Muntzing with Michael

Snappy title, don't you think? I think it could become a TV series, maybe if the Discovery channel someday gets into QRP and homebrew. In his QRP-L message about his latest rig, Michael, AA1TJ, said that he had "spent the morning 'Muntzing' G3XBM's, fine little XBM80-2
transceiver for the MAS (Minimal Arts Session) event." For those of you who don't recognize the verb "to Muntz", Michael is referring to one of the early manufacturers of TV sets, who, in an effort to reduce costs, ruthlessly went through his engineers' designs, throwing out every component that wasn't absolutely necessary. So I think Michael -- who I often refer to as the "Poet Laureate of QRP" -- has given us a new and very useful verb: To Muntz! (This comes in a month in which another very useful word was given to us: G3RJV's "socketry.")

Michael said, "I felt like the guy in the movies yesterday; throwing everything overboard that's not absolutely necessary in order to keep the Zeppelin/balloon aloft long enough to make landfall. :o)" The results speak for themselves. The schematic above and the picture below show Michael's entire transceiver. And he made a bunch of contacts with it.

One word of caution: Minimalist radio is not for the faint of heart. As the parts counts go down, the degree of difficulty for successful contacts goes up.

Check out Michael's page: http://www.aa1tj.com/Menos es MAS.html

Here's a picture of the rig: