6 meter transverters

[n1ig anthony]

I am thinking about getting a 6 meter transverter to use with my HL2, and was wondering what other people's experiences with them have been.

Has the receive sensitivity been decent, and is the unit reasonably on frequency when using the HL2 to drive it.

I am also interested in whether you picked the low power drive (1-10mw) or higher power drive unit (1-10w), and why.  Are there any real-life advantages to picking one over the other?

Anthony - N1IG

[Mike Lewis]

I have used my HL2 with a transverter (I have many 6 to 10G) and it works fine, the performance is more about your antenna, cabling and transverter front end performance.  I have used it stock with the Filter board installed and PA enabled and also filter board removed and separate RX and TX.  I used an attenuator in the TX line to get to my desired 1mW at 28MHz.   Most transverters have configurable drive level inputs, some require soldering, others like my Elecraft Xvtrs are all jumper configured (for split and drive) from -20dBm to several watts input.

 

If you dedicate one Xvtr to one HL2 then operation is easy.  If you want to switch Xvtrs that will require more effort.  When you switch Xvtrs (Bands) you will have to manually switch the SDR app xvtr band to have a correct frequency readout and have your CAT output to logging/digital programs report the correct frequency, or make a circuit that does that for you (various ways).

 

• Mike K7MDL

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[radi...@mail.com]

Yes Anthony, HL2 is a perfect transverter driver. I use mine with a variety of (old - mostly Microwave modules) transverters, 6m, 4m, 2m and 70cms. They are all configured for split input/output, low power drive using the HL2 low power RF1 output (17dBm). Why? Because (IMHO) with low power drive HL2 and separate receive input (HL2 RF3 - very easy to implement using notes in the Wiki) I am far less likely to have an accident by forgetting to disable the PA output of the HL2 and transmitting 5W RF from HL2 RF2 into the transverter RX output or to blow the transverter TX input with too much RF drive. I know that sooner or later if I use conventional RF2 ANT 5W input/output then I will do exactly this. With low power drive and split input/output I have no need to worry about this issue at all.

RX sensitivity...... as Mike says, this is not an issue with the HL2. it's the transverter that you need to worry about on that score. Many great designs around.

Have you looked at Matthew's ( M5EVT) companion transverter design for HL2? Great design utilises HL2 clock output for frequency stability. If HL2 was still in production I'd buy another one just to build two or more of Matthew's PCBs and have HL2 as dedicated transverter driver and keep other HL2 for HF only.

https://groups.google.com/g/hermes-lite/c/mEfqsnjE2Cc

https://github.com/m5evt/hl2_xvtr

Software, my "go to" for HL2 has always been SDR Console and this also makes using a transverter a breeze:

https://www.sdr-radio.com/

https://www.sdr-radio.com/radios#UpandDownConverters

73

Max

[n1ig anthony]

Thank you Mike & Max for the quick reply.

I really like the M5EVT option, but I'm not as able to do fine soldering anymore.  My hands aren't as steady as they used to be, and my eyesight isn't as good either.  Plus having to add an amplifier adds another "thing" I'd have to buy/build.  

I am toying with the idea of getting one of the Ukraine 6 meter xtvrs, and  I'm waffling between the low power drive and the higher power drive version.

If anyone has experience with one of those, I'd love to hear your thoughts as well.

Anthony - N1IG

[radi...@mail.com]

Hi Anthony. Others on here have purchased these transverters (various versions). They do work. I was going to then bought some used Microwave Modules units. They drift so I have problems still to solve.

There are two sellers of these Ukrainian units on eBay. One is "Transverter Store". My understanding (hope I am correct) is that these are copies of the original boards produced by UR3LMZ. UR3LMZ sells on eBay as seller "hfvhfparts". The units are similar but not identical. However, I think the both feature only RF sense auto T/R switching. Works, but not ideal.

If it were me I'd go low power split operation but that means a small mod to HL2 to bring RF3 (RX only) port to the back panel. It's basically soldering small coax from header connector (that joins HL2 to N2ADR board) and bring out to panel mount SMA or similar. If you are not able to solder you may not therefore want to do that but it is fairly straightforward.

You also might like to see these two links about the Ukrainian transverters:

https://www.eham.net/reviews/view-product?id=14939

https://youtu.be/w8JQ0SIUlI8

73

Max