[hpsdr] VHF/UHF downconverter project for HPSDR

[Henry Vredegoor]

Hi Ante,

If you don't need them "new", you can find a lot of tuners "used" or 
"NOS" on Ebay.
Also analog PC TV-cards have nice tuners on them, also to be found 
"used" on Ebay.

You could probably use the PC TV card as is and use the existing 
software to "tune" it and tap the IF-output and route it to Mercury.
I know this has been done before, it must be somewhere on the internet.

Of course the specs are not up to "Ham standards".
That's why I mentioned "not too demanding"  ;-)

If you really want good specs, you will have to go the route like Phil 
and others on this list indicated, starting with a really good spur and 
noise free wide range synthesizer.
But that's a whole different and not at all trivial route!


73's,

Henry - PA0HJA


On 9/24/2011 3:29 AM, Ante Vukorepa wrote:
> I've just checked out the offerings at NXP's site…
>
> There's a few interesting tuner chips, covering frequency ranges of 
> 42-1002, 42-862, 42-870, 51-1002 and 54-1002 MHz. They seem easy 
> enough to control via I2C, support both 3.3V and 5V levels and even 
> have RSSI register (which might come in handy when combined with a 
> front panel and an LCD, to quickly identify stronger signals). The 
> data sheets don't mention the IF, i assume it's the standard 38.9 MHz.
>
> There are two problems, though…
> Firstly, i'm not sure what their bandwidth is, and secondly, the phase 
> noise figures are pretty bad (-85 to -93 dBc at 10kHz).
>
> I'll have a look through digi-key, farnell and RS components tuner 
> offerings, there's bound to be more of them.
>
> -- 
> Ante Vukorepa
> Sent with Sparrow <http://bit.ly/sigsprw>
>
> On petak, 23. rujna 2011. at 21:48, Henry Vredegoor wrote:
>
>> Hi Ante,
>>
>> Yes, it's an older type of TV tuner nowadays.
>> I think it would be possible to replace it with a more common, later 
>> type (Philips) I2C tuner though.
>> Of course the software would have to be adapted then, but this 
>> shouldn't be too difficult if you have the specs / manual for the I2C 
>> tuner.
>> I think you could even extend the original frequency range to 2 GHz 
>> ++ with an analog satellite tuner
>> The ready made tuner modules would save you the hassle with VHF/UHF 
>> electronics and a ditto board layout
>> Not too bad indeed for a simple starting setup.
>>
>> 73's,
>>
>> Henry - PA0HJA
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On 9/23/2011 5:46 PM, Ante Vukorepa wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> Seen that mentioned somewhere before and i really liked the idea.
>> I've poked and peeked and looked about, but it doesn't seem like the 
>> UV916 tuners can be found easily enough over here. I do love the 
>> simplicity of it, though, and the range is pretty nice too :)
>>
>> Thanks for the heads up!
>>
>> -- 
>> Ante Vukorepa
>> Sent with Sparrow <http://bit.ly/sigsprw>
>>
>> On petak, 23. rujna 2011. at 02:39, Henry Vredegoor wrote:
>>
>> Hi Ante,
>>
>>
>> If your requirements are not too demanding, maybe you can use this:
>>
>>
>> http://hem.passagen.se/communication/uv916rec.html
>>
>>
>> and use the HPSDR setup as the 38.9 MHz back-end receiver.
>>
>> Rather simple and cheap setup, but should work nicely.
>>
>>
>> 73's,
>>
>>
>> Henry - PA0HJA
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>

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