Pixie II QRP Transceiver

I scratch built the "famous" (perhaps "infamous" is more appropriate) Pixie II QRP transceiver using an etched PCB of my own layout. I focused on the 40m band for this project and may build another in the future with plugin filters (using toroids this time) for both 40m and 80m. A combination of discrete and SMD components was used, allowing it to fit snugly into an Altoid’s tin. It definitely works, but the receiver is very sensitive (as expected) with lots of microphonics and if I hook up my scope probe to the base of the mixer/PA stage I can pick up our local AM station. Using a slightly worn 9V battery (~8.3V), the output was measured with my basic RF power meter at a whopping 108mW! I’ll have to wait until I get my ham license (hopefully this spring) before trying it out but I don’t expect a flood of contacts. Still, it was a good experience and gave me a chance to better understand Colpitts and audio oscillators. (Note - I plan on adding an RC phase shift oscillator to generate a sidetone when in transmit mode).