As a brand new ham who has been playing with circuit boards for 10 years and who got his license with C.W. in mind you can bet your favorite hat a few of these will be on my table soon. At this price point you can't even be afraid of messing one up when building because we all have wasted 50 bucks on way less in our lives.
Hi David, your perfect speech and slow flow allow me to understand you VERY well. Your videos are very interesting and very well done, congratulations. 73 Denis F6CRP.
Great review, Dave! I never thought of HF/VHF duplex for learning code; for hams who have that capability, that could be quite effective. Another good trick, if you have another ham in the house or near, is to feed two Pixies into dummy loads. Reduces their famously lousy signal isolation and gives them a TX range of about a room or two. Great way to teach students in school; one goes to the next door classroom and Robert's your auntie's main squeeze. Anyway, thanks for the awesome review!
Dave, yesterday in one grueling session I built my 40m QCX. At 22:00 I called it a day after running the basic alignment. At 08:00 this morning I ran my first QSO with it. The second QSO was with an op in South Carolina and guess what? He was on his second QSO with HIS QCX. I'd call that a Karma QSO if there is such a thing. Anyway, thanks so much for pointing me at this really fine bit of kit. I wish I had one for each band. Have a great day.
Great video Dave, I have ordered this radio and am in the process of printing the manual, so looking forward to building this radio as soon as it arrives. Thanks for some good advice.
QCX is the bargain of the century. Mine was ordered for 40m. I sorted all the caps, resistors, transistors, diodes and inductors into a cheap plastic fishing tackle tray from Walmart and labeled each little compartment. Then I printed the first couple of pages of the online manual to keep in front of me while assembling. My laptop was also in front of me to display each manual page for the component step I was on. Using a tiny pencil tip iron, each part was selected, measured for correct value, installed, checked against the manual for correct placement and orientation, then soldered. Next came out the magnifying glass to ensure it was in the right place again and that no solder bridges had occurred. I was surprised that it worked on the first "smoke test"! Alignment was a snap, and the first QSO was a few moments later. Next day it went to a local SOTA summit to activate with 12 Q's, mostly between S5 and S9 up to 350 miles away. It's a winner! ... K1LB
Built in straight key (micro switch) for me is easy to use, I estimate up to around 18 WPM no problem. A really great review, very well done, interesting and educational, thank you.
Enjoy your programs. What interests me in this one was the part where you borrowed a dissection microscope to find a problem with IC4. i may have the same problem, but i wish i had been able look for this problem before assembly. Could you ask Hans to add the step to the new manual? A toothpick, recommended for clearing PCB holes, may also be handy for clearing between contacts of IC4. I will try it on mine.
Great video, Dave. As always, very professional, covering all the nuts and bolts from A to Z on this fantastic kit offering from Hans. My QCX for 20 meters should be here today. Already have the professionally printed manual and look forward to a slow, careful build of the rig. BTW, thanks for the tips re winding T1 and checking for manual updates and corrections. 73's de W B 3 B I Q.
Looks a great rig there ! Seems whole boxfull of cutting edge bang at a really great price ! I am crazy for a Four State Bayou Jumper :) A totally different bird :) But a box full of fun i am sure !
I'm suppose to start a cw class this upcoming January. Not exactly on the top of my excitement list. It's something I want to learn. But weather I'm able is more the question.
The QC X has a mode for CW training already in which the transmitter is muted. Note that when you're using a dummy load, you're still transmitting a very small signal. It's usually so small that it's not worth bothering with.
Hi, I really want one of these! Which version are you demonstrating? Is it the QCX-mini? I see there are a few variants on QRP-laps website. Also, can you still use that little microswitch if it is in the aluminium enclosure?
I may buy one. I had a stroke about a year ago. And my speach is slow and slured, if I speak fast. So for legibility I just speak real slow and say words twice. So now I have to learn code. Even after passed 5 wpm back in 97. Code was a bit of a struggle for me. I took the test 5 times. Then I just barely passed for my tech+.,
I had stroke a little over 4 years ago. My copy speed dropped from 35 wpm to about 3 wpm. My CW Elmer was concerned because we contest with our club. Well, this time around I learned Morse Code the correct way using Farnsworth. Learn characters once; decrease the spacing as you get better at copying to pickup speed. Good luck. Remember, even after you learn the code it requires practice. I look at every QSO as practice. My goal is 50 wpm copy and send, so I must practice with every QSO.
Terry Morris ,, will do. My station is yeasu ft857d and 100 watt mag loop I bought on ebay for 200 bucks. When I get the money and time, I'll put a vacume variable cap on it. To run full qro.
FB Dale. My two main rigs are the Yaesu FT817ND for QRP, the FT857D for contesting. I still have my first rig that I built in 1985 while waiting for my license to arrive in the US mail. Worked many contacts with that rig and fell in love with QRP. Lately building short bandwidth mono band kit QRP transceivers. Fun to build but wish my brain would retain what all the parts do and why. hi hi 73 Dale
I did mention the BIT, but only in the context of aligning. If you're interested in WSPR, QRP labs has some other kits that are made specifically for beaconing.
Everyone says to start with the 40 m band, but where am I going to put up a 20 meter dipole? I'm in an apartment and anything I put up won't stay up permanently. A 10 meter antenna will go up and come down a lot quicker and more conveniently so I was considering the 20 m band. Any ideas?
I'd say if you can't do 40 then do 20. 20 is only open in the daytime and very early evening, although sometimes it goes very long at night. 40 meters is open much more. Anything above 20 meters (17, 15, 12, 10) is pretty much closed because of the low sunspots.
Hi This is KC1IOJ... So I buy a baofeng as my first radio and I program some repeaters on it.... So Im transmitting on a repeater calling cq and it returns with a sound that sounds like a tone So I had like 4 hours calling cq... Today I buy a sdr to listen what I transmit and like I thought, when I transmit the recipe frequency doesn't transmit but when I release the ptt it makes the sound again so that sound is the only thing I can hear???? I need help!!!
I suggest you contact someone local, perhaps in a local club. Note that when you're using a repeater, you are not transmitting on the same frequency as you're receiving on. Sorry I can't help. Make sure the CCTSS tone is set up properly.
Enmanuel 4k use google to find the parameters of your repeater ( you should look in goole for your local repeater callsign ).You will find the -transmit and receive frequency specific for your repeater. They will differ from each other. Then read carefully the instructions for your radio. There is an information how to program radio to work with repeaters. Be patient. The radio is not the best intuitive to program but if you try you will do it for sure :-)
@@davecasler Thanks for looking, and who knows? Maybe a future feature! I really enjoy "Ask Dave" but what is an agy? I forgot to ask you that at Hamvention...
@@w8lvradio An Oggie is a subscriber to my channel. The logo for my channel is OG! from the last two letters of my callsign. That's where it comes from.
Well, you sold me. Went for 40 meters because it will be NVIS capable, has more available bandwidth than 60 meters, and can also get an antenna high enough to do actual DX work if that is desirable. It was a tough call but 40 is pretty much open most of the time in my area. Also ground wave "exists" (sort of) on 40. If there were a 50 kHz chunk of spectrum at 60 meters I'd have gone with that. Anyway, went for the whole package. You may want to look at this key: www.ebay.com/itm/BLACK-US-Navy-Style-Mini-Camel-Back-Morse-Code-Key-W-Steel-Bearings-By-KC5ILR/162768235105?hash=item25e5be2a61:g:HDQAAOSwTM5Y7~xg
Unless the builder took my advice you will be wanting to ensure that the bar on the key can not break at the first bend between the button and the body. He was building the bar hollow. Mine broke and I told him to redesign the bar to be a tiny bit deeper to make it stronger. I glued mine back with super glue and that worked fine. Even if he didn't make the change, I'd get another if I needed a nice pocket key to carry afield. Subsequent edit: I bought 2 more and have had no issues with them.
Great video as usual Dave Here's a resistor lead bending tip that I put on the Groups.IO support site for the QCX: groups.io/g/QRPLabs/message/17519 It saves a lot of time and adds some consistency to the appearance 73 NE5U Mike
Machine decoding of CW has always been problematic. I even did my master's thesis on the subject. No one does it well. Codes designed for machine decoding include RTTY, PSK-31, etc.
Thanks for your videos. I find them helpful. I'm content with PSK type keyboard contacts and I think in an emergency situation, digital mode will be effective.
That presupposes that power will not be at a premium. You aren't going to run that PSK system on batteries or solar for very long. Long after those PSK systems are gathering dust in some closet, those morse systems will still be moving dits and dahs. It started with morse and it will end with morse.
For the zombie apocalypse I imagine you are correct. For local or regional disasters, chances are I would be doing more monitoring than tx. I live in rural Missouri and if commo and roads are down, I'm functioning more as someone providing occasional area status updates to an EOC. I would probably be using FM simplex, SSB 2m or something like fldigi messaging services. I don't know that contacting Seattle, WA would benefit.
I wouldn't buy it. Their closed source computer products are a slap in the face. All amateur radio kits should be open source to encourage user modification.
As a brand new ham who has been playing with circuit boards for 10 years and who got his license with C.W. in mind you can bet your favorite hat a few of these will be on my table soon. At this price point you can't even be afraid of messing one up when building because we all have wasted 50 bucks on way less in our lives.
Wonderful radio. Have the 20-m version, very glad. Now, want assembling 40-m for winter season.
Hi David, your perfect speech and slow flow allow me to understand you VERY well.
Your videos are very interesting and very well done, congratulations.
73 Denis F6CRP.
Thank you!
Great review, Dave! I never thought of HF/VHF duplex for learning code; for hams who have that capability, that could be quite effective. Another good trick, if you have another ham in the house or near, is to feed two Pixies into dummy loads. Reduces their famously lousy signal isolation and gives them a TX range of about a room or two. Great way to teach students in school; one goes to the next door classroom and Robert's your auntie's main squeeze. Anyway, thanks for the awesome review!
Dave, yesterday in one grueling session I built my 40m QCX. At 22:00 I called it a day after running the basic alignment. At 08:00 this morning I ran my first QSO with it. The second QSO was with an op in South Carolina and guess what? He was on his second QSO with HIS QCX. I'd call that a Karma QSO if there is such a thing. Anyway, thanks so much for pointing me at this really fine bit of kit. I wish I had one for each band. Have a great day.
I have a second one to build, but I think one of the parts bags is missing. I haven't had time to really dig into it.
You are Amazing Dave and your videos are always a joy to watch! 73!
Loved when you started handling those plastic bags.
Great video Dave, I have ordered this radio and am in the process of printing the manual, so looking forward to building this radio as soon as it arrives. Thanks for some good advice.
QCX is the bargain of the century. Mine was ordered for 40m. I sorted all the caps, resistors, transistors, diodes and inductors into a cheap plastic fishing tackle tray from Walmart and labeled each little compartment. Then I printed the first couple of pages of the online manual to keep in front of me while assembling. My laptop was also in front of me to display each manual page for the component step I was on. Using a tiny pencil tip iron, each part was selected, measured for correct value, installed, checked against the manual for correct placement and orientation, then soldered. Next came out the magnifying glass to ensure it was in the right place again and that no solder bridges had occurred. I was surprised that it worked on the first "smoke test"! Alignment was a snap, and the first QSO was a few moments later. Next day it went to a local SOTA summit to activate with 12 Q's, mostly between S5 and S9 up to 350 miles away. It's a winner! ... K1LB
Built in straight key (micro switch) for me is easy to use, I estimate up to around 18 WPM no problem.
A really great review, very well done, interesting and educational, thank you.
You're welcome!
I just got mine for 40m... That main toroid was a really tight tough wind. I'm sharing this on Facebook if U don't mind.. Good info.
Enjoy your programs. What interests me in this one was the part where you borrowed a dissection microscope to find a problem with IC4. i may have the same problem, but i wish i had been able look for this problem before assembly. Could you ask Hans to add the step to the new manual? A toothpick, recommended for clearing PCB holes, may also be handy for clearing between contacts of IC4. I will try it on mine.
Great review, Dave. Looks like a fun build.... might hafta give it a go myself.
I bought a kit but I have yet to build it. Mine is 40 meters, my favorite band. Someday.
Great video, Dave. As always, very professional, covering all the nuts and bolts from A to Z on this fantastic kit offering from Hans. My QCX for 20 meters should be here today. Already have the professionally printed manual and look forward to a slow, careful build of the rig. BTW, thanks for the tips re winding T1 and checking for manual updates and corrections. 73's de W B 3 B I Q.
Good luck with your build!
BITX40 for SSB and a QCX for CW and you are all set. Looks like a great build. How about a video to demo the operation?
Randy, good idea!
Now one can have uBitx for both, CW and SSB. 73!
Excellent video. Thank you for helping out new Hams such as myself. New subscriber!
Welcome aboard!
Looks a great rig there ! Seems whole boxfull of cutting edge bang at a really great price ! I am crazy for a Four State Bayou Jumper :) A totally different bird :) But a box full of fun i am sure !
excellent presentation!!
I'm suppose to start a cw class this upcoming January. Not exactly on the top of my excitement list. It's something I want to learn. But weather I'm able is more the question.
You are definitely able. But it does take considerable perseverance.
Mr. Casler, if you plug in a dummy load and a straight key would this work as a cw trainer also.
The QC X has a mode for CW training already in which the transmitter is muted. Note that when you're using a dummy load, you're still transmitting a very small signal. It's usually so small that it's not worth bothering with.
How long might be in involved in putting complete radio together ?
Hours ?
Hi, I really want one of these! Which version are you demonstrating? Is it the QCX-mini? I see there are a few variants on QRP-laps website. Also, can you still use that little microswitch if it is in the aluminium enclosure?
I may buy one. I had a stroke about a year ago. And my speach is slow and slured, if I speak fast. So for legibility I just speak real slow and say words twice. So now I have to learn code. Even after passed 5 wpm back in 97. Code was a bit of a struggle for me. I took the test 5 times. Then I just barely passed for my tech+.,
I had stroke a little over 4 years ago. My copy speed dropped from 35 wpm to about 3 wpm. My CW Elmer was concerned because we contest with our club. Well, this time around I learned Morse Code the correct way using Farnsworth. Learn characters once; decrease the spacing as you get better at copying to pickup speed. Good luck. Remember, even after you learn the code it requires practice. I look at every QSO as practice. My goal is 50 wpm copy and send, so I must practice with every QSO.
Terry Morris ,,, thanks for the info. But I'll be happy at 13wpm. Farnsworth style.
That's fine. If I hear you sending at 13 wpm I will call out to you at 13 wpm. Have fun with CW.
Terry Morris ,, will do. My station is yeasu ft857d and 100 watt mag loop I bought on ebay for 200 bucks. When I get the money and time, I'll put a vacume variable cap on it. To run full qro.
FB Dale. My two main rigs are the Yaesu FT817ND for QRP, the FT857D for contesting. I still have my first rig that I built in 1985 while waiting for my license to arrive in the US mail. Worked many contacts with that rig and fell in love with QRP. Lately building short bandwidth mono band kit QRP transceivers. Fun to build but wish my brain would retain what all the parts do and why. hi hi 73 Dale
What is the frequency tuning rate range on the qcx mini?
Mine took me 3.5 weeks shipped from Turkey.
No mention of the WSPR capabilities? How about the built in test equipment and GPS interface for WSPR? Much more than just a CW rig.
I did mention the BIT, but only in the context of aligning. If you're interested in WSPR, QRP labs has some other kits that are made specifically for beaconing.
Pretty tough !
Everyone says to start with the 40 m band, but where am I going to put up a 20 meter dipole? I'm in an apartment and anything I put up won't stay up permanently. A 10 meter antenna will go up and come down a lot quicker and more conveniently so I was considering the 20 m band. Any ideas?
I'd say if you can't do 40 then do 20. 20 is only open in the daytime and very early evening, although sometimes it goes very long at night. 40 meters is open much more. Anything above 20 meters (17, 15, 12, 10) is pretty much closed because of the low sunspots.
great! Thanks! 20 meter QCX on the Christmas wishlist (and just passed Tech, General, and Extra yesterday)!
Hi This is KC1IOJ... So I buy a baofeng as my first radio and I program some repeaters on it.... So Im transmitting on a repeater calling cq and it returns with a sound that sounds like a tone So I had like 4 hours calling cq... Today I buy a sdr to listen what I transmit and like I thought, when I transmit the recipe frequency doesn't transmit but when I release the ptt it makes the sound again so that sound is the only thing I can hear???? I need help!!!
I suggest you contact someone local, perhaps in a local club. Note that when you're using a repeater, you are not transmitting on the same frequency as you're receiving on. Sorry I can't help. Make sure the CCTSS tone is set up properly.
Enmanuel 4k use google to find the parameters of your repeater ( you should look in goole for your local repeater callsign ).You will find the -transmit and receive frequency specific for your repeater. They will differ from each other. Then read carefully the instructions for your radio. There is an information how to program radio to work with repeaters. Be patient. The radio is not the best intuitive to program but if you try you will do it for sure :-)
With all the work involved in building this it's too bad it doesn't contain more than one band. I would want at least three or four bands.
Try the new micro-BITX at www.hfsigs.com
Their soldering of the surface mount components don't look really well.
How about a video on keys?
Good idea. Thanks!
Can it show swr?
Not that I know of. I looked through the manual and it's not mentioned.
@@davecasler Thanks for looking, and who knows? Maybe a future feature!
I really enjoy "Ask Dave" but what is an agy? I forgot to ask you that at Hamvention...
@@w8lvradio An Oggie is a subscriber to my channel. The logo for my channel is OG! from the last two letters of my callsign. That's where it comes from.
Well, you sold me. Went for 40 meters because it will be NVIS capable, has more available bandwidth than 60 meters, and can also get an antenna high enough to do actual DX work if that is desirable. It was a tough call but 40 is pretty much open most of the time in my area. Also ground wave "exists" (sort of) on 40. If there were a 50 kHz chunk of spectrum at 60 meters I'd have gone with that. Anyway, went for the whole package.
You may want to look at this key: www.ebay.com/itm/BLACK-US-Navy-Style-Mini-Camel-Back-Morse-Code-Key-W-Steel-Bearings-By-KC5ILR/162768235105?hash=item25e5be2a61:g:HDQAAOSwTM5Y7~xg
Thanks for the pointer to the key. Given the great price, I bought one. I'll include it in a future video.
Unless the builder took my advice you will be wanting to ensure that the bar on the key can not break at the first bend between the button and the body. He was building the bar hollow. Mine broke and I told him to redesign the bar to be a tiny bit deeper to make it stronger. I glued mine back with super glue and that worked fine. Even if he didn't make the change, I'd get another if I needed a nice pocket key to carry afield.
Subsequent edit: I bought 2 more and have had no issues with them.
Great video as usual Dave
Here's a resistor lead bending tip that I put on the Groups.IO support site for the QCX:
groups.io/g/QRPLabs/message/17519
It saves a lot of time and adds some consistency to the appearance
73
NE5U
Mike
Thanks Mike. I saw your tip there and that's how I did my bending.
Sorry, just not willing to learn CW. Give me a reliable software decoder and i'm in.
Machine decoding of CW has always been problematic. I even did my master's thesis on the subject. No one does it well. Codes designed for machine decoding include RTTY, PSK-31, etc.
Thanks for your videos. I find them helpful. I'm content with PSK type keyboard contacts and I think in an emergency situation, digital mode will be effective.
That presupposes that power will not be at a premium. You aren't going to run that PSK system on batteries or solar for very long. Long after those PSK systems are gathering dust in some closet, those morse systems will still be moving dits and dahs. It started with morse and it will end with morse.
Any way to take a look at your findings?
For the zombie apocalypse I imagine you are correct. For local or regional disasters, chances are I would be doing more monitoring than tx. I live in rural Missouri and if commo and roads are down, I'm functioning more as someone providing occasional area status updates to an EOC. I would probably be using FM simplex, SSB 2m or something like fldigi messaging services. I don't know that contacting Seattle, WA would benefit.
is this a "ask Dave episode" or is it a "Review" .....
Oh my head !!! Are you trying to brainwash us?
Confused !
Paddy
Some of both, I guess. I really like that particular radio. I've run into other radios I don't care for, so wanted to promote the good one.
I wouldn't buy it. Their closed source computer products are a slap in the face. All amateur radio kits should be open source to encourage user modification.
I suspect you're a Linux user. Hans is just one guy--he doesn't have a committee of folks to oversee an open source project.
If you like open source, check out hfsigs.com.
All you need is a free account on Github. Hell, just have an FTP page on your website.