picnictransceiver

I found this bright colored and cute FM radio on a flea market. It has an empty storage compartment on the backside under the red lid. Some kind of a lunch box, I guess. But why put food there if you can build a QRP transceiver there instead?

Note the original text "FUN RADIO" on the yellow front panel (click the picture to enlarge it).

Rig design was taken mainly from these excellent sources:

- "Nice rig" 40-30 (by PA2OHH) - RX circuit

- An Optimized QRP transceiver (by W7EL) - VFO & T/R circuit

- Red Hot NorCal 20 (by AD6A) - TX circuit

RX schematics (click to enlarge):

TX:

VFO and control circuit:

Power output is 1 W. IF is 8 MHz with 2 xtals filter. VFO runs at 6 MHz. Mixers are SA612. There is QSK and sidetone, and 10 x 1,2V NiMH batteries.

A recycled microswitch is used as a built-in CW key (see the last two pictures).

The original FM radio is still functional but I prefer listening to 14MHz CW.