Early on, Andy sent in a report on a Direct Conversion receiver that he had built. It looked kind of like ours, but it was clearly NOT ours. It even had a 20 db RF amplifier ahead of the mixer. We politely (I hope) pointed out the differences. Andy quickly came back with the receiver picutred above. Yes, that is ours! Thanks Andy!
Andy writes:
I'm calling it done (for now)! 1) Biggest challenge for me was "coloring inside the lines". In other words, building the actual DCR challenge to the schematic vs. getting too creative with other circuits in my head. 2)My biggest breakthrough was developing a much better understanding of the diode ring mixer. And how brass displacing air in the PTO works. 3) What's next? I want to try some transformer-less audio amps to see if I can find a design for the folks that are having trouble finding a cheap source for the 1000/8 transformer. A super big thanks to both Bill @N2CQR and Dean @Soldersmoke for all the hard work bringing the DCR challenge and the Discord community to life. Bravo! And I would also like to thank Pete (N6QW) our guiding light and spiritual leader too. If it wasn't for the SolderSmoke Podcast and the Blog, I would still be living life as an appliance operator. 73 KB7ZUT ..
Andy posted these to the Discord server:
For more information on how you too can build the receiver:
Join the discussion - SolderSmoke Discord Server:
Documentation on Hackaday:
https://hackaday.io/project/
SolderSmoke YouTube channel:
Posts
Wow that receiver sounds awesome. Wait that’s my rig! Super awesome build. Come join the fun and build one yourself. 73 KB7ZUT
ReplyDeleteFolks, you just aren't looking, if you say you cannot find a transformer. Search Aliexpress for "1300 ohm transformer". Yah, it's 1300, not 1000, but I guarantee you that 1000 ohm is just a number someone pulled out of, well, you know :-) Be interesting to try a small power transformer as well, like the ones you scab out of dead microwave oven control boards. Here in 240VAC land, they seem to have a turns ratio of approx. 20, so impedance ratio of 400. Yah, the top notes might suffer a bit, but do we care? This ain't hi-fi, dudes! VK4TJ.
ReplyDeleteGreat humor! I love the Star Trek references..Ed KC8SBV
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