Good Receiver for a 10-year Old
 

Does anyone out there have recommendations for a good, simple receiver kit
for a 10-year old budding ham? My son just fell in love with the Neophyte
receiver from ARRL's "QRP Classics", but chasing down parts is going to be a
bit of a bother (the coils _are_ still available from Mouser, and FAR
circuits has the board, but it looks like I'm going to have to donate a
couple of my precious tuning caps). If it were me I'd just start building
and accept the necessary futzing around; with him I'd prefer something where
all the parts fall out of the box and go together quick before he loses
patience.

Ideally there's someone out there that makes an improved Neophyte kit. If I
have to I'll buy one of the new kits that are mostly pre-made surface mount
with a bit of through-hole soldering of the tuning pots and whatnot, but I'm
not sure he'll get the feeling of accomplishment that we're looking for.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

-------------------------------------------
Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com

Hi Tim,

Good to hear another lad getting into the electronics hobby :-)

In the ARRL Radio Amateur's Handbooks that I have, there is a little
direct-conversion receiver in their. Simple to build and is quite the
performer :-)

--
Gregg
*It's probably useful, even if it can't be SPICE'd*
http://geek.scorpiorising.ca

Lots of kits and projects at URL:
http://ac6v.com/kits.htm

--
73 From The Wilderness Keyboard
---------------------

"Keyboard In The Wilderness" wrote in message news:21ANb.23933$zs4.10105@fed1read01...
Lots of kits and projects at URL:
http://ac6v.com/kits.htm

Here is some info that may be of interest:

IMPROVED NEOPHYTE RECEIVER

This receiver was featured in the spring 1994 issue of Ham Brew
Magazine
Designed by Wes Baden, K6EIL

This is a nice 40 meter receiver and uses a NE602AN OR NE612AN mixer
chip
and incorporating an AF pre-amplifier and bandpass audio filter
will drive a 2 1/2" to 3" speaker to room level volume.
Kit includes etched circuit board and all board mount components
included is a very nice 20pf air vairable capactior..double bearing
type
has built in 8:1 reduction and 1/4" shaft
copy if artical included with kit...price of this kit is...$32.95

You can find the site where this is offered by doing a Google search
of "Dans Small Parts and Kits."

Ten-Tec also has a kit in their T-Kit series that sells for $29.95 and
comes with all of the parts to put it on any band from 80 thru 10, and
this also has an audio filter that works quite well. The Ten-Tec also
has a very fine instruction manual, so that would seem to be a better
kit for a kid.

Hope this is of some help.

73 de WA2AFD

Do you know where I could find a copy of the Ham Brew article? Is it on the
web someplace, or does Dan's include instructions?

I didn't think of Ten-Tec -- when I hear Ten-Tec I think "really expensive
American made radio", not "good cheap kit". That is my problem and no one
else's, of course.

"Howard" wrote in message
om...
"Keyboard In The Wilderness" wrote in message
news:21ANb.23933$zs4.10105@fed1read01...
Lots of kits and projects at URL:
http://ac6v.com/kits.htm

Here is some info that may be of interest:

IMPROVED NEOPHYTE RECEIVER

This receiver was featured in the spring 1994 issue of Ham Brew
Magazine
Designed by Wes Baden, K6EIL

This is a nice 40 meter receiver and uses a NE602AN OR NE612AN mixer
chip
and incorporating an AF pre-amplifier and bandpass audio filter
will drive a 2 1/2" to 3" speaker to room level volume.
Kit includes etched circuit board and all board mount components
included is a very nice 20pf air vairable capactior..double bearing
type
has built in 8:1 reduction and 1/4" shaft
copy if artical included with kit...price of this kit is...$32.95

You can find the site where this is offered by doing a Google search
of "Dans Small Parts and Kits."

Ten-Tec also has a kit in their T-Kit series that sells for $29.95 and
comes with all of the parts to put it on any band from 80 thru 10, and
this also has an audio filter that works quite well. The Ten-Tec also
has a very fine instruction manual, so that would seem to be a better
kit for a kid.

Hope this is of some help.

73 de WA2AFD

"Howard" wrote in message
om...
"Keyboard In The Wilderness" wrote in message
news:21ANb.23933$zs4.10105@fed1read01...
Lots of kits and projects at URL:
http://ac6v.com/kits.htm

Here is some info that may be of interest:

IMPROVED NEOPHYTE RECEIVER

This receiver was featured in the spring 1994 issue of Ham Brew
Magazine
Designed by Wes Baden, K6EIL

This is a nice 40 meter receiver and uses a NE602AN OR NE612AN mixer
chip
and incorporating an AF pre-amplifier and bandpass audio filter
will drive a 2 1/2" to 3" speaker to room level volume.

snipped

I have a question, has anyone built the above and had success with it? A
friend of mine built a kit once from Ramsey - it used a NE6XX chip and the
receiver was the biggest piece of garbage I had ever seen. He built it
right, I and another person checked his work and tried to get it to work for
him, that thing had NO EARS! A WASTE. It had some audio, but it sucked for
volume and that wasn't counting the static when "trying" to receive. He
called Ramsey to complain, they wanted a bit of change to correct it for
him.. The kit was about $30 to start with. In the end, he would have had
about $80 or so tied into a crappo receiver. I'd hate like hell for that kid
to be disappointed when he is done. I know I've been down that road and it
sucks. That can sure suck the interest right out of a newbie real fast. I'm
not saying the above mentioned design or circuit is bad. I don't know, I've
never tried one. All I'm doing is comparing the similar - even if only in
the chip used - design basis. I don't want to see the kid crushed by a non
working unit. Even with the Heath Kits, some times, there were defective
components or so on. Eico too. I hope the father or whoever - is prepared
to help the boy along and EXPLAIN any problems up front so the kid isn't
blown away to the point of saying to hell with it and quitting if the item
doesn't work. Some soldering practice would be good too, if he's not done
any as yet. SM.

I didn't think of Ten-Tec -- when I hear Ten-Tec I think "really expensive
American made radio", not "good cheap kit". That is my problem and no one
else's, of course.


That is what I usually think also. I did put together their 6 to 20 meter
transverter several years ago and it seemed to work fine for me. Receiver
converter part was very sensitive and I received good audio reports from it
using a Yaesu 757 lowband rig.

That is what I usually think also. I did put together their 6 to 20
meter
transverter several years ago and it seemed to work fine for me. Receiver
converter part was very sensitive and I received good audio reports from
it
using a Yaesu 757 lowband rig.
=================================
Question : Is the Ten-Tec 6m transverter also available for 28 MHz e.g.
RX : 50 -- 28 MHz ; TX : 28 --- 50 MHz
or can the 14 to 50 MHz transverter be readily modified for operation
from a 28 MHz base unit ?

Reason for the above question : I have an old (but almost unused) Yaesu
FT901DM HF transceiver with a FTV901R transverter with 2m and 70cms
modules but without a 6 m module.
The system works through the HF transceiver's 28 - 30 MHz band . In
Europe the 6m band is from 50 - 52 MHz.

TIA for any advice.

Frank GM0CSZ / KN6WH based in Scotland.

Question : Is the Ten-Tec 6m transverter also available for 28 MHz e.g.
RX : 50 -- 28 MHz ; TX : 28 --- 50 MHz
or can the 14 to 50 MHz transverter be readily modified for operation
from a 28 MHz base unit ?

Reason for the above question : I have an old (but almost unused) Yaesu
FT901DM HF transceiver with a FTV901R transverter with 2m and 70cms
modules but without a 6 m module.
The system works through the HF transceiver's 28 - 30 MHz band . In
Europe the 6m band is from 50 - 52 MHz.

The 20 to 6 meter converter is made to operate in the low end of 6 meters.
The US band is 50 to 54 mhz but TT does not recommend operating much above
52 mhz with their transverter.
They do make a 2 meter to 6 meter transverter so you could run you equipment
and feed it to the trtansverter to get on 6 that way.

Converting from 10 meters to 6 meters is not done very often as it is
difficult to keep the 2nd harmonic of 10 meters out of the 6 meter output.
By changing crystals and a few tuned circuits I don;t see why you could not
make the converter work with a 10 meter rig. It might be difficult to
filter out the 10 meter signal.

Go here and look at their products.

http://www.tentec.com/

I was having trouble reducing the lowband rig output to 5 to 10 watts needed
by the transverter. I finally designed a hard keying circuit and also
bypassed part of the transverter padding and fed the low level (milliwat)
signal into the transverter. It worked fine by doing that and no worries
about blowing out the backend of the transverter.

73 de ku4pt

Frank Dinger wrote:

That is what I usually think also. I did put together their 6 to 20
meter
transverter several years ago and it seemed to work fine for me. Receiver
converter part was very sensitive and I received good audio reports from
it
using a Yaesu 757 lowband rig.
=================================
Question : Is the Ten-Tec 6m transverter also available for 28 MHz e.g.
RX : 50 -- 28 MHz ; TX : 28 --- 50 MHz
or can the 14 to 50 MHz transverter be readily modified for operation
from a 28 MHz base unit ?

Reason for the above question : I have an old (but almost unused) Yaesu
FT901DM HF transceiver with a FTV901R transverter with 2m and 70cms
modules but without a 6 m module.
The system works through the HF transceiver's 28 - 30 MHz band . In
Europe the 6m band is from 50 - 52 MHz.

TIA for any advice.

Frank GM0CSZ / KN6WH based in Scotland.

The Ten-Tec 20M--6M converter can be easily modified
to 10M--6M. I have done that and it works fine.
Essentially, you change the LO in the transverter
to 2 selectable LO's - one at 22 MHz, the second at 24
22 + 28 = 50; 22 + 29 = 51
24 + 28 = 52; 24 + 29 = 53

You need 2 xtals and a few components to change the
bandpass filter after the LO to 22-24 MHz
The xtals can be selected via relay or diode
switching. With a simple homebrew outboard filter,
the thing is pretty clean, according to a friend.
I never used the filter or put mine on a spectrum
analyzer, so the cleanness of the signal is hearsay.

IMPROVED NEOPHYTE RECEIVER
snipped

I have a question, has anyone built the above and had success with it? A
friend of mine built a kit once from Ramsey - it used a NE6XX chip and the
receiver was the biggest piece of garbage I had ever seen. He built it
....[snip]....

My son built the Ramsey "shortwave radio" kit about 15 years ago; he had
absolutely NO trouble and it worked like a charm. I designed a little
outboard VFO (plans available upon request) which he built and which let
him copy CW.

His has been a coded-Tech since shortly after that experience.
(Not particularly active, but licensed, nevertheless!)

--Myron.
--
Five boxes preserve our freedoms: soap, ballot, witness, jury, and cartridge
PhD EE (retired). "Barbershop" tenor. CDL(PTXS). W0PBV. (785) 539-4448
NRA Life Member and Certified Instructor (Home Firearm Safety, Rifle, Pistol)

Thank you all for you suggestions and advise, I now know what I want to do.

"Tim Wescott" wrote in message
...
Does anyone out there have recommendations for a good, simple receiver kit
for a 10-year old budding ham? My son just fell in love with the Neophyte
receiver from ARRL's "QRP Classics", but chasing down parts is going to be
a
bit of a bother (the coils _are_ still available from Mouser, and FAR
circuits has the board, but it looks like I'm going to have to donate a
couple of my precious tuning caps). If it were me I'd just start building
and accept the necessary futzing around; with him I'd prefer something
where
all the parts fall out of the box and go together quick before he loses
patience.

Ideally there's someone out there that makes an improved Neophyte kit. If
I
have to I'll buy one of the new kits that are mostly pre-made surface
mount
with a bit of through-hole soldering of the tuning pots and whatnot, but
I'm
not sure he'll get the feeling of accomplishment that we're looking for.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

-------------------------------------------
Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com