Twenty years a major change occured to the QRP amateur radio hobby
The Forty-9er was born 25 years ago in March 1996. The QRP hobby segment had been around for a long time, but suddenly a pocket size transceiver with a superior receiver to the crystal set design of the popular Pixies was available and the 49-er was powered by a small 9 Volt battery. Wayne Burdick, N6KR was the designer and QRPp magazine ‘s March 1996 issue Volume IV, Number 1 had the details. There was a source for a PCB for only $5 which include shipping thanks to Jim Cates. Quicker than a rabbit being chased by a pack of hungry hound dogs, I went looking for a case to put it in and found an Altoids metal case was perfect. By June, the latest issue of QRPp, included several minor improvements, including audio mods by NA5N, AC6AN, and others in addition to updates from Wayne. I believe a major transformation and step forward for the QRP low power segment of our great amateur radio hobby resulted due to the 49-er. PS: Wayne, K6KR, later created Elecraft. Stan, AK0B
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Gee maybe a 25th anniversary edition would make for a nice project .... that first event !!
On April 4, 2020 at 3:48 PM "Stan via groups.io" <w9ifz@...> wrote:
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Paul Goemans
And,
Then the 38 Special? Heady days in QRP!
Paul
Goemans WA9PWP
Stoughton, WI
From: Charlie
Vest
Sent: Saturday, April 04, 2020 4:27 PM
To: main@4SQRP.groups.io ; Stan via groups.io ; QRP-L Mailing List ; St.
Louis QRP Society ; qrpguys@...
Subject: Re: [4SQRP] Twenty years a major change occured to the QRP
amateur radio hobby Gee maybe a 25th anniversary edition would make for a nice project
.... that first event !! On April 4, 2020 at 3:48 PM "Stan via groups.io" <w9ifz@...> wrote:
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I built a Norcal 40-9er about a decade ago, using board from Far Circuits, had a lot of fun with it. I added a 555 oscillator for sidetone. Not much power output with a nine volt battery, but using an 8xAA pack and a 2N5109 to get about 3/4W. Worked about 25 stations in dozen states until the novelty wore off, I still have somewhere an extra circuit board.
Am going get mine out of the drawer tomorrow and try it out again. The receiver works quite well, but the offset is only about 200 hz on mine, so kinda hard for my old ears to hear.. Everything N6KR designed was great. Besides the 40-9er, I have an SST, NC40A, K1, and K2. Curt KB5JO
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Curt
Got mine out of drawer and had QSO with another TX op on 7.054+- about 300 miles from here. He was at 1W from a Flex, my 40-9er putting out about 1/2W. We were both 559. The low frequency of the offset is the main issue for me with the radio.
Curt KB5JO
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