Above is the transceiver in a beautiful homebrew circuit board box with a
digital frequency dial and keyer added by Ken, WA4MNT.
This is the standard transceiver in a very nice commercial box by Jerry, W5JH.
A battery holder is also contained within the lid.
Doug approached the ScQRPions with an idea for the new kit soon after our
decision nearly two years ago to return to our original Fort Tuthill site.
The purpose was to support our return and help continue our forums. Doug
arranged for Dan Tayloe (N7VE) to do the design work and has permitted the
ScQRPions to produce the kit. In addition to the 80m kit, versions for 40m
and 160m will be available later in the year from QRPKITS. Watch for them
at Dayton! The 160m version is already on the air.
The first public rumblings of this kit were seen in August 2009 at the Fort
Tuthill, Arizona, CactusCon 2009 in a presentation by Dan on the design and
use of distributed RC filters in receivers. The transceiver had its
beginnings as the Unichip transceiver in one of the major ham magazines some
years ago.
The present design doesn't even resemble its simple origin as Dan includes
one of his patented low noise mixers and distributed filtering throughout
the transceiver to produce one of the best sounding DC receivers anywhere.
The transmitter produces a clean 2.5 watts output using a pair of BS-170
FETs as the final amplifier. The transceiver has a rock stable VFO covering
up to 80KHz centered where you want it.
Specifications:
Receiver
Transmitter
Features:
Pictures, schematics, board layouts, prototypes, Dan's CactusCon2009
presentation and slides, and other information is now available at the new
user's group email list at
The list is monitored by the designer and other highly skilled technical
contributors such as Jerry (W5JH) and Ken (WA4MNT) who will be able to assist
with any difficulties you may have. Many others will become resources and
join in as time goes along.
The new Fort Tuthill FT-80 should be available about the end of January 2010.
All parts have been ordered and most are already in hand. The first run is
limited to 100 kits.
The kit includes a 3.5" x 3.5" PCB, all board mounted parts and all chassis
mounted parts including main tuning capacitor and mounting hardware, volume
pot, RIT pot, headphone jack, spot switch, BNC antenna jack, power jack,
and straight key jack. $50 covers virtually everything except for a case
and knobs.
Winter is here! This is a great time to warm up the iron and introduce
yourself to the magic of 80m QRP!