Background
The reason I am building this unit is to learn how to make transmitters. I will
continue to build more and more powerfull transmitters. This first transmitter
will be used to send some kind of data (zeros and ones). I will use this
transmitter with a PIC16F84 processor and send some basic data over a distance.
The interesting part will be how long distance I can transmitt, and the overal
performance of this unit.
This transmitter is basically a crystal-oscillator. I found the 45.515MHz
crystall in an old cordless-telephone. I guess you can find somewhere to buy
crystals. The important thing is that the transmitter crystal is 455kHz lower
than the receiver crystal, because the IF of the receiver should be 455kHz. The
ceramic filter in the receiver is matched for 455kHz IF-signal.
The receiver for this project can be found here!
Scheamtic

The crystal I used is a 3:th overtone crystal. L1 is a standard coil of 0.47uH.
This coil is not so critical in value. If you are going to use other frequency
you might have to change the value of this coil try some different values. L2
is a slug tuned coil (a
tunable coil). You can use almost any coil core to make this coil. You
might have to play a bit with the numbers of wire-turns.
I have added this coil to be able to change the oscillating frequency a bit. I
noticed when I increase the power (by adding a 10k resistor to plus) the
frequency will change for a few kiloherts. The reason of this is the internal
stray-capacitance in the transistor is voltage dependent and change the overal
resonans frequency.
Since I only want two different frequencies, one representing zero and one to
represent ones. I can simply use the input to the 10k resistor to modulate the
transmitting frequency.
L3 is a impedance transformer. It transform a low impedance (like 50 antenna)
to bit higher impedans to the transistors emitter. This coil is not nessesary,
most often one see a resistor here instead (1kohm). I have added this coil to
increase the power and to get a better match to the antenna. This coil is not
critical either, the important thing is that rhe coil can handle the actual
frequency.
Output
power
|
Impedance
|
Power
(mW)
|
>1Meg.
|
690mV
|
51
ohm
|
5.5mW
|
10
ohm
|
10.2mW
|
|
As you can see in table above, when there is no load at the output there is no
power, only a voltage.
When the 10k resistor to the base of the transistor is connected to plus the
output power increase and the frequency change. Table below shows the output
power in this case.
Output
power
|
Impedance
|
Power
(mW)
|
>1Meg.
|
940mV
|
51
ohm
|
10.4mW
|
|
Performance in open field
The crystal I used is a 3:th overtone crystal. L1 is a standard coil of 0.47uH.
This coil is not so critical in value. If you are going to use other frequency
you might have to change the value of this coil try some different values.