QRP Head 2 Head Episode 3: LNR Precision MTR-3B vs. Elecraft KX1
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- čas přidán 31. 01. 2024
- Welcome back to the QRP Head 2 Head series. Today we're going to look at the previous winner, the LNR Precision MTR-3B, and put it up against another very difficult to get, out of production CW radio.....The Elecraft KX1. These radios are in some ways very similar, and in others VERY different. Check out the video to see which of these radios comes out as the king of the CW QRP radios! Thanks for watching and 73!
Evan
K2EJT
www.buymeacoffee.com/k2ejt
I have the Great Grandfather of the MTR-3B, called the ATS3.1-B I believe. It came as a kit & was designed to fit into an Altoids tin. It has a single 7 digit LED display with Plug-in band modules from 80M-15M. You glued the SMD components down in the bare printed wiring board, then bought a new frying pan to melt the solder paste to solder the SMD parts to the board. It was a great little radio with a sensitive receiver & 3-5 watts transmitting, built-in 2 Memory keyer. The problem I had was it was very fragile, the 32 gauge wires on the hand-built toroids were always breaking on the plug-in band modules. It was above my skill levels to do field repairs on tiny toroids using 32 gauge wire, lol. Other than that I loved the radio & played with it for hours at picnic tables, I got a severe onset cataract so was unable to continue my kit building & I totally missed the beginning of POTA, in fact I had sold all of my ham gear except for several older HT's to pay for my surgery. After my surgery, I was totally kicking myself for selling my Elecraft K2 as it would have been a great starter radio for POTA, lol. I bought the Penntek TR-35 over the Venus SW-3B as my research showed it was slightly better & just slightly more expensive, but then Thomas influenced me to get the TR-45L right away as it is so enjoyable to operate for a CW only rug. Because I am recovering from fighting a Type 2 health issue, I wasn't worried about needing the smallest radio as SOTA seems out of my physical ability even though we work at 6,000-11,500' in the summer supporting USFS campgrounds in CO. It's easy to drive to those, lol. No tuner in my Penntek's so I use my ATU-10 for my 9:1 antennas.
Keep up the radio comparisons, love them all!
Cheers, Davey --KU9L
Evan, loving this series. I'm in the market for a "backup" CW field radio, even though I'm just now learning CW. Hoping to have the kit put together by late spring, which it is almost there minus the backup radio and I still have to put together the K6ARK efhw. I'd love to have the MTR-3B, but due to unattainium status, I'm really liking what you showed with the SW3B. Lots of great info here, thanks for sharing! 73
Yeah, the SW-3B would be my recommendation. Inexpensive, great audio, and available.
Hi, thank you a lot.
It is interesting for me, knowing that I am not able to have this radios due to availability.
Have to mention, that comparing size radio itself is not always correct if we don't count all necessary items for checking antenna, supplying radio, etc.
In case of MTR it looks like required a little bit more items comparing with kx1.
If we gather all required items to box and compare, the difference in size is not so dramatic like with radios itself.
What I personally don't like - missed SWR meter - it is super easy to add to the schema but very rare QRP cw radios have it.
Yeah, the SWR meter would be nice to have in the MTR. N6ARA makes a tiny in line SWR meter, and that's what I use with that radio when I want to know what the SWR is. As far as the two radios go, both require the same peripherals aside from a tuner. That being said, I generally run resonant antennas, so the tuner isn't a huge deal, and the tuner in the KX1 isn't very wide, so it can't tune things that are a big mismatch.
Great job Evan. It would have been great if you found a way to include the Penntek TR-45L Skinny in the CW Only Mix. Or maybe the TR-45L "Lunch Box". Great CW Radios for sure with spectacular receive quality and filtering and big bonus...no menus!!!. Bigger.radios for sure but still light enough and small enough for POTA Ops.
Well what do you know? I just might have a TR-45L sitting next to me as I type this 😉
Good choice. 😅
Evan, have you considered the QRP Labs radios? I love my QCX, although it's single band. They're inexpensive enough to have one for each band you need. The QMX is multi band but I'd consider it a work in progress at this point. --n1bs
I haven't used one yet, but they're on my short list for radios I'd like to get. I'll probably pick up a 40m QCX at some point in the near future. I'll probably end up having to buy a kit since the complete radios are like a six month wait. That's not a huge deal, but it does require me to have the time to actually assemble it. The only place I really have to do soldering is at my big workbench in my garage too, and it being winter in the northeast puts a damper on doing anything out there LOL. Thanks for watching.