Microwave
DIY Passive Probe for the GHz range
Passive probes for the GHz range are costly and it’s usually not too economical to invest into one if you’re just a hobbyist. But regular, cheap probes will not work on signals in the GHz range. So is there a homebrew solution? Yes, there is, check it out! Every passive probe and every piece of … [Read more…]
Repairing a MRC DAR Plus Receiver
This is another piece of industry story time. This time it’s about Vislink MRC DAR Plus receivers and transmitters. It shows that even highly integrated devices in the USD 10K range can be repaired quickly and inexpensively. The MRC DAR Plus series transmitter / receiver are professional devices for studio-transmitter links (STL), transmitter-studio links (TSL), … [Read more…]
Fixing a microstrip line in a professional Microwave ODU
A while back, I was asked if I could repair a ODU for a BMS Truck-Coder II. Someone had managed to rip the N connector straight off the casing, including a bit of the microstrip line from the distributed element output filter. See what approach I took to fix the broken stripline. The BMS Truck-Coder … [Read more…]
Demystifying RF Circuit Design – The art of Voodoo
Mike from Mikeselectricstuff did a very neat teardown of an Anritsu spectrum analyzer. However, he did call RF circuit design Voodoo and implied it’s some sort of black art. But is it really? Let’s have a look. If you watched the video of Mike [1] from Mikeselectricstuff tearing down an Anritsu spectrum analyzer, you might … [Read more…]