Parts and Pieces

Well, hey, I'm solving the junk box program quite handily now. Thanks to Mouser, Adafruit, RSR Electronics, and the Xtal Set Society, I've managed to accumulate all the parts I need for the Neophyte project.

With apologies to Percy Shelley, "Look upon my (consumerist) works, ye Mighty, and despair"

Taking a supply management cue from my time with Navy EOD, as well as heeding the advice given on the SolderSmoke podcasts from Bill Meara (N2CQR), I adopted the "two is one, one is none" procurement strategy. As a result, there are enough components to build two receivers, or more likely, enough to provide spare parts when I let the smoke out of something.

The only exception was the main tuning capacitor (C12, in the schematic I posted earlier). It's an air variable capacitor with a 365 pF maximum value. This is one of those parts that shows up in various texts and designs where the author implies that it should be something in your junk box or easily and inexpensively available.

Not so...

These once common capacitors are apparently very difficult to come by on the open market. Worse, they're quite pricey in comparison to the costs of the remainder of my receiver. My research only turned up three vendors selling these new; turns out one of them is no longer in business, another doesn't offer the ancillary mounts and reducers I wanted. The third, though, came through big time. The Xtal Set Society sells them, and a lot more. The capacitors and related parts are a little expensive, but worth every penny, I think.

Yes, that is EMRFD doubling as a photo stand

Gorgeous, no? I haven't even mounted the 6:1 Planetary Reduction Drive yet, and I can't stop admiring the piece. Perhaps I'll figure out some cabinetry trick to try and showcase the beautiful mechanics of the tuning capacitor.

If the junk box seems a little overstuffed for a simple Direct Conversion Receiver, well there are a number of parts in there that aren't directly related to the Neophyte design. Also on my workbench, or more correctly banging around in the back of my brain, is a need to play with the signal generation so that I can have some sort of testing equipment beyond the uber-simple DVM. So, in that pile are some Arduino boards, LCD panels, rotary encoders, and some Si5351A Clock Generator boards to play with. 

This DDS interest is thanks to folks like Jason Mildrum (NT7S), M0XPD, and numerous others. I look forward to plagiarizing ruthlessly leveraging their hard experimental work in the near future.