This post is about the recently-built and the to-be-built projects I’ve been working on.

Recently Built: RF Sampler

First off, the recently-built.  I recently built an RF Sampler.  This little device allows me to connect a rig under test to my oscilloscope.  The schematic is quite simple, as it is basically a voltage divider that divides the voltage between an internal resistor and a dummy load. Below are the pictures.

And what are pictures without a video to show it works?

The schematic for this is at http://www.qsl.net/k6ls/rfsampler.html.  Also note this video from W2AEW (which is an expanded design of this).

Recently Built: Octopus Tester

Another item I recently built is an octopus component tester.  This is a simple tester that makes some basic tests on electrical components, like capacitors.  You can’t get the value of capacitance (etc) from this, but you can see if it works by hooking it up to the tester and checking it on an oscilloscope.  I built this into an Altoids tin.

Below is what a capacitor looks like on the scope.

More information on this can be seen on W2AEW’s video.

In The Pipeline

I have one item in the pipeline, maybe two.

One of them is a Time Domain Reflectometer.  There are schematics for that in the ARRL Handbook.  This would help me test coax.  I may jump to an Arduino-based pulse generator first.

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