Sunday, July 3, 2022

Homebrew Variable Capacitors -- VU2NIL's Antenna Tuner (and other projects from Basanta)

 

OM Basanta VU2NIL  built a very nice antenna tuner using homebrew variable capacitors (above).  After seeing this, I feel unworthy -- I used FACTORY-MADE variable capacitors. I feel like such an appliance operator.  I hang my head in shame.  

Details on Basanta's tuner are here: https://www.qsl.net/vu2nil/projects/20210/20210.html

More project from him here: https://www.qsl.net/vu2nil/

And more here (his blog): https://vu2nil.blogspot.com/

Basanta has obviously made great contributions to the radio art.  Thanks Basanta.  And thanks to Alain F4IET for alerting me to Basanta's work. 

3 comments:

  1. Simple and effective. One SWR bridge I built a while back called for a 5 to 7pF 600v coupling capacitor made of double sided,PCB. This was easy to reproduce, you simply find a scrap of double sided board, solder a pigtail wire to each side. A few square centimeters of PCB exhibit about 5pF. To trim the capacitance, simply clip off a corner while attached to the LC Meter and watch the pF drop. When you get down to the desired capacitance, slip a piece of heatshrink over the whole thing. Voila! Bob's your Mother's Brother.
    73 Paul VK3HN.

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  2. This is the kind of work QST should be honoring. This is much cooler than that antenna made of beer cans they featured on the cover not long ago.

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  3. That's a very creative and efficient solution for the variable capacitors.

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