hi,

I'm experimenting with my superhet. My IF is 8mhz (cause I have 8 mhz
crystals for IF filter). I first experimented on 40m. VFO was 15mhz. At
design time I'm using 3 meters long wire as an "antenna" (and I'm
sitting in my basement). I heard different european stations (EA5FKX,
RW6XE, UR4GI etc) which are several thousand km-s away. Pretty amazing
for such "antenna"!

So I decided to go for 20m band. I had an option to set my VFO either
to 6mhz or 22mhz. I first went with 6mhz. But for my disappointment I
heard nothing but the band noise.

So I'm confused now - is it because the short "antenna" or am I wrong
thinking that VFO 6mhz + IF 8mhz should give me 14mhz?

any ideas?

Yes.
It was often used in two band trx - with 9MHz IF and 5-5,5MHz VFO.
result was 80m and 20m without VFO switching.

MAc

ORIGINAL MESSAGE:

On 19 Jul 2006 00:54:44 -0700, wrote:


So I decided to go for 20m band. I had an option to set my VFO either
to 6mhz or 22mhz. I first went with 6mhz. But for my disappointment I
heard nothing but the band noise.

------------ REPLY SEPARATOR ------------

That frequency combination will work fine. I once homebrewed a 40
meter SSB rig using a 9 MHz crystal IF filter and a 2 MHz oscillator
and it worked fine. As a rule, the lower the oscillator frequency, the
more stable it will be. Your 6 MHz will be far more stable than 22
MHz.

Bill, W6WRT

wrote:

hi,

I'm experimenting with my superhet. My IF is 8mhz (cause I have 8 mhz
crystals for IF filter). I first experimented on 40m. VFO was 15mhz. At
design time I'm using 3 meters long wire as an "antenna" (and I'm
sitting in my basement). I heard different european stations (EA5FKX,
RW6XE, UR4GI etc) which are several thousand km-s away. Pretty amazing
for such "antenna"!

So I decided to go for 20m band. I had an option to set my VFO either
to 6mhz or 22mhz. I first went with 6mhz. But for my disappointment I
heard nothing but the band noise.

So I'm confused now - is it because the short "antenna" or am I wrong
thinking that VFO 6mhz + IF 8mhz should give me 14mhz?

any ideas?

What everyone else said, plus:

Yes, a mixer should work on both sum and difference frequencies, so an
LO that's lower than the IF is just fine for receiving a good strong
signal.

You leave yourself open to more spurious reception problems. When folks
are talking about 'spurs' and 'mixer charts' they mean you need to watch
out for funky combinations of harmonics of LO and RF signals mixing down
to your IF -- having the LO frequency higher than the RF frequency tends
to reduce this problem. You can do this by hand by assuming that you'll
be mixing 6, 12, 18, 24, etc., with 14, 28, 42, etc., and seeing if any
of the combinations boils down to an IF of 8. If they do you could have
spurious mixing problems, particularly if they're not high harmonics.

--

Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com

Posting from Google? See http://cfaj.freeshell.org/google/

"Applied Control Theory for Embedded Systems" came out in April.
See details at http://www.wescottdesign.com/actfes/actfes.html

wrote:



hi,

I'm experimenting with my superhet. My IF is 8mhz (cause I have 8 mhz
crystals for IF filter). I first experimented on 40m. VFO was 15mhz. At
design time I'm using 3 meters long wire as an "antenna" (and I'm
sitting in my basement). I heard different european stations (EA5FKX,
RW6XE, UR4GI etc) which are several thousand km-s away. Pretty amazing
for such "antenna"!

So I decided to go for 20m band. I had an option to set my VFO either
to 6mhz or 22mhz. I first went with 6mhz. But for my disappointment I
heard nothing but the band noise.

So I'm confused now - is it because the short "antenna" or am I wrong
thinking that VFO 6mhz + IF 8mhz should give me 14mhz?

any ideas?

The frequency schemes should work fine. Be sure you don't have a high pass
filter somewhere between your vfo and your mixer. I don't know what kind of
mixer you are using but if it is an active mixer then there could easily be
some kind of filter involved. That's why I like diode ring mixers with
resistive pads between the vfo and the mixer - it gives you a good
termination for both the mixer and the vfo and there isn't nearly as much
to worry about.

tim ab0wr