At the Northern Utah WebSDR (sdrutah.org) we recently added another server (WebSDR #4) that is connected to an existing east-pointing beam antenna on site. This antenna, it is hoped, will better-allow users to hear stations on the 40-10 meter bands in the eastern U.S. and, to a lesser extent, the DX locations to which it is pointed.
As one would expect, this antenna has gain - between 10 and 13 dBi, depending on the frequency - and this has implications when propagation between Utah and the Eastern U.S. is favorable: Already-strong shortwave broadcast (SWBC) signals become even stronger. Because the S-meter (signal meter) on the receivers have known calibration it is possible to make an indirect measurement of some of these signals' strength and, at times, individual signals have been observed in the -20 to -15 dBm range at the antenna - these levels being in the "60 over S-9" range: At times - particularly during evening "gray line" propagation (where both the transmit and receive sites are entering/in twilight/evening) signals can peak significantly. What's worse is that there may be several such signals, increasing the total RF power impinging on the receiver risking not only receiver overload, but also providing a ready source of multiple, modulated carriers to mix together and reappear within the receiver's passband among the desired signals.
These sorts of signals are far above those that might be expected due to amateur-only transmissions owing to the widely disparate signal levels. For example, a very well-equipped "DX" stations may be able to run 1500 watts of RF into a (monster!) 15 dBi gain antenna and attain an EIRP (Effective Isotropic Radiated Power) in the area of 50kW, but this does not compare with an SWBC station which may be running 500kW peak (about 125kW carrier) into an antenna with (a conservative) 18dBi gain - an EIRP of about about 32 million watts - a signal level nearly 1000-fold (30dB)stronger than one that would be transmitted by law-abiding amateurs.
What's worse is that some of these SWBC bands are adjacent amateur bands - and the 40 meter amateur - which runs from 7.0-7.3 MHz is no exception as the 41 meter SWBC band is just above it, starting at 7.3 MHz. With such close spacing, typical filtering in receivers have little hope in effectively rejecting such nearby, strong signals.
Addressing the problem:
There are two time-honored ways of dealing with strong signals impinging on receivers:
While it is possible to add an AGC circuit to this receiver system to prevent overload (this has been done with some of the other receivers on site - and is still an option) the first step that we are taking is to build a "sharper" filter.
The "Curiously Sharp" band-pass filter:
Passing signals on the 40 meter amateur band - which ends at 7.3 MHz in the Americas - and filtering out signals on the 41 meter shortwave broadcast band - which starts at 7.3 MHz - is a tricky proposition: How does one suddenly go from passage of signals to blocking them within just a few 10s of kHz?
The answer is: You don't - but you do the best that you can!
The limiting factor in constructing a "brick wall" filter - one that has an abrupt transition - is physics and is intrinsic to real-world components: Real-world inductors have ohmic resistance and capacitors have dielectric losses - to name but two - that limit the unloaded "Q" of the individual components.
What does this mean? A truly "sharp" filter will ultimately be limited in its performance by these factors: One must trade off insertion loss and/or filter performance in terms of how quickly our band-pass filter cuts off.
Fortunately, the first of these - insertion loss - is pretty easy to mitigate: Have enough extra signal gain in the receive system to accommodate the insertion loss. At 40 meters, we have "signal to burn" - partly because our receive antenna has so much gain, but there is also a "strong" RF amplifier located near the antenna to mitigate the effects of cable losses at the higher HF bands (10 meters).
Even if we didn't have both antenna and amplifier gain, we could afford to lose a lot of signal at 40 meters: A system noise figure of about 30 dB (assuming a unity gain antenna) is sufficient to "hear" the noise on even a quiet band, so a significant loss can still be made up by placing an RF amplifier after the filter and still be able to resolve the 40 meter noise floor during quiet band conditions.
Figure 3 shows the schematic of the filter - and a few explanations are warranted.
Figure 4, below, shows the as-built filter:
During construction I used my DG6SAQ Vector Network Analyzer - and a tool such as this is invaluable as it will give "live", dynamic readings to facilitate adjustments. Of course, the more economical (approx. $50 U.S.)"NanoVNA" will work fine (along with the "NanoVNA Saver" program) - and although its update/sweep rate is a bit slower, it's still usable. The "through loss" measurements (in dB) were the most important in this case as the insertion loss versus frequency plots over a range of about 6.5 to 7.8 MHz allowed the "dialing in" of the resonant circuits. During construction two "bloody ended" coaxial cables were used - one end of each being connected to the VNA and the other end having its ground shield tacked to the ground plane and the center conductor attached to the point under test.
The first to be constructed were the large resonators (L1/C1, L4/C4, L7/C7) which needed to be set to 7.15 MHz and for this, two resistors (1k-4.7k - the precise values are unimportant) were connected in series with the center point connected at the "top" end of the parallel L/C network and the "ends" being connected to the VNA's in and out ports. With this arrangement one can see the "peak" where the L/C circuit resonates - the two resistors minimizing loading - and one compresses/stretches the large inductor using a small screwdriver to increase spacing between turns or a pair of needle-nose to compress them - or, if necessary, removes fractional turns - to "dial it in" at 7.15 MHz.
After these have been adjusted the other L/C networks are then constructed - and this is where it gets to a bit tricky: The variable capacitors allow the resulting "notch" to be moved around, but it may be necessary to add/remove turns from the inductor - or add small amounts of capacitance (10pF at a time) to get the circuit's adjustment within range of the variable capacitor. In some cases, one may temporarily "shunt"(short out) one or more of the series L/C networks to better-visualize the notch that one is trying to adjust. If you can't find the "notch", don't forget that it may be above/below the sweep range and you may temporarily need to set the start/stop frequencies wired to find it.
Adjusting such a filter requires patience as everything interacts. An examination of Figure 4 will reveal that each section is connected with jumper wires, allowing isolation of the individual tuned circuits. Eventually, one can get a "feel" for how the adjustments interact - but it may still be necessary to disconnect the sections and check/tune them individually back to a starting point if one gets "lost" and the response/tuning gets worse and worse.
Also visible in Figure 4 are shields around the large tuning elements made from pieces of double-sided copper-clad PC board material. While shielding between the sections isn't really necessary from a performance standpoint, placing the filter - which was constructed on the lid of the Hammond 1590D box - into the box itself causes the filter to detune slightly due to proximity to the enclosure's walls: The shielding on the sides of the large coils - and the bars across the top - "simulated" the filter being within the die-cast box and almost eliminated the effect, but still allowed access to permit adjustment if the large coils.
To be clear: This should NOT be your first band-pass filter as it is VERY tricky to adjust - and you MUST have available a scalar and/or vector network analyzer to properly adjust it! If both of these do not apply to you it is suggested that you obtain help - or prepare to get this gear and pull your hair out during adjustment!
Did it work?
The answer is Yes. This filter offers over 20dB of attenuation below 6.9 MHz and above 7.4 MHz and between careful adjustment of the receive system gain (e.g. just enough signal to comfortably "hear" the noise floor during the quietest part of the day) and the attenuation of the 41 meter signals, overload on the 40 meter receivers on the Northern Utah WebSDR server #4 no longer occurs: If you wish, you can check it yourself, particularly during the evening "gray line" hours when sunset is sweeping across North America at sdrutah.org.
This page stolen from ka7oei.blogspot.com
[End]
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| Figure 1: East-pointing beam antenna at the Northern Utah WebSDR. This antenna has 10-13 dBi gain and signals in the 41 meter shortwave broadcast bands can be extremely strong! Click on the image for a larger version. |
As one would expect, this antenna has gain - between 10 and 13 dBi, depending on the frequency - and this has implications when propagation between Utah and the Eastern U.S. is favorable: Already-strong shortwave broadcast (SWBC) signals become even stronger. Because the S-meter (signal meter) on the receivers have known calibration it is possible to make an indirect measurement of some of these signals' strength and, at times, individual signals have been observed in the -20 to -15 dBm range at the antenna - these levels being in the "60 over S-9" range: At times - particularly during evening "gray line" propagation (where both the transmit and receive sites are entering/in twilight/evening) signals can peak significantly. What's worse is that there may be several such signals, increasing the total RF power impinging on the receiver risking not only receiver overload, but also providing a ready source of multiple, modulated carriers to mix together and reappear within the receiver's passband among the desired signals.
These sorts of signals are far above those that might be expected due to amateur-only transmissions owing to the widely disparate signal levels. For example, a very well-equipped "DX" stations may be able to run 1500 watts of RF into a (monster!) 15 dBi gain antenna and attain an EIRP (Effective Isotropic Radiated Power) in the area of 50kW, but this does not compare with an SWBC station which may be running 500kW peak (about 125kW carrier) into an antenna with (a conservative) 18dBi gain - an EIRP of about about 32 million watts - a signal level nearly 1000-fold (30dB)stronger than one that would be transmitted by law-abiding amateurs.
What's worse is that some of these SWBC bands are adjacent amateur bands - and the 40 meter amateur - which runs from 7.0-7.3 MHz is no exception as the 41 meter SWBC band is just above it, starting at 7.3 MHz. With such close spacing, typical filtering in receivers have little hope in effectively rejecting such nearby, strong signals.
Addressing the problem:
There are two time-honored ways of dealing with strong signals impinging on receivers:
- AGC (Automatic Gain Control): This circuit "monitors" the signal level at the receiver and automatically reduces the gain when they exceed a certain amount. In the past, this has been applied only to signals within the passband of the receiver's IF to keep the audio level constant regardless of the actual signal strength, but this is also applied to modern SDRs where the level of the entire passband of signals being input to the A/D converter is monitored and adjusted to prevent overload.
- RF front-end filtering: With the advent of solid-state radios starting in the 60s and 70s the RF filtering in amateur receivers began to be wideband, not only because it was easier to do so with these designs, but also because it allowed "general coverage" reception outside the amateur bands and it was significantly less expensive than complicated, ganged tuning systems - but it had the down-side that signals some distance away frequency-wise could still cause the receiver to experience overload. These days - particularly with modern, high-performance direct-sampling Software-Defined Radios (SDRs)"narrow" filtering is once again being used owing to the need to strictly control the total amount of RF energy reaching the A/D converter to prevent overload.
While it is possible to add an AGC circuit to this receiver system to prevent overload (this has been done with some of the other receivers on site - and is still an option) the first step that we are taking is to build a "sharper" filter.
The "Curiously Sharp" band-pass filter:
Passing signals on the 40 meter amateur band - which ends at 7.3 MHz in the Americas - and filtering out signals on the 41 meter shortwave broadcast band - which starts at 7.3 MHz - is a tricky proposition: How does one suddenly go from passage of signals to blocking them within just a few 10s of kHz?
 |
| Figure 2: The completed 40 meter band-pass filter in a Hammond 1590D die-cast box. Click on the image for the larger version. |
The answer is: You don't - but you do the best that you can!
The limiting factor in constructing a "brick wall" filter - one that has an abrupt transition - is physics and is intrinsic to real-world components: Real-world inductors have ohmic resistance and capacitors have dielectric losses - to name but two - that limit the unloaded "Q" of the individual components.
What does this mean? A truly "sharp" filter will ultimately be limited in its performance by these factors: One must trade off insertion loss and/or filter performance in terms of how quickly our band-pass filter cuts off.
Fortunately, the first of these - insertion loss - is pretty easy to mitigate: Have enough extra signal gain in the receive system to accommodate the insertion loss. At 40 meters, we have "signal to burn" - partly because our receive antenna has so much gain, but there is also a "strong" RF amplifier located near the antenna to mitigate the effects of cable losses at the higher HF bands (10 meters).
Even if we didn't have both antenna and amplifier gain, we could afford to lose a lot of signal at 40 meters: A system noise figure of about 30 dB (assuming a unity gain antenna) is sufficient to "hear" the noise on even a quiet band, so a significant loss can still be made up by placing an RF amplifier after the filter and still be able to resolve the 40 meter noise floor during quiet band conditions.
 |
| Figure 3: Schematic of the 40 meter bandpass filter. Click on the image for a larger version. |
- ALL of the capacitors must be either NP0 (a.k.a. C0G) ceramic or silver mica capacitors - preferably the latter. I did not use any silver mica capacitors, but I used known-good ceramic capacitors from a trusted source (e.g. Mouser-Key) rather than from a random EvilBay seller.
- L1, L4 and L7 were wound using solid 12 AWG copper wire. The wire that I used happened to be tin-plated, but enamel-coated copper wire will be just fine with only the two ends (and the tap point) being bared for soldering.
- The other inductors were wound using 17 AWG wire, which was on hand, but 18 AWG would be fine.
- All of the inductor/capacitor pairs have their own resonant frequency, noted on the diagram in parentheses. The 7.15 MHz resonances (C1/L1, C4/L4, C7/L7) will be adjusted very close to the stated frequency but the other resonances (C2/L2, C3/L3, C5/L5, C6/L6) are made adjustable by small ceramic (or air) variable capacitors and must be CAREFULLY adjusted for the proper filter response.
- As can be seen, the filter's in/out ports are terminated with 2dB resistive attenuators to help assure a consistent source/termination impedance to the filter.
- L1 and L7 show taps that are chosen to be at the 50 ohm points.
Figure 4, below, shows the as-built filter:
 |
| Figure 4: As-built 40 meter band-pass filter. This filter was constructed on a solid copper ground plane of circuit-board material. to hold components in place and to isolate junctions from the ground. "Manhattan"(island) pads were used for junctions that needed to be isolated from the ground: The "Me Pads"(from "QRPMe") were used. Click on the image for a larger version. |
The first to be constructed were the large resonators (L1/C1, L4/C4, L7/C7) which needed to be set to 7.15 MHz and for this, two resistors (1k-4.7k - the precise values are unimportant) were connected in series with the center point connected at the "top" end of the parallel L/C network and the "ends" being connected to the VNA's in and out ports. With this arrangement one can see the "peak" where the L/C circuit resonates - the two resistors minimizing loading - and one compresses/stretches the large inductor using a small screwdriver to increase spacing between turns or a pair of needle-nose to compress them - or, if necessary, removes fractional turns - to "dial it in" at 7.15 MHz.
After these have been adjusted the other L/C networks are then constructed - and this is where it gets to a bit tricky: The variable capacitors allow the resulting "notch" to be moved around, but it may be necessary to add/remove turns from the inductor - or add small amounts of capacitance (10pF at a time) to get the circuit's adjustment within range of the variable capacitor. In some cases, one may temporarily "shunt"(short out) one or more of the series L/C networks to better-visualize the notch that one is trying to adjust. If you can't find the "notch", don't forget that it may be above/below the sweep range and you may temporarily need to set the start/stop frequencies wired to find it.
 |
| Figure 5: A sample passband of the filter during adjustment. The "upper" notches (L2/C2 and L5/C5) can clearly be seen as can the upper "lower" notch (L6/C6). The intrinsic insertion loss, including the two 2 dB pads, is around 15dB. The ultimate rejection is around 65 dB, correlating to a filter rejection of around 50 dB. Click on the image for a larger version. |
Also visible in Figure 4 are shields around the large tuning elements made from pieces of double-sided copper-clad PC board material. While shielding between the sections isn't really necessary from a performance standpoint, placing the filter - which was constructed on the lid of the Hammond 1590D box - into the box itself causes the filter to detune slightly due to proximity to the enclosure's walls: The shielding on the sides of the large coils - and the bars across the top - "simulated" the filter being within the die-cast box and almost eliminated the effect, but still allowed access to permit adjustment if the large coils.
To be clear: This should NOT be your first band-pass filter as it is VERY tricky to adjust - and you MUST have available a scalar and/or vector network analyzer to properly adjust it! If both of these do not apply to you it is suggested that you obtain help - or prepare to get this gear and pull your hair out during adjustment!
Did it work?
The answer is Yes. This filter offers over 20dB of attenuation below 6.9 MHz and above 7.4 MHz and between careful adjustment of the receive system gain (e.g. just enough signal to comfortably "hear" the noise floor during the quietest part of the day) and the attenuation of the 41 meter signals, overload on the 40 meter receivers on the Northern Utah WebSDR server #4 no longer occurs: If you wish, you can check it yourself, particularly during the evening "gray line" hours when sunset is sweeping across North America at sdrutah.org.
This page stolen from ka7oei.blogspot.com
[End]