Which ham receiver(?) project is well documented and worth building? Any suggestions?

[Garyl]

Hello people,
I've been learning the ham radio stuff during last months. I've made several small receivers for 80m and 40m bands. Now I looking for more advanced project. Right now I focus on receiving, but I am also preparing for getting license, so transceivers are also good.

Can someone suggest me some more advanced but still relatively doable radio receivers (20m, 40m, 80m, FM, AM or really anything else - including aircraft stuff, etc) projects?

I have:
- old oscilloscope (it's having little troubles but it's still working)
- inductance meter (soon it will arrive from ebay)
- soon I will make PIC16F frequency meter, because I've read that it's good enough for hams.

I can:
- etch PCB at home
- solder SMD
- program AVR/PIC

I have parts:
- transistors: 2N3906, 2N3904, 2N7000, 2N7002K, 2N2222, 2N3819, 2SC2078, 2SC2001, MPSH10, J310, BS170, BFR92A, BF245, BC547, BC557, BC549C, (many other BCs)
- ICs: 74HC4053, NE612, LM358, LM741CN, LM386, TCA440, MC3362, MC3361, TDA2030, TDA7000, TDA1083, TA2003, SAB6456A, LF353P, BA1404, TCA440, TBA120S, LA1185, TDA2822, TA7358
- varicaps: BB910, MV2105, BB329
Of course I can buy parts, etc.

What I do not want:
- so-called KITS
- buying PCB
- projects with many IF transformers/bizzare inductors used because it is really hard to get them...
- projects without complete schematic/documentation...

Right now I am considering several projects but I am open to any suggestions. So, what would you recommend?
Thanks in advance!

 

[BradtheRad]

NorCal turns up when I have done online searches. The club has grown from a few northern California QRP enthusiasts. They have a lot of projects (including the NorCal 40), schematics, docs, etc. It is not mandatory to buy them as a kit.

https://norcalqrp.org/index.php

 

[Garyl]

NorCal turns up when I have done online searches. The club has grown from a few northern California QRP enthusiasts. They have a lot of projects (including the NorCal 40), schematics, docs, etc. It is not mandatory to buy them as a kit.

https://norcalqrp.org/index.php

I haven't seen that site before, that's good, but...
... NorCal 40 is described as "CW", where I prefer SSB. Still, I am planning to make simple CW decoder on Arduino with LCD to make it more easy and fast to use, so maybe I will do NorCal as well...

 

[vfone]

On the net are many homebrew transceivers schematics.
More than 50% of them are based on NE602/NE612 (RF-IF) and LM386 (Audio).
Using these integrated circuits make the circuits easier to build, but my recommendation is to avoid as much as possible using these chipsets. This in case you want a decent performance for your transceiver.
NE612 has ridiculous intermodulation performances (and high noise figure), and LM386 has almost 20% distortions at maximum audio output power (~1W).

 

[G4BCH]

Try the receive portion of the BITX20 or 40, orignally designed as a 20m transceiver, but there are now many variants both single and multiband. It is simple to build, and can be expanded in complexity as required. There is an active .io group with many suggestions and advice if you need it.
**broken link removed**
http://www.phonestack.com/farhan/bitx.html
Peter

 

[Garyl]

Try the receive portion of the BITX20 or 40, orignally designed as a 20m transceiver, but there are now many variants both single and multiband. It is simple to build, and can be expanded in complexity as required. There is an active .io group with many suggestions and advice if you need it.
**broken link removed**
http://www.phonestack.com/farhan/bitx.html
Peter

Interesting, but...

Not Found

The requested URL /farhan/bitxpcbs.zip was not found on this server.

Apache/2.4.7 (Ubuntu) Server at www.phonestack.com Port 80

... do you know where can I get their file bitxpcbs.zip, because the link is dead?

 

[G4BCH]

From what I remember of the zip file something very similar to the contents, but with more up to date and complete information can be found here.

https://golddredgervideo.com/kc0wox/bitxver3/bitx20version3.htm

 

[Garyl]

That's great! Each section documented, high-res PCB image and photo, I will definetely add this circuit to my TO-DO list.

Any more projects that you can recommend?