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More Homebrew Radios From N6QW.

For those who astutely follow this blog you have likely noted that I have only built radios in the HF spectrum. Even then it has been typically 75-15 Meters. In an attempt to build a 10M radio, that got sidetracked when the XYL's (SK) health issues got significantly worse. 

The two radios we are covering today are directly related and in fact the smaller of the two was an attempt to shrink down the first version. In 2011 I was on a quest to build a shirt pocket sized SSB transceiver. The 1st version you would need a very large pocket (2X3X5) and the second version was 2X2X4... closer to pocket size. So, referring to an earlier blog posting these two are the exact same radios only one was shoehorned into a smaller topology.


1st Version of the Shirt Pocket SSB Transceiver

The band of choice was 20M and both rigs had a crystal switched VXO to give about 100 kHz on the active part of 20M.



Version 1 after the disaster.




Jointly they were the subject of an article in QRP Quarterly. [For those who want the circuit details check the Summer 2011 Issue.] The 1st version was in a maintenance mode and as luck would have it the screwdriver I was poking around with shorted a DC rail and a mushroom cloud appeared over the bench. Many of the circuits were fried and a rebuild netted a radio that actually worked better (Digital LO) and was larger (not prone to shorts). That event occurred about 5 years ago.

The smaller version got small because I left out some features and a 2X2 panel was the smallest size I could get and still have the I/O functionality. One of the things left out was the Rx RF Amp which caused V2 to be anemic on receive. That one too had the same VXO. A couple of years ago I rebuilt Version 2 to incorporate a RF Amp and a Digital LO with a super slick scaled down color TFT. Its size went from 16 cubic inches to 24 cubic inches.



Small PCB with red and white wires is the added SMD RF Amp Board





Just another day in the Shack for an old Extra Class Ham and these radios both have homebrew crystal filters at 4.9152 MHz with an LO in the 19MHz range. I always wonder if a BTE could pull off a rig like this. 

Them that know, now don't care if you know.

Questions to ponder. Has the DHS head been thrown under the bus or is it just another day at the WH? Is it a case where no one in the current administration is a rogue actor but typically are just following the script.

73's
Pete N6QW

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