Category Archives: ALL
RF MIXER
RF MIXER board does all RX/TX signals on IF and operation frequencies.
On receive the signal comes on CX3 coaxial connector, then passes (or not) through input attenuator R10,R13,R14, then via switches come to BPF board. IF TRAP circuitry consists of L1, C7, C38. Then signal passes through U3 (ERA6SM) RX preamplifier (operator switchable). RX MIXER is on additional subboard and sits over RF MIXER board. 9MHz diplexer follows and then IF amplifier – U12 (ERA6SM). After some switching and attenuation signal comes to the first crystal filter – 2.7kHz then to CX6 coaxial connector and IF/AF board.
On transmit the signal from SSB GEN board through CX7 connector passes through crystal filter and after TX/RX switch to a pin diode D1 attenuator. It is driven by ALC circuitry performed by U16 and T4.
U11 is TX mixer which is fine balanced by R62 and impedance matched by L10,L18 wide band transformers. Output mixed signals are further filtered by BPF board and amplified by U3 and U9. Output attenuator R4,R5,R6 is following then via CX4 signal goes to linear amplifier PA55W board.
Component side PCB
Component side values
RGO ONE Power amplifier module
LO /local oscillator/ BFO tones board
Here is some pictures of LO board – ready and shielded
Copper straps are added in order to improve ground on the board
RGO ONE building process
By now all printed circuit boards are ready and populated. We have also some boards – completely tested and aligned:
1. IF/AF board
2. RF MIXER board
3. LO/tones board.
4. Front panel assembly – CPU, LCD/switches boards
5. Both crystal filters – 2,7kHz and the optional 4 pole variable filter
Still working on back panel module – PA and LPF. BPF,SSBGEN are being carefully tested on the bench
Go Go Go … RGO ONE
Today we made continuity and DC test of the front panel assembly consisting of:
CPU board
LCD&switch board
All tests passed OK and tomorrow face panel’s CPU will be flashed for the first time
Building first lot of 10 RGO’s
We recently received first ten sets of printed circuit boards for RGO ONE HF transceiver.
So till today we managed to populate some of the boards. Rgo one consist of 20 pcb’s … so a lot of work lies ahead.
LCD&switchboard – finished:
LCD&switch board component side:
IF/AF (intermediate 9MHz frequency – audio frequency) board
RGO ONE in LZ DX contest
Search and pounce in LZ DX contest with RGO ONE. Testing new features – DTR/RTS keying from N1MM contest logger; Testing temperature management with new FAN cradle.
RGO ONE in LZDX and CQ WW contests
Here is in summary what happened after Dayton HAM vention.
We noticed some issues in spectral purity in RGO ONE transmit part. So we had to move it back to design stage and for almost three months we dealt with these problems. We had to redesign RF MIXER, power amplifier and some other boards in order to improve spectral purity (now it is far better than -43dbC requirement) and linearity.
TX mixer SA612 matched to 50ohm with transformers. Balance potentiometer was implemented.
Amplifier between TX mixer and band pass filters was removed. Additional GALI-74 stage was involved after BPFs.
TX/RX antenna switch in LPF board was changed in order to block positive feedback and improve final amplifier stability.
Power amplifier board P55W includes the following changes: Predriver and drivers were changed to ST microelectronics PD85004 (they are far better than RD06/RD15); Output transformer has been redesigned with Fair rite 43 material core and ratio 1:9.
On receive path – gain distribution was properly adjusted so now the receiver is more quieter.
We recently tested the equipment in LZDX and CQ WW DX contests and it performed great. (LZ2RS Rumi worked with RGO ONE transceiver in category SO 15m QRP)
LZ2RS is getting ready for this year CQ WW DX contest CW part SO 15m QRP
So now we are proceeding with first lot of 10 pieces which will be fully assembled and aligned. I hope they will be ready till mid january.
Upon received feedback of ready to use transceivers we plan kit production for next year.
First 10 RGO ONE transceivers available soon
Thanks to all who wrote me with questions, interest, expectations and positive “WOW” feedbacks.
This urged us to move fast forward and start production of the first ten ready-to-use units. We plan to have them finished till next months. Then next lot will be 100 units probably some of them or most of them will be in a kit form with populated SMD boards with small foot print components.
At the show in Dayton we revealed our target price for the kit base version – $450-$550. Hope to keep it as low as promised but final price will be available soon after first units come to alive.
First units will ship from Bulgaria, then for US customers will try to have stock in US.
So far we have two samples that we tested already in real conditions and worked several contest (LZ2RS helped with this task). They were presented locally in Bulgaria and on Dayton HAM vention 2018.
We’ve been working hard for almost three years to see what you saw… A real performer HF 50W CW/SSB transceiver. We are 4 people in the team.. Other teammates are very good in industrial electronics manufacturing and helping very much with electronic PCB design, parts delivery, microcontrollers and other things.
RGO ONE day one at hamvention 2018, Xenia OH
After the successful presentation start of RGO one we made some contacts on 40/20 meters. Here is a short video of a special event station for the hamvention – W8BI