The S53MV ZIF
microwave transceivers reborn
by SV3ORA
Introduction
Matjaz Vidmar, S53MV, has developed a series of state-of-the-art microwave transceivers and he has made this information freely available in his website http://lea.hamradio.si/~s53mv/zifssb/block.html. In case this website is down, I use to keep a local copy of his valuable work, as well as the original pre-processed images drawn by him. The information is available for download from this link.
Unfortunately, even the most experienced radio amateurs, will be very considered in re-building these transceivers. The main obstacle is not complexity or experience, neither hard-to-find components, but the lack of at least moderate quality PCB artwork, which makes these nice projects impossible to reproduce. After contacting S53MV, he has informed me that he does not have better quality artwork available. It seems to me like these projects will be lost in time without anyone to be able to reproduce them, unless someone do something about it. This is something I will try to change.
All the information needed to build these transceivers, is provided by the author, so I will not repeat them here. What I am going to do, is to present better quality PCB artwork, so that you may print and reproduce it. Presentation will be done, only after testing and verifying that the device really worked as it should. Also, some minor modifications may be presented, in places where I feel they could be done. Finally, my own implementation will be shown, so that you can get an idea of how to build yours.
The first thing you have to do, to reproduce any of the transceivers, is to make a good reading at the original articles, to understand everything. Before attempting building any of these projects, it is important to search on the internet or your local distributors for available components. If you cannot locate a component, you may contact me as well, I may be able to help.
The 23cm transceiver
VCXO PCB (pdf)