Technical Articles:
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Adding
a small MMIC multiplier board into the enclosure of the
VHF OXCO made a great signal marker for the microwave bands.
This one uses a spare crystal I had at 96 MHz, and provides strong, stable marker signals for the 2304, 3456, 5760 and 10,368 MHz bands.
If one were to use a 144 MHz crystal, markers would also be available for 144, 432, and 1296 MHz.
Hearing the signal only requires attaching an small "antenna"
to the output (in my case, an inch of bare wire).
I used a small universal MMIC amplifier board to generate the
harmonics. The
actual device used was a MAR-3 equivalent, chosen for it's ability to generate
lots of harmonics (without going bananas) when overdriven with 10 mw from the OCXO.
The multiplier board was spot-soldered to one of the walls of the OCXO enclosure, and the output coax re-routed to it. Of course, the OCXO output was routed to the amplifier input, and D.C. power obtained from a spare 8v pad on the other side of the OCXO board.