QEX №3 2014.pdf

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The national association for
ARRL
AMATEUR RADIO
225 Main Street
Newington, CT USA 06111-1494
TM
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May/June 2014
About the Cover
QEX (ISSN: 0886-8093) is published bimonthly
in January, March, May, July, September, and
November by the American Radio Relay League,
225 Main Street, Newington, CT 06111-1494.
Periodicals postage paid at Hartford, CT and at
additional mailing offices.
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to:
QEX, 225 Main St, Newington, CT 06111-1494
Issue No 284
Harold Kramer, WJ1B
Publisher
Larry Wolfgang, WR1B
Editor
Lori Weinberg, KB1EIB
Assistant Editor
Zack Lau, W1VT
Ray Mack, W5IFS
Contributing Editors
Production Department
Steve Ford, WB8IMY
Publications Manager
Michelle Bloom, WB1ENT
Production Supervisor
Sue Fagan, KB1OKW
Graphic Design Supervisor
David Pingree, N1NAS
Senior Technical Illustrator
Brian Washing
Technical Illustrator
Advertising Information Contact:
Janet L. Rocco, W1JLR
Business Services
860-594-0203 – Direct
800-243-7768 – ARRL
860-594-4285 – Fax
Circulation Department
Cathy Stepina,
QEX Circulation
Offices
225 Main St, Newington, CT 06111-1494 USA
Telephone: 860-594-0200
Fax: 860-594-0259 (24 hour direct line)
e-mail:
qex@arrl.org
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Members are asked to include their membership
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Copyright © 2014 by the American
Radio Relay League Inc. For permission
to quote or reprint material from
QEX
or any ARRL publication, send a written
request including the issue date (or
book title), article, page numbers and a
description of where you intend to use
the reprinted material. Send the request
to the office of the Publications Manager
(permission@arrl.org).
Scotty Cowling, WA2DFI, tells us about “The High
Performance Software Defined Radio Project (HPSDR).
This project is a collection of circuit boards designed to
help interested builders experiment with the hardware
needed to assemble a top performing radio. The latest
development is the Hermes Board — a single-board
transmitter and receiver that integrates onto one
board most of the functions of the boards previously
developed for HPSDR.
In This Issue
Features
3
14
21
32
38
The High Performance Software Defined Radio Project
Scotty Cowling, WA2DFI
RF Power Amplification Using a High
Voltage, High Current IGBT
Pete Horowitz
Locked VCXOs for Stable Microwave
Local Oscillators with Low Phase Noise
Paul Wade, W1GHZ
Android Wireless Project Control Part 1 —
Android GUI Software Development
Thomas M. Alldread, VA7A
Upcoming Conferences
Index of Advertisers
ARRL: ................................................Cover III
Array Solutions: .......................................... 31
Down East Microwave Inc:.......................... 20
Kenwood Communications: ................Cover II
M
2
:............................................................... 40
Nemal Electronics International, Inc: ...........20
Quicksilver Radio Products............... Cover IV
RF Parts:............................................... 37, 39
Tucson Amateur Packet Radio: .................. 40
QEX – May/June 2014
1
The American Radio
Relay League
The American Radio Relay League,
Inc, is a noncommercial association
of radio amateurs, organized for the
promotion of interest in Amateur Radio
communication and experimentation,
for the establishment of networks to
provide communications in the event of
disasters or other emergencies, for the advancement
of the radio art and of the public welfare, for the
representation of the radio amateur in legislative
matters, and for the maintenance of fraternalism and
a high standard of conduct.
ARRL is an incorporated association without
capital stock chartered under the laws of the state
of Connecticut, and is an exempt organization
under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue
Code of 1986. Its affairs are governed by a Board
of Directors, whose voting members are elected
every three years by the general membership. The
officers are elected or appointed by the Directors.
The League is noncommercial, and no one who
could gain financially from the shaping of its
affairs is eligible for membership on its Board.
“Of, by, and for the radio amateur,” ARRL
numbers within its ranks the vast majority of active
amateurs in the nation and has a proud history of
achievement as the standard-bearer in amateur
affairs.
A
bona fide
interest in Amateur Radio is the only
essential qualification of membership; an Amateur
Radio license is not a prerequisite, although full
voting membership is granted only to licensed
amateurs in the US.
Membership inquiries and general corres-
pondence should be addressed to the
administrative headquarters:
ARRL
225 Main Street
Newington, CT 06111 USA
Telephone: 860-594-0200
FAX: 860-594-0259 (24-hour direct line)
Officers
President:
KAY C. CRAIGIE, N3KN
570 Brush Mountain Rd, Blacksburg, VA 24060
Chief Executive Officer:
DAVID SUMNER, K1ZZ
The purpose of
QEX
is to:
1) provide a medium for the exchange of ideas and
information among Amateur Radio experimenters,
2) document advanced technical work in the Amateur
Radio field, and
3) support efforts to advance the state of the
Amateur Radio art.
All correspondence concerning
QEX
should be
addressed to the American Radio Relay League,
225 Main Street, Newington, CT 06111 USA.
Envelopes containing manuscripts and letters for
publication in
QEX
should be marked Editor,
QEX.
Both theoretical and practical technical articles are
welcomed. Manuscripts should be submitted in word-
processor format, if possible. We can redraw any
figures as long as their content is clear.
Photos should be glossy, color or black-and-white
prints of at least the size they are to appear in
QEX
or high-resolution digital images (300 dots per
inch or higher at the printed size). Further
information for authors can be found on the Web at
www.arrl.org/qex/
or by e-mail to
qex@arrl.org.
Any opinions expressed in
QEX
are those of
the authors, not necessarily those of the Editor or the
League. While we strive to ensure all material
is technically correct, authors are expected to
defend their own assertions. Products mentioned
are included for your information only; no
endorsement is implied. Readers are cautioned to
verify the availability of products before sending
money to vendors.
Larry Wolfgang, WR1B
Empirical Outlook
Learning Opportunities
Most of us would agree that education is a life-long process. It certainly doesn’t end with a
high school diploma. By the time we earn an Associates or Bachelors degree in our chosen
field we have come to realize that the more we learn, the more we want to learn. Going on to a
Masters degree or even a Doctorate will not end the learning process.
Amateur Radio is an excellent example of this ongoing need to learn. As new integrated
circuits are developed we want to learn about how to use those new components. As new com-
munications techniques are developed we want to learn how we, too, can participate or even
help lead the way. How do we learn about all this new information? Certainly there are many
ways we can learn new tricks.
I am seeing more and more notices about webinars, and being invited to attend them.
Various manufacturers, such as Texas Instruments, Linear Technology, and National
Instruments all send newsletters with articles about the latest applications for their devices and
software. I receive several other newsletters with information from a variety of companies. I am
sure many of you, our readers, receive these same e-mails and more, depending upon your
professional interests and connections. They all provide many learning opportunities. How
many of them do you take advantage of? How many do you have time to read/study/observe?
It can seem a bit overwhelming at times. If you are not receiving similar e-mails, and would like
to, I encourage you to visit various manufacturer’s websites and sign up for their newsletters
and other information.
In the weeks running up to a major even, such as the National Association of Broadcasters
Show and others, the e-mails increase even more. It seems that many of the major companies
who will attend the show want to make sure I will stop by their booth to see their latest offering.
I’m sure it would be great fun to attend one of those shows sometime.
My point is that we have many opportunities to learn new things, whether it be by attending
a webinar, studying information newsletters from various manufacturers, finding a book about
a topic of interest or reading the articles in
QEX.
I try to take as many of these opportunities as
time and cost allow. How about you?
Another opportunity that many readers take advantage of, but more probably should, is
attending the various Amateur Radio technical conferences held around the country each year.
We try to highlight many conferences in the Upcoming Conferences column in just about every
issue of
QEX.
I have periodically mentioned some of them in my editorials, and encouraged
readers to attend one or more of these conferences each year. There are some conferences
that tend to be regional in nature. Most of these move to different locations over the years, in an
attempt to make it easier for local hams to attend occasionally. For example, the Eastern States
VHF Conference, the Central States VHF Conference and others provide great learning oppor-
tunities. Other conferences are offered on a national scale, such as the ARRL/TAPR Digital
Communications Conference, the AMSAT Symposium, and Microwave Update. The technical
presentations are top notch, and you get the opportunity to rub elbows with the experts. Sure
you can always pick up a copy of the
Conference Proceedings,
and read the papers there, but
by attending the conference you can ask questions of the authors. You can discuss their tech-
niques and gain further insight into their projects. Often you can hold the actual project in your
hands and inspect the construction details. It is hard to imagine a better learning opportunity.
In the March/April 2014 issue of
QEX,
we reprinted “78 GHz LNA Wrap-Up” by Tom Williams,
WA1MBA, from the
Proceedings of Microwave Update2013.
In this issue we have picked up an
article by Paul Wade, W1GHZ, also from the
Proceedings of Microwave Update2013
—
“Locked VCXOs for Stable Microwave Local Oscillators with Low Phase Noise.” Both articles
are excellent project descriptions and could have been “QEX Exclusive” articles, but the authors
chose to present them first at MUD, to share them with other attendees there.
In the past we have occasionally picked up articles from the
DCC Proceedings
and other
conferences. One reason for doing that is that they are excellent papers worthy of being shared
with a wider audience. Another reason is to show our readers the quality of presentations that
are offered at these conferences. I hope we can inspire some new attendees at one or more of
the many great technical conferences offered each year. Let me know if you attend a confer-
ence for the first time, and tell me about your experience. Perhaps I will use it in the Letters
column.
If you know of other conferences that we have not mentioned here or in the Upcoming
Conferences column, please let me know about them. Provide some details at least 5 to 6
months in advance (the earlier the better) so we can be sure to include a timely notice in the
pages of
QEX.
2
QEX – May/June 2014
Scotty Cowling, WA2DFI
PO Box 26843, Tempe, AZ 85285;
scotty@tonks.com
The High Performance Software
Defined Radio Project
Here is a summary of the history and current status of the HPSDR project.
Since its inception in 2005, the High
Performance Software Defined Radio
(HPSDR) project has produced over a dozen
building blocks that can be used to assemble
a high-grade 100 kHz to 55 MHz software-
defined radio. See Figure 1.
The openHPSDR project, as it is known
today, began in March 2006 from the merger
of the HPSDR Yahoo group and the Xylo-
SDR e-mail reflector. The first piece of
hardware produced was the Atlas backplane.
Eric Ellison, AA4SW, paid for the initial
run of 400 circuit boards and shipped them
to individuals from his dining room table in
May of 2006. He collected enough money
(entirely on the honor system) from these
early adopters to pay for the initial circuit
board run. Mainly because of Eric’s efforts,
Tucson Amateur Packet Radio (TAPR)
became involved on the production side in
June 2006 and was able to help augment
the many HPSDR designers’ efforts with
early volume production and storefront retail
sales. While TAPR offers financial support
to the designers to help defray some or all of
the costs of building prototypes for testing,
TAPR and the HPSDR project always
were and remain independent entities.
The HPSDR project changed its name to
openHPSDR in April 2009 in order to more
accurately reflect the open-source nature of
the project.
In fact, the openHPSDR project
was the impetus for creating the TAPR
Open Hardware License (“OHL”). The
openHPSDR developers wanted to create
a community around their designs, much
like the GNU General Public License for
software, and invited TAPR to work with
them to develop a license for open hardware
designs. The OHL itself was the result of an
Figure 1 — The openHPSDR Transmitter/Receiver. From left to right, Linear Power Unit (LPU),
Mercury receiver, Pennylane transmitter, and Metis Ethernet interface are plugged into the
Atlas backplane. Alex filters (in the aluminum enclosure) are on the right. All boards fit within
the Pandora enclosure.
open design process that included a public
comment period. It was released in May,
2007, and is available for use by any open
hardware project.
1
TAPR is a non-profit corporation
that provides resources for the purpose
of advancing the state of the radio art,
especially the
digital
radio art.
2
What could
be more digital than a software defined radio
with an A-to-D conversion practically at the
antenna?
The openHPSDR project is a community
(currently over 1000 strong) of designers,
1
developers and users that design, build and
experiment with high-performance radios.
3
The openHPSDR domain hosts an active
e-mail reflector where new hardware is
proposed, software is discussed and where
users can get (and offer) openHPSDR
system help and operating tips.
4
System Architecture
From the beginning, the openHPSDR
project was designed to be modular and
expandable. This type of architecture makes
the system a bit more costly and complex
because common interface circuitry must
QEX – May/June 2014
Notes appear on page 13.
3

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