Are you tired of seeing me post about my rigs?
9/28/2016 ~ Some recent updates
I have often said that most of my rigs are experimenter's platforms and the Junk Box Rig stands as an example of that approach. Everyday I look at possibilities for improvement --some changes are in the negative column but many are in the positive direction. Usually I employ the concept of TFMS when "peaking and tweaking" a rig. Oh almost forgot TFMS is an old timer term for Tune For Maximum Smoke. Well in this case when I had the rig outfitted to run 700 Watts out (Yes, Virginia, that is not QRP) I found that I got a report of splatter. One of those Flex Guys saw me pop up on his 60 inch color display and he reported I was very broad and splattering over onto other frequencies.
He was absolutely right! If you are running QRP at one watt --there may be splatter that is hardly noticed but magnify that 700 times and you will notice that your signal is broad and spilling over the normal bandwidth. A simple adjustment of the microphone gain can cure that problem. So out comes the scope and I was indeed flat topping and lowering the gain didn't actually impact the PEP output but did immeasurably improve the signal quality and cleaned up the spectral purity. For reference purpose a 1 watt signal is 30 dBm and a 700 watt signal is 58.5 dBm. So you will hear that very large elephant in the room!
Once I reduced the microphone gain, the Flex guy was happy and so now I was happy too! WE have a responsibility as hams to put out the cleanest signal possible! I am now ever vigilant to not let that happen again. The positive side was that my PNP audio amp was no wimp and I had a gentle reminder about flat topping and splatter.
Once I reduced the microphone gain, the Flex guy was happy and so now I was happy too! WE have a responsibility as hams to put out the cleanest signal possible! I am now ever vigilant to not let that happen again. The positive side was that my PNP audio amp was no wimp and I had a gentle reminder about flat topping and splatter.
Rummaging through the junk box I found a 2SC2166 on a board and swapped out the 2SC2075. Now 5 watts out is an easy goal. I also made a change on the driver board where normally the EMRFD circuit has a 2N3904 driving a 2N3866 but in my circuit I have a 2N2222 driving a BD139. In the emitter lead of the 2N3904 (my 2N2222) there is a 22 Ohm resistor to ground. I replaced that resistor with a 200 Ohm pot. The center wiper is connected to ground and the top lead is connected to the 2N2222. This enables me to adjust the stage gain. When I drive the 100 watt intermediate amp ahead of the SB200, I have it set so the Junk Box Rig outputs 1 watt as that is about the max level input to the intermediate amp. In the TFMS QRP mode (without any amplifiers) I can adjust that pot for 5 watts output from the 2SC2166.
On 9/27/2016 I made a 400 mile hop to San Francisco from my QTH near Los Angeles running 1 watt out on 40 Meters. Not a lot of signal strength but readable. But I must confess that 40M QSO's to the mid-west are much better running 700 watts!
Recap: Beefier RF Transistor, Watch for Flat Topping, Variable RF Output, QRP QSO's.
73's
Pete N6QW
9/21/2016 Revised Microphone Amplifier and plot. (See Comments)
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| Revised Schematic to limit the frequency response. |
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| Output Plot of the revised shematic |
Here is a chance to tell me what is on your bench and if you have attempted to build any of my projects.
73's
Pete N6QW