The CommRadio CTX-10 QRP transceiver
Universal Radio is now taking orders for the CommRadio CTX-10 QRP transceiver. The price is $999.99 and the expected shipping date is March 1, 2018. Universal notes that they will not charge customers until the units begin shipping.
Once radios are in production, I plan to review the CTX-10.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Ed, who writes:
I was in my corner bar last night in Philadelphia where “The Royal Tenennbaums” (2001) was playing on the projection screen. I wasn’t really watching it, but a scene showing a Heathkit HW-101 HF transceiver suddenly caught my eye. When I told my my drinking buddy, Richard, “That’s a Heathkit HW-101!” He called me a hopeless geek.
I’m not sure what tuner is on the shelf below it, but maybe a SWLing blog reader can identify it.
Great job spotting the HW-101, Ed!
Ed actually sent this tip to me several months ago, but it got buried in my drafts folder–sorry about that!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Ivan Cholakov (NO2CW), who writes:
I never got a chance to summarize my results of the AM scans I did during the 2017 total eclipse.
I used an SDR and a 40 foot end-fed antenna located in a park near the Nashville, TN airport.
On the plus side I did notice a spike of AM signals and amateur radio signals especially on 40 meters. On the negative side, my AM scans were adversely affected by the nearby powerhouse WSM transmitter on 650 kHz.
I’ve attached my results in a spreadsheet [embedded] below.
Click here to view this Google Docs spreadsheet in a new window.
Fantastic, Ivan! Thank you for taking the time to go through your recordings and make these notes. No doubt, this log took a few hours to compile. I’ve yet to go through my eclipse spectrum recordings–!
Again, thanks for sharing!
Click here to view Ivan’s previous post which includes a bandscan of the 2017 Eclipse QSO Party.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Pete Eaton (WB9FLW), who shares pricing and additional information about the uBITX general coverage QRP transceiver:
Here are the details, if purchased before Christmas $109 delivered!
From uBITX creator, Ashhar Farhan:
1. The ubitx is now available for sale, for $109 dollars (includes the shipping), but only until Christmas. *After Christmas, the price will increase to $129 dollars. for this initial batch, a few ham volunteers and I pitched in to sort the crystals, test the coils, tune-up and box these initial kits, we won’t be able to do that any more. we will have to hire more people (which is not a bad thing) and get them to do it.
2. The ubitx is on sale at hfsignals.com, not hfsigs.com. it is easier to remember. we will soon point hfsigs.com to the new website as well. The new site is in wordpress, that means that we can have volunteers writing and updating it rather than waiting for me to hand code the content in html and vi editor.
3. We need help with proof reading the web content.* If you find any typos, please mail me on [email protected] address (not the bitx20 list),
These apart, the early buyers must be aware that they are beta users of sorts, the firmware will sure get updated. i hope there won’t be any revisions of the PCB.
Pete adds:
Just as an aside the original price of the Heathkit HW-8 was $139.95 (in 1970 dollars) and it became a QRP Classic. The uBITX may become one as well and like the HW-8 there will be (and already are) all sorts of mods/additions one will be able to do. The uBITX is 10 dollars cheaper (after 12/25) works 80-10 M, does SSB in addition to CW, and is a Superhet to boot!
Farhan your hit this one out of the Ballpark!
Very cool, Pete! I am very tempted to purchase the uBITX transceiver before Christmas and have it delivered via DHL service. The only thing holding me back is simply the amount of projects I have on my table at the moment! $109 is an incredibly low price for a full-fledged QRP transceiver!
I’m absolutely amazed that it is also has a general coverage receiver. Perhaps the uBITX could serve the SWL as well as the ham radio operator? I suppose we shall soon find out!
Click here to read our other posts regarding the uBITX transceiver.
Click here to order the uBITX transceiver kit.
Please comment if you plan to or have purchased the uBITX. We’d love your feedback!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Pete Eaton (WB9FLW), who writes:
Last March, Ashhar Farhan (VU2ESE) the designer of the very popular BITX20 and BITX40 series of mono-band HF Transceivers announced a new low cost rig called the uBITX (micro BITX) a full blown 80-10m 10 Watt SSB/CW Transceiver. Now comes word that after many months of very hard development work by Ashhar this much anticipated Rig will soon be available.
For those not familiar with the project this is *not* a kit, rather like its sibling (the BITX40) it consists of two assembled and tested Circuit Boards. The RF board measures 5.5 x 6 inches and a second small plug in daughter card that takes care of the digital portion of the design including the 2X16 LCD, Arduino Nano, and Si5351 which are used in the VFO.
Add a cabinet, knobs, and connectors and you have a full blown HF Rig! An added plus is that except for the Gerber PCB files everything else (including the firmware) is Open Sourced!
The original description can be found here:
http://www.phonestack.com/farhan/ubitx/ubitx.html
Farhan has just released the Firmware, Schematics, and Wiring Diagram for the production version on GitHub
Arduino Sketch:
https://github.com/afarhan/ubitx
RF Board Schematic:
https://github.com/afarhan/ubitx/blob/e481ea2a2457fc4e7be7a6a4bc9a0fba12bf2cde/ubitxv3.pdf
Digital (Raduino) Board Schematic:
http://www.phonestack.com/farhan/ubitx/raduino.pdf
Wiring Diagram:
https://github.com/afarhan/ubitx/blob/e481ea2a2457fc4e7be7a6a4bc9a0fba12bf2cde/ubitx_wiring.png
Farhan has a social conscience as well giving several local ladies much needed employment for final assembly and checkout of the Rigs.
There are still a few final tweaks being done to the design so pricing is still to be determined. But if it’s offered at a similar price point as his earlier Transceivers it should sell like hotcakes!
For the latest info check out the BITX User Group at:
Wow! Amazing project! Thanks for the tip and updates, Pete!
Yesterday, I received a package in the mail containing the new Airspy HF+ software defined radio receiver.
It came as a bit of a surprise.
I’ve been busy lately with humanitarian work, the radio spectrum archive, product evaluations and travels–not to mention an active family life. I had completely forgotten that about a month ago, I received a message from Airspy telling me that they had dispatched their latest SDR to me for evaluation.
This morning, I unpacked the box to find that the HF+ is a very compact, relatively dense little SDR in a metal alloy case/enclosure. I’m simply floored by the size. The case feels incredibly durable and of excellent quality.
The Airspy HF+ under my business card
In terms of footprint, dimensions are nearly identical to a business card. It’s about as thick as the typical USB memory stick.
The HF+ is so thin and compact compared with the Elad FDM-S2 (which is quite a compact SDR!)
Other than my RTL-SDR dongle, it’s by far the smallest SDR I’ve ever tested.
Though compact, it sports two SMA antenna inputs: one for HF, one for VHF.
The HF port is labeled as “H” and the VHF port as “V”
The Airspy HF+ uses a common micro USB for both data and power
The HF+ is the first AirSpy product I’ve ever put on the air.
I read the HF+ product description this morning while downloading SDR Sharp–it claims the HF+ is “plug and play”.
Turns out, that is no exaggeration.
The HF+ on top of the Elad FDM-S2 and WinRadio Excalibur
In fact, the entire SDR Sharp package downloaded in seconds, installed in seconds and the only thing I had to do after opening the SDR Sharp application was select “AirSpy HF+” from the product drop down menu.
I started the application and *boom* signals all over the place!
SDR applications, in general, have become so much easier to install over the years but I believe SDR Sharp may be the quickest install I’ve ever experienced. About as easy and lightweight as the WinRadio Excalibur application. True plug and play!
I’ve had no time to properly evaluate performance–I just put this little SDR on the air.
Fortunately, propagation is cooperating this morning–I’m hearing both WWV Fort Collins and WWV Hawaii on 10 MHz. I’m really enjoying playing with the Airspy HF+ and re-familiarizing myself with SDR#. I had forgotten how responsive and intuitive the interface is–great user design.
My first impression? I’m impressed. More to come…
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Scott Gamble (W5BSG), who writes:
Hi Thomas,
I read this on one of the Japanese blogs I follow. It is a company release from JRC announcing the end of factory repairs for the NRD-545 series receivers on December 15, 2017. The announcement is in Japanese, so you need to use your favorite translation engine to read it, but apparently this was originally announced April 9, 2012! That’s quite a notice period.
Here is a link to the announcement. If anyone wants to take advantage of factory repairs the window is closing soon, especially considering shipment to Japan.
http://www.jrc.co.jp/jp/about/news/2017/1106-1.html
Cheers!
Thanks, Scott! There are a lot of NRD-545 owners out there. The good news is that there are many other repair services that can still work on the 545 (and other JRC models). Indeed, I’m sure my buddy, Vlado, has worked on the 545. Of course, the problem with radios like the 545, which are no longer in production, is that some parts are no longer produced and have no replacements on the market. As long as your repair doesn’t require a discontinued part, you’ll be in good shape!
