Jordan, chill, take it easy and have fun. Feel free to have a look around the bands, play around with new modes, highlight stuff like this because to some of us it's interesting, and above all EXPERIMENT.

Welcome to ham radio 

Tanakasan

This rang a bell somewhere in the deep recesses of my mind and it took some time to find the information.

The original edition of the RSGB VHF/UHF Handbook shows a way to wire a vertical beam and a horizontal beam and emit a circularly phased signal using a phasing harness. So, if you disconnect one of these beams you should get a horizontal or vertical signal.

However.................................................

1) You will still have the disconnected feeder as an open stub on your line

2) The effect of that disconnected antenna close to the active one is not known.

Experiment, try it at low power and measure the SWR then please report back.

Tanakasan

Following on from the original idea there's no need to use a CAD program to do the layouts. Fire up your favorite spreadsheet and set it for 0.1" x 0.1" cells. You can then align text to the tenth inch holes and create 0.3" x 0.7" or 0.3" x 0.8" highlighted cells to show you where to punch the chips through the paper.

As for KE3WD and his worries about fire, paper burns at 451F and 60/40 solder melts at 370F so the joints on your component would have melted long before the paper started to burn. In any event, fuses and current limited regulators are always a good idea.

Tanakasan

Once in a while I come across ideas that are simple but effective, this is one of those moments:

http://digital-diy.com/forum/general-electronics/making-stripboard-look-a-bit-less-ugly-t349.html#p1701

Tanakasan

There are two possible solutions to the IC706 ALC overshoot problem:

a) Use an external 1M pot and a 9V battery to provide a variable ALC voltage to the rig, use this as your power control. This overrides the ALC circuit and changes its characteristics

b) Always run the rig at 100% and use a power attenuator on the output to reduce it to the correct drive level.

Tanakasan

Given the level of expertise shown in Zenki's posts I don't care if he's a ham or not. This site needs a lot more people like Zenki and I admire his stance on clean transmitters. As for myself, if I receive a report of spatter I shut down and investigate the problem, I also check my output on a regular basis although this depends on spectrum analyzer time at work.

White noise for IMD testing though, I remain to be convinced. My preferred method is three-tone testing but I know that opinions differ.

Tanakasan

http://xfinity.comcast.net/slideshow/news-unhealthybreakfast/

Damn, I feel hungry now

Tanakasan

I suspect that the resistor is there to cut down the running speed of the fan to reduce noise. If you're feeling brave then remove the resistor and replace it with a 3.3V 5W Zener diode in series, that will give you a nominal 10.5V for your fan from a 13.8V supply.

Tanakasan

Yeah, those CATV modules are nice for 50 MHz and above but parts that can amplify HF are as rare as rocking horse droppings. Communications Concepts had an amplifier kit on their site for years that used an MHW device and it was always out of stock.

Tanakasan

I realize that the majority of the discussions here are on QRO matters but once in a while the subject drifts off to the quality of our output rather than the quantity. So, here's something interesting for the stages earlier on in the P.A. chain:

http://www.ti.com/lit/gpn/lmh6703

The highlights:

About 0.4 watts into a 100 ohm load using a +/- 5v supply
1.8 GHz bandwidth
2nd Harmonic -87dB below carrier @ 5 MHz, -69 dBc @ 20 MHz
3rd Harmonic -100 dB below carrier @ 5 MHz, -90 dBc @ 20 MHz
IMD -80 dB below carrier @ 50 MHz 5 dBm/tone

Available in quantity at about two bucks each.

So, we can use these as the lower stages of the P.A. chain, what can we use further down the line where real power is involved?

Tanakasan

Your new callsign will be MM/AK4SK

Make sure you see the herds of haggis that are known to roam the Highland fields at night.

Tanakasan

This is why I have a vertical on the roof for the WARC bands, it gets warmed up every contest weekend.

Tanakasan

a bag of five thousand BF506 PNP 500 MHz transistors. I'm never going to use all of these so I'm looking for ideas other than flog them on Ebay.

Tanakasan

Today I have decided to be diplomatic.

This unit would not be my first choice should I purchase a power amplifier for my shack. The case and heatsink may however be of use should I wish to construct something more suitable for the task.

Tanakasan

I've just had a thought, it's easier to make a high-Q inductor than a high-Q capacitor so take a look at your tuned circuit. Try adding a couple of turns to your inductor and then readjust the capacitor until it resonates again. Then see if this cures your problem.

If I was in your position I'd use a Butler oscillator. The following URL tells you all about them and if you scroll down you'll find two circuits for 5th overtone 116 MHz.

http://www.qrp.pops.net/butler.asp

Note the attenuator on the output, it's there for a reason.

Tanakasan