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I love my QRP Lab Transceivers... I own seven... A QCX Mini 20, 30 & 40, a Hi & Loband QDX, and a Lobander QMX... My QCX Minis have a K6ARK capacitive key mod, using acorn nuts. I love this mode... All units thrive on the TalentCell 12v 3aH battery, which mate perfectly with these radios. I use a PackTenna EFλ/2 cut to 40 meters, with an appropriate length of RG316 using the shield as the counterpoise. Thanks again Bjorn for your content. 72 de W7UDT

This is an encouraging video. I just received my kit, but I have not built it yet, but now you have given me good motivation to start!!!

SW-3B's crystal lader filter work a better I think over phased method QCX use.

Good video. Thank you. Can I use this device to practice typing on a lambric key?

Mine blew up and as I tired to repair it the copper track lifted. Good while it lasted on 5.262 MHz. My new one has a fault on the track, when the audio jack plug was inserted it shorted out the audio. I removed the socket to confirm it and destroyed the socket. The track needs cutting, check before soldering the socket in place. There seem to be a few manufacturers of Pixie's. G4GHB.

I used the PA circuit to build a QRP beacon and found the device sometimes died. I was observing some unwanted oscillation in the PA. Fixing a 30V zenner from collector to ground fixed the problem. 73

I am watching this a year later than my first question. I still don’t know what you mean by “errors on the cable”. Did you have interference in your transceiver? RF feedback? I am still mystified. The SWR was very low and I saw nothing on the analyzer that would bother me. Please give me more information on what the errors were and how they caused you any trouble. I do agree that a common mode choke helps reduce any feedback into your rig and sometimes makes reception better but the “errors”? Also the Chinese knock off with the bad spelling is probably of poor quality (the toroid) so the results might be in error due to that. I have the USA made one from real The QRP Guys and it performs very well for what it is. Dave K8WPE since 1960

Be nice to see if a EFHW run vertically does as well as the short vertical. So many of these verts dont make it clear how the EFHW was run. Like any odd length wire or hor ant its going to have nulls. I have a 19 foot long EFHW vert at 15 feet next to my house. Using SDR's around the country and Hawaii I have found it does as well as my other antennas.But unlike my 3 band hor dipole it is omni directional. A fishing pole to run a line over a tree to pull up a nylon rope to pull up the wire of an efhw vertically does very nicely.

My 49er is also better than my Pixie. I recommend it. The receiver is excellent and the output is about 1 W. N9EGT

I use a 12 V battery and have no trouble with my 2N2222 final. N9EGT.

went through step by step, but never gets passed the clock setting, I get a completely different screen altogether. After three days I gave up.

I use a socket with my PA transistor on my Pixie. The 2N2222 works very well with 12 volts and good swr

Thank you so much for this video, Björn. It helped me decide in favour of the SW-3B. It has the 3 best bands for working around Europe on QRP, i have subscribed to your channel its very interesting. 72 und AWDH

I was under the impression that you should not TX without an antenna; maybe use a dummy load if you just do some tests?

I have a serious question. I've learned cokes cause a power loss. In QRP that could be a significant problem. Could You explain any power loss from this set up?

Very nice and yes a small notebook works. To bad you can’t use a tablet instead.

how do you calculate the best cable lenght?

Enjoyed the video! What is the sinkhole?

Thanks for the review. Very helpful. How many characters does the CW keyer memory hold? I have read several reviews stating that it can not hold a standard SOTA or POTA CQ call, for example "CQ SOTA CQ SOTA DE KO4YLZ".

I see you bought the Chinese knockoff of the qrpguys product. The typo "End Eed" gives it away.

Hello Björn. Have you been able to test the two meter cable with the counter poise? Interesting…. QRPGUYS also offer the exact same EFHW antenna kit in a smaller package but with a counterpoise nut on the side. It is called QRPGuys Mini 80m-10m No Tune End Fed Half Wave Antenna. Look at it. Exactly the very same circuit in a different presentation. This one comes in a box that offers a little more rain protection. The other one, the green one on your video, doubles as a wire winder and is more eye appealing, but has no rain protection at all. I have both versions but, as strange as it gets, the one in the box works way better than the green one. Have used both without counterpoise. I then added a counterpoise to the one with a box and no change was noticed at all. I was using a 10 meter RF cable. The radiating wire length was exactly as per QRPGUYS table and was perfect match. The same wire was then moved to the green one and didn’t produce the same results. It required a little shortening to match. Same RF cable, same day, same place. Same conditions. Again, same exact circuit. Makes no sense at all. 73, Rob, YS1RS

Interessantes Video😊

Wish I could drop $1400 on a radio right now but I just bought nods

Hi, I am a new ham. How many AA batteries are in your battery pack? What is the name of the wire which connects the battery pack to your transceiver?

Привет. Получил с Алиэкспресс такой же набор. Стал смотреть, а там вместо микросхемы NE602, продавец положил другую. NE592D. Я не знаю, наверно это не аналог NE602.

really interetsing - can I ask how long is the element pelase? (I ahve built smae antenna - and having trouble tunning it

I have made many cw contacts with my SW-3B, I love it. Been tempted to buy a QCX mini just to have in my CW backpack but haven't yet.

It seems like a good solution for not spending much. Were you able to make QSOs?

Very nice video. Thanks for sharing this. 73 from Missouri, USA.

On teh sw3b you can hear am radio within the hamradioband.

Can you explain the birdies with the QCX-mini? I am still undecided which of these two radios to purchase. Do these make using the radio difficult? Also, do you use an auto antenna tuner, or a “band specific” antenna? Having multiple bands is a nice idea, but when I review my log I see that most of my CW is on 20m. Thank you (and others who’d like to help) for your guidance.

Thanks for video and comparison. 72/73 de IK2RGV

Great 😊 video Thanks for sharing 73 de KK7GiJ!!!

you are using the chinse clone of the qrpguys end fed

My QCX-mini, purchased assembled in Dec., 2021, has no birdies and no step noise. So, those problems in the video should not be taken as common ones.

I would love to see more of the micro SDR radio. Beautiful mountains there!

Hi, WSPR showed very poor performance or propagation. Despite the number of spots, all of them have VERY low SNR. E.g. SNR 6dB means that your signal is 1S unit above the noise level. In your case the best results is 0dB that means that almost no one (except software) was able to receive your Morse Code signal by ears (this we saw with CW beacon). Also, in additional to SWR, more intersing R/X. Because adding more cable or adding CMC choke you adds more reactance and it should be compensated e.g. by capacitor or inductance. But anyway, looking on impedance, the best one is third, because it has active 48 Ohms and capacitance can be compensated a little longer coax (or antenna). The worst is third one, because it has real 65 Ohms and a little inductance.

Hello! Totally agree regarding the SW-3B knob, it feels very cheap and you have to be very careful about it, not only when using it, but also when packing it to your bag. I am afraid that it will break some day. It is not designed for tuning around bands, rather to set a frequency and call CQ... I am also missing a SWR meter, to be able to check if the antenna is OK. I will need to assemble one. Last little thing is that it cannot call CQ in a loop, it appears that you need to press the button for each CQ... (Or hopefully, am I missing something?) The rest about SW-3B is great, receiver is good enough, the RF gain knob is very useful. I like this RIG very much, looking forward to test it in the field, at some summit or so!

Good video, my KX2 internal tuner has had the same issue once in awhile, I believe it's the wire changing conditions? I also use the Elecraft T1 ATU with a Yaesu FT-818. Tschuess de AI5DD

What's the antenna model name? Can I use it without a tuner?

Beautiful

The speaker is hard to hear since it is closed up inside the case so I turned it over to face up and drilled some holes in the top of the case to make it easy to hear.

No proof no qso. Lol. Great video. Tell us a little more about the micro sdr set up pls.

Cool landscape! I hope next year will go on holidays to Dolomitas. Random wire is not the best choice and without pole...hihi. Tnx fer show us. 73 EA3BV

Nice place! Hope u enjoyed it! 73

Very nice outing! I've lived in Germany many years ago and I miss much about it. Thanks for sharing! The KX2 is a great radio and I think I'll own it some day. 73-

Danke vielmals

A huge pro for the SW 3B is that it's not a kit like the QCX......I've built a 40m QCX and it was a very frustrating experience for me. 73

You probably have the one in 10,000 that works well. You are lucky that you were able to repair the radio. You must be a talented operator with steady hands.

The radio sounds so much better. Please show us the new chip replacement and your mic and speaker set up. Thanks, Martin.