The "Speaky" HF SSB transceiver and other homebrew projects

Thermal paste

2013-05-08T19:45:00.002+01:00

What to do on a Sunday afternoon and your computer gets a little on the hot side?....and you just find out that the thermal past between cpu and dissipator is worn out..?

First you test with aluminum foil:

...and fails miserably...

..then you remember something about chemistry and "Fluor" supposedly is a nice conductor but toothpaste has a tendency to dry out...no problem: just add some silicon based gel or a petroleum derivative like the following product to remove cloth stains...

Mix on a 50/50 proportion, or 70/30 or...whatever......put on the CPU (careful for not to spill on the sides) then assemble everything again:

first the dissipator

then the fan

Now test it!:

..before the toothpast and supergel mix it was 2600RPM and around 70ºC

I'v been running over a week on this mix but eventualy one of this days will place a proper thermal past.... next experiment is to find a catalytic converter for the car to run on water! :)

Have a nice week!

New coil for the antenna tuner

2013-04-28T11:17:00.001+01:00

It was a "profitable" Saturday yesterday, build the new coil for the (re)new antenna tuner:

I had this form with some kind of steel wire wrapped around and since it was not solder-able I removed the old one and now placed normal 1.5mm2 section household wire. Unfortunately I had no more wire around so it was not till the end of the form, anyhow I suspect the inductance will be more than enough for the intended purpose. Don't "trust" the MFJ reading at the measure frequency frequency since there's lot of inter winding capacitance. My rough calculation for the coil will be around 50uH.

Here's the donator coil wire (the old one):

Had to strip the insulator which is always a pain...
...and still had time to make an oscillator just for fun...

And to place the AM demod part for the Speaky in a new board, pictures and schematic later on the blog.

Have a nice Sunday!

Happy Birthday IARU

2013-04-18T23:03:00.002+01:00

WORLD AMATEUR RADIO DAY

IARU Birthday: (18 April 1925)

Happy birthday!

Filter shape

2013-04-18T12:45:00.000+01:00

Just the filter shape from an ongoing project...

Scale is not linear and I don't like the re-trace so probably will change schematics a little. Will post more when happy with design.

SAW generator

2013-04-15T19:11:00.000+01:00

Not much RF here, except it's part of a project involving RF.

A simple SAWtooth wave generator:

Schematic is from VK2ZAY and the current source my contribution. Incidentally I didn't tested the original design so don't know which is better...probably not mine!

(VK2ZAY schematic edited by me)

Now the output of the schematic:

Wave form with an 10uF capacitor:

...there goes the linearity... oh well...

here with 4.7uF capacitor and final configuration for now:

DC out is 2 to 7V approx (Vcc 9V).

The last wave feeding the oscilloscope horizontal circuit

Here the assembly:

Alan has other designs using discrete components I might test.

Have a nice week!

Speaky AM

2013-04-11T22:40:00.000+01:00

Not rocket science here. Just "grabbed" the 8Mhz pre-filtered and buffered output add-on of the Speaky and made a simple 8Mhz AM "receiver" with an IF of 455Khz. Mixer VFO runs at 8.455 since at 7.545 would put if receiving on the 40m (7.090Mhz) band also.

It's just a simple tuned input for an NE602 mixed with 8.455Mhz going thru an 455Khz filter feeding the AM demodulator part of an TCA440, then audio goes to the famous LM386.
Since it's a ongoing experiment will not place schematic for now, but works nice on this simple setup....I can still copy clearly some SSB transmissions, so I'm sure there's little carrier suppression on some rigs...

The main PCB and the TCA440 part were a re-use of one of my VHF air band receivers...another project that had a short live before donating parts...

Have a nice week and weekend!

New bands

2013-04-01T20:25:00.002+01:00

While some people over here were applying for access on the 5Mhz band, our telecoms regulator "ANACOM" on a bold move just gave us access to another 8 bands in the HF spectrum.

I think this is a shift from the classic deny first, allow latter paradigm that is so classic across all sectors of society.

The new bands in Portugal are as follow:

455 Khz
600 Khz
4 Mhz
8.865 Mhz
9 Mhz
10.245Mhz
10.7 Mhz
21.4 Mhz

All modes are allowed. This is of course on a non interference basis, hams are primary users.
Beacons are welcome using low bandwidth modes.

Frequency shift is allowed to a maximum of 15Khz deviation

Output power is not regulated yet but probably will be around a maximum of 17dbm to keep things even with the other allowed bands.

Let's hope this new bands get adopted all over the world!

Backlog...

2013-03-31T20:47:00.000+01:00

When you try to multitask on a single tread then for sure something gets behind...

Here some projects tested but lacking a proper finish touch:

Light TX and RX pair:

Work's but didn't tried yet with a magnifier glass to increase range.

A BITX 20:

Needs the front panel drilling and now the front end transistor that was needed for another project.

An 6m downconverter:

then used as a test board for VHF receiver using some BITX 20 modules.

An SWR meter board:

..and the "display":

...Still unboxed.

A full HF transceiver:

Working but never QSO'd. Will change audio path and need to put the low pass filters.

..many other projects still waiting conclusion most of them just need a box...

Think I have "work" for the next decade!

Have a nice week!

Got this...

2013-03-28T16:20:00.000Z

...in the mail yesterday:

...thanks to my PayPal account!

Those are 100 units of BB909B from DSI and about 50 (not exactly counted) BB909A from Philips.

The idea is to place them to work on the Speaky band modules replacing original BB409 varicaps that I can't find at reasonable prices.
I don't know if these "replacements" they will work but they were relatively cheap and can always be used for something else.

Here's capacitance versus reverse voltage on the "Speaky" BB409 units :

And here for the BB909 :

They almost match...

I measure some units received (both BB909A and BB909B) and seem to match the datasheet values, the Philips ones have a little higher capacity than DSI make.

Still in need of the toroids...

Speaky band module expander - issues

2013-03-22T22:47:00.000Z

....ah... the smell of success.... followed by disappointment... nothing beats the thrill of trying to find the problem without success guaranties!

I was building an expansion band module (for the band module expander...confusing hum?),

basically a blank band module that will allow me access from outside the radio bandpass and VFO signals

Then I was injecting an external VFO signal and noticed some instability in frequency using the 40m band.
(On the left using the Si570 as external VFO)

After debugging a little bit I discovered the culprit...

..the cable linking the two boards, the VFO part, so, for now the solution is simple, if I remove the cable, loosing the extra 5 band expansion I have no problem but I want to know the cause. The next few days I will experiment with cable length and some blindage, strange is that on the 17m band the problem doesn't show, so, I guess is more a capacitive issue than an inductive one given the wavelength difference. Funny is I tried to make the distance between the 2 boards the smallest possible just to avoid this possible issues.... yeah this time I thought before soldering...useless!

Have a nice weekend!

Speaky band module expander - rebuilt

2013-03-20T22:02:00.001Z

Just rebuilt the band module expander boards. Rebuilding allowed me to save some "veroboard" and correct inter-board wiring mistakes I made first time.

Here's the support for the five extra modules, the first five stay in the radio main-board.

For supporting to the chassis, used a 90º wood support transformed in double 90º with my special angle maker tool....the hammer!

Some varicaps are on the way to the shack so I can start building the modules still missing:

I also included, inside, another board for a second audio amp, main amp will be only for headphones and the computer audio interface:

..still unbuilt..

And here: 2 of my 3 transceivers....none is complete...

...but will be some day....

It's a long road...

Standard diodes for RF switching

2013-03-16T17:05:00.000Z

This idea of pressing ordinary diodes for RF work is not new, many LED's are working as varicap's, some diodes are protecting antenna front ends, other are working as zener's for transistor biasing and the list can go on...can you imagine that some diodes are even working as rectifiers?!!!...

Now, this idea come because I have some (8) band modules to build for the Speaky and each module uses 4 PIN diodes, so, that's 32 diodes more than the ones I have... or for the mater, the local electronic shop.

(PIN diode is BA479 on the schematic)

Using ordinary diodes for RF switching is nothing new, many circuits use them.... but are they good? Or just reasonable? I had to test for myself!

Built a small circuit: the diode being tested in series with an 82pF capacitor and connected to an C meter. By placing in series I avoid any possible influence on the meter measuring method by DC blocking with the series cap, anyhow I think the measuring method of the multimeter is by impedance, injecting an alternate signal, and not by capacitor charge.

Here's the measured and computed results from the series association:

Light blue/grey is capacitor impedance above 500 Ohm, less than that and gets to close to the usual 50 Ohm influencing circuit performance. That's the importance of having a very low diode capacitance for RF switching. If signal is of high value it's also needed a diode with high forward current to keep things linear.

So, from this simple test results, and if you go bellow 28 Mhz, the 1n4148 is probably a safe alternative for RF switching. Interesting is also the yellow LED result by would not use it in circuit due to voltage drop.
I don't know what was the issue with the Germanium diodes, didn't investigated further since I was more interested in Si type.

In the 14Mhz band module I built for the Speaky I used 1n4007 and 1n4148 without noticeable issues, let's see if it doesn't mess things with more modules in parallel.

Just a side note:
BA479 diodes have an capacity of 0.5pF at 100Mhz (from datasheet), 1n4148 have 4pF at 1Mhz (also from datasheet), so, if you go the VHF side I think the only way is to use real PIN diodes for RF switching.

...now I have to find alternative varicap's and ferrite cores...

Have a nice weekend!

Reader alternatives

2013-03-14T21:26:00.000Z

I use google reader service to keep up with blogs and sites I normally follow.
It suits the porpoise and it's easy to work with, plus it's web based so I can keep up with followed blogs/sites as long as I have network access and a browser.

Here's a screenshot when all the news for the day are read:

(no special order in the blogs list, except mine first :))

Now the problem is: Google will decommission this nice web app in July first.

I wonder what software fellow readers use to read blogs/feeds/site feeds.

Of course I could get an XML/RSS parser lib and make a small hosted app for the purpose but time is already short for soldering and I put soldering first in my free time...

I'm open to ideas, preferably web based, but I'm considering also Linux based ones also. So let me know your opinions!

Have a nice day!

New antenna tuner

2013-03-10T22:03:00.000Z

Ok, I have enough projects to finish, inclusive my "old" antenna tuner,...

...anyhow decided to rebuild it and re-use the nice box for other projects.
The "new" tuner will get a wooden box, it's cheaper and adds less inductance for the coil. So my only weekend project was to make new L shaped aluminum brackets to support the variable caps.

There's also a new coil made that I need to test.

Maybe during the week I can have more time for other projects in mind.

Have a nice week!

Speaky band module expander

2013-03-02T23:09:00.003Z

The "Speaky" comes standard with 5 band module slots, I wanted a little more.

Here's the idea, five original modules in the right and five more on the left.
At this point (on the next photo) I only had soldered the support for one additional module on the left (with my crude 20m module just for testing).

First live tests when I realized I had incorrectly wired the jumper cables between the two boards:

Still have to rewire the expansion (for the bandpass filter) cable (lower left on the "veroboard").
Also realized I don't need to duplicate all five original support mounts, just need to parallel one of them to the expansion board, sparing some "veroboard" for other projects. Again I went to fast from idea to solder...

Have a nice weekend!

Panadapter/bandscope/spectrum analyzer/decoder idea

2013-02-24T10:07:00.000Z

OZ9AEC had the nice idea of connecting one of those USB TV dongles to a "Beaglebone" board:

With that he got an "Spectrum analyzer", for about 140 Eur (more or less depending on supplier), and a computer running Linux.

Now...imagine...connect the same Beagle board (or any other small board running Linux) to a USB sound card, a USB to serial converter and a USB SDR receiver. The SDR input connected to your radio unfiltered IF, the serial interface to the radio control port and the sound card to the radio audio output and you end up with a box similar to this:

..except it will be a little bit cheaper and with more options... the P3 costs about 699.95 USD (530 Eur) and won't give you all mode decoding, only rig control and a bandscope.
But what's the point? A small laptot can do the same, yes it can but you can not do something similar to this with a laptop:

....ah... so many ideas, so little money :)

Have a nice week!

Mensagem

2013-02-23T14:41:00.001Z

"Mensagem" (Message in english) is a book by Fernando Pessoa, and one of the book's most famous quote is: "...o homem sonha, a obra nasce..." that translates to: "...man dreams, the work is born...".

...all homebrew, including the wood desk!
I built in a piece of pcb the 20m band module for the "Speaky" (working in the photo) but just the VFO part, bandpass for 20m is direct, anyhow receives nice. Still, more 7 band modules to build!

Have a nice weekend

Speaky panadapter

2013-02-20T18:54:00.002Z

I wanted to have an unfiltered IF output on the "Speaky" so that a panoramic adapter could be connected or even a second receiver for AM and FM reception, case needed.

So here's the story of a simple amplifier circuit from the original article here.

The schematic:

The original author used it for an Kenwood TS-120 and 130. In my case I had to find a convenient place for insertion and decided to connect E(in) to DR11 just at the input of the post mixer amplifier, just before the crystal filter.

E(out) connected to a BNC plug on the back of the transceiver.

Power is from pin 19 (10V on reception that switches the mixer output signal to the post mixer buffer, T12 and T13). The circuit gives a little more output with 13.8V but it's working fine with just 10, and I had no problem copying all the signals using an FT-817 as the 8Mhz IF.

Bill of Materials

C1, C5: 0.01mF/±20%/50V/X7R/Ceramic
C2: 56pF/±5%/50V/NPO/Ceramic
C3: 1000pF/±5%/50V/NPO/Ceramic
C4: 0.1mF/±20%/50V/X7R/Ceramic
C6: 4700pF/±5%/50V/X7R/Ceramic

For caps I used normal ceramic.

L1: 3mH toroidal inductor: (I used unknown toroid from a switch mode psu with some 8 turns that has enough inductance at 8Mhz)
7T #24 on m=125, A_L=55 ferrite core (Amidon FT-37-61) or
6T #24 on m=125, A_L=75 ferrite core (Amidon FT-50A-61)
Q1: NPN transistor: 2N3904, 2N2222, etc. (used 2n3904)
R1: 2K10W/±1%/¼W Metal Film (or 2K2W/±5%) (used 2k)
R2: 4K75W/±1%/¼W Metal Film (or 4K7W/±5%)
R3: 10K0W/±1%/¼W Metal Film (or 10KW/±5%)
R4: 274W/±1%/¼W Metal Film (or 270W/±5%)

All resistors I used were carbon 10% and not metal film 1%.

Circuit was build in a small piece of PCB with ground place on one side and components on the other, then wrapped in heath shrink tape:
Here's the outcome in place:

..I still need to tighten those cables...

have a nice day!

Speaky VLF/LF band module

2013-02-12T12:32:00.000Z

Besides tying some loose ends on the Speaky I'm also having fun building/testing a VLF/LF band module for this radio.

Speaky only has 80 to 10m (excluding 12m) band modules offered in kit form, so why not improving things a little bit.
All band modules share the same design, only changing tuned parts and oscillator values.

Band module basic schematic:

The PLL part diagram:

...and schematic:

Now the fun part....

If you put an 4Mhz crystal in the VXO (T1) you will have a nice tone at the IF frequency (8Mhz), that is the oscillator harmonic. ... so I placed a 4.194Mhz one but that way I would only cover 194 to 694Khz (500Khz band span) reception, VFO would cover from 8.194 to 8.694Mhz... no problem for now, it would serve...

...even more fun...:
With the 4.194Mhz crystal (or any other for that matter in the 4-4.5 range) due to some leakage on IC1 (a not perfect mixer) the PLL loop comparator would get the 4.194 from the VXO, the mix of 4.194 with the LO oscillator and the DDS generated one, that way he would compare tree frequencies all in the 4-4.5Mhz pass band instead of the normal 2 needed for the PLL to work correctly.
That gave me some interesting results like sudden frequency jumps until I realized what the problem was, I know I should have foreseen this in first place but you know how it's like when you start soldering first and thinking last...

As a result of this, the only way to include sub 500Khz in the Speaky would be by ~~down-conversion or even~~ up-conversion to another band. With the PLL values and mixing scheme it's simply not possible.
Without conversion to another band it's still possible but without using the internal PLL; making a fixed frequency oscillator or a VFO controlled by the bandpass control voltage (T2), anyhow, loosing the PLL control.
I might go that way...

My experimental band module:

I used 1N4007 rectifier diodes as PIN diodes substitutes and they seen to work nice, also tested 1N4148 without significant changes in signal for the other modules sharing the same signal bus.
Initialy the main oscillator wasn't working and I traced to a faulty BF981 so I used an BF961 instead.
T1 was a 2n3904 instead of the original BF199

A side by side comparation with the 40m module:

Have fun!

Speaky, 17 band module coil values

2013-02-11T16:22:00.001Z

I hadn't and couldn't found any documentation on the "Speaky" 17m band module (that came with my kit ), but cross checked against the bag of components and they had the same values as the 20 m band, only coils are different.

And here's the data for the coils after some math and intuition...:

L1: 14 Turn on T37-6 with tap at 4th turn from cold end.

L2: 17 turn on T37-6 with 2 turn link close to cold end

L3: 17 turn on T37-6 with 2 turn link close to cold end

This values work great as I already have some QSO's in the log.

Here's the generic schematic for each of the band modules (components values differ)

Have fun!

Speaker mount improvement

2013-02-02T23:40:00.001Z

From the to-do list on the Speaky one was quit easy to finish:

~~Modify internal speaker mount, audio is to much on the low (bass) side~~

Here's the "original" mount:

because of the assembly type there was some vibration against the box and sound was a little bit on the bass side.
Nothing some rubber washers and a little of fabric can't solve, there's also some peaces of rubber, bellow the speaker in each of the bolts, from an bicycle inner tube

I also increased size of the lid holes...

To finish product:

Now the sound it's much more even across the spectrum (2.4Khz!) and doesn't "vibrate" against the box lid.

Still to do on the radio:

*Add 30,20,15,12 and 10m band...and maybe 500Khz rx
*Add another audio amp, the existing one stays just for headphones
* Add in IF buffered output
*Check drive level on 40m that is generating some instability (I know were the problem is and how to work around but will try to fix first)

*Tighten cables.

And eventually I will transform the "Speaky" in something similar to this:

:)

p.s. The magic smoke of previous post was not that magic, it was a broken solder joint in one of the pins, glad it was simple because it was not going to be easy to replace any other components in the main board.

Have a nice weekend!

Transparent magic smoke

2013-01-31T23:03:00.000Z

Yes, not blue, not black or even white! Transparent, which only adds a layer of difficulty to find the leaked bottle...

I was trying to find the instability on 40m when I think I overdrive the "Speaky" releasing some smoke, OK it was not actually smoke but for sure something bad happened and now although it looks like I have transmission signal (didn't tested any longer) I don't have reception (but have audio) and I can ear the mic audio in the output speaker... something I couldn't earlier, so it can't be that bad....

Without further testing I dare to say that the problem is near pin 24 (see schematic,) be it further down or up on the tx/rx switching part. At least T30 isn't conducting during RX, that's why audio bypasses to the balanced modulator and I can listen to it on the speaker, so in that order of idea the balanced modulator is working also.... that leaves T27 to be a good candidate to the recycle bin....

Eventually it can be one of the switching diodes reversing near the mixer (not shown in this part of the schematic) but I would bet more on T27...

Well, more fun for the weekend...

My other transceiver...

2013-01-29T20:58:00.001Z

...it's also junk!...nah, it's a Ferrari :)

At some point during construction:

I had to remove the IF amp for another project so right now it's unusable but it worked! I never placed a low-pass filtering so it's also not advisable to transmit. That's another project to be finished one of this days.

Meanwhile the "Speaky" log it's getting bigger every day and I broke the 10 QSO milestone! I have to say without a lot of effort..well some directional antennas in the other end made this miracle happen.

LX1HD (1606.4 km)
IZ8GUU (2103.2 km)
HB9ETH/M (1603.6 km)
GM4WZL (1795.3 km)
OK2JS (2237.6 km)
IZ2ZEX (1592.5 km)

DA1YS (1733.8 km)
GI4SNA (1658.3 km)
S52WW (1990.2 km)
DL1WM (1737.2 km)

All on 17m.

I measured power on a homebrew, not calibrated, power meter and the Speaky outputs 12W but on the same meter the FT-817 outputs 8W so I guess more real values by analogy would be 5W to the FT-817 and 8W (considering voltages to power) to the Speaky. Not bad any way.

There's still plenty to do before closing the lid:

~~Add heat dissipation to the final transistors.~~
~~Check audio compression/gain issue~~
~~Trim PA bias~~
~~Calibrate internal power/S-meter~~
Tighten cables.
~~Optimize IF filter bandwidth, now its a little wide for my taste. (will be left like it is)~~
~~Rebuild 40m bandpass filter, it works but trimmers are on the lowest capacity setting.~~
Add ~~20, 15 and 10m band....~~ 30,20,15,12 and 10m band
Modify internal speaker mount, audio is to much on the low (bass) side
Add another audio amp, the existing one stays just for headphones
Check drive level on 40m that is generating some instability

Have a nice week!

6 in the log

2013-01-24T22:38:00.000Z

So far, I have 6 QSO's in the "Speaky" log, all on 17m, by order:

LX1HD
IZ8GUU
HB9ETH/M
GM4WZL
OK2JS
IZ2ZEX

I already copied some DX stations like HZ1TT (Saudi Arabia) and W1AW (ARRL headquarters) but could not work them, first due to the pile-up and second the operator just stayed a short time. Propagation is also not specially high at this moment.

On 40m (LSB) I still have lower power than 17m (USB), which I found is related to the IF filter so will tune BFO using a sound card instead of ear truing. My antenna is not tuned either for 40m.

The radio promises, as I predicted, it's just limited in terms of output power and since I'm not a fundamentalist of QRP maybe one day will try to build an amp for it.

Will change also the audio amp because it's a little on the low side for my preferences but it's nice for headphones.

Here's the parts that came extra with the kit (much better than missing):

Not much; half a dozen resistors, 1 IC (strange), some wire, one 1n4148 and probably 3 capacitors.

Have fun!

Black out

2013-01-21T20:58:00.001Z

Saturday morning, I wake up with some strong winds, the weather report was stating a red alert (second most dangerous) for most part of the country including Leiria were I live and Peniche, my parens, the predicted top wind-gusts were to be around 120Km/h. I went to the shack, hoping none of the antennas would fly and I could copy fellow blogger Bas (PE4BAS) activating a castle in the Netherlands, a quick tune around on 20m but no luck, after a little bit experienced a power outage, I could had switched to battery backup power but since I told my parents I would drove to their home decided to stop radio activities.

As predicted by the weather report, wind was really a bit on the strong side so decided to postpone the trip for latter in the afternoon hopping condition improvement.

When I bought my house my priorities in getting furniture were: a good bottled gas water heater, candles and a fire extinguisher....
The fire extinguisher is a must due my nature to make things leave some smoke, specially cooking...
Candles; When I was a kid an lived in Peniche it was normal in windy days to be left without electricity for some time so we had always candles and petrol powered lights. I've not experienced many faults now in Leiria but I like to be always ready.
A good water heather; well I'm not Finish (no offense) so I don't like very much of having a cold bath and sauna is not a tradition here also :)

Time went by and electric power wouldn't came back, so I hit the road to my parents. Wind was already lower and I thought I could make a safe trip, especially since my little daughter would come with me.
While preparing to the road trip I thought of taking the portable VHF/UHF radio, just in case, instead took the Swiss army knife, for sure much more handy in case I have to stop for some fallen tree of road debris.

Here's a nice quote from KE9V about a similar subject:

"...In a complete meltdown on a national (or global) scale there would be no one to call for help. In that case, I suppose two-way radio could be used to confirm that folks a thousand miles away are just as screwed as you are?..."
I think the quote says it all...
The brighter lights during my road trip to Peniche were my car lights, all villages until very close to my parents were all in a black out from the grid and the road was full of small debris from the trees, luckily fireman had already cut'd all the trees that had fall on the road during the morning high winds.

Electricity eventually returned to Leiria on Sunday morning, lucky me that my parents didn't experienced the power outage so I had a comfortable Saturday evening and a nice Sunday morning. From what I heard in the news there are still some small villages without power and even water.

Another side effect of this storm was that the antenna mast at my parents didn't hold the strong winds, it was a hardware corrosion problem, Peniche is a peninsula just in the path of the salty Atlantic winds, no metal holds good for live. Have to put a new mast next week.

Here's a video with some photos of the storm and damage in Peniche:

Now as I'm writing this post back in Leiria the water is getting low pressure, just as I predicted. This afternoon I bottled some water just in case :)
Let's hope it's only temporarily. Else I have to go to the river :)
..now there's absolutely no water, f"#$%!"#$#", getting better every minute...
...No all is bad, temperature is not going bellow 13ºC, people in northern latitudes are worse in this matter!

p.s.: There's a second QSO in the log using the "Speaky", this time the "victim" was IZ8GUU whom I answered the CQ on 17m.

An update list to do on the "Speaky":

~~Add heat dissipation to the final transistors.~~
Check audio compression/gain issue
~~Trim PA bias~~
Calibrate internal power/S-meter
Tighten cables.
Optimize IF filter bandwidth, now its a little wide for my taste.
Rebuild 40m bandpass filter, it works but trimmers are on the lowest capacity setting.
Add ~~20, 15 and 10m band....~~ 30,20,15,12 and 10m band

Have a nice week!

Have a nice week.