DigiThin QRP
Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2015 5:36 pm
Arthur G4CPE and I live quite close; just under 3 miles across a bit of a valley, it’s not at all unusual for us to do ridiculously low power tests just for a bit of fun. Last weekend Arthur was testing his DigiThin on 146 MHz and I received P5 pictures from him on my MiniTuner. We both used collinear antennas and transmit power was 3 watts.
We were closing down for the night and Arthur asked if I could spare a minute for a quick test without the PA; “It’s not going to work but you have to try” he said. Knowing how much interference we get when using vertical polarisation I had to agree it was unlikely to work. He quickly changed some connections and switched back on with just a milliwatt output. At my QTH the result was immediate and stunning, perfect pictures again with an MER of 9.5dB, and removing the analyser tee the MER rose to 11.5dB.
We are both convinced that DigiThin and the MiniTuner are excellent low budget projects for those wanting to get into RB DATV. Both projects would be ideal for club builds given the documentation was pulled together. Of course these are beta products and not totally bug free, they’re a load of fun though.
Well done and thanks to all those involved in the development of the hardware and software.
Steve
M0SKM
We were closing down for the night and Arthur asked if I could spare a minute for a quick test without the PA; “It’s not going to work but you have to try” he said. Knowing how much interference we get when using vertical polarisation I had to agree it was unlikely to work. He quickly changed some connections and switched back on with just a milliwatt output. At my QTH the result was immediate and stunning, perfect pictures again with an MER of 9.5dB, and removing the analyser tee the MER rose to 11.5dB.
We are both convinced that DigiThin and the MiniTuner are excellent low budget projects for those wanting to get into RB DATV. Both projects would be ideal for club builds given the documentation was pulled together. Of course these are beta products and not totally bug free, they’re a load of fun though.
Well done and thanks to all those involved in the development of the hardware and software.
Steve
M0SKM
