My time is limited and so not much new homebrewing ongoing. But I have been cycling through projects of old and suddenly it's clear that I should have paid more attention to possible "refinements".
Most critical when I first started building SSB Transceivers was the frequency stability and accuracy and as important the signal quality on both transmit and receive.
Homebrew dials fitted to 6:1 Jackson Bros. vernier drives were the Arduino/Si5351 of the early days. Placing the BFO / Carrier Oscillator at the right place on the slope of the filter was indeed a bit of black magic. Early rigs were vacuum tubes with solid state LC VFO's. In more recent times this has all given way to solid-state, amazing Color TFT displays and the Si5351. Even beyond that is now SDR.
Most of my rigs in the garage storage tubs have the basic stability and signal quality features but it appears I stopped there. Without much change to the existing hardware, many refinements could have been or could be added to these rigs.
These upscale mods include working S Meters, Voltage Monitoring, SWR Meters, CW Keyers and Automatic Identification. Some are on wooden planks and should have been put in proper cases.
A huge shortcoming is the lack of labeling and identification so when you pop the lid -- you have a better idea of what was done in the past. One ham I heard of glues the schematic onto the inside of the enclosure.
One positive thing I have done is to adopt a wiring standard where any wiring used on receive only is Orange and any wire used only on transmit is Yellow. This is a huge leverage factor when trouble shooting!
Another small but important consideration is hardware. I typically use what I have and for a single project probably OK. But it can come back and bite you. The antenna connector on my projects could be an RCA, BNC or SO-239. I should have opted for a standard.
The issue is that now I need a box of connector adapters when I try out various rigs. Several of those bargain adapters from China are flaky and subject to intermittent operation. I was shocked to find out that the better-quality adapters cost more than a Big Mac at Mickey D's. Now I attempt BNC only!
The import of today's message is to think about the refinements at the outset and include those in the scope of work. Doing this in the initial planning enables the add on later on without literally having to rebuild the whole rig
Now for the requisite photo to attract blog viewers.
This particular radio has extra panel space to accommodate a larger display. This now would give more real estate to provide status on SWR, Voltage levels etc. The Arduino has the headroom for this and I have larger displays in the bins. This would not be a large project time wise. BTW this box has had three different rigs installed inside. Recycling!
TYGNYBNT. Don't eat your pet!
73's
Pete N6QW