I got my direct conversion receiver working! Band conditions are not amazing at the moment, but you can clearly hear the SSB I was listening to.
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@n8dmt Thank you Gary! I will now go find Middlebrook. 😊 Very pleased that this thing works! 73
Had a bit of an unfortunate set of interactions with one of the designers of this receiver. I found a potential problem with the audio amp design in simulation in Qucs-S. Basically, if it's not built with exactly the right parasitics, it oscillates. But he was not receptive at all. Quite the opposite. I applied the changes that worked in Qucs-S for me and they worked in real life, too. So I am pretty sure the simulation is right.
@relistan that’s why I stopped listening to their podcast. Every show is like “you all doing it wrong!”
@pa8mm well, in the end we worked it out. He’s probably inundated with emails from people building this and feeling defensive. He just published my build https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2025/10/karl-ei9itbs-fb-soldersmoke-direct.html?m=1 . But yeah I get that vibe in the podcast sometimes. Not a fan of the “appliance operators” label, for example. But I learned a lot listening, particularly to Pete Juliano, who seems like a great guy. Haven’t spoken to him.
@relistan @pa8mm I’m aligned with so much of this. Bashing on people for building kits, or not buying every part directly isn’t going to get new people interested in this part of the hobby. Great build, Karl. I have yet to build one myself, but it’s on my list over the winter. Maybe I missed it, did you publish your recommended change?
@N1FIY @pa8mm Hey Brian, yeah I agree with all of that. I think there is reason so say that you learn more doing a complete home brew project than doing a kit. But honestly there is a lot to learn from kits that would prepare you to do a full project on your own. Bashing on that is not cool.
I didn't publish my recommended change except in the Discord (where a few people freaked out). Most people have to add further decoupling because the isolation between power rails in the 3 stages is nil.
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