[hpsdr] Penelope/Pennywhistle/Alex cabling

[Bruce Beford]

Good afternoon all.

I had some time this afternoon to work on integrating Pennywhistle into my
Pandora box. As Graham suggested, I decided to mount it up against the
"back" panel. (It seems strange to call that the back, but that's another
matter...) I wired the DC power to the LPU, thru a 5 amp fuse. I added two
wires to the back of Penelope'5 DB25 to bring the control signal and digital
ground to Pennywhistle. I installed a 0 ohm jumper at position R5 on
Penelope, to provide RF to the optional transverter jack. I fitted a
right-angle SMA female jack there, facing back across the board.
(alternatively, JP-1 (although labelled as a jumper, is available for
internal RF out)

It is my intention to use an SMA to BNC cable to send the low level RF on to
Pennywhistle, and not use the "external" RF out BNC on Penelope. So far,
this means I have kept all the cabling internal to the Pandora. Now... When
Alex arrives, it does not appear that there is provision for an internal
connector to the TX filter board. Is this correct? I can always just tack a
pigtail on there, but was wondering if thought had been given during the
design phase to accommodate an "internal" amp like Pennywhistle. Also, it
looks as though the control cable for Alex will have to come out of the back
of Mercury and fold back into the cabinet to get to Alex, yes? This may
require some minor modification of the 3 board back panel that several of us
have installed. Not a major problem, just musing on what will need to be
done.

I know that some if this is still some time away, as we wait for Alex, but I
was curious how others are going to approach the RF path of using
Pennywhistle as in internal RF amp with Alex.

73,
Bruce N1RX