Category Archives: Projects

Some thoughts on the K5BCQ Si570 signal source

Posted on November 18, 2012 by Stephen Trier

For the last few months, I’ve been working on building a radio from a pair of kits old enough to vote: KK7B’s R2 receiver and T2 transmitter. A complete transceiver built from these kits needs some other pieces, including a … Continue reading →

Posted in Projects | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off

Working slowly on the R2/T2 radio

Posted on October 22, 2012 by Stephen Trier

I was at my workbench when my son came downstairs to talk and hang out. A budding reader, he soon started singing the A-B-C song with the letters mixed up. It crossed my mind that this was odd, but I … Continue reading →

Posted in Projects | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off

An Si570 VFO for the R2/T2 transceiver project

Posted on October 14, 2012 by Stephen Trier

I’m continuing to work on my R2/T2 transceiver project as time allows. My goal is to get on the air before the sunspot cycle peak passes. That gives me a little time yet, but at the rate I get things … Continue reading →

Posted in Projects | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off

Going Forth, or maybe not.

Posted on September 22, 2012 by Stephen Trier

Over the years, I keep coming back to the Forth programming language. I admire its lean design and very efficient use of resources, but oh, is it ever quirky. My most recent return was motivated by James Bowman’s J1 Forth … Continue reading →

Posted in Programming, Projects | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off

An enclosure for the R2/T2 transceiver

Posted on June 21, 2012 by Stephen Trier

After months of organizing parts, I have finally gotten back to the R2/T2 transceiver project. Don’t get me wrong, the cleaning and sorting is not done, but I felt the urge to do something a bit more… constructive. While cleaning, … Continue reading →

Posted in Projects | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off

KK7B R2 receiver: lifted pads, a scorched board, and it works anyway

Posted on March 24, 2012 by Stephen Trier

I’m slowly making progress on my KK7B R2/T2 transceiver project. At my last report, I was waiting for replacement capacitors to arrive. They did, and I pulled out my ancient solder-removal iron, a Radio Shack unit from who knows how … Continue reading →

Posted in Projects | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

R2 receiver update: Time for new electrolytic capacitors

Posted on February 24, 2012 by Stephen Trier

Crunch time at work has been limiting my basement tinkering, but I recently found time to work on my R2 receiver a bit more. It is pulling excessive bias current, which had me scratching my head. The audio power amplifier … Continue reading →

Posted in Projects | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off

Building a KK7B R2 phasing receiver

Posted on January 27, 2012 by Stephen Trier

Hi, I’m back! It was a rough week, with a death in the family. As it ended, I found some time for some “solder therapy”. There is something good for the soul in putting together electronics. I don’t know if … Continue reading →

Posted in Projects | Tagged , , , | Comments Off

Making a coax feedthrough window for my shack

Posted on January 8, 2012 by Stephen Trier

One problem every ham faces is how to get his signal from inside, where the radios are, to outside, where the antennas are. A while back, I prototyped replacing a screen in my basement windows with a feedthrough panel. The … Continue reading →

Posted in From the Shack, Projects | Tagged , , | Comments Off

Building a KK7B T2 phasing transmitter

Posted on December 18, 2011 by Stephen Trier

Are you the kind of tinkerer who has a few unbuilt kits sitting around?  I mentioned last week that I want a faster way to get on the air than a designed-from-scratch SDR. If I stick to my current course, … Continue reading →

Posted in Projects | Tagged , , , | Comments Off