[Elecraft] NGEN - is it working?

[Don Brown]

Hi

First make sure your 9 volt battery is good. It should measure at least 8 
volts or higher.

My N-Gen did not work also when I built it. The problem was the Zener diode 
was not producing noise. This sometimes happens with a particularly "good" 
diode. Remember this noise is normally an undesirable quality of a zener 
diode. I replaced the diode with a 2N3904 transistor using only the base and 
emitter leads. 2N3904 and 2N2222 transistors make fairly good noise sources 
used this way. Just connect the emitter-base junction so it is reversed 
biased and it will break over at around 5 volts just like a zener diode. If 
you have several transistors select one with the best noise output.

Don Brown




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Nick Waterman" <laptop at noseynick.com>
To: "Elecraft Reflector" <elecraft at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Sunday, January 29, 2006 9:23 AM
Subject: [Elecraft] NGEN - is it working?


> Hopefully not a silly question...
>
> If I connect NGEN to my K2 but leave it switched off, I have a certain
> level of background noise. If I turn NGEN on, there's no noticeable
> increase in background noise.
>
> Have I missed something? Is AGC compensating for the increase in noise?
> ... or is my NGEN broken? I built it over Christmas and I've never
> actually noticed it working. The lights "do the right thing", but apart
> from a very brief "chuff" when I switch it on, I'm not convinced it's
> producing any actual output.
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm
> Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
>