The unit seemed checkout the initial tests as specified in the build document however when I attached the module to my spectrum analyser I had no output from the oscillator. I checked the voltages on the the couple of transistors in the oscillator circuit all of which seemed to be correct the ball park I emailed Sam for suggestions.
Sam suggested making sure all the components were correctly soldered to the ground plane which to my eyesight seemed they were so Sam kindly offered to take a look at the unit for me.
Sam very kindly not only fixed the couple of bad solder joints I had on the unit, which he suggested was down to the iron not being hot enough and so not conducting enough heat into the ground plane, he also aligned the unit for me. Strangely he found one inductor which was open circuit and I have no idea as to how that could have happened.
He also commented on how well the unit was constructed which was a nice vote of confidence in my ability with SMD components being only the second project undertaken with these minute components the MMIC's are particularly tricky as detailed in the last post on the Iceni.
To say I'm impressed with Sam's product and assistance is an under statement to the point I've just ordered the Anglian 3L and 8W short PA from him as well.
So with the Iceni built and up and running I fitted a Kuhne QH40A crystal heater for added stability.
The total amount of man hours to complete the unit was around nine hours from start to finished including the fabrication of the housing.
I've now ordered a 7W PA from mini-kits in Australia, so once that has arrived and is constructed I get on with sorting out the power supply and a nice box for it all.
 |
| The finished Iceni transverter |
No comments:
Post a Comment