New Microwave Repeater System Using a Single Traveling-Wave Tube as Both Amplifier and Local Oscillator

This paper describes a new microwave repeater system using one traveling-wave tube as both amplifier and local oscillator. The new system uses a minimum number of vacuum tubes and requires no afc because of the inherent stability of the local oscillator frequency due to the use of a high-Q cavity resonator in the feedback circuit of the traveling-wave tube. The result is marked simplicity in the over-all circuit composition of the repeater equipment. Output power, frequency stability, crosstalk, and other characteristics of the new system are examined. Over-all characteristics are also illustrated by examples, and application of the new system to the 480 telephone channels is mentioned.