On Sun, 5 Jun 2011, mikea wrote:

Minoberry buyembythesack(at)peoplepc(dot)com wrote in :
Am needing to align a general coverage short wave receiver with 3 IFs, 60
kc, 455 kc and 3035 kc IF. The bandpass filter is on the 60 kc IF. Am
needing a sweep generator to assist me and wondering if anyone has a
suggestion for a usable one, not pricey or lab grade (because I'm broke)?
Need something that will generate a sweep from about 50 kc to 500 kc with a
sweep width of at least 15 kc. Appreciate your suggestions for which models
to try to sniff out. Thanks.

Got a signal generator that (a) will cover those ranges and (b) has a
DC-coupled FM input?

Got another signal generator that will do ramps or sawtooths at the rate
you'd like to sweep the IFs?

Drive the FM input with the ramp or sawtooth, watch the frequency sweep
linearly.

For that matter, since it's a fairly small variation that's needed, one
could add a varactor to an existing signal generator or VFO, and put a
ramp into that. In the old days, the suggestion was to use the ramp from
the oscilliscope, after all, if you don't take it from the scope, you'll
have to feed the ramp that comes from wherever into the scope so the
bandpass actually displays properly.

The 60 and 455KHz signals would be really easy to build an oscillator
with a small amount of sweep range for, the 3035KHz would just require
more effort at making a stable oscillator to begin with.

Michael VE2BVW