Thank you Romain, not sure how I missed that.
Interesting comparison.
With my rusty cw skills the memory slots would be useful. Not quite up to cw only sota activations, but hope yo be trying later this year.
Thanks
Tim
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I recently bought one from a friend. Since speed control is a headache, I wonder if anyone uses it with an external memory keyer. Tried using the same memory keyer that I use with my FT857 but with no success. Any hint?
Hi
Is there a choice between keyer and straight key on the menu?
If possible, in this case you can use external memory keyer.
73 Éric
Hi,
squeeze the paddles together and hold then switch on, rig will go to straight key mode (you will hear an M) and you can plug in a picokeyer or similiar. (switch off/switch on again to revert to Automatic mode)
Declan
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Hi Erik! The SW3 automatically detects if it is a straight key or paddle. But when I connect the external memory keyer it works crazy.
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Thanks! I will try this.
Declan… thanks, Thanks and THANKS! It works!!!
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Hi,
I started to use SW-3B short time ago. 2 activations (Jan 30 & Feb 06) are logged so far.
Impressions are very good, I also asked a few hams who chased me about feedback and I got fine response.
SW-3B is comparable with HB-1B that I also use but smaller and lighter.
73, Jarek
3 Likes
Hi,
just want to tell you, that I damaged a potentiometer of my SW-3B, and maybe this can happen to others.
It happend presumably in my rucksack, where I put the SW-3B only covered with bubble wrap. Presumably side pressure to the axis of the potentiometer made a tiny peg inside the potentiometer to break.
I add a picture of the disassambled defective pot.
Lower right: the broken peg
Upper right: top part of the pot, the broken peg should be attached to the center.
Lower left: bottom part of the pot, the peg should slide in the center hole.
Venus will send me a new pot.
Hope this doesn’t happen to you!
Axel, DF1ET
2 Likes
Hi
I transport my station like that (foto). It weighs a little more but is protected from bumps and rain. This box was from my wife’s collection …
10 Likes
Hi Carlos,
that look very good. I will try to build something similar. Thank you for sharing!
vy73, Axel
Hi All! I tried this little one in my last dual activation (JA/HG-022 and JA/HG-199) and really surprised me!
But… I noticed when others hikers were with their cameras or using Smartphones the RX became very noisy. And also when I put my smartphone very close to the rig the noise increased. Because this is the first time that I used this kind of rig I don’t know if an issue of my rig or something normal.
RF from the phone getting into the radio - often by coupling when using an unbalanced antenna system. Common problem with many simple radios.
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Good to know it, thanks.
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I have found that when you’re a long way from the nearest mobile mast it gets worse, as your phone ups the power in an attempt to reach the mast. I often have to go to airplane mode and spot via APRS, which then makes chasing S2S more time consuming. Both MTR3b and QCX Mini are affected.
73 de Matt
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Yes, it is but in my SW-3B is much lower than in my HB-1B 
May be the reason of such comparison result is that SW-3B is younger
73, Jarek
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very cool Carlos! I bought a little waterproof case with EVA foam and it is fantastic too, the tiny rig works great.
72. Manu.
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Glad I searched this radio and found you video! Thanks for doing the review it just solidified me buying it!.
73 de VE6JTW, Jesse
Hallo Jesse
It would be worth looking for an older model. Have you read this info?
We’ve been using DDS chip Si5351 in the SW-3B’s with good results,but recently we could not find any good quality Si5351’s on the market,many of the chips fails in short time operating.
Recently we’ve channged the DDS chip from Si5351 to AD9834,which seems good.Unfortunately,due to different MCU data format,it seems cause some birdies on the particular frequencies mostly on 40m.
And Si Lab informs they are manufacturing Si5351’s in October,so at this point,we are focusing the new SW-3C,which is also a 3 band QRP CW tranceiver with a bit more features and different case,we should have SW-3B back in October as well.
Unfortunately, the SW-3C can no longer be operated from above… I think the old design is much cleverer
73 Armin