Escape Electronics 1W Exciter

[Ignite]

Hi,

Just come across this 1W PLL exciter by Escape Electronics and I've not seen any mention of it in the archives.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Broadcast-Pl ... 4012827119

There has been mention of another Greek seller that has some horrible looking boards but this looks like it has been properly soldered together.

Has anyone got one or had a play with it?

Thanks

Ignite

[Albert H]

That's expensive!

[Santiago]

is it any good Albert? irrelevant of price

[Albert H]

Looking at what can be seen of the board in the picture: - It's an "at frequency" circuit - cleaner in that it's only generating one (VHF) frequency, but will be prone to RF feedback issues, which could cause the dreaded hum. It looks like three RF stages - an oscillator, followed by a BFR91, then a soldered-down BFG135 (or similar) for the Watt output. There's a three-terminal regulator supplying the transistor strip, probably with 9 Volts. There's a PIC and a PLL IC. It'll probably work reasonably well, but the layout leaves a lot to be desired. There's no screening between the digits and the RF (often a problem). If you feed this into a PA, you'll have to be careful with layout to prevent RF feedback.... There's about £10 - 12 worth of parts there!

[teckniqs]

The small square part in the centre looks like it should be screened with a metal cover, this would probably be to help prevent the RF getting in but it looks missing.

...And I don't think much of their Website.

[Santiago]

thanks for the breakdown Albert