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Forward path – Motorola BT100 User Manual

Page 20

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Overview 2-9

BT100 Installation and Operation Manual

The factory provides 20-ampere fuses to power additional amplifiers. Figure 2-9 illustrates the

location of these fuses. Power to each output port is also provided through 20-ampere fuses. You

can remove the fuses to eliminate power at any of the ports.

Figure 2-9
Fuse locations

Forward Path

The forward path of the amplifier provides an operational gain of 42 dB. The operating gain

includes provisions for the insertion loss of the input cable equalizer and required reserve gain

to operate the Bode equalizer in the middle of its range.
The standard four output forward path’s electronics consist of four parallel three-stage paths

consisting of: (1) pre-amplifier (input hybrid), (2) intermediate amplifier (midstage hybrid), and

(3) power-doubling output hybrid. The first two stages are common to both paths. The

pre-amplifier stage provides a low noise figure while the output stage contributes the preferred

power at low distortion. The amplifier input provides a facility to install a cable equalizer and a

socket for a model JXP-*B attenuator. The attenuator and equalizer are customer installed

options.
Several circuits comprise the mid-stage amplifier. The Bode equalizer is a voltage-controlled

device that receives its input from the manual gain control, the automatic drive unit (ADU-*),

the QAM automatic drive unit (QADU-*), or the thermal drive unit (TDU). Following the Bode

board, the BDR controls response flatness and provides equalization and a JXP pad facility

adjusts the RF level into the mid-stage hybrid amplifier. Because these losses are located

interstage, the noise figure is only significantly impacted by the insertion loss of the forward

cable equalizer or a broadband cable simulator.

To increase tilt after the midstage amplifier, there is a mid-stage equalizer, model MEQ-100-*.

Following this MEQ-100-* and various splitters, there are JXP-*B pad sockets leading into the

power-doubling output stage. The number of pads depends on the number of outputs configured.