Yet another ferrite toroid calculator – but is it any good?

In a recent online thread, a ‘new’ online calculator was touted:  https://miguelvaca.github.io/vk3cpu/toroid.html .

References without any qualification surely imply a recommendation.

In the same thread, Roger Need compared his measurement of a FT50-43 with Calculate ferrite cored inductor (from Al) (one of a set of related calculators), and Ferrite permeability interpolations.

Above, his calculation reconciles well with measurement at 3.6MHz. Continue reading Yet another ferrite toroid calculator – but is it any good?

Last update: 22nd October, 2021, 9:37 AM

Loop in ground (LiG) – #6 signal to noise degradation (SND)

Feasibility study – loop in ground for rx only on low HF laid out an initial design concept. This article sets out expected signal / noise degradation in a typical installation.

3.5MHz

Let’s take ambient noise as Rural precinct in ITU-P.372-14.

An NEC-5.0 model of the 3m a side LiG gives average gain -37.18dBi. An allowance of 2.7dB of feed loss covers actual feed line loss and mismatch loss. Continue reading Loop in ground (LiG) – #6 signal to noise degradation (SND)

Last update: 2nd January, 2022, 6:00 AM

Signal to noise degradation (SND) concept

The nature of radio signals received off-air is that they are accompanied by undesired noise.

A key measure of the ability to decode a radio signal is its Signal to Noise ratio (S/N) at the demodulator (or referred to some common point).

We can speak of, think of, an external S/N figure as \(S/N_{ext}=10 log\frac{S_{ext}}{N_{ext}}\) in dB.

Receiver systems are not perfect, and one of the imperfections is that they contribute undesired noise. Continue reading Signal to noise degradation (SND) concept

Last update: 30th October, 2022, 6:26 AM

Estimating characteristics of a sample of coax from dimensions and properties

On testing two wire line loss with an analyser / VNA – part 3 showed how to estimate two wire line characteristics from dimensions and an estimate of velocity factor. This article does the same for a coax example

To take an example, let’s use one posted online recently:

Stranded Tinned copper center conductor, 0.037″ od Solid, white dielectric (not foamed), 0.113″ od Od of jacket, 0.196″

The dimensions we are interested in are OD of dielectric, 2.97mm (0.113″) and OD of the inner conductor, 0.989mm (0.037″). A solid white dielectric (as opposed to translucent) is likely to be PTFE which has a velocity factor around 0.7 (in most PTFE cables) and we will assume a loss tangent of 1e-4 (typical of non-polar polymers). Continue reading Estimating characteristics of a sample of coax from dimensions and properties

Last update: 1st October, 2021, 6:30 AM

On testing two wire line loss with an analyser / VNA – part 3

This article series shows how to measure matched line loss (MLL) of a section of two wire line using an analyser or VNA. The examples use the nanoVNA, a low end inexpensive VNA, but the technique is equally applicable to a good vector based antenna analyser of sufficient accuracy (and that can save s1p files).

On testing two wire line loss with an analyser / VNA – part 1

This article series shows a method for estimating matched line loss (MLL) of a section of two wire line based on physical measurements (Duffy 2011).

Above is a short piece of the line to be estimated. It is nominal 300Ω windowed TV ribbon. It has copper conductors, 7/0.25, spaced 7.5mm. The dielectric is assumed to be polyethylene… but later measurements suggest is has slightly higher loss than polyethylene. The test section length is 4.07m. Continue reading On testing two wire line loss with an analyser / VNA – part 3

Last update: 18th February, 2022, 8:04 PM

On testing two wire line loss with an analyser / VNA – part 2

This article series shows how to measure matched line loss (MLL) of a section of two wire line using an analyser or VNA. The examples use the nanoVNA, a low end inexpensive VNA, but the technique is equally applicable to a good vector based antenna analyser of sufficient accuracy (and that can save s1p files).

On testing two wire line loss with an analyser / VNA – part 1

Above is a short piece of the line to be measured. It is nominal 300Ω windowed TV ribbon. It has copper conductors, 7/0.25, spaced 7.5mm. The dielectric is assumed to be polyethylene… but later measurements suggest is has slightly higher loss than polyethylene. The test section length is 4.07m. Continue reading On testing two wire line loss with an analyser / VNA – part 2

Last update: 18th February, 2022, 5:15 PM

On testing two wire line loss with an analyser / VNA – part 1

This article series shows how to measure matched line loss (MLL) of a section of two wire line using an analyser or VNA. The examples use the nanoVNA, a low end inexpensive VNA, but the technique is equally applicable to a good vector based antenna analyser of sufficient accuracy.

Above is a short piece of the line to be measured. It is nominal 300Ω windowed TV ribbon. It has copper conductors, 7/0.25, spaced 7.5mm, though as can be seen the spacing is not perfectly uniform. The dielectric is assumed to be polyethylene… but later measurements suggest is has slightly higher loss than polyethylene. The test section length is 4.07m. Continue reading On testing two wire line loss with an analyser / VNA – part 1

Last update: 18th February, 2022, 5:15 PM

The mower appears affected by Ethanol

I have a Toro ride-on mower which ran out of fuel when it was just a couple of years old, perhaps 50 hours on it. Okay, so that is going to happen with failure to check fuel level before starting… but the problem was that when the tank was filled, it would not start, the petrol pump would not self prime even though the suction head was very small with a full fuel tank.

Mindful that long cranking is very hard on batteries, I used the starter sparingly in short bursts with cooling off time. Nevertheless, the battery went open circuit.

So I replaced the battery and primed the pump by hand… and all has gone well for some years… until last week, I ran it out of fuel, duh!

Same problem, when the tank was filled, the pump would not self prime.

The machine has a problem that needs to be fixed.

The inline filter was checked, and fuel flowed though it quite well by gravity. This time, I primed it by hand early in the process and got on with mowing. This was probably not a vapor lock problem, everything was quite cool by the time I fueled the machine. Continue reading The mower appears affected by Ethanol

Last update: 21st September, 2021, 6:34 AM