Category Archives: QRP

New England QSO Party Fun

Posted on May 7, 2017 by robert

I don’t recall ever operating in the New England QSO Party before, but several emails were circulating encouraging activity, so I thought I’d give it a go.  Conditions were OK on the lower frequency bands — not a lot of … Continue reading →

Posted in Contests, QRP | Leave a comment

How Well Does the Pixie Receiver Work?

Posted on April 11, 2017 by robert

My club, Newport County Radio Club, just completed our third and final meeting on the 40-meter QRP Pixie kit.  We packaged the inexpensive Chinese QRP kit with sockets for the crystal and final transistor, two additional crystals (7.030 and 7.040) … Continue reading →

Posted in Pixie, QRP | 1 Comment

KA1QYP Half Pint QRP Transceiver Passes FCC

Posted on March 24, 2017 by robert

In our continuing quest to evaluate the output purity of various QRP kits, Willy W1LY constructed a Bill KA1QYP Half Pint Kit. The assembled kit produced a solid 600 mW output and was one of the cleanest radios we’ve seen.  The … Continue reading →

Posted in Projects, QRP | Leave a comment

Pixie with 5-pole Axial Filter Passes

Posted on March 14, 2017 by robert

Willy, W1LY, decided to try using the standard unshielded 1 uH axial inductor that the Pixie uses for it’s current 3-pole filter (C5=47o pf, L2=1 uH, C6=470 pF) as the starting point for a 5-pole filter that could easily fit … Continue reading →

Posted in Pixie, Projects, QRP | 1 Comment

Elsie Plot of QRP-Labs 7-pole 40-m LPF

Posted on March 5, 2017 by robert

This is the schematic of the 7-pole LPF used in the QRP Labs 40-meter LPF: The plot from Elsie 2.77 for the above filter looks like this: The actual SA response curve looks like this: The curves are remarkably similar. … Continue reading →

Posted in Pixie, Projects, QRP | Leave a comment

A “Better” QRP Transceiver?

Posted on March 4, 2017 by robert

NCRC had several reasons for building the Pixie as a club project, and getting it on the air is probably at the bottom of the list.  Fixing flaws in the Pixie design provides learning opportunities.  But by the time you … Continue reading →

Posted in Projects, QRP | Leave a comment

Pixie Perfection

Posted on March 4, 2017 by robert

As has been noted in several posts, the stock Pixie 3-pole filter is hopelessly inadequate to suppress harmonics.  A typical Pixie will have a 2nd Harmonic that is only about -21 dB down from the carrier.  An external 5-pole filter … Continue reading →

Posted in Pixie, Projects, QRP | Leave a comment

P2N2222A for the Pixie

Posted on February 27, 2017 by robert

On Semiconductor has a variant of the old 2N2222A in a plastic case called the P2N2222A and characterizes it as a small signal RF amplifier.  I picked up a few samples and ran three of them through the Pixie.  In … Continue reading →

Posted in Pixie, Projects, QRP | 1 Comment

7-Pole Filter + Pixie

Posted on February 26, 2017 by robert

A friend of mine, Paul K1YBE, gave me a QRP Labs 40-meter Low Pass Filter Kit.  The kit came with three T37-6 cores, some #28 wire, 4 caps, a tiny PCB, and a couple of headers. Normally used with one … Continue reading →

Posted in Pixie, Projects, QRP | Leave a comment

Better Q == Better Response

Posted on February 26, 2017 by robert

Yesterday I replaced the inductors in my original 40-meter LPS with larger cores that wound up having about twice the Q.  This morning I replaced the ceramic caps with silver mica caps.  The old caps had a Q around 80.  The … Continue reading →

Posted in Projects, QRP | Leave a comment