Calibrating FM Deviation

Calibrating

F

.M

.

Deviation

BY

CURT

GR

EY,

*

VE

2AQX

T

HERE

hasbeenaconsiderable

number

of

c

omm

ercial

f.rn.

radio

s(transceivers)being

put

on

the

m

ark

et

dur

ingthelastfewy

ea

rs.

Th

epricesarcverygo

od

andtheunitsseem tohetherightthingf

or

l

oc

alnets,etc,

Th

er

eis

oneminor

(orma

jor

)

pr

oblem

.however,

and

that

ishowtosetthem

odu

lationac

curate

ly.Usuallythe

equipment

re

quired

is

elab

or

ateand

expen

sive.Buta

ll

th

istest

gear

isbuiltnot

on

lyforaccura

cy

.

it

is

alsobuiltf

or

spee

dy

service.Thesystem

de

s

cr

ibed

here

isnotspee

dy

,but

it

isveryac

cur

ate.Infact,

an

accur

acy

of2%is

ob

tainab

le.

The

equipment

requiredforthistestisas

follows:anoscilloscope,anaccuratea.f. oscilla

tor

.

the

stationreceiv

er

and

ana.c.voltmeter.

Th

escopeservesonlyas

an

indi

ca

torand

it

sh

ould

have

fairlygo

od

sensitivity.

The

si

gnalsdisplayedwi

ll

bethe

i.f

.

of

the

moni

t

or

system(st

il

tionreceiver),whiehinmostcasesiscloseto

455

kc.The

au

diooscillos

co

pemusthaveoutput anywhere

from

400

c.p.s.

10

1000C.p.s.

Th

e

frequen

cyfr

om

thisoscillosc

ope

mu

stbe

known

very

accura

telywith

preference

givento

440

c.p.s,

an

d1000c

.p

.s..becausethose

frequencie

s

ca

nbemonitoredofftheairfr

om

·95

Bl

ouin,

Septlies,Quebec,

Canada.

Thesi

mple

Q-multiplier

of

fig.2isshowncon ne

cted

toa

Motorola

Station

Monitor

through

a

BN

Cconn

ec

tormoun

tedclose

to

an

l.f.amplifier.

34

•CO•F

ebruary

,1971

man

ystations.

For

example.

440and600

c.p.s,

ca

nbecomparedwith

WW

V

and

I

do

notsuggesttoquesti

on

theaccura

cy

of

that

.hi

tation,

I.

The

stationreceiv

er

ne

ed

n

ot

haveab.f.o.

The

onlycriteriaisstability,

Th

ereceiversh

ould

slay

onfreque

ncy.The,..c.voltmeter

mu

stbe

capab

leofhandling

the

i.f.ofthereceiver.

Thi

svoltmet

er

isn

ot

an

absoluterequirement.

The

He

athk

it

IM-2

1or

th

eHewlettP

ackard

40

0D

(orthe

equ

ivalent)will

do

nicely.

This

v.t,v.rn.

wi

ll

mea

sure

the

outpu

t

from

th

evertical

am

plifier

of

theoscilloscope.

Test

Procedur

e

T

he

m

ethod

des

cr

ibedis

known

as

"The

Hessel

Ze

ro

Method

."and

isrelat

ed

to

the

Bessel

-funct

i

ons

.'

Fortun

ately.

there

is

no

knowledge

required

as

f

ar

as

Bessel

functionsare

concerne

d.

The

testproc

edu

reisbasedonthefactthat,at

certain

pointswhich

cor

respond

to

di

scr

ete

modulation

indices,

th

e

zer

oorder

funct

ion

pa

sses

th

rough

zero

.

It

boilsdowntothis:as a

carrier

isfre

que

ncy

modu

latedbyasinglefre

quency.th

ei.f.signalinthemon

it

orreceiv

er

disap

pea

rs

at

several

po

intsasthe

amplitude

of

the

m

odulat

ingsig

na

lisincreased.

The

senullpoints

co

rres

pon

dtospecific

modulation

indices.

th

efirst

fi

ve

of

which

are

2.4048,

5.52

01.

8

.6

537.11.7

915

and

14.9309.

IH.E.

Harris,

"SimplifiedQ-Multipliers,"

Elec-

tronics,

May1951,

p.

13

0.O.

Henry,"CalibratingBroadcastModulating

Meters,"

Electronics,

April1960,p.67.

-,

Q

-,

s_

-

r

~

Mu

tflp

her

r.

Oi

,p

lay

To

45,1I:

~

L'.

ot

Rc

......

.

I

L,

....

-

}

....

/lI'lI1

~

..

--

'-

V

TV

M

00"

0H"'l

••

TIOOl

~

;

PIckIWfrtwnT.

or

drrKt

couCII

""9

~

' " 9

I

o -

~

.

Fig.

l-Tes

tset-

up

forme

as

uringf.m.

dev

iation.

Firstnull,2

.4

048

kc.

To

Scope

68.

47

0K

L

1

00

MItA

L.

HlQ

tI0

u

coil

tuntd

.'T

'I

$IuQ

1'0

t

lOC1

"

t.

Fig.2

-Q

.multipli

erfor

modulation

me

cs

u

re

-

mentsonf.m.

[p.

m.

]

transmittersorsignal

ge

nerato

rs.

Th

em

od

ul

at

i

on

i

ndex

is

the

r

at

io

of

fre

quencydeviationtomodul

at

ionfrequency.

Out

of

th

isfollows:

kn

ow

ing

th

eindicesat

whichthecarrier

is

zeroandalso

kn

ow

in

gthemodul

at

ionf

re

quency,thedeviationateach

c

arri

er

zero

(null)iseasilydet

erm

ined.As

exa

mple,l

et

ust

ake

amo

dul

ati

on

fr

e

qu

enc

y

of

1000c.

p.s

.

It

mu

st

bepoint

ed

outagainthatthisfr

equ

ency

mu

stbekn

own

to

he

ver

yac

cur

at

e.

Then

thenullswill

be

obtained

atthe

fo

ll

owingfre

qu

encies:2

.4

0

48

kc

,5.5

20

1kc,8.6537kc,11.7915

kc

and14.9309kc.Usingafrequencyof

60

0c.p.s. a

frequen

cythatis

tr

an

sm

it

ted

by

WWV,

th

enullsw

ou

ldbe

at

1.1443kc,3.312kc,5.192

kc

,7.0

75

kc,

8.958

kc.

Inotherwords:modulatingatransmitter witha

fr

equencyof

600

c.p.s.andincreasing

the

leveltothem

od

ulat

or

stageslowly

fro

m

zerolevelonup.onewi

ll

observethecarrier

todissa

pp

e

ar

ata

devia

tion

of

1

.4

33kc(t

he

firstnull).Allthe

power

isin

th

e

sideban

ds

.

Th

e

accuracy

of

the

testsetup

de

pends

nowonhowaccu

rate

lyonecande

fi

nethe

nulls.

Th

eset-up

shown

in

fig

.1

was

foundto

be

theidealmeth

od

for

hamstomeasure

fre

quency

deviation.

The

bl

ock

di

agram

explainstheset-up.

The

a-Mult

iplier

Themain

unit

istheQ-Multiplier

.'

This

unitoperatesatthe

i.f.

of

themonitorre

ceiver.

The

Q

of

the

coil

mustbegoo

d

for

.bestresults.O

th

erwisetheunitisstraight forward.Thereisnothingcriticalaboutthis

Q-

Mu

ltiplier.

There

areonly

two

importan

tpointsto

co

nsider:

I.

T

he

unit

should

be

co

mpactandwell-shieldedinordertocontrol

:!Of

course,onemayuseanyotherQ-Multiplier.

AHeathkitmodelHD-IIwilldo.

Second

null,5

.520

1kc.

Th

ird

null,

8.

653

7kc.

Fourthn

ull

,

11.791

5kc.

Oscilloscopephotos

of

nu

llsindicatingf.m. deviation.Thethirdandfourthphotos

are

imperfectduetosome

power

fluctuation.In thesetwophotos,thenullisnotadjusted

per

-fectlytodemonstratewhaton

approa

chingnulllookslike.

Modu

lat

ionfrequencyis

1000

c

.p

.a.,

timebose:0

.5

ms

/cm.

thefeedback

properl

y.2,

Thepower

should

come

fr

om

aregul

ated

suppl

y.

The

supply.voltages

couldeasilyc

ome

fr

om

thereceiver

itself(theunit

drawsonl

yafewmi

lliamps

).

The

Q

-Mult

iplieris

connectedto

the

i.f.viaa

short

cable.

The

connectionshould

be

do

ne

[C

ontinu

ed

0

11

pa

ge

SI)

F

eb

rua

ry,1971•CO•

3S

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