ATS4 Day 4 - made a QSO

This afternoon I spent some time going through the calibration steps. The setup was pretty simple. I am getting about 3.5 to 4 watts out depending on which band I am testing. My rig is setup for 17 meter instead of 15 meter. (I have never been very active on 15m for some reason... but I love 17m...go figure).

I have two weird quirks that I need to check into a bit further....

1. The audio on the headphone is pretty low.
   I tried using computer headphones, a Heil Proset, and amplified speakers.  --Something to investigate further.
   
   
2. The voltage indicator on the LCD shows weird values.
   A 6vdc bench supply will read 10.8vdc
   A 12vdc bench supply will read 21vdc

I plugged in a crude set of paddles and manufactured a rough contact with N0FP this afternoon. It was important to me to be able to say that I had made a QSO with the rig.  :-)

I am pretty excited about this radio. Once I get this audio level issue resolved I am going to put together a small box that will live in my truck. The box will have the ATS4a, a small paddle, a battery, coax, and an EFHWA for a couple of bands.  --This radio might be the reason for me to relearn CW.

73 de NG0R

ATS4 Day 3

It has been almost a month since I worked on the ATS4 project. A couple of business trips to the west coast, some 60 hour work weeks, and getting sick have prevented me from visiting the work bench.



I spent about 5 hours today finishing installing the remaining components.


It is a pretty tight fit within the case.



I briefly turned it on at the work bench and the LCD lit up and the controls seemed to work. 

The next big step will be to plug in a dummy load, headphones, and a paddle and to try to run it through the tune-up/calibration steps.
73 de NG0R

ATS4 Day 2

Lots of small parts.....




I have today off as a holiday prior to leaving on a business trip tomorrow morning. In between my other chores for today I paid the workbench a visit. I just soldered down approximately 104 surface mount capacitors, resistors, and inductors. Most of the parts today are 805 sized components.

I would estimate that I probably spent close to three hours on these parts. I lost a couple and had spares on hand in my parts boxes. I was short one part as well and was lucky that it was a standard value component that I had on hand.

Overall the project is starting to take shape. It will be at least next weekend before I will be able to work on this again as I will out of town on business for the remainder of the week.

73 de NG0R

ATS4 Night 1

The project has begun....






Tonight I soldered about 20 surface mount components. Most of them are on the bottom side of circuit board. Most of them are not too hard to work with but there are several that are pretty tiny. I am using a 1/64" tip for my iron and that is pretty magical for some of this small pitch work.

While I do own solder paste I am use conventional solder on a roll. I am using a paper clip mount to hold the multi-pin parts in place while I tack down the first two pins.

I figure that I probably spent about 70 minutes on the project tonight.

73 de NG0R

ATS4

I decided to open up the box.....




I am about ready to begin the ATS4 kit. It is a HF backpack rig designed by Steve KD1JV. There is quite a bit of SMD construction in this kit.

My goal with this is specific. I would like to have a small HF rig to take with on camping and out of town trips. This rig should work nicely for a small portable system

73 de NG0R