Lidia 80 project

Direct conversion receiver CW/SSB for 40m band

Being busy moving from Warsaw to the Ustanow village I suspended soldering for the time. Aquarius and Libra projects became discontinued and the only alive project is Taurus - ssb singlebander. But one day during winter 2012 I missed constructions so much then started to think - what to develope next ? The choice was dc receiver which can be built in one weekend. Today most of the Hams are very busy which I have noticed listening to the bands. Except contest our "ether" is so empty despite of high SF and suspots. But ... The Ham Radio hobby can not die, so new generations of young builders must have an opportunity to try building something simple and working at once. There are also great number of Hams who has never build anything. So the project is devoted mostly to beginners ( maybe they catch the spirit) and to the "older beginners".

I must tell you that the project name is my lovely wife's name. She is great artist in many areas ( oil painting, decorating, writing).

So see the Lidia 80 story below.

Photo gallery of  RX prototypy, named  "Pisces 80"

Prototype works in my radioshack

There was a lot of ideas, calculations, components selections and circuit simplifications.

Several nights produced a lot of good experiences

Front plate I made couple of times until reached satisfactory look

One day in February 2013 the job was done !

VFO tuning produces spectacular LED blinking

Prototype fully ready using the temporary name of continued zodiac series -  "Pisces 80"

Couldn't stay with this name because in Polish "pisces" sounds weird and produces unpleasant wizz

Prototype inside

There was a lot of adjustments to synchronize VFO and LED readout

I have used double linear potentiometer 2 x 10K but quality was poor and VFO sometimes detuned so I quit this idea for the future RX concept.

This was no worth to duplicate, because RX shall be simplest in concept and assembly

Photo gallery of the very first "Lidia 80" receiver

"Lidia 80" in full shine

 Front panel was projected in CorelDraw, printed on photo paper and glued.

Rear view

Power switch situated on rear

First RX mounted 10 FEB 2013 on "commercial made" pcb

Plate #1 I have soldered full Sunday writing step by step assembly manual (in Polish only) manual.

Late evening smoke test and lot of stations heard

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See the short movie - CLICK

Lidia 80 already mounted in popular plastic case

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See short movie "How Lidia receives using short indoor wire antenna" - CLICK

Block diagram

However in Polish, should be recognized with no problem...

Schematics

60 components only (don't count...hi)

 Lidia 80 DC receiver is easy to built in couple of hours.

Click  -  to see already built "Lidia" 80 receivers in Poland

More than 30 receivers are already working in SP-land and three in Finland.

I can offer limited number of minikits for 80m band only.

Click to enlarge minikit picture