Saturday, April 17, 2021

Yet Another 40 Meter Transceiver Project.... but this one seems to be working.... a bit

I found another transceiver project by someone who has inspired me over the past year. Dave Richards (AA7EE) has an amazing site that has quite a wide variety of his projects, including this 40 Meter transceiver. While I was using Dave's site for guidance, the transceiver circuit was originally inspired by Peter Parker, VK3YE. I've built several of Dave's projects and learned a lot from what he has done and the techniques he uses in electronic construction. 

The audio amp is in the upper center-left. The VFO is located lower left using a variactor with the 10-turn potentiometer in the lower right (blue) for tuning. Center right is the transmitter, along with band-pass filters. Upper right is the relay to switch both power and signal between receive and transmit.


A little better view of the audio amp (left) and the VFO (right). In the center is the microphone amp and 9 volt regulator supply for the LCD display. The red wire that doesn't seem to go anywhere is the pickup for the frequency display.


Volume control is upper left with the mic jack below. The toggle switch is receive/transmit. Large knob is tuning with the 10-turn pot.

The receiver works but doesn't produce adequate volume, so I'm still trying to figure out why. I know the transmit function works but I'm looking for a proper microphone so I don't know what the quality of the signal will be. It will probably need some work as well.


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