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Radio, Electronics and Computing Projects
by Hans Summers

I am not a professional electronics engineer and I make no claims for technical accuracy, good design, or necessarily even originallity for the contents of these pages. Rather, I am a simple enthusiast attempting to convey my love and enjoyment of radio, electronics, laptops and computing and perhaps to inspire YOU to build something too. The following pages document projects that I have built over a period of 30 years. Wherever applicable I have named sources and references. In each project I have attempted to provide as much information as time and resources allow, but no responsibility can be accepted for inaccuracies or omissions. Likewise, where some of the projects use mains or high voltages, no responsibility can be accepted for death or injury sustained if you attempt to replicate these projects. BE CAREFUL! If you have any comments or suggestions, please email me. Due to the popularity of these pages and the increasing expense of web hosting and bandwidth, it has been necessary to include advertising on some pages to cover my costs.

LATEST ADDITIONS AND UPDATES

31-Jul-08

Wind speed logger Mk2S

Customised wind speed logger for Seawind UK

18-Jul-08

An ode to QRSS

G0XAR, G0UPL, a 30m QRSS beacon, and some poetry on the airwaves!

14-Jul-08

Wind speed logger Mk2

Wind speed, direction, temperate and light to SD-card logger

28-Feb-08

Homemade Capacitor

Updated with construction suggestion from Sergio Masci

01-Feb-08

Homemade Batteries

Homebrew batteries made from lemon juice, bleach, and baked bean cans!

01-Feb-08

Low Power QRSS Beacon

Ultra-low power 40m QRSS beacon - now bleach powered!


Clocks

Panel-mounting Clock

Miniaturised and designed to fit the front of a radio transceiver

Sidereal Clock

My first major project: tells sidereal time

LED Matrix Clock

Uses three 8x8 LED modules driven by the PC parallel port

Giant Nixie Clock

Uses 4-inch high East German Nixie tubes

Radio-controlled Clock

1'st year university physics project: decodes radio time signals

Binary Clock

Interesting novelty clock displays the time in binary

60KHz MSF 'Scope Clock

All-valve receiver, decoder, nixie and Lissajous CRT figures display

G0UPL

Radio G0UPL

G0UPL station and shack details

Club Talks

Radio talks I've given during 2006-7

G0UPL Workbench

G0UPL workbench construction

Receiver and Transmitter projects

Glowbug CW Transmitter

A 1-valve ECL82 rockbound CW transmitter for the 80, 40, 30 and 20m bands

Unichip 80m CW Transceiver

A single-chip 80m CW transceiver for portable operation

40/80m CW/SSB Receiver

Polyphase method SSB receiver using Tayloe switching mixer

20/80m CW/SSB Transceiver

All-valve transceiver project (under construction)

30m QRSS Beacon

Multimode Microprocessor-free 30m QRSS beacon transmitter

30m QRSS Junkbox Beacon

Simple 30m QRSS beacon made from junkbox parts

30m QRSS Receiver

Portable laptop computer USB-port powered 30m QRSS receiver

Low power QRSS beacon

Ultra-low power 40m QRSS beacon

30m Receiver

Very simple SA602-based direct conversion receiver

Radio Ozon

Micro-miniature transceiver for 20m CW, built into a tiny Ozon mint tin

Fredbox

2m handheld AM transceiver

Crystal Radio

My first radio: 6'th birthday present!

Simple Transistor radio

Short-wave radio: really just a crystal set and transistor amplifier

Transistor Short-wave radio

An early regenerative receiver I made when I was small

Valve Short-wave radio

Simple 2 valve regenerative SW radio receiver

Other Radio Topics

Crystal Sets to Sideband

A Guide to Building an Amateur Radio Station, by Frank W Harris, K0IYE

Huff-Puff stabilised oscillators

A collection of projects and articles about this interesting VFO method

GPS-disciplined frequency reference

ATtiny2313 AVR-controlled GPS-disciplined 10.000000000MHz frequency standard

Experimental DDS generator

AD9851 DDS generator programmed by DIP switches: NO microcontroller!

Radio-friendly PSU

12V 5A, 5V 5A heavily filtered, linear regulated PSU

Poundshop Radio

Notes on converting a £1 VHF FM radio to a 40m receiver (Pete Morris G1INF)

Superdrg Radio

Another cheap radio, Christmas 2005 special offer from Superdrg retail chain in the UK

Superdrg Radio #2

Another cheap radio, Summer 2006 sale from Superdrg retail chain in the UK

Superdrg Radio #3

Christmas again! 2006 offering from Superdrg retail chain in the UK

Crystal Penning

How to homebrew your own crystal frequency!

Crystal Parameters

Measurement of crystal parameters: motional inductance and capacitance

Antenna Tuning Unit

For tuning of amateur radio antennas

QRO ATU

High Power 400W version of the ATU

QRO Dummy Load

400W Oil-cooled dummy load

Dad's radio circuits

A few of Dad's valve radio related projects scanned

Valve Collection

A few pictures of some valves I have, and a little history...

Phasing CW Filter

Unusual type of filter uses a phasing method

Varicap Diodes

Using LEDs and ordinary diodes in place of Varicaps

Homemade Components

Radio components built from everyday household and DIY materials

Frequency Counters

Simple Frequency Counter

Binary readout simple 2-chip frequency counter for QRP rigs

LCD Frequency Counter

3-digit LCD readout for portable QRP rigs

Radio Frequency Counter

Designed to complement my panel mounting clock in a radio transceiver

Frequency Counter

Very useful multi-function counter, timer, logic probe

BCD Frequency Counter

Simple BCD readout frequency counter

BC221 Model T

Vintage US Army BC221T Frequency Meter

Electronics and Equipment

Spectrum Analyser Mk1

The Simple Man's Spectrum Analyser: easy-build covering 0-140MHz

Spectrum Analyser Mk2

The Crazy Man's Spectrum Analyser: feature packed insane next version

USB Charger

Charger for iPods and similar USB devices

Feedback Circuit

2'nd year university physics project: for Isometric Muscle Experiments

Voltmeter

Dad's homebuilt voltage and resistance meter

Heathkit Signal Generator

Dad's Heathkit Signal Generator

Power Supply

Simple power supply delivering +5V 3A regulated or +15V 4A unregulated

Intercom

Build a simple intercom using an old audio cassette player

Riskometer

Giant LED matrix display for financial applications

Dekatron Spinner

Simple neon light spinner using valve-era Dekatron

TinyScope

A simple all-valve, miniaturised oscilloscope with 1-inch CRT

Remote lighting controller

Radio-controlled garden lighting switching unit

Discrete component logic gates

How to build simple logic gates using just resistors, diodes and transistors.

Wind speed logger

Logs wind speed to SD-card using ATtiny2313 AVR interface.

Wind speed logger Mk2

Logs wind speed, direction, temperature and light intensity to SD-card.

Wind speed logger Mk2S

Customised wind speed logger for Seawind UK

Computers

Viscometer

3'rd year university physics project: includes Z80 microprocessor controller

The Great Z80 Project

My home-made Z80 computer with graphics circuit and keyboard

Z80 Computer

New home-made Z80 computer project

The Mandelbrot Set

Exploration and adventures in a fractal universe

Asynchronous 40-bit CPU

Design for a 40-bit asynchronous processor built from TTL logic

CPCNG Notes

Draft design notes for the CPCNG computer prototype

F-CPU Scheduler

Proposal for an improved instruction scheduler for the F-CPU

Guest Project Gallery

LED Clock

by Anders Lendrup, Sweden

80m QRP CW Transceiver

by Raimo Jarvi OH8MNM, Finland

Polyphase network

and Sine/Cosine Generator by Adriano Tencati, Italy

Experimental Polyphase Receiver

by Bozidar Pasaric 9A2HL, Croatia

80m QRP CW Transceiver

by Jean-Marc Christophe F5SGP, France

One-valve QRP CW Transmitter

by Raimo Jarvi OH8MNM, Finland

Miscellaneous

Interesting Junk

Some interesting stuff which is worthy of note but doesn't fit in elsewhere

Monitor recycling

A dismantled 17-inch DELL computer monitor yields many useful components

The Unfinished

A listing and current status of all "works in progress"

Datasheets

Links to datasheets for all the IC's in my projects

Downloads

Downloads for projects on this website

101 Things

101 Things to do with commonly available materials

Links


The under construction sign indicates unfinished projects!