Amplifier

This is an early design sketch of VHF (2m - 145 MHz) APRS beacons that are small and can be placed in vehicles like ambulances or fire trucks. Key Points Si5351 module powered by the usual 25 or 26 MHz 0.5 ppm TCXO. Si5351 generates 145 MHz Two-Tone APRS RF output directly! Using an Si5351 for APRS (Automatic Packet Reporting System) transmission via FSK (Frequency Shift Keying) allows us to generate highly accurate AX.25 packets directly at the RF frequency (e.g., 144.390 MHz), eliminating the need for a separate modulator and VCO.Since APRS typically uses AFSK (Audio Frequency Shift Keying) fed into an FM transmitter, generating FSK with an Si5351 means directly shifting the carrier frequency or the VFO instead of modulating an audio tone. ...

This is an early design sketch of a UHF (70cm - 440 MHz) WSPR beacon. This design comes from Ismo (OH2FTG). Key Points 10 MHz OCXO TCXO powering the Si5351 module instead of the usual 25 or 26 MHz 0.5 ppm TCXO. Si5351 generates 217 MHz output, which we double to ~434Mhz using the https://techlib.com/files/diodedbl.pdf technique. Use 440 MHz SAW filter at the output (from LCSC) ONSEMI MMBD701LT1G RF Schottky diodes - locally available ...

The constraints 5V (~500mA) power from mobile phone 1W RF output required Very compact with less "moving" parts 14 MHz capable The design We use INNOTION YG401530VB MMIC in this design. 100n Si5351 CLK 0 --||----+---------+ | MMIC | | IN | | | | OUT +----||---- RF OUT ---- LPF ---- 50R dummy load +----+----+ 100nF | 10uH RFC | |---100n---GND | +5V Note: No explicit 'special' matching required it seems ;) This seems to be an extremely broadband circuit which should cover all HF! Results 10 dBm from Si5351 and 13.8 dB gain of the INNOTION MMIC gives ~9.8Vpp output theoretically. ...

The constraints 5V (~500mA) power from phone 1W RF output required Very compact with less "moving" parts 14 MHz capable The design We purposefully utilize "high Rds" EPC GaN parts with very low Qgs. Simulation Results Power consumption: Around 300mA @ 5V. pout: AVG(v(out)*i(r3))=1.0606 FROM 5e-05 TO 0.0001 pin: AVG(-5*i(v3))=1.38209 FROM 5e-05 TO 0.0001 isupply: AVG(-i(v3))=0.276418 FROM 5e-05 TO 0.0001 eff: pout/pin*100=76.7393 Cost Cost: < 500 INR. ...

Related work Baby QRO Switching RF amplifier for HF Digitally Adjustable RF PA Supply A new generation of the Baby-QRO switching amplifier targets 25W to 50W of RF output for FT8 and other FSK modes. While it can do 100W, it becomes more of a thermal engineering project then ;) It is designed to operate with a Bare DDX-Commercial transceiver board and has an inbuilt T/R switch. Design 3D render: ...

Related work Baby QRO Switching RF amplifier for HF A new generation of the Baby-QRO switching amplifier targets 25W to 50W of RF output for FT8 and other FSK modes. Goal The Baby-QRO amplifier already has a very useful RF power control knob: the PA drain voltage. A bench supply works for experiments, but it is not the right answer for a digital beacon or transmitter stack. We want the MCU controller to set the PA voltage, and therefore the RF output power, in software. ...

Polar Modulation for Everyone We have been working on SSB generation using polar modulation. Hardware stack: RP2350-Zero MCU board + Fast Si5351 module + AP63301 buck regulator (for 5W mode). See https://github.com/kholia/PolarModulationSSB for details. Audio fidelity is acceptable at the moment and should improve further. We still need to hook up the amplitude ("envelope") restoration stage. Motivation Why should Guido, Hans, and FlexRadio folks have all the fun? ;) ...

I recently spotted the Tokmas CI7N170SM TO-247 part on LCSC. It seems like a pretty neat part for building non-QRP HF amplifiers! This could be a better part for our Baby QRO amplifier. Datasheet Excerpts The full datasheet is available here. Comparison In comparison, here is what a professional RF part (MRF300AN) looks like: That 272W maximum power dissipation figure is crazy good but switching characteristics are not that great (fast).

Our 6m WSPR beacon design works fine now. The key is to use a 25 MHz high-quality TCXO, like the 25 MHz HCI 0.5ppm TCXO! 2m WSPR is still out of reach for this VFO design - see the following drifty screenshots: While WSPR is no good, 2m FT8 works pretty fine! ...

We make heavy use of Easy-Digital-Beacons-v1 for testing RF amplifiers. This single board is a versatile WiFi VFO and FT8 / FT4 / WSPR beacon. You can also use our CW-SigGen project to generate a suitable test signal.