Nice job Allison. My PA print is about the same size, 2.5 by 5 inches and that includes one corner 1.5 by 1.5 " cut out to leave access to the BFO/AF mixer below and also 2 reasonably big heatsinks of about 1.5 by 1.2" each placed horizontally on but isolated from the board. Next to the heat sinks I placed a vertical PCB strip for shielding and behind that was just enough room for the LPF band filter. So you actually have very little space left to place all the components. It does required some planning ahead but you can fit it all on there easily, I even managed to position each coil in another direction. But I doubt they will influence each other's field much, it's just to be on the safe side.
That is why I am hesitant on replacing the T50-6 toroid coils and make new ones using T50-2. I glued them in and it is a tight squeeze there, I don't want to damage anything surrounding it when taking them out. The T50-2 would result in a better Q for these coils but do I really need that? My IF is 10 MHz and I left the BFO a little below that, so the upper side band passes through the crystal filter. The DDS works from 17.0 to 17.3 MHz so I get 27 and 7 MHz mixed before the BPF. The BPF only lets the 7 MHz part through and turns USB into LSB and vise versa. Worst case scenario there may be some unwanted 27 (17+10) and 14 (7x2) MHz signals. They are much higher in frequency than the desired 7 MHz so I wonder: do I really need better coils with a higher Q and thus steeper slope? To me it seems impossible it will ever interfere in the 20 meter or CB band.?
Maybe, when everything else is finished and I want to use some more power, I could consider adding a new bandfilter and simply bypassing the old one.?
