RF Amplifier ~*~ ‘ Sd ay ‘ ae constructor ee tC Pr Py itca x-te[=13 las ti FYContents HF/ME/VHF Amplifiers (1 to 54 MHz) An Easy-to-Build 25-Watt MF/HF Amplifier A Compact I-kW 2-50 MHz Solid-State Linear Amplifier A Broadband HF Amplifier Using Low-Cost Power MOSFETs-Parts 1 and 2 A 1.8 to 54 MHz 5-Watt Amplifier An Experimental Solid-State Kilowatt Linear Amplifier for 2 to 54 MHz ‘An All-Band, 1500-Watt-Output 8877 Linear ‘Amplifier-Parts 1 and 2 High-Efficiency Class-E Power Amplifiers-Parts 1 and 2 A 100-W MOSFET HF Amplifier ‘The FARA HE Project VHF/UHF Amplifiers A Compact “Brick” for 6 Meters A.300-W MOSFET Linear Amplifier for 50 MHz A No-Bandswitch, Dual-Band VHF Desktop Amplifier ‘An 8-Watt, 2-Meter “Brickette” 903-MHz Linear Amplifiers~Parts | and 2 25-Watt Linear Amplifiers for 144 and 220 MHz. A High-Power 2-Meter Amplifier Using the New 3CX800A7 A Quick Powerhouse A Cathode-Driven Tetrode for 6 Meters AUHF Amplifier—from Scratch A Solid-State 6-Meter Linear Amplifier You Can Build Build a 6-Meter “Mini-Lini” A Grounded-Grid Kilowatt Amplifier for 432 MHz Microwave Amplifiers ‘A Quarter-Kilowatt 23-cm Amplifier-Parts I and 2 A2.W 13-cm Amplifier 1296-MHz Solid-State Power Amplifiers Amplifier Maintenance Amplifier Care and Maintenance Gary Breed, K9AY H.O. Granberg, K7ES/OH2ZE Mike Kossor, WA2EBY Zack Lau, KH6CP Joel Paladino, NCAMG Jerry Pittenger, KBRA David Rutledge, KNOEK, et al. William E. Sabin, WOIYH Jim Valdes, WAIGPO Pat Bunn, N4LTA Richard Frey, K4XU Paul Hewitt, WD7S Bob Larkin, W7PUA, Dave Mascaro, WA3JUF Dave Mascaro, WA3JUF David Meacham, W6EMD Russ Miller, N7ART David Munyon, W7DVB John Reed, W610} Tarmo Tammaru, WB2TMD Wilson Hoag, WASOLT Stephen J. Powlishen, KIFO ER. “Chip” Angle, NOCA Zack Law, KH6CP Al Ward, WBSLUA Ward Silver, NOAXForeword If antenna gain alone is not sufficient to bridge’ the path between two stations, the alternative is to increase RF power. Hams have been aware of this fact since the earli- est days, and that is why RF power amplifier projects have always been popular. In RF Amplifier Classics we have assembled a collection of articles published ia QST magazine, and its sister technical journal, QEX. The collection spans the early 1980s through 2003 and includes many prominent authors. In those few instances where an author provided a design revision (or correction) after the article was pub- fished, that revision is included in the article as presented in this book. See the leatest issue of QST for other ARRL RF design-related publications, or visit our on-line bookstore at www.arrlorg/catalog. Please take a few minutes to give us your comments and suggestions on this book. There's a handy Feedback Form for this purpose at the back, or you can send e-mail to pubsfdbk @arrlorg, ‘Our thanks to the many authors whose work appeats in this book, Without their willingness to share their knowledge with the amateur community, RF Amplifier Classics would not be possible. Dave Sumner, KIZZ Executive Vice President Newington, Connecticut August 2004By Gary Breed, K9AY tesa ee ed An Easy-to-Build 25-Watt MF/HF Amplifier Do you need a medium-power linear amplifier for SSB or CW? Congratulations—you just found it! H Simplicity itself. What makes it simple is the use of a self- biased transistor module requiring few external components. To ‘control harmonic outpat, a set of Five-sec- tion low-pass filters is included. Power. supply equirements are +28 V at 2.5 Aand SV at 200 mA." With a gain of about 13 {4B,2 1- to 1.4-W driving signal is all that's needed to deliver 25 W output. Gain is fat within #0.75 dB across the covered fre se isn'tenough for you. it's easy to diecily apply the design information to builds 50-W amplifier—all you dois we a larger transistor module? Another step to ward project simplicity is the availability (of kits. Each kit contains all the major com- ponents for either a 25- or $0-W version? Amplifier Design ‘When designing a power amplifier, the Fir step is to select the right transistors) Excellent bipolar-junction transistors (BITS) and field-effect transistors (FETS) fe available from well-known companies such as Motorola, M/A-COM PHI, SGS: Thomson, Philips, Mitsubishi and others. ‘A number of smaller companies also make power transistors, usually for more-spe Gilized applications, MicroWave Tech ology, Polyfet RF Devices, and Directed Energy may be company names unfamiliar fo you, but they all make power transistors for ME and HP applications. In this amplifier, I use the SLAM-O1 LT from MicraWave Technology.’ | didn’t hoose it because of its gan, its efficiency, ‘oF even its price; | selected it because i's very easy touse. The device consists of two [power JFETs (the particular specialty of MicroWave Technology), operating in push-pull, Since JFETs behave similarly to triode vacuum tubes, the company dubbed them Solid State Trindes. SLAM (Solid staletriode Linear Amplifier Module) devices include thick-film bias resistors in the package withthe transistors, These re- sistors set the gate bias for class-A opera- tion, and establish a 50-a input impedance. Atthe rated power and supply voltage, the push-pull output impedance is also 50 2! With such convenient input and output impedances, matching the devices toa 50-Q system merely requires [1 balun transform rs at the input and output, Because the bias voltage is internally generated, the only other extemal circuitry required is suitably bypassed and isolated 28-V power supply’ Circuit Description The amplitier schematic is shown in Fig. 1, The balun driving the gates of the push-pull transistors. is a conventional transformer. The primary and secondary windings are each three turns of #28 wire, ‘wound an a two-hole ferrite balun core of 3 material (x, = 2500). These transform- fs are broadband enough to provide 1.8 to 30-MHz operation and offer de isolation ‘with no additional components, The input- transformer primary is center-tapped and bypassed to provide access to the gates for ‘external de bias (moee on this later). ‘The output transformer is constructed jn the same manger as the inpitt trans- former—it's just larger. Two ferrite beads HF/MF/VHF Amplifiers (1 to 54 MHz) (of 77 material (1, = 2000) makea two-hole core, with primary and secondary windings ‘of three turns each, using #24 hookup wire. The primary (lransistor side) is center- tapped and bypassed to provide de voltage to the drains. Feeding de through a center tapped transformer eliminates the need for the usual bifilar RF choke seen in push-pull aniplifiers—another reduction in the com- Ponent count. Multiple bypass capacitor values (0.01, 0.1 and 10 iF) are used to cover the MEJHF range, That's the basic Amplifier block: two transformers, aSLAM. device, and a few bypass capacitors! Class-A Operation Notes By definition, transistors operating ia class A conduct over the entire 360 degrees ‘of the signal (that’s all the time, of course). ‘This operational mode assures that the tran sistor is always operating in the linear region of its input-to-output transfer char- acteristic. To do this, the device must be biased to handle the maximum signal at all Obviously, this class of operation is pretty inefficient, since full current is ‘drawn whenever the amplifiers on. A “per feet” transistor operating class A can only be 50-percent efficient, and real transistors 1suson 0-0 aaa | INPUT 2 soo over Lor-Peee* | TB teow © Gor cong acy a sxe soot == f Votes of capacitance are in merohrace (uF: rontonces 1 Son Tent cn Tobe Fig 1 ‘composition or fim units. Equivalent parts can Jt—Panel- mount BNC socket 42=$0'239 connector. Ja—Phono jack P1—a:pin male Jones plug. K1—SPF relay with a 24-V de col. A surplus Potter & Brumfioid KHP series 4- pole relay is shown in Fig 6; one pole is Unused (Ail Electronics catalog number 4PRLY-24N ($4) of Ocean State Erectromigs 12-1703-24 (610.90) aro suitable. See the Part Suppliers List on pp 35-40 of The 1994 ARAL Handbook for adgresses and telephone numbers. =£4) do no better than about 40 percent. This amplifier draws 2.5 4 from 4 28-V powe supply for an input power of 70 W. When itis providing 25 W, it's 36-percent effi cient. (When there is a0 input, it's Oper ‘cent efficient!) To help reduce the heat generated by an amplifier that requires 70 W, a negative bias can be applied to the gates when not transmitting. A bias of —S V results in a 0.25-A standby drain curtent instead of the full 2.5 A. The internal bias resistors are about 50 ~ on each gate, and dissipate a ‘maximum of TW. Under these biasing co ditions, the resistors each dissipate 0.5 W. Don’t try to cut off the transistors com: 1-2. Chapter 1 be substituted ‘$1—2-pole, 7-position ceramic rotary ‘switch. My switch ig made from two surplus CAL 11-position switch waters and ‘an indexing assembly providing Selactable stops. The waters are spaced ‘about 1s inches apart. CAL PA-200 Series switeh waters and PA-300 series shalt an indexing assembles are Sullable (switches are available from Newark Electronics; tel 912-784-5100, fax 312-784-5100, ext 3107, to locate Yyour nearest Newark alstnbutor), TiS Primary: 3 tums #38 AWG: Secondary, 3 tuins #28 AWG, centor- tapped. Core: Fair Rite 42873002402 balun (Amidon BN 73-2402) pletely with greater bias voltage! You'll Fisk burning out the resistors, ‘Some may ask, "If class is this power hungry, why use i?" Io a word: Haearity. If you want excellent linearity (which means ‘migiwum distortion caused by harmonics or intermodulation), class A is the way to 0. For example, all small-signal amplif fers for receivers and low-level transmitter stages operate class A because they must handle signals without distortion, How- ever, they operate at very low power, so power dissipation is rarely an issue. This power amplifier further minimizes distor tion by using push-pull operation, which cancels ever-order distortion products in ‘Schematic dlagram of te 25-W class-A amplifier. Unless otherwise epecilled, resislors are ZW, S3e-olerance carbon- ‘T2_Primary, 3 uns #24, center-apped; Secondary, 3 tins #24. Core: two Falr- Rite 267700840" beads (Amidon FB 77. 6301) UT—SLAM-0113 ultatioar 25-W, class-A, gall olased power FET module cr SLAM 122, 50-W version (Microwave Technology, 4268 Solar Way, Fremont, CA 84538, tel 810-651-6700, fax 510 651-2208). Mise: FG-174 coax, enclosure (3's x 5¥/s inches (HD), heat sink (9 x 4" ‘Whe inches {HWD), PC-board materia, knob, mounting hardware. the output and makes the next part of the design easier than usual, Harmonic Filter Design ‘As mentioned previously, the amplifier uses several low-pass filters to cover the nine MF/HF amateur bands, Each filter was initially designed for a cutott frequency 20 Percent higher than the upper end of their respective 160, 80, 40, 30, 20, 15 and 10. meter ham bands. The {3-meter filter is also used for 17 meters, and the 10-meter Filter for 12 meters. With no filtering, even-order harmon: ies (2nd, th, etc) are more than 40 dB. below the cartier, the result of good push:Teble 1 Finer Circuit and Comparison of Ideal and Final Component Values. Ideal Fitter Values ‘Actual Filter Values Gwtot Frog. C1,C5 C3 42,4 C1, 05 3 L214 (Me) BA) (BF) Gutty (pF) (oF) uty 2.90 121 2620 4.55 1470 2680 441 (1000 +470) (2200 + 680) (50 ton 50-2) 7e1 1310 2.27 830, 1430 237 (660 +270) (1000+ 430) (22ton T-50-2) a7 7181.28 430 820 125, (981 on F50-2) 218 = 900-818-0900 300 560 0.980) (14 ton 750-2) 222123850634 220 370 0.706 (270 + 100) (12ton T-50-6) wrk 14224 otzd 150 240 6.460 (101 0n T-50-6) set 1021780906100, 180 0314 (81 on T-50-6) In some cases I is necessary to the proper values of capacitance for C1, C2 ha inductors are wound on 750-2 0° T.50-6 cores, Inductors for the 160- and 80-meter fers are woune with 426 AWG wire In ordor to ft all turns on the ores; the other meuctors ‘me wound with #22 wire pull balance using factory-matched tran- Sistors, The 3rd and Sth harmonies are more than 15 dB down, To reduce the 3rd ha monic to at least 0 dB below the carrer, a five-tection Chebyshev filter with low passband ripple is an appropriate choice. This typeof filter has a good SWR in the passband, and a smooth roll-off character iti. The design process began by creating ideal designs using a public-domain filter design program ‘eal designs rarely correspond to san dard capacitor or inductance values that fem be realized with « discrete number of {urns on common toroid cores. Using a cir- ‘uit analysis program? the ideal designs were analyzed to see the effects of such tealworld limitations on harmonic rejec- tion and SWR performance. Fist the ideal component values were entered into the program, and varied +20 patent to see which ones had the greatest effect on performance. Cl and CS (see Fig Band Table 1) were found to be least sen- sive wo variations, L2 and LA were moder- ately sensiive; varying C3 had the greatest ‘effect on both passband snd stopband per- formance, The ideal capacitor values were then replaced with standard capacitor values or—in some cases— parallel com binations of two common eapacitor values. Inductors were given the near-st value available for coils wound on either T-$0-2 ‘0 T-50-6 toroid cores. The final filter de- signs are the result of trade-offs between fuctance, capacitance and filter perfor. ‘mance. Table I shows the filter topology, along with a comparison of the original ‘deal filter component values and the val vues selected for the finished unit. SLE Se, Fig Mechanical assembly of the ampliier-madule PC board, aluminum Spacers ang heat sink. sink (see Fig 5, next page) HF/MF/VHF Amplifiers (1 to 54 MHz) Fig 2—Sohematic ofthe filler used for each band, Construction [ built my amplifier and low-pass filter ‘modules on single-sided PC boards, using pads 10 mount the components. No hotes are drilled except for mounting screws) and all Teads are attached by soldering them to the pads. The PC-board patterns for the ampli fier and filters are available (see Note 2). Fig 3 shows the amplifier-assembly paris. This assembly is mounted to a heat sink (see Figs 4 and 5) capable of dissipat- ing more than 40 watts without excessive temperature rise. (This assumes. a worst ease of $0-percent transmitting time, and ‘T-watts dissipation in standby.) A cutout in the middle of the amplifier board allows placement of the SLAM device. The PC board leaves a conducting path around the ends of the SLAM to maintain a ground potential across the entire board. Four ‘mechanical components make up the am: plifier assembly. The first is a0.1875-inch- thick aluminum base plate to which the SLAM is mounted. Nextare two aluminum 0.1-ineh-thick spacers, which are placed between the base plate and the circuit board. These spacers set the proper dis- tance from the base plate to SLAM leads. ‘The SLAM is installed through the top of the PC board, and its leads ae soldered to the traces on top of the board. Fig 4—The assembled smplifier-module PC board in position and secured to the heat 13Fig 5—Rear view of the completed ampitier showing the hefty hea sin Construction is easiest if the trans- former connections to the SLAM are not soldered until after the SLAM fs fnstalled This eliminates the possibility that the transformer connections wil get inthe way when you try t0 solder the SLAM into place. As with any power device, place @ {hin coating of thermal compound between the SIAM and the base plate, and between the base plate and the heat sink. Solder bypass capacitors directly to the trans- former center tap and to the ground plane, with the minimum possible lead lengths. The low-pass filter board is constructed one filterat a time. Fist, install the eapaci- tor at the center (C3), then the inductors 12,14), and finally the end capacitors (Cl, €5). All inductors are wound with even spacing over three-quarters ofthe core cir= cumference, Simply solder the capacitors to the pads and ground plane. Silver-mica capacitors were used in the prototype be- cause they Were On hand, Ceramie-dise capacitors with 200- to $00-V ratings will ‘work equally wel f the band Switch is located elose tothe filter board (see Fig 6), short lengths of hookup wire can connect the filters to the switch wafers. ‘A spacious box houses the filter and amplifier assemblies, along With a TR re- Tay that also switches the standby bias, Powerand relay control leads are bypassed ‘where they enter the enclosure, Before final assembly, gave te panels of the case a brushed look using a sanding block with oifed sandpaper. Band markings forthe switeh (see the title-page photo) are drawn on a. Inrgey adhesive-backed label attached to the front panel Performance Amplifier gain ranges from 12.5 to 14 4B between 1-8 and 30 MHz. The gain flat- ness i basically a function ofthe input and output transformers. (It’s possible to make the amplifier gain Mat within | dB from MHz to 100 MEZzusing transmission-ine 4-4 Chapter 1 Fig 6—This interior view of the amplifier shows its simple and clean layout. The band switch 18 centered on the front panel Immediately beneath the bang switen isthe Titer assembly. Behind the swich and to the lefts the TH relay, Ki. 8 fourpin ‘Jones plug power connector is mounted on the rear panel behind ‘and to the left ofthe relay. On the bottom, near the outside ip of the tear panel, is Jt. Above Wis J2. with id to ts ight. Most of the rear panol—trom its mide to the right lip—is oseupiad by the ‘SLAM IC PC board and the aluminum spacers secured to the heal sink mounted on the rear panel's exterior. Rubber feet on the cabinet bottom help prevent scratching the supporting surface beneath and keep the amplifier trom sliding. The bang-switch Knob canter ggction is 1" inenes in diameter the skirt fares t0 a diameter ot Ws inches. transformers and frequency compenss- tion.) The required drive power for 25 watts output is 10 to 1.4 watt On-the-air performance is excellent. Besides low distortion in the SSB mode, 3 small advantage of linear amplification sa complete absence of rise and fll distortion of a CW waveform, which sometimes ‘occurs in class-C amplifiers, ‘Summary ‘This project shows how new RF prod. ucts can make home construction of ams teur equipment very easy. Home-brewers can benefit from a growing trend in RF product engineering: reducing develop: Inet time by Using “super components” that require few external components and litle engineering time to design them into 1 product ‘A secondary purpose ofthis project isto show how even simple software tools can be used to speed up design, The programs used Yo design the ampliler’stow-pass fi ters are inexpensive, and accurate at fre- quencies in the MF/IIF bands. In this case, they made i possible to examine tradeoris among standandvalie ‘eompanents for seven diferent filters, sithoet having 8 build, measure and tweak each bite ‘The revit a linear power amplifier with good gain and performance. Its un complicated design Yeaves Bite room for error, and ne fancy teat equipment ix needed to successfully Build it, Projects, this eayy can make an old-timer forget about the “simpler” days oF vacuum tubes! Notes omer supplies ar avaliabo trom Man P jonas i” Rasen na PO Box aos Laks ane rt Sag8-0668 fe sor or6 82: fx {Sbotie a 2a ka ora proect are avadable rom stone “Engi, PO." Bop are ftfeten: co BBB 3-770:4700, Each Kieudoe a eiclone: and machanta Sompotonts for tho init module an Gupaee iter asoeroy, cus. seat Sota nt ian tery Sand smc eit incu ar anced canmacore of iPlay 25-4 a ing ho SCANT TYSON ctingthd agers oes ig16d ade Soper foraipping, Payment may be mace by chock, monay ster SA atierGard 9" Ameren Bxpese PC oara pater or the amples and tier re aatabitoaron tie ARAL: San our recuest fo tne Techmesi Qepatment Weel an. 25 a St Rug, CF Op tTY. 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