It is really and honor to have Alan Wolke W2AEW build one of our receivers. Alan is a true wizard. Armed with an amazingly popular YouTube channel, he has taught electronics and ham radio to thousands of grateful viewers worldwide. A Field RF Application Engineer for Tektronix, Alan has a special knack for showing us how to get the most out of our test gear.
So many times have I gone back to videos that Alan made years ago, just in an effort to refresh my memory on the insights that he shared. For example, it was from him that we learned how the diode ring mixer really works -- what it really means to say that this mixer multiplies signals by 1 and -1. Alan even showed us how to get our 'scopes to display the multiplication. This was all very cool and very typical of Alan's work. His videos have been an important reference for this direct conversion receiver effort.
On this project, Alan dug into his junk box, only to discover to his dismay that he didn't have the AF transformer that we recommended. I am sure that Alan could have whipped up several alternative circuits that did not require the transformer, but he wanted to build the receiver the way we recommended, so a slight delay took place while Mouser filled his order.
Alan did build the circut modularly, stage-by-stage, using the Manhattan method, but he admits to giving in to his temptation to use a very small board. This may be the most compact of our 60+ DC receivers. In an encouraging reminder that even the great ones worry about unwanted feedback, Alan writes:
Why am I always compelled to build as compactly as possible? I hope feedback doesn’t bite me in the butt!.jpg)
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Thanks for such a nice write up!!
ReplyDeleteVery nice.
ReplyDeleteVery nice build! Thanks again for another good lesson, this time on how to build electronics very compact.
ReplyDelete