Eighty - Oner
For many Hams 80m band is most accesible, so I developed another one-watter based on VXO.
The rig is already assembled and working. All I have to do is silkscreening of front and rear panels. This will take some time. Eighty-Oner was built using pre-drilled universal board as you can see below.
Eighty Oner - schematics
Eighty Oner as you can see is based on Direct Conversion receiver and VXO transmitter. Receiver is very sensitive and BCI filtering is excellent. The only disadvantage is a popping click in headphones during transmitting. If you can't stand this, install optional switch which grounds mixer/detector output. This helps but requires another hole in front panel and there is not full QSK then. For me this popping is not a problem.
The concept is based on Wayne's NB6M idea and attempt to find an answer - "How low can we go with VXO". Thank you Wayne for your support which resulted in pushing pair of "colorburst crystals" veeery low. The range of RX is 3490 kHz - 3578kHz. TX range is smaller (due to poor transmitter's tone), but covers 3545kHz - 3578kHz. Good enough for QRP!!
"Eighty-Oner" board finished
First QSO was made on 13.01.2003 with UR5RA
RST received was 579 !
Another contacts I made on 02.02.2003 with HA, YU and YL stations receiving 579 twice and 599 once.
Output power measured is 1,1W
"Eighty-Oner" inside look