Pixies and Micro-80s

One of the fun parts of our hobby is seeing how simple gear can be made that is capable of contacts of several hundred miles or more. 

Examples are the Pixie and Micro-80 designs. Pixies can be bought as kits from China for a few pounds or euros. In the past, I have made versions for 80m and 40m, including homebrew and kits.

With these circuits, the main limitation is the RX. These are compromises using the PA device as the RX mixer. Often the sensitivity is a bit lacking and AM breakthrough can be a problem. The front end selectivity is barn-door and the audio filtering mainly one's ear! Nonetheless, many miles can be spanned. In terms of "bang per buck" they take some beating. 

The challenge is to find the best overall circuit which has a decent TX and RX.

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/hf/pixie