Hi Domenico.
Thank you for that formula relating sensitivity in a particular bandwidth to system noise figure.
I have lost count over the years of the number of times you've posted just the right piece of theory to answer a question.
Definitely time to say....
Thank you.
David G0MRF
-----Original Message----- From: i8cvs domenico.i8cvs@tin.it To: Paul Stoetzer n8hm@arrl.net; APBIDDLE APBIDDLE@MAILAPS.ORG; wa4sca wa4sca@gmail.com; AMSAT-BB amsat-bb@amsat.org Sent: Fri, Oct 4, 2013 4:24 am Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: AMSAT Broadband Preamp Specs
----- Original Message ----- From: "Paul Stoetzer" n8hm@arrl.net To: APBIDDLE@MAILAPS.ORG Cc: "Alan" wa4sca@gmail.com; amsat-bb@amsat.org Sent: Thursday, October 03, 2013 6:02 PM Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: AMSAT Broadband Preamp Specs
Alan,
Thanks for the "real world" example. My receiver is an Icom IC-R10, which the specifications say has a 0.25 uV sensitivity on 144 MHz and 0.32 uV on 435. I operate portable, so I'm not using the preamp for the high gain to overcome cable loss, but to overcome the relatively high noise figure of the receiver. The preamp works great for FO-29. When I have a clear horizon, I can hear it down to 1 degree or so with an Arrow antenna. My problem is the horizon (and a military spread spectrum radiolocation system that causes "clicking" noises all over the 70cm band here in Washington).
73,
Paul, N8HM
Hi Paul, N8HM
Just for your information the sensitivity of the ICOM IC-R10 in CW and SSB is :
144 MHz: 0.25 uV for a S/N ratio of 10 dB 435 MHz: 0.32 uV for a S/N ratio of 10 dB
To convert the above sensitivity in Noise Figure (NF) you can use the folloving formula: -6 2 ( Vi x 10 ) x 20 NF = 10 log [ ------------------------ ] +174 dB 10 BW x S/N
where:
Vi = input signal in uV applied over the 50 ohm RX input BW = Band Wide in Hz (2400 Hz for SSB) S/N = Signal to Noise ratio in power ratio = 10
Back to arithmetic and using a scientific pocket calculator you get the following results:
144 MHz NF = 11.2 dB 435MHz NF = 13.3 dB
The above NF are very high and to overcome only part of your problems ignoring all interference in your QTH that requires sharp notch filtering you need front end preamplifiers with at least the following characteristic:
144 MHz : NF= 0.6 dB and gain G = 20 dB with a very high third order intercept point IP3 and very high 1 dB compression point like a preamplifiers of the Norton type circuit.
435 MHz : NF = 0.5 dB and gain G 20 dB possibly with cavity input circuit like that described in my article publisched recently into the AMSAT Journal March/April 2013
I hope this helps.
73" de i8CVS Domenico
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