My club has a LimeSDR mini 2.0 and we would like to use it to transmit on HAM signals but there are a lot of harmonics and the output power is tiny (0.1W). We therefore looked around for some amplifiers and some band pass filters.
Band pass filters
We came across this nifty multiband band pass filter bank from nooelec: https://www.amazon.ca/Nooelec-…-Barebones/dp/B0CBSYS1JX/
and thought it would be perfect for us as we'd like to practice TX on UHF and VHF bands.
Unfortunately, from a video by tech minds on youtube reviewing the filter, the reviewer mentions that one should not transmit through this device. This has me wondering: is there a difference between TX and RX rf filters? Furthermore, where could we find a similar filter bank for UHF and VHF made for TX?
Amplifiers
We came across this tiny wide range amplifier: https://www.amazon.ca/Zerone-A…9Z-Antenna/dp/B07V9H5QXD/
And realized it might be good to get the output of the LimeSDR mini into the 1W range. Although from there, how can we amplify more (I'm not certain 1W would be enough to make contacts, especially with AMSAT satellites)? Other amplifiers we've come across seem to mention at least 4W input. Is this input a reference to electrical power or RF signal in? Are there variable gain amplifiers that work on TX, if we'd like to fine tune our output power to be as small as it needs to be?
All club members are pretty new to this and we're still learning. We've built a double cross antenna by following a guide and managed to downlink some weather images from NOAA-18, 19 and 15 using an RTL-SDR. We then got our HAM radio licenses but the world of SDRs doesn't seem as straightforward as what we learned for the exam.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!