[HomeBrew] A real Homebrew Station

[Bill Meara]

Deon:  Good that you are seeking that "I built it" feeling of satisfaction.
But it is important not to bite off more than you can chew! An all band SSB
transceiver is a HUGE complicated project.   It is much better (especially
for beginners) to keep it simple. 
I'd suggest monoband rigs, or perhaps a rig that could easily cover two bands. 
If you are looking for phone on the HF bands, consider a simple direct
conversion Double sideband rig.  VERY easy to build and get on the air.
Very few people will know you are DSB and not SSB.   Check out the "17 Meter
DSB" section of my web site.  

Good luck.  Hang in there.   Keep us posted. 

73  Bill   CU2JL
http://planeta.clix.pt/n2cqr


At 03:14 AM 8/16/02 +0200, you wrote:
>** HOMEBREW REFLECTOR - Please do NOT cross-post messages to multiple
mailing lists on the "To:" or "CC:" line of the e-mail message. **
>
>I have been thinking along these lines too.
>
>Our currency in South Africa is performing so poor against the US$ and
>Sterling that it has become almost impossible to afford new equipment.  Even
>kits are not a proposition anymore, because they also have to be paid in
>foreign currency and shipped home.
>
>The Elecraft kits look wonderful, but are not much cheaper than some very
>nice commercial radios on the market.  Many other cheaper kits are perceived
>as not being "serious" radios and then there are the CW-only kits which do
>not draw much attention either.
>
>So, where does this leave the young Hams and the other Hams in our club who
>cannot afford much?
>
>A Real Homebrew Radio is a project that the club can slowly build up to the
>completed product.  It offers participants the opportunity to purchase the
>kit in phases as they can afford it or as they progress with construction.
>
>One of our club members designed a very decent frequency counter a few years
>ago and the kit went through a number of re-runs to satisfy demand from our
>club and other clubs in the area.  And this was from a piece of test
>equipment that is not even used often.  Imagine the interest in a good
>transceiver project.
>
>I recently acquired some state-of-the-art equipment and am very pleased with
>it.  However, I still feel the desire to construct a proper SSB Hamband
>transceiver with its own bells and whistles.
>
>Jay Craswell has published very fine homebrew projects in the past and one
>can incorporate some of these ideas, such as his synthesiser, etc.
>
>Our club subscribes to Radcom and I have not seen the latest issues.  I will
>lay my hands on them and look at the article that Jay refers to.  Perhaps
>this is what we need to rekindle the interest.
>
>A US television series is screened on our local TV channels and as the
>credits begin to roll at the end, a little girl's voice says: "I made this!"
>
>You could say the same as you listen to the 5 and 9 signals from your own
>hot transceiver.
>
>I like Jay's idea.
>
>Deon ZR1DQ
>.
>----- Original Message -----
>From: J Craswell <jay@integraonline.com>
>To: <homebrew@mailman.qth.net>
>Sent: Tuesday, August 13, 2002 4:36 AM
>Subject: [HomeBrew] A real Homebrew Station
>
>
>| ** HOMEBREW REFLECTOR - Please do NOT cross-post messages to multiple
>mailing lists on the "To:" or "CC:" line of the e-mail message. **
>|
>| I've also got the building bug.  Radcom (The U.K. Version of "QST") is
>doing
>| a 5 part D.I.Y. all band rig 160-10 Meters.  And while it's not intended
>for
>| "Chinese Copies" I've been looking at it with great interest.  If you have
>| the web go to http://www.rsgb.org  and check out the current issue
>| headlines.  I subscribe overseas and find the magazine to be very
>enjoyable
>| to read.  Lots of D.I.Y. stuff.  As good as QST and sometimes even better!
>|
>| I'm planning on making my own rig with some of the ideas they present.
>The
>| basic idea that I like is to constuct a radio that is Ham Bands only.  A 9
>| MHz IF.  The go for extra high performance recv.  The PA they use puts out
>| 20 watts but I don't see why a 100 Watt final couldn't be used instead.
>|
>| Don't get me wrong kits are ok too.  However a CW only rig is not for me.
>I
>| operate 80% ssb and my CW is pretty slow.  I also rather like 100 Watts
>vrs
>| going QRP.
>|
>| 73 de Jay W0VNE
>|
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73 de Bill  CU2JL N2CQR
Sao Miguel Island, Azores, Portugal
900 miles West of Lisbon  37.7N  25.67W
http://planeta.clix.pt/n2cqr