The Northern California QRP club has been working, for a few years to bring this rig out as a kit. Dan Tayloe is the designer of this very nice kit. I met Dan at Pacificcon 2005 and he had a final prototype of the NC2030. I took these pictures of Dan with the rig.
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The first time I saw the NorCal 2030 was at Pacificon 2004. Dan along with Trevor Jacobs gave a presentation describing each section of the rig. Many attendees had an opportunity to operate the rig and were quite impressed.
That's me on the left and Ron Smith on the right |
The NorCal QRP Club started taking orders for the rig in September 2005 with a planned delivery date for the middle of November. Because of a mishap with the case, delivery slipped until December 5th. I was pleasantly surprised to take delivery, of the kit, at the December 4th NorCal Club meeting. I was anxious to get started building that evening but due to job commitments I had to wait a couple of days. |
The manual for the NC2030 is over 100 pages long and that's because there are step-by-step directions for construction. The parts are sealed in numbered plastic bags and bag #1 contains the parts for the switching power supply, which is the first part of the build.
2030 Power Supply Circuit Board
The power supply went together without a problem. The most difficult part was winding the power supply coil. It is wound with 32ga wire and the wire tends to kink easily. The manual directed you to use an 8ft piece of wire but this turned out to be an error, I ended up using about 3ft. I'm sure the shorter length would have made it much easier. All the voltages checked out per the manual. I was concerned that the 5v output rose to about 10v after applying voltage. An email from Dan explained that the 5v output is unregulated and that this was probably normal. He suggested temporarily putting a 150 ohm across the 5v line and making sure the voltage was 5-6v, which it was.
The finished coil, this picture make it look large but it is rather small
Finished switching power supply
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The main board is shown here, it has more than 400 components making this the largest surface mount amateur radio kit I know of. Construction of the main circuit board starts with the installation of the voltage regulators, of which there are five. I learned a new skill during this part of the build, I managed to get the wrong part solder in at U1. I thought I was being extra careful but it is easy to lose your place on the board. The voltage regulators are very tiny and I was sure that I wouldn't be able to remove one without destroying it. I was able to remove the part using some 32ga wire, which I pulled under each pin as heat was applied. To my surprise this procedure worked well and I removed the regulator without damage. |
| The main board shown with the switching power supply attached, ready for initial testing. |  |
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This view show most of the controls mounted. I decided to use headers instead of soldering the controls to the board because it makes building the remainder of the transceiver easier. |
Here is the completed board with the switching power supply. This transceiver has over 400 SMD parts and the board is very compact. It is very easy to put parts in the wrong location. It helps to have a laptop, with the manual displayed to aid in getting the parts located correctly. I found a print out of the manual didn't have high enough resolution. During the check-out of the transmitter switching section I wasn't getting the voltages called for. After stumbling around looking for the problem I noticed that I had "misaligned" a resistor/capacitor pair. After relocating the components in the right plane, everything check out just fine. Lesson learned, check and recheck the position of the components before soldering them in. |
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The manual calls for securing the turns of L6 and L7 with wax to prevent microphonics. I "borrowed" some wax from the kitchen, heated it in a coffee can and dipped the cores in the wax. I placed some of the soften wax under each core to secure them to the board. |
The board mounted in the case but before any of the control were added. |
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All front panel controls mounted except for the PTO
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The rear panel
Almost completed NorCal 2030 Transceiver, only thing missing is the PTO
I had two problems right off while preparing the PTO coil. After applying the epoxy, to secure the wire to the form, I laid the coil form horizontal to dry and the epoxy sagged. This caused a "bump" which made winding the wire on that part of the form impossible. The second problem was a bigger one. The brass screw is very tight while turning into the coil form. I had secured the PTO coil only a little more than finger tight and while turning the tuning knob the coil form wanted to twist. I put a nut driver on the front nut and gave it a slight turn. I knew something was wrong almost immediately because there was virtually no resistance. The coil form broke between the two nuts. This picture shows my first attempt to repair the coil form. I put a small amount of epoxy over the brake but it failed right away while trying to tighten the nuts. |
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Here is the solution I came up with. There was just enough room to put a flat washer on the coil form and still have enough threads protruding through the panel to secure the front nut. I put epoxy between the rear nut and the washer, which was right over the break, on the coil form. This repair seems to be working, but I plan to replace the PTO coil with a replacement, in the near future. |
Here is a view of the repaired PTO installed in the rig.
And finally the completed rig with the top on. Initial alignment of the receiver has been done and I've heard many signals on 20 meters. I need to find a power cord that will fit the 12V DC jack and test the transmitter section.
After completion of the rig I did some tests to see how stable it was, what I found was that it drifted badly. From turn on I measured the frequency every minute for 10 minutes and the frequency drift was over 100hz per minute. After 15 minutes it had drifted almost 1 khz. I emailed NorCal's Doug Hendricks asking about the 470pf caps supplied in the kit, Doug ensured me that they were the proper caps. A couple of emails to Dan Tayloe suggested that the 470pf caps were probably the problem and he sent me a couple of replacements. After installing the proper caps, the large frequency drift has disappeared. NorCal ordered the proper caps but believes Mouser sent the wrong ones. They have sent out replacement caps to all who have requested replacements.
Intially the rig was putting out just over 1 watt, into a dummy load. After compressing the turns of L18 I'm now getting 3 watts with 12.5 volts. I haven't tried to increase the output power from this level. The finals are running cool with no sign of heating up.
I've attempted a couple of contacts but as of January 20, 2006 haven't made a contact. I haven't put a lot of time into making a contact but hope to make a few this weekend.
Well, guess I'll call this a finished project and move on to something else. I still have another NC2030 to build which I'll put on 30mtrs. If you haven't started building your NC2030, you should get moving. Its a little more challenging than some other kits but the manual is good and the support from Dan Tayloe is great.
