472/500kHz antenna improvements needed

For the last month whilst testing my 472/500kHz transverter I've been using a highly compromised antenna. Essentially it is a very short Marconi tuned against my central heating system ground. The first 6-7m is a coax cable running next to pipes in the loft horizontally. Eventually the coax runs outside and up 5-6m to my 6m/10m halos. The coax inner and outer are strapped together when used on 500kHz. In the last week we have had a new central heating boiler fitted, this time in the loft, so there are even more copper pipes and wires running close to the coax. Reports appear to be a few dB worse on 500kHz as a result.

The time has now come to design a "no compromise" 500kHz Marconi! Looking at the geometry of my garden I should be able to erect a 5-6m vertical away from the house with some 10m of horizontal top loading. I can add some inductance near the top of the vertical section and tune it all against a reasonably decent ground (4 x 1m long earth spikes, a couple of radials and the central heating copper).  Not sure how soon I can work on this but I would hope the ERP increase could be up to 6dB. At least with WSPR (and OPERA) one can do a series of tests over several days with each antenna and compare results. It will be easy to measure antenna current which gives a good indication of ERP when the antenna effective height is calculable.

New MF transverter ready for testing

472/500kHz transverter built more presentably

Being satisfied with the latest 10W version of my 472/500kHz transverter breadboard, I have now rebuilt it more tidily so it will fit in a small plastic or diecast box. This uses my normal "dead bug" construction using a piece of copper laminate as ground plane with small PCB pad islands to join some components. It will be tested tomorrow, but I am not expecting any issues.

UPDATE 26.7.12
Tested the transverter above on-air this evening and getting reports from several stations on WSPR.

WSPR reports so far this evening on 500kHz

Results with the new 500kHz transverter

WSPR reports received this evening (40mW ERP)

A decent evening testing the new 472/500kHz transverter with WSPR reports from 6 different stations (best DX 440km) and copying 3 different stations on OPERA Op4 mode. There is still a slight PA instability that needs to be fixed (probably decoupling changes), so there is a bit more optimisation to do.

472/500kHz transceive transverter

Rev C Transverter (one correction: o/p LPF cap 6n8, not 100n)

Armed with the sensitivity data in the last post I have now modified my MF transverter to add the receive parts, without a preamp. I used the same scheme adopted in my old transverter to automatically switch through the 500kHz (or 472kHz) signal on receive directly to the FT817. Only 4 additional parts were needed to make it into a TX/RX transverter.  As proof that the RX part is working I have just copied PA0WMR with a huge signal on OPERA Op4 with the signal passing through the transverter.

How deaf is the FT817 at 136, 472 and 500kHz?

You may have read that the FT817 is deaf below 160m. This matters if you want to use the rig "as is" without preamps as a receiver for 136, 472 or 500kHz. So I decided to measure the performance using a signal generator. I measured the MDS on CW (the level at which I could just still hear a  CW tone without additional filtering), the level for S1, S5 and S9 on the FT817's meter. I also checked whether having the IPO switched in or out made a difference

These were my results:

136kHz (best results with IPO on)  DEAF!
MDS -103dBm
S1 -72dBm
S5 -68dBm
S9 -48dBm

472kHz (best results with IPO off)    SLIGHTLY DEAF
MDS  -120dBm
S1  -84dBm
S5 -81dBm
S9 -60dBm

500kHz (best results with IPO off)    A BIT DEAF

MDS  -124dBm
S1 -85dBm
S5 -82dBm
S9 -60dBm

What conclusions can be drawn? Well, the FT817 is definitely very deaf on 136kHz and needs a preamp to be usefully sensitive. On 472/500kHz, although the MDS is worse than at 1.8MHz, the sensitivity is arguably OK without a preamp. Yes, a small amount of high dynamic range gain with good filtering to stop overload from adjacent broadcast stations may give you a slightly better sensitivity, but the question is whether this matters when external noise may be the limitation. I have used to FT817 on 500kHz for several years and heard most of what was going, including transatlantic stations. At 472kHz it is slightly worse but still useable I think.

GQRP Component Data Book

Tony Fishpool G4WIF, G4CCQ, G3OOU and others have created an on-line, downloadable, GQRP Data Book which has the pin-outs of a number of devices commonly used in QRP designs featured in SPRAT and elsewhere. It is just what I need to stop me having to look up parts on the internet every time. This is "a work in progress" as they say with updates and additions coming frequently.

Finally, why not join the GQRP Club? Its quarterly magazine SPRAT is still the best amateur magazine in the world and remarkable value at £6 UK, 12 euros or $18 US. Details at http://www.gqrp.com/join.htm .  As well as very interesting constructional projects, the magazine has operating news, useful adverts from QRP suppliers as well as adverts for GQRP club sales which supplies members with useful QRP parts (semiconductors, crystals, DVDs of SPRAT back issues, etc) at very reasonable prices. The GQRP club represents the spirit and ethos of amateur radio at its best.

472/500kHz TX transverter - first schematic

10W 472/500kHz TX Transverter (CW, WSPR, OPERA, QRSS)

OK, here is the first schematic (subject to corrections, changes and improvements) of my simple TX transverter for 472 or 500kHz. This one needs no expensive parts and went together painlessly. The PA filter parts used the GW3UEP approach of winding thickish copper wire (1mm in my case) onto 22mm white PVC drain pipe pieces. The mixer, LO and squarer stage all use ubiquitous 2N3904 transistors (my favorite!) and the PA a cheap IRF510 FET that produces 10W RF without even getting warm.

Next stage is to add the RX preamp and filter and sort out RX-TX switching. I also want to try to go for a higher PA output power which will require changes to the output network.

500kHz tranverter (Mk 2) breadboarding

This weekend I've made considerable progress with the new transverter for 472 and 500kHz and fully breadboarded a 10W TX transverter.

My objectives are to make the design simpler than the original 2010 design  (no expensive SBL1 double balanced mixer!), produce more power and improve the RX performance. Also I want to reduce the need for special parts such as toroids.

The design evolving is, like all my designs, a mixture of my own ideas and the best from other people. When the design is ready I will put it here and on my main website. I've moved away from 28MHz IF (too high, too much start-up drift) and instead gone to 3.7MHz using a 3.2MHz crystal available from GQRP inexpensively. The TX mixer (none is needed on RX as it is uses the FT817 in split mode receiving directly on MF) is a simple bipolar stage followed by a low pass filter. For the PA I have largely copied GW3UEP's excellent designs for a 25 (and later 100W) amplifier. Initially I am using an IRF510 from 13.8V and getting around 10W RF out. The next stage is to look at the RX front end. I want a little gain ahead of the FT817 but with good large signal handling and decent filtering. The FT817 works OK at 500kHz but is a little deaf.

So, a satisfying few hours building.

QRP semiconductor pin-out sheet?

Is it just me or do you also have to search the web quite frequently to confirm the pin-outs of devices you've used time and time again?  I need to do this for LM386, 2N3819, IRF510 and the 2N3904/6 almost every time I get them out of the drawers just to be sure. "Senior moments" I hear you say!

Does anyone know of a simple (all in one place) "crib sheet" that I could download giving the pin-outs of the common devices we frequently use in QRP projects?

500kHz WSPR

I left my 500kHz WSPR station running overnight last evening to see what reports I got. People are now generally using 500kHz USB dial for WSPR so that simultaneous monitoring on RX of both OPERA and WSPR is possible. Personally I can't tell much difference.

500kHz WSPR reports earlier (20mW ERP)

Anyway, my best reports were from F59706 (560km) and F5NWK (559km) when I was running around 15-20mW ERP from my current transverter and antenna.