Transcript What is 'QRP?'

QRP Show
& Tell
A Report on QRP kits and QRP Projects
Low-Power Ham Radio – Less than 5 watts
Jim Larsen, AL7FS
907-345-3190
[email protected]
QRP
Alaska Ver 1.0 5/6/05
By Jim Larsen, AL7FS
(add’l credit: N2APB “Why QRP?”)
Page 1
Overview of QRP Stuff
• What is QRP and Why Use it?
• Overview of QRP Kits – a sampler
– Small projects
– Intermediate kits
– Advanced kits
• Manhattan Construction
• Commercial Radios on QRP
• More Fun Stuff
• QRP Magazines and Clubs
• How to read more on QRP
QRP
Page 2
What is “QRP?”
A telegraphy Q-signal
“QRP” = To lower ones power
“QRP?” = Can you lower your power?
Five watts RF output power (or less!)
Only 5 watts?
Use a “QRP” rig, or
You must be
Turn down your present radio kidding...
QRP
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Pretty Amazing Stuff
AL7FS – Jim Larsen – Anchorage
Worked All States - 67.548 watts total
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& In Year 2000 – 1.5M Miles per Watt
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Why QRP?
Many Reasons but let’s focus today
on:
• Quality and simplicity of equipment
• Joys of homebrewing & kit-building
???
QRP
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QRP Optimization
1) Size & weight increase with maximum output power
2) Minimize current draw
No lamps (except LEDs)
No digital display unless LCD
Maximize TX efficiency
3) Use few components & pack the board tightly
4) Use ICs if possible
5) Sensitive RX - If you can’t hear ‘em, you can’t work
‘em
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Size and Weight vs. Max.
Power
QRP
Conventional
100w
setup
Icom 735, etc.
Tuner
Astron RS-20
TOTAL
TRANSPORT
12 lbs.
6 lbs.
25 lbs.
43 lbs.
Trunk of Car
QRP setup
5w
setup
QRP rig
Tuner
Power supply/battery
TOTAL
TRANSPORT
2 lbs.
2 lbs.
3 lbs.
7 lbs.
Small Briefcase
Page 7
Power Requirements for a Day
To run for 24 hours - 10% xmit, 90% receive:
Conventional, compact HF rig (IC-706, Yaesu FT-890)
Receive - 2 amps…Xmit - 4 to 20 amps (avg. 10 amps)
TOTAL CONSUMPTION - 67.2 A-H (a car battery)
QRP- optimized rig
Receive - 100 milliamps…Xmit - 500 milliamps
TOTAL CONSUMPTION - 3.36 A-H (a 3-lb. gel cell)
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Page 8
Kitbuilding & Homebrewing
QRPers are natural builders and experimenters
Thousands of schematics are available
Hundreds of kits and projects are
available today
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Page 9
Showing off homebrewing projects
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• George N2APB • Jim AL7FS • Brian KF2HC
• Antenna Analyzer - DDS VFO - MicroBeacon
Page 10
Overview of QRP Stuff
• What is QRP and Why Use it?
• Overview of QRP Kits – a sampler
– Small projects
– Intermediate kits
– Advanced kits
• Manhattan Construction
• Commercial Radios on QRP
• More Fun Stuff
• QRP Magazines and Clubs
• How to read more on QRP
QRP
Page 11
The “Tuna Tin 2”
AL7FS to W1AW – 20 meters
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• Simple Transmitter, less than 1W
• W1FB original design
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“Herring Aid” Receiver
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• Simple Receiver project
• Mate to Tuna Tin 2 transmitter
Page 13
The “Pixie”
Bruce Hopkins - KL7H
built his for 3.920 and
3.933. Checkins were
successful with net
control on both Motley
and Snipers Nets
• Simple 250mW transceiver kit from HSC Electronics
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The NorCal “38 Special”
• 30m superhet CW kit from NorCal Club
• 2W output, wide VXO
• Very popular as instructional kit
• Kit no longer available but full doc online
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Page 15
N2APB’s “38 Special”
• Custom cabinetry in LMB enclosure
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Page 16
The N0SS HF Noise Source
• Noise Source Kit
• Easy to build w/o kit
• Spectrogram software
• Easy readout – filters
• This is 150 Hz BW on K2
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Page 17
A Simple and Inexpensive
Morse Frequency Display
• Small Wonder Labs’ “Freq Mite”
• PIC microcontroller as digital frequency meter
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Page 18
Overview of QRP Stuff
• What is QRP and Why Use it?
• Overview of QRP Kits – a sampler
– Small projects
– Intermediate kits
– Advanced kits
• Manhattan Construction
• Commercial Radios on QRP
• More Fun Stuff
• QRP Magazines and Clubs
• How to read more on QRP
QRP
Page 19
Small Wonder Labs’
“SW40+”
• Built by AL7FS
AL7FS
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• 40m 2W CW transceiver
• Improved, simplified
• RIT add-on now avail.
• Educational Project
Elmer 101
http://www.qsl.net/kf4trd/faq.html
Page 20
The NorCal 40A
• 40m 2W CW transceiver
• Grandfather deluxe
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Page 21
The NorCal 20
• 20m superhet CW
• Great front end
• Norcal kit for
3rd world countries
• Red Hot Radio
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Page 22
The “Sierra”
by Wilderness Radio
• All band CW transceiver
• Superhet, VFO
• Dig display & key options
• Removable band modules
• Rivals quality of rigs 5x $
• ARRL Hndbk cover ‘96
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Page 23
Small Wonder Labs’
“White Mountain 20m SSB”
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• 20m 2W QRP SSB transceiver
• Solid design
• Easy construction
• No longer available
Page 24
OHR – Oak Hills Research
• Single band superhet CW rig
• + improved
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Page 25
OHR – Oak Hills Research
• 5 band superhet CW rig
• 5 band + improved
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Page 26
Some Commercial QRP Kits
Ten-Tec Model 13xx (single band)
Oak Hills Research 100A (single-band)
MFJ 90xx (CW), 94xx (SSB) (single-band, not kits!)
S&S Engineering TAC I, ARK-series (single-band)
NN1G Small Wonder Labs SW40+
W6EMT Emtech (single-band)
Kanga UK/US
Wilderness Sierra, Cascade, SST, and NorCal 40A
And many, many, many more…
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Page 27
Overview of QRP Stuff
• What is QRP and Why Use it?
• Overview of QRP Kits – a sampler
– Small projects
– Intermediate kits
– Advanced kits
• Manhattan Construction
• Commercial Radios on QRP
• More Fun Stuff
• QRP Magazines and Clubs
• How to read more on QRP
QRP
Page 28
Elecraft K1 transceiver
A compact, high-performance CW rig that you can build.
five watts is all you need to work worldwide DX
four bands into the affordable, easy-to-build K1-4 transceiver
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• http://www.elecraft.com
Page 29
John Hendricks – AL7OK
Bird Point, Alaska with Elecraft K1 Transceiver (kit)
2002
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Page 30
Elecraft K2 transceiver
• The K2 is a full-featured HF transceiver
• Build the K2 for QRP or 100W Operation
• Can challenge even the Yaesu FT1000 Mark V on Rx
• And you build it yourself…just like the old Heathkits
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• http://www.elecraft.com
Page 31
Elecraft K2 - AL7FS
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Page 32
Elecraft KX1 Portable
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• ultra-light, multi-band CW station with
internal battery and automatic antenna
tuner, full 20 and 40 meter ham bands, with
30 meters optional.
Page 33
Overview of QRP Stuff
• What is QRP and Why Use it?
• Overview of QRP Kits – a sampler
– Small projects
– Intermediate kits
– Advanced kits
• Manhattan Construction
• Commercial Radios on QRP
• More Fun Stuff
• QRP Magazines and Clubs
• How to read more on QRP
QRP
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Manhattan Construction
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Manhattan Construction
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Manhattan Construction
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Manhattan Construction
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Manhattan Construction
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Page 39
Manhattan Construction
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Page 40
Overview of QRP Stuff
• What is QRP and Why Use it?
• Overview of QRP Kits
– Small projects
– Intermediate kits
– Advanced kits
• Manhattan Construction
• Commercial Radios on QRP
• More Fun Stuff
• QRP Magazines and Clubs
• How to read more on QRP
QRP
Page 41
Commercial QRP Radios
• Turn back the power on your big
rig
• Turn back the power on your semi
big rig
• Buy a QRP radio
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Page 42
Use 100 watt Rig as
QRP Equipment
Kenwood TS-450S
fully adjustable – zero
to 100 watts
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Page 43
Other QRP Equipment
Direct Conversion Radios
Heath HW-7, HW-8
Ten-Tec Century 21, 22
Superheterodyne Radios
Heath HW-9;
Ten-Tec Argonaut 505, 509, 515, Argo 556, Argonaut
II
A&A Engineering K9AY 20, 30, 40m
Index Labs - QRP+, QRP++
Yaesu FT-301S, Kenwood TS-130V, Icom 731
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Index Labs’ “QRP Plus”
• Super stable QRP rig
• Great user interface
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Page 45
Argonaut 515
• QRP for CW and SSB
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Page 46
Heathkit HW-8
• 4 band direct conversion CW QRP rig
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Page 47
Overview of QRP Stuff
• What is QRP and Why Use it?
• Overview of QRP Kits – a sampler
– Small projects
– Intermediate kits
– Advanced kits
• Manhattan Construction
• Commercial Radios on QRP
• More Fun Stuff
• QRP Magazines and Clubs
• How to read more on QRP
QRP
Page 48
Club Projects
Northern California (NorCal) QRP Club
Sierra, Cascade, NC40a, 40-9er, 38 Special,
SST, NC20a, SMD BC Receiver
NJ QRP Club
Rainbow Tuner, Fireball 40, MicroBeacon,
SOP Receiver, PSK31 Audio Beacon
Columbus QRP Club
MRX-40 ultra-compact receiver
St. Louis QRP Club
And much, much more.
St. Louis Vertical
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Page 49
Portable Paddles
• N2APB enclosure for New Zealand ARC project
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Page 50
N2CX “Rainbow Tuner”
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• Kitted by the NJ-QRP club
• Resistive (absorptive) SWR bridge w/LED indicators
• Built-in tuner suited for half-wave end-fed antennasPage 51
N2APB’s “Rainbow Tuner”
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• Custom enclosure with panel mounted
switch for tuner inductor settings
Page 52
The N2APB Field Stack
• Batteries
•Rainbow Tuner
•38S Xcvr
•QRP paddles
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This is what N2APB takes on biz trips (along with “Halfer”
half-wave end-fed wire for 30m). Easily fits in small briefcase!Page 53
Mini-Keys from Whiterook
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• Great for portable use!
Page 54
The NorCal Paddles
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• First club project not being electronic-related
• Unfinished kit … yields superior quality
Page 55
Miniature QRP Paddles
• Original design by WK8G
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Page 56
Overview of QRP Stuff
• What is QRP and Why Use it?
• Overview of QRP Kits – a sampler
– Small projects
– Intermediate kits
– Advanced kits
• Manhattan Construction
• Commercial Radios on QRP
• More Fun Stuff
• QRP Magazines and Clubs
• How to read more on QRP
QRP
Page 57
Alaska QRP Club
• No officers, no directors, no constitution & No
dues.
• Meets the Third Friday of every month - 7:00 PM
(Some show for dinner at 6PM)
• Meet at Dennys (in the back room) on DeBarr near
Bragaw.
• Contact is Jim Larsen, AL7FS, 345-3190.
[email protected]
• http://www.qsl.net/kl7aqc/
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Page 58
American QRP Club
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• AmQRP carries “journal-quality” articles,
project descriptions, event coverage, etc.
• http://www.amqrp.org/
Page 59
QRP
Publications
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• The mainstay of QRPer information
Homebrewer from AmQRP
QRP Quarterly from ARCI
SPRAT from G-QRP
Page 60
QRP Amateur Radio Club
International
• QRP ARCI is superset of all QRP clubs
• http://www.qrparci.org
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• One of the premier QRP Clubs in America
• http://www.njqrp.org/
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Page 62
The NorCal home page
• Northern California QRP Club
• http://www.norcalqrp.com/
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G-QRP Club – Great Britain
• http://www.gqrp.com/
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Page 64
Support Groups for Addicts
QRP Amateur Radio Club International (ARCI)
http://www.qrparci.org/
Internet QRP Club (QRP-L mailing list)
http://qrp.lehigh.edu/lists/qrp-l
NJ QRP - http://www.njqrp.org
NorCal - http://www.norcalqrp.com.
Adventure Radio Society, Knightlites (NC)
Maryland Milliwatts, NW QRP
Alaska QRP - http://www.qsl.net/KL7AQC
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Page 65
QRP Kits-Not all avail.
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QRP Kits-Not all avail.
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Page 67
QRP Kits-Still Available
And Kits from lots of
Vendors
http://www.amqrp.org/
misc/links.html
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QRP Kits-Documentation Available
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Page 69
QRP Kits-Documentation Available
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Page 70
KD1JV – AT Sprint 3
QRP Kit-still available – about $160
80-40-30-20 meter CW at up to 5 watts
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Page 71
NorCal Keyer
QRP Kit - still available – $16.50
Memory keyer, with 3 programmable 40-character
memories, iambic A & B mode, straight key and bug
mode, 2 beacon modes, and variable speed control by
either a 100K pot or the paddles themselves.
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Page 72
You might ask, “Why QRP?”
• It’s FUN!
That about says it all.
QRP
!!!
Page 73
QRP References: Literature
• QRP Power, published by the ARRL
• QRP Classics, published by the ARRL
• W1FB’s QRP Notebook, published by the
ARRL
• The History of QRP, by Adrian Weiss,
W0RSP, ISBN 0-9614139-1-3
• The Joy of QRP, by Adrian Weiss, W0RSP,
ISBN 0-9614139-0-5
… and many, many more!
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Page 74
Questions ???
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Page 75