[time-nuts] Update -- Comparing 10 MHz Oscillators at 10 GHz

[Lester Veenstra]

Another thought , I have done this with a pair of synth sig gens:

The brik's designs are such that you can typically get them to phase lock at
harmonics of 100 MHz around the nominal.  So you should be able to get one
to phase lock at 10.1 or 9.9 GHz, giving you a 100 MHz offset beat note from
the mixer, suitable for analysis by most prosaic test equipment.

On simple way to examine the quality of 10 GHz multiplication is simply to
listen to the 100 MHz beat with a SSB receiver. Another interesting tool is
to put the 100 MHz into an oscope with the sweep synced to the original 100
MHz, or set up as a XY display.   



Lester B Veenstra  MØYCM K1YCM
lester at veenstras.com
m0ycm at veenstras.com
k1ycm at veenstras.com
 

US Postal Address:
PSC 45 Box 781
APO AE 09468 USA

UK Postal Address:
Dawn Cottage
Norwood, Harrogate
HG3 1SD, UK

Telephones:
Office:     +44-(0)1423-846-385
Home:     +44-(0)1943-880-963 
Guam Cell: +1-671-788-5654
UK Cell:   +44-(0)7716-298-224 
US Cell:   +1-240-425-7335 
Jamaica:  +1-876-352-7504 
 
This e-mail and any documents attached hereto contain confidential or
privileged information. The information is intended to be for use only by
the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you are not the
intended recipient or the person responsible for delivering the e-mail to
the intended recipient, be aware that any disclosure, copying, distribution
or use of the contents of this e-mail or any documents attached hereto is
prohibited.


-----Original Message-----
From: time-nuts-bounces at febo.com [mailto:time-nuts-bounces at febo.com] On
Behalf Of Brucekareen at aol.com
Sent: Thursday, January 27, 2011 12:21 AM
To: time-nuts at febo.com
Subject: [time-nuts] Update -- Comparing 10 MHz Oscillators at 10 GHz

Thanks to some help from Joe Ruggieri, I finally managed to get a pair of  
10.000 GHz microwave "brick" oscillators phase-locked to 100 MHz inputs.   
These require an input of about 0 dBm at 100 MHz and have an output of about

+  13 dBm at 10 GHz.  To gauge whether or not loop noise would interfere 
with  using these to compare 10 MHz oscillators, I assembled the following
test 
 setup as I have not yet constructed the required 10 MHz to 100  MHz 
multipliers.
 
Both 10 GHz microwave bricks were driven through a splitter from an HP  
signal generator locked to 100 MHz.  The 10 GHz output of one brick was
routed 
through an HP X885A phase-shifter equipped with WG/coax adapters and on  to 
one input of an Anaren hybrid combiner.  The output of the other brick  was 
routed through a 0-10 dB SMA attenuator then on to the combiner.  The  
reject side of the combiner was terminated.  The main combiner output was  
routed through a 10 dB attenuator to a Systron-Donner coaxial detector.
The DC 
output of the detector was monitored with a digital voltmeter.
 
First the phase shifter and attenuator were adjusted to cause the two  
sources to arrive at the combiner with equal amplitudes and 180 degrees out
of  
phase  and produce a null at the detector output.  I measured as  little as 
0.01 millivolt on the DVM at the null point.  Then the  phase-shifter was 
adjusted to rotate the phase 180 degrees to place the  combiner inputs in 
phase.  The detector output was about 128  millivolts.  
 
This experiment seems to confirm the earlier results by Ulrich Bangert and  
his friend that noise does not appear to be a problem with this method for  
rapid frequency comparison.  However it would be convenient to have an  
attenuator and phase shifter to null the sources.    
 
Bruce Hunter, KG6OJI.  
 
 
_______________________________________________
time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts at febo.com
To unsubscribe, go to
https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
and follow the instructions there.