BY DOUG DeMAW, WIFB DOUG’S DESK CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS, TECHNIQUES, AND THEORY A Multi-Purpose Broadband Amplifier fould you like to amplify the out- put ofa signal generator for var- lous circuit development and testing procedures? Low-power signal sources need to be amplified at times in ‘order to obtain sufficient waveform deflec- tion when using an oscilloscope. A broad- ‘band amplifier is useful for this purpose. use a surplus military URM-25 signal generator in my lab. Although it puts out fairly robust signal, there are times when ‘substantial greater output power is re- Quired. The thought occurred to me that the URM-25 could serve as the frequen cy contral for a 1 watt broadband system that | could use for testing solid-state RF power amplifiers, antennas, and Trans- ‘matches. This would eliminate the need for taking my HF-band transceiver to the lab or into the field. This article describes the system | developed for boosting the powor from a crystal oscillator, VFO, or ‘signal generator. The amplifier system wil produce up to t watt of output power from 1 MHz to 80 MHz It will, in fact, work sat- Istactoriy down to approximately 200 kHz with reduced output power. The Basic Amplifier Fig. 1 shows the circuit use as the core ofthe systom. | developed this ampitier ‘some years ago for inclusion in the sec- cond edition of W1FB's QAP Notebook ‘The circuit uses three low-level, fed-back RE ampltiers to drive a 2N3866 power stage. Al four stages operate In class A linear service. This contributes to relax tively clean output waveforms without RF filtenng ifthe Input waveform is a sine wave. Ovordrving the amplifier strip wil, ff course, cause distortion and square waves. With the feedback arrangement shoven in fig. 1 the input of each stago has a 50 ‘ohmcharactoristic The outputs of 1,02, £03, and Q¢ oxhitita 200 ohm impedance “Thismakes itconvenientto use 4:1 broad- band transformers for interstage and out- put coupling. The feedback constants ‘were developed some yoars ago by my colleague, Wes Hayward, W7Z0l. He Used 18 yH AF chokes rather than broad- band transformers in the collector supply lines. Direct couping with capacitors was employed between stages. 13 may be eliminated by jumpering PO Box 260, Luther, Ml 49656 Photo B- Interior view of the assembled broadband amplifier. The power supply Is at the left At the far right, mounted verticaly, is the fg. 3 amplifier. The fig 1 amplifier Strip is seen at the center of the photo a ca» April 1997 Say You Saw It in COES Rie Ro * Grown heat sink. Fig. 1— Schematic diagram of the 0.5 watt, 408 broadband linear amplitier for use from 1 to 50 Mblz, Capacitors are in DF (s00 text) Resisiors are ‘/s watt car- ‘bon or carbon fm. T1, T2, and T3 have 12 primary turns of No. 26 enam. wire on Amidon FT-37-43 (850 pi) toroid cores 4 ‘Secondarieshave6 turns ofNo. 26enam. wire Téhas 12 turns ofNo. 24 enam. wire on an Amidon FT-50-43 toroid ‘Secondary has 6 turns of No. 24 enam wire. P19, if used (see text), is a panet- ‘mounted 1K ohm linear-taper carbon ‘control 08, C14, and C18 are not used in this application (see text) the PC-board pads to allow R11 to be grounded directly | chose to do this so {hat the stop attenuator in fig. 2 could be used at the input of the amplifier stp. ‘Amaifiar gain fr tho fig. 1 circuits 40 dB or greater Gi, G2, and GS are 2N5173 CATV tren sisiors. These wore chosen because of thoie high fy rating, Devices such as the 2N2222A, 2NSGOA, and 2N4401 may be used in tha first three stages, but gain and Upper frequency periormance may be degraded slightly. O4 was chosen be- cause of is relatively high ty rating Other 70-5 transistors with equivalent fr and power ratings may be used at O4 TH, 72, "73, and T4 are conventional broadband transformers, Sight better efficiency can be obtained by using transmission-tine transformers at these circuit points {O4 draws neafly 100 mA of current when biased as shown. This requires a heat sink for transistor protection | used 2 husky Thermalioy No. 215B heat sink ‘on Qs, and on Q1 of fig. 3. This heat sirk has two halves that screw together with the TO-5 device inside They have be- ‘come dificult to find. Two AAVID press- ‘onfinned heat sinks (MouserpartNo 632 3230058002) may be used. A thin ayer of epoxy comentisrequiredbetweenthe two finned heat sinks to hold them together Only one of these units wil ft over a TO- 5 transistor, so they need to be stacked 2s described ‘Small ‘matchhead” type capacitors are bestforalicicuitpoints where 0 1 yF units ‘re specified They have smal bocies and provide efficient bypassing and coupling {o ald ampiier stabity Physically small disc ceramic capacitors may be used. ‘Capacitors C8, C14, and 018 are used only when itis desired to roof tho upper ‘requency response of the fig 1 amlifer {or special applications. The values cho- sen will depend upon the desired upper frequency ral ft Attenuator Fig. 2 shows the throe-section attenuator use ahead of the fig 1 circuit. It is de- 68 + CQ © April 1997 ‘Say You Saw itin CO=150B Fig. 2- A three-section step attenuator ihat uses miniature DPOT toggle switches. Resistors are '/ watt, 5% carbon film wits signed for 50 ohms S1 and S2 each pro vide 1.5 dB of attenuation. $3 offers an ‘additional $8 of attenuation. With $1 and 'S2 engaged, the attenuation is 3 4B. ‘Whenall three switches are engaged, the attonuation is 6 d8 The engagement of $1 and S3 results in 4.5 d8 of attenuation. ‘The attenuator is useful when the signal fed tothe fig. 1 ampilieris too powerful to >w undistorted amplifier output. Min- ‘ature DPDT toggle switches are used PDT slide ewitshes may be substituted The Final Amplifier 1 of ig. 3 boosts the amplified signal to 1 watt. Aitfhough Q4 of fig. 1 is capable of doing this, the four-stage stip wouldneed @KEN to be driven rather hard, thereby causing ‘waveform distortion. The add-on ampiii- ‘er solves this problem. operates class A ‘and is biased for 90 mA of resting collec: tor current. 'A2N355S or 280799 transistor is sult- able for use at Q1 of fig. 3. TO-5 transis: tors with equivalent characteristics may be substituted. A largo heat sink is nec- essary, as mentioned eariier, because of the high value of resting collector current. Note that the input transformer is arranged for a 1:4 step up (50 to 200 ‘ohms) to the base of Qt Output Filtering imple hall-wave, 50 ohm LC, low-pass WOOD fiters may be connected to at the ampli ff output port when itis desired to min ‘mize harmonic currents. For most appli cations and for casual testing purposes it isunnecessary to fiter the PF output. Bet- ter itoring can be realized when using 5- cor 7-element Butterworth low-pass or bandpass filters. Complete information ‘about fiter design may be found in The ‘ARAL Handbook Construction Notes “The PC board for the fig. 1 amplifier strip is available from a vendor? A double- ‘sided board is used to ensure circuit sta- bility. The ground conductor on the etched sido of the board should be bonded to the idl. TS-870S TH-79AD/H ‘owmacucrmamaemcs| | ka ‘oem ae > saa Sytem = 3 MOST poe te | Zr in ay somes "| Seema “s ae | eee 7 «one ai MOS FET power module weer 1 ei Ds clay ep ay one 2 Sing Me pt eye etn TH-22AT 4.1% oun Aer WSDL ke PES FE goer oa TM-261A Saket eres gua del nO | chewed 2 torneo eset, sie eeeommsns + ma se S— R&L Electronics HAMitton, onic! — (800)221-7735 EER ee CMa el eA Ee fee ce a ee Say You Saw it in CO Apri 1997 + CQ + 69RF out 500 tw. rein oa en os % 8 - wey ores: eo Heat snk, 3 cane rode, Fig. 3 An ade-on linear amplifier for use with the fig. 1 circuit to produce 1 watt of ‘output power. C1 is located on the etched side of the PC board. C7 is a 22 uF, 16 volt electrolytic or tantalum capacitor. Resistors are '/« watt carbon. RFC? contains 12 ‘ums of No. 26 enam. wire on an Amidon FT-37-43 toroid T1 (see text) has 12 tums of No. 26 enamel wire on an Amidon FT-37-43 toroid. The primary has 6 turns of No. 26 enam wire. T2 uses 8 turns of No. 26 enam. wire through an Amidon BN-43202 balun core or it can be wound on an Amidon FT-50-43 toroid. The secondary ‘has 6 tums of No 26 enar. wire ‘component-side ground plane at six or 0 both sides of the PC board along its morepoints.Hal-inch stripsof solderwick outer perimeter. Connections that are may be bent into a U shape and soldered made through the PC board, and soldered ‘on each side, do not permit the free flow of RF energy unless the copper is re moved around each hole Photo B shows a large module at tho loft isa surplus +20 voltregulatedpower supply that was obtained ata hamfest.A three-terminal regulator is bolted to the rear wall ofthe boxto reduce the votage 0-+12. The cabinet serves as a heat sink forthe regulator A+12 volt, 500 mA plug- in wall ranstonmer may be used in place ‘ofthe builtin power supply Seale etching pattems for the main and ‘add-on ampifior boards are presented in fig. 4. Paris placoment guides for both boards are given in fig. 5 The RF connections between the ampli fier boards, the attenuator, and the input ‘and output jacks are made with miniature RG-174 coaxial line. The shield braid should be grounded at each end of each cable. RCA phono jacks are used for the input and output ports of this amplier. BNC jacks would be a better choice for ‘maintaining a50 ohm characteristic atthe Upper frequency range of the unit This amplifier is housed in a 2"H x 51/2'W x 61D metal box that once con- tained an AB switch for selecting two computer printers Iicost$1 00 at an ama- teurracio leamarket A simiarboxcan 60 ‘made inexpensively from soctions of PC board The panel face was created with my computer while using WordPerfect 6 0.A tay (B) Fig. 4 Scale etching pattems for the two broadband amplifier PC boards. Board A is viewed trom the etched side. Board B is seen ‘rom the component side to faciltate the use of Tech-200 ar Press-N-Pee! PnP Blue film, which requires a mirror Image for the ‘etching artwork, 70» CQ © Apri 1997 Say You Saw itn COGND ‘Signal 1 ° ee 2a T111 Fig. $~ Parts-placement guides {for both ampitier boards. These are x-ray views as seen from the ‘Out component sidas of the boards (not to scale) SES aS Vv © Rug CUSTER wer Ldap 800-877-7979 Boo co 310-826-7790 TS-50S Mini HE ‘TMV7A DualBand Mobile CIRCLE 4 ON READER SEACE CARO Say You Saw tin CO Apri 1997 © ca + 73+ 15 + ATTENUATOR | 1-W BROADBAND AMPLIFIER A CALLTOLLFREE O85 SALES ‘STANDARD SERIES DELUXE SERIES ‘S125 zor 5225 8.090 cove $200 | S130 aoa $175 Sta dower S60 i Sits aouese $70 | i Ra ee i i { | [APFORDAGLE, HIGH QUALITY ELENCO OSCILLOSCOPES I | i Fh | BaK Modo! 1688 eee a 595) w-1700 igi tinea Pee eet ta —e ‘CALLE 22 ONREADER SETMICE CARO 744 CQ apritise7 Fig 6~ A scale layout for the front panel of the broadband ampilier (300 text). figure box with a thick border was made first The labels were then printed in bold- face Helve 1 font. The pattem was pho- tocopied onto white posterboard, cut to size, and sprayed with two coats of clear lacquer. The finished piece was glued to the front of the box with contact cement. ‘The word “Attenuator” in the tille-page photo has been moved down from the switches. The corrected layout Is pre- sented In fig. 6 Final Comments ‘The fig. 1 circuit could be used as part of an amateur HF transmitter. Since itis a broadband linear amplifier, it requires no band switching. Itis suitable for AM, CW, ‘and SSB applications. itcan be used also asa'/2watt QRP transmitter Ifexcttedwith a crystal oscillator or VFO. A low-pass f= ter should be used at the amplifier output ifthis is done. The combined fig 1 and fig 2 circuits can be used in a ko manner for 1 watt QAP operation. For CW operation it isnecessary to key the +12volt ines tot ‘and G2 of fig. 1. QRPp operation can be realized by utilizing the attenuators at tho amplifier input port Footnotes 1. Available from The ARRL, 225 Main Street, Newington, CT 06117, or ARRL book dealers. 2. Mouser Electronics, Inc., 2401 Hwy. 287 N , Mansfield, TX 76063-4827 (phone 1-800-346-6873 to order orfora catalog) 3. FAR Circuits, 18N640 Field Court, Dundee, IL 60118 (708-426-2431). Cost $3.50 plus $1.50 s&h 4 Amidon Associates, Inc , 250 Briggs Ave , Costa Mesa, CA92626 (phone 714- ‘850-4660 to order or for a catalog). 73, Doug, WIFB ——_ Say You Saw it inca