A Report on a few available kits and one way to make PCBs at home Kits and Construction A Report on a few available kits and one way to make PCBs at home Jim Larsen, AL7FS 907-345-3190 AL7FS@AL7FS.us http://www.AL7FS.us/ Ver 1.1 7/12/06 By Jim Larsen, AL7FS

Overview of Kits and Construction What are some of the starter kits on the market today (always changing)? Kits – a sampler Small projects Intermediate kits Advanced kits Manhattan Construction Making PCBs at home

Why Kit Building? Adds depth to your ham radio experience. Sense of satisfaction at building it yourself. Can have functional test equipment at a fraction of the cost. Can Build your own station from kits. It’s FUN.

Kitbuilding & Homebrewing Given a chance, hams are natural builders and experimenters. Thousands of schematics are available Hundreds of kits and projects are available today

Overview of Kits and Construction What are some of the starter kits on the market today (always changing)? Kits – a sampler Small projects Intermediate kits Advanced kits Manhattan Construction Making PCBs at home

The “Tuna Tin 2 Transmitter” AL7FS to W1AW – 20 meters Simple Transmitter, less than 1W W1FB original design http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/pdf/7605014.pdf Kit: http://www.megalink.net/~w1rex/QRPme/

VE3DNL Marker Generator “Markers” that we can hear in a receiver Outputs are are 5, 10, 20 and 40 kHz. Outstanding instruction manual with many photos. $7.50 shipped in the US http://www.norcalqrp.org

“Herring Aid” Receiver Simple Receiver project - July 1976 issue of QST Mate to Tuna Tin 2 transmitter http://www.njqrp.org/tuna/herring_text.html NorCal Herring Aid 5 – Updated version

SMT QRP Dummy Load Learn working with surface mount parts Uses 44 2.2K resistors in parallel to result in a 50 Ohm load. Put it together in an hour Pwr Handling 10W for 1 min. 5W for 3 min. US orders: $7.50 http://www.norcalqrp.org

NorCal Keyer Memory keyer 3 programmable 40-character memories Iambic A & B mode, straight key and bug mode 2 beacon modes, and variable speed control by either a 100K pot or the paddles themselves. How to: http://www.norcalqrp.org/nckeyerelmer.htm Covers every detail of kit. by Jim Kortge, K8IQY  US orders: $16.50 http://www.norcalqrp.org

NorTex QRP Club Accuprobe Measure RMS voltage in your transmitter so you can measure power out. More sensitive than old .01uF, diode RF probes. US Price: $ 17.00 http://www.kk5na.com/kk5na_files/accuprobe.htm Use with NoCal SMT Dummy Load useful for measuring RF signals with predictable results from 100 kHz to at least 30 MHz at levels ranging from 10’s of millivolts up to 35 V rms. 

Gives you an indication with an LED of when your antenna tuner is looking at a 50 ohm load Great for in the Field Quickly adjust tuner http://4sqrp.com/kits/td/td.htm US $25 4SQRP = Four State QRP Club - Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri 4SQRP Tenna Dipper

The “Pixie” Simple 250mW transceiver kit from HSC Electronics Bruce Hopkins - KL7H built his for 3.920 and 3.933. Checkins were successful with net control on both Motley and Snipers Nets Simple 250mW transceiver kit from HSC Electronics

The N0SS HF Noise Source Noise Source Kit Easy to build w/o kit Spectrogram software Easy readout – filters This is 150 Hz BW on K2 Make your own PCB

A Simple and Inexpensive Morse Frequency Display Small Wonder Labs’ “Freq Mite” $20 PIC microcontroller as digital frequency meter Speed of readout on the FREQ-Mite is 13 WPM http://www.smallwonderlabs.com/

Overview of Kits and Construction What are some of the starter kits on the market today (always changing)? Kits – a sampler Small projects Intermediate kits Advanced kits Manhattan Construction Making PCBs at home

Small Wonder Labs’ SW40+” Built by AL7FS Small Wonder Labs’ SW40+” 40m 2W CW transceiver – 20 meter version for AK Improved, simplified – provide your own case RIT add-on possible Educational Project http://www.smallwonderlabs.com/ $55 (postpaid) to US AL7FS Elmer 101 http://www.qsl.net/kf4trd/faq.html

The NorCal 40A - Transceiver 40m 2W CW transceiver Grandfather deluxe Still available http://www.fix.net/~jparker/wild.html Wilderness Radio The new Wilderness NorCal 40A is $139     plus shipping ($6 U.S.)

The NorCal 20 Transceiver 20m superhet CW Great front end NorCal kit for 3rd world countries No Longer Available Available used

The “Sierra” by Wilderness Radio All band CW transceiver Superhet, VFO Digital display & key are options Removable band modules Rivals quality of rigs 5 times the cost http://www.fix.net/~jparker/wild.html basic Sierra kit is $215, plus shipping ($8 U.S) Fully loaded is $369 with all 6 band modules

OHR – Oak Hills Research Single band superhet CW rig + improved Price is now $139.95 http://www.ohr.com

OHR – Oak Hills Research 5 band superhet CW rig 5 band + improved $359.95 http://www.ohr.com

Overview of Kits and Construction What are some of the starter kits on the market today (always changing)? Kits – a sampler Small projects Intermediate kits Advanced kits Manhattan Construction Making PCBs at home

Elecraft K1 transceiver A compact, high-performance CW rig that you can build. five watts is all you need to work worldwide DX four bands into the affordable, easy-to-build K1-4 transceiver http://www.elecraft.com

John Hendricks – AL7OK Bird Point, Alaska with Elecraft K1 Transceiver (kit) 2002

Elecraft K2 transceiver The K2 is a full-featured HF transceiver Build the K2 for QRP or 100W Operation Can challenge even the Yaesu FT1000 Mark V on Rx And you build it yourself…just like the old Heathkits http://www.elecraft.com

Elecraft K2 - AL7FS

Elecraft KX1 Portable ultra-light, multi-band CW station with internal battery and automatic antenna tuner, full 20 and 40 meter ham bands, with 30/80 meters optional.

Overview of Kits and Construction What are some of the starter kits on the market today (always changing)? Kits – a sampler Small projects Intermediate kits Advanced kits Manhattan Construction Making PCBs at home

Manhattan Construction Pads avail. From FAR Circuits

Manhattan Construction

Manhattan Construction

Manhattan Construction

Manhattan Construction

Manhattan Construction

Manhatten – My Dead End Dead End…for now.

Overview of Kits and Construction What are some of the starter kits on the market today (always changing)? Kits – a sampler Small projects Intermediate kits Advanced kits Manhattan Construction Making PCBs at home

PCBs via Toner Transfer (TT) Why build my own boards? Seemed like fun. Cost can be low. For over 40 years Boards stopped me. Manhatten Style is cool but I never seem to get started. Front-end load the hard work and finish with fun. So What is Toner Transfer Method??

Lets build a simple circuit: Zapper circuit schematic. From Dr. Clark's book "The Cure For All Diseases“ Only the schematic is provided from web source What to do……?? http://www.members.aol.com/mas1911/index.html

Dip Trace – Draw the Schematic http://www.diptrace.com/ Diptrace has a Free Version: Freeware edition does not support export to DXF, Gerber and N/C Drill, max. number of pins — 250.

Zapper Schematic

Diptrace Convert to PCB –Step 1 Next Step is to move the components to the layout you would like.

Run AutoRouter Scale 400%

Print to Transfer Paper Tried Inkjet Photo Paper with zero success Plain Costco bulk white paper worked

Clean PCB Board Tarn-X First Board was old with fingerprints Dishsoap and hot water Scrub down with rough green scrub pad from Carrs Don’t touch surface from here to the end

Transfer Toner to Board

Remove Paper from Toner Soak 20+ Min. Warm, Soapy Water

Rub off the Paper

Rub off the paper

Circuit Ready for Etching

Choices at This Point Etch all Four circuits Need to touch up traces and Pads Cut the best board free of others Needs No touchup – 3 good 1 bad Uses less toner Find a shear for cleanest cuts

Etching the Board I used old Etching Solution – 15 years old (Not a good idea) Temperature of solution was only about 68 degrees (Not warm enough) Bottle says up to two hours I took 65 minutes – That’s too long

Etching the Board Used a throw-away brush to gently wipe the surface and keep fresh solution on the copper

Etching the Board Only the circuit will remain Copper slowly is eaten away Only the circuit will remain

Etching the Board Some circuits are good, others not good The Etching is complete Some circuits are good, others not good

Etching the Board This one looks pretty good but with some pitting

Cleaning off the Toner Acetone was used to clean off the Toner from the circuit pattern Left black smudges on the board – No answer for this yet

Cleaning up the Traces My etch process undercut the toner in places I inspected each circuit with a magnifying glass In places I added a jumper to assure continuity

Cleaning up the Traces Solder Wick = solder brush Solder Paste rubbed on circuit Temp. – 750 F Paint the traces with Solder

Cleaning up the Traces Solder on traces protects the copper from corrosion Better products to use, e.g. TINIT tinning powder

Additional Cleanup Poor traces repaired with small wire and soldered into place

Additional Cleanup Poor traces repaired with small wire and soldered into place

Finishing touches Small diameter drill bits need drill press Small drill press is a requirement Small diameter drill bits need drill press Drill bits need to be carbide tip drills Don’t breath the dust from drilling

Final Touches Use toner transfer method again to add component outlines on the top of the board. Can use household iron or laminator to fix the toner Solder in the components Test the circuit Install in a chassis as desired

Component Outlines

Finished Board w/Parts

Give it a try Yourself !! Final Comments This is my first attempt at toner transfer. I offer my observations as a learning tool I plan to keep trying new techniques There are Many variations on this technique Board cleaning methods used by me not best. (e.g., the acetone black smears) My etching technique undercut some traces (Needs major improvement) Great potential with this technique Give it a try Yourself !!

Links for Toner Transfer http://www.diptrace.com/ HomePage for DipTrace software http://groups.yahoo.com/group/diptr/ Mail List for DipTrace http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Homebrew_PCBs Mail List for homebrew PCBs http://max8888.orcon.net.nz/pcbs.htm another step by step example http://www.Google.com/ search on “toner transfer method”

Alaska QRP Club No officers, no directors, no constitution & No dues. Meets the Third Friday of every month - 7:00 PM (Some show for dinner at 6PM) Meet at Dennys (in the back room) on DeBarr near Bragaw. Contact is Jim Larsen, AL7FS, 345-3190. AL7FS@AL7FS.us http://www.qsl.net/kl7aqc/

Questions? Download presentation at: http://www.AL7FS.us/