QRP for the Tightwad

1. QRP for the Tightwad Tony Fishpool G4WIF / K4WIF

2. The Shack No room inside the house ? - me neither.

3. Photos of cases • Case from an old modem.

4. Photos of cases • Photos of cases…… • Norcal mini ATU made from PCB stock.

5. Photos of cases • Photos of cases. • Inside view

6. Antenna Tip 1. • Next time you consider getting one of these :-

7. Antenna Tip 1. • Consider one of these :-

8. Probes • Some of the probes G3MFJ shows in our book.

9. Probes • But also consider the Accuprobe from Nortex… • www.kk5na.com/nortex.htm - this allows you to measure very small voltage levels.

10. Accuprobe • Input levels: LOW range - 50 mV rms to 5V rms (usable to 20 mV)                     HIGH range – 5 V rms to 35 V rms • 100 kHz to 30 MHz • $17 post paid – what a deal!

11. VE3DNL Marker Generator • Something to generate a signal to poke up the front end… • How about a marker generator like the VE3DNL marker generator. Only $7.50 from Norcal • (www.norcalqrp.org).

12. VE3DNL Circuit

13. Attenuator • There are more designs than you can shake a soldering iron at. Here’s one I built :-

14. Noise Bridge/Generator.

15. Noise Bridge/Generator. • At the point at which zener diode conduction begins it will generate a considerable amount of noise. We can use this to good effect once we’ve amplified it a bit. The important thing is getting the coil right. Use a FT50-43 core or similar from the junkbox. Something like 5 turns of trifilar wound wire will suffice.

16. Noise Bridge/Generator.

17. Micro Henry Meter A clever little circuit by Walter Farrar G3ESP. As described it will show a dip on the meter for small inductors up to 10uH

18. The 2N2222 • If you want a few watts extra then dip into your big bag of cheap transistors instead of ordering an expensive PA transistor. JA9MAT showed in Sprat how he used 15 transistors to get 3.5 watts out.

19. Low Pass Filter • Money saving Tip! – Only make one - and use it on lots of rigs!

20. Low Pass Filter

21. Low Pass Filter • Values:-

22. Making PCB’s • Simply don’t bother for “one-offs” - unless you want to wait before you start building and like to mess around with chemicals. Save a fortune on Ferric Chloride! Take a simple wood drill like this ….. And grind off one of the cutting blades. (in USA called “brad point bits”?)

23. Making PCB’s • Just use a punch or small hand held hobby drill to start a pilot hole. And “twirl it slowly around. You can make an “island” when and where you want one.

24. Making PCB’s An example audio amplifier made using the modified drill.

25. Build everything in an Altoids tin! W8DIZ Marker Generator

26. Build everything in an Altoids tin! LTC 1799 Really Cheap Signal Generator.

27. Other containers

28. Antenna Tip 2. - Budget Antennas. • And go here :- • www.cebik.com • And spend the next couple of years having fun! Buy one of these :-

29. Radios for under a Pound • Some of the 99 pence radios….

30. Radios for under a Pound • And another..

31. Radios for under a Pound • And another..

32. Radios for under a Pound • They all seem to have the same insides….

33. Slightly more expensive • Then we turned our attention to a more expensive radio. This time we were shelling out a whole £2.99 ! Sold by the UK store “Superdrug” this radio sported 10 short wave bands as well as FM and medium wave. The major discovery was that the display was actually a frequency counter.

34. £2.99 Radio • Hans Summers patiently traced out the circuit.

35. £2.99 Radio • Here's a great picture of Dimitri Aguero F4DYT with his Superdrug radio in the French Alps.

36. Never walk past a “skip” • No “cost conscious” qrp-er can pass one of these. • In England they are known as a “skip”. • It is in one of these that all my birthdays came at once. • I found a Spectrum Analyser!

37. But how about one of these? • NJ-QRP Signal Quality Meter. Provides a simple and easy way to determine how “clean” the output of an oscillator, amplifier or properly adjusted transmitter really is. 

38. G3RJV Utility Receiver George G3RJV tries on Graham G3MFJ’s new Texas hat.

39. G3RJV Utility Receiver Subtitle “at last a use for those bloody DDS kits”! • George found that from time to time the need arose for a simple “test receiver”. • Shown: The new Norcal FCC-2 DDS Kit.

40. G3RJV Utility Receiver FT37-43 core. Windings 0.27 mm. 12 turns Trifilar. Yet another item of test gear that will fit into an Altoids tin.

41. Eamon EI9GQ goes one step further Double balanced mixer with low pass filter

42. EI9GQ filter testing method 470R Noise Source Filter on test Mixer Detector AFAmp. PC Osc.

43. EI9GQ filter testing method Above a Yaesu Filter. Below a homebrew filter.

44. Antenna Tip 3. • Insulators and pulleys - I don’t use them at all. These little blocks come in bags of 100 and cost a few pounds. I get them from our equivalent of Home Depot.

45. Antenna Tip 3. • They make great little insulators. • You can use them as light centre pieces too.

46. Antenna Tip 3. • I also use them as pulleys. • Having no moving parts they never snag.

47. What a deal! GQRP Club • Keep an eye on GQRP-L • Join the club - $14 per year • You get four issues of SPRAT Don’t miss out on the fun! www.gqrp.com

48. GQRP Club – Projects Under Development • All sorts of interesting and inexpensive chips to experiment with. • The ICS 525 – about two quid each. • Any crystal input from 5 – 27 MHz for any output up to 250 MHz. • Very Low Jitter.

49. Montreal Fox uses an ICS 525 Two Metre Fox Transmitter - http://tinyurl.com/ndh25

50. As does the G3ZOI ARDF Transmitter • http://tinyurl.com/n8gzr