The Four State QRP Club (4SQRP)
recently came out with two great kits (and another since then). The
first is called the NS-40, designed by David Cripe, NMØS, is a
Class-E transmitter for 40 meters. The second kit, designed by Jason
Mildrum, NT7S, is a VXO-tuned 40 meter receiver receiver.
This is my rig,shown on the right. On the left is the NS-40, on the right top portion is the VRX-1, with the keyer interface and sidetone PCB just below it on the lower right. My receiver will swing a tad over 5KHz (3 below and 2 above) from the crystal frequency. I have two crystals, 7030 and 7040 KHz respectively, so this works quite well for me. I keep adding new mods and have a couple more that I just came up with, so this looks like a "forever in progress" type project.
I have one small issue to take care of and it is only a matter of resoldering some joints on the receiver. I used an old TICK-EMB kit from the mid 90’s. for keying the NS-40. Since the keyer may not have liked being hooked up directly to the transmitter, I built a keyer interface and a sidetone on a small piece of PCB. The sidetone design came from Jason, NT7S and the interface was from Terry, WA0ITP. Terry handles most questions dealing with this as he is the point man for the 4SQRP kits.
If your looking for a fun project that can be made stock, or customized to your taste, these two kits are a good choice to look at. Even when I have finished all the mod’s I want to do, I will still have less than $100.00 in this project. Once finished, I will probably spend more time on the air with this rig than others that I have here in the shack.
This is my rig,shown on the right. On the left is the NS-40, on the right top portion is the VRX-1, with the keyer interface and sidetone PCB just below it on the lower right. My receiver will swing a tad over 5KHz (3 below and 2 above) from the crystal frequency. I have two crystals, 7030 and 7040 KHz respectively, so this works quite well for me. I keep adding new mods and have a couple more that I just came up with, so this looks like a "forever in progress" type project.
I have one small issue to take care of and it is only a matter of resoldering some joints on the receiver. I used an old TICK-EMB kit from the mid 90’s. for keying the NS-40. Since the keyer may not have liked being hooked up directly to the transmitter, I built a keyer interface and a sidetone on a small piece of PCB. The sidetone design came from Jason, NT7S and the interface was from Terry, WA0ITP. Terry handles most questions dealing with this as he is the point man for the 4SQRP kits.
If your looking for a fun project that can be made stock, or customized to your taste, these two kits are a good choice to look at. Even when I have finished all the mod’s I want to do, I will still have less than $100.00 in this project. Once finished, I will probably spend more time on the air with this rig than others that I have here in the shack.
