Free-running Sailor S1303

Making your Sailor S1303 free-running.

(For TX on amateurbands 10, 12, 15, 17, 20, 30, 40, 80 and 160m).
Note, this information is based on the "standard" S1303 and not on S1303-I (option1)

This is still under construction! last update june 17 2004

This is a set like the one I own:

It consists of the parts:

R1119 0.1-29.9 MHZ SSB/AM Receiver
S1303 Exiter capable of TX 0.1-29.9
T1130 Trasmitter
On the top of it you see the
AT1500 Antenna tuning unit

I do have manuals for this set, (digitalized) if you want to scan your own manuals scan at 300DPI b/w (lineart)
and then convert the BMP files to pdf using Image2PDF 1.6 or so (turn off despeckle). This gives a nice quality
and fairly small size PDF.
(Please take a look at the index page, for the manuals i'm looking for).

http://home.wanadoo.nl/e.houwertjes/s1303.html (1 of 15) [18-6-2004 13:48:40]

 Free-running Sailor S1303

This site is formed during the modification of a Sailor S1303 therefor the story might not be complete or proceed
further on the page.

Now I know what has to be changed, I made a small satus list.

Project status:
Calculating prom contents IC2115 and 2114 READY
Calculating prom contenst IC702 _________ READY
Calculating Prom contents IC301 (T1130___ READY
Programming eproms proms ________________ READY
Making prom adaptors + programming proms_ READY
Testing (12m tx) ________________________ READY
Adding switching transistors/resistors___ READY
Adding Oscillators ______________________ READY
Adding Harmonics filters ________________ READY
Adding bandfilters ______________________ READY
Modifieing existing bandfilters _________ BUSY
Adjustments en final Testing ____________ BUSY
Making LSB ______________________________ READY

Don't blaim me if I provide you with wrong information, i'm no sailor specialist. I'm trying to undertsand this
beautifull tranceiver, and try to get it working on amateur bands.
Before you attemt the same, make yourself familiar with the radio-set, don't fully rely on my story. The page have
been updated quite often. I'm quit close to making the final adjustments.
My tranceiver now operates the Radio amateur bands 160- 10m, + full coverage under 8mHz.
If you want Full coverage above 8mHz, change the 10, 14, 18, 21, 24, 28 mHz bandpass filters to Lowpass filters
(12, 16, 18, 22, 25 and 30 mHz).

In the statuslist above you can see there are quite some modifications to make, especially the RF circuits take
quite some time.

If you need any help or have any questions just send me a message, I will be glad to help.

Here the whole story begins.......(early march 2004)

More S1303 transmitters are to be found on the surplus market.

These nice transmitters are capable of transmitting all over the Hf bands from 1-30 Mc.
Unfortunately onely the maritime frequencies are open.
To open up other frequencies (for example for radio amateur use), The change of prom(contents) seems to be
needed. And the VCO unit and harmonics filter need te optional components for bands 10-12, 14-16, 18-20, 20-
22, 26-28 (and 28-30) MHz the bandfilters need retuning/modifieing and 2 filtesr need to be added.

With onely the change of prom contents a standard S1303 should be able to transmit on 160, 80, 40 and 12M the
bands 30, 20, 17, 15 and 10m need extra components for wich there is space on the different pcb's (see pictures

http://home.wanadoo.nl/e.houwertjes/s1303.html (2 of 15) [18-6-2004 13:48:40]

 Free-running Sailor S1303

futrher down this page)

In the S1303 there are 2 proms on the frequency control board, IC2114 and IC2115 (6308), IC2114 controls the
frequencies 0-16 MHz, IC2115 controls 16-29MHz.
On the VCO selector board we find IC702 (6330),The contents of this prom need to be changed as well, and even
the prom on the control board of your transmittor (IC301) needs to be changed.

For transmitting on 28Mhz you need to place extra components on the bandfilter, and need to retune the 12, 16,
22 and 25 mHz filters to 10, 14, 21, 24 and need to add an 18mHz bandpass filter. For full coverage you need to
make lowpass filtesr in stead of bandpass filters, the bandpass filters onely allow a small portion of HF
frequencies to function. For Radio Amateur use adjusting/midifieing bandpassfilters is enough.

The Proms 6308/6330 and a programmer for this prom are both hard to find.
So I used a 27c32 eprom instead to replace IC2114 and 2115 on the frequency control board. An other eprom can
allso be used.
For IC702 and IC301 on the VCO selector and Transmittor control unit I allso used a 27c32.

IC2115 and 2114:

The first of every 8 bits (the most right) controls the tx-allowance, if this bit is high (1 )tx is not allowed,
changing this bit to 0 makes you able yo transmit.
Simply grounding O1 (pin6) won't do de Job, the illegal frequency light won't come on, and the pa is not blocked
so it looks good.
Unfortunately this is not the onely problem to overcome. The prom content allso adresses the VCO-selector, wich
selects the right vco and band-filter.
It allso switches the rigt Filters in the PA and provides information for the antenna tuner controller.

Now we still have one big problem, what prom contents should we use for the "missing" bands. The Service
manual gives us no answers about this. Maybe someone can give me a little more info about this. Sofar the
project had stranded right here.

18/03/2004 the "big" reverse engineering project started. there is a lot to discover here, different poms steered by
the output of IC2115 and 2114 and a number of BCD-decimal decoders and a 4bit latching line decoder and
invertors "mess" up the signals.

The proms explained.

I'd like to explain a little about the proms in the exiter and the transmitter.

The frequency information wich is entered at te keyboard sends some info to the proms IC2114 and IC2115. The
positions in the proms represent the frequency bands in 100KHz steps.
For example the address 0000 in prom IC2115 means 0.0 MHZ, address 0021 means 2.1MHz, entering the right
data here allows you to transmit and selects the right VCO and Filters by the output of data-lines 1 (blocking

http://home.wanadoo.nl/e.houwertjes/s1303.html (3 of 15) [18-6-2004 13:48:40]

 Free-running Sailor S1303

information) 2 and 8 are not used, 5,4,6,3 and 7 give us the data lines Z,Y,X,V and T wich provide (inverted) data
to the proms IC702 on the VCO selector board and IC301 in the transmitter.

IC 2115 0000(0.0MHz) to 00F9(15.9MHZ), IC2114 0000(16.0) to 00c9(28.9MHz)

This is an overview of the datalines between the proms.

http://home.wanadoo.nl/e.houwertjes/s1303.html (4 of 15) [18-6-2004 13:48:40]

 Free-running Sailor S1303

As you van see the T,V,X,Y and Z lines are onely connected to proms, the data address chosen by entering the
frequency, addresses a cirtaiaddress in the proms IC702 and IC301 the data at this position Chooses the right
VCO, Bandfilter and Drivelevel and lowpass filter. The TVXYZ datalines allso connect to a RAM wich selects
the right tuner settings, ths ram rust needs this for selecting the right output, if this used to be at address 0016 or
00a8 makes no difference in te opereation of the ram. Therefor it can be that proms are not exchangable, but
onely can be exchanged all four at the same time, and the antenna needs to be tuned again.

By examining the selections of VCO and bandfilter in the exiter and the drive level and LPF in the transmitter one
could extract the data wich is needed in the proms IC702 and IC301 There are some missing frequencies, so I had
to choose some datalines for it, make shure you use the same datalines, otherwise things don't add up.

In the S1303 we have 32 prom positions to select the different bands, the 30MHz has to be divided into 2MHz
steps wich gives us 15 steps for VCO selecting. The easiest way to divide the band over these 32 prom positions
is 1 for every MHz. this gives us 2 spare positions. These spare prom positions are uised by sailor to divide 6-7
and 8-9 mhz into 2 pieces.

IC 702 receives the TVXYZ data and uses it to select the right VCO with outputs 1-4, outputs 5-7 are used for
selecting the bandfilter and output 8 gives a 1MHz steering line for the odd frequencies.
IC301 allso receives the TVXYZ data and uses the outputs 1-4 to select the dive level, 5-7 are used to switch the
right lowpass filter and output 8 can block the PA.

Frequency bands divided.

VCO's/harmonic filters are divided into 2MHz parts, this is easy to use.
The bandfilter however is divided in 0-6.4, 6.4-8.5, 12, 16, 22, 25, spare1 and spare2.

http://home.wanadoo.nl/e.houwertjes/s1303.html (5 of 15) [18-6-2004 13:48:40]

 Free-running Sailor S1303

I will use them as 0-6, 6-10, 10-14, 14-18, 22-24, 24-26, spare1 becomes 18-22 and spare2 becomes 26-30 MHz.
The drive level and lowpass filters are not nicely divided (1MHz steps) as well.
Drive level 1.6-3.9, 4.0-5.9, 6.9-6.9, 7.0-8.4, 12.3-12.6, 16.4-16.8, 22.0-22.3, 25.0-25.1 and spare.
I use this 0-2, 2-4, 4-7, 7-10, 10-14, 14-17, 17-22, 22-25, 25-30.
For the lowpass filter, 1.6-2.2, 2.2-3.1, 3.1-4, 4.3-8.5, 8.5-16.9, 16.9-28.
I will use 0-2, 2-3, 3-5, 5-8, 8-17, 17-30.

The output of IC702 and IC 301 for 0-30MHz frequency bands I chose looks like this.

......... IC 702 ...... IC 301

0 - 1 ..... 00 .......... 50
1 - 2 ..... 80 .......... 50
2 - 3 ..... 01 .......... 41
3 - 4 ..... 81 .......... 31
4 - 5 ..... 02 .......... 22
5 - 6 ..... 82 .......... 22
6-6.4 ..... 0D .......... 22
6.4-7 ..... 1D .......... 22
7 - 8 ..... 9D .......... 23
8-8.5 ..... 13 .......... 13
8.5-9 ..... 13 .......... 13
9 -10 ..... A3 .......... 13
10-11 ..... 27 .......... 14
11-12 ..... A7 .......... 14
12-13 ..... 24 .......... 14
13-14 ..... A4 .......... 14
14-15 ..... 36 .......... 15
15-16 ..... B6 .......... 15
16-17 ..... 3C .......... 15
17-18 ..... BC .......... 06
18-19 ..... 68 .......... 06
19-20 ..... E8 .......... 06
20-21 ..... 49 .......... 06
21-22 ..... c9 .......... 07
22-23 ..... 45 .......... 07 Somehow my wires did not add up,
23-24 ..... C5 .......... 07 I changed prom contents for the LPF
24-25 ..... 5E .......... 07 I switched 0-5, 1-4 and 2-3 and works fine.
25-26 ..... DE .......... 08 (this is not according to my circuit/manual)
26-27 ..... 7B .......... 08
27-28 ..... FB .......... 08
28-29 ..... 7A .......... 08
29-30 ..... FA .......... 08

Note that the bands chosen here do not allways fit nicely in the bands like sailor made/tuned it, but this should fit nincely to our amateur bands.

As you can see the prom contents look very much like the testprom contents, infact the IC2114 and 2115
testproms can be used with this prom contents for IC702 and IC301
For IC702 I have some differences in prom contents, somehow the saitor testprom contents in the manual do not
seem to choose the right bandfilters on 10-12, 14-16, 18-22, 23-25 and 26-30 MHz. Why this is done is not clear
to me.
IC301 however does not have any "testprom contents" in the manual, the drive level setting is not the most
important, but the lowpass filter selection is extermely important.

26/03/04 Tomorrow I will try to test the prom contents I calculated unfortunately the onely "extra" band this will

http://home.wanadoo.nl/e.houwertjes/s1303.html (6 of 15) [18-6-2004 13:48:40]

 Free-running Sailor S1303

open up is 12m, because some hardware is missing, but it is a nice way to have a first test.
I was able to get the radio tuned and made a local chat, unfortunately no DX, but my work sofar had payd off. I
know what to do to get the rest working.
The proms might need some small changes, but sofar it looks fine. I'll try to add the extra oscillator circuits, band
and harmonics filters. If I have some more frequencies working, I'll write it here.

Here you see some pictures of my S1303, as you can see the VCO, Harmonics filter and bandpass filter are not
complete. Even the wiring and switching circuits (8x BC328 + 24x 12k resisrors) are missing on the VCO
selector board.

http://home.wanadoo.nl/e.houwertjes/s1303.html (7 of 15) [18-6-2004 13:48:40]

Free-running Sailor S1303

http://home.wanadoo.nl/e.houwertjes/s1303.html (8 of 15) [18-6-2004 13:48:40]

Free-running Sailor S1303

http://home.wanadoo.nl/e.houwertjes/s1303.html (9 of 15) [18-6-2004 13:48:40]

 Free-running Sailor S1303

VCO Circuits.

The VCO circuits consist of a strange bundle of capacitors diodes end resistors.
This is a part of the complete circuit you can find in the manual.

The 1N4148 and BA282 are used to switch on/off the vco, they are operated by the 18/-0.7 V on the top of the
circuit. The 47 ohm, 10n and 10uF provide the voltage for the switch and the oscillator cuircuit, and prevent
frequencies to get on the 18V supply.
The bb130 Varicap is a high capacity varicap, the capactiance for the oscillator is lowered by the 2x68pF
capacitors. These capacitors allso block the DC volatgens (V-control and 18/-0.7V) the 2p2 capacitor seems kind
of optional the control voltage is passed through the 27k resistor, the 33nF capacitor is to keep HF out of the
Vcontrol supply.

http://home.wanadoo.nl/e.houwertjes/s1303.html (10 of 15) [18-6-2004 13:48:40]

 Free-running Sailor S1303

Making new VCO's

Important note!
In the R1119 and R1120 receivers the same PCB's are used for generating frequencies, these PCS's are not
complete for use in the exiter, but one could place missing components form one PCB to te other to make one
complete.
So if you are te lucky owner of a spare receiver it wil make your work less complex.

For component placement one youd just follow PCB-tracks, by the R1119 / R1120 manual gives you all the
information you need regarding to components placement.

I had some problems to find the right parts, the BB130 is quite expensive if you find them and the BA282 is verry
hard to find as well. I used a BA482 instead and for the BB130 I tried a BB121a. This actually is a VHF varicap,
with a much lower capacitance then the BB130. A way to overcome this is replacing the 2x68pF capacitors by a
single 1nF or 2n2 capacitor. Maybe you need 2x BB121 parallel, but it seems one could do the job.
The optional 2p2 capacitors do not seem to be necessary at this time, bu sofar I onely measured the frequencies
outside the exiter, I still have to test it with the board installed.
The adjustable inductor I used i of a diffrent type then the type sailor used. I used one with an adjustable cap
instead of one with an adjustable core. Just a few windings 5-10 (just a few uH) seemed to be able to cover the
disired (missing) bands.

Unfortunalely I don't have complete schematics I depends on the varicaps and coils you can get. So you will have
to experiment a little yourself. I used the BB121 in series with a 1nF capacitor and a 4-6 winding coil (about 0.5-
2uH i guess) for the highest frequencies, and the 2n2 capacitor in serie with the BB121 and a 5-9 winding coil
(probably max.4 uH) for the 3 lower missing bands.

After adding Harmonics/Bandfilters I will write again.

17/4/04 I added the harmonics and bandfilters, I used values wich could fit but are just inteprolated, I used the
valused of the surronding bands. Unfortunalety all bands do not work. For the bandfilter there are several
solutions, one could retune the filters 12=>10MHz, 16=>14 MHz 22=>21 MHz 25=>24 MHz for 18 and 28 MHz
we should add filters on the empty positions.
There however is one small problem, the bandfilters are nice filters, but if one wants to use a frequency in for
example 14 and 16MHz the filter is not wide enough. One should use lowpass filters instead. This meens
rewinding the 8 of the existing coils The 2 lowest filters allready are lowpass filters so this ia allready complete.
And the 2 missing filters probably are not needed when using lowpass filters. (Be aware of the prom contents
using all the bandfilters).

This time all bands are working! Yes... Finaly I got things right. Creating/adjusting the bandfilters is the most
trichy part. Be carefull with the inductor cores, they are extremely fragile. When you have a US-exiter mahe sure
you remove the 21.4 crystal in the bandfilter, and replace it with capacitor of about 10pF.
The 16 MHz filter proves to be working quite bad on 14MHz, I used capacitors of about 30pF paralell to C1525
(91pF) and C1529 (150pF) and about 60pF parallel to C1531 (240pF). The result is much better now.
The other filters seem quite usable on 10 and 24 Mhz. The 18 and 28 MHz bandpass filters are quite hard to
construct. I used interpolated values, 18 Mhz should be about C1561 2x3.9pF//, C1559 82pF, C1563 2x270pF
serie, C1565 220pF, for the coils, I reccomend you desolder the houdings and wind coils looking like the "middle
brother" of the 16 and 22 MHz coils.

http://home.wanadoo.nl/e.houwertjes/s1303.html (11 of 15) [18-6-2004 13:48:40]

 Free-running Sailor S1303

For 28 MHz I would reccomend colis with just about one windeing less then the ones on the 25 MHz filter. For
the capacitors try: C1560 4p7, C1558 2x27pF//, C1562 82pF, C1564 120pF. If I get my filters tuned perfectly
(slightly better then now) I will publish the found values here.

PROM adaptor.

So one thing we have to do is to change or add prom contents, unfortunalety I can't change the original proms. So
we have to program some new/other ones, this allso has some advantage, I can programm the proms in every
order I like. I use ordinary, common available EPROMS of the type 27C32.
There is one small problem I encountered, one of the proms I used was not able to pull the 5v output lines low
enough, I used a fujitsu chip instead and it worked fine. Maybe you need to remove the (10k) pull-up resistors on
the output lines.

This is the first circuit I made, to use as prom adaptor.

The finished board looks like this (don't mind the small wires, this is the first experiment)

http://home.wanadoo.nl/e.houwertjes/s1303.html (12 of 15) [18-6-2004 13:48:40]

 Free-running Sailor S1303

I allso still have to change something about the output enable to prevent having output when entering digits.
This however has no effect on the final results, after entering . (period) the right address is selected)

The way to resolve this is the following:

The original proms have 2 Enable wires, when typing caracters either E1 or E2 get enabeled, after pressing .
(period) on one of the proms both lines get enabeled.
I used onely one proms socket, so I use the E1 of this socket on the A8 pin of my 27c32 Eprom to swich to the
next address range.
To prevent from sending the wrong data to your exiter/transmittor when you are typing you could use E1 of the
other prom to select an other address range in the 27C32 by using pin A9.
The address range of the eproms with both A8 (1000-1fff)and A9 high (2000-2fff) should contain the data of
IC2114 and IC2115. Al other should be programmed with FF.
Like this improved file. (right-klick to download)

I've just tested this, and it seems to work fine. I did draw a new board, bot I don't realy like the looks of it after all.
If you would like to test, just add a wire from the IC2114 socket to the adaptorboard pin A8/23 and disconnet
A9/22 from groud and reroute it.
I'll try to draw a new board if I find the time.

http://home.wanadoo.nl/e.houwertjes/s1303.html (13 of 15) [18-6-2004 13:48:40]

 Free-running Sailor S1303

This is the (old) board installed on the frequency control board, it uses the position of IC2115, to swich both the 1-
16 Mc and 16-29Mc range.

If you want a printable circuit, layout or components-setup click one of the files below.

Circuit

Layout

Components

For the IC's 702 and 301 you need an other adapter board like this one.
6330pcb

http://home.wanadoo.nl/e.houwertjes/s1303.html (14 of 15) [18-6-2004 13:48:40]

 Free-running Sailor S1303

In the weeks that I'm busy I gathered quite a lot of info by reverse enigneering the S1303 and its transmitter
T1130. I did read-out my own allsmost standard proms, and had the chance to read-out some proms of a friend of
mine.
The data I found/made is here:
Zipfiles contain IS2115, 2114, 702 and 301 data (if available to me).

Standard (marine bands).

Testfile data.
Files from PA0MHZ's sailor.
My own free-running project files.

If you do have other proms for the 1303, please let me know. I have the right equipment to read this proms. And
if you need it I can send you a layout of an adaptor pcb to read 6308 proms with an ordinary 27c32 eprom
programmer.

More information wil follow.

73'

Edwin PE1PWF

Back to index

http://home.wanadoo.nl/e.houwertjes/s1303.html (15 of 15) [18-6-2004 13:48:40]