Paul, W1GHZ, has developed a series of five transverters for the 902, 1196, 2304, and 3456 MHz microwave bands. He's detailed it on his web page with photos and links to several PDF documents. The reader is referred to the following web pages or documents for first hand information:
As Paul has pointed out in his presentations, this is a fairly simple and less expensive design which should do a good job in introducing hams to the microwave bands and an acceptable job for low power (QRP!) hill-topping and rover contest work. Of course, we don't expect the performance that a much more costly DB6NT or DEMI transverter would bring us, but one might be surprised what these transverters can do when mated with a good antenna in a good location.
In March-April 2009, our group conducted a group buy for the majority of parts required to construct these transverters. Forty-nine hams from all over the U.S. participated. It is not expected to be repeated, however for certain parts (namely Mini-Circuits parts), members of our discussion list may wish to organize mini-buys of a few parts if enough interest is shown. Historical notes on the group buy are still found here.
Here's a photo showing one of the surface mount packages we included in the group buy. Note that the strips of surface mount parts are taped to the printed sheet of paper showing their values and schematic designators. Parts are easily removed with a hobby type Xacto knife as they are needed in construction. The static sensitive semiconductor parts remain protected in their original packaging until the builder removes them. Through-hole type parts are packed together and easy to identify by the markings on them (not the case with some SMT parts!). It is suggested you only remove one (or one value) part at a time, just before soldering it to the board.
We've started with some notes, ideas, hints, etc. for these transverters. Please refer to the sections here for further information.
He writes:
I plan to write about the simple transverters in my next QST Microwavelengths column, and would like to include some pictures from others, showing how they have packaged them into a complete transverter. so, if you'd like to be included and can send me a picture of a completed (or almost complete) transverter by mid-July, this is your chance to be slightly famous!
a few suggestions for photos:
everyone has a digital camera - 4 to 6 megapixels is adequate (not a cellphone camera)
even if you don't get it done in time, send a picture when you do -- I like to see hams homebrewing
73
paul