Early on, Wayan noted that he would have difficulty getting the 1000:8 ohm AF output transformer we were using. This transformer was easy to get if you have easy access to Mouser, but a few prospective builders in Europe and the U.S. expressed deep objections to our use of this device. Some complained that we should have used a push-pull amplifier. Others complained that they didn't have one of these in their junk box. Some even hinted that we should have gone with an LM386 chip. But we stuck to our plan, noting that the very simple AF amp circuit we had developed would be understandable in ways that the alternatives were not. Still, I worried about Wayan. He might have really been out of Mouser range.
Yesterday the above video appeared. Wayan finished the receiver. It is inhaling nicely on both SSB and CW. The CW signal you hear in the recording is that of YB1IHL. That is CW from Indonesia as picked up by a homebrew recevier. FB!
How Wayan cracked the code on the transformer is inspiring. He essentially homebrewed the part. Wayan wrote on the Discord server:
At last I can hear the CW and SSB coming in. The one and only 9v battery that I have during homebrewing forcing to switch to bench PSU with 9,3v setup Pardon me for the messy board and layouts, excitement that it works with parts I have in hands is everything. I learn a lot during this project, including inability for sourcing 1k:8 audio transformer causing me to build my own xformer from 600 ohm transformer former and magnet wire from a broken relay, tedious works but I learn new things. Need to tidy up and may need to build another mixer and BPF again.
He also homebrewed the PTO coil former.
Wow, that is all really inspiring, and is a great example of the homebrew spirit at work.
And Wayan is a new ham, licensed only since 2019: https://www.qrz.com/db/YD9BAX
Congratulations Wayan!
For more info on this project and info on how you should build this receiver see:
Join the discussion - SolderSmoke Discord Server:
Documentation on Hackaday:
https://hackaday.io/project/
SolderSmoke YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@
Now this is home brew!!!!
ReplyDeleteThank you Bill and Dean , you both are real elmers, your patience on guiding us on Discord really motivating us to build and completing this project. This DCR challenge project is improving my learning curve. Dean's videos as always are really great on helping us, not to mention discussion on Discord which I always find full of encouragement and there is always a new knowledge every day. I need to fix that fiddly tuning and wanting to make proper frame when back to the bench again this Saturday. Happy weekends. 73 Wayan YD9BAX
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