Club built 20m Amateur Radio Tranceiver

[spuddevans]

My local amateur radio club has built a 20m QRP (low power) transceiver, and I had volunteered to make a case for it, and I also turned up a couple of control knobs for it.

So over a few weeks I managed to bend up a case out of ali, and, because this radio will be put on display in the club trailer which is taken out to many public events (the club is quite active in promoting amateur radio in the community) and will also be on display in the club "Shack" too, we wanted the "inner workings" to be on display. But what to do about the "Great unwashed" (the public) poking their grubby digits and bending/breaking the delicate workings?

We decided to make a perspex cover that would protect while still allowing all the circuits to be seen.

Anyway, enough of all this rambling, here are a few pics of the finished project.

Front Panel view.



Close up of my custom knobs.



View of the perspex cover. (showing it all lit up blue. Oooooooooo)



Display driver PCB and S-Meter PCB.


View of the main PCB's.




With ali lid (to protect the Perspex when carting it around.



Another view of the top ali cover.




Making the case and doing a tiny bit of wiring on this has sparked off a desire to build my own, and so I have got the 1st of the kits needed and have started welding it all together. Unlike this one, however, mine will be multi-band and will be a little higher powered, 20-25 watts instead of the 1-3 watts of this BitX txcvr.

Thanks for looking in.

Tim

[AussieJimG]

That's a nice neat job Tim, did you weld the corners of the front and back panels?

Jim

[Jonny]

Nice job you can make one for me.

Valve jobby would have been nice, bbc quality.

[John Rudd]

Nice job Spud.....

quite into ham radio myself from time to time, although I'm not licensed....2m is fun ....

[raynerd]

Nice Tim. What kit is this?

I've been meaning to get another rig setup after selling my stuff over a year ago.

Chris

[spuddevans]

That's a nice neat job Tim, did you weld the corners of the front and back panels?

Jim

Thanks Jim, the case was just bent, the corners were then lightly persuaded into a closed condition with a short length of 20mm brass bar, actually left a nicer finish than I thought it would.

Nice job you can make one for me.

Valve jobby would have been nice, bbc quality.

Yea, valves would be much prettier, but a little more expensive and a little higher voltage than I am totally comfortable with!!

Nice job Spud.....

quite into ham radio myself from time to time, although I'm not licensed....2m is fun ....

Thanks John,

Getting licensed is much easier than it used to be, many club's run Foundation courses (the 1st stage of the license process) that are run over a weekend (Our's run it on a fri eve and all day saturday, exam saturday eve and you get told there and then whether you've passed) Then that gives you a callsign and all amateur frequencies are usable, the only limiting factor is the max power, which for Foundation Licence holders is 10watts er. If 10 watts doesn't seem much, I've had a contact from Northern Ireland to Canada on 10Watts.

Nice Tim. What kit is this?

I've been meaning to get another rig setup after selling my stuff over a year ago.

Chris

Thanks Chris,

This is the kit from http://cqbitx.blogspot.co.uk/ (although it is a .co.uk address, he's based in India)

The multiband that I am now working on is an improved design of the Bitx, supplied by DXkits.com , they also have a very useful yahoo group http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/G6LBQ


Tim

[John Rudd]

Tim,
Lots of info there, thanks

Btw, pm sent re licensing

[Jonny]

Times have changed quite a lot Tim, remember taking Part 1 and Part 2 plus the now dropped morse I think at 11 wpm.
Looks like an intensive course over two days against many months at 3hrs per night once per week then add on the morse training.
Not a clue with transistors hence no good with Part 2.

[spuddevans]

Times have changed quite a lot Tim, remember taking Part 1 and Part 2 plus the now dropped morse I think at 11 wpm.
Looks like an intensive course over two days against many months at 3hrs per night once per week then add on the morse training.
Not a clue with transistors hence no good with Part 2.

It has changed since those days Jonny, but I think it is better to get more young ones into the hobby. The Morse test has been dropped altogether, it is totally optional.

Some clubs do take a few weeks, just a couple of hours one evening a week for the foundation course, but our club (Shameless plug alert - www.muarc.com ) finds that it works best for us doing it as a Friday Eve + all day Saturday course, keeps it fresh in mind for the exam on Saturday Eve. We've had a couple of 10-12yr olds take the course and pass, and soon the club is going to run a course for a local scout troop.

The 2nd stage (the Intermediate) is a lot more information, and much more practical stuff too, our club runs it over 8-10 weeks, one evening a week, and does have more electrical theory in it, but all the information is both covered in the course and also is in the book.

The 3rd stage (Advanced/Full Licence) is much more electronic theory based, but builds on what was covered in the Intermediate course. I ended up doing all 3 stages one after the other in fairly close succession so as to keep the previous course's info in mind. (I've forgotten most of it now)


I totally recommend to anyone to give it a try, the 1st stage (the foundation) is not that hard, and even if you don't use it, the licence and callsign stay yours (you just have to login to Ofcom and confirm your address details once every 5yrs to keep your callsign)

Just go for it.

Tim

[modeng200023]

Tim,
I didn't know that you had to inform OFCOM every 5 years.

I'll have a go and see if they still recognise me as G4LRX.
I've been QRT for a while but want to keep my license alive just in case I need it.

As you will realise I took the morse test, a bit stressful.
Just for background info, I started with G6ABA/T, then G8APC and finally my full license.

John

[spuddevans]

Tim,
I didn't know that you had to inform OFCOM every 5 years.

Yea, but you can do it online, and once you are registered with them it is really easy, and best of all, free!!

I do seem to remember that for anyone who hasn't kept ofcom informed, they may have to send proof of their licence in to get registered, I'm not sure if there's a fee for that, but once you're registered there is no fee to keep your registration updated.

Your callsign should still be yours, I don't think they recycle dormant callsigns.

Maybe catch you on the air soon.

Tim

[modeng200023]

Thanks Tim

John

[hopefuldave]

Last I looked, £20 fee if you need.to renew a long-lapsed licence (e.g. mine 20 years on) and you'll need some sort of documentation - I've.still got a."validation document" for my G0 in a drawer somewhere for when I can justify the.expense (in time, not money)

Re power levels, a watt should be plenty for Coarse Mode, I worked south America on a half watt a few sunspot maxims back! That's a tidy little radio. Very tidy!

[spuddevans]

Thanks Dave 

Tim

[modeng200023]

I contacted OFCOM by email last week and had a very helpful phone call today explaining that I had surrendered my license rather than as I thought just suspended it. The outcome is that I am now in possession of my call sign again.

So thanks for pointing this out Tim.

John

[spuddevans]

No Problem John, Glad you got your callsign back ok. I hope to meet you on the air someday.

Tim

[angus]

went and looked on the ofcom website myself, and revalidated mine...... ran out last march.... guess i have been pirating since then !!