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, 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'»

Comments (5)

By John Harper AE5X, May 21, 2010 11:28 am

As olde Billy Shakespeare said, “What’s in a name, yall?”

The Chinese-made HB-1a seems to be getting re-branded – surprisingly, by Ten Tec and MyDel (sort of). Continue reading 'HB-1a, MyDel or Ten Tec?'»

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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'»

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By John Harper AE5X, March 21, 2010 9:24 am

I knew I’d work Jim W1PID sooner or later, now that I have a new rig. A log search of his call shows that almost every time I put a new rig on the air, Jim is always good for a chat.

Over a six year period, Jim has been on the receiving end of my Norcal 40a, KX1, FT840, FT857D (from vehicle), a borrowed Unichip 80, ATS3 and now my K3.

I’ve worked Jim while I was portable at High Point, NJ and while he was portable from the Pemmaw Permewisa Pesiituna some river in New Hampshire. Plain and simple, the dude gets around! Continue reading '“Lil wire”, big signal de W1PID'»

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By John Harper AE5X, March 8, 2010 7:28 am

Years ago, a posting to QRP-L announced an upcoming kit that was gonna kick ass and take names on 20-meter CW.

Its virtues were extolled far and wide. Terms like “bullet-proof front-end” were tossed around. It was a soon-to-be-legend. It was gonna be the subject of a Ken Burns documentary (just kidding). It was going to launch a new line of QRP kits and the company producing them.

It was the Norcal 20.

It was a dud.

Nothing wrong with it being a dud, mind you – that ain’t the point here. Continue reading 'The business end of QRP'»

Comments (1)

By John Harper AE5X, March 1, 2010 1:29 pm

A classic can be defined as something that’s the best of its kind and no longer available. There are other definitions, most of which usually require the object under scrutiny to be from a bygone era.

Making matters murkier, there is bound to be disagreement of which specific items within a category qualify as classics.

The classic ham radios have been listed, blogged about and traded on eBay with the classic verbiage no doubt adding (successfully or not) to their asking price.

But what are the future classics? What might they be? Continue reading 'What are the future classics?'»