Last night, NCRC wrapped up a three meeting long Club Build Project of a 40-meter QRP Transceiver “Pixie” kit.

We packaged the inexpensive Chinese QRP kit with sockets for the crystal and final transistor, plus two additional crystals (7.030 and 7.040) to go along with the stock Extra Class-only 7.023 crystal.  About two dozen of them were purchased by members.

Over the past three meetings, we set up multiple assembly and test/rework stations. All but four kits worked immediately after assembly.  Two had cold solder joints.  One had a solder bridge.  The only “mystery” turned out to be a LM386 that was on the high-side of its maximum current spec, which caused its power source to collapse.  Everyone managed to get the right components into the right locations and there were no missing parts.  All of the kits produced from 300 to 400 milliwatts of output power.

Willy, W1LY, and Bob, WB4SON, have been messing around with improvements for the Pixie kit for several months.  Most of them have been documented on Bob’s website; you can see them here.

The Club wishes to thank our gracious host, KVH, for assisting us with assembly stations and space for the project, along with all the club mentors that were involved.

What might our next Club Build project be?  Something Arduino-ish, perhaps?