Re: [amsat-bb] Who Makes a Mast-Mounted Up-Converter (2m to 1.2 GHz) plus RF Power Amplifier

["John P. Toscano" <tosca005@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Scott F. Migaldi (K9PO) wrote:

> They are called transverters and DEM has one. You would use a 1296-144LP and
> then you need a LPA for the 10watts.

Actually, Scott, the 1296-144 transverter converts 1296 MHz to 144 MHz 
on receive and 144 MHz to 1296 MHz on transmit.  To transmit on 1268 
MHz, Eric would have to tune your IF radio to 116 MHz.  While he might 
be able to take a ham transmitter out of band to make it transmit on 
that frequency, I am pretty certain that the bandpass filtering in the 
Down East Microwave transverter will reject that signal.

What Eric would really want is one of the following:  (list copied from 
the Down East Microwave web page)

1268-144TX 1268MHz AO-40 up-converter only.  144MHz IF, 3W output, 
Assembled  345.00

1268-144TL 268MHz AO-40 up-converter only.  144MHz IF, 20mW output, 
Assembled  280.00

1268-144TC 1268MHz AO-40 up-converter only.  144MHz IF, 3W output, 
Complete Kit  265.00

1268-14TLC 1268MHz AO-40 up-converter only.  144MHz IF, 20mW output, 
Complete Kit  200.00

1268-144TK 1268MHz AO-40 up-converter only.  144MHz IF, 20mW output, PC 
Board Kit  160.00

Down East doesn't seem to offer a power amp bigger than 3 watts that can 
be fully driven with only the 20 mW output of the low-power transmit 
converters listed, so the higher-power 3 watt unit would be the better 
choice.  For 3 watts of drive, Down East has PA's of 18 and 35 watts 
(the 3 watt output will have to be padded down a bit to prevent 
over-driving these), and they have a 65 watt unit that reqires 4 watts 
of drive for full output, which is a bit higher than the basic 3-watt 
models put out.

What I find a bit confusing is that I bought a model 1268-28TX over a 
year ago, which has 15 watts of output, but no such model is listed on 
their web site.  Best bet would be to phone them and ask about the 
availability of a 15-watt model.  (Maybe sales were poor and they 
discontinued it?  Or maybe the webmaster slipped up.  There is at least 
one other typographical error in that section of their web page, and I 
can tell you from first-hand experience, webmasters are only human.)

Eric, good luck finding what you want.
73 de W0JT

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