HPSDRwiki - User contributions [en]

PENNYWHISTLE

2009-11-01T03:20:12Z

KE9H:

[[Image:DCP_3376_(Small).JPG|thumb|400px|PennyWhistle 16 to 20 Watt RF PA using Mitsubishi RF Power Transistors]]
PennyWhistle is a compact RF power amplifier that can be used with [[PENELOPE|Penelope]] and [[ALEXIARES|Alex]] to make a complete 16 Watt PEP Linear or 20 Watt saturated CW transmitter. This amplifier can quickly and inexpensively be used to get an HPSDR on the air, either barefoot, or as a driver for a larger linear. It covers the same 160 Meter through 6 Meter bands as the rest of HPSDR.

It is 10 cm by 8 cm (half Euro-board size.)

== DESCRIPTION ==

The amplifier has a single push-pull output stage that uses a pair of TO-220 “15 Watt” Mitsubishi RD15HVF1 or RD16HHF1 parts, and has approximately 19 dB gain, depending where you bias it, so it will deliver 16 to 20 watts output with one-fourth watt drive.

I would expect this could be sold as a bare PC build-it-yourself kit. It uses surface mount, but would be easy to build. There are two easily wound transformers and the output transformer is preassembled and wound, from Communications Concepts. As a pure kit, hopefully it could be offered in the same time frame as ALEX, and let people get on the air.

It will fit in a Euro-Card housing, with an appropriate heat sink., or it can be mounted with a heat sink inside of the Pandora housing. We need to extract about 20 to 25 watts of heat when transmitting continuously. Dissipation in standby is negligible. The circuit is capable of continuous duty, provided that the heatsink is big enough to hold a reasonable temperature.

[[Image:System_(Small).JPG|thumb|400px|Alpha board running with Mercury, Penelope, Alex and Ozy.]]

PennyWhistle requires a low pass filter between the output of PennyWhistle and the antenna in order to meet regulatory requirements for harmonic emissions. When used in conjunction with ALEX, the low pass filter bank in ALEX will provide this low pass filtering requirement.

[[Image:PW_P1.0_Sch_Med.JPG|thumb|400px|Schematic]]

[[Image:HS_Mounting.JPG|thumb|300px|The two output transistors are actually mounted underneath the PC board, with their heat sink tabs bolted to the main heatsink.]]

The PCB is mounted to the main heatsink with ¼ inch long #4-40 spacers at four locations in the vicinity of the PA transistors. The leads from the transistors are bent upwards and through the PCB and soldered from the top. Holes in the PCB allow unbolting the transistors from the main heatsink if needed, without having to unsolder anything.

In the normal 16/20 Watt application, the feedback winding on T2, R2, R12, C8 and C15 would not be populated. They are only used if you want to reduce power output, by using negative feedback, to some lower level. So they are there only as an
option for special applications.

== TEST RESULTS ==

[[Image:PW_Input_VSWR_(Small).JPG|thumb|450px|PennyWhistle input VSWR (without input attenuator]]

Two tone testing, at rated 16 Watt PEP levels for linear operation on 20 Meters provides third order IM levels of 30 dB below test tone, or 36 dB below PEP. Fifth order IM levels are 50 dB below test tone, or 56 dB below PEP. These IM levels are about the same at lower frequencies and slowly degrade as you go up in frequency.

[[Image:Output_(Small).JPG|thumb|450px|PennyWhistle Output versus frequency‎]]

The convergence of the linear and saturated lines at 6 Meters is an artifact of being drive limited by Penelope. With a higher drive level, the actual linear and saturated output levels at 6 Meters are about the same as 10 Meters.

== CURRENT STATUS ==

October 31, 2009

The kits are shipping, and Version 1.1 of the manual has been posted.

October 17, 2009

The project is in kitting, and the manual has been posted to the Support >> HPSDR Manuals page on the Wiki

http://openhpsdr.org/documents.html

April 19, 2009

Assembly and testing of the Alpha cards is complete, and the design has been released to TAPR for kitting and distribution.

== RELATED DOCUMENTS AND LINKS ==
Manual:

[[Media:PennyWhistle_Manual_V1.1.pdf‎ |PennyWhistle_Manual_V1.1.pdf]]

The full manual has also been posted to the Support >> HPSDR Manuals page on the Wiki

http://openhpsdr.org/documents.html

The RF power transistors used in this design are true RF power transistors, although quite inexpensive and packaged in plastic TO-220 packages. As true RF transistors, the metal heat sink tabs on the transistors are at ground potential, so can be directly attached to the metal heat sink.

http://www.rfparts.com/pdf_docs/RD/rd15hvf1.pdf

http://www.rfparts.com/pdf_docs/RD/rd16hhf1.pdf

The PCB cards and schematics are designed in EAGLE Layout Editor

http://www.cadsoftusa.com/

http://www.cadsoft.de/

PENNYWHISTLE

2009-11-01T03:19:21Z

KE9H:

[[Image:DCP_3376_(Small).JPG|thumb|400px|PennyWhistle 16 to 20 Watt RF PA using Mitsubishi “RD15” VHF Transistors]]
PennyWhistle is a compact RF power amplifier that can be used with [[PENELOPE|Penelope]] and [[ALEXIARES|Alex]] to make a complete 16 Watt PEP Linear or 20 Watt saturated CW transmitter. This amplifier can quickly and inexpensively be used to get an HPSDR on the air, either barefoot, or as a driver for a larger linear. It covers the same 160 Meter through 6 Meter bands as the rest of HPSDR.

It is 10 cm by 8 cm (half Euro-board size.)

== DESCRIPTION ==

The amplifier has a single push-pull output stage that uses a pair of TO-220 “15 Watt” Mitsubishi RD15HVF1 or RD16HHF1 parts, and has approximately 19 dB gain, depending where you bias it, so it will deliver 16 to 20 watts output with one-fourth watt drive.

I would expect this could be sold as a bare PC build-it-yourself kit. It uses surface mount, but would be easy to build. There are two easily wound transformers and the output transformer is preassembled and wound, from Communications Concepts. As a pure kit, hopefully it could be offered in the same time frame as ALEX, and let people get on the air.

It will fit in a Euro-Card housing, with an appropriate heat sink., or it can be mounted with a heat sink inside of the Pandora housing. We need to extract about 20 to 25 watts of heat when transmitting continuously. Dissipation in standby is negligible. The circuit is capable of continuous duty, provided that the heatsink is big enough to hold a reasonable temperature.

[[Image:System_(Small).JPG|thumb|400px|Alpha board running with Mercury, Penelope, Alex and Ozy.]]

PennyWhistle requires a low pass filter between the output of PennyWhistle and the antenna in order to meet regulatory requirements for harmonic emissions. When used in conjunction with ALEX, the low pass filter bank in ALEX will provide this low pass filtering requirement.

[[Image:PW_P1.0_Sch_Med.JPG|thumb|400px|Schematic]]

[[Image:HS_Mounting.JPG|thumb|300px|The two output transistors are actually mounted underneath the PC board, with their heat sink tabs bolted to the main heatsink.]]

The PCB is mounted to the main heatsink with ¼ inch long #4-40 spacers at four locations in the vicinity of the PA transistors. The leads from the transistors are bent upwards and through the PCB and soldered from the top. Holes in the PCB allow unbolting the transistors from the main heatsink if needed, without having to unsolder anything.

In the normal 16/20 Watt application, the feedback winding on T2, R2, R12, C8 and C15 would not be populated. They are only used if you want to reduce power output, by using negative feedback, to some lower level. So they are there only as an
option for special applications.

== TEST RESULTS ==

[[Image:PW_Input_VSWR_(Small).JPG|thumb|450px|PennyWhistle input VSWR (without input attenuator]]

Two tone testing, at rated 16 Watt PEP levels for linear operation on 20 Meters provides third order IM levels of 30 dB below test tone, or 36 dB below PEP. Fifth order IM levels are 50 dB below test tone, or 56 dB below PEP. These IM levels are about the same at lower frequencies and slowly degrade as you go up in frequency.

[[Image:Output_(Small).JPG|thumb|450px|PennyWhistle Output versus frequency‎]]

The convergence of the linear and saturated lines at 6 Meters is an artifact of being drive limited by Penelope. With a higher drive level, the actual linear and saturated output levels at 6 Meters are about the same as 10 Meters.

== CURRENT STATUS ==

October 31, 2009

The kits are shipping, and Version 1.1 of the manual has been posted.

October 17, 2009

The project is in kitting, and the manual has been posted to the Support >> HPSDR Manuals page on the Wiki

http://openhpsdr.org/documents.html

April 19, 2009

Assembly and testing of the Alpha cards is complete, and the design has been released to TAPR for kitting and distribution.

== RELATED DOCUMENTS AND LINKS ==
Manual:

[[Media:PennyWhistle_Manual_V1.1.pdf‎ |PennyWhistle_Manual_V1.1.pdf]]

The full manual has also been posted to the Support >> HPSDR Manuals page on the Wiki

http://openhpsdr.org/documents.html

The RF power transistors used in this design are true RF power transistors, although quite inexpensive and packaged in plastic TO-220 packages. As true RF transistors, the metal heat sink tabs on the transistors are at ground potential, so can be directly attached to the metal heat sink.

http://www.rfparts.com/pdf_docs/RD/rd15hvf1.pdf

http://www.rfparts.com/pdf_docs/RD/rd16hhf1.pdf

The PCB cards and schematics are designed in EAGLE Layout Editor

http://www.cadsoftusa.com/

http://www.cadsoft.de/

EXCALIBUR

2009-11-01T03:17:05Z

KE9H: /* WHAT HPSDR BUILDERS ARE USING TO DRIVE EXCALIBUR */

[[Image:DCP_3351 (Medium).JPG|thumb|500px|]]
'''Excalibur''' is a small accessory card for the [[ATLAS|Atlas]] bus that enables the use of an external 10 MHz frequency reference for locking the frequency of an HPSDR radio to the same accuracy of the standard, or GPS disciplined oscillator.

It also provides an optional TCXO frequency reference for the HPSDR, that is much better than the on board 10 MHz oscillators, although not as good as an external standard or GPS-DO.

Final version cards are currently offered for sale on the TAPR website. The first prototype card constructed is pictured.

This board is much simpler than the main HPSDR cards, so they are offered as either bare boards, or as kits as was Atlas. This card uses the larger 1206 surface mount parts for easier manual assembly.

Ideas, comments and suggestions are welcome.

--- Graham, KE9H

== DESCRIPTION ==
[[Image:Excal_Sch_1_(Medium).JPG|thumb|450px|Schematic 1]]
[[Image:Excal_Sch2_(Small).JPG|thumb|200px|Schematic 2]]
Excalibur can be configured/populated in several ways.

First, it can be configured to take an external 10MHz signal, such as a sine wave or square wave output from a reference standard or GPS disciplined oscillator, into a BNC input and process it into a square wave and put it on Atlas bus 10 MHz clock line C16.

It can alternately output a square wave to a two pin connector (J2), for direct connection to the AUXCLK-(J8) input on [[MERCURY|Mercury]].

Optionally, it is a way to have an on-bus "instant on" TCXO with more accuracy than the 10 MHz oscillators on either [[PENELOPE|Penelope]] or Mercury.

The board has a 10 MHz "Input" BNC, and a 10 MHz "Output" BNC connector. The input can be configured to drive the bus, or act as a reference for setting the on-board TCXO.

The "Output" BNC provides a 10 MHz sine wave at 8.5 dBm as a way to lock external equipment to which ever 10 MHz source is in use.

There is a multi-colored LED, hooked to the output of a frequency-phase detector comparing the TCXO to whatever is coming in the "Input" connector. It gives both a HIGH/LOW frequency color indication and a visible beat indicator. It is useful for setting the TCXO to within a fraction of a Hz.

The 10 MHz oscillators on the Mercury or Penelope cards have a rated stability of +/- 50 or 100 ppM over wide temperature, or +/- 500 Hz to 1 kHz at 10 MHz. Using the Calibrate function built into PowerSDR, you can set them to WWV or other reference, with an accuracy of about 10 to 30 Hz, but I would still expect them to walk around +/- 50 to 100 Hz over normal room temperature variation.

The TCXO on Excalibur has a rated stability of +/- 1 ppM over wide temperature, or +/- 10 Hz at 10 MHz. I observe that over just normal room temperature variation, it stays within 1 Hz of the calibrated frequency, and will likely age at the rate of 1 Hz every several months.

A (high performance) external 10 MHz GPS disciplined oscillator will typically exceed +/- 0.0001 ppM or +/- 0.001 Hz at 10 MHz for as long as the GPS system remains operating.

The card is the same width as Penelope or Mercury, but is only 4 cm. (1.6 inches) high, and takes one slot position on the Atlas bus.

Although the board contains no software, it is compatible with the JTAG chain, so that it will pass through JTAG programming from cards on either side of it.

== TEST RESULTS ==

From '''Joe, K5SO''' ---

[[Image:Excalibur_TCXO_(Medium).jpg|thumb|300px|Frequency Plot]]
Here is a JPEG image of my measurement results of Excalibur's TCXO output frequency over a 3-day period. Measurements were taken every 100 seconds with a precision of 1 milli-Hz using the equipment indicated in the image file. The Excalibur board was open (in an Antec NSK2480 enclosure
with the top off) to the shack environment. Daily ambient shack temperature variations were over the range 65F to 79F; I did not record the precise time-temperature profile of the shack during these measurements. As you can see from the plot, the Excalibur TCXO stayed at 10 MHz within about +/- 1 Hz
during the entire measurement period.

73, Joe K5SO

'''John, N8UR,''' has done a detailed Allan Variance and phase noise measurement of the TCXO on Excalibur. More testing of the results comparison of HPSDR running with the onboard oscillators, versus Excalibur TCXO, versus external standard injected through Excalibur will follow. View his measurement results on his website at http://www.febo.com/pages/excalibur.

== CURRENT STATUS ==

October 26, 2009

The project is currently offered for sale on the TAPR web site.

October 17, 2009

The project is currently in kitting. The manual has been posted to the Support page on the Wiki.

April 19, 2009

Assembly and testing of the Alpha cards is complete, with agreement received from all the Alpha testers to release the design to TAPR for kitting and distribution. A few minor changes were made to the board to make access to the TCXO adjustment and "Source Selection" jumper easier from the top of the board.

March 21, 2009

Alpha version cards are being built and tested currently, by Phil, VK6APH; John, N8UR; Joe, K5SO; and myself, KE9H.

== WHAT HPSDR BUILDERS ARE USING TO DRIVE EXCALIBUR ==

I will post submitted descriptions and documents of what HPSDR owners are using to drive their Excalibur boards with.

#Hans, DL2MDQ and Juergen, DD6UJS have described how to power and interface a surplus LPRO-101 Rubidium Frequency standard suitable for driving Excalibur/HPSDR.

See: [[Media:Rb-Normal_paper_20.10.09.pdf‎ |Rb-Normal_paper_20.10.09.pdf‎ ]]‎

== RELATED DOCUMENTS AND LINKS ==

The Manual for Excalibur is posted on the Support >> HPSDR Manuals page on this Wiki.

http://openhpsdr.org/documents.html

The PCB cards and schematics are designed in EAGLE Layout Editor

http://www.cadsoftusa.com/

http://www.cadsoft.de/

==

Good design notes on conversion of sine-waves to squarewaves and vice versa in frequency standards clock distribution are found at Wenzel's web site:

http://www.wenzel.com/documents/waveform.html

http://www.wenzel.com/library1.htm

EXCALIBUR

2009-11-01T03:16:35Z

KE9H: /* WHAT HPSDR BUILDERS ARE USING TO DRIVE EXCALIBUR */

[[Image:DCP_3351 (Medium).JPG|thumb|500px|]]
'''Excalibur''' is a small accessory card for the [[ATLAS|Atlas]] bus that enables the use of an external 10 MHz frequency reference for locking the frequency of an HPSDR radio to the same accuracy of the standard, or GPS disciplined oscillator.

It also provides an optional TCXO frequency reference for the HPSDR, that is much better than the on board 10 MHz oscillators, although not as good as an external standard or GPS-DO.

Final version cards are currently offered for sale on the TAPR website. The first prototype card constructed is pictured.

This board is much simpler than the main HPSDR cards, so they are offered as either bare boards, or as kits as was Atlas. This card uses the larger 1206 surface mount parts for easier manual assembly.

Ideas, comments and suggestions are welcome.

--- Graham, KE9H

== DESCRIPTION ==
[[Image:Excal_Sch_1_(Medium).JPG|thumb|450px|Schematic 1]]
[[Image:Excal_Sch2_(Small).JPG|thumb|200px|Schematic 2]]
Excalibur can be configured/populated in several ways.

First, it can be configured to take an external 10MHz signal, such as a sine wave or square wave output from a reference standard or GPS disciplined oscillator, into a BNC input and process it into a square wave and put it on Atlas bus 10 MHz clock line C16.

It can alternately output a square wave to a two pin connector (J2), for direct connection to the AUXCLK-(J8) input on [[MERCURY|Mercury]].

Optionally, it is a way to have an on-bus "instant on" TCXO with more accuracy than the 10 MHz oscillators on either [[PENELOPE|Penelope]] or Mercury.

The board has a 10 MHz "Input" BNC, and a 10 MHz "Output" BNC connector. The input can be configured to drive the bus, or act as a reference for setting the on-board TCXO.

The "Output" BNC provides a 10 MHz sine wave at 8.5 dBm as a way to lock external equipment to which ever 10 MHz source is in use.

There is a multi-colored LED, hooked to the output of a frequency-phase detector comparing the TCXO to whatever is coming in the "Input" connector. It gives both a HIGH/LOW frequency color indication and a visible beat indicator. It is useful for setting the TCXO to within a fraction of a Hz.

The 10 MHz oscillators on the Mercury or Penelope cards have a rated stability of +/- 50 or 100 ppM over wide temperature, or +/- 500 Hz to 1 kHz at 10 MHz. Using the Calibrate function built into PowerSDR, you can set them to WWV or other reference, with an accuracy of about 10 to 30 Hz, but I would still expect them to walk around +/- 50 to 100 Hz over normal room temperature variation.

The TCXO on Excalibur has a rated stability of +/- 1 ppM over wide temperature, or +/- 10 Hz at 10 MHz. I observe that over just normal room temperature variation, it stays within 1 Hz of the calibrated frequency, and will likely age at the rate of 1 Hz every several months.

A (high performance) external 10 MHz GPS disciplined oscillator will typically exceed +/- 0.0001 ppM or +/- 0.001 Hz at 10 MHz for as long as the GPS system remains operating.

The card is the same width as Penelope or Mercury, but is only 4 cm. (1.6 inches) high, and takes one slot position on the Atlas bus.

Although the board contains no software, it is compatible with the JTAG chain, so that it will pass through JTAG programming from cards on either side of it.

== TEST RESULTS ==

From '''Joe, K5SO''' ---

[[Image:Excalibur_TCXO_(Medium).jpg|thumb|300px|Frequency Plot]]
Here is a JPEG image of my measurement results of Excalibur's TCXO output frequency over a 3-day period. Measurements were taken every 100 seconds with a precision of 1 milli-Hz using the equipment indicated in the image file. The Excalibur board was open (in an Antec NSK2480 enclosure
with the top off) to the shack environment. Daily ambient shack temperature variations were over the range 65F to 79F; I did not record the precise time-temperature profile of the shack during these measurements. As you can see from the plot, the Excalibur TCXO stayed at 10 MHz within about +/- 1 Hz
during the entire measurement period.

73, Joe K5SO

'''John, N8UR,''' has done a detailed Allan Variance and phase noise measurement of the TCXO on Excalibur. More testing of the results comparison of HPSDR running with the onboard oscillators, versus Excalibur TCXO, versus external standard injected through Excalibur will follow. View his measurement results on his website at http://www.febo.com/pages/excalibur.

== CURRENT STATUS ==

October 26, 2009

The project is currently offered for sale on the TAPR web site.

October 17, 2009

The project is currently in kitting. The manual has been posted to the Support page on the Wiki.

April 19, 2009

Assembly and testing of the Alpha cards is complete, with agreement received from all the Alpha testers to release the design to TAPR for kitting and distribution. A few minor changes were made to the board to make access to the TCXO adjustment and "Source Selection" jumper easier from the top of the board.

March 21, 2009

Alpha version cards are being built and tested currently, by Phil, VK6APH; John, N8UR; Joe, K5SO; and myself, KE9H.

== WHAT HPSDR BUILDERS ARE USING TO DRIVE EXCALIBUR ==

I will post submitted descriptions and documents of what HPSDR owners are using to drive their Excalibur boards with.

#Hans, DL2MDQ and Juergen, DD6UJS have described how to power and interface a surplus LPRO-101 Rubidium Frequency standard suitable for driving Excalibur/HPSDR. See: [[Media:Rb-Normal_paper_20.10.09.pdf‎ |Rb-Normal_paper_20.10.09.pdf‎ ]]‎

== RELATED DOCUMENTS AND LINKS ==

The Manual for Excalibur is posted on the Support >> HPSDR Manuals page on this Wiki.

http://openhpsdr.org/documents.html

The PCB cards and schematics are designed in EAGLE Layout Editor

http://www.cadsoftusa.com/

http://www.cadsoft.de/

==

Good design notes on conversion of sine-waves to squarewaves and vice versa in frequency standards clock distribution are found at Wenzel's web site:

http://www.wenzel.com/documents/waveform.html

http://www.wenzel.com/library1.htm

File:Rb-Normal paper 20.10.09.pdf

2009-11-01T03:14:46Z

KE9H:

PENNYWHISTLE

2009-11-01T03:04:03Z

KE9H:

[[Image:DCP_3376_(Small).JPG|thumb|400px|PennyWhistle 16 to 20 Watt RF PA using Mitsubishi “RD15” VHF Transistors]]
PennyWhistle is a compact RF power amplifier that can be used with [[PENELOPE|Penelope]] and [[ALEXIARES|Alex]] to make a complete 16 Watt PEP Linear or 20 Watt saturated CW transmitter. This amplifier can quickly and inexpensively be used to get an HPSDR on the air, either barefoot, or as a driver for a larger linear. It covers the same 160 Meter through 6 Meter bands as the rest of HPSDR.

It is 10 cm by 8 cm (half Euro-board size.)

== DESCRIPTION ==

The amplifier has a single push-pull output stage that uses a pair of TO-220 “15 Watt” Mitsubishi RD15HVF1 or RD16HHF1 parts, and has approximately 19 dB gain, depending where you bias it, so it will deliver 16 to 20 watts output with one-fourth watt drive.

I would expect this could be sold as a bare PC build-it-yourself kit. It uses surface mount, but would be easy to build. There are two easily wound transformers and the output transformer is preassembled and wound, from Communications Concepts. As a pure kit, hopefully it could be offered in the same time frame as ALEX, and let people get on the air.

It will fit in a Euro-Card housing, with an appropriate heat sink., or it can be mounted with a heat sink inside of the Pandora housing. We need to extract about 20 to 25 watts of heat when transmitting continuously. Dissipation in standby is negligible. The circuit is capable of continuous duty, provided that the heatsink is big enough to hold a reasonable temperature.

[[Image:System_(Small).JPG|thumb|400px|Alpha board running with Mercury, Penelope, Alex and Ozy.]]

PennyWhistle requires a low pass filter between the output of PennyWhistle and the antenna in order to meet regulatory requirements for harmonic emissions. When used in conjunction with ALEX, the low pass filter bank in ALEX will provide this low pass filtering requirement.

[[Image:PW_P1.0_Sch_Med.JPG|thumb|400px|Schematic]]

[[Image:HS_Mounting.JPG|thumb|300px|The two output transistors are actually mounted underneath the PC board, with their heat sink tabs bolted to the main heatsink.]]

The PCB is mounted to the main heatsink with ¼ inch long #4-40 spacers at four locations in the vicinity of the PA transistors. The leads from the transistors are bent upwards and through the PCB and soldered from the top. Holes in the PCB allow unbolting the transistors from the main heatsink if needed, without having to unsolder anything.

In the normal 16/20 Watt application, the feedback winding on T2, R2, R12, C8 and C15 would not be populated. They are only used if you want to reduce power output, by using negative feedback, to some lower level. So they are there only as an
option for special applications.

== TEST RESULTS ==

[[Image:PW_Input_VSWR_(Small).JPG|thumb|450px|PennyWhistle input VSWR (without input attenuator]]

Two tone testing, at rated 16 Watt PEP levels for linear operation on 20 Meters provides third order IM levels of 30 dB below test tone, or 36 dB below PEP. Fifth order IM levels are 50 dB below test tone, or 56 dB below PEP. These IM levels are about the same at lower frequencies and slowly degrade as you go up in frequency.

[[Image:Output_(Small).JPG|thumb|450px|PennyWhistle Output versus frequency‎]]

The convergence of the linear and saturated lines at 6 Meters is an artifact of being drive limited by Penelope. With a higher drive level, the actual linear and saturated output levels at 6 Meters are about the same as 10 Meters.

== CURRENT STATUS ==

October 31, 2009

The kits are shipping, and Version 1.1 of the manual has been posted.

October 17, 2009

The project is in kitting, and the manual has been posted to the Support >> HPSDR Manuals page on the Wiki

http://openhpsdr.org/documents.html

April 19, 2009

Assembly and testing of the Alpha cards is complete, and the design has been released to TAPR for kitting and distribution.

== RELATED DOCUMENTS AND LINKS ==
Manual:

[[Media:PennyWhistle_Manual_V1.1.pdf‎ ]]

The full manual has been posted to the Support >> HPSDR Manuals page on the Wiki

http://openhpsdr.org/documents.html

The RF power transistors used in this design are true RF power transistors, although quite inexpensive and packaged in plastic TO-220 packages. As true RF transistors, the metal heat sink tabs on the transistors are at ground potential, so can be directly attached to the metal heat sink.

http://www.rfparts.com/pdf_docs/RD/rd15hvf1.pdf

http://www.rfparts.com/pdf_docs/RD/rd16hhf1.pdf

The PCB cards and schematics are designed in EAGLE Layout Editor

http://www.cadsoftusa.com/

http://www.cadsoft.de/

KE9H:

User talk:KE9H

2009-07-11T21:10:04Z

KE9H: /* Recent Cyclops edit */

EXCALIBUR

2009-07-11T20:40:50Z

KE9H: /* TEST RESULTS */

[[Image:DCP_3351 (Medium).JPG|thumb|500px|]]
'''Excalibur''' is a small accessory card for the [[ATLAS|Atlas]] bus that enables the use of an external 10 MHz frequency reference for locking the frequency of an HPSDR radio to the same accuracy of the standard, or GPS disciplined oscillator.

'''22 June 2009 - Show of interest page now up on hamsdr.com. Please go to: http://www.hamsdr.com/hpsdrlist.aspx?p=7 to express your interest.'''

It also provides an optional TCXO frequency reference for the HPSDR, that is much better than the on board 10 MHz oscillators, although not as good as an external standard or GPS-DO.

Alpha version cards are being built and tested currently. The first card constructed is pictured.

This board is much simpler than the main HPSDR cards, so I expect that they would be offered as either bare boards, or as kits as was Atlas. This card uses the larger 1206 surface mount parts for easier manual assembly.

Ideas, comments and suggestions are welcome.

--- Graham, KE9H

== DESCRIPTION ==
[[Image:Excal_Sch_1_(Medium).JPG|thumb|600px|Schematic 1]]
[[Image:Excal_Sch2_(Small).JPG|thumb|300px|Schematic 2]]
Excalibur can be configured/populated in several ways.

First, it can be configured to take an external 10MHz signal, such as a sine wave or square wave output from a reference standard or GPS disciplined oscillator, into a BNC input and process it into a square wave and put it on Atlas bus 10 MHz clock line C16.

It can alternately output a square wave to a two pin connector (J2), for direct connection to the AUXCLK-(J8) input on [[MERCURY|Mercury]].

Optionally, it is a way to have an on-bus "instant on" TCXO with more accuracy than the 10 MHz oscillators on either [[PENELOPE|Penelope]] or Mercury.

The board has a 10 MHz "Input" BNC, and a 10 MHz "Output" BNC connector. The input can be configured to drive the bus, or act as a reference for setting the on-board TCXO.

The "Output" BNC provides a 10 MHz sine wave at 8.5 dBm as a way to lock external equipment to which ever 10 MHz source is in use.

There is a multi-colored LED, hooked to the output of a frequency-phase detector comparing the TCXO to whatever is coming in the "Input" connector. It gives both a HIGH/LOW frequency color indication and a visible beat indicator. It is useful for setting the TCXO to within a fraction of a Hz.

The 10 MHz oscillators on the Mercury or Penelope cards have a rated stability of +/- 50 or 100 ppM over wide temperature, or +/- 500 Hz to 1 kHz at 10 MHz. Using the Calibrate function built into PowerSDR, you can set them to WWV or other reference, with an accuracy of about 10 to 30 Hz, but I would still expect them to walk around +/- 50 to 100 Hz over normal room temperature variation.

The (medium performance) TCXO on Excalibur has a rated stability of +/- 1 ppM over wide temperature, or +/- 10 Hz at 10 MHz. I observe that over just normal room temperature variation, it stays within 1 Hz of the calibrated frequency, and will likely age at the rate of 1 Hz every several months.

A (high performance) external 10 MHz GPS disciplined oscillator will typically exceed +/- 0.0001 ppM or +/- 0.001 Hz at 10 MHz for as long as the GPS system remains operating.

The card is the same width as Penelope or Mercury, but is only 4 cm. (1.6 inches) high, and takes one slot position on the Atlas bus.

The only expensive part is the TXCO (about USD $46), which is not necessary if you just want to inject a 10 MHz external reference.

Although the board contains no software, it is compatible with the JTAG chain, so that it will pass through JTAG programming from cards on either side of it.

== TEST RESULTS ==

From '''Joe, K5SO''' ---

[[Image:Excalibur_TCXO_(Medium).jpg|frame]]
Here is a JPEG image of my measurement results of Excalibur's TCXO output frequency over a 3-day period. Measurements were taken every 100 seconds with a precision of 1 milli-Hz using the equipment indicated in the image file. The Excalibur board was open (in an Antec NSK2480 enclosure
with the top off) to the shack environment. Daily ambient shack temperature variations were over the range 65F to 79F; I did not record the precise time-temperature profile of the shack during these measurements. As you can see from the plot, the Excalibur TCXO stayed at 10 MHz within about +/- 1 Hz
during the entire measurement period.

73, Joe K5SO

'''John, N8UR,''' has done a detailed Allan Variance and phase noise measurement of the TCXO on Excalibur. More testing of the results comparison of HPSDR running with the onboard oscillators, versus Excalibur TCXO, versus external standard injected through Excalibur will follow. View his measurement results on his website at http://www.febo.com/pages/excalibur.

== CURRENT STATUS ==

April 19, 2009

Assembly and testing of the Alpha cards is complete, with agreement received from all the Alpha testers to release the design to TAPR for kitting and distribution. A few minor changes were made to the board to make access to the TCXO adjustment and "Source Selection" jumper easier from the top of the board.

March 21, 2009

Alpha version cards are being built and tested currently, by Phil, VK6APH; John, N8UR; Joe, K5SO; and myself, KE9H.

== RELATED DOCUMENTS AND LINKS ==

The PCB cards and schematics are designed in EAGLE Layout Editor

http://www.cadsoftusa.com/

http://www.cadsoft.de/

==

Good design notes on conversion of sine-waves to squarewaves and vice versa in frequency standards clock distribution are found at Wenzel's web site:

http://www.wenzel.com/documents/waveform.html

http://www.wenzel.com/library1.htm

ALEXIARES

2009-07-11T20:37:30Z

KE9H: /* TESTING RESULTS */

[[Image:HPSDR-ALEX.JPG|thumb|600px|Phil's complete Mercury and Penelope with Alex in its housing, getting ready to go to Dayton. The rainbow colored ribbon cable is the control cable for Alex. May, 2008]]
'''ALEXIARES''' (or '''ALEX''' for short) is a combination RF Preselector for use with [[MERCURY|Mercury]] or any other SDR, as well as a transmitter low pass filter bank for a transmitter such as [[PENELOPE|Penelope]], and optionally, with an associated RF power amplifier up to 100 watts peak.

The project leader for ALEX is Graham, KE9H, who is also laying out the PCBs. Design work is being shared between Graham and Phil, VK6APH.

As a receiver preselector, the purpose of ALEX is to reduce the level of out-of-band signals at the input of a receiver, and importantly, to suppress any signals at the sampling image or alias frequencies. See [[ANICETUS|Anie]] for ideas on a tunable preselector.

As a transmitter low pass filter, ALEX will suppress the harmonic energy typically generated by an RF power amplifier, as well as the images or aliases that appear at the sampling clock frequency (122.8 MHz) plus/minus the operating frequency. The transmit low pass filters will also be used for additional MERCURY receiver input band limiting.

You will normally "pair" one of the low pass filters on the transmit board with one of the high pass filters on the receiver board. There is an additional 33 or 55 MHz low pass filter on the receiver board, plus the 6 Meter transmit low pass filter that are in-line at all times to help suppress VHF images.

== PRESELECTOR ISSUES WITH DATA CONVERTERS ==

There are at least three major issues to consider with a preselector for a data converter type receiver such as MERCURY.

*First is protecting the receiver from overload. The data converter in MERCURY is a highly linear and robust converter, but it does have limits. The maximum input level that the converter can accept before degrading overall performance is 1.5 volts peak to peak, or +8 dBm which is S9 plus 81 dB. This is AFTER any gain that appears between the antenna and the data converter. A local broadcast transmitter or nearby amateur transmitter might generate this kind of level. This is the traditional purpose of a preselector, to lower the level of out of band emissions. They do not need to be eliminated, just reduced so that the data converter is not overloaded.

*Second is linearity. The native linearity of the data converter is excellent, something on the order of an IP3 of +50 dBm. So high that it is difficult to measure with traditional test equipment, and so high that the non-linearity of the toroid inductors or electronic switches can limit receiver performance. You don't normally expect switches or inductors to be "non-linear," but at these levels, they can be. The IP3 of the overall receiver will typically be lower than the +50 dBm of the data converter by any preamplifier gain (typically 10 or 20 dB with MERCURY).

*Third is image suppression. The MERCURY receiver uses a sampling frequency of 122.88 MHz for the analog to digital data converter. This means that the MERCURY receiver will directly sample signals in the 0 to 61 MHz band, but signals above those frequencies can also appear in the data converter output. For example, assume that a signal at 10 MHz is to be monitored by Mercury. A signal at 122.88 MHz plus 10 MHz and a signal at 122.88 MHz minus 10 MHz will also appear to be at 10 MHz as "images," unless they are prevented from getting to the input of the data converter. Those are just examples. Of more concern are the VHF TV and FM signals that will "fold" back into the HF and 6 Meter receiver band if not eliminated. The 88 to 108 MHz FM band could appear as images at 15 to 35 MHz. US TV Channel 4 audio subcarrier at 71.75 MHz will fold back to 51.13 MHz. The data converter has NO native selectivity or rejection at the image frequencies, so the total system selectivity of the antenna system, matching networks and preselector frequency rejection must add up to something on the order of 120 to 140 dB, depending on how strong the TV and FM signals are in your area. This also has implications for requirements for some shielding contribution from the overall housing and some shielding of the ALEX filters themselves.

There is a similar issue with the Penelope transmitter. In addition to the desired HF signal at the operating frequency, the D->A converter also puts out images or aliases at the sampling frequency (122.8 MHz) plus or minus the operating frequency. This means that "flyback" in the stopband of a transmit harmonic filter in the 90 to 160 MHz range that might not be a problem in a traditional HF transmitter must be addressed in ALEX.

== DESIGN GUIDELINES ==
The primary purpose of ALEX is to be a preselector for MERCURY, and should not materially degrade MERCURY's native performance. There should not be any restrictions that would prevent ALEX from being used with any other receiver that required a similar preselector.

MERCURY is an extremely robust receiver in its native performance.

<pre>
Measured MERCURY Prototype Specs:

MERCURY with no net preamplification. -

Noise figure 27 dB
IP3 +50 dBm
Max signal +8 dBm (S9 + 81 dB) (Total of all signals)

MERCURY with 10 dB net preamplification - [Typically 1.8 to 13 MHz.]

Noise figure 17 dB
IP3 +40 dBm
Max signal -2 dBm (S9 + 71 dB) (Total of all signals)

MERCURY with 20 dB net preamplification - [Typically above 13 MHz.]

Noise figure 7 dB
IP3 +30 dBm
Max signal -12 dBm (S9 + 61 dB) (Total of all signals)

Note: The MERCURY A->D converter will likely be configured with an (always on)
+20 dB gain preamplifier, which drives the input of the data converter. The above
represent (ALEX or external) attenuator settings of 20 dB, 10 dB and zero, respectively.
</pre>

== DESCRIPTION ==

ALEX consists of two Euroboard sized PC boards (10 cm by 16 cm). They are intended to be mounted in a commercial Euroboard extruded aluminum housing. The target commercial housing is a Hammond 1455N1601 extruded aluminum case (or equivalent.) ALEX does not plug into the ATLAS bus, but is intended for separate mounting, and is controlled by an SPI bus. There are nine BNC connectors that will extend through to the outside of the filter or HPSDR housing, for external access.

The first PC board is the Receiver/HPF board. It has a 33 or 55 MHz 7th order Low Pass Filter that is always in line with the receiver. If the user is going to operate on 6 meters, the 55 MHz version should be used, otherwise, the 33 MHz version is recommended (for better VHF image suppression.)

There is a 6 meter low noise preamp; selectable 20 MHz, 13 MHz, 9.5 MHz, 6.5 MHz and 1.6 MHz high pass filters, plus a bypass function. It has five external BNC connectors, described below.

The receiver board also contains a switchable front end attenuator, configurable for 0 dB, 10 dB, 20 dB or 30 dB loss.

The second PC board is the Transmitter/LPF board. It consists of seven relay switched low pass filters for transmitter harmonic suppression, that are also used in conjunction with the receiver high pass filters to provide a flexible variable bandwidth receiver input filter function. It has four external BNC connectors, described below.

Each active board contains three LEDs, so that an indication of power and proper control and SPI bus operation can be seen.

ALEX is controlled by an SPI bus. This SPI bus should NOT be shared with other devices, in that it is intended that the data and clock lines should not be transitioning except when a command is being sent to one of the ALEX boards. There are two analog voltage outputs providing an indication of transmit forward and reverse power. There are no oscillators or continuously running clocks anywhere inside of ALEX.

[[Image:Alex_v6-6.jpg]]

[[Image:Alex-A3-TX.JPG|frame|TX Filter Board - Alpha-3]]

[[Image:Alex-A3-RX.JPG|frame|RX Filter Board - Alpha-3]]

[[Image:Alex-Housing.JPG|frame|Both boards mounted in the housing]]

Specifications:

On frequency insertion loss - variable according to frequency, but typically will not exceed 2.0 dB total for receive paths, and 0.5 dB for transmit paths.

Power handling capability - The transmit harmonic filter banks and associated relay switches are intended to handle up to 100 watts, peak power with a CW or SSB duty cycle.

Contribution to Receiver IP3 performance - Measured in the Alpha versions as approximately +50 dBm. That is, there is no measurable degradation of native Mercury IP3 performance.

Total power consumption for ALEX can vary over a range of 90 to 180 mA., all from the +12 volt supply. 90 mA is with 12.0 Volt supply, minimum number of relays active. 180 mA is with 13.8 Volt supply, 50 MHz transmit, 50 MHz preamp. on, all LEDs on, and both receive attenuators active. The +5 Volt and -12 Volt supplies are not used.

:External Connections -

::Receiver Board - five ea. BNC female connectors to extend through the case.
::*Receiver Out (to MERCURY input)
::*Transverter Input (receive only) (The output to the transverter is on PENELOPE)
::*Receiver AUX input 1 (receive only)
::*Receiver AUX Input 2 (receive only)
::*RX AUX Output (for looping in an external filter or preamp)

::Transmit Board - four ea. BNC female connectors to extend through the case.
::*Antenna 1 (transmit-receive)
::*Antenna 2 (transmit-receive)
::*Antenna 3 (transmit-receive)
::*Transmitter In (From PENELOPE or associated RF PA)

:Internal RF connections -
::Receiver Board - one SMB female connector
::*Internal receive input from Transmitter card
::*Transmit Board - one SMB female connector
:::: Internal receive output to the Receiver board

:Control - 10 pin polarized ribbon cable connector
::+12V, GND, SPI Data, SPI Clk, SPI LoadRX, SPI LoadTX, Forward PWR, Reverse PWR.

:Note: All receiver inputs that could be expected to be connected to an antenna will have voltage transient protection.

== TESTING RESULTS ==

Thanks to '''John, N8UR,''' for testing and documenting the performance of the ALEX filters. This is ongoing testing in preparation for manufacturing, and the latest results can be viewed on his website at http://www.febo.com/pages/alex.

'''Bill, KD5TFD,''' has built and tested one of the Alpha-3 filter sets. See http://tracey.org/wjt/hpsdr/Alex/sa0630/

== CURRENT STATUS ==

August 3, 2008 - The production release information package for ALEX has been sent to TAPR for review and approval.

June 28, 2008 - Phil did show Alex, along with Mercury and Penelope at Dayton. Three sets of Alpha-3 boards are built and in test. A few "tweaks" to capacitor values have been made, and the design is getting close to being frozen.

April 26, 2008 - Phil, VK6APH reports having finished building a set of Alpha-3 PC boards. Testing should start soon, and hopefully will be demonstrated at Dayton with a Mercury-Penelope receiver-transmitter.

March 14, 2008 - Alpha-2 boards were laid out, and one set built up for measurements. All of the Hittite switches in the Alpha-1 design were replaced by relays on the receiver board. The transmitter board was already using relays due to the 100 watt power levels. All changes look good. There is one nagging problem with PCB parasitics detuning the 6 Meter transmit Low Pass Filter, but an alternate filter design recognizing the board parasitics should resolve the problem. TAPR manufacturing has requested a change to a mass termination (ribbon cable) control cable and connector to lower costs and eliminate the board to board control jumper, so there will be an Alpha-3 version of the boards before we go final. Phil has been using the Alpha-1 version continuously for Mercury-Penelope testing, including on-the-air contacts, and has not found any new problems.

December 11, 2007 - Phil has completed the evaluation of the Alpha version of the ALEX receiver board. The main issue is that the losses of the Hittite solid state switches are too high for them to be used in most locations, so we will go back to relays for much of the 50 Ohm switching. A few other tweaks are necessary for packaging reasons, so the Alpha-2 version layout is underway. Using this high-pass/low-pass switchable filter approach results in no measurable degradation to the IP3 performance of Mercury.

November 11, 2007 - The Alpha-1 version of the ALEX receiver board is built and ready to start testing. A picture has been posted on the Wiki page. Phil, VK6APH has completed testing of the ALEX transmitter board, and reports good results for the directional coupler, no measurable degradation of receive IP3, and that the LP filters work well at 100 watts with SSB and CW duty cycles.

October 8, 2007 - The Alpha-1 version of the ALEX transmitter filter board is complete, through initial testing and a unit shipped to Phil, VK6APH for further evaluation. The companion receiver filter is in layout. Pictures of the board and the proposed housing have been added to the Wiki page.

August 5, 2007 - After the call for comments, changes and revisions to the ALEX concept and description have been incorporated into the Wiki page.

July 24, 2007 - Phil, VK6APH released measured performance for prototype MERCURY in an email to the group dated June 18. A preliminary design for ALEX is being released for review and comment before first pass PC board layouts are completed. The information released for comment on July 24 is at revision level 6-2.

== WHY ALEXIARES? ==

'''Alexiares''' and his twin brother '''Anicetus''' - were the Greek Gods of Defense, in particular the defense of fortified towns and citadels.

Both were sons of Hercules (Herakles), born after the Hercules' ascension to Olympus and his marriage to the goddess Hebe. Alexiares and Anicetus helped serve as the gatekeepers of Olympus, assisting their father in a role which was commonly assigned to him.

http://www.theoi.com/Cat_Olympioi.html

http://www.theoi.com/Ouranios/AniketosAlexiares.html

== RELATED DOCUMENTS AND LINKS ==

The Schematics and Bill of Materials are in this ".pdf" file. [[Media:ALEX_P1_Binder.pdf]]

Hammond Euroboard Instrument Case: Mouser # 546-1455N1601, or Hammond # 1455N1601

http://www.hammondmfg.com/1455.htm and http://www.mouser.com/search/refine.aspx?Ntt=1455N1601

The PCB cards and schematics are being designed in EAGLE Layout Editor: http://www.cadsoftusa.com/ and http://www.cadsoft.de/

The original design of these filters were done in ELSIE. Jim Tonne, WB6BLD, Tonne Software, just revised his product offering. I would recommend his "Pro-Lite" version as the minimum version to implement or modify one of the filters. This is a good tool for this kind of filter design. http://tonnesoftware.com/elsie.html

CYCLOPS

2009-07-11T20:22:28Z

KE9H:

'''Cyclops''' a 0 to 1GHz Spectrum Analyzer and Tracking Generator

[[Image:Cyclops_Block_Diagram1.2.jpg|thumb|600px|]]
Largely based on Scotty's Spectrum Analyser [SSA] http://www.scottyspectrumanalyzer.com/ but with a 96MHz second IF based around [[MERCURY|Mercury]] or QuickSilver. Moving the second IF to 96MHz simplifies the filtering after the first mixer which means we can most likely use a SAW or dielectric filter here rather than the multi-stage cavity filter used in the SSA.

Please note that the project is intended to develop a spectrum analyzer and not a broadband receiver - we will be grabbing a number of samples from the ADC and then processing them at our (PC's) leisure rather than doing this in real-time.

Ideas, comments and suggestions are welcome.

73's Phil...VK6APH

'''Project Updates'''

Update: 25th January 2009

Cyclops Schematics: Original Schematics were posted, now superseded by the above information package.

Update: 10th April 2008

SAW 96MHz second IF filters and 1.030GHz dielectric filters have arrived as have all the remaining parts. Presently writing the Verilog code to set up the LMX2326 PLLs and building a breadboard to test the design.

Update: 4 December 2007

Bill, KD5TFD, and I have successfully modified the necessary software, based on the the C# 'MercScope' and 'SharpDSP' by Phil N8VB, to disp:xlay a 48-51MHz chunk of spectrum from Mercury. This represents a working proof of concept as far as the IF is concerned.

[[Image:Cyclops1.JPG|thumb|600px|Cyclops PC software processing a simulated input. Frequency span is 0 - 55MHz. A sort of Spectrum Analyzer "Hello World!".]]
Considerable feedback has indicated that basing the software design on C# and Windows based tools was not particularly popular.
There was strong support for a cross platform approach. In which case further development will be undertaken using Java for the GUI (including OpenGL), C/C++ for the processing logic and dttSP for the signal processing. Tom, N4WBS, has agreed to be lead programmer and I am delighted to welcome him to the project.

I have also looked at using a higher 2nd IF, 96MHz rather than 50MHz. This will further relax the specification of the GHz first IF filter and the availability of high performance SAW filters at this frequency will provide sufficient 2nd IF image rejection. The performance of Mercury at this frequency (an alias response) is totally acceptable.

'''Feedback'''

Al - N0TVJ - Good web site by S53MV with lots of relevant ideas http://lea.hamradio.si/~s53mv/spectana/vco.html

*Possible 1.030GHz first IF filter - Toko 6DFC-1039C-10
*Possible 96MHz second IF filter - RFM SF2135A www.rfm.com
*Possible source also - Vectron - www.vectron.com

ALEXIARES

2009-06-27T16:34:59Z

KE9H:

[[Image:HPSDR-ALEX.JPG|thumb|600px|Phil's complete Mercury and Penelope with Alex in its housing, getting ready to go to Dayton. The rainbow colored ribbon cable is the control cable for Alex. May, 2008]]
'''ALEXIARES''' (or '''ALEX''' for short) is a combination RF Preselector for use with [[MERCURY|Mercury]] or any other SDR, as well as a transmitter low pass filter bank for a transmitter such as [[PENELOPE|Penelope]], and optionally, with an associated RF power amplifier up to 100 watts peak.

The project leader for ALEX is Graham, KE9H, who is also laying out the PCBs. Design work is being shared between Graham and Phil, VK6APH.

As a receiver preselector, the purpose of ALEX is to reduce the level of out-of-band signals at the input of a receiver, and importantly, to suppress any signals at the sampling image or alias frequencies. See [[ANICETUS|Anie]] for ideas on a tunable preselector.

As a transmitter low pass filter, ALEX will suppress the harmonic energy typically generated by an RF power amplifier, as well as the images or aliases that appear at the sampling clock frequency (122.8 MHz) plus/minus the operating frequency. The transmit low pass filters will also be used for additional MERCURY receiver input band limiting.

You will normally "pair" one of the low pass filters on the transmit board with one of the high pass filters on the receiver board. There is an additional 33 or 55 MHz low pass filter on the receiver board, plus the 6 Meter transmit low pass filter that are in-line at all times to help suppress VHF images.

== PRESELECTOR ISSUES WITH DATA CONVERTERS ==

There are at least three major issues to consider with a preselector for a data converter type receiver such as MERCURY.

*First is protecting the receiver from overload. The data converter in MERCURY is a highly linear and robust converter, but it does have limits. The maximum input level that the converter can accept before degrading overall performance is 1.5 volts peak to peak, or +8 dBm which is S9 plus 81 dB. This is AFTER any gain that appears between the antenna and the data converter. A local broadcast transmitter or nearby amateur transmitter might generate this kind of level. This is the traditional purpose of a preselector, to lower the level of out of band emissions. They do not need to be eliminated, just reduced so that the data converter is not overloaded.

*Second is linearity. The native linearity of the data converter is excellent, something on the order of an IP3 of +50 dBm. So high that it is difficult to measure with traditional test equipment, and so high that the non-linearity of the toroid inductors or electronic switches can limit receiver performance. You don't normally expect switches or inductors to be "non-linear," but at these levels, they can be. The IP3 of the overall receiver will typically be lower than the +50 dBm of the data converter by any preamplifier gain (typically 10 or 20 dB with MERCURY).

*Third is image suppression. The MERCURY receiver uses a sampling frequency of 122.88 MHz for the analog to digital data converter. This means that the MERCURY receiver will directly sample signals in the 0 to 61 MHz band, but signals above those frequencies can also appear in the data converter output. For example, assume that a signal at 10 MHz is to be monitored by Mercury. A signal at 122.88 MHz plus 10 MHz and a signal at 122.88 MHz minus 10 MHz will also appear to be at 10 MHz as "images," unless they are prevented from getting to the input of the data converter. Those are just examples. Of more concern are the VHF TV and FM signals that will "fold" back into the HF and 6 Meter receiver band if not eliminated. The 88 to 108 MHz FM band could appear as images at 15 to 35 MHz. US TV Channel 4 audio subcarrier at 71.75 MHz will fold back to 51.13 MHz. The data converter has NO native selectivity or rejection at the image frequencies, so the total system selectivity of the antenna system, matching networks and preselector frequency rejection must add up to something on the order of 120 to 140 dB, depending on how strong the TV and FM signals are in your area. This also has implications for requirements for some shielding contribution from the overall housing and some shielding of the ALEX filters themselves.

There is a similar issue with the Penelope transmitter. In addition to the desired HF signal at the operating frequency, the D->A converter also puts out images or aliases at the sampling frequency (122.8 MHz) plus or minus the operating frequency. This means that "flyback" in the stopband of a transmit harmonic filter in the 90 to 160 MHz range that might not be a problem in a traditional HF transmitter must be addressed in ALEX.

== DESIGN GUIDELINES ==
The primary purpose of ALEX is to be a preselector for MERCURY, and should not materially degrade MERCURY's native performance. There should not be any restrictions that would prevent ALEX from being used with any other receiver that required a similar preselector.

MERCURY is an extremely robust receiver in its native performance.

<pre>
Measured MERCURY Prototype Specs:

MERCURY with no net preamplification. -

Noise figure 27 dB
IP3 +50 dBm
Max signal +8 dBm (S9 + 81 dB) (Total of all signals)

MERCURY with 10 dB net preamplification - [Typically 1.8 to 13 MHz.]

Noise figure 17 dB
IP3 +40 dBm
Max signal -2 dBm (S9 + 71 dB) (Total of all signals)

MERCURY with 20 dB net preamplification - [Typically above 13 MHz.]

Noise figure 7 dB
IP3 +30 dBm
Max signal -12 dBm (S9 + 61 dB) (Total of all signals)

Note: The MERCURY A->D converter will likely be configured with an (always on)
+20 dB gain preamplifier, which drives the input of the data converter. The above
represent (ALEX or external) attenuator settings of 20 dB, 10 dB and zero, respectively.
</pre>

== DESCRIPTION ==

ALEX consists of two Euroboard sized PC boards (10 cm by 16 cm). They are intended to be mounted in a commercial Euroboard extruded aluminum housing. The target commercial housing is a Hammond 1455N1601 extruded aluminum case (or equivalent.) ALEX does not plug into the ATLAS bus, but is intended for separate mounting, and is controlled by an SPI bus. There are nine BNC connectors that will extend through to the outside of the filter or HPSDR housing, for external access.

The first PC board is the Receiver/HPF board. It has a 33 or 55 MHz 7th order Low Pass Filter that is always in line with the receiver. If the user is going to operate on 6 meters, the 55 MHz version should be used, otherwise, the 33 MHz version is recommended (for better VHF image suppression.)

There is a 6 meter low noise preamp; selectable 20 MHz, 13 MHz, 9.5 MHz, 6.5 MHz and 1.6 MHz high pass filters, plus a bypass function. It has five external BNC connectors, described below.

The receiver board also contains a switchable front end attenuator, configurable for 0 dB, 10 dB, 20 dB or 30 dB loss.

The second PC board is the Transmitter/LPF board. It consists of seven relay switched low pass filters for transmitter harmonic suppression, that are also used in conjunction with the receiver high pass filters to provide a flexible variable bandwidth receiver input filter function. It has four external BNC connectors, described below.

Each active board contains three LEDs, so that an indication of power and proper control and SPI bus operation can be seen.

ALEX is controlled by an SPI bus. This SPI bus should NOT be shared with other devices, in that it is intended that the data and clock lines should not be transitioning except when a command is being sent to one of the ALEX boards. There are two analog voltage outputs providing an indication of transmit forward and reverse power. There are no oscillators or continuously running clocks anywhere inside of ALEX.

[[Image:Alex_v6-6.jpg]]

[[Image:Alex-A3-TX.JPG|frame|TX Filter Board - Alpha-3]]

[[Image:Alex-A3-RX.JPG|frame|RX Filter Board - Alpha-3]]

[[Image:Alex-Housing.JPG|frame|Both boards mounted in the housing]]

Specifications:

On frequency insertion loss - variable according to frequency, but typically will not exceed 2.0 dB total for receive paths, and 0.5 dB for transmit paths.

Power handling capability - The transmit harmonic filter banks and associated relay switches are intended to handle up to 100 watts, peak power with a CW or SSB duty cycle.

Contribution to Receiver IP3 performance - Measured in the Alpha versions as approximately +50 dBm. That is, there is no measurable degradation of native Mercury IP3 performance.

Total power consumption for ALEX can vary over a range of 90 to 180 mA., all from the +12 volt supply. 90 mA is with 12.0 Volt supply, minimum number of relays active. 180 mA is with 13.8 Volt supply, 50 MHz transmit, 50 MHz preamp. on, all LEDs on, and both receive attenuators active. The +5 Volt and -12 Volt supplies are not used.

:External Connections -

::Receiver Board - five ea. BNC female connectors to extend through the case.
::*Receiver Out (to MERCURY input)
::*Transverter Input (receive only) (The output to the transverter is on PENELOPE)
::*Receiver AUX input 1 (receive only)
::*Receiver AUX Input 2 (receive only)
::*RX AUX Output (for looping in an external filter or preamp)

::Transmit Board - four ea. BNC female connectors to extend through the case.
::*Antenna 1 (transmit-receive)
::*Antenna 2 (transmit-receive)
::*Antenna 3 (transmit-receive)
::*Transmitter In (From PENELOPE or associated RF PA)

:Internal RF connections -
::Receiver Board - one SMB female connector
::*Internal receive input from Transmitter card
::*Transmit Board - one SMB female connector
:::: Internal receive output to the Receiver board

:Control - 10 pin polarized ribbon cable connector
::+12V, GND, SPI Data, SPI Clk, SPI LoadRX, SPI LoadTX, Forward PWR, Reverse PWR.

:Note: All receiver inputs that could be expected to be connected to an antenna will have voltage transient protection.

== TESTING RESULTS ==

Thanks to John, N8UR, for testing and documenting the performance of the ALEX filters. This is ongoing testing in preparation for manufacturing, and the latest results can be viewed on his website at http://www.febo.com/pages/alex.

Bill, KD5TFD has built and tested one of the Alpha-3 filter sets. See http://tracey.org/wjt/hpsdr/Alex/sa0630/

== CURRENT STATUS ==

August 3, 2008 - The production release information package for ALEX has been sent to TAPR for review and approval.

June 28, 2008 - Phil did show Alex, along with Mercury and Penelope at Dayton. Three sets of Alpha-3 boards are built and in test. A few "tweaks" to capacitor values have been made, and the design is getting close to being frozen.

April 26, 2008 - Phil, VK6APH reports having finished building a set of Alpha-3 PC boards. Testing should start soon, and hopefully will be demonstrated at Dayton with a Mercury-Penelope receiver-transmitter.

March 14, 2008 - Alpha-2 boards were laid out, and one set built up for measurements. All of the Hittite switches in the Alpha-1 design were replaced by relays on the receiver board. The transmitter board was already using relays due to the 100 watt power levels. All changes look good. There is one nagging problem with PCB parasitics detuning the 6 Meter transmit Low Pass Filter, but an alternate filter design recognizing the board parasitics should resolve the problem. TAPR manufacturing has requested a change to a mass termination (ribbon cable) control cable and connector to lower costs and eliminate the board to board control jumper, so there will be an Alpha-3 version of the boards before we go final. Phil has been using the Alpha-1 version continuously for Mercury-Penelope testing, including on-the-air contacts, and has not found any new problems.

December 11, 2007 - Phil has completed the evaluation of the Alpha version of the ALEX receiver board. The main issue is that the losses of the Hittite solid state switches are too high for them to be used in most locations, so we will go back to relays for much of the 50 Ohm switching. A few other tweaks are necessary for packaging reasons, so the Alpha-2 version layout is underway. Using this high-pass/low-pass switchable filter approach results in no measurable degradation to the IP3 performance of Mercury.

November 11, 2007 - The Alpha-1 version of the ALEX receiver board is built and ready to start testing. A picture has been posted on the Wiki page. Phil, VK6APH has completed testing of the ALEX transmitter board, and reports good results for the directional coupler, no measurable degradation of receive IP3, and that the LP filters work well at 100 watts with SSB and CW duty cycles.

October 8, 2007 - The Alpha-1 version of the ALEX transmitter filter board is complete, through initial testing and a unit shipped to Phil, VK6APH for further evaluation. The companion receiver filter is in layout. Pictures of the board and the proposed housing have been added to the Wiki page.

August 5, 2007 - After the call for comments, changes and revisions to the ALEX concept and description have been incorporated into the Wiki page.

July 24, 2007 - Phil, VK6APH released measured performance for prototype MERCURY in an email to the group dated June 18. A preliminary design for ALEX is being released for review and comment before first pass PC board layouts are completed. The information released for comment on July 24 is at revision level 6-2.

== WHY ALEXIARES? ==

'''Alexiares''' and his twin brother '''Anicetus''' - were the Greek Gods of Defense, in particular the defense of fortified towns and citadels.

Both were sons of Hercules (Herakles), born after the Hercules' ascension to Olympus and his marriage to the goddess Hebe. Alexiares and Anicetus helped serve as the gatekeepers of Olympus, assisting their father in a role which was commonly assigned to him.

http://www.theoi.com/Cat_Olympioi.html

http://www.theoi.com/Ouranios/AniketosAlexiares.html

== RELATED DOCUMENTS AND LINKS ==

The Schematics and Bill of Materials are in this ".pdf" file. [[Media:ALEX_P1_Binder.pdf]]

Hammond Euroboard Instrument Case: Mouser # 546-1455N1601, or Hammond # 1455N1601

http://www.hammondmfg.com/1455.htm and http://www.mouser.com/search/refine.aspx?Ntt=1455N1601

The PCB cards and schematics are being designed in EAGLE Layout Editor: http://www.cadsoftusa.com/ and http://www.cadsoft.de/

The original design of these filters were done in ELSIE. Jim Tonne, WB6BLD, Tonne Software, just revised his product offering. I would recommend his "Pro-Lite" version as the minimum version to implement or modify one of the filters. This is a good tool for this kind of filter design. http://tonnesoftware.com/elsie.html

User talk:KE9H

2009-05-21T13:23:43Z

KE9H: /* Off line edit? */

Talk:METIS

2009-05-09T16:29:20Z

KE9H: /* PHY? */

==PHY?==

What does PHY in the second to last sentence mean? [[User:VK2NRA|Richard Ames, VK2NRA]] 07:51, 9 May 2009 (UTC)

PHY is an industry term meaning the physical layer interface. In this
case the reference is to the wire-level Ethernet interface. In the
OSI Model nomenclature, it would be "Layer 1." If the reference is to
a PHY integrated circuit, the IC implements OSI Layers 1 and most likely
Layer 2 and perhaps even some of Layer 3. [[User:KE9H|Graham, KE9H]]

DOC

2009-05-04T12:55:31Z

KE9H: Edits for openHPSDR.org vs. HPSDR.org - GH

== HPSDR Documentation ==

This newly created section will eventually contain links for downloading all documentation for HPSDR Projects.

Please bear with us as this area comes together.

More documentation and resources are available at [http://openhpsdr.org/resources.html Resources] (Software links) and [http://openhpsdr.org/support.html Support] (Hardware documentation).

== Atlas ==
[[Image:atlas.jpg|thumbnail|left|[http://www.needles.de/HPSDR/ATLAS_Docu_USLetterLowRes.pdf Atlas Backplane ], ''Rev 1.4, June 2006''.]]

[http://www.needles.de/HPSDR/ATLAS_Docu_USLetterLowRes.pdf Atlas Backplane ], ''Rev 1.4, June 2006''

This is the backplane into which all other board are pluged for power and communications.

== Pinocchio ==
[[Image:pino.jpg|thumbnail|left|[http://www.needles.de/HPSDR/PINOCCHIO_DocUSLett.pdf Pinocchio Extender Board], ''Rev 1.0, July 2006''.]]

[http://www.needles.de/HPSDR/PINOCCHIO_DocUSLett.pdf Pinocchio Extender Board], ''Rev 1.0, July 2006''

This board allows the experimenter to extend the HPSDR board above the other boards so that measurments can be taken while the system is in use. Mainly used by board developers.

== Penelope ==

[[Image:Penny Cover Rev1.0.jpg|thumbnail|left|[http://openhpsdr.org/wiki/images/4/4c/Penelope_manual_v_1-2.pdf Penelope with PowerSDR ], ''Rev 1.2, May 2008''.]]

[http://openhpsdr.org/wiki/images/4/4c/Penelope_manual_v_1-2.pdf Penelope with PowerSDR, Rev 1.2], ''May 2008''

The manual describes how to physically set up Penelope as well as how to set up PowerSDR to use Penelope. Revision 1.1 contains corrections to the pin-out of the DB-25 connector (changed pin 7 to 17 as one of the analog grounds and added pin 21 as digital ground). Additionally we note that the current version of PowerSDR for Penelope contains a bug that, on start-up, will immediately make Penelope transmit in voice modes. A work-around to avoid this is described in Appendix A.

Revision 1.2 contains an additional section explaining why no Transmit Image Rejection is necessary and that therefore the corresponding Phase and Gain controls should both be set to zero.

==Mercury==

[[Image:Mercury Cover Rev1.0.png|thumbnail|left|[http://openhpsdr.org/wiki/images/8/8c/Mercury_Operation_with_PowerSDR_v1-0.pdf Mercury Operation with PowerSDR], ''Rev 1.0, January 2009''.]]

[http://openhpsdr.org/wiki/images/8/8c/Mercury_Operation_with_PowerSDR_v1-0.pdf Mercury Operation with PowerSDR, Rev 1.0], ''January 2009''.

This manual describes how to physically set up Mercury and how to set up PowerSDR to use Mercury.

== Janus/Ozy ==

[[Image:Cover Rev2.0.jpg|thumbnail|left|[http://openhpsdr.org/wiki/images/f/f6/Janus_%26_Ozy_with_PowerSDR_v2-0.pdf Janus & Ozy with PowerSDR], ''Rev 2.0, February 2008''.]]

[http://openhpsdr.org/wiki/images/f/f6/Janus_%26_Ozy_with_PowerSDR_v2-0.pdf Janus & Ozy with PowerSDR, Rev 2.0], ''February 2008''

This revision describes how to use USBIO.exe to install the USB driver for Ozy and PowerSDR v1.10.1 or higher to use Ozy for control of the SDR-1000 and/or Janus/Ozy for the audio. Finally a more complete description of all the LEDs on Ozy and Janus has been added.

DOWNLOADS

2009-05-03T18:24:11Z

KE9H: /* Ozy/Janus */ Edited URL to include open

== HPSDR Downloads ==

This section will eventually contain links to download various pieces of software. For manuals and documentation type downloads, see the [[DOC]] section.

== Ozy/Janus ==

Ozy/Janus-PowerSDR Software: http://openhpsdr.org/downloads/PowerSDR-163-OzyJanus-2007May11.zip

PENNYWHISTLE

2009-04-23T17:03:47Z

KE9H: /* DESCRIPTION */

16 / 20 Watt RF Power Amplifier

[[Image:DCP_3376_(Small).JPG]]

PennyWhistle 16 to 20 Watt RF PA using Mitsubishi “RD15” VHF Transistors

== INTRODUCTION ==
PennyWhistle is a compact RF power amplifier that can be used with Penelope and Alex to make a complete 16 Watt PEP Linear or 20 Watt saturated CW transmitter. This amplifier can quickly and inexpensively be used to get an HPSDR on the air, either barefoot, or as a driver for a larger linear. It covers the same 160 Meter through 6 Meter bands as the rest of HPSDR.

It is 10 cm by 8 cm (half Euro-board size.)

== DESCRIPTION ==

The amplifier has a single push-pull output stage that uses a pair of TO-220 “15 Watt” Mitsubishi RD15HVF1 parts, and has approximately 19 dB gain, depending where you bias it, so it will deliver 16 to 20 watts output with one-fourth watt drive.

I would expect this could be sold as a bare PC build-it-yourself kit. It uses surface mount, but would be easy to build. There are two easily wound transformers and the output transformer is preassembled and wound, from Communications Concepts. As a pure kit, hopefully it could be offered in the same time frame as ALEX, and let people get on the air.

It will fit in a Euro-Card housing, with an appropriate heat sink., or it can be mounted with a heat sink inside of the Pandora housing. We need to extract about 20 to 25 watts of heat when transmitting continuously. Dissipation in standby is negligible. The circuit is capable of continuous duty, provided that the heatsink is big enough to hold a reasonable temperature.

[[Image:System_(Small).JPG]]

Alpha board running with Mercury, Penelope, Alex and Ozy.

PennyWhistle requires a low pass filter between the output of PennyWhistle and the antenna in order to meet regulatory requirements for harmonic emissions. When used in conjunction with ALEX, the low pass filter bank in ALEX will provide this low pass filtering requirement.

[[Image:PW_P1.0_Sch_Med.JPG]]

Schematic

The two output transistors are actually mounted underneath the PC board, with their heat sink tabs bolted to the main heatsink.

[[Image:HS_Mounting.JPG]]

The PCB is mounted to the main heatsink with ¼ inch long #4-40 spacers at four locations in the vicinity of the PA transistors. The leads from the transistors are bent upwards and through the PCB and soldered from the top. Holes in the PCB allow unbolting the transistors from the main heatsink if needed, without having to unsolder anything.

== TEST RESULTS ==
[[Image:PW_Input_VSWR_(Small).JPG]]

PennyWhistle input VSWR (without input attenuator.)

Two tone testing, at rated 16 Watt PEP levels for linear operation on 20 Meters provides third order IM levels of 30 dB below test tone, or 36 dB below PEP. Fifth order IM levels are 50 dB below test tone, or 56 dB below PEP. These IM levels are about the same at lower frequencies and slowly degrade as you go up in frequency.

[[Image:Output_(Small).JPG‎]]

PennyWhistle Output versus frequency

The convergence of the linear and saturated lines at 6 Meters is an artifact of being drive limited by Penelope. With a higher drive level, the actual linear and saturated output levels at 6 Meters are about the same as 10 Meters.

== CURRENT STATUS ==

April 19, 2009

Assembly and testing of the Alpha cards is complete, and the design has been released to TAPR for kitting and distribution.

== RELATED DOCUMENTS AND LINKS ==

The RF power transistors used in this design are true RF power transistors, although quite inexpensive and
packaged in plastic TO-220 packages. By true RF, the metal heat sink tabs on the transistors are at ground
potential, so can be directly attached to the metal heat sink. The transistors are rated for generating
RF power up to 200 MHz.

http://www.rfparts.com/pdf_docs/RD/rd15hvf1.pdf

The PCB cards and schematics are designed in EAGLE Layout Editor

http://www.cadsoftusa.com/

http://www.cadsoft.de/

PENNYWHISTLE

2009-04-23T17:00:05Z

KE9H: /* TEST RESULTS */

16 / 20 Watt RF Power Amplifier

[[Image:DCP_3376_(Small).JPG]]

PennyWhistle 16 to 20 Watt RF PA using Mitsubishi “RD15” VHF Transistors

== INTRODUCTION ==
PennyWhistle is a compact RF power amplifier that can be used with Penelope and Alex to make a complete 16 Watt PEP Linear or 20 Watt saturated CW transmitter. This amplifier can quickly and inexpensively be used to get an HPSDR on the air, either barefoot, or as a driver for a larger linear. It covers the same 160 Meter through 6 Meter bands as the rest of HPSDR.

It is 10 cm by 8 cm (half Euro-board size.)

== DESCRIPTION ==

The amplifier has a single push-pull output stage that uses a pair of TO-220 “15 Watt” Mitsubishi RD15HVF1 parts, and has approximately 19 dB gain, depending where you bias it, so it will deliver 16 to 20 watts output with one-fourth watt drive.

I would expect this could be sold as a bare PC build-it-yourself kit. It uses surface mount, but would be easy to build. There are two easily wound transformers and the output transformer is preassembled and wound, from Communications Concepts. As a pure kit, hopefully it could be offered in the same time frame as ALEX, and let people get on the air.

It will fit in a Euro-Card housing, with an appropriate heat sink., or it can be mounted with a heat sink inside of the Pandora housing. We need to extract about 20 to 25 watts of heat when transmitting continuously. Dissipation in standby is negligible. The circuit is capable of continuous duty, provided that the heatsink is big enough to hold a reasonable temperature.

[[Image:System_(Small).JPG]]

Alpha board running with Mercury, Penelope, Alex and Ozy.

[[Image:PW_P1.0_Sch_Med.JPG]]

Schematic

The two output transistors are actually mounted underneath the PC board, with their heat sink tabs bolted to the main heatsink.

[[Image:HS_Mounting.JPG]]

The PCB is mounted to the main heatsink with ¼ inch long #4-40 spacers at four locations in the vicinity of the PA transistors. The leads from the transistors are bent upwards and through the PCB and soldered from the top. Holes in the PCB allow unbolting the transistors from the main heatsink if needed, without having to unsolder anything.

== TEST RESULTS ==
[[Image:PW_Input_VSWR_(Small).JPG]]

PennyWhistle input VSWR (without input attenuator.)

Two tone testing, at rated 16 Watt PEP levels for linear operation on 20 Meters provides third order IM levels of 30 dB below test tone, or 36 dB below PEP. Fifth order IM levels are 50 dB below test tone, or 56 dB below PEP. These IM levels are about the same at lower frequencies and slowly degrade as you go up in frequency.

[[Image:Output_(Small).JPG‎]]

PennyWhistle Output versus frequency

The convergence of the linear and saturated lines at 6 Meters is an artifact of being drive limited by Penelope. With a higher drive level, the actual linear and saturated output levels at 6 Meters are about the same as 10 Meters.

== CURRENT STATUS ==

April 19, 2009

Assembly and testing of the Alpha cards is complete, and the design has been released to TAPR for kitting and distribution.

== RELATED DOCUMENTS AND LINKS ==

The RF power transistors used in this design are true RF power transistors, although quite inexpensive and
packaged in plastic TO-220 packages. By true RF, the metal heat sink tabs on the transistors are at ground
potential, so can be directly attached to the metal heat sink. The transistors are rated for generating
RF power up to 200 MHz.

http://www.rfparts.com/pdf_docs/RD/rd15hvf1.pdf

The PCB cards and schematics are designed in EAGLE Layout Editor

http://www.cadsoftusa.com/

http://www.cadsoft.de/

File:Output (Small).JPG

2009-04-23T16:57:35Z

KE9H:

PENNYWHISTLE

2009-04-23T16:45:35Z

KE9H: /* DESCRIPTION */

16 / 20 Watt RF Power Amplifier

[[Image:DCP_3376_(Small).JPG]]

PennyWhistle 16 to 20 Watt RF PA using Mitsubishi “RD15” VHF Transistors

== INTRODUCTION ==
PennyWhistle is a compact RF power amplifier that can be used with Penelope and Alex to make a complete 16 Watt PEP Linear or 20 Watt saturated CW transmitter. This amplifier can quickly and inexpensively be used to get an HPSDR on the air, either barefoot, or as a driver for a larger linear. It covers the same 160 Meter through 6 Meter bands as the rest of HPSDR.

It is 10 cm by 8 cm (half Euro-board size.)

== DESCRIPTION ==

The amplifier has a single push-pull output stage that uses a pair of TO-220 “15 Watt” Mitsubishi RD15HVF1 parts, and has approximately 19 dB gain, depending where you bias it, so it will deliver 16 to 20 watts output with one-fourth watt drive.

I would expect this could be sold as a bare PC build-it-yourself kit. It uses surface mount, but would be easy to build. There are two easily wound transformers and the output transformer is preassembled and wound, from Communications Concepts. As a pure kit, hopefully it could be offered in the same time frame as ALEX, and let people get on the air.

It will fit in a Euro-Card housing, with an appropriate heat sink., or it can be mounted with a heat sink inside of the Pandora housing. We need to extract about 20 to 25 watts of heat when transmitting continuously. Dissipation in standby is negligible. The circuit is capable of continuous duty, provided that the heatsink is big enough to hold a reasonable temperature.

[[Image:System_(Small).JPG]]

Alpha board running with Mercury, Penelope, Alex and Ozy.

[[Image:PW_P1.0_Sch_Med.JPG]]

Schematic

The two output transistors are actually mounted underneath the PC board, with their heat sink tabs bolted to the main heatsink.

[[Image:HS_Mounting.JPG]]

The PCB is mounted to the main heatsink with ¼ inch long #4-40 spacers at four locations in the vicinity of the PA transistors. The leads from the transistors are bent upwards and through the PCB and soldered from the top. Holes in the PCB allow unbolting the transistors from the main heatsink if needed, without having to unsolder anything.

== TEST RESULTS ==
[[Image:PW_Input_VSWR_(Small).JPG]]

PennyWhistle input VSWR (without input attenuator.)

Two tone testing, at rated 16 Watt PEP levels for linear operation on 20 Meters provides third order IM levels of 30 dB below test tone, or 36 dB below PEP. Fifth order IM levels are 50 dB below test tone, or 56 dB below PEP. These IM levels are about the same at lower frequencies and slowly degrade as you go up in frequency.

[[Image:PW_Output_(Medium).JPG]]

PennyWhistle Output versus frequency

== CURRENT STATUS ==

April 19, 2009

Assembly and testing of the Alpha cards is complete, and the design has been released to TAPR for kitting and distribution.

== RELATED DOCUMENTS AND LINKS ==

The RF power transistors used in this design are true RF power transistors, although quite inexpensive and
packaged in plastic TO-220 packages. By true RF, the metal heat sink tabs on the transistors are at ground
potential, so can be directly attached to the metal heat sink. The transistors are rated for generating
RF power up to 200 MHz.

http://www.rfparts.com/pdf_docs/RD/rd15hvf1.pdf

The PCB cards and schematics are designed in EAGLE Layout Editor

http://www.cadsoftusa.com/

http://www.cadsoft.de/

File:PW P1.0 Sch Med.JPG

2009-04-23T16:44:55Z

KE9H: