The lit e an IF in the 5- 10 25 -kHz ra nge and Predistorter Distortion
challenges of tighl compo nen t to lerances ana log: mixing 10 convert the res ult s to the Reduction
and component dr ift are no r prob lems in operating frequency. SS B signals are raised in po wer level by
the software implementatio n and high car- The FIR tillers. mixers and sine wave gen- a mplifiers that often have in term odularion
rier and opposite side band rejecti o ns are craton; shown above can be combined 10 dis to rtio n prod uc ts only 25 10 35 dB be-
imple ment a DSP IF sideba nd generator. low the pea k transmi tted leve l. These dis-
*Division is not usua lly a fast operatio n in a Al terna tive ly. it is practical 10 have a tort ion prod uc ts are spread in freque ncy
fixed point DSP microprocessor. II is olle n hybrid a nalog/digital a pproa ch where the and can cause Inrerterence in adjacent
des irable to lind the loga nthm of two val· two q uad ratu re aud io signah are gener - c han nels. One can Iimit thesc prod uct Ie\'-
ues and sub tract the m. For app licat ions a ted in the DSP and the mixer'S a nd con-
such as the noise blanker, the logarithm el s b)· red uci ng the output le vel of the
function does nol need high accuracy and versio n oscillator are conventiona l ana log amplifier or o perating the amplifier in
can be imple me nted as a s e ries of s traight compone nts . This approach lends itself 10 Class A: do ing this results in poor de-to-
line s. Ttns can be a relativelyfast process. error compensation for the a nalog compo- RF power efficiency for the amplifier.

DSP Com po n e nts 10.29

 One alternate solution thar allows the cffi- ranged as shown in Fig 10.47. lf we were plac ed ahead of the amplifier. It is a simpk
cienc y to remain high while reducing distor- fortunate . the diodes would provide the polynomial de vice that has an output/in-
tion is called prcdisrortion. For example, if proper amount of gain expansion In remove put rela tionship :
the only amplifier distortion was gain com- the inherent gain compress ion of the ampli-
pression, as shown in Fig 10.46. one can tie r. at least over a restricted operating range. Va = Vi X ( 1.0 147- 0.04 09 \}
imagine that the distortion could he removed, A me re elaborate ga in expa nder ca n he + 0. 1930 \,;-1-) Eq 10. 13
if a gain-expanding pre-distorter was placed built us ing the computational a bility of a
ahead of the amplifier. The prcdistortcr DSP de vice . lt is pres ented here to indi - The coefficient s for thi s predi vto rter
would have the opposite gain characteristic cate the potential for D SP compone nts to were found by curve fitting with a spread-
to the amplifier. as shown in the upper parr of improve thc distortio n performance as sheet program to be close to the in verse of
the figure. For an analog implementation. it well as to suggest some poss ihle direct ions am plifier di stortio n. The squa red and
might be possible to use some diodes ar- that co uld be explored. This is not an fourth po we r terms treat the positi ve and
imple me ntatio n of a pr edistorter. but neg ati ve wa vefor m value s in an ide ntical
rather a con cep tual treat ment. The a mhi- manne r. which is a computational cc nve-
tious experime nter is encou raged 10 pur - nicncc. This is o nly an e xa mple of a
,
5

3
I i
Predislorter '
.n sue this area since the potential benefits
are substan tial.
predistorter po lynomial. The sele c tion ot
the po lynom ial co mp lexity, or cho osing a
Gain I
2 I An example of such an im pleme ntation different form of predistoner, is all pa rt ot
•" 1
i i
is shown in :Fig lOAX. A poly nom ial is the design process.
c shown as the gai n expansio n curve. w ithi n fig 10.50 show s the input wave fo rm for
•
0 -1
0
, bro ad restric tions, it is possible to appro xi-
2 I <; I mate a gai n expan sion curve 10 any preci -
3
I
I A~Pl i fi err~ sion by usi ng enough terms in t he pol yno -
mi al Re sul ts from a simu lati on" of an 0
Amplifier Relative Output Spectrum
- - -
4
amplifier and predisto rtcr arc in the shown 10 - - - - -
-5
Input Voltage Magnitude in Fi gs 10,49 through 10.52 , In this ex -
-20 ' .-
ample. the amp lifier is modeled as a linea r
Fig 10.46 - Amp lifier ( lower g raph) and ampl ifier of gain 1.0 (0 dB ) along with a -30 - - I-
pred istorte r ga in c h aracte r is t ic s . The I
cub ic distortion term. whic h is often the
two devices are cascaded to result in a 40
do minan t dist ortion for amplifi ers. Fo r
ne t gain tha t i s always 0 dB. The gain of I
the devices is shown as 0 dB for l ow- those incl ined to des cribe this math emati- -50
le ve ls , w h ic h is not usua lly the case
and these, should be thought of as
cally, the out put voltage. vO ' in terms of
the inp ut voltage va is: -60
0
1zo - -- -
30
re lative gains.
vo= v, - O. l v, ] Eq 10. 12
10
Frequency " 50

Fig 10.49-Amp lifie r output spectrum

where the 0.1 multiplier is chos en 10 be showing t he two desired s igna ls at
02 co nve nien t as an example. If tw o sine freque nc ies of 17 and 23 an d the t h ird·
o rd e r interm odu lat i o n produ cts at
wave s of equa l 1.54-V pea k-to-p eak input frequenc ies of 12 and 29. These
01 are appli ed to the ampli fier without freque ncies we re chosen to be easy t o
predistonion. t he resu lting intcrrnod- sim ula te, but t he res ul ts appl y generall y
ulauon spectrum will be that shown in the to an y t wo-tone test frequencies. There
loput R2 0 utput are no inter m o d ul ati o n prod ucts of
R1
Fig 10.49. Here the intermod ulation prod -
order h i g her than three, for t he
ucts are ahout 31 dB below the peak oUI -
amplifier as it was m o de led .
pUI: this is probably typical of the levels
found in linea r power amp lifiers.
Fig 10.47-Schematic diagram of a Ne xt a mathematical predis to rter was
si mple gain expa nd ing pred istorter. w ave orm
This ana log c irc uit i s co nstrained by 2 01
ava ilable d iode t ypes, b ut do es pro vide • The simulatio n was do ne with MATLA B 1 .5
II
a genera l ga in c ha racte r istic that is The script is included in the Exp erimental
oppos ite to that of amplifier ga in Methods in RF Design CD as the file 0, - / --
I A
co mp ress ion. "pr edist.m." o.5,\I 1Input
I 1\ I /
oi \ \ I ';--'
-o .5
-1 .0
\ I 1

v, NO
Conve rter
I-
" V. + K
I
Polynom ial

2
V' + K
I 3
V .' + ,
I
H DlArter
Conve ~ [>--t va
-1 5
-2 .0
o
._--
--
- t..==r
i,'
0 ,0 5
V

0.10
I After
Predtstorte r
0.1 5 02
Amp lifier T ime
with Distortion
Fig 10.50-Waveforms before and after
Fig 10.4B-Block d iagram of a gain expander that c o ul d be impleme nted in a DSP the p redistorter. Onl y the ext reme
system . T he AID and DfA c on verters are shown to emphasize the points w her e vo lt ages are increased by t he
the s ignal has a dig ita l form . In general, i t wo u ld be comb ined w it h o th er d ig ita l predistorter. This inc reases t he drive to
b l oc ks . As the co mple x it y of t he pol ynomia l ge ts greater, the potential for r edu c in g the amplifier to o vercome the amplitude
distortion im p ro ve s. comp res sion in the amplifier.

10.30 Chapter 10
 the simula te d a mp lifie r. bo th wit h and
witho ut the predic to rno n. Fo r small sig-
Amphfier Relative 0u!p<J1 Spectl\l ~ na l~ the predistcrtcr has no effect o n the
0 waveform. This see ms reasona ble . since
.,,- - - s ma ll signals le nd 10 have ver y lilli e
amplifier distortion . As t he sig nal levels
·20 - ~

exceed 0.5 V the effect o f the predistorrcr

·30 - - become ~i g n ifican L T he drive level h
increased considera bly on the wavefo rm
40 - - . peaks. As the umplifler output tr ies to co m-
·50

...o Uto 20 30
-1]- 40 - SO
press. the prcd isto rte r d rive v it enoug h
harder to bring it back 10 linearit y. Fll:
10.51 is a plot of the resul ti ng ampl ifier
Frequency 0,2 0,4 06 0,8 1,0 spect rum when the two desired outputs
Input Voltage Magnitude have the same level as f or Fig 10.49 . Tnt:
third order imermod ulanon produc ts art.'
no w abo ut 48 dB below the peak output.
Fig 1O.51-0utput spectrum for the an improvement of 17 dB .
same amplifi er as use d in Fig 10.49, Fig 10.52-Sim ulated amplifier and The gai n characteristics for this example
excep t w it h the pred istorter ahead of pred istorter gain char acteris tics. The are show n in Fig tn.52 .The amplifier gain is
th e amp li f ie r. The t h ird-orde r products predistorter has been designed to down about 2.6 dM for an input level of 1.2U
ha v e be en red uced by about 17 dB. minimize Ihe error In the net gai n for V. For this same leve l. the predisrorte r has a
Fift h ene se v enth o rder produ cts can be volt ages from 0 to 1.25. All voltages are
see n o n either s ide o f the th ird-order referenced to the Input 10 t he gain increase of 2.6 dB and the net gain is
produc ts. The predi stort er and it s pred isorter, and Ih e Input 10 Ihe about 0 dB. represe nting no disto rtion.
In ter ac ti on w it h t he amplifier amp lifier can be greater due to the Below this level. the correction i~ not perfect.
c h arac te ristics intr od uced t he se. predislorter gain expan sion . but stays with in about (1,1 dB of 0 dB.

Audio

La
Amplitude
Modulatot
DIg'tized
Audio I--- r -l

Phase Predistortion
Amplitud e
PredislortJon

A Potynomial

P CoeffIcients

Desired Signal

Fig 10.53-Block diagram 01 a SSB transmitter wit h pred istortion In both amplitude and pha se. The lower portion of the
diag ram is conv ent ional phasing type of SSB generator t hai ser ves to determine the desired envelope amp litude, which
determines the po lyno mial predtstcrtion. All co mponents show n are Implemented in DSP.

OSP Components 10.31

 If thi s prcdistoner was app lied to a r..al In improve this by l;hilnges in The coe ffi - tria l-and-error. Thi s. easy -to-fellow proce -
ampli fier. the re su lts would 0.. disappoint- ciems. The fir'l vtep in such a process is to dure changes one of the coefficients by a
ing. This is beca use we have bui lt a pape r make a meavure men r of the amplifier outpu t small amount and then obs erves the ampl i-
am plifier th at has no phase d isto rtion at dis tort ion. Th is co uld be a spec tral an alysis fier outp ut. If the distortion is reduced. the
large vignalle ve lv. Tra nsistor ampli fiers are (If the out put spec trum. since we desire to change is left. If not. a trial in the opposite
nor thi s simplis tic and requ ire correc tion no t have any' power outside a particular Ire- direc tio n is made. A lack of impro vement ill
t or ph as e as well as for amplitude . 1101'.'- qucncv hand. The spectral an aly sis can be th is poi nt means that the ori ginal coeffic ient
eve r. th.. tec hnique s ho w n above wor ks do ne hy co nvert ing the freq uency of the was satisfactory. Then the proced ure repeals
eq ually well tor phase co rrec tions. A poly - am pli fier outpul had to a low fre quency the steps t or the next coefficie nt. 50 long as
no mial of the input vo ltage can be used 10 and ap plyi ng a DJ-T 10 the sig nal. using the sta rting coe fficie nts are not totally un-
determ ine the needed phase predisro rnon. DSP. Alte rn ativel y. on e could take the con- reaso nable. this will normall y progre, s 10 the
.-i); 10.53 is a block diagram of a SS B trans- vetted vignal and co mpare il wnh the de- optim um set o f coefficients.
miller with bo th ampli tude and phas e cor- viredsign al in Fig 10.52. auempung to make Fig 10.51 shows that Sih and 7th order
recuons being applied. If is ncccssJQ to the amplifier output a m ultiplied replica o f ir uermodulanon products have been imro-
know the envelope of the de ..ired signal and the dr ive signal. This ag ain is vrraighrfo r- duccd by the prcdivtoner. Th e se hig h-orde r
the low er SSB gene rato r in the figure serves war d in a DSP imple ment ation, hut nne must produc rv are potcnnully mo re harrntult han
this purpose. Ampl itude an d phase mod u- allow for del ayv and consta nt phase shi ns the urip inal . but large r. 3rd order prod uct.
lation for the predistor tion ca n he applied that occ ur in the ampli fier. The high order products a rc comr ollnblc in
to a secon d SS B generator us show n. A ll Nex t. a process for changing the predis - amplitude by a com hi nation of the operut-
loc al oscillators (1.0 ) are at the fre quency tor tion po lynomial coefficie nts mus t be de - ing level an d the predi stortcr design , Care
of the (suppressed) tran smit I-F carrie r, signed . This can proc eed at a slov. rate re !a- shoul d be taken to evaluate these erect s.
In genera l. it is not sausfactcry 10 use a the to the ch anges in the transmitted signal. Pred lstoruon syste ms ca n be seen to ha ve
fixed set o f coefficie nts for the polynomi- It is only nece- vary 10 follo w te mper ature or so me complexity in thei r op era tio n. BUI
als. Time . te mperature. load impedance and lither long-Term affec ts. A number ~lf sophis - the rewards are quite great. No t only doe s
other factors will change these . This sug- ticated proced ures e'lht for determi ning the the arnptifier distortion reduction mit igat e
ges ts a feedback proc ess tha t ca n o bserve coe ffid cnb . 21 But. it is povvible \II get good "spectrum pollution:' but the efficiency o f
the succevv of the predivturter an d at tempt performance from operations as simple a~ the amplifier is effectively improved.

REFERENCES
I. D. Smi th. Digital Sign(l{ Processing 7. P. Horowitz an d \\1 . Hill . nIt! An of the basis for an FM detector.
Tectmolagy, A RRL. 200 1. Electronics. 16. J:::. O. B righam. the Fa st Fourier
2. P. Horowi tz an d W_ Hill. TIle .4. n of 8. See Reference ~. Transform. Prentice -Hall. 1 97~ . For those
Electronics, Cambridge l tniversfty Press , 9. W. Davenport and W . R.M>I. .4. /1 comfortable \\ ith the concepts of calculus.
1989. Ch apter 9 . Thi s is a discussion of Introduction to/hI' Thetlry uf R<lI,dmn .'iigllab, thh is a wonderful reference book . The
AID converte r- incl ud ing sigma-de lta. and Noi.H-'". \ k Gr.lw·l hll, 1955. Ch. 5. The Discre te Fourier T ransform propeniev and
3. D. Garcia . "Precision Digital S ine-wave Central -limit Th ec rm of stauvtics wares that the "fast" imple men tations arc both well
Ge nerat ion with the ThlS32fl i 0," pape r #Il under some very general conditions. th e sum covered. Similar material is covered in R.
in Applicati ons M a nu al, Digi ru / Sign al o r a number of random variables approaches W , Ramire z. Tile FFT Fundomrntols and
Processi ng wilh the TMSJ20 Fa mily , the Gaussian d istribution as the number gets Concept. Prentice -Hall. 19R5. In addition .
Theo ry, Alg orithm s an d trnplementations. large . \ 1o,l college lev el stati stics boo b there j, a summary 0 1 the OFT in rbc A RRL
Volu me I. Texas Instru ment s, I yti(i. T his cover this rhcorm us wel! as signal analys is Hnndhnok , Reference 10 above ,
gives a go od discu ssion of the books such as this one. 17. C hapter 6 of Re fere nce 4 contains a
appro xima tio n tradenffs associa te d wi th 10 . The ARR/. Han dbook filr Radio variety of FFT routi nes.
loo kup ta bles. Program li s t i n g ~ are specific Amateurs, AR RL. 2002. C hapter IS I~ . Section 1~5 of Refe ren ce ~ co nta ins
to the TM S 3101 0. but the discuss ion is conta ins an introd uction to the Fourier an implem..marion of the Ooenzet
q uite ge neral. transform. algo rithm fur OT~I F decoding.
~ . Di.r.: ita l Si ,r,:nu/ Processin g Applications
II. T he FIR filt er des ign progra m is IY. K. Lar kin. "The Ds P- JO: An All-M ode
Using rhe ,1DSP-2 100 Famitv, Volume J. inclu ded on the CD- RO M for this boo k as 1 - ~fT ran Sl'ei\ er Usi ng a DsP IF an d PC-
Premie e-f1 a ll, 199 2. F IRDES l. BA S. Th e Bas ic progr am ", ill Co ntr olle d Fro nt Pane l: ' QST, in th ree
5.0. 1. Der-alta , J. G. Lucas, W. S. Hodgk iss. run u n most Ba, ic interp re!er s such as have part' . Sep 1999 . pp 33-4 1; Ol:t 1999. pp
DiMitol Sigllol Procc,I.ling: ,1 Syncm D csign bee n incl uded with DO S and Winuows H l 3~ -4U; Nov 1999, flP ~2-4 5 .
Approw h. John Wiley, 1988. Thi, i, a great o pct ating ,y stem, up th ro ugh 20. See Refc rence 5 ,
hook . if you are co mfo rtah le with some Windows 9S ' '' .
l'()lIege Ievt'l math. but it is nut a math b'Mlk 2!. T . R. C uthbert. Jr.. () p rimi:u /ioll U.H·llg
12. J. Forrer. ",\ DSP- Based Audio Signal Pe r5(>nal COlllpUlers With .4.pplicatioIlI to
like some Ds P hooks l Pnll'Cssor: ' QF-X. September. IW o. JlP 8- 13. E/t'Tlrinl! NrI",orh. Jo hn Wiley' &. Sons .
6. W . H. Press, S. A. Teuko lsky, W . T. 13. C. Rohde. pe rso nal eorre~pondcnee 19JH. Thl" hlM)"- cove.... the mathematical
Venerling. B. P. I--'Iannery. Numeriml Redpef with We s Hayward . 1997. side of np rimi:mjon and is good for thuse
in C. Camhridge Unh'ersity Pre",. 199 2. Th is wanti ng to spe nd svme ti me on thc suhject.
I~. The .4. RRL Handbook . refe rence 10
boo k discusses thc backgro und. Knowledge of Cale ulu, and Li near Algehra
im pl e mentati ~lO and limitations of the
above. ind uJ e s e:<amp les o f ~e\"e ra l types
o f Ft.1 deteCTors, is req Uired to fully usc the mate rial. bu t
methud. as we ll as il large numbcr of l;(lmputer BA SIC progrilm.' a nd cxa m p l e ~ are
methods for nume rical <:a k ulations. 15. Referen ce 4. Chapte r --t indu des an
p ro\'iu~d for those who w ish to ilppwach
Arcta ngen t routine that co uld he used as thc , uhject exp erimentall y.

1 0.32 Cha p ter 10

 CHAPTER

DSP Applications in
Communications
In C hapter 10 a number of D5 P build- The con trol o f the commu nic at ions an existi ng rece iver and used d irec tly for
ing bloc ks. such as os ci llators. fi lter" and eq uip ment can usua lly he improved by on-the-a ir expe rimen ts.
modulato rs were explo red. In many cases so me sort of co mputer. which is often a 'lhic c hapte r foc uses on the procevving
the bloc ks we re a lternatives 10 tradit ional dedicated mic rop rocessor. T his may be a or signals. but before gelli ng to that we
ana log func tinn v, whil e in other c ase". good a pproach. depe nd ing o n the co m- nee d 10 100 1.. at so me basic control tec h-
such a" the discrete Fo urier tran sform. we plexity of th e devices. An alte rnative. niques. The flrst issue we wi ll add res s i ,~
ure introducing func tionality that was nul howev er. is to use the same nsp device that of computer ime rr uptc. which arc fun -
previously prac t ical. In thi s chapter. we thai is pnx:e..,..,ing si g n al ~ 10 do the contro l damen tal to having the DS P program s
will explore me thod .. for co mbining func tions . This approach will be used sev- operate in "yn c.h romsm wi th the att a ched
seve ral bloc ks to prod uce a piece of co m- era l times in this c hapter. with the res ult of hardware.
munications equipment . We will be intc - needi ng less total ha rdwa re a nd on ly a All the OSP progra ms neede d to bring
grating three types of functions: si ngle co mputer program. lift: to these proj ects are included on the
• Tradi tional ana log co mponents. well T he journey of an experime nter who C D-ROM "" ith the nook and are no t re-
as RF a mplifiers and Rf mixe rs. decides to investigme thece OSP projects pea ted in the tex t. Shown in this chapter
• DSP co mponents. such as were cov- will begi n with the EZ-KIT Lite from Ana- a re a l ew tragrncms of the progra ms to il-
e red in Cha pter 10. log De vices. T he first thing .. tha t mig ht he lustrate a number of det a iled operations. It
• Comrob for both of these types of done with this OSP board arc sim ple dem- is rec ommended thatthe read er look at the
co mpone nts. Mo st often this is assoc iate d o nstr auuns SIKh as aud io filters. which arc comple te prog ram . o n oc ca ..ion. T hi-,
with o pera tor intera ction. invo lving both well described i n the manual s su pplied wit h gi ve, a "big pictu re" view of combining
displays a nd interface contro ls. the bo ard. Se vera l of the ve ca n he tied into fragm ent , into a wor king DSP program

11.1 PROGRAM STRUCTURE

All ..:omputer programs have some form when need ed. "R eal-t ime" programming Interrupts
of overall struc ture. rang ing from trivia l to becomes proble matic under these circum- .As discuss ed in Chapte r 10. data pro-
excess ively co mple x. Ofte n ti me" the stance". ccssing de vices requ ire so me method to
struc ture is largely de ter mined hy a gro up Fo r simpl e OS P program". it i" often change the pro gram operatio n. based o n
of programs, co llec tively referred to a ~ an poss ible to operate .....ith no rea l-time oper- some elect rical inp ut. Call ed interrupts.
operating system . For a PC . rhts co nstrains atin g vystern. All resources arc allocated the ..e method s involve some internal dedi-
all prog rams to certain cunvemionv whi le when the program is desi gned . The ove r- care d hard ware to make changes to the
a llo wing mult iple programs to share re - head of the operating vyvrem is avoi ded processor state . Normally the minimu m
so urce". such as mem ory o r processor a nd the programs ar e guaranteed to co m- operat ion i-, a chan ge in the add ress at the
time. To the perso n wri ting a program thiv plete their tasks on time. A ll the programs program being executed. T he progra mmer
ca n be both a co nvenience a. well as a in th i .~ c hap ter will usc this app roac h and must have placed app rop riate instrucrionv
sou rce of anxie ty. Having a set of sub rou - have sa me structure . This. consists of a at the interrupt-alte red add ress.
ti ne" avail able to ha ndle standa rd ope ra- bac kgro und prog ra m that processes all A complication for interrupt pro g ram-
tions com speed up prog ram writing, How- da ta that has no ti me deadlines. and a mi ng is the potent ia l for mult iple inter-
eve r, if t her e arc mu ltiple users of si ngle Interrupt S I' I"I'il"l' Routine (ISR) that rup ts. Fo r e xample , in a OSP program,
resou rces. there may be no g uarantee that incl udes all rout ines th:ll must he com - these might be a n operation to output data
a pa rtic ular program will finish it. 1:.1 ' 1,; ple red on a peri od ic bast s. to a D/A co nverter and a need to out put

DS? App lication s in Communicatio ns 11.1

ser ial data to a serial por t. T he first inter- sc heme opens add it iona l in te rrup t pro- rup t shou ld he placed in to the bac kgrou nd
ru p t migh t come From the IJfA con verter cessing tim e in two way s: process . E xam ples o f this are the upda tin g
and the second from a hardware time r that • The re is no po ssibili ty of two inter- of data for a display or the readi ng o f a
is of ten hu ilt o n the same l C as the DSP rup ts occurr ing at t he same time and t here- knob o r a switch. Again . the se processes
device. The progra m mer must e nsure that fore no worst-case timing con stra ints to can be arranged in a scqucn ria l urdcr with
these t\A'Ointerrupt s wi II be processed co r- a llow all proc esses to be finished nu need to mon itor t he lim e incre me nt
rectly. regardle ss of whe n the interrupts • No commu nicatio n is req uired he- need ed. So lo ng as the inte rru pt process
oc c ur. includi ng the case o r one int er ru p t twee n processe s about tasks tha t need to leaves any tim e at al l. the bad ground will
occ urring while a second interrupt is be- bc performed . That is, the operating sy s- be processe d. D eterminin g whe ther thi s is
ing proc ess ed , f or our example . the data te m is b uilt -in to the program at de sign happen ing at a fast e nough rate can be done
to the Of A c onverter must be processed time. at de sig n time. It will on ly happen more
bet ore the next Of A request is received. If If there is o nly one interr upt, all inter- <lowly if it is he ing mo nito red by some
this is not done . there wi ll lar ge amou nts ru pt p roc e ssi ng should be co mpleted in part o f the pr ocess .
of sig nal dis tortion a ssoc iat ed wi th a miss - on e pe riod , leav ing the sys tem free at the Fig 111.6 in the prev io us chapter ill us-
ing data o utput. timc of the ne xt interrupt. T his is the way trates the sing le timed in ter rupt structure
A simple plan t hat e nsure s a min imu m that com mu nicat ion betwee n tasks is mini- used for a ll of the proj ects in this chapter.
am o unt of tim e wi ll he a vailable for in ter- miv ed. This p rocc sving sh ould include Eve n mo re e lab orate proce sse s. suc h as the
rupt prucesving is to use on ly one interr upt e ver ythi ng that needs to be c ompleted be- DSP- 10 trans ceiv er (only ou tlined in this
that occ urs on a pe riod ic has is. Al tho ugh ron: the next in terru p t. chapter o ut incl uded on the hoo k CD). wil l
this may requ ire some p lanni ng to acc om- Add itionally. any proce ss tha t do es not continue to use the sa me str uc ture.
mod ate all pro cesse s. the simplicity of th is need 10 be completed befo re the next inter- -,

11.2 USING A DSP DEVICE AS A CONTROLLER

The "S" in DSP is for signal. and o ne
usu ally thin ks o f su ch a microprocessor as
Three-Wire Serial
being fo r sig nal ha ndl ing fu nct io ns. How -
ever. applications us ually need sumc form
Interfaces
o f control fu nct io ns, in addition to pro- Se ria l hardware inte rfa c e s a re
I:essing sig na ls. As wi ll he seen it work s common for commun icat ing
J L n j outputB be tween d e v ic es. Th is s imple
qui te we ll to use the same procesxor ror
control pur poses . resulti ng in an overall inle rfa c e is often imp lemented
Clockwise Rotation us ing th ree wires, a data wire , a
reduction in ha rd wa re and software • clock wire to tell when the data is
comple xi ty by elimin atin g the need fur a va lid and a latch wire to tel l when
separat e con trolle r and the associated Fig 11.1-Th is di ag ram shows the lo g ic t he new s e ria l data should be used .
interfaci ng. All of the control program ca n le vels that oc c u r at the two rotary T his is com patible with s h ift
he implemented as a bac kgro und ac tivity enco de r o ut puts , as it rot ates . At no regi slers us ed a s re c e iving de-
that essentia lly ru ns on a "time availa ble" t ime do bo th of t he outp uts change v ic e s . Si nce the data is neve r used
basis. Thi s wa y the time critical funct ions levels s imu ltaneously. unti l a latch si gnal is applied , it is
suc h as sig nal generation or filte ring are possib le to share data and clock
not affe cted. T he follo win g di sc uvsion-, o f lines , as will be seen below . In
the ro tary encoder and an LC D pa nel arc puts of the se nsors ta ke on the pat tern a d d itio n, seria l dev ices are often
ex amples of u ~ in g the DSP de vice as a shown in F ig 11.1. The sequenci ng of the bu ilt 10 be c ascade d a llowing
general-purpose con tro ller. two outputs, A and B . pre vent their ch a ng- mu lt iple d evices to be ta lke d to with
in g at the same time. T he logic that de ter- a sI ng le s et of wi res.
mi nes the direction of tu rnin g proceeds as An exam ple of e xp and ing the
Rotary Encoder follows . If o utpu t A and out put B arc both serial inte rfa c e to mu ltiple d evic es
Simple control funct ion s ca n use pus h low. the nex t change will be 10 high on is Fig A whic h uses two casc aded
buttons 10 c omm unic ate our desires 10 the output 8 if the mot io n is clockw ise . If sh ift re g iste rs to double t he num be r
DSP. B ut if a num e rica l va lue is to he ins tead, the next change i, to h igh on o ut - of pa ra lle l outputs to 16. The OH '
trunsmiued push buttons ca n be a wk ward . put A. it woul d in dic ate counter -clockwise output is inte nd e d fo r c a s c a d ing th e
an d we mus t loo k to either a keyboa rd or ro ta tio n. For all fou r co mhinat io ns o f high s hift registe rs . The number 01
a rot ary k nob as a co ntrol de vice. an d low , we can make a similar det erruina- outputs can be inc re a s e d th is way
A knob is ofte n e as ier to use fur app li- tion by ex amining the figu re. without limit ot her than th e inc rease
in time requ ired to make a c han g e
c atinn s such as changing a fre quenc y. Once the direction of ro tatio n is deter-
in the outputs ,
Reading the pos ition o f a kno h is com- mined, a co unter can he incr e ased or de - Many s ta nd a rd fu nctio ns, in
mo nly done wi th a l"O!Ilry optica l 1'/1 - cre ase d at eac h tran sition . Im ple men ting inte gr a te d -c irc uit fo rm, a re avai l-
coder. j Thi s operates by shining an LED this co unter wit h d ig ital hardware is a pos- a ble with a seria l inte rfa ce . Ex-
light source th roug h an e ncodi ng pattern sihifi ry. hut the examp le here uses a nsp ample s are frequency synthes izers ,
onto a pair of optical se nsors , The encod- software imp lementatio n. The counter out- AID c o nve rte rs a nd DIA converters .
in g pattern ro ta tes with the knoh . Ar ter pu t ca n co ntro l the frequency of an o scil - Often it is po s s ible to cascade
con ve rs ion 10 logic level signals. the o ut- lator or other SIKh fu nct io ns.

1 1.2 C ha p t e r 11
 -s v
ut
74HC595

"tz a
'"
te 1
Se rial Latch In
'0
tt
'"
SRCLR
Se ria l Cloc k In SRCK

S erial Data In
" '" "oe ,," Bit O· Lo. t In
B it 1
QO Bi!2

,a
Eight
00 Bit J Digital
ce B;[ 4 O utpu ts
0'
s 8 ,[ 5
00 e ' 0;
Q~
t Brl 7 LMXl 501A
a QH
s Freq S ynth
G" (Part)

uz
."
74HC595

ta a
"0 ie 1 Fig B-Sche malic d iagram of two cascaded se ria lly
programmed de vices requiri ng o n ly th ree w ires f rom t he
ta contro lle r.
W
rt
'"
SRC LR
SRCK

"ce ,", Bit 8

Clock
" '" QO
a
Bit 9
Bit 10
Clock
l atch
l atch 1
PFO
P F'
00 , Bit 11
Data
Data
P F2
cs , Bit 12 l atch 2
Serial PF3
DO B,l 13
00 e B,t14 Device 1
O~
t Sit 15 · Firsl ln
a ,,, O~
s DSP

f: ==='J
Clock
Da la to Next Shift Reg",e' ,
Latch
If Used Data ~
Serial
Deyice 2

Fig C-Schemalic d iag ram of two serially p rogram med

Fig A-Schematic d iag ram of two cascaded seri al-in! d ev ic es sharing data and clock w ir es, bu t ha vin g indiv id ua l
para lle l-out shift registers provid ing 16 logi c level latch li nes.
o ut p uts .

serial dev ices using a common se t of th ree se rial due to t he clo ck sig na l. So me de v ices m ay clock fast
programmi ng lines. This requires more clocking events enou g h for the ne two rk to no t be needed , but this mu st
per prog ram, but t he time for this act ivity is often av a il- be ex am ined on an indiv idual bas is.
able . So meti m es t he tim e req uired to pro gra m a very lo ng
For example, Fig B shows a serially programmed se rial stre am is excessi ve , or the se rially progra mm ed
National LMX1501A frequency synthes izer cascaded device m ay not hav e an ou tp ut to support cascad ing .
wi th a n 8-bit shift reg ister. The sh ifl -regis te r ar rangeme nt Fo r the se ca ses . it is possib le 10 sha re da ta a nd c loc k
is identical w ith that of Fig A, except that the cas cading w ires, b ut 10 ha ve sepa rate latc h wires as is show n in
output OH ' is used to send data on 10 t he f requency Fig C . The data is c loc ke d into bo th dev ices at the
sy nthesizer IC . T he data passes th rough the sh ift sa me time , bu t o nly the device recei ving a latc h signal
register and on to the interna l shift reg isters of the w ill act on t he da ta .
syn thesizer. Common clock and latch lines are us ed fo r T he th re e-w ire interface is quite flex ibl e in its usag e .
both dev ices. We need to be ca reful t hat all t iming In m an y cases it is th e on ly form for wh ich a particula r
constrai nts for t he v ario us de v ices are met. A n example dev ice ma y be ava ila ble . Howe ver, in so me se nse it
of suc h a co nst ra int is the RC network on the data line tran sfer s the s imp licity of the in te rface bac k to the
going in to the sy nthesizer. This pro vides a de la y of so ftware t ha t pro v ides th e dri ve . T his genera lly is a
about a ha lf mic roseco nd, guaranteeing that the syn the - sa tisfacto ry result since wi ring up paral lel interfaces
sizer has clocked in t he data fro m OH' be fore it changes with 8, 16 o r possibiy m o re wires is ve ry repet itiou s a nd
no t as challeng ing as soft wa re I

DSP Applications in Communications 11 .3

 T he pa rticul ar encoder used here was a • 5V
Cla rost at6()()E N- 128 wi th a re solutio n of
256 c hanges per rot ati on. A v ariety of
22
en coders are available most of wh ich ca n Fi g 11.2 -A s imple hardware
be ad ap ted to thi s ap plication. a, well a,
the po ssi hility of a home-b uilt en co der as
interface for use between a rotary
encoder and a DSP de v ice havi ng
f-1( 0;;'
p rog rammable flag inputs. Only
descr ibed in Re fe rence I one ro w of t he program mable
Voc
Many po s sihilitie s exi st for conn ecting f lag s of the DSP are shown here, Rotary Qut A PFO
the rota r- y encod er to the p rocessor. EnClJd er Out B PF'
.Fig 11.2 il lustrates one of the simple st Gnd
A DSP218 1
ways to acco mp lish t hi.s . Here the two e n-
coder outputs arc con nected to Pro gram -
rl-, (Pa rt)

mable n ag in p uts, PFO and PF1 . Th e se

in p uts are pa n of a se t of 8 p in s th at are • 5V
de di cated 10 in pu t and output of digital
dat a (VO). W ith in the pro cessor the se pi ns
ca n b e defined a, e ithe r inp uts or outpu t s
,,}, 0.Q1
hy writi ng to a me mor y -m apped regi st er.
~
Once this is do ne the pin logi c lev el, ca n
he read from a secon d memory-mapped L --
SRCLR
Vee
SRCK
SER Clock
PCO

l,h
reg ister. The on ly constraint on th is imp lc- SER Lalc h
G PC, PF'
SE R Data
mentation is the limited number of pins SEe PF2
ava ilable .
00
E xpansion of the number of d ig ital I/ O
line , can be accomplished by con ne c tin g
0, + ~v
Qf ADSP 2181
fl ip -flop s 10 wh at is re ferred 10 as lIG Shift } rive Uco'"
Register Digital Outputs {Part}
Q,
Spac(' . Th is a llow s 16 hits 10 he read (or 74HC595
" 0 01

~ f-;f,
Od
wr itten ) at a t im e and req uires m inima l
sup port h ard wa re. An a lter na tiv e is to
Vee
continue usin g the Progra mma ble Flags.
h ut add ing se ria l- to -pa ral le l con version
Qo
QO
C
0
, PF'
hardw are (shi ft reg isters) a s is illu str ated 0, A
74HC 151
in Fi g 1 1.3 . A major advan tage of th is Ged 8 Input
scheme is its compatibi lity wit h m ult itu des r-
of se riall y programmed d evices (see
rl-, Six
Unused " Digital
Muttiplexer
06
Digital
side b ar "T hree -Wi re Se ria l Interface s"). tnputs D5
Refe rri ng 10 Fig 11.3. t here are t hree line s. D<
51rl,
datil. dud a nd latch, to transm it the seri al
DC
data from t he pr oc essor 10 the shift re gis-
D2
ter. F ig 11.4 show s th e timing d iagram for Rotary
Encoder
"
r
p rod uci ng 8 bi ts of paralle l data from the QUIA D'
s hi ft regist er. T he data line se ts th e val ue
of the in di vid ua l hits. After the data li ne
+5V '

OOf
Vee
Out B 00
Ge' Ged
has achi e ved a we ll -defined value . the
cl ock m akes a zero-to on e trans iiion that
rl-, rl-,
load s the cu rr e nt da ta valu e into the shift
reg is ter. This is repeated a tota l o f8 ti mes. Fig 11 .3-An alternative ap p roa ch to expa ns io n of the number of d igital If 0 lines
at wh ic h poi nt the entire X-b it by te has is the addition of serial-to-para lle l conversion hardware as shown here.
been loaded in to the <hift regis ter. T he
o rd er o f the shi ft regi ster is su ch that the
mo st significant bit (Q h) is the first bit in. QO Q, Qf Q, Qd Qo QO 0,
and the least si gn ific ant b it rQa r is the las t
bit in to the shift register.
Data ~-l n
t
To th is poi nt , we have converted se ria l Clock 0
data fro m th e processor in to paralle l data
l ines . If we ar e to re ad the logi c le ve ls o f a Latch 0
, IL
multi plic it y of external li nes, it will ea sily
use up the free pro gram mab le tlag line s. Clock Occ urs
t t t t t t t t
One simp le in te rface th ai is pa rticu tarl y
sui ted to occ a sional re adi ng o f lines is the
Latch Occ urs t
di gi ta l multip lexer. F igur e I 1.3 sho ws th e Eartiest Latest
• Time
8-input mult iplexer lIsing a 74HC 151 1C.
T he pa rticu lar lin e that is to he rea d hy the Fig 11.4- T iming d iagram for loa di ng t he elq ht-blt 74 HC595 s h ift reg ister w ith an
pruc css or.is se lecte d by the .l- bit ad dress example b inary va lue of 110 1100 1. Both c locking and lat c hing occur when t he
coming from Qa . Qb and Qc of the shi ft sig na ls go from log ic 0 to logic 1.

11.4 C h a p t e r 11
 EZKit EZKit
P3 Func. 50 C I ~ +5 Vto
+ n - L1 47~ H l n ( All CircuIts
M

'T' 0,22
rtr "

v~
oe 15 LSBO
A~ '"
, B
c
I-J.2.-
9
(4 places

'"' z GI':'ri, SW'

Back
C1 C2
3
'"0
, 00 '
D' 3
C1
OW,
C2
s D' '
OW3
e D3 '
04 15
C1 C2
t OW,
0 5 14 C1 C2
Gnd o.-'-'- -"i 06 f-1l-- Front
07 12
G' D r-"-t.: G
' _ _.J
:::":.
U1 ;h U3
74HC595 74HC 151
8 CH DIG MUX r
0
Spare
Inputs
Clarostat
Rotary
600EN·128
Encoder
128 Pulses per
Revolution

Qa 15 8
0' ~'L_-"-- ---,
OC '
0' 3
.
Q, '
SER
01 '
Qg 6 14
330
Qh ~5
Qh' ~_ m
N.C,
, s s ",Green
14 13 12 11
G'D
07 0 6 0 5 D4 RS RJW EN

"'
74HC595
15 1-- - - - - - - - ...J t un e x 16 Character LCD 4 ,lk
R'
Spare 14 1--
Outputs
- - - - - - - - - - ---1
L Vee r,3
,---~ Contrast " ",Red

"" I--
~ - - - - - - - - ---.J ~1 0 h
rn Optrex DMC·16117A

Fig 11.S-Schema tic diagram of the hardware inter face betw een a DSP device and multi ple control dev ices, including a
rotary knob , four push button s, two LE D indicators and an LCD display.

registe r. T he o utput of t he multipl exer goe v fo llowers. Ql and Q 2, from two of the we loo k at the methods for using the DSP
to the proce sso r pin PF3 . Thi s is pro - pa rallel outputs. as a co ntro l device.
gramme d to be an inpu t pin durin g the ini- The LCD panel has seve ral options fo r
tializati on of the processor. an interf ace. Rather simple is the seven-
As a fina l step in the evol utio n of cont rol w ire arran gem ent shown in Fig 11.5, Four
Progra m m ing t he
box schema tic s, Fig 11.5 sho ws a com plete wire s arc for data that can be sent a half- Ro t a ry Enc ode r
interface incl udi ng the ro tary e ncoder for byte- at a tim e and the other three wires A co mplete exam ple program fo r the
the k nob, four push buttons. two LED in- co ntrol the readin g of the data by the LC D. rotary e ncoder is C II Kl'iOR J JSP, i n-
dic ators and a t o-ch aracte r LC D panel. All seven wires co me from the parallel clu ded on the book CD . T he softwa re is
Four of the parallel inputs are used to read out put interface produce d by the shift re g- cent ered on a ro utine , kno b. This routine
the state of the push button s. The two LED isters UI and H2. T he con tro l or the LCD compare s the two bits that des crib e the
indicator ; are driv en by simple em itter p<l.ue\ wi\1be discussed Iunncr c clcw when current knob state w i~h those for the prc vi-

OS? Applications in Communicatio ns 11 .5

 Box 1· DSP r outin e to d et ermine knob rotation u sing a l o o k u p
t able . The output in axO is - 1, 0, or 1 for ccunter-ctcckwtee
movement , no movement or clockwi se movement .
knob :
ayO == 4 ; call inb it; { LSB of knob sta te , in ax O}
mr l == 0; { In case bit 3 ofax O == O }
ar = tstbit 3 ot axO: { Find o ut}
it eq jump kn t : { Yes , it is == 0 }
mr l == 1; { The other case , bit 3 of axO=l
kn1: ayO == 5; call inbit; { Simi lar stu ff for nex t to LSB }
ar = tstbit 3 ot axO:
if eq jump kn2:
ar == se tbil 1 of mrl;
m r1 == ar;
kn2 : { Here with new stat e in m r1 )
ar = dm(knob _st); { Knob sta te at last measu reme nt}
sr = Ishift ar by 2 (h i); { Move lett 2 bits }
ayO = sr1 ,
ar == mr l o r ayO: { 4 bit state}
dm(kno b_st) == mr l ; { Current state for next time }
ayO = oencoder: { The lookup table add ress}
ar == ar-e ayo: { Ge t location in the tab le }
i4 == ar; m4 = 0 ; 14 = 0 : { The i4 index reg ister give s the}
The k no b box was bu il t f ro m th in ayO == pm (i4, m4); { eas y way to gel a tab le entry }
p ly w oo d . An in ner b ox m ade f rom ro nee pas s ayO; { Set flags , based on table entry }
s cra p c ircuit b oar d mate r ial co ntains rts ; { With -1, 0, or +1 in ayO }
the lo gi c ci r c u itry sho wn in Fig 11.7.
Th e fo ur pus h b ullo ns are p laced o n
t he to p of t he box as a co nvenience in
us ing th e bo x. It i s li gh t eno ug h t hat it Box 2 • Lookup tab le for d etermining knob rotation
wants t o mo v e w hen the buttons are .var/pm enc oder [16] : ( Rei Ad re Last sta te-a- New stat e }
p us hed! The LCD d ispla y i s ab ov e the .init encode r:
k no b . A pla st ic bezel t r im s o ff t he 0 , H#FFFFOO , H# 000 100 , 0,
d isp la y . H#000100, 0, 0, H#FF FFOO,
H#FFFFOO, 0, 0 , H#000100,
0, H#000 100, H# FFFFOO, 0;
o us state and ma ke s on e of three choices:
• No Change
• Knob mo ved cuu mc r-clockwixe , one Box 3 . Program to modify a program v ariable, amult, using the
CO UI1l routine knob.
• Knob mo ved clockwi se . o ne co un t call knob : { See if kno b has moved (in ayO) }
Th is occurs in the follo win g m anner. The a r-orr uamuttj: (Alte r by eit he r 0, - 1 or + 1 )
inpu ts come fro m anoth er rout ine inhiz that a rea r-ayo : { We add, but ayO may be + o r - 1 )
drmamunj-a r; { For next time & use by othe rs}
retu rns , in regis ter a y O, the logic leve ls of
the har dware inpu t lines co nnected to the
74HC 15 1 digita l multiplexer of Fig 11.'5 .
Bits 4 and 5 of ayO con tain the multiplexer The loo kup table is ent ered into the pro -
inpu ts ])4 and lJ5, wh ich are the A a nd B gram as part of program memory as shown
outputs of the rotary encoder. The pre viously in the snippet in Box 2. The encoder table is
me asured va lues to r'these lines are stored in stored as 24-bit da ta in p m. but used as I 6-bit
a da ta memor y location dm( knob_st), By data in the DSP. The ODs on the end of the
compari ng the old and the new measure- hex values are 8 bits. se t to O. that are never
ments, it is possible to de d uce the knob used. but arc ver y nece ssary to ma ke the bits
mo vement. if any (See sidebar "U sin g a line up whe n read as 16 bit value s.
Ta ble Lookup to De termine Knob Mot ion " ). It is now possi ble to alter a val ue , suc h
The im plied mo vement is stored in a as the ampli tude multiplier for a sign al by
16-member lookup tab le , Th is is certainly ca lli ng the broh routi ne . A s an ill ustra tion .
not the on ly way to ded uce the kno b mo ve- we ca n mo di fy a me mo ry "gain" va lu e
ment. but it has the appeal of being easy to ca lled amult, as sh ow n in Box 3.
understa nd. In gene ra l. so lutio ns th at use a More elabo rate p ro gra mm ing woul d
little more memory. b ut arc easy to unde r- allow d iffe ren t c ha ng e s 10 be made de -
stand . have much appeal' The entry point to pe nd ing on the knob rotat ion. Th is c ou ld
the lookup tab le is cons truc ted from the ol d be us ed for operations such a s changing a
and new"knob states by shift ing the old state filt er or a frequ ency band.
left to bits 2 and 3 and putting the new state In sid e t he k nob box is a second box f o r
in bits 0 and 1. T his cre ate s a a-hit bi nary t he d ig ita l electro n ics. Pig ta il w ires r un
nu mber that ranges in value from 0 to 15. LCD Panel to t he EZ· KIT Lite. For th i s bo x , a plug
w as p lac ed o n t he p igtail w ir es to a llow
All combinatio ns of old and new Slate are The liquid-c rystal display (LC D ) is co n- t he s ame EZ- KIT Lit e to be used for
inc luded. The look up table returns a value of ven ien t for disp la ying data from our DSP ot her proj ects . A ny ty pe of p lug wo u ld
- 1. 0 0r+ i. as show n in Box 1. de vice T he se d ispl ay s rang e from the be su itable,

1 1.6 C ha pte r 11
si mple character display 10 a large r natrjx the particular panel t or detai ls. app lication usin g the box. the two si ne
wi th col ors. We will onl y deal wi th the Program ming the LCD panel th ro ugh wav e pl us noise generator. Both of these
least co mplex of these. but the pr inc ipl es the serial- hard ware li nes is straig htfo r- projec ts are shown lat er in this chapter.
required to O:,\lo:nd the complexi ty will be ward. but will appear 10 be: somc wh ut l a- when a character is sent to the L CD. it
the same. T he di"play shown here has 16 bo rious•. The pane l requires a sequence of is di"playo:d atthe left edge. and all e,i SI-
characters. ar ranged i n a vingle row. Any commands be sent 10 inuialize the con- ing data o n the display are pushed a char-
of the al phanumeric characters and a van- troll er. Once thi s is done. the individual ucte r to the ri ght. I f one warns tn write any
el y of symbol " can he display ed The par- c harac ters of the di splay can he set by t wo new c ha racte r, it i s nec essary to write all
ncular di~ p l ay used here is the Op trex byte commands. The emphaciv here will 16 pm i ti ll m in seq uential order. For an
DMC· 16 11 7A. but a variety of prod ucts be on the general nature uf using the D SP example. we will display a 16-bi t nu mber
arc avai lable from OptTC" and other manu- as a controll er. rather rban on the specific in deci mal form. Thi s wi ll i ncl ude a l ead-
facture rs. The programming of man y of procedure" for thi " display. The detai l s of i ng neg ative sig n if ap pro pria te, or a lead-
these di spl ays i s s unila r ro thai shown here. this example are included with the pro- ing blank i f the number is zero or pos itive .
Check the manufacturer ', data sheets for grams for the " K nob Box: ' along with an T he se numbers. in decimal f orm. can range
fro m - 3 2 7 61~ to 32767. I ncl udi ng the
==:-- - - - - - - - - - - -, A complete QRP
minus sign. up to six cha racte rs are needed .
To "ii mp li fy the di spl ay arrang emen t. we
rig lor 2-meters,
the DSP.10, is will alw ays leave roo m for six ch ar ac ter s.
built around a We could writ e it long pro gra m ro utine (0
minimal amount con ve rt the num be r into numeric c harac-
of hardware and
rers and to lead these i nto the LCD di splay.
the soft ware
running In the Doing thi s can make a program diffi cult 10
laptop PC. Along follow and prevents reus e of any of the
wll h the RF program pieces for other purposes. Wr it-
hardware in the i ng the program as a collection of subrou-
die-cast bo x is ti nes min im izes these problems.
an Analog
Devices EZ-KIT We will now look. at some of the detai ls
Lite that serves of these five subrouti nes. Fur selected por-
as the last IF and li ons of the routines. the det ail ed program
audio portions of ins rrucrio ns are shown. The fully com-
the transceiver.
see page 11.27 mented source programs are included on
the t~lpujll/f'lIT(11 M t/hods in RF D rsign CD
=-__ for more
J Information . as pan of the program CIIK~OB.DSP.

Using A Table Lookup To Determine Knob Motion

The tab le thai is stored at the program memory table numbers are B'A' SA where the primed value s refer to the
"encoder" is rec on structed he re with the table address last measurem ents and B and A are the two lo gic
offset in binary an d the tabl e entri es as decimal numb ers: outp uts from the encod er.
Some of the address offset s, such as 010 1 or 1111,
a-Bit Address Offset Entry have the same old an d new values and corr espon d to no
0000 o motion of the knob. All four of this type can be found in
000 1 -1 the table to have an entry value of 0 indicating "no
00 10 1 change ."
00 11 o Next are add ress offsets such as 0001 . He re the B
01 00 1 output has rema ine d logic-l evel 0, but the A output has
0 10 1 o changed from 0 to 1. Refe rring back to the encoder logic
0 110 o of Fig 11.1 it can be see n that only if the knob has
0 111 -1 cou nter-clockwise motion is this possible, This results in
1000 -1 an entry of -1. In a similar fashio n, an offset of 00 10 can
100 1 o only occu r for clockwi se rota tion and an entry value of 1
101 0 o results, If the knob IS control ling a value, such as
10 11 1 freque ncy , the new value can result from adding the
1100 o table entry to the old freq uenc y.
110 1 1 Note thai ther e are four address offsets , such as 00 11
11 10 -1 or 1001 that shou ld neve r occur. These cor respond to
1 11 1 o both A and S outputs of the encoder chang ing at the
same time. Fig 11.1 would sugg est that this cannot
The address offse t is shown as a binary num ber, OCCur. However, if the knob is rotated so fast that a stale
correspond ing to decimal equival ent number s of 0 to 15, is skippe d over. the 00 11 combination may be encoun-
The bi nary values are the encoder-outpu t logic levels for tered . This combination tells us that the encod er ha s
the last measurement followed by tnose for the cur rent changed by two positions . but there is no clue as to the
measu reme nt. All 16 pos sible comb inations are in the direction . For this reas on. the table entry mus t be zero.
table. Relating these to the knob enco der, the binary meaning that no change will be ma de.

DSP Appl icat io n s In Comm u nication s 11.7

 Co n ve r tin g a Binar y characters was see n to be the func tio n of T his i .~ simple r than cou nti ng the number
Number to In d i v i dual the subroutine n2hcd. This is do ne by con- of subtrac tions and then liddi ng 30 he x to
ASCII Digits side ring eac h c harac ter position in order. it. Since a ll of the characte rs fro m '0 ' to
If the nu mber is negative, the first po si- ' 9 ' are in seq uence in ASCII. the results
Fi,; 11.6 ill ustrates the pro gramming of tio n i.. loaded with en ASCII minu s sig n. arc the same.
the LC D to dis play a 16-bit sig ned integ er. O therwise it is loaded wit h a s pace or T he cubroa rine repe ats the sa me series
The subro utine n2bc d co nve rts the 16 bit "bl an k" ch a racte r. Th c n um ber is then of subtractions for the 1OOOs d igit. except
number into six ASCII c harac ters - that a rc ne gated if it was neg ative. that here the numbe r of subtractio ns ro~­
ref, in a si x po sition array in data memory . Th e numeric value to be placed in e ach siblc may be as high as nine. This comin -
Eac h c harac te r is bro ken into fou r- h it c harac te r pos itio n is dete rmined by re - ucs thro ug h the unit d igit. afte r wh ich a ll
halv ev. called nibbles. ready 10 be se mro pea ted subtrac tions. For instance, fo r the of the sill cha racter pos itions will ho ld the
the dboplay by the subrout ine outcn . Th e d igit fo llo wing the sign, we su btr ac t proper ASC II c ha racter. Whe n we huma ns
ro uti ne /cJ 4 su pports outch by mov ing 10.000 (dec ima l) fro m it. If th is prod uces write a two- dig it number in a s ix-d igit
fo ur bits into the shift regist er using mu l- a ne gative result the number must be less space. we leave blan ks in the fo ur leadi ng
tiple call" of Ihe subroutine lomJJ6. This than I0. 000 and ..v c will put a '0' c harac te r ze ro spots. These co uld he converted. but
.subrc uu nc handles the pulsing ot hard- in the seco nd table po sitio n and move to we wi ll kee p things simple by leaving
ware li nes to move data into the s hift reg- the 1000s digit. Oth erw ise we put a one in these in place si nce it is not wrong ,
ister. Co mpleting the needed subrou tines the seco nd ta ble position and repe at the Th is rou tine demonstrates the complex-
j, delay, slo wing the DS P process to e n- 10.000 su btraction , T his con tin ues ity occu rring when converting a numher
sure that the waveforms goi ng \ 0 the shitt throug h ' 3' . whic h is the largest value pos- buil t on powe rs of two to one bu ilt on pow-
regi ster s ha ve sufficient time to be cor - sible for the 1O,OOOs digit. at which poi nt en of 10 , For each pow er of 10. lik e
recrly formed. the subtraction mu st have a negative re- 10000 ,1000. 100,...• subtraction must be
C hanging the 16-bit nu mbe r to 6 ASC II sult. Fig 1L 7 is a flo w chan that ill ustra tes used 10 success ively remo ve the powers
this process for the 10.000 d igit. and the of 10. Thc routine co uld he shortened by
"Most computer users a re fa milia r Wit h the p ro gram frag men t in Do"!; of shows these building it out of loo ps. but generall y with
ASC II character code as the lan guage of
text Wes or serial ports , where 128 differ- sa me steps in assembly la ng uage. the ADS P-2 18 1 progr am me mory is nOI in
ent symbols are encod ed into 7-bi! bina ry The seco nd instruct io n loads th e a y1 short supply. In-line routines. such as used
numbe rs. The ARR L Handbo ok inc ludes reg is te r wit h the ASCII val ue for t he c har- here arc often easte r 10 de bug and ca n ex-
the de tails. actcr zero. which i~,30 hex or ~ 8 dec ima l. ecute faster than the ir looped equiv alents.

Operati on Example Data

The number to be displayed
10011000ooo1110011
in deci mal ootatH:>o
Eq uivalent tIlnary
Called Once represe ntat ion

The number is now six

100100000 1
ASCII chara cters. The
first Character is a blank
'1' Binary repr esentation
'2' of ASCII bla nk.' ,
'3'
'4'
'5'
Calle d 6 Times
Dividtt each ASCII
cberecee- into two four tilt
I
SubrouMe OUIch

~
nibbles. add a binary 1000
,nto the M positions 4 to 7. Left (Most Sognlflca ntj
FourBllS
"',"
T Q Di g ~

Seod 8 bots 10 transfer

mos t sigo ificanl nibble. es
'"""""'" "'"
~
Righ1(Le ast Signibnt)
Foor Bits
process
SeocI 8 more bit s to transfer '000
lea$!:$ignl ficanl nibble Subrou bne Icd4 DOg'

~
Finished alief sending an
si~ ASCII cha ract ers

Fig 11.7-Flow d ia g ra m 01 a po rtion of

Fig 11.6-Data s tru ctures us ed In c o nve rting a 16-bit signed numbe r Into a fo rm the n2bcd subro utine , showing the
for s e ndi ng to t he LCD displa y. Three s ubroutines ar e us ed to break the n umber e xtra cti on 01 t he 10,OOO's digit. The
Into c harac te rs , prepare a c ha racte r for tra ns miss io n and to s e nd a fo ur-bit nibble d igit Is c on ve rted to A SCII by adding
as req uired by the LCD dis pla y. the va lue 30 he x.

11 .8 Chapter 11
 \\/ e nov. have six ch aracte r s in a me mory
Box 4 . DSP program to determine the ASCII value a rray rea dy to he se nt 10 th e display. T his
corre spond ing to the 10,000'5 digit . is t ran smitt ed to th e LCf) as nibbl es. each
containing four -hits of the character. To in-
{ The numbe r to be conve rted to BCD is in dat a memory dm(te mp1) }
ayO = 10000 ; { Find the 10,000s digit } dicate that this informatio n is display dat a. a
ay1 = h#30 ; { '0' to coun t the su btract ions} hinar y one is place d in the len -h and position
n2a : ar '" dm(te mp1); { Tes t the curre nt reduced number} of the eight. A ll of th is is han dled by a sub-
at e ar c eyc :
rou tine . call ed ow_ch,
if It jump n2b; { Done for this digit }
ar = ar - ayO; ( Not don e, reduce wo rking numbe r ) Going bac k to the schematic o f th e dis -
dm( tem p l ) = ar; play in Fig 11 .5, of the 16 bits o r shi ft -
a r=a y1 +1 , ( Increase cu rrent digit ) regi ster o utput lines . on ly se ve n go to the
ay1 = ar; { This is where it is kept } LC D. So. we need to be c areful tha t sen d-
j ump n2a; { Continue su btractions }
n2b: d m(digit + 1) = ay 1; { store the AS CII value in memo ry } ing data to the LCD du es no r change the
oth er outpu ts . Thi s is accomp lish ed hy
us ing a logi ca l OR ins tr uction with a copy
of all the o utp uts kept in da ta memory a s
d m (data I 6 ). Ot he r data m a ni pu lat io n
ste ps arc needed to he con siste nt wi th the
require m ents o f the LCD ha rdware. Th e
subroutine Icd'; performs th c se operatio ns
for hoth nibbles . Fig 11.8 shows the flo w
of th is subro utine .
( ,,"")
LOAD16
T he o n ly mis sing np eruuou now is a
me thod 10 load the 74 HC59 5 shift regis -
( Start
Le D4
)
te rs w ith seria l da ta (sl;e the sidebar on
I
1 I Counter = 1 ~
page 1 1.2. "Three- wire Se ri al Int er-

r
face s"). T his is accom pli shed by use o f a
Mo ve 4-bits of Data I subroutine toad to. outl ined in Fig 11.lJ.
toB Ils8 to11 I I O ne ad vanta ge of this modular subroutine

I Read
Most Sign ifica nt Bit
structu re is the abili ty to use th is same rou -
tine for an y o peratio n tha t req uires alter-
(MSB )
'SR' Bit: Ox0080 for Data ing the outp uts o f the shi rt reg rstcr s. Thc
OxOOOO for Comma nd fig ure a nd th e commente d li sti ng o n th e
I
Experi menmt Afelhods ill Radi o t-re-

T I Shift Bil s Left

I
I Il uell n TJ el'i gll C D-R O.\-1 ca n be examined
to see the de railed o peration How e ver.
J Maks Bils B to 11 o f Data I one re curring clement is to send a pulse on
a hardwa re li ne. Tn assem bly lang uage
I Set Data Line
10 Value of MSB
se nding a positivc goi ng puls e typ ica lly
look ." like Box 5 .
I
l OR in 'SR' Bit
(Data or Cmd) I
I
The ro utine "dclay j" does not hing fo r ,;
microseconds. This allows ple nty or time for
the feed-through filters com ing from the PF
I Raise and Lower
lead, 10 achieve their full rise , The delay rou-
Cloc k Line
I OR into Existing 'Dala16' tine could have been wri tten a, a loop. such as

I I de lay3 :
I Decre ment Counter
I Send Using 'LOAD16' Routine
with Enable Line High
I
I
c ntr= 9 7;

do dly3a u nl il ce ;

I No
= O?
d ly 3 a: nap ;

I Repeat Send with Enable

Line Low
I rts :
V"
I
( Rel urn ) I Raise and Lower
Latch Line
I but th is has a dra wback. There are only to ur
places on the counter stack, Ev ery time a
new value is loa ded into the "cntr" regis ter.
the curre nt value is pl aced on the counter
I stack, There is only room for four value s on

Fig 11.8-Flow d iag ram for the

( Return ) this stack and a fifth attem pt wil l resu lt in
counter dat a heing losr. To leave room for
subroutine Ic d 4 that transmits 4 bits of
othe r rou tines. the delay routine uses extra
data or command t o the L C D panel, Fig 11,9 -Flow diagram of th e
wh ile nol c ha ng in g the ot her o utputs of subroutine loadl6. Th is transfers 16 spac e in prog ram memory to save space on
the hardware shift register. b its of da ta t he hardwa re sh ift the counter stack , It loo ks like :
reg isters.
DSP Applications in Communicat ions 11.9
 of Program mable Flag called PFO to PF7
Box 5 a DSP assembly language t o creat e a 3 microsecond
in hardware terms. These pins can be pro-
pu lse on the hardware li n e, P F 1. gra mmed to be either inputs or outputs. If
{ Latch the data with a pulse on bit 1 } they are outputs. as we need for the sh ift
axO ", dm(pFDATA ); { Get the cu rrent PF data ] regis ter data, cloc k and strobe. writing to
ar ", setbit 1 of axO; I Mak;e bit 1 a 1. it was 0 J the loca tion dm( P FDA TA ) will change
dm(PFDATA) '" ar; ( Send to ha rdware. via dm )
ca ll delay3; (Pulse i s 1, Wail 3 microseco nds ) the pins to the new value. Reading fro m
a ~O '" dm(P FDATA); { Get the PF data aga in) dm(P FDATA) tells the program the cu r-
ar '" clrbit 1 of axO; I Bring hard ware li ne to 0 re nt selli ng of all pins wh ile writi ng will
dm( PFOATA) '" ar: I Again send to ha rdwar e. via dm I set the levels.
The /otld J6 routine proceeds thro ugh all
16 bits by finding from d m(da ta 16 ) the
oeraya: Either routine performs no function du r- desi red bit value. putti ng th is onto bit 2.
ing its exec ution. If an inter rupt oc cu rs and then movi ng the cloc k line . bit O. fro m
nap; nap; nop; nop; nop; dur ing the del ay routin e. it will only in- oto I and back, Delays are inserted at each
nap; nap; nop; nop; nap; crease the dela y time, which wil l not be point to make sure that the data arriv es
{ .. . And 8 m o re line s of harm ful. before the clod . pulse and that all pulses
NOPs here ... } Returni ng to the /o(ldI6 rout ine , the are long enough to reach their full extrem e
memory locat ion dm (PF DATA) is one of value s, Final ly the stro be line. bit 1. is
nop; nap; nap; nap; nap; a numb er of dedicat ed memory locations moved from 0 to I and hack. latching the
nap; nap; nap; nap; nap; that are treated as registers.t The lower 8 74HC595 shift-reg ister dat a by moving it
rts; hits of PF DATA cu rrc ~ pon d to the 8 pins to the output pins.

1 1 .1 0 Chapter 11
 11.3 AN AUDIO GENERATOR TEST BO X

A device using the ca pabiluies of the

Knob Box is the Audio Gen erato r. This
prov ides an ou tput si gnal from the EZ· Kit I A.mphlude s et
con sisting of two sine waves and a random I
noise . This is use ful fo r trans mitt er testin g Software
using either one or two tones. T he noise I
Sine Wave #1
signal can be useful for tra nsmitter testi ng I 0lo 20k Hz
o r for si mulating the rece ptio n of si gnals I
in noise. Each sine wave ca n have its
frequ ency set to any value from I Hz to
I }- - -l r>A
Con~ener
20 kHz. and the R:\t S ampli tude can be I
varied i n O. I·mV ( IOO- micro \"lIlll steps. I Sne Wave 111
0 10 20 kHz
T he no ise i... alw ays Gaussia n and n at with I I
freq uency . The nois e RMS amplitude can
also be varied in O.I -mV steps I I
Gaussian
This aud io generator also illustrates the I Random I
building block assemblage that ViC: an: us- I Noise
Ge nerator
I
ing . The sine wave and noise ge nerators Il I
com e from Chapter to ro utines. and the ,
knob and LCD hard ware and soft ware are I
those that have j ust bee n divc uwed. In the I I
following secuon. we will lie these to - LCO I I
gethe r i nto a handy tes t 00" .
All signa ls fro m the generato r ha ve
Panel IBBBB[ : I I
great relati ve-amplitude accuracy. T he L-
I
Frequency
& Amptitude
I
abs ol ute accu racy of the D/ A converter
0 I I
o ut put i-, only abo ut I Wil- . Th is is a se al!ng
I I
error on ly and can be rem oved by cali bre-
lio n of the panirular conv e ne r. Even with- Serl9llParallel
I I
Interl ace
o ut an abso lute culibra rion . the signal -to- I I
noise ra tio or the ratio o f two si gnal ~ I DS' I
volta ges can be ser very accu ra tely, typi-
call y beuer than 0. 1 dR. S_ ~ I """""
Program I
The distortio n in the generator ou tput is ") ~ I I
very lo w at abou t 0.025 per cent. Disror- I I
~
lio n is a muc h mo re impor tan t panlmeter '- - - - - - J
fo r this type o f ap plication .
T he fo ur bullon switches on the knob box
control the vario us functions. Button I "'" "",.
scrolls through d isplay contr olling which of
the three wave forms is being co ntrolled:
Sine w av e I
Green
""
Sine wave 2 Fig t t. t o-coveran b loc k d iagram 01 the tone and n o ise gene rator. The kn o b
Noise con trol s both t he frequen cy of th e sine-wa ve ge ner ators and the am plitud es of
B utto n 2 selects the knob function : the three signats. The fu nction 01 the knob is determ ine d b y th e push butto ns.
Amp li tude The 16-character display is al so dr iv en by th e Interfac e circuit ry een trcnee by t he
OSP so ft war e.
Freq uency
B utto n 3 is left unused 10 allo w fo r fu-
tu r e add itio ns. and B utton .\ toggles a ll
outputs betwee n on a nd off. T he red LED
indic ates the on/off state . Box 6 • DSP routine t o set phase increment f o r sine-wave
The d isplay has 16 characters. adeq uate
to indic ate the gen e ra tor s ta te. For in-
generator.
stance. if Hutton I selec ts the fi rst sine- { Frequency in Hz in the ar register. To convert to a phase inc rement
wave ge nera tor. the d isplay would he we need to multiply by 65536148000. But in the U S arithmetic. the
bigge st value is 1.0. So. we mUltiply by FA2PH:O .S"6S5J&148000=0.6827 and
"1 fffffH z vvv.v mV" the n shift left 1 bit. the same as multiplYIng by 2. }
.const FR2PH=OX5762 : I Hell. for 0.6827 in 1.15 format }
where the first I means that the da ta ap- { And the code in the main body of the program: }
myO",FR2PH:
plies to ge nerator I. fffff is the freq uency mr: ar "myO (55); { The tracncnar multiply . and}
i ll Hz and H\' .\' is the R\1 S output leve l in sreasnm mrl by 1 (hi): { the multipty by 2, which isl
millivo lts. s res r o r Ishift mru by 1 (10); { in two pa rts 10 get LS bit }
FiA11.10 is n bloc k dia gra m of the soft-

asp Applications in Communications 11.1 1

 can be seen in the full list ing that i-, av-a il-
able i n the progra m cl t tbox.dsp o n the
('D· R O ~1 that accom pani es this book, T he
more in teresting areas arc the details Ihal
must be ha ndle d 10 make the sig nal ge n-
e rato r o perate properly.
Fo r inst ance. the d isplay for freq uency
il in intege r Hz. from 110:W.OOO. The vine-
wave generato r ha, a resol ution of about
0.73 Hz. Th e kno b co uld he used to change
frequency in either in steps of 1 Hz o r O, 7)
Hz. Eit her way. a co nversion must he made
10 the oth er resolution step. Thc method
Fig t t.tt -cosctucecepe trace of the used was to always c hange the desired fre- Fig 11.12-QscWoscope tra ce of t he
Aud io Genera tor out pu t. One sine wa ve Au dio Generator output. The sine-
quency by I Hz. and then to co nvert thb to waves are of equal amplit ude and the
is set to 150-mV RM $ and the other 10
zer o. The no ise level is 50-mV RMS a phase inc remen t co rres pond ing to the frequen cies are 700 an d 1900 Hz. The
makin g th e SIN 9.5 dB (20 0 10g(3» . Th e 0.73 Hz step . T his results i n the kno b al- nois e is set t o zero .
sine- wave fr eq uenc y Is 1000 Hz. way-s prod ucing a visit-ole freq uency c hange
on rhe display. hut about 1/3 of the pocvible
gene rator freque ncie s are not used . The
conversion from a frequency in the AR reg- If the Of A co nve n e r is. operated be low
wa re and hard ware functio ns invo lved . ister 10 a phase increme nt in the SR 1 reg- its ove rload poi nt the di stortion. ind ud ing
T he ind ivid ual func tio ns. such as sine- icte r is as follows in 80'1: 6 . inrc rrnod ulerion. ca n be ex pected to be
wave genera tion , knob co ntrol a nd LCD Figs 11.11 and 1 1.12 are e xampl e wave- very small. T he princ iple drawback to this
d isplay have all be cove red earlier and will fo rm o utput s h om the Audio Ge ne rato r, appro ac h is the limited frequenc y range.
not be repeated here . T he deta ils of the Outp ut leve ls and freq uencies are shown For the hard ware used herc it is not prac-
integration of thes e pro gram com po nen ts in the captio ns. tica l to ope rat e much above 20 kll z.

11 .4 AN 1S·MHZ TRANSCEIVER
Thi.. CW/S SB tran..cet ver o pcrarc-, in order to use the sa me filte r.. and mix e rs on
the l r -mete r amateur band fro m 18.068 10 bo th receive and tra nsmit, ther e is a PI1'\
1&. 168 M H1.. Dire ct co nve rsi on. as d is- d iode switch follo wing the RF a mplifie r.
cussed in C hapters 8 and 9. is used for both Fo r reception. this s witc h also pro vides a
the receiver and trans mincr. A ll RF func- simple met hod for man ua lly co ntro lling
tio n, arc huilt with con vention al hardware. the RF ga in. as the PIN d iode can also be
but the audio fu nctio n, are DSP based, In used as an adj usta ble rcvistor.
addi tion . co ntrol function s were delegate d Tw o mixers arc con nected to the Rf cir -
10 the DSP, to the e xtent possible . c ults thro ugh a po we r di vid er. A 90-
The ge nera l arrangeme nt of the tra ns- de gre e powe r d ivide r supplies the conver-
cciv er is cho....-n i n the bloc k d iag ra m. f ig si on osci llato r fo r the two mixe rs. In re-
11.13. T he receiver begi ns with a sing le cepu on. this cre ates t he ' fn-phase ' and
tu ned circ uit a nd an RF ampl ifie r. T he 'Q uad rature' o r I and Q sig nals at aud io.
co nsid erations for sig nal-to- nois e rati o. After Iow-pass fi ltering. a n AI D co nverter
dyn amic ra nge and LO rad iation we re dis- that is part of ihe DS P board . d igitizes the
c uss ed in C hapter 8 a nd app ly her e. I n The 18- MHz Tr ansce iver . two vignal v.

11 .12 Chapter 11
 o
_ 0/ } .r'---_
,
- -c
<

ij III ~ ~

i V\~ u
NO
I
J •

III •i
I
a
J •
I
§
'T ~ III •
,
0

0 ~
0

~I "
,f--i ~ ~

L j
' ''J ~
"i) V..,
j ~
I Ilq
LL
a.
III ~ lid
"" e.
.i ~ L- (j)
Cl
III ~
H /\ ~ " ~

$ ~~ J,
"
l l
I~ 1f--i!
~
s
o ••
~~c i III e I ~ ~ f--i!
• •
e,- O
0 a
,-+..::J • ,-+0,",' ~

-~
•
Fig 11 .13-Block d iagram of the 18·MHz transceiver showing the division of the funct ions between conventiona l hardware
and DSP software .

DSP Application s in Communications 1 1.13

 ~ 10 R

RF Ga...
RCVR
RF '" ri-r
.,
Amp "" ""
fit;J:' . . It '" 2·PoIe Bandpass
2-Way
Power
.
b, , 10M.....
rus.r

Spll")- ~ 90'
lel l,lHz u · · Filter
'" ,"'" I"'cU"" I:,,~"
t=;J;

","
18.1 MHz Hybrid
~
Tl 1 4

~ L2 L3 12 t • J r-O----

'ro'jJt~ ~
23T 001 0,01

' m OC "'
1
~4
2 ('3 5).
( 15' : 03, Q.( az ,f- ta L e

":" '1 II 11 ,::. ' ,~:',

'-'-=-'
soea-aoe,
RFfilter MS.t.0685 T IR ~ r
"
- L1 Ta(llled 2T Imm bonofrl.
Switch R~; 3 TlJF· l
= · ' OT •
- Transmit RF 4 7 1'," *
:+, ,0.01
r - -- - - -- - - - - - -- - - - - - - R FC - - ~
@) = ;00 , 1
II ( 7 1'H
T
~ lO V

~
° -
,or ~,
100, * 100,
905 MHz VFO

t,
~
"'0=
3-12

H:~" ~ , .c,
5

*
48 G
'" " OJ.oaG-afJIe<_
([D
0 11
J3 10
Buffer
~
a r
r
I[~ ~ol8
"
1""' 1( 8
I
I
I
1.... I
~ I OV
,••
e

r; f~ r'
Q12
NP4 NPO \' J310 Doubler
0.22 I
''''''1(6 ro
,.- } 9D
150 0.22 I '" 1i2W
!
lUNE ,+,
CO.
23T T50-6
,,, r
, I ;'''-H-
,
' e. I MHz Ban<lpa9S F""' ,
r - - - - - - -.J
I
"'c I
471'H
s-a
" I

II;.~, : "
,J
CO , '"
50 Ohm, · 3dBm
, a
I
1,41'H W
'" aa zz ,h z
• .","'" 0.01
'1"
"''"'
rze-e
Tap 5T from rh 221m I
CO _
L _ _ _ ~~ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ras-e
_ _ __ _ ~

OOCu""",1

~ 1 0T
Tran smitter Po wer Am plifier ~
R1 . ~
51
",oe ~
'. n
' 1 0T '12V

~~v (42" r-jt 06'

- ~ ~ ~I '"
aa ",
, .~
'"
La
0,71'H R5
zzn
0 22

:t;-Jf-- 'ff- :41; f-ir-"! I "c ." ,

( II..
'-'-' J,g ,l"j.
,pll .'c "
1.5 ~
411'H
C,

II~
aac 4.711M ra 0.01
cs
, P -L

. ----.,-II:m
0,01 0 01

,.,.... "c.
0-01 1 a a 0 .0 1

( f s)
va
' Cll) CiT
co
•a '" ~ (is)
""'"
Haats inl<
Req'd
~ ... ,I cz
'r s

.""',, .""" 0.01

; R41 0 ( 11<0
022;h cr
" zz
L7 ~
R6
ce
~.h ,J; ' "
220 -:i~
1'"
; 0 711H IFtF511
Cf2: o th
° 06 9"" 0 7
~~ $ RS 10k R10
. 10T
Fost9l'ledto
H ~ 'l s i n k

+, ~CUrrenl 4.Th

Fig 11.14-Schematic d iagram o f the h ardware u sed with th e 18-M Hz tr ansceiver (c ont inued on ne xt two pages).

11 . 14 Chapter 11
 +10V +10 R +10T Audio Preamplifier
00 +~R
Co
74H C4066
( i :B) "
2N3904 5,6 k 2N3904 10 0 I
Vee ~
U5A C I ~-
2 0 11 I/O 1
V. s

_I U58 C I2- -
...l.j Oil I/O ~
100 1 15 00 2

Q' o,

.. 1 U5D C~
I 2N3904 5,6 k 2N3904 , 150° 2

lQ..{ O!l I/O ~

CMOS Switches

11 . 6T Bifila r #32 on FT23-43 '00 , 1500 2

I T2· lOT, #36 E, Tw;st 10tin , T25--6
T3 · 6T Qu~ d ra fi l~ r . #32 E. FT23-43
Audio Preamplifier 1
14 - 3T Trifilar. #26 E, FB4 3-BO'
L1.L2.L3 - 25T #26E . 13 7-6
___ Transm it Audio I , 1500 2

L6,17 - O , 7 ~H , ' 4T # 26E 13 7-6

ca. 80 nH, 4T , #2 &E, 3i16" 10 . . . - T ransmit Audio Q
1
, " 00 z
L9 - O,2 ~ H . 6T 1126E. 13 7-6
Ll 0.L11.L12 - H, #26 E, T50--6
RFC - 4J ~ H , 25 T # 32 E, T25-15
1
+10 T

+lO T
330 '"
0.4 2 5 ~ H
---
1i2W
--- ,~

1i2W

-j ~
-
; 0 ,6 5 ,

,eo
II 4J~H

5 Watts , 50 Ohms 0.0 1

0.42 5~H
ok'" C1!
b" b" oz
1 300 1801 90 Deg 1 1 80 00 Deg
1'80 r
1N4 005

Antenna TJR Switch

Note: The circ uitr y on these two pages (1 1.14 and 11. 15) sho uld be co nta ined in a shie lded enclosure . The 1500 pI
feed through ca pac itors fill er the leads co ming into the enclosure ,

DSP Applicat ions in Communications 1 1.15

 P owe r +12 V
Condition ing
us
,n LM2937ET-l0

toe

c,

+5 v tom Va:.

+10V t--
'"
~ ~r
820
R=
Aud io On
' DO
i N01Used

'"

"
Va:. 13
To 2 U7A C 1
"OUT" DAC
"" V" "" ' Nole , The 3 ,3 k reSl&to/'$

3.3 k' rJ.: ecross U1A and U7B &e1

!he sdeIone level " 4,1 k
ur
74 HC4066 4 .11<
CMOS
Switc hes

TO ADC (1
' IN"
r n-1, 2
' 50
10 < Mike
I ._I U7D C 12
IJ: +10 R
~ OI1 l!~ R~AOC_I
E

EZ-Ki1 l 'te Interlace

Fig 11.14 co ntinued .

11.1 6 Cha pter 11

 T he I a nd Q au dio ,i g nal s are p ut modu lation levels . These d ev ices are port s; thi s is the trans mi t carrier rejection.
thro ugh individ ual aud io fi lters in the ava ilable in a nu m ber of different ga in and The LO dr ive differs in ph asc by about 90
DS P. T\>"o filter ba ndw idths are prov ided, pow er le vels . They require external block- de grees for the two mixers pro viding on e
a 3-kHz 10 \.\' pass filter and a 500-Hz f ilte r, ing capacitors, de po wer feed RFC s an d of the necessary e lements for the "p has ing
su itah le only for C\V , Due to the DSP current limiting re sistors. Pro bab ly the method" o f SSB detection and ge neration.
imple me nta tio n, the I and Q fi lte rs arc big gest drawback to the lise of the se de- The RF phase- shift network (,ee the
identica l in the ir re xpunse . In order to ha ve vic es is their pow er consumption. Th e ir ef- d isc ussio n in Chapte r 9) consisting of a
siu gle -s ideban d reception , a broadband fici en cy is about half of that ac hievable tightly co uple d ind uctor, T 2, the two
90-deg ree phase difference must be ap- with a well designed transistor ampl ifier. ::l 2-pF capacitor s and the 5l -n term inat-
plied to the two au d io sig nals . T his is done due mainly to the power lost in the cu rre nt ing res istor. Th is netwo rk has rather so -
with a DSP filter ing techniq ue ca lled the l imiti ng re sis to r. phi stica ted oper atio n, considering it.s s im-
Hilbert tra nsfor m. T he received u pper- Preced ing the Rl- ampl ifi er is a single plic ity. The LO sig nal i s d ivided into two
sideband sig nal ca n then be for med with a tuned circu it b uilt around the inductor L 1, equa l mixe r drive si gnals wi th the cu-dc -
simple subtr action of the au dio signa ls. Di- Th is re stricts the signals tha t are seen by gree pha se difference . In addi tion, ther e is
vid ing the audio sign a l into lef t and rig ht U I. It is part icularly importan t to redu ce isolation betwee n the two outputs that go
chan nels and applying a de lay tu one of the level of input s at half freque ncy . or to the rnix ers. . Ide ally. no power is tra ns-
the se pro vide binaural reception. A IJ/A about 9 MHz. Otherwise , these signals are ferred 10 the 51 -n resistor. It ser ve s to
con verter then converts the aud io ba ck to pro ne to being doubled in the amplifier. provide isolation when one a sign al is ap -
a nalog for m. rea dy to go to headphone s. making the l 7 -me ter hand com e to life at pli ed at j ust one of the mixers.
Transmissi on re verses most of the sig- time s it is not ! T wo more tu ned circu its, The drawbac k of this phase-shift net -
nal paths from those o f rece ption. For SSB. bui ll around L 2 and L3 pro vide most o f the work is that it only wor ks over a na rro w
a microphone preamp prov ides some volt - RF selcctivit y. Th is filter uses a configura- band of fr equ e nci es . The power divisio n is
age gain ah ead of the AID converter. Lo w- tion of S. B. Co hn 3.+ using capacit iv e cou - equal only at the center frequency. and the
pass DS P audio filte ri ng restr icts the tra ns- pling on the ends to ma tch impedan ce lev- isol ation deterio rate s o ut-of-band as we ll.
mitted bandw idth, remem ber ing that we ets. T he 15 pF on the input matche s to 'i0 T his c aus es the harmon ic energy gener-
have no J-F f ilte ri ng to do this . Hi lbert n wh ile the 22 pF on t he o utput side ated in the mixer diode s, due to the La
transforms pro d uce the en-degree phase matches to 25 n, s uitable for co nne ct ing to d rive, to red istri but e itse lf i n stra nge wa y'.
diff ere nce needed for the su ppression of the two 50 -n mix ers . as can be observed on a n oscillo sc o pe .
the lowe r sideba nd The tran sm itter s ignal Bet ween the Rf am plifier and the filter How ever, the important equ a l po wer and
is co nverted to analog for m i n the sa me DI i s a Pl.\" d iod e sw itch controlled by the 90 -degree relationsh ip is pres erved at the
A converter tha t was use d in the audio tra nsmi t rec eive (T/ R) vo lta ges. F or trans - fu ndamental frequ enc y. Bec ause o f thiv.
output of the rec e iver. Af te r go ing back mit, this conn ects the filter to the transmit the circu it generates outputs of the co rrec t
throu gh the I -Q mixers . the R F sig nal is RF amp lifier. In the receive ca se, it serves am plitudes and phase.
qui te low in amp litude. Four stages of th is same switchi ng fu nction but , also the
am plification raise this to abou t 5-\V SSB cu rrent throug h the d iode ca n be varied by
PE P or CW amplitu de. the RF gain co ntro l. T his allo ws about 40
AF Circuitry
For C\ V transm ission , the on -off key dB of co ntro l range, and is of considerable The receive path signals are ge ne rally
sig nal goes th ro ugh a 500 -H z LPF to re- va lue w hen working strong loc al stations. too weak for the AID con verter withou t
stri ct key -cl ick s. The filt ere d signal am - A two-way isol ated power splitter. TL amp lificatio n. Full scale for the AID con-
plitude modula tes" pa ir of ::lOO-Hz tone s. ap plies the recei ved signal to the two mix - verter i, about ±2 V or a 4 V swi ng . Abo ut
These to nes arc generated in the DSP to ers. Usua lly the se spli tters inclu de a tra ns- 14 bits arc above the AID noi se le vel
d iffer in phase by 90 degrees , aga in ready former to cha nge the imped a nce level fro m with in an au dio bandwidth. Th is set s the
to be c onverted to ana log sig nals fo r the 50 to 25 n , As was d iscussed abo ve, this mi ni m um in put -signal requ irements at
I-Q mixers . We again used" method tha t impedance trans formation is part of the RF about 41:' J.i=4116384=2-i4 microvolts.
wo rks well because of the acc uracy of filter. Bringing a O. I -microvolt sign al up to this
DSP , bu t is considered poo r pra ctice in Th e mixers are double-balan ced TUr -l level req uire s about 67 dB of audio ga in .
ha rd ware form. type s fro m Min i-C ircu its. T hese provide Th is i s pro vided by gro und ed- base tra n-
T he VrO is quite co nve ntio nal. A fre - excel lent isol a tion between the La an d RF sistor Q I (o r Q2 ) and a lo w- noise op -nmp.
qu ency do ub ler incr ea ses the isolation U6A (or U6B ). Fu rthe r de ta i ls o f thi s cir-
bet ween the 9-;\1Hz VFO and the l x-M j-lz cuit can be fo und in C hap ter 8.
RF sig nals . The receive au dio path 10 the AID co n-
verte r has switches. U7C and U7D, allow-
ing the microp hone audio to be co nnected
RF Hardware Details to th e AID converter during transmit.
To simplify the hardware , a num ber of These arc 74HC-i066 CMOS types, which
silicon 1""IICs ar e used as am pli fiers. As show an "On" res isla nce of 35 n, typi-
sh own in the RF schematic, F ig 11. 14 , the cal ly. For reception this can ha ve an effec t
rec ei ver RF amp lifier, U1, is a broadband on the noise figure. O ne simple method of
dev ice with a ga in of about 20 db. This is minimizing thi s affect is to para lle l two or
an Ag il cnt (H P) MSA06R 'i, or eq uiva - more switches by mccha nic ally stacking
le nt ly. the Min i-Circuits M AR -6. T he se t hem and sol der in g the pins toge ther.
devices have input and ou tpu t i mpedan ces Alt ernativ ely , fo ur MOSF ET dev ices .
that are close to 50 n, broadba nd gain and General in side vi ew of th e 18-MHz s uch as the 2.'\ 70 00, cou ld be sub stituted
rea so na ble o utpu t po we rs and inte r- tr ansceiver. for the c ~ms swi tch es.

DSP Applications in Com mun ications 11.17

VFO Characteristic Impedance Z 0
FET Q II is a conventional Hart ley VF O
shown in Fig 11.14, ope rating at ha lf of the
o utput freq ue ncy _The tu ning capac itor was
cupac itiv ely tapped down on the tuned cir -
jJ 114Wavelength at Frequency f
t
c uitto ma ke the tuni ng range just over 100
kHz. Q12 bu ffers the out put of the VF O. , I T

1 t
Diodes D7 an d DR are a ba la nced do uble r
that is reasonabl y efficient at produ ci ng
eve n harmo nics and suppresses the fund a-
mental frequenc y and od d harm onic s. This 0 0

reduce s the fi lte ring needs on the ou tpu t o f 18-MHz trans cei ver shielded bo x circ uit I
L~ -
z,
the doubler: the do ub le-tuned ci rc uit bui ll d etail sho wing extensi ve use of t he
C oO 2n fZ o
'0f
around L I S and L 16 produces a clean spec- " ug ly "' co n str uc t io n method .
trum . as wa s illustra ted in Cha pter 5.

--
In the i nte res t of good me ch an ica l sta - o-;
bility. the VF O wa s built in a surplus alu - tran sform er s. Two steps we re taken to Z,' Either
m inum box w ith relative ly thi ck walls . The keep this from being a pro b lem. Firs t, the 'c Network 'c
coils were all faste ned in place with dabs a mo unt o f neut ra lizatio n was limi ted to the c--;

of silicone sea lant. Multiple alumi num 22-pF va lue in stead of u si ng the full 30 -p f
spacers hol d the V FO to the steel front value. Second, a lo w -freq uen cy input -
Fig tt.ts-cschemeuce and deSign
panel. Almo st no microphouir s ca n be loading network "vas added to each de vice , equat io ns for im ped anc e in verters bu ill
se nsed w hen the case is tapped with a hard cun si sting o f Ui and L7 , along w ith th e f ro m t ransm ission li nes an d lumped
object . T his is oflen a p rob lem wi th VFO s assoc iated 51-n resi sto rs. T he re sultin g capacitors an d in ductors. At the sin g le
built for hig he r Frequencies . amplifier is measured to be unco ndi tio n- f req uency, f, t he two circuits ha ve
Considerable experimentation was done ally stable [o r all inp ut and output imped- identica l b ehav ior.
to ma ke the VFO te mperatur e: stable Th e ances, thro ughout the H f spectrum.
procedure was straig h t [ro m Ha y ward.' A lo w-pass filte r/ma tc hing network was
Af ter about 7 or 8 tr ie s a si mple compen- pl aced on the amp lif ier ou tp ut. L8 an d L9
Fig 11.15 sho ws the design for this net-
work . Bo th the cap ac itor s and the i nduc tor
sati on co nsi sting of a lO-pF 1\' 750 p ara lle l an d the assoc iated ca pac ito rs lim it the har-
monic s and also ste p the 7 -fl output im - are chosen 10 have th e sam c rea ctanc e at
ca pacitor was fo und to ma ke th e tempera -
the center freq uen cy . T his reactance hac
tu re dr ift of the IS-Mill frequenc y on ly pcdan cc up to 50 n. T his network limits
the sa me role as the ch ar act eristic im ped -
25-H z per deg ree C. Then: is pro bah ly go od the fre qu en cie s for wh ich th is am pl ifier
an ce of the quaner-wave tran sformer.
fortu ne invol ved in getting the co mpe nsa- ca n be used. Other portions of the ampli-
In the an tenna T/R swi tch o f Fig 11.1 -t
tion that goo d. as an apparently iden t ica l fier ar e usefu l from 1.K to 30 MHz.
the inverting network con sisting o f L1:!,
10 pF p roduced a drift of abou t 50 -H/ pe r
deg ree. Eithe r way . it is worth the effort to
C3 and C4 ac ts as low-pass filters dur ing
Antenna Switching rec ei ve, wi th the sign al passing wit hout
do the exper im en ts and compensate the
Lo w cost rectifie r dio des (see Chapter atten uation. In transmit. d iod e 0 2 is co n-
VFO . since the unco mpen sa ted sta bility
6) swi tch the an te nn a betwee n the trans- du cting and its lo w imped ance sho rt s OUI
was measured at --470-11/ per degree C.
miller p o wer ampli fier ou tput and the th e re ceiver inp ut. The i nverti ng networl
re ceiver inp ut. A si mpl er. series-tu ned u ses this lo w imped ance to ca use a \'e~
Power Amplifier approac h, a s was also us ed in Ch ap te rs 0 hig h impedance to appea r across C 3.
A single low cost l RF51 1 :-vmSFET was and 12, wo uld pro bah ly have worked at T he sa me effe ct occurs at the trans mit-
trie d as an output ampli fier , It produced th is power lev e l. Ho wev er. th is is an ex- te r ou t put. due to diode 1) 1 and the invert-
abo ut 3 W of power at 13.6 V. H igher sup - ample of a so lid-s tale RF sw itch that ca ll ing network consistin g ofLl l. C5 an d C6 .
ply voltages pro duced muc h more outpu t. he ap plie d at qui te high power le vel s. The During transmit. wh en III i s conducting.
b ut battery op eration was o ne of th e go als use of impedanc e inverters fo r fast ant en na th e impe da nce seen at the transmitter OUI -
for th is ri g . To pro du ce a 5 -W outpu t. t wo switching ha s roots at lea st a s far bac k a s put. across C 5, is very high . He re we also
of the MO SF ETs we re placed in the p ush- t he ea rl y days of rada r where it was imple - exp lo it the rev ers e e ffec t. During rec eive
pu ll con fig uration sho w n in the schematic . mented in waveguide." The fo llowi n g d is- D I is not co ndu cti ng and th erefor e pre-
Ferri te cores wer e use d in the inp ut and cussion shows ho w these concepts were scurs a high impedance. prim ar ily the-
outpu t tra nsfor mers. app lied to thi s transcei ver. diode cap acity o f a few pF. Th is is tra ns-
As is usua lly the cas e for the se dev ices Pi-nerworkv, co ns ist ing ofL IO. Lll and form ed t hrou gh the in vert in g ne twork to
(see Chapter 2 ), HF stability re quired som e L12 along wit h their as soci ate d l RO-pF pro d uce a low imp edance at th e tra nsmit-
e xtra components . T he major culp ri t in shu nt capacitors, ad as YO degree phase ter output. disconnect ing an y effects of tbe
degrad ing th e stability is the 30-pF fe ed - shifters at 18 MHz , Justlike the ir counter- :-"10S FE T amplifi e r. The next in ver ting
ba ck capacity from th e drai n to the gate . parts . the "quarter-wave transformer:' network. LlO, C I and C2 transform thi s
Goo d st ability and ga in at 18 M H z co uld the se netwo rks serve as impeda nce inve rt - hack to a very hi gh impedance at the an-
b e ach ieved by applyin g some cro ss neu - ers. T his mea ns that if one end has a low tenna connection po in t.
tra liz atio n from the tw o 22 -pF ca pacito rs . impedance p laced across it, the i mpedan ce A single va lue of ca pacity , IXO pF, wa\
It wa s found , ho we ver. that there was a see n look ing i nto th e oth er e nd will be use d for al l the networks. for convenience .
ten de ncy to ward osci lla tio n in the :: to hig h. The op posite is tr ue as we ll: if a high If th ey a re ava ilab le, the pa ra lle l 180 -pF
4-MHl region. Th is is as sociated w ith th e im pe dance is placed across one e nd, the cap acito rs can be rep laced with a single-
c ut-off p hase- shift of the inpu t and ou tput ot her en d will show a very lo w im ped an ce . 360 pF

11.18 C h a p t e r 11
 sen se, the demo boa rd is a co mpon ent that c al ju nctu re between the RF c ircuits and
is generall y eas ier to instal l than thc pan , the DSP is at the outputs of the mixers . The
that it rep laces. fi rst of the tow-pass filtering is done in
On e might arg ue that it takes mo re tim e hardw are. This limi t.'> the lev el of o ut-of-
to write the DSP software than bu ilding hand signals levels tha t are seen by the
hard....are . T his is a lmost ce rtai nly tr ue fo r AID conve ner.
the first time with a ci rcuit bloc k. 110 w • Almost all of the ba nd-pass shap ing is
"'" e ver, se ldom do we need 10 write conware do ne in the DS P. T wo ide ntical fi lters a re
Fig 11.16-Measur ed iso lation o f the the "fi rst time: ' In ma ny cases, we ca n use d. one in the I chan nel and another one
an lenna TIA s witch between th e borrow from pre vio us w ork or fi nd sui t- in the Q cha nnel. If the signal thai we a re
I ra nsmiUer and t he recei ver. rec ei ving is of a si ngle freque ncy. suc h as
able beg innings in reference boo ks. T he
materia l pres ented here falls in this c ar- a CW signa l. the I a nd C) cha nnels w ill be
egory. Howe ver, this is not to d iscourage a s in ~le· freque ncy audio sig nal. The frc-
Th e in verting ne ty.OIl, are rela tivel y a nyon e form taking the code ap.iTtand tr y- qucncy will be the differe nce between the
non -c rit ic al . A ny lu nin g t ha i mig ht be ing the re ow n ide as and alg oru hmv, Th ere IIU- ~1 Hl LO and the i ncoming sig nal.
needed can come from squeez ing or ca n be great fasc inat io n with writ ing a pro- Ideally the a mplitudes wi ll he ide ntica l and
spreading the turn s on the coils. gram and seeing it produce usefu l results. the y will be 90 ut g-rees ou t-of-p hase. T he
Th e Ant enn a TIR switc h was tes ted as a suc h as a OX QSO ! actual phase d iffe rence will track Ihat o f
component by breaking the leads going 10 The DSP program for the 1 8·~fH l trans- the LO s applied to the mix ers.
the transmiuer output and the receiver in- cciver not only processes the audio signals Applying a 90-degree ph ase- shift
put. The lR-MHz insertion loss from the for the transmitter and rece iver. but controls across the aud io s[l<':ctru m and either add-
ant en na connecto r wa s 0.33 dB to th e the simple functions such as transmit and ing o r s ubtracting the resulting two signa ls
tra nsmitter (i n tra nsmit) a nd 0 .25 d B 10 the receiv e s.....itc hing. reading the panel button acco mplishes SS H reception . T he 9O-de-
ecce; ve r ( In rece ive ). Receiver iso lation j \ s w itches and lighting the transmit LED. In- gree shift w ilI bri ng the two aud io signals
a measure of the amount of power going Meado flaborj ouvlyde scribi ng all ofthe DS P so that they are ei ther in-phase. or 180 de-
fro m the tran smitter 10 the rece iver input. progra ms. the followi ng wil l de-cribe the grees ou t-o f-phase. Add itio n. o r subrrac -
when the switch is in transmit. As can be mo st importa nt ele ments of the program . no n. then make s the two sig nals either add
see n in Fig 11.Hi this was measured to be Much of what will be left OUi i~ repetitiousor 10 double a mplitu de. or 10 cunccl to lerll
about 33 dB at 18 MHl . For a S- W trans- is o bviou s. once: o ne unde rstands the basic!'> T he choice of sign dete rmines w he the r
miner this keeps the power at the recei ver of the program writing . upper or lo wer side band recep tio n I'; ne i n ~
input below -l d Bm. well belo.... the maxi - The fuJI DSP program listin g for trans- used.
mum safe input le vel for the Rf amplifie r. ceiv er is a vailable on the book CD -ROt-t Regardless of how it is im ple mented this
as TRiB.nSp. " phasi ng method " has a tw o -tandard
proble ms. First. prod ucing a constant am -
DSP Circuits pli tude, co nsta nt 90-de g re e phase sh ift
For this ri g we ha ve c hosen to move Rec eption ove r a wide band of freque ncies i , alwa~'
much of the circ uitry into DSP. T his is a n The basic reception scheme , sho w n in an a pproximation. Seco nd. the mixers.
a ltern ativ e to co nvent ional analog circuits. f i g 11.17, is the di rect-conv ersion I-C) LOs and ana log filter s a ll int rodu ce slmlll
In some cases we can improve upon the (ph asi ng) method . Th e bas ic prin ciple s pha se and arnpfirude errors. Bo th of
performanc e tha t could be e xpec ted from hav e been around fo r a long time: and have the-e factors, e xplored in "o m.. deta il in
the ana log eq uivale nt, but in most cas es it bee n implemented in anal og circuits, a" C hap ter 9. ser ve In limit th e abili ty to
c ome s do wn to wh at is easiest. The DSP is was shown in Cha pter 9, a nd DSP as was eliminate the undesired side band. re ferr ed
again don e with a demo board. Tn ~0111e do ne by Rob Frohuc . KL7NA 7 The logl- to as oppos ite s ide-band reje ctio n. A DSP

,
I

Mi.ers
,I
l P Filte<

18 1 MHz
~®
2 Way 2 Way 18.1 MHz U SB Aud io
Recei ve
RF Input
ooe 0 0., LO oc

,
l P Finer
I
Haroware I DSP Software
,
I

Fig 11.17-Simpllfied block d iagram sh owing the phas ing method 01 rec ep t ion us ed In the l a·MHz t ransce iver. The cir c le at
the right with a min us sign su bt racts in put si g na l 2 from inp ut sig nal 1.

DSP Applications in Com municati ons 11.19

 Further, our 48 -k Hz sample freq uenc y is
' .0 high. as is d iscussed below. T he fre quenc y
res ponse o f the FT R fi lters scale s wi th
sa mpl e fr eq uen cy . For the I S-MHz. tr an s-
0.0 -
ce iver, WI.: ca n all ow the 4 8 kl-l z to remai n.
if the number of tap s is raised. A valu e o f
247 was sele cte d. Th e co mputational load
-1,0 I-- --/- - t-- - - ---t- is on ly about half of what it seems. sinc e
e very o th er co efficient is zero and do e s
Coe iO ~ -0,0789
- - - - --i- - - - - - f-- \--- - no t ne ed to be computed . F ig 11. 19 sho w s
rg -2 .0 .- - - .- - coeu = 00
• coeta = ·0 ,17 19 the re sulti ng respon se, wh ich is typ ically

,l -3 0 I---jf-- --:-- - - - ,- - - - - -
coeta ~ 0 ,0
Coe i4 = -0.6223
c oots = 0,0 - 1-
fl at wi th in abo ut 0.01 d B and a lway s
within 0 ,04 dfs . Go ing b ack to the phasing
" ccee »
coetr =
0.6223
0,0
ana ly sis o f Chapte r 9 , thi s contrib ute s a
ty p ica l o pposite sideb and re spo nse o f
·4 0 l-r- ccea =
ccee =
0.1719'
0 ,0
+__\--_ 20 log e/2 wh ich for the 0.0 1 d B erro r
(volta ge error e=.(011 5 ), re sults in an
Ccet t 0= 0.0739
o ppo site sideband sup pre ss io n o f - 20
-5.0 r-- 10 g(O.00 1 L'5I2 ) or about 65 dB. R epe ating
this calcu lat ion for the wors t ca se O,04 -dB

I erro r, the opposite sideband i s - 53 dB.

Th e DSP pro gra m snip pe t in Box 7 is the
5 Hilbert transfor m and co mpe nsating delay.
T he structure is so si mi lar to the conv en-
Fig tt. t a-ccoetncrents and amplitude respons e f or a ve ry s imple 11-t ap Hil bert tional FIR filter de scr ibed in Chapter 10.
transform . Th is is sho wn to illustrate the method, as one w o uld ne ver use a tha t o nly the Hil b ert tra ns form sp ec ific
transfo rm w it h on ly 11 taps for SSB ge neration . port io ns will he discu ssed .
The zero co efficient value s are not en-
tered at all i n the ta ble h ilberl_ coeff. cut-
-
plis hc d bv a "Hilbe rt transform." The ting the table size almos t in half. T o see
0,0 6
i mp le me ntati o n of this trans form has a how zero mu ltip lies occur , it is usef ul to
0 '" structure id enti cal to the FIR fi lte r that was re member that the data are arra nged in a
disc us sed earl ie r . Th e dis ti nguishi ng char- circ ula r bu ffer, The second rime th e in·
ac te risti c is th e pa rticular c hoi ce of FI R struc tion, d m( iO, m1)=mr1 occurs . the
. v coe ffic ients. The coe ff icients and fre- new data are p lace d at th e lo cat io n in the
qu cucy re spo ns e for a sim ple ll -tap Hi l- bu ffer poi nted to by iO and the po in ter is
-0,02 be rt transfor m arc show n in Fig 11.18 . The increased by m 1. which has a value of one.
res pons e of this transfor m i s excee d ingly Within th e FIR multiply -ami-accu m ulate
·0 .04 f--- -- + far From flat . It cut s off be low about 3 kH I loop, m x O is loade d w ith da ta from
.0 ,06 IL _
and ha s abo ut a half dB ripp le above this rnxO=dm(iO. rn O) where rnO has a value of
o fre quenc y Howev er. it does allow us to t w o. Th is causes the p o in ter, iO, to he
Frequen cy in kHz increment ed by the value two after the da ta
examine se veral im po rt ant characteristi cs
Fi g 11.19-The am plitude res ponse o f a of th is tra nsform. are fetched fr om memory, skipp ing eve r:
Hilbert t ransform u s ing 247 tap s and a • Ev ery othe r coefficie nt is zero ot he r data po int . W he n the c ounte r re ac he s
s amp le rate of 48 k Hz. • T he second half of th e coeffi cie nts is zero, th e lo op is bro ken and after the last
the negati ve of the first half computat ion. iO is left po inting 10 th e old ,
• The am plit ude re spo nse varies across e st po int in the b uffer. The ne xt tim e
the p assb and through the d o _h ilbert ro utine, pla ci ng
impleme nta t ion or t he phaving me tho d • The ph a se shi ft is not shown, as it is 90 datil into the bu ffer cause s an increment of
doc s not inherently prov ide a h igher le vel deg re-e-s, p lu s a co nst ant de lay, at a ll fre - on e and th e FIR comput atio n mo ve s up b)
of unw ante d -s ide band rej ecti on relati ve to qu encie s, If the nu mber o f taps i s an odd o ne. Thi s brings us 10 the f irst o f the dat a
analog me tho ds. Ra the r. it sh ould he number. the constant de lay is an integ ra l poi nts that we re pa ssed o ver i n the last FI R
looke d at a, an altern at ive impl emen ta tion num her of sam ple periods, a nd east Iy co m- com p uta ti on cycl e . And th e process co n-
tha t is poten tially easier to im plement. pensat ed for, The difference between th e t inues . moving up one point in th e bu ffer
Th is is p articu lar ly true if the D SP h ard- H ilhe rt tra nsfo rm o utp ut and a constant each cycl e .
wa re is be ing use d fo r other pur pose s de lay leav es a very ac curate 9 0-rkgree dif- The b loc k diagram of F ig 11. 20 illus-
anyway and the onl y add ition is in the so ft - fe-ren tial phase shift. rrates th is same Hilb ert tran sfo rm op era-
ware a rea . Th e ampli tu de re sp ons e of the Hilbe rt ti on. Th e top "I' pa th is a si mple delay 10
In C ha pter 9 , the reasons for needing a tra ns for m is nev er com pletely fla t wit h co mpe ns ate for t he flat de lay of th e tran s-
wid cb an d a ud io 90 -degree (r el ative ) phase frequ ency. As we saw. with o nly 11 taps. for m. Th e bottom 'Q' path is a FIR filte r in
shift network were explored. An ana log pe rformance is so po or th at o ne wou ld not str uc ture , hut on ly the eve n nu mb ere d co-
met ho d was use d in rharcba pte rro achieve cons id er it in a tr ansce iv er. As the num be r effic ie nt s arc used since th e multiplica-
tha t re sponse . typ ic all y using 6 op -amps of taps is inc reased , it is possible to not tions fo r the co efficients o f zero value are
and preci sio n RC ne twor ks. In DS P i mpl e- on ly cov er a wider freq uen cy range , but to omi tte d .
men tati ons, the same fun ct ion is ac com- als o d imi nis h the rip p le in the pass-ba nd. As is normally the c ase with broad band

11.20 C h a p t e r 11
 Box 7· DSP program fo r c omputing a 90 differenti al ph a se sh ift u sing the Hilbert
0

tran sform.
{The following are const ant and memory dec larations placed at ( This is the Hilbert transform subroutin e. It is ca lled during
the top of the overall program:} the 48-kHz rate interrupt to gene rate a 90-deg ree phase shift
between the I and Q channels. Hilbert has independent inputs
.eonst H3=247 ; { Num taps in Hilbert and outputs lor delayed and phase shifted paths. Uses
FIR filt } HIL_3_48.DAT runn ing at 48 KHz in ord er to gel response down
.const H3P10N2=124; { This is (H3+1)/2 ) to 300 Hz,}
.const H3M10N2=123; { .. .a nc (H3-i )/2 ) Delayed path : ar in, axi out.
.const H3M30N2=122; { .. .ano (H3-3)/2 ) 90 deg path: mr1 in, mr1 out.}
{The Hilbert coetl icients are stored in program memory{ pm) so do_hilbert: ( 48 KHz Hilbert lor receiving)
they can be fetched at the same time as data is brough t in from data dm(m1_sav) = m1;
memory (dm). The values are read from a lil e hil_3_ as.oat where mi = i ;
the values are given as 24-bit hex num bers. The values are left
j ustified i 6-bit numbe rs and padded on the right with two hex zeros, { First the delayed path 10 co mpensate for the Hilbert delay
A sample of coefficien ts would look like']
02 i EOO iO = dm(h3delayjO_sav); mO=O; 10=%h3delay:
01 F500 axi = dm(iO, mO) ; { get aX1, the delayed output }
0 10000 dm(iO, mi ) = ar: [ Put new data in, update pt r }
01AF OO } dm(h3delay- iO_sav) = iO; { Save pointer}
.var/pmrcirc hilbert 33 0ell[H3 P10 N2];
.init hiibert330eH: chi! 3 48 .dal> : [ Next the actual Hilbert transform: }
iO=dm(h3datajO_sav); mO= 2; IO=%h3data: (iO
{ Each data memory location for th e Hilbert transform is points to data}
declared as follows : ) i4=" hilbert3_coeff; m4=i , 14=%hilberI3 co ell:
.var/dm/circ h3delay[H 3Mi ON2); { Delay line ) dm(iO, mi)=mri ; { Enler new data and bump ptr 1
.v ar/dm/circ h3data[H3]; ( Bul fer lor data )
.var/dm m1_sa v : { Allows reuse of m i mr- n. mxO=dm(iO, mo), myO=pm(i4, m4);
.va r/cm h3delayjO_sav ; { Allows reuse of iO } { FIR mu ltiply and Accu mulale loop: }
.varldm h3 da ta~ i O_sav; ( Allows reuse of iO ) cntr=H 3M30 N2 ;
{ } do hiU oop unl il ce:
{ Initialization of the Hilbert transform takes place once at the hiU oop: mr=mr+mxO*myO(SS), mxO=dm(iO, mO),
beginning of the program operation. Zeroing of arrays is useful for myO"'pm (i4, m4);
simulation, but is not needed for transceiver operation, and is not ( Process the last point: )
done here. ) mr",mr+mxO'm yO(SS}, mXO=d m(iO. m1), myO=pm{i4. m4 ):
iO=" h3delay; { Address of delay line mr=mr+mxO ' myO(RND); { mr1 = phase shilted
memory ) outp ut }
dm(h3delay_iO_sav)=iO: if mv sat mr:
iO=" h3dat a; dm(h aoete iO_say )=iO;
dm(h3data _iO_sav)= i0: m1 = dm(m1_sav);
rts:

phase shift networks. the re is a fixed del ay

o'"'------------1[2]I----------00~~ut that is m uc h greater than the del ay assoc i-
atc d with the YO-degree phas e shi f t. Fo r
Sampled 123 148,000
Data Inputs the 24 7- tap Hilbert tran sfo rm. and ou r
48 -kH/. sample ra te, th is delay is O . 5~
Q 1247 -1 )/4 S,OOO or 0.00 25 625 sec o nd s
(aho ut 2.6 rns ). Other th an th e ne ed to
compe nsate for this delay , th ere are nu op -
er ational p roblems fo r a SSH or C\V radio.
The secon d problem in o ur phasin g
me thod of SSB rec eption wa s phas e and
amp litude errors be twee n the two cha n-
nel s. These errors are associated w i th th e
Coe llO Coeff2_( t
L-_ ", ' mi xers an d LO hardware and will m ost
Output lik ely stay relatively co nstant over t i me. If
we knew what the e rrors were we cou ld
add in an "a nti-e rro r" and ha ve perfect
opposi te- "ide-band rejec tion. T he deg ree
10 which this can bc acco mp li shed in prac -
tice results in typically 20 dB in im pro ved
Add Two Inputs s ide -ban d rej ec tio n. Te mpe ratu re e x-
Delayed by t seconds Multiply tre mes will not allow this 10 be kept with
Two Inputs
a simple correct io n. but the results can be
Fig 11.2 Q-Block d iagra m of the Hilbert t ra nsf o r m with 247 taps. The blocks surprisingly good . Th e problem of know-
marked 'T' are defays of mu lt iples of sample periods, as indicated on ing wha t the error is can he so lve d by
the diagram. Each samp le pe r iod is 1/48,000 second. merely adj us tin g the correc tion until the

DSP Applications in Communications 1 1.21

opposit e sideband disap pears. take adva ntag e of the fac t thai the actual I Q_Ga in would nut be needed if we allow ed
To understand lh i ~ process one should and Q sign als are ro ughly so -degrees apart ga in, gre ater th an 1. B ut it is a convenience
think ofthe e rro r between the de sired I (o r in phase: shift. By laki ng a fraction of the J to nor do this and it is relati vel y easy to pro-
Q l signal as bo th an a mplitude and a ph ase signal and addi ng it 10 a fract ion of the Q vide the two ga in val ues . Therefore . on e of
shift. Th is is referred to as an "e rror vec tor-- sig nal. it is possib le to create the negative o f those ga ins will be: ~d 10 1.0. which. in frac-
an d i-, illus tra ted in Filit 11.21. In the ex- the erro r signal-just what we need (0 <"ur- tio na! integer arithmetic, is the fraction
am ple. not o nly h rhe act ual signal longer pres s the op posite side band. H g 11.22 32767/32768. ente red as a he c va lue of
(b igger amplitude ) than the desired signa l. shows an imp lementation for our correction H#7FFF (see the discuss ion of fixed -poin t
h UI there is a phase shin bet w ccn the t w o. To of the side band ..uppression. T he co nstan ts•. arit hmet ic in C hapte r 10).
co rrect the signa l. w e must subtrac t the erro r I_Gain. Q_ Gain and Q CCw~ ~_(jai n are all T he o ther ga in of th e C GainJQ_G ain
vector from the actu al signal. To do this......e numbcrs bcrwcc n - f and J. Bot h I_Gai n and pai r can the n he set to a valu e close 10 1.0.
as determ ined experimentally. T he cross-
gain value should be sma ll . but it can be
eit her plus or m inus. A va lue suc h as +0.05
Lis tin g TR18D might be typil:al and is repr esent ed as the
fracti on 0.OS *J'!.768/3'!. 768 or 163813276R
Ph as ing method re ceive r inc lud ing erro r correctio n. The inp ut s ar e I a nd Q and entered int o the pro gra m a~ 1638.
s ign a ls thai nave been low-pass liItere d.
Li st i ng T R UHl shows the L'S H rece p-
lion rouunes. incl uding the vec tor correc-
lion . The usua l decl aration s of con slants
{The lonowinl are constant declara tions , plac ed and mcrnory.by name. are al the top of the
at the top 0 the ove rall program }
program.
.const RGAIN_I=32400 : { Adlust va lue to s uit } T he three constants th at are: needed to
.const RGAIN_0=32767 ; { Adlust va lue to s uit }
.const RGAIN_IO=2060; I Adjus t valu e to suit }

{The I data is a t memory loca tion 'se vej' a nd the Q data is in s rO}
Am plitude Erro r
a r = cmtsevej):
\~\--\
Move the I s igna l data to ar }
my1 = RGAIN_I:
mr = ar • my1 (5 5 ):
I I Ga in corre ction factor l
{ I s igna l ' co rrection }

~
dm(save_i) = mr t : Te mpora ry st orage } Actual s.gnal ~ \ " '
my1 = RGAIN_IO;
mr = ar • my! (55):
I Gen erate the 10 cros s}
{ correct ion tee ter } , . ~.

ayO = mr1: { Sav e cro s s-corr ec tion teeter } >', ,' <,
myl = RGAIN_Q:
mr = ere • myl (55) ;
{ Q chan ga in correc tion }
{a s igna l ' correction ) ..."''--....,r - T- - - Err or Vect or
ar = mrt .. ayO: { Add in cro ss-co rrectio n } Pha~e \\ •

mrt edrr usave i): { For hilbe rt } Error "-

ca ll do_hilbert; \ 90 deg : ar. mr1 in: axt , mr1 out ) Desired Signal
ay1 = mr1, { Get read y to s ubtract Q out }
a r = as t - ay l : { - '" usb } Fig 11.21-Pha se a nd am p lit ud e errors
{ USB au dio output is now in reg ister ar ) in t he phasing me thod s ho wn a s
vectors.

I
I
I H ilbe rt
LP Filter Tra nsform

U'"
Sele ct
I
90 ' Rel abve USB Audio
18.1 MHz Phase Shift - 0 oct
2 Way 2Way 18.1 MHz
Rece ive
RF Input
00., o Deg CD

TUF-l

,,,
LP Filter

,
I, DSP Q GPI
Hardware ,
I Software

Fig 11.22 - Block dia g ra m ot a phas ing me thod recei ver with DSP s oftware error eerrecucn. The cr oss gain is shown
going fro m t he I c h a nnel to the a Cha nnel. II will wo rk equally we ll g o ing In Ihe re ve rs e d irection. b ut both direc t ions are
ne ver needed.

11 .22 Chapter 11
 supp ress the o ppo-ue ... idehand arc entered lo w-pa ss filter suitable for cn hc r a ll gui vh betw een a CW lon e an d the noi se.
a~ constants. T his is a very simple syste m. mod es. an d a SOU-Ill wide ba nd- pas s fil - On CWo the lone ta kes on the effect o f
bUIrequ ires re-assembly of the program 10 ler for CW usc. havi ng a spatial pos ition thai depend s on
null me sideband . E xpe rience has sh o .... n The inde x regi ste r po inter. iO, of the the to ne frequency. Th e noise posit ion is.
this a reasonable approac h. si nce the set - DSP is used 10 lind the data poi nts fo r the in effect. always movi ng arou nd "inside
nng-, do not nor ma lly need to he changed FIR fi lter. In itia liz atio n of Ihis r... giste r is you r head .'
often . Multiplication b)' ho th RG A IN_I critical. O mitti ng this c an cau ..e hou rs of As a ..ig na l is tuned. the phase rel a tio n-
and RG A IN_Q occu rs ea ch time throug h grid in getting the DSP program to opc r- sh ip " betw een the tu ne s hea rd hy the ca rs
the ro utine. even thoug h line o f thes e con- a le. T he pro gram may function <I I rimes changes for the de lay system . F or the I-Q
sta nts will ha ve the value o f 1.0. T his ~ irn · a nd fai l at oth ers, de pending o n the ran- bina ural , il is a co nstant 9U deg ree ." while
pli fies the adj us tmen t l,r the co nst an ts dom in iti alizat io n, Th e pr ogr am instruc- the phas e sh ift fo r the delay bin aur al in-
since we do n'tkno w which will have the tion s for this initialization are: creases with frequency . F or the 10 milli-
1.0 value. se cond delay the pha se shift is 90 degrees
The Hilb er t transform. disc ussed above. iO="i d a ta; at 1/(4* 0.01 )=25 Hz an d c hanges qui te
is a cubro unne invoked by ' c a ll rap id ly .." ith tu n ing. T hus. the two sys te ms
do_hil be rt.' Th is applies the diffe re ntia l dm(fir1 UO_s av)=iO; do no t have the same sound w he n tuned, In
phase shift ",0 that the USB can he form ed ei ther svvtem the noise is uncorrel ated and
with simple subtraction -ar- ax t -ay t .' the so und i.. simila r. not unlike an F\-f ste-
Abo shown in the listing is the audio gain When the FIR fil te r b called. the pointer reo radio without a n anten na. Pro bably rhe
control. O ne ofthe co nvenie nces of a DSP iO is loaded b)' the instruc tio n biggest d ifference is that (he I.Q bina ural
implementation is ha ving gai n con trol steps syste m receives bot h sidebands . whereas
in constant dB a mounts. For analog ga in the de lay binau ral is compatible wit h SSB.
co ntro ls. this is approxim ated with what are T he de lay binau ral is in the final au dio path
cal led "log' pote miome rers. Our DS P imple- and is compat ible wi th any mode.
menta tion starts with the binary shifter as a Imp lemc ura uon o f a bi na ura l delay re -
basic con-pnne nr.Ifthc signal word is shifted al l o f wh ich allows iO 10 he reus ed in q uires so me memory for sto ring the sig·
left by o ne bit. the result is an increase in ma ny rout ine v. nat, but vcry lill ie computat io n is ne...d ed .
level of 6.0 dR . Shift s to the right de crease Li sting TR IHE is the po rtion of the DSP
the audio level by the same a mount. This has program req uired.
the desired eq ual dB amo unts per step, as Binaural Delay O pe ratio n of this de lay line i-, closely
well as great simplicity. T he drawback ivthar T his fea tu re i ~ a lwa ys in operat ion for related 10 the add ress generators uccd hy
the ste ps arc 100 big. Expe rience suggests the transceiver. Th e addition of a de lay o f the ADSP-2 1!:!1 DS P.
that I --dB steps seem ItM ) small, but 1.510 abo ut 10 millisec onds in the so und heard A segment of memory • such as our 'de-
2-dB steps allo w one to choose a comfort- by o ne ear. rel ativ e to the other has inter- 1.1)' (DELA Y _S IZ EI can be dcvign ated us
able audio level wuh a reasonable number o f e~ ti n g effec ts . very cl osely related to the c irc ular by the ke)' word 'ei re.'
burton pushes . !-Q bi na ural effect s used in Ch aprcr e . The D ELA Y_SIZ E is the same as the co nstant
We imp lem ent l .j ·d B vrep-, by hav ing a noise heard hy the two cars lc se -,correla- 5 1:! a nd so th is ma ny wo rds o f dat a
table of four entrie-, correspondi ng ga ins tion and a llows the mind to better dis tin- me mory arc set as ide. Each word is 16 bits .
of 0, - 1.5. -3.0. and - 4.5 dB. This table,
stor ed in pro gra m me mo ry. is ca lled
'a ud _ g a in ' and provide s multiplie rs that lis tin g TR18E
ca n be use d bet wee n the 6.0-dB step s. A~
all example. a g ain of -I ,5 dB i .. a voltage DSP pro gr a m s n ippe ts for de lay bi naura l sound.
ratio o f 1O"(- 1.5/ 20f=O.R4 14. In frac-
(The following are constant and me mory de clarations , placed
tiona l arithm etic this is a valu e of at the top 0 1 the ove rall progra m:)
0 .1I4 14*317 6&=2 7S7 I , wh ich in he xadeci-
mal form is li#o l::l B3. The program .const DELAY _S IZE=-5 t 2;
.va rfd mlcirc delay(DELAY _SIZE]; { The delay line, binaura l }
me mory wo rds a re 24-bi ts wide. b ut o n ly .va rfdm de l .0 say ( Stor aqe whe n not in inte rrupt}
16 hits o f thic are ava ilable when used lh
da ta. T he hi ts will be proper ly alig ned if
the he x values are padded o n the rig ht with { This part Of the program is exe c uted at s tartu p 10 initia lize me
'(Xl,' T hus. the -1.5 -d B entry in hexadeci- pointer to the de lay line. dela yl]. }
a xO == "delay; Get the add re ss 01 de lay line}
ma l i.. H#6 BB j UO.
T he butto n control pa rts of the pro grum
dm(deUO _sa vl =- axn: I
The poinle r IS saved here}
have set up two values fo r the au di o ga in
co ntrol , ' a f_ g a in ' whi ch c ontains llne of
{ This program s nippe t is e xe cute d at each 48 kHz inte rrupt to put the
the I.S-dB slep mult ipliers, and ·a f_ s hift'. lell cha nnel dat a into the de lay line, a nd 10 ta ke the de layed dat a
which is the num ber o f (I-dB steps. The,e out for the right c ha nne l. Left dat a Is In reg ister sr1 :}
shifts can be ei the r plus or mi nus. iO==dm(de U O_sav); { Load iO pointe r }
mO=-O: { Do not adjus t the pointe r, no w}
10=- DELAY_S IZE; { The le ngth of the circula r line }
mrl ==dmliO, mO); \ Re move the de layed signal }
Audio Filtering mO=1: Now increment pointer on write }
Th e ge neral na ture of FIR filt ers ha s dm(iO, mO)=-s rl : Put the ne w signal in the line}
dm(de U O_s avl== lO; Save the pointer lor next lime }
already bee n covered . Here \\ e ap ply the se dm(tx_buf+2) == mrl : { S e nd aud io data to righl D/A }
principles with t\.,o receive filters . a ]·kHz

DSP Applications in Commun ication s 11.23

adeq uate to store o ne sample of the audio to the len gth of the ci rcular buffer. srams are needed. as there are di fferences
waveform . Th is is illustrated in f ig 11.23 . DELAY_S IZE. The right aud io channel in the audio paths. due primarily to the dif-
There are 8 addres s gener ato rs. and the <;ignal sample is nex t removed from the ference .. introduced by TIR switc hing .
binaural dela y uses on ly o ne of these. gen- line with ' mr t =d m (iO. mn)' a nd left tem -
erator zero. Three parameters control rhe po rarily in registe r mr1 . The incre me nt
CW Transmission
ge nera tor, iO. mO and 10. iO is a poi nte r. register. mO. is now c hanged to on e. w hen
meaning that it is an address in me mory . we put the new audio data into the delay This mode req uires that the freq uency
mO is an increm e nt a mount that tells the line with d m(iO. mO)=sr1 , the pointe r. iO. of the trans mitted sig na l and the received
ge nerator to add the value of mOto iO after will nn w have one added to it follo wing "ze ro-bent" signal be offse t by a lo ne fre-
doing eit he r a read or write operatio n. iO the memo ry write . Wha t this doe , it> to que ncy. suc h as 800 Hz. Some sort of TR
a pplies if the buffer is circ ula r, and tells move iO to the loca tio n of the no w oldes t activ ated switchi ng devi ce can be used in
the addr ess ge nerato r to no t poin t to data point. After 5 12 app lic ations (If this the V FO to pro vide the offset as was seen
memory locatio ns past the base location routine. the point e r will he again pointing in Ch apter 6. A lte rnative ly. an audio ton e
plus iO. but instead to wrap aro und to the to the data point that was j ust ente red. This ca n be genera ted and pass ed throug h the
beginning . Note that mO can be zero or delays the data hy 512148,000 of a second. SS B ge nerator. The Vf< O never changes
ne gati ve. x eganve values mean that the o r abo ut 10.7 millis econds. freq uency and the offset ca n be precise.
progress throug h the circular buffe r Is in Unfort unately, the re often are two undes-
tho: reverse d irect io n. ired signals accompan ying the C W sig nal.
SSB Transmission The V FO ou tp ut mUM be s uppr esse d by
Returning to the Ihting . the valu e of the
pointer j <; restored to iO wit h The ph asing method for SSR recept ion the quality of the mixe r balan ce. Mix ers.
' iO=d m (de U O_ s a vr a nd mO is set to thai was de scr ibed above i... reversible for such as Ih.. Mini-Circuit TUF- I can have
zero. meaning that no change will occur to trans miss ion. The audio signal is placed 50 to 60 dB of inherent L- R balance. It
iOwhe n the dela y line is accessed . 10 is se t through a Hilbert transform to prod uce a is often po ssible to incr ease this by 10 dB
sig nal with en -degree, phase shift. rela- or more by add ing a very small gimmic k
tive to a signal with a simple dela y. Both capacitor he tween the LO sig nal s a nd tile
..ignals can be then he passed throu gh 0 1A mixer o utput, F ig 1l .25 illustrat es a gen-

L~"'" """" 'J~'

co nvene rs and applied to a pair of mixers. e ral appr oach for Increasing the mi xer bal-
The mixer s have 0 a nd 90.de grce LO ~ ig­ ance in th is way .
nats. j u st as in transmiss ion. The sum or The second undesired signal is the
LocallOO Dela y [11 Next Locabon difference of thc IWO mixe r ou tputs at RF opposite side-band. This. howev er, i~ the
after Delay [5111 is now the desired SS B signal. ready for same pro blem that was solv ed for SSB with
if Cim"'r amplificatio n. the I-Q vec tor correction. This ... uggests a
""'~""""'.B~
"""~ """,, , S The opposite vide-band suppression
that can be achieved depe nd, o n thc care
method for adjustment of the correction con-
slants . If we transmit a CV.- (one and receive
taken in ma tching t he mix er.. and in the un wanted side-band o n a loca l commu-
achievi ng exactly 90-de gree phase diffe r- nications receiver . the $-meter can be used
cnces for the LO ..ignab. Bu t. as was do ne to find a null. The correc tio n constants are
I
Data Memory
in rec ept ion. it is po<;<;i h1e to apply soft- those that make the signal dis appear.
te-eawecs ware co rrec tio ns to the audio signals to }·ig 11.2(j chows the sc ree n of a spec-
improve the cancellation at the mixer out - trum analyzer attache d to the o utput of the
Fig 11.23-Circular data buffer us ed to puts . Thi s is illust rated in Fig 11.24 . The 18-i\l Hl tra nsceiv er with th e ke y down.
Imp lement a 512 point de lay line as Is DS P i mplem ent ation is pa rall el to that The VI-'O is in the center of the scre en u (
used for delay bina ural o pe ratio n. used for re ception. A se para te set of eo n- 18. 100 MHl Eac h di...-ision i... 500 Hz, and
the tone freq ue ncy is 850 Hz . With US B
being used. the tran smitted sig nal is above
thc ca rrier freq uency. Supp re ssion of the
I Gain carrie ris 4HdB and the o pposite side-band.
H50 Hz below the ce nte r, is 63 dB below
Audio 10 the tran smitted signal . An add itional sig-
I '....er
nal can be seen 1700 Hz abo ve the VFO
freq uency. Th is is d ue to the mod ulation
of the second harmonic of the 8So-Hz lone.
LP Filter This undesired output is sup press ed SOdB.
Transmit One wo uld always wa nt all spur iou s sig.
Aud io In nats to be unde tectable. but in the re al-
Q' world way of such thi ng~ , these levels a re
Cross Audio to acce ptable. This le vel of spurious signal
Gain Q Mixer will, in genera l, be co ve red by the key-
clic ks in alm ost any CW transmitter.
Key-cli ck suppres sio n is norm all y dea lt
with hy limiting the rise-rime of the ke ying
waveform. It can be shown that this will
Q Gain cause the key-cl ick spe c trum (0 fall off
Fig 11.24-Simplifled bloc k diag ram showing the I a nd Q co rrec tio ns to imp rove muc h faster as o ne tunes off the C\\' sig-
the unwa nted sid eba nd rejec tion for t ra ns mit. nal. It is posvihle 10 inc rease the rate e ve n

11 .24 Chapter 11
 I· Audio

O' LO t----r---r-~_{ ( }-- -,

A

1 F'
A C2 C2'
~r----<'-1------I R
• •

90' LO /--- ....--....-_ -{ Fig 11 .26-0 ut p ul s pectrum of 18-MHz

transcei ve r In CW mode. The carrier is
, at the ce nte r 0 1 the screen . The
transmitted s ig nal is t he large
c- Audio respo nse 1.7 d ivisio ns to the right.
Th e s ma ll response the sam e di st an ce
Fig tt .z s-cscne menc d iagra m a c irc ui t fo r increasing L-R Isolallon 01 a balanced t o Ih e right Is t he unwanted s ide ba nd .
mi xe r. In o rder to minimize th e capaci ta nce va lues, on e shou ld never us e both C1 Measurements we re done w ith a
and C1' or C2 and C2', as t h is wou ld only inc rea s e t he size of bo th capacitors. A ll Tekt roni x 494 a na lyz er.
ca pacitors are a f rac t ion of a pF, made Irom g immick wi re s , w hic h are merely two
enamel co vered wires tw isted to g ether. The transforme r, T1 , is 5 turn s o f . 26
b lfilar wire on a s mall fe rrite core, s uc h as Am idon FT-23-4 3.

more if. not o nly the rise -rime i~ limited.

but the key i ng w aveform ic made 10 hav e List ing TR1 8F
rounded co rne rs at t um -on and turn-ott. A
DSP rout ine s us ed to ge ne r ate a CW tran sm it si gnal
direc t way to i nsure tha t (h i~ hap pens is to
pass the k cying w aveform thro ug h a low- { If key is down, pul a .9 (29 49 1) into CW fir
pass filter and the n use th e res uhing wave- lilt.
for m 10 amp litude m odul ate (he RJ-' signal. Mod ulate fir ou tput onto carrier. Th is sc heme
allow s top space for overshoot in the fir. }
In our ecce.the m odul atio n can be appl ied axn == dm(key): { Get hard ware CW key data }
10 the lSOU- lIl lone. before i t goes to the none == pass axO:
Hilbert tr ansfo rm and t he n 10 the mi xer s. a r '" 0; { CWoII}
if ne j ump xi. cwt : { CW key is up j
A .. an adde d benefit. the HOO II I is av ail- ar ", 29491 : { 0.9 to key cli ck filte r }
able for u..e as a transmitter sid e ton e . en- xi_cw1: ca ll lir _xmCcw { Input in ar . output in mrl
suri ng that a ..ration is tu ne d in correctly myO ", mr t :
axO '" dm(cw_dPha se): { Phase increment fo r 10 }
when th e rece ived lo ne is the same as th e aVO " dm(cw_phase): { Last phase }
sid e tone . ar == axO + aVO: ( New pha se r
T he n ite r use-d her e i s a 500-11 1 I. PF. dm(cwJ)hase) '" ar: { For next time }
Th e -ttl-k Hz samplin g ra te requ i res ab o ut axO '" dm(cw_phase ):
200 laps o n th e FIR Filter. hut th e DSP is call sin: { exuePhase, Sin returned in AR I
nOI bu sy durin g CW tr ansmi ssio n. so th is mr=a r' myO(55): { CW Gate }
ar", -mrl ; { Make USB}
is nOI a pr ob le m . A s ..hu w n in Lisling
TR UI F. am pl itude modulati on i n the DS P my t == GAIN_I: { Gain co rrec tion teeter }
is acco mplished by generat i ng a si ne- w ave mr " a r • myt (55): { Keyed sine wave ' correction}
ar == mrt : { Co rrected I signal}
at the CW onset I!iCXl H z ) and mu ltipl y i ng
this hy the o utp ut of she key -click L PF. myt = GAIN_la :
Thi-, i.. repea ted f o r 3 9O-d<:g ret' ph ase mr = ar • my l (55):
dm(l1 ) == mr1 ; { c rcee-ecrrecnco lor a )
shifted <J vignal b)' ge nera ting a cosine dm( tx_bul ... 1) " af : { In-phase transmll i-f sig out }
w av e and repeali ng: th~ modulation. T ho:
OUIPUI or the key -click 10\\ -pavs f i ller has { That fakes ca re al l. now a: }
axO == dm(cw_phas e); { The phase used for I ch an}
overshoot tha t is slightly gre ater tha n the ayO == 16384: { 9 0 de grees lo r quadrature 10 }
in put. Thiv i ~ a necessary pan o f li miting ar = axO ... avO: { a chan phase }
the trans mi t spec tru m . To en sure thai th i s axO == ar;
ca ll sin; { Cos 10 sig, sinO preserves myO I
is nOI saturated by the lo w -pass FI R filter. mr == ar - myO(SS): { CW Gate lor a signal}
[he i nput 10 the f i lter is r educe d i n ampli - my1 = GAIN_a; { Q chan gain co rrection I
tude by a f actor of 0 ,9 1. as shown. mr = mr 1 • my1 (5 5):
ayo == dm(t1) ; [ Now add in c ross-co rrection}
T he I and Q correct ions for impro v i ng ar = mr1 ... ayO;
th e side -ha nd sup pre ssio n USi: S the con-
st ant values G AI;\! _I. GA IN_Q and om Ix b f + ?\ " A" Qua drature tr ansrm , ",
DSP A p p lications in Commun ications 11.25
 GAIN _IQ. As was the case for reception . cations of the switc h hav ing been pushe d
ei the r GAIN _lor GAIN_Q should be kept will be ig nor ed unti l the co unte r has
at a value of + I (32767 intege r. ) ret urned to !OO, T his is sayi ng that each
The resulting key -c lic k spectrum (sec push of the buuon mus t be followed by a
Fi g 11.27 ) is cl ean er tha n man y commer- release. There are no extr a rep eat ed
cial tran smitters and sou nd s very go od on actions for holdi ng the b utto ns down.
the air. Th e sp ectrum is dow n ahout 30 d B The details o f this de-bo uncin g and bu t-
at an offset of 50 0 Hz. F ig 11.28 i s the to n interp retation arc co ve red wit h co m-
ke ying waveform at the o utp ut of the key- me nts in the program TR 18A. DSP on the
cl ick lo w-pass FIR f Iter. T he small rip ples boo k CD for those wanting to see an
that both pre ced es and fol low s the ma in ex am ple .
key in g tran sition s are ch aracter ist ic of a
frequenc y co nstrained wa veform. These
Sampling Rates For The
ripple s are not heard by the ear when receiv -
Fig 11.27- Measured spectrum of th e
ing the signal.J f thcy we re not present, the 18·MHz Transceiver
t ranscei ve r in CW, whe n be ing key e d
o n and off at 10 do ts fsec. The ear would hear the well known key-click The AID and D/A co n verters for the
hori zon ta l sca le is 500 Hzld iv a nd the sound. f or co mparison. Fig 11.29 is repre- transceiv er operate at a 48 -kHz rate. This
ve rtical sca le is 10 d B/div. sentative of the key click spectru m for trans- provides an audio response to at le ast 20
mitters that shape the keying hy limi ting the kl-l z, In the case of the transmitter. it i-,
rise and fall times. T his was measured on a to ta ll y inappropriate to tra nsmit signal s
com mercia l transm itter of J 990 vi ntage. The with suc h ba ndwidths. and low pass filt e r-
far-out spectru m tends tofall off more slow ly in g is prov ided to prev en t this . In the cas e
than the DSP shap ed system prod uces. of the recei ver, it is inte resting 10 he ab le
to have wide r ba nd widths than the con-
ventio nal SSB filters give. Typically. in
Control Functions the interest ofQRM rej ect ion. the se filte rs
Four p ush -button switc hes are use d 10 cut-off in the 2 .5 10 3.0 k Hz reg io n. So me
commun icate data into the DSP for the IR peo ple fi nd the narrower fil ters crea tes a
.\1Hz tra nscei ve r: muffl ed so und to the audio. A high sam-
B utto n 1 - Tu rn the audio gain up 1.5 dB. pling frequ ency gi ves ample op portun ity
Butt on 2 - T urn the audi o gain dow n 1.5 to experiment with th is.
dB. Ano ther ex ample of an algorithm that
B utto n 3 - Alternate betw een Upp er Side - bene fits from a high sampling rate is a
Fig 11.2B- RF wavefor m th at resu lts band an d C'N modes. noi se-blank er. S ign~ 1s arc eas ily stored in
fro m the key ing low-pas s filte r. The But ton 4 - Alte r nate between a wide -ba nd a delay line w hile dec isions to blank ar e
s ma ll ripp les at t he e nds of t he SSB filter and a nar row -ha nd CW fi lter. made. As d iscus sed in Chapter 10, if suf-
wave fo rm a re a result of the key-click
Op era tion of al l fo ur push -buttons is the ficien t ban d wid th is availa ble. the pres-
re du c t ion . Th is wav e fo rm wa s
measured o n th e DS P·10 t ra ns ceiver, same . ence of noi se cou ld be det ermined by the
o ulline d lat er in th is c hapter, tha t uses Pus h-burton switches are pron e to ha v- nat ure of the wide -han d sig nal re lativ e to
t he s a me key in g s ystem as the lB -MHz ing mu ltiple on/off sta tes w hen the y ar e the des ired si gnal being recei ved.
t ransceive r. f ir st pushed . re fer red to a s "contact It is challenging to maintai n hi gh op po-
bo unce." The effects o f this can be efirn i- site sid e-band rej ect io n with an analog
natcd with hardware de-bo unce circ uit s. I-Q phase-shift network. In the ca se of the
or in o ur ca se th is can be done in the DS P. Hilbert transform ap proac h in DSP. the
A softw are co unt er. hcounti is used to me a- o nly difficult part is keep ing goo d amp li -
sure ho w lo ng the ith switc h has bee n de - tude response at low frequenci es (aro und
pre ssed. T he coun te r is in itia lly set fo r a 300 H z.) T he high fr equency side of the
value o f 100, mean ing that the swi tch has H ilber t respon se co nti nues up to with in a
nOLbeen p ushed . Th e interrup ts occ ur ev- few hund red Hz of ha lf the sampling fre-
ery 1/48.000 second at which time the qu enc y Thus the oppo site side band reje c-
s witch state is read. If the switch has heen tio n bandwidth call be ve ry wide.
pushe d. the cou nter is d im in ished hy one , One of the intere sting e ffects fro m usin g
bu t not allowed to go less tha n zcro. Jfthc a wid e ba ndw idt h for SSB re ception is a
switc h ha s not been pushed, the co unt er is ne w view of transmitter splatter. One hears
in creased by o ne, but no t all owed to go the transmi tter splatter. not as off-f re -
abo ve 100. q uency hash. but rat he r as a distortion to
Fig 11.29- Meas ured s pe ct rum of a In the hack ground portions of the pro - the voice. It is possible to make jud gments
comme rc ia l tra ns ce iver in CW gram. the co unters arc cxamincd. H any of of transmitter cleanli ness by tuni ng the sig-
o pe ra t ion, when be ing key e d o n a nd them are at fern . they arc consid ered to nal in and listeni ng for the d isto rtion . Th e
off at 10 do ts/s e c. The ho rizon tal scale have heen pushed. that is, the b utton has excellent lincarity of the AID converters
is 500 Hztd iv and the ve rtica l sca le is bee n dow n at lc ast lOO/4 ILOOO=2,0 83 mil-
10 dB/d iv. Th is spect rum is ty pica l of make" the receiv er an insi gnificant co n-
l iseconds and is now "de-bounced." So , tributor to the distor tio n being heard.
si gn a ls on the ai r with t he ir key -c lick
spectrums limite d b y ris e a nd fall the approp ria te act ion for the sw itch. such As usu al, the re are so me neg ati ve fe a-
time s. It is s how n he re for compa ris o n as turning up the aud io ga in is performed , tur es of us ing a high sa mplin g freq uenc y.
with t he DSP de rived spectrum of Fig Xcx t. a flag is se t so that the fur ther indi- T he mos t obvious is the inc reased lo ad on
11.27 .
11.26 C h apter 11
Ihe processor. With a samp ling frequency
o f 41\ kHz. th ere is a ma ximu m time of
1I.t1\(MIO=20.833 micro seco nds to process
rhe ime n upt. The ADSP- 2l 8 1 prccevcor
,----. Wide-8ancl
Process
completes 33 ins trucnonc per microsecond
and so there are a ma ximum of
12 kHz
20.833x33:6 IH instru c tio n s per interru pt.
Sample Rate
Dur ing receptio n the-e are a llocated
roug hly as:
' ' '"'
411 kHz
Sample Rate
~I--
4 ; 1
Decimate
~
~
~

6 kHz lPF Filter

FIR Filter I 1·0

FIR Filt er Q I·n Fig 11.J o-Us e of decimation fo im pr o ve filter re sponse and 10 reduc e
Hilberl Trans for m 14' co mp utational lo ad. The proce ss of d ecimati on ur et tcw-pess filte rs Ihe da ta an d
I-Q vector c orrect 10 t hen discar d s a f raction ollt t hat is no longer need ed t o sa tis fy th e Ny qu is t
Audio gain contr ol 4 s amp li ng criteri a.
Binaural de la), 7
Other receive r jobs 61
A uuons 50
Total 573 basi c P WC I:: ~ ~ is to limn the band w idth to a DSP has changed the implementation.
frac tion of the total band width usi ng it lo w- The I-f fil tcr /diplcxer. bui lt around L..J
pass filter. In thi s e xample. the f ilter cuts and L5 is identical. Switc hes. U5 A· U5D
This us e s a bout S4'1- of the a vailab le (Iff a ll significan t sign als a bove 6 kH /.. arc added to a How T /R switc hin g and so
lime. burlea ve- adeq uate time for the bac k- v ext 3 o ut of eve ry ..J s,jmplc=s are dis- are need ed wit h e ithe r imple ment a tio n.
ground proc essi ng. Backg round l,lSks are ca rded. T he Nyquist sa mpling crite ria is The R1 uvev aud io fil tering that is in ihe
c hosen bec ause the} have neit her dead- met since the new samp ling rate of 12 LHI DSP for thi s rig. Aud io a mp li fica tio n i~
lines, nor rates of occurrence tha t they must is atleasttwice the freq uency of an y si gna l nee ded fo r both imple me ntatio ns since the
ac hieve. that we are procco.ing . The selectivity of sig nallevels comi ng from the mixers c an
A second dra wbac k 10 a high sampling all filters. lo w-p usc. ba nd-pass or a ny be of sub-microvolt le ve ls . For the DSP
rate is Ih.: respon se of FIR filterv . The..e other. will he improved by a fac tor offour. implcmentalion . RF filte rin g. consi ,l ing of
can ha ve Fast ra tes of cut -off outside of the Ahcmativcly. the selel,:ti\ it)' can be main - 1500-pF feed-throu gh fill ers. IS needed to
pass-band. but the fi lter ..hapc sti ll scales ta ined. bUI the numbers of l ap~ in the FIR l l::t'p noise from rhc DSP prcce-cor from
with sampling freque ncy. We get ,>ali~rac· fille rs can be red uced. ge tting back into the RF circuits . And . 01
tory response for t he IS-M Hz rrunsceiver The gains of dec ima tion arc great. X c t
using a 4 ~ - Jd IL sa mp ling rare. But if we co urse. the big ges l d iffe renc e is Ihal the
only ca n the numbe r of FIR taps be re- D$P impleme ntatio n req uires AI D and
need ed grea ter selectiv ity. there wo uld he duc ed, bUI the proc e s ~ i n g load is also re-
two approac hes poss ible. We cou ld run a DI A conveners plus the processor.
duc ed because the sa mpli ng rate is dow n. T he overall co mp l..x ity and pow er con-
lo wer sa mplin g rate. A rate of 10 10 15 kHz
wo uld vtill s uppo rt exc e lle nt a ud io re- sumption of the DSP impl e mentation arc
spo n~e for com munications .
Analog vs Digita l both greater- tha n tha t of the ir analog coun -
A se cond way that allo ws the FI I{ fillers O ne may a lre ady have notic ed so me ter parts, T he co mpensating teurure i, the
to have a low sa mpling rate and also hav e st rong res em blan ces betw een the R2 . per forma nce of functio ns such as filtcri ng
a wide-ha nd system a vail able is to us e rece iver and the mix er/f . I-" c irc uit, of this a nd videbnnd su ppression. alo ng \\ ith the
multiple rate s. This ap proach . called dcci- l x-M ttz rig , II is inte resting to co mpare abili ty In make cha nges and add fcature,
ma tiun i s i ll ustrate d in l'ig 11.;\0. The the t wo circ uit s to see whe re the lI SC of without hard war e cha nges.

11.5 D5p·10 2·METER TRANSCEIVER

As the complexity of an electronic The details for the DS P- IO. incl udi ng the mixing process to con ven berw een the
project grows. rbe amou nt of time and tech- the QST article a nd all o n he co mputer pro - 1+4- MHL Rf fre quency and the 1ll-10-20-
nica l ~ k ill requ ired for successfully g rams . arc included o n the Experimental kH z DSP I· F. Co arse tuning with 5-kHL
completion ea,il~ exceeds the allowable .lletllOd,~ i ll RF Design CD . The follo w ing steps is done at the 126- \ 1H.. fir'" conver-
bou nd. for "weekend experime nters." material i-, an overview of the project Inal sio n vy nthesize r . Fine tu ni ng to le -, than
Much of the material in thi-, hoo" empha- shows the overall 'Cope and content. Most I· H/. SII::PS is provided by in DSP soft ware .
sizes ways 10 have success with a project of the DSP progra m- involve routi nes that P fNcdiode and C t.-I DS s witches select
by u ~ i n g simp le a pproaches and limiting have been d isc ussed in Chapter-, 10 and the di rection (If signal flo w in the RF
the features. Q RP amateur co nstruct ion I I. A major d istinctio n is that the co ntrol hardware.
and o peratio n has thrived on this app roach . program. writte n in the lang uage ·C. runs All sig nal ge neration and detection is
This view can be modified so mew hat when o n a pe rsona l com pute r ( PC) a nd co mmu - DSP based in the gen era l style of the
the projec t has si gnificant portions imple- nicates with the DS P throug h a Y600-baud I R· ~t H z transce iver described previo usly
me nted in soft ware. An c xurnple i, Ihe seria l connection . in this c hapter. At the IO-to-20· kH L I-I-".
DSP-I O ali-modO' 2-met cr tra n s~ c i \' e r U~ · Fig 11.31 is an ove rall bloc k diagram of two , oftw ,u·c I-Q m i ,~ ers are drive n by soft-
i n ~ ,j DSP-hased laS! I-F and lludio scc- both the hardware and DSP soft ware for ware ge ncflltctl sine waves at 0 and
tions with a computerized front panel, thl:: transcei ver. Dual cnnvef,sio n is uscd in 90-deg ree relative phase shifts . Th i, fnr ms

DSP Applications In Communications 1 1.27

the basi, for precise SS H con vers ion 10 mun icatious usi ng th is data.** More is Belo w the spec trum analyzer display is
a udio. For F~1 , an arc tang ent detector is said about thi s in C hapter 12. a large block containing a lo ng-term pre-
used as o utlined in section 10.9, F\ 1 Re - sent atio n of spec tra l signa l streng th, ca lled
ccp tio n. Au dio pro ce ssing starts wit h a woserfatt display . Brighter colo rs repre-
a n AG C fol1owed hy FI R filt ers fo r DSP-10 Front Panel sent grea ter sig nal strength as illustrate d
eithe r band-pass filter ing or LHS denoise In order to provide an adequate human in Fig 11.32. Each time that the spec tr um
filte rin g. interface for a tran sect ver of thi s complex - is cal c ulated for the up per dis play . a new
An Ff T spe ctrum analyzer op erates ity. the contr ol co mes from a Pc. E ven at row of pixels is added to the wat e rfa ll dis -
contin uo usl y, provid ing a spect ral d isplay that it represents a r udimentary appro ach to play . Event uall y t he d isplay area is fully
o n the Pc. Th e spectral data is sent to the a "fr ont pan el" in Ihat only keyboard com- used a nd the d isplay must scro ll up to sho w
PC via a serial port ope rating at 9600 baud . mand s are used and the program r uns under on ly the new est data. Thi s ge neral ty pe of
T he UAR T*forthe serial pori is in thc DSP DOS. Control settings , such as FRE - spectra l display ha s been widely use d to
softw a re, agai n si mplify ing the neede d QUE NCY and AUDI O GA IN arc dis- loo k for patterns rep rese nting "coherent"
hardw are . A continuo us d isp lay of the data played along the len side of the panel. On sig nals. Th e hu man ea pahility for pattern
is very useful for dete rmining the usage of the right side, the topmost portio n of t he recogn ition operates well here .
the spectrum as well as for detec ting the screen is keyb oard dri ventransmit data that Fina ll y along the bo ttom of the screen is
prese nce of signals that arc too wea k to be will be sent in Morse code. Following down a status li ne that ca n be used for a variety
heard by ca r. The DSP-lO also ha s provi- the right side is a spectrum analyzer displa y of purposes rangin g from diagnos tic sta-
sion for ver y weak signa l (b ut slow) corn - that represents the cu rrent receiver audio. tus info rmation to the current po sitio n of
the Moo n o r Sun .

• Universal Asynchronous Rec eiver-t ra ce -

miller (UART ) inte rpre ts a nd trans mits the " Two s pec ialized weak-s ignal modes , Additional DSP·10
s e ria l data at a serial pert for communica - ca lled LH L-7 a nd PUA43 are fully de - Feat ures
tions with a co mpute r. Devices pe rfo rm- sc ribe d on the book CD. At VHF and mi- Als o available throu gh the software arc :
ing these functions a re available as tote- crowave fre quenc ies , these te chniques
grated c ircuits, but can be imple me nted in have bee n use d to co mmunicate a t s ignal • Eigh t aud io filter s of varyin g cha racter -
softwa re whe re a dequate co mputing time le vels mo re tha n 20-dB be low the leve ls istics
is availa ble, poss ible with conventional CWo • One aud io fi lter that ca n be c usto mize d

Re"",ve
RF Amp
144 · 148 MHz

2 - Pole
LC Fi ler

ANT or XVRT R SW

, Tto n" r.it

RF Amp
T

150 MH,

t""n XMTR 10 RCV R

oW
seccoe w
'"
40 dB

-- - - - - - - - -" -e - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ,
I
I 90< See Tel<! A udio I
Power I
IF Amp I Amp I
I SSB oed CW Oeleotor
RCVR
secercn '"
SPKR
10 to 20 , Hz Sine - W ~Y e BFO
I 1 2. ~ l ot 7 . ~~ H z
I
I
I
I FFT Speet "'m
I Anolyzer

I 1024 PoiOI.
I
I FM I
I Sque lch I
L J

Fig 11.31- 0ve ra ll block diagram fo r the DSP-10 2-meter transceive r. The po rtion ins ide t he das hed lines is implem ente d as a
DSP program. Not shown here a re the control and disp lay funct ions that are imple me nted in a PC<

1 1.28 Chapter 11
 ce ssed. Ev en though the processing load
Spectrum
will generally not be evenly divided be-
r-. (\ W = White twe en the five 1,l600 rate routi nes. all of the
0
remaini ng time is st i ll available for the
0 0= Orange backgrou nd rou ti nes , T he key des ig n pa-
",
'a V R = Red
rameter is the longest running of the five

~
<
\./ v----- B = Blue
ro uti nes . This mus t not e xceed the
1/4ll000 second (20.83 3 microxecunds )
Freq uency _ tha t is available betwee n int err upt s.

!!l"@ft R~t") I ~w
R 0 R 0
;?:R"!'~~:'l~e!;;~:~~:;i
R
Prov isio n is made for using a triggered
oscill oscope to mea sure the amoun t of
time spent in the interrupt routines . At the
sta rt of each interr upt ro uti ne. a hardware
Fig 11. 32-Diagram showing how the upper spectra l is " s li c ed " inlo colo rs 10 form logic level ou tpu t is set high. Ret urning
the o ne li ne of th e waterfall d isplay . Wh ile th is simplified d iag ram has o n ly fou r from the inte rrupt ro utine sets the line lo w.
co lors, the wa te rfall s us ua lly ha v e 16 co lo r s or more. A dd ed co lors imp r ove th e T his allows an osc i lloscope to see each of
ab ility t o s ee w ea k s ignals aga inst a no ise ba ckgrou nd .
the five rout ines and their r unn ing times.
.\ lost triggered oscillosco pes ha ve a vari -
a ble "tirne/di v which needs to be set to
• Auto -Notchi ng of tones adequ ate band wid th for future needs may just cover the 5x 20.R33= I04.2 nucroscc-
• Automatic correctio n of recei ver Ire - instea d add constderahty to the c ost and e nds. Usua lly it undesirable for the osc i l-
que nci es for EME* opernrionf com p lexity of tho: hard ware. Which brings losc ope to tri gger for the nex t 104.2
• A variety of long-ter m averaging meth- buck the po int made for all- hardw are ra- mic roseconds , If there is a "Hol d-O ff '
ods dios, that the price of trying to make a so rt- adj ustment on the oscilloscope, this is eas-
• F req uency corrections for external ware radio to tally flexib le may well be an ily ha ndled . Otherwise, some care in se t-
trausvenc rs '?' unfi nished project! ting the trigger le vel will no rmally result
• Accurate S-rneter reading displayed in in a con sistent tr igge l' po int.
dBm DSp·10 Multi-Rate
• Sa ving of spectral data in computer fi les
Processing DSP·Based Audio
This summar y of the features ill ustrates As disc ussed earl ier , the only hard ware Processor
the pote ntial of adding sophistication to int err upt oc cu rs at a -tx-kt tz rate . Ce rta in Th e DSP-I O radio use s an I-F of 10 to
the radi os ope ra tio n throug h software . The processes, such as the audio filter ing and 20 kHz with a digital sampling rate of 48
initial rad io ca n be quite primitive with the serial data tr ansm iss io n. do not requ ire this kHz. Ho we ve r. nothing rest ricts us ing the
feat ures gro wing wit h time . New features hig h rate of proces sing. To minimize the I-F portion of the rad io without Rf har d-
are added 10 existing radios by loadi ng the process ing time requires. muc h of the pro- ware by extending the inpu t freq uenc y
ne w software. T his process len ds itse lf to cess is per formed at 1/5 rate. or 9600 H7.. range down into the audio rang e. Whe n
group act ivities. whe re the final product Si nce this tS a s ub-m ultiple of tho: basi c the " HI-'O" ge ts 10 zero Hz, o ne has a n
ca n be shared by soft ware dis tribut io n. rate . on ly thc one interrupt rou tine is aud io proc essor. w hat this me ans is that
An addi tio nal ch arac teristic of the soft - needed the same EZ-KIT Lite DSP board used fo r
war e-ba sed ra dio is the a bility 10 chan ge Withi n the interrupt routine, a software the other projects in this chap ter becomes
its "p erso nal ity" by the load ing of differ- d ivide -by-five is used to determine which a full -fea t ured audio proces sor, sui table
ent softwa re , Often, new modes of opera- of the 960 0 rate routines are to he pro- for use \.. . i th any transce iver . O nly two e l-
tion and co ntrol of the radios operation
may be added as software is written. Ho w-
ever, the har dwa re de sign proc ess is c hal-
lenged to anticipa te fu ture ap plication s.
Ad ding a little more co ntrol, such as again
adjus tment. to the hardware may allow
,
s0 input Spectrum
co nsidera ble g rowth in ea pahili ty by fu- n,

ture softw are chan ges. However. add ing

control of enough f unction s and havin g
~0
0
cr

0
I I I Fre quency
' EME refers to the Earth·Moo n-Ea rth path
of signa l reflection. Due to the Earth's ro- Bto
tation and the non-circularity of the Moon's
o rbit, the re is a Dopple r shift in th e re-
turne d signal. This shift is up to abou t ±400
,
s0 O utput Spec trum
Fi g 11.33-ln put an d ou tpu t
spect rum s fo r the sse t-o mi xer.
n,
Note the s imp le sh ift in freq uen c y
Hz at 2-meters and proportiona lly more at wi t h no new intro d uced spectral
higher freq uencies.
~
0
co mpone nts.
0
"Operation at fr eque ncies othe r tha n 2-
me ters is possible by using trans verters " I I I
to produce externa l fr equency mixing of 0 Frequency
both the transm itted and received signa ls.

DSP Ap plica t ions in Co mm unications 11.29

e ments are not fully ac hieved without add -
ing the OSP-10 RF hardware:
• Accurate RF frequency con trol under an
e xternal Hl-Ml-lz reference
• Tight integration of the co ntro l fu nct io ns.
such as freq uency display and transmit/
recei ve seque nci ng.

The overall bloc k diagr-am of the audio

pro cessor is the DSP port ion of Fig 11.3 1
that is insi dc the dashed line s. Mod es suc h
as FM make litt le sen se when the input is
the audio coming from a receiver. but the y
re main available waiting for an applica-
non: Si nce the SSB mixi ng str ucture
remain s o n the input to the aud io proces-
sor , it is possible to prov ide a freq uency
offset.'1 as show n in F ig 11.33. The I-Q
mi xing remo ves the lo wer sideband that
wou ld appcur as H mirr or im age of the
in put spect rum. folded abo utthe BFO f re-
quency. The very high balance of the DS P
multiplier mixers then allows the input and
output spectrums to ove rtop without inter-
ference. The frequency display is modi - Fig 11.34-Audio processor display with operati on o n t o-meter CW. The top gra ph
fied for the audio proc essor and d isp lays a is the latest measured audio spectrum, which is updated every 0.6 sec on ds. Eac h
Frequency Offse r in Hertz in place of the of the approximately ten peaks are CW stations. T he lower w aterfall displa y shows
radio freque nc y. the signal strength for each frequency plotted downward as time progresses. The
time in minutes and seconds is shown at the left ed ge of the w ate rfall displa y . As
The DSP-lO audio processor C11n be explained in the text, brighter c o lo rs on the w at e rf all re present stronger signals .
used 11S a a to 20-kH z spect rum analyzer, The station at about 250 Hz Is the OX station . He has as ked stati ons c all ing him
At any time the freque ncy ban d bci ng ob - to operate at higher f req uen c ies . The multiplicity of s tations desiring a aso
and
served can be ] 200 . 240 0 or 4800-HI. wide responding to the request are to the right at offsets up to at le ast 2400 Hz.
with resolution bandwidths of about 3. 6 The bandwidth o cc up ied by each station is mainly set by t he rise an d f all
wavefo r m s o f the CW ke ying ( key clic ks ) as was discussed for t he 18-MHz
or 12 Hz rc spccti vely. The vertica l display transceiver.
can he set to I. 2. 5 or ]0 d B/d iv a nd un-
limited video a ve ragin g is avai la ble
throug h the PC software. • If transmit fu nctions are to be used, an Extensions
The DSP and PC programs that are use d audio ca ble and po svihly level adj ust-
fo r the OSP- lO RF operation also sup port The features of the DS P- l 0 and the as-
ment c irc uitr y is needed between the
the a udio process or, Th e exe cutable pro- EZKI T outp ut and the transec t vcr micro- soctated aud io processor happe n to be as-
gra ms. alo ng with a ll source code are phone j ac k. soc ia ted with weak -sig nal communica-
available o n the Exp erimental Me thods in • If a parallel port is available there are tio ns. S inc e a ll of t he so urc e fi les are
RF Design CD. The general requ irements optio nal T /R co ntro ls from PC program. ava ilable . it can be a good place to beg i n
for the aud io proc essor arc : The se come from the parallel port as TTL a proj ect for ver y d iffer ent use s. This
lev els and usuall y need some level co n- migh t he a dat a commu nica tions mod e, 11
• An EZ-KTT Lite to run the DSP program . version. propagatio n monitor or 11 rad io as tronomy
• A PC to run the con trol progra m. T his With thes e minor adaptations the audio proje ct. Or it might be so me only slig htl y
runs under DOS a nd uses 640x4S0 VGA processor is com pati ble with most of the related area such as orn ithology research.
16-color graphics . A serial port is nee ded other projects in this book. lt is often ea sier to modify a software
for communicati ng with the EZ- KIT , Fig 11.34 shows the audio processor project that is wurking than to hring Lip a
The computer need not be fast: a 486 scree n wit h a CW OX pile up. This is inte r- new o ne from an "empty fi le:' Eith er
level is adequate. This is a great app lica - es ting to observe, but there was no magic wa y, tho ug h, t he software approach al-
tio n for the old co mpu ters t hat are co l- as far as copying the stat io ns! However, lo ws a d ifferen t ki nd of flexibilit y than
le cting d ust somewhere. there is utilit y in using this type of spectral can be achieved in hard ware modi fica -
• An audio cable connecti ng between the re- d isplay for choosing a freq uency on which tion . T he opportun itie s for exp loratio n are
ceiver audio outpu t and the EZKIT input. to operate. end le ss!

11 .30 Chapter 11
REFERENCES AND NOTES
I D. D. Rasmussen. "A Tuning Control 4 , G , L. Manhaci. L Yo ung , E. M. T. Signal, Direct-Co nversion Receiver with
for Digital Frequen cy Synthe sizers.' QST. Jon es, Ml cr(lll'lII'(' Filte rs, i mpe dance- DSP:' QST , Apr, 1998, pp 40-45,
Jun. 1974 , pp 29-3 2. Th is article on the Matching Networks. lind Coup ling
8 , An excellent di scussi on of the general
inne r work ing, of the rota ry optica l Structures. \ fcGrav,' - Hill. J964 ,
charac te ristics of E ~IE co mmunicatio ns
encoder has all of the information needed Re pri nted in 19RQ by A rtcch Ho use, Inc"
to construct an encoder inste ad of is Chapter 10, "Ean h-I\-l oo n-Earth (E M E)
De dh am, ,\1 A, Secuon ~.ll co ve rs the
purchasing a manufac ture d vervion Commu nica tio ns" by D, Tur-in and A .
direct -coupled reso nator fi lte rs . The
Katz , from the hook The ARRL UH FI
!:. There arc many regis ters that co ntro l remainder of this hoo k is a wealth of RF
Microwave Manual, /111/enna.\', Com-
functions or select options, T hose that are and microwave des ig n info rmatio n.
ponents an d De sign, ARRL 1990 ,
selec ted thro ugh data me mory mapped 5, W , Hayward, "Measuring and Co mp-
locations must not also he used for other 9, J, For rer , " A DSP-Based Aud io Signal
ensating Osci llator Drift," QST, Dec,
data storage . Mo re information 011 these 1993 , pp :n- 4 1. Proce ssor." QEX , Sep . 1996 , This article
regi sters is ava ilable fro m "EZ-KIT Lite provi des hackground information on
Reference Manual." Ana log Devices that 6. G. C. So uthworth , Pr inciples and severa l of the ba sic rou tine s as we ll as a
is supplied as part of the EZ-KIT . ApplinlliOIlS of \l 'al'egllide Tra nsm ission , set of routines that can be run on the EZ-
3. S. B. Cohn. "Direc t-Coupled-Reso nato r Van Nos trand, 1950 , p 606 , Kit Lite. This materi a] is contained On the
Filters."' /'roc. IRL . Vol 45. Fe b. !I,lS7, pp 7, R, Frohne. "'A High-Perform ance , Single boo k CD .
187- 196.

DSP Applications in Communications 11 .31

 CHAPT ER

Field Operation, Portable Gear

and Integrated Stations

Th is book is perhaps mor e per sonal than the mountains of the Pacific We st to the ety of rigs are de scribed, showing one or
it' s predecessor wi th the individ ua l ch ap - coastal waters of Or egon: v>/c all op erate more of our interests. The equ ipme nt is pre-
rcrs written b y easily id entifiable indi vid u- sta tions from home. with virtually all of sented not for exa ct du plicat ion. but mainly
als. But there is also a stro ng common tha t operation using. o r rela ting to equip- as enco uragem ent fo r other expe rime nters.
thread of inte rests among us: we all enj oy ment we have built: Altho ugh QR P is a None of the equipment we have built will
a wide samplin g nt fr equ ency ha nds. rang- fre que nt pursu it. we all u se highe r power include the features tha t anot her des ignerl
ing from V LF through microwaves : we all at tim es, an d we a ll integra te experime n- bui lder will want. But. the tools of the other
hav e equipment tha t we have h uilt that we ta l ac tiv ity with sta tio n operation . chapters ca n be e voke d for the design of
take to unu sual locat ions. ranging from the This chapter ill ustrates some of that acnv - whatever you migh t need.
hills of Mich ig an' s Northern Peninsula to ity, both trom the fiel d and at home. A vari -

12.1 SIMPLE EQU I PMENT FOR PORTABLE OPERATION

A lo ngtim e favori te acti vity at W7Z0 r In spite of these virtues. the ubiqui tou s three dot lengths while the pause after a
has been portable op eratio n. pr ed om i- al kalin e r1 ash lig ht cell remains the movr word is fiv e. Our sample "transmiss io n"
nan tly from the mou nta ins of the western popu lar energy source . T he reason is the n produced a duty cy c le of ju st o ver
United Stat es. M any of our mou ntai n r ig s simple: the to ta l energy per pound con - SWiG. A similar recei ving pe riod ucco rnp a-
are simple (n on -phasi ng) dir ect c on ve r- taine d is far in excess of that avai lab le fro m nies this during a contact. reducing opera -
sion CW des igns , While not optimu m for popu lar rechargeable ce ll, . A L:!-V :--liCd tion to a 25o/c key down duty cy cle . Mos t of
con tests (such as Field Day). they are o th- AA ce ll ha s a typ ica l capaci ty o f 500 us spen d at lea st as much ti me listeni ng as
crwisc adequate. Thes e are the rigs that rnA-hours wit h the ab i lity to be recharged we do ma king contacts. So . we e surnared a
are thrown into the pack when we j ust wan t for up to 100 0 cy cles . A n alkal ine ce ll. typic al key down use as being 'I,.or 12.5%.
to ma ke a few enjoya ble bac kcnuntr y co n- used on ly once. weigh s ab ou t the same increas ing to 25% duri ng contests.
tacts. T he y also pro vide a link to the ou t- amo unt with a rat ed capa c ity of 2800 A circ uit that will tes t batteries with a
side wor ld when we hike a lone , T he se v- mx-Hours . The cell vol tage can vary from 12.5% duty cycle is shown in Flg 12.1. A
eral rigs descri bed here arc not presented 1.5 V at the hegi nning of use to 0.8 V for 75 55 tim er IC o sc illa ting at an aud io rate
for exact d uplic atio n. hut as a source of complete discharge . Da ta is availab le on is d ivid ed with a ch ain of 14 divid e-by -E
idea s for the des igne r/b uilder , the web at deta.energtzer.com/ and w........... ele men ts with in a 74 HC4060 Ie . Q13 and
dUrlleell.com/O El\I/Prima r y/Alkalinc/. Q 14 outp uts are decoded to produce a 25 c+
Som e emergi ng hut mor e expensive bat- dut y cycle . These are then com bin ed witb
Batteries and Po w er ter y technologie , are also of interest. the Q6 output 10 create a "st ring or dits "
S ou rc es The ex perimenter may wish to mea sure with net duty cycle of l 2. 5% . A 74HC138
A wide varie ty or bat teri es o ffer por - battery performance. Single ce ll testing is oae-uf-eight decoder ext racts the key ing
table power for the expe rimenter. adeq uat e. but the tes t sho uld e mulate t he si gn aL which the n c ontrols a power
Rec harge able Nickel-C ad mium (NiCd ) or expected duty cycle. for total energy avail- MOSF ET switch.
Ni ckel Met al H yd rid e (NiM H) batteries able fro m hatteri es may dep end upon the Re si sta nce R RX se ts the lo ad during
are ideal for radi o application>. for they way it is extracted. Ac cordi ng ly. we receive perio ds with RTX switched in
are ea pah le o f h igh curre nt output, rea - grap hica lly examined a typic al C W trans - dur ing " key do w n" inter va ls . A l -U
so na hle to ta l capacit y. and are easily mis sion . A dash le ng th is thre e times tha t MOSF ET on -resi stance is part of the tran s-
charged , They abo feature rather stable of a dot wh ile a space followi ng either is mit load. Th e re sisto r val ues can be
outp ut voltage. on e dot le ngt h. Th e pau se after a letter is chan ged to accom mod ate oth er co ndi t io ns

Field Operation , Portable Gear and Integrated Stations 12.1

 switc hed between R a nd 10 ce lls. Clearly,

,] ! ., v ther e are nu merou s opportunities avai lahle

•1
a
7555
~
• sx
.*
l' -
for the experimenter.

Timer Port a ble Antennas

g --lO
P-- C hoosing a backc ountry ant e nna pre-
sent s interes ting pro ble ms. T he Slay-
I"'- 1
-
-
at-home rad io amateur generate s numer-
ous exc iting ideas whe n fi rst c onsi dering
, field ope rat ion . Thoughts of exot ic beams

n.
. F----'
on
a.s

r---'
a. s

'" "
hanging bet ween t he trees o r othe r ava il-
able structu res are commo n. RUl these
gra nd pla ns often change aft er the first trip
74HC4060 74HC138
when the complicatio ns of getting lines
, into availa ble trees are enco untered. Also,

r the impact of long runs of coa xia l ca ble is

greater whe n they mu st be carri ed ove r a
few miles of trail.
O ur ma in anten na is an in vert ed- V
d ipole. Th e inverted form is preferre d over
a fla t dipo le beca use o nly one supp ort is
Ba tte r y neede d. We usu ally c arry th ree 50 -f!
Under piec es of [Is inch ny lon cord . Tw o pi eces
Tes t are tied together and att ache d to arock that
is launched into a tree. Th is line su ppo rts
the d ipo le cent e r and the teedltne . O nc e in
the tree . only one lin e is needed LO support
the ce nter. T he re maining two pieces then
suppor t the d ipo le end s. If suitable rocks
are no t fou nd. a clo th hag fill ed with
smaller rocks. sand . o r ev en snow can be
used.t So me back-country radio amateurs
will tie antenn a e nds to a co rd that is the n
tied to a roc k, T he roc k is flung into the
tree wh ere it rema ins sus pend ed during
operation. Th is is a poo r practice if there is
the sli gh tes t chance th at the kno t will
become undone in the wi nd a nd d rop the
rock o n a pass ing hiker !
2 5. 5 Oh m " Ke y u p .., DC Lo a d . Dipo le center insula tors arc easily fab-
neared from hardware store plast ic water
t i me pipe fittin gs. Plastic insulated wire is usu-
a lly used for portable ante nnas , with the
Fig 12.1-Timing circuit for testing a sing le cell battery at 50-rnA rece ive and ends secured with ny lon co rd or rope, so
300-rnA TX current. RTX and RRX w ill change with a different transceiver.
end insulator s are never nee ded.
T he height of a dipole impac ts perfor-
man ce, More often tha n not, we are satis-
fied with an antenn a tha t is on ly 25 or 30
or batteries. While the scheme is ce rtainly the en tire battery life. This is the result of fee t above gro und, high eno ugh for effec-
not a stan dard. it app roxima tev actu al use interna l bane rv resis tance of about 0.3 3 Q . tive da yli g ht 7 -~1 H L operatio n. A highe r
with a re peat able experime nt. This scheme The perturbation at 360 minute s sho wed anten na will do as, we ll during the da y. and
tests the battery w ith a puls ed co nstan t the result when the test was ter minated will de velo p the lo w angle radia tio n
resistance loa d. Th e manu factu rer, als o in the e vening, but resta rte d t he ne xt needed for long e r d istance nig httime
sho w batt ery behavio r with co nstant c ur- mommg . operation. But it will als o require that more
ren t. Sw itc h SI alluw s the c ircuit 10 he T he batte ry li re e xcee ds 1000 minutes rop e and feedli ne he packed up the trai l. A
switched off ro read the receiv e voltage or for an AA ce ll for a key down voltage of simp le nans ma tch (sho wn later) is usua lly
toggled to a "key down" mode to measu re 1. 1 at "e nd of life: " T his con strain s our used, even with dip ole s.
tra nsm it c urren t. Manual m eas urern en ts equipment de sign if we wish to ob tain End fed wire antenn as are especially
an: d one with a DV M, maxi mum battery lire . The AA cell is prob - useful in the field, featur ing a co mple te
Fig 12.2 is typica l of the data we ably suitable for higher tran smit cu rrent. lack of fc cdliue . A half wave wire (67 feet
obtained, based upo n the load presented hy li mited by intern a l res istanc e. at 7 MH1.) is ea sily hauled into a tree with
the "W estern Mou nt a inee r" tra nsce iver we ha ve mod ifie d o ne tra nsce iver a si ngle line. The po lariza tion is usually a
described later. There was about a O.l- V (belo w) to incl ude a voltage measu rement mi xture of vert ica l and horizontal. T he
differe nce betwee n R and T loading over circ uit and usc a batte ry pac k that c an be wire e nd nc ar camp is fixed in place with

12.2 Chapter 12
 Pulsed + DC lo ading, AA C ell
1600

1500

1400
l\ Portable tra ns matc h us ing screwdriver

1300
1\ "r-, h
adjustments.

-, r-
~ } m --- ~
1200

1100
I---
----- I--- ~

I--- ~
~

1000
o 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 liDO 1200 1300 1400
t
tim e, minute s

Fig 12.2-Battery voltage d ur ing pu lsed tes ting for a single AA ce ll. See text fo r
con ditio ns.

Ce nte r of inverted-V d ipole . The rop e

Bac k ya rd s uppo rts both th e antenna an d t he
ex pe rime nts transmission line .
s ho uld include
some listen ing to
be s ure t he
ante nna is reall y
funct ioning .

The e nd of a portab le an te nn a requires

no insulator . A tie-off co rd or rop e with
the ins ulatio n on the wire is s ufficie nt.
a short piece of rope and fed wit h a tally polarized signa l with lower angle
transma tch . One or two q uarte r wav e- components . The f ull wav e wire can also
length pieces of wire are laid on the ground he con figured as a loop.
10 form a reference for the transmatch . A An ante nna support is a prob lem when
trunsmat ch that differs from that used with operating abov e tim berline. We have car-
dipoles is usually required , for typ ical Z is ried a 12-foot tele scop ing whip ( 14 inches
aroun d 3000 n. Measure me nts on hac k collapsed) to support a dipo le. The wh ip
yard systems sho w that while an end fed base is las hed to a rock . ice ax. or ski pol e.
wire withou t a referenc e rad ial or two can Fishing poles of vario us sorts are popular
sometimes function . the match is then sus- among QRP en thus ias ts, some corning in
ceptible 10ha nd capacitance effects. These le ngths of 20 ft or more. So metimes no
problems disap pear with even one radia l. support at all i, needed : a dipole on sno w
Slip the radials into the brush where they or dry rocks ca n still funct io n, althou gh
wo n't be under foo l. experime ntation is requ ired .
An end- fed full wav elength wire also VHF antennas pr esen t a different c hal- A dipole insulator is fabricated from an
enjo ys a lack of feedline, and can be con - len ge . Our standard portable mas t uses end cap of PVC pipe . This cap is 1.25-
figure d to generate a dom inant horizo n- 0.6 25 -00 aluminum tub ing in the form of inch 0 0.

Field Operat ion, Portable Gear an d Integ rated Station s 12.3

two 5 -fo ot tent po les, each in three sec- enviro nm ent . som e arc tak ing th is permissi ble to merely conn ect the pan el to
lions . A te n-Font leng th is formed with a mi nimal is t eq uipme nt into the field . Mo re the batter y. perhap s wi th a d iode to pre-
con necting pie ce of O.75 -inch 0 0 tubing . is to be fo und on the ARS Weh site. vent le akage: i nto the pa nel. The cur re nt
A slip rin g provide s a guy po int at the fro m th e pan e l should he le ss t ha n the
fi-fo ot level. T he usual a nte nnas use d at ma ximum allowed charging current for the
144 and 43 2 MHl are coax fed Y a g i~. 2
Alte rnativ e Powe r batte ry. Cur ren t is con fin ed wi th a seri es
Many of the fo lks pa rtic ipating ill Q RP curre nt limi ter, show n in Fig 12.31\. Wi th
and in backpack! ng radio ar e a lso intrigued the com pon ents sho wn. cur rent is li mited
B ands and Modes with alte rnative energy. The mo st commo n at e ither 50 or 130 mA from the charger.
The d ominant ba nd we use in the mo un- form is solar po wer. alt hough the pre se nt T his ci rcuit sh ould no t he used without a
tai ns rem ains 7 -~f Hl C WoOth er op eratorv " wind- up" b ro adc ast receivers sugg e st rech arg e ah le battery . for t hat would a llow
have different pre ferences . A g oud frie nd many mec ha nic al sources , incl udi ng wind volta ge s greate r than 15 10 be ap plied to
and hiking companion. WA7:\-I LH. has and wa te rpo we r. the transce iver, fi gure 12.3 B uses a shunt
d one a great de al of winte r campi ng fro m Some simple circuits for usc with sol ar reg ulato r wi th curren t limitin g to either
sn owshoe s or ski s. Jeff ha s fo und ha t h pane ls ar e shown in Fi g 123 . With some ch arg e a battery or to supply a vo lt age
Sa-meter C W and 75-meler SS B to be so lar ce lls and rechargeable batt eries. it is regulated output. The latter occurs w he n
effective . Unfort unatel y, Su-mctc r C W
ofte n lacks people with who m to conve rse .
The higher ba nds ca n be gre at fun when
working other Q RP statio ns . The ant en nas
are us ua lly a bit eas ie r at 14 M H z and
~ ) -~-----,
above. Simp lic ity rem ains the be st guid e- Sol al'
Pan el
-=-
T
D44C 6
li ne. So me s im ple beams are useful fo r
Field Day and other co mmitted rad io ( 2lV uc, L-...:J. ),
O . 2~1l. SC) ----L
ev ents, hut are no t reco mmen ded for ru u- (A)
line hackpuc king w here the radio gea r is a
secondar y g oal.
"
2NH 04

Th e T r ail.Fri endly (+---~,---------,

Radio 1N40 01 1 2 Vo l t
Hi -C a d
T he term "T rail Fr iend ly Radio,'"or T FR
was introd uced in 1996 hy memhers ofrhe
"Adventure Radio Society {ARS)," an in -
formal g rou p uf Q RP enthusiasts who
D43C 8
regularly take radio ge ar beyond the li mits power PNP
ofrnotoriv ed tra ve l.' A TFR nee d not loo k
like the us ual ho me bo und tra nsc e ive rs Sol ar _ -_
~ )~~_- "'7c::::-,
tha t mu st si t on tab les or shelves. Some of , _., j (B )
the tollowi ng equip me nt is in the TF R ca t- ~ )l 1N40 01
eg ory . Also see the "Sleeping Bag R ad io"
de scr ibe d el sewhere in this ch apter.
E q uip ment for bac kpackin g o r o ther
21 V Ope n Ckt ,
O. 6 ~ 1l. S hor t Ck t
_
.
fiel d usc shou ld be li ghtweight. co mpact.
and sho uld he e as y to operate. A mi nimum
of controls is de sira ble . and they sho uld be
capab le of use e ven whe n the oper ator
wea rs glo ves or mi tten s . Te m pe ratu re test -
V'I
lOW
13

ing prior to use is vital.

The Ad ve nture Radio Societ y sponsors
an info rma l. monthl y con tes t call ed the
"Spartan Sp rint" t hat e mphasizes these
id ea ls. T he scori ng fo r t his contes t is ~~
e ssenti all y the nu m be r o f contact s d ivided
hy the total station weig ht. inclu di ng key.
headpho nes . an d batteries It is co mmo n
1l 3OW v'f A
V
to enco u nter sev eral station s in the conte st
with tot a l sta tio n weight under a pou nd,
with some aro und 0. 1 pou nd ! T his is re al-
ized only with meti culo us at te ntion to
details such as small c ircui t hoards with
Ies , tha n normal thickness, scr e wdr iver
tuning (w ith very light-wei gh t 100Is), rigs
without ca bine ts, Lith ium batte rie v. an d
absolute min im um pOWI:f. Whi le mos t Fi g 12.3-Some cir cuits for handling solar panels, See t ext fo r d iscus sion, A T lp · 32
"winnerv" arc op erating fro m a home ma y be used for the power PNP , re placing the D43C8.

1 2 .4 Chapter 12
 -

Fro nt pa ne l of Por table CW t ransc eiver. The sta t io n we ight,

inc lud ing batteries, earp ho nes , keye r paddle, tra ns match ,
and an end fed antenna, is about 2 pounds . Th e tran sceive r
includes a bri dge and VSW R ind ic ati n g meter, so t he
tr ansmatch c on si st s of nothi ng mo re than t he matc hin g
network.

J
I
A so lar panel provides energ y 10 keep batteries "topped
off " duri ng a 1993 Field Day op erat ion . The operator is
sitt ing in the tent to escape a li ght rai n.

Fig 12.4-Bloc k d iag ram f o r a simple d irect conver sio n

transceiv er. A sing le c ry sta l oscillator serves a dua l f uncti on .
the 13-V Ze ne r di ode is switched into the
circ ui t and i s useful when mak ing cont ac ts
with the solar panel being the onl y energ y
so urce . The 15-V Ze ner d iode prot ect s the
transceiver against excessive volt age . Q3 L O fo r a d irec t c o nve rsio n rec eiver. A A sim ple Mic romounrain eer transceiver
ca n di ssipate the full ener gy capability of block diagram is shown in Fig 12.4 , re su lts fr om combini ng the "B eginnc rs
the panel , so a heat sink shou ld be used. T his trans cei ve r top ol ogy is the re sul t Tr an smitter" of Chapter 1 with the .\-liero-
So lar panel s arc cap abl e of short circ uit of c urre nt operating practices wher e Rl basic dir ec t conversio n receiver of
operat ion wi thou t dam age. Po wer Zener operato rs call ing C Q will rarely look for Ch apter 8 . T he si det o nc os ci ll ato r and
dio des are expe nsive an d are best rep laced an answer mor e than a k l-l z away from their tra nsmi t-receive switch incl uded wit h the
with the adj us tab le sh unt reg ulato r circuit tran smitt er fr equenc y. With su ch a prac - transm itter complet e the station.
sho wn in Fig 12.3C with Q4 als o attached t ice, ther e is little value in recei ving on A con tem porary vers ion of the M icro-
to a hea t si nk. T he desig ner / hui lde r sho uld freq ue ncies other that those w her e yo ur mo untaineer wa s presented in QS T fo r
investiga te modern ba ttery management tran smitter can func tio n, Ju ly, 2000 wit h the art icle included on the
integra te d circuits from Ma xi m an d othe r So me sort of offset capability is req uired boo k CD. That ver sion fea tured 2N3904
ve ndors . fo r the crystal oscillator in su ch a tran s- tran sis to rs thro ugho ut the RF port ion of
ce iver, need ed to prod uce a bea r note that the desig n with a NE602 -LM 38 6 co mbi -
can be hea rd whe n a st ation is zero bea t nation as the receiver. (Sec the beg in ne r's
Micro-Mountaineer- with your tra nsmitter. Thi s can be an receiveri n C ha pter 1.) MOS FET switche s
Class T ransc e ivers induct or or capac itor in series with the crys- are used in the T/ R system for a rig that c an
A sim ple transc e ive r ca n he built wi th a tal. Th e ex tra element can be switc hed in or he b uilt for any ban d from 1.8 to 50 MH z.
si ng le crysta l controlled oscillator scrv- out auto matically with the keying, or can Th e 2X- MH z ve rsi on has been used
ing a d ual funct ion: The o sci llator is the he manu ally activa ted by the operator. for c ontacts all over Nor th America and
fre quency co nt ro l for a simp le two or th ree Thes e differen ces are all det ails that the Japan.
sta ge trans mi tter; the oscillator is also the ex peri ment ers can indiv idually impleme nt. The Ju ly 200 n ve rsi on le nds itse lf well

Field Operati on, Portab le Gear and Integrated Stati ons 12.5
 9
. , V ' r on
r p'JUl otor
, ~ ,

...,.,. I"
.~ . ,
I" ( o lpitt. o= i ll ~t o r p l ..
cOITIII>n -b "". lSoloU o.
_.t
T
...., i b . . . ' _n t

+",'"
- , dll1Il Or . 0 .

I
.
~
I ~

Cl _ 100
r
A Micromountaineer class transcei ver
uses intern al c rystals, but accepts an
external VFO.
Ll:
C' _1 0'
Tll - ' toroid . lit 1 24 , r"
~=,I

•
1• 11
" '"
",,; ..t 'Ioi.
••, w n o ' ''p.''
R to

Fig 12.6- 7·MHz VFO for use w ith the Ju ly 2000 Q5Ttransceive r.

Fig 12.5-An audio bandpass filter

for use wit h the Q5 T Ju ly 2000
Micromounta ineer. ccivcr is sho wn in F ig 12.8. Th e user ma y
co unter sho uld be c oaxial c ab le o r a
tw isted wire pa ir. wi sh to di sable the side ton e o scillator
T his tra nsc eiv er also in cl ud e, a b uilt in incl uded o n the ori g ina l QST d esign.
electro nic kc ycr. B ot h th c kcycr an d fr c- The KA7E XM version of the QST trans-
to modifications . Fig 12.5 show s a pas siv e quen c y coun ter p rov ide sidetone ou tputs ce iver was built as a Tra il Frie ndly Radio
LC audi o filte r that can be ad de d in the that are rou te d to t he au dio sy ste m. T he as desc ribed above . It was put in a plast ic
headphone lead to substantially im prove modification to the au di o on the tra ns- box (approxi marely J x 5 x 9 inches ) with
sel ectiv ity. Ed Kes sler. AA 35 1. bu ilt this internal shiel d ing o f the Yf-'O. sho wn in
cir cu it. th e pho to gr aph s . Controls arc on the la rger
A var iabl e f requency os cillator is easi ly surtacc wi th all int er face attac hm ents to
added to Mic rom ount ain ccr class porta ble one end. W hile thiv may not he o ptimum
rigs , Fig 12.6 show s one that wa s added to for a cl as sic ho me stat io n e nvironme nt
the Q.'lT l uly 2000 vcrs ion built by Rog er wi th ta ble and chair. it wo rked we ll wh en
H aywa rd, KA 7EX~1. The VFa operates at us ed on back packi ng tri ps in O re go n' s
the 7-:\1Hl out put freq uency . so it is vital Ca scade Mo un tain s.
that th e os ci llator be shielded from the rest Ea rph one s, rather th an spea kers. shoul d
of the circu itry. If the os cillator freq uency alwa ys be use d w ith po rt ab le tra nsceivers .
was redu ced to 3.5 :\IHl and was fo llow ed This is II co urt esy to oth er ba ck -co un try
by a freq uency doubler, no shielding wou ld trav e ler s.
he neede d . Th is tr ansce iver is sho wn in the There are cl ea rly numerous modifica-
photog ra phs. Fig 12.7 shows the mo difi ca- tions a nd variations that can be ap pl ied to
tio n, used wi th in the transceiver. Th e pre - th is proje ct w ith new band s being of sp e-
vio usly tuned o utp ut at Q 2 was rep laced End v iew of the KA7EXM 7-MHz ci al inte re st. Vers ions w ith th e VFO op er-
Micromounta ineer.
with a ferrite tran sformer. The Vf O sig nal ating at the output freque ncy would wo rk
is then inje ct ed at the ba se of that stage . The we ll at i .s, 3.5 and 10.1 M Hz. Variatio ns
ga in is se t with th e additio n of Q 2 emitter us ing a freque nc y dou b ler foll ow ing the
co mponents wh ile a de signal from the AIT VFO wou ld be pr eferred at 7 Ml-lz a nd
switc h is rout ed to th e feed -throug h capa ci- h ighcr with a heterodyn e VF O offering
tor feeding the 1N4 152 diode . The capaci- bett er per for manc e at 2 1 M Hz and hig he r.
tor ma rked "set" in the VFO ma v he A photo graph shows a di ode ri ng prod -
selec ted to se t the o ffse t with the val ue uct detecto r bas ed va riat io n that we built
show pr od uc ing about 800 HI in the and u se d in the mi d 198 0s t ime fram e .
K,\ 7 EXM tra nsceiver. Crys ta l cont ro l w as incl uded w ith a pair of
A 1-k.G re si vtor is added to th e trans- int ern al cryst als , Ho we ver. an outbo ard
ccivcr to feed a sample of the os cill at or VF O could also be atta c hed whe n des ired.
sig na l to a frequency co unte r. KA7E X:\I Ban ana plu gs and ja ck s pro vided a COI1\'e-
used a f req uency M ite from Small Wo nd er ni ent me ch an ical int erfa ce. C oaxial cable
Labs for th is functio n. See the d isc uss io n provides a YFO output connectio n and a
of co unt e rs in C hapte r 4 , The inte rface The external "pluq-on" VFO for use wit h po wer su pply in ter face bet wee n un its. T he
from th e ma in tra ns ceiver board to the the hand he ld rig. offset control to the v r a wa s mu ltip lexed

1 2.6 Chapter 12
 r 49 Key ~ r51
c+-'--~~
C
K rmut e)
10K
IN41 2 '"
. t.'i' G35 _

Coax to Freq . Mit e

• OU Counter.
'"
.. ..
N ,,~
~
~
F .. rrile
Xfmr. 110
tuning
a~ "
~
I New R A ll contro ls and I/O li nes attach to the
~ r7 ea ax end of the " We ste rn Mou ntaineer,"
~ N
allowing it to res ide in a sma ll camer a
, -
0"
R , ron
'"
<I: l l
case inside a parka . The t urn s counting
~-c! dial is on a 10 t urn pot to control a
"
I~
+12 T 51 + 1 2R
tempe rat u re compensated veo. T he
A'A'T(pan" I '
""
kno b in the upper rig ht co rne r allows
the supply v o lt age to be " measu red ."

:'F~O-7) Jf_ 2N390 4

WK rs

f'c''-c,-,c,.C+- + C
02 l . -'lK

"
," N3904
,

~"
t r eq ' with the RF line. Th is transce iv er has see n
d "'
shift . d
W O nearly two deca de s of 40-meter CW use.
~:' ~Ilc2 1;~]1< " The VFO is usua lly inc luded . but is len at
horne or in a base ca mp du ring su mm it
Jlbout 100 J. WO climbs where weight mu st be mi nimal.
T1: 15t FT37-43, -
j1 2 2 U1
4t output lin k +Ill" " / ~~-~l
1 2 -----t T 78L05 h--~" The "West ern
'",";r n dcpl Mount ai ne er"
-+1 2v depl
Q1 no ll> Dger ll:Sed .
O.2:..L
I 0. 22
This rig is a simp le d irect conversion
transceiv er based upon the popu la r
Philli ps :"IE-602 Gilhe rt Cell mixer. The
name was chosen because the rig was
designed for use in the mountai ns of the
Fig 12.7- Mo di fi c ati o ns applied to the Ju ly 2000 aSTlranscei ver when a VFO was
added. See te xt.
west ern USA where stron g international
broadcast si gn als are rare ly a problem .
Bu ilde rs in the eastern USA or in Europe
will find this circuit unsu itable and should
consi der a d iode ring based des ign such as
the still exc ellent W7EL tran scei ver."
The VFO a nd tran s mitte r. shown in F ig
12.9. hegins wi th a high -C Col pitts oscil -
lator tune d with a varacror d iode. 0 2. Th is

..
c irc uit is temperatur e compensa ted with
two methods. Part of C2 consi sts of poly -

.. ~
styrene elements with most cap aci tance
built fro m NPO parts. T he tun ing diode is
then com pensated \,..ith 0 1. a sec ond sili-
con diode. This oscillator was di scussed in

,"K~
Cha pter 4. R I is selected to determine the
d iode current. It is vita l tha t a therma l
r2
l en
chamher he used to adjust the temperature
compenxariun.Details arc presented in the
FrllJll TIC 220 K
Ke yel" hook CD 5 and in Chapter s 4 and 7.
Sidetone
.I70.K r 34
'"'I .J,..
s e.t . -
Th e VfO o perates direc tly at the 7- \-IHz
tran smitter ou tput freq uen cy . maki ng
p,= oscillator shielding vital. The shi eld was
Fr e q .ltite
built [rom ti n shee t stoc k, A wa ll was bu ill
Sidetone
arou nd the part of the ci rc uit board co n-
taining the oscillator and soldered direc tly
Fig 12.8-S ideto ne sig nals from t he co unter a nd the keye r may be inject ed as to the grou nd foil. A lid was att ach ed , leav -
shown . Removi ng R23 will d isable the orig inal s idetone fr o m t he output. ing acce ss to Ct . Co rnpens ario n diode D 1

F ield Operation, Po rtab le Gear and Integrated Stations 12.7

 is e nclosed in the vame co mpar tme nt.
T he VFO is tuned with R2. a pol co n-
troll ing a c urre nt pulled from the su mm ing
node o f op- am p U3A. A C W offset of
about 800 HI. is pro v ided with 0 13. Th isis
configured for the Almost Increme ntal
Tuning sc heme outli ned in Chapter 6. RIT
could be implemented if d es ired : se e
Chapter 4 .
T he VFO o utput i'i. bu ffered and a mpli-
fl ed in several stages. ev e ntuall y d riving- a
po we r am plifier. Q5 an d Q6. co nsis t ing o f
a pa ir o f 2S39C)4 tra nsistors with an OUI-
put of 0 .6 w.
An ou tp ut lo w pa"1> fil le r
provide s im peda nce match ing to the PA
and harmon ic atte n uat ion .
The rec eiver. sho wn in Fi g 12. ItJ.
br:gin<. with the :-iE- 602 prod uct det ector.
U2. T he detector o utp ut is then de cou pled
10 U4. which then dri ves L:6. an RC ac tive
peaked lo w pas s fi lt er. A n inte rest ing
su btlet y was d isco ve red when this to po l-
ogy was firs t b uilt: a lthough the bia s was
In ter io r of KA7E XM tr ansceiver . The origin al plan called fo r Int erna l b at teries , b ut as e xpec ted with abo ut -a V de thro ugh the
the y didn't quite fi t . ch a in o f U4 and lJ6_ the vo ltage changed

• ,

+ ' R<'1 1
1 00 ~

r,

(vee Sh i eld)
..
, UltU2
••1
nO" _

?P
21119 04
O~AI1 !>W H . ..
~ 1 0 1C

Fig 12.9- T he VFO and tran smi tt er portio n 01 the " Weste rn Mo unta ineer" direct c o nv er sio n t r ansceive r.

12.8 Ch apter 12
by several vo lts .... hen the 1.0 .... a~ aUached
to U2. pin 6. Thiv was the res ult ot unbal-
ance in the input circ uitry driving pi ns
I and 2. Chang ing to a fully balanced
topo logy at TI eliminated the problem. If
the circ uit "as dup licated today. we w ould
use ac co upling between Ll2 and U-I .
The receiver is muted wnh two FET s
during u ancmn intervals. Q 12was usually
adequate. Initially a pair of back-to-beck
diodes was used acro ss USA. but they dis-
torted on loud signals. Complete muting
w as not possible after diode removal. so
QI -I was added. Q J:! could probably be
eli minated .
The recei ver schematic includes Hvolt-
age co mparator using U7A. This circ uit is
driven hy a front panel mounted potenri-
«me ter. R4. As R4 is varied. the volruge on
the non-inverting input at' U7A also
changes. The reference \'olla gt' at the
inverti ng input is merely the 5 V regu lated
supply. The output of l:7A changes state
when the 1.... '0 up-amp inputs are equ al. In side shot 01 t he Western Mo unta ine er sh ow in g t he VFO a nd t ra nsm itte r,
which toggles the sideto ne (Q9 and Q IO) e xc lud ing v o lt ag e-measu ring ci r c uitry.

...
11 : 12 IlHilar
t v .. I l .... + ~R e 'il
HI - ' , It hal;

I-J ..
no
~ ... no

r +"
[@
.,
1 /2 5 53 2

"1"
,
,
.,
NE602 ~ .L o e

.I ~ t _ 1
T
.~

-.-L
•
' .
'~
't . NE612
'" 2·:mI 16K
• '"
, ,
SVU ch -=-

-I. .1 LO nvn~ .,......, T• I ~ 1/2 5 532 - IU6A I 1 /> 'i 'i3 2 ...
2 H19 0 6
rr Olll QL
y
+12v l J< 1Jlun - + 1 2Y -+-.~'h---<>-"'-------~---, 100 ?
r"
1 / 2 5 53 2 10K

."
tL
~ . 1 1 1/2 5 53 2
22 K
1
~~
I. s*
.
Ga ' T\
~ @!D
• rU~
lev I~:~ I .",
•
"
... 1t.--
'--:' Nv
1 2 1K
. 22 = 21 1<
21 0K
+ 4
-
1
+ 100
Ke y L i ne
I .Lm . ;::;::r~
56 K
~~

I AIT I + 1 2R
!1I- ' ~: '''''1.• ~t'*\"
Ke y

~~ IU7 A I
h --=- l _
'
1

.I
T
'" l , • ~ J . ~ :UC 5 f1

.±;;,J.j...I"-
.....--.

'" 2 1U9 0 4

~
R6 -=-

Fig 12.10-Rec ei ver por ti o n of the " Wes tern Mou ntai neer" tr an s cei v er .

Field Operat ion , Portable Gear and Integrated Station s 12.9

 Inside shot 01 t he
Western
Mo untaineer
show ing t he
r ece iv er bo ar d,

Shot of the Wes te rn Mo u ntaineer

In stall ed in a p ro tect ive case, in cluding
battery pack .

A Mic romou ntai nee r-Class t r ansc eiver In use lor Field Day.
The rig is in use he re on the 9500-Ioot su mmit 01 Oreg on 's Ml Here W7Z01tr ies to gel in just a fe w mo re Field Day co ntacts
Mcl. oughlin. before t he ra in be comes mo re int ens e. KK78 p h o to .

oscillator on or ott", Th is serves h a vital inform atio n for equipme nt that will The tmns cciv er is breadboarded on PC
met hod fo r me asu rin g the battery vol tag e operate fro m a power source thai rna)' board material containing a matrix of is lan d~
..... ithou t a voltmeter. R4 is a 25-k !2 pot. a change as it is consume d. The results ar e where components are mounted. The TX
sma ll pa rt that was onhu nd. The dl;sign erl sho w n in F i::= 12.11 The recei ve curre nt is board had components on the ground foi l side
b uild er may wish to usc oth er valu e.., ne arly con sta n t at 50 mA for thi s trans - while the RX used a surfac e mount like
T he sam e resul ts will be obtained if R5 ccivcr. the re sul t o f hav ing used a large sch eme with standard leaded componcmv
and K6 are scaled with R4. The po t is number of 3 532 op-a mps. T he designe r/ The rig has rnost input and out put cab in
normally set to re st in a position that inhib- huilder may wish to fi nd cuhvritut es thai attach ed 10 rhe small en d of a 2 x .l5 x 6 in
tr , osci llatio n. co ns u me less pu wer w hile still o ffe ri ng bo x. shown in photos . Thi s allo ws it 10
T he transceiver was ex am in ed fo r out- low no ise. U4 a nd UnA should usc fairly reside- in a ..mall camera hag thaI also include..
put po wer and key down c urre nt consump- low noise pa rts w hi le the rest o f the a barterv pack, The rig can e ven be operated
tion as supply vouege c ha nged. This is op- umpv are le.... critical . fro m insule a do wn parka during winter

1 2 . 10 Ch apt er 12
 excursions. A keyer is built into the rig.
IX OUtput ~m\") and Total CWTt1lt mA
1200 A por table transmatch is shown in two
U~
form s in Fi ~ 12.1 2. This circ uit uses screw-
1000
/ driver adjuste d tri mmer capacitors. While
/ less con veni ent than capacitors with knob s,
'"" Fig 12.11 -Power the compact and ligh twe ight feat ures are
""
700
Pow er Outp ut ~ output and key
down power
use ful for backpacking applications.
»> consu mption for
'"" / the transceive r Single Signal Systems
'"" ~ for vo ltages f rom
10to16V. Wh ile the work reported here uses
'"" I Cu rrent II direc t conversion for portable rigs. then: is
'"" certai nly noth ing 10 pre clude the use of
'""
W"
supe r-heterod yne equipmen t. T he "Unfin -
ished " transceiv er dexcribed next has been
e used for a number of Fie ld Day e vents,
W u
" " a lwa ys with good performance. T he uhi-
mate porta ble rig might well be a singl e
signal design (superhet or phasing ) opt i-
mi zed for lo w c urren t. An excellent begin-
ning des ign is a transc e iver des c ribed by
Benson." This design has been ex tended
in numerous kit s buill by Q RP club s worl d
wid e including the po pular ::-.rorC al-40.
Addi tional infor matio n is pres ent ed in
th e ARR L compendi um. QRP POHt'!".
ARRL 19967

. "'"
.. Cl ,2,3 : 90 -400 pF mica cWTFression IriBrler

C4: 30 -18 0 pF mic a compressi on IriBrler

L1 : 1. 1 lJIi, 19 1 * 22 TU - 6
L 2: 12 llH , Ut 1 94-6
or 24t *2 2, FT50 -63 .

All r es i s t or s 0 .5 watt .

, - - -(

E '"Hi -Z Fig 12.12- A small trans match

su itable for portable use. The bridge is
>lntenna sw itched into t he s ignal path o n ly
when tu ning . A sma ll sc rew d ri ve r is

L included fo r tun ing. The upper c irc uit

is su itable for coa x lines w h ile the
lo we r one is intended for end fed
w ires. Compone nt values are s et for
7-MHz antennas.

Field Operat ion , Portable Gear and Integrated Station s 12.11

 12.2 THE "UNFINISHED," A 7·MHZ CW TRANSCEIVER
Th is transceiver (l,.i ngle co nve rsion
super-he terod yne . .'i-MHz IF with 2·M Ht
LO , has earn ed the name "Unfi nis hed:"
fo r it is an ongoi ng effort that has been in
a slate of trans ition fo r ove r a deca de . It
has bee n a perpe tual design platform to If)'
new circu it ideas a.. they are genera ted . "
ho mebrcw cry stal f Iter pro vides select iv-
it y, This is intended here to be a so urce of
id crus ra ther than a construction projec t.
Fig 12.13 shows the La and RlT sys-
tem. which tones from .2 10 2.1 Ml fz, pro- l'
100;:[
ducing coverage of the bou c m 100 kHl of
the band . A JFET . Q 7. serv es as an
I
SOW" soclI:wr~
oscillator wit h a bipolar buffer. Q6 . Tern-
perature wav co mpensated w ith a POI)'I)'-
rene capac itor. adju sled with an cxperime n-
tal oven. tSee Chapter 7) Q8 and a Zener
diode provide a stable voltage for the sys-
tem. although an Ie regulator would serve
as well. The output is low pass fihcred and
routed to a diode ring receiver mixer. A low
power lap is extracted for use with an Ie
~
transm it mixer. 1\ pair of varactor diodes arc RIT Ttx1e u-e

:LS}-
:'- ~" ,
used as pan of a RlT system.
The 2-M Hz 1.0 is built in an alum inum 100
bo x. approxima tely 2 x ::! x 5.5 inche s. No 22.. -'-
lid is used. for isolat ion req uirements arc
min imal.
+ ' 2T
l' ,
~

The receiver fro nl e nd is sho wn in filj: 2tl1000

12. 14. A diode ring mixer, U I. is ,>0
preselected with a do uble tuned ci rcuit and
foll ow ed by a hi polar post-mix er arnpli-
tier. Q I. A 2.....5 109 ur equivalem is used. 1 51(j.<
alth ough a :!N J904 could a bo be a pplied .
T his tra nsceiver is so meti me c use d for
portable applications. so post-amp current
is modes t. A pad and a borne brew cr ysta l
filter follow the amp lifier. Th e circu it Fig 12.13-VFO a nd RIT for the Unfinished.
shown her e has a bandwi dth of 250 Hz
with 50()-.n rcrmi nurion v. The filte r is
des ig ned for a Geusstan- to- e d B shape.
which has minimal ringing. even with the
na rrow band widt h. The rounded peak
shape is selective eno ugh 10 he: e xtre mely
effec tive. yet the low numbe r of crysralv
prod uces a res pon se that m a intain s a
rece iver -brighm evs" rarcl v experienced
with narrow . multi-resonator filter s. Im-
pedance matc h is car efully co ntro lled at
500 n around the crys tal tiller.
The Ga uvcian-to-S dB filler shape is an Aud io circui try tor
the "Untinis hed·7"
espe cially good one for the exp erimen ter. Transceiver . The
fur it is very tolcranr of c han ges in cryst al rectangular cutout
charuct eris ric s or filter capa citors. Alter - locates a c rys ta l
ing l"[Y Sl ~ I moti on al L fro m the de sign filter from an
value of 0. 1 Henry by +1- .10<1- . o r d rop- ea rlie r ve rsio n.
ping Ql' from 200.000 to 50.000 still pro-
duced usefu l filters.
The receiver has a noise fig ure of abou t
17 dB with an input interce pt of around
+ 15 d Bm for a two- lo ne DR of 97 dB.
High-le nd mi xers and a hig her current

12.12 Cha pter 12

 I I

!ost Mixer A~
I
Crystal Filter
....
....
; .. ~t>' -.l·.'" "
,,.,;: ,..~

The bottom In sid e view 01 the - u ntlntshed -z " Tra ns ce iver .

" .. ..,.."',lJO:.
~' The upper cIrcu it ry Inc lud es aud io . regulators, an d
sideton e. The board al ong the lower ed ge is t he t ran smit
Fig 12.14-Receiver Ir ont end fo r the Unfinished. A Gaussian- mixer and tr iple tun ed bandpass fille r. The t ransmitter
10-6 d B shaped crystal fil te r is included. The double-tuned cir - d river is the sma ll boa rd above th e band pass. The VFO
cu it is not symmetric. because an adjustment was made to c o m- module is at t he right.
pensate lor in teraction with the t uned circuit in the T/R system .

~ TO Pr oduc l Del .
+12 V 100 r-\ .1
100
15 0 Q2/i ~ d J 310 1SO
10, .1

J 310
1K
'" 2N3 9 0 4~
ne t ,
0 21

. 01

J.,j"T
u9
:::1
.,.,.,
15K "V- JiGC"
330

10 K .uv
1N4 15 2
Ul415 2
+1 2 T . lN41;t
' IF
10K

1N4152 Gain
~ 2.2U 4 . 3Y.
_ >K LN4 15 2

Z2 K
2 l139Q 4
5 0 p f'
."
Fig 12.15-1F Amplifier. See te xt for details.

Field Operat ion , Port ab le Gear a n d Integrated Stati ons 1 2. 13

 +12V
100
L' To TX Mixe r

I J2. J 7uR

390 I-
39i
-
Product Detector

fr om IF
~

~ 1 To Audio
~ TUF- 1 system
330 51 1 .2

10K
680
2N39::r 100 100
1K
3 .3K
ra

•
lilt
Q2

1~
J310 h 2N39Q.:1
Q4 /~r"lO BFT
Pa +6 dBm

T Q3 /C I !-- '..!o
'C'(-t FT3 7_43

r~1
51 K
~ 1470 2; : K ·
1K

I -
1K
~
-
-

Fig 12.16-B FO and pr oduct detecto r fo r the Unfinished .

Fig 12.17-Transmit m ixer,

, FT37_43 ferrite
'. Co·',D ~ :uc-'s
ban d pas s f il te r and keyed P ' t- - r
RF power chai n.

The "untrnrenec-z'' Tra nsceiver f ron t

panel.
f r om Br o

post mixe r a mp lif ier shou ld ea sily exte nd

this well pa st 100 d B.
The H' am plifier . sho wn i n Fig 12.15, is
effe c tive , but is proba bl y the we ak po int in
the d es ig n. 1\ lo wer noise IF would e xten d
the overall rece iver two-to ne DR s lig htly.
as disc ussed ea rlier in this chapte r. T his
syste m use s a pair of .\1C 13S0 P inte grated
ci rcu its . but on ly one h as A Ge app lie d .
T he o utput of the se cond is de tecte d with
tr an sistor Q2 3, producing a de sig na l that
is app lied to up- am p U l l th at feeds A Ge
sig nal to the first :VIC- I35 0 P. A JFE T fol -
low er. Q2 6. pro vide s ou tp ut to the d ete c-
tor. A J FET fol lo wer. Q25 . p rec ed es the
f irst :\re 1350 , H owev e r. the im pedance is
o nl y 500 n. set by an in p ut ree ismr. A
Up teoJ ': w, t1 ,,, ,, I ," ~
higher impedanc e at th is poi nt would drop Tc PA oj [ ho" " p r,
. w lch. Low·P, ,, f l or
the JF no ise figure. This AGe syst e m is
stri ctly an " ea r- save r," w ith a thre sho ld se t
h igh to pre serv e a d ean respon se Th is is
a ch oic e av ailable to the de signer/bu ilde r.
Th e prod uc t det ec to r a nd B FO are

1 2 .14 Chap ter 12

 Audio Pre ~ m p

Fig 12.18-Audio p reamplifier for the Unfinished.

Top ins ide view of the " Unfinis hed -? " Transceiver. The VFO
modu le is at t he right. The board pa ralle l to the VFO is the
doub le tuned front -end filter, mixer , and post-m ixe r amplifie r.
The third order Gauss ian- to-6-dB c rys ta l filte r and IF
amplifier a re a long the bottom with t he BFO and product
detector jus t above. The crystal calibrator and t ra ns mitter
ou t p ut amp lifie r ar e toward the upper le ft.

Fig 12.19- Aud io output system. An RC active low pass fille r, The transm it mixe r and t rip le tuned bandpass filter. Shield
s idetone oscillator, 6-V re g ula to r and T/R control are st rip along one s ide of the board he lps to confine grou nd
included. currents.

show n in F ig 12.16. A h ipo lar tra nsisto r shown ) allo ws cal ib ra tio n in the fie ld. wi th little sh ielding. The si gnal from Q19
oscil la tor is followed hy a pa ir ofFET fol - T he transmit mix er. 7-;...rHI band pass i, TOuted to a keyed amp lifier. Q20 and
lowers : One d rives a bipo lar power a mpli - fi lter. and k F power c hain are show n in Q22 with output up to 0.5 W T he Q2 2
fin that then dr ives a d iode ring prod uct Fig 12. 17. A modest )\ 1-:602, US. works emitter resi stor is adj usted for rhe desired
de tect or while the other rou tes sig na l to well as the transm it mixe r. The B FO and driv e to the PA in usc. reo power amp li fier
the transmit mixer. A se parate keyed ca r- YFO sig nals are both con fi ne d to D.3 V de sign is sho w n. allowing the de s igner/
rier os c illator wa s orig ina lly used. Ho w- peak-to-p eak at the IC. This is a place b uilder to use wh at he or she needs . Spec-
e ver , this pr oduced a slight ch irp. An y wh ere me asure me nt is impo rta nt. for tral purity was meas ured wit h a hig h e ffi -
detectable ch irp was de emed intol er able. more is no t be tter. A triple tun ed ciency OS-W PA in place (See the W7 EL
so the des i gn was alt e red. Th e R IT is bandpass fi lter term in a ted in an un-keved "Pric kett" describ ed in Chapter 2). T wo
alway s activated duri ng usc. wit h the "ccn- amplifier. Q I9. follows the mix e r. The no n-harm onic output spurs fo und close to
ter" pos it ion pro vid ing a zero offse t sit u- circuitry fro m US throug h Ql9 is built on the 7-I\-I H z carr ier at the - 60 an d - 63 dSc
ation. A si mple crys t al ca lihrato r ( no t a separat e hoard wit h a lon g narro w shap e le vel s.

Fie ld Operation , Portable Gear and Integrated Stations 12.15

 T he produ ct detecto r drives a n audio ubiqu ito us L.:\1J 86. provides aud io o UI- extracted fro m a point that docs not chang e
prea mp. show n in F iA 12. 18. An input LC put. Byp assing 01 pin 7 improved powe r de le vel \\ hen keyed.
lo w pa~~ filter drives a fam iliar comm on supply rejectio n prob lems th at pro duced a L"6B with Q I7 for m a 6- Y reg ulated
base stage. followed by a comm o n emiue r thu mping sound with stro ng CW signals . supp ly . This is used i n the audio system a~
amplifier d riving a hig h pass LC filte r. L" 6l1 and Q 18 form perhaps the best side we ll as in the transm it mixe r. QJ4 pro-
The re« of the audio syste m is sho wn in ton e oscill ato r we have used . The op -emp vides a switched +11 Yin tran smit. The
Fill: 12.19. U4a and b form a 4-pole RC is a We mbridgc oscillator with back - transcei ver is bre adboa rded wi th no
act ive low pass fille r with II pe al al 850 to- hac k limiting diodes. Th e circuit is pr im ed ci rcuirc , a trO\\ing freque nt and
Hz..~ dB cuto ff at 1.3 kHz. lind a --l-O dK erose to oscill ation with a n o pen ke y. Ci r- convenient changes
response a r 3.3 kHz . Th is low pan i~ a cuit gain is changed hy FEr sw itch QI 8 Although this rig is fea tured here a.. an
wonderful vupp leme nt to the minimal . bUI whe n the ke y is pressed. Q I8 was picked ex perimen tal vehicle. it has done we ll in
carefully desi g ned IF crysta l fil ler . US torlow pinchoff of -1.5 V, The: relativel y e xte nde d ope ration for several ye ars of
provide s additional a udio gai n lind a con- small gain shift produces a sideto ne out- home u..e as well as several backpacked
ventent place fo r receiver muting, V7. an put tha t is free of cl ick s. Out put is Field Da y efforts.

1 2 .3 THE S7C, A SIMPLE 7·MHZ SUPER·HETERODYNE RECEIVER

Thi s receiv er bega n with a lo ng Jist of
goalv. It was to be a super-he terodyne
design, o fferi ng the baste selectivit y. sen-
sitivity , and stab iluy of the cl assic to pol-
, ~. 1 1 nlz

ogy. The desi gn was 10 use generic

devices. avoiding the marke t d riv e n
whims of ibe se mico nd uctor manuractur-
CT) . An adaptabl e cir cuit was de sired,
something th at could be ahe red for o ther
bands and modes. Lo w power cons ump-
tion was a goal. allo wing the circui t to
function for an e xte nded period with a
Fig 12.2o-Slo ck d iagram for t he 57C.
handful of AA cells . And. abo ve all elve.
it was 10 be a si mple design. suitab le for
both t he beginner and the sea so ned
des ig ner/builder. The resulting superhet To p ins ide vi ew of
e xamp le sho wn is fo r the 7- 1\1Hl CW t he si mple superh et
band . genera ti ng the S7C des ign ator , receive r. T he left
bo ard hou s es t he
A bloc k diagram for t he receive r is f ront- e nd mlxer and
sho wn in Fig 12,20, A cascode JFET t he VXQ. Th e bo ard at
mix er front is driven by a VX O . While the t he right co ntains the
luning range is rest ric ted, the ua billty is IF and cry stal filter,
e xcelle nt. The restric ted rang e simplifies Th e power connecto r
uses a quick
construc tio n, for no dial drive mec hanism di sco nnect no rm all y
is requ ired. The mixe r then driv es a two - u sed w it h audio
crystal filler embedded bet wee n two bipo - speaker c ab les .
lar tra nsisto r amplifiers . Th e outpu t is
routed to a prod uc t detector. audio a mpli-
fier. and head phon es.
Thc circuit, show n in Fig 12.2 1. began BFO. Q3. 10 lhe p ro~r freq ue ncy . ally substituted a fixed cap acitor in the cir-
with the cle ments of the "M icro-R! " The audi o and BFO sect ions were bread- cui t for CI. saving the trim mer for yet
Minimalh l Direct Con version Receive r boa rded o n a scrap o f circ uit board mate- anothe r proje ct . The bu ilder shoul d re view
presented in Chap ter 8. QI is an audio rial. a 7-\ lH z crystal was d rop ped in at Y2. the discu ss ion in Chapter 8.
o utput ampli fier dri ven by audio prea m- and the rec ei ve r was tes ted as a d irect Th e If a mp lifie r was built nex t. This
plifi er. Q :!. A crys tal co mrolfe d BFO. Q3. co nve rsio n circuit. The o rig inal Micro- R I des ign ob tains selecti vity from a double
provides the needed injectio n for a two- of Cha pter 1'\ was d rive n hy a link coupled tun ed circ uit using 1\\ 0 crys tals. The fil ter
diode prod uct detector . The on ly changes do uble tuned circuit. The lo w impedance is placed be twee n two feed back a mplifi-
of sig nifica nce a re the addition of a n of the link provi ded the lo w aud io imped- er". eac h followed by' a 6-dB pad. Each
audio gain co ntrol and a fe w co mpo nent a nce needed for prope r detector o peration. am plif ier is biased for a 3-mA em itter cur ,
value c ha nge s. The most signi fica nt of We add ed a rad io freq uency c ho ke (value rent with a 9· Y supply . Th e ampli fiers and
these is C4. which is larger tha n the va lue not c ritical ) to the circ uit to o bta i n the pad s a re designed fo r a character istic
used in t he origi nal direc t conve rsio n req uir ed gain . C f, a 5·65· pF trim mer impedance o r 150 U . a departure from the
receiver. T his co mpo ne nt was increas ed capacitor in the BFO allow ed "o rne tuning morc com mon 50-0 design". The prod uct
III provid e greater flexibil ity in setting the around t he cry..tal frequenc y. We ev entu- detec to r work s well when dri ven from thi..

12. 16 Chapter 12
 17-MHz LO I
Au d io

2 . lKI0: I 0:I0 t
FB4 1 24 0 1 or F T ll - 4 1
I
<"
nOK 4 lK 22
6~
= " OOK
H
C4 UU n 2 22

f ' '~¥-1 c:::::J x2 410

T1 : Radio Sh ack

1
Y2 41 213 -11 10

1-1~ Eoo
2 lK
03 02 1 0K
.
'"
n: 11034 ktt z 20 pF
load , HC- H .

nu PT C • Q1

QI - 06 , 211 19 04
or siJllilar Y2 , 3 ,4 : Mat c Jo. ~ d 10 MHz HC-49

'"" 10-MHz IF '"

."' '"" n
1--J
-= 4 30 '"
no
" ru
~3B
0 1, 1: 21144 16 ,
2N ~ 4 ~ 4 , 211 ~4 16 , m
TI S- Ii, J 1Gl , e t c
no ."' ~, ~, ix

7- MHz In put ~ f-t'Or-r-'O "

1

es
noI ~~O
~

. .ft
r.a 2101

"'~
T 1tG
1~~ IlL''ii_'~
~- 1.
ue

01
~

~ '""11 ~"'I

-1 10

Cl ,2 , 3 :
~I mix er
Vari ab l ~ (6~
no
1-= -=-
pF ) s e e t e xt

Ll , 2 : 23 t ll22 , n O- 2 t oro i d

Fig 12.21-Schematic fo r the 7-MHz s u per-hetero dyne.

T hi, emphasizes th e need for front -e nd

selec tiv it y. We' ll d isc uss this later.
The audio and T he IF system was bre ad hoarded on a
pr od uct detector
bo ard for the simple sma ll scrap o r PC hoard ma teria l and tecred
s u perhet re cei ver. with the pr odu ct detec tor. whic h had bee n
outfitted with a l t j-M llz cr yst a l Wh ile
detailed evaluatio n of the If' filler wou ld
hap pen later, we use d a sig nal ge nerator to
conf irm that the functio nali ty of the c ir-
cuit. The sing le sig nal res po nse was dr a-
ma lic, consi dering the circuit simp ficity.
The nex t part th at was built wa s thc
17 -~IHz VXO. Q6. This ci rcu it used a
cr ysta l t hat had heen spec ially ordered for
impedance , T he cr ysta l fi lte r was a lso de- should he within about 50 H I of each o ther, the de sired freq ue ncy , altho ugh t he cr ys-
sig ned for 150-n te rmina tio ns at each en d. Y2, the BFO cr yst al , is muc h less critica l, ta l is not otherwise specia l. We wished to
The builder should purchas e a few incx- for that frequ ency will bc adjusted with have the tuning appro xim ate ly ce ntered at
pen si ve HC-49 cryst als from one of the C I. See C hapter 3 for in form ation on crys - 7.040 \-fH/ . the gath ering spo t for Nort h
popular mail order so urces (Mo use r, Digi- tal filte rs. Amer ican Q RP ope rators. Our IF turned
Key, e tc.) Th e crystals are the n ma tched V..-'e used a lO-MH z IF in this example. out to be cen tered a t 9.91,l89 ;\I Hz, j ust o ver
wit h an oscillato r ci rcui t and a freque ncy for cr ysta ls were a vaila ble in our ju nk box . one kHz he low 10 MHz. Th e su m of the se
co unter. T he HPO (Q3 ) could e ven be used This present ed a pro blem, fo r lO-MH z sig- freq uencies is l 7.U3 I,l .\l Hl. VX Os tend to
as the test osc illato r if you don 't wish to nals from \VWV and/or WWVH leaked tunc upward \,..ith much greate r c ase tha n
build a se parate tes t ci rcuit. Y3 and Y4 throu gh the front end and could he hear d. they do dow nwa rd. so we picked a f re-

Field Operation , Portab le Gear and Integrated Stat ions 1 2.17

 Front panel view o f
the s imp le s uperhet.
T"-'
4 : III
~~~--+tl

Fig 12.22-Sing te tun ed mi ll er Input

c ircuit .

q ueue)' of 17.034 and ordered an HC-49

cased funda men tal mode crystal. speci fied
for u 20. pF load ca pacitance. The final tun-
ing runge for o ur receiver was fro m 703 0
10 7045 kl-lz (The crystal was mea sur ed
using eq uipme nt desc ribed in Chapter 7.
resulti ng in Lm e 3.72 mH and CO::: 6 pF.)
The builde r will nccd to pick a differe nt
c rystal freq ue nc y for co mparibilily with an n
alternativ e IF or targe t fre q uency. The
VXO wall' built o n yet anothe r scrap of cir- -co
I(ery$til
Ci lculi led
fi~e ,ilone)
~
cuit board. and was eventually moved 10
the brea dboard containing the mixe r. / \ ' I
The receiver is completed with a front-
e nd mixer. Several circuirs were trie d. pro-
1/ \\ I
ducing the cascode of two JFETs. Q7 and
Q8 . Th is mixer has no bala nce. '>0 it will
funct ion as an a mplifier. allowing input RF
/ ~
vignals to appear a t the output. Thi v i ~ the
rou te of the IO-MHz feed- thro ugh prcb- to1 •• sln1
I"'-
<,
le m memio ned earl ier. The mixer can a bo
become an oscillator o perat ing at the Ire-
que nc y of the input tank. This oscillation
was eas ily suppressed with the 2.2-kn re-
s istor in the Q7 drain circuit. If yo u en- ~"
co unte r a problem here. red uce the va lue " "
of thi-, resistor. A tune d cir c uit at T3 o n a Relativ e Fr eque ncy, kHz
powd ered iro n toroid would be a pre ferred
solu tion. Fig 12.23- Meas ur ed audi o o utp ut as a si gnal ge ner ator Islu ned through t he
recei ver. The ca lc u late d r espons e of the c rystalillter alo ne is s u perim po sed for
This mix er ha s so me strong vir tues. co mpa ris o n . Th e BF O wa s se t u p for a 1· kHz bea t no l e fo r thi s measurem en t .
First. it is qui et: We meas ured a lO-d 8
nois e fig ure with this circ uit. The cu rrent
i ~ low at abo ut 3 rnA. Very lillie 1.0 power
is req uired . allo wing d rive from si mple Virt ually any o f the com mon JFETs will e xpe riment thai is always pe rfor med with
osc illators. We found that the performance work well. If a h i gh~ r loss pan is used it a new receive r is a sessio n of listening .
is bes t with a ~ i g nal at the ga te of Q7 of may be wo rthwhile to experime nt with the The narro w ba nd width is effecti ve on a
about 5 V pe a k-to-peak. This circuit t, bias resis to r. mod eratel y crowded band . ~' et the use of
sim ilar 10 the popular d ual ga te MOSFET Th e mixer in our receiv er used a double j u,> t t .... n c rystals prod uces a bri ght a nd
mixe rv that were comm on in receivers in tun ed input circ uit . The front-e nd selec- lively sound no t co mpro mis ed by cxcea s
the 19 70 10 1990 nm etrame. w e meas ured tivit y elimin ated all traces of the fee d- filteri ng. The co n- tra ined gai n. modest ve-
HPJ 01' ... 5 dBm for this mi xer. ma king it through fro m WWV, Initial e xperime nt, lcc u vity. and lack of A Ge ma ke the
suitable fo r wide dyna mic range app lica- used a ",inglt' tun ed input. shown in FiA receiver especially useful whe n the
tions. 12.22 . An e xtern al lo w pass f ilte r (7 th -m-meter ba nd is do mina ted by the rhun-
T he mi xer i.... also brea dboarded on or der 7.5- MHJ: cu to ff C he byshev. see ders turms of late summe r.
."e rap.~ of PC board material. The ferrite Chapter I ) was the n effect ive in clirninat- Afte r a period of liste ning. \\, e meas ured
ou rpur rrancfo nn er, T3, is wound on a lo w ing ....... WV feed-throug h. A 1O- ~1Hl lra p the receiver a nd e xpe riment ed ....-ith so me
loss -6 1 co re mate rial , offering better gain (LC or crystal ) coul d al-,o supp ress the ahe m arive circu its. A 7-t.t Hz signal gen-
than a mo re co mmon --43 co re. The FET spunouv re spon se. e rator wa s applied to the receiver to deter-
ty pe used was a 2N 5454 , agai n a c hoic e mine the selectivi ty. shown in Fig 12.2 3.
dicnucd by the junk box . These parts had The single -signal c haracter is cle ar . The
I DSS = !()mA and VI' = - 3 V, Ho we ve r. Results and Variat ions respome null occur s as the gene rato r i ~
there is nothing special a bout this FET. Thi s rece iver is a jo y to usc. The fir xt tuned through zero beat. a result of the

1 2 .1 8 C hapt e r 12
aud io c harac teri stics. J- t-IHz s ig na l generator. wh ic h wor ked term inated in this position. T he additi ona l
We mea ... ured ~lDS of -138 db m with well. A simple si ngle transist or oscillator two cr~sta b should he freq uency match ed
th is rece iver. co ns!...te nt with the :'\F mea- w o uld serve in this application. to Y3 and y~ .
s ure me nt and an ove rall ban dw id th Some users wi ll want more selectivity. Ed Keesler. AA3SJ. built a si milar re-
slig htly narro wer than the 500 HI of she T he c r~sta l fi lte r co uld be rede sign ed to c ei ve r with inexpensive off me ..helv e
crys tal fi lte r. uce mo re c rystals. A simple atremauve cry slab for the IF and the VXO. In his
Th e stab ility of the VXO ",a~ excel lent. \\ outd add another cr ystal filter just lil e ve r- ion. he used 4.0 MH z for she I ~ .... ith a
but left us w o nderi ng w hat wa\ happe ning the fiTS t one . The impedance at the output 1.0 .11 11.046 -'1Hz. The LO uved a "super
dow n ju ...t a few k HI down the band. So. of T3 and the input imped ance of Q5 are VXO·· with two parallel ery'\tal\. a topol-
we te mporarily replaced the VXU w ith a both I 50 n . so the fi lte r would be properly ogy disc ussed in Chapter 4.

12.4 A DUAL BAND QRP CW TRANSCE IVER

T his trans ce ive r be ga n as an expert- Ba nd selec tio n he gin ~ with a mc chani-
ment to i nves tigate ele ctronic band c al switch in the nun.s mlttcr portio n of
switching met hods, h ut evo lved i nto an the circu it. The t hre e-section s witch se-
enjoy able Q RP rig . Thc su per heterod yne lect s the two ends of the transmitte r low
des ig n, Fig 12.24 . c overs t he 14· and 2 1· pass fi lters an d es tahlis hes ,II.: lines that
MHI C W ha nds with a n out put of two ro ute rhroughuu t t he tra nsceive r fo r
wan s. An available j unkbox 9- MHz cry ...- freq uency c omrnl. For ex ample. a line
ta l filt er prov ided receiver IF selectivity. label ed "+1 2(1 1)" pro vides + 1~ V
T his ci rcuit is de scri bed to illustrate ide as on ly whe n the rig o pera tes in the 2 1 M H l Fron l panel view of dual ban d
rathe r tha n fo r d upli cati on . ba nd . Ir anscel v er .

· u n !)
n IlU h_~
1..- 1/11
· r - - - - ----, - -·
' .•11 l2tz I l)o,t ect o~
~ Y
[>-...
.. ~' h-{} r-,
1 '-- I IR I~
rnl f I " dio

-= _ U ( 14 )
.., I ~, au
. . . .... . ---"'.::..:::-~ L,_ _.z,_ _.J
· 12H l ) I-CCCC'-- -1
t o Syslem T ~,

, a~ 1I
~,

m .. m .. m .. m m
_U eU)
.. ........ m .... ' ,, ~ _. I.....
1I_ t I!i..,~

FIg 12.24-B lock d iagram lor the du al b and tr ansceiver. The upper region is the recei v er w ith the t ransmitter at t he bottom of
the pag e. LO deta ils appear In th e mI ddle of the b lock.

Field Oper at ion , Portable Gear and Integrated Stations 1 2 . 19

Inside v iew of dual band tra nsceiver.
Mounted be low the VFO enc losure
are the LO cha in ba ndpass filt ers .
The PA is bolted to th e side of t he
box near the bandswitch. The t riple
tu ned transmiller ba ndpass fill er s
are along the lo wer edge of the
photo. Mo st receiver t rent-end
c ircu it ry is h idden be low t he
t ran s mitte r chain. A ud io, product
detector, and B FO circui t ry are along
the upper edge of the photo. The IF
amplifier is between t he VFO a nd t he
rear apron w ith the crystal f ilter
under the board .

Local Oscillator System

T he LO uses a S-\·fHl. LC oscillatorc u
mix er. and a 2S-M Hz crystal co ntroll ed
oscillator. sho wn i ll Fig 12.2 5. Th is por-
tion otthc LO resides ill a shielded box. A Fig 12.25-VFO, mixer,
signa l is extracted from the VFO resonator end c rysta l o sc ill ator fo r
to drive a common base bu ffer. Q2. The the LO system.
outp ut is app lied 10 a resistive pow er spli t-
ter with one output available at a coax ia l
--;:;--;:__--..~-_10 0 +1'v
connector . T he other o utput is filte red and
In [ ~~

app lied to a d iode ring mixer. tI 2. Th e

"LO" for that ring mixer is the 2S-.\l Hz
f ( Pa_ _ 6 "
cr ystal controlled oscillator which i s
activ e on ly when the IS-meier ba nd is sc-
lee red. Sig nal leve ls arc srubihzcd with an
8-V re gulator. Powe rs <Ire measured and
carefully established before the mod ule is
seale d. ideally with a spec tru m analyzer.
The mixer output is attached 10 coaxial
. " . I'/t
_ +1,
mu
~1D 1-T~ ( P a _ _ to

- ~,

I
ca ble with short leads and then to an out- ~ ,, " '~'"
put co nnector with th e desi red 30-J\IHl.
si gna l and a 20-\IHz image.
"To VFO
RF outputs from the oscil lator module
are applied to a fi lter boa rd, shown in Fig 1:-- 78L08 f-~~-
12.20 , The 30-\IHz sig nal dri ves a three-
sec tion bandpass filler . Feedback amplifi - "I -
ers QS a nd Q6 incre ase the 30-\lHz leve l
to + 1 1 dEm after low pass filt eri ng ,
The S-l\IHz sign al fro m the VF O mod-
ule is atte nuated in a f)-d B pad and the n t-
I"
I ' '"~,
J O MHz out

' 0 MHz mag e

... III
app lied to a seri es MOSFET switch , Q9.
Th is sv... itch is "on" only in 14-\ fHz opera - 11 zut. T~0-6

tion . The output is then incre ased in cas- L' , 13 : 23t T3 0 - 6

caded feed back am pli Fiers. Q7 and Q8 . and T1 , 10 bi h h r 1 FT _ 37 _H

low pa ss fi ltered. generatin g all ava ilable T 2: 191 T JO -6 , 4t l ink

power of + 12 dti m fur use with 14-MHz All c a l' S wi th C< 1 00 0 pF
operation The gain is s lig htly lowerin Q7/ ar e tw O Cor aJl\ic

Q8 than in QS/ Q6 . Only one of the two ><1421 2

ou tpu ts is ava ilable at a time. for o nly one

12. 20 Chapter 12
 · / . am , RlI Mi.e,

"~:~'"~:'~: ~"~"
F• • _" , C"" 26 4= '02
'00 0':l,,,:i \'OC~
I :I< e<m,
J:
' 1 d"m, '" M;• • ,

18 11 0

l'," _''''''', 3O_'

Fig 12.26-The L O si gn al s are process ed in t his board. The 30 -MHz si g na l is ban d pass f ilte r ed , am pli fie d, and low pass
f ilter ed. Th e 5-MHz signal is amp li f ied and low pass f iltered . Outp uts are combined w it h a O-d eg ree hybrid. Ano th er hybr id
sp li t s the signa ls, p ro vid ing +7 dBm for both the t ran smit and rec eiv e mixer s.

1 2 ( 14 MIIz )

'"" 1 4 MH z BI' F
,
, ., 10 :2
14 MIIz
" "
Inp u t
. , ,
:J 3 1 0 1 II"
~

r;H
-'-
2 . 7u
- "" T9 : 1 0 t 2t on F B- 43 - 6 3 0 1 MPN3 4 0 4 P I N
l/3 TlJI" -l

m
"" L l l, L I 2 : 20tj 2 6 , T3 0 - 6 na (16 1M )
MPN3 4 04 PIn

+12 Rec e h ' e

'""
1 1 2 ( 21 KHz )

-
LO In
., ,
"'
~.

30 MIIz
'"" 3.~

'1
21 MIIz
, L 21 MHz BPF
I npu t
., : I '""
,J 31 0 _
"
TI0: 1U h i~ i l a r tur n s F T3 7 -4 3

r- i a
$ '""
-"" 1.
2 . 7u 00

011
"" .L
r©,.:" L13 : Bt T30 -6

f~ L14 , L l ~ : 17t "28 , T3 0 -6

+ 12 Rece ive

Fig 12.27-The rece iver f r on t en d fo r t he dual b and tra ns ce ive r. PIN d iode switc h ing is us ed to select the bandp as s f ilter
outpu t a pp rop riate to t he ba nd in us e.

Field Operation, Portab le Gear an d Integr ated Stations 12. 2 1

 @--~"-<r-H XF9-M r-:----;--
,"1b !+l..J

c • • • • • • • • __

~16: 2 6~ nJ1, 26t MJ O 13 0 -6

Caoco d e JFET I F Am/.. :fr om
s i de
Chdp t e r 6 , Se c , 6 . 2 Tone I n

Fig 12.28 -lnput section of the cr y stal f ilte r and IF am plifier

f or t he transc ei ver. See text. Fi g 12.30-An a ud io output a mp li f ier fo r th e r ece iv er.

han k of amplifi ers is biased on . Suppres -

sion of the S-l\lHz compon ent during
2 1- \ f Hl. operation is improved with a
sh unt MOSFE T swi tch, Q1O. T he tw o out -
puts are co mbi ne d without sw itch ing in a
O-degree hyb rid bui lt from T7. Th e o lilpUi
would con tain both sign als if bo th were on
at the sam e time. T he re sulting output is Fig 12, 29-
split into two eq ua l, but i volated compo- Product detector
nents w ith ano ther hyb r id, T K. Th e re sult an d aud io
amp li f ier . T he
is a pa ir of +7-dBm signa ls for the two
emitter of Q28
diod e ring mixe rs in the receiver and trans - ma y be bypassed
min er. fo r ga in hig her
Th e harmonics are more than .'i0 d B
belo w the desired LO o utputs. and images
, -,"
tha n needed here.

". ~ I
are difficult 10 fi nd. Before the sh unt FET ~ ~ ''' 1U
switch , Q IO, was ad ded , som e 5-\-IHz " :--, ~

e nergy could be seen when the 30 -~'fHl ~1 ~ ~.. t~ ~; in m,

• - ,~ "" I " "'" I
component was domina nt. Howeve r. add-
ing the switch pushed the 5-MH z co mpo-
nent 10 the - 1\0 dBc leve l. Thi s is more
. 1'~;---;;;~"71>t
~
- I '.'''.,.. L::.....-....-
---L
~
I
.,"'....
"
T. 'od.i.
''''. ''
extreme than needed, hut instructive. '" -Lt '''' 1 "'~ ...~
•...-on
Re c ei ver Ci rc uits r
The receiv er is much like others we have
described. A lo w-ga in, moderat el y lo w-
no ise RF amplifier dri ves a diode ring
mixer. T he RF ampl ifie rs were desig ned wh ile the out put in the 21-I\'l Hl ci rcuit is des igne r/bu ilder may wi sh to add a trans-
for good input match rath er than lo west tuned. A pad (ju st over 3 dB ) drops the form er to ma tch betwee n the crystal fi lter
noise . A post mixer ampl ifier. Q1 5, pro- gai n a bit and helps to f ix the impedance an d the 2.2 H"2 origina ll y in place ; the
vides sign a ls to a crystal filter. A JFET fo r the fo llowi ng dou ble tu ned ba ndpass higher impeda nce will allow grea ter gain,
based Ir ampl ifier adds gain and provides fill ers. lower noise figure . and greater ffe xibility
a convenient place for AG e. An other The d iode ring mixer is fo llowed hy a in AGC threshold adjust ment.
d iode ring serves as the prod uct detector post mixer amplifier with modest current An early vers ion of thi s rece iver used
wit h a conventio nal audio chai n. of 18 rnA . This then drives the crystal fil- nothing more than a single Jf ET as the IF
The fro nt e nd. the on ly place where band ter and IF circ uit. shown in the abb rcv i- amplifier. On ly ma nua l IF gain control
switching is nee ded , is shown in Fig 12.2 7. ated circuit of Fig 12.2H. The input 50 il was used; mo st of the ove ra ll gain was
Each of the RP ampli fier s, Q12 and Q 14. is tra nsfo rmed up to 500 n with the L- obtained at audi o. Pe rformance was
is pow ered o nly when the re spe ctive band network sho wn. A variety ofIf amplifiers exc ellent fo r use in working o ther QI{P sta-
is select e d. T rau st sto r switc hes remove have be en used in th is c ircu it. most with tions. Ho we ver, we fo und it lac king for
c urre nt from the RF amplifi er s during low gain . Th e o ne prese ntly in use is that ge ne ral use when stro nger signa ls were
tran smit inte rvals from Chapter 6 using cascode connec ted rout ine. T he present sys tem incl udes AGC
MPl\3404 PIN diodes are used for band 1310 JFETs. T he original cir c uit was with an adjustable th resho ld
selec tion. T her e are sligh t differen ce s modifie d by chang ing the inp ut resistor to The dete cto r and audio system . shown
in rhe two RF amp lifi ers . That for the 510 n to prop erly ter minate the Ge rma n in Fig 12.29. is the "standard" use d
1 4 - ~ 1 1 1 /, band uses a ferr-ite transformer (KVG XF9-\1 ) crystal filter we used. The througho ut the book for dire ct conversion

12. 2 2 Chapter 12
 U,
22
78LOS

.'1
+1 2 T
~
} 2
- -
22

0" Hi t , TJ O- 6
Tl
L17 :
2K39 04
U.
- 1 3 dBm TUF-l
avai1ahl.I'
L1 8, 1 9, 2 0 ; 1 7 t , T30 - 6

L2 1 , 2 2 , 2 3: 20 t T30-6

.1
-j l---- - - - - -- - - -- - -----'
2 1 MHz 8 PF
' I B~O _ " 14Hz
"
"
1. 0
,
eo
~
" L1 8
L"
50

~-

2 .2
" ,~"
7~ ok
~o

~
L21
"I - ,~ lK

14 MHz BPF
4701P~
B=O. :I MH z
- - 1 00
LOO

+1 2 114 HJlz; )

Fig 12.31-Transmit mixer wit h PIN diode switc hed ban dpass filters. See text fo r details.

sy~ le m, and si mple supc rhcts. A T UF- I op-amp keeps distortion low. This circuit. syste m. BFO and IF shiddi ng wou ld borh
diode ring pro d uct detector d rive, a co m- with only 10 rnA in Q IR and Q 19. would impro ve performa nce.
mo n-base a mplifie r. T he second a udio benefit from increased standing current. re-
stage operates at a gain of about 0 .2. bill it ducing clipping that occurs with high output.
could be increased as needed. After the The rest of the receiver is rou tine and is Transmitter Details
aud io ga in c o ntrol, an o p-am p pro vide s not re pealed he re. T he c rystal co ntrolled A simp le heterody ne pnKCSSge nerales
vo ltag e gain. followed by a sw itcbablc BfO a nd sidet one oscillator are no r the output signals for the trans mitter,
peak ed luw pass filter with a Q of S. show n. This receiver mea sured NF= 11 sho wn in F I~ J2 .31. A 9-f\.tHz crys tal
The circuit shown in Fig 12.311 using plas- dB. IIP3=+3 dBrn. for DR=9J dB with a oscillat or is app lied as the RF signal to a
tic transistors and an op-amp will drive a 500 Hz bandwid th. The receiver AGe is diode ring mixer. The larg er drive at 5 or
small speaker. The high open loop gain of the deg rade d by HFO energy rea ching the IF 30 MH /, coni es from the LO cha in. The

Field Oper ation , Portable Gear and Integ rated Stations 12 .23
 .n ' -'0
'""
,.'"
n.
'u .~
•
t;;'1 '" .L

I no

!t~t"'rl
n -
,. o.
..
25(207'

II I:'"'~ -= -=- T . 21 MIl z n:

'"
•• 211186 6
,n . ~"'" ''' - U 6

410+
I "l'ut

...l..

IU n 2 ><2
-r-t - +12 (1 5M 1
____ S I C +1 2

" 1'"
~
" "" + 12 ( 2 ~

L l 2: ae IH , nO -6 L 2 4, 1 2 ' , 9t ' 24 , TJ O- 6 -=" to U ){liz IlX

fl1 , fI 2: 6 bi ~ i ~ a r t u r n a 1 2 6 , 1 27 : 1 3 111 24 , T3 0 - 6 I nput
11 2 6 , F II- ~ J- 6J O l
TI l : , bi tl1a r t u rn.
1 28 : ] . 3uH , 2 8 1 T ~O-6
ra u n.
12 6 , f ll _ B _ 6 J Ol 129: acn, 3, t T' 0- 6
114 : 4 t urns o n IIN-4 J - 20 2 LJ o, lJ1: 47 ' nJI , l Ot '22 , 15 0 -6
te r rl t e b&lun corr, t ap a t
3 t u r n•.
(0 . 1 Ch 2 3 MH ", )

Fig 12.32-RF po wer chai n for Ih e transceiver.

mixer output is then filtered in one of IWO The lo.l-\IHI do uble-tuned ci rc uit was 12.32. begins w ith a 3(~ ~1H z !rap, tuned by
PI\' d iod e switched bandpass filte rs. ch anged to a triple tuned fi lter wuh a band- compress ing turn s on L3:!. A two -stage
Th e initia l tra nsmi t mixer sys te m u~d width of 0.5 .\nh . The h igher frequ ency driver ampl ifie r then provid es the bulk of
double tuned circuits for both band... and had spur was now suppressed 10- 75 d tk and the the gain and adeq uate drive power for Q25.
no 9· MIIJ: 10\>0 pas s fil ler. Th e results " ere lower on e was lost in the noise. We late r the 2SC!075 out put stage. A wide ban d
interestin g. Although the 11 -l\lHz observed found some 30- M HI energy in the 21-.\fHz transformer. T 14. reflec ts a load of abo ut 28
ou tput was clean. there were vpurious ou t- ou tput. which prom pled a change to a triple n to the PA coll ector. Both dri ver stages arc
puts rela ted to the I +-MHz band. These oc- tuned filter for that hand a ~ .... ell. Xonc of keyed to prod uce a backwave below - 70
curredat l 3and 16 \IH 7_a[ ~52and -56 dB c. these results would eve r have been observ ed d Bc. Low pa~~ filters for both band s are sc-
The 13-MIIL spur was a 1:2 spur [hat could wnhourthe use of spect rum analyze r fo r [he leered with the mecha nica l hand switc h. A
he so lved with red uced harmonics in the ex periment. But the re..ult is a j ustification final 2J·\ fHI low Pil ~ ' is then added to the
9':\1H, drive. Th e higher freque ncy spur for using a triple tuned bandpass over a sim- o utput .
was related 10 a 5:1 product. (A :"i:I\.I spuri- pler double tuned circuit when one seeks im- We were still able to find two spurs in the
ous outpu t freq uency results from KxfLO prove d spectral purity. While triple tuning ou tput for eac h band. Thcy were. how ever,
+/- MxfJU-': Sec Chapter 5.) The third order uses more components. it b no more diffi - all at - 62 d lk or less. The worst harmo nic
low pass filter was added to the 9 -~l H z Rf . cull to dc sign or tune ar HF than one with was the 2nd when operating at 14 MHz at -
pushing the fin t spur to the - n-dSc level two reson ators. 63 dbc. With the e xception of the VFO. o nly
with no c hange in the other. The tra nsmitter power ch ain. sho wn in F ig incidental shiel d ing is used .

12.5 WEAK-SIGNAL COMMUNICATIONS USING THE DSP·10

Chapter I I ccntamed a n overview o f cations . In add itio n to the fo llo wing s um- cmbus iast. Simplifying matters fo r ou r
the DSP-I O DSP -ba sed z -me te r tran s - mary o f weak sig nal o pe rat ion. detailed co nsid eratio n here. the pri mary noi se
c eiv e r and she ass ociated audi o proce ssor. ma terial is a vai lable on the CO-RO'f tha t sou rce considered is the we ll -be haved
Th e published mate rial on this project h- acco mpa nies this boo l.. . ~ thermal noi se , al so know n as wh ite
on t he CD-RO.\l a nd has the det ail s nece s- G au ss ian noise (WG N) . T he "whi te" reo
sary 10 b uild and modify thiv radi o. An fc rs to th e flatnes s wi t h freq ue ncy and
in te rest ing app licat ion of the DS P- IO is Additive Noise "Gaussian" re fers to the probabi lity dis rri-
the pnlce" in ~ o f signals 10 a llow dere c - T he express io n \l eak signets is a rel a- burien. a bo call ed normal or bell -sh aped.
t io n of statio ns too wea k to he ar with the t ive te rm. Norma lly, the signal is re fer- WG N do min a tes the VHF a nd higher fre -
ea r. and to <l llo w c o mmu nica tion with enced 10 the rec eived nolve le ve l. O f que nc ies. bu t th i~ so urce e xte nds do wn
thes e stations a t very slo w data rates. This co urse . the nature o f this no ise c ha nge s into the HF band s a s wel l.
is an exam ple of what is pr ac tic al to wi th fre q uency an d cond itions. Int erfer- Thi s WGN is ad ded to th e signals
ac hieve usin g the pro gra mmab le asp ec ts in g sig nals an d stat ic fro m lightning ca n rece iv ed at the ante nna te r minals. T his is a
o f the radi o. As was disc usse d in the over- prov ide a complex noise environ me nt that res ult of our rec eiver being line ar. As was
view. the re are ma ny o ther possi ble app li - Is mo st challe ngi ng to the weak- signa l di scu ssed i n C hap te r 2. filt erin g c an

12.24 Chapter 12
reduce this add itive no ise. ..ina it is flat sidebands depend s on the vpeed with which • Ma xiuuz c the rransmi uer average
.... ith freq uency. Thi s giv'cs us a way to the amp litude varies. Faster c hanges pro- po we r by havi ng it o n co ntinuously
remove noise from signals. so lo ng a<, the duce videhands far the r from the carri er. In • Min imiz e the receive r (pre-detectio n)
band width of the signa l is less th an the add ition. the length of the tran smission band.... idth. con st-ae m with the signal a nd
filte r ba ndwid th. pa th will vary. again often rando mly. prop agation path mod ulation
Mov em ent of the refractive and reflective • Use detecto rs 10 estimate the signal
Signals and layers caus es this. In this ca,c. we have a mplitude at eac h frequ ency
phase modu latio n ( p ~t). aga in producing • Trade off time and sensitivity hy (01 -
Multiplicative Noise side bands o n eit her "ide of the ~ i gnal. low ing the detectors with lo w-p as" fille"';"
The vignal.. being transmitte d for weak - It is possi ble for the A.\\ and P ~l side - III provide averaging ( intc grano n j of the
signal work ca n gc nc rall y he c hose n to bands to add and caned in different ways signal a mplitu de.
occu py reaso nable band withhs.? S imple fo r those abo ve the carrier tha n for thos e T he perfo rma nce of the system was lim-
modulation methods arc the mo st e avily below . Co nseque ntly. the mod ulation ited by thc ava ilab ility of low- pass filler s
dealt ..... ith and can generally be used , An place d on the signa l by' the trans mis sio n t RC ne two rks ). suitable for ve ry lo ng inte-
e xamp le i" a vingle frequenc y ton e. tra ns- media is not symmetrical abou t the carrier gra tio n times. Bur as Poor poin ts OUI • .~ n
mined ror a pred eterm ined amou nt o f time. freq ue ncy. and ma y not 11lOk like a typic al lo ng a.s o ne ca n build a low eno ugh c ut-off
This <ignu! ca n he e xten ded 10 two or more modulat ion spectrum. As ,j modulation it to the filter. the ultimate sensitivity or thiv
to nes in order 10 convey informa tion a, is muhipficarive noi se and differen t from approac h is limited on ly by our patience
frequ e nc y shift key ing. This idea will he the additive noise just disc usse d. \Ve do for th c an swers to appe ar.
exp lored furt he r below. but he re it is not have the oprinn of removing this noi se Going to mor e than two freque ncies was
impunamro obs erv e that the rec ei ved sig · by filtering . sinc e lowering the ban dwidth not part o f the 1965 sys tem. but was known
nat is not generally an aue nuared versio n rCmU\CS the sign al along with the noise. to offer imp rov ement for com municatio ns
of that transmitted. Instead . a -, the signal Th e propagat ion medi a p laces a lowe r systems. It Tod ay the multi-tone filteri ng
pas se s thro ugh the trans rnivvio n medi a limit on the filter bandw idth usable with a ca n be pe rfor med hy di ..c re te Fo urier
(atmos phere. ionosphere. :>.I\)On re flec- narro w-band ~ ignal. transforms (sec Chapter 10). Lo ng-term
tio n. etc. j modulati on is applie d 10 the <,is- integratio n is cavily done in a digital co m-
nal. Th is is a kin to the mod ulated signals puter. The follo wing two examples. take n
descri bed in Chapter 6. A General Approach from the DSP- lO. sho w how the se idea_
As the signal pasvcs through the trans- A wo nderful pape r by K ~ N I0 1 0 ou l li ne.s can be app lied using DSP techniq ue -c .
misvio n med ia the amplit ude v·arih -in this weak-s ignal co mmun ica tions probl em
amateu r lingo. thi;, is QSH. Typically. this and proposes a practical solution that he
variat ion is rando m in nature, Wha t we and K SDK C de mon stra ted on 10 meter s. Example 1 • EM E· 2 for
haw is a signal with amp litude modulation Poor' s mod el for signa l and noise we rt" the Moon·bounce Echoes
( A ~ fJ. Freq uency sideban d" wi IIappear on o nes we haw abo ve and his co mmunica-
either side of the tra nsmitted carrie r as Yo ith tions system. built around RTn· and FSK . THE GOAL
all A!l.t signa ls. Th e freque ncy of fser of the applied these pr inc iples : A j-meter sta tion. wit h the ante nna

T he K3NIO Experiments
Th e 1965 ex perime nt re po rte d by K3NIO rep re s e nted be low. The normal 14 -MHz rece iver had improved
an early attempt at s ig nal proce ssing to re ce ive be yo nd selec tivity, provide d with a n a udio bandpa ss filter . Th e
the limits of the hum an ear. K3NIO a nd his coll a borator in a udio s igna l wa s a pplie d to a limiter , and th en to a
this effort , K8DKC. were RTTY enthusia s ts and had fre q ue nc y discriminator. The o utput from that circui t is a
freque ncy s hift key ing (FS K) equ ipme nt av a ila ble . The y oc le ve l indicat ing the freq uency of a lone moving
did their 14 -MHz e xpe rime nts in the la te e ve ning ho urs th rough the s ystem. The dc was filte red . or a ve raged
when the band wa s essentially dead. The tra ns mitte rs with an RC a ctive low pa ss filler with a t- Hz cutoff. The
we re set up for narrow FSK and ke yed with s ta nda rd CW o re s ulting dc then d ro ve a compa ra tor a nd a s trip chart
onven WIth an a uto ma tic keyer set lor a typ ica l speed of re corder . allow ing visua l copy of CWo
3 words per m inute . The two s tations we re se pa rated by The re sults we re d ramat ic. Essentially, they found it
500 miles. used th ree e lement Va gi antennas and 1-kW possible 10 mak e s low speed co ntacts, even wh en the y
tra ns mitte rs . The stations we re cry s ta l co ntrolle d to could not det ect the presence of a ny signal whe n
provide stability that was no t commo n in 1965. lis te ning to the receiver op erating in lhe normal mode.
Their receiving system is s ho wn in the block diagram

3-Ele menl
'oom
Audio Frequency
Band·Pas s D,sc;rim'nalor p,"
Fi ~", r Low-P ass Filler Recor der

y 2O·Meter
Receiver
~
~
~
Limiler I
!A ~
~
~
Sheer
=1
The rec e iving syste m used by K3NIO fo r his ea rly e xperimen ts . See te xt.

Fie ld Opera tio n , Portab le Gear a n d Inte g ra te d Stations 1 2 .25

 pointed at the Moon . can trans mit a pulse bandwid th to the limit set hy the modula- Thus. we might as we ll wor k w ith the
for rough ly two seconds and the n receive tion ofthc pro pagation path . On 2-met ers simple app roac h and that is a ke yed sine
the resu lting ec ho . This co mes had 2.6 this is gene rally I HL o r te» . Next. a ny wave.
seco nds after it was transmitted. as show n a mo unt of im pro vem e nt i<; possible by
in Fig ure 12.33. Add ing to t he challenge. pos t-de tectio n averagi ng that we call lo ng- PRE-DETECTION FIL TERING
if thi s " Moon -bo unce" station is of mode st term integra tion. This resu lted in a mod e The one-He filt e r for o ur system is a
proporti on s. the recei ved signab will be ca lled E\1E-2 that was implemented in the major c halle nge for LC co nvtruction , bUI
e xtre mely wea k. Fo r ins tance. a statio n DSP-1O software . as will be described is easil y accompli shed with the discrete
wit h 1\11 0 12-e1ement Ya grs a nd 500 W of below. However. before e xplorin g the se Fourier transform ( D fT) of Chapter 10.
tra nsmiuer power can e xpe ct to ~ee a n re cei ver con cepts. it is worth co nside ring There are ot her possib le OS P implementa-
ale-rage powe r return of about - 160 da rn. the t ra nsrnine r side to sec if we mig ht do lions. bu t the OFT pro vides a bank of fil -
Fo r the no ise levels encounte red on this bener there as we ll. lers that is usefu l for esti mating the no ise
han d the res ulti ng s igna l-to-noise ratio level and fo r the c ase that t he signa l is not
might he abo u t - 5 dB in a 50· Hl ha nd- TRANS MIITER WAVEFORMS rece ived o n freq uency for so me reaso n.
width. which is totally ina udible . Regard- Tn the discussion above. we deci ded il The filter res ponse of the DFf may not be
less. the goal of thi, example is to be able was des irable to inc rease the average the ex act match ed filter, hut the band width
In measure this and much weaker echoe s po wer of our tra nsmi tter by havin g it on as is clo se to pro pe r an d the losses for
coming hac k frum the Moon. Th e value. in much as poss ib le. Holding the key down improper shape are nut large.
additio n to xativfying a gene ral cu riosity. fo r two seconds and liste ning for abo ut 3 The DSP- J 0 imple men tation of rhc DFT
is allowing the measure ment of the sy stem i~ only on 40 % of the time. It might be has several band widths avai labl e, in step s
perfor mance of rhe station and the prop a- pos sible to trans mit on o ne freq uency for of two, with the narrowest bei ng about 2.3
gatio n path. 2 seconds and then move a r-.1 Hl higher Hz. This is not a funda mental restriction.
AS ;l reference poin t. we should exam- and tra nsmit for seconds two th roug h four . hut neith er docs it provi de optimal pe rfor-
inc just how we ll this "m argi nal" M oon- If the tr ansm itte r a nd receiver co uld be muncc . Those with a n Inte res t i n this area
bounce statio n can hea r his echoes. Hel p- sep arated sufficien tl y. either in a geo - might e xplo re using narro wer bandwid ths
ing the s ituatio n. the sig nal stren gth fades graph ical se nse o r by use of filtering. such by inc reas ing the sampling tim e inte rval.
abo ve a nd below the average return . T his as tha t of Fl\1 repe aters. this might be a
is d ue to the irregular surface of the M oon preferred me thod of o perat io n. HUI for LONG-TERM INTEGRA TlON
and the s hifting nature of the pa th. With mo st station s. the simpl icity of mere ly At each filt er bin of the DFf the powe r
some patie nce. the signal will appea r for a sharing a si ngle antenn a by mean s of an ca n be ca lcula ted as the sq uare of the
seco nd or <;0 at . pe rhaps. 6 dB higher level antenna relay is a n overw hel min g con sid- received e nvelope (see Chapter 10). Th is
or I dB SIN . Additionally. if the ante nna h era tion. The loss of a verage pow er can still power ca n be added up for a number of
along the Earth's s urface the- s ig nal be made up for by more integratio n. bins nca r that .... here the signal should be
reflected from the grou nd will some times The wa veform co nsidered he re is a co n- received. The bins on eithe r side a re es ti-
add to tha t co ming in directl y. adding as stant-freq uency si ne wa ve, keyed on and mates of the noise powe r a nd the ce nte r
much as 6 dB more to the s igna l. Now we the n off t wo seconds late r. generati ng a bin is signal-plus-noise power. From these
are up to about 7 dB Sf':\. . At thi s le vel. a pu lse. On e mig ht hope that a more ela bo- Iwo qu anti ties a n es tim a te of the signa l
pe rcep tive o perator will sense b)' ca r the rat e mod ulation wo uld he he lpful for stren gth alon e ca n be made . us ing o nly
prese nce of a Moo n-bo unce ech o . Ho w- ide ntifying t he ret urn ed signal. Radar subtr action .
ever. if the station is loc ated where grou nd desig ners have conside red this proble m A compficarion in continuing the inte-
refl ectio ns are poo r. such as a t the edge of for many years, In terms of dcrcctabili ty, gratio n proc e ~ s for extended periods is the
the forest. the echoes may nev er be heard . the theory of fers no encou ragement in this ch anging Dopple r shift of the return sig-
Looki ng fo r a way to use DS P to are a, The key fact ors are the power in nal. D In the DSP-lO imp le me nta tion of
e nhance the de tectabi lity of the echo, o ne the transmitted puls e and the care wi th t his proc es s. the Dopp ler ca lculation is
sho uld ex plo re the ele ment s o utlined which the receiver pre-detec tio n filter is quite el abor ate and acc urate to bette r tha n
a bov e. First. we na rrow the pre-detec tion "m atc hed" to the rec eived w ave fo rm . J? 1 Hz at z-meters. This allows the integra-

ApparentSJN Im p rov em ent

so
.o .>
Q
., P.. O "_f ". ~
»>
• 20

10
»> P."O._n'_,,_

o I
Fig 12.33- Tlming diag ra m s how ing the 10 '[I) HIXX) unm
two -s eco nd pul se being t ra ns mitted a nd 'COl
the de lay befor e the reception of the net euv e Time Re 'lUlrDd
wea k ec ho. This timing Is repea ted
every fIve seco nds for the EME-2 Fig 12.34-Th is is a co mparIs o n of the improvement In a ppa rent s lgna l-to-nolse
meas ure me nt mode. ratio for the pre-det ection filtering and long-term post-de tect io n integration.

12.26 C ha pte r 12
lion 10 c ontinue a~ long a" the Moon i.. co mme rcia l M: 2 ~ I X P28 prod uct used method fo r weak-si gnal co mmu nicat ion.
wit hin view . with a ho me- bui lt co mbi ning hybrid. has Looking ar the spectra l plot for E\fE-2
Th e remai ning cle ment is a means of ci rcul a r polarization 10 minimize the dcg- certai nly supports the idea that one m ight
di splayin g the rerum value . T wo ~ystems rad ations from Faraday rotauon.t> co mmunica te h'i lining up multiple Ire-
have prove n of va lue fo r E~l E- 2 . A simple The lower trace is the resu lt of o ne quen cie... eac h so meho w corre..pe ndi ng to
table of Ihe signal-plus-no ise e cumares. two -second-pulse retu rn. Becau..e the a portio n of a message. Th e reference by
e xpressed in d B. fo r 2 1 bins, ce ntered o n bandw idth of eac h OfT is wider than thai M urray G reenma n. ZL I BPU. pui ms OUi
the return freq uency pro vide s most of the ofthe pu l..e, there arc nine O FT' s involved the adv antage of using more freq uenc ies
data. Along wit h this is the numbe r of in gen erating this trace. T he am plitud e of tha n the two used by Poor. Wi th a n e ye
po wer values that have bee n integ rated. A the signal-p te..-noisc sho wn here is about towards pushing the li mits of slow . we ak-
graphi cal p lot of this sa me data also 6 d B over the avera ge noi , e and so mewhat signal co mmunicatio n. a modulation and
allo ws o ne to easily d igest the resultv of a stro nger than average . T he upper trace is codi ng system was implemented in the
le..1 and is alwa ys uvaila hle. the result of a vera gi ng 7 1 two-second DSP- IOthat applied rhe se princi ple s, T his
A co mparis on of the impro vement in pulse returns togeth e r. req uiring a bo ut six used -rj -tone mod ulat io n. ..... 'here e ac h tone
app arent ..ignal-to- noisc rariu for the pre- minutes. T he noise averages In it<; powe r rep resen ted a di fferent symbo l such as an
detectio n filt ering and lung-te rm post- at a ll freq uencies while th e sig na l-plus- a lp ha betic character. At the ti me a numbe r
de tec tion integration is sho wn in Fig 12.,,\J. nui ..e at tbe 3 ~J Hi line i.. abo ut 2,4 d B of different sc hemes were he ing trie d. and
For eit her method . the parameter deccrib- greater, After thi s many pu bes. (he signal this particula r o ne was nick named PUA ~3 .
ing the amo unt of Improvem e nt is time. return on the upper trace becomes H: r~ PUA..B se nds the sa me message repeat-
Expressed in d B. rhe rate of improve men t well de fined and the level of the return can edly . o nce o r twic e during each min ute. II
h twice as great fo r the pre-detectio n filte r- be me asured quite accurately. Th is sig nal is qu ite structured. The message le ngth ca n
ing. Th is ob vio uvly only applie.. to the ec ho was never heard by ca r. o nly be e ithe r 28 o r 14 sym bols lon g. eac h
e xten t that muhiplicatlve noise from the co rrespo ndi ng It) ..pecific t w o-scccnd time:
mod ulation path is not a limiting facto r. Example 2 • PUA43 for periods. T he nu mber of min ute.. Ihal the
mes sage is sen t is determined by tho' u-er c.
A SAMPL E OF EME-2 Weak Signal
g ivtng fl exibility for improving wcak-vig-
A number orre sts have bee n mad e us ing Communications nul copy hy uving ma ny rep e at- of the
EME -2 in the DSP- IO, These have veri- The wor k of KJ 1\I O suggests the pos si- sam e mess age.
fied the conc ept Ihat the amou nt of inte- bility of using the E1-..I E-2 ap proach with Po wer received fo r each of the _~ mbol-
g ratio n de termines the ..e nsi ttvuy and freq ue nc y-s hin ke ying as a modu la tio n is added ove r mu lti ple re peats . j ust a- "01'
the re is no uh vie us lower limit to (he pro-
ccss.t- One of these test fC SU I1S is ..hown in
F ig 12.3.5. where a re aso nably mod est 100
W was used by W7P UA wit h a vingle Yagi.
having a Ja-Ioor boo m. T his ante nna. a

Fig 12.35-This portion of a DSP-10

s creen shot showS t he graphical o utput
with the EME-2 mode Moonbounce
echo . Some e d iting has been done to
re move uo interes ting part s of t he
d is play. The ve rtic a l scale is re la tive
po wer in d B and the horizonta l sca le Is
audio pitc h in Hertz, The bottom tra ce
Is t he power ave rage of o ne return . The
upper trace resu lts fro m ave ra ging 71 of
t he lower tra ces togethe r. The ret urn Fig 12.36-Sc re en Sho t from DSP-10 s ho wing the rec ep tion of a PUA43 messa ge by
signa l has had its fre q ue ncy ad justed W7LHL. The signa l-plus- no ise to noise rat io of t his plot Is si milar to tha t of the
for Do pp ler shift an d a lways lines up EME·2 reception of the previous e xam ple . The frequen c y ba nd for th e 43
with the ve rtic a l line a t 323 Hz. The freq ue nc ies In use e xtends tro m 450 to 1238 Hz, corresponding to the OFT bin
scale is diHeren t for the two tra ces , spacing of 4.3 Hz that was be ing us e d. The la rge c ha racters a t the to p of Ihe
with 2 dB pe r d ivisi o n fo r the lowe r s c re e n a re t he most likel y possibilitie s. The smaller c haracters above them are the
tra ce and 1 dB pe r d ivision for the top s eco nd most likely. Va rious informati o nal items re la tive to bot h t ransmission a nd
av e rage d t race. At 144 MHz, t he re ceptio n ar e In the bo x on the righ t s ide of t he s creen. The straig ht line do wn t he
t rans mitte r po wer was 100 W a nd t he wat e rfall is a local Inte rfe ring s igna l th at Is being ig no re d by means of freq uency
a nte nna was a si ngle 34·foot Ya gi. random ization ,

Field Operation, Portable Gear and Integra ted Statio ns 12.27

done for each fr eq uency in EME -2 . Ex am- ing the noise leve ls across the band allows nu mber of terrestrial an d EME contacts
ining the power corres po nding to the 43 an y var iations i n gain to be corrected so ha ve bee n made using the PU A43 mode.
poss ible symbols generates the display of tha t they do not bias the symbul selection Perhaps on e of the more inte rest ing earl y
the 14 or 28 characters. T he mos t likely toward part icu lar freq uen cie s. Als o, EME con tac ts is that done Feh 25, 20() !.
(highest power) and second-most likely knowi ng thc signal -to -noise ratio allows by Erni e Manl y, \V7LH L. and Larry
symbols are d isplayed. The d isp lay color the confiden ce in a particu lar character Liljeqvist. W7SZ. on 1296 M H z using
dep ends on the co nfidence of the particu- being correct to he fo und. e nha nci ng the only 5 w o n each end. The antennas were
lar char acter being correct, based on the data p resented to the op erator. ord inary surplus T YR O dishes of 10 and
mea sured noise charucterisucs. A characteri vric of must we ak- sig nal l j-foot diamet er.
An example of signal reception is in Fi g schemes is a need for accurate freq uen c y
12.36. again on 144 M Hz. Thc waterfall dis - control at the tran smitter and receiver.
play (see Chapter 11) shows vel)' little evi - This mode wor ks best whe n t he frequenc y Further Directions
de nce of any signal being present. other than can be cont ro lle d within a Ic ....·' Hz. As was The OSP enhanced copy of weak sig -
an interferi ng signal that is coming straight do ne for EME-2. the PUA 4] type of modes na ls provides an alternati ve to bigger
down the waterfall at about 770 Hz. Thc copy c an be used for Moo n reflections wi th the antennas and higher power. One can
of the message, seen in large letters at the top Doppler corrections that are ava ilable in expect that various schemes will be dcvcl -
of the screen is the result of int egration of the DSP -I O. This adds a slig ht complicu- oped to use this capabi lity. These shoul d
power for 39 minutes . tion in needi ng to know the lat itude an d improve on the examples tha t are shown
Se veral pro visions of the P UA4 3 mode- longitude of both stations. here .
en ha nce the copy of sig na ls. E very minu te T he performance of this ty pe of mode Other ave nues exist that emphasize dif-
the freq uency corresponding to a par ticu- can be very good. A signal-to- noise ratio Iereru el em e nts of signa l p ro pagat ion, O ne
lar sym bol changes by <I pos iti vc offset that of - 10 dB in a 50-Ilz bandwidth will allow exa mple of th is is the work otJoe Ta ylor,
is the same for all sy mbo ls . T he frequ en- good copy of a me ssa ge in abo ut 6 min - K IJT with the W5JTprogram. 16 This uses
cies outsidc thc frequency band bc ing uscd utes . As noted abo ve. CV/ copy by ear a multip le freq ue ncy mod ulatio n and cod-
for t he 43 symbols are wrapped around to might nee d 1610 I g-dB higher lev els . Ad - ing scheme, called FS K44 l , that is opti-
t he bot tom part of this ban d. This random - dit ional time allows even lower signal-to - mize d to use b ursts o f si gn a l. su c h as
izatiun. ca lled stirring, causes cohere n t noise ratios, but quadrupli ng the time used occur wi th meteor scalier. Th is contrasts
inte rfering sig nals (bird ie s) to get moved only has the effect of douhling the trans- strungly wi th the ap proach of the PU A43
aro und to vario us symbols . rather than mitter power. Though most people will not mode that must grind out signal copy,
appe arin g as a fa lse symbol. Additionally. have interest in using extremely long time s based only on the av erage po wer being
there arc unused freque ncies between the for a transmi ssion . even a few minutes of recei ved. Each propagation situation
43 symbo l frequ e nc ie s. The se are for noi se transmiss io n will pro vide a ma jor im- needs to be considered a s a st ro ng de te r-
estimation and serve two p urposes . Know - pro vement re lat ive to audible copy. A mining factor in the system to be used.

12.6 A 28 MHZ QRP MODULE

One approach to ad ding new bands to
an ex isting low power station is to build
an add-on mod ule where a stand-alone
trans mi tter is combined with a rec eiv ing
converter. Thi s example in terface s with a
home statio n CW receiver (Chapter 6 )
with a 4-MHz input. This mod ule use s a
28 to 4-MHz rec ei ving converter and a
YXO ba sed 2g-MHz CW transmitte r. The
power output is pur posefull y confined to
I \V, adding sport to an already exciting
band . A single crystal provides a transmit -
ter tuning ra nge of over 60 k Hz .

The Transmitter
The transmitter shown in Fi g 12.37
begins with a YXO operating at 18.7
:\'IHz. Th is free running oscillator is even-
tua lly fr equen cy divided by 2, creating a
square wa ve . The third harmonic o f that
signaL at 28 ;\ I H z. is selected with a
bandpass filt er . amp lified, and keyed to
form the tr ansminer. The YXO c ircuit
with osci llator Q 1 was originally like
others shown in Chapter 4, providing Ins id e view of th e 10-mete r mod ule with t he VXO a nd t riple t uned bandpass filter in
abo ut a 40 -kHz tuning range at 28 M Hz . t he cente r. The receiver RF a mplifi e r board is at the bottom of the photo .

12.28 C ha p t e r 12
 -.
+1 2V
• f-- 0. 1

UIU5 2

» I
~

II
~ .• ;.J
.
_ S po t

C6 :
C9 : 5,6
e l O, H , I ? : 65 t ::ill
e ll , 13, 1 6 , 1 ~ : 33
<:12,15 : 2 . 2
C16: 15

.,
2M3~O '
' 1i'3906
f9
rn'
FMC

'r 1 137);; ~ri.: C ry;:~ 1 "'fS1 ~ 1', ,r lMfi t~~~ , from 2fCOOl 3 ~ 2 k>-Il:
.,~~ , ) ~ P "'1" 131 F urca", er(~I"C 4 9 , «pi' 1030

Fig 12.37-An l 8.7-MHz VXO (01) is freq uency divide d by 2 wit h Ul t o f orm a square wave. The thi rd harmo nic is selected
with t he band pass filter and amplified t o a t o-mnnwa tt outputlevef. T l is 10 b ifllar turns #28 o n an FT·3 7· 43. S1 is a wafe r
sw itch with Jow c ap ac itanc e. A l o g g le swi tc h should not be used he re .

Fig 12.38-An ev en larger tuning ran ge

is available with a se parate tuning
In !Side view 01 the 1a-mete r m odule . Th e VXO bo ard is below t he board c ontain ing control tor ea ch range. Cv _ is
the rest of the tra nsmitter. Th e output low pass filter and T/R relay are on the sma ll selected fro m the Junk box to have
boa rd at t he up per right. The delay co ntrol Is on t he sid e panel. a low minim um capacitance .

Th e cir cu it was modified to use tw o ea ch ran ge. This varintiun is sho wn in Fig is a 2N 3866 with a 1-1l emitt er de genera-
ra nge s and now runec f rom 28.000 10 12.38 . Expe rimenta tio n is almost alwa ys tion resistance. A 7-c1emenl lo w pass f il-
28.062 1\IHI with the available co mpo- usef ul with VXO circuits. t w c measured te r follows the transm in er, suppressing
nents. The low end of the band is tuned our crystal as havi ng L m= 3.0 1 mH and harm onics and other spur ious rt'spo n.ses.
when 5 1 inserts a ...eriev induc ta nce in the C o=6 pF.) T he only har moni c obser ved was the sec-
circuit. Exp cnmem -, showed an even The trans mitter co ntinue... in Fig 12.39 on d at - ll9 dBe. The I8 -MHz output is
larger up ward ran ge WOJ'" available if a with a driv er usi ng a parall el pair of pr esent in the output. but at the - 73 dBc
...e pOJrate tuning capacitor wn ... used for 2N ) 1J04trans isto rs. The power am plifier level.

Field Ope ration, Portable Gear and Integrated Stations 1 2. 29

 I!': nx

'~V~~~~?il
- I Ll .I L2 -.L 1.3 -.L Y
0.1 2.
) 2 N39 04
• 12l 1 21 5
215J 12 ~I ~
" --)". TTl.
02
6 8~ .--------. 0 . 1
t # 2 6 , FB4J- 24 0 :
~ ~

221
1
c.a -t-
I
i>-j f--
~OO 1 '1 0 0
~
= T2; J t c .tc.r.e r t # 2 6,

+12
= 11 , 1 3 : 365nE:, 9: ,,. 2 2 ' 3C- 6 11 0K 1 0}; $ ""
1. 5K Q7
1·---;
:<: /3:
__

Fig 12.39-Th e tran smitter po wer

ch ai n fo r the 28-MHz sta t io n. The
T/R rel ay was a 5-V fast act ing
::'2 : 4 1 0r.E , l Ot #22 TJ O- 6

1 4
+lj;f. 47~.' .5 '~! E :<4jt }~1
11141 52 . ·
__ _

~
<:>

400l
'"

Q6 I
) 2 1153 22

~
j unk bo x ite m ; a suit ab le 12-V Y 1K Q5
sub st it ut e is the Nais DS2 Y·S·
DC12V. Hold-in lime is set w ith Key Ll n-=--.J
I 1-=-" 2N390 4
\ ~~~ - + Res
r.e eoe a
t he t n-kn pot.

Receiving Con ve rt er
A d iode ring mixer is the basis of the f ilt er. The mixer is pres elected with a
rece ivi ng co nvert er. dri ven from a double tuned ci rcu it.
c ry sta l-controlled osc illator using a An Rf ampli fier is incl uded in the
32 -MHz th ird -overton e oscillator. T hc receiver. We used a ci rcuit left from an ca r-
post mixer ampli fie r is a com mon ga te Iier effort employing a dual gate ~10 SFET .
J FET with a dra in current of about A common gate JFET, described in Chapt e r
13 rnA. 1\ narro w bandwid th 4-MHz o ut- 6. would be ideal. offer ing low noise figure
put fee ds a wide band wid th band pass with less gain.

Fro nt p anel view o f the 10-meter

modul e.

12.7 A GENERAL PURPOSE RECEIVER MODU L E

T his mo d ule is e vse ruiully the heart of a ca pacito rs and co ax con nec tor v effec - ter amp lifier. Q3. follows this. At this point
d irect co nversion re cei ver. A TUF-3 tivel y red uc ing spurio us respo nses from the user could exit the board to drive a vol-
diode ring was c hose n fo r improved per - loca l VHF si gnals. ume co ntrol and/or LC filter . This
formance atlo wer frequenc y. alt hough the The schematic is shown in FiA I2 All . A option is shown in Fig 12.4 1. The filter is a
T UF- l will fi t the board . The mixer is Iol- luw pas s fi ller using a ferrite turuid induc- three cleme nt high pa ss con figured to sup-
lo wed hy a n LC lo w pas s fi lter and a n tor foll ows th e ring mixer. Th e one we press freque ncies below 300 Hz. A low pass
aud io amplifie r chain using a mixture of used wa-, ~\ pre -wound 55 -I.lH pari fro m co uld be cascaded if desired. We have used
bipo lar transistors and op-am ps. Muting thej unk box, but wo uld ideally use hig her the board withou t this filter. Ideally, thc sig-
circ uit ry. an RC active low pass filte r, an induc tanc e with a larger co re . An increase nal after the high pass filter. if used . would
audio att cnuator. and a sidc rone oscillator in the valu e ofC2 wou ld then impro ve the exit the enclo sure on a feedthro ugh capaci-
arc incl uded on the single hoa rd. lo w p<Jss fi lterin g. T he toroi d for m is pre- tor. The rest of the ci rcui try (de scribed
T he modu le works very wel l as a dire ct ferr ed , for iLis less susceptible to hum below) would the n be bu ill on 11 separate
con versio n receive r, Careful attcntion to pick up tha n thc oth er ind uc tors often used. board witho ut shielding .
gro und ing i n the ea rly aud io stag es ha s A resistor, R l , pro vides a termination for The f irst o p-am p st age incl udes a FET
elimi nat ed many of the tradi tio nal proh- sum produ cts e xiting the ring mixer. switch fo r receiver mut ing. An RC act ive
lerns e nco untered. which were de scri bed The audio amplifier begins with a co m- lo w pa ss fi lter . Ll l b. follows this. T his cir-
in C hapte r R. T he boa rd is si zed to fit in a mon base stage offering a 50-.n impedance cuit is prog ramma ble by t he de sig ne r!
Hammond 1590B box with feed thro ugh to the mixer. A degenerated co mmon emit- builder. The response of the filler alon e

12.30 C h a p t er 1 2
 +6V
Q2 "" ... Active Filter
... 12V

'"'l " L~-

21'0 904 shown

. ., .I:::- 9K

.
)' 22

'.
'"
39k
,.
wi t h SSB pa r ts .
'"
' ,,\, l
'"
6532 -r-r en 5532

~,:~~
6 Sk 10k QJ -=- 100
on U1a lJ2A
a .n 5 U1b " 58
8 2~ -
• <.
6.8K

Q.
as =
J310
,,.
J.
..
TUF.J
," r Hili!g

=
J310

l ~ i! O
100

lOOJ
••

cIT Mixer 1011. 10% 151<

••

..
Mute ... 1 0n . l ~
.. '"T
.~ ~
IT • '" "Attn"
,~
(Gain Out
Srlltch) + 12
-o6V ~
'~
Vi ....
+1 2 QI 01 lN4 152

." ~ 1Me9 ~ (><2)

1 ~~ 06
Key 03 J310

lMeg

Fig 12.40- Gene ra l·p u rpo se direct-con ve rs ion rece iver.

,. . ..
-
.. . ' .' L _~ , ,~

• ,. L ~' .~ ,

'-
Fig 12.41-0ption with an ad ded aud io ga in co nt r ol. A ls o Fig 12.42-ealculated r esponse for low pass fil ter with th ree
shown Is an LC high pass f ilte r. The alte red o r ad d ed d iffere nt compon ent valu e sets.
co mponents are h ighlighted .

Field Oper ation. Port ab le G e a r and Integ rated Stations 12. 31

 A s hot o f t he
mod ule ins tall e d in
s h ie lded e nclosu re .
A bo x bu ilt from
c ircu it board wou ld
a lso work we ll.

Ge neral purpose d irect conve rsion

mod ule conta ins a d iode ring mixe r,
aud io amplifier, act ive aud io filte r, ga in
program mable active filter, a nd
s idetone oscillator. Th is board is
Table 12.1 no rma lly mounted ins id e a shielded bo x
with coax connectors and feed-t hrough
Gene ral -Purpose Re ceiver Modute-cccmpc ne nte fo r capacitors fo r all inte rfac e s . Two
the Low Pass Filter boards can be used for a binaural
Bandwidth an d Shape R 18 and RI9 C 12 C 13 recei ver .
3 kHz fl at 8.2 ko 10 nF 4,7 nF
1 kHz fl at 22 kn 10 nF 4. 7 nF
Peak at 700. Q~3 12 kn 100 nF 2.7 nF

(witho ut the rest of the receiver] is sho wn

in F ig 12.42 for three co mponent valu e
sets summarized in T a h le 12.1.
An inverting amp lifier. lI2A . with a
ga in thai ca n be swi tc hed wit h an external
sig nal. follows the ac tive low pass fi lt er. A
l2-dB ga in step is available wi th the com-
po ne nts sho wn . Th is op-amp has en ough
output to dri ve lo w im ped ance head -
phones ,
The remaining half of lI 2 serves as a
stde to ne oscillator. This Wein brid ge
topology was use d in the " U nfin ishe d"
tran sceiver di scu ssed elsewhere.
Th en: i s considerable fl e xihility ava il-
ahle in th is des ig n. If a sim ple r recei ver is
needed. U t b is cap able of dr iv ing head -
phones. all owi ng Ul to be eliminated.
Fig 12.43-Vie w of t he component s ide of the c ircu it board . Copper ru ns on both Ga in can he programmed in the se co nd
s ides of the c ircu it board a re s hown. The bo ar d la you t is do ub le s ided,
audio stage wi th changes in R 1O. in UI A
throu g h-h ol e plated, an d was done with the p rog ra m Express PCB Version 2.1.1
found at www.expresspcb .com. th ro ug h R 15 and R I 6. and in lI l A
WI: have used the se modu le s in three
diff e re nt receiver typ e s. The first is a
simple dir ec t conversion rec e iver w her e
the ci rc uitr y and perfor manc e are ve ry
much like tha t o f the \V7EL clasvi c , 0 lo ng
as the board is well sh ielded and used with
o a well isolated LO . Second, we have used
a pai r of these as a bin aural rcccivcr.!"
Fina lly, the bo ard has bee n a hand y " ta il
end" for seve ral sup erh et rigs. A pair of
c the board s coul d be use d 10 bui ld a pha sing
c
receiver. altho ugh there is probably 100
much sel e ctive circuitry in the ve rsion
sh own . en couraging a redes ign using the
guidelines otCbaprcr l) , The PC hoard lay-
out used is sho wn in Figs 12.43 and 12.44.
Repe ated bui ld ing of the sam e des ign ju s-
ti fie s a printed bo ard . Th e name on the
boa rd. "Roy -Rx." ind ica tes that this is a
Fig 12.44- This view is identic a l to t hat of Fig 1 2.4 3 , b ut shows onl y the run s on variatio n of the Roy Lew alle n des ign from
the o pposi t e s ide of t he board. QST, A ugu st. 19 ~W . 1S

1 2. 32 C hapter 12
12.8 DIRECT CONVERSION TRANSCEIVERS FOR 144·MHZ SSB A ND CW
These transce ivers ",'ere built using pro-
totype ci rcuit boards during the develop-
men t of the line of prod ucts sold by Kanga +1 2 V +12 V + 13 dB m
US. Th ey ill ustra te differ en t packaging 18 to 230
6 to 25 MHz
MH,
tech niqu es. and also snme ofthe effort that
goes into moving from prototype or ugly
construction to a commercially avai lable
productio n circuit hoard. Both transcei v-
VXQ
I XN
Split
• . I
Shift
ers use identica l circuitry. and the basic N = 3.5,1 or 9
design is intended as a tun able IF for mi- Q
crowave tran svcrtcrs. A wooden box was Key
cho sen to i nvestigate the problems that re-
sult fro m hav ing no shielding at all around
the circuit board s. The radio works well as + 12 V
a tunable IF. but is subjcct ro hum and noise
pickup when d irect ly co nnec ted to a
Keyed +12 V
nearby. non -directional z-meter antenna. DC
It works fi ne on the z-m eter hand . how - PIT , Sem i-Brea k-In
Switch
ever, with a small Yagi 10 mete rs away. Ant Relay
and pointed away from the transceiver. The
version built in the gray stee l chassis has
no shielding between PC hoards . but is well
shielded from the outside world , It works
Key ~ PIT

with a whip antenna, but has so me micro -

phonics that are not present in direct co n-
l
versi on rigs with more extens ive shield ing.
The circui try is all on three printed ci r-
cnit boards . T he block diag ram is shown Fi g 12.46-Block diag ram of LM2 PC board, w hi c h co nta ins the VXQ, L NA and TR
in Fig 12,4 5. T he miniR2 an d T l PC sw itching c ircu its .

+ 12 V

I
I

Q 0000
Volume
RF
5 dB NF
+3d Bm C
rir
1M' ,i, ,i, RF Mini R2 r
"0
He aophones

1:i
l- I A
270

Main
T uning
L Mute

10<

1
Side +fV
r
Tone
~ I
PIT

~
~
Q
T2
--:?J Mle

~
Fig 12.45 -Block d iagram of d ir ec t-c o nve rs io n 144· MHz SSB/CW transceiver.

Field Operation, Po rtable Gear and Integrated Stations 12.33

 ",
CW Off,., I RIT

r;_ _' , ,_ - - , ,_ _ , -! .,ZV <lc

Sw Ooh

'"
p ' ","""

Fig 12.47-LM2 schematic 1.

Fig 12.48- LM2 sche matic #2 and parts C9 See Ta b le 12.3 L1 VXO rang e in d uc to r , 33t T37 -2
li st . Cl0 See Ta b le 12.3 toro id . See Te xt.
R1 4.7 kO ell 0.01 IlF disk ceramic L2 See Tab le 12.3
R2 10 «n e 12 4.7 1lF tanta lum L3 See Ta bl e 12.3
R3 50 en Tri mpot Panason ic 3GC C13 10 ).iF electro lytic L4 See Table 12. 2
seri es C14 0 .1 l!F Panason ic V se r ies L5 See Table 12 .2
R4 47 kO C15 22 l!F tanta lum CW se mi-break- in L6 See Tab l e 12.2
R5 100 en de lay L7 6 turns FT 25-43 fe rr it e to ro id
R6 1 Mil C16 0.1 l!F Pa naso nic V series L8 See Tabl e 12.2
R7 10 kQ C17 0.1 l!F Panasonic V seri es L9 See Table 12.2
RS 10 en C18 0.1 l!F Pa nasonic V series L10 See Tab le 12.2
R9 33 n C19 22 pF c h ip L11SeeTabl e 12.2
Rl 0 22 n C20 0.01 l! F c h ip L12See Tabl e 12.2
R11510n C21 10 l!F e lectrolyt ic L13See Table 12.2
R12 3.9 xn C22 See Tab le 12 .2 L14See Table 12.2
R13 51 n C23 See Table 12.2 01 1N4 146
R14 4 .7 kn C24 See Tab le 12 .2 02 MV2 107 or s im ila r t uning d iode
R15 10 kQ C25 See Table 12.2 03 4.7-V Zener
A16 4.7 en C26 See Tabl e 12 .2 04 1N4146
A17 10 kn C27 See Tabl e 12.2 05 1N4146
R1B 4.7 en C26 See Tabl e 12.2 06 1N4146
R19 10 kO C29 0.01 J.l.F c hip 0 71N4146
A2D 4.7 kn C30 0.0 1 J.l.F chip 061N4146
A2l 10 kO C31 See Table 12.2 o91N4148
R22 10 kQ C32 See Table 12.2 01 2N3906
R23 1 MO chip C33 See Table 12.2 02 2N 3904 o r PN517 9
R24 120 n 1/2 W C34 See Tabl e 12.2 03 2N3904 o r PN5179
R25 100 n ch ip C35 See Tabl e 12.2 04 2N3906
R26 100 n chip C36 See Tabl e 12.2 05 2N3904
R27 51 n c hi p C37 See Table 12.2 06 2N3906
R2B 5 10 n C36 See Tabl e 12.2 Q7 2N3906
c t App rox 40 pF var iable Main Tu nin g. C39 See Tabl e 12.2 062N3906
See Text. C40 See Table 12 .2 U1 78 L09
C2 Upper f req uency limit or C41 See Table 12.2 U2 78 L06
t em pe rat ure cornp. See Text. C42 See Tabl e 12.2 U3 74AC04
C3 RII ra n ge set. See Te xt. C43 0.01 J.l. F chip U4 MAV-11 o r MAB-4 . See Te xt .
C4 0.1 IlF Panason ic V series C44 See Tabl e 12.2 U5 Taka splitter
C5 0.0 1 Il F di s k ce ra m ic C45 See Table 12.2 U6 Taka splitter
C6 See Tab le 12.3 C46 See Tabl e 12.2 U7 MAR·6
C7 See Tab le 12.3 C4 7 See Table 12.2 K1 OM RON 65V -2 -H
C8 10 I1F electroly t ic C46 See Tab le 12.2 X1 Cry stal Se e Text

12. 3 4 Chapter 12
 +12 Multiplier
u,
R" co
C29 J; ceo +13dBm
0"'
vw R" 1 I
o
:t"
L7 +10 dBm
C22
C" Coo
~( I ! 1( , ! I(( -r,-
-,, ,
I I f""L:"".7"l
,, ,, C27 U3 C31
,,r C 3<

,, ,,
, I

" L6-l e 28
l C32 L
l C35 R"

-n C36
0"
s: Frequency Multiplier
,, ~
o Splitter
,,
1ii ,
-;:
,o· ...!C37

-e +12 R ~
0.
ir
0-
o C<O
C431 ';4 6

'"m"
'
,, - - ,,, ,,
rearnp
C38 r -- , :*:: C4 1

!& p
"'
-- , ....L.
CM I C4 7 q, Shift
,• '"' ,, ,,
0.
, 1 '!.... , l121, _J Out

~
;:
~
en
1 R" r C39 u, C42

Receive Preamp
lC45 L14

1C
48

,~
0.

•
~

....
!"
Tab le 12.2
Filter and Phas e Sh ift Co mpnents
All chip ca pacitor values are in pF, 1206- or oaos -serres Panason lc. All ind ucto r values in nH , MC122- or MC 134-series Ta ka
with case .
Frequency (MHz)
Componen t 18 21 24 28 50 144 222
C22 56 56 39 33 20 3.9 39
C23 68 68 47 47 22 5.6 3.9
C24, C26, C33, C40, C46 10 10 10 10 5 1 1
C25 120 120 76 68 39 9.1 6.6
C27 , C3 1, C34. C38, C4 1, C44, C47 180 180 120 120 56 12 8.2
C2a , C32 . C35 , C39 . C42, C45
C48 390 390 270 270 150 47 27
C36 , C37 180 150 120 120 68 22 15
L4 . LS, L6, L8 , L9. L1 1, L12 , L13 . L14 422 422 422 350 226 108 53
L10 422 383 350 291 159 53 32

bo ard s have bee n pre vin uclv de scri bed in L.\I2 hlock di ag ra m is shown in Fi g 12.46. the wood -bo xed tran sceiver, an d Fi gs
QST l'u OTh e L.\11 PC boa rd cont ains rhe F i:;:s 12,4 7 and 12.48 are the L\12 sche- 12.5 1 and 12.52 arc the version in the
VX Q, LNA and T R swi tchin g circ uits . Th<: mancs.Jn Fi:;:s 12.49 and 12.50 you' ll see me ta l cha ssi s.

Ta ble 12.3
VXO Co mpone nts
All ca pac itor va lues are in pF, Panas cnic 100 V COG. monolithic cer amic. L2 values represent the suggested numbe r of turns on a
T37-2 to roid co re. Adjus t fo r max imu m ou tput ac ross son. L3 values are in pH using a JW Miller epoxy co nfor mal coated iron co re.
Frequency Range (MHz)
Component 6-8 8-10 10 -15 15-20 20-26
C6, C7 220 220 150 100 82
C9 150 120 82 68 56
Cl0 680 56 0 39 0 330 220
L2 24 21 19 17 16
L3 18 15 12 8.2 6.8

Fi g 12.51- The Meta l Bo x 144 -MHz tra nsceiv er .

Fig 12.49- Wood Bo x 144-MHz tra ns cei ver,

Fig 12.50- An int eri o r view of t he Woo d Bo x 144-M Hz Fig 12.52-An ins ide lo ok at t he Met al Bo x 144-MHz
t r ansceiv er. t ran s ce iv er.

12.36 Ch apter 12
12.9 A 52·MHZ TUNABLE IF FOR VHF AND UHF TRANSVERTERS
T his trans ce ive r was designed and bu ilt
10 se rve :l ~ the base statio n tunable IF fur
weak sig nal SS B a nd C\\' DXing on the
bands fro m 222 thro ugh 23O.t Mj-lz. It is
mount ed in a large rac k-mo unt bo x, a nd i-,
connected 10 a set of rack mount
transv ertcrs. A fro m- panel sw itch sele c ts Fig 12.53 - The 52 -
MHz IF transcei ver
the desired tra nsve rter. The tra nwerters
in ope ration.
pro vide 100 -w o ut put on 222 and -132
MHz. 10 W on 90 3 ~fH l , 15 W on 1296
MHz and -I W o n 2304 MHz. with less than
2-d8 noise figure on each band , 52 MHz
W <lS cho se n fo r the IF because it is not har -
mon ica ll y rel ated 10 an y of the desired
band se gments. a nd there is no C W or SS B
act ivity near 51 ~fH 7. to cause IF break-
throu gh proble ms .
FI~ 12.53 is a photogr aph of the If trans- in a steel chassi.... The fil ter... a nd preamp The LO phas e shift adju st ment s and
cc ivcr in ope ration. and the bloc k d iagram a re in alu minum Ix n.es with screw-on CO\'- a mplitude trim me r adj ustments arc acce s-
is shown in F I ~ 12.5.& . Modu lar construe- ere. The rece iver and exciter eac h has its siblc o n top ofthe shie lded enclos ures. but
tio n is used . and e ach mod ule is mou nted ow n i ndependent phase-chi ft nerworl..with af ter initia l a lign ment they ha ve re mained
in a shie ld bo x. Th e T~ exci ter and LO an a ir-va riable phase trim ca pacitor. hard- untouched during the 6 ) ears (and a muve
mo d ules arc build in boxes solde red up wired d irec tly to t he rece iver or exciter half-way across the cou ntry) that the rig
fro m PC boa rd material: 'h e R ~ recei ver i... circ uit bo ard, has been in service. De ta iled sche mati cs

__ ..........
._------------_.Mo _

r€>- ~~
.~
f<'>1@ O@f0-
@ LNA,@ .... ~

-0- ..
, ~

~ f0
..... ~
~
:
R2PC
Board
*0
--i .~
:
:. L-i .
0-B 0-0
• 0-0 0-0
~ j, 52M H, ,I I •
0- ~ I~ TA ..............._._ .... _.. SwCeN<l ...n"""".... AX.,.." ~ quad hybrid
~ ~ -0- relay M 'kHZl P
T2PC 1--7<.' :
~k.Y
r.~:~:~~.h
fA biu T
Board
I ••• . . .
• ..
52 MHz :l l TXatrim ;
: quad hybrid :

. .. . . . . -
TX. tnm

• .... _._- -_ .. L-7-~

..... _-_ ...._........ _. .. .. . . . .. _........................ • . .... ~ "' -
~c ~ ~ H>-
-"- -"- -"- ~ "'2T
VFO
-;- SBL-1 @ @ @ PIN
r-< ,'2R
5 U· 52 _ _
~ _~ ·. _ ~MHz

.... --- :J -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- .-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --. -- -- .. • .....

~
.,:-......." ....-....:
' :l~

~ I~ LM -2 Board r<;
~

~ ~ •
: f-:< ow .,
U-5 Mtu_
: . .L-- I: .L.--L--.:
_ lIlT .'2l'l .llT

FIg 1 2.54-52·MHz IF transceiver bloc k dia gram .

Fie ld Operation, Po rt able Gear and Integrated Stations 12.37

 of each o f the circu it blocks arc ~ ho " n i n
Figs 12.55 thro ugh 12.6 1. Ftgu re 12.62 is
LNA a cto , e-up of one of the LO pha...c-shi rt
networks. illustrat ing the mechanic al and
ele ctrica l symmetry and connection of the
25p 25p phas e-trim capac ito r. F igure 12.63 is a
view of the 52-MHLfiller. Figure 12.64 is
U3 10 a loo k under the hood. and Fi g 12.65 is a
T37-6 T37-6
bo num view. s howi n ~ much of the cir-
121 @r;? cuitry .
The Local Oscill ator sys tem is pre-

··········l~·I .~
mixed fro m the ...·MHz range up to
52 " 1Hz. A 5-section hel ica l resonator fil-
O.001uF O,001uF ter selects (he 52·M ll l produc t. rejec ts the
feedthru feedthru 44-MH7 image. and provides additional
attenuat ion of the 4S-MH l premix osc illa-
150 150 tor. The output tunes fro m 5 1.9 Mil, to
52.4 MHz. and the vintage Eddystone Dial
pro vide s a smooth. slow tuni ng rate and

0.1 I may he reset to within I kHF.

Th is IF tran sce ive r was built to rep lace
a com merci al e- meter rig bei ng used as a
-s- +12
tunable [F in a comp eti tive V HF contest
stati on. The comm ercial rig had a few
spurs and bird ies. and symhcsizcr noise
Fig 12 .55-LN A sc hematic. burbles thaL sou nded like weak sig nals

. ·..............................................................................................................
"
I .1
".1 -
FT OOO1 "':""

I 7BL09 I :

''''
N~
J3'0
,
~

> ~ '''1 '~' :

:
:

, " -

''' t ",
:
O'~I
"i
,. <
w
~ ,- "" :
~ ."",
pi>!on :
va""bl. lrimmo r

J3 ' 0 :
_.1 ~F :
.A A ~ - :
.n
oro '( 0.
. O~
201l.:!2 onT6HI .,,.,.
lallM5_
o.~ ,~ :
> 150 ~ :
"
:
:
:
: .

Fig 12.56-The 4.4-4 .9 MHz VFO sc he matic

12.38 Chapter 12
 52-MHz centerfreq. 2 MHz Bandwidth 1 dB loss LO Premix filter 47.5--MHz c ente r treq . filler

.
....... ........, ... .. . . . ... ... .. ... ... . . . . ... ........ .. ............. .... .......
, , C C

, , ,
C C ,", C ,", C ,", C
-
t.
Co
,
: Cc1 : Cc2 , Cc2 : Cc1
L
. .
L L L L , L 10T 0.50' i.d. 0 75' lo ng bare number 18 copper

,......... ......., .............. ..,... .. ..... .. ... .,........... .... ....... ..'1'... ...,
in and out taps 1 full tum from g round end
C 50 pF air variable
\
Cc 0.25" gimmick twisted #22 Teflon Covered

Fig 12.5 8-The 47.5-MHz p rem i x

All L 10T 0.50 " l.d. 1.00" long bare number 18 copper oscillator f ilter.

in and out taps 1 full turn from ground end

C 50 pF air variable
Mod ular c onstr ucti on with ind ividu al
Cc 1 0.32" gimmick twisted #22 Teflon Cove red shield ed modul es. and a spac io us cabi ne t.
Cc2 0.25" gimmick twisted #22 Tef lon Covered contribu tes to a very large piece of rad io
equ ipm ent with fine per for manc e.
Fig 12. 57-Schematic of the 52-MH z pr emix. f ilt er. T his 52-MH/. tunable IF is a "work in
progrevv," wit h unfinis hed a udio gain co n-
tro l. metering . and mode selec tio n fun,',
lio ns, It bas been in ser vice for b yca r-. J. nJ
when luning for UHFDX. In addit ion , the brew S2-.\1Hz tra nscei ver has no spurious e very yea r or so a func tion wi ll be adde d.
audi o dis tortion of the co mmerc ial radio response s or birdies, and all undes ired out- T here is ample room inside for additio nal
con t ribute d to ope rat or fatigue over the puts are more than 70 dB be low t he de- c ircui t mod ules, a nd roo m on the rr.uu
course of a weekend cont est . The hom e- sire d o utput. pane l fo r add itiona l cnmr ul s

52-MHz LO Output Amplifier

+12 T

RH O
'"
0.0 1

tao
RH O
• " 1 0
,01
I .,. 112 W I 4,7u

''" 0.01
.,. lanl
~ +1 3 dBmT
0,01 '
'"
From Premix
MA.R-2 MA.V· ll
I HP50 62· 31&8

FiRer
0,0 1
'"
HP5 062·3 1&8

'"
" 0.01
f--------0 +13 dBm R
a ll RFC. 12T FT25·43

I 0.0 1

+12 R

Fig 12.59-The 52-MHz prem ix. LO output amplifier.

Field Operat ion, Portable Gear and Integrated Stations 12.39

 LO Mixer 52 MHzcenter freq . filter
52 MHz out ...........
'" . c. c
•

: Cc
L
L •
47.5 MHz in
+10 dBm
1 6t T37· ~ 151137·2 33 0 33 0

4.5 MHz in
+13 dBm
o o +12 T
4 ,7k

'"' l 10T 0.50' l.d, 0,75' long bare number 18 copper

in andouttaps 1 full tum from ground end
C 50 pF air variable
Cc 0.25" gimmick twisted #22Teflon Covered
Fig 12.60-Schematic of the premix LO m ixer.
Fig 12 .63-The 52-MH z filter.

52 MHz La Quadrature Hybrid

with phase trim

La in

61 T37 · 1O

LO O
o o
phase trim sidB.by.si<lebifil.,
" 8\137-10

one mounted in box with R2

another one mounted in box with T2

Fig 12.61-Sche matic of the 52-MHz LO quadrature hybrid .

Fi g 12.62-Close-up of LO q uad-ratu re hybrid.

12.40 Chapter 12
Fig 12.64-A pee k at the ins id e top o f the 52-MH z transcei ver. Fig 12.65- The ins ide bottom of t he 52-MHz transcei ver .

12.10 SLEEPING BAG RADIO

On wi nter cam pin g trips in the North- co mp le tely cha nge s the usu a l ergo nomics fee l to it. a nd is heavy e nough rha t it is
we st and Mich igan' s Up per Pen insu la. of a rad io . Thi s au-meter CW transceiv er is unwelco me o n a wee klo ng sum mer tre k
radio oper at io n typ ica lly occurs at night. designed to sit on eithe r its ba ck or bottom . thro ugh the ba ckc ountr y-c-h ut fur a short
while snugg led de ep ins ide a warm slee p- with all connections and co ntro ls on the ov ern ig ht j aunt o n snowshoes it is ideal.
ing bag. This is a diffe rent en vironment that fro nt/to p. It is stable in ei ther pos itio n. The Th e tun ing knob is large enoug h to tune
co ntro ls are kept to a minim um . with a wi th m itte n". and stiff en o ugh tha t it
large . stiff tuni ng kno b. a vol ume co ntro l. doesn ' t move w hen bumped.
and RIT. CW is fu ll br eak-i n, and the usc of The fou r photog raph s in F igs 12.66
a keyed re ce iver L I\'A along wi th co nven - th ro ugh 12.69 illu strat e th e co nstructio n.
tion a l receiv er mut ing eliminates an y re- Figu r e 12.70 illus tra tes how the rec eiver
ceiver thum ps du ri ng keyi ng. Th e radi o is compartme nt is do ub le sh ie ld ed f ro m
built in two di e-ca st boxc s scre we d the o uts ide wor ld . All c onnecuon -, i r uo
tog ether. wi th Ieed through capacitors to the receiver com pa rtme nt are m ade ucing
carry th e ..ignal s an d power int o the bac k O.OO l .lIF fee dt hrou g h capac ito rs into th e
compartm ent. The bac k compart ment eon- YFO/P A corn parun cnt. F ig u re 12.71 is a
rain s an in terchangeable rece ive r ci rcuit block diag ra m. T he VF O /frequ e n ~' ~
ho ard . w hich may be eit her an R l direct do ubl er is sh ow n in F ig 12.72 . the PA.
co nvers ion rece iver. a mi ni-R2 re ceiver, or u sin g a hi gh -gain d ifferen tia l am plifie r
Fig 12.66- The Sleeping Bag Radio. a b inaura l rece iver. T his rad io ha s a solid dr iving a 5-W CB po wer tran sistor is

Fig 12.67-Sleep ing Bag Rad io VFQ.

Fig 12 .68-The PA compartment.

Field Operat ion , Portable Gear and Integrated Stations 12.41

 Fig 12.69-The
Sleepi ng Bag
Radio recei ver
compartme nt .

Fig 12.7Q-A Sleeping Bag Radio co n st ruc ti o n sketch.

r - - -- -- - - - - --- - - - - - - - ~ - - - - - -- - - - - --- - - - - -- - - - - --~

VFO doubler PA compartment

7,0 · 7 . 2 ~ 1-IZ

3.5 ·3.6

--
MHz VFO
TR LPfil

· · · · · ···· T fl '" HlH )

Z
Fi g 12.71-Block diag ra m o f the
Sleeping Bag Radio.

RF tight receiver compartment quad

I Q

miniR2 receiver PC board

12.42 Chapter 12
 +12 V
U1 78L06

3,5 - 3.65 MHz

l N4148
47 pF J3 10
' '0

1'"'"
ca ca ce 8T Trifi lar
150pF
NPO 1 loptiona,
"
t M "
on FB 43-240 1 II 100 k

J310
22 Tums on
R2 180 T50·6 Core
" cr
1N4 148 Tap at 5 Turns

WO
," C5 0 ,1 ~ F
36t #22
00
T37-6 Core
"
'" 10,1
OW
uF
Tap at 6 Tums U2 78L09

""
OO
' "
,.+;
ca
0,1 ~ F

n
R12
t M

0'1UF
MV2 106

'"
--5
'"
1N4 148

1" Key
Fig 12.72-The VFOf
frequency doubler.

'" 1 R"
3.3 k
2N3906

RIT

+12

0,1"- ::: ,. RFC 6 hole bead

',y 1/1

. 1'-' lOTbifiIIr on
FT J7~ 3

'

••
10Tb«~lron ~
FT3 70<43 I ~
ae v
,. ) cs ... Zener
Powe r ..I
..
'--------I E-

l
Transistor

lOT Trifilron
FT37~3
lOT Trifillr on Fig 12.73-The Sleeping Bag
FT 370<43 Radio power amplifier.
,.

Field Operation , Portable Gear and Integrated Stations 12.43

 6 hole bead trifilar 6 hole bead
U310
In ----11--,.,..,---, r-r- --lf--- O ut
O,luF 0 1uF

".

".
''''
2N3906
''''
'''' '''' /1r-- Mute

2N3904
2N3904
01 uF

Fig 12.74-The LNA/ett enuelor.

sho wn in Fig 12 .73 , a nd the L NA/a tte nu-

ator is shown in Fig 12.74 . The 7- M H /. RF
and LO stgnals are ro uted thr o ugh t he
V FO receiver shield wall s on the tccdthro ugh cupaci-
compartment compartment tors usin g the ba ndpass networks shown
in Fig 12.75 . Th is is the best CW truu s-
ce tver I have ever used .
27pF

r:~
150pF
"
10pF
"
150pF
1000pF
feedthru

... :
3.1 uH

~
3.1 uH

r l000pF

pass LO and RF signals through shield wa lls

High attenuation to FM and A M Broadcast

Signa ls and Harmon ics Fig 12.75-The 7-MHz band pa ss
feed thr ough filter used in the Sleepi ng
Bag Radio.

12.44 Chapter 12
12.11 A 14·MHZ CW RECE IVER
This is a simple ho me stati on rece iver str uctton. There art: \ \1>0 selectable band- suppre ss ion, 9-dE noise fig ure, a slow tu n-
for the CW portion o r the 20 -m ':!!: f band. wi dths and fron t-panel mut in g for usc with ing ra te , SO dB betwee n the receiver no ise
It uses R2 pro circuit board s an d a Kanga a smal l Q RP transmitter or vinta ge 40-W floo r and onset of audio cl ipp ing , 92 -dB
Li VFO universal VFO hoa rd. a long with tube tran smitter. Appea rance and co ntro ls SS E bandwidth two-tone third-order dy-
li ghtwe ig ht a lu mi num c has si s constr ue- aTC basic. Per fo rmance is unc om promis- namic ra nge, and absolutely no spurio us
lio n. Fig 12.76 is a co nstruc tion sketch, ing, with 0 \' 1:[ 50 d B of oppo site sideband responses or synthe sizer noi se.
and Fig 12.77 is a block d iag ra m. T he
R2 pro rece iver ci rcu it hoards are de-
scri bed in detail in Chaplcr 9. Fig 12.78 is
a sch e matic of t he UV FO board . F i~ s ,------ -------- --- -- --------,
UVFO
12.79 , 12.80 and 12 .8 1 illustra te the con - VFO compartment
PC board
te o - 1<1.1 MHz

7.0 - 7.05
MHzVFO

."

analog signal processor AF amp

R2pro PC PC board PC board
boards

Fig 12 .76-A co nstruction sketch of the

14-MHz R2pro. Fig 12.77-The 14-MHz R2pro bloc k diagram.

Field Opera tion , Portable Gear and Integrated Stat ions 1 2 . 45

~

!" ~

~ N
~
00

!. "W
~
(')
zr ~ co 1 c 20
m

l
;:
~
N
n ' 1':"
"' 1 1Ol' F

-" C
<
~
o
."
PO, C:12
100 pF t.s

•
n rz ~] ~
CHi ;~,£" II
~

•3 8T T"',I",

~
?'
'"
~f
" ," T -
or, FBH..2401 l N4148
~ teoor
"
6T T(,III",
on FB 43·2401
o.t

"' ]; /I T4
13Te;t' ar
C2J
l 00 pF ~ R l1
eta on TJO-6 51

-, II§II§, ~ ,:',~~:,
JJ10 47 0 pF rs

II Te,t
Po int
I 1N4148

co
"'f T. . . C14
~ Cl!ll...... <: r~
1
0 1 ~:' I
101>f"
N"" C1D P Ol
!II
rh
1'F
R27
180
...L CJ 7
0.1 0, 1
I'F ~J F
$ CO2
l O t ~F · 12 V l 'OI'F
~ Rl B C4 3 J6
U2 18L09 et
141T»6 ~f----o TX

eo, eo, ±~o '" J,""

J : 0 1 IJF
""
, 0< ;h 0 lI' F
D?: <20
"" t;;;: 'M
J3 10

i"'"'I
g1
~:'
3Jk
H.
"" ""
4.7k " 20

'" ". ""

'"
R12 MV2106 t N4148
""
'M T R 14
~
""
W.
1N4 14B '" 2NJ 904

'" ""
2N3906 .n
C29
"" '"eYl
K " r "2<
H.
3,3 k
J,
""
 -

Fig 12.80-
• The UV FQ.

Fig 12.79-1 4 MHz R2pro front vie w.

Fig 12.81-The R2p ro c ircu it boards .

RE FERENCES AND NOTES

J. "Ho w to Frustrate a Bear ." Hud .-pac/.:er Q RP Transceiver fo r ·W o r 30 Meters: ' modes. For US amate urs. a short summary
Maga:ine. Oct. 200 1. p So. QST. Xo v. 199-t pp 37-·U . of the interpretation of FCC reg ulation.. on
2. Brita in. " Some Really Cheap 7. J. Kle inma n and Z. La u. (l KI' Power, these mencrs is the sidebar by Paul Rinaldo.
Antennas". CQ VH F . Aug. 199Rand Oct. AR RL. 1996 . "h He llscb reibcr Perm issible Under Pan
1998. 8. Deta iled operation of the various weak- 97?:' Q!n.Ja n. 2000. p 5~ . Before u ~ i n g any
J. " Fro m O ur Van tage Point ,"The vignal modes is desc ribed in the file mode o n the air. it i" important 10dete rmine
Sojourner. on-lin e tra vel magazi ne of the REA DME:!O.TX T. T he so urce code. in the legality (I f its usage and the frequencie s
Adventure Radio Socie ty lARS). ~l ay . ·C . for the se modes is primarily in the that arc allowable.
1998. www.natwertd.com/ars/ . fi les U_CODE.C. UMATRIX.C and 10. V. Poo r. " R9/S I: ' QST. Oc t. 1965. pp
4 . R. Le wa lle n. "An Optimi zed QRP _\l O O~ S l:N. C. The spe cific atio n fur 33-37. T his W 3 ." no t the i nrroducno n of
Transceiver.' (lSI". Aug, 1980, pp 14-1l,l. the ' PUA4 Y code is in the fi fe these ideas. but it is <I good <,u mmary of the
PUA4 3_0 2.Z1P. All of thes e fil es are a mateu r e xperiment er art of the time.
5, W, Hayward. "Measuring and Comp-
envating Oscill ator Frequency Dri ft ," inclu ded o n the CD -RO~l I I. The advantages of multi-tone kt:ying.
QS1' , Dec. 1993 , pp 37-4 1. 9. Differen t countries have d iffere nt along with hist o ric background is in the
6, D. Benson. "A Single-Boar d Super-het restr ictions on the amateur use of data art icle by M, Greenman. " \ f FS K for the

Field Operation , Portable Gear and Integrated Stat ions 1 2. 4 7

Xew Mill ennium," QST. Ja n. 1UO L pp 33 - statement, si nce cohe rent "b irdies" VII I-" Meteor -Scatte r Co mmunication. "
30. co ming from the all pervasive electron ic QST. I) I:'C, 200 1. pp 30---1- 1.
12. Intere sted reader s might start thei r gadgetry in people's hou ses will make 17. R. Camp bell , " A Binaural I-Q
cx plor arion for further informatio n with extended integration times frustrating! Recei ver: ' QST. Mar. 1999. p 44 .
the "M arched Filte r " top ic in books s uch E\ IE-2 includ es pro visions for
IR. R. Lewall en . "An Optimized QRP
as D. K. Bar ron . Radar Svstem Anatvsis, ra ndo miz ing the tran smi rting freq uency
Transceiver." QST. Aug, 1980. pp 14-19 .
Prentice-Hall. Eng le wood Cliffs. - NJ _ effectively 10 shift the inter fer ing signa b
1964 . arou nd, making them noise-lik e. Th is 19. R. Campbell. "Hi gh-Performance.
prevents the interfe rence from addi ng in Single-Sig na l Direcr-Cc nvers fo n
13. D. Turrin. and I\. Katz, "Eart h-Moon-
any part icular bin hut does not remove the Re ceivers." QS T, Ja n. 1993. pp 32---1-0.
Earth tE:' IE, Comm unications." The t\R RL
UH f / \ / i ("rtl M'U\"(' Expe r imente rs Manual. equivalent noise po wer lhal is added. 20. R. Cam pbell. "A Mul timodc Phasing
ARRL, 1990. Chapter 10. 15. See reference 13. Exciter for 1 to 500 ~t H z:' QST. Apr,
l ..t . Urban dwellers might qua rrel with this 16. J_ Taylor . ·'v.·SJT: Xew Softw are for 1993. pp 27-3 1.

12.48 Chapter 12
 CD-ROM Contents

The mate rial co ntained o n the CD-RO f\! packaged o n the 7. R , Campbell. " Hig h Perform ance Direc t Co nversio n
inside back cover of this bo ok contain s articles, referen ce Receivers." Qsr. Aug. 1992. pp J9-:!lL qst199208.pdf
material, and software , This mat erial is org,mi t ed in the foll o wing 8. R. Ca mpbel l. " No T une Microwave Tran sceiv ers.'
direc torie s: Procee ding s o( . Wicro wQl"1' Upd ate '92. Roc hester. :-;Y. Oc t.
\software 1992. AR RL Publica tion numb er 16 1. pp 4 1-54.
\articles pm u 1992.pdf
\dsp 9. R. Cam pbell. " High Perfo rmance Sin gle-Signal Direct
The \ds p d irectory contains spec ific lists of material for the Conver xion Receivers:' Q5T. Jan. 199~, pp 3 2 ~-W.
OSP program s in Chapters 10 and J I and the DSP-IO z-mctcr qst1 993 01.pdf
transceiv er project. 10. R. Ca mpbell. "A Multimode Phasing Exciter for J to 500
M Hz: ' QST, Apr. 1993. PI' 27-31. qst19 9304. p d f
ARTICLES AND REFERENCES I I. R. Campbell. "Si ngfe-Convcrsfon Micro wa ve SS B/CW
Transceivers." QST. May. 1993. pp :!lJ-34. qst19930S.pdf
All o f the following articles and references are on the CD-
12. R. Ca mpbel l. "A S ingle Hoard No- Tu nc Tran scei ver fo r
ROt-.1 in Adobe A crollat PDf format. Double-d id articles .pd f
1296 : ' Proceeding s ofMirrnwave Updat e '93. At lanta. GA .
III access a summary of these mat eri als. Alrem a tive ly, ope n any
Scp. I lJY3. A I{ I{ !. Publication number 174, oo 17-38.
PDF document in the \a rt lc le s dire ctory 10 access that specific
pmu1993.p df
article. The arti cle fi lename on the CD-R0 11 is shown afte r each
13. R, Cam pbe ll. " Simply Gening o n the Air from DC to
refere nce lis ting .
Day light ,"l'ron 'l'dil1i:-wjAficrowan ' Updote '94, Estes Parl:
While the Ado be ,1crobm Reader prog ram used to view the
CO. Se p. IYY-L ARRL Pu blic ation numbe r 188. pp 57-OX.
arti cles and refe re nces is no rmally run direc tly fro m the C D. there
pmu 1994a.pdf
is a copy i ncl uded on the CD -ROM thai you may op tio nally
14. R. Ca mpbell. "Subharrnonic II-' Receiv e rs." reprinted from
choose to install o n you r hard disl- for viewi ng other PDF files.
the North Texas Microwave Soci-ry Fcedpoint in PrOl·eedillg.1
To Install A crobat Reader for W indo ws: ofsticrov....m: Upda te ·9-l. Este -, Park. CO. Sep. 1 99~ . AR RL
I I Close any open applicat ions and inse rtthe C D~ RO :\1 into you r Pub licatio n n umber IRK. pp 225-232. pmu1 99 4b .pdf
CO-RO\ 1 drive. 15. R. Ca mpbe ll. "A VHF SSR -C\V Transceiver with VXO: '
21Select Ru n from the Windo"'J Start me nu. Proceedings ufthe 29th Conference ofthe Cemrat Stott's VH f-'
3) Type d:\Acrobat\Setup (where d : is the' d rive leit er of your Societv, Colo rado Sp rin gs. CO. J ul. 1995. ARRL Public ation
C D- R O ~.I driv e: if the CD- ROt\1 is a different drive on yo ur nu mber 20(). pp 94- 106.pm u1995b.pd f
syste m, type the appropriate le tte r) and press Enter , 16. R. Cumphell. "The :-; ~'Xl Ge ner ation of No-Tu ne
4) Follow the inst ructions that appea r on your screen. Tr ansve rter s," Proceedi ngs of Mic'rmr tH'f Updat e '95.
Ar lington , IX , Oct. 1Y95 . AR IH. Publicati on nu mbe r 20l:\ , pp
To Inst all A crobat Reader for the Macintosh: 1-22. pmu1995a.pdf
1) Clos e any open applicatio n, and insert the CD-RO\l into your 17. R. C ampb ell. " A Small H igh-Perfo rma nce CW Tran scrr Iver."
C D-R0 1\f drive. QST. Nov. 1<J<J5. pp 4 1-46. qs t1995 11.pdf
21Open the "Ex perimental M ethods in RF Des ig n CO" icon on 18. R. Cam pbell. " Direct Convers io n Recei ver Noise Figu re:'
the desktop, men double-c lick the "A c rob at Reader" icon . QSl'. Tec hnical Co rrespon den ce. Feb 1996. PI' 82·85.
3) Double-c lic k the "A crobat Reade r Installe r" icon. qst1 99602.pd f
4 ) Follow the inst ructions that appear on your scr een . 19. R. Campbell. " Microwave Do wnco nvene r and Upconvcrtcr
Update:' Proceedings rlj Mil'rol1'U1'e Updat e '98. Estev Park.
I. D. Ben son . "Freq-Mitc - A prog ra mmable Mor se Code CO . Oct. 1991t ARRL Pu blicatio n nu mber 24 1. pp 34· 49.
Freq ue ncy Reado ut: ' Q5T. Dec. 1991t pp 34-36. p mu 199 8.pd f
q st19981 2.pdf 20. R_Camp hell, "A Bina ural IQ Receiver : ' QST. Mar . 1<J99. pp.
2. D. Bramwell. " Understandi ng Modern Oscil losc opes: ' Q5T. 4--t-48. qst1 99903.pd1
l uI. 1976. PI' 18·19. qst197607.pdf 2 1. R. Camphell. "LO Phase :-; o i ~e 'vlanu geme nt in Amate ur
3. D. Bramwell. "An RF Ste p Att cnu aro r." QS-I'. Jun, 1995 . pp Recei ver Sys tems." Procee dings of Mir'!'o \\'ol't' Upd(i/(' 'l.}9.
33·34. qst199S06.pdf Plano. T X . Oct, IY99 . AR RL. Puhlicatl nn number 253.
4. G. A. Bre ed. "A New Bre ed of Receiver," QST. Jan, 19~!( pp pp 1- 12. pmu 1999a.pdf
16-23. qst198801 .pdf 22. R. Cam pbell. "Medium Power Diod e Freq uenc y Double rs."
5. R. Campbel l. "Binaural Prese ntatio n of 55 B and CW S ignals Proceedings of Microwave Update '99. Pla no. T X. Oct. 1999.
Received o n a Pair of Anten nas." Proc eedi ngs of the 181h ARRL. Publication nu mber 253 . PI' ,~ 97-406.
A nnual Conference ofTilt' Centra! States ~'HF SocielY. Cedar p mu1 999b.pdf
Rapi ds, l A. Ju l. 1 9 8~ . pmu19 84.pd1 23. B. Can e r. " High Pe rformance Crplal Filter Design: '
6. R. Cam pbe ll. "Ge tting Sta rted on the Mic ro..... ave Ba nds: ' QST, Communicanonv Qrwrlerly. Winte r. 1993, pp 11- 18.
Feb. 1992 . PI' 35- .N. qs t199202.pdf c q199301a.p d f

491
24. B. Carver. "T he LC Tes te r: ' Communicat ions Quartcrlv, 5 1. D. Rutledge, et al. "High-Effic ie ncy Cla ss-E Powe r Am pli-
Winter. 1993. pp 19-27. cq19930 1b .pdf fie rs," QST, May . 1997. Part L pp 39-42 , and Jun. 1997 . Part
25. B. Carve r. "A High Perfor mance AGC/ lf Sub system : ' QST. II, pp 39-42. qst19970Sa.pdf, qst 199706.pdf
May. 1996, pp 39-4 4. qst19960S.pdf 52. W . Sahin, "M easuring SSB/CW Recei ver Sensitivity .' QSt,
20. R. Fishe r, "Twisted-W ire Qu adra ture Hybrid Di rect io nal Oct. 1992. pp 30- 34. qst199210.pd f
Cou ple rs." QS l". Jan, 19 78, pp 21-23 . qst19780 1.pdf 53. W. Sabin. "A Calib rated Noise So urce for Amate ur Rad io:'
27 . J. Gr cbcnkcmpcr. "Th e Tandem Match - An Acc urate QS T. May. 1994. pp 37-40 . qst19940S.pdf
Direc tio nal Wattme ter," QST. Ja n, 19S7. pp IS-26 . 54. W . Sabin, "Diple xer Fi llers for a n HF MOSFE T Powe r
qst198701 .pd f Amplifi er." QrX J LJI /A llg, 1999. PP 20-26, qe x199907 .pdf
28. R. Hayward . 'T he Ugly Weeken der I t. Adding a J unk Bo x 55 . W. Sabin . "A 100- W MOSFET HF Amplif ier." QEX, Nov/
Rec eiv er:' Q5T, Jun. 1992. pp 27 -30 , qs t199206.pdf Dec, 1999. pp 31-40 qex199911 .pdf
29 . W . Hayward and R. Bingham. 'Direct Con vers io n: A 56. B. Shrin er and P. Pagel. "A Step Auenuator You Ca n B uild,"
Neg lected Techniq ue." QS1. No v. 1968. pp 15- 17. QST, Sep. 1982. pp 11 - 13. qst1 98209.pdf
qst1 96811.pdf 57 . K. Spaargarcn . "frequ ency S tabiliz atio n ofLC Oscilla tors,"
30. v.'. Hayward and 1. La wso n. "'A Progressi ve Comr nunica- QEX , Feh, 1996, pp 19-23 . qex199602.pdf
tio ns Receive r; ' QST. Xuv, 198 1, r p 11-2 1. qst 198111 .pdf 5R. J. Stephensen. "Reducing IMD in High -Level Mixer s." QEX.
3 1 \\ '. Hayward and R. Hayward , 'The Ugly Week ender." QSl'. May/Jun. ZOOI , pp 45-50. qe x20 0105.pdf
Aug, 198 1, pp 18-2 1. qst1981 08 .pd f 59. P. Wade , "N oise Measurement and Gen erat ion ." QE X . Nov.
32. W. Hayward, "Th e Dou ble Tuned C ircuit: An Experime n- 1996, pp 3- I 2. qex199611.pdf
ter 's Tutorial" . QST . Dec, 199 1. pp 29-34. qst199112 .pdf 60 . A. Ward, " No ise Fig ure Measuremen ts." Proceedi ngs of
33 , W. Hayward, "Reflec tions o n the Refl ectio n Coeffic ie nt: An Mtc rowo ve Updat e '97, Sand usky, O H, Oct, 199 7, ARR L
Int uitive Exam inat ion :' QEX, Jan. 1993 . pp 10-23. Publicatio n number 23 1, PP 265 -272. pmu1997.pdf
qe x199301.pdf
34. \V. Hayward, "M easurin g and Co mpensati ng Oscilla tor SOFTWARE
F req uency Drift, " QST, Dec . 1993 . pp 37-4 1. qst1993 12.pdf • LADPAC- 2()0 2. Design programs for Win dows . Run
35. \V Hayward , "E lect ro nic T/R Switching:' QE X . M ay , 1995 . se t up.exe a nd follow the on-scree n directi ons to install the
pp 3-7. qex 199S0S.pdf soft ware .
36 . \V . Hayward, "Refinements in Crystal Ladder Filter Desig n." • An alysis of nux mg with a JFET (Math cad fi le
QEX, J un. 1995 . pp 16 -2 1. qex199S06 .pd f mi xerj fet 1.mcd . Adobe Acrobat til e mlxerj tert. pdt j.
37. \V. Hayward, "E xtendi ng the Double Tuned Circui t to Three See Cha pter 5, section I. Using m ixerjfet1. mcd requ ires
Resonators:' QEX , Mar/ Apr. 1991( pp 4 1-46. qex 199803.pdf M athsoft Motncaa versi on x.x or high er. Mixerj fet1.pdf is
38. \V. Hayward and T. Wh ite. " A Tracking Sig nal G ene rat or-for com piled from scrc cnshcts sho wing the equatio ns used in the
Use with a Spec trum Analy zer." QST, Nov. 1999 . pp 50-52. Mathcad fi le. useful the tho se who don ' t hav e Ma/he ad .
qst1 99911b.pdf
39. W. Hayward and T. Whi11:, " A Spec tr um Analyzer for the
Rad io Amate ur." QST, Aug and Sc p. 1998, pp 35-43. DSP (DIGITAL SIGNAL PROCESSING)
qst199808.pd f , qst 199809.pdf Programs for Chapters 10 and 1 1
40 . W . Ha yward a nd 1. White. "T he Mic ro mou r nain ee r Th e pro grams for C hapt er s 10 and 11 arc in the dir ectories
Revisited;' QST. Jul, 2000. pp 28-33. qst 200007.pdf C HA P10 a nd C HAPll. For eac h c1 xxx .dsp file ther e is also a
4 1. W. Hayward and R. Lar kin. " Simple Rft- Po wer c 1x xx .exe file cre ated by the Id21 lin ker as describ ed in
Measuremen t", QST. J un, 200 1, PP 3 R-43. qst200106. pd f read.txt. The con tent s of the two dire ctories are:
42. N. Hcck t, "A PIC-Based Digita l Freq uency Display ," QST ,
May, 1997 . pp 36-38. qst19970Sb.pdf CHAPTER 10
43. H. Johnson. "Helica l Reso nator Oscillat ors." w4zcb .pdf c 1shell.dsp Ba sic DSP structure for EZK IT- Lite
44. R. Lark in. 'The DSP- 10: An All-Mode z-Mctcr Transc eiver c1she ll.exe
Using a DS P TF a nd PC -CoJ1lrolled Front Panel ." QST, Sep . c lsin.dsp Generates singl e sine wav e at 1000 Hz
1999. PP 33-41: Oc t, 1999. pp 34-40; Nov, 1999. pp 42 -45 . clsin .exe
qs t199909.pdf, qst199910.pdf, qs t19991 1.pdf c1sin2.dsp Gener ates 2 sine waves at 700 and 1900 Hz
45 . R , Larkin. "An S-wan. 2-Met er Hrickeue." QS T. Jun . 2000, c tst nz .exe
pp 43-47. qst200006.pdf c 1s pn.ds p Generates 1000 Hz s ine wave plus Gaussian noise
46. R. Lewalle n, "An O ptimized QR P Tra nsce iver." QST. Au g, c1 spn .exe
1980. pp 14-19. qst198008.pdf c 1f ir.d sp FIR f ilte r coeffic ie nts
47. R. Le walle n. "A Simp le and Acc urate Q RP Dir ect io na l c 1f ir.exe
Wattm eter." QST. f eb . I YYO , pp 19-23. qst199002.pdf fir200bp.dat Pan of c 1fir.ds p - Band pass FIR fi lte r coeffi-
4S. J.. Makhin son . " 1\ Dri ft- Free VrO." (}ST. Dec , 1996. pp 32- cie nts
.I n. qst1996 12.pdf firds n3 .bas A QBAS IC prog ram Fur ca lc ulating FIR fi lters
49. J. Ma khi neon. '·DE:rvl PH A ~O , A device for me as uring phase usi ng the Kaiser win dow met hod .
noise," Commun ication s Quarterly. Spring, 1999. pp 9-17.
cq199904 .pdf CHAPTER 11
50. J. Rei se rt. "VHF/ UHF F reque ncy Calibration.' Ham Rad io. cl knob.dsp Interaction with a rotary kno b. switche s, LC D d is-
Oct. 1984. pp 55 -60. hr198410.pdf p lay
c1kno b.exe

492
c1tbox.dsp Uses the c 1knob 10 gcncrarc J sine waves plus noise HARDWARE
c1tbox.exe dsp1 Ohdw.txt . Genera l notes. co rrect ion , and imp rovements.
c18.dsp An 18 M l-lz I-Q tra nsce iver for Cw and USB dsp1 On45.txt - Ass em bly notes fo r the projec t
c18.exe dsp1 Opd2 .txt - As semb ly pan- hy-part list . with locations on .
Ip 2_ B.d a t Par t of C18.dsp - Low pass FIR filler c oeffi cient s t he PCB
Ip _ 5 _48.dat Part of C 18.dsp - Low pass F IR fi lter coeff icients dsp10ph5 .htm - Part li, t for p urc hasing part s
b pcw1 .dat Part of C18.dsp - CW audio FIR fi lter coefficien ts u15_mod .htm I mprove men t in formation referen ced by
h il_3_ 48.dat Part of C 18.dsp - Hilbert transform for 90 deg ree dsp I Ilhd w.txt
phase shift. These are c oefficie nts for a spec ialized flR fi lter. u15mod1.gif - A ske tch req uired for u IS _mo d.htm.
11O.g if - A correc ted fi gure 10 for the QST articles ,
All of the c1 xxx.exe prog rams c an be put int o EPRO \ I for f11 .g if - A correc ted f ig ure 11 for the QST art icle s
load ing when the EZK TT-Lil e starts ope ratio n, See the Analog
Devices PR OM Spli tter for details . E XECUTABLE
Uhfa.exe - DOS Executable front pa ne l prog ram
Documentation f o r t h e DSP·10 Uhf3.exe - Ma chine language program ( NOT A DOS .E XE
2-Meter T ra nsceiver fi le )
Incl uded in f vc directories is <I complete set of doc umen tation Egavga.bgi - Hor fand gra phics dr iv ers fo r PC
for the DSP- lO z-meter tran scei ver. All .TXT fi les are simple G n u g p l.tx t - User license (Ple ase Read )
ASC II text with embedded end-of-li nes. All .HT M fi les c an be Uhfa _43a.rnd - Ra ndom numbe r list fo r se veral of the weak
read o n a We b brow ser . sig nal modes.
Readme16.t xt - Soft ware user information for baste modes
T his documentation is up-to-date as of Marc h 2002, Furt her Readme20.txt - Add itio nal user info rma tion, inc luding weak-
data may be available on the interne t. Th e URL curre ntly is sig nal mode s.
http: //www.p roax is.com/-bobla rk/dsptn.htm If the Web Wat_exe.txt - A rem inde r that UH F3.E XE is NOT a DO S .ex e
page loca tio n is c hanged it will st ill incl ude the word fi le.
ABCDSPI0ABCD that may be helpful for locating it with a sear ch
engine ' See the .txt file s listed belo w fo r more information . SOURCE CODE AND MISCELLANEOUS
CSRC - So urce co de for the PC program, in Borland C: 2R files.
Here is a qu ick summ ar y of the co ntents to help in fin ding DSPSRC - Sourc e cod e rorthe EZKit prog ra m :n files ,
fil es , Inclu ded in the last two direct orie s arc t wo batch files . U.BAT,
that asse mbles and li nks the program fro m the vario us mod -
ARTICLES ules. The f ile. U3.BAT, serves the sa me function for the DSP
Cont ains the thre e QST articles fro m Sep t-Nov 1999 in .PDF prog ram.
format.
I . R. Larkin. "'The DS P- l 0: An All -Mod e z-Mc tcr Tr ans ceiv er Th e file P C_dsp2.t xt in the d irec tory CSRC has the deta ils of
Us ing a DSP IF and PC -Co ntro lled F ro nt Panel." QST, Scp. the communication between the PC and the DSl' .
1999, pp 33-41 ; 01:1, 1999, pp ~ 4 -4 0; No v, 1999. pp 42-45 .

493
 IN D E X

Ed il or' s " ole : Except fo r commonly used phrases and abbre- (s uch as "Mo d ula to r. Bala nced" and " Ba lanced. Modulator").
viati o ns. to pics are inde xed by the ir no un na mes. Man y topi cs Th e letters "ff" after a page number indica te co verag e of the
arc abo cross- indexed. esp eciall y when noun modifie rs appe ar indexed to pic on suc ceed ing pa ges .

lX-\ IHl Bid irectio na l: 6.60

Sc hematic diagram : 11. 14ff Bipolar transistor: 6. 16
Tra n-,~·e i n:r : . . 11. 11ff Buffe r: 9.47
DS P dn:u i h U~ : 11.19 fT Circuits: ~. I
Tran..c eiver o utput (C W I spectrum: 11.25 Cla. scs of amp lifier operation: 2.3 1ff
Tran sceiver. sampling rate s: 11.26-1 J.27 Class A: 2.11f[ 6.55
2-m Cla ~~ AB: 2.3 1- 2.32 . 6.56
T ransce ive r IDSP- IO): .................. .. II .D ff Class AR I: 2.3 1
2 X -~ I H l
QRP mod ule: .... . 12.28 Cla ss H 2.31
~U-ll1 Crass C 1.18ff. 2.31ff
D-C rece iver bloc k diagra m; 8.3 Class D: 2.3 1-2.3 2
7- \ IH1. portable trancmatch: 7. ~4 Class E: 2.3 1ff
Co mmo n sourc e J FET: 6.33
A Differe ntial amplifier (diff-umpj: 2. 16ff
AA JX : ... _23 8 Ge neral-purpose IF: 6.20
AD830 7: .... . . . 7.R High -performa nce post-mixe r: . 6.4 7
Adaptive Inte rmediate freq uency Il l-") and AGe: ...............•. f..15ff
Mixer Balance : __ " . ..." K.II J unction field effec t transistor (J FETj
Adjustmen t Bidirec tional : , ,........ , 6.62
Amplitude balance: 9.22 - 9. 23 Casc ode pair: 6 .I!I
Phase trim:. . 9.21- 9.24 Co mmon gale. RF: 6.12
Advanced Powe r Tec hnolo gy ..._. '2.37 Co mmo n sou rce 6.13
Ad ventu re Radi o Socie ty (ARS): 12.4 Ga in of: ... 6.:13
Spartan Sprin t: 12.4 Keying of trunsmurer stage: 6.63 ff
AGC' / Automatic gain comro l j Large sig nal ampli fie rs: 2. 1
Amplifie r: . __ __.__6 _~O Lich en tra nsceiver power chain: 6.79
Aud io de rived : __. 6. ~2 Limiti ng. using digital lC : _.. 5.18
IIang ~Y ~lc m : .. 6. ~5 Line ar power: f..~
Intermediat e freq uency (IF) amplifier: 6.15ff Lew nois e ILNA)
Po p: . 6.22 Swept freque ncy plot: 9.36
Te ~li n g: of in recei vers : _ 7.40 Lo w-noise RF: . R.13
Threshold : _6. 19 ~ l ela l oxide silico n field effect tranvicror ( ~ IOS FET,
Almost incrementaltunin g (A IT): 6.6 7 If : ..... . 6. 17.6.24
A~I : _ .1 .17. 6. 1 Rf-: __ 6. 13
Demodulatio n: _ HoI I Microphone: 9 A 5- 9 A f.
Exc iter. 1\, w -d istortion: 9.4 8---9.4 9 Mixer IF-pon driver: . 9.4 7ff
Amateur Rad io: . I. lff Mo noband SSB/C\\ ' tran sceiv er power cha in: 6.86
Amidon Inc.: . 332 :\Ioisc :.. ..... . 2. 19
Amplifier: , 2. 1 Thermal: 2. 19
Aud io power: 9.4 1 Operational. .. 2.161"f. 3.25ff
Aut<1I 1HlI i<; gain control (A GC) : . 6.16 145H : __ . 3.26--3.27

494
 5532: 3.26 Gai n
741 : _ 3.26-3.27 High. in D-C rece ivers : 8.6-8.7
txt-324: 3.25 Generator : . 11.11-1 1. 12
L \ 1-358 : 3.25 Lichen transceiver. receive: 6.7K
Topologies: 9.3 2 Phase shift network I PS~ ): 9:4 7
Oscillation: _ 2.3 1 Po wer amp lifier: 9AI
Post mixer. with JFl:.i : .._ 5.14 Processor. DSP-based : _ 11.29
Po wer for 50 MHz: fJ .86 PSN
Power. with IRF5 11 :\10SFETs: 11.IX Modula tor circ uitry : 9A6
Rad io freq uency (RFj: 6.12 Signal soun:es: . 7.13
Roofing f ilter: 6.50 Auto-tra nsfor mer : 2.36
Small signal: 2.1 Avail able no ise: , 2.20
Speech, anal og signal processor: 9.45-9A·6 Available power : 2.14 . 2.19
SS B (line ar am plifiers): " "" 2.37
Transparency: " "
VXO transmitter. with digi tal freq uency multip lier. 5.20
Amp litude and phase
2.26
"
Backwave:
Balanced
2.3 2. 6.lW

Errors ith phasing method: " " 11.22 Mixcr-; . 5.5. 5.7
Amplitude balance adjustment: "" 9. 22- 9.23 Bette r L-R isolation of: .. 11.25
Amp litude modulation (Aro. t ): 6.1--6.2 Modulator: 6.2 . 6.56
Double-sideband, full-carrier: " " 6.7 Rand-s pread tuning: 1.10
Analog Bandpass diplcxc r network: 9.17
~·S. digita l: .. 11.27 Bandpa ss filler CSt'(, also Filte r)
A nalog De vices: .. 10.2 14-1t Hz fo r VX O transm itter: 5.20
ADIX47 CODEC : lO.lff z t-Ml tz for VXO tran smitte r: 5.2 1
ADSP-2100 fami ly: . 10.2. IO.S Liche n tra nsceiver: 6.76-6.77
ADSP-2 IX I: . 10.2.1 0.4 Monoband 5SB/CW transceiver: 6.83
Analog De vices 9X .~ I : . 4,2 6 Ba ndw idth: . h.11
EZ- Kit Lite: ......." .......... .... ..." " 10.2, 11. 1 Resolutio n: ..7. 2fJ
Analog signal proce~sor (ASP,: " " 9.39-9:40 Bartleus bisection theore m: .......................... .... J.fJ
Analog to d igita l (AID ) co nveners: 10.3 Baseband: 6. 1. fJ..\
AID noise: " " "" 10.3 Beat-frequency oscillator (BFO ): . 6.6. 6.85
D/A noise: . 10.3 Be ll Labs: . 4.2
Dynamic range , limit s of: "" " lOA Bells and whi ~t1c ~ : IA
Sample rate: " " " "" "" "" IDA Berlin. Ho ward: 3.27
Sigma -delta AID converters: 10.3 Beta cutoff . 2.9
Angle, Ch ip, N6CA: 6. 12 Bidirectional amplifier: . 6.6 1
Antenna J1-'£ T: . 6.62
Tra nsmit/recei ve CUR). switch ing: 6.68. 11.1 X Bifilar windings: 3.331T
Applian ce: . 1.4 Binary
Applicatio ns Numbe r conversion to ASCII digits: ....... ... 11.8
Of spectrum analyzers (hints fo r usc j: .. . 7.3 0 Bina ural
ARRL Field Day: . . 12,4 Delay: 11.23- 1 [.24
A R RI. HUlld lJOOk. (See The A RRL Handbooic] Mode: 9:42
ASCII Binaural receiver: 9.19f[
Digits from binary numbe r (conve ning ): 11.8 BJT (base-junctio n trans istor) model: 2.10
AT c ui (See Cry stal. q uartz) Bleeder resistor: 1. 15
Anenuators : 7. 10--7. 11 Block co nve rtt'r: . 7.35
IQ..JB pad : . . 6.14 Block diagrams: lAo 1.6. 6A
14- ~1H1 R2pro CW rece iver: 12A6
Continuously variable: 7.10
Fixed : 7. 1[ 14-.\t Hz rece iver : 6.2 7
Pi (n ) a nd Tee: .. 7. 10 18-.\IHz transceiver: 11. 13
PIN Diode: 6,18 2-m (DSP-I O) transcei ver: . 11.28
Power Pi (n) : . . " 7.10 40-m D-C rece iver: .. 8.3
Rad io freque nc y (RF): . h. 12 52-MH z IF tran sceiver: ".. ... ... 12.J H
Schematics and design eq uatio ns for : 7.9 Basic D-C rece iver : 8.2
Step: .7. 11 C\V tran smitt er: . 6.5
Direc t co nversion 144- ~I Hz transceive r: 12..~ 3
Audio: 6. 1
L1I2 PC board: 12.33
Amp lifier: 1.12
Direct-co nver sion ID·C) rece iver: 6.6
Derived automa tic ga in control (AGe): 6.23
Do uble- sideband transrmne r: 6.7
Filte r. SS B and CW : . 9.40
Dual -band QRr CW transceiver : 12.19
Filtering. DS P in: II.H- II .2~
Elemenrvof: . 1.6

495
 H h cr-typc SSB e xciter : . 9.1 C
Gene ral-pur pose receiver front e nd: 6.32ff Calibration
Hig h perform ance D-C rece iver d uring mea sureme nts: 7.3 1
High-d ynamic-range receiver- 6..w Cap ac itance
Hilbert tra nsform. 2-l7-tap: 11.2 1 Measurement: ......................................... 7. 11-7. 12
I and Q corrections Capacitor
Better sideband rejec tion using: 11. 2~ Pha sing: . 3.17
Image-rej ecting D-C recei ver : 9.16 Small numeric value: . 3.15
Lichen transce iver: _._ 6.71 Ca pital Adva nced Techn o logies: 1.2
Mixer: __ 5. 1 Carrier: 2 .1~. 2.2 1 10. 6.1
Mixe r/l.O with reflection coeff.: K.7 C\V. ge nera tion: 6.5K
M odern front end: 6.46 Oscillator. for monoband SS D/CW transce ive r: 6.85
Modular receiver: 8. 13 Carrie r to noise ratio ( C ~R): .4.10, ". 12
xtonoband SSB/CW transceiver: 6.8 3 Ca rver. Bill. \V7AAZ: 2.28. 3.24ff. 6.2-lff
Phasing D-C receiver: ... 9.3 Cathode ray tube (C RT): ... 7.3
Phasi ng receiver Cenrml lir nir theo rem: . 10.12
I)SI-' erro r correction : , 11.22 Chamber testing
Phasin g-type SSH excit er: 9.2 or oscillators: . .................... 7.42
Preamp d iode ring D-C receiver : 8.3 Cheby shev fi lter (See lo w-pass filter)
Preamp . Gilbert O-C receive r: . 8.3 Circuit boar ds
R2pro: . 9.35 Multiple. in D-C recei vers: .. ........ 9 .3 ~
Receiver front e nd: . 6. 11 Clapp osc illator (See Oseil1alllr)
Single-co nversion superhete rodyne receiver: 6.6 Clarke and Hess: . ... 3 .3~
Single-sideband (SSB) transceiver: 6.9, 6.6 1 Classes of amplifi e r ope ration (See Ampli fier )
Single -sideba nd {ssm transmitter: 6.7 Cle an eq uip ment (sil-'Ilalsl: 1.5
S leep ing Bag Radio: 12.~3 Clock \l.m:: 11.2- 11.3
S uperhete rod yne rece ive r CO DEC tcodcr/dccodcr j: _.. 10.2ff
with a phasing SS B de mod ulator: ......... . 9.2 Co hn. S. R.: 3.10.3.21
with a SSB IF band -idth: 9. 2 Colo r burst crys tal: 6.90
Superheterodyne single-s idehand (SSB) receiver: 6.8 Co lpitt s osc illator (See olso oscillator): 1.13. 7.37-7.3 8
The S7C superhet receiver: 12. 16 Common base amplifier (CB ): 2.8
Tone and noise generat or: 11.11 Current gai n: 2.8
VXO tranvmiuer with digital frequency multiplier: 5. 19 Vo ltage gain : 2.8
Bloc ki ng deme nts : 2.3 I Common-collector ampl ifier cC C) : 2.7
Blocking capac uor: 2.31 Com mon-e miner a mplifier (e E): 1.13, 2.7
Bo lome ter: . 2. 13 Co mmon -mode
Boltzmann'< constant: 2.2f[, 6. 10 Choke: ... .2. 16. 3.34
Bottom . Virgil: . . 3. 17 Drive: , , 2.16
Boulouard. Andre: . 3.36 Hum: .. . " 8.8-8.9
Breadbo ard c ircu its: ' 1.2 Input range: 2.18
Bread board: , 1.2 Common -so urce JFET amp lifier: .. 6.33
Low ind uctance grou nding: 1.3 Communications
Manh attan breadboarding: 1.3 OSP ap plication s in ........... l l.I ff
Q uasi -Printe d board- c. . 1.3 Weak sig nal
Ugly co nstruction: 1.2ff Using the DSP- lO: . 12.24
Bridge Communications Concepts. Inc.: 2.38
Impeda nce measurement using: 7.21 ff Com pact Software
Rectifie r: 1.1.. Supe r Spice: 3.25
Return lo..~ (RLR): 7.22 Compensation
RF impedance : 7.23 Of osci lla tor drift : . ...... 7.42
RF res istance : . 7.22 Temperature, proce~s of: . . 7.42
Suitab le [or UHI' : . 7.24 Com ponent Testing
wheatstone : . 7.2 1 S,,;IUP for: _ 7.20
Wie n: 7. 13 Computer programs
Buffer amplifier: 1.17- 1. 18. 9.47 A RIU. Radio Designer: 3A
Butterworth filter (S ee Lo w-pass fillerl C p L.\:............... . 3A
BypOI,>,sing and dccoupfing: 2.28 [[ Structure of: . 11.1-11.2
Gro unde d poi nts : . 2.28 Co ntro ller
Parasitic induc tanc e: 2.28 DSP dev ice as: ........ 11.2
Problem s of: . 1.30 Conversion gain
Signal g rounded: , 2.28 Mixer: .. " ... 5.6
Tantalum electrolytic capacitors : 2.30 Co nversion loss
Mixer: . . .... .'Ul

496
Conve rsion oscillator: 5.1 Resistance : . 2.25
Converter: 6.4 1 Devtaw, Do ug. W 1FB : .. J.I
A n ex pe rime nte r's recei ving: 7,.1.0 Demod ulation
Bloc k: 7.35 A\ l: . ..................... ....... ..... 8. 11
D/A : . 1 1. 1 Denormalizarion eq uations: ............. 3.4
For baseb and spec trum analyzer: 7.34 Design
Frequenc y Rece iver , , 9,7ff
A minimum-parts-count: 9.13 Detecto r: . .. 1.10. 6. 19. 6.23
RF to T I" U C f\10S: ... 7. 11 Peak: . 7.5
Converting Phase: 4. 19ff
Binary number to ASCI I d igi ts: 11.1'1 Prod uct: 5.1
Co upl ing coefficient: 3.33 DFT IDiscrete Fourier Transform): 7.35
Cree ping feat ures: 1,.1. D iagram
Crose mod ulatio n: _ 6.21'1 Sh ift -regi ster limi ng: 11.4
C rystal D iagrams. bloc k. j Scc B loc k d iagrams )
Colo r burst: . 6.9 0 Differe ntial am plifier ( 5('(:' Amplifier)
Filter: . 3.17. 6,.1.8 Differen tial-mode drive: 2.16
4th order monolithic: " 7.28 Digi -Ke y: , .. 12.17
Sth order (ref. WB4RNO and W2EKB): n 8 Cat alog: .. 1.2
Bid irec tio nal: .. 6.62 D igi tal
Respo nse: 6.27. 6.~ I·S. ana log:. 11.27
Measurement of: .- 7.37- 7 3 X D igi tal norse: IDA
Oscil lator: _ 1.11. 1.17. -U 4. 6.65 Dig ital sig nal proce vving (DSP): 10. 1ff
Q uartz : 3. 17. 4. 14 Alternate DS P d evice s: 10.2Q
AT e ut: 3.17 Aud io processor: 11.29
Equ ivalen t seri es resis ta nce , ESR): 3.17 A uto matic noise blankers : 10.28- 10.2Q
~ 1od cl : . 7.37 Building bloc ks: 10.2
Mo tio nal parameters: .. 3. 1H CODEe (cod er/decoder): 10,2tf
Piezo-ele ctr ic e ffect: " 3.17 Compone nts: " 10,:':. 10.n
Resonant frequency : 3.17 Amplifi ers: 1(J,f1
Surface e ffects : ...3 .17 Anenunrors : .. 10.1'1
Te sting o f. using Co lpitts osc illator: 7.38 Au tomati c gai n comrol (AGC) : 10.2 1-10.:':2
Variable o scillator ( YXOJ: 6.9 1 Discr ete Fou rier transform (DFT): .- . 10.2 .~ff
Curre nt co ntrol led dev ice: 2,3 ln v and ou ts o f: IO.2f1
Current ga in tb , : 2.3 Spe ctrum a naly zer: 10.:':4
Cu rre nt sou rce: 2.7 F\-1 reception: IO.22-10.2J
C\\': 1.2 FM tra nsmissi o n: 10.22
Carrier gene rat ion: 6.58 Multiplier: IU.7
Considerat ions. o f ph asing D-C recei verc,.. .. 9. 18 Shift reg ister: 10.7
Mon o band rransc civer r.; 6.83 De vice, as a controller: .. 11.2
Rece iver: ..,.. .. ,...... ....... .... 6.6 Dig ital Filter: 10.2, IO. lJ
Recei ver. 14-M Hz: .. 12.46 DSP IF: .. 10 .20
Tran scei ver. po rta ble: 12.5 Finite impulse res ponse (f IR ) fi lter
Transruiwion wi th DSP: 11.24ff Co mputat ion : 10. 15
Transrnut er: 6.4ff Hilbert tran sform : 10.20
IF am plifier : 65 8 Kaiser win do w: ......... . IO.I Off
Pe rfo rman ce : IO. 18 ff
D Infinite impulse response (II R l filte r: 10. 13-10.14
D-C rec eiver DSP prog ra m
A minim alist: . 8.4-8.5 Aurobuffcring: 10.6
D/A co nvert er: .. 11.1 G au ss.ian rando m numbers : 10.12
Darl ingto n co nfiguration: 2.21 Gau ss ian noi se: 10.9
Data wire: .. 11.2- 1\.3 Inde x reg iste rs: .. to.8
dBm: . 7.6 Po ly nomial coefficie nts: 10.1I
dB \V: .. 7.6 Seq uential add resse s: .. Hl.K
DC mca ~urement!'>: . . 7 .~ Instructi on: .. 10.5
Dead bug ~ t}' lc : , 4.30 Interru pt ove rru n: 10.5
Dec ibel (d B): 2. 14 Interru pt service ro utine ( ISR ,: 10.5- 10 .6
Ari th meti c: 7.(, J ump instruction: 10.6
Rat io: .. 2. 14 Pri mary register set: 10.5
Decoupling resisto r: .. 1.18 Secon da ry register set : .. .. to.5
De Fatta, D. 1. et al: 10 ,28 Dynamic range: to.3
Dege nera tion: 2.25-2.26 fast Fourier T ransform (FFT): 10.4

497
 In communications: . " II . Iff Dobbs. George, G 3RJV ; .. . 1.9. 1. 11
Phase shifters: ". .... . 9.32 Domain: . . 3.1
Phase-locked loop:... ........... . 10.6 Freque ncy: . . 3. 1, 6. Iff
Proc ess : . 10.3 T ime: .. ... 3. 1.6.2ff
Adaptive filter s: 10.3 Doppler
ss e generation: __ 10.3 Effec ts: 8 .8
Program shell (also Shell program): 10.4--10.5 RF. Illus tration of: 8.8
Signal ge nerators: 10.7 Dou ble side band (DS Bl/CW 50 \ -1H7 station: 6.900
Integer coe fficient s: 10.7 Double-sideband A!l.f : 6.7
S ine wave : 10.7 T ra ns mmer: 6.7
Calc ulated Iuncuons: In.7 Double -tuned circuit (S U Filter)
Loo kup tab les: 10.7 Do ubly-ter mina ted fi ltcr (Su low- pass filter]
s s e signa l generation Down convertcr: 9.37ff
Gain e xpander: 10.30 Drift
Prediston er: _ 10.30 ff Compensat ing fo r o scillators with: 4 .4ff. 7.42
Predi stortc r di sto rtion redu ctio n: 10.2 9ff Dri ve. common-mode: . 2. 16
Predi cton ion: 10. 30 Dropou t: . 1.14- 1. 15
Predrs tornon polyno mia l coe fficients: 1032 DSS
Tra nsmitte r: . 10.3 1- 10.32 ~f od u l alOr . low -distortion: . 9.47ff
wh y DS P?: . 10.3 Wit h carrier: 9.49
Digital voltmete r ~DV \I ) : ..+.5. 7.2 DSP-lO 2-m radi o: 10.27, 12.24ff
Diode : 2.1 Dual -gale MO SFET mixer: 5 .11
Eq uation: 2.2 D umm y loa d: 1.16.2.33, 7.X
Freq uenc y do uh ler: 5 . 16 50- oh m terrmnanon : 1.16
Freq uen cy Iripler: 5 .17 Dynamic ra nge (DR) : 6.29ff. 7.20
Ideal: 2.1. 2.-1 Co mpress ion algorithms: 10.2
J unct io n: _.. 2.1 Rece iver with enhanced : 6.44ff
Mixer: 5.3
Ring: 5.13 E
Ring. commutan ng bala nced: 5 .8 Easy -90 rece ive r: 6.34
Offset vo ltage : 1. 1 Ebers-Moll equa tio ns: 2.10---2. 11
Pl~ : . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . .. . . . . .. . . . . .. .. . . . . . . . . . . . . 6. 16ff Electronic TIR syst em: . 2.33
Polarity de pendent properties: . 2. 1 EME-l moo n-bou nce mod e: . 12.25 ff
Sat uratio n curre nt: 2.2 Faraday rotation: 12.27
Small sign;11 model "..... . 2.2 Pre-d etec tio n filte ring : . 12.26
Switchi ng: . 6.62 Tran smitt er wave fo rm s: 12.26
varactor: 4.17, 6.67 Emitter bypa ssin g: 2.3 1
Motorola fl.1 Vl09: .. 4.17 Emitter dcgcncretton. ; . 1.13, 2.7ff
Zene r: 2.34- 2.35 . 4.4 Emiuer follower : . 2.7ff
D iode ring Inp ul resistance : . 2.7
Preamp, D-C recei ver: '.. 8.3 Output impedance: 2.7
Dip meter: . 7.12 Volt age gain: 2.7
Diplexer: . 2.40ff. 3.36---3.37 E mitter resistan ce: "... .... . 2.8
Low -pass ou tput filte r: 2.42 Em itte r saturation c urrent : .. . 2. 10
Direct di gi tal syn thesis (O DS ): .4 .18. 4.26 Enco der
Sp urious re ~po n~e s rel ated to : . 7.4 1 Rotary optical: .. .... 11.2
D irect-conve rsio n (D-C l receiver: 1.6 fr. 6.6, 6. 10, X. l ff Rotary. progra m mi ng of: .... 11.5- 11.6
Block d iag ra m of. bacic: . " IL ! Engel brecht. R. S.: ........ 3.38 .6.47
Modu lar: 8. 13ff EN R (Excess noise ratio): .. ....... . 2.2 1, 7.39
Noise figure: 8. 12 Environment al chamber
Peculia ritie s: 8.6---8.7 For oscilla tor testi ng: 7.42
Single-sideband (SSB j: _6.7 Epiphyte transceiver: 6. 71
Directional coupler : 3. 16. 3.36 EP RO r..1: 10.2
Discrete Fourier transform (0 '-") Eq uatio ns
Spectra l frequency re-pon-e: 10.27 Ca lculating powe r from o sci lloscope read ings : 7.9
S pectrum analyze r disp lay: 10.27 Eq uivale nt se ries res istance (ESRj
Windowing fu nction'): 10.28 Value in cry~t a ls: 7.38
Hamm ing: 10.27- 10 .28 Error, Phase and amp litude
Dis hal Method: 3.9 Ph a~ i ng method : J 1.22
Disp la~' Exce ss no ise ratio ( EN R I: 2.2 1. 7.39
Wat erfall: 11.28- 11.19 Exce ssive mi niaturizatio n: 1.4
Distort ion : ... :!.10. 2.12 Excite r
Diller (T he Diner s: . 7.40 AM . low-distort ion : 9.4 &-9.4 9

498
Exp er iments Cry sta l, 8th order: 7.2 8
Tunab le hu m , , , ,
8.9 Do uble tuned circuit (DTC) : 3.1()
Expres s PCB , version 2.1 1: 12.32 Des ign : 3. 14
EZ-K it Lite: " , 10,2ft 11.1 Top -co upled , 3 ,1()
T rans mis sion line : 3.15
F DS P: , , " " , , 3. 1
Fair-R ite (Amidon) cores " , 2.3 1, 3.34 Audio fi lter: "... .. 3.28
Fa rada y rot ation : .." " 12.27 F in ite impul se response (FIR) : 3. Iff
Faraday's La w: " 3.33 Ta ps: 3.28
Fast Fourier Transfor m {Fl-T]: , 7.35. 10.4 Frequ ency domain response: 3.1
FCC: " " " " 1.5 Hairpin: ." , , , , , 3.16
Feedbac k: ,, , ,........... ..." 2.19 High fidelity spee ch : 9.4 6--9.47
Amp l ifie r: , , , 2.24ff H igh-pass . for harm oni c evaluat ion: 7.32
Negati ve: , ,, 4. 1ff Impe dance matching net works: 3.29 . 3.32
Positive : "" " .. 4. 1ff Direc tional Impedances: . 3.29
Fe rrite balun co n: : "" " " 2.36 L-network : , , " , 3.30
B inoc ular type: "" "" 2.36 n-network: , , , ,. 3.30
Ferrite head: " , , , 1. 17 Tvnetwo rk: . .. :1.30-3 .3 1
Ferrite tra nsformer: " " 1 17, 3.33 Infinite im pulse response (IlR) : " " 3. 1
Magne tic field: ,, 3.33 Input imped ance match as performance me asure: 3.2
Ferrite transmission-line trans former s: 3.34 Insertion loss (IL) : 3.1ff
FIT (F a';t Fourie r Transfo rm): .., , " 7.35 . 10.4 LC : .. 3. 1
Field Da y (A RRL): , " 12.11 Lo up: . . 4.1 8
Field effect tran sistor (Sa Transistor. fiekl e ffect) T.os sless: " 3.1
Filte r L ow- pass
Ac tive: . , , 3.24 In harmonic ev alu ation : 7.31
Se lect ivity fro m audio filt ering: 3.24 Lich en transceiver: .. 6.82
Vo ltage co ntrolled voltage source ( V( VS): 3.24 Measure men ts. and trad ing gen erators: " 7.34
All pass: "" "" "" " .1 . Iff O ptional, for phasing rece ivers: " 9.40----9 ,41
At VHf and higher: " ".. ... . " 3. 1 1 Passband: , ,, " 3 ,lff
Aud io. SSB and CW: "" "" " " 9.40 Ripple: 3.1- 3.2
Ba nd rejec t: ".. 3 , I Passive: , " ,.. 3 ,I
Band pass: " , 3.lff. 5 .4. 12.14ff Preselec tor: 6.44
14-MHl. for VXO transm itter: " " ." ". 5.20 Qu art z crystal: " , , , 3.3ff
21-r..-1Hz, for VXO tran smitter: 5 ,2 1 RC activ e: ".. .. 3. 1
Acti ve; . . " " " ." " " " 3 ,26 Real : .." " " , , " 3. 1
Co uplin g: " 3.9 Rece ive r
Finite impulse response (FIR ): "" "" 12K Crisp sound : , , , 3.23
Infini te gai n multiple feedback OG MF B): .. 3.26-3.27 Reson ator : ., , , ,. 3.9ff
LC : , , ,....................... . 3.8 Acousti c: , , 3.8
L ichen transceiver: " " " 6.76 E lectric: ., " " , , 3.8
Losse s in: " " , 3.8 Mi crowave: ".... . J .9
Mo noband SS BIC W tran sceiv er: " 6.85. 6.88 UHF hel ica l: , , " 3.9
Multiple resonator: " " " "" " 3.9 VHF helical: , " 3.9
Stopband attenuation: " "" " " 3.12ff Response improvement wit h decimation: " 11.27
Transmi ssion line resonators: 3.11 Ro ofing: 6.46
T riple tu ned: " " " 3.11. 12.13 Shape : , " " , 3.9
Band width: , , 3 ,2 Sim ple video: , , " " " " 7.39
Cry stal: ".ll ff , 12.13 Spectrum analyz er IF: , , 7.29
4lh order mono lithic: " " "" 7.28ff Stop band : , , , " " 3.lf[
8th order: , , 7.28 Time del ay: ".. . .. 3.1
Bandw idth : , , 3.20 Tra nsfer properties: 3.1
Bidire ctional: " , , , 6.62 Voltage tran sfer function : . .1. Iff
Bu tterworth des ign: " 3.2 3 Fill er (See also Hig h-pas s filter)
Gro up delay: 3.23 - 3.24 Fill er (Sec also Low-pas s filter)
KVG XI·4-.\1 (Ge rman): 12.22 Filt ering
Linear phase : . .." " "" " 3.24 Audi o. DS P in: , , ,.. 11.23- 11.24
Lower side ba nd ladder topo logy ' 3. 19 D.'IS denoise : 11.28
Mesh: , 3. 1~-3 .2() Fishe r. Reed. W2CQ H: J .J6ff
M in-loss (Co hn filter): 3.21ff Fla g
Respon se: , , " , 6.28 .6.84 Program ma ble: 11.4. 11.10
Using 3.58-M Hz TV color burst: 3.20----3 .2 1 Fo rmul as
Cry stal. 4th order monolithic: ". 7.28ff Po we r density: .., , " " , 8.8

499
Forward bias: 2.1 Distortion, meas ure me nts of: 7.31 -7.32
Fourier T ra nsform: 7.2 5 Su ppressio n: 1.19
Discre te Fo urier tran sform (O FT): to.nfr. 12.25 Harmonics: 2. 10
Fa-..t Fourier transform ( fFT) : 10.26 Hartley oscillator (See als o Oscilla tor) : 1.9
Frequency Hawker. Pa t: 5.15
Carrier: .................. . 4. 2 Hayward . Roger, KA7EXM: 12.6
Co unter: . 1.11. 4 .5. ·L29. 7.11 Hay ard. w es. W7ZOI (a uthor): 12_1 , 12.10
Accur ac y.. . 4.31 Helical resona tor: 3. 16
Domain: . 2.10. 6.1ff He xfet amph fiers: 2.3 7
Mixer output: . 5.5.5. 12 Hig h fidel ity
Doubler: 5. 16 Speech filter: 9.46-9.47
Incremen tal tuning: 6.66 High freq ue ncy effects: 2.9
Interm ediate (IF): 5.1.6.6 High level FET mixer: 5. 15
Measurement: 7.11- 7. I2 High-level mi xer: 6.47
Multi plie r: 5. 1.5. 16. 6.9 1 High-pass filter: J.l O. 3. 1ff
Nonnalived rare of change of (Te F): . 4.5 Bandstop: , 3.8
Offset : 6.66 f or harmon ic evaluatio n: .... .. 7.32
S hift: 6.65 Tra nsfer functio ns: . 3.26
Synt hes is: " 4. 18 Voltage Co ntrolled Voltage Sour ce (VCVS1: 3.25
Synt hesize r: .. 4. 1, 4.3 1 High -perf orma nce pos t-mi xer amp lifier: 6.47
Tripler: . . 5. 17 Hilbert transform
Freque nc y co nverter 247 taps/4 H-kH7 sa mpling: . I 1.20
A minimum-parts -count: 9.8 2.t7-tap , block diagram : 11.2 1
Front-end design. rece iver: 6.27. 6.30 Homebrewi ng: 1. 1
General-purpose: 6.3 2 Hcrrabin . Co lin, G35BI: 5. 15. 6.47---6.48
Mode rn: 6A6 HP· 89 70 Noise f igure test set : 2.21
FS K~ I : 12.28 HP3400A U1Je-RMS vo ltmeter: 4.17
Huff 'n Puff sc heme: . 4.6tf
G H, m
G3Ul:R method : ..... .. 3.19 Probe : . 8.9
G3UUR oscillator: .. ..... 3. 19 Tunable or co mm on mod e: 8.8-8.9
Gain Hybrid: 3.35
High audio. in D-C rece ivers : 8.6---8.7 Hybrid-a model : 2.9
Ga in com pression: 2.2 1-2.22. 6.2 8
Mixer : 5.6 I
Gen eral-p urpose receive r fm nt end : 6.32 I-V c haracteristic : .................................................. 2.1
Ge nerator Ideal diode (See d iode )
Audio: .. . I 1. 11-11.12 Ideal ele ment: , 2.1
Swep t volt age: 7.26---7 .27 Ideal transformer: 3.3 2
Track ing: . . 7.34 IF (Interm ediate freq uency)
Generators and souw : s: , 7.13 ff fi lters. for spec trum analy zers: 7.29
GI3XZM :. . 1.11 li P) (recei ver input intercept): . 7. 1H
Gilbert cell: 1.7, 1.9, 4.20 Test set up to determi ne: 7.19
Balanced modulator : 6.5 7 Image
Bipol ar ju nction tran sistor mixer: 5. 11 Respo nse: 5.4
Mixe r: 5. 10. 6.54. 6.62 . 12.7 Signa l: 5.4. 6.6
Gilbert D-C rece ive r Suppression: 5.4
Preamp: . ...... 8.3 Image-rejection detec to r
Gilbert. Barrie: . .... 5.lO A mir umum-partv-coum: 9.!'!
Gu lden scre wdriver: .. ........ 1.4 IMD testing: .. 7.17
Greenman. Murray, ZLI BPU: . ...... 12.27 Impedance ma tcb/missmarch measurem e nt: 2.15
G umm. Linley, K7HFD : .4.1 2-4.13 Impedance tran sform atio n circu its: ...... .2.33
Inductance
H Common mode: .3.35
Hcmode mi xer: 5.15 . 6,48ff Measu remen t: 7. 11-7. 12
Hairpin ci rcuit: 3. 15 Inductor
Hairpin filte r: 3. 16 Self-s hield ing type: 8.6
Ham rad io: 1. 1. I. 11 Inject ion locking: .. ... 4.20
Hami lton. Nic k. G4TXG : . 3.36 Input intercept: . 6.30
Hamming windo w func tio n: .... 10.27 Mi xer: . . 5.6
Hang automatic gain control (AGe ) system : 6.23 Insertion power gain: 2. 14
Harmonic: , " 2.2 1 Instrume nts: , 2.14
Dis tortion: l .19, 2. 14ff. 6.28 Power meters: ,.................. .. . 2.14

500
 RF detection: . 2. 14 Lewallen. Roy, W7EL (See \V7E1.)
Spec trum analyzers : .., " 2,14 Lichen transce ive r: 4.18. 6.71 ft'
Wid cband oscilloscopes: 2,14 Carrier oscillator: . 6.77
Wideba nd voltmeters: ,., " 2.14 Localoscillat or: 6.77
Inte grator: " " , 1.20 Low -pass fil ter: 6.82
Inte rcept point: , " " , 6.30 Main boar d: 6.73
Interface Mixer injectio n sw itching: 6,76
Circuitry for other mixer types: 9.44 Receive audio: , " .. n.7H
Three-wire serial: 11.2-11.3 RF pow er chain: " 6.79
Intermediate freque ncy (IF ): 5. 1,6.6. 6.15 Transmi t band pass filter: 6,76
Amplifier and AGC: 6.15 Lieb enrood. John. K7RO: , 6.62
Field effect transistor (FET) system examples: 6.2 3 Liljcqvi st, Larry. W7SZ: 12.28
General-p urpo se amplifier: , 6.20 Limiting amplifi er: " 5. 18
Speec h proccssor: . . 6.59 Linear pov.,'er amp lifier: 6.54
Svstc ms.. .. 6.1 ~ Liquid- cry sta l disp lay (LC D)
l ntermodulario n d istortion (1/1.10): " ". l.2lfr. 6.28 With DSP data device: 11.6- 11.7
Mixer: 5.6 LM317 voltage regulator : 1.15
Ordcr.: . 2.2 1 I.M38(j audio amp lifier: 1.7tf
Ra tio: . " 2.22 LMS dcnoisc filtering : 11.28
Te sting: ". 7.17 LO to RF isolat io n: " 1.9
Inte rnatio nal Rectifier (Hcxfets): ". 2.37 Local oscillator lLO): 5.1, 6,2, 6.41. 9.42
Interrup t servi ce routine (ISH.): 11. 1 Eliminating radiation effects: 8.9ff
Inter rupt s: 10.4 . 11.1-1 1.2 Mix er drive level : " , 5.n
Introduction tv Radio Frequ ency Design: .. 2,8ft 3.9 . 4. 33 Monohand SS B/CW tran sceiver: 6.83
Inverting in put: . , , , 2.18 Radiation and reflec tion
ISB T ransie nts : , , , 8.7-8.8
Mode: 9,42 Loop f ilter: 4 , l Sff
Isolation Lore : 1.4, 2.29
Mix er: , " , 5,4 Low freque ncy
Resolution. . 7.11
J Low-noise am plif ier (Ll\A)
J A0 AS: " , , 4, 16 Swep t freq uency plot of: " 9.3 6
JFET (See T ra nsistor, field effect) Low-noise Rl- amp lifier 8, 13
JH IFCZ: . 4. 16 Low-pa ss filter: " 1.10ff , 233, 3. ltf, 10.9ft". 12.30
Johnson, D. E. : 3.25 3rd-order: 3.3
Johnson, Harold . \V4Z CB: 6.4H . 6.52 Bessel: .." " " " 3,.'
Jnn etion d iode (See diode ) B utterworth: 3.3ff. 10.14
Caner-Chebyshev (ellipti c): 3.7. 3.16
K Cheby shev: 1.20, 2.33, 33tl 10. 14, 12.18
K3BT: , , ,........... . 2.39 Cutoff frequen cy: , " , 3.1. 3.3
K3N JO: 12.25. 12.27 Do ubly-termina ted: ..3 .2
K3NIO Experimen ts (The ): 12.25 For harmonic distorti on evaluation: 7.3 1
K4XU: 2.37 Lic hen transce ive r: , " , , 6.82
K81JKC: 12.25 Odd -order Pi: 3.3
Kan ga US : , , 12.33 Passband: . 3.1
Keep It Simple, Stup id (KISS): 1.4 RC active : ., " , , 3.25
Kes sler. Ed, AA3SJ: 12.19 Stopband : .., , , " , , , 3.1
Keying Transfer functio n: . . 3.4ft"
T rans mitt er: "............................ ., 6,64 T ransformatio n: , , 3.8
Wav eform: 6.64 T ra p frequencies : 3.7
Kitchi n. Charles, N IT EV: . 1.9 Ultra-spherical: 3.5
Koren, V , , , ,. 2.28
Kurokawa , K.: " , , 338 M
Maas. Ste ve: ,........... . 504
L Macf.lucr. C. R., W8MQW ' "........... . 10.29
L-leakag e: " , ,. 3.34 Makhin son. Jaco b, N6NWP: 6.4 7
Luerwcrk: 1.18, 3.38 Manhattan bread boarding (See Breadboard c ircuits )
Large seale integration chips (LSI) : 4. 25 Manhatta n cons tr uction (See Bre ad board circ uits )
Large signal amplifiers : 2. 1, 2.10 Manly. Ernie , \ V7L HL;. 12.27-12. 28
Larc h wire: 11.2- 113 Master oscillator, power am plifie r (MOP.<\): . .. 6.5
LC Tester by Bill Carve r. W7/\AZ: .7.12 Ma tched (so urce to load): 2.14
Learn by doin g: 1.5 iv[mhCad 7.0: 4. 33
Leeson, D. B.: 4.11

501
Muthcad file Balan ce. adaptive: ... 8.11
On book CD: 5 .2 Balanced
Mathematical ana lys is: 1.6 In creased L-R isolation of: 11.25
Mathematics Bipolar transistor: 5 .3
Aud io pha se-shift network: 9.4 Conversion gain : 5.6
Image-rej ection: 9.4 Conversion loss: 5.6
Low -pass fi lter : 9.4 Diode : 5.3
Mixe r: 9.4 Ring: 5.13
of ima ge sup press ion : 9.5 Ring , com mutat ing balanced: 5.H
of recoveri ng the desired signa l: " " 9.6 Dual gate MOSI-'1::1': 5. 12
d • •

Q -channel: 9.4 En viro nmen t: 9.49

Sideband supp ression: , (j.n FET : 6.47
MAX038 (Maxim) : 7. 13 For D-C rece ive rs: 8. 12
Maximum smoke : . 1.4 Gain compression.. .. 5 .6
.\ID5 measurement: 7.18 Gilbert cell 5.10. 6.54 . 6.62
Measureme nt: 2. 14 H-modc: 5.15 . 6.48 fr
Calib ra tion du ring : . 7.31 Hig b-le ve!. .. 5 . [5. 6.4H
DC: 7.2 IF-p urt driver amp lifiers . . 9.47ff
Impedance Injection sw itch ing: 6.76
Bridge use in: 7.21ff Input intercept: 5 .6
Inte rmodulat ion distort ion (IMO ): 5.6
Impedance. of diplexe r driving po int: 9.1 7-9. [8
Isola/ io n: 5,4
In situ (in-place) : 2.14 . 7.1
JF ET with LO 5. 1
Mixer noise figure : 5.6
Local osci llator (L O) drive level: 5.6
Noise figure, te st setup for : 7.39
Measureme nt: 5.4
Of crysta ls: 7.37-7.38
Mini-Circuits : 5. 15
Of frequency , inducta nce an d capacitance: 7. 11- 7.12
MOSFET
Of har monic disto rtion: ..,.... ........ .. 7.31-7.32
D ual gate d 5 .12, 12,1g
• • • • •

Of I[P3: 7.18
M0 5 FET ri ng : 5 .9
Of MOS: . 7. I g
NE-602 : 5. 10
Of Q. in LC resonators: 7.36---7 .37 Noise figure: ,.. 5,6
Rec eiv er , for SS B transmitters: 7.33-7 .34 Other type s. interfaces for: 9.44
RF po wer: 7.5H Output: 5.5 d • •

Su bsti tut ion : 2.14 Reco mm end atio ns: H. [2

Test equipment for: 7. [ff Spec ification: . SA
Using substitution in: . 7. 1 Sw itc hing -mode: 5.4.6.47
Measurement rece iver: 7.26 Commuraung, with FET: 5.8
Mechanica l displacem ent: . . .. 3.17 ~fi xerll D
Me tca lf. Mike . W7UD:-'I: 6.6 1 Block diagram. wi th refl ect ion cocff.: 8.7
Met er. 5: 6.21 Mix ing product detector: 1.13
Micro-Moun taineer T ra nscei verv: 12.5- 12.6 .\1MICs : 7.8
Wes/ern Mountaineer - 12.7ff Mod a. Giancar!o. I7SWX : 6.48
Mino-Rl :. ........... ................... 12. 16 Mode
Micro-strip: 3.36 Binaural: 9.4 2
Tra nsm ission lin e: 3.15 ISH: 9.42
Micrumctals. Inc.: 3. 14ff, 4.6 Model: 2. 1
T3 0-6. a common toroid core : 3.31 Current generator: 2.11
Toroid numbering scheme. copyright: 3.32 Field effect tra nsistor (FET): 5.1
Microphone Of a quartz crystal: .... 737
Amp lifier; .. 9.45 -9.40 Model ing: 2. 1
Micruphonics: .. g.7 Model: 2, 1 ' d .

M icrow att mete r circuits 7.7 Model CUlTent gene rator: d.... .. 2. 11
Microwave Process :" . . 2. 11
SSB exciter prototype: ......................... 9.44 Modular equipme nt: .. [.4
Mini-C irc uits Modulation
MAR-2: 2 .27 Amplitude: ....... ...... .... 6.1-6.2
Mixer: 5 .15 Cross : .. 6.28
P0 5- I lO VC O: 4.2 1 Modulato r
S13L- I mixer: 4.19 Balanced: 6.2.6.56
Mi nimum de tectable (or discernahl e ) signal (.\1DS ): C ircu itr y used with aud io PSN : 9.46
.............................................................................. 6. 11.6.29 DSB: 9.49
Mixer: 2. 19. 5 . 1. 6.5ff Low -disto rtion DSB: 9.47 ff
Amplifier. pos t: 5. 14 Monohand SSB/CW tra nsce ive r: 6.83
Balance: 5.5 BFO/carrier osc illator: 6.85

502
 Con trol circ uits: " , 6.86, 6.90 o
Local os cillator: 6.84 Ohm 's Law: " , , , 2. l ff
Power chain: .6.86 Open loop g ain: 2,19
Receiv er c ircu its: " ".. 6.90 Operating system (OS): " 11.1
SS B generator : " , , 6.85 Operational amp lifier (Set' amp lifier)
\tJOS FET (Se e Transistor. t1eld effect (FET)) Optical (Rot ary ) encoder: 11.2
Mo user Electro nics: " , 12.17 Opt rcx D.\ l C- 16 117A displ ay: 11.7
Multiple-pun networks: .. :1.35 O sc illator
Splitter/Combiner: . 335 Beat -fr equency (BFO ): .. 6.6,6. K5
Multiplier Butle r: , 4. 15
Frequenc y: , .......... ........... ............. ..... 5. 1.5. 16 Carrier: ,, , , , , ,, 6.85
MWS Wire Industries: . .......... .. 333 Circuits: , 6.65
M ultifilar ® pa rallel banded mag net wire : ....... 333 Clapp: 4.2. 4 . 14
C ulpitls:.... ......... ........ 1.13. 4. 1ff. 7.37-738
N VHF: , , ,. 4 .9
NE-602 Integr ated circuit: 1.71'1' Conversion: , , ,, ,, ,, , ,.. 5. 1
Mixer: , 5.10 Crysta l co ntrolled: 4. 1, 6.65 . 7.l6ff
Negative feedback..: .. . 1. 12, 2.4ff Crystal controlled. fo r 7 a nd 50 \,-f H,: ,.. , 7. 17
Network Crysta l contro lled. for receiver MDS: 7. 1K
All-pass pair: 9.29 Cry stal. for receiv er input inte rcept (HP3) : 7.]8
All-pa ss, second-order: 9.30 Drift. compensating for: 4.3. 7.42
Aud io phase-shift (PS.'l): 9.27ff Negative positive zero U'''- PO) " 4.3 ff
Bandpass diplexer: 9.17 Hart ley: 1.9. 4. Iff. 7.1 5
Bifilar toroid quadrature hy brid: 9.2(, I .e: , 4,1, 6.66 . 7. 12
In-phase spli tter-combiner: ,.. .9,24ff
Lichen tran sceiver. ca rrier: 6.77
LO and RF phase -shift: 9.241'1'
Loca l: 4.1 ff, 5.1. 6.2. 6 ..+1 . 9.-+2
LO quadrature: 9 ,26
Eva luat ing noise in: " 7.-+0
Op -ump . all -p as s. single-stage: 9 ,28
Lichen transce iver: , 0.77
Phas e-sh ift
Monoband SSB/CW trans ceiv er: _.. h. ~-I
Co mpone nt tolerances for : " Y.2yff
Xcgative resistance: -I . I
Polyphase: " " ,, , , " 9.32
Noise , " -I. I()
Simple log ic LO phase-sh ift: Y.27
Spectr um of- -1. 11
xotse: 738tf
Wideband: . ... -1-. 11
Additive : 12.24
Permeability-tuned: -1-. 17
Ban dwidth: . 6.29
Pierce : -1-.1-1-
E valuating. in local osci llators: 7.4 0
Seiter: , , " -I,2ft'
Figure: 2,20---2.2 1. 6.1Off
Direct conversion: , , , , 8.12 Synthesized: , 4.6
Measurement: " " , , , 2.2 1. 2.27 Te stin g of. in enviro nmental chambe r: " 7 ,42
Measurement of mixe r: 5.6 Vackar: ." 4.2ft"
Mi xer: .. , 5.6 Var iable-frequency (VFO ): ,. ,.. 6.65 . 6.H4
Rec eiv er Voltage-controlled (Ve O): 4. 17, 6.52
Effect of mi xer IF-port attenuation: .. 9, 18 W ide-rang e tun ing: 7 , 15
Test setu p 10 measure : 7.39 Oscillosco pe: 2. 14--2.15. 7.3ff
Figure differential lOX prob e: 7.4
Hot-cold resistor: S.I 2 B lock diagram (partial ): . 7.4
Gau ssian . wh ile (WGN ) 12.24 RF pOWL:r measureme nt usi ng: 't.Sff
Po wer.. .. 10. 13 Trad ition al measurem en ts (K70 WJ reference): 7.5
Sign als and multiplicative: 12.25 T rigger level: , , 7.4
Sources: . .. 7.38ff Output impeda nce tra nsfor mat io n: 2. 12
Temperature : 6.11 Output intercept (O W3): 6.30. 7.20
No ise fa ctor (See Noise. Figurc ) Ou tput power: , 2,7
Nois e gai n: ,, , " , ,, , , 2,20 Ove n
Noise power: " , , 2,20 For evaluating o scill ator drift: 7.42
Non -inverting input: " , 2,18 Oxner. Ed: 5.8. 5.15
No nlinear dev ice: , , , , 5.3
Xonnalized rests rance.. , 2,14 p
'\·0I1on . D.: 2.27 - 2.28 Pi-type match ing network: 1.19. 2.25
Notes Pa rasitic inductance (See by pas sing and de cc upli ng j
On phas ing rig consrrucrion: 9.49 Parts list
NPO (See oscillator. drift. compensating forl Easy-90 receiver: , 6.35
Nyq uist criteria: , " , , 10.26 Peak detec tor: , , , 7.5

503
Phas e Power supply: 1.14
and a mplitu de Schematic: , " , , 8.9
Errors, with phasing method: 11.22 Power ta p " , , 7.8
Shifters. DS P: , , , , 9.32 Po wer termination: , , , 7.6
Phase detector: , ,, , ,, , , 4 , 19ff Pre ampli fier
Phase loc ked loop (P LL ): 4.18ff. 7.41. ID.h Use. permitt ing mixer loss : 935
D iode ring phase det ector: 4.20 Prcsc lcctor fil ter: 6.44 . 6.5 1
Loop filler: 4.2 1. 4 ,24 Primitive exp lanations: " " " , 1.1
Pull-in ra nge : , 4.20 Printed ci rcuit boards (PCB ): 1.2
Synthesizer: , , , ". 4.25 Erchant: , , , , , ,.. 1.2
Tracking fi lter: . 4.22 Ferric chloride: 1.2
Phase noise: 4. 1tf Ins ulating ma terial: , , 1.2
Blocking: .., , ,............ . 6.21:; Ep oxy-fiberglass 1.2
Measurement: ,..... " 6.5 2 Photo-resist material: 1.2
Phase trim adjustment: 9.23-9.24 Printed me tal runs: 1.2
Phas ing Surface moun t tec hnology (SlvIT j: 1.Zff, 2,29
Receiver trim ming: . 9.42ff Surthoards: , 1.2
Receivers and exciters Probe
Ad justi ng: " 9. 19ff Hum: ,.. 8.9
Receivers and transmitters : 9. l tf Processing
Rig con struction Multi-rate. in DS P- I0: 11.29
Notes : 9.49 Processor
SS B exci te r, high -performance:. . 9.45 DSP-bascd aud io: 11.29
Phas ing capacitor : ..,, , ,, , 3. 17
Product dete ctor: 5. 1
P hasing mat hematics : 9.4ff
Programmable div ider: 4.25
Phasing method : .. 1.6- 1.7
Programmah1c fl ag: 11.4. 11. 10
PIN diode: ." , , 6.IMf
Prog ra mming the rotary encoder: 11.5-1 1.6
Attcnuator: 6. 18
PSPIC E
Transmit/receive (T/R) switch: A.69
Simulations of pha se and amp litude var iations: .... ... 9. 17
Pinch-off voltage , 2.5, 2.9
PUA43 . Weak signal communications mode: 12.27-12,28
PLL (Phase -locked loop) : 4. 18ff. 7.41
Polyphase networks: 9.32
Port able operation: 12.1 Q
Battery-voltage testing: ., , ,, , , 12.3 and filter losse s: 3.8
Batte ries and power sources: 12.1 Det ermination of. via band width mea surement: 7.36
Alka line tlashlight cell: 12.1 Loade d: , ". 4. 12
Nickel Metal Hydride ( Ki ~IH ) : 12. 1 Loaded tank: 4.10
Nickel-Cadmium (NiCd): 12.1 Measurement of. in LC resonators: 3.9. 7.36 -7 .37
OSR/C W SO MHz stat ion: 6.90ff Measurement. lest fix ture for 7.36
Port able ante nnas: , , " " , l2.2 Quartz cr ystal: 3.17
Invencd-V d ipole: , 12.2 QEX: ., , , , , " , 3.21
Portable transmarch: 12.3 ()RP : , " " , , , , , 1.4
Sleeping bag radio: 12.4 Complete rig for 2m (DS P- IO): 11.7
Power amplifiers: 231 ff Power meter: 7.7
50 M Hz: . . 6.86ff Tra nsceivers: 1.4
A CW-Q RP Rig: 233ff QRP Power: 12.11
Aud io: , 9.41 QRP Quaneriv: 3.33
Class-A: 6.55 QSr. ... 1.2, 2.2Rff, 12.6
Cl ass -A ll : , " " , , , 6.5h Quadrature coupler: 3.36-3 .37
Ctasses of op eration: 2.3 1 Tw isted-wire hyh rid directional: 3.36
Using IRF511 i\lOS FETs: 11.18 Quarter wave length line, synthetic: 3.32
Po wer ava ilable : 2. 14 Quartzcrystal: 3.17
Powe r density formu la: , ,.. 8 ,8
Power gain: , " " , " ,. 2.7. 2. 14 R
Transducer: 3.1 R2 Rece ive r
Po wer measurement: ,, , , 2.13 A next -gen erat ion . single-signal conv : 933
Po wer mete r Updating: 9.33
r ~og ari tllJn i c : . . 7.7 R2pro receiver: , 9.33ff
Low-level: , 7.6 Rad iation
QRP (Lewallen reference): 7.7 Elimi na ting in an LO : 8.9[f
\V7EL design: . 7.6 Radio frequency (R F)
Power pad: ..., 7.6 Am plifier: , , , , 6.12
Power resistors Attenuator: ,, ,, ,., ,,. 6.12
At RF: , , , , 7.10 Ramp: ." , ,, , " , , , 7.3

50 4
R a l i o~ Return lo~ s (VSW Rj: 2.16. 7.31
Po er: 2.7 Re turn less bridg e (RL B/: 2. 16.7.22
Volt agc: 2. 7 Direct ivity: 2. 16
Receiver: 6.1 Re verse biased: 2. 1-2.2
l .f-~H IL : _ 6.3-t RF
AGC. IC~ljng o f; _ 7AO Lo w- noise amplifier: It 13
Bina ural: . 9. 19ff RF amp lifier: ... 1.10
Convener: . 6.9 Iff Lichen transc eiv er: ... 6.79
Desig n and development: 9.7ff RF Do ppler
Des ig n o f l().- to 6O--d B sideband suppression: 9.IJff Illustra tion o f: _.................................. . 8.8
Detec tor: 1.9ft RF impedance bridg e: .. . 7.23
Direct -con version (D- Cl: 6.6. 6.10. 8 .lff_ 12.3 1 RF lo ad: 7.7
Si ngle-sideband (SSB ): 6.7 RF power meas ureme nt: 1.15. 7.5 IT
Dynamic ra nge (D R) : 6.2li Rr pru bl:: ........ 1.16---1 . 17
Enha nced: ... 6.+-1 RF resista nce: . 7. 10
Ellsy-9U: . 6.34 RF resistance bridge: .. 7.22
Factor: . 6.30 RF sig nal ge nerato r
Front -end .1 ·45 MHz: "..... . 7.15
Cross mod ulat ion: .. 6.2l) Lab -quality: "...... . 7.13
Desi gn: 6.27 .6.30 Tr aditio nal. gen . purpose servicing: 7.13
Ga in co mpression: 6.2H Rr source s
General- purpose: .. .. f .." 2 Gen eral purpo se: . 7. 14
Harmonic dis tort ion : 6.2 l-! Rhode an d Sc hwanz: . 10.2 1
lnte rmod ulario n distortion ( IM D): .. 6.28 R hod e. LT.: 2 . 2 8 . 4 .I .~
Phase -noise blocking: 6.28 Ripple: 1.14
Rec iprocal milling: n.2l-! Roo fing filt er: 6...16. 6.50
Funda me ntals: 6.9 Amp lifier: 6.50
High performance IJ.-C: 9.3 Rotary optical encoder. . 11 .2
Incr ernema l tuning ( RITl: 6.66 RSGB Radio Communicanons Hundbook: 4 .10
Direct-conversion ID-C l lt"anscch' cr: 6.67 Ruthroff : . 3.3-1
So perne terody ne : _ 6.66
Inp ut intercept: 6.30 s
Modu lar D-C: . 8.13 ff S me ter: f1.2 1
Modu lar , bloc k diagram: S. 13 Sabin. Willi am. WOIYH: 2...13. 6.56. 7..~l)
Xoisc fig ure Sampling Rutc
Effe ct of miller IF-port ane nuation on: 9. 18 For 18-r>.fHz tra nsce iver: 11.26--- 11.27
Phas ing: 9. lff Saturatio n current (St't' d iode )
Phasing D-C : .. 9.3 Saturatio n regio n: .. . 2.5
R 2pro : 9.3 3ff Saw tooth waveform: . 7.3
Reg en eratio n: 1.10, 1.1 1 Sche matic diag rams: 1.6
Regeneration co ntrol: .. 1.10. 1.11 10 , I-MHz converter: 5. l.'
Reg enerative: , " 1.9f1' l-l-r-.1HL CW receiver
Sche matic ~l f a mod ular: 8. 14 Unive rsal V FO: .. .. 1:!.-l7
Sch ema t ic of binaural fro m Mar. '99 QST. 9.2H- 9. 2 1 18-MHL transceiver: .. 11.I4ff
S imple fi lled-freq uency: . 9.8 28-!\tII L QRP modu le
Single -signal superheterody ne: 6.6 Tran..miner po wer chain: . . 12.30
Supcrhctcrcd yn e.. . 6. 15 VXO & freq ue ncy di vider modu le: . . 12.29
The Triad: 6 A8 . 6.52 Mod ified t uning ra nge : . . 12.:!9
T ickler co il: 1.9 52- ~ I HL tunab le IF
Receiv er mod ule. general purpo.;e: 12.30 4.-1-.-l.9-MHz VFO : 12.39
Rec iprocal mi'\ing: . . 6.2S -I7.5-MlI L premix osci llator fille r: 12.-1-0
Referencec, . 5.21. 6.94 52- ~l Hz ti ller: 12A I
Re ~ i ~ l or~ 52- t>.1Hz LO quadra ture hybrid: 12.-11
Hot-co ld noise fig ure di ffe re ntial: 8.12 52- M Hz pre mix fi ller : 12.-10
Po wer. at RF : 7.10 52-MHz premix LO o utp ut amplifier : 12.-10
Resolution LN A: 12.39
In a spectru m ana lyze r: 7.26 Prem ix LO mixer : 12.4 I
Lo <freq ue ncy: 7. 11 A nalog sig nal processor (A SP): 9.38
Resol utio n bandwidth (RBW ): ... 7.26 A udio po wer amplifie r: .. 9.-1 1
Resonator: 1. 10. 3.8ft' Bandpas s diplcxcr: 1).16
Heli cal: 3.16 Basic min iR2: " 93 4
T LlIl I.: : . 1.10 Better L-R isolation of balanced mixer: . .. 11.25
Transmivsio n line: 3.15 Bidi rect io nal am plifie r: .. 6 .tJO

505
 Binaural receiver, Mar. 'W QST: .. .... 9..::!O- 9..::! 1 P I'.: diode tran smi t/recei v e ITIR I switch . 6.69
Broadban d q uad ratu re hybrid: . 9 ..::! ~ Post-mixer amplifier: . .. __.. 5 .14
Carri er-osci llator for CW: 6.60 Powe r amplifier fo r 50 ~ f H l : , 6.86
c\V/SS B IF ampl ifier: 6.58 Power supply: 8.9
Dow ncon verter: . 9.36 Receiv er incrcme malt unin g I RIT ): . 6.66
Drive an d load de signs: . 9.18 S7C supe rhet rece iver
DSBlC W 50-MHz statio n Si ngle-tu ned mi xer input: .. 12. lli
Receive wn ven er: ... . .. 6.9 3 Simple quadrature hy brid: n... .. 9.27
Transmitter: . 6.92 S imple ssn exciter: ..., , 9.12
VFO: 6.93 Sle e ping Bag Rad io
VXO and frequency mulliplie r: 6.90- fl.9 1 Band pass fcc dthru filter: 12.45
Dual-band QRP CW transceiver LNA /a ue nua lor: , 12.45
A udio ou tput am plifier: 12.22 Po w cr amplifie r: 12.4-4
IF amplifier & filter section: 12.22 V FO, doubler: 12.44
LO vignal processor board: 12.2 1 Solar pane l ime rface s: . 12.2
Prod uct detector & audio amplifie r: 12.22 SS B T r,mscei ver: ............... .... 9. 14-9. 15
Recei ve r fro nt e nd: 12.2 1 Timing ci rc uit for battery testing: 12.2
RF powe r amp lifier c ha in: " , ,..... ... 12.24 I'ran smit/ rece ivc (TIR) an tenna switch ing: 6.<1R
T ransmit mixer & PIN diod e filt ers : 12.23 Unfinished transceiver
VFO, mixer & crystal oscilla tor: , 12.10 A ud io output s: control s)'sle m: . . 12. 15
Eas y-90 recei ver: ,.. 6.34ff Aud io preamplifier: [2 . 15
Frequency multiplier: 5. 18 BFO and prod uct detector : 12. 14
Frequen cy triplet: 5.1 7 IF am plifier: . . 12. 13
Gen purpo se. dire ct co nversion rece ive r: ' 2.3 1 Receiver fro nt end: 12, 13
O ptio n for a udio gain control & fi tter: 12.3 I T ransmit mixer, fi ller. ke yed RF amplifier: 12, 14
General-purpose receiver from end: 63 2 VF() a nd RIT: 12. 12
Gilbert ce ll mixer with discrete transistors: 5.' I VXO transmitter with di gital freq ue ncy multip lier: 5. 19
l-l-rnode mixer : . 6,48 2 1-f\.H IL bandpa ss filte r: 5.21
Ha rd ware interface Power a mplif ie r: . 5 ,20
DS P 10 m ultip le co ntrol devices: 11.5 w ester n Mountaineer transceiver
High-perf ormance post-mixer a mplifier: 6047 Recei ver: .. . 12.9
IF speech pll.l\:e~sor: , 6.59 T ransrnatch : 12. 11
Image-rejection mixe r for -mm: 9. 16 VFO and tran smitter ci rcuitry: , 12 . ~
Image-stripping pre selecto r filte r: 6045 Sec ond-order imcnnod ulation d istortion 11f\.I D}: 6.2li
Keyin g shape of am plifier sta ge: _ 6.6.\ Sei ler osc illato r (See Oscillator)
LC oscillator: , 6.66 Sele ctivi ty: 9.32
Lichen tran sceiv er Serial three-wire interface: 11.2- 1 U
A udio syste m and AGC detector: , 6.79 Servo loop: ..4.19
B and pass filte r: . 6.78 Sh ielding:
C arri er os cill ator: 6.77 Of spe~· t r u rn an alyzers: ...... ....." 7.;10
Loc al osc ill ator: 6.77 Sideba nd: "...... .... _ 5.4
:\f ain 00 3rd: . , 6.73 In versio n: .. 5.4
Rf driver: , 6.80 Se lectio n: ,............ ... .. , 9049
Lim iting a mplifier: 5 . 1K Su ppre ..<ion. in transm it ters : 9. 1Ofr
LM2Ir:tn!>Ceiver. 144 -.\IHL SSB & CW Swi tchi ng: 9,4 2
L1-t2 schematic I: . ............ 12.34 Sid eto ne osc illato r: 1.21- I ..::!.::!
LM2 sc he matic 2: . . 12.35 Signal anal ysis: 6.2
Micromo umai nee r tra nsceiver Signal gc ncrollor: .._ , 1.11. 2. 15
7-:'\I HI VFO : 12.6 Signal ge nerator ex tender: 7. 16
Ci rc uit ry 10 inject sid cton c signals: _ 12.7 Sig nal grounded (See bypassing and deeoupling)
Rig modifications to add VFO : " 12.7 Signal processing: " , 6. 1
Mic roRI : .,..... . ,...... ....... ............ . _. ~L 5 Signe tics: ,.............. . " .... .. 1.7
Modular rece iver: ,.... ...... . 8 .14 Silico ni.\
Mod ulator-demodulator: _ 9. 15 Comrnutaun g do uble -balanc ed mixer: .., 5.8
Monoba nd SS B/C W transceiv er Silverman. Hal. \\'3H WC: , 3.•' 1
BFO and carrier ge ne rator: 6.85 Sine " ·a\·e: . . __ 6.1
Co ntrol d n:uits: . 6.90 Sin gle-sideban d ISSBj (S t'r also ssm
Local oscillator am pl ifi e r. 6.K5 Gen . hoard for mo no band SS B/C\\,-' transceiver: 6.87
Powe r am plifier for 50 MHz.: 6.89 Monoband transce ive r: . 6.8.'
QRP am plifier: 6.89 Recei ve r
SS B ge ne rator : , 6 ,87 Direct-co nversion (D -C): ............ ... 6.7
Transmitter powe r chain : .. 6.86 Sig nal : , .. ...... " 6.4
MOSFET mi xer: 5.12 Transmivvion with DS P: .. .. 11,24

506
 T ran smi ue r: _ 6.7 Suppressio n
IF amplifie r: 6.58 o f opposite sideb an d in receivers: 9. 13
S ingle-sign al superheterodyne receiver: 6.6 of side band
Sleeping bag radio: 12.42ff Desig n. in nunsrruuers: 9. 1Off
Sm all- signal amplifiers: _. 2.1 Surfac e mo unt tec hno lo gy ts \ r n. (See printed circui t boa rds
Small-signal bipo lar transisto r mod e l (St' 1.' T ransistor) (P C B ))
Sm all -signal d iode mod el lSee Diode : Swe pt voltage genera tor : ..............................__. 7.26-7.27
Sm ith chart: 2.29 1"f. 33 1 Switchi ng
Smith, Doug, KF6DX: . 10.2 Ante nn a: . 11.18- 1 1.19
Sulur pan el: " 12.5 Diode : , . . , 6.6 2
So lid Stat e Des ign for /111' Radio Amateur: 1.1. 1.4 Mode mixer : .. . 5.4, 6.4 7
So lid Starr RI-UJio Engineering: 2.32 of side bands: .. . , 9.4 2
Source re sistor method : . . 2.5
Sou rce s T
No ise : . 7.38ff Table
Sources and ge ne rators: 7.13ff Loo kup, to determine kno b mot ion: 11.7
Spectral pow er density: 2.20 Ou tp ut power of J FET mixe r. 5 .1: 5.2
Spectral puri ty: . 1.18. 2.4 1 Tantalum electrolytic ca paci tors (See bypassing and dec oupling j
Spe ctral vo ltage de nsity: 2.20 Ta~. lo r. Joe . K IJT: 12.28
Spect ru m TC F (Te mpe rature coeffi cie nt of freq ue ncy ): -l.Sff, 7.42
l K-M HL CW transceive r outp ut: 11.25 Tee network 2.36
O f a re-radia ted 1.0 : . 8.9 I.-C -C ty pe: _.. 2.36
O f a ty pical SS R transrmtrcr: 9. 11 Te ktronix 40,;41\: 4.26
Spec tru m analysis: ,......... . ,. 7.25ff Tem perat ure
Spe ctr um a nalyzer: .... . 1.5 Coefficie nt of freq ue ncy (T Cr) : -i.Sff. 7.4 2
Applicat ion hints: 7.30 Coeffic ient of induct ance (Te ll : . 4.5
Converter, fo r besebend. . 7.34 Compensat ion: . .4.4. 7.42
DFf use in: 7.35 Compe nsation pTllcess: .. . 7,42
Ex perim ente rs. block diagram of: 7.27 Kel vin (K): 6. [0
IF fi lte rs for usc in: 7.29 Terminator: 7.S
Lichen transceiv er two-ronc tes t: 6.8 1 Te st
Output: 4.11---4. 12 xores from mi n. sideb and supp. e xperimen ts: 9.11 - 9. 12
Reference level o n scree n of: 7.25 Set up for co mpo nent testi ng: . 7.211
Resolution: 7.26 Setup for mi nim um side band suppressio n: 9. 11
Rud ime ntary: 7.25-7.26 Se tup fo r noise-fi gu re measuremen t: 7.39
Sh ielding: 73 0 Setu p fo r receiver d ynam ic-ran ge measure me nt: 6.29
Tri ple co nve rsio n: . 7.32 Setup 10 evaluate :'\£-602 mixer: 5. [ I
Speec h proc es so r Te st equipment: 1.5.7. 1ft'
Inter med iate frequency if F): ..... ..................... ... 6.59 Aud io ge nerator: . 7.13
Sp ittle. Derr y. VE7QK : ... .. 6. 71 Dip meter : , 7. 12
SPOT swi tch: .. .. 6.67 DVM (Digital volt meter): 7.2
S PRA. T: .. . 1. [ [
LC tester h y Bill Carver. \V7A AZ: . 7. 12
Spurious Logarithmic po",,'er met er: . 7.7
Emissio ns: . 1.5 Oscillo sco pe: 73ft'
Respo nses (O DS-related ): 7.41 QRP po wer meier (Lewallen re f.): 7.7
Responses (:\ Iixe r ): 5.5 RF measurement. 7. l n
Sq uare-la w de v ice: 1.9 RF sign al generators: 7. 13ff
Spectrum analyzers: 7.25f£
Sq ueeg ing: . 4.4
True RM S voltme ter: . 7.2
SS B (See also S ingle -side band ); I .~ . 3.1 7
Two- tone aud io gene rato r: 7. J3
Exciter pro toty pe
VTVM (Vac uu m T ube Voltmeter]: . 7.2
Microwave : 9.-1-4
W7ft pow e r mete r: .. . 7.6
G ear: . _. IA
Phasing e xcite r. h igh perfo rmance: 9A 5 Test fixture:
Fo r Q meas urement: ,. . 7.36
SSll tran smitter
The ARRL Handbook : 1.1. 2.:23
Measurement of: , , , 7.33- 7.34
The Art of He ctronics: 2.8
Structure
Third-o rder inte rce pt point: 2.22
Of co mp ute r prog rams: . I 1. 1- 11.2
Third -orde r input inte rce pt: 2.22
Su mmi ng nod e: . 2.19
Th ird -orde r out put intercept: 1 .22
Supe r-Star Proj essional, Eagle Soft ware: 3.27
T hird-order inte rmod ulat io n dis tort ion (1:\10): 6.28
Supe rhete rodyne: 1.6- 1.7. 12. 16
Three-terminal de vices: 2.8
Rec eiver: .. 6. 15
T ick ler coil: . 1.9.4.12
S i n g[e - ~ignal : 6.6
T ime doma in: 2. 10

50 7
T ime dom ain wa veform: 6.2ft" Co mmon drain (source follo wer ): 2.8. 2.9
Diod e ring co mmu tati on mixer: 5.9 Common gate : 2.K
Timing diagram Co mmon sou rce: . l.X. 6.33
Shift reg ister: . IIA G aAs Ivl 0 SFET: . 2.9 . 4. 12
Tolerance HE Xf ET : 2.37 ff
Co mpo nen t. in phase- shift netwo rks: 9 _::!91T H igh-speed C\IOS: ·t 29
Toroid: . 1.10. 33 Iff. -t.5 Junctio n cJFETI : 2.5-2.6. .t. 12
Fer rite ind uctor. . 12.30 Ampli fie r. 6.33
Powdered iro n: . . 3.31 Balanced mixe r: 5 .7
Tracking filt er: " 4.22 Bid irectional amplifie r: . . 6.62
Tr acking ge nerato r: " ".. 7.3-t Casccdc pair amplifier: " 6.1 X
Trail- friendl y rad io lT F R): .. 12.4 . 12.6 Co mmo n ga le RF amplitier: ....... . 6. 12
T ransceive r Co mmon source amp lifier: . 6. 13
IS-\ IHL IF amplifier: 6. 17
DS P circuus: 11.141T Mixer wit h LO: 5. 1
5:!·MHz tunable II· for V HFIUHF transve rters: . 12.37ff Post mixe r amplifie r: 5. 1.t
An IK-l'vIH,,: 11. 12ff .\1eta l ox ide silicon (MOSFET ): 2.5ft". 4. 12. 4.23
CW ISS R- . I I 12f f A vail ability: 6.14
Design: . . 6.53 IF amplifi er: 6.17.6.27
Direc t-co nve rsio n (D-C): 6.65 RF amplifi er: 6. 13
For 1 .w- ~tH l SS B and C W: 12.33 \fixe r
Metal box version: _ 12.36 Co mmutatin g, sw itch mg mode: .. . 5 .8
Wood box versi on: 12.36 High level: 5. 15
Frequency o ffset : . 6.67 Modeling: . 5 .1
Recei ver incre mentalrunl ng (RlT): 6.67 Passive mixer: 6.4 7
DS P- 1O (2-m): . 11.27 tl Sma ll sig nal. bipol ar mod el: 2.3
Epiph yte: 6.71 Transrnarch: 2.33ff
Lichen : 6.71ff Portable. for 7 :\f Hl ; 7.24
Carri er osc illa tor: 6.7 7 Trans miss ion
Lo w-pass filler: . 6.K2 Of CW/SSB using DSP: II.2.tff
Main board: . 6.73 T ran smission line
Mixer inject ion switching: 6.7fl Microstrip: . 3. 15. 33 1
Receiv e audio: 6.n Transform e r: 3.3 1. 3.3 4
RF po 'er chain: . 6.7 9 Balun: ......................... . 3.34
T ra nsmi t bandpa ss fi lter. __ 6.76 C urrent balun : 3.34
Mono band SSB/CW: . 6K i Isolatio n transforme r: 3.3+-3.35
Single -sideb and tS SB) : _ 6.9 Q-sectio n (Q uarter-wa ve line ); 3.3 1. 3.34
Superhe terod yne: 6 _06 Synthe uc : _ 3.31
Receiver incrementa l tu ning (RfT): 6.66 T ransmi t-rece ive system (1 /R): . 1.20. 2.41
Tran sconductance (g m): 2.3ff Antenn a switch ing: . 6.fi8
Hexfets : . 2 ..37 PIN di ode: 6.09
T ran sduce r power ga in: 2.7ff. 3. 1 T ra nsmi tte r: 6. 1
T ra nsform C\\" : 6Aff
Fou rier. _ 7.25 Des ign : . 6.53
Hubert. 24 7 ta ps/4K-kHl sa mple: 11.20 Do uble-sideband A\l: 6.7
Transformer Intermediate freque ncy (IF ) systems: 6.57
B iti lar windin gs : .. . 3 .3 .~
Phas ing: . 9. 1ft'
M ultifilar® parallel -banded magn et wire: 33 3 Sid eband suppressio n desig n: 9. I Off
Ferrite: 3. 17. 3.33 Single-side ban d (SSB): . 0.7
Ideal : 3.3 2. 3 .3~ YXO ith dig ital freque ncy mult iplier: 5.19
Wid cband : 33 5 Tr ask. C.: 2.28, 3.34
T ransie nts T riad receiver: 6.4 8. 6.52
In LO radiatio n and reflection: 8.7. K.K T rigger level : . 7.4
Tr ansis tor: . 2. 1 T rigonom etric ident ities: . 6.2-(1.3
Bcta (I)): . 2.3tl
Trimmin g
Hipolar j unct io n transistor ( HIT): 2.1ff
a p hasing rece ive r: _ 9.4:!ff
Bid irectional amplitier: 6.61
Triple convers ion
Gi lbert cell mixe r: 5.1 1
Spe ctru m anal yzer: . 7.3 2
Mixe r: . 5.3
T una ble h um: 8 .8-K.9
Bipolar tra nsistor biasing: . 2. ~
T V RO dish: 12.28
B ipolar. am plifier : . 6. 16
Two-tone dynamic ra nge: 6.29
Fie ld effect (FET): 2. I ff. 4.3ff
Two-tune gene rato r: 7. 13- 7. 14
Channel : 2.9

508
Two -tone test W
Lichen transc eiver : ........ .......... .., ,." , , 6.8 1 W7AAZ: 3.19
W7EL: 2.27f[ 3.36, 4.6, 12.7, 12.32
U Optimized QRP tran sceiver; . . 1.3
UART: .. 10.2 Po wer meter: , " 7.6
Ugly co nstruction (Sr i' Breadboard circuits) The "Bnckerre": ". 2,37, 2.40
Ugly Weekender: .. 4.27 --4.28 W7L HL (See Manly )
UHf \V7PUA: , , , , 12.27
Bridge suitable for : 7.24 W7ZOI: ".12.1, 12.10
Unfinished, The (aka The Unfinished-7): 12,12ff WA3RNC: " "... . 1.9
Unifo rm ran dom noise: 10.12 WA7 ~I LJ-I: . 1.4. 12.4
\VA7TZY : , , 4.17
V Wade , Paul. W 1GHZ : " " " " " "" " " " .... . 7.38
Vackar oscillator (See Osc illato r) Walkman®: .." ..." " " " " " " ."." " " "" " 1,11- 1,12
Vacuum Tube Voltme ter ( V TV ~I): 7.2 Wa terfall display : "" """ .." " "" .." " "" " " 11 .2H- l l .29
varactor diode ' ., , , 6.67 Wave form
Variable cry stal oscillator (VXO): 4.15--4.16 , 6.9 1 Frequency dom ain: 6. lft
Super. 4.16 Mixer output: " "" " " " " "" """ "" 5.5, 5. J 2
variable-trequencv osc illator (VFO): 6.65, 6.84 Keying ; , ,.. . , 6.64
Video Saw too th: " , 7.3
Simp le filter for: ....... 7.39 Time domain: 6.2f[
Voltag e Diodt: ring commu tation mixer: "" 5,9
Controlled oscill ator (VCO) : ... 6.5 2 Diode switch ing-mode mixer ."" " 5.3
Voltage- driven component: , 2.3 Wav eforms: 2. I J
Voltage drop: , , 2. 1 Wa veforms, Clas s ( amplifier: .." " ".".." " ." "" 2.34
Vol tag e follower: 2.18 Wenzel. ( harks: ."." " "" "." ". " 5.17
Voltag e gai n: 2.3ft" Wes£em Mour uainecr: "" " "" " "" ". 4. 17, 12.2ff
Voltage limiting : . 2.13 Wheatstone bridge: 7 21
Voltag e reflectio n coefficient ( T): 2.15 Wien bridge circu it: ." " "" ............. .. 7.1,.
Voltage reg ulator: , , 1.15 Wilson, Robert , KL 715 /\ : .. " ".. 3.3 1
LM317; " " ...... . .., 1.15 Wireless technology: .""" ,,".. .. . I .~
Switching-mode regu lator: " 1.15 WSJT program: .. 1~ . ~ ~
Voltage standi ng wave ratio (VSWR) : , , 2.15 \V\VV, WWV H: , " 1 ~. 1 1
Voltage-variable resistor: " ..... .." .. 2.9
VXO (Sl'e also Variable crystal oscillator) : .... 12.28- 12.29 X
VXO extende r; ".. .... . 4.33 XR-2206 (Exar): .... 7, I J
VXO transmitter
Digita l freq uency multiplier: ..................... .......... 5. 19 Z
Zener diode: " ~.33 ff
Zve rcv: , , " 3.11

50 9
 EMRFD brings professional RF design
experience t o the radio amateur. It's written
for anyone w ith a driving curio sity about
s tate-et-the-aet equipment.

This new work is heir to the widely popular Solid-State Design for the Radio Ama teur, which left an
indelible ma rk on radio communication in the decad es following its release in 1977.
"It was not that it ta lked about trans isto rs instead of tubes. Rather, the book was acc epted becau se it cut
to the chase and talked abo ut the devices of the day in a way that allowed the reader to actually do his or her
own desig n. We've approach ed Experimental Methods in RF Design with the same fundamental viewpoint
of the subject material."- Wes Hayward, W7Z01
EMRFD explores wide dynamic range, low distortion radio equipmen t, the use of direct conversion and
phasing methods as a serious communications architecture, and a hand s-on embra cing of digita l signal
processing . The amateur bands up to 2 meters are cons idered, and are illus trate d with CW and SS B gear.
The book uses some mathematics where appropriate . It is, however, kept at a basic level.

DESIGN - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - -- - - - -- - - - --
Models and discussion allow the user to design equipment at both the circ uit and the system level.
Problem s peculiar to radio com municat ions equipme nt are disc ussed .

EXPERIMENTATION - -- - - - - -- - - - -- - - - -- - - - - --
Users are immersed in the comm unications experience by building equipme nt that contributes to
und erstand ing ba sic con cepts and circuits. EMRFD is lac ed with new un-published project s. Pres ented
to illustrate the des ign proce ss, the equipment is often simple. lacking the trills found in current
commercial gea r. Even on-th e-air operatio n is offered as part ot the greate r experim ental process.

MEASUREMENT - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - -
A vital part of an experiment is measurem ent. User s are encouraged to perform measurements on gear
as it is being built. Techniq ues to determi ne performance and the mea surement equipment needed for the
evaluations are discussed in detail including circuits that the reade r can build .

Th e authors were influenced by lifelong pursuits as radio amateurs, gaining experience s that contributed
to the ir careers in science and electronics. Each is a member of the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques
Society and has published extensively in a wide variety of journa ls and books.

CO-ROM i ncl ude d. Design software, exte nsive listings for DSP firmware and a collection of supplemen tary
journal artic les are included (programs require Microsoft Windows. Artic les are presented in Adobe Acrobat
(PDF) format).

Published by:

A HHL AMATEUR RADIO The nat /ana/association for I SBN 0- 87259- 879- 9

•
5499 5 )
225 Main s tr eet- Newington, CT 06111-1494 USA

ARRLWeb: www.arrl.org/
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>
z
II
I
,

II
ISBN; 0-87259-879· 9 ARRL Order No. 8799