[amsat-bb] AMSAT educational kit receiver idea?

[Robert Bruninga]

Here is an idea for a cheap educational receiver kit for
AMSAT/ARRL/ARISS? to provide as part of their outreach to youth:

http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/amsat-radio.html

This design uses a simple $9 FRS FM Walkie Talkie as the
receiver and a -converter- kit to convert 145.800 from the Space
Station to 462.5625 MHz.  All of the mechanical parts in this
concept total about $3 and if we can get the electronics to
under $20 then this could be a great receiver kit for students
to listen to the Astronauts on the ISS and Space Shuttle.

My original proposal back in October had a different mechanical
arrangement:

http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/amsat-ideas.html

But this new juice-can concept solves many problems by not only
providing a good mechanical housing for the device, but it also
provides the IF shielding necessary to prevent any local FRS
activity from bleeding through the receiver.  It also improves
the coupling between the converter and the receiver.

Anyway, I think this idea is a nice circuit design challenge
sith lots of potential.  This juice-can mechanical concept is
intended to simplify some of the construction challenges for
students.  Can anyone design a cheap converter kit?

de WB4APR, Bob