Pixie - 3

Well, the time has come to build smallest possible working transceiver. Many of them has been built before occupying various tin boxes. One I got was "Fishermen's Friend" mini size. The question was - Could I make it? Should it be an original pixie or my pixie? Searching through internet resources I came to conclusion that my pixie must work wider than original design based on single crystal  and there was a need to have TX offset capability. Prototype worked fine until I soldered RX part. TX self oscillations, a lot of BCI, poor tone. This made me angry....The reason was very simple - attempting to put everything in a smallest possible candy can required very good  component placing. Also I had to make my own printed circuit, because protoboards produced a lot of stray capacitances and inductances. Finally the rig was made and then 8th of March I made 8 contacts during local contest on 80 meters. I called my pixie - "Pixie-3" and do believe that I have a right to do so remembering who was the first. Look at the small note on schematics. Every Ham should try  to build this cute rig himself or from the kit. Unforgettable experience and pleasure.

  Pixie prototype

  Universal board caused a lot of problems

  Components layout was also wrong

This can I got from my work mate and had to give him bigger one including candies ;-)))

  Printed board was   homebrewed  but two mistakes I made (  In 1995 I made my last boards) so please copy carefuly.

Ruler below shows how small the parts are

       Final assembly of Pixie-3

    Pixie - 3 over a hand key

Pixie-3 schematics

Specifications:

Tuning range:             3500kHz - 3579kHz

Output power:           approx.250mW @ 50 ohms

Supply voltage:          13,8V

VXO stability:            excellent

TX offset:                 approx. 700Hz ( slightly lower above 3570kHz)

Antenna:                     dipole recommended