[Boatanchors] General Coverage for Ham Receivers

[Ben Hall]

On 11/11/2023 10:34 AM, Al Klase wrote:
> I've done some klutzing around with the Si5351 synthesizer controlled by an Arduino microcomputer.
> Parts are cheap and available (Amazon).  The challenge is programming it to do exactly what you want.
> Lots of info out there.  Search Si5351.

Another vote here for the Si5351 as a crystal replacement.

If you don't mind a little vintage solid-state, I'll tell you a story:  Back when I was maybe 10 or 12 years old, I bought a Radio Shack Patrolman PRO-52 scanner at a yard sale for a few bucks.  Used that thing thru middle school and high school to listen to the local fire departments, police, and medical.

It got lost sometime after college, and I kinda missed it, so I bought one off e-Pay for small money.  Of course, no crystals matched anything I cared about, so I thought about using an Si5351 as a programmable crystal replacement.

After much fooling around, I've got a PRO-52 with an Arduino Mini controlling the Si5351, changing output frequency depending on what channel the scanner has selected.  It's like childhood all over again.  ;)  It's a neat contrast in early IC-era solid state combined with the Arduino.  :)

The Si5351 works pretty nicely.  At least in the PRO-52, there's some additional noise on a channel running off the Si5351 versus a crystal, maybe jitter or spectral content?  Not sure.  But, sure beats the cost of crystals today, if you can find what you need.

Thanks much and 73,
Ben, KD5BYB