DSP-610 Tranceiver - Do We Need a Bigger Boat?

 We sometimes like to get surprises here on the old radio ranch but then again sometimes...



Ahhhh...?

 

The order from Newark Element 14 came this week.  It was neatly packed and arrived intact but when I got the question form the radio wife as I arrived home from work; "What the hell exactly are you building back there?!"  she pointed to this giant sized box that arrived earlier that day, she is used to getting the small envelopes of parts but this was definitely out of the norm. I thought there may be some trouble with the latest order.  I knew there were 70 line items in the order but these are supposed to be SMALL parts!

 

New DSP610 Project's Parts~ the project's bin on top



 

I had visions of 70 reels of parts contained inside. This kind of mix up has happened before. Once, we ordered 24 ea.   Fahnestock Clips  What came from Mouser was 24ea. boxes of 100 Fahnestock clips! Yes,we had to return 2376 clips. At least they arranged the pickup!

 

 

But it turned out that the packaging was simply overkill.  I smiled as I unpacked the box as it brought back an ancient memory...I suddenly remembered the first Microprocessor I ever ordered way back in the dark ages of computer epoch, the days we had to build our own.  I had wrote a letter and enclosed a check which I sent sent to RCA Corp. for an order for 1 ea. RCA 1802  Microprocessor and weeks later when it arrived at my parents house ( I was still in HS, and yes,  the chip was brand new at the time so you do the math  :)  as a overkill plus-sized crate of a shipping box, with one chip buried in a ton of packaging. I think my my mom had a similar reaction.  I always thought that the guy who shipped that to my young self had a strange sense of humor, or at least I hoped I got the joke.

 



 

...Or Not!

 

So now, all is well once again, on the Ranch of Radios.  The parts once removed from their copious packages fit neatly in the project bin.  Although the scale of this radio is probably the biggest, at least from the sheer number of components involved, we have ever attempted in the RR.  It took nearly an hour to order these not to mention about another hour to inventory this one shipment!  I can only imagine the time the designer Jim Veatch devoted to this.  It is incredible he completed this whole effort single handed!?!  Way to go Jim!

 

Next, I will upgrade the soldering station and magnifying equipment in the lab to start putting this beast together..

 

 

  

 

~STAY TUNED!~