Wednesday 9 September 2020

Housing the DB6NT 47GHz Transverter

 Having bought a DB6NT 47GHz transverter last year I decided it was time to use it, especially as I had a pair of W1GHZ horns that would avoid the need for a T/R relay.

Finding a big enough waterproof box for the xverter module was an issue but one was eventually found that was a close fit. It mounted fine in the box but the SMA plugs on the ends made it too long. Using a dremmel some of the inside walls of the box  were removed and it just fitted, even if the SMA plugs could not be unscrewed in situ!

The transverter was mounted "labels down" on flat base of the box with holes made to line up with the TX and RX waveguide ports

The local oscillator was mounted directly on the base of the box alongside the transverter. As the 47GHz portion of the band used in the UK is 47088 MHz and the transverter has a 144MHz IF the local oscillator was programmed for 11736 MHz. which is one of the available pre-programmed frquencies

The box was fitted with a an N type socket for the IF and a TNC socket for the 10MHz reference. A 3 pin XLR was used for the 12V power. A power LED,  lock LED and transmit LED were fitted.

The transverter has an RF output power Indication  which was connected up to my usual LM3914 and 10 LED bargraph indicator. Initially this was mounted inside the box on the local oscillator but it was found after its first outing to be more useful if visible from the outside ao a hole was filed and the unit mounted



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