Date: Wed, 11 Jul 2018 13:55:08 +0100
From: Chris Wilson <dead.fets@gmail.com>
Message-ID: <14810007428.20180711135508@gmail.com>
To: N1BUG <rsgb_lf_group@blacksheep.org>
In-Reply-To: <4eba6794-e366-5244-c9a8-621cc215da05@n1bug.com>
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Subject: Re: LF: Receiver protection
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Hello N1BUG,
 Hi Paul,

 As I am deeply entrenched in mending my TS-590 after a whoopsie put a
load  of  137kHz  RF  up its RX antenna socket I am very interested in
proection  measures  too!  But  even more so I am interested in if you
find any anomalies with the U3S TX delay timing as a detailed check of
my  antenna  switching box shows no issues at all. But if the U3S had a
switching / timing glitch that may be another matter. Can anyone think
of  a way to long term record the timing of the switching voltage from
the  U3S?  I had a long delay 500 milliseconds plus, which should have
been  plenty.  I  have  a  USB scope with what they call a "Roll Mode"
option, but i don't recall ever using it.

The 590 may, very surprisingly, live again, I have replaced some ultra
tiny  PIN  diodes, three ceramic caps, some input overload diodes, and
an  inductor.  I  now  have TX and receive on all but three "bands"
These  seem dead due to the BPF switching digital transistors on those
bands  having  high resistance collector resistors, up from 68 Ohms to
around 7k. I have ordered some new ones and as the digital transistors
are  all  switching  state  ok,  the BPF's themselves seem OK, and the
shift  register IC's are working I may be getting to a conclusion with
it. They don't like it up `em as they say :)


Tuesday, July 10, 2018, 8:03:29 PM, you wrote:

> Here is a simplified description of the setup. RX antenna (at the
> moment, but soon to change or have more than one choice)

> http://www.n1bug.com/lnv.jpg

> Then there is a two way splitter. One output feeds the LF RX system:
> band pass filter, preamp, band pass filter, receiver. The other
> output has the same line up but for MF.

> The preamps, with diodes added at the input

> http://www.n1bug.com/w1vd-pre2.png

> Finally the receivers (one for LF, one for MF)

> http://www.n1bug.com/srlite2.png

> These receivers may look too simple but with the filters and preamps
> have done quite well for me!

> I was hoping for something better than the diodes to put there at
> the preamp input. Something which would limit to a much lower level.

> For HF, a company called ICE used to make RX protectors (ICE-196)
> which use some kind of very small transformer on a ferrite core. I
> think the idea was the core saturates to provide limiting. But there
> were other parts, including diodes, resistor, capacitor. I have two
> of these, one is permanently connected to the RX antenna input on my
> FT-2000 transceiver. Unfortunately these do not work below 1 MHz.
> The insertion loss becomes very high at MF and LF.

> Probably the best, as many people have said, is to give up this
> silly idea of limiting at the RX front end and use a fast relay to
> disconnect RX antenna and put instead 50 ohm resistor on RX input.
> This we can say is quite safe for the receiver. :-)

> It's just some work. I have a FT-2000 which I use with home built
> down converters for CW and digital QSOs on MF and LF. I think there
> is 15 ms between FT-2000 PTT output going low and the beginning of
> RF output, so with a fast relay it should be OK.

> I also have a Ultimate 3S beacon transmitter. It provides +5V output
> for external T/R switching, supposedly with a programmable delay. I
> have it set to 50 ms now. I am sorry to say I do not completely
> trust this as there are some things which do not work quite as they
> should with this device. I don't know if the T/R delay is correct
> and reliable. I will try to measure it.

> The FT-2000 and all LF/MF receiving stuff is in one room, the ham
> shack. MF and LF down converters, amplifiers, and U3S are in another
> room, the lab or work shop. There was no more space in the ham
> shack. ;-) It's really quite silly to call that little room the lab
> or shop, because there is a ongoing radio construction project in
> every room of my house! The whole place is a work shop!

> Some time in the future I may be able to use my HP 3325B synthesizer
> with a linear PA to TX Ebnaut. I don't have any idea how I will
> provide proper timing to switch the RX input relay with that, but  I
> will worry about it later.

> For now I think I should just make the decision and do the work to
> make both the FT-2000 and the U3S (if its T/R delay is reliable) to
> switch a relay disconnecting the RX antenna during TX. Unless
> somebody has a better idea about serious limiting at the RX...

>>> I need to stop being lazy. ;-)
>>>    
>> Oh oh, i know what you mean. Good point :-) I can observe the same 
>> behaviour here. Sitting in front of the monitor, watching grabbers, 
>> watching the WSPR map, programming some Linux stuff, playing with 
>> SpecLab can be quite comfortable and relaxing. When looking back, 10 
>> years ago i have been more spontaneous in doing portable experiments.
>> But can this tendency be stopped or is it hopeless? It could be helpful 
>> to analyse the causes instead of 'fighting' against oneselve.

> Sounds like fun! I'm a little bit tired from building. I built all
> the LF and MF RX stuff including receivers, preamps, many filters,
> splitters and so on. I built the U3S, TX converters, TX antenna,
> variometers, transformers. I built a few LF and MF PAs before
> finding success... and success came after many weeks of tracking
> down trouble. Now I'm just finishing up the build of a power supply
> for the new LF PA, also doing a lot of work to make new and better
> cables to connect all this stuff together. I enjoy building stuff,
> but I am ready for a little break. All this has been a bit of a rush
> trying to get it all done as quickly as possible. After I finish the
> power supply, RX protection, and new RX antenna maybe I can rest and
> do some operating... ;-)

> 73,
> Paul


-- 
Best regards,
 Chris                            mailto:dead.fets@gmail.com