SDR Cube in action

George Heron has made a couple of Flip videos of his new SDR Cube in action.  The URL link is way long; so if you want to see them - click here.

There are six video segments for you viewing pleasure.  Looks like a neat little radio.  I was looking at the circuit boards and see that they are all SMD.  To get that much radio squeezed into such a small package, it's no wonder!  And there are times I think my K2 is too small!  As a Ham who has been around a while, I guess that I am too used to my radios being big and having a lot of knobs.  But this definitely looks like a lot of fun.

I had a nice QSO tonight with Jerry N1QLL on 40 Meters.  The band was nice and quiet without any local neighborhood QRN.  Jerry lives in a small lobstering and fishing village on the coast of Maine.  I've had the good fortune to have visited Maine twice in my lifetime.  It truly is a beautiful state!  I visited Bangor once and Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park another time.  That was back in my Novice days; shortly after being licensed. Back in those days, I was into photography as a career, and  I have some really nice medium format transparencies of my visits.  None of mine are as nice as the photo below:

Jerry was using a Ten Tec Omni 6 to a Windom for our QSO; but he's about halfway done building his own K2.  He wants to use if for camping, activating light houses and that sort of thing.  I wished him good luck with the rest of the build and commented that my K2 is now six years old!  It's hard to believe that I've had it for so long.  Seems like just yesterday that I finished it and had that first QSO.

I also worked  Jose EA7LS who is operating portable in the Dominican Republic.  For whatever reason the G5RV wasn't doing it for this QSO; so I switched to the Butternut to get HI7/EA7LS into the log.  It's nice to be fortunate enough to have two outdoor antennas to choose from depending on conditions. Whenever I get frustrated that my antennas aren't doing the job for me; I just remind myself of my Ham brothers who are restricted to using REALLY compromise antennas; and I am very thankful for what I have.  All a matter of perspective, I guess.

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!