Radio Section

This page was last updated in September 2007

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How about 47GHz Narrowband?

Information on the PCOM 50 GHz ODU's-Updated

I guess the biggest disappointment for a 1997 built unit is there is no LNA. I've had some on the spec. an. and power meters. The TX is a Milliwave multiplier (x4) marked for 49GHz output. Output on 49GHz is about +10dBm. The ODU is marked as +8dBm output after the extensive filtering Power is 12V/5.7V (although the PSU as measured was delivering +12V/+2.9V without TX IF drive).

The RX mixer doesn't have any markings to indicate the manufacturer but is a discrete unit. It consists of a series pair diode multiplier (x4) fed by 13.2GHz at c.20dBm followed by a milled waveguide HPF with matching screws. This LO and the RF waveguide meet at another series pair diode, this time as a mixer. There is a post mixer two stage amplifier - frequency around 2.76GHz. There's provision for an SMA test point so it may be possible to get directly at the mixer. There's also a mixer bias/test point. Bias measured at +8V with no LO drive. The LO source is a co-axial resonator VCO/PLL (pre-scaler is upb584g, so <2.5GHz) followed by 3 or 4 multipliers to what is a measured 13.2GHz output - one is at 10dBm and the other 20dBm. There was a manufacturing test option to feed into the multiplier chain, so it may be usable for 47GHz. That's probably all the immediately useful bits in them without checking the filter bandwidths. I'll put some more info up once I've had them on the test gear.

Current work in progress (24GHz system) is detailed here

Current work on the 47GHz system in 1999 As seen in RadCom

UK 47GHz operators and gear Photo courtesy of ©G4KNZ

Report on the 47GHz event at Martlesham 1997 Yep! I'm the one on the right.

Useful bits....

How about Waveguide sizes and flanges 2.4-170GHz

24GHz filters are here

47GHz marker source information

Some of the PCB layouts I'll be putting up use SVF format - a bit like DXF but simpler. Click here to get the plug in for your browser. Of course, you only have to e-mail me to get the CAD version but it is nice to see a layout in advance.

G8KMH as was......those were the days - 2m AM tuning high to low!!!

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MMIC Rescue!

IF you have any surplus mm-wave MMIC's, either end of line from one of the big companies (TRW/Velocium, Avago/Agilent, UMS, Raytheon, Tri-quint/Texas) or perhaps some long forgotten research devices, then they may be of great use to improve amateur(ham) radio communications in the millimeter wave bands - 24 GHz, 47 GHz, 76 GHz, 122 GHz and up. Whilst the devices may not be specced for those frequencies we'll often take a few dB of gain rather than none at all. And I enjoy hours of snowflaking!

Of course, being realistic I don't expect they've been sat in Nitrogen storage but then manufacturing yields aren't important. So check that bottom drawer.....