1. 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
Ver /12/06
By Jim Larsen, AL7FS

2. 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

3. 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.

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

5. 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

6. The “Tuna Tin 2 Transmitter”
AL7FS to W1AW – 20 meters
Simple Transmitter, less than 1W
W1FB original design
Kit:

7. 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

8. “Herring Aid” Receiver
Simple Receiver project - July 1976 issue of QST
Mate to Tuna Tin 2 transmitter
NorCal Herring Aid 5 – Updated version

9. SMT QRP Dummy Load Learn working with surface mount parts
Uses K 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

10. 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: Covers every detail of kit. by Jim Kortge, K8IQY 
US orders: $16.50

11. 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
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. 

12. 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
US $25
4SQRP = Four State QRP Club - Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri
4SQRP Tenna Dipper

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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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
$55 (postpaid) to US
AL7FS
Elmer 101

18. The NorCal 40A - Transceiver
40m 2W CW transceiver
Grandfather deluxe
Still available
Wilderness Radio
The new Wilderness NorCal 40A is $139     plus shipping ($6 U.S.)

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

20. 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
basic Sierra kit is $215, plus shipping ($8 U.S)
Fully loaded is $369 with all 6 band modules

21. OHR – Oak Hills Research
Single band superhet CW rig
+ improved
Price is now $139.95

22. OHR – Oak Hills Research
5 band superhet CW rig
5 band + improved
$359.95

23. 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

24. 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

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

26. 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

27. Elecraft K2 - AL7FS

28. 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.

29. 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

30. Manhattan Construction
Pads avail. From FAR Circuits

31. Manhattan Construction

32. Manhattan Construction

33. Manhattan Construction

34. Manhattan Construction

35. Manhattan Construction

36. Manhatten – My Dead End Dead End…for now.

37. 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

38. 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??

39. 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……??

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

41. Zapper Schematic

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

43. Run AutoRouter
Scale 400%

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

45. 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

46. Transfer Toner to Board

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

48. Rub off the Paper

49. Rub off the paper

50. Circuit Ready for Etching

51. 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

52. 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

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

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

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

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

57. 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

58. 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

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

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

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

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

63. 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

64. 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

65. Component Outlines

66. Finished Board w/Parts

67. 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 !!

68. Links for Toner Transfer
HomePage for DipTrace software
Mail List for DipTrace
Mail List for homebrew PCBs
another step by step example
search on “toner transfer method”

69. 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,

70. Questions?
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