A HIGH-
PERFORMANCE
2-METER TRANSVERTER
Modular approach
makes construction
and modification easy
By Bob Lombard;, WB4EHS, 1874 Palmer Drive,
Melbourne, Florida 32935
I t seems that many VHFIUHF enthusiasts say they became
interested in this part of the spectrum after having worked
just about all of the DX available on HE This wasn'tthecase
for me. The possibilitiesof 2-meter operation appealed to me
on their own merits. There is OSCAR, moonbounce, meteor
scatter, SSB, CW, and a host of propagation modesto explore.
My interest in these modes of communication led me to
review their requirernents.I realizedthat commercial rigsavail-
able at the time didn't have the two main features I was look-
ing for - a low noise figure and a selectable CW filter. Like
many before me, I decided to build a transverter for my HF rig.
These were my design goals:
low noise figure, in keeping with the state of the art;
output power in the range of 5 watts, with excellent linear-
ity (third-order IMD at least 30 dB down);
good rejection of a nearby NOAA weather radio relay (at
least 40 dB down);
moderategain (enough to overcome the front end noise
of the HF rig);
good dynamic range.
I adopted a modular design approach advocated by Joe
Reisert,WIJR, and others. I l~ke thisdesign because it gives
me the ability to get sections working and tied together
quickly.This, in turn, makes the project seem less like a con-
stant uphill battle. Also, the modular method with its replace-
ablesections isagreat benefit when you come up with a bet-
ter design. The block diagram of the transverter appears in
Figure 1.
68 ' Ham Radio/Jul)/ 1989
Receive strip
The receive side input (Figure 2) is a GaAsFET low-noise
amplifier (LNA) that uses a circuit similar to Reisert'sl and to
those in general FET applications notes. The device is a sin-
gle gate MGF-1402 made by Mitsubishi; it's available from
several sources.* The 10-kresistor on the input bleeds off static
buildup. Any value around 10 k will work, as long as you use
a carbon composition resistor. (I had a persistent and elusive
oscillation; it wascaused by the metal film resistor I was using!)
I used diodesaround the regulator to protect against regula-
tor latch-up or inductive spikesfrom the TIR relay. The ampli-
fier had a noise figure of under 0.75 dB and a gain of 23 dB,
as measured on an Ailtech noisefigure meter and HP network
analyzer.
The filter (shown in Figure3) was described in an earlier arti-
cle.2 I wanted the filter to be narrowband enough to pass all
4 MHz of the band, and still provide over 40 dB of rejection
at 162.55 MHz. It provides nearly 55 dB, at acost of about 5
dB of insertion loss. At this point, however, there was gain to
burn to meet the design goals of about 10 dB of gain in the
complete transverter.
A 116-MHzovertone crystal oscillator providesthe LO func-
tion for both sides of the transverter (Figure 4). The oscillator
is acommon base design, largely based on Reisert.3Theout-
put was measured at +13 dBm, allowing the useof atwo-way
power splitter to provide LO to both mixers.
The receive mixer isa Mini-CircuitsSRA-1000(see Figure
5). It is essentiallythe same as their SRA-1 in this application.
The IF output goes into a diplexer and 24 to 34-MHz band-
pass filter. In band, the diplexer (the parallel-resonant circuit
and 51-ohm resistor) presents an open circuit, and no signal
flows in the resistor. As the frequency changes the reactive
componentstend to short out the tank circuit, allowing signal
to flow into the termination and to ground. The mixer sees the
51-ohm resistor at these frequencies.
The receiver input stage is largely responsible for determ~n-
ing the system noisefigure, and the noise figure isdegraded
by any losses in front of it. If you're new to the field of low-noise
design, thisexplains what must seem like the unconventional
design of the transverter; i.e.,the amplifier ahead of the filter.
(This is a common design technique in microwave receiver
'See parts sources at the end of the artlcle Ed
I RF AMP B P FILTER

BP FILTER

PTT
-
RCV OUT
-
N/C MIXER MIXERS
+lZV
S Wl TCH Tr IN
-
A

N/O

+24V +12V +12 V

L P FILTER PA DRIVERS PRE-OR1 VERS

Block diagram of the complete transverter.

10f

CI = 5 p F JOHANNSEN PISTON TRIMMER

L 1 = 8 TURNS # 2 0 3/8 0.0. AIR WNO.
T 1 = ST BlFlLAR # 3 4 ON F T - 2 3 - 6 3

SOURCE 2

-0.01

Schematic of the receive input RF amplifier.

design, likeTVROs.)Tominimize theeffectsof losses in front
of the amp, I used foam-flex (hardline) coax as the feedline,
with short flexible jumpers of RG-2141Uwhere required.
Other hams have told me on the air that my low noise fig-
ure is unnecessary in 2-meter SSB because ground noise
predominates.While this maybe true, my idea all along was
that receiver noise shouldn't be a limiting factor if I wanted to
swing my antennasup for OSCAR - or anything else I might
try. When you add that to the high intercept point of theGaAs-
FET front end, and the resulting improvement in dynamic

Ham Rad~o/July1989 69
 ALL COILS COILCRAFT 7-113 1 I/.? TURNS 68nH WITHOUT SLUGS
R E S O N A T I N G CAPS 2.5-lOpF VARIABLES IN PARALLEL WITH lOpF CERAMIC
COUPLING CAPS 0.25 -25pF TEFLON TRIMMERS

Details of the BP (bandpass) filter on the receive line.

78M08
I- -
fZV 1-
0.001
0+12V

4.7pF
4.7k NPO
< a a

SIGNAL
FB 10
m
I

0.001 m
lh (1 -
7
YI

II) = 41
L 1 . = 8 TRNS # 2 4 CLOSEWOUND ON
0.100 FORM fREMOVEOl
F B = FERROXCUBE # 5 6 - 5 9 0
loo' 65/4A6
0.27pH NPO
Y1 = 116.0000MHz 5 t h OT
INT'L CRYSTAL

Local oscillator using a 116-MHz overtone crystal.

Parts list llca

:APACITOR 0 mica
Electrolyti 0 ceramic
1.5 11N1 ceramic
.,'I r ,.
r.r p r , r J
lYllJ I ,
?adlo Shack 272-1435 u.u-,"Q

4.7 /lN15 Volts 3 i!72-1024 'Most of these came from my junkbox. the result of years I
10 pF/3ti volts 1 i!72-1025 hamfest ttuying. Try (:ommunicac lions Concepts, Inc., an~dother!
330 pF/116 volts 1 ; !72-1030 (4; Some of these coulu1 be made i rvto more parts of one Ivalue.
-- -
08 p t
-
Ceramic, Imonollthlc (dipped, 50 1

470 pF t carbon ca 5 percent

0.001 ,L1 thm
0.01 ,&F ~hm
0.1 /!F thm
Cerarn~c.monolithic dipped, 50 volts (COG or NPO)
3.9 pi
4.7 PI
10 pF
27 pF
39 p~ 1
47 pF 2
t carbon ca
270 pF 2
bhm
Trimmers,-all values ~hm
..- - -. -, Teflon
0.25-2.5 4 UP r~rrers
0.5-5 gl, 1 GaAsFET amp 1-watt (:arbon cornposition. 5 percent
1-5 pF c 5 62 o ttm 2
2-20 cer 5 68 o tIm 1
Receive and transmit mixer schematic.

It carbon composition MISCEiLLANEOUS "'"-C

Ferr ites
value over 100 k (used as coil for1m) FT-2'3-63 1 Amk k n
I-watt carbon composlt Ion, 5 perccsnt . -
Beacus, terroxct)be type 4A16 4 Amick n (cross-I
ohm 2 Two -hole balun (for RFC or I drlver ass embly)
"" v , , r , ,
&-. A - - a
;1Am11
.

BLN' 43-2402
~

ohm Ferfioxcube VK200-19/48 1 Amic srerence)

D ohm
TOROlIDS
T44-6 2 Amk ion
----
1N4 148 gener .a1 purpose 6 (wldel
T20-10
.. .
2 Amicion
.> ,- -.. .--
..-----
ore: The exact ferrite beaaI usea m mosr cases rsr)'t crftical. 11I
1N4004 rectif,ier 1 should present several micro1renries of inductance a)t the operat.
IN757 9-volt ,zener 1 ing frequency.
1N751 5-volt .zener 1 OTHERPARTS
,ansistors .1 mixer ners
2N2222 NPN 1 -
2N3553 NPN lrts Compan -2-1 power . hen
~rtsCompar:
2N5109 NPN
2N5179 NPN
-
rrts compar
IHz fifth ovc
ultiturn pot I naoro anacn
Asrc I 1 RF Pa~rtsCompar ower switct ,It 1 Radio Shack
(erFET rrts Compar axial relay 1 Communications Concepts
axial conne 15 SMA female (as required)
OTHEI a1 jumpers (as required)
M W .4-130 amprifler modules z communrcarrons w n c e ~ r s YVIFl (as required)
95 5-volt regulator 1 (widely avallablc Feedthrough cap 0.007 ,IF 50 volts
18 or ISM08 8-volt regulator1 (widely avallabl~ (as required. 1 per box)
31 1 comparator 1 (widely avaiiablc lOpH molded chc 2
 MWA-130 MWA-130
(025-2.5pF)

RF OUT

68nH
lOpH lOpH

0.001
IOOD
1/2 W

Transmit predriver schematic.

- '," 0001

-
L l = 3 TURNS #16 1 / 4 ,n I0 0+12v
--
LZ

* IN4004
4 TURNS # I 8
L 3 = 4 TURNS #I8
MOUNTED I N THERMAL
CONTACT WITH 2 N 3 5 5 3
3 / 1 6 rn I 0
I / l rn I D

62 52
-
15k

,62n I
1W 5- U O ~ F

l
1 RFCl
::56k I

2N5109 0
RF I N 9-35 Ll 470
\I A

m
A

Driver chain schematic. RFC 1-4 = 4 turns of no. 20 wire through a two-hole ferrite balun. Amidon no. BLN 43-2402.

range, the GaAsFlfT still seems the most logical choice. all of the signal lost in the conversion, provide enough filter-
My initial test of the receive side yielded good results. While Ing to remove significant power on the imagefrequency,and
conducting tests with WA4GHK (15 miles south), it waseasy reduce LO feedthrough. I used MWA-130 amplifiers, modu-
tocopy K4DZP in Miami(over 160 milessouth)- despite my lar 50-ohmin-and-outdevices in TO-5cans,becausethey are
makeshift indoor antenna! easy to use and were available on a surplus board that I
scavenged. The power out at this point is 4 mW (+6 dBm).
Transmit chain The actual drivers are two transistors, a 2N5109 and a
The transmit portion of the transverter presentsitsown prob- 2N3553 (see Figure 7). The first device is a well-known VHF
lems; the biggest is linearity. A rule of thumb for diode ring linear transistor;the second isa28-volt,TO-5 can devicecapa-
mixers(liketheSBL-1 used here) isto have the input signal at ble of 2 watts if run class C. This was originally to have been
least 10 dB below the LO for best linearity (see Figure 5). a three-transistorstrip with 1 watt out from a third 2N3553, but
Because one of rriy design goals was to achieve very good I was never able to get them to more than 500 mW and still
linearity from the transmitter, the first thing I did was pad the remain linear with a 12-voltsupply. I tried many variations of
input drive (+3 dBm) from my HF rig. The resultinglevel was bias circuits, matchtng networks, and pc layouts. The two-
about -7 dBm, 14 dB lower than the LO drive. Since all the device strip I settled on produces 18 dB of gain, or about 250
pads were made with the closest value resistors,and the mixer mW out.
Itself contributes loss, I measured the conversion loss of the The final amp is a Motorola MRF-134TMOS powerFETthat
transmit mixer. It was 17.7 dB. delivers just over 4 wattsout and a clean, linear signal (third-
The pre-driver stage in Figure 6 is suppposed to recover order intermoddown just over 30 dB). See Figure8for details.

72 Ham Radio/Juiy 1989

 New from ARRL
/ IMPEDANCE HATCHING ( Following the hard-cover style of Transmission
Line Transformers, and Yagi Antenna Design,
Antenna Impedance Matching is written with the
advanced amateur, antenna design engineer and tech-
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expertise you'll be able to develop very sophisticated
systems. This is probably the most comprehensive
book ever written on the use of Smith ChartsT"in
solving impedance matching problems. This 224-page
book is of importance to those w h o want to maximize
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the termination for a line minimizes feedline losses,
and power can be fed to such a line without the need
for a matching network at the line input. Antenna
Impedance Matching is a "must" for the antenna
designer and serious amateur. The price is $15, please
add $3.50 for shipping and handling.

GET A RIRD'S EYE VIEW

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L 1 - 3 TURNS #I8 0 . 3 i n . I D . CLOSEWOUND 6852 1W RES I S COMP OR FILM

L P = 4 TURNS #18 0.3 tn 1.0. SLIGHTLY SPREAD RFC =7.5.~tHWOUND ON LARGE FERRITE BALUN
CORE OR FERROXCUBE V K - 2 0 0 - 3 9 / 4 6
L 3 - 2 0 TURNS C 2 0 ON ZW CARBON COMP L 1 0 0 k

Final amplifier using an MRF-134.

All design decisions are tradeoffs. For example, using the

MRF-134created the need for a small 24-volt supply - but 65n H 55nH
I gained advantages rn other areas. First, the FET is guaran-
teed to deliver rated power into a 30:1 VSWR at any phase T
1.6 4.7

angle(no delicate device here!);second, it'scapable of more w

9I
gain in one packagethan a bipolar; and last, ~tworked the first
time I tried it - a very enjoyable experience after my trials and
tribulations with the '3553s. m /h m
BOTH COILS WOUND AS 2 TURNS X I 8 0.310 in 1.D.
Thecircuit is taken largely from the Motorola RFData Book I
applications note.4 Component changes are based on avail-
ability and personal preferences. In any RF power amplifier
it's essential to keep the ground leads of the device as close Schematic of the transmit LPF (low pass filter).
as possible to ground on the board. I connected top and bot-
tom foil with a strip of copper shim stock at the point where for the GaAsFET RF amplifier, filters, and all transmit stages.
the source leads leave the device package. The FET itself is The LO, mixers, and theTIR switching boardsare built "dead
on an extremely overrated heat sink; after extended key down bug" style; they function quite well that way. If you are an
periods everything remains at ambient temperature. experienced builder who uses point-to-pointtechniques at
Theoutputfilter in Figure9 isan elliptical low-passdesign. these frequencies, you may want to use that method. I used
The two parallel resonant circuits are tuned to 313 and 487 SMAconnectorson small-diametercoax (RG-188)for signal
MHz with a grid-dip meter; the other caps are adjusted for interconnects. You may prefer to use BNCs. Likewise, I used
minimum insertion loss while you watch output power on a pc board material for housingcircuits- you may prefercom-
wattmeter. My version had a measured insertion lossof under mercially made enclosures.
0.2 dB. I'vealready mentionedthe need to keep grounds short on
I used asimple comparator on the PTT llne from the HF rlg the final amplifier; the same holds true for the driver stages.
to do the TIR switching (see Figure 10).The relay is DPDT It This is the strongest argument for using pc boards for these
switches 12and 24 volts to the transmit amplifiersand 12 volts stages. The emitters of the driver transistors are grounded
to the antenna relay (a Dow-Key relay I plcked up at a local Immediately,with minimal lead length.
hamfest). The relay prov~desover 40 dB of isolation during There are no "peculiarities" of alignment. Align the filters
transmit; theGaAsFETsees -4dBm, well within itscapabili- separately, tuning them asdesired. It's best toalign the trans-
ties. (I leave it powered on continuously.)This relay should be mit stages with a spectrum analyzer.Tune the driversfor best
adequate at power levels of up to 100 watts. output while observing third-order intermod. This will not
occur at maximum power out. The same applies to the final
Construction and alignment amplifier.
This is a sophisticated project and you'll need building Ideally, the GaAsFET should be aligned with noise figure
experience. If you've had experience with other RF circuitry, instrumentation.If that isn't available, tune for maximum noise
you'llfind it presentsfew special challenges. I used pc boards level by ear, and then detune slightly. The optimum noisefig-

Ham R a d l o / J u l y 1989 75
 Wl
DOWN EAST MICROWAVE

.
MICROWAVEANTENNAS AND EQUIPMENT
~ o o Yagls
p Power Dlvldem Llnerr Ampllflen Complete
Arrays. Mlcmwave Transverten GaAs FET Preamps
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2304.2400 3456 MHz
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Parts sources
TIR switch schematic.
DI~I-Key
701 Brooks Avenue South. PO Box 677.
ure match isn't far from max gain, but that's about as quan-
Th~elR~verFalls M~nnesola56701-0677
titative as I can get. ol passives, sem~corirluctorsand tools
A broad l ~ n e

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On-the-airresults have been good. I actually used the trans- M~xersspl~tters,hybr~ds.elc . wltl sell to ~ndlvlduats
verter for quite a while at the 250-mW level, and surprised A m ~ d o nAssoc~ates
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91607
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ve
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me within 3 dB of the mainstreamof off-the-shelf2-meter SSB 121 Brown Street. Dayton. Ohlo 45402
rigs (that'sabout half of one S-unit),and to a level that could RF parts and kits, hard to~flndlrlrnmers. chip caps. Irans~slors.ATV parts

be used with commercialamplifiers. It also nettedmecontacts RF Parts

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I'd like to thank Jim Hagan,WA4GHK, for his part in thecon-
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1320 Grand Avenue. San Marcos. Cal~forn~a
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RF power dev~ces.GaAsFETS. and many other lranslstors
REFERENCES
1 JoeRn~wrl, WIJR Low NolseGakFET Technoloqv HdrnRarlro Decrlnltrr 1!384 11;iq*r;~4'l112
2 Boh Lnml)nrd#WRJEHS Butid Narrowhnnti Filters H a m R,lrl,o March 7 8 6 paqcs 10 ?1
3 JoeRrlserl WtJR Hlqti r)yn;~m,c Rnnqr on 2 Molprs Ham R~I~II'Nrrw?mtvr1qHS uaijec.54 6 4
4 Techntcal Slat1 rcl Molorola RF Device Dala Book A~~zon;l1986

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Phone: (718) 468-2720 Mon. thru Thu.