[Collins] Interesting snippet on today's Collins - Mini Circuits Labs

[Dr. Gerald N. Johnson]

I have several of the MAR line (likely made by HP then Agilent because 
they exactly match the MSA series from HP) on hand and maybe 100 of the 
MAV-11 which has almost as low a NF as the MAR/MSA 06 but is good for 50 
milliwatts (+17 dBm) linear output up to 1.2 GHz. I also have some ERA 
devices good to 6 or 8 GHz and an DEMI 10 GHz trasverter using them at 
10 GHz where they kind of worked. I have a MAR06 that was the best 1296 
preamp around here for a long time. I also used it as a scope preamp for 
my Tek 475 (that already goes down to 2 mv / division with a 200 MHz 
bandwidth) to get down to circuit noise level.

I also acquired some ERA-9 at the Microwave Update Conference about a 
year and a half ago, and am still searching for data. Mini-Circuits kind 
of admits making it but the data they were willing to supply makes it 
look like its selected barely working rejects from the ERA line. Low 
gain, poor bandwidth, and poor NF.

I have data books for Mini-Circuits dating back to the 80's if not 
earlier. Most in hard copy, some on Cd-ROM.

On 4/27/2010 9:25 PM, Greg Mijal wrote:
> If you like Mini-Circuits lab stuff, you will love their MAR line.
> It's a monoblock (4 legged) rf amplifier that needs only an adjustable 5
> volt supply an input and output cap. Power line RFC and bypass cap. The
> circuit will give you 20 db gain at a NF of 3 db or less depending on
> which model MAR you select. I built one for a Drake TR 4 some years ago
> and the little board made the TR 4 receiver hotter than the hubs of
> hell. It's a natural to perk up the old BA stuff that is sagging on 15
> and 10 meters. The WWW has alot of information on this device and a
> couple of practical examples. Power for the board is take from the
> filament line, rectified, filter and throttle down to give 0 - 5 vdc.
> Anything beyond around 5 v will kill the device. Another thing is an
> external power pot is necessary to control the gain (power supply V
> control) to prevent noise from overtaking the signal.
> But boy does it work! The devices are cheap and plentiful. You can buy
> them at Ebay too.
> Have fun!
> Greg
> WA7LYO
> Kinston NC
>
There are better devices now for 10 GHz, run $3 to 4 each depending on 
where you buy them, the best prices are from DEMI at a conference, but 
they are also available (RFMD type NLB-310) from Digi-Key. They would 
work at HF too.

The Mini-circuits mixers like the SBL-1 are standard fodder for 
direction conversion receivers though some others are sometime chosen, 
but when they work as great as the best mil spec mixer and cost $5.95 
each they are really hard to beat. They are now offering some surface 
mount types (ADE family) for $2.95 or $3.95 in 25s with the family 
working from 100 KHz to a few GHz.

73, Jerry, K0CQ, Technical Adviser to the Collins Radio Association.