I

SAVE DECODER 630lbs-:r-

~ Part 1: Operation and technical background
P.N.P. Wintergreen

The scrambling system employed tor the BBC-TV Europe and the
now detunct Premiere channel on the Intelsat-VF11 TV satellite is
generally classitied as a low-Ievel video encoding scheme. Based on
controlled interterence in the video spectrum it is, however, not so
simple to deteat with traditional filter designs that have already
caused much hair-pulling and teeth-gnashing among technically
inclined dish owners. The decoder discussed here leaves traditional
filters tor what they are, yet ofters a pertectly decoded picture at a
cost ot E25 or so.

The Intelsat-VF11 TV satellite level. The suppresston. in

is positioned in geostationary particuler. of the inter-
orbit at 27.5° west, and can be ference pos es considera ble
received in large parts of problems if conventional fil-
western Europe if a dish of ter techniques are used.
1.2 m or larger is used. The The phase and amplitude
BBC- TV Europe programme recovery of the 94 kHz inter-
is transmitted at 10.987 GHz ference signal Is affected by
w ith vertical polarization. the video stgnal, and de-
The channel is encoded ac- stgners must take into ac-
cording to the SA VE (sonnd count that this can have an
and uieion e/'lcryption) system, infinite number of instanta-
with occasional changes in neous amplitude-frequency
the interference frequency configurations because the
used. spectrum is a funetion of the
current picture content.
which changes in real-time.
Tackling SAVE A narrow 94 kHz filter,
The SA VE scrambling system however. will give reason-
looks relatively simple at first able results in many cases. A
glance, because the encoding crystal filter as used in com-
is effected entirel y in the fre- munications receivers is
queney domain. This is in cantrast to ing it and doubling the amplitude. Al- ideal for this function. Unfortunately,
many other analogue encoding systems, though these measures result in a picture crystal filters are notoriously expensive
which use signal inversion in combination that can be recognized on many TV sets, and hard to obtain, especially for a non-
with amplitude-shifting and frame the quality is very poor owing to the inter- standard frequency like 94 kl-lz. These
and/or line polarity control (Ref. 1). fering carrier tha t is still present at its full problems may be resolved, however, by a
In the SA VE system, the video signal compensation circuit with a PLL tphase-
from the TV studio has its amplitude re- locked loop), and a VXO (variable cryslal
duced by 50% before it is inverted. The SAVE DECODER oscillator) that functions as a VCO (voltage
original amplitude is then restored by the contralIed oscillator). An advantage of this
addition of a pure sine-wave with a fre- low-cost design~ 00 cut-to-order quanz arrangement is that it can be designed to
quency of about 94 kHz. This encoding crystal(s) opera te at a multiple 01 94 kHz.
scheme has prompted many technically The block diagram 01 Fig. 1 shows the
comptete suppressien of SAVE inter-
inclined dish owners to design and build basic structure 01 a VXO-PLL (Ref. 2). Al-
ference
a wide variety of filters, only to find that though not used for the present design.
the interfering signal is much harder to L-C osciltator with amplitude and phase the principle merits a short discussion.
get rid of than expected. This is mainly controlloops for optimum stabiltty The crystal is cut to order for one parneu-
because any residual interfering signal, • simple-re ..oonnect to any indoor unlt lar interference frequency around 94 kHz.
however small. gives an irritating effect In practice, however, the interference fre-
• stanoero c1amped video output:
on the TV screen. As found out the hard quency is changed on an irregular basis,
1 Vpifl5fl
way, the 94 kHz notch is simply not ca- so that a number of crystals are required
pable of ensuring a perfectly stable pic- • automarle swncb-cver tetween non-er- when BBC-TV Europe is to be decoded.
ture. COded and SAVE-enCOded channels Clearly, this is a relatively expensive sol-
Without a suitable decoder, a SAVE- automatie search tor mterterence Ire- ution since the station operators can
encoded video signal produces a totally quency within 1,5 11Hzband change the interference frequency within
unintelligible picture. In principle, the a certain range, requiring new crystals to
signal becomes at least visible by invert- be cu t. The present decoder is much more
ELEKTOR ELECTRONICS FEBRUARY 1990
I RADIO & TELEVISION

flexible in respect of frequency control be-

cause it is based on an L-C oscillator that

•
uses inexpensive components, and works Video
at 94 kHz. A number of special tech-
niques, combined with 'all-analogue' sig- 0-
Video
amplitier
Summing
amplilier l-o
nal processing have resulted in a
stop-band filter (notctt) whose perfor- + Video
mance in respect of selectivity comes elose unclamped Decoded
video video
to that of a crystal filter.
Synchronous VCXO
Tlie low-cost decoder presented here detector -+- 6MHz
features automatie processing of any
SAVE-encoded video signal that contains .I. -#v-
an interfering carrier between about Sinewave
cancel
93 kHz and 94.5 kHz, so that BBC-TV Eu-
-:.16
rope <[,=93,275 Hz) is reliably recognized
and decoded, irrespective of the current
interference frequency. J.
94kHz 94kHz

Spectral analysis
lew-pass
elliptic IiIler
-+-- -:-4 f- lew-pass
elliplic filter

The frequency spectra of Ptg. 2 illustrate +90"

the basic operation of pre- and de-emphusis
techniques used in the present decoder.
The spectrum of Fig. 2a shows the typical Fig. 1. The first approach to a SAVE decoder is nearly always a VCXO design. The inherent
amplitude d istribution. within the fre- disadvantages are, however, relatively high cost and the 'one channel, one crystal' rule
quency range frorn 0 to 500 kHz, of a (source: Ref. 2).
video signal. lt should be noted tha t the
drawing is purposely simplified: the spec- 575 Hz in the case of Premiere - and techniques are applied in FM communica-
trum applies to a cornpletely black pic- rnake selective suppression of the inter- tions systems to improve the signal-to-
ture, while the effect of the raster ference frequency fairly difficult because noise ratio. At the transmitter side, a
synchronization pulses is not shown. The the phase and amplitude of the sixth har- certain part of the frequency spectrurn of
sim phfied spectrurn with line sync com- monic of the line sync rnust be left com- the modulation signal is given a greater
ponents and the interference signal is, pletely unaffeeted. If this cond ition is not amphtude. which is reduced again in the
however, still useful for a basic analysis. met, the picture is visibly distorted. receiver by a matched filter to restore the
The frequency range between 90 and Hence, a simple notch is unsuitable for original signal level. ldeally, the fre-
95 kHz is shown enlarged in the lower building a reliable SAVE-decoder. quency response between the input of the
speerrum of Fig. 2a. Clearly. the inter- For those less familiar with video tech- transmitter and the ou tput of the receiver
ference carriers are quite elose to the sixth niques, it may come as a surprise that the is flat because the pre- and de-ernphasis
harmonic of the Une frequency. The Ire- interference signal must be amplified be- filters are closely matched by means of
quency differences are small - only fore it can be suppressed. Pre- en de-em- complementary curves.
475 Hz in the case of BBC-TVEurope, and phasis are used to achieve this. These A two-section L-C filter in the present

a b
[der

i-"
(dB)

I _20

-"
-~
t )

----,., (kHz1
C
.
,

"
~
" " .- - --
~
--------+l[kHd

[dB)
,

['r'J -"
, ->0
U27SIV

J"-"
-" !l7SO ....
-"
-~

-~ -~

-w

---+. I {kHz]
->0
• ~ '00 rsc
".
---+.
asc sec
I (kHz]
". '00 .~ ecc
890165 -12b

Fig. 2. Frequency spectrum of a SAVE-encoded video signal with no picture content (2a); theoretical pass-band of the pre-emphasis filter
(2b); and the result of the pre-emphasis operation on the original spectrum (2c). It should be noted that the spectra shown are theoretical
and purposely simplified.

ELEKTOR ELECTRONICS FEBRUARY 1990

 SA VE DECODER 11
SAVE decoder raises frequency compo-
nents areund 94 kHz and 188 kHz about
20 d B w ith respect to the rest of the video
speerrum. The theoretical pass-band VIDEO
PRE· SUMMATION
OE-

curve of this filter is shown in Fig. 2b, and r-r- AMPLIFIER I---+- EMPHASIS
NETWORK
I-~ NETWORK I-~ EMPHASIS
NETWORK
I-
its effect on the spectrum of Pig. 2a is ap-
parent frorn Fig. 2c. The interference stg- '-----
nal has the highest amplitude in the latter
spectrum. ~
I
The control principle adopted for the
SAVE decoder requires the seeond pass- PHASE LOOP LOOP

band at 188 kHz. The analogue control COMPARATOR I---+- ,

FILTER I-~ FILTER
2

circuit that is to supply the regenerated

94 kHz signal does not have filters to en-
sure a well-defined phase response, and
multiplieation of the 94 kHz signal inevit-
ably produces e 188 kHz component.
~-
Owing to cross-talk, apart of this cornpo-
94 kM!.
".
nent ends up in the video signal, where it
SINE·WAVE
vco f-+-- SWlTCH PHASE
SHIFT

produces interference. This Is prevented, '---

however, with the aid of a de-emphasis
filter, of which one section is tuned to
I
188 kHz.
Since the interference frequency is al-
LOW-PASS
ways an odd multiple of the interlace fre- AMPLITUDE
CONTROLLER ---+- FILTER I---- MULTIPLIER

quency (25 Hz), residual levels of the

94 kHz signal that remain after decoding
are virtually unnoticed owing to the opti-
eal averaging function of the human eye.
After removal of the 94 kHz compo
nent, the signal amplitude must be re- SCRAMBLING
stored to the level before pre-emphasis. INTEGRATOR - DETECTOR

This is achieved with a de-emphasis filter

whose pass-band curve is accurately
::
~~:
~
COOEO
dimensioned to form the inverse of the • i!"
pre-emphasis curve.
VIDEO VIDEO

•
INPUT OUTPUT

Block diagram Q SWITCH f.....-- VIDEO

BUFFER

The basic operation of the SAVE decoder

is best described along the lines of the
block diagram shown in Fig. 3. 890165·13
The heart of the circuit is formed byan
L-C oscillator. which is controlled by loop Fig. 3. The block diagram of the SAVE decoder is fairly complex. The operation of the
cireuits for amplitude and phase. In prin- circuit is based on a 94 kHz L-C VCO surrounded by controlloops for amplitude and phase.
ciple, the regenerated 94 kHz sine-wave is
added to the scrambled video signal. The opamp available in the XR2208. When the the Ioop filter is given a pass-band of
amplitude of the regenerated sine-wave is cireuit is not locked. the first loop filter is about 15 Hz rather than a few hund red
identical to that of the interference eompo- given a bandwidth of a few hundred Hz Hz. Th is arrangement requires high VCO
nent, but the phase is oppostte. This ts to enable the PLL to lock on to sufficiently stabthty. however, since frequency devia-
achieved with the aid of a control circuit strong signals in a frequency band of tions ean only be eorreeted relatively
that is capable of continuously monitor- about 1.5 kHz around 94 kHz. The PLL slowly. Fortunately r the L-C oscillator
ing, and, if necessary, eorreeting, the does not lock on to signals below a certain used meets this requirement, so that a
phase and the amplitude of the regener- threshold level, so that, for instance, the phase-Ioeked reference signal is obtained.
ated 94 kHz signal. The oscillator used is sixth harrrionie of the Iine frequeney ean What remains is control of the amplitude,
a voltage-controlJed Colpitts type based not switch the circuit to the decoding and a shift of phase by 90°. Both functions
on an L-C tuned circuit with a relatively mode. Without special measures. how- are realized by an operational transcon-
high Q-factor. In combination with a ever, the sixth harmonie of the line fre- ductance amplifier (OTA), a Type
double loop filter that forrns part of a PLL, quency is likely to cause problems onee LM13700 from National Semiconduetor.
it ensures good phase stabtltry of the re- the PLL has locked on to, say. the SAVE- A useful background on OTAs can be
generated sine-wave when the circuit is encoded SBC-TV Europe signal. In that found in Ref. 3.
locked. eondition, the phase comparator supplies The VCO referenee signal is passed
The block diagram shows that the un- 475 Hz, the frequeney difference between through an amplitude control circuit and
cIamped video signal supplied by the sat- the sixth hermenie and the interference an integrator before it is added to the
ellite-TV receiver is amplified before it is signal. Without a correctly dimensioned input signal after pre-emphasis. The re-
passed th.rough the pre-emphasis filter loop filter, this differenee frequeney gives sult of the addition is phase-shifted by 90°
diseussed above. The ou tpu t signal of the rise to phase modulation of the VCO, and fed to a multiplier that determines the
two-stage L-C filter is compared to that of which, in turn, leads to incomplete com- frequency difference between its input
the 94 kHz oscillator. The phase compara- pensation of the interference. The result is signals. Evidently, the differenee is 0 Hz
tor is an analogue multiplier ava ilable in an annoying interference on the TV only when the VCO frequeney equals the
IC Type XR2208 from Exar. The result 01 sereen. interference frequency. As shown in the
the multiplication operaticn is a dif- The solution to this problem has been "Theoretica l background' inset, complete
ferenee frequeney that is fed to the Hrst found in automatie bandwidth reduction compensation is achieved when the am-
loop filter. This filter is realized with the 01 the loop filter. After the PLL has Iocked. plitude 01 the 94 kHz VCO signal equals
ELEKTOR ELECTRONICS FEBRUARY 1990
 RADIO & TELEVISION

the amplitude of the interference signal. width, and the output signal of the de-em- The pre-emphasis L-C filter in the col-
The controlloop perfonns automatie cor- phasis network is fed to the video buffer lector line of Tl supplies a video signal
rections to the amplitude of the VCO stg- with associated clamping circuit. The with a 94 kHz component of about 3 Vpp
nal until a stable condition Is reached. decoded video signal has an amplitude of when the receiver is tuned to a SAVE-en-
Once aligned, the decoder is, therefore, about 1 Vpp at a load impedance of 75 n, coded TV channel. The transistor works as
insensitive to small amplitude variations and is suitable for direct connection to a an inverting amplifier. Capaeiter C7 feeds
of the input signal, and other forms of monitor or remodulator. the signal with the 94 kHz component to
instability. the phase comparator in Iu, where it is
The integrator that shifts the phase of multiplied with the VCO signal applied
the VCO signal by 90" gives a frequency-
Fromtheory to practice via CIS.
independent phase shift, and is located The previously discussed functions are Phase centrot
after the amplitude contral circuit. An ad- easily found back in the circuit diagram of The 94 kHz Colpitts VCO built around
ditional benefit of the integrator is its Fig. 4. The unciamped video signal from FET Ta is tuned by means of a direct volt-
ability to suppress harmonics genera ted the satellite- TV receiver must have an am- age applied to dual variable capacitance
by light distortion. These harmonics are plitude of at least 0.5 Vpp. Components PI, diode 07. The circuit around 06 and T9 is
suppressed at 6 dB per octave. Cl, R3and ESl take the non-encoded video an amplitude stabilizer. When the ampli-
The contra I volta ge for the amplitude signal to amplifier Ts. From there, it is tude of the oscillator signal exceeds a cer-
controller is used to light a LED that indi- passed through clamping circui t 01-02-T6 ta in level, T9 conducts via D6, and draws
cates the decoding of a SAVE signal. be fore it is applied to output buffer Tz. The current through R44.This causes the drain
When the LED lights, the loop filter is output amplitude is set to ] Vpp into 75 Q current of the oscillator FET to drop to a
automatically switched to reduced band- with the aid of preset PI. level at which the feedback gain in the

Theoretical background

1. Pre- and de-emphaels When pre-emphasis network L4-C9 (Z) resonates at 94 kHz, it forms
a very high impedance. R13alone then determines the impedance of
Current souree T1 uses pre-emphasis impedanee Ztormed by L1-L2- Z. With R13 = 2700il:
C4-Cs-R6 to generate a signal voltage at TP1:
Uo = ~1.23 Uvideo+ 0.09 Ures
U8(T1) = Ui
UE(Tl):;; Ui Correctly aligned, the pre- and de-ernphasis networks yield more than
20 dB suppression of the 94 kHz component, without distorting the
fC{T1l:;; ~/8,T1J = -Ui/ R5 video signal.

Um = IC(T1)(Z+ R7) =-U;( Z+R7)/Rs 2. Amplitude control circuit

Since T3 offers high current ampllflcatlon. Zis hardly loaded. The frequency of the amplitude control voltage, Ureg, is 0 Hz if the
regenerated frequency equals the frequency of the interference volt-
The regenerated 94 kHz sine-wave ls added in anti-phase to the video age, Ui:
signal. Emitter touower T4 torms a virtually ideal voltaqe source for
the de-emphasis impedance, Z
Ureg= r o
sin(oot)[( u- Ureg)sin(oot)] dt

UB{T4)= UE(T4) =~Ui( Z+ R7 )IRs+ upsin(oo l+tp)

Ureg= r o
0.5{ u.: Ureg) [1 ~cOS( 2 00 t)] dt

where
ro = 2 TI 94000 [rad/51 The integrator gives virtually complete suppression of the 188 kHz
component, so that:
The decoded video signal across R15 may be written as

UR15=Uo Ureg"" r o
0.5( Ui- Ureg) dt
Uo = R15/( R 15+ Z) UE(T4)
This equation can be solved if Ui= Ureg, which corresponds to com-
plete compensation.

3. 90° phase shifter

The input voltage, Ui, may be written as
Pin 5 of OTA1 supplies a ernusoreal current, 10, which is integrated
Ui = Uvideo+ up sin (00 t + tp). by C'9:

Owing to noise in the Input signal, the residual 94 kHz component, 10= ipcos(ro t)
Ures, has to be taken into account:
UC29=1 /c[ o Iodt
Uo=- R 15/( R 15+ Z) (~Uv;deo( Z+ Rn IR5 + Ures)
UC29 = 1 1 C [ ip cos (00 t) d t
o
R15(Z+R7) R15
Uo=~Uv;deoR5( Z+ R 15) I Z+ R15 Ures io .
UC29= 00 CSln{oo t)
where
With R7 "" R1S:
rc = 2 TI 94000 [rad/51
Uo=~R 151 R5 Uvsäeo+ R 15/( Z + R 15) Ures
The phase is shifted 90" independently of frequency.
o, = -1.23 Uvideo+ R 15/( Z+ R15) Ures

ELEKTOR ELECTRONICS FEBRUARY 1990

 SA VE DECODER

••
'"

~
t~~~'-+--------~--------~

1[;";';;:' h---"'I"
AU
ca
'
1.1
•
IG-n-f-t'l' -

..... ,."

Fig. 4. Circuit diagram of the SAVE decoder.

oscillator ISuruty. The result isa clean and locked or not, the bandwidth of the loop part, which has the same amplitude but
stable oscillator signal that is coupled out filter is changed by ES2 connecting R27in the opposite phese.
inductively via Ls. Transistors TlOand 111 parallel with Rz8, and ES3 selecting a dif- The summation signal is taken through
amplify the oscillator signal and convert ferent R-C network at the output of the the de-emphasis network in the emitter
it into a symmetricaI current that is fed to opamp in the XR2208. The contral voltage line of Te. The first of the two L-C sections
the pair of diodes at each of the parallel- is passed to the varica p via R41and R46. removes residual 94 kHz Ievels. and the
connected OTA inputs oe,). This closes the phase-Iocked loop. second ensures sufftcient suppression of
The aTA inputs are also connected to Amplitude control the 188 kHz component. The decoded sig-
TI2 and 113to form a gain-cell. In principle, The amplitude of the regenerated 94 kHz nal is fed to the clamping circuit via ES1-
a gain-cell provides linear conversion of sine-wave is determined with the aid of a The amplitude control circuit receives
an input signal into an output stgnal. The current sent into pin 1 of OTAL This cur- its errar signal from the summation point,
ga in of the cell is determined by a current rent is supplied by OTA2, which works as via R65.Components C33,R64,R6S,C30and
supplied by an extern al source. In the a multiplier. The result is that pin 5 of RS9shift the phase of the errar signal by
present case, this control current ema- OTAI supplies a sinusoidal current to in- 900 so that it can be used for driving multi-
nates frorn Rsz. while the basic gain of the tegrator C29.The mathematical deduction plier OTA2. This supplies a current tha t is
cell is defined by the ratio RS2:Rs8. in the "Theoretical background' inset dem- integrated by C31.The resulting voltage on
The 94 kHz signal is taken asymmetri- onstrates that the phase is shifted 90° in- this capacitor is buffered by the darling-
cally from the collector of T12 and fed to dependently of frequency. The volta ge ton transistor in the 01A, and serves to
the phase comparator via C18. The dif- developed across C29 is fed back into the supply the control current to the pre-
ference frequency is available as a bal- IC via pin 7, and reappears buffered at viously mentioned gain ceIl (OTAI) via
anced signal between pins 1 and 2 of the pin 8. The regenerated, amplitude-con- RS7.This closes the amplitude-controlled
XR220B. The balanced difference signal is trolled and 90° phase-shifted 94 kHz sig- loop.
passed to the opamp in the XR2208, by nal is fed to T2 via C6, and from there to
means of networks R28-R38-C21and R36- summation point T2-R12. This forms the
R37-C22. nuc1eus of the circuit: the interference d is- Tue construction und aligllll1el1t of the deccder
Depending on wh ether the PLL ts appears against its regenerated counter- will be described in Part 2 of this article.
ELEKTOR ELECTRONICS FEBRUARY 1990
 March 1990
CONTENTS Number 176

C n ~ i i p r e ~ ~techn~iluc\
io~i rcvolulioni~evidcc,
COMPONENTS
1'RO.IECI': Rrplacernen~for TC.A2XO.A supply and design difficulties
Code locking circuit Tcmpe~~ture compensation for L C D modules have made i t necessary to
Line allocation tester by M. Clarkson postpone "Sinewave invert-
* The multi-MAC chip

lJRO,Ik;(,'.l.: Plotrer h1:1rh l 1

with n contribution by B. Lewetr

30 Loi\-co\r V A dihpla) niodulc

by Mohd Abdul Sami
W - '
ELECTROPHONICS
1'RO.IECT: H H D \i~u~icl
cllecrh ilr~it
Molecular electronics will be
as different to today's elec-
tronics as semiconduclors
are from the valve technology
1'KO.IEC'f: Power line monitor

M;~plin'\ neu di\trihulii,n cclitre

gramme of collaborative
research between universi-
ties and industry. IJ Part 9: IC monitor
One familiar example of by J. Ruffell
molecular electronics in use m,,,, -. .
today is the liquid crystal dis- ~-R~~%X%?~ELEV~SI~
play seen in watches and cal- PROJECT: VFO \tahiliLer
culators-and even head-up by J. Bareford
displays for pilots-that 20 PROJECT: Interval control for camcorders
respond vigorously to electri-
by Ph. Bosma
cal or heat signals.
Here, scientists at Imperial 23 PROJECT: Video mixer - Part 3
College, London, are working by A. Rigby
on a project to build new 37 Experimental BSB reception
types of 'molecular' switches by R.G. Krijgsman. J.C. Stekelenburg & I. Buiting
47 PROJECT: Audiotvideo modulator f'lolter b1:lrh 11. p, 3 l
for use in waveguides. In the
field of conventional electron-
ics, electrons flow through
-W&
~
an ELV design
~~ ..-= ----&.--F

TECHNOLOGY
. --
wires and devices like simple
transistor switches. In the 50 R Kr D: kchnote of club life at H3rweII
optical equivalent, light trav- hy H. Cole, senior scientist at Harwell Laboratory
els down planar optical ---v ,. ~-=-.
waveguides through 'molecu- TEST MEASURE ME^^
lar' switches. These switches 36 PROJECT: Digital trigger tor o\cilloscopes
can be made by coating by A. Righy
glass substrates with a Ye- 61 PROJECT: Square-wave generator
cial polymer. In the picture it by M. Clarkson
is being studied with a new
technique known as lime- MORMATION
~ C E L L A ~ O U S
resolved evanescent wave-
inducedfluorescencespec- Elec~rnnicficene12 &13: Eventh 18; Corrections 43:
troscopy. Letters 58: Switchboard 59; Readers services 63: Terms 64;
Buyers guide 74: Classified ads 74: Index o f advertisers 74 Power line mi~nitor.p. 41
ELEKTOR ELECTRONICS MARCH 1990