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What's New And How To Use It

B^IRWINMATH WA2NDM

Another Receiver-on-a-Chip

egular readers of this column will

recall a feature we did on a sin- Antenna
.gle-chip receiver usable over the
300 to 440 MHz UHF range and manu-
factured by MICREL, Inc. Well, MICREL
MICRF004
has done it again with a device de-
signed for the 140 to 200 MHz range.
This device is "made for" 2 meters and
will be our subject this month.
The MICRF004 "QuickRadio™" is a 4.7nF
single-chip VHF receiver that normally
13
is intended for remote-control applica-
tions such as garage-door openers,
+5V 11
keyless entry devices, and RF-tag ID
systems. As a result, it is very inexpen- 10
sive and requires a minimum of exter- 9
nal components for operation. Fig. 1 is .047uF Data Output
a schematic diagram of the basic 150
MHz circuit. It is intended primarily for I
digital applications, and if this is your
need, then you are set. If you want to
use this for analog (voice) applications Fig. 1- Basic application schematic.
on 2 meters, however, read on.
You will note that there are no exter-
nal tuned circuits in the circuit. The input
RF amplifier is broadly tuned, and se- RF\Amplifler First IF
lectivity is accomplished by a couple of Bandpass Bandpass
Mixer Fitter Filter
on-chip IF bandpass filters. Fig. 2 is a
simplified blockdiagram of the chip. The
unit is basically a super-heterodyne re-
ceiver with a 0.85 MHz IF and a local
oscillator composed of a programmable
synthesizer. The frequency of the local
oscillator is determined by the following
formula:
Data Comparator

Flo = Fr + 0.787Fr
Local
150 Oscillator Data Output
124K
where Flo is the local oscillator fre-
quency and Fr is the desired receiving
frequency (all in MHz). Once this value Pin 7
is calculated, the crystal required is External Threshold
Capacitor
found by dividing by 32.5. For operation
at 146.52 MHz, for example,

Flo= 146.52+(0.787)146.52
150
Fig. 2- Simplified block diagram of the MICRF004.
which equals 147.288 MHz. Dividing
this by 32.5 yields a crystal value of 4.53
choose one of four IF selectivity set- 4.4 kHz Gnd Vcc
MHz. If you simply divide the final de- G nd
tings. This is accomplished by con- 2.2 kHz Vcc
sired receiving frequency by 32.2, you necting pins 1 and 14 to either Vcc or Gnd Gnd
1.1 kHz
should be in the ballpark.
Gnd in accordance with the following:
Once the local oscillator signal is set
You will now note that a comparator
to the proper frequency, you can then IF Bandwidth Pin 1 Pin 14 is added to the end of the receiving
c/o CO magazine 8.8 kHz Vcc Vcc chain to square up the data and provide

108 • CQ • May 2000 Visit Our Web Site

a usable digital output for additional pro- •DIP switch programmable
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• Reverse Burst built-in 67.0 to 203.5 Hz included
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•RepeaterCWID Meets all FCC
through an impedance of about 124K. identification requirements
•Air Time Loading & Analysis Graphs
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er, and I would love to hear from read-
CIRCLE 48 ON READER SERVICE CARD
ers who have done so. For further
information and additional details on
other features of the chip, contact
MICREL at 1894 Fortune Drive, San
Jose, CA 95131, or visit their web site
at <http://www.micrel.com>.
Good luck with your receiver!
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CIRCLE 71 ON READER SERVICE CARD

www.cq-amateur-radio.com May 2000 . CQ • 109