WA2IAC: QRP Gear

QRP Links

I've participated in events organized by the Adventure Radio Society - their website has been to hell and back. Moral to the story: stay on top of payments due to your domain registrar! Otherwise, the squatters will get 'cha!
The New Jersey QRP club has some awesome kits.
Small Wonder Labs no longer answers email, or paper mail either as far as I can tell.
Wilderness Radio (loads sloooow)

Homebrew QRP-On-a-Rework-Card

Here's the earliest documentation of a QRP Rig that I have, other than the Bare Essentials Transmitter that was my first transmitter. I can't tell you the exact year this was made because my records prior to 2005 were destroyed in a house fire, along with this transmitter, however, it was approximately 1974. I was working as a rework technician at Databit in Hauppauge, NY that was manufacturing Telex/TTY concentrators using SSI level IC's and the Fairchild F8 (along with the 8008, the first 8-bit microprocessors, although the F8 was designed for logic replacement [today called "embedded systems"] while the 8008 was designed as a general computing device). My job was essentially to fix boards that didn't work after assembly or that failed burn-in, and couldn't be fixed monkey-style using automated test stations. My chief weapon was an oscilloscope, along with a complete schematic. It got boring at times, and on this one occasion, I had a 40m CW crystal burning a hole in my pocket, discovered that it would fit into some pins that were on hand, and decided to build a 1-transistor transmitter with parts on hand. The two small pots allowed the circuit to be tweaked for maximum output on the 'scope. I actually made some contacts with this rig, risking that my antenna tuner and antenna would do a good enough job on the harmonics (note there are no inductors). The output was probably in the 1w-3w range. It used a 2N5416, which the tag says was swapped out for a 2N2907. Apparently I didn't like the result and put back in the 2N5416. The photos were taken many years later circa 1998-2000.

Card XMTR

Hanging Card

10+ Years with the FT-817

The FT-817 is either a Cadillac QRP rig, a Swiss Army Knife QRP rig, or a pig. It is flawed, but there's nothing like it yet, and mine is over 10 years old now. In combination with the Ten Tec Linear, which was made for the Ten Tec Argonaut QRP rig, it can pack some extra punch in all modes (albiet without 160m - although 17m and 30m can be used). The thing about the FT-817 is that due to its small size, it's been able to follow me everywhere and through some difficult times in extremely reduced living circumstances that I would never have imagined when I purchased it.

Jan 2011 QRP Setup