Pixie challenge

 A couple of years ago I ran a light-hearted challenge at our radio club. Called the "Pixie Challenge". 

The Challenge

I sourced and provided a kit of pieces including the famous Pixie CW transceiver (fixed 7023kHz), all the plugs and sockets and a small audio amplifier/speaker.

The kit.

The challenge was in two parts:

1. Build the Pixie kit and get it working. To prove this club members had to receive a CW Beacon transmitted from my programmable VFO - an Arduino Nona and a Si5351 synthesiser (See here) which was transmitting "CQ PIXIE K" at 10 words per minute. (CW_BEACON Arduino code here)

2. Make a CW QSO between two Pixies, passing a secret code  known only to each individual.

This was the set up showing the programmed VFO and the Pixie

Ironically the prize, a soldering iron, was won by a new, non-licenced member of the club! But the most experienced "old boy" ruined his kit by soldering the transistors in backwards.