KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog

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REVIEW: IF tap adds bandscope to FT-450D

Posted: 25 Aug 2016 11:28 AM PDT
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I installed the Â*HupRF PAT IF tapÂ*by G4HUPÂ*on my Yaesu FT-450D a few nights
ago. The G4HUP website describes the PAT as a small circuit board which can
provide a high impedance tap of the IF of your rig, so that you can connect
an external SDR to improve your operating experience. PAT is powered from
the RxB line within the rig, so it is self contained and self-muting on Tx,
which prevents high level Tx signals being passed to your SDR.
Im super pleased with the performance so far. It was a little fussy to
install the SMA adapter on the back of the radio, and involved taking it
apart further than I would have liked, but I got it done, and it looks
pretty decent.
Heres the port I installed on the back of the rig:

Heres the board installed in the rig:

Its kind of a touchyÂ*soldering job. Working with RG-178 is a real pain.
My SDRPlay RSP has a full view of the antenna. The signalÂ*seems to be just
a little attenuated (-2dB) vsÂ*the receiver on the FT-450D.Â*I ran two copies
of WSJT-X and compared decodes to come to that conclusion. More testing
will be required.
I have a lot of control over the gain and sampling rate on the RSP, so
theres a lot to fiddle with to get it operating somewhat optimally.Â*The RSP
still sees my transmitted signal, but at around -60dB. No where near strong
enough to desensitize the receiver.
Heres a screenshot of SDR Console V3 preview from my RSP through the
FT-450D:

TheÂ*tap plusÂ*RSP allows me to run multiple receivers on up to 8MHz of total
bandwidth. The sweet spot performance wise is 2MHz. This setup allows meÂ*to
pipeÂ*digital modes (I prefer JT65 and JT9) audio fromÂ*oneÂ*receiver on the
RSP to wsjt-x, and add a second receiver, monitoring a sideband station
output toÂ*speakers, and a third receiver monitoring a CW QSO, output to
headphones. The number of receivers seems to be only limited by the
computers resources.
I really enjoy this modification. Considering how inexpensive the board
was, and the relative ease installing it I think this might be the biggest
bang for the buck in my shack!

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