On Sat, 6 Oct 2018, Jeff Liebermann wrote:


We don't roll our own capacitors,

I've made some. Finding high voltage variable caps for magnetic loop
antennas isn't easy or cheap. I've only made one so far, so I'm far
from an expert on making these tuning caps. There are plenty of
magnetic loop antenna construction articles that use home made caps.
For example:
https://qrpbuilder.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/loop-antenna-110310.pdf

That's a fair expectation, and there have been a few articles, at least,
on the topic of making high voltage capacitors for loops. But unlike
making average bypass capacitors, you gain something from the effort,
eitehr saving money, or saving from a lot of scrounging to find them.

Michael

In article ,
says...

For round holes, using chassis punches is painful. I have a heavy box
full of them, and rarely use them. Much better is a Rotex punch:
https://www.google.com/search?q=rotex+punch&tbm=isch
I have access to several when I need one.



It is nice to be able to have access to tools like that. One thing I
miss when I retired was access to some tools and a source of scrap
aluminum and stainless steel. Now I am back to just hand tools and a
small drill press at home. The ability to cut and bend metal parts came
in very handy.

I enjoy doing some simple projects, but would rather work with the
components than the mechanical part of construction.

While I do put the connectors on the coax and other cables, that is a
chore just to get signals from one place to another and time I could be
doing something more interisting to me.Spending several hours making up
cables for a duplexer is not fun, but tuning it and getting the repeater
to work is fun for me.

On Sat, 6 Oct 2018 15:25:46 -0400, Ralph Mowery
wrote:

In article ,
says...

For round holes, using chassis punches is painful. I have a heavy box
full of them, and rarely use them. Much better is a Rotex punch:
https://www.google.com/search?q=rotex+punch&tbm=isch
I have access to several when I need one.

It is nice to be able to have access to tools like that. One thing I
miss when I retired was access to some tools and a source of scrap
aluminum and stainless steel. Now I am back to just hand tools and a
small drill press at home. The ability to cut and bend metal parts came
in very handy.

Having everything on hand is nice, but expensive. So, you invest in a
membership to one of the community fab shops, such as MakerSpace, Fab
Space, HackerSpace, FabLab, etc. They have the equipment and tooling.
You either take the classes if you're not familiar with the equipment,
or an exam to demonstrate that you know what you're doing.

Or, you impose on your friends and accomplices to let you use their
machines in trade for whatever. This has been an ongoing project for
about a year so far. We paid for all the CNC hardware with the first
job. The owner of the machines is a retired machine shop owner, so
expertise is not a problem.
http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/pics/CNC-conversion/index.html
I did all the CNC wiring, troubleshooting, setup, sheet metal, 2 - 3
phase conversion, some electrical stuff, etc. The owner did the
mechanical stuff. No need for a Rotex punch. We just mill the holes.
Unfortunately, the mill is down right now after blowing a spindle
bearing and shredding a Delrin gear. Plenty of other toys to play
with meanwhile.

I enjoy doing some simple projects, but would rather work with the
components than the mechanical part of construction.

I would rather do the mechanical stuff. Despite the BSEE and a life
working with RF, I get bored easily and am better at the mechanical
(and chemical) stuff than the electronics.

While I do put the connectors on the coax and other cables, that is a
chore just to get signals from one place to another and time I could be
doing something more interisting to me.Spending several hours making up
cables for a duplexer is not fun, but tuning it and getting the repeater
to work is fun for me.

I just sold my Motorola MSF-5000 440Mhz repeater and have
un-volunteered to NOT work on the local radio club repeaters. No more
repeater building for me:
http://members.cruzio.com/~jeffl/k6bj/K6BJ%20Repeater/index.html
(From about 2003).



--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

On 05/10/2018 16:04, Ralph Mowery wrote:
In article , says...

Just putting one together is very simple. Finding a box , cutting holes
and such takes a while. I made several mods to mine. Such as changing
the final transistors to another kind, several components were changed.
One major change for me was to change out the 4 or 5 capacitors in the
filter to widen the filter from about 1.7 to 2.3 KHz so the ssb sounds
better. Then the software changes. Some from others and a minor one or
two of mine.

Mr.Farhan did a very good service to the ham comunity with that unit.
Not very expensive, and works ok as is. Then others jumped in and have
some really nice software and mods to make it really work well for not
too much unless you use the fancy display that costs about what the
origional unit does. Even new cases cost almost half the unit. I just
hapened to have a minibox that only had a few extra holes in it that th
e uBITX just fits in.

I had mine in a temporary case in an afternoon.
My final case is 7.62 ammo box.
All metal, cheap, bomb proof, with all front panel connectors it is
waterproof when the lid is on.
Perfect for QRP SOTA stuff.

I have another one on order for hacking, at £100 ish I sweat a lot less
modding this than taking a soldering iron to a big rig.

Andy