Hi Brett... Just goes to show you can't keep a good man down! Hi Hi You sure are a prolific builder!
If you have any of the old Bill Orr RADIO HANDBOOKs from the 1950's, Brett, he featured neat mono-band AM transceivers therein---I recall (was it the '58 edition..?) he had a neat 10-meter design, but it was strictly low power. Still a nice package, though, & on 10 who needs QRO anyway...? Building a stable, homebrew VFO is NOT an impossible task---in fact, there was an excellent piece by Walt Hutchens in an older ELECTRIC RADIO magazine that tackled this very project. A few months back I built a HB VFO for 40-meters that used NO SOLID DIELECTRIC CAPACITORS WHATEVER---everything was air dielectric. Even the coil was an air core B&W miniductor! This I did to try & eliminate/minimize drift over time without worry about NPO caps, etc. etc. It worked, too, in the short run---really stable for the first two hours, or so, but then it started to drift ever so slowly. Anyway, it was a fun experiment... Good luck with yours! ~73!~ Eddy VE3CUI - VE3XZ > Hello all AM,ers. > I have been making great progress on the second homebrew superhet > receiver. > I have the chassis all punched out, holes drilled, and primed and > painted light gray to match the push pull transmitter. > Front panel is drilled and painted black. > Last night I mounted the transformers, chokes, tube sockets, IF cans, > bfo crystal, terminal strips, filter board, lo coil and switch box, and > output jacks for audio, mute, IF output (for scope), antenna hookup. > > I have to add the handles to the front panel, paint the side supports, > then I can center and mount the tuning cap and preselector cap, install > the controls and switches. > > I also forgot to drill holes for the s meter sensitivity and zero pots. > > I have a nice heathkit S meter, and will use 3 ultra bright red led's > to light the meter up. I tested it, and it looks cool. > > The digital display is built and tested. > > Wiring the power supply will be first, once I have the HV, > I can wire and test the LO, then the mixer, then the filter setup, then > one IF amp at a time, and so on. > > So far, it looks very good! No extra holes from changes like > the first homebrew, hope it stays that way! > > I am already thinking about the next project, a homebrew AM > transceiver. Something running a pair of 6146 tubes, or a 4d32 (I have > lots of those), simple superhet, all in a small package as possible, > say dx100/32v3 size. Maybe just 40 meters, since 100 watts wont do on > 80 very often. > That will also make the design simple, no band switching. > It should be really fun, putting both receiver and transmitter > in a small package, and integrating both systems together. > > I am not sure if a stable homebrew vfo will be possible, I may have to > go with one of the VFO kits that are available, digital frequency > display, pair of KT88 mod tubes. > > That should keep me busy for quite some time, but sure would be > fun to build and operate! > > I have been all fired up on ham radio and building lately! > > > Brett > N2DTS > _______________________________________________ > AMRadio mailing list > AMRadio@mailman.qth.net > http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/amradio
