Scratch Built BitX-20 Single-Sideband Transceiver Makes Contact | #hamr
by nicknormal
This is a great story from Mike, AB1YK, for the Nashua Area Radio Club (New Hampshire), and the blog is also chock full of links to other resources to get you excited for your own hamr experience!
About a year ago I decided to build a SSB transceiver for making contacts with other amature radio operators on the HF bands. I was given good advice from both Bill and Pete from the SolderSmoke Podcast to start out with a direct conversion receiver then go with the BitX as a fist SSB rig. I am very happy that they gave me that advice and I would agree that the BitX is not a good first project.
After getting all the proper adjustments made and confirming proper operation with a dummy load it was time to put this rig on the air (I don’t need a case)! I tried calling CQ using SSB voice but no one came back. I then decided to add some relays and other modifications to allow digital modes.
On January 15, 2017 at 21:46z I answered a psk31 CQ from Josh K1JOG in Kissimmee, FL. Little did he know that he would be making history (maybe just for me) in my first home brew QSO.
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