RF prototypes/ ARRL handbook

IIRC they took out a lot of the construction project stuff in the early '90s.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

I learnt a lot from the 1970 ARRL handbook - can't speak on later issues.

Probably of more use for your colleague might be one of the books by Wes Hayward, like "Experimental Methods for RF Design" (quoting title from memory so could be slightly wrong).

Although not RF specific AoE is, of course, also obligatory reading :)

piglet

The _1986 Handbook_ is my oldest and the _2018 Handbook_ is my newest. The _2019 Handbook_'s apparently too wide for a single book, so ARRL made it a boxed set of six books. To answer George's question, newer's better. All four of my handbooks, from 1986 to 2018, contain a chapter on construction techniques. Among other things, the 2018 book replaces two pages of photosensitive copper-clad board paraphernalia content with a single paragraph that advocates on-line PCB board fabrication. In areas other than construction techniques, the _1986 Handbook_'s "Power Supplies" chapter only talks about transformer conversion with linear regulators. The _2018 Handbook_'s "Power Sources" chapter includes 1986 content and it adds an additional ten and a half pages about Switch Mode and high-voltage techniques.

Thank you, 73,

OK Thanks Phil. I've got the 1992 version and the 1998.

George H.

George Herold wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@googlegroups.com:

Jus use google images. After seeing what you like, click and peruse further.

Like search for matching transformer or balun, etc.

Narrow search by specifying the type of balun you want. Lots of folks out there made theirs and post images and even characterization data sometimes.

Google images rocks!

Okay, I bought a softcover 2019 book to supplement my '66, '76, and '92 ones. It'll be interesting to see how it's changed.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

I used to do a lot of NMR stuff, but mostly current controllers and pulsed gradient drivers and temperature controllers. Let me know if I can help there. I don't do much classic (sinewave, tuned circuit) RF.

My customers would use an ARB to push a reverse-FFT bandlimited current waveform into the RF coil, over some frequency range of interest, then listen and FFT.

You might search on Ebay and AliExpress for prototype pcbs. THere are some with multiple holes per pad that might be of some help. Try searching on Aliexpress for TMOEC pcb.

Dan

Dremel!

Although it's extremely tempting to buy the 2019 book, my resolution is to at least work my way through the 2018 book first. A new chapter on Computer-Aided Circuit Design appeared sometime between the 2006 book and the 2018 book. Some of the topics in the new chapter are identical to SED threads from the past few years:

• Hobby versus Professional
• Monte Carlo analysis
• Gummel-Poon model
• IMD Simulators
• Harmonic Balance Simulators
• Maxwell Without Tears
• Surface Meshing-Method of Moments

OK. Although the new print chapter covers Maxwell the "With Tears" QEX reprint is actually in the downloadable eBook, which comes bundled with the book. Sometime between 2006 and 2018 ARRL stopped bundling physical media with the book.

Thank you, 73,

Best I ever had for building, not just RF: Building Scientific Apparatus: A Practical Guide To Design And Construction,

Or late 70s-early 80s ARRL are real good RF.

The uglier the antenna, construction, or layout, the better it works.

I don't know. I have some old ARRL Handbook issues at home that I rarely read or use.

There are lots of breadboarding methods available. I rather like John Larkin's method of using PCB islands glued or soldered to a Cu clad PCB. The problem is that I've only built two such breadboards. The way I normally do it is with a single sided Cu clad 0.062 PCB. The copper is the common ground. The components that have one or more grounded leads are soldered directly to the ground. I use small value ceramic caps as standoffs, with the ungrounded lead pointing up and away from the ground plane. Active parts are connected between these proxy standoffs to form a 3D circuit. I like this method because the huge ground plane provides really good bypass capacitor grounding and device isolation, which keeps the various gain stages from becoming oscillatory. If I keep the leads short, there's a little ringing and little tendency for the leads to radiate. If you look carefully at the above photos, the breadboards are build in somewhat the same manner.

Normally, I would also post a photo, but I don't have any such prototypes in my palatial office. Maybe when (or if) I go home tonite[1].

suring nmr signals.. protons, ~5-25 MHz range) He's got something

L handbook, is any version better than others?

My own inclination would be to concentrate on building a circuit on (and as much as possible in) a multilayer board, with all the fast connections rea lised as controlled impedance microstrip or (better) buried striplines.

This is not traditional RF construction, and stuff with history (like the A RRL handbook) may not go in for it as the defaukt approach.

One of the responses does point out that the latest copy of the ARRL handbo ok talks in terms of getting printed circuit board made on-line, and KiCad lets you do the layout and create the Gerber files you'd need for that for free, not that the process isn't time consuming (but that's unavoidable).

John Larkin

I No lOnGeR BeliEve iN pCbS TV:

Auto-pilot, HUD, Flight recorder

double sided tape

peeseebees only make sense for mass production. Working this way is much faster, more reliable, easier to change and update, and cheaper. peeseebees is a religion, supported by peeseebee software sellers. All fanatics that want the end of this uniqueverse.

Thanks Don, As per Phil H, I'm going to try and order both and older and newer copy for myself. Dip into ARRL once every 20 years :^)

George H.

I can assure you that they exist, whether you believe or not. ;)

But much more fragile, especially those haywire contraptions of yours. Also perf board is much less reliable and much slower to build than dead bug. A bit of Cu-clad fit inside the lid of a die-cast Bud box and held down by BNC bulkhead connectors is my usual style--works great up to about a gigahertz.

I do a lot of dead bug stuff for proof-of-concept systems. Customers like it because it's fast and (comparatively) cheap, and I like it for the same reasons and also because I get to keep the money instead of giving it to CMs.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Yeah we're fairly well versed in nmr here. This colleague is trying to do CW nmr... (which is such a pain once you see how nice pulsed methods are.) The two CW techniques I know of are; a balanced bridge where sweeping through the resonance puts the bridge out of balance. And you monitor the reflected power. Or a marginal oscillator where the nmr coil is part of the oscillator circuit. (I only know the marginal oscillator 'in theory' and never built one.)

George H.

Yeah I just bought the 3rd edition of that book. Good stuff. But not all that much RF stuff IIRC.

George H.

Right... but of concern is not just bread boarding, but in nmr you typically have a coil down the end of a probe/ transmission line and there is some thought needed to get good coupling into the coil.

George H. (Sorry about your H2O situation.)