Overview
As the site has no mains connection it relies on a
battery bank charged by solar panels and a wind turbine.
Currently there is no GPS system for frequency or time reference. The
old exciter was liable to drift and was replaced in Feb 2017 with this
system. It was important to minimise the dc power
requirement. The current requirement of the complete
exciter at 12v is 180mA for 17dBm output.
The ADF4351 synthesiser is controlled by an Arduino Nano processor,
together with a 10MHz OCXO and a keyer module. The ADF4351 was
purchased from SV1AFN through his website
here. Chinese versions are available on eBay at similar prices.
Block diagram
can be found
here
The dc power is first reduced to 8V in a dc-dc converter (eg
this one).
8V feeds the Arduino with its internal regulator, the keyer and the LNA
amplifier. A 5V regulator feeds the OCXO and a 3.3V regulator for
the ADF4351. I used a
level converter to interface the 5V levels
to 3.3V for the ADF board.
Hardware connections
Three connections are needed between the Arduino and the ADF board:-
Arduino pin*
|
SV1AFN board pin
|
ADF4351 pin
|
10
|
3
|
3 LE
|
11
|
4
|
2 DATA
|
13
|
1
|
1 CLK
|
* as defined in the Arduino sketch used.
ADF4351 registers
Initially I tried using the register values
to change frequency,
wanting a 400Hz FSK. But the spectrum showed significant "key
clicks" or splashes of energy each time the frequency was updated by
the Arduino. So to improve on this, the Arduino was programmed to
simply provide a fixed frequency from the 4351. The FSK was then
generated by shifting the OCXO frequency slightly. This means
that machine generated modes such as PI4 or JT65 are not available.
I used the
software provided by Analog Devices to generate the register values. The input parameters to the software were
RF 1296.87
channel spacing 1kHz
ref frequency 10MHz
R counter =2
prescaler = 8/9
feedback signal = fundamental
low spur mode = yes
digital lock detect = yes
double buff = no
charge pump current = 5.00mA
LDF = FRAC-N
RF output - enabled
Aux o/p power = -4dBm
RF output power = +5dBm
The register values created were:-
regs[0] = 0x10305D8;
regs[1] = 0x80087D1;
regs[2] = 0x78009E42;
regs[3] = 0x4B3;
regs[4] = 0x92803C;
regs[5] = 0x580005;
Arduino s/w and sleep modes
For the Arduino sketch I adapted some code from G8AGN who had in turn
simplified original code written by F1CJN. My
adapted code
programs the ADF4351 with the register values and then puts the Arduino
into sleep mode. This reduces its dc current from 27mA to 9.3mA.
The sleep modes are described
here
The relevant lines of code are
#include <avr/sleep.h>
set_sleep_mode(SLEEP_MODE_PWR_DOWN);
sleep_enable();
sleep_mode();
OCXO
The OCXO is a 10MHz Micro Crystal 5v device available from a few
suppliers on eBay for about £24. For this application it is ideal,
having a very fast warm up and a steady state dc consumption around
80mA. Frequency adjustment is by voltage control.
The schematic for the OCXO and keyer are shown
here.
G4JNT keyer
This keyer is available from G4JNT. I bought the analog version
which allows a code to be transmitted for (eg) 24v line monitoring.
I set up the analog input on the keyer so that it outputs a code in
the range 0 to 255, allowing the 24V line to be monitored remotely. The
input is scaled so that 255 is equivalent to 28.05V.
LNA4all amplifier
The
LNA4all is designed as a low noise preamp but is used here for its good large signal handling and produces about 17dBm output.
Phase noise measurements
The ADF4351 is not the best source for low phase noise but it is easily
available! The measurement method used a Kuhne transverter
from 1296 to 144MHz then an Anglian transverter from 144 to 28 where an
Elecraft K3 and P3 produced the images below.
The resolution
bandwidth is span width/450, so for 100kHz span it equates to
~222Hz/pixel, so the noise at 10kHz offset for example looks like
-57dB and to this we add 23dB to give -80dBc/Hz.
This is the 5kHz span spectrum and waterfall showing the 400Hz shift FSK.