Current Projects
Rebuilding a 70cm kit transceiver, (Dick Smith Explorer) to give it a nineties style front panel and full band coverage. The original kit uses a PLL02 chip and BCD rotary switch giving only 40 channels (1 Mhz worth). I am using a PIC16F84 and two octal latchs to drive the PLL02, a recovered Hitachi LCD display, a home-made rotary encoder and 3 pushbuttons to greatly expand the capabilities of this kit. Since most of the parts from the original kit that were not already assembled by its first owner are lost, I am using a Mini-Circuits VCO in place of the original DSE scratch built circuit.I will post more progress reports, plus circuits, and source code as things develop. This is a minimal cost project, most of the parts have been recovered from old computer motherboards, a defunct mouse and a written off scanner. (A fax machine would do just as well....)
Other Projects
Developing a higher resolution version of the BATC PicDream Amateur TV test pattern generator. I built the original as posted on their website - it fits on a piece of matrix board about the size of two small stamps, and then had the idea of developing it further to make a compact PC screen test signal generator and also a high-res TV version to give more of the message on-screen at once. Circuit and code will be posted when completed.I'm also in the process of building a couple of 2m aerials; a J-pole for general repeater work, and a fairly serious long yagi for DX (and maybe moonbounce).
Waiting their turn for some attention;
Assembling a 0-1000 Mhz Power/SWR meter from surplus commercial TV transmitter parts obtained from the Wellington VHF Group trading table, and modifying this for more useful ranges (currently 5Kw forward, 500w reverse).
Building a basic spectrum analyzer from the guts of an old VCR.
Restoring an old Eddystone communications receiver.
432 and 600 Mhz yagi antennas.
ATV transmit capability. Full resolution 640x480 pixel cmos colour cameras are now available for the PC at affordable prices. Low cost, computer driven ATV station, here I come!
2002-5-10
Acquired a new crystal for the Drake downconverter, so its output is now at 144MHz, also a HP low noise MM IC for the front end and low loss 2.4 GHz filter. More on those when they are installed. Paul gave me a 23 element loop yagi for 2.4 GHz as well. Bought a VSB TV transmitter (looks like a copy of the WN VHF group kit) from a guy in Auckland , managed to solve one of its problems – whoever assembled it had left an emitter bypass cap out on one of the 432 MHz final amplifier chain transistors so it had its own extra spurious signal. It still has low output from the VSB filter, guess the new SAW VSB filter kit will solve that problem.
Highlights for 2003
Acquired an old Sky TV downconvertor, and am playing with getting the 11Ghz oscillator down to 10Ghz by gluing bits of NPO ceramic to the top.
I GOT MARRIED AGAIN. AND moved to the USA! Guess that may slow things down a bit on the Ham Radio front huh?
