Fm30 Unit 1 Review

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DIGITAL FM STEREO TRANSMITTER KIT Ramsey Electronics Model No. FM30 A new and improved version of our popular stereo transmitter kits, the FM30 is an ideal upgrade for improved performance and ease of use! With a low-noise design and a metal case, the FM30 suffers from much less interference for a better S/N ratio. The FM30 also has full digital front panel control of output power, volume, balance, stereo/mono, and frequency! • • Synthesized 87.9MHz to 108.1MHz for no frequency drift! Direct digital input of frequency, no jumpers or DIP switches! Designed for extruded, rugged metal case, all lines have RF chokes, and fully regulated for the cleanest sounding low noise performance yet! BNC style RF output for easy, reliable connections.…show more content…
This IC is a great little part, and contains a lot of circuitry that helps us get on the air with minimal fuss, and great sound. This IC not only contains a stereo multiplexer, but also a phase locked loop (PLL), audio filters, and equalization capabilities. The audio filter portion adds a little more low-pass filtering to increase audio quality beyond what the external low pass filter can accomplish. The equalization portion enhances the high frequencies for the radio standard of 75uS in the US. 75uS is the time constant used for a high-pass filter to enhance the high frequency audio before transmission to help reduce noise upon reception. The PLL is the portion of the IC which locks your chosen transmission frequency to the crystal reference X1. The PLL portion also contains an oscillator circuit which works in conjunction with the external parts of D5 and the STUB (that weird trace on the back of the board). D5 is called a varactor diode, and is a special variety of diode that is connected backwards. As a reverse DC voltage is applied across the diode, its capacitance varies. The higher the voltage, the less the capacitance. This is due to depletion layers of the diode junction, but we wont get into details here. This variable capacitor in conjunction with the stub, which is actually an inductor (coil) is the basis of our voltage controlled oscillator! As the voltage increases across D5, the frequency of oscillation increases. The stub is just acting like a coil in this circuit, and because it is part of the circuit board layout, it has a very predictable value. This prevents us from having to tune anything in this section like our old products. Just turn the unit on, and you are good to go! The best part of the stub is it’s low sensitivity to microphonics (Microphonics is the noise generated in a VCO (voltagecontrolled oscillator) circuit by vibrating components which change in value slightly because of
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