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Author Topic: Minimal Arts MA12 40m QRP rig signal report  (Read 4930 times)

Offline G0BVZ

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Minimal Arts MA12 40m QRP rig signal report
« on: February 14, 2014, 11:27:50 UTC »
I worked Timo, DL4SU on 40m. He's not a member of the club -yet! He told me he was using an MA 12. I'd never heard of these kit rigs and so I looked it up online later.  It was then I was impressed. The transmitted signal was exemplary (As was Timo's CW!!) The tone was clean, pure with no trace of anything bad. During a 15 min QSO there was no detectable drift: I didn't have to RIT at all. From my end of the QSO it could have been any good commercial rig.

I have no idea how good the rig is on RX but Timo waded through QSB, QRN,QRM without obvious difficulty. The spec includes a 500Hz crystal filter, which has to help.  The design is to satisfy the rules for the QRPCC.de mas contest for transceivers with < 100 components. Full rules at http://qrpcc.de/contestrules/mas/

For a rig with only 2 controls, the MA12 is remarkable.

Vic

Offline IZ5ZCO

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Re: Minimal Arts MA12 40m QRP rig signal report
« Reply #1 on: February 23, 2014, 11:02:04 UTC »
MA12 Minimal Art TRX for 40m CW Band

5 Watt Output

RX Sensitivity better  1µV

Superhet RX, Xtal Filter, Bandwidth < 500Hz

FET VFO 7000kHz - 7040 kHz

10-Turn Potentiometer for fine Tuning

http://www.dl2lto.de/sc/HB_MA12.htm
72 de Nicola

Offline G0BVZ

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Re: Minimal Arts MA12 40m QRP rig signal report
« Reply #2 on: February 25, 2014, 00:39:32 UTC »
Beautiful link, Nicola. That thing looks good enough to eat!!   ;D

Vic

DF5WW

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Re: Minimal Arts MA12 40m QRP rig signal report
« Reply #3 on: February 25, 2014, 08:29:32 UTC »
It´s a kit from QRP Shop Berlin, made for the minimal art contest. Kit is availible for 69.- € + 19.- € for a case and + shipping.

http://www.qrp-shop.biz/epages/qrp-shop.sf/de_DE/?ObjectPath=/Shops/qrp-shop/Categories/%22DL-QRP-AG%20Baus%C3%A4tze%22/%22MA12%20Minimal%20Art%22


Offline ve3lyx

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Re: Minimal Arts MA12 40m QRP rig signal report
« Reply #4 on: February 25, 2014, 12:23:29 UTC »
Thanks for the link. I had been looking for it myself. Interesting read. I really like the idea of low parts count I performance.
don

Offline G0BVZ

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Re: Minimal Arts MA12 40m QRP rig signal report
« Reply #5 on: February 25, 2014, 19:54:21 UTC »
Is there was an English language version of the build instructions?  My tech German is too poor to be of use with this.  <<sigh...>>

DF5WW

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Re: Minimal Arts MA12 40m QRP rig signal report
« Reply #6 on: February 25, 2014, 20:05:16 UTC »
Hi Vic,

i´m not shure about this but you may ask DL2FI via email. Mailadress you´ll find here: http://www.qrp-shop.biz/epages/qrp-shop.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/qrp-shop/Categories/Imprint

He´s also a member here but think better via mail ....

72´s   ;)

Offline ve3lyx

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Re: Minimal Arts MA12 40m QRP rig signal report
« Reply #7 on: February 26, 2014, 03:24:19 UTC »
I enjoyed it the original language of my family and ancestors. Good practice for me. Did a lot of technical stuff auf deutsch. ie NASCAR RETURNS TO LEMANS project. He only used English when he was at my shop here in Canada, otherwise the whole project was conducted in the old language .
To be honest I hadn't realized there was an such interest in QRP over there. I'll pay more attention on my next visit.
Seems to me there is a HAM clubhouse in Metzingen next door to my distant cousin's house or there used to be.
don

Offline G0BVZ

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Re: Minimal Arts MA12 40m QRP rig signal report
« Reply #8 on: February 26, 2014, 09:05:19 UTC »
Hi Vic,

i´m not shure about this but you may ask DL2FI via email. Mailadress you´ll find here: http://www.qrp-shop.biz/epages/qrp-shop.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/qrp-shop/Categories/Imprint

He´s also a member here but think better via mail ....

72´s   ;)


Vielen danke!   ;D

Vic

Offline G0BVZ

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Re: Minimal Arts MA12 40m QRP rig signal report
« Reply #9 on: February 26, 2014, 09:29:17 UTC »
I enjoyed it the original language of my family and ancestors. Good practice for me. Did a lot of technical stuff auf deutsch. ie NASCAR RETURNS TO LEMANS project. He only used English when he was at my shop here in Canada, otherwise the whole project was conducted in the old language .

Don,
It's great you keep alive the old language.  I'm living proof it is possible to almost forget a language once spoken as a pre-literate child. It has been an uphill struggle to regain the Irish language but I'm getting there. Strange that for my emigrant father it was important to appear English. In later years I realised how important my roots are to me. Same for everyone, I guess.

Vic /thoughtful for a change

Offline ve3lyx

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Re: Minimal Arts MA12 40m QRP rig signal report
« Reply #10 on: February 26, 2014, 12:45:51 UTC »
I totally agree. My ancestor left Germany for believe it or not, Ireland (Rathkeale) in 1709. He was forced to change the spelling of his name to an anglized version however fortunately the sound of the name remained the same.  The name went through three spelling, I have the second. A generation later my line came to New York. After the Revolution we were forcibly exported to Canada and lived with in a few miles of my QTH. In 2000 I went to Germany and did a bit of searching. I discovered a few members of the original family still exisited and by 2001 had made contact. I was warned that only the young ones understood any English and so a friend in Germany from another hobby taught me deutsch by email. Surprisingly it was a big help and when I was invited to the family yearly reunion I was able to struggle thru. two years later I could talk for hours on almost any subject. I will never be perfect but I can function fairly well. That year, 2001,  we were reunited as a family in Metzingen (Schwaben area) for the first meeting in 292 years. An experience I will never forget. It is recorded both in the Uni Heidelberg Virtual Bibliotek under The Great Adventure or Der Grossartig Abentuer and in the book Return to Deutschland available from the IPA  museum store in Rathkeale Ireland. Learning the language (which I am sure you understand what I am about to say here ,) that was sort of installed at birth by my genes or blood, as it came easily to me, has paid huge dividends both in my career as an race engine builder and as a ham radio operator. I have switched to German several times in a QSO with areas of the world having a similar deut based language when English was not cutting it. So far instant success in every case I tried it. I suspect but have never tried it, that I would be ok with it in CW as well.  The doors it has opened for me since would fill a book. I wholeheartedly applaud your efforts to relearn your old language. It should never have been lost by either of our families.

don

Offline G0BVZ

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Re: Minimal Arts MA12 40m QRP rig signal report
« Reply #11 on: February 26, 2014, 14:45:54 UTC »
<<snip>>  It should never have been lost by either of our families.
don
Don, this was the nicest post I've read in a long time, it really struck a chord with me and I shan't forget it in a hurry. As they say, "You can get the man out of Ireland but you'll never get Ireland out of the man!"  ;D 
I've noticed that using some German or French cw abbreviations etc  in appropriate QSOs usually gets a positive response. It is so easy to forget other OPs may not be using their first language and arrogant to expect only English. A little consideration can go a long way....

You'd laugh at this: when in my early teens I was desperate to revive my Irish so I secretly bought records from Gael Linn in Dublin (Father had the Irish wouldn't use it with me....) and I played them on a portable wind up gramophone. They were not great and books didn't exist so my efforts were doomed, I didn't progress much.  Decades later with computers and so on, things much better but what a shock written Irish was!  Words can mutate at the beginning, in the middle and at the end. Sometimes all three at once. Wonderful!!

Just to insert a little ham content, I did notice in the write up that the Miss Moskita 40m qrp cw rig -not the easiest build by all accounts- was designed to cope in EU broadcast conditions. I wonder if it could cope with your local BC station?

Vic

Offline ve3lyx

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Re: Minimal Arts MA12 40m QRP rig signal report
« Reply #12 on: February 26, 2014, 17:45:46 UTC »
Thanks Vic,
Re the BC QRM, good question. I did some testing last night and discovered it is ground wave.  Basically it is overdriving the audio amp and to my understanding probably also the FET in the detector section , driving into suedo diode mode. I happen to know the station engineer and know they tried a cheaper method of doing the guy wires that should cost a lot less and is "almost" as good. It is since then I noticed it. He wouldn't care so I wont waste my breath. There are times when it isn't bad or even there. Damp days are the worst.
What interested me in the kit is my pal is into kit building and does a nice job. The build would be easy for him. Is there much to do after the build to get it up and running? He is really into QRP.
don

Offline G0BVZ

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Re: Minimal Arts MA12 40m QRP rig signal report
« Reply #13 on: February 26, 2014, 22:05:21 UTC »
Don,
Almost too much infos!!   ;D

Miss Mosquita manual (very good)   http://www.qrpproject.de/Media/pdf/Mosquita40Engl.pdf

....And the description http://www.qrpproject.de/UK/missmosquita.htm

Vic /too long coding today, brain turned to jelly.....