Beacon kit ...

[weaksigs]

WHAT!
That's WAY TOO Pretty to be a pirate!
Better get it new clothes so it can model them! 
Lets get with it QRP!
LOL
 

weaksigs

[syfr]

Cute! I'm guessing 20m with that coil? Nice work.

The two transistor rig posted elsewhere is a nice one based on the "universal QRP transmitter" published by Wes Hayward.  Thousands built I'd guess. 

[Seamus]

That looks a whole lot like the Michigan Mighty Mite circuit that I've been tinkering with recently...



Here with a chebyshev filter on the output, which I'm still not sure is actually doing anything for me.

That "Unversal QRP Transmitter" circuit has been giving me fits for some reason.  I think I may have an idea of what I'm doing wrong, but need a little bit of "quality time" with the soldering iron to try out an idea or two.  I managed to find a wiring error I had in one of my recent attempts, which converted the board from a board that transmits smoke to one that produces no output whatsoever, and have identified two possible problems that I need to experiment with. 

Good, clear photos of the componentry in a working "Universal QRP Transmitter" rig would be very helpful for me to see, if anyone has them, as well as details of the L1/L2 RF transformer.  A unit built for the 40-meter-ish band would be nice to see, but at this point I'll take anything I can get.

[QRP]

http://www.radiorud.se/fyren.asp

The transmitters is model "Michigan Mighty Mite" for 80, 30 and 12 meter, about 0,5 w.

Also visit these links:
http://www.qsl.net/pa1sdb/20mbeacon.html
http://www.qsl.net/pa1sdb/30mbeacon.html
http://www.zianet.com/dhassall/Michmitymite.html
http://www.qsl.net/w/wb5ude//kc6wdk/transmitter.html

http://members.cox.net/hhm_74665/orb/k12/

http://www.qsl.net/5z4ft/74hc240qrp.html

//QRP

[syfr]

Ah, I see... that rig is from the Swedish beaconeer.... nice link to that page.

[syfr]

I'll post some pix of my (ugly) version of the Universal QRP rig. I built it Manhattan style, and while it's not very pretty, it does work to the tune of about 400mW at 12.5 v Vcc.

The interstage transformer had me scratching my head for a while too. It doesn't seem critical though. Wind the primary (each time you poke a wire though it's one turn...including the first time)....then wind the secondary the same way, poking the wire through the same direction when starting, as the first. One hint is to use fatter wire on the secondary (wound over the first by the way, spreading it out over the whole core) so that it's stronger leads can provide some mechanical strength to the assembly preventing it from flopping around.  Wire size not critical...just whatever is on hand and will fit in the core. Mine is built with 2n2219A since that's what I had on hand and they're a little more beefy than the 2n2222s in the parts stash.

I'm not an expert by any means, but this seems a tried and true design that works well. 
I used the schematic that was kindly posted by our moderator. :-)

[syfr]

As mentioned, it's ugly. It does on the other hand, work fine, so there's some beauty in that :-). I doubt there's any details one could extract from this photo, other than I'm a hack when it comes to breadboarding this way. :-) 

Manhattan style has the advantage of providing an excellent RF ground plane, though Im incapable of making things look nice with it.

555 keyer is in the background. I built it separately since I want to upgrade the keyer to the CMOS id circuit posted here. IC's just arrived yesterday.

[QRP]

Christmas Cracker ... http://bleepmicro.livejournal.com/52177.html

//QRP

[QRP]

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/__5iWv8nZ19E/SXnHwl6ENrI/AAAAAAAAAB8/VaX8io5UQEM/s1600-h/IZ1KXQ_SOLAR_MEPT.jpg
//QRP