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Junk Box NDB Low Pass Filter

Introduction
With winter approaching, many HAM and SWL
hobbyists find intrigue in tuning in NDB or
Non-Directional Beacons. Although the tunable NDB
band depends on your location, in Canada it may be
found in a band ranging from about 190 to 535 KHz.
Canadian beacons either have just a carrier (no
offset)or are tuned using the USB with about a 400
Hertz offset, however, different offset frequencies and
certainly LSB are used when receiving DX from other
countries.

Less than 10 Km away from my QTH is a 10 KW AM

radio station at 1150 KHz. On my test receiver, the S-
meter reads off the scale (> 60 dB over S-9) when
tuned to this frequency. This local radio station causes
spurious, second-order intermodulation products
(direct mixing) that all but wipes out some weaker NDB stations that I am trying to tune in. Certainly, having a 500 Hertz
crystal IF filter is useful, but attenuating this local QRM is also desirable and is the topic of this web page. Many general
coverage receivers offer limited or in some cases no filtering of the NDB band, however an outboard filter is an easy
project to build in one afternoon.

Update Oct 11, 2010: Here is a link to a version of this project built by Robert, K5TD

Project Schematic
 To the left is the project schematic. It seems
odd to build a low pass filter to reduce BCB
interference (as usually a high pass filter is
required for this purpose at HF) however for
NDB, an aggressive low pass filter is required.
For simplicity sake, a 7 element Chebychev low
pass filter was chosen. Since it is easy to wind
reasonably high-Q inductors for 10 uH and
greater inductance using number 61 material on
a ferrite torroid, the FT50-61 core was chosen
for all of the inductors. Number 22 gauge wire
was used for the coils to keep the unloaded Q
as high as possible. The FT37-61 ferrite is also
suitable, but will have less Q and require
smaller gauge wire. Use 19 turns instead of 17
for the 20.2 uH and 21 turns instead of 19 for
the 24.1 uH coil. Do not use number 43 material
ferrite cores.

Components
I do not stock RF capacitors greater than 2200 pF,
so junk box ceramic capacitors were used to build
this filter. In fact, this design specifically uses more
common, standard value capacitors to reduce cost
and to not have to order in parts. Certainly, the
astute builder could use higher quality capacitors
or even large powdered iron torroids instead of the
ferrite cores for inductors if higher performance is
desired. Try to use high Q capacitors if you can
find or are purchasing them. Poly or silver mica
caps would be great choices. You can substitute a
5000 pF capacitor for the 4700 pF called for in the
schematic.
To the right is a photograph of the components I
used in the project breadboard.

Breadboard
 To the left is the completed
project. Ugly construction as
always, was used. The
inductors were spaced at least
2.5 cm (1 inch) apart at right
angles to try to minimize
unwanted coupling.

GPLA Simulation

Above is the plot of the filter during simulation with GPLA. The simulation calculated an attenuation of ~46dB at 1150 KHz.
At 1000 KHz the signal was 40 dB down, at 800 KHz it was ~24 dB down and at 630 KHz, the attenuation was only ~5.7
dB! Clearly this filter is not suitable if the offending BCB interference is from a station significantly less than 0.8 MHz. For
my situation, this filter is acceptable. A 5 element Chebychev filter was also designed and plotted but was discarded as
there was only 32 dB attenuation at 1150 KHz.
Since I wanted to tune as high as 535 KHz, the 533 KHz cutoff frequency was chosen. Additional work to help those with
strong BCB interference at the lower BCB will be attempted in the future and presented on another web page.
Receiver Testing and Comments

Click on the picture to the left to hear the beacon YWB at 389 KHz with a 500
crystal hertz IF filter engaged on a borrowed Icom R-75 receiver. W7ZOI did
some measurements on his R75 receiver S-meter using a signal generator
and step attenuator. From S9 on up to 60 over, the steps were very accurate.
However, below S9, correlation was poor. The built in attenuator is -20 dB
when engaged. On my test receiver, I did some A/B testing with the filter in or
out. For 1150 KHz (without the low pass filter) I had to engage the receiver's attenuator as without it, the S-meter reads off
scale. With the attenuator engaged, the S-meter reads 50 dB over S-9 when tuned to 1150 KHz.

With the filter connected between the receiver and the feed line, (and the attenuator engaged) the S-meter read S-9.This
is a drop of about 50 dB at 1150 KHz which means that this filter pretty much works as designed. I love the Icom R75
receiver; it is good value with it's many features in a compact package. Further testing was undertaken on other
frequencies.

When listening to WWV; At 2.5 MHz, without the filter, the S-meter read S-9. With the filter inline, I could not hear WWV or
see any S-meter reading. At 5 MHz without the filter, the S-meter read was at 20 dB over S-9. With the filter inline, I could
still hear WWV very faintly, but the S-meter did not register. There was little noticeable attenuation at less than 700 KHz
when using this filter.

Additional Photos and information

Shown above is the completed project in a Hammond die-cast case with SO-239 connectors at each end.
 Shown above a photo of the Skookum beacon SX. It is on 389 KHz. This NDB is located in Skookumchuck BC, Canada

Links

My friend and fellow NDB enthusiast, Ken, VE7KPB has a posting on his web site showing some of the beacons he has
logged from his QTH. Consider trying some of these frequencies from your own QTH to get used to finding beacons. Note
you must temporarily allow pop ups to see his excellent log.

We recommend this non-directional beacon search and log utility program called WWSU from VE3GOP It must be registered
and is a wonderful low cost tool.
I was near beacon L in Balti, Moldova (Балти, Молдова) in 2006. Below is a snippet from the VE3GOP program showing
beacon L and also some nearby beacons. ( Я изучаю русский язык ). Приветствую Вас дорогие друзья!

Martin Francis has an excellent NDB web site including the free program called NDB WEBLOG for a number of platforms

Some beacons may be located using this NavAid web site

Clint, KA7OEI has an informative web site regarding NDB listening including using digital computer processing to dig out weak
signals. This is also a great overview site for newcomers to NDB.

Conclusion

To the right is the outcome when I connect

my frequency counter directly to my antenna
coax cable feed line. 1150 KHz is my
nemesis frequency! Happily it can be tamed
with a little filtering to allow NDB listening and
logging.

To the right is the outcome with my SWL

antenna coaxial feed line connected directly
to the scope. The scope was on the 0.5 volts
per cm scale, so the peak to peak voltage is
0.2 volts. In just about any high-gain audio
amplifier I build, if I touch my finger to the
input, I can hear AM 1150 loud and clear - no
wonder!

Good luck with your own NDB adventures!

Copyright © 2007-2008 VE7BPO