GRID DIP OSCILLATOR (GDO)

This circuit was developed by Luigi Falcone, I1FLC. He uses seven plug in coils covering 3.0 to 30Mhz in a Colpitts oscillator circuit. The coaxial socket J2 permits connection to a frequency meter when required. The coils are wound on Teflon formers with two "female" sockets which plug-in to two "male" sockets on the instrument. TR2 forms a DC amplifier permitting the use of a 1mA FSD meter with sensitivity controlled by R7. With TR1 switched off (via S2) the instument forms a field strength meter/RF sniffer.

COIL INFORMATION

Range Length Diameter Turns L
(Mhz) (mm) (mm) (uH)
3.0 - 4.5 30 21 75 59.6
4.0 - 5.8 25 21 63 47.8
5.0 - 7.5 19 17 47.5 23.5
7.5 - 11 10 17 25 10.25
10.5 - 16.0 11 11 27.5 5.55
15.0 - 22. 0 6 11 15 2.5
20.0 - 31.0 6 9 15 1.8

It is important that the oscillator components are mounted rigidly and not subject to "hand capacitance effects" in use.

If a somewhat larger value variable capacitor was used with a slow motion drive the number of coils to tune 3 to 30 Mhz could be reduced.

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