[Flexradio] DC/DC Converter (DC1)
I have noticed this being discussed as an issue several times. It appears that not everyone is affected by the meandering signals. Some are worse than others or not even noticed. Is this a known issue or are they just isolated occurrences? 73 Ross K9COX ___ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archive Link: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ FlexRadio Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com
Re: [Flexradio] DC/DC Converter (DC1)
I think it is more prevalent than not. The noise is real easy to find when the rig hasn't warmed up and you have it on a dummy load. In the Panadapter you can watch the little hump wander you the band until the radio starts coming to temperature and then back down. As the radio warms up, its rate of travel slows down to almost a crawl. Eventually it settles in a frequency range and wanders around in it. I see this behavior all the time on 20 meters, and have observed it on other bands as well. -Tim --- Tim Ellison Integrated Technical Services -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Ross Stenberg Sent: Monday, September 25, 2006 10:56 AM To: flexradio@flex-radio.biz Subject: [Flexradio] DC/DC Converter (DC1) I have noticed this being discussed as an issue several times. It appears that not everyone is affected by the meandering signals. Some are worse than others or not even noticed. Is this a known issue or are they just isolated occurrences? 73 Ross K9COX ___ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archive Link: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ FlexRadio Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com ___ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archive Link: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ FlexRadio Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com
Re: [Flexradio] DC/DC Converter (DC1)
I have it in my SDR-1000 (June/2005 purchase) Very embarrassing on a demo and irritating during use. Mike - AA8K Ross Stenberg wrote: I have noticed this being discussed as an issue several times. It appears that not everyone is affected by the meandering signals. Some are worse than others or not even noticed. Is this a known issue or are they just isolated occurrences? 73 Ross K9COX ___ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archive Link: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ FlexRadio Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com
Re: [Flexradio] DC/DC Converter (DC1)
Hi Tim and Ross, Let me copy what I answered to Cris and Willi few hours ago: -- Willi, Thanks for remembering! Linear power supply/voltage regulator is always a good solution for low noise applications. Unfortunately, sometimes we cannot use them. Actually, now I'm using the original chopper with better filtering. You may add 47uF capacitor parallel to C7 and double the values of L2, L3, C8 and C9. Be careful though, the chopper DC1 (NMA1215S) is very sensitive to all kind of overloads - even to the higher inrush current of the output filter capacitors! That's why higher inductance values will be needed. My suggestions are beyond the recommendations of the manufacturer and naturally, you violate the guarantee rules of FlexRadio, too. Anything you modify is totally at your own risk and responsibility. It may be my good luck only, that this modification has worked three years in my oldest SDR-1000 and about two years in the two other sets. For anybody else I suggest buying (or building) a quiet power supply with well filtered output voltages +13.8V and ±15V (±12V). 73, Ahti OH2RZ On 25/09/06, Willi Reppel [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Chris, This subject has already been a topic three years ago on the Forum and so far I remember -- On 25/09/06, Tim Ellison [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I think it is more prevalent than not. The noise is real easy to find when the rig hasn't warmed up and you have it on a dummy load. In the Panadapter you can watch the little hump wander you the band until the radio starts coming to temperature and then back down. As the radio warms up, its rate of travel slows down to almost a crawl. Eventually it settles in a frequency range and wanders around in it. I see this behavior all the time on 20 meters, and have observed it on other bands as well. -Tim --- Tim Ellison Integrated Technical Services -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Ross Stenberg Sent: Monday, September 25, 2006 10:56 AM To: flexradio@flex-radio.biz Subject: [Flexradio] DC/DC Converter (DC1) I have noticed this being discussed as an issue several times. It appears that not everyone is affected by the meandering signals. Some are worse than others or not even noticed. Is this a known issue or are they just isolated occurrences? 73 Ross K9COX ___ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archive Link: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ FlexRadio Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com ___ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archive Link: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ FlexRadio Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com
Re: [Flexradio] DC/DC Converter (DC1)
Thank you Tim and Ahti, I read your posts with much interest and I am actually fishing for official responses :^) With tongue in cheek I would hope that a company whom is committed to becoming the best radio company in the world would not take the typical Yaesu position with respect to hardware issues. For those that don't know what that means ask just about any FT-1000MP Mark V owner. Please don't misunderstand me, I like Flex Radio and their product. -Original Message- From: Ahti Aintila [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, September 25, 2006 11:13 AM To: Tim Ellison Cc: Ross Stenberg; flexradio@flex-radio.biz Subject: Re: [Flexradio] DC/DC Converter (DC1) Hi Tim and Ross, Let me copy what I answered to Cris and Willi few hours ago: -- Willi, Thanks for remembering! Linear power supply/voltage regulator is always a good solution for low noise applications. Unfortunately, sometimes we cannot use them. Actually, now I'm using the original chopper with better filtering. You may add 47uF capacitor parallel to C7 and double the values of L2, L3, C8 and C9. Be careful though, the chopper DC1 (NMA1215S) is very sensitive to all kind of overloads - even to the higher inrush current of the output filter capacitors! That's why higher inductance values will be needed. My suggestions are beyond the recommendations of the manufacturer and naturally, you violate the guarantee rules of FlexRadio, too. Anything you modify is totally at your own risk and responsibility. It may be my good luck only, that this modification has worked three years in my oldest SDR-1000 and about two years in the two other sets. For anybody else I suggest buying (or building) a quiet power supply with well filtered output voltages +13.8V and ±15V (±12V). 73, Ahti OH2RZ On 25/09/06, Willi Reppel [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Chris, This subject has already been a topic three years ago on the Forum and so far I remember -- On 25/09/06, Tim Ellison [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I think it is more prevalent than not. The noise is real easy to find when the rig hasn't warmed up and you have it on a dummy load. In the Panadapter you can watch the little hump wander you the band until the radio starts coming to temperature and then back down. As the radio warms up, its rate of travel slows down to almost a crawl. Eventually it settles in a frequency range and wanders around in it. I see this behavior all the time on 20 meters, and have observed it on other bands as well. -Tim --- Tim Ellison Integrated Technical Services -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Ross Stenberg Sent: Monday, September 25, 2006 10:56 AM To: flexradio@flex-radio.biz Subject: [Flexradio] DC/DC Converter (DC1) I have noticed this being discussed as an issue several times. It appears that not everyone is affected by the meandering signals. Some are worse than others or not even noticed. Is this a known issue or are they just isolated occurrences? 73 Ross K9COX ___ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archive Link: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ FlexRadio Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com ___ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archive Link: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ FlexRadio Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com
Re: [Flexradio] DC/DC Converter (DC1)
Hi, John Eckert K2OX started this thread describing how he replaced the DC1 with a linear. Following were several posts requestiong more info from John on the replacement part he used. I don't think I read a response. Did I miss it or has anyone received more details on this? Just very interested, 73 de Joe - AB1DO - Original Message - From: Ross Stenberg [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: 'Ahti Aintila' [EMAIL PROTECTED]; 'Tim Ellison' [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: flexradio@flex-radio.biz Sent: Monday, September 25, 2006 12:29 Subject: Re: [Flexradio] DC/DC Converter (DC1) Thank you Tim and Ahti, I read your posts with much interest and I am actually fishing for official responses :^) With tongue in cheek I would hope that a company whom is committed to becoming the best radio company in the world would not take the typical Yaesu position with respect to hardware issues. For those that don't know what that means ask just about any FT-1000MP Mark V owner. Please don't misunderstand me, I like Flex Radio and their product. ___ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archive Link: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ FlexRadio Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com
Re: [Flexradio] DC/DC Converter (DC1)
On 9/25/06, Joe - AB1DO [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi, John Eckert K2OX started this thread describing how he replaced the DC1 with a linear. Following were several posts requestiong more info from John on the replacement part he used. I don't think I read a response. Did I miss it or has anyone received more details on this? Just very interested, 73 de Joe - AB1DO Same thoughts here. Why start the idea and not fill us in? Don't leave us hanging on a twig! ___ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archive Link: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ FlexRadio Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com
Re: [Flexradio] DC/DC Converter (DC1)
Joe - AB1DO wrote: Hi, John Eckert K2OX started this thread describing how he replaced the DC1 with a linear. Following were several posts requestiong more info from John on the replacement part he used. I don't think I read a response. Did I miss it or has anyone received more details on this? Just very interested, 73 de Joe - AB1DO - Original Message - From: Ross Stenberg [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: 'Ahti Aintila' [EMAIL PROTECTED]; 'Tim Ellison' [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: flexradio@flex-radio.biz Sent: Monday, September 25, 2006 12:29 Subject: Re: [Flexradio] DC/DC Converter (DC1) Thank you Tim and Ahti, I read your posts with much interest and I am actually fishing for official responses :^) With tongue in cheek I would hope that a company whom is committed to becoming the best radio company in the world would not take the typical Yaesu position with respect to hardware issues. For those that don't know what that means ask just about any FT-1000MP Mark V owner. Please don't misunderstand me, I like Flex Radio and their product. This email below was posted a short while ago. Hi Tim and Ross, Let me copy what I answered to Cris and Willi few hours ago: -- Willi, Thanks for remembering! Linear power supply/voltage regulator is always a good solution for low noise applications. Unfortunately, sometimes we cannot use them. Actually, now I'm using the original chopper with better filtering. You may add 47uF capacitor parallel to C7 and double the values of L2, L3, C8 and C9. Be careful though, the chopper DC1 (NMA1215S) is very sensitive to all kind of overloads - even to the higher inrush current of the output filter capacitors! That's why higher inductance values will be needed. My suggestions are beyond the recommendations of the manufacturer and naturally, you violate the guarantee rules of FlexRadio, too. Anything you modify is totally at your own risk and responsibility. It may be my good luck only, that this modification has worked three years in my oldest SDR-1000 and about two years in the two other sets. For anybody else I suggest buying (or building) a quiet power supply with well filtered output voltages +13.8V and ?15V (?12V). 73, Ahti OH2RZ -- Cecil KD5NWA www.qrpradio.com www.hpsdr.com Sacred Cows make the best Hamburger! Don Seglio Batuna ___ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archive Link: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ FlexRadio Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com
Re: [Flexradio] DC/DC Converter (DC1) Replaced with Linear Supply
Like I've said many times before(personal opinion).It's not a rig for everyone. Take my advice now and sell. You boat anchor needs you. KD5NWA wrote: I have a SDR-1000 that I bought at Dayton and frankly I have been disappointed in it's performance, I have all these signals specially in the lower bands that are wondering around and changing frequency on me, they are at least +20 dB above the noise floor. On my radio the broad carriers never stop moving but your description sounds like the problem I have, except mine seems to be worse. If I turn off the radio and listen instead with my TS-930 they simply are not there at all. I have not turned on the radio in about 45 days because of these problems, and also I have multitudes of large spurs all over the place getting worse the higher you go in frequency. 10M is downright useless, large spurs as far as the eye can see. I sent some pictures to Flexradio of my wondering carriers but nothing became of it. I've been seeing comments from others about how great the radio is, but frankly I have not seen it, right now my SoftRocks work better. Looks like I'm going to have to do some surgery before this is over. At 10:06 AM 9/22/2006, you wrote: Hi Folks, I just wanted to let you know about a modification I made to my radio. DC1 is a switch mode converter that provides +/- 15 volts for the instrumentation amplifiers IC6/7 on receive that interface the QSD to the sound card. The DC/DC converter's internal oscillator free runs at ~120 kHz and is very rich with odd harmonics, every 240 or so kHz, throughout the HF range. This manifests itself as low level 'carriers' that drift around and through receive frequencies. When the SRD is first powered up they move quite fast, but after the unit has warmed up the move very, very slowly through your QSO. These signals were about S4 on my SDR1000 in the 40M band and are easily removed with the automatic notch. But, loving to tinker like I do I removed the DC1 and soldered a 7 pin header in its place. I used a 1 x 2 x 2, +/- 15v linear supply wired to the header. How's it work? Great! No more warbling tones from within the SDR. I wish I would have done more before and after testing. Now when I connect the receiver to a dummy load, most of the bands are clear of spurs with the noise floor at -153 dBm. I imagine that the fundamental waveform (square wave?) of the DC/DC converter was putting an awful lot of total integrated power into the QSD and mixing with other signals there to increase the total spurs. It just keeps gettin' better. Regards, John k2ox ___ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archive Link: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ FlexRadio Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com Cecil Bayona KD5NWA www.qrpradio.com www.hpsdr.com Windows, the most successful software virus ever Don Seglio Batuna ___ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archive Link: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ FlexRadio Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com -- next part -- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/flexradio_flex-radio.biz/attachments/20060923/1a64e04e/attachment.html ___ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archive Link: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ FlexRadio Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com
Re: [Flexradio] DC/DC Converter (DC1) Replaced with Linear Supply
I'm sorry, I apologize, I got a lemon of a radio, and the manufacturer is not interested in fixing it, must be my fault somehow. Myself and several others must be imagining this problem, funny thing my other radios don't pick up these moving signals, it's inside my radio. Can you possibly imagine that someone else's radio might not work as good as yours without being the operators fault? Maybe, just maybe they got a radio that has something wrong out of the factory? Nah, it could not ever happen. Jimmy Jones wrote: Like I've said many times before(personal opinion).It's not a rig for everyone. Take my advice now and sell. You boat anchor needs you. KD5NWA wrote: I have a SDR-1000 that I bought at Dayton and frankly I have been disappointed in it's performance, I have all these signals specially in the lower bands that are wondering around and changing frequency on me, they are at least +20 dB above the noise floor. On my radio the broad carriers never stop moving but your description sounds like the problem I have, except mine seems to be worse. If I turn off the radio and listen instead with my TS-930 they simply are not there at all. I have not turned on the radio in about 45 days because of these problems, and also I have multitudes of large spurs all over the place getting worse the higher you go in frequency. 10M is downright useless, large spurs as far as the eye can see. I sent some pictures to Flexradio of my wondering carriers but nothing became of it. I've been seeing comments from others about how great the radio is, but frankly I have not seen it, right now my SoftRocks work better. Looks like I'm going to have to do some surgery before this is over. At 10:06 AM 9/22/2006, you wrote: Hi Folks, I just wanted to let you know about a modification I made to my radio. DC1 is a switch mode converter that provides +/- 15 volts for the instrumentation amplifiers IC6/7 on receive that interface the QSD to the sound card. The DC/DC converter's internal oscillator free runs at ~120 kHz and is very rich with odd harmonics, every 240 or so kHz, throughout the HF range. This manifests itself as low level 'carriers' that drift around and through receive frequencies. When the SRD is first powered up they move quite fast, but after the unit has warmed up the move very, very slowly through your QSO. These signals were about S4 on my SDR1000 in the 40M band and are easily removed with the automatic notch. But, loving to tinker like I do I removed the DC1 and soldered a 7 pin header in its place. I used a 1 x 2 x 2, +/- 15v linear supply wired to the header. How's it work? Great! No more warbling tones from within the SDR. I wish I would have done more before and after testing. Now when I connect the receiver to a dummy load, most of the bands are clear of spurs with the noise floor at -153 dBm. I imagine that the fundamental waveform (square wave?) of the DC/DC converter was putting an awful lot of total integrated power into the QSD and mixing with other signals there to increase the total spurs. It just keeps gettin' better. Regards, John k2ox -- Cecil KD5NWA www.qrpradio.com www.hpsdr.com Sacred Cows make the best Hamburger! Don Seglio Batuna ___ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archive Link: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ FlexRadio Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com
Re: [Flexradio] DC/DC Converter (DC1) Replaced with Linear Supply
thats funny.. I hear signals like this on my IC- 746 and on my FT-920 quite often .. likewise I can hear/see then on my sdr-1000.. I do not think this a fault of the radio. or if it is its a common problem... Ray J W9RAY Cecil Bayona wrote: Myself and several others must be imagining this problem, funny thing my other radios don't pick up these moving signals, it's inside my radio. Can you possibly imagine that someone else's radio might not work as good as yours without being the operators fault? Maybe, just maybe they got a radio that has something wrong out of the factory? Nah, it could not ever happen. J ___ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archive Link: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ FlexRadio Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com
Re: [Flexradio] DC/DC Converter (DC1) Replaced with Linear Supply
I can hear them very faintly on my TS-930 until I turn off the SDR-1000 then they disappear, in my case the noise is coming from the SDR-1000. Ray J wrote: thats funny.. I hear signals like this on my IC- 746 and on my FT-920 quite often .. likewise I can hear/see then on my sdr-1000.. I do not think this a fault of the radio. or if it is its a common problem... Ray J W9RAY Cecil Bayona wrote: Myself and several others must be imagining this problem, funny thing my other radios don't pick up these moving signals, it's inside my radio. Can you possibly imagine that someone else's radio might not work as good as yours without being the operators fault? Maybe, just maybe they got a radio that has something wrong out of the factory? Nah, it could not ever happen. J ___ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archive Link: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ FlexRadio Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com -- Cecil KD5NWA www.qrpradio.com www.hpsdr.com Sacred Cows make the best Hamburger! Don Seglio Batuna ___ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archive Link: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ FlexRadio Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com
Re: [Flexradio] DC/DC Converter (DC1) Replaced with Linear Supply
Cecil, I can imagine that you sent these e-mails twice so that tells me something about you right there. Oh wait that was probably someone else's fault. Are you interested in selling your SDR-1000? I was lucky enough to be able to follow along with Rigs early development because of Dudley Hurry late night 3870.kHz. Dudley must of been one of the first guys to own a radio or at least really close.(Top 25 or so I'll bet) That guy is always on the leading edge. Night after night, he would be in there cutting out and breaking up and we all just laughed and went on playing audio with our 850's and 870's and what have you. I was very interested in the rig because I liked playing around with computers and I liked the idea of something new coming into ham radio. After about a year, I really started to sit up and pay attention. This radio was really starting to shape up. It had a flat receiver and transmitter and really sounded good (all this was pre-firebox) I think Dud had just installed his Delta 44. I could go on and on here but the point is that your 930S was made by a company that started business in 1946. It has many years of development work behind it and I'm going to tell you that I'm simply astounded to see where the Flex is at today after only a few years. Is it perfect ? Nope. Was I smart enough to know that going into the deal? hehehe Many would argue no.(AH's) but I knew I couldn't expect a Cadillac and I knew that I wasn't paying for a Cadillac either. What were your expectations going in? Is it just possible that you or your equipment could be some of the problem? Is it possible that you expect to much? I have plenty to gripe about Cecil. My radio works just as good or bad as I thought it would at this point in the development cycle.I don't really try to encourage people to buy the radio simply because it's not as polished as a lot of people would like. I have used it on every band except for 6 and 160 and it works without problem. I'm just happy that I got the best Flex SDR ever made. Don't think for a minute that I don't have complaints about the rig. I do. But you have to sit back and put the whole situation into perspective. (60 years at building radios..vs.. 3 years) Kenwoods first radio couldn't hold a candle to this one and many would argue rather successfully I might add that the 930 and 940 were turds too. Mark my words, Kenwood if they choose to stay to the Amateur Radio Market will go down the SDR path. The witting is on the wall. It just a matter of time. 'Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to their level then beat you with experience.' Bayona wrote: I'm sorry, I apologize, I got a lemon of a radio, and the manufacturer is not interested in fixing it, must be my fault somehow. Myself and several others must be imagining this problem, funny thing my other radios don't pick up these moving signals, it's inside my radio. Can you possibly imagine that someone else's radio might not work as good as yours without being the operators fault? Maybe, just maybe they got a radio that has something wrong out of the factory? Nah, it could not ever happen. Jimmy Jones wrote: Like I've said many times before(personal opinion).It's not a rig for everyone. Take my advice now and sell. You boat anchor needs you. KD5NWA wrote: I have a SDR-1000 that I bought at Dayton and frankly I have been disappointed in it's performance, I have all these signals specially in the lower bands that are wondering around and changing frequency on me, they are at least +20 dB above the noise floor. On my radio the broad carriers never stop moving but your description sounds like the problem I have, except mine seems to be worse. If I turn off the radio and listen instead with my TS-930 they simply are not there at all. I have not turned on the radio in about 45 days because of these problems, and also I have multitudes of large spurs all over the place getting worse the higher you go in frequency. 10M is downright useless, large spurs as far as the eye can see. I sent some pictures to Flexradio of my wondering carriers but nothing became of it. I've been seeing comments from others about how great the radio is, but frankly I have not seen it, right now my SoftRocks work better. Looks like I'm going to have to do some surgery before this is over. At 10:06 AM 9/22/2006, you wrote: Hi Folks, I just wanted to let you know about a modification I made to my radio. DC1 is a switch mode converter that provides +/- 15 volts for the instrumentation amplifiers IC6/7 on receive that interface the QSD to the sound card. The DC/DC converter's internal oscillator free runs at ~120 kHz and is very rich with odd harmonics, every 240 or so kHz, throughout the HF range. This manifests itself as low level 'carriers' that drift around and through receive frequencies. When the SRD is
[Flexradio] DC/DC Converter (DC1) Replaced with Linear Supply
Hi Folks, I just wanted to let you know about a modification I made to my radio. DC1 is a switch mode converter that provides +/- 15 volts for the instrumentation amplifiers IC6/7 on receive that interface the QSD to the sound card. The DC/DC converter's internal oscillator free runs at ~120 kHz and is very rich with odd harmonics, every 240 or so kHz, throughout the HF range. This manifests itself as low level 'carriers' that drift around and through receive frequencies. When the SRD is first powered up they move quite fast, but after the unit has warmed up the move very, very slowly through your QSO. These signals were about S4 on my SDR1000 in the 40M band and are easily removed with the automatic notch. But, loving to tinker like I do I removed the DC1 and soldered a 7 pin header in its place. I used a 1 x 2 x 2, +/- 15v linear supply wired to the header. How's it work? Great! No more warbling tones from within the SDR. I wish I would have done more before and after testing. Now when I connect the receiver to a dummy load, most of the bands are clear of spurs with the noise floor at -153 dBm. I imagine that the fundamental waveform (square wave?) of the DC/DC converter was putting an awful lot of total integrated power into the QSD and mixing with other signals there to increase the total spurs. It just keeps gettin' better. Regards, John k2ox ___ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archive Link: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ FlexRadio Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com
Re: [Flexradio] DC/DC Converter (DC1) Replaced with Linear Supply
John, can you be a bit more specific as to what you did and what you used to do this. My unit seems to have more than its share of these carriers. What about 10 meters? Any improvement there? Many thanks Stan AH6JR On Friday 22 September 2006 05:06 am, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi Folks, I just wanted to let you know about a modification I made to my radio. DC1 is a switch mode converter that provides +/- 15 volts for the instrumentation amplifiers IC6/7 on receive that interface the QSD to the sound card. The DC/DC converter's internal oscillator free runs at ~120 kHz and is very rich with odd harmonics, every 240 or so kHz, throughout the HF range. This manifests itself as low level 'carriers' that drift around and through receive frequencies. When the SRD is first powered up they move quite fast, but after the unit has warmed up the move very, very slowly through your QSO. These signals were about S4 on my SDR1000 in the 40M band and are easily removed with the automatic notch. But, loving to tinker like I do I removed the DC1 and soldered a 7 pin header in its place. I used a 1 x 2 x 2, +/- 15v linear supply wired to the header. How's it work? Great! No more warbling tones from within the SDR. I wish I would have done more before and after testing. Now when I connect the receiver to a dummy load, most of the bands are clear of spurs with the noise floor at -153 dBm. I imagine that the fundamental waveform (square wave?) of the DC/DC converter was putting an awful lot of total integrated power into the QSD and mixing with other signals there to increase the total spurs. It just keeps gettin' better. Regards, John k2ox ___ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archive Link: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ FlexRadio Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com ___ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archive Link: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ FlexRadio Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com
Re: [Flexradio] DC/DC Converter (DC1) Replaced with Linear Supply
John: Could you please pass along the part number/supplier for the particular power supply you used? I would like to regain full use of my bench power supply and I have just been too busy (too lazy?) to do any research. Bob [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi Folks, I just wanted to let you know about a modification I made to my radio. DC1 is a switch mode converter that provides +/- 15 volts for the instrumentation amplifiers IC6/7 on receive that interface the QSD to the sound card. --snip -- These signals were about S4 on my SDR1000 in the 40M band and are easily removed with the automatic notch. But, loving to tinker like I do I removed the DC1 and soldered a 7 pin header in its place. I used a 1 x 2 x 2, +/- 15v linear supply wired to the header. How's it work? Great! No more warbling tones from within the SDR. It just keeps gettin' better. Regards, John k2ox ___ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archive Link: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ FlexRadio Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com -- Robert W. McGwier, Ph.D. Center for Communications Research 805 Bunn Drive Princeton, NJ 08540 (609)-924-4600 (sig required by employer) ___ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archive Link: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ FlexRadio Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com
Re: [Flexradio] DC/DC Converter (DC1) Replaced with Linear Supply
I have a SDR-1000 that I bought at Dayton and frankly I have been disappointed in it's performance, I have all these signals specially in the lower bands that are wondering around and changing frequency on me, they are at least +20 dB above the noise floor. On my radio the broad carriers never stop moving but your description sounds like the problem I have, except mine seems to be worse. If I turn off the radio and listen instead with my TS-930 they simply are not there at all. I have not turned on the radio in about 45 days because of these problems, and also I have multitudes of large spurs all over the place getting worse the higher you go in frequency. 10M is downright useless, large spurs as far as the eye can see. I sent some pictures to Flexradio of my wondering carriers but nothing became of it. I've been seeing comments from others about how great the radio is, but frankly I have not seen it, right now my SoftRocks work better. Looks like I'm going to have to do some surgery before this is over. At 10:06 AM 9/22/2006, you wrote: Hi Folks, I just wanted to let you know about a modification I made to my radio. DC1 is a switch mode converter that provides +/- 15 volts for the instrumentation amplifiers IC6/7 on receive that interface the QSD to the sound card. The DC/DC converter's internal oscillator free runs at ~120 kHz and is very rich with odd harmonics, every 240 or so kHz, throughout the HF range. This manifests itself as low level 'carriers' that drift around and through receive frequencies. When the SRD is first powered up they move quite fast, but after the unit has warmed up the move very, very slowly through your QSO. These signals were about S4 on my SDR1000 in the 40M band and are easily removed with the automatic notch. But, loving to tinker like I do I removed the DC1 and soldered a 7 pin header in its place. I used a 1 x 2 x 2, +/- 15v linear supply wired to the header. How's it work? Great! No more warbling tones from within the SDR. I wish I would have done more before and after testing. Now when I connect the receiver to a dummy load, most of the bands are clear of spurs with the noise floor at -153 dBm. I imagine that the fundamental waveform (square wave?) of the DC/DC converter was putting an awful lot of total integrated power into the QSD and mixing with other signals there to increase the total spurs. It just keeps gettin' better. Regards, John k2ox ___ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archive Link: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ FlexRadio Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com Cecil Bayona KD5NWA www.qrpradio.com www.hpsdr.com Windows, the most successful software virus ever Don Seglio Batuna ___ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archive Link: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ FlexRadio Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com
Re: [Flexradio] DC/DC Converter (DC1) Replaced with Linear Supply
On 9/22/06, Bob McGwier [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: John: Could you please pass along the part number/supplier for the particular power supply you used? I would like to regain full use of my bench power supply and I have just been too busy (too lazy?) to do any research. Yes! Please post this info on the list too if you don't mind. Thanks! Brian w5ami ___ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archive Link: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ FlexRadio Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com
Re: [Flexradio] DC/DC Converter (DC1) Replaced with Linear Supply
Ditto! I have the creeping waveform too that I'd live to rid myself of. -Tim --- Tim Ellison Integrated Technical Services -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of A.R.S. - W5AMI Sent: Friday, September 22, 2006 12:02 PM To: Bob McGwier Cc: flexradio@flex-radio.biz Subject: Re: [Flexradio] DC/DC Converter (DC1) Replaced with Linear Supply On 9/22/06, Bob McGwier [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: John: Could you please pass along the part number/supplier for the particular power supply you used? I would like to regain full use of my bench power supply and I have just been too busy (too lazy?) to do any research. Yes! Please post this info on the list too if you don't mind. Thanks! Brian w5ami ___ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archive Link: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ FlexRadio Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com ___ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archive Link: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ FlexRadio Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com
Re: [Flexradio] DC/DC Converter (DC1) Replaced with Linear Supply
John, What linear supply did you use? Thanks. Chris - AE6VK -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, September 22, 2006 8:06 AM To: flexradio@flex-radio.biz Subject: [Flexradio] DC/DC Converter (DC1) Replaced with Linear Supply Hi Folks, I just wanted to let you know about a modification I made to my radio. DC1 is a switch mode converter that provides +/- 15 volts for the instrumentation amplifiers IC6/7 on receive that interface the QSD to the sound card. The DC/DC converter's internal oscillator free runs at ~120 kHz and is very rich with odd harmonics, every 240 or so kHz, throughout the HF range. This manifests itself as low level 'carriers' that drift around and through receive frequencies. When the SRD is first powered up they move quite fast, but after the unit has warmed up the move very, very slowly through your QSO. These signals were about S4 on my SDR1000 in the 40M band and are easily removed with the automatic notch. But, loving to tinker like I do I removed the DC1 and soldered a 7 pin header in its place. I used a 1 x 2 x 2, +/- 15v linear supply wired to the header. How's it work? Great! No more warbling tones from within the SDR. I wish I would have done more before and after testing. Now when I connect the receiver to a dummy load, most of the bands are clear of spurs with the noise floor at -153 dBm. I imagine that the fundamental waveform (square wave?) of the DC/DC converter was putting an awful lot of total integrated power into the QSD and mixing with other signals there to increase the total spurs. It just keeps gettin' better. Regards, John k2ox ___ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archive Link: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ FlexRadio Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com ___ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archive Link: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ FlexRadio Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com
