This week on the channel +49K views this week

A tiny radio finds its voice on w2aew's workbench

An internal speaker upgrade becomes an amplifier project for the compact CFT1 Morse-code transceiver.

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w2aew Story of November 10, 2026Trari Newsroom

Why this story? The channel's weekly summary: what went up this week, what is drawing views now, and where the channel stands among similar channels.

#418: Upgrading the CFT1 QRP transceiver with internal speaker and audio amplifier

Things we can learn from the video

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2:17The passive speaker is barely audible at maximum volume during a test with an S9 signal.
4:04An external LM386 amplifier test produces much louder audio at a low volume setting.
5:03A series Zener diode shares power dissipation to keep the small amplifier package from overheating.
6:57Removing the amplifier board's connector and header pins reduces its height for installation inside the radio.
10:35Audio wires connect directly to the headphone vias and pass through a chassis notch.
14:57The insulated amplifier and speaker are connected, and the assembled radio produces loud, clear CW tones.

Even with the volume turned all the way up, the CFT1's new passive speaker is barely audible. For w2aew, that makes it a starting point rather than a finished upgrade.

The week's only upload, "#418: Upgrading the CFT1 QRP transceiver with internal speaker and audio amplifier", follows the practical business of making this compact radio easier to hear. Designed by Jonathan KM4CFT, the five-band transceiver gets an internal speaker through an upgrade kit. The extra ingredient on w2aew's bench is a small LM386 amplifier board.

An external test delivers loud audio with the volume knob only a quarter of the way up. Fitting that improvement inside the radio takes more thought: removing connectors to reduce the board's height, checking clearance above the main circuit board and routing audio wires through a chassis notch. A Zener diode helps share the heat burden rather than leaving the tiny amplifier package to handle it alone. The completed radio produces clear, loud Morse tones.

The project has drawn roughly 6,800 views and accounts for by far the strongest daily viewing among the channel's uploads right now. Older lessons on tuning a duplexer and measuring a transistor's transition frequency continue to bring in smaller streams of viewers.

Across the channel, subscribers were unchanged over the week, while daily viewing is below its usual level. Nearby in the science-and-experiments group, Fran Blanche also had unchanged subscribers and a similar weekly view gain. Here, the week's distinctive contribution is a modification small enough to fit inside a field radio, but audible enough to demonstrate immediately.

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