Kit build - QRPGuys Digital FSK Transceiver III

avatar

Well I had last week off and finally got around to building the QRPGuys Digital FSK Transceiver III. This kit is a digital Ham Radio transceiver that is capable of outputting 5Watts of power. The kit comes with 3 different frequency board plug-ins. I built the 40M board last week as my EFHW (End Fed Half Wave) antenna is tuned for 40M. The following picture show the build process.

The following picture is the top of the blank PCB.
0-pcb-top.jpg
The following picture is the bottom of the blank PCB.
1-pcb-bottom.jpg
This picture shows all of the components laid out for inventory before starting the assembly.
2-parts-inventory.jpg
This picture shows the magnifier that I used while soldering the SMB components to the board. The SMB components are very small and required me to hold them in place with the tweezers to solder them to the board. Most of the other components have leads that are mounted by putting the leads thru holes in the board.
3-smb-magnify.jpg
Here you can see the resistors and diodes soldered into the board.
20211125_122010.jpg
here you can see see the capacitors and a hand wound coil soldered into the board.
20211125_130624.jpg
Here is a picture of the completed primary board.
20211125_131831.jpg
Here is the completed 40M frequency board.
20211125_143856.jpg
Here is the frequency board plugged into the main board.
20211125_143934.jpg
Here the third board with parts laid out for inventory before assembly. This board contains the processor, display and settings buttons.
20211125_144606.jpg
Here are the resistors, diodes and crystals solder into the board.
20211125_180251.jpg
To save space the socket for the processor is installed on the bottom of the board.
20211125_181729.jpg
Here is a picture of the fully assembled board set ready for testing.
20211125_191425.jpg

When I plugged in the board for the first test it did not work correctly. I then inspected the board closely and discovered that I had soldered two diodes on backwards. It then passed the initial power up test.

I then was able to connect it to a Raspberry Pi and make my first set of digital contacts. This was with the transceiver outputting about 4Watts of power and I made some contacts as far away as 1000km.

Posted with STEMGeeks



0
0
0.000
8 comments
avatar

Congratulations @mytechtrail! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s):

You distributed more than 99000 upvotes.
Your next target is to reach 100000 upvotes.

You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word STOP

Check out the last post from @hivebuzz:

Saint-Nicholas challenge for well-behaved girls and boys
Feedback from the December 1st Hive Power Up Day
Hive Power Up Month Challenge - Winners List
0
0
0.000
avatar

Hello I am Fallowing you now to help support the Canada front end on Hive, a room which you have joined. I hope to interact more and soon in the room.
Nice project, and nice feed of projects. I have been looking at similar projects like that from online shops but was not sure, i might go ahead and build on now. That looks fun. Thanks for sharing.

0
0
0.000
avatar

Hey! I recently got interested in ham radio and preparing to pass my license, this kit seems to be a great starting point for digital modes! Can you share a little bit more details about which modes you used and with which software?

0
0
0.000
avatar

I run WSJT-X and operate FT8 on 40M. I run this software on a Raspberry Pi.

image.png

0
0
0.000
avatar

Thank you for your reply! I was going to ask for the other parts of your setup but I saw you posted about it today :)

0
0
0.000
avatar

I run WSJT-X and operate FT8 on 40M. I run this software on a Raspberry Pi.

image.png

0
0
0.000