[FoxHunt] ARDF Xmitter

[Kuon & Dale Hunt]

>Jaques,
>
>Do you have any plans to come up with another ARDF Xmitter that doesn't use
>the now hard to get ICS chips?
>
>Jack  KE4LWT


    Digi-Key carries Epson SG-8002 programmable oscillators for
less than USD 3.50 each, custom programmed to any frequency from
1 to 125 MHz.  Yes, I know, this doesn't cover 2m, but it if you
get it around 48 MHz it should be rather easy to extract the
third harmonic.  These are one-time programmable, and the fourth
pin can be specified as either active-high or active-low, so
you can key the oscillator different ways.  There is no
obvious way to FM modulate the oscillator (though you could try
modulating the B+ and see what happens) so you might need to try
phase modulation... or CW, or AM, etc.  This would be a good
start for a transmitter.

   Otherwise, crystals that multiply to 147.456 MHz are quite
common:  8.192 MHz (x18), 12.288 (x12), 16.384 (x9), 18.432 (x8),
etc.  You can try one of the WB2HOL designs, or just plug one
into an old crystal-controlled commercial HT, which are often
available cheap at hamfests.

      - Dale WB6BYU