Comments (5)

By John Harper AE5X, August 25, 2010 8:03 pm

Being offered for sale to finance this new (for me) type of kit whose purchase I don’t want to be out of pocket…besides, if I haven’t built them yet it’s time to admit that I ain’t gonna.

Continue reading 'Unbuilt kits for sale'»

Comments (4)

By John Harper AE5X, August 11, 2010 7:46 pm

I finished putting together G0UPL’s QRSS beacon transmitter today and it seems to be working fine. Tomorrow I’ll have to dig up a 6V wall wart to power it but for now am using 4 AAA batteries just to make sure it’s putting out a signal with my callsign embedded.

With those batteries, it puts out a maximum of 150 mW Continue reading 'QRSS beacon completed and transmitting'»

Comments (2)

By John Harper AE5X, July 22, 2010 11:13 am

Every now and then, a QRPer has a need for documentation of a radio or kit they bought second hand. The majority of such material exists online and is freely downloadable, much to the credit of those vendors.

Those offering it are probably under the correct impression that a prospective buyer will be able to make a better decision of whether or not to buy based on the increased knowledge of their product that would come from a thorough reading of its description, schematic, parts list, etc.

Plus, there is the spirit of QRP – the sharing of technical and operational information. This takes place on various mailing lists, Yahoo groups, on the air and in magazine articles. And, as mentioned, among most QRP kit sellers. Continue reading 'Thumbs down, OHR! – online documentation for QRP rigs'»

Comments (11)

By John Harper AE5X, July 15, 2010 7:41 pm

If you haven’t looked lately, there’s new info from BD4RG and Yimin on these two kits…spectrum plots, YouTube videos and better photos than those available previously.

Gotta admit, with a pre-built 10-watt phone/CW rig that covers six bands costing only $300, I’m real anxious to see what the price will be of their upcoming HF2K amplifier. Two weeks to go on that one.

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Comments (1)

By John Harper AE5X, July 9, 2010 8:00 pm

Click for larger

I met Hans Summers G0UPL a few years ago over coffee and pastries in Greenwich, CT. We’d had a QSO on 80 meters the previous evening and made arrangements to meet the next morning. All that is written about here.

A trip to Hans’ website is a must for any QRPer – the man is a designer/builder extraordinaire.

Continue reading 'Feeling a little slow? New kit available…'»

Comments (3)

By John Harper AE5X, July 8, 2010 1:54 pm

Click for larger

I finally had a chance to finish and test the kit that I first posted about here.

Long story short: it does what they say it will, and does it well.

Total build time was just over 2 hours, not counting time to drill & install into a case (which I haven’t done yet). And it is case-worthy, unlike some other kits I’ve built that didn’t justify the time or expense of a housing. This kit does and will be of much more convenient service that way as well. Continue reading 'MagicBox T/R switch now operational'»

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By John Harper AE5X, July 3, 2010 10:04 am

As we all know, the simplest QRP-type kits for any beginner are transmitters (Tuna Tin, NS-40, etc)…not receivers and certainly not transceivers. Ditto for projects constructed from magazine articles, etc. As a result, several folks have stand-alone transmitters that are, at best, clumsily paired with a receiver with manual switching being necessary during a QSO.

When the 4S-QRP Group announced the availability of the MagicBox T/R Switch, I was all over it. Finally, a way to seamlessly integrate seperate transmitters and receivers into a transceiver-like duo. I’ve been wanting one of these for over a decade and am surprised one took so long to come along as a kit. Continue reading 'MagicBox T/R switch from 4S-QRP'»

Comments (1)

By John Harper AE5X, June 22, 2010 10:19 pm

Juma TX500 transmitter kit - click for larger

Governmental actions and decisions take place at a snail’s pace, but one by one, more & more countries are being granted access to the 600m (500 kHz) band and I believe it’s only a matter of time before US amateurs are allocated portions of the old commercial shipping band.

Once we do, it will be interesting to see the transmitters, receiver/converters and antennas developed and described online and in various pubs. Check out this tree antenna. For further inspiration, we need only look across The Pond where UK amateurs have had LF frequency allocations for some time now.

For those not wanting to completely roll their own, Continue reading 'Getting ready for the 600m band'»

Comments (1)

By John Harper AE5X, June 21, 2010 4:34 pm

TJ6A - click for larger

Bu BD4RG and Yimin, have new stuff in the works. You remember them from their KX1 lookalike, the HB1A, of which a slightly modified version is now being sold by Ten Tec over on Dolly Parton Parkway (where the roads must be very curvy) in Sevierville.

The TJ6A is not an upcoming DXpedition to Cameroon – it’s a 10-watt kit (and future fully-built) SSB/CW transceiver for 15, 20, 40 and 80 meters. Continue reading 'New SSB/CW transceiver kit from BD4RG'»

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By John Harper AE5X, May 13, 2010 1:30 pm

In the December 2000 issue of QST an article co-written by myself and five other QRP operators was published. It was a hands-on type of artcle describing 6 rigs that were popular at the time. I recently proposed to the ARRL an update to this article, now 10 years old. After all, a lot of kits have come on the market since then: the KX1, the series of AT Sprints, Fort Tuthill 80, etc. Continue reading '“QRP Kit Roundup” QST, Dec 2000'»