The Detailed Report of QRP Get-Together Meetings
The 121th Meeting ; 'Shinjyuku Forget the Year Party'
As the end of the year comes near, it's that magical time of the year when we party with the crowd using the excuse 'Forget the year' meaning 'party and leave the past behind and prepare for the New Year.' Living up with this tradition, we had thrown in our annual Shinjyuku Forget the Year Party. Why Shinjyuku? Well, it's because this is the town where our Get Togeter Meeting had started. Unless the closure of our favorite cafe 'Takizawa' we had still held our regular meeting at this town. So, to get back to our 'roots' and remind ourselves where it had all had begun, we party every year at the beer hall 'Lion' in Shinjyuku.
Before we drink, our president JH1FCZ / Mr. Okubo had delivered a speech to wrap up this year's activity and what we look ahead. And of course, bottoms up and cheers!
We had accomplished much this year and we look into the future, as next year we will pursue the 1000km/W Total Power Award for 2m FM. The concept of this award is very unique even within the QRP community as we not only go low power for the RF output but also for the total power used for operating the rig. This means that we must make the rig lean and mean for power consumption and also QSO at long distance. The goal is to QSO 1000km per watt the rig had used for transmitting and receiving. Very challenging indeed! We had done much on the HF bands but now, we are expanding our frontier to the VHF bands. And we had set ourselves to the uncharted world of 2m FM QRP!
As we party, we never forget to bring our 'goodies' with us. This time 7L3DNX/Mr.Takeno has brought with him a prototype 2m FM transmitter built 'Manhattan Style' on PCB and a companion 2m receiver kit that he built. Mr.Takeno says this is just the beginning of his Total Power challenge and he has a lot to do to enhance the rig.
JH7KYD/Mr. Kageyama has also brought his own 2m FM Total Power challenger complete with the case. It seems that this could be the final product, but Mr. Kageyama also admits that there is a lot of work to do to make the rig 'Eco' enough to meet the challenge.
So we are seeing a good start on our next year QRP projects.
JR6UHM/Mr.Toyosato has brought with him few boat anchor items. An old Power meter from the 70's and SSB exciter from built from an old homebrew article along with old Ham books that are quite worn down due to heavy reading.
After the 'official' party, a few of us paid a visit to the 'Sanpei Shyurou' a drinking place where we used to hang out after the regular Shinjyuku Get Together meeting. It was the 'old school' Shinjuku drinking place and the place was rather worn down but we loved that atmosphere. But by golly, the whole place in now renovated! It is clean and modern! Some of us say they rather kept it the old way. Well we can't beat change, as time goes by.
The 119th Meeting
It's autumn in Akihabara and the home brewers are stocking up for their next project as more than 22 members have joined the 119th QRP Get Together meeting was held on Oct.4 at the Café Corona assembly room.
JG1EAD / Mr. Senba has been working on his project for quite a while, as he had finished PFR3 XCVR, a Tri-Band CW transceiver kit by Hendricks QRP Kits. The first impression was the bright yellow case which resembles the bail out radio for fighter pilots known as 'Gibson Girls'. Although it doesn't have the bells and whistles of a KX-1, the construction is straight forward and easy to use. Soon the lid was opened to show the interior. Someone said, 'Poly-variable caps for antenna tuning! Is that okay?' but Mr. Senba added hat Poly-variable caps can take about 70V surge so if the rig is QRP, it's okay. Mr. Senba had a lamp dummy load connected to the rig but the paddle seems to act as a seismograph as the lamp lights up every time the rig has been moved. Need some adjustment on the paddle eh?
JG6DFK/1 /Mr. Kodama had made a quantum leap from last month as his experimenting on the Club's next year's theme project of '1000km/W Total Power' low power consumption 2m FM transceiver project has evolved to a full fledged transceiver. Using only discrete parts, it is a VXO controlled transceiver that only draws 70mWs total power for transmit and receive. The output is yet a robust 10mW and it needs to work a 70km distance to get the 1000km/Total Power prize. Mr. Kodama added that is the distance from his house to Mt. Fuji. Someone must climb up that mountain to work that QSO, a challenge indeed!
JK1TCV/ Mr. Kuribara has brought with him his latest electronics keyer packed snuggly in a small case connected to a woody paddle by the JA A1 Club. The lid is opened again to show the workmanship of the set. Sure enough it is pristine.
More than 16 members joined the after meeting at 'Tengu' for more QRP discussions on a beer. Expectations are high as we are going to have the All Japan Meeting at Mt. Mitake in the country side of Tokyo in Nov.8. We are going on air at the peak inn and a forum is planned for showing hints on homebrew construction by JH2ECU/ Mr.Numajiri.
The 118th Meeting
The heat of summer and the Ham Fair still prevail as we held the 118th QRP Get Together meeting on Sept.6 at the Café Corona assembly room.
JA1BVA / Mr.Saito brought with him a portable radio made in China. The box has the distinctive red color which makes it Chinese all right as well as the product name 'Panda'. It was bought as a souvenir and although it is a special version but it only costs 20 Yuan which is about 3,200 Yen. Soon a screwdriver was handed down to see the 'guts' of the receiver. Here the members gleam their eyes and wonder how a low cost receiver can be produced.
JG6DFK/1 / Mr. Kodama is experimenting on the Club's next year's theme project of '1000Km/W Total Power' low power consumption 2m FM transceiver project. This transceiver should not only be a QRP output but must have QRP power consumption and must achieve communication range of over 1000km per 1 watt power consumption of both the transmitter and receiver power combined. This means if a transceiver consumes 50mW on receive and 100mW on transmit, the total of 150mW is calculated for the Total Power and you must have a QSO for 150Km to achieve the prize. This ECO transceiver is a real challenge for home brew builders especially on VHF FM. In the past we had 'EQT-1 project' for 40m band CW but VHF FM is a completely different arena! Mr. Kodama has already built a experimental low power 2M FM receiver that uses only 3V power! The challenge will continue with the other members but Mr. Kodama seems to take the lead.
The summer hot climate is lingering on as we drifted to ye olde drinking hole 'Tengu' for some cold beer and more enthusiastic discussion on QRP homebrew as well as operation.
The 117th Meeting
Just before Ham Fair, the August sun is scorching as we held the 117th QRP Get-Together meeting at the assembly room at Cafe Corona on August 2.
This month, we had a newcomer, 7M4DTQ/Mr. Otsubo who came from Yokohama to join us on the meeting. We are always welcoming new participants on our meeting and it is always nice to see someone new drop by.
7L3DNX/Mr.Takeno has brought a scratch build version of the New England QRP clubfs eNESCaff Switched Capacitor audio filter. He made it on a smaller PCB than the original kit to match KEM (Kida Engineering Manufacture) series eKEM-RX7f 40m super heterodyne micro receiver kit board size. He was so pleased with the kitfs performance that he purchased some extra switched capacitor chips.
JK1TCV/Mr.Kuribara has brought with him his 3 brothers Electronic Keyers. The big brother is the memory keyer PCB which is the supplement of the Japanese eCQ Ham Radiof magazine, and 2 little brothers including a small scratch build one.
JG6DFK/1 /Mr. Kodama who was a regular member to the meeting came back to the scene after a long absence. Of course, he has brought his latest projects. A four digit one board frequency counter, and a discrete part built RIAA phonograph equalizer. Not long Mr. Kodama has caught up with the recent activities.
Freshly back from the JD1/Ogasawara island expedition, JE1ECF/Mr. Saito has made a presentation on the adventures on the island. This was his 3rd time to go to the island which could only be reached by an overnight ferry. Mr. Saito has also enjoyed marine time mobile activities aboard the ferry as well as portable JD1 operation. The untouched nature and itfs beauty seems to bewitch Mr. Saito as well as another Mr. Saito / JA1BVA as he also joined the scene to tell that he has worked with a DX station which he had done a QSO 25 years back when he was stationed at Ogasawara as a weather man. Mr. Saito has sent his old JD1 QSL card that he had in his stock to commemorate the reunion.
We just could not wait to go to the unofficial meeting place at eTenguf to get that cold beer. Bottoms up to our meeting and success on the upcoming Ham Fair 2008!
The 116th Meeting
The hazy summer sun torched Akihabara as we retreat to the cool assembly room at Café Corona on July 5 for the 116th QRP Get Together meeting.
Succeeding from last month, JA1BVA/Mr. Saito has brought the completed SS-30, the 30m band CW transceiver project based on JF1RNR/Mr. Imaifs design. The panel has two tuning knobs for the Tx and the Rx, which resembles the old 6m portable transceiver FDAM-3 by ICOM. Soon the screwdrivers are on their way to show the guts of the rig. The circuits are built on a Manhattan style with estylef. This neat little rig is in use on a bicycle mobile along the dikes of a nearby river.
7L3DNX/Mr. Takeno has a lot to say as he had vanguard to this yearfs Dayton Hamfest and he brought a grab box of Dayton Buttons as souvenirs as well as stories of his experience there. I will leave his story on Dayton as it now on our Club Newsletter but it sure encouraged us to go to Dayton next year!
Mr. Takeno also brought with him a 3 transistor 6m DSB rig that he constructed. It fascinates us that a full functional transceiver can be achieved with only 3 transistors !
As usual, the unofficial meeting at eTenguf was held after the official meeting and the hot summer weather made us thirsty for that cool beer and boy, it tastes so good!
The 115th Meeting
It was early summer and it was one of the rare days in the Japanese rainy season were blue skies are seen when we held the 115th QRP Get-Together meeting at the Cafe Corona's assembly room on June 7th.
JA1BVA/Mr. Saito who is a regular member but has been quite busy recently has appeared with a 30m band CW transceiver project based on JF1RNR/Mr. Imai's minimumist design. When completed it will be a companion rig with Mr. Saito's bicycle. Mr. Saito has brought another gimmick which is an AM band receiver using FET quasi-regeneration detector. It has it's own loud speaker amplifier unit.
Another regular member, JA1NHM/Mr. Miura had joined us after a long absence and Mr. Miura has a reputation of building large and humorous projects. This time, he has brought with him a plug-in type attenuator / SWR bridge. This attenuator has a T/R switch which enable to bypass the attenuator on receiving mode. This is useful if you have QRPp operation in mind where you would like to kill the transmitter power by the attenuator but didn't want to sacrifice the receiving sensitivity. Mr. Miura chuckles as he concludes that his prototype projects never get out of the R&D department for production so it stays like a prototype all the way!
JH1ARY/Mr. Kuroda has brought a newly built CW transmitter with a built-in electronic keyer based on a FPGA board supplied as a supplement to a magazine. It has no micro computer but it displays the frequency on a micro LED display array and the RF is generated by an on-chip DDS. Minimum external parts are required as all of the 'wiring' is done within the FPGA chip. This made many of us puzzled how it is done. So on with our chairman JH1FCZ/Mr. Okubo's proposal to have us explain the complicated projects so even a layman can understand it. Mr. Kuroda begins to draw a diagram on the white board to explain how the FPGA has been programmed or 'wired' to perform these function. All the sudden the meeting began to have an academic taste. It's fun as well as educating!
JH7KYD/Mr. Kageyama has brought the full set of printed boards of the PSN634 (40M PSN transceiver kit) project. This time he had asked one our members to beta test the PCBs for reproduction. It seems that this project is on the right track and we are looking forward to see it as a final kit.
And it was all fun after the official meeting, as the unofficial meeting was held at 'Tengu' the casual eating and drinking place nearby, as usual.
The 114th Meeting
May 3 was the first day of the Japanese long weekend and the whole nation were moving for holiday travel or seeing folks back at their home towns. But even accounting this, 15 people gathered at the cafe Corona's assembly room.
JF2UJG/Mr.Ota has used this long weekend to travel way out from Toyota city to visit us at this get-together meeting. He has brought with him a Tube CW TX made in the old fashioned way, which caught all of our attention. It is heavy like all boat anchors should be. Accompanied is an old kit frequency counter housed in an old measuring instrument case. The case has the old '70 lines and it looks quite neat. Since Mr.Ota's goodies are all heavy weight, he bought a photo of his shack and by golly it looks like the all home brew shack of the '60s. It has a character that no Yaesus or Icoms could beat. I can recall the old articles on the CQ Ham Radio magazines back in the '60, where OMs used to show off their home brew rigs on their shack photos. A real blast from the past!
JR6UHM/Mr.Toyosato has also traveled to Tokyo to visit us and we are having a lot of company this time thanks to the long weekend.
JE1GTP/Mr.Tsukahara has brought a direct conversion receiver using the ubiquitous SA612 but with a twist. He added emitter followers at the audio output of SA612 to achieve low noise and low distortion as well as an audio AGC which most direct conversion receivers lack. It was built on a neat etched board and looks like a good prototype for kitting. I wonder if Mr.Tsukahara has any kitting in his mind ?
JO1LZX/Mr.Kawachi has brought with him goodies for give-a-ways and a lot of goodies were laid on the coffee table.
On the other corner of the room, 7L3DNX/Mr.Takeno and JE1ICP(WD9DEX)/Mr.Greg Overcamp were up to something. I just wondered what was cooking and found that Mr.Takeno is going to Dayton Hamvention this year. Guess he will be acting as a scout to lead us to our Dayton tour next year. We are really looking forward to hear his reports of the Hamvention when he returns!
JH7KYD/Mr.Kageyama has bought with him the latest version of PSN634 doubled as PSN Musashi after the great swordsman "Miyamoto Musashi" famous for 'a Book of Five Rings'. This time the etched board looks like a bird's eye view of a well planned city. The skyscrapers are actually precision capacitors and trim pots. The PSN transceiver is ever evolving for a kit that anyone can build and we are just looking forward to see the final product.
After the official meeting, we drifted to the usual drinking place "Tengu". This time no QRM from the neighbors as we are planning to our display at the August 'Ham fair' held at the Big Sight convention center at the Tokyo bay area.
The 113th Meeting
The cherry blossoms are at full bloom and the warm spring wind feels ever so pleasantly as on April 5th, we held the 113th QRP Get-Together Meeting at the cafe Corona's assembly room. This was an important day for our club as we had the opening of the ballot for the election of the board of directors. All candidates are dully elected and the beginning of the new 3 year activity term has started.
JA1IXI/Mr.Owada have brought another new homebrew measuring instrument.
This time it is a combination of an L/C meter and marker generator.
The craftsmanship is superb as the range can be changed with the thumb wheel switch complete with LED indicators.
As usual the lid is opened to show the fine craftsmanship of the interior.
Mr.Owada now has used surface mount chips but no etched PCB is used.
Instead, copper tape was applied on the board and on top of that a thin clear plastic sheet is applied for dielectric insulation.
The SMT chips are pasted on the plastic sheet and ground contact was made by cutting off the plastic.
This is a completely new construction style for SMT parts and it works!
JE1ICP/WD9DEX Mr.Greg Overcamp has brought with him an experimental DDS comprising a SPARTAN 3 FPGA for the digital logic and a 16bit A/D converter by Analog devices to produce a very clean phase free signal. A picture of a spectrum analyzer screen was presented and no spurs are seen. Someone at the background said, "That signal is cleaner than my crystal oscillator!". The apparatus is built over evaluation boards provided by the producers of the chips but Greg is planning to miniaturize it by making a dedicated board for the DDS. He is now working on the Eagle PCB CAD software to do so. JH2ECU/Mr.Numajiri who also has been tinkering with DDS says nowadays the DDS technology has matured and that the old poor signal quality of DDS is a thing of the past. No need to add phase lock oscillators to 'purify' DDS signals. So microprocessors and DDS chips are becoming the component of chose for a home brew rig.
JR3DKA/Mr.Ohara who is also bitten by the microprocessor bug, has brought with him a ATMEGA microprocessor kit that displays dot matrix LEDs. One of program shows a water fountain like animation and the other looks like the screensaver.
As usual we had the secondary meeting at the drinking place 'Tengu', with heavy QRM from the neighboring party the joint was like a jammed packed 40meter band. Noise blankers and rejection tuning was no match to that neighboring QRO voice but we managed to formulate a bold new plan to sent our delegation to Dayton Hamvention next year. Hopes and spirits are high and we are looking forward to the success of this plan.
The 112th Meeting
Recently we are seeing the Corona's assembly room being cramped every month, and the March 1st Akihabara QRP Get Together meeting has seen no exception as many joined the meeting which alias is the "QRM meeting". We have heard from the members who joined us, that they have realized the goodness of Eye-ball QSO. It is essential that meeting like this is based on Eye ball to have it long lived as it does not rely on E-mails where faces cannot be seen and often cause misunderstanding. We sincerely hope to continue a get together meeting that people will look forward to on every month.
With his curiosity always on experimenting, JH2ECU/Mr.Numajiri has brought with him a Grid Dip Meter that functions on a negative resistance oscillation. One can recall the schematic on books that uses the Tunnel Diode that is based on the tunnel effect which Dr.Reona Esaki had discovered, but nowadays Tunnel Diodes are a rare commodity. So this uses a pair of J-FETs that produces a negative resistance domain that enables tension oscillation. The original schematic was from the QST, but a twist of thinking was done by grounding the positive power, that made the abridgment of the RFC on the power line possible, and cheat against the parasitic capacitance that are usually incorporated with RFCs resulting on a self dip free operation. Actually using it, the oscillation is stable thought out the dial and the dips are stand out making it a useful measuring instrument.
JH1ARY/Mr.Kuroda has with him a DDS programmed out from a Spartan 3E FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) that was a supplement to the Design Wave Magazine from CQ Publishing Company. It doesn't use the usual rotary encoder but used push buttons for interface to go up and down the frequency. Power sources are 1.2V / 2.5V and 3.3V that make us realize how recent devices require low voltages. But it is a astonishment for us that nowadays such parts have become supplement to a magazine! It seems that it is now inevitable to use such parts on home brewing projects.
JA1NKU/Mr.Mogi has came all the way from Takasaki to join us, and has greeted us with his unique greeting card that has a picture of himself when he was on air on Radio Takasaki for promoting Ham activities. We are always welcoming people who happened to drop by while traveling to Tokyo. We look forward to your appearance on our meeting.
The secondary meeting continued at Tengu with 15 people attending, and JE1ICP/WD9DEX Greg has just joined us on the secondary meeting making it bilingual and successful.
The 111th Meeting
Even though the winter cold was still severe on February 2nd, we had a successful meeting at the Corona's assembly room flourished with members.
JH2ECU/Mr.Numajiri has brought with him an ATMEGA micro computer controlled DDS. It uses two AD9834, one for VFO and another for the BFO controlled by a single CPU. The AD9834 is unlike it's big brother, the AD9851, has the clock frequency limit of 50MHz but the power dispassion is lower making it ideal for portable rigs. Also the ATMEGA is versatile as it has many IO pins and the internal AD converter was used for the S meter bar graph display. Since the heart of the rig has been already experimented, we anticipate a masterpiece is on the way.
JR3DKA/Mr.Ohara got a 7MHz receiver kit from Kida-Denshi-Sekkei and bought with him the assembled kit. It is amazing that for an old timer who had been brought up with tube radios finds a 7MHz radio on such a small PCB.
JK1TCV/Mr.Kuribara has brought the finished 'Poke Roku'. With the neat front panel lettering, the finish is superb. It seems that the regular Get-together members are bitten by the Poke-Roku bug. QSO with it inside the Corona's assembly room is becoming a common event.
JA1BVA/Mr.Saito has brought with him a crystal radio that can drive a loud speaker. It was built on a 'Kamaboko' steamed fish loaf board that reminds us of the old school 'Kamaboko Series' articles that Mr. Hirosi Izumi published on the 'Shoho-no Radio' ('Radio for Beginners'). The knack of it is said to use an audio transformer for tubes.
On his business trip toward the end of last year, 7L3DNX/Mr.Takeno has obtained a kit that uses a switched capacitor chip, from the New England QRP Club and he brought with him the finished Audio filter kit. The case even has the New England QRP Club logo which is a silhouette of a Ham with his solder iron sitting in front of a wooden desk and it has 'class'.
Every time the uniqueness of his craft always surprises us as JA1IXI/Mr.Owada has brought a water filled paddle. Although it looks like an ordinary plastic bag, it functions as a 'Paddle' for an electronic keyer. The structure uses the elasticity of the plastic and it has a strange soft gelatin like texture. This is literally a 'water paddle' of it's own.
JH1FCZ/Mr.Okubo who closed his FCZ Laboratory last year, handed out surplus parts. Classic analogue ICs and TTL logic ICs bring back memories of the FCZ Laboratory and it's history, as conversation became livelier.
The secondary meeting was held at the regular Tengu joint next to New Akihabara Center with quite a success, as we had blown off the winter chill with our enthusiastic conversation.
The 110th Meeting
As we see the dawn of the new year of 2008, the 110th QRP Get Together Meeting was hold on the January 5th before the traditional pine decoration of new year was not removed from entrance with 18 people cramped inside the regular meeting room at 'Corona'.
JA1IXI / Mr. Owada, who has recently discovered that a vacuum tube can amplify even at minus plate voltage, has brought with him a single tube OV1 receiver using 3A5 that works on only 1.5V. It is incredible that for receiving 7MHz only 2 batteries are needed, the A power source is a C type battery and the B power source is an AA type battery. Everyone just stared into the circuit diagram. And open sesame! the guts are revieled to show the 'Owada magic', his precision craftsmanship. A corrective sigh was heard at the beauty of the built.
JH1ARY / Mr. Kuroda has brought with him a home brew DDS that matches the crystal controlled CW transmitter that his son has built. He found a PIC program at the ARRL site and built it on a universal PCB but on the reverse side a SMT crystal oscillator was soldered using the solder bridging. This is the amateur way of building at it's best and it works with no problem !
Suddenly we had a TX and a RX for the 7MHz, and on with the Get Together Meeting favorite, QSO with it! Mr. Owada's RX was used to receive the transmission. With the earphone on the ear, one of the members said "I can really hear it !" and the astonishment was vibrated within the crowd.
On the other side of the room, JA1BVA / Mr. Saito is up to have his 6m DSB transceiver 'Poke Roku'('Pocket Six'). A QSO with JK1TCV / Mr. Kuribara's newly finished PCB 'Poke Roku'. Adjustments are made with the screwdriver even on the QSO. And the other member's 6m rig also joined in, making the small room filled with QRM!
On his business trip to Boston last year, 7L3DNX / Mr. Takeno was invited to the meeting of the New England QRP club when he mentioned he is a ham. This had brought him the audio filter kit that uses switched capacitor. He showed off his newly acquired kit and the sharp selectivity characteristics. We are looking forward to see the finished kit.
7N1VMN / Mr. Suzuki has brought with him oldies but goodies tube sockets with ventilating shield and relays for new yearfs present. We havenft seen these beauties recently, but sockets with ventilating shields are ideal for final tubes as heat dispassion is excellent. We are looking forward to see our members who are bitten by the tube bug to bring a home brew rig using it.
Last but not the least, JK1TCV / Mr. Kuribara brought with him unfinished kits for new year's present give a ways on a game of paper stone and scissors which brought excitement to the scene.
The new year party continues as we drift to our joint 'Tengu' under the train tracks and JE1ECF / Mr. Saito and 7N4PVZ / Mr. Ishihara joined the scene making a crowd of 16 people. Not to mention that JE1ICP/WD9DEX Mr. Greg Overkamp has also joined us since his debut on last year's year end party, with the cocktail of Japanese and English stilled but not shaken, the party goes on. The language is no barrier to the love of QRP and the 'Alcohol Modulation Meters' are scaling higher every time.
The 108th Meeting
Just before a week till the All Japan Annual Meeting of our JARL QRP Club, we had had the 108th Get-Together Meeting at Akihabara on the Cultural Day (a Japanese National Holiday of November 3rd).
Mr. Tukahara / JE1GTP had his craft of building home brew PTO refined where the usual short coming is the tuning knob going in and out of the panel. So, putting the business end of the PTO, the brass slug on the opposite side of the panel, he had succeeded to make the mechanism to make the tuning knob stationary and had added a circular dial on it as well. You can read the frequency from a round window on top of the case. The perfection of the home brew PTO mechanism had brought about a compact precision of a covert radio.
Last month, we had the discussion of an ambitious project, building a 6m SSB transceiver in a case that Mr. Kageyama used for his 18 hour built AM transceiver project, but to my surprise, we could not anticipate this to become a reality in such a short time. Mr. Numajiri / JH2ECU have brought with him a micro transceiver which he calls 'Nano 6 SSB Transceiver'. Working only on 3V power and using extensive Surface Mount parts, the transceiver also uses 'huge' HC-49U crystals for independent crystal filters for both receiving and transmitting.
The secret of the bizarre miniaturization had been achieved by the double deck printed circuit board each for the transmitter and the receiver. Thanks to that and the miniature parts, the PCB seems not over populated but with a lot of 'real estate' left. But behold, this transceiver even has a built-in speech processer, an ingenious combination of low voltage operation amplifier, LED and CDS made it possible to fit the whole transceiver with the speech processer in a size of a cigarette package. I will not be surprised to know this shall be the smallest SSB home brew transceiver ever made.
So this is how we simulate each other to bring our crafts to another dimension and find the power to push on our limits.
7N1VMN / Mr. Suzuki has brought with him vintage transistors and operation amplifiers IC for hand outs. The recycle of vintage parts are also the part of the QRP spirit. It is the savory of these parts to be revived on the next project.
So again we drifted into Akihanbara's favored drinking spots 'Tengu', joined by Mr. Takeno / 7L3DNX and Mr. Kuroda / JH1ARY after their executive club meeting at Omiya. Mr. Kuroda has brought with him his version of Pixie2 complete with a miniature 3 element Yagi which he claims it has directional field. So on with the experiment at the drinking hole! Curiouisity and experimentation is always the way of Hams!
The 107th Meeting
Bright sun shines over the crisp autumn skies over Akihabara as 13 members join in to our 107th QRP Get-Together Meeting.
As a response to last month's Mr. Kageyama's 18hours built 6m AM transceiver, Mr. Numajiri / JH2ECU has brought with him a micro transceiver which he calls 'Nano 6', a 6m single channel AM transceiver. Hey, it looks as just like a wireless mike or just a battery box, but it is a fully functional transceiver works with the single battery of only 1.5 V ! Mr. Numajiri has announced that he is planning to announce the details on our QRP Organ. Surely we are looking forward to see his article.
But that was just a beginning of a discussion of planning a more difficult project. Why don't we build a 6m SSB transceiver in a case that Mr. Kageyma used for his 18 hour AM transceiver project? That's a true hardy, the case has a battery box for only 2 cells, how can we built a SSB transceiver that works on only 3V and how we can obtain transistors that functions under 3V? This is going to be a real challenge, but challenge is what we amateurs are made of, surely we will find a way!
JE8PHS/1 Mr. Maehana is on a long term mission stationed in the Kanto area and jumped into the scene. He said tall tales and really tall tales of fixing a full size 160m dipole over a 40m tree on his grandpa's farm in Hokkaido and the element went all the way down to the valley. What a scale! We have known the Ham paradise of Japan where antenna farms are not dreams but realities!
7N1VMN / Mr. Suzuki has brought with him vintage germanium power transistors for hand out. I myself have taken the privilege to get a few of his transistors to build a DC/DC Converter with them. It is known when building self oscoilating DC to DC converters the old germanium transistors are the best choice. I am planning to build a B power module for my battery powered tube project with these.
Like usual, we drifted into one of Akihanbara's favored drinking spots, called 'Tengu' named after the fabled long nosed sprit who likes to brag and so we on bragged on our Ham activities whether on home brew or on operations. The night falls but the QRM continues.
The 106th Meeting
Still we are feeling the heat of Japanese Ham's August big event 'Ham Fair 2007', but beginning to feel the cool breeze of autumn on Sept.1, as we had our regular meeting at the electronics parts capitol of the world Akihaba, the 106th QRP Get-Together Meeting at the coffee shop 'Corona' with 13 members in all.
First was Mr. Sakamoto / JE1ECW with his latest etched board refinements on his VNA (Vector Network Analyzer) project. He had brought 2 prototype models of his VNA for beta testing and one of our regular members had taken it back home for the field test. If all goes well, Mr. Sakamoto is planning to kit them at a very reasonable price. We are looking forward on his project and it seems that it is on the last leg of his refinement.
As usual Mr. Sakamoto had demonstrated his VNA on the note book PC giving graphic reading on frequency response on amplitude, return loss and phase shift on a home brew lattice crystal filter. The results are textbook perfect and all are amazed to see how this simple contraption will give such brilliant results.
Next is Mr. Owada / JA1IXI a known craftsman for building very small and precise homebrew equipment had brought with him a high performance short wave crystal receiver made out of high grade materials. Mr. Owada always surprises us with his unique engineering projects. The Q of this wood block coil looks pretty high.
Last but not the least, Mr. Kageyama JH7KYD/1 with his Marathon built 6M AM transceiver built only in 18 hours, starting from 3pm on Friday to be completed for the meeting on Saturday 4pm. He had re-etched the printed circuit board second time to perfect the function within the time restraints. Why he had done it? Well of course, a challenge is always a hobby's fun. But look how neat it's interior is done! Amazing, a perfect construction done in such a short period of time with awesome miniaturization. It fits snugly on one's shirt pocket and it works.
Mr. Takeno / 7L3DNX has brought some surplus parts for give a ways to the meeting members. Some transistors and very small speakers used for cellular phones. Someone said that these speakers may become a key component on our next QRP rig project and it often happens.
As the official meeting ceases at the 'QRT time', we drifted to one of Akihabara's favorite drinking hole to continue with our discussion on a beer. As some may become 'Alcohol Modulation' as JA Hams put it, our carriers are stable with the enthusiasm of building home brew projects.