magicclam: I’m not a fan of doing radio alignments.Partially due to the equipment I use,
magicclam: I’m not a fan of doing radio alignments.Partially due to the equipment I use, it’s really fiddly to set up and perform the alignments. My RF generator has an analog display that isn’t perfect, so in order to verify the frequencies I’m using, I need to use my digital frequency counter. To do this, I would clip the leads from my RF generator to my frequency counter (sometimes it would spark when I did this) then verify the frequency, then unclip the leads (so I don’t drag the RF oscillator down with the frequency counter) then re-clip them to the radio in the proper position.This was really annoying since you generally have to change frequencies several times during an alignment. Every time I’d move the clip leads I’d get a loud pop out of the speaker which never failed to startle me.So last weekend, I decided to build a little signal transfer box to help streamline the process. I actually re-used the volume control box I built for my son’s computer since he wasn’t using it anymore. It already had mostly the correct holes drilled into it, and I’m a fan of making things easy on myself. :DAs usual, this was a ‘scrounging for scraps’ build, so the box is a bit of a hodge-podge. First few pictures show the box construction process. I basically just grabbed what I had on hand which turned out to be 1 BNC connector, 1 RCA connector and 2 banana jacks.The RCA jack is the input and connects up to my RF generator by means of a special shielded cable I made (pics 5 and 6). All of the wiring in the box is also shielded to minimize noise. I already had a BNC to BNC cable on hand, so one of the outputs of the box goes to my frequency counter which uses a standard BNC jack. The other output on the box are the 2 banana jacks on the front for injecting signals into the radio with standard clip leads.Basically, this box lets me flip a switch and route the RF signal to either my frequency counter or to the radio I’m working on without having to clip and unclip things all the time. Makes it MUCH easier to verify the frequencies I’m using, and get the alignment done. Last pic shows everything in action.Stay tuned for more fun with building stuff! -- source link