Pixies and the Micro-80

There has always been a call to see what can be worked with very little. Among such rigs are the Pixie and Micro-80. I have built both in the past. 

Both use the PA as the mixer on RX. The RX is the compromise although both work. Pixie kits were available as kits from China at very low cost. I bought one for 40m, with a crystal on 7.023MHz. If you get one you may want to consider crystals on 7.030MHz which is the  QRP calling frequency in Europe. These crystals are available at low cost.

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/hf-mf-and-lf/homebrew/8040m-pixie-and-micro80-transceivers .

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

Pixie and Micro-80 transceivers

Some years ago I built a Micro-80 transceiver for 80m CW.

More recently I got a Pixie kit for 40m, which was very inexpensive and came with free airmail from China. It went together easily and enabled me to have a QSO with a local ham. It got put away thereafter as it was really an exercise to check out my building skills after my stroke in 2013.

On all these simple, compromise, rigs it is the receiver which is often the weakest link. They often have little selectivity and can easily be overloaded. These days there is far more FT8 activity and both SSB and  CW have suffered. Typical Pixie powers are 300-500mW. This power is more than enough to work plenty assuming you can copy the other station!

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