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Rx wider frequency range

Posted: Sat Apr 18, 2020 1:46 am
by VK3KYY
Someone commented to me, a while ago, that the using the official firmware they were able to receive on a wider range of frequencies than allowed by the OpenGD77.
I did some tests with several of my GD-77s, and it looks like the Rx frequency range can be extended, beyond the published specification of the baseband RF chip (AT1846S)

My radio seems to be able to receive (and also to transmit into a dummy load) on these ranges of frequencies

128Mhz - 177Mhz (Datasheet values are 134Mhz - 174Mhz)
190Mhz - 280Mhz (Datasheet values are 200Mhz - 260Mhz)
380Mhz - 560Mhz (Datasheet values are 400Mhz - 520Mhz)

Some of my GD-77 will go slightly beyond those limits, but not all of them will, so I think that the PLL is not locking on all my radios if I go beyond this range.

I'd be interested to know if everyone's radios seems to operate over this range, or whether I need to reduced it a little to guarantee that its OK for 99% of users.

I've also made a change to the code, so that the UHF Rx and UHF PA is used for all bands except for the VHF, as this gives results when listening below 400Mhz, but above 177Mhz

I also did another failed experiment of setting the baseband clock input setting to 13Mhz, even though its being supplied with 26Mhz from the master reference oscillator, in the hope I could receive above 560Mhz by specifying half the frequency but using twice the clock frequency.
e.g. 380Mhz x 2 = 760Mhz. But the PLL didn't seem to lock at all if I did this.

So I think this is the maximum frequency range which can be achieved.

The range limits I've put in the firmware are

127MHz - 178MHz
190MHz - 282MHz
380MHz - 564MHz

Re: Rx wider frequency range

Posted: Sat Apr 18, 2020 2:30 pm
by IU4LEG
hi all, my gd77 frequency range work:

127Mhz - 178 Mhz

190 Mhz - 282 Mhz

380 Mhz - 564 Mhz

TNX, IU4LEG

Re: Rx wider frequency range

Posted: Sat Apr 18, 2020 2:34 pm
by IU4LEG
It was also implemented the microphone gain for the FM?

Re: Rx wider frequency range

Posted: Sat Apr 18, 2020 2:54 pm
by F1RMB
IU4LEG wrote:
Sat Apr 18, 2020 2:34 pm
It was also implemented the microphone gain for the FM?
Yes.

Cheers.
---
Daniel

Re: Rx wider frequency range

Posted: Sat Apr 18, 2020 3:45 pm
by LY1RF
two dm-1801

127.000 - 178.000
190.500 - 279.500
381.000 - 559.000

R.

Re: Rx wider frequency range

Posted: Sat Apr 18, 2020 4:09 pm
by W1AEX
I really like this release. I found that by setting the FM MIC level to 3 the GD77 matched the FM transmit audio level of my CS-800D which gets very good reports on FM. Both of my GD77's were noticeably anemic with their default FM transmit level setting of 1.

My newer GD77 (DEC 2019) and my older GD77 (JUL 2018) can successfully run from:

127-178
190-282
380-564

Programming outside of those ranges results in the unhappy beep tone but pressing the red key puts you right back to the last successfully programmed search range.

Thanks very much for this release!

73, Rob W1AEX

Re: Rx wider frequency range

Posted: Sat Apr 18, 2020 5:12 pm
by G0NHF
Working fine. 5x GD77

127Mhz - 178 Mhz
190 Mhz - 282 Mhz
380 Mhz - 564 Mhz

Regards
Tony

Re: Rx wider frequency range

Posted: Sat Apr 18, 2020 6:04 pm
by f6fzo
Merci :D

Re: Rx wider frequency range

Posted: Sat Apr 18, 2020 8:40 pm
by F6GVE
Hi :)

Only tested in TX at the moment

GD77 no1
127-178
190-277 (277.5 but not always)
380-555 (555.5 but not always)

GD77 no2
127.7-178
191.4-282
382.8-564

GD77 no3
127-178
190-279.5
380-559

Re: Rx wider frequency range

Posted: Sat Apr 18, 2020 9:10 pm
by EB3EEL
RX and TX in:
127.000 - 178.000
190.500 - 282.000
381.000 - 559.000
in my 2 GD77 with no problem, have to measure the tx power and rx sensibility in another moment.
Thanks
MR