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[Matt285]

Well the Icom is still down. I got out my Hendricks PFR-3 QRP Cw transceiver over the weekend and was able to work several stations on 5 watts. Canada,MA,TX,SC and Belize. It's tough with the sun spots being what they are,but it was nice to be working QRP again. I operated low power for about six years when conditions were better and worked the world on a G5RV. It's always fun operating equipment that you built!

[Josh]

Had a 703 for a while. Put a few turns around the window frame in the bedroom for general sw listening and fed it to the tuner in the 703, worked Michigan no prob on 40m ssb 10w out.

[Matt285]

Yeah I remember when the 703's first came out. They were $429.00 before the plus model. I always like the look of them but I have also heard they have a reputation for having weak finals in them.

[Josh]

Yep, mine blew one of the pa pair and there's no real pa transistor replacement that won't do the same thing so sold it.

I had the idea Icom would come out with a new qrp rig as the 703 was more or less a success, mebbe with dsp/sdr and so on. Years go by and now that I have one of these coming in the mail this week;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ft7tUfzqQ5c

Then heard the other day this is coming out;
https://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/hamhf/0705.html

So the Xiegu G90 is like a tiny Icom 756 Pro - one of my all time fav rigs - and being about the size of a cb rig is very portable. 20w is only 1 s unit down from 100w and I've already seen what you get with only 10w of ssb on hf.

[Matt285]

Yes I saw a review the other day for the Icom 705 they showcased at the Tokyo ham fest. Cool rig. I heard the price point is spouse to be around $700.00. One thing I never understood was why companies dont make single band rigs for say 15,17,20 & 40 meters? Just a simple radio like an RCI2950 or HR2510. I wanted to build a BitX20 to run in my truck, but the kit has been discontinued. I was gonna drive an amp with it to get out around 100/150 watts on 20 meters.

[Josh]

On the single or dual band hf rigs, the past has shown that today's HAMs don't want to pay that much for a limited rig.
Ten Tec tried it with a small mobile hf rig that used band modules, they sold a few but not near as many as Icom sold the 706 series.

And I suspected Icom would go for around $700 or more on the 705, wich is why the Chinese qrp rigs are going to mop the floor with them. Then again, China doesn't yet have something that does what the 705 does. Who knows what the future will bring!

Also, Belize is a decent run on 5w, but cw does seem to get out when not much else will.

[QRP]

Has an MFJ Cub but is looking to get something from Elecraft's KX line

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[Matt285]

That's a big jump from MFJ to Elecraft. It's too bad they aren't producing the KX1 and K1 anymore. The used value on them is crazy now. I would like to have a K2 some day, however there are so many more features on the other brands for the same price or less. How do you like the Cub? Have you made any contacts on it yet? I'm thinking about getting one for 20m. Ive been wanting to build another small kit for a while.

[QRP]

I recently saw a K1 in good condition that had two bandmodules (80/40 and 40/20)
and a built-in ATU and was sold for 170 USD.
I was stupid enough not to buy it.

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[Matt285]

I've seen them upwards of $500.00 on Ebay

[Boriken]

I have Cub's for 40 & 20, never got my hands on the 15m kit. A resistor mod can spread out the tuning range. They drift a little but not bad. Between the 2 I've done WAS & 30+ countries. had a blast with the 40m when I was /KP4. I keep the the 20m Cub in the truck with a key & inverted vee for when I'm out & about.

[Matt285]

Thanks for the feedback on the Cub's. What wattage are you getting out of them? I want to say the average is about 2 watts if not modded in any way. Does the cub tell you what frequency your on via CW or is it kind of a guess? Thanks

[Boriken]

Mine run about 2 Watts but I have them set to 1 W. They're all analog, frequency is a guessing game. You pick a ~50kc range you want to operate when you build it. I have pencil marks for 7030, 7040, 14060.

[QRP]

My little Cub is an MFJ-9340 (40m).

Reviews summary for the Cub
https://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/523

// QRP