And so begins the work on my TNC interface.
I’m starting with desoldering a couple of transformers I need from some old dialup modems we had in the garage.
-
- That black square is hiding the transformer we seek.
-
- That square of pins is the transformer we’ll be desoldering.
-
- Desoldering!
-
- Prying the transformer off the PCB.
-
- Voila!
-
- the fabulous tripod mount for phone/camera
See? Nothin’ to it. I would have had a fabulous timelapse video of the process, but it seems the build of Jellybean I’m using on my phone doesn’t support that yet (built-in camera app crashes)
After this, it’s just a matter of putting the pieces together according to various schematics I’ve found on the internets.
It turns out I don’t actually need the isolation transformers after all, since I’ll only be working in VHF/UHF for the foreseeable future. It’s really only needed when working in the HF bands, for which transceivers are WAY expensive, and I’m not quite yet independently wealthy.