Category: DIY

A New Prototyping PCB for QRP/Homebrew Radio

We’re still alive! November and December have been very busy months. In that short time I both decided to find a new job, found a new job, and started the new job. I’m back into doing what I love best: Fixing things, and writing things. I guess you could just say I’m wired that way. …

Continue reading

A Custom VFO with a Custom PCB from PCBWay, and BITX Rebuild Update

As the BITX40 Rebuild gets closer to completion, I find myself wondering if I’ll ever be fully finished with it, or if it will continue as a years long project. I suspect the latter, but for the sake of completing other projects, I want to get it “finished” and leave it as-is for the time. …

Continue reading

Prototyping with Corrugated Plastic and Hot Glue

While taking a look at the latest Solder Smoke Blog posts, I ran into This Post where Bill mentions how much he loves using a wood board- so much so that he might not even put the radio in a case! This got me thinking: What do I have around my shack that I could …

Continue reading

BITX40 Rebuild Part 3: Back On The Air!

In the July 2020 update, I made mention that my BITX40 BITX’d the dust, so to speak. Receive worked, but transmit failed. In Part 1 of the BITX40 Rebuild series I talked about the history of my radio, some of the modifications I’ve made, and how badly I messed it up when troubleshooting the problem! …

Continue reading

BITX40 Rebuild Progress Report, MiscDotNews

In this post we’re going to catch up with what’s been going on over here at MiscDotGeek and explain the gap in posts lately. We’ve been busy, and some of it hasn’t been all good, sad to say. I recently posted about a series of videos related to the BITX40 Rebuild project, which so far …

Continue reading

BITX40 Rebuild Part 2: It Has Begun!

As I wrote in Part 1 of the BITX40 Rebuild Part 1, my own love affair with the BITX40 goes back to December 2016 when a gift from my wife arrived from India in the form of a BITX40v3 from HF Signals, Ashhar Farhan’s company that at the time produced just the BITX40v3. Also mentioned …

Continue reading

Ununs, A new End Fed, and Homebrew Capacitors [YouTube]

Things have been pretty hectic here at Chez Geek, but I’ve made some time this month to work on a new project. Now that the QCX Mini 20 is all fixed up, and I’m making inroads in learning CW, it’s time for a dedicated “spare” antenna. My station has been single-antenna since I restarted radio …

Continue reading

QCX Mini Troubleshooting and Repair Tips

If you’ve been keeping up on the MiscDotGeek YouTube channel or the QRP Labs Groups.io forum, then you’re likely aware that the QCX Mini has had some teething issues. We’ve already covered the C38 problem, and that’s been fully resolved. Instead we’re going to look at the issue that some builders are having: The inability …

Continue reading

Building the QCX Mini: What Tools do you Need?

Now that the QCX Mini’s are arriving, hams around the world are looking at the little tiny package that comes in the post and are wondering if they have the tools to build this diminutive little radio. If you’ve built almost any other radio kit, then you have most of the tools already. But we’re …

Continue reading

QCX: Tips for Winding T1

A lot of hams get pretty stressed out when they think about winding the main transformer in the QCX,. T1. It’s got 4 sets of windings on it, and looks intimidating- But it isn’t! In the video below, we show how easy it can be. It IS tedious. It IS time consuming. And to install …

Continue reading