Bob Wilder W4NVH

Route 4, Box 230-Z

Theodore AL 36582
- - part I: bandplan and crystal info
CB to 10--
Fig. 1. NOTES: * >= Channels 1 through 10 and channels 17 through 23 in the CWsegment are
not authorized at this time for Novice or Technician class use. ** >= Channels 17 through 23 in
the SSB segment are the same frequencies as channels] through 6 and channel 8 of the AM
segment.
28.505
28.515
28.525
28.545
28.555
28.565
28.575
28.595
28.605
28.615
28.625
28.645
28.655
28.665
28.675
28.695
28.705**
28.715**
28.725**
28.745 **
28.755--
28.765**
28.795**
gest some standard blocks of
channels (frequencies) that
could be used to increase the
effectiveness of these low
powered rigs. With both the
Novice and Technician class
license holders on 10 meter
CW, it can be seen that there
28.705
28.715
28.725
28.745
28.755
28.765
28.775
28.795
28.805
28.815
28.825
28.845
28.855
28.865
28.875
28.895
28.905
28.915
28.925
28.945
28.955
28.965
28.995
Converted Ten Meter Frequencies
AM Phone sse Phone
Frequen cy (MHz) Frequency (MHz)
idea of getting low power
transceivers to work is to
establish some simple ground
rules. If every person con-
vert ing a CB rig for 10 meters
picks frequencies at random,
very little acti vit y will result .
I would like to t herefore sug-
Origina l Novi ce/Tech
Channel Frequency (MHz ) Frequency (MHz)
1 26.965 28.005*
2 26.975 28.015 *
3 26.985 28.025*

27.005 28.045*
5 27.015 28.055
6 27.025 28.065*
7 27.035 28.075*
8 27.055 28.095
9 27.065 28. 105
10 27.075 28.115
11 27.085 28.125
12 27.105 28.145
13 27.115 28.155
1. 27. 125 28. 165
15 27.135 28. 175
16 27. 155 28.195
17 27. 165 28.205"
18 27.175 28.215"
19 27. 185 28.225*
20 27.205 28.245 *
21 27.215 28.255*
22 27.225 28.265*
23 27.255 28.295*
A Legal Alternative
fut ure. Now is the t ime to
drag out t hat old 11 meter rig
and convert it to 10 met ers
on crystal controlled channels
t hat could become standard
all over the country.
The first thing t hat has t o
be done to make the whole
F
or some time now, there
has been an ever-grow-
ing concern over the outcome
of the ten meter band. The
ham use of the band has
dropped over the past several
years due to sunspot activity
to a point where other ser-
vices, mainly Citizens Band,
feel that the frequencies
could be put to better use. I
remember when 1 used to
work into Europe daily with
five Watts and a dipole on CW
and AM, and even into ZL
and VK land after I got up a
3 element "plumber 's de-
light " beam.
The sunspot cycle, though
probably not as good as t he
one back in the late 1940' s, is
about to open t he band up
again. Many groups are pres-
ently getting ready for better
act ivity on ten with the estab-
lishment of nets and even
new repeaters.
The above is the whole
idea behind this article: an
easy way to get back on 10
meters with low power with
a small outlay of cash.
When the FCC announced
that they were increasing the
Citi zens Band from 23 chan-
nels to the current 40 chan-
nels effective January 1,
1977, the prices started to
drop on the 23 channel units.
If indications here apply to
t he country as a whole, a lot
of hams started picking up
these cheap rigs with the idea
of first going on CB in their
cars to keep track of t raffi c,
and secondly, someday con-
verting the CB rig for use on
other bands, namely 10
meters.
Also, there seems t o be a
large influx of former CBers
giving up the ranks of CB and
going on to amateur radio.
Over 80% of the new hams in
the Mobile, Alabama, area are
former CBers who wanted to
get away from the QRM on
11 meters. Most of these
former CBers stil l have their
old CB rigs stored away in
their junk boxes. They have
picked up the ham habit of
never throwing away any-
thing that might be usable
some time in the far distant
106
28 .505 MHz Output Used To Show Example of Crystal Frequency
Transmit Crystal Frequency Transceive Crystal Frequency
(Both Transmit and Recetvel
PART II
ORIGINAL CRYSTAL FREQUENCIES FOR CB OPERATION
Fig. 2. NOTE: With this many different i-f combinations being
used, it is necessary that exact specifications of the transceiver
to be converted are known.
F 28 .505 MHz F 501 0 23.495 MHz
1- 14.25250 MHz F + 50 10 33.51 5 MHz
.
3 9.5016667 MHz F -l 0000 18.505 MHz
.z,
4 7.126250 MHz F + 5995 34.500 MHz
F + 6200 34.705 MHz
F + 10635 39.140 MHz
F -456
12.52450 MHz
.E..!pll
12.41 833 MHz
F - 10700
3 5.935 MHz
Receiye Crystal Frequency
F - 265 28.240 MHz F 455 28 .050 MHz
F + 455 28.960 MHz F 1365 27.140 MHz
F + 1650 30.155 MHz F- 1650 26.855 MHz
F + 1680 30.185 MHz F - 1750 26.755 MHz
F - 1755 26.750 MHz F2310 26. 195 MHz
F - 3580 24.925 MHz F + 4000 32.505 MHz
F + 4300 32.805 MHz F + 4224 32.730 MHz
F - 4455 24.050 MHz F 5500 23.005 MHz
F + 6000 34.505 MHz F 6000 22.505 MHz
F 6500 22.005 MHz F + 6685 35.190 MHz
F + 7500 36.005 MHz F + 8000 36.505 MHz
F - 10000 18.505 MHz F + 10700 39.205 MHz
F - 20635 7.870 MHz F 23505 5.000 MHz
31955 - F 3.450 MHz F - 455
2 14 .025 MHz
f + 455
2 14.480 MHz F - 4 55
3 9.350 MHz
F - 455
4 7.0125 MHz F + 1650
2 15.0775 MHz
F + 1640
3 10.048333 MHz
quency. This t ype of trans-
ceiver can be modified for use
on 10 meters, but the ex
pense would probabl y be
more t han buying or buil ding
a si mple 10 meter transmitter
and simple conve rter for use
with an existing receiver. The
possibility of building a si m-
ple VFO to replace the
crystals in t he t ransmitter and
receiver sections of t his type
of transceiver would solve the
problem of the large numbers
of crystals needed.
Th er e are two ot her
Channel Numbers
123-4
5-67-8
9-10-11-12
13-141 516
17-18-1920
2122-23
1-4
5-8
9-12
13-16
17-20
21-23
1-4
5-8
9-12
13-16
17-20
21-23
1-4
5-8
9-12
13-16
1720
21-23
1-4
5-8
9-12
1316
17-20
21-23
See Note 1
See Note 2
See Note 3
See Note 4
See Note 4
See Note 3
See Note 2
See Note 1
See Note 1
See Note 2
See Note 3
See Note 4
See Note 1
See Note 2
See Note 3
See Note 4
See Note 1
See Note 2
See Note 3
See Not e 4
See Note 1
See Note 2
See Note 3
See Note 4
Transmit (TX}
Heceive (AX)
See Note 4
See Note 3
See Note 2
See Note 1
LS8
A M and USB
AX Oscillator
All Frequencies
23.290
23.340
23.390
23.440
23.490
23.540
37 .600
37 .650
37.700
37.750
37.800
37.850
11.705
11.755
11.805
11.855
11.905
11 .955
8. 159
8. 209
8.259
8.309
8.359
8.409
11.740
11 .790
11.840
11.890
11.940
11.990
14.950
14.960
14.970
14.990
10.595
10.615
10.625
10.635
7.4585
7.4685
7.4785
7.4985
7.46 15
7.47 15
7.4815
7.501 5
11.0035
11.01 35
11.0235
11.0435
7.4225
7.4325
7.4425
7.4625
11.275
11.730
10.140
10.160
10.1 70
10.1 80
7.8015
7.7985
7.3435
7.8025
Crystal Frequency
(MHz)
(USB)
A
o
H (LSB)
E
8
F
c
G
K
L
J
M
o
N
Crystal
are fairl y broad. To fulfil l the
requirement of being channel
selectable without being tun-
able by t he operator, most
CB ri gs on t he market t oday
wi ll give close to 4 Watts
out put at both ext remes of
frequency, t hat is, at chan-
nell and channel 23.
Afte r revi ewing t he crystal
requirements of over 1200
different CB t ransceivers, I
was able t o arrive at the
common configurat ion for
both transmit and receive
crystal s. Every tr ansceiver re-
viewed fell into one of t he
configurat ions shown in Fig.
2, where " F" indicates t he
output frequency desired.
The frequency combina-
tions shown in Fi g. 2 are for
CB tr ansceivers t hat use a
single crystal for each trans-
mit channel and anot her
crystal fo r each received fre-
must be a block of channels
t hat t hey can use when t hey
convert a CB rig to CWopera-
t ion. There is unwritten use
of SSB only on t he low fre-
quency end of t he 10 meter
phone band, so t he SS B CB
rigs that are converted should
have a block and, of course,
the bulk of t he converted CB
rigs, being inexpensive AM
rigs, wil l need t hei r channel
allocations. Fi g. 1 lists all
three of the groups of 23
channels that could be used.
The very nat ure of the
basic CB transceiver makes
this ty pe unit one of t he
simplest to convert t o t en
meter operation. In the case
of other types of low power
surplus equipment that has
been avai lable in the past, t he
tunab le stages have been fair-
ly narrow, but in t he case of
t he CB rig, the t uned stages
107
PART III
CONVERSION FACTORS FOR 10 METER OPERATION
Fig. 3. NOTES: 1 = Channels 1, 5, 9, 13, 17, and 21, 2 = Channels 2, 6, 70, 14, 18, and 22. 3 =
Channels 3, 7, 1" 15, and 79. 4 = Channels 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, and 23.
PART I
See Part III for Crystal Formula
Manufacturer Model Numbers Shift Tx/RX Main OSC
B & K (Cobra) 19,21&29 L F A
B & K (Cobra) 130,1 31 & 132 LSB N H C
USB N I C
8 & K (cobra! 138 & 139 0 J D
8 & K (Cobra) 132A & 1328 LSB N H C
USB N I C
Pace 123A M G B
Pace (SS81 10008, l000M 0 K
,
Pace CB 143, CB-144 M G B
Midland 13-8808, 13885 LSB N H C
USB N I C
Midland 13-895 0 J 0
Realist ic TAC-238, TRC-40, TRC-49 M G B
Roby n T1238 L F A
Robyn T123C, K-123 M G B
AMGTVII
Royce 1-602 M G B
L"'1 0.235 MHl TX L"'9.735 MHl TX L"'9.535 MHz TX
L"'10.690 MHz AX L-10.190 MHz AX L=9.990 MHz AX
(Frequency groups A & F remain the same)
TX '" 38240 - Freq. of l ow end.
AX " 38240 - Freq. of l ow end + 455 kHz
H=8498.5 kHz H=899.5 kHz H"'9198.5 kHz
(Frequency groups N & C remain the same)
H '" Low end frequency minus 19506.5 kHz
1=8501 .5 kHl 1"9001. 5 kHz 1=9201.5 kHz
(Frequency groups N & C remain the same)
0 '" Lowend f requency minus 19162.5 kHz
B-38640 kHz 0 =39140 kHz 8'"39340 kHz
(Fr equency groups M & G remain the same)
+ 1040 kHz + 1540 kHz + 1740 kHz
The above is t he frequency " 8" must be raised f or
each frequency group f or operat ion in the 10 meter
band.
0 "8842.5 kHz 0 =9342.5 kHz 0=9542.5 kHz
{ Fr equency groups K & E remain the same}
0 = Low end frequency minus 19162.5 kHz
1000B, or the Pace 10QOM
should prove fi ne choices for
conversion to 10 meter SSB.
In each of t hese, t he origi nal
7.8025 MHz crystal is the
only crystal that needs to be
changed. It seems logical t hat
a multiple deck crystal
switch/socket package could
be used. This arrangement
would allow several 23 chan-
nel arrangements over t he 10
me ter SSB segment. For ex-
ample: Selection of the lower
end frequencies of 28503
kHz, 28505 kHz, 28507 kHz,
and 2851 0 kHz would require
only 4 crystal s for a total of
92 channels betwee n 28503
kHz and 28800 kHz.
There are several linear
amplifiers on t he mar ket to-
day which are smaller t han
most CB t ransceivers and
have output of 50 to 100
Watts. Of cou rse, most of
these units are rated as 3 to
30 MHz " ham" amplifiers
which act ually only work
well between 26 and 30 MHz.
These small amplifiers could
be used to increase the mo-
bile or fixed capability of the
con verted transceiver.
The final t ype of CB trans-
ceiver that can be modi fied
for 10 meters is the PLL
type. These are more expen-
sive t han t he ot her t wo types
for several reasons. The PLL
is the easiest t o modify by
the CBer for operat ion on
frequencies ot her than the 23
or 40 channels for which the
uni t was built. This type of
unit is th e easiest for the
manufacturer to convert t o
40 channel operat ion. This
ease is, of course, t he major
reason that t his ty pe of trans-
ceiver lends itself to mod ifi ca-
tion t o the 10 meter ham
band.
I have selected 8 different
models of PLL t ransceivers
that are avai lable to show
what can be done to modify
this type of t ransceiver for 10
meter use. Fi g. 4 lists t he PL L
transceivers and the crystals
that are presently used for
generation of t he necessary
signals for 11 meter CB oper-
at ion.
By referring t o t he original
frequ encies of th e CB t rans-
(see Fig. 1)
28.705 MHl
The crystal combinat ions
listed in Fig. 3 are exampl es
of some that will be encoun-
tered when trying to shift an
eleven meter CB transceiver
to the 10 meter band. I have
found that the simplest way
to calculate the frequencies
needed is to use only channel
1 to determine a si mple for-
mula. Once a formula is ob-
tained, each crystal frequency
can be found. The best way
to select which oscill ator you
want t o shift is to select t he
one that requires the least
number of crystal s to make
up the greatest number of
frequenci es.
The Cobra 138, Cobra
139, Midland 13-895, Pace
plete schematic and parts li st
for the unit from the manu-
facturer or one of the CB
service type books on the
market listing your t rans-
ceiver. Though the synthe-
sized t ype is cheaper to mod-
ify than the type using crys-
tals for each frequency, there
could be problems in obt ain-
ing the necessary informati on
to determine the crystals
needed.
In Fig. 3, I have listed
several of the more common
synthesized units available
and crystal data necessary to
convert the uni ts to 10
meters. Fig. 3 is divided into
3 parts for ease of under-
standing.
Low"t Frequency for Channell
28.005 MHz 28.505 MHz
MG B
OK '
N H C LS8
L F A
N I C US8/AM
From Part I
Key Letter Sequence
groups of transceivers avail-
able on the market at th e
present that could be mod-
ified. First of these is t he
synthesi zed uni ts which use
combinations of a small num-
ber of crystals to obtain all of
the transmit and receive fre-
quencies desired. The second
class of transceiver avail able is
the phase locked loop or
PLL type that uses very few
crystals and digital frequency
generation to obtain the fre-
quenci es needed.
The combinations used for
the synthesi zed units are al-
most without limit. When
converting a transceiver of
this t ype, it would be of
necessity t o obtain a com-
lOB
celvers as listed in Fig. 1,
various shifts in osci llator fre-
quencies Can be obtai ned.
The intent of this article is
not to give a step-by-step
conversion of CB transceivers
t o 10 meters, but instead
only t o tell what can be done
wi t h the available units on
t he market.
ln t he case of the PLL
t ranscei ver, it will become a
matter of experimentation to
determine the exact fre-
quencies needed. I recom-
mend that anyone attempting
to convert a PLL transceiver
become very famil iar with
PLL ci rcuits in general. In the
type of transcei ver requiring
o nly crystal changes t o
change the out put frequency,
Manufacturer
Pace
Teaberry
Teaberry
Standard
SBE
Palomar
Royce
Real istic
Model
CB166
Stal ker One
Stalker Two
Hor i zon 29
SBE26CB
Digicom 100
' 601
TRC57
Crystal Frequency
10.240 MHz
44.73 MHz
13.1325 MHz
7.8025 MHz
7.7975 MHz
10.00 MHz
Same as the Stal ker One
10.24 MHz
5.575 MHz
10.240 MHz
12.803 MHz
12.800 MHz
10.7 MHz
10.697 MHz
Ie 14 MHz
10.695 MHz
36.38 MHz
13. 1325 MHz
44.73 MHz
7.8025 MHz
7.7975 MHz
10.000 MHz
Ag. 4.
Oscillator Use
All Frequencies - Reference
AM OSC - RX
SS8 esc - RX
USB Carrier OSC
LSB Carrier OSC
REF esc
REF esc
Transmit
All Frequencies - Ref erence
USB REF esc
AM!LS8 REF esc
AM!LS8 Carrier esc
LSB Carri er esc
REF esc
10 MHz OSC
37 MHz OSC
13 MHz OSC
AM RX OSC
LSB OSC
USB esc
PLL REF esc
the processes are simple. In
the case of the PLL circuit,
the problems that can be en-
countered in digital develop-
ment of the frequencies
needed are best solved by the
more expert in the ham
ranks. The conversi on of a
PLL transceiver is not a pr o-
ject that should be tackled by
the new ham or one with
little or no knowl edge of
soli d state devices.
There are several th ings
that must be taken into ac-
count before you attempt
conversion of any CB trans'
ceiver for operation on the 10
meter band. Mainly these can
be grouped into a few simple
questions:
1. How much do I want
to spend if I have t o buy a
new or used CB transceiver?
2. Does the CB transceiver
I presentl y have lend itself to
easy and cheap conversion?
3. How much electronics
knowledge do I have to solve
the problems I will encou n-
ter?
4. Do I feel that 10
meters is worth all the effort
to convert a C8 rig to that
band?
If all of these quest ions
can be answered in such a
way to indicate that your
nex t project is to be the
conversi on of a CB trans-
ceiver for 10 meters, then get
started before the band starts
to open up for some rare
OX. -
Harry J. MilJer
991 42nd St.
Sarasota FL 33580
Save
Your Old Speakers
how to remove the beehive
wallop. In effect, you are
recentering a misaligned voice
coil. Result is usually a dear-
up of the rattle. -
where the scratch was heard.
Don't get over-ambitious with
pounding. A few li ghter raps
are far better than one hefty
- -
Then use a heavy rubber mal-
let to st rike the magnet end a
sharp blow or two at a point
directl y opposi te t o point
I
n the old days, service
techni cians did a lot of
speaker cone recentering to
clear up annoying ratt les,
which was at th e ti me a tedi-
ous but possible job.
Current speakers generally
make speakers throw-away,
due t o t hei r modern design,
so they' re " go or no go"
devices. There is, however, a
possible cure if the rattle is
due t o an off-eenter voice coil
and it 's a fast repair.
Remove the speaker. Hold
it close to your ear and
gentl y, with fingerti ps, alter-
natel y press and release t he
cone about an inch from the
rim toward the voice coil and
listen for scratchy sound.
Rotate the speaker while do-
ing this. If the speaker is
capable of this fast cure, you
will find the noise li mi ted to
one point on the circumfer-
ence. Carefully note that
point. Lay speaker on a solid
flat surface, with magnet up.
109
- - part II : conversion data
A Legal Alternative
Tobie 1. Frequency coverage of the $29.95 OX transceiver.
t wice the pr ice. There are 2
ICs, 12 diodes, and 15 t ransis-
tors in a double conversion
receiver and AM transmitter
configurat ion. The manufac-
t urer claims 0.5 microvolt
sensitivity at a 10 dB signal
plus noise to noise rat io. Pow-
er out put from the 2SC799 rf
amplifi er is listed at 4 Wat ts
and the spec sheet advert ises
90% modulation. Loaded, the
transmitter draws 1.4 Amps
at up to 13.8 vol ts (easi ly
obtainable from the cigarette
lighter in your car or from a
small ac supply). The rig has a
built-i n squelch circui t, but is
not equipped wit h an rf
tuning indicator or receiver
Smerer.
When the Citizens Band
was created in t he 1950' s, the
early rigs used 23 pairs of
crystals to t une bot h transmit
and receive on all 23 chan-
nels. Converting one of those
rigs t o 10 phone would cost a
small fortune t o crystal up,
but I was prepared to pay it
until Norm Lefcourt W61RT
mentioned that th e newer CB
rigs use crvstal plex, replacing
the old 46 crystals wi t h 14
new crystals and still covering
all 23 channels. Norm point-
ed out t hat by replacing the
six master oscillator rocks, I
could cover 23 frequencies
simplex on t he 10 meter band
wit h just a littl e tweaking of a
few L/C circuits. W6I RT,
WA6QPL, K6JUA, ot hers and
1 al l started working on the
conversion. K6HY, K6LJL
and WB6QKF helped with
advice.
It sounds pretty easy, but
there was a probl em - de-
ciding on which f requencies
on 10 phone t o use. The
phone portion of t he band is
gigant ic when compared to
the other HF bands, and we
wanted to pick a segment
where t here would be some
activi ty . We didn't want to
cause difficulties for other
services, yet at the same ti me
we wanted to stay near t he
low end so t hat retuni ng from
the CB frequencies would not
require a rewinding of coils.
Afte r an awful lot of discus-
sing on the landline and t wo
meter FM, we decided to stay
away from both the very top
end of the 10 phone segment
(because of OSCAR) and
from t he very bottom end,
too (because of the SSB DX
activity just above 28.5) . We
finall y settled on a starti ng
frequency of 28.76 MHz for
channel one, with the other
22 channels t uning upward
from there. The decision was
based on two practical con-
siderations: First, the pres-
39.495
39. 645
39.595
39.545
39.395
39.445
Mater Qs.cillator
Frequency
28.76
28.77
28.78
28.80
28 .81
28.82
28.83
28.85
28.86
28.87
28.88
28.90
28.91
28.92
28.93
28.95
28.96
28.97
28.98
29.00
29.01
29.02
29.05
Freque ncy IMHz)
- -
1
2
3

5
6
7
8

10
11
12
13
,.
15
16
17
18
" 20
21
22
23
10 Meter Cha nnel
t he FCC approved 40 channel
C8 for use after January 1,
1977. When a lot of manu-
facturers started dumping
their older model 23 channel
sets on t he market at bargain
prices, I got reinterested in
recycling a CB radio up onto
10 phone. 1 watched the ads
and fi nally bought a J. C.
Pen ney t ransceiver model
981 6201. It is a quali ty piece
of gear that usually sell s for
H
OW about a brand new
DX t ransceiver that's
rock stable, plugs into your
cigarette lighter, and tunes 23
frequenci es on 10 phone for
less than $30? Of course,
there are a couple of draw-
backs - power output 4
Watts, and an emission type
the sideband guys call An-
cient Modul ation - but those
probl ems are hardly worth
menti oning. Just ask any old-
timer who worked the peak
of the '46-'48 sunspot cycle.
You can do wonders wit h just
a few Watts on 10 phone, and
the technical specs on the
$29.95 transceiver make it a
superior performer t o what
was avai lable in 1946.
For several years, I' ve been
watching the want ads and
goi ng to swap meets in search
of the perfect junk C8 rig. I
had plans for picking up one
for just a few dollars, chang-
ing a few crystals and -
presto - getting on ten phone
quick and dirty. I never really
found what I wanted for a
cheap enough pri ce (CB SSB
was always too expcnsivel]
and I soon lost interest. And
besides, I was busy getting
onto two meter FM, plus I
didn't want to give up work-
ing the low bands on CW or
SSB. All of that was before
Alan S. Kaul W6RCL
9731 ~ d Avenue
Chatsworrh CA 91311
CB to 10
162

"
(f)
e
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\-
ence of the "10-10 club" net
on 28.8 (our channel 4) could
telt us very quickl y when the
band is open, and second,
because many home QTH rigs
only t une a si ngle 500 kHz
portion of t he 10 meter band,
choosing a frequency outside
t hat segment would mean
having t o do without a very
important piece of test gear -
the stat ion receiver.
The first 23 CB channels
start at 26.965 and end at
27.255. Channels 1, 2, and 3
are 10 kHz apart. but there
are 20 kHz between channels
3 and 4. Channel s 4, 5, 6, and
7 are ten kHz apart, but
between 7 and 8 there is
another jump of 20 kHz. The
cycle keeps repeating itself
every fourth channel until
channel 22, which is 10 kHz
higher than channel 21 but
30 kHz lower t han 23.
The J. C. Penney rig that I
bought and W61RT's Pub-
licom #1 use six master oscil-
lat or crys tals (37. 600,
37.650, 37.700, 37.750,
37.800, and 37.850), four
transmit crystals (10. 635.
10.625,10.615, and 10.595),
and four receive (10. 180,
10.170,10.160, and 10.1 4Q).
On transmi t. t he ri g mixes the
master oscillator wit h the
t ransmit crystal (37. 600 rni-
nus 10.635 is 26.965 - CB
channel one). On receive, the
receive cr yst als arc the first if
conversion frequency and the
second i-f operates at 455
kHz. Image problems are mi n-
imized by the double conver-
sion i-ts.
The Conversion
To begin with, you need
new master oscillator crystals.
The J. c. Penney rig uses six
- if you want to be able to
tune all 23 channels on 10
phone, you have to replace all
six. If you only want four
frequencies, replace only one
master oscillator crystal; if
you want to tune eight, reo
place two , etc. Not all of t he
crvstalplex rigs use the same
master oscillator frequencies
- some operate in t he 16
MHz range - so be sure to
check t he freque ncies in your
rig before you go out and buy
new rocks. Both Norm and I
are just replacing t wo master
oscillator crystals to see how
the eight channels work. But.
eventually, we both plan to
be out fi tted wi t h al l six
crystals and full 23 channel
10 meter coverage. Our new
cha n nel designat ions and
crystal freq uencies are spelled
out in Table 1. Those are the
frequencies we are using
(along with about 30 other
guys in Southern California).
When you crystal up. use the
same frequencies so we'll all
have someone else to talk to.
We will cont inue the CB
channel designations (that
saves changing the dial) so
that our lowest frequency is
channel one and our highest
is channel 23.
After changing crystals
(and a word of warning the re
most master oscillator
crystals arc wire type and
must be soldered in; BE
CARE FUll ), hook t he rig up
to a 12 V dc supply and a
suitable dummy load ante n-
na. We found t he receiver
sections worked well enough
so that t uni ng up only re-
qui red peaking the rf and fi rst
mixer stage coi ls for maxi-
mum band noise. Transmit-
ting is a li ttle more compli-
cated. but not impossible. If
you don' t have a voltme ter ,
use some kind of relative
power output indicator (an
swr bridge, a li ght bulb, etc.).
Peak t he coils in t he transmit
stage starti ng with t he master
oscillator. You don 't have to
peak the coil for the t ransmit
crystals, because they sti ll put
out in the 10.600 MHz range.
Peak each succeeding output
stage for maximum indicator
reading. If you have a volt-
meter. connect it to the out-
put of the transmit driver
stage, then peak the lower
stages for maximum reading.
Then peak the final with
some kind of power output
indicator. The funny thing
about the CB rigs we bought
is that t hey all came wi th full
and complete tu nc-up in-
struct ions even t hough
CBers aren' t supposed to even
touc h them with a screw-
dri ver.
Ante nnas: Most of the CB
radios are designed for 50
Ohm out put and most of the
CB antennas sold are vertical-
163
Iy polarized. Polari zati on
probably won't make any dif-
ference on the real long haul
ski p, bu t for working ground
wave wit h others in your
area, it makes more sense to
install a vertical antenna.
That 's what the mobiles are
using anyway, and a rooftop
groundplane for the home
QTH is only 8 feet tal l. After
seei ng what some of t hose
vo-vos on 11 meters are us-
ing, I would say it won't t ake
an awful lot to be able to get
out.
The $29.95 transceiver is a
good club project. If you
can't find one on t he market,
hit the swap meets and check
the ads in t he local papers;
you may even be able to get a
better price by buyi ng one
from a disgruntled CBer who
gave up trying to punch
through the QRM. If you are
big on modifi cations, I' d li ke
to hear about them (or see
them in print in case I want
t o try one of them). Here are
a few I have in mind: A small
VFQ that will fi t inside the
t ransceiver case and plug into
o ne of the master oscillator
crystal sockets; a low cost
linear amplifier capable of 15
to 20 Watts output ; an alter-
nate conversion for six meters
or one for the low po wer OX
guys who want to work 15
CW; a slider for receiver
and/ or transmitter offset tun-
ing; a BFO; a sideband adapt-
er; or maybe a t ransceivlng
conver ter to ot her bands.
Loo k for me on 10 phone.
I' ll be listeni ng on channel 4
28.80 MHz. If I hook up
wit h somebody, I' ll QSY up
or down to cont inue the con-
tact. If 28.80 is busy, I'll
hang out on channel 3
(28.78). How about you? If
we all use the same "chan-
nels," it'll make it a lot easier
to work 10 phone. If you
hear me on though, don't give
me any of t hat " ... Breaker,
Breaker, t his is your old good
buddy , got time for a 10-7
...?" baloney. I heard all of
that I could stand whil e I was
wai t ing for my crystals to
arr ive!!! -
Feat ures:
164
PRINTED CIRCUIT
BYTESIZE CIRCUIT BOARD
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RESIST, CARBIDE DRILL BITS, SNAP
IN CIRCUIT BOARD SPACERS AND
CARD PULLERS, DRILL/MILLS,
PROTOTYPE BOARDS, W. H. BRADY
& DATAK DRAFTING ARTWORK,
MATTE FILM, PRECISION GRIDS,
BUBBLE ETCHERS. PC DESOLDER-
ING TOOLS, POSITIVE ACTING
DIAZO FILM, PRECOATED CIRCUIT
BOARDS, SILVER PLAnNGPOWDER,
W1RE WRAP TOOLS
SEND STAMP & ADDRESS FOR FL YER
TRUMBULL CO.
833 Balra Dr., EI Cerrito, CA 94530
NEW!
A $29.95
DVM Kit.
Than k1 to a product breakthrough, digital
voltmeters are available at a bargai n price.
What IIU! vou wai ti ng for?
1 ) Ul ea new Mot orola 3'10 dillt
DVM chip.
2) Autouro, autopolul ty wi t h
minus.
3) UP t o to. OM ..,"'Uf1lC,..
4) Oye .....oltare prol.ec:ted. NO
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Two Yoltare ranr ... :
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Add $1.S) lor PO. agR. CA ,""den" Idd
$1.80 ' . Buy t OlWO and _ $3.001
Gary McClellan and Co. Box 2085
1 001 H", y .
Gl0 La H.bra CA 9 0631
- - part III: converting the TRC-47
CB to 10
Marthew T. Lewis VE7CHl
Operations Department
TRIUMF - UBC
4004 Wesbrook Mall
Vancouver Be V6T I W5
Grp AlGrp Bt 10.500 10.510 10.520 10.540
16.46 5 26.9650 1 26.975-02 26. 985-03 27.005-04
16.515 27. 015-05 27.025-06 27. 0 3507 27.055-08
16.565 27.065-09 27.075-10 27.085-11 2 7.105-1 2
16.6 15 2 7.1 15-13 2 7.1 25-14 27. 135-15 27. 155 16
16.665 27. 165-17 27.175-18 27. 185-19 27.20520
16.71 5 27.215-21 27.225-22 27.235-
0
27.255-23
Table 1.
only 6 gro up A and 4 group B
crystals, and 2 i-f crystals.
Table 2 is an example from
a Sanyo TA-923 which I st ill
use on 11 meters.
In this type of radio, one
crystal from group A and one
from group B are used for
both transmit and receive and
are mixed to form a product
in the 38 MHz range which is
run through a bandpass filter
at this frequency.
An example for channel
09 (27.065 MH,): Grp A =
23.390; Grp B = 14.950; A +
B= 38.340 MHz.
On transmit th is 38.34
MHz is mi xed wit h 11 .275 to
get t he operating frequency
of 27 .065, run through a
bandpass filter at 27 MHz,
amplified, and modulated. On
receive, t he 38.34 is injec ted
into the first mixer to get (he
Rx first i-f at 11.275, which
is then mixed with the
11 .730 to get the second i-f
of 455 kHz. Simple, isn't it?
All t hat has to be done here is
to lower the 11 MHz crystals
by t he amount you want to
go up in operating frequency.
For example, to make chan-
nel 09 come out on 28.800
lower them by 1.735 MHz
making the Tx i-f = 9.540
MHz and the Rx i-f crystal =
9.995 MHz, ret une t he appro-
priate coi ls, and you're o n the
air on ten.
Now, down to t he real
nitty-gritty of one that I have
had on the air on SSB for
several mon ths no w, in use
both at home and in the car.
The one I picked is a Radio
Shack TRC-47, about the
same size as an Icom IC-22. It
has a very good crystal filter
centered at 11.2735 MHz
which gives about 50 dB
unwanted sideband suppres-
sion. The TRC-48 uses t he
same filter and osci llator PC
board, so conversion data for
it is identical to t he TRC-47.
The TRC-48 is slightly lar ger
and fancier (i t has an "5"
meter , PA, and swltc hable
noise blanker) and more
expensive. They arc both
rated at 4 Watts r f out put o n
AM and 12 Watts PEP o n
SSB. I am getting 10 Watts
PEP out of mine on 28.600
char t of t he common hetero-
dy ne scheme and channel
frequen ci e s. Noti ce the
10-1 0-20-10 kHz spaci ng of
t he channels.
Note the channel marked
** is indicated by the dot o n
the di al bet ween 22 and 23
and on some radios can be
had by just installing a
jumper or clipping one. Some
other radios would require
major mechanical modifica-
tions to the channel switch to
get it.
When you decide what
frequencies on ten meters
you want, on t he 10- 10-20-10
spacing pattern, just subtract
26.965 from t he lowest one
and add this result to t he
frequency of eac h crystal in
group A, o rder the new
crysta ls from your favorite
purveyor of qu artz, wait for
t he post office , wait fo r t he
post office some more, and,
when they come, get out the
old t rusty soldering iron and
swizzle sticks, and soon you'll
be on ten.
Now, for t he 12 crystal
rigs. These are cheaper to
convert, as only 2 have to be
changed. The receivers in
t hese are usually better
because t hey are dual conver-
sion. T he hete rodyning
scheme here is simi lar to the
14 cr ystal type but t here are
16. 515, 16.565, 16.61 5,
16.665, 16.715; group Bt -
10. 500, 10.510, 10.520,
10.540 ; gro up Br - 10.9 55,
10.965, 10.975,10.995.
In operation, o ne crys tal
from group A is used, and
one from group Bt on trans-
mit and one from Br on
receive. For example, on
channel 1 (26.965 MHz) on
transmit, 16.46 5 and 10.500
are mixed to get the operat-
ing frequency, and on receive
16.465 and 10.955 are mixed
to get 27.420 MHz, which
conveniently just happens to
be 455 kHz above the operat-
ing frequency of 26.965. So
if we add 1.73 5 MHz to each
crystal in grou p A, we can get
freque ncies in th e range of
28.700 to 28.990 MHz, wit h
channel 9 working out to
28.800, t he AM calling fre-
quency. How about that ?
So, wit h a 14 crystal AM
rig, all that has to be done t o
put it on ten is to change six
crystals and retune some
coi ls. With mini mal test
equipment, a VTVM, signal
generator (that old VFO), a
wattmeter or swr bridge,
and a dummy load, t he whole
job can be done in under one
hour.
The most di fficul t part of
the lob is fi guring out what
crystals to order. Table 1 is a
W
it h the slowdown in
t he CB boom an d t he
recen t expansion to 40 chan-
ne ls , the CB eq uipment
man u factu rers have been
caught off guard wit h t hou-
sands of 23 channel radios in
warehouses. These are being
dumped on the market at
very low prices. I've seen
advertisements as lo w as
$39.95 for a 23 channel AM
rig. A very good one can be
had for well under $100.00.
Most of these radios are
very easily converted to ten
meters at a cost of under
forty dollars.
First , for those of you not
familiar with t he way these
crystal synthesized rigs oper-
ate, a few basics, t hen I will
go into spec ific detail s of t he
conversion of a Radi o Shack
TRC4 7, a very common AM
& SSB rig.
There are t wo basic 23
channel synt hesizer schemes,
the 14 crystal and the 12
crystal. First the 14 crystal
type, the more common.
The 14 crystal radios
usually have a single conver-
sion receiver with an i-f of
455 kHz. The crystals are in
three groups which I will call
group A, group Bt, and Br. In
my example, I will use the
fo llowing crystal f re-
quencies: group A - 16.465,
se
service manual ! This will tell
you all you ever wan ted to
know, but were afraid to ask.
For the Rad io Shack radios,
it can be o rdered fr om the
store (t hey're everywhere just
like MacDonald' s) if t hey
don't have an extra o ne in
stock. It ' s well worth t he two
bucks. Most radios have a
schematic diagram in the
owner's manual, an d some
even have o ne glued insi de
the t op cover. This may be all
you need, but t he service
manual gives complete align-
me nt informat ion and a
descript ion of ci rcuit opera-
tion which can help a lot .
Step 3 : Plotting and Schem-
ing - just what has to be
done?
Whi ch crystals t o chan ge?
De t e r mi ne the type of
synt hesizer and do the ar it h
meti c. If you have trouble,
write me enclosing a copy of
t he schemat ic and exist ing
crystal frequencies and one
SASE, and I will be glad to
help you. Next, order the
new crystals and wait, and
wait.
What about t uning on
SSB? All the SSB rigs have a
clarifi er co nt rol which will
move the recei ver + o r - about
1 kHz. On man y of t he r igs it
al so moves the transmitter
t he same amount. Don 't
worry if it doesn 't move the
Tx; it ' s easy t o f ix it so it
will. What a bout movi ng
mor e than 1 kHz? If you
can' t fi gure it out, ask one of
t he unscrupulous CB service-
men who advert ize in t he
personal column of t he local
newspaper how t o put in a
slider. This will give you
about a 20 kHz spread o n
each channel. Follow all
signal paths o n the schematic
so you can fi gure out which
ci rcuits will need retuning.
23 .480 23.530 23.580
14.9 50
14.947
Ax 2nd mixer tor AM only 11.730
23.540 23.490
Step 6 : Operating it, CO CO
10 CO 10 CQ 10-10, etc.
Generall y accepted calling
frequencies are 28.600 USB
and 28.800 AM, and activity
seems to be centered about
these, but it's best to check
with a local who is active on
ten t o make sure fi rst. There
may be a local net or cl ub
using some o ther frequency
Step 5: The Smoke Test
Get in contact wit h a local
ham who can work ten me-
t ers, and arrange a sked to
make sure that it is worki ng
on the frequency you think it
is, and whil e he is trans-
mitting o n a known fre-
quency, make sure you can
tune him in wher e you think
he should be. Then and only
then, try out t he transmitter
to see if he can hear you.
Also have hi m t unc up and
down the band to make sure
you are o nly t ransmitti ng in
one place and t he radio has
reasonably good audio quali-
ty. If you wan t t o use an
external speaker on it , be
careful how far you advan ce
the au dio gain, as t hese rigs
have muc h more audio t han
you will probably ever need
on receive, as the Rx au dio
out put is also the AM modu-
lator. It will give you up t o 5
Watts of audio, enough to
wake the silent keys. They
usually have resistors in series
with the internal speaker to
prevent the voice coi l from
smo king at an early age.
t o and can use a spectr um
ana lyzer, as t his will affect
dri ve level and bias and will
affect intermodulation distor-
ti on just as much if not mo re
than it will affect power out-
put. The ext ra one or t wo dB
you can get , just isn't wor th
the t rouble.
23.440
14.990
23.390
14.970
Tabl e 2.
23.430
14.9 30
14.927
11.2 72
Table 3.
23.380
14.920
14.917
BFO 1:
Step 4 : The Mod Squad At-
tacks
For the TRC-47 (and -48),
which uses sort of a cross
bet ween the 12 and 14
crystal synt hes izers, the exist-
ing crystals are shown in
Tabl e 3.
In t his scheme, o ne crystal
from group A is always used,
o ne from grou p Bu for AM
and USB, and one from group
B1 for LSB only. The 11.275
is used for AM Tx and for
USB. The 1l .272 is used for
LSB, and the 11 .7 30 fo r AM
Rx only.
Chan ge the group A
crystals t o : 24.865, 24 .91 5,
24.965, 25.015, 25.065, and
25. 115 MHz. The clari fi er
control is a fairly large vari-
able capaci t or of t wo sec-
ti ons, wit h a fixed capacitor
in parallel wi t h each section.
Clip these t wo fixed capaci -
tors out of the ci rcuit . This
now gives you more range on
the clarifier, about 1 t o +4
kHz. See ing as how no body
uses LSB on te n meters,
remove the two resistors (1
K) which bias the di odes fo r
swi tching t he BFO crystals
and sho rt t he diode for the
USB BFO crystal (11.275).
By doing t his, when you
move t he mode switch to
LSB the radio stays on USB,
but you get a down ward f re-
quency shift of about 3 kl-lz,
You now have two 5 kHz
wide bands wit h a 2 kHz
overlap for each of the 23
channels. Now retune the
bandpass filt ers at 38 and 27
MHz t o 39.6 and 28.6 MHz,
pea k the receiver front end,
peak t he tran smitter driver
and final coils. Do not adjust
any of the pots in the trans-
mitter unl ess you have access
23. 340
14.960
23.330
14.91 0
14.907
11.275
23.290
14.950
11. 275
11.730
Group A:
Group ac:
Group B1 :
BFO u :
Group A:
Group B:
Tx l-f:
Rx i -f :
MHz. That ' s only 10 d B
down from t he typi cal SSB
exc iter which has at best 100
Watts out put, most of them
more like 70 or 80 on ten
meters. So what if I' m 1 o r 2
"S" units down; it makes up
for all the mobile noise from
my own and ot her cars o n the
road. If I can hear t hem in
t he car, I can work t hem.
Now, how t o do it to it.
Step 1: Getting the radio -
new or used?
If you have a bit of test
equi pment you can probably
get a better deal on a used
radio, but check it out first!
Check rf output on AM. If
below 2.5 W or above 5.5 W
when operated on 13.5 V dc
or the ac line if a base station,
forget it an d go on to the
next o ne. On SSB the output
should indicate 8-16 Watts
when you wh ist le into the
mike. Check out the recei ver
on an antenna. Find a few .
strong local signals and make
sure they disappear when
switching to the next channel
on eit her side. They should
be way down when swi tchi ng
side bands if SSB.
Next, take the covers off
and have a good look inside
for modifications. If you see
any, put t he covers back on
and forget it , unless it is qui te
obvious that t he mods wi ll
not affec t o perat ion of t he
radio in t he manner in which
it was designed to o perate. As
far as dust, dir t , and smudges
go, they can easily be cleaned
up, so don' t let t hat bo t her
you. Loo k fo r ads in the
newspaper or in the local
wee kly Buy and Sell. Bargain
over price as most sellers are
not fir m on as king pr ice, and,
after all , it's a buyer's market
now for 23 channel radios,
es pecially for SSB. Make a
call to the local police t o
ma ke sure it's not hot. For a
new radio, shop around at a
few stores. Again, it's a
buyers market, and eve n at
the chain stores you ca n get
quite a good deal. So make an
offer; t hey might just ta ke it.
Step 2 : Figuring it out
If at all possible, get the
99
that you may want. On many
of these radios the squelch
control works very well, SO
it's easy to monitor a specific
frequency for calls, and have
t hings quiet when there is no
signal present, just like two
meter FM. Local coverage,
both mobile and fixed, see ms
to be about the same as two
meter simplex operat ion, but
more fun when it opens up,
which is getting to be more
often now that the sunspot
cycle is on t he upswing again.
Some Notes on Antennae for
Ten .
For mobile operation I use
one of the four foot long top
loaded fiberglass whi ps wi t h
12 turns removed fro m the
top of the coil. This makes it
resonate nicely at about 28.6
MHz. It' s only about 1.5 dB
down from a ful l quarter
wave, and it' s a lot easier to
fit into the garage.
At home I use a Radio
Shack 5/8 wave ground plane
for 11m wit h the capacity hat
removed, but everything else
exactly as it comes out of the
box and assembled fo llowing
the directions. Removing t he
top hat (3 wires) makes it
resonate at about 28. 5 MHz
wit h an swr of less than
1.4:1, not bad for an antenna
which takes only about 15
minutes t o assemble and
erect.
What About Crystals ?
They can be had from any
of the manufact urers adver-
tising in the magazine else-
whe re, or you just may have
some in your junk box.
Canadians can order from
Lesmith Ltd., PO Box 703,
Oakvill e, Ont., at a price of
six dollars per cr ystal. De-
livery of crystals should take
4-6 weeks.
Best of luc k, and hope t o
hear you on ten. If you have
any t ro uble be sure and drop
me a line, and I will try to
help you out,
100
NEW!
A $29.95
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Thanks t o a product brea kthrough, d igital
voltmeten are avai lable at a bargain price .
What are you waiting f or?
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Gary McClell an and Co. Box 2085
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L. H..brll CA 9063 1
POSITIVE RESIST
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LABEL FOR FLYER VIA FIRST
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TRUMBULL COMPANY
833 Halra Dr. EI Cerrito, Ca. 94530
CB to I
- - part IV: Johnson 123A mod
Tom Goldsmi t h WB4EQU
49 MemOliaJ Parkway NW
For! Walton Beach FL 32548
David F . Norman
6 22 W. Sunset Blvd.
Fori Walton Beach FL 32548
~ q T. No, it's not another ca. It's a hot little TO meter
conversion.
if t he unit chosen for conver-
sian is more exot ic and costs
more to begin with, the total
price can be much higher.
Our primary reason fo r
choosing the 123A over ot her
models was si mple ... we
had an extra one gathering
dust on the she! f. We could
have used pract icall y any un it
on t he market, and so can
the real izatlon t hat many
under priced CB units were
made ava ilable when th e CB
manufacturers began dump-
ing 23 channel units to ma ke
room for the 40 channel
models. An amateur with
only basic skills should be
able to buy and convert a 23
channel CB unit to 10 meters
for less than $80 - of course,
Fig. 2. The crystal bank PCB should be removed for easy
access to the crystals.
t uni ng, we ran a performance
check on t his unit. Radio
freq uency output exceeded
3. 5 Watts and receiver se nsi-
t ivi ty was on the order of 0 .5
microvolts for 10 dB signal
plus noise/noise. That ain't
bad. Wit h the comi ng increase
in sunspot activity, conver-
sions such as t his shoul d be
good for some very interest-
ing l ow power DX.
The idea was spar ked by
A
s any fool can plainly
see , the tr ansceiver
shown i n Fig. 1 is a very
common, midpriced CB unit.
Right ? Wrong. This part icular
E. F. Johnson Messenger
123A started out t hat way,
but a few simple modifica-
tions have turned it into a 23
channel, crystal controlled 10
meter amateur r ig.
Wh en we were fi nis hed
wit h the modificat ion and
101
Fig. 3. Interior shot of the' 23A showing the transmitter strip
at the top.
Fig. 4. Detail o f the oscillator synthesizer mixer tuning
adjustments and test points.
you. Howe ver, let's go
through this particular co n-
version step-by-step, since
most conversions will differ
only in minor details. If you
follow what we did here, you
should have no trouble with
other makes or models.
The 123A is a single-
conversion synt hesized uni t
using a channel frequency
minus 455 kHz input to t he
receiver mixer. This is accom-
plished by mixing the output
from a high frequency oscil-
lator with that of a low fre-
quency oscillator and using
the difference frequency.
For example, when the
unit is t uned to CBchannel l
(26.965 MH, I, t he high
frequency oscillator operates
at 32.700 MHz. The low
freq uency oscillator on chan-
nell operates at 6.190 MHz.
The difference frequency is
26.510 MHz, which is 0.455
MHz below the channel
freque ncy.
When the unit is switched
to the tra nsmit mode - st ill
on channel 1 - the high
f reque ncy oscillator con-
t inues to operate at 32.700
MHz, but the low frequency
oscillator has a 5.735 MHz
crystal switched into the
circuit and the 6. 190 MHz
crystal is switched out. Th is
new difference frequency -
26.965 MHz (same as the
channel frequency) IS
simulta neously switc hed to
t he tra ns mitter st rip, and t he
receiver is muted.
While the 123A is a 23
channel unit and only uses 14
' 02
crys tals in all , each cryst al
must cont rol several channels.
If you start at the lower end
of the band (channell) and
change channels all the way
to the top (channel 23), you
will find t hat t he high fre-
quency crystals are switched
after four consecutive chan-
nel s and the low fr equency
crystals are swit ched for each
channel and re peat every
fo urth channel. Table 1
should make t hat clearer.
We decided that since we
had to start somewhere, a
frequency jump of exactly 2
MHz woul d simplify matters,
so that is what we used. It
would have been as good
from an operating sta ndpo int
to shift the low frequency
crystals, but for economy we
decided that it made much
more sense t o change only six
crystals rather than eight.
(Another reason to use t he
higher oscillator for changes
is t hat low frequency oscil-
lators are somet imes pretty
narr ow bande d. We didn't
want to have t o change any
t uni ng component s if we
didn ' t have t o do so.)
By referring to Table 1,
you can see that to raise
receiver and transmitter
frequencies 2 MHz, you
simply raise the high fr e-
quency oscillator 2 MHz. The
new di fference frequencies
(28. 965, etc.) fall int o the 10
meter phone band.
We or dered the new
crystals and put the unit back
on the shelf until they ar-
rived. When they finally got
in after several weeks, we
took t he unit out of t he case
and began t he conversion.
Removing the crystal bank
it surrounds the channel
selector switch - in t he 123A
is a relatively simple matter
of t aking off the front panel
kno bs, the four screws which
secure the front panel t o t he
chassis, and t he two t iny
bolts whi ch fasten t he crystal
bank t o t he channel selector
switch. In Fig. 2 you can see
one of the nuts which holds
the crystal bank located at
t he left center of the picture.
When t he fiber PCB which
holds t he crystals is loose, it
is a si mple matter to remove
the high fre quency oscill at or
crystals and replace the m
with the new crys tals. Use a
good clean iron for t he job in
order to minimize damage to
the PCB.
When all of t he new
crystals are soldered in place
and the leads trimmed, reas-
semble the whole mess a nd
you are ready to start tuning.
Tuning can be very simple
if you have the right equip-
ment. If you don' t , we would
suggest that you borrow it. In
this case the right equipment
is a diddlestick and an rf
VTVM.
Look at Fig. 3. Slightly to
the right and below center
you can see two tiny t rans-
formers. Below them you will
see one marc. The lower
tra nsformer sitti ng all by
itself is T7. Tr ansfor mer T7
tunes t he output of the high
frequency oscillator.
Fig. 4 is an expanded view
of T7 and its associated
components. Just to the right
of T8 and T9 is transistor
Q14, the synthesizer mixer.
The output from the high
frequency oscillator is
coupled through T7 t o the
emitter of Q14. Wit h t he unit
in the receive mode, connect
the rf probe to the emitter of
QI4 and tunc T7 for rruxi-
mum. The reading ..hould be
somewhere bet ween 0.5 and
1.0 volt.. rms of rf. After you
have tuned T7 for maximum,
switch through all of the
channels. If you are measur-
ing the right out put, after
every four channels the redd-
ing will mome ntarily dip as
you switch in another crystal.
When you t urn the channel
selector to the blank space
between channels 22 and 23,
the reading should go to zilch
In this unit, as in many
others, the channel selector
switch has a cutout 10 pre-
vent operation in this posi-
tion. ( It used to be called
channel 22a, 27.235 Mll z,
which was illegal under the
old CB rules.)
After you are satisfied that
the oscillator is working
properly, move the rf probe
to t he diodes to the left of
the filter capacitor directly
above T7. The cathodes of
these two diodes arc con-
nected, and t his is your next
test point . Tunc T8 and T9
for maximum at this point.
You may have to go back and
touch up T7 as you load it by
tuning T8 and T9.
Table 1. Sy nthesizer scheme. If 2 MHz is added to each frequency in the HF Crystal column,
the Receive output and Transmitter output also increase by 2 MHz. NOTE: All frequencies in
MHz.
RECEI VE RECEIVE TRANSMIT TRA NSMI T
CHANNEL HF CRYSTAL LF CRYSTAL OUTPUT L F CRYSTAL OUTPUT
1 32.700 6 .190 26.510 5.735 26.965
2 32.700 6 .1BO 26.520 5.725 26.975
3 32.700 6 .170 26.530 5. 715 26.985
4 32.700 6 .150 26.550 5 .695 27.005
5 32.750 6 .190 26.560 5 .735 27.015
6 32.750 6 .180 26.570 5.725 27.025
7 32.750 6.170 26.580 5.715 27.035
6 32.750 6.150 26.600 5.695 27.055
9 32.800 6 .190 26.610 5.735 27.065
10 32.800 6 .180 26.620 5 .725 27.075
11 32.800 6 .170 26.630 5.715 27.085
12 32.800 6 .150 26.650 5.695 27.105
13 32.850 6 .190 26.660 5.735 27.115
14 32.850 6 .180 26.670 5.725 27.125
15 32.850 6 .170 26.680 5.715 27.135
16 32.850 6 .150 26.700 5.695 27. 155
17 32.900 6 .190 26.7 10 5.735 27.165
18 32.900 6 .180 26.720 5.725 27.175
19 32.900 6.170 26.730 5.715 27.1 85
20 32.900 6.150 26.750 5.695 27.205
21 32.950 6 .190 26.760 5.735 27.215
22 32.950 6.180 26.770 5.725 27.225
23 32.950 6 .150 26.800 5.695 27.255
it to the
t une for
or S-meter
I f you get something
between 0.3 and 0.5 volts rf
at t his test po int , it is down-
hill all the way from here. If
not, go back and start over
agai n at T7.
In Fig. 3 you can see two
small transformers above the
channel sel ector. These arc
TlO and T11. To tune them,
connect the rf probe to the
collector of rf pre-driver Q1 5
(in Fig. 3 Q15 is obscured by
t he mike cord, but it is the
first transistor in t he t rans-
mi ller strip and is close to
TlO{fn. When the probe is
connected, connect a dummy
load to the rf out put of the
unit and key the mike. The rf
output measured on the col-
lect or of Q15 shoul d be
several volts. If you have it,
move t he probe t o the next
transistor in the transmitter
strip and tune each stage for
maximum before going on to
the next. By this t ime, you
should have a Watt or two of
rf at the t ransmitter ' s ou tput,
and you can complete tuning
wit h a watt meter if you have
one - and you either do or
have a fr iend who docs.
Before you do any receiver
tun ing, compl ete the trans-
miner tuning. When yo u arc
fini shed, you sho uld have 3.0
Watts or more at 13.6 vol ts
dc input. Tr ansformers
T10{fll may need to be
stagger-tuned to opti mize
output on all channels. All
other tran smitter tuning
shoul d be done at or near the
center of the band (channel
12 or 13 ). After you have
max imum output, whistle int o
t he mike. The wattmeter will
probably kick do wn. If you
have t uned to max imum, you
may be showing as much as
5.0 Watts of out put. The
123A wi ll usual ly not mod-
ul ate that much power ful ly
and transmitter tuning sho uld
be touched up a little.
Between the rf final ampli-
fier and t he output conncc-
tion you can see two t uning
coils. After the uni t has been
tuned to ma ximum, insert a
diddlestick into the coil
nearest the final amplifier.
Using shor t whist les, t ur n the
slug cloc kwise int o the coil
until the wattmeter begins to
kick up slightly on t he peaks.
Then go to the last t uning
coil and retune it for maxi-
mum out put . Do t his back
and for t h unt il you have the
max imum output which will
all ow the wattmeter to sho w
a slight kick upwards on
peaks. If t his point happens
to be in excess of 5 Watts,
fine . If it is less - and it
probably wi ll be - tha t's
okay too. In any event, that
point is where the unit should
operate for cleanest, best
modulated output.
Now you are ready to tune
the receiver section. Assum-
ing that t he uni t was working
properl y on CB freque ncies,
you have only two minor
ad justments t o make.
Look at Fig. 3 again.
Direct ly below and parallel t o
the transmitter st rip is the
recei ver rf and i-f stri p. Don't
d isturb a ny adjustments
except t hose of the t wo ca ns
closest to the rear of t he
chassi s. The can sitti ng by
itself near the modulation
transformer is T1, the re-
ceiver rf input t uning. The
next can in the li ne is the
mixer input tuning, T2. There
are two easy ways of tuning
t hese t wo cans.
If you have a sta ble signal
sour ce and can be certain that
it is on frequency, set it for
29.085 MHz (new channel
11 10m), couple
transce iver and
maximum output
reading.
The other way is to con-
nect the unit t o an antenna
which exhibits a low vswr on
10 meters and t une for maxi-
mum noise. Normal precau-
tions agai nst tuning to an
image frequency should be
observed. As a general rule, if
you tune to the first peak
t hat you come to from t he
original posi tions, you wil l be
right on the money t he first
time. Measure the output
frequencies with a counter,
check it out with a friend
across town, and you are on
the air. Total t ime involved?
A couple of hours.
In our protot ype unit , we
not iced only one unusual
item. On channel a-l Om (you
have to call them somet hi ng),
we have a relat ivel y st rong
rece ived signal present even
when the antenna is not
connected. Since we have 22
other channel s to use, we
decided to forget it and not
go looking for spurs. The
same problem mayor may
not show up on your conver-
sron.
As ment ioned before, we
c hos e t hi s unit simply
because wc had it. If you
have anot her make or model ,
your conver sion may be a
littl e harder. If the crystals
are of the plug-in t ype, the
conversion may be easier.
When you begin to tune the
uni t, take it one step at t he
ti me. Few if any CB un its will
operate at a new freq uency
wit hout careful ret uni ng.
The 2 MHz jump seems to
be a good idea to us. Chen-
neli zat ion mean s t hat mobile
operation is simple and fiddle-
proof. As a suggest ion, it
seems t o us t hat channel
1-10m (29.965 MHz) would
be a good calli ng channel. If
everyone who makes a +2
MHz conversion monitors this
channel as the band opens
this summer and fall, there
should be a good chance of
making contacts. If everyone
jumps around all over t he
band, t he chances go way
down. Be seeing you on 10.
103
Tommy M. Murphy K5UKH
Route 1, Box 310A
Ethel MS 39067
- - part V:
,
converting the Hv-Gain 670B
CB to 10
I felt that 6 channels were
enough to start off wi th. The
other channels will no longer
transmit after the coils have
been retuned, thus any
possibility of transmission of
unwanted frequencies will be
avoided in case the channel
selector happens to get off on
a channel that is not set up
on 10 meters.
In order to make it simple
to keep track of what fre-
quencies are combining to
form the desired frequencies,
I made up a chart gi ving all of
the frequencies involved.
When you order a crystal,
be sure and give all the in-
schematic has a chart that
shows the crystals requi red to
synthesize the uni t. What you
want to do is to change the
smallest number of crystals
possibl e due to the cost
factor. I decided to use the 4
crystals in the 14 MHz oscil
late r section and leave the 23
MHz section alone as it
contains 6 crystals. It may be
possible to change only the
offset osci llator crystals , in
this case, 11.275 and 11 .730
MHz. I did not tr y this as I
believed that the coils in the
front end of the receiver and
in the transmitter would
probably tune the proper
range without modification.
This proved correct. The i-f
section mayor may not tune.
I'll leave that to someone else
to try together with the
chance of blowing the price
of a couple of crystals.
The crystal needed for the
Hy-Gain is determined as
follows: Channel 1 is to be
29.000 MHz. The 23 MHz
osci ll ator fr equency is sub-
tracted from 29.000 MHz.
Then the offset oscill ator
frequency of 11.730 MHz is
added to that figure giving
the required frequency, in
this case 17.440 MHz.
With one crystal then, I set
my radio up on 6 channels
which came out this way:
Channel l 29.000 MHz
Channel 5 29.050 MHz
Channel 9 29.100 MHz
Channel 13 29.150 MHz
Channel 18 29.210 MHz
Channel 22 29.260 MHz
better than the older types
that use one crystal for
transmit and one for receive.
Wi t h the newer units you get
a lot more useable channels
for a lot less cost.
Looking at the schematic
that came with the radio, I
located the bandswitch and
the oscillator crystals were
next to it. The Hy-Gai n
,
itself very handil y to con-
version to the 10 meter ham
band. The Hv-range I is a 23
channel, synthesized, 4 Watt
output, AM radio. If you
choose another type radio
make sure you get one that
uses crystals, not phase
locked loop. The newer types
with the synt hesizer lend
th emselves to conversion
Channe l 11 Meter, 10 ~ r 23MHz Old 14 MHz N_17 MHz
,
1 26.9 65 29.000 23.290 14.950 17.440
2 26.975 29.010 23.290 14.9 60 17.450
3 26.985 29.020 23.290 14.970 17.460

27.005 29.040 23.290 14.990 17.4BO

s 27.015 29.0 50 23.340 14.950 17.440
6 27.025 29.060 23.340 14.960 17.450
7 27.035 29.070 23.340 14.9 70 17.460

27.0 55 29.090 23.340 14.990 17.480

s 27.065 29.100 23.390 14.950 17.440
10 27.075 29.110 23.390 14.960 17.450
11 27.085 29.120 23.390 14.970 17.460
12 27.105 29.140 23.390 14.990 17.480
13 27.11 5 29.150 23.440 14.950 17.440
"
27.125 29.160 23.440 14.960 17.450
I. 27.135 29.170 23.440 14.9 70 17.460
16 27.155 29.1 90 23.440 14.990 17.480
17 27.165 29. 200 23.490 14.950 17.440
I. 27.175 29.210 23.490 14.960 17.450
"
27.185 29.220 23.490 14.970 17.460
20 27.205 29.240 23.490 14.990 17.480
21 27. 215 29.250 23.540 14.950 17.440
22 27.225 29.260 23.540 14.960 17.450
23 27.255 29.290 23.540 14.990 17.480
Fig. 1.
104
A
s a result of the recent
dump of 23 channel
Ci tizens Band radios on the
market in anticipation of a
big push for the new 40
channel uni ts, there are many
23 channel uni ts at real
bargain prices. I paid $40.00
for the one I purchased, a
Hy-Gain 670B {Hv-range I).
The radio that I bought lends
formati on on your radio
along wit h t he frequency
wanted. The Hy-Gain takes a
4342743 CS 26C 47 pF
(International Crystal Co.) .
Conversion
After taking t he covers
off, locate t he 14 MHz oscil-
lator section. Thi s is t he 4
,.
crystals grouped together
wi t h their des ignati on printed
pn the chassis. Locate X7
(14.950 MHz) and unsolder.
Replace it wit h t he 17.440
Mt-Jz cr ystal . Tu ne L2 and L3
I
down two full turns. Also
tune L4 and L5 down two
ful l turns. By now you should
be seeing some out put on a
wattmeter or use the meter
on the front of the radio.
Tune the pre-drivers, driver
and rf power amplifier for
maximum output, in my case
I easily got 6 Watts. It is
important to tune L2 and L3,
L4 and L5 in or down in the
coil so that the synthesizer
will end up wit h the sum
(40. 730 MHz) rat her t han t he
diffe rence as I did at first .
For the receiver sect ion,
the coils to be tuned down
two turns are L10 and L11.
L12, L1 3, and L1 4 go only
about one turn down. Usi ng
an external signal source on
29.000 MHz, apply a si gnal
until the S-meter gives an
indication, then peak the
coils for maximu m. The fina l
sensitivity was as good as the
manufacturer' s speci fica tions
on the 27 MHz band.
' T he posst bilf tt e s are
numerous t hat t hese con-
ver ted un its ' can be put to.
Ine xpensive wal ki e-tal ki es can
be converted. How about
hidden tr ans mitter hunts? CB
antennas can be easi ly con-
verted by reducing the length
a couple of inches. The radio
only draws about 100 mils
when in a squel ched condi-
tlon, so it could be left on in
order to catch band ope nings
or local call s. So how about it
fell ows? Let's use all that
space on 10 meters! Will be
monitoring Channel 1
(29.000 MHz) . " see you on
101-
HaTTy J. MilleT
99J 42nd St.
Saraso ta FL 33580
World's Smallest
Probe.
minute
SCHEMATIC
R
1

I
it 's almost - -
Continuity Tester
inch o. d. clear plastic lens
pressed int o the tube, protects
the bulb and enha nces t he
appearance of t he mini scule
tester. Make the probe wires
long enough t o suit your
needs. -
U
sing a rubber-type two-
pronged plug, the few
components that make up
t his tester are mounted inside
the plug. The hole in the end
of t he plug through whic h the
cor d enters is used for the
NE-2 neon bulb.
Two small holes opposite
each other are made near the
base of the plug for the probe
wires t o extend, and the two
1OOk, Y1 Watt resistors within
the plug cavi ty, being in series
wit h t he probe cords, prevent
shock. A piece of 5/8 inch
l.d. alumi num tubing Y1 inch
lon g. placed over the bulb
end of the plug, with a 5/8
Neon Bulb
Fig. 1. Fig. 2.
105
- - part VI: antenna suggestions
CB to 10
three beers and a quick radio
repair job. A couple of tubes
later (which I scrounged), I
had it going great on CB
channel 11. The radio was
putti ng o ut 10 Watts AM into
a wattmeter an d dummy
load.
That 's one of the reasons
most of the tube t ypes were
(and still are) so popular.
They could be "tweaked" for
more output very easily. In
this area, 29.000 MHz is
coming into use for channel
1, since there is really no
established ban d plan for t his
equipment. Let the CW boys
use 28 t o 28.5, of course;
SSB has 28.5 to 29; and let
the AM activity start at
29.000 through 29.290. That
gives everyone a lot of room.
The 2 meter band is get-
ti ng more and more crowded.
Onward and upward is the
cry, but the cry I hear right
now is my pocket boo k. So,
let ' s fall back and regroup
and have a whole bunch of
f un in the process. The Joh n-
son has a 5-channel capacity,
a built-in ac power supply,
and puts out 10 Watts wit h
no problems. The conversion
was about as simple as
sticking a couple of crystals
in. You just have to tweak on
t he rf stages, both receive and
transmit, for opti mum perfor-
mance at 29 instead of 27
MHz.
Checki ng with a number
of good buddies in the area
reveals a huge quant ity of
t ube t ype rad ios. These are
just ideal for conversion to 10
met ers. I have a solid state rig
converted to 10 in my truck,
and it works like a champ.
Having solid state for mobile
and a cheap tube set for base
use is the way to go. The
peopl e I want to talk to can
now get me on 10 meters
instead of 2. Because it's
sparsely populated, there's no
problem li ke on 2. It was
hard to work 5SB on HF
without the 2 meter rad io
sounding off. So, this way, if
OX is around, I can get a call
or give one to alert t he "good
guys. ' ,
What about antennas?
Well, t here is a lot of " scrap"
radio, get it into operating
shape, and convert it to 10
meters. I was given a Johnson
Messenger 1 tube radi o by a
"good bud dy" who was a\1
hung up on his latest 40-
c hannel play-pretty. Well ,
sort of "give n" .. . it cost me
Photos by Jam., Clegg
of lots and lot s of low cost
communications equipme nt
- new and used Citi zen's
Band t ra nsceivers. These
range from old t ube t ypes to
modern solid state units.
Want to be cheap? Just do
as I did - find an old tube
10 Watts at 29.000 MHz.
Tom M. Murphy KSUKH
RL 1, Box 301A
Ethel MS 39067
O
ne of t he better t hings
t o happen t o amateur
radio lately is t he availabili ty
120
lying around. This scrap is
good stuff, and it can usua ll y
be obtai ned for the asking.
I've seen many antennas
whose only problems were
t hat t he fel lows using them
couldn 't make them work,
shorted PL-259, cut coax t oo
short, etc. The latter may be
just fine for t his use because
t hat 's what you have to do to
go up in freque ncy, of course
- generally cut off about 2
inches for 29 MHz.
The antennas for mobile
use are of many types,
ranging from cbeapos to the
expensive, high quality items.
With base-loaded coils, I just
snip a couple of inches off
the whip , rather than
worrying about getting into
the coil. Then there are t he
center-loaded types; again,
take a cou ple inches off.
On my t ruck I use a a-foot,
fiberglass, top-loaded antenna
(Radio Shack, new $9.95
wit h $4.95 mirror mount ),
which I got for no cost when
one of the fellows was getting
t he swr down and tr immed it
off too short. It started going
up on him, and that was it ; he
had to sc rap it and get a new
antenna. That was fine with
me; it' s going in my direction
anyhow. There's a rubber tip
over the end; remove it, and
you will see the end of a wi re.
Carefully take your pocket-
knife, fis h t he wire out, and
trim. Of cou rse, all the trim-
ming is done while using the
10 meter radio in conj unction
with an swr met er.
Th en t here 's the full
length "whip," 102 inches
long, plus a 4-inch spring and
ball mount. If you like it
"whipping" around, trim a
cou ple and get talki ng. As
you go down the street, you
will come to know t he height
of tree branches above the
street.
Seriously, there's a world
of CB antennas out t here just
for the seeking, so put the old
ham spirit to work and
scrou nge! Base station an-
tennas are equally as easy to
convert. Just a lit tle trimmi ng
is all it takes. They range
from the cheapies that have
no gain (actually a loss com-
pared t o dipole reference), to
quarter wave, to t he big, long
ones, more than 19 feet, t hat
have several dB of gai n.
Agai n, I have a preference as
to type. I just don't like t he
big, long ones; they 're hard to
handle and sure do catch t he
wind. However, if it's cheap,
the price is sure hard to beat,
so that could be the way to
go. I use a compact antenna
called the "Starduster. ' I
believe it sells new for about
$45.00. I spent a couple of
hours helping with an an-
tenna erection and inquired,
"What are you going to do
with that old antenna?" I got
it free or, at least, as a reward
for my help.
The advantage of a com-
pact antenna is that it can be
easily mount ed on top of the
HF or whatever beam wit h-
out a lot of troubl e, whereas
the long ones would be just
about impossible. Of course,
the tr immi ng ta kes place
closer to t he ground. I just
put the antenna on a 20-foot
mast to make adjust ments,
and it changes very little
when I finally put it way up
there.
Beam a ntennas? Well,
t here are uses, of cou rse. Say
there's one specific direction
you want; you could convert
and side mount t he beam.
The average CB beams are
just t oo big and unwieldy to
be pract ical for our use, un-
less t hey're on top of a tower,
and the chances arc you al
ready have a good HF beam. I
have a TH-6DXX, and 4
working elements on 10
meters, which are enough for
me. If it is difficult to make
contact on the vertical
polarized ground plane, then
we just switch to horizontal
on the existing HF beam.
Also, the ground plane works
very well in the omnidirec-
tional pattern, to catch calls
from mobiles that may be in
any direction, and, of course,
band openings. With the
ground plane, I can hear sta-
tions that I would otherwise
miss if I was using t he beam
and did not have it tu rned in
t heir direct ion. The ground
plane is up 85 feet, and t he
distances worked are amazing
- base to base, and base to
mobil e. If I want to tal k to
my good buddy 60 miles
away, I just ring his number
(channel 1, 29.000 MHz), and
Heavy-duty rfsection.
away we go.
There are all sorts of
goodies to be found. I
honestly believe that those
fellows must buy PL-259s by
the bushel. Just scrou nge, and
you can come up with all
sorts of radios, antennas, swr
meters, coax, plugs, con-
nect ors, microphones, power
supplies, external speakers,
coax switches, and a whole
raft of stuff.
I' m looking forward to
conversions of HTs to 10
meters. They sure can do
everything a 2 meter unit can
(using direct frequencies),
and t hey're a whole bunch
cheaper. It shoul d be lots of
fun for hidden transmitter
hunts, and, when the band
opens, I think it would be a
real kick to tal k from here to
California on an HT! SSBCB
radios have come down a lot
in price for t he 23-channel
models, but are still fairly
high. I believe they'll come
down some more. How about
a conversion t o 29 MHz for
23 channels of AM, wit h
switching t o drop it to the
28.5 MHz region for S5B? It's
sure going to be fun. So, start
scrounging!
121
Paul Hurm WBBCLF
BOK J 73
Seven Mile OH 45062
CB to 10
don't need to do a thi ng to
the oscillator circuits. They
are broadband enough that
they take off with no prob-
lems at 10 meters. Before I
received my crystals, I
wanted to see if I would need
to work on the osci llators.
The only crystal I had was a
spare for my Heat hkit 5B301
het erodyning chain, and it
was at 29. 895, which is above
the 10 meter band. I did want
t o check it out, so 1jumpered
the crystal into the circuit
and t ried it into a dummy
antenna. It worked wi th no
trouble, so I was sure it
would work in the band as
well.
-- part VII: convert a TRe-11
A
lot of hams have been
talk i ng about con-
verting CB rigs for 10 meter
use. I' ve even seen band plans
f or use wit h converted
synt hesized rigs whi ch ret ain
t he same spaci ng as the CB
channels. If you would like to
avoi d the wor k neede d to
convert a synt hesized rig, bu t
still want to join the group on
10 AM, try Radio Shack's
Realist ic TRC-11 . It is a six-
channel rig, which requires
very little effort to be put on
10.
Like most of us who have
to watch our pennies, I like
to be able t o justify buying a
new rig. The just ification I
needed grew ou t of t he
results of ou r first Red Cross
simulated emergency test of
1977. Our dr ill went well,
but, during the debriefi ng, it
became apparent that, in a
real emergency, our depen-
de nce on 2 met er FMsimplex
chan nels might lead to prob-
lems. We sent t hree field
teams out. Each team used a
separate simplex frequency,
eit her 46, 52, or 94, for their
122
own communications. The
field control stations also
used our 146.37/97 repeater
for relay to Red Cross head-
quar ters.
Ou r l a t e r d iscussions
point ed out t hat we should
avoid 94, because it is a re-
peater frequency and mutual
interference coul d arise. 52 is
a nat ionall y recognizcd Ire-
q uency and could be
crowded 46 is set aside by
the Ohio Area Repeater
Council for statewide emer-
gency use. All the frequencies
we used had a potential for
severe interference in t he case
of a rea l emergency, so we
talked about possible alter-
nate frequencies. 10 met er
AM with a conve rted CB rig
seemed li ke a natural.
Crystals
The TRC-ll is a crystal-
controlled rig and uses
sepa rate crystals for transmit
and receive. The transmitter
uses fundamental frequency
crystals. To transmit on 29.3
MHz, get one cut for 29.3.
The receiver is single can-
version with a 455 kHz inter-
mediate frequency. The re-
ceive crystal frequency is 455
kHz less than the frequency
t o be rece ive d. To receive on
29. 3 MHl , get a crystal cut
for 28.845 MHz.
I ordered my set of
crystals from Internat ional
Crystal Mfg. Co., 10 N. Lee,
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
73102. They cost $7.90 each.
It may be possible to get
them for less elsewhere, but,
in t wo separately mailed
orde rs, t he crystals have been
received wit hin two weeks, so
t he service was worth any
ext ra cost. Their catalog
number for t ransmit crystals
for the TRC 11 is 820308.
For receive it is 8203097.
Specify catalog number and
crysta l freque ncy when
ordering. 1 suggest sending a
check when you order - it
will save time on processi ng
your order, and Internat ional
pays the shipping if you do.
Adjusting t he Crystal Oscil-
lators
Don ' t! That 's right , you
Tuning for Output Power
Tuning up for maxi mum
out put power on 10 meters is
very simple. Before I retuned
for 10, I wanted to check
how much I was getting on
CB channel 9, which comes
with t he rig. Before ret uning,
channel 9 had 3 Watts, and
29.3 MHz had about a
quarter of a wan. After
retuning for 29.3 MHz, I had
3 Watts there and 1.5 on
channel 9.
To peak t he TRC-l1 for
10 meters, simply adjust t he
settings of coils LS and L6
for maximum output, as
measured on a wattmeter. All
coils are plainly marked on
the printed circuit board. L5
and L6 are very near the
coaxial connector, towards
the left rear side of the unit.
That 's all the work you
need to do to get the TRC-11
going on 10 meters. Simple,
isn't it? Alt hough I have
not tr ied it, I believe t he
Reali st ic TRC-9A should con-
vert just as easily as t he
TRe -l 1. The TRC-9A is
listed as the three-channel,
e co nomy version of the
TRC 11 . It uses the same
crystals, and the schematics
are ncartv identical.
Antennas
As I mentioned earlier, my
major use for this rig is as an
alternate frequency for emer-
gency use. I di d not want to
put a permanent antenna on
my car, so I tried Radio
Shack's magnetic mount CB
antenna. model 21940, an d
found that it. too. is very
si mple to convert for 10
met er usc.
The swr is adjusted by
decreasi ng t he len gth of t he
whip, using the cut-and-t ry
method. I physically
shortened the length of the
whip to about 73 em. On my
unit. minimum swr was ob-
tai ned with 66.3 em of the
whip extending above the top
of the co llar where the set-
screw is located. I was able to
get the swr down to 1.2/1 .
Results
During our second Red
Cro ss d rill, T ed Whi te
WA8WQC and I tr ied ident i-
cal mobile set ups using the
TRC-ll and model 21-940
ante nna. Our results indicated
nearly 100 percent usability
over a 5-mile path with
several hills a nd numerous
bui ldi ngs. Line-of-sight paths
yielded good results at nearl y
double th is distance.
The only problem we en-
countered was caused by the
fact that I have a rat her soft
microphone voice. Using my
usua l voice gave poor results.
because I was not .driving the
modulat o r cir cuit hard
e no ugh. Wi th a litt le
self-control. I find it is easy
enough to spea k a litt le
lou der and closer to the mike
to overcome this problem.
If you are looking for a CB
rig t hat is easy to con vert for
use on 10 meters. and don 't
want or need to convert a
23-channel syn t hesized rig, I
suggest trying the Realist ic
TRCl1.
No ma tter what type of rig
you co nver t to 10, the model
2 1940 magneti c antenna
from Radio Shack is easil y
con verte d to fill your need
for an ant enna.
With such an easy way of
getting on 10 meters AM with
a converted CB rig available
to you, you no longer have an
excuse to miss t he act ion. See
you on 10! -
Battery Backup
for Digital Clocks
Joseph W. L ong WA2EJT
2406 Maria Blvd.
Bi nghamlon NY 13903
last a few minutes or a few
hours at most, so th is drift is
no t reall y any problem.
Regulat ing t he voltage at the
timebasc coul d eliminate even
this drift.
This kind of project is my
favori te - it uses only three
parts, total cost could not
exceed t wo dollars, it requires
no "mods" to existing equip-
men t, it gives real improve-
ment , and it can't fail to
work! There is somethi ng
awfu lly nice about pulling t he
plug on your digital clock,
plugging it in again and seeing
it still displaying the correct
time. -
TO CLOC _ A" O " " Ee As E
current it draws seems to do
no harm.
Upon power fail ure, my
tl mebase slows down from
3579545 Hz to 3579515 Hz.
This is a change of about 10
parts per million and is
equivalent to about 5 minutes
per year, or less than one
second per day. Most fai lures
"'
don't miss a second - -
.t-J
-=- e,
____l _
CLOC _ POW[A SuPPLy
12v OC
Fig. 1. Rl - 2k Ohm, see text; 81 - small 9 V battery; 51 -
momentary contact switch.
allow the readouts to func-
tion on battery power, but
t he battery won ' t last long
this way , so I used a momen-
tary co ntact push-button.
Battery life seems to be
very long in t his circui t. After
several mont hs of " field test-
ing, " t he battery tests as good
as new. The trickle charge
W
it h the addi tion of a
crys tal ti mebase to
my digital clock, it began t o
keep time very accurately -
to about a second a month.
Unfortunately, my house
seems to have more than its
share of short power interrup-
t ions and blown fuses. An
accu rate clock is of no great
use if it must be reset every
few days. Power line inde-
pendence is a necessi ty for
electronic digital clocks.
None of the ideas on bat-
tery power for clocks could
be adapted to mine without
cutting the foil on the pri nted
circuit board in at least a
couple of spots. Since I seem
always to manage to slit my
th umb along with the ci rcui t
board, I like to avoi d this
approach if at all possible.
The circuit in Fig. 1
should work for just about all
clocks. without any modifica-
tion to t heir circuit ry. It
amounts to connecting a bat-
tery in series wit h a resistor
across t he out put of the clock
supply.
Rl serves two purposes.
First, it limits the chargi ng
current supplied to the bat-
tery while the clock is
plugged in. Second, when
power fails, it limits t he dis-
charge current to about 5
mA. This cau ses t he clock
LEOs t o extinguish, and the
clock runs with no readout,
consuming very li ttle power.
Depending on the clock, a
different value for R1 may be
needed. A little experimenta-
tion will determine an appro-
priate value. Closing Sl will
123
- part X. Realistic's Mini 23
CB to 10
RG58/u COAX
Receiver Alignment
Th e receiver can be aligned
by using a signal source such
as you r regular sta tion tr ans-
mitter t uned to 29.000 MHz
and fed into a dummy load or
any other suitable weak signal
sourcc, such as a ncarb y ham
t ransm itti ng on 29.000 MHz_
The Mini 23 does not have an
5-meter, so I connec ted the
VTVM probe to diode D3,
which is the AM detector. It
t hen becomes a simple matter
to t une T2 , T3, T4, T5, and
T6 for max imum voltage on
t he VTVM_ Thi s co mpletes
the conversion, and th e rig is
now ready to go on te n
meters.
Transmitter Alignment
The tr ansmitter secti on is
peaked up using a VTVM and
a wattmeter and dummy
load. The probe of the VTVM
is con nected to the base of
012, and the oscillat or is
peaked fo r maximum outp ut
by adjusting Tl0, T11, and
T12 for maximum voltage on
th e VTVM_
The dr iver is pea ked by
connecting the VTVM probe
to the base of 01 4. Once
again, key t he mike and then
adjust T1 3 for maximum
voltage) and next ad just T14
for max imum volt age on t he
VTVM. Thi s peaks up the
driver section. At thi s po int,
some rf ou t put sho uld appear
on the wattmete r.
Tune th e fi nal by adjust ing
T1 5 and T1 6 for four Watts
out put on th e wattmeter. Do
not tr y to t une th e final for
maximum out put on t he
wattmeter. The tran sisto r will
put out more than seven
Watt s but, in ord er to do so)
will pull excessive collect or
current, and the tran sistor
will not holif'rrp to th is abuse.
Th e f inal tr ansisto r will open.
Ta ke my advice and tune for
no more than four Watts out.
1 know beca use I learned th e
hard way and now am using a
repl acement fi nal transisto r.
Antennas
For mobile use, I took a
used base-loaded mo bile CB
ante nna and simply star ted
costi ng $200.00 and mor e
and new CB r igs selling for
o ne tenth of t hat amou nt, it
sho uld not be long before ten
meter AM is just as po pul ar as
t wo meter FM_ All that is
needed is a little coor dination
to keep everyone on the same
freque ncy.
Frequency Conversion
Upon invest igati ng t he
sche matic of the Mini 23, 1
noticed that t he frequ enc y
sche me for ob taining 23
channels was simply hetero-
dynin g anyone of six mast er
oscillator crysta ls against any
one of eight local oscil lator
crystals to obtai n t he des1reCl
freq uency. The local oscil-
lator crystals range from
10.1 50 MHz to 10.1 80 MHz
and 10. 595 MHz to 10,6:>5
MHz in 10 kHz steps. The
mast er oscillator frequencies
range fro m 37 .600 MHz to
37. 850 MHz in 50 kHz steps.
In order to co me up with a
worka ble plan and in ord er to
purchase thefewest numb er of
crystals, I decided to cha nge
t he frequency of th e master
oscillator by 2.035 MHz. Th is
puts cha nnel 1 on 29_000
MHz. Thi s is a nice round
nu mber, and it seems that the
higher frequencies for merly
were used for AM op eration.
This is acco mplished very
easily by cha nging th e crys-
ta ls as shown in Table 1. The
new crystals can be purchase d
from Int ernati onal and othe r
ma nufacturers for aro und
$4.9 5 each. This puts the rig
on freq uency in th e ten meter
band,
COAX BRAID
FASTENED TO
TOWER WITH
GROUND CLA MP
would be an excellen t candi-
date for convert ing to ten
meter AM, and, at that price,
I cou ld butcher t he radio all I
wanted to and st ill not feel
bad abo ut it. Let me say at
this poi nt that, alt hough I
thin k I made a good buy f or
the amount of electronics I
was getti ng, I have fo und ou t
t hat there are better deals to
be had. The used CB mar ket
is virt ually nonexistent and
an enterprisi ng ham can find
a broken CB rig for $5. 00 or
less. At these prices, it will be
hard t o go wr ong when pur-
chasing a CB rig for con-
version to ten met ers.
Wit h new t wo meter rigs
I NNER CONDUCTOR TO
"""""">/
8ft. l i n. STRANDED /
""me
Fig, t.
Leland H. Agard KSLUW/K5SA
ROil te 5, Box 735
Starkville MS 39759
T
he CBboom is just
abo ut over. The sup-
pliers are trying to unlo ad
wa re ho uses full of new
23-channel CB radios at any
price th e mark et will pay. In
ma ny insta nces, the CB
antenna wil [ cost more than
the radio - amazing but tru e.
I was in th e local Radio
Shack stor e and noti ced that
t he new Realisti c Mini 23 CB
radio was selling fo r $29.95.
This had to be a bargain, as
thi s radi o normally sold fo r
$109_ 95. I thought th is radio
138
Fig. 2. Realistic Mini 23, bottom view.
also a goo d proj ect for a
couple of guys who just want
a littl e privacy to discuss t he
stoc k market or whatever.
For under $60.00, this is a
good way to keep ten met ers
alive. See yo u on ten AM.
Indeed, it seems t hat gro und
wave on this band is about
equal to line-of-sight pat hs on
t wo meters. Thi s is a great
club project to bring all t hose
memb ers back together on
some common groun d. It is
SQUELCH
CRYSTAL
SWI TCH
VOLUME
CONTROL
To
39.635 MHz
39.685 MHz
39.735 MHz
39.785 MHz
39. 835 MHz
39.855 MHz
[[[
T4 T5 T6n

->
ATTAC H PROBE
FOR RCVR TUNING
Table 7.
From
37.6 00 MHz
37.6 50 MH z
37.700 MHz
37.750 MHz
37.800 MH z
37.850 MHz
[ [
T2 n
Cryst al
Xl
X2
X3
X4
X5
X6
middle of t he group of f re-
quencies yo u are using. In my
case, it worke d out t o be
eight feet and one inch for
just a little below 29.000
MHz. The inn er conductor of
th e coax fee dli ne is attached
to the quar ter wavelengt h
radia tor, and th e braid of the
coax is clampe d to the tower
leg using a ground clamp.
This system works quite well
and cuts the length of the
sloper in half.
Results
The te n mete r AM rigs
compare very favo rably with
t he two met er rigs. The cost
is dr ast ically lower, but range
seems to be abo ut as good.
Mobile-to-mobile coverage is
abo ut t h re e miles, and
mobile-to-base coverage is six
to seven miles. With base
station-t o-base station con-
tac ts runnin g four Watts
ou t put and sloper antennas
up forty feet at bot h ends of
the path , consistent gro und
wave coverage of better tha n
20 mi les is main ta ined.
trimming the whip until I
reached an swr of 2: 1 while
operat ing on ten meters. On
the whip I was using, I too k a
littl e mor e than two and a
half inches off. This wi ll vary
wit h di fferent types of
mobil e ant enn as, of cou rse,
and a good method is to
insert the swr bridge in line
and trim until a good mat ch
is obtained. Th e fr equen cy
change of 2 MHz or so should
work out okay wit h most
mo bile whi ps tha t ar e base
loaded.
For a base station setup,
any ex ist ing ten meter ante n-
na could be used, even a
tr immed do wn CB gro und
plane. I wante d an ind epen-
dent rig and did not want to
tie up my ten me ter beam
with the tittl e rig, so an extr a
t en met er antenna was a
must. I fi nally decided on the
sloper-type anten na shown in
Fig. 1. Thi s antenna is easy to
install, is small, is cheap to
build, and is ver t ically pol ar-
ized for work ing mob iles. The
sloper should be cut for t he
The "ULTIMATE"
in CW Reception!
ACTUAL SIZE
3 1j," WIDE
2 J/s"HIGH
.4 3/8" DEEP
COpy ONE
$99.95
COPY ONE IS NOT A FILTER! This stat ion accessory is a must for th e discr imin...ting
amateur who operates CW, whet her he is an avid CW op or on e who engages in CW
fo r profi ciency. The CW signal is processed (not fil t ered) in amanner whi ch al lows
tru e ULTIMATE STATION REJECTION, a mode which has been pr evi ousl y
unavailable. The circuitry' is totally unique (pat ent pendi ngj .a must for emergency
CWoperations . If you haven' t had t he opportunity to operat e a COPY ONE, ORDER
YOURSTODAY!
COPY ONE CW PROCESSORSPECIFICATIONS & FEATURES:
.Ultimate station rejection (almost unbel ievable but tr uet)
.Pitch & volume independent of rece iver or tra nsce iver
Full quieting (i e .. no ba ckground no ise) without sque lch
.COPY ONE is not a filter. t here i s absolute ly no ringi ng or
background no ise
.Plugs into transce iver or rec eiver/ tra nsmitt er combo
wit hout modi ficati on
Discrimi nates signals in 80 to 100 cycle increments
Full break-In Cw operation
Incl udes 115 vo lt AC power supp ly or may be
battery operated
.Built in code pract ice oscillato r
LEOlock-up controls front panel mounted
ORDER YOURS TODAY!
send $99.95 by check
or money order to: 3135 North Cole Road Boise, Idaho 83704 [208]377-1562
L1 l
139
Cliff Wigin ton, Sr . WB5BSG
RFD 1, Box 208
Burnsville MS 38833
CB to 10
-part XI: Hy-Gain's PLL ri gs
A
lmost every late- mo de l
CB rig on the mar ket is
capable of operating on 10
wit h excellent sensit ivit y and
out put. No mod el requires
very ext ensive changes to
modify. I picked an inexpen-
sive and easily converted rig
for my fi rst research run and
achieved some rather gratify-
ing result s. A little fancy tele-
phon e wor k got me in touch
with Char lie Conners KliNG
in Nebras ka, who I knew had
spent many hours in design
work on PLL circuits. As it
t urned out, Charlie has do ne
extensive work on 10 meter
conversions, and, without his
advice and knowledge, my
conversion could have been
very painf ul the first t ime.
T he Hy- Ran ge mod el
681A, I which I chose f or
conversion, can be modified
in about an hour and per-
f orms well (better than manu-
fact ur er's specs], Is it phase
loc ked loop? Yo u bet - it
only requ ires the pu rchase of
one crystal instead of two,
fo ur, or possibly six on some
r igs, and the receiver sensi-
tivi ty is right on wit h a little
rea lig n ment . No circuit
changes are necessary, and
there is no compromise on
sensit ivity.
Do I have you interested?
Get out your" alignment tool,
VTVM, and signal generat or
172
(necessary equ ipment ), and
set aside one ho ur of yo ur
day 's schedule.
Finding your way inside
sho uld be no pro blem. Locate
X10 l and replace it wit h a
new crystal which is de ter-
mined by the f orm ula: (N/2)
+ 9. 510 MHz, where N = kHz
above CB cha nnel l (26. 96 5)
that yo u wish to o perate.
For example, suppose we
move up exactly 2 MHz to
28. 96 5 for cha nnel 1. Then,
28.965 - 26.965 = 2000 kHz;
200 0/2 = 1000 kHz or 1
MHz; 1000 kHz + 9.51 0 =
10.510 MHz for new crystal
f requency.
With the new cryst al in-
stalled , set the cha nnel
selector t o channel l , attach a
VTVM to TP8 on the PC
board (junct ion of R114 and
Rl1 5), and adjust Tl01 for
1.5 V de .1 volt. This step is
criti cal and must be done
carefully, as it allows the vco
to operat e withi n "captur e"
ra nge of the PLL circuit rv.
This accomplished, loosely
coupl e an accurate signal
source to the antenna jac k,
fl ic k t he cha nnel selector to
channel 11, and carefu lly
peak T104, T105, T1 06,
Ll l 2, and Ll 15 for maxi-
mu m recei ve sensit ivity.
Next, attach a powe r
meter and du mmy load to th e
output and key up th e trans-
mitter, Watch the power
meter and tu ne T102, T103,
L103, Ll 04, Ll 06, L109,
a nd L110 for maximum
power out put If the power
out put exceeds 4 Watts at
thi s point, read just L110
count erclock wise until it is 4
Watts or less. Th is last ste p
will assure an output free of
s pur i ous radiat ion. Also,
reme mber that t hese adjust-
ments are interacti ve and
shou Id be gone over more
than once fo r peak perfor-
mance.
And there you are! It' s .".
first class 10 meter rig in
anybody's boo k - in abo ut
an hour.
Now you need an antenna
for the littl e jewel. Ther e is
one CB ant enna on the
mar ket that-wi11 -operate <l as
is" on 10 wi th less than 2-to-
1 SWf th rough a full mega-
h er t z. The M400 "Star-
du st er" made by Antenna
Specialist s is a nat ural, the
only modification necessary
being to change the coax co n-
nector fro m the CBr ig to the
10 meter rig. But, for the
ham who's got to have everv-
t hing just right, slip t he
capaci ta nce hat off the top
radiator , pru ne t he radiator
t o 96 " and t he three radials
t o 98", and yo u have a fine
vertical ant enna which will
sho w unity gai n with a goo d
di pole.
A mobile antenna presents
little more difficul ty th an a
simp le retuning. Most com-
mercially prod uced mobi le
CB antennas fall int o three
categor ies, and all can be
mod ified successfully with
very littl e effor t. Qu arte r-
wave whips ar e simply pruned
to resonance wit h an swr
me ter in the line. Center- and
top-loaded ante nnas usua lly
have an adjustable metal whip
wh ic h r equir es a slight
sho rte ning.
Helically wound antennas
may be car efully shor tened
a nd resealed against the
wea t he r. There's noth ing
really diffi cul t about the con-
version, and most can be
accomplished in 30 minutes
or so.
By this poin t. yo u shoul d
have under $100 and about
an hour and a half wor th of
time invest ed in a slick 10
meter sta t ion. -
Ref er en ce
1. Hy-Gain model 682 uses the
same conve rsion. Models 26 80,
268 1, 2682, and 2683 req uir e a
diff erent crystal formu la: Cry stal
X10 1 = N/ 3 + 11. 80666 MHz, but
t une-up is exact ly t he same. Ser-
vice manuals (very comp rehe n-
sive) are avai l able f ro m: Hy-Gain
Electro nics. 4 900 Supe rior St. ,
Lincoln, Nebr aska 68504, f or $5
each.
Hans-Peter Baumeister DFiSP/W2
JJ8D Windsorshjre Dr.
Rochester NY 14624
CB to 10
-part XIII: the Lafayette Te/sat 558-75
Fig. 1. Te/sat 558-75 parts location diagram.
10 lJ
X205: 24.865 MHz
X206: 24.905 MHz
X207: 24.945 MHz
X208, 24.985 MHz
X209, 25 025 MHz
X21 0, 25.065 MHz
No o peration is possible on
28.720 M Hz (between
channel 22 and 23) because
of the switching arrange-
ment.
If you want to listen oc-
casionally to OSCAR 7, just
use a 25.835-MHz crystal
for X210. Thus, channel 23
recei ves t he 29.502MHz
beacon, and channels 21
and 22 receive 29.480 MHz
and 29.470 MHz, respec-
t ively, in the CW subband.
If you prefer the 73
Magazine band plan (chan-
nel 1 at 28.965 MHz ), you
need to re pl ace only the
following crystals:
X205, 25330 MHz
X206: 25.380 MHz
X207: 25.430 MHz
X208: 25.480 MHz
X209, 25.530 MHz
X210, 25.580 MHz
Crystal X204 rema ins un-
changed, so delete step 1 in
the following inst ruct io ns.
This set of crystals gives
you the first 23 cha nnels of
the 73 band plan.
Some portions of the
transceiver must be
rea ligned, hut t he o nly
components t hat must he
changed are the crystals. A
sa tisfactory a lignment can
crys tal shou ld be repl aced
by a 14.94o-MHz crystal in
order t o get even 1o-kHz
spac ing from channel to
cha nnel (original ly 10-10-
20-1 0 kHz), Every crys tal of
the fir st group yiel ds fou r
channels on 10 meters.
The fo rmu la fx = fo p +
11 .275 MHz - 14.910
MHz, where fop = re-
qui red operating frequen-
cy in MHz, gives the fre-
quency fo r the crystals in
t he 24-MHz range. Remem-
ber: Each of t hese crystals
gives four o pe rat ing fre-
quenctes.
Exampl e; The frequency
28.500 MHz shall be on
channel o ne, Whi ch crystal
is necessary? f
x
= 28.500
MHz + 11.275 MHz -
14.910 MHz = 24 .865
MHz. This crystal replaces
X205 as shown in the parts
locat ion diagra m, Fig. 1.
This crystal is in act ion
from chennelt t o 4 o n the
selec tor switch. X206
re sponds to channels 5-8;
X207 t o c ha n ne ls 9-12;
X208 t o 13-16; X209 t o
17-20; and X210 supplies
21 , 22, no operat ion, and
23.
If you want all 23 chan-
nels in an uninter rupted
o rder, all you do is add 40
k Hz to the p revious
crystal's frequency.
Exampl e: For 28,500 t o
28.730-M Hz c overage,
you'll need:
crystals, which are d ivided
into two groups for fre-
quency synt hesis: a grou p
of six c ryst a l s i n the
24-MHz range with 50-kHz
spaci ng, and a group of 4
c rystals from 14.910 MHz
to 14 .9 50 MHz . Afte r
c hecking the block dia-
grams fo r t he different
modes, I decided to re-
place the 24-MHz crystals.
Also, the 14.950-MHz
T
his tig makes a very
ve r satile all-mod e
mobile t ransceiver when
conve rted to 10 meters.
The price has co me down
remarkably from its or ig-
ina l offe ring. It s basic
specificat ions are: 23 cha n-
nels, all modes (USB, lSB,
AM), minimum 12 W PEP
output, an i-f cryst a l filter,
and + 600-Hz fine-tune
ca pability. The rig has 10
86
be achieved using only a
wattmeter and a 10 meter
transcei ver. You shoul d
have no problems if you
f ollow these instructions.
1 . Rep l a ce X20 4 w it h
14.940-MHz cryst al.
2. Repl ace X205 throug h
X210 as required.
3. Set mode switch to USB.
4. Pl ug in the mi crophone
and turn the rig on. Turn
t he squelch f ull y counter-
cl ockwi se.
5. Connect a 10 meter
antenna through t he watt-
meter.
6. Provide a st rong signal
on one of the pl anned
operat i ng f requencies.
7. If you hear t he signal
a l r ead y, rot at e l201
clockwise unti l t he signa l
d i sa ppe ar s, an d t he n
count erclockwi se unt il the
signa l ret urn s. Cont i nue
o ne- ha l f t u rn cou nt er-
cl ockwi se past t he poi nt of
ret urn of t he signal. Go to
step 9 if you wer e able t o
complete thi s step. If not ,
cont i nue with step 8.
8. If you don' t hear t he
signal, rot at e l 201 count er-
clockwise unt il you hear it,
or check the f requency and
st rengt h of your reference
signal. Go back to step 7.
9. Redu ce the 10 met er
reference signal ampli tude
unt il you barely hear it.
10. Adjust 1202, l203, and
l204 for best recept ion.
Reduce reference si gnal
level as required.
11. Adj ust l 18 and l1 9 for
best recept ion.
12. Repeat st eps 10 and 11.
13. Set mode switch to AM.
14. Press mi crophone push-
t o-t al k bu tton and adjust
l2, L3, L4, L5, L7, and L6 f or
maximum i nd icat i on on
t he wattmeter.
15. Repeat st ep 14 unt il
power out put is between 4
and 8 Watts.
16. Set mode swi tc h t o
LSB.
17 . I ncrea se r ef e r ence
signal l evel unt il a weak
signal i s received, A sl i ght
f re q ue ncy c o rr ec t io n
might be necessary .
18. Adj ust L12 through l 17
f or best ref er ence si gnal
reception.
19. Remove reference sig-
nal and repeat steps f 'l and
18 for maximum noi se.
That ' s it ! I f you fi nd it
compl i cated - t ry it. It ' s
reall y no probl em.
The ret uni ng was suc-
cessf ul if ther e is pract ical -
l y no difference in noi se
recei ved when you swit ch
back and fort h between
USB and LSB and power
output is near ly constant
whet her on upper or lower
si deband. Bett er result s
might be obtained, how-
ever, if you have access t o
sophist i cat ed test equi p-
ment .
The time required for the
co nve rs i o n/ali gnment i s
less than one hour.
Origi nal ly, the fine tu n-
ing cont rol varied onl y t he
receive frequency. Sol der-
ing wi re a to wi re b (Fig. 2)
provides f i ne tun ing f or
transmit , as wel l.
I found thi s conversion
very handy for strict l y
mobi le use. For portable or
f ixed u se, ho w e v er ,
rep l aceme n t o f X2 01
t hrough X204 with a 14.910-
to-15.010 MHz vfo i s feasi-
ble and certa in ly worth-
whil e. This wi ll provide a
100-kHz-wide segment for
eac h o f cr ys t als X20 5
t hrough X210.
You wi ll be surpr ised
how often you get a DX
contact wit h onl y 10 W
PEP. Tal king wit h W6s and
W7s whi le drivi ng around
in upstat e New York is
" normal," and a cont act
wit h Sout h America, t he
Cari bbean, or even Sout h
Afr i ca i s not a rari ty. Good
DX!
Fig. 2. Fine-tu ning poten-
tiometer.
v G12
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Reade, page 323. 87
CB to 10
-part XIV: a Realistic PLL rig
Rubert F. Grochowsky KflQLC
3553 Sit' ssi Terr.
Topeka KS 666/4
A
grOwing interest in CB
to-10 conver sions.
combined with a close-out
sale at Radio Shack, re-
sulted in t he re ce nt pur-
c h ase of a Reali st ic
TRC-452 4D-channel CS. I
had e a rlier o bta ined a
23-c hanneJ Royce set for
conversion. but felt the
cost for crystals was not
justified to obtain only 23
channels. I must admit to a
certain amount of blind
fa ith in t he TRC-452 pu r-
chase, but I figured a ri g
wit h on ly two crysta ls had
to be both easier a nd
cheaper to convert. This
was later found to be true
on both counts.
Although I had read all
120
the earl ier conversion ar-
t icles in 73 Magazine, I had
not studied t hem in great
detail , except for my pass-
ing interest in the Royce.
Another review of the ar-
ticles showed little infor-
mation on conversion of a
p hase-locked-loop (PLl)
rig. Th is meant a great dea l
o f studying di gi t al freq uen-
cy sy nthes is, and many
ho u rs spent in technical
discus sions with Gene
Godsey K0BXJ and others.
This article is intended to
share the information
gathered, and help ot hers
converting the PLl-type
rigs.
Crystal Control
Wit h crys tal prices in-
creasing and integrated ci r-
cuit p rices decreasing, it
was only a matter of time
before someone came up
wit h a better way to sy n-
thesize t he necessary fre-
q uenci es for CB. Crystal-
plex red uced the crystal
count from 46 to 14, but
the advent of the phase
locked loop reduced the
co unt t o just 2 crystals in
mo st of the newer rigs. At
first gla nce, it may seem
t hat the se rig s a re no
longer crys tal cont rolled,
but furthe r study shows
that they are. Since the
reference frequency is
derived from a crystal
oscillator, the tolerance
and p recision of the
reference freq uency and
the output frequency will
be t hat of a c rystal.
Miller Circui ts
In order to understand
Pll circuits, an under-
standing of mixer ci rcuits is
necessary. In the most
basic t e rms, a mixer has
two input frequencies and
fou r output frequencies.
The frequency we will be
interested in is either the
sum of the original fre-
quencies o r t he difference
between the origi nal fre-
quencies. It is important to
remember that either the
sum o r d iffe rence may be
used, and t hey may be
used different ly i n
se parat e circuits within the
fig .
Even the simplest single-
conversion receiver in CB
will normally use two mix-
er stages to arrive at the
desi red intermediate fre-
quency It-f) of 455 kHz.
Two frequencies are mixed
to arrive at t he sum, and
this signal, either 455 kHz
above or below the re-
ceived signal, will be mixed
with the received signal to
Fig. 1. Block diagram of the PLL components as used in the
TRC-452.
The key to the whole fre-
quency change is t ied to
the 15.36-MHz refere nce .
We ca n' t change the refer -
e nce di vider, and we don't
want t o d isa ble t he whole
re ference d ivider, as we
wou ld kil l o u r 10-kHz
re fere nce to the phase
detector. let's disconnect
the 15.36-MHz reference
from the mixer and replace
it with a new oscillator se t
for 16.955 MHz . The vco
wi ll now be d riven highe r
by the phase detector until
the d iffere nce of 1.82 MHz
is reac hed. The new veo
o ut put frequ ency will be
16.955 MH z plus 1.82 MHz ,
or 18.775 MHz . Mixi ng
18.775 MHz with the 9.785
MHz in t he t ransmitter
gives us a new frequency
of 28.560 MHz for channel
1. which is right where we
want to be. Mixing 18.775
MHz with the incoming
signal of 28.560 MHz also
kee ps o ur fi rst re cei ver i-f
at 9.785 MH z, right whe re
it was before. Everyt hing
e lse checks out, and all
t ha t we changed was t he
frequency re ference ap-
plied t o t he mixer.
This work s we ll in
theory, so let' s see how it
wo rks in practi ce. Fig. 2
shows the schemati c for a
s imple crystal oscillator
with no tuned circuit . This
c irc uit an d others a re
desc ribed in Solid State
Design for t h e Radio
Amate ur (ARRl ). Th i s
121
' 12 ...... ' 12.. ..'
,
:16.... "
-
ve c ....[" ~ H U C [
2U....'
I
, STD 1(1 ....
" J".. ...
--
-------------
r-
---,
,
,
,
I ,
"[>["UC[ " LTER ~ U
I
D,v'D[ "

lI[He'olO I
i
I
I
'D.... i
,
" LHR ,
I
, I I
I
i
, [ E E ~ C [ P.. OC" A.... . BC[
I
0"C, c cA10" D, v ' DE"
I
I
I
L.
---
"LL 'C "'82 TO "n6
__ -.J
----- - - ----
I
r>
~ ' 0 24 " M,
things are dependent on
t his freq uency. We a re us-
ing a di vide-by-1024 t o pro-
vide the 100kHz reference
t o the phase detector, so
any change in the refer-
e nce f requency will ad-
versely affect o ur d ivider.
We are a lso usi ng a d ivide-
bv-z to produce t he
15.36-MHz harmoni c
whi ch is mixed with the vco
output.
By no w, things seem
pretty co mplica t ed. Any
change in the 10,24-MHz
re f er enc e c hanges the
ma t hemat ica l re la ti on-
ships be tween q uite a few
components. There seems
to be no easy way t o
cha nge the freq uency of
t hi s rig. But fu rther ana lys is
shows t hat there is an easy
way. let's look at the way
the vco changes frequency
agam.
10.24 MHz is divided by
1024 t o produce a 100kHz
input to one side of the
phase detector. If t he chan-
nel se lector swit ch is set to
channe l l , which programs
t he divider to di vide by
182, then the resu lt of mix-
ing t he vco output wit h t he
15.36-MHz refe re nce must
be 1.82 MHz to divide to
the 10 kHz needed for the
other input to the phase
detector. The phase detec-
tor wi ll detect any frequen-
cy difference, hig h o r low,
and ad jus t t he vco up or
down until the mi xed o ut-
put is exact ly 1.82 MHz .
through a filter whi ch
se lects the harmonic pro-
duced at 15.36 MHz. The
vco frequ ency is mixed
with thi s 15.36-MHz signal,
goes through IC2 interface,
and is then divided t o 10
kHz by t he l IN divider .
This is applied to the ot her
input of the phase detec-
tor. The pha se detector
detect s t he diffe rence of
these two input signa ls and
produces a vo lt a ge which
controls the vco frequen-
cy. When the phase of the
two inp ut signa ls to the
phase detector is the sa me.
this loop is " locked."
As menti oned earl ier.
the output frequency from
the vco is N times the input
frequency. 10 kHz . By vary-
ing the constant N, the out-
put fr eque nc y ca n be
varied one 10-kHz step at a
time. The co ns t a nt N is
controlled by the channel
selector switch (from 182
to 226).
Another o ut put of the
10.24-MHz reference oscil -
lator, not shown. is used to
mix with the fi rst i-f for the
recei ve r. The incoming sig-
nal frequency (26.965 MHz
for channell) is mi xed with
t he vco output frequency
(1 7.18 MH z for c hannel l),
which wi ll produce 9.785
MHz as the fi rst i-f. This
9.785 MHz is then mixed
wit h the 10,24OoMHz out-
put of the referen c e
osci llator t o produce the
455 kHz seco nd i-f.
Al so not shown is the
transmit lo ca l oscillator,
which is set at 9.785 MHz .
This signal is mixed wit h
t he vco o utput fr equency
to prod uce t he tr ansmi t
frequency, 17.18 MHz plus
9.785 MHz equals 26.965
MHz, whi ch is the c hanne l
1 frequency.
Now that we are familiar
with Pll circuits, let's take
a look at thi s ci rc uit and
see what we ca n change to
provide the new operating
frequency.
The first impulse is to
change t he 10.24 MHz
c ryst a l. Bu t too many
arr ive at 455 kHz .
Dual -conversion receiv-
ers use an additional fre-
quency co nversio n st age
for lower noise and le ss
di stortion of t he received
signal. Now we have two
i-t s. a nd we may have addi -
t ional amplifiers for each
i-f. The fi rst i- f is normally
around 10 MHz and may
be determined by close ex-
aminat ion of t he sche-
matic.
Phase-Locked-Loop (PLL)
Circuits
Most PLl circ uits consist
o f 4 ma jor co mpo ne nts: a
phase detector , a filter
amplifie r. a voltage co n-
trolled oscillator Ivcol, and
a l iN divider, pl us other
su p po rt ing component s.
Fig. l shows t he di agram of
t he se components as used
in the TRC-452.
The phase detector pro-
duce s a voltage propor-
ti onal t o the pha se diff er-
ence of two input signals.
The low-pass filter (filt e r
amp) integrates the output
vo ltage of the phase detec-
tor and al so filter s har-
moni cs of frequency co m-
ponents given to the phase
detector. Then it prod uce s
a continuous voltage com-
ponent in proportion to the
phase difference. The vfo
is an osci llator whose fre-
quency is co nt rolled by the
volt age applied to it. The
vco frequency is fed bad
t o the pha se det e ct or
through the l iN divider.
(The consta nt. N, is given
by the c ha nne l se le ct o r
swit ch.) So. the output fre-
quency from t he vco be-
comes N ti mes t he input
freque ncy.
The reference div ider
has two sections: One is a
divide-by-2 ci rcuit which
produce s 5.12 MHz; the
ot her is a di vide-by-l024
ci rc ui t which produces 10
kHz whi ch is appli ed to
one input of the phase
detector. All Pll c irc ui ts
st ud ied use 10.24 MHz a s
the reference frequency.
The 5.12-MHz o utput from
t he reference di vider goes
-
Fig. 2. Oscillator used for operation of the
TRC-452. All resistors are 14 Watt.
11.380 MHz. remove cou-
pl ing capacitor C212 from
the receiver, and use a
separate oscillator set at
11 .835 MHz to feed into
the rece iver mixer. Trans-
mitter and receiver align-
me nt shou ld proceed as
previously out lined.
Wel l, that' s it. Replace
the covers and you're set
for a lot of activity on 10
meter AM. Or if you're like
me. you ca n start planning
for mo re modifi cati ons
and accessories. A linear
amplifi er in the 20- to
25-Watt range wou ld be
nice. A va ria ble crystal
oscillator (vxo) ci rcuit
would allow shift ing 10
kHz to completel y cover
this segment of the band.
The rf gain could be hard-
wired to all ow using the
cont rol for the vxo. The PA
function can be dis-
abled and t he switch used
to apply a sma ll amount of
signa l from the 9.785MHz
oscillator into t he receiver
to provide a beat frequen-
cy for SSB reception. And
the list goes on.
Without a doubt . the
TRC452 proved to be both
cheap and easy to convert.
The crystal was my only ex-
pense as the junk box pro-
vided all other parts.
One last word of warn-
ing -10 meter fever is con-
t agiou s and qui ckly
spreads! On the day I con-
ve rted my rig, I used 2
meters to tell K0BXj to
listen for me on 1O. This im-
mediate ly p rod uced 2
ha ms talking back to me on
10 meter AM. One ham
who listened got curious
enough to visit me. and
about 6 ot hers who lis-
tened on 10 gave reports
a nd s ugg e s t io ns o n 2
meters.
References
" CB 10 10" series, 73Magazine,
May, Jul y, December, 1977;
February, August , September,
October, 1978.
Reafistic TRC452 Service Man-
ual, Radio Shack.
SoUd State Design f or the
Radio Amateur, AAAL, 1977.
sion. For this. I deviated
slight ly from the procedure
given in the ser v i ce
manual. Connect either a
wattmeter or swr bridge to
t he antenna jack and con-
ne ct a dummy load . Again
us ing channel 20, key t he
microp hone and ad just
L214 for maximum output .
This wi ll br ing the final into
resonance and prevent
damage during extended
key-down periods. Now ad
just . in order. l208. l209.
l210.1211 .l212. a nd again
adjust l 214. These should
al l be t uned for maximum
output. On t he last adjust-
ment of l214. detune
slightly to extend the life of
the final tr ansistor. To
comple te transmitter align-
ment , modul ate the
transmitter with a l -kHz
signal at a level of 100
millivolt s . and adjust
VR207 t o s how 100%
modu lat ion on the oscil -
loscope.
The rig is now set up for
10 meters. a nd we must
give so me se rio us co n-
sideration to placement of
the osc illator within the
rig. Adequate shielding
c a nnot be over-empha-
sized. and for t his re ason I
c hose to mo unt t he
oscil lator on the top cover
of the Pl l board. Some
angle stock and the rig
cover will provide sat isfac-
tory shie lding from rf . The
shie lded lead fr om the
osc il l a t o r may be run
down. and into. t he Pll
box between the two
pr inted ci rcuit boards .
Since t he osci llator has its
own zener diode for volt-
age regulation. the power
lead may be run to the
switched +12 vol ts on the
on/off volume cont rol.
Whether you choose to
convert. a TRC-452 or some
ot her Pl. I -tvpe rig. the
technique presented here
should allow a quick. easy
conversion.
If the vco refuses to
drive up to the frequency
needed, an alternative is to
repla ce the transmitter
crysta l with one cut for
frequency counter will prob-
ably not show any output.
but don't be concerned.
Set the channe l selector
for c h a n ne l 20. Now
carefully adj ust l2 on t he
Pll board and set it fo r t he
midpoint of the range
where oscillation occurs.
The frequency co unt e r
shou ld indi cate 19.115
MHz . Start with channel l
and check all 40 c hannels.
If the vco circuit, including
L2. is functioni ng properly.
we s hould show fre-
quenc ies sta rti ng wit h
18.775 MHz for c hannel 1
and following normal CB
channel spa cing up
through 19.21 5 for cha nne l
40. If the oscillator drops
out on either end. slight
read justment of l2 may be
needed.
Now proceed with
receiver alignment. Co n-
nect a signa l generator to
t he antenna jack and set it
for 28.800 MHz with l -kHz
modulation. Turn the c han-
nel se lector to channe l 20.
Connect either an audio
VTVM or oscilloscope to
the external speaker jack.
Now adjust l201 for max-
imum output . Set t he chan-
nel selector to cha nne l 40
and the signal generator to
29.000 MHz . Adjust the
pr imary of l202 (black
vinyl tube) for maximum.
Set the c hanne l se lector to
channel 1 and the signa l
generator to 28.560 MHz .
This t ime. adjust the secon-
darv of L202 (red vinyl) for
maximum. Set up again for
channel 20 and adj ust L203
for maximum output. This
co mplet es the re ceiver
alignment.
Transmitter al ignment is
the final step in conver-

'0.'
I I '00'

1 .. ,9(14 0.
...
'"
r-
".
ZE.. U
00.
oscillator is used for fixed-
channel o per at i o n. For
those who desire tuning
capability. a var iable
crystal oscillator may be
used.
Although so me would
say the osci llator output is
dirty. I prefer to think of it
as being rich in harmonic
content. The circuitry of
the TRC-452 is set up to use
the third harmonic of 5.12
MHz , so a 5.651MHz
crystal will give a usable
harmonic at 16.955 MHz.
The combi nation of C3/L3
on the Pll board will filter
all but the desired frequen-
cy, but it may be necessary
to change the value of C3
to 30 pF to peak the filt er at
16.955 MHz .
The first st ep in conver-
sion is t o remove the
covers and locate the Pll
board. It wil l then be
necessary to remove the
Pll board. In the TRC-452,
the Pll board and side
c ove r are soldered in
place. locate c oup l ing
capaci tor C4 on the Pll
board. Remove and di s-
card thi s ca paci tor. Small
shielded ca ble from the
oscillator is now inserted in
t he C4 hole nearest t he
edge of the board and
soldered in place. Reinsert
the Pll board and tack in
place. Be sure to connect
all pins. as most of these
are used in c ircuits as well
as providing mounting
stabil ity.
Next. connect the oscil-
lator to a well-regu lated
supply and apply power to
both the oscillator and t he
rig. A frequency counter
should be connected to the
output of the 1st local
oscillator. At this point. the
122
Tommy M. Murphy KSUKH
RI. 1, Box 310A
Ethel MS 39067
CD to 10
- part xv: a Realistic HT
Photo by James Clegg
Walkie-talkie using external anenna connection to wattmeter and dummy load. Unit showed (1'/
output of over 1. 5 Watts at 29.000 MHL.
238
T
he CB frequencies were
rcccrut v expanded from
23 to -to channels to handle
the increased number of chi-
lens using the band. Since
many firms bCC,I Ole "well
off" from the sa le of the
23-c hJnnel unit s, t he thought
WJS that the "gold mi ne" was
going to ,>tril.. e a new vein and
that th e new -tu-channcl unit s
would be the holiest thing
going. So, cvcrvc nc began
dumping the 23'chJnnei unit s
a t very anracuvc prices.
Many barns were quick to
grab the opportunity of
gcu ~ ..orne first etass com-
municatlon.. gear at a good
pri ce, and the CBers bought
them up also at a fa.. t rat e.
Now enters J problem: So
rrunv transceivers of 23
channel capacit v had been
s o l d t h a t when th e
40-chJnnei unit s came out ,
t here ju.. t WJ" not the anucl-
pated demand for t hem, so
now eve n au-channel units
can be found at low prices.
Tho..c who did buy the new
-tu-channcl radios quickly
found o ut tha t the high-
powered "skip-land" boys
had been up there for vcars,
so the additional 17 channels
were just about useless for
the purpose for which the
Citizens Band Serv ice wa..
c.. tabllshcd
The word i.. apparently
o ut that many manufacturer..
now bel ieve that the market
is saturat ed, and tT\J ny bar-
gains arc appeari ng in CB
gea r. This is how I carne to be
the po..scssor of a couple of
wal kie-talkie units to co nvert
to 10 meter s. The radio is a
3-channel , 2 Walt i nput,
l-wan output walkie- talkie,
the Realistic TRC-1 80. My
unit showed an output of
s light ly mor e than 1.5 Watts
o n a wattmeter into a dummy
load, using fresh batteries.
The unit normally sells for
$40.95; I purchased these at
$24.95 each, almost a 50%
savi ngs.
Specifications show that
the un it has excellent sensi-
tivity (. 5 mV for 10 dB
5+N /N ) and spurious
emission down -SO dB or
better. The receiver draws 25
Smithe's new HF Ban/am Dipole.
New Products
to 150 rnA, depending on
squelched or received signal
condit ion, and the trans-
mitter uses 250 t o 500 rnA
The walkie-talkie comes with
CB channel 14 already in-
stalled, plus a set of AA
batteri es. Checkout showed
that the unit was working
perfectly. Some plus features
include an earphone jack, an
ext ernal ant enna jack (to use
a mobil e or base station
ante nna), a power jack that
all ows you to connect to a 12
V de so urce (such as a car
battery), a charger jac k for
recharging nic kel cadmium
batteri es without removing
them, and a battery tes t
button with LED indi cator to
show the condition of the
batt eries. There is no guess-
work o n the LED: If it lights,
the batteries are okay; if
they're not al right, there's
simply no light!
T he walkie-talkie was
eas ily converted to 10 meters
with just a substitution of
cr ystals and th e retuning of
the transmitter and receiver
from {JiJge 221
keys the trans mill er.
Progr am ATTY ha s t wo
modes: send and receive. In the
receive mode, the mark and
space tones will be decoded
and the res ulti ng text displayed
on the video monitor. Either
stages. After looki ng at a
number of schematics on t he
general run of uni ts of this
nature, the majori ty have the
basic 455 kHz i-f, so conver-
sion of most shoul d be fair ly
simple. I designated the
channel "A" posi tion to be
29.000 MHz, whic h calls for
that frequency for the trans-
mitter , of course, and a
28.545 MHz crystal fo r t he
receiver. I still have two addi-
tional channel s to add, when
t he need arises. The bui lt-in
antenna measures 39Y:o inches
long extended and has an
interna l loadi ng coil. Rather
than messing with the coi l, I
just reduced the lengt h of the
wh ip by almost 3 inc hes
(using a f ield strengt h meter
to find the point of maxi-
mu m output of rf) to make it
resonant at 29 MHz. To
ensure tha t I returned each
t ime to the proper length, I
simply marked the top sec-
tion by scratching on the
metal rod.
Now, if we are going to be
able to utilize these bargain
wide Of narrow shift at 60 wpm
will work equally well. Both HF
and VHF reception are acccm-
mooateo. In the send mode, all
Baudot characters and punc-
tuation may be sent from the
keyboard. In addition, up to ten
programmable message mem-
ories (2550 characters total)
lo w-po wer ed transceiver s on
10 meters for a whole bunch
of fu n, f requency placement
will to a great extent deter-
mine the usefulness. There
are a number of band plans
aro und, with each one ex-
tolli ng its own virtues. Yes, I
have one, too ! It's quite
simple, and, best of all , it is
using a section of the band
t hat is not heavily used at the
present. Looking at one plan,
the proposal calls for (what I
call th e AM band) channell
to start only 10kHz inside
(what I call the SBB band) at
2&560 MHz, and, from t here,
the spacing is in steps accord-
ing to the original CB chan-
nels. Shades of 75 meters,
AM versus SSB, back in the
old days! I can just imagine
h o w these low-powered
radios will pl ay when the
band opens up a little and
that fu nny " Donald Duck"
stuff starts comi ng in. It ' ll be
just like the HF bands bac k in
the 1960s - one big hassle,
then the demise of AM.
Why not avo id the prob-
allow " brag tapes ," pictures,
etc., direct from the keyboard.
A special feature allows send-
ing the time automatically at
the press of a single key!
Automatic FIGS (shift), LTRS
(u nshift). line feed, and unshift -
on-space are included. Reverse
screen image separates send-
ing from receiving text. One key
allows switching between send
and receive. utorotrontcs. 5943
Pioneer Road. Hughson CA
95326; (209)-634-8888.
ALLBAND MINIATURE DIPOLE
Ant enna s by Smilhe ha s
come up with a truly portable
all band miniature dipole com-
plete with its own carrying case
and mast/hardware to mount
on a camera t ripod or 3/8" x 24
stud. High performance is ob-
ta ined with the HF Bantam
Dipole on 80-10 meters at its
nor ma l 13 foot lengt h, or the
same an tenna may be snort-
ened to 7 feet for 75-10 meter
coverage. Polarization is qutck-
ly interchangeable from non-
zontat to vertical. No ground
system is necessary. The HF
Banta m Dipole is ideal for
camping, traveling, mountain-
topping, apartment living, or if
you're stuck with building code
rest rictions. Construction is of
high quality 6061 -TG aluminum
and stainless steel hardware.
lem to begi n with and put
these converted CB radios up
a ways in the band? This way
everyone has lots of room to
do "their own thing," and if
t he sideband boys want to
QSY to talk to the AM QR?
fellows, well fine ! So, let's
simplify t hings and be "good
guys" in the process.
ON - 28 to 28.5 MHz
SSB - 28.5 to 29 MHz
AM - 29 to 29.290 MHz
I realize that ON is not
rest rict ed, but very seldom do
you hear it above 28.5 MHz,
simply because of good oper-
ators plus th ere is 500 kHz to
move aro und in. The SB boys
have a lot of room also, and,
as a matter of course, do not
normally go above 29 MHz.
With a band the size of 10
meters, there's room for all,
and QRP operation with
these co nvert ed radios will be
mos t enjoyable. If we want to
make it hard o n ourselves,
well then hardly anyone
(besides Quack, Quack) will
be able to talk! See you on
char mel l , 29.000 MHz!
Dealer inquiries are invited.
U.S. patent pending. Send an
SASE for spec sheet and other
Smithe antenna products to
Comm Center, Inc., Laurel
Plaza-Rte. 198, Laurel MD
20810; (301) 7920600.
NEWTRONI CS INTRODUCES
5 AND 11ELEMENT HUSTLER
2 METER VAGI ANTENNAS
Two models of the new Star
Tracke rTM series of Hust ler 2
meter yagi antennas have been
announced by New.Ttoni cs
Corporation . These 5 and
11-element rotatable beam
antennas are completely
tunable from 144-148 MHz, with
a unique adj ustable matching
system for 1.5:1 or better swr.
At resonance , swr is typically
1.1:1. This system provides for
optimum energy transfer with
out sacrificing gai n or pattern
control.
High forward gains and large
tront-to-back ratios put Hus tler
2 mete r yagis in an Ultra-high
pe rfo rmance category. Ha lf-
power (3 dB) beamwidths are
exceptionally na rrow. In addi-
tion, each model can be easily
mounted for vertical or horizon-
tal polarization for station-to-
station VHF OXwork.
The Star Tracker model ST-5
Continued on page 242
239
Paul L. Schmidt K9PS
3108 Brow,. Rood
New Castle 1N 47J61
CB to 10
- part XVIII: several PLL rigs
Who called it "Ancient Model"
Photo A. An overall shot of the rig with the case off.
R
e ce nt ly, many hams
have been convert ing
CB radios to operation on
the 10 meter ham band.
With 4o-channel CBs being
sold now, there are many
good used 23-channel units
available at very reason-
able pri ces. Some of these
uni ts will make very handy
10 meter AM phone trans-
ce ivers, as they cont ain ex-
cellent AM rece ive r sec-
tions as well as eff icient

4-Watt output t ransmitter

se ct io ns in a small package
ideal for mobi le use. One
of these units which may
be easily (a few hours of
work at most) and cheaply
(less than $10 for t he con-
version and perhaps $40 to
S50 for the radio) put on
ten meters is the Midland
model 13-882 C.
Although this article is
concerned primarily wit h
t he 13-882C, the informa-
tion can be applied to the
following radios which use
the PU-Q2A phase-locked-
loop IC in t he same c ircuit
configu rat ion:
General Motors-CBD-1 0;
Hy- G a in - 268 0 , 2681 ,
2683;
Kraco-KCB-2310B,
-2320B, -2330 B;
lafayette - HB-650, -750,
-950, Micro-223A
lafaye tte - Co m-p ho ne
23A, Tel sat 1050;
Midl a nd - 13-830, -857 B,
-882C, -888 B, -955;
Pe arce-Simpso n- Tiger 23
MK 11 , Tiger 40A (40 ch.);
Truetone- CYJ-4732A-77,
MCC-44341l-67.
The re are probably more
uni ts containing t he Pl. t -
02 A in t he arrangement
discussed here. They can
be recognized by the
numbers Pll-Q2A on the
chip near the front of the
rig, three c ryst a ls in the
radio, and the numbers
PTBM0 33AOX, PTBMO-
36AOX, PTBM0 37AOX, 0'
PTBM039AOX on the cit-
cuit board. There are some
4D-channel radios using the
Pll-Q2A in a different ar-
rangement (o nly two
crystals) which cannot be
put o n 10 meters by t he
method described here, as
the crystal that has been
eliminated is the crystal to
be changed in thi s modifi-
cat io n. Also, it should be
noted that earlier versions
of t he uni ts listed above do
not use the same circuitry.
The Kraco KCB-2330, for
example, uses a crystal syn-
thesizer, and the KCB-
2330A uses a Pll-Q1A chip,
which is not equivalent to
t he Pl l-Q2A chip.
Operation of the PLl.()2A
The voltage-controlled
oscillator Ivco), whose fre-
quency is co nt rolled by the
Pll-Q2A c hip and asso-
ci ated ci rcui t ry, provides
injection to the first re-
ceiver mixer and to a
tr a nsmitter mi xer stage.
The osci llator operates at
10.695 MHz above the
30
Photo B. Close-up of the channel-switch area o f the circuit board, showi ng the modifica-
tion to provide 23 additional channels 320 kHz above the "normal" 23 channels.
operating frequency, or
37.660 to 37.950 MHz for
operation on CBchannel s1
to 23.
Output from the vco i s
also mixed with the third
harmonic of the 11.80666
MHz crystal oscillator
[Q105) at 35.420 MHz, to
produce a difference fre-
quency of 2.24 to 2.53
MHz, which is fed into pin
2 of the PLl chi p. 10.240
MHz energy from the
10.240 MHz reference/sec
and receiver mixer iniec-
tion oscillator is fed into
the IC at pin 3.
Inside the IC, the 10.240
MHz signal is divided by
1024 to produce a 10.00
kHz reference signal. The
2.24 to 2.53 MHz si gnal i s
di vided by n, where n i s a
number determined by the
binary coding from the
channel swit ch to pins
7-15 of the tC. See Table 1.
For channel 1, n is 224,
dividing the difference fre-
quency at pin 2 by 224. Thi s
frequency is compared to
that of the 10.00 kHz
reference signal. If the out-
put of the n divider i s less
than 10.00 kHz, the voltage
at pin 5 of the PLl chi p (the
control voltage for the vco)
i s raised, causing the fre-
quency of the vco to in-
crease. If, on the other
hand, the frequency of the
n divider output is higher
than 10.00 kHz, indicating
that the vco is too high i n
frequency, the voltage at
pin 5 drops, lowering the
vee' s frequency. This ac-
tion, simi l ar to that of a
thermostat, regulates the
frequency of the vco. By
changi ng the value of n
(t he job of the channel
switch) or the frequency of
the 11.80666 MHz osctlla-
tor and adjusting the slug
in the vco oscillator coil (to
set its tuning range). the
operating frequency of the
vco, and thereby the
operating frequency of the
entire rig, can be changed,
while maintaining stability
approaching that of a
cryst al oscillator.
Conversion to 10 Meters
To convert the radi o to
10 meters, the 11.80666
MHz oscillator must be
changed. The frequency re-
quired to gi ve channel 1 a
frequency of " F" MHz is:
cryst al frequency
(MHz) = (F + 8.455V3
or 12.405 MHz f or channel
1 at 28.760 MHz, the chan-
nel 1 f or many converted
CBs now i n use, especially
in the Los Angeles, Cal ifor-
nia, area. The c r ys t al
shoul d be available from
any of the major crystal
manufacturers. When or-
dering, speci f y the frequen-
cy desired and the model
of radi o you are convert-
ing. The cryst al manuf ac-
t urers usually have infor-
mati on o n ho lder t ype,
l oad capaci ty, and ot her
speci f icat ions for CB units
on file. If not, send a copy
of the oscillator schemati c
along with the order.
To get the r ig up t o t en
meters, the vco must be
moved to near 39 MHz and
the t ransmitter must be
completely real igned. The
easiest way I have found to
do thi s is to use a dummy
l oad, watt meter, or other
out put indi cator, f requen-
cy counter, o r recei ver
cover i ng 27 to 29.5 MHz
with some accuracy and a
signal generator or steady
on-the-air si gnal i n t he
followi ng procedure.
Wi th t he unit off, isolate
pins 5 and 6 of the PLL
from the ci rcuit board foil
(use sol der wick t o remove
t he sol der). Pin 6 i s a pro-
te cti o n vol t age w hic h
drops t o Oif the PLL f ail s to
lock up (i.e.. the PlL can' t
regulate the vco frequency
f or some reason) and d is-
abl es t he t ransmitter. Pin 5
is the control vol tage t o
t he vco. Temporaril y con-
nect a jumper wire f rom
pin 1 Is-volt supply to the
IC) to the f o il at pins 5 and
6, without connect i ng to
the pins themselves. It
probably wouldn't hurt the
IC i f the pins did t ouch,
but, at $12.00 or more for a
replacement IC, I don't rec-
ommend taki ng chances.
Thi s temporary modif ica-
t ion runs the vee at max-
imum f requency, unlocked
from the Pll, and over-
r i d e s t he t ra ns m i tte r
di sabl e l i ne, allowi ng t he
t ra nsmi tter t o f uncti on.
Connec t the wattmeter and
dummy load to t he trans-
mitter . Connect t he fre-
quency counter accordi ng
to i t s instru ct i ons t o
monitor t ransmitted fre-
quency.
Turn t he unit on and key
the transmitter. The f re-
quency counter shou ld
r ead somewhere above
27.4 MHz. Tune the sl ugs
of T111 , L103, L104, T102,
T103, L106, L1 09, and L1l0
for maximum out put (the
numbers are next t o the
coils on the ci rcuit boar d).
Exer ci se ext reme caution
i n tuni ng, as the slugs are
very fragile. Tu ne the vco
osc i l l at or coi l, 'ttot . until
the frequency is about 300
kHz higher and retune the
above coils f or maximum
Fig. 1. Fig. 2.
31
9 10 11 12 13 14 1S
1 1 0 0 000
1 1 0 0 0 0 1
1100010
1 100 1 0 0
1 100 1 0 1
1 100 1 10
1 100 1 1 1
1 10 1 001
1 1 0 1 010
1 1 0 1 011
110110 0
1 101 1 1 0
1 101 1 1 1
1 1 1 0 0 0 0
1110001
1 1 100 1 1
1110100
1 1 1 0 1 0 1
1 1 101 1 0
111 1 000
1 1 1 100 1
1 1 1 101 0
1 1 1 1 101
11 1 1 1 1 1
64 32 16 8 4 2 1
n Ch. Freq. pi n: 1 8
224 01 26.965 MHz 0 1
225 02 26.915 MHz 0 1
226 03 26.985 MHz 0 1
228 04 21.005 MHz 0 1
229 05 27.015 MHz 0 1
230 06 27.025 MHz 0 1
231 07 21.035 MHz 0 1
233 08 27.055 MHz 0 1
234 09 21.065 MHz 0 1
235 10 27.075 MHz 0 1
236 11 21.085 MHz 0 1
238 12 21.105 MHz 0 1
239 13 21.115 MHz 0 1
240 14 21.125 MHz 0 1
241 15 27.135 MHz 0 1
243 16 27.155 MHz 0 1
244 17 21.165 MHz 0 1
245 18 21.115 MHz 0 1
246 19 27.185 MHz 0 1
248 20 21.205 MHz 0 1
249 21 21.215 MHz 0 1
250 22 27.225 MHz 0 1
253 23 21.255 MHz 0 1
255 27 (see lext) 0 1
Binary number: 256 128
A 1 indicates 5 volts at pin; 0 indicates no voltage.
Tabfe 1.
output. Repeat the pro-
cedure, " wa l ki ng" the
transmitter up to about 200
kHz above your highest ten
meter channel (about 29.35
MHz for channel 1 at
28.760 MHz). Turn the unit
off.
Disconnect the 5-volt
Jumper wire which was
temporari ly insta lled from
pins 5 and 6 to pin 1 and
reconnect the pins to the
fo il. Turn t he unit back on,
a nd set the channel switch
to channel 1. Adjust the
trimmer capacitor next to
the crystal for the proper
out put frequency. Turn the
channel switch to channel
18. Ad just all of the coils
ment ioned except 1101 ,
the vee coil, for maximum
power output. (This is done
at a higher-than-center fre-
quency because the power
output d rops off faste r
above t he peak frequency
t han below. This is normal
even on 11 meters and
should not be t he cause of
any worries about chang-
ing capacitor values, trim-
ming coils, etc., unless the
coils j ust refuse to
resonate. All three un its I
have converted have t uned
beautifull y with 4 to 5
Watts output without jug-
32
gling any component
values.l
Connect the transceiver
to the signal generator or
other signal source. Set t he
channel switch to channel
12 and adjust the generator
fo r output on the same fre-
quency. Adjust the rf
stages in the receiver (T104
and L112) fo r maxi mum re-
ceived signal st rengt h on
t he S-meter. Alignment of
t he other receive r tu ning
adjustments should not be
necessary, as the i-ts are on
the same frequency as
when the unit worked a
couple of MHz lower.
Additional Channels
Channe l 27 may be
available in the blank posi-
tion between channel 23
and channel 1 on the dial
by installing an insulated
jumper wire on the foil side
of the ci rcuit board be-
tween t he terminal on the
far left of t he channel
switch and t he terminal on
the far right of the switch.
This modification will sup-
ply 5 volts to the vee and to
IC pins 8 through 10 when
the channel switch is in the
blank posi tion. Channel 27
wi ll be 20 kHz above chan-
nel 23, or 29.070 MHz for
channel 1 on 28.760 MHz.
On some units, the blank
will be another channel 1,
but it's wort h a try and, if it
doesn't work on your rig,
you can always take the
jumper back out.
Each channel ca n be
moved up or down 320 kHz
by performing one of the
following modifications. If
one of these modifications
is done, each channel will
have two possible frequen-
cies, one 320 kHz above
the other. Thus, channel 1
in the higher position will
be 30 kHz above the lower
channel 23 and 10 kHz
above the lower channel
27. In other words, the 320
kHz offset switch is select-
ing between two different
bands of 23 channels (or 24
channels) each. The only
component required for
t he mod if ic at ion IS an
SPOT switch, which may be
installed in the front panel,
or, to preserve the stock
appearance of the radio,
the function of an existing
switch may be changed.
To be able to move the
23-channel band down 320
kHz, isolate pin 10 of the
IC by cutti ng t he foil on the
circuit board around it.
Then wire t he switch as
shown in Fig. 1.
To move up 320 kHz re-
quires a little more work
and is the modification I
have shown in the photo-
graphs. Cut the foi l on both
sides of the connection to
pm 7 to isolate it from
ground. Then cut the foil to
isolate pins 8, 9, and 10 as a
group from the switch con-
tact and from the thin strip
of foil going to one end of
R103, the series resistor in
the B-plus lead to the vco.
Install a jumper from this
end of R103 to the 5-volt
line at the left-most ter-
minal of the c ha nne l
switch or to the point
shown in the photograph,
which is just on the other
side of a jumper from the
terminal. If this jumper is
forgotten, the vco won't
oscillate. Connect the
switch as shown in Fig. 2.
After the conversion has
been completed. affix a
labe l to it in an obvious
place stating that the radio
is not capable of operation
on Citizens Band frequen-
cies and that an amateur
radio license is required to
use it. The label could save
a lot of embarrassment or a
pink ticket from the FCC in
the event a passenger
riding m your car says
somet hing like "You have a
CB just like mine! ", picks
up the microphone, and
yells " Breake r 4" all over
the world on 29.050 MHz.
My 13-882C on ten
meters has provided quite
a few contacts, most ly with
stations on the west coast.
My dad (Dale K9HIS) also
has a 13-882C on ten,
and my brother (Larry
WB9BAQ) runs a 13-857B
(an 882C without the no ise
blanker or antenna warn-
ing light) mobile with a
t rimmed-down CB magnet-
mount antenna, working
mostly stations on the west
coast and southeastern
U.S. What 4 or 5 Watts of
AM phone will do on a
clear frequency gave me
quite a surprise . Who
called it Ancient Mode,
anyway?
CB to 10
-
part XXII: more talk power for the TRC-11
Christopher Veal N4APN
RI. 4, Box 259
Louisville TN 37777
I
f you are one of the many
hams who purchased a
Radi o Shack TRC-11 CB
unit, thi s art i cle will tell
you how t o i ncrease its
modul ati on consi derably.
Another ham and I bought
d p.ur ot j RC-1 h when
Radio Shack W d S sei l ing
them out at half price. The
TRe-11 is a e-channel. 5-
Watt, 12-vol t transceiver .
After repl ac i ng t he crys-
tals with 10 meter crystals,
the receiver was real igned
wi t h a signal generat or.
The transmitter was t hen
adjusted f or maximum out-
pu t. Our units had about
4-1/2 Watts output and
worked f i ne over short di s-
tances, but the modulat ion
was very weak even when
ye lling i nto t he m ic ro-
phone. On a meter, t he
maximum modul at ion was
80% and t he average was a
smal l 40%.
Afte r inspe cting the
sc he mat ic, it was decided
t hat t he mi crophone ampl i-
f ier gain (also t he audio
ampl if ier gai n) coul d be i n-
creased by by passing R40
on Q8 or R44 on Q9. A 100-
ur. 15-V elect rolytic was
t ried, but it os ci llated on
Q9. On Q8, things looked
good. The capaci tor is SI m-
ply pa ra lleled with R40
(see the sc hemat ic with the
radi o). Now the maximum
modul ation was st i l l 80%,
but the av er age was now
70%. Any electrolyt ic ca-
pacitor SO to 150 uF and
a bove 15 vo lts s ho uld
work.
Afew of t hese radios are
bei ng used on the Civ i l Air
Pat rol frequency of 26.620
and I am sure thi s modifi-
cat ion wou ld ben efit these
operat ors. Look f or us on
28.9 and 29.0 MHz AM.
Thanks to Wayne W4TZB
for techni cal assistance and
to Ed KB4GH who hel ped
wi th on-the-ai r testing,.
Remote control capability.
Regulated voltage output as
required by the FT 207A and
TR2400 to conserve battery pack.
Turns your 1-4 watt transceiver
Into a higher powered base
or mobile station.
Made with the quality and care
that has made Lunar the leader
in linearized amps.
Can be used with any
1-5 watt radio.
Linearized so It 's
compatible with 558.
Has pre-amp for receiver
portion to Increase power and
cl arity 01 Incoming signals.
Amp and pre-amp tuncucns
independently controllable.
v" Lunar's new 2M 4-40P
LinearizedAmplifier
makes your hand-held
synthesized transceiver
a GIANT!
1 to 4 WATTS IN-
10 to 40 WATTS OUT.
2785 Kurtz St reet, Suite 10, San Diego, CA 92110
~
~ f ..ePhone 714 299-9740 Louis N. Anclau.
el e.181747 WB6NMT
L....:C:'::":":'::'::":":':=-=-----'
38 Seventy-three, March 1980
Frank Butscher 1t'6SZS
68.50 weumoor Way
San Jose CA 9.5 129
CB to 10
- part XXIII: the Sears Roadtalker 40
Phot o by Dani el B. Smi t h, J r. K6PRK
Fig. 1. BOUom vie\\- of t he Sears Roadra/l... er -W showing
component layour.
A
f tec ttng all things ,
c ha nge brings uv into
the fut ure, where a vener-
able o ld name like Sears,
Roebuck and Co. is simpli-
fied to Sears, and where
amateu r radio spo rts new
te rmmologv such as micro-
processor , phase lo c ke d
loop, et c. The ham bands
have cha nged t heir make-
up in the past 25 years. The
AM heterodvne allevs of 20
and 40 meters now ri ng
with t he cacophony o f
sideba nd and au tomati c
computer ized CW IOe rs.
Eve n t he HI-met er band
(the one reve red by most
hams because of its uncon-
gest ed spect rum, lei surelv
opera ting pace, and sur-
prisi ngly low-power OX ca-
pabil ities) now bustles wi t h
new act ivity: ince ssant OX
beacons, fully-quieted FM
signals passing through in-
tcrconnnenta l re pea t e rs.
the doppler shift of CW
tones as sa te ll ites whiz by,
and the chatter of cha nnel-
ized QRP rigs ri sing In a
cresce ndo as suns po t ac-
tivity moves stead ily to-
ward peak 21 and beyond.
When Sears and Roe-
bu ck together were a
household name in the ear-
ly fiftie s (and before), o per-
at ing on the 'ln-meter band
was a lot simpler. A ham in
those d ays could affo rd to
build his own ri gs, or he
cou ld modify, for hi s
needs. a wide vanetv of
WWI r surplus hardware.
Work ing all over Europe In
one morning wit h 50-Walls
AM was, as remembered 21)
years lat er, qu ite a sur-
pri se, a s we ll as a very re-
wardi ng experience
Recently, seve ra l vur-
crises a nd rewarding expe-
riences accompanied my
mod ification and use o f ,1
40- ch an ne l ph ase-lor kr-d
loop CB tra nsceiver pu r-
chased fro m t hat vener-
able ol d companv. Scar s
In an age where build ing
from scratch is cost-prohib-
itive, the Sears Road talker
40, mode l 3826, AM-SSB rig
was purchased new and
s ight-unseen for under
$80.00 du ring a rece nt sale .
Upon opening t he box, the
manual and accompanying
sche mat ic were immed i-
ately perused for t he elec-
trical details of conversion.
Also, t he bottom cover was
removed to examine the
physical p roblems co n-
cerned with the change-
over- see Fig. 1.
The " d o gho us e" c o n-
taining the reference oscil -
lator is in the upper center
of the chass is. This oscilla-
tor is the key to the co nver-
sion. The articles li sted in
the References are excel -
58 Seventy-three, March 1980
Fig. Z. Sears Roadtafker 40. mode' 3826. simp l ified f unct io nal blod.. d iagram.

~ .

ry inside was co mple te ly

cove red with sealing wax,
probably to prevent part s
moveme nt dur ing vib ra-
t ion.
After securi ng a su itable
a l ignme nt tool for the
sma ll sq uare hole in the
slugs. the moment of truth
had arri ved It was time to
t une up on 10 meter s. With
the cha nne l selector set o n
c ha nne l 1, a three-foot
piece of ante nn a wi re at-
tached to t he ante nna jack
ce nt er conductor. and 12-V
d e power applied, the T702
s lug was t urned slowly
clockwise. In a bout a half
turn, a sideba nd signa l was
heard signi ng a W9 call. Pin
2 o n IC701 was checked
with a Heathkit '" fre-
q uency coun ter. A stable
1.28-MHz f requency read-
out was observed . Next,
T102 was t urned cl o ck-
wi se, a nd in less t ha n one
turn, the level o f the noi se
was peaked. T705 a nd n02
were ea sil y noise-peaked in
less than one turn. That' s it
cover. Since it wa s a tight
fit, no sides-t o-bot tom so l-
der bonding wa s a pplied.
Thi s wou ld faci lit ate easy
remo val fo r futur e per-
fo rma nce improvement s
which requ ire cha nges to
thi s reference o scillator
circuit . These changes will
be disc ussed lat er.
The next step was to re-
move the sea ling wax from
t he top o f all t he t rans-
fo rmer tuning slugs. This
was accomplished eas ily
by sc ra ping t he wax out
with the chisel end of a
sma ll jeweler's screwd riv-
er . All transformer slugs
shown in Fig. 2. exce pt
T10 3 a n d T406, were
cleaned. T701, the tank-cir-
cuit inductor (located in
t h e s m a l l PCvbo a r d -
mounted metal enclosu re
to t he left o f th e re ference
osci ll ator d ogho use - see
Fig. 1), had t he most sealing
wax applied to the t op o f
the transformer. With the
vco cover removed, it was
d iscovered that the circuit-
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,
large size . The cryst a l sock-
e t allowed easy crys t a l
changes to c heck t he band-
widt h of o peration fo r a
s ing le vco-t uned cir cui t
se tt ing.
In o rder to unso lder t he
12.320 crystal. the bottom
of the doghouse has to be
unsoldered from the sides.
A so ld er wick was used
with a 45-Watt so ldering
iron to remove t he so lder
bonds . It was easier to un-
solde r the c irc u it bo ard
ends of t he t hree dogho use
posts t o gain e asy access t o
t he botto m cove r t han to
unscrew the t hree d og-
house flange attachment
screws. These soft metal
screws were ce mented in
place and I st ripped the
Phill ips head slo t s while at-
t empti ng to remove them.
After t he c rysta l and
so cket were added, the
doghou se was set in pl ace
and one post was soldered
to the PC board. The dog-
house a s sembl y wa s
pressed into the bottom
lent in thei r st ate ment and
so lut io n to the co nvers io n
problem. Fortunately, the
Sears rig has an a lmost
ident ical Pll circ ui t to the
rig in Refe rence 1.
Fig. 2 shows the Sears
mode l 3826 bloc k d iagra m;
the key to th e co nversio n is
the vcxo. Q701 . The vcxo's
third ha rmonic is mixed
with the vco (Q70n fre-
quency in Q703, is filtered
by l PF1, and is fed into the
Pll co nt rolle r. For channel
1, thi s freq ue ncy is 1.28
MHz. In this Pll , t he vco
will automatically seek the
c o rr ec t f requency to
achieve a 1.28 MHz d iffer-
ence wit h the vcxo ref er-
e nce os cilla tor.
In order to move the rig' s
operation into the 'tO me-
t er ba nd , the X701 fre-
que ncy h a s t o be in-
creased. For example, to
move the CB cha nne l 1 op-
erat ing fr e q ue nc y fr o m
26.%5 to 28.510, t he vco
has to be increased by
1.54 5 MHz . To achieve
t his, the X701 frequency
shou ld be increased from
12.320 to 12.835 MHz. This
increase of .515 Hz is o ne
t hird t he vco frequency in-
crease req u ired. The rea-
so n for o nly t he 1/3 in-
crease is t hat t he 3rd har-
monic is mixed with t he
vco .
So much for theory; now
le t' s d iscuss the act ual con-
version detail s. A 13-MHz
HC-1 8/U-style crystal was
pu rc hased at a local su r-
pl us parts ho use t o get the
rig t uned to the 10-met er
band. With t hi s crysta l,
channel 1 is 29.005 MHz . It
was decided to tune the re-
ceiver and transmitter to
c ha nne l 1 while hoping
that the tuned c ircu it ry
was broadbanded enough
to cove r 40 c h a nne l s
a bove, as we ll as be low,
29.005 MHz. As it turns
out , t his was a good choice
of a tune-up freque ncy.
Th e crystal and socket
(shown in Fig. 1) a re taped
to the outside of the metal
doghouse because of its
Sellentythree, March 7980 59
* YOU ASKED FOR IT *
A COMPLETE REPEATER STARRING
THE MARK 3C SUPERCONTROLLER
R702 and short out R711 ,
which connects t he bottom
end of t he fine-tune con-
trol, RV701, to ground. Di s-
connect t he red wi re from
the top end of the f ine-tune
cont rol. Connect th e t op
end of t hi s cont rol to a
regu lated voltage source
t hat is always present f or
all ope rat ional modes such
as regul at or bu s BB. This
bu s can be f ound i n many
pl aces on the circu it board.
The extra set of wi res
comi ng out of t he tran s-
ceiver to th e bottom l eft of
Fig. l is t he 12-vol t control
for a rel ay that switc hes i n
an BO-Walt, soli d-state l in-
ear on t ransmi t. It should
be menti oned that Amer i-
can Cryst al Supply Co. has
a conversi on ki t whi ch ex-
pands the number of chan-
nel s.
When th e band is open,
CW signa ls are heard very
low i n the background.
Thi s occurs beca use t he
i mage rejection is not quit e
as good as with you r T5-520
or FT-l0l rigs. This back-
ground act iv it y IS muc h
l ess objec t i onable t ha n
noi se. With the rank s of
QRP r ig owners growi ng,
one onl y has to menti on
duri ng t he QSO t hat he/she
is running QRP and you
wi ll be su rpr ised at th e Wl
or W 2 break ing i n to ask
det ail s of your rig
For t he price, t he sat is-
f act ion of successf u l l y
completi ng your own con-
version, sha ri ng your con-
ver sion det ail s wi th ot hers,
and regul arl y di scovering a
OX stat ion on one or more
of your 40 channels and
work ing him sti rs t he i magi-
nation and br ings back the
pl easure of hamming wi th
an excel lent l ow-cost rig.
Thi s, to me, i s wel l wort h it
i n t his age of one grand
ham rigs.
References
1. Welsh, "CB to 10-Part XII:
Convert a Kraco PlL Rig," 73
MagaZi ne, Oct ober, 1978, pp.
254-255.
2. Cann, "CB to to- Part XVI: A
CW Conversion," 73 MagaZine,
January, 1979, pp. 5657.
f ine-tu ne oscillator brought
him in nicely. He was most
interested in this converted
rig for a bl ind ham ac-
quaintance of his. I happil y
gave him al l the info I had
on t he rig and its conver-
sion.
Before the band di ed
abrupt l y at 7:45 prn. many
st at ions were heard while
t he set was checked wi t h
ot her crysta ls. The l owest
12-MHz rock I had brought
the operat ing f requency
down to 28.255 wi th t he
same vco setti ng as f or
29.005. When I shut off the
l ight in the shac k and se-
cured for t he ni ght, I had
th e same good feel i ng I fel t
on t hat spr ing morni ng i n
t he earl y f i fti es.
O t her i m p ro v em en t s
have al so been i mple-
men te d The b etween -
channel ope ration conver-
sion i s the simplest of al l
th e cha nges. First, repl ace
X702 (LSB Ref. Os c. crystal)
with a crystal Ident i cal
wi th th e X701 t hat was pre-
viously replaced. X702 can
be netted 5 kHz away from
X701 wi th CT702. Next,
power will be appli ed t o
0 220 t hrough R236 when
t he mode swi tc h is in the
LSH posit ion. Thi s diode
will keep the USB-AM off -
set crys ta l , X201 , switc hed
on for al l modes. The l SH
positi on becomes a second
set o f US H freq uen c i es
placed between those set
by X701 i n t he USB-AM po-
siti on. The tot al f requency
c hange by the fine tu ne
will be approx imate ly 5
kH z. Cut the green wire
comi ng out of t he plug on
the left side of the mode
selector switch about one
i nch from the plug. (This
swi tch can be seen i n Fig 1
to the ri ght o f the referen ce
osci l l ator doghou se.) Str ip
a quarter-in ch of th e plug
end of the green wi re and
connect it to t he or ange
wi re terminal next to i t i n-
side th e pl ug.
The next change t o im-
plement i s fine-tune track -
ine on transmit Remove
ANDNOW.-.. __....bulllln _
Reeelo4r __ 0.25 UV
Super cnap .udlo
Tnl"'lller output m
PlUS Q9lI<>NI_
Pow. .mpliflen lplc;ll your I..... )
Sub-.udlbl. to...
.Control_ ..
MARK 3CR REPEATER
144-220 ' 14(/$ Introductory pne..
crophone. The wattmeter
read 7.5 Wat ts. With the
three-foot piece of wir e
connected to the antenna
jack, a beat not e was heard
i n the spea ker, indi cating
an AM signal. WIth t he
mode switch i n AM, I H7XJJ
was heard ! Shades of the
" 48" sunspot peak: " Al l you
need i s a piece of wir e
hanging out of the win-
do w ! " Prob abl y, if the
t hree- foot wire w as
matc hed, I would have
t ried to an swer hI SCQ; in-
stead, I not-so-ca l mly con-
nected up to a two-el ement
beam DX fever was com-
mg on.
He came back wi t h a Sib
signal on an FT-l0l . He was
running 15-W att s output.
This was beginn i ng to f eel
l i ke that one spri ng morn-
i ng 25 years ago! The next
contact was wit h a Wl in
Boston on AM. I thought I
would try sideband. Bingo!
A WB4 in Sout h Caroli na
was heard . Ad just i ng the
ALL the ........ IN"',. make
.... rt 3C thIo -.........., IIoelMor In repMler

AuII:lJ*_
FI_IHI_
Aulodllll
Functlotll
.'3MorM_V-
Cullom !IIII m_v-
[);lIil.ll..... dKOCI1"O
Mlcropr oc-... cont ",1
"'ARK 3-C CONTIlOllER $886.
for receiver adjustment.
Next, an i nl i ne, inexpen-
sive CB powerlvswr meter
and dummy load were at-
tac hed to t he rf output
co nnector. Transf or mers
were peaked wit h th e r ig in
t he AM posi t ion on chan-
nel l f or max rf output i n
t he foll owing order: T703,
704, 402, 403, 404, 408, 407,
and 405. The reason for t his
broken sequence is t hat
T405 was not easily 10-.
cated Although the trans-
f ormer numbers are si lk -
screen pr inted on t he top
of the PC board, the parts
are t ightly pack aged, mak-
i ng identi f icati on diff icult
wi t hout bright lighting. The
numbers are more easi ly
read if a fl ashl ight is used
t o locate and decipher
t hem.
By the time T405 was
peaked, the power out put
read 5 Watts. Not bad.
Wi th t he mode switch i n
the USB position, a whist le
was directed i nto t he rni-
C'-lor write lor 1,..lflcatIonI
MICRO CONTROL SPECIALITIES (S17) 372-34U
23 Elm ,..-It, Orowelllnd, .... 01134
60 Seventy-three, March 1980
Charles W. Hoppesch WA4UUV
270 Surfspray Drive
Merritt Island FL 32952
CB to 10
- part XXIV: Penney's SSB rig
Fig, 1. Component location diagram.
".
70 0
,..
@J
Yt t \ /"0''-..........
'"'
'"'
0
[;]0
[nO'
0 0

"0'
@)l
eHO'O
0
H'
H OI
0
'"
RT101 eno,
TPS O
0
OC O
'"'
RTlo, T20'
0 00 .""
0
0 0
T. 04
n 03

0 H OI T;l0l
0
0 0
0

RHO'
o

OT
403
RTIG<
0
OT404il
TPIO
HO, o TP9
P
0
RH 0 2

0
HOG T;l0'
OORTO'
P
0
rrcr
"cE
T407
0
OH06
W
a nt a 10-meter rig
that is chea p, easy
to use, and pr ovides up to
l.7-MHz coverage? If so,
read on and see how you
can cha nge a 4o-cha nnel
SSB CB into a convenient
mobi le package for just a
few bucks and an hour' s
time.
The l .C. Pe nney Model
no. 6246 (catalog #981-8378)
a nd t he Sears Roadtalker 40
(934.38260700) are 40-chan-
nel AM/SSB t ransceivers us-
ing the same phase locked
loop (PLl) ci rcuitry. The l.C.
Penney model has an excel -
le nt instruction manual
whic h contai ns a good ex-
planat ion of how PLl cir-
c uits work, as wel l as al ign-
ment instructions. By a ll
means, t ry to obtain t his
ma nua l if you don't already
have it . The methods de-
scribed for these sets can be
applied to other Sears and
J .C. Penney sets with similar
circuits. You'll have to do
some figuring, though,
because of some circuit
cha nges and a different
schematic numbering sys-
t em. The fo llowing conver-
sion inst ructions incl ude
ho w to c ha nge the 40
AM/USB c hannels to ten
meters, three ways to dou-
ble t he nu mber of channels
avai lable, a nd t wo ways to
cha nge t he fin e-t uni ng con-
trol to swing the t ra ns mit
frequency as well as t he
receive frequency.
How To Sta rt the
Conversion
Frequency Selection
1. Select the start ing fre-
quency for t he port ion of
t he band you wish t o use.
My select ion was 28.510
MHz beca use I int e nded to
work sideband and as
much OX as possi ble.
2. De rive t he new AM!
USB local-oscillator crystal
(X701) f req ue ncy. To the
frequency you have cho-
sen, add 11 .275, subtract
1.28, and divide by 3. Ex-
ample: (28,510+ 11.275-
1.28)/3 = 12.835 MHz.
3. Replace X701, This
crystal is located in a metal
box behind the channel
switch {see Fig.l). It will be
necessary to remove the
three screws securing it to
the ma in PCB and then to
unsolder the sides of the
box from t he bottom of the
box. This is no problem
with the aid of a solder
wick, Remove the local
oscillator board from the
can a nd re pl ace X701 with
the new crystal.
PLL Adjustments
1. Refer to Fig. 1 for com-
ponent locations. A fre-
quency counter and oscil -
loscope will make the job
easier if problems develop,
but if you don't have t hese
instruments, don't worry.
Wit h the set tuned to chan-
nel 18, adjust T702 to ob-
tain a dc voltage across
TP5 and TP6 (ground) of 3.0
0.1 V and proceed to
Transmitter Alignment in-
structions. below.
2. If you want to be more
scientific and check things
as you go a long, or if step
one d idn't work, get out
your freq uency counter
and p roceed with step
t hree.
3. Check the freque ncy
of the ne w c rystal by
measu ring it between t he
top of trimmer CT702 and
t he crystal box. It should
be about 12,835 MHz .
4, Check the frequency
100 73 Magazine. Apri l, 1980
T1 0 ,
SO.Of R ""RE
ONE . ,N 00"" " F" QY

P 'N ., USEO
m
RG174A
n 41 c

OtOl
to obtain 20-kHz channel
" ,
Fig 3. Mod 8 - How to ob-
tain a 5-to-15-H/z swing:
(a) before modification; (b)
after modification.
control near t he socket
which plugs i nto the main
PCB, Tape the end going to
t he socket. Solder the other
end to the f oil side of the
PCB to the R237 termi nation
nearest t he edge of the PCB.
This is a +B-V dc source
which is on duri ng both
t ransmit and receive.
Mod B- How to Obtain a
+ 5-to-15-k Hz Swing
Refer to Fig. 3.
1. Remove C741, t he
22-pF capacitor in parallel
with CT701.
2. Run a 4" length of
coax (RC-174 /A) fr o m
where C741 was connected
(center lead to hol e nearest
crystal) through a hol e i n
t he side of t he oscil lator
can. Solder t he shield to
Fig, 4. Modifications to /(701
spacmg.
by vary ing the voltage
across varactor D702 by
means of potentiometer
RV701, A + 8-V dc poten-
tial is applied to RV701
(fine-tuning control) only
du ri ng receive. Dur ing
transmit, + 8 V de is ap-
plied to the v a r ac tor
through a fixed resistance.
R702 . This modification
simply supplies + 8 V dc
cont i nuously to RV701, t hus
enabling it to function on
t ransmit as well as receive.
1. Cl ip t he wire origi nat-
ing from t he local oscil lator
board which terminat es at
G752 and R702. Tape both
ends,
2. Cli p t he wire from ter-
mi nal 1 of t he fi ne-tuning
,,'
1 1
Q
_ n ol _ n Ol
-

Rrc<
, ,
,
; i
0701 'ITo> ,
-
Rlfrc,
,
,
, ,
,
o1ol

1 1
I
_ n ol .... X70l
l(;
-
f-
R70l
"
I-
, ,
,
,
,
i
,ro,
"701 ,
".TO'
,
,
, ,
,
0 70 <
,
'"
Fig. 2. Mod A- varacror circuit modification: (a) before
modification; (b) after modificarion.
the function switch in SSB-
USB, hold your mike next
to the sfdetone of your
kever. use the marker tone
f rom you HF receiver, or,
if you're really we ll
equipped, use an audio fre-
quency generator and key
the rig. Readjust T703,
T704. and T401 -T408 for
maximum power output.
3. Check the set's output
on each channel. On side-
band. mine was about 7
Watts. If t he output f all s
off toO Watts at either end,
readjust T702 very slightly
t o lock the PLL.
Modifi cati ons to the
Fine-Tuning Cont rol
This rig has an RIT but is
fixed on transmit. The RJT
has a range of + 2 kHz. The
Mod A changes, bel ow, will
enable t he t ransmit fre-
quency to also be shifted
+ 2 kHz. Mod B wi ll give a
swing of + 5 k Hz to +15
kHz.
Mod A - Varac tor Circuit
Ref er to Fig. 2 This CB rig
is destaned to provide a
+ 2-kHz swing on receive
from the output of the
local-oscillator circuitry by
unplugging from the board
t he white wire leading to
t he main printed ci rcuit
board, This is one of a pair,
t he other one being whi te
with a str ipe. This i s t he
output from the t riple t.
and the f requency output
at this poi nt shou ld be
about 38.505 MHz. Plug
t he white wi re back on t he
board te rmi nal,
5. Connect an osci llo-
scope to TP3 and TP4
(ground) and ad j ust T701
for maximum amplitude.
b. Now, with the set
tuned to channel 18, adjust
T702 f or a de output of 3,0
+0 ,1 V across 1P5 and TP6
(ground).
7. Measure the f requen-
cy across t he collector of
Q708 and any of the metal
shiel ds on t he foil side of
the board. The frequency
should be about 39.995
M Hz for channel 18 if you
used an X701 frequency of
12.835 M Hz (X701 x 3 +
1.49). This compl etes PLL
adjustments and checks.
Transmitter Alignment
1 . A l ignment o f t he
t ransmitter section is ac-
complished by attaching
an antenna to t he rig (a
104" piece of wir e), and,
with the help of your HF '
SSB recei ver tuned for
about 28720 M Hz, keying
the rig (AM, channel18) and
listening for a weak heter-
odyne whistle. Adjust T703
and T704 f or maximum
def lection of you r HF
recei ver' s S-meter. After
this step, place a watt-
meter and dummy load on
the rig and key t he set
agai n. If no output is seen,
go back to t he wire anten-
na and adjust T401 and
T402 for maximum Smeter
readi ng, again using your
HF SSB receiver to detect
t he peak output posit ion.
Once an output i s seen on
th e wattmeter, final adj ust-
men t of T401 -T408 can be
made.
2. Tu rn RT40 2 fu lly
cou nter clock w ise. W it h
73 Magazine . April,1980 101
Fig. 6. LSB oscillator crystal modification for 40 more: (a)
before; (b) af ter.
2. Run another wire from
t he switch to t he co mmon
leg of the channel se lector
switc h. Try the foil side of
the board where R722 is at-
tached nearest to the chan-
nel switch. With thi s switc h
in the on posit ion, each
channe l will be 640 kHz
higher in frequency than it
was originally.
Note o n the Program-
mable Freq uency Divider :
Pins 9-15 on IC701 are the
i np ut s to th is de vi ce.
Ene rgiz ing pin 15 adds 10
kHz to the base frequency.
Pi n 14 adds 20 kHz, pin
13 -40 kt-l z, pin 12- 80
kHz, pin 11 -160 kHz, pin
10 -320 kHz, a nd pin 9 -
640 kHz. Thus, if channel l
is 28.505 MHz, energizing
pins 15 a nd 11 will yiel d a
frequency of 28.505 + .010
+ .1 60 = 28 &75 MH z .
Some hams have replaced
the c ha nnel SWitc h with
seven small switches and
" program in" the desired
frequency. This 1(701 chip
is available from New-
Tone Electronics Interna-
tio na l, PO Box 1738,
Bloomfiel d N] 07003, for
under $10. Sylvania 's ECC
1255 does not wo rk . and
t he Ie from Sears of l.C.
Penney listed for around
$40 when I checked ,
Met hod C
Change the l SB local-os-
cillator crystal for 40 more.
Refer to Fig. 6,
1. Select the portion of
the band you wi sh to cover.
Using the lowest frequen-
c y, calculat e the lSB
crysta l frequency by using
the formula in ste p 2 of the
co nve rs io n instruct ions .
Example: Add itional band-
widt h desired, 28.960-29.400
MHz . (28 .960 + 11 .275 -
1.28Y3 = 12.985 MHz.
2. Install t he new crystal
in pl ace of X702.
3, Cut t he red/black wire
attached to P2 nea r t he
plug e nd.
4, Cut the wire to Pl
about V. " from t he plug,
5. Re mo ve C742 and
( T702, and tie bot h crys-
tal s into the fine-tuning
swing of about 8 kHz.
The amo unt of swing ob-
tainable is now cont rolled
by the capaci tance of t he
RG-174/A cable. Removing
the shield from t he cable
from t he end nearest the
va riable ca pacitor will in-
crease the swing up to a
maximum of + 15 kHz.
How To In cr e a se the
Number of Channels/Band.
width
Below are three ways to
increase t he bandwidth of
your t ransceiver. One in-
volves using t he LSB sec-
tion and t he other two
make use of unused pi n 9
of 1(701. (Be caref ul. t hat' s
a $40.00 chip.)
Method A
This modificatio n chang-
es the channel spaci ng
from 10 kHz to 20 kHz ,
t hus al most doubling the
bandwidth available. My
ri g covers 28.500 to 29.400
MHz.
1. Cut foil as shown in
Fi g. 4(a) a nd (b). This is
do ne easily with a Dremel
tool. Sand t he varnish from
the foi l and sol der wire
bri dges, as shown in Fig.
4(c)
2. Perform t he Mod B
swing, using the inst ruc-
tions to obtain a swing of
12 kHz. This will provide
enough swing to cover t he
gaps between most of t he
cha nne ls.
Method B
Pin 9 of IC701 can also
be used to jump each c ha n-
ne l 0.640 MHz up from its
original frequency, so that
28.510MHz becomes 29.150
MHz when thi s pin is ac-
tivated. If the rig will tune
28.510--28.950 with pin 9
switc hed off, it wil l tune
29.150-29.550 MHz with the
pin switc hed on.
Ref er to Fig. 5.
1. Run a wire from un-
used pin 9 of t he program-
mable divide r to a front-
pa nel- rn ount ed s witc h.
(Suggest ion: Remove wires
fr om t he AN l switc h,
sol de r t hem toget her, and
use t he ANl switc h.)
l


1
urea
0.02
1
_ " 00
Mod A, step 2, except tape
both ends .
5. Remove t he fine-t un-
ing po t from the front
pa ne l. Be careful-t he
channel indi cator di al is at-
tached to the shaft with a
screw. Place ta pe over the
contacts and stick it out of
t he way inside the set, o r
di p a ll wires and use t he
potentiometer for another
pro ject.
6. Install a 5-50--pF(nomi-
na il va ria ble ca pac ito r
where the RV701 cont rol
was located. Co nnect the
inner coax lead to the in-
su la t ed sect ion of the
capaci to r. The shi eld is not
connected to the ca pac-
itor.
7. Adjus t C1701 so that
t he swing o bta ined with
the panel-mo unted capac-
itor is about + 5 kHz. To
obtain a gre ater degree of
swi ng, remove CT701 from
the board. This will yield a
,.,
IC ' 0 1
,.,
" ,
,-"-tUt tI:
: 5 700 ,
... _-_ ..
IC ' 0 '
" .

; 510' , AOO
,
L . . ,
$. 'TcM
.,
0205

) I
HOI
I
---11'
.,

..

./$4
...
-
,
.
..
I
' 20 1

I
--J,
"

"'* OIOOE$
coo
/"
...
Fig. 5. 640-k Hz jump modi-
fica tion: (a) before; (b) after.
t he inside of the can.
3. Cl ip t he wire de-
scribed in Mod A. step 1,
and tape both ends.
4. Clip the wire as In
102 73 Magazine . April , 1980
1508 Mc Ki nney Houston. leoas 77002 <7131 6580268
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wnXH
T201 , and T102-T1 06 so
that the out put is max-
imum on channel 20 with
the set on a convenient AM
signa l.
2. With the set on chan-
nel 20 and a convenient
SSB stat ion or signal. ad-
just T201 , T202, and n03
for maximum output.
Concl usi on
On-t he-air tests from the
car have been great. Al -
most any st at io n heard can
be worked if t he "biggies"
don't pil e on. Mobi le con-
ta ct s into Europe are
routi ne f rom t his QTH, and
with t he rig hooked to t he
trlbander at t he ho use, Asia
and Aust ralia are no prob-
lem. Si gnal report s general -
ly run .5 by 5 to 5 by 8, whic h
is solid copy on 10 meters.
The receiver is decent and
is well ba lanced wit h t he
t ra nsmitter's abilities. Al l
i n all, the r ig is easy to con-
vert and performs very
wel l. _
I
Electronics Supply, Inc. ..- 45
'CO
,
,
,
,
,
,
I
.,
Fig. 7. Adding diodes for
conversion of LSB to USB.
cap ac i t or wit h a short
jumper fr om the crysta l
side of where (T702 was
to the coax going t o the air-
variable cap acitor.
6. Pl ac e di odes in seri es
with the wires and recon-
nect both diodes as shown
i n Fig. 7.
This modif ica t ion shoul d
give you 1.7 MHz coverage
of t he band, assumi ng al l
t he sta ges are b r oad
enough.
Get on with the Best!
Receiver Alignment
1 . Ad just T705, Tl01,
Order Your Collins KWM,380
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ONE of the following
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v" Reaoe, SetV,ee-see page IgS
73 Magazine" April, 1980 103
Don Norman AFaB
41991 Emerson Court
Elyria OH 44035
CD to 10
- part xxv: using those surplus
40-channel boards
T
he Po ly Pa ks fl yer
aroused my curiosity
with t he ad for " A 4Q-
channel CB board com-
plete with channel selector
for only $1 4.88." 1 and in a
reasonable time UPS deliv-
ered what proved to be a
rather so phist ic at ed 40-
cha nne l PU CB set minus
the case, speaker, micro-
phone, and volume and
sq ue lch controls.
A litt le exami nat ion and
resea rch revealed t hat t his
is a ve ry ve rsat il e pr int ed
board, used in severa l Hy-
Ca in uni ts a nd severa l
Kraco mode ls. What appear
to be missing parts are de-
libe rate omissions. These
parts are ones that funct ion
in so me other unit than that
for which this board wa s in-
tended ,
With a little work and in-
genu ity, this board can be
turned into a fully-func-
t ioning a nd i ll e ga l CB
transceiver, and, with a lit -
tle more work, it can be-
come a neat lQ-meter rig.
All part numbers are silk-
screened o n the board. and
all wiring is attached to
nu mbered wire-wrap posts
or to numbered holes in t he
board. My wiri ng inst ruc-
t ions wi ll denote wire-wrap
post s with a " P" and a
number and board holes
wit h an " H" and a nu mber.
Only t he hoard mount-
58 73 Magazine . June, 1980
ing screws, t he heat sink'S,
t he an ten na connector
shield. and t he two di sc
capaci tors on t he bottom
of the board go to chassis
ground. All other ground-
ing points are attached to
one of the board grounds,
Cl, C2. C3. or C4. Board
grounds will be " BC" and
cha ssis grounds "CC." Got
it? Heat up t he iron and go!
Wiring
Solder a red lead for
.+ 12 V to Hl . Solder a
bl ack lead for - 12 V to
H2. Wire the center pin of
an a ntenna connector to
P58 and t he shiel d to CC.
Attach the leads of the two
di sc caps o n t he bottom of
t he board to CG. Ins tall a
jumper from P9 to P20.
Wire a power on-off switch
between P20 and P25. Wire
an o ute r lug of a 15k
squelch pot to P7 and the
ot her two lugs to BG. Wire
an outer lug of a SOk volume
co ntrol to P19. Wire the
center lug to P21 and the re-
mai ning lug to BC.
Wire t he + terminal of a
Q-l -mA S/rf meter to H34
and the - terminal to BG.
Wire one speake r lead to
P23 and attach t he ot he r
speake r le ad to BG tempor-
a rily. In actual o peration.
the speaker lead is ro uted
to BG t hrough the PTT
switch on t he microphone .
A 5OQ-Ohm dynamic mike
is used . This mike has a
DPDT PTT switc h t hat
opens t he speaker lead as it
grounds the PTT line. This
is necessary since t he mod-
ulat ion transformer is also
used as the audio output
t ransformer, and an un-
earthly howl results if the
speaker is no t disabled.
This mike audio line goes
to P22, t he PTT line to P13.
and t he neut ra l to BC.
Tune-Up
Tuning up the rece ive re-
q uires a signa l ge nera tor. a
VTVM, and a littl e pati en ce.
The first step is to set t he
voltage o n t he Pl l. Check
you r wi ring a last time, ap-
ply power, and check for
smo ke. If everythi ng is OK.
t urn ing the vol ume and
sq ue lc h cont rols sho uld
produce noi se in t he speak-
er. Squelch range can be
set with the on-board pot,
RV101 . Attach a VTVM
probe to the end of Rl13
nea rest n Ol a nd the
ground to BC.
What we' re looking for
here is 1.5 V on channel l .
Since t he swi tch is not
marked. we have no idea
whe re channel l is, so tu ne
Tl 01 for 1.5 V on t he
VTVM and then rotate t he
c ha nnel selector cl ock-
wise . The volt age should
ri se and abrupt ly drop. The
voltage drop indi cates t hat
you have just gone from
channel 40 to channe f T.
Reset T101 for 1.5 V and
remove t he VTVM,
Feed a 455-kHz signal
through a 01 capacitor to
the emitter of Q116. and
tune TlO9, n08, and Tl07
for highest reading on the
S/rf meter . The S-meter
ra nge may be adjusted
wit h t he on-board pot,
TV1 03. Feed a 10.7-MHz
signal through a .01 cap to
the base of Ql 15 and tune
n 06 and 11 12 for the high-
est S-meter reading. Set the
cha nnel selector to chan-
nel 1 3 a nd f e e d a
27,115-MHl signa l into the
antenna connector. Tune
nos and T1 04 for highest
S-meter reading. You now
can attach an antenna and
check for " Big 1().4s" and
other esotenca amongst
the local Cood Budd ies.
Set the channel selector
to channel 13. attach a
1Q-Watt dummy load, key
the mike o r ground the PTT
line. and adjust 1103. 1104.
T102. Tl03.l106.l109,and
11 10 fo r the highest S/rf
met er read ing. Rf -rneter
range may be adjusted
wit h the o n-boa rd pot,
RV104
10-Meter Conversion
Getting t he rig on 10 in-
volves replacing cryst al
Xl01 and retuning the PU.
t he t ransmitter. and the
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HAL-TRONIX
Referenc es
1. Part 192CU5554. Pol y Paks,
PO Box 942-A3, South Lynnf ield
MA 01940.
2. Cli ff Wiginto n. Sr. WB5BSG.
" CB 10 10 -Hy -Gain ' S PLL
Rigs ," 73, Septem ber, 1978, p.
172.
3. Clay W ebb W1 PI , " CB 10 10-
Convert a Kraco PLL Rig," 73,
Oct ober, 1978, p . 254.
4. " Kraco Model KCB2330B,"
Sams s n ot otect CB Radio
Series (CB-176), Ho ward W .
Sams and Co. I ndi anapoli s IN,
1977, p. 5.
meter. Usi ng a signal gener-
ator or on-t he-ai r signal .
retune n05 and T104 f or
the highest S-meter read-
ings. The center f requency
may be adjusted by t uning
C'tt ut . The aut omatic mod-
ul ati on-limiting level i s set
with the o n-b oard po t.
RV102.
Additional inf ormati on
on r igs using thi s board and
their conversion to 10 may
be found in previous issues
of 73
1 l
and i n Sams Photo-
facfkl C8-116'
[X]&[1
5-1.0 CHz
$79.95
Circuit uses only four chips.
Fully assembled and tested.
1.00 GHZ pre-scaler -i- by 1000
Broadband operat ion 10HZ t o 1.15 GHZ
High sensitivity
Standard Tll or E.Cl power supply
Dual mode operat ion-VHF/ UHF
Independent VHF and UHF inputs
Divide by 1000 so it can be used
with any co unt er havi ng seven d igits o r
more .
P.O. Bo x 1101
Scutbqcte. MI 48195
l31J) 18 5 1181
SHIPPING INFORMATION ORDERS OVER $15.00 WILL BE SHIPPEO POSTPAI O EXCEPT ON ITEMS WHERE ADDIT10NA.L CHA. RGES ARE REQUESTED. ON
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recei ver f ront end . The
crystal formul a for t he new
X101 is: Nt3 + 11.806 MHz.
when N equals t he new
channel 1 f requency minus
26.965 MHz.
For exa m p le: If w e
wi shed the new channel 1
to be 28.965 MHz, t hen: N
28.965 - 26965 = 2 000;
2 000/3 = 6 6 7; . 6 6 7 +
11 ,806 =12.473 M Hz f or
the new X101. The crysta l
may be ordered from any of
several suppl iers. Speci fy a
parallel resonant mode,
wit h a 30- pF load ca-
pacitance. an HC-18 holder,
and .00 5 % or better
tolerance.
When the new X101 i s i n-
st all ed, return to t he sec-
t ion on t une-up and reset
T101 for 1.5 V on channel
1, Retune the t ransmitter.
It may be necessar y to use
t he Seneter on a 'tOmeter
receiver duri n g initi al
t ra nsmi tter tu ne-up until
enough si gnal is obtained
to regi st er on t he Sl rf
73 Magazine . June, 1980 59
Dave Faucher WA I UQC
23 Freedom Drive
Collinsville CT Q6022
CB to 10
- part XXVI: the Cobra 132
Fig. 1. Switch diagram.
T
he latest c hanges in
the FCC rules which
prohibited the sale of new
23-c ha nnel CB sets has
made quite a few of t hese
sets avail able at very low
prices. This was because
t he manufacturers had to
un load thei r su rplus and
also beca use CBers wanted
to move up to the new
4D-channel model s.
1have been reading with
interest all of the articl es in
73 Magazine on conversion
of CB se ts to 10 meters, I
had a Cobra 132 on the
shelf whi ch was built by a
Japanese manufacturer for
B& K. (The same manufac-
turer built ve ry simila r
radios for other compa-
nies; they were the Tram
11--_':: "i.. ~ .
Oiamond-60 and the Brown-
ing lTD,)
With the 10-meter band
being so open in recent
months, and the number of
QRP st at ions I have heard
with great signals, many
well over S-9, I dec ided
that I would modify the
Cobra a nd get in on the ac-
t ion from the mobi le my-
se lf.
Before you attempt this
mod, I highly re comme nd
that you get a Sams Photo-
fact." This will give you all
the needed informati on
such as part locat ions and
alignment test points and
procedures. The one need-
ed for thi s conve rsion is
CB-54. June, 1974.
There we re seve ra l
. '8 scoc . ~ [
TO 0S'D{ OF . , ,,
e....sT.... .. O ~ < ; >OQI.{
1
object ives in my conver-
sio n, Number on e was
good 10-meter SSB cover-
age, and I chose 28.5 to
29,1 MHz. Next was to
have conti nuous coverage
with the vco. wit h enough
overlap to cover the spac-
ing caused by t he former
radio co nt ro l channe ls
whi ch were loc ated be-
tween several of the or ig-
ina l 23 channel s,
This conversion is se t up
for the Cobra 132 mobile or
the Cobra 135 base station
radio, each of which uses
the late-version synthesizer,
PAC-4231 . With the very
cl ose similarities of the
Tram Diamond-60 and the
Browning lTD, I am sure
one can use the basics of
thi s conversion to modify
these sets up to 10 meters,
also .
The parts that have to be
changed a re li st ed in Tabl e
1.
To insta ll the new local
osci ll ator crysta ls that re-
place the X311 . 12.8 MHz
crystal , a miniature SPOT
toggle switch and a 3-30 pF
trimmer capacitor must be
added. I will leave it up to
you as to where you want
to mount the switch. Once
that is decided, install as
per the switch diagram,
The next step is to en-
able the blank channe l be-
tween 22 and n . With the
case off, place the set up-
side down with the channe l
selector set on this blank
channel. If you look a t the
back wafer of the channel
se lector switch, you will
see the notched-out por-
tion of the switc h. On my
set there is a purple wire
from the synthesizer board
connected to the switch
terminal that is supposed
to e na ble this cha nne l.
Take a short piece of nO.18
wire and solder one end to
the switch terminal. With
the other end of thi s wire,
form a contact on the
ce nter, bottom portion of
the channel s e lec t o r
12 73 Magazine July, 1980
Crystals Remove Inst all Channel Adjust Frequency
X301 15.965 MHz 17.300 MHz 1 C311 17.300 MHz
X302 16.015 MHz 17.350 MHz 5 C309 17.350 MHz
X303 16.065 MHz 17.400 MHz 9 C307 17.400 MHz
X304 16.115 MHz 17.450 MHz 13 C305 17.450 MHz
X305 16.165 MHz 17.500 MHz 17 C303 17.500 MHz
X306 16.215 MHz 17.550 MHz 21 C302 17.550 MHz
X3 11 12.8 MHz 13.0 MHz = 28.528.8 MHz range
13.3 MHz = 28.8-29.1 MHz range Table 2.
Table 1. Parts to be changed. ( * - See text. )
swi tch. C l ue t hi s in pl ace
wi th a hot gl ue gun. Be
caref ul not to get any gl ue
on the contact port ion of
t he swit ch. Thi s may seem
a bit crude, but it enabled
me to get an extra 10 kHz
of coverage t hat wou l d
have been l ost unl ess I
changed t he whol e chan-
nel switch.
O n t he sy nt hes i zer
board, connect a short be-
tween TP302 and TP303,
mode switch set to USB.
Co n n ect a fr equen c y
counter between TP303 and
TP304. Adjust per Tabl e 2.
Remove the frequency
coun ter fr om bet w een
TP304 and TP303 and con-
nect to TP309 and TP305.
Set the Voice Lock for
center frequency. Select
the 13.0 MHz osci l l ato r
cryst al and adjust L301 cw
for t he proper frequency.
Select t he 13.3 M Hz cryst al
and adj ust t he 3-30 pF t ri m-
mer f or t he pr oper frequen-
cy.
Remove t he short and
t he f reque ncy co unte r .
Con nect up a dummv load
wattmeter. Select channel
23, also select t he lower
osc il lato r c ry sta l, AM
mode, and ad j ust T301
t hrough nos for maximum
out on t ransmit. Next, ad-
j ust T1 4, T1 5, L3, and C116
for maximum rf out.
Select USB mode, i nj ect
10-mV 2-tone test signal to
t he audio i nput; and ad just
L2. is. ri . T2. rs. 14, TS.
T6, T1 6, and L8 for maxi-
mum rf o ut put. Ad j ust
R1 36 f or maximum power
out, but observe proper
linear i t y to prevent dis-
tort ion. Th i s is t he ALC ad-
justment; you shoul d have
about 8- t o 15-Watts PEP
out. This completes t he
transmi tter adj ust ment .
Next, t une in a weak
signal source, NB off , and
adjust T7, T8, T9, T1 0, and
T1 1 f or max i mum sensit ivi -
ty. The l ast adjustment is
for t he Voice Lock range,
Ad j ust R331 and R326 al-
most maximum cl ockwi se.
Ad j ust R329 almost max-
i mum co unt er clockwise.
Don' t go too far or some i n-
stabil ity will occu r. This
wi l give you about a 15-t o-
20-kHz range, whi ch al l ows
t o t a l ov erlap bet ween
channels.
Well , that' s abou t i t for
the conversion. I am sure
t here are several ot her
ways as f ar as crystal sel ec-
tion goes. but t his one
worked for me. The anten-
na I use i s a base-l oaded
t runk-mount CB ant enna
that is ret uned for 28.6.
Cood l uck wit h your con-
version; hope to work you
QRP mobile on 10. 73.
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Reader Serlllce-see page 195
73 Magazine . July, 1980 73
Sam Bradsher N6SD
5864 Carnegie Sr,
San Diego CA 92122
CB to 10
- part XXVII: new life for SSB CB rigs
Photo A. The Midl and. showi ng the BCD swi tch in place of the rotar y swi tch. Notice that
the swi tch is reading 850. which is an operati ng frequenc y of 28.50 MHz.
T
his article will describe
t he co nversion of three
40-channe l. phase-locked
loop SSB transceivers to 10
meters. The three rigs are
the Midland model 79-893,
the o rigina l model of the
President Grant, and the
Cobra 138XlR. This conver-
sion allows o peration on
almost the entire 1Q-meter
band, from 28.04 MHz to
29.70 MHz . However, due
to t he Q of t he tuned ci r-
cuits, the out put power a nd
recei ver sensitivity are max-
imized o nly over a range of
about 600 kHz . This co nver-
sion a lso allows direct read-
out of the ope rat ing fre-
quency to 5 kHz.
Most CB conve rs ions
consist of changing some
crysta ls, ret uning t he rig,
and modifyi ng t he cl a rifi er
so that it changes the trans-
mitter as well as t he re-
ceiver frequency. When I
first converted my Midland,
t his is how I did it, but I
Photos by Marda Bradsher
soo n became dissatisfied
with the resu lts.
A Discussion of the
Cha nges
The first problem is try-
ing to tune a ra nge of 10
kHz with t he c larifier. It can
be done, but usually t he fre-
quencies are spread out on
o ne end of the range and
bunched up at the other
e nd. This makes tuning dif-
ficult whi le dr iving and, in
some cases, frequency in-
sta bility can be caused. In
one case I know of, fre-
quency modul ati on was
noticed at some setti ngs of
the clarifier. To avoi d thi s
problem, 1 rewired the l SB
circuit ry so t hat it operated
in the USB mode but was
offset from t he normal USB
frequency by 5 kHz. This
allows me to tune the rig in
5-kHz ste ps ins tead of
10-kHz ste ps, whi ch re-
duces the t uni ng range
needed by the clari fie r to 5
kHz. You lose the abil ity to
operate in lSB, but in t he
year I have used my rig, I
have heard only one l SB
signal on 10 meters and I
didn't reall y want to talk to
him a nyway.
The second problem was
t he limited frequency range
allowed by t he 4Q-channel
selector switch plus the
missi ng channe ls that were
set aside fo r radio cont rol
operation. There were too
many stations I couldn' t
contact because they were
slightly out of my tuning
range in one of the radio-
co nt ro l c ha nne ls . Then
there were t he t imes I
108 73 Magazine July, 1980
Fig. 1. Block diagram o f a simple phase-locked foop.
Fig. 2. Bfock diagram of a more versatile phase-locked
loop.

O,"PuT
....ASE LO_ ....S5 OC CONTROILEO
.. n
'IIf OUlt"CT
DE TECTOR "LnA Ose'llU""

'.
'A
'At ' 0
OUT.UT
AEH Af OOCE LO_ N SS
"
IIOl TaGf COIOTAOILED
.AfOUl":'
' RHII,IE.. C,
DE TECTOIO . "nA 05c," a TOA
'.
'0. ... . R
,
7 " .
... "
C(ll)NH A
the progra mma ble counter
divides by 91. Si nce the out-
put of t he counter must be
10 kHz (the same as FR), the
input to the counter is 910
kHz . The crystal oscillator
is fixed at a freq uency of
33.8575 MHz. Therefore,
the vco output frequency is
34.7675 MHz, or 910 kHz
higher. For transmitting, the
34.7675 MHz is mixed with
7.8025 MHz to get t he
26.965-MHz channel 1 out-
put. For receiving, the in-
co ming 26.965 MHz is
mixed with th e 34.7675
MHz to get the difference
frequency of 7.8025 MHz,
which is the rece ive r i-f.
To change channels, the
pr ogrammabl e cou nt e r
di visor mu st be cha nged.
Since the output of the
counte r is a lways 10 kHz,
the channe l sepa ration will
be 10 kHz. For example, for
c hanne l 2 operation, t he
p rog ra mmable co unte r
divides by 92. This for ces
the input of t he counter to
be 920 kHz; thus t he output
of t he vco must be 34.7775
MHz, or 920 kHz greater
than the crysta l osci llator.
This raises the operating
frequency to 26.975 MHz ,
or an increase of 10 kHz.
The control input to the
prog rammable cou nter
must be a binary-coded
deci mal (BCD) value equal
73 Magazine. JuIY,1980 109
' 0 l a
.",
'"
\osc,uaToA
'0. ...
.....S[
l"
'Ola
' ;' OHECTOA
," fA
10 . .. .
1I(K. a .... a&Lf
COUIOnA

I.O'One<:
. . r

,
" ' BCO ,... UT"
I
Ie e o , ".UT c c
,
0 , I
c c c
,
c
, OEc, .. aL
A' OUT.UT
H 16T' .. .. '
9' 0 . .. , ec
CO.
"""-u<O
, .. . oT
.aSS
.... EA CONTIIQllfO
<llUII
OSClllATOII
CIIYSTaL
OSC.. L"OIl
3' n", _
The output frequency of
the c ircuit shown in Fig. 2 is
N time s FR. or Fa = NFR
The counter di vides Fa by
N, FOI N = NFRI N = FR.
Therefore, the two inputs to
the phase detector a re t he
same frequency just as they
were in the previous expla-
nation. In all othe r respects,
the two phase-locked loops
are the same. By adding the
divide-bv-N counter in the
feedback loop, the phase-
locked loop is made mu ch
more versatile. For a given
ref erence frequency, t he
out put can be any multiple
withi n reason. Also, if Ncan
be changed, then the out-
put ca n be cha nged, in
steps equal to FR. For a
more detailed explanation
of Pll theory, see refer-
ences 1 and 2.
The phase-locked loop
for t hese three rigs is a bit
more compli cated . The
block di agram for this Pl l
is shown in Fig. 3.
The frequencies shown
are generated for USB
channel 1 operation on the
CB band . The operation of
this phase-l ocked loop is as
follows . The 10.24-MHz
output of the reference os-
cillator is divided by 1024
to give a reference fre-
quency of 10 kHz into the
phase detector. For channel
1 operat ion in the CBband,
Fig. 3. Bl ock d iagram of the Midland 79--893, President
Grant, and Cobra 138XLR phase-l ocked l oop.
automati c load cont rol a nd
pruning the output coils. I
was able to inc rease the
output power to 10 Watts.
Understanding the Phase-
locked Loop Circuit
To understand how thi s
conversion works. you mu st
first under sta nd how a
phase-locked loop frequen-
cy synthesizer works. Fig. 1
is a block diagram of a sim-
ple phase-locked loop. Two
frequencies enter the phase
detector: the reference fre-
quency, FR. and the out put
frequency, FQ. The output
of the phase detector is the
sum (FR + Fa) a nd d if-
ference (F R- Fa) of the two
inputs. When t he two input
frequenci es are equal. FR
- Fa = 0 and the output
of the phase detector con-
tains a dc component. The
low-pass filter rejects the
sum frequency and passes
the dc compone nt. The dc
component in turn controls
t he vo l t a ge- c o nt ro ll e d
oscill ator (vco) output fre-
quency to keep it the sa me
as the input frequency, FR
For examp le. if Fa t ries to
inc rease above FR, the dc
component cha nges in such
a way as to decrease Fa; if
Fa tries to decrease below
FR, the dc component
cha nges in such a way as to
increase FQ. The preceding
expl anation is for a very
simple phase-locked loop
where Fa =FR. lf you need
Fa to be greater than FR,
t he n the circuit of Fi g. 2 can
be used.
wanted to QSY up 10 kHz
to avoid QRM, but I didn't
know whether I was going
up 10 kHz or 20 kHz. Worse
yet, I could go down 20 kHz
when switching from chan-
nel 23 to cha nnel 24. I made
up a chart of frequencies
vs. cha nnels. but it was di f-
ficult to read while driving
along the freeway at 55.
Clearly, there had to be a
better way. and I think I
found it. By replacing the
4O-channel selector switch
with a binary-coded deci-
ma l (BCD) thumbwheel
switch, the above problems
were e liminated and, as a
bonus. if the crystal fre-
quencies are se lected ri ght,
the switch reads out the ac-
tual operating freque ncy.
Another change I made
was to replace a zener-
diode voltage-regulator cir-
cuit with a 723 voltage reg-
ulator. This was to prevent
a slight frequency shift
caused by the input voltage
changing. This change was
made only on the Midland,
as the other two ri gs did not
exhibit t he pr obl em. It
would be a good idea to
check your rig out in your
ca r to see if you have a
problem before maki ng this
change. It may not be need-
ed.
The last change I made
was to inc rease the output
power. After about ten
months of operati ng on 10
mete rs, I found the output
power to be less t han 5
Watts. By di sabling the
Photo B. This shows the placement of the 723 voltage regulator in the Midland.
Fig. 4. BCD-to-dec ima l conversion for 1 digit.
o c

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2' 2'
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c o e
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4lL OTHER VALUES ARE F O R O O E ~
DIVISOR
" '00
326
for channel 1 through BCD
135 for cha nne l 40. The se-
lector switch ski ps over
BCD 94. 99. 104, 109. and
114. It al so skips over BCD
118 and 119, but it t he n re-
inserts t hem after BCD 120.
A close examination of a
frequency a llocation chart
for t he CB band will show
whic h fr eq uenci e s t hese
represent.
To get all t he frequency
channe ls, and to get t hem
in t he correct order, I re-
pl aced t he 4D-channel se-
lector switch with a 3-digit
BCD thumbwheel swi tc h.
The switc hes I selected are
back- lighted, whic h is very
handy for night o pe ration. I
bo ught my switc hes from
MHz El ectr onics, 2111 W.
Camelback Road, Phoenix
AZ 85015, They sol d fo r
$2.00 a sect ion, at t he time,
and you wi ll need 3 sec-
tions. The lamps are +5 V,
so wi re t hem in se ries and
use + 12 V fo r lamp excita-
tio n. Make sure t he switch-
es you use are of t he 10-
posit io n BCD type.
These ri gs st art at BCD 91
fo r t he lowest cha nnel, but
t he re is no reason why you
have to start there, In fact,
if you start at BCD 50 fo r
28.50 MHz, t hen the BCD
switch will read t he actual
operat ing frequency. The
right-hand switc h changes
t he o pe rating freq uency in
1D-k Hz ste ps from 0 to 90
kHz; t he midd le switch
changes t he operati ng fre-
quency in 1OQ-kHz steps
from 0 to 900 kHz; the left-
ha nd switch changes t he
c.
INPUT
0001 =91
o 0 0 0 = 100
0 1 10 =326
1 0 0 1
o 0 0 0
o 0 1 0
o 0
o ,
1 ,
UPD858C
MSD '" MOST SIGNIFICANT DIGIT
LSD ", LEAST SIGNIFICANT DIGIT
MSD L SD
~ - , ,
22 ar 20 rs
" " "
"
"
" ae
,.
20 2C
"
2A ,. ,e
" "

Fig. 5. Examples of BCD input s to the programmable

counter.
Fig. 5 wit h some examples
of inputs,
Since each bit of t he
lea st s igni f i ca nt digit
changes the frequency by
10kHz, t he total range of
frequencies t hat can be
switched is al most 4 MHz.
We need a' range of only 1.7
MHz for 10-meter opera-
tion.
For normal CB band op-
eration. the 4D-posit ion se-
lecto r swit ch provides the
BCD inputs from BCD 091
[8(2' ) X OJ + (4 (2' ) X 1] +
[2(2') X 0] + (1 (2' ) X 1] =
o + 4 + 0 + 1 = 5.
There are 10 inputs to the
programmab le counter.
These inputs represent two
decimal digits t hat range
from 0 through 9 and one
digit that ranges from 0
through 3. Thus, t he range
of the divisor is from 0 to
399. In this rig, you never
want to divide by less than
4, so the actual range is
from 4 to 399. The BCD in-
put portion of the program-
mable counter is shown in
to t he number you want to
divide by. In BCD, it takes 4
inputs to represent each
decimal number. Each of
these 4 inputs represe nts
some power of 2. Fig. 4 ex-
plai ns how t he BCD values
represent t he decimal num-
be rs a through 9. To find the
equivalent decimal value
from t he BCD va lue, simply
add together t he val ues
that the 1s represent (a 1 is
+4.7 V into a pin, and a a is
0.0 V into a pin). For exam-
pie, decimal 5 has a BCD
number of 0101. This yields
110 73 Magazine J uly, 1980
Photo C This view o f the Midland shows the placement o f the diodes for the L58 and AM
changes. The arrows point to the diodes added.

'"
conversion, you will need a
copy of t he maintenance
manua l or Sa ms Photo-
fect'" for your rig. The Sams
Photofact for each of the
three rigs is avail able.
Fig. 6(a). Original regulat or
circuit.
t

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.-
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.-
II. " 1110 "
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-
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'''0''
.....OUTS A"[ 00" T><[ TO-5
'"
Fig, 6(b). The 723 regulat or circui t.
pre settable c ha nne l 9
switc h. The frequenc y
range of the newer Gra nt
ca n not be extended be-
cause the PLL IC has built-i n
sa feguards to prevent this. I
can not be certain that the
manufa cturer will not
change the other rigs in the
same way. Make sure the
rig you get for conve rsion
uses a UPD858 in the phase-
locked loop.
Circuit Details of the
Changes
Before attempting this
a lmost the same.
The Midland a lso ha s an
e ncl ose d metal box t o
shield the Pll circuitry,
whereas the other two have
only a metal st rip on the PC
board for a shield. The front
panels a nd swi tc hes a re
al so different for all three
of the rigs. The Midland was
t he only rig modified to put
the switch on the fron t
panel. On the ot her two
rigs, t he switch was mount-
ed external to the rig. If you
have a Grant or 138XLR and
wish to mount the switch on
the front panel , be sure the
swi tch clears everything
before cutting any holes. I
ha ve not done thi s a nd do
not know if it will fit, but
there should be no prob-
lem.
After I had converted the
Gra nt, I found that the new-
er Grants on the market do
not use the UPD858 IC in
the phase-locked loop. This
new model can be ident i-
fied by the fact t hat it has a
o pe ra t ing freq uency in
1.OoMHz steps from 28 MHz
to 29 MHz. The left-hand
switch is restr icted to t his
range because t hat is all
that is needed for f Orneter
operation. In fact, all the
even number pos itions on
the left-hand switch will
give an operating freque n-
cy from 28.0 MHz to 28.99
MHz and all the odd num-
ber pos itions will give an
operating frequency from
29.00 MHz to 29.99 MHz.
This is because only t he
least si gnificant bit of t his
switch is wired up.
To cha nge in 5-kHz steps,
a two-pos ition switch is re-
quired to switch between
t he two crystal oscil lators.
Since there will be no LSB
operation after t he ri g is
modif ied, you can use the
mode swi tch to give t he
5-kHz steps. After the con-
version, the AM position
wi ll give AM operation in
100kHz steps. The USB posi-
tion wi ll give USBoperation
in 1Q.kHz steps and the LSB
pos ition will give USB op-
eration in 1D-kHz steps, but
5 kHz below the USB fre-
quencies.
To ac comp lis h t hi s,
change t he LSB crystal to
11 .934167 MHz, change the
USB crysta l to 11 .935833
MHz, and the AM crystal to
11.933333 MHz. The crystal
oscillators are followed by
a frequency tr tpler.
The Differences in the Rigs
The ci rcuit boards for all
three of these rigs are made
by t he Uniden Company.
The PC board layout is iden-
tical for t he Preside nt Grant
and the Cobra 138XLR, but
they may not use t he same
components. The Midland
ha s a different PC board
layout, but t he sc hematics
for the three rigs are ide nti-
cal except for a few minor
differences. The compo-
nent reference des ignators
fo r the Grant a nd t he
138XLR are the same, but in
the Midland t hey are num-
be red diffe rently even
though t he sche mat ics are
73 Magazine JuIY, 1980 111
Photo D, Arrows point to the two coils (L28 and L29) in the President Grant in which the
turns were spread apart. /n the Midland, the turns of L5 and L6 should be spread in the
same wa y.
Fig. 7. Cr vstst-oscntesor schematic.
fo r the lSB position,
11.935833 MHz for t he USB
posit io n, and 11 .933333
MHz for t he AM position.
The Midland uses solder
leads on the crystals,
whereas the ot he r two rigs
use plug-in crystals.
The crysta ls are avail able
from Jan Crystal Co.. 2400
Crystal Drive, Fort Myers Fl
33901. Order the CB-type
crystals with a tolerance of
+0.0025% . They were
priced at $3.50 each for
fewer than 10, or $3.25 each
for 10 or more, in the 1978
catalog numbered 21 .
O rde r t he HC-18-type
holder for the Midland
79-893 and the HC-2S-type
holder for the President
Grant and Cobra 138Xl R.
When ordering, incl ude the
following information on
the rig: manuf a c t urer ' s
name, model , crystal fre-
quency, holder type, and a
copy of Fig. 7 to ensure that
the crystal is cut properly.
Note that the Sams
Photofect for Midland uses
the same refe rence desig-
nators for parts inside the
Pll and pa rts on the chas-
sis. To avoid the confusion
of this duplication, the
Midland maintena nce man-
ual adds SOD to each of the
reference designators in t he
phase-locked loop. I will
follow this practice also, so
each of t he parts refe rred to
in the phase-locked loop
will be numbered between
501 and 599.
The Pl. L is enclosed in-
side a shielded box which
must be removed from the
PC board before t he crys-
tals can be replaced. Mark
and remove the wires from
the shie lded box feed-
throughs . Unsolder the
shielded box tabs from the
bottom of the PC board.
The tabs must be complete-
ly clean of solder and flux
before the box can be re-
moved. Once the box is
free . the wires to the
4D-pos ition swi tch can be
disconnected from the
switch. Use t hese wires to
connect to the new switch.
Phase-Locked loop Change
To accompl ish t hese
changes, you will need new
crystals. The frequencies re-
quired are 11.934167 MHz
insulated with black e lectri-
cal tape.
Clarifier Change
Remove 024 (152473)
and save it for late r use. lift
t he end of R61 (1OD Ohms)
that connects to the + 9.2-V
bus that originates at 039.
Connect the loose end of
R61 to the +9.2-V bus that
originates at pin 6 of the
723 regulator just added. If
the regulator wasn't added,
connect the loose end of
R61 to the + 9.2-V bus t hat
originates at 032.
Output Power Change
Remove 033 (152473)
and save it for later use.
Spread the turns of l5 and
l6 apart. The spreading dis-
tance is not critical . Re-
move one turn from l7.
1--.' OUT
auencv of your rig does not
change with varying input
voltage in your instaJlation,
this change is not needed.
Remove 032 (CZ092) and
R106 (56-0hm, 1 W) shown
in Fig. 6(a). Add the 723 volt-
age-regulator circuit shown
in Fig. 6(b). Mount the parts
on a small piece of perfor-
ated epoxy board and at-
tach to the PC board with
short jumper wires . My reg-
ulator is suspended above
the chassis by the leads and
1 0000.'
r

r
'0 66 VDC.
' OC

'000, '

)lSC

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L,w,
" 00'
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."
i :.e '
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0'.' ".
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...
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,.

I will first describe the
changes for the Midland,
then I will describe those
for the Grant and the
138XlR. The actual circuit
changes for all three rigs
are the same, but the man-
ner in which they are ac-
complished and the refer-
ence designators are differ-
ent for the Midland.
MIDLAND 79-893
CONVERSION
voltage Regulator Change
Note: If the operating fre-
112 73 Magazine ' July, 1980

TO ' 1, Oll
"

t he photograph of the front
of the rig (Photo A), you will
no ti ce some di ff erences
t ha t ha ve n't been ex-
plained. I will describe
these changes briefly but
will not go into detail since
they are not required to
make the ri g operate on 10
meters. They are easy to im-
plement if you wish to in-
corporate them.
There are t hree toggle
switches, one for tone, one
for CB/PA, and one for
noise blanker on or off . I
otOfuDn.1
1st."
csn
'"
IStH'
ca
".l
,
.RO.. ..
..,
m
S40'.u
Fig. 10. PLL wiring for AM_
73 Magazine. J uly, 1980 113
Fig. 9. PLL wiring for LSB.
."
AM Change
Ad d th e r e marni ng
152473 diode in se ries with
the blue wire going to C541
on the phase-locked loop
shield. Attach t he cathode
to C541 and the blue wire to
t he anode. Remove the
cat hode of 043 from S403A
and connect it to C541.
Connect a wire between II
and D43 anode as shown in
Fig. l0.
This completes the wir-
ing changes for the Mid-
land . However, if you st udy
Fig. 8. PLL-to-BCD swit ch wiring.
IIVSSCOCOO , .
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TO "t

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8
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e
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ec
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ac

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ye--J
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uSEO
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TO CO.. 01< PLL PC /l OARD
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my switch in position. Make

sure everyt hi ng cl ears be-
fore gluing t he switch in po-
sition. To allow clea rance
in the back, I had to cut
some of the PC board away
fro m the backs of the
swit c he s. Leave e nough
pri nted ci rcuit to so lder the
wi res to. Before re mounting
the front panel. wire be-
tween the PlL and t he
switch as shown in Fi g. 8.
LSD Change
Remove 050 (152473),
which is mounted on the
underside of the mai n PC
board, a nd replace it with a
piece of wir e. Save th e
diode for later use. Remove
the red wi re between II and
(539 on the PLL shield.
Remove the brown wire be-
tween L2 and (542 on t he
PLL shield. Using two of the
diodes previously removed,
attach one anode to (539
and the other anode to
(542. Tie t he two cathodes
together and wire t hem to
L2. Do not remove the wires
t hat go to t he mode switch.
Fig. 9 shows t he detai ls of
this change.
The new crystals can now
be sol dered in place . Put
t he 11 .934167-MHz crystal
at X502. the 11.933333-MHz
crysta l at X503, and t he
11 .935833-MHz crystal at
X504.
Remove R530 (1k Ohm)
from the bottom of the PLL
PC board. This resistor will
not be used later. Pin 19 of
the 858 IC is grounded on
the PC board. This pin will
be used, so it will have to be
isolated from ground. Use a
sha rp knife to cut t he ci r-
cuitry between pin 19 and
ground, then add a 4.7k,
5%, I,.{-W resistor and a
.Ol-uF capacitor in paral lel
from pin 19 to ground. Add
a short jumper between pin
19 and the solder pad t hat
has the violet wire con-
nected to it. This completes
the cha nges to the phase-
locked loop. It ca n now be
resoldered to t he mai n PC
board and the wi ring recon-
nected.
Front-Panel Change
Remove the knobs and
the four smal l screws at the
sides of t he panel and re-
move the panel . If you are
careful. all the work can be
ac complished wit hout re-
moving t he wires. Remove
the 40-posit ion channel-
selector switch from t he
steel frame. You will need
to cut a clearance hole in
t he steel frame for t he BCD
switch, but make sure it
lines up with t he hole in t he
front panel, and don't cut
comple te ly through the
frame since it is needed for
support. Carefully mark the
front panel for the size of
hole to fit your switches .
The front panel is made of
plastic with a thin sheet of
metal glued to the front. so
use cau tion whi le dril ling
and fi ling.
You will probably need
an inde ntation on the right-
hand side of the hole in
order to be able to change
pos itions on t he right-ha nd
switc h sec tion. Tr y the
switch out before perma-
nently attaching it to t he
panel. I used glue to hold

Photo E. Details of some of the President Grant changes

show here. Arrow #1 point s to L13, #2 to L12, and #3 to
where j umper JPl 1 wa s located origi nafly. 0 38 ;s located
between L12 and the shield.
wired around each of t hese
switches to get a low tone.
eB operation, and the noise
blanker on all the time. I
used one of the swi tches to
cont rol a remote home-
brew linear. Another switc h
is used to switch between
the two crystals to give the
5-kHz st eps. The other
switc h is to se lect the inter-
nal BCD switch or an exter-
nal BCD switc h mounted in
the dash. r use an external
BCD switch most of t he
ti me because the r ig is
mounted i n the glove com-
partment.
PRESIDENT GRANT
AND COBRA 13BXLR
CONVERSION
Clar ifier Change
Remove 030 (152473)
and save it for later use. lift
the end of R119 (100 Ohms)
t hat connects to t he + 9.2-V
bus t hat originates at 028.
Connect t he loose end of
R11 9 to t he + 9.2-V bus that
originates at 044.
Output Power Change
Remove 046 (1 S2473)
and save it for later use.
114 73 Magazine. July, 1980
Spread t he t urns of L28 an d
L29 apart. The spreadi ng
di stance is not critical. Re-
move one turn from UO.
Phase-Locked Loop Change
Unplug the origina l crys-
tals from X3, X4, a nd X6 and
pl ug in the new crystals . X3
rece ives the 11.93533-MHz
crysta l. X4 rece ives the
11.934167-MHz crystal, and
X6 receives the 11 .933333-
MHz crystal. For informa-
t ion on how to order the
new crystals, see t he PLL
change for the Mid land.
Remove 040 and save it
for later use. Use a sharp
knife to cut t he printed cir-
cuit between pin 19 of IC7
and ground, the n add a
4.7k-Ohm re s is t or and
.01-uF capaci to r in parallel
between pin 19 and ground.
Remove both ends of the
flat wi re cable between the
40-po s iti on c hanne l-se-
lector swi tch a nd the PLL.
Mount t he BCD switc h and
wi re it to the Pll as shown
in Fig. 8.
LSB Change
Locate L12 and LB . Li ft
the lead nearest the metal
shield of each of t hese
coils. Lay each of the coils
on its side to expose the
hol es t he leads were re-
moved from. Using two of
t he diodes previously re-
moved, solder the anode of
one into one of the exposed
hol es and the anode of the
other into the second ex-
posed hol e. Solder both
cathodes to t he exposed
lead of L12.
AM Change
Li ft t he cathode of 038
and bend the lead over to
to uch t he exposed lead of
LB . Remove jumper JP1 1.
It is located near Cl48 and
X6. Replace JP11 with the
remai ni ng diode. Place t he
cathode toward the front of
the ri g. Solder one end of a
jumper to the cat hode of
t his di ode and solder t he
other end to L13 and the
cathode of 038.
This completes t he wir-
ing changes for t he Gra nt
and 138XLR.
Retuning for 10 Meters
All that remains is to re-
tune to the lo-meter band.
Following t he instru ctions
should all ow you to op-
erate between 28.50 MHz
and 29.10 MHz. The follow-
ing test equipment will be
req uired for the retuning: a
50-MHz frequency counter,
a 12-V power supply, an rf
generator for the j Omete r
band, a VTVM with an rf
probe, a l o-W rf power
meter, and a lG-W dummy
load. To keep from blowing
your fina l transistor, never
plug in t he mike unless t he
dummy load is connected
to t he antenna connector.
This procedure a ssumes
that t he rig was operating
cor re ctly before the
changes were made.
The al ignment procedure
for all t hree ri gs is identical
except for the refe re nce
designators. I will list the
Midland reference desig-
nator in t he text of the pro-
cedure, and the reference
designators for t he Grant
and 138Xl Rwill immediate-
ly foll ow in parent heses.
Alignment of Phase-Locked
Loop
Remove t he mike from
the rig; set the BCD switch
to 850; set the clarifier to
t he 10 o'clock position; set
the mode switch to the AM
positi on.
Note: The following ediust-
ments are to components
within the shield.
1)Connect the rf probe of
'he VTVM ' 0 TP502 (TP6),
whic h is t he secondary of
l 509 [L241. Adj ust L508 (no
coi l exists) and L509 (L24)
for a maxi mum indication
on the VTVM. The indica-
tion may be less than 1 volt.
2) Connect the dc input
of the VTVM to TP501
(TP7), which is pin 4 of
IC501 (collector of TR35).
Adjust l507 (l17) to obtain
2.0 V dc on the VTVM. Set
the BCD switch to 870.
3) Connect the rf probe of
the VTVM to Local Out
(TP8), t he secondary of LS06
(L16). Adjust L506 [L16) for a
maximum indicat ion on the
VTVM.
4) Connect the frequency
counter to local Out (TP8).
Adj ust CT503 (CT6) to ob-
tain 36.5000 MHz. Set t he
mode switch to the lSB po-
sition. Adjust CT502 (CT5)
to obtain 36.5025 MHz. Set
the mode switch to the USB
posi tion. Adjus t CT504
(CT4) to o bta in 36.5075
MHz.
For t he above adjust-
ments, the clarifier (voi ce
lock) position will affect the
frequency reading. Also,
t he setti ng of CT502 (CTS),
CT503 [CHI, and CT504
(CT4) wil l affect the rangeof
t he clarifier . You will need
to check the range of the
clarifier after you have ad-
justed CT502 (CT5) and
CT504 (CT4) to ensure t hat
you can va ry the freq ue ncy
more t han 5 kHz and t hat
the bands overlap when
switching between USBand
LSB. If t he clarifier range is
incorrect. read just CT502
(CT5) and CT504 [CT4) unti l
it is correct. On mi ne, the 10
o'clock posi t ion on the
clarifier was the best choice
f or adjust ing CT502 (CT5)
for a f requency of 36.5025
M Hz and CT504 (CT4) f or a
frequency of 36.5075 M Hz.
Decreasing the value of
R132 (R116) slight ly will
also increase t he range of
the clarifier.
All of the f oll owing ad-
justments are to compo-
nent s mounted on t he main
PC board.
Alignment of the Carrier
Oscillator
Remove the mike from
the ri g. Set t he BCD switch
to 870. Set t he mode switch
to the lSB or USB position.
1) Connect the rf probe of
the VTVM to TP2 (TP9) Ad-
just T8 (no coi l exi st s) for a
maximum indi cati on of t he
VTVM.
2) Connect a f requency
counter to TP2 (TP9). Adj ust
cn (CT2) to obtain 7.8025
MHz. Set mode switch to
t he AM position. Adj ust
CT2 (CT3) to obtai n 7.8000
MHz or as close as is pos-
sible to 7.8 M Hz.
Alignment of the Receiver
Remove the mike from
t he ri g. Set t he BCD switch
to 870. Set the mode switch
to l SB. Set the squelch to
mi nimum. Set the rf gain to
maximum.
1) Connect an rf source to
the antenna connector and
adj ust it to 28.70 MHz. Ad-
just the signal level to give
an S-1 t o S-3 i ndi cat ion on
the S-meter. Adj ust t he clar-
ifier for a 1-kHz beat note.
Adj ust T7 (L3I, T6 (L4l, TS
(LS), 14(LB), and T3 (L7) for a
maximum indication on the
S-meter. Reduce t he rf sig-
nal to keep t he indication
below S-5 on the S-meter.
Alignment of the
Transmitter
Connect t he mi ke to t he
rig. Set t he BCD swit ch to
870. Set the mode switch to
the AM posi ti on. Connect
t he rf wattmeter and dum-
my l oad to the antenna con-
nector.
1) Key t he mi ke and ad-
just T13 (L39l, no(L37I, L10
(U 2), and L7 (U D) for a max-
imum indicati on on the
wattmeter. A sharp steady
whi stle i nto t he mike when
in the USB or l SB positi on
shoul d give an indicati on of
about 10 Watts on t he watt-
meter . If you have a recei v-
er t hat wi ll recei ve the third
harmonic of the output
si gnal, you can adjust L8
(l27) to minimi ze t he t hi rd
harmonic.
This completes t he align-
ment. All t hat remai ns is t o
connect an antenna to t he
rig and get an on-the-ai r re-
port.
Results
I have operated f or over
a yea r mobil e with a 102-
inch whip and have had
hundreds of QSOs. I have
worked all states and many
f o rei gn c o unt r ies in a
per i od of less than 8
months, with less t han 10
Watts. I al ways receive
good reports on t he audio
quality of t he rig, and I
somet i mes get si g na l
report sof S-9 or greater, but
t his is rare.
Operat ing QRP can be
f ru strating at t imes, but t he
contac ts you make are
more e njoyab le, a nd
operati ng wi th low power is
more of a challenge. Con-
vert ing a CB rig to 10 meter s
is an inexpensive met hod of
getti ng on 10 mobil e. With
sunspots at t hei r peak, you
can be assured of many
hours of enjoyable QRP op-
erat ion. CU on 10.
References
1. Bob Mars hall WB6FOC,
" Phase- Locked Loops," Ham
Radio, July, 1978, p. 54.
2. Signetics Analog Data Man
ual, Signetics Corporation,
Sunnyvale CA, 1977.
3. David Gray WB8ZBA, " A
z-Meter Frequency Svntne-
slzer," OST, August . 1978, p. 11.
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SCRANTON, PENNSYLVANIA 18509
PHONE (7171343-2124
.. ... ~
~ ~ ,
, '
,...
,
"""
W
'" ,
... ' ~
pi , \ 'lOO
2t" 7f,1J!. ~ 1'<
c
73 Magazine July, 1980 115
,
John F. Sf'hring WB2QG
PO Box 306
OrodefJ NJ 07649
CB to 10
- part XXVIII: double your channels
in SSB conversions
same frequency (channel)
regardless of t he sideband
selected, these rigs all shi ft
anot he r osc illator some-
whe re in the fr equency
generation cha in by 3 kHz,
but in t he opposite di rec-
tion. This exact ly cancels
out t he frequency shift
caused by the sideband
change.
Suppose that we rewire
t he s ideba nd se lector
switch so t hat t he carrier
osci llator ran in upper side-
band mode at a ll t imes but
left the other frequ en cy
shifters int act. Then, switc h-
ing from USB to l SB st ill
would give us a USBsignal,
but shifted in frequency by
3 kHz, providi ng a new set
of 23 (or 40) c hannels offset
between the original chan-
nels. Fur ther, it is usually
possible to readjust the
US B frequency shifter up
(or down) in frequency a
kHz or so and the l SB fre-
quency shifter down (or up)
a kHz also, by means of the
buil t-in trimmers. Thi s re-
sults in about 5-kHz spaci ng
between t he two sets of
channels with practically
gap-free coverage.
Then, dig into the delta-
tune ci rcuit, modify it for
2.5-k Hz swing, and rewire
it (if necessary) to make t he
de lt a-tune f unct io n on
t ra nsmit as well as recei ve .
That's all, folks!.
Note t hat the carrier is
shifted by about 3 kHz, to
put the desired sideband in-
to the filter's passband. This
means that the signal's ac-
tual frequency will be shift-
ed by t he sa me amount, i e..
c hanging si deba nds also
woul d move you by 3 kHz.
To keep t he signal on t he
The seed of t he idea
comes from the fact t hat all
to-meter SSB activity is on
upper sideba nd. Therefore,
the lower sideband func-
tion of the transceiver will
never be needed and can be
deactivated at no Now
t he upper and lower si de-
band signa ls are generated
by one or more carrier osc il-
lators, sent to a bal anced
modulator (gets rid of the
carrier), and then to a fi lter
which selects the desi red
sideband and re jects the
other, unwanted, sideband.
Sideband se lection is ac-
complished by shifting t he
ca rrier osci llator freq uency
in such a way as to place
the desi red sideband inside
of the filt er' s bandpass and
the unwanted sideband out-
side of t he bandpass. See
Fi g. 1.
del ta-tune circu it found on
most of t hese rigs to swing
+ 2.5 kHz, you' ll have just
about conti nuous cove rage
on 10 meters. Sounds too
good to be t rue? Read on!

,
,
,

,
types of SSB CB transceiv-
e rs, whether the y use crvs-
tal-plex or synt hesized c ir-
cuits f or frequency genera-
tion. Instead of having 23
(or 40) chan nels spread at
1D-kHz i ntervals, you' ll wi nd
up wit h 46 (or 80) chan-
nels at about a 5-kHz spac-
ing. And, if you modify the
Fig. 1.
-----j.
I -',
_ \1511 --. '
I \

I \,
i .
,

. ... I YS8
I
I
-
DES' RED I
lU I US8
I
n t he course of convert-
ing seve ra l diff er ent
types of SS B CB ri gs for
1D-meter amateur use, I' ve
come up with a simple, no-
cost modif icat ion whi ch
wil l double the number of
channels available on these
rigs. The idea seems to be
applicable to almost all
122 73 Magazine. July, 1980
-
Grunt
PO Box 6J8
W, Yarmouth MA 0]673
CB to 10
- part xxx: the Midland 13-866
Mo[ THOD " 2
"---. 000 "'PER
..... '1 LEAD
TO OSC
" 'UlI<OIl '"
_ODED TO
t ioning, back out the slug
on T6 until the c ucutt fires.
With TR6 oscill at ing. yo u
now ca n proceed with t he
tune-up pr oced ure
Connect a signal genera-
tor through a ,01-uF ca paci-
tor to the base of TR17.
Ground the generator to
c hass is ground, not the
case. With t he set on cha n-
ne l t S, (23 if you are insta ll -
ing the 15-MHz crystals as
well). inject a 29.11 5-MHz
signal with 1000 Hz, 30%
mod ulation (29.255 MHz
for channel 23). Adjust T1 2,
T13, T14, and 115 for max-
tmurn recei ver output.
Key the transmitt er into a
dummy load with a watt-
meter connected and tu ne
T1 t hrough 19 for maximum
rf output . The relative out-
put function of the S-mete r
may be used for th is init ial
tune-up. Then peak C24 and
l 5 for maximum power out-
put. At t his point , you
shou ld have about 2- to 2.5-
Watts o utput. The value of
the tank co ils in these sets
varies greatly. a nd it ma y be
found t hat maximum power
output occurs when the l S
slug IS all t he way out. If this
is the case, replace C22
(1SD-pF capacitor) With a
lQO-pF ce ramic di sc. This
will a ll ow the co il to tune
over its mid-range a nd in-
crease power output t o
about 5 to 6 Watts. Modula-
25.440. 25.490. 25.540
Changing these crystals is
simple r on an initial conver-
sia n because thei r fu n
damental range is only 8
MHz. a nd they a re fa r
easier to work wit h than
fundamental 16 MHz crys-
tals. In addition, it is possi-
ble to add 24 more chan-
nels to t he synt hes izer ci r-
cuit by use of a 4PDT
switc h and four more crys-
tal s. Frequencies needed
a re: 15.220. 15.230. 15.240.
a nd 15 250 MHz . which a re
stock items at most crysta l
houses, and range in price
from $3.50 to $6.00 each (so
sho p ar ound).
Act ivating the cha nnel
24 posit ion can be accom-
pl ished by lo ca t ing the
white wi re comi ng from the
selector switch and going to
TR6. Us ing a piece of
hookup wi re. as diagramed,
or a spare wiper from an old
rot a ry switch, so lde r it to
t his terminal in such a way
that it makes contact wit h
the switc h when the defeat
c ut in the switc h meets the
nor mal wiper . (Refer t o Fig.
1.)
Instal l t he new 25-MHz
crystal s in place of t he ones
removed from the c ircuit
board. Apply power to the
set, and wi t h a frequency
counte r check for oscil la-
tion at t he collector of TR6.
If t he oscillator is not func-
fRO..
c.. ..El

S IO I1C..
T SlOne"
ftlVE
nAC_
ORANGE

'0

TO ..
10 C!lYSTAl
load to request IS about 22
pF cut for third overtone
operat ion. There are two
met hods of approaching
t his chassis. but changing
t he 2J MHz c rystal s is
recommended . The for-
mula is simple: Jus! add 2
MHz to the exi st ing
crys ta ls,
The crystals required are:
25.290, 25 .340, 25 .390,
I
0
0
0
I
0
,
I I I I

LT


- 0
0
..,

Fig. 2. Adding 24 extra channels to the Midland
13-<J66.
Fig. 1. Two methods o f activating position 24 on the
channel selector.
T
he basic applications
of thi s conve rsio n will
apply to most CBchassis us-
ing the 23-MHz series of
crystal s. The chief d iffic ulty
wi th t his radi o, whic h uses
no crystal trimmers, i s to
f igure the pF load for the
crystal s needed. The load
of the circuit is about 58-60
pf , but since the crystals
are t hir d-overtone cut, t he

'---- H _ . >tOOKUP . ,RE . .. SOLID

104 73 Magazine Apr il , 1981
Fig. 3. VXO operation with the Midland 13-866.
u n ......... "o IuS
0/10

CHO. E " CapaCITOR
TO CHas s ,"
non can be increased by
removmg TR8 from the ci r-
cuit.
Addi ng additional chan-
nel s by using a 4PDT switch
is accomplis hed by remov-
ing the green, orange, blue,
and black leads goi ng from
the selector swi tc h to the
14-MHz cryst al s on the
c ha ssi s Con nect t he se
wi res as diagramed in Fig. 2.
With the switch down, the
24 low c hanne ls will be ob-
tained With the switc h in
the up posit ion, the upper
range can be used.
For frequen ci es ot her
than, or in addit ion to, the
J
-
..,.-
vUlaBlE
normal 73 band plan, the
basic conve rs ion ha s a
usable range of about 800
kHz wit hout retuning.
VXO operat ion with this
radi o can be obtained by
li fting the ground bus of the
14-MHL crysta ls and insert-
ing a 1().-uH choke and a
S-So-pF vari able capac itor
in series with the crystal bus
to chassis ground, as In Fig.
3. This trick will work With
any fundamental crysta ls
up to about lbMHz . Do not
attempt to use it on crystal s
operating in the overtone
mode because severe inst a-
bility wil l resul t. _
Remote conlrol capabUity
Regulated voltage output as
required by the FT 207A and
TR2400 to conNl'Ye bauery pack.
Turns your 1-4 waU transceiver
Into a higher powered base
or mobile station.
Made with the quality and care
that has made Lunar the leader
In linearized amps.
Can be used with any
15 watt radio,
Uneartzed so It 's
compat ible with SSB.
Has pre-amp lOt' receiver
portion to Incre.se power and
clarity of Incoming signals.
Amp and pre-amp functions
Independenlly controllable.
Lunar's new 2M 4-40P
LinearizedAmplifier
makes your hand-held
synthesized transceiver
a GIANT!
1 to 4 WATTS IN-
10 to 40 WATTS OUT.
8S Kurtl Street. Suite 10. San Diego, CA 92110
ephone 714 299-9740 Louis N, Anclaux
elex 181747 WB6NMT
73 Magazine April , 1981 105
C8-to-10 FM Continued
- another way to join the fun on 29.6
Fig. 2. Basi c varactor circuit.
Fig. 1. Typical veractc r characterist ic curve.
ing a varia ble-ca paci ta nce
di ode (varactor) in the
osci llator tank ct rcuit.t-s By
applying a varying (a ud io)
volt age to the varactor. it
might just be possible to
shift the osci ll a tor's fre-
quency at an aud io rate-
in other words, frequency
modulation! luckily, this
method got me o n FM in
just a couple of hours, us-
ing only a few parts. He re's
how.
Varactors a re small di -
odes whose capacitance
can be controlled by an ex-
ternally applied vo lt age;
they are used often these
days to replace variable
c a pa ci t o rs in tuning cir-
c uits . Most varactors are
rated for their nominal ca-
pacitance at about 4 V dc
and are typically operated
from 2 to 30 volts. See Fig. 1
for a typical varactor op-
erating c urve .
A simp le circuit using a
varector to supply a volt-
age-controlled c a p a c i-
t ance is shown in Fig. 2.
Here. the potentiometer, R,
applies a de control volt-
age to t he varactor, VC,
which determines its capac-
itance. Capacitors C1 and
C2 provide rf bypassing and
dc blocking, while the RFC
keeps rf energy out of
hoppi ng, and there were
plenty of stations o n the
si mplex frequency (29 .6
MHz), too. I noti ced that
the combinat io n of some-
time s terrifi c 10-met er
propagation and the QRM-
and QRN- suppre s s in g
charact e rist ics of FM was
quite int rigu ing - OX sig-
nal s often sounded just as
c lea n and quiet as local s.
After hear ing all this, I
thoug ht it would be nifty to
talk to t he boys on 29.6 as
well as the local 2-meter
gang via the crossband
repeater link. (There are
easier ways of gett ing o n
2 meters, though!)
I sat down to figur e out
the fastest a nd easiest way
o f getting o n j Ometer FM.
Unfo rt unately, there was
no su rp l us commeri c a l
lowba nd FM(30to SOMHz)
gear around the shack;
such gear would have been
rel atively easy to co nve rt
to 10 meters. The o nly
piece of equi pme nt that
covered 10 meters was the
main station HF transm it-
ter, a filter-type SSB/CW
exc it er, a Harnmarlund HX-
SOA. Turning to the " tech-
ni ca l library" for so me
ideas yielded the di stinct
p o s sibility of FMing a
transmitter simply by hang-
mode. Actually. the thing
that got me started oc-
curred one Saturday after-
noon as I tuned above 29.5
MHz l ooki ng for a l ocal
to-meter FM repeater .
Much to my surprise (who
in the heck ever tunes up
this high on 10 meters,
anyhow?), there was plenty
of act ivity. I n particular,
WR2ANW's 'l Ocmeter-to-z-
meter crossband li nk was

1"

..,
"
rc
I
lU" {R
L
C'. CU1 T
r
1# ......0 0"
, __L, .. rU __
t Ilt: {; JO/<-
,
,
,

John Sehriflg WB1EQG

P.O. Box 306
O r Q d ~ NJ 07649

"
R
ece nt ly increasing FM
acti vity on 10 meters
between 29.5 and 29.7
MHz has led me to in-
vestigate methods of get-
ti ng on t his i nteresting
42
Fig. 3. Typica/6-MHz vfo.
"
20 . '
)1
ranee at first and then in-
creasing them if necessary.
Examination of your partic-
ular vfo ci rcuit should
reveal where to attach t he
va ractor ci rcuit and rough-
ly how big C2 should be.
Refe rences 1 t hrough 4
show numerous different
types of osc illators and
simila r methods of FMing
th em. As a rough gu ide in
setti ng up your c ircuit,
determi ne how much dc
voltage is needed on t he
veractor to shift your osci l-
lator by plus and min us 5
kHz; you can check the fre-
quency shift using a receiv-
er with a bfo and an ac-
curately calibrated dial.
The value of de voltage
thus determined will then
be approx.imately the peak
leve l of a udio voltage
you'll need. One of the
nice t hings about FM is
t hat practica ll y no power
(only voltage) is necessary
for t he freque ncy modul e-
tor. I wound up with plenty
of deviation to spare.
Alt hough thi s la sh-up
worked on the fi rst tr y, who
would want a tape record-
e r patch cord hanging out
of t he bottom of t he ri g
permanent ly? So, a way of
43
L ,
210 . '
, "
a uD,O
' ''PuT
IDC B'aS
ADJUST!

".
BACKl

.M
---
m

---
---
2
1
co 1_
c

",''' lOG

t
<-
l
.'
,j,
...-
Fig. 4. Varactor frequency modulator circui t. Varactor part
numbers: 1. Motorola HEP-R2503 (20-pF nominaf capaci-
tance); 2. Motorola MV2205 or MV2209 (s wing 15 to 60
pFj; 3. Motorofa MV839; 4. Amperex H4A/l N4885.
receivers have "de-empha-
sis" circuits built in, which
roll off the audio frequen-
cy response at the high
end. Such a ci rcuit is in-
tended to complement
(cancel out) the opposite
kind of ci rcuit built into
FM t ra ns mitte rs, " p re-
emphas is," which boos ts
t he hi gher audio frequen-
cies . This scheme is used to
enhance t he overa ll signa l-
to-noise ratio of an FM sys-
tem by boosting t he highs
on transmi t and cutt ing
them on rece ive. I don't
pretend t hat a sufficient ly
small value of coupling
capacitor will produce ex-
actly the right amount of
pre-emphasis, but it does
the job and produces
pleasant audio quality on
FM receivers.
You'll also have to de-
cide what value to use for
capac itor C2 in Fig. 4. If
this capacitor is too small ,
you won' t be a ble to get
enough deviation; if it's too
large, you' ll have too mu ch
devia t io n, a nd it ma y
th row your vfo way out of
calibration and/or load it
down excessively. I would
sugges t starti ng out with
sma ll va lues of capaci-
va ra e tor ' s pu rpose has
nothing to do wit h modula-
tion, though, and is used for
shifting the vfo's frequency
by about 3 kHz to offset
SSB carrier-oscillator shift
when switching from USB
to lSB. The varactor al -
ready has some de bias
voltage on it, so let's see
what happens when an
audio voltage is also ap-
plied. Remember, t hough,
t hat this technique is ap-
plicable to many different
kinds of t ransmi tters or
t ransceive rs, old or new,
CW, AM, or SS B, since th ey
a ll have osc il lator(s) whic h
can be frequency modu-
lated. The basic ide a is to
get just a bit of audio-
modulated capacitance in-
to a suitable point of a
variable or crysta l-con-
trolled oscillator tank cir-
cuit in order to frequency-
modulate it. For example,
since almost all SSB rigs
use frequency heterodyn-
ing stages, conceivably any
oscillator in the chain (vfo
or crystal) could be FMed
by the va ractor ci rcuit. (If
you 're a Yaesu FT-101
owner, see Reference 5.)
Fig. 4 shows t he actual
va ractor freque ncy modu-
la to r ci rcuit used. Point Bis
where t he varactor ci rcuit
is connected to t he vfo of
Fig. 3. The audio signal is
applied at point A of the
va ractor ci rcuit, Fig. 4, as
before. For a source of
audio, I first used an inex-
pensive cassette tape re-
corder and microphone.
The recorder's speaker out-
put was connected to the
va raetor circuit at point A
of Fig. 4. It worked! How-
ever, t he first few QSOs
revealed that the audio
quality was bassy and muf-
fled. The audio coupling
capacitor, C3, then was
made smaller until accept-
able audio qua lity resulted;
the final value of C3 in my
particular applicat ion was
270 pF.
Actually, some of the
bassy audio quality res ults
from the fact that most FM
the power supply. Chang-
ing t he applied dc voltage
sh ifts t he varactor's
capacitance as pe r the
curve in Fig. 1.
Now, if the varactor cir-
cuit were connected to the
tuned lC circuit of an oscil-
lator, then the varactor's
changing capacitance
would shift the oscillator' s
frequency a ce rtain
amount, by addi ng or sub-
tract ing from t he total
tank ci rcuit capaci tance.
l et' s take t hi s idea one step
fur the r. Suppose t hat we
now apply an aud io (ac)
voltage to the va ractor ci r-
cu it at point A of Fig. 2,
through t he coupling ca-
pac itor, C3. The va ractor
would then cha nge its
capacitance in step wit h
the applied audio voltage.
With the varactor con-
nected to an oscillator's
tank circuit, the oscillator's
frequency would once
again be shifted, but thi s
time the frequency shift
would be in step wit h the
applied audio voltage .
Hence, we wou ld have fre-
que ncy modu lation of t he
osci llator.
You may wonder why we
cont inue to apply de volt-
age to t he varaetor a long
wit h t he audio voltage. A
look at Fig. 1 shows that
t he va ra e t or ' s vo ltage-
capacitance characteristic
is linear (straight) only in
the center of its curve.
That's the part of the curve
which we want to use for
our frequency modulation
scheme, swinging the var-
actor's capacitance up-
ward and downward from
the center of this linear
re gio n with our audio
(modulating) voltage, to
achieve linear frequency
mod ulation. The adj us t-
able dc bias is used to
pl ace us at t he cent er of
the linear portion of the
curve.
My pa rt icul ar rig a lready
has a va raetor in its vfo
tank ci rcui t (as shown in
Figs. 3 and 4), which is
typical of vfo circuits . The
FM signal is indistinguish-
able from the sidebands of
an AM signal. fM and AM
signa ls thus considered dif-
fer only in that the fM
sidebands and carrie r are
90 out of phase with one
another, whereas the AM
side band and carri er are in
phase with each other. fur-
ther, for narrowband fM,
both the first pair of fM
side bands and the AM side-
bands o ccupy approxi -
mately the same band-
width when using equal
modu lating signals. By re-
ceiving a n fM signal on a n
SSB receiver with its bfo
operating (vexalted-carrier"
reception), you can replace
the f M signal's 90 phase-
shift ed carrier with the bfo
carrier (which is not 90
shifted). This provides an
"equiva le nt" AM signa l for
our adjustment purposes!
What about the recep-
tion of FM signals? Slope-
detection in the AM mode
works OK on most receiv-
ers by tuning off to one
side of the FM signal; use
the broadcast se lectivity
available. Ironically, the
steeper the sides of the AM
receiver's se lect ivity char-
acteristics are, the harder it
is to slope-detect an fM
s ig na l. Unfo rtunately,
slope-detection doesn't
provide any of the fM re-
ception advantage s-
quieting and impul se noi se
rejection, for example. I
presently use two different
methods for true fM recep-
tion.
First method: The main
station receiver here is a
Hallicrafters SX-101A. This
receiver has a double-con-
version i-f strip, with a first
i-f frequency of 1650 kHz.
Also at hand is a Ham-
mar lund FM-50A VHf-FM
t ransceiver that has a
l65Q-kHz second i-f fre-
quency. To use the SX-
l Ol A as a tu neable front
end for the fM-50A's FM i-f
strip, make these changes:
f irst, remove the SX-101A's
second mixer tube (V5, a
6BA6) and insert a short
to 5 kHz deviation- so-
ca lle d na rrowband FM.
First, you can roughly se t
your deviation based on
signa l reports from other
FM operators. However,
since each FM recei ver will
have somewhat diff erent
t olerances t o over-de-
viated signa ls, you may get
inconsi stent observat ions.
Generally speaking, your
audio should sound about
as " loud" (have as much
deviation) as most other
FM signals on the air, but
no greater. Excessive de-
viat ion will sound gross ly
distorted and can cause
splatter.
For dev iat ion adju st-
ment purposes, you also
can use the fo llowing tech-
nique: Set FMdeviation us-
ing an SSB receiver, by tun-
ing the FM signa l for zero
beat, with no modulat ion
a pplied. Then, whi le li sten-
ing to the FM signal, modu-
late the FM transmitter
normally and advance its
deviation cont rol (micro-
phone gain) until the si gna l
thus received becomes
grossly distorted; back off
on the deviation control
unti l t he signa l becomes
clean agai n. Use the widest
ava ilable se lect ivity set-
ting on the SS Breceiver for
making th is adj ustment.
For example, a 5-k Hz-wide
receiver would indi cate
roughly the 5 kHz devia-
tion limit.
For practice, you might
try listening to FM signals
on the air , to get an idea of
what a narrowband FM sig-
nal sounds like on your par-
ticular SSB recei ver; a re-
peater output would prob-
ably be a good bet to be
properly adjusted. Note,
however, that an FM signal
thus detected will obvious-
ly not be demodulated
properly (it will probably
sou nd garbled), but the
onse t of distor tion caused
by excessive deviation wi ll
be clearly audible.
The theory behind this
technique is that the first
pair of FM sidebands of an
)
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o-
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;
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,
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TltTOII
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li kel y to be less t han the
rated CW input and equal
to the RTTY or SSTV rat-
ings, as we certain ly don't
want to overst ress the final
amplifier or power supply.
After tu ne-up, flip Sl to FM
and se t the microphone
gain for the desired
amount of deviation. I hap-
pen to use an outboard
s p e ec h processor (a f
compressor/cl ipper/low-
pass filter combination) in-
tended for SSB use on FM,
too-it keeps the average
deviation level (analogous
to modulation percentage)
high, prevents over-de-
viation, and crispens up the
audio somewhat.
Some questions remai n,
though, about the opera-
tion of an FM transmitter:
How much deviation is per-
missible, and how do you
correct ly ad just you r FM
trans mitter for it? Well ,
most FM activity is limited
7 t U STAL
Fig. 6.
..
-
COE VI4T+OOI
. "

Fig. 5. Typ ical speech amplifier circuit.
J --
.,'
" "
SO'UtH

IJ I MOD/FIEO CIR CIII T

# 1 (!iiI I GINAL CI RC/,fT
using the ri g' s own built-in
speec h am plifi er was
sought. A partial schematic
of t he Hammarlund ' s
speech ampli fier appears
in f ig. 5 a long with the very
simple mod ification for
fM . Once again, the
speech amplif ier ci rcuit is
quite typical; usually only
a few volts of audio is
needed. The SPOT switch,
St . removes the audio from
the balanced modulator
and applies it instead to
the varactor circuit of fig.
4. Shie lded cable should be
used for this modificat ion,
to avoid hum and rf pick-
up. The beauty of t his
change is that it in no way
alters t he other functions
of the transmi tter.
Operation on f M is sim-
ple; Tune up the rig in t he
CW mode, observi ng the
maximum rated plate cur-
rent limi t fo r continuous,
key-down operation. This is
44
,.,
""
AUOJO
'"'
'" C>E TECTQfl
. .. ,-r

of course, t he ideas in t his
article and in t he references
would be j ust fine f or get-
ting on FM t hat old VHF
AM/CW rig lying around
the shack.
1 wou ld welcome you r
experiences and comments
on 10-meter FM operation,
and I'll answer questions if
you incl ude an SASE. CUl
on 29.6 FM! .
References
1. The Radio Amateur 's Hand
book, American Radio Relay
League, 1976.
2. FM and Repeaters for the
Radio Amateur, ARRL, 1972.
3. The Radio Amateur's VHF
Manua', ARRL, 1972.
4. Amateur Radio Techniques ,
Radio Society of Great Britain,
1978, p. 199, " Selt ing N.B.F.M.
Deviation," or i gi nall y fr om
QST, December, 1972, article by
D. Collins K4GGI/1.
5. "VHF Transverters and the
FT-1 01," 73 Magazine, July,
1978, p. 168.
6. Hints & Kinks, " Provi ding a
Tunable VHFFM Receiver,"
ARRL, 1978, p. 108.
GOOD LOW-Z 'NJEOTION POINT
.OR CON, ERTER OUTPUT
VOU....E SOUElCH
f i LTER
BAND-
PASS
I TYP ICAL,
'0'
"",
CONVERTER
"'
' ""
".
""'
ANTENN A
Fig. 7. 10-meter FM reception. (Can be any i-f frequency.)
Fig. 8. Typical FM receiver block diagram.
could be achi eved by, once
agai n, directl y FMing t he
t ransmitter, usi ng t he var-
ac tor frequency modul ator
i nstead o f feed i ng t he
SSTV (or RTTY) signals
t hrough the microphone in-
put of the transmitter. In
bot h t he RTTY and SSTV
modes, nonlinear opera-
ti on, spur ious products,
and splatter may resul t
unl ess: (a) your ca rrier and
unwanted sideband sup-
pression is very good, and
(b) your speech ampl ifier,
ba lanced modul at or, filter,
and ampl ifier stages are
am p l i tu d e- and phase-
linear and d ist orti on-free
(qui te ra re! ). Di rec t fre-
quency modul at ion of the
ca rr ier gets around the
problem of av oiding t he
speec h ampfif k-r, balanced
modul ator, ana ril te r stages
enti re ly.
As a final t hought , those
of you wi t h 10- t o 6- or
2-meter tran sverters cou ld
easi ly get on VHF-FM. And,
before t he high i-f band-
pa ss fi lter; most of these
fi lters have rel at ivel y low
input impedances (about
500 to 1000 Ohms), making
connect ions relat ively un-
cr itical. Fig. 8 shows a com-
mon FM i-f strip conf igura-
t ion.
In case you' re wonder-
ing, yes, Virgi nia, 1D-meter
FM operation i s c han-
neli zed. The f requencies
are : nat ional si mplex -
29.6 MHz (don't ca ll CQ
t hough; " QRZed" or " l is-
tening on the frequency" i s
better). Repeater pai rs are
- i np u t/ o u t p u t, 29.52 /
29.62, 29.54/29 .64, 29.56/
29.66, and 29.58/29.68 MHz.
Most are open mac hi nes.
Caution: Don't go bel ow
29.5 MHz usi ng + 5 kHz
FM because t he Friend ly
Candy Company doesn't
allow i t - + 2.5 kHz FM i s
t he l i mit " dow n below."
l at el y, I 've heard some
si mpl ex act ivity on f re-
quenc ies between t he re-
peater outputs, e.g., 29.61 ,
29.63 MHz, etc.
Re su lts : Run ni n g 75
Watt s output to a vertical
antenna and using t he first
reception met hod has
yielded f ine resul t s. I've
worked mobi les all over
the c o u n t r y w it h fu l l
quieting and some OX, too!
Telli ng the guy at the ot her
end that he' s l isten ing to a
modified SSB exci te r gives
him somet hi ng to t hink
about, too.
Add it ional appl ications:
There are some ot her im-
portan t uses f or FM or
frequency-shift capabi l i t y
in an HF transmitter. You
can achieve v ery clean
f re q uency-shi ft key ing
(FSK) for r adi otel e t y p e
(R T TY) ope ration by
feedi ng two d iscret e dc
voltages to t he varactor
c ircuit (omit t he cou pling
capacitor, C3), to give you
t he pr oper f req ue ncy
shifts. Also, it would ap-
pear that better slow-scan
television qual ity (SSTV,
wh ich u ses fr equenc y-
modulated video signals)
' Avai l abl e (u sed j wr t bou t
cabinet, power transf -i er. or
cryst al s from: serene. Work
shop, Box 393, Bethpage NY
1171 4, for $14.95; a ni ce item for
experiment ers.
"Available fr o m : VHF
Engineering, 320 Water St. ,
Binghamton NY 13901, in kit
form, $13.95 plus postage.
Available from: Hamtronics,
tnc., 65A Maul Rd., Hil ton NY
14468, in kit form, $25.50 plus
postage.
piece o f unshi el ded, in-
sulated wire i nto pin 1 (grid
circuit) of the now empty
6BA6 socket. Then, con-
nect the other end of the
wire to t he grid ci rcu it of
t he FM-50A's f i rst 1650-kHz
i-f amplifier via a .05-uF
disc capaci t or. Removing
the FM-50A's receive
crystal or mixer tube wi ll
disable its f ront end.e See
Fig. 6.
Another such combi na-
t ion I've used consisted of
a general coverage recei v-
er having a single-conver-
si on 455-kHz i-f strip, used
t o feed the latter half of a
t ransistorized FM i-f stri p,
al so at 455 k Hz, from a
Johnson " Monoscan" UHF
scanner." I n addition, nu-
merous FM adapter cir-
cuits and ideas may be
found in References 1, 2,
and 4. With a l i ttl e ex-
peri mentation, co m p ar-
able hybri d arra ngements
w ith ot her sets may be
found to be feasible.
Second method: Use a
crystal -contro lled con-
verter (for example, a VHF
Engi n eering Model RF
28** or Hamtronics Model
C25-50***) to convert t he
10-meter signals down to
the i-f frequency of the FM
i-f strip you want to use; for
example, 10.7 M Hz is a
common i-f f requency. Just
about any FM i-f strip is
usable l ike this -al l t hat
you have t o do is select a
converter crystal to match
t he i-f frequency you need.
See Fig. 7. The on ly t rick is
to select the ri ght spot to
inject t he converter' s out-
put into the i-f strip. The
best poi nt seems to be just
45
Number 11 on ,our FMdbKk card
Breadboard a VCXO
Continuous 10 meter coverage from your CB.
by Walter R. Stringer N8BSG
ili
( A"1(. " "" OIm'\If
"'
R6 . " .IO'.... IIfOR..U
'. "'-An "" ....'e.
1"
uIe.
vxo OU'PUT
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,t v

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VIO 0lIfPu1

, f-- 11) 101'.' Sf.llG(
,
,
" "'
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CYOUAU
1"
,
r"
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r
,
"
oo".. ,,,,..n,. ,
N
ovices. and Technicians, of whi ch I am
one. may operate CW and other digital
modes from 28.1 10 28.3 MHz. and CW and
SSB from 28.3 MHz to 28.5 MHz. All the
reponed act ivity on thi s band latel y made me
want to get involved .
CRTo- IO
To successfully convert my Lafayette Tel-
sal SSB-120 citizens band transcei ver over to
10 meter operat ion, I needed to build a
vol tage-tuned variable-frequency crystal os-
cillator (VXQ) thai could be varied over a 5
kHz range without losing its crystal stability.
What I bui ll, however. might be useful to
anyone who des ires a VCXO ( Voltage-Con-
trolled Crystal Oscillator) . This mod helps
you get the most frequency swing possible
wit h a voltage tuning range of 0.010 12.0
volts. In my ease. it led 10 continuous IO-me-
tcr coverage.
On the amateur 10 met er band, only the
upper sideband is used for voice modulation.
For CW operation. the AM mode could be
used to cause the transcei ver to output a carri-
e r by keying the P1T (push-to-talk) line and
not applyi ng any modulation via the micro-
phone. The same offset crys tal is used for
both USB and AM modes in most, if not all ,
SSB CB radios (including the one that I con-
vertcd ) so that, for a successful conversion. I
had to worry only about getting one crystal
frequency changed and working properly.
T he Hitch
The CB channels. however, have a spacing
of 10 kHz between them, and therefore the
transceiver's I'LL (phase-locked loop) circuit
switches in 10 kHl steps. All SSBradios have
a " fine-tunc" or " clarifie r" control on them
for tuning in recei ved signals, and there are
convers ions to allow that circuit to work dur-
ing transmit as well. CD City Internat ional
PllolOA. The completed oscitkuor-buffer ne.\'ll('d in
tll(' con verted CB transceiver, (11 frotll center ofthe
nt<. Tllpt' Ihe hell/omofth(' board /0 pr('l.,tlI shorts.
(PO Box 31500, Phoenix, Arizona 85046) is
a very good source of CB-to-IO met er con-
vers ion informati on . Also check with 73
,\ fagazine for their list of 35-40 anicl es on
CB-to- IO conversions.
For operat ion on the amateur 10 meter
band, you need continuous frequency cover-
age. and to get that . you need to make each
channel frequency-agile to the tune of 10
kHz , plus fill in any " missing channels " .
Fort unately for me , the output of the oscilla-
tor is doubled by the radio' s ci rcuitry, so even
if I could get onl y 5 kHz of total oscillator
swing I could cover the enti re 10 kj-l z-wide
channel. Now all I had to do was try to build a
crystal oscillator that could be voltage- tuned
over a 5 kHz range.
The Answer
The approach I used was to "breadboard"
an oscillator circuit. When I gOl everythi ng
TUNING
VOL fAGE INPU
/
Fit<ure I . Schl'flul/i c for vcxonwdifi culion. Photo B, a!i.wmh/n/ VCXO mod.
73Amateur Radio March,1989 43
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -,
CJ
I I

7/8"
CJ CD c::J
14 2 1/2" .1
2. PCboard/oil diagram/ or vCXO mod. on board foil. score bt'twn ucrions ....ith an X-(leto
is commonly used), and a 10pF load capaci-
tance. Bothwere HC- IS/Vstyle holders with
wire leads from Marden Electronics Compa-
ny, Inc. (PH: SOO-222-6093) . Even with 5-
day .. rush shipping," the cost was pretty
reasonable, and I' ve had good luck with crys-
tals from them. As it turned out, under identi-
cal conditions. I got 300 Hz more swing from
the 10 pF crystal (3. 9 instead of 3.6 kHz) and.
since it would oscillate higher in frequency. I
could tune it above and below the desired
center frequency. With a 32 pF crystal, all or
most of my range would be belowthe desired
center frequency. .
The Varactor
I used a veractor diode in series with a .001
mF cap in place of where the trimmer cap
would go to make the oscillator vol tage-
tuned. A crystal will block DC, so the .001
mFcap may seemunnecessary, but I prefer to
use it anyway to prevent applying DCtuning
voltage to the crystal.
I tried several different varactor diodes in
the circuit to see which would give me the
most frequency swing over a 0.0-12.0 volt
range. and the best was the varactor diode
that was used to modulate the 1.7-I.S MHz
RF carrier of an old Radio Shack cordless
phone base unit.
Parts List
Voltage- Tuned Crystal Oscillator
MPfl02 FET
2N2222A NPN
MV-209 verecoe Diode
lN4148
10.32625 MHz Crystal,
10 pF Load Capacilance
10 ... H Coil
100 IolH Coil
0001 IolF CapaCItor
25 pF Capacitor
.01 IolF Capacitor
100 pF Capacitor
l 00kO 1/4 Watt Resistor
3900 V. Walt Resistor
47kO V. Watt Resistor
4.7kO V. Wall Resistor
4700 v. Watt Resistor
50110 Tuning
Potentiometer,
Linear Tapel"
One 2Vz - \. pece 01 pnnted
circuit board
Two2Vz' '4 ' pieces of double-sided
printed circuit board
Two .,. V.' pieces of printecl
circuit board
L1
L2,L3.l4
C1.C2
C3.C4
C5.C7
C6.C8
Rl ,R2
A3
A'
AS
A6
A7
0 '
02
0'
D2
XlAL
Crystals
I ordered two crystals of the same frequen-
cy-a 32 pF load capacitance (which is what
working right (the frequency swing that I
desired and sufficient output level ), I in-
stalled it in the rad io for the final test .
Figure 1 is the schematic of the VCXO
mod . Figure 2 shows the etching pattern of
the board. This can be " etched" wit h a ruler
and an x-aoo knife , or with a Dremel tool
with a broken drill bit used as a router (my
method) . Figure 3 shows the pans placement
on the board. Note that at the four sides of the
board are strips of PC board soldered to join
together the top and bottom ground planes of
the double-sided printed circuit board. Photo
A shows the completed oscillator-buffer in-
stalled in the converted CB transceiver . It
may be necessary to put electricaltape on the
bottom of the circuit board to prevent it from
shorting anything out.
It is always good to fi rst consult a reliable
reference book when you are setting out to
make a mod. Even if you don't find exactly
what you are looki ng for, you may find some-
thing that does most of what you want, there-
by making your j ob simpler. As my starting
point. I looked under " VXO circuits" in the
1987 ARRL Handbook . ( I believe that every-
one who experiments with RFcircuits should
own a recent copy of the ARRL Handbook . )
Included are "practical examples of crystal-
controlled oscillators that can be frequency
trimmed. "
SuPPLy
-'- ," .. , .+-L
u 01 :if- IOZ I
u ---, , CI
I, I
IQ. n l OO

i 1O.3lJOO

WIO U . ,O

a
lO u c oo

l lOSUOO
B

" =10uno
SIO SUOO
lO u no
"
10 1 0 s o 4.0 ' 0 eo 10 . 0 ' 0 100
''0 "
"""'W(; _'. Gll_nl
Figure 3. Parts ptocement for the VCXOmod.
44 73 Amateur Radio March, 1989
4. VCXOfrequency ou/pur versus
luning rtlnge. It is a wry linear function.
A Motorola MV-209 varactor diode turned
out to be almost as good. Thi s is rated to up to
30. 0 volts maximum. The diode is reverse-
biased in operation. As the tuning voltage
increases so does its capacitance, which in
turn decreases the oscillator' s frequency. If
you wish to go up in frequency as you turn the
fine-tuning (or clarifier) knob clockwise, you
must wire the potentiometer up so that as you
turn it the tuning voltage to the varactor diode
decreases.
I experimented with the value of Ll un-
til I got the most frequency swing with-
out losi ng the crystal stability (this is ob-
vious when monitoring the oscillator's output
with a frequency count er, as the oscillator
frequency will suddenly take off). Ll adds
about 400 to 500 Hz additional frequency
swmg.
The IN41 48 diode (02) limits the ampli-
tude of the RF at the gate of QI . While this
does decrease the output level of the oscilla-
tor, it allows approximately I kHz more
swing than without it (3.9 instead of 2.9
kHz).
Which Coil?
The coil ( U) in the source ci rcuit ofQI can
be anything from 100 to I m j-l . A 5600
resistor there in place of a coil will result inan
output with much less harmonic content
(great. if you are interested in only the crys-
tal ' s fundamental frequency). Any coil with-
in the above range will give a slightly better
frequency swing than the resistor .
Capacitors C3 and C4 are inseries with LI.
the crystal, C2. and the varactor tuning
diode . Since in a series circuit the total
capacitance will not be any larger than the
smallest capacitance, C3 and C4 should be as
large as possible, which allows the varectcr
diode to be the domi nant influence on the
frequency of the oscillator. The other limita-
tion on the values of C3 and C4 is that, since
any kind of trimmer capacitor across the
crystal would limit the frequency swing ofthe
oscillator . they together tune the crystal to the
desired center frequency . When using the
Colpitts crystal oscillator, I prefer to keep
both feedback capacitor values the same. al-
though many other places specify that the
"bottom" (source-ground) capaci tor be 3
times the value of the "top" (gate-source)
capacitor.
In Praise (If Buffers
I built a buffer stage to foll ow the oscilla-
tor. When working with oscillators for RF, I
recommend always building a buffer stage .
The cost of the extra transistor and pans is
next to nothing. and you can use the buffe r
stage to really build up the level of your signal
and also to filter out unwanted harmonics.
The buffer stage also serves as a constant load
forthe oscillator. This way, all the oscillator
has to do is oscillate. which is very important
if you are trying 10 optimize it for something,
such as for maximum frequency swing.
When I installed the oscillator in the radio. I
took out L4 and instead wired into the circui t
the tuned RF transformer for the offset oscil-
lator stage.
You can tune the buffer stage output by
adding a trimmer cap. CTRIM. from the col -
lector of Q2 to ground, which will resonate
with L4. The same thing could be done with a
tr immer cap from the drain ofQl to grou nd,
which will resonate with L3. At 12.0 volts,
QI draws less than 0.5 rnA. and Q2 draws 28
rnA.
The osctllatot's frequency output over the
voltage tuning range is quite linear, as the
chan (Figure 4) shows. Your "fine-ume" or
clarifier potentiometer must be a linear type.
however, as using an audio taper type will
cause all of your range to be alone end of the
dial.
Ultimately , with all of the experimenta-
tion. I was able to get 5.04 kHz of frequency
swing out of the oscillator at the crystal's
fundament al frequency.
Finis
During my convers ion and troubl eshoot ing
I tested the rig in the AM mode with the PIT
line keyed on and. with no modulation ap-
plied, measured all my frequencies on all my
channels. A 10 meter SSBon-the-air test with
my converted unit showed the conversion to
be working fine.
So, there it is- a fun and cheap way to get a
channelized CB on 10 meters. This band will
be hot over the next few years, so I hope this
mod will help you get in there and make good
useof it!fJI
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46 73 Amateur Radio - March. 1989
CI E
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------. -. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Dave Brown W9CGI
RR 5, ~ J9
Noblesvme IN 46060
CB to 6
- convert a 49-MHz HT into something
D
o you need an inex-
pensi ve means of
communications? Whether
you hunt, fish, put up anten-
nas, go to hamfests, or just
have a need now and then
for a wir el ess telephone, I
think I have jus t the an swer
for you.
If you have ever owned
o r listened to the "toy" vari-
ety l00-mW CB handle-
talkies, most of which were
o n channel 14, you prob-
ably will agree that they are
worthl ess for doing much of
anyt hing- incl ud ing mon-
itoring channel 14! Well ,
great new t hings have hap-
pened in the CB handie-
t alkie 49-MHz band.
I purchased from Radio
Shack a pai r of Archer
tra nsceivers, c a ta log
number 60-4001, with bat-
t eri es, for just under $1 7.
Tha t wa s ju st bef ore
Thanksgiving, 1978. While
these are not kW transmit-
ters (5O-mW rat ed, Y4 -mile
range), at least they are
cryst al cont ro ll e d! The
recei vers are not multi-co n-
ve rsio n mas te r p ieces
Isuperregenerative de te e-
148 73 MagaZine . June, 1980
tors), but they are more
than adequate. Now fo r the
bad news-and why I per-
sonali zed mine.
First of all, the unit has
no squelch. Being used to
the se re ne sile nc e o f
2-meter FM, the " blowing"
noi se cont inua lly grindi ng
fort h from t he speaker was
going t o dri ve me banan as.
Next, t o add to the noise
pr obl em, t he re i s no
volu me cont rol . e ither!
Somethi ng had t o change
and fa st. Adding a squelch
to , a radio that has only
three tr ansistors and draws
20 mA on receive seemed a
bit much t hen (but open to
future thought), so I ad d-
ed the next best thing-a
volume bont rol. Less noi se
is not no no ise, but it beats
bunche s of no ise hands
down. The next quest ion
was where to put it.
If you have not looked at
these littl e rigs, by all
means do so. They are
much sma ller (5 Y4" x 2-
11/1 6" x 1-5/8") and lighter
(0.39 Ibs/1 77 g) than t heir
o l de r , bu lk y, a nti q ue
cbuuns o n channel 14. Real
shirt-pocket radio is here !
They even use a 2 inch
speaker/mi c for reasonabl e
quali ty sound. Not hi-fl. but
nice. Small is nice-but
crowded. There just was not
anywhere t o put a shaft-
t ype volume cont rol. rnirii a-
t ure, su b- miniat u re, o r
otherwise. Therefore, the
fol lowing compromise en-
sued.
I did find a corner down
under t he battery and foam
rubber battery pad where 1
could hide a small screw-
driver-type, mul ti-turn pot.
If you use a Bourns t ri mpot,
model 3006p1501 (500
Ohm). a nd fol low the drill-
ing diagram in Fig. 1, it just
fit s nicely. St art the hol e
wit h a #50 or smaller bit and
fi nish very slowly wit h a #25
(or so) bit to just clear a
sma ll -blade sc rewdriver.
Use Eastman 910 adhe-
sive (very fe wd rops) to hol d
the pot down in the corner
as shown- flus h with the
case side, front, and bot-
t om. This wil l leave the
pot ' s bra ss adj ust men t
sc rew aligned in the hole
you d ri lled, sticki ng o ut
about half t he t hickness of
t he case. This is fa r enough
to reach easily fo r adj ust-
ment, but no t far enough to
bump out of adjustment.
Follow the instructions in
Fig. 1, and you will do just
fine. I modi fi ed this part of
two transceivers in exactly
an hour, incl ud ing time
spent figuring out a place t o
put the pot, how to route
wires, etc. The tr impot is a
mul t i-turn unit, so you have
a nice s low c hange in
volume until you reach the
level you want. Have a
friend move out about 100
feet with o ne uni t and
transmit t o you whi le you
ad just the pot. You wi ll be
quite surprised at how low

you can go and st ill not

miss any calls.
Si nce there is vi rtually no
one else on 49 MHz yet,
you can instantly tell when
someone calls just by t he
s udden lo w-le ve l no ise
reduction. However, the
sound leve l is now down far
enough to make it hard t o
und e rst and every word
wit hout literall y hold ing t he
radio up to your ear. Break
out t he sc rewdriver? Not on
your life! Read on.

.J
,
--_..'

I ' I
!lib
,

-
,
,
ca n' t find the loot to have a
hand ie-tal kie as well. I
hope thi s can be the
answer to your personal-
ized radio needs. Get a
pair, and get a friend on.
While on the 49-MHz CB
band, they have to use t he
bu ilt-in antenna (it is nice
and short). but once t he
HTs a re moved to 6 meters,
a S/8-wave length loaded
antenna, or even a one- or
two-stage t ru nk-mounted
PA, would be legal. Now
let' s see, where can I fit in
a not he r jack for the anten-
na connector?
If you need any help,
jus t se nd an SASE, but thi s
one is so simple it should
be all done and running
before you know it. The
.(c I ofOLE
. . G . \!
. "'HT
TO .... o
r " U TE " C

lE A. U"O .... "["OVEO

f .O" S, _ . I
f S'OE" 1,
I '
OOT '
I ,
I ' ,
,,
----- --------,-OJ--','
... . CUE ........S "OT S 'DE TO
SCRE " I ... "
.. . t " n ,,, ,
..... us "'Of fop TO SCltE * (0' ,'

'OOL TO 0"00l.
"00 "... ...,;.
" AOE . _
...E ......,;.
REtoOvEO
A__ --++--I
st rengt h meter by holding
the radio very ste ady, and
backi ng off on l2 a bit to
get t he 840-kHz inc rease in
frequency. The FCC sure ly
was nice when it moved
the new CB HTs right next
door to 6 meters (chuckle!).
That' s it-one ad justment
and one new crystal of the
KSS-T8B type. I'm sure t hat
any of t he crystal manufac-
turers ca n fix you up if you
send t he old cryst al and the
schemat ic along.
The re are many like me
who have jumped at t he
new multi-mode sy nt he-
sized rigs for 2-meter home
u se , p robably wit h a
c rys t a l ri g for the c a r
(unless you drag one rig
back a nd forth), and just
speaker wire going to the
NC contacts (when no male
plug from t he earphone is
inserted) to complete the
s pe a ke r function . The
center pin gets the aud io
when the plug is inserted. A
new wir e goe s from where
t he pink wire was, near the
PTT swi tch, to the jack's
common switc hing pole
(not the cas e or ground) to
route audi o, du ring re-
ceive, f rom the area of t he
PTT switch to eithe r the
speake r or earphone. This
way t he speake r operates
normally until an earphone
is plugged in.
Another addit ion was a
ta b-type be lt hook to give
hand s-off listeni ng abil it y
whil e working on antennas
or trotti ng around ham-
fes ts. It really goes hand-in-
hand with the earphone
mo d if ic a ti on. Be ve ry
careful with the mounting
hardware a nd its place-
ment, or you will e it her
sho rt out or break the PC
board wit h the uni t a ll
closed up.
The re st of the mod ifica-
tions reall y make it a ham
rad io, if you so choose . I
am st ill wa it ing for the
proper c rystal to arrive to
complete this one myself .
A big (too big, physically)
crys tal wa s tried on 50.7
MHz in its huge can-ty pe
hol der (HC-6). The radio
t un ed right up using a field-
If t he code key on t he HT
really produced A1 tele-
graphy t here might be a
benefit to keeping its func-
tion as is, but A2 is what
t hey make do wit h. It may
teach a few kids the code,
but for just about anything
else, it is worthless. The key
is a simple SPST leaf switch
formed by a leaf contact in
the case and a contact on
the board. Fig. 1 includes in-
st ructions so you can free it
up from its tone function
and put it to good use: to
short out the volume-con-
trol pot you just installed.
Voila! We now have a push-
to-receive switch for full
rece iver volume, without
having to stand for the full -
volume racket a ll t he time!
While I was a t it, I added
an earphone jack for per-
sona l listening with t he
transceiver cli pped down
on my belt. This may be
tough unless you ha ve a
female c hass is-mount min-
iature phone plug close to
the size of mine. I stole
mine from an ol d pocket
BC-band rad io, so I can' t
really help you wit h part
numbers. A lot of t he
similar jacks I have seen in
stores are just too deep be-
hind the pa nel to fit. l ook
around, and you' re sure to
fi nd somethi ng if you want
the addition badly enough
(and I did!).
It is wi red wi th t he pink
(1) Remove battery.
(2) Remove back cover sc rew.
(3) Squeeze lop and bottom 10 remove back cover.
(4) Remove the one screw holding t he board in pl ace.
(5) Remove and keep the blue jumper, A-B.
(6) OrilllffiO hole next to A.
en Solder new 6" leads inl o A and B and dress toward t he battery
compartment .
(8) Remove t he brown lead at C and place i n A -fold over and
solder t o A.
(9) Cui and remove t he foi l shown.
(10) Use blue jumper from B to swi tch pad X.
(11) Glue the pol in place and connect it to the added leads.
Shorten tne leads as required. Connect so t hat resi st ance de-
creases with clockwise rot ation of the pot screw.
(12) Dress the foam and cardboard back over the pot connections.
(13) Check lor lead dress clearance, solder bridges, et c.
(14) Temporarily hook up battery and check outt ne unit.
(1 5) Reverse steps 1 through 4 to re-assemble.
(16) Push t he code butt on for full volume.
Fig. 1. Volume control and ousb-to-recei ve mods.
73 Magazine " June, 1980 149
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rad ios use a common
9-volt t ransistor radi o bat-
tery avai lable about any-
where. wh ich is nice, and
there are even 9-volt nicad
batteries around in the
same physical packages
now. (Now let 's see. if I
throw out t he radi o PC
board, I'll have room for
one more jack for the
charger l) Seriously. since
50.7 MHz was once more
or less a standard spot for
AM mobil e/port abl e o pera-
tions. I would like to sug-
gest we all meet there. It
would make it nice for
hamfests and some QRP
fun. Any takers?
Anot her ham friend of
mine and I have contem-
plated buying another pair
of HTs and using the tele-
scoping antenna as a
gamma-type rod bui lt right
o nto a 3-e lemen t yagi
antenna. We would keep
the regular cases as spares
for the first pair of radios.
and build some kind of
waterproof case (PVC tub-
ing wit h end caps?) around
t he rad io, mou nting the
whole thing ri ght on the an-
tenna. We would then add
a resistor and zener in
place of the battery and a
small set of reed re lays for
T-R switch-over. send ing
the audio, switch-over con-
trol , and power up and
down a rotor-type cable. I
really think this use meets
the lette r. but not t he spirit.
of t he FCC regulatio ns on
" b uilt-in" antennas. so the
FCC can rel ax!
We are going to 50]
MHz before we try this
pa rt. 50 mW-wow! Any-
one who can suggest a
means of A1 keying a one-
tr ansistor rig like this
would find his co mme nts
welcomed by me, and if
you decide to join us on
"flea-power" radio. by all
means drop me a lette r or
card so we can listen for
you. At least it shouldn't be
a dull year on 6 meters.
Vil VA E S U
-.
V
SERVICE DEPT.
CALL
8033667158
tf ilIICOM!

G.I.S.M.O.
2305 CHERRY ROAD
ROCK HILL, S.C. 29730
Featuring
e Q
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73
THE
GISMO
'GANG
150 73 Magazine . June. 1980
-
JalTl'l> L. Pilttenon DAlC) KB';U
PO 80\ III
APO Nt 09130
CB to Six
Why stop at 10 meters? KB5LF's Hy-Cain conversion
will take you to VHF j ust as easily.
S
ev(.ral ye,H'> of convert- t le rig opt' rates beautifullv
mg ell sets to ten meters on six meters'
makes one reallv appreciate My objectives in writing
the built-in ability of these this article include:
lit tle rigs. Those oi us who al Offering specific mfor-
are operati ng t horn now on rnat ion to convert the Hv-
singl(' sideband or FM can Cain board to six meters.
attest to t hei r stabil ity, sensi- b) Giving enough genera l
tivitv. and clean output It information to allow you to
WiI<; for these reason... I be- begin converting the CB of
ge n evpenmenting with the your choice
possibility of converting a c) lncrvasing the use of
CB 10 six met e rs. Since I had our six-meter band.
several Hv-Cain boards on I must te ll you in t he be-
hand, that's whet I selected ginning t hat I wi ll not de-
for conversion scribe t he hookups required
My basic criteria tor a to make the board operate
successf ul conversion were: nor specifically detail FMing
a] Stmpttcuv-. The con- t he rig, I'll just refer you now
version should he no more to the many excel lent 73 ar-
difficult than to len meters. tic les that have det ailed thi s
b) QU<l lity-The receiver part of t he conversion. Your
should mai ntain Its original rnam obstacle to six-meter
sensuivitv/selectivitv. addi- operation is moving t he ra-
tionally. the transmitter out- dto from eleven meters AM
put should be very clean! to six meters AM. Sideband-
c) Cost -c l fi rmly believe et s. take not e - I'l l not
a conversion loses its appeal forget you, eit her, Your can-
when the price is too high or version may al so be surpns-
....-hen exot ic parts are used mglv simple.
and can't be easilv obtained Examine the basic block
Aftf'r the conversion \vas diagram of Fig 1. To move
completed, I lei I tbat the cri- any CB in frequency, t he
rena had been met The li t- master f requency source
22 73 Magazine February, 1985
Ivco. c rysta l synt hesizer)
must be made to operate at
a new frequency. We know
f rom our ten-meter conver-
sions t hat we must increase
the f requency. The question
is, how much' Keep in mind
t hat. generallv speaking. the
master frequency source
Ivco. synt hesizer) of most
CBs does not change fr e-
quency between t ransmit
and receive. If we can deter-
mine the correct vco fre-
quency to i nject into the
fi rst receive mixer. we wi ll
also haw found that this
same frequency is used for
t ransmit.
Refer agai n to Fig. 1.
1hree incoming frequenci es
are shown. The f ir st is an in-
coming original CHfrequen-
cy; t he second is a 1D-meter
FM frequency; the third is a
new f requency in the six-me-
ter band. Note also t hat
these frequenci es are in the
center of t heir respecti ve
bands, The f requencies gen-
erated by our master fre-
quency source that mixes
with the incoming signals is
also shown. Let ' s examine
how the master frequency is
determined.
If we examine Fig 1, we
see t hat a 27.185-MHI signal
is ampli fied by one or more
rf stages before it is mixed
with the master frequency,
Dur ing the mixing process,
t he first i-f fr equency is se-
lected. In our case. t he f irst
j.f f requency is 10 695 MHz.
In al most every case. t he re-
ceive-mixer ci rcui t ry sel ects
t he difference frequency.
Our equati on:
For t t -meter operat ion-
master frequency = incom-
ing frequency + first i-f fre-
quency = 27.185 MHz +
10.695 MH... = 37.880 MHz.
For 'l u meter operat ion-
master frequency = 29,600
M Hz + 10,695 M Hz =
40 295 MHz.
For e-rneter operation-
master frequency = 52.525
MHz + 10.695 M Hz =
63,220 MHz.
The equat ion in a differ-
ent iorm: master frequency
- incoming fr equency =
first i-f frequency,
If your particular radio

4 0
4 1.8 1<1....'
IF OlCTOR
ate properly in the 42-MHz MHz is selected by the use
range. I'll briefly describe its of the low-pass filter (Cl08,
operat ion and then recom- l101 , etc). A mixer buffer
mend a replacement for the (Ql 03) follows to ensure
origi nal crvst al. that the Pll02A does not
The 10.240-MHz oscilla- load the ci rcuitry and gives
tor i s fed into pin 3 of t he ad d i t i o nal gai n to the
Pll02A chip, It is internally 2.24-MHz signal .
divided by 1024 t o give us a Assumi ng the vee is oper-
reference frequency of 10 ati ng exact ly on 37.660
kHz. Thi s means that our MHz, a signal of 2.24 MHz
channel spaci ng will also be wi ll appear on pi n 2 of the
10 kHz. Notice al so that the Pll02A. If the programming
10.240-MHz signal is sent to pins (7 through 15) on the
t he receiver sect ion and Pl102A are set to divide by
mixed with the 10695-MHz 224. a l (}kHz signal (2.24
i-f. result ing in a second i-f MHz -;- 224 = .010 MHz)
frequency of 455 kHz (10.695 wi ll be generated. This is ex-
- 10.240 = 455 kHz). act ly the same frequency as
The vco f requency of t he ref erence, The system is
37,660 MHz (CB channell) is said t o be " phase-l ocked." If
fed to both the receiver and the vco t ries to change fre-
transmitter sect ions of the quency or programmi ng to
radi o. Si nce we are dealing the PU02A changes. t he f re-
with a Pl.L circui t, thi s fre- quencies generated internal
quency must be fed back to to pins 2 and 3 will no longer
the PlL02A chip and com- be identical . The PlL02A
pared with the reference tre- senses t hi s and changes its
quency (1 0 kHz) to see if any out put voltage across t he
change in frequency is need- varactor diode (0101) to
ed. Since t he PLL02A has an steer t he vco to a condition
upper li mi t (at pin 2) of ap- where again both signal s in-
proximately 3 MHz. some temal to pi ns 2 and 3 are 10
method of mixing the signal kHz. For you that expert-
down to less than 3 MHz is ment, I have found that by
needed. This is the reason changing crystal s and ret un-
why the 11 .8Q60.-MHz osctl- ing the vco coil (TlOl), I
lator/tripler is in t he ci rcuit. could lock the loop from
In Fig. 2 we see the about 28 to 48 MHz. Not
11.8066-MHz f requency be- bad for thi s li ttl e ci rcuit!
ing t ripled to 35.4198 MHz. 1 wanted the mid-band
The t ripl ing occurs withi n f req uency t o be 52.525
t he circuitry associated wit h MHz. one of t he simplex
Ql05. Thi s f requency i s call i ng frequenci es for 6 me-
mixed with the 37.660-MHz tcrs. I knew the vco would
signal from the vco. and the probably be capabl e of
difference frequency of 2.24 maintaining lock over a
73 Magazine February,1985 23
H
40
4 I ll 'OMM,
Fig. 1. Hy-Cain CB block diagram.
SP[ IeM. ..P
H IO
.....
u 60(>01'"
..
H . ""15)
age frequenc y and wi ll be
detected if all owed to enter
the mixer. Fortunatel y, the
designers incorporated the
proper circuit ry beginning at
the antenna input and i n the
rf ampl if ier stagets) to rej ect
t he image frequency. If you
desire, you can det ermine
t hat t he image frequency on
10 met ers falls withi n t he
e-rneter band.
The problem I had to
solve was on what frequen-
cy must the master frequen-
cy source operate to recei ve
a 52.525-MHz signal and
produce a 10.695-MHz out-
put. 1 rejected using the
63,220-MHz frequency as
described above. 1 elected
to run the master at 41 ,830
MHz. Again, t he difference
f requency (52.525 MHz -
41 830 MHz) gives us the re-
quired out put from the mix-
er. This mixing scheme is
cal led low-side inject ion be-
cause the frequency of the
master is lower t han t he in-
comi ng f requency, Using
41.830 MHz as t he master
f requency will allow the re-
ceiver t o al so detect a
31.135-MHz signal (the im-
age frequency) i f our tuned
circuit ry at the input will al -
low it to pass. We will cure
any image fr equency inter-
ference in this conversion.
The modification to 6 me-
ter sof the Hy-Gain vco i sex-
act l y l ike that required for
tometer operat ion (refer to
Fig. 2). Only the 11.8066-
MHz cryst al need be changed
and the vco retuned to oper-
uses a different i-f frequency
(10.7 MHz, 7,8 MHz, etc.I
change t he i-f frequency in
t he formul a and crank out
the new master frequency.
During t he change to 10 FM,
t he Hv-Catn's vco frequency
was i ncr eased about 2.5
MHz, an increase of approx-
imately 6%. This change is
not excessive, There is
enough adj ustment range in
the ci rcui try to handle t his
increase i n frequency. Ex-
amining the percent change
from 11 to 6 meters, we f ind
t hat increasing the vco fre-
quency from 37.880 MHz to
63.220 MHz i nvol ves in-
creasing the frequency ap-
proximately 25 MHz. The
percent change in frequen-
cy is approxi mately 67% .
This i s asking too much of
the ci rcuit ry. Without ma jor
modif icat ion to t he vco cir-
cuit ry, it will not operate in
t he 6O-MHz region ,
Any t ime two frequencies
are injected into a mixer,
many different frequencies
are produced in the output.
Of speci al importance are
t he sum and t he difference
frequencies. The tuned por-
t ion of t he mixer' s out put
will determi ne whi ch of
these two frequencies is em-
phasized, Asan example, us-
ing Fig, 1, 27.185 MHz and
37.880 MHz are injected i n-
to the first mixer. The sum of
t hese two frequencies is
65065 MHz. The difference
is 10,695 MHz, the frequen-
cy of interest. In our case,
the mixer select s the differ-
ence frequency. The reader
may verify the f requencies
used for 'l Omet er operat ion,
Note t hat in both 1(} and
ll -met er oper ation, the
master frequency i s higher
t han t he incomi ng frequen-
cy; hence t he term high-side
injection.
There is anot her frequen-
cy that will mix with t he
37.88(}MHz signal to pr o-
duce the 10.695-MHz out-
put. In this case, a 48.575-
MHz signal mixed with the
37 880-MHz signal will al so
p roduc e t he requir ed
10,695-MHz i-f out put. Thi s
frequency is cal led the im-
,
Fig 2. Hy-Gain PLL circuit e channell}
Fig. 3 also indi cates a
tuned-c ollector o ut pu t
which is coupl ed into the
base of Q115. t he first re-
ceive mi xer , Since the ca-
pacitor is inside t he can,
nos must be removed and
the capacitor leads clipped.
There is no need to remove
the capaci tor from its seat
inside the can. Just be sure
that the leads are trimmed
so they do not touch any-
t hing. Be caref ul unsolder-
mgt he can or you may dam-
age t he foil trace. Thi s is
good practice as thi s same
bit of surgery will be re-
quired a time or two in the
transmitter sect ion. Install
an 18-pF capacitor across
the primary terminal s on the
foi l side of t he board,
A basic tune-up can now
be accompli shed using the
recei ver alignment instruc-
tions suppli ed in the Photo-
fact . Don't expect the re-
ceiver to be extremely sensi-
tive, as we have not yet cor-
rected t he majori ty of the in-
put ci rcuit. You wil l get
enough signal through to
sat isfy yourself that the re-
ceiver is now on 6 met ers.
Don't f orget to use a mi d-
band f requency for the
al ignment.
The receiver conversion
for a different radi o will
cl osely parallel t hi s discus-
sion. A few t ips may save
you some t ime and effort:
a) Performance-test the
CIl prior to conversion, Re-
cord signal level s, Be sure
these' level s exist after the
converston .
b) You will have to grid-
dip the transformers to f ind
the correct value of capaci-
tance for resonance.
c) Examine the general
specif icat ions for t he tran-
sistors in t he front end of the
recei ver (Q114 and Q115
were questioned in thi s
case). Hy-Gain used two
transistors whi ch have a
large bandwidth (Ft) and
high cu rrent gain (hi ,,,," If you
wi ll look these up i n a t ran-
sistor manual. you wi l l see
what I mean, Examining sev-
eral CB schematics did not
nee
r------ -,
,
' ) \ ' ,TOO"S
,,,.' r:-'

'"
Receiver Conversion
Once again referring to
Fig. 1, it is seen that once the
signal passes the f ir st mixer.
we are into the i-f f requen-
cies, I might as wel l tell you
now t hat no modi f icat ion s
are required beyond t he in-
put to t he fi rst mixer ! In sim-
ple l anguage. once t he de-
sired signal is into the f irst i-f
stage. the radio couldn't tell
you if t he original incoming
f requency were 27 MHz or
t he new 52-M Hz signal,
Fig 3 shows t he Hy-Cai n
input ci rcuit ry from the an-
tenna through the first and
only rf amplifier stage (mi-
nus a few parts). If you are
converting a different CB, it
wi ll probably surprise you to
f ind your i nput circuit ry
very simi lar t o the one
shown. Di sregard for now all
the component s f rom the
antenna connector through
l109. We will work with
t hese later. Our concern will
be with C154 and the coi l
which is t he pr imary of
t ransformer n04, A gri d-dip
meter wil l verify t hat t his
combination is resonant in
the 11-meter band. There is
enough tuning range in the
primary coil to tune 10 me-
ters, but not enough to tune
b meters. Changing C154
from 27 pF to 10 pF wil l let
t his combi nation reson ate in
t he 52-MHz region.
' n'
, '
, '
L _.
Tl OA
r- --,
, ,
When t he new crystal
(13.1066 M Hz) arrives. in-
st all it in place of the
11.8066 crystal and begi n
the vco alignment. Access
to a f requency counter and
a good osci lloscope are re-
quired for proper alignment .
I won' t detail t he vco ali gn-
ment procedure as this is
covered in t he Photofact
and in many of the articles
appearing i n 73. A few
words of caution may pre-
vent problems:
a) All osci ll ators must be
on f requency.
b) On some of the boards
there are two positions of
the vco coi l slug that will
gi ve you a 1.5-volt readi ng,
Only one i s correct . If
you've selected t he wrong
one. t he vco wi ll not t rack as
t he channels are advanced.
Other radios may exhibit
this same problem.
c) Ensure that the vco
does not change frequency
when the t ransmitter i s
keyed.
d) Ensure that 1111 is set
for maximum. Much of t he
performance depends on it .
One l ast word on Pl l ci r-
cuits may aid t hose of you
who will convert a different
radio. If you follow the low-
side-injection scheme. you
will keep the vco operat ing
near the original design f re-
quency. Thi s great ly simpl i-
fies t he conversion!
OO HO_
' 0 ..
OSClu. 'OII I

} 7.-.60<0" ,
no
.. I
Z PH C.. ,P
PASS
'"

I' l!..l!..J'OI" ''' 1'' 114 ,''
-L
PINS 010'
'T'
H . 660.... '
ITO TRANS
2 H .... ' .. .. '
,.,
0'05
------t .,HER A..p
2 H ..... ",", SS
n A<98 .....
I

.. . >(R
OSOLU.OII
54D--kHz range. Therefore. I
subt racted 270 kHz from
52.525 MHz to give a chan-
nel 1 frequency of 52.255
MHz (Pl l 02A set to divide
by 224). The high end f re-
quency woul d be at least
52.795 M Hz.
If channel 1 was to be
52.255 M Hz. my only prob-
lem was to decide what
cryst al frequency was nec-
essary such that when it is
fi rst t ripled and then sub-
t racted f rom t he vco fre-
q uency. the differe nce
would be 2,24 MHI. Using
ou r l ow-stde- tniec tion
scheme. 52.255 MHL minus
the vco frequency should
equal the 10.695 i-f frequen-
cy. With scr atc h paper
handy, a quick calculat ion
gives us a channel one vco
f requency of 41 .560 MHz. If
we now subt ract 2.24 M Hz
from 41 .560 MHz. we will
have the osci l lator frequen-
ev in tripled form, This sub-
traction yields 39.320 MHz.
Dividing this by 3 yi elds the
correct osci ll ator f requency
of 13.106{} M Hz. If you use
anot her division scheme or
elect to cover a different
portion of the band, all num-
bers must change accord-
ingl y. Any of the cryst al
manufacturer s can suppl y
you wi th the corr ect cryst al
if you specify t he makel
model of CB and t he oldl
new crystal frequencies.
24 73 Magazine . February, 1985
Fig. 3. Hy-Gain receiver front end,
..
TR. "S""TER
-
,
(' ''' 8

CIS! cue
22<l or .. ,.. '20. _
'. '
'. <
n C60Z '.1C' ''' II
0" 5
1:
roo

I
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o,w
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llC'
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I" T2 5.' rn""

I) Additional filtering is
needed to doubly ensure a
clean output. A pi-filter will
now be installed going from
poi nt 5A on t he circuit
board to the antenna t ermi-
nal. Inst all an airwound coi l
similar in size to l116 be-
tween the board'S output
(SA) and the center of the an-
tenna connector. I used an
extra 1116 off a broken Hy-
Gain board and removed all
but 3 t urns. If you fabricate
your own coil, t he induc-
tance should st ill be .1 ul-i
Install two 25-pF caps. One
sho uld be installed from the
center of the antenna con-
nector to chassis ground.
The second cap should be
installed from either point
5A or 58 to chassis ground.
m) We are now almost
fini shed. Remove Q112 and
replace it with Q113. Obtain
a 25C1307 transistor to use
in the final . The original
Q1U (2SC1760) does not
have enough gain in t he
50-MHz range. If you are
converting a d ifferent CB,
be sure to check the perfor-
mance of the transistors, Af-
ter compl et ing the above
steps. your circuit should
look like Fig, 5. Notice I did
not show RU9, l105, l116,
l1 08, et c. These remain
unchanged!
You can now perform the
alignment of the transmitter
using the steps listed in the
Photofact . As other aut hors
have said, t he alignment of
l103, l 104, and T1 02 is
critical!
By using single-pole, sin-
gle-throw switches to pro-
gram pins 1 through 15 of
the Pll02A, you can expect
at least 1-MHz band cover-
age. My conversion gave me
about 1.1 MHz. but the rec-
ommended vo ltages were
not foll owed at t he edges of
t he band. The vco. however,
remained very st able over a
voltage range of .9 to 4.5
vo lts. Average t ran smitter
output averaged 3 Watts
ac ross t he band, and it s out-
put is very clean,
The standard FM tec h-
niques can now be applied
pedance match at the base
of Q112. Now we are ready
to modify the driver and fi-
nat circuitry.
Pe rfo rm the fo llowing
steps:
a) Remo ve R203 (560-
Ohm resistor).
b) Remove C149 (220 pF).
c) Remove l106.
d) Remove C153 (62 pF),
e) Install a 68 pF capaci-
tor in pl ace of C149 t hat you
have just removed.
f) Examine l106, We mu st
lower it s inductance by re-
movi ng 2 turns. It looks fac-
tory formed. and it is. locate
the low side of the coil. Us-
ing a sharp carpet knife or
simil ar instrument, you can
cut the wire leg loose. The
wire can t hen be unwound.
Remove 2 tu rns and form a
new leg for t he coil. As a
guide, t he reactance of the
co il should be 25 Ohms at
S2.5 MHz.
g) Remove C151 (100 pF)
and inst al l a 22o-pFcap in its
place.
h) Remove 11 09, Remove
enough t urns to give 33
Ohms of react ance at 52.5
MHz. Its inductance sho uld
be .1 uH.
i) Remove R13 2 (47 k
Ohms) and C152. Replace
C152 wit h a 15O-pF cap, Re-
place R1 32 with a 22-pFcap.
j) Remove l110 Remove
2 t urns. It should now have
.1 uH inductance. Reinst all
l110.
k) Remove C602 on the
foil side of t he board (if in-
st alled), It' s attac hed be-
tween board ground and the
antenna side of l11 0, Re-
place it with a 25-pF cap.
stdel of the board. Be sure to
keep the capac itor leads
very short. On this can you
may simply place the 3J..
pF capacitor in the C1 24
location.
b) Perform step 1 to L104.
Inst all a 15-pF capaci tor
across t he proper terminals
on the foil side of the board.
c) Perform st ep 1 to n02.
Install a 15-pF capacitor as
in steps 1 and 2.
d) Remove ( 141 (68 pF).
Repl ace C141 with a 39-pF
capacitor. This is required t o
enhance the imped ance
match into the base of
Q111 . Grid-dipping the sec-
ondary of n02 shows the
secondary reso nant in the
55-MHz regio n (with the
68-pF cap).
Next remove T1 03. If you
glance at the schemat ic. you
might wonder why. It would
appear that since resonating
capacitor C143 (100 pF) is ex-
ternal to the can. one might
just remove it and install a
25-pF cap in it s pl ace. This
will reso nate the can in the
52-MHz region; however.
the transformer turns ratio is
now wrong. Examining the
primary a nd seco nd a ry
windings of T103 revealed a
b-tum primary and a 1-t urn
secondary. I could have re-
wound T103, bu t I had no
wire t hat small. I used a
'A-inch coil form using an
B-turn primary and a 2-turn
secondary. Grid-dip the pri-
mary to find t he amount of
capacitance needed to reso-
nate at 52.5 MHz in t he mid-
dl e of the coils tuning range,
C146 (470 pF) is removed
next . This enhances the im-
..
r lLTEIl lOll S 52
''''( 11 OliO
Fig. 4. Hy-Cain transmitter block diagram.
Fig. 5. New driver/final circuitry (simplified).
S76&Q" M,
..., Stoll .....
."

OSCILL.f.TOR
Transmitter Conversion
Fig, 4 shows a block dia-
gram of the Hv-Ga tn t rans-
mitter sect ion. Al so shown
are the vco frequencies for
both an o riginal CBfrequen-
cy and a new b-meter fre-
quency. Since t he vco is al-
ready on frequency, a ll that
remains is to modify the cir-
cuitry fo llowing the mixer.
In the case of the CB fre-
quency generated (26.965
MHz). the filter (l 103. l104.
and T102) selects t he differ-
ence frequency (37.660 -
10.695 = 26.965 MHz). After
conversion. l1 03, l 104. and
T1 02 will select the sum fre-
quency (41.560 + 10 695=
52255 MHz)
Remove l103. l104. and
n02 one at a time. Remem-
ber which one goes where so
there is no confusion when
t hey are reinstalled. The fol-
lowing steps will allow these
cans to se le ct the sum
frequency:
a) Remove (124 (100 pF).
Remove the small capacitor
interna l to l 103. Reinstall
l 103 and solder a 33-pF ca-
pacitor across t he same pins
t he original capacitor was
across. on the bottom (foil
26 73 Magazine. February, 1985
reveal a problem here, but
it's worth checking.
d) Any time you modify
the capacitor values in a
tuned ci rcuit to change the
resonant f requency, t he val-
ue of capacitance fo und is
only approximate. You may
need to change the value
slightly in the actual circuit.
Thi s is due to the dynamic
loading effect when a circuit
is in operat ion.

KPA51 WATI70CM ATVTRANSMITIER BOARD

WHAT IS RECUIRED FOR A COMPLETE OPERATI NG SYSTEM? A TV w'lh 8
TVC2 or TVC4 420-450 mHl tochan",,13 downconve.te., 70cmantenM.andcoa.
catJje to 'eCe",e. Package up I"'" KPA5, add 12 to 14 vdc. anlenna. and any 1"\1
camera. VCR. or compute, "" lh a <:<>mP<lSOte vldeo output Somllle. eli'
Completmg t his project
conf irmed my be li e f that 50
MHz i s possible from a CB. I
wi l l be happy to answer any
questions concerning thi s
conversion if you will send
an SASE. I'll send my (PCom-
rnendattons on any other CB
conversion to 6 met er s if
you will send me a copy of
the schematic . Let' s use our
six-meter band' .
penci ls. I am SUf ' the ci rcuit-
ry presented here can be
improved.
For t hose of you interest-
ed in convert ing an SSB CB,
I recommend stayi ng away
from t hose radios whose V(O
operates in t he 19-MHz
range. They can be modi -
fied. but the conversion is
much more difficult . Select
one t hat operates in t he
3B-MHz ra nge and utilizes a
fair ly high f i rst i-f. If you do
t his, you can be reasonabl y
sure it wi ll convert. As a bo-
nus. t he SSB generating cir-
cuitry prior to the transmit
mixer will require no
modif ication.
exact ly li ke the conversions
to 10 meters.
Several improvements can
be added to enhance the ca-
pabili ty of your convers ion:
a} The standard be ll s and
whistles t hat have been used
with t he l D-meter conver-
sions (Delta-tune. scan, fre-
quency programming, wide
audio f ilter, etc.).
b) Repeater offset may
deserve some spec ial men-
t ion. I have di scovered t hat
by swit chi ng t ransmi t off,
set crystals. t could achi eve
up to 4()(}-kHz offset wit h-
out problems. If you elect
to install t he offset, please
note t hat a 4OQ-kHz spl i t i s
not possi bl e across the en-
t i re band If you exceed the
f requency limns on trans-
mit or receive, t he vco wi ll
lose lock .
I think you wi l l find that
many other used CBs oper-
ate using thi s same scheme.
Many are pract icall y iden-
t ical! I hope t his art icl e
heats up some sol dering
irons and sharpens a few
2522 Paxson Lane
Arcadi a CA 9 1006
(81 8) 447-4565 m-t 8am-6pm pst .
P.C. ELECTRONICS
Tom W60 RG Maryann WB6YSS
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FREIGHT FOB EVANSVILLE
28 73 Magazine . February, 1985
CB Sets on Six
Rob McKnight WB2FHW
Dave Schmarder WA2HNJ
318 Dewey Avenue
Buffalo, NY
The band primarily used for local con-
tacts is six meters. It is uncrowded and
transmitters with very low power as well as
receivers with modest selectivity are widely
used. Lack of a simple station for six,
however, keeps many otherwise enthusiastic
operators away from this band. Having to
build a converter for the station's present
receiver, and an entirely separate transmitter
for six is not very appealing to many
operators. This article has the answer to
their problem. Its subject is the conversion
of the ordinary, everyday CB set to six-
meter operation. Several advantages make it
worthwhile: I. the set already has the basic
transmitter and receiver circuits and thus is
easy to convert; 2. its transceiver type of
operation is convenient to local contacts;
and 3. it would make an ideal local vhf net
monitor. If you were a CH'er turned ham
and still had the old rig hanging around, you
would have the added bonus of not having
to find a CB set to convert in the first place.
The major requirement is that you obtain
a CB set suitable for conversion. By suitable
I mean that it should be a tube type rig and
not a transistor one. Transistors in the receiver
work at 27 mhz, but they may not work at
50 mhz. You would save yourself a lot of
trouble by working with tubes. As far as test
equipment goes, a vtvm and a grid dip meter
are very helpful.
Conversion
The receiver section of the transceiver is
converted in the following manner:
1. Tune into the CB band, tune up the if
cans, and get the set working satisfactorily.
2. Resonate the rf and mixer coils to 50
mhz with the grid dip meter. Since the
oscillator usually runs above the if fre-
52
quency, adjust the oscillator to its proper
frequency. The receiver is now ready to
operate.
3. Tune up a signal on six meters. In place
of the present tuning capacitor, if it tunes
too great a range, substitute one with a
smaller capacitance or remove several plates
from the one in the set to give less frequency
range. This, however, may not be desired, as
one may wish to receive, for example, a
MARS frequency, in which case he would
rather leave the original tuning capacitor
un touched. This finishes the receiver
conversion.
The transmitter section of the transceiver
is converted as follows:
There are two ways to convert the trans-
mitter:
1. Leave the original oscillator in the
circuit and resonate its output coil to 50
rnhz. Insert a 5amhz overtone crystal in the
oscillator and you're finished. Overtone
crystals, however, are more expensive than 8
mhz ones, and are usually not used in
today's six meter rigs, On the other hand,
use of an overtone crystal requires one less
stage in the completed rig.
2. The second method of conversion and
probably the most widely used is the use of
an 8 mhz oscillator-tripler stage and a
doubler stage. Refer to the circuit diagram
for details. Important: Be careful not to
leave out any bypass capacitors or any B+
decoupling resistors, otherwise the unit may
fail to oscillate, or a stage may not work
properly. An extra tube is required in this
circuit, that being the doubler stage, which,
as indicated, can be a section of a 12AX7 or
a section of a 6U8. In addition L4 should be
wound inside of L3 for good coupling. The
73 MAGAZtNE
00'
FINAl.
12B1'7
OOUBI.ER
1/2 12A)(1OR 1/26U8
25 MH
TRIPl..ER
68H6 OR 6 AU6
,
SOMHz

; *, 21 ;
:f' 27
[,. "
'00 '0
50 ;
30
---
"
-,
I DOl 351<
U
JJ S=::,-
i.a - --
t ao>
'0'''-c-
'0'
. ;j- 00<

,

""
2 S"h
,;:
iii
t oo
' '''
t oo< "
I ,
>00" , ' ,
-
, , MOOUI.ATOR
II
SPOT
1."' - '-
,.

,.
BMi"lz
Fig. 1. Circuit d iagram of the converter transmitter us ing the 8 mhz osci llator-tripler and the
doubter stage. Coils L 1, L3. L4 were a lready in the set. L 2 was obtai ned from a n old TV
chassis. This circuit diagram may seem a b it incomplete. b ut since every CB set is different
t he c irc u it must be b road e no ugh to cover a ll models. As a resul t. some exper imentat ion w il i
be necessary to determine the p roper coils to be used .
transmitter conversion is now complete.
Tune Up
Procedure: I. Hook a No. 47 pilot lamp
on the antenna jack or terminals.
2. Set each coil for the approximate
frequency indicated on the circuit diagram.
3. Make sure the oscillator is functioning
properly. This can be determined by lis-
tening to the signal in a nearby receiver. If
there is a spot switch on the set it can be
used to list en to the oscillator in the
transceiver's receiver.
4. Put the rf probe of the vtvm on the
grid of the doubler stage, and tune Ll for
maximum rf indication on the meter (maxi-
mum pointer deflection). If an rf probe is
not available, put one end of a I N34 or an
equivalent diode on the end of the vtvm's de
probe, and touch the free end of the diode
t o the circuit to be measured.
5. Place the rf probe on the grid of the
final, and tune L2 for maximum rf indica-
tion.
6. Place the loading capacitor at mini-
mum capacitance, and tune the plate tuning
capacitor for maximum brilliance of the No.
47 pilot lamp previously hooked up. In-
crease the loading by increasing the capac-
itance of the loading capacitor, and then dip
the current using t he plate tuning capacitor.
7. If an overtone crystal is used instead of
the 8 mhz oscillator-tripier, the transmitter
should be tuned by resonating the oscillator
plate coil to 50 mhz. The rest of the tuning
is done as described above.
You now have a complete low power
station for six meters. All that remains to be
done is to hook up the antenna and a mike. I
might add that there is really no need to
have to switch the beam from t he big six
meter rig, t ha t is if you have one; the set got
out quite well on a simple dipole mounted
on a stick of board. The total cost of
converting the rig was nothing, as all the
necessary extra parts were available from t he
shack junk box. So if you want to have some
fun on the band which is becoming more
popular every day, t ry this simple con-
version; you' ll be glad you did!
. . . WB2FHW & WA2HNJ
oscillotortrnonitor
11'1 udi"l. hMl. ho lI'Io..ihor
th. RF oJ . ")1 cw tr....", itt.r fro",
10M. ho I k. (, 100kc to 1000Me.
u.i.., Otlly ... a" ,.ic...., . ..t.n....
un IN IJ-tritt.reel lor cod.
pr.me. 01' Ul. keti.., oJ ..lid
.t.tt. compo...nts .nd circ.. its .
.id. in tun;", .. , (, t .d;.. , RF
..a ll"or .r.4 power eire.. its.
,. tr.n.idor, 2 diode circ.. it,.
""'."." ton dj...t,. AA ,enc.n,
-" Id., a' .nt., {" ",. , nw c ...... . 1495c_ , leh,
i. 16 '.Ut. "'U"{" cl ., ppd ....a&c.n.
.....i..d . I..min.. m, 3." _ 2.3 _ 1.2" . e nd a d '-ck Ot' m.e.
US -.I. (, t ...,.nwM fw I )lM r . by mall onl y
Ja mes Research compa ny,dep't: A R-M
20 Willits Road , Glen Cove, NY 11542
V -I B R 0 P LEX
ENJOY EASY,
RESTFUL KEYING
520.95 t o 543.95
THE VIIROPLEX
CO. , INC.
833 Broadway,
N .Y. , N .Y. 10003
OCTOBER 1969
53
Raymond Barnum WA4MFT
Homer GA 30547
At Last!
A 10m Band Plan
Table 1. Channels 7 through 79 could be pre-empted for
emergency net traffic, should the need arise.
lar schematic and should give
t he same result, t hough I have
not tried it. If you have dif-
ficul ty, con tact another ham
who has had some successful
ex perience modifying com-
mercial gear. The detailed
con version of a variety of
t hese rigs is beyond t he scope
of th is art icle,
The purpose of t his art icle
is to propose a way in which
converted CBri gs can be used
on one of t he ham bands th at
is apparentl y under-used and
in danger of bei ng lost to
amateurs, The idea has po-
tent ial, but is obviously not
completely worked ou t If
you have objections to t his
proposal or suggestions on
how a better system can be
set up, by all means put t hem
on paper and send them to
either t he editor or myself.
Certainly t he establishment
of such a public service ori-
ented communications sys-
tem wou ld attract favorab le
press coverage and t he ama-
teur's use of the rf spectrum
would be given added justifi -
cation. -
CB radio

the receiver and t ransrr utu ng

circuits must be peaked for
best sensi tivity and power
out; my Radio Shack Mini 23
required no other changes.
My other CB rig (Royal
Sound Model 336) has a si mi-
requires a - -
Channel Fr equency Proposed Use
1 28.965 Calli ng & Distress
2 28.975 Emergency Traffic
3 28.985 Emergency Traffic
4 29.005
N"
5 29.015
N"
s 29.025 N"
7 29 .035 Local Rag Chew
8 29.055 Local Rag Chew
9 29.065 Local Rag Chew
10 29.075 Local Rag Chew
"
29.085 Local or OX Rag Chew
12 29.105 Local or OX Rag Chew
13 29. 115 Local or OX Rag Chew
14 29. 125 Local or OX Rag Chew
15 29. 135 Local or OX Rag Chew
,.
29.155 Local Of OX Rag Chew
17 29. 165 Local or OX Rag Chew
18 29. 175 Local or OX Rag Chew
19 29. 185 Local or OX Rag Chew
20 29.205 OX Only. Short Contact
21 29.215 OX Onl y . Shor t Contact
22 29.225 OX Onl y, Short Contact
23 29.255 OX Only, Short Contact
can be found by consulting
the schematic or by looking
at the or igi nal crystals in t he
rig. The replacements can be
ordered from a manufacturer
l ike Internat ional Crystal.
Once the changes are made,
H
ere is a plan to use CB
rigs on 10 for a worth-
while purpose. If a large num-
ber of amateurs go fo r the
idea and equi p t hemse lves
wit h a converted CB rig, the
result could be a real feat her
in t he ham's cap.
My plan calls for t he con-
vers ion of t he so-called
"synthesized" 23 channel rigs
to operate with 23 channels
on 10. These channels would
have uses designated for t hem
as depicted in the accom-
panying chart. Rag chewing,
DX, and rout ine net opera-
tion would be possible with
this system, but the real value
of it would be seen in a
communications emergency .
Where the Citizens Ban d
could be expected to be al-
most useless in a real emer-
gency due to the immense
numbers of un disci plined op-
erators that inhabi t its chan-
nels, the training and disci-
pline of hams could be ex-
pected to yield a very ef-
fective local communications
system . Because of the fairly
low expense involved (com-
pared, say, to 23 channels of
coverage on the six or two
meter bands), there shou ld be
quite a few hams who would
provide t hemselves with t he
capabil ity to part ici pate in
the system.
The rigs themselves are al-
most ideal for this use; they
are small, light, all solid state,
and made to operate on 12 to
14 V de. Most have noise
limiter circuits and are very
adeq uate receivers. Con-
version for t he pl an presented
here can be accompl ished in
one evening for around t hirty
dollars (the cost of six new
crystals). To make the con-
version, one needs a sche-
matic (usually supplied wi t h
the rig), a solder ing iron for
small work, and t he ability to
identify and work with basic
electronic components. Most
hams are so equi pped.
The conversion involves
changing 6 crystals in t he rig.
These crystals are in the 37
MHz range; each is to be
replace d by a crystal whose
frequency is exactly 2 MHz
higher. The exact frequenc ies
71
Dennis P. Bryan W5QWYI0
56 12 W. 66 St.
Edina MN 55435
A SIX METER
TRANSCEIVER
[rom 11 used Cl! rig
T
he manufacturers of CB transceivers
have been fl ooding the market fo r
years and as a result have created a mecca of
used gear that can be bought for a song. The
radio amat eur, with a little innovation,
imagination and bench work can easily
conver t these CB transceivers int o six meter
rigs that will give a good account of them-
selves by anybody's standards.
Interest ed ? Well , here is one way to do it!
I chose as a guinea pig the Lafayette
Comst at 19 - fir st because it is a simple rig
and second it is cheap.
Figure 1A is a bl ock di agram of the
Comstat 19 and at tests to its simpli ci t y. The
receiver sect ion co nsists of a 6BZ6 rf ampli -
fier , 6GH8 oscillator/mi xer, 6 BJ 6 45 5 kHz
i-f amplifier , 6T8 detector and fir st audio
amplifier and a 6AQ5 as audio out put. The
6AQ5 also serves as the modulator when
transmitting.
The receiver oscillat or freq uency is deter-
mined either by the main tuning capacit or or
by a cryst al, whichever mode is selected. The
recei ver oscillat or tunes 45 5 kHz below the
W5QWY's con verted Comstat 19.
MARCH 1974
61
f-
RF AMP CONII
"
DET-AUD AUD OUTPUt
~
MODULATOR
6816 6GH8 68J6 n .
6 A Q ~
SPItIl
;
REO osc
"
6GH' ,
ItF "MP cur svr ICTAL osc
L,
IoII l e .....P
~
6"'.8
~
60\.8 12 AX7..
.oe
Fig. lA. Original circuit.
incoming signal to produce the 455 kHz i-f.
There is provision to select up to nine
receive and transmit crystal frequencies.
The transmitt er consists of the triode
section of a 6AW8 as an overtone crystal
oscillator followed by t he pentode section as
an rf amplifier . The microphone output is
amplified by the 12AX7 and modulat es the
pentode sect ion o f the 6AW8 thru the
6AQ5. Note that no antenna rel ay is used .
The antenna is connected to both the
receiver rf amplifier and transmitter rf out-
put at the same time.
As I said before, this is a simple and
cheap but salvageable CB transceiver. On
more expensive units you can expect t o find
such improvemen ts as double conversion,
multiple i-f stages or a higher (1650 kHz) i-f
frequency, more crystal positions and relay
send/receive control t o name a few.
Generally speaking, the more o f these
improvements the basic en transceiver has,
the easier the conversion job. For inst ance if
the CB transceiver has eit her a 1650 kHz i-f
or is double co nversion then it will only be
necessary t o add a conversion stage t o ta ke
the 50 MHz signal down t o the 27 MHz CB
frequency and to convert the transmitt er fo r
50 MHz out put.
Comstat 19 Modification
The big drawback with the Comst at 19
is the single i-f st age operati ng at 455 kHz
which gives poor image rejecti on even at en
frequencies. The first conversion attempt
consisted of merel y adding a 6 U8 50 MHz rf
amplifier and mixer down to 27 MHz.
However the image signal was about half as
st ro ng as the primary signal. Such perfor-
mance was totall y unacceptable and it was
de cided t o change the i-f frequen cy to 16 50
62
R F AMP I ST CONY 2 NO CONY I ST IF 2 ..0 IF OET, AUO
''2 6U8 1"2; 8 U8
~
6 GH8 12 BA6 6 8J6
'"
,
REC OSC
I
AUOOUTPUT
MI C "'P
1'2 6 GH8
MODULATOR
1241l 1'A
6 AQ!5
SPIl R . oe
I
Rf AMP
Il TAL OSC
OUTPUT
1'2 eswe
1'2 6Awe
Fig. JB. Modified circuit.
73 MAGA ZI NE

-'

Top chassis view. Note the locations of the additional i-f s tage 12BA6 and transformer TK. The 6AWB
was relocated on an aluminum plate in the upper right corner of the chassis where the ori ginal array of
receive/transmit crystal sockets and switch used to be.
kHz. This did the trick as the image was now
barely perceptible .
Figure 1B is a block diagram of the
converted Comstat 19. A 6U8 rf amplifier/
mixer replaces the original 6BZ6 . The input
and output tuned circuit s of the 6U8 are
stagger tuned to give a nat response between
50.0 and 5 1.0 MHz. The output of the 6U8
converter is 25 .825 MHz for a 50.0 MHz
signal and 26.325 MHz for a 51.0 MHz
signal. The 6GH8 injection oscillator tunes
24.175 t o 24.675 MHz to produce an i-f
freque ncy of 1650 kHz over the range of
50.0 to 5 1.0 MHz. Using a commo n injec-
tion oscillator for the first and second
convertors eliminates the necessity of adding
another tube. Note, however, that it only
takes a swing of 500 kHz of the oscillator to
tune 1 MHz of the six meter band .
Followi ng the 6GH8 second converter are
two 1650 kHz i-f amplifier st ages. The
12BA6 i-f amplifier was added to make up
for the gain lost when converting from the
455 kHz i-f frequency . The rest of the
receiver section is left unchanged .
MARCH 1974
The transmitter lineup is basically the
same , that is, an overtone oscillator (now
operat ing at 50 Mllz) followed by a rf
amplifier. The location of the transmitter
section was completely changed to accommo-
date shorter rf leads, better curren t paths,
and make room for the transmit /receive
relay and output tuned circuit .
Destruction
The first step in making the modificati on
is the removal of parts or sections of the
transceiver that will be changed . The follow-
ing list will serve as a guide for component
removals. However, it is recommended that
the original wiring diagram that came with
the transceiver as well as Figs. 2 and 3 be
studied thoroughly to make sure you under-
stand exactly what must be removed before
beginning.
Save all the components that are removed
as many of them will be reused .
Remove . . .
1. Both ends of all components mounted o n
the 6AW8 socket.
2. The 6AW8 socket.
63
Construction - Transmitter Section
I . Cut a piece of . I 6 cmthick aluminum to
cover the rect angular space left from the
removal of the crystal socket assembly.
Mount the transmi tt er components on the
plate as shown in the top view photograph.
Holes are drilled in the plate to mount it to
the chassis in the same position that was
Construction - Receiver Section
Refer to the photographs to help identify
the components and locations.
3. The PI -output coil, capaci tors and brack- I. Enlarge t he old 6BZ6 socket hol e to
et. acce pt a nine pin shield base socket for the
4 . The c rystal selec tor switch and crystal 6 U8. Orient the socket so that pins two and
socket assembly. three are closest to the antenna coax socket.
5. The wires to the front panel XTAL/TUNE Drill holes to mount L2 and L3. L2 should
switch. be mounted close to pin 2 and L3 close to
6. The front panel crystal socket s. pin 8 of the 6U8.
7. Both ends of all components mounted on 2. Make sure all underchassis components
the 6BZ6 socket up to the 10 IlF capacitor are moved out of the way before doing these
connected to pin 2 of the 6GII8. next steps.
8. The 6BZ6 socket. 3. Drill a hol e for a 7 pin socket between TI
9. All of the components in the receiver. and the front panel for the 12BA6 first i-f
oscillator tuned circuit up to the 20 j1F amplifier.
capacitor that goes to pin 9 of the 6GH8. 4. Drill a hole for the additional i-f trans-
The main tuning control "VCT" should be former "TX" between V4 and the front
left mounted . panel. This transformer is easiest mounted
10. i-f transformers TI and T2 should be by drilling one large hole and using the
removed and the inside form and windings special mounting plate supplied with the
discarded . The Miller transformers should be transformer.
inserted into the original cans and these in
turn remounted. The Miller transformers are
just the right size, can and all , to fit into the
original cans. For what it is worth this will
provide double shielding on these two trans-
formers.
Bottom chassis view. Note the rocanons ot (;2, C3, RY 1 and RFCI, 2 & .:s that are grouped around the
6AW8 socket near the len end of the chassis.
64 73 MAGAZINE
used t o mount the original crystal socket
assembly.
2. Mount the out put indicat o r meter on t he
front panel. When making the hole (where
the old external receiver-transmitt er socke ts
were mounted ) make sure it is high enough
to allo w the slide switch t o be reinstalled
below the met er.
Wiring
The heater circuits should be the first
circui ts rewired . It 's a lot easier t o do before
the bottom of the chassis gets cluttered wi th
circ uit components. The heater circuit
shown in Fig. 2 should be followed closely
since t he original wir ing did not fully agree
with the diagram supplied wit h the set.
The original winding on L5, L6 and L7
must be removed and rewound per Figs. 2
and 3.
The dc power source parts fo r the send!
receive relay are mounted o n spare t erminal
strip lugs in the power supply section of the
t ransceiver.
The converter oscillator injection signal is
coupled t o the 6U8 by soldering an insulat ed
piece of hookup wire to pin 9 and t wisti ng
the ot her end several times around pin 2 of
t he 6GH8.
The I M[2 resist or in series with the
spot switch limits the oscillat o r o ut put
preventing overloading the receiver while
spott ing. Diode DI allows voltage to be
applied to the oscillat or but not the ampli-
fier while spott ing.
The only real important thing to keep in
mind while doing the wiring is t o keep all rf
leads and bypass leads as short as possible.
Note that the secondary of TI which was
originally wired to V4 is rewired to the new
first i-f amplifier - the 12BA6.
Operation
Since most of the six meter activity in
this area is confined to the first I MHz of the
band and since only the receiver oscillator is
t uned it was decided t o limit the tuning
range from 50. 0 to 5 1.0 Mll z.
T I , TX, and T2 are tuned for maximum
response at the i-f frequency. L2, L3 and L5
are tuned for maximum even response be-
tween 50.0 and 51.0 MHz. It was found that
tuning L2 towards 50.0 MHz and L3
towards 5 1.0 MHz gave t he best uniform-
sta ble operation.
TO LI
FIG 3
.'
RYI- 2
I-
4 .1 1<
.00 '
, r r
.001
VI -S
TW 'Iz SAW8
RFC2
1i5I1H
r----- ---,-- H,- --,
:: !-- - - --'
1001<: RFC3 1 _
_ _
-
I,
SAWS
2
VI- A
,
2
_ L
"
----
T"
000
,

fry
001
t
OI
OFF 'i
sr
>
l
,
, -
( - '-\
\ V 1 I
, /
'--"
b
,.
>-
>-
>-
--... --.....
" '\ /' '\
- { V6 \ , V 4 \
J7 f:;_,_'_''f_/_'
,..
SGH8 SAQ15
ST8 S8JS SAWS PTT IN "" I C
Fig. 2. Transmitter, fil ament, control.
MARCH 1974 65
6BJ6
'"
LINE
--,
, ,
TX t /Y4 \
- -- I
\. \ I
r- , '
--'
00'
,
To'
' ')'h
12 BA6
s
Tt / : ::"" 2
r
lOOK
,
L <
.001 1
1
20K
'0
6 U8 -B
,
; ""
2"
6US-A
a
~ 4 ~
L ~ 2 ; : ~ 1
TO RYI -2
FIG 2
,
I 6GH8lV38
2.2K
IMEG
,.
-
1
L1' "
or
2.20
Fig. 3. Receiver. Resistors are in ohms, are %W, except: K=1000, M=Megohm. Capacitors are in
picofarads, decimal values are microfarads unless specified otherwise. Only parts not contained in the
original unit are listed. LI - 3 turns No. 22 insulated hook-up wire over the cold end of L2. L2 - 10
turns No. 32 enameled, close wound, % in. slug tuned form Miller No. 4500. L3 - 12 turns No. 32
enameled, close wound, %in. slug tuned form Miller No. 4500. L4 - 2 turns No. 22 insulated hook-up
wire over cold end of L3. L5 - 18 turns No.26 enameled, close wound, % in. slug tuned form (use
original form). L6 - 7 turns No. 26 enamel, close wound, J4 in. slug tuned form (use original form).
TI, T2, TX - 1650 kHz i-f transformer, Miller No. 1732. VCT - original main tuning capacitor.
CI - 5 to 25 fJJ.lF NPO Ceramic trimmer capacitor. LX - Original receiver oscillator plate coil - left
unchanged. TW - Twisted wire coupling capacitors.
The oscillator tuning range is set by
adjusting Cl and L6 . Increasing the value of
Cl will increase the tuning range obtainable
by "vcr" the main tuning control. Once
the tuning range has been set the dial can be
marked and calibrated . The old markings can
be removed by using a fine grade sandpaper.
The new markings, in 200 kHz increments,
were added using Datak dry transfer decals.
The transmitter output is peaked by
adjusting the slug in L7. The output circuit
is a conventional Pi-tank and is tuned for
maximum output indication on MI. If M1
needle pins a suit able dropping resistor can
be inserted between Ml and the 56K resis-
tor.
The neutralizing capacitor "TW" consists
of two pieces of insulated hook-up wire. The
end of one wire connects to pin 9 of the
6AW8. The end of the other wire connects
to the junction of RFC2 and L7. The free
ends of t hese two wires are twist ed together
enough to obtain stable amplifier operation.
Any excess wire must be trimmed off after
neutralizati on is completed . A final test for
stability can be made by removing the
crystal from the socket and running the
amplifier 25 pF capacitor thru its range. If
the amplifier goes into oscillation .t hen it is
not properly neutralized .
As a final t ouch, since the transceiver had
seen rough CB handling, the front panel was
repainted and lett ered using Datak lett ersets
making cont rol label changes as appropriate.
Although this conversion was made to a
Cornstat 19 the general principles can be
used on other CB transceivers. With a mini-
mum of cash outlay , depending on the size
of your junk box, you can end up with a
pretty good signal on six meters.
.. . W5QWY
66 73 MAGAZINE
Jim Kyle KSJKX/6
1851 Stanford Avenue
Sente SU50na, California
- r
A Quick and Simple
Mobile Rig
Conversion 0/ a Citizens Band Unit
D
ISCUSSION still rages about the Class D
citizens band, and since we ain't mad at
nobody we aren't taking any sides-but it's
true that many persons are getting an intro-
duction to radio communication through en
activity, and some of them are becomi ng hams.
Naturally, since ham-type operation is pro-
hibited on 27 mc, they find they have an item
of equipment which is unusable in their ham
efforts.
Change of subject brieflv. with sunspots
on the rapid wane and the low expected some
time early in 1964, the higher-frequency bands
are going to become as dead as the VHF
regions are now. The DX chasers are going
to be forced to come down to 40 and 80, thus
crowding the rag-chew gang and the mobiles
to other bands.
The conversion procedure described here
provides one answer to both the situations
mentioned above. For the CBer-turned-ham,
it ' s a way to use his existing equipment. For
the mobileer crowded off the high end of 75,
it's a fast way to get on another band which
won't be so crowded.
The starting point is a CB transceiver in
working order. 'Ve used an International
30
KB.1, but similar principles apply to all of
them and we'll take some time to show a few
direct applications to other rigs.
Like many other eB rigs, the KB-1 is a
superhet receiver combined with a 5-watt
plate-input transmitter. Power supply and
audio are shared by both tra nsmitter a nd re-
ceiver. The conversion to ham-band usage
consists of two steps: converting the receiver,
and converting the transmitter.
Before we start converting, though, let's
pick the band we're going to use. In this con-
version, we're moving to 20 meters, on t he
assumption that 20 will be dead for DX within
a year. Similar procedures would be used to
go to any other band desired.
The KB-1 receiver is a double conversion
type, with a crystal-controlled-converter as-
sembly feeding a tunable if strip. This part
of the conversion is simplicity itself, since
Internat ional makes converter boards for the
KB-1 covering 20, 15, 10, and 6 met er s i n
addition t o the OB board. Just get t he re-
pl acement board, remove the original ( un-
solderi ng seven connections), replace it with
the new one, and reconnect the seven leads.
Receiver conversion is now complete.
The transmitter board of the KB-1 consists
of one printed circuit board, bearing a crystal ,
two coils, some resistors a nd ca pacitors, and
a 6AUS tube. As shipped from t he factory,
t he board is pre-tuned for operation at crystal
frequency into a 52-ohm load at a power
input of 5 watts.
For most efficient operation, some surgery
was required on the 20-meter board installed
here. Values of two resistors a nd one capaci-
tor were changed, a nd three turns wer e re-
moved from the plate wi nding of coil L2.
Power output was raised from less t ha n a
watt to about 1.5 watts at the same input,
and linearity of modulation was increased
greatly. The changes are shown in detail on
the schematic diagram. Since they will prob-
73 MAGAZINE

Conversion to 20M: Change RI to 15K. R3 to

15K, C4 from 36 mmfd (not 5 as marked) fo
51 mmfd, and remove three turns from 12
primary. A 14.250 kc crydal will put you in the
AM part of the phone band.
ably improve operat ion of the 15, 10, and 6
meter transmitter boards as well, let' s ex-
amine the r easoning behind the changes.
Capacitor C4 was increased in value to im-
prove the Q of the output tank circuit; if an
antenna of other than 50 ohms impedance is
used, it might be well to leave C4 unchanged.
The coil change increased output by mcreas-
ing coil Q for the same amount of
Resistors Rl and R3 were both or-iginally
47K ohms, since in CB service the KBl out-
put stage is operated as a frequency
In this type of operation, high bias {obtained
from large grid resistors) is essential to get
any kind of efficiency in the doubling process.
However when the unit is operated straight
, .
through a crystal frequency, both resistors
must be reduced to 15K ohms to increase the
tube's conduction angle and thus improve
power output.
One other change is made in the trans-
mitter-board installation. Originally, the blue
lead of combination modulation-output trans-
former T1 supplied modulated B+ to the final.
Tests showed that the mismatch introduced to
the transformer resulted in less effective mod-
ulation than if Heising-type constant-current
modulation were used. Therefore, the blue
lead is left disconnected (tape the end to pre-
vent shorts) and the final B+ (eyelet 5) is
connected to the plate of the 6AQ5 (brown
lead to transformer). The resulting modula-
tion level is approximately 30 percent higher
than before, for the same audio input.
Physical installation of the modified trans-
rr.:.. tcr board is a bit tricky. First remove the
speaker and the 6AUS tube. Then, with
plenty of patience, remove the four attach-
nuts. At this point, unsolder the five connec-
tions (eyelet 2 is blank) to the board and lift
the board free. Install the new board, tighten
the four nuts, and resolder the five connec-
tions, being sure to modify the final B+ con-
nection as described above. Replace the tube,
and finally mount the speaker back in place.
This completes the conversion, and you're
ready to go on the air. Keep in mind that 1%
watts of output into the antenna isn't much
on 20 at the moment, and don't expect to slam
through over he California kilowatts!.
ever when the activity drops off a bit this
unit' should give an effective to-mile working
radius, adequate for local .
The receiver, rated at 0.2 microvolt sensr-
tivity, is one of the this writer has
ever seen on 20. Its selectivity (10 kc at -30
db) could stand improvement, but when the
band is relatively quiet this unit digs in and
pulls the weak ones through. Even under
marginal conditions, if the signal is present
at all this receiver will make Q5 copy out
of it. The squelch takes a couple of micro-
volts to operate, making it a bit of a luxury on
20 but when signals are strong enough to
trigger it properly it works just like the
book says. ..
Earlier we said we'd show direct applica-
tions of this gimmick to other CB rigs. The
modified KB-l transmitter board (designated
as unit D) is available from
and may be used to replace the transmitter
section of any CB rig which operates at 250-
300 volts on the plates. The receiver boards
are only applicable to double-conversion super-
hets with a s-mc tunable ii, though.
If your CB rig uses single conversion, or is
a superregen, the best bet is. to
front end and oscillator. USIng a gr-id-dip
meter, remove turns from the appropriate
coils until the signal-frequency circuits tune
to the ham band you want and the oscillator
tank circuit tunes to the ham frequency plus
the amount of the if. In other words, to tune
20 meters adjust signal-frequency circuits to
cover 14.2 to 14.35 mc and the oscillator cir-
cuit (if your if is 455 kc) to conver 14.655
to 14.9 me.
Since the CB rigs do not include circuitry,
and addition of a BFO would play havoc with
the noise limiter and squelch, modification to
cover C'V bands or to receive SSB is not too
practical. However, for low-power AM use,
such a conversion makes a quick and simple
mobile rig. The only thing lacking is power-
and we're working on that. Look for a later
article on a 50-watt outboard amplifier for the
converted citizens bander. . K5JK.X/6
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73 MAGAZINE