A new kit for a 40-m CW QRP transceiver has just become available (in the UK at any rate). It’s called OpenQRP and was developed by K1EL. Kanga are putting out the kit in the UK and a US firm will also be doing it. I thought this might be of interest to other SOTA ops, as another option for (fairly) light-weight single-band activations.
I’ve got mine together now and hope to give it a spin from GW/NW next week, WX allowing. In the shack I’m having a bit more drift than I’d like, so if it’s worse with the wind up it apologies to the chasers if they need to chase me on frequency!
Heading for Moel Eilio, GW/NW-022, with the OpenQRP rig. We’re hoping to be set up around 12:30 +/- WX and a lunch break.
With junior op, Jamie, MW6TJC/P (but not on CW - he’ll be watching the OQRP’s CW reader to help with logging). The FT817 and VX7 are in the pack, so we’ll probably do some phone too.
I’ve published a write up of our Moel Eilio activation here:
As anticipated there was quite a bit of drift from the free-running VFO. I tried to close the loop manually but it’s hard with a pack of chasers needing attention! The drift had one advantage though - the chasers get spread across a couple of 100 Hz and are easier to distinguish (and I need every bit of help!). Anyway, I think it settled better after 5 - 10 minutes of operating.
I didn’t really get into a steady enough stride to exercise the keyer memories. The CW reader was quite effective on the stronger, steady signals. Also I was using a straight key (Czech military type).
The OpenQRP is light and the simple controls make for no-frills easy operation. I’d like to improve the VFO stability, but otherwise it makes an effective single-band CW rig.
Thanks to all the chasers. Sorry for any I missed. I had to QSY to 2m for Jamie to qualify the summit and then QRT because our teeth were chattering! The other half of the family were already heading back to the car.
The latest on our OpenQRP 40m kit is that the VFO drift turned out to be a sick capacitor. I don’t think I can blame Jamie’s soldering since I recall doing the VFO myself! Anyway, with that replaced the stability is pretty good. I’ve not taken it back to a summit yet, but have a plot from a test on the bench: