A New SSB Transceiver from N6QW

Several years ago I prepared and published an article on a 30M CW transceiver. I designed the radio (it even had RIT) , built and tested the radio, wrote the article and quickly placed it the storage locker. I am not a CW fan even though I did take and pass the real Extra exam when you had to copy 20 WPM. I much prefer SSB and so this project is the best of many worlds.

Parts of the 30M CW transceiver have found their way into the ZIA, 20M SSB transceiver and now the mainboard has been reworked to emerge as a 40M SSB transceiver. Some of that effort was to build and install a 6 pole, 5 MHz Crystal Filter and to build an external BFO which will be used to feed the NE602 Product Detector on receive and an SBL-1 Balanced Modulator on transmit.

The original 30M CW transceiver had a varactor tuned VFO but the new rig has the Si5351 that will supply only the LO signal. The display of course is the 128X128 Color TFT. I am amazed at how many 128x128 TFT's displays are showing up world wide using code that was developed by me for the Belthorn III; but also is used in the LBS II. This will make the 3rd application. Similar code was used on the ZIA but that has the Nokia with a black and white display.

The goal is to have it operate only on 40M LSB and have a power output of 5 watts. Below is a sneak peek at the new rig al fresco on the work bench. I still need to add the transmit chain and power amp plus the microphone amp which will be SMD. A couple of more days should do it.

This is the first major soldering project in the last 5 months.

I will update this post as I add more hardware and get the transmit chain working. For info on the original 30M CW transceiver project refer to the 2103 article that appeared in QRP Quarterly.

73's
Pete N6QW

January 26, 2024. A simple CW Transceiver/Transmitter

Cruise through the lower part of the ham bands bands and what do you hear? Well, FT-8 and CW. Often you will not hear any SSB stations yet go to the lower part of the bands, and it is a cacophony (I love that word) of bad sounding signals and some high-speed keying. Fast is not so much of the issue as is bad, run together and jerky keying. But none the less our hobby started there. So, you could crank down your ICOM 7300 and watch the waterfall on CW or you could homebrew a radio. Actually, to do CW right you need more thought up front than you do with a SSB transceiver. Often, I will state that a CW Transceiver is much more difficult to build than a simple SSB rig. I published two articles in QRP Quarterly on CW transceivers and all I got was a yawn so maybe history will repeat itself. Yawn! 30M CW Transceiver with RIT! Of interest is that the LO is a Varactor tuned LC oscillator using a NE602. Look closely at the RIT circuit which is only activated on ...

March 31, 2024. Happy Easter to those who celebrate this day.

What a great day to Binge on Chocolate and experience the pain of that filling that has been leaking. I would be in that category with the leaking filling(s) had I not just spent an amount equivalent to one of the fancy new uptown appliance box transceivers on two filling repairs. Well at least I can binge on the Chocolate bunnies without fear of pain. Regrettably everything appears to have jumped in price including the price of parts. Well not so much the parts as the shipping costs. That notably is seen in the eBay treasures. I spotted a nice heathkit DX-20 for about $50 and the shipping was $65. Likely it is a twofer with part being a way to in effect charge a higher price by inflating the shipping and in part by increased shipping costs. Shipping with insurance across the US was about $150 for this jewel and that was three years ago. 6AM on the Left Coast ~ 20M Easter Sunday! My only hope is the cost of Chocolate Bunnies remains steady although a pound of See's Candies f...

August 30, 2024. A PNP 20M SSB Transceiver

Shown below is the Block Diagram for the 20M PNP SSB Transceiver steered in the Transmit Mode . The components shown in the dotted block are relay steered so that the block module is single pass and amplifies in a single direction. The Block diagram show steered in Transmit. Essentially the steering process works so that the IF Module input follows the Balanced Modulator on Transmit and then the input side follows the Receive Mixer on Receive. All done with some relays and a bit of RG174U coax. For those who count things in detail, this block diagram is not unlike what was used for the PSSST Transceiver which can be found on my website . Yes, a warmed over P3ST only using PNP devices. TYGNYBNT. 73's Pete N6QW

Pay More and Get Less. Flash the Cash!

Search This Blog