Pay More and Get Less. Flash the Cash!

Homebrewing Thanksgiving Dinner is not unlike homebrewing a new SSB transceiver so there is a transference of skills. In case you are hungry check out my website, https://www.pastapete.com for photos and recipes from Turkey Days of the past. BTW I have six websites and the most valuable one if I were to sell the URL -- yep Pastapete. So why the comparison to homebrewing a Holiday Feast with a unique SSB Transceiver design. Well, let's start with the fact that three of the kids were here for dinner this year. The cost of the parts was just south of a pre-owned ICOM IC7300. A fat turkey was $55. ($2 a pound). It was downhill from there. Parts Bin Cranberry Jello Yams with Pecans   Stuffed Macaroni Shells Now mind you I fabricated this meal while still keeping my schedule of seeing the XYL twice a day at the Board and Care. Not shown were the four pies I baked: 2 Pumpkin, 1 Apple and 1 Pecan. We had turkey and ham as well as the green bean casserole, potatoes au gratin, macaroni sala...

Speaking of Turkeys I had one, or so I thought. The Turkey of which I speak is a Drake TR-3. This radio was a Christmas gift from my son and his XYL several years ago. It was a tech special, and I did get it working but it just didn't seem right! I thought given my time constraints today, this might be something I could attack a small piece at a time. Two problems remained. The first was to get the 9 MHz BFO crystal on just the right frequency so that the LSB and USB crystal filters would work properly. It all boiled down to a deft touch on the zeroing trimmer. This was a long-drawn-out process, but I finally got there.  The second problem had me stumped! While the receiver worked it seemed deaf. I could hear signals, but you had to crank the volume wide open. A check of all the tubes and a tube swap of the four 12BA6's (all in the receiver) did not change a thing. An item on the schematic (almost hidden) finally came to my attention.  This item is a #12 light bulb. I am guess...

  This is a first draft of a notional view of a no-tune broad band (Not Ina Rae Hutton) Linear RF Amp stage. It is hoped with the low plate voltage on the 12GE5 to see about 20 watts PEP.  A board has been cut for the Driver (12DQ7) and the Final (12GE5). A pair of 6GE5's in the Heathkit Monoband radios got you 100 watts. The board is hot off the CNC and needs a cleanup and making the penetrations for the relay and tube sockets still need to be done.  With the 12DQ7 and 12GE5 this will replace the solid-state stages in the Hybrid rig and will make it closer to a full tube rig. There will be shielding between the stages. The 12DQ7 will have a Band Pass Coupler to the 12GE5. (Lower right-hand corner are the coupler pads.) Them that know can make it go! Pete, N6QW

  Worked VA6MB today, Mike in Cold Lake, Alberta. My report was 3X3. Not too bad for 6 watts at 6AM on 7.2MHz. Them that know can make it go! 73's Pete N6QW

     /* This is the  use of the Xiao RP2040 and the Si5351 for a BFO for the TR3          *          *          *          *          *          *          */         #include "xiaoRP2040pinNums.h" // Or use the device pin numbers with "u" suffix.         #include <Wire.h>                 #include "si5351.h"                  #define i2cSDA D4         #define i2cSCL D5                  ...

Read up on the design of the Drake TR-3 SSB/CW transceiver. This radio had a rinky dink pair of 4 pole crystal filters which are affectionately called the "soup can". This was an Achillies heel of this radio and often one or both of the filters went south. The topology of this radio used a fixed BFO frequency of 9 MHz, and the two filters center frequencies are such where one is above the BFO and one below he BFO. To switch sidebands, you switched the filters.  These filters today are unobtanium and when one dies your TR-3 is dead! The TR-4 uses the same approach but employs two separate filters not soldered inside a soup can. The TR-4 filters are physically too big for a retrofit inside the TR-3. But an ingenious solution from K9SUL who had one dead filter (the other was OK) was to hardwire that filter into the circuit, bypassing the front panel filter switch. The next step was a technology solution. He eliminates the 9 MHz crystal BFO and installs a Si535i driven with a Tee...

 // UTFT_Demo_320x240_Serial // Copyright (C)2015 Rinky-Dink Electronics, Henning Karlsen. All right reserved // web: http://www.RinkyDinkElectronics.com/ // // This program is a demo of how to use most of the functions // of the library with a supported display modules. // // This demo was made for serial modules with a screen // resolution of 320x240 pixels. // // This program requires the UTFT library. // // ******************************************************************** // * IMPORTANT: Read the comments in the setup() function when        * // * using the Watterott MI0283QT9 or the DisplayModule DM-TFT28-105. * // ******************************************************************** //Pete Here> 5/14/2018 Got this to work with all functions for use with a 20 Meter Transceiver // Now need to install buttons. #include <UTFT.h> #include <URTouch.h> // Declare which fonts we will be using extern uint8_t BigFont[]; extern uint8_t...

  New Display for Hybrid Wireless A display that plugs into and is integral with the Arduino Mega 2560. The Key Feature is the Seven Segment Display of the Frequency. A boon to Old Farts that have vision problems. The Black Dot turns green on Tune/Transmit.

With a low Plate Voltage about 20 Watts PEP  12GE5 Beam Pentode 275 VDC on the Plate 185 VDC on the Screen A -20 to -30 VDC Bias 90 Ma Cathode Current 17.5 Watts Plate Dissipation Replace the SS stages with a 12BY7 Driver and the 12GE5 Final. Broad Band No Tune Amp.

  The Collins KWM-2 and the N6QW KWM-4 Checking in to the Collins Net