Make It Tea

After building a QCX-mini for 40m a few years ago, and a QMX (mini) very recently I decided a few weeks ago to build a QCX+ for 30m to use as my main shack rig, for my main band of 30m.

In the intervening weeks since ordering the QCX+ kit from QRPLabs I finished some old projects that were hanging about in my junk box - a 30m phasing RX and a 30m CW TX - and this combination of separates has become my "main shack rig" for 30m.

The QCX+ kit seems a little redundant now, as I try to move myself away from commercial rigs and into the realm of the 100% homebrewer... but I still would like the fun and experience of building it and having it as an addition to the shack. My self-inflicted "rules" are that I should only use transmitters I've "built" myself - and a kit is still acceptable. So I'm planning to put it aside until I have a free weekend with no other homebrew projects on the go, and I'll build it and add it to the array of 30m rigs in the shack.

My next project is still under consideration - it's likely to be a CW RX for 17m - a band I've never really used but might be fun to try - and this time it'll be a simple superhet¹. I'll use it as a test bed for trying different forms of IF crystal filters, starting at a simple "single crystal-with-phasing capacitor" that harks back to the olden-days. This RX also might feature an NE602 or 2 since I've got a few and don't remember ever using one before.