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Some additional power supply notes.

wn4isx
 

Some additional power supply notes.

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I mentioned there is a severe problem in the way most circuit designs for the uA723 have an error. I said I thought 100 ohms was needed in series with the current sense, it is 1,000 ohms. Most fried uA723 are the result of not using that 1,000 ohm resistor.

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Re noise from batteries.

Mr. Werner Ogiers is a severe audiophile. While I don't necessarily agree with severe audiophiles, I mean oxygen free cryogenically treated copper speaker cables strikes me as a bit unsane, there are some very smart and dedicated people in that clan who actually understand measurement.

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Mr. Ogiers has a series on power supplies and page 4 has noise graphs from chemical batteries.

I doubted his data and performed some tests of my own. [forget the "Some people prefer the sound of the TL431 operating in non-unity-gain" on page 3, even very smart people have their delusions.]

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I used Rod Elliot's Low Noise Test Preamplifier

at https://sound-au.com/project158.htm

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My Dataq data acquisition unit with the Low Noise Test preamplifier with SpectraPluse revealed that "Yyes chemical batteries do produce noise."

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Some batteries produce a lot of noise. And I mean A LOT of NOISE!

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https://www.tnt-audio.com/clinica/regulators_noise4_e.html

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Take it for what it's worth.

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I use Charles Wenzel's Reducing Voltage Regulator Noise

for all of my active antenna power supplies.

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For really critical, low current, needs I add a capacitor multiplier to the output. The noise is so low I can't measure it.

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Something all too many RF designers ignore is "rectifier commutation noise."

https://www.microsemi.com/document-portal/doc_view/14617-rectifier-reverse-switching-performance

[rectifier commutation noise is the term my favorite EE professor used.]

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I won't get down into the weeds over proper rectifier commutation noise snubber design but this can be a serious problem. By serious, I mean so bad as to render a very well designed linear power supply useless for RF work.

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One final note, there is no point in lowering your home grown EMI lower then the ambient RF noise floor, which, if you have AC power, telephone, cable TV, and neighbors within ~300 feet, will be rather high. Such is life and why my wife and I try to escape to a nature preserve so I can do some serious DXing.

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Re: LZ1AQ Purchase Control Board Only

 

¿ªÔÆÌåÓý

There is no email address on the site for Chavdar

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From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Martin - Southwest UK via groups.io
Sent: Saturday, July 20, 2024 1:58 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [loopantennas] LZ1AQ Purchase Control Board Only

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Send an email to Chavdar.

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For additional info please use the for or following address:

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info(AT)active-antenna.eu

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On Sat, Jul 20, 2024 at 04:21 PM, KQ4NUO wrote:

We misplaced the small Control Board for our LZ1AQ. Does anyone know how to purchase it only without the whole kit or how to contact the manufacturer to buy replacement?


Re: LZ1AQ Purchase Control Board Only

 

Send an email to Chavdar.
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For additional info please use the for or following address:
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info(AT)active-antenna.eu
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On Sat, Jul 20, 2024 at 04:21 PM, KQ4NUO wrote:

We misplaced the small Control Board for our LZ1AQ. Does anyone know how to purchase it only without the whole kit or how to contact the manufacturer to buy replacement?


Re: I've posted JFET Evaluation for active antennas Trask

wn4isx
 

As I told Steve, someday soon I hope to collect all the Trask papers I've got stashed on several hard drives into one subdirectory. I believe Mr. Trask has several papers on loop antennas.?

"Someday soon" should be understood to mean sometime before the sun runs out of hydrogen.
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LZ1AQ Purchase Control Board Only

 

We misplaced the small Control Board for our LZ1AQ. Does anyone know how to purchase it only without the whole kit or how to contact the manufacturer to buy replacement?
Thanks


Re: LF noise measurements

 

I recently discovered the TI JFE2140 dual JFET:



0.9 nV/sqrtHz noise and 100 Hz 3dB 1/f dB corner

There is an excellent ap note:



TI even has evaluation boards for it.

What I like about it is that this is in current production by
a major semiconductor manufacturer using a current process.
Should be very repeatable.

Is anyone reading this list using it? It seems to be just about
as good as the discontinued BF862 that MVaudiolabs raves about.

Rick N6RK


Re: I've posted JFET Evaluation for active antennas Trask

 

¿ªÔÆÌåÓý

I found this in my saved documents on my PC. The weblinks on the net no longer work, but I did find a? MS Word version in Russian.

Regards, Ian.

On 20/07/2024 16:34, wn4isx via groups.io wrote:

I've posted JFET Evaluation for active antennas Trask in the files section.
A very nice paper on various JFET response.?
While the paper is for E-Field antennas, the data is valid for any JFET application.


I've posted JFET Evaluation for active antennas Trask

wn4isx
 

I've posted JFET Evaluation for active antennas Trask in the files section.
A very nice paper on various JFET response.?
While the paper is for E-Field antennas, the data is valid for any JFET application.


Re: Found the paper by Trask that reviews JEFTs

 

Go right ahead.

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Chris

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When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro

- Hunter S. Thompson

-----Original Message-----
From: <[email protected]>
Sent: Jul 19, 2024 2:39 PM
To: <[email protected]>
Subject: [loopantennas] Found the paper by Trask that reviews JEFTs

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This might, or might not, be of interest to group member, and might, or might not, be appropriate to place in the files section.

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I did a search in my randomly organized archive and found Chris Trask's "An Evaluation of Junction Field-Effect Transistors Suitable for Active Antenna Applications."

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This paper shows the curves of various JFETs and might be useful.

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The paper is from 2008, so it is a bit dated and it is for E-Field antennas and not loop antennas.

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If there is interest, and a group consensus it is appropriate, I'll drop it there tomorrow or Sunday with a better description of the file.

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Mr. Trask are you still a member and would you approve?

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Re: LF noise measurements

 

Another trick you can use is to parallel many JFETs to give lower noise. You add the outputs of each JFET. That way the noise adds as an RMS value, since it is random, but the signal adds arithmetically. So if you have two JFETs you get twice the signal but only 1.4 times the noise.
Paralleling multiple devices to lower noise is not unique to audio. There are similar prior arts at RF & microwave too (see below).
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Amplifier for FM antennas - Patent 6653905
https://patents.google.com/patent/US20030146793
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Very Low Noise Amplifiers at 300K for 0.7 to 1.4 GHz
http://astro.uchicago.edu/ursi-comm-J/ursi2005/
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You can also consider a FET with a very wide gate as similar to connecting multiple devices in parallel. To give some numbers to this concept: . ?

73, Chin-Leong Lim, 9W2LC


Re: Steve ugly-build LZ1AQ using MPS2222 sweeps uploaded to Photos

 

I linked the Duffy article in post#19752. The section at the end of that article is sub-titled "Diodes connected to antennas"
73, Chin-Leong Lim, 9W2LC
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Re: Urban HF Antenna Dilemma: LZ1AQ vs. M0AYF

 

The transformer is 4:1 turns ratio.... 16:1 impedance ratio.


Re: Urban HF Antenna Dilemma: LZ1AQ vs. M0AYF

 

Update:

Added Chebyshev 3-8 MHz 3rd Order BPF, and also replaced the 1uF input caps by 100nF ones as they resulted in a flatter response between 3-4MHz and improved MF rejection.
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Also performed some tests with a small input transformer (4:1) connected to an "ugly loop" made from a 4m segment of RG11 coax.

Reception was crappy, as The loop was resting partially on the floor and close to AC wiring, but it was enough to confirm that the signal pickup increased some 10 dB with that transformer.
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I have to try a better loop on the roof, far from my lab, power supplies, etc.
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One thing I noticed is how strong the signal level from the LZ1AQ preamp is. I had to turn the attenuator on, as the noise floor of the preamp alone was aronund S5 and rised to S9 with the loop connected.


Photo LZ1AQ-MPS2222A-3-8MHz+transformer.jpg uploaded #photo-notice

Group Notification
 

The following photos have been uploaded to the Caaarlo LZ1AQ sweep photo album of the [email protected] group.

By: Caaarlo <caaarlo@...>


Found the paper by Trask that reviews JEFTs

wn4isx
 

This might, or might not, be of interest to group member, and might, or might not, be appropriate to place in the files section.

?

I did a search in my randomly organized archive and found Chris Trask's "An Evaluation of Junction Field-Effect Transistors Suitable for Active Antenna Applications."

?

This paper shows the curves of various JFETs and might be useful.

?

The paper is from 2008, so it is a bit dated and it is for E-Field antennas and not loop antennas.

?

If there is interest, and a group consensus it is appropriate, I'll drop it there tomorrow or Sunday with a better description of the file.

?

Mr. Trask are you still a member and would you approve?

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Re: 2e0ero Magnetic Loop Antenna

 

Hi Siegfried,
Checked your design on QRZ. Good design! Modeled it using your
dimensions. It gets a great match on 80m with the given height above
earth... Did you try using it on 160m with remote or in-shack tuner?
Personally I have EFHW in the form of inverted L above the roof of my
place. Feed point is at the second floor balcony (~4m above GND), then
it goes up for ~6m, and then horizontally across the roof. It's a
shortened 10-80m EFHW antenna. With 110nH coil close to the end of it.
On 80m it's really narrow band match. I was thinking about using it
with some additional tuner instead of 49:1 transformer, so that I can
cover the entire 80m. And maybe even go to 160m with some additional
counterpoise (short one though, maybe 8m)... Need to experiment with
that.
Regards,
Simon
KM6MUL

On Wed, Jul 17, 2024 at 4:20?PM Siegfried Jackstien via groups.io
<siegfried.jackstien@...> wrote:

i was just grumbling that i could not add a picture .. all good

soooo ... anybody who wants to take a look .. look my qrz page

dg9bfc sigi

Am 14.07.2024 um 15:53 schrieb Simon:
Hi Sigi

Don¡¯t get angry, messages can lead to misunderstandings, ie I didn¡¯t know 80m etc..

I agree vertically oriented shorter dipoles work well. Assuming not too short which yours are not.

I still prefer verticals against good gnd plane, but thats here at new qth ( especially as neighbours have allowed me to put many 40m radials in their land ,) in East London for low bands a mag loop as that¡¯s all I could use..

Regards Simon









Re: LF noise measurements

 

yes that is an important paper

he had FETS where the line was maximum horizontal

one way to find the very best FETs via I V statistics over design range

he had a great setup to measure a slew of different FETs

p

On Friday, July 19, 2024 at 03:17:44 p.m. EDT, wn4isx <wn4isx@...> wrote:


One of Chris Trask's papers presented curves for several JFETS.
I thought I knew where I stashed his papers but I've misfiled them.
I'll do a search later, if there is interest, I can post it in the files section.
I think he did the tests for an E-Field antenna...I've read too many technical articles in the last few years to keep them all straight.
?


Re: LF noise measurements

wn4isx
 

One of Chris Trask's papers presented curves for several JFETS.
I thought I knew where I stashed his papers but I've misfiled them.
I'll do a search later, if there is interest, I can post it in the files section.
I think he did the tests for an E-Field antenna...I've read too many technical articles in the last few years to keep them all straight.
?


Re: Steve ugly-build LZ1AQ using MPS2222 sweeps uploaded to Photos

 

Fred, I looked for any post from Owen Duffy related to silicone diodes and Hi-Z and or MiniWhip but could not find anything. Can you attach a link? Thanks Tom


Re: LF noise measurements

 

Hi Dave,
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That's what I had done, improved the filtering on the switcher input and output, and screened the actual PSU body to minimise radiated emissions.
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I swapped them for linear supplies, then discovered that the Maglev brushless fans I had to add to keep the liner supplies cool enough, were adding their own switching noise to the power rails. I sorted that out and then discovered that the three terminal regulators were adding noise too.
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Comparison with an off the shelf Apple 5w switching charger
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Adding a 10,000uF capacitor across the linear supply output terminals finally resolved that issue.
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Regards,
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Martin
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On Fri, Jul 19, 2024 at 06:12 PM, W0LEV wrote:

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But they're sure quieter than any switcher, UNLESS the money is spent to properly decouple and shield the guts to quiet them down.