The CCW HF Upconverter (Photo: Cross Country Wireless)
(Source: Southgate ARC)
Cross Country Wireless have just released a HF Upconverter. This will allow HF or VHF SDR receivers such as the RTLSDR dongles, Funcube or our own SDR-4+ receiver to work on HF, LF and VLF.
Unlike other upconverters currently available we have added the RF protection features from our SDR-4+ receiver including an antenna isolation transformer and RF over-power protection. This protects the SDR receiver or dongle and the attached PC from damage caused by static electricity charges on the antenna or nearby high power transmitters.
There are two versions of the Upconverter. One has a 125 MHz local oscillator and the frequency range is 12 kHz to 45 MHz. This is intended for use with the RTLSDR and Funcube dongles.
The other version has a 10 MHz local oscillator and is designed for use with the SDR-4+. This has a frequency range of 12 kHz to 1.6 MHz.
Here are some of the specifications Cross Country Wireless has published for the HF Upconverter:
Technical data – 125 MHz version for RTLSDR and Funcube dongles
- Frequency range: 12 kHz to 45 MHz
- Input impedance: 50 ohms
- IF rejection: > 60 dB
- Local oscillator frequency: 125 MHz
- Local oscillator level at antenna socket: < -50 dBm
- Gain: -6 dB
- RF connectors: SMA female
- Power connector: USB B
Technical data – 10 MHz version for SDR-4+ receiver
- Frequency range: 12 kHz to 1.6 MHz
- Input impedance: 50 ohms
- IF rejection: >100 dB
- Local oscillator frequency: 10 MHz
- Local oscillator level at antenna socket: < -60 dBm
- >Gain: -6 dB
- RF connectors: SMA female
- Power connector: USB B
Also, from CCW on YouTube:
“This is a video of a Cross Country Wireless HF Upconverter used with a CCW SDR-4+ receiver to listen to VLF and LF transmissions using a half wave dipole cut for the 80m amateur band.”
(Click here if you are unable to view the video above.)
There are 20 second samples of the following stations:
- BBC Radio 5 Live on 693 kHz AM
- BBC Radio 4 on 198 kHz AM
- GYN2 Skelton on 81 kHz FSK
- MSF Anthorn on 60 kHz time signal
- GQD Anthorn on 22.1 kHz Anthorn
- GQD Anthorn on 19.6 kHz
This version of the Upcoverter uses a 10 MHz local oscillator so the frequency displayed is 10 MHz higher than that received i.e. 10.693 MHz = 0.693 MHz = 693 kHz.