Encoder Review
Documentation: No Documents came with the unit, zilch - nada.
Quality of Components: This is not a kit but was factory assembled.
Good quality epoxy board with copper traces and good
silk-screen printed part locations. The parts appear to be all of good quality
with all IC devices being surface mount (SMD).
Quality of Design: Your typical switcher design but in a very small package.
No drift in pilot frequency but wave shape is hardly pure sine wave.
Ease of Assembly: This was not a kit.
Setup and Use: I tried this with a couple of different transmitters. It worked
best with the simple vco transmitters I had available. Setup and alignment was easy using a stereo receiver for testing.
The only adjustments are left and right audio in, the pilot tone level was not adjustable
and there is no way to adjust the total signal output from the encoder, that is typically done
best at the exciter. There wasn't enough encoder output to fully modulate either of the pll rigs
that were tested with it. This is not the fault of the encoder, as both of the pll units require plenty of audio to fully modulate.
The stereo separation was fair and the sound quality was good.
Some minor hiss and noise at were present in the signal with some added harness in the upper audio frequencies.
If you're looking for a very small encoder and not playing classical music then this may be for you.
Support from Vendor: I made no contact with them
Cost: I purchased the unit off of ebay for $35 shipped (Jan 06) and they also sell them on their website for $69 (whew!).
I see that he is still selling them on ebay for $29 plus $9 for postage (to US).
Link: Ebay FM Store...Tugicom RF Design
Rating:... ... ...
- DJ Pirate Joe
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