Warren WA8TOD has now tested the MMIC based wideband amplifier board from SV1AFN https://www.sv1afn.com/wideband-mini-amplifier.html in two different IF stages in the TX chain.
First Test
This is a replacement for the 45 MHz transmit amp comprised of Q20 – Q22 on the µBITx main board. Warren removed C20 and C22 and used two short lengths of miniature coax to take the signal off-board to a 7 dB attenuator and then on to the MMIC amplifier, and then back onto the board.
The resulting MMIC amplifier gain was +16 dB to match that of the BI-DI amp on the stock µBITx.
The yellow trace is before the amplifier board was inserted and the purple trace after. 3rd order IMD was reduced by nearly 10 dB over the stock µBITx by using the MMIC amp.
Second test
Warren restored the Q20 – Q22 amplifier and moved the MMIC amp to the Q40 – 42 amp with similar results. Here he found that he required the full 23 dB of gain provided by the MMIC to achieve the same level of main signal.
Yellow and purple traces are as before with the new measurement indicated on the blue trace. Results are almost identical indicating replacing these two amps together would provide 19 – 20 dB of IMD improvement which would make the transmitter completely viable and, in fact, better than some commercial radios in terms of IMD.
In both cases the indicated power out from the two tone test was a little over 4 watts.
Self-oscillation test
Warren also tested this MMIC board for its susceptibility to oscillation. He connected a 60 dB attenuator between the input and output while feeding a signal into the input. He then gradually reduced the attenuation one dB at a time until oscillation was visible on a 1.5 GHz spectrum.
The amplifier broke into oscillation very reliably when the attenuation was stepped below -14 dB. Higher than that and it was completely stable.
In the course of these two tests the board was hanging unshielded about 3 inches from the PA heat sinks and the output was a little over 4 watts. In both cases he saw no indication of oscillation.