Envelope-to: dave@picks.force9.co.uk Delivery-date: Wed, 18 May 2005 19:37:49 +0100 Received: from ptb-spamcore02.plus.net ([192.168.71.3]) by pih-mxcore06.plus.net with esmtp (PlusNet MXCore v1.0) id 1DYTQT-0006ki-RA for dave@picks.force9.co.uk; Wed, 18 May 2005 19:37:49 +0100 Received: from Debian-exim by ptb-spamcore02.plus.net with spam-scanned (Exim 4.50) id 1DYTQR-00055h-Ou for dave@picks.force9.co.uk; Wed, 18 May 2005 19:37:49 +0100 Received: from [192.168.67.2] (helo=ptb-mxcore02.plus.net) by ptb-spamcore02.plus.net with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1DYTQR-00055e-MP for dave@picks.force9.co.uk; Wed, 18 May 2005 19:37:47 +0100 Received: from post.thorcom.com ([193.82.116.20]) by ptb-mxcore02.plus.net with esmtp (PlusNet MXCore v1.0) id 1DYTUk-00038k-0d for dave@picks.force9.co.uk; Wed, 18 May 2005 19:42:14 +0100 Received: from majordom by post.thorcom.com with local (Exim 4.14) id 1DYTQD-0005mm-2C for rs_out_1@blacksheep.org; Wed, 18 May 2005 19:37:33 +0100 Received: from [193.82.116.30] (helo=relay.thorcom.net) by post.thorcom.com with esmtp (Exim 4.14) id 1DYTQC-0005md-FU for rsgb_lf_group@blacksheep.org; Wed, 18 May 2005 19:37:32 +0100 Received: from fh1024.dia.cp.net ([64.97.168.34] helo=n068.sc1.cp.net) by relay.thorcom.net with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1DYTQ9-00089J-LP for rsgb_lf_group@blacksheep.org; Wed, 18 May 2005 19:37:32 +0100 Received: from l8p8y6 (62.252.209.182) by n068.sc1.cp.net (7.0.043) id 4288DEAB000CDF5D for rsgb_lf_group@blacksheep.org; Wed, 18 May 2005 18:37:28 +0000 Message-ID: <004601c55bd0$531c0e80$14d0fc3e@l8p8y6> From: "hamilton mal" To: rsgb_lf_group@blacksheep.org References: <004701c55b0f$0514bf50$245c53d4@MARLEEN> Date: Wed, 18 May 2005 18:37:26 +0100 MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4807.1700 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4807.1700 X-SPF-Result: relay.thorcom.net: 64.97.168.34 is neither permitted nor denied by domain of virgin.net Subject: LF: Re: Modification of the blower circuit and VFO drive for the ROPEX LF TRANSMITTER Content-Type: text/html; charset=windows-1252 X-SA-Exim-Scanned: Yes Sender: owner-rsgb_lf_group@blacksheep.org Precedence: bulk Reply-To: rsgb_lf_group@blacksheep.org X-Listname: rsgb_lf_group X-SA-Exim-Rcpt-To: rs_out_1@blacksheep.org X-SA-Exim-Scanned: No; SAEximRunCond expanded to false X-Spam-Filtered: by PlusNet SpamCORE (v4.00s) Content-transfer-encoding: 8bit
 
----- Original Message -----
From: PA0WFO
To: rsgb_lf_group@blacksheep.org
Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2005 7:34 PM
Subject: LF: Modification of the blower circuit and VFO drive for the ROPEX LF TRANSMITTER

To the members of the rsgb LF group .
 
Those of you who own the ROPEX TX will have the following experience :
 
The blower of the set is making so much noise that it is sometimes difficult to copy the rather weak manual CW sigs that you hear on LF .
I made the following change : You need the following parts 1 transistor pnp 2 N 2905 a tagstrip and a few pieces of wire . Disconnect the black minus wire of the blower and connect it to the emitter of the transistor , connect the collector to the chassis and the base to the collector of the BC547 antennarelaydriver this point is also connected to the minus connection of the transmit Led . The result of this mod is that the blower is off during reception and on during transmit with the same delay as the keying circuit ,  so you can have a quiet shack for listening to weak signals . As the finals do not generate any heat during reception the cooling will be ample .
 
The second modification is more time consuming :
 
The ROPEX is Xtal controlled and after a few QSO,s you will get the urge to connect a VFO for QSY . For the modification you will need the following parts : 1 miniature switch double pole double throw , a BNC chassis female type plug,a 10 nf capacitor and a short piece of RG174 miniature coax or something like it and a few pieces of hookup wire .
Now the most difficult part follows : in order to remove the crystal you have to remove the complete case including the heatsink .
Carefully remove the crystal with solder wick . Make a hole for the switch and the BNC connector on the rear of the chassis on the right side of the blower , this completes the most difficult part of the modification , Now the soldering work . Connect the previous connections of the Xtal on the cicuit board to the poles of the switch by means of two pieces RG174 and the Xtal to one side of the switch ( if you switch to this side the original circuit comes into action and the TX is Xtal controlled as it used to be ) . Thereafter connect the BNC with the 10 nf capacitor  to that side of the switch which switches to terminal 10 of the oscillator IC HCT4060 . Thats all.
Requirements for the VFO : Any VFO giving about 200 to 500 millivolts on the same frequency as the Xtal will do for manual CW.
IMPORTANT! The VFO has to be on or the switch set to Xtaldrive otherwise the TX will take off at random .
You can prevent this by leaving the switch out and just connect the VFO to terminal 10 off the oscillator , more or less as in Dicks PAØSE transmitter ( described in the LF experimenters handbook ) with the slight disadvantage that you cannot use the VFO on the Xtal frequency .
 73,William PAØWFO 
 
A good article on the Ropex William. It is a very useful TX for LF considering its size. I have been using mine recently and it performs very well considering the low power, although I have a good LF antenna system.
One thing to mention, if you use a grounded antenna matching system for 50 ohms at the base of the antenna the Ropex will not work on the high pwr setting, this is a well known problem but it can be overcome by using an extra LPF at the antenna output socket feeding the 50 ohm coax to the antenna.
73 cul de Mal/G3KEV