Connecting transverters to Flex-6700

Paul RN3A

I know there are still issues with Antenna Matrix switching, and it's being taken care of. However, I still have a question how to connect Transverters to Flex radio? I am doing a lot of activity on VHF and UHF bands, and I would like to eventually move all stuff to my new Flex-6700. Is it possible to do now or do I have to wait? If so, when do you expect to have full Transvertor functionality available? 73!

philip.theis

Great question, I use a full complement of transverters with my 5000 now. We know that it's not treated as a major item or it would be on the road map, so I am hopeful that it will come soon in a minor release. The RF is working, I've tested the XVTR port on the bench, and levels are good. Only thing needed is the logic to handle offsets and the date previously on the XVTR form. Looking forward to it.

Stan VA7NF

A few questions relating to XVTR support.

* - An earlier discussion talked of a 3rd party developing a multi-band transverter using the XVTR output that could use multiple spectrum ranges which each represents a target band.  Any news on this?

* - How a physical transverter can define multiple transverter bands e.g. 70CM with an XVTR OFFSET (keeping with the example BAND XVTR "70CM" 430. 450. OFFSET 400.) that tells the radio to display a frequency of 440.000 yet use a frequency on XVTR port of 40.000Mhz (440Mhz - 400Mhz offset) and do this for multiple slices.

* - Channelize (is that a word?) tuning on those band portions that have convention/legislated channels.

* - Support automatic split such as repeaters or satellite where the frequency may be shown as 54.5+

Ken - NM9P

I can confirm that the transverter output has RF output.
I ran en experiment with a friend 0.8 miles away in which I connected my dipole antenna to the transverter jack and had a QSO with him with micro-power! I was using a dipole at 18 ft. and he was using his 5 element yagi at 50 ft.  I was Q5 copy with the power level at 10.  I was audible at  setting of 2!  And and "full power" I was about S-6.  I wouldn't recommend operating like this on a regular basis, but it was a fun experiment in milliwatting!

G4YDO

Is the any way of boosting the 1 milliwatts?

rfoust

I'm a dummy and have never used a XVTR.  What would I need to get this working?

Paul RN3A

I am using Transverters quite a lot with my 6700. Here is how it works. 

There is a number of ways how Transverters can be connected to 6000 radios. This pretty much depends on which Transverter you have. You may consider the following scenarios:

- Your Transverter supports single RX/TX cable on IF side, and does not need high power (above 0,5 ... 10 dBm) for TX on IF side. Then you can connect your Transverter directly to XVTR jack and select XVTR for both RX and TX antennas. The nominal output power of XVTR line in TX mode is 0 dBm. (appx 50% of Power slider)

- Your Transverter supports single RX/TX cable on IF side, but it requires high power (a couple of Watts) for TX on IF side. Then you can connect your Transverter to Ant1 or ANT2 and select appropriate RX and TX antennas in SSDR. Do not forget to limit your output power with Power slider!

- Your Transverter needs separate RX and TX connection on IF side. You may use any RX antenna in 6000 radio as an input and XVTR,  ANT1 or ANT2 as TX antenna.   If your Transverter supports low power TX input on IF side, you will be OK using XVTR as TX antenna. If your Transverter requires high power TX input (up to several Watts) you will need to use ANT1 or ANT2 as TX output for your Transverter, Be careful though, don't forget to limit your output power with Power slider!

- You may use any TX Relay outputs to key your Transverter - currently these are not separately configurable.
 
SSDR does not yet have Transverter interface, like PowerSDR or similar have. It is not clear yet when it will be developed and introduced. The frequency reading on your 6000 radio will not show your Transverter frequency, but your IF frequency. So you will need to do some Elementary school math every time you tune to a new frequency. Take your IF frequency (reading from SSDR) and add Transverter LO frequency. This will result in your actual Transverter frequency. Your CAT readings will also display IF frequency value. 

If you use DXLab Suite as your main logger, you may consider enabling Transverter option in DXLab Commander. Currently it supports V/UHF bands up to 1296 MHz. IF and LO frequencies are configurable. 

Hope this helps.

Ken - NM9P

In a previous thread, Steve posted numbers related to power output available at the transverter output.  I believe that it was a bit more than 1 dBm.  I cannot remember the numbers right now.  You can search for "transverter" and my call (NM9P) and you may find the thread.

Ken - NM9P

I found the post....

https://community.flexradio.com/flexradio/topics/milliwatting_with_the_6500_what_is_the_transverter_...

rfoust

Thanks Paul!  Yes, that helps a lot.

Tim - W4TME

We are forking this response to a question as an Idea post to get further feedback from the community. Please reference the new topic here: Transverter Features