‘mumber 1000 your Feedback cara Ultimate Power! ne of the main reasons I became a ham is that I love to build elec tronic gadgets. This hobby gives ‘me plenty of excuses to build things to better equip my station. Sometimes the gadgets I build actually work, and oc- casionally I build something that turns ‘out better than “store-bought.” Recently I was offered a broken UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) for the right price (free). I gladly took it, thinking of salvaging some parts and that maybe the gel cells were OK (a free battery for my QRP rig!) The unit sat around collecting dust for a while, until one day as I was cleaning up the shop I noticed it and decided to pop the cover off. There is 10 73 Amateur Radio Today * October 1996 Station power from a dead UPS. quite a collection of parts to scavenge | inside one of these, and T especially noticed a stout power transformer, and. ‘numerous power transistors mounted fon heat sinks, There were also four 6-volt gel cells in good shape (yes!). “The crowbar can save any Inside the UPS For those unfamiliar with UPS units, they are used to power critical elec- tronics devices with 120-volt AC. If the commercial power fails, the UPS will provide power from batteries al- ‘most instantaneously. Usually they are used to provide short-term power for computers, providing power during an outage long enough for the computer to do a “clean” shutdown. This pre- vents “crashes” and data loss. Uninterruptible Power Supplies come in many sizes and shapes, depending ‘upon current duty and battery size, Electronically, a UPS consists of a bat- tery bank, a DC-t0-AC inverter, and the sensing/switching circuitry. Some also “condition” the AC power, remov- ing noise and RF, and also provide surge protection. T looked up the numbers on the | power transistors and found out they Paul Blum KF9GQ 1138 Cardinal Lane Green Bay WI54313, were N-channel power MOSFETS, with very good current handling specs. These transistors can be very useful, as they are high gain, low “on” resistance (less than 0.5 ohms), and you can parallel them directly without bulky current- equipment hooked up from destructionespecially your expensive radios!” balancing resistors. It turned out I had 16 of all the same type, already mounted on heat sinks. 1 was intrigued by the large power transformer. In theory, the UPS takes low-voltage, —high-current DC, switches it on and off to drive the transformer primary, and the second- ary produces 120-volt AC. I wondered what voltage I would get if I reversed the transformer and powered it with 120-volt AC, so I tried it and got 14 volts AC (rms)! From the size of the secondary winding conductors I could see it would handle a lot of current. A good estimate of the power han- dling capability of a power trans- former can be found in the power supply chapter of the ARRL Hand- book. Measure the central core of the transformer with a ruler and refer to the chart, which will give you a watt rating for the transformer.Here Compact Spesker fi tha fis Miians, These tiny MP Speaker/Mics are so comfortably in your hand and has aafull 4495 small and so lightweight you'l forget size speaker for crystal clear audio, they're there ~ until you get a call. No need t6 remove your handheld your belt to talk or monitor calls, Clip it near Your ears so you can easily hear every call With the volume turned down, First-rate electret mic element and full size speaker gives superb audio on transmit and recieve. Earphone jack, PTT, light ‘weight retractable cord, Gray. Lex2x3 i ‘MEJ-284 fits Icom, Yaesu, Radio Shac Standard; MFJ-286 fis Kenwood. /Mics from Ipocket cli LED, earp ker/Mics MFDaa3, MTR Excellent audio from electret mic clement and speaker. Has swiveling lapel PTT button with transmit jone jack, lightweight retractable cord, Available with L or regular connector. Tiny 2x1 Yax sin, ‘Order MEJ-285/MFJ-2851, for ICOM, Yaesu, Alinco, Radio Shack and Standard; MFJ-387/MEJ-287L for Kenwood: MFJ-283 1 Connector ao MEJ-28SW for IC-W2A. analale- onder L model IMFI-285L, MFI-285W, MP2 ose MF/J Artificial RF Ground MEz931 , 79" ] Creates y anifieal RE round that eliminates or reduces RF spots, RF feedback, TV/RFI, weak signals caused by poor RF grounding. Greally improves your signal if ‘you're using arandom wire orlongwire Antenna with an ineffective ground. 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Stardy, 8/ex2¥ec3 in MFJ Multiple DC Outlet MEI 69" ‘Use yourri’s 12 VDC power supply to poster two HE/VHF rigs and Six of more accessories with this ME Tigh current multiple DC outlet. 2 pairs of 30 amp S-way binding posts separately fused for rigs. 6 itched, fused pais for accessories. De voltrieter, "on? LED, RF bypas- Sed, 6 fof 8 guage power cable See {free MFI catalog for more DC outlet. Nearest Dealer/Orders: 800-647-1800, ‘Technical Help: 800-647-TECH (8324) + Tye ancondonl guarantee 30 ay pone ck favrne est on er foe ME «Fe NTERPRI HB 30x 495, Miss, Sune, Ms 39762" He) seer Cr Ma (@insestss1, Ada Soa -.-making quality affordableFig. 1. “Ultimate Power” AC distribution/rectfier schema Building the power supply ‘A UPS unit provides many of the | components necessary to build a sta- | tion power supply, all in one box. First, there is the box itself. If you've drooled over any parts catalogs lately, | ‘you know that a nice cabinet is expen- sive. Next is the power transformer, an- other expensive, hard-to-find item. Inside, there's a good supply of power transistors, already mounted and heat- sinked. Lots of other miscellaneous parts can be used as well. [found diodes, filter capacitors, MOV for lightning pro tion, and other goodies. Best of all, mounted on the rear of the cabinet are a string of AC outlets, so I set about build- ing a “central power source” for my ham station, providing switched and un- switched AC, and 13.8 volts DC at 25 amperes. I started with the 120 VAC side of the cireuit, wiring some outlets “on” all the time and some switched. I added three MOYs across the AC input for surge pro- tection, I fused the AC input and the two transformers separately for safety. After stripping the chassis of its dead “brain” board, I began the low-voltage circuitry [fed the 14 VAC to a set of four 40 | 12 73 Amatour Radio Today * October 1996 the chassis sheet metal to dissipate heat. The diodes form a bridge rectifier, giv- ing me 18.5 volts across the filter capaci- tors. I used some computer surplus filter caps; approximately 2000 uF per ampere is a good rule of thumb. In designing the regulator, 1 came upon a dilemma. The MOSFET transis- tors would work excellently as pass de- vices to reduce the voltage {0 13.8, but required +3 to +5 volts gate-source for turn-on. This meant that I couldn't use the same supply for the regulator drive. ‘The other alternative is to use P-channel devices, but Ihad none. Luckily enough, there was another small transformer in the UPS used for charging the batteries ‘and powering the “brain” board. It just happened to be a 24-volt transformer, so the small transformer powers the 723 regulator and the gates. of the MOSFETs. Referring to the regulator schematic, 1 used the ever-popular M723 voltage regulator IC in a standard configuration, For best accuracy and minimum tem- | perature drifi, use precision 1% or 2% tolerance resistors for the sample volt- age divider (the 680-ohm resistors). The | ampere stud mount diodes, mounted to | high side of the divider should connect | directly at the output connector, after any ammeter used, for best regulation. Use a good quality trimmer pot (250- ohm) and adjust for 13.8 volts. Make sure the pass transistors (the power MOSFETS) are adequately heat-sinked, as they may need to dissipate significant | power, depending on the transformer you have. I bolted a chunk of fin stock to the UPS heat sink (heat-sink grease is a good idea) as extra insurance. Use | heavy-gauge wire for high-current circuitry (#10 or #8 for 25 amperes), to and from the pass transistors and the negative return wiring, The extras One item that separates good power supplies from the cheapos is a crowbar circuit. Ihave been the unfortunate re- airman of a repeater powered by a sup- ply without one more than once, and it's definitely worth the few dollars as insur- ance. The crowbar circuit senses when the voltage goes oo high (when you short out a pass transistor) and becomes | a short circuit, blowing the fuse. The other cheap insurance policy, of course, is to have the proper size fuse! Thecrowbar can save any equipment hooked up from destruction—espe- cially your expensive ra- dios!’ Hook up the crowbar circuit across the +13.8-volt output of ‘your supply. Other accents you may add to this project are an ammeter and some method of indieat- ing output voltage. You may prefer analog meters, oF some sort of digital meter or bar graph (the 3914 bar graph IC comes to mind), That’s the fun of building things yourself—being creative and original How does it work? Well, by now you want to hear how it performs. I stress-tested the supply by powering my 100 watt 2 meter FM am- plifier with it, From 0 to 23 amperes, I measured less than .05 volts change in ‘output, and less than 10 mV of ripple. ‘The heat sink became only slightly warm after three minutes keydown, 250 6a0 voltage just Photo B. Inside the Ultimate Power.” The AC outlets allow me to power | other station goodies from the same box All in all, Lam very pleased with the performance. Credit goes to my eight- year-old son, Jeffrey, for giving me the idea to name it “Ulimate Power.” So, keep your eyes open for surplus UPS units—hamlests, auctions, or your friendly neighborhood computer geek — don’t pass up a real home-brewer's bare a power mosfets Nechannet IRFS30 gate resistors: 20 ohm 1/8 watt ‘metal film Neven say ore Continued from page 4 the stuff I sure wish I'd known years ago and n telling you about now is going in one eyeball and out the other, while you are fool- ishly depending on your docior for your health as much as Twas depending on mine Well, the sad fact is that your doctor and ‘mine don’t know much about health. Doctors don’t take any courses on health or its main- tenance in medical school. Few are taught even one day about illness prevention or nu- trtion, The result is that doctors don't know a damed thing about health. They're taught how to make repairs when things finally ‘break down and what sledge-hammer drugs 10 preseribe, For instance, though it was considered to- tally crazy by the medical profession just a few years ago, now there's a grudging agree- ment that, yes, there's a (mumble) psycho- Togical component to every illness. But you aren't going to find any doctors anywhere ‘who are making an effort to find these emo- tional triggers and treat them as well as the resulting physical symptoms, If i hurts, hey, take an aspirin, and never mind that the hurt is nature's waming signal thatthe body is in trouble. I's like the fuse in your rig. So, if the fuse blows, put ina bigger one, right? ‘Are you going to come bounding up to my table at the Dayton Compuvention in 2010, ‘or will you be doddering with a walker 10 reminisce with me about how ham radio used to be before we lost our last two bands a ‘couple years back? Continued on page 49 73 Amateur Radio Today * October 1996 13