Home built Electronic Projects (Homebrew)
I have built several kits and have been collecting parts (junk as my wife calls it) and have several projects in mind. The most ambitious of these would be to build a HF SSB/CW multiband radio from scratch. I am a lot better at collecting parts that implementing the construction of these projects.
Some of the other projects I am interested in building are a spectrum analyzer, weather monitoring equipment such as a wind speed indicator and a self emptying rain gage, driveway alarm, and computer monitoring and data acquisition on some of the above.
Spectrum Analyzer -- I have seen several articles and web pages on building this project. There was a series of articles in August and September 1998 QST and also a Science Workshop website selling a book and parts to build an analyzer.
HF Radio Transceiver -- There is a good book showing complete plans with circuit boards available from Kanga. This book is "Build Your Own Intelligent Radio Transceiver" by Randy L. Henderson.
In the meantime, I have put together a K2 Kit from Elecraft. It went together with a minimum of problems. It includes a noise blanker option as well as the SSB module. This radio covers 80 through 10 meters. I will hopefully get the finishing touches on it and get it on the air during the 2000 holiday season. I hope to use if for PSK31 and RTTY.
I am also almost finished with a VE2EMM 32 LED Doppler direction finder. I bought the boards and the programmed PIC from Far Circuits. The other parts were ordered from Digikey and Mouser. Hope the dipole antenna array I plan on putting together doesn't look too bad on my little pickup.
The driveway alarm I will attempt with a Honeywell magnetic sensor. It looks possible from the application notes. If I get it together and it works, I will post the results here.
Books which are good to have:
ARRL Handbook
W1FB - QRP NOTEBOOK
W1FB DESIGN NOTEBOOK
QRP Classics
QRP POWER
Solid State Design for the Radio AmateurIntroduction to Radio Frequency Design by Wes Hayward
ACTIVE FILTER COOKBOOK (ISBN 0 7506 2986 X) by Don Lancaster