User Designed Station

The buzzword of the day seems to be "Software Defined Radio" which is abbreviated to SDR. Neat idea, but it leaves the most important component out of the picture, THE USER! Another item I don't care for in SDR is the word "defined". It is too passive for my liking, I prefer the word "Designed". and finally, if you check out the latest top of the line radios, you will find that the antenna is becoming more and more involved with the rig with built in tuners and even the ability to rotate the antenna from the rig. Putting this all together, I come up with the phrase, "User Designed Station" or UDS for short.

The Right Rig Shape

So where do you start? I think maybe the basic shape would be a nice place to start. The ancient Greek architects utilized what is called the "Golden Rectangle" in their classical buildings such as the Parthenon at the Acropolis above modern day Athens. The Golden Rectangle was achieved when a building had a dimensional relationship of 4 parts wide to 3 parts high. A Greek building, even current houses look right if it is 40 feet wide by 30 feet high or 100 feet wide by 75 feet high. A building that is 40 feet wide and 40 feet high does not look right, It is often called a "boxy looking thing". A house that is 100 feet wide by25 feet high is called a "Rambler" because it does not have the dimensional relationships required by the Golden Rectangle. For the last 60 years or so, TV sets always had the same 4 to 3 ratio though the picture tubes were originally round and could have had a 1:1 ratio with more vertical resolution. The Golden Rectangle, expressed as a decimal is .75

The HDTV craze seems to be going head to head against the Golden Rectangle, doesn't it. But there is another Human Factor involved, the human vision range. A young human has an eyeball vision range, without moving the head or body of course, of 170 degrees wide by 110 degrees high. The focus is lousy at the edges,but the ability to sense movement is there within this range. As we age the side to side and the top to bottom boundaries reduce due to the aging process, and especially due to eyeglass design. And an old arthritic neck sure doesn't help either. Although youth is wasted on the young, the visual rectangle is set at a dimensional relationship of 110/170 or .65

The Ham Rig Rectangle of older rigs

Ham Radios have their equivalent to the Golden Rectangle, which I will call the Ham Rig Rectangle. Years ago, the receiver and the transmitter were two different entities. The receiver might be one of the National, Hallicrafters, or Collins famous receivers. My first one was as S-15, the Sky Challenger. Its aspect ratio was about the same as HDTV (.65) as I recall. The transmitters were often home made in those days, and likely as not they were more like the golden rectangle in shape (.75) The famous Heathkit transmitters like the AT-1 Novice rig and the DX-100 were generally built more in the shape of the Golden Rectangle (.75) meaning that a transmitter of equal width would typically be a couple of inches higher.Some of you may be collectors of old ham radios; let me know what you find. Divide the height of the radio by the width. You will generally find that the pre 1960 receivers were about .65 and the transmitters came in at about .75 unless the two were built as matching units. Matching units were typically built as .65 for both and the transmitters output tank circuits were smashed down a bit to fit.

In the 60' the transceiver became the weapon of choice, along with several well known Mobile rigs like the Swan rigs.The mobile rigs were in the .75 range for some reason, though I would think that a lower height would be an advantage in a car or truck. The home station transceivers were generally more in the shape of HDTV at .65. By 1965 nobody but nobody wanted the old dual boxes at their station, so I bought a like new Viking 2 rig and VFO for $40. The resultant aspect ratio of a Hallicrafters S-101 and a Viking 2 and the VFO all at a single level on the operating table was deemed unacceptable with a width of about 5' and a height of about 14" for an aspect ratio of .23. One interesting radio that appeared in the 1950's was a Drake 1A, Remember that one, old timers?s I loved that receiver, but did it ever look strange! It had very few knobs, but it had a big round tuning dial and dual speed concentric tuning knobs, a bandswitch, a volume control, and the best thing of all, a variable pass band IF. But that was the last time anyone dared venture into the wrong aspect ratio radio field. All subsequent Drake radios were designed with the Golden Rectangle shape, and they decorated the additional front panel width with switches of little value.

The 70's saw the Japanese invasion. Radios were designed to out feature each other, and every feature needed another switch or button. Soon the HDTV & human vision Aspect rio (.65) was inadequate to hold all the mess that the Japanese designers dumped inside the radio.The aspect ratio declined to .45 by about 1980. and now it is closer to .35. Low is good to the Japanese culture, I guess. But finally the limit of acceptability was reached, temporarily, and they started to limit the number of switches, soon adding layers of meaning to each switch. Some of my Japanese radios now may have as many as 20 or 30 meanings for the same switch. When I have to use a manual to operate the most basic functions of a radio; That's it, Let me outta here.

The Flexradio SDR-1000 measures 10" wide and 4.5" high, making it .45 aspect ratio. Other than being slightly uglier than my Sky Challenger of 1937 vintage, I like this aspect ratio. Some small Japanese transceivers like the ICOM 910H have this same ratio of .45 if you look at them with the metal desk wire down to make the radio slant backwards slightly. The wire is a neat trick. It fakes a good look and it's cheap.

Most radio are almost square in shape from a top view when considering the knobs on the front and the plugs, and controls and heat sinks on the rear. This rear dimension is kind of a sleeper dimension, but my Kenwood TS-950SD is a real desktop gobbler at 18" deep. The newer Japanese rigs must have had a real "Come to Buddha" meeting somewhere about this as the depth has been cut back considerably on the full featured radios ( or they are lying about the real depth by not counting the height of the knobs on the front and the heat sinks and connectors on the rear). You can safely add about 3" to the case depth to get how much table space will be required.

The Shape and Size of MY Ideal User Designed Station

Look at the width dimension of the commercial rigs. The 10" wide SDR-1000 looks too dinky. And all the separate attachments look too klutzy and involved.

My Kenwood TS-950SD looks over nourished and bloated at 15.5" wide and its depth is really horrid, eating up the whole desktop,

but thank goodness it's not one of those newest Japanese rice boxes like the Yaesu FT DX-9000D at 20.4" wide by 7" high (6.5" for radio; .5" for feet) .34 aspect ratio, even worse this year with the FT-DX9000 wannabe, the FT-2000D with side mounted DMU-2000 at 21" wide by 5.6" high (5.1 the radio+.5" for feet) .26 aspect ratio!

So, I would build a case for the UDS that is about 12.5" to 13.5" wide by 5.75" high by 10.5" deep. These dimensions will be considered modern, reasonable, and not be a desktop gobbler. The power supply, and attached computer etc. will be separately contained below the desktop. The Linear Amplifier for you QRO types, if small, could also be placed on the desktop. Unfortunately all amplifiers of any significant power output always include the power supply in the same box, so I consider them unworthy of precious desktop space and put them below, but it makes them more difficult to see and tune, a disadvantage to the Contester.

The height dimension above of 5.75" will not have any dumb wire support occupying the unused space under the rig. I see no redeeming social value to this wire; instead I would have an inverted sloping panel at the bottom which slopes inward and upward at a 45 degree angle from the bottom. This inverted sloping panel would be about 1" by 13.5" The purpose of this panel would be to hold programmable switches (I'll talk about that later.) Above the inverted sloping face of the radio is the main faceplate of the UDS. Japanese radios have a back slope of 2 Degrees to 8 degrees. I have an equipment rack full of old HP test instruments that has an upper section with a back slope of 20 degrees, The calibrations on the knobs are very easy to see, and the slope about right so that I do not get a glare from either outside lighting or overhead artificial lighting. In fact this amount of slope seems to highlight engraved switch titles. I like this, so I am going to go with a 20 degree backslope. More than 20 is even easier to read, but axial control of knob turning is more difficult.

You can tell the expense class of the equipment by the radius of curvature on the corners. A low end unit will have almost square corners, maybe 1/16" radius at most. Full function Japanese units have about a 1/8" radius of curvature. An equivalent unit made in America will have a 1/4" radius of curvature. This seems like too much curvature to me, looks inefficient. I would specify 3/16" radius of curvature on all corners for my UDS. For curves flowing into the bottom, I would specify 1/4" radius of curvature as this gives the impression of lightness. Even if it isn't. The four feet, inset 1" from the sides and the front or back, would be 375" high made from conductive and semi-adhesive rubber or rubberized cork so they are non-skid.

Sometimes a rig is just meant to break the traditional shape and size parameters. I am designing one unit that I call the UDS-1. It doesn't look like a radio at all. It is closer to an LCD screen than a conventionally shaped radio, but as a starter rig or a homebrew project, I have really gotten to like this little thingie.It will match a 15' LCD monitor real well.

The Colors of MY Ideal User Designed Station

I don't like all dark black electronics gear. Makes me think of the time when Henry Ford was asked about different colors for the Model T Ford. He said, "The customer can have any color he wants, as long as it is Black." I like my ham gear to be multi colored. I would select from Cream, Flat Non-glare Silver, Brushed and anodized Aluminum , Semi-Flat Gray, and Semi-flat Black. All colors would be powder coat. Jacks and non programmed controls and switches would be silk screen labeled.

My idea of a QRP version of an Ideal User Designed Station

If you ever watch someone checking out a rig that they might purchase at a ham store or a hamfest flea market, what's the first thing that they always do? That's right; They spin the tuning knob. Whether the radio is on or off, that knob's rotation must be smooth, frictionless, and keep spinning for at least 5 turns. I don't know why this is, but it always happens this way. Early Heathkits had bronze bushings on the knobs and the result was they flunked the spin test royally and were immediately labeled cheap. Earliest Hallicrafters radios also had this same yucky feeling tuning knob and were judged inferior immediately as well. . Post WW2, Hallicrafters saw the error of their ways, and the knobs were make to pass the spin test. The Hallicrafters SX 101 had a great spinning tuning knob.

My SDR-1000 not only does not pass the tuning knob spin test; it doesn't even have a Tuning Knob to spin!

The Concept UDS-1 shown below sets out to rectify this error right off by having a great spinning tuning knob. A rotating shaft putting out two signals 90 degrees out of phase will provide a counting function as well as whether it is counting up or down. The controls come in many different flavors, from a simple dual wipers making contact with points around its periphery, to optically coupled switches on shafts turning in a bronze bushing, to the most expensive version which has the optically coupled shafts turning on ball bearings with extremely low friction. Putting a weighted knob on a lightly oiled ball bearing photo coupled shaft will immediately place this UDS concept unit in the upper tier of radios you have known and loved. A cheap contacting switch costing $5 would work just as well as the top of the line ball bearing photo coupled switch for $50, but you will never be sorry you went whole hog on this item, believe me.

The Concept UDS-1 is made to appear super simple to the user and feel great in use. You are immediately impressed with the minimal amount of controls and switches on this unit. You may also be concerned that this lack of switches and knobs makes inferior to any "Real Rig" from Japan. Thrust me, this rig can outperform the latest $12K rice box.

UDS-1's Shape

The shape of the UDS-1 is rather unconventional on purpose. I look upon this to be a rig that can start simple and grow with your interests without having to discard everything and purchase a new rig that will only be a compromise at most. It is unique with its small footprint. It is only 7 1/4" wide and 4" high by 1" deep. It consists internally of a main motherboard running the displays and soft switches, with plug-in sub boards that customize it to your interests. While unconventional in footprint, you should note that it is in line with the current trend in computer displays and HDTVs to be flat and wall mounted or mounted on a small stand that can be angled for best operation and legibility, or, it can simply lay flat on its back. any way you put it on your desktop or wall, it will be taking very little desk space.

UDS-1's Displays

The main display is the least cost full graphic LCD on the marketplace. Its resolution is 128 pixels across by 64 lines of pixels down (total of 8192 pixels). I have been importing these things for years directly from Taiwan for under $20 each. I use them in the Ultimate Battery Chargers that I manufacturer. My software drivers can generate various sized characters and create complex graphs. These displays are monochromatic and do not do gray scale imaging.

The graphic display will be used for many purposes in my Ideal User Design Station. It will show the Frequency (Half Duplex) or Frequencies (Full Duplex- Satellite) of operation at the top. It can show the shape of a roofing filter if used, and it will definitely show the shape of the pass band and signals within the pass band. It will also be used to provide help instructions on terms used by the software functions instead of requiring the use of a manual.

If a bigger display is needed I would use a 320 x 240 display (total of 76800 pixels) which would give 9.4 times more resolution but at a much higher cost. An even higher cost option would be to use a 320 by 240 by 3 color LCD. This would add 28 times more data resolution than the monochromatic 128 x 64, but I am unsure whether this increased resolution is justified. It definitely is not in a basic system.

The Concept UDS-1 has another LCD, which in this case is an alphanumeric version with a built in character generator providing up to 80 characters organized as 2 rows of 40 characters on each. This display is also backlit so that the user can recognize data on the screen under various lighting conditions, from subdued light through daylight. These are slightly lower in cost than a graphic version and easier to program, but with pre built macros, I find the difference somewhat academic. In fact I would prefer to use a fully graphic version with same width and height as the alphanumeric, but they are not made like this. I have arbitrarily divided the 40 characters/line into 5 separate areas. Within theses 5 sub areas I will have a defined space of 8 characters across by 2 lines. To better isolate each switch's area, I am going to leave 2 of the characters blank in each of the switch area lines.

So these switch sub areas are referred to as the five "Soft Switches". Each of the Soft Switches will have up to 5 characters on the top line and another up to 5 characters on the lower line. I will be using these 10 characters to identify the current function of the switch. Between each of the 5 switches will be a block of 4 blank characters, 2 on the top line and 2 on the bottom line, to separate the switch boundaries.

The five switches will have a number of different definitions as the USR-1 is customized to the user, but with 10 characters apiece to work with, the switch function should be vastly better defined than labeling a switch "BIN" as the SDR-1000 or "AF VBT" as the TS-950SD does, which is quite meaningless. The meaningless switch labels are the main problem associated with the Japanese radios.

The alphanumeric LCD provides the labeling process, but to actually do the ON/OFF selecting, another system is required. This can be a touch sensitive grid placed over the LCD switch area, or it can be a finger touch sensitive area below each switch boundary. It can also be a light pen that is able to discriminate between the switch areas as the graphic display is refreshed. I favor a sensitive area beneath the LCD label area as the simplest and cheapest way to accomplish the switching on/off of the switch functions.

The Power ON/OFF function will be a low voltage activity, not affecting the incoming 117 volts to the power supply. It can be either a discrete switch or it could be another finger touch sensitive area which I prefer.

UDS-1's Volume Control

The normal application for this control is to set how loud the receiver is being heard, but it can also set other things as well, such as the RF Gain, and the Gamma shape of the AUDIO Gain, and the Microphone Settings, etc., if used concurrently with the Soft switches, appropriately relabeled. You can see how a piece of hardware can be used far beyond the basic default function normally assigned to it. A volume control should work very smoothly, but not be weighted. A good quality Photo activated rotary switch would work fine here. The knob should be different from the other two knobs; in this case I made the volume control knob slightly smaller than the Soft Key Ops knob above as the SKO switch is a mechanically activated switch which requires slightly more energy to rotate so a larger knob is appropriate.

Soft Key OPs Control

A special low cost quadrature based mechanical or photo activated switch with detents is shown on the upper right side of the UDS-1 front panel.and is labeled "Soft Key OPs". this control separates this UDS from any radio you have ever seen. It provides a very user friendly and intuitive customizing function that will change the way you think a station should be operated.

I have thought about the sequence of activities whereby the UDS-1 can be Customized to the user. I think the first thing to set up in the radio is the manner that it will be used, which I refer to as the mode in which it will used. Currently SSB is the most commonly used mode, so I would treat this as the default mode. Another mode might be FM, it might be Double Sideband or it might be AM or even CW. It also might be subsets within each of these modes such as SSTV or Digital SSTV, or it might used for RTTY, Packet or PSK-31. It might used on Satellites using either FM or SSB. Store and Forward Data Systems are also a possible mode on Satellites. EME is also anther possible use for the UDS-1. The things that differentiate between these modes are the bandwidth ranges, the frequency ranges and the detection and generation system to be employed under software control. Rotator control even better than the Yaesu DX9000 has can be easily added and the Contesters' and the DXers' fondest dreams fulfilled. Independent Sideband with voice on one sideband and SSTV or Packet on the other Sideband would be another interesting sub mode of operation.

The next thing to set up would be the band or bands (satellite full duplex operation requires two different bands) to be used by the desired mode. After selecting the desired band to operate on, the frequency is the next item to enter. This can be accomplish in several ways. Old timers would love to spin the dial until the desired frequency appears the top of the Graphic LCD. Other ways are: Directly enter the desired frequency from the attached keyboard, or you could always play spin the knob with a mouse. Now you should be ready to listen on the radio for signals.

Once a station is heard or contacted, a combination of the SKO Control and a Soft key can be used to achieve the clearest signal with the least interference, whether QRM or QRN. If you have a steerable beam or array antenna, than you can enter the desired bearing and let the UDS monitor the motion until there. Since the UDS can control the rotator for you, it could be also used to monitor the quality of the reception and be able to suggest using a different antenna should better conditions be found on that antenna setting.

The Mandatory Subsystems of MY User Designed Station - 1.

The motherboard should be able to handle all the data, help instructions, and control monitoring functions of the UDS-1. This will be quite a task for it, but updates in the form of new firmware should preclude premature obsolescence. A PIC processor should be able to easily handle this process, with the inclusion of more EEROM for holding the lengthy help instructions. I would not use anything less than the 18F family of PIC processors, as the 16F family is too primitive and nearing end of useful life. The Math capabilities of the 16F family are particularly primitive as shown by the fact that the 16F family takes a number of instructions to accomplish even the simplest high precision math activities. A couple of voltage regulators round out this minimal motherboard.

A special plug in board or boards are needed to supply the front end of a receiver. This will include the receiver broadband tuned input circuits to the RF Preamp, on into the 1st mixer of the radio. The other component is a Direct Digital Synthesizer, DDS for short. More meaningless gobbledygook, I know. But this thing is really neat. It is a vfo with the stability of a crystal on one IC. You connect the DDS to a HF Crystal, and input a binary division ratio and out the other end like magic comes the desired frequency. To round out the receiver is an IF signal booster feeding a high speed A/D conversion circuitry.

The Alternative Interchangeable Components of MY User Designed Station - 1.

If you want the UDS-1 to also transmit then a transmitter subsystem should also be plugged into the motherboard. Don't make this too powerful, 5 watts on HF or VHF is plenty. Use an external brick amp to get to high power if needed. Then input to the Transmitter subsystem from a high speed D/A.

The Optional Subsystems of My User Designed Station - 1

If you want to run with the big dogs, you really should have a 2nd DDS. They are quite cheap and I would not leave home without two DDS, myself. With the inclusion of this thingie, you have the capability to instantly switch frequencies, monitor sub bands, have an internal sweep oscillator for tuning, and work full duplex on the satellites. Another recommended subsystem is a quality audio amp of some power. Most receivers go to great lengths getting a good signal out to the audio gain control and then die at the audio amp stage. Or they might just use the sound card's audio amp which is always rather Yucky at best.

My idea of a Full sized version of an Ideal User Designed Station - 2

The Front Panel of MY Sized Ideal User Designed Station -2

I drew out what I am currently thinking in terms of my ideal layout for a UDS. It is about 13" wide by about 6" high, and has a 6" x 3.5" Color LCD backlit panel taken from a Portable DVD Player, which was formerly used to keep the kids quiet in the back seat. On the right of of the panel is a 32 step quadrature control which selects major items such as mode, band, frequency, language, bandwidth control, etc. on the soft switches below.
The Tuning ball bearing 256 step quadrature control can be either "left is frequency tuning and right is volume" or the reverse, depending on whether the user is right or left handed. I prefer tuning a radio with my left hand while hold the microphone with my right hand, so the right bottom control is a 64 step quadrature control. While I like the displays to be in color, but Standard color graphic LCDs are very expensive. The display at the top will be mostly associated with frequency and station control include beam headings, etc. The display area in the middle will be associated with the desired mode of operating, such as bandwidth and spectral display. The rig front panel will have a 0 to 20 degree slant back at the top, hinged at the bottom and moveable for best angle by the user considering the best twisting feel of the knobs and the preferred viewing angle to the user.

My current thinking is that the bottom of the display will be broken up into 5 or 6 virtual switches with each switch having 2 lines of 7 characters with a dead band character (blank) between each switch as the default. This will avoid cryptic, meaningless switch titles and be large enough to easily be seen and activated by partially disabled hams. Variable sized switches can also be handled by this system.

Below the virtual switches and the actual switches will be the Front panel I/O items. At the far Left is the Push ON/Push OFF switch. and just right of the ON/OFF switch will be a pair of USB slots for transient accessories such as printers, scanners, graphic tablets or video cameras. The Key Jack on most rigs is put on the rear panel like the manufacture is ashamed of it, but I think it belongs on the Front panel. Right, CW guys? The Microphone connector is placed in the center. and then an IBM keyboard PS/2 connector and an IBM Mouse PS/2 connector. At the far right at the bottom is the Head phone jack, placed logically next to the volume control

Near the top of the front panel just above each Tuning knob will be a square rotated 45 degrees making up a diamond shaped array of 5 LEDs. The five T 1 3/4 LEDs will have a GREEN LED at the Left, an ORANGE LED at the Top, a RED LED at the Right, a BLUE LED at the Bottom and a WHITE (or Yellow) Blinking LED at the Center. The four outer LEDs will be used to indicate that an antenna is rotating in that direction when rotor control is in process and other things as appropriate.

Above the display is a Red LED for transmit and a Green LED for receive. When running full duplex mode on Satellites, both would be lit. The Blinking White (Yellow) LEDs above each control are used to indicate that some activity involving that control is in process.

The Rear Panel of MY Ideal User Designed Station

This is still in process. I want it to have the various cable outputs here as much as possible to keep the front side clean. There will be cables to the rotation systems (note the plural), the supporting computer and other computer support systems, the amplifier, SWR heads, the Transverters, the power supply, and the miscellaneous interfaces to other worlds.

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