As some of you are aware, I am a user (and a big fan) of the PFR-3, a kit by Steve KD1JV based on another of his kits, the ATS-3. There are quite a few SOTA activators using both of these rigs so they do seem to work well in our environment. Well the ATS-3 series has been retired and Steve has been working on the ATS-4 for quite a while now. See details here:
The specifications look really nice and the addition of 80m (vs. the PFR-3) without having to swap boards (like the ATS-3) is certainly very appealing to me.
Steve launched it for sale a couple of days ago and half the first production run of 100 were sold within a day. If you are OK to work with SMT kits and are interested I suggest you “get a move on”.
My first little transistor TRF was breadboarded between brass panel pins on a piece of plywood, no solder, and to my surprise it worked. At the other extreme I have a pair of Eddiswan V1505’s as shelf ornaments, about 35 cm tall with four base pins about a centimetre thick!
To go back to the original topic, has anybody built the MKARS80 kit? QRP sideband on 80 metres…phone operators can build kits, too!
Yes indeed, and I love it. I think its the most fun per pound your average non-CW-compliant SOTA op can have; it is a pleasure to operate. I believe David Holman 2E0DAI has overseen the construction of one recently.
At the other extreme I have a pair of Eddiswan V1505’s as shelf
ornaments
What a waste! Don’t you ever yearn to fire them up and find out what
colour the anodes get to when they’re running at full lick?!?
Paul G4MD
They came out of a high power amplifier for an ultrasonic test machine last used for testing huge concrete beams, I also have the two bases and components on a strip of bakelite, but I failed to get to the PSU before it went for scrap, so they are now just souvenirs of one of the more interesting projects that I was involved in at work. However, if anybody wants to try firing them up I would happily donate them!
In reply to G0AZS:
I think Stuart KI6J was using one of this family the other day on W6/CT-034. He clipped in the 20m board in place of the 30m board. Very smart too. I bought two lots of Altoids at LAX for such a project. I think my sons will finish the sweets before I master the code!
Alastair M6ALR is doing very well building his MKARS80 without me so far. He even declined the loan of my LCR meter. I bet he’s nearly finished by now. I was very impressed with Dave Passey’s example of the radio when I tried it out a few months ago. I hope to add an AGC circuit to Alastair’s radio to protect his ears from your sudden 5/9 +20dB signals!
I may move my activation of LD-039 to Sunday to avoid a drenching. See Alerts and WOTA.
73.
David 2E0DAI
I fancy having a go at this kit, David, but it would probably be more useful on 40 metres, how easy would it be to modify for 40 do you think? (The MKARS80, that is!)
Brian, have a look at the MKARS80 Yahoo group. There is a thread on there called MKARS40 (which pops up in a search, along with a few other relevant posts) that deals with this question!
David: AGC, pfft! That’s why we have “psychological S/N raio” - if the signal get to much above the noise, just convince yourself otherwise (if you can ignore the popping eardrums - its amazing what an LM386 will do). I’d be interested to hear how it turns out, personally I don’t find twiddling the RF gain to be a pain (I enjoy it on some level), but I do love hearing about all the different mods people come up with - I fancy the Varicap tuning mod for mine to make it a little easier to get spot on frequency.
