I got a 3D printed cootie from a friend and wanted to test it on my QCX Mini after I had used it a bit on my main rig. By mistake I did plug it into the PTT plug, not as I should have done into the Pa

#qcxmini #rip

The design of the PA in the QSX-Mini is not made for an on-time of 2 minutes at maximum power. The washer-screw heatsink can absorb some power, but it cannot get rid of it with convection or radiation

The 30m is not a bad band for CW and is somehow open most of the day. Call QRP on 10.106 MHz or SKCC on 10.120 MHz and you may get a response quite quickly. (Join SKCC if you can use a straight key, i

Low-cost shipping from China to the USA is by container ship. Usually, it takes about a week at sea. But currently, there is a pile-up of container ships on both ends, so it may take two weeks longer.

Learning morse code and observing my progress in learning is one of the most interesting experiments on myself I made in my life. I am now about six months into this journey and I have seen many phase

Nice job! But I would have used a different plug type for power to eliminate the risk to mix it up and burn something. 73 de Jakob/aa0jr

I have 2 QCX mini and carry them along in my travel pack. I protect the BNC mechanically and electronically with a 50 Ohm BNC terminator. Whenever I remove the antenna cable I put them on, so any inad

I think that vice is reserved for surface mount chip replacement.

Sorry, I cannot resist the temptation to reply here. The German engineers have a word for something that can do everything. This word is "Eierlegende Wollmilchsau". (Google it!) There are QRP radios t

Thanks, Allison. You give me hope! Jakob

Bruce, random can be half wave, cant it?

William, turn the switch to the CCW end position (view on the button side). Check with the ohm meter which pin is selected, then solder the short wire of the first turn to this pin. Then you have 11 m

Only slot 1 is relevant for the highest frequency filter. All others can be in any order. The reason is that slot 1 is not switched and all the bands pass through it. See the QRPLabs manual for the re

#u3s

Hi Vojtech. There are many commercially available power/SWR meters out there that I could buy, but that is not my point. I want to have fun building something useful for my own use, and if someone is

#dummyload #power

I recently built the 50 Ohm 20 Watt dummy load from QRP-Labs. It works well with very close to 50 Ohm on most of the ham frequency spectrum. But I was not satisfied by the fact that I need a voltmeter

#dummyload #power

The 10 m LPF goes into position 1 on the LPF relay board. It cannot be switched off and is always active. It helps other LPFs for the lower bands to further reduce the harmonics. All the other LPFs ca

Joe, you are right. Balun is the wrong word there. It should be impedance transformer. Many baluns are a combination of both like a 4:1 or 9:1 balun. However, that is a side point in my discussion of

Some thoughts about SWR vs. resonating feed lines: Many hams misunderstand the concept of SWR versus resonating feed lines. This are two different things and need to be dealt individually. A high SWR

And you can call it a Gummyload!

Ciao Giuseppe. Now it makes sense to me! I just misunderstood the wiring. 73 de Jakob aa0jr