The AM Forum

I finished building a NorCal FCC-1 digital frequency display assembly today without a hitch.  I did not bolt the LCD display to the main p.c.b. as they designed it, but soldered 10 wires between the main p.c.b. and display board so that I can mount the display at right angles to the main board.

No problems at all.  The assembly draws 23 ma. at 11 Volts d.c. in. 

I decided to temporarily run the display with my National NC-100-type receiver.  I programmed the unit for
an i.f. of 456.00 kHz. and specified "VFO - IF" mode (the NC-100 always has the l.o. frequency on high side injection).

I carried the p.c.b. assembly to the receiver and sat it on top of the cover on a piece of paper.  I put a clip lead to the cabinet ground from p.c.b. ground and poked the wire I had soldered to the r.f. input down through a hole in the top cover near the l.o. section.  The unit is powered by a 9 Volt battery.

The display worked right away with just a little adjustment of the wire position.  I'm amazed how well this has gone.

Two photos below of the display test in operation.  I have not peeled the protective cover off of the LCD face yet.

You can't beat it for $35.  I recommend it.

Tom I wonder if this would make a good article in the "Product Reviews" section?
Need better pictures of the unit itself -- frankly I didn't notice it on top of that nice big receiver.

If you agree a fullscale review is useful, take what you've got, add some more specifications or application notes, and post your finished article over there.

Notice your pictures are shrunk for web posting to a width of 350 pixels. That can help guide your composition when you take the shot.

Tom,
  Looks Good! Mine is still waiting for me to get started on it.
  Nice Job!

Bill

I had/have no intent of creating a full-blown product review article.  I learned of the product via a 5 page  article in September 2006 QST, pages 28 - 33.  There are many close-up photos in that article.

Recently in another topic in this Technical Forum section entitled "frequency counter reccommendations?" I posted the following:

"There is a frequency counter kit by the Northern California QRP group (NorCal) , the FCC-1, which looks attractive.  It was featured in an article in QST this past month.  Best for specific applications, not a universal test counter.  The kit is $35, includes all parts, p.c.b. and manual.  No cabinet.  PCB is 1.9" H x 3.05" W x 1.125" deep.

Runs 500 Hz.(lower with bigger cap.) to 50 MHz.  You can program in frequency offsets and scaling.  Great for upgrading analog boat anchor receivers to digital readout by reading the local oscillator signal.  Small character height on the display though.

Power is 5 Volts at 20 ma.  The power can be reduced further if you interface directly with a CMOS swing or design you own more efficient amplifier stage.

Here is the NorCal page.  You can download the 28 page user/assembly manual also:

http://www.norcalqrp.org/fcc1.htm   

".

You can find some photos there and page 23 of the manual details the variety of calculations the unit will do in arriving at the displayed frequency, including pre-scaling factors.

The photos in my post above were intended to document the test and basic operation only.  The reduction to 350 pixels wide is automatic by the page generating software.  The photo's filename which appears immediately below the photo may be clicked on and then the photo file will download and will be displayed in the full original resolution of 640 x 480.

Okay, I take it you don't feel like writing a product review for us.
Perhaps we can work your material into something, and we can cite you as the source. You're most of the way to a review, anyway, so it won't be much to finish.
Will put a draft up to the Moderators for approval if I get the time.
----

I can't use the photographs nor text from the magazine article you cited, and certainly you deserve credit and the opportunity for a write-up of an interesting product.

Glad you figured out the page software on resizing, yes, you can see that even in your original sized photo, some cropping or greater close up would help the shrunk version.

Regards

Tom,
This little frequency readout looks great,--perfect as an "add-on" for old receivers,
or homebrew, (superhets,regens or even direct conversion) receivers.
And 35 bucks,--sounds like a real good price. Thanks for the info.

                                     73, K1MVP
 

Yeah, neat thing....

They also have a nother kit (FCC-2) that when you put it together with the counter (FCC-1) you have a freq counter AND a "DC - 20MHz DDS (Direct Digital Synthesis)" VFO....


That's an extra $45.

I was one of the beta testers on this project, if you really want to know all about it, download the manual. Bob Okas did an outstanding job writing it and it explains everything you ever wanted to know about the device. You can look at some pictures on my site at http://www.wb6kwt.com

Bob

OK.... so I am two years late but I just built one and it works great on the bench but in use with a real antenna, it nearly sucked up all the RF.

I tied it to the cathode of the mixer on my S40B.

Not quite sure what "near the l.o. section" means.  Is a solder joint too "near".  Sounds like I am missing something here.

js

I think Tom meant literally "near" and not connected!

I can't remember the input threshold, I'll have to look it up...
But it's fairly low I believe... so a gimmic may be all that's needed...

Otherwise maybe a series capacito, or resistor to better isolate the counter from the circuit you're testing is in order...


(I've never actually used mine as a counter, added the vfo section...)

Are you sure Norcal still sells it?  I used to belong to Norcal.  It's a QRP projects club.    When they make kits, they're usually limited to one or two runs of the kit.  Once they run out of stock, you're out of luck.  The kit is retired, unless some other club, or individual decides to revive the kit.  It sounds like a great readout to have.  I sure wouldn't mind building, to use with my SX-96.  But considering that Tom's kit is from 2006, I wonder if it's even still available from Norcal, or even AMQRP (who occasionally will do runs of Norcal kits).

73,
Ellen - AF9J

http://www.norcalqrp.org/fcc1.htm

Still for sale as of this moment, as is the fcc-2.

-Jason

Ellen, I talked with one of the kit managers a couple weeks ago and they have every intention on continuing the FCC-1 and the FCC-2 for "quite a while".  It's a very successful kit for them and in high demand.

- JT

That is so cool to to hear!!  Guess what  my next project is?  Yep, an FCC-1 or FCC-2, so I know where I am with my SX-96!  Thanks for the info Jason & JT.  BTW, which one do you guys recommend (I especially like the ease of just using a pickup wire to hear the LO, without having to dink around with matching a feed to it).  Looks like I'll have to refurbish the 25W iron.

73,
Ellen - AF9J

Ellen,
The FCC-1 is a freq counter only....

The FCC-2 is an add-on to the FCC-1 that adds a DDS vfo.

I just bought and built this kit and see no clue that we can't get them forever.  It took an hour to assemble, another half to learn how to use it.  Cat's meow!

Right now it is sitting on top of my exciter reading out the VFO freq just like my $90 MFJ unit which has been retired to the bench.

But can we get back to my question?

I bought this to soup up my S40B but need help getting it to track the L.O. without sucking the sigs down.  It reads out the correct freq on every band but the sigs are too weak to make it a useful addition.

First I tied it to the cathode of the mixer, then to the plate through a resister/cap but get the same results.

I tried non-contact RF pickup but there is not enough sig to drive the counter.

Any advice welcome.

js

Thanks for the info Bruce.  :)  It's been a while since I kept up with the Norcal stuff.

Ellen - AF9J

Jack,
I'm a little confused to what the problem is...

When you connect the fcc1...  it DOES read the frequency correctly?

But, then what?

It causes your (TX, or RX?)  to not work correctly?


Sorry, just trying to grasp the situation!

Problem WAS it loaded down the receiver so the sigs were very weak.

Turns out I was on the wrong socket pin.  The schematic is a bit fuzzy and I was on a mixer grid instead of the cathode.

Works great now.  Only problem is now there is more resolution than the S40 knows what to do with.  But it sure if fun hopping around the bands with it now.

js

Ok Jack, great....

That's what I thought you meant by "...sucking up all the RF..."...

Then I don't know what lost me....~~~~~


Good you found a good outlet!

Congratulations Jack.

As I recall, the display resolution can be changed by pushing one of the pushbuttons.  The pain is that this must be done every time you power up.  My unit's firmware is V1.2 .

Perhaps a new rev. software has allowed the resolution choice to be saved for next power-up.  You'll have to read the operations section of the manual again.

I also built one of these several months ago and use it with my old MFJ antenna analyzer that does not have a digital display. My other counter uses a LED display that is hard to read in bright sunlight, but the LCD display on the FCC-1 is great outdoors. A great little portable counter with many uses.

73, Harvey

I used the FCC-1 for the VFO for my E rig.  The VFO is Steve, QIX simple Hartley oscillator.  To mount the FCC-1 to the front panel, I found a local machinist who has a CNC in his basement (charged me $15).  I gave him the artwork (from the manual) and the display fits perfectly.

For $35, you can't beat this counter.

I attached a photo (not sure if it will show or not).  It shows the VFO on top with the PWM modulator on the bottom.  The RF deck is to the left, but not really shown.

Best regards to all,

Pete
n1ps

Funny you should mention that.  I gave my machinist the artwork and ended up with a panel that was about 50% larger than the display.  Problem being my machinist is me and me screwed up.  I assumed it was a template, laid it on my panel and pricked through all the hole locations and corners.  I never bothered looking to see that the dimensions did not agree with the scale of the "template".  So I ended up cutting twice after measuring once.

It  looks great now mounted on the front of the speaker grill on my S40B.  The holes in the grill happen to be the tap drill size for 6-32 screw so I just tapped two holes and mounted it up.  In the event I take it off, one will never notice that two of the holes are tapped.

My next project is to pull the DC supply voltage out of the receiver to eliminate the outboard supply.  I haven't looked yet but there must be a dozen ways to do this.

One problem I have noticed is that AM sigs are not necessarily right on the carrier freq as is true with my TS430.  If I zero beat the carrier, I have to move off a kc or so for best audio. 

Any ideas?

js

Yes, I noted the scale was not 1:1. 

Can't help you too much on the receiver pick off for your FCC-1.  I have not used it in such a fashion.  I assume you are picking it off the IF as the LO would not be correct.  Perhaps try to retune your IFs?

~ps

I know, there great. If you amassed all the parts, you couldn't build one for that price. I built one for my Station X HRO about 6 months ago.
I mounted in a wooden Box I got from the Hobby Lobby craft store. Here's a pic of the box atop the HRO. I installed a 68pf cap off the output of the LO and out to an RCA jack in the rear.