A few weeks ago–out of the blue–I received a QRPver Minion SDR operator’s manual in the mail. From the return address, I couldn’t determine why I would have received it–in fact, I assumed it was sent to me in error.

Still, I read through the manual because I came very close to purchasing one last year. I had seen the Minion SDR transceiver on Gil Grusome’s channel Radio Prepper.

A few days later, I received a USPS Priority Mail box in the post. Again, scratching my head, I opened it to find a QRPer Minion SDR transceiver inside! Woah!

The fellow who sent it included a kind note saying that he wanted this to be considered a contribution to my work here on QRPer and YouTube. He noted some of the Minion’s shortcomings (which Gil had also pointed out) including how sensitive it is to any RF coming back from an antenna. I’ll need to build an RF choke for sure.

I could tell from his note that he’d rather remain anonymous, so I respect that.

Thank you so much for passing the Minion along! I look forward to putting it on the air! It is an incredibly tiny radio–much smaller than I had even imagined.

I’ll need to take it to my buddy Vlado for a minor repair up front. Somehow, when I plugged a speaker into the audio jack, I broke it off the circuit board. It can easily be fixed by Vlado with a little outpatient surgery. 🙂

Thank you again to the kind subscriber/reader for passing along his Minion. I’ll put it to work!