On this webpage I would like to introduce small projects which are important for the homebrewing of devices and in the broader sense for amateur radio.
 
NJ Islander and ICs Dov Rabinowitz, AD0V
 
As a homebrewer you know certainly already once something over an ingenious tool of the New Jersey QRP Club. Exactly, it is the NJ Islander! Dov Rabinowitz, AD0V, found this tools. Thanks! With the help of a simple drill press it is now very fast possible to create a circuit boards without the otherwise usual method of etching.
The construction with normal components is easy to manage. If you use ICs it is more difficult. The Islander has a diameter of about 5 mm. Normaly you need a socket with long pins because the IC pins have a distance of 2.54 mm. It works however well, if one arranges the pads shifted. See the specification about it.
 
Step drill
 
If you drill large holes in thin sheet metal, the result is unsatisfactory: The brinks are ragged and wavy. The process is essentially better done with a step drill and the result looks more pleasing.
 
Magnifying glass
 
Not only those who want to solder SMD components on a printed circuit board needs necessarily a reading aid. It is in addition to a dazzle-free illumination a prerequisite to obtain functioning solder joints without short circuiting. Compared with those in electronics stores offers available stand magnifiers it is possible to survey the solder joint from all perspectives. Additional your can see an adjacent component sharply without the relocating of the board. Some chains of retail shops are sell reading glasses that hold up to 3.5 diopters. You can use it as a good aid to soldering through-hole components, but for SMD components its magnification too low.
Therefore I acquired by opticians around the corner a special glasses by Eschenbach. Now RoNa produced a very similar form of glasses, which is available e.g. by Conrad Electronic (order no. 826578) for less than 12 €. The glasses possessing a magnification of V = 3.5, which should not be confused with the diopter values of spectacles. All items that are in the distance of the focal length f = 7 to 8 cm in front of the lens will be in focus (f = 25 cm/3.5 = 7.1 cm). The 25 cm derived from the assumed distance from magnifying glasses and microscopes, in which one could see the object without optical aids still sharp. With a 3.5 diopter glasses it would be 1/3, 5 m = 28.5cm. Also these glasses is with 30 grams very light, so it is comfortable to put on even over longer periods.
 
Sprat CD-ROM (first edition with issues 1-100)
 
The GQRP Club together with the German ham radio magazine Funkamateur have published in the year 2000 the reprints of the first 100 issues of the GQRP Club magazine Sprat on a CD-ROM. It came together with a floppy disk with the call and address of the user on it. The second version of the CD-ROM with the issues 1-109 don't came with these floppy.
Sometime user ask, how to install the first edition of the CD-ROM with the issues 1-100 on a PC or laptop without a floppy drive. There are two ways. Maybe there are more than this, but I have tested only these both with success.
 
Adapter BNC-plug to pole-terminal
 
This adapter provides a simple way to connect an antenna with feeder or radiator and counterweight directly to a transceiver (with internal antenna tuner), even if it has only a BNC connector. It is possible to clamp the wires directly to the pole-terminals or plug wires with banana plug into the pole-terminals. Small note: the side of the black adapter-body with the thick bulge (see picture) is always the ground.
 
Coil winding - the easy way
 
Some homebrewer solder the maddest rigs but shy away from winding the necessary coils. I show you in a short tutorial, how to wind easy the small-sized coils manufactured by Neosid.
The showed procedure is also applicable for similarly coils by other manufacturers.
 
Stand for transceiver Alex Krist, KR1ST
 
Just little transceiver and accessories can be difficult to use, if it have no stand or fold-out feets and the controls are located on the front panel. It is better to tilted the transceiver. But the time is over to under-clamped just existing things for it. I will show you the building instructions for a cheap realizable stand. For it only a CD case is required.