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©1998 Hamtronics, Inc.; Hilton NY; USA.  All rights reserved.  Hamtronics is a registered trademark.    Revised: 12/11/02

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GENERAL INFORMATION. 

There are some jobs a transceiver 

grade receiver just can't do, at least 
not well. That's where reliable Ham-
tronics® commercial quality receivers 
come in!  

The R301 is the latest in a series of 

popular receivers for demanding ap-
plications which require exceptional 
sensitivity and selectivity.  It is espe-
cially suited for repeaters, audio and 
data links, and remote control.  The 
R301 was designed to provide instant 
setup without lengthy waits to obtain 
channel crystals.  It is a single-
channel vhf fm receiver available in 
several models for reception in the 
144 MHz ham band, the 148-174 
MHz commercial band, or 216-226 
MHz. 

The R301 is our 7th generation vhf 

fm receiver, and it packs in features 
you've told us are important to you 
during our 35 years of designing re-
ceivers. It's up to the difficult jobs 
you've told us you have.  

The R301 retains all of the popular 

features Hamtronics

®

 receivers have 

been noted for. It uses triple-tuned 
circuits in the front end and excellent 
crystal and ceramic filters in the i-f 
with steep skirts for close channel 
spacing or repeater operation. The i-f 
selectivity, for instance, is down over 
100dB at ±12 kHz away from the car-
rier, which is 40-50 dB better than 
most transceivers. Low noise fet's in 
the front end provide good overload 
resistance and excellent sensitivity. 

The R301 is designed for narrow-

band fm with ±5 kHz deviation.  The 
audio output will drive any load as low 
as 8

 with up to 1 Watt continuous 

output or 2 Watts intermittent output.  
The receiver may be used with either 
voice or fsk data up to 9600 baud us-
ing an external data interface unit.  
An accessory TD-5 CTCSS Decoder 
unit is available for subaudible tone 
control. 

The R301 features a new positive-

acting, wide-range squelch circuit and 
additional output terminals for low-
level squelched audio and discrimina-
tor audio as well as COS.  

There are several models, which 

have minor variations in parts and 
microcontroller programming, to pro-
vide coverage as shown in table 1.  
Channel frequency is controlled by a 
synthesizer with DIP switch channel 
setting.   

The TCXO (temperature controlled 

xtal oscillator) provides a temperature 
stability of ±2ppm over a temperature 
range of -30°C to +60°C.   

INSTALLATION. 

Mounting. 

Some form of support should be 

provided under the pc board, gener-
ally mounting the board with spacers 
to a chassis.  3/8-inch holes should 
be provided in a front panel for the 
bushings of the SQUELCH and VOL-
UME controls.  After sliding bushings 
through panel, washers and nuts can 
be installed on the outside of the 
panel.  Be sure to provide support for 
the board; do not rely on the controls 
to support the board, since that could 
cause a break in the pcb solder con-
nections.   

The receiver board relies on the 

mounting hardware to provide the dc 
and speaker ground connections to 
the ground plane on the board; so 
metal standoffs and screws should be 
used for mounting.  

Note that an er-

ror on the boards covered the 
mounting pads with solder mask; 
so scrape the mask off one of the 
mounting pads to get a good 
ground connection through the 
hardware.

 

Electrical Connections. 

Power and input audio or data sig-

nals should be connected to the solder 
pads on the pc board with #22 solid 
hookup wire, which can be attached 
to a connector or feedthrough capaci-
tors used on the cabinet in which it is 
installed.  Be very careful not to route 
the wiring near the components on 
the left hand side of the board, which 
contains sensitive loop filter and vco 
circuits which could pick up noise 
from the wiring. 

Power Connections. 

The receiver operates on +13.6 Vdc 

at about 200 mA peak with full audio. 
Current drain with no audio is only 
about 55 mA.  A well regulated power 
supply should be used. 

Be sure that the power source does 

not carry high voltage or reverse po-
larity transients on the line, since 
semiconductors in the receiver can be 
damaged.  The positive power supply 
lead should be connected to the re-
ceiver at terminal E3, and the nega-
tive power lead should be connected 
to the ground plane of the board 
through the mounting hardware or 
the shield of the coaxial cable.  Be 
sure to observe polarity! 

Speaker. 

An 8-ohm loudspeaker should be 

connected to E2 with ground return 
through the mounting hardware.  Use 
of lower impedance speaker or short-
ing of speaker terminal can result in 
ic damage.  The receiver can also drive 
higher impedances, such as the 1K to 
20K input impedances of repeater 
controller boards. There is no need to 
load down the output to 8 ohms. 

0

Note that the audio output ic is 

designed to be heatsunk to the pc 
board through the many ground pins 
on the ic.  When running moderately 
low audio levels as most applications 
require, it is no problem to use an ic 
socket; so we have provided one for 
your convenience.  If you will be run-
ning high audio levels, check to see if 
the ic is getting hot.  If so, you should 
remove the ic socket, and solder the 
LM-380N-8 ic directly to the board for 
better heatsinking. 

HAMTRONICS® R301 VHF FM RECEIVER, REV C:  

INSTALLATION, OPERATION, & MAINTENANCE 

Table 1.  Quick Specification Reference 

Model R301-1

 

138.000 - 148.235 MHz

 

Model R301-2

 

144.000 - 154.235 MHz 

Model R301-3

 

154.200 - 164.435 MHz 

Model R301-4

 

164.400 - 174.635 MHz 

Model R301-5 

216.000 - 226.235 MHz 

Model R301-6 

220.000 - 230.235 MHz 

Sensitivity

 (12dB SINAD): 0.15 to 0.2µV  

Squelch Sensitivity:

 0.1µV  

Adjacent Channel Selectivity: 
   

 ±12 kHz at -100dB!  

Image Rejection:

  60-70dB 

Modulation Acceptance:

 ±7.5 kHz 

Frequency Stability:

 ±2ppm -30°C to +60°C  

Audio Output:

 up to 2 Watts (8 ohms).  

Operating Power:

 +13.6Vdc at 55-200 mA,  

   depending on audio level.  

Size:

 4 in. W x 3-7/16 in. D (plus pot. shafts)  

HOW TO CONTACT US — 

Hamtronics, Inc. 
65 Moul Rd; Hilton NY 14468-9535 
Phone: 585-392-9430 

http://www.hamtronics.com

 

email: [email protected] 

Summary of Contents for R301

Page 1: ...ions The receiver board relies on the mounting hardware to provide the dc and speaker ground connections to the ground plane on the board so metal standoffs and screws should be used for mounting Note...

Page 2: ...ct the mute output of the TD 5 to E1 on the receiver ADJUSTMENTS Frequency Netting All crystals age a little over a long period of time so it is customary to tweak any receiver back onto the pre cise...

Page 3: ...that you need to turn on switch sec tions to add 30 kHz to the setting for 146 790 It is not necessary to recal culate the whole range of settings Another trick if you want to switch between two or th...

Page 4: ...ected audio THEORY OF OPERATION The R301 is a frequency synthe sized vhf fm Receiver Refer to the schematic diagram for the following discussion Low noise dual gate mos fet s are used for the RF ampli...

Page 5: ...kHz region which should be pre sent at the top lead of R27 U1 pin 11 with no input signal Between pins 10 and 11 of U1 is an op amp active filter tuned to 10 kHz RF Signal Tracing If the receiver is...

Page 6: ...oise in this unit should be al most as good as a crystal oscillator radio If you notice excessive white noise even though the signal is strong it may be caused by a noisy vco tran sistor Q1 Try swappi...

Page 7: ...7 5 U4 11 1 4 U4 3 7 6 U4 12 0 55 with U4 4 8 sq just closed U4 5 7 6 U4 13 U4 6 7 6 0V sq open U4 7 7 6 7 6V sq closed U4 8 8 U4 14 0 U4 9 3 3 Varies U4 15 0 w freq U4 16 1 8 U5 1 0 U5 5 0 U5 2 0 U5...

Page 8: ...ytic C55 not used C56 220pf 221 C57 68pf C58 C61 0 1 f monolithic 104 C62 C63 not used C64 10 f electrolytic C65 100 f electrolytic D1 BB132 varactor diode surface mt under board D2 D4 1N4148 switchin...

Page 9: ...1998 Hamtronics Inc Hilton NY USA All rights reserved Hamtronics is a registered trademark Revised 12 11 02 Page 3...

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