Finally getting in the last remaining parts to assemble this beautiful HAM radio linear amplifier that will soon be used in various Tesla-type experiments, so it’s finally time to put the major parts together and start testing to see if it lets the magic smoke out or not.🤫

I’m thinking of mounting inside a 3u rackmount chassis for ease-of-use, with a 1kw power supply internal and an optional 3kw supply that can be plugged in the back for full power.

Next step is drilling+tapping mounting holes to secure the board to the copper heat spreader. Copper can sometimes be a beast to work with, but thankfully I only had problems on the last two holes. Broke off part of a drillbit and had to basically use a burr to chip it out to finish the hole. Which is more tedious than it sounds…😬

Next was mounting the input RF connector. I found a nice piece of scrap plastic in the bin that only took a bit of trimming+milling to get it to fit well on the copper heatsink.

Next was soldering the SMA connector to the input side. You’re supposed to twist the pairs to reduce crosstalk but there really isn’t enough room for it in this setup. Should be plenty fine for the 1-10mhz bands I intend to operate this at.

Everything positioned+mounted on the input side, then it was just applying thermal compound and screwing the board down.

I did some initial bench tests to ensure everything was set up correct, and ran into what looked like an electrical short on the board.  The kind that would magically go away sometimes and come back seemingly randomly….🤒🤒

 It took 3-4 disassembly+reassembly sessions to realize that I probably used too much thermal compound, and it was causing a partial short to the edge of the board. 

Really stoked the board wasn’t DOA but will still need to rip it apart a bit to clean it better.  Unfortunately I ran out of time for today, so hopefully will get it running tomorrow.

Hope you enjoyed.🤠