Consistent Performance with the new PNP CW Transmitter

Let me put in a context easily understood... You get dates with good looking YLs all the time not just one time with one good looking YL.

More data as I just took a look with the RBN at 6AM on April 3, transmitting on 7013 kHz. I was heard in the 400-to-900-mile range running 300 milliwatts. That tells me two things as the PNP CW transmitter can yield consistent contacts and the need for a solid design with appropriate harmonic filters. Low power out of ham band signals can be heard at great distances.

I have run QRP for many years but at the watt level not milliwatts. The solid acid test of course is real contacts not the RBN. But the Reverse Beacon Network is a strong indicator of performance especially if it is consistent. 

The two crystals (7030 and 7055 kHz) I have coming are frequencies considered as watering holes and lots of activity and so that should set us up for the real acid test. (I really splurged and paid $10 including shipping for the two rocks. I stole money from my grocery budget.)

I will stop posting on this subject in deference to those who do not do home grown radios. Guess this being a holiday weekend the bands will be choked with contests and POTA/SOTA crap. So maybe a good time to work on the T/R sequencer.

Them that know, survive. I had a near cardiac arrest experience yesterday when I bought 6 gallons of gas and that took two $20 bills. I have a 20-year-old car and get about 23 mpg. So that comes to 23 * 6 = 138 mile range. That means two weeks of visits to the cemetery to visit the XYL (60 miles) and a doctor visit on Monday (28 miles) and three trips for groceries, banking and miscellaneous (30 miles). That leaves me 20 miles for a buffer. Thank You, Donald Trump for starting a war!

73's

Pete N6QW

PNP CW QRP Rig now on 40M

 

The home-grown rig has been moved to 40M on 7013 kHz and gets 12 Volts PTP out of the W3NQN LPF. That is 360 milliwatts. At 7 AM my signal was heard in the 600-to-800-mile range. 

I have ordered "rocks" for 7030 and 7055 kHz. (The original MC1496 DCR was built for 40M.) The additional power output can be traced to the crystal itself and that the circuit components in the driver stage favor 40M versus 20M. The emitter bypass cap in the driver plays a big part in the frequency spread.

Them that know, survive. Of note do you believe only a couple of more weeks in the Iran war. Reminds me of when I went to Vietnam... like 10 years. Survival depends on trusting your gut and the actions you personally take.

73's

Pete N6QW

PNP Transistor CW Transmitter... SUCCESS!

Productive day yesterday as I came up with a good Colpitts type Oscillator circuit and with some more biasing adjustments we are getting 9.4 Volts PTP at the output side of the W3NQN Filter.

New oscillator board, the Amp and Keyer Board plus LPF 

Thus our 9.4 Volts PTP translates to (9.4^2) * 2.5 = 221 Milliwatts which is a good start (from 50 milliwatts). All Devices are 2N2905's and PNP.

[JIC... Vrms = 0.35355 * Vptp or Vrms = 0.35355 * 9.4 or 3.32337 Vrms. Vrms^2/50 = power in WATTS. 3.32337^2/50 = 0.220895763 Watts or 221 Milliwatts. Or using my short cut Vptp^2 * 2.5 = power output in milliwatts. QED]

221 Milliwatts @ 14.060 MHz. Clean Pattern

The next step is to see if it is heard on the Reverse Beacon Network. That should prove interesting. For a pair of Ears in the final lash up, I am going to use my MC1496 Direct Conversion Receiver. The sweet smell of success!

Imagine that... my 221 milliwatts heard by DX at 2523 Miles

With 221 Milliwatts I was heard out to 2500 Miles which is about 11.3 miles per milliwatt. Good Show OM.

This home-grown stuff can be real fun stuff and for me better than 5X9, Park 12345. This little project is a throwback to when hams were hams. I engineered this rig and not something the average ham today can do! That is OK as the ham radio tent is large and those that can home grow a rig is almost infinitesimal. So, the 1% is an aberration but still a part of the hobby.  We are a beacon to those who feel guilty they can only do contests, operate or watch you tube videos of YL's calling CQ POTA.

Time to think about integrating the Transmitter and DCR into a homogenous rig. The MC1496 DCR BTW has a PNP RF amplifier stage. I thought may be an Arduino to handle the switching. Sort of something old something new.

Them that know, survive. Will you survive?

73's

Pete N6QW

I turned on my soldering iron!

You ask why did you turn on the iron when ham radio is not about building things. It is all about contests, operating and watching You Tube Videos of YL's making POTA contacts.

Just because is my answer as I want to explore circuits that may be obscure or not very often used. It is like a technical challenge thing for me. Maybe the challenge for most hams today is staying awake during contests and operating.

But for me right now.... I want to revisit using PNP Transistors in a CW transmitter. Yes, Sony has identified that NPN transistors are better for their products. But unlike the ARRL and their proposed CSI grading system, PNP transistors can work in RF circuits without fear of getting flat feet, jock itch, dandruff, toe fungus or an STD. The key to this project is no cost and use what is in the junk box. Brent Crude today > $113 a barrel.

Firstly, I should mention I have a box of 100 Russian Germanium PNP transistors that I bought years ago at a cost of 20 cents each. These are good in the UHF range and found it can produce 0.8 Volts PTP at 14 MHz, in a crystal oscillator circuit. That my friend that is 1.6 milliwatts. So, it will need a big boost to put out at least 100 milliwatts (about 20dBm) or 18 dB gain from 1.6 milliwatts. We are using what we have in the junk box.

My first hurdle was a Google literature search for PNP Oscillator circuits and that turned up lots of sample circuits... all NPN which of course was not useful. The same type of results with Copilot. Then I thought about my library shelf. Forget EMRFD but struck Gold with the Transistor Radio Handbook by Stoner and Earnshaw. 

I went back to Copilot and said did you consider the Stoner/Earnshaw publication. Copilot's reply was Pete you struck Gold. It then spit out a circuit using either a 2N2907 or 2N3906. Of course, I want to use the Russian Germanium Transistor, so I have a starting place.

Back of Envelope Schematic... It Bombed!

Useless...

Here is an interesting story about the Russian Germanium Transistors. I had the scope on the output of a test circuit and pulled the crystal and found out I still had a scope trace. The built-in counter read 234 MHz. [kB=1] It was either self-oscillating or a parasitic oscillation. So indeed, in the UHF range.

PNP CW Transmitter

I had previously built a PNP Driver Stage that now looks like this.

I am still working on the oscillator circuit itself as I really want about 10 milliwatts from the oscillator stage as that would get me about 300 Milliwatts out of the Driver. Now we are cooking!

Looking through the junk box, I found an NPN Oscillator board and with a bit of jury rigging have it working with the Russian PNP Transistor and an earlier version PNP Driver using a 20M QRP Crystal. The Output was only 50 milliwatts. Thus, more work at boosting the output of the oscillator. 

Ultimately, I want it to work to develop several hundred milliwatts using PNP devices. We now have the Copilot suggested Colpitts topology and so we will begin building that circuit.

Well, that Colpitts circuit did not do as well as the junk box NPN adapted to PNP. I swapped out some bias resistors and with a bit of good luck now get 8.4 Volts PTP out of the Driver at 14.06 MHz and that translates to 176 Milliwatts. If I could get 9 Volts PTP that is 200 Milliwatts [9X9X2.5 = 202.5]. There is also a change in that now there are 2N2905's in all three sockets: Oscillator, Driver and Keying Transistor. 

At the Oscillator, with some resistance changes I now get 1.24 Volts PTP with the 2N2905. That is 3.84 Milliwatts. Thus, our Driver stage is producing 16.6 dB of gain. [10*log (176/3.84) = 16.6] LT Spice calculates the Driver stage gain at > 18dB.

I also earlier found a P MOSFET equivalent to the IRF510 and so a possible pair of "boots" for the basic PNP circuit. OTs know a pair of boots is an outboard amplifier for boosting your signal.

For me this is more fun than yelling CQ POTA, 5X9, Park 12345. But for the 99% majority of hams the 5X9, Park 12345 is the soup du jour.

Them that know, survive. Stay Tuned!

73's

Pete N6QW

So, how are you doing?

The answer to that question is of course it depends. If you are in the bottom 90% of Americans, the answer maybe not so well.

I asked Copilot to assess the effect of the Big Beautiful Bill of 2025 and given the tariffs, a war with Iran, and the employment situation how does it look for lower income and middle-income Americans.

It is the end of the month, and I can tell the disposable income is just not there. Thus, the question to Copilot and the response.

Final Verdict: Are lower‑ and middle‑income Americans losing?

Yes — when you combine:

• ✔️ Tax cuts from the One Big Beautiful Bill (positive)

with

• ❌ Tariffs (negative)

• ❌ Inflation on essentials (negative)

• ❌ War‑driven energy spikes (negative)

• ❌ Rising unemployment (negative)

• ❌ Cuts to safety‑net programs (negative)

…the net effect is negative for both lower‑income and middle‑income households.

This is not a political interpretation — it is exactly what the distributional models show.

So, for the majority who voted for you know who, time to vote your wallet in the mid-terms.

Today you are faced with a tough choice of either putting 3 gallons of gas in your car or buying a $20 Pixie Transceiver.

Them that know, survive!

73's

Pete N6QW

The N6QW Blog Demographics

A YL Ham who went from no License to Extra Class in a short period of time has a very active You Tube channel with over 8K followers and over 50 videos in just a few months of 2026. To this YL ham, a tip of the cap and well done. Her videos individually get thousands of views.

Then I thought about my You Tube channel that has less than a third of her followers and has been around over 15 years and has 360 videos. The number of views has of late been tepid. I said to myself... self you must be doing something terribly wrong.

So, I asked Copilot to characterize the typical "look" of an N6QW Blog Viewer. Using data from You Tube and my Blog I fed that info into the AI input form,

One of the N6QW Blog Readers!*

The difference is quite clear as the stuff I do and the videos, I make are out of step with the majority of ham ops today. The YL's videos have frequently covered POTA and SOTA ops. Yet another piece of evidence that the ARRL has been successful in shifting the total focus of the hobby to contests and operating.

But our typical reader would know things that the YL would never know and that knowledge is a rich tapestry of thing past and lets explore some of those.

One of the co-founders of the ARRL was Hiram Percy Maxim, W1AW. Those of you who are NRA members (and those who may be affiliated with organized crime) genuflect and kiss the ring as W1AW also invented the silencer. His dad invented the Maxim Machine Gun. Those with a degree from MIT also genuflect... he got his ME Degree from MIT at age 17.

W1AW

Of import in this photo is that W1AW is wearing a pair of "cans" AKA headphones. Our blog reader would know about cans.

Often hams of old would end a QSO (contact) by saying I am going to QSY (change frequency) to a "cold 807". The 807 was a popular transmitting tube akin to an IRF510 on steroids. The photo below shows the similar appearance of an 807 to a beer bottle (before canned beer). Yes, he is going to have a cold beer.

807

When our blog reader says he has a box of rocks the reference is to Crystals that enable frequency agility. Rocks pre-date analog VFO's and Si5351's.

Other terms like "fire in the wire" (a healthy dose of RF into the antenna) or "my ears" (the station receiver when all stations were separates) will never be uttered by the YL in a POTA run. 

In fact, all the POTA information exchanged is 5X9 and Park Number 12345. We will never know she is sitting with her car trunk open running an expensive appliance box, a similarly expensive portable vertical antenna and collecting the information on a Apple IPad. There is an absence of cold 807's in sight

The current ARRL subliminal message with CSI, is that you cannot do contests and operating unless you have a CSI sticker on your radio.  I can never hope to achieve her numbers staying in the home-grown lane. I also wonder if W1AW, the old man himself, would approve of what the ARRL is doing today. Given how the ARRL came into being I suspect W1AW would disapprove and so should you.

Them that know, survive.

73's

Pete N6QW

* The AI generated the image and is just that. Any similarity to any person living or dead is purely coincidental.

One Half the Peace Sign Salute to the ARRL CSI

 

Hermes Lite 2.0

Whether you like it or not, eventually you will be forced to have a CSI "stickered" appliance box in your shack. The Nerds from Newington likely will lobby the FCC to make CSI a regulation and law of the land. Time to dump your membership! This effort by the ARRL Lab will kill home grown radios and force you to dump anything other than CSI appliance boxes.

While that is the death knell for ugly construction and home-grown crystal filters there is much to be said for the Thetis Software and a reasonably priced commercial SDR transceiver. The Hermes Lite 2.0 costing about $500 in a finished form plus shipping coupled with the Thetis software is an eye-popping experience. I have one and the Thetis front end is superb. A microsecond with the Noise Reduction functionality will convince you.

With an outboard RF Sampler (about $100) you now have the Pure Signal Functionality of the Apache Labs radios. You can add a 100-watt amp and have something rivaling the ICOM and Yaesu SDR radios and still have some change in your pocket. I have a CCI AN762 amp and so I am there.

For us OT's, The HL2, Thetis and an Amp would be like having Bridget Bardot as a close friend... a really close friend with benefits.

Copilot explains...

Here’s a clean, high‑impact overview of the Hermes‑Lite 2.0 HF SDR transceiver, pulling together the most authoritative details from the latest sources. This gives you the essentials fast, then dives into the technical depth you appreciate.

⭐ Hermes‑Lite 2.0 — What It Is

The Hermes‑Lite 2.0 is a low‑cost, open‑hardware, open‑source HF SDR transceiver covering 130 kHz–30 MHz with 5 W output, built around the AD9866 modem chip and a Cyclone IV FPGA. It’s essentially a compact, Ethernet‑connected, ANAN‑style radio designed for experimenters and serious SDR operators.

📡 Core Technical Specs

• HF Coverage: 130 kHz → 30 MHz

• RF Output: 5 W QRP

• Architecture: Direct down/up‑conversion SDR

• Main ICs:

• AD9866 broadband modem

• Altera Cyclone IV FPGA (same family used in ANAN 7000)

• Interface: Gigabit Ethernet for low‑latency I/Q streaming

• Form Factor: Single‑board SDR (HL2+ variants add I/O features)

🧰 Operating Modes

• CW

• SSB

• AM

• FM

🔧 Advanced Capabilities

PureSignal / Adaptive Predistortion

• Full support for PureSignal, just like Apache Labs ANAN radios.

• Requires an RF sampler feeding back into the radio (typically via RF3).

• Thetis analyzes the sampled RF and applies real‑time linearization.

Upgradeable Gateware

• SparkSDR and other tools can load new FPGA gateware.

• Custom gateware required for HL2+ companion boards.

Open‑Source Everything

• Hardware, firmware, and software are fully open.

• Active community, group buys, and ongoing development.

🖥️ Compatible SDR Software

The Hermes‑Lite 2.0 speaks the OpenHPSDR protocol, so it works with:

• Thetis (most advanced UI + PureSignal control)

• PowerSDR

• SDR Console

• SparkSDR (also loads gateware)

• Quisk

• PiHPSDR

🧩 Optional Add‑Ons

Filter Board

• Required for proper TX harmonic suppression

• Includes RX high‑pass filter to reduce <2 MHz broadcast overload

I/O Board

• Relay control

• Antenna switching

• PA control

• Sampler input for PureSignal

Hermes‑Lite 2+ Companion Board

• Local mic jack

• Local headphone jack with sidetone

• Iambic keyer

• AH‑4 tuner interface

• Hardrock‑50 PA control

(From Makerfabs and community documentation.)

💡 Why Operators Love It

• ANAN‑like performance at a fraction of the cost

• Open‑source ecosystem encourages experimentation

• PureSignal support gives exceptionally clean transmit audio

• Gigabit Ethernet means low latency and high bandwidth

• Huge software flexibility across platforms

🧭 If you want, I can also help you with:

• A Hermes‑Lite 2.0 vs ANAN 7000/8000 comparison

• A step‑by‑step PureSignal setup for your HL2 + Thetis

• A POTA/SOTA‑optimized HL2 portable setup

• Choosing the right sampler, filter board, or PA

Just tell me where you want to go next.

To run the Pure Signal functionality, you must have the I/O Board installed (about $53) so order that too!

The RF Sampler (about $100) can be had from the Ukraine at this link.

You are stuck with CSI and so aside from flashing half the Peace Sign, you can get a radio that has Pure Signal functionality. The HL2 is a semi kit as you will have to install the boards in a case... but it is more like LEGOs and no soldering required.

I have had my HL2 for about 5 years and actually the bonus benefit is its use a piece of test equipment. Many a time I was able to evaluate a conventional home-grown rig to look at the spectrum and check for any spurs and best of all to see if I really was 30 Hertz low.

Them that know, Survive and I just flashed half the Peace Sign to the ARRL.

73's

Pete N6QW