10m Neophyte RX

Today I breadboarded a 10m version of the Neophyte direct conversion RX from a 1988 QST. The Neophyte uses an NE602 as the RF amp, LO and mixer and with the output fed differentially into an LM386 audio amp. In my version I used a single toroid 10m tuned circuit and a free running LC oscillator using the oscillator onboard the NE602. As it was a lash-up, frequency stability was a bit average, but it had good sensitivity and allowed plenty of Europeans to be copied on 10m CW and SSB. I used an 8 ohm LS and there was plenty of audio. Overall I was impressed that something this simple worked so well.

Tomorrow I want to try the same circuit but using an external VFO using a VXOed 14.3MHz ceramic resonator in an oscillator/doubler. I am hoping that the resonator will pull well over 100kHz so that it covers a useful part of the 10m SSB band. The same LO will be used for the DSB transmitter assuming it pulls OK and is sufficiently frequency stable.