Rebuilt the Soldersmoke DC receiver in compact form

Lots of fun and lots to learn from the Soldersmoke Direct Conversion receiver.  It seems simple but there are some traps for young players like myself. Building with others and being able to compare observations is incredibly helpful.

My approach is Manhattan construction spaced out and arranged to look like the circuit diagram. This makes it easier to spot the inevitable errors but there is a downside that it's more likely to have instability. In the past few days I've re-built each stage in a more compact form and the result works well and has no instability. As an example of before and after here's the diode ring mixer prototype laid out for clarity:

Here's the new compact version of the mixer:

The compact VFO board:

Most challenging and most improved is the audio chain which is now stable even with the gain turned all the way up and the pot off the board connected with platted wires.

I did have a wiring error on the audio board that took me a little time to figure out. Having a working board to compare with really helped of course.

I'm about done with this project but it has been a wonderful learning experience. I would recommend this as a group project for any beginning constructors like me.