[NLRS] 2304?

[Dr. Gerald N. Johnson]

On 12/28/2016 10:14 PM, Lloyd - N9LB wrote:
>
>
> Hi Jerry!
>
> Glad to hear that you will be on 2304!
>
> There are several folks on 2304 MHz nearer to you than Chicago or Twin
> Cities.  To name two, K2DRH and me.

My GPS says 167 miles to Buck Hill, I'm sure quad cities and Madison are 
further than that.
>
> I have the DEMI 2304 MHz 1 watt XVTR too, it drives a single Pyro Joe "75W
> Spectrian Linear RF Amplifier Board".  Runs on 24 volts, I get about 25
> watts output.

Interesting, Pyro Joe says 18 dB gain and that ought to be more than 50 
watts out. I notice he also lists what looks like the same board at the 
same price but rates it at 25 watts out with a 12 volt supply.

It's not yet a given that I will get on, but there is a chance. Need to 
get a tower up that I can easily lay over to work on antennas and 
probably need to find a rotor without the HyGain 15degree lock intervals 
and a better indicator. I hear the Yaesus are better for sharp antenna 
patterns. For 2m and 432 I'm planning of stacks of FO-9 to make the 
broader and more easily aimed. A couple FO-9 will give the same gain as 
a 5WL M2 with twice the beamwidth.

73, Jerry, K0CQ
>
> 73
>
> Lloyd - N9LB  EN52hv ( 10 miles South of Madison, WI )
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: NLRS [mailto:nlrs-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Dr. Gerald N.
> Johnson
> Sent: Wednesday, December 28, 2016 8:20 PM
> To: Microwave List<microwave at mailmanlists.us>; NLRS Reflector
> <NLRS at mailman.qth.net>
> Subject: [NLRS] 2304?
>
> I brought home the 2304 1 watt DEMI transverter from MUD in October. I
> haven't yet fired it up. Been working on antenna ideas some with a 2x3 ft
> WiFi skeleton reflector including variations on K4QF's log period feed that
> I published in the proceedings for CSVHF and MUD this year.
> There is still work to be done there.
>
> Living 165 miles from the twin cities and at least that far from the Quad
> Cities, near the Boondocks
> (https://www.flickr.com/photos/22711505@N05/24151165432)
> looking at the propagation data in the International Microwave Handbook and
> 2304 contest activity for the last couple years of ARRL contests it appears
> to me that 1 watt even with 20 dB antenna gain isn't going to make those
> paths work, there might be a chance of working a couple rovers from home,
> but that can't run up lots of points. And aiming a 20dB gain antenna won't
> be easy.
>
> Looks like if I get on I'll need to either rove to Chicago or the twin
> cities or add a PA, perhaps 50 watts to stay in the low power class in ARRL
> contests. Looking at VHF conference and MUD publications for the past decade
> or so, it appears the most popular PAs come from Pyro Joseph as the
> Spectrian boards, single or grouped for several hundred watts output. Are
> there other practical options. There was a post a few weeks ago about
> another package but when I looked at the conversion article it looked almost
> as easy to build from scratch as to drag the PA from 1900 to 2304. Looking
> at Mouser.com I see some reasonably priced 25 to 50 watt GAN parts without
> internal matching so they are good from HF to a few GHz depending on the
> part. Has there been any work making them work for multiple bands? Most of
> the solid state amplifier circuits I've seen are single band using shunt
> capacitors and a length of line, sometimes a quarter wave as a Pi network
> transformer and low pass filter. That makes them single band. I have some
> hardware on hand for 902 and 1296 that it would be nice to get on too, but
> no working power amps.
>
> So what are my options for power on 2304? Used Spectrian, or pay Pyro
> Joseph's price and go from there?
>
> 73, Jerry, K0CQ
>
>
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