Technical Projects

I knew I would be an electronician from the day I got the "Little electrician" kit for Christmas some time back in the 60's. After all the banana plugs in the kit were broken, all the magnets demagnetised and all the iron filings lost, I found a book at the library telling how to build crystal receivers. Since that day I have been hooked. In this section I have tried to compile my technical career by demonstrating all the electronics projects I have implemented. The projects are not chronologically sorted, but rather sorted by subject.

Amateur Radio

I started with amateur radio sometime in the 70's. As I was without money, I had to buy old surplus equipment, and build all antennas and test equipment myself. I even built the antenna tower myself. After some time I got more money and I could start building digital radios.

  • Antennae: dipoles, Yagi and helical antennae
  • Radio tower
  • UHF RF amplifier using cavities
  • Teletype Creed 7B
  • FSK decoder
  • SOFTNET node
  • Power tester

Audio

As audio electronics is simple to build, I have built a lot of it. Everyone just had to build a power amplifier in school. I also made live recordings of choir music and needed a better microphone, so I built one. Finally I realized that professional recordings needed better control over recording levels, so I built a VU meter containing an oscilloscope.

  • Switch for twin tape recorders
  • Power amplifier
  • Binaural microphone
  • VU meter featuring an oscilloscope

Miscellany

The "Miscellany" group is a bit of a general store, containing everything from my very first, and rather lethal, high voltage supply for experiments with electron tubes, passing my Geiger-Müller counter, ending with my infrared telescope, featuring a rifle sight and butt that, unfortunately, was never completed.

  • My first high voltage supply
  • Conduction tester
  • Tester for static electricity
  • Infrared photography
  • IR telescope
  • Geiger counter
  • Prototyping printed circuit boards

Computer Technology

The apple of my eye is of course my 16 bit computer using an 8086 CPU, but unfortunately the IBM PC came, and rendered it useless. It was preceded by an 8 bit home-brew computer using an 8080 CPU, and superseded by a CP/M compatible computer module I bought, descended from a blood analyser machine. Added to this was a home-brew keyboard with hall switches and a home-made box for diskette drives. I also had time for building a modem.

  • 8 bit computer
  • 16 bit computer
  • 300 bps modem
  • Cartridge tape station
  • Parts from Control Data Corporation disk drives

Optics

I have played a little with laser, too. I found it especially interesting to draw figures on the wall with an electrically deflected laser beam.

  • Rotating laser deflection unit
  • X-Y deflection unit for laser
  • Optical burglar alarm

Lovely Components

After some 20-25 years of experiments, there will unavoidably be some components left over; components I collected and had some bold ideas for, ideas that were never carried out because of shortage of resources or time.

  • Terrific electron tubes
  • Yummy transformers
  • Sweet capacitors

Knowledge

You should know that in most cases I designed and built all the equipment mentioned on these pages myself. In one case only, my 16-bit computer (the Computer Technology section) I had a professional manufacture and engrave the front panel. To be able to carry out all the technical projects mentioned here, and all the other jobs mentioned in other places in this website, I have had to learn:

  • Amateur radio
  • Analogue electronic construction
  • Analogue electronic design
  • Antenna technology and feeder lines
  • Computer aided layout and publishing
  • Computer graphics and image editing
  • Computer technology, data communications
  • Digital electronic construction
  • Digital electronic design
  • Electrical and electronic measurement technologies
  • Electromagnetic interference (EMI)
  • Electron tube technology
  • Fine mechanics
  • General mechanical workshop methods
  • High frequency technology
  • Local area networks
  • Magnet technology
  • Mechanical design, mechanical drawing
  • Microcomputer design
  • Microphone technology
  • Microwave technology
  • Milling, machining
  • Optical character recognition (OCR)
  • Optics and laser
  • Photo and photo laboratory techniques
  • Programming
  • Quality assurance and testing (electronics)
  • Sound-recording and editing
  • Static electricity
  • Translation
  • Turning on the lathe
  • Welding (limited knowledge)
  • Writing and pedagogy
Just reading the list makes me tired. But the biggest of all my faults is that I always get to many new ideas. That's why this website will never be finished.


To Home Page