How many parts does it take to get on the air? 10? 20? 100? In the case of the Michigan Mighty Mite, you only need a whopping 7! That's right, 7 parts and you've got yourself a working transmitter. This design has been around for a while and comes from the minds of Ed Knoll, W3FQJ, and Tom Jurgens, KY8I. Here's a circuit diagram of the transmitter itself:
As you can see, there's not too many parts! I plan on making one for 40 meters and in addition to CW, I plan on using - you guessed it - Feld Hell. In the future, I might add on AM phone capabilities, but that'll be for a later time. Plus, QRP works well when you're in CW mode.
Some construction notes: The transistor can be any NPN type. Use anything from a 2N2222 to a BD139. For the coils, wind then over a pill bottle former or any 1/4" diameter former. L1 will have 14 turns tapped at 7, and L2 will be 4 turns over L1. As an added bonus, you can add a visual "sidetone" LED by winding 2 additional turns on the former. The energy given off of L1 should radiate to the LED coil and light. In addition to a visual aid, this will also help you tune the radio properly. Turn the variable capacitor until the LED glows the brightest.
So how do I plan on building this? What should you use? I've always wanted to make my own PCB boards, so I decided to look it up. Turns out, making your own is easy! I have plenty of the resources already and I only need a few things from Amazon. I'll be using designs from YouTuber DXExplorer (His channel is right here!). Ciprian built his version of the MMM using his own fabricated PCBs, and I must say that he did an excellent job! He also has a video explaining how he makes his PCBs, so hop on over to his channel and check it out!
Until we meet again, stay strong and stay tuned...
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