Posts by oh2aue

    The obvious "turnstile patch" aside, here is something totally new to think about, RHCP at the left and LHCP at the right, no confusion intended:




    I bought a couple of each and tested them for ellipticity and matching. They perform very well for such seemingingly simple radiatiors. Several could also be easily configured in a phased array or just use one for illuminating a prime focus dish of suitable f/D.


    I am still at odds on how the current and phase distributions appear as a function of time (propaging wave), but they actually do work.


    And pretty well at that. Most low cost patches on the market suffer from production repeatability issues.


    It seems to me that this patch design is actually a kind of travelling wave antenna and somewhat like a flat/short helix. You can even determine the polarization handedness (chirality) from the path feedpoint.


    Amazing things. As I do cannot afford a 3D electromagnetics simulator, this patch design makes me want to attempt scaling to 70 cm and make some field probe measurements with my VNA homebrew optical transducer ;)


    Michael, OH2AUE

    George,


    here you may find the original thesis of Aleš MARŠÁLEK, work supervised by non less than OM Mirek, OK2AQK, a.k.a. OK2AQ:


    https://www.radio.feec.vutbr.c…rsalek/Diplomka_Patch.pdf


    Containing this splendid account of autophasing patch antennas, it is highly recommended bedtime reading for all illuminati-wannabes.


    After mastering the above principles, you can easily extend the concept to multiphase solutions, my personal favourite being three phase radiators, and all the way down to HF too ;)


    Michael, OH2AUE

    The old QO-100 bandplan is still floating around on the internet (narrowband uplink: 2400.050 - 2400.300 MHz). I think the club chaps weren't aware of the transponder band expansion or the unusual nature of the transponder in general.


    Easy mistake to make I think ;)


    /michael, oh2aue

    Talked to one of the SK0EN chaps and they will shift the beacon up to 2400.800 MHz.


    In the meantime it is QRT until then.


    Somewhat sadly, my LHCP proposal didn't take fire ;)


    /michael, oh2aue

    The frequency is quite logical, though unfortunate: SM lost their lower segment of 13cm and now only have some section above 2400 MHz. I will try to contact somebody over there, if only to suggest using an LHCP antenna for the beacon ;)


    /michael, oh2aue

    Just to keep the thread alive, here is some info on my own implementation I have used successfully on several Venton EXL-S PLL LNB's. This particular model seems to still be available from several outlets and webshops (31.05.2021).


    I had to transfer my website to a more reliable service provider, so here are the correct links to two other modification notes:


    Information on modifying the Universal Single-LNB Golden-Media GM-201 for external referencing (11.03.2019)


    Information on modifying the Golden Media UNIVERSAL SINGLE LNB Model 201 for external referencing (17.12.2019)


    /Michael, OH2AUE

    As Dolf, PA1RW suggested: have you checked the phase noise of your 25 MHz source?


    Absolute accuracy and phase noise/jitter are two entirely separate issues. Phase noise level will increase as a function of "multiplication" in the PLL process, which in your case sounds like 390 times what you have at 25 MHz. The external reference not only has to be reasonably accurate and long term stable, but also short time stable, including low DDS spur level close to the carrier (in the order of Hz).


    As examples, the 25 MHz TCXO on the left is only just barely useable and the 25.787179 MHz one on the right is totally useless at their 390th harmonic:


    https://73.fi/oh2aue/tcxo_ultr…lden_oscillator_clock.jpg


    Here is a very simple spectrum measurement between the 25.000000 MHz TXCO signal, the 25.787179 MHz signal and only as an example, the 25 MHz signal from my R& SDX, with all frequencies overlayed for comparison:


    https://73.fi/oh2aue/tcxo_vs_rs_smx_oh2aue.png


    Already in this measurement you can begin to see there are issues.


    And this is what a received, clean 10 GHz signal (my 10369 MHz beacon) looks like when using either the SMX of the 25.787179 MHz TCXO as reference for a modified PLL LNB:


    https://73.fi/oh2aue/10GHz_SNR…TCXO_vs_RS_SMX_oh2aue.png


    You cannot detect any kind of 10 GHz carrier with the TCXO programmed for 25.787179 MHz, there is just a phase noise hump left !!!


    The SMX LO is not exactly clean any more, but at least it is not limiting my SNR on QO-100 reception.


    For the TCXO programmed for 25.000000 MHz, the 10 MHz spectrum might be only barely useable as I mentioned earlier: the 10 GHz signal to noise ratio will always be limited to about 15dB due to "multiplied" phase noise, even when it could be 20 - 25 dB. Sorry, no plot for this, but you can imagine. And no, I am not using either of these TCXO's, they are both in my reference phase noise collection ;)


    For microwave narrow band operation one needs (at least) accuracy, long term stability, short term stability and low close-in spur level. Well designed, ovenized crystal oscillators are very difficult to beat and if it is phase locked (with a very slow loop) to something more *accurate* like GNSS/GPS, Rubidium, Cesium (or even a Hydrogen MASER), then you just may have reached Nirvana :)


    /michael, oh2aue


    P.S. and of course this multiplied phase noise plays havoc with (phase modulated) DVB reception.

    Hi,


    the triangular strip is propably fairly repeatable to produce without test gear, which is an obvious bonus.


    Here is an old design I made for our Ilmari balloon project (weight around 40 grams) that uses an oblong shaped matching section (don't seem to have a plot of thre return loss, but it is around 20 dB for the 23cm ATV band):


    https://73.fi/oh2aue/23cm_helix_1.jpg


    Though I still prefer the bother of making the capacitive base wire loading for good broadband matching (the markers are at seemingly weird frequencies as I wanted to get an idea of the attenuation at these) :


    https://73.fi/oh2aue/13cmhlx1.jpg


    https://73.fi/oh2aue/helix.gif


    /michael, oh2aue

    Your connection is not secure

    The owner of 73.fi has configured their website improperly. To protect your information from being stolen, Firefox has not connected to this website.


    Thomas,


    the site is about as secure as possible (I am sure you did use https).


    Please run:https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=73.fi&latest


    Results:

    73.fi Overall Rating: A+

    Your web browser must support SNI and use TLA 1.2 or TLS 1.3

    Firefox version 31 will not work, but then the current version is 75...


    Take care,

    /michael, oh2aue

    Just in case somebody does not have immediate access to old articles and magazines, here is my writeup on AO-7 from, like, >20 years ago. I realize some of the links are now obsolete and need to overhaul this page sometime soonish. For me, the most important are the block diagrams of the transponder, especially the HELAPS transponder.


    Things to do list: write an English Block Diagram...


    I also really need to take some time to write something on the 2.3 GHz S band beacon that never got tested in orbit. But regardless, many thanks to the San Bernardino Microwave Society for supplying the flight hardware, eons ago.


    https://73.fi/oh2aue/ao_07_history.htm

    or

    https://www.qsl.net/oh2aue/ao_07_history.htm


    /michael, oh2aue

    A dual band circularly polarized patch feed from the dungeons of Brno:


    http://www.urel.feec.vutbr.cz/…ts/Marsalek/DSCN0051r.JPG


    The very interesting thesis of OM Mirek, OK2AQ's student Aleš Maršálek may be found at:


    Multi-frequency reflector feed with circular polarization for a small parabolic antenna (2002)


    (1270 & 2400 MHz RHCP 50Ω design for f/D of 0.4 to 0.5)


    In particular, the evolution from a dual fed circularly polarized patch to a self-phasing CP patch is described in Chapter 4 with scetches of the underlying principles of dual resonances and related phasing in Figures 4.4a & b and 4.5. Otherwise there is a real lot of interesting detail in the work, but I do need to brush up my Czech somewhat ;)


    As ever, the true bible of radio engineering by Frederick Emmons Terman contains all the answers to all possible RF questions or at least the beginnings of them. Personally I prefer reading one of my original hard copies, but the 1937 edition is also downloadable at:


    https://archive.org/details/RadioEngineering


    Figure 29 on page 56 tells it all.


    /Michael, oh2aue

    And Happy New Year :)


    A couple of examples of commercial patches for the GPS L1 frequency:


    https://73.fi/oh2aue/gnss_rhcp_patch_no1.jpg

    https://73.fi/oh2aue/odd_even_…ple_patch_no_1_oh2aue.gif


    https://73.fi/oh2aue/gnss_rhcp_patch_no4.jpg

    https://73.fi/oh2aue/odd_even_…ple_patch_no_4_oh2aue.gif


    Many of these commercial patches sub-perform, mostly because the design engineer will not read or implement the manufacturers instructions, especially regarding ground plane and weather protection dielectrics.


    But sometimes these patches simply have not even been designed for RHCP: there are also models on the market, where dual frequency operation is claimed, one patch direction is tuned for one spot frequency and the orthogonal direction for the other.


    Obviosly both are linearly polarized with the -3dB loss penalty.


    But happily we mere radio amateurs are smarter :)


    /Michael

    PA3FYM,


    well, here in Finland we have this thing called "nollatutkimus", or zero-research, quite literally referring to putting effort into restudying something that has been evident for eons ;)


    Something like this, only this is on 7 MHz:

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    We all know that the polarisation ellipse of a correctly aligned POTY would on the polarimeter CRT be a perfect circle (when measured in a reflection free environment - here at the 62nd parallel north, snow melts and the garden dries to boot-comfort usually around April/May...).


    Meanwhile, I am integrating a Trio CO-1303D oscilloscope into the system, more pleasing for the esthetic eye with it's vintage round CRT and all that :)


    /Michael

    Trying to adhere to the topic:


    From the TX viewpoint, for simple circularly polarized feeds one still needs to achieve splitting of the signal into two equal amplitude components with +-45 degrees shifts, i.e. two orthogonal fields from two virtual elements with impedances of 50+j50 ohms and 50-j50 ohms. Parallelly fed this results in a total feed impedance of 50+j0 ohms purely resistive.


    These two resonances should be evident from the hardware when measuring with a VNA: there should clearly be both impedances with their relevant resonances, ideally symmetrically about the nominal center frequencies. Accomplishing all this with a simple feed plate, a single feed point and a single disturbance (the screw) is somewhat challenging and tough to replicate in a hardware duplicate. But with very tight manufactureing tolerances it IS possible over a very narrow frequency range (obviously). This is why it is so very difficult to copy mechanical drawings with good overall results. You really need to know what you are doing and also have the instrumentation. Pushing limits, I routinely measure ellipticity on HF in the confines of my small basement - figure that one out ;)


    Once you have determined the apparent crossed polarized fields of your particular CP feed, you should be able to clearly affect each resonance individually (might take a piece of dielectric on a very thin dielectric probe). I usually use small pieces of PTFE, Rexolite, plastic or even just my finger tips for this type of work.


    After decades of work with CP polarization for a very wide range of applications and with quite a few years on HF too, last year I finally put together a (quadrature) dual channel polarimeter demonstrator for HF and this spring I also added a dual channel downconverter for 2.4 GHz for demonstration purposes:


    https://73.fi/oh2aue/oh2aue_polarimeter.htm


    Now, for my tripole antenna experiments I obviously need a three channel polarimeter. Think of this as an analogue oscilloscope CRT with magnetic deflection using external coils (e.g. Cossor 1039 or vintage radar CRT): instead of two orthogonal coil pair, only three deflection coils are needed in trigature, i.e. spaced at 120 degrees. Obviously magnetic deflection if bandwidth limited, but the display is on an arbitrary IF anyway. And I just love the dual time constant phosfors of my radar CRT :)


    Until now I have been using vintage HP Vector and Constellation Displays with various homebrew 3 phase/2 phase RF transformers and matching three channel coherent converters depeding the on frequency band. This is all very fine for displaying CP ellipticity directly and in real time, but all the way, it is imperative to see also the complex impedances, such as (plot of the three resonances, 0 degrees and +-120 degrees with the total return loss of the trigature hybrid with imbalance load, 5dB/div):


    https://73.fi/oh2aue/2400_MHz_…rid_input_return_loss.jpg


    The overall ellipticity (linear deflection) of this contraption may be seen in the last plot of the first link.


    Michael, oh2aue


    P.S. winding of CRT deflection coils is described in detail in the Bell Labs microwave series... :)


    P.P.S. how many multipole antennas can you count in the AO-40 photo on the left?

    S/N ratio is, especially for CW, a function of detection bandwidth, or in the case of an SDR, a function of sampling rate and fft size. For a regular analogue radio with real HW filters, the CW power is (hopefully!) considerably more than the noise, so the (peak) power measurement will fairly accurately depict the carrier energy level with even quite wide detection bandwidth. For noise however, we need to consider the noise bandwidth. The broadband, filter passband-filling noise power (which should be detected in RMS by the way) will be highly dependent on the bandwidth of it, i.e. how much noise energy is being integrated into a number. Increasing the detection bandwidth from e.g. a ~300Hz CW filter to a ~3kHz SSB filter will result in 10dB more (noise) power. In other words the CW carrier S/N ratio will appear 10dB worse with a 3kHz filter than a 300Hz filter


    The point is, to make any kind of S/N ratio comparison, we need to know the modulation (CW is very different from 400BPS PSK) and we need to know the detection bandwidth. And in the case of SDR it is important to know the sample rate and FFT size (bin count). Only in this way can we compare apples with apples or make orange/apple conversion calculations to make comparison possible.


    And for really meaningful S/N measurements, peak detection should be used for the (CW) carrier (S) and RMS detection for the noise (N).


    It does not hurt to realize that the noise factor (N) is often noise + interference (I) and that a more accurate measurement would be S/(N+I), but fortunately for us, due to it's very high linearity, the QO-100 transponder noise floor has been and is pretty much random noise. In AO-7, AO-40 and the like, this was not so simple as HELAPS and other high efficiency RF amplification and other linearization and non-linearity processes resulted in noise-sounding (N+I.)


    The result of all this is that 9dB SNR can easily be the same this as a 25 dB SNR. Only the measurement conditions are different.


    73 - Michael, oh2aue

    Not sure what you are referring to?

    My frequency is is extremely stable.

    What you hear in the audio pitch is Doppler due to my accelerating and decellerating?


    The name of the video is "Compensating for QO-100 Doppler with Fuel Injection Rate" :)


    Accelerating from zero to about 80 km/h will shift the received frequency up by almost 800 Hz

    as I am clearly approaching the satellite. This is why copying SSB mobile is a bit touchy.