I mentioned on Twitter yesterday that I recently took delivery of the Venus SW-3B three-band QRP transceiver.
Yes, I finally made the purchase after being encouraged to do so by so many of you. (I’m often accused of being an enabler, but I promise it works both ways!)
It’s very early days with the SW-3B, but I’ll admit that I like this little radio. I’ve been chasing a number of park and summit activators yesterday and today at the QTH while writing a few reviews.
I’ve discovered a few interesting quirks, but it’s a cool little radio.
All-in-all, though, the filtering is pretty good and the receiver quite capable. The CW keyer is excellent.
I’m looking forward to taking this little rig to the field soon!
Hello Tom,
i’d be curious about how it compares to the MTR-3b. I’m presently using the kd1jv tribander, for POTA hunting ( soon to try activator) and sure do like the hand held units 🙂
happy hamming, 72’s de randy/k8zfj
Always nice to see another portable superhet radio. I’ll be really interested to see how it handles overload and pileups compared to the QCX-mini, for example.
I see there’s also an SW3-C for the same price.
Is the form factor the only difference between these 2 radios? I had a 3B for a while and loved it. Alas, we split up, much to my regret.
If the form factor is the only difference, I think the top-mounted controls on the 3B would make it the better choice for a trail radio.
Enjoy, Thomas – looking forward to working your 3B and reading your impression of it.
73,
John
I’ve been having a great time with the SW-3B so far (just hunting and casual contacts from the QTH at present).
Both of these radios have merit.
I’ll need to do more A/B comps to sort out RX differences.
The MTR-3B is the king of battery sippers at 15-20mA. The SW-3B is 40ma.
The MTR-3B has three CW message memories which comes in handy as an activator. The SW-3B has AF and RF gain controls–that’s huge. Even bigger? A rotary encoder!
The MTR-3B is still smaller than the SW-3B (although both are tiny little radios).
I’ll have to do a proper comparison although, sadly, the MTR-3B seems to no longer be available new.
Cheers,
Thomas