[time-nuts] Trimble Thunderbolt, any easy way to create 500 MHz

paul swed paulswedb at gmail.com
Wed May 15 13:17:28 EDT 2013


Cheap commercial????
Expensive comercial yes. Lots of vendors who will take your money.
OK
We have more definition. Its Epay time go purchase a PTS synthesizer. I
picked them up non Epay for $100 or less. Very nice and its far less
expensive then buying new.
Regards
Paul
WB8TSL


On Wed, May 15, 2013 at 1:14 PM, Chris Wilson <chris at chriswilson.tv> wrote:

>
>
> > Re: Trimble Thunderbolt, any easy way to create 500 MHz
> >
> > Richard -
>
> > I can think of several ways to do this, but "easy" depends upon
> > your skill set and the equipment you have. Actually - none of these are
> easy!
>
> > I have done a lot of synthesizers and sources over the years and
> > here are some thoughts; hopefully helpful.
>
> > 1. A straight class C multiplier chain. If you use push pull odd
> > order multipleirs and push push doublers to cancel out the
> > fundamentals, the inter stage filtering becomes easier. Requires
> > discrete old-fashioned RF Design methods and perhaps a filter design
> > program. X5 filter, X2, filter, X5, filter will do it, with low
> > power bi-polars, but the filters have to be multi-pole to keep the spurs
> down.
>
> > 2. Use one of the modern phase lock loop chips with internal VCO
> > from National, Analog Devices, and others. The down side is that
> > most of these require an associated PIC or similar processor to load
> > - even for one frequency. However for one with the required software
> > skills this would most likely be the lowest cost and most straight
> forward approach.
>
> > 3. Cook up your own PLL with discrete pre-scaler, phase detector
> > and loop amplifier. Easier than #1, harder than #2 except for the
> software advantaged.
>
> > 4. Mix down to IF PLL - eliminates the high speed counters but
> > required a low output multiplier to create a reference line near 500
> MHz. Complex.
>
> > Any of the PLL schemes will have fewer non-harmonic spurs and some
> > makers web sites have tools to help with the design of the loop filter.
>
> > -73 john k6iql
>
> 15/05/2013 18:12
>
>
> My skill level is pretty low, so was hoping a fairly cheap
> commercially made solution was possible? Thanks for the ideas so far
> everyone, appreciated.
>
>
> Will draft out a basic description of what I am attempting to do
> later, should still be working :)
>
>
>
> --
>        Best Regards,
>                    Chris Wilson.
>
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