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Showing posts from July, 2018

3D printing or fabricated UHF filters

3D printing or fabricated UHF filters Not crazy idea, being done with antennas. In Jan 2019 QST. Silver conductive paint. Should work for filters. Dimensional stability important with some narrow filters, less so with wideband filters. https://antennatestlab.com/3dprinting https://all3dp.com/1/creality-ender-3-3d-printer-review/ Settings https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umulfK775i0 https://ultimaker.com/en/products/ultimaker-cura-software https://ultimaker.com/en/resources/50296-which-material-should-i-use Silver coating/paint MG Chemicals Amazon.com https://www.mektronics.com.au/mg-chemicals-super-shieldtm-silver-coated-copper-conductive-coating-ul-recognized-340g.html Fabricated Construct with soldered copper then coat with silver paint. Copper and silver plating https://bryancera.blogspot.com/2014/09/copper-electroplatingforming-3d-prints.html https://www.riogrande.com/category/tools-and-equipment/plating https://janekits.com.au/products/copp

HP AGILENT 8935 E6380A RF TEST SET

HP AGILENT 8935 E6380A RF TEST SET Service Monitor for HF and 2 way radio. They all generate AM, FM and have a calibrated output signal generator, have 2 separate audio tone generators, have 2uV sensitive "off the air receivers" with antenna input, encode/decode standard tone (PL) (CTCSS), have sinad, distortion, S/N meters, receive AM, FM and SSB, have modulation / deviation meter, frequency error meters. Overview and screens for HP 8935 E6380A http://www.amtronix.com/e6380a.htm Comparison with other HP test sets http://www.amtronix.com/diff.htm All manuals available through Keysight, just search E6380.

Commercial low power UHF DVB-T pass-band/notch filter

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Commercial  DVB-T pass-band/notch filters: What we can learn Introduction Low power, UHF and VHF DVB-T pass-band/notch filters are commercially available at relatively low cost, ~US$750 that seem suitable for DATV. They seem a good off the shelf solution. By examining such filters, it seems possible to see how they might work, giving some insight into possible home-brew. The filters have two notch filters, one for each side of the signal, as per my earlier posts, to notch the TX skirts. In addition, they have cavity pass-band filters to take out artefacts further out. A manufacturer indicates that the pass filter is a combline, but the mechanical construction suggests cavity filters with openings between cavities for coupling. It seems possible to separate the notch and band-pass filters. For wideband UHF, two notch cavities and a pass-band filter. For 2m, two notch cavities and a single pass cavity may suffice. Low-pass filters are still needed for odd harmonics in addit

450 MHz CDMA duplexer tear down and analysis

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450 MHz CDMA duplexer tear down and analysis- draft Introduction Why? I am interested in how modern duplexers work. The club purchased a new 70cm duplexer, only 50 mm tall and not obvious how it worked, but they didn't want me opening it for a look! I purchased a CDMA duplexer from Russia on the 450 MHz band on eBay. It was similar to the 70 cm one. I could get some idea how the UHF one works and some(?!) chance of re-tuning it for either a 70 cm DVB-T TV filter, 7 MHz bandpass, or as a 70 cm narrow pass band repeater duplexer (or both, as there are three chains of seven cavities in the device. Unfortunately, I did not take photos of the duplexer's response before I opened it. However, it was a 6 MHz pass band, with steep skirts, and low pass in the 450 MHz band. I will do it when I put the top back on, but have probably disturbed the tuning. CDMA signals are 1.23 MHz wide, so it is unclear why the pass band is 6 MHz. The outside, with a zillion screws out. The l

Rohde & Schwarz CMU200 Universal Radio Communication Tester resources

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Rohde & Schwarz CMU200 Universal Radio Communication Tester resources Introduction This post is a collection of information for the Rohde & Schwarz CMU200 Universal Radio Communication Tester that I have purchased. They can be bought on eBay and other places often for a very reasonable sum. In its day it was an expensive but capable instrument. While the CMU200 is primarily designed for testing now obsolete mobile phone equipment, it can be used for working with analog radio. It has a spectrum analyser, RF generator, RF power measurement and with the option, an audio test set. While not directly having a tracking generator function, there are two PC programs that allow it to be used for testing filters. It can also be done with a noise source or an external tracking generator. The CMU200 uses an embedded Celeron or similar AMD processor running MS-DOS. It has an internal IDE HDD that is wise to replace as the instrument can do tens of thousands of hours. An IDE SSD allo