I already suspected that the kit would not work down to 1MHz, for this reason: The crystal oscillator is a Colpitts oscillator with the capacitances across the crystal (B-E and E-GND) being only 22pF each. The capacitances in the Pixie kit's oscillators is much higher, and that was designed for 7MHz.
This was confirmed when testing crystals. Below 5MHz hardly any crystals would generate a countable signal. However, crystals up to 28MHz would generate countable signals.
I suspect that a different tester with, say 100pF capacitors would likely work down to about 2MHz, and 470pF capacitors down to about 400kHz.
I do have another kit or two, so I will probably build those with the above mentioned modifications.
One more test was done: Trying out ceramic resonators. Resonators (2-pin) or filters (3-pin) were tested. None worked on less than 10MHz in this circuit, but did work up to 20MHz, with rather consistent results for the resonators (2-pin), and inconsistently with some of the filters (3-pin). I suspect the low capacitance values are the reason for this.
Also, a more suitable oscillator type for the filters should be tested.
I may end up with a counter with an 8-digit display and some dedicated oscillators as my crystal tester. This could be interesting for testing frequencies for crystals to be used in crystal filters. It is likely that a set of modified Pixie oscillators would do the job.
Finishing one project creating more possible projects. Why am I not surprised.
I do have a few Pixie kits lying around, so maybe the next project should be an unmodified Pixie transceiver, with the exception of using an external crystal or ceramic resonator for the oscillator.
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