RF Amplifier ~*~ ‘ Sd ay ‘ ae constructor ee tC Pr Py itca x-te[=13 las ti FYContents HF/ME/VHF Amplifiers (1 to 54 MHz) An Easy-to-Build 25-Watt MF/HF Amplifier A Compact I-kW 2-50 MHz Solid-State Linear Amplifier A Broadband HF Amplifier Using Low-Cost Power MOSFETs-Parts 1 and 2 A 1.8 to 54 MHz 5-Watt Amplifier An Experimental Solid-State Kilowatt Linear Amplifier for 2 to 54 MHz ‘An All-Band, 1500-Watt-Output 8877 Linear ‘Amplifier-Parts 1 and 2 High-Efficiency Class-E Power Amplifiers-Parts 1 and 2 A 100-W MOSFET HF Amplifier ‘The FARA HE Project VHF/UHF Amplifiers A Compact “Brick” for 6 Meters A.300-W MOSFET Linear Amplifier for 50 MHz A No-Bandswitch, Dual-Band VHF Desktop Amplifier ‘An 8-Watt, 2-Meter “Brickette” 903-MHz Linear Amplifiers~Parts | and 2 25-Watt Linear Amplifiers for 144 and 220 MHz. A High-Power 2-Meter Amplifier Using the New 3CX800A7 A Quick Powerhouse A Cathode-Driven Tetrode for 6 Meters AUHF Amplifier—from Scratch A Solid-State 6-Meter Linear Amplifier You Can Build Build a 6-Meter “Mini-Lini” A Grounded-Grid Kilowatt Amplifier for 432 MHz Microwave Amplifiers ‘A Quarter-Kilowatt 23-cm Amplifier-Parts I and 2 A2.W 13-cm Amplifier 1296-MHz Solid-State Power Amplifiers Amplifier Maintenance Amplifier Care and Maintenance Gary Breed, K9AY H.O. Granberg, K7ES/OH2ZE Mike Kossor, WA2EBY Zack Lau, KH6CP Joel Paladino, NCAMG Jerry Pittenger, KBRA David Rutledge, KNOEK, et al. William E. Sabin, WOIYH Jim Valdes, WAIGPO Pat Bunn, N4LTA Richard Frey, K4XU Paul Hewitt, WD7S Bob Larkin, W7PUA, Dave Mascaro, WA3JUF Dave Mascaro, WA3JUF David Meacham, W6EMD Russ Miller, N7ART David Munyon, W7DVB John Reed, W610} Tarmo Tammaru, WB2TMD Wilson Hoag, WASOLT Stephen J. Powlishen, KIFO ER. “Chip” Angle, NOCA Zack Law, KH6CP Al Ward, WBSLUA Ward Silver, NOAXForeword If antenna gain alone is not sufficient to bridge’ the path between two stations, the alternative is to increase RF power. Hams have been aware of this fact since the earli- est days, and that is why RF power amplifier projects have always been popular. In RF Amplifier Classics we have assembled a collection of articles published it OST magazine, and its sister technical journal, QEX. The collection spans the early 1980s through 2003 and includes many prominent authors. In those few instances where an author provided a design revision (or correction) after the article was pub- fished, that revision is included in the article as presented in this book. See the leatest issue of QST for other ARRL RF design-related publications, or visit our on-line bookstore at www.arrlorg/eatalog. Please take a few minutes to give us your comments and suggestions on this book. There's a handy Feedback Form for this purpose at the back, or you can send e-mail to pubsfdbk @arrl.org, ‘Our thanks to the many authors whose work appeats in this book, Without their willingness to share their knowledge with the amateur community, RF Amplifier Classics would not be possible. Dave Sumner, KIZZ Executive Vice President Newington, Connecticut August 2004By Gary Breed, K9AY tesa ee ed An Easy-to-Build 25-Watt MF/HF Amplifier Do you need a medium-power linear amplifier for SSB or CW? Congratulations—you just found it! H Simplicity itself. What makes it simple is the use of a self- biased transistor module requiring few external components. To ‘control harmonic outpat, a set of Five-sec- tion low-pass filters is included, Power. supply equirements are +28 V at 2.5 Aand SV at 200 mA." With a gain of about 13 {4B,2 1- to 1.4-W driving signal is all that's needed to deliver 25 W output. Gain is fat within #0.75 dB across the covered fre se isn'tenough for you. it's easy to diecily apply the design information to builds 50-W amplifier—all you dois we a larger transistor module? Another step to ward project simplicity is the availability (of kits. Each kit contains all the major com- ponents for either a 25- or $0-W version? Amplifier Design ‘When designing a power amplifier, the Fir step is to select the right transistors) Emcalient bipolar-junction transistors (BITS) and field-effect transistors (FETS) fe available from well-known companies such as Motorola, M/A-COM PHI, SGS: Thomson, Philips, Mitsubishi and others. ‘A number of smaller companies also make Power transistors, usually for more-spe Gilized applications, MicroWave Tech ology, Polyfet RF Devices, and Directed Energy may be company names unfamiliar fo you, but they all make power transistors for ME and HP applications. In this amplifier, I use the SLAM-O1 LT from MicraWave Technology.’ | didn’t hoose it because of its gan, its efficiency, ‘oF even its price; | selected it because i's very easy touse. The device consists of two [power JFETs (the particular specialty of MicroWave Technology), operating in push-pull, Since JFETs behave similarly to triode vacuum tubes, the company dubbed them Solid State Trindes. SLAM (Solid staletriode Linear Amplifier Module) devices include thick-film bias resistors in the package withthe transistors, These re- sistors set the gate bias for class-A opera- tion, and establish a 50-a input impedance. Atthe rated power and supply voltage, the push-pull output impedance is also 50 2! With such convenient input and output impedances, matching the devices toa 50-Q system merely requires [1 balun transform rs at the input and output, Because the bias voltage is internally generated, the only other extemal circuitry required is asuitably bypassed and isolated 28-V power supply’ Circuit Description The amplitier schematic is shown in Fig. 1, The balun driving the gates of the push-pull transistors. is a conventional transformer. The primary and secondary windings are each three turns of #28 wire, ‘wound an a two-hole ferrite balun core of 3 material (x, = 2500). These transform- fs are broadband enough to provide 1.8 to 30-MHz operation and offer de isolation ‘with no additional components, The input- transformer primary is center-tapped and bypassed to provide access to the gates for ‘external de bias (moee on this later). ‘The output transformer is constructed jn the same manger as the inpitt trans- former—it's just larger. Two ferrite beads HF/MF/VHF Amplifiers (1 to 54 MHz) (of 77 material (1, = 2000) makea two-hole core, with primary and secondary windings ‘of three turns each, using #24 hookup wire. The primary (lransistor side) is center- tapped and bypassed to provide de voltage to the drains. Feeding de through a center tapped transformer eliminates the need for the usual bifilar RF choke seen in push-pull aniplifiers—another reduction in the com- Ponent count. Multiple bypass capacitor values (0.01, 0.1 and 10 iF) are used to cover the MEJHF range, That's the basic Amplifier block: two transformers, aSLAM. device, and a few bypass capacitors! Class-A Operation Notes By definition, transistors operating ia class A conduct over the entire 360 degrees ‘of the signal (that’s all the time, of course). ‘This operational mode assures that the tran sistor is always operating in the linear region of its input-to-output transfer char- acteristic. To do this, the device must be biased to handle the maximum signal at all Obviously, this class of operation is pretty inefficient, since full current is ‘drawn whenever the amplifiers on. A “per feet” transistor operating class A can only be 50-percent efficient, and real transistors 1suson 0-0 aaa | INPUT 2 soo over Lor-Peee* | TB teow © Gor cong acy a sxe soot == f Votes of capacitance are in merohrace (uF: rontonces 1 Son Tent cn Tobe Fig ‘composition or fim units Equivalent parts can Jt—Panel- mount BNC socket 42=$0'239 connector. Ja—Phono jack P1—a:pin male Jones plug. k1—SPDF relay with a 24-V de col. A surplus Potter & Brumfioid KHP series 4- pole relay is shown in Fig 6; one pole is Unused (Ail Electronics catalog number 4PRLY-24N ($4) of Ocean State Erectromigs 12-1703-24 (610.90) aro suitable. See the Part Suppliers List on pp 35-40 of The 1994 ARAL Handbook for adgresses and telephone numbers. =£4) do no better than about 40 percent. This amplifier draws 2.5 4 from 4 28-V powe supply for an input power of 70 W. When itis providing 25 W, it's 36-percent effi cient. (When there is a0 input, it's Oper ‘cent efficient!) To help reduce the heat generated by an amplifier that requires 70 W, a negative bias can be applied to the gates when not transmitting. A bias of —S V results in a 0.25-A standby drain curtent instead of the full 2.5 A. The internal bias resistors are about 50 ~ on each gate, and dissipate a ‘maximum of TW. Under these biasing com ditions, the resistors each dissipate 0,5 W. Don’t try to cut off the transistors com: 1-2. Chapter 1 be substituted ‘$1—2-pole, 7-position ceramic rotary ‘switch. My switch ig made from two surplus CAL 11-position switch waters and ‘an indexing assembly providing Selactable stops. The wafers are spaced ‘about 1s inches apart. CAL PA-200 Series switeh waters and PA-300 series shalt an indexing assembles are Sullable (switches are available from Newark Electronics; tel 912-784-5100, fax 912-784-5100, ext 3107, to locate Yyour nearest Newark alstnbutor), Ti Primary: 3 tums #38 AWG: Secondary, 3 tuins #28 AWG, centor- tapped. Core: Fair Rite 42873002402 balun (Amidon BN 73-2402) pletely with greater bias voltage! You'll Fisk burning out the resistors, ‘Some may ask, "If class is this power hungry, why use i?" Io a word: Haearity. If you want excellent linearity (which means ‘migiwum distortion caused by harmonics or intermodulation), class A is the way to 0. For example, all small-signal amplif fers for receivers and low-level transmitter stages operate class A because they must handle signals without distortion, How- ever, they operate at very low power, so power dissipation is rarely an issue. This power amplifier further minimizes distor tion by using push-pull operation, which cancels ever-order distortion products in ‘Schematic dlagram of te 25-W class-A amplifie. Uniess otherwise specilled, resislors are ZW, 83e-olerance carbon- ‘T2_Primary, 3 uns #24, center-apped; Secondary, 3 tins #24. Core: two Falr- Rite 2677008201 beads (Amidon FB 77. 6301) UT—SLAM-0113 ultatioar 25-W, class-A, gall olased power FET module cr SLAM 122, 50-W version (Microwave Technology, 4268 Solar Way, Fremont, CA 84538, tel 810-651-6700, fax 510 651-2208). Mise: FG-174 coax, enclosure (3's x 5¥/s inches (HD), heat sink (9 x 4" ‘Whe inches {HWD), PC-board materia, knob, mounting hardware. the output and makes the next part of the design easier than usual, Harmonic Filter Design ‘As mentioned previously, the amplifier uses several low-pass filters to cover the nine MF/HF amateur bands, Each filter was initially designed for a cutott frequency 20 Percent higher than the upper end of their respective 160, 80, 40, 30, 20, 15 and 10. meter ham bands. The {3-meter filter is also used for 17 meters, and the 10-meter Filter for 12 meters. With no filtering, even-order harmon: ies (2nd, th, etc) are more than 40 dB. below the cartier, the result of good push:Teble 1 Finer Circuit and Comparison of Ideal and Final Component Values. Ideal Fitter Values ‘Actual Filter Values Gwtot Frog. C1,C5 C3 42,4 C1, 05 3 L214 (Me) BA) (BF) Gutty (pF) (oF) uty 2.90 121 2620 4.55 1470 2680 441 (1000 +470) (2200 + 680) (50 ton 50-2) 7e1 1310 2.27 830, 1430 237 (660 +270) (1000+ 430) (22ton T-50-2) a7 7181.28 430 820 125, (981 on F50-2) 218 = 900-818-0900 300 560 0.980) (14 ton 750-2) 222123850634 220 370 0.706 (270 + 100) (12ton T-50-6) wrk 14224 otzd 150 240 6.460 (101 0n T-50-6) set 1021780906100, 180 0314 (81 on T-50-6) In some cases I is necessary to the proper values of capacitance for C1, C2 ha inductors are wound on 750-2 0° T.50-6 cores, Inductors for the 160- and 80-meter fers are woune with 426 AWG wire In ordor to ft all turns on the ores; the other meuctors ‘me wound with #22 wire pull balance using factory-matched tran- Sistors, The 3rd and Sth harmonies are more than 15 dB down, To reduce the 3rd ha monic to at least 0 dB below the carrer, a five-tection Chebyshev filter with low passband ripple is an appropriate choice. This typeof filter has a good SWR in the passband, and a smooth roll-off character iti. The design process began by creating ideal designs using a public-domain filter design program ‘eal designs rarely correspond to san dard capacitor or inductance values that fem be realized with « discrete number of {urns on common toroid cores. Using a cir- ‘uit analysis program? the ideal designs were analyzed to see the effects of such tealworld limitations on harmonic rejec- tion and SWR performance. Fist the ideal component values were entered into the program, and varied +20 patent to see which ones had the greatest effect on performance. Cl and CS (see Fig Band Table 1) were found tobe least sen- shive wo variations, L2 and LA were moder- ately sensiive; varying C3 had the greatest ‘effect on both passband snd stopband per- formance, The ideal capacitor values were then replaced with standard capacitor values or—in some cases— parallel com binations of two common eapacitor values. Inductors were given the near-st value available for coils wound on either T-$0-2 ‘0 T-50-6 toroid cores. The final filter de- signs are the result of trade-offs between fuctance, capacitance and filter perfor. ‘mance. Table I shows the filter topology, along with a comparison of the original ‘deal filter component values and the val vues selected for the finished unit. SLE Se, Fig Mechanical assembly of the ampliier-madule PC board, aluminum Spacers ang heat sink. sink (see Fig 5, next page) HF/MF/VHF Amplifiers (1 to 54 MHz) Fig 2—Sohematic ofthe filler used for each band, Construction [ built my amplifier and low-pass filter ‘modules on single-sided PC boards, using pads 10 mount the components. No hotes are drilled except for mounting screws) and all Teads are attached by soldering them to the pads. The PC-board patterns for the ampli fier and filters are available (see Note 2). Fig 3 shows the amplifier-assembly paris. This assembly is mounted to a heat sink (see Figs 4 and 5) capable of dissipat- ing more than 40 watts without excessive temperature rise. (This assumes. a worst ease of $0-percent transmitting time, and ‘T-watts dissipation in standby.) A cutout in the middle of the amplifier board allows placement of the SLAM device. The PC board leaves a conducting path around the ends of the SLAM to maintain a ground potential across the entire board. Four ‘mechanical components make up the am: plifier assembly. The first is a0.1875-inch- thick aluminum base plate to which the SLAM is mounted. Nextare two aluminum 0.1-ineh-thick spacers, which are placed between the base plate and the circuit board. These spacers set the proper dis- tance from the base plate to SLAM leads. ‘The SLAM is installed through the top of the PC board, and its leads ae soldered to the traces on top of the board. Fig 4—The assembled smplifier-module PC board in position and secured to the heat 13Fig 5—Rear view of the completed ampitier showing the hefty hea sin Construction is easiest if the trans- former connections to the SLAM are not soldered until after the SLAM fs fnstalled This eliminates the possibility that the transformer connections wil get inthe way when you try t0 solder the SLAM into place. As with any power device, place @ {hin coating of thermal compound between the SIAM and the base plate, and between the base plate and the heat sink. Solder bypass capacitors directly to the trans- former center tap and to the ground plane, with the minimum possible lead lengths. The low-pass filter board is constructed one filterat a time. Fist, install the eapaci- tor at the center (C3), then the inductors 12,14), and finally the end capacitors (Cl, €5). All inductors are wound with even spacing over three-quarters ofthe core cir= cumference, Simply solder the capacitors to the pads and ground plane. Silver-mica capacitors were used in the prototype be- cause they Were On hand, Ceramie-dise capacitors with 200- to $00-V ratings will ‘work equally wel f the band Switch is located elose tothe filter board (see Fig 6), short lengths of hookup wire can connect the filters to the switch wafers. ‘A spacious box houses the filter and amplifier assemblies, along With a TR re- Tay that also switches the standby bias, Powerand relay control leads are bypassed ‘where they enter the enclosure, Before final assembly, gave te panels of the case a brushed look using a sanding block with oifed sandpaper. Band markings forthe switeh (see the title-page photo) are drawn on a. Inrgey adhesive-backed label attached to the front panel Performance Amplifier gain ranges from 12.5 to 14 4B between 1-8 and 30 MHz. The gain flat- ness i basically a function ofthe input and output transformers. (It’s possible to make the amplifier gain Mat within | dB from MHz to 100 MEZzusing transmission-ine 4-4 Chapter 1 Fig 6—This interior view of the amplifier shows its simple and clean layout. The band switch 18 centered on the front panel Immediately beneath the bang switen isthe Titer assembly. Behind the swich and to the lefts the TH relay, Ki. 8 fourpin ‘Jones plug power connector is mounted on the rear panel behind ‘and to the left ofthe relay. On the bottom, near the outside ip of the tear panel, is Jt. Above Wis J2. with id to ts ight. Most of the rear panol—trom its mide to the right lip—is oseupiad by the ‘SLAM IC PC board and the aluminum spacers secured to the heal sink mounted on the rear panel's exterior. Rubber feet on the cabinet bottom help prevent scratching the supporting surface beneath and keep the amplifier trom sliding. The bang-switch Knob canter ggction is 1" inenes in diameter the skirt fares t0 a diameter ot Ws inches. transformers and frequency compenss- tion.) The required drive power for 25 watts output is 10 to 1.4 watt On-the-air performance is excellent. Besides low distortion in the SSB mode, 3 small advantage of linear amplification sa complete absence of rise and fll distortion of a CW waveform, which sometimes ‘occurs in class-C amplifiers, ‘Summary ‘This project shows how new RF prod. ucts can make home construction of ams teur equipment very easy. Home-brewers can benefit from a growing trend in RF product engineering: reducing develop: Inet time by Using “super components” that require few external components and litle engineering time to design them into 1 product ‘A secondary purpose ofthis project isto show how even simple software tools can be used to speed up design, The programs used Yo design the ampliler’stow-pass fi ters are inexpensive, and accurate at fre- quencies in the MF/IIF bands. In this case, they made i possible to examine tradeoris among standandvalie ‘eompanents for seven diferent filters, sithoet having 8 build, measure and tweak each bite ‘The revit a linear power amplifier with good gain and performance. Its un complicated design Yeaves Bite room for error, and ne fancy teat equipment ix needed to successfully Build it, Projects, this eayy can make an old-timer forget about the “simpler” days oF vacuum tubes! Notes omer supplies ar avaliabo trom Man P jonas i” Rasen na PO Box aos Laks ane rt Sag8-0668 fe sor or6 82: fx {Sbotie a 2a ka ora proect are avadable rom stone “Engi, PO." Bop are ftfeten: co BBB 3-770:4700, Each Kieudoe a eiclone: and machanta Sompotonts for tho init module an Gupaee iter asoeroy, cus. seat Sota nt ian tery Sand smc eit incu ar anced canmacore of iPlay 25-4 a ing ho SCANT TYSON ctingthd agers oes ig16d ade Soper foraipping, Payment may be mace by chock, monay ster SA atierGard 9" Ameren Bxpese PC oara pater or the amples and tier re aatabitoaron tie ARAL: San our recuest fo tne Techmesi Qepatment Weel an. 25 a St Rug, CF Op tTY. Wan our requsL ate ‘MuPtinien PC-SSARD TEMPLATE. one ‘ise a businesses emlepe sth Ono Fratcase samp ‘nha Teuhnblogy, 4268 Sear Way, Fe- row CR sek, i reduce oe t's {ie by itardnon Cosas, aOvis0y KeSinge Men CaF Be 8014, tl 700 ‘ote Ene. ~A coppers Fat: Desin Tagam> WE eam ay Woon eee Ham tear ie A ey re.Ganen PO ox S02, Melon CO Spe aOa tel SoRTTONPO oar #RFOOTO, B18 postpaid). NOVA, a shareware program by Reber: ‘Sieton’ aise svmaninrem tre RE Design ‘Save Boric panaEDLOWO) Si FPO)Cees eee md A Compact 1-kW 2-50 MHz Solid-State Linear Amplifier Solsitce heh power irae amps are becoming More and more populist inthe field of han radio a the prices of HE power transistors continue to fall. 250-W devices are now available for almost half the price they were selling for a few years ago. RF power FETS are still more expen: sive, but eventually their prices will also fall, although not as fast since they are still, novelty items and the manufacturing yields are low due (0 ESD problems and require ‘nent for cleaner facilities for wafer pro: cessing General It is much easier to design wideband power amplifiers with FETs than bipolar transistors mainly due to their higher input impedes a Teast upto VIF. Their input impedance also varies less with frequency than that of bipolar devices and changes in ‘the output load Fine are reflected hack to the input to a lesser degree because of the much lower value-f feedback capacitance (collector to base vs drain to gate). Pract cally all RF power FETs on the market today are of the enhancement MOS type, ‘caning that positive voltage at thes respect tothe source is required to turn the device on. The I-kW amplifier described here would be difficult if not impossible, to design to cover four and hall actaves with comparable performance using inexpen- sive bipolar transistors. In addition, a s2- Ties of power splitters and combiners ‘would be required to each high power lev els. Biasing to class AB linear operation is also much simpler with FETs since the gate does not draw any de current, whereas current equal to Ic(peak)/hyp, must be SUP= plied to the base of a bipolar device. One example of this and the spliter-combiner complexity is presented in the Application Note AN-758 by Motorola, Inc This article features a state of the art extremely compact design using i pair of FETs rated for 000 W of power output each, It would be capable of & power output of 1.2 KW asa push-pull eireuit, but with the output matching employed, which is opti- ‘mized at around 8O0.W, the unit starts satu ating at around | kW at a 50-V de supply, resulting in high IM distortion, Similarly at 4 40-V supply, it would be usable up to 800 W. ‘The type output matching trans- former employed allows only integers as ed, 1:9. 1216, ete. The 1:16 imps ratio transformer would make the output ‘matching optimized at 1400 W, which ‘would result ina poor efficiency at 1200 W and lower power levels. The only way 10 ompensate for this would be to adjust the supply voltage accordingly, in this case 45-46 V. However, the 1:16 ratio trans formerof this type is physically much more difficult to fabricate than the lower ratio ‘ones, and may not be avaiable inthe com- rwercial market ‘The Blas Regulator The gate bias regulator (ICL in Fig 1) allows the main supply voltage tobe varied or the use of an unregulated supply while keeping the gate bias voltages and the FET idle currents constant, Since the maximum ‘operating voltage of the regulator ICis ony 40 V. a Zener diode (DI) is employed to Keep it ata safe level. The regulator supply Terminals are separated from the main power supply permitting the use of sepa- tate bias supply if desired. There is also an ‘option for athermistor connection 0 stab lize the idle currents agsinst temperature changes. The thermistor should be ina physical contact preferably with a mount ing flange of one of the FETs. The gate voltages are individually adjustable (RIL 2) making gate threshold voltage match ing of the devices unnecessary, In case of device failure, such as a drain-gate short, D2 and D3 block the Full supply voltage from being fed back to destroy the regula tor, RIO, RIL and C3, C4 are merely AC HF/MF/VHE Amplifiers (1 to 54 MHz) Filters to protect the regulator from possibly strong RF fields. To set the idle currents, RI and R2 must be adjusted to minimum, R3 is, then adjusted for a egulator output voltage ‘of about double the FET gate threshold vot ‘ages (ICI, pin 3). The current is monitored at the main supply voltage point while ad- justing Ri for a desired idle current, typi ly $00 MA-1.0 A. R2 is then advanced until the current is doubled, resulting in ‘equal idle currents for both devices. After this procedure, the settings of R} through 3 should remain until one or both FETs ust be replaced. The RF Path ‘The amplifiers designed to operate into the industry standard 50-ohm input and ‘output interface. The impedance matching to the low impedance levels of the FETs is accomplished with broadband RF trans formers. Both the input transformer (T1) and the output transformer (12) are of the so-called eamentional type in contrast (0 transmission Tine transformers. Both employ only one turn inthe low impedance ‘winding. T2 is far more critical than TT because it determines the efficiency and the high frequency end gain characteristics, plus it must be able to handle a larg amount of RF power. For increased band- ‘width characteristics, its low impedance, fone turn winding consists of three paral Jeled 10-ohm coaxial cables, esulting in a tight and controllable coupling between the primary and secondary. According to for- mules given in Reference 2, approximately twice the present 7 emt Ferrite Foss sec= tional area would be required in order for the core not to saturate with the calculated 127 gauss flux density. ‘The saturation mainly occurs atthe lowest frequencies, in this case at 2-3 MHz, Unfortunately most {ferrite manufacturers do not give informa tion on saturation flux densities that applies to applications such as this, However, iis known that high permeability ferrites, in 15Unless otherwise noted, all resistors are ‘YeW metal fim type. Ali chip capacitors except C13 are ATC type 100/2008 or Dielectric Laboratories type C17. (NOTE: The PCB mount BNC output connector used is type BNF34, available from ORA Electronics, el 818-701-5848) Fig 1—Ciroult Diagram-—2 to 50 MHz Amplifier 2-50 MHz Amplifier Components List R1,R2—1 kA single-tum Trimpots R310 ka singleturn Trimpot BA —A70 0, 2 watts Ae 100 Re AI2.RIS—2 kee 7-100 FB—Exact value depends on thermistor Re used (tically §-10 KO) R9—Thermistor, Keystone RL1 009-5820-97-01 or equivalent RI0,R11—100 0. 1 W carbon RI4/15—EMC Technology model 5208 or KDI Pyrofilm PPR '870-150-3 power resistors, 25 (2 Di--t NSS57A or equivalent 02,08—1N4148 or equivalent ICi —Mc1728 (728) voltage regulator C1—1000-pF coramic dise capacitor 62,03,C4-~0.1-uF ceramic disc capacitor (C5—0.01-F coramic chip capacitor G5.C12-~0.14uF ceramic chip capacitor 67,e—two 2200-pF ceramic chip capacitors In parallel each 6o\820-pF ceramic chip capacitor 610,C11—1000-pF ceramic chip capacitor 6130.47-uF ceramic chip capacitor or two smaller values in parallel C'14™Unencapsulated mica, 500 V, Two 1000-pF units is series, mounted under T2, LAE $5 nh, connecting wires to R14 and R15, 1.5 om each, 420 AWG. L310 nH, 10 tums #12 AWG enameled wire on Fair-Rite Products Corp ferte toroid #8961000401 or equivalent 1,72—9:1 and 1:9 impedance ration RF tanstormers, types FiF800.9 and AF2067-9 R, respectively (AF Power Systems, 3038 E Corrine Or, Phoenix, AZ 85032) general, saturate ensier than low perme ability materiats. Thus, the lowest perme: ability material should be selected that will satisfy the minimum inductive reactance requirement at the lowest frequency of operation. The formula to calculate this is NX, = 2Rgi, where: Xi=inductive reac tance for one turn, N = number of turns, Ryu) = source or load impedance. Low permeability material is also less lossy at high frequencies, resulting in less heat gen- crated in the transformer. TH, which must handle only 8-12 W of power, is made of higher permeability ferrite. This makes it 1-6 Chapter 1 possible to make the unit physically small as well. In Ti, the secondary consists of metal tubes (see Ref 1), where three turns of the primary wire is threaded through. Metal tubes are also used in T2, but only to hold the structure mechanically together. ‘At high-power levels generated with solid-state devices, which operate at rela- tively low voltages, the impedance levels, automatically become low. This creates a problem for finding passive components, especially capacitors to handle the high RF currents involved. In vacuum tube circuits a similar problem exists, but in the form of hhigh voltages. In this design, C14 gets the roughest treatment. It must be able to carry RF cucrents in excess of 10 amperes at the higher frequencies, although the voltage across itis only 75 V rms. At firs, several ‘g00d quality ceramic chip capacitors were tried in parallel, but temperature excursions caused them to erack resulting in AF ares thin burned the circuit board in the area as well. Finally, to unencapsulated mica capacitors (brand names sch as Unelco, Underwood, Standex, Elmenco and Semco) were soldered in series by attaching the terminal tabs together, making it a sym-POWER OUTPUT (WATTS) 70 E POWER INPUT (WATTS) oe FIOURE 3 — POWER GAIN ANO INPUT VSWR VERSUS FREQUENCY Vos = 409 795, = Stow iNeuT vewn Eavrrocew, 2 we 6 FREQUENCY (WH) Foe Fig z a & a rr FREQUENCY (MH) ogee 400 a0) ea O98 tO ‘FOURE 4 — DRAWN EFFICIENCY VERSUS FREQUENCY POWER QUTPUT (wars EP) Fig¢ Fags rans OF (COMPONENT LAYOUT — BOTTOM SIDE ORR O-nmmn oe OEE, COMPONENT LAYOUT — BOTTOM SIDE Fig metrical structure, Since each is doable the total value required and with double the number of plates, this increases the RF ‘current carrying capability and provides a larger area tobe soldered tothe board metal foil make the cooling more efficient. The low impedance winding terminals ae then soldered to the tops of the capacitor metal casings, leaving the effective capacitance across the winding. For further fine tuning, an Arco (Elmenco) #469 or Sprague #GM- 49900 compression mica timmer can be soldered to the fronttop terminals of the transformer. Sloc openings in the metal foil Fig? (Fig 7) located on each side of the output transformer, next to the drain terminals, ‘were provided to increase the series indue tance for certain highfrequency narrow: band applications, This tunes out some of the FET output capacitance, resulting in increased elficiency. At lower frequencies, (below 80 MHz) however, they only add 10 the IR loss and should be shorted, The loca: tion of C9 is also critical and should be placed approximately as shown in Fig 7. Tis will affect the input VSWR at frequen cies above 30 MH, Bypass capacitors C0 through C12 must HF/MF/VHF Amplifiers (1 to 54 MHz) also be of good quality. The center tap of T2 should be free of AF if the circuit is balanced, This may not always be the ease, in which ease these capacitors will aid this function, L3 and C13 form an additional filter, ensuring that 40 RF energy is being fed back to the pover supply. Switchmode power supplies especially are. sensitive fgainst RF and may actually get damaged From i [Negative feedback is provided through the networks LI-RI4 and L2-RIS. ts pur- pose is to produce a relatively flat power Bain versus frequency response, It also 7improves the input turn loss and helps to stabilize the amplifier at low frequencies, where the power gain would be 25-30 dB ‘without it, The feedback js at its minimum, atthe high frequency end and at maximum. at low frequencies, where most power is dissipated in R14 and RIS. This power is roughly the difference in power input with- fut the feedback between 2 and 50 MHz assuming a constant power output (in this cease 25-30 W). A simple formula for cal- culating the feedback resistor values as ‘well as their dissipation ratings is given in Reference 5. Reference $ also includes information on physical construction of RF transformers such as used here Thermal Aspects Assuming a 50% worst case efficiency forthe unit, each FET dissipates 500 W of heat in an area of | x 1.5 inch, Itis impera- tive that the transistors are mounted on the surface of a material with low thermal re- sistance such as copper. This is called a heat spreader as itis then attached to a heat Fig @—Amplifior mounted to the Heat Spreader. sink made of material with poorer thermal resistance, It should extend about one inch beyond the edges of the FET mounting flanges at least on three sides. It is even more practical to make the heat spreader as large or largerthan the amplifier itself. This ‘would allow alleizcuit-board spacers to be an equal height of 0.125 inch. The thick- ness ofthe heat spreader should be @ mini- mum of 0.375 inch. The heat spreader is then separately attached to the aetual heat sink, which can be a. [2-inch length of Wakefield Engineering type 4859 extri= sion or equivalent. Heat sink compound rust be appli to all thermal interfaces And the recommended transistor mounting procedure should be followed, including the sezew torque. Fig 9 shows the amplifier mounted tothe heat speeader. Although the heat sink is not shovwa, one must be used for continuous operation and for test per- cos longer than a couple of minutes. For Continuous operation, two S-inch muffin fans under the heat sink will suffice. They will Keep the device ease temperature at HF/MEF/VHF Amplifiers (1 to 54 MHz) below 80°C, and the die temperature, Which equals to device thermal resistance X power dissipation + case temperature = (0.13 x 500 + 80, at less than 145°C, which is well below the 200-degree maximum recommended value. We must realize that the 500-watt dissipation is only valid when the unit is operated into a $0-ohm load. Under mismatched conditions, depending fon the phase angle, the dissipated power may be lower or higher than this value. Performance Some of the amplifier performance characteristics ate shown in Figs 2 through 5, Although at 30 MHz and above all harmonics are 25 dB or more below the fundamental, an output filter is required to comply with FCC regulations. However, it can be a simpler one than required for the Tow frequencies, where the third harmonic may be only attenuated 12-15 4B. In push- pull amplifiers, the even harmonies are not ‘usually a problem since they are attenuated by the balanced operation of the circuit. Information on high power low-pass filters For applications as this can be found in Ref- erence 7. These filters are automatically relay switched with BCD code available in ‘most modern transceivers. References ‘The citeut Boards and ether components for ‘his design ave avaiable tom Communica: fron Concepts, ine, 808. Milsione_ Orve, Xenia, “Ort i385, “te 513-420-9811) Pease? ‘Mota, ng, Semiconductor Secor Anpea- tion Notes AN-749 ana AN 95, Aitibers AH. "Design of HE Wideband Power Trgealrmeis aetna Laboraiory Hepot ecosuor and ECTS SBleeksome, Aoderck K, "Prachal Wideband AE Pome! Transiomars, Camoners. and Spitters: Proceedings of RF Expo February hae 19Eeinoncnieachs UCLA ema A Broadband HF Amplifier Using Low-Cost Power MOSFETs Minny sites ave zen writen en couraging experimenters 10 use power MOSFETs to build HF RF ampliti- cers. That's because power MOSFETs — popular in the design of switching power supplies—cost as litle as $1 each, whereas RF MOSFET prices stat at bout $35 each! Over the years, [wicked away several of these articles, waiting for an opportunity to experiment with them, That opportunity came when I received a call from Al, ‘W20BI. Al wanted a low-cost linear ampli fier to use with his 5 W QRP transmitter ‘when band conditions got poor. Ideally, the amplifier would generateat least 25 W onall the HE bands. Al's ingutty renewed my in terest in the topic and provided the motiva tion I needed to get my project underway. Al provided me with an extensive list of RF-amplifier construction articles that use power MOSFETs." These articles provides useful information about MOSFETs and general guidelines for working with them, including biasing, parasitic-oscillaion sup” pression, broadband impedance-matching fechniques and typical amplifier perfor- mance data, It was clear from the perfor- rmancedata that Al's desire to get 25 W out pi from power MOSFETS on 1.8 to 30 MHz, ‘was going to be ackallenge! The RF output power of most af the ampisfiers described in the articles drops off to 10 W or fess. as fee= quency increases just to 14 MHz, ‘An Idea Brews After hundreds of hours of experimen- tation, Teame up with a design that exceeds ‘our original objective: One watt of input power produces over 40 W of output (alter harmonic filtering) from 160 through 10 meters. To the basic amplifier, | added an RE-sensed TR relay and a set of low-pass filters designed to suppress harmonic out- 1-10 Chapter 1 Part 1—With only 1 W of drive, you'll get over 40 W out—from 160 through 10 meters! Taetternaae Carnet men <0) z oe é Hg ig 4B : 3 rey Figure 1—Jim Wyckoff, ASX, “1 W in, 90 W out With Power MOSFETs at 60 M” Hints ‘and Kinks, QST, Jan 1899, pp 50-51TR SWITCH S18 Fg 3 cpt cio of capac tance are motores CaP) thers mrnscetoese (9: Figure 2—Schematic of the MOSFET all-band HF ampifier. Unless otherwise specified, resistors are ‘/s W, 8% tolerance {arbon-composition or fim units. Equivalent parts can be subst ted. Part numbers in parentheses are Mouser (Mouser Efectionics, 860 N Main St, Manstield, TX. 76063; tol 800"946-6873, 817-483-4422, fax 617-485-094", sales@ mouser.com, hitpuiwww.mouser.com}; soe Note 8 1-08-01 uF chip (140-C5022104M) 6887 pF chip (140-CCS02N470,) Gt0—100 uF, 85.V (140-HTALIBV100) G1, C13-"15 uF, 35 V (140MLRGBV10) 6121 uF. SOV (s40-MLRLSOV! 0) 61423 iF, 95 V tantalum +2 2Ma5V) (015-0.09 uF chip (140-C05028109K) 616, G17~0.001 ue cp (140-0502 102k) DitN4733A, 5.1 V. 1 W Zener diode (689-1NG733A) Da-AN4O044(589-140048) (02, D3—1N4148 (583-1NaIA48) DBLINAT4A, 15'V, 1 W Zener diode (83-1Na7aia) .31,32-80-259 UHF connector (s2581-120) K1—12 v DPDT, 960 @ coil, 12.6 mA (4g1-OVR-SH-2121) Li, [21h tums #24 enameled wire, losely wound 0.26-i. 1D (3-7 turns #24 enameled wire, closely wound 0.180-in. 1D (Q1, G2" AFS10 power MOSFET (G70-1RF510) 3—2N3904 (610-2NG804) Fi, R2—10 ka trim pot (823-5000-10K) 9, R427 ©, Ye W (298-27), Ret ka chip (263-1) R7— 4.7 KA chip (263-4.7K) FB—130 0,1 W (281-130); for 7 dB pad (6 Win, i Wout), R943 6, 2 W (282-43); for 7 dB pad (6 Win, 1 W out), 10130 0, 3 W (289-190); for 7 dB pad (Win, 1Wout) HF/MF/VHF Amplifiers (1 to 54 MHz) 8, R10—300 0, "a W (273-300); for ‘3B pad (2 W'in, 1 W out) AG—18'0, 1 W (281-18); Tor 3 dB pad (2Win, 1 Wout) BII—24'K0, "ie W (299-2.4K) T1—19 bitlar wins #24 enameled wire on fan FT-50-49 core. T2=40 bililar tine #22 enameled wire on two stacked FT-50-43 cores. T3~pri2 tums, sec 3 tums #20 Tetlon- ‘covered wire on BN-43-3312 balun core, Mise: Aluminum enclosure 8.586 inches (HW0) (]B7-TE-783), two TO-220 mounting ks (534-4724), heatsink (577-1977), ampliier PC board (Gea Note 8), heat sink (AAVID [Mouser £532-284609B02}; see text), about two feet 01 RG-88 coax, #24 enameled wire and 120 Teflon-inoulated wire. utput and comply with FCC requirements. ‘The amplifier is built on double-sided PC board and requires no tuning. Another PC ‘board contains the low-pass filters, Power- supply reqivements are 28 V de at 5 A, although the amplifier periorms well at 13.8 V de. Several of these amplifiers have been built and exhibit similar performance. Al thas been using his amplifier on each of the HF bands, logging well over 500 contacts in 18 months. Signal reports indicate a no- tiveable improvement in readability (about two Suits on average) over his 5 W rig. No indications of in-stabliny, CW key clicks or distortion on SSB have been reported. To make it easy for you to duplicate this, project, PC boards and parts kits are avail- able, all ata cost of about $100! ‘An Overview of MOSFETs MOSFETs operate very differently fiom bipolar transistors. MOSFETS are voltage-controfled sevices and exhibit a very high input impedance at de, whereas bipolar transistors are current-controlled d- vices and havea relatively low input imped- ance. Biasing a MOSFET for linear operation only requires applying a fixed voltage to its gate via a resistor. With MOSFETS, no special bias or feedback cir- ‘uitey is required to maintain the bias point ‘over temperature as is tequired with bipolar transistors to prevent thermal runaway !° With MOSFETs, the gate-threshold voltage increases with increased drain current. This ‘works to turn off the device, especially at clevated temperatures as transconductance Gecteases and Rs. (stati drain-t0-source donresistance) increases, These built-in self- regulating actions prevent MOSFETs from being affected by thermal runaway MOSFETs do not require negative feedback 10 suppress low-frequency gain as is often required with bipolar RF transistors. Bipo- lartransistor gain increases as frequency de creases. Very high gain at de and low fre quencies can cause unwanted, low- frequency oscillation to occur in bipolar transistor RF amplifiers unless negative feedback is employed to prevent it Low-frequency oscillation can damage bi Polar transistors by causing excess power dissipation, leading to thermal runaway. MOSFET Limitations Of course, MOSFETs do have their limi- tations. The high gate impedance and the device structure make them susceptible 10 electrostatic discharge (ESD) damage, Some easily applies precautions prevent this: Use a soldering iron with grounded tip, use a wrist strap connected to ground through a | MQ resistor to bleed off excess body charge while handling MOSFETs and do all work on an antistatic mat connected to ground via a | MQ resistor. The sensitivity of a MOSFET's gate to static and high-voltage spikes also makes it vulnerable to damage cesulting from pata sitie oscillation, This undesired seif-osel lation could result in excessive gate-10- 4-12 Chapter 4 ‘A rear panel view showing the heatsink source voltage that permanently damages the MOSFET's gate insulation. Another MOSFET limitation is gate eapacitance Tis parameter limits the frequency 3 which a MOSFET can operate effectively asanRF amplifier. Irecommendreviewing the referents of Notes 1-3 if you are inter- ested in more detailed information about MOSFETs, Power MOSFET RF Amplifiers Of the several power MOSFET ampli- fiers built to check their performance, the ‘one providing the hest performance is the push-pull design described by Jim Wyckoff, ‘AAIX, in OST (see Nove 3). Lused IRF510 power MOSFETs rather than the IRF511s, specified. The performance of this power MOSFET amplifierdesign is summarized in Figure I; its basic design is very similar to another amplifier described in the referent ff Note 4, written 10 years earlier. That am- plifier uses a pair of more-expensive MREL38 MOSFETs designed specifically for RF applications, As Figure | shows, the Hints and Kinks amplifier performance isexcellent from 1.8 ‘MHz to 7 MHz and far exceeds the pub: lished figure of 30 W output on 3.5 MHz. ‘As frequency increases above 10 MHz, however, output drops off rapidly, falling below 10 W above 21 MHz. (These levels, were measured after harmonie filtering.) Although the amplifier is identified as stable, my first attempt at duplicating the amplifier resulted in oscillations that de- stroyed one of the IRF510s. I was puzzled by this. At first, [thought the problem caused by my substitution of the slightly more robust IRFS10 MOSFETS for the called-for IRFS1}s. That idea proved ‘wrong when my second attempt to power up the amplifier with IRFSI1 MOSFETs installed also resulted in a blown IRFS11. (Thank goodness these are $1 power MOSFETs, not $35 RE MOSFETS!). I fi nally achieved good stability when I added ‘a small amount of inductance in series with the MOSFET source to ground (just two turns of #24 wire, 0.125 inch diameter. ‘With this added inductance, I was able to remove the ferrite beads feom the circuit without any sign of instability. Ibelieve tbe substitution of the IRF510 and minimizing source lead inductance are the reasons | obtained significantly higher RF output power and wider bandwith than described in the referent of Note 3. This experiment ‘underscores the need to abserve exact con: ction techniques and physical layout if similar performance isto be expected, Even though T used PC board construction, { got significantly different results because my Tayout was not the same as the author's Modifying the Design Although the amplifier performed bet ter than expected, its bandwidth was sig nificantly less than desired. Considerable experimentation, (and I do mean consider ble!) resulted in the cixcuit shown in Fi 12. This amplifier consists of two power MOSFETs operating in push-pull and em- ploys an RF-sensed TR relay. During receive, TR relay K1 is deener- sized. Signals from the antenna are con- nected to 12 and routed through Kl toa tan ceiver connected to. (This path loss is ess than D.368 from 1.8 MHz through 30 MHz.) In transmit, RF voltage from the transceiver i sampled by C17 and divided by R6 and 7. D2 and D3 rectify the RF voltage and charge C16, Q3 begins conducting when the detected RF voltage across C16 reaches ap. proximately 0.7 V. This energizes K1, which then routes the transmitted RF signal from J1emo a ate oxRIeN SaT I ero wz wee Bea casper capone cusp Figure &--Low-pass fiter schematic. In some cases, the actual flter component values. Affe rom the calculated values of a standard 60 0 put filter. Such dilferences Improve the impedance matching between the amplilier and the load, Capacitors are ali Adpped mica units 01, 62, C5—1500 oF {8883-19-500V1500) (622700 pF (5982-19-500V2700) G4, 68, C8820 pF (5982-19-S00vaz0) G7, 69490 pF (Boe2-15-500V480) tb, C12, C1430 pF (6982-19- 800330) 10 the input of the amplifier and sends the ‘uipat ofthe amplifier to the antenna at 12 RF-sensed relay response is very fast, No noticeable clipping of the first CW character has been reported. ‘made provisions to include an RF at tenuator(consisting of RB, RO and RIO) 19 tenable adjusting the amplifier input power 01 W. (The parts list contains resistor val es toeduce the ourpat of 2 or 5 W drivers WLW.) The 15¥ signal is then appliedto the primacy of TI via an input impedance: matching nctwork consisting of L3, TL isa 1:1 balun that splits the RF signal into two Gulpuls 180 degrees out of phase. One of these signals is applied by Cl to QI's gate ‘The other signal is routed via C2 to Q2's fate. The drains of QI and Q2 are connected to the primary of output transformer 73, ‘where the wo signals are recombined in phase to produce a single output. T3 also frovides impedance transformation from the low output impedance of the MOSFETS tothe $0 © antenna port. De power is pro- Yided tothe drains of QI and Q2 by phase- reversal choke, T2. This is a very effective 11880 pF (5982-19-500v560) G13, C17-"180 pF (5882-15-500V180) 615-200 pF (5882"15-500V200) 616, C18-"100 pF (5982-10-500V100) S12 pole, 6 position rotary (10¥x026) Miso: bw-pase titer PC board (see Note 0) ‘method to provide powerto Ql and Q2 while presenting a high impedance to the RF sig hal over a broad range of frequencies. The drain chokes for QI and Q?2 are wound on the ‘some core, nd the phase of one ofthe chokes, Gee the phasing-dot markings on T2) is re- versed, CD increases the bandwidth of im- pedlance transformation provided by T3, es pecially at 21 MHz. The 5 V bias supply voltage is derived from 28 V by Zener diode DI and current- limiting resistor R11. Bypass capacitors C3, C4, C5, C6 and C13 remove RF volt ‘ges from the bias supply soltage. Gute bias for Q1 and Q2 is controled independently. RI adjusts Q1's gate-bias woltage via R3 and LI. R2 works sieslurly for Q2 ia R4 and £2, AC low frequencies, the amplifiers in- put impedance is essentially equal to the Series value of R3 and R4.L{ and L2 im- prove the input-impedance match at higher Irequencies. The low value of series resis- tance provided by R3 and R4 also reduces the Q.ofimpedance-matching inductors LI and L2, which improves stability. De block: HF/MF/VHF Amplifiers (1 to 54 MHz) ing copacitors C1 and C2 prevent loading the gate bias-supply voltage. Cl4 keeps transistor Q3 conducting and K1 energized between SSB voice syllables for CW elements. Without Cl4, KI would chatter in response to the SSB modulation envelope and fast keying. Increasing the value of C14 increases the time KI remains energized during transmit, The reverse voltage generated by KI when the elay is deenergized is clamped ty a safe level by Dd. DS drops the 28 V supply t0 13 V to power 12 V relay KI. DS can be replaced With ajumper if KI has a 28 V de coil or it you intend to operate the amplifier with 3 13.8 V de supply. Harmonic Filtering ‘Although biased for class AB linear op eration, this amplitier (Vike others of its type) exhibits some degree of nonlinearity, resulting in the generation of harmonics ‘This push-pull amplifier design cancels even-order harmonies (2f, 41, 6f, et) in the output transformer, T3. Odd-onder harmon- {esare not canceled. Second-order hatmon- ics generated by the amplifier are typically less than 30 dBc (30 dB below the carries) ‘whereas third-order harmonics are typically only 10dBe. FCC regulations require all HE RE-amplifier harmonic output power to be atleast 40 dBc at power levels between 50 to 500 W. To meet this requirement, itis com: mon practice for HF amplifiers to use low pass filters. Separate low-pass filters are needed for the 160, 80, 40 and 30 meter bands, The 20 and 7 meter bands can share the same low-pass filter, So, too, the 15, 12 tnd 10 meter bands can share @ common low-pass filter see Figure 3 ‘Switching among the six filters can be a messy siting problem, especially on the higher-frequency bands where lead lengths should be kept short for optimum perfor= ‘mance. This problem is solved by mount- ing all six low-pass filters ona PC board. A two-pole, six-position rotary switch (SI) ‘mounted ditectly on the same PC board manages all filter interconnections. One pole of SI eonneets the amplifier output to ‘one ofthe six filter inputs, while SI's other Pole simultaneously connects the corre- sponding filter's output to the TR relay, KI. Only two coaxial-cable connections are required between the RF amplifier and the low-pass filter board, Next Month In Fart 2, [ll wrap up with amplifier ‘construction and adjuszment, and discuss the amplifier’s eserall performance. See you then! Notes "Doug DeMaw, WIFB, “Poner-FET Switches ga he Ampere" OBT. Ar 989, pp 30-9. See also Feedback OST, May 1988, 51 2Wes. Hayward, W7ZOl, and’ Jel! Damm, Warn “Suiie HEXFET AF Power Amel: ‘irs, Technical Correspondence, GST, Nov 198, pp 38-40; alo seo Feedback, OST. Har ig90.p ay ‘ulm Wyekoll ASX, “1 Watt in, 90 Walls Out ‘wit) Power MOSFETs at 80 Meters" Hats and Kinks, QST, Jan 1998, pp 60-51 1413‘Doug DeMaw. WIFB, “Go Ciass 6 o¢ C with Bower MOSFETs, ST, March 1989, pp25- a DeMaw, WIFB, “An Experimental 1S Transtar. OST, May 1879, po 18+ Silos Hayward, W720, “A VMOS FET Tans miter for 1O-Mater CW," GST, May 197, pp 27:90. 7Ed Oxier, ex-woPRZ (Sk), “Bull a Broad ‘bard Uivalinear VMOS Ampier, OST. May 1978, pp 23-26, soary Breed, KEAY, “An Easy-to-Bulla 25-Watt MPD Ameliior QST. Feo 1994, pp 31-34, Panis for his project are avaiane int 144 Chapter 1 ati sem oe ie eae Gu eoominetean sauces eaten cea emeni pepotee tied Scenes conabng of the longpace Hor PC boare, = cra unmatats coceeee, Seon Sy at te Reaee, Reale 2). Price $15 each, plus shipping. ee cbeag ie ete en nts (eo ‘Amidon Ine (Amidon, ire, 240 Briggs Ave, Costa Mesa, CA #2626, tel 1-890-006-1888, FHé-8504660, fax 714-850-1163). ampliior feet (Arison PA HrAPG) coniamng ne tite cores, balun coro and magnet and “tion wars to wind the irensiomara forthe Hi apie. rc: $3 50 ps taping: Lo pass fer coves kt (Amidon PIN HEFL) co {Bining al on cores ana/wire for he low pa titers: Prce:'S4'50 plus ship 19899 Motoroia’ Application ‘Heports 1/95, “normal runaway is @ cond vith bipolar transistors because bipolar tan> 8 conduct more as. temperature In leases, the incronses conduction causes an imoreasé im temperature, whieh further ne ‘Greases conduction, ele. The evele repeats ‘damaged:From QST, April 1999 A Broadband HF Amplifier Using Low-Cost Power MOSFETs Part 2—Let's put the finishing touches on this all- Leith Leone nist and | Lieretopmen:of his 30 W overage am “pier. I'm sure you're ansious to ger your fapliier finshed and on the ain 20 Tes ae gaia! Ample Construction “The amplifier is constructed ona double sided PC Boatd with plated through holes to Jove topside ground connections. [sed ‘hipesstrs and capacitors to simplify con- Sincion, but leaded capacitors may work if Tea lengths ate kept short. First, assemble alleip capacitors and resistors on the PC Beat. Tweezers heiptohandle chip compo- pests Work with only one component value Aa time Leip caps and resistors ae very dificat to identity). Chip capacitor and ressloe mounting is simplified by tinning tne side of the PC board trace with solder efor positioning the capacitor or resistor. “Touch the soldering ron tip tothe capacitor resistor o ack tin place. Finish mouse ing by Soldering the opposite side of the FF outnut Power ve Frequency Pint W Voc = 428¥ 06 ont rower (o eusatususesssazss os 0 Fraquency (ut) 1s 2 Figure 4—AF output power comparison of the Hint and Kink amplifier and this. des.gn (attr nero fitering ol hermonice < 40 ae) band HF amplifier! component. Don’? apply 100 muck heat 10 chip eapacitors. The metalized contacts on the capacitor can be damaged or compictely Femoved if too much heat is applied. Use 150 20 W soldering iron and limit soldering time to five seconds, Mount axial-leaded resistors, diodes and remaining capacitors next. To avoid dam: ‘aging them, mount inductors and trans- formers last. Ll and L2 are wound on a 0.25-inch deill-bit shaft. By wrapping the wire around the shaft 10 times, you'll get ‘Ms turns, The last turn ares only a hsbFcurn before entering the PC booed. L3 is wound on a 0.190- inch diameter drill bit with 3% turns wound the same way as LL and L2 Mounting KI issim- plified by first bend ing all its leads 90° ‘outward soit lies lat waceay Hane ve csr as won 1983 5 HF/MF/VHF Amplifiers (1 to 54 MHz) fon the PC board. Use a wrist strap con- nected to ground through a | MQ resistor to bleed off statie body charge while han- dling MOSFETs, and do the work on fn anti-static mat connected to ground via 41 MQ resistor. The gate input can be dam- aged by electrostatic discharge! When winding 13, wind the primary first and add the secondary winding over the primary. Be sure ouse Teffon-insulated wire for T3's windings; the high operating temperatures encountered will likely melt standard hook-up wire inst WA2EBY HF AMPLIFIER 141550 fa. 2. Ee gs 10 os ww 2 Frequency (te) Input SHR vt Fraqueney cs maa \ * Fraqunoy (ua) Figure 5—Etficieney comparison of the Hint and Kink amplifier and this one Heat Sinking Together, QI and Q2 dissipate up t0 59 W. A suitable heat sink is required to prevent the transistors from ovetheating and damage. used an AAVID 244609B02 heat sink originally designed for de-to-de power converters. The amplifier PC board und heat sink are attached to an aluminum enelosure bby two #4-40 screws drilled through the PC board, encfosure and heatsink at diagonally opposite corners. rectangular cutout in the enclosure allows Qi and Q2 direct access to the heat sink. This is essential because of the large thermal impedance associsied with the TO-220 package (mote on this topic Tater). Mark the locations ofthe transistor- tab mounting-hole location in the center of the heat sink in between the cooling Fins, Disassemble the hea sink to drill 0,115 inch holes for #4-40 mounting screws, or tap ##5-40 mounting holes ia the center of the heatsink fins Use mica iauslators and grommets when mounting QI and Q2 to prevent the 14-40 mounting screws fram shorting the ‘TO-220 package drain connections jtabs) {to ground, Coat both sides of the mica insu- lator witha thin layer of thermal compound to improve the thermal conduction be- toween the transistor tab and the heat sink. Be sure to install the mica insulator on the heat ink before assembling the amplifier PC board to she enclosure and heat sink, ‘The mica insulators are larger than the cut ‘outs in the PC board, making it impossible to install mem after the PC beard is mounted, Low-Pass Filter Construction Inductor winding information for the low-pass filters is provided in Table 1 Single Band A. PC-hoard trace is available on the amplifier PC bossd next to amplifier output (3) to allow the installation ofa single-band ow-pass filter between the terminals of J3 and K1's input, #4. This is handy if yosin tend to use the amplifier oa one band only ‘The input inductor of the low-pass filter ‘connects from J3 to the single PC wrace Jacentt0J3, The output inductor connects in series between the single PC trace to 4. The ‘htee filler capacitors connect from J3, J4 Figure 6—Input SWR comparison of the two amplifiers. and the PC-board trace near J3 to ground, This single trace is not used when multiple filters are required. Remenber to remove the single trace adjacent to 13 on he a fier PC board before attaching the amplifier board between the RF connectors on the enclosure's rear panel ‘Muliple-Band Filters Using the amplifier on more than one Dati requires different approach. A set of Table 1 Low-Pass Filter inducter Winding Information {(Reler to Figure 3 in Part 1)) Induotor No. of Number Tums _ Core Lite aotume 7-502 (ale 22tums T5028 (5.L6 — tetums 7-502 Tile iatums 7-502 Lee it tums 1-50-68 LijLi2gtums 1-50-68 Note: All inductors ace wound with #22 enameled wire except for Lt-t4, which fre wound with #24 enamelad wire A220" HF Linear Amplitar ‘output Power (W) BUSRSASES SNS | 01 m0 Frequency (sz) BF Ostput Power va Freaveney Pip 2 IW. Veg = 438,426, F138 OC (attr Manele ering. bermenice <0 Be) wessssessceesesseess eroeroture (°C) ) IRF8}0 Terma! Dato Paign = 28.56 par Troma, Ky down “acral 360 Hoot Sex with Fon a ae «90 cry ‘me (Secenet) Figure 7—AF output power versus eupply-wallage of tis amnpitior. 1-16 Chapter 1 conditions. Figure 8—Thermal performance of the amplifier during key-downTRFSI0 Thermal Date 1 4 { | ix owspass filters is built on a double- sided PC board with plated through holes provide op-side ground connections. A srt mount, two-pole, six-position switch does all low-pass filter selec ton. Sitver-mica, leaded capacitors are “used in all the filters. On 160 through +30 meters, T-50-2 toroids are used in the "T-$0-6 toroids are used for in- ctorson 20 through 10 meters. The num- ‘af tums wound on a toroid core are ‘on the toroid's OD as the wire through the core center (The ARRL andbook ® provides complete details for toroids). Assemble one filter sec- starting with the 160, 80, 40- ler, then the 30-meter filter. With {switch mounting position at your upper the filterinput (C1) is near the topedge ‘output (C3) is the Bottom edge. The last nwo filters ‘out of sequence: the 15-10 meter filter before the 20-17 meter filter) and inpursfoutputs are reversed to simplify “the PC-board layout. The input capacitors, C13 and C16, are mounted on the board ‘edge, and output capacitors, C15 “and CIB, are on the top edge. ‘Use care when assembling the rotary jich. AU 14 terminals must fit through SPC board without damaging or bending ‘you attempt assembly. Insert the switch into the PC board. Do not ess the rotary switch all the way into the board holes flush with the ground 3! Ifyou do, the top flange of the signal ‘may short to the ground plane. Adjustment ‘heblasing procedure is straightforward requires only a multimeter to complete. Bint set Rt and? elly counterclockwise, OV onthe gates of QI and Q2). Terminate AF input and outputs witha 50 2 toad. connect the 28 V supply tothe ampli ‘in seties with a multimeter set to the 300 mA curent range. Measure and he idling current drawn bythe 5'V supply The value should be approxi- BS mA Q8— 5:1 V)/ 24K = 2S mA), Set QI's drain current to 10 mA m= 21.7 por Toner, 20 WPM = 2.4 8.33 Dota/Sae “ermal 368 Het Sk win Fan ae Figure 9—Thermal peviormance of the S| amptior during Simulated CW Tek conditions. by adjusting RI until the 28 V supply cur- rent increases by 10 mA above the idling. ‘current (9.5 + 10 = 19.5 mA). Next, adjust RQ for @ Q2 drain current of 10 mA. This is accomplished by adjusting R2 until the 28 V supply current increases by an addi tional 10 mA (to 29.5 mA). ‘Amplifier Performance With a 28 V power supply and EW of dive, the RF output power ofthis amplitier exceeds 40 W from 1.8 MHz through 28 MHz, Peak performance occurs at 1OMHz, providing about 75 W after filter ing! A pesformance comparison between this amplifier and my moditied version of the Hint and Kink amplifier mentioned cuties is shown in Figure 4 As shown in Figure 5, this amplifier achieves an efficiency of better than 50% over its frequency range, except at 7 MHz where the efficiency drops to 48%. Incon- tras, the Hint and Kink amplifier delivers treater efficiency between 1.8 and 7 Mliz, but it drops rapidly to only 20% as tre: quency is increased igure 6 compares the input SWR of the two amplifiers. The Hint and Kink am plifier’s SWR is aeptable (< 2:1) only at 1.8 MHz. This amplifier is better, however it, too, exceeds 2:1 above 14 MHz, The in put SWR ofthis amplifier ean be improved to better thas 2:1 on all bands by adding a 34 pad (RE-RIO of Figure 2) at the input and supplying 2 W to the pad input. This keeps the amplifier drive at 1 W. Figure 7 graphs this amplifies’s RF out put power as a function of drain supply ‘oluige. Duting this test, che amplifier RF drive level was kept constant at 1 W. AS you ean see, even when using @ 13.8 V de Supply. the amplifier provides over 10 W output a gain of more than 104B) fom 1,8 to 30 Mit, Operation ‘The amplifier requires no waing while operating on any HF amateur band. You ‘must, however, he sure 10 select the proper low-pass filter prior to transmitting. Ifthe wrong low-pass fitter is selected, damage to the MOSFETs may result, Damage will HFIMF/VHE Amplifiers (1 to 54 MHz) likely result if you attempt to operate the amplifier ona band with the low-pass filter selected for a lower ttequency. For ex- ample, driving the amplifier with a 21 MHz Signal while the 1.8 MHz low-pass filter is selected will likely desiroy QP and/or Q2. The amplifier can also be damaged by ‘overheating, This limitation is imposed by the TO-220 packages in which QI and Q2 fare housed. The thermal resistance from Junetion to case is a whopping 3.5°C/W. ‘This huge value makes it virtually impos- sible to keep ihe junction temperature from exceeding the +150°C target for good reliability. Consider the following condi tions: key down, |W input, 53 W output ‘on 7 MHz (worst-case band for efticiency). ‘The amplifier consumes 28 Vx 4 A= 112. W, of which 53 W are sent to the an- tenna, 059 W (112 W 53 W= 59 W) are dissipated in QL and Q2. Assuming equal ‘current sharing between QI and Q2, each luansistor dissipates 29.5 W. To keep the ansistor junction temperature below +150°C requires preventing the transistor case temperature from exceeding 468°C (150 ~ [3.5 x 29.5)) while dissipating 29,5 W. Also, there is a temperavure rise Aactoss the mca insulator between the tan- sistor ease and heat sink of 0.5°C/W. That makes the maximum allowable heatsink temperature limited to 46.8 ~ (0.5 x 29.5) 12°C. In other words, the heat sink must issipate $9 W (29.5 from each transistor with only a 7°C rise above room tempers: ture (25°C). Even if the junction tempera tures were allowed (o reach the absolute ‘maximum of 175°C, the heat sink tempers ture must not exceed 57°C. Accomplish ing this requires a heat sink witha theemal resistance of (57 — 25) / 59 = 0.54°CW. ‘This is far Tess than the 1.9°C/W rating of the AAVID 244609B02 heat sink I used. ‘The situation may seem bleak, but all isnot lost. These calculations make itelear that the amplifier should not be used for AM, FM orany other continuous-carrier opera” tiga, The amplifier should be used only for CW and SSB operation where the duty cycle is significantly reduced. ‘Thermal performance of the amplifier is illustrated in Figuee 8, Data was taken under de operating conditions with power- Uissipation levels set equal to conditions tunder RF operation. A RadioShack brush- less 12 V de fan (RS 273-243A) blows across the heat sink. Key down, the maxi- ‘mum rated junction temperature is reached in s little as five seconds as illustated in Figure 8. Prolonged key-down transmis- sions should be avoided for this reason Under intermittent CW conditions, the Situation is very differeat, Transistor-case temperatures reached 66°C after operating four minutes under simulated CW condi- tions at 20 WPM (60 ms on, 60 ms off). ‘The corresponding junction temperature is 141°C (based on an equivalent RMS power dissipation of 21.7 W per transis tor). This keeps the junction temperature under the 150°C target (see Figure 9). One ‘imple way to reduce power dissipation is 17to reduce the power-supply voltage to 24 .V. RF output power will decrease about 10 W from the maximum levels achieved with a 28 V supply From a thermal standpoint, the IRFS10 power MOSFET is a poor choice for this, RF amplifier application. Although I must say Lam impressed with the robustness of these devices considering che times T spent testing thers key down, five minutes at a time, without failure. QL and/or Q2 may reed to be replaced alter a year or so of ‘operation because of the compromise in feliability. Considering their low cost, that is not a ad trade-off Stability High gain, broad bandwidth and close inpuvfoutput Signal routing (within the TR relay) all work against stability, With & ‘00d load (< 2:1 SWR) the amplifier is Stable from 18 MHz through 39 MHz. Oscillation was observed when the trans- miter frequency was increased 10 40 MB ‘The outpat load match also affects stabil ity. Oscillation was observed on 27.5 MHz when the load SWR was 3:1. This should rot be a problem since the frequency Is, ‘outside the ham bands. I spent a great deal of time trying to make this design uncondi- tionally stable even with Toads exceeding 3:1 SWR without sacrificing output power (gain) at 28 MHz without success. T did identify some reasonable compromises One of the easiest ways to improve sta bility and the input SWR seen by the RF sourte is add an RF attenuator (pad) at the amplifier input. An attenuator is absolutely required ifthe transmitter (driver) provides ‘more than 1 W (o the amplifier. RB, R9 and R10 form an RF attenuator that actenuates 1-18 Chapter 1 the transmitter deive level, but does not at tenuate received signals because it is only inthecircuit when KI isenergized. To drive this amplifier with a 2-W-outpur transmit: ter requires use of a 3-dB pad. The pad improves the amplifier input SWR and the isolation between the amplifir’s input and ‘output. The drawback is that 1 W is wasted in the pad. Likewise, a 5-W driver requires use of a 7-4B pad, but 4 W are wasted in the pad, (Values for R8, R9 and R10 to make a 3-4B pad and a 7-dB pad are given in the parts list.) Installing a pad requires cutting the PC-bourd trace under R9, otherwise RO ‘would be shorted out by the trace. Make a small cut (0.1 inch wide) in the race under 9 before soldering R9 in position. R8 and RIO have the same values, but may have different power ratings. Connect R10 be tween the RF input side of R9 and grounc. Install RB between the amplitier side oF 89 and ground. ‘An impedance mismatch between the output of a 1-W-output driver and the am= plifier input can be a source of instability (Obviously, if the driving transmitter's out- put power is only 1 W, you can’t use a pad 8s described earlier.) If you encounter sta bility problems, try these remedies: Place a resistor in parallel with LI and L2 to de- crease the Q of the amplifier matching net- work ‘try values between 50 and 220 0). Try reducing the value of L3 or eliminating L3 emtirely. Both of these modifications improve stability but reduce the amplifier’s ‘output power above 21 MHz, ‘Summary ‘This project demonstrates how inexpen- sive power MOSFETs can be used to build an all-band linear HE power amplifier. Fre quency of operation is extended beyond the limits of previous designs using the 1RF510 and improved inpet-impedance matching. Long-term reliability istecognized asa com: promise because of the poor thermal perfor- mance of the low-cost TO-220 package. TF you have been thinking about adding an aimplifier to your QRP station, this project is a good way t0 experiment with amplifier design and is an excellent way to become familiar with surface-mount “chip” components, | made arrangements with Mouser Electronics and Amidon Ine to provide parts kits for this project at a discounted price (see the parts list in Part 1). These parts kits make it very easy to get started and more economical to “homebrew” this project. Acknowledgments T want to thank the following individu: als associated with this. project: Harry Randel, WD2AID, for his untiring support in capturing the schematic diagram and parts layout of this project; AT Roehm, W20BI, for his continued support and en ccouragement in developing, testing, edit. ‘ing and publishing this project; “Larry Gauadore, WB2SPF, for building, testing and photographing. the project, Dick Jansson, WDIEAB, for thermal-design suggestions; Adam O'Donnell, N3RCS, for his assistance building prototypes; and my wile, Laura, N2TDL, for her encourage ment and support throughout this project Notes "ike Kossor, °A Broadband HF Ampito Using Low-Cost Power MOSFETe Part. (pOST Mar 1800, pp 40.83, "A. Dean Straw, NOBV, The 1999 AARL Hand- book “for Haaio Arratours, (Newington: ARAL), Toth ed, pp 25-2317econ Geka ee A 1.8 to 54 MHz 5-Watt Amplifier feed a rugged and stable amplifier for your multiband QRP rig? Not only has ihedesign been optimized ona pricey com per program called Touchstone (by esol) for unconditional stability, it has eually survived a variety of poor fouds wat sed to sweep filters with 5 Wot RF The gain of the two stage smmplifier was tpeasred to be between 28 snd 30 dB in Aheamatcor bands though there is another Ah of gain around 37 MH For ruggedness and ease of design, Motorola MIF 137 was selectea asthe fi= tultransistor. While the MRF 138 may be not linear, insufficient design informa: tion was. available to ensure 2. stable design. While some amateurs will balk at the bigh cost of these devices (S24 in November 1991), such savings are easily fest ifthe cheaper device has 8 habit of owing up. Also, one picks up areal clean $8 sgnal—the high-order IMD products Seay dom compre ye par ers, For instance, the worst IMD on Rap. ¢ and 28 Mz was ~39 dB on 28 Mie, with the Sth order products 61 dB own (relative to PEP). The device was puting out 5-W PEP while being biased at D528 supply) Pethaps the biggest flaw is the power seguisment—these FETs really ike see Uipbroitages forbest performance, and the MBF137isco exception. biased the MRF 131 for 0.55 4 and 28.2 V. It drew 0.6 A Shen putting out 4.6 W at 28 MHz. The Aber runs off your normal 12-V supply. The input amplifier shown in Fig 1a is ety straightforward —a bipolar 2NS109, Wil the feedback neworks adjusted 10 ‘ompeasae the gain of the MRF 137. A Aries network of a 470-a resistor and a TBPF capacitor was tacked between the sallestor and ground to ensure stability at all feguencies. The MRF 137 rolls otf a few db at 54 MHz, but the bipolar ampli Ber adequately compensates for this gain eficiency. The input cetura loss is Setter than 18 dB between 1.4 and 29.9 MHz, but egeades to 12 dB at 50 MHz. The input 'SWR was not tested with poor loads By isel, the MRF 137 amplifier stoge shown in Fig Ib (see next page) makes an excellent 16-dB gain block between | and 32 MHz, having less than 0.5 dB of gain variation, The transmission line tas former on the input seems to help the input return loss/SWR, keeping these numbers above I8/below I.3 to | between I and 50 MHz, I suppose that putting another trans mission line transformer on the output could be used to get a more powerful am. plifier with less gain over a similar fre- quency range, but this variation has aot been investigated. ‘The simplest circuit board [ could think ‘of was used— Tut two i ‘double-sided circuit board for the gate and drain leads, Then I wrapped the edges of the board with copper tape and soldered it down for good grounding. After making holes for the MRE 137 transistor and the ‘mounting screws inthe board and a spacer, made of 0.050-inch aluminum, [attached the spacer, the circuit board, and the MRF 137 to a heat sink tapped with 4-40 screw holes. Standard ground-plane consteuc- tion was used to attach the other parts. The 2NS109 amplifier was built on its own ‘ground plane—RF amplifiers work better if there isn’t to0 much gain in one place: ‘Three additional amplifiers were built by Mike Gruber, WAISVE, for use in the lab. He noted that R& had to be changed from 4.7 k@to 1 KO to bias the amplifiers at 0.5, amps. Apparently, the MRF 137s he used havea higher gate threshold voltage. Oth- cerwise, performance was as expected. “ 7 anv ouwur Fig 1a--Low-lovel ampifior designed to compensate for the gain vollolf from the power amplifier Q1—2N5109, 2.5-W heat-sinked AF transistor, fis 1200 MHz T115 turns bifilar #28 on FT-37-48 toroid core. HF/MF/VHF Amplifiers (1 to 54 MHz) 1419Fig 1—5.W TMOS power amples LiL 26 turns no. 26 enameled wire on T-44-2 toroid. 3.9 uh G2 MRF 137 transistor. 9 10-ka tum potentiometer for bias setting EC1—21 tums of no. 26 enameled wire on FR-37-67 toriod ‘T2—4 tums 25-21 coax on FT-50-43 toroid core. ‘The 25-2 coax is actually two 50-M.coax run side-byside. The prototype used AG-"96/U, UIA 7ALOS 5-V regulator. 1-20 Chapter 1Sia cia eu eum An Experimental Solid- State Kilowatt Linear Amplifier for 2 to 54 MHz Many kilowatt amplifiers could anchor a small boat, and don’t cover 6 meters. Combined with its power supply, this kilowatt weighs less than 36 pounds. Poi ate seers progres toward achieving a well-defined goal: building the smallest possible“ MF/HF/VHE tanplfer capable ofa least 1000 watts out- Put Nicknamed the Solid State Kilowatt ISSKW), the project has its roots in an aticle by Helge Granberg of Metorola in Ociober 1986 RF Design.! Two water ‘ooled amplifiers of that design, built by Mite Staal (K6MYC) of M2, hed many prob- lems. Some of them were device-related: ‘ers, power-supply related. (More about Aheteissues later.) In February 1990 I rebuilt, ‘92 of the water-cooled units using the old esign and two new transistors, Optimized for 50 MI, this amplifier could just reach the LOO-watt level. After using it for three ‘weeks of South Pacific DXpeditioning, 1 ecided to construct an air-cooled unit. 1 spent the spring, summer and fall of 1990 Building the SSKW and getting it ready for ‘nother DXpedition inthe fall, Grouit Description Motorola's article reprint AR-347 de- soribes the basic amplifier design. July 1990 QEX also carried an article about it? Fig I shows the amplifier schematic. Bretly, the circuit consists of wo MRFIS4 RF power MOSFETs in push-pull. Exch of fhete transistors is capable of 600 watts ‘itputup 0 100 MHz, The input and outpot transformers, 9:1 and 1:9, respectively, use cures of #67 ferrite material. The output {nansformer's 1:9 ratios a compromise that is optimum at about 800 wats Incorporating the Motorola building biock into 2 DXpedition-ready package re ited experimentation and problem-solv- fng.as described at the 1991 Central States VHP Conference.’ Here's where the sys- tem stands today. TR Switching ‘The SSKW includes TR relays that by- ppass the Fig | circuitry in receive mode. 1 designed their control circuitry toeliminate the possibility of the high RF tields in the amplifier compartment causing. relay falsing problems, and to simplifies field repair by keeping parts count low. The re lays are sequenced 10 allow the output relay to close before the amplifier puts out power. Because rolays take a few millisec= fonds to operate, sequencing is necessary to keep the felay from hot-switehing the am= plifier output. (Hot-switehing | IW will destroy a relay rapidly") This design has two small problems. For ‘the short time it takes the amplifies input relay to close on switching from receive to HF/MF/VHF Amplifiers (1 to 54 MHz) transmit, the exciter operates without a load, This can be remedied by delaying the exciter keying. The other problem is the relay’s closure time changes as the relay heats. This can be solved two ways: Use external electronics todo the delay, or tem- perature-compensate for the resistance change, 'SWR Protection haven't yet built SWR protection into the amplifier. In January 1983 QST, Helge Granberg described an SWR-protection cir- cuit fora 2- to 30-MHz anplifie.* A phone conversation with Helge indicated that this circuit will work to 54 MHz, so it should suffice, How much mismatch the MRFS4s can olerate is unknown, however, 80 don"t 4246-Meters: DXpeditioning with a Difference Making the most of 6 meter DXpeditioning depends on knowing where and when to go If you want to work Europe from the Canary Islands suramertime is best because spo- radie E propagation is best then If you want to work the US. ‘rom EAB go when fll shifts ino winter to take advantage of ‘east west F2 layet propagation Its always more exciting to go toa rare place Out not necessarly more fun’ ‘Once you ye decided on a DXpedition site plan your travel fon the assumption that you ll want to stay on site for atleast {wo weeks This gives you about a 60%. better chance of hav: ing good openings within a given month ay particular attention to the AF prospects of your accom ‘modations Ideally you d be able to see ocean in all directions Ithat § not possible als not lost A direct oceanic path isn t always the best propagation may be better ever the backscat ter path You Il want to get your antenna up ashigh as possible to minimize radiation angle and AFI And consider EMI and NI Possibilities carefully Some areas of the world use NTSC channel 2; others, PAL on channel 1—right in the middle of the band! If your RF gets into @ resort's CATV system you Il drive 60 televisions crazy rather than one ot two Chapter 6 of The ARAL Operating Manuel covers DXpedition power, health, licensing and logistical concerns, in detail s0 see that book for more about those topics il add fone thing though It helps to find a local ham with FAX capa~ bility as well as HF who can help you with questions on licens- ing and living accommodations "This can take 80% of the surprises out of the expedition! a ‘The author's setup at CN2IP, counts more than neainess whi ‘contacts on 6 and 80 on @-meter abet, Morocco. Efficiency otis busy making 900 IME! (OXpedition photos Equipment ‘What | bring and use on 6-meter DXpeditions is based largely on the experiences of Jim Treybig, WEJKV, inhis many years of 6 meter DXpeditioning, The core of the approach is pretty much this: Run as much power as permitted and bring fs big an antenna as possible. There are practical limits to this, Dut et your ingenuity direct your thoughts. | consider 100 ‘Was aminimum, 800 watts good and 1009 waits as optimum, High power lets you take advantage of scatter paths that sim= ply won't work at 100 wats. I's very frustraing to hear a well ‘equipped station that you cannot work! Which Antenna? ‘A DXpedition antenna must be compact, ight and repro- ducible The Yagi use has six elements on a 30 foot boom, Optimized by Brian (K6STI) Beezley's Yagi optimization pro- ‘gram YOi's fed with a T match and a half wave balun. Its Boom folds down to two 40 inch sections, each 2 inches in diameter. Most ofthe element pieces fit inside the two 40-inch, sections. The antenna is light enough to lft with one hand, ‘Arotatable antenna is mandatory. You'll need to turn your antenna to find the best direction of propagation. The antenna, mast, 20 feet long overall, consists of 40 inch sections of 2uinch aluminum tubing joined with internal steeves. The ro- tatoris at the mast bottom and there's a sli ring at the mast top just below the Yagi (Having the rotator atthe bottom makes putting the antenna up easier by minimizing weight at the Upper end of the mast) T'use Dacron rape for guying. How much rope should you ‘courtesy of the author) OXpediioning would be no fun at all without antenna work! want to use the SSKW to calibrate its own, SWR-protection cirwitry! The amplifier’s output can be reduced two ways: by turning down the exciter power via amplifier-gererated ALC, or by reducing the amplifier bias. (These are e hancement-mode FETs, se positive bias is necessary toturn them on.) The ALC option is better because it does not atfect the mpliier’s linearity. A no-output-load con- ition must shut down the amplifier as quickly as possible. Overdrive Protection Overdrive can destroy power MOSFETs instantly, so a drive limit control is esse tial, A threshold detector should be inc porated. The SSKW’s input includes a 5-dB attenuator so 100-watt exciters can drive the amplifier without damaging it. If 1-22 Chapter 1 the S-dB. pad fails to attenuate, or if the exciter puts out too much power, the ampli- fier must be shut dowa rapidly. ‘The amplifier must also be shut down if the transistors’ flange temperature exceeds 40°C, Shutdown can be done two ways, depending on how the amplifieris used. The first way isto just turn down the bias, which changes the amplifier’ linearity. The sec fond way isto totally urn off the amplifier. ‘This must be done gracefully so the ampli fier does aot shut down while producing full power. The following shutdown se- {quence is essential: (1) Turn down the bias; {Q) open the input relay; and (3) open the ‘output relay. Bias ‘The SSKW's bias circuitry is straight- Forward, 8's value must be tailored to the particular MREIS4s used, If the bias de- creaces too fast with rising temperature, increase the value of R8. The LM723's in put voage must never exceed 40 volts Output Fitering Filtering must be added to make the amplifier comply with FCC signal-purity regulations. The reactance of these filters away from their intended passbands must be taken into account. Absorptive low-pass filters should be considered. Such filters dissipate harmonic energy as heat rather than reflecting it back tothe amplifier tran- sistors Packaging | intended to make this amplifier as small and light a8 possible. Most of the amplifier's weight isits aluminum heatsinklate what you need, multiply by 2.5 and T usually bring two diameters, ‘ie and Bting at least two radios: one for HF liaison (usually at 10, (@) and another for 6 meters. | recommend maximizing lundancy by taking two radios that both cover 10 and 6. At tone ofthe 6-meter rigs should include an excellent noise lor power-ine problems and motorbikes, it must also abe to drive a kilowatt ampitier to full oulput on &, (Cuse Kenwood TS-6808 and one ICOM iC-575.) Receive cov- ‘between 10 and 6 meters ig another plus, Where It's 1. istaning to nonamateur services between 45 and Hz can be vary important in determining the direction of ‘attional Gear Bring 12-volt supplies capable of operating at the line ‘and frequency at your DXpedition destination. The 8 should also be able to handle wide line-voltage varia~ {ons around nominal. Carry two of them—one for each radio. Amodty ming by adding line itering and fusing. Parallel a ‘andard receptacle of some kind with your supplies’ rig plug Of eable. Two-prong, polarized Jones plugs work well. You tute tnem on everything for quick setup and breakdown, ‘Bring a memory keyer for use as a beacon and in normal japeration. Also consider taking a laptop computer. } now we & computer for logging, taking notes, caiculating beam headings, and determining the footprint of the sun. Several operating subjects are of prime impartance. Ten- ‘naa aison comes firs, You must use 10 meters fo get UD- ae pronagalion information and find out who's being Pent van Youre fang your way tough apo a ‘an sometimes miss very tara proDagetion SPOT plot you dont check 10 meters often Sheeler contac! provedures come nex: I's very ficult inalirg everyone happy on meters when yourethe DX. You fats rls and stick to them, Picea requency ard. your testo Koop i when the band gets busy Try to not work the stations over and over again, especialy dung plleups ygs's oan ray pone pou coun ‘ach station as quick possible. Dont discuss id gtd squares—the me i takes est gives fewer fr chance 0 work you: Leave that info f0 the OSU 3 Whion should you gperate—phone or CW? The ane Seis "Probably both" GW penetrates weak conditions Beterthan phone, and it gives more people atthe edge of y. Xpedition is also about meeting people. Here's Tarik Skireg), CNE , and fends, propagation a chance at working you, Then, when you go to phone, everyone who can will work you again. | favor CW Dxpedition operation because of my experiences on the non DX end. ‘Should you operate on a single frequency or spit? Go to split when there's a massive opening and you're being QAMed by people calling you. This usualy happens during Intense backscatter openings. Hams on the 10-meter liaison frequency can tell you when QAM gets too heavy. Conclusion ‘Six-mater DXpeditioning is a blast. And the SSKW makes it even more fun: | can devote more weight to antennas!— NéAMG opper heat spreader. How much heat ing s needed depends on the duty cycle Tecided thata duty cycle of 30% s wasaceeptable. The resulting weight the package, 14 pounds. is very accept- ‘TheSSKW is inches wide, 12snches and S inches big ‘Thekeytomakingthe package Hiskewas use the sallest possible heat spread. fouse enough M-inch-thick copper around ech MRIS with a est | of spreader. | machined the spreader and attached it to the heat sink, also chined flat. After attaching the copper to aluminum, {resurfaced the copperagain transistor contact points toinsuceHat- spread thi layer of heatsink com- between the copper and aluminum, another layer between the copper and transistors With wo high-pressure, 24-volt fans blowing on the sink, the resultant duty cycle limit is a litle less than 50%, These fans are in series across the amplifier's '50-volt supply. The small fan in the com- partment is a 12-volt unit tha just barely Fits. he compartment needs to be alittle deeper.) A fan is necessary here, however, because compartment airflow dramatically keeps the output transformer’s ferrite from setting hot, ‘Ahheat sink with more fins anda thicker base, but the same fin depth, would raise the duty-eyele limit, (The copper spreader should be made larger as well.) These changes would also make the amplifier heavier. Construction Techniques A milling machine is required for HFIMF/VHF Amplifiers (1 to 54 MHz) surfacing all of the amplifier’s heat-con- uctive interfaces. Physical flatness is essential for maximum heat conductivity and to avoid warping the transistor cases. The Motorola bulletin specifies the torque of the screws on the MRFI54s" flanges. ‘Tightening these screws uniformly assures ‘hatte flanges won"t warp during tempera ture eyeling. R14 and R1S, the feedback resistors, are flange-mounted. Their beryllium copper leads cannot be flexed very many times be- fore they break. (According to their manu- {acturer, that may be only once!) These to resistors just barely fit, So, make suee the ‘two MRFIS&s are separated property. Power Supply ‘To keep the amplifier smal and light, 1 use a switehing power supply. A Lambda 1-23cy Reguiater wn5387 hy Ay Fig 1—The basic SSKW circuit can produce at least 1 KW from 2 to 54 MHz. Duplicating this circult requires additional information not ‘given here. Output Titering is also necessary to eneure compliance with FOG emission purty rules. See the text, Motorola Application Note AN'287, July 1990 GEX and the 1897 Central States VHF Conference Proceedings for detalls. The Central States write-up ineludes SSKW performance graphs and spectrograms in addivon to a diagram of the ampiiier's relay-control eicultry LES-50-48 (net weight, 20 pounds) does the job, with good results. Sized at 15 inches long, 7.5 inches wide and 5 inches high, it cean source $0 amperes at 50 volts. This power supply produces significant radio noise up to 30 MHz, most of it radiating froin the supply’s ae-line leads. I EM: tered the supply’s leads with good success (We need better, RF-quieter switching sup: plies!) Because linear supplics generate little or no RE EMI, they are superior to switching supplies for fixed-station use Overshoot is a regulated power supply characteristic that's particularly troubl some in switching supplies. Overshoot oc ‘urs when a regulator responds (00 slowly to Keep its output voltage dowa in cesponse to short-duriton high-eurren loading. Ina S0-voltswitching supply, and depending on the Toad, overshot Wansdeats of more than 100 volts may result. 've seen overshoot destroy expensive transistors! The SSKW supply must be able to safely hanalle the ‘atiable power-supply demand that oscurs during SSB and CW transmission, Power-supply RF sensitivity is another consideration. Some power supplies are sen sitive to RE. Their output voltages may vary with the presence and amptitude of RF on their input and output leads. The SSKW'S supply must be free of such effects Hints and Kinks Be careful when applying de to the amplifier for the first time. Do not use a high-current supply for initial tests. Use a Two Motorola MRF154 RF power MOSFETS in push-pull make the SSKW perk. A 20-watt wrciter drives the amplifier to full ‘output. (amplifier photos by Kirk Kleinschmit, NTO2) 4-24 Chapter 1 |without its two 24-volt fans, the SSKW's heat sink and spreader would have fo be much larger.Tabie 1 SSKW Performance Versus Frequency Drive Power ww 245 luggage weight the SSKW amplifier conserves can be put to ysee~2-meter moonbource g 3, for instance. Operating 3 the author Completed 20 EME contacts -Morocea's tat over trip, the SSKW performed like & ‘with 56 countries on'8 meters mratlimited, 3- or 4ampere supply to ck he regulator and set the bias. The fier should have a reverse polarity on diode rated ata voltage appro- 0 the supply. “Make sure that you have a 50-ohm load amplifie output. Te bias cicuitey ot act correctly if there is no load. ingrease drive. Watch the output and the current drain to make sure arinline with efficiency. If the input chisbod, check C7 and C8. the ame does not achieve its efficiency caps iy RF that doesn’t make it tothe load ey tbleave via the de input line. This C12 to explode of ofthe under af the board. Also, under normal op- the single unit Motorola species ean bacely handle the RF current pases through it.I cecommend paral 10-0050. uF chipeia iad of using a single O.I-aF chip. problemi dificult toanalyze because son the underside ofthe board entioned earlier, the SSKW's ay have to be tailored to the slr MRFIS4s used. One thing not on the schematics is the adi fan Arco 365 variable capacitor (C15 A) across C14 to cancel some of the inductive reactance in the output trans- former at 6 meters, Performance With 250-volt power supply. the SSKW ‘can produce over I.1 kW from 2t054 Mit At this power level, the MOSFETs" drain currentrun at around 40 araperes, depend- ing on the operating frequency. Table 1 shows amplifier performance data taken at six different frequencies. The SSRW can produce up 0 1.3 KW below 30 MHz. Especially below 30 Mlle, the SSKW’s harmonic output rises with output power, It may be possible to use only four low-pass filters to cover the 2 to 54 MMz range if second harmonic of ~40dB van be tolerate. Since the transistors operate in push-pull. the second harmonic is usually not a problem. Without its 5-dB input pad and operat- {ng with $0-volt supply, the ampli hibits an input SWR of less than 2:1 (e- ferred to 50 hms) throughoutits frequency range. Only below 5 MHz does its input SWR exceed I.6:1. Inserting the 5-4B pad adds 10 dB of return loss and Keeps the ingot SWR below 1.3:1 through the amplifiers operating range. Ihave not yet measured the smplifie’s two-tone, thirdorder IMD performance HFIMF/VHE Amplifiers (1 to 54 MHz) Power Output Ip my A y000 39.1 ma a2 32.3 a5 307 Gain Eliciency Input Vax (2B) (%») SWAY) 161 512 1.41 50 168 5891.39 ws 599 1.39 7718136 171482487 154 504 151 1000 1000 1000 1000 Final Notes: For now, can say that my goal of ‘compact, lightweight amplifier capable of atleast I KW output isa reality. The SSKW has served me well in ils intended DXpeditionary application. Nonetheless, ‘the amplifier in its present Form is still ex: perimental. Before the SSKW could be acceptable for general use, output filtering and failureproof protection circuitry would have to be added. The next generation ison its way. The next project? Use the same 50- volt supply with power FETs capable of ‘covering 144 to 432 MHz, and build it into ‘a similar package! ‘Acknowledgment 1 thank Helge Granberg for spending considerable time answering, questions bout this project. Notes Mu Granberg, New MOSFETs Simolly High ower RE Xp Basin” RE Design Ot 1988, pp 43-48, 50,52. 2H, Granberg, “A Compact 1-RW 2.60 MHz ‘Solidstate Ampitier” ex, Ju 1990, pp 3 rent Prototype iver for S10 991" Central ‘Naw. ington: ARRL” 801), pp 61-70. Avaliable fram the ARR Boose #614. “Hi Granberg, ‘MOSFET AF Power —An Up- Titer Pat's QS, da 1983, pp 50-8, aso Scoeedbacs 7 Mar 1268 pt, Pant ‘peared in OST, Dae 1062, pp 19-18: aso be Feedoack, O87, ian 1988; 9 48), sAmertan Technica! Ceramics (ATC) has ‘ome new chip caps (the 800 sere) that Rave higher voltage ane current ratings shan the ‘capacitor Materia. speciien, T have amps but have not ted them yet.Boia neon oun An All-Band, 1500-Watt- Output 8877 Linear Amplifier full-legal-limit output, can be built at home. It is, however, a major project requiring dedication his article is the cesult of a 10-month ‘project to build a lega-mit linear am plifier. The amplifier uses the popular EIMAC_ 8877 3CX1S00A7)_ high-ma power triode that can provide a continuoss RF output of 1500 W to the antenna, In recent years, I have built several dif- ferent linear amplifiers, and | must admit that this previous experience was neces: sary to obtain the results achieved with this project." I hope that by shiting this expe- rience, others will benefit from it. Any amplifier design depends on the various components used and individual prefer ences. Therefore, you may not want—or be able—to duplicate this amplifier exactly The comment I receive most often from the amateur fraternity is bout the high cost tobuild an azuplitier like this. The criticism is valid. This amplifier is not inexpensive tobuild, Plan to spend from $1000«0 $1200 for the RF deck, and another $500 to $600, fon the power supply. If you really think about it, though, these costs are a bargain when you consider the performance and quality of the final product and the cost of an equivalent commercial unit, This article is presented in two parts, In this part, will describe the RF deck and power supply in general terms. Schematic diagrams and parts considers cluded. Part 2 gives detail for constructing the two unit erations for the final testing and operation. Preliminary Thoughts Finding Parts Finding parts ean be a big task. Even the st difficult parts to find, such as the uum variable capacitors, vacuum relays 1-26 Chapter 1 and commitment. Table 7 Recommended Tools + Dri press or drill fixture (with set of highspeed bits) + Band saw capable of cutting Ysrinch- thick metal + Chassis puriches (e inch to 1 inch) + Fly cutter, 2-inch radius vise Set of taps + Common handtools (screwdrivers, pliers, soldering iron and gun) + Voltohmmeter * Variable power supply (5-26 V, 1A) + Dip osciiator and door-knob capacitors are available, hhowever, and appear for sale in the ads (ST Ham-ads and the Yellow Sheets) oF athamfests and flea markets? Probably the best source of pars is other hams who ate actively building equipment. Go talk to these people and let them know what you are looking for. t's amazing how others will help, and even let you into their per sonal stores. There are people, like myself Who like to build amplifiers. Once you learn who these individuals are, keep in touch with them. They can help find the Key parts Parts that are not available in the sur. plus market can be purchased new. This Will be necessary for some parts, such asines et. Just remember that when you [anew commercial amplifier, you pay price for every component. ood astortment of hand tools, as well mepover tools, are necessary to com- his project. Table | shows the tools I sominend. In particular, recommend that llpressand band saw be available. You the jod without al of the tools listed, job will be much more difficult. Mine is probably the most valuable re- geformmos of us. and the one that may hardest find. Thisprojectwook well BDbours ro complete. The key isto stepright, and not hurry. Build tke et ina place where you ean leave jon the table and walk away. Plan sep and build in dserete modules. kan hur oF so whenever possible, and but Surely, the modules will take Iu is amazing how much you can pish using these small time seg As, great strides can be made on Gra Sunday, Commitment and ey are the virtues required to fin 5. Deck Circuit Description RF deck s designed to be a table- yywhere. The amplifier design is don proven circuitry, Included are all ts required to provide a clean signal ell as adequate protection devices for metal-ceramic 8877 tube. ireuity Fig? shows the schematic diagram for the amplitiercontrol cieuitry and low-volt- ‘age power supply. The 117-V ac input from the high-voltage power supply enters the RF deck through a S-conduetor intercon- necting control cable. Each control line is sminated in a pi-section filter as it enters the RF deek, to prevent RF from getting into the control cable and power supply. The pisection filters are constructed as an independent module. The amplifier is powered up by the FIL. ON/OFF switch, Si. Engaging SI turns on the blower, filament power and 26-V de power supply. The current inrush to the tube is limited by Ri, in series withthe fila- ‘ment transformer primary. After approxi- mately I second, KI energizes and KIA shorts Ri thus providing Tull filament volt. ‘age tothe tube, The KI delay is controlled bby R2 and CI across the relay coil. R3, in series with the other leg of the filament transformer primary, is adjusted to provide the proper filament voltage (4.85 V ac) t0 the tube under load. The 8877 requires a 3-minute warmup period to reach proper operating tempers ture. A solid-state timing circuit, formed by QI and Q2, locks the amplifier out of ‘operation until the warmup period has elapsed. When the 26 V de comes on, charges through the S00-kilohm time- lay adjust and |.2-megohm resistors, QL and Q2 form a high-impedance Darlington circuit, and the emitter of Q2 follows the voltage rise on C2. The high-impedance Darlington circuits required to prevent the capacitor charge from draining through the transistors, Afler approximately three les, the potential at the emitter of Q2 reaches 18 V at which point the 4PDT re: lay, K2, engages. K2A applies 26 V de to the K2 felay coil, removing the relay cur rent load from Q2. The voltage also turns HE/ME/VHF Ampii ‘on the TIME pitot light located on the am- plifier front panel to indicate that the ‘warmup period is over. The same line also pplies 26 V de to S2B of the HV-ON push- button switch, which, when engaged, sends 26 V de to the RF inpuvoutput relay cit- cuits. K2B connects # 100-kilohm resistor ‘across C2 o drain the charge from C2. This resets the 3-minute timer should the ampli- fier be turned off and immediately back on. K2C and K2D are wired in paallel and apply 117 V ac to HV-ON switch S2A to energize the high-voltage power supply. ‘The high-voltage power supply can't be turned on even if the HV-ON switch is ‘engaged until after the 3-minute warmup period has ended, IN/OUT switch $3 al- lows the amplifier to be put in the standby mode with the amplifier turned on. Both HV-ON and IN/OUT front-panel push: but ton switches must be engaged to key the amplifier, thereby making it impossible to ‘operate the amplifier without high voltage fon the tube. ‘The amplifiers keyedby grounding the base of Q3 through ihe exciter TR-relay contact. A transistor is used to limit the current switched by the exciter VOX relay ‘This avoids 2 potential problom if the ex- citer VOX relay sparks on closure, which could damage the relay contacts. The "grid trip” break in the relay line causes the re {ays to drop out ifthe grid trip circuit actu- ates from too much grid current (approxi- mately 120 mA). During normal operation, the grid trip break is shorted by a normally closed set of contacts on K3 (see Fig 3). ‘When the amplifier is Keyed, the output RF relay must be closed before drive is applied to the tube—otherwise the tube will transmit for a brief period without a 50- ‘ohm antenna load. This would not only be harmful tothe tube, but also cause the grid trip circuit to actuate. Therefore, a timing circuit, comprised of a 50-ohm resistor and 100-~iF capacitor, is included across the RF input relay KA to allow vacuum relay KS time to close. The capacitor value depends fon the relay used. Do not make the delay too long, since during the delay time, the cexciter does not have a proper 50-lhm load. ‘Cheek the time delay by placing a low volt. age across the relay contacts and monitor- ing the contact closure on a dual-trace scope. I used a delay of about 20 ms. RF Amplifier Circuit Design “The RF amplifier circuit is shown in Fig 3. The amplifier uses @ tuned input network to minimize distortion products and provide 1 proper impedance match between the ex citer and the tube. The input network is re motely switched, using small DPDT relays, to connect the correct pi-section for the se- lected band. A homemade switch deck is mounted on the band-switch shaft, in front ‘of the subpanel, to ground the 12-V de line forthe proper input relay as selected by the main band switch. On 160 meters, the switch also controls a solenoid relay to add a 160- DF capacitance in parallel with the TUNE vacuum variable eapacitor. 3 (1 to 54 MHz) 127Be, nd 2° Tio ol saemere $i "@ ¢ pry Bs An effective ALC circuit, adjustable from a front-panel control, is included to avoid overdriving the tube. This Feature is essertial in this amplifier because the drive requirement is only about 80 W for 1500. ‘W output, The ALC circuit samples the RF drive level through s 27-pF mica capacitor 4-28 Chapter 1 to generate a de voltage that is fed back to the exciter for déive-power contro} ‘The grid-trip-protection circuit shuts down the amplifier if grid eurrent exceeds 120 mA, This protects the tube from tuning errors of other problems such as losing the tntenna, or a tube Flashover during opera Fig 2—Ampiiier conti circuit and low- voltage power-supply schematic diagram. Part numbers shown in parontheses are Radio Shack B—Blower, Dayton 400044 DI-DE~Diode, 1 KV, 25 A, F5_Forrte bead. Ki-Ka—4PDT 24-V do rola, Potter & Brumfield KHUI7O4 1 K5~—SPDT vacuum relay, 26-V de coll (Q1,02-~2N3053 NPN transistor (Q3°—TiP31 NPN transistor (276-2017), Ri—25 0, 20 W. R2—150 0, 2 W. F9—25 0. 25 W variable RPG—10 iums no. 14 enam wire on M-in- ‘Gam ferrite rod $3,88—Alco 16TL5-11, SPST. S2™Alco 167L5-22 DPDT. S4—-Aleo 1672 pila ight Ti-Filament transformer, 6.0 V ac, 10 A, Peter Dahl Co. 7225.2 V ac, 1,0 A, Stancor P6469, i= 80-V, 4-8 bridge rectiien tion. Although grid current flows through all paths from ground to the B — line, most of the grid current goes through RI. The current passing through R | develops a vot age drop. For example, if 100 mA of grid ‘current is drawn through RI, | volts devel- ‘oped (E = IR = 0,100 x 10). This voltage is used to turn on the transistor switch, Qi When Qi turns on, the grid-trip relay. KS. energizes and opens the grid trip break i the RF relay control line to shut the ampli fierdowa, R2 seisthe current level at which Qi turns on, The frome lamp goes out ifthe trip ci The switeh is reset by pressing S3. The plate tank circuit uses a pi-l-con- figuration because this design provides approximately 20-dB better harmonic sup- pression than the conventional pi design. The TUNE and LOAD capacitors are vacuum variable types to minimize space requirements and also optimize. perfor mance on 12 and 10 meters where small capacitance values are needed 10 achieve ancceptable tank-circuit Q, The 10-t040- meter tank coil is homemade from 'é-inch ‘eapper tubing that is silver plated to mini- mize skin resistance, The 80-meter, 160- meter ant L-coils are toroid designs to minimize space. Using a toroid for the L. coil also helps isolate the E network from the rest of the tank eirsuit because of the toroid's self-shielding characteristts Metering cireuits monitor plate and grid ‘current, as well a filament voltage. Plate ‘current is monitored by placing a meter i series with the B ~ line. Therefore, only @ small de voltage is across the meter. An additional position can be included on the FILIGRID meter for plate voltage, but one is not shown in this design because a sepa- rate high-voltage meter is included in the power supply. It would be a good idea to include a high-voltage scale on the melee in case the RF deck is ever used with adif- ferent highvoltage supply. Grid current is monitored by measuring the voltage drop across RI. R3 is adjusted t0 give the ovr. | | | |Be re }3-AF umplifier schematic diagram (s Part B on next page). REC3—Choke, 1 mH, 600 mA, RECA—110 tuins no. 20 enam wire on “icin diam fiber rod EC5—Fiament choke, 18 bifilar tums no, 14 enam wire on -diam ferrite rod, 6 inches long. PC—Three 150-ohm. 2.W carbon rotistors in paralle! with 2-inch hhorsashoe loop af /ainch silver-plated strap. LIU5—Se0 Table 2. M1,M2—Simpson Wide-Vue panel motor, 01253 bozol and 01165, lighting kt (See tex!) S1_gpositon, 2-pole switch, Reso Sich model 88, 18-4, $2 Sciooid contd vith S3—SPST normaly Gosed momentary switch, Aleo 16TL-11 with (67-2 red lens. imwound coil, 5 turns, Yin diam. HF/MF/VHF Amplifiers (1 to 54 MHz) 1-29ir oo ~oP ae fJ« | aE oh t,t ky FS || | ae _ * 4 60-MeTER rect gridcusrent meter reading. Filament pacitors come in many different shapes and voltage is measured by converting the ac voltage to de and displaying the de voltage ‘on M2, The 3.1-V Zener diode expands the meter scale by not allowing conduction until the voltage reaches 3.1 V. ‘A vacuum relay is used for the amplifier ‘output, The relay is sinll in size, quiet and ‘capable of handling large RF currents. RF Deck Parts Selection Finding all the parts for the RF deck is a major task. If you are planning to build anamplifier, begin collecting parts as soon as possible. Iv is the first step because the physical layout of the amplifier will de- pend on the components available. Don’t try to exactly duplicate the components I used. For example, vacuum variable ca- 1-30. Chapter 1 sizes, with different mounting provisions ‘Actually, the parts you find may be better than the parts used in my RF deck, AS an example, a 1500-pF vacuum variable LOAD capacitor would be much better than the 1000-pF unit I used. Therefore, use whatever resources you have available acquire the parts— but a word of caution! De not compromise too much when gath- ering components. 1 you cannat. find what you need on the surplus market, buy the parts new. It may costa litle more, but if the project is not done right, you will never be happy with the final result. Vacuum Variable Capacitors Vacuum variable capacitors are often difficult to locate at reasnable prices. Plan to spend about $50 for the TUNE capacitor and $75 to $100 for the LOAD capacitor it vacuum capacitors are used. The TUNE capacitor should be atleast 300 pF at 7 KV, and the LOAD capacitor should be at least 1000 pF at 3 kV. ‘An air variable capacitor can be used forthe LOAD control if desired. The mi ‘mum capacitance For the LOAD capacitor is 112 pF for 10 meters, which is not di cult to obtain with an air variable type. A rating of | kV, minimum, is recommended. However, it is a different story for the TUNE capacitor. The minimum required capacitance is 26 pF. The direct inter-elec: trode capacitance of the 8877 tube in ‘grounded-grid service is 10 pF; therefore, the TUNE capacitor must have a minimum value of not more than 16 pF for 10 meters ‘This is nearly impossible with a 300-pF air variable. In addition, the voltage re Quirements for the TUNE capacitor make Any air variable rather large. For these rea sons, a vacuum variable is recommended for the TUNE capacitor Meters Good-quality meters with bezels are e sential for good appearance. The Simpson Wide-Vue® meters T used were purchased at a hamfest, The bezels were ofdered di rectly from Simpson because they seldom ‘appear on the surplus market. Actually, al- ‘most any meter movement can be used, so don’t pass up a good meter ust because it reads 50 V or 100 mA on the scale. Any meter with a movement from 100 WA to 5 mA can be used. This allows use of ap. proximately 90% of the meters available on the surplus market. I will give instructions later for calibrating any meter to read what ever current or voltage is required. RF Band Switch Good RF band switches ate very diffi cat to locate, More problems are experi- enced with arcing band switches than with ‘any other amplifier component. IF the band switch selected has insufficient voltage in- ulation, it will are to the wiper rotor on the high-impedance 10-meter position when operating on the lower-frequency bands. 1 ‘obtained the band switch for my amplifier from Radio Switch Corp.* The mode! $8 switch is 22-pole, 9-postion unit witha 13- KY peak flashovet/30-A contact rating. Thi switch will not are! Is list price is currently S107, and itis well worth the money! Miscellaneous Parts and Materials Many of the smal parts (capacitors, re- lays and resistors) can be purchased at | Radio Shack, Their parts selection is good, and continues to increase. You can usually find a store around ihe corner io almost any city. Pioneer Electronics is also a good. souree for commercial-grade components,” Good-quality PC-board material can be found at almost any hamfest. Don’t com- ‘promise here—use G10 glass-epoxy board {As for coils? Make them, Complete “hows {o” instructions are given later,The key to continuous duty in a high- linear amplifier is the power supply. be able to deliver the required volt ‘and current on a continuous basis ‘supplies are usually the limiting jorin commercial linear amplifiers. AWORD OF CAUTION IS IN ORDER, power supply isa very dangerous piece fequipment! Give it proper respect. One ‘can be fatal. Use proper precau the construction and testing of this and be careful 10 build a safe unit. recommend that the power supply be fis, The construction is not complex ikea serves sning ground for jer building techniques, particularly ihe first-time builder. Supply Design he power supply is shown in Fig 4, ple schematic diagram is shown in Fig, Be hypersil power transformer has a WV a¢ primary, and a 3300-V ae see- that is tapped at 2600 V., This se- eft output voltages allows fora and lowpower capability. An alte to this approach is to include a of Powerstat® autotransformer the wansformer primary Dre plimary circuit ofthe power wans- clades a step-startcteut to pro- the diode bank during the initial of Cl, the S3-iP filter capacitor, nthe power supply is turned on. Two hin, 25.W resistors, one incach cg of imary, are shorted by time-delayed gsappronimately 3 0.4 scvonds after ‘of power, The more current @yathrough the resistors at startup, the woliage drop realized and this, in [roe the diode bank. The delay is by the time constant ofthe S00 Wr tnd TO01F capacitor. The asmust be dc types. Those L used have WV de evils which silows power to be el from one 117-V leg of the pri= mary. 1f90-V relays can'v be obtained, 24- V de relays can be substituted. A 24-V de power source must be provided if this is Bone. The rectifier unit is a full-wave bridge ‘with eight diodes in each leg. A 470- kilohm resistor and a 0.01-1F, I-kV ca ppacitor are wired in parallel with each di ‘ode to equalize the voltage and protect the diodes fram voltage spikes. ‘The power supply is controlled re- rmotely from the RF deck. A test switch has been incorporated to allow the supply to be energized without the RF deck. A shorted Cinch-Fones plug must be inserted into a socket in the rear of the supply for test switch $1 to operate Two pilot lights are mounted on the front panel, One pilot light is on whenever ‘734 Vac is present in the supply. The other lights whes the power supply is activated, ‘A high-voltage meter is included on the front panel, The metering is done across 3 25-ohim, 5-W resistor in series with the bleeder’resistor- This voltage divider ‘keeps the total high voltage off the meter ‘A 50-ohm, 50-W resistor in series withthe high-voltage B+ circuit protects the tube and power supply from any current surge resulting from a tube flashover or other cause, In addition, a 0.6-ohm, 1-W resis tor in series with the B+ line acts as a fuse resistor. A large current surge will cause the resistor to explode—an inexpensive protection device should a problem occur. High-Voltage Power Supply Parts Selection Transformer I is important to find a good power transformer that can provide the proper operating voltages for the tube. Remember that some voltage drop will occur when ‘curtent is drawn irom the tanetormer. The voltage drop depends largely on the quality of the transformer (core and wire size), and ‘ean range from 200 V to over | KV. The twansformer should have a 234-V ac pri HF/ME/VHE Amplifiers (1 to 54 MHz) mary. Transformers with L17-V primaries are usable only if two identical units car be “wiced in series to provide a 234-V primary. ‘The secondaries can by wired in series or parallel, depending on the voltage require- ‘ments, Remember that the wansformers ‘must be identical ‘The requited transformer secondary voltage depends on the fmal voltage re- Quirement of the tube and the power-sup- ply circuitry. If a bridge rectifier is used, the power-supply high voltage will be about 1-4 times the secondary voltage. Ifa voltage doubler is used, the high voltage will be about 2.8 times the secondary volt- age. A voltage doubler requires two filter capacitors, oF more, so ifa single oil-filled filter capacitor is to be used, the design can't be a voltage doubler. The ARRL Handbook contains circuits for both types ‘of power supplies." The power-handling capability of a transformer can usually be estimated by its weight. As a rule, the heavier the trans- former, the greater the power capability. ‘The transformer fora 1500-W, continuous- duty amplifier will weigh 60-80 Ib. The transformer used in this power supply was obtained from Peter Dah Co." The hypersil design provides a good ratio of power ca- ppability to size and weight. I have used several Peter Dahl transformer designs in the past and found them to be of excellent quality and reasonably priced, Filter Capacitor Enough filter capacitance is required to obtain good voltage regulation, What is ‘enough? Thave used a litle as 18 F andas much as 100 jUF in power supplies. The re- 4uired capacitance can be oblained with 3 Single oil-filled capacitor or with a series string of computer-grade electrolytics, Ei- ther way, T recommend at least 25 F be used, with atleast a 10% voltage safety fac tor. The filter capacitor used in this power supply is a single oil-filled unit rated at $3, MF at SkV de, The capacitor was obtained 131“Ds Denouns @ se Fron nF coe @ac tor vee @ sz counon 70 ar occ @e- 1 wr coe Fig §—High-voltage power supply schematic diagram, Part numbers in parentheses are RadioShack C1—Oi-filed capacitor, 53 pF, 5 KV, Peter Dahl Co. 151—Diode bridge reciier assembly, Peter Dahl Co, see text 02,D3~Diode, kV, 2.5 A FI,F2—Fuse, 15 A. KI" 2PDT mercury plunger relay, Dayton 6X598-3. K2K3-—SPOT relay, Potter Brumiield PROT DYO/SOVOC. Mi—High-voltage meter, '/sInch Simpson Wide-Vue, 01253 bezel and 01165 lighting ki 21,22—MOV transient suppressor, 117 V ao (276-568) si—si P2—Eight-pin Cinch-Jones, connector. BST ewiten (275-680) §2-Modilied GPST switch, Fair Radio Sales. Ti—Power translower, 2600/3300-V ac see, Peter Dahl Co. Miscellaneous T2,T3—Translormer, 26 V ac, 300 mA (273-1386) Pilot lamp—Alco 1672, 61-4 (yollow) and 6T-2 (red) lonses. Cabinet CTS model MCLS 10-17-14 black and whe, SPP 1 —two-pin Cinen-Jones soexet and plug (274-201 and 274-202) from Peter Dahl Co, and is physically very small forthe voltage and capacitance rating. Diade Bridge Rectitior The Gull-wave, diode-bridge rectifier is ‘made up with 1000-PIV diodes rated at 3A, The unit is # commercial module sold by Peter Dahl Co, Each diode string is built on 1 separate glass-epoxy board. The module is supplied with Linch angle briskets on each end, but because of space restraints, the angle was removed and the module was ‘mounted in a vertical position using two Nylon bolts. Should you decide to build the rectifier assembly, use good-quality diodes, such as HEP-170s or INS4OBs. Be sure to parallel each diode with a 470-kilohm resistor and 8 OOLHR, 1-kV capacitor. High- Voltage Switch “The transformer as two taps on the sec= 1-32 Chapter 1 ondary 10 provide a high- and low-voltage capability. The froatpanel VOLTAGE 3600-4600 switch is fabricated from a 6-position, heavy-duty ceramic switch (Ra: io Switch Corp pin 65), The switch detent and all but the second and fifth contacts are removed. New stops are fabricated from slass-epoxy board, Fullhigh voltage appears across this switch, and therefore, it must be ‘well insulated, The switchs mounted on two pieces of inch Plexiglas® 10 provide 2-inch spacing from any chassis or panel {ground, A fiber shaft protrudes from the Switch thsough the front panel. To protect the contacts, this switch must never be actu- tated when the power supply is on. Next month, I will describe the unique construction details for building this high- power linear amplifier and power supply. Inthe meantime, should you beso inclined, 40c44 black side panels gt out there and find the parts! Remember that you should build the power supply first, so concentrate on those components, Notes '.L Pitongor, Modular Linear amir for tha Hgh-Frequehcy Amatour Bands," Ham Rado, sin 1984 24, Pianger, °A26X80087 Linear Amp” “im Fad, Aug 1908 24.1 Pitongor, "SEX1200A7 10080 Meter Am plier Ham Radio, Aug 1965, “NN; Orr, ed, dio Handbook (Incianapoli: HW. Same, 1978), 20% edtion, Sact 22:4, A Modern 310002’ Linear Ampifier Tor 60-10 Meters” Siam Tracer Yellow Sheets, PO Box 2057, Gen Ey, it 60196-2087. Radi Sviten Cora, Fe 78, Maribor, NJO7746, tel 201-862.5100. Pioneer Standard Ingustral Eletrones, 1900 ‘Tray &, Dayfon, ON 45404, $19-256-9000, Mt! Wilson, ed, The. 1986" ARAL Handbook (Nowinglon ARAL. 1985) ‘Polar Dat Transformer Co, 4007 Fort Bt, E| avo, TX 79600, tel 315-466-5365,Ue u) Bnudaeeu acu All-Band, 1500-Watt- Output 8877 Linear Amplifier fst month I described the circuitry and Lipurs required for the 8877 linear am- rand high-voltage power supply. This Iwill cover the construction of both The power supply construction i are given firs. Assuming that we ail the required parts in hand, we can lve the physical design of the power To avoid costly mistakes, it is im. to do adequate upfront planning fore the first hole is dritied ‘Supply Construction ‘Selection and Labeling “Any meter with » movement fom 100 95 mA.can be used forthe high-volt Reber. This meter measures the volt eros the 25-ohm resistor at the gmn{B-) ond of the bleeder string (see Pact 1). The more sensitive the Bs the high the resistance selting of yeabo -Kilohi calibration resistor. siting of the resistor is a simple m's law problem. ‘The maximum upaly voliage on the meter seale esa Cute equal othe meter-move- alingo flow through the meter, and give fullacate reading. For ex the maximum scale on the meter in apply kV de. The meter has TovEMEn! therefore, i the supply fASEV, SimA must flow through the Bitraion resistor and the meter for a sede reading. Looking atthe complete deg ating, the total resistance isthe af the wo 103-K2 bleeder resistors he 28-ohm resistor, oF 206,025 obs. SAY, approximately 24 mA (5000) 025) flows through the string, ‘The ef the caliraton resistor, therefore, felted to allow 5 mA theouh the And 19 AHA through the 25-ohm Part 2—Here’s what you've been waiting for: detailed instructions for building a 1500-W RF deck and power supply. sistor. Using Ohm's law, the value of the = 0,005 x 0.005 x 95), and a 1-k@, 2-W resistor should be approximately 95 ohms potentiometer was used. The meter used (19 mA x 25 ohms/S mA). The required originally had a 0-50 scale. The scale was wattage rating of the resistoris0.23W(PR changed to read 0 t0 5 KV. 818° 7 CO wvAl G N STEPPER] RELAY MERCURY RELAY STEPPER RELAY [ ee | = : U Oo 08 gS ° ° SEL BE Sq BS) [gs S ove ee) feel ie MODULE Feet Pd lin 5, Be] /88 eq Oo an] a” + Fig 6-Typical computer-prepared layout drawing, Some component abel have Been erlarged for logibilty HF/MF/VHF Amp! rs (1 to 54 MHz) 1-33Panel/Chassis Layout I do all my layouts with an Apple® Macintosh computer. An example of this layout is shown in Fig 6. A manual method may be used, instead, Cut out a piece of poster board the size of the front panel of Chassis, as well as all the major compo- nents. Shuffle the pieces until you get an acceptable layout. This may seem like a lot of extra work, but “one picture's worth 1000 words,” You will save time in the long. sun by going through this procedure, and rat have 0 correct errors that otherwise are certain to occur. The panel layout should bbe symmetrical, Align switches and center meters, Make sure that components are properly spaced to accommodate the physi- cal size ofthe parts behind the panel ‘The computer-generated or manval lay outs serve at a guide during construction, but are by no means sacred. Once you start ppting the partsin place, you probably will ‘make minor changes. Go ahead and make the changes, but always update the docu- ‘mentation, Front-Panel Assembly You probably will not be ready t0 cut metal until you are 3 10 4 moaths into the project, Do the front panel first, since the parts locations are fixed for symmetry Parts behind the front panel can be moved to accommodate the feont-panel design. ‘Cover the front panel with 3-inch-wide masking tape, The tape not only protects the panel from scratches, but also prevides away to lay out the panel with a pencl or pen. Before any holes are drilled, place all the major parts in their proper place inthe ‘eabinet 1 be sure that nothing obsicuets the area behind the panel. Remember you have ‘only one chance. Miss and it means a new panel, of cabinet! Remove the front panel from the cabi net and center punch the panel where holes are to be drilled, as marked on the tape Carefully drill «'very small hole at each punch mark to serve us & puide, then eut the holes to final size. Holes up to approxi mately “ie inch can be drilled with either a hand drill ora drill press. Holes larger than “he ineh should be made with chassis punches. The meter hole is rectangular and {scut with anibbler after drilling an access hole, Cut the meter hole about '/z inch smaller than needed and finish with a large file to straighten the edges. Be careful us ing the file—it is very easy to let the file slip out ofthe hole and make # big seratch {nthe panel, The meter hole doesn'thave to be perfect since a meter bezel is used ‘After the front-panel metal work is com- plea, carefully remove the masking tape. ‘The front panel should be labeled before ‘mounting the components. Labeling. is dove with dryctransfer leering available fom art stores oF Radio Shack, Apply the labeling by laying the leter or figure on the panel in tile proper position and rubbing overitwith asott pencil. The character will be transfered to the panel If « mistake is made, the eharacter can be removed with 1-34 Chapter 1 masking or Scotch® tape. There is a rmattefinish spray available to protect the lettering. I do not recommend using this spray. It will peel if bumped and does not work well ‘The parts can now be mounted on the panel, The cabling to the front panel is connected through nylon multipin connec tors (available from Radio Shack) to allow ‘easy panel removal, The same technique is used in the RF deck, Rear-panel Assembly Placement of parts on the rear pane! is ‘ot us critical us Om the front panel. Atten- tion should still be paid to symmetry, how= ever. I ave Found that it i best to mount reat-panel parts after the major pacts have bbeen mounted inside the cabinet, The rear panel is drilled and labeled in a manner Similar to the front panel. The black reat panel requires white lettering, White let- tering kits are available at art supply stores and some electronies suppliers, Fig 7 shows the inside rear panel of the power supply. The control and power cables enter the rear panel and are routed directly to barrier strips. Each terminal is labeled for clarity. The rear panel is acces sible by removing the front panel and the twansformer. It sounds like a big job, but it can be accomplished in about 10 minutes. Itis necessary to provide good strain relic? for the cables. Immediately inside the rear panel, a piece of "/-inch aluminum angle Stock is mounted, to which each cable is clamped. Large rubber grommets are used in the holes for cable protection. Fig 7—Interor view of rear panel. Note the mercury plunger 1 fand 9 are atthe lower right. Major Chassis Assembly Power-supply components are extremely heavy and a good supporting structure is required. The ‘ieinch-thick bottom cover supplied with the eabinet is replaced with a "Yeinch-thick base plate to provide an ad- equate Foundation, The heavy plate is cut to size on a commercial metal shear. After the transformer, relays und filter eupacitor are mounted, rubber-wheeled casters are bolted tothe bottom so thatthe supply canbe rolled rather than earried from place to place. ‘The cabinet sides are formed by two re movable panels. Parts can be mounted tothe Inner panel using countersunk screws and then covered with the ‘M-inch painted cover plate to provide a professional appearance A Veineh-thick sheet of Plexiglas® is ‘mounted above the filter capacitor to sup- port the high/low voltage switch, the diode bankand the bleeder esistors. The Plexiglas is supported by drilled and tapped holes for no. 6-82 countersink screws in the rear and side panel. A post of Ys-inch aluminum bar stock supports the front-left corner of the Plexiglas. The mercury-wetted power relay is ‘mounted on the rear panel and must be posi- tioned vertically. Mereury-wetted relays haveatendency tobuz2 if mounted ona solid surface. Use a rubber grommet to make bushing in each mounting hole, or mount the relay on a rubber pad, The stepstart relays, K2 and K3, are also mounted on '/-inch thick rubber sheet to minimize noise Once the major components are mounted, wire them together, performing as much testing as possible slong the way.fand rear-panel components are and wired before those that are ides and base plate, ly Testing ou are satistiod thatthe power ‘has been comectly wired and care~ ‘Bohavess cup oF coftee and Tater sien your mind is fresh tbe wiring vne more time. Re- thar this power supply can be a 2 One wrone move could be testing ofthe power supply is ac- in three steps. Remove the rom the primary ofthe transformer aiemporary line cord witha small utttansormer dizectly from a Fa fine tthe primary. Turn the 117 slowly run the variable autotrans- up. AUIIT V, the power supply te reading hallscale voltage. This es thatthe diodo bank and filter ae correctly wired. Now is @ Mime 20 ealbeate the front-panc) eUsingthe variable auto ransformer, utp voltage aleve that another fen messi accurately. For ex ‘most VOMs can measure 1 kV Ihe calibration resistor so that the meter reads the same as the econdten checks the primary 244-V ey. With the 234-V lines stil dis- from the primary. plug. the Hine cord into 4 24-V Remember thatthe shorted wo plag must be inserted into the rear- seektl, Turn the power supply on tes yuitc and listen fora 3- to time delay forthe step-stat relays that 284 V appears aeross the two disconnected from the primary finales sto try the ene power with 284 V applied to the primary tbe bigh- and low-voltage indies onthe frane-panel mete. ply Performance design results in a husky supply that about 4.4 kV and 3.8 kV (no load) high: and low-voltage positions, re- y-Aneither position the power sup. Jess than 400 ¥ under full load he performance you need to achieve ‘capability and good linearity, k Construction physical design of the RE deck re- Planning long before construction ‘Again, 1 used the Macintosh com for my ital "paper design but the fan be ene using paper and The important thing i olay out the components so that everything fits before staring to dell holes and |. You musthave all the majoreom- ‘in hand before doing the physical 80 you know what you have to work Fig 8 shows the scaled Macintosh de- forthe front top arid bottom views of Conio TAP BOARD wa ba = "caoe RS] Se [wore tend St r i e+ ree om To To POUT Beay [S| see] wove feel al) a NEA! | | ui a fel T-L* re Woe ru NETWORK 9082190892 ‘ouvos Adan EAM BoTToM Fig 8—Scale layouts of the RF dec front, op and bottom views, as preparer on the Macintosh computer. Some component labels have been eniarged for legibility HFIMF/VHF Amplifiers (1 to 54 MHz) 1-35the amplifier. ti necessary t0 match the {designs so that the front-panel controls end up atthe right place on the panel. Every thing must be drawn to seale to obtain the relative positions of the components. ‘When designing the bottom and top lay- outs, only the major circuit boards und components like the grid trip, input net work, low-voltage power supply, coils, capacitors and filament transformer are considered. The smaller components can be fiued in ater. It is important that the unit be designed with maintainability in ‘mind. Every component, large and small must be accessible after the vail is com. pleted. The amplifier was constructed in the following steps. Each major step is dis- cussed in more detail late, + Fabrieate, build and test all printed circuit boards for the RF deck. * Cut the holes in the front panel + Perform the major metal Work on the subpanel and chassis plat + Mount the vacuum capacitors and ‘band switch to the subpanel. + Mount the PC boards, filament trans former and tube socket to the chassis plate ‘+ Wire and test the under-chassis con twol circuits + Fabricate and install the RF tank cir- cuit * Agbel and calibrate meters + Complete the front panet and mate it to the chassis and eubinet. ‘System test the amplifier with the power supply. Printed-Circuit Board Fabrication ‘Making PC boards can be tedious, but with a litle practice, good results cin be biained. Grouping intereonnested circuits on the same PC board minimizes the cable harness between modules in the anyplifier. In this design, nine PC board modules are required Fig 10—In-process testing of the inpu-network PC board, Each call was tlenmed to produve a 1-1 the power supply required to actuate relays, 4-36 Chapter 1 SW into a 50-ohen load. Note Fig 9—Things don't always work out. The attempta wore made to fabri fe the gricatig ‘and bias PC board. The good board at left was suBseauently damaged, requiring & fourth effort, Board Size L) Input nework xe 2) Low-voltage power supply and timer circuit x6! 3) Grid-twip and bias circuit 4° 6" 4) Switeh bank harness interface to front panel rx 5) Filament step-start cine 290" x 34 6) RF inpuvoutput relay timing circuit Die 7) Line titers for control cable and blower Ti" 516" 8) Filament-voltage-meter circuit Vie x 9) ALC circuit Wi x BA! All boards, except nos. 4, 7,8 and 9, are ‘mounted on '/=ineh channel (6 the chassis plate, Therefore. the PC bod layouts in clude a ground strip on the edges of each board to moun rhe boards to the channel ‘The Macintosh computer, with a sof ware package called “Draw.” was used to lay out the clreuit boards, The design of PC boards with the computer is beyond the scope of this article, PC boards can also be laid out using peneit and paper. Once the design is laid out to scale, the Layout must be transferred to the board. First wash the board with a mild derergent to remove all grease and dirt, Using tape and special dry transters (Radio Shack p/n 276-1577), copy the design onto the board. The transfers are not exact, and the hand drsing aely serves ‘asa puide, Submerge the board into an etch ing solution to remove the exposed copper. 1 use ferric-chloride etchant. A flood lamp over the etching tray warms the solution and speeds the etching process. Agitate the solu- ‘von occasionally. The final result should be aa nicely etched board ready for ding the holes for mounting parts. Believe me. how- ever, it doesn’t always go as planned. Fig 9 shows three tries at making the ‘d-trip and bias board. Actually the third board, on the left, was damaged, and a fourth was necessary. However, once you {ger the hung of it, i usually goes wel After etching the bosed, polish it with Fig 11-—Subpanet installation in the cabinet. Nie pasition of Chassis plate. vacuum variable capacitors and band swlich. ‘Aluminum angle stocks used fo mount the subpane! to the chassis plate and cabinet sides.SHeel wool and drill the component ing holes with a small dill. Use dey fers to label the conncetions required the board, before mounting parts, This ll avoid wiring mistakes when the wir- phuress is installed. Finally, mount and the components onto the board. “Test each board as much as possible finalassembly. For example, Fig 10, the input network being tested by ing up coaxial cable and running 100 ‘throwgh each section into a S0-ohm Toad, The coils were adjusted at time to give a Mat 1:1 SWR. A power ix needed to energize the relay for jpisection being tuned nel Fabrication Cover the front panel with masking tape test it from scratches, and mark the 3 Positions of the components. fe your time with this step since itis to recover if an error is made. Mark front panel where the holes are wo be cut carefully drill a small pilot hole fol- by the correct hole size. The holes the band switch, capacitor control [ALC control and multimeter switeh th diameter and can be made with lr drill bt. The holes for the power es are Yheinch diameter and require ispunch, The meter-mounting holes the most dificult to make. The rectan- feutouts are marked about "/s-inch et than required to protect against ing. Use a nibbler to cut the holes fully. thea file them tothe exact size of miele bezels. Be careful that the file ft slip and scratel the panel (disas 2). Using a large File will help avoid this Tresommend doing all the front-pane! ial Work at one time to ensure proper ent layout, When the metal Work is fe leave the masking tape on the for protection a8 it will be used as a plate 9 locate the paris mounted be- the from panel ssis and Subpanel Metal Work This amplifier design has very ite work that requires more than a hack: nd afte. The chassis plate was pur- with the éabinet. The only other except for ont and rear panel, isthe pane that mous perpendicular to the plate, and 3 inches behind the front The suparel yhields the meter com- met fea HF and serves us a mounting portfortheband witch, vacuum capaci and BO-meter toroid coil The chassis is mourned 3% inches from bottom of the cabinet to allow room tthe chassis plite for the filament Hormer. Therefore the subpanel is cut 6.x 16% inches. Referring © Fig II, inch shusinuma angle is attacked with stozach edge of the subpone! to pro- ‘amounting flangeto the chassis plate cabinet side walls. The top piece of ‘Mock provides a mounting surface apiece of gold-plated finger stock that seals the subpane! to the cabinet top plate. Two large holes are required. A 3-inch= diameter hole is cequited inthe chassis plate for the tube socket, A $-inch-diameter hole js cut in the cabinet top plate and aligned directly above the tube socket €0 vent the ai flowing from the tube and chimney. Use a large fly-cutter, available at nhost hard ware stores. For safety, the ly-cutter should be used only on a drill press-—never with a hhand drill, Therefore, if you don"t bavi drill press, find a friend who has one. Be- fore cutting the large holes, use 3-inch ‘masking tape to cover the chassis plate and top panel co mark where the holes are to be Urilled, and to protect the surfaces, For safety, clamp the panels onto a board and the base of the dnl press before drilling. Cut a piece of perforated aluminum stock to be slightly larger than the hole in the cabinet top panel. Clean the perforated metal well, and spray with paint to match the cabinet color. Fasten the perforated piece to the inside top panel with several Small countersunk serews painted to mateh the cabinet. Mounting Vacuum Variable Capacitors and Band Switch The vacuum variable capacitors and ‘band switch are mounted to the subpane!, ‘but their control shafts must be aligned with the front panel design. Allow enough slack in the positioning of these components to perform precise alignment with the front panel holes when the front panel is in- ‘alled. To mark the hole positions on the subpanel, slide the subpanel against the rear of the front pane! while both the front panel and chassis plate are bolted into place fm the cabinet, Cover the subpanel with ‘masking tape and mark the exact centers the holes for the components, Drill the two holes inthe subpanel for the vacuum vari= able capacitors with hole saws. Mount the ‘vacuum variable capacitors and. band switch on the subpanel ‘Mounting Major Components to the Chassis Plate ‘The major components (PC boards ila rent transformer and tube socket) are ‘mounted toihe chassis plate as shown in Fig 12. The PC boards ae Fist mounted 10 "Yeinch aluminum channel using sheet metal serews for easy removal Cover the Bottom of the ehassis plate with masking tape, Position and mark the PC bouts. fla- ment transformer and tube socket accord- ingto the planned physical layout. Dill the ‘mounting oles in the chassis plate, then sedrill the holes from the top with a coun tersink Bit (allow Nlat-head countersuak screws to be used for mounting. Ths re- tains the flat surface on top ofthe chasis plate. Withthe Yineh channels om the PC boars, mark the hole positions onthe bot- tom of cach chonnel with a pencil, using the predrilled chassis-plate mounting holes a6 template. Remove the channels from the PC boards, mount the channels on the chassis plate and remount the PC boards fon the channels, Under-Chassis Wiring Complete the under-chassis wiring, ac- cording to the schematic diagram, using Teflon® insulated wire. The nylon con- rectors near the front of the chassis con- recto the front-panel power switches, the ALC potentiometer and the multimeter switch. This allpwis the front panel to be easily removed for rear-panel access. The Small board inthe front center of the chas- Fig 12—Bottom view of the RF deck showing placement of PC boards, transformer and tube socket. HF/MFIVHE Amplifiers (1 to 54 MHz) 137Fig 13—Rottom view of the RF deck showing harness wiring in place, sis provides an easy way to mate the 12-pin nylon connector going to the power switches with the wiring harnesses under the chassis plate (see Fig 13). When mak: ing the PC boas, try to put all the eonnee tions to the board on one side. This allows recess to the boards for maintenance with ‘out removing the wiring. Just unserew the bourd from the channel and fold the board upward Each wire is labeled at eaeh end with numbered tags, because the Teflon wire used is mostly the same color. A version of the schemasie diagram was maintained ‘with the wire numbers noted for easy wire tracing, The final wiring is cabled into har- nesses with plastic cable ties, Dow's be afraid to use plenty of ties, bu at fitst only put a tie every inch or two, The ties will Undoubtedly be cut several times during ‘wiring vo put in missing wites that are over Fig 14—Pate tank coil set. Above: the various coils of the tank citeut. Right the L torord mounted on the tear of the band switch, 1-98 Chapter 1 looked. When all wiring is complete and tested, put a cable tie every ¥4 inch on the major harnesses. Ampitier Tank Circuit ‘The plate tank-coil set is shown in Fig 14. Betore making the coils, detennine the tankeireuit parameters for the given tube plate impedance. The plate impedan be determined from Eg |. late voltaged (1.57 x (Eq) Plate impedance plate current) Assuming the amplifier runs at 60% efficiency, the input power required For 1500-W output is approximately 2500 W, ‘With 3200 V on the 8877 plate, plate cur rent will be approximately 781 mA, From Eq 1, a tank cireuit designed Tor approxi- mately 2600 ohms is appropriate. A table ‘of pi-L network component values is con- tained in Hoff"s article, and the values used in this amplifier are summarized in Table 2." The 80- and 160-meter coils are wound ‘on an assembly of three T225-2 toroid cores taped tagether with Scotch no, iglass-cloth tape. Use plenty of tape to pro- Vide good voltage insulation trom the cores, The SO-mieter coil is wound with 11 tums of no, 10 wire covered with Teflon sleeving. The 160-meter coil is wound with 9 tutns of no. 12 wire, also covered with Tefloy sleeving. The cores of both coils are mounted {fom 1 10 2 inches from the ‘mounting wall on ceramie insulators, Bach coil is sandvviched between two pieces of fiberghass material held together by a ce: amie standoff running through the middle of each toroid (see Fig. 15), Wind all coils in the same direction (clockwise oF coun: terelockwise), to avoid a “bucking” action betwoen coils The 10: through 40-meter coil is made From Vvineh sot copper relrigerator tub: ing. Clean the wbing using Fine steel woo! (000) until the surface is smooth and bright. Use s piece of pipe with an OD equal to the 1368. + Output power 300 W PEP or CW + Efficieney> 50% + IMD3 > 35 2B below PEP A push-pull topology was chosen for best output power and minimum harmonic content. The previously reported class-C design used Vy = 125 V. Since this is toe high for reliable class-AB operation, 80 V was evenwally chosen for this design. This isa compromise between gain, efliciency and thermal stability, Since the gate input impedance is very low, it magnifies the effects of any stray inductance in the gate matching circuit. In 4 push-palt design, itis critical to maintain absolute symmetry between the two sides. This fact was demonstrated during the ini- tial design work. One prefiminary design dad aslight asymmetry in the PCB artwork The amplifier exhibited low efficiency, bot ferrite is the output transformer balun and poor distortion characteristics ‘with asym. Imetrical IMD product amplitudes, This clearly demonsteates the benefit of sym- metrically packaged devices. A multiple-aperture ferrite bead was chosen for the input transformer. Brass tub: ing was used for the secondsry, and the pi mary was wound inside the brass tubes to provide a very broadband balanced tans- ormer design with minimum leakage reae~ tance. Several cores and construction methods were evalaated, and this well: ‘ried design proved best, The typical HF push-pull amplifier employs a bifilar choke to decouple the Grain-voltage feed. As frequency and ‘power increase, this feed method becomes Tess practical because the need to reduce the number of windings to offset the stray capacity and the need to prevent core satu ration conflict, In this design, a powdered- iron toroid was chosen Tor the feed choke core. This proved far superior to any of the ferrite cores evaluated. It is inexpensive and easy to reproduce Design ‘Three main areas must be addressed, The input matching must provide a bal- anced feed t 3 pair of low-impedance gates, The output must be matches ta a Suitable Toad impedance, and then trans: formed toa 50-Q.unbalanced load. The bias ‘must be thermally compensated t track the negative temperature coefficient of the fate bias threshold ‘The inpitis reasonably straightforward, Each gate input is 0.2 20.5. as estimated from the data sheet. The push-pull topol- ‘gy puls these two impedances in series, which makes the matching less difficult. A Smith Chast? program makes the actual design easy. The program used here is WinSmith The two gate impedances are added in series, and a network synthesized to transform the resulting impedance up t© 50. The Smith Chart program only works ‘ith single-ended cireuits,sothe center tap was added later. See Fig ? The input-transformer design was cho- sen for its simplicity and relative ease of construction. OF several attempts using Afferent material permeabilities, multiple Deads and different conductor types, this proved to be the best und most consistent performer. The core is & Fair-Rite’ "multi VHF/UME Amolifiers 2-52. (an pa Ga ‘te Suan Range: Teminatons Reterece (oh S58 ona Fig 1—Input matching network and calculation. a 7 mer ean Saaea Bane: tere fren: 50 iePoinns: Temes: Ratemce fore 0 tore est Gon torts: Fig 2—Output matching network and calculation. aperture” core, part number 2843010402. ‘The lype-43 material has a fof 850. At 50 MHz, type-61 material (i, of 125) would also be satisfactory. This transformer is essential to provide balanced drive to the gates of the MOSFETs. The secondary inding is "w-inch brass tubing. Copper shim stock forms the wonnections to the brass tubing at each end af the transformer secondary. The two-tum primary is wound inside the tubing. This construction pro- vides a very reproducible transformer with minimum leakage reactance and a very broad frequency response. It would be a suitable input transformer for a broadband amplifier covering 1 to 100 Miz. ‘The leakage reactance ofthe input trans former—referred 10 the secondary —is about 18 nH and is represented as Li on the simplified input schematic in Fig 1. The gate load is represented by the “Load R. L2.and C3. Using all three pants ofthe gate impedance alfows proper evaluation of the network bandwidth. A pi network consist- ing of CY, TL! and C2 is used to step-up the {gate load to the 12.5 © needed by the ans former and compensates for TI's leakage reactance. Notice that the net stay induc- tance ofthe gate is almost enough to effect ‘a match with a single shunt capacitor. This has actually been done, but it was not easy to fitall the parts in the available space; s0 it was judged unacceptable here, To trans- form the network into the required balanced configuration, the series TL1 is split into two equal parts; the shunt capacitors rearain the same, and a neutral center tap is pro: vided at the transformer secondary Because of the high ewrents circulat- ing in the input network, itis imperative that C2 be a larger-sized, elass-I dielectic (COG or NPO) capacitor. Iemust be a leak less, surfacemount chip type, of the value will need to be adjusted. The input tuning ‘capacitor, a 900 pF micacompression tia ner, is mounted directly to the end of the input teansformer. “The output network is also straightfor- ward, The proper load impedance far class Fig 360 Miz ampitier schematic diagram. 2-6 Chapter 2 |4-Ampitior parts layout is caloulated from the formals: 0987 as Re (4) This is the load for each device, and Py jonehalfof the total in a push-pull cireus isshunted by the output capacitance, C,,. was done for the gate citeuit, both out limpedances are series-connected 10 rep- the otal outpur impedance. The lt for oth devices in. push-pull is, 7 in parallel with 75 pF, half the out {capacitance of a single device. Though desig goal was 300 W PEP, the ampli- was actually designed fos » 400 W load This gives a good compromise be- efficiency and linearity na classical design, a suitable trans. ‘would be used o et the load imped- and either the output power or the g Voltage would be adjusted to fit available turns ratio, Normally, in a 1age HF design, the output capaci- is ignored because it is shunted by a smaller load resistance. At50 Mitz, effects of the output capacitance must compensated, soa slightly different ap- h was taken ia this circuit. WinSMITH was. used again to design the pat matching. See Fig 2. The output nce of 30 0 is rotated south by the ‘of the shunt output capacitance, C2, options present themselves for com: 2. Some additional shunt capaci- scould be added to further reduce the ivalent series real part to 12.5 Q, a es L used to resonate the resulting se. {Gs then a 4:1 transformer used to go to D. However, building a reproducible Joss 4:1 balanced transformer wasvery jal, and compensating its leakage re ce further complicates the desiga. The ‘option was used: The equivalent ‘output capacitance was resonated then more series inductance was tororate the load all the way up to the smbo conductance circle, Finally, a ‘apacitor was used to resonate the Fig 5—PCB artwork (not 10 scale, original size 8,85 (7.90 inches). added X,. The extra L and shum€ foeman L-network, which transforms the 20-0 equivalent series output impedance up to '50Q. This results in an easily duplicated design with a smooth, low-Q match, The de feed to the drains is provided through a shunt bifilar choke. At this fre- quency, most ferrite materials exhibit too rach iass tobe used at this impedance level ‘A powdered-iron core works famously here ‘The bulun-transformer function is PCO vided by a simple coax and wire trans- former, Two of the windings are provided by S0-0 Teflon coax, and the third balane= ing winding by an additional single wire The bias network requires some expla nation. Power MOSFETs have normal lot- to-lot variations ia gate threshold voltage, Vi. Forward transconductance, G,,, and other parameters. A number of devices were chocked for V4, and they were ai very close. They were all trom the same die lot ‘The die lot number is marked on the pack sage. For comparison, devices from another Tot were checked and were usiformly a half a volt lower. Were this the case for the de- viees to be used in the amplifier, ade block ‘would need to be added 10 exch side at the transformer, and the bias-feed network duplicated for each device. Since these de- vices were uniform, the additional compli- cation of individual gate-bia was omitted in this design, Because the gote-bias voltage required to maintain a particular value of idting drain current decreases as the temperatu fof the die increases. itis necessary to ther- mally sompensate the gate-bias source, or the devices will “run sway.” A commonly available NTC resistor tracks the tempers ture ofthe case, (Refer to Fig 3.) This bias circuit has been jn the literature for many ‘years. The eatio of RI to R3 in part deter- ‘mines the degree of compensation, A smaller value of RI, ora larger value of RS, will nerease the thermal sensitivity. Adrop of thermally conductive glue keeps the thermistor ia contact with the ease, Proper ‘operation is indicated when the set value of jg does not change after the heat sink gets hor from prolonged operation, Hustments Construction Refer to Fig 4 for the pasts layout, A photo master of ue artwork is shown in Fig 5, The original size ofthe artwork is 3.35x7 inches. The circuit board is 1-ounce-cop- per, double-sided w-inch G-10 PCB ma: terial. All four edges of the boasd and the three sides of the two rectangular cutouts for the transistors are wrapped with cop- ‘perfoil tape that was soldered in place to VHF/UHF Amplifiers 2.7ee Fig 6—SSB IMO performance. Fig 7—Amplifier efficiency and gain. tout Power Watts PEP Table 1—Amplifier Parts List C10—InF, 35 V electroytic Capacior D168 v, 1 W Zener giode Q1 —ARFas5A 2—ARFa4e RE—1 kit, 0.5W 10-turn timmee balun core ys 125 (C1—215-780 oF Arcot #409 mica compression trimmer 62, C8, 07-1000 pF, 500 V NPQ ohip cap, KDB #2020N102501P (€2--20-180 pF Arco #463 mica compression timmet G4-C5, C8-C9—0.01 iF, 600 V chip capacitor L1-L2—=70 nl, 3t #18 AWG enameled wire 0.31-inch diameter 0.25-ineh tong Laat #20 AWG on Fair-Rite #284301 0402 bead py = 850 F3—10 kA NTC Fenwal!® #140-109LAG-RB1 Ti—Primary 2t #20 PTFE, Secondary winch brass tube on Falt-Rite #2649010402 72-61 biflar #20 PTFE on Amidon #7-94-2 toro, ‘7331 AG-316 coax, St #20 PTFE on three Falt-Pite #5961001801 tocoids Lt, TL2—30-A printed line, 0.6 inches long 0 provide a low-impedance continuous ‘ground plane, The two cutouts for the tran sistors and the six mounting holes are the ‘only holes in the board. All of the parts are surface mounted, which permits the board to be mounted diseetly to the heat sink This amplifier was built on a 7-inch length of AAVID #60765 heat-sink extru- sion.” Ieis 3.5 inches wide, 1.5 inches deep fand has nine fins. With SO CFM of air ‘blown across it, the devices will easily maintain thermal stability in a 30°C envi ronment. The heat sink is not big enough foranything but very intermittent use with- ‘out a fan to assure adequate airflow across the fins, The input and output connectors are each secured by two #4-40 screws and 2-8 Chapter 2 holes tapped into the base of the heat sink ‘A cover is recommended for safety; fairly high RF voltages are present. Power Supply Power for the amplifier needs to be fairly well regulated, since any ripple will show in the output signal as undesired 120- Hz AM, For on-air testing at the author's, home, a very simple power supply was ‘constructed using 4 $00 W, 120 t0 240 V isolation transformer to drive a full-wave, centertapped rectifier circuit with 50,000 UF of filtering. Under SSB conditions, this is adequate. For CW, it needs some better regulation or the output power will sag over the length of a dash, and there will be some detectable hum. A regulated supply ca- pable of providing 80 V at 6 A is needed. Por formance ‘This isthe first-known, class-AB appli cation of the ARF448 parts. Until now, the ‘only other linear application is ina pulsed- ‘mode linear amplifier for magnetie-res0- nance imaging. The SSB performance was encouraging because these devices were developed to serve the ISM plasma-gen- eration market and no attention to linear performance was given in their design. The IMD performance with 200 mA of quies- cent bias was better than expected. (See Fig 6.) The amplifier was tested with up to 0.5 A of Iyq, While the IMD performance improves somewhat at this level, the eff ciency degrades significantly ‘The gain and efficiency objectives have bbeen met, as shown in Fig 7, The gain is 14.3 dB at 300 W PEP. The efficiency peaks at 51% at the same power. Under single- tone conditions, the drain efficiency is 61% at 250 W. The bandwidth of the amplifier is determined by the input network. The Smith-Chart plot of the input impedance shows the tracks for 50, 50.5 and $1 Mila. With the network adjusted for best match at 50,5 MHL, the SWR at the 0.5 MHz band- ‘width points is 1.3:1. It would be difficult to increase this SWR bandwidth enough to cover the full 4 MHz. of the amateur 6-m band without resorting to resistive loading, Which would then reduce the available gain. Conclusion ‘This paper has presented a $0 MHz, 300- W PEP linear amplifier using plastic-pack- aged, high-voltage MOSFET transistors. ‘This isthe first-known implementation of @ full-duty-cycleclass-AB amplifier using these transistors. The design challenges, approaches to their solution and the result- ing amplifier performance are showa. The parts, construction and mechanical layout all have been described in sufficient detail to permit duplistion. The new line of plastic packaged RF power transistors from APT. pffers designers a new cost-effective solu- tion for efficient layout and performance. Notes TH, Frey, A 50 Miz, 250 W Amplifier Usi ‘Bush Pull ARFadeAve, APTSTO2, Advance Power Technology Ine 2A. Frey, "A PushePull 300 Watt Amplifier for 61136 hme," Applied Microwaves and Wire less, Apr 198 ‘smith Chart is a trademark and property of “Analog inevrements Co, New Frowsence, New Jersey “WinSMITH, copyright Eaglemare Corp, 1995, available trough Noble Publishing, ne SFaiFite Products Corp, PO Box J, Gne Com tmoreial Row, Wall, NY 12563 SH" Granberg “Wideband RE Power Amler” TRF Design: February 1888, 7aavID Thermal Technologies Inc, Box 400, acon, NH O32, “arco Electronics, 5310 Derry Aye, Agour. Mis, CA 97501 ®KD Components inc, 2151 Ghalenger Wan, ‘Carson Cy, NV BS7O8. *°Fonwal Elecronies, inc, 480 Fortune Biv, Milford, MA O1S?,Eiietncen ks Geos ees A No-Bandswitch, Dual- Band VHF Desktop Amplifier An old design idea together with new tubes yields legal-limit output on 6 and 2 meters from a small al-band VHF amplifiers are by no ineans new in Amateur Radio, Several designs have appeared over the years, both ‘commercial and homebrew.'? The most ecent commercial design was the Henty Fempo 6N2, now out of production for twore than 20 years. There has never been a desktop capable of the new 1500-W PEP ‘amateur power limit for both the 6- and 2 meter bands, until now. The amplifier 1 Sescribe was designed primarily for Ieteor-scatter and weak-signal work, but the conservative design of the power Sup- yan colin system makes wel suited EME (moonbounce) also. The Implifier uses a pair of Svetlana 3CX800A7s, operating in class AB2-push- pull on 2 meters and AB2-parallel on 6 Iheters. Features include: legal limit out pul, no key-down time limit, no band Switching, either-or operation, 50-60 W of rive for 1500 W PEP output on both bands, small size and light weight, In an effort 10 make this design easier to duplicate, off the-shelf com-ponents and materials were twsed wherever possible, If you prefer not to “ull your owa,” Alpha Power should have commercial version available soon, Output Tank Circuit and Construction Details Since this was a new tank design, 1 ecided to use a box-in-8-box approach for the layout to make adjusting and debugging mich easier. This should also make dupli- tation of the tank circuits much easier for those of you who wish {0 use a separate, outboard power supply. The tank compart ment (See Figs 1, 2 and 7) starts with @ PePALinch Bud chassis with two surplus box. I1-pin ceramic sockets! mounted three inches apart (center-to-center) and four inches from the rear of the chassis. The sockets are mounted /sinch below the chas- sis in 2sinch-squate holes with each Socket oriented at 45° to the hole (Fig 3). This is similar to an Eimac 2216 socket for ‘he 8877, The Eimac #1906 chimneys were used in the normal manner. This is prob- ably the upper frequency limit for this Fig 1—A top vi voltage power cover removed shows the plat ‘mounting scheme due to possible instabil- ity problems at UHF. One problem en- countered while mounting the sockets this way is the small amount of tube exposed above the chimney to grasp for removal. This is easily solved by connecting several ‘rinch-wide hose clamps together end to tend, then clamping them tothe anode cooler to serve as a temporary handle. The front, op and sides ofthe tank com- of the ampliier. The plate tansformer in the front right and high: sembly next to ft occupy the Majonty of the control side with the blower, filament and contre ranstormers siting ust behind. The tank compartment with the Ting on is Plexiglas stand. VHF/UHF Amplifiers 2-9Fig 2—Side view of tank comparment. The 2-moter load capacitor on its ceramic ‘standoffs mounted to the Plexiglas stand isin tho sible below the spline shaft assembly. The meter tu ‘he lower right front, Fg 2-Dotom view ol amplifier with cathode comparenent Sr input network visible centered between the tubs Bom ingur tuning eapactors snout onthe eer para ang oreo he = fmoter put Coles jst vsble on ell. Noto the uae ot Coax for exc ios 0 hae ‘choke isto the right with the 2-met ‘socket feedback paths minimized, partment are all made from ‘/w-ineh alumi far with Y/x'fox"/inch aluminum angle brackets aa corners, The completed com- partment measures Tx6Mex|4'/: inches (WAD). The froot and right-side compart- meat panels extend to the top of the main cabinet cover to keep inlet and outlet air 210 Chapter 2 tes with the 6: cover removed The flament separated. The compartmeat cover (aot shown) thas 176 0,2-inch holes above the tubes for cooling exhaust, When this box is attached to the floor of the main cabiney, it leaves a 47-inch hole at the back before the tear panel is attached. This opening serves as access for a dip meter when checking the 2-meter tank resonance and tuning range. ‘The 2-meter tank circuit consists of a shorted 4/4 balanced fine section, tuned by a homebrew split-stator capacitor at the tube end oF the line. Designing this type of tank circuit is made very pain-less with information and design exam-ples.pro- vided in references.* There are several ad- ‘vantages of using a push-pull tank circuit instead of a parallel arrangement at 144 MHz. Ta the pushepull arrangement, Cuy and G,, of the tubes are in series, allowing atotalC,,,and C, thats one quarter of that withthe parallel arrangement. This allows lower values of loaded Q. resulting in higher efficiency and reduced compo-nent heating, minimizing thermal drift. The low value of Cag in tis case allows the use of 2/4 line inplace of 4/2 line, inereasing bandwidth and decreasing size ‘The line section, L2 of Fig 4, is made from Yerinch type-K copper pipe: the shorted end is made from one standard 90* copper elbow and one “street 90° copper «elbow. The open ends ofthe line are closed with brass plgs of the same outside diam- ‘eter as the pipe, with a portion machined to fit inside the pipe. Standard copper pipe caps could be substituted for these plugs ‘The total length of the line section is 77. inches, from the ends to the inside of the shorted end. The plate-to-anode con nections are made with '/v-inch copper ple fastened between copper fuse clips ‘onthe anode connectors and threaded holes in the ends of the brass plugs. The line section is. supported by Plexiglas stand and held in place by two ‘copper clamps. The stators of the 2-meter TONE. capscitor, C3, ar€ sup-ported by MWesinch ceramic standoffs attached to the Plexiglas stand (Fig 5). A ‘/ax°/-inch ear from each stator attaches to a /-inch-wide sirap around each ofthe tubes" anode coo!- ers. The rotor of C3 fa two-inch disk of “winch copper, which is mounted to a piece of "x28 brass allethread rod. The threaded rod is held by a brass fitting ‘tapped for 'x28) that is attached tthe ‘Pleiglas stand. The threaded rod iscoupled to a sling spline shaft consisting of Sich Plexiglas rod inside a /-inch piece of “Teflon od that has been drilled through the ‘seater. The Teflon tube is attached 10 a ‘thon picce of "/einch stainless-steel rod that exits the tank compartment through a Yench panel bushing. This shaftis coupled to the turns counter with a synchronous gear belt (Fig 6). This shaft relocation via the gear belt serves only to improve the front:panel appearance: it may be omitted if desired, ‘The 2-meter tank circuit is coupled to theantenna by an adjustable reso-nant link ‘The link position is adjusted by © #10-24 serew through a threaded Plexiglas block, to which the link is attached (Fig 2). One end of the adjusting screw is sepported by the top-cover angle bracket and the other ‘end by a2-inch-long piece of '/-inch angle ‘mounted to the front panel of the compart-— Fig 5—Rear view with the plate line removed showing the 2-meter TUNE capacitor. iment. The link is made from “ox'/inch verplated copper strap. covered with a inch Teflon sleeve: itis attached to the Plexiglas block with four #10-32 nylon screws, Silver-plated coax braid attaches the link to the 2-meter LOAD capacitor, ‘C2, and the isolation relay, K3. The link adjustment screw is aceessed. through ‘h-inch hole in the main cabinet top cover during initial setup, then the hole is cov- ig 4—Detalls of 2-meter input and output tank indicators and the 2-meter TUNE capacitor stators cred with a plastic plug ‘As with all push-pull circuitry, the key to successfal operation is symmetry. Ail stray capacitance must be divided equally between both sides of the Tine and tubes. Also, uy t keep ferrous materials out of the tank compartment to prevent imbalance, ‘The 6-meter tank isa norcal x network designed fora plate-load resistance of 1550 W with a loaded Q of approximately 22 The design parameters are shown in Table 1. The input ofthe network is connected to the center of the shorted end of the bal- anced line section where a #10-32 brass stud has been soklered in place. This is the Jow-impedance point of the Tine section, and anything but a dead short can be attached here without affecting the perfor- mane ofthe fine.® To verity that the physi cal center of the line is also the RF center, couple a dip meter to the line and tune for a dip ssaund 144 MHz. Then without ‘moving the dip meter (DM), touch the tip ofa lead pencil at points along the Tine wal you find the spot that has the least effect on the DM. This is the attachment point for the plate choke and the 6-meter tank. To keep the loaded Q of the 7 network 4s low as possible, full 51-54 MHz opera- VHF/UHF Amplifiers 2-11Table 1—Print out of operating parameters for the 6-meter iaput and output networks The values for the PI matching network wee calculated with Gonduiton Angle = 1878 Degrees Eimer (WSFD) Wingfield’ new formuls found in the more recemt Bask Gag Vollge = = 368 V ARIAL handbooks. Zn@Camo” = 245 2 FAEEWARE Courtesy of D810 PioDive PEP) = 410 W Trode Ampitir Program Version 20 POOPiaw (PEP) = 16000 Ww For Grounded Grd Operation POtoload PEP) = 16379 W (2) USER Biased 3CXSO0A7 at 50.0 Miz Rated for FORCEOAIR BC Poweringut == 2405.5 W DG Plato Vat 2150.0" V (2500 V Max), Efficiency = “es Max Pate Voltage 2100 ov Power Gain = Bo a8 Peak Piate Swing ig000 GathtoGracap = 52.00 oF Min Plate Votage 2500 ¥ PiatateGidCap = = 12.20 pF Pato Curent Peake 3.368 A Plate Curent DG = 1.119 7 Matoh Input Pi Match Output Gria Current OC 0063 A Re = 5000 RP = 115400 Gath Current Peak Best ® 2s oset uh ci = "500 ae Design Plate AL 11281 a O 2 44928 pr a 02977 4H FL for Matching vs48 a Uo “o4ze aH Ge = 2320 oF Plato Dissipation = 805.5. W (1600. Max) BEC = 0.195 iH FL > “S008 Gr Dissipaton’ «= = = 32 W (BWM) Zin = 26-j990 ol = ma Camose Bae = 82 a 2 “Se tion was not attempted. The &-meter TUNE capacitor, Cl, operates very near its mini- mum capacitance because of strays and the C.yof both tubes. These strays account for a large ponion of the 6-meter tune capaci- tance, which causes te majority of the tank Circulating current to flow through the blocking ‘caps, C7-C8. I used parallel CCentralab 858 “doorknobs” for the ock- ing capacitors and | haven't experienoad any problems. Capacitors with larger our- rent ratings (such as HT-57s) would bé 9 better choice for longer duty cycles. The 3-30 pF vacuum.variable capac itor is mounted (© the floor of the tank ‘compartment with an L-bracket bent from ‘eeineh aluminum. Use the bearing re- tainer nut to attach the capacitor t0 the bracket, but be sure t0 add shims to the bearing to make up for space lost by the thickness of the bracket, or backlash will Fig §—Front view of the amplifier with front sat bar-graphe ci the Wo pans 2412 Chapter 2 ‘occur. The other end of the capacitor ‘supported by a#6-32)rasssorew inthe end ‘ofthe capacitor that passes through apiece ‘of Teflon bar stock mounted tothe loor of the cabinet, A #6-32 hex nut holds the end ‘of L3 and a piece of Yeinch strap (wich ‘supports C7 and C8) tight tothe end of the vacuum cap. The ofber end of L3 is sup- ported by a Voxl-ineh Teflon standof.. ate bral tes this end to the 6-meter LOAD cap, which is mounted on the ‘sidewall of the tank compartment, ‘Setting the Output Tanks ‘The Gemeter tank can be checked for tuning range with an SWR analyzer at the output connector. Connect a 1,1 KO, rnoninduetive resist inom one of the tube anodes to ground to simulate the 1100-W plate-load resistance. You should be able to achieve @ 1:1 match at both ends of the nel folded igh and the "ouer let desired tuning range. Some stretching or ‘compression of L3 may be required o bring thetuning range to 50-51 MHz. Be sure the top cover of the tank compartment is in place, as the stray capacitance it intro ues accounts for a portion of the tuning capacitance for 6-meters ‘The 2-meter tank was set up € ly — | Fig 7—AF deck schematic. Uniess otherwise ‘specified, use '/. W, Sretolerance carbon ‘Gemnposiion o- flim resistors. See Table 3 for ‘par-suppiat contact information. G1--$.80 pF vacwur-variable capacitor C2160 pF air-variabie, 1400 V capactor ‘C3—Splitetatorair-variani (see text and Fig 4) 24-925 pF ainvariable, 1400 V capacitor 65, 08—4.9.75 pF APC-siyle al-varable. ‘Wimmer 6apactior “C7, CB—1000 pF, 5 KV doorknob capacitor ‘C9-2500 pF, 81 KV feecthrough capacitor | DI—8.2 V, 86 W stud-mount Zener diode, ‘Nes06E Ki-Jeanings RAIA SPOT vacuum relay, B85 V do col " Kd, KS—DowKey modo! 2608 wit °C" pion, coax relay 265 co KE—SPDT relay, 10 A contacts, 24 V de cal Li—Bee Fig (2800 Fig 4 {Bz turns of %ex')einch strap, Veinch iameter, 2 Inchos long Lae Fig 4 LS—B5 inches f #44 Teton covered copper ‘ire wih 6 inches ted tightly nse LS LS—7 tums, Yeinsh YOxteinch long Tetlon “covered #18 AWG copper wire LP ums Yench IDxt'/-inch long Tefion ‘covered B14 AWG copper wire LB—20 twins ABS AWG enameled wire on an “Amidon TPA powdered:ron core over ‘conter Conductor of coax Mi—0-2.a, 3.sncn Simpson pane! meter MB=D.tO mA, S.-nch Sipson pane REGI-96 tums #18 AWG enameled wie, fen Yeinch-diameter Teflon rod 2, RECS-—Ohmite Z-50 RRCE_Ohmite 2-144 Vi, V2—Svetlarw 3CXB00A7with a dip meter inserted through the open- {ng inthe back ofthe compart-ment. Set the ‘output link about Y/s-inch from the top plane ofthe line; this is close tothe final position and adds stray eapacitance. To keep loaded low, ty set the line length soit doesn't take very much tune capacitance to reso- nate the line at 144 MHz. Start with a line section alittle longer than shown and care fully trim ito resonance. Remem-ber that [inch of line length equals approximately 10 MHz of tuning range! The tank should resonate at 144 MHz with about inch of space between the plates of C3. When the desired tuning range is found, install a '¥4x28 lock nut on the threaded shaft of C3 to stop travel atthe upper frequency limit. This will prevent accidental tuning of the tank to the third harmonic of 50 MHz, which could potentially damage the front end of a 2-meter exciter, Remember that the isolation of most coax relays is very poor at 144 MHz: It was only 35 dB with the DowKey 2608 used here. For this rea son, a Jennings RIIA vacuum relay, K3, ‘wat added in series with the 2-meter trans” ferrelay. The vacuum relay disconnects the ‘-meter link from the coax and terminates the coax in a resistive load during 6-meter operation. Make sure the electrical ength of the coax between the relays s more than AYO and less than 34/8 at 144 MHz. With these safety measures in place, third-har- ‘monic energy at the 2-meter input port was measured at -17 JBm during 1500-W 6-meter operation Input Networks ‘The 2-meter input network consists of a single tuned-link, air-core transformer (Figs 3 and 4). This coupling method requires slightly more drive than a link- Fg 8— Ww ot the fg hand sid panel ced down ahowing the two transfor ‘lays and the low-voltage power supply. Plate voltage no load, 2350 V Pate voliage @ 1A, 2150 V Zero signal plate current, 35 mA E-Meter drive, single tone, 48 W Meter power output 1420 W Meter plate current, 980 mA Meter grid current, 75 mA Apparent 2Meter drive, Single tone, 50 W 2-Meter power output, 1275 W 2-Meter plate current, 950 mA 2-Meter grid current, 68 mA Plate vansformer. Note the use of 80-mm fan covers for the eocling ar inlets. Table 2—Operating parameters of the amplifier ‘Apparent efficiency 62.4% (feed-through power not subtracted) 8 filament tanstormer #8 Visible tothe right ofthe ficiency, ‘67-4% (feed-through power not subtracted) ‘Table 3—Parts suppliers Fair Radio Sales Co, inc 1016 East Eureka St PO Box 1105 Lima, OH 45804 (el 419-227-6573, 419-223-2196 fax 419-227-1313, e-mail fairadio@weoll.com URL http:/www.fairradio.com/ Mouser Electronics 2401 Hwy 287 N Mansfield, TX 76063 tel 800-346-6873 fax 817-483-0931 e-mail sales @mouser.com URL http:/www.mouser.com/ Newark Electronics 4801 IN. Ravenswood Ave Chicago, IL 60640-4496 tel 800-863-9275, 773-784-5100 URE hitpuiwww.newark.com/ Peter W. Dahl Co, ine 5869 Waycross Ave EI Paso, TX 79924 tel 915-751-2300 fax 916-751-0768 e-mail pwdco@pwdahioom URL hitpyiwawpivdahioom RF Parts Co 435 $ Paciio St ‘San Marcos, CA 92069 tel 760-748-0700, 800-797-2787 {orders oniy) fax 760-744-1943 ema rip@rfparts.com GAL http:zwaw.rfparts.com/ Surplus Sales of Nebraska 1502 Jones St Omaha, NE 68102-3112 tel 402-346-4750, 600-244-4567 (Orders only} fax 402-346-2999 e-mail grinnell@ surplussales.com URL httpu/www.surplussales.com/ Svetlana Electron Devices 18200 S Memorial Pkwy Huntsville, AL 35602 tel 256-882-1344, 800-239-6900 fax 256-880-8077 e-mail sales@ svetlana.com URL http:/www.svetlana.com/ 214 Chapter 2soupled, half-wavelength resonant tine, Batsaves a lor of space, Two references® A give formulas and rules of thumb for de signing this type of transformer, but it till quired a lot of “cut and try” before suit- Ale sizes for L4 and L3 were found. The fouied © of the resonant input link is ap |poximatcly 3.5 before the coupled-in re~ Sistance fromthe secondary smodifies it The degree of mutual coupling of ait-core Arasformers is an elusive value that makes the final loased Q difficult 10 calculate The input tuning capacitor, C5, could be changed to a 25-pF unit since the one used here turned out to be much larger than needed, Both sides of CS age above chassis, ‘ground; it requires a nonmetallic serew- driver to adjust Six-meter drive and B- are applied to the center tap of LA, providing parallel cathode drive for 50-MHz operation. common T network, with a loaded Q of five, matches the S0:W line to the 24.6-0 input impedsnce of the parallel tubes. All the cathode pins of the sockets are tied together with buss wire in a star pattern. One-inch-long bus-wire leads connect the ends‘of L4 10 the center of the bus-Wire stars on the sockets. Again, symmetry is all-important in balanced operation. Boilinput networks were set up with an antenna analyzer and two 50-W carbon resistors to simulate the input load imped: ance. Tack-solder the resistors from cath= ‘ode to ground on each socket with the shortest-possible leads. Short leads are very important on 2 meters because lead inductance and stray capacitance become ‘quite significant, The resistors present apt 08 ndicoted, decimal values of copocitanee are in mierotarads (pf); others aren pleofrads (EF k=1,000, M= 1,000,000" at =" Metal fim Lovooro ft Ses a2) gave 7) (a) 19k for partsupplier contact information Bt—Osyton 440761 squirre-cage blower (C154 pF, 4500 V olliled electroiyic capacitor 1€2,€3--500 uF, 50 V electrolytic. or DI-DIS—IN5409 1200 Pv, ¢ A Sileon recters, four diodes per sing 1, F220 A. 250 V ceramic fast-biow fuse FS-3A, 250 V fuse F5—2A slow blow fuso KI—DPST relay, 25 A contacts, 24 V de coll PST relay, 25.8 contacts, 120 Vc coll, MOV--130 V metal oxide varstor, VISOLAS Bi1900 26 W wire-wound resistor R2A, F2B—B0 ko 50 W wire-wound resistor G10 0, 1 W carbon resistor R4-A9--499 KO, 1 W metal fim resistor F10~3.9 ka, 1 W metal fim resistor FI1—1.5 kQ, 1 W metal film resistor Fii2—70.Q, 25 W wire-wound resistor 1325 Q, 25 W wire-wound resistor Rid —250 02,25 W'rheostat AS—5 KO, 10-tuin potentiometer ig &—Powor-supply schematic. Unless otherwise spectied, use "Vs W, S%(olerance carbon composition or film resistors. See Table 3 RFC1, RFC2—12 pillar tung of #18 AWG ‘enameled wire on '/-inch-diameter Teton 104 S1—-SPST5 A lighted panel switen 'S2—Yemperature snapalse control Grainger # 22285, S9—3PDT 5 A microswiten ‘Ti—Peter Dahl plate transtormer: 240. primary, 1800 V, 1-A CGS secondary 12240 V primary, 16 V, 5 A secondary T3—120 V primary, 20 V, 2A secondary UI—1M7824 70.3 case U2—5 A, 50 V rectilier bridge VHF/UHF Amplifiers 2-1525 W to the parallel 6-meter network and 100 W to the 2-meter push-pull network. Con-nect the analyzer to the respective input ports and adjust cach network for lowest SWR, Some adjustment of the 6-meter input coils (L6 and 1.7) may be required to uchieve a 1:1 mateh. If the Demeter network does not present a good ‘match, some adjustment in length of Ls and LS may be necessary. Again, the covers must be in place and tubes must be in their sockets when measuring the match, Both filament leads and the filament choke ‘must be in their final positions because the cathode-to-filament capacitance affects Input tuning at 144 MHz. Remember, this analyzer method only gets you close to the final tuning points; settings will be differ ent under live conditions. Finally, don't forget to remove the temporary resistors from the cathode and tank cireuits after the initial adjustments are done. AC Mains and Low-Voltage Power Supplies Several protective measures are built into the amplifier to protect the tubes and the operator. The ac mains are brought into the amplifier with four-eonductor cord to keep the neutral and ground separated per the NEC (Fig 9). Three fuses are used 10 keep the blower's ae source separate from. the fused plate transformer. This was done so the blower’s cool-down delay still func tions after a high-voltage fault, which femoves ac from the entire amplifier in ddual-fuse designs. A thermal snap switch in the tank compartmert keeps the blower running after shutdowa of a high-voltage fault if the exhaust air has been above 10°F and is not yet below 90°, This only happens after several minutes of continu ‘ous operation, You may want 10 use a switch with slightly higher ratings (120°F ‘on, 110°Foff) i your shack is often warmer than the 90° off point used here, The 3CX#00A7's filaments dissipate only 20 W each during cutoff and natural convee tion is more than enough to cool the tubes when shut off ‘AC voltage for K2, the main control relay, is also taken from F3, the blower fuse, to make sure blower voltage is avail- able before the amplifier can be powered up. A safety switch that closes when the top cover is in place supplies ac to SI, the main power switch, Poswer-supply inrush protection is provided by Ki, which closes approximately one second after K2 and effectively removes RI from the trans: former primaries. The delay period is set by R3 and C3, There are two MOVs across the ae lines after the contacts of K2 and Ki Arcing at the relay contaets can and will produce voltage spikes and spike protec tion on the fuse side of K2 will not always save the high-voltage diode strings and bother components. Filament voltage is adjusted at the primary of T2 by RI, a 250-0, 25-W sheostat, Filament voltage is measured at the filament choke via two leads brought to the back panel of the Chapter 2 2416 amplifier. Purists may want 0 measure voltage at the filament pins, but the low Filament-current demand of these tubes makes the voltage drop between the sook- «sand the choke negligible. The dheostat. also provides passive filament-ineush pro 1 low-voltage supply —Comssting of 3, UL and U2—supplies regulated 24 V at TA, The bridze rectifier and 24-¥ regult- {or are mounted to apiece of Yexl-inch ale minum angle that is placed divetly if the cooling-ai inlet path Fig 8), High-Voltage Power Supply The high-voltage power supply consists (of Peter Dabl Hyoersi plate transformer and» full-wave bridge rectifier with {eapesitorinput filter. The supply is capable ‘fproducing 2150 V at 1A CCS. The entire Supply Is assembled as one picce, then Jnvstalled on the floor of the main cabinet next 10 the plate transformer (Fig. 6). The cilfilled filter capacitor is sandwiched between two 3x6'%-inch pieces of Plexiglas, in turn held together with four #10-26%S-inch-iong flatchead serews. The rectifier strings and high-voltage-meter Inultiplier resistors are mounted to a 3x6i)sinch PC board supported by 'f-inch spacers on the same four screws. A 3x6 inch pieve of fiberglass board holding the two bleeder resistors, B+ curcentlimit-ing reilstor and B~ float resistor tops off the 1/08" Bose 1/8" | Bracket Za 1/* Foor Fig 10—Layout ofthe blower modifications for sound reduction. Fig 11—View of eonttol Board.ke * warning Aahot 2 oss Ready as B es 35 ccks Bea e8 ae Geeks Fig 12—Control schematic. Unless ‘otherwise specified, use " W., S5e4-tolarange carbon. composiion or fim rasistors, See Table 3 for part-supplior ‘Contact information C122 uF, 50 V electrolytic capacitor C2--100 uk, 50 V electrolytic capacitor S124 V lamp part of St (see Fig 9) 282, DS, 08524 V pane! ight D424 V lamp part of S1 S624 V lamp part of S2 K7, KB, K9—DPOT 5 A DIP relay, 24 V de ‘oll Ri--5 Ma PC-mount potentiometer R2, AG—1 kat PC-mount potentiometer S1—Normaly closed momentary-contact lighted panel switch 'S2—-SPST lighted panel switch stack, All of the power resistors on the top board are mounted on one-inch ceramic standoffs, High voltage is outed to the tank compartment with test-lead wire high-voltage feed-through capa diode strings do not use equalizing resis- tors or capac-itors as they are from the same batch and there is plenty of PIV head- room. Spike protection for the string is in the transformer primary, where it belongs ‘The high-voltage supply has three bleed- down paths for the filter eapae-itor: the bleeder resistors, the high-voltage meter multipliers and a 7.5 MQ, 7.5-kV resistor at the terminals of the capacitor itself. Even with these redun-dant safety mea- ‘sures, never assume that they are working. Always follow standard safety procedures when working with any high voltage, in- cluding the ae mains: It can kill you. Cooling Whole-cabinet cooling is accomp- lished via @ Dayton model 4C761 squirrel cage blower. Cooling ai s drawn into the cabinet atthe right-hand side through wo 2cinch holes, neon each side ofthe plate transsformer. This temoves heat feom the bleeder resistors and other components be- foe it enters the blower inlet. The Svetlna SCXBO0A7 datasheet recommends airflow of IV efi ata back pressure of 0.2 inches (of water, for 600'W dissipation at sea level and 25°C inlet air temperature per tube. For two tubes, this is 22 cfm at 0.2 inches for 1200 W of dissipation. At a 1500-W ouput level with 60% efficiency, the tubes only dissipate 960 W. ‘The socket sub-mouating method I used resulted in a back pressure of 0.2 inches with this blower, as measured on my bench With a home-brew manometer. Since the Dloweris rated for 43 efm at 0.2 inches (sea level assumed), there should be plenty of headroom for different clevations and inlet aictemperatures. Remember that the above falculations ate for continuous. dissi- pation, while SSB and CW operation rarely Approaches 50% of these values. ‘The mounting flange at the botiom of the blower was cut off so the outlet can align with the 2-inch-all cathode chassis ‘The blower motor was laken off its squirrel VHF/UHF Amplifiers 2-17cage and mounted to an aluminum L bracket. The squirrel cage was mounted to ‘a4xinch piece of Yi-inch aluminum that supports the L. bracket through a piece of ‘Jrinch foam (Fig, 10). This sound-isolation method was bortowed from Alpha Power Inc, and it works very well. Control Board and Metering The control PC board (Fig 11) is ‘mounted on nylon standoffs just below the panel meters and above the row of switches fand panel lights. As with most indirectly hheated, oxide-coated cathodes, a warm-up period is required: for the 3CX800A7. a minimum of three minutes is recom> mended. When the amplifier is turned on, regulated 24 V is applied to the warm-up Fig 13—(right) View of panel showing Kt ‘and K2. The bias heat Sink and assembly 's visible below the fitment meostat. he ira) wep dns oye ee Except as indicsted, decimal Noles of cepachence are ene o mirage (ar otters = a ffatetes re sh iip00- Fig i4-Sehomale cl he duel keying: cru PC board. Unies otherwise pect, use VW, BS+-laarance carbon compton or fim resistor: Soe athe $ or pansupp contac oman. 248 Chapter 2lay circuit consisting of QI, RI and C1 (Fig 12), When sufficient voliage appears atthe base of QI, relay K7 closes, with one Set of contacts latching the relay on while the tiher set of contacts resets C1. If high- lage is present, Q4 is switched on and KBetostslignting DS3 and supplying 24 V tothe rest of the amp-Litier. Diode DI was ae berwcen the field. af KS and the field GERT to make sure K7 closes first. The {prsslaty of the control board tothe mag. ‘ac Feld of the plate transformer affects ‘betiniing of K7 slightly With the low grid-issipation rating of these tubes, grid over-current prote-tiom i nebessary. Grid current is. measured ‘drop across RI of Fig 7, 10-2, BAW wire-wound resistor. R3 on the con- a boatd is set tote K9 with Q3 ata grid fueeut of 120 mA. One set of contacts Titdes the relay on; the other set interrupts the 24-V line o the OPR (operate) switch, ‘Capacitor C2—across the field of K9— ‘ops relay chatter on voice peaks. Lamp DS4is part of he grid-teset switch SI, and Itlights while K9 is energized. A second {id-current-sensing circuit, using Q2, is set light DS7 on the front pane! at 75 mA. This LED is used asa grid-current warning incator and can be set atthe grid-current evel you prefer. The trip points of these ‘wo circuits and the grid-current meter Aeading are ad-justed while the amplifier is icon-nected from the ae supply. ‘Todo so, connect a 24-V external sup- Pyto the 24:V bus of the amplifier after the Timing circuit. Connect the positive lead of Aariable-voltage de supply 10 the un- {pourded side of RI of Fig 7 through an tecurate sie milliammeter. Connect the fxtemal-supply negative lead to the assis. With the grid-current pane! meter Acorected, slowly increase the voltage athe Bench Supply until the milliam-meter teaches the set points of 120 mA for grid Iipend'75 mA forthe warning LED. Adjust RB and R2 (Fig 12) respestively, to set the Ip points. After the trip points are set, re- tonne the grid-current meter and adjust Ri (Fiz 7) for a full-scale reading of 100 mA using the same method as for the ip poin's. This “cold” method of setting ffi tip points is a lot safer forthe tubes than removing B+ and then applying drive induce grid current ‘he panel meter, M2, serves as the high- voltage meter as well as the grid-curtent ater, The calibration of the high-voltage prtion was “roughed in” with the amplifier off and all voltages removed, A 1.5-V de supply was connected tothe multiplier side (Gf R15 on the high-voltage rectifier board, then RIS is adjusted for a full-scale read: {ng on M2, This corresponds toa full-scale feiding of 3000 V. Meter calibration was fhenchecked with high-voltage probe and ‘accurate DMM, after the amplifier was turned on Plate current 1s measured digecty i the B-line of he high-voltage supply, which is tei slightly above ground by R12 on the power-supply assembly. Both meters are o ry (a) 8) Fig 15—Detalls of the 2 and G-meter low-pass fiters. See Table 3 for part-supplier contact information 50 Mite C1, C2—80 pF doorknob capacitor, U1; 13a ume #14 AWG copper, “urine TDxfeinch tong L2—5 tums #14 AWG copper, " eine long inch 1D protected by IN5408 diodes; wo series: connected diodes on the B~ bus keep it below approximately 1.4 V and two more are connected back-to-back from the mul- timeter to ground, There are relative-output bar-graph dis. plays for each band above the tune and load Controls. These displays use two LM3914 bar-graph drivers per 20-segment display. A currenttransformer pickup unit is used for 6 meters and a voltage-sensing pickup. for 2 meters. The dual-bar-graph display schematic can be found in Forrest Mims' book! and the 6- and 2-meter pickups are shown in Fig 7. The displays look appeal- ing but turned out to be more trouble than they are worth, since I still use external ‘waltmeters while I tune. The bar-griph dis- plays" rapid response time would be beer sited for plate- and grid-current meters and Keying Operating bias is developed across DI of Fig 7, an 8.2-V, 50-W stud-mounted Zener diode. The Zener, along with K6, R2 land R3, is mounted on & 23-inch piece of 0.100-inch aluminum that serves as a heat sink (Fig 13). ‘The entire assembly. is mounted on two ‘Js-inch Teflon stand-off fon the back panel of the eabinet. The 2-A ‘cathode fuse is mounted on the back panel 144 Miz C3, C8—28 pF doorknob capacitor C4, C5—40 pF doorknob capacitor (463.5 tums #16 AWG siver-plated copper wire, Veinch IDx!/seanch fong alongside the ac-line fuses. ‘The keying PC board is mounted on the rear floor of the main cabinet (Fig 8). The PC board contains keying circuits for both 6 and 2 meters (Fig 14). Because they are ‘identical, I'll only describe the operation of Atrest, Q2is biased on, holding the base of QI low. Grounding J2 will take the base of Q2 low, turning it off. This allows volt- age (0 appear atthe base QI, turning it on and energizing KS. Alternatively, applying +12.V to] will also turn QI on, keying the amplifier. Both keying inputs are logic compatibie, The bias relay is energized through DI or D2, which comprise « two- input OR gate. Each transfer relay is 9 DowKey #260B with the "C” option, which is.apairof DPDT signaling switches, Each Of the relays’ supply voltages is routed through one of the opposite relay’s 1 ‘mally closed signaling contacts. This ‘mechanical EXCLUSIVE-OR gate keeps the amplifier from being simultaneously keyed on both bands. The normally open contacts are used to light wansmit LEDs on. the front panel; these are mourted between. their respective tune and load conteols to help eliminate confusion while tuning, ‘With this type of transfer relay, input ‘and output relay sequencing is obviously VHF/UHF Amplifiers 2-19“ @ Fig 16—Tho completed ampltir ready for ts (6) back panel. not an option, and hot switching of the re- lays will result unless preven-tive measures ave taken, One option is to key the amplifier and let it key the excite. Each relay's spare Set of signaling contacts was brought to the back panel for this possible use. Another option, which Temploy, isto use an ‘outboard keying sequencer. The sequencer takes care of my mast-mounted preamplifi- cers as well asthe exciter-amplifier timing AA suitable sequencer can be found in the references.? When using separate exciters for each band, the spare set of signaling ‘contacts ean be used for audio muting ofthe lunkeyed exciter while transmitting General Construction Notes The entire amplifier cabinet was built using common hand and power tools. All aluminum was cut with carbide saw blades in a radial arm saw and table saw. Blades ‘with a 5° negative hook angle seem to work best foraluminum, The main amplifier c 2:20 Chapter 2 Fide to the mountain top. (A) Front view, net measures 18%16%7!/-inches (WDH) ‘The plate transformer determined the cabi ‘net height, The entire cabinet is built from 0.100-inch aluminum sheet and Yooox'}sineh aluminum angle stock, All ‘outside corners are secured with #8-32 pan. head serews tapped into the angle stock. The area under the plate transformer and high- voltage supply assembly was beefed up with ‘a second layer of 0.100-inch aluminum on the cabinet floor, A square hole cut in the cabinet floor provides access the cathode ‘compartment; itis normally covered with a piece of «inch aluminum, Allround holes Were cut with chassis punches. The cabinet ‘was painted with Dupont Chromaclear, which is a two-step (color coaelear coat) automotive paint. After the base coat was applied over the primer, dry transfer leter ing was applied to the front panel controls ‘and Brothers P-touch labels were applied to the rear panel. Two coats of clear were ap- plied over the base coat to finish the job. All interior wiring was done with serap Teflon-coated wire, The wiring harnesses ‘were arranged so that all side panels can be removed and laid flat next to the chassis for ease of alignment and debugging. The {ntern-al coax runs were made with Teflon- dielectric coax to handle these high power Teyels, most other coax falls short, particu: larly at 144 MHz, ‘Adjustment and Operation Use an ohmmeter to check the av paths and RF deck for possible shorts and wiring mistakes. Be sure to blow out the entire ‘cabinet with compressed air to remove any hidden debris. Set the filament-voltage heostat to maximum resistance. If you ‘haven't already done so, apply 24 V from an ‘external supply to the 24-V bus and check the timing, control and keying circuitry for ‘proper operation. Connect the amplifier toa Suitable ac mains supply and connect an accurate DMM to the filament-voltage test points. Connect a 2-meter exciter and dummy load. Turn on the main power switch and quickly set the filament voltage 013.5 V, or slightly less. Never operate the filaments below the 12.9-V recommended ‘minimum, Be sure to check the filament voltage again after 5 to 10 minutes to detect any thermal drift inthe eheostat. Verify that the plate is at approximately 2375 V. Both tank circuits should be set to the tuning values found during initial sevvp. After the three-minute delay has elapsed, key the amplifier with no drive and check for @ cathode idling current of approxi- ‘mately 30-50 mA. Apply a little 144-MH2 drive and tune C5 in the input cigcuit for ‘minimum reflected power. The 2-meter ‘output link should be preset approximately "sinch above the top plane of the balanced line. Still with little drive, adjust the 2-meter tuning capacitor for maximum power output. Adjust the 2-meter load capacitor for peak output-power and then leave it there until you are finished. Next adjust link spacing as you would a load capacitor. Keep increasing the drive while increasing the link coupling for maximum power output, without exceeding grid-cur- Fent limits and while also touching up the ‘main tune capacitor, C3. Once the desired output power level is reached, check the Tink coupling by slowly decreasing the cou- pling untila slight decrease in output power Is observed. Then inerease the coupling slightly past the point where output power peaks and grid current is reduced to within ‘operating limits. This should be very close to eritical coupling, which will result in maximum efficiency. Go back and touch up the input network for minimum reflected power. The link is now set for operation and any further tuning adjustments ean be ‘made with C2 and C3. ‘Tune the 6-meter tank circuit the same way you would any other p net-work: by slowly increasing drive and tuning for ‘maximum power output and best efficiency while touching up the input network for lowest reflected power. Then increaseuntil a 2% decrease in power out: is observed. With values of loaded Q betow 30 in the it tanks, there is no way to keep below the 60-dB-dowa figure by the FCC without outboard fil ang. Harmonic filters are a very small topay forthe higherefticiency, lower require-ment and reduced thermal that he ower loaded Q provides. I've jaded descriptions of two suitable fil from the reterences:"™ they are very to build. The silver-mica capacitors nally inthe filters have been replaced surplus door-knob capacitors for bet- power-handling capability. With both installed all harmonics and spurious are more than 70 dB down from the tal. ‘Thoughts This amplifier was completed just be the summer E-skip season and was smediately put on the ar. On-the-air sig reports were all good, and they com- well 0 the 8877 amplifier I normally . Close in IMD testing was done with belp of NN7DX who is located nine jles away, over flat ground, Results -d no excessive signal bandwidth Jeour antennas were positioned to bring is down to §-9 levels during 1500-W testing. The amplifier runs cool 10 touch even after several hours. The biggest problem encountered with operation of the amplifier had to do with facing with certain exciters. Some of the new multiband exciters provide mul tiple antenna ports that can be configured for HE, 6- and 2-meter outputs, but provide only one buffered keying line. ‘The ICOM- 746 is built this way, but it does provide two unbuffered Keying lines: one for HF and 6 meters and one for VHE. The ICOM. 706-series radios also provide two unbuf- fered lines but only two untenna ports, Both of these radios require some sort of external switching for the keying line—and the an tenna line in the ease of the "706—if this amplitier and an HF amplifier are both used. ICOM does provide band logic as a variable voltage at the radio's ACC plug. ve designed a simple decodee/outfer that uses this logic and the radio’s internal ower supply to automatically switch the keying line between HE, 6-and 2-meteram- pliers. The buffer will sink up to 3. of relay current. It also selects from three separate ALC input lines for those of you that employ sequencers using the ALC line for transmit inhibit. The decoder is de seribed in “Automatic Amplifier Selection for the ICOM 1C-746, -736 and -706MKIT Transceivers,” QST, May 2000, pp 33-36. With the decoder in place, amplifier selec. tion with an IC-746 becomes totaly auto- matic when changing bands between HE. 6 fand 2 meters. For the IC-706 series, an ad ditional coaxial relay can switch one of the antenna ports between HF and 6 meters to allow automatic selection. The decoder also works with the ICOM IC-736, choos- ing between HF and 6 meters, Although not verified, I've been told that the Yaesu FT-847 does have separate buffered key: ing lines for each of its four antenna ports, making interface to this amplifier easy. Performance figures for the amplifier are listed in Table 2 and the completed ampli- fier is shown in Fig 16. Enjoy! ‘Acknowledgements Thanks 10 Marv Gonsier, W6FR, and Roy Scanlon, NN7DX, for help in review- ing the text Notes TCIM, Macr Jr, WOIG, “The Percoids Power house" ST Oct 1558, p 32 2AM. Richardson, WAUCH. "A Kilowatt Ampi- Tier for 6 and 2'Meters." QS, une 1973, pit. ‘the surplus sockets have a builtin 0.005 yt (gidlscteen bypass capacitor. RF Parte has ‘mite supply of hese sockets. Substiuies include Johnson #124-0917-170 (wih a id Goll) and Eimae SKi800. “GL R. Jessop, 6d, VHETUHF Manual, ath ‘eaion, Herforsshife, England: lado Soct fy of Great Sain, 1963) Chapter 3. SEP. Titon, WIHDO, The Fado Amateurs ‘Vi Manual, Newington: ARAL, 1872) 977 "8, D. Straw, Ed. The 7099 ARAL Handook 7 lleningion: ARAL. 988), pp 6-40 and 6-47 7 Rhyers, WIFBY, The 1975 ARAL Hard. Book (Neinngion: ARAL, 1974), p46. Ft Mims Ill The Forrest Mims Engineer's ‘Notebook, (San Diego, Calflora: Hightext Publications ne, 1999) p 107 The 1999 ARFL Handbook. pp 22-53 through 2236, "01 Wie, G9SEK. Editor, The VHF/UHF OX ‘Book Vol 1 Fist Editon (Buckingham, En gland: Din Pusishing. 1982) p 15-35, NB Schelgen, KU7G. Ed. The 1999 ARAL ‘Handbook, (Newington: ARAL, 1992) pata, Fig $5. VHF/UHF Amplifiers 2-21Eun aa An 8-Watt, 2-Meter ‘Brickette’ Put 20 mW into this little amplifier and get a 26-dB increase in transmitted power! Although the amplifier was designed initially for use with the DSP-10 transceiver, any 20-mW-output 2-meter exciter can enjoy the boost! the DSP-10 transceiver’ can be used With UHF/microwave transverterso 8 very-QRP all-mode rig on 2-meters. The rig's 20-mW power output is suficient for ‘barefoot QSOs with locals, but that's hardly a big signal at any distance, Adding this litle amplifier inereases your fun quo- tient by raising the power level to 8 W, the high end of the RP plateau, This brickewe can also be used to drive an even higher= power, cascaded amplifier. Being a linear amplifier, it's suitable for use on all modes, including SSB, CW and FM. The amplifier's front panel is quite simple, consisting of five monitoring LEDs. Knowing that everything is working correctly justifies the small amount of cir caltty needed to operate these lights. The functions monitored include de power on, {ransmitieceive status, power output, SW and de overvaltage. Ail amplifier control is, done atthe transceiver, Two RF cables con- rect to the transceiver output and receiver input, avoiding the need for an input relay in the amplifier. ‘This amplifier isn't limited v0 use with the DSP-10; any 2-meter teansmitter that can deliver an output of 20 mW todrive the Amplifier should work Fine. In some cases, it might be desirable to use an input TR relay; there is sufficient room in the ampli- fier for adding one. Circuitry Acibe heart ofthis amplifier is an inte grated power-amplifier module, manufac- tured by Mitsubishi. Such modules are used in many commercially manufactured trans> Ceivers and using one here makes amplifier construction and alignment simple. Within the module are two cascaded linear-ampi ficr transistors, along with their associated 2-22 Chapter 2 ‘The five LEDs on the Brickette's front panel signal the amplifiers operating status. The power-oulput (RF OUT) and SWA (HIGH VSWR) LEDs vary in brightness depending on the forward and reflocted power levels, matching networks and biasing circuits for class AB operation. The module has 50-2 input and output impedances. All we need to-do is add a circuit to turn on the bias supply during transmit, install a low-pass filter Tor harmonic control and include an antenna-switching relay. To monitor am- plifier operation, we tack on some simple circuitry Refer tothe schematic in Figure I. Athe {input pin ofthe RF module, U1, we apply 20 mW of drive. Blocking capacitors for the RF and ouput ports ate included within the module. Bypass capacitors on the three power leads are extemal, however, Ferrite beads, L6 0 L8, prevent problems that might, occur if RF gets on the power leads ‘An L network consisting of Land C4 improves the impedance match t the sod tle, Adding the network increases the output power by about 0.25 dB. Following the am: plifier is a directional coupler (discussed later). Next is a five-pole low-pass filter. Forsimplicty,itisconfigured with the same coll and capacitor types as are used in the directional coupler. This filter attenuates the second and higher-order harmonies. Separate connectors are available on the DSP-10 for the transmitter output and the receiver input. This simplifies adding the antenna relay for the amplifier since no switching is requited at the amplifier input ‘A miniature relay is adequate atthe ampli fier output, Providing an isolation of about 30 4B, the relay, along withthe PIN attenu- ator that is part of the DSP-10, provides plenty of protection for the receiver ‘A lumped-element directional coup! consisting of 1.2, L3 and C5 to C10, deli ers power samples of the forward and reflected output signals. This directional coupler works quite well, providing a cou- pling of about ~28 dB and a directivity? of 20/ dB, but only over a narrow (12-MHz)buidvidih. For our application, this is ad- ate. Two diode detectors, built around fand D7, generate low-level de signals Ihatindicate the forward and reflected pow These signals, ia wen, are amplified by “Wwossections of op amp U2. The resulting oltages are displayed on two LEDs, green FF OUT (forward) power and red for HOH VSWR (reflected) power. The LEDs gee as ough indicators of proper ampli- ‘operation ‘Te OVERVOLTAGE indicator lights benthe de supply voltage exceeds 14.5 V, doesnot sutomaticlly shut down theam- “lifer. The idea here isto supply a warning ‘mechanism, When RF is not applied to the ier, its quite resistant to supply over- age. As long as the supply overvoliage don sets an alarm light, an observant “epetator will defer applying RF until the plage is reduced, Amplitier control is handled by the P10 That transceiver has sofiware- voles celay sequencing, providing 'V daring transmit. Q2 and Q3 drive the na relay from this control. A fertive od, LI, and C24 keep RF at the antenna lay fhom getting buck Into the control cie- ails D10 shunts the inductive kick from the ewtivsted relay coil. An LED, D2 (xMIT), ss the relay displays the amplifier TR vs ‘Qt provides an output that can contol a Bllow-on amplifier. This outputisan opea- lector, ground-on-transmit type, om le with many commercial and pebuiltampifiess For added driver-ie- aillprotetion, a reverse-voltage shunting ge, DI, is used ding the Amplifier ‘You could build the amplifier on a scrap board. Infact, my frst version is built wy (see the sidebar), For many build however, a PC board? is # more conve: eat way to assemble the project and that shown in the photos. ‘This PC board is double-sided, with aed aroogh holes, The backside isa solid pound plane allowing the boasd to be fas- directly to the aluminum enclosure. ‘construction works very well tor RF because « low-inductance ground jean be maintained throughout, reduc- ‘ny interactions between the various aits. However, this mounting method 5 not allow component leads to extend ad the bottom suzface of the board. 1 with this primarily by using surface: pount parts* and by carefully bending the gmponent leads so they behave like sur jount parts, All ofthe chip resistors, chip capacitors, surface-mount ICs and fertite-bead are soldered to their board pads con: mionally. Install the amplifier module the board is mounted in the box. The im relay, fuse clips and the variable stor all have their leads bent away from host. Avoid making any bends close to ‘component body; make the bends at a im about ss inch away from the compo: nent body, This approach eliminates ‘mechanical stress on the lead attachment, These components end wp about ‘ie inch above the board's top surface after they are soldered in place. Figure 2:shows the construction of the four toroidal inductors, L2 through LS, Ex- perience shows the inductor values are quite repeatable if the urns are always distributed in the same manner around the core. As the tums are pushed closer together, the induc tance inereases considerably. The matching network coi, LI, is noncrtieal and it showd ‘ye wound as shown inthe pat ist and Figure 2s it should need Wile, if any, adjustment The LEDs all have long leads an age sol- dered to the board after bending the lead ends by about inch. Be sure to keep track of the LEDs’ longer (anode) leads: Those leads jonnect to the current-imiting resistors. Putting the Board in a Box ‘Once the PC boatd is assembled, use it as @ template for marking the hole loca tionsin the enclosure, a standard Haramond die-cast box. Mount the board flat azainst the box bottom using #4-40 hardware. Be: cequse there will likely be some mold marks fand box-identification letters where the board and RF module lie, make the enclosure’s inner-bottom surface reason- ably flat: you can do this with 6D-grit sand- paper. Bend the leads of the five LEDs to apply a slight forward pressure on the lights as they slide into the holes in the box front That holds the LEDs in alignment without needing adhesive, Take care when tightening the PA mod. tale mounting serews to be sure tht no pres sure is applied to the ends of the module cover. The leals from the module need some trimming. They are above the board and need forming to yet to the board level for solder ing. Don’t apply pressure atthe edge of the module cover when doing this. You may nved to hold each lead with needle-nose phi erstokeep from damaging the eas. It should be possible for the leads to reach the board surface within ‘inch of the cover. Three short pieces of 30-2 coax attach the bourd to 11, J2and J3, Solder lugs under the jacks provide for ground connections at ‘one end and PC-boatil pads take care of the bother end of the coax. “Varee leads run between connectors J4. 35, and J6 and the PC board. Each ofthese leads hhas a bypass eupacitor (C28, Cb and C27, respectively) atthe connector. Short, low-in- ductance leads are important on these ‘capacitor. To help keep the RF signals inside the box, «small inductor wound on a ferite core (Li4, LIS and L16) is placed on each wire. Position these inductors close to their connectors If #22 of #24 stranded hook-up ‘wire with thin insulation is used, it’s possible to wind the coils with the hook-up wire, ‘Turning on the Amplifier Now, to see it work! First, connect 50-0 noninductive dummy Toad 10 the amplifier output. It you have a variable- voltage power supply to use for initial test ing, slowly raise the de supply voltage from OV t0 13.8 V, Otherwise, you'll need to rely fon the power-supply fuse as protection from ‘any serious constuction errors when apply | could just be used for both subcircuts —Bob Larkin, W7PUA ews aror/eatalog! Did the Amplifier Always Look Finished? No, tint, Some people may be abo to puta fnished amplifier ona PC board and have it work fine. | dont seem to be able to do that! 'My fist step in designing the amplifier was to search for suitable AF modules, mostly via the Internet. Once | selected the M5772L as having suitable power, gain and de ‘operating voltage, | drew a schematic in my notebook, Originally the circuit had automatic shutdown for high SWR and ful voltage regulation to deal with overvotago. This looked 00 Complex. Itwas necessary to cut ofthe dive to the amplifier, ana the regulator had to be 2 low-aroptt type (for these, the dfrence in vollage between the input and the output need be only a fraction of vot |couldn find an integrated regulator that met my require: ‘ments and the thought of ulding one using ep amos and transistors used more parts than "opted fo simplification, puting alarm lights on for SWR and overvoltage and wuned the ‘automatic part over to the operator! A new schematic resulted, not unlike that of Figure 1 | went to the ARAL Radio Designert and simulated the directional coupler and low-pass filter. litle playing around withthe simulation showed that a single inductor value could Next, | bul the “breadboard” version using scraps of PC board. Testing showed that ‘almast everyting worked as expected. The avervoltage light did not have snap action, though. That was caused by using a resistor where the ferile bead, L13, is now. Iran the Ingut voltage temporarily up to 16 V and everything continued to function. Next, I eft the ampli ransing for an hour and nothing overneated.| checked the intermodulation prod Lets and harmonics and four them fo Be at satistactoy levels T'was now time to layout the PC board. Tha experience of putting the breadboard together alowed a smarter final layout. The ist version was.on two boards and some of the connectors ended up on the front panel. This was all worked out for the fra design, ‘ARRL order no, 6798. ARAL publications are avaabe rom your loca desler, or deci Iomm the 'ARFIL See the AAAL Bookcase claewhere inthis seo eck outine ARFL Web sitet RUS VHF/UHF Amplifiers 2-23Pure 1—Schematic of the 8-W amp. Aivesisiors are 8% 1206 chips, These are JBalabie in small quantiies from Mouser clronics (Xicon). Uniess otherwise noted alleapactrs are either 1206 of 0808 chips size fits on the board). Capacitors ‘han 470 pF are NPO, while values fiom 470 pF and up are any general ose ceramic, such a X7A oF 25U eomponcnt sources isted here are rally only a few of Sevora that change the chip components to 8 Iypes. Component designations for LEDS dller from OST aiyle, Parte used Jim ami are available from one oF ofthe following sources. Source pbrevations weed inthe parts fist precede eompany name: (DK) Digi-Key Corp, Brooks Ave &, Thiel River Fas, MN Ye B00-38i-4599, 278-887-8675) rww.digikey com: (ME) Mouser ronics, 958 N Main, Mansfiod, TX "el 800-346-6873, 817-485-4472, :Iieww.mouser.com: (RS) hack—see your local distributer jw-radioshack.com: (FP) HF s, 435 South Pacific Si, San Marcos, 92063; tel 800-737-2787, 760-744 MO; bitp:/lwaw.rtparis.com. uF, 16 V surface-mount uectratnic (DK PCE30390") ‘C27, C28—470 pF, 50 V, leaded ihramic (ME 140-50P2-471K) j-Vellow 73 LED [DKIG0-1079) ,03—Green T1 LED (OK 160-1080) 'D5—Red T1 LED (OK 160-1078) 07, be, DI0—BAR74 diode (DK BARPAZXCT) EA, 50-V power rection, SMC package (DK SSACDICT) 100-V power ‘ectitier, SMB. pickags (OK S1850ICT) SPOT 12-V de miniature relay, (Omron G5V-1-DC12 (OK 2774) Zi, #20 oF 22, Vinch ID: see 3, B2 nH; § turns, #26 enameled ona T-28-17 tara eae Figure 3 17,9. L10, L11, Lid—Ferrite SMT 1206, 600 «i at 100 Mz, Stomart idogsR01R (OK 240-1019-1) L2—Ferrite SMT bead, 3 A, 1206, 0.0 at 100 MHz, Stewart IN2OGN OIA {DK 240-1008-1) 144.16 —1.5 wH, 5 turns #22 or #24 Wire on an FT-23-43 core; text '5:20-mm fuse (OK F948) with @ clips (DK F058) 1.38, Jé-—Phono Jacks (RS 274-346) BBTENC jack (RS 278-105) 5.&-mm OD, 2.1-mm 1D power lor (RS 2741563) (03—FMMT3906 PNP transistor, {DK FAMMT3905CT) Qi FMMIT3904 NPN wansistor, 23 (OK FMMT3g04CT} 2 vc1 adjustable resistar, Bouns 1-202 (DK3329H-203) BF amplifies module, Mitsubishi ISAL, (AP MSTTSCL) -4AM dual op-amp (OK ia) RLOS 5-4 postive regulator, SO-8 e (OK EM TaLOSAGM) oard, enclogure 3.7%4,7 «1.9 ‘Hammond 158088 (DK HH), ye Eigure 2—Geil detals, ange the turns an the fquc toraids ae chown Reve, L2 and LS ‘might need to have iheir turns spacing adjusted duting tune-up. 8-W Bechate Power Ou (Hand Curent (A) Powae (som) Figure 4&—Measured intermodulation distortion with a PEP output of 8 W. Third-order products are down about 28 dB from peak power, larly typical of this amplifier type, Peraps more impor- tant fe that the fits and higher-order products continue to drop off as the order Increases. These higher-order products are farther trom the operating frequency ‘and thus generally more discuptive to Nearby stations. The current Grawn duting this two-tone teat was 870 mA, Figure $—Measured power output and de-supply current as a function of drive power. [Notice thatthe output power scale isnot in decibels. This makos the output appear less ‘compressed than it Teall is. The 1-48 compression point is at about & W. ing the full 13.8 V. At full voltage, the cur rent drawn by the amplifier during receive Should he about 10 mA. Next, set the OVER- VOLTAGE alarm, Adjust the voltage at the “wiper terminal of RUS to4.68 VS UE yauean vary the de supply voltage, the OVERVOLT- AGE LED should light at about 14.5 V. ‘When making the following adjustments, itis necessary wo adjust the turns spacing on Yhe voroidal inductors, For safery, do this only when no RF drive is applied. Connect the TR control to the DSP-10 and connect J1, the amplifier's RF input, 0 the DSP- 1antenra connector. In CW mode, increase the DSP.10's RF power slowly un til he RF OUT LED (D3) glows. Then adjust ‘he vars spacing on 2 and 3 toestingstsh the HIGH VSWR light (D4). This indicator is bout 10 times miore sensitive than the RF OUT LED, but ir should be possible wrextin auish the HIGH VSWR LED completely, Continue mis adjustmem process white in creasing the drive power. You can measure the voltage athe output ofthe SWR opampland a kludge area is Visible at the ower right clearly labeled, (U2 pin 14) and continue to minimize this voltage, although the VSWR LED is not lit. Optimize the amplifier matching by mea suring the power ouipuras indicated by the de voltage at U2 pin 7 and adjusting L.1°s turn spacing (and peshaps changing the value of C4) for maximum output at high drive. Don't expect major changes with these adjustments a the amplifier is inherently quite well itched. While in transmit, check that the bias voltage at pin 3 of Ul is about 4.9 V and that the idling current with no RF drive ap- 2:26 Chapter 2 Ta Avan) rally outside and prety inside, the Bokate's constuction ralcis a caring hand At the top-left rear the AF-ampitier module can be seen fastened to the base enclosure, which serves as a heat sik for the module. T olay is at tho upger-tight behind the front pane! plied is about 140 ma, Performance Figure 3 shows the power ouypat and current level for various drive levels, The CW output is over 8 W forthe two devices that I tested. When tested mith & two-t0n inpot signal and an output of 8 W PEP, the IMD level is down 28 dB for third-order products and 43 dB for fitrorder products {see Figure 4), The stroagest harmoaie is the second (at about 292 MHz) and this is {65 dB down from peak output, more than ‘enoiigh to meet FCC 2002 requirements.” Concluding Thoughts ‘Severdl areas on the PC board have ci- ther a ground plane section or pads for mounting transistors, resistors and other Preacae Thnee nes web 10 use for modifications or additions to the ample (perhaps you nave an appl ‘cation that needs an input TR relay or you need a different control circuit), ‘Now you're ready to get on the air with a medium-sized signal. You can increase power even further by cascading another amplifier. Or, use some of the signal pro- ‘cessing In the DSP-10 to work deeper into thenvise. QRP power levels have pushed the ea of "working smarter instead of harder.” Notes B00 Lathe, W7PUA, “The DSP-10: An AlLMode ‘BMeter Transceiver Using a DSP IF and Bo-Genvolieg Front Penel” OST. Party, ‘Sept 1W9B, pp 33-41, Part 2, Oct 1999, 34° 49, Part & Nov 1869. pp 42-45. Adctonal Intormation on that jects avaliable on he fauihors. Web "ste, hitp:/www.proaxls. ‘com/-Boblavaspt0.ntm. Any future infor iM amplifier projet wil Be ‘maton Pineda ie Woo ste drectivily ol & couplers the ctteronce in decibels, Belwoen the forward signal and ihe {aflecied signal, wnen the coupler is properly lerminated ints designed load, in tis cave 50.0 Couplers constructed from Iransmis: ion lines have high dectvty aver a very ‘wide frequency range, These lumped ele ment coupler aro restricted in he Irequency vahere thet soltion Is high, but oer impiety insted. gerber thes fr making the PC board can be cbained tom the author Aeratvely ‘Snoop ards are available fom Mashel| Electric, PO Box 5, Eatonville, WA 198528, Price: $20 each in'the US, $31 in Ganada {alr mail) and $22.50 (air mai) else ‘where. These boards have plated through Dales, a solder mask on the component side {and asikesereened legend. Check thei Web ‘50 hitpslimembers.20l.comw7sIb/w7sIb, Frm for detals ‘t3ee Sam Ulbing, NAUAU, “Surface Mount “Toohnology-—You Can Work wt it, OS7— Part 1, Aor 1999, pp 89-09; —Part 2, May 11999, pp 48-50; Part a. Jun 1999, pp 4-98 fart, pp.38-41.Adcional coments rom ‘Avery Davis, WBARTP, can be found in the ‘QSt"Teermical Correspondence, Fed 2000, £870. Surlace-mount techniques are used fo1 {fhe DEP-10 tranecelver Some peope were Ina conceres aout seaing wih ra try Compenents, but aller constructingthe boar ‘ost bulisers fl hat it went wel ®Kealisfactory dummy oad to" 144 Miz can be Do nor use wre-wound resistors. the OVERVOLTAGE alarm tnggers when the ‘ds supaly voliago ts greater than 14°5V. an fagjustable dc supply avaliable, you can set the directly. Ateratwely. set the vollage at the wiper of R15 to 0.360%(V ~ 0.6), where V Isithe de supaly voltage AUarry Pree, WARA, and Paul Rinaldo, WF, "WARCO7, An Amatour Facio Perspective,” sr, Feb 1898, pp 31-24. By these fules, an 8.W 2-moler trahsmitier must suppress the harmonics by atieast'52¢B, Greate’ arounts ‘of suppression are required fr higher power tevels903-MHz Linear Amplifiers Part 1—Looking for a gain block or two for your 903-MHz station? Here are eleven of them to cover just about any need you may have, from a simple receiving preamplifier to one with 23 dB is et fitter Radio band 002 928 MH2) is becoming well populated le many areas of the country. Propagation (0833 em has traits similar to both 432 MHz tnd 1296 MHz, but has charucteristics all Higown at times, making ita very interest fing band. I°s pleasantly surprising what youean do with a few watts on 903 Mia, With high-gain loop-Yagi antennas. ‘Aricles have been published on trans- verters, amplifiers and receivers for 33 em. Vescribed a 759-MHz local oscillator! intenced to be used with a 144-MHz IF for ‘speration on 903 MHL. If you've built the Agassi section of a transverter that gets youto the 10-mW level, o if you've pur- hased a commercial transverter such as Down East Microwave"s low-power, no: {wpe unit? you'll ned to bring your trans tiller power up (0 a usable level, Instead af showing a typical transmit-amplifier thain, many of which have been described it Amateur Radio literature, | will discuss leven diferent gain blocks, for several Giferent gains and power levels, in. this two-part series. suggest that you build each amplifier {its own enclosure, rather than trying to build more than one amplitier in one box to eliminate connectors ot reduce size, If you ate building your own equipment, you Dpobably aren't ton concerned about size ‘and compactness, and! having separate en- losures makes for much easier tuning and troubleshooting. Many transistors used in 1296-MIlz projects are suitable for use at 93 MHiz; some even have more gain at 903, ‘Transistors with SD prefixes used in the following designs are manufactured by 8GS-Thomson Microelectronics.’ Some of these ransistors don't operate at 12 V. gain and over 4 W output! uke ‘Again, in building your own equipment, this shouldn't be a major problem. Gains listed are averages for several different de~ vices tried. All of the amplitiers can be driven harder than indicated—for CW or FM operation only—but should be used at ‘or below their rated power output for SSB work, All the designs can be used at lower power output: they are al linexs annpliiers Construction Allof the amplifiers are built using simi- lar techniques. Each design uses common ‘hv-inch-thick, G-10, double-sided, fiber- sglass-epoxy PC boatd for the microstrip circuitry. The ground: plane side of each PC board is unerched, The microstrip boards can be mate using what I call the “X-ACTO®-etch" ‘method. This involves using apiece of cleat tape as the resist, (Four-inch-wide clear tape is available at stationery stores.) After drawing the pattern on the board with a pencil of fine-tipped marker, cover it on ‘oi sides with clear tape and cut the pats term in the tape with an X-ACTO knife ‘Then, remove the tape from the areas to be etched and etch the boards in ferric chlo- Fide ina ezock pot on low heat. Do this ina well-ventilated area! Etching takes about half an hour without agitation. The crock 2 no-mess way t9 etch boards. Only 6 80 of ferric-chloride solution is needed. OF course, you can also use a pho- tographie method to make bowrds, a8 bdo for multiple or complicated boards Alier the PC boat is etehed, clean it With stel wool and dit ales at al d= and RF-zround points using a 80. $0 drill. No holes are needed for component leads, as all components are mounted on the micto strip side of each PC board. RF grounds rust be located us close 10 the areas to be stounded as possible. 0 ensure low inde tance ground paths. There are at least (0 ways to-do this, One isto install rivet in ench hole, flare it with an awl or ice pick, then flatten it by tapping with a small VHF/UHF Amplifiers 2-27Mouser (part no. 24AA071), Fg 1—Schematic of he SD1990 receive preampifier/iow-level varsmit stage. RECT and ICE consist of & tums of no. 24 enam wire closewound on a 0.1-ineh-ID form (such as .0.t.inch dill. D1 is @ 8.1-V."ieW Zener, Gt, a 12.5-PF trimmer, is available from Fig 2—Amplifier No. 1, @ 10-mW-output stage that's well suited to receiving applications, in prototype form Pesce 2-28 Chapter 2 hammer on an anvil or other hard surface. Then, solder the rivets on both sides of the PC board. Alternatively, pieces of bus wire cean be used for grounding, Because paris placement is quite straightforward, I haven't provided parts placement drawings for all of the designs. ‘The schematics and PC-board artwork should provide all the guidance you'll need toassemble the boards. Lean help with any questions that you might have when build: ing any of the amplifiers All of the amplifiers described, except those operating under the 300-mW level, require some heat sinking. A small brass sheet is sufficient for the studded parts, but finned heat sink an inch oF two square is needed for the flanged-device amplifiers. Fig 3—Fullscale PC-board artwork for the 10¢mw SD1930 ampltier. Black areas represent uneiched copperfol. all parts fre mounted on the fol side of the boar Crop the finished boards as necessary. ‘Thermally conductive compound is re- quired between the devices and their heat sinks. Forstudless devices, a small piece of brass shim stock soldered from the bottom of the device to the ground-plane side of the PC board should work fine ‘Anteasy way to enclose an amplifier like those described is to make a housing using double-sided PC board or brass. sheet for the four walls and bottom cover. The amplifier PC board makes the top cover. Input and output connectors (N, BNC or SMA) can be bolted or soldered to the end walls with their center pins soldered directly to the microstrip input/output lines in an end-launch configuration, When using PC-board material for housings, ‘mouat the side walls in such a way that the {grounding is contisuous from the connec tors to the ground-plane side of the ampli fier board, ‘Various die-cast aluminum boxes, such as Bud CU-123 and CU-I24 and the Hammond 1590 series, also work great Yor enclosing these designs. Die-cast boxes usually provide sufficient heat siaking for amplifiers operating at less than 2 W out put. Device studs or flanges should be attached directly to the boxes in these ceases, All component leads must be kept as short as possible. This also applies to trim- ‘mer caps. Mount them flush to the PC board 0 that they act as eapacitors—not as actorlcapacitor combinations. Use mul- tiple rivets (or bus wires) to ground the immers. Components Use ceramic chip capacitors for the de blocks and high-frequency bypassing Some of the arger-value bypass capacitors, like 0.001 uF and 0.01 uF, are available in chip form also. These epoxy types are good for all the designs described here. 1 use inexpensive chip caps from Mouser Elec ttonies.* Chip caps and Johanson piston trimmers are available from Microwave Components of Michigan.’ Transistors are available from RF Parts® and RF Gain, Ltd? Components, rivets and PC boards are available from Frontier Microwave.® Tune-Up Tn most ofthese amplifiers, the aie centclecorcurent Ty pintaly wil hane febecheckedand set with dive applied To check bas eure disconneet the coldendof the colceor choke and insert miliammeter in eres with the choke Agus by changing he vale ofthe Collectorbey feist or by changing the sellestorvalge, All ampli eaurag 12'V ean be powered dreuly fom lowe chirent .V te oures ance terial 12.V regulator for example) amples Tanningon -i8V dcor2 1-2 Wav canbe powered by an LAISITT (os LMAI7I) a ite veer: Se he regulate volt de toa nimurm and ej upward irom simu whe monitoring ling collector curren canbe aujsted' 10 sut Your gan an power-onpa equtementsvalues of eo 1,000. 500 Inout weut Hoy TUNE in microfarads (uF): others ore in picoforads ( pF) resistances ore in ohms; ot £8 pacitance are Rec2 ourpur tune 7°? cr | thio ue +I2V oo hb ef] 20, ahi Output sesigns (sce text). Gt, C2--12.5-pF trimmer, Mouser no. 24AA071 C7—-0.01-uF aise ceramic. BI 9.1. vcW Zener, a ee Peso] Ls men —el Fig 5—Full-scale PC-board network for the 100- and 250-mW amplifiers. Black areas Tepresent unetched copper fol. Al parts are mounted on the fal side of the boat. Amplifier No. 1: A Re‘ Preamplifier or 10-mW-Output, 18-48-Gain Transmit Stage The amplifier shown in Figs | and 2 is f fow-pomes stage using an SD1330, Motorola MRE9O1 or NEC NE64535. This ‘age is best suited to the receiving side of fatransverter. With a noise figure (NF) of 24B, it makes « fine front end by itself With'a good, low-noise GaASFET pream plifier in front of it, you'll have all the sen- ity you need in front of the receive mnixer. ‘For transmitting applications, Where a low noise figure isn’t important, an MMIC amplifier would be better be fenuse it isa lot easier to build forthe same tesalts "The SD1330 amplifier is built on 0-10 double sided board: the artwork appears in Fig 3. After etching the board, install rivets atthe RF and de grounds. To mount the device, dill a hole in the PC board the size of Q1's muacro-X case. This allows all four Teads to be soldered o the microstrip with- ‘out bending them. ‘The idling current for this amplifier should be set to 5 mA or less for good noise figure. The idling currents kept constant for different transistors and over different voltages and temperatures by current-lim- iting resistors RI and R2 and Zener diode DI. Tune the input tcimmer for best NF oF ‘maximum gain if an NF-measurement setup isa’t available. Amplifier No. 2: 10 mW In, 100 mW. Out ‘The SD1333 transistor, a macto-X plas- Fg 4—Schematic of the 801333 and SP 1959 amplifiers (Ampilirs No, 2 and No. 8) All components except Qi are common to bath REC1, RFO3—8 turns of no. 24 eam Wire! 0.1 inch ID, closewound tic-packaged device used in this design, delivers 100-125 mW. This device is capable of a feasonable noise figure (2-3 ‘dB) and good dynamic range, which allows ito be used as a second stage (following 2 GaASFET preamplifier) in a receiving system, (Motorola's BFR96/MRP961/ MRF962 also work well i this circuits the BFR96 has slightly less pain.) Fig 4 shows, the amplifier Schematic and Fig 5 shows the full-scale artwork. Zener-diode bias is used for simplicity and some temperature compensation, Set the quiescent current to 40-50 mA (not critical) by varying RI. A pot can be used initially, then the pot can be replaced by 3 fixed-value resistor. Or the collector volt- age can be varied slightly. ‘After the rivets are installed in the PC ‘voard, drill a hole the diameter of QU's molded package i the PC board, Moust the device in the board so its unbent leads are soldered directly to the microstrip board. Use the small variable capacitors 0 tune for maximum gain, Amplifier No. 3: 9 dB Gain, 250 mW Out ‘This unit isa slightly higher-power ver~ sion of the previous amplifier, using an 'SD1359 or Motorola TRF5S9 plastic-pack- ‘aged device. The artwork and schematic are identical to that of Amplifier No. 2 Tuling carseat, 40-50 mA, ean be optimized by adjusting the collector supply between 10 and 13 V to set the stage gain. After the PC-board rivets are installed, drill a hole in the PC board to accept Ql “Mount the device in the board so its unbent leads are soldered directly tothe microstrip board. Tuning is as discussed with Amp fier No. 2. VHF/UHF Amplifiers 2.29Spat trom Tranemit ch Fig 6—Schematic of the MSA 0204/MC5809L ampli. C7, C9—100-pF chip. FL1—Two-stage Toko helical fiter (Digi- C8, C10—0.01-nF ceramic cise Key no. TK23318). Fig 7—The 200-mW-output MSA 0204/MC5809L amples. In this prototype, | used ASA, 0304 stages before and alter the helical fiter to provide addiional gain. The biasig components (the 7808 and associated parts) are mounted on the Outside of the fenclosure for convenience. bet amen ol Fig 8—Fulreeale PO-board artwork for the 200-mW ampliir, Black areas represent lnetched capper fol 2-30 Chapter 2 FFC1—8 turns of no. 24 enam wire, 0.1 ineh 1D, closeweund RFC2—1-uH molded choke, Amplifier No.4:0.8 mW In, 200 mW Out "The amplifier shown in Figs 6 and 7 isa high-gain unit that can be used to follow the ouiput of your 903-MHz transmit mixer, An Avantek MSA 0204 or Mini Circuits MAR-2 MMIC is used for the firs stage, followed by 2 Toko two-stage hel 10° (In the prototype amplifier 7, Lused two MMIC stages, ia addition to the helical filter, before the final stage.) The output stage fs an NEC MCSKOOL thick-film hybrid module. This NEC hybrid module is one of four such ‘units intended for hand-held cellular telex ‘phones operating in the 800- to 960:MHe range. The MC5809-series amplifiers are sated 3 150 mW minimum power output & 78 V do. Using a more readily available Power source (a 7808 regulator), the NES8O9s T tried were linear at over 200 ‘mW output. These hybrid amps are easy use and are stable into any load, ‘The full-scale PC-board artwork ii shown in Fig 8, The helical filter is usel between stages to clean up the transmitter signal by filtering out the local-oscilltor and image frequencies, but isn’t required for applications where such filtering is ddone in other stages. A three-stage Tokw filter! will also fiton the board, at couk be used for better filtering, The filter Yeas are bent 0 the side toallow soldering tothe PCboard traces. See Fig 9 for parts place: ‘ment, ‘This amplifier is easy to build and get working. Because both active stages andthe filter ste designed for 50 Q in and out, the amplifier uses 50.0 microstrip throughout No trimmer capacitors are needed and ma bias adjustments are necessary—just apply the de voltages and the drive signal, ant peak the helical Filter for maximum power ‘output at 903 MHz! Because more gain is available fromthis design than I needed, I tried mixing two signals atthe input ofthe frst stage. Using a Teonneetion atthe input of the frst tage,used the circuit to mix a 759-MHz loca} ‘oscillator with a 144-MHz IF signal. The 903-Mitz output signal was about 175 mW and was fairly clean. Using MMIC ampli- {ees for gain blocks, almost anything can be used! as a miner! Amplitier No. 5: 35 mW in, 350. mW ‘Out ‘The amplifier shown in Fig 10s pract- tally simple 8 an MMIC amplifier. The teamistor, st SDIS9S, produces more than 350 mW ouput when mounted in a 50-2 Tine. The SD1598 (originally another part fumber) was designed by Bill Olson, WSHGT, years ago, when he was ere ployed By Solid State Microwave (now $8toomson Micrelecroie). Ive ted this ansistor, which I refer to as a hot 2N3866." in amplifies and frequency snllipliers at frequencies from Ii MHz 103.3 GHz. The SD1S98 is in a studded package and the SDIS9¥-1 is studless kage; either style i suitable For se at Mz. 1've bul wosstage SD1398 am- pifies with 30.2 ines that work Foon 400- 1300 Miz. Such a two-stage amplifier fits tively intoa 1,5 «3.6% 1-inch Bud CU-123 the-cast box. Gain is 10 dB per stage at 903 Mis and 8-9 dB per stage at 1296 MHz 'PC-hoard artwork isn't necessary for this amplifier, as the S0-Qine can bee liymade ona piece of G-10 PC board wing an X-ACTO keife and a stright edge. A $0 lie on 0-10 PC board is about 0.1 DAV inches wide, After cutting the edges af the 50-2 line, cut another line about & fearer inch from, and parallel to, the 50-2 Tine on each side ofthe 50-0 line, Using & slering iron, heat the quarterinch-wide fips between the 50-02line and the outer sections and remove them with the knife or A needle-nose pliers. Leave some copper ftir the transistor for connecting. Ql's emitter feads to the microstripline. Drifla hole im the board for the transis tor such thatthe leads of the transis can be soldered flush vo the microstripline and ‘round folls. This is important: Excessive Tead lengths drastically reduce the gain of this amplifier. Auach a small heat sink to the stud vf the device, The SD1598 can be powered by a 12-t0 J8-V supply, depending on the gain and power output required. Use an LM317T ‘voltage regulator in the power supply, and vary the voltage to set the gain of this Jowlevel stage. This is an easy way 00 match the drive levels needed by the fol Towing stages. Set QI's quiescent current, fy, to 30- 50 mA. Vary RI to get the correet idling current. This bias current is not critical, and depends on the device and the collec {or voltage used. Tune up is simple: Adjust C8 for maximum power output. Amplifier No. 6: 100 mW In, 1 W Out A pair of SDIS98s and a Wilkinson power divider/combiner combination are used in this design, ‘The schematic for the combined amplifier is shown in Fig 1, and tWie PC-board artwork is shown in Fig 12.1 didn’t make an effor ta terminate the 75-2 Wilkinson divider/combiner; the amplitiec works fine as is, Power sharing between the two devices is excellent, and a 3-dB improvement in power output is available ‘over a single device, Saturated power ovt- put Is well over LW. ‘The supply voltage and idling currents are the same as single-device Amplifier ives ouipe Rivets Fig 9—Parts-placement diagram tor the 200-mW amplier. All parts are mounted on ‘he fol side ofthe board, Note the locations o! rivets. At each Vq. lead on the MCSBOOL, (pins and 9), installa 100:pF chip capacior and a 0.01-iF st 10 ensure proper bypassing. Fg 10—The 960-mW ampiifer, Glue D1 to Q's ceramic body for thermal composition ©5-0.001-uF feedthrough, 630.5. 10 8-pF Johanson piston immer DI—1Na001 ai—s01598. RI—T5-18 ko,‘ W. FCI, RFO2—8 tums of no. 26 enam wire, closewound, 0.1 inch ID. VHF/UHF Amplifiers 2-31Fig 11—The 2x 801598 ampilier Glue Dt to Q2's ceramic body for thermal composition. RFC1, RFC3~8 turns of no. 26 enarn (68, 09—0.6- to 8-pF Jonanson piston 1, a2—sp1598. ‘immer. RT5.6 ke, is W Wire, closewound, 0.1 inch ID. Di indo. Ls men —e] Fig 12—Full'scale PC-boars artwork for the bx Sb1906 ampli, Black areas = mz represent unetebod copber oh Kf Phe p19 sr898- Fig 13—The 600-mW broadoand amplifier, For power levels over 500 mW oU%paa, glue Di to T's ceramic body for thermal compensation. RFC! and RFC2 are implemented as PC-board traces, Q1—S01596 or $01598-1 RFC3—8 tums of no. 28 enam wire, 21-25—Microstriplines. See text and Fig R2—15-18 ki, Ye W ‘closewound, 0-1 inch ID, 14 2-82 Chapter 2No.5 (Fig 10). this amplifier is mounted ina diecast box, no additional heat sink- | Fi9,14—Full-scale PC-board pattern Ey : , for the broadband 500-mW 861598. fg is required: if not, a small heat sink | fC the broadband £00 should be attached to the stud of each | anewned eceperion eee bes ncn —o device. Adjust C8 and C9 for maximum {ower output. Amplifier No.7: 1248 Gain, 500mW ‘out he amplifier shown in Fig 13 is @ Iyoadbant design that’s been around for about 6 yeus, Bill Olson, W3HQT, de Signed its 2 1296-MHz amplifier, (The TQVEMHz version differs in that it has a ‘cull piston timaner onthe output circuit, about an inch from Qi's ceramic cap.) Thisamplifierisavery versatile desten: At works from 900-1300 MHz and fas a Bower gain of 10-13 dB over this range. | Balto test amplifiers forthis design: one forthe studded transistor and one forthe Minged version, Over a dozen diferent evices were tried in these test circuits, banat90s Mand t 1296 Mik. Classes LAB, C and pulsed-class-C operation tee al ried, and all worked wel, The studded SD159% Is used in this de- sign. Fll-sale anwork appeats in Fig 14: Rig 1s shows parts placement, As withthe tier designs, rivets ate used at all de and IRF prounds. After the rivets are soldered Inplace, drill a hole in the board for the s#ur Aevice. Trim QI's leads with scissor, then solder them directly tothe microstiplnes fd ground foils Ifthe amplifier isto be ppounied in a die-cast box, the box will st Irovide suficient heat sinking. Ifyou use another mounting method, atach a small 4g Pans placement dagram for the broadband 500-mW SD1599 ampli, The PC- feat sink to Q's stud okra odgos ao nat chown Ai somporents are mountod ono fol sige Ot the FC boara Power output for SSB is $00 mW, and (except those mounted to tho encosur}. H sotsee, s01590-7 ia iid ea Fig 16—The two-stage, 1-W SD1598 amplifier. Glue D1 to Q2’s ceramic body for thermal compensation. 10—0.001-nF feeathrough. ‘Q1—$01598 or SD-1598-1 RFC1-RFCS—8 tums af no. 24 enam wire, G11, C1306 to 8-pF Jonanson piston G2, Q9-S01596, ‘losewound, 0.1 Inch 1. immer RQ, RG—1.5-1.6 KO, Ye W. VHF/UHF Amplifiers 2-33Fig 17—Full-scale PC-boara pattern forthe two-stage, 1-W SD1598 amplifier. Black afeas represent unetched copper fol up to 1 W for CW and FM, depending on the device. In applications where the device will deliver over 500 mW, a IN4OOL (Dl) diode can be glued to QI for thermal Stabilization, as shown pictorially in Fig 15, Power gain at 1 W output is 7 4B or so By varying R2, set QU's la. for 30-50 mA for power levels up to 500 mW, and 15-20 mA for higher levels. For low-level stages (upto 200mW out), you can use the SDI398-1 studless part in this circuit, Solder the studless device 10 the mierostrip, then solder a piece of hobby brass to the device's gold-plated bottom area and (othe ground plane. This provides enough heat sinking to dissipate a few hun= dred milliwauts, ‘AL 903 MHz, no output trimmer capaci tor is required, Some improvement in the ‘output match can be achieved by trimming the width of the output line by a few thou: sandths of an inch with an X-ACTO knife 2-34 Chapter 2 Amplifier No, 8: 10 mW In, 1 W Out A second L-watt amplifier, this one using a pair of SD1598's driven by a single SD 1598, is shown in Fig 16, This design is Similar to that of Amplifier No.6, withthe audition of @ driver stage. The artwork appears in Fig U7. For the driver transistor, you can use an SDI59B-I studless device, as QI must pro vide only a hundred milliwatts or 3 The river is mounted in a hole in the PC boatd. ‘A small piece of brass shim stock is sol ‘dered tothe bottom of the device and to the _ground-plane side of the PC board for heat Sinking. ‘This amplifier runs on 14-18 V de. The idling current for each device is around 30+ 50 mA. Again, the supply voltage can be provided by an LM317T regulator. Adjust 2 and R3 to individually set each device's idling current. Then, tune the amplifier by adjusting C11, C12 and C13 for maximum ‘output. Vary the supply voltage to optimize the required power output oF gain. ‘The 2.4 x 4.4 x I-inch Bud CU-124, or an equivalent die-cast box, isa suitable en ‘lostie for this amplifier. Mount the con: rectors on the ends of the box, and place the amplifier PC board inside the box bod instead of on the inside of the cover. The box provides sufficient heat sinking for this amplifier Next month, H'Il describe three more 903-MH2 linear amplifiers, including two 4-W nits Notes 1D, Mascaro"A 759-Miiz Local Oscillator” ‘QEX, May 1988, pp 12-15 2Noctune iransverers, 28 well as antennas and microwave companens, are avaiable from Bown East Microwave, Box 2310,AR 1, Toy. Me 04987, tol 207-948-9741. Catalog aval. ble tthe. amplliers, inthis arcle use tans: isles manufactured by SGS-Thornson Micro: elections, 211) Commerce Dr Monigomeryuile, PA 18936, te! 215-362 S00, “Mouser Electronics, 2401 Hwy 287_N, Manslielg, TX. 76069, tel 617%409.4422 Catalog avaliable Snticrowave Components of Michigan, 17141 Merriman, Romulus, MI 48174, evening tt Bts-783-4s04" Parts Ist avaiable “FF Parts, 1320 Grand Avo, San Marcos, CA ‘32000, fal @19-744°0728, TGS-Thomson Microelectronics. transistors ‘fe avaiable through. RF Gain Lid, 100 Merrick Rg, Rockvile Center, NY 11570, te '800-645.222. $50 minimum order. “Frontier Microwave, AD 1. Box 467, Mink Ad, Gitsuile, PA 18942, evening tel 218-795- 2508) 80, Mascaro, “A Transverter Band-Switci bisplay and Universal Power Supply” QEX: Aug 1987, pp B14 ‘available from DigiKey Corp, 701 Brooks ‘Ave South, PO Box 677, Thiel Fiver Fal, {ht 50701°0677, tel 800:344-4599. Catalog available, 11 Toko fits and other components are avait lable rom Stave Kost, NECE!, Box 341A, BD 1, Frenchtown, NJ 08625, evening tel 201-096:3568. Paris ist avalablePaine 903-MHz Linear Amplifiers Part 2—Did you like the projects in Part 1? Here are three more amplifiers to suit your 903-MHz, 50-ohm gain-biock needs. From QST, July 1990 a Part 1. I covered construct for building the 903-MH. line 1s cescribed in this twopart aS CI fmplitiers described this'month cover @ aber power range than those in Part |, ulput design and fin- ir of 4-W output units cane the other with 23 dB gain). fet =a Amplitier No. 9: 100 mW In, 2 W Out The transistor used in this amplifies, an SDIES3, is a class-A device in a “strip The PC-board st andthe schematic Fig 18—Fullscale PC-board pattern for the 2-W SD1853 amplifier. Black aroas parts-placement yapresent unelched copper fo Har —29 op Fig 19—Tho 2.W S01853 amplifier. AFCT and RFC2 are implemented as PO-board wraces, (10, C11—0.3- 10 3-pF Johanson piston Qt—SD1853. 21-25—Microstriplines. See ‘einer. i230, 1 W. vex and Fig 18. DI INE747A 20-V, 1-W Zener, C38 tins of no. 26 enam wire, ‘elosewound, 0.1" 1D. VHF/UHF Amplifiers 2-35{are not shown. All components are mounted on the trace side of the PC board (except ‘those mounted to the enclosure). Fig 20—Pans-placement diagram for the 2-W SD1859 ampliier. The PC-board edges diagram is shown in Fig 20, and a photo of my prototype appears in Fig 21. ‘After the board is etched and rivets are installed, cut a hole and file its edges 10 accept QI's flange. The SDI853 must be ‘ounted to a heat sink. (A Bud CU-124 or equivalent die-cast box is adequate.) Use a piece of G-10 PC board between the ampli fier board and the heat sink, to allow the device to be mounted flush to the ‘microstrip. The device flange is the emit ter, and a low-inductance ground connec- tion is a mist. Make this connection by using a piece of copper-foil tape soldered to the microstrip ground plane and placed between QI’s flange and the heat sink Mount the transistor to the heat sink with no. 4-40 serews. Use heat-sink compound between QI and the heat sink ‘An LM3I7T (or LM317K) adjustable regulator can be wsed to supply the voltage required by this amplifier. Use a 10-turn pot for the ADJUST control; smooth idjustment of the supply voltage to this amplifier is a must. Insert a milliammeter in series with current-limiting resistor Rl, and slowly adjust the regulator oetput up from minimum until the idling curzent is 200-225 ma without RF drive applied. The ‘exact supply voltage depends on the beta of Fig 22 (bolow)—The 4-W, 2 x SD1853 ‘ampiicr (C4.C6—0.5- to 3-pF Johanson piston trimmer. DI-“IN4747A 20-V, 1-W Zener. 1, a2—satesa, Rin23 at W. RFC1, RFG2—8 tums of no. 26 enam wire, closewound, 0.1” ID. 21-25—Microstriplines, See text and Fig 23 2:36 Chapter 2ig 23—Pans-placement digram for the 2 x SD1853 amplifier. The PC-board edges are fal shown. Al components mount fo the trace side of the PC board (except thos fmounted to the enclosure). Ql. the value of RI, and DI°s breakdown voltage. Idling current can be adjusted slighily to optimize gain and/or power out- put. The supply voltage must be removed during receive to minimize device heating. ‘Tune-up is simple. Apply drive and tune C10 and C11 alternately for maximum power output. I'you have access to areturn: Toss bridge or network analyzer, you may ‘want to trim the width of Z2 to improve the input return loss. Verify stability (as indi- cated by no output and no change in supply current) by tuning the trimmers through their ranges with no input signal applied. ‘Amplifier No. 10: 200 mW In, 4 W Out This high-gain design consists of a pair of SDI8S3s combined in a Wilkinson powerdivider/combiner. As before, I made no effort to terminate the 75-© Wilkinson dividerleombinee with balancing resistors. Ic worked jus¢ fine without them. Even the 1296-MHl2 version, which uses the same board layout, worked well in this configu- Fig 22 shows the schematic of this class-A amplifier, and Fig 23 shows parts placement. The PC-board pattern the same _ _ BY Fg 2¢—This prototype 4-W ampifier was bull on a PO board with Spare driver stage that's bypassed with a brass strip. \ Fig 25—The 4-W amplifiers neat sink, bolted directly to te vices, must be positioned such thal cooling ar can flow over itauring amplificr operation, Fig 26—The two-stage, 4-W, S01598/S01853 amplifier. G4, 612.0140. 0 Spr Johanson piston timer. ‘INA7ATA 20-V, 1-W Zener Or-spi6ae G2, 3--sDi8sa R2—115-1,7 kO, ls W. See text, Part 1, June 1980 QST, p 24 R12 0, 2W, FCI-RFC4—8 twine of no. 26 onam wire, closewound, 0.1" 1D. VHF/UHF Amplifiers 2-37as that for Amplifier No. 8, is shown in Fig 17 (shown in Part 1). The board's driver- stage traces are by-passed with a brass strip in this amplifier. Fig 24 shows my proto type mounted in a PC-board enclosure. A single base-bius source, using a current limiting resistor and Zener diode, feeds both devices. Total idling current, mea- sured in series with RI, is 400-850 mA, ‘The same mounting arrangement used with the single-SD1853 amplifier (Ampli fier No. 9) applies to this unit. The device flanges must have low-inductance ground ‘connections. Mount the transistors toa heat sink about 23 inches with Ys inch or taller fins, as shown in Fig 25. Again, the supply voltage is switched on only during trans mit. To tune this amplifier, adjust C4, C5 ‘and C6 alternately for maximum output Amplifier No. 11: 20 mW In, 4 W Out A second 4-W amplifier, using apair of 2-38 Chapter 2 SD1893s driven by a single SD1598, is shown in Fig 26, The fmal stage is Ampli- Fier No. 10, snd the driver isthe same as ‘that used in Amplifier No.8. "The PC-board artwork is shown in Fig 17; the parts place ment can be done using Figs 28 and 16 as uides ‘The power-supply and bias adjustments are the same as those for the previously described amplifiers using these devices. Transistor mounting is also the same as before, but extra heat sinking is required with thisunit because of the class of opera tion and the power output. Higher Power Output Higher-power devices usable at 903 MHz are available from several manvfac- turers. NEC’s NEL1320 (2803542) pro- duces 18-20 W linear output at 908 M2. ‘These devices also work on the !295:-MHz. band. These transistors, as well as single- sand dual-stage amplifiers based on them, are available from Down East Microwave (DEM). (The DEM two-stage 331$PA rung around 18 W output for about 1 W input). ‘SGS-Thomson Microelectronics also makes high-power devices for the 800- to ‘960-MHlz range, For example, the SDL423, 4-Win, 30-W-out class AB device, and the SD1660 is aclass-AB transistor that runs ‘a whopping 120 W output for about 35 W drive. Both of these devices run on 28 V de, ‘Summary ‘As I've shown in this wvo-part series, there's really nothing difficult about build ing your own 903-MHz equipment—from the local oscillator to the final amplifier, "This ease of constzuction isa vast improve ‘ment over what it was just a few yeary ago—and the 903-MHz band’s popuiation hhas grown as a reflection of that, See you fon the microwaves!From QST, August 1988 5-Watt Linear Amplifiers or 144 ‘any haras have 2-meter and 220-MHz hand-held rigs and low-power por- lable SSB rigs these days. Unfortunately, many of these radios have limited useful ness because of their low power output, Also, as hand-held radios get smaller. so do the NiCad packs that power them—a Jew Jong-winded transmissions on high power and the battery is dead! The low-power mode is usually good only for short-range simplex operation, o repeater use when you're close to the repeater. High-capacity battery packs are available for most hand Feld rigs, but using them takes away the size and weight advantage of today’s smaller hand-held trancoeivers. Some rigs offer the aption of removing the battery pack and plugging the unit directly into BV de, which gives you a small, light ‘eight rig but you're still stuck with rela- tively low power. The solution to this problem isthe addi tion of a linear amplifier. An amplitier after the hand-held transceiver or portable Fig thar can give you 25 to 30 W of output power (depending on the output of the driv lngrig) without imposing large weight, cost and current-drain constraints is a great addition to your VHF station, An amplifier also allows you 10 use the same low-pow- ted rig in the house and in the ear with Reh power outpul. You can mount an amplifier under the seat or inthe trunk of your car, and minimize the possibility of theft by taking the radio with you when you Jeave the car. Amplifier Design ‘The amplifiers described in this article axe capable of 25 10 30W of RF output for the drive power available from common bangheld and portable rigs. The 2-meter ‘and 220-MHz designs are so similar that wwe can describe them both in one discus- sion. The differences in the designs are sovered in detail, Design, assembly, tun- and 200 MHz Do you need more punch from your hand-held or portable rig for 2 meters or 220 MHz? These little amplifiers can supply it! ing and use of the amplifiers is virwally identical for both vetsions. Both versions ‘even tise the same PC board! (Note that two ifferent bourds are shown in the lead photo—they were prototypes of the final board design.) Receiving preamplifiers are included in both anits. They. too, are quite similar i fering only in some component values. This power amplifier uses a single ‘$1274 bipolar transistor manufactured by ‘Thomson Components/Mostek Corp. 1 The devices is operated class AB for all-mode ‘operation. Nominal de power-supply volt- age is 13.8. The amplifier will operate on any-de supply voltage between 12 and 14.5, (the typical automobile supply voltage range). ‘The main amplifier PC board isa micro- stripline design on. standard. Yje-inch- thick, double-sided, G-10 fiberglass-epoxy board. Input and output tuning capacitors are provided for maximizing gain and power output in a given band segment. If desired, the amplifiers can be tuned for broadband operation with only a slight e- duction in power output across the operat ing frequency range, The 2-meter and 220-MHz amplifiers are narrow-band designs. The 2-meter ver- sion gives 25 W output for 2 W of drive from 138 to 150 MF, with a single tuning setting, When tuned for narrow-band ‘operation, the amplifier gives about 20 W ‘output for | W of drive. With the Kenwood. TH-2IAT on high power, my 2-meter arplifies puts out 25'W. On low power, ceanadjust the amplifier fora maximum nar row-band gain, which gives about 7 to 8 W ‘output. Efficiency is 50 wo 60%, depending, fon tuning and power output ‘The tuning range of the 220-MHz am. plifier is 200 to 230 MHz, When tuned for narrow-band operation, the amplifier gives about 16 W output for ! W of drive. Driving the amplifier with my ICOM IC-3AT on high power (about 1.5 W), the amplifier puls out 20 W. With the IC-3AT on low VHF/UHF Amp 2:39Fig 1—Schematic of the 25.W VHF ampilfiers. The 5:A fuse is included in the power lead (external 1o the ampitir). Be extremely careful when mounting the power tansistor--see text for precautions. In the pars list below, values for the 220-MHz version are given In parentheses where they dif from those in the 2-meter version, Astersks Indicate pars not used In the 220-MHz version C115. 62V de, C2—470-pF aise C3—2.F iver mica 4, C28, C26~270- to 470-pF siver mica ‘or Uncles. (©8270: t6 470-pF (900 pF sliver mica or Ueto. 5, C7, C14, C16, C19, C24—0.01-uF disc. C8—0.22-uF disc 63—43-pF silver mica or Unelco Gi0—Arco 404-4 to 60 pF (Arco 403—4 10 40 oF), 11, C15—1-nF, 15-V tantalum, C12"180-pF (10-pF) Unelco. G13, C18-+220-9F Uneleo, 617—68.-pF (S1"pF) Unelco. G20—10-uF, 35-V electrolytic. ‘C21-—83 pF silver mica of Unalco. power (about 150 mW), [can tune the am- Plifier to give 4W output, Efficiency is About the same as the 2-meter version, The saturated power output tor both versions is more than 35 W in FM opera- tion, The eearimum FM power input is 4.W, Minimum power input for proper RF sensed keying operation is 100 mW. The Power-Amplifier Circuit See Fig |. K1 is similar to relays used in VCR RF circuits. | have switched up 10 2-40 Chapter 2 C22—Arco 404—8 to 60 pF (Arco 402— 4'5 10 20 pF) 025-0. 1F disc 6270 00'-uF disc 656, 635—35:pF (18-pF) Uneico {636-10pF trimmer Di, D2—tNa14@ or 1NoT4 Da, Dé—t N00" or equiv. D5—ECG 581 or equiv Dsi—teD. Fo~Ferrie bead e1—Omron LZN203-UA-DC12 DPOT rea L3-Ziuins (4 turn) no, 18, elosewound, 0.2:n, (iin) 1D, += ThomsonMastek $01 274 2—MPSATS NPN Darington Ri, RAT KO, 4 W. R2—500-KA, 10-tum potentiometer. 4OW at2 meters and 35 W at 220 MHz with these relays. They present a good match 50. The loss through she seplifiers (when not in use) resulting from these relays is Tess than I dB. This is typical for 2emeter and 220-MHz amplifiers. ‘In addition to switching the transmitted and received signals, the relays also switeh the de supply voltage. In the transmit mode, KI switches 13.8 V de to the input of the bias regulator, UL. The regulator IC and its associated resistors (R7, RB) and bias RO—10-k0, 14 W. 5100-0 miniature potentiometer. Fie—270-0, % W. Ri, F8—10-02 % W. Fo 15-02, 4 W. RFC1, RFC2, RFC4—0.47-zH molded choke. RFCI™-0.15-nH molded choke. RECS—6 tums (5 tums) no. 18 enam, “ain, ID. RF C8 —Vk200/48 ferrite choke, S1—Miniature SPOT toggle. UI—UMa17T voltage regulator Miscoleneous 2EBNC of N connectors (see tex! 4x44 Tein, neat sink SA use and inline holder. 2oe Thin, serap of thin sheet brass, diode (DS) supply a stiffer bias votage to the base of QF than the more:common volt- age-divider bias networks. This low-imped- ance bias source keeps the bias vollage con- stant over the range of RF drive levels. With a vollage-divider bias network, bias voltage cean be upset by the base-emitter rectifier tion (self bias) developed by the RF driving signal. In such a case, over-driving the am plifier causes the base bias 10 decrease, resulting in non-linear amplification. This elfect is limited withthe regulator-type biasFig 2—Main PC-board layout for the meter and 220-2 ampliirs. Artwork is full scale. Bocause this Isa microstipline design, do not change the ‘Qeometry oF routing of board traces. The toard must be riled for rivets, mounting hardware ana transistor mounting at tne locations marked. The transistor mounting hole Is 0.38-in iam ard shoul be dried at the « near te conter of the PC board. Alrother holes {except for the relay-mounting holes near the output micro- Stipline) are for rivets and no. ‘440 mounting hardware circuit used in these amplifiers. ‘TR switching is accomplished by an RF sensing circuit, A small amount of RF is sampled by C3 and rectified by Dl and D2, which turns on keying transistor Q2. Q2 pulls in KI, which switches the amplifier nto the line. When S1is in the SSB position, « short drop-out delay is added in the RF-sensed. eying circuit to Keep the amplifier keyed daring brief pauses in speech, This delay is Adjustable by varying R3. In the FM posi tion, no delay is needed. S1 does not change the class of operation of QI—it mere stvtches in the dela ‘The switching relays are wited so the amplifier can remain in-line at all times, with oF without the supply voltage con- ected, Applying the supply voltage allows you to use the amplitier and preamp. With- ‘atthe supply voltage connected, all trans mitted and received signals pass through the mpliter. The spectral output of these amplifiers fs quite good, but to ensure clean signals, P'veadded filters to the output of each unit. ‘Atthough there isn't much extra roorn for the filter components inside the amplifier cabinet, you can mount them on the back cover or in another small enclosure. The filters, shown in the title photo, are very simple to build and wae. Construction Each amplifier consists of two PC boards: the power-amplifier board and the preamp board (if used). Afterthe PC boards are etched, holes are drilled with a no, 50 bit for installation of tinned grounding tiv eis at all RF and de grounds (see Fig 2) Install the rivets on the board as follows: ter inserting the rivets, Maze the inserted end with an awl, Next, fatten the rivet by tapping it lightly with « hammer, using an anvil or other solid surface under the PC boards support. Solder the rivetson both sides ofthe PC bosrd. Alternatively, pieces of wire can be soldered through the board but because the wires will not be flush with the board, mounting the heat sink may be difficult, Drill the Aoles for QI and the board. ‘mounting screws as indicated in Fig 2. No holes are needed for component mounting, because all parts are mounted on the trace side of the PC board. All the components ‘except the preamp board are mounted next. (The preamp board is mounted after the amplifier has been tested, to prevent pos: sible damage to the preamplifier.) Connect piece of miniature 50-2 Teflon® or RG-58 coaxial cable between KI and the amiplifier-input microstripline (see Fig 3). After drilling oF milling holes for QV in f suitable heat sink (sce Fig 4), tap the ‘mounting holes in the heat sink for no. 4-40 hardware, and mount the PC board to the heat sink. Trim the four leads of Q1 to about half ther original length to make mounting QI can be mounted in one of several s. The distance between the underside of the leads of QI and the heat-sink mount ing area of QI is larger than the thickness (of 'furin. G-10 board material, Because of this, the heat sink must be milled (see Fig, 4), oF small pieces of copper oF brass must be soldered under each lead of QI to make up the difference in height. Alternatively, second piece of G-0 material can be cut to the same size asthe amplifier PC board VHF/UHF Amplifiers 2-41eaners msouon © sSerrSrORe +138 66m Fig 3—Parle placement diagram ior the VHF amplifiers. Al pars are mounted on the fol-irace side ot the PO board. The power 6 Botontiometer) is epoxied to tha PC board as inclested, with the pins facing up.0 and used as a spacer between the PC board tnd heat sink. Be caretul not to crack the body of QL where the leads of the device meet it—this can release beryllium-oxide (IeO) dust, which is lethal. The leads of the transistor cam be bent down slightly 0 dhe PC board without affecting RF performance, but never free them in the opposite direction after the transistor has been tightened to the heat sink, Mount the transistor to the heat sink firs, then solder is ead (0 the board, ‘and no! vice versa. Use thermally conde tive compound between QI's mounting surface and the heat sink, Cut a piece of hobby-store sheet brass about as side as the dias regulator IC and ‘ice ws long as the body ofthe device. This will be a heat sink for the bias regulator ‘When mounting the regulator IC. use ther- «nally Conductive compound between it and Ue brass sheet, and 6etween the brass and the main PC board, Alter tightening the IC hardsvare yo the PC board, bend the brass sheet ima U shape over the IC, leaving ‘enough clearance for heat escape between 2-42 Chapter 2 the IC and the brass hes sink, This Heatsink arrangement can be seen near the bottom center of each amplifier in the lead photo- raph. ‘The Preamplifier Circuit ‘The high gain and low noise igure (NF) of GaASPET preamp are not necessary in ‘amplifiers in this power class. 1 designed the preamp circuit (Fig 5) to use un inex pensive U330 FET. Ichas more than enough ‘Bain to overcome the losses ofthe amplifier switching circuits and the feed line to the Amplifier. The preamp hus more than 12.dB. ain and noise figure of about 2 dB. When $2 is closed, K2 closes, activat ing the preamplifier by applying the de supply voltage to the drain circuit of Q3 and t0 the preamp ON LED, DS2. In the ltansmit mode, KI switches off the supply’ voltage fo K2, allowing K2 to drop out ‘The preamp circuit is optional. and 1 didn't include it on the main amplifier PC board. Hf you're not going to build the preamp, solder foil-tape oF wire jumpers Beceen the (Wo points on the maid ampli- wistor mounting stud passes through the board and Into te heal sink. D5 is apoxied 0 fe ceramic Cap of QT. R2 (0sturn fige PC board where the preamp connects during assembly. Building the Preamplifier ‘The schematic of che preamplifier cle cuit is shown in Fig 5. As mentioned earlier, although some component values differ between the 2-meter and 220-MHz versions, the two are essentially the same in all other cespeets, Components that have different values for the two versions are marked with asterisks on the schematic and the parts list, Unlike the main ampli- fier PC board, most preamp components are mounted through the Board and sot dered on the bottom side. The PC-board layout and parts-placement diagrams are shown in Figs 6 and 7, respectively. ‘As with most FET VHF preamplifiers, a shiefd is necessary between the input i ‘ductor and the active device. Solder a piece Cf serap brass shect f0 the ground foil Dé= tween these circuit elements. (This preamp shield can be seen in the right-hand amplic Fier in the lead photo, just behind L1.) ‘Afier building the preamplitir, tune it+ 3 rwnenns | Fig 4—Heat-sink driling dimensions for the VHF amplifiers Overall heatsink size ist ‘rica, but should be close fo the dimersions shawn. As an alternative to milling the heatsink to accept Q1, a piece of Ywin. double-sided PC-board material can be used as shim. Be caretul not {for maximum gain with a signal generator or an on-the-air signal, If one is available to you, use a noise-figure meter and tune the preamp for best NF. Building the Output Filters 1 built the output filters for each ampli- fier on scraps of PC-board material. The fonsiruction is shown in the title photo. After building the filters, it's good idea to tse some silicone sealant on the coil espe- tially in the 2-meter filter) to hold the coil {urns in place, Install the filter ina suitable feaclosure, or in the amplifier cabinet, ‘Totune the filters, you'll need areceiver capable of receiving the second harmonic of the fundamental (288 MHz for the 2- meter filter, and 440 MHz for the 220-MEtz fier), and a signal generator or an on-the- Stress tho transistor lead-to-body connections during mounting air signal. Connect the filter between the antenna (or signal generator) and the receiver, and tune C36 for minimum sec- ond-harmonie signal level Enclosures used the main amplifier PC board as the top cover forthe unit (withthe heat sink ‘mounted on it) Imade the sides and bottom cover of the enclosure from PC-board ‘material. The side walls are soldered to the amplifier board, and the bottom cover is attached tothe side walls with small brack- ets (also made of PC-board material) soldered to the bottom cover. Alternatively, the amplifier can be mounted in an alumi- ‘num enclosure. Although I used BNC connectors for RF input and output, N connectors can also be used. Make the connections from the input connector to the PC board with a piece of no. 16 wire or a "ivinch-wide strip of brass to the input microsteipline. Atthe output, con- neet de-blocking capacitor C26 between the ‘microstripline and the antenna connector. Check the board for proper component placement and goad solder joints, and get ready to tune ap the amplifier! Amplifier Tune-Up As with the amplifier-circuit design and description, the tune-up procedure is very similar for both. The only difference is the exciter you use. Here's how to tune either Disconnect RFCS from the base of QI Connect a voltmeter to the free end of RFC4. Apply 13.8 V de to the amplifier supply voltage leads. Using the voltmeter, ‘verify that RS is mounted so that output of UL increases with clockwise rotation of RS. Turn RS fully counterclockwise (minimum UL output voltage). Reconnect REC4. Set the quiescent (no-drive) current to Qlas follows: Disconnect one end of RFC6 and connect an ammeter in series with it Apply 13.8 V de to the amplifier through a 5-A luse. Turn the preamp off, Do not apply RP driveduring this adjustment. Using aclip lead, ground the collector of Q2. This should actuate KI. Check the TX LED, DS}. for ‘operation. (If KI aetuates and the TX LED does not light, the LED may 6e installed in reverse.) Slowly adjust RS for an idling cur- fent (through RFC6) of 75 to 100 mA. The amplifier should be stable; instabilities are Indicated by erratic variation of QI's quies- cent current as RS is adjusted. Disconnect the ground lead of 2. QI's collector current should drop to zero. Ifthe collector current does not drop to zero, the amplifier is unstable. If all is Wel, remove the ammeter and reconnect REC6, If the amplifier is unstable, check all bypass ca- pacitors and solder connections, ‘Apply about 100 mW of drive to the amplifier and check that the COR and delay circuits work properly. Adjust C10 fand C22 for maximum power output Increase drive power and retune for ‘maximum output. After fmal assembly’ tune the amplifier for the desired Frequency and power level Final Assembly The preamplifier board ean now be in- stalled on the main PC board. Mount the Preamp on its edge (refer to the ttle photo and Fig 3) and solder the input and rmicrostriplines in place. Solder the Foil of the preamp board so the ground foil ‘of the main board in2 few places to support the preamp board. Connect S2 and DS2 t0 the preamp board with hook-up wire (see Figs 5 and 6 for connection points). Apply power and check for proper operation of 52, K2 and DS2. The enclosure can now be painted if you wish, Use masking tape to cover the con- nectorsand heatsink. (Mount the LEDs and ‘switches after painting.) You may want to VHF/UHF Amplifiers 2-43Fig 5~Schematic ofthe preampiior hea, Kes Wonca fo At onthe man Simpler toard. 82 and O82 are mounted ‘onthe front panel of the ampliin In the pars list below, values for 220-Mitz Version are given in parentheses where they ater fom thoes of he 2-meter 28, C29, 093-0.01-uF disc 50-2 pF silver mica G31, Cab 20-pF timer S82, De— 4 N&OOt Ci 12S ums (4 twins) no, 16 enam, On. 10 K2—Omron L2N203-UA.0C12 DPOT ela o3tisto Fer. Rio—toeka, 1 W. Barone ew, RECT, AFCO ~0.4741H molded choke S2thinature SPOT toggle Miscelaneous Ven sip of thin sheet brass r Fig 6—Ful-size PC-board layout for the preamplifier circuit, Unike the power-ampltier PC board, most of the preampitier components are mounted on the non-race side of the board EE B 8 ne) (=) a rose Fig 7—Parts‘placement diagram for the VHF preampiier. Mount all components on the unetched grouna: plane side except for C30 and C31. Use a dill to clear the fll away ‘om all mounting holes on the ground-plane side of the board (except for through-board ground connections). Solder all ground connections on both sides of the PC board (see text for rivet-installation instructions). Solder a brass-strip shield to the ground foll between Li and G3 on the component side of the PC board. add stick-on ubber feet to the bottom coves to keep it from sliding arouad and being seratched, with my Kenwood TH-21AT hand-held and ICOM IC-202S SSB/CW transceiver. Tuse one in my shack and one mobile— both at more than 25 W output. Idrive the 10-MHz version of the amplifier with an ICOM IC-3AT (in its high-power mode). ‘Amplifier Operation ‘The 2-meter amplifier works very well 2-44 Chapter 2 Limit the amplifier power output 10 25 W during linear operation. All 338 amplifiers have a rated linear power out put that should not be exceeded, even though the amplifier may be driven above that level. To keep your signal clean, do not overdrive any amplifier. For excites with fixed power outputs that would over: rive the amplifier, use the 40s of a length of RG-58, ora discrete attenuator, between the radio and the amplifier to prevent over: drive. The gain ofthe preamplifier (if used) ‘will overcome the attenuator or cable loss during receiving, ‘When using any amplifier or transverter in the shack, itis a good practice to “hard key" it, Hard keying is simply forcing the amplifier or transverter into the cransmi ‘mode with a switeh closure or an applied voltage. To do this, un a keying line from the exciter to the amplifier. (Ground the collector of Q2 to hard key these amit ers.) L added a phono jack to the 220-MHt amplifier to facilitaie hard keying, If a positive voltage is used for keying, @ 2N2222 transistor inverter can be used between the transceiver and the collector of Q2 (see the inset a Fig 1). ‘Summary ‘These amplifiers have served me well in the car and at home, After building one of these amplifiers, you'll probably find what I did: They're so handy to have ‘round, and so easy to build, that you can't build just one! Notes. ‘Thomson Componerts/Mostek Corp, Semi- Teonductor. Bwsion, Commerce De, Montgomenyvila, PA {8866. Thomson tan: Sistors are available tough A Gan, Li, YouMerrk Ra, Rockville Cantor, NY 11570, {el 516-596-6868 oF 800:645-2922. 2The Tollowing parts are avaiable rom Fron Microwave, AD 1 Box 467, Otte, PA, ote Hobs Hone rts 2 rae 2y.2 tor $8. Prices Include shipping. ‘ARAL and GST in'ro way warrant is oftenEen ens) eu SLAL unroes A High-Power 2-Meter Amplifier Using the New 3CX800A7 Tired of hearing exotic DX on 2 meters but not being able to work it? Build this amplifier, and you'll transform your pip-squeak signal into a real rockcrusher. whe 3CX800A7 triode recently an- ‘nounced By Varian EIMAC has a pla dissipation rating of 800 W and modest ‘cooling requirements. Its oxide cathode {ives high emission with only 20 W of enter power. With full ratings up to 350. M2, this tube is a scaled-up version of the $874 — a proven performer in amateur and commercial gear “The amplifier described here is based on adesign presented by Raymond F. Rinaudo, W6ZO, in January 1972 QST. Most of the changes in the new amplifier (Fig. 1) are Gesigned to accommodate the larger size of the 3CX800A7 and its attendant higher ca- puitances and currents. A plate-current tueter is not included because my station fower supply isalready well metered. How- ver, there is room on the front panel of the Amplifier for a plate-current meter if an- ther builder wishes to add one. Other changes to Rinaudo's design are minor. Construction ‘The amplifier chassis is mounted on a standard 19-inch wide, 5Y%-inch-high al ‘num rack panel (Bud No, SPA-1833).. A $5 [33-inch aluminum chassis (Bud No, ‘AC-422) is spaced ['/ inehes behind the panel by two aluminum end brackels. Ah x 4'/: x Iinch aluminum chassis (Bud No. AC-1402) houses the input cir- puitry and is mounted on the larger chassis between it and the front panel. The right fund end bracket has a large lip on the rear for mounting the heater transformer and connectors. Fig. 2 shows mechanical details of the chassis and end brackets, The tabinet chosen is a lightweight aluminum unit made by TenTee (No. 19-0525) Input Circuit In the eathode-driven configuration, the input impedance of the 3CX800A7 appears asa nominal capacitance of 26.5 pF in par- allel witha resistive component that varies with operating conditions but is typically about 49 ohms. The computerdesigned in- pput circuit of this amplifier operates at a Toaded Q of about 2.1. It can be set any where in the 2-meter band for a VSWR of less than 1.3:1, Cl and C2 ate predomi nantly matching and tuning controls, respectively: there is some interaction between them, however. When the input is tuned at 144,5 MHz, the input VSWR will hee less than 1.4:1 from 144 to 145 MHz, ‘The tube socket is an EIMAC SK-1900 ora Johnson part No. 124-311-100. liscen- ter is mounted 2 inches from the end of the Input box, adjacent to the mounting bracket. The tube pins and input circuit are cooled by »small amount of air admitted 10 the input box from the pressurized output box. Three holes, made with a no, 50 drill, provide adequate flow. These holes are spaced in a close triangle and are located diagonally across from the variable capaci- tors. Air exhausts through the tuning holes. 3 shows details of the input circuitry ‘The heater circuit includes two chokes, feedthrough capacitors, the filament trans former, a voltage-dropping resistor and a switch. Thechokes are wound with a1 {o-turn spazing of about one-half the wire diameter, They ate self-resonant (parallel resonant) just above the 2-meter band. Nominat heater voltage for the 3CX800A7 is 13.5 ¥. The closest available commer: cial transformer has a 14.0-V secondary, So R3 1s used in the primary. Switching ‘Cupso thatthe blower must be on before the heater can be activated. Conversely, this arrangement allows the blower to be left on after switching off the heater—a highly recommended practice Cathode bias is provided by a 5.1-V Zener diode, D3. RI prevents the cathode voltage from soaring if the Zener Fails. F2 will blow if excessive cathode current drawn, R2 nearly cuts off plate current on receive. Because the grid is at de ground, the negative supply lead must be keptabove VHF/UHF Amplifiers 2-45Fig. 1 — Schematic diagram of the 3CXB00A7 ample. BI — Blower (Dayton 4C012 or equlv.); see tox. 1, C2 —1.7-14.1 pF alr variable (E. F. Johnson 189-605-4 or ‘equiv 03 S00.pF, 1.kV disc ceramic. 4, 05, C8 — Coramie teedtrouigh, 1000 pF, 600 V (Erie 357-001) G7 EMI lodtnvough tv, 1690 pF; 2.5 KY (Erie 1280-06). HiT-50 52), 8, 09 — 50 pF, 7.5 kV, NBO (HE G10, C11 — Se0'exe Di, D2 — 1Na001 2 — Type N female c tox). J, 4 — High-voltage onnector (part of C10 assembly — see Connector (Millen 37001 or equiv). LY pg tums no. 16 tinned wire, rin ID, "Ye in tong 2 6 tums no. 16 tinned wire Zein 1, ‘Ve in tong, 3 — Plate line, 15% in wide, 8!) in long, See text and Fig. 4 Bi, a4 Fo 10 ko, 12. RS — 95 ohvns, 12 W. Re — 50 onms, 50 W, '200 ohms, 12W. Da Zener diose, 6.1 V, 10 W (1N3996A), DS1— NEST in holdar with built-in dropping resistor. Ft — Slow-blow fuse, 2 A (Buss MDL-2 or equiv). F2— 1.5.8 fuse (Buss AGC 4s or equiv) 1 — BING bulkhead feedthrough connector (UG-482 AU). BECi— 1.0 nH choke, 300 mA (Miller 4602) REG2, RFCS" 11 turns no, 20 HF wito on Tin Nor! od REG4_ 10 turns no. 18 tinned wiro, "in ID, Wein iong, Ti —- Filament transformer, 14.0-V, 2-A secondary (Triad F-218x oF aqui.) ground for grid-curtent metering by Ml Rat keeps the negative side of the plate supplyirom rising if MI, DI and D2 all ‘open up. DI, D2 and C3 protect the meter from transients and RF volta Output Cireuit ‘The output tank circuit isa silver-plated quarter-wave strip line (Fig. 4) foreshore ened by the tube, loading and tuning capacitances at, and neat its open end. It ‘operates at a loaded Q of approximately 20. The silver-plated anode collet (Fig. 4) is made of 0.062-inch-thick brass shect with Tech-Eteh 134B finger stock soldered on the inside. It is supported by two ‘Teflon® standoffs '2-inch in diameter and Linch long. At the fur end of the line, « silver-plated shorting block contacts the chassis and the strip line. This. block (Fig. 4) is made from "hs-inch-thick brass 1'5/cimehes wide and | inch high. EIMAC 2-48 Chapter 2 CF-800 fmger stock is screwed and then soldered on both top and bottom. The chas- sis and stripline ate both slotted to allow in inch of shorting-block travel to set the tuning range of the capacitive-tuning paddle. A Linch-long Teflon standoff sup- ports the cemter ofthe line The tuning (C11) and loading (C10) paddles are 1'}v-inch-diameter dises made from silver-plated, ‘y-inch-thick brass, They are spaced Is inches center-o-cen: ter, The output loading paddie is nearest the tube, and its center is 1% inches from the tube cooler surface. Spacing between the paddle and line during operation is about (0.135 inch. The output tuning boss, EIMAC. part No. 720362, is tapped for a "Ie28 threaded rod, The output loading con: trol and output connector are two separate EIMAC assemblies combined into one unit. ‘They are available from EIMAC as Support Assembly No. 720361 and Sliding Probe Assembly No, 720407. For this amplifier, the outer conductor was lengthened to reach the front panel, The eri colle is also avail able from EIMAC as part No, 720359, In addition to REC4 and feedthrough ‘capacitor C7, an energy-absorbing resistor RS) is wired in series with the de plate supply. This resistor will protect the tube and power supply in the event of a highvoltage are. It provides necessary pro- tection while dissipating only 12.5 W at 500-mA de plate current, Cooling ‘The blower specified provides a mea- sured 25 CFM airflow through the output box and tube cooler at 0.42 inch of water. column static pressure. This amount of ‘cooling is sufficient for $00 W of plate diss Sipation at sea level with inlet air tempera- lures upto 35°C. Itis adequate forthe same dissipation, at $000 feet of altitude withait temperatures up to 25° C. ‘Not evident from the photographs isthe ‘care taken o separate outgoing hot air from incoming coo! air. This is accomplished by he addition of a simple dividing wall inside the cabiner cunning frors the rear ‘assis cover of the output box to the rear ‘f the cabinet. The material used is rigid fiberglass insulation — the kind you cut withasaw, Itprovidesa measure of blower- soise suppression in addition to assuring -¢00l inlet ar. Hot air leaving the anode cooler is di- rected to a homemade “honeycomb” RFT file through a chimney made from rolled up Teflon sheet. The filter is made of brass wing and sheet with the honeycomb huaterial soldered in place. See Fig. 5 for ‘onstruction details. This filter acts as a Wraveguide-beyond-cutoff having high alenuation at 144 MHz. “The equation forcalculating attenuation by this type of filter is A= 32 Did (Eq. 1) where A, = aperture attenvation (dB), D = Jength of pipe, and d = inside diameter of pipe la chis case, the “pipe” is eaeh cell of the honeycomb, The basic material for the ‘honeycomb is cadmium-plated brass heat- taliator core.? Each hexagonal-shaped cell has width between flat sides (diameter) of (1100 inh, The material is Vo-inch thick, Plugging these values into the equation Yields an A, of 160 dB—more than enough! From a practical standpoint, itis usually sufficient 19 make cell length atleast three times the nominal cell diameter. Tune-up Initial work may be done with a dip heer particularly on the ovtpat circuit With he ube in place, bot with no voltages tepid, the shorting block on the end of tthe plate line should be set to give a paddle- Toning range that strades the desired operating frequency. Bear in mind that when the tube is "hot" the resonant fee uaency will Be somewhat lower than it is Shitho electron flow The inpu-tuing capacitor can be dip- neterrvonated with the matching capac. tor et at one-half mesh for stat. Further sven here mst be done “hot” witha VSWR measuring device onthe input Set the iil spacing between the out petpaddle andthe plate ine to"/rinch. Con est the output 10 2 50-ohm dummy toad pale of handing at Teast 70OW at 144 Mic through an accurate VHE wattmeter, sich as « Bird model 3, Connect diver ‘ape of debivering about 20° 10 the i= potthrough « VSWR-measring device The heater of the 3CRBOOA should be tun fort least three minutes before apply~ ing pte voltage. After the warm-p, short Ihe TR terminals and apply soot 1000 to the plate, This should result in a small tmount of idling plate current. Next, apply no drive to produce arise in plate cur tent and adjust the plate toning Yor peak sane Fig 2—Mechanical detalls of the chassis and end brackets. The end brackets are made from 0,032:in aluminum, 6052 alloy or softer. in output power. Now tune and match the Input circuit for minimum input VSWR. Next, adjust the output loading paddle for ‘maximum power output while keeping the plate current dipped with the plate tuning paddle. Apply full plate voltage and higher drive power, and then repeak the output tuning and loading controls. Touch up the input tuning and matching, and the ampli- fier is ready for service, VHF/UHF Amplifiers 2-47Fig 3—Close-up of the input circuitry and tube-sockel wiring. Kegp all leads as short ro Fig 5—Mechanica! details of the exhaust al AFT iter. The Noneycomb material is Soldered inside a 2° OD, 0.065:in wall brass tube. The flange, which bolts to the chassis, is made from 0.725:inthick brass as possible, sheet 0 a # smertna a.ooe wwe fem Ae eae we trace ti ” i nove coer ve eal 5 ome south ve wae ne we ne my Fig 4— Mechanica! details ofthe pate be r———F _Inerarois cot ana snoring blog he ‘The plate ines made rom 0 032. fun e100 helt ie vane thick iver plated brass, although fmeacrroce Es bf capoe: or aluminum 5052 aly x gross $> | ssseuety Softer) of he same thickness may be Stereo _ 9° | Used. The lip on the plate ine is Sorewed fo the one end ofthe blocking Capacitors. The anode cole, whichis made rom 0.062-inhick iver pated brass, ig screwed to the other ends of sea fetanetahe sane tie blocking capacttors. Tech-Etch no, wom ner me =r eT 1348 finger stock soldered arouna the Inside ofthe anode coilet grips the ‘30XB00A7. Finger stock on the silver- plated brass shorting block ensures. ‘900d contact between the chassis and Blateling. 248 Chapter 2Fig 6—Various views of the completed SCXB00A7 amplifier Fig 7—Rear view of the amplifier with the plato-compartment cover in place. Note ‘he Roneyeom® AFI fiter at the hot-air exhaust Table 1 Operating Conditions for the 3CXB00A7 Amplitier Plate supply voltage 2200 Zero-signal plate current* 65 mA Single-ione plate current 500 mA Gri bias (Zener bias) =5.1V Single-ione grid current®™ 40 mA Driving power 185 W Output power 707 w Gain 15.808 Efficienoy"* 64% “Values may vary considerably rom tube to “Actual ube eficiency is about one percent higher because of power logs In tha 50+ ‘ohm series resistor the pate lead (RS). A few words of caution se in order. Re- member that the heater voltage must sever be applied without the blower running, and that the heater must warm up atleast three min- utes before applying plate voltage. Never exceed 60-mA de grid current, even during tune-up. Also, because of the relatively low arid dissipation of the 3CX800A7, RF drive ‘must never be applied unless pate voltage is applied to the tube and a suitable load is eon- nected to the output. Following these simple ‘ules will substantially inerease tube life and amplifier reliability ‘Typical Operating Conditions With Zener-diode bias, the 3CXBO0A7 is best operated in Class AB2 for linear service. The data in Table I represent mea sured performance in Tinear service at 144 MHz. Complete data sheets are available from EIMAC, This amplifier is easily ea pable of conservative operation at 700-W output. Two of these tubes will run atthe 1500-W output legal limit. ‘This amplifier uses. straightforward construction techniques and is easily du- plicated. Any builder will be rewarded with 8 great deal of satisfaction and a reliable amplifier. Notes Sim = in x 25. m = ft 0.9088, 2One souree forthe hereycom® radator core ‘eter is Technt West Division, 330 Novth ‘opal Su. Santa Barbara, CA 99403. VHF/UHF Amplifiers 2-49By Russ Miller, N7A\ Gea ums e Quick Powerhouse Tired cf missing a new grid square while waiting for your amplifier to warm up? Build this almost-instant-on, 1.2-kW linear power amplifier for 2 meters. 's that typical, early summer afternoon, when, out of the blue comes co-channel interference to the low-band (channels. 2 through 6) TV channels. Time to turn on the 2-meter receiver. Whoops! There's 3 sporadic-E opening, and stationsare boom= ing in from over 1000 miles away. Quickly, T hit the switches to warm up my linear amplifier. Time marches on, and now the amp is ready-—only took 3 or 4 minutes. But that juicy, far-away clatter vinsporadic E is gone! Woe is me! ‘Having had this lappen more than once, {was delighted to find that Eimac was pro- ducing a new tube with ao almost-instant warm-up filament that functions well at 2 meters—the 3CX120027.! The 27 is dif ferent from the 3CX 1200A7 by virtue ofits external grid ring, redesigned anode assem bly anda 6.3-V ac filament, One advantage tothe 3CX1200Z7 isthe wide range of plate voltages that can be used, from 2000 to 5500. This amplifier looks much like the easily duplicated W6PO design, except for the plate collet and the addition of some control circuitry. The platecolletis adapted from the W6PO 222-MHz design. The RF deck is a compact unit, designed for table- top use (Figure |). Table I gives some data ‘on the 3120027; Table 2 lists CW oper ating performance for this amplifier Input Circuit The tuned-filament T network matches the 50-2 drive source to the filament input impedance, providing a very low input SWR. Tuning is easy and docile, Grid bias is provided by an 8.2-V, 50-W Zener diode. Cutoff bias is provided by a 10-kQ, 25.W resistor. A relay onthe control board shorts out the cutoff-bias resistor, to the amplifier in the TRANSMIT mode. Tedidn't use a tube socket, Instead, 1 bolted the tube directly to the top plate of the subchassis, using the four holes (drilled tocleara #6 screw) in the grid flange. Con- nections to the beater pins are viu drilled and slotted brass rods. The input circuit is contained within a 31/3x6%7'-inch (HWD) subehassis (Figure 3) 2:50 Chapter 2 Figure 1—This table-top ‘2-meter power ampli Uses a quick-warm-up tube, a real plus when the Sand suddenly ‘opens for DX and you want to join in Table 1 3CX120027 Specitications Maximum Ratings Plate voltage: 5500 V Pate current: 800 mA Pate dissipation: 1200 W Grid dissipation: 50 W Table 2 CW Operating Data Plate voltage: 3200 V Plate current (operating): 760 mA Pate current (idling): 150 mA Grid current: 165 mA DC Power Input: 2400 W RF Power output: 1200 W Plato dissipation: 1200 W Efficiency: 60% Drive power: 85 W Input reflected power: 1 W. Control Circuit ‘The control circuit (Figure 4) isa neces sity. It provides grid overcurrent protec tion, eying control, and filament surge control. To protect the tube filament from stressful surge current, a timer circuit places a resistor in series with the primary ff the filament transformer. After four sec fonds, the timer shorts the resistor, allow ing full filament voltage to be applied. C2 land Ré establish the time delay. ‘Another timer inhibits keying for aotal ‘of 10 seconds, to give the internal tube tem= peratures a chance to stabilize. Cl and R3 Uetermine the time constant of this timer, ‘Afier 10 seconds, the amplifier can be eyed by grounding the keying line. When the amplifier is not keyed, it draws no plate current. When keyed, idle current is, approximately 150 mA, and the amplifier ‘only requires drive to produce output, AFigure 3—This view of the cathode-ctcuit compartmont shows the input tuned circuit ‘and filament chokes. Figure 2~-Schematie diagram of the 2 motor ampitior. C1-C4—100 pF, 5 KV, type 850 651000 pF, 5 KV’ (65—Anode-tning capacitor; sae text and Figure 5 for details C7—Outputoacing capacitor; see text and Figure 7 for details ¢8-C10—1000-F silver mica, 500 V C11—80.pF air variable C12—0.01 pF kV ‘511000 PIV, 3-A diode, 1NS408 or equiv 02-8.2-V, 50:W Zener diode. ECG 52498 ‘S1—Chassis-mount BNC connector 2—Type.N connector ted to output coupling assembiy {see Figure 7) Lt, L2—Piate lines, see text and Figure 6 tor details 155 tno. #4, Yninch diameter, close wound LASS no. 14, einch dlameter, Yeinch spacing FECT? 1 n0.14, Yoinch diameter, 1% neh tong, FC2, RFCS—10 tno. 12, Feingh diameter, 2 inches tong Ti—"Fllament transformer. Primary: 120 V: secondary: 6.3 V, 25 A, center tapped Avaliable from Avatar Magnetics (Ronald C. Wiliams, W9JVF, 240 Tamara Trail, Indianapolis, 1N 46217, 317-783-1211); pat number AV-539 Mi—Grid miliammeter, 200 mA dc full scale M2—Cathode ammeter, 2 A de full scale MOTI 140 free-air clm, 120:V ac blower, Dayton 40442 or equivalent. ‘Soureas for some of the “hard to get parts’ include Fait Radio Sales, 1016 E Eureka, Lima, (OH 45802, tet 419.207-6573;, Surplus Sales of Nebraska, 1502 Jones ‘Street, Omaha, NE 68102, tel 402-346 4750. safety factor is built in: the keying circuit requires +12 V from the high-voltage sup- ply. This feature ensures that high voltage 1s present before the amplifier is driven, “The graf overcurrent circuit should be set to 1p if grid current reaches 200 mA. When it trips, the relay latches and the NORMAL LED extinguishes. Restoration requires you to press the RESET switch Plate Circuit Figure 5 shows an interior view of the plate compartment.The anode collet is pat- {ered after the one used in the WOPO 222- MHz amplifier. The differences are small A 4c2'/einch tuning capacitor plate and & 22-inch output coupling plate are cen= tered on the collet These parts are the same size and shape as those used on the 2-meter ‘W6PO amplifier. The remalning difference is the diameter of the hole for the 3CX120027 anode. Sufficient clearance ‘must be left for the Fingerstock. The hole diameter will be approximately V+ inches, VHF/UHF Amplifiers 2-51Keying dock to Fgura 2 xemic H mir (ao Seeende) » + an f+ vee sr & wey te Pura 2 ber Spy Caw 8) Fou sav to cre urant capt ox cots, decimal eter (ire 2) ‘ales of copaiance we Bioerotrods (uF); ohare bro polrete (9 (ar =t.000 000" Cana seanectea Figure 4—Schematic dlagram of the ampliier-contol circuits. ©3-0.47-yF, 25.V tantalum capacitor Di-Ds—1N001 or equivalent De—1N4007 or equivalent DS1—Yellow LED. DS2—Green LED. DS3—Red LED Ki—Keying-inhibit relay, DPOT, 12-V de VA contact rating (RadioShack 275.249 or equivalent) Figure 5—This “Ampliir Keying relay. SPOT, top view of tha 12. de cal, 2-A’contact rating plate {RadioShack 275-248 of equWvalent) Compartment k3—Filament delay relay, SPST. 12-V de shows the ol, 2-A contact rating platesline (RadioShack 275-248 or equivalent) Brrangement, K4—Grc-overcurrent relay, DPDT, Ci:C# ana the 12. de coll, 1-A contact rating ‘output coupiing (RadioShack 275-249 or equlvalent) assembly 1, G2, O5—2N2222A or equivalent (Q3-MPF102 or equivalent (Q4—2NgBI9 or equivalent S1—Normally closed, momentary ‘pushbutton switen (agioShack 275.1549 or equivalent) Ti—Power transformer, 120-V primary, 18-V, TA secondary Ut~+i2 V rogulator, 7812 or equivalent 2-52 Chapter 2a awe nace ama by ee wa ow fot lol; enn Figure 6—Plate line details. (ren) Figure 7— Details of the output ‘coupling ee assembly. 24a) >| Pgeretes Figure @—Schomatic diagram of the high-vollage power supply recommended for use with the power amplifier. (D1-04—Strings of 4 each, 1000-PIV. 3-8 ‘loses, TN5408 or equivalent RI—DPST relay, 120-V ae col, 240-V-ac, 20-A contacts (Midland Ross 1187-321200 or equivalent) R2—SPOT minature relay, 12.V do call ‘Raglo Shack 273-248 oF equivalent) ‘MI—High-voltage moter, 5 KV de full scale (-mA meter movement used with series resistors shown in srawing) MOT!~Cooling fan, Torin TA-300 or ‘equivalent 1 2N2222A or equivalent Q2—MPF 102 or equivalent S1—20-A hydrauliimagnetic creut ‘breaker (Potter and Brumfold W68X2012-20 oF equivalent) Ti—High-voltage power transformer, Dao primary, 2250-V, 12-R secondary {Avatar AV-538 or equivalent) ‘Te~Stepdown transtormer, Jameco 112125, 240-V 10 120-V, 100 VA ‘T3—Power transformer, Jameco 104379, 120-V primary, 16.4 V, 1-A secondary (halt used} VHF/UHF Amplifiers 2-53Figure 6 is a drawing of the plate line and Figure 7is a drawing of the outpu: coupling assembly. Cooling The amplifier requires an air exhaust through the 1op cover, as the plate compart- ‘ment is pressurized. You can fashion a chimaey from a 3Ys-inch waste-water cou- pling (black PVC) and a piece of "fo-inch. thick Teflon sheet. The PVC should extend down from the underside of the amplifier cover plate by 1'/ inches, with the Teflon sheet extending down °/+ inch from the bottom of the PVC. The base of the 3CX1200Z7 is cooled by using bleed aie from the plate compart ment, which is directed at the tube base, through %/-inch tube set into the sub-chas sis wall ata 45° angle. ‘The recommended blower will supply ‘more than enough air for any temperature zone. A smaller blower isnot recom: ‘mended, as it is doubtful ths the base area will be cooled adequately. The 3CX 120027 filament draws 25 4 at 6.3 V! It alone ‘generates a great deal of heat around the tube base seals and pins, so good air flow is critical Construction The amplifier is built into a 12x12x10 inch enclosure. A 12x10-inch partition is installed 7"4 inches from the tear panel. The atea between the patition and the front panel contains the filament transformer, control board, meters, switches, Zener diode and miscellaneous small parts. Wiring between the front-panel area and the rear pane! is ‘through a/-inch brass tube, located near the shorted end of the right-hand plate line, High voltageis routed from an MHV jack ‘on the rear panel, through a piece of RG-59, just under the shorted end of the left-hand plate Lin. The cable then passes through the partition to a high-voliage standoff insula- tor made from nyion, This insulator is fastened to the partition near the high-volt- age feed-through capacitor. A 10-02, 25-W resistor is connected between the insulator nd the feedthrough capacitor. The plate lines are connected to the de- blocking capacitors on the plate collet with 1foc2-inch phosphor-bronze strips. The bottom ofthe plate lines are attached to the sides ofthe subchassis, with the edge of the L-shaped mounting bracket flush with the bottom of the subchassis. ‘When preparing the subchassistop plate for the 3CX1200Z7, cut a 2"/w-inch hole in the center of the plate. This hole size allows clearance between the tube enve 2:54 Chapter 2 Table 3 Power Supply Specifications High voltage: 3200 V Continuous currant: 1.2 A, Intermittent current: 2 A Step/Start delay: 2 seconds lope and the top plate, without putting stress on the envelope in the vicinity ofthe arid flange seal. Exercise care in placing the movable tuning plate and the movable output cou- pling disc, o ensue they cannot touch their fixed councerparts on the plate collet Operation When the amplifier is fist turned on, i eannot be keyed until: * 10 seconds has elapsed + High voltage is available, as confirmed by presence of +12 V to the Keying circuit Connect the amplifier to a dummy load through an accurate power meter capable (of indicating 1500 W full scale. Key the amplifier and check the idling plate cur rent, With 3200-V plate voltage, it should be in the vicinity of 150 mA. Now, appl small amount of drive and adjust the input tuning for maximum grid current. Adjust the output tuning until you sce an indica- tion of RF output, Increase drive and adjust the output coupling and tuning for the desired output. Do not overcouple the out put; once desired output is reached, do not Increase loading When you shut down the amplifier, leave the Blower running for at least three ‘minutes after you tra off the filament volt- age. I found the 3CX120027 10 be an excellent tube. [tried it with exessive drive, plate-current saturation, excessive plate Gissipation—all the abuse i's likely to encounter in amateur applications. 1 had ‘no problems, but I don't recommend you repeat these tests! ‘A Companion Power Supply ‘A good, solid-state high-voltage power supply is @ necessity to ensure linearity in SSB operation. Specifications of che power supply [ built are given in Table 3. Figure 8 is a schematic diagram of the supply. A power supply for high-power linear amplifier should operate from a 240-V cir- cuit, for best fine regulation. I have speci fied a special, hydraulic/magnetic circuit breaker that doubles as the main power switch. [don’t recommend you substitute 3 regular switch and fuses for this breaker, as fuses won't operate quickly enough to pro- tect the amplifier in case of an operating abnormality, The bleeder resistor dissi ppates about 100 W, so T included a small Fan to remove the excess heat. Power Supply Construction The power supply can be built into a 17x13%10-inch cabinet. The power transformer is quite heavy, so use "inch aluminum forthe cabinet bottom, und rein- force it with aluminum angle for extra strength, The diode bridge consists of four legs, each containing five diodes. Power Supply Operation When the front-panel breaker is turned fon, the two, 25-0 resistors in the primary circuit limit inrush current as the filter capacitor charges, After two seconds, KI] activates, shorting both resistorsand allow: ing full line voltage to be applied to the transformer. As withall high-voltage power supplies, you must be extremely careful! Before ‘opening the cabinet, remove the ac-line plug from its receptacle, and confirm that the filter capacitor is discharged before ‘working on the supply. Conclusion ‘This amplifier is a reliable and cost- cffective way to generate a big 2-meter sig- nal—almost as quickly as a solid-state amplifier. ‘To ensure that the output of my amplifier meets current spectral purity requireme use & high-power version of the half-wave output filter that appears as Figure 16 on page 39-10 of the 1993 and 1994 editions of The ARRL Handbook. Although I id not ‘make spectral measurements of the output, Tan run full output while my wife Mary Lou watches TV in a nearby room of our home. ‘Another suitable filter is the one that appears in the 1990 ARRL Handbook (Fig- ture 150, on page 31-72) as part of the description of “A Legal-Limit 2-Meter Tetrode Amplifier.” No "Suggested reall price of the 36X12002" is $255. You can dbtain Wt from: Henry Raco, 2050S Bundy Dr, Los Angelgs, CA 90025, te 310-820-1994. Richarason Electrons, 400 DB? Ketinger Ad, La Fox, Ik 60147, tel 708- 208-2500. RF Parts, 435 South Pace St, San Mateos, CA $2080, tl 819-744-0700, 2W, Ort, Estat, Radio Handbook, 284 ed, (r= ‘dianapol: HowareW. Sams and Co, 1987), po 18-2 through 16-7 Shs project ie also descrived in the Racio ‘Handbook pp 18-11 through 18-15.ER ne) eu SEA ours A Cathode-Driven Tetrode for 6 Meters the advantages of grounded-grid ampli fiers afe numerous and have been proven over the years. They include: sim= plicity of design, good thirdorder IMD sharacteristics, inherent stability (gener- ally without the need for neutralization) and aoneriical tuping. The only require~ ‘ment is abundant driving power, Usually, this isa small price to pay, unless the driver you intend to use iy one of the many popu- Tar, low-power (10° to 25-W-ourput) VHF transceivers. Also, with the tremendous Increase in the use of 100%-duty-eycle modes such as RTTY and STV, many of us would rather not operate our exciters at half to full bore while driving an amplifier: Ifyou’re willing to sacrifice only one of the aforementioned sdvantages—simplicity the remaining attributes of grounded arid operation can be made available at 3 considerable reduction in driving power Enter the Tetrode For many years, tetrodes (most often ‘connected as triodes) have been used ia ‘grovnided-grid cireuits. But we have good. reasons to consider the tetrode as a cath ode-driven performer in its own right. First, the drive requirements are reduced A-4-400A requires 4OW of drive power for full output when triode connected. Only ‘nsf than amount is needed 10 drive ts class: ‘ABI counterpart. The second reason is cost. Tetrodes are sill available as hamiest and surplus tems ata fraction oftheir origi- nal cost. (Some of the newer triodes cost ‘more than the exciters that drive them!) But not ali tetrodes cat be triode con: nected. All of the external anode family of tubes, and a few others, have internal geometry that allow’ the control grid dissi- pation tobe greatly exceeded ifthe tube is ‘operated as a triode. Therefore, those tubes should be cathode driven only as tetrodes ‘The usual way to do this is to ground the Stability, power, low cost \s this what you're looking for in a 6-meter do-it-yourself project? If so, look what's here! control and screen grids 0 RF with low- inductance bypass capacitors, and then ‘lace operating voltages anthem, The cath- ode ean be driven in a normal fashion, and the tube operated in any class consistent ‘with linear service, Chass-AB I has the low est drive requirements and is the easiest With which to work Tetrode Vs. Triode 1 concede that the addition of a sereen clemem complicates the overall circuit ‘especially if the screen-ciseuit provisions are made properly, But, the circuit need be no more complex than that of is gHd- ‘deiven equivalent. The cathode-driven tt. rode requires grid bias and a well-egulated screen supply. Also, there isno correct way to lead a tetrode without a meter to monitor the screen-grid current. This device is in- valuable and should not be omitted for the sake of economy, No discussion of the sereen-grid circuit would be complete without some mention of an overcurrent-protection circuit. Sev cral solutions have been offered in the past (including the use of no protection circuit!) fand cach has i disadvantages. Sensitive Felays are expensive and their use can hhave an adverse effect on sereen-voltage epilation, Cusrentlimising supplies do an excellent job of protecting the tube, but do ‘ot inforin you when something is wrong. Since sereea current is extwemely sensitive: to minor plate-voltage excursions and plateloading conditions, the builder has to ‘be absolutely cenuin that these are correct, and that plate voltage is always present with screen voltage, if the screea-protection cit uit is tobe eliminated. The protection ci cuit is well worth the small cost involved. ‘This amplifier incorporates an inexpensive tnd simple circuit that contains none of the disadvantages mentioned earlier. VHEAIME Amalitiare 2.88Fig. 1 — Schematic diagram of the S-meter ampiior BF section, Unless v0 re Cas, Sreeietett, anton ee ae i, somes con tn Seammagrane gt See ty Feustorces we eens {seero4) am '500-V ratings; bypass ‘21/900, M1, 000,000. =e capacitors are Cia AOpR DENY dacewamic ose yom pat text, 62,03 — 0.001-uF, 500. silver mica. (C4 Part of tube’ socket assembly (see tex). (C5 —500-pF, 5-ky ceramic (Centralab ‘8588-500 of equ). 08 — Seo toxt (approx. 6 oF. G7 — 140-pF ait varabla, recelving type. (C8 — 75-pF ceramic (Centralab 8503-75N ‘or equiv) LT aii tums no. 14 bare wire, Yeinch dia, 1" inches long, tapped one turn L2— 6 tuins no. 10 bare wire, 1-inch-cia, ‘Vie inches [ona, RFC1— 15 turne no, 16 enameled wire ‘losewound on a -incheaia feria rod. RFC2— 1% inches no. 22 enameled wire ‘close-wound on a "ieinch-da, Tellon® fod. RECS — Onmite 250 (or equiv. 5-10 yH BF choke) Vi socket — Eimac SK-600 or SK-620. V1 chimney — Eimac SK-808, Fig 3—Screen overcurrent protection circull, Resistors are 1/2.W, 10%-tolerance types DI1, DI2—1-kV, 25-8 silicon diodes Di4—4-A, 200-V SCR (Jameco C10681, ECG S485 oF equiv). 2-56 Chapter 2 K2—DPDT 12-V de relay, 1-A contacts (see tex! ‘A Cathode-Driven 40X250B T became aware of the cathode-driven totrode years ago while trying to get a 4-1000A to wotk on 50 MHz. The results were so good that, when it eame time to build an amplifier for my new solid-state tansverter, I decided that building a grid driven amplifier would be a giant step backward, ‘The 4CX250B is an excellent tube for 6- ‘meter use, This tube has a high plate-diss pation rating for its small physical size, has reasonable power-supply requirements, and requires approximately 10 W of drive in a eathode-driven, class-AB1 configura tion. (If much more drive is available, an appropriate attenuator must precede the input circuit.) The only differences be: tween this design and its. grid-driven equivalent are the filament/cathode and conteol-grid circuits FilamenwCathode Circuit In Fig. 1, notice that the cathode and cone of the filament connections are tied together. Normally, the isolation ereated by the physical separation of the two ele ments is sufficient to ensure stability, and ‘filament choke would not be required. 1 felt that this would not be the case on 50 MHz, and a call to Eimac contiemed it, At Bill Orr's recommendation, L tied the eath- ‘ode and filament together, and fed the filament through a choke. The cathode impedance is approximately 120 ohms. Ia the interest of best linearity and minimum, drive requirements, a tuned input cicuit is, used. The tank coll is tapped to present an input impedance of 50 ohms. ‘There are many sockets designed for use with this family of tubes. [recommend that you use one that incorporates @ built-in ‘Screen bypass capacitor (1100 0r 2700 pF; either one will do. A few of these types of sockets are so constructed that the four ceathode pins ace grounded internally; do ‘aot use one of these. An Eimac SK-600 or SK-620 socket is recommended. The four eeathode pins (2,4, 6,8) and one of the fila- ‘ment pins (7) of the socket must be wiced together to form one low-inductance con: nection. The easiest way 10 do this is to carefully bend pins 1 and 3 parallel to the chassis, and then strap together pins 2, 4,6, and 8. Make certain that this strap forms somplete eirele around the socket. For strap material, I use some stretched tnd flattened shield braid removed from RG-58 coaxial cable. All connections made to the cathode, or the filament (pin 7), can be made anywhere along this ring. See Fig. 2 for details, Grid Circuit ‘The tube grid is accessed through the socket center connector and is bypassed to round by Cl. The eapacitance of C| is not 4s important as its physical size. C1 should be a high-voltage, dise-ceramic type (2 kV ‘or more), whose Body nearly spans the dis- tance between the connection points, This provides for an absolute minimum leadFg, otc on on es ~ Power-supply section of the 6-meter ampilier. Unless otherwise specified, Tesistors are "/-W, 10%-tolerance types; feedthrough and bypass capacitors have 500-V ratings. {81 — Squirel-cage blower, 56 CFM. (minimum), 117-V ac motor. 1-010, incl, — 1-kV, 2.5:A silicon diodes. 13 —87-V, 5.W Zener diode KI — SPOT 12 de volay, 5-A contacts Ka — SPST 234-V ac rolay, 3A contacts (20 tex). length. Use a solder lug on the grid pin, and solder the other capacitor lead directly 10 {the inside ofthe air duct on the tube-socket bottom. ‘When my amplifier was first tested, I found that the plate current idled at about 40 mA, and was completely independent of arid voltage. This self-biasing was traced to a parasitic in the grid circuit, and was eliminated by the addition of a series-con- nected resistor, RI. If you wish 10 experiment, RI should be a "/-W, carbon- Tt —117-V primary; 6-V. 2.6-A secondary (see tex) T2— 117-V primary; 580-V ct, 75-mA Secondary with 6.3- and 5-V filament windings (see text. T3— 117-V primary; 12-V. 1-A secondary. ‘composition resistor with a resistance value that is the minimum required for complete stability. RI should be placed as shown in Fig. 2; | found that @ 3.9-ohm resistor kept ‘my amplifier unconditionally stable. In the interest of stability, don’t use chokes in place of R2 and R3 in the grid and screen circuits. MI, the grid-current ‘meter, can have a range of from 0-1 mA to 0-20 mA or 50, and is included only to en- sure that grid Current is never drawn, and the operation remains class-AB 1 Soren Circuit Relay contacts K2B are part of the screen overcurrent-protection circuit, the operation of which will be discussed later. Because the 4CX250B draws negative sereen current on occasion, the sereen-cur- rent meter should ideally be of the zero center type. As these meters are expensive and not readily found, a standard metercan be pressed into service by using bleeder stsing, R4, Notice that 15 mA of bleeder ‘ourrent is dyavn through the meter when- ‘ever K2 #8 open (normal). This offsets the actual zero reading of the meter to the Sm position and allows a negative cur- rent of 15 mA to be metered. This is more than adequate for the 4CX250B, If a zen ‘center meter is used, R4 may be eliminated tunless the sereen supply shunt regulator is replaced by a stries fegulator. In that case, the bleeder would be necessary to offset the effects of secondary emission. For the wvereurtent-protection circuit (Fig. 3), an SCR (DI) seems to be a natu- ral. A very small gate voltage, developed ‘across RT by the sereen current, turns on the SCR and causes K2 to close. This removes screen voltage from the tube and grounds the screen, preventing further abuse. A second set of relay contacts (K2C) is used tolightafront-panel- mounted LED. Dd continues to lock out the sereen volt- ‘age until the SCR is reset by removing i anode voltage, This is done by momen- tarily pushing the RESET switch, $3. DI, C15 and the filament windings of 72 provide de power for a 12-V relay K2.A relay with a different voltage rat~ ing ean be used if this supply is modified accordingly. The value for R7 was found experimentally by substituting a variable, low-voltage supply for the screen supply A.0-100 mA meter and load resistor were placed in series with R7, and she voltage, Slowiy increased until the gate threshold ‘was reached and the SCR fired. The thresh old current was noted, and R7 varied until the desired current would trigger the SCR. With R7 equal to 9.1 ohms, the SCR fired consistently at 45 mA. Since 15 mA of the current drawn through R7 will be bleeder current, this allows a maximum of 30 mA for screen Current, which is well below the 12-W soreen dissipation rating Jor the cube. Note that the entire overcurrent-protection cit- cuit is hot with screen voltage, so proper precautions must be taken during construc tion, I built the protection eireuit on a PC board, but it could have just as easily been chassis-mounted using terminal strips Construction ‘The amplifiris built on a3 8 x 17-inch chassis; 3 5X 7-inch chassis houses the ‘output network eamponents. A {0'- x 19 ‘inch rack panel is used for the amplifier front panel The general physical layout should be followed, as it is well dictated by the flow of the circuit. AIL RF leads should be kept as short as possible, especially the bypass ca pecitor leads. Keep the de leads cabled and VHF/UHF Amplitiers 2-57Fig 5—The final-ampiier-compartment cover has been removed for this oto as far away as possible from the RF leads. Most power-supply components ~ a ‘mounted on a fiberglass terminal board that is secured against the side of the chassis. K3, D9, CI I and RS (Fig. 4) constitute 4 time-delay circuit for filament intush: current protection, and ean be included if ‘you feel that this is important. Asit stands, the delay is approximately I second, whieh is more than ample. The 234-V ac relay is used on de, and closes at about 70 V. The charging rate of C11 is controlled by its capacitance and the ohmic value of RS, and ‘can be varied by changing their values. Ideally, the’ input and output relays should be coaxial types; however, I used a single open-frame, 3PDT type and encoun {ered no problems. The center pole is used for control (KIC), a that increases de iso lation between the input and output cir cuits. In grid-driven amplifiers, I have never been able to use an open-fraime relay for input and output switching. Because of the lower gain of this cathode-driven amplifier, lind no evidence of teedback or instability. Don't use plug-in type relays in theie original form for KI. Remove the case, plug and connecting wires, and bolt the relay directly to the chassis. Use coaxial-cable braid to make the RF con: nections. The power supplies (Fig. 4) are of Standard design. They may be replaced by ‘any supplies yielding similar voltages, and 2-58 Chapter 2 reed not reside on the same chassis as the ‘amplifier. The high-voltage supply should produce 2-kV de under load. Si turns on all, supplies, including the external high-volt- ‘age supply. S2, he STANDBY/OPERATE, switch, supplies power to KI, which allows the amplifier tobe placed in operation; oth- ‘erwise, the amplifier is simply bypassed Ifa6.3-V ac filament transformer is used for Tl, R6 will have to be. included to deop the filament voltage to6 V. The ohmic value (of R6 will have w be determined experimen: tally, Use a resistor with the highest wattage ating practical for good voltage stability Withan accurate voltmeter, measure the ila ‘ment voltage atthe tube socket with the fil ‘ment choke in place, as there will be a slight voltage drop across the choke. Nothing will cause a 4CX250B to go south” quicker than high filament voltage, and that means any- thing in excess of 6 V. ‘The filament choke (FCI) consists of 15 bifilar turns of no, 16 enameled wire wound on half of an Amidon /-inch-diam- eter ferrite rod. The rod can be cut to & proper length by filing a small groave round its circumference, and then break- ing it clean, Cover the rod with heat-shrink tubing or electrical tape before and after winding the choke, This will keep the rod and winding together, and make it self-sup- porting by its four leads. The meters 1 used all have 0-1 mA ‘movements and homemade shunts. The original meter-face calibration marks were carefully erased, and new ones applied using dry-transfer labels. Most such labels are ideal for panel marking, but are abit too large for meter-face use. Your local statio- nety store should have transfers with smaller-sized numbers. During amplifier ‘operation, care should be taken to avoid accidental contact with the plate-voltage ‘meter, as it has high voltage on it. Most VHF amplifiers have» higher- than-necessary Q in the output circuit becwese of the use of high minimum- capacitance sir-variable capacitors. This is acceptable providing the rest ofthe output components are heavy-duty types and can handle the higher circulating currests. (Fhe stall vacuum variable T used is admittedly first class, and it may not be used by many ‘other builders.) Rather than using an air variable capacitor, a homemade two-disc system isa preferred choice. If youcan find 4 neutralizing capacitor with plates of 2 inch diameter or So, that would be ideal. If {you must use an air-variable capacitor, use ‘one with the least minimum capacitance; remove all unnecessary plates leaving just tenouigh to do the jb. Tune-Up Before the tube is placed in the socket close SI and check that all of the operating voltages are correct. Ground the bottom tend of the bias string at KIC, and check that the BIAS potentiometer range will supply ~50 to~60 Vs then set itat—35 V.J1 should be connected to the external-circuit control jack of your exciter s0 that it is rounded when your exciteris keyed. Open Sland make certain all voltages have bled down, then instal the tube. Close SI and 2, After the tube warts up. with no drive applied, key the exciter and adjust the BIAS potentiometer so that the plate iting ‘current is exactly 100 mA. While the tube is idling. rotate all the ining controls throughout their respective ranges. I there are no sudden plate-current increases, the amplifier is stable. With a small amount of drive applied, tune the GRID and PLATE controls for maximum output. Once you are satisfied that both fof these controls will provide resonance, apply full drive and retune the plate resonance, Increase loading slowly, retun- ing the PLATE control each time, uatil soreen current of S mA (the meter actually reads 20 mA) is indicated. Observe how sensitive the sereen current Isto the opera tion of the LOAD control, and that it is, by far the best indicator of plate resonance, If grid current is indicated, you're over driving the amplifier. ‘Adjust the drive level and the plate TUNE and LOAD controls so that the platecestent meter indicates 250 mA and the sereen-cursent meter indicates 5 mA at resonance. Under these conditions, this amplifier develops a power output of about 310 W. With modulation, voice peaks should not exceed 150 mA on the plateFig 6—A bottom view of the 6:meter amplifior. The screen-protection eitcult is mounted foathe PC Goard tothe right of the tube socket, feerent meter, anda small amount of nega tive screen current is normal Summary This amplifier has been in operation now for over a year, and all reports of its ‘operation have been complimentary. Lhope that this amplifier will be duplicated by ‘many who had previously resigned them: selves to grid-driven designs. Much oF the material presented here is general enough to encourage interest in the cathode-driven tetrode as a viable alternative to the ‘rounded-grid triode. I will be glad to an- swer all letters of inquiry regarding this amplifier; please include an s.a.s.e Fig 7—Spectral photo of the &-meter ‘amplifier without external filtering. Vertical divisions aye each 10 dB; horizontal divsions are each 50 MHz. The fundamental (second pip from the left) has bbaen notched approximately 40 dB by ‘means of notch cavities 10 prevent analyzer overigad. The seventh harmonic, |s approximately 48 JB bolow peak fundamental output Fig 8—Tho addition of a simple fter (see Fig 9) at the amplifier output provides for ‘excellent harmonic attenuation, and is Use 's recommended. All conditions are fotnerwise the same as those af Fig 7 aa Fibs ore of smdarcharacterstes should be used at the output of the, ampliior. The fiter may be contained in a Bilt 2s x-5.n (HW) aluminum box. 616-619, incl—110 pF, 1-KV siver-mica capacitors, 1G. US—4 turns no. 14, YheislD, Ye in Tong, LAS tums no. 14, Then, in long. VHF/UHF Amplifiers 2-59By John Reed, W6lOJ From QST, August 1987 A UHF Amplifier-from Scratch Mui, BF, caminment designs involve undefined reactance. For ‘example, the self-inductance of a variable capacitor, or simply the method of attach- ing a S0-ohm cable to the circuit may ‘constitute reactance that is eritieal to the ‘operation of the circuit. The result is that ‘complete suecess in duplicating a circuit is tot likely unless the components and lay Sout are exactly the same as inthe original ‘This is nearly always a limiting factor for the do-it-yourselfer wanting to duplicate 3 project. Thisclass-C UHF amplifier project, uses homemade components that anyone ‘can assemble. Tests show that their use has resulted in little or no compromise in the performance of the amplifier over a design lusing far more expensive commercial parts. My amplifier shows more than 45 W ‘output with less than 2 W input at 435 MH. ‘The output stage efficiency is approxi- mately 60%, and includes a double-tuned filler Tor improved spectral purity ‘The key to this design is the glue-down stripline technique T have used in many ‘other UHE projects. This method permits easy modification of stripline parameters for optimizing circuitry. Stiplines are cut from double-sided, glass-epoxy PC board hhaving the same dimensions hat you wovid ‘choose using the etched-PC-boa‘d method. One side of the stripline is smeared with glue (Radio Shack all-purpose adhesive, 64-2307) and firmly pressed against the ‘common base PC board. Parts can be sol- dered tothe stripline immediately (without ‘waiting forthe glue to dry). No de connec tion is required between the glueline foils, and changes can be mide within minutes by lifting the glue-down stripline with a Knife and replacing it with one having altered dimensions, This project gives another example of how stripline param= eters can be ¥aried to optimize a circuit homemade variable capacitors. 2-60 Chapter 2 Combine PC-board material, transistors and glue—what do you get? Two watts in and 45 watts out at 435 MHz! Circuit Details See Fig |. The two-stage amplifier uses an MRF641 (driver) and an MRF646 (final)? ‘They were chosen primarily because of their availabilty in the surplus market. These are controlled-Q devices ‘with a combined minimum gain of 12.6 dB. Although the output stage is rated at 45 W, typical saturated output with a 13.6-V col- lector supply is about 60 W (including drive power) ‘The home-brew compression able capacitors, shown in Fig the overall design. I made them as small as possible (to minimize selfinductance), but kept them large enough to provide the nec- essary capacitance. The nominal */-inch- square compression plate results in a maxi~ mum capacitance of about 10 pF. The ‘material used for the capacitor plates is 0.031-inch-thick Reynolds sheet alumi- ‘num, which is available at most hardware and home-supply stores. (Hobby store sheet brass works well in this application, is also commonly available, and is fat easier to solder; itis a good alternative to aluminum—Ed.] The capacitor dielectric ‘material is 2.7-mil polyethylene from a Dow Ziploc® heavy-duty freezer bag. Although T have tested this dielecteic at a much higher voltage than it is subjected to in this application (at a high-impedance point in a vacuum-tube VHF amplifier) double thicknessis used asa safeguard. The insulator between the adjustment screw and compression plate is made from plastic polymer, Most clear plastics used for mis- cellaneous household applications are of this type. I use plastic from a box used in packaging @ tube of Grumbacher acrylic Artists paint, Glass-epoxy insulation will work also, but at the higher-voltageA es, (see Tex) ‘1, Fig 1—Schematie of the 435-MHz 45. amplitor 61-C11—Homemade capacitors; see text ‘and Fig 2 for details O12, C17—4.7.HF, 36-V electrolyte Gis, 15, 16, 18, 20, 210.0014, 50-V tisk corami C14, 18-0.1-uF, 50.V disk ceramic. applications (especially a C10 and C11) there will be some loss and component heating, Once settled on the capacitor configu: ration, the input and output stripline char acteristics were determined experimentally for optimum matching to QU and Q2. The related glue-down stripline and pad details are shown in Fig 3. The L2 LA '/s-inch-wide striplines act as RF chokes, making the inductance associated with the subsequent dise-ceramic capacitors. uncritical. The pads include a number ofthe capacitor sta- tors (C1, C4, C5, C6, C7 and C9). Foils which contact stator-adjustmentserews are reamed out to approximately ‘/+inch diam- eter to isolate the no. 2-56 serew from the stator. {did this with a large drill “inch. Serew contact withthe bottom foil may also ‘cause adjustment irregularities, so the foil was reamed appropriately. The stator plates rust be completely deburred to prevent puncturing the plasticbag dielectric. "The amplifier output is coupled through €9 to a 1:1 inductively coupled, double tuned filter. This 50-ohm filter consists of ‘bo striplines that are mounted parallel 10 each other and close together above the base PC board, as shown in Fig 4. Their close positioning establishes the necessary ‘mutual coupling, Each line is tuned to reso- fnance with a variable capacitor. As indicated in Fig 1, de-supply ‘decoupling is identical for both stages. The O.L-UF disk capacitors eliminate a bother- some low-frequency instability mode, RF chokes following these capacitors include twwo-turn sections with pencil-lead cores ‘0 ‘minimize the possibility of parasitics. The 4.7-4F capacitors eliminate low-frequency power-supply instability problems. .J1—Female BNC connector. L1-L5—Giue-down strpiines: see text and Fig 3 for details. Ls, L7—Alr-gap striptinos; see text and Fig 4 for details. P1—Male BNC connector. Q1—MRFeaT (Q2_MnFEa6. REC—10 turns, no. 26 enameled copper, falrwound, win diameter. wd Fig 2Variablo-capacitor conetruction deta lls, Tho “rotor plates are made from 0.031 Inch Reynolds aluminum sheet stock and polished with 320-grt sandpaper to ensure that ho burrs are left tha! may puncture the dielectric material. Plate center holes are inch tlameter. Connections are made to the capacitors by means of no. 26 tinned copper Wire, tignty wrapped (and crimped in a vise) around the tab on the capacttor and soldored to the appropriate circult board connection. Make these connections carefully to ensure good elacirical contact. See tox! materials Assembly The transistor-lead configurations are slightly modified to accommodate the glue ‘dowa steiplines. Both the base and collec- tor leads are bent up into an S shape so that the lead will overlap the stripline by “or details on the dielectric and washer approximately 1/16 inch when the transis- tor and stripline are mounted flush with tive base PC board. The leads are only 0.005-inch thick and can be bent easily with long-nose pliers, Care must be taken t0 ‘minimize stress at the lead-ceramic junc~ VHF/UHF Amplifiers 2-61wy © Ly Fig 3~Glue-down stator pad construction details. Slots are cut with a hacksaw ana then polished with a pattern fle The materials 0.062:inch-thick double-sided glass-epoxy circuit board material® After culling and fling, he pads must be polished with fine steel ‘wool to remave any Burrs tions, Also, "fs inch of each emitter lead must be cut off with scissors to allow room for the glue-down pads, Details of the mounting arrangement are shown in Fig 5. My transistor mounting method was dictated By the dimensions of an old Ye-inch-thick aluminum panel (with many miscellaneous holes), which I pressed into service as a heat sink. Fist [mounted each transistor on separate aluminum subbases, I then fastened the sub-bases o the heat sink. Thermally con- ductive compound is used between the Ieansistors and the subbases and bewween the sub-bases and the heat sink. This ar- rangement permits removal ofthe heat sink without disturbing the taesistor mountings when I need access to the bottom PC-board Foil, Note that the base PC board cutout includes notches at the base and collector leads of the transistors to prevent shorting 10 the common fol Detailed assembly like that shown in Fig 6 is easy onee the transistors. are ‘mounted, Simply smear glue on the pads and fit them into position. Start by posi tioning LI, followed by the CI stator, then €4,C2 and C3. Drill holes in the base PC board for the no. 2-56 capacitor-adjustment screws as you go along. At the same time, Solder the n0, 2-56 nuts on the reverse side (using a serew to hold them in position, Bend the capacitor tabs to make certain the plates will be fush with the stator, insert Ing the eapacitordielecitic asthe final step. Make certain the dielectric has been pushed in between the capacitor plates as far as 2-62 Chapter 2 possible (maximum safety margin), and use an aw to puncture the dielectric a the adjustment-screw position. The adjust ment screw can then be easily started through the dielectric. Operation UHF transistors ane great devices, but they can be damaged permanently with jest cone voltage transient, For example, a ac- cidental short by a probe during a trouble: shooting exercise, or the discharge of a probe capacitor atthe transistor's base lead ‘can be disastrous. Another common prob- Jem is instability that causes selfoseilation and excessive collector voltage (no insta- co aaron ./ a Fig 4—Construction details of the @ouble-tuned output fiter. The assembly is supported by copper brackets and parts of the variable capacitors.! wo.4-40 scnew rastens | tamer! fo fer I epee j | | | | on srt a ' | Fig 5—Piotoral of transistor mounting method. The same scheme is used for both the ‘nver and final transistors bility modes are evident in the amplifier surprising how little readjustment is re- described here). These possible failure modes can be avoided by limiting the col- -ector supply to 5 V (ores) during tune-up, 8 practically ail instability modes will be evident at this lower potential (particularly if the input drive is varied over a wide range). Following alignment at 5 V, itis, EO es 00S) o| . at e . ‘ ce © mY ©\\ = - quired whea the collector potential is in- creased to 13 V. (If you can’t reduce your power supply voltage, you may want to use ‘2 2N3055 as a pass transistor, driving it with an LMBI7T regulator [Radio Shack 276- 2041 and 276-1778, respectively].) This low-voltage test procedure is mentioned in Fig 6—Cireult board layout of the completed ampliier. Begin construction by measuring the center to-center cistance frome Q1 to G2 and then mount the transistors, working away from them as you moun! the other components. Use great care when mounting and Soldering the transistors into the circuit to avold damaging them. The PC board measures 9's n. x 6 sand is mado from double-sided, glass-epoxy mater PeB2e—see note 1). (esha Motorola Application Note AN-S48A.? Initial Tune-Up ‘The dummy load/power-measuring as sembly and narrow-band peak detector pick-off assembly used in tune-up are the Same as the ones that I used with my 15-W transmitter# The dummy load consists oF ten />-W resistors connected in parallel and arranged ina circle to minimize selt-indve- tance. Power measurements were made by calibrating dummy-load temperature rise with @ de input (ambient airtemperature conditions, no forced-ai cooling). This information is then compared to the {temperature rise of the dummy load result ing from the KF output of the amplifier. ‘The “thermistor” used for measuring the temperature rise is a INGA (reading the reverse resistance). Under key-down conditions during alignment, I place a blower at the chassis, fend to assist the limited heat-sink capabili- ties ofthe amplifier. Also, the dummy load requires forced-air cooling, as it becomes very hot in about (wo minutes under keydown conditions. Miscellaneous lengths of RG-8/M and RG-5R were used as attenuators to increase power measurement capability of this sys tem. In testing the 45-W amplifier, l used 4 total cable attenuation of 6.4 dB. This, increases the power-measurement capabil ity by 4.4 times. With a 5-V collector supply and 2 W of drive, first tune the input capacitors for maximum QI collector current, then tune the remaining capacitors for’ maximum power output. The output should be about RW. Increase the collector supply to 13 V: minor readjustment will probably be re- quired. My final measurements showed an output of 48 W. ‘Summary This is a well-behaved amplifier. After completing an experimental version on the breadboard, I built a new assembly using the data in this article, Aligament of this, final model was completed without any problems, and operation is lawless. The alue-down stripline technique is very rei able in this application, and is simple to-use Notes "J, Bleed, *A Simple 495-tH2 Transmitter” ‘OST, May 1885. pp 12-18, 45 2Those wransistors are avaiable irom FF Parts (Gompany, 1320-16 Grand aye, San Marcos, EX'da08s, tet @1-744-072 this note is reproduced in Motorola AF Device Bata our ean, tat pring, 1080) on apes 8 inrough 665, fs ook aval tom Motorot Literaiu'e Dstrbution, PO Box 20912, Phoenix, AZ 85096, tel 803-594- 8801, Coat ig $4.75 (plus 15 percent of the {otal for shipping). $8ee note 1 ‘My <3 nMe measuromonts neato ha the juredhas an attenuation of 9.030 per 400 feet (spaces as 7-5 6B per 100 feat st 400 Mis) ReG-58 has 15.96 pe" 100 eet {Gpectied as 12.048 por 100 eet at 400 Mea, Sayailable trom John. Meshra, Je. Ine, 13, ‘Aierton St Lynn, MA 01904, tel 617595- Bs. VHF/UHF Amplifiers 2-63CYA aes) From QST, May 1982 A Solid-State 6-Meter Linear Amplifier You Can Build he new breed of 8-to 10-W, solid-state vhf transceivers offer compactness and relative freedom from TVI. However, there are times when 10 W will not do the job. ‘This amplifier can correct that situation. used itduring the September vhf QSO party and was able to work every station I heard, except one, ‘The transistor used in the amplifier is a ‘Motorola MRF-492, which is designed for ‘use as an fm amplifier in the “vhf low” pub- lic service band. fn this service, the nomi- nal output is rated at 75 W with a 12.5-V collector supply. The manufacturer's data sheet shows a maximum output of 120 W at 16 V. Hence, in sb service feltit Would be safe to operate at the 100-W PEP level from @ 135-V supply. Although no numbers are given, the MRF492 is claimed to have load mismatch capability at high line and sf overdrive."* Circuit Description The amplifier schematic diagram is shown in Fig. 1, Since I do not believe in “reinventing the wheel,” the output match- ing network was taken directly from the Motorola datz sheet. This network, incor porating L2 and L3 in the signal path, should provide excellent harmonic rejec- tion, The network transforms the 50-0 load {impedance 10 the optimum transistor load (of 0.6+ 1.0. Note that this unit, like most rf amplifiers, does not have a 50-02 ou impedance. We simply adjust the output network to obtain the rated power into a 50-0 load. Fig. 2A is an amplifier output spectral display. While the harmonic sup- pression is good, additional filtering is ‘required before using the unit on the air. A simple, 5-pole, lowpass filter was placed 2-64 Chapter 2 Does your 6-meter signal need a little more punch? This amplifier will solve your problem—without breaking the bank! at the amplifier output, and the resulting spectrum is shown in Fig. 2B. The low-pass filter circuit is given in Fig. 3. Because the data sheet does not give val: ues for input impedance in Class B service, the input circuit was derived basically by trial and error (the second version worked). ‘The T matching network transforms the highly capacitive input impedance of approximately | Q to @ 50-Q nonreactive load for the exciter. Ina Class B amplifier itis necessary to forward bias the base-emitter junction. There are basically two ways of doing this: the shunt diode method, and the emitter-follower method, The latter method undoubtedly results in lower inter-modula- tion products, but Ihave destroyed too many transistor using that method to ty it with a $20 device. Forward bias is achieved by using the shunt regulator diode DI. This di- ‘ode must be connected tothe same heat sink asthe MRF492, QI. The voltage across Dis, adjusted to give a QI collector current of 100 mA with no drive applied. Do not at- {tempt to set the bias point by measuring the se voltage of QI —use a milliammeterin the collector supply lead. T used an un- ‘marked, surplus, 15-A rectifier diode for Dh Almost any diode will work, including power Zeners. I prefer a stud-mounted di- lode because it is easy to place in contact ‘with the heat sink, Just be sure the polarity is such thatthe cathode is connected to the cease, Several Motorola application notes specify a IN4997 for this application, Unfortunately, this i a press-fit device. In any case, the Heat sink must be grounded, Parts Procurement All parts, withthe possible exception of fan adequate heat sink, are readily avail: able. The MRF492 has recently been advertised by Westcom? and Semiconduc- tor Surplus. REC! is a Nytronies shielded ferrite choke, designed to reduce couplingFig. 1 — The schematic diagram of the amplifier cuit board. Decimal value capacitors tx disc ceramic and colarized caoacitors are elecirolyic. Resistors are 10% carbon pe C1 — oto 160-9F mica compression tinge, Arco 469 or equ. 02,08, 65 "50 to 0 pF mica compression trimmer, Aco 485 Or equ. €3."20- 10 420-pF mica compression ‘rmmer, Atco 486 oF equ DI "ISA, 50. rector dode (300 text) Fo Fete bead, aio Shack 279-1871 fssortmont or equ. U2 etna, 14 bare copper wie, ‘yi tnch', neh tong a) Lu Half loop of no. 14 bare copper wire, is inch igh, "a inch tong (see photograph) L321 of no, 14 bare copper wire, Sharineh 1D, Yeinch long. 21 — Motorola rf power transistor MAFae2 RECI — 6.8 nH, Nytronics SWO 6.8 or ‘equiv. (500 tex!) RFC2—No. 16 enameled wire, close wound over full length of a 330-0, 2-W carbon resistor. 8) Fig. 2 — The ampliior output matching network provides some harmonic cuppression (8). To further reduce harmonics, a simple low-pass fiter should be used (B). With the harmonies and spurious signals 2 more than 60 dB below the carrier, thus freaig curont FCC spurious gmisyan requlements for commercial equpmeni. In these displays, tne carrier ievei has been reduced by means of a natch visions are each 10 dB and the horizontal divisions aro aiyzer overload. Vertical liter to avold ‘each 50 MHz, These measurements were made in the ARAL lab. between the base and collector circuit. The J.W. Miller 9250-682 should be as good. A toroidal inductor of 1 to 10 4H would also be suitable since itis across an impedance of 1 Arco trimmers should be available from your local jobber. Lused a surplus heat sink, measuring 3¥% x 4!/s x 1°v inches, hich is quite adequate for ssb.* Anything ‘uch smaller will require 2 fan. Remem= ber, it must be for an one side. A replac: ‘meat heat sink for any of the 80- to 100-W 2-meter amplifiers would be ideal ‘The Circuit Board All the components shown in Fig. 1 ‘mount on, or through, the circuit board (Fig. 4). Use double-sided glass epoxy board and cut away narrow channels to separate the various land (foil) areas. To form the channels, use a steel ruler and a sharp utility knife to cut through the foil ‘Next, pull a hot soldering iron along the Fig. 3— A simple low-pacs fiter for use wih tho é-metor ampier. The design Information fr ths fiter was taken from the 1982 ARAL Radio Amatour's Handbook. the liter mounted outside {he ampitier cabinet, I should be enclosed Ine metal box for shioiding 6, C7 —B2.pF, 1000-V sliver-mica ‘capacitor. LE 16— 84 of no. 14 enameied wire Yieinch 1, Aecnch fg with singh leads (epproximalety 0.117). L328" Ofo. 14 enameled wire, Y-inch TD, Yeineh Tong with Vinch teads (approximately 0-2 nH) strip of foil to be removed. You should see itcurl up and away from the board, Start at fone end, and pry up with the knife fit gets stuck. You will have to drill two holes, slightly more than '/s inch in diameter, through the board to provide clearance for QI and Di. Use a smal round file to make the two clearance areas for the flanges of QL. Connect the ground foils on the top ‘and bottom of the board together by plac- ing short lengths of wire through holes drilled in the board. Place the wires close to the transistor emitter tabs and near exch ‘corner ofthe board. Use pieces of the same lype of wire you used t0 make the induc tors, and drill the holes just large enough to pass the wire, Solder the wire on both sides. Assembly Make sure you have all the pers on hand before you solder anything to the board. This will ensuce that everything fits prop- erly. To keep the inductors in place, T Grilled holes through the board and stuck the ends of the wire into the holes, You will hhave to remove the foil from around these holes on the bottom of the board to keep from shorting the inductors to ground. A. large dril bit works fine for this. Center the board on the heat sink, and dill the mount- ing holes for QI and Di. Although you may bbe able to use screws and nuts to attach QL and DI (depending on the heat sink design}, fa better method is to tap the holes for the desired serew thread. Mount the board to the heat sink near the corners, shimming it with washers (0 the same depth as the QL mounting flange. Drop QI in from the top ‘of the board. The tabs of QI should rest just above the top of the board when the flange is in contact with the heat sink. Do not put any upward pressure on the transistor tabs. Never eutorfile anf power transistor body = they contain berillium oxide. Itis highly toxic in powdered form and could be in- haled or absorbed through the skin, Fasten QI to the beat sink before sok VHF/UHF Amplifiers 2-65EMITTER Gr GROUND next to AFC! Fig 5- fon the circu board. Decimal-value capacitors are disc ceramic, and polarized unkts electrolyte type. Resistors are wite-wound ‘ype. D2-20-A, 50-V recttlr diode. REC3—One turn of wire through a TV dering it in place. Use thermal grease when ‘mounting QI and DI. Be sure to solder the full length ofthe tabs to the board, ight up te the body of the transistor. This is espe cially important for the emitter tabs. because nanohenrys of inductance here translate o decibels of gain loss Break off the litle tabs on the sides of the mica compression trimmers, Bend the tends of the mounting terminals with pliers to aid in soldering the trimmers 10 the board. Ia doing this, be sure the adjusting serew will not touch the board when it sal the way down. C2, C3 and C4 should be ‘wiented so that the serew is connected 10 the ground eed ofthe capacitor. For Cl and C5 let the serew end be the 50-0 side Putting It All Together [installed the circuit board and heat sink fon the back wall of a 3/2 x 6 x 10-inch Minibox. This is much larger than neces- sary, but does provide room for felays and 2:66 Chapter 2 ‘balun core (part of Radio Shack 273-1871 assortment ar equiv) «receiving preamp for an eventual remote installation. I usually discard the top (plain U-shaped) half ofthese boxes and bend up a new piece that fits over the other half, instead of sliding into it. Fig. 5 shows the biasing circuit and other chassis mounted parts. Control schemes for use with a transceiver are described by Kapplin® and Ridpath® (also see the ARRL. Radio Amateur's Herdbook). D2 does not have tobe heat sinked. It only has last long enough to blow the fuse in case the wrong supply polarity is inadvertently applied. On the other hand, the $0-0 bias adjust control (R1) gets quite warm, and should be mounted to the enclosure, In wiring the bias circuit, attach one wire from RI to DI and another ‘wire from DI tothe bias point on the circuit ‘boards all other connections are made to the circuit board, IF RI were connected to the circuit board, with a trap going to DI, you ‘would almost certainly damage the transis- tor if the strap 10 DI broke. Fig 4—Full-scale circuicboard pattern and parts-placemont guide for the 6-meter amplifier. Black represents those areas where copper has been removed by cutting or etching, The 10-ohm base resistor is connected between the base and ground fol and is positioned Alignment It is necessary t0 set the bias before aligning the rf circuits. For an initial check, disconnect the wirebetween DI and the cir. cuit board (RI is connected 1 DL). Apply power and measure the voltage across Di It should be possible to lower it o 0.65 V, or less, by varying RI. Set RI for the low- est voltage and connect the wire from DI to the circuit board. Now reduce the resistance ‘of RI until the collector current is 100 mA. Be sure you are measuring collector cur- ‘ent and not total supply current (you have about 30 mA flowing into D1). For aligning thetsiramers you will need, at Jeast, an SWR indicator and a 50-0. dummy load. You will, of course, not know how much power you are getting unless you also have a wattmeter. Connect the amplifier output to a dummy load and apply about I W of drive to the input through the SWR indicator. Adjust Cl and 2 for an SWR of I:1, With CS snug, but ‘oot tight, adjust C3 and C$ for minimum collector current. With the SWR indicator for wattmeter connected between the ‘output and the dummy load, adjust all the ‘wimmers for maximum output, If more than one setting gives the same power. pick the one that corresponds to the lowest col- lector current. Slowly bring up the drive and keep readjusting al the trimmers. With 8 W of drive you should get an output of 100 W. The collector current will Be ap- proximately 15 A. Readjust the input for 1:1 SWR at {ull power. This may, or may not coincide with maximum gain and you may have to compromise, During testing you might consider using a harmonica to generate a multitone signal to reduce the average power di pation (keep the speech processor off). If at any time the heat sink gets so hot you cannot hold your hand on it for five Sec~ nds, let it cool off. As a rough indication ‘of power output, I found that at 100 W, aInterior view of the 6-meter ampilier showing the parts arrangement used by the autho: The Input matching network is atthe right of the photo. Drake DL. 300 dummy load become 100 hot to hold after two minutes of key-down ‘operation To prevent rf ums, do not touch the dumray load while cf power is applied. To maintain linearity, adjust the output circuits for 100 W, even if you are going to operate at 75 or 80 W. Ievaluated the am- plifier linearity by making two-tone IMD ‘measurements with a spectrum analyzer. ‘Ata PEP output of 100 W, the third-order products were 25 dB below the PEP. At 80-W PEP they were down 30 dB. In over 100 contuets, I have not received any ad- verse comments on the signal quality Notes ‘Motorola ne , Motorola Rf Data Manual, 2rd ed. (Phoenix, AZ! Motorela Ine, 1980), p- 6-15, 2Westcom, 1320 Grand Ave.” San Marcos, CA 22068. Semiconductor Surplus, 2822 N. 32nd St, No. “Phoenix, AZ 82008, frm = inches x 25 4 55 Kapplin, "Boots for QRP Rigs,” OST, July 1981, pp: 15-20, 61, lgpath, “T-F, Switching with PIN Diodes, ‘a8 Maren 198%. pp. 1821 VHF/UHF Amplifiers 2-67By Wilson Hoag, WA5O Build A 6-Meter “Mini-Lini” Tired of being a QRP station? Boost your low-level signal with a pair of sweep tubes. ' low power enough for equality on 6 meters? Perhaps, but it has long been my contention that some stations are more ‘equal than others! One of the great features ff 6 meters is the ability to make contacts with usta few watts when the band is open. As solar activity begins to decline, band ‘openings will be shorter and less frequent. This amplifier will add punch to your QRP signal The current offerings of solid-state 6-meter transceivers and transverters pro- vide operating ease and good signal quality, but atthe expense of rf power output. This, coupled with the paucity of linear amplifi ers, resulting from the infamous amplifier ban, has caused an overall reduction in the average power output on 6 meters. ‘When I acquired my first solid-state rig, (an IC-551) some time back, my tendency was to use its scan Feature o locate a signal and then work the station with a 240-watt tube-type rig. A minor panic occurred when the tube rig “rolled over and died” midway through the °79-'80 F2 season, The Mini- Lini resulted feom that panic. Design Approach The amplifier was designed to be com- patible with common power supplies, use a feadily available tube, provide push-to- talk operation with the IC-551 and have approximately the same rf output as most tube-type transceivers. Fortunately, a de- sign incorporating most of these features had been developed by Ed White, WASRIA.! The major changes I made were in the methods of switching and bias jjustment. The tube used is the 6JB6, ‘hich is inexpensive, available and “happy” atS0 MHz. The biasing arrangement, an idea ‘borrowed from Doug DeMaw,* allows the tubes to be matched for safe parallel oper tion, This amplifier provides about 50 watts ‘of output when driven by a 10-wattexciter. ‘More than one year of almost daily use has been trouble free and productive (42 states, 2-68 Chapter 2 ouLae ne) including KH6 and KL7, plus JA and sev: ‘eral Europeans) Circuit Details ‘The circuit is conventional and typical ‘of many low-band amplitiers. The original design used acapacitive input, but [thought thatthe parallel-tuned input method shown in Fig. 1 would provide more output when used with other QRP drivers. This was proven in practice: The smplifier delivers about 20 watts of output when driven by an IC-S02. The potential problem of operat: ing unmatched tubes in parallel has been ‘avoided by biasing each tube individually ‘Component values shown will allow cov- cage of the entire 6-meter band. ‘The output network will not reject har- monic energy, and the second harmonic, as measured in the ARRL lab, was less than 40 dB below the fundamental (Fig. 2). This works out toa healthy mW at 100 MHz, “Most fm receivers inthe neighborhood will detect this easily. FCC requirements tor 8 commercial amplifier at this frequency are to have all spurious radiation a least 606 below the fundamental. To meet this requirement (and to pre vent a lot of RFI complaints) a 7-pole Chebyshev low-pass filter was built from data given in the 1982 Radio Amateur's Handbook, pages 6-11 and -12. Details of a filter with 0.01-€B of ripple and 60- MHz cutoff frequency are given in Fig. 3. The coils can be wound on toroids, oF be ait- core types. Amidon T44-10 (or larger) cores should be adequate. The number of {urns required will depend on core size or coil diameter, and can be calculated from data given on pages 2-12 and 2-30 of the Handbook. This filter reduced the second harmonic output to more than 65 dB below the fundamental (completely gone for all practical purposes). See Fig. 4WI Separate 6.3.V supply. (C1 — 50-pF miniature air variabe, ‘Cardwell 148-4 oF equly, 2, C3 — 22041F electrolytic, $0 ¥. {Ga 25:pf alr-variable, widespaced Hammarluna HFSOX or equiv G5 100-pF air variable, Johnson 149-5 ‘or equiv py minors Fig 2—Spectal display of the ampltier ‘output. Vertical divisions ‘and horizantal divisions a each 1048, ‘each 10 MHZ, K} — Spat 12.V de col, type preterred, or KRP!4DG, LT 6 wins no. 14 enameled wire," inch 10 x t-inch long, tapped at aparoximately 1's tuins. LoS tumns no. 12 enameled wire, 1% inch ID % 2" inches long. L3— 2 tums no. 12 enameled wire, 1% inch ID x "inch tong. mA — 0-300 mA de meier. MOT —717-V tan motor. Construction 1 should be possible to duplicate this amplifier for $40 or less, depending on the status of your junkbox, Oddly enough, the tube socKets proved tobe the most difficult component to locate, since they are not common catalog item, The 6IB6 uses @ 9-pin NOVAR socket, and the best source utmed out to be a shop that speci TV replacement pats. T is a junkbox item of questionable parent- age. Any spacing greater than about 0,060 inch (mm = inches x 25.4) should be okay. RADIOKIT of Greenville, New Hamp- shire would be a good source for all of the variable capacitors ‘My amplifier is constructed on an 8 x | on 68 TUNE a | | ete” com ot fret TUNE ‘Plug Socket ~ on 63Ve0 a | >| Toserovet never icc o uo cone! Ua irVvec Fg. 1 — Schematic diagram of the 6-meter linear ampilfier. The tube laments can be wired In eres, eliminating the need for a 1 — Chassis-mount octal plug. (Q1— NPN power transistor, TIPS1 or ‘equivalent (AS no. 276-2017) RY, R2 ~ 10-ka, 2W potentiometer. ECT — 900-uH choke with ferite bead ‘on the ground leas. RFC2 — 83 tums no. 28 enarefed wire on 'alsinch diameter ceramic form. The all és 2 inches long, 21, 22 — turn no. 16 enameled wire on 47-0, 2-0 resistor 10x 24 inch chassis (BUD AC-1418) for a base, with 8 x B-inch end panels. The panels were flanged with /%'/-ineb alu ‘minum channel for attackinent of a cane: ‘metal cover for safety and TVI protection. ‘Component placement is not critical, but all component leads should be as short as possible. The resulting layout was deter mined largely by some mid-project design changes aimed at making the unit compat- ible with a newly woquired IC-$02. Visible ‘on the lower-ight front panel are potenti- ‘meters that were reserved for coatrot of a planned sf-opersred T-R relay.* Tae cube sockets are modified slightly to ground the necessary tube elements. Copper ‘washers, cut from flashing copper, fit inside VHF/UHF Amp! 2-69Se cece Fig 4—Spectral display of the fmpliter output with {2 7*pole Chebyshev fier. Vervcat erences ane divisions are each : 108, and horizontal divisions fare each 10 Miz, Fig 8—Schematie diagram of a 7-pole Chebyshev low-pass fier. Capacitors are siver-mica units, combined in parallel or series to Sblain the design values. The text has information about winding the inductors, Fig 5—Bottom view of the ampltier chassis. Note the washers ‘on the tube sockets, used 10 provide a ground connection or the appropriate pins. Fig 6—Top view ot the Mini-Lini chassis. Large heat-dissipating plate caps and a fan holp maintain cool operation of the tubes. the pins on the underside ofthe sockets, Pins 1,4,7, 8 and 9 are bent over and soldered 10 the washer. The washers are grounded to the chassis with short pieces of no. 14 wire oF ‘opposite sides ofthe socket. Pins 2 and 5 of both tubes are bypassed to ground by con- necting 0.005-pF dise-ceramic capacitors from these pins to the copper washers (Fig. 5). The control grids are raised above de ‘ground while providing 2 path for rf return. Tealso permits us to apply a de bias to the control grid. This will establish the class of operation and eut the tubes off during re- ceive, if desired Coils E, L2 and L3 are wound with solid TW-insulated house wire from the local hardware store, I stripped the insula- tion from the wire before winding L1 and 2, but left it on L3 to prevent accidental contact with L2. The inside diameters shown are more the result of available cylindrical shapes than any electrical cal- culation, Coil spacing was adjusted, with the tubes in place, using 2 dip meter to ensure resonance at the proper frequency. Heat-dissipating plate caps and a small, fan provide cooling for the tubes. See Fig. 6. No thermal distress has been evident ‘under any operating condition. The fan can bbe wired through S1 or S2, depending on ‘whether cooling is desired during standby ‘operation. Power connections to the fan should be isolated from the chassis, ‘A possible modification, shown on the 2-70 Chapter 2 schematic diagram, involves the use of 3 3pdt relay for KI. The ground legs of RI land R2 can be wired through one of the normally open contacts. This lifts the po- {entjometers above ground in the receive ‘mode, applying full bias voltage and cut- ting off the tubes, ‘The bias voltage source and relay driver are “hard wired” on a small piece of pert board. The signal for T-R switching is applied to 32. This + 8-V signal is obtained from pin 6 ofthe IC-551 accessory socket. For use with other rigs, a9-V battery, wired through a foot switch, works well. Current drain on this battery is low. An rf-operated TR relay could be used in place of the directly keyed one described in this article. 82 disables the relay driver by removing the 12,6-V ae source in the standby pos tion to permit straight-through operatio Tune-Up and Operation Initial tune-up is simple and ordinary. Connect a dummy load and the power supply to the appropriate jacks. Any high- voltage power supply thai has an output of 750- to 1200-V de should be satisfactory. ‘Turn on SI and allow the heaters to warm up for a minute or more. Switch S2 to turn ‘onthe other voltages. Actuate KI to ground the bias resistors, RI and R2. Adjust RI and R2 to obtain 15 mA of idling current for each tube (30 mA total) Connect the exciter to the amplifier through an SWR indicator. Actuate KI and apply a small amount of drive, Adjust the position of the tap on LI for minimum SWR. Be sure to remove all voltages each time you move the tap position! Next, apply drive to the amplifier and adjust C1, C4 and C5 for maximum power, output. For those lacking a wattmeter, an ‘SWR indicator set in the FORWARD posi- tion can be used in the line between the amplifer and the dummy load. Conclusion ‘The Mini-Lini should be ideal for those looking for more output from their solid-state rigs. Typical operating parameters are 50 ‘watts out for 10 watts of drive, with 1050-V de on the lates. Reports of signal quality have been complimentary. Enhance your “equal- ity” and come join the fun on 6! I would be happy to answer any questions about the amplifier — enclose an s.s.e, please. Notes "The desion was taken from personal corre ‘spondence with Ed While, WASRIR. 20; Maw, “Some Ground Puls lo: Sweep. ube Lingar-Ampliter Design,” ST. Jul 1868, p30. “ 5p, Dellaw, "Some Thoughts About TV Sweep "jubes. GST, Feb. 1886, 9. tt *D_DeMiaw and J. Pusgteve, “An AF-Sensea ‘Antenna Change-over Neiay.” GST. Av. 1876, p21‘gers roc ean ats Fig. 1 — Schematic diagram of the ample. BI — 50-19 (1.4-m9)/min blower, Ripley Sk2754-2A or equiv L1_— 3% tums no, 16 enam. wire, inch (19 mm) tong, inet i G1, G2—Ar-vanable capacitor, ey Gor, 160-0107-00% or equiv. C3:C5, ine — Feedthrough capacitor, 800 pF, 300 V. C5.C8. incl — Homemade “lapoor” capacitor. Details of ‘consiuclion intext and Fig. 8. 5, G10 — Electrolyte capacitor, 600 uF, 25 v 51 Soowat 82 Zener dade. IN. 2/9907 o: equ 2.08, inc — 1-8, 1000-PIV code, 7N&0O7 or eguh D6 — 50-neit, 2i-volt Zener code (optional — sed text) Fi, F2— 3AG fuses, 41'= Chassis mount BNC female connector, UG-1094/U, 2 Chasele mount Nemale connector, UG-SEAN. 18 —Highvottage connoctor, Mion 37001 Ta, 35 ~~ Power connectors, as avallable 46, 37 — RCA phono Jacks. ict Time-delay relay, 90 second, normaly open contact, ‘Ampere 115NO3OT. 2" Contcl relay, 28-vol coll, 1-A 4pct contacts KS, Ka =" Goanial lays equipped with suitable connectors. Ka ‘should have N connectors, KS may be BNC or N E.F. Johnson 189-0565- 2-72 Chapter 2 (mn) diameter LS, Some no. 16 enar, wir, Yineh (16 mm tong, inch (@ mn) dametor Mf Tima meter movement with shunt to provide 600:mA tll scale defection MESA metor movement with shunts to provide 80-mA (gid curen and SV (pate wtage)fulrseale detection ni “Gilcurent shunt toi “otume no. 18 enam. wie, cose wou, nen (Sm dlamoter RECE FCS 40 tums no. 16 anam. wie, close wound, inch (Gcrin) diameter EG” Shuma no. 16 wie, one neh (25 mm) long, (6 may diameter gt" Toggle switch, spst. 82 — Toggle switon, spst 33 — Rotary switch’ single pole, tree poston 54 — Toggle swich, spat (optional, se tex) 1 — Filament ransforme’: 8-3, Stancor P6456 oF we Transformer linen 12.6 volts, 1A.USL Cue) Eocueue es Grounded-Grid Kilowatt Amplifier for 432 MHz Stable, linear operation for tropo or moonbounce DX... that's the end result of this project. nthe last few years I've built several igh-power 432-MHz_ amplifiers. that ied tubes from the 4CX250 family. While ‘worked well in Class C, their perfor +e when biased for linear operation lft amething to be desired. My previous ex- ice with grounded: grid triode ampli- "on 2 meters was 80 $004 that Ldecided @ ity the same approach on 70 em, An imac 8874 high-mu triode was selected this design and a crude prototype was lt in 8 few evenings, Alter verified, the amplifier described in this ile was built. Its stable, compact and livers over 500 watts output while re- quiring only a high-voltage supply and a source of about 25 watts of drive. The amplifier has been rouble free in over three years of heavy usage, Circuit Description AA schematic diagram of the 432-MHz kilowatc is given in Fig. 1, WI is half- wavelength strigline which is wed and loaded by C6 and C7 respectively. Plate choke REC4 is connected at the approxi- mate electrical center of the plate line. C8 fonctions as the plate-bypass capacitor. ‘The half-wavelength cathode line 18 com- prised of W2, L2 and C2. Ll and Cl serve to match the tube input impedance te the amplifier 50-ohm input, As the grid is ‘grounded for de as well as tf, D1 is used to develop operating bias at the cathode. R3 is switched in to supply near-cutoff bias during standby periods. Ml is used solely to monitor plate current in the high-volt- ‘age supply negative-return Lead, M2 is switched to read grid current, high voltage and relative output. The tates function is by means of an external line sampler.! ‘With the exception of the multimeter func tions the metering and bias circuits are similas to those in a 220-MHz. amplifier? Separate coaxial relays attached to the Pigh-power unt amplifier. The toggle ewitches control lament power and standbyloperate functions respectively. Multimeter Salon's selected with the switch located between the meters. while the plate tuning and loading contols are at the right. Modern ‘and homemade meter faces give the amplifier a commercial appearance.input and output terminals allow the ampli- fier tobe switched in and out ofthe line in manner popular with hfamplifiers, Time: delay relay KI prevents the amplifier from being switched into service for 90 seconds after the tube heater is energized, allowing the element to reach operating temperature. ‘A normally closed contact of K2 applies full voltage to the heater during standby periods. The voltage is reduced during operation as recommended by the manu facturer, Construction Plate and cathode-compartment con struetion is from 0.032-inch (0.8-mm) thick aluminum sheet attached to ¥/s-inch (13: mm) aluminum angle stock, Same angle stock may be anodized, giving the sertace 4 dull appearance. This material must be lightly sanded to remove the anodized ‘metal, which isa poor conductor. Holes are Grilled in the angle stock to allow attach- ment of the covers: these are tapped for no, 4-40 screws. Details of the 10.5 x 4 x 3:inch (267 x 102 x 76-mm) plate compart ‘meat may be seen in the toP view photo Construction of the cathode compartment is similar, and may be seen in the photo of the underside. It measures 4 x 4x Pls inches (102 x 102 x 44 mm), The alumi- rum brackets holding the rf enclosures to ‘he front panel also serve as end covers for ‘he compartments. Compartment spacing from the panel is four inches (102 mm). A $'/.x 19-inch (133% 483-mm) rack panel is sed, ‘The plate line was fabricated from a piece of /e-inch (1.6-mm) thick brass, Fig. Zeives detailed information for making the Aine, In addition to brass, lines were made from copper, both unplated and silver plated, with no discernible difference in efficiency. Double-sided G-10 printed ci uit board would probably work as well. Best thermal stability was obtained with the anplated solid-copper line. The line 4 supported by 15-inch (38-mm) long ce- ‘umic insulators, although standoffs made ‘9 Teflon will also serve, C6 and Cl are made from beryllium-copper sheet, Details ‘of theirconstruetion appear in Fig. 3. These “flappers” are moved with fishing line which is tied to '/einch (6.4-mm) fiber shafts. These shafts may be seen in the underside view. The anode collet (Eimse no. 008294) is, secured to the bottom of WI with standard {60/40 solder. Use no. 4-40 serews sad nuts to hold the collet in place during the solder ing operation. The grid collet (Fimac no. 882931) is attached to the chassis with ight no. 4-40 machine screws and nuts. A poor ground connection for the grid will {greatly increase the amplifierdrive require ents of make the unit totally inoperative. C8, the plate-bypass capacitor, is made from two brass plates, one mounted on either side of the plate compartment. A 0,005-inch (0.13-mm) thick piece of Teflon sheet is used for the dielectric material While this Teflon thickness may seem ‘Top view of the amplifier, with the plate compartment cover remove line (W2) and RECA may be seen al the top of the photo, Note the The tube, plato -ge number of holes drited in the plate compartment to rece the cover Nold-down screws. A tight Seal is required to prevent r and air leaks. ‘This bottom viow shows the cathode compartment and tho shafts for C8 and G7. A cover Is placed over the cathode compartment during tuneup and operation. inadequate, itis rated at 1000 volts per mil (0.03 mm) thickness. tis necessary to coat ie dielectric with Dow Corning type 4 silicone grease to fil in any imper- fections in the surface that might allow a Jeakage path and subsequent capacitor breakdown. This silicone grease has di electric properties similar to Teflon* A no. 8 (4mm) brass screw is used to hold the plates in place, and also acts as the high: voltage feedthrough terminal. A 3/8-inch (10-mm) diameter washer was sliced from a Teflon rod and used to center the screw in the hole. Fig. 4 gives details of the remait= “Altematively, an Erie 2498-001-x5U0-102M 100:pF 4K fe mor may be Used. This. compe fae. fom ‘ABGOS, P.O: Box 546, East Greenbush, NY ‘00, Fig 2—Dimensions ofthe plate line are given nero. The line may be constructed from ‘hench (1-6-mm) thick copper oF brass. Comers of he ine should be filed to give a Sheinch (S-mm) radius.Sans een Goukecraeusd A Quarter-Kilowatt 23-cm Amplifier Imagine, a linear amplifier with great efficiency and long-term stability that is super quiet and small in size. Sounds like HF? Not exactly... Tome, ther is nthing more frustrating than having to dig through « construe tloa article to find out exactly what perfor- mance you can expect from the Finished product. So here itis: 1) Grounded-grid 7289/2039 cavity amplifier, single tube 2) Linear operation (what you put in, you get out, only more of i) 3) Covers 1240 to 1300 ME. 4) Power. gain ranges froth 12-20 dB pending on output power, input power, loading. anode voltage and grid bias volt. Ve. 53) $0-chm input and ouput — no stub tuner required ‘) Power output greater than 200W with about 12-W drive, This is Part 1 of a two-part article Tn this installment, T deseribe the design ani construction of the RF deck, Part 2 describes power-supply construction, test ing and operation ‘This amplifier is a wied and proven design. Much development work has gone into tis project. The amplifier works well, isteliable and canbe duplicated. More than 5 ofthese amplifiers have been built to fate, I have successfully worked many 1296-MHz EME (earth-moon-earth) sta- tions with one of these amplifiers and a Mirelement loop-Yagi array during the past year. Amplifiers of this design were ‘sed on both ends of the first California. Kawaii QSO on 1296 MHz, Another unit tas logged more than 20,000 hours of eon- linpous operation atthe KHOHME beacon, ‘General Design Approach ‘Acavity amplifier is similar toa conven: tonal amplifier designed fr lower fequen- sles. The tube anode excites a cesonant ‘ruil, and power isin turn coupled into a Toad, usually $0 ohms, Instead of using coils tnd capacitors, as at lower requencies, the cavity provides the resonant cireut neces sary {0 tune the amplifier output. ‘The anode cavity of this amplifier is a squat cylinder, Cylinder height is set by ‘mechanical tube requirements. The inside diameter of the cylinder scts the highest resonant frequency. Any capacitance added front the top tothe bottom of the cavity will, lower its resonant frequency, as. will increasing the cavity diameter. “This amplifier uses '/-inch-thick eop- per plates for the cavity top and bottom, fnd a thick-wall alomioum ring, cut from tubing, forthe wall," This heavy construc- tion virtually eliminates all resonant-fre~ {quency variations caused by thermal and mechanical changes, Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of the cavity amplifier. The circuit is simple. Filarsent voltage and cathode bias enter the RF deck through feed-through capacitors (C4, C5) and RFCI and 2. High voltage is fed to the anode through RFC3. C8, the ‘anode bypass capacitor, is homemade ror Teflon® dielecttic sandwiched between a copper plate and the chassis. ‘The input pi network easily tunes the ‘entire band at any power level. itis made from two Tohanson piston trimmer caps tors and a “coi!” made from copper wire ‘An input eavity is not nevessary at 23 em. Output coupling is through a rotatable Joop that serves as a vatiable loading control. This allows amplifier-tuning flex ‘bility: it may be tuned for maximum gain or for maximum power. Light loading can produce stable power gains of up to 20 4B. ‘Amplifier tuning is accomplished with 1 homemade cylinésical coaxial capacitor with Teflon dielectric (C6}. There are no ‘moving metal parts to cause erratic perfor mance. The Teflon rod/tube screws in and Microwave Amplifiers 3-1Fig. 1 — Schematic dlagram of the 23-cm mit. Ci" SF lipped mica capac. 62,63. Tope piston timer capactor Jonandon no: 2957, 5201 oF eau C8 odetuning capacitor. See txt rd fg cs sode:bypass copector, 90 pF omemae tom Soppe lst and Tflon Shoot "Seo txt ard tga’, 12 and 3 C8 yse corame, 00887218, 240 capastor Je Sm SMA connector, chassis mount tonal 12 Nioted Type-N connector. See txt ‘nd Fig, 1d Feta enassi- mount BNC ‘connect, Top tno. 18 bus wre soldered betwaen G2 and 69, See fig 18 12 Ctipccouping gop. Pato ouput conrasoreasemby. Soe tox and Fg. 7 AEC ares =p tune no 20 bun wre, Shethan RECA 3 tins no. 20 bus wire wound on 2 2bohm, {-W caibon-composiion ‘out of the coaxial capacitor, increasing or decreasing the capacitance by changing the amount of Teflon dielectric inside the eyl- Inder. With the rod all the way in, the di- electric is all Teflon; with the rod all the way out, the dielectric is all air. ‘Teflon has a relative dielectric constant (relative to air = 1) of 2.05, which means that the value of the capacitor with the rod all the way in is twice the value of the capacitor with the rod all the way ovt. Full, capacitance will pull the resonant fre- quency of the amplitier down to 1240 MHz. Use of only one tuning adjustment means the amplifier will have more gain because ‘cavity shunt capacitance has been mini- mized. “Thermal Considerations ‘The cavity walls are formed by a thick ‘wall aluminum ring, which is sandwiched between two thick copper plates. RF and 3-2 Chapter 3 TEMPLATE CONSTRUCTION a * NeRENENTS Lcoenol arpuies: Fig 2—Complete dimensions for tne aluminum template. ‘thermal properties of these wo metals are reasonably close, whereas brass is rather poor in both respects. The 7289/2C39 tube used in this amplifier is being run a2 2's times its normal dissipation ratings therefore it’s importantto have a cavity that remains thermally stable, Most previously described amplifiers have used sheet brass in their constzaetion, ‘This has usually meapt constant retuning of resonance to maintain output power at or near maximum. “The copper and aluminum construction in this amplifier has solved all thermal sta. bility problems. The amplifier can easily be run key down for over an hour at 200-W ‘output without retuning. This, of course, is, obtained only with a good tube and water cooling. A practical water cooling system will be described in Part 2 of this article Water cooling keeps the internal stuc- ture ofthe tube thermally stable, When air ‘cooling is used for output levels of 100 (0 150 W, output power fluctuations are a direct respi of internal tube changes. These ‘changes vary from tube to tube and must be tested for, In some cases, otherwise perfectly 2ood RF tubes have had poor the- ‘mal stability, Such tubes can make good drivers at lower power levels. Ising Simple Hand Tools Will Hand tools are great if you are skilled ‘and patient. Most people want to hurry up and finish their new project. If that's you, then have a machine shop make all ofthe parts, leaving you only the final assembly. It should cost aboue $200. The parts are not difficult to fabricate, bu the process is time consuming. If you have the time and patience to doit yourself, this amplifier can be very inexpensive. Gathering the Materiais Al of the materials used in this ampli- fier are fairly common and should be avail- able from suppliers in most metropolitan areas, Some suppliers have “short sale" racks, where they sell odd pieces cut off standard lengths or sheets at reduced prices. The parts for this project are small ‘enough to be fashioned from cutoff stock. Surplus-metal houses have some great buys, so start there if one is nearby. “The key to successfully completing this project is careful layout work before cute ting or drilling any pars. Invest in a can of marking dye, a sharp scribe, an accurate tule, vernier calipers and several center punches, These tools are available at any ‘machinists’ supply shop. The marking dye ‘will make cutting and filing Fines much easier to see. Measure all dimensions as ‘carefully as you can and then recheck them before cutting. Mark with a sharp scribe because the sharper the seribe, the finer the ‘marked line, andthe finer the marked line, the closer your cut will eto where it should be. Remember—the accuracy of your drilled holes is only as good as your center- punching ability, so vse a fine punch for the first mack and then a bigger one to enlarge the mark enough for drilling Access to a drill press is a must. I's extremely difficult drill holes accurately with a hand drill, Although they are‘ot absolutely necessary, you should have access to a lathe or milling. machine. Other tools that will aid you with this project are a nibbling ool, a set of punches, ‘anew set of files and some sharp drill bits, Ifyou don’t already have one, purchase a filecard o clean metal shavings out of your files as you work. Clean, sharp files are faster and more accurate to work with ‘You'll also need an assortment of sandpa- per for the final finish work ‘The Template Approach T highly recommend fabrication of a Je template for marking and drilling the ‘anode plate, anode bypass capacitor, cav: ity ring, grid plate and front panel. The template shown in Fig. 2has al of the holes fot these parts. If you use the template, you'll only have to make the careful mea” ‘urements once — after that, its simple to ‘mark and drill the rest of the parts. ‘The template approach offers several ther advantages. A template makes it ‘uch easier to maintain accuracy between the anode plate, cavity ring, grid plate and front panel; these parts will fit perfectly because they were all drilled from the same master. The template approach also makes itpossible to set up a small production line if you decide to build more than one of these amplifiers and combine them for higher power, or if a friend wants to build tn amplifier along with you. See Fig. 2 for complete template dimen- sons. Start with a piece of Yieinch-thick sluminum stock that is larger than you need tnd degrease it with soap and water. Dry it olf and spray it with marking dye. Scribe a ich square on the stock and cut the tem= plate to size. A shear will make this job Inuch easier, but it can be cut with hand tools and filed to size. Carefully measure and scribe all holes, Note that holes A and B are on the circum Ference of circles, Use a compass to scribe the circles, and then locate the holes. After you have marked and checked all holes, ‘eéenterpunch and drill them. The holes Should be drilled with a Yicinch or smaller jt Recheck all measurements. ITyou goot, Sart again. The time you spend making the emplate as perfect as you can will save ‘you much time and aggravation when you make and assemble the other part ‘When you finish the template, mark the front side for future reference. All plates ‘made from the template are marked and Grilled from the front side (as viewed from the front panel). Making the Copper Plates ‘Once you have completed the template, fa will be easy to make the copper plates. ‘The anode plate, grid plate and anode- bypasscapacitor plate are all made from Yeinch-thick copper. Sce Figs. 3. 4 and 5 for the dimensions of these pieces. Measure and cut the three plates 10 the oper dimensions. Carefully break (debut) all sharp edges to avoid small cuts to your fimgers and hands. Fig 8—Driling details for the anode plate. ‘See Fig 2 for aritional information on hole losation OD: en Ie eu eere noe Fig 4—Driling details forthe are plate, See Fig 2 for additional information on hole fogation. proba! cc elf oe coneen Fig 5—Driling details for the anode bypass capacitor plate, See Fig 2 for ‘adaitional information on hole location. Clean the plates with alcohol and spray them with marking dye. Clamp the alumi- ‘num template to each plate, and carefully scribe the correct holes, Remember that all plates do not have the same holes. The an- ode plate uses holes A. B, C, F and H; the grid plate uses holes A, C,D, Gand H. The ‘node-bypass-capacitor plate uses holes B, E and U. Use a small center punch to punch all holes lightly. If they then look accurate, enlarge them enough for drilling. ‘Copper isn’t the easiest metal to work with. I's very stringy, and drilling itcan be frustrating. You'll need the proper drill bits for best results. Special drills can be pur- chased, or you can use a grinder to care- fully remove the sharp points on the outer ‘edge of the cutting surface of each side of a standard drill bit, This will eliminate any tendency for the copper to grab. Practice ‘on an old bit and be sure to grind it sym- metrically. Modified drill bits can still be used on aluminum and other metas. Always start with a smaller drill and ‘work up tothe final hole size. It's safer and ‘more accurate. The larger holes can be c with a flycutter, or you can drill a series of smaller holes around the inside of a larger hole and file to finish, Either way is fme. Use lots of cutting fluid to lubricate the Aril bit, and wear safety glasses and an old shirt, Remember, some cutting fluids are not to be used on aluminum, Start with a n0.50 (0.070-ineh) or smaller bit and drill pilot holes at each of, your punched marks, The details for fin- ‘shing each hole ae listed in the drawings. Some holes are countersunk or tapped. Pay attention to the details, and take your ume. ‘When you are through drilling, you must deburr each hole. Copper is soft, 50 it tendstorise up around the hole during deill- ig and deburring. Use a flatfile for the initial cut, and then remove any remaining material with a countersink. File the cop- per plates lat again a flush fiton both sides, (of the aluminum ring is important. When all copper work is done, you should be able to stack the plates and see all pertinent holes align correctly. Enough tolerance is included in the dimensions to accommodate minorerrors. After the holes are drilled, it ean be difficult to tell which side of each plate is which, so mark the front side of each plate with a permanent ‘marker. Machining the Ring ‘The aluminum ring that forms the cavity wall is cut (sliced) from a length of 34-inch OD tubing with a %/-inch wall thickness, See Fig. 6. The tubing ID is about 2% inches. The dimensions of the fing are the most critical in this amplifier. Telerance of the ting thickness is + 0.005 inch to maintain full band coverage. The ring can be hacksawed or band- sawed out of the tubing, but take extreme ‘care © be accurate, Cutting tubing straight isn't easy. Clamp the tubing to prevent rotating on the band saw. The final finish cout is best done ona lathe or milling ‘machine, but careful filing will work. Once the ring is the correct thickness, burr the sharp edges and spray it with ‘marking dye. Notice that the outside and inside diameters are not concentric. This is normal for large tubing. Lay the ring flat ‘and fmd the thickest wall section. Scribe a Microwave Amplifiers 3-3Fig 6—Dotals of the ‘cavity ring. See Fig 2 for fadaltional information on hole location 4 Ort pom coe tong taps don’t exist. The inside ofthe ring doesn’t need to be polished, ‘The hole for mounting the output con: rector can now be drilled. There are two ‘ways to mount this connector, and either scheme works fine. Read ahead to the sec tion on making the oviput connector for more informetion, ‘The first method of :mounting the connector involves tapping the ring with a no. %h-24 tap and using a lathe to cut matching threads on the output con- nector coupling sleeve. Large taps are ex- pensive, but # tap and die for Type-N con- ‘nevtors are handy if you do much building. If you don’t have access to a lathe or a large tap, the second method is easier ‘Make the output connector coupling sleeve from Sfrineh-OD brass of copper tubing, and drill the ring to just clear i, Then drill dnd tap the grid-plate side of the ring above the output connector to accept a selserew. Also, drill a clearance hole in the grid plate forthe setserew. Use the setscrew 0 secure the output connector. Output Connector A. standard Type-N_ chassis-mount feinale connector (silver plated) is used for the output probe/connector. See Fig. 7. First, remove the flange with @ hacksaw and file flush with the connector body Next, make the output-coupling sleeve that is right for your application (threaded orunthreaded, depending on how you fab ricated the fing). The sleeve will be the ‘same length in either case. The output-cou- pling loop is fashioned from a piece of 0,032-inch-thick copper sheet that is */x inches wide. Bend it to the dimensions shown in Fig, 7. We will solder the output connector together later. Grid Compartment ‘The grid compartment measures 2 inches square by 1's inches high. See Fig. 8. vis made from brass and can be sawed fut of square tubing or bent from sheet. The cover can be made from any material. use two small PC boards (Fig. 9) for aod if rT Fig 7—Outpu-probe/connector assembly tals, Tine across zhe wall at this point, across the center ofthe ring and aeross the wall on the other side. The scribed lines on each side fof the ring will be used to align the tem- plate. The output connector will be placed at the thick wall section, Carefully align notch I on the template with the line seribed on the thickest wall section on the ring. Clamp the template conto the ring. Mark each of the II holes labeled A on the template. After you mark the holes and remove the template, check alignment with the copper plates just in cease. If everything lines up, center punch alleleventholes onone side ofthe ring only, and dill each hole completely through the ring, Use lots of cutting uid. File the ing flat before and after deburring, taking care not to change the wall thickness, Tap each hhole to accept no. 4-40 machine screws. Each hole will have tobe tapped to a depth of atleast" inch from both sides because 3-4 Chapter 3 _ Foust 2 @ oz Ff 03 @ @® || ono rare Tse bee .f ~~ ral@: | eh | | aa qu rt Fig 6—Input-compartment detailsFig 9—Cathode and filament PC-board elas olding the fmger stock that makes contact ‘with the filament pin and cathode ring on the 2C39 tube. These boards are cut from 'Yeinch-thick, double-sided G-10 glass epoxy stock. The copper pattern is identi «al for both sides of each piece. Mark and Adil or file the holes first, and then cut the ‘boards to size. Small boards are difficult to eld while drilling them. Mark each side of ‘each board and score the copper foil with a sharp knife. ‘The unwanted copper can be removed cemsily by heating the foil with a soldering fnon and lifting it off. Use a flat file 10 debusr the boards, Do not use a countersink [because the copper foil must be as close to the holes as possible to facilitate soldering the finger stock in place. ‘The input connector that L use isa S-mm ‘SMA type. This is an excellent RF connec ter, especially for low-power UHF appli cations. I highly recommend use of an SMA, but any small screw-on connector will do. If you really feel you have to use a BNC then do so, but it's lousy connector at frequencies above 200 MHz. Remember to move the connector hole to aecommo- date its larger size. ‘The input connector must be is close as possible to the first input capacitor. The Jead length ofthe input de blocking capaci tor must be as short as possible. The 3-pF capacitor is series resonant at 1200 MH2 only with short ("/u-ineh or less) leads Miscellaneous Bits and Pieces ‘There are still several small, but very ‘important parts to fabricate. The front panel use is shown in Fig. 10. Its made from a piece of Yeinch-thick aluminum sheet. Some builders may wish to mount the amplifier on a rack panel. Wash and dry your front-panel material and spray it with ‘marking dye. Clamp it to the template and ‘mark the holes. Check the hole alignment with the copper grid and anode plates. If all Tines up correctly, center punch and drill the holes. The only front-panel control is for the anode tuning capacitor, whieh is adjusted by 2 Yeinch shaft protruding through a %-inch panel bushing in hole C. ‘The anode tuning collar, shown in Fig. IIA, is made from a piece of '/-inch OD brass rod. This rod has a %einch hole Grilled through its center, and itis turned down to "he-inch OD forhalf its length. The inside of the /s-inch-OD end is tapped to a depth of Ys inch to accept Ys-24 threads, This collar will be inserted into hole C on the grid plate Fig. LIB also shows the anode tuning post. It is simply a length of *ha-inch-OD brass rod that inserts into hole C on the copper anode plate. This rod will form one plate of the anode tuning capacitor. ‘The anode tuner (Fig. 11) is machined fromapiece of Yh-inch-OD Teflon od. One end of the rod is drilled out with a no. 21 Gril. The outer wall ofthis end is threaded with @ no. Yi-24 tap. This is the end that will dread into the anode tuning eollar and slip over the anode tuning post. The other ‘end is turned down to fit inside @ "cinch shaft coupler. Fig. 12 shows the remaining parts. The tuning shaft (A) is made from a piece of "Jeinch brass rod. A coupler (B) to connect the tuning shaft to the anode tuner may be purchased or made. This also applies to the front-panel spacers (C). The Teflon dielec- trie for the anode bypass capacitor (D) is ‘made from 0.010-inch-thick Teflon sheet. Use the template to locate holes B and H. Teflon washers and inserts (F) are used to insulate the mounting hardware for the ‘anode bypass capacitor from the chassis The inserts are made from '/-inch-OD Teflon rod. The washers are made from Teflon sheet. Sharpen a piece of /r-inch aluminum tubing and chuck it up in a dill pres, This tool will cut neat, round wash fers from the sheet, The box that encloses the anode com- partment (Fig. 13) is fabricated from a Bud ‘AU-1083 utility cabinet. Clean the chassis, tnd spray it with marking dye. Secure the template to the side of the enclosure that contacts the anode plate and scribe the holes labeled F. Make sure that these holes line up with the holes on the copper anode plate. If they do, center punch and drill them (o size. If aie cooling is used, the blower will mount to this box. fe 00+ 29] 20 (crtwns ee ra) Seem [vey Rae aes sont cent tan om . toes oo ebly sic oe FT a alt . “iva pane Fig 10—Front-panel details Fig 11—Anode-tuning capacitor details, Microwave Amplifiers 3-54, =—T,0 poe he Tb mnegaanee velo arene? ke ane FRONT ane, spaces Fig 12—Miscallaneous parts necessary to complete the amples Gum, tO aaa aii bos al io] be eto citi wet Pr |, smoor excionu Fig 19~Anodeenciosure details. Soldering the Subassemblies Once all copper and brass parts are drilled and deburred, they shouldbe cleaned with alcohol and Scotch-Brite®, a onmetaffie pot cleaner, and washed in alcohol again. Set the pieces aside and avoid touching them. Fingerprints will in hibit soldering. have found that the best way to solder the heavy brass and copper parts is to first build the soldering fixture shown in Fig. 14. This soldering fixture, made from "= inch-thiek aluminum plate, willevenly heat the entire assembly to be soldered. Even ‘heating will allow you to do a much better soldering job than you could otherwise, ‘The Soldering fixture should be_ pre bested on a stove of hot plate until bits of solder placed on its surface just melt, At this 3-6 Chapter 3 HF Fig 14—Dimensions of the soldering fixture. See Fig 2 for more information on hola location point, reduce the heat slightly. Avoid exces- sive heat. Ifthe copper parts placed on the fixture suddenly turn dark, its too hot Solder the grid plate assembly first. You will need the copper grid plate, grid finger stock, anode tuning collar and brass input compartment.’ Look at the drawings again to be sure that you know which parts go ‘where. Insert the grid finger stock into hole H on the grid plate. As viewed from the front-panel side, the curved fingers. will protrude out the back side, away from you. Apply liquid or paste flux and Set the grid plate in the soldering fixture. The finger stock will itn hole H in the fixture, allow ing the grid plate to rest flush with the sue- face of the fixture. Next, apply flux to the anode tuning collar and insert itin hole C of the grid plate. Part of the tuning collar will slip into hole C in the soldering fixture. Make sure the collar seats flustr with the arid plate. The flux shoutd start to bubble. Carefully apply solder directly to the Jjoiats of the installed parts. The solder Should melt almost immediately and flow bright and smooth. Next, place the square brass input compartment in place and apply flux. In a few seconds, it can be sol dered by running solder around the joints, inside and outside. If you have trouble get. ting it to flow on both sides, merely tap the brass box aside (we inch) and retura itt its original position, Now comes the hard part — getting the soldered assembly away from the heat ‘without disturbing the alignment. A pair of forceps is recommended, but long pliers ‘will do, Carefully lift the assembly off the soldering Fixture and set on a cooling rack. Do this without moving any part, The cool- ing rack can be any two pieces of metal that will allow clearance for the protruding parts. You can expedite cooling by using an ordinary hair dryer in the “coo!” posi- tion to gently blow air across the assembly. While the grid assembly is cooling, assemble the output counector, See Fig. 7 Place the modified Type-N female connec tor, ehreaded end down, on the soldering fix ture. Apply flux to the top and install the ‘output coupling sleeve, Allow both parts to heat before applying Solder. Carefully re ‘move the soldered ourput connector from thefixture, When it has cooled, solder one end ‘ofthe loop to the center pin ofthe N connec {orand the other'o the output coupling sleeve Now place the anode plate on the sol- dering Fixture and allow to heat. Apply flux to hole C. Insert the anode tuning. post (C/n-inch-OD brass tube) and allow to heat apply solder. Remove the parts and cool Next, solder the finger stock in hole H on the anode bypass capacitor plate.” ‘This completes the work with the sol- ering fixture. Be sure to let it cool off before handling! Save the fixture for future construction; you never know when you ‘might want it again, “The anode plate and the anode-bypast- capacitor plate must be filed and then sanded flat on their butt surfaces f0 assure that there are no solder bumps or sharp points to puncture the Teflon dielectric ‘This must be done after soldering. The Teflon sheet is adequate insulation for ‘many times the anode potential of this amplifier, but only if the surfaces it sepa- rates are smooth! Next, clean the eathode and filament PC boards. Install the fmger stock in hole H the cathode board. Apply flux to both sides of the board, Heat with a hot iron and apply solder around the circumference of hole H, soldering the finger stock on both sides Of the board. Use the same technique #0 install the filament pin Afterall parts have cooled, use a spray ccan of flux remover to clean them. Slight serubbing with Scotch-Brite pot cleaner will finish them nicely. Congratulations: You have finished the pieces and are nowFig 15~Assembiy detals for the flament and cathode boards (A), the anodo-bypass ‘capacitor (B) and the input pi network (C). ready to bolt the amplifier together, Silver Plating Over the years, many people have pushed silver plating as the only way 1 go You may wish o silver plate the amplifier components before soldering. them (o- gees, but {do nat eink it's necessary. 1 fan several fests to prove how much vari- (as types of plating affect performance of this amplifier. Remember thatthe RF skin enductivity of aluminum and copper is ety good at 23 em: they are much beer than brass Four amplifiers were built for this test ‘They were plated as Foliows: 1) Nickel plated 2 Tin plated 4) Silver plated 4) Unplates ‘There was no difference in performance among the tin-plated, silver-plated and nplated versions, The nickel-plated am- plifier exhibited 3-0B less gain Taother words, tis aot necessary tose ver plate this amplifier: however, t docs improve appearance by making the par similar color. Silver does tarnish, espe- Gilly with Fingesprits. ‘The decision to Plate or not to plate is up to you Assembly After fabrication of all parts, assembly Is simple. Figs. 15 through 17 show assem- bly details. Loosely fasten the grid and anode plates to the ring, Mount the input fomector and capacitors on the input com: arenes: Lonely instal the cathode and ment boards and their respective spac- 5. See Fig. 15. [Now insert a 7289/2C39 tube, This will ‘eater up al finger stock, Place the Teflon fanode tuner in its collar on the grid plate screw it most ofthe way in, Now tighten I of the screws, The 7289/2C39 tube el slide in and out snugly, and the an tuner should serew in and out smoothly Fig. 16—The completed cavity ring and ‘anode plate with anode tuning post ‘soldered In place are shown at A. The photo at 8 shows the grid plate with finger Stoo, input compartment and anode tuning collar soldered in place. The ‘completed anode tuner Is atthe right G shows the cavity ing attached to the ‘anode piate. The anode-bypass capacitor is ready for installation. ACD, the Inerir of the cavity as seen from the grid plate side Is visible. The cutout probe/connector ascombly is instalied. The anode bypass Sapatiior and anode anaiasure have been installed on the anode plate. Fig 17—At A, tho interior of the completed Input compartment is visible. The photo at B’shows the interior of the arose compartment witn the anode Dypass, FICS, C8 and J3 installed The Teflon sheet and anode bypass ‘capacitor plate can be installed now (Fig. 5B), Assemble the remaining inpat com- onents, the filament feed-through capaci- tors and RFCS (Fig, 1SC). Sorew the ‘output probe into the cavity ring (or push in the probe and tighten the etscrew, depend- ing on which method you chose). Install the high-voltage connector and other parts in the anode box. Mount the amplifier on the front panel and install the anode tuner shall. This completes the assembly. Part 2 of this article will deseribe a complete power supply for the amplifier, a practical ‘water cooling system, testing procedures, microwave radiation safety hazards, and amplifier tune-up and operation, Notes rom =in x 25.4 Tho linger stock for this project ig manuiac- {ured by instrument Spedalis, P.O. Box A Delaware Water Gap. PA 18237. Conta them forthe name ofthe closest dstnbutor. ‘Tho pail numbers for this amolfier ae: anode bypass capacitor plate, no. 97-7OA: ‘plate no. 97-144, cathode board, no. 87 ‘lament board, n. 97°280A,By ers Cur Lan ines A Quarter-Kilowatt 23-cm Amplifier Part 2—Last month, we described the design and construction of a 23-cm cavity amplifier. This installment describes the rest of the components fer you complete Construction of the cavity amplifier described in March OST, you are ready to assemble the rest of the Components needed to put it on the ai. ‘This month, Iwill discussthe filament, bias and high-voltage supplies: a whisper high-efficiency water-cooling system; test: ing and hookup; and, finally, tune-up and operation, Power Supplies ‘The filament and bias supplies for the umplifier are shown schematically 1. The manufacturer's specification needed to put it on the air. for the 7289/2C39 filament is 6.0-V ac at TA. Thave found that the use ofa standard 6.-¥ ae, 1-A transformer only slightly increases the tube emission without much Toss of tube life, The filament should be allowed to warm up before operating the amplifier, so the filament, bias and high- voltage supplies incorporate separate pri- mary switches. ing Many biasing schemes have been pub- lished for grounded-grid amplifiers. Fig. | shows a bias network that satisfies all of the following operating requirements: 1) external bias supply referenced 0 ‘round 2) low-power components 3) variable bias to accommodate tube to-tube variations 4) TR switchable with relay contact or transistor to ground '5) bias-supply protection ia ease of @ defective or shorted tub, U2 provides a variable bias-voltage source, adjustable by RL. The output of U2 drives the base of QI, which is used t0 increase the current-handling capability of we ac moto vaso Fig Schematic diagram of the cavity-ampliier flament and bias supplies. All esistors are '/-W carbon lypes unless otherwise noted, \J1—Female chassis mount photo connector ‘Ti—Flament teanstormer pelmary, 117 Vs secondary, 6.3 at 1A. ‘Ta Powertranstormer. Primary, 117 V; 3-8 Chapter 3 secondary, 24 10 28 V at 50 mA or greater. UI~Bridge rector, 50 PIV, 1A U2—Adjustable 3-terminal regulator (LM3177 of equiv) 21, 22—20-V unipolar metal-oxide varistor (General Semiconductor SA20 or oquiv) fr two 20-V, 1-W Zener diodes.pion Fig 2—Schematic clagram of the amplifier high-voltage supply 61-C4Electolytic capacitor, $60 uF, 450 V. DI-D4~silicon rectitier, 1000 PIV, 3 A. Fi—igh-voltage fuse, 2 kV, 1 A the bias supply. QI must be mounted on a heat sink. J1 is Connected to the station TR switching system so that RI is grounded on transmit and disconnected on receive. The approximate range of the bias supply is 610 IV. ZI and 22 provide protection for QI inate ofa shorted tube. The amplifier ean be run without ZI and 22 if you keep the anode voltage below 1100 V. High-Voltage Power Supply ‘A sae, reliable high-voltage poster sup py 1s descstbed here. OF cours, you can use ky readily availible HV supply; keep ia tind, however, that the 7289/2C39 anode ial should never exceed L400-V de at sl oad and thatthe amplifier will withstand 7900-V de at low eathode current and ct off-bigs conditions. For maximum power output, assuming. adequate drive power is aailable, anode voltage under full oad Should be about 1200-0 1400-V de Fig. 2is schematic disgram ofthe high voltage supply. A power tansformer (12) that delivers 900-10 1050-V ac is ideal. The type of rectifier circuit used will depend on the type of transformer chosen. Each leg of the rectifier is made from «wo 1000-PIV, 14a silicon diodes connested i series. ach ‘Bode is shunted with a O.01-pF capacitor tw suppress transient voltage spikes, and & TOA equalizing resistor. Filtering is accomplished with a string of four 360:iF, 450-V electrolytic capaci- tors connected in series. R3-R6 equalize the voltage across each capacitor in the string and serve as blecder resistors. OF course, a single oil-filled capacitor may be used here if available, Whatever type of filer you use, the total eapacitance should eabout 80 uF ats voltage rating of at Teast, 1S00-V de. This value allows adequate “ar00p" of the anode voltage under high: ‘utrent loads to protect the amplifier in \J1—Chassis-mount female BNC or MHV Connector. RS-RE—Wirewound resistor, 40 KO, 11 W. ‘Ti Variable autotransformer, 800 VA. cease of RF overdrive or a defective tube Protective Circuitry Some type of sta-up protection should be incorporated in the primasy. Fully dis- charged filter capacitors look like a dead short at supply turn-on. Initial surge cur rent (until the capacitors charge) may be high enough to destroy the rectifiers. RI and R2 provide some Surge-current limit- Ing, but either of the two primary contigu- rations shown in Fig. 2 should be used. T1, a variable autotransformer (Variae and Powerstat are two common trade names), is ideal. In addition t allowing you to bring the primary up slowly (and charging the capacitors gradually), it also allows full control of arplifier output power by vary ing anode voltage, The second method, a “step-stat” sys- fem, uses a resistor in the T2 primary wo Timit the turn-on surge current. When the capacitors have charged, K1 is energized, shorting out R11 and applying full voltage to the T2 primary. FI and R7 protect against high-voltage are-overs or short circuits. If sustained overcurrent is drawn, FI will open and re- move B+ from the RF deck. Use a high- voltage fuse here; standard fuses may are ‘when blown and not interrupt the B+ .R7 provides current limiting to protect the amplifier and power supply in case of a high-voltage ae. Safety ‘An HV meter should always be used 10 ‘monitor the stats ofthe power supply. The ‘alues for RE-RIOshown in Fig, 2 wll give 21500-V de full-scale reading ona 0-LimA meter. RG-58 of -39 coaxial cable should be used for the high-voltage interconnec- tion between the power supply and the RE deck. Ground the shield at both ends for T2—High-voltage transformer. Primary, 117 V, secondary, 800 10 1050 V at 500 ma. safety and a good de return Safety must be observed when Working ‘with all power supplies. These voltages are lethal! Always disconnect ac power and then discharge the filter eapacitors before ‘working on the power supply. Never guess for make assumptions about the status of a power supply. Assume itis hot Metering Cathode-current monitoring is all that's really necessary for observing amplifier de performance. Cathode cuftent (Ig) is the sum of the plate (Ip) and grid (Ig) currents. Normally, when this amplifier 1s driven to 300- oF 400-mA Ig, the grid current will be around 40 to 50 mA. The inclusion of a arid-current meter is not really nectssary and only makes biasing and TR switehing complicated, Cooling Desired outpar power and the level of rive power available wil dictate what type ff cooling to use. For intermittem duty (SSB, CW) at output levels less than 50 W, air cooling is satisfactory. Any. smali blower may be easily mounted to the ‘aluminum box susTounding the tube anode. For high-duty-cycle modes and/or output levels greater than 50 W, water cooling is highly recommended. Greater than twice the normal air-cooled output power can be obtained from a water-cooled tube, and water eooling is quiet. Tube Modification and Water Jacket The first step isto wemove the air radia tor from the tube. The air radiscae serews ‘on, so it may simply be unscrewed without damage to the tube. First, place a hose clamp around the tube anode, Secu the radiator fs in a vise and stip the hose clamp with a pair of large Microwave Amplifiers 3-9ee if Fig 3—Detals ofthe solder-on water jacket (= 4 Fig 4—Details ofthe screw-on water jacket pliers. Gently unscrew the ube from the fadiator. If the hose clamp slips slightly, tighten it Some 7289/2C39 tubes use an ai adiae {or that is attached with setserews. To remove the radiator, simply remove the setscrews and pul the radiator off. The air radiator will be replaced with a water jacket that allows water to be circu lated past the tube anode and theough a radiator, where its cooled and circulated past the tube anode again. Ihave success- fully usedtwo differen types of water jack- els; both are desribed here “The water jacket shown in Fig. 3 will work with any typeof 7289/2039. Is fab- ricated from a I-inch-OD copper tubing cap and two short pieces of sinel-OD brass tubing. The copper tubing cap should be available from a loval hardware store or plumbing supply house. Brass tubing is Available from many hobby stores and ‘metal supply houses Mask and dell the copper eap so thatthe brass tubing isa snug fit Thoroughly clean the part until they shine. Push the tubing {ngo the holes inthe end cap and degrease 310 Chapter 3 — Fig 5—Detals of the water-cooling system. Recommended pumps are: (1) Little Giant Pump Co, Model 1-42A or larger, available from most hardware stores; or (2) Calvert Engineering, Cal Pump Mode! 8758 (160 gal), available from Calvert, 7051 Hayenmural Ave, Yan Muye, CA 91400, te 213.741-6020, he How ideator (Model 5c equires two Yeinch Polaris Ave, Mountain View, CA 84043 tl. 41 the assembly with alcohol. Using plenty of ‘lux, solder the seam around each section of tubing. Allow the jacket assembly 10 cool, Meanwhile, thoroughly clean the 72891 2C39 anode *0 a bright finish. Check the ‘water jacket for fit, In some cases, you'll hhave {0 use a 0,005- t0 0.010-inch-thick copper shim to fill the gap between the copper cap and the tube snode. This shim helps eliminate pin holes in sbe solder. Using plenty of flux, solder the water jacket to the tube anode’ Solder it quickly with a hot, high-wattage ion, Allow the tube to 00! in the air after soldering to avoid thermal shock and possible break- tage. After the tube has cooled, use plenty of alcohol to remove al traces of flux from the tube and water jacket ‘The second type of water jacket is shown in Fig. 4. This jacket will work only with 7289/2C39 tubes that have a screw-on air radiator. I is designed to thread onto the tube anode just ike the air radiator did. This jacket is machined from a piece of Vicinch alursinum rod. The water inlet and ‘outlet tubes are made from Y/:-inch-OD, "Yinch-ID aluminum tubing thatis epoxied in place. A rubber gasket seals the jacket against leak. If you have access to lathe, you should have no trouble duplicating the jacket. You ‘could have one made up ata local machine iBT adapters) is available from Proteus industries, 240 964-4163, shop. Complete screw-on water jackets are also available from the author. ‘After you unscrew the air radiator from the 7289/2C39, check for and remove any burrs from the tube anode. The anode sur- Face must be Matif the rubber gasket is to be effective. Screw the water jacket onto the tube. Tighten by hand only. Do not use any tools, or you could damage the tube or jacket! Do not use the water inet and outlet tubes for leverage—they have thin walls and break easily, Water System Fig. 5 depicts the complete water-cool- ing system. Recommended pumps and accessories that have proven reliable and effective are listed in the caption ‘Any small pump, such as a fountain ‘pump, that can deliver 160 to 200 gallons per hour ean be used here, Most inexpen- Sive pumps are net self-priming, which ‘means that they won't pump water if they have air in the rotor. Although water can be forced through the pump for the initial prime, my system uses gravity priming. The Water reservoir is a2-fo0t length of 3inch: ‘OD plastic pipe that is available from hard ‘ware or plumbing stores. The outlet is at the bottom, and the inlet about halfway up the column. The inlet is located here t0 climinate aeration that ionizes the water and reduces its effectiveness, The outletIntense RF radiation concentrated on body tissues can produce heat damage: the extent and penetration will depend fon the radio frequency In use and on exposure duration. You should be aware of the approximate intensity of RF radiation of the transmitting equipment and antennas you come in Contact with AF intensity is commonly expressed in miliwatts per square centimeter (mWem), whichis the power flowing away from a source through a unit sampling or interception area at ‘some specified distance. Although the United States as yet has no federal RF protection standard, a useful interim guide is the 1982 standard of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI”82). The most stringent level in this standara \s 1 mW/em® for frequencies between 30 and 300 MHz. Above 300 MHz, the protection ievel rises untiitreaches 5 mWlem? ‘at 1500 Hz, Beyond 1600 MHz, the recommended level remains at § rrWiem?, These levels represont the average ower density allowed over ary six-minute period and are for the sum of all polarizations from a given source. [AL 1296 MH2, where one wavelength (7) equals 23 om, a thick resonant dipole feeding a caliated power meter with ‘maictied coaxial cable (itself ree of pick:p) may be used to ‘oblain an indication of power density. A reasonably lossless resonant dipole has an effective aperture of V6, at 230m this is 66 cm®. The power meter reading in milliwatts, divides by 66, Is the indicated power density. For this to be a reliable Indication, the dipole must be positioned far enough from the FF source tobe ints far field. Fora small source, the distance should be a least ?/2, and here that would be about 120m (45 inches). The dipole should be oriented for alignment with the dominant polarization. Note that the power meter must be ‘capable of readings well below 1 mW, This arrangement would be useful for checking leaks along the coaxial route that the high power (here 250 W) takes to a Toad, be it dummy load or antenna, Cable connectors may not be tightly secured, or they may be faully. For equipment op- fraling in the SHF region, waveguide flanges may nol be clamped properly, Direct measurement of electric field strength near an antenna (wth a calibrated instrument, preferably one withthe indicating meter shielded and possibly positioned at the enter of the sampling dipole) is another way to check for adequate protection. A field strength of 60 V per meter (Vim) coresponds to 1 mWiem?; 134 Vim corresponds to ‘5 mWom#. Ata distance 60 cm (2 feet) irom an isolated dipole fed with 26 watts, the field strength would be about 60 Vim, This sa far-field eld strength for all requencies where the half wavelength is less thar.60 cm, orfor frequencies above 250 MHz. For full 250 watts applet fo the dipole, the 60 Vim level occurs at a distance of 1.8 meters (6 feel), and at this distance this holds forall frequencies above 80 MHz. ‘with SSB or CW keying, the fields during Amateur Radio ‘operation are highly intermitent, and usually include consid- terable pauses or intervals for lisiening. These factors reduce the average power density over the six-minute averaging period Further information on RF safety and protection estimates ‘ean be found in Chapter 7 of The Satelite Experimenter’s Handbook, published by the ARFL. The following rules of {900d practice for RF protection are recommended: Never operate an AF ampitier with equipment shielding removed. ‘ Novor handle antennas with RF power applied * Never quess that RF levels are safe, Take the time to consult a elable reference for an estimate, or measure lev tls caralully. Allow a “cushion” of about 6 dB (factor of four in ower density). If possible, borrow an RF radiation monitor {atlereaening how to use it}, or eonsult wth a ham whos well Informed en AF protection, ' Never loox nto an open end of a power waveguide; never point a powered directive antenna (a beam or a paraboloid, {or example) toward peopie. Keep all VHF and UHF transmit: ting antennas as high as possible, aistant from humans. * Use good-quality, well-constructed coaxial cable and ‘connectors to avoid RF leaks. ‘Think AF and electrical safety first; test later! + Watch QST for news on RF measurement techniques and progression, protection standards and proposed federal land State RE regulalions.—-David Davidson, WIGKM directly feeds the pump. The pump and the reservoir outlet port should be mounted in the same plane. The pump should be ori- gnted so that air bubbles will rise into the impeller output port and van be blown out once the pump starts running Flow Indicator and Heat Exchanger Water cooling is best described as “super quiet.” There is no noisy fan to reassure you thal the tube is receiving adequate cooling. If water flow is reduced ‘or cut off during amplifier operation, tube damage is virtually assured, Flow interlocks and switches to shut down the amplifier if water Flow is reduced are hard to find and expensive. Flow indi- ‘ators, however, are inexpensive and reliable, A flow indicator has a spoked rotor that turas as water passes through the tnt. I'the Wheel is turning, there is water flow; if not, you have a problem. Changes in Flow rate can be observed by watching forspeed changes in the rotor. A smal! lamp illuminates the flow indicator, making it easy 10 see rotation. The flow indicator should be mounted where it can be seen from the operating position and monitored during operation Heat exchangers, or radiators, remove the heat from water as it posses through. For this application, a small automobile transmission-oi} cooler works great, Most auto parts stores and speed shops have 44 goed selection, Pick one that is similar in size and aspect ratio to a whisper fan (approximately 4 x 4 x 1 inches). Some come with mounting brackets. Look for a cooler with the input and ovtput ports on the top s0 ar bubbles will rise to thetop and move on without becoming trapped, Trapped air degrades cooler performance. If you use the amplifier for high-duty- eyele modes such as ATV or FM, of for long, slow-speed CW transmissions (EME, for example), you should use a small axial whisper fan to increase the effectiveness of the heat exchanger. A fan isn't necessary «during normal operation, or even for sus tained operation at moderate power levels, but I highly recommend one if you plan prolonged operation at maximum power Locate the fan so the warm exhaust air ‘won't heat up other equipment Hoses and Fittings Most hardware stores carry a complete line of brass fittings and adapters that can be used for this project. Brass, however, will eventually corrode and pollute the wat ‘supply. Plastic fittings are cheaper and don't corrode, but they are harder 1 find, Recre: ational vehicle suppliers are my main source forthese parts, They are used extensively in drinking water systems for mobile homes and travel trailers. Procure the fittings when you have the rest of the parts in hand, as there are many variables to consider. You can use any relatively soft, thin wall vinyl tubing for all water lines. The main runs are made From "/-inch-ID hose, while Y-inch-D stock is used to connect to the 728972C39_ water jacket. The Veaneh-ID tubing fits snugly over the *fa-inch-O inlet and outlet tubes on the ‘water jacket, son clamps are required, Al other hose connections should be secured. with stainless-steet clamps toprevent leaks. ‘Any leaks mean air in the system and dete. Fiofation of cooling performance. Safety The tube anode, and hence the water jacket and water, ae in direet contact with the high-voltage supply, so some safety precautions must be observed. Approxi- mately 1210 18 inches of tubing should run between the 7289/2C39 jucket and any ‘ther component in the cooling system This will allow enough resistance in the \water to provide adequate current limiting, should the water contact any components that are grounded. Microwave Amplifiers 3-11eaezzases Fig 6—Performance graph of the water-cool I is best to ground the water supply at the pump. Do this by replacing a short sec: tion ofthe tubing that runs tothe Flow indi- ccator with # piece of brass or copper tubing. Solder a wiee to this metal tubing and connect the other end of the wire 10 ‘your station ground, Use at least 24 inches Of vinyl tubing between the anode cooling jacket and the ground point On the warm-water side of the 7289/ 2€39, run 12 inches of vinyl tubing t0 a Small metal fiting or short section of metal ng, and then another 12 inches of vinyl tubing to a grounded point (this can be at the heat exchanger). You can measure the water leakage current to ground by placing 4 microammeter between the metal fitting that connects the two vinyl hoses and ground, Leakage current should be less than 10 WA with clean water and an anode potential of U KV. As the water ages, the Feakage current will rise; when this hap- pens, replace the water. Grocery stores carry distilled water for use in steam irons. It may be deionized and not truly distilled, but it works fine for bout four to six months in this applica tion, Filters can be purchased from scien- tific supply houses, but they're not really worth buying because deionized water is so cheap. Do not use tap water under any ciseum- stances! When you turn on the water sys- tem forthe first time, run a gallon of water through it for half an hour to wash out fab- Floation impurities. Replace with clean water before using the system to cool the ampli ‘Water was chosen becuuse its inexpen- sive, nontoxic, nonflammable and easy to clean up if you have a leak. Better liquid coolants are available, but they are toxic. Don't use them! Cooling Performance Thave used water-cooling systems for sevetal years with no problems whatso- ever Fig. 6 isa graph of several transmit/ receive cycles on a water-cooled, S00-W Chapter 3 342 Hing system. ‘output, 23-em power amplifier. For this test, Tused two ofthe amplifiers described inthis artide coupled with a pair of hybrid combin- crs. This particular cooling system used 1 gallon of water. Experiments indicate that, during extended operation, the water tem- perature rises only 30° 10 39°F above ambi- ent room temperature. Typically, the tube anode and water average 10° to 15°F above mbient during casual operating. Flow cates in this system are typically "J gallon per minute per tube, which is ‘more than adequate. At tbis rate, more than 300 W of dissipation from a single ineffi- cient 7289/2C39 were required to boil the ‘water inthe water jacket. The water should not be allowed to boil because this will heat the rubber gasket Tubes It is not really necessary to buy & new 7289/2C39, Used tubes ean be found sur- plus foraround $] 10 $5 and, in many eases, will perform as well as a new tube. Most used tubes have been sitting around for several years, so it's good idea torun them through the dishwasher to clean them up and then run the filaments for about 24 hours. This will restore operation in many If you buy a new tube, you should be aware that the 7289/2C39 is being run far in excess of its ratings in this amplifier. ‘The manufacturer's warranty will not cover tubes run in this application, Contrary to popula opinion, glass tubes, will work. Physically, they are not as rog- aged as the ceramic version, but the glass- to-metal seal seems to provide better shell life than the ceramic seal. The glass tubes make great driver tubes and will work fine for power levels up to 100-W output. Pulse tubes (7815, 7211) are not recommended because of their poor thermal stability at high power levels. Also, they generally are 30 to 40 MHz lower in resonant frequency in this amplifier compared to the 7289/ 2C39, Some 7289 tubes can be as much as 30 MHz lower in frequency. Minor length adjustment of the anode-tuning post may be required to accommodate amplifier and tube differences, Tube Insertion Extreme care must be exercised when inserting the 7289/2C39 tube, Never force the tube in place, as damage (bending) Of the cathode finger stock may result ‘Observe the layout of the finger stock 0 ‘get an idea of how the tube inserts. Care- fully position the tube so itis straight as ‘you gently push, I should slide in snugly ‘without any solid resistance. Testing After you have completed all of the parts for the amplifier, t's time to test everything before hooking it all together. ‘Test the water-cooling system by turning it fon and watching for steady water flow as indicated on the flow meter. The tube and ‘water jacket can be removed from the ea ity aniplitier for this tes. Check all of the power-supply voltages first without connecting them to the RF deck, Then, without the tube in place, hook the bins and filament supplies to the cavity and check the voltages again at the tube mger-stock connections. Connect the high-voltage supply to the RF deck and bring the voltage up slowly witha variable autotransformer. Monitor the high voltage fon the anode-bypass-capacitor plate, ‘and look and listen for any possible arcing between the anode-bypass-capacitor plate and ground, Use extreme care when mea- suring and testing the high-voltage supply. If everything looks okay with the power supplies, shut them off and disconnect them, ‘You can make a safe, low-power testof the cavity resonance without applying any voltage, With the tube in place, insert a 2-ineh-long coupling loop on the end of 2 piece of coaxial cable between the spring. Fingers of the anode down into the cavity. Connect the amplifier output probe/con: nectortoadevice capable of detecting low: level RF at 23 cm (For example, @ spectrum analyzer oF microwatimeter). Feed a sig nal from an L-band signal generator into cable attached to the wire coupling loop that you inserted into the cavity. Set the signal generator for various frequencies in the 23-cm band and tune the amplifier anode tuner. There will be sharp peak in ‘output at cavity resonance, This testing method can be used to determine cavily tning range, anode-by- passcapacitor effectiveness and resonance ‘of various tube types for use in this ampli- fier. Any cavity amplifier can be tested completely without ever applying high voltage. The better yourtest equipment, the easier the amplifier is to test If all dimen- sions were followed strictly, the amplifier will tune as designed, Amplifier Hookup Installation and operation of this amplifier is relatively straightforward, but4s with any amplitier, several precautions ‘must be followed. If these are adhered to, the amplifier will provide years of reliable service ‘The amplifier is designed to be operated in a 50-ohm system and should never be tumed on without a good 50-ohm load con- ected to the output connector. Never op- ‘erate it into an antenna that has not beer tuned to 50 ohms! Drive power to the amplifier should imever exceed 15 W. Never apply drive [power in excess oF | W unless all operating Valtages are present und the tube is biased fon. Otherwise, the tube grid-dissipation faling will be exceeded and you will prob: ably ruin it AAs in all TR-switched systems, some type of interlock or sequencing of transmit and receive functions should be incorpo: tated. In most systems, the sequence for oing into transmit is something like this: rst, switch the antenna changeover relay from the receiver to the power amplifier. ‘Nex, bias the power amplifier on. Last, key ‘the exciter and apply drive to the amplifier. To go to receive, unkey the excter, remove ‘operating bias from the amplifierand switch the antenna relay back to the receiver. Ifthe antenna relays are switched while the power amplifier is operating and put tng out power, damage to the relay con- tacts and/or the amplifier is likely. If there is a momentary removal of the antenna while the power amplifier is biased on, ‘oxcillation may occur, This can damage the TR relay, the tube or even the receive preamplifier, Tune-up and Operation This is it — the big moment when you will see your project come to life! Connect an accurate UHF power meter and a 50-ohm antenna or load to the amplifier ‘output connector. A Bird Model 43 watt- meter with a 100- or 250-W, 400-1000 Miz slug will give reasonable accuracy, ‘depending on the purity ofthe drive signal Apply filament power and tube cooling, and allow 3 to 5 minutes for the filaments to warm up. Turn on bias supply (the amplifier will draw maximum current if the anode voltage is applied without bias) ‘Apply 300 t0 400 V to the anode. There should be no current flowing in she tube #s indicated on the cathode-curzent meter, Ground I1 on the bis supply o apply trans: mit bias and observe cathode current. AS RI, the bias control, is tuined clockwise, Quiescent idling current should increase. Set for about 25 ma. Apply I W of RF drive power, Turn the Fig 7—Performance of tne cavily ampliir under diferent drive and plate-current conditions. anode tuner while observing the RF output power meter and june for maximum out put. The owipat should go through a pro- nounced peak at'eavity resonance. Adjust (C2 and C3 on the input tuning network For ‘maximum amplifier output I possible, use a ditectional watimeter between the driver and the amplifier input to check that best input SR and maximum amplifier output ‘occur at roughly the same setting Depending on the amount of drive power available, you may want to tune the amplifier for maximum power output oF maximum gain, Fig. 7 shows what you can expect from different drive levels (Once the amplifier is tuned for best in- pur SWR and maximum ovtput with | W of drive, anode voltage and drive power can beiincreased. Increase both in steps: be sure to keep the anode tuner peaked for maxi ‘mum output power. When you get to the 100-W output level, very carefully read- just the input circuit for maximum output. The input capacitor clusest to the cathode is eritical and stould need to be rotated less than 90 degrees maximum, Maximum out ‘pwc power will be roughly coincident with best input SWR, Increase the drive power and keep the anode tuner peaked for maximum output Increase the drive until you reach the desired output level, but do nor exceed 400-mA I! At 1400-V de and 350-mA Tq, ‘output power with a yood tube should be about 230 10 250 W. At lower anode volt ‘ages, I will be higher for the same output power, Higher anode voltages result in higher gain, lower drive levels, lower grid current and lower plate current for a given output power. ‘The anode tuner's tuning rate is ap- proximately $ MHz per turn. Clockwise rotation of the tuner lowers the resonant frequency of the cavity. This conteol will require readjustment as you make large frequency excursions within the 23-cm band (For example, if you go from 1296 ‘weak-signal work to the 1269-MHz satel- lite segment). You should also check the input SWR if you move more than 1S MHz. Generally, amplifier tuning does not change much after initial setup. You should be able to turn it on and use it without 2e- tuning as it heats up. Slight adjustments may be necessary, however, depending on cooling, inherent thermal differences fron tube to tube and duty eyefe ofthe operating mode. Always keep the anode tuner peaked for maximum output, and check it from time to time, especially while you are first learning how the amplifier operates ‘The output loading control is the output connector and probe assembly. Loading is changed by minor rotational adjustment of the N connector. First loosen the jam-nut (or setscrew) slightly. While observing output power and keeping the anode tuner peaked, rotate the loading control +30 de- {srees maximum for greatest ovtput power. ‘This should be done only once and should ‘not need repeating unless another tube is installed, Even then it may not be required, Conclusion ‘This cavity amplifier forthe 23-em band is capable of safe, reliable operation at ‘output powers in excess of 200 W. More than 50 of these amplifiers are in opera: tion, and you can build one, too, 1 would like’to thank Mike Stahl, KOMYC, Bill Troetschel, K6UQH, William Jungwirth, AAGS, Lem Moeschler, W6KGS and Jo. seph Cadwallader, K6ZMW, for their help ‘and encouragement during the develop. ‘ment of this project. Reterenes Exaimann “Cavity Ampbiier Jor 1298 Mba, GST. San, 1968, pp. 1722. Lakmann, “Kilowatt Aplin fy 1296 MHz” "Ham Radio, Aog. 1988, pp. 8-17 “Powor Ampliit for 23.6," VAF Communica ons, Api 1976, p. 223 “Power Amplifier fo 24 em VHF Communica- ns, March 1979, p17, Siefanskie, "1270 MHz ATV Powor Ample.” “Ham Rao, June 1977, pp. 8773. ‘ech Roport #6, Crawlors Hil VAF lub, July “tari “Tech Report #19, Crawford Hil VHF Club, Dee ‘ora Microwave Amplifiers 3-13By Zack Lau, KH6 Geka ms 2-W, 13-cm Amplifier his amplifier uses a resistively stabi lized Hewlett Packard ATE-44101/ AT-8 140 power GaAs FET running class A to provide 14 dB of gain and a 2-W output Ti ‘wasn't too difficult to choose. the dovice—thero aren't that many linear devices that cover the 2.3 GH band at this, power level, Unfortunately, it is fairly pricey; the eirea 1990 price was around $90. ‘But since this transistor has been around a Jong time, it may be available surplus. Sev: eral hundred were sold at the bargain price ff $3 each about a year and a half ago. 1 bought a few—I should have bought more Even ifyou do buy your FETs at bargain prices, you still will want to ensure that they are biased safely. As has been pointed out many times in the literature, having the negative gate bius supply fail while the rain supply is applied may result in the desitction of the device. Thus. designers have devised elaborate protection schemes to shutoff the drain supply if the gate sup- ply fils, Fig | shows asimpler power-supply cir it. The drain supply is controlled by an ‘ordinary 723 voltage regulator with current limiting. The current limiting protects the device—instead of the expensive PET get- ting hot and seif-destructing, the cheap TIP 30 power transistor gets warm. Doing this eliminates the need for complex shutdowa circuits to handle a failed bias supply. While there are more modern regulator chips than the 723, they aren't significantly better for this application. Infact, some are improved" to the point where they are tougher to use. For example, chips with better current-sensing ireuits often require special low-value resistors, While you ‘could use the copper wire table in the ARRL. Handbook to make your own low-value ‘me tousea 723 with standard, readily avail- able pars. The gate bias supply is produced by an NESSS timer running as an oscillator and driving a voltage inverter. An LM337 ad justable 3-terminal vollage regulator con- trols the gate supply. Now, you have to be a litle careful using adjustable voltage sgulatorswith bias supplies. While I haven't experienced this myself, it is entirely possible that a noisy potentiometer could momentarily present an open cireuit between the wiper and the resistance ele- 3-44 Chapter 3 ‘ment. Conceivably, in some circuits, this could result in voltage spikes at the output of the voltage regulator as the voltage is adjusted. The cure for this is to wire the potentiometer so that it never presents an open circuit, even with an intermittent wiper, as P've done with R9 in Fig 1 For some other GaAs FET circuits, it ‘may be advantageous to use an active-bias, supply which operates inside the feedback Toop of the current limited supply. This allows the bias point to be unaffected by temperature variations. The current limit: ing acts asa failsafe, protecting the transis: tor if a more negative gate supply voltage is unable 0 turn off the transistor, I've successtully used this circuit when only a milliamp of bias eurtent was needed. Due to the high current required by the gate cit: cuit of the 2-W amplifier, | decided it was impractical (o active-bias the FET in this application: the ICL7660 can't provide the ‘needed current, But there are highercurrent ‘versions of this chip, for those who don’t ‘mind the pric. AF Design ound the AT-8 140 rather difficult to get unconditionally stable, Lended up plac: ing 2 10041 chip resistor from gate 10 ground, which resulted in pretty good sta bility, except around 2.3 GHz. Unfortu nately, it doesn't appear possible to de decouple this resistor without adversely affecting stability, so quite a bit of bias current is needed, Because of this, itis conceivable that you may find a FET that reeds too much gate voltage for a typical 10041 chip resistor to handle. Whether this is the case with a particulac FET depends on both the threshold voltage and the transconductance of the device. The threshold voltage can vary quite a bit, particularly in older devices, though the ‘manufacturers have tightened up this speci- fication in recent data books. Worst case would be a large negative threshold volt- age and a high transconductance. Stacking chip resistors in parallel might be a solu tion, though this might also invite un: wanted parallel resonance effects, similar to what Is seen with paralleled capacitors. While in-band stability is not 100 ext: cal, since the source and load impedance ‘matching is usually pretty good at the oper ating frequency, [used a series resistor in the gate decoupling line to make the ampli- fier unconditionally stable, aceording to Comparing measurements made using an HP8SB3E spectrum analyzer against those ‘made with an HP 453B/8481A powor motor. a signal that measures 4.7 dBm on the Spectrum analyzer reads out as 3.8 dm on the power meter. The values listed are from the spectrum analyzer, taking into account & 30.2-4B, 25-W Bird attenuator Table 1—Measured Amplifier Performance Input to Driver AT 8140 AT 8140 MGF 1801 Output Output Gain ‘river (aBm) — (dB) (Bm) (8) 0 57 198181 00 25 68 tad 30 165 27142 40 5 30814 50 75 «31714 60 ea 826k 70 tag 833144 80 23 «839136 9.0 2120 gat 18.1 10.0 221 848125 13.0 2420 48107 ‘The 1-dB compression point is at 34.1/98.2 dBm output ingorted batween the ampilior anc the analyzer.Hote 1sv Gate Supply rn 7 a (current Requetes) Drain Supply Fig 1—Power supply for the 2.W, 13-cm ampli. the computer model. This series resistor also improved the input match bandwidth, fan important consideration if you don't ‘want (0 tune the amplifier. Of course, im- proving the bandwidth with resistance also reduces the gain. The loss isn't too bad, however, secing as this design is within a few dB of the maximum stable gain the data sheet specifies. The design was optimized ‘with 150 Q of series resistance, but I de- cided that such a high value was unwise. To accommodate such a high series resis- tance, itis entirely likely that the negative supply voltage would have 10 be more negative than the VGS limit. Then, if the 10041 resistor were to fail opencircuited, the supply could damage the gate of the transistor. For this reason, I chose 10 use & 5041 series resistor. I didnt reoptimize the design for $0 &2 of series resistance, sinee the likely improvement was small com: pared to the variations T've seen when op- {mizing the unit on the bench. Finally, I discovered that additional gate circuit bypassing was required at audio frequencies 0 prevent the circuit from oscillating. This was done with a |-UF capacitor hat isnot shown in the com- puter model. This frequency range wasn’t covered by the model. Several dB of additional saturated ovtput power was obtained by modifying the Ou put network with foil tabs, AT-B140s satu Fate at about 2.2 W output with around 200 mW of dive. An advantage to optimizing the circuit by modifying the $041 steiplines atthe input ard output ofthe amplifier isthat the stability should not be adversely af- fected, But the board does have to be made larger 1o accommodate such tuning, “The original design was optimized using Microwave Harmonica, withthe re sults shown in Table 2 and Fig 6. After 1 tweaked the output network to get maxi- ‘mum output power, Tentered the changed circuit components into the computer and analyzed the circuit, resulting in the analy sis showa in Table 3 and Fig 7. Table 1 shows the performance ofthe eifcuit in its final configuration, Construction Notes To ground the drain bypass capacitor and the gate resistor, Icut slots in the board nd connected the pads tothe ground plane with I-mil copper foil. Copper foil was also used 10 connect the gate bypass capacitor, although in this case I trimmed the board so that it wasn't necessary 10 Cut 2 slot For high-quality grounding without lots of tiny screws, I decided to ry using a heat spreader made out of I-mil copper foil. 1 ‘cut a hole in the circuit board for the FET fand then carefully soldered the foil across the hole in the circuit board, taking care not to put any solder where it would interfere ‘with heat-sinking action, I didn't want any air pockets, as hey are extremely poor con- ductors of heat. Then, after attaching the ‘board to a plece of 0.35-inch sheet alumi- ‘num with suitably tapped holes. I used a scribe to punch holes forthe 0-80 screws 19 Microwave Amplifiers 3-15101018) areo Powe: “0 ms rey 0.8 Pe ea se Vo = 7a fa) gy = FaPa ap —t4101/ Fig @—Schematic diagram for the 2.0 ampilier C1, C—-10-pF, high-quality porcelain chip Jt, J2—SMA jacks, The absolute maximum charnel capacitors. | sed 58-mil capactors, Gi Hewlett Packard ATF-44101/AT-2410 fomperalure fs 175°C. The exse-to- although 100-mil capacitors should work medium power GaAs FET. This davice _junelion thermal resisiance is 2°°CAV, justine ‘must be properly heat-sinked. ‘TALI-16—Microatripiines etched or 0.031- €&, C5-~1000-pF NPO chip capacitors ingh-thiek, ¢, = 2.85 Tellon crcult board. CAST-uF, 16-V tantalum capacitor 316 Chapter 3Table 2—Microwave Harmonica Analysis. {Original Circuit) Serrated escensaee Rel Table 3—Microwave Harmonica Analysis (Optimized for Output Power) Fig 4—Parts placement diagram for the 2.W amplifier Points labeled XX should ibe connected to the ground plane using copper fil. Fig 5—Etching pattern for the 2-W amplifier, Use 0.034-Inch-thick, = 2.65 Teflon circuit cE ard. Phetbsgenerp! ct MICROWAVE HARMONICA PC V5.5 Fig 6—Microwave Harmonica analysis of the circuit's S parameters alter computer optimization, ‘mount the FET, Ideally, clear holes w be punched into the capper, but l eouldn't figure out a way'to do that with the tools I have available. 1 used 0-80 screws, which are the largest screws I've found that will Id fit in the mounting holes. While I've used smaller serews in the past, I prefer using the largest screws possible since taps gen: crally get tougher to use as they get smaller. built one amplifier using 0.12: MICROWAVE HARMONICA PC V5 - sibrgexomp okt Fig 7—Aflor the output network was optimized on the bench for maximum output power, Microwave Harmonica produced this ‘analysis ofthe resulting circuit, (6061 aluminum, but found that to be 100 in 10 easily make the tapped holes for taching the connectors and brass strips, although the finished! mounting plate was stiff eoough. inch thick Microwave Amplifiers 3-17By Al Ward, WBSLU, UCLA eu ued 1296-MHz Solid-State Power Amplifiers Explore the DX possibilities of the 23-cm band with Wit aiscererinerezsng number of ready-to-go 1296-MHz transverters available on the market today, there is a _Breat demand for a simple and economical ‘way 10 generate higher power than the typical 0.5 to 1 W output these transverters, provide, If 1 W or less is used to drive a {typical 2€39/7289 stripline or cavity amplifier, the low output poweris often dis- appointing. A tube-type amplifier run with kV on the plate typically offers a gain of 10 4B. This means that, at best, you can ‘expect 5-10 10-W output from your I-W or less input A popular way of genersting higher power isto cascade two tube-type amplifi- ers for 50+ to 100-W output. Here I will show you an alternative: wo solidstate amplifiers that can replace the vwhetype driver amplifier and provide 10- to 20-W ‘output—enough to drive a two-tube ampli fier to full output, The NEC NELI306 and the NEL1320 1300-MHz power transistors are an eco- nomical solid-state approach to generating ‘moderate power levels (10-20W) at 1269 and 1296 MHz. These amplifiers can be ‘used for terrestrial o satelite work. When. OSCAR 10 was designed, it was thought that 10 W into a modest gain antenna 20 GBi) would produce usable signals from the sateffite. Unfortunately, there ‘were some problems, and the sensitivity of AO-10 was not as originally expected for the Mode-L uplink. These amplifiers ean, however, be used as a driver for a higher- powered tube amplifier for Mode-L ser Vice. If all goes according to plan with the launch of AMSAT-OSCAR Phase IIIC, 10 to 20 W with a 20-4Bi gain antenna will produce acceptable dawnlink signals. ‘The NEL 306 is rated for 6-W output at 1296 MH? at the I-4B compression point; the NEL 1320 is rated at 20 W. These de- vices offer several advantages for amateur experimenters, They were designed for collector voltages of 12- to 13,6-V de, 318 Chapter 3 these modern amplifiers. ‘making them idea! for portable and mobile operation, Although the price may seem high to someone familiar with HF pars, these devices are less expensive than most microwave power transistors. The NEL 1306 is in the $26 price range. while the NEL1320 costs about $42. California East- cern Laboratories makes these transistors available in single-lot quantities, so you don’t have to be “in the business” to get your hands on them." ‘The performance of the amplifiers 1 built and tested is shown in Table 1. The NEL1306 is a good buy. With 1.5-W input, 6- to 8-W output can be achieved. When the amplifier ts tuned up at lower power levels, power gain can be as high as 10 dB. With 200-mW drive from my homemade transverter, an output power level of 2 W is aitainable.! Power goins as high as 17 dB are pos- sible with a two-stage amplifier (an NEL1306 driving an NELI320). With mere 200 mW of drive, 10-W output is possible. When the pair of amplifiers is Table 1 ‘Typical Operating Conditions for the 1296-MHz Solld-State Power Amplifiers Device NE130681-72 NEL192081-12 PodteB TW BW ‘compression point) Gain (1-48 6 dB typ, 5 08 yp compression point) Collector 40-50% 40-50% eiiciency [ating current 50 ma 150 ma Ot 1A 308 Gompressian point Veo 135 135 Power input 14.9 W 405W riven with I W and tuned for maximum ower output, the 1-dB compression point of 18 W will be achieved. Circuit Details The basic design, shown schematically in Fig. 1, is an adaptation of a circuit described in the NEL. 1300 series datasheet ‘The design incorporates 30-ohm quarter- wavelength microstriplines on the input and output. C3, C4, C? and C8, along with ‘GL, form a pi netwark that matches the low input impedance of the device to 50 ohms, CS, C6, C9 and C10 and she 30-ohm trans- mission line (L2) form an ouput pi network that maximizes power transfer 10 ‘50 ohms, C10 is not always necessary, de- pending on variations among devices and circuit-board material. I designed the amplifiers for 0.031-inch- thick, double-sided glass-epoxy. circuit board, A 30-ohm line in this dielectric {equates toa line width of 0.121 inch, which is eyuivalent to the width of the collector and base leads of the NELI300 series[EXCEPT AS WOICATEO, O€CIMAL VALUES OF (CAPACITANCE ARE IW ICROFARADS ¢ ‘OTHERS ARE tN PCOFARADS (pF O8 YOFY; ESSTANEES. ARE IN OMS: +1900, m=1000-000, Fig. 1~—Schematie diagram af the NEL1306 and NEL1920 1296 MHz solid-state power ampiliers. The schematic Is identical for both versions. Component values aro the same excegt as noted, C1, C2, C11, C17-—10-pF chip capacitor. 63) C4, C5, C6—3.6- to 5.0-pF chip capacitor. CF, CB—1.8. 10 6.0-9F miniature tmmer ‘capacitor (Mouses 248A070 oF equiv. See text) G9, C10—Same as C7 and C8 for tha 'NEL1906 ampitfier. For the NEL1320 version, 0.8- to 10-pF piston tirnmers are used (Johanson 6200 series or eqn). + BIAS eur C12, C14—100-pF chip capacitor. 613, C15—0.1-uF dise ceramic capacitor. C16—10-uF electrolytic capacitor. Di—1N4007 diode. Li, L2—30-ohm microstriptine, 'fewavelength ong (see text) QI—-NEC NEL130681-12 (6 W) oF NEL132081-12 (18 W) transistor Ri—82- to 100-11 resistor, 2-W minimum Vary for spectied ting current + Yeo oureur Fig 2—Parts:placement diagram and full-size etching pattern forthe solid-state 41296-MHz powes amplifiers. All components mount on the etched side of the board. The same PC boards are used tor each version. R2—10-0, '/ trolytic or oil and should show no signs of leakage, swelling or outgassing around te tminals Located atthe output ofthe filter, com= ponents that perform metering and regula tion of voltage and current can be affected by heat or heavy dust, If there has been a failure of some other component jn the amplifier—such as a tube—these cireuits can be stressed severely. Resistors may Survive substantial temporary overloads, but may sow signs of overload, such as discoloration or swelling, ‘Amplifiers contain two types of lays—control_ and RF, Control relays switch acand de voltages and do not handle input or output RF energy. The usual prob- Tem encountered with control relays is oxi- dation or pitting of their contacts. A bur ishing tool can be used to clean relay contacts, Ina pinch a strip of ordinary paper ‘ean be pulled between contacts gently held closed, [Avoid the temptation to over-clean silverplated relay and switch contacts, as the author points out later. It is easy to re- move contact plating with excessive polish- ing and while silver plated relay and switch contacts may appear to be dark in color, oxi- dized silver (black) is still a good conductor. Once the siver's gone, it’s gone; contact erosion wilt then be pervasive—Fa.| If Visual inspection shows heavy pitting orUiscoloration or resistance measurements show the relay to have intermittent contact ‘quality, i is best replaced, RF relays are used to perforin transmit- receive (TR) switching and routing of RF signals through or around the amplifier cir: cuitty. Amplifiers designed for full break- in operation will usually use a high-speed ‘vacuum TR relay. Vacuum relays are sealed sand cannot be cleaned or maintained, When {you replace RF relays, use a direct replace ment part or one rated for RF service with the same characteristics as the original Cabies and connectors are subjected to heavy heat and electrical loads in amplifi- ets. Plasties may become brittle and con: nections may oxidize, Cables should re- main flexible and not be crimped or pinched under clamps or tie-downs. 1s a ‘good idea to gently wiggle cables while Wwatehing the connections at each end for Fooseness or bending. Connectors can be unplugged and reseated once or twice 10 ‘ear oxide on contact surfaces. Carefully inspect any connector that seems loose. Be especially careful with connectors and cables in amplifiers that have RE decks that are in separate enclosures from thase of their power supplies. Those interconnects are susceptible to both mechanical and electrical stress and you don’t want an en- ergized HV cable loose on the operating desk. Check both the soldered electrical integrity and the mechanical stability of those cables and make sure they are tightly fastened, ‘As with relays, switches found in am. plifiers are either control function orien tated or RF routers, Adequately rated con- trol switches, if mechanically sound, are usually okay, Bandswitches are the most common RF switch—usually a rotary phe- nolic or ceramic type, A close visual in spection should show no pitting or oxida- tion on the wiper (the part ofthe switch that rotates between contacts) or the individual contacts, Arcing or overheating will Quickly destioy rotary switches. Figure 3 is photo of a heavy-duty bund switch that has suffered severe damage from arcing. Slight oxidation is acceptable on silver” plated switches. Phosphor-bronze contacts ‘can sometimes be cleaned witha light scrub from a pink pencil eraser, but plating can be easily removed, so use caution with this, rmethod and be sure to Femove any eraser crumbs, Rotary switch contacts cannot be replaced easily although individual water sections may be replaced if an exact match= ing part can be obtained. ‘Amplifiers use all types of capacitors and resistors. When replacing them, be sure touse apart rated forthe use to which it will be put. Voltage and power-handling ratings sre particularly important, especially of those handling high RF currents. An RF tank ‘apacitor replacement should be checked carefully for adequate RF voltage and cur- reat ratings, not just de, HV resistors are generally long and thin to prevent arcing fcross their surfaces. Even if a smaller (and cheaper) resistor has an equivalent power rating, resist the temptation to substitute it Ina pinch, a series sting of resistors of the appropriate combined value can be used to replace one HY unit. Don't use carbon re: sistors for metering circuits, use metal oF cetbon film types. The earbon composition types are 190 unstable If you ave repairing or maintaining an old amplifier and manufacturer-specific parts are no longer available, the ham com. ‘munity has many sources for RF and HV ‘components. Fair Radio Sales ind Surplus Sales of Nebraska are familiar names.) Hamfests and Web sites such as www. ‘cham.net or www.kIdwu.neVhamtrader ffien have amplifier components for sale. ‘You might consider buying another ampli fier of the same type in non-working con- dition for parts use Tubes The single most expensive component in an amplifier is usually the vacuum tube that performs the amplification, Good maintenance of tubes stars with proper op- eration of the amplifier. Follow the ‘manufacturer's instructions for input drive levels, duty cycles, tuning and output power level. Frequently check all metered voltages and current to be sure that the tubes are being operated properly and giv- ing you maximum lifetime, Penta Labs has aan excellent Web page on maintaining power tubes. The internal mechanical structures of tubes generally do not deal well with me- chanical shock and vibration, so be gentle, The manufscturer may also specify tow the amplifier is to be mounted, so read the ‘operating manual arcing. Figure 3—The band switch section on the left clearly shows the signs of destructive Tubes generate a lot of heat, so it’s im- portant that whatever cooling mechanism employed is kept at peak efficiency. Air- ‘ways should be clean, including between the fins on metal tubes. All seals and chim. neys should fit securely and be kept clean Wipe the envelope of glass tubes clean af- ter handling them—fingerprints should be removed to prevent baking them into the surface, ‘On metal tubes that use finger-stock contacts, be sure the contacts are clean and ‘make good contact all he Way around the tube. Partial contact or disty finger stock can cause asymmetrie current and heating inside the tube, resulting in warping of in- temal grids and possibly causing harmon- les or parasities, Plate cap connections and VHF parasitic suppressors should be secure and show no signs of heating. Overheated parasitic sup- Dressors may indicate that the neutralization cuitisnotadjusted properly. Inspect socket ‘contacts and the tube pins tobe sure all con nections are secure, panicularly high-current filament connections. Removing and insert- ing the tubes once or twice will clean the socket contacts. ‘Adjustments to the neutralizing net- ‘work, which suppresses VHF oscillations bby negative feedback from the plate to grid cirouit are rarely required except when yo are replacing a tube or after you do major rewiring or repair of the RF components ‘The manufacturer will provide instructions on making these adjustments, If symptoms of VEF oscillations occur without chang- {ng a tube, then perhaps the tube character istics or associated components have changed. Parasitic oscillations in high: 43 Amplifier Maintenancepower amplifiers can be strong enough to ‘cause arcing damage. Perform a visual in- spection prior to re-adjusting the neutral- izing circu. ‘Metering circuits rarely fail, but they play a key pevtin maintenance. By keeping record of “normal” voltages and currents, ‘you will have a valuable set of clues when things go wrong. This is perfect informa- tion for the shack notebook. Record tuning settings, drive levels, and tube voltages and currents on each band and with every an- tenna, When things change, you can refer back to the notebook instead of relying on Mechanical ‘While the amplifiers primarily an elec tronic beast, it has a significant number of ‘mechanical pats that affect its wellbeing. ‘Thermal cycling and heatrctated stresses can result in mechanical connections 1o0s- ning over time or maceral failures Switch shafts, shaft couplingsand panel bearings all aced to be checked for tight- ness and proper alignment. All mounting hardware needs tobe tight, particularly if itsupplies « grounding pat, Examine all ppanel-mounted components, particularly RF connectors, and be sure they're at- tached securely. BNC and UNF connee- tors that are mounted with single nut in a round panel hole are notorious for loosen ing with repeated connecUdiseonnections. ‘Rubber and plastic partsare particularly stressed by heat. If there are any belts, gears or pulleys, make sure they're clean find that Gust and lint are Kept ou of their lubricant. Loose or slipping bels should be replaced. Check O-rings, grommets and sleeves to be sure they ar¢ not brittle or cracked. If insulation sieeves or sheets sre used, check to be sure they are covering what they're supposed 10. Never discard themorreplace them with improperly sized or rated materials Enclosures and internal shields shoulé allbe fastened securely with every required screw in place. Watch out for loosely over- Tapping metal covers. If a sheet metal serew has stripped out, either drill a new hole or replace the screw with larger size taking are to maintain adequate clearance ound and behind the new screw. Tip the amplifier from sie to side while listening for loose hardware of metal fragments Which should all be retrieved. ‘A great time to clean the front znd back panels and get gummy finger deposits off before they enuse permanent finish damage is during maintenance. IF the amplifier is missing a fot onthe cabinet oF an internal shock mount, place it. A clean unit with a complete csbinet will have a significantly Highorresale value than a diy, grubby one sain your interest keep the equipment ooking ts best, Shipping When you are raveling with an ampi- fier or shipping i some eave in packing wl prevent needless Gaage. improper 4-4 Chapter 4 packing can also result in difficulty in col leoting on an insurance claim, should dam- ‘age occur. The original shipping cartons ate a good method of protecting the ampli- ie for storage and sale, but they were not made t0 hold up to frequent shipping. If you travel frequently, it is best to get @ Sturdy shipping case made for efectronic equipment Some amplifiers require the power transformer tobe removed before shipping. Check your owner's manual or contact the manufacturer‘ find out, Failure to remove it before shipping can cause major st tural damage to the amplifier’s chassis and ‘Tubes should also be removed from their sockets for shipment. It may not be nevessaty to ship them separately if they can be packed in the amplifier’s enclosure with adequate plastic foam packing mate: rial. If the manufacturer of the tube oF amplifier recommends separate shipment, however, doit! Cleaning and Maintenance Plan This discussion should have given you plenty (0 think about. 1's easy to defer ‘ainienance, but as with # vehicle, perfor- mance and lifetime are improved if a regu- Jar program is put into place. For amateur use, there is hitle need for maintenance mote frequently than once per year, If there isa period of the year in which you are most active, put a note on the calendar about six weeks in advance to “open the ‘aiving you time 10 obtain and re- place any components. Consider the maintenance requirements of your amplifier and what its manufacturer recommends, Sit down with your ampl fier's manuals and make up a checklist of what major steps and tools ate required. When maintenance time rolls around, you'll be prepared and be able to perform ihe job in the most efficient manner. ‘Troubleshooting ‘A benefit of regular maintenance will be familiarity with your amplifier should you ever necdlto repair it. Knowing what it Tooks (and smells) like inside will give you ‘head start on effecting a quick repair. ‘The following discussion is intended to sllustrate the general flow ofa troubleshoot- ing effort, not be a step-by-step guide. Fig- ure 4 shows a moderately-high-level {roubleshooting flow chart. Before starting ‘on your own amplifier, review the amplifier ‘manusal’s “Theory of Operation” section and familiarize yourself with the schematic. IF there is @ troubleshooting procedure in the manual, follow it, of course. ‘You might be surprised how many “am- plifieris dead” provblems wwrn out tobe sim- ply a lack of ac power. Before even open- ing the cabinet of an_ unresponsive amplifier, be sure that acs really present at the wall socket and that the fuse oF circuit breaker is really closed. Assuming that ac power is present, race through any inter- nal fuses, interlocks and relays all the way through to the nals Hard failures in a high voltage power supply are rarely subtle, so it's usually clear if thete isa problem and what compo- nents are involved, When you repair a ower supply, take the opportunity to check all related components. If all defec- tive components are not replaced, the fail- tures may be repeated when the circuit isre- energized, Rectifiers may fail open or shorted test them using a DVM diode checker. Ar open rectifier will result in @ drop in the HV output of 50 percent or more but will probably not overheat or destzoy itself. A shorted rectifier failure is usually more Wi MIA 9 Maoscelsyasid (SEN 0-67250°951-0 ARAL Order No. $310