Bush 40 transceiver

Inspired by the VK3YE Beach 40, I have constructed the "Bush 40" which is a version tailored to The Australian outback. (Just kidding).

It is a direct conversion receiver and double sideband transmitter. I've replaced the VXO with a very simple, three component, VFO.

I'm joking a bit here too, it has an Arduino Nano, an Si5351 board, and a rotary encoder. On boot up it starts at 7.1MHz and you can tune up and down from there.

The mic amp, mixer, rf power stages and low pass filter are as per the Beach 40.

The receive audio stages are from the Soldersmoke High School DC receiver. 

Overall, this is a minimal design and the door is open to many improvements.

As you can see, it's a gadget of great beauty. At this stage the receiver is working but is quite deaf - I'll keep working on this.

Notes for future builds:

• Use a larger baseboard so there's plenty of space for access to the boards
• Always put a reverse diode on the relay coil - I killed an Arduino Nano presumably from inductive spikes on the power line.
• Don't try to drive a mixer directly from an Si5351. (I was puzzled about why the balanced mixer was so far off balance when I switched from the VXO to Si5351, the reason is that the output RF is 0-3.3V not AC) A 0.1uF capacitor fixed this.
• Building modules on their own boards for easy debugging is the way to go. Also, this means the successful stages can be re-used easily.

My thanks to many people including Bill, Paul, & Stephen for suggestions.

Minimal Si5351 VFO for Bush 40 DSB Transceiver

Recently I've been going a bit "old school" and built the Soldersmoke Direct Conversion receiver with its PTO VFO and another VK3YE Beach 40 DSB transceiver with a ceramic resonator based VFO (it can be slightly pulled).

I was thinking about a minimum VFO configuration using just an Arduino Nano, a rotary encoder and an Si5351. If you count a Nano as a single component you could argue that this is a three component VFO.

My implementation boots up on 7.1Mhz and can be tuned up and down with the rotary encoder. There's no display (although that can be easily added) but a frequency counter could be added. 

The wiring is like this circuit on the Arduino project hub but I haven't added the display.

Power enters through the VIN pin on the Nano which can take voltages up to 16V (I'm running 12V) and regulates down to 5V and 3.3V which I feed to the Si5351.

I prototyped this on a breadboard first:

Next I built the same circuit on matrix board with simple point to point wiring. Here it is driving the mixer on the Beach 40.

It's a very compact and usable VFO. I have a few ideas about some extra features such as stopping at band edges and maybe lighting an LED when you hit the band edge.

Observant readers will spot my LEDs on the boards and power wiring - I've been bitten by being buzzed about why things weren't working when the fault of in the power line. Adding a few LED power indicators makes it clear.

Here's my simple source code for this VFO (blogger messes code up so use the link to the Gist):

/*

Simple VFO for a direct conversion receiver.

Si5351 controlled by a rotary encoder.

Based on code from Paul, VK3HN

https://github.com/prt459/Arduino_si5351_VFO_Controller_Keyer

*/

const unsigned long int FREQ_DEFAULT = 7100000ULL;

#define ENCODER_A 3 // DT

#define ENCODER_B 2 // CLK

#include <RotaryEncoder.h> // by Maattias Hertel http://www.mathertel.de/Arduino/RotaryEncoderLibrary.aspx

#include <si5351.h> // Etherkit Si3531 library Jason Mildrum, V2.1.4

// https://github.com/etherkit/Si5351Arduino

#include <Wire.h> // built in

Si5351 si5351; // I2C address defaults to x60 in the NT7S lib

RotaryEncoder gEncoder = RotaryEncoder(ENCODER_A, ENCODER_B, RotaryEncoder::LatchMode::FOUR3);

long gEncoderPosition = 0;

unsigned long int gFrequency = FREQ_DEFAULT;

unsigned long int gStep = 100;

void setup() {

Serial.begin(115200);

Wire.begin();

gFrequency = FREQ_DEFAULT;

setupOscillator();

setupRotaryEncoder();

delay(500);

si5351.set_freq(FREQ_DEFAULT * SI5351_FREQ_MULT, SI5351_CLK0);

si5351.output_enable(SI5351_CLK0, 1);

}

void loop() {

// check for change in the rotary encoder

gEncoder.tick();

long newEncoderPosition = gEncoder.getPosition();

if(newEncoderPosition != gEncoderPosition) {

long encoderDifference = newEncoderPosition - gEncoderPosition;

gEncoderPosition = newEncoderPosition;

Serial.println(encoderDifference);

frequencyAdjust(encoderDifference);

}

}

void setupRotaryEncoder() {

attachInterrupt(digitalPinToInterrupt(ENCODER_A), checkPosition, CHANGE);

attachInterrupt(digitalPinToInterrupt(ENCODER_B), checkPosition, CHANGE);

}

// This interrupt routine will be called on any change of one of the input signals

void checkPosition() {

gEncoder.tick(); // just call tick() to check the state.

}

void frequencyAdjust(int delta) {

Serial.print("Adjust: ");

Serial.println(delta);

gFrequency += (delta * gStep);

setVfoFrequency(gFrequency);

}

void setVfoFrequency(unsigned long int frequency) {

si5351.set_freq(frequency * SI5351_FREQ_MULT, SI5351_CLK0); //

Serial.print("set frequency: ");

Serial.println(frequency);

}

void setupOscillator() {

bool i2c_found = si5351.init(SI5351_CRYSTAL_LOAD_8PF, 0, 0);

Serial.print("si5351: ");

Serial.println(i2c_found ? "Found" : "Missing");

si5351.set_correction(135000, SI5351_PLL_INPUT_XO); // Library update 26/4/2020: requires destination register address ... si5351.set_correction(19100, SI5351_PLL_INPUT_XO);

si5351.set_pll(SI5351_PLL_FIXED, SI5351_PLLA);

si5351.set_freq(500000000ULL, SI5351_CLK0);

si5351.drive_strength(SI5351_CLK0, SI5351_DRIVE_4MA);

si5351.output_enable(SI5351_CLK0, 1); // turn VFO on

}

Soldersmoke Direct Conversion Receiver working

I didn't have a smooth run with this project, despite the best of help. Here's how it sounds now:

My tuning is very sensitive but at least it doesn't drift like it was with the original (not NP0) capacitors.

I ran into a few issues along the way that took me way too long to debug:

• The audio chain was taking off at about 2MHz and upsetting the VFO via the power line.
• I didn't use NP0 caps in the VFO and it was incredibly unstable at first.
• The variable linear power supply I was using caused great audio hum - no idea why - another supply and the hum is gone.

My build is not very sensitive. I suspect I have the wrong diodes in the ring mixer.

My thanks to Stephen, VK2BLQ, for suggesting the addition of a 1k resistor to isolate the early stages of the audio chain from the output stage to stop the instability. And, of course, thanks to Bill for the design of this project!