Angelia Build

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WS1K
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Sep 06, 2021 1:19 am
Location: Plymouth, MA

Angelia Build

Postby WS1K » Thu Mar 30, 2023 1:22 am

Hello Everyone,
A bunch of years back I bought a built Angelia board from Anan with the intention of building a complete transceiver. I eventually bought an EB104 300W amplifier with the BPF & heatsink and a TAPR TR/Plus board. Needless to say, I never built it. But I did use the Angelia as a receiver only for as long as I have had it.
I was thinking of selling it all off but I would never get what I have into it and I’d like to have a nice complete transceiver to play with.

It would be great to find someone selling a 100D with a bad Angelia board. That would make things a whole lot easier. I don’t think the odds of finding one are very high so I’ll put my kit together.

I know it’s been done before so I’d like to connect with someone to pick their brain on tips, tricks and pitfalls. Has anyone documented their build?
Any help would be appreciated.

73 and Thank you,
Jon WS1K
marc
Posts: 34
Joined: Mon May 15, 2017 2:40 pm

Re: Angelia Build

Postby marc » Tue May 30, 2023 5:59 am

Hi Jon
Sorry for this late reply, I don't follow forum’s activity very closely.
Finding an Anan 100D with a "dead" sdr is not easy. And frontend vendors who claim to be OpenHPSDR compatible don't offer satisfactory solutions.

As far as I know, the best way to turn your Angelia into a working transceiver is to add an Alexiares set of boards to it (Alex equips all Apache labs models, even though the word 'alex' is now politically incorrect and removed from modern software interfaces).
In general :
- use the Alex J15 output with a spi/decimal interface
- add one or two BPFs or a tandem HPF for channel RX1 and BPF for channel RX2
- add a linear amplifier
- ... and its lpf filter
- The various switching cards needed to operate the assembly

You can get an idea of these extensions at
https://wiki.electrolab.fr/Projets:Lab: ... es_Angelia

Everything works perfectly when driven by the Alex protocol (in other words, any SDR from the Apache range, Orion card clones such as Anvelina, Red Pitaya 14- and 16-bit cards, the N7DDC Odyssey2 SDR, etc.).

Over the last year or so, Kjell LA2NI and Laurence G8NJJ have even added a 400W Munin 400 amplifier, an ATU codename Aries, a security card and a 4-way antenna switch to extend this kind of realisation and bring a little 'European legal limit' power to the SDRs in the OpenHPSDR family using Thetis.

https://github.com/LA2NI/

https://github.com/laurencebarker

hope these info will help a little bit
VY 73'
Marc f6itu
wevets@gmail.com
Posts: 20
Joined: Mon May 23, 2022 4:08 pm

Re: Angelia Build

Postby wevets@gmail.com » Tue May 30, 2023 9:18 pm

Hi Jon and Mark,

I built a radio out of the Red Pitaya that is documented.

Please find the Wiki at https://github.com/ka6s/rp_adapter/wiki ... sbperry-Pi

This was my FIRST radio AFTER building the TAPR board set. I initially tried using EB104 Bandpass filters and they had a huge insertion loss when I finally measured them. Could be JUST my version!

I built another one based on the N7DDC Odyssey II - never put band-pass on it. That was essentially a homebrew antenna switch, buttons/knobs board, Munin II, and various interface boards to the Odyssey. I built it inside of an old HP scope - replaced the tube with a touch-screen and put a NUC inside - it could do everything my Andromeda does. Then I let the magic smoke out :-(

Radio number II started out as a repackaging of the TAPR board system + Alex boards + the Controller II board from Kjell LA2NI. Then as I was just about to get everything working - the original TAPR boards stopped working; So I replaced that with a Red Pitaya + a shield I designed that creates the Alex protocol. That radio also works nicely. This radio uses PiHPSDR as its GUI running on a Pi 4B. The Pi mounts on the Controller II board.

You can see pictures of these last too on my QRZ.com page (KA6S).

Anyway - it looks like mostly you just have a packaging job to do - you have all the pieces!

Jon - if you have an account on QRZ.com - you should be able to find my email there on my webpage.

I'd be glad to talk to you about your options.

Steve
marc
Posts: 34
Joined: Mon May 15, 2017 2:40 pm

Re: Angelia Build

Postby marc » Wed May 31, 2023 8:28 am

Hi Jon & Steve
I already saw your QRZ page, Steve. As probably most of all HPSDR fans ;- )
I approximately had the same approach, with 2 red pitaya (a 14 and a 16 bits), a "old timer" TAPR Hermes board, an Angelia and a not yet fully assembled Anvelina board (an orion clone in fact) .

In all configurations, I've stick with the Alex protocol, using home build "modular" Alexiares pcb, precicely to avoid EB104.ru bandpass filters that forbid listening and signal analysis in all "crossover" frequencies areas. I prefere to use the historical HPF+LPF architecture that allows a full "variable bandwidth" filtering config, using the Alex setup panel. Insertion losses are extremely low and the resulting Q is impressive. Thanks to Phil VK2PH and the gang. And thanks to Pavel's gateware that allows to use a full feature "J15" frontend.

For people looking for "quick and not so dirty" filtering solution, I also have designed a dual bpf clone of the Apache 8000 and 7000 version, but results are less exciting in term of performances (Q and insertion losses) and flexibility.

... and as I'm a lazzy guy, I prefered to use Kjell's design for the Pihpsdr (https://wiki.electrolab.fr/Projets:Lab:2020:PiHPSDR) and the Andromeda interface.

OpenHPSDR's frontend questions are probably more addictive than hard drugs

Many thanks for your comments, Steve, and for the heavy documentation.
VY 73'
Marc f6itu

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