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DAN DOBERSTEIN AND JOHN CAWDOME

A SI'ECTRUM A N A I S Z E R IS AN INVALU- ulation. Refer to Table 1 for coin- srde of Fig. I). All time-domain
able tool for examining the com- plete instrument specifications. plots have a n associated spec-
ponents of a signal spectrum. It A modestly configured PC is a-e- trum that can be grapl~~cally de-
provides a way to measure such quired to work with the spec- scribed in a frequency-domaln
parameters as power, harmonic trum analyzer: A single 360K ~ l o wlhere
l the a m ~ l i t u d eof the
distortion, frequency response, floppy drive, CGA or EGA v:deo signal is a function of lrequency.
and the amplitudes of complex adapters, and 512K RAM are all ( M a t h e m a t icaliy, t h a t ' s d o n e
components. With our calibrated that's required. The card either- using the Fourier transform.)I t is
0.1 to 810-MHz spectrum ana- plugs directly into an 8-bit slot 01; in the freqnency-domain where
lyzer. repeatable, accurate mea- with an external power supply. the spectrum ailaiyzer draws a
surements of power and frequen- runs off the parallel printer port. picture, so that you caia analjize
cy are possible. The PC-based That dual interface allows the the signal spectra in question.
spectrum analyzer we present in user a wide choice of host ma- PLspectrum analyzer is used to
this article offers features nor- chines-from basic laptops to display the power distribution of
mally found only in instruments high-end machines. So if you ai- a signal as a function of i'requer-m-
costing many times more. ready have a PC, for about $300 cj! as shown in the right side oT
Although the "guts" of the ana- you can have a very capable in- . Fig. 1. It is basically a t~lnedre-
lyzer resides on a single PC strument that allows spectrum ceiver with selectable frequency
board, an IEM XT or compatible analysis from 0.1MHz to over 800 rallges a n d intermediaie-[re-
computer is required to act as a MHz. quency (IF) bandwidths. A spec-
display, as well as to precisely po- Berore we go into the theory be- trum analyzer separates an irmp~~t
sition phase-locked loops (PLL's) hind our spectrum analyzer, letk signal illto its various frequency
for frequency control and to pro- briefly discuss what this instru- com.ponents and displays each
vide look-up tables for power cal- ment actually does, and how i t component as a vertical line on a
ibration. Using a PC allows u s to operates. CRT. The height of each vertical
include such features as marker line on the display represents tllc
and delta-marker readout of fre- Spectrum analyzer displays amplitude of each frequency
quency a n d power. hardcopy Electronic signals, whether component, the horizontal posi-
printer output, instrument-set- they are periodic, aperiodic, or tion of each line indicates the fre- L
ting memory so that "fi-ont-pan- transient, can be shown in a quency location. --I
el" settings can be saved a n d time-domain plot where the arn- Figure 1 shows three exanlples io -
recalled, and tunable FM demod- plitude is a function of time (lefi o! ~ n p r l tslqnals representecl 112 2
TABLE 1-SPECIFICATIONS

*The power accuracy noted above is for factory calibrated units. Kit builders who use the generic calibration tables will degrade
by about 3 dB from the above numbers, assuming proper adjustment. Relative power accuracy within a narrow band (less than
25 MHz) is usually better than t 2 dB over a 45 to 50 dB range of power for kit builders and factory calibrated units.

time and frequency domains. the techniques used in the opera- trum analyzer, however, is the
When two different signals, fa tion of these instruments. heterodyne type (Fig. 2-b). With
and f,, are simultaneously ap- that technique, the bandpass fil-
plied to the input of the spectrum Techniques ter is fixed a t some frequency and
analyzer (Fig.1-a), two frequency her^ are three types of spec- a swept oscillator, i n combina-
components would appear as ver- trum analyzers: the swept filter, tion with a mixer, performs the
tical lines at 200 kHz (fa)and 300 heterodyne, or heterodyne with same function as the swept filter.
kHz (f,). The amplitude of fa tracking filter type. Although the The fixed filter determines the
would be twice that off,. With a n swept-filter method (Fig. 2-81 is resolution of the analyzer. The 3-
amplitude modulated (AM)signal seldom used, we will discuss it dB bandwidth of that filter is re-
applied to the input (Fig. 1-b),the first because it's easy to under- ferred to a s the resolution band-
waveform is separated into its stand. The swept-filter analyzer width (RBW). The advantage of
carrier frequency, f,, a n d two sweeps, or tunes, a bandpass fil- mixing, or heterodyning, which
sidebands. An apparently perfect ter over the frequency band of in- converts energy at one frequency
sine wave, f, (Fig. 1-c), might terest. The voltage output of the to energy at another frequency, is
show harmonic distortion a s filter is plotted against frequency, that the filter is cut to a particular
multiple frequency components resulting i n the spectrum dis- frequency a n d , therefore, i t s
of the input signal. play. The problem is that narrow- characteristics are fixed. It's also
Now that we have a n idea of band, wide-tuning range filters much easier to build a sweepable
what a spectrum analyzer dis- just don't exist. oscillator t h a n a narrow-band
plays, let's take a look at some of The most common type of spec- swept filter. Voltage controlled os-
few hundred hertz.
That accuracy does not come
without a price. Phase locking to
a given frequency takes a signifi-
cant amount of time. That re-
sults in longer sweep times when
compared to sweeping a n un-
locked VCO. Also, phase-locking
forces frequency steps on the
VCO, whereas the unlocked VCO
can be put at any frequency, at
least in theory. For our design,
the advantages of PLL's far out-
weigh the disadvantages.
The big picture
Figure 3 s h o w s t h e overall
block diagram of the spectrum
analyzer. At the heart of the unit
is a Zenith tuner module (IC17).
The tuner takes highband inputs
from 5 0 to 810 MHz and converts
them to a 45-MHz IF, which is the
first IF stage. After t h a t con-
version, the first of two Signetics
NE615 receiver IC's (IC16) down-
converts the 45-MHz IF to a 10.7-
MHz IF, which is the second IF
stage. The 10.7-MHz IF is tapped
off a n d sent to another NE615
(IC13) where t h e 10.7-MHz is
downconverted to the standard
455-kHz IF, which is the third IF
stage.
Figure 4 shows the circuit of
FIG. 1-TIME AND FREQUENCY DOMAINS of input signals. Two different signals applied the first 45-MHz IF stage. Of the
at the same time results in two separate frequency components (a). An AM signal is four local oscillator's (LO'S)used,
displayed with its carrier and two sideband frequencies (b). A sine wave that appears three are phased-locked using
perfect on an oscilloscope may show harmonic distortion on a spectrum analyzer (c). Motorola's MC44802 IC (IC14,
IC15, and IC23). The LO for the
10.7-MHz IF is crystal-controlled
cillators (VCO's)are used for that quencies is provided. by XTAL1. The PLL's used for the
purpose. Our analyzer uses the hetero- t u n e r IC also perform b a n d
There are problems, however, dyne principle in combination switching, which will b e dis-
with the heterodyne type. In the with tracking filters. Fixed ce- cussed i n more detail below.
mixing process, unwanted fre- ramic 10-kHz and 280-kHz band- Those PLL's are self contained
quencies can appear in the fixed- pass filters provide the two reso- and have a serial interface. A 4-
filter bandwidth-additional lution bandwidths. MHz crystal oscillator (XTAL2,
noise is added and there is a re- Fig. 5 ) is used a s a common refer-
duction i n dynamic range (the Phase Iscking ence for all the PLL's, a s indicated
difference between the smallest Phase locking a VCO takes a n in the block diagram (Fig. 3).
signal detectable and the largest otherwise unpredictable beast The circuit of the second and
signal allowed). a n d nails down i t s frequency.. third IF is shown in Fig. 5. FM
One way to help eliminate the VCO's, if left on there own, demodulation is provided by IC13
unwanted heterodyne frequen- wander in frequency due to tem- and IC16. The output of the 10.7-
cies is to use tracking filters (Fig. perature, vibration, and a host of MHz IF is suitable for wide-band
2-c). A tracking filter is a filter other causes. Frequency calibra- FM such as standard FM radio
that is tuned by voltage. In prac- tion is impossible with such vari- broadcast. The FM output of the
tice, tracking filters are used ations. Frequency wandering 455-kHz IF is not very clean but
ahead of the mixer stage to re- can be greatly reduced by phase- can be used for narrow-band FM
duce the number of frequencies locking the VCO with a highly signals such a s voice-only broad-
that are mixed with the oscillator. stable source, such as a quartz- casts. However, only the FM from >
A tracking filter is just a swept crystal oscillator. The VCO's i n the 10.7-MHz IF is sent to the au- c
0
filter used in different way. It is o u r analyzer c a n wander a s dio amp (IC22). C
designed to follow the oscillator much as 1to 5 MHz. When phase- The NE615 receiver IC's (IC13 2
(usually a VCO) so that some pro- locked to the 4.000-MHz refer- and IC16) have a received-signal g
tection from the unwanted fre- ence, the frequency drift is only a strength indicator (RSSI) out- Y
put. When the RSSI output is
read by the computer using an 8-
bit analog to digital converter
(ADC) (IC12, an ADC0834), raw
data is provided for the spectrum
display. Extensive use was made
of serial interfaces i n our ana-
lyzer to cut down on computer
interface requirements.
The analyzer has two resolu-
tion bandwidths that are pro-
vided by a c o m b i n a t i o n of
ceramic filters. The 10.7-MHz fil-
ters (FL1 and FL2) are used for
the 280-kHz RBW. Pretuned fil-
ters (FL3 and FL4) are used to
provide the 10-kHz RBW.
In order to see frequencies be-
low 5 0 MHz (the tuner's lower
limit), a n additional mixer and
local oscillator (LO), IC24, are
used to upconvert the 0.1-100-
MHz band to an IF of 145 MHz.
The analyzer's lower limit has its
own separate i n p u t jack,
LOWBAND INPUT. The 145-MHzIF is
fed to the tuner where it is down
converted, as before, to the 45-
MHz IF. From here on, the signal
is processed as in the highband
case (50-810 MHz).
As shown in the block.diagram
(Fig. 3 ) . an 8-bit DAC (IC7) con-
trols the automatic gain control
(AGC) input of the tuner. AGC
cancels out gain variations and
provides signal attenuation. An
FIG. 2-SPECTRUM ANALYZER TECHNIQUES. The swept-filter analyzer sweeps, or
8-bit shift register (IC8)is used to tunes, a bandpass filter over a specific frequency range (a). The heterodyne type uses a
provide IC7 with a serial interface swept oscillator in combination with a mixer to sweep over a frequency range; a fixed
to the host PC. filter determines the resolution of the analyzer (b). A heterodyne type with tracking filter
The signal analyzer supports eliminates undesired heterodyne frequencies (c).
two interfaces; PC bus and the
parallel printer port. Either inter-
face may be used, but not simul-
taneously. There is no difference
PC BUS OR PARALLEL INTERFACE
in operation between the two in-
terfaces. All frequency, AGC, and
RSSI information are communi-
cated over those interfaces to or
from the host PC.

Signal processing
Figure 6 shows a block di-
agram of the RF signal process-
ing. Starting with the 0.1-100-
MHz front end shown in Fig. 7,
IC24, a Signetics NE602 0s-
cillator/mixer, is used to provide
the up-conversion to the 145-
13 MHz IF. The oscillator of the
NE602 is buffered by (35 and sent
ar to PLL2 (IC23)for frequency lock-
ing. A varactor diode (D4)in the
-I oscillator of the NE602 allows for
voltage control of its frequency.
8 That oscillator is swept from 145 FIG. 3-A BLOCK DIAGRAM OF THE SPECTRUM ANALYZER shows the tuner module,
2 MHz to 245 MHz in order to cover phase-locked loops, receiver blocks, DAC, ADC, and the PC bus connection.
the instrument.
The 10.7-MHz IF is produced
by mixing the 45-MHz IF with a
34.3-MHz third overtone crystal-
controlled oscillator, which is
tuned by L2. The 10.7-MHz out-
p u t of the mixing process is
bandpass filtered by two 10.7-
MHz ceramic filters (FL1and FL2)
with a buffer amp between them.
The 10.7-MHz IF is fed to a limit-
ing amp and a quadrature tank
( T l ) to perform FM demodula-
tion. The functions of LO, mix-
ing, amplification, a n d FM de-
modulation are performed by
IC16. The bandwidth of the 10.7-
MHz ceramic filters is 280 kHz.
With the tuner or lowband LO
set to a step size of 125 kHz and
swept over the frequency span,
those filters provide the 280-kHz
resolution b a n d w i d t h (RBW)
u s i n g t h e received s i g n a l
strength indicator (RSSI) from
IC16 (Fig. 5). The RSSI is lowpass
filtered by R41 and C43 to smooth
the voltage. The lowpass filter
forms what is commonly called
the video bandwidth. The audio
from the 10.7-MHz IF is lowpass
filtered by C52 and R43 and sent
to the audio amp (IC22).
A sample of the 10.7-MHz IF is
taken just after the first 10.7-
MHz c e r a m i c filter, p a s s e d
through FL5 and sent to IC13 for
downconversion to 455 kHz. The
additional ceramic filter is used
to further reduce unwanted mix-
FIG. 4--THE FIRST 45-MHz IF STAGE. The tuner takes highband inputs from 50-810 MHz er products and to provide isola-
and converts them to 45 Mhz. tion between the 10.7-MHz IF
and the 455-kHz IE
t h e 0.1 to 100-MHz b a n d . A width, follows the mixer. The To produce the 455-kHz IE a
lowpass filter, consisting of L5, local oscillator (LO) must be 45 10.245-MHz LO is needed. That
C68, and C69, with a 100-MHz MHz above the input signal to LO is provided by phase-locking
bandwidth is used on the input mix to the 45-MHz IE For the 5 0 the oscillator of IC13 using PLL3
to the mixer to reduce unwanted to 810-MHz b a n d w i d t h , t h e (IC14, Fig. 5). The oscillator of
frequency products at the out- tuner VCO must have a range of IC13 in our analyzer has been set
put. The tuner is set up to receive 95 to 855 MHz. The LO from the up a s a VCO using a varactor di-
the 145-MHz IF from the NE602 tuner is internally buffered and is ode (Dl). A sample of the LO is
mixer. The NE602 is turned off sent to PLLl (IC15, Fig. 4) for fre- buffered by Q6 and sent to PLL3
for the highband mode using 9 7 quency locking. (IC14) for error generation a n d
a s a n onloff switch, which is con- The 45-MHz IF is fed through a locking. The LO is swept from
trolled from a PLLl band-switch- 6-dB attenuation pad (R16-R18, 10.21375 MHz to 10.27625 MHz
ing output. Fig. 4) and a tuned circuit to the in step sizes of 3.90625 kHz.
The input is fed directly into mixer for the 10.7-MHz IE The That is a total span of 62.5 kHz;
the tuner module (IC17) in the attenuation pad is used to reduce the step size of the tuner LO, or
highband case. The tracking fil- signal gain from the tuner and to the lowband LO when the RBW is
ters are Internal to the tuner, a s provide a wide-band termination set to 10 kHz.
previously described. ?tvo band- for the output of the tuner mixer. It is necessary to sweep the
pass trackers are used with a The tuned circuit, consisting of 10.245-MHz LO because a step
buffer amp between them. The L1, C8, and C7 (as seen in Fig. 5), size of 3.90625 kHz is not possi- $
output of the second filter is fed acts to match impedance, filter, ble with the tuner LO or the low- ?
to the mixer for downconversion and to adjust the voltage gain. b a n d LO phase-locked loops. 5
to the 45-MHz IF. A 45-MHz band- The tuning of L1 (Fig. 5 ) affects Those step sizes must fall within
pass filter, with a 6-MHz band- the overall gain and noise floor of the 10-kHzbandwidth of the 4.55- ID,
FIG. 6-RF SIGNAL PROCESSING block diagram.

we will discuss some of the more frequency; to get the LO frequen- used in 1'214, IC15, and IC23, is
important IC's in this design, cy, just add 45 MHz. Not only is tailor made to interface to a
and the reason why each of them the LO switched, so is the mixer! band-switching tuner. Figure 9
were chosen. ?tYo mixers are used: one for the shows a block diagram of that IC.
VHF band and one for the UHF All the switching logic is provided
Tuner module band. The mixers are switched in the IC for band switching. An
The tuner is a CATV type made by the same inputs as the LO so on-board prescaler with associ-
by Zenith. No modifications to no additional switching logic is ated divide counters enables the
the tuner are needed to use it in needed. The band switching re- MC44802 to directly sense and
our analyzer. Along the bottom is sults in two effects: a momentary control VCOs up to 1.3 GHz. An
a row of pins for the AGC input, delay in the sweep at the band erroridriver amp is also included
+ 5 VDC, VCO tuning input, IF switching points, and a slight that is used to provide VCO tun-
out and band-switching inputs. step up or down in the noise floor ing voltages from 0 to 35 volts.
Band-switching inputs are used at the switching points. The Programmable reference dividers
because Lo's cannot sweep from switching also affects the opera- are also present in the IC. All of
95 to 855 MHz. Instead of one LO, tion of the tracking filters. The t h e i n t e r n a l s e t t i n g s of t h e
there are four that are switched tracking filters are internally tied MC44802 are controlled via a
in one at a time to provide the to the VCO control voltage so that three-wire interface.
complete span. Table 2 shows the the input signal is always kept in You can continually change the
points where the LO is switched the center of the bandpass filters. contents of the VCO divide coun-
at various frequencies. ter by sweeping the VCO being
The frequencies shown in the PLL IC Me44882 controlled by the step size se-
table are with respect to the input The Motorola MC44802 IC, lected. You can control t u n e r
band-switching by writing to the
band-switching register of PLLl
TABLE 2-BAND SWITCHING (IC15). Transistors Ql-Q4 are
used a s drivers f o r t h e - t u n e r
band-switching inputs.
To set the PLL to a particular
frequency, divide the frequency
by the step size, truncate, and
insert the resulting number into
the divide counter. For example,
if you want to set the tuner VCO
frequency to 400 MHz using a
step size of 125 kHz, the divide
FIG. 7 - 4 1 TO 100 MHz FRONT END. An oscillatorlmixer, IC24, providesthe up conversion
to the 145-MHz IF. The oscillator in IC24 is swept froin 145 MHz to 245 MHz to cover the 0.1
to 100-MHz band. diode is added to the LC tank,
you have a VCO.
One feature of the NE615 that
is not used in our unit is the au-
dio mute. That input allows for
killing the audio output when no
signal is present. The IF section
has a total gain of 90 dB. The
high gain c a n cause stability
problems and consequently per-
formance of this IC is greatly
effected by circuit board layout. If
you build a kit, do not put a nor-
mal socket on this chip! Individ-
ual, high-frequency: pin-type
counter should be loaded with u s e of sockets is not recom- sockets can be used, but those
40010.125 = 3 2 0 0 c o u n t s , of mended for these IC's. are hard to come by.
course you would also have to set
the band switches accordingly. Receiver IC NE615 ADCO834
All of that programming is done The Signetics NE615 I'C con- The only thing that is unique
by the host PC. A complete dis- tains all the necessary compo- about this ADC used for IC12 is
$ cussion of the details of program- n e n t s to d o frequency con- i t s serial interface. J u s t four
2 ming this IC is too long to be version. The RSSI output has a wires are needed to interface this
0
p presented here. You can refer to 90-dB dynamic range, although IC to a processor. The ADC is
o the Motorola Linear and Interface our analyzer only has a 60-70-dB used to convert the analog RSSI
5 Data Book if you would like more dynamic range due to compres- voltages to 8-bit digital informa-
information on programming sion in the tuner. The oscillator tion which is read by the PC. Di-
2 the MC44802. Because of the can be either crystal controlled or ode D2 provides the reference
n: high frequencies involved, the LC-tank controlled. If a varactor voltage of 4.3 volts. This ADC has
is done using the SETUP program,
which will be discussed in our
next issue. You can actually oper-
ate the card plugged into the PC
bus using the LPT interface. In
that configuration, the PC inter-
face is used just for power.
Figure 10 shows the PC bus in-
terface circuitry. The entire LPT
interface is accomplished by
using two 74LS244's (IC4 and
IC5) and one 74LS04 (IC6). The
74LS244's are three-state octal
drivers, which are used to buffer
the signals to and from the LPT
interface. The PC bus interface is
considerably more complex. It
consists of one 74LS688 com-
parator (IC20),two 74LS138's 3-
to-8 decoders (IC18 a n d IC19),
two 74LS374 8-bit latches (lC9
and IClO), one 74LS245 bidirec-
tional buffer (IC21),and one DIP
switch ( S l ) . The DIP switch is
used to select the PC b u s ad-
dress. The default address is 768
decimal. The default DIP-switch
setting for S1 is: positions 1-5
on, positions 6 and 7 off.
vided in this PLL IC. An on-board prescaler with associated divide countersallow the If another address is desired
MC44802 to control VCO's up to 1.3 GHz. you will have to use SETUP to
change the address used by the
software and of course set the
four channels, all of which are +
+ 12VDC to 33 VDC. Only 3 rnA DIP switches to the new address.
programmable. Channels 0 and 1 are needed to drive the three Details of setting the address
are used for the two RSSI volt- PLL's. The input and output volt- switches are included i n the
ages from the NE615's. Channel 2 ages are heavily filtered by C57, README.DOC file contained in
is unused. Channel 3 is con- C100, R24, C55, C99, and R62, t h e SPECAN.ARC file. SPEC-
nected to the DAC and is used for as any ripple on the supply will AN.ARC can be copied from the
s e l f t e s t i n g . As w i t h t h e show up as unwanted FM on the Radio-Electronics BBS
MC44802, the details of pro- LO'S. (516-293-2283, modem settings:
gramming this IC are too lengthy 120012400, 8N1). If you never in-
to be presented here a n d the Interfaces tend to operate the analyzer from
reader is referred to National As already stated, the analyzer the PC bus IC9, IC10, IC18, IC19,
Semiconductor's Databook. can communicate via the PC bus IC20, IC21, and ICll can be re-
or the parallel port LPTl through moved from the circuit.
8-bit DAC AD558 LPT4. A header is provided on the The PC interface does a com-
This Analog Device's DAC was board for a ribbon cable to con- parison of the address bits A3
chosen for IC7 primarily because nect to a Centronics-type adapter through A8 to determine where a
of its self contained reference and cable. If the card is operated ex- block of eight decoded addresses
voltage output. It also needs only ternal to the PC, a n external will fall. Although eight READ/
one supply voltage, + 12 VDC. In power supply must be provided. WRITE addresses are decoded,
keeping with the serial interface The supply plugs into a 3-pin, only two of t h e e i g h t W R I T E
approach, a 74164 8-bit shift reg- Molex-type connector toward the addresses are used, and one of
ister (IC8)is tied to the input data back of the board. the read addresses. That is mod-
of the DAC. Three lines, a clock, A good quality DC supply with eled after the LPT interface,
data, and strobe, are use to insert + 5 volts at 1.0 amp and +12 which has two WRITE registers
the shift register and load it into volts at 0.4 amps is adequate. and one READ register.
the DAC. None of the DIP switches need to
be set to select PC or LPT inter- Operation
DC to DC converter face. When the Centronics cable The PC host controls all as-
The PLL's used need + 33 VDC is attached to the computer, it pects of the spectrum analyzers >
to control the VCO's over the pulls pin 30 of the connector low control and data collection. After
spans used. Motorola's MC34063 which selects the LPT interface. the user selects a start or center
2c
(IC3)can be configured as a step- The software, however, must be frequency and a span frequency, 2
up or -down DC-to-DC converter. instructed by the user which in- computations are performed to ;;
In our case it is used to convert terface is going to be used. That set up the various LO'S that need 2
I
,
' a -------V---------/
CONTROL REG
- DATA RFG
'-FJ

swusrfr G

FIG. 1&PC BUS INTERFACE CIRCUITRY. The entire LPT interface is performed by IC4
and IC5. Those two 74LS244's buffer the signals to and from the LPT interface.
-&' DAlA HI (:
I

4
29
to be swept using the PLL's. Once 455-kHz IF are 3.90625 kHz. tling of PLL's.
everything is properly set up, the Those different step sizes are Read RSSI voltage.
computer starts sweeping the ap- needed to accommodate the two Calibrate RSSI data to Power in
propriate Lo's and collecting data filter bandwidths of 280 kHz and dBm.
via the ADC data from the RSSI 10 kHz. As t h e computer i s Display the power/frequency
outputs. sweeping the Lo's, it is also con- pair on the screen.
If the RBW is 280 kHz, the 10.7- trolling the AGC via the DAC, Repeat.
MHz RSSI output is read. If the which is there to keep the gain Those operations are performed
RBW is 10 kHz, the 455-kHz RSSI flat. continuously by the computer
is read. The Lo's are not swept The overall basic sequence is until interrupted by the user.
continuously, but rather in steps. @ Command Lo's to the next fre- In our next edition, we'll go
The steps are determined by the quency over t h e s o f t w a r e , k i t c o n -
internal settings of the PLL's. The Set AGC level from the look-up struction, tuning, power calibra-
steps used for the tuner are 125 table. tion, and troubleshooting of the
kHz and 62.5 kHz. Steps for the 0 Allow adequate time for set- spectrum analyzer. R-E
LAST MONTH WE DISCUSSED THE performed with SETUP.EXE, continually updated a s the local
theory behind our PC-based 810- which is a stand alone program oscillators's (Lo's) are swept and
MHz spectrum analyzer. This that must be executed outside of new data is gathered. The box on
month, we'll show you how to the main program menu. The de- the left side of the screen con-
build it and discuss the software tails of using SETUP are covered tains the list of function keys
used to operate the instrument. in the README.DOC file. SETUP that are currently active. All user
Before we get i n t o t h e con- stores your system configuration interactions from the sweep dis-
struction, let's start off with a de- and needs to be re-executed only play are initiated by function
s c r i p t i o n of t h e s e t u p a n d if something changes. keys, arrow keys, or the ESC key.
operating software. All executa- The two main programs are Function key F1 is always used to
ble files we mention here can be 810EGA.EXE and 810CGA.EXE. bring up the Instrument Setup
downloaded from t h e Radio- One is used for EGA systems, the menu. The user can change all
Electronics BBS (516-293-2283, other for CGA. Both programs the settings of the spectrum ana-
120012400, 8 N l , file SPEC - operate the same way. The EGA lyzer from the menu. That will be
AN.ZIP). Even before you build v e r s i o n s u p p o r t s VGAIEGA covered in more detail later.
the analyzer, we would recom- m o n i t o r s a n d h a s color ca- Function key F10 activates the
mend that you download and run pabilities if your monitor sup- m a r k e r f u n c t i o n . When t h e
the software. (It will r u n even ports color. The CGA version has marker is on, the sweep is inter-
w i t h o u t t h e board installed.) reduced graphics resolution.and rupted until a return to sweep
Even though you won't get any the sweep display will be mono- mode is commanded (ESC key).
meaningful data, it will help you chrome. All the photos presented Once the Marker is up, the user
to understand exactly how the . here are from the EGA version. can do a peak search, or by using
s o f t ~ a r eoperates. The CGA version was included function key F7 toggle the delta
primarily to support low-end lap- marker on and off. The marker is
Software and operation top computers using the parallel- moved using the arrow keys with
(I, Before you can use the spec- printer interface. the power and frequency (or delta
7 trum analyzer, some software set- When the software is executed, power and delta frequency) dis-
2 tings must be initialized so that a copyright message will be dis- played in the lower left corner of
5 what
the host computer will know at played while it is loading the cal-
ibration files. After a few mo-
the screen. Another feature of the
marker is to tune the spectrum
g sides, address
A
the analyzer re-
which printer port will be ments the sweep display will analyzer a s you move it, enabling
(D
~f! used, and the type of printer that come up. Figure 11 shows a typ- the marker to act a s a station in-
will be used. The initialization is ical sweep display. The display is dicator for the FM demodulator.
40
printers are supported, ranging Hnstmment setup menu
from Laserjets to low-end dot ma- By using the upidown arrow
trix types. When you return to ac- keys of the setup menu you can
tive sweeping the marker turns move to the item you wish to
off and the functions associated change or execute by hitting re-
with it (FM tuning, screen dump, turn. Start frequency, center fre-
and so on) are not accessible to quency, and span determine the
you. portion of the spectrum ana-
When you're i n t h e sweep lyzer's bandwidth you wish to ex-
mode, you can save and recall all amine. Center and start frequen-
the settings of the analyzer using cies cannot be independently
the function keys preceded by the chosen. In other words, you can
ALT key for saving states, and the only specify s t a r t and s p a n or
FIG. 11-THIS IS WHAT YOU might see on CNTRL key for recalling states. center a n d s p a n frequencies.
a typical sweep display.
Ten states are available: one for That's due to the fixed-span table
each ALTICNTRL function key approach used in the aiaalyzer.
Using a n external speaker and a n pair. The states are numbered 0 The fixed spans are: 800, 600,
antenna on the input you can through 9 and are stored on the 500, 400, 300, 200, 100, 50, 25,
"scan" the bandwidth of the ana- disk as STATEx.DAT. STATEO is 12.5, 10,5, 2.5, 1.25, and 0.625
lyzer, listening for different FM special because it is used a s the MHz. When the span is less than
broadcasts. wake u p state of the machine. 12.5 MHz, the resolution band-
Function key F8 activates a You can modify the wake u p state width (RBW) is automatically
screen dump. Your printer must of the analyzer by just saving a switched from 280 kHz to 10 kHz.
be selected using SETUP for this new STATEO using the taLT F1 No direct user control is provided
to work. A large n u m b e r of keys. for the RBW setting.

THE SOLDER SIDE of the foil pattern is shown here.

1331is INCHES

THlS IS THE COMPONENT side sf the foil pattern.


FIG. 12-PARTS PLACEMENT DIAGRAM. Note the location of the four coax runs. Make
sure you install all chip capacitors first because of their small size.
The reference level a n d at- 10.7MHz TO 455kHz
tenuation settings determine the COAXIAL RUN
power level of the top line of the
sweep grid. That is a user-entered
number that can take on any SOLDER SHIELD
floating-point value. The user OF COH"'
A IU-- 0.047" O.D.
GRDUNI1PLANE OR 0.034" O.D.
has a choice of three settings for
internal attenuation: 0, 10, and
20 dB. The attenuation is imple-
0.15" \- SEMIRIGID COAX
I
mented by reducing the gain, not
by the use of attenuation pads.
That's a subtle yet significant dif-
ference from high-end analyzers
that use switched attenuators for
gain reduction. User attenuation
is located i n the i n p u t p a t h ,
which is convenient for automat-
ically calculating in the effects of FIG.13-THE 10.7 MHz TO 455 kHz COAXIAL RUN reduces spurious pickup from the 455-
inline attenuations. Since that's kHz IF.
a floating point entry, negative at-
tenuations (or gains) can also be would result in erroneous power CHIP CAPACITOR DETAIL
entered in the signal path. There measurements.
HOLD CHlP CAP WITH
are three choices for the vertical The exit to sweep menu item TOOTHPICK
power scale units using the dB/ returns the user to the sweep dis-
div entry: 2, 5, and 10 dB. Refer- play. Hitting the ESC key while
ence level, attenuation, and dB/ on the menu bar does the same
div affect the placement of the thing. Exit to Dos returns control
power data on the sweep grid. It's of PC to DOS.
best to experiment with different
settings to get a feel for how they Calibration
interact. Three power related calibration
files are used by the spectrum
Sweep rate analyzer: one for the automatic
T h e sweep rate determines gain control (AGC), one for the SOLDER
how fast the display is updated received-signal strength indica- PCBOARDCONDUCTOR
a n d how long it takes to go tor (RSSI),and a user-generated FIG. 14--USETHIS DIAGRAM as a guide to
through one sweep. It is directly error table. The AGC calibration installing the chip capacitors.
affected by the CPU clock speed. tables correct any variations in
For a given sweep rate, a faster PC gain using the DAC input to the curacy. Most of the power errors
will finish the sweep in less time AGC pin of the tuner. Most of the come from variations in the gain
than a slower PC. Sweep speed variations are in the tuner. One of individual t u n e r modules,
increases with higher values of table for each value of internal which are approximately 1 2 to 3
sweep rate. The sweep rate and attenuation is provided. dB over the entire bandwidth.
power accuracy are interrelated; A set of six data files are also used The RSSI data tends to change
longer sweep times usually result for the lowband and highband very little. Because of that, the
in more accurate power measure- modes; namely the AGC*.DATfiles. largest errors will be at the band-
ments. That has to do with the The RSSICAL*.DAT calibration switching points. The averaged
video bandwidth a n d PLL set- files are used to "linearize" generic calibration files are pro-
tling time. A fixed number of and map the RSSI voltages to an vided with the kit, and are posted
sweep rates are provided in the a b s o l u t e p o w e r l e v e l . Two on the Radio-Electronics bul-
analyzer: 1, 3, 5 , 10, 15, 20, and RSSI files are u s e d ; one for letin board.
30. A more complete discussion each RBW. Ttvo user-generated
of the sweep rate and power ac- f i l e s , POWERRH.DAT a n d '
Construction
curacy relationship is given in POWERRL.DAT, can be used by The entire circuit of the spec-
the README.DOC file. k i t b u i l d e r s t o improve t h e trum analyzer is mounted on one
accuracy of their power readings double-sided PC board. We have
Band select i f they c a n get t h e i r h a n d s provided foil patterns of the com-
The band select menu item al- on the equipment needed. The ponent side and the solder side of
lows the user to select which in- details of using the program the PC board if you wish to make
put is going to be used: highband USERCAL.EXE are covered in it yourself. Before mounting any
or lowband. The user must select README.DOC. That error table components, you should visually
the band of operation and con- is optional, and for factory cali- inspect the board for shorts and $:
nect to the appropriate input be- brated units it is zeroed out. solder bridges, especially around 4
cause autoswitching is not pro- If you build a kit, you'll have to the pads that are surrounded by 5
vided. The highband i n p u t live with the generic calibration the ground plane. That can be
should not be terminated when files which, a s mentioned above, done by putting a bright light be-
;
A

i.lsing the lowband input. That result in degraded power ac- h i n d the board, which really
RF INPUT TO TUNER COAX nite resistance, as before. If you
read a short or very low resis-
TIN
SHIELD SOLDER TO RCA tance, look for solder bridges.
BRAID SHIELD Now solder in the resistors ac-
FOR SOLDERING J6 cording to the component layout.
TO GROUND PLANE OUTER
INSULATION REMOVED RCA Again, check the power buses for
\ \ MALF JACK shorts using the ohmmeter. In-
stall the inductors and coils next.
If you buy a kit, L5. L6, and L7 are
INPUT already made. Install all filters
I OF TUNER
and crystals. Their leads can go
in either direction. Lay XTALl
down flat and solder its case to
g r o u n d . T h e c a s e of XTAL2
should also be tied to ground
TUNER LO TO P L L l COAX using a small piece of wire. Sol-
INPUT der in the diodes, being careful to
SOLDER TO RCA 1)
observe the correct polarity. Do
the same for transistors Q1-Q8.
Q5 a n d Q8 are surface-mount
TUNER
types from Motorola; "M" marked
LO OUT on the top indicates the collector.
Using t h e o h m m e t e r a g a i n ,
check for shorts on the power
buses.
When installing the IC's, use
FIG. 15--TWO RG-174 COAX RUNS ARE SHOWN for the RF input to tuner (a) and the tuner
sockets for all the chips except
LO to the PLLl (b). the NE615's, MC44802's, and the
NE602. Those chips need a close
connection to the ground plane
TO 'F"
ILOWRANI? INJECTION COAX to e n s u r e p r o p e r o p e r a t i o n .
BULKHEAD KEEP EXPOSED Check for shorts again. After you
CONNECTOR CENTERCONDUCTOR install IC3 (the MC34063 step-up
HIGHBAND TO A MINIMUM LENGTH
voltage regulator), make sure you
INPUT
have 33.3 volts DC between R62
/ 22pF
and ground. That is where the
LOWBAND INJECTION
OF 145MHz IF 33.3-volt power line comes from.
If you really want to be thorough.
use a n ohmmeter to check every
IC pin for shorts to ground and
verify that the pins that should
be grounded are grounded. Now
install the mechanical parts: the
SOLDER TINNED SHlE RCA jack, 3-pin Molex connector,
TO RF INPUT
36-pin dual header (for the paral-
TUNER lel interface), DIP switch S1, and
FIG. I G T H E RF FEED FOR the lowband injection coax. Make sure your center conductor R64.
is as short as possible.
Tuner installation
makes the pads standout. After shown in Fig. 13. Using an ohm- Before the tuner c a n be in-
careful visual inspection, check meter, check to make sure the in- stalled, two RG-174 coax runs to
+
the 5-, + 12-, and 33.3-volt + ner conductor is not shorted to the RF input and the LO output
power b u s e s f o r s h o r t s t o ground. RG174 type coax, with must be connected, a s shown in
ground. the external insulation removed, Figs. 15-a and -b. If you don't get
Figure 12 shows the compo- can be used but it's a tight fit. the lowband option, the RF input
nent placement, as well as the lo- You're now ready to start sol- is just a direct feed using RG59
cations for all coax runs. Before dering in the components. Install cable to a femaleifemale F-type
mounting any components, a chip capacitors C21, C35, C67, connector on the rear panel plate.
short coax run must be installed C72, and C73 first, using Fig. 14 After the cables are made, con-
cn on the top side of the board. A as a guide. Because of their small nect the LO cable to the board
$ small piece of semirigid coax is size they can be very difficult to and solder the coax shield to the
used to connect the 10.7-MHz IF install with the board fully stuff- ground plane. Now make the RF
I-- from FL5 to the input from the ed. Solder in all remaining capac- feed. (If you have the lowband op-
455-kHz IF mixer (IC13. pin 1). itors. Check them off on the parts tion, Fig. 16 shows you how to
U;1 The coax reduces the spurious list as you install them, then re- connect the coaxial cable to the
0
pickup for the 455-kHz IE Cut, check the power buses with a n board.)
ohmmeter. You should read infi- Using the outer shield of the
3 s t r i p , a n d b e n d t h e coax a s
REMr
lowband coax as a gauge, put the HIGHBAND COAX TO REAR PANEL
tuner on the board, top side up,
by tacking the corners down with
solder. Don't solder the lowband
shield on yet, that goes on after
tuning L6. Two holes are pro-
vided for using tie wraps to hold
J1
HIGHBAND
INPUT
TIN SHIELD AND

TRIM OFF

SOLDER
\
HERE SOLDER TO "F"CONNECT0R
RG174
OUTER INSULATION
TIN SHIELD
AND SOLDER TO
GROUNDPLANE

down the tuner if you desire. Cut TO SHIELD


small pieces of wire to connect
tuner pins 1-8 on the bottom
edge to the appropriate holes on
the board. Make sure the IF OUT
jumper is as short as possible.
Now connect the two RCA jacks
for the LO OUT and the RF IN coax NUT
runs. / SOLDER TO CENTER CONDUCTOR OF BULKHEAD JACK
REAR PANEL
Terminal panel and shield FIG. 17-THE HIGHBAND COAX RUN is shown here. This coax connection must be made
Before you mount the terminal before the terminal panel is installed on the PC board.
panel to the board, connect the
highband coax r u n as shown in BOTTOM SHIELD
Fig. 17. Connect the coax to the 4-40 BOLTS (4)
board first, then connect the low-
band and comb F connectors to
the terminal panel. Now connect
the highband F connector to the
terminal panel a n d secure the
panel to the board using two 4-40
screws and nuts. Solder jumpers
from t h e plated holes i n t h e
printed-circuit board to the cen-
ter conductor lowband and comb
F connectors.
Figure 18 shows the mounting
details of t h e b o t t o m s h i e l d ,
which is made of a single-sided
PC board and is mounted, with
the copper side facing away from
the main board, using four 4-40
bolts. This shield should be in
place before you perform any
final tuning as it effects signal
levels.
Coil pretune
We're almost ready to power the
unit up, but first we need to pre-
tune the coils. Most of coil adjust-
ments are noncritical. Use the
following initial settings just to 4-40 NUT
get you started: FIG. 1&THE BOTTOM SHIELD ASSEMBLY is shown here. Make sure the copper side of
a L1-Slug is 1% turns from the the shield is installed away from the PC board.
bottom (fine adjust later).
@ L2-Slug is 1Y2 turns from the
top ( 5 1 turn). First power up thing goes well, you should see a
@ L3-Slug is all the way to the Put the card in the computer series of lines 4 MHz apart slowly
bottom. or, for external use, connect it to a rolling off in amplitude. If you
e L5-Close wound. parallel port and external power don't, go to the "Troubleshoot-
e L6-Close wound. supply. Connect the comb output ing" section.
@ L7-Close wound. to the highband input and turn it
@ T1-Slug is 1Y2 turns from the on. Check the + 5-, + 12-, and Tuning the unit
top. + 33-volt levels to make sure they The spectrum analyzer can be
e T2-Slug is 1% turns from the are correct. Run either 810EGA used to fine tune L1, L6, T1, and
top. or 810CGA program, depending T2; L2, L3, L5, and L7 should
The spectrum analyzer should on your video adapter. The sup- need no further adjustment. Ad-
work with those settings. All ad- plied wake-up state is a span of justing the coils is easier with the
justments from here on for fine 400 MHz with a start frequency card outside of the PC case, for
tuning. of 100 MHz. Assuming every- instance if you use the parallel
LOWBAND SHIELD comb out to the lowband input marker at the peak of the signal,
and set the spectrum analyzer a s even if the audio drops out. Ad-
follows : just T1 now for the best sound.
* Bandselect-lowband T2 can be adjusted the same way,
* Span-100 MHz but you'll have to pick off the au-
@ Start freq-5 MHz dio and amplify it as it is not con-
* Inter atten-10 dB nected to a n amplifier. You will
* Ref level- - 40 dBm also need a n a r r o w b a n d FM
The sweep display should show broadcast for proper adjustment.
lines every 4 MHz. If the upper With a little hunting you should
end lines are missing, open up L6 be able to find one. (Tryyour local
a little and the upper lines should National Weather Service broad-
start appearing. You should be cast station in the 162.4-162.6
able to see the line at 104 MHz MHz band.) The adjustments of
when L6 is adjusted properly. T1 and T2 only effect the FM de-
Once L6 is adjusted and you're modulation and do not effect the
confident that the lowband cir- accuracy of the instrument.
cuit is working properly, install
SHAPE the shield over the circuit. Figure Troubleshooting
FIG. 19-THE LOWBAND SHIELD is sol- 19 shows t h e details of t h a t Typical symptoms indicating a
dered on the top side of the PC board. shield. problem are a flat or "pegged"
Set L1 by observing the power sweep display and no response to
level of the noise floor. Terminate inputs. Two programs are avail-
CORRECTIONS the highband input in 50 to 75 able to help in the troubleshoot-
There may have been some con- ohms and set the band select to i n g process; BLINK.EXE a n d
fusion where the DAC output from
IC7 (Fig. 10) goes to from our Part I highband. Use the following set- ADCDAC.EXE. BLINK is used to
article. Just to clarify those con- tings to make a measurement: give a simple visual indication
nections, we have redrawn the e Span-12.5 MHz that the host PC has some com-
correct DAC outputs in Fig. 20. 0 Center frequency-120 MHz munication with the card. With
Two other corrections are noted
below.
* Sweep rate-3 the card plugged into the PC or
0 Inter. atten-10 dB parallel cable, r u n BLINK. The
a The power-supply line to Pin 2 of
IC15, IC23, and IC14 is 33.3 volts * Ref level- - 40 dBm LED on the card should blink at
DC. The sweep display should show approximately 1-second inter-
Two signal labels, LO,, and almost a flat line. n r n the slug of vals. If no blinking at all occurs,
V , should be reversed In IC23 L1 until the noise floor reads you have a communication prob-
oTYfi'e signal-processing block di- - 100 dBm. An alternative and lem with the PC. Double check
agram (Fig. 6). more accurate method requires a the interface settings using SET-
crystal source of known power UP; if those are wrong the card
level. For best results, the fre- won't respond. If wiggling cables,
quency of the source should be checking power-supply voltages,
between 100 to 500 MHz. Set the and every permutation of inter-
spectrum analyzer to display face selections does not result in
your line using the 12.5-MHz a successful BLINK, you most
span and a sweep rate of 1. Now likely have a hardware problem.
adjust L1 so that the power level ADCDAC.EXE is a more exten-
of your line is correct. sive test in that both reading and
T1 is tuned by using the spec- writing to the card are involved.
trum analyzer as a n FM radio. There is little chance that this
The setup settings are: test will be successful if BLINK
0 Span-25 MHz fails. ADCDAC sends a voltage
Start freq-85 MHz level to the DAC, then reads that
0 Band select-highband voltage using the ADC. If the read
* Volume potentiometer (R64)- voltages are within t h e toler-
centered ances, the test is declared a suc-
Connect an antenna up to the cess. ADCDAC returns a passlfail
highband input. You may have to verdict upon completion. If you
use a n outside antenna. You can fail, it could be an interface prob-
FIG. 20-THE DAC OUTPUT from IC7 goes make a simple antenna by at- lem or a problem with the ADC or
to IC17 and IC12 as shown here. taching a 2- to 3-foot piece of wire DAC. Passing does not guarantee
to the center conductor of the in- that all systems are go, just that
interface. Allow about 5 minutes put. Connect a speaker to the au- the interface and ADCIDAC seem
for warm up and then tune the dio out RCA jack. Now let the to be working.
coils in the following sequence. analyzer make a few sweeps. You If you still can't find the prob-
The maximum span available should be able to hear FM broad- lem, see README.DOC for more
from the lowband is affected by casts as the analyzer sweeps by things to try, or call DKD Instru-
L6. It is tuned by spreading, or them. Now activate the marker ments at (805) 581-5771. They'll
closing, its turns. Connect the and find a strong station. Put the be happy to help you. R-E

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