SHORTWAVE

8
GIRCUITS
GEARFOR
EXPERIMEl{TER
& RADIO
HAMS
BY
B. 8. EABAlrl

BEnilAnDS
lpublishers]LTD
 CONTINTS
AN ADD ]N CRYSTAL FILT'R
ADDINC AN [3" MNTER IN YOUR RECEN'ER
CR'STAL ]-oCKED ItF RECEI!'ER
EXPNRIIIENTA! AM TUNER USINC A PSASE

SHORTWAVE CONVERTER FTCR2 Mgz tO 6 MHZ 21

TH! I]OMODYNE TTNER . ANOTHNR A?PROACI'
T1rO SOI,ID STATE RI PREAMP],IFMRS
40 to 3001@GAISRTZ Rt AM?t IFmR
BASIC NECEIVIR FOR Sl.oW SCAN T\7 FOR
AMATEUR TRANSMISSIONS
14Mc HAM BIAM USESTV AIRIAL ?ARTS
ANRL{LS FOR THE 52, 144 MC BAXDS ?1
AN FM I)ETECTOR FOR AMATEURS
A SOLM SIA'IE CRYSTAL FMQUENCY
AN ADD-IN CRYSTAL FILTER

Tbis crystat filter was bull-t for conslderab.ly less

than a comerclal unit, and wh1le it nay not be up to
sone comercial standards it is nore than adequate
lor good SSB and AM reception. I used crystals on a
frequency of 6.sMHz but crystal frequency 1s not
important except that e frequency should be chosen that
does not clash witb any frequency to be received. The
crystal.a XLl and XLz should be about 1.skHz apart end
XL3 should be 455kHz (or the first IF) from the
centre of XLl and XL2. RFC1 should be self resonant
at approxiDately tbe filter frequeDcy.

The circuit has a gain of about zdB and it can be

added to an exlsting recelver with 1itt1e modlficarron.
The output of the filter can go straigbt to the detector
if necessary. The fitter must be enclosed ln a netal
box and the positivesupply rail nust be well filtered.

When completed, Ll 1s allgned at the centre frequency

of XLI and XL2. Tbis reduces the doubte humD and
ftattens the top of Ehe response curve. Ct ii a
small capacitor of about l or 2pF, a I'gimick" or palr
of lDsulated wires twisted together for about 2 to
3cm should be enough. This capacitor assists 1n
steepenlng the sides of the response curve, but 1f too
large it will cause side lobes to appear. The capacitor
must be across the higher frequency crystal as lt wilL
widen the response curve j.f it is connected Bcross
the lower frequency crystal.

The fi.Lter phich I have made has a bandwidth of 2k8z

at 6dB down and gkHz at 6OdB down. Ttris type of
filter may also be used imediatety following the
nlxer i.n a slngle conversion receiver with a tunable
oscillator,
 ADDING AN S UE?ER IN YOUR
RTCEIVER
I
Thls article answers the often repeated questlons: 1
an S-neter york? How cal.one How does
be,added io'rn-J*r.trng ."._
eiver? How nay it be catlbreted?ghii.
it i"t"i. to valve
receivers in partlcular, tbe basic i;";; ;;;';ppflcable
to transistor recelvers.
a
At the outset lt nust emphasised that, r
for the nost part,
S-neters. (i.e. s i g n a L s! :t r e n g t h meters) give comparative
rather than absolute readings. n
Among the reasons for this are:
6
l. The sensitivlty of most recelvers I
varLes over thei: range,
so that- meter readings oay vary fron
One input irequeDcy 1
to another for sigDals of the sme nominaL
lir"ngtn.
2. The signal fed to the recelver depends of the pick_up
of the aerial and this varles widely-with ire{uency anO T
directivity.

- 3..P":l assming that the "zero signal,, and ,,maxlmm

naI" limits slg_
of the meter scafe a.e"rea"oi"ify-'o"rrned,
IaI. the
9f t l re readings in between nay vary randomly fron one
combination to the next.

4. S-meter readings are frequently affected by the settlng

of.manual RF and IF gain controls and may be irtsleading
unl,ess these controls are operated no.maiLy at full_on.
Despite these problems, S-neters can usefully lndlcate a
difference strenstb for sisnal ;; ;i;;;i-;. from day
t o d a y , a n d_ i nr e c o r d e r S-meter readlngs h;ve a deflnite
mere, aural impreslion and-memo"y.
l : .o: w
E 1 lel lvce" -r?, y "orn. al y
if an S_meter has been specifically des_
rgned into a receiver and then cafluraieJ-wiif, tn" "ia or
a signal-generator will 1ts reading ,uuo ,r.n"tn
input sigoal micro-vol-ts. terms of

The_slmplest type of S-mef,er or tuntng indlcator is a SmA

or lornA meter wired in series with th6
catbod; resrstor
of an AVc controlted rF mplifler. (See ii;;;;
no. input sigoal, r ) tvith
or with the aerial't..*inii-"t,orted to
cahssis, the meter reads near oaxlmum current.

When a signal. is tuned by the.receiver,

a negative voltage
is developed on & AVC tine and applled
to tn; ir mp:.ffier
control grid.

The II' ampllfj.er draws less current, sith the result that
the meter in the cathode circuit sfr6ps a ."Ju""o reading.
meter_reading varies with the Ava ""it"g.
l::::-in:
the fF mplifier and tbj.s, in turn, is dlrect_
?r yi p r r : o . t o
relared to the signal streogth of the station
to which
the receiver is tuneL

To achieve the maximun sensitivity wltb this S_oeter

circuit, it is desirable that tire-ff mpiiii.. ."ro"_
iated with the circuit be arranged to operate wrtb high
natural. gai.n for w€ak signals. tnis sffi give the greitest
swlng of cathode current for an appffe--aic'ioi""g. ,r.r_
at 1on .

I
i
i
I
If two IF mplifier stages are in use, it should be poss-
ible to determine experimentally wbether the meter
can be operated most effectively lD the cathode return
circuit of elther one or botb together,

If the cathode current should exceed the meter rating,

a shunt across the meter can be used to give fullscale
readlng under no-signal conditions.

Iith this clrcult, the meter reads defl.ected to tbe rlght

with Do slgna1 lnput, but returning towards zero as the
strength of an incomlng slgnal lncreases. Wj.th a very
strong input signat, the cathode current may fal1 to about
lO p e r cent of full scale.
Technlcally, there is no special disadvantaage in a reverse-
reading scale, the only requirement beinig that it be
suitably callbrated, either with flgures hand-lettered
on to the meter face or pasted on to the front of the neter'
g1ass.

For those who may wish to achieve a simple "folward reading"

scale, the neter may be mounted upside-down wj-th the needle
pointlng to the bottom of the front panel.

In the deslgn of comerclsl equipment, it has been an

accepted standard that an S-point calibration should equal
an increase in signal strength of 6dB.

By wsy of exmple, j.n calibrsting the S-meter on a typical

comunlcations recelver some tine ago, we set Sl as beilg
equivalent to a one micro-volt signal at the aerial
terminal. As each succeediDg S point was equal to a 6dB
lncrease in signal strength, S9 resulted fron a 256-micro-
volt slgnal. While it thus takes quite a signal to give
an 59 readiDg, at least ttle readings are realistic;nd do
convey some meaning wlten the input slglal per S point is
quoted.

[ith the particular recelver, there was no speclat problem

about this catibratlon, because the lnternal clrcuitry
of the front-end unlt was arranged to maintal.n a substant-
ially constant order of gain aver the entire rangd of
lrequency coverage. In receivers where the gain varies from
band to band, it may be necessary to strike some kind of
e! "average'r, or callbrate for the band of greatest inter-
est or add to the bandssitching so6e provision to modify
blas or screen voltage to eveo things out.

For those who do not have access to standard slgnal gener-

aiors, lt j.s not practical to callbrate an S-meter on
this basie and an arbitrary calibration must be made.

A logical approach to the problem is to set 59 on the meter

as being a very strong signal, witb no background noise,
recel-ved from a station other than a nearby neighbour. From
this polnt the meter reading could be evenly divided to
provlde caLlbratlons of I to 9 S poi.nts. However, if you
receive a request for an rccurate S meter report. it is
only fair to exptain the arbitary way in whith the S-meter
callbrations of your receiver have been determj.ned.
 HT TO V^LVES
oN Avc uNt

doiMAt
cArHo0I
rEsrslon
In'
+.6 AtPROX.

Fr' I

AVC CONIROLLEO AF POWER

As dlstlnct froo the slmple cathode current measurerent
of figure 1, varlous circuits have been devised to pro-
duce an lnherently forward reading type of S-neter, in
whlch the pointer is deflected 'rup-scale" to the rlght as
the strength of the lncoming s i g n a l i n c r e a s e s . I n s u c h
circults, it ls also usual to errange matters so that the
neters read from near zero for no input signal to near
full scate for maxlmun signal, so that the full length of
the meter scale is used,

A llne of approach ls to use a falrly sensitive meter,

typically a l-mi11j.mp novement, 1n what is virtually a
brldge circuit and so arranged that a decrease in the
plate current of one or more AVC controlled amplifiers
produces an increase in the current flowing through the
neter.
A simple form for this bridge circuit, frequently used in
comunicatioo receivers, is shown in figure 2.

With about 25OV HT, about smA would flow through tbe 2.2
and 47K resistors, putting the junction between the two
about 11 volts below the ET line. In the other arm of the
bridge, set to the full I,OOO ohms, the sue voltage drop
would be evident with about 11mA flowing to the metered
valve; under these conditions, the meter would read zero.

Application of an AVC voltage to the netered valve would

reduce its current, reduce the voltage drop across the
LK potentiometer and atlow the positive side of the
meter to approach more closely the HT line, causing t h e
meter to read forward.

Adjustment of the IK potentiometer allows the meter to be

set to zero, under no signal conditlons, for a total.
metered current higher than about llmA. For currents
l-ess than this figure, lt may be necessary to revlse the
vaLue of tbe22K reslstor.

The mount of fOrward deflection depends on the meter

sensltj-vity but can also be varied by shunting the meter
or by modifylng the value of the 2.2K resistor end the
setting of the lK pot.

Adjustnents as outlined iD tbe two precedi.ng paragraphs

are comonly Decessary with forward readi.ng type S-meters.
They are aimed at (1) securing zero reter deflection with
no lnput slgnal and (2) controlling the sensitivity of
the circuit so tbat the neter wi.ll read 59 (256uV) at
less than full- sca1e, with a nargin for those signals
(S9 plus) whictr are even strouger than ttlis.

A somewhat different circuit arrangement ls shown in

figure 3. Resistor Rk is the nomal cathode resistor of
an A V C controlled IF mplifi.er. Resj.stors R2 and R3
should add up to the normal resistaDce for the cathode
circuit of the audio power mpLifler. These reslstors shoufd
be selected in value so that the moving arm of R2 c&n be
set to a voltage equaL to that at the cathode of the IF
mplifier under no-signal conditioDs.
 jl_:or: cases.it_might be necessary to reverse the po6it_
rons of R2 and R3. It atso^may
Ue fossfUie-tJ'u".. "tngt"
potentioneter instead of R2 a;d nS'Uut ihis-wiIt
lhe vernier effect decrease
of the series resistor.-'I'o-adjust
S-meter set R2 with the aerial the
shorted for zJ.q reading;
: l l ). r ! " s e n s i t i v i c y c o n r r o l ,
9( R t n . i s o O _ - o n i -p 6 i u n , , o r " r u ,
for futl-scalL readjng with the IF valve removed from
rts socket.

of obtalning a balanclng vottage from &nother vatve

I!: i9:r
advantage that voLtages "." uppii"O-io
l l t" . ! i , .
o Ootn "td..
the meter at about the sme time,
as ttre i*o valves begin
to draw current. tvith figure z, or-ii,u-"iiiIr"iluno,
rs applied via the 2_z and szx'resisiors-i,ii.Irut.ry voltage
voltage appears on the HT rine. rire-met."^irriiuro". t.
subject to a reverse voltage befofe the
controlled valves
besin to draw current..rnil ir-noi-riii"ti"l.'i"rase
meter but it does not look tbe best. the

The remainlng circuits illustrate forward reading S_neters

using additional vafves. These tend to-liuu-"i approxlmate
linear dB scaLe wlthout undue crowding.

In figure 4 a nlllireter is incorporated in a bridge in

the plate clrcuit of the addition"i vafve.-io adjust this
systen either remove the additional valve from its socket
or open the cathode circuit so that the valve does not
draw current. While the circuit is in this condrtion
the shunting resistor adjust
across the meter untii iull_scale
reading is obtained_ The value of tne
sfunl-witt depend
on the internal resistance of the meter u"ua.-Witt, tt.
vatves mentioned on the .diagrm th" ,;;";;i;;te
flowing in the meter will b;2.smA. c u rrent

With, the vaLve, or circurt, restored to normal the aerial

of the receiver should be ihorted ;; ;hr;;i;*;rd
set potentiometer the zero
set to give zero reading on--ttre meter.
Increase of signal strengih will be .egisier;a
where the AVC voltage 1s high enough t o the stage
t5 ""i_"it the addit_
ionaL valve,s plate current. This wiIl normally occur with
approxrmately 15 volts on tbe AVC li.ne, which'represenrs
a very strong signal.

The final circuit i s o n e w h l c h c a n b e f j . t t e d - f I e- a s l l y

receivers, to most
either internally.or "*tr"nriiy. incorporates
a twin triode valve in shat is essential.ly a vatve vol.tmeter
circuit. Agaj.n two pre-set controls are used to set tbe
parmeters of the meter readings. The zero set nay be used
to adjust the meter to minimm reaaing wiiU-no signal
ahan receiver other
noise. The calibrate coitrol can be-arbitarily
set to give a S8 or Sg reading at between
mi.d to threequartlr
sca1e.

are.nany otber S-meter circuit confrguratlons,

lt lh1e1 : o n e! !s" . :g i v e n
bere will probably allow the selection of
a suitable type for mcist receive;s, ft mounting an S-meter
on-an existing fecej.ver, where space is at a pi"r.un, con_
Sideration- could be giveD to the use ot edge
iyp. ,"tu..
now available in Australia, sone of which ire avattab.te
with S-meter calibrations.

10
 CRYSTALLOCKEDHF RECEIVER

Here is a receiver designed for use on specific HF communications or

broadcast channels Crystal oontrolled, it nray be used on any number
of channcls lor which crystals can be provided. Designed around the
TAA840 IC it is cheap and easy to build.
.9e
There are many uses for such a receiver, sonre of them at professional
ii! and semi-professional level. Those organisations which already oporate
conrmunications systemsin the H[. band, often have need for extra
receivers to nronitor tlreir channels. This little set would seem to be
an ideal unit for the job.

There are still many applications where a fixed tuned rcccivcr would be
useful. There are several frcqucncy and timc strndard transmitlers
scattercd tfuoughout the world and our rcceiver would be a logical
choice for monitoring them.

Another obvious upplication is to inonitur tlrr'vuious university radio

transnritters. We are oltcn askcd for a receiver which will operate
exclusively on one of thcse channcls, und this dcsign would seem to
bc thc answer.

Again, certain ovcrseas or local shortrvave broadcast stations nlay inter-

cst individuals to tbc point where they would be happy to be able to
r l o n i t o r t h c c h a n n c l r v i t h a h i g l r d e g r e eo f r e l i a b i l i t y .

T l r e r e c e i v e r i s d e s i g n e da r o u n d t h e T A A 8 4 0 l C , a u n i t o r i g i n a l l y i n t c n d -
e d a s t l r e m a j o r p o r t i o n o f p o r t a b l e b r o a d c a s t r c c e i v e r s ,a n d r e q u i r i n g a
nrinirnum of periphcral conlponcnls to nrakc it'work.

Since the introduction of the TAA840, many pcople havc experinrented

with it to find iiit issuitable fbr Hl; reccption, up to, say, l5MHz,

llxperiments have shown that the oscillator section of thc IC restricts

operation beyond the broadcast band, but that it is capableofworking
well into the HIr band it'it is provided with an external oscillator.

On corlsulting the makers for information relative to highest frequency

operalion of the lC wilh an external oscillator, it was l'elt that it could
p o s s i b l y a c h i e v ea n u p p e r I i m i t o l ' a l l e a s t l 4 - l 5 M l l z , but no oilra was
available to corrljrm this. lt was sugigcstedthat the lirniting stage would
be that originally usedas the oscillator but which, under the new
a r r a n g e m e n t ,b e c o m e s t h e m i x e r .

Apart l'rom the cxternal oscillator and the IF'systenr,the TAA840

applicationsinformation circuit was followed. A l'ew alterations to
c i r c u i t v a l u e sa l l o w s i t t o b e o p c r a t e d f r o m a 9 - v o l t b a t t e r y .

S o m u c h l o r t h e g e n c r a l a s p e c t so f t h e u n i t .

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 A brief description of the circuit will help the readerappreciatehow
the set functions. The aerial feedsinto a conventionaltuned cirouit,
-'l except that it is a fixed tuned arrangements,adjustedto suit the
I selectedcrystal, The crystal and tuned circuit may be contained in
I a plug-in module, if mote than one channelis to be monitored.
I
I
I The BF I 94 transistorfunctions as a forrn of Pierceoscillator in con-
I junction with the s€lectedcrystal. This oscillator will operate over a
I
wide rangeof frequencies,by simply pluggingin the appropriate crystal.
l t Output is taken from the emitter and coupled to pin 3 of the IC via a
I
330pF capacitor.
I
I
I Also coupled to pin 3 is a ceramic f ilter resonantat 455KHz. Within
I the lC pin 3 connectsto the emitter of what is now the mixer transistor.
I The ceramic filter, which has minimum impedanceat resonanoe,functions
I
I asa bypassacrossa 2.2K resistorin the emitter circuit, and makes it
r l
better able to handle signalsat 455KHz.
t >
t U
t ! Pin 2 is the collector of this sametransistor,and connectsthe external
li 6r IF components. These consistof two IF transformers,top coupled, and
another ceramic filter. Output of the filter goesback into the IC at pin
IT
i r
1 2 . A v o l u m ec o n t r o l c o n n e c t sb e t w e e np i n s 9 , I I a n d c o m m o n , a n d
the audio is taken from pin 7 and fed to a complementary - symmetry
r <
pat, AC187/ACl88.
I U
I
I On the construction side, the whole receiveris assembledin a small.
I sloping-frontinstrument case. Layout can be judged from photographs
I of the prototype.
I
i The circuit board carriesalmost all componentscloselyassociatedwith
I
I the operation of the IC. Componentsexternal to thc board are the aerial
tuned circuit, crystal, loudspeaker,volume control, and off/on switch.

In the prototype, we mounted the aerial coil and crystal in a small metal
box so that channel changingcould be achievedsimply by pluggingin a
suitablepretuned module.

Readersmay have their own ideason charnel selection,and we leave

this portion of the construction to the individual's ingenuity. One alter-
native arrangementcould use a miniature rotary switch, selectingthe
desirednumber of coils and crystals. For singlechanneloperation, a
singlecoil and crystal could be wired in permanently.

Whateversystem is used,make slrrethat leadsare kept short and that

there is a metdl screenbetween the aerialcoil and the crystal. This is
necessaryto minimise the risk of instability, particularly at the higher
frequencies.

t3
L

For readerswho wish to duplicateour module arrangement,connection

is madeto the receivercircuit by a dual .,phono" coinector strip. The
moduleitself carriestwo phono plugsmounted at the same€nrres as
the.connectorrtrip(tin). Qns is soldereddirectly to the module box,
and the other insulatedfrom it in an oversizeholi and fastenedwith an
epoxy suchas "Araldite".

This providesfour connectionsto the module. The crystalis connected

to the solderedphono plug, the centrepin beingthe ..hot" lead to the
baseof the oscillatortransistor.The shellof thi samesocketis used
for the crystalcommon rcturn and the coil common return. The aerial
coil is connectedto the insulatedphono plug; the tappingto the pin,
and the aerialinput lead to the insulatedshell. The iirial input socket
is a simiiartype of singlephono plug mountedon the front pancl.

The aerialtuned circuit consistsofa fixed capacitorand an adjustable

coil wound on a Neosidformer with adjustablecore. The coil is mount-
ed so that the core is accessible
through a hole in the sideof the modulc.
The winding is closewoundwith enamelwire to the specificationsgiven
in the accompanyingtable.

Although we havesltowndata for only two aerialcoils,the choiceof

capacitorvaluewill allow any frequencyfrorn 2 to I lMHz to be covered,
With a_lowervaluecapacitor,it may be possibleto extend the frequencf
up to lsMHz or so.

lfseparateaeriqlcoils are wound to coverthesehigherliequenciesit

would be advisableto selecta grade 900 core for the coil former, The
grade500 speciliedis intendedfor useonly up to about loMHz,

Ifyou wish,you can make your own IF coils to the data given.

The IFs are scramblewound on small Neosid"cotton reel" type E cores,

assembled with a smallcup and threadedtuning cores.

With the aerialcoil data specificd,tle s€nsitivityfor 5omw in the

speakerwasof the order of 1.5!V. This may vary slightly between
individua.llcs, but is adequatefor most situations.With increaseof
RF input, the AGC control waswithin speoifications of thc IC data.

As we said earlier, there is very little information availableas to the

highest frequency at which these ICs will work. If a particular unit will
not work up to I4 or 1SMHz,it may be worthwhile to selecta different
IC. A batch identificationcode is usuallyplacedin smalllettersunder
the type number and one from a different batch may work better.

The ryystalfrequencyshoutdbe the signalfrequencyplus or minus the

IF. This may presenta problem in somecases,sincethe actual IF wi.ll
be determinedby the responseof the particularSFD455Bceramic
filter. Theseare madeto a nominal 455KHz. but with a toleranceof
plus or mirus 2%.

t4
 B S€(VTEWEOFROilnNgDE)

Position of components and base con-

nections for IF coils,

Ptug-in crystal module showing position

of components and Phono Plugs.

t5
ldeally, the IF filter frequencychtracteristicsshouldbe quoted when The
orderinga crystal,but very few constructorshavethe equipmentto the
measurethe naturalresonane of the ceramicfilters with the accuracv sup
necessary to order a "spot on" crystal, the

In therecases,thereile one ot two tricks that can be employedto cr)

minimisepossibleerrors. One is to "pull" (shift) the crystalfrequency eitl
b y a s m a l la m o u n t . cry
isr
"Pulling" can be
achieved,within limits of reliableoscillation,by insert- thz
ing capacitance in serieswith the crystalto slightlyincreaseits frequency
or il parallelto reduceits frequency. A smallai-rtrimhrer can be used AS
for this. lar
as
A more completesolution,at somecost in selectivity,is to eliminatethe
SFD455Bfilter. This will allow the IF responseto be deterrninedby Mr
adjustmentof the remainingIF transfornrers.The crystalcan then be fal
determinedby adjustmentof the remainingIF transformers.The crystal an
can then be orderedon the basisofa 455KHz IF, the IF channelbeing cll
ultimately adjustedto this on the basisof bestreceptionof the signal.
Subsequent crystalscould be orderedon the samebasis. Al
fiI
The ceramicfilter is eliminatedby bridgingthe output of the tunable b:
I F s r o t h e i n p u t o f t h e I F A M P L I F I E R( p i n l 2 ) w i t h a 0 . 0 4 7 p Fc e r a - e)
mic disc capacitor. (Showndotted in the circuit.) The effect of the cl
BFB455A ceramicfilter can be neglectedin thesecircumstances. tt
tl
Another decisionto be mtde before the crystalis orderedis whetherit o
shouldoperateon tie high or low sideof the wanted signal. Wrile P
either will work equally well, the matter of possibleimagesmust be
considered.Particularlyat high frequencies,the simpleaerialtuned lv
circuit may not be able to rejecta powerful signalwhich could be fl
located91OKHz(twice the IF) away from the wanted signal.

For example:If the wanted signalis on l0MHz the crystalcould oper-

a t e a t e i t h e r l 0 . 4 5 5 M H zo r 9 . 5 4 5 M H 2 .W o r k i n ga t 1 0 . 4 5 5 ,t h e i m a g e
w o u l do c c u ra t 1 0 . 9 1 0 ,w h i l ew o r k i n ga t 9 . 5 4 5w o u l d p u t i t a t 9 . 0 9 0
MHz. If there wasa powerful signalon either of thesetwo image
fiequenciesit would be wiseto selectthe other one.

If a signalgeneratoris availableit could be usedas a substitutefor the

crystal,temporarily,to sllow both imageconditionsto be investigated.
Wren a decisionhasbeenmade,the crystal can be ordered.

The only type of crystalwhich will work reliably in the Pierceoscillator

circuit is one cut for the fundamentalmode. "Overtone" cut crystals
may or may not operatein the circuit. If they do, they will operateon
their fundamental,which will be approximatelysomeodd sub-multiple
of the tigure stampedon the case.

l6
Thereshouldbe no difficulty in obtainingfundamentalcrystalsup to
thelikely limit of this receiver.In fact fundamentalcrystalscan be
suppliedup to 40MHz, althoughthey are quire fiagile. Up to ISMHz
thereilre no specialdifficultics.

Crystals,if bought new, should ideally be "wire in" typcs when usedin
eitherthe moduleor wired to a rotary switch. This obviatesthe useof
crystalsockets,which can take up more room than necessary.There
is no hardand fast rule to this, but it makeshandlingof componenrs
that mucheasier.

Assembly of the receivershould not presentany problems. Drill all

l a r g ea n ds m a l lh o l e sf o r m o u n t i n ga n d c o n t r o l si n t h e p a n e l . C u t h o l e s
asnecessary for the speakcr,and rnodule(if used).

M o u n t h e s p e a k eor n t h e p a n c lw i t h a p i e c eo f e x p a n d e da l u m i n i u n or r
f a b r i cb e t w e e n M
. o L r n t h e v o l u m ec o n t r o l( w i t h i t s s h a l ts h o r t e n e d for
a na p p r o p r i a tkcn o b ) , t h e o n / o f l ' s w i t e ha, c r i a lc o n n c c t o ra. n < tl r v o i n
ctcuit b0ardpilldrs.

Assemble the circuit board startingwith the IC and smallercomponenrs

I t s t ; t h e nt h e f l y i n g c o n n e c t i n g
l e a d st o t h e v o l u m ec o n t r o l ,s p e a k e r ,
b a t t e r ya n ds w i t c h ;a n d f i n a l l y ,t h e m o d u l ec o n n c c t o r .C a r es h o u l cbl e
e x e r c i s ei nd o r i e n t a t i o no l t h e I C o n r h e c i r c u i tb o a r d . D a m a g et r i t h c
c i r c u i bt o a r da n d / o rt h e l C m a y r e s u l ti f t h e l C i s s o l d e r e di n p l a c cu n d
t h e nh a st o b e r e m o v e d .T o t h i se n d ,a n t r r o w i n d i c a t o ri s c t c h c di n
t h ef o i l o f t h e c i r c u i tb o a r d ,a n d t h e c o r r e s p o n d i nngo t c h o n t h e t o p s i d c
o f t h el C a t o n e e n d s h o u l db e a t t h e a r r o wh c a d( s e ep r i n t e dr v i r i n g
p a t t e r nb) e t w e e np i n s 1 a n d 1 4 .

Mountthe completedcircuit board on tlte brasspillarsand connectthc

f l y i n gl e a d si n t u c i r c u i t . C l r e c kf o r s l t o r t se, t e .

Ifeverythingis ship-shape,
a rushingsounclshouldbe audiblein the
speakerwhen the receiveris switchedon, and should be variablewith
volumecontrol setting.

Alignmentshouldbe relativelysimple. It will be a little easierif a signal

generator is available,but this is not essential.lf a generatoris available,
it shouldtirst be usedto adjust the lF transformers.The generatoris fod
i n t o p i nI o f t h e I C v i a a 0 . 1 p Fc a p a c i t o r .C o n n e c ta n o u t p u t m c t e r ,o r
multimeteron the low AC range,acrossthe speakertermilals.

Feedin a signalat approximately455KHz. The exact fiequency will be

determined by the secondceramicfilter, and the ideais to sct the two
transformers so that they are at the samefrequencyas the filter. Final '1
adjustment is to the aerialcircuit, which may be set approximatelyby
meansof the signalgenerator,and preciselywhen the wanted signalis
received.Output from the generatorshouldbe kept at a minrmtrmat
all times,and the volume control of the set advancedto maxirnum.

l7

.{
I
ii
 If the ckcuit hasbeenbuilt without the ceramicfilter, the generatot
shouldbe set as closeto 455KHz as possibleand the IF traisformers 1
I
adjustedto this. Whenthe wantedsignalis received,the transformers
can be touchedup for bestresults.
,
t
If no signalgeneratoris availableit wilt be necessary to wait until it is
known that the.wanted signalis availableand then ;djust tlre IF Ct
and/or )
aeria.lcoils until the signalis receivedand brought to maximum strength.
Ideally, the aerialchcuit should be adjustedwiitr tne set connected I
to
the aerialwitlr which it is to work. I

Finishingthe receiveroff is simply a matter of placingthe whole 3

assenrblyinto its plasticcabinetand insertingthe tbui anchoringscrews 2
in the appropriatepositions. I
I
I

Parts List ,
I
I
I Plastic cabinet with front panel.
I 3 inch I5 ohm loudsneaker.' I
I 9 volt bottery.
a
Connectorsfor above.
I Circuit board. o.
IF translbrmers. Sr
N.e^o^!id "E" adiustable inductance assembly, 368&5 or sP
rye9
4OSltG DTE wire, and two minioturc 330pF cip,acitors. etl
I
\e.2sld-fgryer type 351I wirh 6mm x I2mm 5'00grade core and
348&5, 288&5 nr 30SWGDTE wire for aerial coll.
I Murata SFD4558 filter unit 38SWG. IF
I Murata BFB455A /ilter unit.
I AC_|87/188complementarytrunsistorpair or R5276-2001and IF
R5276.2005. Ne
1 TAA840 httegratedcircuit wi
I Phono socket. wi
3 Phono plugs.
1 Dual phono receptacleassembly.
I Miniattte singlepole tog&Ieswitch, A(
1 BFl94 or R5276.2009.2N3694 B,F t t S - i 2 r - 1 6 3 . Fc

REYSZOR.! l% wattt
r 220K
t 100K
I 22K
I lsK
2 IOK 4.
1K
470 ohm
330 ohm
270ohm

LI
3n
t8

I
 $*
rlq
r A
&
ti$
I ,;$
120 ohm j*

82 ohm
$
r
IS
68 ohm
150 ohm thermistor.
5K potentiometer, curve C (log).
is
CAPACITORS
lor 2 125pF l2Yltr
rgth.
I 50uF6W
:0
I 25pF 3Vtr
2 0.1pF ceramic or polyester.
3 0.047pF ceramic or polyester.
2 0.022pF ceramic or polyester.
)ws
1 0.01pF ceramic or pulyester.
1 0.0047pF ceramic or polyester.
1 0.001yF ceramic or polyester.
1 330pF miniature polystyrcne (Ducon DF-&112 or similor).
1 68pF NPO ceromic.
1 22pF NPO ceramic.
I 10pF NPO ceramic.
Polystyrene capacitor(s) to resonotederisl coil (seecoi! data).

CUstal(s) to suit desbed channel /seetext).

Small control knob, Hookup wire. Expanded aluminium or suitable
speakerfabric. Metal strip for battery clatnp. Nuts, bolts, brasspillars,
etc.

IF and Aerial Coil Data

lF Coils:
Neosidtype "E" adjustableinductanceassembly.
Windingwire: 368&5DTE or 40SWG.
WirdingsR : e s o n a n t1: 3 0 t u r n s .
C o u p l i n g :1 5 t u r n s .

Aerial Coils:
F o r m e r :N e o s i dt y p e 3 5 11 ; C o r e :N e o s i d6 m m x l 2 m m , " 5 0 0 " g r a d e .

f L l L 2 C Wire
2-3MHz 3 turns 40 turns, tap 220pF 3 4 B & So r 3 8 S W G
. at 5 turns
3.7-5MHz asabove as above l5OpF a sa b o v e
4,4-6MHz as above as above 100pF as above
5.8-8MHz 2 turns 15 turns, tap 270pF 28B&S or 30SWG
at 2 turns
?.8-l lMHz as above as abovc 150pF a sa b o v e

Ll to commenceat end neatestmounting flange,and placedapprox.

3mm from this end. L2 to be wound over L1.

l9

i
I
I
 EXPERIMENTALAM TUNER USINGA PHASE-
LOCKEDLOOP

Thosevho would like to experimentwith one of the new ..phase-locked

loop" lCs shouldfind this article particularlyinteresting.It explains
the operationof the deyices,and describesan experimentalAM broad-
casttuner.

Wren phase-locked loops or "PLLs" becameavailablein IC form recent-

ly, our immediatereactionwas that it shouldbe possibleto useone of
thesedevicesto producea simpleyet high performancesynchrodyne-
type AM radio tuner. After many fiustrationsand a sood deal of
experimentalwork we havefinally managedto producesucha unit, and
it doeswork quite well - most peoplewLo havi heardit havebeenvery
impressed.

It's not quite as simpleas we had hoped,for reasonswhich will become

apparent. Howeverit is still quite easyto build and get going,and will
not cost very much. We are not claimirg it to be the ultimate desienfor
a tuner or receiverof this type, by the way - nrerelyone which wJrks
quite well and shouldserveas a good startingpoint for thosewho
would
like to experimentfurther.

For the benefit of those not as yet familiar with pLLs. we should
pe:haps-pointout the conceptis not new. It wasactually proposedby
a Frenchmannamedde Bellescizein 1932, in an article tittea..ta
ReceptionSynchtone". As this suggests he was in fact proposingit as a
systemfor radio reception,althoughmore recentlyit his bten usedfor
many other applicationssuchas signalprocessirg,frequencysynthesis,
and noisefiltering. The applicationof the idea to radio receptionwas'
proposedagainin 1947 by D.G. Tucker, who first coined thc name
"Synchrodyne".

Actually th€ conceptof the pLL shouldalreadybe quite familiar to

many readers,becausethere is a PLL in virtually all modern TV receivers.
This is the so<alledhorizontalautomaticfrequencycontrol or AFC
circuit, usedto lock the horizontalsweeposciuatoiin phasewith the
incoming sync pulses.

You can seethe similarity to this type of circuit in Figure l, which

showsthe basicarrangementof a pLL. In simpleter;s, the frequency
and phaseof the voltrge-controlled oscillator or ..VCO'; are loclied to
the inpu.t.signalby comparing them in a phasecomparator, filtering
the resulting error voltage and using it after amplification io control
the VCO.

Prac.ticalPLLs do not actually lock the VCO phasedirectly to that of

the incoming signal,but becauseof the way they perform the phase

20
se-locked
plains lltot
YOtttot
broad-
nrllt
n recent-
one of
rdyne-
of
7lo,r lAllc a{ltt'tocxto toot (rut
lnit, and
een very
o
F
<o
-o
become ot
o<
nd will t
esignfor o
works
o would

sedby

gitasa
sedfor
thesis,
n was
:ne

'to
'eceivers.
FC
r the

)h
lency
)dto
ng
rol

Ltof
,se
 comparison there is a fixed phasedifference
of 90 degrees. For most
applications this is not important, but when tf," pfii
to U" used for
synchronousdetection of AM signalsthe gO
a"grr" Aiif.ience must be
removcd. This is done by feedingthe signal
ur"? toloit if," pfl
through a 90degree phaseshift nltwork-, as
,f,or"n iniiiur" Z.
The two 90degree phaseshifts effectively cancel,
becauseregar<ilessof
the actual phaseof the VCO _ zero or lg0
degreesreluti". to the input
signal- both polaritiesof its output are fed to
the product detector
usedto producethe demodulated- audio-
As you can seefrom Figure 2, usinga pLL for
-tne AM detectionis in fact
the.Synchrodyne.yrt.i. W" Ueat incominj nU,i**i *itn _
"j,,T same fiequency
,"a pr,"* "rr:ii ""lri"i, in . p.oou",
:::13::'
uE'ecrcr'anc uus producethe originalaudio information. The pLL
,is usedto ensurethat the local or.iluto, i, u"*iut.iv io-.t.a
carrier. to tf,,

It wasrvith the generalschemeof Figure 2

in mind.that we bought a
type NE 561-B integratedfLL a short iir"
IrF_ngtics "gr. fr," Ne
561-B.isa high performanceJevice"hi.h ;.1;;;
;;"o"nly the basic
PLL elementsof Figure l, but alsoa product detector
for AM detec-
tion. Typical deviceswiil work from less
tf,un iH, io ,"*, thun
30MHz,and will lock ro input sjgnalsa,,-Ji;ib0;V.""

block diagram.ofttre NE 561_Bis shown in

f:lTpq:q Figure 3. Note
*dr urc rLL error voltageis amplifiedand brouglrt
out to pin g, because
the basic PLL can be usedfor FM aemoauUtion-mli.'iv
t-v't""aing in n
frequ-encymodutated signal. The rnoJur"ii"n ror.", ii" i,tr_ to follow
frecuencr, so that i replicaof the .risi"J;.d"Liiniugnur
it-in
generated i,
as a componentof the error voliage. A.op"aii&."n
connectedto pin l0 for de-emphasis u"
if desired.
At the time we-boughtthe device,only very scant
applicetionsliterature
wasavailable.Undaunted,we hookedit up
on tn"6"nJ*l$, trr"
l":9rply components and power supply,makingample useof the
"third
dimension". An aerialr.r'n"a iv " i.neffi;i'f;i;;
wire draped
tle worksho^pwrs coupleddireitly int"ottre pfilnJut
11u10 vraa
u.ztr capacltor. Atter a short while clean,crisp music
eminated from
the loudspeakerof the benchamplifier connectld
t" irr. tl.i"""rt.
Howeverafter a few quick checki it roon u.l"ni"
"r"ui'it'"i ,t "r" *"."
a coupleof nasty snags,

With the.NE 561-B,tuning of the pLL's nominal frequency

can be done
usJngeither a conventionaltunmg gangcapacitor(but
one with a rather
odd.value),or a pot in conjunctidn-wiih"'fi*"a "upu"ii"r.
ihe pot is
usedto adjustbiascurrenr for the VCo, *l,i"hl;l;;i;;;
an emrtter-
coupledmultivibraror. Tuning wirh a pot seemea
UotirloJet anO
srmprer,so we had chosenthis method. As a result
we had no RF
preselectionaheadof the pLL.

22
 ot
< c
F >

F-r
<E
7 ;o
Y- aci
o0
F d g st
oo
T:
o
F
-
j.
. :

I
U +

.l c -HP g
l\ tP: d oi

/;F;(); /,
a ;
8 H
. g , e d

S H

9
F q
F
z ttz
o 3
F

,z
o
OU
<{
E Z

s_E
ss
t3
 The m-ostobvious problem *u:.thlt without the preselection,
the cap.
ture effect of the pLL resultedin it.virtually ignoringih"-*"ut",
stations,.effectivery"seeing' onry rne two strongest
-Tt our area -
ones'in
we could haveeither one or th€ other, and nothi.,g
"lsei "r" *",
alsoa pronounceddistortionon transients,which"weput
down to a
lack of sufficient.carrier
amplitudc to retia'Utvmaintui'nlif- fo.f on
negauvemodulatronswinss.

Wealsofound that a filte, wasrequiredat the AM

output to attenuate
the residualRF componentsfromthe proAu"t J"t""ioi.-Wnen
we tried
a_simplelow-passR-C filter it tendedto chop the uudio "'"
f,ignr,so it was
obviousthat a not-so.simplefilter would U" ir""jJ--'

To solvethe first two problemswe decidedto use

an RF stage,with at
leasta basicamount oi preslection and g"ir- iil;;;;;
or ressruted
out the pot approachfor tuning the pLL, at feast
if ii was io be tuned
to eachcarrierin true synchrodynefashion. we touri"J"i
the ideaof
bying to track a pot and a capacitor!

We tried two waysaround this, one usinga two-gang

tuning capacrtor
and the other usingpush-buttontuning. The latier
Lemed a good i<lea
becauseof the heterodynewhistleswhich t."aiti.""fiv'pGue
synchro-
althoughas_irtater transpired,this is not n"eartythe
1ll:,:T"-!ri"":
p r o o t e me x p e c t e dw h e na p L L i s u s e d .

Both of the approacheswe tried seemedto lead

nowhere. The mere
fact.tha_t
we were trying to make the pLL and ironi "nal.n"L
o"".
the I M^Hzrangecoveredby the broadcastbund ,";r;;
t;;roduce all
sortsof instability and componentdrift problems,
unJr"-uitu.t*"rt
wasconstantlyneeded. Somewhatdespondently
we shelvedthe idea
for a while,and only tinkered wittr it occasionafiy
*f,"" iirn" permjtted.
trl.r we hit u.ponthe idea of gettingaround rheseproblems
::T:,ltl,"
o{ ytTg the superhetprinciple. The advantagCs werepretty obvious:
with the PLL operatinear a fixed intermedia; fr;qu"i.v,if,,
trning
and.trackingproblemswould disappear.It would
ilso do'away wittr
the inevitablecompromisein the i0 a"gr"" ptare
Jifi nitivort<,wtricrr
could be.adjustedfor optimum operation.
Eventhe filter in the AM
output circuit could becomea simpleIF trap, using
a standardIF
transformer.Sure,it wasgettingaway from
the clissicsynJnrooyne
approach,but we would still havethe advantages
of rvnationou.
detection. And so wasborn the UusiciOeuoiiie .
*pei-'r'yn.f,roayne,,.
ci:cujt.alg phorographsshow the experimental
Ihe tuner that has
oeen rne rnrtlaloutcome of all this activity. lt usesa
ferrite rod aerial
autodyne mixer. with a FErnF siale i"';;l;;""
T*:,'i*pb the two.
A DLI uy or slnltrartralsistor is usedas an amplifier
to drive a voltage-
doubl.ingdetectorusedto developnCC for tfr'e
nf'riu'gJ,iJo"...orn"
overloadproblems.
 {q.
fl
g
a
s
6
P
t
bs
i8
S e
E:
dt
\,
8t
G:
n
'tT; B

I E:
:wr*

o
q

G
As you can see,the unit we built is wired on a piece of matrix board SHOR
and usesa number of components resurrectedfrom the iunk box.
The "germaniumdiodes" usedin the AGC detectorare actually the We prel
base+mitterjunctions of two old germaniumtransistors,becausewe range6
d i d n ' t h a v ea n y O A 9 l ' s o r s i m i t a rh a n d y . from 2-
to lister
We alsofound it necessary
to fit'a smallearthedshieldaround the
0.221rFbypasson the spareRF input of the IC (in l2), otherwise As a lo1
therewasevidenceof instability. the moi
latest u
ln you build this unit up, the free-runningfrequencyof the pLL should rangeb
be set up to 455kHz usingthe 50k pot, in the;bsenceof signal. special
ldeally this shouldbe done with a calibratedCRO or a freq-uencymeter, commu
but failing this the circuit can be roughly set by frst aligningthe front
end and then adjustingthe 50k pot until the IC will lock orthe smallest It is no
signal. Probablythe bestway to do this is to usean aeriaIarrenuator previou
ard keep tuning the signaldown and re-adjustingthe pot until you feel two un
the optimum hasbeenreached. rcadeil
referen
You will find that with a reasonable aerialand earth. the tuner sives
quite impressiveresults. And perhapsthe most surprisingthingibout As may
it is the almost completeabsenceof the loud zeroing-inwhistleusuallv tuned c
f o u n d w i t h s y n c h r o d y n e sB. e c a u steh e p L L . ' j u m p J o u t a n d g r a b s " hasbee
the signalas you approachit with the tuning, there is nothing more, requhe
than a rapid "swish". In fact many peoplehavetried tuning stations to thos
with the unit and havenot realisedthat it is a synchrodyneuntil they althoup
havebeen told! assem
higher
Weare surethis is not the only approachby which you could get good hasbee
resultsusingthe NE 561-B fot high quality AM reception. However
it is at leasta startingpoint, and one which hasbeenshown to give In addi
good results. The rest is up to you,largely. One addition which might we hav
makea worthwhile improvementis a tuning meter,which could be a nomi
arrangedfairly easilyas an add-onto the existingAGC circuit. any ch
tuning
becaus
the rec
2.055
this sig
outsid(

Due to
and os
longer
While r
constn
aerial (
secon
wire. T
smallF
26 end du
of the
 sHoRTWAVECOTWERTERFOR 2MH3 TO 6MH3
Wepreviou{y,describeda simple converter covering
the frequency
gnge-6- t 9MHz. This is anorlier version ;hi"h ;;;riled
ftom 2-6.5MH2, and should trrus Li oilnte;;;fi;;ff;"r, to cover
to listento the marine and other transmir;i;;;;lifiihis who wish
range.
Asa logicalfollow-on from our BasicShort WaveConverter
themorepopular short-wavebanasbeiween 6l\,iH, ;;-ibMi{;,-ffi:: coverins
latestunit coversthe lower end of the st oti-*uui ,picirurn,
rangebetweenabout 2MHz and 6MHz. Tiri; b;; I;;;;","hat ttre
specialised,in that it includesquite a numGi;f;;;; more
communications and other
bands,but it ian be quiterewuafi:'-
It isnot proposedto repeatall the constructionaldetails gven
previou.sly. as
Rather,^wewill co^ncentrate on the differencesbetweenthe
twounits.'.gving_zuffrcien t information so trrat irren,
ore
rcaderwill be able to construct ttLisnewveriion ,idtfr":rt experienced
reference m,i"h-if;t
to the previous article,

l11,a1,Ue anticipated, t\.main differenceslie in the coils and

oneo crcuits generally.
Ih.e_plaaercapacitorin the oicillator circuit
nasoeenchangedfrom .00l5uF to 47dpF, to meei thJ'new tracling-
rcquhements. The printed wiring board'ana-;;i;il;;i are identicat
lg.l!9r_g"-f.dprevibusly. Thisin;lud;stheoia fru."uir"rnurv,
sttroughthis of coursehasa new-scale. as meniioneO"*fi"r, it is Aia
rrsembly hasbeenmodified and the n"* on.ii"iiui.ri a'somewhat
panelalrhoughtne mountrngcentresare the
lli$:l
nas lTl
oeentaken care of in our metalworkirawins. same.This

lnadditionto themoreobviouschanges from thepreviousconvertet,

wehaveatsomadea stiphtcrrange in t-treini,jiriljiiiJii"quenry, from
r nomin
rnomrnatat r.bMHz
l. 6MHzto to aa*n ominal'I.
nominal i l.tHi.-iii
l,SMHz. J can
This .-"" i;be doni:
d;r" withoui
,r !'cr,Ee toru lurrrponEnr viuues, -rrrir';h?;;."i;;dee
values,itlt only
ontf teing
belng ne""rr&
111,:l1lg: .component necessary,, to adjust the
tuning "g in th
Ig.q Islug rput.tr"n,
e--o.u
the-_output roi"iei. fhil;h?;;;;ideen n m
transfoimer. ade
maoe
oecause.when an IF.of
IF.ofi.lMHz
i.lMHz was
wasfirst
firstuseA
useAttre"lofJoscillator
tt e"lofJoscillatorof
Hi::,yl"l:finto
$gtgggly.t whichihelonverter -Bt;h;g;e'?"ii
wasbeingt"a uoo#ii'u"i
q
trreconverter
fl,i*TfEi: ::d:ls i4.-'B'i c,; _* Jr
fi19J-1YH.'"* diat. ;iffi
rr.sur
.sru',, fe ?FuJr
?F
$T_'lf$J?**U:::,:t';fiki:{*:rilsTi'ti#,
ning rangeof the converter.
Lhi.r,i,
D{reto l-!e somewhatlarger number of turns required
od oscillator_coils on the aerial
for thi lower frequencv rangii, *. r,"ue used the
longertype of Neosidcoil formers.
Whilgwe.areon the subject of-coils, perhapsa good place
construction to start
would be tb wind the aerial and oscillator coi]s. The
consists
Tl3 ,.:_il wound of a pjryary "{,d ;sigfid.ry rl,'irliirg, with the
&condary first. This consistsof g5 tums of ZC-I?C en"mrf
*itq, Tl'r starl and finish of t$ *"aing;,-t'ue'aniio"rea
witn
rmall.piece of adhesivetape. This is ,Uded riil;rf il# turns "t a
end.during winding. The 6nd prog.rdiri! i, tii.n lola"a over e".t
ofrhewinding rhe top
whencompletLd.
Thfi;fifi;;i*il;;; ib ii,'#"

27
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of 28 SWGenamelis wound over the bottom end of the secondary, '
afterhavingplaceda piece of tape over that paxt of the secondary.
Again,tape is usedto anchor the winding in place.

Theoscillator coil is treated in much the sameway as the aerial coil,

bearingin mind that the frequency stability of the oscillator largely'
depends on this coil, It should therefore be wound hrmly and finished
in a workmanlike manner.The larger (primary) winding consistsof
60tu_ms centretapped,of 28 SWGenamelwire. The tap on the coil
maybe effectedin a numberof ways.One simplemethbd is to scrape
theenamelfrom. about l/8-in of the wire at the tapping point.
Anothershort piece of the samewire is solderedoir-to iit as a lead.
Toavoida short circuit, a small piece of adhesivetape should be
plaggd_under that tum at the tai. The secondarywiirding of 10 tums
of 28 SWGenamelis wound over the "earthy" end of the primary
(thatbypassedby the ,0luF capacitor).

Toensurethat the windings stay firmly intact, they should now be

givena coat of celluloselacquer or other suitablematerial. When
dry,the leadsshoulCbe terminatedsuchthat when the coil is frtted to
theveroboard, the pins correspondwith the relevant parts of the
cfucuit.This is shown in the diagram.
Asthe board was made to accommodateNeosid coil formers. we
foundit desirableto use an IF transformer asoutput, some care is
needed in fitting this transformer. The following fitting procedureis
$ggested.

Bendeachof the four pins over so that they lie acrossthe comers
of thecan. Then the pins are bent in dog-legfashion such that they
willenter the four holes in the printed Ubar?.Ttre can mounting lugs
mustalsobe bent inwards and in a similar manner so that they u/ill-
alsopassthrough the respectiveholes in the board. This done, the can
maybe mounted-but care must be taken to ensurethat it is orientated
conectly,accordingto the code on the circuit and that moulded
adjacentto the pins.

Aswementionedearlier,the dial we usedis no longermadebut if

Iur favg one on hand, then it may be used,as the irounting holes
remainthe same.Alternatively, the new dial may be used aisuggested,
or-youmay make,your own arrargementsasyou seefit, possibly by
stillmakinguse of the dual ratio dial drive by JacksonBrbs.
Thecompletedial assemblyis suppliedwith a scale,having in
additionto a G100 loggin! scaleTourblank rangeswhich iray be
calibrated accordingto actual needs.However, calibration of this
converter may presentproblems to those readerswho do not have
anyinstrumentsfor calibrating. To get around this problem, we are
makingscalesavailablewhich are ready calibrated fiom 2-6.5H2.
It is then only necessaryto identify a signalof known frequency
towardseachend of the scaleand make adjustmentswhicir will'be
described later on.

29
ffi
Having completed the mechanicalwork, the converter is ready
to be
operation.Quite a number of itemsmust bL considr6edhiie.
Rlr-tTl,o
we wul assumetnat vou have a suitable broadcastreceiverinto which
to feed the convertei.A sourceof 9 vorti-diliu.oupr. of milliamps
should also be available.Ideally, if the receivei'h;, ;6ii"6i;';;p;lyi"
may i1, O_1tl" ottrei t ana]a separate9V
i,r{
' ji
l1:l^9._:9"l.rter
oarrerymay be usedjust;hare
that thereis a suitabl-e
as.well,We will alsoassumeat ifris stage
aeria.l.
j Connectthe converterto the.receiver, a suitablesourceof power aad
ll lill tolty,ning that no.signal-generator
recerver
is available,sef the
I5UUHZon the dial beforeconnectingthe -Ueconverter.Switch
on the converter and tune-in any station tt,..t ,nu-v ""aiUfq ;dj,;ril;!
the slugin the output translormertor maximumresponse.This
tunes
ule transtormerto the IF of l500kHz

Igy l*: to a signaltoward_s_ the low frequency end of the dial and one
yT.::9j1".1"-rl"{,ts 99yn: Havingtunedthe station,more than tikely
|t wilr not be rn the right placeon the dial. In this caseretune the diai
ro rne correct trequencvand adjustthe slugin the oscillatorcoil
until
the stationis againUeingreceivdd.
Now lune a stationof known frequency_towards the high frequency
end of the dial. Once arain, havin!.tun"O in ttrJre?irenie ,tution,
not likely to be in its c6rreit posi;io;. s;;-ih;;;i;a ii i,
point and adjust the trimmer bn, the oscillator ie.iio,i to the correct --
of tfrJ g"ni
until the stationis retuned.As always,wlie;;lic"iil.
superhet
receiver,this processmust be repeaiedr."riJti'..t"until
the stations -
areset at the conect points at e_ichard of *re aiJiespectively.
slugis used for the low end, and ttre trimmeiioia;i,'igh ' The
----
;nA:
Each time the oscillator coil slug or tri-mmeris adjusted,
the slug or
trimmer on the aerialcoil shouli "tstb;;i";;:-"*

lll-o^u
process _trlxr,qsignalgeneratoror you have acces to one, then the
ot'alignmentis made.thai much easier,bui ttri
firincipii,
are the same.With an accuratelycaiUratea sighJg.n.r"tor, you may
alsocalibrateyour own dial scaie-

If a.signal_generator
is not available,there are
- somereadily identifiable
stations which can provide referencepoints.
The US standardstations-WWV and WWVH both radiate
24 hoursa day. In most casesthey shouldui u"iiuGluringon Z,SMHI,
of darkness. the hours

There may be instanceswhere a.readeris located close to

one of the
on the suggested.tF
of.l.S0okHt,t;ribty;;;;rune in bieii-
:lltlgl;
tnrough.A way out of this problemis to r-etuneihe broadEast,ecJiuur
rt to^av
oidthisproblem.
i i tutii-
6Jnec"ssury to
3;13vJY:l
rerurn Ao]eh
rne ouQut transtbrmerto the new frequency.In an exueme case
rt may evenbe necessarv to tune slightlyhighbrthdn ie OOtAr, iiiii trii,
is hardly likely. Furthermore.,it woild ieinLoauil-tie spurious
just above 2MHz, as well aschangingtt . diul signal
ia[ibraions somewtrat.

30
be
TI{E SINFOCODE
rich S Slgnal strer€th
nps Balety audrble
I .r g:*
'I' o Exceuenr
3 il;
f lnterference (eRf4 I Extreme gtght
{
2 Severe S Ntl
3 Moderate
N Notse (QX,lg 1 Extreme 4 Slight
nd 2 Severe S Nil
'f 3 Moderate
ritch faOtng I Extreme 4 strr
iting 2 severe : iitcht
tes 3 Moderate
O Overa.llrattng I Unusable { Good
2 poor E Exceltent
3 Falr
LOne
ely THE SINPFEMOCODE
ial I Sgnaf Strength
tit I audtbte 4
Parely Good
:J :og 5 Excellent
lalr
Interference (e.RM I Extreme 4 Sltsht
Z Severe 5 NfI-
3 Moderate
Notse (QRN; I Extreme 4 Sttsht
2 Severe b NU-
3 Moderate
Propagatlon I Extreme 4 crr-L
Dlstwbanco t s;;;;"*" ; i,if"'
3 Moderate
llequency of Fading I Very fast 'Slow
4
2 Fast 5 Nll
3 Moderate
Modulatlon Qua-lity I Very poor 4 Good
? 5 Excellent
r ! lt:"
m
Modulatton Depth I Conttnuouslyover-modulated
2 Poor or nll
3 Fair
4 Good
5 MDdmum
Over-aII Ratfng I Unusable 4 Good
"-2' 5 Exceu€nt
:J
lalr

you have a.broadcastreceiverof reasonably

I-t:_9.gg$lt
&Nruvrty and a good aeriarsvstem,this sfipl;;;;;;rier good
gnnga good accountof itseu. is capabreof

A-p^oint
which.mustbe consideredhowever,is
oroadcast the situationwh'erethe
receiverto be usedis.fitted Utfr i ferriijroA
Fcelvers aenal. Many
are likely to come under ttris catlgoryltut'if*tirere
is pro_

3l
 vision
vruu' for an vextemal
rur dr aerial men
.cmru aenal then ilrere
there is i no. ptoblem of coupling it from
the converter.-At tlte same ttme, many leceivers receiversdo do not
not havd
have prdrrision
nrouicinn
f:t"nr:"**l*::-et_Tj_irbecomesnecessarytoguinu'.'iJr".r,i;"i|}:h
to add a couplingwinding.
I
About thrce\tumsof light hookup wire shouldbe woun,
ende!
srrs
end of srs the uux
ofthecoil coil on
on me
the
the roc.
r-od.Tape
1q6.1.t. lape the windinp in place
the winding ntaceand
,",1 connect
:nt-:*,H,hy I
the
::* ynr:lll.^ en d. o f. m ain *i" di"g i;o;e conven ient e: a
point
yyutL-the other_e{jrv
.!ne orn€r end goesto the the
centre condudtor of the coax from the-
converter,
_ _ _ : _ : - _ - 2 while the Jshield
r r r s r u braid ofl tt.
u l e c"^r.'"^"i-r,I'*i'-
useoror ue earthy end of the
ur4s u
P.t:9,:lg:":gl
o a x soes
s to the same"*trr poi
addedwindine]
p
H'fJ'iTffin'r'l;:iil:1ff x*%':j#**:*:1:J,:0."j:.,ia,p ,[
,1::t*llllllle."r..a.ggntinue;t";i;ilrp'b".;iffi
g;i,t1?l: fact
::F,Tj]:::_""1t. thatti,.-t"""iiti" iJ"clrlnecteo
t to it.
T1,iscan cairseinterferen"e, particui-fl "i "i*;";. l
trouble be experienced,then the receiver
;i.#g may be retuned

PARTS LIST
long x 5%in high x 5indeep
r! f,lysts*anet..6%in
LaDtnetto sltit
I Dial assemblv
I Fl.ex.ihkcou-pling,,/oinx %in
';T!,':,'i;r:,':f '0"''2'position
-f.!,';Y:i"'!;f
4 Rubberfeet
l- Bubber grommet for coax cable
o spacers,%in lons x %in diameter, tapped
t lg in Whitvtorth
I_P7n1e-d board,6in x Jin, tt/tc
I Aerial coil, 2 to 6MHz
2,Neosidcoil formers, 7.6mmx 2.Smm with"6'eeu
grade /vL
I-Transistor,2N5485,MpFt06 or stiiti" 900slug can
I I ransistor,BFi I S, or similar

tit
i ?rFtt t"I{ :!r:"y
l: *
RESISTORS(Y"W) I l00pF 630V
1100ohms i 4.7k I 415bF2-sani
1 3.3k t 15k t lzhpr O30t/t
1 3.9k I 22k ",1;:;e
lorpot
L 0 0 1 u F1 o q i
i:;tri{itrtrt;!
1-.!tu|!0,0vpSry6i;;
ystyrenel
CAPACITORS 1 0.IuF 25Vc;;ok;;'-'
I lOpF NPO ceramic
1 12pF NPO ceramic MISCELLANEOUS
I 39pF NPO ceramic Hookup wire, 2ft coax cable, solder,
2 60pF Philips trimmen screws

Note:"R_esistorwattage mtings and

capagitol voltage ratings are those
usedlor ourprotorrne.co(gg1111,n-*inii6iiiifiiis,
oe usectproviding thby are mayseneratry
tower fatings may als6 be it2t:lslcauy compatible, Components with
,ed m some cases,providin! the ratiiTs
not exceeded. are

32
 IHE HOMODYNE TUNER: ANOTHER APPROACH
'thv
Due to problems with supplies of suitable ICs for the homo
tlyne tuner, the author has developed an alternative venion.
arth
ne Although simpler than the original, it will be of interest to
rint mnny readers, partiaiarly those who are experimentally
inclined.

Previously- the author discussedthe principlesof the "homodyne"

methodof receptionand followed with a'practicalbroadcastband
tunerusing ICs. Unfortunately the detectoi IC specified(the Motorola
M C l 3 3 0 P )i s t e m p o r a r i l yo u t o f s t o c k .

Thissituation appearsto be part of a generalworld-wide shortage

ol many types o.f ICs due to a resurgenceil the electronicsindustry.
As there is no direct substitutefor MCl330P availableand because-
ofan apparentready demand from hobbyistsfor a circuit that can
beassembled using more readily availablesemiconductors,the
a u t h o rh a sd e v e l o p e da n a l t e r n a t i v ev c r s i o no f t h e H o m o d y n eT u n c r
employingfield effect transistorsin place of lCs.

A-lthoughreadersarc referred to the original articles for detailed

discussion of the basisofdesign, briefly the operationof this
circuitis as follows:

Tl .is a junction FET RF stagewhoseoutput is coupled in parallel

p a t h st o T 3 . a p r o d u c td e m o d u l a t o a
r n d t 2 , t h e s e i o n dR F a m u l i -
fier-limiteT r .h e o u t p u t o f T 2 i s t u n e d t o t h e i n c o m i r gs i e n a lb i t
qnplitudevariation (i.e., modulation) is limited by thdshint diodes
Dland D2,-givinga carrier o! qlout I volt peak-io-peak - for injection
to Gate 2 of the dual gate MOSFET demodulator.

the output from the demodulatoris a relativelylow-levelaudio

signalwhich is amplified by transistor T4 befoie feedins an exter-
nalpower amplifier. The emitter circuit of T4 has an adiustable
negativefeedbackcontrol (Pl) which is used to set the iudro oumur
levelto the minimum acceptable to the followilg amplifier.

Theprinted board layout is to the samedimensionsas the IC version

andemploysth.esametuning unit. Alignment is quite simple,as Ll-
Lc delermme^thetunlng range while L2{9 may be set adequately
by adjustingfor best audio quality. It is normal to adiust th'e trim
c a p a c i t o r s . Ca4n d C 9 o n l y , a s t h e p e r m e a b i l i t yt u n i n gu n i t i s s u p p l i c d
pre-aligned.

Unfortunately this tuner has no AGC facility as had the IC version

but ir practice tJledynamic rangeof thc MOSFET detector has
proved_ to,be such tltat it is able to handle a larye variation in station
signallevel without affectingoperation.Adjustnient of audio levels
ftom station to station is thcrefore by meansof the main amplifier
volumecontrol. An audio derivedAGC was attempted but was found
to bc generallyunacceptableon musica.lprogrammes.

_1J
 .$
*
b

*
s

.9+-
t*
bli
s<
es
st
sa
\ f
o Q

ts
h a
<lo

if;
f *
s :
F
s x*
\.s
d q
>.9

.ss
p.e
tr:
Editorial note; Soon after it became known that thet€ wgre problems
in obtaining the type MCI330P IC specified for the homodyne tuner
previously described and before we were advisedof the new design,
we set about investigatingthe possibilityof designinga similar type
ol tuner but using a readily availableIC. The task was not an easy
one but we have since overcome the obstaclesand we have now
completedthe developmentof a very satisfactoryunit.

Our tuner usesa National LMl35l IC, which is modestly priced,

together with three transistors.The unit uses the superhet principle
and features AGC, a l0ktlz whistle filter and a tuning meter. There
is still a considerableamount of work before it is reaity for p,resent-
ation.

An approach would be to make a tracing from the board pattern

overlay on the diagam above, using carbon paper to transfer the
pattern dircctly to the copper.We havereproducedthe abovepattern
actual size, to allow this to be done if desired.

Permeability tuning units suitable for this and the earlier version of
the Homodyne are currently available.In some casesthe value of the
resonat.ingcapacitors adoss the coils of the tuning unit may have to
be alteredto p€rmit tuning of the full broadcastband, depending
upon the actual coil inductance.

PARTS LIST
I Permeabilitytuner, 'Q" Inductance164, or similar
I P r i n t e db o a r d ,7 3 l t u l l
1 Dial assembly,as required
I Set of metalwork, as required
1 Transistor,40841 (RCA)
2 Transistors2N3819 (Texas)
I Transistor,BCl08
2 D i o d e s ,B A l 0 0
RESISTORS(/z watt)
3 220 ohms
2lk
| 2.2k
I 470k
3 l M
I 470 ohms trim pot
CAPACITORS
I 27pF NPO ceramic
I 5-5OpFPhilips trimmers
3 100pF polystyrene
2 1 5 0 p Fp o l y s t y r e n e
I . 0 0 1 u Fp o l y e s t € r
3 .0luF polyester
I 0 . l u F d i s cc e r a m i c
2 l u F t a n t a l u mo r l 6 0 V p o l y e s t e r
3 l00uF l6VW electrolytics

J)
 TWOSOLID.STATERF PREAMPLIFIERS
An RF amplifier for short-wavereceivers,with a wide frequency
range,has
alwaysbeena stagein which the designpresentsmore tha; its share
of
problems.This was the casewith valvesind is now somewhat
more so with
present someideasas to how this problem may
:"^ti^1-::1:
be approached9:"1".::.H.t"t.*:
wlth a satisfactorydegreeof success.

In the previous a.rticlewe describeda solid-statoRF preamplilier

for short-
, wavereceivers.This desigauseda singlelow cost FEt as tlie active element,
togetherwith four switchedrangesto coverfrom 1.5 to 30MHz. Apart
from
the interest centred on the FET; the coi.lswere all wound on ferrite
toroids.
These toroids allowed a highe coil, with all its advantages,together
with a
minimum spacerequfuementand easeof construction.

This designproved to be quite successful.

An important point which emerged,when this RF Amplifier was integrated

inlu a CommurucationsReceiver,was the very good siglral_to_noise ratio
which wasachieved,This has turned out to be jo goodthat one gets
the
impressionthat the receiver is "dead" until a signi rs tuned in. dn
the other
hand, cross-modulation wasevident,needingto-be combateO,with reason-
ablesuccess,by introducingsomeaerialattenuation.

In valveamplifiers,the "cascode"hasa teputation for low noise,with good

crossmodulationand AGC characteristics. The cascodeconfigurationh"as
recently been introduced into the field of solid-statedevisesand we
there-
fore decided to make up an amplifier along theselines,
*: decidedto.staywith the originaridea of usingjunction
[$,_.1-:1ll
..t l r:9ut-1
:_hll-ge to a high frequency type was consideredto be a forward
step.The 2N5459 was thereforereplacedwith a 2N54g5.

lf we are to use a cascodecircuit, shall it be seriesor parallel

t!d? This one
was fairly easily solved.Since this type of FET shoud
fief.eraUfy be fed
from a sourceofabout t2 volts and-iince the ruppfv "Jfiog" *u. to t"
| 2.volts,each FET would only havea supplyof iufi *ri. u-Ju"
if we used
se.es reed.By parallerfeeding,eachFET would havethe full
available
supplyvoltage;and so it was.

Wha_tpromptedus to look deeperinto the RF amplifier problem,

is the
needfor the best possibledesign,within reasonabGlimi6.
The main circuit
oragramshowsthe detaiisofdevelopmentthus far. It could
serveas the
basisfor an RF preamplifierto putin front ofan existingreceiver
or as the
DaslsIor tne I[st stagein a new rcceiver.

yo_urreceiveris reasonablymodern and has

lf an RF stage,more than likely
it will.be adequatelydesignedfor good.sensitivity
and siinal-to_nois€ ratio,
aswell as suchother considerations as image,"j""ti.". S-r.ii being thd case.

5b
you arc unlikely to be interested rn an outboard RF preamplifier' On the
otherhand, if your receiveris an old one, with an old type valve in the RF
stage,or ifit doesnot havean RF stageat all, you may be interestedin the
designswhich we are abottt to present.

Wehavealreadymentionedhavingsettledtbr an amplifier usingthe

"cascode"coniiguration'Let us take a look at the main circuit diagram'
ignoringfor tlr. ti-e beingthe coils and tuning systemsgenerally'The
iscodJactually consistsof two distinctly defined stages'The first is a
sraightiorwardgroundedsource(cathodeor emitter) with sign:rlinput to
the;ate ($id orlase) and with the output tiom the drain (plate or
coltictor).This is followed by a Sroundedgate(grid or base)antplifier,
with input to the souroe(cathodeor entitter) and output tiom the drain
(plateor collector)'

Lookingat eachpart separately,a groundedsourcestagenormally has a

highinput irnpedinceand a high output impedance'A groundedgate stage
nJrmattyhasi very low input impedanceand a high output impedance'As
canbe seenfrotn the combinedcircuit of thesetwo parts,the output of the
first sectionis looking into or shuntedby the input of the secondsection'
Thismeansthat the oiltptlt of the first stageis severelyloadedand the
amplificationol this seciionis greatlycurtailed.However,-thesecond
seciionis able to provideits fui amplificationand most of the anrplification
from the systemconlesfrom this latter sectlon.

Note that the overallcascodecircrtit hasa high input and high output
impedance, free from the enrbarrassments which a low impedancecircuit
cansometimescause.
Thefirst sectionof the cascodeusesa type 2N54tt5trET, with the tuned
c i r c u i t sl o o k i n gi n t o i t s g a t e .A b i a sr e s i s t oor f 1 5 0o h m s ,s h u n t e db y a
.0luF capacitor,is in the sourcereturn path. thesetwo items are norrnally
gounaed, althoughthey are shownin serieswith a bipolar transistor'More
;ill be saidabout this transistorlater on. The valueof 150 ohms for the
h o uresistor
' sbias ld is a designcentrevaluefor this type of FET and normally
b e a d h e r e dt o . T h e d r a i nl o a d i s a 2 . 5 m l l R F c h o k e '

The secondpart is fed from the sourceof the precedingstage,via a 001uF

blockingcapacitor.The gateis groundeddirectly. In the sourcecircuit, is
anotheal50 ohm biasresistor.So that the input impedanceof this stagc
will not be any lower than necessary' a lmH RF choke is connectedin series
withthel50ohmresistor'Thedrainloadforthesecondpartiscomplex'in
that there is a resistiveload of 680 ohnls,in selieswith a paralleltuned
circuit.Thc latter circuit is resonanta little lower thtn the upper tunable
frequencyof the system,which is 30MHz The idea of this arrangementls to
try to keep the gain of the systemreasonablyconstantover the whole
tunablerange.

The parallelresonantcircuit in the sourceload of the secondstageis

hervily dampedto smooth out the gain nelr the high liequency end,

)t
 betweenabout 25 and 30MHz. The two RF chokesinvolved between
the
two parts were chosento havedifferent valuesasa precaution against
possiblespurious oscillation.

As the output impedance,ofthe cascodeamplifier is rerativelyhigh and

we want to feed it into a low impedancecircuit, such as the aeria'i
terminal of a receiverto retain the gain achieved,we haveusedan emitter
fclllower stageto effect the impedancetralsformation.

Havingdiscussedthe amprifier sectionof the circuit, let us now turn

to
the tuned circuits. In line with our previousefforts, we ue uguinuring
coils wound on ferrite toroids. Thesegive coils which are reaionabiy
"urv
to wind, are compactand havea high e, makingthem idealfor oui
purpose,

F.romthe aerial,the signalis directed to the appropriatecoil primary,

via a rotary switch. It will be noted that in most casesthere ii a
series
capacitorin this circuit. Thesehave been introduced in an effort to further
evenour the overallamplificationof the system.Thesevaluescould
be
subjectto someexperiment,if the readerso desires.

To restrictthe frequencycoverageof eachcoil, usinga 4l5pF tuning

capacitor,a fixed capacitoris connectedbetweenthl tuning capacitor
ard
each coi-l,where this is necessary,with individual valuessetJcted
to suit the
required range.Thesecapacitorsare interposedbetweenthe coil and
its
switchcontact.

OUTPUTIO
TARTH AERIAL
TERMINAT

wiring diagram showing how we wired the

board for the
multiple tuned version., It i.ssubstaitialty the
sarne as the component
board for the switched coil version.

The signal level across the variable

capacitor is limited to the ratio
variabte,and tixed capacitor,."d of the
irl;;;;;;; ir," tu, varue as measured
across the coil' It is therefore
necessary t, i"r.. the signar frorn
across trre

38
d betweenthe coil. This involvesusing a third switch section on the range selector switch,
bn against the rotor feeding directly to the gate of the FET.

To restrict further the frequencycoverageofeach band, this time at the

ely highand high frequencyend, wherenecessary, a fixed capacitoris connectedacross
) aerial the coil.
s€danemitter
Externalfields around the toroidal coils iue very smalland coils ofvarious
rangesmay usuallybe locatedclosetogetherwithout seriousproblems
row turn to with "suckout". Nevertheless, we did detect someevidenceof the effect
rgainusing and aswe had a sparesectionon the rangeselectorswitch,we usedit to
asonably easy short out certaincoils.
fot our
So much for the basicdesignof the system.When this unit was being
discussed earlieron, it was suggested
that it might be a good idea to prcsent
lprimary, an alternativeand much simplertuning system,still feedinginto the same
ts a s€ries amplifier.The tuning systemreferredto is one which hasbeenaround for
ffort to further a long time.
escouldbe
The circuit of this tuning systemis shownas an alternativetuning system,
alongwith the main circuit diagram.Insteadof the five separatecoils,
)F tuning with their capacitorsand switchingsystem,thereis only one coil with a
i capacitorand two gangvariablecapacitor,insteadof the singlegangusedabove.It will
ctedto suit the be noted that there isa tap on the secondaryofthe coil,with a sing.le
coil and its winding for the primary.
With this arrangement,we can coverfrom 2MHz to over 30MHz in one
sweepof the dial. This may seemincredibleand evenimpossibteat first
sight.However,at the risk of a little over simplification,this is how it
works.

Considerthe full winding first, with one sectionof the gangacrossit. This
is a simpleparalleltuned circuit and could reasonablybe expectedto cover
from somelow frequency,sayabout Z.SMHz,to about lOMHz- In addition
to this function, however,the other sectionof the gangis connectedacross
the tappeds€ctionof the coil. This has much lessoveralteffect than the
first section,but might augmentthe former to make the overalltunine
rangefrom say 2MHz to lOMHz.

Now considerthe smalltappedpart of the coil, with one sectionof the

tuningcapacitoracrossit. On its own, it is reasonableto assumethat this
circuit will resonateover somehigher frequency range than that of the full
I for the coil and tuning capacitor.
tponent
ln fact, that part of the coil winding above the tap is somewhat'larger
than that part below the tap and, at high frequencies,this larger part of
ratioof the the coil "looks like" an RF choke. This RF choke effect virtually lsolates
measuted the lower resonant circuit from the rest of the circuit over the higher fre-
n acrossthe quency range. By correct selectionof the tapping point on the coil we can
neke tb.is-ijrcdr-gne liom sy lO{VtHzto above 3bMHz.

39
 9-t'
t<a
fs>
5iE
O r F
6

a
\
€
€
a)

a
G{$Q";r;
z
-i ri ,a
.o
--iEF a a a
q.
= (D|
<l

F d,
q
r 4
rA =
o-
I
:
! u
s d ,
O s

:'i
.
(
:
o
<
(/l
,
6 v
,$$g5t p
p r r t r r
E F
r
E;;;;: o

< i si

9t oH

The nruin circuit diagratn srlorr'.sthc rcrsiort where a set of coils is

st\'it(hed in the convcntiornl vo.t'..:rt hottom left, is shown the
alternative
tutliltg arrangernent.The !ron!tstt)t'in the tlrain ofthe
lirst stagc is int,lucled
os a suggestionlor a mcans ol'uutonuric gain control of thc amplificr.
This
nny be omitted, the r50 orrttt rt'sisterontr bypassrunning straighi to
eartrr.

40
This isjust what happensand we have a secondtuning rangefrom 1OMHz
to well above 30MHz. To limi.t the upper frequency of this range,we
haveadded a variable trimmer across this section of the gang, so we can
adjustit to cover from l0MHz to 30MHz for our purpose.

The two rangesjust cited,zMHz to l0MHz and l0MHz to 30MHz, are. in

fact, the rangesof our tuning systemand we have plotted theseon a graph,
which is reproducedin thesepages.From this can be clearly seenthe two
fiequenciesfor any particuliu position on the tuning calibration.

As mentioned during our discussionof the switched coil system,there is

alwaysthe problem of keeping the gain reasonablyconstant from the
lowestto the highest tuned t'requency.ln the normal courseofevents, the
gainlalls off seriouslyat the high frequencies,where it is most neededand
thegain is highestat the low frequencieswhere it is leastneeded! (Murphy's
Law perhaps.)In the multiple tuning circuit, it will be noted that the gite
of the amplifier is fed fiom the tap on the coil. This gives the t'ull volt;ge to
fte amplifier from the high tuning rangebut taps down for the low turiinc
range,justwhat we need. It helps to level out the gain in quite a neat
fashion.

From the discussionof the multiple tuning circuit, it would seemreasonable

to ask,why go to all the bother with the other systemusing switched coils?
Thisis a fair question. In fact, there are some "catches" to the multiple
tuningsystem.It will be up to the reader to sort out the pros and cons,

Although we only have one coil and need no switch, a two€ang tuning
capacitoris requhed. This is probably a minor point. Also, with this
system,it is not easy to get coverageright down to the broadcastband
whilegoing up to 30MHz. A no lessimportant point is the fact that this
systemtunes to two frequenciesat once. In some circumstances,this
couldmean that a wanted signalcould be interfered with by an unwanted
signalcoming through on the secondtuned frequency.

Undermost conditions of use, this RF amplifier and tuner would be used

with a receiverwhich would be tuned to the wanted frequegcv and would
beable to discriminatewell enough againstthe unwanted signal.However,
ifwe went to the trouble to make the systemcover the broadcastband
as
well,it is almost certain that problems would be encounteredwith stront
localbroadcaststationsbreaking through where they were least wanted.
But, to sum up, this systemis well worth a trial.

Earlierwe mentioned the application of AGC to the RF amplifier.

Normally,when tfus unit is used outboard, AGC would nor'be apptied.
Later,we will dea.lwith some meansof manually controlling thii itage.
ln the main circuit, we show a bipolar transistorin serieswith the bias
resistorof the first stage.This transistorcan be part ofan elaborateand
very effective AGC system of a complete receiver.

4l
 l A -
:Y. L.I

11
+ t2V?

This wiring diagram gives details of the component board for use with the
switched coil version. The two above boards should be orientated carefuily
to make for short wiring leads.
Under full gain conditions, the bipolar transistorneedsto be so biasedby
the AGC systemas to be "bottomed" or fully conducting.This meansthat
the eft'ectiveohmic resistancebetweencollector and emitter will be very
low indeed.This resistanceis effectively in serieswith the amplifier source
circuit, and, being very small,will have negligibleeffect on the amplifier.

corL
PRIM.

T-t*
Theseaerial attenuators are suggestedmethods
Either one can be used, depenld"ingo, iitin for rimiting signar input.
seems bestto meet the
particular rituation.

42
 the AGC becomes operative, the forward bias to the bipolar transistor
mustbe reduced progessively. This effectively causesan increase in the
collector<mitter resistanceof the uansistor and this in turn is introduced
into the source circuit of the amplifier. This resistance is not bypassed to
RF and so has a degenerativeeffect on the signal into the amplifier' This
effectincreasesor decreasesaccordingto the strength of the received
signal.Withthis systemof AGC, it is possibleto get a very high degreeof
controland it is one of the better systemsin use today.

An alternativeAGC systemmay be applied to this type of amplifier. The

systemconsistsof applying an increasingnegativecontrol voltage with
increasingsignal strength, to the gate of the first part of the RF amplifier'
"gate leak" must be introduced into the gate circuit, with a
To do this, i
DCblocking capacitor.The AGC voltage is fed into the lower end of the
"gateleak" resiitor. tnsteadof the shunt feed systemjust described'the
AGCvoltagecould be seriesfed via the tuning coils.

Thiscircuit may be used to power the RF amplifier from a source of

6,3 voks AC, such as the heoter supply of an existing receiven

For those not requiring an ACC facility, an effective manual control may
befitted by introducing a variableresistorin the form of a potentiometer,
in serieswith the 150 ohm bias resistor,in the position shown for the
bipolarAGC transistor.The maximum value of the potentiometer may be
betweenabout l0K ohms and 50K ohms.

Anotherproblem relating to RF amplifiers and which was mentioned

eulier. is that of crossmodulation and other related problems. An effective
methodof deatingwith this nuisanceis to insert some form of attenuator
in the aerialcircuit. Two simple methods of doing this are shown in an
accompanyingdiagram.One is simply a 1K potentiometer acrossthe aerial
input,with the rotor of the potentiometer feeding the primary of the
relevantcoil. Another method is to use a midget variablecapacitorof
about l50pF maximum, in serieswith the aeriallead to the coil primary.
Both systemsare effective and both could be tried and the one adopted
whichmeets the need in the better way.

Aswe have two different approaches to the tuning of the RF Amplifier

and the physical requirements ate different, we will run through each one
separately.Firstly, we will do the more conventional one, with the switched
coils.

43
 With the exception of the aerialattenuator, whatever type may be used,
and the tuning capacitor,all componentsare integratedinto one assembly.
Most of the componentsare mounted on a strip of tag board, with 11 pairs
of tags,The five toroidal coils ate mounted on another sirnilarsize tag board,
Both of theseare shown in the respectivesketches.

A logical place to start is winding the five toroidal coil units. This task is
straightforwardbut a few comments may make the job a little easier.The
number of turns quoted in the coil table may be consideredas the number
of times the wire passesthrough the hole in the toroid. It is a good idea to
make an estimateof the quantity of wire required for the secondaryand
then locate the centre of the length. Passone end through the.toroid and
brins the wire to the centre point, thus leavingequal amounts to be
wound with half the number of turns each way. This meansthat there is
:ll
lesswire to thread through each time. Care should be taken nor ro scraoe
the enamcl from the wire againstthe edgesof the toroid.
ifl
'f At one end of fhe secondarywinding, which will become the earth end,
ifr the prima-ryis wound on. The common earth ends of the two windincs
ril should be bared, tinned and solderedtogether.
tu'
iB
The number of turns on each winding and the disposition of the windings
ill should be closely adheredto, as given in the table. However, the gaugeof
{
r-l wire specifiedis simply a guide. If you do not have the exact gauge
r1! specified,somethingclos€ to it should suffice. At the sametime, particularly
ii{l for the higher frequency coils the gaugeofrvire rhould be as heavy as
,ri
practicable,to reduce the RF resistanceof the coil and so give a higher e.
irl
d{ With the five coils wound, &ey can be mounted on the tag board in the

ffi
[&
v.
relative positions shown in the diagram. The tespective ends of the wind-
ings are terminated at convenient adjacenttags on the board. In the case
of the lower frequency coils, which are wound with relatively fine wire,
this is not sufficient to fix the coil securelyto the board. This is best done
i9
it
by simply tying the toroid to the board with a piece of nylon cord. While

H not so necessarywith the coils wound with healy wire, it is a good idea
and ensuresthat they do not move about.

$
fi
The main component board is next and is wired up accordingto the dia-
gram. The usual care should be taken not to overheatany of the components,
particularly the transistots. Make sure that all the interconnecting wires are

$
tf
complete before any attempt is made to take the assemblyof this board any
further. The tfuee capacitors in serieswith the tuning capacitor are not
wired in at this stage,however.
I
I The two above sub-assembliesare mounted on the end of the ranee
selectorswitch and separatedfrom each other and the switch wit[ %in
long spacers.The first step in assembly involves fitting the first pair of
spacersto the rear ends of the two switch retaining screws.Generally,
there is about l/ 16in of thread protruding beyond the nuts. The screws

44
rused,
ss€mbly. usedin MSP switchesare 5BA and the threaded spacerswhich
are readily
I I I pairs availableare l/8in Whitworth. Thesedissimilarthieads do nor mare very
,tagboard, well but due to the short length of the thread, it is possible to screw
spacerson' provided due care is taken. If you can substitutewhitworth
screws,so much the better.
taskis Havingmounted the spacers,check the centre-torentre
dimension between
ier.The the spacerswith that of the third hole from each .nA
ot tne two boards.
number More than likely you will find that the two holes "r"
too-"to*" together.A
I ideato Ittle filing with a small round file wilt put this right.
ry and
ridand The board with the coils is mounted againstthe
spacersat the end of the
switch,with the coils away from the s;itch. tne
,econJUourd is spaced
tereis
suape

end,
lngs
€ s
r K s
sNs
ndings
: N :
d "a'€
ugeof .! s-,!

rticularly
as
T$F
: a.%
! s : 1
herQ. U S :

the
SE==
vind- i*:
case
nte,
s ds
o s ;
t done {.i a
a \ {
While
dea 6X *
E
q . si i' \
dia-
lponents,
lresare
: iEs
$!*.F
hg'i 6
rardany
Lot .N .trv, d: Si
8 l r

away fronr the coil board with the secondpair

of%in spacers.Two round-
in headscrews,llSinx%in are used to r""ur.
tfr",*o f-oirl* to ttte spacers
rf on the switch.

ws
45
 The assemblyis now ready for the outstandingwiring and components.
The various.sectionsof the switch are used as fouows: One section of the
wafer nearest the clicker plate is used to switch the aerial into the primaries
of the coils.The correspondingsection on the other wafer (nearestthe line
of transistors)switchesthe tuning capacitor to the relevant seriescapacitors.
The otlier section of the samewafer selects the top of the secondary of each
coil. Finally, the otherwise spare section of the wafer nearest the clicker
plate is used to short-circuit certain coils as required. This should be wired
carefully, as mistakesare easy to make here.

The wiring involvesthe interconnectionsbetween the various contactson

the switch and coils, together with the seriestuning and aerial capacitors. '
The latter capacitorsare wired with a very short lead, to anchor them
closel.,to the lugs on the switch. The other leadsup to the coil board will
need to be lairty long and theseshould be run directly and with the use of
somenylex tubing for insulation where necessary

This almost completesthe assembly,but we must bring the tuning capacitor

into the picture. The final choice is up to the builder but, for the sakeof
conveniencein presentation,we made up the final assemblyon a small
"U"
shapedbracket, similar to the way it would be assembledon a chassis.
The complete unit is shown in the photograph. We have not accommodated
the aerialattenuator on this assembly,but readersagainwill be able to
decide the best place for this on individual merits.

For thosereaderswho choos€to make up the multiple tuner version of the

RF amplifier, here are somecomments which we hope will be of assistance.
Looking at the main circuit and replacingthe inset giving the multiple tuner
details,you will seethat it is much simpler.The earlier commentsrelating
i
'l
to the aerialattenuator still apply as do all other comments on the rest of
the circuit, except the coils and switching.

Insteadof the overall assemblycentred around the switch, we have a

slightly modified wiring board, similar to the amplifier board for the other
units, but extended in length to l2 pairs of tags.It will also be noted from the
wiring diagramfor this board that the specialtransistorand componentsfor
the AGC transistorhave been omitted, This will norrnally be the casefor the
other board, unlessreaderswish to use the AGC system,The resultingextra
length of board is sufficient to accommodatethe one coil needed.

Detai.lsfor the above coil are given in the coil table and this should be
wound first, with the previouscomments applying. In addition to the
primary and secondarywindings as before, the secondaryis tapped at
eight turns from the earth end.

Ncxt, the board should be wired up as shown in the diagram,care being

taken as with the othet one, that componentsshould not be overheated.
With this wiring cornpleted, the coil can be fitted and if thought desirable
itmay be held in place with a tie of nylon cord.

46
 capacitor'
Asmentionedmuch earliet, the multiple tuner requires^a.2-gang
of the Sang across-the
ii *iU "ir. be noted from the circuit that the section
is
il;;d;i;iih; coil is shuntedwith a 3-30pF variable trimmer' This
to r"ttti"t the upper tuning limit to a little above 30MHz'
iitiuO
and the 2-gang
Rathersimilar to theprevious case,the wiring board
as shown in the
.."."ii"iaI" finally assembledan an..L" shapedbracket,
with the wiring
;i,;;;;;t;. ii;;capacitor standson the horizontal part'
toard"screwedto the vertical pxrt.
it off the bracket
Whenmounting the wiring board it is necessaryto stand
wiring solderedjoints and
tu'yiit i" yri".i" atlow su-fficientclearancefor
anyprotrudlng components.This can be done simply by using screwsof
appropliatelength and using extra nuts so that the amount of clearanceis
achieved.

Thiscompletesthe description of two version of the RAF Amplifier but

it is still necessaryto provide a sourceof a minimum of 9 volts and
preferablyl2 volts D.C. as a poweTsupply. This can be met quite readily
with a battery but a small supply can be built up to operate from a source
ofsay 6.3 volts AC.This supply may be obtained from the heater supply
of the receiverproper where convenient.On the other hand, a small
heatertransformer rated at 6,3 volts and up to one amp rvould be suitable.
A circuit of the suggestedpower supply is shown in a separatediagram,

Testingof either unit in quite simple.The usual wiring check should be

madebefore applying power. The output of the amplifier is fed into the
aerialterminal of the receiver,preferably via a short length of coa-rialcable.
A suitableaerial is connectedto the amplifier input.

Selectthe appropriaterange(in the caseof the switchedunit) to suit the

fiequencyto be tuned on the receiver.Tune the wanted station on the
receiverand then peak the signalby tuning the RF Amplilier. As a
preliminarycheck, this procedureshould be carried out acrossthe full
coverage of the system.More than likely, signalswill not be availableover
srcha wide rangeat any given time. If a signalgeneratoris available,it
couldbe used to advantage.

TheRF Amplifier is now complete and the method of using will be clear
by now. At the sanletime, a little experiencewill soon show the best way
to usethis device.ln some cases,it will be possibleto tune the RF Athplifiet
"image" signal,rather than the wanted one. This must be carefully
to the
guarded against,where this condition exists.

Sucha condition can occur, in singleconversionreceiversusing an inter-

mediatefrequency of455KHz (or lower) and at signalfrequenciesfrom
about?MHz, getting progressivelyworse as the frequency is increased.In
thecaseof a 455KHz tF. with the local oscillator tuned to the high side

47
of the wanted signal,another signal at twice the IF, or 9l0KHz higher,
will also get through the system and causeinterference. However, with the
RF Amplifier, extra RF selectivity is achieved and the image frequency
will be either eliminated or reduced in severity.
COIL WINDINGDETAILS
Ll Sec.100rurns25SWGEn.to occupy100percentofformer.Prim.3
turns interwound at earthy end of sec.
L2 Sec.50 turns 23 SWG En. to occupy 100 per cent of former. Prim. 7
turns interwound at earthy end of sec.
L3 Sec.18 turns 23 SWG En. to occupy 50 per cent offormer. Prim 3
turns interwound at earthy end of sec.
L 4 S e c .8 t u r n s l 8 S W GE n . t o o c c u p y5 0 p e r c e n t o f f o r m e r .P r i m 2
turns 23 SWG En. interwound at earthy end of sec.
L5 Sec.4 turns I B SWG En. to occupy 33 per cent of former. Prim I
turn 23 SWG En. interwound at earthy end of sec.
L6 Sec.27 turns, tappedat 8 turn, 2l SWG En. to occupy 75 per cent of
former. Prim 2 turns interwound at earthy end of sec.
Ll to L6 all wound on type F4040/2 ferrite toroid formers,of Q2 material.
L7 l2 rurns 23 SWG En. straight on thread of 7.6mm x /:in. long iron dust
slug.Neosidgrade900 or similar. Exact diameternot impoitant.

+ 24V

o
I

60 C4-10Op 60
l--
ll.tt^
I
+{
I C6-2P
L -{F-
f--o

40 to 800 megahertz RF amp

6-2011/ 2015,8 F377- 3?8,MPS918,
8BF357=RS27
2N918-35?0,BFY90,BFStTR

48
 BASICRECETVERFOR SLOW.SCAN
TELEVISION
fte

Hereis a new designfor a monitor to display slow-scanTV pictures,of

the type being transmittedby increasingnumbersof radio amateurs.
It usesfour valves,four transistors,an IC and two SCRs,eachperform-
. J ing the circuit functions for which they are best suited, This simplifies
thc unit and makesit easyto build, without sacrificingperformance.
7
Slow ScanTV, or SSTV for short, hasbecomevery popular in the
Unitcd Statesand activity is beginningto quicken in this countty as
wcll. However,many amtteurs possiblydo not realiseiust what a
fascinatingand absorbingbranchof amateurradio is availableto them.
at quite a modestoutlay in cost and equipment. Very little hasbren
publishedin this country on the subjectof SSTV andwe proposero
remcdy that at leastin somemeasure.
of Without doubt, the best placeto start in SSTV is with a rnonitor.
Involvingno more complexity than a modestCRO, a monitor can be
rial. used.withthe existinBshackreceiver,so that you can really..readthe
lust nuil" of any amateurSSTV transmissions, either locally oi from over_
seas.Equipment for the transmissionof amateurSSTV signalsis a
little morc involvedand for the presentat least,we will co-nl.ineour
offorts to describinga new monitor.
z4Y For thosenot yet familiar with SSTV, it is basicallyrathersimitarto
conventionaltelevisionexcept that the rate of scanningis sloweddown
fiom one picture every l/25th of a secondto approxiriately one every
8 seconds.This reducesthe bandtvidthrequired'totransmii the signais
from the usual5MHz or so right down to a figure well within the audio
spectruffL And as a result,SSTV signalscan be transmittedand
receivedusingalmost any of the establishedtypesof radio equipment,
w h e t h e ri t e m p l o y sA M , F M , S S Bo r o t h e r t y p e so f m o d u l a t l o ns y s t e m .
Actually the SSTV "video" signalitself is not usedto modulatethe RF
carrierdirectly. Becauseof the low scanningrate, the video is largely
madeup of very low-frequencycomponents,and for thes€to be tralrs-
mitted and reeived properly the transmitterand receiverwould have
to be.fitted with much longer time constantsthan usualin the coupling
circuitsand other sections.To avoid this, the SSTV video signalis usei
to frequencymodulatean audio subc4rrier.

The subcarrieris made to vary betweenthe limits of l200Hz and 23A0Hz.

synctuonisingpulsescorrespondwith l200Hz, black levelis l500Hz,
and white levelis 2300H2,with shadesofgrey in betweenblack and
white, Ilorizontal sync pulseshavea duraiion of 5mS, with 30mSfor
_
verticalpulses

T h e n u m b c r o f s c a n n i n g l i n e s i1s 2 0 . D u e t o t h e f a c t t h a t t h e U n i t c d
18, Statesusesa 60Hz standardfor their supply mainswhile we,Britain
and
many other countrieshavea 50Hz standtrd,and as the mainsfreouencv
is usedas a referencefor synchronisingpulses,a compromisehashad to
be struck. The resultis a 15Hz sweeprate (60/4) for the US and a
16-2l3Hzsweeprate (50/3) for Britain, etc. To tie in with the set 120
horizontallines,the veitical rate is 8 secondsand 7.2 secondsfor 60Hz
and 50Hz mainsfiequenciesrespectively..

The questionmay well be askedas to how this works out when an

amateurin Britain is in SSTV contact with an amateurin the united
States. In fact the differencesin sweeptatesare not very gleat and are
well within the synchronisingcapabilitiesof the equipmentinvolved.
The picturesstay in lock, but the picture sizewill vary slightly.

Our approachto the designof an SSTV monitor hasbeenalonglines

alreadyestablished overseas.However,in order to encouragenewcomers
into this fascinatingfield, we havemadesomeeffort to simplify circuitry
as much as possible,togetherwith an eye to keepingcostsdown.

Apart from the usualprecautionswith the installationof a CRO tube

with respectto magneticfields,layout doesnot seemto be at all
critical,

Let us turn our attention to the circuit diagramand go through it, dis-
cussingthe variouscircuit functions. The frequencymodulatedSSTV
subcarrieris fedto the input, This may be from a communications
receiver,tape recorder,etc. To avoid excessive input to the 741 op-amp,
a pair of lN9l4A diode clippersare included. The signalis amplified
by the opamp and emergesasa squarewave. In serieswith the output
is an inductor, about 200mH, shuntedby 0'022uF which tunesit to
"video discriminator"and is
2300H2, This LC combinationis the
effectivelya rejectorcircuit at 230OHz. The FM signalpassingthrough
the discriminatoris effectivelychangedinto an AM type signal,rather
"slope
like the well established detection" usedin AM receiverstbr
receivingFM signals,
"contrast" control and is then
This AM signalpasses through a levelor
amplifiedby TRl. The output at the collectoris steppedup in voltage
by the transformer,whete it is detectedin the bridgeconsistingof four
silicondiodes. The video voltagefrom the detector is then fed directly
betweenthe cathodeand grid of the cathoderay tube, where the beatn
is mcidulatedto give shadesofgrey betweenblack and white levels.

Returningnow to thc output of the video discriminator,a split is taken

via a sync levelcontrol, to the sync discriminator. The levelavailable
fiom the videodiscriminatoris quite high, much too high for our
purposeand so the needfor the 220k seriesresistorand the 470 ohrn
resistorshuntingthe 47k potentiometer.

T'hesync discriminatoris, in et'fect,a tiequencyconsciousarnplifier,

usinga twin-T network and peakedto the sync frequencyof l200Hz.
This ci-rcuitwas selcctedin preferenceto an LC circuit similar to the

50
 videodiscriminatorbecausea fairly high circuit is
e requiredand
readilyavailablecoils did not come up to this requirement.

Followingthe sync discriminatoris a two-sta[iesync separator

usingTR3
and TR4. In rhe collectorof TR4 is a light e;it;ing diode,
which blinks
on.everysync pulseand is very_uset.ul for acljustnrentpurposes.Sync
p u l s e sa p p e a a
r c r o s sr h e 0 . l 5 u F c a p a c i t oar ; d a r e l e d v i a a l 0 k
isJlating
resistorto the gate of the SCR in the horizontaldenection
circuit.
T h e 3 0 m s l o n gv c r t i c r ls y n cp u l s e sa r ea l i t t l e t r i c k y t o s e p a r a t e
out
c l e a n t yb. u t b y u s i n gt h c t w o - s t r g es y n cs e p a r a t o r ,n i n t e g r a r o r
con-
sistincof the 27k resistorald I ul uapaciror,rogeitre,wiifi'a
verticat
synclevelcontrol, very succ€ssl'ul verticalsynchionisinghasbeen
achieved.The,verticalsync pulsesrre t.edinto the gate';i
lire SCR of
the verticaldeflectioncircuit.

As the.verticalsweeprate is very slow, between7.2 and gseconds,

it
o f t e nh a p p e n st h a t w h e n r e c e i v i n g _t raa n s m i t t e dp i c t u r e ,y o u
h a v ej u s t
m i s s e da v e r t i c a p
l u l s e ,T h i s w o u i d n o r m a l l ym e a nt h a t y L u n a v e
to
wait a very considerabletime betbre you st,i.t to get
thc'.reit p,cture.
To avoid this' it is fairly standud practiceto inctJoea
monuotuerricat
burror. This is simply a tM resistort-rn-tn"'nigf, ,"nuon
lj'f"l]n*
n s i t h a " r n l r k c "p r e s sb u t t o n o n t l l c t . r o n tp a n c l .
s c r r ew

genera.tors or: of more thrn just passingrnteresr.

*:
r n es:l*l::t.h
t m p t t c t t yl s s u c ht h a t i t ryrhrpt
i s d i f f i c u l t t o i m a g ea n y t h i n gs i t n p l c r .
F u n d a n r c n t a l ltyh, e g e n e r a t ocr o n s i s t o s t . a, " r i i r o , , J l r ' r r r . i t o r t i t n e
c o n s t a n tw, i t h a n S C R t o i n i l i a t el ) y b a c k . T h e s a w t o o t h
upp"_rng
acrossthe capacitoris DC connectedto the grid of the
rele'virntOeflec_
tion yalve, Thereareonly two extra componentsadditional
to those
alreadymentioned. A 22k resistorfrorn the gate of tlle
horizontalSCR
to ground Lsaddcdto ensurea reasonablylori irnpedance
so that there
is tesslikelihood of spurioustriggering,u;hile O.ZV,*"i
Oioo"sare uscd
to limit thc maximum voltageacrosseachcapacitor.
The foregoingdescribesboth horizontaland verticalgeneratorsln
principle,The lrorizontalcircuit hasan g.2M resistorind 470k
a in
serics-with a 0.47uF capacitor. The 470k resistormay haveto be
modifiedduring adjustmentbut more wilt be saidabout that later on.
Theverticalcircr.rithasan 8.2M and a 5.6M in serieswith a 47uF
tantalumcapacitor. Insteadof the 22k rcsistorfrom the gate of the
SCRto ground, the in-circuitresistance of the I 00k verti;l sync
levelcontrol is substituted.

Eachdeflectioncircuit consistsof two 6BX6 valvesin a ..long-tailpair,,.

Directcouplingfrom the valveplatespermitsthe useofamplfied
trace
positioning.This is achievedby an adjustablevoltagevia potentiometer
a
to the.undrivengrid ofeach pair. The grid is bypasiedfor signalfre-
q u e n c i e s , w i rt h0 . 0 1u F c a p a c i t o r .G a i no f r h e s i t g c a n d s o
i w e e ps i z e ,
rscontrolledwith a resistorbetweenthe cathodes;f eachpair. These
areset during adjustment and will be covered later in detaii

5l
Beforeleavingthe two deflectionamplificrs,it may be seenthat tho
horizontalamplifier hasa 4uF elcctrolyticbypassingthe screengrids'
On the other hand, no bypassis includedin ths verticalstagescreens'
To be effectiveat sucha low frequcncythe capacitance would be
quite satisfactorilywith-
Brohibitivelylarge. Happily the stageworks
out any bypass.

The power supplysystemis of necessityrather complex' However,we

havc'managed io simplify it as much as possibleand only one ttans'
former is iivolvcd. Th"t" ur" two 6.3V windings,one for the CRT
heaterwhile the other suppliesthe deflection valvehsaters,togethcr
with the,plusand rninusl5V supplicsfor the solid stat€circuits'
Theseusc voltagedoubling,with the output stabilisedby l5V zener
diodes, Additional filtering was found to be necessaryon the positive
rail and this is providedwith a I 000uF electrolyticacrossthe output'

High tensionfor the deflection amplifiersis obtainedby full wave

reitification from a 250-0-250volis secondarywinding' lt was found
that a considerablcamount of filtering of the HT line was necessary'
This is achievedwith a two-stagefilter, making useof four 24uF
350VW capacitorsin one can,with two lk 3W resistors'

EHT of nearly700 volts is obtainedby voltagedoubling from one side

of the HT wi;ding. The output capacitolconsistsof two 8uF 450WV
units in series.The DC voltageacrosseachunit is establishedby con-
nectingthcirjunction to the junction of the 100k focusingpot and
the 22bk resistorof the EHT voltagedivider chain' A 39k resistor
betweenthe cathodeof the CRT and the EHT rail setsthe brightness
level,and may needadjustmentduring final settingup'

So much for the circuit' Now a l-ewmmments about componentsmay

be helpful. As mentionedearlier,our prototype is a-muchrebuilt 3in
Oscilloscopeand as such,usesthe original metalwork' The only change
of note, is'that a new front paneloverlaywas needed' More than likely
readerswill havetheir own ideasabout this and a suitablepanelcould
bc madeup from a pieceof aluminium.

Resistorsand potentiometersshould pres€ntno problems' The capaci-

tors shouldalibe available,with one possibleexception' The can type
housingfour 24uF 350VW units may be difficult to obtain but substi-
tutes in thc lortn of separatecapacitorsshouldbe easyenoughto
obtain. The capacitorswhich we usedareeither electrolyticsor
polycarbonates, with two exceptions They rue the two 47uF, 6'3mV
iuniolums. Diodesshould presentno problems. Either the types
specifiedor their equivalentsmay be used. The only possibleexcep
tion is the LED. This may be tny small ruby colouredunit, with a
bezelfor mounting it on the front panel. A wide variety of suitable
LEDs are cuffently available.
 The two SCRswhich we used are made by Ifi but any
low power
SCR-shouldbe quite suitable;the circuit i, q"it" ""a"i""ioirg.
Similarly the 741 IC comesin uarious-ak"s aJ
The one
we usedis in a l4-pin dual-in-linepackagebut no ;;;d;;.
troubie shouldbe
experienced in adaptingalmostany mechanicalarrangement.The
transistors,ofwhichthereue only four, are a[ readili
u"uituUt",
However,if substitutionof the Biry5l uia* amptin"rislonstoerea,
careshouldbe taken to makesurethat the substitute
will do the job.
The 6BX6 valvesshould still be readily avajlablebut if you
havesome
other typeson hand, then they may be usedprovideJ
job. The pentodesectionof a 6BL8 quite t'hevwill do the
is iatisfactoruu'no*"
imaginethat other typds suchas 6AU6, 6AM6, "i;.-;;;d
be satis-
alT is specialin that_it]rasa r""i p.rrirt""L phosphor.
$:::l:,1:
wnen oroenng the tube, a mu_metalshieldmay be ordered
at the same
perspexfitter which we fitted, althorth not essentiat,
ItT.-].lt::r?^qe
q:es.T9m to hetp to give a better picture, piecesof suitablematerial
should be availablefrom suppliers-

Thesmall transformerfeedingthe detector is actually a

miniature
240112.6Vheatertransformer, The mainst.unrfoir*iis
not quite so
easy. fire type of readerwho is likely to make up one oilh"s"
.lo,
scanmonitors is also likely to have a transformer of similar
specsin
hisjunk box, It may be necessaryto add a shortingstr"p
L r"Ou"e
the stray.field. In any case,we feel thaf *" "un l"u"u"
ihi. proUtem
for each irdividual to solve in his own way.

Fromlhe.constructionalpoint of view, we will assume

that reaclerswill
E ro uowtngthe method which we used, Any deviations
can safelybe
left to the individual to sort out for himself. W"*ifi
ufr" ul.u." tnut
you havea suitableset of metalwork.
A good plac€ to start is with the subassemblies.
There are five main
boards,eachwith componentsmounted on
miniaturedboard and we
havegivenwiring d iagramsto mat e ttrejoU
so-"ri.i "If", than if you
had to work it all out for yourself.

One board includes the signalinput, IC op_amp,

video discriminator,
video amplifier and detecior. ff," a"t""tl,
tiu'nri-ri"i iJrnount"o
_separately. It is straightforward except tor ilre IC ani-itr. )bo^H *il.
Welscd a socketforihe IC and we sriipp"a
on rUin" ,iuil r"gr.
with the socketc.orrectlylocatedon tf,euoaro,
*e diiliJiiue s*ail.
l o r c s@ r r e s p o n d l ntgo p i n p o s i t i o n s 4 ,
5 , 6 , l 0 a n d l l . T h e s o c k e ti s
locatedin theseholesand the lugsare connected
to ifr" tug;ip u,
in^d^icaled, by means o f thin tinned copper wire. Before m"ounting the
":1, carefullycut off the extremeend at the moulded
ll9l} shoulder.
vur urr all rour corner Iugsandbend the remaining
two activelugsout
at right anglesfor solderi.rgto the xppropriat"
irgi." if," t""rA.
The board containingthe sync discriminator
and sync separatorpresents
no problems. The trimpots are mountedverticattv
unJiiiily t" r."n

53
l0

'r: :ib f^l - ^t.!^r

L 2.aAw62. t
rmrl lNtaA _t6v

rf:

sYlc.3€PAFAlon
0)

l00r
A
SYNC.
uv tt
,

a q
ta t
:1. .)c x[. .)a q)
6-J 6-J
). 1
ffi

--'-F
A.-! c

SIOW SCAN TV MONITOR

EU402.
fr/2@

I
I

t90n .rFIr4Ol
04676 tm
that in conrmonwith the other boards,sometesisto$ and capacitorsare
also mounted vertically to savespace, For the samereasonsome items are
mountedunderneaththe board.

The board containingthe two sawtoothgeneratorsand the board carry-

ing most of the small componentslbr the two deflectionamplifiersare
quite straighttbrward.The last board, which mainly includescompon-
entsfor the two l5 volt suppliesis rather crowdedand needssomecare
in fitting the electrolytics,Two pairsof lugsat one end carry a 220k
lW rcsistorand an 800 PIV diodc. Thesebelongto the CRT IHT circuit.

The picturesshow the location ofall the major componentsand apart from
a few dctailsreadersshould be able to assemblethe unit without diffi-
culty. In ourcase, the power transformeris stood off the back skirt of
the chassiswith four spacers.A small panelof aluminium is fixed to one
sideof the transformerto accomrnodatea couple of tagstripsfor power
supplywiring.

A verticalpanel,about I lcm long and 8cm wide, is fixed below the main
chassisand on it are mounted tluee board assemblies.The one including
the input to detector circuitsis mountednearestthe undersideof the
with the board containingthe syncdiscriminatorand sync
chassis,
separatorimmediatelybelow. The board with the sawtoothgenerators
is mountedimrnediatelyon the oppositeside of the panel. With the
boardsin thesepositions,it is possibleto get to all the adjustments
withouthindrance.

The board with the deflectioncircuit componentsis mounted atop the

chassis.The horizontaldeflection valvesate thoseabovethe chassisand
the verticaldeflectionvalvesare mounted upsidedown on the other side
of the chassis,The detector transformeris abovethe chassisbetween
the horizontalvalvesand the front panel. Focusingand astigmatism
potentiometersare mountedon a bracket aboveand at the rear of the
chassisand the horizontaland verticalshift controlsare immediately
below and mountedon the back skirt of the chassis.

The power supply board is mounted irnmediatelybehind the CRT socket

and the board is stood off the chassisby a cm or so to clearany com'
poncntsmounted under the board. This alsoapplicsto all the other
boards. lf you are not usinga can type multiple clectrolyticassembly,
then someingenuity may be neededto fit thc substitutesin the space
available.

Apart liom the tube face,with its hood and filter, the only other items
on the front panelare the input socket,triggerand mainsswitch, LED
and mainsindicatorlampsand contrastcontrol, The panelis held in
placeby thc triggerswitch and contrastconttol.

Havingbuilt the SSTV Monitor, the next task is to put it into operation.
Somesuggestions as to how to go about this are added, Although it is

56
 not necessarytn most cas€s,we stess that the 700 volts of EHT and the
300 volts HT line can be dangerous,particularly as the source impedancc
is quite low in each case. Apart from the more obvious danger points,
the detectorcomponentswhich at first sight seeminnocentenough,ue
in the EHT circuit and a bite from this is not recommended.

Beforeswitchingon for the first time, it is alwayswise to.makea

thoroughcheckofwiring to makesure that there are no errorsor
omissions.Havingdone this, a helpful move is to set all adjustment
points to a positionwhich will help the adjustmentprocedure. The
verticalposition,horizontalposition,focus and astEmatismcontrols
areset to mid-position. The sync level,contrastand verticalsync level
controlsare all set right oft'. Set the frequencyadjust pot to a valueof
27k and the feedbackpot to l5k. The slugin the video discriminator
coil may be set so that the slugis fu[y insidethe coil, with the resrrective
endsabout flush.

For adjustmentpurposes,the useofa CRO, an audio generatorand

possiblya VTVM will be assumed.Aller switchingon, a routine check
of voltagesmay be made, Make surehowever,that there is not a wcll
focusedbright spot on the CRT screen,which may lead to phosphor
burning. With voltagescheckedand if the aforementionedspot hasnot
yet appeared,rotate the horizontaland verticalposition controls until
the spot is found. A rough adjustmentof the focusand astigcontrols
may be madeand then the spot should be shiftedjust off the screen
for the time being at the bottom right.

Connectthe CRO (or VTVM) to the junction of the 2.7k resistorand

the lOuF electrolyticat the op-ampoutput, and connectthe audio
g€neratorto the input socket. Feedin any frequencybetween| 200H2
and 2300H2. Limiting shouldoccur with lessthan l00mV input and
the saturatedoutput wiu be about 30V peak-to-peak.
To adjustthe videodiscriminatorcoil, connectthe CRO to the
junction of the coil and I 8k resistor, Set the audio generatorto
2 3 0 0 H 2a n do u t p u t l e v e lt o l 0 0 m V . A d j u s tt h e s l u [ i n t h e c o i l
for minimunt indicationon the CRO.

Now connectthe CRO to the collectorof the video amplifier,TRl.

Makesureyou do.not come into contact with the deteitor, if the unit
is switchedon! Set the generatorto lS00Hz and advancethe contrast
control until clipping appears,then back off until the clippingdis_
appears.The output shouldbc about l5V peak-to-peak.With 2300H2
input, the output levelshouldfall to about I V peak-to-peak,

Adjustmentof the syncdiscriminatorcallsfor a little more careand

patiencethan the foregoingadjustments.Advancethe sync level
controlby about one quarter of its full travel This may need to be
adjustedmore closelylater on. Connectthe CRO to the collectorof
T R 2 ,a n d f e e di n l 2 0 0 H z a t l 0 0 m V f r o m t h e a u d i o g e n e r a t o rW
. hile
.-
specificfrcquenciesmentionedso far are quite impoitant as regards

57
accuracy,it is particularly vital to be sure that the l200Hz is known
accurately. Having rnade this point, we can leavethe rest to the
reader'sown ideasas how bestthis may be achieved.

Vary the frequencyadjust pot to obtain maximum response on the

CRO. It will be found to be quite sharp. Reducethe audio input to
zero and all indication on the CRO should also disappear. If not, the
stageis oscillatingand the feedbackcontrol shouldbe resetiust below
the point ofoscillation. Do not try to get too close,as thislan be a
trial of patience and the extra gain and selectivity are not needed
anyway. Switch on the audio input and make any slight adjustment
to the frequencyadjustcontrol. This shouldbe achievedwithout the
stageoscillatingof course.

tlaving taken the adjqstments to this point, we now need a video signal
to completethe adjustments.A signalmay be taken directly off air
from say, l4 or perhaps7MHz, or evenone of the VHF bands. In
doing this, it is most important that the signalbe tuned in ,.on the
nose". Possiblythe easiestway to do this is to adjust the re@iveron
the sametransmission,on speech,after which it will be correctly tuned
for the picture. If a tape or cassetterecorder is available,it can be
very helpful to recorda signaland this may be usedas required,over
and over, for adjustment or other purposes. A feUow amateur who is
in the position to do so, may be only too pleasedto provile you with
some signa.lsstrafht from his camera,etc., wNch you may record,

Assuminga soure of s[nals, it shouldbe fed into the monitor and it is

reasonableto expect a horizontal trace video modulated. The trace
should now be centred on the screenwith the horizontal shift control
Pressthe verticaltriggerbutton and the trace shouldimmediatelygo
to the top of the screenand slowly advancetowardsthe bottom of the
screen. Now advancethe vertical sync level control until the trace goes
to the top of the screenwhen a horizontal pulseappears Further
advancethe sync control until the tracegoesto the top of the screen
and staysthere. Sot the control midway betweenthesetwo positions,
which shoutdgive corect verticalsync,

Now centre the picture vertically with the vertical shift control. The
two initial picture centringoperationswill havebeen tentativeand
the size of the picture should now be consideredand adjusted if
neessary. The picture shouldbe squareand of sucha sizethat not
too much of the cornersare cut.

The sizeof the picture is governedboth by the naturalfrequencyof

eachof the sawtoothgeneratorsand the deflectionamplifiers. The
gainof the deflectionamplifiersmay be adjustedby alteringthe
resistorbetweenthe two cathodes Reducingthe resistorvalue
inqeasesthc gainand vice versa. Slowingdown the sawtoothgenerator
time constantwill alsoreducethe picture size,and vice versa.The time
constantcan bestbe changedby alteringone of the two seriesresistors.
 In order to help readers oI this book, we are reproducing
the R_S_T
code here.
R-S.T SIGI\AL REPORTS
To facilitate accurate renorts of signal quality, the R_S_T (Readability_
Strength-Tone) system ts emptoyedinter;ai&lll"
1t u""ign" numerieal
values to these characteristics according to the diowing
scales.
Readability
l. Unreadable
?. F":ty readable, some words distinguishable
J. Readable with considerable difficultv
4. Readablewith practically no difliculiy
5. Perfectly readable
Signal Strength
l,
_Faintsignals, barely perceptible
r, very weak signals
3. Weak signals
4. Fair signals
5. fhirly good signals
6. Good signals
?. Moderately strong signals
U. Strong signals
9. Extremely strong signals
Tone (Telegraphy only)
J. Extremely rought hissing note
z. Very.rough AC note, no trace of musicality.
J. Rough low-pitched AC note, slightly musicat
s. Xath€r rough AC note, moderafley musical
b. Musically modulated note.
6. Modulated note, slight trace of whistle
, l: Near DC note, smooth ripple
l. tr"d DC note, lust a trace of ripple
9. Purest DC note
If the Bigrral has the characteristic of cry8tal control,
actdthe letter X
to the RST report. If there is a chirp, tfie fetter
d mly be added. Sim_
ilarly, for a click, add K
This,reporting system is used on both telegraphy ard
telephony, leaving
out the "tone" report on telephony.
An accepted convention is to one S point calibration as equal to an
increase y-"ict t strength of-rate-
6dB. Fori:<a-pte, if-iiis taken
at th€ aerial terminal of a receiver, 59 resutis i"orn gSOuV as 1uV
a "iSLl. a
number of other standards have been useO, mainiy
ny-commerlcal manu_
facturers oI short-wave receivers. One rates
SS'a6"tiauV (S1 equal to
0.5uV), ard another puts 59 as tow as tOOuV.-H;*a;;
both systems re_
tain 6dB as separation between S points. Otf,e"s-fraue
Uoth different 59
values and separation values.
Wl:"" standard signal generator is not avallable, an S meter
1 may be
caiibrated arbitrarilv. 59 is set as being u u""V
"ll*g stgnal, with no
backgroundnolse, frbm a station other than a near
neighbour. The
meter reading is then divided to provide f to g pointsl
S If asked for an
acc.urateS-meter report, it only fair to e:<plainthe way
" in which the
calibrations of the receiver -is
have blen aetermirea,----

59
 If necessary,the horizontal time constant may be changedby altering
the 470k resistor, and the vertical by altering the 5.6M resistor,

It is not very likely that therewill be any touble due to component

valuespreadschangingsawtoothgeneratortime constantsand causing
lack of sync. Howeverif you shouldbe unlucky enoughfor this to
happen,then the appropriateone or both of the resistorsjust men-
tioned shouldbe changedaccordingly.

Brightnessof the trace is controlledby the automaticbiasresistorof

39k at the cathodeof the CRT. Although it is not likely to needalter-
ation, the brightnessccan be adjustedby alteriry the valueof this
iesistor. Do not reducethe valueunnecessarily in an attempt to
increasebrightness.It must be rememberedthat the al'terglowbright-
nessis quite limited and SSTV viewingis normally done in very
subduedlighL

Consideringthe simplicity of our monitot, we are pleasedwith its

perfornranceand we hope that our et'fortswill encourageother
arnateursto embarkon this fascinatingaspectof amateurradio.
List of Parts

I Case,I 2.7cm wide x I 9cm hi,ghx 2t.6cm deep, with lront panel
and chassis.
I Canying handlc.
4 Rubber feet.
I- S-etof brackets, including tube hood and suplnrt ring.
I Perspexorange filter.
I P-oluertronslbrmer,240Vprimary,250V-0-250Vsecondaryat 50mA,
6.3V at 1A, 6.3V at 3A, low radfutiontype (seetext).
I, Miniaturedetector transformer,240Vprinury, 12,6V ot I50mA,
I 200mH variable inductor.
1 Coaxial input socket.
I CRT socket.
4 9.pin miniature valve sockets.
I Miniature toggle switch, SPDT.
I Miniature press.onswitch, SPDT.
I Knob.
I NE-2 neon bulb, in pilot bezel.
I Rubber gromtnet, *in.
I Rubbergrommet, *in.
2 7-lug tagstips.
I 3-lug tqstrip.
2 Miniature tag boards with l6 prs tags.
I Miniature tag board with 15 prs tags.
I Minioture tag board with 12 prs tags.
1 Miniature tag board with 9 prs tags.
2 Diodes,BAt462, 1N9l4A.
4 Diodes,EM401. 0A6261100.
4 Diodes, 8M402, OA6261200.

60
 --\-

4 Diod es,EM40B, OA62 7/800.

2 z_enerdiodes, BZy79 6V2
,
zener diodes, BZX79 ct t
t
SCR,2SFI06 or simitir.-'
I LED (seetexr).
I IC,74r.
I Transistor, BFy5I.
I Transistor, BCI 09.
Transistors, 2Ni63gA.
I ueon indicator, NE-2.
4 yotves,68X6.
I CRT, DP7.32, u,ith mu.metol
shield type 55530.
U.PACITORS
I O00^33uFI 00 V polycarbonate.

j "43i1;
z. 0. 0^047uF I 00 V'po iycarbonare.

I
; iS[f"lf;:",:;r
0.0.3-9uF
;
I00V poiycarbonare.
I A^.15-uFSqV polycarbonarc.
t, u^.J.JuF50y polycarbonate.
t U.47u_I-50V polycarbonote,
t, tuI- JUV polycarbonate-
t- 4uF 250W electrclvilc.
I 4-uFiS}Vttt electro[vtic.
/. 6,ttF450W elecrro[ytics.
4. 10uF 25W electoivtics
1 a4-ut-:3.S9fw ckctrcrytics (in one can).
z. 4-/uF 6.iVltt tantaluis.
r,
:u-yu16 vw etectroty tic.
i',W":;::,.;,
1;lbXI
z I.U^UAUF
i!;.
l6VW elcctrolytics.
r rUUOuF2SVW elecn.oil.tic.

fu untcss
lutjf1gl1 f statcd
othcrwise)
i i6_t:ffi, 1"!j,*
i i.;b\i,x ! l:i
z 1 /u Ut.nns 2 47k t W
z o^d^U-otrnts
I S6k
r 6/U^0hDts
2 6gk tW
t^*_:, 4
it t00k
/. /K ) aa^L
2 ,at-
i :.:: I 220k ]w
1270k
',i ' .')r
y(
2 470k
'" 2 rM
:o^:
'^"-:
1 I s.6M
t zlx 2 g.2M

6l
 2 20k linear potentiometers.
3 47k linear trtmpot$
2 I 00k linear potentio meterc.
I I00k linear trimpot.
I 1M linear potentiometer.

MISCELI.ANEOUS
Hookup wire, solder, solder lugs, 3-core
flex and plug, cable clamp,
ECrews,nuts.

SEMICI)NDUC TOR EQUTYALENTS

1S.14 _szl 6- I 136, BAw62, BA2 I 1, BAys I _61, 1N415I _4446.
_ 8 y 1 9 1 = M l q - 1 1 3 e , 0 A 6 2 6 / 1 0 0 ,B A y 2 l e , 8 y 1 2 6 / r 0 0 , 1 N 4 0 0 2 .
Il'119?=It?19-
lg0? / 2oo,
/ !1s1,-c,+926 evna1zoo,1r.i4003,8y12?
Iy-199=51?39-tt 14,0^627/ slo,nvrd67soo,
ir{a06
o,sy rzz
B Fys t=Rsz?6-2014,B FR19,
Bsy46-85,zNztilzI l_zzta_24l0_8053-gzrz_
4046.
B-C^10-8=RS2?6-2009,
2N3565-3?11_4134,
8C148_168_208_318, SK302O_31
1,2N544?,
?I-3-63qA=R!216-202 SK3O25,'F'C328
/ 16,r1550.
6BXG61!w,6_F41,6p6,8D6,EF80_806_su.
zrsz'_lrs,64spr,cv13?6_
5092-5817.

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 I4MC BEAM USESTV
AERJAL PARTS
tjr,fi:**flffitil; thereis veryutresasinthe
fS"H,l :":."*y:u"r
should wlthstand
ruu mpn or eo. when wind velocltie" u"pio"'"
che"tj

;n:tll;:itiltnts;ifi{"ii"'ff:i111",ilT."""
knowthat t n"" "-riili"'#;'""''|,o ar with antennaureory wirr
:: jtljltl belo\4'
ro-;"i,-"il'; the theoretical maxi-
#1,f
,! rur.,?T:lgb]"
rnese
;?/asuchttv
requests ln mind
to seewhatcourd
bedone
1|*,::"1f:;-,rry ;;iii'J;rli,l,lliled
ilir;ii*Hi*,3#?rei,1iRiTf"i-
lal:s canbest be utilised to
i",Ji?',]"J""i,|,i :tff:"Uf "l: td _wrt
y the* il; ;i J i'ristructeotrr
e
iil:,::,rJ^",,Td;;;,"f;,,;1ii"ffi'"::f,|,;: j:"probremswhrch
The first p""ui".-o..*"ll'.::l :""v were solved'

ii;,T-*lilri"ri"*:T?Hlii
fililf"",il-:ln;ffi jl"fi",
;n{.f",r,"*,#d1,"g"';'1;ifiilffi
BOOM LENGTH
r*Td;11if
il.i;.,;,"itff
i As we considered thig
lenpt
: treo-?gainat t}e fisures ;l l:..*::*ersome and impractica.t we lo-
lensthswould -;;=;i;"J,n"-"::: jTt^3 spacins of 0. I and 0. 2 wave-
u al r*. ii'g"r";;;'1,':1::"d 20--feet
9.,5{ boom
and*o'ra """rii i"J'rv
ror-a reneur we decidedwewouldsetne
o?ld;;,T: ilTH;-
I'rom experiencegalned
wtt we knew that no stngle piece
ue.anrennashould exceed of
rjflt^:y"g
anatranspori pi;r;;# j;:-'^1"1 i.T.Iencthbecause of tne packastns

fii::"l;:lq'l;tj*x$-""
ifljiil"fr''h'i1H'f
*'l,'Jii:i:""*ln";kj.l;:
:f,#:.;:t;r,191;;:;,"i"'iX#'Jf
x
ilti#j"r"H,H#;{;l*lil!:[1iT,1lrffi
il*nffi
m:,"
t:iqlit"+,_r.
ffi f fil{'**dl#*lj"nrin"
It.was accordirgly declded
to -:'rwu rengus ot t*"
ruoeror the
tube-for the boom andi"," "U"
boo-m and ",,^.,url.1t1o^]-"53?.ot o.n. aluminlum
li" O.D, aluminlum
bracl<etsror *re mlsi _, themselves a"a *,e-"iipo.t
;;;;"J.T-".""ments
._.,n rhe oraclng and joinirg
sectionsof the boom- berweenthe two
Alumlniumof lf" 6ixmg1.,
1 so four pieces, each ten
reerrong, and with two piecei:3.:t]r,tyqgd
getherto r""- tn" to 4" at one end, w""e jorned
z'tiiu!ii;'.1u."S90 to-
u a ooom of thts nature, Because ttrere-ts ;-;;;;
t*tu'..ioiit.-i;i;*";";;*?::"11;::::,,il1,,TJ.HTl"ff
*" F^.lYj1loo^'

#".tr;
A?
supportlng mast to protrude approximately l8 inches above boom level
and taklng a stralner wlre from each end of the boom to the protrudlr€
section of mast.
Each of'the antennaelements ls secured to the boom by means of two
double U-bolt next assemblies, one "nest" to each of the twln boom pie-
ces, The flnal strength achleved wlth this method of holding is such
that, at extremely htgh wind velocities, the antennaelements could
bend right out of shape, but the clamps to the boom would still hold
fast.
ELEMENT SIZES
The steel mast tube on whlch the antennais mounted is also attached to
the boom with two of these double U-clamp assemblies. We used a
piece of 1|" ldameter by 16 gauge steel tube l0 feet 6 inches long for
this mast, mainly because that is a standard TV mast size and it fit-
ted very nlcely into the strengthenedTV chimney clamp mounted atop
the author'g telegraph pole. More about this Iater.
With aeria-ls of thls size, lt ls common practice to manufacture the
elements from several dlfferent diameters of tubing, commencing
with a reasonably la_rgediameter in the centr.eand winclingup with a
fairly sma-ll to medium diameter at the tips of the elements.
In order to minlmise sagging of the elements we decided to use 16
gawe materla"l slnce it was felt that 18 gawe would be a little on the
light stde. The wall thlckness of this material is approxlmately I /16,'
and the stock slzes run in I /8 " lncrementg so, at first glance, lt
looked as lf the outside diameter of one 6ize would neaily fit into the
lnsldediameter of the next size up.
It eeems, however, that the inside diameter of this tublng averages
around 4/1000" on the small side of the outside diameter of the next
size down. Wlth some wangling it is possible to ftnd two pieces of
tubing whose tolerances are such that they will. mate together but the
process of tria_l and error involved makes it far from a commerclal pro-
positlon.
It was at this stage that we decided to fit the tubing with one size diff-
erence ln between the two pieces and simply secure them by mean6 of
eeveral self-tapping screws, It seems that such a practice is fahly
common in t]le commercial field and has always been found satisfact-
ory in the past.
Before commlttlr€ ourselves to this form of construction for the antenna
we tried it out experlmentally on two pieces of spzrretubing. The tubing
rvas over lapped 12" and joined witi three |" by 8 cadmium plated self
tappers. Subjectedto severe vibration and loadirg tests the Joint held
firm under a]l conditions, In the fina_lte6t, so much weight was placed
on the tubirg that it bent and broke, but still the joint heid firm.
We considered these tests to be fairly conclusive evidence that it WAS
indeed a good method of construction and accordingly based our design
on this.
By means of some practical experiments and a few elementarv ca,lcula-
tions we found that a diameter of 1+" for the centre of the element. then
down to l" ln the middle of each side and*" at the tips was optimum for
the antenna, Diameters any smaller than this regulted in so rnuch sag,
even with l6 gawe tube, that the antennawas most unsightly, Larger
diameters imposed too high a straln on the boom and seiuring clamps at
hurricane-force wlnd velocitles. A thtrd point was the torquL impoied
on devices requlred to rotate the antenna, but we will come to this Iater.
Ivel
ling

90
pie-
h

dto

I@

+
I =-
_L / E <
-=
) - E
16" z < E
4- =f;

t I iir a

U
J
.I
-T'
I
+ + F ^
I t l ;3
I . l q
gE
II f , g T; o<
I
I
t g ti.€
I

)nna
rilg
f Z N
d
ed
=z
J
=
a
J

a- l*- .s,s-*l*- - /z.er-----{

en
'0r

5t
This diogrom rhows tle ptilncipol dimensions o, the ontenna. T[o twin 6oom
at or.ongemenl is ttronger thon o single lotge diameler tube snd coniderobly
simplilies the pockoging ond t.dnsportation prcblems ol the unit.

65
 The diagram of the antenna sho$rs the sizing for the vartous elements. In
P
each case, a l0 foot length of tf" tuUe is used at the centre rrith two l0 g
fgo.t.lengths of 1" tubing overlapped 12" into each end of it. Short lengths
-The
of i" tubing at each end make the elements up to the required length.
reason for the 10 foot lengths throughout is fairly obvious, when one con- Pl

siders the fact that thls tubing is supplied from the manufacturer in stan.
u
dard lengths of 20 feet.
I
The next problem concerned the manner in which the antenna should be
p
fed from the trarsmitter or to the receiver.
The text books tell u6 that the impedarce at the centre of the driven ele-
c
ment in a three element yagi with spaclngs of .1 wavelength from driven
tl
element to reflector and .2 wavelength from driven element to director
f
is approximately l5-20 ohms. If we were to fisplit" the driven element i[
the middle so that it could be fed with co-ax in the manner of a dipole. the
standing wave ratlo on the feedline would be much the same as the imbed_
I
ance mismatch, or roughly 4/1.
We could turn our driven element lnto a folded dipole and, with the 4/1 t
impedance step up this woutd give us, so arrlve at a figure much closer
(
the impedance of the feedline. This, however, would compllcate matters
(
mechanica-lly aDd ideally, would still ca_ll for some form of balun or mat- \
ching device to account for the balanced to unbalanced condition which I
exists when a co-ax cable is coupled into a fotded dipole.
When all of these considerations had been taken into account we reallsed
(
l
that we could not do better than adopt the same form of feed which had be-
en used on the Qad, namely the gamma match,This time, however. we de. I
I
cided to make the tuning and adjustment of the match easier by using the
modified version, sometimes known as the omega match. l
I
In the gamma matching system impedance transformation between
the
transmission llne and the driven element depends on the electrical
Ie_
ngth of the matching rod. When adjusted to provide the correcr
rerm_
inal impedance for a 50 or ?0 ohm co-ax feed, the section is
always
shorter than a quarter wave and, as a result, appears to ttre sysiem
as
an inductive reactance. To correct this a serieg capacitor can be
added
to introduce an equivalent capacitive reactance into ihe system,
making
the feedpoint appear resistive.
The gamma matching section is equlvalent to a short circuited line
sec-
tion a quarter wave or less in length and may, in effect be physically
shortened by connecting a capacitor across iis open end. fhe degree
to
which the line is electrically lengthened or physically shortened
I on its characteristic or surge impedance.
If the spacing between the gamma rod and driven element is such
Oipends

that the
i shorted s-ection,has a surge impedance of 300 to b00 ohms,
the effecfive
electrical lergth of the matchirg secuon may be varied by
adding capacit_
ance from the open end of the rod to the centre of the element, The
leng_
th of the gamma rod, with capacitive loading, is 50 per cent
to ?b per
cent less than that required for the regulaigamma match arrangement.
The main advantage of the modifiecl system is not the physical
siving in
space, however, but the case of acljustment'it trings by etiminatingitre
necessity to re-position the gamma shorting bar in the regular
ariarge_
ment.
Detalls of the tuning procedure will be given later ln the chapter
but we
are not exaggerating v/hen we say that the total time taken to tuqe the
xnt_
enna for a standing wave ratio ot l.l o n 1 4 . 2 M c w a s e x a c i l y l0 minu_
/1
tes, up time of the transmitter
.inclu.ding_the_warming and connicting the
line into the SWR bridge.
66

I
Lts, In Practlca,l constructlon of the antenna could be cbmmenced by assembllng
o l0 eachof the elements to the pre-determined length as shown on our dia-
ergths gram, If the flve pieces of aluminium which make up each element are
r, The pre-cut to the lengths shown it is only necessary to mark-off accurately
e con- thesections u'hich have to be overlapped 12", place them together and in-
stan- sert three self-tapping screws into each overlapped section,
For greatest strength and minimum sag lt wilt be best if a selt tapper ls
lbe placed2" ln from each "end" of the overlapped section ln a line which
wlll ultlmately become the top of the element and one self-tapper is pla-
ele- cedin the centre of the overlapped section at an argl€ ot 90 degrees to
:iven the other tvro.
:tor In order to prevent unpleasantnoises from disturbing your sleep ard
ent in thatof your neighbous, do not forget to place some corks in the end of
te, the €achelement and t}le ends of the twin boom sections.
mped-
In the Quad antennano dlfficulties were experienced with wind vibra-
tionsin either the dlagonals or the actual elements. This was probably
4/1
dueto the relatively short unsupportedlength of the diagonals and the
0ser to
dampingeffect caused by the elements strurg at their tips.
a$er s
Whenfirst placed atop the mast we had trouble with severe vibrations
mat-
ln the reflector and director of our neut antema, however. The driven
3h
elementdid not vlbrate, probably because of the damping effect of the
componentsin the gamma matching system.
iised
Varlous means were tried to overcome this nuiaance and it was found
ad be- thatthe easiegt method was to place a small weight on one side of the
elementrowhly five to six feet from the boom. Two standard TV "FIat
we de-
f the BackNests with i" U-bolts", each weighing a few oncea, were used for
thls purpose and no further troubles were experienced with vibrations.
le Themajor advantagesof using these U bolts and nests as the vibratton
e- Feventing weights is that they are easy to alfix and being cadmium pla-
n- tedwlll not result in a ga-lvanicactlon which could eventua.l.ly
destroy the
utenna. Incidentally, this latter point is one which should be carefully
Las raiched durlng construction,
dded Becauseof galvanic action, the best metal to use in contact with a piece
nng 0faluminium is another piece of aluminium. . Failing this, cadmium
platedsteel makes an excellent "second string" choice. On NO ACCOIJNT
iec- ghouldbrass be used where it will come into contact rvith the aluminium.
Y Thepotential difference of Mound 1,8 volts between the two metals will
)e to destroythe structure in double quick time.
ends
ASSEMBLY
Lt the Assemblingthe elements to the boom is mainly a matter of following
tive thedirectlons glven with the double U-bolt "nests" except for one imp-
lacit- ortantdetail, The assembly instructions show a 3/16" bolt holdirg the
leng - twosections of the clamp together through a hole drilled in the tubing.
: This bolt plays no part in the flnal assembly, but is only a refinement
"!nt. c,hichaids in the actua-lassembly job. In a lightweight TV antenna, it
iin vouldbe of no consequence,but it might tend to weaken the structure
!he ln a unit as large as this so is best left out.
Ee- Thespaclngbetween the twin tubes of the boom ghould be equal to the dia-
neter of the meast used plus about one inch (introduced by the clamps
we whichjoin mast to boom). Assembly of the unit on the ground will be
) ant- facilltatedif the elements are placed on the underside of the boom and the
linu- U-bolts placed so that their threads project upwards. If the elements are
the placedon top of the boom, it will not be possible to fit in the gamma mat-
ch correctly.
67
 The gamma match lg made from a 30r'lergtl of t" alumtnlum tube
from the mast by approxlmately 4 - 5 lnches by means o'f an alumlnium
bracket at one end and a special lnsulator and two aluminium brackets at
the other end, The dlagram of Fg, (1) shon's the dlmenslona of the alu-
minlum brackets assoclated wtth the gamma match.
The bracket (A) in Ftg. (1) folds around the drlven element and attacheg
to the rear of the plastlc box ln whtch the gamma matchlng capacltors
are mounted, (B) folds around the centre of the drlven element and att-
aches to one end of the gamma insulator, (C) folds around the open end
of the gamma leg and attaches to the insulator whlle (D) has one end
folded around the driven element and one around the gamma leg so that
It forms the spactng bar and shorted end ot t}le gamma match.
ln our prototype model, a phenollc reEln insulator obtalned from a dl8-
posa.Isstore wa8 used at the end of the gamma match.
The gamma tunlrg capacltora are completely protected from the wea-
ther by enclosing them in a small plastic box and sealing all entrance
and exit holes q/ith some epoxy resin,
The box we uged measured approxlmately 5 x 3 x 3 tnches and was orlg-
inally sold as a butter contalner (ha,lf pound size) by one of our larger
chain stores. The bracket shovrnas (A) ln Flg. (l) is bolted to the base
of this box and the two tunlng capacitors are mounted side by 6ide in the
tid.
CAPACITORS
In our prototype, we used speclal trarsmlttlry type capacltors \rthlch
were sllver plated and double spaced. To prevent the posslbillty of a
short clrcult occurrlng during modulation peaks and reduce the dangerg
from molsture formtng between the plates, we would swgest you use
6imilar capacltord,
A half-tnch hole is driued tn the bottom of the box and a short (6-tnch)
length of co-ax is passed throwh this hole and soldered to the gamma
capacltor ln the box. The other end of the co-ax ls fitted with a coaxlal
plq. Tv/o 3/16" holes are drilled in one slde of thebox to accommo-
date the leade whlch connect to each side of the insulator tn the gamma
match.
The use of the co-ax fltttng ln the line from the transmltter to the gam-
ma match enableethe antennato be erected on the top of the mast wlth-
out the lnconvenlenceof a co-ax cable sagglng around nearby projecting
objects and generally gettlrg ln the way. It also means that a SWR bri-
dge may be connectedln the line close to the gamma for adjustlng the
matching,
When mounttrg the plastic box on to the element be eure that the two con'
trol knobs face away from the reflector as otherwise it would be rather
difficult to reach the controls from the mast or a suitably placed ladder'
The next etep ln conatruction ls the coupllng of the mast to the boom and
the lnstallation of the antt-aag stralner wtre acrocs the top. It wlll be
iced that tlere is no measurement on the main dlagram $'hlch thows
where the mast is installed, This i8 not an oversight on our part, but is

I
il
slmply because the posltlon ls best located by picking the whole antenna
up and determintng this point by balance.
The same typ€ ot clamps which are used to hold the elements in place
are also used to gecure the boom to the mast; they ate simply turned
i throqh 90 deg, The mast should be allowed to protrude about 18" above
the top of the boom to accommodatethe antl-s€ strainer wlre. The
wire ls passed through a i" hole drtlled in the top of the mast.
 : 3
: ; 'rP
it-
:1

ur-
rr--l
; l I

fi i la l l '9
I l
ll tt l l
+ t l
|l || "l 1
I l G
.i-l
| | l
+ I I-T_l
\

l i" I
|
I l| l .o
il I
I l {

i;l
? l
' I

I
+ 10 l
> t

j - l+ l
Ll
I

I
14.II
Ll
'9

iii:iiiiiiii
From the photographs of the aerlal lt can bee seen that the author has
used a telegraph pole for a mast and a TV type chimney mounting to hold
the antenna. It should be noted that this chimney mount ls a special re-
tnforced unlt, fltted with a reversed ball-bearing guy ring to act as a
bearirg for the antenna, A standard chimney mount wlll definitely NOT
hold the arelght of the antenna, as we can testify from sad experience,
Not shown is a standard TV type rotator which we have added to the
aerlal. These llttle unitg will stand up to the wear ald tear of turnlrg
an antennathls slze provlded they don't have to stand tle weight of the
antennaand that some form of Iocklng device ls lnstalled to prevent hlgh
wlndB damaglng thetr gears,
Before placlng t]le antenna atop the mast, lt is cd6e to apply some form
of protectlve coatlng to it: a brand of silcone compoundin a push-button
spray pack ls excellent for the job. Failing this, some healy grease can
be dlsgolved in spirlts and painted on the antenna, paying particular att-
entton to the threads on the mountings. Some day you will want to lower
the anteirnafor aervlce, and a thick coatlng of rust wlll not assist you in
your work,
Although lt ls posslble to use a field strength meter or other means to
adjust the gammaa match, the only really satlsfactory method ie the uee
of a SWR brldge in the co-ax line from the transmitter. For preference
the brtdge should be ln8ta-tled a6 close as possible to the antenna both for
physical (eaee of readlng, etc) and electrlcal reasons,
Unles8 you operate on only one small portion ot the band tt wlU be best if
the anterurai8 tuned with the tranemltter set to 14.2 Mc. If a SWR of 1,1
ie achleved at 14.2 Mc (and this iB not too hard to do), the SWR at 14.35
Mc ehould not be hlgher lhan 1.4/1 and at 14.OMclt should not exeeed
1.65 /1. These flgures are Bo lo$' that they are ha_rdlyworth conslderlq
Adju8tment of the gamma match is as follows. Set t}le serle8 capacltor
(10-200 pF) to sllghtly more than halfway in mesh and adJuetthe parallel
capacltor (10-50 pF) for a mlnlmum reading on the SWR brtdge (reflected
posltlon). Alternately adjust the capacltors until the reflected readirg le
aa low as car be achleved. This is a-ll there is to lt, and, if you have con
Btructed the antennafairly close to our speclflcatlons, the enttre proceed
lngs should not taj{e longer than a minute or so.
PARTS LIST

2 l*" O. o. tube 10' long swaged4r' one end .

5 1+" o.D. tube 10' long. 3 feet of 1" x 169al, strip.
6 l"O.D. tubel0' long. 4 l " x i " w h i t . n u t s a n d b o l t s ( c a dp l a
2 *" O.D. tube4'6" Iong. 2 * " d l a . e o l d e r l u g s ( c a dp l a t e ) .
2 i" O.D. tube 3'5" long. 6 f," dia.plasttcplw buttons.
2 i" O.D, tube 2'10" long. 2 t" U-bolts
8 U-bolt assemblles 2 capacltors,
I length li" dia, 169 steel pipe. I plastic box b x 3 x S inches
30.feet of 7/20 guy wire. I gamma insulator (eee text)
I i " O .D . t u b e 3 2 " I o n g . 2 R o p eg r l p ( 3 / 1 6 , ) ,
50 i" x 8 cad plated self tappers.
Sundriee ; epoxy glue, wlre, co-ur cable, knobs.
co-ax socket, can of silicone spray, support
bracket for ma8t, rotator etc.

70
or has AERIALS FORTHE 52, I44 MC BANDS
n gt o h o l d '
scialre- For effective reception and transmisslon on either of these bands, a
tasa resonant aerial system is required, properly coupled and matched to
tely NOT the feeder cable and, ultimately, to the recelver or transmitter. If
'ience. not already appreciated, the reasong for this statement are well cov-
r the ered on other literature.
:urnlrg Among the Bimplest ol the reeonant aerials are the "ground plane* and
"coaxial" types, vertical in their general conliguration
of the and predomin-
venthlgh antly responsive to vertically polariEed signals. Their simplicity stems
trom both their basic structure and from the fact that they are non-
re form directlonal in the horizonta,l plane; this latter feature obviate6 the
l-button necessity for any form of rotattng mechanism,
easecan Unfortunately, vertica-Ily polarlsed antenna8, as a class, are more sus-
ular att- ceptible to nolse pick-up than are horizontally poluised types, this
to lovrer being one reason for their lack of popularity. A second point, discussed
st you in further on in the text, is that of the "cross-polarity" loss, when used to
communicatewith Btations eguippedwith the a-iternative- and generally
ranSto preferred - horizontally polarised type of aerial.
l the uae However, the number of vertically polarised aerials on "6-metres" at
eference leaet, indlcates that, for many, their basic simplicity outweighs the
a bot}l for aloresaid dlsadvantages.
The so called I'ground plalre'rantenna, as lllustrated in flgure t, con-
'e best lf sists of a vertical quarter wave radiator workirg against a ground-plane
t l Ro f 1 . 1 / of four radials. These radials need to be slightly longer then the vert-
a t 1 4 .3 5 ical portlon, as shown in the illustration.
rxeeed A ground-plane antennahas a feed point lmpedance of appro:dmately 3?.5
nslderlrg, ohms and 6ome method of matchlrg to a coaxial feeder is requtred. For
Pacitor a ?5 ohm feeder we may use a quarter wave stub, made from a let€th of
parauel 50 ohm cable. This will be approxlmately 37.5" long as lndicated in
reflected figure l.
ading ls To match a ground plane directly to a 50-ohm feeder lt ls only necessary
have con- to droop the lour radials by 45 degrees and attach the feeder dlrectly,
Proceed- connectingthe shield to the radials and the inner conductor to the vertlcal
element.
Ae mentioned earlier, the ground plane antennais vertlcally polarised
andthis poses some problems with Iocal contacts to horizontally polar-
ised stations. It is very effective, however, for working mobile stations
u6lngvertical whips. The cross polarity on local contacts gives an
approximateloss of between l0 and 30 dB, dependirg on the path between
(cad plate)l 8ta.tions,compared with a horizontally polarised dipole. In most case6'
. i signal strength is still ample for good contact.
On the cr edit stde, the ground-plane antennahas a Iow angle of radiation
which is very effective tn workirg DX signais, Cross polarisatlon is legs
l
serious for DX stgnals, since tlese become qulte randomly polarised en
, route. A further bonus with vertically polarlsed artema is that the cross
polartty Ioss prevlously mentioned does help alleviate TVI in areas where
the TV stations use horizonta,lly polarised antennas. This, of course,
assumesmlnimum pick-up in the TV aerlal feedera.
COAXIAL ANTENNA
The second antennafeatured has the dlsadvantagethat more mechanical
work ls required but it wlll repay this trouble in results achieved' This
amay ls also vertically polarised.but has an extremely low angle of rad-

7l
lation. The coaxlal dlpole wlll therefore give good results wtth DX con-
tacts as well as mobile stations. The ground-plane elements, as shown
in the illustration, are not essential but the addi$on of this extra 'ha-rd
ware" improves the apparent gatn of the antennaby up to ldB mainly by
lowerlng the argle of radiation.
The 6izes of the elements dependon the supporting mast to be used,
Assuming the Bupportlng mast to be Il" dlameter the sleeve could be 3"
in dlameter and the rod |" in diameter. In several references consulted
there is disagreement regarding the lergth of the sleeve element. One
suggestionis that tle sleeve should be shorter than the rod, takirg into
conslderation the dlameter to lergth ratto, Others put forward the ldea
that it is neceasary to lengthen the sleeve to cancel.out the reactance
producedby the proxtmity to the mast, However, if the sleeve is cut
to the dimenslons given in flgure 2 the SWR of the antennashould be
u n d e r2 : 1 .
If measuring equlpment is available, it is a good plan to make the ante-
nna elements sllghtly longer, or adjustable, and adjust the lengths for
correct operation at the transmltter frequency, The ?5-ohm coaxlal
cable leeds throwh the centre of the mast with the lnner conductor con-
nected to the rod, and the outer conductor to the sleeve. The sleeve is
electrically connectedto the supporting mast at the top only, being in-
sulated 4t the bottom.
For a horlzontally polartsed antennathe four-element beam is very
popular on 52MC. As illuEtrated in figure 3, this antennauses a
folded dlpole to give an acceptable match to 75-ohm feeder. If the con-
structor prefers to use a centre-fed dipole lor the drlven element, a
quarter wavelergth matching stub may be used to connect a ?5-ohm
feeder. Thie atub should have an approximate impedance of 36 ohms
and elther 39-ohm coaxial cable or two parallel lengths of ?5-ohm
cabl6 may be used. The length of the series stub would be approxi-
m a t e l y 3 ? .5 " a s a l r e a d y i n d i c a t e di n f i g u r e 1 ,
Aluminium for constructlon ot this beam can be boqht at reasonable
prlces and we recommend that the elements be fabricated lrom i"
dlameter thln wall tubtng or 3/8" diameter thick wall tubing, TV
aerial flttings are freely avallable and provlde a good €ource oI mech-
anlcal parts for fabrlcatirg VHF aerlals.
USING TV AERIALS
As the aerlal Btands, a 4:l balun can be used conveniently, both to re-
duce the apparent impedance and to provlde the necessary balance-
to-unbalance transformatlon, As lndicated ln figure 4, such a balun
may be made from coaxlal cable, usually a piece cut to the required
length from the maln cable. The tmpedanceof the cable used for the
balun ls not critical.
For an exact match, ?5 ohm feeder cable should be used, u/ith a +"
wave stub of 50 ohm cable at the feed point to the ba-lun.
However, even lf the balun ls fed dlrectly from a 50 ohm cable, an
SWR of better than I . 4: I can be achieved.
STACKT]DARRAYS
If two of these antennasa"restacked, using one wavelength spaclng and
stacklng bars, the centre of the stacklng bars may be fed wlth ?5 ohm
cable. The stacking distance would be approximately l9'6" with an
expected increase ln forward gain of approximately 3dB.

72
)X con-
I shown
t'hard
rinly by

ied,
ld be 3"
rnsulted

[-"'T
. One
rg into
Ia
e idea
ance oin Zu
zz
s cut *,1
be zi
<o
-<5
! ante- xc,
s for oo
i^l 99 z o
?v z.
)t con- zz+ >;
7-w >;>
)ve is Oi s 9>
Z L F A
rg in- ;> s2 *: 6 vv
6J*
-
wG<
ry 6Z
OF

c o n-
, a
m
ms
1

gxFo
:gsE z
z92E
i3:F
(,
psi3 z
l

z l'--..r.f*--1 r;s'
LN
;> t
ed I
the :9 x> Itu
=r< >d
ie OI
i; vo
j,3o

and gtound-plone ond coax'pl anlenno

_shown obovc orc- quilc elleclivc lot
rhm -:!i,e, onrocrs. e"i."s
;.::ri:,:-,?:-d^,
'gc it. achieved, . "i,tiiiui' ifi,i.a, a il-tound
I ao roroting mechonic'm t.i"i'i.q"iiJi.']ie dimcntiont
arc tot 52MC, Rctaoar dZtoits ht t14ic'cre-;;"i;nll in th" tort.

12
 '
: l

Using j-wavelergth sections of coaxial cable for stacking, the separa-

tton would be under 13'. Better than 1.2:l SWR thould stlll be achieved
by feedtng the array at the junction of the two half-wave stacking sect-
ions. The velocity factor of the coaxial cable must be allowed for when
calculating the lengths ol these stacktng sections.
THE I44MC BAND
On the 144MC band, suitably proportioned ground-plane and coaxial
designs are possible bui find very little use among local amateurs. Pur'
ely lor the sake of the record, element lengths would be l9i" for the
vertlcal whip sections and coaxial sleeve whereas the ground-plane
radiale lnboth aerials would be I9i" long from tip to mast.
For general inter-6tation workirg on 144MC a horizontally polarised
aerial system is desirable, along wlth some means of rotating it to cov(
the desired directions. At this stage, the problems of rotating the arral
must be left to the tngenuity of individual amateurs.
' b a s i c " type oi aerial is again the four-element beam
On 144MC, the
shown in figure 3; the figures which apply are those in brackets' For a
simple, yet effective, beam this deslgn wlll take a lot of beating. Belng
relatively widespaced, the frontal lobe ts quite broad whilst still exlib-
iting a reasonable gain. With Yagi antennas the gain characteristic
flattens out drastically alter the first three or four elements and it is
necessary to use many more elements to achieve a worthwhile lncrease.
The next design, shown in ligure 5 illustrates this point. A Yagi beam
antenna of ten elements has been required to achieve an approximate
forward gain of 12.SdB. In other words, it is necessary to add 6 dire-
ctors to achieve a iurther approximate gain of 4dB over the four-ele-
ment beam. It will be noticed that these beams are staggered direct-
or element lengths; this is to achleve a reasonable band width. Both
antennas will operate over two megacycles with very little worry about
feeder mlsmatch.
The drlven element oI the l0 - element beam is shown designed for 300-
ohm feeder. If 75 ohm coaxial feeder is to be used all that is necessa-ry
is the lour-to-one balun shown in figure4' Note that, Ior l44MC the
length of the balun would be approximltely 27 inches' The price paid
for lorg Yagi antennas is that the frontal lobe is quite narrow and the
beam must therefore be positioned carefully for maxiumum effective-
ness.
"5A", to the 144MC
As with 52MC we now have a related TV channel
band.
"5A", type 109
Antiference supplies a l0-element Yagi for channel /5A'
which may be easily converted for 144MC. The gain quoted by the man'
ufacturer is l2.5dB which should still apply t o t h e m o d i f i e d a n t e n n a .
The modifications required are as {ollows: (l-) cut the reflector to
43" (2) cut the first and second director to 36i"; (3) cut the third dir-
ector to f5?"; (a) cut the fourth director t-o 35*" (5) cut the fifth direc-
tor to 35"; (6) cut the sixth director to 34i"; (?) cut the seventh and
eighth director6 to 34i" (8) adjust the shorting pieces on the folded di-
pole to 39", centre to centre, the hangover being li" long.
The array, as it standg, may be matched to a ?5-ohm feeder wlth a
four-to-one balun on the folded dipole feeding into a quarter wave stub
of 50 ohm impedance and then lnto the {eeder. If two arrays are stacked
")
one wavelength (81 apart usirg stacking bars (unit velocity factor)
a good match will be achieved when feeding the centre of the stacking

7q
 tI,EMENTSSP^CE0 47"{16")
BETWEENC€NTRES

lhc lou elemcnl beam conligutolion given o6ove il copoblc ol crcerrsnt

rrultr oa eithet 52 ot l44lAC. lltt is made ihrcugrhout the coartruclion of
N octial litlinit. WAife not striclly necessort, thate ,laaiagt moke lighl
wotk ol boom contl.uction.

€j : j
t ! E$ . i
\,_
\3;
>d
5
pH
H *3 *ri;
r!:i
63
Pi
5g
? s eF

iiii
F
>o
A6
o
F
d =
bars wtth ?5 ohm feeder. The same feed point will provide better than
1.3:1 SWR when fed wlth 50-ohm cable. The gain of this system would
be approximately 15. 5dB.
ALTERNATWE TYPE
"5A"
Channel Master also manufacture a l0-element aerlal lor channel
type 1005A, with a quoted gain of l0dB. The simple a.lterations nece-
sluv to operate this array on l44MC are as follows: (l) Cut the re-
flector to ao*"; (2) mt the driven element io an overall Iength of
36 3,i8"; (3) cut the first dir€ctor to 35 5/8"; (4) cut all other dlr-
ectors except the eighth to 33+"; (5) cut the eighth director to 33?/8"'
The unusuaLsize oflhe last director is brought aboutby the style of
mounting plate used for the director whlch has an eleQtrical shorten-
irg effect on the element'
Th'is aerlal can be fed direcuy wtth 300-ohm ribbon or via a fow-to-
one balun wlth ?5 ohm coaxial cable' Stacking of this aerial again re-
Iies on the removal of one bar lrom the folded dipole to give similar
matching arrargements to that for the Antiference 109/5A'
So much for slrgle-band aerials, simple and not so simple' Recently,
the writer has been doing a considerable amount of work with compo-
6ite affays, suitable for use on both the 52 and 144MC bands' While
these arrays are necessarily more complex than single band units'
they have an advantage for t}re amateur desiring to work both bands but
restricted ln terms of space.
Aerta,le intended lor use with the GSCAR satellite need' ideally, to
have equal gain at all polarities. This is due to the random polarity
sgnaf i*ety to be emltted by this. vehicle. While the artenna to be
described doeg not achieve thls ideal its performance is very close for
a slmple configuration. With a minimum gain of 9.5dB for any pol-
arity of GCAR'S signal excellent results are possible.
Ae a basis of ttris aerial we swgest that you use two Antiference 109 /
5A TV antennag, These two antemas should be modilied ln element
lengths as previously described, One boom is descarded and the ele-
-ents from lt are mounted on the complete antenna at right angles to
the existlrg elements. The aerial now becomes virtually one horl-
zontally polarised Yagi and one vertlcally pola-rised Yagi. To give
equal response through 180 degrees of polarity charge the two arrays
must be connected tcgether in correct phase.
Thi6 phasing lor the required coverage is 90 degrees. Ninety degrees
phase charge ls achleved by the use of a quarter wave section. The
impedance of. the quarter wave section in this applicatlon should be
t50 ohms. Iir thls case we would recommend the use of two lengths
of ?5 ohm coaxia.l cable bound together with plastic tape, the inner
conductors only betng used to equal an impedance of 150 ohms' Tal<-
ing into account the velocity factor, the length of this section will be
approdmately 13. 5".
Havlng proceded as outlined, a good match to ?5 ohm cable may be
made Uy connecting it directty to either folded dipole- Incidentally,
this ae;ial will also give very good results when worklng mobile 6ta-
tions, notwithstanding the polarity of the original signal' as the pol-
arity may often shilt over the path between the vehicle ln motion and
the fixed station.
finance
Quite often the amateur operator i8 restricted in the space,
or times avallable to devote to his hobby. With this in mind, some
study and experiment have been directed to the possibility of combined
 3OOOHM FETOER
€LEM€NTSFIIIEb 1O EOOM IN
SAMEMANNERAS FOR THE
FOUR ELEMENI SEAM
llrir tcn clcneat bcom cxhibits en opp.orimotc lorward goin of l2.SdB.
ttoEgcred dit.c,o. clemaat langtht arc ored to ochievc rcqsoToble bandvidth,

EI€MENI A INSULA'EOFROM SOOM

aLr ELIM€NTS l" DtA. ALUM|N|UM.
APPRCX. EOOM LENGIH 8"6"
\-
lhh rclolboly imple 2-bond -a.r9f ltet . colpotite drivea sle6sn1, ,ror14-
irg o 2-element beam on 52MC ond 1 elementr on l44MC. tt coyld bc
led vh e inglc 75-oha coqxiql coble.

77
aeria-ls for 52 and l44MC.
Not surprlalngly, the objective of a two-band aerlaj. array suggests a
variety of approaches, some of them lnfluenced by the intensive re-
search that has gone into multl-channel television arrays. But it ls
a lot easier to generalise and theorlse than physically tobuild-up and
test posslble designs.
For thie reason, we begin by mentlonlng a number of approache6 whl-
ch we didn't try but which may appea-l to readers lnterested in doing
ao.
The beam conflguration illustrated in iigue 6 uses a common driven
element consisting of a dlpole cut for 52MC, with a total length of
106.5 lnches. A centre portlon of this dipole, Iength 38.5 lnches, ls
made to function as a 144MC dipole by lsolating it lrom the remaind-
er of the element with quarter wavelength shorted stubs,
Thus, when fed with 52MC energy, the full length of the dlpole i8
used but, when fed with l44MC energy, the quarter wave stubs effect-
ively isolate the outside 6ectlons of the dipole, leaving only the 38,5"
portion. The stub length as shown is calculated for a veloclty factor
o fl
The hltial construction ol lhis array should be tackled as follows:
Cut the driven element to the sizes given, making the quarter-wave
6tubs in guch a manner that they may be shifted along the element.
One suggestion ior this is the use oI folded dipole links used in TV
aerials. Feed the drlven element with RF at the deslred l44MC op-
erating frequency and, using a VSWR bri@e or artenna lmpedance
bridge, set the stub positions for correct operation.
Normal assumption for the dipole alone would be for a 75 ohm centre
impedance and a ?5 ohm coaxial feed cable.
Change over to 52MC and adjust the Iength of the outer ends of the
driven element lor correct operation. Thls may mean the reduction
oi the element to well below the figure given. However, thls reduci-
ion should be made in small 6teps till resonance is achieved' It may
be necessary to re-check the element severa.l times on both frequen-
cles, The next step would be to flt the 52MC reflector and adjust its
spacing for minlmum SWR, 6till assuming a 75 ohm impedance'
Now ftt the remainder of the elements. The impedance at l44MC will
be somewhat lower than ?5 ohms but the SWR should still be below
2:1, which is considered tolerable.
Theoretically, on 52MC, a galn of approximately sdB should be ob-
talned and, on l44MC, an approxlmate galn of 8. 5dB. Addittonal dir-
ector s may be added for l44MC, as Iong as the SWR can be main-
tained at a reasonable figue. It is understood that this type of
'beam splitting" on the higher trequen-
aerial may be subject to some
cy, the front lobe tendirg to assume a heart shape, $'ith a slight null
directly in the line of the boom.
The second design, shown in figure 7, uses a different feed system.
On 52MC the beam acts as a two element array wlth an approximate
gatn of 5dB. Energy is not disstpated in the l44MC section, at the
52MC frequency, as the feedline between the two arrays and the folded
dipole combine to form a shorted quarter wave at 52MC; this reflects
a high lmpedance at the feeder attachment point. At l44MC the assem-
bly acts as a 5-element array *'lth an additional and interestirg advant-
age.

78
 TRANSMISSION

X, ,"u:
75 OHM
PHASTNG
S T U Br z j OF I

€ L E M E N IA I N S U L A I E OF R O W8 O O V ,
ALL ELEM€N's ]" OIA. ALUMINIUM.
BOOM LENGIH APPROX. IO' .'.'

Aa ellicieat 5-clemeat I11MC onay ie combined vilh o ?-olcmcnt 5214C

onlenno obovc utinq o ing|e leedat. Eecoure tfie relfector octt ot o photing
rtcb, trrc odiocent 52MC element behovct or ahree holl-wovet in ghotc on
|41r C.

PHASING STUBSl OlA. IUBING

2i 6ErwEEN Ct+l1R€s

" r t 300oHM
E L E M E N l SA , 8 , C I N s U L A I € O F R O M S O O M FTTDER
A L L E L € M E N T S/ " D I A . A L U M I N I U M

fhc seiet photcd attoy thown ill to lhe driven clamen', ochiqct
obotc it designed pimatily lot elri.ient trd^t4ittion on ld 1MC. tt
52MC. Hovevet, the titidg o, thould noi regsito critlcof on-tite
ghoting etemenk in clore proxin- adiustmont.
When operatirg at l44MC, energy will also be fed to the 52MC dipole.
This element will radiate, functioning as an (approximate) three half
wavelength radlator. Normally, radiation in this mode produces a
"clover leal" field pattern but the reflector element lor the l44MC array
in close proximity to the 52MC dipole, acts as a phasing element' mak-
"in
ing the dipole act as three l44MC half wave elements in phase. The
phase" operation minimises tlte "clover leaf" effect and produces a rel-
atively narrow fronta-l lobe.
Some juggling of the director spacings may be necessary to achieve a
reasonable SWR on 144MC. Properly adjusted, a gain of approxlmately
L 5dB could be expected from this antenna on 144MC.
An entirely different appro,ach to the problem of a dual band beam is giv-
en in flgure 8. Mechanically this configuratlon presents more problems
than the other two arrays but, electrically, it should be possible to lab-
ricate the aerial without need for subsequent adjustment. An SWR of
2:1 or better is theoretically possible, while the use of 300-ohm feeder
makes an SWR of up to 3.5:l readlly xcceptable.
At 52MC the beam consists of four driven elements in what is common-
ly known as a series phased array. Each driven element is joined by a
phasing stub to the fouowing element, the stub length shown in the illu-
stration belng a compromise flgure for both hands. For correct phasing
of the elements, these phasing stubs should be a quarter wave length or
multiples ol a quarter wave length, at the operating frequency. This
is automatically achieved with this aerial as the phasing stubs are appro-
ximately one quarter wavelergth at 52MC and three quarter wavelength
at l44MC.
PHASING ELEMENTS
At l44MC the aerial would normally radiate two major lobes with a split
between them in line with the boom. However' by adding four phasing
elements close to the driven elements, these lobes are brought together
to form one major lobe. This type of construction is commonly uaed in
TV aerial construction where channels available have an approximate
3 : 1 allocation in !requency. The approximate gain of this a-rray would
be 6dB at 52MC and l0dB at l44MC.
The simplest array found in any reference was that illustrated in figue
9. This array i6 patterned on the double vee antenna, popular in TV
circles. The gain figures quoted for the beam, 4dB at 52MC and 9dB at
l44MC, seem a little optimistic. However, this simple configuation
could be fashioned from a double vee TV antenna, or fittings, and may
be worth some experimental work.
For those,xho might like to build the double vee array, we would sug-
gest that the arms be made adjustable and set for the best SWR comp-
romise between the two bands. As 300-ohm feeder is used, an SWR
of up to 3:l v/ould be quite acceptable.
Several references have been already made to the SWR exhibtted by
anays when connected to vuious feeders. Just what this means ln
terms oI lost slgna.l is explained in the next few paragraphs, the fig-
ures quoted being extracted from charts given ln the ARRL Hand-
book, 39th edition,
For reference purposes, Iet us conslder what additional loss in a fe-
eder cable is brought about by a SWR of 2:1. A mediocre ?5-ohm co-
axial cable, with an average length of 100 feet, having an SWR of 1:l
exhibits a loss at 50MC of zdB and at l44MC a loss of 4,5d8, Increa-
 o i>
5l'
rFt
E
, Ei
!F>t r -
.Q.F i
! o

€ :s
>d
,tjzl
1a
5H
^U
!
e:- F
54
o =
o A C
'C ,;
;.1
Yo(J
qU . C O
af .d. F'.:

APPROX.5tI" FROM TIPSOF ELEMENIS

TO
CENTREOF MAST

\
lA sruB50oHM

iiiiiii
co.Ax.ll7*")

l^ stuS39oR
50 OHM CO-AX
(r7l ")

iEi!Ef
!

8l
sirg the SWR to 2:1 the additlonal loss will be 0.35d8 and 0.45 res-
pectlvely. A good coadal cable under the same conditions sho$'s a
loss oI I . 25dB and 2dB respectively at an SWR of 1: I , while an SWR of
2:1 glves an additional loss oI 0' 275d8 and 0' 3125dB at the respective
fr equenctes.
From the above flgures for coaxial cables it will be appreciated that the
addttional losg causedby an SwR ol 2:1 is not sufficient to cause con-
c e r n w h e n o p e r a t i n go n 5 2 o r l 4 4 M C .
Standard 300 ohm TV ribbon has an approximate loss, over 100 feet,
o t 0 . 8 d 8 a n d l . 5 d B a t t h e s e f r e q u e n c i e sw h e n t h e S w R i s l : 1 ' I n c r e a -
s l n g t h e S W R t o 2 : 1 , t h e a d d i t l o n a ll o s s i s 0 . 1 7 5 d 8 a n d 0 . 2 ? 4 d Br e s p -
ectively, Futher increaslrg the SWR to 3:1 the additional loss is stiU
only 0.4dB and0.68d8 respectlvely. It ls obvious, therefore, that the
uge of 300 ohm ribbon wlll allow the SWR to be higher than coaxial cable
before the loss of signal ts equalled' A closing thought on this subject is
that mo6t amateurs would not have a feeder run exceedingapproximately
50 feet and therefore, these losses would be reduced accordingly.
A noted aeriat for horlzontally polarlsed, all-round coverage and one
which the writer used for a tlme, is the turn-stile. An adaptationof this
'Quadpod" has proved qulte
aerial, nick named by a Sydneyamateur the
succegsful ln dual-band operatlon,
A turn-stile aerial consists of two dlpoles crossed at rlght angles ard led
90 degrees out of phase. The phase change is achievedby the use of a
quarter-wave cable section between the dipoles. The "QuadPod"aerial
consists of a turnstile aerial ln which four arme are drooped at an angle
of 45 degrees. (Ratstng them to produce the same included argle hag
b e e n s u g g e s t e da 8 a n a l t e r n a t l v e . )
Drooping the elements has three effects on the aerlal: The llrst effect ls
that the feed lmpedance of each section of the aerial is lowered and is
closer to 50 ohm6 than ?5 ohms. This means that the feed point of the
aerial becomes approximately 25 ohms. The gecond ls an alteration ln
the electrical length of the antenna, In practlce this eflest can be lgnored'
provlded the included angle of the dtpole is not less than 90 degrees' The
third effect ls the polarisatlon o{ the eerlal. with this final conflguration
equal response ls achieved from both vertlcal and horlzontally polarised
signals,
In flgure 10, the aerlal ls ehown wlred ready for assembly. The two
dlpoles should be mounted at right argles, in close proximity, on the
supporting mast and the elements drooped at 45 degrees. When used
on the lower frequency band, the SWR of the aeria-l varled from 1.2:1
at 53MC to 1.8:l at 52 and 54MC. On the 144MC operating trequency,
the SWR wes measued at l.?:1. The performance of the aerlal in arl
attic of a block of flats proved to be reasonable on both bands.
The matching stubs do not give perfect matching as they can only be co-
rect for one band. However, the match ls near enoughfor all practica.l
purpoees, ag reaults have proved'
Figure 11 ahowa one dual band aerlal whlch exhibited quite good chara-
cteristica, was cheap to construct but proved a little unwieldy to rotate.
It was an adaptatlonof the Lenfo array and, when adjucted, was capable
of le6s than 2:l SWR on both bandg. Full meagurementswere not taken
on the array but approximate figures were as follows: Forward gain,
52MC approximately 4,5dB, l44MC approximately 9dB. The a-rray co-
uld be fed directly with 300 ohm ribbon, or with ?5 ohm coaxial cable
by uslrg a four-to-one batun. By adjusting the lergth of wire on the end

6Z
 OR
d9
<d
T;
2 v
;s
f> igr
s5;

MoorFrEocHANNet 0
FOLoEOOlpol€s

APPROX9d8 GAIN AT I{.5MC

A P P R O X . 7 dG8 A | N A l 5 2 . 5 M c
AND RIFIiCTOR i" O.D.
r4.MC o|R€CTORS
IHICX WALL ATUMINIUMTUEING
ATLFOLO!DOIPOT€5 IUSING
I'' O.O.ALUMINIUM
PORITON OF S/C SIUI \ -.-
Y ?
A T 5 2 .s M C ( r I l l
x 9
r s T U Ea T r a . . 5 M C FHASING SECTION. I PIfCES
] O OO H M R I 8 8 O N I N P A R A L L E L
WITH CROSS.OVER

.B
I o/c s]u6
AIL !ECTIONSMADI A T t 4 4 . 5 Ml C
t3J..l
oF 15 oHM co.Ax.

lhfu procticol dcilign mokcr moxiaum vtc ol lY coaporeak and h cogoblc ol

excellent rerultr cvor in conlincd tpocet' A giclutc ol the linhhcd bcon
it rhown ol lhe head c, ah. olticto, lt lotdt idao o loitly <oapct btndlc
lot hondllng o, lr.ntepf'.
of each element the SWR may be set at a compromise for both bands'
The dual-band beam finally adopted by the writer ts illustrated 1n figure
12, There is nothing extraordinary about this array otler than the use
of only one feeder and the method used to obtain freedom from reactive
effects from the antenna portlon not 1n use' When operating on 144MC
It ls effectively a slx element Yagi, the other two elements being iso-
rtA, and approximate gain
lated fuom the feeder by the stubs
of this array i6 gdB with a front to back ratio better than 20dB'
The remaining tvto elements of this beam are operated on 52MC in a
"ZL special"..
configuration commonly known as a
The phasir€; line is made fuom two 28 3/8 inch lengths of 300 ohm rib-
bon connecied in parallel. An easy way to take approximately 62 inch-
es of 300 ohm ribbon and lold it in hatf. The two halves should be taped
llat together with plastic insulatlon tape. Where the bend was made
the wires are exposed takirg care not to break them, and made ready
to connect to one folded dipole. At 28 3/8" from this end the other ends
are bared and connected without crosslng, ready for joining to the se-
cond dlpole.
Belore final connection, the phasirg line is given a half turn to reverse
the leed connectlon. The folded dipole at the end of the boom ie led
135 degrees out of phase with the other folded dipole achieving the pro-
pagation of the radiated signal a-long the line of the boom in the same
dlrection as the 144MC signal.
As the two folded dipoles are very closely spaced, 1 /8" wavelergth, it
has been postulated that the interaction causes the radiation resistance
of each folded dipole to drop to approximately 180 ohms. Thls would
give a feed point impedance of approximately 90 ohms. In practice we
found that a reasonable SWR could be achieved when 75 ohm coaxial
cable was used to feed the array.
When the array is operated on 52MC, stub'C" combines with the 144
MC lolded dipole to make a shorted quarter wavelergth stub on 52MC
thus lsolating the l44MC array from the feeder. Checked in situ when
the aeria,l re6onanceB had been adjusted the beam exhibited better
the
than 2:l SWR on both bands with no notlceable lnteraction between
two sections.
part6 were
To ma]{e the task easy when constructing this array, a-ll TV
used. The three tolded dipoles were purchased complete with insulators
resonarce on
and boom locking blocks, and slightly modilied to achieve
iii" t*o "-"t"tr-bands. As indicated on the illustration, one channel-
"5A" and two channel "Ort lolded dipoles were u8ed' The clamps hold-
ing the other elements were also TV fittings which allowed the whol€
prototype were
array to be lolded for transport. The clamps.used on-the
io" "pfrt elements but we would recommend the use of clamps' which are
in two'
available, which do not require the elements totle split
"ZL 6pecial. has been claimed in various magazinesas
ite gain ol the
Ueir{ fan. Accordlng to the best aeriat references, two dipoles spaced
ty 1'78 wavelength a;d fed out of phase by I 35 degrees will exhibit a
maximum gain of 4.5dB. In practice the aerial has averaged out to
between 4 and 5dB gain on a number of tests. These gain figues are
quoted in reference to a half \r,ave dipole in free space.
"the t'ZL
special" configuration was chosen for the 52MC portion of this
aerial because of the space saved by the close spacing of the elements'
However, there is no reason why any other 52MC configuration cannot be
used as long as lt exhlbits the correct feed impedance of ?5 ohms. The

84
 *A MAICHING STUBNOMOGRAPH

ton lodiout .atcoltaiont. thi, nqogfrph

.lo only rcquhet
.h. un o, .-.arotgha-adra.o ** cf.-coireJ--il6iZ"i
,ot o qtonai wwc motchlag *iL,

same applies to the t44MC section which could

be enlarged as long as a
reasonable SWR can be maintained.
Figure l3 consista of e nomograph which
makes the calculation of quar_
matchlrg etub impedance" " "i;;i;i;k'or
edge to a chart. An examnle_ts shown on tt" g"rph "io,vrne a stratsht
9::::"
io;_ aeriat with an
imped-ance of 300 ohms *iri"t is to Ue usJwitfr-i'i-S-"f,rn
lng off the value on the centre line we frnd feeder. Read_
d;i-; q;;;;" wave srub with
an impedance of 150 ohms can be used r" ";hi;;=;;;o".""t
tween the aerial and the feeder, _"t"h b"_

85
AN FM DETECTOR TOR AMATEURS
This relatively straighttorward outboard FM strip using a low cost phase
locked loop IC may be of interest to thos€ radio amateurs who' llke my-
"tuneable" part of the
self. have until now been operating mainly on the
VHFbands using AM. I have built it into my existing home-brew tuneable
IF receiver, and it gives very clean demodulation ol the many relatively
wide deviation FM signals found on the FM net channels'
Like others before me, my first attempts to provide the tuneable-IF re-
ceiver with an FM demodulation facility involved altermtive detector
circuits at the end of the existing 455kHz IF strip, But while this app-
roach can glve good results with narrow deviation FM 6igFals' lt is
virtually useless for the wide-deviation signals produced by many of
the converted FM-mobile transceivers in use on the VHF net channels,
The reason is, of course, that these sigrals cannot pass through the
relatively narrow 455kllz IF passbandof the usual AM/SSB receiver.
The only real way around the problem i3 to add not iust a separate de-
tector, but a complete parailel IF channel with an adequatelywide pass-
band. IJ a conventionalapproach were used, this would become quite a
job, but luckily modern semisonductor technology can again come to the
rescue. In this case, tt comes in the form of the NE-565, a Iow cost
phase-locked loop IC made by the Signetics Corporation' This lends
itself very readily for use as an FM detector at up to about 500kHz, and
has almost enoughgain as well to operate direstly from the mixer out-
put.
It does need a little additional gain in order to cope with weaker signals'
together with a modest amount of 455kHz preselection - mainly to stop
the loop from jumping across to a strong€r Eignal on an adiacent chan-
nel: The circuit shown 6eems to meet these requirements fairly wellt
and yet is quite straightforward. It takes the 455kHz signal from the
low impedance secondary of the first IF transformer in my solid state
receiver, but has a fairly high input impedanceand could probably be
connectedinto the mixer plate circuit of a valve receiver without un-
due loading.
Alignment must be done on a weak 6lgnal, as a Etrong signal wiU pull
the PLL and give deceptlvely good results even when the circuit is
badly misaligned. Baslcally the procedure is quite gimple - use an
aerial attenuator or the RF gain control of the receiver to progresslvely
reduce the signal level, and adjust both the IF transformer and the VCO
tuning pot to give clear demodulation icr the smallest possible signal
Ievel.

86
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A SOLIDSTATE,
CALIBRATOR
CRYSTALFREQUENCY
A compact instrument which may be used to deliver any of thirteen accurately
.ontroil"d antl stable test frequency signals,all derived from a quartz srystal
oscillator and having a thst-transitionrectangularwavefortn of high harmonic
content. lt should bi found invaluablefor calibration of receiversand instrum-
ents,and would also be useful as an audio oscillator, square-wavegenerator'
digital circuit tester or as the heart of a crystal-controlledchronometer'

A sourceof accuratelycontrolled and stablc test frequency signalsvastly

simplitiesand facilitatesthe frequency calibration of short-waveIecelvels,
signalgeneratorsand other equipment' both during initial calibration follow-
"spot check" purposesduring critical operation'
irig coistruction, and lbr
Sricha source can also sorveas a marker generatortbr sweep{iequency
alignment,anclas I time-period referencefor such applicationsas the cali-
bration of an oscilloscopetimebase.

Tl]e instrument to be describedin this article deliversany one of thilteen

quartz-crystalderivedfundamental test frequencies,eachof which is accont-
well tlp into the VHF spectrum'
ianied by a seriesof its harmonicsextending
it is ttreretorewell suited for tlte above applications,as well as lbr more "clock"
generaluse as an audio-videosquarewavegenetatorand :rsa digital
It miSht also form the basis of a quartz-crystalchronometer' or
!"n"totot.
t h e t i m e b a s es y s t e mo f a d i g i t a lc o u n t e r .

Although functionally very flexible, the instrument is basicallyquite

straighiforwardin design.lt is also very comPact,and will involve but a
mod"est<.rutlay.When built up in its complete tbrm, lor example, it should
cost no more than about $50. However,if the full rangeofoutput frequen-
cies is not required, this figure may be significantly reduced'

The key to the attractive high tlexibility/low complexity ratio offered by

pefform
the instrument lies in its use of integrateddigital microcircuits to
all the active functions. In fact, apart fuom the singlequartz crystal and
the power supply conrponents,the instrument consistsof nothing more
than a hanctfulof microcircuits and a few bypasscapacitors'
"RTL" (resistor-transistor
Tte microcircuits usedare all of the low-cost
logic) variety. Only two devicetypes are used,both from the MC700P range
minufo.tured by Motorola Semiconductors'One type MC799P dual bulTer
deviceis usedin the crystal oscillator,while up to thirteen type MC790P
dual J-K flip-flop devicesare usedin the calibrateddivider chain'used to
"DIL"
deiive the variorisoutput frequencies.All devicesare in the l4-pin
(duat inline) Package'

A l l o f t h e a c t i v ec i r c u i t r y o f t h e i n s t r u m e n ti s m o u n t e do n a s m a l ls i n g l e -
sided printed wiring board, making assemblyof the unit.a simple and
straiglitforwardopiration. The board measuresonly 3/+in x 5%in' but

88
 .. ll:lj3:: adequatespacefor the quartz crystal and all fourteen microcircuits,
r o g e t n ew
r l u l m l n o r c o n t p o n e n t sa n d w i r i n g .

Heartof the instrument is the crystal oscillator, shown in figure l. 'rhis uses
an MC799Pdual'buffer deviceconnectedbasicailyas an astablemultivibra-
tor, with the quartz crystal in one feedbaoklink. A capacitor/trimmer
combinationconnectedin serieswith the crystal rllolis vernier adjustment
of the fiequency of oscillation and permits standardisationor tlie instrum-
- ent againsta ret'erencesuch as the NIls standardtransmissionso f wwV or
WWVH.

The crystal usedin the oscillator is a.,D-type" unit, lravinga nominal

frequencyof 2MHz (2,000KH2). This freqtiency was choscnrn contrast
w i t h t h e m o r e u s u a lf i g u r e so f l M l { z a n d l 0 0 K H z b e c a u s ei t w o u l d a p p e a r
that, where modern crystalsare concerned,2MHz representsa considliably
m o r ea t t r a c t i v cp e r f o r m a n c e / c o scto m p r o m i s e .
Typically a modern 2MHz crystal costs slightly ressthan half
that of a
l.MHz crystalot- comparabletolerance,nd ft.qu"n"y
stabitity, and less
than one third the cost ofa comparablel00KHz crystal.
Naturally, the
useof a 2MHz crystal involvesadditional frequency division,
and ilris
t e n d st o r e d u c et h e c o s t a d v a n t a g eH. o w e v e r w , i t h t h e u s eo f l o w c o s t
microcircuitsin the divider chain the additional division provicled
is very
e c o n o m i c a l l ys,o t h a t t h e a d v a n t a g e o f e r n p l o y i n ga 2 M H i c r y s t a l j ss t i l l
q u i t es i g n i l i c a n t .

T h e c r y s t a lu s e di n t h e p r o t o - t y p e . l n s t r u m e insta . 0 0 3 p e r
centadjustment
tolerarce AT-cut type, specified tbr operation
ut u,nUiJrut".peratures. It
waskindly supplied by pye pty. Ltd., who advise
that similar units can be
supplied_ to readerson order,eitller direct or via norrnut-lurt,
suppliers.
The Py designationof the unit.in tcrms "i t"f*"r""'""a'stability
"FEF", is class
w i t h t h e h o l d e rc o d e . . e l 2 4 " a n A t l e n o n i i n a i i i t e n d e d
c a p a c i t a n c3e0 p F . shunt

Similarcrystalsof difTerent manufacturemay

be used,and even a disposals
crystal may be tried ifavailable. The oscillator
circuit is n.t critical, and
will op€rate witlr a wide variety of crysral..
i;;;;;;;;;iroura be borne in
mind th:rt the ultintate t'requency,tutitity oi
ttr" inri.."nt dspendsal-
most conrplcteryupon the crystal, so
thai a rowaradc r'rniinroy seriously
prejudiceusefulncss.

It rnay be,notcd that r.hecapacitor and trilnrner

connectedin serieswith
the crystill are both NpO ceranriccumponents,
to cnsure th"t th" t"nrp"r-
a t u r cs t : l b i l i t yo l ' t h e o s c i l l a t o ri s n o t s i g n i t i c a n t l y
l e s st h a n t h a t o f t h e
c r y s t a li t s e l f ' I. t i s l b r t h e s a m er e a s o nt i r a t t h e
,0bluF loupfingcapacitor
ts specificdas a polystyrene type.

The 2MHz output from the crystal oscillator could

be useddirectly as the
highestfundamental output frT_uerlgyof the
instrument, atthough this
would require the use of a third buf.ferelement
to ensure'tlat output load_
ing would not degratlethe liequency stability. In
the tjnal designof the

89
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I instrument we havenot followed this course,but insteadhave settled upon
I

I lMllz as the highest fundamental output frequency,

This has allowed the use of an MC790p dual J-K flip-l1op both as an
oscillator but'fer and as rhe initial 2: I divider. Both flip-flops of the device
are connected in toggling mode and operated from the 2MHz oscillator out-
put, as tnay be seenin ligure l, one eft'estivelyproviclinga buftereti lMHz
o u t p u t a n d t h e o t l i e r p r o v i d i n ga n i n d e p e n d e n lt M H z s i g n a lf o r t h e
f o l l u w i n gd i v i d e r c h a i n .

T h e d i v i d e rc h a i n o f t h e i n s t r u r n e n ct o n s i s t so f a s e r i e so f l 0 : 1 d i v i d e r
9:".u9.r: each using the configuration shown in figure 2. The configuration
dividesin what may be called a ,,quibinary', or (jx 2) lashion, with the
flrst elenrentFFI dividing the input by two, and the remaining three
c l c t n c n t sd i v i di n g b y l i v c .

The actu:rlconfiguration used is particularly attractive from the point of

view of cconomy, tbr as nray be seenit requiresno separategating elements
to perform the required decadedivision. Only four J-K flip-flop el"-ents
are required, al?gatingbeing performed by the elementsthemselves.(The
four elementsusedare provided by two MC790p dual flip-flop devices.)

Quite apart from its economicaluse of elenlents,the configuration has a

further attraction. From the output of elernentFFI may be taken a useful
auxiliary o-ulput signal,representinga 2: I division of the input signal.Thus
in term.s_offrequencymultiples,each decadeof the diviclercan provide
b o t h a " X l " s i g n a l( F F 4 o u t p u t ) a n d a . , X 5 ' , s i g n a l( F F l o u t p u t . y .

Space.is.provided on the printed wiring board for up to six divider decades,

in addition 10 the crystal oscillator and the initial buffer divider. whether
or not all of thesedecadesare wired will depend solely upon the needsof
the constructor concerningthe availablerangeof output frcquencies.

If all decadesare wired, the rangeof frequenciesavailableextends from

lMHz down to lHz in a lG5-l s€quence.However the sequencemay be
terminated at any desiredpoint simply by omitting the redundant
microcircuits.If both devicesof any redundant deoadesare omitted, the
l o w e s ta v a i l a b l ef r e q u e n c yw i l l b e a m u l t i p l e o f I ( o r l 0 ) ; h o w e v e r ,i t i s
entirely permissibleto wire in only one device of the lowest decade
involved,in order to provide the appropriate..X5" signal.

Henceif the constructor desiresto provide only those frequenciesextend-

ing down to 10KHz" he would wire in only the first two dlcades following
the crystal oscillator and buft'er divicler.This would involve a total of onlf
six microcircuits,and result in a considerablesaving.

Another of the many possiblevariationswould be where those frequencies

t" 50Hz are required, but not those lower. This would require tbur
lgy!
full decades,together with thc tjrstdevice only from the fifth decade.In
t h i s c a s ea t o t a l o 1 ' e l e v e nm i c r o c i r c u i t sw o u l d b e i n v o l v e d .

9t
Output voltage for all signatsis approximately 2V peak to peak.

The designof the printed wiring board and circuitry is such that any or all
of any decadesor part-decadesomitted when the instrument is fitst made ,
could easily be added at a later time if the need arosefor the provision of
lower frequencies. It would also be feasible to add additional decadesto the
six allowed for on the board, in order to obtain still lower frequenciesthan
1Hz. However if this is contemplated it should be borne in mind that the
power supply may have to be re-designedto cope with the additional
current demands.

As may be seenfrom the main circuit diagram, the oscillator/dividerboard

forms the heart of the instrument. The remainderof the circuitry consists
of a simple regulatedpower supply deliveringa nominal 3.6V DC for the
microcircuits,and a straightforwardswitching sy$tem to permit selcctionof
the desiredoutput signal.

The printed board pattern will be supplied to interestedboard manufacturers,

so that boardsshould be availabletn the near future. The pattern is coded
6 9l c 9 .

The power supply consistsof a conventionalfull-wave rectifier followed by a

simpleseries-pass regulator using an NPN power transistor.Referencevoltage
for the transistoris obtained using a 4.3V zener diode. The transistorbase
supply is filtered to ensurethat the transistoralso acts as a dynamic hlter.

As the current drain of the oscillator/dividerboard is approximately 500mA

when all divider decadesare wired, the quiescentpower dissipatedby the
series-passtransistorcan exceedone watt. In view of this it is desirableto
employ in this position a devicewith a rated dissipationof 3W or more at
40 degreesC., to allow adequatesafety margin.

The T0-66 type power devicesspecifiedon the circuit haveadequateratings

for this purpose,and are thus quite suitable. However,a devicewith higher
ratingscould be used ifon hand. Alternatively it would be possibleto use
medium-powersilicon TO-5 devicessuch as the 40408 or AY81 16, provid-
ing they were fitted wlth the appropriate clip-on heat radiator to limit case
ternperature.

The output signalselection,circuitryhas been arrangedfor simplicity and

operatingconvenience.The I MHz output signalhas been taken directly to
one output connector, both becauseit is in a sense"thirteenth man" and
becausethis permits the instrument to be calibrated to greatestaccuracyu9
ing this signal,evenwhen one of the other signalsis being usedsimultane-
ously lbr another purpose.

The selectionof the remaining twelve output signalsis performed by a two-

polc six-positionswitch and a two-position toggleswitch, the latter connect-
ing to a secondoutput connector. Isolating resistors(1.5K) are iitted in
serieswith each of the output connectorsto prevent damageor malfunction
due to severeloading or short-circuits.

92
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i
The instrument is housed in a small rectangularinstrument casesimilar to
that usedfor many ofour recent designs,and measuring7%in x 5in x 4in.
The front panel controls consist of the freqiency selectionswilches,the
output connectorsand the mains switch and pilot bezel,

Inside the case,the printed wiring board is supported by two right-triang-

ularbrackets which are in turn clamped to the front panel by the input
connector screwsat one end, and the mains switch and bezel at the other.
A hole in the bracket adjacentto the crystal end of the board and a similar
hole in the appropriateend of the casepermit the crystal ossillator trim-
mer to be adjustedfor calibration once the instrument is t'ully assembled.

The two miniature toggleswitchesand miniature pilot bezel used in the

i n s t r u m e n ta r e a v a i l a b l ef r o m L R . H . C o m p o n e n t sP t y . L t d . T h e s w i t c h e s
a e r N . K . K . t y p e 2 - 2 0 1 2 ,w h i l e t h e b e z e li s a R o d a n 6 V 5 0 m A t y p e . B o t h
c o m p o n e n t sn r a yb e o r d o r e dv i a t h e u s u a lp a r t ss u p p l i e l s .

Using the wiring diagram provided, assemblyof the componentson the

printed wiring board should be sirnpleand straightforward.The main point
t o w a t c h i s t h a t a s m a l l ,w e l l t i n n e d i r o n s h o u l db e u s e d ,a n d t h e j o i n t s
made rapidly in order to avoid over-heatingeither the printed board con-
d u c t o r s ,o r t h e m i c r o c i r c u i t sC
. a r es h o u l db e t a k e n t h a t t h e s o l d e rd o e sn o t
form bridgesbetweenconductors in placeswhere the spacingis relatively
narrow.

Note that all wire links and bypasscapacitorsmounted on the board must
be fitted, regardlessof whether or not all of the divider diodes are wired.
T h e l i n k s a r ee s s e n t i aflo r c o n t i n u i t y o f t h e s u p p l y l i n e , w h i l e t h e b y p a s s
c a p a c i t o r se n s u r ot h a t o p e r a t i o no f t h e m i c r o c i r c u i t si s n o t d i s t u r b e db y
supply line transients.

The NPO ceramic trimmer which forrns the calibration adjustment for the
crystal oscillator is a specialtype designedfor printed-boardmounting and
s i d ea d j u s t r n e n tT. h e u n i t e m p l o y e di n t h e p r o t o t y p e a n d t b r w h i c h t h e
printed board has been designedis marketed in Australia by the lmported
C o m p o n e n t sD i v i s i o no f P l e s s e D y u c o n P t y , L t d . , a n d m a y b e o r d e r e dv i a
normal parts suppliers.The type number is DVI l-PR8A.

The powor supply scction of the instrument is mounted in the lower rear of
the case,with the power translbrmer mounted toward the caseend opposite
to that of the quartz crystal, in order to reduce thermal drift effeots.The
main cord terminations are mounted on one side of the transformer,while
the rectifier and regulator componentsare mounted on the other side on an
8-lug sectionof miniature resistorpanel.

The regulator series-passtransistor is mounted c€ntrally on the rear of the

case,being insulatedelectricallyby meansof the usual mica washerand
plastic bushes.In this way thc caseitself acts as the heat radiator for the
device.

94
The power supply wiring is not criticrl, and the constructor may deviatc
liom the luyout of the prototype ifdesired. llowever, care should be ttken
t o e n s u r e t h a t t h e p o w e r c o r d i s c l a r t r p e ds e c u r e l y u p o n c n t r y v i a t h e u s u a l
grommetted ltolc, to prevent strain on tlre conncctions. The oord earth con-
ductors should bc taken to a soldcr lug clamped under the adjtoent trans-
lbrmer counting screw,

When the power supply sectiolt is conrpleted,it would be wise to appty

porvcrund check its oulput voltugc bcforc thc oscillator/dividcr board is
c o n n e c t e d .T h i s w i l l e n s u r e t l l x t i f r n e r r o r l r r s o c c u r r e d , i t c a n b e r e c t i l - i e d
before drmage coukl bc cuusedto tlre relatively costly rnicrocircuit array.

W i t h o u t t h e n r i c r o c i r c u i t s c o n n e c t c d , t h c v o l t r g e d e l i v e r c c lb y t h e p o w e r
supply should b( between 3.8 and 4.5V I)C; it'it lies within this rangg,
e v e r l , t h i n gi s p r o b a b l y i n o r d e r l n d t h e n r i c r o c i r c u i t s m a y b e s r l ' e l y c o n n e c -
t e d . I - l o r v c v e ri l ' t h e v o l t a g e i s r n a r k e d l y h i g h e r t h r n 4 , 5 V w i t h n o l o a d ,
switch ol'f und look tbr a wiritrg or colnponent fault.

As virturlly all the fr.rnctionnw l iring is provided by the printed wiring

bourd, conncction of thc 3.6V supply to the contpleted board should
r e s u l t i n f u l l l n d c o r r e c t o p e r x t i o t . l .T h e o n l y a s p e c t o f c o n s t r u c t i o n w h i c h
w i l l r c n r a i n t t t h i s s t a g ei s c a l i b r a t i o n o f t h e c r y s t a l o s o i l l a t o r a g a i n s ta
known rel'erencc.

As explained earlicr, this operation is perforrned when the unit is com-

p l c t e d r n d i l s s e m b l e d ,u s i n g t h c s m a l l c e r a m i c t r i m n t e r . A d j u s t n l e n t o f t h e
t r i r n n r e ri s c a r r i e i l o u t u s i n g a s n r a l li n s u h t e d a l i g n m e n l t o o l , i n t r o d u c e d
t h r o u g h t h e h o l e s p r o v i d c d i n t h e e n d o t ' t h e c : r s ea n d t h e b o a r d s u p p o r t
bracket.

Two metlxrds of calibrrtion nray be used. One simply involves measure-

n l c n t o l t l l c I M l l z o u t p u t 0 f t h e i n s t r u m e n t u s i n g a h i g h - a c c u r a c yd i g i t a l
frequency mctcr. This is il vcry cttieii.nt tcchniqire,und will no doubt
appcal to tlrose with the appropriate tacilities. Flowcver, it should be
noted tllat the I'rcquency rneter used should be one having a timcbase
systorn whosc accurtcy and stability are at least within 1 part per million,
othcrwise thc excrcise will have little validity. The reason tbr this is that
t h e c a l i b r a t o r i t s e l f i s l i k c l y t o h t v e a p e r f i r r n t a n c ea p p r o a c h i n g I 0 p a r t s
per rnillion, when set up.

Tlte clectrical sctup for the alternative method of'calibration is almost

rs simple, and may be more convenient. It involves only a oonventional
shortrvave or conrnrunications receiver capable of receiving a standard
liequency trrnsnrission suclt as those radiatcd by station WWV on 2.5,
5.0, 10.0, I 5.0, 20.0 and 25.0!tllz, or by station WWVH on 5.0, I 0.0
andl5.0MHz. The I MHz signal from the calibrator is simply l'cd into a
rudimentary aerial near the receiver, and the calibrutor trimmer adjusted
for zero beat.

The procedure is to switch both the calibrator and the receiver on and
let tltem run for about I 5 minutes to allow the case temperrtutes to
strbilise. At this stace no connection should be made to the pr*put

95
 connectors of the calibrator, in order that radiation should be minimal.
Then tune the recciver carefully to whichever of the standard irequency
s i g n a l si s c u r r e n t l y a v a i l a b l ea t a l e v e l a d e q u a t e f o r c o n v e n i e n t a n d
reliablereception.
A l b o t o r t w o o l h o o k u p w i r e m a y t h e n b e i n s e r t e di n t o t h e l M l , l z o u t _
put connector, whereupon J beat note should become
audible in the
recciver output. It ntily in somc casesbe necessary to place the wire close
t o t h e r e c e i v e ra c r i a l l e a d - i n , o r p e r h a p s e v c n t w i s t t h j t w < t
together, in
order to obtain sufficicnt coupling.
A d j u s t n l e n t o f t h e c a l i b r a t o r t r i m m e r s h o u l c la l l o w t h e
boat note to be
. rtxlucedin frequency below audibility, although continued triming of the
t r i n l n c r i n t h e s a n t ed i r e c t i o n s h o u l d r e s u l t i n t h e n o t e r e _ r p p e a r i n g
and
r i s i n g . i n p i t c h o n c c a g a i n . T h e z e r o - b e a tc o n d i t i o n r i e s
in the oentre ol the
i n r u d i b l e - b e r t s c g r n c n to f x d j u s t m e n t , a n d w i t h m : r n y r e c e i v e r s
it may
h r v e l o b ( ' - c s t i n r r t r . db y i n t e r p o l a t i o n . I - l o w e v e r ,i f t h c r e c c i v e r
is fitted
with an "S" nrcter il slrould be possiblcto obseive
the beatson ule meter
w h e n t h c y i l r e n c a r z e r o , r n d a m o r e a c c u r a t es o t t i n g m a y b e
achieved.
oncc sct up in this fushion the calibrator should retiin its caribrari.n rbr
a c o n s i d e r a b l ep e r i o d . T h e o s c i l l a t o r c i r c u i t i s r e l a t i v e l y i n s e n s i t i v et o t e m .
perature, and is also free from many of the aging eflects
whicli are found
with other circuits. However, before critical nreisurernents
are to be made
u s i n g t h e i n s t r u n l e n t , i t w o u l d b e w i s e t o r e - c h e c ki t s c l l i b r a t i o n u s i n g t h e
above tcchniques,
PARTSLIST
1 Casc, 7%inx 5itr x 4in, with wrap.aroundfront pancl, board brackets.
I l'rinta<l wiing board, 60f c9.
I Stepdctwntransforncr, 240V to 12.6V CT, at t A.
1 2.000Mltz quartz crystal (seetext).
I Two-polc six-Tnsttion rotar)) switch.
2 SI'DT miniature toggleswitches.
I Minioturc pilot lamp, bezel,6V at 50mA.
2 Co-axial connectors.
CAPACITORS
I 2-8pF NPO ccramic trimmer lscc text).
I 22pF NPO (uomic.
I .001 uF polystyrcnc, 400 V or lower if availahle.
3.047uF 25Vlt ceramic.
2 I00uF 6Vl4 electolvtic.
1 I 000uF 10W elcctrolytic.
SEMICONDUCTORS
2 B YI 26150 diodes or similar
I BZY88lC4V3 or similar4.3V zanerdiode.
I A D | 6 1 , 4 0 2 5 0 , A Y 8 l 0 9 o r s i m i l a rN P Np o w e r t r u n s i s t o n
I MC7 99I' dual hufft, r micr<tcircuit.
l3 MCT9OPdualJ.K flip-flop microcircuits (seetext).
Rfs/.t70R.S
6 22 ohms %watt_
2 I.5K %watt.
Mains cord and plug; gromrnet and cord clamp: 8-lug section of
miniature resistor panel; 3-lug miniature tagstrip: cdsehandle, rubber
fcet; screws,nuts, connecting wire, Solder,etc.

96
 BERNARDS& BABANI PRESSMDIO AND ELECTRONICSBOOKS

BP! first Bok of Transistor Equivalentsand Substitutes 4ob

BP2 HandbookofRadio,TVand[nd.& TransmittingTube& ValveEquivatenrs ddi
BP3 Handbookof Tested Transistor Circuits 40;
BP4 World's Short, Medium & Long Wave, FM & TV Broadcasting -
StationsListing (lnternationalEditionj 60p
BP5 Handbookof Simple Transistor Circuits 35;
BP6 Engineersand MachinistsReferenceTables aO;
BP7 Radioand Electronic Colour Codesand Data Chart iSi
Cfq !9qnd and LoudspeakerManu.l 50;
BP9, 38 PracticalTestid Diode Circuits for the Home Constructor a5;
BPl0 Madern.ClystalandTransistorSetCircuitsforB - eginners 55;
BPI I PracticalTransistor Novelty Circuits 40o
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BPl3_ Electronic Novelties forthe Mbtorist' SO;
BPl4 SecondBookofTransistorEquivalerts iSi
BPl5 ConstructorsManualofElectionicCircuitsfortheHom€ 50;
BPI6 HandbookofElectronicCircuitsfortheAmateurphotographer 60;
BPlT Radio ReceiverConstruction Handbook using lC's and T-rarisistors 60;
BP|S Boyr & Beginn€rsB@k of Piaciial Radio & Etecronics OOi
BPIL t, Etectronic Nov€lty Circuits ZS'p
9l?1 li.ft Book of PracricelElectronic projects : 75;
BP24 52 Projects using lCl41 (or Equiyalends) ii;,'
BP25 How.to Build Your Owd Elecironioand Quartz Controlled Watches -'-:-- &
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!99 A Comprehensive Eaaio Vilto-Guide.-:q9ok t 40;
l?1. A ComprehensiveRadioValve GuiJe: B6ok 2 40;
126 Boys Book of Crystal Sets r\:
1.72 UniversalGram--I4otorSpeed Indicator(Combined 50&60a moaet) i65
fqq Howto mak€ AerialsforTV (Band t-2-3) ZSi
l1l f, Comprehe_nsive Radio Valvi Guide - Book 3 40;
!!Q PracticalRadiolnsideOut 40;
ltz A C_omprehensive RadioValve Guide - Book ,l 40;
lqq oil Delien and Construction Manual 50;
l9l Radio.,TV and Electronics Data B@k OOi
l7O Transistor Circuits for Radio Cootrolled Models 4oo
lT^ Mo_dernTr-ansistor Circuits-for Beginners 10;
178 A Comprehensive Radio Valve Gui-de- Book 5 ton
183 H_ow-toReceiveForoign TV Programmeson your Set by Simple
Modifications ?qh
!?9 Highfidetity 14 Watt Amplifier Design Chart fi;
l?g AF-RF Reactanc*Frequeniy-_Chart foiConsrructors l5;
\9-7- lnexpensivePush-Pull-Ampiifi€rConstruction Chart iSi
?99 Handbook of Praccical Electronic Musical Novelties 50;
?g! PracticalTransistorisedNovelties for Hi-Fi Enthuslasts 35;
?O-? Handbook of Integrated Circuits (lC's).Equivalenis and Substitutes L;
?9q lC'sand_Transisto_r_GadgetsConsiruciioritfana'Uooi------- 60;
?91 Second Bok of Hi-Fi Loudsp-eakerEnclosures 6Ob
?91 First Po9! of Hi-Fi Lodspeiker Enctcures 60;
?96 PracticalTransistor Circriits for Modern Test Equipment " 6Oi
2Ol PracticalElectronicScienceProiects 75;
?9! Practical Stereo and Quadrophdny Handbook 7t;
?92 M.odern Tape Recording Haddbq;k iti
?!9 Tie Compl€te Car Radi-oManual 75;
?!! First Book of Diode CharacteristicsEquivalentsand Substitutes 95;
?1, ShortwaveCircuits and Gear for Expeiimenteis and naai6 ftims 65;
216_ Electronic Gadgetsand Games g5;
RCC ResistorColour Code Disc Calculator lO;

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