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Hi,

today i have now exchanged all capacitors in the VFO and experimented with other transistors as well. The output signal of the VFO is not significantly stronger. No changes were made to the circuit itself at first.

Since I am not here for 2 weeks now, I will completely disassemble and reassemble the VFO afterwards. This seems more useful to me than soldering the VFO in the tight space available in the circuit.

Then I have to see how it goes on.

73, Wolfgang
DL2KI

Hi All,


Before I ship, I was waiting for one more part, a power connector to add to the kit.

Found out that the part will not arrive until mid August from where else...China.

So.... I shipped all the kits ordered TODAY.

If / When the power connectors arrive from China, I will not mail that one solo part due to shipping costs...but

in the future, if you place an order for anything, I will include the connector in that shipment...hope you all understand.

SOoo...most of you should receive the kits either Friday of Saturday...Sorry UK, Japan, Ireland...you'll have to wait a bit longer.

I will have the full documentation available on the website <> some time Friday.


The first North America QSO? that I have with a 5Watter...will receive a full refund for that one kit - Chuck Adams is not eligible :)

and the first other DX QSO? that I have with a 5Watter...will also receive a full refund for that one kit.


73, Diz, W8DIZ

Pat,

Thanks,

I have several NorCal 40 boards

That's a problem looking at some of the old stuff. A lot of the parts are no
longer available.

Bob Macklin
K5MYJ
Seattle, Wa.
"Real Radios Glow In The Dark"

Bob,
The NW8020 was a series of single band transceivers kitted by Emtech way back in the early 1990s. They offered vernier tuning, narrow IF bandwidth full band coverage and maximum rf output of at least 5W. I had a 40m version that put out around 7W. It was a decent enough radio but mine had stability problems in the BFO that I didn't bother to solve before I passed the radio on to someone else. Likely an unstable capacitor, perhaps a trimmer cap. I hadn't heard of this problem from others so I don't know if it was a common fault.
In terms of performance, the receiver falls way short of the receiver in the 2N2 series in terms of strong signal handling capabilities. I also suspect the? 2N2 to have much better harmonic suppression of the transmitted signal than the NW8020. If you were to try to build the NW8020 I guarantee you'll have more trouble finding parts for it than for the 2N2. For one thing the NW8020 used IF cans that are hard to find today. Also, the PA transistor is long out of production although you could find suitable substitutions.
The NorCal offerings to which you refer as the beginning of Elecraft were the Wayne Burdick N6KR designs, e.g. NC40, SST and Sierra. Not all NorCal kits were designed by Wayne but those that were were very fine radios. If you're looking for a classic QRP radio to build, I'd recommend the NC40A. I have a spare board if you're interested.
Hope this helps.
73,
Pat Byers? ? VE3EUR

Last night we were talking about the 2N2. I quess I am going to have to
order the parts for mine. I'll use it with my DDS VFO.

Does anyone know about the NW8020. That's another PCB ser Farr Circuits has.

It looks to me like it may be a decent unit.

None of these things are perfect.

It looks to me like the NorCal stuff led to the founding of Elecraft.

I wish we could buy "SHORT" kits. Kits that have the PCBs and components not
easily available from the normal distibutors.

I'm going to have to get some toroid cores and wire and try winding some The
last I did were several years ago for a SoftRock Rx.

Bob Macklin
K5MYJ
Seattle, Wa.
"Real Radios Glow In The Dark"

Thanks Michael.

Very cool! 20 meter 5Watter ordered!

Hi All, Some of you may (or may not) find the below text interesting. A short history of the Organic 5Watter Transceiver <>. 73, Diz, W8DIZ The Organic 5Watter VCXO Transceiver's Development History

Based on the 1Watters.

The 5Wxx is an offspring of the 1Watters, which was developed in mid-2015 at a suggestion from Chuck Adams, K7QO. Chuck told me that he could use a code practice oscillator for teaching/training/class educational work. Two days later I suggested a 20 Meter 1Watter which would use a dummy load to transmit & receive in a classroom. We ended up creating a VCXO transceiver with an IF of 6.00 MHz and 8.084 for the VCXO (both surplus xtals from ebay). The band span was small, only 14,055 to 14,062 but good enough to cover the QRP freq and useful in the classroom. With the success of the 1W20, we developed 1Watters for all nine HF bands, 10, 12, 15, 17, 20, 30, 40, 80, & 160 meters. This required the purchase of over 10,000 crystals, most of which had to be manually matched for use in band pass filters. Over 1000 1Watters were produced in the next 2-3 years... and we ended up with an abundance of matched surplus crystals.

What to do with surplus matched crystals? Create 5Watters :)

To keep the cost of the 5Watters low, I had to find a source of inexpensive RF transistors. I did not wish to use FETs, probably because I have a phobia with matching, loading and exploding parts. The old CB transistors are getting more expensive and anyway, most are fake Chinese parts sold on eBay. By accident, I found that the surplus 2SC5706 transistor can do a great job configured as a pair of push-pull finals. The FT of the 2SC5706 is 400 MHz, capable of more that 5 Watts RF output each, up to about 30 MHz. The issue with the 2SC5706 is heat dissipation...it is a Surface Mount Device where the tab is usually soldered to a PCB. To dissipate the heat, I decided to solder the final transistor tabs to a copper strip base available from GeorgiaCopper.Com <> I created a dozen Copper/PA Assys; only one suffered from over-heating due to multiple attempts to orient the transistor on the copper. Testing proved the PA Assys to be a success. Only once did I blow the finals; I powered the transmitter with no load on the output and POOF...all the smoke came out; seems I forgot to install Zener Protection in the output circuit...now fixed. In my attempt to remove/replace the finals in the PCB, I came up with the brilliant idea to use sockets for the finals and the stupid idea to use my surplus stock of cheap 8 pin DIP sockets that could be cut up to make two 3-Pin Female Sockets. The result was that the PA Assys made a sloppy fit in the the sockets. Per Chuck, K7QO, he said..."I use standard commercial 3-Pin Female headers". Duh...Thanks Chuck...the true 3-Pin Female headers hold the PA Assys securely...very nice to be able to replace finals with no desoldering !!! Chuck also suggested that soldering Finals to Copper may not be a good idea for novice hams/technicians. I found that a very common half inch Aluminum Heat Sinks (eBay) could be securely connected to the small metal tab on the 2SC5706 by using a lock nut with a free spinning washer. The Aluminum Transistor combination worked well but I think the Copper Transistor combo provides lightly better heat sinking. (YMMV) The 5Watter Kits will include the Aluminum Heat Sinks; An optional Copper Heat Sink Kit will be available at kitsandparts.com The 5Watters for 20, 30 and 40 meters are all capable of over 5 Watts RF output at 12 volts. The 5W17 is able to produce 5W but only at 14 VDC. My initial plan is to build 500 kits; 50 for 17M, 50 for 30M, 170 for 20M and the rest for 40M

What makes the 5Watters Organic?

Organic is a sales/marketing term used to increase profits and sales...It can mean anything you want it to mean. I use the term to designate that the 5Watters are all analog (not digital)...and increase sales :)

73, Diz, W8DIZ, 7 July 2019

On 7/8/2019 2:01 AM, dl2ki@... wrote:

Hi Pete,

i am a member of the 2n2/40 Yahoo group and some other groups . Unfortunately there are always problems there. Currently I can't view and download pictures there.
Error message: "We are sorry, you can not display images hosted by Yahoo! Groups on non Yahoo! Groups pages"

Therefore I left some groups at Yahoo.
Overall, I find the handling at "Groups.io" more user-friendly. That's why I made the request here.

Maybe there are other experiences to the Yahoo groups.

73, Wolfgang
DL2KI

Wolfgang and others,

For some reason, all of the photos on all of the Yahoo Group sites are gone!? I need to contact Yahoo to see what is going on and more importantly, if they can be restored.? Unfortunately, I don't have private backups of any of those groups where I am the moderator.

Stay tuned.......

72,

Jim, K8IQY

Hi Wolfgang,

That's a bummer, lots of good info there. I agree, Groups.io is preferred by many.

Good luck with the project!

Pete

Hi Pete,

i am a member of the 2n2/40 Yahoo group and some other groups . Unfortunately there are always problems there. Currently I can't view and download pictures there.
Error message: "We are sorry, you can not display images hosted by Yahoo! Groups on non Yahoo! Groups pages"

Therefore I left some groups at Yahoo.
Overall, I find the handling at "Groups.io" more user-friendly. That's why I made the request here.

Maybe there are other experiences to the Yahoo groups.

73, Wolfgang
DL2KI

I tried to join Yahoo group in 2016 after purchasing an unbuilt NorCal
2N2-40. Join request timed out and then auto rejected.

This 2N2 thread has been fun to follow! It is a rather nice design
reference of several technologies.

"Noiseless feedback" RF Amplifier is new to me. Found some a nice
descriptions. And wonder why not used more often.

Good example of double balanced mixers. Original using diodes, NorCal
using Minicircuits device.

Did the K2 leverage some of these ideas?

Thanks for the posts!

John KN5L

But there is not much activity in that group!

I have two sets of the PCBs for 2N2.

Bob Macklin
K5MYJ
Seattle, Wa.
"Real Radios Glow In The Dark"

Hi Wolfgang,

You may already be aware of this but there is a 2N2-40/30/20/15 Yahoo Group.



At present there are ~350 members.

Of course that takes nothing away from the excellent help available here on qrp-tech as well.

Pete WB9FLW

I bought a set of these a few hears ago and they work quite well.

Hanperal 8pcs Slotted Head Ceramic Alignment Screwdriver Tool set

David J. Wilcox K8WPE’s iPad

Jim Kortge writes:

On 7/6/2019 8:48 AM, dl2ki@... wrote:

first of all I am very happy to meet the developer of the 2N2/40+ here.

Well there are a few folks still building this design, which makes me smile that there is still interest in the design.

Jim,
You have all the right to smile. The 2N2-40 and following variants have well established themselves as lasting QRP classics. Well designed circuitry, a good sounding receiver, and clearly launched the Manhattan style as a viable form of homebrewing construction. I have held your original 2N2-40 in my hands and it is truly a work of art. Using all discrete components, it has not diminished at all in the past 20 some years and will be a viable design for 20 years to come, if not more. You have all the right to be proud of creating a QRP classic and a project that inspired so many to homebrew and a platform for so many to learn electronics. Definitely a "job well done."

For those who don't know, Jim's excellent website of the 2N2-40 and other great projects are at:


72, Paul NA5N

On 7/6/2019 8:48 AM, dl2ki@... wrote:

Hi Jim,

GA Wolfgang,

first of all I am very happy to meet the developer of the 2N2/40+ here.

Well there are a few folks still building this design, which makes me smile that there is still interest in the design.

Therefore it is always good to have bugs in the construction ;-).

Better to no have bugs in the build; but having them keeps life interesting!? :-)

Thanks for the pictures. They show that the signal levels are too low. I
have to start with that.

Yes, your levels are quite a bit lower than mine.? That could be caused by one or more low Q capacitors in the tuned circuitry.? They should all be NP0, polystyrene or mica types.

One question:

Can I simply disconnect the secondary winding of T5 for
troubleshooting, or do I have to terminate the VFO with a defined
resistor.

No, just disconnect it to look at the levels.? They will be a bit higher when not driving the mixer, but at most 2? to 1, but your levels are way too low at the moment, so disconnecting the mixer is a good thing to do to help sort out what is going on.? Also, the DC bias levels have to be measured when the VFO isn't oscillating if using a DVM or the like.? Short out the L1 inductor to shut it down.? No bias voltages on that part of the circuitry.

72, good luck, and keep in touch,

Jim, K8IQY

73, Wolfgang
DL2KI

I had a set of cheap Asian ceramic alignment tools. Didn't much care for them and the end up in the trash.

I did get a couple of GOOT brand tools and they are much better quality.? Look for these from sellers in Japan or Taiwan or South Korea; there are cheap knockoffs like everything it seems these days. Mine are now about 10 years old and have served me well.

Another name brand is Hozan, also from Japan and Vessel from South Korea.

I have seen a few sellers in North America but they tend to be the cheaper ones.

Mouser and Digikey likely sell these but I haven't looked.

cheers, Graham ve3gtc

Hi Jim,

first of all I am very happy to meet the developer of the 2N2/40+ here. Therefore it is always good to have bugs in the construction ;-).

Thanks for the pictures. They show that the signal levels are too low. I have to start with that.

One question:

Can I simply disconnect the secondary winding of T5 for troubleshooting, or do I have to terminate the VFO with a defined resistor.

73, Wolfgang
DL2KI

Hi Alan,

yes, this is a really nice project. It's been here for a while and now I've finally started with the construction.

I started with the audio amplifier and built the RX up to the VFO. It seemed difficult to me to test the intermediate stages one by one, so I built the RX completely.

The VFO works and the frequency range can be adjusted exactly. The signal is clearly audible in the station receiver. But the signal levels are too low. You can already hear CW signals in the loudspeaker, but when adjusting the RX input filter there are strong whistles in the RX. Probably another problem in the RF amp area.

But first I have to find the error in the VFO stage.

Anyway, first of all thank you for your contribution.

73, Wolfgang
DL2KI