High (Audio) Quality AM Tuner

The PSU has been finished!

Here is the PCB of the PSU, now, finished.
 

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Looking good! You are much more intrepid than I am, I would have built that P2P on a little metal chassis. I can't remember the last time I hand laid out a PCB and etched it myself, it must be getting close to 30yrs ago.

Demonstrates that you are very resourceful and it's interesting to watch you make progress.
 
Hi Kevin‼ Many thanks for your comments, always very positive.

I have an old HP laser printer 4L and the stuff to make professional PCBs (Autotrax 1.61). What happens to me is that It takes much more time than a hand made PCB like this, and also I doubt about the process of to transfer from the sheet to the material. I had brought negative UV films, and sensitive PCBs, but I doubt about the finished results.
 
I had a 4L that died just a couple of years ago after 17yrs of faithful service.. The replacement, an Epson Workforce Inkjet, higher resolution, is much faster, has a duplexer, prints in photographic quality color, prints on any standard size of paper to 13 x 19 inches, and actually cost less than the Laserjet 4L. It also scans, faxes, and copies. (works with my phone, tablet, linux and windows boxes and windows laptops over wifi or ethernet)

I have used a laser printer with printable film and UV sensitive PCB material which I exposed to strong sunlight for some period of time and it worked, sort of.
The results were acceptable but it took a lot of time to expose, develop, and etch the board, then I had to drill it. Vector board would have been so much faster, I think that was the last pcb board I ever fabricated by hand.

Given some care I think the results can be fairly good.
 
I brought two of them a couple of years ago, because my 486's only suport parallel ports, not USB.

There are some specialized paces here that repair at low costs, cylinders, toner, etc, of printers, buy they have certain delays and I still have doubts in respect to the process itself and the final quality of the finished PCB.

In fact, manual results are not too bad, neither.
 
Hi Oslvado, sorry I asked over on the tubes side of the forum about your FM design. I didn't realise how hard at work you have been with this AM tuner.

Truly excellent work and I do think that AM can have really quite good retrieved audio quality.

As others have mentioned I too prefer it for spoken word broadcasts, its just a shame that here in the UK the actual quality of transmitted media is poor and getting worse. I believe they are going to turn off Radio 4 from Droitwich at some point.

Cheers
Matt
 
Thanks Matt for your concepts.

This project comes from large time ago. This is why I saved the 3 section brass plates gang and the IF transformers, plus tubes, sockets, etc. In fact, it was not a hard job, I did it to prove myself that I'm capable of making something away from classic designs and I did it in the free time, fortunately I live alone. I have a txt file what I use as a spread sheet, where I saved calculus, experiences, an so on, but it is in Spanish and in CP437, so, once again offer it to those who want to investigate how did I arrived to such a result. As I said in other thread, to make a good project, IMHO it is not a good idea to mix some schematics and see what happen. This is a very meditated project using some previous concepts, I read all I could get at hand (the Radiotron mainly, but also some patents from Google Patents, and more).

The audio quality is really pleasant. When wright tuned in the top of the IF's Q curve on good station, audio very resembles a FM station. Good bass response without being tiring, and good trebles without being harsh.
I really didn't measure it using laboratory instrument to show us real figures of my tuner, because I still didn't finished it (Still working in the double sided PCB project) and its ugly and feeble form makes it difficult to transport to a laboratory, but when I finish it probably I´ll carry it to the UTN FRA's laboratory, and with the help of a professor, for make overwhelming tests.

Once again, thanks for reading this thread, and I apologize about my RF topics.
 
what is the frequency response you are able to get. Many AM tuners roll off over 3khz while FM can go to 15khz. FM is near CD quality if they did not compress it so much.
HA1197 AM tuner chip can get to 6khz if you back off sensitivity ( and Q ) a bit
Sound quality is really pleasant and full
 
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The past two weeks, I was in vacations time, and in between other things I did, I finished the project. Here I will post some photos of the hand-made double sided PCB for the tuner.
 

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Once the PCB is finished, then it will receive the components.
 

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I'm not good making cabinets, nor I have sufficient tools, I live in a little house (only 40m²) and also I have usually little time to enjoy my projects. Then, for a time, the AM Tuner Project will look as in the pic below. Now, I'll continue working in an old project, also published here long time ago (http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/tubes-valves/224046-neutralizing-amplifier.html), and finish it. Perhaps, before it, I make a single box for both, the amplifier and the tuner.
 

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I didn't realize the house was quite that small, about twice to three times the size of what we call "tiny houses" here in the U.S. which are a popular trend now - many are trailerable. Very green environmentally speaking is the intent in many cases. I know you use solar power for some stuff so there are similarities.

Surprised that your considerable skills don't yet extend to making cabinets for your projects. I do OK in metal, but not so great in wood. 😛
 
OK, sometimes I say that I have "manos de manteca" (Butter hands), which menas that almost everything I get in hands, in a relatively short time they drop from them 🙂 I believe that it is not an ill, simply a bit stupid with my hands: in fact I must rectify several times a text because in the firsts two checks, most of the words are bad wroten. Too many errors or mistake in the keyboard.

Returning to the project, yes, I am not skilled in the art of making boxes, and I luck of sufficient space and tools to make them good finished.

Sincerely (Also), I prefer spent time making electronic design over wood or metal jobbing.
 
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Sincerely (Also), I prefer spent time making electronic design over wood or metal jobbing.

We refer to it as butter fingers.. I am notorious for dropping and breaking things. I also break expensive little taps and drill bits from time to time.

I too, much prefer doing electronic design to the practical aspects of packaging, but have been badly embarrassed enough times in the past that I am now a bit of a maniac about it. My stuff mostly is not pretty, but it is well built and packaged.