K7TAU/KL7IAK (SK) Memorial Page

Terry White (SK 2023) K7TAU/KL7IAK

This page is a memorial to Terry's amateur radio efforts during his life.

Terry worked as an RF/microwave technician with W7ZOI (Wes Hayward) during
spectrum analyzer development efforts at Tektronix during the late 1970s.
Terry joined Wes and myself at TriQuint Semiconductor working on new product
development during the 1990s when our focus was on 1st gen WiFi, GPS and low
band cell phone RFICs. Terry made significant contributions toward development
of RFICs that our team designed for the 1st generation of digital cell phone technology.
Terry worked very closely at TQS with KK7B (Prof. Rick Campbell) on advanced
receiver RFIC design and development during the 2000s.

Terry built a lot of his own rigs through the 50s, 60s, 70s and in to the 1980's.
Terry then co-authored numerous QST and QEX articles with Wes Hayward, W7ZOI
in the decades following the 1970s.
Terry built a number of HF projects for the classic "Solid State Design for the
Radio Amateur" (ARRL 1976).

I was fortunate enough to inherit the rigs Terry built for SSD.
What is presented here are better photos of the rigs Terry built that were part of SSD.

Another agenda for this memorial page is for builders (the few who are left)
to be able to have a better look at Terry's SSD rigs vs the small and grainy
images within SSD.
There are many construction techniques that Terry used that I think are relevant
for many home brew builders, especially beginners.




This is the 20m CW/SSB receiver from page xxx in SSD.
It is based on the then very coveted (expensive!) xtal filters from KVG.
Terry, like myself, appeciated the electrical and mechanical excellence
of the "Command Set" ARC-5 transmit and BC454 receiver geared air variable
capacitors. The worm drive mechanisms of the latter are superb for homebrew
applications.

A side view of the 20m receiver.
IF gain stages are inside the Cu clad shielded enclosure.
Terry liked to include 120VAC power supplies in his larger chassis,
as can be seen by the line transformer and electrolytic cap along the
back wall of the receiver.

Front end band pass filter, LNA and image stripping filter on the left.
MC1496 product detector and 9 MHz BFO on the right.
Rotary switch on the front panel (left) is an RF input attenuator.
Note that this front end shows full "ugly" construction techniques, which
were a "new" approach compared to dedicated PCBs.

Top view of front end and product detector.
The front end is likely a 40673 dual gate MOSFET LNA followed by a 40673
mixer to down convert to the 9 MHz IF. This architecture was popular "back in
the day" as a way to implement band imaging for both transmit and receiver with
a 9 MHz IF such that a 5.0 MHz to 5.5 MHz VFO offered all of 80m & 20m coverage
with just selecting which front end band pass filter to use...3.5 MHz to 4 MHz,
or 14 MHz to 14.35 MHz.

A closer look at the 20m front end.

Ugly method "Pros":
Cheap
Quick (10s of minutes per functional block...1 week via OSHPark).
Excellent circuit change flexibility
Mounting to chassis very easy.
Excellent performance for free running VFOs.
High quality (functional) labels can be done with white electrical tape and felt pen.
Felt pen labels can be moved if needed.

Ugly method "Cons":
Ugly (as if that matters)
No "professional looking" silk screen net and/or component labeling.

PCB "Pros":
Looks "professional" if done properly. (Irrelevant for home brew agenda)
Silk screen labels easily implemented.

PCB "Cons":
EXPENSIVE!
Long lead time (weeks back then).
Extremelty limited circuit change flexibility.
PCB is poor choice for free running VFOs.
Silk screen labels cannot be altered or moved AT ALL!.

The XF-9-B is for SSB. The other module behind it has to be the XF-9-A for CW.