2013-10-17 Next Project Ideas Foxhunt Offset Attenuator

The overall goal of the meeting is to present a variety of kit building ideas to the DARA Thursday Night Group and narrow down the selection of a kit or kits that the Group would like to build. Jeff Ullery, KD8SHF, and others presented a comprehensive list of kit building ideas to the DARA Thursday Night Group. The Group members reviewed and discussed the candidate kit building ideas. The members also suggested additional items that were added to the candidates list. 

Candidates list:

$20 Antenna analyzer, 0-30 MHz: http://www.hamstack.com/project_antenna_analyzer.html

Poor Man's Antenna Analyzer: http://www.qsl.net/y/yo4hfu//Files/Ant_an/GM3VLB_Poor_Mans_Antenna_Analyser.pdf

Ham stack board: http://www.hamstack.com/hamstack.html

Sierra Radio Projects: http://www.hamstack.com/index.html

2M preamp: http://www.repeater-builder.com/projects/gaasfet.html

Vectronics (MFJ) has a lot of kits including preamps: http://www.vectronics.com/Categories.php?sec=209

Direct Digital Synthesizer (DDS): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_digital_synthesizer

N3ZI DDS-2 AD9834 30 MHz: http://www.pongrance.com/super-dds.html

DDS Buffer Amp: http://www.pongrance.com/dds-buffer.html

Si570 DDS: https://sites.google.com/site/darathursdaynite/technical-information/kits/qrp-2000-si570-synthesizer-kit

Radio Frequency Generator 

Audio Frequency Function Generator 

PigRig: http://www.kitsandparts.com/fprb-7030.7.php

SSB kit, the MKARS80 LSB 80M Transceiver Kit: http://www.radio-kits.co.uk/mkars80page.html

Field strength meter

Diode checker

Foxhunt Tape Measure Antenna: http://nt1k.com/blog/2012/vhf-3el-tape-measure-yagi/ http://theleggios.net/wb2hol/projects/rdf/snif_bm.htm http://theleggios.net/wb2hol/projects/rdf/tape_bm.htm https://sites.google.com/site/tapemeasureantenna/

Foxhunt Active Offset Attenuator using 9 volt battery: http://www.homingin.com/joek0ov/offatten.html  http://nt1k.com/blog/2013/my-offset-attenuator-project/  http://www.utaharc.org/rptr/offset1.html http://www.qsl.net/nz0i/projects/attenuator/attenuator2.html http://www.mobilfuchsjagd.de/Technik/K8SB%20Active%20Attenuator.pdf

Foxhunt Active Offset Attenuator using 1.5 volt AAA cell: http://robin-wood.com/Ham/Fox/offset_atten.htm

Surface mount package soldering introduction

Group Decision

The DARA Thursday Night Group informally voted to build a Foxhunt Active Offset Attenuator. A parts list and estimated cost is included below.

Parts List and Estimated Cost (9 volt)

9 Volt Offset Attenuator NT1K version

Hammond Flanged Aluminum Die Cast Box Drawing: http://www.hammondmfg.com/pdf/1590AFL.pdf

Fairchild LM7805CT Datasheet http://www.fairchildsemi.com/ds/LM/LM7805.pdf

Parts List and Estimated Cost (1.5 volt)

1.5 Volt Offset Attenuator WA7NBF

Hammond Flanged Aluminum Die Cast Box Drawing: http://www.hammondmfg.com/pdf/1590AFL.pdf

Dual N-Channel Zero Threshold™ EPAD® Precision Matched Pair MOSFET Array: http://www.aldinc.com/pdf/ALD110800.pdf