The photo above shows an additional 45MHz filter (15khz passband) inserted in place of R27 (you can’t see the centre wire on the filter, which is attached to the ground end of R13).
Early indications are that this removes all of the offending spurs. This will make it a uBITx.net ESSENTIAL MOD. The mod has, however, yet to be tested by uBITX.net.
Warren WA8TOD has completed spectrum analysis plots for each band, and these have been reproduced below. The plots show removal of all unwanted spurs.
Conditions for the test:
- eBay filter in place of R27. No other changes.
- Audio input: 100 mVrms, 1.5 kHz tone. RV1 adjusted in each case for 2 watts output.
Yet to be verified:
- 100 mV audio drive, without the filter in place, gave very unacceptable IMD performance. It may well be in the case of the added filter that the stages preceding the filter have enough dynamic range to work at that level and it is simply compensating for the insertion loss of the filter itself. That can and will be confirmed with two tone IMD testing.
- Listening to the recovered voice quality and decide if it is adequate.
Adding the filter has introduced low frequency rolloff for LSB and high frequency rolloff for USB. The change is less than 6 dB and may not be objectionable but that will be a subjective judgement.
28MHz results
24.9 MHz results
18 MHz
And a wider scan …
And finally, here is a wider span showing 15 through 10 meters harmonic performance. Warren’s unit has the onboard filters completely removed so this scan was made with an external 30 MHz LPF plus the new 45MHz R27 filter.
Comparison of CW and SSB power out using the added 45 MHz filter
The chart was made by adjusting RV1 to maximum key down CW power, and then keying PTT with an input tone at the specified level. There are a couple of caveats here:
1) 120 mVrms is far above the audio level that caused unacceptable IMD before the filter mod. IMD must be checked and the audio levels adjusted to make it acceptable.
2) 120 mVrms is also far above the output level of most microphones, at least without shouting.
If IMD is bad at this level then the audio level must be reduced. Before the mod the radio showed terrible IMD at any input level higher that about 25 mV and, at that level, the radio produced less than 2 watts.
If it turns out the filter is a ‘magic bullet’ and the radio can actually sustain this level of input with acceptable IMD, then the input audio stages need more gain.
Comparison of CW and SSB power out using the added 45 MHz filter
The chart was made by adjusting RV1 to maximum key down CW power, and then keying PTT with an input tone at the specified level. There are a couple of caveats here:
1) 120 mVrms is far above the audio level that caused unacceptable IMD before the filter mod. IMD must be checked and the audio levels adjusted to make it acceptable.
2) 120 mVrms is also far above the output level of most microphones, at least without shouting. If IMD is bad at this level then the audio level must be reduced. Before the mod the radio showed terrible IMD at any input level higher that about 25 mV and, at that level, the radio produced less than 2 watts.
If it turns out the filter is a ‘magic bullet’ and the radio can actually sustain this level of input with acceptable IMD, then the input audio stages need more gain.