VCO selection for RC1a

[Andyroo56]

Hi,

I have been doing a lot of review and familiarization of this project for the past month (looking up parts and examining the eagle files) before I start building. Looking at these forums I've seen a number of people who have said they used different VCO's from the Ladyada Wavebubble project (e.g.: viewtopic.php?f=16&t=30621). I am wondering why the choice in different VCOs?

Is it simply for the increased spectral coverage? And if this is the case, why bother? As I understand it, the Ladyada project VCO's should cover all the cell phone frequencies anyways...

Any enlightenment is much appreciated. Thanks!

[lightningserpent]

I used the 5v VCOs on my RC1a because they were easily available from the manufacturer. I wish I could give you a great explanation like "reducing part count" or "power consumption reduction" or "wider frequency range" but the fact is that the 12v VCOs used in the original RC1a are just not easily found since mini-circuits no longer produces them.

I discovered the VCOs part numbers when looking into the WB2010 schematic. Many of the other changes I made were based on the WB2010 or at the very least were a combination of the RC1a, WB2010, information on the forums, and research done on the topic.

[Andyroo56]

Looking at the website, Minicircuits is selling both the ROS-2500+ and the ROS-1700+. Maybe they were out of stock for a while...? Anyways, I've ordered them.

Thanks for your response, hopefully my project goes well. Will update with my further progress (in another topic).