The Cub Is...Dead???

 Yep, you read the title correctly.

The MFJ Cub is dead.

Or is it? I knew I had to get down to the bottom of things. Giving up is not an option on this. Here's how it happened.

As soon as I finished building the Cub, I needed to test it. Using my brand new Eton Elite Executive shortwave radio, I tuned in the Cub's BFO and VFO frequencies without a problem. Next, I took out my NanoVNA to generate a signal for the BPF. Here's where my problems began. I couldn't hear the signal. I even put a metal probe on the positive part of the antenna jack. Still no sound.

Skipping ahead, I tried keying the transmitter to adjust the carrier offset, and I heard nothing. I gave up, frustrated and defeated, and went to bed.

A forum thread started by me on QRZ.com actually helped me out somewhat, and hopefully, it helps you too. Turns out, I can't solder to save my life!!! Just kidding, I can solder, but it wasn't my best work. So it looks like it's back to the workbench for the Cub and desoldering/soldering lessons for me.

What if it's not the solder, you ask? Well, it could be a multitude of things. For one, it could be the SMD components, but I highly doubt that. I didn't see any "tombstones" or solder bridges. A thru-hole component, maybe? Possibly, but highly unlikely. As I said, the VFO and BFO oscillate perfectly at 12V, and even at 9V. Here's a photo of the bottom of my board to show you what I'm dealing with. I've also circled some spots that looked pretty bad:

As you can see, I have too much solder or not enough. On some pads, the solder fluxed and melted really well. These were pads that were off of the ground plane, surrounded by a darker green circle. Pads that were "on" the PCB had a hard time accepting the solder, resulting in this mess.

I also opted to just use the RCA jack instead of a BNC jack. You can buy RCA to SO239 or BNC converter on Amazon or eBay. 

So what's the moral of the story here? Take your time and know what you're doing. I have all the right tuning tools, but I don't have patience, which is a really important tool to have. 

At this point, I'd say the Cub is in a coma at the moment. It doesn't really respond to anything. That doesn't mean it's junk or ready for the trash - I mean, I spent $200 on the thing!!!

I can assure you that this little guy will be on the air in a bit. It will take a while but I'm positive that it will be on the air! I believe I can do this, and this just happens to be a little bit of a bump in the road. Here's another good moral: ask for help. It's the best thing you can do. If you have an Elmer, I'm sure they would be more than happy to help you out, and if they can't they'll recommend you to someone who can. This kit isn't hard - you just have to have some patience, and I could tell as I was nearing the end of the kit that I began to rush. 

Well, that's all from me today. As another update, I am almost done with my Hammo Can. It looks great and works well. I just bought a charger for the battery and it fits in the can alongside the battery! How convenient is that? Here pretty soon I think I'll take my TS-660 out to the field, but I'm not sure where I'll go. I can tell you that it looks and feels bulletproof, and is ready for EMCOMMs should I ever need it.