Geoff's Challenge 2001

Ah well! Here we are in the third year of Geoff's challenges to members of G4PRS to build, over a number of years, one or more items that are of use in an amateur radio station. The first two years have been built and tested and winners were chosen. The first years produced a good set of projects from members of the club. Although the number of entries for year two was not quite as many as in the first year, this failing has been remedied with the number and quality of entries for year three. So, to re-iterate what Geoff requested to be built in year three! The projects for consideration were to be one or more of the following:

A Transistor Transmitter

A Direct Conversion RX

A Low Voltage PSU.

This year's crop of entries comprised two PSUs from Colin G6MXL, and Brian G4WCJ, and various combinations of transmitters and receivers from Norman, Colin G6MXL, Paul G0ODP and Geoff. Colin's and Norman's transmitters were the two transistorised transmitters. Norman's version of the Stephen Ortmayer '10-15 Transmitter' HF-CW transmitter that appeared in the June 1999 issue of Practical Wireless, had a modified RF output transformer - the only change to the original design.

An unusual transmitter was presented by Colin G6MXL, a 430MHz monochrome TV transmitter, was part of the full station provided by Colin to demonstrate the transmitter working. The PSU was also demonstrated working at the same time.

10-15m Transmitter	ATV Transmitter	DC Regulator

The other regulator rather than a true PSU was Brian G4WCJ's project on offer, which had protected his handheld radio from the full power of his bus batteries for several years. Now those of you that are fans of Monty Python Parrot Sketch will understand just what the term 'resting' meant when applied to Paul G0ODP's "Naxos" transmitter receiver. This transmitter was definitely upside down on its perch that evening! The receiver side, not being a direct conversion (DC-RX) type was excluded on the night.

Paul's other entry for the challenge was a Lake Electronics DTR3 transceiver, that was the only DC-RX receiver entered on the night and so, working or not it had to win the prize for that section of the challenge as Geoff had ruled his own 'Foxx TX/RX' entry out of the competition

The transistorised Transmitter 'trophy' was awarded to Colin G6MXL after long consultation between the two judges. Winning by a small marging from Norman's "10-15 TX" on the grounds of an extra point for the complexity. But the surprised winner of the evening was for the PSU 'trophy', which Brian G4WCJ found that he'd won with his simplistic, but very reliable regulator for his handheld radio.

USE YOUR BROWSERS ‘BACK’ BUTTON to return to Geoff’s Challenge