newbie technical questions
 

hello, i'm relatively new to ham radio and had a few technical
questions i was hoping to throw out...anyone that can answer these
would be very helpful!

1. i've seen transmitter schematics that were simple, and others that
were complex. as a general rule of thumb, are the more complex ones
trying to compensate for frequency drift, or maybe eliminate higher
harmonics? how efficient and/or stable are the simple transmitter
schematics?

2. other than frequency range, what characteristics are you concerned
about when trying to match a transmitter to an amp?

3. without an amp, couldn't you still run the signal to an antenna and
it would be a weak transmitter? all the amp does is increase the
voltage and current supplied to the antenna, correct?

4. for an FM transmitter, does the modulation occur to oscillator
directly, or is the oscillator's signal modulated after "leaving" the
oscillator? i guess what i'm asking is whether or not there is an input
to the oscillator, or is it just an "output only" frequency generator?


thanks!
jason

Hi Jason

Nice questions, let me try to answer a few ..

wrote in message
ups.com...

1. i've seen transmitter schematics that were simple, and others that
were complex. as a general rule of thumb, are the more complex ones
trying to compensate for frequency drift, or maybe eliminate higher
harmonics? how efficient and/or stable are the simple transmitter
schematics?

One obvious thing is that CW transmitters tend to be simple, SSB
transmitters complex. But there are a thousand design variables. One big
one is the complexity of the ICs employed. Today you can have a very stable
VFO with just a few parts. You tend to pay a little bit of a price in phase
noise, but frequency drift is not an issue. With an analog VFO, you can add
a lot of complexity trying to get around frequency drift, but phase noise is
never an issue. Years ago, all you had was analog. A few years ago, DDS
(direct digital synthesis) was complex and expensive. Today, analog VFOs
tend on the expensive side! It is similar with amplifiers. In many radios,
all, or most, of the PA is in a single brick, instead of a fistfull of
parts. Ditto with almost everything up and down the chain.

Frequency is also an issue and again that is changing with technology. A
few years ago, it was hard to get directly to VHF. You typically had
several oscillators getting mixed up, frequency multiplied, etc. This was
especially true if you had an analog VFO because it is very hard to get
stability at VHF, and multiplying the frequency also multiplies the drift in
an analog VFO. There are still reasons you might want to do some mixing up
to get to VHF with a DDS VFO, but DDS parts up into the gigahertz range are
now cheap parts.

It was only a few years ago that a DDS VFO cost hundreds of dollars. Today
you can buy a chip with a VHF synthesizer and amplifier and modulator for
less than the tuning capacitor in an analog VFO.

2. other than frequency range, what characteristics are you concerned
about when trying to match a transmitter to an amp?

If you are buying commercial, you are looking at price, of course, and
expected reliability, along with power consumption. For SSB, you need the
amplifier to be linear, which implies lower efficiency. For FM/CW you don't
need linear, so the amp can be a lot more efficient. If you are designing
the amp, then you are worrying about impedance mathcing, as well.

3. without an amp, couldn't you still run the signal to an antenna and
it would be a weak transmitter? all the amp does is increase the
voltage and current supplied to the antenna, correct?

Yes of course. There are times when you want a lot of power, but most of
the time it really isn't necessary. Also, it is a lot easier to get antenna
gain than power to the antenna, especially at higher frequencies. The need
for power depends a lot on what you do, what frequencies you operate, and to
a degree, what "floats your boat". If you are doing EME or HSMS, you need a
fair bit of power - hundreds of watts, anyway. If you are chatting on the
local repeater, typically a watt is as good as a kilowatt. Lots of folks
called QRPers like to use very low power. For them the "legal limit" is
five watts, but many try to see what they can do with milliwatts. The
current miles/watt record is held by a guy who operated 40 microwatts over a
500+ mile path.

4. for an FM transmitter, does the modulation occur to oscillator
directly, or is the oscillator's signal modulated after "leaving" the
oscillator? i guess what i'm asking is whether or not there is an input
to the oscillator, or is it just an "output only" frequency generator?

Typically you would modulate the oscillator, although these days, the audio
may well be simply data to the synthesizer. However, because FM is
typically done at VHF and higher, there may well be additional oscillators
mixed with the modulated signal to get up into the VHF/UHF range.

Hope this helps

...

xpyttl wrote:
Hi Jason

Nice questions, let me try to answer a few ..

wrote in message
ups.com...

1. i've seen transmitter schematics that were simple, and others
that
were complex. as a general rule of thumb, are the more complex ones
trying to compensate for frequency drift, or maybe eliminate higher
harmonics? how efficient and/or stable are the simple transmitter
schematics?

One obvious thing is that CW transmitters tend to be simple, SSB
transmitters complex. But there are a thousand design variables.
One big
one is the complexity of the ICs employed. Today you can have a very
stable
VFO with just a few parts. You tend to pay a little bit of a price
in phase
noise, but frequency drift is not an issue. With an analog VFO, you
can add
a lot of complexity trying to get around frequency drift, but phase
noise is
never an issue. Years ago, all you had was analog. A few years ago,
DDS
(direct digital synthesis) was complex and expensive. Today, analog
VFOs
tend on the expensive side! It is similar with amplifiers. In many
radios,
all, or most, of the PA is in a single brick, instead of a fistfull
of
parts. Ditto with almost everything up and down the chain.

Frequency is also an issue and again that is changing with
technology. A
few years ago, it was hard to get directly to VHF. You typically had
several oscillators getting mixed up, frequency multiplied, etc.
This was
especially true if you had an analog VFO because it is very hard to
get
stability at VHF, and multiplying the frequency also multiplies the
drift in
an analog VFO. There are still reasons you might want to do some
mixing up
to get to VHF with a DDS VFO, but DDS parts up into the gigahertz
range are
now cheap parts.

It was only a few years ago that a DDS VFO cost hundreds of dollars.
Today
you can buy a chip with a VHF synthesizer and amplifier and modulator
for

Good info to know. I was kinda looking around to make a (mostly) IC
transmitter like that... (anything 70cm and under). Are you aware of
any chip PN's or schematics I could dive into to learn?

Thanks,
Dave

"dave.harper" wrote in message
ups.com...

Good info to know. I was kinda looking around to make a (mostly) IC
transmitter like that... (anything 70cm and under). Are you aware of
any chip PN's or schematics I could dive into to learn?

Analog Devices' parts are favored by hams. The greatest number of projects
out there use the AD9850, but that part is a little older, and does not
provide modulation input. Also, it is really only good up to about 30 MHz,
you can push a bit past that but the power requirements explode and the
noise goes up. Without any component changes it will go down to 1 Hz.
Newer AD98xx parts are starting to get more attention, and some of those are
useful up into the low 100's of MHz. The 99xx parts have more features yet.

TI has a TRF4400 which is a 440 MHz synthesizer with modulation and an amp
(not much of an amp, tho!), and the almost identical 4900 for 900 MHz. Some
folks have used these down to 6 meters. The TI parts have greater channel
spacing than the AD parts, but that also reduces the frequency of the
crystal or oscillator, which has a big effect on the power consumption. TI
also has a 2050/1/2 which are synthesizers (I don't recall if they have
modulation) up into the gigahertz range. I've been toying with using one of
the TI parts as a VFO for an HF rig by using a prescaler to divide down the
frequency (and consequsntly the spacing).

The AD parts are pricey, but AD is very good about samples. The TI parts
are all in the five buck neighborhood. There are a zillion projects/kits
out there based on the AD parts.

If you've ever built an analog VFO, these DDS parts are like black magic.
They take little in the way of support circuitry, no fretting about layout,
no spending weeks trying to work out the temperature compensation, no moving
around because you breathed on it, you just dial in the frequency you want
and you are spot on.

...

hey, thanks for the info. that was very helpful! as you probably
expected, i would like to ask a couple of follow-ups on 2 of the
questions:

xpyttl wrote:

2. other than frequency range, what characteristics are you
concerned
about when trying to match a transmitter to an amp?

If you are buying commercial, you are looking at price, of course,
and
expected reliability, along with power consumption. For SSB, you
need the
amplifier to be linear, which implies lower efficiency. For FM/CW
you don't
need linear, so the amp can be a lot more efficient. If you are
designing
the amp, then you are worrying about impedance mathcing, as well.

i guess what i meant was more along these lines: you need to make sure
the peak-to-peak input voltage and current capabilities of the input is
matched with the amp, right? or does the amp have a lot of leeway in
those regards?

4. for an FM transmitter, does the modulation occur to oscillator
directly, or is the oscillator's signal modulated after "leaving"
the
oscillator? i guess what i'm asking is whether or not there is an
input
to the oscillator, or is it just an "output only" frequency
generator?

Typically you would modulate the oscillator, although these days, the
audio
may well be simply data to the synthesizer. However, because FM is
typically done at VHF and higher, there may well be additional
oscillators
mixed with the modulated signal to get up into the VHF/UHF range.

just to make sure i have it straight, if i were to transmit a sine wave
at 146mhz, anyone listening in on 146 mhz wouldn't hear anything
(except maybe less noise than usual). if i were to vary the frequency
between 146.0001 and 145.9999 at a rate of 100hz, then anyone recieving
would hear a quiet 100hz tone. now if i were to vary the frequency
between 146.001 and 145.999 (holding all previous listeners constant),
then anyone listening would hear a much louder tone...correct? or am i
not understanding it yet? ;-)

thanks again for the help!
jason

wrote in message
ps.com...

i guess what i meant was more along these lines: you need to make sure
the peak-to-peak input voltage and current capabilities of the input is
matched with the amp, right? or does the amp have a lot of leeway in
those regards?

Actually, no. Typically the amp doesn't have a lot of flexibility there,
but in general the exciter does.

In amateur practice, the impedance of almost anything that connects together
at RF is 50 ohms or converted to 50 ohms. Given that, the power level then
converts directly to voltage and current.

Typically, HF exciters have a lot of range in output power. The FCC
prohibits the sale of HF power amplifiers having a required drive of less
than 80 watts. Since most HF exciters have 100 watts out, the required
input power of HF amps is rarely specified, since it will almost always
match almost all exciters. I don't think other countries have the same
rules, but the FCC also requires that the amps cannot easily be modified to
accept lower drive, so it is expensive for manufacturers to make amps
differently for different markets, since that typically would require a
complete redesign.

On VHF, it's a little different. Most VHF exciters only have a few output
power settings. VHF amps generally specify the input power, and typically,
it will be a fairly wide range. But still, if you want, say, 200 watts at 2
meters, you would buy a different amp for a 5 watt HT than you would for a
50 watt mobile.

just to make sure i have it straight, if i were to transmit a sine wave
at 146mhz, anyone listening in on 146 mhz wouldn't hear anything
(except maybe less noise than usual). if i were to vary the frequency
between 146.0001 and 145.9999 at a rate of 100hz, then anyone recieving
would hear a quiet 100hz tone. now if i were to vary the frequency
between 146.001 and 145.999 (holding all previous listeners constant),
then anyone listening would hear a much louder tone...correct? or am i
not understanding it yet? ;-)

That is exactly right.

There is a weird behavior of FM receivers called the "capture effect". A
signal of sufficient amplitude at the input of an FM receiver cose to where
the receiver is tuned will totally quiet the receiver. In an AM, CW or SSB
signal, the amplitude is converted to audio almost directly. As a result,
noise on the input appears as noise on the output.

FM is different, though. In FM, we want to hear the frequency modulation.
When there is no signal, we hear the detector randomly wandering around
trying to interpret the noise as signal, but the amplitude of the noise
really has no effect. Once a signal is detected that is strong enough for
the detector to follow, the detector follows the signal and there is no more
noise. To exaggerate this effect, most FM receivers amplify the signal so
much that the amplifiers become saturated and amplitude variation in the
input signal is clipped (well, softly clipped), so that the later stages of
the receiver see the same amplitude. This is different than AM/SSB/CW where
it is the amplitude changes you are looking for.

This is one of the reasons that FM signals have so much higher quality ...
any noise is actually a result of noise in the receiver (or transmitter)
rather than the atmosphere. With other modes, not only can you hear the
atmospheric noise, but at lower frequencies, the atmospheric noise is many
times higher than the noise inherent in the receiver.

The other reason is bandwidth. In amateur practice, FM signals are 5 kHz
wide, compared to about 2.5 for SSB. In commercial practice, FM signals are
wider still.

There is another "gotcha" in your description above. If you vary the
carrier at, say, 1000 Hz, from say, 146.999 to 147.001, the actual bandwidth
will be somewhat wider than you expect, and it will be dependent on the
frequency of the modulation. I know this doesn't make sense, it has to do
with some weird math. If you studied Fourier series back in school it was
some abstract mathematical thing that had nothing to do with the real world.
Well, guess what. Fourier has everything to do with radio! The result is
that to stay within the 5 kHz bandwidth, the highest modulating frequency
has to be somewhat lower than 5 kHz. This is one reason why the FCC
prohibits amateurs from broadcasting music; reasonable fidelity of music
requires higher bandwidth than voice.

...

Does anyone here remember the simple CW transmitter that used a 6146 as a
keyed ocillator? It would put out about 60 watts. There was a very low
current light bulb in series with the crystal to limit the current that
could flow in the crystal circuit. I think it was in the 1959 or 60
HANDBOOK. I used a gaseous regulator tube on the screen. It didn't chirp too
badly.........Analog VFO's yes now there is a fun project!


"xpyttl" wrote in message
...
"dave.harper" wrote in message
ups.com...


If you've ever built an analog VFO, these DDS parts are like black magic.
They take little in the way of support circuitry, no fretting about
layout,
no spending weeks trying to work out the temperature compensation, no
moving
around because you breathed on it, you just dial in the frequency you want
and you are spot on.

..

just to make sure i have it straight, if i were to transmit a sine wave
at 146mhz, anyone listening in on 146 mhz wouldn't hear anything
....[snip]....

CW is NOT dead on two meters; anyone listening in CW mode would hear you!
--
--Myron A. Calhoun.
Five boxes preserve our freedoms: soap, ballot, witness, jury, and cartridge
PhD EE (retired). "Barbershop" tenor. CDL(PTXS). W0PBV. (785) 539-4448
NRA Life Member and Certified Instructor (Home Firearm Safety, Rifle, Pistol)

thanks again for the help...your answers led me to a couple other
questions, if i may ask?

xpyttl wrote:

In amateur practice, the impedance of almost anything that connects
together
at RF is 50 ohms or converted to 50 ohms. Given that, the power
level then
converts directly to voltage and current.

so if i were to design a transmitter around an COTS amp, how would i
determine what i needed to "drive" it at, in terms of voltage? if i
have 3 variables (V, I, and R) then i'd need to know 2 of the 3, then i
can solve for the third... as it is, i only know R...?

This is one of the reasons that FM signals have so much higher
quality ...
any noise is actually a result of noise in the receiver (or
transmitter)
rather than the atmosphere. With other modes, not only can you hear
the
atmospheric noise, but at lower frequencies, the atmospheric noise is
many
times higher than the noise inherent in the receiver.

so i imagine people can do CW over FM, but does it usually occur on (I
guess what would be called) a simplified AM transceiver? either a
signal's present or not?

also, when people refer to ASK and FSK, is ASK basically an audio
output that's been sent over FM? and FSK is more like CW, only to a
receiver that can monitor both mark and space (0 and 1) frequencies?

thanks again!
jason

On 13 Mar 2005 15:18:03 -0800, wrote:



also, when people refer to ASK and FSK, is ASK basically an audio
output that's been sent over FM? and FSK is more like CW, only to a
receiver that can monitor both mark and space (0 and 1) frequencies?

thanks again!
jason

always thought amplitude-shift-keying was mainly used for morse
---
J. M. Noeding, LA8AK, N-4623 Kristiansand
http://home.online.no/~la8ak/c.htm

"J M Noeding" wrote in message
...
On 13 Mar 2005 15:18:03 -0800, wrote:



also, when people refer to ASK and FSK, is ASK basically an audio
output that's been sent over FM? and FSK is more like CW, only to a
receiver that can monitor both mark and space (0 and 1) frequencies?

thanks again!
jason

always thought amplitude-shift-keying was mainly used for morse
---
J. M. Noeding, LA8AK, N-4623 Kristiansand
http://home.online.no/~la8ak/c.htm

I believe he meant AFSK (audio frequency shift keying) vs FSK (frequency
shift keying).

Dee Flint wrote:
"J M Noeding" wrote in message
...
On 13 Mar 2005 15:18:03 -0800, wrote:



also, when people refer to ASK and FSK, is ASK basically an audio
output that's been sent over FM? and FSK is more like CW, only to a
receiver that can monitor both mark and space (0 and 1)
frequencies?

thanks again!
jason

always thought amplitude-shift-keying was mainly used for morse
---
J. M. Noeding, LA8AK, N-4623 Kristiansand
http://home.online.no/~la8ak/c.htm

I believe he meant AFSK (audio frequency shift keying) vs FSK
(frequency
shift keying).

yes, that is what i meant. i didn't even know amplitude shift keying
existed.

am i correct about afsk being audio tones transmitted over FM, while
fsk is just alternating between two non-modulating frequencies?

jason

In article .com,
wrote:

yes, that is what i meant. i didn't even know amplitude shift keying
existed.

am i correct about afsk being audio tones transmitted over FM, while
fsk is just alternating between two non-modulating frequencies?

That's pretty close, but not exactly on target.

AFSK can be used on top of either AM or FM. In amateur systems it's
most commonly used with FM.

FSK shifts the carrier frequency... a process which counts as a
modulation. The amount of frequency shift (in Hz) and the rate at
which you shift it (also in Hz) vary a lot from one usage to another.
There are both narrow-band and wide-band FSK modulations in use.

--
Dave Platt AE6EO
Hosting the Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will
boycott any company which has the gall to send me such ads!

Dave Platt wrote:
In article .com,
wrote:

yes, that is what i meant. i didn't even know amplitude shift keying
existed.

am i correct about afsk being audio tones transmitted over FM, while
fsk is just alternating between two non-modulating frequencies?

That's pretty close, but not exactly on target.

AFSK can be used on top of either AM or FM. In amateur systems it's
most commonly used with FM.

FSK shifts the carrier frequency... a process which counts as a
modulation. The amount of frequency shift (in Hz) and the rate at
which you shift it (also in Hz) vary a lot from one usage to another.
There are both narrow-band and wide-band FSK modulations in use.

thanks! also, i was just reading about mixers... and getting confused.
i've run some matlab programs to figure out how you can take something
at frequency x and frequency y, and end up with an output of frequency
(x-y). one transmitter's mixer i saw took a 160mhz and 14mhz input to
get a 146mhz output. adding or multiplying them together certainly does
not yeild 146mhz. so how does that work?

thanks for the help!
jason

I believe he meant AFSK (audio frequency shift keying) vs FSK
(frequency
shift keying).

yes, that is what i meant. i didn't even know amplitude shift keying
existed.

am i correct about afsk being audio tones transmitted over FM, while
fsk is just alternating between two non-modulating frequencies?

jason


You are partly correct. If audio tones are fed into the microphone input
(audio stages) of an AM or FM transmitter you are generating AFSK. If an
audio tone is fed into a SSB transmitter it will generate a single output
frequency. If the tone is switched off and on , it will be received as a CW
transmitter being keyed off and on. Some newer transceivers generate CW
this way. If the tone is shifted in frequency , the output will be a
carrier shifted the same ammount. This is received the same as a FSK
transmitter. You can get the same effect if you have a crystal controled
transmiter and switch a capacitor across the crystal to change the
frequency.
There is almost no way to tell the differance between the two. If 100% pure
tones are used and everything else it 100% correct then there is no
differance in the transmitted signals. As always nothing is 100% and you
can tell the differance with very close and strong signals. This is still
close enough it does not matter.

In article . com,
wrote:

thanks! also, i was just reading about mixers... and getting confused.
i've run some matlab programs to figure out how you can take something
at frequency x and frequency y, and end up with an output of frequency
(x-y). one transmitter's mixer i saw took a 160mhz and 14mhz input to
get a 146mhz output. adding or multiplying them together certainly does
not yeild 146mhz. so how does that work?

You need a nonlinear function in order to get mixing behavior, and
create the sum and difference frequencies.

If you just add (e.g.) sin 160x and sin 14x, you end up with a simple
sum of sins, and no other frequencies show up - ordinary superposition.

Run the resulting sum through a nonlinear function (e.g. square it, or
take the square root, or clip it whenever its absolute value exceeds
1.0, or something like that), and take a look at the frequency content
of what you get as a result.

--
Dave Platt AE6EO
Hosting the Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will
boycott any company which has the gall to send me such ads!

On Sun, 13 Mar 2005 19:32:17 -0500, "Dee Flint"
wrote:


also, when people refer to ASK and FSK, is ASK basically an audio
output that's been sent over FM? and FSK is more like CW, only to a
receiver that can monitor both mark and space (0 and 1) frequencies?

always thought amplitude-shift-keying was mainly used for morse

I believe he meant AFSK (audio frequency shift keying) vs FSK (frequency
shift keying).

The ITU emission designators for some digital modes and some typical
usage:

* A1A On/Off keying for manual reception (Morse)

* A1D ASK, Amplitude shift keying. The only recent use I have seen
is in some 433 MHz SRD (Short Range Devices)

* F1D Pure FSK (RTTY is classified as F1B)

* F2D Audio subcarrier modulated by amplitude or frequency (e.g.
1200 bit/s AX.25 packet) modulating an FM transmitter

* A2A Audio subcarrier on/off modulated by Morse code modulating
an AM transmitter (e.g. aeronautical beacons in the LF band)

* A2D Audio subcarrier modulated by amplitude or frequency
modulating an AM transmitter

* J2A Audio subcarrier on/off modulated by Morse code modulating
an SSB transmitter (many amateur multimode rigs)

* J2D Audio subcarrier modulated by amplitude or frequency (e.g.
300 bit/s AX.25 packet) modulating an SSB transmitter

On the air A1A and J2A are equivalent.

On the air F1D and J2A are equivalent and can be generated and
detected in both ways.

I hope this clarifies some of the issues.

Paul OH3LWR

"Dave Platt" wrote in message
...
In article .com,
wrote:

yes, that is what i meant. i didn't even know amplitude shift keying
existed.

am i correct about afsk being audio tones transmitted over FM, while
fsk is just alternating between two non-modulating frequencies?

That's pretty close, but not exactly on target.

AFSK can be used on top of either AM or FM. In amateur systems it's
most commonly used with FM.

That is not correct either. AFSK is used extensively with Amateur Radio
digital systems, such as PSK-31, RTTY, even CW can be and is generated
using AFSK. And the modulation METHOD is not important. It can be either
Amplitude or Frequency Modulation.

Dan/W4NTI


FSK shifts the carrier frequency... a process which counts as a
modulation. The amount of frequency shift (in Hz) and the rate at
which you shift it (also in Hz) vary a lot from one usage to another.
There are both narrow-band and wide-band FSK modulations in use.

--
Dave Platt AE6EO
Hosting the Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will
boycott any company which has the gall to send me such ads!