[SignalOne] Simple CX7 Mod

[jerry]

All,

   My main rule when modifying old radios is - "NO NEW HOLES".  And it 
must be reversible.  Other than that, anything goes.
The little lightbulb for the meter broke off in all the work on the rig. 
  I have new bulbs that should work.

But - I had a thought.  Might be nice to have some indication that the 
thing's transmitting.  How about changing the meter light
color?  I could make up a tiny circuit board that fits where the light 
goes now.  With SMD LEDs.  Two series strings of LEDS.  One
- say white LEDs, the other string - amber LEDs.  Install the strings in 
parallel, but with reversed polarity.  Bring the RT and TR
lines up to the meter.  Use an appropriate series resistor - I'm 
thinking 5mA or so - these modern LEDs are very efficient.  So then
in receive the backlight would be white, and in transmit - amber.  Might 
be annoying when transmitting CW though.

   Speaking of CW, somebody mentioned installing a keyer card in the rig. 
  I just looked at the article.  Surely the WB4VVF card is long gone.  
But there are keyer chips out there now.  Also, a small microcontroller 
can be programmed to do it with open source software.
Something like an AtTiny85 - a complete microcomputer in an 8-pin DIP.  
They run off 5V, which is what the counter board uses.

   I'd like to stick a crystal in the rig to do 30M.  Does anybody know 
what package?  Parallel or Series resonant?  Load capacitance?  I don't 
think you can just tell a crystal company "It's for a Signal/One" 
anymore.

   The rigs were made so you could stick an extra bandswitch wafer on the 
back and tell something what band you were on.  Anybody know
a source for those wafers?  I have a homebrew LDMOS linear that uses 
Yaesu "BCD" band codes.  With a transceiver that emits these,
the linear just follows it around like a puppy - it's like using an 
1100W transceiver.  Of course, you have to remember to turn the
power down on the exciter;  the linear likes to see about 20W.


                      - Jerry, KF6VB