I’ve made a little progress on the IF board and started wiring up the relays, I also confirmed that they switch as expected with 12v. For the wiring, other than the 12v line, I used offcuts from components, however I’m not convinced that was the best move as it was somewhat tricky soldering them on to the relay and I’m concerned that I don’t have the best connections. I’ll take another look and if I don’t think they are good enough I’ll give them another go.
I finally bought a label maker this weekend after much frustration finding components in my drawers, much better now!
After getting my Extra callsign I didn’t waste any time in signing up as a Volunteer Examiner with GLAARG and got my certificate through this afternoon so I’ll have to start sitting in on some remote exam sessions and learning the ropes. Taking into account time zone difference early afternoon sessions Pacific time should work well for me, my own exam was 14:30 PST which works out as 22:30 here (GMT), so not sure I want to do any much later than that!
If we have enough GLAARG VEs around here then we may be able to do some in person sessions too, although personally I prefer the online thing for sheer convenience!
I’ve spent the last month studying for the US radio amateur exams using the Michael Burnette, AF7KB Fast Track books and the HamStudy app and last night took my all 3 exams and passed. I have to say a huge thanks to Dave DiGiorgio and the GLAARG / HRCC team for setting up my exam, I let him know Weds afternoon that I was going to get through the last of the question pool on Thursday and he got it set up for Thursday evening, very quick!
If anyone is looking to take any or all of the US exams I thoroughly recommend the Burnette books and the HamStudy app they are both great.
I did my studying in a bit of an odd order, I started with the Extra book just before Christmas, reading it on the Kindle and going through the practice exams on the website and using the HamStudy app, then just after new year I started listening to the Technician audiobook on my commute and runs along with going through the extra. I didn’t do the Fast Track practice questions for the Technician, I just used the HamStudy app a little. As I completed the Extra and Technician I then read and listened to the General which using both methods only took a few days, however I did make sure to go through the questions on the Fast Track website for that. For anyone else wanting to do the exams I’d probably recommend you study for them in order rather than in the odd order I did!
The HamStudy app is brilliant and it would be quite possible to study just using the HamStudy app, particularly if like me you already have a non-US license or knowledge of radio. If you don’t have any radio background then whilst possible with the HamStudy app alone I think it would be a struggle and you’d miss out without the extra context around the subjects, the explanations in the app probably aren’t sufficient for a good grounding.
Despite having my UK Full license and skipping some of the explanations/context in the books I did find it useful going over some of the familiar concepts from a different perspective and of course expanding my knowledge in the parts which didn’t overlap with the UK exams or my existing experience.
All in all it was a great experience and now I have my Amateur Extra call…KY4MF
I’ve made a slow start on the IF board now, just the power regulation, decoupling capacitors and RF chokes. I was planning on connecting up and testing the relays too, but I got a bit confused on how to hook them up, I’m using DPDT relays hooked up in ‘SPDT mode’ so am holding off until I can get some assistance from the ScratchQRP group.
So far when doing Manhattan construction I’ve tended to have a general idea of where everything will go (much simplified thanks to the build documents on this project), I then start in one place and stick and solder as I go. This method has had the advantage of ensuring that in general pads are no closer/further apart than they should be and leads to a very neat layout assuming I don’t get the board size wrong.
For this module with it being larger and more complicated than the previous ones the “stick and go” method didn’t really seen viable, particularly as I couldn’t really start at one point and build across from there. This being the case using the layout and photos from the build document I’ve pre-stuck all the Manhattan pads and the relays and soldered the IC sockets into place. Next step will be to finally start the build!
I’ve made no more progress on the IF board although I’ve ordered some QRPme MePads for mounting the ICs, once I have those I put the manhatten pads, relays and IC sockets in place. In the meantime I’ve started the board for the VFO/BFO module, I am using stripboard for this as it doesn’t lend itself well to manhatten style and G0FUW produced a layout for stripboard.
I cut the board to size, pencilled in the breaks and then used a small (3mm) drill bit to make the breaks in the strip. I need to test for continuity but am happy with how it’s turned out, I just need to solder the components on now!
