MuTek Front End still available ?

[DB4UP]

Hello, dear OMs !

I was looking for MuTek frontends for my FT 736 and contacted MuTek Ltd. via email (as announced on their homepage). I never got any reply and I don't think, I will ever get. This page was last updated in 2004 and I wonder if they are still "among the living". ;-)

Some dealers have information on their pages about the MuTek boards but as it seems, they are nowhere available.

So, if anyone has relyable information...please, post it here !

Thank you very much.

[PA3BBV]

Hi, Just looking also for a mutek board for an FT-225RD. A PCB layout will be oke too. So I can build it myself. Mutek does not answer, ssbusa.com does not answer so I think that the boards wil be not available.

Does someone have a copy of a PCB layout?

[kc4ylv]

I looked for months for a way to get a Mutek front end for my IC-271A.

They are shut down, gone, no longer in business.

Time for somebody to cough up schematics, let us reproduce!

[NL7W]

Check with SSB Electronic USA:

http://www.ssbusa.com/mutek.html

http://www.ssbusa.com/contact.html

Good luck.

[PA3BBV]

Hi,
Just designed the mutek frontend PCB myself. I have build one for test and it is working like charme.
Regards,
Leo

[kc4ylv]

Very interested in seeing how this goes!

[PA5COR]

Build my own in the early 90's, first for the FT221R, later for the Ft 225RD

GaAs frontend, diode ringmixer etc
Direct feed from the antenna relay to the pcb, worked like a charm.
I kept the old board for referrence, it made a big difference.

Look into the articles about removing AM jitter on the local oscillator signal in the designs of the 221 and 225.

I consider these 2 transcievers with modifications as the best there ever was for 2 meter DX.

73,
Cor

[PA3BBV]

Hi Cor,
I did that too, build one before in the mid 80's, did a lot of eme in cw in that time with the FT-225RD and that frontend. I have lost the PCB layouts so I had to draw them again. I have finished one board now and it is working very fine. NF=1,3 db

Now I have redesigned the mutek PCB. I have replaced the original mutek frontendstage (bf981a) and put in a stage (all in SMD) with 2xBF996 in parallel (piggy-backed), also used in the javornik transverter. Beside that I put in an SBL1H ringmixer in stead of an SBL1. The new preampstage is having a lower nosefigure nf 0,6db and could, together with the SBL1H handle biggers signals and is cheaper than a gaAsfet

Will see how this works, hope to test this pcb next week.


Indeed I like the FT-225RD very much. I did also the mod to reduce the VCO noise.


73es,
Leo
PA3BBV

[PA5COR]

Cheers Leo,

The Ft 225 RD was in my shack 13 years, the GaAs fet used in my version was the MGF 1402, design based on a article in Dubus ;)

I didn't get the 0.35 nF because there was no room on the board for the elaborate coil and Johnson trimmer ( hi Q) but came close.

I traded the Ft 225 RD in for one of the first batch Ft 847, just bought a second 847 new in box of the latest 2004 batch.

There with the Ft 847 i experimented with the outboard amps, MGF 1402 for 2 /70 based on that same Dubus design.

The newer 847 was better to start with as the 225RD, it had a GaAs fet to start with, but with the Dubus design i got a decent improvement.

Still miss the FT 225 RD.....

Let us know please how your design holds up using the BF996 frontend amp.
Still have a few new MGF 1402 in one of my boxes here, now spare for the front ends of the repeaters in Heerenveen where i do some work for.

Must be getting old now..... :D

73,

Cor

[ZL2TLD]

Circuit is on my website - check my profile.
I've just sourced the failed fet and might get around to attempting repair shortly.

Glenn, ZL2TLD