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Build Log: RF Final Power Amplifier for the M1 Transceiver

I’m doing a lot of product R&D on my bench, so the M1 took the back seat for a while. I broke out the RF power amplifier kit. The EME210 is based on the RDF16HHF1 mosfet. The power amp assembled for me in about three hours. There are only a few surface mount parts on the bottom and about six inductors to wind. It comes with M3 standoffs and screws to mount to a heat sink. I purchased a 150mm by 80mm heatsink on Amazon.

m1_txvr_eme210_

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also spent the time to get the AGC/IF through audio amplifier stage aligned. At this point I really need logic control of the boards. I have a design for I2C based control of the system via the builtin 16 pin wiring harness. More on that soon.

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Build Log: M1 Transceiver: Wiring the Receiver

The last two days I’ve spent laying out the receiver and common IF portions of the M1. I’m basically copying the Minikits suggested layout for the Hammond case. The aluminum sheet divides the inside of the case. The common IF subsystems and receiver modules fit on the top. The DDS and modulator components fit on the bottom. A number of the boards stack.

I purchased a coax crimping tool for RG-316. All the coax jumpers are of my own creation. This cuts down the cost as those jumpers can be quite expensive for quality ones. The SMA jacks and connectors are from China. The jacks rated for a whopping 500 connections! I doubt I’ll hit that ceiling for this project.

Soon, the receiver will be ready for power-on tests and alignment. The front-end mixer has a pad on the LO input, so a Si5351 at the lowest power level will be enough for to play with it.

m1 receiver

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Build Log: Starting the MiniKits M1 Transceiver

This past summer, I ordered a MiniKits M1 modular transceiver kit. This kit packages each section onto a separate circuit board, for future modifications. Work at on1 was super busy, so I put off assembling the kit until the Christmas holiday. I did not purchase the MiniKits PIC based control and DDS system. I am going to use a si5351 with an Atmel ARM chip for digital control. I had pcbs.io manufacture a pcb with a super nice Bourns optical encoder for the main frequency dial.

The modules I purchased are:

  • EME208
  • EME207-20m
  • EME207-40m
  • EME211
  • EME209-19m-30m
  • EME206
  • EME210
  • EME201
  • EME202
  • EME203-9m-2.5k

 

m1 transceiver