For SDR users

[wb4jfi at knology.net]

I quickly checked the Nooelec Ham-It-Up upconverter board tonight.  Mine came with a 125.0MHz oscillator, not a 100MHz one.  It works fine with one of the RTL dongles that I have.  I think the dynamic range is only about 60dB, but I need to do some real testing.  I needed to bump the dongle’s gain up quite a bit.  Note that there are no input filters on the board, so EVERYTHING is upconverted.  I need to see how well it works with nearby high-power signals on MF and HF.
73, Terry, WB4JFI


From: wb4jfi at knology.net 
Sent: Friday, June 07, 2013 6:59 AM
To: Karl W4KRL ; tacos AMRAD 
Subject: Re: For SDR users

I have one of these boards, I haven’t had time to test it yet.  Maybe over this weekend.  I saw a ham on a Yahoo group say that it didn’t do very well.  He replaced the 100MHz oscillator with a 125MHz oscillator to get around some local FM radio station interference.  It may be that the oscillator module provided has some issues.  The board does seem well built.
Terry, WB4JFI


From: Karl W4KRL 
Sent: Thursday, June 06, 2013 5:55 PM
To: tacos AMRAD 
Subject: For SDR users

Just got this advertisement from an eBay vendor I have dealt with successfully. I have no knowledge of the product or its quality but it looks interesting. 

 

73 Karl W4KRL

 

Description from vendor:

Converts signals in the MF and HF Bands to signals in the VHF Band (specifically 100.5MHz to 150MHz). Intended for use in receiver applications with projects like RTL-SDR/SDR#/FunCube Dongle, or to listen to AM radio using an FM receiver. 

The design files can be found in SVN or downloaded as an archive. The board was designed using the Free Open-Source Software KiCad and QUCS. All design files are Open Hardware and released into the Public Domain under Creative Commons CC0. 

Now available from NooElec Online or eBay. 

KS4JU at HamRadioScience has a review of the board and has posted a tutorial video. 

Questions or comments? Visit the Opendous Google Group! There is also a FAQ and additional testing results. 

Design

The Upconverter is a passive Double-Balanced Mixer with RF switches at input and output to allow a Passthrough mode. Power is sourced from a standard USB-microB connector to allow powering via mobile device chargers. The switch controls the signal path, Passthrough or Upconvert, and mirrors the board layout. Switch towards the SMA connector is Upconvert, towards PCB edge for Passthrough. 

 

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Ham-It-Up-v1-2-RF-Upconverter-For-SDR-Funcube-RTLSDR-MF-HF-Converter-R820T-/161039905660?ssPageName=ADME:B:FSEL:CA:1123

 

http://code.google.com/p/opendous/wiki/Upconverter

 



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