VHF COMMUNICATIONS 3196

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Matjaz Vidmar, 5,5J,H V

13cm PSK Transceiver for

1.2Mbit/s Packet Radio
Part-l
Th e cho ice o f a t run sceiver design fur
h i~h - s JlCcd pa cket radio is lIul ..nupt c.
h it better to usc a n a ppa rently
sim pler F I\1 trun scefvcr or to ;':0 fur a
IIIOI'C sop hlst lcntcd PS I{ transcctvcr?
Hath choices ha ve th eir :l d '''a n hl1i!:l'~
a lld disad\ a nl " ~cs a nd a t thi s ti me it
is diffi cult to I,r('d kt wh ich nne will
bl'CIIIllC more p ractica l. However, in-
creastn g til l' trausmtsston speed both
th e sig na l band wid th and th e radio
ra nge need to Ill.' cunside rc d.
I.
INTROlJ lJCTlON
Increasing the data speed beyond abou t
l uukbir/s. the resulting signal bandwidth
is on ly ac ceptable at microwa ve fre-
quenc ies. The transmitt er power avail-
able at micro wave freq uencie s is small
and expensive . T herefo re the radio
range becomes a limitation even for
line-o f-sight terrestrial p ack et -rad io
links. A PSK transceiver with a cohere nt
130
detecto r offers a radio range thai is
between SdS a nd ISdB larger and a
sig na! bandwidth that is tess than ha lf
when com pared with a FM transceiver.
In packet radio the main pro blem of a
PSK rranscci..-er is the in uial RX signal
acquisition. The latter is a funct ion o f
the carr ier freq uenc y uncertainty . In a
simple hiphasc PSK (H I'SK) system
with 0/180 0 mod ulation , the initial sig-
na! acquisition req uire s a co mplicated
searching loo p, if the frequency error
exceeds 10% of the bit rate. Quad-
ripbasc PSK (QI' SK ) allo ws a furthe r
halvi ng of the signal bandwidth at the
ex pense of a m uch more soph isticated
de modulator design and an eve n more
critical initia l signa l acquisition.
There fore PSK becom es simple at high
data rates. On the other hand, the signal
acquisition or low- Earth or bit amateur
packet-radio satellites transmitting ,It
only 1200bit/s PSI-;. is very d ifficult.
TI1 is unfortunate PSK design made radio
amateurs believe th at PSI' is not su it-
able for packet rad io, being j ust an
unnecessary complic at ion at low data
rates like 1200bit!s.
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Fi~.I : Bern PSK Trau'ot't'iH'r Block Diagram (L'l6O )fliz I I.2L1J \ Ibils)
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VHF COMMUNICATIONS 3/96
In this article 3 successful I3cm BPSK
tran sceiver design will be de scribe d. In
t he 131;111 amateur band, the sum o f the
frequ ency uncertaint ies of both receiver
and tra nsmitter is at least 10 kll z using
top quali ty tem perat ure-com pen sated
crysta l oscilla tors . ,\ real-world figure is
100 k117. frequency uncert ainty that
requires a MIN IMlHvl bit rate o f about
l Mhit/s!
With the above restrictio n, a con venient
choice is to usc 1.2288Mbil!s for packet
radio. This figure can eas ily be: obtained
with sta ndard baud-rate crystal s. bei ng
the 3::!ml multiple or 38.41-.bitl s or the
10241h multipl e of 1200hil/s. Of co urse
the described tran sce iver can also be
used for other digital data transmissions
that require megabit rate s. like CU l1l -
pressed dighaltetevision transmission
2.
13cm PSI' TRANSCE IVER
DESI G N
Since the above mention ed I'SK modu-
lation i ~ relatively unknown to most
radio amateurs. the I3cm PSK trans-
ceive r bloc k diagram w ill he d iscu ssed
first. The same form of PSK modu la-
tion. nam ely 01]SO° BPSK, allow s many
different transceiver concep ts .
For example, a PSK signal may be
generat ed at an IF fre quen cy and then
upcon vert ed 10 the fina l trans mitter
frequency . A PSK sig nal ca n also be
gene rated d irectly at the final freq uency
and even after the tran sm itte r power
amplifier. Finally, a PSK signal can also
132
be fed throu gh frequency multiplier
stages, but here one should not forge t
that the PS K modulation phase angles
arc mu ltiplied by exactly the same
fact or s as the carrier frequency .
A PSK demodulator may he coherent or
non -coh erent. A co herent PSK demodu-
lato r oil e rs a larger rad io range. but
requires a local carrier regenerat ion. A
PSK signal is demodulated coh erently
by mult iplication with the regenerated
carrier in a balanced mixer. Carrier
rege neration requir es a non-linear
proces sing of the PSK signal (in the
case of BI'SK th is may be a frequency
doubler) and a narrow bandpass filter
(usually in the form of a phase-locked
loop).
A PSK signa l Illa) he demodulated at a
con venie nt IF fre quency or directly at
the receiver input fr equen cy, A PSI-::
receive r can be de signed as a direct-
convers ion receiver j ust like a SSB
receiver. Carrier rege neration may be
per for med by a squaring loop (Ir e-
queney doubler] or by a Costas loop.
Ju st like SSB, all PSK demo dula tor s arc
vcry sensitiv e to small ca rrier frequency
inaccuracies
The block diagram of the described
13cl11 PS t-:: transceiver is show n in Fig. l .
The transmitte r includ es a crys tal osci l-
lator followed by a mult iplier chain . The
PSK mod ulator - - balanced mixer
op erates at the fina l transmitter fre-
quency and ge nerates thc desired signal
directly. Modern semicond uctor devices
pro vide high gains per stage .
The mixer is follo wed by j ust two
amplifier srages at 2.36 G Hz to obtain
ab out O.5W ofmicrowave power.
VHF CO MMU NIC ATIONS 3196

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133

Fig.J: TX Exciter PCB tstnale -sided O.8111m glass-fibre-epoxy).
T he recei ve r includes a double down-
con ve rsion with the corresponding inter-
med iate freq uencies of 75 M Hz and
10 MIl/. lh e 10 Miff. coherent PSK
demodulator is a sq uar ing loop I'LL.
A lthough the receiver and the transmit-
te l" circ uits arc almost co mplete ly inde -
pend ent, the 13cl11 I'SK transcei ve r is
inte nded till" stan dard CSMA (carrier-
sense multiple ac cess) sim plex op era tion
as usua l for packer radio. There fore the
transceiver includes a PI t\ ante nna
sw itch and all of the remaining KXil X
s witch ing is comp letely electronic as
well.
Th e RX/l X sw itching delay is in the
ra nge of 2ms an d is mainly cau sed by
the turn- on delay of the transmitter
crystal os cillator.
Fig.4: TX Exciter Component Overlay
134
VHF COMMUNICAT IONS 3/96
3.
TX EXCITER
590 'HIl: I +10dBm
The circuit diagram of the transmitter
exci ter is shown in Fig.2- The excite r
includ es a cry stal oscill ator operating
around l1t ,-! M Hz. followed by a multi-
plier cha in. The exciter inc lude s multi-
plier stages up to 540 Ml-lz. lhese are
followed by additional multipliers lo-
cated in the lilllO\\ing module, the PSI:\:
mod ulator. main ly because of the di ner -
cut construction techno logy. 1\ I'LL
synrhesiser is not recomm end ed in the
exci ter, since it was found difficult to
isolate the PSI' mod ulator from pull ing
the veo freq uenc y.
VHF COMMUNICATIONS 3/96
The oscillator uses a fundam ental reso-
nance crysta l, since fundamental reso -
nances have a lower Q than overto ne
resonan ces. The turn-on delay of tbc
transm itter crystal oscillator can be
reduced in this wa y. The transm itter
cry stal osci llator is turn ed off when
recei ving. since its four th harmonic
coul d disturb the first I F at 75 MHz. For
operation at 2360 Mliz. a "computer"
crystal lor 18.4 32 Ml1z can be tuned to
the desired frequency w ith a series
ca pac itive tri mmer. Using different crys-
tals for other freq uenc ies. a ser ies
inductor 1.I may be requ ired in place of
the cap ac itive trim mer.
The oscilla tor transistor is also used as
the first multiplier. since the output
circu it (L2 and 13) is tuned 10 1he fourth
harmonic o f the osc illato r freq uency.
Three addi tiona l fre que ncy-do ub ler
stages arc requi red to ob tain about
10m W at 590 MHz. ThL: first doubler
stage uses air-wound. self-supporting
co ils 1.4 and 1.5. while 11 1e remainin g
two doubler stages usc "printed" induc-
tors 1,6. 1,7 , LX and 1.9. The suppl y
vo ltage for the oscillato r and tbc first
doubler stage is sta bilis ed by a 8V2
Zener diode.
The transm itter exciter is built on a
sing le-sided PCB with UlC dtmeu sion s of
40mm x 120111111 , as show n in Fig.3. The
PCR is made of {l.Rmrn th ick glass-
fibre -epo xy laminate to short en the w ire
leads of the components and in this way
reduce the para sitic inductanc es. The
component loca tion of the transmitter
exciter is shown in r igA .
L2 and L3 have about 150nH ea ch or
4 turns each of 0.25mm thick copper-
enamelled wire . They are wound on
36 MHz (TV IF) co il formers with a
central adjustable ferrite screw, plastic
cap and IOmm x 10mm square shie ld.
L4 and L5 are self-supporting co ils with
4 turns each of 1mm thick copper-
ename lled wire, wound on an internal
diamet er of amm. Final ly, Ui, L7, L8
and 1.9 are etche d on the PCB.
The tran smitter exciter is simply tuned
for the maximu m output power. The
individua l stages arc tuned to obtain the
maximum drop of the DC voltage on Hie
base o f the next-stag e transistor.
Of course , the hasc voltage has to he
measured through a RF choke . The base
vol tage may become negative, hut
should not exce ed -1V . Finally, the
crystal osci llator is tuned to the de sired
freq uency wi th the co rr es pondin g
capacitive trimmer (or 1.1 ).
4.
2360 Mllz I'SK MOIlULATOR
The circuit diagram of the 2360 MHz
I'SK modulator is shown in Fig S
Except for the modu lator (balanced
mix er) itself. the modu le includes the
last frequency-double r stage, bandpa ss
filters for 590 Mllz., 1180 !'v[-j /. and
2360 ['11Hz and an outpu t amp lifier stage
to boost the signallevel to about 15mW .
All of th e filters and othe r frequency -
selec ti ve components ar c nude as
micro-strip resonators on a t.emm th ick
glas s-fibre-epoxy laminate FR4 .
The inp ut resonator (Ll ) functio ns as an
open circuit for the input frequ ency
(590 MHz) and as a short circuit for the
135
 VHF COMMUNICAT IONS 3J96
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V HF COMMUNICATIONS 3/96

Fig.6: PSK .\lodlliator rCB (double-sided 1.6mm glass-fihre-epox)', micro-

st r ip circuit with a continuous ground plane).

output frequency (I J SO :''1'111/.) or IhL' (2360 MH z) that could disturb the

freque ncy doubler. In this way the symmetry of balanced mixe r res ulting in
operation of the doubler is less sensit ive an unsymmetrica l. distorted PSK.
to the exact cable length and output
A harmonic mixe r with antipara l1eJ
impedance of the exciter. Tilt: output
diodes is used as the I'SK modulator,
bandpa ss ( LJ , IA . L5 and L6) shoul d
since this circui t provides a reasona ble
not only sur pn:ss the inpu t frequency
unwant ed car rier suppress ion (2Sd ll)
{'lifO MH/ ) hut als o its fourth harmon ic
withuut any special tun ing and with oul

.
L, ~T~ -
"I • "'r
co: l{f L1J ~ L(~:l
'<) co: il\j
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If'"
'"
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I,. tUl p
L,
L,
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L, r, ~ "~
L, I ... '-'-'

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.,

Fig. i: PSK Modulator Component Overlay

137
 VH F CO MMUNIC ATIO NS 3196
(~ - - - -- - - - - - ---'-"'-== = "-""= =
access to expensive test equ ipment
(spectrum ana lyser ). The harmonic
mixer uses a quad Schottky diode
BATl 4·09lJR. since four diodes provide
a higher out put signal level than j ust two
e ntlparallc l diod es.
lhc mi xe r is foll owed by a ban dpa ss
filter for 23 60 Mllz ( L1 J. Ll2, L IJ and
L14) to remove the 1180 M I l? driving
signal and other unwanted mixing prod-
ucts far awa y from the l I cm freq ue ncy
band. The ge nerated PSK s ignal at
23 60 MHz does not req uire any filte ring
ih d f. Since the 2360 .\11 1/ signal level
is low, about a .3m\\'. 11 GaAsFET
amplifier Slil~C (CFY:;O ) is used to raise
the signallevel to about 15m\\!.
Tilt' PS I\. modulator is built on a
do uble -sid ed PCB with the dimensi ons
of aunuu x l zu nnn . Only the upper side
is shown in J'ig ,6, since the lower s ide
function s as the micro-strip ground pla uc
and is not etched . The l'Cft is made of
1,611l111 thick glass-fibre-epoxy lam ina te
FR4. although this material has substa n-
ria l Rf losses at 2.36 Gllz. The coropo-
ncut location of the PS K mod ulator is
show n in Fig,7 for bot h s ides o f the
PCB.
1\lthough IIlllSI o f the transmission lines
arc etched 0 11 the PCB. L~ . I}} a nd 1, 15
a rc air-wound q ua rt er -w a ve le ngth
c hoke s, 1.2 is a quarter-wavel ength
c hoke for 11lW ~\il H 7 . Ll S is a q uarter-
wav elength choke for 23 60 ~11 1J: while
L9 sho uld he a q uarter-wa vele ngth
som e whe re in the m idd le (a ro und
1700 ~l H Z). since it has to be effect ive
for both freque ncies .
The described PS I-:. mod ula tor can sim-
ply he tune d for the ma ximum o utput
signal le vel. Res ides the 590 \l Hz
138
e xciter s igna l. a d igital modulating s ig-
nal is requ ired as well. Th e la tter may
be a square wan.' of the a ppropr iate
fre q uency or be tter the real digi tal
packet-radio sign al. W ithout <li ly al ign-
ment. the PSI-: mo dulator will already
provi de an ou tput of a few mi lliwatTs.
Af ter nny alig nme nt of the micro-strip
reso na tor." one has to chec k the modula-
tion s ignal level to find the best operat-
ing condition of the harmonic mi xer.
5.
2)(,(1 ~ III, I{F FRO:"T-F:NIl
The circuit d iagram of the 2360 \ lHz
RF front-end is shown in Fig, R. lh c RF
from-end includes lI le transmitter power
am plifi er. the receiver low-nois e pream-
pllfi er and the PI" ante nna switch , l he
RF front-end is the onl y modu le includ-
ing micro-strip circ uits. that is built on a
low- loss. n.Snun thick gla-s- fibrc- ! cf'lon
laminate with a dielectr ic constant of
2.5.
The circuit of the RF front-end is
simplified hy using modem s ~m semi-
conductor de vices. or iginally develo ped
for cellular tele ph ones. T he tran smitter
pO\ver ampl ifier uses a s ingle GaAs
tran sist or CLY2 that pro vides hoth
l~ d H gnin aud I11 m c than 500 rn\\-' of
output power at the same time . J ust a
few years ago. an equivalent circu it
would require three or four silicon
bipola r transistors. Th e CLY2 is a
low-voltage pow er GaA s FET that o per-
ate s <I t a drai n volt age of j ust 4 .5V.
whil e ge nerat ing its own negative gat e
VHF COMMUN ICATIONS 3/96

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 VHF COM MUNICATIO NS 3/96

The BA R63-03\V is built

in a stand ard microwave
S;'\1J) diod e package with
a low parasiti c capaci-
tan ce and is used as a
series switch. On the
o
: o
other han d, the BAR 80
diode is built in a low
par a s it ic ind uc t a nce
pack age and is use d as a
Fi ~.9 : IIF' front-end PCH (do uble-sid ed O.8mm shunt switch. Bot h diodes
gta ss-Iibre-Tcrlon, micro-strip circ u it with a are turned on while trans-
con tmuous grnundplalle ). mitting. The q uarte r-
wa ve length line L7 trans -
bias voltage by rectify ing the input RF forms the BARSO sha n circuit into an
signal. op en circuit for the tran smitter.
The ant enna switch includes tw o differ- The RF front -end also includes a low-
en t PIN d iodes : HAR63-03\V and noi se receiving preamplifier to improve
BA R80. The sem icond uctor chips of the sensitivity and image rejectio n of the
these two d iodes are simi lar, hut the re is receiver The low -nnisc pre amp uses a
an important diffe rence the pac kages. CF Y35 transistor, followed by' a band -

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l%ONJ.h
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UOp
l1 ~r
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Fig.I O: RF F ront- End Component Overlay

140
VHF COMMUNICATIONS 3/96
pass filter . The prea mplifier prov ides a
ga in of abo ut 1[dB including the an-
tenna switch and ou tput filter losses.
The ba ndpass lill er is required 10 ancnu-
al e the image re "'p on se a ro un d
22]() \ l H/..
The RF front-e nd i... built on a double-
sided Teflon PCB with the d imens ions
of -tomr n \ xnmm. Only the upper side
is shown in Fig..9, since the lowe r side
functions as the micro-stri p groundplane
and is not etc hed. The PCB is made of
n.Smm thic k gla ss-tlbrc-Tcflon laminate
with a d ielectric constant of 2.5. The
compo nent location of the Rio' front -end
is shown in Fig. lf) to r both sides of the
PCH. E\cepi the printed micro-strip
lines, there are three air-wound quarte r-
wave length cho kc s for 2Joll MHz: 13 .
1.5 and I.R.
Assem bling the RF front...... nd, the rnos t
cr itical item is the correct groun di ng of
the microwa ve semico nductors Cl .Y2.
BA R80 and C r Y35 . The C I.Y2 and the
OARRO arc grounded through drops of
solder. deposited in 2ml11 diameter holes
al the marked position s in the Teflon
laminate . Oil the grouudplanc side thes e
holes arc covered with small pieces or
copper sheet that also act as heat sinks
for these sem icon ductors. The CrY}5 is
grounded throu gh tWO lead less ceramic
disk capacitors installe d in 5.50101 d iam-
eter holes at the mar ked posit ions. The
capaci tors are connec ted 10 the ground-
plane with small pieces of coppe r sheet
on the other side . Final ly. L6 is
ground ed with a 2.5mm wide stri p of
copper foil inserted in a SIOl in the
Tenon laminate.
The tran sm itter po wer amplifier is sim-
ply tuned for the maximum outpu t
power by adding ca pacity (small pieces
of copper fo il) to 1.1. Small sheets o f
copper foil can also be added in other
part s of the circuit. but their influence is
usually small when compared to L I. If
the speci fied output pm\er can no t be
obtained. the cable length between the
PSI\: modulator and RF front-end needs
10 be cha nged.
The rece iving preamplifier is also tuned
for the maximum gain. but bere it is
more important to bring the bandpass
fi lter to the co rrect freq uency. The latter
is adjusted with Ll l, while Ll 0 only
affects the CFYJ 5 outp ut impedance
matc hing. Before mak ing any RF adj ust-
ments . the DC ope rating p oint of the
CFY}5 has 10 he set by selecti ng
appropr iate sonrc c bias res istors for a
v ds of 3·4V.
(, .
RX C O ;>l VE RT Ell W ITII
I'L L 1.0
To avo id several multiplier stages the
receiving converter includes l micro -
wave I' LL frequency synthcskcr, The
converter is built as two separate mod-
ules ttl prevent the digital part fro m
d isturbi ng the low -level analog ue cir -
cui ts. O f course eac h module is shielded
on its own. The described RX con verter
is der ived from a 2400 MHz SS B
co nverter published in [ 11.
The circ uit diagram Ill' the analog ue
sec tion or the RX convener is shown in
rig. I I . Th e analog ue section includes
the second RF amplifier stage. the
14 1
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Jig .I1: The R.'\. Cenverrer - Analogue Section ~

VHF COMM UNICATIONS 3196

•ea=:::J•
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ri~ .12 : I{X 1;011\ er ter, a nalog ue .'>('l;lion
•
,'en (duuhle-skled l .emm gl ~lss­
nbrc-cpoxy, micro- strip circ uit with it contmueus ~rollndl)lam')'

sub-harmonic mixer. 11K veo including
a buffer stage and the fi rsr 75 MHz [F
amplifier. The analogue circuits arc built
as micro-strip circuits Oil a 1.6m111 thick
g lass-fibre-epoxy lamina te.
The main function of the second Rf
amplifier is 10 cover the notsc figure of
the harmonic mixer. The second RF
amplifier is followed b)' another band-
pass filter (U. lA, 1.5 and L6). but
unfortunately due to the high substrate
losses this filter is unable to provide any
signific ant rejection or the image fre-
qucncv 'II 22 10 1\11 1/.. lis main p urpo~e
is to reject far-away interferences like
sub-harmonics Of eve n signals at the II-
frequency,

t)\,O I\.~ t
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Fig,13: RX C onve rter - Allal0l,:ue Sec tion C omponent O verlay

143
 VHF COMMUN ICATIONS 3/96
(~ - - -- - - -- - -----"''--===''-''''=
Th e harmonic mixer uses two amiparal-
lel Sc hottky diodes and is very similar
to the I'SK mod ulator. Such a mixe r
requires a local oscillator at half o f the
required con version frequ ency thus sim-
pl ifyin g the design o f the PLL synthe-
sise r. The resulting IF signal is amp li-
fied immed iately to avoi d all )' further
de gradation of the already POOf no ise
fig ure.
T he veo uses a micro-strip ban d pas s
filter (1.13. Ll4 and U 5) in the feed-
back netw ork III ontain low phase noise.
The l u n i n~ ra n~ e of this veo is thus
restricted to a few perce nt of the cent ra l
frequency. The veo is follo wed hy it
bulle r stage and part o f the buffere d
veo signal is coupled by Ltu, LI l lo
fe ed the d igita l sect ion of the I'LL.
Th e analogue sect ion o f the receiving
convene r is buil l on a double s ided PCB
with the dimen sions of 40mm x 1201ll1ll .
On ly the upper side is shown in Fig. 12.
since the lower sidc fun ctions ,IS the
m icro-strip gro uml planc and is not
etched. The PCD is made of t .e mm
thick g la ss-fi bre-cpoxy laminate FR4.
altho ugh [his material has substantial
losses at 2.36 ( iH,... T ile componc'l1I
location of the analogue sect ion of the
RX converter is shown In rig. 13 for
bo th sides of the PCB.
Although most of the tran smission lines
are etched 011 the PCB. there arc two
d iscrete inductors in th is modu le. L2 is a
wire loop w ith a 2mrn internal d iameter
made of O.6m m thick silver-plated cop-
pe r wire. 12 may need adj ustments
du ring the alig nme nt o f the complete
transce iver. U: is a quarter-wavelen gth
choke aro und 170 0 MHz to be effect ive
for bo th the RF and LO freq uencies.
144
=
Most of the RF active device s (BFR90.
BI-' R9 1 and HAlOS) are installed in
emm diameter hole s in the PCB, These
holes are afterwar ds covered on the
gro und planc side by soldering small
pieces of copper foil. The same Insral!a-
tion procedure also appl ies to the 1\\0
-1 70p F source bypass capacitors for the
CFY30 tra nsistor. The correspo nding
source bias resistors are adju sted for a
vds of 3··W ,
The ali gnme nt of the analogu e sect ion
sho uld start with bringing the VCO 10
the des ired frequency ran ge hy ;tdju sling
1.14. Th is is don e easily if the PLI. is
already operating. L1 -1 usua lly n...·cds 10
be made slight ly longer to ob tain a 2.5V
1'1.1. cont rol vo ltage ill the locked
co nd ition. Then L7 is adj usted IIII' the
maximum mixer conversion gain and
finally 1.-1 and L5 may need some small
adjustments . Ll and L2 should be
adju sted to match the KF front-end . If
the second RF stage (,",\' 30) is setf-
osci llating. the 1.2 w ire loop has 10 be
made short er
An alternative solu tion is 10 replace the
CFV 30 fi aAsl-ET with the silicon
M \ lIC IN A-03 18-1 . The laucr has a
higher no ise figure but o ffers more gain
and docs not self osci llate. when us ing
tile 1'\:1\-031 84, L2 has 10 he replaced
with a 6.RpF capac itor. the output bias
resistor has to be increased from 470n
lip to 6ROn and the so urce bypass
capacitors and bias resistors arc no
longer required. since the two I NA-03 18
-I com mon pins can he grou nded in a
straig htforw ard way.
The circuit diag ram of PLL sec tio n of
the RX converter is shown in Fig.14.
The PLL include s the ,/64 prcscalc r
VHF COMMU NICAT IONS 3/96

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145

"·ij!;.IS: HX conve rter, I' LL rcu (stngtc-srdcc
0.8111111 glllss-l1hrc-cp o\)')
(U664), the reference crystal osc illator
at ab out S .l ) MHz , two additiona l divid -
crs (II C N ] ) and the freq uenc y/pha se
comparator ( He l l and I ICOO). The PI. L
module has its ow n 5V sup ply voltage
regu lator 7xn5.
T he above ment ioned I' LL is intended
to replace a cha in of frequen cy muhipfi-
e r~. r 'ht: re forc it doc s not con ta in vari-
a ble modu lo divide rs . Th e multiplication
ratio is fixed 10 12S (256 whe n cons id-
ering the harmo nic mixer] and the
crys tal frequency has 10 be selected
accord ing 10 the desired RF chann el. In
the freq uenc y range around K.9 \ lI IL. il
" e ll" cry stal ca n usually be used on its
Fig.16 : RX Co nverter. PI-I. Co mponent Ov er ley
146
VHF COMMUNICATIONS 3196
fu nd ame nta l re son an ce .
Due to the wide tole rances
of CO crysta ls eith er a
capac itive trim mer or a
series inductor LJ may be
req uired 10 bring the crys-
ta l to the desired fre-
quency. For operation at
2360 ~ I Hz. the best choice
IS a cryst a l fo r
26. 770 \ l Hz (en channel
22 RX ),
Fhc frequenc y/phase comparato r drives
a charge-pump output network. Th e
correct ope ration (If such comparators is
limited III IlIw frequenc ies. Therefore
bot h the veo and reference signul-,
have to be divided do wn to a bout
2 .2 \ 11 17 when using 7411C logi c in the
Frequency /phase com para to r. Fas t
(Scho ttky } diode s BAl47 arc required
in the cha rge-pump networ k to avoid
backl ash prob lem s that saiously dcterio-
rate the phase noi se of the freq uency
syn thesi-cr.
The I' LL is huilt on a single-side d PCB
with the dimensions o r -rumrn x SOmm.
as show n in Fig. 15. Th e PCR is made o f
+ t1V
1. 0
VHF COMMUNICATIONS 3/96

O.8mm thick glass-fibre-epo xy laminate.
The correspondi ng compone nt location
is shown in Fig.16. The on ly compo nent
installed below the PCB is the I uH
choke on the output.
The only adjus tme nt o f the PLL is 10
brtng the crystal oscillator to the re-
quired frequency. The PLL lock test
point is not brought out o f the shielding
enclosure since it is only requ ired during
the adjustment of the I'L L.
To be continued

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email: michael.j @;g6iqrn.dcmon.co.uk

14 7
 VHF COMMUN ICATIONS 4/96
(f' - - - - -- - - - ------'-"'--''''''''
Matjaz Vidmar, S53MV
13crn PSK Transceiver for
1.2Mbit/s Packet Radio
Part-2 (conclusion)
7.
RX IF CHAIN
75 MHz/IO MHz
The circuit diagram of the RX IF chain
is shown in Fig.l7. The RX IF chai n
includes the second amplifi er stage at
75 Mil l (BF981), the second mixer to
10 Mllz (ano ther BF981) with its own
0)'51<11 osc illator (BFX 89) and the
10 M il L limiting IF amplifier (CI\ 3189).
To receive correctly the 1.2 ~bit!s
n pS K signal, an IF bandwidth of about
2 MHz is requ ired. Most of the receiver
selectivity is provided at 75 MHz,
especially the two tuned circuits with 1,2
and L3. The cont ribution of the tuned
circu its with Ll at 75 MHz and L5 at
10 MHz is smaller, since the main
function of the latter is the attenuation
of far-away spur ious respon ses.
The overall IF gain is eve n too large,
although this does not cause instability
problems. The IF gain can be decrease d
by replacing both BF981 MOSFETs
with older devices like the BF960. The
194
= =-'-= =
second conversion oscillator uses a fi lth
overtone crystal at 65 Ml lz. L4 prevents
the crystal fr om oscillating at its funda-
mental resonanc e aro und 13 MHz and/or
at its third overtone aroun d 39 Ml Iz.
The integrated circuit CA3 189 includes
a chain of amplifier stages with a high
gain at 10 MHz. In the described circu it,
the CI\31 89 functions as a limiter since
limiting doc s not distort PSK signals.
Although the gai n of the CI\31 89 drop s
quickly with increasing frequency, over-
loading the CA3 189 input with the
remaining 65 :\111/ 1.0 signal has to be
prevented with the lowpass filter with
1.5. The CA]1 89 includes a s-meIer
output with a logarithmic response that
may be vet)' usefu l during receiver
alignmcnt .
The receiver IF chain is built on a
single-sided PCB with the dimensions of
40mm x 120mm, as shown in Fig. IS.
The corr espondin g component location
is shown in Fig. 19. Ll, L2, L3 and L4
have about 400nH each or 5 turns of
O. 15mm thick copper enamelled wire.
They are wound on 36 :\1Hz (TV IF)
coil formers with a central adjustable
VHF COMMUNICATIONS 4196

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195
 VHF COMMUNICATIONS 4/96

Fig.l 8: RX IF PCR (single -sided J.6mm glass-fibre-epo xy)

ferrite screw, ferrite cap and IOmm x
lOmm square shield. L5 has about 15uH
or 25 turns or O. 15mm thick copper
enamelled wire. 1.5 is wound on a
10.7 M Hz IF transformer coil former
with a fixed central ferrite core, adjust-
able ferrite cap and IOmm x 10mm
square shield.
The IF chain alignment should start by
checking the operation of the 65 MHz
crystal oscillator on the desired overtone
and adjusting IA if" necessary. All other
tuned circuits (l.l , L2, L3 and L5) are
simply a ligned for the maximum gain.
Since the same circuits also define the
selectivity of the receiver, the align.
ments have to be perfo rmed using a
suitable 75 Ml lz signal source: signal
generator or grid-dip meter. The re-
ceiver thermal noise or other noise
sources can not be used for this purpose.
8.
I.2MBlT/S, 10 MH, PSK
DEMODULATO R
Describing a PSK transce iver to radio
amateurs. the least conventional circuit
is probably the PSK demodulator. There
arc several d i fferen t possible technical
solutions for a HI'SK demodulator. The
circuit diagram shown in Fig.20 is
probably one of the simplest coherent
HI'SK demodulators. Jts principle of
operation is a squaring-loop carrier

I1Ctllb.

Fig.19: RX IF Component Overlay

196
!C!:!.!:.~"""'''''''~"",,,'---
VH F COMMUNICATIONS 4/96
recovery, followed by a PLL fitter and a
mixer. EXOR gates are used elsewhere
for the squaring and mixing functions.
The inp ut 10 .\-IHz IF signal is first
boosted to TTL level with an em itter
follo wer (2'\12369) followed by one of
the ga tes ofa 7~ HC 86 Ipins-L 2 and 3).
Nex t the IF signal is multiplied by its
delaye d replica (squaring or second-
-harmo nic generation) in another EXOR
gate (pins-a, 5 and 6). The delay is
o bta ined with a RC network. On the
o utput of this circuit. pin-6 or test point
I/- I. a double If carr ier frequenc y is
obta ined. since the BPSK modulation is
remo ved by the frequency-doub ling op·
eration . T he latter transforms 180" phase
sh ifts into 360" phase shills or in other
wo rds a 01180" phase modulation is
comp lete ly removed.
Th e s ignal available at test po int # 1
incl udes a strong spectral component at
twice the carrier frequency around
20 MHI:. bUI also many spurious mixing
prod ucts and lots o f noise . The desired
20 M il l spectra l com pon en t is
"clean ed" by a PLL bandpass filter,
since the phase shift between the input
and o utput signals in a PLL is well
defined . A mixer is used as the phase
com parator. in practice another EXOR
gale (pins 8, 9 and 10). The VCO
operates at ~o \ill:£, so that a perfect
square wave can he obtained at 20 Mil,
with a simple divider by two (one half
of the 74 F74).
The regenerated BPS K carrier is ob-
ta ined by another frequency division by
two (o ther half of the 74 F74 ). The
RPSK de modulation is finally performed
by the remaining EXOR gate (p ins 11.
12 and 13 of the 74HC86). Beca use o f
(~
the d ivision by two, the regenerated
carrier phase is amb iguous 0 or 180 0 •
As a co nsequence. the po larity o f the
demodulated data is a lso ambiguous and
this ambiguity can not be' removed in a
0/180" BPSK system regard less of the
type of demodulator used.
Fortunately amateur packet-radio usually
uses NRZI (differential) data encod ing.
where level transitions represent logical
zeroes and constant levels rep resent
logical ones. The polarity of the signa l
is therefore unimportant and the above
mentioned drawback of 0/ 180 BPSK
modulation due s not represent a limita-
tion in a packet-rad io link. llnwcvcr, the
polarity ambiguity has to he considered
when designing data scramblers and/or
randomlscrs for N RZ I signal processing.
The PSK demod ulator is followed by a
RC lowpass filter to remo ve the currie r
residuals. The lowpass is followed by an
amplifier (74 I1C04) to boo..t the de-
modu lated signal to Tfl, level and
eventually drive a 7sn cable to the
bit-svnc unit. Th e PSK receiver there-
fore only has a digital output. there are
no outputs for loudspe akers or head-
phone...
The PSK demodulator is built on a
single-s ided PCB with the dimensions of
40mm x 120mm, as shown in Flg.zt .
The corre sponding component location
is shown in Fig.22. The y eO compo-
nents ha ve to he se lected carefully to
avoid frequency drifts. The VCO ca-
pacitors must be NPO ceramic or Sti-
roflex types with a low temp erature
coe fficient. The VCO co il LI has
around 400 nH or 6 turns of 0.15 thick
copper enamelled wire on a 36 M H7
(TV IF) coi l former with a central
197
(~ - - - - - - - - - ---"-"'''-''''''''''''''''''''''''''=
VHF COMMUNICATIONS 4/96

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198
VHF C OMMUNICAT IONS 4/96
F i~.2 t: l'SK Demodu lator " CH (stugte-stde d t .emm al ass-Ilbre- cpcvy)
adjustable ferrite sc rew, plastic cap and
IOmm x l Omrn square sh ie ld .
The a lignment of the I'SK demod ulator
should start with th e adju stment of the
delay o f the input signal frequency
dou bler. A DC voltmeter is connected to
test po int # I through a RF choke. TIle
capacitive trimmer on pin 5 o f the
7411C 86 is adjusted to obta in an average
(DC) voltage of 2.5 V on rest point # \
with some input signa l: either receiver
no ise or a valid PSI( signa l.
AO....
PIK
Fig.22 : P SK Dem odulator C omponent Overfay
adj usted for 2 .5V in the loc ked state or
in other wor ds the DC voltage should
not change when the input signal is
remo ved and on ly noise is present.
Fina lly, the correct phas eor the regener-
ated carrier has to be set. An oscillo-
sco pe is connected to test po int 1/ 3
thro ugh a RF choke and a valid I'SK
signal is app lied 10 the input. T he
ca pacit ive trimmer on pin 13 of the
74 11C86 adjusted 10 obtain the maxi-
mum am plitude of the demodulated
signa l. Alterna tively, a DC voltmeter
can he connected to test point #3 and
the PSK demodulator is driv en by an
unmodulatcd carr ier. The capac itive
tr immer o n p in 13 is adj usted eit her for
the maxim um of minimum DC vclra gc,
depending on the (phase ambiguity')
locking poin t of the PLI..
Ix o-.ro.
199

9.
SUPI'LY SWITC II
INTERFACE
The ci rcuit d iagram of the supply switch.
and some additional interface circuits is
shown Fig.23. Most of the receiver
circuits rece ive a continuous supply
voltage of +12V. The supply switch
onl y turns on the transmitter circuits
(+ 12V T X) and at the same time
removes the supply voltage to the RX
RF preamplifier ( t 12V RX ). The supp ly
swi tching is performed by CMOS in-
ve rters (4049UB). The high TX CUTTent
d ra in requires an add itional PNP transis-
tor B0 138.
The RX,TX switching is driven by the
PT I' line. Just like with other transceiv-
ers, the PTT input is defined <IS a switch
that closes towards ground when trans-
mitting. The antenna PIN switch is
dri ven by the +I 2V TX line and does
not require any add itional switching
signals. Since most of the receiver
c ircuits remain operational when trans-
mitting, several of the receiver circuits
(converter with I'LL, PSK demod ulator]
can be tested with their own transmitter
signal due to the inevitable crosstalk
between the transmitter and the rece iver.
Th e supply switch inter face module also
includes the modulator driver. The TTL
input includes terminat ion resistors to
prevent cable ringing, if a longer coaxial
cabl e is used between the transceiver
and the digital equipment. The TTL
input signal is first boo sted by a
74 HC 125, followed by a resistive trim-
mer for the modulation level and a
lowp ass filter with the Iul l inductor.
200
V HF COMMUNI CAT IONS 4/96
The modulation level is simply adjusted
to obtain the maximum transmitter OUI-
put power.
The 7411C I25 receives the supp ly volt-
age +5V also while receiving and only
its tri-state outputs are disabled during
reception. The two I .SkU resistors keep
the 33JlF tantalum capacitor charged to
2.5V to speed-up the RXfTX switching.
The 33JlF tanta lum capacitor is the only
capacitive signal coupl ing in the "hole
transceiver. A11 other signal couplings
allow the transmission of the DC com-
ponen t o f the digital signa l. If the
describ ed PSK transceiver is 10 be used
without a data scrambler or randomiscr.
the described capacitive signal coupling
has to he removed by redesigning the
mod ulator driver only, while the other
circuits need not be modified.
lhe supply switch interface is huilt on a
single-sided PCB with the dimensions of
30mm x Snmm. as shown in Fig.24 . The
correspo nding component location is
shown in Hg.25. The PCB is intended
to be installed behind the front panel of
the transceiver and is intended to carry
the RX and T X LEJ)s.
10.
OF T ilE Bern
ASSE~ IIIL Y
I' SK TRANSC EIVER
Building a PSK transceiver certainly
represent s something new for most radio
amateurs, while the microwave frequen -
cies make the job even more difficult.
Except for the carefu l design of the
various ci rcuits. the mechanical layout
 -',

VHF COMMUNICATIO NS 4/96

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fig.23 : The Supply Swuch Interface

fo'ig.24:
Supply Switc h Interface
IJe H (single-sided t.6 mm
gla 55- nbrc-epory)

,. ... not> Fig.2S:

t r .. <u{fl["}
Supply switch
.Inter race
Co mponent
Ov erlay
I n ..,>:z -a-
", j ~ " "
-0- 0\1.1 l-....

'Hl~ ~ ="i:~[!] ¢~~~

TX'

lh""
.:r~ -g-~1-
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201
(~
and as sembly also have to be cons idered
right from the beginn ing. To avoid any
possib le sh ielding or crosstalk problems,
the described transceiver employs a
large number of shi elded en closur es and
feedt hrough capac itors.
The PSK tran sceiver is enclosed in a
cu sto m-made aluminium box measuring
320nun (width) x 175mm (depth) x
32mm (height). The individual module
locatio ns an d RF interconnects are
show n in Fig.2fi. The box is made of
two "U" -shaped pieces of aluminium
shee t. The fro nt, bottom and hack arc
made of J min th ick aluminium sheet.
whi le the cover and the two side s are
made of O.6mm thic k alumin ium sheet.
The cover and sides arc 190mrn deep to
exceed the size of the hoLlom by 7.5mm
on the fmnt and on the back.
lhc individual modu les of the l'SK
transceiver arc all (except the supply
sw itch interface ) insta lled in shield ed
enclosures made of O.S Olm thick brass
she et. Th e PCBs arc soldered into a
bra ss frame as sho wn in rig.2? A brass
cover is then plugged onto the frame to
com plete the shielding enclo sure .
The shielded mod ule is then installed on
the bottom of the aluminium box with
four sheet-meta l screws. The height of
the aluminium box is selected so that the
main aluminium co ver keeps all seven
sm all brass cove rs in pos ition.
To retain th e shielding efficiency of the
single module s. all of the supply an d
low-freque ncy interconn ects go through
220pr feedtbro ugh capacitors soldere d
in the narrow sides of the brass frames.
The RF interconn ects are mad e with thin
son Teflon cables (RG- I SS or similar ).
It is extremely important that the coa x
202
----''''-'''''''''=:0===
shi elding bra id is soldered in a "water -
tight" fashion to the brass sheet all
around the central conductor using a
suitable soldering iron.
The size and shape of the single -modu le
sh ielded enclosures is selec ted :'>0 that
the lowe st waveguide mode cut-o ff
frequency is well above the operati ng
frequency of the transceiver in th e 13cm
band. The descr ibed sh ielde d enclos ures
usually do not require any microwave
abso rbers or other cou ntermeasures to
wppress cavity reson anc es.
The de scr ibe d PSK trans ceiver probably
represents the first ser iou s construction
using SM D parts for many amate ur
builde rs. Unfortunately Sl\1 [) parts can
not be avo ided : at high frequenc ies it is
essential to keep package parasit ics
small enough to obtain a good dev ice
ga in, nois e figure and/or output power.
The described l j cm I'S K transceiver
was des igned with Sieme ns SMD semi-
conductors or igina lly intended for ccllu -
lar telephones. Since these dev ices are
relatively new, their packag es and corre-
sponding pin-outs arc shown in Fig.2R.
Please note that due 10 space restric-
tions, the package markings arc neces -
sarily different from the device name s'
II.
EX I'ERIMENTAL RESIILTS
Fhc design goal of the described trans-
ceivcr was to de ve lop a packet-ra dio
transceiver capable of transmitting data
at I Mhit/s with a free-space radio range
between SOOkm and IOOOkm using
VHF CO MMUNICATIONS 4196
.•• .
mod erate-size antennas. Such equipment
is req uired for real-world line-of-sight
packet -radio links of 30- 100km with a
sing le transceiver connected to more
than o ne antenna {to support more than
one link ) and with a reaso nable link
margin of IO-15dB to counter pro paga-
t ion e fleets.
The first two tran sceivers were finished
in April 1995 and some laboratory
bit-e rror rate measurements were made.
The ac knowledgements go to Knut
Brermdo crfer, DFSCA, supplied th e au-
thor with up-to-date microwa ve SMD
compo nen ts. The first packet-rad io link
was installed in June 1995 between the
S u p e r Vo ze lj p a c k e t -ra d io n o d e
GOR ICA:S55YNG and the ex per imental
node RA FUT:S59DA Y at the autho r's
QTII.
Although the distan ce is only 5.Skm,
there is no optical visibility between
these two locations. The obstacle (hill)
exceeds the lOth Fresnel zone at 13em
and the receptio n of a commercial UHF
TV repea ter installed in the same loca-
_
tion is not poss ib le due to reflect ions
corrupting the horizontal sync pulses.
Nevert he less, two -way pa cket-rad io
communi cation al L2288Mh it/s was
found possible although affect ed by
fad ing, using the descr ibed l Jcrn PSK
transceivers, 16dBi short -backfire (SBF)
antennas and about 5d B of antenna
cable loss at eac h side o f the link!
The 1iT$1 operationa l L22 88Mbitls pack-
ct-radio link was installed at the end of
July 1995 betwee n the Supe rvozcl]
packet-radio nodes GORlCA:S55YNG
ami KUK :S55YKK at a distance Ill'
22.1km. Ncxt this link was extended to
the Sopervozclj nod e ID RIJA;S55YIO
in the beg inning of Octo ber IQQS,
a t a d istanc e of 36 .6 k m from
K U K : S 5 5 Y K K . T h e m ea s u r ed
YK K-YID link rnargm i s 17dR,
altho ugh there arc two SBF antennas at
KUK:S55 YKK pointed in different di-
rections. but connected to one stng jc
13cm PSK transce iver. The es timated
cable losses are around 3dB at eac h side
o f the link.
203
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VHF COMMU NICATIONS 4/96
= = = =

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I• An (8 1)

A30 f lO )
• I
Fi2.27: 13cm PSK T ra nsceiver Shielded Module Enclosure

All of the se experi ments arc using The inter face to the described 13ern
Supe rvozef nod e compute rs [2]. The PSK transceiver includes external bit-
SuperVozelj packet-radio node compu- s y n c / cl oc k re c overy a nd a
ter is based on the MC680 I0 16-bit 1+ X** 12-'-X** 17 polyn om ial d ata
CPU and offers 6 low-speed interrupt- scram bler/random iser.
servic ed channels up to 76.8kb it-'s for
Currently seven prototypes of the de-
user access (three Z8530 sec chips)
scribed 13cm PSK transceiver have been
and two high-speed DMA-scrvic cd
built and four are alre ady installed on
channels for megabit interlinks (Z8530
mountaintop digipeaters.
sec + MC68450 DMA).
204
VHF CO MMUNICATIONS 4196
\

PoLkA.:!" 5 0T- H 3 fllcloo.5~ MW- + IITD.J ~.., . MW- (, .

~ ~ ~
"
'" Co
5

'"
IMT>\ H b 51 (",","lr. ''''~ ~ ~ '3? l!l~ ( tw......, "....,.,;)
{"'·)4 o
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01 (r,)
o l ( " .)
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;?
(l) l+ - " l{A) 1Kif,} - 0} WI
I!hT-l(:h'ill tl\oo~., ·.U ")

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tI ~ ( t'I........, -"2.")
,
ITlli
i ~1
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(~*l 'w\,'ntJ

( b)
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tt..do>.,.,
SOD- 313

+ ~~~ -
'(5/- - (lilt Fig.2R: SMD Co mpone nt Packages anu Pin-o uts

Together these prototypes accumulated

more than one year o f continuous
ope rat ion with no failures. However, the
described transce ivers have not been 12.
checked in winter conditions yet. under REF ERENO:S
wider temperature excursions to lower
temperatures.
The described l J cm I'SK transceivers
l ll Matjaz Vidmar, S53MV: " Ein
Front-End fuer den Satullitenemp-
finally d emonstrated that megabit ama-
fang im l j -cm-Band", AMSAT·
tcur packet-radio is not JUSl possible bul
it is also a practical alter native. Using
DL JoumaI 2-94. pages 21-33.
more sophisticated PSK transceivers PI Matjaz Vidmar, S53MV:
with a larger radio range, a single PSK " 1 . 2Mbi tJ~
SuperVoze lj
transceiver can be connected to more packet-rad io node system" , 40.
than one antenna and thus replace many We inheimer UKW-Tagung, 16.1 17.
narrowband 11M "int erlink" transceivers September 1995, Scriptum dcr
resulting in a simpler and cheaper Vortraegc, pages 240-252
packet-radio network. Of course, the
next logical step is to develop simpler
PSK tra nsceivers for the user commu-
nity, maybe using direct-conversion PSK
demodulation.

205