Friday, January 08, 2010

Group 1 Smoke Test ..... passed !!!

I spent just a little time with the PFR3A tonight. I'm more in a mood to relax and read tonight; but I did want to see how the build is going so far. So I soldered in a few more components:


namely the key and headphone jacks and then the on/off switch. Then I inserted U7, the microprocessor. As you can see I also temporarily tack soldered in a battery clip, which was hooked up to a fresh (recommended by KD1JV) 9V battery. I turned the power switch "on" and the display came up just as advertised! And pushing all the push buttons resulted in everything the instruction manual said should happen.

I am going to post a very poor photo here to try and show the display lit up. This was at a very slow shutter speed and is kind of un-sharp and blurry. I sharpened it up as much as my photo software would allow; but I apologize in advance for the poor quality:


But at least you can see the display DOES work as it should. I am a happy camper for now. Tomorrow is shaping up to be a busy day; but I am hoping to begin the Group 2 build tomorrow evening.

We had a tiny bit of snow today, just a dusting. The weekend promises to be very cold with highs only in the 20s both tomorrow and Sunday. It won't reach the freezing point until sometime next week. If we didn't live so close to the ocean, we'd be experiencing the mind numbing cold that the Midwest is enduring!

73 de Larry W2LJ

1 comment:

  1. Hello Larry, Sorry to hear of the bad comments. No one reads my blog so I guess I am safe HI! Congrats on the PFR build. The pfr was my most complex build at the time... "in June after they came out" But I was just proud as punch when the display lit up and buttons worked!!! The only failure I had was I never did get the BLT to tune properly and even re-did the toroid. Alas I just use it with my other BLT. One of these days I need to send it to Steve for proper repairs. After I finish my ATS III B I will do that. I enjoy your writings and read often de Paul N0NBD

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