Manhattan Circuits

One really neat method of building circuits without making a PCB is called Manhattan style, so called because the components look like buildings in Manhattan. I really like it because it’s simple, quick, and if you do it right, can be good enough for RF frequencies. I also like the way it looks. The method I’ve been using is to get free samples of Rogers material, most of which can be cut with just scissors. It’s a little easier than scoring and breaking FR4, but the trade off is that the copper clad board can bend slightly, which can crack some of your joints. You use the main copper surface as a ground plane, and superglue small squares of copper to use as nodes. Here are a couple of the circuits I’ve built using this style:

This is a Colpitts Oscillator.

This is a little biasing circuit for a 6AK5W tube. It’s not a part that can be used in the audio range, but I got 5 tubes and holders for like $3.

This is an “all band” receiver. This is a hodge podge of several amateur radio operator designs, with my own modifications. It doesn’t work as well as I’d like, but I need to test it more. I’ve only tested it with my HT.