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Friday, November 11, 2016

My Extroverted BITX40 -- On (but not in) a Box


I was going to put the BITX40 Module in a box today, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. That board looks too good to be hidden inside a box.  So I put it topside. That's the analog VFO to the right. You can see a fan off to the left -- that is perhaps temporarily in lieu of a large heat sink for the final. You can see the two Gel cells in the background.  I am indeed running 24 volts to the final, and am putting out about 20 watts.  I had three nice contacts today on 40:  WB2RON up on Long Island said I was "20 over".  Later I worked W1SJ in N. Vermont -- I was 5-9.  Then -- icing on the cake -- DK1NO in Stuttgart.  I was 5-8.  TRGHS.

I kind of like this arrangement -- it has the "three dimensional" feel of an old tube rig.  This obviously wouldn't be good for portable operations, but I am not planning on going portable.   There is a lot of room under the chassis.   I could put a digital VFO in there and put in a switch so that I can easily go from digital to analog.



4 comments:

  1. Hi Bill,

    Happy Veterans Day! Now that is what I call a real rig. Very nice indeed! Congratulations on the DX contact --you see you really do need more than 5 puny watts!

    73's
    Pete N6QW

    ReplyDelete
  2. Video please. :-)

    73s Eric SA5BKE

    ReplyDelete
  3. Bill--How many amps do you think you're drawing at 20W? I'm thinking dc-dc converter to get to 24V from 12.

    Todd K7TFC

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  4. Hi Bill ,

    This a true out of the box thinking.I always use to wonder what it really means ,now i know.Great job

    ReplyDelete

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