W5USJ's Deluxe Tenna Dipper

Deluxe KD1JV "Tenna Dipper"

by Chuck Carpenter, W5USJ

My main interest in building the KD1JV "Tenna Dipper" was to experiment with a VCO circuit to generate an audible tuning indicator. More about this later.

But, you see, I had this nice Context Engineering enclosure and 10k ten-turn pot that needed to be used. So...

First, though, building the dipper this way does away with the elegant simplicity of Steve's completely self-contained single-board construction.

Here's a summary of the changes made and peripheral parts used for my version of the tenna dipper.

Machined pin DIP sockets used for U1, U2, U3 and the DIP switches.
A lever type DIP switch is used in place of the slide type DIP switch.
DIP pins are used to make connections for board parts mounted on panels. Includes 10k pot, hi/lo switch, LED, program button, speaker and modified R10 circuit for connection to VCO circuit.
The speaker is glued over a hole in the bottom of the enclosure. The speaker is loud so it could be left on the board and still hear it OK.
A DIP pin is used in the external frequency meter pad too.
Enclosure is a Context Engineering #2506B. I scratched the front panel and painted it gray. Labels are paper and printed with black and gray background.
The 10k ten-turn pot is from Mouser.
Two "Manhattan" pads are glued next to the LED for attaching leads.

Lever type DIP switches are used to allow access through a notch in the cover. A sub-miniture SPST switch for hi/lo selection. A push button switch for program selection and frequency readout. Power connected through a 5.5 x 2.1 mm coaxial connector. Power on/off with a SPST miniature switch. Antenna/tuner connection with a BNC jack.

The connection for an external VCO circuit is provided with a 2-circuit audio jack. Voltage for the VCO is taken across the 100
Ohm, R10, resistor in the LED circuit. Other values may be used as needed and still keep the LED visible.

A spare 2-circuit jack, marked "meter", is also mounted on the back panel. This may be used for an external frequency meter or as an input for some other purpose TBD.

A revised version of Steve's schematic is available in GIF format showing the connections and changes made for this version of the "Tenna Dipper".

Download GIF Schematic File (37 KB)

Chuck Carpenter W5USJ

November, 2003