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Sunday 11 August 2019

Even More Power!

Well,

I've been messing about and finishing off my 13cm linear. The idea is to make something that will work on the 2.3GHz amateur band frequencies as well as 2.4GHz for DATV on Es'hail-2.

This has been quite a challenge, but eventually we have something working ready for on air testing.

This is the final build, which even though I say so myself, is a masterpiece:


The PA module itself is something from my travels made by PowerWave:


There are five MOSFETS in total - each one is a SRF7068H5HS.

This is controlled by a W6PQL Amplifier Control Board which in turn uses an external FET switch to turn on and off the 12V bias lines to the PA, provide the sequencing necessary, generate an ALC voltage (just in case I need it later), generate an external PTT out for switching VLNAs or other external gubbins.

There's also a chassis mounted directional coupler (a NARDA model 31152) which provides a -30dB forward and reflected port output which is attenuated and rectified to produce a DC voltage. There's a forward voltage for a future power meter and also a reflected power voltage to activate a trip if the SWR should exceed 2:1.


I've even included a thermistor on the main heatsync and a trip in the amp control to switch on the fans or even shutdown the amp when over temperature.

I'm seeing about 26dB of gain from the amplifier and it will generate about 250W of CW on 2.407 GHz so should easily generate the 30-40W I might need for some DATV experiments.

Here is the unit under test, I'm using the Portsdown to generate a signal at 432.75 MHz, then using the mixer from the UK Microwave Group forum to mix in 1975 MHz to generate an output on 2004.75 MHz. This is then amplified up and fed to the linear. The forward port of the directional coupler (-30dB) is coupled via another 20dB attenuator to my XL Microwave meter. A short piece of coathanger shoved into the front of the Spectrum Analyser allows me to measure the harmonics and also look at the TX waveform.


A thing of beauty is a joy to behold! I'm delighted with this.

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