Elecraft KX3 or FT817 successor?

For some time now we've been expecting the successor to the FT817 to appear on the market as the current offering is now over 10 years old, with just a minor update in this period. Sunspots are rising fast now and I'd expect Yaesu-Vertex to release this within 6 months or miss a big window of opportunity.  The potential sales volumes are very large indeed as a large part of the amateur community owns an FT817 and would aspire to upgrade.

One wonders how Yaesu-Vertex is viewing the Elecraft KX3 and whether any changes to their new product will be made as a result of the KX3 pre-release data. The KX3 does look impressive but its form factor may not appeal to many. It also looks very "square" and Elecrafty! Although it can be used handheld, I understand you have to plug in a local microphone for example - a bit clunky for true handheld portable use, although you need an external mic with the FT817.

It is widely assumed that an FT817 successor will have a Li-Ion battery pack (2hr charge), built-in wide range auto ATU, good DSP features and possibly 70MHz coverage. The form factor is unlikely to be very much different from the current model, but with more inside.

Does anyone have any inside knowledge of Yaesu's release plans? If they don't get a move on the KX3 will steal the show. The KX3 is due to be released at the end of 2011 and order placement is starting very soon.

500kHz humming tonight

WSPR reception at G3XBM tonight - busy on 500kHz!

This evening the 500kHz band is VERY busy with lots of stations on WSPR.  At the moment there are over 20 active stations with 7 stations TXing.  EI0CF and G4WGT are being copied in Russia at over 2500km despite low ERPs.  My own 2mW ERP signal managed to be detected by GM4SLV (896km) and by many others in the UK and Holland.

Another 10m QRP transceiver built

Yesterday I built another simple 10m CW QRP transceiver. This is similar to the Tenner on my website with some improvements. This time the power out is QRO (well 600mW!) and the receiver a direct conversion one built around an SBL1 with passive LP audio filter and 3 stages of audio gain. The VXO, run from a regulated 5V supply, uses a fundamental 28.060MHz crystal which pulls from 28.040-28.070MHz with a sensible RX-TX offset (happens automatically) of around 800-1000Hz. Chirp is better than the simple XBM10-2 as the VXO is better regulated and the PA is a separate stage. Yesterday I worked RZ3QZ before the RX was finished and got reports on the reverse beacon network from W3OA. This morning a full 2-way QSO with UR5IDU (him 579 me 549).

UPDATE 1520z Nov 5th: This rig is working very well with 7 two-way QSOs on 10m CW in the log already since 1140z today. There is a Russian contest and the band is busy with Russian stations. Reports are all 599 of course but no repeats needed so far.

Chirpy (XBM10-2) improvements

28MHz "Chirpy" Transceiver with tuned antenna match

In the last day I  have made some changes to my ultra-simple CW transceiver for 28MHz. Power output now is around 120mW (was 60mW) and the RX sensitivity about 3-4dB better. Both changes are a result of better matching the tank of the oscillator/mixer to 50 ohms using a tuned circuit with a suitable tap rather than a 100uH choke. At the moment the component count is 14 total (excluding crystal earpiece and key). although this could be reduced to 12 if a suitable single component inductor/capacitor with link winding was substituted for the only tuned circuit. The receiver is working and I copied an SV station and K1TG on 28MHz just now. The TX still chirps though. Now I am looking for some further 2-way QSOs (3 so far with best DX IT9QAU/QRP at 1414kms).

500kHz WSPR

Yesterday I fired up the 500kHz WSPR kit (2mW ERP from the loop antenna) for the first time in several months and was pleased with the reports and level of activity. Several people joined in the fun and some new stations are now monitoring and reporting on the band. I want to get my 137kHz WSPR kit sorted this week with around 25W RF and maybe 0.5mW ERP if I am lucky.

Sunspots update

As the days go by this autumn, the sunspot numbers continue to climb progressively and I am beginning to think we may be in for a decent cycle 24 peak after all. Certainly HF conditions have been excellent recently with MUFs up to 40MHz at times.  28MHz has been as good as I ever remember it in the last few weeks.

Have there been any recent revisions of the sunspot predictions for the next 12-24 months? If so, I would expect these to be upwards.

CQWW: update on 10m operation

After a few hours of intermittent QRP operation I've plenty of QSOs in the log, many when using just 500mW pep into my halo antenna. Stations have been worked with QRP in 5 continents on 28MHz SSB already. The band is almost filled with stations in a way that I've not heard since the last sunspot peak. If you want to work some QRP SSB DX on the HF bands, especially on 10m, then this weekend is your opportunity.

CQWW SSB Contest this weekend

This weekend it is the BIG contest of the year - the CQ Worldwide DX contest (SSB) which runs all of Saturday and Sunday. Unless the sun plays nasty tricks, all the HF bands will be absolutely humming with SSB activity and for 48 hours the bandplans will be thrown into chaos as SSB stations spread out to find space.  I am not a great contest fan, but I do enjoy this one and, almost without fail, manage to work loads of US states on the higher HF bands despite running 5W pep or less. This year on 28MHz there is a good chance of working some USA stations with 100mW pep or less, especially later in the contest.  Last year I was unable to take part as we were away. This year I have told my wife that I am not available for anything else.

IC703, K1 and MFJ Cub (15m) possible sale

The above QRP rigs, all of which are in good condition, are part of my station but very underused compared with the FT817 and my homemade gear. So, I am thinking about selling these and at a fair price. The 5W K1 has the 40,30,20 and 15m band module as well as the auto-ATU internally. The IC703 covers 160-6m at up to 10W. The Cub is 1W on 15m.

My question is what IS a fair market price to charge for each? Please note these are NOT yet for sale and I am only trying to judge what sort of price to charge if I do decide to do so.

XBM10-2 Micro-transceiver boxed

This afternoon I rebuilt the XBM10-2 28MHz micro-transceiver onto a small piece of copper laminate and put the whole transceiver in a small diecast box. The transceiver still chirps far too much, but it is in a state where more DX contacts will be possible and I can't see an easy way of reducing the chirp without making it more complex. Maybe I should call it the Chirpy-10?  I'm particularly pleased that the TX-RX offset is just perfect for operation on 28.060MHz CW.

I have just realised that by replacing the earpiece with my PC soundcard I can use several SDR packages to allow me to look either side of the QRP calling frequency. This rather defeats the simplicity though!