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[WA1GFZ]

Racal used high quality board material. I have no problem changing parts. The only problem is stuff soldered to ground planes because there is no thermal relief in their artwork. This is far better than rice box boards that fall apart as soon as they see heat.

[WA1GFZ]

$18 is cheap money since it comes out to about $4.50 an hour. The guy building them must have it down to a science to be that cheap. I'm good down to wire bonds ...a trick I never learned because we had a real good operator to rely on.
I played inside thick film hybrids so it is easy for me as long as I can see it.
I was lucky to land a nice microscope from my brother when he bought out another business.

[KF1Z]

$18 is cheap money since it comes out to about $4.50 an hour. The guy building them must have it down to a science to be that cheap. I'm good down to wire bonds ...a trick I never learned because we had a real good operator to rely on.
I played inside thick film hybrids so it is easy for me as long as I can see it.
I was lucky to land a nice microscope from my brother when he bought out another business.

The "IF" kit probably about an hour, after the first one...
I think I did mine in just under 1:45...

The RX/TX took 3 hours.... but that had a bunch of transformers to wind....

Yup, seeing is everything! 
Without the desk magnifier, I can do through-hole "ok"... surface mount, forget it.

Of course, I need glasses... this year I'm getting some... and then this stuff will be more fun!

I've got dozens of projects lined up, a few of them I'm just not going to do until I knoe I can see straight.... some of the ICs are just too expensive to screw up!

[WA1GFZ]

TNX Mack
I've been on a roll this week with the v2-CDC. I had just finished the latest round of mods. 3 wire cord and put the 5R4 heater winding in series with the primary to drop the output voltages a bit. My line is fairly high here so had 6.7 VAC on all the heaters. Solid stated all the supplies so didn't need the 5 volt winding to light tubes any more. Transformer a lot cooler now now that it isn't near saturation.
Yea, You don't want to drink too much coffee and try to solder SM parts.
Later got on 1885 with the class E rig big bunch of guys tuning up for Saturday night.  fc

[WA1GFZ]

Ah Yes I remember the days when I could read the value on a chip cap without glasses...now i'm happy to see the part. Nothing beats a good microscope.

[VE7 Kilohertz]

Hi guys,

Hey Frank, Check out my web site for mods I did to my Viking II. Just scroll down to "baotanchors" and then to Viking II.

http://www.qsl.net/ve7khz/

The rig worked great and sounded as good as the Bauer.

73
Paul

[WA1GFZ]

Yea my rig also kicks butt at around 200 ma. plate current 230 I can't hit 100%.
I still modulate the screens but increased the dropping resistor to 30 K and added 50K to ground at the Fianls. The  unmodulated screen voltage is around 170v. It was 219v.  My plate voltage is 760V after it was solid stated and added a second 8 uF cap. I put an L bracket on the two cap bolts so I could mount a second cap in the cavity between the chassis and case.
I wanted the audio self contained so changed the audio driver to a 6AQ5 and installed a bigger driver transformer. I yanked the big screen dropping resistor and installed an L bracket with two 10 watt zeners in series with a 15 k 20 watt  resistor. The shunt reglator is set at 250 volts and capable of 50 ma. The 807s re biased at 29 volts with a pair of 5 watt zeners. The resting current is about 40ma. I haul on the grids in AB2 with up to 20 volts positive. The screeens sag a bit when I haul on the monkey swing. There is 12 K across the grids. I still have the compressor connected but set high to limit things a bit. Thinking of adding more time constant though for soft recovery.  No feedback yet. I never liked feedback around transformers with the crazy phase shifts so have not tried it yet.

[VE7 Kilohertz]

YEs, I have used 409 now for a few years, works well. I have also washed PCBs in the dishwasher. Sure gets the junk off them.

Tony confirmed shipping the softrocks on Dec. 19th so they are in the hands of the postal workers.

Yes, I too have been watching that 2050 but I haven't bid on it yet. I'll wait to see how high it goes before new years. Not sure if I need another project but I do have the full manual. You probably won't find a downloadable version as it is about 3" thick with tons of foldouts. I bought mine years ago for $100 +/-?? from a fellow who was getting them reproduced in volume. You may still find one in print floating around the web. It has an odd ball IF freq of 3MHz as well.

Keep us posted on the softrock progress.

Cheers

Paul

[VE7 Kilohertz]

Shoot Mack,

I didn't know you were the high bidder. I threw a bid at it this morning, or was it last night, and I see someone (you??) has it at $450. Sorry.

I would like it but not for much more than $500. I emailed the owner and he says it is completely dead except for the failure light. I think it will be something either really simple, like power supply, or really complex like multiple failures from a lightning hit or???

Anwyay, PM me offline if you want. We don't want to bid it up between us.

Cheers

Paul

[WA1GFZ]

Alberto sent me a copy of 1.3 a few weeks ago. I see he added DSB function on the AM sync detector per my request (maybe?).  That phase meter on his display really points out a moving VFO or FMing.

[WA1GFZ]

We have had a number of emails but have not checked today's version yet.

[KF1Z]

Been playing with Winrad 1.3 with my SDR-IQ...

So far can't get AM to sound good at all... too much distortion.
I guess I could be doing something wrong... but there aren't a whole lot of settings!

The RX works fine with the SpectraView software though.

[KF1Z]

Been playing with Winrad 1.3 with my SDR-IQ...

So far can't get AM to sound good at all... too much distortion.
I guess I could be doing something wrong... but there aren't a whole lot of settings!

The RX works fine with the SpectraView software though.

This is probably a dumb question but you did download the support package for the SDR-14/IQ hardware?

I'm looking at the RFSPACE offerings at this time. I would have preferred one of the PERSEUS SDR boxes but can't get one in the U.S. at this time.

Yes, I did...
The Winrad software will only recognize a soundcard without the proper .dll file.

I hadn't seen the Perseus yet... but the SDR-IQ at  less than $375. fit my needs just fine.

(needs = playtime)

Tried softrock... ok for $11. but without adding a front-end, I found it rather dull (deaf too).
plus you need a good sound card for those, to get the best audio... for 'good' audio, a $5 soundcard works dandy.
But, they are meant as an "entry-level" SDR.... So, mission accomplished.

The 'IQ' uses (and is powered by) the USB port.
So you don't have to contend with the usual soundcard-woes for the I/Q input, as long as your card plays well into an amplified speaker system you're fine.


Don't know yet why I haven't been able to get Winrad up to snuff yet, but by the looks of the forum, there are others who have had issues with the earlier releases as well, so there should be some answers there.

[WA1GFZ]

I think he may have changed his loop constants but have not checked it yet. There was a bit of distortion compared to the .99 version of his early software. The wider capture range must have caused this. I think it will take a few more versions to get a good balance. I thought is capture range was a bit wide in the beta. fc

[VE7 Kilohertz]

Hi Mack,

Upon quick perusal of the HF-2050 manual, I see that there are 3 power supplies, +15, -15 and +5VDC.  The fault lite uses the +15VDC, the displays and most of the rest of the cctry use the 5VDC supply. My guess is the 5VDC regulator or something in the 5VDC supply is faulty, and thus, the radio seems dead, except for the fault lite. These power supplies are notoriously underdesigned and run extremely hot. After 20 years of service, I wouldn't be surprised if the PS has failed.

Paul

[WA1GFZ]

http://pcovington.blogspot.com/
Quick Silver

This should be a very cool RX. Phil is one of the brains behind HPSDR

[VE7 Kilohertz]

Hi MAck,

Kits arrived today!! YEah!!  The R's look ike 1206 package and the chip looks like .050 pitch. Shouldn't be too hard for these old eyes to assemble.

I'll let you know as I progress. Let us know how yours works.

My sound card also arrived last week, the Delta 66 and Omni I/O. Looks like a great package.
Cheers

Paul

[WA1GFZ]

Phil Covington will be doing a board later this spring with the A/D running 50% faster. He is also the designer for HPSDR Mercury.

[WA1GFZ]

There was a guy on softrock who was building boards. As far as the stuff with FPGAs I'd gladly pay someone to do it with a pick and place machine. They are very ESD sensitive.  The softrock boards are actually quite easy if you have the right optics. The only problem I had was the through hole resistors. You have to measure each value to be sure. Color code was very hard to see even under the scope.

[VE7 Kilohertz]

Softrock Lite SMT is done, just hunting around for the BOM for the IF version. What did you guys use? I assume they are all the same with the exception of the list of parts enclosed in the kits for the IF.

Don't want to have to desolder anything.

SMT was fun, took about an hour and I was in a 160M QSO at the time. Sure glad I found the magnifier light.

73
Paul

[VE7 Kilohertz]

All Done.

Softrock Lite is built and redy for the xfmr winding. Going to review the notes in this thread and determine which cores, wire etc to use. Also going to find some breakaway header pins and midgie jumpers for the divide by select, and a couple of socket pins for the xstal, just in case I want to use this for another RX one day.

I'll keep ya posted...off to bed now.

Paul

[WA1GFZ]

Paul,
Dump those transformers. 3 turns trifilar #30 in a Fairite 2873002402 2 hole core is perfect for 455 KHz. A 3/8 or 1/2 toroid can be used with 10 or 12 turns. type 43 and type 73

[VE7 Kilohertz]

Hi Frank,

I know I have some 2 hole ferrites around somewhere...but where??  I have lots of little torroids but don't know the material. Any easy way to test?  I have been collecting samples for years.  Ordering more cores from the US will take weeks to get here. What is the material in the kit cores?

I will see what I have that will fit.

Paul

[WA1GFZ]

Wind a trifilar transformer and put two of the windings in series. Put a 200 ohm noninductive resistor across the whole secondary. Drive the third winding with a 50 ohm source at the frequency you want to operate on. Look at the primary and secondary voltage with a scope. You should see a 1:2 step up if you are right. More turns on the core lowers the operating frequency. You can even use your RX as a source if you have a 6 dB. pad between RX and transformer forcing 50 ohms. You will see slight loss in the transformer but not more than 1 dB.
For 455 KHz a higher permability core will work type 77 or 43. Higher IF around 5 MHz type 43. Above that 61. 61 will work over all ranges but it will take a lot of turns. Tony uses iron core so that is why all the wire.

[VE7 Kilohertz]

Thanks Frank,

I'll start with 5 turns trifilar and see how it works.  What about L1? Use Tony's core or go with another? Assume a new one. Have no LCR meter here so will need to measure inductance by other methods...ah, finally get to use my Heathkit grid dip meter...or maybe the MFJ-259..nope, doesn't go low enough.

Paul