Scotty's Funk Werks

Executive Summary If you're a fan of handheld QRP cw rigs, you may envy Elecraft owners' ability to mount Elecraft paddles directly to an Elecraft radio. I do. But I often use GM0EUL Academy paddles on my KX2 and KX3 because Peter has developed a paddle mount with two axes of motion  This is a big advantage over the KX fixed mount.  And an especially big advantage if you operate the KX2 as a handheld - a favorite vacation mode for me. But for a number of reasons, the QMX often gets the call, either as a primary or backup rig. And I'd like to use the Academy paddles mounted to it. So what to do? I solved this problem with my (tr)uSDX by drilling and tapping holes in a side panel so that I could directly attach the panel mount to the cabinet. You can see that HERE.  Intermingling of the Species...The tr(u)SDX Gets an Academy! But if you've built a QMX, you know how packed the cabinet is.  It might be possible to drill and tap the cabinet, but I was looking for a simple...

Executive Summary I’ve been a fan of both the (tr)uSDX and the GM0EUL Academy key for a long time. I'm especially fond of Peter's mounting bracket.  The bracket provides two more axes of adjustment than the fixed orientation of a standard Elecraft mounted key. In any environment, and especially for handheld operation, this flexibility makes operation of the paddles ergonomically dreamy. When custom orange and blue Academy paddles in my school colors ( GO  I L L I N I ) arrived, a thought came along with them.  That paddle might easily mount and work well with the SDX. And it did.  In about 45 minutes. And this shows generically how useful Peter's paddles and mount might be on any small QRP rig.  I'm looking for my QMX as soon as I'm done here! 😊 The Plan If there wasn't interference in the SDX where I wanted to mount the key, I'd be in the high clover. I used a 2 mm hex wrench to remove the four hex head screws from the lower side panel of the SDX.  That...

  Executive Summary (don't ya feel important now?) I've been very pleased with the Grabil CF2200 carbon fiber whip for handheld use on the KX2.  The whip is lighter and stiffer than the metal whips I'd been using, and the KX2 readily tuned the CF2200 alone from 10 through 20 meters. But that left me without 30 and 40 meters.  As good as the KX2 tuner is, it refused to match the Grabil on either band. This post describes how I made a prototype 30 and 40 meter adapter that can be left on the CF2200 so that all bands 10 - 40 meters can be tuned by the KX2 tuner.  No reason you can't use this with any cheap extendable whip to build a poor boy's AX-4, but I find that the CF2200 provides field advantages, so I focused on that. The Background I've operated /PM with simple 7 to 8 foot whips on the KX2 for several years now.   Other blog posts here describe how I've built a simple bracket to mount most any kind of a whip on the KX2 without stressing its BNC, and I w...

  Executive Summary 1) I built a battery box that mounts on the G90 almost like a real manpack 2) The box is built from Kydex and aluminum angle stock. 3) The Kydex plates and the angle stock are riveted together using a cheap Harbor Freight riveting kit. 4) The box mounts to the radio using the rear handle mounting holes. 4) It works great - and looks sorta OK:) A perspective view of the radio and battery box in operation. A close-up of the box. The bottom view. And finally, a side view. A Work In Progress Most of my projects look a bit half fast (sp and sic ), as I typically just want something that works. This works. But it could look better, and I'm sure there many clever improvements that can be made.  I've teed this project up as a thought experiment more than anything because the G90 really needs a battery box. Once modified for generally coverage, the G90 is about the closest thing to a military HF manpack that's affordably out there. So please send along your sugg...

Executive Summary   Oh yeah. This is the ticket. The $20 K9DP QRP broadcast band filter.  Nice price to performance ratio, easy to assemble, and small. If you have a G90 and live 1.5 miles from a 50 KW AM station, you know why you need one.  If you travel with your G90, you may learn why you need one. Turns out, this filter can be easily installed INSIDE the G90, in the form of a new receive jumper.  This permits filtering to be done in the receive path only. No external boxes and cables, and better yet, NOT transmitting through the filter, which happens if you put the filter after the antenna tuner outside the box. In my radio, the install looks like this.  The filter is visible as the heat shrink-encased mass on the right top side of the speaker hole, under the top circuit board. IMPORTANT NOTE 6/1/2025: I've been told the latest model G90s have an additional partition between the two main boards (seen on a Power Pole version) that may complicate installation,...