'" Carrying on the Practical Way with Tex Swann G1TEX

• E-Mail: tex@pwpublishing.ltd.uk

ASimple Arduino-
driven Direct Digital
Synthesiser Project
Our Technical Editor gets involved in creating a resistor was a difficulty in knowing the
precise frequency. So began a search for
simple HF DDS local oscillator project. Don't worry; an alternative oscillator. One option I found
was, in display and frequency terms, ideal.
he assures us it's not that difficult! That option is the Arduino-based direct
digital synthesis (DDS) oscillator from
Kanga-Products, website below, which
was created by Paul Darlington MOXPD,
en I started to put website below, slightly modified to URL below.

W ogether the slngle-

band double sideband
DSB) transceiver
project described
in PW back in the September 2014
issue, I paid less attention to the type
of local oscillator to use. I'd initially
used a Spectrum Communications
Portland oscillator project, see
cover 7.0 to 7.2MHz. The Portland
oscillator originally used a single
variable resistor to cover the band
but I found it rather difficult to tune
precisely. So this was changed to a
multi-turn potentiometer, which gave
much better control of frequency.
www.kanga-products.co.uk
http://mOxpd.blogspot.co.uk
A DDS 'oscillator' is in practice not
a true oscillator because it produces
a repetitive waveform from a series
of discrete steps, rather than using a
feedback mechanism to create an output.
www.spectrumcomms.co.uk The semiconductor firm Analog Devices
One side effect of this change of control produces a variety of these DDS chips,

28 PractJcal Wireless May 2016

which with a little programming can create to 30MHz as a signal generator plus the bands. Each one has indications of band
signal frequencies well up into the higher 136 and 475kHz bands along with the limits. I chose not to provide any of the
HF bands. 1.8, 3.5, 7, 1O, 14, 18, 21, 24 and 28MHz 5MHz spot frequencies.

Sourcing the Boards

There's an AD9850 in the Kanga project,
which proved ideal for my requirements
in terms of display and stability
requirements. On the downside, it needed
both the DDS project 'shield' and a full
Arduino, such as the Arduino UNO, to
complete. I decided that, after the success
of my Arduino RF power meter project
(published in PW December 2015) , I felt
sufficiently confident to tackle creating my
own version of the DDS project. I therefore
started looking for a suitable (cheaper)
alternative for the two boards.
On a certain internet 'shopping' site,
I found two suitably complete boards
fully built. It turned out that there are
two versions of the DDS board, Fig. 1,
and a variety of Arduino 'clones' at quite
reasonable prices, Fig. 2. Flushed with
some progress, I set about researching
how others had approached the problems
of creating a DDS signal generator, using
the AD9850 of which I'd found the two Fig. 1: There appear to be two main versions of the AD9850 DDS board available; here they are side
boards. by side. Each has the same pins available and they seem to be electrically similar - see the text for
Although differing physically, the two comments about each.
boards appear to be electrically the same,
meaning that they could be used with
the same controlling software. Some
similar boards but with AD9851 ICs are
also available. These tend to be more
expensive, offering only a greater range of
frequencies. Using these also meant some
minor changes would have to be made to
the software.

Prototype Time
The heading photograph shows my first
working prototype, which still needs a
little more work on it to put into a fully
working transceiver but is otherwise fully
functional. A rotary controller is used to
set the frequency or band of operation. A
push-switch on the rotary controller allows
a faster tuning rate. In combination with
a separate switch, tuning steps of 5, 50,
100 or 1OOOHz are possible. So with 40
steps per revolution of the rotary controller,
various fast or fine tuning rates are
available. A separate switch again gives a
tuning rate of 1OOkHz per step except in
bands that are narrow.
I initially created the project for a single
band but then I wondered what else I
• 4 ..
could use it for because there was still
plenty of space left in the programming
memory of the Arduino clone. I decided to
make it multi-band, adding in a general- Fig 2: Tex also found two main versions of this Arduino clone available; either will work with his
purpose signal generator mode too. As suggested program. Note that the version on the left Is slightly more difficult to Identify the various
the project now stands, it covers 1OOkHz pins and has no on-board use serial interface.

May 2016 Practical Wireless 29

 World of VHF incorporating VHF DXer with Tim Kirby G4VXE
Willowside, Bow Bank, Longworth, Oxfordshire OX13 5ER
• E-mail: tim@g4vxe.com • Twitter: g4vxe • Facebook: www.facebook.com/worldofvhf
144MHz Activity
Periods, TV from
ISS and More
Once again Tim Kirby G4VXE has lots to report about
all aspects of VHF operating, including an interesting
smartphone app, band reports, microwaves and satellite
activity.
yn Leach GWBJLY is
L promoting some 144MHz
SSB activity periods. In an
effort to increase activity,
he suggests three 2m SSB
activity periods each week throughout
the yea r, commencing on Monday the
March 28th. These will take place on
Monday and Friday evenings between
2000 and 2200 local time and on
Wednesday mornings between 1000
and 1200 local time.
What a great idea. Do try to come on
if you can, even if you only have a vertical
antenna or a halo, or perhaps you can go
portable.
Receiving TV from the ISS
I've mentioned receiving voice and packet
transmissions from the International Space
Station (ISS) in this column on many
occasions but I believe this is the first time
that I have had a report about receiving
television from the ISS. Let Simon
Evans G6AHX take up the story. "Much
encouraged by a friend, Ian GBXZD, I have
been trying to receive the Ham TV signal
from the /SS. Today I have succeeded!
I've used a 60cm prime focus dish with a
homemade left-hand circular helix antenna
for 2.395GHz. The signals from the /SS are
thought to be right-hand circular, which
is fine after reflection off the dish. I fed
the received signal into an Arabsat LNB,
which has a local oscillator at 3.650GHz.
After the LNB, the signal passed to my
satellite receiver and spectrum analyser on
1.255GHz. The LNB puts Ham TY, which
30
is a DVB-S signal, on 11. 005GHz as far as
the receiver is concerned and the symbol
rate=2000 and FEC= 1/2. The signals from
the !SS differ from the DVB-S specification
in that they don't contain an SID but you
can put the parameters in manually:
VP/0=256, AP/0=257, PCR=256 and
PMT=258. Anyway, having locked the
receiver to the /SS, what did I see? Well,
outside of school contacts the picture is
all black. The camera they use is battery
powered and can't be left on between
broadcasts" . Simon kindly included a
picture of the setup. Colin G4KLB has
also been working on receiving the TV
signals and has put an interesting video
on YouTube that is well worth a look:
https://youtu.be/9keVA21 DPBc
EsSense - VHF Propagation App for
Android
Jim Edgar GM4FVM alerted me to the
EsSense app for Android smartphones
and tablets. The app has been written by
Allard PE1 NWL of DXrobot fame . This
is the description of the program from
the Google Play store, "Targeted (prefix-
based) E-skip, TEP and Aurora alerts for
the VHF ham radio operator. From the
DXrobot. VHF DX spots, posted by radio
amateurs to the worldwide DX cluster, are
constantly monitored and analysed by the
gooddx.net server. When a Sporadic E,
TEP or Aurora opening is detected, the
DXrobot will send targeted push messages
only to users in relevant countries
(countries where the opening actually
occurs). These users will then receive a
notification message (and optionally an
alarm sound or vibration) on their Android
device. Tapping the notification icon will
show a handy overview of all countries
(prefixes) currently active. The overview is
grouped by VHF band (2, 4 and 6m) and
by propagation mode (Es/TEP and Au).
A red notification icon shows if there is
any Es, TEP or aurora on any of the VHF
bands''. The program also facilitates the
display of DX Cluster spots for the band in
question. Unfortunately, I've not been able
to test this myself because I use Apple iOS
devices. Try it out and let me know how
you get on. You can download the app,
currently free, from: https://play.google.
com/store/apps/ details?id =net. gooddx.
es sense
The Gm Band
I was delighted to hear from Ron Adam
GM41LS (Elgin). Ron was one of the first
stations that I ever worked via aurora and
many years later, is still taking advantage
of the mode. During the event on March
6th, Ron had a fascinating time. After
working stations on the higher bands
earlier in the evening, Ron came back
into the shack around 2220UTC and
found TF3ML on so.11 OM Hz calling ca
DX on a beam heading of around 3S0°.
SSA reports were exchanged. Ron then
decided to call ca on S0.090MHz and
at 2230 was called by BM6GJL (Taiwan).
Ron says that he was surprised to say
the least! Was this aurora plus some
other mode? It must have been - and
I'm suspecting it was around sunrise in
Taiwan. Ron awaits confirmation of the
contact and if it is confirmed, then what
a truly amazing one. BM6GJL does have
a SOMH z EME capable system so will be
well placed to exploit any openings. Other
contacts included LA9DLR (JOS9) and
DFSLa (J044) as well as GM81EM (1078),
GM4UYE (1086) and GMOLVI (1086).
The 4m Band
Simon G6AHX tried out his new 70MHz
transverter for the first time during the
RSGB Cumulative on February 28th, albeit
using a vertical antenna. Simon's best DX
was G4RFR (1090) but he was also very
pleased to work GWOGEI (1072). During
the aurora on March 6th, Ron GM41LS
worked G3UKV (1 082).
Jim GM4FVM says, "The usual 4m
meteor activity continues with regulars
SP9HWY and OZ1JXY worked in the last
month. A new one for me on meteor
scatter (MS) was a QSO on March 12th
with Tomas EA2BCJ, which was also a
new square on 4m (IN91 1581km). That
confirmed my belief that MS QSOs are
Practical Wireless May 2016

Construction
The prototype shown in this article was built
up on stripboard and uses the 5V supply
from the separate USS-to-serial adapter
because the small Arduino board doesn't
have its own supply. As mentioned above,
I've come across two variants of the DDS
board. The one shown here is markedly
cheaper for some obscure reason but they
both work the same way. Having said that,
this one is a little more difficult to integrate
onto stripboard.
The DDS controller I chose has three
rows of pins set out as one double row of
seven pins and a single row of seven at the
far end. Luckily, as only a few of the pins
of the outer of the double row are needed,
I could ignore the inner row completely
when putting sockets onto the stripboard.
Because the clone Arduino board I built
this project with is physically small and has
no on-board serial programming interface,
there are contacts on all four sides of the
PCB. I started with this version because I
was still waiting for the other ones to turn
up.
The initial board also has rather a
cramped pin annotation layout and care
is needed when identifying them. This
will be replaced in the final version with a
slightly more expensive clone that has only
two rows of pins as well as its own USS
programming port and regulator.
The Converter PCB
Turning now to the serial-to-parallel
converter PCB for the display, this should
Fig. 4: Looking at the back of the high speed serial to parallel interface board for the display that's mounted directly onto the display. The jumper at the
left, marked 'LED' controls the backlight. The address setting bridges may be identified under the blue contrast setting potentiometer - see the text for
comments.
May 2016 Practical Wireless
More Information
For a copy of the Arduino sketch and the rotary encoder library involved , e-mail:
tex@pwpublishing.ltd.uk with "Arduino DDS" as the subject text.
A pre-programmed Arduino clone may be obtained, along with a small number
of minimal kits available at cost. These are kits that have all the 'important' and
unusual parts included, leaving you to provide some easily available other bits.
E-mail as above, for availability and more information about costs covering
parts and P&P.
also be available from your favourite This chance find allowed me to create a
internet 'shop'. Depending on the source, 4:1 step-down transformer with a separate
you may need to check the address that output winding. Connecting a transformer
it's set to. The photograph of Fig. 4 shows to the DDS output requires a small 0.1µF
the three solder 'bridges' that, when capacitor to isolate its DC level from the
made, set the port address to hexadecimal transformer's input winding. You could
20 (or 32 in decimal). Solder pad bridges also create a simple bifilar-wound toroidal
have hexadecimal weighting of 4 , 2 or 1, transformer to do the same thing.
giving eight possible addresses for control The RF output available from this
of the display. project is slightly over 1mW (250mV) at
Initially, I had assumed that the DDS the lower frequencies, dropping to around
synthesiser had an output impedance 500µW (150mV) at 30MHz. If a more
of 50Q for the lowpass filtered output. defined output is needed for your purpose,
However, after some research, there's an then an ALC circuit would be needed.
indication from several documents that However, that's beyond this present
the output impedance is more likely to be project but may be the subject of a future
200Q. The alternative, unfiltered output article.
available on the two pins shown in Fig. So, there you have it, a simple signal
3 seems to have an output impedance generator that covers up to 30MHz,
of 1OOQ. This would matter less if I only suitable either as a general purpose unit
wanted a local oscillator output but for use or as signal source for homebrew direct
as a general-purpose signal generator, a conversion receivers or CW transmitters.
50Q output would be more suitable. See the separate panel to obtain the
Luckily, some months earlier I'd come source files or some of the bits I have
across some small pulse transformers available.
with three apparently identical windings. 0
31