Cheapest CW transceiver

Hi Casey

lNR have got the three band MTR in stock costing $250 link to the site Store – LNR Precision Inc

What are the implications of it not having a CE mark? Does it matter for a battery-powered piece of kit?

73,
Walt (G3NYY)

You Kits now have a mark 3 version HB-1B cw transceiver 5 bands 40m to 15m, 5 watts great IF filter if it works as good as their 4 band rig like mine. Saving my weekend pruning money for one, competitive price to MTR and probably more attainable for me with a week turn around from ordering. problem with this rig is function knobs are a bit easy to damage when back packing as I found out.
cheers de Ian vk5cz …

2 Likes

HI SOTA QRPers

I registered my interest on the LNR precision website today by providing my e-mail address to the company for one of the next batch of MTRs. 66 others before me have registered - not to say all will buy one when offered the chance…I may do if I have some spare gelt at the time…whenever they become available, which is a bit of a mystery…

The YouKIts HB1B is a great little radio in use, the receiver performance for the size of the unit is excellent and 5 watts output is enough to put plenty of chasers into the log. Mine was great until it went wrong.

The volume control track parted company with the wiper and so I could not alter the volume. This fault happened after a small handful of activations, I was just unlucky I guess. I tried to contact the chinese maker via e-mail to obtain a new potentiometer - no response. I then tried to remove the volume control knob - impossible without breaking it. No response from the chinese maker again asking how to remove the knob. Contacted the retailer (who is well known to SOTA enthusiasts) and I was given a full refund, the HB1B was returned and I bought a second hand FT-817 instead with the refund plus a bit, which has given sterling service for the last couple of years.

I’m still interested in a very small light and simple CW only transceiver though for SOTA so the LNR could fit the bill - it is designed to operate on the right bands with QRP for sure. Can anyone tell me what the measured RF output is when fed with a 12v / 13.8v DC power source, and is it likely to be damaged when fed with a 13.8v DC power source?

We’re all getting older and less weight carried could enable one to continue activating to a goodly age…

73 Phil

For the builders amongst us, the 5 band MTR-5B is about to hit the streets any day now :blush:
I’m probably not going to get one, as it looks like Steve has dropped the ATU which was in the early prototypes, so it offers little that my ATS4 doesn’t already do.

You need to be on the ATS sprint group to follow the action.

Pete

My vote also on RockMite20, plenty of QSOs after SPOT, never fail. Every time more than 8 QSOs in 6 minutes.

Ok. it is not a tranceiver to use for casual use but it can fulfill the needs for an activation without worries for the lack of another tranceiver.

My mods are on the PA transistor (2N3553 with 2,8ohm on emitter, 500mW) and a cap to round up the sidetone.

Very happy with RockMite (i also have fun with KX1 and some homebrewed rigs but RockMite is the ligthest and neatest setup).

73, Panos, SV1COX

2 Likes

Those $5 Pixie 40 meter transceiver on eBay are a good way to get someone started into the building stage of ham radio. They have a low parts count and are all through hole parts kits, no SMD. As far as how well they work, probably as good as a cheap signal generator that is locked on one frequency and only good for simple testing. The crystal that comes with them is in the Extra portion of the 40 meter US band. I’ve order six of these kits as a club build project in the hopes it will lead to building a much better transceiver down the road after the building skills and confidence improves. I wouldn’t take one on a SOTA activation other than just to play with and see what it can do but only after making enough contacts with a good transceiver to qualify as an activation. You can’t go wrong with the MTR2 from LNR Precision.