Related articles: Proper Single Transistor LNA for HF A Sustainable Radio Design? Design We are finally going to build a QSD RX! Here is the rough schematic I am thinking about: References MC1496 Information HSDAOH on RP2350 (see internal_adc section) This way we can continue using RP2350 instead of moving to something like STM32H5 immediately PicoRX Simulations (also for DSP code)
This note demonstrates a small connectivity tester / check nets program for KiCad. This program allows doing checks like: Is the U1:8 pin connected to GND? Motivation Sometimes visual errors can creep in the schematic (and the PCB subsequently). This connectivity tester allows expressing the same connections in a non-visual way (with a different probability of making errors). The ERC and DRC checks in KiCad work great but this non-visual test assertions provide another level of sanity checking. ...
Setup: Si5351 RF generator (@ 28 MHz) ➔ GSD-Hacks-v5 digital amplifier ➔ 7th order LPF ➔ {COAX-UNDER-TEST} ➔ Digital RF power meter ➔ Dummy load Results Results at 13.8V drain: Coax Type Power Reading RG-58 (7 meters) 4.5W RG-316 (7 meters) 3.9W RG-188 (7 meters) 3.9W Results at 15V drain: Coax Type Power Reading RG-58 (7 meters) 5.4W RG-316 (7 meters) 4.7W RG-188 (7 meters) 4.7W These measurements appear to match those from Eric, WD8RIF. ...
Here is the schematic for a standard 50Ω LPF for the 12-11-10m bands. Designs PCB Render: Actual photo: Performance NanoVNA results of the PCB build: Build Notes These values come from RobG (https://hackaday.io/) Shunt C: 100pF Series L: 12T on T37-6 core, 11T on T50-6, making about 485nH Shunt C: 180pF Series L: 13T on T37-6 core, 12T on T50-6, making about 580nH Shunt C: 180pF Series L: 12T on T37-6 core, 11T on T50-6, making about 485nH Shunt C: 100pF Winding wire size: 27 SWG (is non-critical) Note: We needed to reduce 1T (from the values specified above) when using the T50-6 cores. As usual, use a DE-5000 LCR Meter (or better) to know the exact values. ...
Note: This HF LNA design is inspired by PY2OHH designs and mcHF work. Previous article: Single Transistor LNA for HF - it cut a corner when it came to output impedance matching ;) Design The idea that a single-transistor preamp with 10 dB gain is more than enough for HF comes from Gajendra Kumar (VU2BGS). As a new "designer," I am often overwhelmed by the available design paths, so guidance from an elmer is crucial. ...
My solar powered WSPR beacon is now active on the 12m band! Tech Stack Tech stack: Navitas 100W Solar Panel, Exide Solar Blitz 40AH battery, Skypearll Solar Charge Controller 30A, 200W 20A DC-DC CC CV Buck module (Robu) - set to output 7.5V, Waveshare ESP32-S3 Zero board, Si5351 with 0.5ppm TCXO, GSD-Hacks-v5 amplifier, DFRobot Gravity Digital 5A Relay Module Photos of components involved (for reference): ...
Setup OS and SDR Please use the latest Raspberry Pi OS 64-bit on RPi 4 or later. Using a Raspberry Pi (<=3) is NOT recommended as it has quite a bit of power supply noise on the USB ports, which reduces the performance of the connected SDR. user@rpi:/etc$ cat /etc/os-release PRETTY_NAME="Debian GNU/Linux 13 (trixie)" NAME="Debian GNU/Linux" VERSION_ID="13" ... Install dependencies: sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install airspyhf \ soapysdr-tools sox libsox-fmt-all wsjtx \ pulseaudio-utils git vim fluxbox xterm tightvncserver \ libqt5websockets5 cmake build-essential sudo apt-get install cmake pkg-config \ libusb-1.0-0-dev \ libasound2-dev \ libairspy-dev \ libairspyhf-dev \ librtlsdr-dev \ libsndfile1-dev \ portaudio19-dev \ libvolk-dev Build airspyhf-fmradion SDR software: ...
WSJT-X 3.x has inbuilt support for band hopping! Results RX results from an experimental version of DDX: This is super useful for monitoring FT8 traffic on multiple bands. References libmirisdr-5 WSJT-X Improved
My old Luminous Zelio inverter (bought in ~2013) lasted for close to 8 years. Trusting the Luminous brand, I installed two more Luminous Zelio inverters in year 2024 in two different homes. Come year 2025 and both these Zelio inverters have conked off and that too in less than a year! I guess they don't make the Zelio inverters the way they used to :-( For now, I have shifted to Microtek Heavy Duty UPS 1750 and Microtek 1275 12V SW inverter models.
Future radio receiver design ideas (from Ismo, Pete and other folks): Antenna ➔ (BPF) ➔ BFR93A based pre-amp from mcHF project ➔ MC1496 (Mixer) ➔ 455 kHz IF ➔ Ceramic filter SMD (HCI) ➔ 'IF amplifier' (20-40 dB gain?) ➔ Overclocked Pico 2's ADC (3+ MSPS) ➔ Digital down-conversion and processing in digital domain ➔ Expose the processed audio samples over USB (Pico 2 acts as a sound card). Benefits: This enables reception of SSB and CW signals! The 455 kHz IF with digital processing gives us the best of both analog selectivity (ceramic filter) and digital flexibility. ...