ZZRX-40 Completed and In the CaseThis little kit from the Four State QRP Group was a fun, easy build and, miracle of miracles for me, no magic smoke when I powered it on! I first heard about the kit during one of Erik Guth’s interviews on his QSOToday podcast (unfortunately, I don’t remember which one). That recalled an article I’d seen in July 2016 QST Magazine about this little regenerative receiver.
Completed Board Ready to Go Into the CaseI ordered the kit. The turnaround time was very fast, I was pretty busy, so it sat on the shelf for about a month. The instruction manual is very detailed with plenty of pictures. It’s pretty hard to go wrong with this kit!
However, mistakes happen. The kit has two potentiometers that need to be elevated above the board to go through the top of the case. The kit comes with a set of shims that are stacked one atop the other with four wires going through to the board and then soldered onto the board. It’s quite clever. I managed, however, to get one of the shims out of alignment which I discovered only after I’d soldered the stack to the board. Getting everything unsoldered and put back together correctly was a bit of a chore.
Board and Associated CaseThe receiver does work. I’ve ordered a VFO from eBay which is a week overdue for delivery. It’s coming from Turkey, where there have been a number of political / terrorism problems lately so I can understand that it’s taking more time to get here. I’m quite interested in seeing how the radio performs with a wide-range VFO. As currently configured, it is controlled by a crystal which can be pulled a few kHz above or below the crystal frequency.
K7AGE built this kit as well and put four YouTube videos up about his build experience. I watched his videos before starting my build and felt his experience was very helpful to me.
I’ll add more when the VFO arrives and I can try out that capability.
