[Lowfer] XIQ & XXQ on 475.7 last night @ wa3tts

[Michael Sapp]

Juan & John (& All): About 150 decodes between the two of you (XIQ & XXQ) last night. I think I have squeezed most
of the possible performance  out of the Heath VLF converter.....

Some recent adjustments to the LPF in the Heath converter improved the 450~500 kHz performance, while using
10uf caps for bypassing on the input side of the MC1496 active mixer improved the low end performance.

A check with my O-scope found some hash on the B+ line to a 78L10 100ma regulator I am using for voltage regulation, 
which was easily cured with a few extra bypass caps. LO is clean with spec 100mv at the MC1496 LO input port. 
LO to RF input port surprisingly good (a only an mv or two)

An external diplexer on the 3.5 MHz IF converter output would likely help---but I can do that as an external unit
between the converter and FT-817 IF radio....

73 Mike  wa3tts

SW EWE antenna>VE7BPO 533 kHz LPF & 1020kHz trap >50:500 ohm isolation transfrormer to modified
 Heath HD-1420>FT-817>Acer netbook

      2012-12-17 03:28  WG2XIQ  0.475652  -23  0  EM12mp  +30  1.000  WA3TTS  EN90xn  1743  1083  
      2012-12-17 03:24  WF2XXQ  0.475726  -23  1  EL95tq  +17  0.050  WA3TTS  EN90xn  1654  1028 


      2012-12-17 04:06  WG2XIQ  0.475653  -16  0  EM12mp  +30  1.000  WA3TTS  EN90xn  1743  1083  
      2012-12-17 04:04  WF2XXQ  0.475726  -25  1  EL95tq  +17  0.050  WA3TTS  EN90xn  1654  1028  
      2012-12-17 04:02  WG2XIQ  0.475653  -19  0  EM12mp  +30  1.000  WA3TTS  EN90xn  1743  1083  


      2012-12-17 04:12  WG2XIQ  0.475652  -18  0  EM12mp  +30  1.000  WA3TTS  EN90xn  1743  1083  
      2012-12-17 04:08  WG2XIQ  0.475652  -21  0  EM12mp  +30  1.000  WA3TTS  EN90xn  1743  1083  


      2012-12-17 04:48  WF2XXQ  0.475726  -22  0  EL95tq  +17  0.050  WA3TTS  EN90xn  1654  1028  
      2012-12-17 04:48  WG2XIQ  0.475653  -20  0  EM12mp  +30  1.000  WA3TTS  EN90xn  1743  1083