Test Equipment Tip for Initial Testing of Transmitter Amplifiers

While many of us start out building transmitter stages and tuning for maximum output, we should quickly learn that over-driving a transmitter stage must be avoided. Even a slightly over driven amplifier stage generates significant harmonics and distortion products. So here is a quick tip on using the oscilloscope to check for the presence of a transmitter stage being over-driven. 

A 10MHz analogue oscilloscope will be fine for looking at HF signals since we are going to measure relative voltages. I am unsure if a low bandwidth digital CRO will work.

Connect your oscilloscope to the collector or drain of the active device. With no drive and the oscilloscope set to AC coupling ensure the horizontal trace is on the centre graticule. The time-base setting is not critical so I use something that gives me a band across the screen with drive applied rather than the actual waveform. Try 1ms per division and adjust to suit your preference.

Now apply perhaps 10% of the drive you expect to use when the amplifier is in operation. Adjust the trace so it sits between say the second graticule above the centre line and the second graticule below the centre line. As you increase the drive you should see the trace touch the third graticule above and below the centre line at the same time.

Adjust the vertical amplifier gain to reduce the signal size on the screen then increases the drive again. Again, you should see the trace touch the third graticule above and below the centre line at the same time. Keep repeating this until you notice that one of the third graticule's above or below the centre is being touched before the other is being touched.

At this point the amplifier is no longer linear. If you have a fast oscilloscope you can increase the time-base speed to observe a few cycles of the waveform. You will notice that when non-linear the waveform peaks that were last to hit the third graticule will be distorted.

You can back off the drive until both the positive and negative peaks are moving in unison, which I find easier to discern with a slow timebase setting rather than a few cycles being displayed on the screen. That is the limit for linear operation of the stage.

Spectrum analysers and other nice test gear allow you to measure how non-linear your transmitter is. But isn't it easier just to avoid over-driving the transmitter to begin with? Hopefully this tip helps you avoid over-driving your transmitter stage giving you a nice clean signal when you finally go on air.

Regards
Richard VK6TT