A 1930's 6V6 CW Transmitter!
Who in their right mind or at least having a semblance of sanity would ever think of building a 1930's style QRP CW Transmitter? Well that is the whole point -- keeping our sanity during the HUAH (Hole Up At Home) adventure. So in an effort to stay sane I finished something I started several months ago.
It was a thrill to hear that warble toned, chirpy, key click signal coming out of the nearby receiver. Today I might venture out on the Reverse Beacon Network to see who is hearing my mighty 10 watts. Firstly though are a few more checks to insure a purity of signal and that indeed there is adequate filtering so that I am only transmitting on 40M.
Travel with me as I fabricated this 10+ Watt jewel. Hopefully you can see this was not a 2 hour or one and done effort. It took a lot of planning and fit checks. I used a lot of graph paper to make layouts and to check parts placement.
This is what 60+ years of experience is all about. The very last thing you do is heat up the soldering iron. I also used tools like LT spice to simulate the Pi Network Output and that was most useful. Interesting note -- you can plug in a 6L6 into the socket for a bit more power output. But that is like using a sledge hammer where all that is needed is a tack hammer. Rather than re-invent the wheel I started with the Ameco Circuit which shows up all over the Internet?
Now the question becomes -- would I put it on the air? The answer is doubtful that I would. This project was just a time filler and now time to move on with bigger fish. It did help my mental health and was fun to plan and execute; but speaking with another ham one letter at a time is not my idea of communication.
I do however have an appreciation of what the hams of old had to do to get on the air. There were no credit cards, eBay or Amazon or computers to instantly have parts show up on your door step. These hams were innovators, scroungers and had immense creativity.
Yesterday I saw a pitiful posting on the Bitx reflector where a supposed experienced ham wanted to know if the green wire that was to be attached to the left side of a pot--- was it the left side facing you or the left side away from you.
Today it is easier to post on the reflector and be told the answer (which I found on that reflector are not always correct) rather than look at the schematic, check the board wiring and think about the CW CCW control aspect. That is where you learn. The hams of old would just know which left side!
73's
Pete N6QW