Portsdown 4 16 way decoder/switch
Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2025 11:05 pm
I'm currently in the early stages of my first Portsdown build and have the PI, Pluto, breakout board and screen and all is working. So far.
I also have a full set of receivers (PicoTuner, Ryde, Winterhill and Knucker) so I'm all set on the receive side.
The next stage is to actually get some RF out of this beast and I noticed that the hardware wiki shows an RF switching system. Initially a 4 way, then an 8 and, if you try really hard, buried in the spec you find out that the current software actually uses a 4 bit output and so supports 16 way switching with the 13cm band used by the default QO-100 actually on output 11.
The available boards, however, do not. There is only a 4 way and an 8 way set.
I know there is backward compatibility and that the 13cm band will switch to output 3 (1255 MHz in the base 8 way config), so I could just stick with that. There is also the option of remapping the outputs to match the actual PAs and transverters I end up using, of course.
But what I was wondering (and taking a very long time to get to the point about) is if there is a 16 way switch in the works?
Just checking because it may work out cheaper and tidier than a pair of 8-ways (or even than a single one, given the age of the switching chip)
I also have a full set of receivers (PicoTuner, Ryde, Winterhill and Knucker) so I'm all set on the receive side.
The next stage is to actually get some RF out of this beast and I noticed that the hardware wiki shows an RF switching system. Initially a 4 way, then an 8 and, if you try really hard, buried in the spec you find out that the current software actually uses a 4 bit output and so supports 16 way switching with the 13cm band used by the default QO-100 actually on output 11.
The available boards, however, do not. There is only a 4 way and an 8 way set.
I know there is backward compatibility and that the 13cm band will switch to output 3 (1255 MHz in the base 8 way config), so I could just stick with that. There is also the option of remapping the outputs to match the actual PAs and transverters I end up using, of course.
But what I was wondering (and taking a very long time to get to the point about) is if there is a 16 way switch in the works?
Just checking because it may work out cheaper and tidier than a pair of 8-ways (or even than a single one, given the age of the switching chip)