• You can now help support WorldwideDX when you shop on Amazon at no additional cost to you! Simply follow this Shop on Amazon link first and a portion of any purchase is sent to WorldwideDX to help with site costs.
  • Click here to find out how to win free radios from Retevis!

cobra 25 gtl (taiwan) full restoration

Is it permissible to change the TX 10.240 to 10.695 and inject your own ~16mhz signal?

On paper it looks as if it would be one freq for both TX and rx. Then a freq counter could be added.
if you change the 10.24 inside already what happens is is skews the steps so the rx and tx wont track
 
View attachment 64147

Rather than cutting the trace as the original instructions said to do,

View attachment 64149

Cutting traces is "hokey", and if it can be avoided, ....

I think the original idea behind the "S" kit was a bad design, the Transmit Mixer don't care what you throw at it, so long as it's close to 27 MHz, it's happy.
But on Receive, capacitively bypassing the filtering in the 1st IF, lets all kind of adjacent channel bleedover come through. The VCO frequency needs to be shifted going into the 1st RX Mixer, not the 10.240 going into the 2nd mixer.

If there was a secondary 1st IF filter in parallel with the original, might work, like for "Low band", the injection frequency would be 9.79, the 1st IF would have to be 10.245, which when mixed with 9.79 comes to 455kc which works out.
If you had a 10.245 crystal in parallel with the 10.695 filter (ceramic or crystal), would work. If not, maybe a 10.2417 crystal from a Pro510 or a 10.240 crystal from a junked radio might be close enough, it is not being used as a frequency reference, but as a filter element.

I have a 3rd idea that I came up with 5 years ago, but other (life) things got in the way. I do have an AX44 in my storage that I originally had these ideas for. Amongst other stowed away radios.
so in this setup when the oscillator switches between the bands, does it just simply swamp out the extisting signal there? and by white and green wire.....since i dont have that reference on hand, the white is the oscillator output i'm assuming? what is the green?
 
Green refers to the signal coming from the main 10.240 oscillator, but in your case, you are generating a secondary 10.240, so no need. All other parts of this (JP15 and R69) remain, if using an "S" kit or clone.
 
  • Like
Reactions: tecnicoloco
What would generate the 16.xx signal? How would it be controlled? There are a few videos on YouTube where someone used an Arduino driving an Si5351 and an OLED display to show frequency. Bypassing the PLL and VCO.
 
I was thinking of a varactor tuned vfo with some kinda temp compensation. Like 4.5 maz - 5.5. Then mix with 11 mhz crystal oscillator. Keep the 10.24 for rx and add new TX oscillator 10.695.

I would think the cheap $hit eBay freq counter would work because now only one frequency from the vfo is used on TX and rx.

Don't mind me really I just got done reading that pll book like for the 10th time. I've got some free time at work.
 
So here's the problem. The PLL has to provide two different frequencies for each channel. One for transmit and one for receive.

The difference between these two frequencies is always the same, so it gets generated from the only crystal in the radio, the 10.24 MHz.

That crystal's 10.240 MHz frequency gets divided by two ten times. This provides the 10 kHz frequency that sets the spacing between channels.

Just one problem. That only works for 10.24 MHz. Change the crystal and the channels will be farther apart if the new crystal's frequency is higher. And closer together than 10 kHz if the new crystal's frequency is lower.

The more crystals a PLL has, the easier it is to expand. And a PLL with only one crystal may be expandable, may not. Depends on the design of that model.

73
 
A long time ago, in a far, away place from here (Tampa), I used to work for NeoComm Electronics in Newton Falls, Ohio (Zipcode 44444).
A customer had a Cobra 1000GTL and a Glen 326-G VFO, and wanted me to install it to run the radio. I perf-boarded a 10.695 oscillator, because it was a one-off. I retrofit the CB/PA mode switch to where if the switch was set to CB, the uPD2816 PLL and internal VCO were "live", and when in PA mode, I depowered the Channel LED and PLL/VCO circuits, the Glen would then be active, and the 10.695 oscillator would also be powered in TX mode. I also broad-banded the RX and TX circuits using Lou Franklin's broad-banding info from the PLL Data book, which I had memorized the techniques from way earlier. I don't remember if I disabled the TX/RX line of the uPD2816, locking it in RX only, and let the 10.695 oscillator run in both modes, or disabled the external TX mix oscillator in CB (switch) mode, as that was 40 years ago, now.
The customer was very happy with the work.
 
Hi Nomadradio. The TX 10.695 makes up for the "split" requirement (at least until my mind anyway, lol). I mean feeding a 16.270 signal would be 26.965 (16.270 +10.695 = 26.965 on TX and 26.965 - 16.270 = 10.695 - 10.240 = 455) . I guess it means that one of those cheapie freq counters would work then because it's one frequency for both tx-rx.
So the counter IF would then just be set for 10.695 and I think it should be correct for both tx-rx.

Hi nz8n - nice work. (Any progress on the new 29 funnies)
 
took a pause and life got in the way....again. so last night i was fkin around with it. its too much drive for a single 9530 ekl FET and the PEP is enough to push the input swr up apparently annnnnnnnd i blew the HG final. idk why but it seems like HG 1969s are pretty delicate. i think somewhere i have a mitsubishi 1969 kickin around from a part-out so maybe i should drop the ol classic in.
 
so im back on it. threw another HG in, getting slightly less PEP. took the NPC mod out, for somereason things got hotter with that in reducting the carrier (weird) and it runs good with a 9w DK so i think im just gonna let it ride as a stout rig. maybe put it in front of 4xerf9530 mosfets which like a higher dk. got some unseasonably warm weather this weekend, so for future ratrod restos, i think the epoxy paint will come out, so i got some nice fresh painted cases to work with this winter. this radio looks both beat up and fresh at the same time. I didn't know that was even possible.
 
View attachment 64147

Rather than cutting the trace as the original instructions said to do,

View attachment 64149

Cutting traces is "hokey", and if it can be avoided, ....

I think the original idea behind the "S" kit was a bad design, the Transmit Mixer don't care what you throw at it, so long as it's close to 27 MHz, it's happy.
But on Receive, capacitively bypassing the filtering in the 1st IF, lets all kind of adjacent channel bleedover come through. The VCO frequency needs to be shifted going into the 1st RX Mixer, not the 10.240 going into the 2nd mixer.

If there was a secondary 1st IF filter in parallel with the original, might work, like for "Low band", the injection frequency would be 9.79, the 1st IF would have to be 10.245, which when mixed with 9.79 comes to 455kc which works out.
If you had a 10.245 crystal in parallel with the 10.695 filter (ceramic or crystal), would work. If not, maybe a 10.2417 crystal from a Pro510 or a 10.240 crystal from a junked radio might be close enough, it is not being used as a frequency reference, but as a filter element.

I have a 3rd idea that I came up with 5 years ago, but other (life) things got in the way. I do have an AX44 in my storage that I originally had these ideas for. Amongst other stowed away radios.
just tried this layout, for some reason im getting nothin from the rig now. thinkin i might be missing something....
 
WTF?

Only about twice or more what's safe for it. Reminds me of drag racers at the starting line. Now and again the nitrous gets away from them and explodes the air scoop 20 feet into the air.

Remember that a MOSFET like that throws more heat per Watt of carrier than a bipolar final. They're cheap, they can do more power than stock, and they fail spectacularly.

As a bonus, it draws more audio power from the modulator and speeds up the death of that side of the transmitter.

Doubling the raw power of that radio seems more costly on the whole that spending the same resources towards an amplifier. Even if you double the radio's power, nobody will know but the guy watching the wattmeter. S-meters at the other end won't be impressed. An amplifier, on the other hand, will make a difference they can see and hear.

Don't want to sound negative about people experimenting and learning from the experience. If that's the objective then go for it! And if bang for the buck is your desire, that would be different.

Hey, I've been following the story so far. It's your radio to experiment with, after all.

73
 

dxChat
Help Users
  • No one is chatting at the moment.