There is a great deal of old amateur gear which many amateurs have decided to restore and bring back to life. While much of the early amateur transceivers work just fine they usually lack a digital readout and must rely on analog dials for tuning. The problem of dial calibration is complicated by the non-linear effects of tuning capacitors. This month's circuit is a 100Khz crystal calibrator using an inexpensive microprocessor crystal and CMOS IC's which are readily available at Radio Shack. The main problem with building a 100Khz oscillator is the unavailability of 100Khz crystals. Even if you find a vendor willing to cut such a crystal for you, plan on paying $20 or more not including shipping charges. The circuit uses an inexpensive 8MHz microprocessor crystal which can be easily obtained from most parts suppliers. Using a 74HCT393 binary counter IC, we can easily divide down the 8 MHz signal from our crystal into 100Khz or almost any frequency we need.

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