SO-3 TCXO substitution
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One of the first things that bothered me with my brand new TS590s was a noticeable fequency drift at startup. I was quite surprised to learn that the master clock of the TS590s uses a normal Xtal oscillator at 15.600 MHz.
As a solution, Kenwood is "offering" an optional TCXO, named SO-3. It was another shock when i saw the retail price for a new SO-3. It costs a heavy 130 € in France while a new TS590s can be found around 1500-1600 €...
Nowadays, in all serious rigs a TCXO is a MUST with the growth of digital modes. In mass production, it only costs a very few €uros. I'm convinced that the price of the TS590s wouldn't be higher (or even cheaper) if Kenwood would replace the original Xtal oscillator + the TCXO addon board + 2 jumpers + the 2 connectors + screws, etc... with a TCXO !
But that's certainly a way for Kenwood to make an easy money by selling their optional SO-3 TCXO !
Moreover, the customer has to solder the TCXO on the addon board he has to remove from the transceiver. RIDICULOUS !!
PIC tone decoder
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Here is a description of an audio frequency tone decoder build around a PIC 12F683.
For a cost not much higher than a basic NE567, you will have :
- A more efficient decoder
- Far better stabiliy
- A settable threshold with hystereis
- Possibility to tune from 100 to 2148 Hz or use a fixed frequency
- No exotic or particular component
16 LED bargraph.
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In one of my projects, i wanted to use 2 LED bargraphs.
The classical way to do that is to use a IC made for that, the LM3914. This circuit has been build to drive 10 LEDs which are generaly in a single module.
10 LEDs wasn't quite enough for my usage, i wanted more diodes for more "precision". I also wanted to mix diode colours, what is not easy to do with diode modules.
The LM3914 can be chained to drive more LEDs, but price is getting higher...
My first thought was to use 20 LEDs, the first one being green, than orange and finaly red to display an overdrive or a danger.
The picture shows the first pcb made and only a few LEDs wired for testing !
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