Enclosure Construction

Joe, N2CX, showed the construction of a calibrated signal source, with attenuator sections, separated by PCB walls. I extended the idea by putting sections on both sides of a "floor," with the primary RF chain running from left to right on the bottom. In normal operation, the RF chain boards actually "hang upside down" from the "floor."

Although I had laid out all the sections on paper before hand, I felt it important to lay out the boards to make sure they would fit in their appropriate sections when completed ("measure twice/cut once"). As you can see, I had already built the 10MHz Resolution Filter before I had started on the shielding. I actually built the Resolution Filter, Timing Base and Log Amp boards the weekend of April 13/14, and didn't build another board until the 29th--all of the intervening time (just about every day I put some work into it) was spent on the mechanical construction of the enclosure.