Ramsey 20 Meter Receiver Kit

Last Sunday I built the 20 meter all mode receiver kit from Ramsey Electronics.

 

The HR20 is a direct conversion receiver and is built around the popular SA602 IC. This IC includes a tunable oscillator and product detector circuits which is the equivalent of seven transistors in the mixer-oscillator stages. Here is a data sheet that will educate you on the SA602 and includes more information you will ever need to know.

http://www.nxp.com/documents/data_sheet/SA602A.pdf

The audio output if fed into the LM386 IC which is the audio amplifier. I am using an earphone from an old transistor radio but this circuit would have no problem driving a small speaker with plenty of output. It is a simple build with 30 or so components that runs off a 9 volt battery and includes a case. Assembly time is rather quick, an hour or so of soldering and now on to on the alignment stage with a few broadcast stations and digital signals received so far. I really need to hook up a speaker because with the very old earphones might be creating extra hissing pitch that is unpleasant to listen to.

Also will be hooking up a frequency counter as a helper and try to get 14.060 set up. The HR20 is a fun easy kit to mess around with and includes a instruction booklet with a few modification ideas.

Will keep you posted if I decided to change things around with this receiver.

2013 Ramsey Catalog

For all you kit lovers the 2013 Ramsey Electronics catalog is available as a download.

http://www.ramseyelectronics.com/site/default.asp?page=catalog

Ramsey has been around for 40 years with a solid reputation for good quality kits and products in general. The instruction manuals are also easy to follow which makes building their kits much more enjoyable and relaxing. We have enough stress these days.

If you decide to tackle a kit or two in the future head over to J-Tron and see what they offer. I hear he is one hell of a nice guy. (very cheap plug)

Have a nice day!

Ramsey Electronics Giveaway

Hey Kit Fans!

Be sure to enter the Ramsey Summer Nights Giveaway. I sound like the announcer in between innings at the local baseball game.

But these days anything for free is OK in my book, money is not growing on trees.

http://www.ramseyelectronics.com/site/default.asp?page=drawing

Ramsey 20 Meter Kit

Started the first outdoor build this afternoon with the Ramsey 20 Meter CW Transmitter kit # QRP20.

This kit includes a crystal for 14.060 MHz and when complete puts out a big 1 watt of RF. Installed a handful of components and will finish up next weekend. The heat outside was steamy so I moved the operation from the picnic table to the garage which was a few degrees cooler.

So far this looks like a simple fun build, can't wait to try it out!