[Elecraft] Looking for volunteer to design a tiny CW transceiver for socially isolated kids/teens

[Clay Autery]

Y'all wanna talk Super LP CW with a kit builder, contact Floyd Hoskins, 
N5FH.  He's seen, fixed, built, et al. many different designs.

______________________
Clay Autery, KY5G
(318) 518-1389

On 17-Oct-19 15:32, Brian Hunt wrote:
> Back when Halted Specialties Company (HSC) was in business in the SF 
> Bay Area I bought a PIXIE2e kit from them for $14.95.  It is a crystal 
> controlled direct conversion transceiver using only a 2N2222 
> oscillator and LM386 audio amp on a 1" x 2" PCB.  It came with 
> crystals for 80m and 40m.  RF output 200-300 mW with a 9v battery. I 
> never built it and dug the kit out of my "archives." I'd be glad to 
> offer it up as a design or evaluation candidate.
>
> 73,
> Brian, K0DTJ
>
> On 10/17/2019 11:05, Wayne Burdick wrote:
>> Hi all,
>>
>> Someone recently told me that he'd benefitted throughout his life 
>> from learning Morse code as a teen. Ham radio helped him cope. He's 
>> gone on to promote Morse because it can help kids with certain 
>> cognitive or social issues. Such problems are exacerbated by social 
>> media, these days. We all know of teens who've ended up ostracized or 
>> worse.
>>
>> He was wondering what the ham community may be able to do for them.
>>
>> I proposed a simple ($5-$10), unlicensed CW transceiver (kit or 
>> assembled or both) that would put out maybe 1 milliwatt. It would 
>> serve as a code-practice oscillator for solo use. But with a short 
>> wire hanging from the PCB, kids could work "DX" -- like across a 
>> room, or better yet, outdoors.
>>
>> This got his attention. I went on to describe a scenario that he 
>> found very plausible, based on his experience with Morse advocacy: 
>> You hand kids the little modules (just a PCB with a built-in 4x AAA 
>> battery pack, code key, antenna wire, and cheap earbuds), and ask 
>> them to try sending/receiving a few letters. The complete code would 
>> be silkscreened onto the PCB. After they try this, you say, "Now see 
>> how far apart you can get and still copy you friend's signal." This 
>> is where the magic happens, at least for those of us who have been 
>> leveraging action-at-a-distance ourselves for many years :)  It takes 
>> things a step beyond ordinary code practice. Connects kids to other 
>> kids. At best it could serve as a bridge to a world outside themselves.
>>
>> I'm picturing the little rig as SA602 based, with one crystal for TX 
>> and one for RX, running so little power than licensing is a 
>> non-issue. Frequency? TBD. Something available in cheap fundamental 
>> crystals from Digikey. Each one would have its crystals offset 
>> slightly from the others, so the effect of having a number of them in 
>> one room might be a bit like being on a crowded CW band. Picking out 
>> the pitch of a signal of interest and copying it is a skill many of 
>> us have learned. I'm sure kids who are motivated would be able to do 
>> it as well.
>>
>> It should not have debilitating clicks or thumps when keyed. The only 
>> control should be for volume. It should be full break-in, which at 
>> this power level is easily obtained.
>>
>> This is a project I would gladly take on myself if not for my 
>> greater-than-full-time commitments to Elecraft products. I'm hoping 
>> there's a tinkerer out there with more free time who could start from 
>> a minimal description and design the little rig.  The gentleman I 
>> spoke to has been frustrated over the years in trying to get his 
>> message out, and in trying to find ways to take Morse code to a wider 
>> range of kids. He felt that this idea had a lot of merit.
>>
>> If you're interested in this project, or know of something that 
>> matches this description that's already available, please contact me 
>> directly.
>>
>> 73,
>> Wayne
>> N6KR
>>
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>
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