Advice on a new rig: FT-817 or KX2

Equipment Radios & Power
81

That’s the McHF rig. designed and available as a kit from an amateur in the UK. Unfortunately a Chinese company is using the design and building copies.

73 Ed.

82

The designer is Krassi Atanassov (aka Chris), M0NKA. More info on the original design is here: http://www.m0nka.co.uk/

73 de Martin, DK3IT

83

It’s classic Chinese intellectual property theft. They have stolen M0NKA’s design and are selling clones of his work.

84

There’s an echo effect on this topic…

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85

That happens when threads get too long; some sort of analogue to audio echoing related to speed of scrolling, or some-such, I suspect… :wink: :wink: :wink:

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86

There is at least one other thread like this, about 6 or so months ago?
KX2 vote here.
FWIW, I took my KX3 on 5 day backpacking trip in 2015, great but purchased KX2 when they came out and took on 7 day backpacking trip in 2016, very sweet, smaller, lighter, soon sold the KX3. Took KX2 on 8 day backpacking trip in 2017. Love this rig so much.
Also a few other short outings. No issues.

As another posted, robustness issues have been “feelings” only, no facts to back these assumptions. Love mine and highly recommend!

Mark / K6MTS

87

Doh!
Just saw you picked up a KX2.
Congrats and enjoy!

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88

Great pic on the sand dunes - I really liked it!

Good luck with the KX2.

73 Phil

89

|'ve used a KX2 now for 2 yrs on activations - the ATU would tune a fence wire, it has been in -14 up to +30, rain , hail, thunderstorms, static shocks, has been dropped, got wet, fallen out of the back of the jeep and never had any bother with it!
Esther

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90

Why is it unfortunate that a Chinese company is using an open-source design and building the kit for people who don’t have the skills to build one?

91

(I don’t see people making similar complaints about, say, the G3TXQ Hexbeam design or other ham radio product designs that are open-source and sold by commercial providers.)

92

BEcause the design is offered free to individuals to build and not for a bunch of cloners in The Middle Kingdom to sell for profit. Especially as they don’t feed anything back to the designer or the community. They are ignoring the licence conditions put in place by the guy who designed it.

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93

“Firmware is released as open source and most project files are released as well, with the only restriction of not commercial use (manufacturing and sales of kits or complete product).”

http://www.m0nka.co.uk/?page_id=2

wunder

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94

Assuming, of course, that the Chinese company is building their copy to the spec suggested by the original designer…

95

You have had for awhile now. Still happy??

Malen
VE6VID

96

Hello Joe,

Well the KX2 wins with my take. Less parts cause tuner built in and the E tuners will match a school bus parked in a pond! Of course you won’t have all mode 2 and 440, but you seem to lean towards HF me thinks.

Any chance you are attending OzarkCon top of April?

John N0EVH

98

I could go on and on, but the simple answer is “yes.”

I’ve used it for 5 SOTA activations (and a number of other portable ops) in temps from single digit F, rain, at the beach etc. I don’t get the sense that it’s delicate at all (something some warned about). I quickly got accustomed to it’s excellent filters for cw and now I use it almost exclusively at home as well. If I somehow lost it tomorrow, I would be trying to buy another asap. Some random thoughts:

  1. I have the Lowe case. It’s nice for storage, but it’s heavy and not waterproof. I use a pelican knock-off from Walmart that cost $9 and fits it well.
  2. I am finding the stock paddle is kinda fiddly. I can’t tell what the issue is, but at <40f it seems to require more force to close the contacts. Need to investigate that.
  3. Battery life is fantastic. I got a second battery and between the two of them, I don’t ever run it off mains power at home. This helps keep my RFI down a little too.
  4. The internal tuner is genius and will really tune a soda can.
  5. More of a comment about QRP in general, but 10w with cw is plenty (at least given my central location in the US). I’ve probably had more than 200 QSOs since I got it, mostly cw. I don’t have any trouble getting people to answer cqs. Last weekend I worked Romania, Italy, and Belgium from Michigan on 5 watts.

I could go on, but the bottom line is I am a very happy customer. Would buy again.

73,
Joe

99

Hi John,

Thanks for the reminder! I will indeed be attending OzarkCon, and I need to sign up. I think we’re going to try for at least one W0M/SF activation on our way over.

73,
Joe