@@TheSmokinApe And that's a problem. I bought one about a year ago because 1) it was cheap 2) hadn't soldered more than a wire in years, so figured it was cheap enough. Never tried to get it on the air.
Mine worked first time. On 5.262 MHz and furthest worked was about 180 miles with a SWL report from 220 miles. However I got a 2nd Pixie which didn't work. I checked everything and eventually removed the PHONE socket and as I thought the pcb was wrong.and shorting out the audio. G4GHB
The intent of the Pixie was to make the cheapest, simplest transceiver humanly possible, not to make a performance HF transceiver. It's a novelty rig. There is nothing to keep the receive oscillator from radiating back out over the antenna. Early radios, TRF types all did it. But back then there were very few nearby receivers to bother. However, I did build a couple of the Pixies, (for $7 ea, why not? The parts are worth that much,) and I plan on adding a simple receive preamp between each of them and the antennas that will improve their lousy sensitivity and will act as a buffer for the oscillator to keep it from radiating on receive. I'll add a TX/RX relay to switch the preamp in and out. I'm also adding a 5W RF amp, (and low-pass filter,) to the output to bring it up to a full QRP 'gallon'. Then will come mods to clean up the CW tone and to extend the freq range of the crystal/s a few more kHz. That won't turn it into a high performance HF rig, just make it acceptable to put on the air. The whole idea of the Pixie was to show how little it actually took to get on the air. Take away all the connectors, the sockets and plugs and such, and solder wires directly to the bd and you will see there is almost nothing there. But with just a few more inexpensive or salvaged parts and you can turn it into a fun little viable and legal HF transceiver. And fun is what it's all about. Turning the Pixie into a viable CW rig is a great RF education for both noobs and more experienced hams alike.
@@TheSmokinApe This is the kit that got me into building. After I built a couple of these I've tackled a QCX kit and started repairing vintage tube and other radios.
@@BonesMedic642 it’s pretty cool, I got a second one for parts / backup. It’s cool to see a radio work with basic components AND there are some mods out there to play with.
The oscillator runs about 1khz higher than keyed carrier on mine. Mine works great on 12v battery and I have done several test sessions with a ham buddy about a mile from me. He says the oscillator isn’t heard at his station. My report was it’s fairly stable and had good tone. My meter says output is almost 1 watt. Receiver is very wide but my helper signal in tests was right on frequency and strong.
I have no background and very little interest in electronics, but I built one of these in 2019 for the "practical" element of my intermediate exam. During lockdown, they dropped the practical element and it doesn't look like it's ever coming back. Pity, because building this kit turned out to be fun!
Constructors be aware, my 2nd Pixie had a faulty pcb marked as PIXIE_V3.PCB which shorted the audio to earth. The track needs cutting to isolate the last two two solder connections on the PHONE socket. Not all boards may have this fault as there seems to be different manufacturers producing the kits. Check yours. G4GHB
As others have said, the oscillator is always on, it's a characteristic of the Pixie. I suppose as it's 40db down the designer didn't worry about it! If you are familiar with Peter Parker's channel VK3YE, he classes them as a novelty rather than something you could seriously use like the 49er. Peter did do a mod to the Pixie, so that it worked as a voice transceiver. Might be worth checking out for your 2nd kit. Thanks for this video, I have two pixie kits I'm about to build. 73.
As I have said to others, thanks for the info. Peter is great, very knowledgeable and super funny. I have a 49er kit around here that I should get to working on…
I ended up putting together a Pixie today and has the same results of it always transmitting. Here is a crazy thing though. The instructions talk about ignoring a voice when you first turn it on. I thought it was some poor translation. Turns out if you plug two 9v batteries together to power the Pixie with 18v it picks up an AM station lol. The signal isn't as strong if you use a wall outlet.
The weak signal seen is because the final transistor functions as the product detector. The crystal oscillator has to run in the receive mode, and yes, a very weak signal can be measured locally. In all likelyhood this millawatt signal will not be detected on an average QSO unless you were very close. That is one drawback of an unbalanced product detector such as the Pixie uses. Especially when no RF amp stage precedes it. In practical situations, this will not be a problem. Notice the final is keyed, and the crystal oscillator runs 100 per cent duty cycle. It has to run to be able to receive. It generates the audible beat tone. It is then amplified by the LM386 audio ic. All the receive gain is from that one ic.
Thank you for the video. I'm considering getting the super pixie kit. I could hear your sudio pretty good until 60 seconds and I could hear the audio pretty well again after the 24 minute mark. All between sounded almost like a whisper. I'm getting similar low audio on a lot of videos. From everyone I made that comment (IF they responded) they tell me their settings are industry standard. I suspect they set the audio by industry standard. I also suspect their vocalizations are not the same between their mike and their vocal cords. I also suspect I'll continue having low audio from videos except from those who will give the mikes enough sound to make the standard settings give adequate audio to the mikes. I have all my settings adjusted to maximum after researching a dozen videos telling me how to get my voume up enough to hear.
@@TheSmokinApe You're welcome. I read you asked for and got help from guru(s) with getting more output from the Super Pixie. I'm only guessing it was withtransistor biasing and stage to stage coupling. If I tried that without guidance I'd likely see smoke. I'm now researching mods for that purpose. I'm no guru, but I'm wondering if the offending sours can be decreased with band pass filters. I bet a lot of people would love it if you could share (after making the caviats you deem proper) how to get the power up.
The BNC connector has two leads, but four holes. Two holes are labeled GND and ANT on the board. The BNC connector seems like it has "studs" that go into these holes more for stability than connectivity. Should all four holes be soldered? I'm almost done with my build--but I'm a novice and the instructions are abysmal.
@@TheSmokinApe thanks, just thought I'd ask as you might have a particular product link. I've found quite a few ranging from under $2 to as much as $20 or so.
@@3rd_Millennium_Engineering I'm looking at all those offerings, too. There's little helpful information on the text descriptions online. The only thing I learned recently about the differences is that the S-Pixie (Super Pixie) is supposed to give 3 watts RF output. Other videos about the Pixie say that they're doing good to get 300 mW output. But they still make a few QSOs at that power.
@@3rd_Millennium_Engineering You're welcome. I may have spoken too soon. I haven't yet ordered one. Mainly because I keep watching videos that recommend improvements to them.
@@blsemetan7232 Some ebay sellers list a package of several crystals. My underatanding is the tall crystale give more frequency shift than the short crystals. Also, some people recomment running 2 crystals in parallel to get more frequency shift.
my kit is differnt to this, i only have 1 crystal and only have like 10 caps not 12 and board layout is different! ebay sucks no instructions given and no idea why most of resisters are not even coming up on ohm meter litrally stays on 1, wtf is going on!!
I was pretty surprised about the number of different “pixie” kits there are out there. One think that might be worth checking is the range setting on the meter. Best of luck 🤞
I was hoping this would be a good instructional video, it is not. Just clips of some guy soldering without telling you how to actually locate or properly configure the component. A waste of time to watch
Here is a link to a video that is more the kind of guidance you need: ua-cam.com/video/2VneDfe-Cpc/v-deo.html Some Pixie kits come with a schematic, others, maybe not. A lot of the time kits have very little helpful information for a novice builder. Don't take offence EVERTONE who builds kits was a novice at one time. Of course you still need to understand how certain parts should be oriented on the circuit board. Electrolytic capacitors, diodes and transistors are parts that need to be inserted correctly OR they can be ruined. The video link above can help you a lot with that. When you do get a schematic you'll see what the symbols mean and that just because 2 transistors have the same shape they're not necessarily put together inside identically. So 2 different transistors might not have the same voltages connected to the same wires. I found this video quite helpful, but I learned to read schematics several years ago and I watched closely the markings on the parts that go in the circuits so I would get them inserted in a way they would work and not smoke. Take the time to learn those basics and your kit building journey will come to be very interesting and satisfying.
The " Pixie" has a reputation of being hard to get working.
Sure does. After talking with some me pixie gurus this one is working as expected, it normally emits that signal.
@@TheSmokinApe And that's a problem. I bought one about a year ago because 1) it was cheap 2) hadn't soldered more than a wire in years, so figured it was cheap enough. Never tried to get it on the air.
Mine worked first time. On 5.262 MHz and furthest worked was about 180 miles with a SWL report from 220 miles.
However I got a 2nd Pixie which didn't work. I checked everything and eventually removed the PHONE socket and as I thought the pcb was wrong.and shorting out the audio.
G4GHB
The intent of the Pixie was to make the cheapest, simplest transceiver humanly possible, not to make a performance HF transceiver. It's a novelty rig. There is nothing to keep the receive oscillator from radiating back out over the antenna. Early radios, TRF types all did it. But back then there were very few nearby receivers to bother.
However, I did build a couple of the Pixies, (for $7 ea, why not? The parts are worth that much,) and I plan on adding a simple receive preamp between each of them and the antennas that will improve their lousy sensitivity and will act as a buffer for the oscillator to keep it from radiating on receive. I'll add a TX/RX relay to switch the preamp in and out. I'm also adding a 5W RF amp, (and low-pass filter,) to the output to bring it up to a full QRP 'gallon'. Then will come mods to clean up the CW tone and to extend the freq range of the crystal/s a few more kHz. That won't turn it into a high performance HF rig, just make it acceptable to put on the air. The whole idea of the Pixie was to show how little it actually took to get on the air.
Take away all the connectors, the sockets and plugs and such, and solder wires directly to the bd and you will see there is almost nothing there. But with just a few more inexpensive or salvaged parts and you can turn it into a fun little viable and legal HF transceiver. And fun is what it's all about. Turning the Pixie into a viable CW rig is a great RF education for both noobs and more experienced hams alike.
These are operating as designed. The oscillator is always running and you are simply keying the amplifier transistor when you key the radio.
Thanks medic, I’ve been able to get more info about after recording the video. Thanks for the comment and watching 👍
@@TheSmokinApe This is the kit that got me into building. After I built a couple of these I've tackled a QCX kit and started repairing vintage tube and other radios.
@@BonesMedic642 it’s pretty cool, I got a second one for parts / backup. It’s cool to see a radio work with basic components AND there are some mods out there to play with.
Does anyone know who sells really good kits that can be used?
QRP Labs
Nice video Ape. We’ll organized and explained again. We’ll done pal.
Thanks for checking it out Larry 👍
The oscillator runs about 1khz higher than keyed carrier on mine. Mine works great on 12v battery and I have done several test sessions with a ham buddy about a mile from me. He says the oscillator isn’t heard at his station. My report was it’s fairly stable and had good tone. My meter says output is almost 1 watt. Receiver is very wide but my helper signal in tests was right on frequency and strong.
Thanks for the info Brian, much appreciated 👍
I have no background and very little interest in electronics, but I built one of these in 2019 for the "practical" element of my intermediate exam. During lockdown, they dropped the practical element and it doesn't look like it's ever coming back. Pity, because building this kit turned out to be fun!
I agree, I like building little kits like this one. Thanks for watching Martin 👍
Fun little build, bought one off Amazon awhile back
It was, I enjoyed that project
Good video Ape! Now you just need to learn CW.
That’s the hard part 🤨
Constructors be aware, my 2nd Pixie had a faulty pcb marked as PIXIE_V3.PCB which shorted the audio to earth. The track needs cutting to isolate the last two two solder connections on the PHONE socket.
Not all boards may have this fault as there seems to be different manufacturers producing the kits. Check yours.
G4GHB
Thanks for the info Bill 👍
Thanks man!
Thanks for watching 👍
As others have said, the oscillator is always on, it's a characteristic of the Pixie. I suppose as it's 40db down the designer didn't worry about it! If you are familiar with Peter Parker's channel VK3YE, he classes them as a novelty rather than something you could seriously use like the 49er. Peter did do a mod to the Pixie, so that it worked as a voice transceiver. Might be worth checking out for your 2nd kit.
Thanks for this video, I have two pixie kits I'm about to build. 73.
As I have said to others, thanks for the info. Peter is great, very knowledgeable and super funny. I have a 49er kit around here that I should get to working on…
Hey, great vid. Thanks!
Thank you 👍
I ended up putting together a Pixie today and has the same results of it always transmitting. Here is a crazy thing though. The instructions talk about ignoring a voice when you first turn it on. I thought it was some poor translation. Turns out if you plug two 9v batteries together to power the Pixie with 18v it picks up an AM station lol. The signal isn't as strong if you use a wall outlet.
LOL @ hearing voices! This pixie has been a confusing project for sure, but it’s been a fun learning experience too. Thanks for watching!
The weak signal seen is because the final transistor functions as the product detector. The crystal oscillator has to run in the receive mode, and yes, a very weak signal can be measured locally. In all likelyhood this millawatt signal will not be detected on an average QSO unless you were very close. That is one drawback of an unbalanced product detector such as the Pixie uses.
Especially when no RF amp stage precedes it. In practical situations, this will not be a problem. Notice the final is keyed, and the crystal oscillator runs 100 per cent duty cycle. It has to run to be able to receive. It generates the audible beat tone. It is then amplified by the LM386 audio ic. All the receive gain is from that one ic.
I believe you are correct, thanks Larry!
It's got a hot oscillator I've seen this happen before it's no big deal
I’ve come to learn that. Thanks for the comment 👍
Thank you for the video. I'm considering getting the super pixie kit.
I could hear your sudio pretty good until 60 seconds and I could hear the audio pretty well again after the 24 minute mark. All between sounded almost like a whisper.
I'm getting similar low audio on a lot of videos. From everyone I made that comment (IF they responded) they tell me their settings are industry standard. I suspect they set the audio by industry standard. I also suspect their vocalizations are not the same between their mike and their vocal cords.
I also suspect I'll continue having low audio from videos except from those who will give the mikes enough sound to make the standard settings give adequate audio to the mikes.
I have all my settings adjusted to maximum after researching a dozen videos telling me how to get my voume up enough to hear.
Thank you for the feedback on the audio and best of luck with the kit!
@@TheSmokinApe You're welcome. I read you asked for and got help from guru(s) with getting more output from the Super Pixie. I'm only guessing it was withtransistor biasing and stage to stage coupling. If I tried that without guidance I'd likely see smoke.
I'm now researching mods for that purpose.
I'm no guru, but I'm wondering if the offending sours can be decreased with band pass filters.
I bet a lot of people would love it if you could share (after making the caviats you deem proper) how to get the power up.
The one I built works but my proximity to an am radio antenna tower makes it useless at my qth.
Dang, those towers will do that
Check the literature on the net. I believe they all have that oscillation in receive mode.
I did discover that after the build, lol
get them glasses on
I'm trying...
Hi, I'm not an expert, one question please, is it possible to connect an input microphone?
Hi Andrea, even if you could that pixie doesn’t support voice.
Are you aware of a 20m version anywhere?
Not that I know of...
Like the original Pixie it has to produce a signal for the mixer transistor to work on receive.
G4GHB
Ah, good info. Thanks!
The BNC connector has two leads, but four holes. Two holes are labeled GND and ANT on the board. The BNC connector seems like it has "studs" that go into these holes more for stability than connectivity. Should all four holes be soldered? I'm almost done with my build--but I'm a novice and the instructions are abysmal.
I think the two big posts are for stability, that said I soldered all four 👍
Do you happen to have a link to where I can purchase one of these kits?
You can get them on ebay or Amazon for 10$ or less.
@@TheSmokinApe thanks, just thought I'd ask as you might have a particular product link. I've found quite a few ranging from under $2 to as much as $20 or so.
@@3rd_Millennium_Engineering I'm looking at all those offerings, too. There's little helpful information on the text descriptions online.
The only thing I learned recently about the differences is that the S-Pixie (Super Pixie) is supposed to give 3 watts RF output. Other videos about the Pixie say that they're doing good to get 300 mW output. But they still make a few QSOs at that power.
@@southernexposure123 Okay, thanks. 🙂
@@3rd_Millennium_Engineering You're welcome. I may have spoken too soon. I haven't yet ordered one. Mainly because I keep watching videos that recommend improvements to them.
I assume a tech can use this on cw if the crystal is 7.059 MHz or if it can be tuned above 7.025 to 7.125 MHz?
Yeah, you could get a different crystal too...
@@TheSmokinApe cool thxs
@@blsemetan7232 Some ebay sellers list a package of several crystals. My underatanding is the tall crystale give more frequency shift than the short crystals. Also, some people recomment running 2 crystals in parallel to get more frequency shift.
my kit is differnt to this, i only have 1 crystal and only have like 10 caps not 12 and board layout is different! ebay sucks no instructions given and no idea why most of resisters are not even coming up on ohm meter litrally stays on 1, wtf is going on!!
I was pretty surprised about the number of different “pixie” kits there are out there. One think that might be worth checking is the range setting on the meter. Best of luck 🤞
GREAT vid Ape! 73 - KF6IF
Thanks Phil 👍🍻
I was hoping this would be a good instructional video, it is not. Just clips of some guy soldering without telling you how to actually locate or properly configure the component. A waste of time to watch
Here is a link to a video that is more the kind of guidance you need:
ua-cam.com/video/2VneDfe-Cpc/v-deo.html
Some Pixie kits come with a schematic, others, maybe not. A lot of the time kits have very little helpful information for a novice builder. Don't take offence EVERTONE who builds kits was a novice at one time.
Of course you still need to understand how certain parts should be oriented on the circuit board. Electrolytic capacitors, diodes and transistors are parts that need to be inserted correctly OR they can be ruined. The video link above can help you a lot with that. When you do get a schematic you'll see what the symbols mean and that just because 2 transistors have the same shape they're not necessarily put together inside identically. So 2 different transistors might not have the same voltages connected to the same wires.
I found this video quite helpful, but I learned to read schematics several years ago and I watched closely the markings on the parts that go in the circuits so I would get them inserted in a way they would work and not smoke.
Take the time to learn those basics and your kit building journey will come to be very interesting and satisfying.
Quanta conversa fiada!!... Cw que é bom,neca...