This has been really interesting. I hope you all are learning as much as
I am.
So, I really made some crude stubs from some old RG-8. A "T" on one end
and a shorting switch on the other end.
Both electrical 1/4 wave on 40.
Depending on the switch it either passes on band and blocks the other or
visa versa.
We have been putting them right at the end of the radios during field
day, and seem to have helped a LOT.
Now am I to believe by not placing them there we can make them even more
effective?
Joe WB9SBD
Sig
The Original Rolling Ball Clock
Idle Tyme
Idle-Tyme.com
http://www.idle-tyme.com
On 7/17/2016 12:37 PM, Jukka Klemola wrote:
Hi Joe and others,
Placing a stub at output connector helps a tad in case your output circuit
that shows a low impedance to ground at the harmonic. That is typical for
nearly all our equipment that have a low pass circuit with a capacitor
going to ground as the last component of the output circuitry; a Pi circuit
output.
The stub at output connector provides a low impedance at the harmonic.
It will be very close to being parallel to the output circuit.
You can expect harmonic attenuation of anything between, say, about 6 to
something above 10dB or so by adding the stub.
Please note this is the case for a properly tuned amplifier.
Even in this case the stub at the output connector, the stub may save your
equipment on the harmonic band if your station design is marginal.
In case the output circuit is not properly tuned; I mean for example a
situation where you have hopped to a new band and you have approximated
settings for that new band, the attenuation the stub at output connector
provides can be more than 10dB.
In case your output circuit is such it does not provide a low impedance at
output on the harmonic frequency, the stub will give you good service by
attenuating the harmonic signal by more than 30dB.
Pi-L output amplifier is one such example.
Making a double stub guarantees you will get excellent service by the stub.
Construction is simple.
1. you have that one stub
2. you add about an eight wave coax that goes from putput connector towards
antenna
3. you make another stub to the end of that eight wave coax
..the system output is at the second stub.
There you go with a stub arrangement that gives a perfect service with any
output construction or any tuning.
73,
Jukka OH6LI
2016-07-17 19:11 GMT+03:00 Joe <nss@mwt.net>:
What happens if you have a single stub, and it is placed right at the
output connector?
Joe WB9SBD
Sig
The Original Rolling Ball Clock
Idle Tyme
Idle-Tyme.com
http://www.idle-tyme.com
On 10/5/2015 12:07 PM, Jim Brown wrote:
On Mon,10/5/2015 7:20 AM, Jukka Klemola wrote:
Jim,
I thought placing double stubs on the TX line is not so critical.
The two band stopping stubs are supposed to be about quarter wave apart;
on the harmonic band; and that should effectively remove the need for
extended optimization.
Also, in my experience, if you get approx 30 or 35dB attenuation using
one stub, you will get more than 45 dB attenuation over the whole band when
measured in a 50 ohm system.
Sure -- using my DG8SAQ VNWA, I measured peak attenuation of these double
stubs of 55 dB for the 80M stub pair and 59 dB for the 40M pair. BUT a
monoband antenna is NOT a 50 ohm system at the harmonic frequency, and the
transmitter is NOT a 50 ohm source at the harmonic frequency.
Most monoband antennas present a very high Z to the line at their 2nd
harmonic, which establishes a very high SWR for the harmonic, so the Z
varies over a wide range along the line. A stub works by placing a short on
the line at the harmonic frequency, and is most effective if placed on the
line where the Z is high. It is MUCH less effective when at a place in the
line where the impedance is much less than 50 ohms.
SO -- with double stubs separated by 90 degrees at the harmonic, the
second stub will always be at a high Z spot on the line, but the first will
depend on where it is along the line.
There is a second issue. By their nature, the output stages of modern
power amps, both tubes and solid state, produce 2nd harmonic that is only
about 6 dB below the fundamental, and must be filtered by the amplifier's
output network. Most of these networks are designed for 50 ohms, and that
is how they are tested. If the last element of that network is a
capacitor, it will be most effective if it sees 50 ohms or more as a load
AT THE HARMONIC, and least effective if it sees a short. Likewise, if the
last element of the filter is an inductor (Pi-L), it will be most effective
if it sees Z of 50 ohms or less.
I rigged two power amps, a Ten Tec Titan and an Elecraft KPA500 with a
voltage tap at their output terminal into a dummy load and into a double
stub network in line with my 40M dipole. With the stub feeding either the
antenna or the dummy load, the second harmonic at the output of both power
amps varied by +/- 10 dB as I added short sections of coax to vary the
length of the line between the amp and the stub over more than 180 degrees
at the harmonic frequency.
SO -- if we put the stub in the "right" place for the power amp, we get
full performance of it's harmonic suppression network plus the suppression
of our stub(s), but if we put it in the "wrong" place we can lose as much
as 20 dB less of the 2nd harmonic suppression of the output network.
At least my measurements show these results:
-placement not critical for double stub
As you can see from above, that's only true if the antenna is near 50
ohms at the harmonic.
-attenuation almost doubles in dB compared to one stub
Yes.
--> I have been building only double stubs nowadays.
Me too.
Another point. When you have done this amount of suppression, you will
likely begin to find other sources of 2nd harmonic, as W3LPL recently
observed (perhaps on another reflector), AND you may also find leakage
paths in your antenna switching system. I recently replaced a vintage Six
Pack with a 6x2 sold by 4O3A. I measured crosstalk in the 4O3A unit before
installing it and the Six Pack after removing it and found the 4O3A unit
had more than 20dB better isolation on 20M.
In hopes of picking up another 6-10 dB of isolation, I am also planning
to replace some of the random vintage patch cables in my station with newly
made jumpers using high quality RG213 and Amphenol 83-1SP connectors.
73, Jim K9YC
73,
Jukka OH6LI
2015-10-05 9:57 GMT+03:00 Jim Brown <k9yc@audiosystemsgroup.com <mailto:
k9yc@audiosystemsgroup.com>>:
On Sun,10/4/2015 2:59 PM, Jeff AC0C wrote:
That's a great way to start. Especially as the solar cycle
fades and 10/15 are not open. Then in the day, you run 40/20,
and in the night you run 80/40.
Yes, but there's a LOT more to it if you want to maximize the
effectiveness of the stubs. It can matter a LOT (20-30 dB) where
along the line stubs are placed, both with respect to the antenna
and to the power amp.
See my piece in NCJ one issue back, or download it from my website.
For our CQP expedition, I made up double stub packs for the 40M
and 80M CW stations only. Each pack was two stubs cut to kill the
second harmonic, with a quarter wave (at the harmonic) connecting
them. I didn't have time to optimize their placement, but using
two stubs insures that you'll get at least 25-30 dB, and with
optimized placement, another 25-30 dB.
Stubs are less important on SSB because the likely operating
frequencies are not directly harmonically related, whereas the
harmonic of 3525 hits 7050, and 7025 hits 14050.
73, Jim K9YC
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