ARLA/CLUSTER: CRYSTAL SETS TO SIDEBAND - A Guide to Building an Amateur Radio Station

Carlos Nora carlosnora.ct1end gmail.com
Quinta-Feira, 14 de Junho de 2007 - 21:41:37 WEST


CRYSTAL SETS TO SIDEBAND

Revision 10, July 2006

A Guide to Building an Amateur Radio Station

By Frank W. Harris, KØIYE

Copyright (c) Frank W. Harris , 2002, 2006


Foreword



Table of Contents:



Chapter 1

THE FASCINATION OF RADIO
Exploring the shortwave      bands
Growing up in the Morse code era
The joy of building it yourself
A brief history of radio communication
Henry, Maxwell, Hertz, Tesla and Marconi.
Fessenden, Edison, Flemming, DeForest and      Armstrong
The sinking of the RMS Republic and the      birth of ham radio
Ham radio in the last 80 years
Becoming a radio amateur



Chapter 2

HOMEBUILDING AMATEUR RADIO EQUIPMENT
What qualifies as      homebuilding?
When homebrewing is not      appropriate
Barriers to modern      homebuilding –
Time, frequency stability and lead      inductance
Basic electrical knowledge
Magnets & static      electricity
Voltage, current, resistance, energy and      power
(Illustrated with drawings of water &      mechanical analogies)
Conductors, Insulators and      semiconductors
Capacitors, inductors,      transformers & alternators
Home power distribution, transformers at      low and high frequencies



Chapter 3

SETTING UP AN ELECTRONICS WORKSHOP
R&D as recreation
How to build radios (or anything else) in your basement
Persistence, read books, keep a notebook, & work in small increments
Minimum tools needed
The ARRL Amateur Radio Handbook
Soldering irons and small tools
Drills & thread taps
Wood carving gouges for making PC boards
>50 MHz Oscilloscope
Frequency counter
Quality multimeter
Lab power supply
Calculator
Lab notebook
Collection of electronic      junk
Parts catalogs
Capacitance meter
Test leads & socket      boards
Nice-to-have tools
RF & audio generators,      spice software & spectrum analyzer



Chapter 4

HERTZIAN WAVES IN THE BASEMENT
The nature of radio waves
Mechanical and LC      electrical oscillators
Antenna and transmission      line theory
Crystal set components
LC tuner
PN junction diode      detectors
P-type and N-type      semiconductors
Detection of AM signals
Homebuilding the parts for      a crystal set
The Jamestown diode
The Caribou headphone
Recreating Hertz's radio      equipment
Transmitting and receiving      as simply as possible
The 1880 ten-meter      communicator
Proving that radio waves      exist and aren't just capacitive or
magnetic coupling
Demonstrating standing      waves to measure frequency
Building homebrew      transistors
Bipolar transistors, PNP      and NPN
Demonstrating voltage gain
The Boulder Rock Radio



Chapter 5

GETTING ON THE AIR - DECIDING WHAT TO DO FIRST
How to earn a license
The rules of the      homebuilding game – Whatever makes you happy!
Picking an HF band
Getting acquainted with the      HF ham bands, 160 – 10 meters
Instant high quality HF      communications
VHF/ UHF handheld      transceivers
Building an antenna
Dipoles, regular and folded
Multi-band dipoles
80 meters when you don't      have room for a dipole
The curtain rod vertical
A multi-band vertical      antenna
Lightning protection



Chapter 6

BUILDING A QRP HOMEBREW
A single-band,      crystal-controlled, QRP module
The transmitter mainframe
HF construction methods
Making your own PC boards
"Dead Bug" and      "Gouged Board" construction
Superglue "Island      Boards"
Coax jumpers
Shielded boxes
The complete QRP      crystal-controlled transmitter
Transistor amplifiers and      oscillators
How an amplifier becomes an      oscillator
Class A and Class C      amplifiers
Stabilizing the operating      point, bypass caps and emitter resistors
Quartz crystals – the key      to frequency stability
The 40 meter QRP circuit
Oscillator and buffer
Inductors, RF transformers      and impedance matching
Tapped toroid inductors
How to wind them (and      mistakes you might make)
The final amplifier stages      for the QRP
Tuned versus broadband -      Use both for best results
Bifilar wound, broadband      transformers
How to wind them (and how      you might screw up)
Ferrite bead RF chokes,      expensive RF power transistors, heat
sinks & output connectors
Conquering inductors
Calculating resonance
Calibrating trimmer      capacitors
Calculating turns on      powdered iron and ferrite toroids
Chebyshev output low pass      filters
Keying your QRP
MOSFET power transistors
A "spot switch"      for the QRP



Chapter 7

BUILDING A CODE PRACTICE RECEIVER
A simple,      direct-conversion receiver
A great first project for      a new ham
Excellent sensitivity and      good stability
Poor selectivity
Adding 700 Hz audio      filtering
High pass and low pass      filters
Cascaded bandpass filters      increase selectivity
Operational amplifiers
Building with integrated      circuits
AM broadcast filter
Getting rid of the image



Chapter 8

POWER SUPPLIES
Line powered power      supplies
Power supply safety      features
Isolation, 3-conductor      cords, fuses, switches, ratings
Supply performance and      regulation
Rectification, ripple, chokes,      capacitors, & bleeders
Zeners, linear regulators,      switching regulators
A QRP regulated power      supply
A battery power supply for      the radio shack
Solar cell charging, low      drop-out regulators
Battery powered shack      lighting



Chapter 9

ACCESSORIES FOR THE TRANSMITTER
A straight key
An electronic bug
Building dummy loads
"T" type antenna      coupler
A low pass filter
How to stay legal with a      homebrew transmitter
Antenna and power relays
Homebrew QSL cards



Chapter 10

VARIABLE FREQUENCY OSCILLATORS
Drift is a big deal today
Low frequency VFOs drift      less than high frequency VFOs
JFET transistors
The oscillator circuit
The buffer, final      amplifier and output filter
The 50 secrets of      avoiding drift
JFETs, single-side PC      boards, cast metal box, multiple NPO caps,
small variable caps, precision      voltage regulation and more
Vernier tuning
Varactor tuning elements      – advantages and disadvantages
A precision power supply
A voltage doubler power      supply for battery use
Square wave generator      with a multivibrator
Squaring up the square      wave
Charge pump, diode/      capacitor voltage doubler
Schottky diodes for      efficiency
Temperature compensation      methods
Positive coefficient      capacitive trimmer compensation
How to adjust the      compensator
Thermistor/ varactor      temperature compensation



Chapter 11

Building a VFO for the higher bands (PMOs)
Old approaches that no      longer work
Frequency multiplication
High frequency oscillators
PreMix Oscillator method      of frequency translation
A VFO-controlled QRP      module
Crystal oscillators are      stable, aren't they?
Crystal oscillator      circuits
Butler oscillators and big      crystals
Mixers, bipolar transistor      and dual-gate MOSFET
Optimum drive requirements
Direction of tuning, drift      error cancellation
Multistage filters and      filter/amplifiers
The QRP final amplifier      stages



Chapter 12

FINAL AMPLIFIERS
The basic features of a      modern linear power amplifier
It looked easier in the      Handbook
Linear "noise      mode" operation
A tuned 50 watt class B      amplifier
Ferrite balun      transformers
An untuned,      sort-of-linear, class B, amplifier
Keying the 50 watt      transmitter
A linear Class AB      amplifier, this time for sure
Single Sideband (SSB)      needs a linear
Biasing without thermal      runaway
Clamp diodes prevent      runaway
Mechanical construction



Chapter 13

BUILDING A HOMEBREW HF RECEIVER
Building a receiver - an      unusual adventure
What's a reasonable goal?
An "adequate      performance" HF communication receiver
Does it have to be so      complicated?
Planning your receiver
Direct conversion versus      superhetrodyne
Why not single conversion?
Start with a single-band,      single-conversion superhetrodyne
How do modern digital      receivers do it?
Receiver construction –      build with shielded modules connected by thin coax.
The 80 meter preselector
Reception on 80 meter and      160 meters is aided by a tuned transmatch
The Variable Frequency      Oscillator
Mixer magic
Mixers will give you lots      of static – and howls and squeals
A practical homebrew mixer      made from discrete parts – it's harder
than it looks
Dual gate MOSFET mixers
Not all MOSFETS work      equally well
Crystal ladder filters –      essential for CW
All 9.000 MHz crystals      aren't equal
Using the BFO oscillator      to match crystals
Switch in filters with a      rotary switch
The IF amplifier
The cascode amplifier      strip - variable gain with constant Q
Automatic Gain Control      (AGC) - not a luxury
The product detector
Nearly anything works at      least a little
The AF amplifier – a vital      part of the signal dynamic range
Protecting your ears from      strong signals
How Hi-Fi should it be?
Driving a speaker
HF converters for the      other ham bands
Crystal oscillators
Bandswitching
Receiver power supplies
Use a linear regulator,      not a switching regulator



Chapter 14

OLD-TECH VACUUM TUBE RADIO
How old can radio      technology be and still be used on the air today?
Why bother with vacuum      tubes?
Glowing filaments, colored      plasmas & Jules Verne glass envelopes
Power supplies for tubes
High voltage power supply      safety
The old-tech QRP      transmitter
Vacuum tube amplifiers
The three roles of the      triode filament
RF sinewave oscillator
Quartz crystals
Triode and pentode      oscillators
Old-tech voltage      regulation – big, crude, expensive, but beautiful
The travails of triode      tubes
The oscillator and buffer
The final amplifier –      triodes chirp
The transmitter power      supply
An inadequate supply from      a 1935 radio
A good power supply made      from cheap, modern, boring parts
How to check out junk      power transformers
A complex but adequate      supply made from ancient parts
It works! No one suspects      it's old and it's a success on today's
40 meter band
An old-tech receiver
A super regenerative      receiver made from ancient tubes
The power supply
Super-regen on the modern      hambands
Lots of fun, but not up to      modern QRM & QRPs - back to the drawing board!



Chapter 15

THE NOBEL PRIZE FOR SIDEBAND
It can't be that hard!      Want to bet?
The sideband generator –      how it works
The 9 MHz oscillator / amplifier
The audio amplifier
The balanced modulator
Building your own crystal      ladder filter
Decoupling the power      supply leads
Getting rid of RF feedback      - RF filtering for all inputs
Tuning and testing
Using the generator for AM      modulation and CW
Moving the 9 MHz SSB      signal to a hamband
Move the SSB only once!
No wonder most ham rigs      are tranceivers
Moving the 9 MHz signal to      the difficult HF hambands
Move the VFO first, then      mix it with the SSB 9 MHz.
Pick your oscillator and VFO frequencies      carefully
Hearing your own VFO in the receiver
The hardest band – 17      meters
Covering the widest band –      10 meters
A linear sideband QRP, VFO-tuned module
All stages must be linear and low      distortion
All gain stages should be broadband to      prevent oscillation
Sometimes high pass filter output is      needed & not the usual low pass
Checking out the generator
Driving a 50 watt linear      amplifier



Chapter 16

ANCIENT MODULATION
Defining amplitude      modulation
Modulating vacuum tube      final amplifiers
Plate, screen &      cathode modulation
A "collector      modulator"
Converting a MOSFET keyer into a modulator
Generating AM with an SSB balanced      modulator
Compensating for      non-linearity
Compression by accident
You probably don't need to build a      compressor

·         Ham TV - The old way.

·         Fun with an ancient flying spot scanner TV camera.



In conclusion:

Homebrew ham radio is never complete - when it works perfectly and
does all the latest stuff, the hobby is over. Not likely. Long live
homebuilding!

Thanks for reading my book.

73's Frank W. Harris, KØIYE
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-- 
73 e Obrigado , Carlos Nora - CT1END
NNNN




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