RIP NS-40 transmitter from the Four State QRP Group: http://www.4sqrp.com/NS40.php (http://www.4sqrp.com/NS40.php)
The kit has been retired. Of course, guess who's got the last one? ;) Yep, yours truly ;D
So why boast about a retired kit nobody can get anymore? Well, I thought you guys might be interested in my next project of marrying the NS-40 5W CW transmitter to an Arduino board to make a beacon. I want to get a GPS module for the Arduino and have the whole lot transmit position reports in CW. My thinking is to make sort of a sailboat anti-theft system that reports the position of the stolen vessel every night on 40m! Assuming the thieves would not take time to inspect every piece of gear and wire everywhere, this could be a viable system. Anyway, a man needs to keep busy!
I had another idea of adding a radiation detector to the Arduino and having both the position and radiation levels transmitted by the NS-40! Now that would be a neat prepping gizmo! Imagine setting it adrift on a raft with a solar panel, on the ocean... Of course making a 40m antenna work in that case would be a challenge, but hey, it's interesting to think about.
The PCB is pretty large. See the photo attached with a Rock-Mite 30 PCB on top of it. So, I could have used the Rock-Mite for the project, but that's 1W instead of 5W. The kit only has a few components and the toroids are built into the circuit board. It should only take about fifteen minutes to assemble. Programming the Arduino however will take much more time, which I do not quite have right now, so you'll need to be patient if you want to see the whole project finished...
Stay tuned for more...
Gil.
Sounds like fun. I actually found this link last night and might try to do something similar:
http://yo9irf.blogspot.it/2013/03/developing-hf-transceiver-around-arduino.html
TenTec has the Rebel: http://www.tentec.com/rebel-model-506-open-source-qrp-cw-transceiver/ (http://www.tentec.com/rebel-model-506-open-source-qrp-cw-transceiver/)
But I didn't want to spend $200, even if it seems worth it.
Gil.
You did this to me!!!
I literally went to their site to buy the NS-40 transmitter and saw the 'Retired' in red above the pic. Aaaaaaah!
Well, at least it should be a good HF locatino beacon for your sailboat! ha ha
>RadioRay ..._ ._
Quote from: gil on August 21, 2014, 12:57:53 PM
TenTec has the Rebel: http://www.tentec.com/rebel-model-506-open-source-qrp-cw-transceiver/ (http://www.tentec.com/rebel-model-506-open-source-qrp-cw-transceiver/)
But I didn't want to spend $200, even if it seems worth it.
Gil.
They are also coming out with the Patriot which adds voice. But at $400...uh, no thanks.
I'd really like a transceiver that is a Arduino shield. The Rebel/Patriot are modified Arduinos that you can add shields onto.
QuoteYou did this to me!!!
Ah, sorry Ray :-\
Gil.
No Plob-lem G.I. !
(http://movie-dude.co.uk/Craig%20Jue%20%20The%20Green%20Berets%20(1968).jpg)
I'm getting the itch for a 40 meter RockMite anyway. :-)
>RadioRay ..._ ._
Finally got to it! Haven't tested yet.
Next step would be to install it in a box with an Arduino board.
Gil.
It works! No surprise given the simplicity of the kit. I got 7W on 7028.2kHz. Surprisingly I was able to send a CQ with my hand key to be picked up by a Reverse Beacon, which gave me the precise frequency.
Gil.
Cool, good job Gil. It is a pretty simple transmitter. The inductors printed right on the board are kind of clever although torroids would take up less space, not that space is probably much of an issue for your application. I still fail to see why some in the ham community are so scared of winding torroids, as you well know they're very easy to do. Now get to that Arduino board, I want to copy your soon to be world famous beacon. 8)
Thanks Chris. It might be a while before I get to the Arduino part.. First I want to build a BitX20a from qrpkits.com. I have enough CW rigs and I need a radio for the maritime nets on 14300. Right now I have nothing that can do SSB. I did buy the Indian version a long time ago but gave it up because of the lack of decent instructions. The Hendricks version should be better and comes with the case. $200 is hard to swallow though.
Gil.