SolderSmoke Challenge – Direct Conversion Receiver – the Audio Amplifier Build and Receiver Demonstration
In this episode Dean, KK4DAS wraps up the initial build of the SolderSmoke Challenge DCR. He takes us through the audio amplifier stage and demonstrates the newly built receiver just moments after connecting the audio module to the mixer and hooking up a speaker. The audio module is conceptually simple – three nearly identical stock-standard common emitter audio amplifiers which provide the 80-100 dB of amplification you need to go from microvolts of RF to volts of audio to drive a speaker. The challenge with all that amplification in a small board is to keep it amplifying but to stop it from oscillating and as you’ll see in the video, good construction technique is critical to good performance.
And wow! We now have more than 30 builders working on the SolderSmoke Challenge, with more builders completing the challenge every day. And those are just the ones who are active on tour Discord server. If you have completed the DCR or even if you have just started building it, we want to hear from you. Send a picture or better yet a video – make it a selfie and you can join the SolderSmoke challenge hall of fame!
And if you are not yet building it, you must ask yourself one question:
What are you waiting for?
Join the discussion – SolderSmoke Discord Server:
Documentation on Hackaday:
https://hackaday.io/project/
SolderSmoke YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@
SolderSmoke blog DCR posts:
https://soldersmoke.blogspot.
As suggested, I’ve made a “selfie” video outlining my experience of the project and demonstrating some reception: https://youtu.be/ISb5i52nOwU
Fantastic Peter- thanks so much for sharing, And congratulations on sticking with it through both a lying transistor tester and a lying oscilloscope probe. (Oh yes, and lying schematics too!) We’ve all been there – so welcome to the club!
Fantastic read! I absolutely enjoyed the insights shared in this post. The depth of knowledge and the way the topic was explained made everything so much clearer. Looking forward to more content like this. Keep up the great work! Enrgtech RF Radio Module