Low cost oscilloscope kit (Bangood)

Steve G1KQH has tracked down yet another bargain. I think my SMA assembly skills are probably still not up to the task, but you can hardly go wrong at the price which includes free air-mail shipping. Another absolute bargain. I think Steve must have shares in Bangood!!  If not, they ought to make him their UK agent, HI.

Here’s another one (kit), we could get our teeth into:

http://www.banggood.com/DIY-Digital-Oscilloscope-Kit-Electronic-Learning-Kit-p-969762.html

I have that many kits at the moment, I don’t know where to start next? If I come back in another life can we have a 48hour clock pse!

73 Steve
http://www.g1kqh.talktalk.net/

First 40m Pixie QSO

At 1000z this morning I exchanged RST 579 reports with G6ALB who is 3km from me on my 40m Pixie on 7.023MHz CW. This was my first on-air QSO. Netting was perfect and I used the rig directly into my low Par triband antenna. An ATU might have helped. Andrew G6ALB said the channel was pretty busy but that I was a good RST579 with no hint of chirp. This afternoon we'll put the rig on his spectrum analyser. I gave Andrew 579 probably reflecting the poorer MDS of the Pixie. I have no idea of his power or antenna.

My initial goals have been met: I built the kit and have managed a QSO on the air with it. With the fatigue associated with my brain bleed still very apparent (I am well and truly shattered currently), I was well pleased. A few more QSOs with the 40m Pixie would be good, HI.

$10 well spent. Excellent little kit. FB little transceiver. Works surprisingly well.

Genesis Q5 1W QRP kit from Australia

http://genesisradio.com.au/Q5/q5_1.jpg

A trawl of the internet earlier found this kit, a 1W QRP transmitter for any band from 3.5MHz to 14MHz. It is available for S19.95 (US Dollars) + S9 (US Dollars) shipped anywhere worldwide. That seems pretty good value. Also on the website are SDR transceivers.

I last showed this particular kit on my blog 5 years ago.

See http://www.genesisradio.com.au/Q5/ for more details including how to order the various kits. Details on the page include parts lists, schematics and building details.

The are some pretty good SDR transceivers on this site.

Ultimate 3 Beacon

So far today I have not yet been on the radios at all. No 10m WSPR, no 2m/70cm beacon hunting.

Later, if I feel well enough, I may make a start on my Ultimate 3 Beacon Kit.  It would be good to get this running but I have been waiting until I felt a bit better (less giddy). Now is maybe the time? Perhaps I'll start on an easy board today.

G4HJW "Finningley" Optical Transceiver kit

The G4HJW optical transceiver kit

Bernie G4HJW is well known for his innovative work on microwaves and optical comms. Last year he designed a neat, part SMA, optical transceiver kit to build at the Finningley round table meeting. The transceiver is capable of very good results and several (around 70) have been built and used very successfully. I believe the best DX QSOs at 481THz have been over 60km using these in 100mm optics.

Exactly when I'll get my kit built I'm not sure but it will be good to have one of these available for optical line-of-sight tests in the autumn. Once assembled, I shall be looking for some 2-way optical QSOs beyond the 10km speech contact I achieved with my own kit last summer. In East Anglia, the issue is finding some hills to allow long line-of-sight paths.

Bernie is, I understand, considering putting together a further batch of these kits, which make a good introduction to nanowave communications. In addition to these electrical kits, all that is needed is a microphone, headset and some simple optics than can be built for a few pounds.

See http://www.earf.co.uk/nanotrx.htm for more details

YouKits TJ2B SSB handheld kits on eBay

The TJ2B 4-band SSB HF handheld is available direct from China for around £176 as a kit with all the SMA components already mounted on the PCBs. See eBay item number 271195721443.

Ultimate QRSS/WSPR kit from Hans Summers

Hans Summers G0UPL has just announced a wonderful new kit. Amongst other modes it also supports stand-alone WSPR beaconing when used with a GPS timing reference, without a PC. This was his announcement on the GQRP Yahoo group earlier today:

All,

This is to announce a new standalone QRSS/WSPR kit by Steve G0XAR and Hans G0UPL. The kit supports WSPR, QRSS, DFCW, FSK/CW, CW, Hell (full speed and half-speed), Slow Hell, and customisable FSK patterns. The WSPR encoding is on-chip. It supports the connection of a GPS module for frequency locking, accurate time, and location (for WSPR). Power output is measured at 185mW on the 30m version. We are selling versions for 30/40/80m and perhaps later 20m and 160m. It does not require a PC, it has an LCD and two buttons to control it.

The price is GBP 15.39 (EUR 19 or US $24 approximately) plus shipping.

You can see all the details here: http://www.hanssummers.com/qrsskitmm and order online at http://www.hanssummers.com/shop . We expect to be shipping by 27-29 June.

The kit supports the following modes:

+ QRSS mode (plain on/off keyed slow CW)
+ FSK/CW mode (frequency shift keyed slow CW)
+ DFCW mode (dual frequency CW, dit's and dah's on different frequencies)
+ WSPR mode (Weak Signal Propagation Reporter)
+ Slow-Hellschreiber (frequency shifted slow Hellschreiber)
+ Hellshreiber (full-speed standard Hellschreiber, and half-speed Hellshreiber)
+ CW (plain CW)
+ Customisable FSK patterns

Other features:

+ 24-character LCD + two-button user interface
+ User-programmable (callsign, message, speed, FSK, mode, etc.), settings stored in EEPROM
+ GPS interface, for locking the frequency in slow-speed modes
+ On-chip generation of WSPR encoded message (no PC required)
+ WSPR maidenhead locator can be generated from GPS-derived latitude/longitude
+ Selectable “frame” size, for stacked QRSS reception
+ Plain CW callsign identifier at selectable interval
+ Produces 150mW RF output, or AF output for driving an SSB transceiver
+ Higher output power by additional PA transistor and/or higher PA supply voltage

73 Hans G0UPL and Steve G0XAR