Many thanks to Pete Eaton who notes that Hans Summers has won the 2019 Homebrew Heroes award. Congratulations, Hans!
Category Archives: QRP
QRPGuys new DSB Digital Transceiver kit
Many thanks to QRPer, Pete (WB9FLW), who writes:
QRPGuys has just introduced a new Multiband DSB Digital Transceiver for FT8.
At $40 it introduces a new price point for such Rigs as it includes band modules for 40/30/20 Meters! For those wanting to experiment with different Bands extra bare boards are available for sale.
The rig as it comes is crystal controlled for FT8 but fear not the main board includes connections for an external VFO. As an example one could use one of the very popular Si5351 VFO Kits and be able to QSY to operate the different modes available to the Amateur Community today.
Let the fun begin 🙂
Pete WB9FLW
Thanks so much for the tip, Pete! What a great little project!
Click here to check out the DSB Digital Transceiver at QRPguys.
QHR Kits: A QRP kit maker in Spain
Many thanks to Dan Sloss (VK2NAD / KJ7AKC) who writes:
G’day,
Thank you for the work on your website. I happened across another QRP kit maker and thought you might want to share the link:
https://www.qrphamradiokits.com/
All the best,
Thanks for sharing the tip, Dan!
Initial impressions of the ALT-512 QRP transceiver
(Note: This is a cross-post from my other radio blog, the SWLing Post.)
So the ALT-512 QRP SDR transceiver has landed at SWLing Post HQ. This little rig is on loan from Aerial-51 and I’ll be spending the next month or so putting it through the paces.
I can already tell that the ALT-512 has some strong points:
- It’s incredibly portable and easy to take to the field, providing you have a battery and resonant antenna (or external ATU).
- The color backlit display is quite readable at any angle despite being rather information-dense.
- I really like the waterfall display. It’s large enough to be quite useful.
- The ALT-512 can connect directly to your computer for digital modes like FT-8. No external sound card needed.
- The menu system contains a wide array of features and options for granular tweaks and modifications.
- The ALT-512 includes the European 4 meter band.
- Although I prefer using headphones with small radios, the ALT-512’s small internal speaker does a fine job.
- Rob Sherwood tested the ALT-512 (indeed, this very unit) recently and added it to his receiver test data. It performed quite well especially considering the price.
Any negatives so far? Nothing major:
- No internal ATU or battery options. At this price point (799 EUR), I wouldn’t expect either of these.
- The ALT-512 is not general coverage. This is a negative for those of us who like SWLing, but a positive for ham radio use as the ALT-512 sports band-specific bandpass filters to reject out-of-band strong stations. You can tune to some stations above the 40M band and also the full mediumwave band and below (down to 100 kHz), although I wouldn’t expect stellar performance in those regions.
So far, I’m very pleased with the ALT-512’s performance.
Next, I’ll be taking it to the field and see how easily I can activate a few POTA (Parks On The Air) sites! Stay tuned!
Icom Introduces the IC-705 portable QRP transceiver
Note: this is a cross-post from our other radio blog, the SWLing Post.
This weekend at Tokyo’s Ham Fair 2019, Icom announced an innovative transceiver to their line-up: the Icom IC-705 QRP transceiver.
The IC-705 introduces several industry firsts for a backpack portable radio:
- It uses the same BP-272 Li-ion Battery pack as the ID-51 and ID-31 series D-Star handy talkies. To my knowledge, this is the only HF transceiver that uses battery packs that can be swapped so easily in the field–like one would swap an HT battery pack
- It has a general coverage receiver that spans a whopping 0.5 to 148 MHz
- It sports a full color, touch screen with spectrum and waterfall displays
- It includes the D-Star digital voice mode
- A GPS receiver
- Bluetooth connectivity
- A MicroSD card slot for memory storage, screen captures and recordings
All of this appears to be included, not add-on options.
The only IC-705 omission, in my opinion, is an internal ATU (antenna tuner). Something I would have expected, but not a deal-breaker for those of us who could really benefit from the amount of features this radio offers.
There is no word yet on pricing or availability, but you can count on us to post these details once they’re available. If you would like to follow updates, bookmark the tag: IC-705
We will also review on the Icom IC-705 as soon as it’s available.
Video from Amateur Logic/Ham College
Ray Novak (N9JA) with Icom America did a live video interview with Amateur Logic/Ham College TV yesterday. The video includes a full announcement in English from the Icom Booth:
Click here to view on YouTube.
IC-705 Pre-Release brochure
Many thanks to Ray Novak for snapping a few photos of the pre-release brochure:
Update: click here to download the full IC-705 brochure. Hat tip to Dave Zantow!
A surprise from one of the “Big Three”
The “Big Three” transceiver manufactures–Icom, Yaesu and Kenwood–have not shown a lot of interest in backpackable QRP radios over the past two decades.
By “backpackable” I mean QRP transceivers specifically designed for portable use in the field–radios that typically have built-in battery options, internal ATUs, and designed to be lightweight shack-in-a-box units.
Yaesu introduced the FT-817 almost twenty years ago and it lives on today (with modest upgrades) as the FT-818. Kenwood has no portable/backpackable HF QRP radio at this point.
I bet the IC-705 is being introduced today because Icom sees a strong market among field-portable operators who enjoy travel and outdoor radio activities like SOTA (Summits On The Air) and POTA (Parks On The Air). In addition, many ham radio operators live in neighborhoods that are either plagued with radio interference (RFI) or don’t allow antennas to be installed outdoors. Portable radios liberate ham radio ops from their shacks and allow them to set up a station far away from noise or home owner’s associations.
Looking forward…
Again, I’ll be in touch with Icom about the IC-705 and will share updates here when they’re available. I’m looking forward to evaluation this rig when it hits the market!
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Initial impressions of the Mission RGO One 50 watt transceiver
On Monday, I took the new Mission RGO One transceiver to the field and attempted a POTA (Parks On The Air) activation.
I just published a detailed post including a number of RGO One photos on my other radio blog, The SWLing Post.
In short? Although it’s early days, the RGO One is a promising rig and I’m very pleased with the ergonomics, functionality, and features. It’s very well suited for field operations weighing in at only five pounds and can comfortably operate up to 50 watts if you need a little extra power. I’m looking forward to activating a number of parks this year with the RGO One!
Click here to read about the Mission RGO One on the SWLing Post.
How To Convert QRP Labs QCX Transceiver to SSB
Many thanks to Pete (WB9FLW) who shares the following:
This is truly amazing, Guino PE1NNZ has converted the QRP Labs $49 CW Transceiver to SSB.
Not much to add, a ATMEGA328P plus some firmware and a few component value changes and you’ve got a $50 SSB Transceiver!
(Source: GitHub)
This is a simple and experimental modification that transforms a QCX into a (Class-E driven) SSB transceiver. It can be used to make QRP SSB contacts, or (in combination with a PC) used for the digital modes such as FT8. It can be fully-continuous tuned through bands 160m-10m in the LSB/USB-modes with a 2400Hz bandwidth has up to 5W PEP SSB output and features a software-based full Break-In VOX for fast RX/TX switching in voice and digital operations.
The SSB transmit-stage is implemented completely in a digital and software-based manner: at the heart the ATMEGA328P is sampling the input-audio and reconstructing a SSB-signal by controlling the SI5351 PLL phase (through tiny frequency changes over 800kbit/s I2C) and controlling the PA Power (through PWM on the key-shaping circuit). In this way a highly power-efficient class-E driven SSB-signal can be realized; a PWM driven class-E design keeps the SSB transceiver simple, tiny, cool, power-efficient and low-cost (ie. no need for power-inefficient and complex linear amplifier with bulky heat-sink as often is seen in SSB transceivers).
An Open Source Arduino sketch is used as the basis for the firmware, the hardware modification bypasses the QCX CW filter and adds a microphone input in-place of the DVM-circuit; the mod is easy to apply and consist of four wire and four component changes and after applying the transceiver remains compatible with the original QCX (CW) firmware.
This experiment is created to try out what can be done with minimal hardware; a simple ATMEGA processor, a QCX and a software-based SSB processing approach. It would be nice to add more features to the sketch, and try out if the QCX design can be further simplified e.g. by implementing parts of the receiver stage in software. Feel free to experiment with this sketch, let me know your thoughts or contribute here:Â https://github.com/threeme3/QCX-SSBÂ There is a forum discussion on the topic here:Â QRPLabs Forum
73, Guido [email protected]
Wow! What a brilliant modification, Pete! Thank you for sharing.
The ALT-512: A new general coverage QRP transceiver
Note: The following has been cross-posted from our other radio site, the SWLing Post.
There’s a new QRP transceiver on the market: the twelve band ALT-512 by Aerial-51.
At first glance, you’ll see a similarity between the ALT-512 and the LnR Precision LD-11/Aerial-51 SKY-SDR. The LD-11 and SKY-SDR, are very similar, save the LD-11 is marketed to North America (via LnR) and the SKY-SDR to Europe. The SKY-SDR had several iterative upgrades, most importantly the dual-threaded software used in the firmware, which cut CPU latency in half. Both the LD-11, SKY-SDR and now the ALT-512 are made in Europe.
Click here to read my review of the LnR Precision LD-11.
According to Aerial-51, the new ALT-512 is built on the LD-11/SKY-SDR platform, has the same chassis design but has many improvements over the SKY-SDR:
- 4m Band
- 4.5 in. Color Display
- Improved receiver pre-amplifier
- 2 transistors in the transmitter PA (was 1)
- Waterfall in addition to the Pan-Adapter Bandscope
- 4 additional front-panel buttons
- User friendly front-panel adjustment of often used parameters (formerly embedded within the software menu)
- FULL TS-2000 command set implementation
- Built-in Sound Card; Digi Modes run using only one USB-2 cable connected to the PC. No additional hardware required.
If the ALT-512 performs as well as or better than its predecessor, it’ll certainly be a great little QRP radio and an excellent general coverage receiver for HF broadcast listening.
Pricing has not yet been posted, but Aerial-51 plans to make this transceiver available in the next few weeks.
Click here to check out the ALT-512 on the Aerial-51 website.
The CommRadio CTX-10 has landed
[Note: This is a cross post from my other radio blog, the SWLing Post.]
Yesterday, UPS delivered a much-anticipated package: the CTX-10 QRP transceiver from CommRadio.
CommRadio dispatched this loaner CTX-10 for evaluation and I’m excited to get my hands on it since it’s not everyday I get to evaluate a transceiver designed around field portability (my favorite category of gear).
Yesterday, I took a few shots of the CTX-10 as I unpacked it:
I’ll need to build a fused power cable with the supplied pigtail and also sort out an 8 conductor (Yaesu compatible) modular plug microphone. Of course, I’ll give this radio a thorough review testing it on SSB, CW and digital modes (especially FT8).
Since the CTX-10 is built on the CommRadio CR-1 and CR-1A I anticipate a capable receiver section (in other words, expectations are high). Of course, I’ll test the CTX-10’s ability as a broadcast receiver as well.
Follow my progress by following the tag: CTX-10
N6QW introduces the Sudden QRP SSB Transceiver
Many thanks to Pete Eaton (WB9FLW) who writes:
From the fertile mind of QRP Hall Of Fame Pete N6QW comes a new Radio Project, the Sudden QRP SSB Transceiver. If you have never Scratch Built such a Rig and would like to N6QW’s latest offering deserves close inspection.
Using only readily available (and cheap) components (and few of them) one can build a Full Blown SSB Transceiver for either 40 or 20 meters. The Radio’s Design will be featured in 2 installments of GQRP’s Sprat Magazine. The 1st being in the Fall issue (Receiver/LO) and the second part with come in the Spring 2019 issue (Transmitter).
http://n6qw.blogspot.com/2018/09/2018-year-of-ssb-transceivers_14.html
Pete is also providing extensive documentation on his Website:
http://www.n6qw.com/Sudden.html
One use for the Rig is on the Digital Modes, to that end he has design a simple Digital Adapter (which is also described on n6qw.com). One possibility is for a dedicated FT8 Transceiver!
Even if you do not intend to build the Rig take a moment to check out his Web Page. There you will find a wealth of information on designing and building such Transceivers.
Pete WB9FLW
(not to be confused with Pete N6QW 🙂
Thanks for the tip, Pete! How exciting! This looks like an innovative little rig and I love the concept of only using accessible components–in the end, that will give this little rig some longevity.