[Elecraft] NGEN - is it working?

[Alexandra Carter]

For the short period I had an HP 141T spectrum analyzer, I played 
around with my noise gen a bit, and I was able to get a view showing 
the noise of the N-Gen over a wide range, it looked like a fuzzy little 
catarpillar, I should have taken a pic.

You should be able to test your N-Gen on any VHF radio including an FM 
broadcast or aircraft reciever, any HF radio including some cheap 
"shortwave", a Radio Shack Weather Cube, just about anything. The 
signal shows on up a good oscilloscope but just barely, a radio is a 
sensitive thing! 73 de Alex nS6y

On Jan 29, 2006, at 9:35 AM, Don Brown wrote:

> Hi
>
> You can use your K2 as a tester for the N-gen. Just use a probe made 
> up of
> some RG58 connected to the antenna input of the K2 and install a small
> capacitor (around .01) in series with the probe end. You can then 
> touch the
> probe to the zener diode cathode. You should hear an increase in the 
> noise
> level on the K2. If that is good then move on the the MMIC the output 
> there
> should increase on the S-meter of the K2. The circuit is so simple it 
> just
> about has to be the battery the zener diode or the MMIC in that order
>
> Don Brown
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Nick Waterman" <laptop at noseynick.com>
> To: "Elecraft Reflector" <elecraft at mailman.qth.net>
> Sent: Sunday, January 29, 2006 11:23 AM
> Subject: Re: [Elecraft] NGEN - is it working?
>
>
>> John D'Ausilio wrote:
>>> Noise increase should be unmistakable. Make sure the MMIC isn't in
>>> backwards :)
>>
>> I was wondering if I'd mounted it "upside down", but as both the top 
>> and
>> bottom leads are grounded, it looks as though, as long as the slanted
>> lead is towards the centre of the board, I can't realistically get it
>> wrong.
>>
>>> If you have a key attached and happened to transmit
>>> into it, just order replacement MMIC (get 3, about $10 delivered :)
>>> from Elecraft.
>>
>> I'm an SSB guy, don't know CW YET. I don't have a key, I do have a PTT
>> switch, but only recently... Basically...
>>
>> I built NGEN, XG1, DL1 without being able to test them. I built the K2
>> and had no PTT or key connected. I transmitted into DL1 for the 
>> bandpass
>> filter tweaking, but did no other transmitting until after building
>> KSB2. I can be just about positive I've never transmitted into NGEN...
>> And even if I had, it definitely wouldn't have been the FIRST thing 
>> I'd
>> done to it, and as far as I can tell, NGEN has never worked, or at 
>> least
>> not noticably.
>>
>> I'll try testing with AGC off, NGEN connected, and XG1 sat nearby on 
>> the
>> bench so I have a signal to compare with my noise or lack thereof.
>>
>> If it still doesn't work, can I be fairly confident that it's the 
>> MMIC,
>> or might it be the Zenner D2? Or indeed anything else? There's no 
>> "cheap
>> and dirty signal tracing" or table of voltages for NGEN, is there?
>>
>> -- 
>> "Nosey" Nick Waterman, G7RZQ, K2 #5209.
>> use Std::Disclaimer;    sig at noseynick.net
>> Half the people you know are below average.
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