Transcript What is 'QRP?'

Kits and Construction
A Report on a few available kits and one
way to make PCBs at home
Jim Larsen, AL7FS
907-345-3190
[email protected]
http://www.AL7FS.us/
QRP
Ver 1.1 7/12/06
By Jim Larsen, AL7FS
Page 1
Overview of Kits and Construction
• What are some of the starter kits on the
market today (always changing)?
• Kits – a sampler
– Small projects
– Intermediate kits
– Advanced kits
• Manhattan Construction
• Making PCBs at home
QRP
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Why Kit Building?
• Adds depth to your ham radio experience.
• Sense of satisfaction at building it yourself.
• Can have functional test equipment at a fraction of
the cost.
• Can Build your own station from kits.
• It’s FUN.
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Kitbuilding & Homebrewing
Given a chance, hams are natural builders and
experimenters.
Thousands of schematics are available
Hundreds of kits and projects are
available today
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Overview of Kits and Construction
• What are some of the starter kits on the
market today (always changing)?
• Kits – a sampler
– Small projects
– Intermediate kits
– Advanced kits
• Manhattan Construction
• Making PCBs at home
QRP
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The “Tuna Tin 2 Transmitter”
AL7FS to W1AW – 20 meters
QRP
• Simple Transmitter, less than 1W
• W1FB original design
• http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/pdf/7605014.pdf
• Kit: http://www.megalink.net/~w1rex/QRPme/
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VE3DNL Marker Generator
• “Markers” that we can
hear in a receiver
• Outputs are are 5, 10, 20
and 40 kHz.
• Outstanding instruction
manual with many photos.
• $7.50 shipped in the US
•http://www.norcalqrp.org
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“Herring Aid” Receiver
• Simple Receiver project - July 1976 issue of QST
• Mate to Tuna Tin 2 transmitter
• http://www.njqrp.org/tuna/herring_text.html
NorCal Herring Aid 5 – Updated version
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SMT QRP Dummy Load
• Learn working with surface mount parts
• Uses 44 2.2K resistors in parallel to result in a 50
Ohm load.
• Put it together in an hour
• Pwr Handling 10W for 1 min. 5W for 3 min.
• US orders: $7.50
• http://www.norcalqrp.org
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NorCal Keyer
• Memory keyer
• 3 programmable 40-character memories
• Iambic A & B mode, straight key and bug mode
• 2 beacon modes, and variable speed control by either a
100K pot or the paddles themselves.
• How to: http://www.norcalqrp.org/nckeyerelmer.htm
Covers every detail of kit. by Jim Kortge, K8IQY
• US orders: $16.50
• http://www.norcalqrp.org
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NorTex QRP Club
Accuprobe
• Measure RMS voltage in your transmitter so you
can measure power out.
• More sensitive than old .01uF, diode RF probes.
• US Price: $ 17.00
• http://www.kk5na.com/kk5na_files/accuprobe.htm
• Use with NoCal SMT
Dummy Load
• useful for measuring RF
signals with predictable
results from 100 kHz to at
least 30 MHz at levels
ranging from 10’s of
millivolts up to 35 V rms.
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• Gives you an
indication with an
LED of when your
antenna tuner is
looking at a 50 ohm
load
• Great for in the Field
• Quickly adjust tuner
• http://4sqrp.com/kits/td/td.htm
• US $25
• 4SQRP = Four State QRP Club - Arkansas,
Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri
4SQRP Tenna Dipper
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The “Pixie”
Bruce Hopkins - KL7H
built his for 3.920 and
3.933. Checkins were
successful with net
control on both Motley
and Snipers Nets
• Simple 250mW transceiver kit from HSC Electronics
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The N0SS HF Noise Source
• Noise Source Kit
• Easy to build w/o kit
• Spectrogram software
• Easy readout – filters
• This is 150 Hz BW on K2
• Make your own PCB
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A Simple and Inexpensive
Morse Frequency Display
• Small Wonder Labs’ “Freq Mite” $20
• PIC microcontroller as digital frequency meter
• Speed of readout on the FREQ-Mite is 13 WPM
•http://www.smallwonderlabs.com/
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Overview of Kits and Construction
• What are some of the starter kits on the
market today (always changing)?
• Kits – a sampler
– Small projects
– Intermediate kits
– Advanced kits
• Manhattan Construction
• Making PCBs at home
QRP
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• Built by AL7FS
Small Wonder Labs’ SW40+”
QRP
• 40m 2W CW transceiver – 20 meter version for AK
• Improved, simplified – provide your own case
• RIT add-on possible
• Educational Project
• http://www.smallwonderlabs.com/ $55 (postpaid) to US
AL7FS
Elmer 101
http://www.qsl.net/kf4trd/faq.html
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The NorCal 40A - Transceiver
• 40m 2W CW transceiver
• Grandfather deluxe
• Still available
• http://www.fix.net/~jparker/wild.html
Wilderness Radio
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• The new Wilderness NorCal 40A is $139
plus shipping ($6 U.S.)
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The NorCal 20 Transceiver
• 20m superhet CW
• Great front end
• NorCal kit for
3rd world countries
• No Longer Available
• Available used
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The “Sierra”
by Wilderness Radio
QRP
• All band CW transceiver
• Superhet, VFO
• Digital display & key are options
• Removable band modules
• Rivals quality of rigs 5 times the cost
• http://www.fix.net/~jparker/wild.html
• basic Sierra kit is $215, plus shipping ($8 U.S)
• Fully loaded is $369 with all 6 band modules
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OHR – Oak Hills Research
• Single band superhet CW rig
• + improved
• Price is now $139.95
• http://www.ohr.com
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OHR – Oak Hills Research
• 5 band superhet CW rig
• 5 band + improved
• $359.95
• http://www.ohr.com
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Overview of Kits and Construction
• What are some of the starter kits on the
market today (always changing)?
• Kits – a sampler
– Small projects
– Intermediate kits
– Advanced kits
• Manhattan Construction
• Making PCBs at home
QRP
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Elecraft K1 transceiver
A compact, high-performance CW rig that you can build.
five watts is all you need to work worldwide DX
four bands into the affordable, easy-to-build K1-4 transceiver
QRP
• http://www.elecraft.com
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John Hendricks – AL7OK
Bird Point, Alaska with Elecraft K1 Transceiver (kit)
2002
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Elecraft K2 transceiver
• The K2 is a full-featured HF transceiver
• Build the K2 for QRP or 100W Operation
• Can challenge even the Yaesu FT1000 Mark V on Rx
• And you build it yourself…just like the old Heathkits
QRP
• http://www.elecraft.com
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Elecraft K2 - AL7FS
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Elecraft KX1 Portable
QRP
• ultra-light, multi-band CW station with
internal battery and automatic antenna
tuner, full 20 and 40 meter ham bands, with
30/80 meters optional.
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Overview of Kits and Construction
• What are some of the starter kits on the
market today (always changing)?
• Kits – a sampler
– Small projects
– Intermediate kits
– Advanced kits
• Manhattan Construction
• Making PCBs at home
QRP
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Manhattan Construction
Pads avail.
From FAR
Circuits
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Manhattan Construction
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Manhattan Construction
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Manhattan Construction
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Manhattan Construction
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Manhattan Construction
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Manhatten – My Dead End
Dead End…for now.
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Overview of Kits and Construction
• What are some of the starter kits on the
market today (always changing)?
• Kits – a sampler
– Small projects
– Intermediate kits
– Advanced kits
• Manhattan Construction
• Making PCBs at home
QRP
Page 37
PCBs via Toner Transfer (TT)
Why build my own boards?
Seemed like fun.
Cost can be low.
For over 40 years Boards stopped me.
Manhatten Style is cool but I never seem
to get started.
Front-end load the hard work and finish
with fun.
So What is Toner Transfer
Method??
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Lets build a simple circuit:
•Zapper circuit schematic.
• From Dr. Clark's book
"The Cure For All
Diseases“
•Only the schematic is
provided from web source
• What to do……??
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•http://www.members.aol.com/mas1911/index.html
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Dip Trace
–
Draw
the
Schematic
http://www.diptrace.com/
Diptrace has a Free Version: Freeware edition does not support
export to DXF, Gerber and N/C Drill, max. number of pins — 250.
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Zapper Schematic
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Diptrace Convert to PCB –Step 1
Next Step is to move the components
to the layout you would like.
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Run AutoRouter
Scale 400%
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Print to Transfer Paper
• Tried Inkjet Photo Paper with zero success
• Plain Costco bulk white paper worked
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Clean PCB Board
• Tarn-X First
• Board was old with
fingerprints
• Dishsoap and hot water
• Scrub down with
rough green scrub pad
from Carrs
• Don’t touch surface
from here to the end
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Transfer Toner to Board
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Remove Paper from Toner
Soak 20+ Min. Warm,
Soapy Water
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Rub off the Paper
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Rub off the paper
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Circuit Ready for Etching
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Choices at This Point
• Etch all Four circuits
• Need to touch up traces and Pads
• Cut the best board free of others
• Needs No touchup – 3 good 1 bad
• Uses less toner
• Find a shear for cleanest cuts
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Etching the Board
• I used old Etching
Solution – 15 years old
(Not a good idea)
• Temperature of solution
was only about 68 degrees
(Not warm enough)
• Bottle says up to two
hours
• I took 65 minutes –
That’s too long
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Etching the Board
QRP
• Used a throw-away brush to gently wipe the
surface and keep fresh solution on the copper
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Etching the Board
• Copper slowly is eaten away
QRP
• Only the circuit will remain
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Etching the Board
• The Etching is complete
QRP
• Some circuits are good, others not good
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Etching the Board
• This one looks pretty good but with
QRP
some pitting
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Cleaning off the Toner
• Acetone was used to
clean off the Toner
from the circuit
pattern
•Left black smudges
on the board – No
answer for this yet
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Cleaning up the Traces
• My etch process
undercut the toner in
places
• I inspected each
circuit with a
magnifying glass
• In places I added a
jumper to assure
continuity
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Cleaning up the Traces
Solder Paste rubbed on
circuit
Temp. – 750 F
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Solder Wick = solder
brush
Paint the traces with
Solder
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Cleaning up the Traces
• Solder on traces protects the copper from
corrosion
•Better products to use, e.g. TINIT tinning powder
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Additional Cleanup
• Poor traces repaired with small wire and
soldered into place
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Additional Cleanup
• Poor traces repaired with small wire and
soldered into place
QRP
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Finishing touches
• Small drill press is
a requirement
•Small diameter
drill bits need drill
press
• Drill bits need to
be carbide tip drills
• Don’t breath the
dust from drilling
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Final Touches
•Use toner transfer method again to add
component outlines on the top of the
board. Can use household iron or
laminator to fix the toner
• Solder in the components
• Test the circuit
• Install in a chassis as desired
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Component Outlines
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Finished Board w/Parts
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Final Comments
• This is my first attempt at toner transfer.
• I offer my observations as a learning tool
• I plan to keep trying new techniques
• There are Many variations on this
technique
• Board cleaning methods used by me not
best. (e.g., the acetone black smears)
• My etching technique undercut some traces
(Needs major improvement)
• Great potential with this technique
Give it a try Yourself !!
QRP
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Links for Toner Transfer
• http://www.diptrace.com/ HomePage for DipTrace
software
• http://groups.yahoo.com/group/diptr/ Mail List for
DipTrace
• http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Homebrew_PCBs Mail List for
homebrew PCBs
• http://max8888.orcon.net.nz/pcbs.htm another step by
step example
• http://www.Google.com/ search on “toner transfer
method”
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Alaska QRP Club
• No officers, no directors, no constitution &
No dues.
• Meets the Third Friday of every month 7:00 PM (Some show for dinner at 6PM)
• Meet at Dennys (in the back room) on
DeBarr near Bragaw.
• Contact is Jim Larsen, AL7FS, 345-3190.
[email protected]
• http://www.qsl.net/kl7aqc/
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Questions?
Download presentation at:
http://www.AL7FS.us/
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