Well, Imitation...
...is the sincerest form of it.
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| http://youkits.com/ |
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| KD6VKF M620 Transceiver |
To be fair, I was letting this project languish on my bench for a couple years. After building the DDS board I needed a break for my weary old eyes so I took on the Mk VII Paraset and MkIII Tinkerbox projects and never really returned to this project.
But lately, I had been putting the 20M version back into working state and was planning to upload some videos of the working proto on here soon. The big speaker sounds really nice on SSB and the user interface is really easy. ( I see the TJ2B also uses the push-button switch on the frequency control knob to change the rate too!)
Check It Out.
I suppose there is some "design convergence" where a solution is pretty universal, but when I showed this picture to a few folks they pointed out that the overall design was most likely based on the M620:
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| TJ2B Circuit Boards |
[Need M620 Circuit board pics]
The overall layout using the DDS and Radio board is very coincidental. Although the TJ2B did put the PA onto the main radio board. I did notice that there seems to be no videos showing the overall stability of the radio in transmit. I will assume this is not a problem as the layout and other features seem well designed. Here you can watch the TJ2B in action:
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| TJ2B Board Assembly and Wiring |
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| M620 Board Assembly and Wiring |
Watch the M620 in Action:
The receiver on the M620 works fairly well. Here is an example of the above prototype on 20M SSB. The squelch circuits in the receiver are designed for the VHF type of use...to save batteries. Also, setting this control so only the loud ones may actually hear the M620 get through the squelch gate as the receiver can hear pretty well:What Now?
As my dear XYL also said; "... hey! maybe YouKits should send you a free one?" *hint*Oh well, there is a significant bunch of work done here on this radio and the way I look at it; if it works, it basically gets me what I wanted all along...a hand held HF SSB Transceiver! If I did not want copies I would never have posted this project to a blog.
We had a new DDS/Controller board and PA board in the works. I wanted to improve the main board as well; the PTT circuits were also being looked into to simplify the T/R control and using a little more SMA technology as well with the next revision.We plan on getting the 18M version working as well. The chassis is mostly machined and ready to build the prototype with the existing PWBs.
My work will continue to complete the 18M version and get the schematics updated with all the current changes.
But in the mean time; I won't wait for my free sample to show up. It looks like KD6VKF will clear some room on the bench and get one of these TJ2B kits on order soon!
TJ2B SSB Handheld Transceiver
DDS controlled, [Miniature] LCD display with frequency
5W output Kit A TX: 5-15MHz, covering 60m, 40m, 30m, 20m band RX:3-18MHz *can extend TX to 3-18MHz by MOD. Kit B TX: 18-30MHz covering 17m,15m,12m,10m band RX:14-30MHz
(Not in stock)
1Hz, 10Hz, 100Hz, 1KHz, 10KHz, 100KHz tuning rate [available]Dual VFO with 40 memories Memory transfer to VFO One tuning knob plus 4 keys to realize all functions such as Step, Mode, A/B, Memory/VFO, Memory to VFO transfer, etc. Built in speaker, mic and PTT Fully assembled, kit available Optional battery lithium pack:1600mah Enclosure size: 195mm(L) x 68mm (w) x 38mm (T) |
Anyway...
This is the radio I REALLY want:
Check it out@:
I hope this little blog had something to do with this radio! Even if not, I MUST have one... They can sign me up for the first production!
For 10/12 Meters this one surely is the most commercial looking portable radio I have found... I may need to get one of these as well:
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| Magnum 1012 Handheld SSB/AM Transceiver |
'73 DE KD6VKF
Your M620 project looks really cool. You should sell them as kits and fully built. I would definitely buy one.
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