K1OA QRP Projects
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My first QRP kit was the Rockmite 40, single frequency, 1/2 watt transceiver. First time I applied power and hooked it up to my 2-element 40m beam I got a 599 report from Arizona!
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Next project was an ATS-3B, a KD1JV designed 6 band CW/PSK-31 HF radio designed to fit in an Altoids tin. Mostly a surface mount part kit it was quite a challenge to build but what a radio! With a 12v supply it puts out up to 4.5w on 80, 40, 30, 20, 17 and 15 meters. There is a small plug-in filter board for each band. The receiver is awesome.
Here's the ATS-3B on PSK-31 using a homebrew interface in a Licorice Altoids tin and an iPaq Pocket PC for the computer. I also have a mini fold up Bluetooth keyboard.
The ATS-3B was so much fun to build I also built another kit from Steve, KD1JV, the Mountain Top'er MTR-2 that operates on 40 and 20. Steve included a very nice custom designed case for the MTR-2 making this not only a great radio to operate but a great looking radio as well! Here it is running off of 6 AA batteries. My Palm Radio Mini Paddle can be seen on the right.
I built the ZM-2 antenna tuner from a kit and use this with a random wire on all bands with both the ATS-3B and MTR-2.
The Elecraft T1 is a 20W automatic antenna tuner that can be built from a kit.
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Here's the main board (minus controller IC).
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This is the T1 controller board.
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Here's the T1 in action with my Mountain Topper 2, Palm Radio Mini Paddle, running off 6 AA batteries and using an indoor random wire 41 ft long with 17 ft counterpoise. What an awesome tuner!
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Radio, tuner, paddle, headphones and miscellaneous wire fit nicely in a Pelican 1060 micro case.
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The find of a lifetime was an unbuilt, new in box HW-8! Not only was it fun to assemble but it looks and sounds great! (notice the extra hole that I had to create - the original key jack hole was located right in front of one of the variable inductor cans - nobody in Benton Harbor anymore to call for a replacement :). Based on the serial number, 00611, and a manual correction notice dated March 11, 1976, this is probably from one of the first lots.
Waiting to be unboxed.
Parts!
Components waiting to be soldered. The electrolytic caps and a few of the resistors had to be replaced.
Soldering away! Notice the warp in the board. Forty plus years in the box waiting to be built took its toll.
A rigid wooden ruler and some clips were used to flatten out the board prior to soldering the band switch in place.
Now for the wiring. The picture on the right clearly shows why a new hole needed to be drilled for the key jack.
Add in the front panel components, switches, tuning caps, meter, and it's looking more like a radio!
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In 2018 I acquired an un-built companion HWA-7-1 power supply on eBay, vintage 1980!
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This is a Frog Sounds crystal controlled 40m transceiver that puts out about 1.8w on 12v. The kit was purchased from banggood.com for $13 shipped from China. The band-aids tin is vintage 1950s bought off eBay for $5 shipped. The idea was an inspiration from a CQ Magazine article written by W1VIV.
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These are Cricket QRP kits from the Four State QRP group. The 80a is an 80m CW transceiver. The 20 is a 20m transceiver. They both put out close to 2 watts on 12V. The Cricket 20 supplied crystal oscillated around 14.057 so I added a 30 pF capacitor in series to bring it to around 14060.2.
The Cricket 20 is susceptible to shortwave broadcast front-end overload so I built a 2-pole bandpass filter.
The Cricket 20 is susceptible to shortwave broadcast front-end overload so I built a 2-pole bandpass filter.
tr(uSDX) all mode SDR QRP radio built from a kit
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The tr(uSDX) is a 5 band all mode QRP SDR radio that can fit in a shirt pocket - very cool! It has a built-in mic and speaker. I also wired up an HT speaker mic. It works great on FT8 and PSK31.
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This is my first Manhattan style scratch built radio. The receiver is a design from the SolderSmoke podcast 40m Direct Conversion Receiver challenge (https://hackaday.io/project/190327-high-schoolers-build-a-radio-receiver) and the transmitter is from the Merry Christmas Rig by Walter, KA4KXX published in the July 2019 edition of the QRP ARCI QRP Quarterly.
