Celebrating 28 years on the web! Scratch analog electronic design — radio & audio. Join us on the bench as we learn & measure home-built, analog electronic circuits
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Sunday, 22 September 2024
Brad's Excellent VFO Story. Stable LC VFOs for Everyone --- Wisdom from the Masters
Thanks for your question “ Asking for a Friend”. I assume you mean mechanical rigidity .. …..
Short answer: Yes. You know who else built VFOs with Ugly Construction ??? – please see my references for the answer!! LOL!! Long Answer: You might notice my videos are really talks that happen to be on video. I have taught students, faculty and others like this my whole working life. First on actual carousel slide shows –- later --- on power point ‘slides’. My change to YouTube is a move to target younger people – the makers and creators of today and tomorrow. Amateur radio deserves a future and the current amateur radio demographic data seems quite alarming. More silent keys than new members? Whoa!
When you put up a video -- you soon realize that your video is competing with the latest conspiracy theories, 4^E12 other creators and others on YouTube, Snap Chat, Tik Tok ,etc., etc. Thus, I stay laser- focused on the point I wish to make. I try to keep my videos as short as possible. I also stay away from math – and try to convey hope and positivity .
There is plenty of info on VFO mechanical rigidity elsewhere – especially in my references which I emphasized ardently . In fact, I think ‘mechanical rigidity’ has evolved into an obsession with some builders. Local Hams in our club blamed their VFO drift on lack on lack of mechanical rigidity – no, people, it’s more about the physics of temperature change in your tank components. A temperature drifty capacitor will drift away --- even if it’s uber mechanically rigidly affixed to your VFO chassis. The answer isn’t always a larger bolt .
I have covered fixing the VFO board component elsewhere on my site/Blog numerous times. My MLCC C0G 100 volt capacitors have thick leads and provide a strong physical connection so my part don’t move.
I’ve done Ugly Construction for > 26 years – and over the years my construction style has been criticized in personal emails – and openly on forums etc.. I’m quite used to this and it does not bother me. Sadly -- and perhaps hastening its demise -- amateur radio seems filled with cliques of stern, narrow minded people. Some seem to be angry, gray-haired old men who long for the past and do very little to constructively help the future of Amateur radio . Of course, you already know this. Best to you!!! T
Hey ROman Romanovsky.. that moved 1.3 Hz over that time. according to your numbers. Frankly I believe it moved 13 Hz drift and you just dropped extra 0s in the numbers as displayed in the videos. I'm a Vulcan, in fact I'm related so Spock and my eyes sometimes play tricks in Low pressure earth atmosphere so look at the numbers again but I see 1.3 Hz. Roman - Scotty will be so excited about this when I Beam UP and we may well re calibrate the phasers on the Starship USS Enterprise on this basis - as long as the Klingons have not put non COG capacitors across the Krypton modules. > Don't ask- it's a long story. ZL1MZR the Momzer from NzL
is ugly construction mechanical gigid enough for VFO builds? asking for a friend
ReplyDeleteThanks for your question “ Asking for a Friend”.
ReplyDeleteI assume you mean mechanical rigidity .. …..
Short answer: Yes. You know who else built VFOs with Ugly Construction ??? – please see my references for the answer!! LOL!!
Long Answer:
You might notice my videos are really talks that happen to be on video. I have taught students, faculty and others like this my whole working life. First on actual carousel slide shows –- later --- on power point ‘slides’. My change to YouTube is a move to target younger people – the makers and creators of today and tomorrow. Amateur radio deserves a future and the current amateur radio demographic data seems quite alarming. More silent keys than new members? Whoa!
When you put up a video -- you soon realize that your video is competing with the latest conspiracy theories, 4^E12 other creators and others on YouTube, Snap Chat, Tik Tok ,etc., etc. Thus, I stay laser- focused on the point I wish to make. I try to keep my videos as short as possible. I also stay away from math – and try to convey hope and positivity .
There is plenty of info on VFO mechanical rigidity elsewhere – especially in my references which I emphasized ardently . In fact, I think ‘mechanical rigidity’ has evolved into an obsession with some builders. Local Hams in our club blamed their VFO drift on lack on lack of mechanical rigidity – no, people, it’s more about the physics of temperature change in your tank components. A temperature drifty capacitor will drift away --- even if it’s uber mechanically rigidly affixed to your VFO chassis.
The answer isn’t always a larger bolt .
I have covered fixing the VFO board component elsewhere on my site/Blog numerous times. My MLCC C0G 100 volt capacitors have thick leads and provide a strong physical connection so my part don’t move.
I’ve done Ugly Construction for > 26 years – and over the years my construction style has been criticized in personal emails – and openly on forums etc.. I’m quite used to this and it does not bother me. Sadly -- and perhaps hastening its demise -- amateur radio seems filled with cliques of stern, narrow minded people. Some seem to be angry, gray-haired old men who long for the past and do very little to constructively help the future of Amateur radio . Of course, you already know this.
Best to you!!! T
HaHa. Don't worry bout the oldy crankpot LO meanies. Loads of them will be wearing diapers or dead in the next 20 years
ReplyDelete73s.Nigel
Hey ROman Romanovsky.. that moved 1.3 Hz over that time. according to your numbers. Frankly I believe it moved 13 Hz drift and you just dropped extra 0s in the numbers as displayed in the videos. I'm a Vulcan, in fact I'm related so Spock and my eyes sometimes play tricks in Low pressure earth atmosphere so look at the numbers again but I see 1.3 Hz. Roman - Scotty will be so excited about this when I Beam UP and we may well re calibrate the phasers on the Starship USS Enterprise on this basis - as long as the Klingons have not put non COG capacitors across the Krypton modules. > Don't ask- it's a long story. ZL1MZR the Momzer from NzL
ReplyDelete