Customer Reviews

Build Your Own Intelligent Amateur Radio Transceiver

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4 star:		(2)
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2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book has a ton of very useful and informativeinformation. However, much of the details are incorrect. The wholepremise of this book is to be able to build the project transciver in the book. There are a ton of mistakes. Schematic diagrams are often riddled with incorrectly labeled parts and do not match the circuit board layouts. This book needed to be throughly checked for errors and the corrections made. In spite of these short commings, I enjoyed reading and I'm concidering building the project transciver. I recommend buying and reading, just go slow and careful before attempting building this rig.

A good book, but not for beginners. I purchased the Circuit Boards from FAR Circuits and went gang busters. Found numerous mistakes throught the book. Some components are also very hard to find. The RF power transistors alone cost 100.00 US. Had to debug main oscillators and SSB oscillators as well. My friend and I have also redesigned various components to add stability. Randy's web site is gone ? So the updates and corrections are no longer available. If you know what you are doing and have access to RF generators, Scopes and the like, then this may be for you. Otherwise for a first timer there are some other kits that will be much better. (VE3SLJ). Reach me through RAC, or the Call Sign Database for questions.

Whether you intend to build the transceiver or not this book provides a complete description of a modern, state of the art radio. Randy discusses each circuit in detail explaining the operation and in many cases the reason for his choice of circuits. Complete details of construction are explained with a parts list, schematic, circuit board template and parts layout. The circuits are broken down into small workable units and in many cases can be tested before final assembly. This "test as you build" method could eliminate extensive trouble shooting when the project is completed. The writing style is clear, orderly, conversational and, occasionaly, humorous. This is an advanced project, however, there are many building tips and suggestions that anyone, beginner or advanced, will find helpful. Missing are the specifications of the completed transceiver (the power output is 50 watts) and the author's call sign (WI5W).

I was hoping for a discussion of a truly modern transceiver, with digital signal processing. It isn't. It's a computer-controlled analog transceiver. It doesn't even have a good quantitative discussion of the noise floor of the receiver, or any discussion, at all, of computer-controlled modulations.

The organization and writing isn't that good either. The ARRL yearbook has better projects, more clearly written, with better assembly instructions.

Well actually that was War and Peace, with The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich coming in a close second. But if those had building instructions...... Excellent read, I was warming up the soldering iron before I got out of chap. 1. Needs more info on FM bands and the upper microwaves for reception though!

If you want to learn how works that prodigious nice looking button-filled low-noise HF rig, this is the book! Whether if you want or not to build your own transceiver, it will show step-by-step the modules and the working of an SSB radio. You can also build the project partially an own a QRP transceiver.

Bueno ... me esperaba algo menos teórico y un poco mas practico, .... si eres radioaficionado, este libro no te aporta nada.

Un saludo

Este libro me permitio comenzar a armar un transceiver de HF (todas las Bandas) con un control con microprocesador y un osciladorsintetizado.Es un proyecto largo y un poco dificultoso pues lo que propone Randy no es un Kit de armado, es un proyecto desde cero! He tenido el apoyo personal de EL para armarlo via e-mail, y tambien tiene una pagina Web que apoya la construccion de el equipo. El hallazgo del libro fue una alegria .El libro tiene errores que son faciles de identificar con una lectura en profundidad. Yo he armado practicamente el 90 % de las plaquetas y estoy en la etapa de como poner todo en un gabinete lo cual no es poco. Es un proyecto ambicioso pero realizable y me gustaria compartir con otros las experiencias que he tenido. Creo que faltaba un libro asi, futuras ediciones si las hubiera lo podrian completar mas. Es un proyecto para encarar de a varios. END