It's great to see people getting them on the air!
> Turns out the PC board's holes are big enough to take
> two leads in one hole.
That's one of the reasons I did that. Also, the holes for the transistors,
XTAL, and LM386 are large enough for machine pin sockets. My transistors
and XTAL are socketed so I can swap them out and experiment with different
combinations. I used to have my output filter parts socketed... but now I'm
moving them off the board. I've developed a simple and tiny band module for
the Tiny-Tornado (will also work with most any simple rig like the Pixie,
Tuna Tin 2, etc.) that includes a XTAL and output filter and brings
everything out to a five-pin header. Using a simple switching scheme... a
multi-band Tiny-Tornado can be built. I'm currently building a dual-band
Tiny-Tornado and have plans for a quad-band version as well.
> 2. I changed C15 from 1000 pF to 8.2 pF. This gave me a 850 Hz "offset"
> when the crystal oscillator was trimmed to 10106 KHz. I'm guessing this
> will vary a lot, unit-to-unit.
Yes it will. Especially between bands. As you go from 80 meters to 20
meters - and especially 10 meters (using the same value caps for the
offset) the offset increases as the frequency increases. So for example, on
10 meters, the offset may be too much with those values. I tried to choose
values that would work for everyone... but I also knew it would take a bit
of experimentation to custom fit the offset to everyone's taste. Anyway...
wouldn't a nice dual-ganged variable work great? Would the tuning for TX
and RX be linear? I'm going to try this.
> Shortcomings aside, the rig proves its point, and very well: a minimalist
> approach, while discarding features, will still get QSOs, and a kit built
> around this approach can be a load of fun to build and operate. Hats off
> to Brice KA8MAV for offering this fun kit! See http://www.qrpp-i.com/
Thanks to everyone who is building one. I'd like to hear from more people
regarding their mods to the Tiny-Tornado.
73/72/71! de Brice KA8MAV
http://www.QRPp-I.com
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