PSK-20 build

This past week has been long on building and short on writing, but I’m okay with that.

As of today, I have completed all but the last two steps in the assembly of the kit. The manual is broken down into “group builds” (e.g., Group 1 assembly installs the DC power circuitry, Group 2 assembly installs the Transmit/Receive switching circuitry, etc.) which help the kit builder have a sense of the purpose of each set of capacitors, resistors, transistors, and the like. Unlike Elecraft kits, which usually have an alignment or “check out” after each step of assembly, there are no such resistance or voltage checks for this kit. So, you must go on faith alone that there are no cold solder joints, misplaced parts, or nonfunctional devices until after assembly is complete. The first “smoke test” is truly that.

In the Group 3 build (the 9.000MHz and 5.068MHz oscillators and related components) I left out all components connected to pin 6 of U7 (SA612AN) since I plan on connecting the signal generator there in lieu of the 5.068MHz crystal. It may be the case that I will need to add some of those components once I determine their necessity, but there is plenty of physical real estate on the board for these parts to be installed at a later time. In face, Dave Benson states that “real men” can install in whichever order they wish, ignoring the “group build” guide laid out in the manual.

The last two portions of the construction include stuffing and soldering the transmitter bandpass filter and driver stages as well as the transmitter final amplifier to the PC board. I hope to finish those either tonight or tomorrow and then take the final product to fellow OCRA member Steve W3AHL’s home to tune the sideband generating circuitry and obtain an accurate measure of my particular Si570 part two days from now. After that, I should be ready to place the kit in an enclosure and start playing around with it on the air!

Once I complete the build, I’ll upload some photos of the board after each “group build” for viewing.