I have been consumed by Project X and I need to take a break. The stark realization is that this rig even when 100% was likely chewing gum and bailing wire. Yesterday I struggled trying to get the transmitter working with just the lower-level stages. The 20 and 40M bands are much improved but 80M still has a problem with a large carrier signal riding along. The SSB signal going into the transmit mixer is the same circuitry for all bands. Yet in the mixing process on 80M the Ghost in the Machine wants to add a lot of carrier. I need about a week thinking of skimpy bikinis on a beach somewhere, so the background brain power can focus on the problem with Project X. So, blog readers you need a break too. A Pig in a Bikini See you in about a week. The above photo really gets you focused on thinking about rig problems. 73's Pete N6QW
Before investing a huge time sink in building / reworking the FP-200 power supply for Project X, I wanted to assure myself that everything short of the Final Amp is working! To date most of my energy has been spent on cleanup, fixing some of the mechanical issues and in general that the receiver is more or less working. To that end the Receiver works pretty well on 40 and 20 Meters. The 80M band is a work in progress. I then looked at could Project X generate an SSB signal. That was my trip down the rabbit hole yesterday. CIO, Bal Mod and Prod Detector First question: Does it generate SSB signals? That is a hard question to answer as it depends. The CIO (Carrier Insertion Oscillator) and Balanced Modulator are textbook and no rocket science here. The Bal Mod is a Diode Ring and includes both phase and amplitude balance. The CIO at 5.173500 MHz regrettably includes no "netting" the frequency so that with crystal aging it is a crapshoot to place the carrier at just the right ...