Sunday, January 10, 2010

"Lunchbox" 80m QRP SSB rig progressing well

With pleasure I can report that the single sideband 80m transmitter I started recently is progressing well now that some technical difficulties have been overcome.

Basically the power amplifier stage, an IRF510, oscillated magnificently at 600kHz - something I haven't experienced before. Now that it all works on the bench I've started mounting it in an excellent case I found at the local "$2" shop, a metal lunchbox.

Lunchbox qrp.jpg


This simple rig is crystal locked to 3.58Mhz and I'm planning to put a matching direct conversion receiver in the spare space at the lower left.

Update

The transmitter is all boxed up and puts out very little power. I'm having trouble adjusting the oscillator for decent sounding sideband. I think it's time to make one of those dual-tone sideband test oscillators.

Last week I did a guest spot on local canberra radio 666 and on the way in to the "tardis" (small remote guest studio) I saw this magnificent valve display in a case on the wall:

valve display.jpg


The title reads "The First Transmitters of the Twentieth Century" - Edward D Huckell, Smiree (Aust), 'The Slave of the Magic Lamp'.

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