• 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!

Switchable LPF btwn Xciter & amp

Naysayer

Solder Balls
Mar 6, 2020
224
177
53
New York
FT-891 back from Yaesu, 11 days R/T:). They've seen this issue before. Radio seems to run cooler. I’m flustered at how long it took me to realize the ‘low noise level’ was from no Receive. I need a better sense of humor.

Shortcomings aside, SMT diode failures like this are what kept failing in my Alinco DX-70 so it looks like the problem may be me.

KK5DR published an article several years prior (https://www.qsl.net/kk5dr/Swampedinput.pdf) about the value of placing an LPF between Exciter and Amp to attenuate UHF/VHF that can damage Transceiver. I think that’s my best bet and I already saw how it played-out with my Alinco (RIP). I got lucky this time, it was covered by Warranty.

AliExpress has a listing for an LPF board with 4 relays for 4 distinct bands from 10, 20, 40 & 80. Link: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256802966589453.html Ad include attenuation chart. What are these boards intended for anyway? They run about $40 and are sold on every electronics site so it must be moving product-wise. Relay switched bands should be better than a standard TVI filter (like I already have).

Is this idea overkill? KK5DR singles out grid-driven tetrodes with resistive inputs. I sort of have that with a 6:1 Unun feeding a 300 ohm resistor to ground and it works fine. Have a large Johnson tunable TVI filter but a band selectable filter would feel better on PTT and it’s a lot smaller so it doesn’t need another patch cord. Am I on the right track here?

neil, NYC
 
Last edited:

Grid-driven tetrodes require a parasitic-suppresion choke between the control grid and everything else. Don't see any in KK5DR's examples. Never heard of this guy, but if he simply added that to the "passive grid", or "swamped grid" amplifier, he wouldn't need to be so concerned with VHF energy appearing in the grid circuit. External-anode tetrodes have a wide gain-bandwidth product, and will happily oscillate at hundreds of MHz given the opportunity, sometimes only on voice peaks, or when there is no drive signal. A parasitic choke on the grid has calmed down more than one external-anode tetrode in my experience. Won't apply power to one until that part has been added.

Some grounded-grid triodes behave a lot better with a parasitic in line with the signal input to the cathode. The 8877 and YC156 come to mind. Likewise tubes with an impressively wide power bandwidth.

I'm sure there is more to his presentation that just this one simple omission, but if you have a parallel tuned circuit bandswitched for each band in parallel with the swamping resistor, this ought to suppress any VHF/UHF 'snivets' backfeeding upstream to the radio.

He may be right, but color me skeptical.

73
 
  • Like
Reactions: Naysayer

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