[ARC5] QRP Ops

[howard holden]

I worked QRP, using, of all things, a Model T Ford spark coil-powered transmitter, right out of QST for 1920 and 1921. This transmitter used 2 UV-202s, in a rather early Hartley circuit. It took 30W to light the filaments (you could read by them), and with it’s B+ (actually raw AC) provided by the Model T spark coil, it put out just about one watt. This was back in 2001 for the Antique Wireless Assn’s 1929 transmitter party, also known as the Bruce Kelly (W2ICE SK) party. This transmitter was featured in the AWA’s Old Timers Bulletin for August 2002. 

I also built a QRP transmitter using transistors, which ran just a watt. I worked a station in Oregon on 40M, with RSTs of something like 229, for roughly 2400 miles per watt.

Now the only QRP I do is still in the AWA 1929 party, using various Hartley, TNT, and TPTG oscillators from Reno NV, where I have the CC&Rs, so all antennas are low and stealthy.

73, Howie WB2AWQ 


________________________________________
From: arc5-bounces at mailman.qth.net <arc5-bounces at mailman.qth.net> on behalf of Steve Miller <stevemillererie at hotmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, November 28, 2024 11:20 AM
To: Hubert Miller
Cc: arc5 at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [ARC5] QRP Ops

Hue,
I was looking for a  Weskit BN-1 for years and decided to reproduce a clone from the schematic.
The transmitter worked but the receiver didn’t, so I switched to  6J6 dual triode and made a transmitter/Morgan regen receiver that works FB!
 There is a picture on my QRZ page.
I also love minimalist rigs. Amazing what you can work on a few watts.

73,
Steve WA3JJT




Sent from my iPhone

On Nov 25, 2024, at 6:07 PM, Hubert Miller <Kargo_cult at msn.com> wrote:


A couple decades ago i read in some U.K. ham magazine about a fellow who was using, i think, a T-1154 with low plate voltage
that made it QRP. You can do this with any radio, really. May be grossly inefficient, considering the watts to heat the tubes, but you
can do it.
Not military, but i have a Weskit BN-1 Novice Radio, a one-tube transceiver which uses a single 3A5 tube on 80 and 40. The dial
resolution is not so great, it’s something like 5 MHz per tuning knob rotation. Downsizing – rightsizing is the name of my game
right now, but i hope to take it north to my brother’s place, put a wire way up in one of the tall trees, and see if Weskit’s claims
about long distance really ring true.
Another project i hanker to get to eventually, is a one-diode transceiver using a single tunnel diode. This would be QRPP.
-Hue Miller
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