Assembling the VHF Project

There are a couple of this you need to do before you start to assemble the project –

 Keep all the tools required for the project ready along when you start assembling
 Keep the copy of the Schematic (Circuit Diagram) and the BOM (Bill of Material) by your side.
 Physically check the PCB for any discrepancies, like drill holes missing, or tracks shorting.
 It’s always a good idea to keep an image of the ready assembled working PCB in front of you for a quick
reference to the parts and placement.
 Start work in a properly lit area.

For this project we start off assembling the digital side and the power supply section first. The VHF analog (VHF
module and associated components) come last.

 Lets start with assembling the jumper on this PCB the first. There are 4 officially printed jumpers on the PCB
and one of them is a HACK. I’ll come to that as we proceed.
 After the jumpers are assembled , assemble these components marked on the PCB – CN7, CN1, J3,
D7,D3,D5,D6,D1,C15,C16,C4,C2,R1,RN1,R7,R3,R4,R2,R8,U2 (SOCKET),U5,U6 & U1.
 U6 is a SMD component and needs to be soldered on the bottom side of the PCB, the general rule to solder
SMD components is Tin a pad (only 1) before you continue to solder the component. Place the component on
the footprint of the PCB, align the component accordingly , solder the tinned pad , fixing (anchoring) the
component on the PCB, check the final alignment of the component and having made sure, solder the
remaining pins of the component.
 Next you will need to wind the Inductor (L4) that is required in the power supply section of the project. Wind
110 cm of .5mm CU wire over the dumbbell core with the two leads solders with extreme ends of the Cu wire.
 Now it’s time to test the initial setup. Connect DC power of 7V upwards up to 30V onto connector CN7 as per
the polarity marked on the PCB. For this test you can use any available supply, generally a 12V, to test. Once
you put on the power you should see LED D5 light up , indicating power on the board. Now with a millimeter
check the proper supply on pins #19/20 of U2, it should be 5V DC. Once you have achieved this you are set to
proceed further, if not stop here and check for faults. Capacitors C16/C15 are polarized capacitors and should
be assembled respecting their polarities marked on the PCB.
 Now’s, it’s time to assemble the LCD module, which looks a bit tricky and care should be taken to solder it
properly. How to assemble the LCD module is discussed separately with the help of pictures.
 After the assembly of the LCD module, it’s time to test the basic working of the board. For this you will also
need the Rotary Encoder (RE) PCB/assembly ready. Its no rocket science assembling this. The RE connects via
a relimate connector at J3 marked on the main PCB.

The pin marked as ground should be considered as Pin#1 for reference and pin#4 is connected to the RE
switch. Pin#2/3 are connected to A/B of the RE.
 After interfacing the RE on the main board (via relimate connector) it’s time we test the basic working of the
Board with the MCU plugged in. Please re-confirm the availability of 5V DC on the pins mentioned in the above
section. There’s a small omission (error) on the PCB, because of which a small patch of island is not connected
to GND. It is referred to as OPEN GND. A simple hack to correct this problem is to add a jumper wire (bridge)
 in the place shown in the below image, on the bottom side of the PCB.

After this mod, you can insert the supplied MCU in U2 IC socket and power up the board.
 With the LCD connected you may need to adjust the contrast preset on the LCD board to see displayed text on
it. The opening screen with show you the software version details and then move on to display the frequency,
squelch and volume setting. Moving the RE encoder, CW/CCW , the reading should change , if its moving the
wrong way, just interchange the wires connected the at AB pins on the RE. The RE has a built in switch,
pressing the tuning knob with activate the switch and this in turn should change the step size of the frequency
change on the display. Step size is shown by an under cursor on the LCD. Detailed operating procedure will be
discussed later in this document.

Operating the VHF:

When you power on the kit, it will show you one of the following screen for a second and move on. Ver. 4R is Rx only
and Ver. 4E is TxRx

After the above screen it will settle to the more familiar screen which shows you the last stored frequency on the Top
line and Squelch / Volume setting on the bottom line. This is digital volume. The maximum you can set is 1 ~ 8.
The Underscore under figure 1 displays the step size , so when you move the Rotary Encoder (RE) this digit will
change. To change the Step size , simply press the switch on the RE (Shaft Switch) and the Underscore symbol will
move in a cyclic manner.

Adding 3 more switches (Optional) you can extend the functionality of this kit. Individual switches connect to ground.
These switches are connected at CN5 as show in the figure below.

SQLCH – Kill Squelch or Moni will defeat the squelch

Vol – You can set the digital volume setting by pressing this button
SET SQLCH – This is to set you squelch audio setting.

Simply press your choice for configuration and see the LCD display change to show you the present setting, move the
RE to your desired setting and press the RE switch to set it. Once set you should see the change on the main display
option along with your frequency.

Monitoring Marine Bands (Experimental)

There is a isolated pad on the PCB as seen in the picture below. Shorting this to ground during Power Up will move the
Radio into Marine band. This band operates on fixed channels and moving the RE will move through them.
Corresponding frequencies of the Channels is shown on the LCD.

Try it and do let me know, how it works. If you are able to copy any station on this frequency record and share it with
others. BTW, this would only be applicable to people living by the coast line where they can copy these channels.

3 March 2017
 VHF TRANSRECEIVER PROJECT ‐ BOM 
Sr.No.  Qty  Ref.  Value 
1  2  CN1  10 PIN BOX HEADER 
2  1  CN2  SMA / BNC‐F CON (OPTIONAL) 
3  1  CN7  2 PIN PBT CON 
4  8  C1,C2,C3,C4,C5,C6,C11,C13  100n 
5  2  C8,C10,C12,C14  22pF 
6  2  C8,C14  10pF 
7  1  Cx  5pf 
8  3  C9,C7,C15  100uF/25V 
9  1  C16  1000uF/25V 
10  5  D1,D4,D5,D6,D9  LED 3MM (2 RED, 3 GREEN) 
11  1  D2  1N4007 
12  1  D3  1N4148 
13  1  D7  1N5408 
14  1  D8  1N5822 
15  3  L1,L2,L3  BPF COIL, refer to further info 
16  1  L4  100uH‐3A, refer to further info 
17  1  MK1  CONDENSOR MIC CAPSULE 
18  1  M1  SR‐FRS‐1WV MODULE 
19  1  RN1  10K , 9 PIN R‐PACK 
20  2  R1,R2  1K 
21  2  R3,R5  10K 
22  5  R4,R6,R7,R8,R10  470E 
23  1  R9  22E 
24  2  VR1  10K PRESET 
25  3  U1,U3,U5  PC817 
26  1  U2  16F883 ‐  PROGRAMMED 
27  1  U4  LM386 
28  1  U6  LM2576T‐5V SMD 
29  1     28 PIN NARROW, IC SOCKET 
30  1     8 PIN IC SOCKET 
31  1     ROTARY ENCODER WITH SWITCH 
32  1     10 PIN FRC 6", FOR LCD 
33  1     8 OHMS SPEAKER 
34        16x2 LCD WITH BACKLIGHT 
35  3     Push to On switch 
36  1     4 pin relimate connector 
37  2     2 pin relimate connector 

All resistors are 1/8W type 
refer to a PIC of an assembled board for reference 
L4 ‐ 110cm .5mm Cu Wire