W7ZOI/K7TAU Spectrum Analyzer
In 2000, my good friend and elmer, Sam Billingsley, AE4GX, built the W7ZOI/K7TAU Spectrum Analyzer and demonstrated
its capabilities at a North Georgia QRP Club meeting. When I ran across the
Kanga Kits booth and met Bill Kelsey, N8ET, at my first trip to the
Dayton Hamvention, I knew I had to buy the kit.
Spurred on by an excellent set of articles in QRP Quarterly by Joe Everhart, N2CX, and by the desparate need
for better test equipment, I decided that the Winter of 2001/2002 would be dedicated to construction of a set of
test tools for my bench. The result is the project that you see on the following pages. This has been the most
interesting construction project I have ever worked on, and it taught me more about basic, pracitcal electronics and
electronic theory than a whole gaggle of Georgia Tech EE professors. The project is not for the faint of heart, but
I assure you that it is entirely within the capabilities of the reasonably construction-skilled
ham. If you have a pretty good idea how you might use a spectrum analyzer, then you can probably build it!
I recommend that you get the kit of parts and boards available from Kanga (see
http://www.bright.net/~kanga/kanga/w7zoi_sa.htm). Be sure
to get the Tracking Generator kit (and, in fact, you may want to get two, as you'll see on the TG page). Although they
come with the kit, you may want to also check out the following QST articles:
- A Spectrum Analyzer for the Radio Amateur, August, 1998, QST,
http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/pdf/9808035.pdf
- A Spectrum Analyzer for the Radio Amateur�Part 2, September, 1998, QST,
http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/pdf/9809037.pdf
- A Tracking Signal Generator for Use with a Spectrum Analyzer, November, 1999 QST, Page 50
(available by reprint only).
