[Philips210]

Hi.

I am making some progress with the spectrum analyser. I initially checked the power supplies which were fine and then some quick checks that the ramp generator was functioning. I found that I didn't need the inverter IC7 for my oscilloscope. It was simply unplugged and the wire link fitted as per the PCB legend. I left resistors R22 and R23 in place.
When testing, I found that I had problems with the VCO amp that feeds the VCO/first mixer stage. Voltage checks revealed there was no +12V on pin 7 of IC9. On inspecting the track layout I found the problem, there was no track going to pin7. I somehow must have missed this when I made the PCBs! A small TCW wire link was all that was required. Fortunately, there were no other errors or damage caused. The sweep was now working OK.

The first pic is the RF board in isolation with an RF feed close to the 145MHz filter. The sweep input at R4 was shorted to 0V.

The second pic shows it in operation without a sweep feed to the VCO/first mixer and the marker generator off.

The third and fourth pics show the display with the 10MHz marker generator on.

There is a degree of non linearity as can be seen but I think I should be able to improve upon this as I have only done an initial test and a brief setup to see if everything is working.
At present, I don't have a reliable and accurate 145MHz source to check the 145MHz filter though I do get the expected upward deflection of the trace if I place the output of my RF signal generator close to the filter and tune it to around the 145MHz point. My frequency counter is not resolving the RF signal very well from my RF generator so I can't be sure of the generator's accuracy. I believe the problem lies with the RF generator as the waveform is somewhat distorted. It looks like I need to get this sorted out before proceeding further with the spectrum analyser. As Radio Wrangler says, it's the thin end of the wedge! Never mind it's all good fun and I'm pleased so far with the results.

Regards
Symon.