{"id":33241,"date":"2018-07-22T13:53:23","date_gmt":"2018-07-22T17:53:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/?p=33241"},"modified":"2018-10-07T15:05:11","modified_gmt":"2018-10-07T19:05:11","slug":"building-the-cricket-qrp-transceiver-at-hope-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2018\/07\/building-the-cricket-qrp-transceiver-at-hope-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Building the Cricket QRP Transceiver at HOPE 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Cricket-QRP-complete-e1532270100465.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-33245\" src=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Cricket-QRP-complete-e1532270100465.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>As I mentioned <a href=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2018\/07\/presentation-at-the-circle-of-hope-conference-in-nyc-next-week\/\">in a previous post<\/a>, I&#8217;m currently at the <a href=\"http:\/\/hope.net\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Circle of HOPE (Hackers On Planet Earth)<\/a> convention in New York City.<\/p>\n<p>Yesterday morning, I grabbed some breakfast and a cup of coffee then headed to the Hardware Hacking Village&#8211;a space in the Hotel Pennsylvania with over 50 soldering stations&#8211;sat down and started to build the <a href=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2017\/04\/the-cricket-the-four-state-qrp-groups-latest-transceiver-kit\/\">Cricket QRP transceiver<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve always found that kit building and soldering calms my nerves and since <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hope.net\/schedule.html#-creating-a-radio-time-machine-software-defined-radios-and-time-shifted-recordings-\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">my presentation<\/a> was later that day, it was just what the doctor ordered.<\/p>\n<p>I opened up the kit at 9:00 am and started working.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Cricket-QRP-Transceiver-1-e1532266909594.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-33242\" src=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Cricket-QRP-Transceiver-1-e1532266909594.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" \/><\/a>All of the components were accounted for and the instructions were clear and easy to follow.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Clicket-QRP-under-e1532270053487.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-33244\" src=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Clicket-QRP-under-1024x571.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"625\" height=\"349\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Although I didn&#8217;t need extra help I did have the extraordinary luxury of having the kit&#8217;s designer, my buddy David Cripe (NM0S), sitting across the table from me at one point.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_33243\" style=\"width: 510px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Cricket-QRP-Transceiver-David-Cripe-NM0S-e1532267129756.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-33243\" class=\"wp-image-33243 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Cricket-QRP-Transceiver-David-Cripe-NM0S-e1532267129756.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"667\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-33243\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dave (NM0S) giving my Cricket the nod of approval.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The Cricket was incredibly easy to build, taking only about one hour or less start to finish.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Cricket-QRP-4-e1532280764805.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-33247\" src=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Cricket-QRP-4-e1532280764805.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The cool thing about this transceiver is that there are no coils to wind (they&#8217;re traced into the board) and by breaking off a pre-scored length of the circuit board, you can build an on-board hand key.<\/p>\n<p>I had it on the air by 10:30 at the special event station W2H.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_33249\" style=\"width: 519px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Empire-State-Building.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-33249\" class=\"size-full wp-image-33249\" src=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Empire-State-Building.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"509\" height=\"679\" srcset=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Empire-State-Building.jpg 509w, https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Empire-State-Building-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 509px) 100vw, 509px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-33249\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Empire State Building as seen from the roof of the Hotel Pennsylvania.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Unfortunately, the blowtorch AM broadcaster on the Empire State Building (ahem&#8230;<em>next door<\/em>!) overloaded the Cricket in no small way. I was, however, able to confirm output power, audio and that the receiver was functioning.<\/p>\n<p>Most impressed!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Cricket-QRP-5-e1532281109777.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-33248\" src=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Cricket-QRP-5-e1532281109777.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Incidentally, Dave tells me he has a limit number of the Cricket kits available <a href=\"http:\/\/rover.ebay.com\/rover\/1\/711-53200-19255-0\/1?icep_ff3=2&amp;pub=5574879351&amp;toolid=10001&amp;campid=5338344965&amp;customid=&amp;icep_item=253729005661&amp;ipn=psmain&amp;icep_vectorid=229466&amp;kwid=902099&amp;mtid=824&amp;kw=lg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">on his eBay store<\/a> for about $37 US shipped, if you&#8217;re interested.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/rover.ebay.com\/rover\/1\/711-53200-19255-0\/1?icep_ff3=2&amp;pub=5574879351&amp;toolid=10001&amp;campid=5338344965&amp;customid=&amp;icep_item=253729005661&amp;ipn=psmain&amp;icep_vectorid=229466&amp;kwid=902099&amp;mtid=824&amp;kw=lg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Click here to view the Cricket on eBay.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As for HOPE? It has far exceeded my expectations.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m looking forward to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hope.net\/schedule.html#-mixing-dtmf-tones-in-space-illuminating-the-aurora-with-giant-cat-pics-and-other-true-stories-about-haarp-\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Chris Fallen&#8217;s presentation about HAARP<\/a> later today, followed by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hope.net\/schedule.html#-emp-cme-and-the-electronic-apocalypse-\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">David Cripe&#8217;s EMP presentation<\/a>\u00a0(who I will introduce).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As I mentioned in a previous post, I&#8217;m currently at the Circle of HOPE (Hackers On Planet Earth) convention in New York City. Yesterday morning, I grabbed some breakfast and a cup of coffee then headed to the Hardware Hacking Village&#8211;a space in the Hotel Pennsylvania with over 50 soldering stations&#8211;sat down and started to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[81,545,344,3],"tags":[5979,4501,2757,4102,5270,7147,1303,6152],"class_list":["post-33241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","category-ham-radio","category-kits","category-news","tag-chris-fallen-kl3wx","tag-dave-cripe-nm0s","tag-haarp","tag-ham-radio","tag-hope","tag-hope-2018","tag-qrp","tag-the-cricket"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pn3uc-8E9","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":25381,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2017\/04\/the-cricket-the-four-state-qrp-groups-latest-transceiver-kit\/","url_meta":{"origin":33241,"position":0},"title":"The Cricket: The Four State QRP Group&#8217;s latest transceiver kit","author":"Thomas","date":"April 26, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's a hot tip for those of you who enjoy building transceiver kits: The Four State QRP group has just released The Cricket: a simple 80 CW transceiver kit. The Cricket was designed by David Cripe (NM0S) who is behind a number of successful kits (including the Ozark Patrol and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Ham Radio&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Ham Radio","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/ham-radio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Cricket-Transceiver-Kit.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Cricket-Transceiver-Kit.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Cricket-Transceiver-Kit.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Cricket-Transceiver-Kit.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":45948,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2020\/10\/steve-builds-a-dc30b-qrp-transceiver\/","url_meta":{"origin":33241,"position":1},"title":"Steve builds a DC30B QRP Transceiver","author":"Thomas","date":"October 13, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Steve (KZ4TN), who shared the following guest post originally on QRPer.com, but I've posted it here as well because I'm sure it'll resonate with those of us who love building kits!: DC30B QRP Transceiver Project by Steve Allen, KZ4TN I wanted to build a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Guest Posts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Guest Posts","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/guest-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"DC30B QRP Transceiver Project","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/qrper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/DC30b-e1602591022362.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/qrper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/DC30b-e1602591022362.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/qrper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/DC30b-e1602591022362.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/qrper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/DC30b-e1602591022362.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":43815,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2020\/06\/frank-recommends-the-db4020-qrp-transceiver-kit-by-ea3gcy\/","url_meta":{"origin":33241,"position":2},"title":"Frank recommends the DB4020 QRP transceiver kit by EA3GCY","author":"Thomas","date":"June 11, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Frank (ON6UU), who writes: As so many, I enjoy reading your posts on the SWLing Post, very clear and understandable written with eye for details. I just did a \u201cread-again\u201d of the QCX+ article and thought that maybe you also would be interested in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Ham Radio&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Ham Radio","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/ham-radio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/QRP-Kit-Javier-2-e1591874171990.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/QRP-Kit-Javier-2-e1591874171990.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/QRP-Kit-Javier-2-e1591874171990.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/QRP-Kit-Javier-2-e1591874171990.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":38035,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2019\/06\/hamvention-highlights-the-qrp-labs-qsx-10-watt-general-coverage-low-cost-hf-transceiver-kit\/","url_meta":{"origin":33241,"position":3},"title":"Hamvention Highlights: The QRP Labs QSX 10 watt, general coverage, low-cost HF transceiver kit","author":"Thomas","date":"June 4, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Each year at the Dayton Hamvention I enjoy checking out the latest radio products and services. This year (2019) I found an exceptional number of innovations and will share these in Hamvention Highlights posts. If you would like to check out 2019 Hamvention Highlights as I publish them, bookmark this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Kits&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Kits","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/kits\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/QRP-Labs-QSX-Transceiver-6.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/QRP-Labs-QSX-Transceiver-6.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/QRP-Labs-QSX-Transceiver-6.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/QRP-Labs-QSX-Transceiver-6.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":34235,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2018\/09\/n6qw-introduces-the-sudden-qrp-ssb-transceiver\/","url_meta":{"origin":33241,"position":4},"title":"N6QW introduces the Sudden QRP SSB Transceiver","author":"Thomas","date":"September 24, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Pete Eaton (WB9FLW), who writes: From the fertile mind of QRP Hall Of Fame Pete N6QW comes a new Radio Project, the Sudden QRP SSB Transceiver. If you have never Scratch Built such a Rig and would like to N6QW's latest offering deserves close\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Ham Radio&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Ham Radio","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/ham-radio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Sudden-40M-Transceiver-1024x540.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Sudden-40M-Transceiver-1024x540.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Sudden-40M-Transceiver-1024x540.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":43537,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2020\/06\/help-building-a-general-coverage-qrp-transceiver-list\/","url_meta":{"origin":33241,"position":5},"title":"Help building a general coverage QRP transceiver list","author":"Thomas","date":"June 13, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Over the past few weeks, I have been building curated lists of ham radio transceivers. It all started when I needed to learn about multimode VHF\/UHF transceivers for my EME project. As I got deeper into the process, I decided to make my master list of VHF\/UHF multimode transceivers public.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Ham Radio&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Ham Radio","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/ham-radio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Elecraft-KX2-PK-Loop-balcony.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33241\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}