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Old March 14th 07, 03:31 AM posted to rec.radio.amateur.homebrew,sci.electronics.basics,sci.electronics.design
John Fields John Fields is offline
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First recorded activity by RadioBanter: Mar 2007
Posts: 58
Default VCXO frequency isn't high enough

On Tue, 13 Mar 2007 18:00:15 -0500, "Anthony Fremont"
wrote:

Eamon Skelton wrote:
On Tue, 13 Mar 2007 12:02:38 -0500, Anthony Fremont wrote:


The problem is (well I think it's a problem) is that I'm all the way
down to a 10pF cap for the crystal trimmer and the highest frequency
I can get out of it is still less than 3580kHz. Pleae correct me if
I'm wrong, but I'm thinking that the 20uH inductor is supposed to
pull the colorburst crystal high in frequency then the adjustable
cap should be able to tweak it back down.


Use less inductance or replace it with a wire link.


I did this and now I'm up to 3580.050; an increase of about 70Hz or so.. I
don't understand how this was designed to work. What is making the crystal
oscillate above its design frequency? I thought the inductor had something
to do with it, obviously not. Is it being operated in series mode instead
of parallel?

I tried putting small cap in series with the adjustable one and that just
greatly narrowed the tuning range and only slightly raised the frequency.
It seemed to be getting unstable at that point as my old frequency counter
started showing variations of quite a few hertz each update instead of
remaining steady. It could be the amplitude is too low and the counter is
missing ticks.


---
Your color burst crystal is ground to ring at 3.579545 MHz, and if
you try to run it at another frequency you'll run into drive and
tempco problems which will make it worthless.


--
JF