Which Way are you going?

Yeah, I know, Steve get a new car.  The 2001 Ford Escape that me and my assistant replaced the head lights on. Was that really 3 years ago?  We had to pull out the tools and see to fixing the driver side turn signal lamp.

 Old Post Headlamp Post

No big deal?  Well answer this; how many tools does it take to replace a turn signal lamp on a 2001 Ford escape?

Yeah, the only light on the car that is likely to get you a ticket, the owner's manual states; "...bring to qualified service technician or dealer to replace"  So i guess now that I am a qualified technician? 

Side nut...exposed

The painful thing about this vehicle is some of the lamps nuts and bolts are behind those plastic fenders held on with the push clips.  You can't simply un-screw them, you have to pry them out.

For this new effort, i decided to forgo the screw driver and needle nose method to breaking them off and this time got a new tool!  The new red handled tool is: S & G Tool - Upholstery Clip Removal Tool Part # 87810 There are some fancy pliers types, they just did not have in stock so I got this on and it worked like a champ.

Lower Nut ... is here

The whole head lamp assembly must be puled out just to reach the sockets!

Almost There!

I did not break any this time but went ahead and replaced all 6. I had to buy a 6 pack when i stopped by the auto parts store so I would have a spare just in case.  Since I would just loose them or get a new car before i have to do this again, i replaced all 6 with new clips! ( BTW -  all the broken ones from before had already been replaced)



Target located!

 

The old bulbs had quite a bit of  the enamel paint peeling off so i would have had fancy white turn signals shortly...

 

Fuzzy old bulb

New and shiny...

New!

Plastic things were easy as:

One...

...Two...

...Three!



 

Back together with a push ( x6)  and good as new.  I never got a picture of the tool in action, it went so fast, just slip behind and pry out less than 10 seconds they were pretty much done.  It took at least a minute with the pliers and I broke the clips anyway.  So are these mundane project blog stories pointless?  Well,  I guess the point of this story is;

 

Buy the tool, and plastic fasteners, when you pick up the turn signal bulbs.

..and the second point: there are two bulbs in a pack so replace them!  I did both.


My assistant was a little tired after all the bunny guard duty he performed this morning but will be ready for the next project!



Tired Boy

~ ~ ~

BTW I got behind on blogging some projects, work and business travel to China got in the way... and i never can remember which phone/camera i documented the progress with.  I'll release more drafts when I clean them up a bit!

 

Hustler 4BTV 4-Band HF Vertical Antenna

CAMP HF ANTENNA

We have a remote desert camp that go to when the weather is nice and play with radios.  It is a pretty quiet spot both solitude and radio -wise. ( when the dune buggies are not running around)

Several years, at least a decade ago, On a camping trip here I convinced my nephew Nick there may be gold in the ground at about this spot.  We proceeded to dig a 6 foot-deep hole and when we got to the bottom, I put in the 8 foot pole that is the support for this antenna and put all the sand and rocks back in it. I got the Hustler antenna from a ham club swap meet for $20 years earlier. It had been in service since the late '70s.  Finally we dug some trenches and strung some tuned radials under the sand in all directions. They have been here ever since that day.

I used this antenna for many years.  I never really took it down as this spot is so remote and nobody ever bothered it ...until last summer.

[bent antenna]

Mother nature had some fun one summer afternoon.  I am not sure what kind of storm it was, the desert tends to get some violent thunderstorms in the summer as a monsoonal flow sets up from the warm waters of the Sea of Cortez inside of the Baja peninsula.  In any case this storm left lots of sand sticking to the sides of the buildings poles and trailers so it guess that the force of the wind plus the mass of the rain and sand was too much for this 35-year old antenna.  At least the bottom section.


Fortunately, DXE sells replacement parts "...allow you to keep your Hustler vertical performing at its peak. Whether for maintenance or repair due to unfortunate damage, Hustler offers the replacement antenna parts that you need."  So I bought and replaced the lower mast section (P/N 4087-11) I think with shipping it was twice the cost i paid for the original used antenna but she is standing tall now:

 



The base of the antenna was in pretty good shape considering that it was basically in this desert environment for 11+ years.  When I decided to fix the bent antenna I dismantled the entire antenna and took it back to the Radio Ranch repair labs.  In the process I had to cut the radials to remove it as the bolts were badly rusted. 

ANTENNA RADIALS

The new installation would not  be able to attach the radials ( 2 per band) to the original tie points as they were slightly too short now. There would be no way to pull the radials back to make up for this with out digging them up - not an option with out a Nephew in site. ( he is now all grown up with two kids of his own to dig holes with)  Instead, I fabricated a radial plate out of 4 Stanley angle mending brackets:

I simply formed a square ( 2 under, 2 over ) and fastened with #8 SS hardware. The bracket was bolted to antenna base with a salvaged TV antenna "U" bolt that happened to come complete with a mast clamp ( a second bracket that prevents crushing the square antenna tube:

But instead of preventing crushes, I drilled a couple of well-placed holes near the "top" edge of the clamp and used it as the bracket:

These were fastened with 1/2" and only one nut and lock washer as the space is tight between the mast clamp.  Finally the original radial tie points screws were replaced with stainless screws, washers and nuts. Replacing the original "stack of nuts" that corroded before.  I attached these points, in a bit of overkill, with two ground straps made up of a length of braid salvaged from an old RG-8 cable, they look pretty impressive anyway.


At the end of the day, the bracket is mostly buried in the sand anyway. The first 6" of the insulation of the original radials as you can see - is now long gone due to exposure to the elements, are now safely buried under sand and these small stones.   The connection point and UHF connector are now wrapped in tape and a large tube of heat shrink as well.

THE WORKS.

BTW we made some PSK contacts with 5 watts on 15 and 20 meters and a couple of RTTY and - of course -  CW.  The contacts ranged from Cuba in the east to Japan and Russia in the west.  All bands but 10 meters was tried but i think that band was not too active the day I tested it.

Other Toy and Good Guard Doggie

Stay Tuned!

 

~ ~ ~

DSP-610 ~ PA Build

Slow Power Amp.

I know this is on a slow track but progress is progress.



90% Complete Power Amp

 

 

It has been a while since I posted any progress on this build.  The main build took place, mostly on weekends between 9/1/2013  through 11/09/2013.  The board has a couple of interesting quirks...

TIP:  I used a Red Sharpie marker to mark uninstalled (DNI) components:



Note: C6 and C31 are Marked DNI Parts

TIP: Two soldering irons and a solder gun were also very useful in this build. Use two irons as heat sources  for removing mistakes (caps and resistors) to heat both pads at the same time.  I used the 100W gun to solder to the substantial ground plane.

RF Connection Mods.

First, the antenna jacks and RF layout is a bit difficult to figure out.  I put shorting jumpers on the path to allow one antenna for TX and RX.  This seemed the most straight forward for operations.

 

RF In Connector

Then I had issues with the 0.1" headers for RF connections.  I used an Xacto knife to scrape a couple pads for mounting the jack.  I tinned the pads and flowed a generous fillet of solder to the connector




RF In End-Launch SMA connector...

 

Antenna Connector

The antenna output is a vertical launch SMA.  I could not find a suitable connector. While an end launch location would have been more convenient, but I could not figure out an RF friendly placement.  There is a trace on the left-hand side of the board near the RF coils. 

Instead, I modified  a SMA connector by cutting off the mounting tabs. I then used a file to machine them flush (brass works easily) and used the existing antenna pad for the center pin.  The ground connection was made by scraping the blue solder mask, tinning the copper exposed, and "sweating" a fillet with a generous amount of solder. The ground connection is probably adequate.

The modified SMA connector is seen mounted in this picture.  It is pretty substantial and there is enough room for the connector, which will be a right-angle SMA plug:

New RF Connector near the White AXICOM Relay

If I would have planned ahead a little better, I would have done this before mounting the Relays and potentiometers.  I did not want to remove or melt them by trying to solder the left-hand side, and had to be extra careful not to melt the plastic on the pot. 

The Transformers and Coils...

Winding school. 

Count the turns on the inside of the toroid cores. Scrape and tin the wires.  The instructions are from the Soft Rock 50, plans you need to translate the part designators between the two different boards.

Coils (L7, L8, L9, L10 & L11)

The five  toroid coils were pretty straight forward, 3 with 7 turns of AWG #22 and 2 with 5 turns on T-50-6 (Yellow) cores.  The red enamel stained the cores a little when tinning the wire. NOTE:  L7 is a little tricky to mount, be careful there is a large ground via close to the pads, don't solder to that hole! Here are the winding specs. from the BOM;

L7,L8,L9 T50-6 CORE 7 TURNS #22 ENAMELED WIRE (6") AMIDON T50-6

L10,L11 T50-6 CORE 5 TURNS #22 ENAMELED WIRE (5")

The DSP610 PA Coil - Family Portrait

BP Filters

I did a manual sweep of the two filters.  I am not too happy about the 10 meter filter.  I need to check the values of the caps etc. It seems shifted to favor  12 Meters..

 

12M - 10M Filter Response

The plot of the 50 Meter pass filter looks pretty reasonable. Very much as expected.

6M Filter Response

 

 

Transformers (T1) and (T2)

 

These two were just as described:

"...[T1] on the PA board two loops of #18 wire through a BN43-202 Core. The wires are cut to 3" (75mm) each and stripped so that the insulation is 1 5/8" (65mm) long.'

 (Seen on right side with Red and White #18 wire);

"...[T2] 3" (75mm) length of RG-316, remove the outer jacket from one end and expose 0.75" (20mm) of the shield... Remove the outer jacked from the other end of the wire so that the insulation length is 1.5" (40mm)....Loop the wire through the BN43-202 core, unbraid  the remaining shield wires making sure that the shield on both ends of the wire point in the same direction. Strip the dielectric from the two center conductors. Tin and trim both shields and center conductors."

Seen on left side of the following picture. (basically, just a short length of RG-316 coax thru binocular core):
 

 

T1, T2 and L7 (Note via near L7)

Transformer (T3)

The mounting pad for T3 was not good. I applied a little too much heat and the pad lifted;

 After close examination it appeared that there was no electrical connection to the pad so I attached the rather substantial transformer to the board with a dab of 2 part  epoxy.

Transformer (T4)

The instructions are pretty clear for this transformer:

"Step 1:  Wind 2 windings each using 18" of #30 Kynar wire, (Green) 10 turns, one winding through each hole in a BN43-202 core,  ( I wound in same direction)..

Step 2: Cut 2 pieces of #22 Teflon wire, (I used Red and White) Strip the ends so that the insulation remaining is 7/8” long, the length of the bare wires is not important just so it’s long enough to go through the PCB. Tin the ends:"

T4 on DSP-610 PA

I did not really follow the mounting instructions, I just pulled the wires thru marked and stripped the lengths to match,  For the #22 wires I just measured the insulation and simply bent them to feed the leads thru the circuit board pads.

Transformer (L6) 

The description for L6 was pretty vague... (T1 = L6)

"..[L6] has 2 windings on a FT37-43 toroid: the primary consists of 2 turns of #26 enameled wire, stripped and tinned; the secondary is 13T of #26 enameled wire. It's best to wind the secondary first then wind the primary over the secondary. Try to form the leads to match the pads in the PCB..."

This was the most confusing part on the board  for me.  First a transformer labeled as an inductor? Anyway...The winding instructions are pretty straight forward but not a picture to back up the description.  Here is what I came up with...

 

L6 as Wound

The best way I see is to run "two" turns is to loop it (green wire) so it passes through the torrid twice with the most wire through the toroid, exiting on the mounting side. Forming the leads is also a little tricky. To make it match the schematic, after some careful study of the PCB I ended up with this:

 

L6 with leads Formed

 

The First Part Was...

 

Oh, yeah. the first soldered part on the KD6VKF DSP-610 project was L1 on 9/1/13:

 

 

L1 Installed

The next installments; Transistors, DC Bias adjustments, and compete the testing the board. Please Stay tuned!  (The KD6VKF DSP610 will eventually get done, really ☺)

~ ~ ~

DSP-610 ~ Fabricating the PA Heat Sink

Sinking In..

 Poking around in the local surplus store last weekend, I found this roughly 4" x 6" 16-fin heat sink in a bin called "scrap aluminum"!

With out even measuring the part I put down the $2 and brought it back to the ranch,  As you can see a near perfect fit!  I am not sure this will provide adequate cooling or even how I plan to mount it in the chassis but it is a start to the power amp build for the DSP-610

 

 

 

For Good Measure

It would be too much to ask that any holes on this part would be usable.. and this was the case.  I think this was from a power supply or battery charger of some sort...probably a military device. I used the DSP external PA PCB to mark the locations of the required holes.  The trick was to find free of holes, or not too close anyway.

 

After studying the data sheet it looks as if the pin outs for the board intended the TO-220  transistors, to be mounted under the board.  Which works out that the heat sink (or chassis) will work under the circuit board.



 

This also explains the over sized holes...  The screws holes were drilled an tapped to accept #4-40 hardware.  Access through the holes will allow easy mounting to the sink. 

 

 

 

 

These spacers were only for test fit, the final hardware was #4-40 1/4" hex M-F standoffs, which will reduce the lead length,  The bends for the leads may be  a little tricky as I did not get the mounting holes exactly centered...but it should work out OK.

 



 

A dab of heat sink compound on each, and I think this will work!

 

 

READY TO BUILD...

The board seems to have found a good home!  I hope the mounting in the chassis will be OK and this assembly will dissipate the required heat for the RF  power transistors.

 

 

 

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!~

DSP-610 Tranceiver - Some Take Longer Than Others

Parts! The way we roll on the RR is to bin up parts for the various projects.  As we approach the winter building season, we will be ready, or not, to melt some solder and get more radios built.

DSP-610 Transceiver's hard to find parts -- are here!

 

We are now in possession of some the more unique parts.  They are the ones in outlines on the sheets I talked about in the last post. The 10.7MHz filters along with some others that have been on back orders came this week. I got the Coax relays from e-bay, but we probably won't use them...more  on why, later. 

 

The mixer seen here is a MCL SRA type from RR partsandjunk box, but will really need to check the specs on it.  There will be some additions and changes  to the list based on my control panel and connectors.

 

 BTW ~As  it  turns out, we may even have a couple of these filters in the old parts box somewhere from an old Spec Analyzer project. Who knew?  I remember that I wanted more poles in the IF for that project and was surprised the solution  from Mouser was to send two of the same filter that I already had!

 

 

100th BOM Item is...

The Radio Ranch DSP610 Parts Bin

We hit a minor milestone on the parts this week as well.  100 line items are either on order or in the project bin.  U1 and U2 were out of stock at Newark so they will be part of an additional order from Digikey or Mouser.....  I ordered several spares (about 5% - 100% more of each part) as well, depending on the size and cost split.  Some of these SMD parts will evaporate into the ether as it gets built - trust me they will.

...other parts such as headers,  LCD, and a mixer are in the bin but may be different than the ones really used.  Also I have a bunch of plugs  (MTA100) system I will use for the connectors.

 ...AND need to stock the External PA board's additional parts as well. Pretty much only some RF parts remain to be found/ordered.

You can scroll down thru the BOM...
 ( Green = in bin, RED = Out of stock, Yellow = On order)

DSP-610 TRANSCEIVER  Revised: Tuesday, September 20, 2011 STATUS AS OF: 10/27/12
BILL OF MATERIALS
NUMBER	QTY	REFERENCE DESIGNATOR	DESCRIPTION
1	3	C1,C15,C18	CAP ALUM 10UF, 16V, RADIAL
2	6	C2,C5,C16,C30,C109,C184	CAP CER 0.33UF, 16V, X7R, 0805
3	4	C3,C7,C17,C24	CAP CER 470PF 50V, C0G, 0805
4	3	C4,C107,C123	CAP CER 330PF, 100V, X7R, 0805
5	7	C6,C8,C22,C26,C81,C112,C135	CAP CER, 1000PF, 50V, X7R, 0805
6	31	C9,C12,C14,C25,C31,C32,C36,C64,C69,C89,C91,C93,C97,C98,C99,C100,C101,C110,C122,C168,C170,C171,C172,C173,C174,C175,C176,C178,C179,C181,C185	CAP CER, 0.1UF, 50V, X7R, 0805
7	78	C10,C13,C33,C34,C35,C37,C38,C41,C42,C43,C44,C45,C55,C58,C65,C66,C67,C68,C70,C71,C72,C76,C78,C79,C80,C82,C83,C84,C85,C87,C88,C90,C92,C102,C103,C104,C105,C106,C108,C111,C113,C115,C116,C117,C118,C119,C125,C126,C127,C128,C129,C130,C131,C132,C133,C134,C136,C137,C138,C139,C140,C141,C142,C144,C145,C146,C153,C154,C155,C156,C158,C159,C162,C163,C164,C165,C166,C167	CAP CER 0.01UF, 50V, X7R, 0805
8	2	C11,C28	CAP CER 0.082UF 25V, X7R, 0805
9	9	C19,C29,C56,C57,C73,C86,C169,C182,C183	CAP CER, 1UF, 16V, X7R, 1206
10	1	C20	CAP CER 0.27UF, 16V, X7R, 0805
11	1	C21	CAPACITOR ALUM ELEC 100UF, 16V, RADIAL
12	1	C23	CAP CER 0.047UF 16V, X7R, 0805
13	1	C27	CAP CER 0.039UF 25V, X7R, 0805
14	5	C39,C40,C46,C49,C74	CAP CER 33PF 50V, C0G, 0805
15	2	C48,C47	CAP CER 12PF 50V, C0G, 0805
16	2	C52,C50	CAP CER 68PF 50V, C0G, 0805
17	1	C51	CAP CER 82PF 50V, C0G, 0805
18	2	C53,C54	CAP CER 150PF 50V, C0G, 0805
19	2	C63,C59	CAP CER 39PF 50V, C0G, 0805
20	3	C60,C61,C62	CAP CER 3.3PF 200V, C0G, 0805
21	2	C161,C75	Variable Capacitors 5.2 - 30PF
22	2	C94,C95	CAP CER 560PF 50V, C0G, 0805
23	2	C120,C96	CAP CER, 10UF, 6.3V, X5R, 0805
24	3	C114,C143,C177	CAP TANT 10UF, 16V, 7OHM, 3216-18
25	1	C121	CAP CER 270PF 50V, C0G, 0805
26	1	C124	CAP CER 15PF 50V, C0G, 0805
27	2	C152,C147	CAP CER 100PF 100V, C0G, 0805
28	1	C148	CAP CER 220PF 100V, C0G, 0805
29	2	C151,C149	CAP CER 180PF 100V, C0G, 0805
30	1	C150	CAP CER 390PF 100V, C0G, 0805
31	1	C157	CAP CER 10PF 200V, C0G, 0805
32	1	C160	Variable Capacitors 4 - 20PF
33	6	D5,D6,D7,D8,D9,D10	DIODE SS 100V 200MA DO-35 1N914
34	4	D3,D4,D11,D12	LED 2X1.2MM 625NM RD
35	4	FL1,FL2,FL3,FL4	CRYSTAL FILT 10.7 MHZ, 15KHZ BW
36	4	J1,J2,J3,J18	3 PIN HEADER
37	8	J4,J5,J6,J7,J13,J14,J16,J17	2 PIN HEADER
38	1	J8	4 PIN HEADER
39	2	J11,J9	5 PIN HEADER
40	1	J10	6 PIN HEADER
41	1	J12	18 DUAL ROW PIN HEADER
42	1	J15	POWER SWITCH
43	1	L1	WW INDUCTOR, 180NH 400MA 5% 0.87MHZ
44	2	L4,L2	WW IND 680NH 540MA 5% 0.375MHZ
45	2	L28,L3	RF Inductors 1.2uH 10%
46	3	L5,L6,L7	INDUCTOR, AIR, 5T ON #1 DRILL, #24, L=0.6"
47	2	L9,L8	WW INDUCTOR, 150NH 800MA 5% 0.85MHZ
48	3	L10,L11,L16	RF Inductor 2012 5.6uH 5%
49	2	L12,L14	WIREWOUND IND, 47UH, 75mA, 5% 15MHZ
50	1	L13	RF Inductors 2012 3.9uH 5%
51	2	L15,L17	RF Inductors 2012 3.3uH 5%
52	2	L19,L18	RF Inductors 2012 0.47uH 5%
53	1	L20	CHIP FERRITE BEAD, 0805, 200mA
54	1	L21	FERRITE BEAD, 0805, 0.5OHM, 200mA
55	2	L22,L23	T50-6 Core, 5 Turns, #18 enamel wire
56	2	L24,L25	T50-6 Core, 7 Turns, #18 enamel wire
57	2	L26,L27	RF Inductors 0.82uH 5%, 1210
58	1	MX1	BLALNCED MIXER, 1-500 MHz
59	1	O1	Programmable Oscllator 10-160MHz CMOS
60	5	Q1,Q2,Q3,Q17,Q18	RF MOSFET N-CH DUAL GATE BF998
61	2	Q4,Q5	TRANSISTOR, NPN, 40V, TO-92, 2N3904
62	5	Q6,Q8,Q9,Q10,Q12	RF POWER MOSFET, 16W, RD16HHF1
63	1	Q7	MOSFET N/P-CH 30V 8.5A/7A SO8, DMC3021
64	1	Q11	TRANSISTOR, NPN, 40V, TO-92, MPSH10
65	5	Q13,Q14,Q15,Q16,Q19	N CHNL MOSFET, 25V, 220mA SOT-23, FDV301N
66	4	RL1,RL2,RL3,RL4	REED RELAY, SPST, COAX SHIELD
67	4	R1,R7,R21,R56	RES, 390OHM, 125mW, 1%
68	3	R2,R5,R99	RES, 4.7KOHM, 125mW, 1%
69	4	R3,R61,R81,R110	RES, 220OHM, 100mW, 1%
70	13	R4,R10,R15,R18,R19,R20,R22,R30,R32,R47,R90,R91,R112	RES, 1KOHM, 125mW, 1%
71	4	R6,R14,R98,R100	RES, 100KOHM, 125mW, 1%
72	12	R8,R9,R11,R16,R63,R64,R70,R82,R88,R92,R96,R97	RES, 10KOHM, 125mW, 1%
73	2	R23,R12	RES, 12KOHM, 125mW, 1%
74	3	R13,R24,R101	RES, 1.8KOHM, 125mW, 1%
75	2	R17,R28	RES, 1.3KOHM, 125mW, 1%
76	4	R25,R26,R29,R46	RES, 3.3KOHM, 125mW, 1%
77	5	R27,R48,R49,R106,R107	RES, 10OHM, 125mW, 1%
78	20	R31,R36,R37,R38,R50,R51,R52,R62,R67,R68,R71,R78,R79,R85,R89,R102,R103,R104,R105,R109	RES, 47KOHM, 125mW, 1%
79	1	R33	SHORTING JUMPER
80	2	R35,R34	LEAVE OPEN
81	12	R39,R40,R41,R42,R44,R45,R53,R58,R59,R84,R94,R95	RES, 100OHM, 125MW, ±1%
82	1	R43	RES, 68OHM, 125mW, 1%
83	2	R54,R55	RES, 5.6KOHM, 125mW, 1%
84	2	R57,R112	RES, 39KOHM, 125mW, 1%
85	1	R60	RES, 11KOHM, 125mW, 1%
86	4	R65,R66,R80,R83	RES, PWR, 680OHM, 1W, 5%
87	1	R69	RES, PWR, 56OHM, 1W, 5%
88	3	R72,R86,R87	RES, 470OHM, 125mW, 1%
89	1	R73	RES, PWR, 330OHM, 1W, 5%
90	4	R74,R75,R76,R77	RES, PWR, 100OHM, 0.5W, 1%
91	1	R108	RES, 3.6KOHM, 125mW, 1%
92	1	R111	RES, 1.6KOHM, 125mW, 1%
93	4	SW1,SW2,SW3,SW4	IC SW SPDT DC-3GHZ GAAS SC-88, AS179
94	1	T1	0.37" FERRITE CORE TYPE 43
95	1	T2	BINOCULAR CORE TYPE 43
96	1	T3	RF Transformer 0.75" Type 43
97	1	T4	BINOCULAR CORE TYPE 43
98	1	T5	0.37" FERRITE CORE TYPE 43
99	2	U1,U2	MCP6024, IC, OP-AMP, 10MHZ, 7V/µs, DIP-14
100	1	U3	LM386, IC AMP AUDIO PWR .7W MONO 8DIP
101	1	U4	AD9833, IC, PROG WAVEFORM GEN, 25MSPS
102	1	U5	RF DOUBLE BAL MIXER, SA602A
103	1	U6	LM78L05, IC, REG, 5V, TO-92
104	1	U7	SKY65017, IC AMP INGAP LF-6GHZ SOT-89
105	1	U8	PIC18F45K22 IC, 8BIT MCU, PIC18F, 64MHZ, DIP-40
106	1	U9	DSPIC33FJ12GP201, DSC, 16BIT, 12KB, 40MHZ
107	1	U10	CD74HCT4052, ANALOG MUX/DMUX, DUAL 4 X 1
108	1	U11	MCP4822, IC, DAC, 12BIT, DIP-8
109	2	VRG5,VRG1	LM7805, IC REG LDO 5V 1.5A TO220
110	2	VRG4,VRG2	MCP1825S, IC, LDO VOLT REG, 3.3V, 0.5A
111	1	VRG3	LM317T IC, ADJ LINEAR REG, 1.2V TO 37V, TO-220
112	7	VR1,VR2,VR3,VR4,VR5,VR6,VR7	TRIMPOT, 1K OHMS, Vertical
113	1	Y1	Standard Clock Oscillators 3.3V 25MHZ
114	1	PCB1	Printed Circuit Board DSP-610
115	1	LCD1	LCD Character Display Modules
116	1	LS1	SPEAKER, 8 Ohm, 0.25W
117	3	PJ1,PJ2,PJ3	3.5MM STEREO JACK WITH CUTOUTS
118	2	PJ4,PJ5	COAX CONNECTOR, SO-239
119	1	PT1	Potentiometers Audio 10K
120	2	PT3,PT2	Potentiometers Linear 1K
121	4	KN1,KN2,KN3,KN4	15MM KNOB FOR 6MM FLATTED SHAFT
122	2	P3,P1	Housings HSG 3P WITH LKG RAMP
123	3	P4,P6,P7	Housings HSG 2P WITH LKG RAMP
124	1	P8	Housings HSG 4P WITH LKG RAMP
125	1	P10	Housings HSG 6P WITH LKG RAMP
126	22	P1.P3,P4,P6,P7,P8,P10	CRIMP TERM SEL GLD 22-30 AWG
127	1	P12	HOUSING 18 POS NON-POLARIZED
128	18	P12	CONTACT GLD 24-20AWG
129	1	RE1	Encoders NO SWITCH 18 DET
130	1	RE2	Encoders No Switch No Detents
131	1	KN5	ROUND KNOB, 6.35MM SHAFT, 1.25" DIAMETER
132	10	SW1,SW2,SW3,SW4,SW5,SW6,SW7,SW8,SW9,SW10	SPST PUSH BUTTON SWITCH
133	1	SW11	S.P.S.T., on-off, push-on/push-off switch
134	1	PJ6	DUAL BINDING POST 0.75"
135	1	CHASSIS	.040" 6061-T6 Aluminum Sheet 12" X 24"
136	1	CHASSIS	3/8" {A} Sq 6061-T6511 Aluminum, Extruded-24"
137	1	U8*	CONN SOCKET IC 40-PIN T/H

Long Scroll ...Huh?

P.O.A.M. 

So what to do next? ...make a Plan of Action and Milestones! Also, this week we took a real look at the Schematics and gave some thought to the chassis and front panel.  The plan for the circuit board kind of jelled as I want to resurrect my old M620 Handheld Project. Wow! this radio would be a perfect test of the PA and RF front end of the 10 and 6M versions of that project.  Thus, the external PA would be a real easy way to patch those boards in and test them.  So the decision to not use the internal PA is made!

As far as the build...  Here is the sequence I came up with  (pretty much by schematic sheet)

1. Front Panel  - Using a 1U  size 19" rack panel...this will give me controls for the board
2. DSP & GP - and I can start playing with the  firmware...
3. Audio and 2nd IF -  It's easy to test this section.
4. 1st IF and LO2 - ...also easy to test and control these circuits.
5. RF-IF Converter - It is almost a working receiver at this point!
6. LP FILTERS LNA and TR SW- The first sheet that gets the PA mods -- we should have a two band receiver with some minor patching.
7. TX power chain - Also, includes more mods for the external PA  board- It is almost a real LP QRP at this stage....

So, for this plan to work, I will also need to make sure any parts needed for other circuits that will be difficult to populate with parts from these sheets will get installed first and any voltage regulators supplying the circuits to test are installed first as well...

~Stay Tuned ~