Hello and welcome to Xtract 023 of the HX Files.

In this xtract I would like to talk about a handy little project that was made a short time ago, its main use is to be a quick setup when first arriving on site, and it would get you on air in a few minutes by using the tripod, a slot aerial and coax you would be on air whilst the main station was being setup.

The unit in receive mode

 In photo 1 above you can see the finished project,
 top is the transmitter, on the left side is the receiver, in the middle is an N type socket, on the middle right is a TX/RX switch, a red and green lights, and a red and black DC sockets. In the lid of the box is a monitor and on the top left of the lid is a camera with sound.

Case history

The case for the project was bought at a nearby car boot sale, it was originally a vanity case and the main reason it was bought was (not for the fiver the seller was asking or the hair dryer in it but) the fact that the lid was deep as it would accommodate a monitor for a project when I got a monitor small enough to fit, and there the case lay, languishing in the stores department, (as seen in the last HX Files) for a couple of years. Maybe some time I will feature the stuff in that department/shed in a future issue when/if I have to take everything out for some stock taking.

The build

The first thing I noticed was that the case had a couple of narrow metal brackets riveted to the sides to form a support for something when the case was brand new. These brackets would be used as a support for the main panel and for a change the panel was cut from some of the mesh sheets that were bought in Friedrichshafen this year. The panel had holes of 8mm in it and after measuring the internal dimensions of the box a piece was cut out with some tin snips and made to fit the case. You would think that having a piece of metal with a couple of hundred holes in it that it would make for an easy time but they were never in the right location but with the snips and some files the parts could be fitted to it, but as the holes were not in line it meant that when cut out the panel had a lot of sharp edges to it, although the panel would be recessed into the case a lot of filing still had to be done which took a while and I was almost sorry I did not pick a piece of solid sheet metal instead. Knowing the case was a small and that the components would be close to each other I could not be to fussy unless I wanted to made my own case, and also having the 12v battery as a primary power source installed in the case, things would be cramped and some compromising would have to be done. With that in mind the laying out of parts followed, and then with the aide of a file one of the holes was widened to the size of the SMA fitting on the TX board, and with a pair of snips some of the metal was removed to let the phono and DC sockets protrude trough the mesh, some fine tuning was done with the use of various files to smooth the edges and to make the parts fit nice and tight.

The same method was to fit the RX board next and most of the rest of the parts were able to be fitted as they were small enough to be installed with no need for the holes to be touched, with the exception of the N type connector the file was used to remove the excesses metal. With the TX/RX boards and other fittings in place, but as the transmitter’s output power was 50mw I decided to use a 2 watt amp, it was connected to the TX unit with a small SMA patch lead on one end of the amp and the previously mentioned N type panel mount to the other end, and as the amp was mounted under the panel, and the transmitter’s SMA fitting was above it, one of the holes in the panel was widened to allow the patch lead through it and connect the transmitter to the amp. The fuse holder was mounted on the top of the panel, as if there was a power issue the fuse could be checked out quickly without the need for a tare down of the unit. The use of the DC sockets are two fold, their primary use are to allow the recharging of the units 12v 5 amp internal battery, and they would also be a handy source of 12v.

Photo 3

 The monitor was attached to the lid of the case with the use of some small brackets to leave a space for the audio to be heard, as the monitors internal speakers were mounted in the back of it, it also had a headphone socket so you could use the headphones or a set of active speakers depending on the location, in photo 3 to the left of the monitor you can see were the camera is fitted.

In use

 To use the transceiver the toggle switch is moved from its centre off position and pulled towards the operator, and to receive the switch is pushed away from the operator from the off position. There is no separate power cut off switch, but this toggle switch has a locking system, to use it you have to lift a spring loaded shaft and move the switch to the position you want, when the shaft is released it locks the switch in that position and it cannot be moved until the shaft is lifted.

Photo 2

 As you can see from photo 2 on the left (a close up of photo 1), a small aerial is attached to the receiver for self monitoring if I decide to leave the unit in TX mode I could use another DC lead and connect the receiver to the DC sockets, to the right of that aerial you can see an SMA to N type adapter that will allow the main aerial to be connected.

In photo 4 below, you can see the kit ready for assembling on site, the aerial used is a slot type and above it is its protective sleeve( removed for the picture) which is made up of a piece of plastic waste pipe.

  When not out and about with this project it can be used as a test piece for checking out other receivers and transmitters like the one featured in issue 08 of the HX Files as seen photo in photo 5 below.

And finally

This project has reminded me that somewhere in the deepest part of the shed is a much larger case so if get brave I will go exploring and locate it.

That’s it for now and may all your signals be P5

73 Pat.

The HX Files 22

Hello and welcome to Xtract 22 of the HX Files.

As I wright this Xtract of the HX Files it is only a few weeks from
 the Friedrichshafen rally in Germany,

 some more goodies were bought and added to the stock pile (the shed)
 see photo1below.

One of the stores department

                                 Some of the stock to be used in upcoming issues of the HX Files featured in
 Echo Ireland, the journal of the Irish Radio Transmitters Society ( I.R.T.S.),

No doubt some items will come in handy, I hope. (Will I ever learn)?
As you can see from photo 1,
 I might need a new stores shed, but what is a man (hoarder) to do
 as it is very handy to have things in stock and not waiting a couple of weeks for the postman.

Not all ATV (shock and horror)

Just like this time last year, I took part in the I.R.T.S. v/uhf field day, the stations were set up and manned by the Dundalk ARS, (EI7DAR) Dundalk went /p in Colon Co, Louth in io63qs. The 23cms ssb and 70cms stations were setup in the back of Marks (EI9FX) van, the 23cms station was an Icom 910 transceiver, and a single 35el beam, the 70cms setup was a Kenwood TS2000 and a single 18el beam. Electricity was supplied by Marks 3.3kv generator, with the radios and a couple of desk lamps only using up a few watts that left more than enough power to use the most important piece of equipment that was brought to 

Slibh Bragh (our location) the electric kettle .

In photo 2 above you can see Marks rotator which is turned by pulling on the rope to turn the beam, not having a direction indicator in the shack was not much of a hardship as all that had to be done was to use the compass to make sure the beam was pointing near enough to the other station and then some fine tuning to lock-on to them, but it did mean that when the aerials were to be turned someone had to get out of the van with their wetsuit on, yes it was that wet for a time one could say that the ground was flooded.

Bits and Pieces

In photo 3 above, you can see some of the bits and pieces bought in Germany, a couple of centre feeds for some 24 Ghz dishes, also seen are some transitions that will convert the waveguide to sma, an a circulator all for 24 Ghz, a couple of items for 5.7 Ghz, a few panel mount N type sockets with various lengths of coaxial cable terminated with a sma fitting on the other end. The mesh sheets seen in photo 1 will be used for some chassis work and maybe even a front panel or two. With a few projects on the go at the same time, the one described below was the nearest to completion for this journal, and as most of the parts were to hand and no need to dig my way in and out of the shed it also needed the least amount of chassis bashing to be completed I decided to finish it first.

10 GHz Transceiver

The project in this Echo Ireland is reusing an old test/QRP 10 GHz transmitter that I have for a while, but to do anything with it I found that its enclosure was just big enough for the transmitter and the modulator board and no room for any major improvements to it. 

10 GHz transceiver

The bottom of the unit you see in Photo 4 above, is of an old security camera enclosure bought at a car boot sale and it is a good size and would be more than big enough to take the old transmitter and even a receiver and circulator so it now would become a transceiver. After a bit of seeing what went where, the first job was to remove the glass pane that was bonded to the front (some of the ingredients used in the manufacturing of glass would distort/block the signal passing through it), so the kettle was boiled (sadly not to make tea) and with the use of the kitchen sink the water was added slowly over the front of the housing and left to soak for a couple of moments to soften the glue. Using a bit of pressure from my thumbs on the glass a gap started to appear and with the use of a small flat metal ruler as a leaver the glass was removed in one piece, the glass was then used as a template to mark out a piece of Perspex which was then glued in.

 A small chassis was made out of some mesh sheeting, and it was found that some of the holes matched up with the mounting holes in the base of the camera housing, those that were slightly out of line were made slightly wider by the use of a tapered reamer, and with that job done the parts were bolted into place on it. The solfen head was bolted to one side of the circulator and the Lnb on one of the other ones. The LNB “slot” is smaller than the ones in the circulator “slot” and a waveguide adapter was used to connect them together, this was done firstly by drilling some holes in the adapter plate to match the holes on the other parts, both parts have threaded holes and could be screwed together, but the makeup of the circulator meant that the heads of the bolts to be used would not allow them to be screwed in straight, so off with their heads and a slot was cut into the top of them so that a small flat headed screwdriver could be used, the screwdriver was small enough to pass through the circulator from the solfen head side and the  bolts could be tightened. The Gunnmode 4 board was first attached to a chassis and then the Horne type aerial bolted above that. To use the transmitter I simply switch it on and off directly from the PSU (as there is no tx/rx switching unit) audio and video leads run into the transmitter from a camcorder, and to receive a signal I use an old analogue satellite receiver with a length of coax connecting the satellite receiver to the LNB and as a result I can monitor my tx signal whilst transmitting, and turning the tx off I can look for other signals.  The finished transceiver was attached to a pole pointing down my back yard and I will be able to use it to checkout any other 10 GHz transmitters and LNB’s I may be working on.

Finally, may all your signals be P5,  73,s de Pat.

HX Files 021

Hello and welcome to xtract 021 of the HX Files.

What to do

After making a few transceivers for use at home or portable, I was wondering what to make next? I was thinking what else would be of use, a beam or a vertical either one of them would be handy to have in the spares department, for the vertical aerial which typically is a slot type would involve some tools that I do not have in my workshop, so I decided that a beam it was is to be. While looking for designs of beams on the net I noticed that some of them were like the ones I have myself but only bigger, that was not the only thing bigger than  I have that I saw on the net ( towers , cars and of course an aerial). Some of the aerial designs were rather complicated to try as a first time project, but deciding  on the designs that were like my own was not a hard choice to make  so I had a look at the ones I use and decided to extend a couple of them. The conventional type of beam was not too bad to make as most of the basic parts were in stock, originally it was a 35el Tonna and now it is a 42el instead.  I already have a 55el at my home location but that aerial has two support arms underneath it I did not go to that trouble as I had not got enough of the tubing for the supporting framework. Working on that aerial was not too bad as a piece of box tubing the same size was in stock as was some of the standoff brackets for the elements. A couple of copper brazing rods were bought and a constructing we went. Having a ready made aerial was great as I could copy the extra piece of the beam that was to be attached to the 35el aerial. The elements were cut using a small hacksaw with the rod being held in a vice, the elements  were not all the same length  but there were a few of each that were the same size, and again having something to copy from was very handy but I still had to make sure that my markings and cuttings were exact. With that job done I had only to place the elements into their standoff brackets and make sure that the same amount of element was visible either side of the bracket. The new standoff brackets were bought at a rally some time ago for spares just in case some of the original ones were damaged. The brackets simply just clicked onto the boom, the original brackets had a small bump on them that fitted into a dimple on the boom which gave them the correct distance apart, the new ones had no bump on them and neither was there any dimples on the new section of boom but they were a tighter fit and seemed to offer a lot of resistance when I tried to move them, the distance of the extra elements were all the same as only the first few on the original beam had a different gap so I made a spacer out of a scrap piece of angle wood to match the gap between the elements .The other beam was originally a 15el loop aerial, and just like the other aerial, from element 4^th  to the last one were the same distance apart and the same diameter of loop. Copying the loops meant using some sort of a former to wrap the wire around to make the loops. As luck would have it I had a large diameter hole cutter (Photo 1 below) that was the same size as the loop, with only what to use to make the loop elements out of being the next issue. After a quick look through the store bunkers I found some rods and whips (I found them beside the fluffy handcuffs but that’s another story) that I could use for something to make the loops with. I was thinking of the odd lengths from some off-cuts of old and scraped aerials I had and also though of brazing/wielding rods, and even the loop of metal that is on the back of the hub caps found on some cars,  keep an eye on the side of the road, as with the one or two pot holes that are around the country have the habit of removing the odd hub cap, this wire is can also be used but it is rather rigid and springy  to bend around the loop former and some of them are of a different gauge of metal . The other lengths of rods and whips were also found to be rather stiff to work with and a bit springy, after a couple of close calls when the rods slipped from my hands and in one case hit the safety glasses I had on.

Time for Tea

It was then decided that the construction could wait and it was time to have a cup of tea or two and think of a plan B. During the tea drinking I was looking for something else and though of some electrical cable that comes in single strand, but of all the different cables I had none were single strand, a visit to Tony EI6IK and he had what I needed so after removing the outer plastic covering I used the electrical cable and wound it around the former, it started to look like a spring and after enough coils were wound on it the wire was cut and I had the loops that I needed for the job also seen in Photo 1 below.

The hole cutter partially embedded in a piece of wood for safety  

The elements before tiding up and soldering to bolts

 Photo 2 above shows some of the loops as each loop were cut off the spring like winding and the ends will be tidied up with a file. With the loops formed you then have to join the ends, this was done by brazing them together; the brazing was done for me by Kevin EI5JG, the two ends of the loop were joined together at the same time in the slot of a brass screw that a screwdriver slot in them. As mentioned earlier this job was extending the length of the aerial, and as the diameter of each element and their spacing was the same between each loop from the 5^th to the 101^st, whilst the strength of the new loops may not be the same as the original elements but they are good enough as they would be only used in a portable setup. A template was made that would help with marking and drilling the holes..

Worktop joiner

End profile of joiner, in the middle,and the two booms

 The template (Photo 3 above left) was made from a joiner used in joining kitchen worktops together, it has 3 holes in it from the manufacture one of these holes can be seen by the square drawn around it, but so far they have not caused any problems. 

In photo 4 above right, you may notice the joiner has a right angle on one side and a curve on the other side of it, the curved side will sit perfectly on round boom if I ever have to extend a round boom aerial. The old and the new extension booms  are 16mm x 16mm and were joined by some round tubing that was held in place by bolts on the original beam and rivets on the new section, the bolts can be removed easily  both for transporting and for the times that a big aerial is not needed. The first hole in this template would bolt into the last one of the original holes and the other holes used to line up, and then to mark (with the aide of a centre punch) the new holes onto the new piece of boom, and then the template removed and placed onto the last of the new holes and repeated until all the holes marked out that are needed. When installing the new elements the head of the bolt that the loop is brazed to can be held carefully by hand and the loop held parallel to the other elements while the retaining nut is tightened. I was lucky that on the second aerial being modded that a hole cutter I had was the right size.

The  new elements 

 In Photo 5 above you can see both the new elements ready for fitting; since the modded aerials were made I have used them on a few portable events and have noticed no difference in Rx and TX signals when I compared them to the factory ones of the same size.Whilst making the loop elements out of the copper wire I did notice that they were not as strong as the original loops and if the birds decided to rest on them the elements would bend and twist as the birds took off from them, so I decided to use the aerial upside down, it may give a better area for the birds but at least the elements would be okay.

And finally, thanks again to Kevin EI5JG for doing the brazing for me, and to Tony EI6IK for the element wire.

And may all your signals be P5.

The new boom before being cut to the required length

The HX Files 020

The HX Files 020

Hello and welcome to the X cert 20 of the HX Files.

In this months Echo Ireland I would like to talk about a permanent /m ATV unit.

 Although having made a portable/mobile unit a few months ago, thoughts of that it might be very handy to have an ATV station semi-permanently setup in the car came to mind, the system could be left in the car but would be removed if the weather should turn frosty for a protracted time and that may cause all the smoke to get out if it was left unused in the winter time and woken up in our summer (around 2 weeks in May).

This transceiver would have to be safe to use with very little having to be manually adjusted and using as many parts that have an auto function option. As it is illegal to have a mobile/cell phone in your hand whilst driving the chances of time in the slammer would be a sure thing if you had a camcorder, lights and clapper board in your hands, it would be literally a case of car crash TV for sure. The first job before even starting to build the transceiver would be the location of the cameras and what type to use, obviously the smaller the better as you would not them to interfere with you seeing were you were going, luckily thanks to the parts department the cameras were found that were needed.

In photo 1on the left, you can see the cameras that would be used in the project. The locations of the cameras would be dictated by the safe routing of the audio, video and DC cables, only one of the cameras was capable of sound (the camera on the left in photo 1) and its audio line would be connected straight to the transmitter, and that would mean that it didn't matter what camera was in use as the audio would  always be inline. The camera that had sound would be mounted on the front pillar, and the second camera would be mounted in the centre of the dashboard as there was a switch blanking plate as the model of my car had not got a particular optional accessory fitted (ejector seat), so removing the blanking plate exposed an opening that was a perfect fit for that camera, the camera had its own mounting bracket and some of it was used in the cameras installation the most awkward  part of that job was making sure that the cables were well away from the adjustment leavers for the air vents. Next jobs to plan were the type of enclosure to use for the transceiver be it either a metal or plastic, and whether to place the transceiver inside the car or on the outside. The size of the box that was to be used was a bit to big to install in the car when you think of were all the cables had to be routed, and were it would not get in the way of operating the car, or any passenger, so outside it was to be, but were to place it, on the bonnet making it look like an air intake for the supercharger, or painting it blue and placing it on the roof, so under the boot but bear the bumper  it was to be, I had to make sure that the  box and the cables were not visible by people from under the car, as they may think that a box and cables hanging from under a car is something other than an ATV transceiver,(unless they were my neighbours, as they would be use to seeing strange things sticking out of my car, and they would be more likely to phone the home for the bewildered  and put Pat out of his misery). As my car has a tow bar fitted and also has some other factory fitted threaded holes for various other fittings including of course the fact that it is available in left hand drive for other markets, there would be plenty of places to secure  the unit but making sure that it had plenty of cooling air passing over it. The aerial, an Alford Slot, would not be permanently mounted on the car so I would be using some good coaxial cable ( Aercil 9) but as short as possible, and I would be using some quick form of lock / unlock poles and they and the aerial would be left in the car when not in use. Something else to consider was the monitor I would use to watch the received signals when I parked.

Having  chosen the metal box the first thing done was to see what type of brackets would have to be made to attach the unit to the car, once the brackets were fitted to the box it was coated inside and out, and this would protect it as the box was one of the die cast aluminium type, and those that have used them without any protective covering would know that in our climate they could get a bit of a dusty coating inside and out, and without that protective coating the conductive dust that formed would / could fall from the inside and possibly short out the transceiver and let all the smoke out. So after having let the coating harden for a few days, I covered it with some masking tape so it could be mark out were I was to drill and also to protect the painted finish as I could repaint any bare metal that there was after the drilling, cutting and filing. After laying out the parts (most can be seen in photo 3 below)

Top left RX,  Top right TX
Bottom left, fan mounted on heat sink,
Bottom right amp mounted to heat sink

 to see what went were for the best placement of the parts being used, the first thing done was to put the amp on the side that would have the most air passing over it and then a hole slightly smaller than the fan would be cut out of the project box. Not wanting to just rely on the box as a heat sink, the amp would have its own fitted, so when I would be parked the transceiver would not get to hot, and also, fitting a cooling fan that would not mind getting a few splashes from the puddles that would be driven through, so using a heat sink and attaching it to the amp and then being placed close to the drilled hole in the project box and the fan in it also, it will be running cool. When the final place for the unit was chosen some time was spent on seeing how to run the various cables to it and how to gain access to the car from the underneath and not let anything in like water or exhaust gases. So bringing the cable in through the boot of the car, and the under the rear seats up to the front seats, at that end of the cable it was terminated into a box, that box would be fed with the DC cable and the Audio/Video from the camera in use via a switching unit (photo 4 on the left),

Video switching unit

 also the box would have cables for the received Audio and Video. The monitor to be used would have to be a small one and the one I had in mind was a 100mm and it could be easily stored when not in use in the glove box as I would not be receiving signals while mobile as that would not be safe or legal. As the amp and other parts would use around 8 amps, and deciding splicing into the rear wiring loom would not be an option as the loom would not be able to handle that current and I did not like the idea of a permanently live cable running the full length of the car even fitted with fuses from the battery carrying high amps, so I had a smaller lead from the battery to a connector that would plug into the main termination box  that was fitted inside a storage bin in the car for music cassettes,( remember them, and the  8-track tapes) and when it was needed the two ends were connected, a switch on the rear end of the lead was fitted  to power on and off the transceiver. Not wanting to be adjusting anything whilst driving, sometime was spent initially setting up the cameras as I would not be able to do any adjustments whilst driving, and using a 50mw transmitter at first was able to monitor the signal myself as well as sending a signal to Tony EI 4 DIB who could give a live  report on the picture from the cameras and the sound via 2mts , Tony was also able to help fine tune the audio when I used the full mobile setup  on the road as having another pair of ears and eyes would save me a lot time  later on by  doing all the major adjustments now and not after a number of QSO’s, a few tests were also done with the aide of Derek EI 7 CHB from Skerries, in this test I was using an infrared camera (on the right in photo 1) as this test was at night for a different view, and as before the infrared  camera was bolted to the towing eye on the front of the car. With all the tests done and the transceiver bolted in place I will be using it when I am visiting the local Hams and SWL’ers that have an ATV setup.

 As you can see from photo 2 on the left, there is not a lot to see from the outside of the car, and I do not know if I will be 10GHz mobile much of the time, as the dishes I have at the moment are all the solid type and that would cause some drag a when in use as it would catch some air, also a Horn type aerial would do the same.

 Anyway off to the funny farm with me for some shock therapy, but before I go, I would like to again thank Tony and Derek, for helping with the trials and testing and Anthony EI 2 KC for taking some of the photos.please note the other photos at the bottom of the page also.May all your signals be P5.

73’s Pat. GA GAGA GA GOO GOO GOO GOO.

On the way

Pillar camera

On the way 2

Dash camera

On air

The HX Files 019

Hello and welcome to Xtract 19 of the HX Files.

In this Xtract.

 A new 23cms transceiver for the shack.

 I would like to talk about this project that was made for use as a base transceiver; this project would be a 60 watt ATV transceiver for 23cms. The first thing to do was to get a project box that was not just big enough, but structurally  strong enough, so with safety hat on a suitable one was dug out of the stores bunker, as well as a suitable heat sink for the amps. The heat sink was originally an amp for a mobile phone system that was in the stores bunker for a couple of years, the inside was stripped out of its components, some of them for the skip, and some for the stores department, the heat sink was found to be only a couple of mm shorter than the project box and it was exactly the same height as it. The project box purchased was a used piece of scraped test equipment with most of the original parts removed before sale, after looking at the back of the box and at the heat sink that was going to be used, it was decided to use part of the original back panel (photo 1 below )as this would help with the fitting of the heat sink.

After a bit of measuring and marking, a small precision cutting device was to remove the centre of the panel, (A 100mm angle grinder). The rest of the panel was lined up with the heat sink and both marked for drilling some mounting holes. When lining up the panel up with the heat sink for drilling, care had to be taken that the holes to be drilled would be between the fins of the heat sink and there would be no need to remove any of the heat sink. Thanks to a bit of time spent placing the parts and a bit of measuring, the holes were drilled, they were close, but luckily there was just enough space to add the washers and nuts. The panel was then removed so that there was room to place the 2 amps on the heat sink, a couple of paper templates were made of the mounting holes of the amps to mark out the spots on the heat sink that were to be drilled but no matter were the templates were positioned the holes would be over a fin of the heat sink, so as the heat sink was 8mm thick the holes would be drilled to a depth of 6mm and then be taped. Thanks to Michael EI 5 GG for the master class in the use of his pillar drill and taps, and a couple of hours later the job was done. The amps were placed on the heat sink temporally and were wired up and a few tests carried out making sure they were giving out their full power, and after 1 hour on transmit the heat sink was still cool enough and more than likely it would not be transmitting for that amount of time in one go again. As the heat sink worked so well during the testing, no fans were to be used in the final design, and with that job done the back of the unit was refitted to the box. A chassis for mounting all the various parts that would be used was made from a piece of a scraped metal that once was the top of and old PC table, this had a couple of benefits as It was the type that had the perforated top, and the holes could be used for mounting the various parts, and it would also aid in air circulation. The amp requires a voltage of 24 volts at 4 amps, but the other parts like the 2 watt driver amp, the RX/TX boards, relays and various lights, would only need 12 volts to power them. I was toying with the notion of using 24 and 12 volts from external power supplies, this would not be a problem as the unit would be a base transceiver, but to go portable and having to bring a couple of power supplies was not on, so a 240v AC to 24v DC PSU was fitted into the case (photo 2 below).

 As the PSU had two separate lines out for 24volts, plan A was to use a voltage regulator I had that would drop the 24 volts to 13 volts and it would be able to handle 6 amps which was more than I needed, but I had to go with plan B as I could not find the amp. So plan B was to use a couple of smaller voltage regulators for each of the TX/RX boards to take the voltage down to the required volts, the regulators were mounted on a small heat sink that would keep them like the Fonz (cool) seen on the bottom right of photo 3 below .

The power supply used was one mentioned in a previous HX file that was purchased at a rally last year, and the fact it also had a fan installed to help with it’s cooling was not a bad thing, it has a few taped mounting holes around it’s body so using a couple of bolts of the same thread and after measuring it, a couple of holes were drilled in the side of the unit and the PSU was bolted to it.

 The PSU was placed on its side (photo 4) as doing this would leave more room in the box for the other parts. The TX/ RX boards, preamp, coaxial relay and the other parts were dry fitted in various locations until I was happy with the layout.

 Another benefit of having a perforated chassis meant I would be able to hide some of the cables, the holes could be made wider with a reamer and you could install grommets in the holes if needed so you would be left with smooth edges and not run the risk of any of the leads chaffing. The front panel was cut from a piece of an old aluminium sign, the panel would be strong as it is 3mm thick, and the it would be 312mm wide and a height of 105mm, that’s around 12”x4” in old money. The metal sign that was to be used for the front panel, was not in great condition as it had a few marks and scratches on it, so when all the drilling is finished, some sticky back plastic (well if its good enough for Blue Peter then its good enough for me) would be used, as it comes in various colours and finishes. But before all that the first thing to do was to try a couple of designs to see what want were, after the final design was chosen it was held onto the front panel with masking tape (photo 5 below                                                                                                     

The drill points marked with a punch, and after a bit of care the holes were drilled first using a 3mm drill bit and then finished off with the right size drill bits, and with the use of a file and a reamer the panel was finished, the parts were fitted on the panel and then removed to be able to apply the plastic covering. 

 As you can see in photo 6 on the left,the finished front panel with all the fittings installed. Having the back panel free of any fittings would mean that the transceiver could be placed close to the shack wall, and due to the tests carried out earlier, (it not needing any cooling fan(s), and with the carrying handles it would also mean some type of protection for the front panel. As I mentioned earlier this project would be a base unit, but if I did decide to go /P with it I would need a DC to AC converter to take the 12 volts DC to 240 volts, and as I did not want to bring a generator. That’s it for this issue of Echo Ireland, and if you would like to see other pictures of the build you can go to my blog, thehxfiles.blogspot.com.. Below is some more photos of the build.

And finally,  that may all your signals be P5. 73’s Pat.

Early layout

Final parts layout

Some tidying up left to do