ftgDec 25
Aeaeaeargh.
Some friends have challenged me to design a working ham transceiver I can make an actual QSO with, with a damn one euro (1€) component BOM, from LCSC.
Thankfully excluding shipping, so don't have to build something like 25 or 50pcs to hit the price point. :D
But it's going to be a real challenge, as I don't actually know CW.
And I want a synthetized rig for some band VHF and up. Quite possibly 2m.
As 23cm seems to require a 1,5€ or 2€ BOM to pull off.
Show threadftgDec 25

Yes, this post is in part to vent and in part to solicit ideas from people.

If you want to see some of my thoughts and LCSC deep dive finds, they can be seen here:
https://prkele.prk.tky.fi/~ftg/files/oneeuroLCSCchallengeRadio.txt

Show threadAndrew ZonenbergDec 25
@ftg a 1eur bom?? That's slightly nuts lol. Good luck.
Show threadftgDec 25

@azonenberg
Exactly! It's an insidious challenge.
It looks mayyyyyybe doable.
But requires being really thrifty with the parts and if I want it frequency agile, the PLL is going to be hacky as hell.

The person who challenged me has already shared a picture of their 2m rig's board and asked when I'm ordering pcb's for mine. :D
And I'm still like m8, I'm not even sure I can make the PLL work in the way I think I can. :|
So I some prototyping and simulation ahead.

Show threadAndrew ZonenbergDec 25
@ftg at domestic distributors I'm not even sure i could get a fixed frequency 144 MHz oscillator for $1 much less modulating it
Show threadftg
@azonenberg
Yeah unless it was some pixie or some AM toy it would be 100% impossible with western distros. Maybe something with TME.eu. But still very hard.
Can't get 7cent MMIC's and 2cent RF transistors locally.
The current PA is going to be a 0.0200eur 2SC3357, for example.
Ancient transistor, but cheap. I hope to get 100mW from it.
Which should allow me to hit the local 2m repeater.
I have had multiple contacts on the 70cm one on the same mast with 50mW.
Dec 25 at 3:45amWeb