Enno is well down the path of building his PICASTAR. The mechanical part of any home-brew rig construction is always the most challenging and as you can see, Enno has made a superb job of the build in a home-brew case.. Enno has also managed to fit a mains power supply into that case too. <vk3pe>
NOW ON-AIR !! April, 2011. See picture at end of this page.
Hi Glenn, Hi Gerard
In last few days, TftA and TrxAVRb works fine.
I'm very happy for the nice picture on my touch screen. To program both was
no problem.
You can see my progress in picastar project. Up to now chassis and panels
front / rear are near finished, buttons and encoders works. Now speakers have
a acceptable size (in cut and damped white plastic cups for bathroom). Hobcat
and Ham Radio Deluxe works. Beeper works. Now I can go to work to assemble
Comboboard.
The first supply is 12V/60W for picastar and 20W PA. The 2nd is 48V/320W
for Mosfet PA. I hope for good linear and efficiency. Then I have eventually
near 180W out. 48V makes better handling in wires and PCB, because lower currents.
I think also, to decouple PA supply from picastar supply is a good idea. In
20W (qrp) mode i can switch off the 320W supply. If I have sometime another
PA with another voltage, then i have no problem to
change the power supply in same size. May be Mosfet PA with 8x low cost IRF620
do not works or so. The power supplys are commercially made switchmode types.
I have one of the same series in my antenna tuner, it works well. Supply case
must be grounded, otherwise i hear it in receiver.
Now MR is in practice finished, BPF is assembled without coils. Diode matrix
get instead of ULN2803 a little shuttle board for my modified band selection
in
LPF. And now - i open a beer....
Best Regards
Enno
It's a great project for me !
Best Regards
Enno, dk5noa
Enno now has his STAR on air ! Extensive mods. Refer to Yahoo picastar-users message #4596
This is an excellent build. Note that the 'keyboard' used is part of the buttons on the front panel, not a 4x4 keypad. Enno's variation looks ver professional indeed and a credit to him. Enno also built his own Crystal filter. <vk3pe>
Enno still has to fit shields and some other work to do. If he can tear himself away from using it, that is !!
You can see, my star case is finished now. Here are the last progress pictures
from.
The work is not really finished, but i hope in the next weeks. It is my best
rig now, very good RX and TX.
I'm very happy!
Best Regards
Enno, dk5noa
Enno has made a magnificent job on his STAR.
Click for larger pictures to see the detail Enno has put into his project.
Glenn
vk3pe