Most of the major Japanese manufacturers have a liking for PIN diode switches in their transceivers. These are often a major source of loss contributing to 'deaf' receivers and also a source of intermodulation under strong signal conditions. It is therefore obvious that merely replacing the diode switch with a relay, a great improvement can be made in the performance of the receiver. The range of muTek front end boards goes further than this: the board is a complete redesign of the front end, including the RF change-over relay, low noise preamplifier, diode ring mixer and I.F. amplifier. Where necessary (as in most cases) the crystal filter is also replaced, resulting in a remarkable improvement in selectivity. The result of fitting one of these boards is to open up a whole new world on the same band! The most immediate result is that a preamplifier is not usually required for terrestrial communications.

Note: I.F.D.R. in the specification is Intermodulation free dynamic range. This is a measurement of the power of a two tone signal that produces 3rd order intermodulation products equal to the noise floor of the receiver, related to the niose floor. i.e. Ps/Pn when Ps produces intermodulation products equal to Pn.