Raj, VU2ZAP has come up with a fix that reduces the spurs by up to 10 db and requires ONLY ONE part to be added. Farhan VU2ESE has come up with an alternative modification.
These mods result in a significant change in the level of spurs above 10MHz with some improvement below this frequency as well.
With Raj’s mod CW may not work anymore and will need some more mods. With Farhan’s modification CW will still work.
Raj VU2ZAP Instructions
- T2 – desolder the transformer wires that go to pin 3 and 5. Pin 1 has a square pad.
- Bring out the two wires above board and join them together and solder.
- Take a 45Mhz filter- 45M15 or similar 2 pole (one crystal only) and solder one end of the filter to the wires of T2 pulled out. The centre filter wire to ground at one end of R26. Check which end of the resistor is grounded.
- Solder the third wire of the filter to C10/R27 junction.
This mod prevents the leaked TX signal that gets amplified by the 1st bidirectional amplifier from getting into the first mixer and creating havoc.
Farhan VU2ESE Instructions
- Remove R27
- Solder the 45Mhz filter two extreme ends to the pads of the resistor.
- Solder the center lead of the filter to the nearest ground. R13 is very near with a ground via.
Using the first method (Raj’s solution) the extra filter will work in RX mode as well as TX, but CW is disabled. In the second approach, the filter is only used in the TX path.
Folks with DSA815 or better please share your feed back. The filter may work better properly terminated.