Manager


Manager - NA4M
Manager Notes

Reviews For: Hamtronics CC432 downconverter

Category: Transverters

eMail Subscription

Registered users are allowed to subscribe to specific review topics and receive eMail notifications when new reviews are posted.
Review Summary For : Hamtronics CC432 downconverter
Reviews: 2MSRP: about 50
Description:
converter 432Mhz RF to 144Mhz IF, 20db gain.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.hamtronics.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0023
KD7RDZI2 Rating: 2010-12-09
No, it's great! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
This is my fourth review about this kit. I changed completely my mind after a lot of hassle about alignment.

This little kit is fairly complex to understand. Assembly with some smt is not the main issue. Assembling it is rather easy. For alignment I had to invent quite something, notwithstanding in the instruction sheet it was mentioned a voltmeter and a strong signal were enough. Indeed you can go close, but a signal generator is better. This time I used the SDR Kits QRP-2000 USB synthesiser as a signal generator (I attenuated the output by 40db). More, down converting the 144Mhz output to 12khz I
used the soundcard of my PC to have a sort of spectrum analyzer. In this way I peaked all coils in 5 minutes. The oscillator of the converter now looks a razor knife. It's very clean!

Additionally I came aware that the fact this converter has a 144Mhz oscillator created interaction with my main receiver, Drake R8, as a huge carrier at 144Mhz was heard by the receiver. In practice AM and FM were prevented and SSB-CW was also prevented from 432 to 432.2Mhz because of high noise.

Using this converter as a 70cm front end of my homemade SDR, I see that the converter is very clean over the whole band in any mode.

Overall, considering that this kit was priced at about only 50 dollars, it performs well, this kit is indeed a value. Consider that once aligned and working, this kit can be mounted at the antenna directly providing some gain and overcoming the cable losses. A pity that hamtronics discontinued the whole 70cm band converters!
VU2PEP Rating: 2010-06-14
Hamtronics cc-432 -144 down converter Time Owned: more than 12 months.
The manual is incomplete, I have bring struggling
to get it going, it looks like it is only for
the experienced home brewer with a full fledged
test equipment.