The J.D. CUSTOM 10 Metre SX-1 was a "Concept Transceiver" created in the late 1980's by Mr. Joseph Delgardo.
Joe or "JD" lived in a town called Edgware in the County of Middlesex, a suburb located in the North-West part of London England.
Joe's Radio Business "J.D.CUSTOM ELECTRONICS" was based from his 'Worxshop' in Edgware. JD was well known by many people in the hobby and was for a number of years closely associated to a local CB Shop. JD was responsible for hundreds of the EPROM Conversion boards used in radio's still around today. During his career, Joe expertly repaired hundreds, if not thousands of Multimode Transceivers.
The J.D.CUSTOM 10 METRE SX-1 was created by Mr. Joe Delgardo around the same time Mr. John Nugent was making his Cobra JENTEC Transceiver MKV's
Good examples of the SX-1 are very difficult to find and their value has increased steadily over time.
The J.D. CUSTOM 10 METRE SX-1 started out life as a COBRA 148 GTL-DX MK2 (PB-010A* Chassis)
The Cobra 148 GTL-DX had the PLL stage components removed from the main PB010 PCB. The Channel Selector complete with Channel Indicator LEDs and TX/RX LED were removed. The Channel Indicator LED's location on the front panel was expanded to house the SX-1GREEN LED 6-Digit Frequency Counter
DIGITAL ENCODER
The J.D. CUSTOM SX-1 uses a modified Digital Encoder (shown below) similar in operation to the Cobra MKV. The Encoder can turn through 90 degrees clockwise and anti-clockwise and depending on the position of the "Scan Rate" control depends how quickly the SX-1 will Scan Frequency up/down.
RIT & SCAN RATE The Variable Scan Rate control is used to determine the rate at which the SX-1 can change frequency "Scanning" automatically. Previously the control was used as the "Coarse" Clarifier on the 148 GTL-DX. The RIT (Receiver Incremental Tuning) is the same as the 148, eg, Fine RX-only Clarifier.
INSIDE the J.D. CUSTOM SX-1
A look inside a J.D. CUSTOM 10 Metre SX-1 reveals the SX-1 "Motherboard" highlighted in Red and the on-board "Linear Amplifier" mounted towards the rear of the Chassis, highlighted in Green. For comparison the SX-1 Motherboard is about twice the size of the JENTEC MKV pcb.
SX-1 MOTHERBOARD
The J.D. CUSTOM 10 Metre SX-1Motherboard or "Main-Brain" consisted of one (x1) Frequency Counter Chip, Seventeen (x17) IC's, Twenty-three (x23) Variable Resistors !!! (Pots), one (x1) regulator and power supply section and dozens of other passive components, resistors, diodes, capacitors etc. see below picture.
The J.D. CUSTOM SX-1 Motherboard shown above took some setting up with all the 23 variable resistor pots to align.
SX-1 FREQUENCY COUNTER INTERSIL 7217
A real first for the SX-1 was the addition of an on-board Frequency Counter.
JD designed the counter around an RS supplied INTERSIL "ICL7217"
The 7217 is a 10 Megahertz frequency counter chip with a digital frequency offset to allow the correct TX (Transmit) frequency to be displayed whilst the7217 is being fed directly from the VCO frequency.
SX-1 LINEAR AMPLIFIER
Joe mounted a Linear Amplifier inside the SX-1 that produced 30-50 watts FM, 60-100 watts SSB PEP output. On the rear panel of the SX-1 a Dual-Fin type heatsink was added to accomadate the extra heat created by the single "Pill" output transistor Linear Amplifier mounted on the rear of the chassis. Shown below is the Relay TX/RX switching and input circuit, for the on-board SX-1 Linear Amplifier. (previously shown above highlighted in Green)
A close-up view of the SX-1 add-on Linear Amplifier stage is shown in the picture below. The RED arrow is pointing at the Output Transistor "Pill" screwed to the rear panel. Notice how the Cobra 148 Output stage is untouched. The BLUE arrow is showing the location of the Relay Tx/Rx Switching and input circuit (shown above). The GREEN arrow is showing the location of the Linear Amplifier "Matching-Circuit" instead of the usual Cobra 148 SWR pcb. The YELLOW arrow is pointing to the Linear Amplifier On/Off Switch. With the amp turned off the SX-1 would still deliver the standard 6 watts FM, 12 watts SSB PEP. The SX-1 also has an analogue variable power control on the front panel, marked RF PWR.
J.D. CUSTOM SX-1 PRINT-SIDE
Shown below is the print-side of the J.D. CUSTOM SX-1 modified PB-010AB chassis. Notice in the bottom left hand corner of the picture near the multi-coloured ribbon cable, both Adder IC's have been removed. Additional wiring is seen used for the Motherboard and Linear Amplifier.
SX-1 SPEC
The J.D. CUSTOM SX-1 boasted a host of features, many unavailable to any 10/11 meter Transceiver at the time. Here is the full list of features:
Volume
Squelch
Mic Gain
RF Gain
Variable Power
26-30Mhz using 4 position Band Switch
CW.FM.AM.USB.LSB
1Kc RIT Clarifier
Scan Facility, UP/Down, could stop on a busy channel if using squelch
Scan Speed - Determines Frequency Scan rate
Timed Scan resume
1Kc channel Step
Continuous Tuning
Repeater shift
+/- 100Kc Repeater offset
S/RF and Power S-Meter indication
6-Digit Frequency Counter (Green)
Big Heatsink on rear panel
Built-in Switchable Linear Amplifier
Zero-50 watts AM/FM variable
Zero-100 watts SSB PEP
PB010 Cobra Chassis
Cobraworxshopz Technicians have on a couple of occasions personally met with Joe Delgardo "JD" at his Worxshopz in Edgeware. On one such occasion JD was actually in the process of making the SX-1's when we visited. The SX-1's were sold for approx £350/$700 when produced in the late 1980's.
A currently unknown number of SX-1's were produced by JD but we do know the number is VERY low due to Joe's change of Circumstances.
This page is a work in progress and as such will be updated at any time.
