Black Box output characterization of CD2003 DCR receiver

Circuit: DDX-Commercial-7 Antenna: Small jumper cable attached 10m: 36 dB on WSJT-X audio meter, on quiet and also with nearby beacon on !!! 12m: 36 dB on audio meter, on quiet and also with nearby beacon on !!! 15m: 46 dB on audio meter on quiet, 65 dB with nearby beacon on - OK 20m: 44 dB on quiet, 65 dB with beacon on - OK 40m: 40 dB on quiet, 60 dB with beacon on - OK ...

September 21, 2025 · 1 min · 213 words · Dhiru Kholia

Single Transistor LNA for HF

Note: This HF LNA design is inspired by Charlie Morris ZL2CTM's prior work. The idea that a single-transistor-preamp with 10 dB gain is more than enough for HF comes from Gajendra Kumar (VU2BGS). As a new "designer" I am often overwhelmed by the different possible design paths - so having guidance from an elmer becomes crucial. It seems even MMBT2222A should work for building a HF LNA! ...

September 21, 2025 · 1 min · 94 words · Dhiru Kholia

New RF parts and new promises

Ismo (OH2FTG) recently introduced me to a bunch of Tokmas RF parts. Out of these, the Tokmas CID10N65F GaN FET stood out. It seems to have a lot of potential (for HF + 6m) at a very low price point. This RF MOSFET part can be purchased from LCSC. It seems Tokmas CID10N65F has the potential to completely replace the RD16HHF1 part from Mitsubishi Electric! Datasheet excerpt: The full datasheet is available here. ...

March 20, 2025 · 2 min · 240 words · Dhiru Kholia

1W WSPR beacon @ 5V (2025)

I have designed, built and tested an all-HF WSPR beacon which produces 1W @ 5V and is rugged and cost-effective. Power consumption: Around 420mA @ 5V. Cost: Around 500 INR. Time to build: Less than 30 minutes. The files for this project are published here for personal (non-commercial) usage. For a 5W (QRO) WSPR beacon, please hold on for our upcoming QEX magazine article ;) Special shoutout goes to Brad (K1TE) for always pushing me to do better - thank you! ...

March 14, 2025 · 1 min · 125 words · Dhiru Kholia

Baby-QRO RF switching amplifier

Sometimes we all need a bit of QRO - Life's too short for QRP sometimes. So we give you the Baby-QRO switching amplifier! This Baby-QRO switching RF amplifier design is inspired by the wonderful Single NXP MRF-101 Eval Board project by Jim Veatch. Thank you Jim! Instead of using the expensive MRF101 MOSFET, we use fast SiC MOSFET(s) from Wolfspeed / SUPSiC. 3D render: Schematic: ...

January 31, 2025 · 2 min · 231 words · Dhiru Kholia