Amateur Radio Station AA7JC

Jack Meadows (W7QQQ) has a similar transmitter and it has a much cleaner note.  So, of course, I went to his house in seek of his help  Now my note sounds as good as his!   Interestingly, the trick was to simply replaced the 47k grid resistor with a 2.5mh choke.  After much experimenting I found that I really did not have enough HV for my VR tube to kick in plus there was no chirp anyhow so I have since pulled the VR tube (darn!) .. I guess I need to rebuild the rig in another chassis with a bigger transformer and maybe see some benefit in having a VR circuit (HI!!).  

SCHEMATIC of TRANSMITTER SHOWN ABOVE (prior to adding the W7QQQ mod)

The picture (above) is my QRP CW transceiver.  I built it from a (Wilderness Radio) kit back when it was the top of the line.  It still is probably the best of the two watt radios on the market.   The receiver draws an amazingly low 35 ma. 

The picture (below) is one of the boat anchors that I use .. It is a swap meet treasure.. It works great as long as it has been given a good warm up.

Glad to meet you on the air
on Forty meters CW.

Click here to see a Real Movie clip of ME (111kb)




K2? cuz I gotta!!
Serial# 1833





Mail Lists That I subscribe to:

See pictures of this neat little Regen that I built (June 29 2001) using a design from Gary Johanson's (WD4NKA) web site

**NEW** Have you ever listened to a regen rcvr? It may surprise you! You can listen to a number of (very small) sound clips from the above three tube rcvr

(170KB SSB 20mtr W6CCP with NP2I )
(95KB K2LMQ QSO with ME! 40mtr CW)
(73KB kf9ei with wz6t 40 mtrs CW )
(272KB Old Friends Net - SSB on 20mtrs )
(49KB W9ZN 40 mtr CW )
(58KB kd5tsg-ka4rxp 40 mtr CW )
(51KB AC5AM with K5PSH (saturday morning) 40 mtr CW )
(44KB AC5AM signing with W5TVW 40 mtr CW )

HERE ARE SOME ADDITIONAL PHOTOS:
labeled picture looking under the hood
unlabeled picture looking under the hood
picture of the power supply
Schematic it was built from
Snapshot of my complete homebrew station


I have been a ham since I was 16 years old.. (that's 30+ years).. I hold an extra class license with callsign "AA7JC"

One of my first Home Brew projects was a "junk box"one tube CW 40 meter xmtr..  (see the schematic.)  

I am an avid fan of Ebay auctions and often see *very* simple Morse stations from yester year going for a hundred (or more) dollars .. in particular the Ameco AC-1 novice transmitter.

For those that don't remember that little jewel of simplicity from the early 60s,  here is a picture of one that was recently for sale on Ebay

For some reason I myself would like that silly little radio but I just can't take $200 out of my pocket for an old rusted oscillator transmitter.

So Junk box to the rescue.. I decided if I can't buy one, then I will design and build one in the true spirit from the era to which that radio was born.

So I spent all day one Saturday treasure hunting through my junk boxes for the parts to work with.  Amazingly, I had almost everything necessary to get started. So on that Sunday after church, I started on the construction and ended up with a very nice little power supply complete with: fuse, neon power light, a multi value can electrolytic, filter choke, full wave rectifier (tube) and a voltage regulator tube (no semiconductors)

After much experimenting the transmitter developed into an interesting little one tube oscillator that uses a 6DQ6 sweep tube to generate an amazing twelve watts of output power. I was surprised that I could key it using a keyer at 25+ wpm with a reasonable sounding note and without any chirp.

CLICK HERE TO SEE REGENERATIVE RCVR FROM "GLOWBUG LIST"