Simple, cheap exciter

[Albert H]

That'll do it!

[zulu53]

This exciter looks very similar to MAX1 and MAX PRO1 KITS made by PCS-ELECTRONICS, Eslovenia. They were produced by
1998-2000. The only difference I see is
BF981 instead of BF961.

[Albert H]

You can't keep a good idea down! These were circuits that were widely used in north-western Europe from around 1989 onwards. I still have a couple of the PCB-built ones in a box of old junk somewhere. I'll dig them out and take a couple of photos. They used either the 5511 or the 145170 for the PLL.

I saw the Slovenian exciters in about 2003. Someone (Howard?) in London had plenty of them and was using them to drive MRF317 PAs. They were pretty good, cheap rigs, and had the exciter in a tinplate box and the PA bolted to the back of the box next to an "Antrim" toroid transformer. They were unusual for pirate rigs because they had an "N" connector for the aerial socket. Most of them also had a Band I receiver included in the same box, with an "F" connector for the link receive aerial.