Topband
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: Topband: ADC Overload from MW transmitters

To: <topband@contesting.com>
Subject: Re: Topband: ADC Overload from MW transmitters
From: "Steve Ireland" <vk6vz@arach.net.au>
Date: Mon, 19 Oct 2015 20:07:37 +0800
List-post: <topband@contesting.com">mailto:topband@contesting.com>
Hi Jim

Clearly in a large US city, there is going to be a whole larger degree of 
difficulty than here. 

Perth is still pretty much a small city in world terms, with a population of 
about 2 million. In addition to the ABC transmitters, we have about half a 
dozen other transmitters, but only two of these have signals of any size – 6PR 
(10kW) and 6IX (2kW), with the former of these putting in the largest signal to 
me, with its transmitter/antenna on the banks of the Swan River estuary about 
15km away.

When I used my HPSDR, originally I had no filtering in front of the ADC and had 
some overload problems on 160m from the local BC stations. However, a simple 
Chebyshev HPF got rid of this. Later when I added the Alex bandpass filters, 
which are part of the HPSDR design, there was no longer any need for the HPF.

The main point, as Phil says in his post, is that the amount of protection an 
ADC is going to need will vary widely, depending on factors such as local AM BC 
transmitters and how strong they are. In my case, all I had to do was to use 
the general coverage facility of the SDR to look at the medium wave here, see 
which of the signals were largest and look for a suitable HPF design 
accordingly .

Vy 73

Steve, VK6VZ



> That's typical of medium-size cities in the US for high power broadcasters, 
> but major cities typically have twice as many. Both large and medium-size 
> cities, as well as smaller ones, typically have 6-10 stations in the 5kW 
> range, and more in the 1kW range. Chicago is typical of a large city (like 
> New York, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco) -- it has 50kW on 670 kHz, 720 
> kHz, 780 kHz, 890 kHz, and 1,000 kHz. There's also a daytime only station 
> with 50kW on 1160 kHz. Cincinnati is typical of smaller cities like 
> Indianapolis, Detroit, Minneapolis, Cleveland, St Louis, and New Orleans, 
> with 2-3 50kW stations and many smaller ones. Cincinnati 50kW stations are on 
> 700 kHz and 1530 kHz. 

I grew up in a small town in WV, with three 5 kW stations within two miles on 
800 kHz, 930 kHz, and 1470 kHz. 

Bottom line -- there's a lot more broadcasting in the US than in most 
countries. 

---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus
_________________
Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>