Sunday, 29 March 2020

4 m transverter

With the excellent designs of Serge, UT5JCW ( http://transverters-store.com/ ) I completed a 4m transverter:



The unit operates between 70 ... 72 MHz with IF (from my FT-450) between 28 ... 30 MHz. 

RF output power is appr. 10 Watts.


Although, I do not see much activity on the 4 m band, I spotted some stations operating in MSK144 on 70.175 MHz. Maybe that is something to focus on coming days.

Circuit diagram 28 <=> 70 MHz transverter

Transverter board

Update May 6, 2020 :




Update May 24, 2020 :

First FT8 4m QSO with the transverter over 24 km with PA3EWP.




Update May 27, 2020:

Frequency counter and V/A meter incorporated:




Thursday, 12 March 2020

70 cm FT-8 contest

Yesterday evening I participated in a 70 cm FT-8 contest. A good opportunity to test my 28 MHz - 432 MHz transverter.
I was able to make a couple of QSO's (PA3BGQ, PC4L, 2E0NAQ..).


eQSL from PC4L


The QSO with 2E0NAQ over a distance of almost 200 km was very interesting:


70 cm FT-8 contacts March 11, 2020


PC4L, Marcel, sent me an e-mail showing that my signal showed some frequency drift of appr. 10..50 Hz. This is certainly an anomaly that needs to be fixed.

Off topic:


Tulip field near Den Bommel