I finally got fed up with my lousy custom coded main website (at www.nt7s.com), so I’ve decided to rip it down and install a CMS. Don’t be surprised to see some strange things going on there over the next days/weeks. I’m going to get all of the important content back up there. It may take me longer to get the visual design of the site in line with what I want.
I got a bit of cash for my birthday last month and it was burning a hole in my pocket for a few weeks. I decided I needed a good set of CW paddles for my station, since the only keying devices that I have (that work) are all straight keys. It was a bit of a toss-up to decide what brand of key to get until I saw the Begali name mentioned; then I remembered lots of hams saying good stuff about their keys. There was enough goodwill on the Internet that I figured I would take the plunge and give the base model Simplex (with a palladium finish) a try. It took about 3 weeks for the paddles to get here, but it was well worth it. Here’s a little visual tour of my Begali unboxing experience.
Yes, I know, an “unboxing” blog post makes me an even greater geek. I’m at peace with that. Anyway, on with the show…
Let’s open the box…
Now to open it up
Some extras included
Christmas wishes
Two different sets of aluminum finger pieces sent along, although I only ordered one. A nice extra!
First peek at the key
The key together with the dust cover
Here it is unwrapped and with the stock finger pieces installed
Now to add the nice blue aluminum finger pieces…
I’m blinded! The palladium finish with gold accents is incredible.
A macro shot of the engraved logo
Finally, here’s the key with my cable installed, sitting next to the AA0ZZ EZKeyer
I hope you got a little vicarious enjoyment out of that! I haven’t made a QSO with it yet, but just from using it on the keyer with sidetone, I can tell that it has an incredible feel. This one will be a keeper for the rest of my ham radio days.
Thanks to some prompting from a Willamette builder who inquired about some performance issues with his rig, I was able to identify an error in the bill of materials which causes a significant degradation in receiver sensitivity.
Fortunately the fix for this problem is very simple. Audio preamplifier collector resistor R49 was incorrectly called out as 10 k, when it should have been listed as 4.7 k. If you have a 4.7 k resistor in your junkbox, just swap it in at the R49 position. A 5.6 k resistor will also work fine here. Alternately, you could just parallel another 10 k resistor across the existing one. I will be happy to supply the correct resistor to any builders who purchased a kit from me and need one.
I’ve determined that this wasn’t a design flaw, but a transcription error. My original hand-written notes have the correct value and my prototype does work correctly (I’m sure NA5N would have caught this problem in the prototype he evaluated). Somewhere in the process of creating the schematics in my schematic capture program, I entered the wrong value. I did build a beta rig with all of the same schematics/BOM that everyone else did, but I didn’t catch the error at the time. I will update the schematics and BOM posted on my website in short order to prevent any further problems.
Please accept a most humble apology from me for not realizing this significant error for a very long time. I do believe that you’ll be pleased with the difference in sensitivity once you install the correct resistor. The receiver should sound like you would expect a proper direct conversion receiver to sound. After the modification, you should be able to run the AF gain at ~75% or less during most operating conditions.
I’d like to thank W0EP, N1RX, WB8ICN, and WB9VTB for their assistance in resolving this matter!
Software Defined Radio is a technology which has always intrigued me, but something I just haven’t been able to devote a lot of time to yet. I’ve built an early model SoftRock and studied the basics of the theory. Not too long ago, I built up my own little version of a 40 meter SDR based on a different topology from the SoftRock (VXO feeding a quadrature hybrid, driving passive MOSFET mixers). It worked so-so, and it ended up in my pile of experimental boards.
Subharmonic SDR Schematic
Today in my feed reader, I caught wind of a really neat topology for a minimal parts count SDR, courtesy of Joachim, DL1GSJ. His receiver uses a simple phase shift network to create the I/Q LO signals to drive a pair of Polyakov (subharmonic) mixers. It looks dead simple to breadboard and could be an easy way to try SDR without having to order a SoftRock kit. Get over to Joachim’s blog to get the full details of this fascinating design.
Recent Comments