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Hi Peter, Thank you for your comment. Very interesting stuff! Regarding filtering, you are correct. When you replace oscillator circuits or crystals in radio gear, the radio's internal filtering usually eliminates the harmonics and overtones. I've done the same thing, and it works great. I also like how you stabilised the reference crystal, essentially creating a TCXO. Brilliant idea!

That's an interesting question. To be honest, I have only tried narrow FM from 10 MHz to 200 MHz with a maximum deviation of around 10 kHz. Theoretically, I would say it's possible, but I am unsure how the PLLs and multi-synths would react. I'm making a video carrying out some performance testing and will take a closer look at this. Thank you for your comment!

Hi Paul, thank you for the comment. The new breakout board can be used for any purpose as long as it's within the frequency range of the clock generator 8KHz to 200MHz. So HF and VHF would be fine. I just used an 11 meter radio as it was easy to demonstrate it working. I am in discussions with Adafruit with a view to them producing the unit so it will be available for people to buy. Watch this space.

Hi Rob, Thank you for your comment. I looked at the code again from the video and it should compile. I think that you may be using the wrong library, I should have made this a little more clear in the video. So the sketch is based around the Etherkit library by Jason Mildrum. You may need to unistall the current library and install the Etherkit library via the library manger within the Arduino IDE and search for Si5351 and install the Etherkit library. Also I have some videos with code called "how to build a VFO" where I go through this in more detail. I hope this is of help. If you are still struggling drop me a line and I will try and help. Also the output at 2mA drive should be around 0dBM into a 50ohm load there ar e on line calculators that will calculate the pk voltage from this value.

Keep an eye on the channel as I will make a video when I get them manufactured.

Hi Paul, thank you for your comment. The si5351B breakout board with FM modulation capabilities is now fully designed, tested, and ready for manufacture. However, if I'm honest, I'm not in a position to distribute these boards at this time. The board shown in the video is a prototype, and I have since refined the design. As a radio electronics hobbyist and enthusiast, I have designed the board as an open-source project. Given the interest in this board, I believe it would be a great seller. With that in mind, I have reached out to several manufacturers, including Adafruit, to explore manufacturing and distribution options so people can get hold of them for their projects. Regarding the controller board (Band Surfer MK2), I have been developing it for quite some time and am nearly ready to move on to the next step of getting it into the public domain. Again, I am exploring manufacturing avenues. Thank you again for your comment, and suggestions are always welcome. I am in the middle of making more videos about these projects, which will be available very soon. regards John M0XFX

Yes and I think it's a really useful feature. thanks for the comment.

Thanks!!

Hi Robert, I like the way you are thinking however; the I am using a type B si5351 with a built in VCO to modulate the FM. The the deviation level is set via the I2C. I am currently make part 2 which going through how it works in more detail including schematics and code.

@@M0XFXUK Ah, ok. Thanks for answer. I'm thinking about using a varicap diode to modulate reference oscillator (with A version), but it will probably be difficult to control the deviation when the carrier frequency changes... And i dont know if PLL is fast enough for 3kHz Fmod.

@@robertdec3713 If I am honest, I think it would be a bad idea to mess with the reference oscillator frequency as the frequency stability would be all over the place. Using the type B IC I can modulate up to 10KHz deviation without any issues. I am making part 2 which should be out tomorrow.

Great. I've been looking at tacking on a TCXO to the original but it's a pain. The FM is a bonus, I'm guessing you're using the next version up with the analogue pin. I didn't know a TXCO was available in such a tiny package.

Hi Mark, hope you are well mate. I have finally found some time to do stuff again. Great to hear you liked the video

Meeee tooo amazing John!!!! Great job!!!

Hi Leonard and thank you for your comment. Yes we are planning to make them available, we are trying to get them manufactured in China. We can supply one off boards that we assemble however; they are quite expensive.

@@M0XFXUK Well I'm getting too old (dexterity and vision) to do much surface mount stuff anymore so assembled would be the only way for me to go. I'll bet however there will also be many others that will be interested in assembled units for the increased stability of the TXCO. Please keep us informed through your future videos.

Great to hear that you are enjoying the channel and greetings from the UK.

Hi mate, I am sorry to hear that you are having issues with the ads from our channel. We have the channel monetised to try and recoup some of the outlay of making the content. If we switch it off RUclips still runs ads anyway. I will take a look into how I can correct this. Thank you for your message.

Haha, I'm sorry, you are correct. This has been a long-running joke with some of my viewers, playing on words involving John Hurt, the famous actor, and Heinrich Hertz, the physicist known for his work with electromagnetic waves. It all started with Michael Faraday and the unit of capacitance, the Farad, which is commonly referred to in plural as Farads. For example, people often say "10 microfarads." Should it be Farad or Farads? Hertz or Hertzs? I realise this can be confusing, so I will stop doing it. Thank you for pointing it out.

Apologies for the late reply, No this unit uses the Si 5351 which has a range of up to 200Mhz however people have been using the harmonics to get into the GHz range. This does work but it can suffer frequency instability as you are so far away from the base clock frequency. I hope this is of help. Regards John

They will be available again soon and I have made some improvements. Keep an eye on the channel.

Hi apologies I have been busy with work commitments of late. the PCB should be available again soon and I have made some improvements. Keep an eye on the channel. great to hear that you are enjoying the content.

Hi Paul apologies I have been busy with work commitments of late. No the squelch works by the micro controller comparing the signal level with the squelch level and switching on a transistor which grounds out the squelch circuit in the transceiver.

@@M0XFXUK Nice work, look forward to seeing it all finished some day, as work allows!

Have fun, these radios can certainly be a handful.

@@M0XFXUK Hi John. Just as a note for future repairs, Yaesu UK still has stock of the original relays. Not cheap but keeps things OEM spec.

Not long now, keep an eye on the channel

Hi apologies I have been busy with work commitments of late. With regards to your question, to be honest signal to noise isn't really the best way to test the performance of the clock generator. I had noticed the the original LO in the radio had quite a bit of phase noise indeed you can see it on the oscilloscope. If you wanted to test signal to noise I find using SINAD measurement is good way doing this especially if you are using FM. To do this you need to inject a 1 KHz modulated RF signal into the antenna socket tune the radio to the same frequency. Connect a SINAD meter to the Ext speaker socket and reduce the RF signal level until you get into the noise. The SINAD is the ratio of noise to the RF signal level.

Hi apologies I have been busy with work commitments of late. With regards to your question: I am used the ESP32 S3 however; I guess it would work with esp32 Devkit v.3 but you may have to may have to change to GPIOs the code to suit that board. I hope this is of help.

Hi apologies I have been busy with work commitments of late. To be honest I have developed a new Si5351 breakout board with a 2ppm TXCO which has improved the frequency stability and I have also added an FM modulation feature to the new breakout board. With regards to GPS steered frequency stability is not something I have given much thought to. I believe that he type C variant of the si5351 can be controlled by a variety of reference frequencies which would be interesting to see how it performs with GPS locked standard but is not something I have had the time to play with. Thank you for the comment as it's good food for thought. regards John M0XFX

Hi apologies I have been busy with work commitments of late. regarding your question, Yes I don't see why it shouldn't work however depending what features you use you may need to reassign the GPIO's to suit. Thank you for your comment.

@@M0XFXUK Thank you !

Hi apologies I have been busy with work commitments of late. regarding your question, I am sorry but I don't remember the values or the voltages of the capacitors. I would say it would be a good idea to make sure that you using the same voltages as the caps that you replace as higher voltage caps tend to higher ESR characteristics.

Hi apologies I have been busy with work commitments of late. Jose it's great to hear from you my friend and yes it's been a long time. I hope all is well with you and the family. Yes I have been fixing radio again and playing with Arduino as you suggested all those years ago. It's been difficult for me to keep in the radio repair screen as I have been working project across Europe and not had the chance to be in the workshop. Great to hear that you are still at it, Very Best Regards John M0XFX

Yep I used to have one too, they are a great performer and I really enjoyed operating it. To be honest I think that we are only just starting to see this problem with the 920 as I agree they have been a reliable radio. Since making the video I have had quite a number of people contacting me with the same issue. It's a relatively easy fix so let's hope we can keep these radios going for years to come. Thank you for your comment

Hi apologies I have been busy with work commitments of late. Thank you for the comment. It's not designed as a signal generator per say but more of a local oscillator and if I am honest it doesn't really fall into the category of DDS regarding RF signal side of things as the clock generator is a PLL synthesised system and not a digital to analogue convertor. It does however; have DDS function from the MCU generating audio tones for CTCSS etc. Again if I am honest I have moved on from this project and I have been developing a more powerful version called the Band Surfer base around the Si5351B IC using the ESP32 S3.

Hi Gene, That's a great offer, as I assume there are still a lot of hard-to-find parts in there. May I ask what the problem is with the main board? Regards, John M0XFX

@@M0XFXUK some how it got flexed to much and has about a 8 in crack right where the processor sits and Several other components

Thanks 👍

Hi Ryan, I'm sorry to hear that you're experiencing problems with your FT-1000MP. I haven't encountered the specific fault you're describing; however, when you see a flashing frequency display, it's usually related to the PLL not locking up or the local oscillator not being present. These radios are quite complex, so it's difficult to pinpoint the issue without having it on test gear. May I ask where you're based?

@@M0XFXUK wa state. I can send you a video of the behavior. Thanks for responding

Thanks 👍

Hi Chris, it's always great to hear from you. I'm thrilled that you enjoyed the video! It was a bit of a rush job on my end, as I've been quite busy lately.

Haha, You must have came across the fault before however, it was a new one for me. Thanks for the comment.

@@M0XFXUK yep had one about 7 years ago same issue.

@@Dratchev241 did you ever share this with others ?? i spent days searching the web for this information and never found it until i found this video..