Poor Man's DVS-2

Download Circuit Diagram (pdf format)

This project came about following a repair that I had brought in on a DVS-2. Having repaired the unit I discovered that the price of the unit new is £199.50. Yaesu had made the recorder very complex and therefore very expensive, my design provides virtually the identical facilities at a fraction of the cost. Most of the parts you can source locally or if necessary through RS Spares and even if you buy every component the total cost is still only about £15. The record time for a single memory unit (as shown in diagram) is 10 seconds, however, if you need to you can install a second chip and use a change-over switch. This would give you the possibility of a pre-recorded message e.g. CQ,CQ,CQ, G3LDI etc. and still retain the on-air record and playback feature. The secret of the price lies in the fact that here in the UK we can purchase cheap memory blocks which are available at £5 a time, have a look at the project and let me know if you want any memory units I have some available here. I have built several of these units and they really are indistingushable from the genuine article on air, unfortunately they don't carry the Yaesu name but if that is important to you then you just have to swallow hard and dish out £200!

PS You could of course use analogue quad switches (4066) if you prefer in place of the relays it would reduce the price by a further £6 but need a small circuit board, by using the relays I simply hard wired the entire unit in a few minutes.

Best 73 Jim G4NWJ