OK, I've put my Pixie II together and I see where there's a simple mod to go
to 40 meters instead of 80 meters by switching the crystal and one inductor.
Does anyone know if this mod could be carried a little farther and take this
little gem up to 20 meters??

Any help is greatly appreciated. 80 meters is OK but, here in Alaska, you
can't reach very many people..

Thanks,

Paul Jordan
kl0an

Paul Jordan wrote:

Hi Paul
For the most complete Pixie II reference, I'd suggest you to read the
past posts at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/QRPp-I/ .

OK, I've put my Pixie II together and I see where there's a simple mod to go
to 40 meters instead of 80 meters by switching the crystal and one inductor.
Does anyone know if this mod could be carried a little farther and take this
little gem up to 20 meters??

Yes, the mod works for 20 meters as well. BUT you have to make sure that
the RF choke on the PA transistor is not self-resonating on 20m,
otherwise you burn up the 2N2222 with excessive current.

I do have built a Pixie II for 20m. I certainly had the problem
mentioned above, but I have no oscilloscope for troubleshooting.
Moreover there are other drawbacks:
- the LM386 is muuuuch more likely to produce "hum" or "motorboat" than
on lower frequencies (I tried plugging all my XTALs from 2 to 15 MHz)
- you are likely to loose sensitivity in the receiver (but you might
consider using a separate RX at the beginning)
- the 2N2222 PA might not give as much power output as on 80-40m

Go ahead and let us know how it progresses!
Paolo ik1zyw

Paul Jordan wrote:

Hi Paul
For the most complete Pixie II reference, I'd suggest you to read the
past posts at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/QRPp-I/ .

OK, I've put my Pixie II together and I see where there's a simple mod to go
to 40 meters instead of 80 meters by switching the crystal and one inductor.
Does anyone know if this mod could be carried a little farther and take this
little gem up to 20 meters??

Yes, the mod works for 20 meters as well. BUT you have to make sure that
the RF choke on the PA transistor is not self-resonating on 20m,
otherwise you burn up the 2N2222 with excessive current.

I do have built a Pixie II for 20m. I certainly had the problem
mentioned above, but I have no oscilloscope for troubleshooting.
Moreover there are other drawbacks:
- the LM386 is muuuuch more likely to produce "hum" or "motorboat" than
on lower frequencies (I tried plugging all my XTALs from 2 to 15 MHz)
- you are likely to loose sensitivity in the receiver (but you might
consider using a separate RX at the beginning)
- the 2N2222 PA might not give as much power output as on 80-40m

Go ahead and let us know how it progresses!
Paolo ik1zyw