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Reviews For: Elecraft N-Gen Wideband Noise Generator

Category: Ham Radio Kits

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Review Summary For : Elecraft N-Gen Wideband Noise Generator
Reviews: 8MSRP: 39
Description:
The N-gen is a calibrated, wide-band (100 kHz-500 MHz +/- 3 dB) noise source that can be used for a variety of receiver RF and IF alignment tasks. It can be powered either from its on-board 9-volt battery or from an external source. A red LED is provided to indicate that the unit is operating.

The N-Gen is one of several inexpensive kits in Elecraft's mini-modules series. The builder can package the unit in an enclosure of their choice, or use the supplied rubber feet on the PC board itself.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.elecraft.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0084.6
N3CAL Rating: 2015-02-13
Great Kit Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Great quality kit. Instructions are well written, easy to build. Used to "align my XV-144 Transverter kit. Another fine Made in the USA" kit. Note: make sure the 9V battery you use is new and above 8 volts or use an external wall wart power supply. My first battery was only at 7.8 volts and not enough to get it working.
K3IT Rating: 2012-12-26
good but could use more gain Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Great noise source. Add about 65 db amplification to be *really* useful. Otherwise the output is a bit low to see the complete filter response over a wide spectrum.
HA6SST Rating: 2007-04-15
Useful Kit Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Assembled the kit in about an hour and I was using it for filter alignments before the solder even cooled. Anyone with poor eyesight might need help with soldering the amplifier chip though!!

HA6SST
AA5CH Rating: 2006-12-12
Just Assembled One Myself Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I assembled a N-Gen yesterday afternoon. It took a couple of hours, taking my time and dealing with a couple of distractions (such as going to Radio Shack to get a magnifying glass). It appears my eyes have degraded somewhat since I built the K1 a few years ago!

Mounting the tiny transistor was a little tricky as it kept sticking to the iron. Pre-tinning the pads and holding it in place with a pair of tweezers solved that. Other than that, it is a very simple matter of placing a few components through the board, soldering and trimming the leads.

In addition to being essential in its alignment, the N-Gen should be a nice warm-up for the 2 meter transverter kit which in turn, should be a warm-up for the K2.

73,
Brad AA5CH
AB4BC Rating: 2006-12-12
Fun to build and works great! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I bought this kit to use for setup and alignment of the 222 MHz transverter kit. Its a fun little kit to put together and works as specified. Great little tool to have in the hamshack!
K3ROJ Rating: 2005-11-20
Great little device Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This little noise generator is great for aligning almost any receiver, IF section or filters. I discovered that the output needed some attenuation depending on the sensitivity of the receiver.
By using a spectrum analyzer, tuning filters etc. are a snap with an accurate frequency marker.
Also making antenna stub phasing lines are easy again using a spectrum analyzer.
I do have a calibrated older noise generator but this little thing is always handy especially inside a small box and a separate 9 volt supply so it can be left on all the time.
N7KZZ Rating: 2004-04-10
Typical Elecraft excellence Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
After I built my K1, I decided to try some of their accessories. The N-Gen was everything that I expected. Used with my A&A Engineering Spectrum analyser, it makes initial tuning of band pass filters quicker and simpler. High quality kit, low price, does everything they say it will.
OZ6ABM Rating: 2004-01-09
It does what it does... Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I bought the N-GEN with my K2. It was easy to build, took approx 25 minutes and then I waited 7 days for a missing part - but I should have checked the parts before I really needed the N-GEN to align my K2.

When completed it worked first time, no problem. It certainly gives nice 'clean' noise - as expected.

I did align my K2 filters using Spoectrogram without the N-GEN (waiting for the missing part to arrive). When the 'part' arrived I though it would provide a cleaner and easier way of looking at the filter shapes, but it really didn't make the job much easier. It effectively raised the floor level of the noise by approx 30dB, and the shoulders of the filters were very much the same (and just as clear) when using antenna atmospheric noise. It had much the same effect as turning up the AF gain on the K2, just more powerfull. So I guess it does what it's supposed to, and would have been a good help if I had some real local antenna noise sources that were being a nuisance.

I haven't tried it with transverter alignment.