mcHF QRP Tranciever

Started by KK0G, April 04, 2015, 09:25:38 PM

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Rescue9

Okay, so I didn't get around to doing a write up prior to selling my mcHF, but I'll give my experiences on it anyway.

First, while I didn't purchase one of the pre-populated boards, I would definitely recommend that route as opposed to soldering all your own SMC components. If you're interested in tweaking the design a bit, then removing and resoldering the components shouldn't be that much of an issue. If you're just looking for a project, then building the board from scratch is fun, but tedious. One of the tips I can give is to label all your component bags with the board numbers from the BOM.

Most of the upgrades when I left were software upgrades. These are always easier to implement and push to devices. The good thing is that most all software tweaks worked well with the v.4 boards and up. This was one of the things m0nka pushed... that software be backwards compatible. However the new v.5 boards have some newer components that make some software upgrades much easier to implement.

I was able to get RX power down to 136ma if I remember correctly. This was indeed with the screen off and a few tweaks that I believe are in the v.5 version of boards. I was also able to get TX power up to 17w. However, it is worth noting that  pushing that much power will burn out some components. I'm not sure why I had issues, but before I sold the boards I needed to replace a few components, especially the finals. They would get very hot and power would drop significantly (down to 1-2w) if I pushed power too high. Using this for CW at 10-12w and SSB at 10w didnt' cause an issue. I'm not sure, but if I remember correctly, the v.5 version of the boards fix this drop issue.

All of that being said, I'm not up to speed on the v.6 version of the boards. It is a fun project, but can be frustrating at times.

cockpitbob

Hey Rescue9, thanks for the write-up!  I keep lusting for one of these or something similar, but then I look at how little time I'm on the air these days and the backlog of kits/projects I have on my bench waiting for me.  I'll have to tinker vicariously through things like this post and Gil's exploits LOL

I'm with you on soldering the components.  Back in the day, it was more expensive to have an assembly house solder the components, but today, to me the little extra $ spent is worth the quality and reliability you get when things are soldered by the pros.  All joints are perfect and the components haven't been over heated or thermally shocked.  Winding inductors and other assembly steps are still worth doing myself.

Rescue9

I'll likely get another one of these sometime. I really miss the spectrum and waterfall on the KX2. 6m and 180m would be nice, but they were mods on the v.4 board I had anyway. Now, if the v.6 boards have 2m & 70cm, I may be purchasing g this sooner than later. That makes it very comparable to the KX3 imho.

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