For the assembled radios: we produced and shipped 252 assembled transceivers in March. April will be similar. As of this morning, the waiting list was 720. So it’s about 3-4 months at the moment, for assembled transceivers.
Actually I already have enough QRP TRXs… in addition to the KX2 there is a SW-3b, a Minimal Art TRX for 40m and 3 QCX mini for 60/30/17m (contest free zone)
But I enjoy building… other people make puzzles (…and then can’t do anything with it.)
I received my QMX kit for the upper bands (20 - 10m) 3 days ago… and when I have some time and peace I will build it. For the time of sunspot maximum it is a great backup to my KX2… I don’t have anything else for the 10m band. - I’ve also considered ordering the QMX for the lower bands.
For me, 80m is rather uninteresting for SOTA. This TRX (60 - 15m) would of course be perfect for the time when the higher bands no longer work…
That would then be QRP TRX No. 8… Totally wrong… but the temptation is great!
If you order today ready build QMX you will receive it end of summer, by that time SSB firmware will be just around the corner.
Also once SSB is available, I recon orders will pile up even more and waiting time increase further.
I prefer to build one myself, so I got mid-band version already in my shack, just needs some further tweaking to have 5W on all bands. I am awaiting Hans assembly manual to verify if my version needs changes.
I doubt it. If you fancy doing CW SOTA activating, you can go from zero, to QRS CW activator in about 4 months. And as you’ve probably seen on here, everyone that’s made the plunge to learn CW for the purposes of SOTA activating, absolutely loves it. So make a start, you won’t regret it.
One side of that comparison, I guess, depends to some extent on where you find yourself on the “Difficulty Learning Morse” distribution, and how much practice time you put into it…
I thought it would be learning a bunch of sequences. Easy… well, No it’s like learning a whole new language.
Last time I did this, I learned Italian when I lived in Italy, it was honestly one of the hardest things I ever done. And I had an Italian girlfriend. Not sure I have the same incentive plan with CW
SSB is high priority, #2 on my list; but as always, I don’t have promised delivery date. Writing software takes as long as it takes… it’s hard to predict, what problems may arise or how easily it might flow!
I will produce a set of parts (NP0 capacitors, Ferrites, Micrometals toroids) for the 60-15m version, as we already have for the 80-20m version and 20-10m version see https://shop.qrp-labs.com/SPAREPARTS/sparepartsqmx .
Theoretically that would let you convert an 80-20m version to a 60-15m version. HOWEVER -
Removing the capacitors from the PCB and putting in the new value capacitors tidily, without damaging the PCB, is a bit of a challenge.
You might find you need to change the number of turns for the Band Pass Filter inductor taps, as you are talking about a PCB Rev 1. Generally the changes from one PCB revision to the next have been minor, however there WERE some changes in the Band Pass Filter area which could have altered parasitic component elements (inductances due to trace lengths, stray capacitance of PCB traces, etc) and this may have altered such things as parasitic resonances in the BPF. So it may need a bit of tweaking, on a Rev 1 board.
Totally wrong… but the temptation is great! 
