1 Volt QRP Transceiver

Does this meen my home built thermonuclear power plant is obsolete?
Boy, are my neighbors gonna be upset when I shut it off.
seee, if they just switched to CW, we wouldn't be in this mess.

 

King of the Hill DX-Club welcomes our Limey friends!

Tell me about it! Back in the day I used to look at those HF AMP designs in the ARRL Handbook and I would start drooling.

Actually, I just remembered to check the website of an old neighbour amateur who runs LinearAMP UK. Formerly known, years ago as Heatherlite Amps in Yorkshire UK.
They seem to be manufacturing an amp using a Russian GS35 ceramic triode to produce 1500W at present. They have been making the 'Challenger Mk 1V' for years using 3CX1500A7 (8877) ceramic Triode. When I last visited them in around 1999 they were building these top of the range HF Linears in a Caravan parked up in the driveway of their house. Two or three workers in there.

They produce a whole bunch of real big QRO amps nowadays. Go lookee:
http://www.linamp.co.uk/


"Beggars can't be choosers."

Best 73.

 

Hmmmm... 1 volt at 1600 amperes, at around 45% efficiency = the world's first 1-volt kilowatt station?

 

You never said anything about the current. I have a nice 1v 5000Amp linear


Eric

 

Nice amps. Very nice. Best part, the toroidal power transformers and the hardware. Cool.

Even the 811 kit model looks cherry.

I'm not QRO at present, but my old TS940 and full length 75M inverted V do quite well into Europe. Perhaps we can chat some evening on 3795 or so. I also have a full length 160M inverted vee, but the static crashes are usually S9+10 or so.

73.

 

Interesting challenge

That's an interesting challenge. Essentially looking for an extremely energy efficient circuit. If straight up electrical efficiency is what you are looking for that's great.

However, if you ar looking to "save the planet" AA batteries are a pretty poor choice. It takes way more energy to make a battery than what you will get out of it in it's life time. Then you have the whole toxic chemicals/recycling issue.

For a more purely "environmentalist" challenge I would say Power the device with no more than X square cm of solar cells.

Personally my dream rig would be a Big Old Boat anchor, powered by a generator run by a steam engine fed by a wood burning boiler. Or else a Listeroid engine driven generator burning peanut oil. Just for pure "Geek Chic"


-------
KI4RTK
Rob

 

I had an FBA-20 adapter from Yaesu which would run their VX-1R handheld using only one AA battery, a nice backup for when its rechargeable battery went dead.

The "1-volt transceiver" in the article has an AA holder, so it looks like it's made to run on 1.5 volts but can still operate as low as 1 volt when the battery starts dying.

 

1 Volt? Bateries? Green?

I think the idea of a low volt transceiver is not a bad idea. This could lead to a new trend in longer lasting HT gear if the market demands it. However the thought to save the earth is a cover for the politics of the day.

Why can't they just promote this based on the technical merits of the effort? The save the earth ploy is now being used for everything we do in this society. If we are not careful there will be a battery tax to save the earth!

The waste of dollars on all these save the earth efforts could be used to much better use to feed the hungry in Africa or other charities in developing countries.

 

Or maybe even the U.S..