Hat tip to the RTL-SDR Blog for this tip:
Ham Radio Outlet in the USA is currently offering discounted SDRplay products for Black Friday. The discounts are as follows:
These are excellent prices for excellent receivers! If you don’t own an RSP series SDR yet, now would be a good time to pull the trigger!
AirSpy is running another Black Friday sale and offering 20% off of all of their excellent products.
Click here to check out their product line and Black Friday pricing!
[Note: This info. is also posted on our sister site, QRPer.com.]
The very affordable, tiny, and retro Raddy RF750 is on sale for $34.39. We have never tested it, but it receives mostly positive reviews.
I’ve been trying to avoid looking at sales this week because I don’t really need anything. That said, I’ve had a few pieces of gear on my mind that I’ve been wanting to review/evaluate and Black Friday has made a few of them more accessible.
If you’re not familiar with Nanuk, they produce a wide variety of waterproof cases in Canada. They’re essentially Canada’s version of the Pelican case.
I’ve been eyeing their Nanuk 903 which is actually a very compact case–something similar in size to the Pelican 1060 and the Evergreen 56.
Nanuk, DX Engineering, and Amazon all have their Nanuk cases on sale today. I picked up a Nanuk 903 that I hope to use with one of my ultra-compact field radios (perhaps the Penntek TR-35).
Prices vary, but Amazon seems to have the lowest. I just purchased a blue Nanuk 903 with pick foam for $28.00 shipped (affiliate link). Other colors may cost a few dollars more, but they’re all exceptional deals (I picked the least expensive color).
I believe it was Rod (VA3ON) who first introduced me to this Canada-based pack manufacturer.
I’ve had their their Aircrew/Pubs Bag with Padded Tablet Pocket on my wish list since the Ham Radio Workbench podcast episode where we talked about backpacks and pouches. CP Gear Tactical manufactures a wide variety of gear primarily for the Canadian military market. Everything is made either in Canada (NB) or the US (or both), thus prices are much higher than mass produced gear.
I’m hoping their Aircrew bag might fit my 2nd Yaesu FT-817ND which is now outfitted with the TPA-817 pack frame I purchased from a reader. If it doesn’t, I still have many other uses in mind.
Everything in their store is 20% off today if you use the coupon code BKFRIDAY20.
The pack, shipped to my address in the US was $92.60 CAD.
I noticed that Gigaparts and Ham Radio Outlet has the venerable Yaesu FT-891 on sale for $599.95 US. That’s a brilliant deal.
Last year, I came so close to buying the FT-891 for $629 during a Black Friday sale. I decided against it at the last moment because I know I tend to reach for my lightweight QRP field radios that can provide me a few hours of radio fun on a 3Ah battery. Even at QRP output levels, the FT-891 needs a larger capacity battery.
That said, if you’re looking for a new 100W radio for the shack or field? The FT-891 is a solid choice. The ‘891 is also an excellent general coverage radio for shortwave radio listening.
Radioddity always has deep discounts on Black Friday. This year, they have a store-wide 15% off sale with a coupon code.
Radioddity is a great place to purchase Xiegu Products. They are a sponsor of QRPer.com.
SDRplay manufactures affordable, high-performance SDR receivers in the UK. They are currently offering their RSPdx for £130/€156/$169.95. Click here for details and click here for my review of the RSPdx. The RSPdx is a choice radio for mediumwave and low band work. That said, the frequency range is exceptionally wide. This and the RSPduo are my favorites from SDRplay. Note that SDRplay is a sponsor of the SWLing Post.
Another SDR and radio accessory manufacturer, Airspy, is offering 20% off of all of their products. I consider their HF+ Discovery SDR to be one of the best sub-$200 SDRs for the HF bands–check out these posts and reviews on the SWLing Post.
I noticed that Amazon.com does have a wide variety of shortwave portables in their Black Friday sale. Click here to search through the ones listed in the Black Friday promotion (affiliate link).
Here’s a list of ham radio retailers who have Black Friday sales today. If you’ve been looking for an item in particular, you might compare prices between these stores:
Spot any other great deals? Share them in the comments section!
SDRplay RSPdx SDR
(Source: SDRplay)
At SDRplay, we recognise that times are very tough for a lot of people. In view of the economic pressures that people are facing, we want to lend a helping hand by offering the very popular RSPdx at a special low price for this holiday buying season. After discussions with our dealer network, from Black Friday until the 31st December, we (along with participating dealers) plan to offer the RSPdx at a holiday discounted suggested retail price of £130/€156/$169.95 plus shipping and any applicable taxes. This represents a substantial discount of more than one fifth when compared to the normal retail price.
Starting midnight EST, Thursday November 24th visit https://www.sdrplay.com/purchasehome/ to purchase an RSPdx at the special price or contact your local SDRplay dealer for more details. Please also note that stocks are limited and this offer will certainly end on the 31st December and prices will revert to normal commercial levels thereafter.
This is a great opportunity to get the RSPdx as a gift for a newcomer or a returning radio enthusiast at a price which won’t be repeated, as our suppliers are already increasing their prices for the new year.
While I’m not exactly in the market for anything other than a few radio accessories, I have been checking out some Black Friday Deals online. I must admit that there seems to be even more deals this year than there were last year.
A few retailers worth checking out (in alphabetical order):
As we mentioned in a previous post, AirSpy is once again offering huge discounts via their international distributors. This is a great time to snag the HF+ Discovery.
C.Crane has a small selection of items on deep discount for Black Friday including two of their popular SoftSpeaker pillow speakers and an LED flashlight. Click here to check out their deals.
US manufacturer, Elecraft, has included a number of products in their Black Friday sale. Note that some items may have a 6-8 week lead time. I’m a massive fan of their KX2 and KX3 transceivers–they currently have shack-in-a-box KX2/KX3 packages in their promotion. Click here to check out their sale.
GigaParts always has an impressive number of items in their Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales. They have the super popular Yaesu FT-891–which is a great general coverage transceiver for broadcast band listening–for $629.95. I also noticed they have the Icom IC-R6 wideband handheld receiver in stock for $185.95. Click here to check out all of their deals.
HRO has a number of radio items in their Black Friday sale. In particular, they have the SDRplay RSP1A wideband SDR for $99.95. They also have the Yaesu FT-891 for $629.95. They’ve many more deals, so check out their homepage for details.
Ham Test Online is offering a sale on their online license self-paced programs. Everyone in my family used this system for at least one license level and it worked brilliantly. From their newsletter:
Take advantage of our Black Friday Cyber Weekend Sale from Black Friday through Cyber Monday (November 26-29). If you’ve been wanting to get your license or upgrade, do it now and save $10 on each of our courses and $35 on the FCC fee:
Technician — $19.95 (33% off the $29.95 list price).
General — $24.95 (29% off the $34.95 list price).
Extra — $29.95 (25% off the $39.95 list price).
Renewal — $14.95 (50% off the $29.95 list price).
Click here to check it out at Ham Test Online.
Two readers note that MTC is having a year sale which includes a Tecsun PL-880 for $169 and a number of radios and accessories.
Click here to check out their home page.
Radioddity’s Black Friday sale includes 15% off site-wide. They’re one of the biggest Xiegu retailers, so if you’ve been considering a G90, X5105, or the new X6100 for example, this would be a great time to purchase. Click here to check out their deals (use the discount code BFCM).
Please comment with any special deals you’ve found and I’ll add them to this post!
Many thanks to the folks at Airspy who shares the following announcement:
It’s that time of the year again! This year we offer a generous 25% Black Friday discount on all our Airspy products though our network of distributors.
Check: https://airspy.com/purchase
Click here to view their announcement on Twitter.
If you’ve been considering the Airspy HF+ Discovery–which is one of my choice HF SDRs–I would suggest you bite the bullet during this sale. The price via Airspy.us, for example, is $126.75; a proper bargain for a benchmark budget SDR! Of course, all international Airspy distributors are offering equivalent discounts.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Paul Evans, who passes along the following tips:
Circuit Specialists have started Black Friday, but only 10% off everything.
The code fer Circuit Specialists is CYBER2020
at checkout…10% off everything until midnight Monday.
There’s also a raffle for free 100MHz 2x DSOs and some pen style 25MHz
DSOs fer each purchase made during the time of the sale.
Click here to browse Circuit Specialists online.
Yaesu have $800 off the FTDX101D ($3050 instead of $3850!) inc. free shipping, of
course.
Check out FTDX101D pricing at Gigaparts, DX Engineering, and Ham Radio Outlet.
Thank you for the tips, Paul. Wow–if I had the funds, I would jump on the FTDX101D! Could Father Christmas be that generous–? One can dream! 🙂