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Monday, April 08, 2024

Another resource - QRP Builder

If you haven't heard about it, Ken WA4MNT has a great website QRPBuilder.com. He offers some neat items in kit form. One that has me especially intrigued is his QX1 antenna, which is an alternative to Elecraft's AX1 and AX2 antennas. I'm going to paste in Ken's description of the antenna:

The QX1 Antenna kit, is a small, ultra portable vertical 40m, 20-10m antenna with a male BNC connector and telescoping whip, rated at 20W. It is resonant on the whole 40m band with only a whip length adjustment. With a tuner, can be used on the 20m through 10m.

All the holes are pre-drilled and tapped. Assembly requires winding the coil, a little soldering, and some mechanical assembly. The tools required for assembly are a Phillips screwdriver, forceps or needle nosed pliers, wire cutters, soldering iron, and some rosin core solder. Depending on your experience, it can be assembled in about an hour. On a difficulty scale of 1 to 5, 5 being the most difficult, this is rated at 2.

The BNC Antenna Mount/Adapter kit is a versatile antenna mount with a nylon clamp included. This design allows small BNC terminated antennas to not mount on the output connector of the radio, but rather, with coax, to a more advantageous position. It is ideal for quick setup, field and SOTA operation. We have listed this as a separate kit because, some users already have an antenna like the Elecraft AX-1, MFJ-18xxT series, or similar homebrew antennas that are terminated with a male BNC connector. The strong clamp permits mounting to a apartment or patio railing, picnic table, or even a tree branch. There is a connection point for radials or a counterpoise with captive stainless steel hardware.

Assembly is easy and only the most common tools are needed and a 1/4″ drill. On a difficulty scale of 1 to 5, 5 being the most difficult, this is rated at 1.



I like my AX1, but I sure wish this had come out a few months ago. It's a much more affordable alternative, and with inflation the way it is nowadays, who doesn't need to stretch their $$$ as far as they can?

In addition to this nifty kit, Ken offers paddles, an audio amplifier kit and even a kit that will allow you to use normal earbuds/earphones on a crystal radio. Again, I'm not affiliated with QRP Builder in any way, shape, fashion or form; but when I see a site that offers items that I think you folks may be interested in, I'll showcase them here.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous11:53 AM

    Ooow! I like new resources. Great post Larry - thank you.

    73, Tom, M7MCQ
    www.m7mcq.com

    ReplyDelete