Today I milled bigger holes in two type of gears which will be used to give a 2:1 ratio between a stepper motor and an 10-turn pot, which will give us an absolute position of the capacitors. This will be used to convert one of our manual tuned amps to an preset tuned one. Hopefully if I get this working before CQWW SSB it will solve our amplifier problem since I can use it on most bands thus freeing up the 4CX1500B amp to be used on the 2nd radio. The idea is that the double axle stepper motor will be put in “series” with the capacitor axle. So the idea is to tune the amp as usual, and when you have it at maximum output power we just press save and it saves the position for the current band and segment. That way the openASC box can inform the amp of which band its currently on and the amp will tune to that position. I will make a real maneuver box for it in the future, similar to the openASC but for amps. However this is a lot of work and will be built in the future, now I want to get the amp functional.
The 2x4CX1500B amp project will continue when the outdoor work at SJ2W has stopped because of snow, so hopefully I can finish that amp up this winter too.
The excavator will probably dig some holes at the QTH this weekend, stay tuned!
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