It's been a while since I've had my s-band equipment working, but as I remember, an access point makes what appears to be an increase in the noise level on a SSB/CW radio. (My linksys wifi router provides the same service on all bands!) The nice thing about a signal generator is that you have a single tone that you can hear with certainty, take s-meter readings of, etc. When I had my downconverter and patch antenna on my mast, I used to turn on the signal generator and point the array at my shack, where I was holding the signal generator, as a way of ensuring that everything was working.
Diane points out that calculating the frequency can be difficult. This is true, but if you have an all-band radio, you can listen to the harmonic of a 40 MHz can which should be up around 440 MHz. The error will be multiplied 11 times, and you can use that to get a pretty good idea of where the signal generator should appear in the s-band.
73, Bruce VE9QRP
On Jan 20, 2008 4:24 PM, Stefano Simonetti iw1rdz@yahoo.it wrote:
Thanks for the answers,
I have here a 50MHz block, I will try, thank you, I already saw those projects at the ao40 days...Now finally I will make the circuit.
I was also wondering if a wifi access point beacon would do the work.
ISM band starts at 2400 and channel 1 is from 2401 to 2423 with the center of 2412.
I tried but heard nothing, I don't know if there should be RF around 2401-2402 from an access point beacon tuned on channel 1.
What do you think about?
73 - Steve - IW1RDZ
----- Messaggio originale ----- Da: Diane Bruce db@db.net A: Bruce Robertson ve9qrp@gmail.com Cc: Stefano Simonetti iw1rdz@yahoo.it; AMSAT BB amsat-bb@amsat.org Inviato: Domenica 20 gennaio 2008, 20:29:32 Oggetto: Re: [amsat-bb] Re: mode s converter
On Sun, Jan 20, 2008 at 02:03:57PM -0400, Bruce Robertson wrote:
On Jan 20, 2008 12:44 PM, Stefano Simonetti iw1rdz@yahoo.it wrote:
Hi to all, I would like to test my "old" AO40 13cm converter
(2400-2402MHz) to see if it is still alive...
...
If you need a cheap-and-dirty signal source, try using one of those small, canned RF oscillators at 40 MHz. Properly powered with a 5v
http://www.db.net/~db/gen_2400.pdf
voltage regulator and a 9v battery, it will produce a harmonic signal that you'll hear well from right next to the downconverter, and, with
It works a treat. There is a design using a filter here: http://www.g4dmf.co.uk/2400/2400.html I've not gotten around to building it.
a gain antenna, from some distance away. Don't worry about building it an antenna. If you're not sure if what you're hearing is the sig gen. or a birdie, just blow on the sig gen, and its frequency will warp!
The problem with the xtal module is which harmonic are you listening to? It's good enough for tweaking your converter and making sure things work, but it's not going to reliable to use as a frequency standard. ;-)
At $2, it was all I used to hack and tweak my downconverter. I got this idea from a VE2 ham's webpages, but I can't seem to google them up right now.
I took one off an old 386sx board; Just about any old xtal module will multiply up into 2.4.
- 73 Diane VA3DB
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