As to whether it is worthwhile doing the conversion depends mostly on whether
you prefer to spend time or money to get a 10 GHz rig. Both the White Boxes
and DEMI or DB6NT transverters work fine. The White Box is quite a bit bigger
and heavier, though....it is not really suitable for backpacking, if that is
your interest. I've done a few conversions for local hams....others have
preferred to spend a bit more and get something more compact (and while they
were at it...higher performance than the simplest version of White Box
conversion). The noise figure of the White Box subscriber unit by itself is
not as good as the DEMI/DB6NT units and the transmit power is less, though
preamps and power amps can certainly be added. On occasion you may find a
White Box local oscillator which has trouble staying locked.
I see my article on how to convert the White Box has disappeared from the web
now. If you want a copy you will have to ask me for now, or check the
proceedings of the 31st Eastern VHF/UHF Conference, Enfield CT, 2005. There is
some info in there on how I tested the units. I think my approach is the
simplest one published. But others have shown how to get a higher performance
result. Mind you, one of the units I converted was used by VE3RKS last fall to
work nearly 700 km on SSB using a small horn antenna !
The local group did a group buy of crystals that put the IF near 145 MHz.
Pretty sure less crystals were ordered than were White Boxes...so no spares.
Probably a better place to ask White Box questions is the WA1MBA microwave
email reflector. See http://www.wa1mba.org/reflect.htm . There's lots of
people on there with experience with these units.
73,
Steve VE3SMA
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