Dilshan R Jayakody’s Web Log

I found the ZZRX-40 receiver while going through some old issues of QEX magazine . Designed by Craig Johnson (AA0ZZ) , this is a very simple and easy-to-build 40m direct conversion receiver. Even though it is a simple circuit, it performs quite well for its size. Prototype version of extended ZZRX-40 receiver. For this project, I decided to make my own PCB design because I wanted to use components that I could easily find in our local shops. Since I couldn't find any PCB files online, I drew the schematic in KiCad and designed a custom board. If you are interested in building this, I have shared the Gerber files and KiCad project files here: https://github.com/dilshan/zzrx40-clone . Antenna connector and external VFO headers (JP101 and JP102). The heart of this receiver is the popular NE602 (or SA602 ) mixer chip. This single chip handles both the local oscillator and the product detector, which makes the whole circuit very compact. Although it is designed for the 40-mete...

I recently received a DIY two-tube FM receiver kit from one of my Chinese component suppliers for review. The circuit is elegantly simple, designed around a 1A2 heptode and a 2P2 pentode . The kit includes all the necessary components for the build, featuring a single-sided FR4 PCB with dimensions of 100mm × 100mm. Assembled PCB with tubes. The primary hurdle when starting this project was the complete lack of proper assembly instructions. To assist others, this article documents the exact steps I took to assemble and test the receiver. I have also reverse-engineered the schematic based on the PCB layout; a high-resolution PDF version is available for download here . Top view of the PCB. Bottom view of the PCB. The radio is designed around two main stages to handle frequency conversion and audio amplification: The 1A2 heptode - functions as a super-regenerative detector. The 2P2 pentode acts as the audio power amplifier, which receives the demodulated signal and drives the ...

The Sony ICF-SW7600GR , a well-known portable shortwave receiver, has built a solid reputation for its performance and reliability. I purchased this receiver 20 years ago, and it is likely the last portable shortwave receiver manufactured by Sony . I primarily use it for shortwave listening, and it has functioned continuously for two decades. However, like all electronic devices, it is subject to component degradation over time. This post outlines the diagnostic and restorative procedures I undertook to address a complete failure of the keypad on this radio. Restored ICF-SW7600GR radio. Initially, the radio exhibited a gradual decline in keypad functionality, which eventually led to a complete lack of response. I observed intermittent key input before all keypad operations ceased entirely. This symptom suggested a possible discontinuity or short circuit within the keypad interface circuitry. To investigate further, I disassembled the unit to inspect the internal components. My p...

This project is about MC3362 and ADF4351 based modularized, 2-meter narrow band FM receiver. In this design, the receiver splits into three modules as RF preamplifier, MC3362 tuner, and ADF4351 oscillator. The RF preamplifier builts around BF900 dual-gate MOSFET. The tuner stage builts using the popular MC3362 , low power narrowband FM receiver IC. For the oscillator, we use the ADF4351 DDS RF signal generator module. The core component of this receiver is MC3362 IC. This IC was designed by Motorola and is no longer in production, but this IC is still available to purchase in many online stores . The chip we used in this receiver was purchased from a local electronic component store for LKR 75 (USD 0.2). The RF preamplifier used in this receiver extracts from the N.Ganesan's (VU3GEK) LRR200, 2-meter band FM receiver project . Prototype version of the RF preamplifier. In this prototype, the above preamplifier was built as a module using a Manhattan construction technique. Th...

In this project, we extend the shortwave superheterodyne receiver we developed a few years ago . Like the previous design, this receiver operates on the traditional superheterodyne principle.  In this upgrade, we enhanced the local oscillator with Si5351 clock generator module and Arduino control circuit. Compared to the old design, this new receiver uses an improved version of an intermediate frequency amplifier with 3 I.F transformers. In this new design, we divide this receiver into several blocks, which include, mixer with a detector, a local oscillator, and an I.F amplifier. The I.F amplifier builds into one PCB. The filter stage, mixer, and detector stages place in another PCB. Prototype version of 455kHz I.F amplifier. In this prototype build, the Si5351 clock generator drives using an Arduino Uno board. With the given sketch, the user can tune and switch the shortwave meter bands using a rotary encoder. The supplied sketch support clock generation from 5205kHz (tuner f...

The QN8035 is a stereo FM radio receiver launched by the Quintic Corporation . Compared to other popular digital FM tuners ( RDA5807 , TEA5767 , etc.), this tuner does not seem to be as popular among the DIY community. As we have seen, the biggest problem with this IC is the lack of information. During our initial search, we came across some details about this IC. Much of that information was confined to a product datasheet and a few undocumented GIT repositories. Based on the information we found on the internet, we concluded that Quintic was no longer in business. According to the NXP website , it stated that Quintic Corporation was acquired by NXP in 2015.  Although the Quintic is no longer in business, the QN8035 IC can still be purchase at a low price from online stores. In addition, we found several FM radio kits manufactured using this IC in online stores. Due to the lack of information, I decided to explore this IC to understand its functionality and limitations. In t...

This tuner circuit is a quick prototype which I build to test the RDA5807M FM radio tuner IC. RDA5807M is a single-chip tuner IC with RDS and MPX decoder, and it equipped with I 2 C interface for control. The main reason to build this prototype is to understand the behavior of this chip. The prototype version of the RDA5807M receiver. At the time of this design, the website of the RDA microelectronics is not accessible from my location. Because of this reason, I download different versions of RDA5807M datasheets from the internet. While going-through those datasheets, I observed that it comes with limited information. Finally, I decided to build this receiver to verify some of those parameters and to review the RDS functionality of the chip. I build this receiver around ATmega16A MCU. I choose this MCU because I got a few of ATmega16A MCUs in my inventory and also due to the higher number of  I/O pin count. RDA5807M module. In this design, the volume is contro...

Philips 852 is a tuner, turntable with an amplifier which is manufactured by Philips around 1975 - 1977. The tuner stage of this receiver consists of 4 bands such as LW, MW, SW, and FM. This unit also comes with dual-speed (33⅓, 45 RPM) belt driven turntable. The power amplifier of this unit is delivering 2 × 9W audio output power with a pair of 4Ω speakers. The 852 which we got had problems in power amplifier and turntable mechanism. After tracing the problems in power amplifier, we figure out that both BD262 transistors had short circuits between emitter and collector terminals. Because BD262 is no longer available in the market we replace both NPN and PNP transistor pairs of this amplifier with BD678 and BD679. Philips 852 player after cleanup and restoration. The turntable mechanism of our 852 had many problems due to several missing/damaged parts. Most of the parts are damaged due to corrosion and we fabricate most of them using 3D printer and lathe. The missing anti-ska...

TEA5767 is electronically tuned FM stereo radio receiver comes from NXP for low voltage applications. TEA5767 based radio modules are now common in the field and this project is based on Samsung TT-502 radio module . The main objective of this project is to design low-cost FM tuner based on this TT-502 / TEA5767 module and commonly available electronic components. In this receiver the main controller is ATmega8 MCU, except to that TDA2822 is used as AF power amplifier, PT2257 is used to control the volume. In this given design MCU, PT2257 and TEA5767 radio module are set to work with a 3.3V power source. The LD33V voltage regulator is used to obtain 3.3V from the supply voltage. To control the receiver, MCU provides five push buttons. Those can be used to control volume, perform an automatic scan and manual tuning. The final version of TEA5767 based FM radio receiver. The firmware of this receiver is developed using MikroC for AVR and it is available to download with proje...

In the last few days, we are looking for some simple FM radio receiver to integrate into one of our ongoing projects. For that, we try several FM radio receiver ICs including TDA7000, CD2003/TA2003/TA8164, CXA1019, and KA22429. Out of all those chips we select CD2003 (or TA2003/TA8164) based receiver for our project because of its simplicity and outstanding performance. Except to CD2003, Sony CXA1019 also perform well but we drop it because of its higher component count. We design our receiver based on Toshiba TA2003 datasheet and later we try TA8164 and CD2003 with the same circuit. Either CD2003 or TA8164 can directly replace TA2003 IC, and as per our observations, TA8164 gives excellent results out of those 3 chips. A prototype version of CD2003 FM radio receiver The PCB design and schematic which we used in our prototype project are available to download at google drive (including pin-outs of crystal filters and inductors ). Except for CD2003 IC, this receiver consist...

This post is about beat frequency oscillator (BFO) module which is used to receive SSB and CW signals from the ordinary shortwave receiver. The original circuit which is related to this post is obtained through the internet and we modify it to get more precise output with commonly available electronic components. ( Unfortunately at the time of writing this original link is no longer accessible due to a dead link. ) This module consists of two general purpose NPN transistors and we select 2SC828 because of its availability in the local marketplace. For the crystal, we use commonly available 455 kHz ceramic resonator. Assembled 455 kHz BFO module. This BFO unit is easy to construct and may not need any test instrument for calibration. To receive the SSB signals, power this unit with regulated 5V or 6V DC power source and place BFO module near to the shortwave radio receiver. To get good results to place output wire of BFO near to the IF amplifier section of the target receiver....

This is two transistors and two IF transformer based superheterodyne receiver which is designed to receive 13m to 41m bands. With quite good external antenna this receiver performs similarly to the commercially available shortwave receiver and its audio quality is at a very satisfactory level. Prototype version of two transistor superheterodyne shortwave receiver. This receiver can be constructing on PCB, breadboard or commonly available veroboard or stripboard. For tuning use Polyvaricon or air variable capacitor. For precision tuning, connect small trimmer capacitor with parallel to variable capacitor’s gangs or use mechanical wheel assembly with the variable capacitor. This receiver is designed to work with 9V regulated power supply and it requires an external AF amplifier to drive the headphone or speaker. In our testing, we use a TDA2050 audio power amplifier with this receiver. With small wire antenna, this receiver is capable to receive most of the stations which in...

This is a quick post about 100W RF dummy load which we build to use with HF and VHF transmitters and transceivers. This dummy load uses two non-inductive 100Ω 50W thick film power resistors manufactured by Vishay Sfernice and both these resisters are connected in parallel to achieve 50Ω impedance. The final version of 100W RF dummy load. Outer-casing (which also act as a heatsink) of dummy load is constructed using four bonded fin 50mm × 115mm × 20mm heatsinks. During our testing, we got flat 1:1.2 SWR with this dummy load. Internal view of 100W RF dummy load. Above mentioned 100Ω 50W power resistors are obtained through Farnell element14 .

This is simple radio receiver project which is capable to receive aviation radio voice signals which are transmit between 118MHz to 138MHz in AM (A3E). We got initial idea of this project by reading Sverre Holm’s (LA3ZA) article about " cheap VHF receiver project ". Like LA3ZA’s original article this project is also based on Samsung’s KA22429 FM radio receiver IC. KA22429 is low voltage FM radio receiver system developed by Samsung for portable radio receivers and as described by Holm’s it can push into VHF region by changing few values in its original circuit. In this project we redesign the schematic and PCB with some of those changes and now it can directly tune into aviation band with minimum number of adjustments. The dimension of PCB of this receiver is 70mm × 45mm and all the components except KA22429 are standard through-hole type. KA22429 testing setup with 5V PSU and AF power amplifier. For the optimal results we recommended to use high gain audio power ...

Panasonic RX-5090T is quiet old combo box from Matsushita Electric and its most notable feature is powerful three band SW tuner. Recently I got some RX-5090T unit and its problem is distorted audio output. PCB and mechanical component distribution of Panasonic RX-5090T combo box After careful examination we identify C128 (100 µ F / 10V) and C224 (3.3 µ F 25V) as defective components. In this unit, VR103/203 (20K Ω ) potentiometer is also defective and because of that we got some random distortions when we try to change the volume of the receiver. To fix this issue we disassemble the potentiometer and clean it using isopropyl-alcohol (this potentiometer is not available in local market and only option is to clean it and use it again). After these two fixes receiver starts to work again. Mainboard of Panasonic RX-5090T combo box Schematic diagram of Panasonic RX-5090T is quiet difficult to find in the web and we share copy of it in here .