Programmable RF sig gen

[John Miles, KE5FX]

On Saturday, July 6, 2019 at 12:49:14 PM UTC-7, John Miles, KE5FX wrote:

For USB control, you might take a look at the Valon synthesizer hardware
at https://www.valonrf.com/rf-products.html . He's just down the road
from you in Redwood City. I have a few of the Valon modules around here and
can recommend them. Good bang:buck ratio. Not as cheap as the latest shaky
Shenzhen specials on eBay, but much nicer hardware.

Actually, scratch that, the Valon modules only go down to 10 MHz. 1 MHz-
3 GHz is a tougher requirement because none of the off-the-shelf PLL/VCO
chips go that low.

On third thought, if you bought one of the 5009 modules, you could just
leave one of the channels set to 6 GHz and drive a ZX05-153LH-S+ or
similar mixer with it, with the other channel tuned to 3000-5999. Depends
on how clean the output needs to be. There will be plenty of spurs, but if
you want to spend more time and less money you can dodge them in software.

-- john, KE5FX

 

[Lasse Langwadt Christense]

fredag den 28. juni 2019 kl. 17.55.05 UTC+2 skrev John Larkin:

I'm thinking about a new product line that will need a sinewave input
signal in the 1 MHz to 3 GHz range. 0 dBm should do.

We can test initial units manually, with a big signal generator, but
if the idea is successful we'll want to automate testing. So can
anyone recommend an affordable programmable signal source? Super low
phase noise is not important.

There are some cute little USB boxes around; I just want a
recommendation for one that people like.

We'd talk to it from a big Python program that talks to other
instruments too.

it will only go down to 12.5MHz, but ..

https://youtu.be/I6iSovdd1Nc