KIT BUILDING!

There's little that I like more than having an electronics kit sat waiting for me to make a start on it. Typically, I buy one and then leave it on a shelf for a good while, waiting for the perfect time to begin construction, with an equal mix of apprehension and excitement.

I know practically nothing about electronics and yet I've been building little 'hobby' projects for years, starting with Veroboard kits in the 80's and 90's from Practical Electronics magazines and similar publications (do you remember the Penfold series of books?). I have many fond memories of dashing down to my local electronics store (Modern Radio in Bolton) to give them my list of components as prescribed by the project author.

I never really understood what I was doing, but I thoroughly enjoyed putting the 'puzzles' together. Sometimes I got it right and sometimes I ended up walking to the trashcan. Even when things didn't work out for me, I was never really disappointed enough to quit - in fact it made me more determined to get the next project right. Many of the kits I made back then had pretty obscure uses, but some were related to my main hobby of SWL. Happy days 😊

In more recent times, I've turned to proper kits as opposed to magazine projects. Things which are made professionally and are related to Ham Radio usually. The first kit was a simple transistor radio based on a famous design from the 60's. This was a gift from my wife and I really enjoyed putting it together. It sits on a shelf nearby and is regularly used. It's a Tecsun 2P3 and is available from Amazon amongst other places, for less than £30. It takes no time at all to knock together and is just light fun.

After that, I discovered QRP-LABS and decided to try building their QDX Digital Transceiver. It was in high demand and it took me a while to get hold of one. I loved this kit so much that I ended up building another one. They perform magnificently and the quality of the kits is extremely high (and so too is the documentation and support from Hans Summers). It's an easy to build kit and should present few problems. For me, the toroid-winding was a little difficult because I'd never wound them before and I dreaded it! But now I realise just how straight-forward they actually are.

The QDX builds taught me quite a lot and formed a good foundation for my future builds. Next up was a QCX which I stumbled upon at a Radio Rally. From memory, it cost me a tenner and although there was a big problem during the construction of this kit, it taught me some valuable lessons in patience and perseverance.

 

Around the same time I discovered KANGA kits and ordered their 2W Rooster CQ Transceiver kit. This was a cheap, very simple build and was good fun. I've since ordered the new RockRose Kit.

In addition to the above transceiver kits, I've also built a couple of the Kanga antenna transmatch units, which work really well and are easy to build.

My next QRP-LABS kit was the wonderful QMX, but boy, it was a tough build!! Having said that, it worked straight away and I was quite pleased with myself considering the fact that the twin (stacked) PCBs in this radio are tightly packed with components, leaving almost no space between them. Unless you are desperate to build a tiny transceiver, I would advise you to skip this kit in favour of the PLUS kit below.

And so my next Hans Summer kit was the QMX PLUS which is infinitely easier to build than the regular QMX. The reason for the ease of build is the much larger design which uses a single PCB. Having said that, some of the solder pads on this board are incredibly small, making it difficult to get your soldering iron to make equal contact with the pad and the component. The large ground plane adds to the difficulty. Other than that though, it's a pleasure to build this kit (although my kit had a faulty PCB) 😮.

Another enjoyable kit was the EXPLORER from Radio Kits here in the UK. This one had over 800 soldering points but it didn't feel like there were that many. I really enjoyed this one, even though I experienced some issues. I'm pleased to say that the designer was incredibly helpful with troubleshooting ideas and pretty soon the radio was up and running.

Next up was a compact ATU from AliExpress. Cheap, cheerful and effective! Capable of handling 100W (they say), so definitely capable of handling 25W of constant carrier operations such as FT8, leaving a wide safety margin. You can find these all over the place and they're very easy to build.

I've also put together a HERMES LITE II PLUS kit which isn't much of a kit at all - more of a modular design which involves very little work at all. Having said that, I did a couple of mods on mine. These are superb SDRs by the way!!

Finally, I recently put together a portable FT8 kit requiring no computer to operate - it's a self-contained transceiver with a colour touch-screen and a tiny output of 0.5W. It is easy to construct and works amazingly well!

So that's about it. I've really enjoyed tinkering with these kits and look forward to building more as and when they become available. The QMX PLUS has been particularly rewarding because it has turned out to be an incredibly capable transceiver and the latest firmware has added SSB to the mix. If you only ever build one kit - make it this one!

And if you're not feeling very confident, please - just have a go!! What's the worst that can happen?

Thanks for visiting the blog.

73, Tom, M7MCQ.

DX-FT8 TABLET TRANSCEIVER

PORTABLE FT8 ANYONE?

While browsing AE5X's excellent blog, I saw a post about a forthcoming product which is due to be made available some time in early 2025.

It's a portable QRPp 5-Band FT8 Transceiver Tablet with a touch-screen. It covers the 10, 12, 15, 17 & 20M bands and puts out less than 1W with a 5V power supply (perfect for using with a small USB Power Bank). It's going to be less than 7"x4" in size which pretty much makes it a pocket-radio! I just love this ultra low-power stuff - it's what keeps me interested in the hobby.

Following further enquiries, I immediately placed a pre-order for one from K5BCQ and it will hopefully be shipped out in February. These kits cost around $40, so no big investment required.

In the meantime, I have also ordered (and received) another item which you have to obtain separate to the kit - the STM32 Development Board from Digikey.

 

I'm very much looking forward to building this kit and will review the completed product in due course. You can find out more about this project by visiting THIS WEBSITE.

I’ve created a FACEBOOK GROUP for anyone who wants to share info/tips/help on that platform. I’d be delighted to see you join, if it’s of interest to you 👍

 

UPDATE JUNE 2025

Due to many other commitments (and changes in my life), I've only just been able to dig out the kit and put it together.

It went together pretty quickly and easily - the instructions on the GitHub Page were clear enough to me, but I have seen people posting instructional videos who have got it wrong(!) so beware.

Your first job is to unpack all the components and lay them out to check that nothing's missing. In the 5-BAND kit, there's only an SMA antenna socket, two switches, a DC Jack and a 3-pin Male/Female connector.

You also get a DC lead, some inline-pin connectors and the nylon screws, nuts and posts. Please note that the photo above shows the screen board which you buy separately from Digikey/Mouser, etc.

Make sure when you're soldering the inline-pin connectors that you locate them on the right side of the PCB!! I've seen videos where people have soldered them on the component side of the board - which is wrong - read the manual and only solder a couple of pins before checking that everything's straight and flush...

Some have installed the CR2032 battery case the wrong way round - why, I've no idea! There's a clear diagram printed on the PCB to show which way it's fitted 😮

The trickiest part for many people is soldering the 3 wires to the audio socket (above) and to the 3-pin connector (below)...

With these 3 wires (not supplied) you just need to bear in mind that the the center-pin is GND and the other two are I-OUT and Q-OUT. It's not mission critical if you get the I and Q the wrong way around - it will result in no reception and can quickly be resolved by flipping the connector. It's basically swapping between LSB and USB.

When I'd finished putting the kit together, it was time to switch on by connecting a 12V supply to the DC connector. This will produce a screen like the one below. At this point you need to install the firmware as described in the instructions.

Once you have the firmware installed, you need to FORMAT a micro-sdcard (I used a 4Gb card) and create a StationData.txt file as per the guide.

When I inserted the sdcard and powered up the DX-FT8, it initially resulted in an error message - No Callsign, No Locator. This was because I had formatted the card using the 'QUICK FORMAT' option, so I reformatted with that option unticked.

With that issue sorted, the next switch-on revealed that there was no audio and no waterfall. 😭😭😭

I requested help on the IOGROUPS page and thankfully, someone called Ward Weaton came along to point out that his had also been deaf and it turned out to be one of the chips on the board that wasn't soldered properly! With that information, I reflowed the solder connections on all eight pins and hey presto!😁

Once I was happy that the DX-FT8 was fully operational, I installed the top and bottom covers and left the radio running for a while to see what happened. I had no choice but to use a very compromised vertical antenna, but nevertheless (and despite shocking band conditions), the radio (in beacon mode) attracted confirmed contacts from as far as Belarus.

Checking in on PSKreporter, I could see that the tiny output of the DX-FT8 was being detected as far as 5,436km away!😲 Excellent!!

When the band conditions get better 😒 I'm very much looking forward to taking this to the top of a hill with me and seeing how much DX I can log with such little power. Love this QRP stuff 💖

By the way, there's a 7-BAND version available now.

73, Tom, M7MCQ.

YAESU FTM-200D MINI REVIEW

It's been a while since I last posted anything because there's just been so much going on in my personal life, that I've rarely had a minute to spare! Anyway, I  finally found an hour to install a mobile transceiver into my car and thought I'd briefly share my experiences.

The radio is a YAESU FTM-200D which covers VHF, UHF and C4FM. I bought this just because it was so cheap - a lovely secondhand item found on FaceBook. It was absolutely as new condition, complete in original box, with all the original accessories and manual. To make it even more of bargain, it also came with the BlueTooth Module.

Brand new, these radios cost circa £300, but I got this for £185. Originally, I was going to look for a 300D but then I remembered that as much as it's nice to have two receivers, the fact is, it's kinda wasted in a mobile environment, so this time I thought I'd keep things super simple and opt for the single receiver 200D.

Needless to say, with twin VFO's you can still easily monitor VHF and UHF and then switch to the active one. The radio's PMG function also makes it a breeze to monitor your favourite frequencies.

The FTM-200D is virtually identical in size to the FTM300D and shares the same screen, which is small, but more than big enough to work in a mobile situation. The front of the radio is detachable, so you can easily mount it somewhere really useful and tuck away the bulky bit elsewhere.

The built-in speaker is really quite loud, meaning that there's no need to have an external one as long as you're not tucking the main part of the radio too far away. For me, this wouldn't be a problem because after spending time considering it carefully, the best place would be between the two front seats. 

In my car there is an unusually large gap between the seats and by fixing some Velcro to the underside of the radio-bracket, I could very conveniently locate the radio with the speaker pointing up to me. It also meant that the microphone could be located just below the gear lever - easy to grab.

So, about the car itself - it's like one of those amazing Barn Finds that you hear about. It is 24 years old and until 18 months ago it had just 4,000 miles on the clock!!! 😲😲😲

I was sooooo lucky to find this thing because it's basically a new car for 24yr old car money! It cost me a couple of grand and has full service history. The original owner (an elderly gent) bought the car in 2001 and drove an astonishingly low 400 miles per year and despite that ultra-low mileage, he had it dealer-serviced every single year!😲

 

Looking through the receipts, I could see that last year the unworn tyres were replaced because rubber doesn't age well. The cam belt was also replaced for the same reason.

The engine ticks over like a purring kitten and the engine bay looks as good as the rest of the car. When I put it through an MOT last month, the examiner was chuckling as he handed over a Pass Certificate with no advisories. He said the car was amazing.

Well, in a short space of time, I've got the mileage up to 16,000 miles and I've collected a few scrapes and scratches and broken an armrest, lol. If the original owner saw it, he'd strangle me!

Quite apart from the condition of the car, I have to say that from a practical point of view it's the perfect car for me. It's got amazing amounts of storage, a super comfortable cabin and a great boot space for my dog, complete with overhead seatbelt to restrain her.

In retirement, this is very much my 'hobby-car'. I use it to get to local take-offs for radio and permanently store a lot of my bulky accessories in a box in the boot, such as antennas,  masts, tripod, etc. I also keep a painting set in there too.

A staggering 550 Ltrs of space 😮

If I'm doing HF and the weather's not too good, I can sit in the back of the car where there's masses of space to get properly comfortable and take advantage of the built-in trays on the back of the seats.

Anyway, back to the FTM-200 installation - I managed to locate the Yaesu's control-panel in the upper right hand corner of the windscreen, hiding the cable neatly behind the A-Post trim and under the carpet. In the image above it looks quite imposing but it's actually not. It feels like the perfect spot. And it's very secure, with no wobbling when you're pressing the buttons.

Another advantage of placing it up in the corner of the screen is that it's really out of sight from prying eyes and if you put the sunvisor down, it's completely hidden. 

 

Providing power to the radio was initially a bit of a head scratcher because it meant running a quite heavy power lead to the engine bay to reach the battery. Or that's what I thought!!

It turns out that the battery is actually located underneath the front passenger seat! How handy is that???😁

The antenna is currently on a mag-mount, but at some point in the near future I'll get around to fitting something more permanent. 

The FTM-200D is a great little radio, providing a full 50W on both bands with a handy 25W setting for us Foundation License holders and a QRP friendly 5W setting. The controls are incredibly easy to get to grips with - even programming repeaters 'on the fly' is an easy process.

The PGM feature provides means of scanning your favourite 5 frequencies and that's enough to monitor VHF/UHF calling channels plus another three local repeaters. There's also over 1000 memories available, all with alpha-tagging and you can quickly change scan modes between VHF frequencies, UHF frequencies, AirBand frequencies or ALL.

The colour display is nice and clear but it's not a touch-screen. Apart from the usual ability to show VFO A & B , it can also show a single VFO with an active bandscope below it. Alternatively, you may opt to have a display with time and date which is my personal preference.

There's a built-in voice recorder which can record both RX and TX on VFO-A, VFO-B or both! Very handy for when you're driving and can't write down callsigns which you want to log later.

Built-in GPS provides accurate time and position and APRS is very well implemented. There's a separate manual dedicated to APRS and it's very comprehensive. I'm not personally into APRS, but if you are, I'm sure you'll be happy with Yaesu's implementation.

I won't rattle on about every little detail because you can download the manual and read more about it yourself. What I can tell you is that the 200 is a cracking little radio which should fit into most vehicles with ease. The separation cable which is used to connect the detached front panel to the remote base is included in the package. What is not included is the SCU-58 cable data-cable, so I tried an SCU-20 that I already owned and it works perfectly well!

The radio is super easy to operate and I can't think of any function that I miss over the 300 in a mobile environment. Below are a few images showing various operational screenshots and some specs. I'll do a more thorough review in a couple of months time.

Thanks for visiting.