This morning it occurred to me -- an MMIC on micro-stripline will basically amplify ANYTHING from DC to daylight, so I googled on "MMIC noise source."  It led me to a site which showed a HB noise gen that used an emitter - base junction in an NPN transistor (thanks to Jim Tibbetts for reminding us of this) and three chained MMICs to deliver amplified noise.  But the builder mentioned creating more than 100 thru-board vias by hand.   So ... look down the search results and -- voila!  A group discussion not unlike what we have here that referenced "you can buy this stuff on ebay."

One click later, and I saw that pre-built, MW-capable noise sources can be had from China for twelve bucks (and twelve weeks).

So I'll probably buy AND build, since I have MMICs and zeners in the junk box, and I am not in a hurry for this. A comparison might be interesting.

It's a nice day when I find that something I could imagine -- could be built, AND if I wanted one today I didn't have to invent or even re-invent it.

73

Jim N6OTQ

PS -- When you "google" something, be sure to use duckduckgo as well, because their search algorithms are different, and BOTH search engines come up with true gems that the other one missed.  Difference is -- you have to wade through all of google's paid placements and SEO-enhanced results.