My FT8 Phaser

By Dale Holloway, K4EQ

Those of you who may know me probably know I’m primarily a CW operator. I may pick up a mic to make a few contacts in a contest, but that’s about it. I’ve played with some of the digital modes through the years, mostly RTTY and PSK31, but have had zero interest in one of the newer modes: FT8.

That may have changed—slightly. Maybe! In reading the July 2020 QST (p. 45), I came across a review by Steve Ford, WB8IMY, of the FT8 Phaser. The Phaser is a 4-watt digital mode transceiver designed by our QRP friend Dave Benson, K1SWL. Probably most of us at one time or another have built one or more of his QRP kits. Dave has teamed with George Heron, N2APB, of Midnight Designs Solutions to produce these single band (80, 40, 30, 20, or 17 meters) kits.

I was intrigued by what I read. The fact that Dave had designed the Phaser probably had a lot to do with that. I’ve built several of his kits through the years, including a couple of DSWs, and loved every one of them. The Phaser seemed to be typical of what K1SWL would design: a well-designed, straight-forward QRP transceiver kit that could be easily built by most hams of any skill level.

After finishing the article, I just knew I had to build one. Consequently, a few days later I went online and order the 20-meter version. The transceiver was $55 plus $25 more for the enclosure, which uses the interlocking fiberglass PC board panels that David Cripe, NM0S, and the Four State QRP Group use a lot lately in their kits. I’m not overly fond of it but it’s clever and it works. Can’t beat that. I was notified there would be a delay in delivery, but still received in within a couple of weeks.

The build was straight-forward as expected with no glitches except for one stupid mistake I made that took 30 seconds to correct. There are only four easy-to-wind toroids. Every component in the kit is clearly marked and the instructions leave nothing to the imagination. I think a new kit builder could tackle this project with minimal supervision.

After stuffing the board, it was time for calibration and alignment. I connected a dummy load to the radio and the input and output to my computer and made the few adjustments. The transmit output was excellent—close to five watts, which I backed down to slightly under the four-watt design.

Now to the hard part—putting it to work with WSJT-X. I hooked up the Phaser to my end fed half wave and bunches of stations started to appear on the screen. That was a good feeling. Hours later, after reading and re-reading the software instructions. I still wasn’t sure I knew how or had the courage to make a contact. Give me my paddle!! Finally, I called CQ. A station called me back, but I messed things up immediately and never got any further in the contact. No more transmitting until I get someone to walk me through the process.

A couple of hours after my disastrous entry into FT8, I checked PSK Reporter and discovered I had been heard from the east to west coasts and it looked like one spot was in the Caribbean. It was good to know that my peanut whistle was getting out. Now to find someone who actually knows what they’re doing in WSJT-X.

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Since writing this article, I have enjoyed many FT8 contacts with the Phaser and also on my Elecraft K2 and Kenwood 590SG running 30-40 watts. I worked 60 DXCC entities on FT8 in less than five weeks. It seems like a great mode for these low sun spot days. However, I must confess that CW is still my first love.