40/20 MiniBoots Amp

 

After building the 2N2-40+ I set out to see how well the transceiver worked. My first attempt was early one morning when I heard a JA calling CQ. I waited for someone to answer his call but after he had called CQ a few times, with no answer, I decided to see if he could hear me. He came right back with WB6 ?, I attempted to contact him several more time but he was unable to pull me out of the noise. I sent him an email and he said his noise level was very high and that he just couldn't pull my entire call out of the noise.

On my second attempt, I contacted Wayne NB6M, who was only about 25 miles away in Concord, Ca. The interesting thing about the contact is Wayne has designed several QRP rigs. He told me his latest creation was on the front cover of issue #3 of Homebrewer magazine. I thought I recognized his call and after I re-read the article he was referring to I started looking for other projects he had designed. I found an amplifier that Wayne had designed and the NorCal QRP group had kited, called the MiniBoots. I thought this would be a great addition to the homebrew setup, for times when I needed just a bit more power to make that contact. I set out collecting the parts for the amplifier and although I haven't collected everything I need to complete it, I just couldn't wait to start putting parts on the board. I wasn't sure how much space I would need for the circuit but wanting to put it into a BLT case determined it's maximum size.

This picture shows the small size of the board 2 1/2" X 2 1/2" That's a quarter in the foreground.

 

All of the input circuit is show in these two pictures. The black "box" is a relay.

I'm waiting for a parts order to arrive so I can finish up the amplifier and give it a test run. I plan to install the board into a BLT case. More pictures coming soon.