{"id":3569,"date":"2023-11-30T10:38:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-29T23:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/2023\/11\/30\/aa9ils-sputnik-tube-altoids-tin-transmitter\/"},"modified":"2025-07-22T18:02:03","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T08:02:03","slug":"aa9ils-sputnik-tube-altoids-tin-transmitter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/2023\/11\/30\/aa9ils-sputnik-tube-altoids-tin-transmitter\/","title":{"rendered":"AA9IL’s Sputnik Tube, Altoids Tin Transmitter"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/div>\n<\/p>\n
November 24, 2023<\/b><\/div>\n
Hello Bill
<\/b><\/div>\n
\n
I have just built an tested a 20 meter \u201cSputnik\u201d transmitter. It uses two Soviet era \u201crod\u201d tubes and is fixed tuned to 14.060 MHz. I was able to compress the design to fit in an Altoids tin. The plate tuning capacitor was replaced with a fixed capacitor value closest to the variable for peak power out. Plate voltage is 90 volts and I key both the oscillator and PA via the B+ line. Power output is around 200mW and my first test transmission from the Chicago area was picked up 864 miles away on the east coast via the Reverse Beacon Network. It was definitely Joy of Oscillation and Joy of Transmission!
<\/b><\/div>\n

<\/b><\/div>\n
73, Mike<\/b><\/div>\n
AA9IL
<\/b><\/div>\n
EN52<\/b><\/div>\n
—————-<\/b><\/div>\n

<\/b><\/div>\n
Mike’s rig has been heard by many Reverse Beacon Network stations: <\/b><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n
<\/a><\/div>\n

<\/b><\/div>\n
——————<\/b><\/div>\n
November 29, 2023<\/b><\/div>\n
Bill: <\/b><\/div>\n
I started a QSO with AC2C in Ellicott, MD who responded to my CQ but the band dropped (20m)<\/b><\/p>\n
But that\u2019s a good start and I\u2019ll keep at it! So, yay!<\/b><\/div>\n
73 Mike<\/b><\/div>\n
——————-<\/b><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Here are some earlier blog post on rigs using Soviet rod tubes: <\/b><\/div>\n
https:\/\/soldersmoke.blogspot.com\/search?q=Sputnik+tubes<\/b><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

November 24, 2023 Hello Bill I have just built an tested a 20 meter \u201cSputnik\u201d transmitter. It uses two Soviet era \u201crod\u201d tubes and is fixed tuned to 14.060 MHz. I was able to compress the design to fit in an Altoids tin. The plate tuning capacitor was replaced with a fixed capacitor value closest … Continue reading “AA9IL’s Sputnik Tube, Altoids Tin Transmitter”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3570,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[87,86,96,82,101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-qrp","category-rainey-michael","category-russia","category-satellites","category-tubes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3569"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3569\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3572,"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3569\/revisions\/3572"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}