Good morning Peter, great video about cb, and how to receive ssb, its very simple to do, I have built a circuit that turns the cb into a 40meter ssb transceiver, and I have had good audio reports an no signal splatter, it can be unplugged and the cb returns to 27 am again, if you would like more info let me know..
I built this circuit today and excited to try it out tonight listening on 40m!! One big tip - to test it use an SDR which shows a chunk of bandwidth: this will show 1. It’s actually putting out a carrier and 2. what frequency. As built with the 2n across base-ground, mine came in at exactly 445 kHz (not 455). After trial and error I found a much lower 68pF brought it to 454 kHz (showing on the SDR) which is close enough. I’m guessing the spacing between the copper strips and components themselves has an effect on capacitance. Being able to visualise with the SDR was a great help in testing.
How well would this work with AM SWL radios? I am assuming the capacitance would need changing between LSB and USB. I'm looking for something that would work for cheap SWL radios so that I can give students the radio and have them build a simple BFO. I can go the Arduino and si5351 route but I think that's a bit overkill. Slap an SA612 and a speaker and you have a simple receive that can pick it all up. Thoughts? Thank you for the great videos!! 73 KB2SDR
It should work on anything with a 455 kHz IF (some more modern radios don't). If receiver selectivity is wide enough it shouldn't need usb/lsb switching.
Hi Peter, with the 2n capacitors in the IC socket would it be possible to connect a small trimpot say 5-30pf (series or parallel) to give some small frequency shift, like a proper clarifier? Would the values work or not much difference. Does the proximity of the wire to the IF strip have a greater effect? Many thanks
You will want a wider range trimcap than that. Unless you try different parts of the circuit. Proximity of wires should have only a tiny effect on frequency.
Don't know why anyone would want to listen to SSB on an AM radio if you cant transmit on SSB. Typical Sydney SSB CB'rs' referring to 'down under" and USA. It was addictive stuff in the sunspot peak in the late 60's when 1 watt into a high gain yagi would let you work stateside be it AM and between channels , if you could get a yank to tune a bit off frequency. Now I'm where the sunspots don't like to shine and just hearing anything on 27mhz becomes next to impossible.
Good morning Peter, great video about cb, and how to receive ssb, its very simple to do, I have built a circuit that turns the cb into a 40meter ssb transceiver, and I have had good audio reports an no signal splatter, it can be unplugged and the cb returns to 27 am again, if you would like more info let me know..
Hi! This seems interesting, do you have any more info on this? I have several CBs collecting dust so this sounds like a cool project
You should do a video of your 40 meter transceiver
I just built a bfo not 2 hours ago, what a coincidence. 😂
The external "gimmick" capacitor is a great idea!
I built this circuit today and excited to try it out tonight listening on 40m!! One big tip - to test it use an SDR which shows a chunk of bandwidth: this will show 1. It’s actually putting out a carrier and 2. what frequency. As built with the 2n across base-ground, mine came in at exactly 445 kHz (not 455). After trial and error I found a much lower 68pF brought it to 454 kHz (showing on the SDR) which is close enough. I’m guessing the spacing between the copper strips and components themselves has an effect on capacitance. Being able to visualise with the SDR was a great help in testing.
Really appreciate your video, very helpful
Very clever
this already not RA, it is professional level
How well would this work with AM SWL radios? I am assuming the capacitance would need changing between LSB and USB. I'm looking for something that would work for cheap SWL radios so that I can give students the radio and have them build a simple BFO. I can go the Arduino and si5351 route but I think that's a bit overkill. Slap an SA612 and a speaker and you have a simple receive that can pick it all up. Thoughts? Thank you for the great videos!! 73 KB2SDR
It should work on anything with a 455 kHz IF (some more modern radios don't). If receiver selectivity is wide enough it shouldn't need usb/lsb switching.
can the BFO be used on all shortwave frequencies?
Can you do a transmit version Peter.
Unfortunately that's not possible. You'd have to build almost a whole SSB transmitter from scratch.
@@vk3ye ok cool just thought you might have a trick up your sleeve. 😀
Can this circuit be made with a 2 pin resonator instead of a 3 pin?
EDIT: Nevermind, answered at 6:18 😅
Hi Peter, with the 2n capacitors in the IC socket would it be possible to connect a small trimpot say 5-30pf (series or parallel) to give some small frequency shift, like a proper clarifier? Would the values work or not much difference. Does the proximity of the wire to the IF strip have a greater effect? Many thanks
You will want a wider range trimcap than that. Unless you try different parts of the circuit. Proximity of wires should have only a tiny effect on frequency.
I've been rather curious about HF CB and wasn't aware that it was still so active. Is it more, errr, "civilised" than UHF CB?
It's been very active lately with the good conditions. It has its moments but there's always other channels.
Who would want to listen to that? Good project, though!
How much do I have to pay to never hear CB again ? ;-) !!
To me? A lot of money. I'll have at least one more video containing CB later this month.
BREAKER, BREAKER 1-9. I guess you got to just get rid of your rig and stop seeing cb videos, good buddy. Over.
You can here extre swearing
Don't know why anyone would want to listen to SSB on an AM radio if you cant transmit on SSB. Typical Sydney SSB CB'rs' referring to 'down under" and USA.
It was addictive stuff in the sunspot peak in the late 60's when 1 watt into a high gain yagi
would let you work stateside be it AM and between channels , if you could get a yank to tune a bit off frequency.
Now I'm where the sunspots don't like to shine and just hearing anything on 27mhz becomes next to impossible.
Try 27.025 MHz AM around 10 or 11am. You're sure to hear big power US signals battling amongst themselves.