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Testing instrument for Radio design

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yuenkit

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Hi,

I wish to design a radio receiver. The problem is, do I really need to have a Oscilloscope for this? It's quite expensive. Do we have any alternative to measure frequency?
 
u can find an oscilliscope on ebay where it will be much much cheaper than buying it new. i'm sure u could find quite a nice one for less than 300 bucks, which is how much russlk said a frequency counter would be.

although an oscilliscope would be very nice to have, ive struggled along without it and just completed a very nice RF bug that works great. i dont have a frequency counter, signal generator, or anything else that russlk mentioned. what i did was quite simple though, and if i was designing a more complicated system, i'd probably need some equipment.
 
There's no ebay in Malaysia :( too bad

I wonder will that be possible for us to DIY an oscilloscope? perhaps use our monitor as the display and it has to be able to capture the 88Mhz - 108 Mhz signal.
 
yuenkit said:
There's no ebay in Malaysia :( too bad

I wonder will that be possible for us to DIY an oscilloscope? perhaps use our monitor as the display and it has to be able to capture the 88Mhz - 108 Mhz signal.

You're talking a VERY expensive oscilloscope to work at band 2 frequencies, it's not something you would usually use an oscilloscope for. Even with a suitable expensive scope it wouldn't be very effective, connecting the scope itself will cause massive changes in the circuit.
 
I've found some web with homebrew testing instrument project

Frequency Meter
http://www.madlab.org/kits/frqmeter.html
https://www.electro-tech-online.com/custompdfs/2004/12/Frequenzimetro_eng_2003.pdf

Frequency Counter
http://www.qsl.net/yo5ofh/pic/freq_counter/freq_counter.htm
http://lea.hamradio.si/~s57nan/ham_radio/fc_led_2/fcl2.html

Oscillator
**broken link removed**
**broken link removed**

Signal Generator
**broken link removed**

RF Voltmeter
**broken link removed**
**broken link removed**

:shock: It's quite headache by jst looking at the list. :( I've to spend quite some time before getting start to build my radio.

When we probe the signal by using Oscilloscope, the impedance matching of the whole circuit will change, is that the reason why oscilloscope is not a good testing instrument for RF design?
 
You can make a simple 1-2 transistor LC oscillator and calibrate it
using the PC's parallel port ( divided by a 1-2 IC divider)
 
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