Tag Archives: ugly construction

40 Meter DSB Coming Soon

Busy weekend for me.

20150530_161129Before moving on to Beach 40 progress, I got something else in the mail. A frequency counter module I ordered off eBay for ten bucks. I am thinking about using it in a future radio project as a digital frequency display.  Not sure what project, but it beckoned to me and I figured it might work out well.

20150530_221434In a related sidebar, I have been doing some VFO research. I have been looking at several options and one that seems simple and efficient is using varactor diodes to replace the air dielectric capacitors in tuning circuits. I have some ten-turn potentiometers and found a good deal on Motorola 68ρF varactors so I bought a bag of 100.

I found N6QW’s website with some great information including a test circuit for testing the tuning abilities of various diodes and transistors. Definitely more to come on this venture after the DSB project is done.

Now, on with our regularly scheduled program…

20150529_164741In the last post I talked about skipping the Balanced Modulator/Product Detector and moving on to the Audio Amplifier.

I built the Audio Amp and got everything all tied in to the panel mount components.

20150529_165009I still haven’t tested the Audio Amp yet and I am saving that for after I get all of the sections built out.

About the time I finished up the Audio Amp the 200Ω potentiometer I was waiting on showed up. With the parts in hand, I moved on to the BM/PD.

20150527_153801The BM/PD build went well. with no real surprises.  The diode ring ended up being laid out in an actual ring configuration with the RF transformer being mounted right in the middle.

The one thing I don’t like about this layout is the really long lead from one side of the diode ring all the way around to the other side of the board to the potentiometer. I don’t know if I can come up with a better layout in a future rendition but for now it should be fine.

20150530_214234One of the first things I started with today was building the interconnect cables out of RG174 coaxial cable and SMA connectors. I considered MMX connectors since they just push on rather than thread on but they are way expensive. I have seen a number of builders use coax interconnects for modularized construction and it makes separation for experimentation much easier.

20150530_220849One cable I made was actually an antenna, a test antenna at least. For testing transmission sections giving them something to radiate out of. By using a receiver near the transmitting device I should be able to copy the transmission. It’s the one on the right if you hadn’t guessed.

20150531_110751Cables, of any kind,  are one of those things that can seem fairly easy to do, but when they go bad, they can go epicly bad and it can be hard to detect. The only preventative effort I know of is to take your time, use a light touch, don’t force things, and pay attention to detail.

I made 4 interconnects, 1 antenna, and one single end cable for connecting to the antenna outlet. It took a coupe of hours, but all of them are solid mechanically, and test to be solid electrically.

20150530_221209After getting the cables done, I hooked up the antenna and one of the interconnects but I still haven’t done any of testing beyond the Local Oscillator.

I have a lot of testing to do but I’m almost done with the modules so I wanted to plug away and finish up the modules.

20150531_143223The last thing I worked on before turning off the soldering iron was the three stage RF Amplifier.

The pic is the first stage, a buffer stage. I started the board with a configuration in mind but by the time I got to the third stage I had shifted a few things around.

20150531_150232One thing I wanted to point out is the spacing of the stages. In this pic I have most of the second stage done and the pads for the third stage laid down. The gaps between stages are for the addition, if needed, of shielding between the stages. This amp is fairly low power so I don’t think it will need the shielding, But I wanted to make the option available.

20150531_161643The third stage saw several pads moved and things reconfigured a little. The yellow leads are the RX Amp Bypass (short lead) and Amplified RF (long lead) lines going to the relay circuit which after a lot of thought this evening will be replaced with cable ports and the relay section will be moved off this board entirely onto it’s own module.

The other bit on the RF Amp board that still needs work are the two bifilar toroids that still need to be wound and installed. It sounds like a lot of work still to be done, but it is getting very close to First Contact.

Thats all for this post. May the magic smoke remain contained in all your circuits.

73,
~Jon KK6GXG

RTFM aka Read The Datasheet

A lot going on these days. Lets start with something educational… No, don’t run away… it’s not that bad.

RTFM or Read The Freaking Manual is directed in this case to datasheets for semiconductors. And this is where we begin our lesson for today.

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The VXO dismounted from the LO/Buffer for testing

I have been working on the Beach 40 project for a few weeks now and have made some progress but I was having some difficulty with the VXO (variable crystal oscillator) and the LO/Buffer (local oscillator and buffer.) The oscillator section is supposed to generate an RF carrier frequency, in this case close to 7.2 MHz. I wasn’t generating the carrier and I couldn’t figure out why.

I decided to put these sections aside and move on to the next section and ruminate on the problem for a while. The next section in line was the Balanced Mixer / Product Detector but I was missing a component that I was still waiting to arrive, so on to the next stage, the Microphone Amplifier.

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The Mic Amp has the mic element temporarily direct wired for testing

Laying out the parts physical locations on the circuit board I came to the transistor, one I hadn’t worked with before. So I decided to look up the data sheet and be sure of the pin-out. It wasn’t what I was expecting it to be, and then it hit me, like a Log from BLAMO! My oscillator wasn’t oscillating because I had the pinout wrong on the transistors! I finished the Mic Amp and the part arrived for the BM/PD.

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The Balanced Mixer/ Product Detector. Ain’t she a beaut!

I moved on to the BM/PD and finished it then looked up the transistors on the LO/Buffer and sure enough, I had them in backwards.

With a little coaxing and cajoling, and construction of a really scaled down crystal oscillator for testing, I got them turned around and everything back in place, well sort of. I missed a jumper and had to go back and solder that back down, but the after that the oscillator was oscillating like a good little oscillator should. Oscillation!

With a little tweaking and and the removal of the Fine Tuning circuit that I still haven’t figured out, I am back on track and only three sections shy of a full transceiver.  At present I have the sections built for a QRPpp transmitter a very, very, very, very low power transmitter, somewhere around the microwatt range but I should be able to modulate a voice transmission a foot or so to my DC receiver.

The Mic Amp test is actually a test of the VXO, LO/Buffer, Balanced Mixer, and Mic Amp sections and has me transmitting some AF (audio frequency) along with the carrier through the Balanced Mixer to help locate the signal in the band. Once I locate the signal on a separate receiver it’s time to tune out, or “suppress”, the carrier signal on the BM/PD section.  I’ll be doing just that in the next few days. Hopefully I will remember to video the test and post the video.

I already checked out the VXO and LO/Buffer when I checked the frequency. I can check the Mic Amp just by hooking it up to a speaker, which I will. Then the BM/PD gets it’s big on-air check out.

20150527_163139
CCW from top left: Balanced Mixer/Product Detector, Local Oscillator/Buffer with VXO mounted vertically, tuning capacitor, Mic Amp, and Audio Amp with just the tinned pads on the board

All that’s left to have a working receiver is building the Audio Amplifier which I have already laid out, I just need to solder the parts down and test. After that I need to build the RF Amp to have a transmitter. I will want to also complete the Low Pass Filter before transmitting though. I don’t want to splatter the band or anything.

So the schedule for now looks like a completed Beach 40 transceiver should be on the bench next weekend or there abouts.

That’s all for today.

73,
~Jon KK6GXG

Fresh Prespective

Over the last few days I have been working on a direct conversion receiver project I found in the book Experimental Methods of RF Design last month. I had been planning and even started a very similar design back in February. I was having problems with that project so I picked up the EMRFD book to help figure out what the issue was.

EMRFD-40m-ReceiverThere in the first chapter was this design and I decided to scrap the other project and started working on this one.  It wasn’t like “oooo, a new shiney…” because they are very similar designs and the goal was to build a direct conversion receiver for 40 meters, not specifically that receiver.

Now that I have finished unnecessarily defending my position on hitting the reset button on the project, we can continue.

This time I decided to go with the “ugly” method of prototyping. I was not aware of the induction issues with the plastic pinboards or the other problems that can arise with high-speed or precision circuits. I had seen a few things on ugly construction and comments on its superiority over the plastic breadboards, along with other similar prototyping methods like “Manhattan.”

Since I had never done ugly before I was a bit nervous about it. I have used perfboard successfully on other projects and while perfboard does not have the same negatives as pinboards, it doesn’t have a ground plane ether. This can be problematic in RF circuits.

Any hoo. Yesterday I finished soldering the board and started mounting stuff. The project is screaming along and I have been pulling back regularly to make sure I don’t rush to finish. I have been going back an checking the new additions for physical problems, shorts, cold soldering, and the like. So far things have gone nicely.

20150401_193337This morning I sat down and looked at the partially mounted project box and some things crossed my mind. If I only put an antenna port on the back, instead of including a power port, I could actually have an internal battery pack. I could even add the power port and include a charging circuit for the internal battery…

I nixed this idea on this build because I intended to use a battery pack / solar charger that I already have so the power possibilities will be saved for later.

I do plan on adding a transmitter to this case. This brought my attention to the front panel. I am installing a power switch and headphone jack for the receiver, but I would need a jack for the cw key and a TX/RX switch. I could fit both of these components in the front panel integrated with the receiver parts without a problem. I could even install them now to prepare for the inevitable. I even have the parts in stock.

What I didn’t think about last night was the tuning of the transmitter. I don’t have the room for the tuning components on the front panel. I don’t know if I could modify this oscillator/mixer to work in conjunction with a transmitter thus converting the whole thing into a transceiver. I will have to get back to the book and read on.

In all honesty there are a couple of other things too. I would want a beat oscillator which would need a momentary switch and some other logistical elements to think about as well.

I spent a lot of thought on keeping this board small. I didn’t want to crowd things too much, but I wanted a small planform. I got what I wanted and I learned a few things about experimental design.

Planning ahead is not just about where the rest of this circuit is going. It includes thinking about the likely evolution of the project. Would I convert this project to a transceiver? Probably not. I would more likely build a new project ether from a different design already established, or take a lot of time and build modular circuit clusters testing them as individual units and working out the logistics of placement, interfaces, and housing configurations as the project developed.

I am actually surprised at how much I have learned from building this little DC RX, and I’m not even finished with it yet!

73,
~Jon KK6GXG