There is a very strong connection of ham radio and tek. Many of our heros are alumni of tek. They invented many things. I found out they invented the tunnel diode, made their own devices, displays. -

I've found it's never worth it for me to etch my own PCB's. Ferric chloride, and all those other etchants, blech. And, a total lack of vias and soldermask, no thanks.... -- Martin Held -

Thanks, Bill! I'll be anxious to hear what you find. I sure will be glad when my ubitx finally shows up so I can join the fun for real....:) Tom AB7WT

The rigol ds1052e is very good for general use. I can see upto 200 mhz on it. Works well, it has a nominal spectrum analyzer too. - f

Do you feel that is easier than, say, doing a Muppet board and etching it yourself? Jack, W8TEE

Jack, Just as a point of reference: Going for 5% tolerance 1k ohm resistors, and buying 1000 at a time, a quick search on digikey gives me: 1000x 0603 resistors: $2.07 1000x 0805 resistors:

It looks more like a happy grain of salt to me! I have very little experience myself with SMD's, but they don't scare me anymore. Perhaps a partial reason is because I can't see most of them... Jack,

I use double side, plain copper clad. Then, with a sharp knife (i use a glass cutter), i score off an island of 3x2 to 5x2 squares of about 0.25inch to a side. I use all around for the ground plane,

0805 is a happy medium. Bill, VK7MX

That's the same one I use Mike..... -- Paul Mateer, AA9GG Elan Engineering Corp. www.elanengr.com NAQCC 3123, SKCC 4628

If you play around with the quantity on the on-line quotation screen on the website of just about any othe Chinese manufacturers, you will see that 10 boards usually cost

I HIGHLY suggest one of these: http://www.12voltpowersupplies.us/ I put one into a box with volt and amp meters. I also added a dual USB port to it for charging stuff. The ONLY noise I get from it

Howdy Jerry, I am looking forward to getting the uBITX and getting it together so I can learn about this stuff. Most of my equipment glows in the dark so this arduino stuff is all new to me and I am

I think 0805 is about as small as we'd want to go. Man, one good sneeze with 0603's and the project's dead. Good to know about the PCB houses. Sounds like that's the way to go. Jack, W8TEE

Clark Martin KK6ISP Check the idle current, it might not be very much in which case there is little advantage to switching it on with TX.

I use one of these in one of my

I can barely see a 0603! I would prefer 1206 if I can find them and am not too worried about the cost differential. Jack, W8TEE

Thanks, I might give this a try. Jack, W8TEE

AM Phone would require a significant redesign. Start by ripping out the 12mhz crystal filter at X1-8 and the balanced modulator at T7/D5 Have at it! Jerry, KE7ER

why would you want too ?