There's been little work on actually cranking out a receiver or transmitter from first principles. Instead, I've been doing a lot of noodling on LTSpice as well as wiring up some baseband/audio circuits to experiment with different designs. For some reason, I've been avoiding any serious attempts at radio construction.
Enter Ashar Farhan, VU2ESE, of BITX and Minima fame. On his newest site, HF Signals, he's made available a pre-built and tested 40 meter SSB transceiver "module" based on his classic BITX design from back in 2003. More amazing is the price: only $45, shipped. Perhaps some would say this is a cheat, a shortcut, but my thinking is that this is an opportunity to jump start my radio work. Who knows, maybe it will even motivate me to get off my butt and get my ticket. Time will tell.The module comes along with a bag of the external parts; controls, wires, connectors, and such, leaving the final fitting and wiring up to the builder. I've put mine in a small aluminum case I found, drilled out for the fittings and controls. I really should get a center-punch as my drill press showed serious signs of wandering.
Since I'm without a license, I've omitted the PTT button for now and will be trying it as an SSB receiver. As of last night, I've got the antenna connector, volume pot, tuning pot, and speaker/headphone jack connected. Absent an actual +12VDC power supply, I'm using a 8 cell AA battery case to power the radio.
Now, the bummer: Applying power doesn't bring the radio to life. There is some hiss in the headphones, but there is no change in audio when connecting or removing the antenna. Nor is there any affect from the volume pot or the tuning pot. I've had no time to troubleshoot yet, with family and holidays here, but I'll be taking a look as soon as I can. With the symptoms I mentioned, no volume change or apparent VFO control, the first place I'm going to look is at the LM386 audio amp starting with buzzy finger check.
Wish me luck...
