"Telamon" wrote in message
...
Thanks for responding. I work in this odd intersection of digital
signals operating at RF frequencies so sometimes I look at problems in
a digital way and other times in a analog RF way depending on
circumstances. I follow the RF explanation but I need to understand it
in a digital way if that makes any sense to you. In RF speak its phase
noise in digital language its edge jitter. The way I work out problems
is to understand and design circuits functionally in the digital realm
and then implement them using RF techniques like transmission lines
instead of "wires" and so on.


That does make quite a bit of sense. I sometimes do that myself; when you
find a parallel in another discipline, it can make a concept easier to
envision.

The other positive attributes you mention below are understandable. The
only drawback I can think of would be an higher cost. Usually it costs
more money to make a reliable PLL at a higher frequency and maybe it
takes a little more power to do it. Most any decision in engineering is
whether the benefits out weight the cons.

Very true....it took quite a bit of work to optimize the performance for the
VCO in my MW receiver. It did turn out to be very clean, with the 2nd
harmonic at -45dBc, the 3rd harmonic at -65dBc, and all other harmonics
below -75dBc, with most of them below -80dBc. To get good performance with a
1 octave VCO is much harder.
Mini-Circuits uses the tuning voltage of their VCOs to tune a tracking
filter at the VCO output. As far as I know, they are the only ones that are
doing it right now, but there could be others.

The Palstar has some pretty nice specifications it's just a little weak
on the feature side but looks to be a pretty good performer.

How is the audio for programing listening on the Palstar? Looks like
they engineered a better than most audio output stage to me. Maybe I am
putting to much weight on bells and whistles and not enough on basic
performance.

Telamon


The audio of the Palstar R30 sounds very similar to the old WW2 Collins
receivers. The AGC action reminds me of the old BC-348 receivers......very
"tubelike" in its sound. Paul got the AGC circuit right in this receiver.
Audio performance is very similar to the Lowe receivers, although I would
give the Lowe units a slight edge in audio quality.
As far as your favoring bells and whistles............nothing wrong with
that! Everybody has a certain style of receiver that they prefer. I think
that is why manufacturers are able to sell so many different styles. My
trouble is that I keep acquireing them, repairing them, and keeping them. My
wife and I sometimes joke about this..............she will ask me "do you
want to buy this receiver", and I usually will answer "sure, I can always
use another receiver to put on the shelves and not use".
Radio collecting is fun, though!

Pete