Category Archives: New Stuff

BeaconBlaster, FST4W, New Stuff, WSPR, WSPRSONDE

Digital One Watt Power Amplifier

Turn your logic-level outputs into slightly more powerful signals! This design is one I have been using in the WSPRSONDE, and I’ve found it to be so useful that I put it in a little box along with a USB C power connection and a couple of indicator LEDs.

This will require a low-pass filter to convert the square wave output to a spectrally-pure-meets-all-FCC-regulations signal, but that’s pretty simple. This design easily covers all the ham bands between 160 and 6 meters.

TIS-1W Digital 1W Power Amplifier

Equipment using this amplifier circuit has been continuously transmitting for several years, from the steamy jungles of Costa Rica to the frozen wastes of the Arctic and Antarctic, The design and performance is thoroughly described in the product guide.

New Stuff, RX-888, SDR

The TIS-B1 Balun is Now Available

The TIS-B1 Balun converts a 50 Ohm signal to a balanced 100 Ohm impedance as needed when using twisted-pair CAT 5 and CAT 6 ethernet cable.

Ethernet cable is being used in advanced balanced wideband “probe” receive antenna systems, where balance and ground isolation is extremely useful in reducing common-mode interference.  The TIS-B1 Balun can be very useful in developing and testing these antenna systems.

For more information, please see the Users Guide: 
TIS-B1.pdf

To purchase:
https://turnislandsystems.com/product/tis-b1-balun/

New Stuff, RX-888, SDR

Mixed-Signal Digital / RF Testing

I have a new post on my ham blog showing a potential Turn Island product, and how I use the TIS-126 Clock Distribution Buffer and the TIS-5351 TinyClock to solve some test-setup problems:

http://wb6cxc.com/?p=501

The new design is a BPSK modulator to be used to generate an in-band time-sync signal. This signal is injected into the antenna port of a receiver and used in time-of-flight and time-of-reception measurements.

The BPSK modulator can also be used to generate over-the-air signals using NRZI BPSK modulation . I show some test results in the blog.

FST4W, New Stuff, RX-888, SDR, WSPR

New Filter and Filter-Preamp – designed for six-meter operation

This is a new filter, designed for use with preamplified “probe” antennas, and many other receive antenna systems. This includes a bypassable low-frequency shelf filter, and can be jumper-configured for either 30 or 60 MHz low-pass anti-alias filtering.

See more details here: https://turnislandsystems.com/product/f3060-filter-shelf-30-60-mhz-lpf/

And a new 60 MHz Filter-Preamp:

This one has an aggressive low-pass filter, optimized to eliminate 88-108 MHz FM broadcast band signals before they can cause trouble. The high dynamic range preamp provides about +20 dB of low-noise gain.

Details here: https://turnislandsystems.com/product/60-mhz-filter-preamp/

FST4W, New Stuff, RX-888, SDR, WSPR

SDR Dynamic Range and New Filter Development

Over on my wb6cxc.com blog I have posted about SDR dynamic range and some related Turn Island Systems products that are in the early prototype stage: a Filter-Preamp with a 60 MHz antialias filter optimized for 88-108 MHz FM broadcast band rejection, and a completely new multiband receive filter-bank which (in many cases) will reduce MW and SW broadcast band overload . I hope to have these fine-tuned and available very soon!

I invite you to participate in the development discussion:

SDR Dynamic Range and New Filters

BeaconBlaster, FST4W, New Stuff, WSPR, WSPRSONDE

Nine Band Filter Combiner – v2

There are several prototype versions of the 9BFC in operation, and they work just fine when connected to a decent multiband antenna.

BUT – when connected to a high SWR antenna (as is sometimes necessary in the field) the internal surface mount inductors can get disturbingly warm. The prototype 9BFC used a mix of surface mount and toroid inductors.

So, I am announcing the brand new all-toroid version of the 9BFC!

The 9BFC covers the 80, 40, 30, 20, 17, 15, 12, 10, 10 and 6-meter ham bands. This design has demonstrated its resilience and performance under all load conditions, and so has become the production version of the 9BFC.

So when you want to get a signal out, even when working with too-short or otherwise mismatched antennas, the 9BFC is now available: https://turnislandsystems.com/product/nine-band-filter-combiner/

And of course it works great with a well-tuned multiband antenna!

BeaconBlaster, FST4W, New Stuff, WSPR, WSPRSONDE

The WSPRSONDE v2 is here!

It’s alive!!! The new WSPRSONDE v2 WSPR/FST4W multichannel transmitters are rolling off the Turn Island Systems assembly line:

There are a few changes from the previous batch of WSPRSONDEs:

  • Smaller chassis, customized for Turn Island Systems.
  • Software control of output power: 1W or 250mW

There are a few other minor changes on the circuit board — things like Board Revision ID, allowing for future forward and backward compatibility.

But the WS-v2 is otherwise identical to the units that have been deployed on at least 2-1/2 continents. It continues to generate the clean, precise, and stable signals so necessary for accurate measurement of ionospheric propagation effects.

Along with this new hardware release comes updated WS firmware, with new features and options.

This has been in the works for a while now, and I am very pleased with the finished product!

If you are interested in some details of the WS-v2 assembly process, here is a short video of the Turn Island Systems CNC mill preparing a blank aluminum faceplate for the WS.

New Stuff, RX-888

Postings on Turn Island groups.io forum

I am starting discussions of our existing products and new developments, and invite you to participate:

https://groups.io/g/TurnIslandSystems

The forum has been quiet for some time, but it’s a good place to make comments, suggestions, critiques, and anything else even slightly related to Turn Island Systems.

And if you have one of our RX-888 Clock Adaptors (now available from TAPR), please share your experience with it — good or bad.