The Venus SW-3B has landed…

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!

5 thoughts on “The Venus SW-3B has landed…”

  1. 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

  2. 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.

    1. 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

      1. 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

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