Last Wednesdays tech net was a raving success! Although there were only a handful of us there we finalized the defeat of our shortcomings with the Bitx20 VFO. What’s best, is that we used the tools that WE BUILT to test it! woo hoo!!
Lower Frequency
Upper Frequency
Verns VFO
is the first working properly. With the caps that Dave got from Mouser Electronics (Part # 23PW156; Film capacitors; styrene 50V 560pF) and the replacement variable cap, this puppy is dead on and unbelievably stable! The poor little am radio cap just wasn’t happy; it was shorted or possibly corroded, either way it was ‘jumpy’ every time we tried to do anything with it and we just couldn’t figure out the little trimmers on the back.
Replaced the Capacitor
The original was a little rusty or something
reduction and variable capacitor
I had picked up a small ‘offcenter’ variable cap off ebay some time ago. The value is the same as the one in the kit so I was confident it would plug right in. I had built a small reduction on a 6:1 vernier giving a total of 30:1. Yup, it takes 15 turns of the knob to go from one end of the band to the other – 10 KHz per turn at the bottom end, and 20 KHz per turn at the top. Not bad!!
We used the FLL frequency counter kit we had built a couple months ago to test the VFO. It turned out to be a nice little tool for tuning the circuits in the BItx20. Verns ended up having a coverage of apx 3.998 to 4.352 – again very nice! Verns price for the reduction? He has to make the transceiver look really good ;]
The Perfect Setup?
Good enough for Nate!
In Operation
The test was done on top of Nates neat setup he is building for his breadboard. He found a ‘briefcase’ type box at Skycraft and attached his breadboards on top of it, leaving room inside for all his accessories. In this test we used the power buses to make hookup much easier. Below is a view from another angle. Note the power supply showing the unit drawing 90 mA at 12v – backlight and all! Of course just the VFO and Frequency Counter are powered right now.
The Tech Party BItx20 Setup!
We really did have a lot of fun with this one. Vern had to rewind his toroid several times, finally finding a smaller diameter wire in order to put his final 54 turns on the core. It is spec’d at 50 turns, but it ended up being too high in frequency. When he tried to go over 50, it was not in a single layer winding with the wire provided to the inductance was way off. The final verdict – 54 turns with #32 wire on the core provided. Yay!
Fastening the toroid with Hot Glue. Once on, simply press the core against the board before the glue sets and this little circuit is good n' stable!
Vern really likes hot glue. Every time he wound a core he’d glue it down for testing. We finally convinced him to just glue the final result down. When dealing with things like this, like the inductor in an oscillator, physical stability is very important. Gluing the core down will keep it from moving and causing minute ‘microphonics.’ Good job Vern.
Fine Tune Control
The Fine Tune Control gives almost a perfect 3 KHz shift – a little over 1.5 KHz each side of center. That’s extremely nice as all you have to do is tune ‘em in so you can hear ‘em with the main tune, and then adjust ‘em so you can understand ‘em with the fine tune. As designed and described!
So we were able to conquer the VFO – now on to the next stage. There are several builders going on to the audio stage next, a couple into the mixers. Next week we’ll discuss who is where and what new challenges we may face.
The Meeting Was A Smash
and we had a good time, too!
All in all we had a great tech experience, a great tech net, and a great result from the evening! I hope to see you next week at the tech party or at least check you in to the Wednesday Night Tech Net.
TECH ON!!
