Small Wonder SW30+

This is my Small Wonder SW30+ 30 meter CW transceiver. It is the third in the SWXX+ series that I've built. I placed it into an aluminum box similar to the one I used for my SW40+. In fact I actually built this one backwards in that I completed the case before I put the board together. The case is from a remote-controlled crane winch system, and the front panel had a large hole where a multi-pin connector was attached. A smaller hole contained a BNC connector. I removed the BNC and installed a pot with switch to act as an on/off switch and AF gain control. The larger hole was covered by a piece of PC board connected to the back side of the front panel, and I drilled a hole it in for the tuning pot.

In the back panel I drilled three holes, one for an SO-239 antenna jack, a 1/4" phone jack, and a coaxial power jack. The power jack is the same size as the ones used in my SW-40+ and SW-20+ so that I would be able to use the same power cord for each one.

The transceiver's PC board, once completed, was mounted on standoffs which were soldered to a larger piece of PC board which slides into the grooves in the case which held the original PC board. As with the SW20+ & SW40+ kits that I built, I added a green power LED and a red TX led. The red TX led is connected to the collector leg of Q3. Both LED's are connected to ground via series current-limiting resistors. For this radio I used 3mm point-source LED's which light up quite well. I installed them in the front panel using a couple of plastic washers used to insulate TO-220 devices from ground via the heat sink. The lettering on front & back panels are rub-on lettering I found at a hobby store, which I oversprayed with clear spray paint to keep them from rubbing off. The knobs are from my junk box, salvaged from old CB's. I finished off the case by adding four rubber