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Reducing Audio Popping in The HW-8

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35 views2 pages

Reducing Audio Popping in The HW-8

Uploaded by

domenec mila subirats
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Reducing Audio Popping in the HW-8

John Clements KC9ON

The stock Heathkit HW-8 was designed for high impedance headphones. Adding external audio
amplification to the HW-8 to use a speaker or modern day headphones can result in some rather loud
popping noticed between transmit and receive and adding QSK capabilities can make it even more
noticeable. So where does the problem originate and can we reduce it?

One of the problems first appears at the audio muting circuit where Q14 shunts the audio to ground
during transmit. Part of this circuit is the input audio of op-amp IC2C pin 8 which has a 0.5V DC bias
during receive. When transmitting Q14 becomes active and the DC is reduced to near 0V. Figure 1
shows the receive audio is barely visible on the top of the trace and the 0.5V bias swinging while
transmitting the letter H. The blips at the bottom of the trace is from side tone injection.

IC2C has a fairly large amplifier gain so not only is the small audio signal being amplified but also the
0.5V keying voltage. The result is a pop in the audio chain at the volume control input point PP as seen in
the spikes in figure 2.

Figure 1 – keying voltages at input of op amp Figure 2 – Dark trace is the receive audio and light trace is the
keying line at Q14 base. Note the audio spikes going off
screen between Rx and Tx.

The fix is to simply move the collector of Q14 to point PP, which has 0V bias on it. This improves the pop
but notice the received audio is no longer 100% muted and some distortion is heard in the side-tone.
Optionally replacing Q14 with a 2N7000 MOSFET improves performance even further with it’s lower
turn on resistance. There is still a second click seen on the leading edge of the keying. This traces back
to the MC1496 mixer and although we can’t totally remove it, it can be reduced by a pair of end to end
3.3V zeners between point PP and ground. The zeners are also probably a good idea for ear protection
from strong sounds. Figure 4 shows the audio output pops before and after modification.

HW-8-POPPING ©KC9ON Page | 1


Reducing Audio Popping in the HW-8
John Clements KC9ON

Figure 4a – Before Modification Figure 4b – After Modification

The modification is simple and easily reversible. If replacing Q14 with a 2N7000, do that first. It drops in
place pin for pin with the same orientation. Then cut the trace going to the collector of Q14 and add a
jumper from the Q14 collector to point PP. Finally add 2 3.3V zener diodes end to end from point PP to
ground as seen in figure 5. Point PP can get busy if also adding an S-meter mod.

Figure 5 Modification. Notice the cut trace left of the jumper.

Figure 6 – Schematic of modification

HW-8-POPPING ©KC9ON Page | 2

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