Nice one Patrick!
I built a K3NG keyer in UK Lockdown #1, sadly it hasn’t seen any use yet.
I built my keyer using an Arduino Nano and a proto board.
VY 73 and good luck with the project.
Colin
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Nice build also Colin,
Are you satisfied with these tiny pushbuttons ?
How high is the shaft ?
73,Patrick
The push buttons are described as 7mm but that’s the total height. I think the shaft height is about 4mm.
I bought the buttons for my KD1JV MTR rigs. I have a dodgy button on my MTR-5B, it’s a bit intermittent. The fault hasn’t got bad enough for me to strip the rig down yet. 
My MTRs have proved to be very reliable but I keep switches in stock, just in case.
The buttons work just fine on my keyer, although there’s not much shaft sticking up through the holes in the case. The case I used was a cheap extruded aluminium enclosure which I purchased via Ebay and was shipped from Hong Kong. The metal is quite thick.
73, Colin
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Yesterday I finally wanted to activate my “minimal art trx”. (my lockdown project)
My 40m endfed worked well in the garden and on Friday evening I still had 2 qso’s.
I made a pilgrimage to DM/BW-115 and felt like a little kid before Christmas. I had everything set up and heard good signals.
Unfortunately, I didn’t got any HF in the air. I didn’t have any measuring equipment with me and checked everything again and again - but couldn’t find the fault. After 2 hours I broke off quite frozen and went home again.
At home, the TRX worked perfectly again… (GRRRMMBBBLE)
73 Armin
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Murphy law !! 
Good luck finding the issue Armin. I’m sure it will be something simple.
Better luck next time.
73, Colin
I still have a QCX in its box with original packaging still unmade. from January 2018. Thinking I might just keep it as a collectable lol, as I’m not sure I’ll get round to it. I might one day. Its a 30m version BTW.
Anthony
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Hi Armin, did you discover what the problem was then. Interested in your dilemma .
73 de Geoff vk3sq
I found a loose contact on a coil in the transmitter… and I hope that was it.
I pull such thin wires through a drop of solder on the soldering iron and burn away the lacquer with it and scrape it off. I think I didn’t got it all when I removed the protective lacquer. 
Of course, I want to get it back on a summit as soon as possible.
The kit has been a nice start to get back into tinkering. My next lockdown project is the qcx mini for 30m - starting at Easter. 
73 Armin
3 Likes
Hallo
Today was the day.
The beautiful weather of the last few days has thawed away the snow even above 1000m asl in many areas.
On DM/BW-018 there are benches, tables and a fence to attach the telescopic mast.
There I made myself comfortable with the MA 12.
After self-inflicted initial difficulties, it went quite well
Tnx to the chasers - Armin
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Well, the PCB fairy has been today and delivered my self-designed data mode cable boards from JLCPCB and they’re superb. Made one up and it works great. No more larger-sized prototype stripboard and glue. I’ll have to find a small little plastic box to put this in to protect it from the elements. Board is around 4cm by 4cm and it’s made for a TRRS jack.
Edit: wrote it up here - Shitty Amateur Electronics - Part 15: Data Mode Radio/PC Interface
With laptop for size comparison:
All soldered up, minus the optocoupler/serial part as I need to order the IC, so the hard-switch is used instead. I definitely didn’t catch the transformer with my soldering iron…:
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Couldn’t resist this my lockdown project - well it is sort of relevant as the TX is on 13cm
and the name reflects the activity 
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No longer a lockdown project, but I was inspired by Armins’ @DL6GCA post above, about his ZM-4 ATU, so this is my version of the Z-match ATU.
I tried to copy the design as cheaply as I could, and it works !
I just mounted everything “in the air”.
I did not implement the 160m option, since I had no need for that band.
The chassis is made of pieces of PCB, and I still have to make the cover, also from PCB material, and put some labels on the controls.
I tested it with my SOTA endfed (9.15m + 9:1 UNUN) ,hanging indoors from the attic to the ground floor (kitchen table), and I could tune it everywhere from 80m to 20m. Higher bands not tested yet, but I suppose it will work there as well.
Why did I need this tuner ?
I wanted to use my new QDX (@G0UPL) with such a temporary random wire, and I had read that the QDX doesn’t like bad SWR.
So I don’t want to be one of those “smoke signal” senders … hi.
73,
Luc ON7DQ
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I finally found time to complete above project, and put some more info on my blog.
Enjoy!
Luc ON7DQ
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Another small project that was inspired by the work of “super tinkerer” Colin @M1BUU …
I didn’t want to build a Rockmite, but I had a few PIC chips like those that are used for the keyer in that rig.
So I extracted only what is needed to make a very simple iambic keyer, and put it in a cassette box.
It can key any small QRP rig, and adds a sidetone, so it may be useful for Pixies and the like. Or even just to check if your paddle is still working.
See picture and circuit info on my blog.
73,
Luc ON7DQ
2 Likes