Hello Juan!
The uglier this gets the more interesting I find it! I hope no one is getting disheartened. After all, this is why we all got involved in the first place, isn't it? If it was easy it would be boring.
No one is bored... :-)
I just cooked up an idea for a noisy power source that could be used during payload development and test. I stuck my write up and a block diagram at the end of my current log.
Here's the link: http://www.juanr.com/pages/hobbies/ham_radio/Eagle/Spur_Suppression.htm
What do you think?
It would be nice to be able to add to the bench supply output a noise source capable of a volt or more at whatever current the D.U.T. might require. Maybe an amplifier we can feed with a function generator to simulate a sawtooth or ??? waveform from a few kHz to a few tens of kHz to better simulate the assumed dirty power source?
We really need to get an idea what to expect worst case from the S/C power system.
Shielding the CAN-Do inductor obviously won't solve all these problems but it might buy back 2 inches of space and that's worth the effort.
Yes, we need to shield this if we can.
Lyle,
My suspicion is that the two VCOs on this receiver are also the most susceptible to radiated EMI from CAN-Do. I can't say for sure but it looks that way to me. Both are in metal cans soldered to ground. The closest one was about 2 inches away from the CAN-Do inductor. I've more than doubled that distance to 4-1/4 inches to get away from it. That's a lot of EMI!
Indeed it is. We should try and find a toroidal inductor to minimize radiation, then put a magnetic shield around it to suppress what the toroid radiates.
73,
Lyle KK7P