Below are the notes relating to the installation of the IFace interface inside the Yaesu FT-891 by IU7RAM Piero. In general, this work is done to be able to extract an IF signal from the radio reception chain so that it can be used to make an SDR panadapter and add an external SDR receiver. The application scheme is shown in the following image.
The signal to be sent to the external SDR receiver is taken immediately after the first receiving mixer and the frequency to which it will be tuned will be 69.450 MHz.
The RF signal at the mixer output is taken at the point shown in the following image.
The task of the IFace buffer card is to provide the power needed to correctly drive the external SDR receiver circuits: in practice, an impedance adaptation occurs between the mixer circuitry and that of the receiver. In general, the intensities of the signals of interest are small fractions of mW. During transmission, however, the powers are in the order of tens of W or even more, and this can be a problem for the external receiver, especially if it is working in isofrequency with the radio. Therefore, it is generally good to use the PTT signal to disable the buffer, a unique feature of the IFace, but this is not the case as the reception and transmission signals have different paths.
The following image shows where to take the IF signal.
Below are some pictures of the installation done by IU7RAM.
The following three images are from a first quick test during which it was verified that both the radio and the interface were working correctly.
As for the IF signal, it is worth noting that the use of a coaxial cable to connect the IFace input to the mixer output is not recommended. Its use involves the addition of a parasitic capacitance in parallel to the circuits downstream of the mixer with consequent degradation of the signal. Instead, it is good practice to use a small conductor, possibly very short, to reduce the aforementioned parasitic capacitance to a minimum.
This image shows how to connect the IF signal to the IFace. A thin conductor (0.14 mm) coated in green plastic material is used. As already highlighted (repetita iuvant), it is not recommended to use a coaxial cable because it introduces a non-negligible capacity in parallel to the components of the mixer circuit and would modify its performance. The coaxial cable can instead be safely used as an output from the IFace.
A small hole was drilled in the back of the radio to attach the SMA-f connector. Once the work is completed, the result is shown in this short video.
To purchase an IFace you can use the following buttons.
ATTENTION: Although the installation of IFace 2 is not difficult, it is done at your own risk. TSP S.r.l. is not responsible for any damage, unwanted side effects, or anything else.
Below are the notes relating to the installation of the IFace interface inside the Kenwood TS-440S by IK2TIF Fabio. In general this work is done in order to be able to extract an IF signal from the radio reception chain so that it can be used to make an SDR panadapter and add an external SDR receiver. The application scheme is shown in the following image.
The signal to be sent to the external SDR receiver is picked up immediately after the first receiving mixer and the frequency it will be tuned to will be 45.05 MHz.
The RF signal at the mixer output is taken between the transformer T3 and the anode of the diode D26.
The task of the IFace buffer card is to supply the necessary power in order to correctly drive the circuits of the external SDR receiver: in general, the intensities of the signals of interest are small fractions of mW. During transmission, on the other hand, there are powers of the order of tens of W or even more, and this can be a problem for the external receiver, especially if it is working in isofrequency with the radio. Therefore it is good to use the PTT signal to disable the buffer, a unique feature of the IFace. It is therefore necessary to identify the point inside the radio where to take this signal. Nothing could be easier, the TXB signal is present on the J1 connector and this is active high only during transmission.
Having to supply power, the IFace must also be suitably powered. From connector J6 it is possible to obtain the necessary potential difference from pins 14J and GND.
Below are some images useful for identifying the points on the RF UNIT where to intervene to take the various signals: IF, PTT and power supply. As for the IF signal, it should be noted that even IK2TIF has not used a coaxial cable to connect the IFace input to the mixer output. In this way it is possible to minimize, also thanks to a very short connection, the parasitic capacitance which is placed in parallel with the mixer output. If this were not negligible, there would be a strong attenuation of the IF signal and a general degradation of the receiver’s performance.
This image shows how to connect the IF signal to the IFace. A thin conductor (0.14 mm) covered in plastic material is used. As already highlighted, it is not recommended to use a coaxial cable because it introduces a non-negligible capacitance in parallel with the components of the mixer circuit and would modify their performance. The coaxial cable can instead be safely used as an output from the IFace.
The power cable of the card is shown in red and the following two images are related to the installation in the TS-440S.
The PTT signal enters the IFace via a thin yellow wire placed in parallel directly in the connector.
The IFace board can be fixed to an RF circuit cover plate: be careful not to short-circuit some contacts located on the underside of the board (you can use double-sided tape).
Infini you connect the external SDR receiver and start the software. The following images show the TS-440S and the SDR software screen.
In the image above it is very clear the number of stations that can be received and displayed in the waterfall of the SDR radio. The excellent installation carried out by IK2TIF is evident from the absence of unwanted signals and artifacts in the spectrum.
To purchase an IFace you can use the following buttons.
ATTENTION: Although the installation of IFace 2 is not difficult, it is done at your own risk. TSP S.r.l. is not responsible for any damage, unwanted side effects, or anything else.
In a previous article we presented how to install the IFace card inside the Kenwood TS-2000 in order to obtain the IF signal of all bands so that it can be sent to an external SDR. Now let’s see how to get the IF signal for the 23 cm band. Installation is very easy.
The TS-2000, like other radios, has a fairly complex configuration and uses different intermediate frequencies depending on the band on which you are operating. In any case, the one described here is the sequence of operations to be performed to obtain a bandwidth sufficient to provide a panoramic receiver around the IF frequency relative to the 23 cm band (1.2 GHz).
The point where to take the IF signal can be identified more precisely through the wiring diagram as shown in the following images. The electronic board of interest is the one called TX-RX3 and the signal can be taken from the CN8 connector.
The point where to take the IF signal on the TX-RX3 UNIT is indicated in the following image.
For the sake of completeness, a detail of the point where to take the power supply for the IFace card is also indicated.
PTT: This is not required for the TS-2000 as the reception circuit is muted during transmission.
You can purchase IFace 2 using one of the buttons below.
ATTENTION: Though installing the IFace is not difficult, you do this at your own risk. TSP S.r.l. is not responsible for any damage, unwanted side-effects or whatever.
For more information do not hesitate to write us. Have fun!
Let’s see how to install the IFace board inside the ICom IC-7300 in order to obtain an RF signal to be sent to an external SDR. In this way we will be able to have a second SDR receiver (and panadapter) that works in parallel to our radio and uses the same antenna. Obviously it will be active in reception only and on the same band in which the radio is operating as we will exploit the band filters of our RTX to improve the performance of our external receiver. Installation is very easy.
The IC-7300 has a direct sampling SDR architecture and therefore there are no mixers like in superheterodyne receivers. In this way we will go to sample the RF signal to be sent to our external SDR receiver upstream of the A / D converter of our Icom. By doing so we will have that the external receiver will work on the same band as the 7300, so during the transmission we will have to try to attenuate the transmitted signal as much as possible so as not to have a rather annoying RF return (it is possible, however, that a small part arrives equally to be received by the external SDR). For this purpose we will use the PTT+ input of the IFace board to disable the buffer.
The signals to be sent to the IFace are shown in the following image: 8V power supply, PTT+ and RF signal.
The points on the PCB where to take the signals are shown below.
L’utilizzo del segnale relativo all’ingresso PTT+ per la scheda IFace è consigliato per ottenere un migliore isolamento del ricevitore esterno durante la trasmissione.
You can by IFace 2 simply making click on the buttons below.
ATTENTION: Though installing the IFace is not difficult, you do this at your own risk. TSP S.r.l. is not responsible for any damage, unwanted side-effects or whatever.
For more information do not hesitate to write us. Have fun!
In two previous articles we have seen how to install the IFace card inside the Kenwood TS-2000 to obtain the IF signal of the HF and 50 MHz bands and of the VHF and UHF bands to be sent to an external SDR. Now let’s see how to get another single IF signal for all bands, including 23cm (1.2 GHz). Installation is very easy.
The result you can obtain is well shown in the following video.
The TS-2000, like other radios, has a fairly complex configuration and uses different intermediate frequencies depending on the band on which you are operating. There is the possibility of taking an IF signal at a single frequency (10,695 MHz) valid for all bands. This involves a reduction in the width of the displayable spectrum as the IF signal will have passed through some IF band filters. In any case, the one described here is the sequence of operations to be performed to obtain a bandwidth sufficient to create a panoramic receiver around the IF frequency relating to all the bands on which the radio can operate.
However, the displayable spectrum depends on the sampling frequency of the SDR receiver, not on IFace.
The point where to take the IF signal can be identified more precisely through the wiring diagram as shown in the following images. The electronic card of interest is the one called TX-RX UNIT and the signal can be taken among R111, C166 and C167.
Now we have to look for where to take the power supply: power can be taken from the CN 29 connector, signal 14S or 8A.
The points on the PCB where to take the signals are shown below.
PTT: for the TS-2000 it is not required because the reception circuit is automatically muted during transmission.
You can by IFace 2 simply making click on the buttons below.
ATTENTION: Though installing the IFace is not difficult, you do this at your own risk. TSP S.r.l. is not responsible for any damage, unwanted side-effects or whatever.
For more information do not hesitate to write us. Have fun!
The operations to be carried out are very simple, it is sufficient to obtain from its wiring diagram the information on the points where the IF signal has to be taken. This radio uses more than one mixer. The IF frequency of the first one is 45.03 MHz and our SDR panadapter will be tuned to this. The following image shows the block diagram of the radio and where to get the IF signal.
The following images show the portions of the schematic diagram of the RF UNIT where we can see the exact points where to sample the IF signal, the PTT+ (active high) and the power supply.
We now proceed to identify the exact points on the printed circuit board where to take the IF signal to be sent to the IFace. The following images show the sampling point for the IF signal, for the PTT+, and for the power supply for the buffer interface.
The use of PTT signal is required because some circuitry is shared between the TX and the RX signal paths.
In order to buy an IFace use the buttons below.
ATTENTION: Though installing the IFace is not difficult, you do this at your own risk. TSP S.r.l. is not responsible for any damage, unwanted side-effects or whatever.
For more information, do not hesitate to write to us using the form below. Have fun!
The operations to be carried out are very simple, it is sufficient to obtain from its wiring diagram the information on the points where the IF signal has to be taken. This radio uses more than one mixer. The IF frequency of the first one is 47.12 MHz and our SDR panadapter will be tuned to this. The following image shows the block diagram of the radio and where to get the IF signal.
The following images show the portions of the schematic diagram of the IF UNIT where we can see the exact points where to sample the IF signal and the power supply.
We now proceed to identify the exact points on the printed circuit board where to take the IF signal to be sent to the IFace. The following images show the sampling point for the IF signal and for the power supply for the buffer interface.
The use of PTT signal is not required, this is a receiver.
In order to buy an IFace use the buttons below.
ATTENTION: Though installing the IFace is not difficult, you do this at your own risk. TSP S.r.l. is not responsible for any damage, unwanted side-effects or whatever.
For more information, do not hesitate to write to us using the form below. Have fun!
The operations to be carried out are very simple, it is sufficient to obtain from its wiring diagram the information on the points where the IF signal has to be taken. This radio uses one mixer only for the receptio. The IF frequency is 10.7 MHz and our SDR panadapter will be tuned to this. The following image shows the block diagram of the radio and where to get the IF signal.
The following images show the portions of the schematic diagram of the IF UNIT where we can see the exact points where to sample the IF signal and the power supply.
We now proceed to identify the exact points on the printed circuit board where to take the IF signal to be sent to the IFace. The following images show the sampling point for the IF signal and for the power supply for the buffer interface.
The use of PTT signal is not required, RX and TX signals are separated.
In order to buy an IFace use the buttons below.
ATTENTION: Though installing the IFace is not difficult, you do this at your own risk. TSP S.r.l. is not responsible for any damage, unwanted side-effects or whatever.
For more information, do not hesitate to write to us using the form below. Have fun!
Below are the notes relating to the installation of the IFace interface inside the Kenwood TS-870S of IZ0ABD Francesco. In general, this work is carried out to be able to extract an IF signal from inside the radio so that it can be used to create an SDR panadapter. In general, the application scheme is shown in the following image.
In this case, however, the installation to extract the IF after the first receiving mixer produced unsatisfactory results as, as stated by the manufacturer, the nominal output frequency varies as the filter settings vary. In practice, by varying the width of the IF filters there is a shift in the IF frequency and this complicates demodulation by SDR (each shift in frequency of the RF signal results in a corresponding variation of the BF one – at least for most of the modulations).
For this reason, another strategy was adopted, thus taking the signal to be sent to the SDR receiver immediately before the first reception mixer. Obviously, in this way, the IF signal is not taken but the RF signal, even if suitably filtered by the radio band filters. Refer to the following images for the details of this operation. The use of the IFace card is always necessary as we cannot connect a low impedance load (50 Ohm) in parallel to the radio circuits, a buffer is required.
The RF signal arriving from the antenna is taken upstream of a low-pass filter: from the following diagram, it is possible to identify the exact point where the input of the IFace board will be connected. This is located downstream of diodes D38, D39, and D41 and upstream of the LPF circuit consisting of components L57, C154, C155, and others.
The task of the IFace buffer card is to deliver the power needed to drive the SDR receiver circuits correctly: in general, the intensities of the signals of interest are small fractions of mW. During transmission, on the other hand, there are powers of the order of W or even more, and this can be a problem for the external receiver, especially now that it is working in isofrequency with the radio. Therefore it is good to use the PTT signal to disable the buffer, a unique feature of the IFace. It is therefore necessary to identify the point inside the radio where to take this signal. Nothing could be easier, the TX8 signal is present on the CN7 connector and this is active only during transmission.
Having to supply power, the IFace must also be adequately powered. From connector CN13 it is possible to obtain the voltage required by pins 14S and GND.
Below are some images useful to identify the points on the RF UNIT where to take the various signals: RF, PTT, and power supply.
This image shows how to connect the RF signal from the RF UNIT to the IFace. A thin (0.14 mm) conductor covered in yellow plastic is used. As highlighted, it is not recommended to use a coaxial cable because it introduces a not negligible capacitance in parallel to the components of the LPF 30 MHz circuit and would modify their performance.
The power cable of the board is shown in red and in the following two images it is highlighted where to draw the necessary energy.
The PTT signal is available on the CN7 connector. You can recognize it because it is the one on the side of the IF filter for the SSB and comes to it via an orange conductor. What we have to do is bring this signal to the IFace and it has been done by means of a thin conductor (also in this case yellow in color) placed in parallel directly in the connector (the terminal has been removed from its housing, the thin metal wire wound on it and then reinserted).
At this point, the PTT is connected to the corresponding input on the IFace. Pay attention to which of the three pins is used, the central one is relative to the high active PTT, the left one (in the photo) is relative to the low active PTT, the third is the return to the ground (GND).
In the photographs in the following image you can also see where the IFace board is fixed (on the metal covering the RF UNIT – double-sided adhesive was used) and the SMA-f connector for output of the RF signal. To this comes the output signal through a thin coaxial cable terminated, on the opposite side, with a U.FL connector. The specific PCB connector has been soldered to the IFace (both are supplied in the corresponding kit if purchased).
Finally, this image shows that when you press the PTT on the microphone, the corresponding LED on the IFace lights up (it is the one in red).
It should be noted that this installation involves the isofrequency use of the external SDR receiver. This means that we will have our software set up to receive exactly what the radio is receiving, whereas if we made it work on the IF we would have different settings and also a different functioning. In fact, it has been verified that the IFace buffer correctly disables the flow of energy during transmission, but despite this, the external SDR receiver still picks up a good amount of RF signal (not from the IFace but directly from the environment in which it is located) and must force adjust its gain control circuits by reducing it by a lot. This, returning to reception, has repercussions in a short period (about 1s) in which the SDR receiver is desensitized, then the AGC does its duty and everything returns to normal. Working in IF all this does not happen because the transmission frequency of the radio is different from that of reception of our SDR.
Below are a couple of screenshots related to using HDSDR and an RSP1 to realize the panadapter function together with the TS-870S.
The image above highlights the settings to be used. You can see the use of decimation (very important) and that the SDR receiver works exactly in isofrequency, not on IF.
The image above shows, for those who are curious, which band is visible on the panadapter with the settings shown above.
To purchase an IFace you can use the following buttons.
ATTENTION: Although the installation of IFace 2 is not difficult, it is done at your own risk. TSP S.r.l. is not responsible for any damage, unwanted side effects, or anything else.
The operations to be carried out are really very simple, it is sufficient to obtain from its wiring diagram the information on the points where to take the RF signals. In this case, in fact, we will not pick up the IF signal because this radio has such an architecture that the IF frequency is not constant but varies as the working conditions vary. So what we will get is a replica of the signal arriving from the antenna, suitably filtered by the band filters. The frequency that we will tune with our SDR receiver will be the same as that of the radio and not that of the IF. The following image shows the block diagram of the radio and where to take the IF signal.
The following images show the exact points in the wiring diagram where to take the RF signal, power supply and PTT. This is required to limit the RF signal entering the SDR panadapter during transmission.
The points on the PCB where to connect the IFace board are shown below: the RF signal, the power supply and the PTT are required: do not forget the return to GND of the power supply (which can also be obtained from the coaxial connector if in contact with the radio chassis).
The use of the PTT signal is required in order to disable the buffer as the SDR receiver will be tuned to the same transmission frequency and it is therefore necessary to protect it from signal excesses.
In order to buy an IFace use the buttons below.
ATTENTION: Though installing the IFace is not difficult, you do this at your own risk. TSP S.r.l. is not responsible for any damage, unwanted side-effects or whatever.
For more information, do not hesitate to write to us using the form below. Have fun!
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NEWS July 18, 2024 A Telegram group is now available through which you can interact to get faster responses from other customers or, if necessary, from TSP Srl.
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NOVITA' 18 Luglio 2024
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