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Re: [CQ-Contest] Coax Stubs for SO2R

To: cq-contest@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Coax Stubs for SO2R
From: Joe <nss@mwt.net>
Date: Tue, 26 Jul 2016 08:14:35 -0500
List-post: <cq-contest@contesting.com">mailto:cq-contest@contesting.com>
Can anyone explain, Say youre using a SB0220 amp.
I have seen this many many times recently. Explain this.


improper amp loading/tuning.


Or better yet what is

proper amp loading/tuning.

Joe WB9SBD

Sig
The Original Rolling Ball Clock
Idle Tyme
Idle-Tyme.com
http://www.idle-tyme.com
On 7/25/2016 4:53 PM, Rudy Bakalov via CQ-Contest wrote:
Jukka, Jim, and Steve,

Thank you for taking the time to go into details. What's clear to me that the 
non liner AB type of amps contributes significantly to harmonics along with 
improper amp loading/tuning.

As I mentioned earlier I already have BPFs so now I am left with the mechanical 
challenge of stubs. Specifically, will have to follow Jukka's advice on adding 
coax between the remote SO2R switch and the antennas.

Honestly, I even wonder if the hassle of building and placing two sets of stubs 
(it seems the opinion is that two are needed) is really that much cheaper 
compared to buying high power BPFs. Between Remo's filters and the link below 
there are affordable alternatives to Ranko's BPFs:

http://www.antennas-amplifiers.com/Band-Pass-Filter

For €1200 one can have plug and play filtering (although I may run into 
components' thermal properties when the filters are outside by the tower) that is not 
critical with respect to placement along the feed line.

Who sad ham radio is a hobby; feels like serious engineering work to me :-)

Thank you all for your patience.

Rudy N2WQ

Sent using a tiny keyboard.  Please excuse brevity, typos, or inappropriate 
autocorrect.


On Jul 25, 2016, at 4:41 PM, Jukka Klemola <jpklemola@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi,
I try give simplified answers ...

This should answer also Rudy's question.


2016-07-25 15:47 GMT+03:00 Joe <nss@mwt.net>:

This also puzzles me.
OK if an amp because of it's tuned matching circuits, block out of band
energies

Amplifier circuits attenuate unwanted band energy.
But to a limit.
A Pi filter attenuates to some level, Pi-L attenuates more.
If that is not enough, we need additional attenuating, that is additional
filtering like a stub


The why do we have these energies at all in the first place?

When amplifying a signal in an amateur amplifier, the plate current when
only PTT is activated is less than a quarter of plate current with maximum
specified signal that is amplified.
It means there is plate current through most of the sine wave signal cycle,
but not all of it.
It means there is a sharp corner in the output signal .. it is not a clean
sine wave.
Such signal with such corners has harmonic energy.
This energy propagates towards the antenna connector.
It travels through the output circuit; most often Pi or Pi-L.
On an oscilloscope, the signal looks pretty much like a sine wave but it
contains harmonic energy.

Sorry, but this gets more complex when digging deeper.
Next step would require you to read some books or at least web sites.

Easy to understand information packages are ARRL hand book and Orr/W6SAI
Radio Handbook.

ARRL handbook is easy to find and purchase.
I would suggest to try and find also a paper book:
http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/3963

W2VJN book is a must if you want to understand more about RF filtering
needs at a multi radio station.


** Encouragement, keep it simple message:
As we are hams, we can use ready made recipes for stubs, among many other
things.
That is allowed for us and us hams, we can just accept many things as given
facts.


Does not a Radio have the equivalent of an "Exciter" ( the ummm low level
driver )

And the "AMP"  ( the final output amplifying system )

So, if all this filtering is happening why do we have spurious out of the
radio, but not an amp?
There are a lot more signals in the radio than the mains input and RF
connector with RXinput / TX output.
To start with, the radio's oscillator is not on your actual output
frequency.
There are other oscillators, mixers, filters, amplifier circuits, more
filters and so on inside your transmitter before the antenna connector.
All those are creating or limiting spurious signals and we need to engineer
the radios so the radios do not emit unnecessary signals and we engineer
our radios so they do not input unnecessary signals or at least the radio
does not care about the unnecessary/unwanted signals.
Emissions are emissions; intended or spurious.
The receiving side phenomena are under words immunity or susceptibility.
Together they are electromagnetic compatibility EMC.

These spurious signals propagating from device to another device can be as
bad as K1EA described about the radios they used.
The radio2radio signal propagation happened on a set of phenomena caused by
some radio internal signalling leaking through radio wiring and propagating
to another radio so the receiver of the other radio heard the transmitting
radio signal regardless the frequencies the radios were on,
That is a really puzzling situation and typically difficult to overcome.
Most likely the leaking and injecting mechanism was through antennas
connected to radios but not necessarily. That kind of electromagnetic
incompatibility should be rare, though.

After Ken K1EA et al added RF and maybe also other filtering, the radios
stopped hearing each other that badly.

Other filtering are for example ferrites we place on DC power cords, mains
wires and other .. PTT / band data and any other wiring you have at your
station. We attenuate unwanted signals until they do not bother us.
You can find a lot of information about different kinds of filtering in the
internet.

All cases are different.

Some hands-on information here:
http://wiki.k1ttt.net/Default.aspx?Page=2008%20Maintenance%20and%20Upgrade%20Blog&NS=&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1

Look for words
  -harmonic
  -power



Joe WB9SBD

73,
Jukka OH6LI


Sig
The Original Rolling Ball Clock
Idle Tyme
Idle-Tyme.com
http://www.idle-tyme.com
On 7/25/2016 5:48 AM, Rudy Bakalov via CQ-Contest wrote:

Jukka,

It is the statement below that really puzzles me. All amp people I know,
including those that manufacture commercial amps, categorically state that
amps do not generate harmonics on their own. That is, amps merely amplify
them.

To me this seemingly minor difference is huge. If amps only amplify but
do not generate harmonics then there is no scientific reason for filtering
after the amp assuming the same amount of filtering is applied before the
amp. In practical terms, this would mean that low power BPFs before the amp
are as effective as high power BPFs after the amp.

The key point here is GENERATE vs AMPLIFY harmonics. Can the average
commercial, well stabilized amp generate harmonics?

Rudy N2WQ

Sent using a tiny keyboard.  Please excuse brevity, typos, or
inappropriate autocorrect.


On Jul 24, 2016, at 5:14 PM, Jukka Klemola <jpklemola@gmail.com> wrote:

In case you do that, you still need stubs after the amp.
Amplifier creates harmonics out of the fundamental frequency.
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