[The posting on the Dentron HF Scout yesterday...There is one on eBay right now selling for $600. The seller thinks it is a linear amp and not a transceiver.]
Real Hams can do like a friend did in the UK. He had a desire to operate 2M CW and that as a standalone functionality is simply not found as standard gear. There are many high-end radios that incidentally will do CW, but these are expensive and thus a hunt for an alternative. He went to his junk box and with a bit of noodling came up with a design using what he had in hand. It was built and works like a charm.
He was able to do that because he invested the time to learn about circuitry, to learn the hardware and to learn the software. Thus, he was able to scratch build a rig to operate the mode he wanted and the band so desired. He is a real ham and those with a license should be able to do.
In my designs I try hard to keep from building the same topology over and over putting it in a different enclosure and calling it a new rig. Sad reality... an old rig design in a different colored enclosure is still the same old rig. Some of my rigs use discrete BJT, while others use IC's or DGM's or even MMIC's.
Two rigs are showcased today one of which was covered in an article in SPRAT called the Paesano. The EAQRP club had a neat single board SSB transceiver called the "Pilgrim" operating on 17M and used two NE602's wrapped around a crystal filter and the design steered this IF module to different circuits depending upon the mode (Rx or Tx). The board size was about 4X5 inches.
This steered IF module caught my interest and I acquired a bare board and built the IF Module, Mic Amp and Audio Amp and then designed all the other circuitry to create a 20M SSB transceiver. The tiny color TFT is good for 65K colors. I purchased a 4 pole, 9 MHz filter from INRAD and that is what you see on the board. This was a great idea from the EAQRP Club. I even added filter matching which was not in the original design.
You can see the Filter, NE602s, Relays, Mic Amp and Audio Amp
The Paesano
The next rig I call the 1496 as the heart of this rig is four MC1496's'. One 1496 is the balanced modulator, while another is the product detector and the other two 1496's are mixers. The IF Module uses a 40673 DGM which was a circuit snippet which came straight out of SSDRA.
When I finished this radio I sent W7ZOI an email and thanked him for SSDRA which made this rig possible. He forwarded the info on to a ham who did the original work on the IF stage which Wes included in the publication. Both Wes and the other ham (Terry) were delighted to see the modern hardware built which was modeled after their work circa 1975. The 1496 is a two-band rig (40/20M) and puts out 5 watts. The Digital LO/BFO of course was a huge plus in making the 1496 work.
Yes, 10 pounds in a 5-pound bag.
Yes, Virginia, these rigs are scratch built and for real hams is just another day in the shack.
These are not the same designs installed in a different case.
Them that know, now don't care if you know.
So, what is happening in Minnesota? One would think it is open season on American citizens. The USA needs a reset, and it starts with the Mid-Terms. Reason no longer prevails and you must seriously question the qualifications of those running the ops on the ground. The actions we are seeing are not the result of individual aberrant behavior but only happens because that is the tone set by the organizational ethos.
73's
Pete N6QW