About

I mostly enjoy tinkering with electronics and making things work. I have a background in electronics but most of what is presented here is more of a journal for myself. It may help others out if they are working on something similar and happen across an interesting page here. I like to keep track of what I am doing when it comes to my hobby. It may come in handy later on when I can look back at these pages for reference. I also like what Adam Savage says about the only difference between just screwing around and science is writing it down. Maybe then I am not just screwing around.

http://blog.iland.com/hs-fs/hubfs/documentation.jpg?t=1498496016505&width=397&name=documentation.jpg

I always was interested in RF but never really dove in until around 2015. This is when I upgraded from the Technician class license I received in 2005 to Extra class. I wasn't very active for those 10 years past.

A lot of the stuff on this blog is not original it is just me learning by doing. Most of it has been recreated from things others have done. I have information regarding the original sources on the posts if there are any that I am aware of.

I started some RF homebrewing when I built a homebrew SWR bridge then a mono band 2 meter vertical ground plane antenna. The things seem to work great! Btw, The main element is a piece of coat hanger. The SWR bridge is one of my favorite tools and also fairly simple. You can find some details within the blog.

SWR Bridge. -AC9LF

SWR Bridge insides. -AC9LF

Ground plane antenna. -AC9LF

     
Later I acquired a nonfunctional "ADI 146" 2 meter mobile station. I have fixed this as far as I know. The power amplifier's ceramic backing was cracked which disconnected some traces. This was only visible through heavy magnification. Some solder bridges and it is good as new.

ADI power amplifier. -AC9LF

Close up of cracking on ADI power amp -AC9LF

I was given a nonfunctional Kenwood TS-520. This took some time but I fixed this as well. I have a huge log on what I did to fix it also posted to this blog someplace. Quick summary is that the 9volt regulator board failed and blew up the VFO, IF board, several pre amp and the super-het crystal oscillator. I may have cracked the driver tube with a little rough handling. It's all working now and puts out about 120 watts. Since most parts are obsolete I had to improvise with SMD for some parts by making an adapter pcb.

Small purple PCB adapter for SMD dual gate mosfet shown here
-AC9LF

Antennas:
I have a quarter wave home brew 2 meter antenna in the attic with a short run of RG58 (Plenty lossy) to my repaired ADI station. (As seen mentioned but currently hanging out in the attic)
For the HF rig, I made a 20 meter wire dipole. This is just strung up in the attic. I get plenty of RF hash, Likely because it is so close to the electrical conduit.

If you have stumbled across this blog I hope that you find it informational or at the very least entertaining. Don't assume anything I post actually works...

73,
Nick, AC9LF