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Thursday 24 July 2014

DIGITAL SWR CUM POWER METER



The digital SWR / Power meter is capable of displaying the SWR, peak envelop power (P.E.P) and instantaneous power values. The SWR and P.E.P power values are displayed in the first row of the LCD  and the Instantaneous power is shown in the form of a bar graph in the second line of the double line LCD. The power meter can measure power levels up to 150 watts. The readings are quite accurate in the entire HF band up to 30 Mhz.

The unit operates on 12 volts external d.c power which can be fed by a 500 ma adaptor. The unit has protection against wrong polarity.  The “TX” and “Ant” connections are made through SO 239 connectors provided at the rear side of the unit. The unit can be kept permanently connected and during transmission the SWR and power values are directly displayed. The unit requires no other adjustment. The photos shows the front and rear side of the unit.




 

LC METER


                    
The “L” ( Inductance) and “C” ( Capacitance) Meter has an accuracy of 1% of the reading. The LC meter has a LCD to display the values of L or C with units like pf/nf or uh/ mh. The LC meter has a push button switch on the left side of the unit for selection of “L” or “C” measuring mode. There is a slide switch on the left side for switching the power on. The LC meter works on 9 volts internal battery. On the right side of the unit a socket is provided for external 9 volts power supply. With the external power, the back lit of the LCD glows. To save battery power, back lit will be turned off when the external power is disconnected and the unit continues to work with internal battery. The meter has an automatic standardisation feature. It is provided with Zero push button and for Inductance measurement a terminal shorting push button. The unit has a spring loaded socket for connecting the component to be tested. The photo show the front view of the LC meter.

 


Home brewed Dip meter

 Home brewed Dip meter

Home brewed "Q" Meter

Home brewed "Q" Meter

VHF SWR Meter

VHF SWR Meter

JDM pic programmer

JDM pic programmer

Programmable Freq. Indicator

Programmable Freq. Indicator

VU2PTR Thyagu with his Awards

VU2PTR Thyagu

Home brewed HF Dual VFO DDS


 
The HF dual VFO DDS consists of a PIC16 F628A micro controller and an AD9850 DDS module. The PIC16F628A programs the AD9850 DDS module with the frequency, as selected by the encoder. The AD9850 module has all SMD filter components on board and delivers a well filtered pure sine wave output of 1 volt peak to peak. Though the circuit is designed for 12 volts, it is preferable to use 9 volts as power supply for the pcb.  The encoder is already wired to the pcb.  There are three push buttons          PB-1,PB-2 & PB-3.

HF Dual VFO DDS
The PB-1 is for fast tuning in kHz rate and the same is wired to the switch in the encoder. When the encoder switch is pressed once the cursor moves to 10 KHz position and gets locked. When the encoder is rotated the frequency varies in steps of 10 KHz. Again when the encoder is pressed the cursor moves to its original position and the frequency varies in steps of 0.1 KHz. Pressing the PB-1 toggles step from previous state.

The switch PB-2 is for selecting various Ham bands directly. By keep pressing the PB-2 switch, if the encoder is rotated clock wise, the Ham bands from 1.8 Mhz to 28Mhz are selected in steps. This makes the operation quite easy to move from one band to other.  If the encoder is continuously rotated in clock wise direction it cycles between 1.8 MHz to 28 MHz.

The third switch PB-3 is for VFO selection. By pushing the switch selects the VFO – A or VFO- B alternatively. PB-2 &   PB-3 are non latching type.

The DDS programming automatically takes care of subtracting the VFO frequency from “IF” for operation below 10 Mhz. Similarly the adding of VFO frequency to “IF” is done by soft ware for operation above       10 Mhz. For example if 7010 KHz is selected and displayed by the Liquid crystal display the actual out put of the DDS Module will be 2990 KHz and if the display shown is 14000 KHz then the output of the DDS will be 4000KHz.

A 0.1 mfd  capacitor is provided in the pcb at the out put for ac coupling. A 1N4007 diode is provided in the positive side of the supply to protect the DDS from wrong polarity connection.   A 10 K pot is provided on board for contrast adjustment if required. The VFO may need a buffer in the out put of DDS module based on the Exciter requirements.

 

VU2PTR Visit to Adelaide Hills Amataur Radio Society



The Adelaide Hills Amateur Radio Society is a member of the Amateur Radio Union and represents all Amateur Radio Operators in Australia to the various Government Bodies in Australia. The society conducts regular construction projects and other activities of interest to its members such as Antenna building, test equipment, tuners and power supplies. They arrange tours to interesting locations such as printed circuit manufactures, Radio & TV stations.  Two to three times in a year members of the club participate in providing communication for Rally SA and Jamboree on the Air. The society conducts technical talks regularly on the subjects such as Radio, construction techniques, computers etc. The society meets every 3 rd Thursday at the meeting hall. The society has a club station and the same is open to members on all Saturdays between 9.00am and 12.00 pm. The club sells antenna analyzer kit which is quite popular all over the world.


Adelaide Hills Amateur Radio Society Club Station
OM Thyagu VU2PTR visited the Adelaide Hills Amateur Radio Society during the second week of January 2013. He had a nice eye ball with all the members present and discussed about the Antenna analyzer project with OM Jim  (VK5JST).


Adelaide Hills Amateur Radio Society
 

Home brewed Power supplies


                     A computer SMPS converted as 13.8V ,15 A power supply

Front panel
A 250 watts Desk top pc SMPS was modified to a 13.8 Volts power supply capable of handling load current up to 15 Amps. The SMPS normally delivers + 5V, - 5V, +12V,        -12V for the different sections and drives of the computer. The 5 volts supply has higher current rating and the same was converted to 13.8 volts by suitably replacing the resistors in the dividing network retaining all other parts. The entire PCB has been mounted in a separate cabinet with necessary DC power sockets, AC power input, DC power indicator, ON/OFF switch and a Digital voltmeter. The external and internal arrangements can be seen in the photographs.

Internals

30 volts variable power supply


       A 30 volts variable power supply with current limiting control.

Front Panel
The power supply is capable of delivering 30 volts at a current rating of 3 Amps. Two numbers of 2N3055 has been used as pass transistors with regulation control. The current can be restricted to any desired value by a multi turn pot. Similarly the output voltage also can be varied from 2 volts to 30 volts. Both controls are mounted in the front panel. The circuit has short circuit protection. Two digital panel meters have been provided to indicate the out put voltage and load current. The DPMs have been powered by a small 5V- 500 ma SMPS unit removed from a mobile phone charger. A 230 volts fan keeps the transistors cool. When ever the current exceeds the set value, the voltage gets locked and the current limiting is indicated by an indicator on the front panel.                              

Internals

Modified Marchwood power supply


 
Front Panel
The Modified Marchwood power supply is capable of delivering 35 Amps at 13.8 volts output. The home brewed unit has 5 numbers of 2N3773 pass transistors to handle the load current driven by a 2N3773 transistor. This power supply has low voltage protection, high voltage protection, high current protection and short circuit protection. A 230 volts fan has been provided, which runs the moment power is switched on to keep the pass transistors cool.

Indicators for presence of DC Voltage, Fault trip are provided in the front panel. Two digital indicators are provided to display the out put voltage and load current. The DPMs are powered by a 6v-0-6v – 500ma transformer and rectifier circuit to provide 5 V DC isolated power supply.

 
Internals