Y'all wanna talk Super LP CW with a kit builder, contact Floyd Hoskins,
N5FH. He's seen, fixed, built, et al. many different designs.
______________________
Clay Autery, KY5G
(318) 518-1389
On 17-Oct-19 15:32, Brian Hunt wrote:
Back when Halted Specialties Company (HSC) was in business in the SF
Bay Area I bought a PIXIE2e kit from them for $14.95. It is a crystal
controlled direct conversion transceiver using only a 2N2222
oscillator and LM386 audio amp on a 1" x 2" PCB. It came with
crystals for 80m and 40m. RF output 200-300 mW with a 9v battery. I
never built it and dug the kit out of my "archives." I'd be glad to
offer it up as a design or evaluation candidate.
73,
Brian, K0DTJ
On 10/17/2019 11:05, Wayne Burdick wrote:
Hi all,
Someone recently told me that he'd benefitted throughout his life
from learning Morse code as a teen. Ham radio helped him cope. He's
gone on to promote Morse because it can help kids with certain
cognitive or social issues. Such problems are exacerbated by social
media, these days. We all know of teens who've ended up ostracized or
worse.
He was wondering what the ham community may be able to do for them.
I proposed a simple ($5-$10), unlicensed CW transceiver (kit or
assembled or both) that would put out maybe 1 milliwatt. It would
serve as a code-practice oscillator for solo use. But with a short
wire hanging from the PCB, kids could work "DX" -- like across a
room, or better yet, outdoors.
This got his attention. I went on to describe a scenario that he
found very plausible, based on his experience with Morse advocacy:
You hand kids the little modules (just a PCB with a built-in 4x AAA
battery pack, code key, antenna wire, and cheap earbuds), and ask
them to try sending/receiving a few letters. The complete code would
be silkscreened onto the PCB. After they try this, you say, "Now see
how far apart you can get and still copy you friend's signal." This
is where the magic happens, at least for those of us who have been
leveraging action-at-a-distance ourselves for many years :) It takes
things a step beyond ordinary code practice. Connects kids to other
kids. At best it could serve as a bridge to a world outside themselves.
I'm picturing the little rig as SA602 based, with one crystal for TX
and one for RX, running so little power than licensing is a
non-issue. Frequency? TBD. Something available in cheap fundamental
crystals from Digikey. Each one would have its crystals offset
slightly from the others, so the effect of having a number of them in
one room might be a bit like being on a crowded CW band. Picking out
the pitch of a signal of interest and copying it is a skill many of
us have learned. I'm sure kids who are motivated would be able to do
it as well.
It should not have debilitating clicks or thumps when keyed. The only
control should be for volume. It should be full break-in, which at
this power level is easily obtained.
This is a project I would gladly take on myself if not for my
greater-than-full-time commitments to Elecraft products. I'm hoping
there's a tinkerer out there with more free time who could start from
a minimal description and design the little rig. The gentleman I
spoke to has been frustrated over the years in trying to get his
message out, and in trying to find ways to take Morse code to a wider
range of kids. He felt that this idea had a lot of merit.
If you're interested in this project, or know of something that
matches this description that's already available, please contact me
directly.
73,
Wayne
N6KR
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