Skip to main content

June 16, 2024. Regret Rigs!

 

A 40M CW Transceiver.


I call this a "regret rig" as this jewel had some really nice features. It was a Trans-receiver and used a Varactor Tuned Oscillator which was shared between the Receiver and Transmitter. 

The receiver is a Superheterodyne with a 4 pole filter and of course the now unobtanium 42IF123 10.7 MHz IF transformers (BPF) padded down to 40M. It had a IRF510 in the output stage and a sprinkle of NE602's for the Product Detector and Transmit Mixer. Single Sided Copper Vector Board was used as the main circuit board.
 
Now the regret part. I gave this to a new ham who had no station equipment. In short order he smoked it and then salvaged the parts.
 
This design was not documented and few photos were taken. It was a small footprint and operated much like Mary Jo after a Bob's Big Boy Hamburger. 
 
I believe in trying to help out fellow hams, but my eagerness must be tempered with what I call an appreciation factor. 
 
The new ham just didn't appreciate what he had and I didn't even think that someone who was given such a rig would not have my appreciation of what it took to design, build, test and get it working. 
 
Both of us would have been better served if I had just given him the parts, with a documented design and offer of help. This would have been a better learning experience for him and no regrets that my effort was smoked and permanently damaged. Well at least this ham didn't trade the rig for an RC car like one ham did with the homebrew Bitx20 I gave him.   
 
It is biblical in a sense  -- give a man a fish or teach him how to fish. I keep seeing how I have failed to realize that as an OT it is better to not give away radios/rigs but to encourage those who have no rigs to build one. Building this radio could have been such a great learning experience for the new ham. Likely now he has an ICOM IC7300 which he would never open up.
 
73's
Pete N6QW

Popular posts from this blog

2019 ~ What is the simplest homebrew SSB Transceiver that can be built?

4/27/2019 The Future of our Hobby is Here! Forget those simple rigs with homebrew crystal filters, cranky IRF510's and the analog VFO's. SDR is the wave that is building strength just like a Tsunami. With the Soft Rock V6.3 SMD Version + RRPi2 With the Omnia SDR and RPi2 Pete N6QW How Simple & How Cheap can you  build a Homebrew SSB Transceiver? 4/26/2019 --- I just converted my websites from an obsolete Windows Based Server with GoDaddy to their cPanel (Linux). This was a cost issue as a one year renewal of the Windows Server would buy three years on the cPanel. GoDaddy is discouraging the use of what they call the Obsolete Windows System. So I had to migrate and reload the whole pastapete.com, jessystems.com and the n6qw.com sites to the Linux based servers. Some files and links got lost in the translation --so you might not be able to see everything! Essentially I have  to open every link to verify that it works --that may take some time

New Technology for 2020 ~ The Hermes Lite 2.0 SDR Transceiver

  The Hermes Lite 2.0 SDR Transceiver. November 7th, 2020 ~ It's Settled! It is done! The stain of the Trump era is soon to be removed! Thanks to all who voted. The Voice of the People has been heard.  Congratulations to President Elect Biden and Vice President Elect Harris. Pete N6QW November 3rd, 2020 -- IT WAS THE MOUSE   We all know this is Dump Trump  Day. Go out and vote! It was the mouse! Back in 1999 I stupidly was one of the very first to purchase a Ten Tec Pegasus. Never buy the first batch of a new model.  Touted as the world's first computer controlled radio , actually I think the Kachina 505 was really the first. But the Pegasus was fraught with problems including a trip back to the Smokey Mountains. I was using an older Windows 95 machine to control the Pegasus and that may be a co-conspirator. Well after many calls to TT -- finally someone who has some smarts told me: Fix your station ground, Make all leads short and Buy stock in a ferrite bead company. I did all

The Next Project Updated 10/10/2022! The rubber has hit the pavement!

The Next Project... A 2022 Transceiver. 10/10/2022 My Apologies. It is with regret that I will be terminating any further work on this project. My caregiver duties have over time become a greater time sink and it is almost impossible to build something working only 10-15 minutes at a time spread out over a day. I apologize for not getting it from design ideas to complete hardware. Most likely I have built the last transceiver I will ever build. Thanks for riding along. My website https://www.n6qw.com/  has the pdf of the postings and I will leave this blog page as is. 73's Pete N6QW 10/05/2022 Still Alive! Regrettably my caregiver duties have overtaken any free time so not much progress. But I am hopeful yet this week I will cut at least one board. A PSA from N6QW.  Think of it like Mary Jo has a "crink" in her back and unable to get in the backseat of the 57 VW Beetle. A bit of a setback but not forever.  Seems like the hired caregiver had a small emergency and not able