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April 15, 2024. If you are just now starting to work on your income taxes --likely not a good omen.

April 15th and its Tax Day. Hopefully you are getting enough back to buy an ICOM IC7300. (About $1K is all that is needed) 

Putting aside my personal bias for homebrew gear, the IC7300 has withstood the test of being one of the better purchased radios.

Some personal excitement as I just saw a You Tube video from VK3PTM, who also shares the same first name as me. He has built the PSSST SSB Transceiver from K7TFC's kit and it is inhaling RF in a contest environment. So aside from the original one I built, and the one Todd built we have Peter's (VK3PTM) now hearing signals on 20M. There may be others, but this is the only video I have seen using the kit.

Peter has a blog and he has documented what he has done on the build. There is also a link to the you tube video there.

Once you check out Peter's blog then compare Todd's kit to my prototype below and you get a feel of the FB work done by Todd.



The excitement also holds for me a clear view that it is possible to build a good working radio that does not use Bitx circuits, TIA Amps, nor circuits from EMRFD or something being beat around by a Facebook group. The bonus only 7 transistors. This truly is a DifX --something Different than a warmed over Bitx with a new front panel.

All of my projects I consider as experimenter's platforms and Todd's kit is designed that way. I truly hope there will be some experimentation going on by those who bought the kit. 

To that end I am completing a design for an all PNP version of the P3ST. I even have some preliminary info on a P Type replacement for the IRF510. All of the circuit boards I have stored in the CNC computer will simply port over to the PNP equivalents of the 7 NPN's originally used on the P3ST. Watch this space.

BTW I think I have a way to mount the P type on a heat sink since it has a solder tab. Stay tuned.

73's
Pete N6QW

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