I now have my board up and running.
Observations so far -
My board thickness was 1.8mm. Issue resolved, this is just for awareness.
My PA transformer had a wire loose.
It is re-soldered and working. This was one side of the single
loop pair of wires.
I then tried various power settings but noticed that I was not getting full 5W power output. I checked the bias using quisk and noted that it was pulling 130ma with spot to 0 as is described in Steve's excellent video. I re-calibrated the bias to a full 200ma. I don't know if perhaps the transformer was not connected during the testing and still somewhat worked or what. So I suggest you check your bias levels after you get things going.
My SMA connectors were undamaged.
So far, so good. Happy camper!
John - W9JSW
Thanks John,
I would have expected the loose wire to be detected
during the final test, since the bias for one of the LDMOS would have been
always at zero - but I did not check exactly how the test code works.
My boards measure both 1.6 mm, maybe they come from a different batch?
I've
measured the TX output power of my H-Lv2b8 with the filters in bypass and it's not as high as on
the H-Lv2b3 I have: the long transformer wires cause some drop at the
high end but even after shortening the wires the output is still lower
than expected - see graph below which compares the build8 as received, build8 after shortening the T3 wires and the build 3 output:
Quisk says I am getting 3.5W out. My meter (that I do not think
is accurate) says 4W out - both on 40M. This is with the filters
inline. I will run a few more measurements.
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Group,
I have only tested 40M with my radio using my antenna. I will
plug in the dummy load and measure all of the bands this weekend.
For 40, quisk and SparkSDR show 3.4 watts and a close to 1.03
SWR. My meter somewhat agrees showing a bit under 4 watts. As I
have stated before, I do not trust my second hand meter.
What should this radio be capable of on a per-band basis?
What wire should I use if I choose to rewind the transformer?
Will it matter? All I have is enameled wire.
John
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Measuring my B8 I found that I had a bad cable. I was using one
of those light brown sma jumper cables that are prevalent on ebay.
Into my dummy load, the SWR was all over the map. I grabbed a sma
jumper that I bought with my 2M HT and the results are much
better! This was using spark set at 255 drive, N2ADR hpf-lpf
filter setting reading from the spark power calculation.
160M - 5.7W
80M - 5.6W
60M - 5.6W
40M - 4.7W
30M - 5.7W
20M - 5.9W
17M - 4.5W
15M - 4.1W
12M - 2.8W
10M - 4.1W
I am guessing that if I re-wind the PA transformer, the higher bands will improve. I almost never operate there so not an issue I am likely to address.
John W9JSW
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Definitely not a mic...
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In PowerSDR the fwd-ref are swapped and the magnitude is about
11X hotter. I build my power sensing board to exact specs from an
Alex design and it ran perfect in PowerSDR, but was 11X low in
Spark. Never tried it in Quisk. The pick the highest value as
forward algorithm caused me to think the polarities were ok when I
tested my board with Spark.
See my QRZ page for a pic. I had Jim add an external connector so
I can still use it. Will hook it up soon to see how it works.
John
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Interesting on the CW, I guess the keyer stuff in PSDR led me (incorrectly) to think there was a keyer present in the HL2. So, following the logic of a back room radio, one would still need to be able to connect to the CW key line in some fashion, I'm guessing there is no facility or easy way to connect a keyer to the host PC then? Us 99% CW guys will want to know what options we have in this regard. Along the same lines, I guess audio for voice/digital modes comes from the host PC then? Is there a way to connect a hand mic to a host PC? Guess the 3.5mm mic jack would do for mic audio, but probably not for PTT? I know (now) that there are two PTT lines (I think the RCA jack on the LPF board is PTT also?) on the HL2 box.
Personally, I would love to have the keyer functionality added
into the HL2 but I am probably not the guy to do that. I feel
confident when I say that I would need a lot of hand holding to
get the job done!
Thanks and 73,
Robert
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Hi Dick,
Actually you developed the bridge :-)
You will recognize the circuit as it came from here - http://www.k9ivb.net/Munin2/Alternate_Alex_Interface_Ver6.2.pdf
My board information is on github here called FR Sense Board - https://github.com/W9JSW/Hermes-Lite/tree/Amplifiers
I figured that it was easier to use this design than one of my
own and then have to re-calculate the values to get it to jibe
with Hermes/Alex.
I have the board gerbers uploaded to oshpark. There is a minor
problem with them in that the silk screen for the diodes is
reversed. Otherwise they build and run FB. Never did a China run
and I bet they would be dirt cheap there.
https://oshpark.com/shared_projects/z3pei6Ab
John
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Hi Group,I experimented with Claudio's C84 increase by 150pF and saw very good results. On two boards where I had rewound T3 with my preferred wire, the power went from about 4.5W to 5W, or a bit less than 0.5 dB, on 12M. Note that this is a 150pF 0805 capacitor placed *on top of* the existing C84, essentially two capacitors in parallel to increase the capacitance. Although this is a small increase in practice, it is inline with past units where power was closer to 5W on all bands.I also experimented with replacing R55 with a 100 Ohm resistor to increase the RF TX driver output. This added about another 0.5 dB also. I looked at harmonics and they were no worse than before. I didn't look at signal quality (IMD) changes. This mod may be of interest to some, but is not necessary to reach 5W.For the low RF output on higher frequencies, my recommendation is to rewind T3, with windings as close and tight as possible, and leads as short as possible. Also, add 150 pF in parallel to C84.
I will send a length of the preferred wire, 150 pF capacitor and 100 Ohm resistor to anyone who bought a build8 unit and would like to make any of these mods. I will use funds from the repair pool. To keep costs low, I will send this in a flat mailer at letter postage rates. If you would like this, please send your Makerfabs order confirmation to hermeslite @ gmail.com. Also, include your preferred address in no more than 5 lines. I will copy and paste this address. If it does not fit, I will request that you fix the address.73,Stevekf7o
On Saturday, June 1, 2019 at 1:47:44 PM UTC-7, Alan Hopper wrote:
Hi Claudio,I remember the capacitor that was added under the transformer on the vpa line made a difference to power output for me at some frequencies on 3b3, I don't believe the value was ever optimized and I think stayed at the first value I tried. I wonder if variations in manufacture could have changed whatever happens along the trace from the vpa regulator. Just speculation from a non rf engineer :)
73 Alan M0NNB
On Friday, May 31, 2019 at 2:36:44 PM UTC+1, in3otd wrote:
Hello,I'd guess that's a copy/paste error in the README.md file; the board schematic is in the n2adr.pdf file in that folder.
73 de Claudio, DK1CG / IN3OTD
On Friday, May 31, 2019 at 3:04:24 PM UTC+2, ROBERT ENTWISTLE wrote:
Hi Steve,
Thank you for the clarification, "companions" is the key word that I was missing I guess. However, I still cannot find the schematic. The page you linked seems to indicate hermeslite.pdf (which is in another folder) is the schematic but that file covers the HL alone from what I am seeing, doesn't include the LPF schematic?
73,
Robert, WA2T
On May 31, 2019 at 1:26 AM Steve Haynal <softerh...@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Robert,
The N2ADR board with build8 has some minor changes versus the one on Jim's site. All files for your N2ADR board are on github. All files for everything HL2 related is on github...
73,
Stevekf7o
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