Direct-Conversion Transceiver


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Mods & Hacks!

Looking to make your OLD FRIEND work better?  Or perhaps add on a certain little "accessory" to make it even more fun to operate?  Well, this is the section for you!

1) Adding  a Volume Control

You might have noticed how Big Signals come blasting in on your ears during the evening hours on 40 meters, or during DX pileups on 20 meters in the late afternoons.  Well, this was part of the fun with rigs of yesteryear ... but we can add a simple little VOLUME CONTROL to make things more enjoyable today.

What you can do is remove R27, which is located beneath the LCD, and use a couple of thin wires to bring those two resistor 'pads' up through the OF top cover plate at the hole for the FUNCTION pushbutton.  Then attach the wires to a small potentiometer that you'll glue to the cover near that Function PB and ... VOILA!  There's your volume control!  See the photos below.  And see the VIDEO we have showing the result.


The technique I used for attaching the wires to the 'R27 pads' was to place a 2-position pinheader there at the pads and then attach the wires to the pinheader using a 2-pin receptacle.  This way I could more easily separate the cover from the PCB whenever needed.

There are many ways to accomplish this modification, but basically we're replacing the 22 k-ohm 'gain resistor' R27 in the final audio amplifier with a 50K potentiometer (that I have lots of), so when it's turned down to less that 22K, we have less gain and less volume.  I can supply this potentiometer and pair of wires to anyone wishing them for the price of return postage (I'll find out and let everyone know - perhaps $4?)  You can also use a mini pot from your own junkbox - anything from 22k-or-more will work okay.

2) (More to come!)

 

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