The Softrock uses a crystal that is approximately four times the frequency
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you want to receive. It has to be a fundamental mode crystal; the oscillator circuit is not designed for overtone crystals. That is divided by four by the divider circuit that generates the quadrature signals. The 30 and 20 meter versions, and some of the IF versions, use 1/3 subharmonic sampling because fundamental mode crystals for the necessary frequencies were not readily available at the time. The crystal frequencies used in the Softrock kits for IF frequencies are listed on this page: They were all chosen from crystals that could be bought as stock. No option for 9 MHz is listed, but the 9.015 is close enough, and the required 11.98135 MHz crystal is still available from Digi-Key and Mouser. An alternative that is possible now, but which wasn't at the time that Tony Parks designed the kit, would be to use a 36 MHz crystal. You would have to move it at least 20 kHz away from that nominal frequency (either side will do) so that the LO would end up 5 kHz away. You can probably get it moved that far by adjusting the load capacitance. 36 MHz fundamental mode crystals are now available, though only in SMD packages. One further note: the IF of your TenTec is probably not EXACTLY at 9 MHz. It actually depends on the specific crystals in the filter and varies with component tolerances; the rig was aligned to match the actual filter. So the signals in your Softrock could appear in a slightly different place than you expect. On Fri, Mar 3, 2023 at 3:51?AM Steve Ireland <stevevk6vz@...> wrote:
G'day |