开云体育

Hi Greg

The Irwell transceiver did start off with the intention of it becoming
a kit however the project has taken me way longer to develop than I
ever anticipated. So far I have the multi-mode receiver stages
complete which includes a digital modes interface. The receiver stages
include two high performance H-Mode mixers that are also used in the
transmit section so I can say the transmit sections are part complete!

I am currently working on the transmit multi-mode modulator section
and expect delivery of the TX Microphone pre-amplifier & VOX pcb's
within a few days so good progress is being made.

There are many reasons why this project is taking so long to complete
though mainly due to a lack of time, I have used up a lot of time
building and testing different modules before deciding on what would
make it to the final build.? I have lost count of how many AM
demodulation methods I built and tested before deciding on the AD8361
detector IC and the same can be said for some of the other modules too.

Early on I decided to develop the Irwell transceiver in a modular
fashion so that the project could evolve over time and be presented in
manageable chunks but it soon became apparent to me that with so many
modules the transceiver would become rather large so I switched to
using SMD components to shrink the modules down in size.? The use of
SMD technology will alienate a lot of people and therefore reduce
interest in the project but I would urge anyone in home brew
construction to try SMD and suffice to say if you can solder 1/4 watt
through hole resistors you can solder 1206 size SMD parts!.

Now having alienated some users with the use of SMD technology and
lost other users interest with the long and drawn out project progress
I return to the question "are there plans for an Irwell kit"

At this time I am not sure there is sufficient interest to warrant
producing a kit for the Irwell transceiver however once the project is
complete I will see what interest is shown and re evaluate this. As a
minimum I will make PCB's available and possibly arrange a group buy
on some of the parts.

To conclude I think it is fair to say this project has become a bit of
a personal crusade but I hope that the project does generate some
interest and gets built by other fellow enthusiasts. I will be posting
more details shortly on some of the other completed modules so keep an
eye on the files section of the group.

Regards & best 73's

Andy de G6LBQ