AmateurRadio.com

It was only a few years ago Ashhar Farhan's small company HF Signals from India launched the Bitx40, a small 40m rig that was sold as a completed PCB, it was up to you how you housed it and cased it up. It sold in droves, and paved the way for the uBitx a fully functioning multi band HF rig cased, and complete, for a bargain price of HF entry to our hobby.

 Since then sBitx was developed and again opened the SDR path of development, powered by a Raspberry Pi as it's engine.

Well Ashhar has done it again! With the launch of zBitx.

This is what he has had to say launching it on Christmas day on the Bitx forum:

After months of work, we finally have the zBitx in production! We were able to price it at an incredible $149 USD for a 5 watt, 80M to 10 M QRP radio with a large 480x320 touch screen that allows you to run CW, FT8 and other modes without needing even the phone that the original zBitx used.

Schematics and Software: They will all be released in open source, GPL v3 on github in a few weeks.

 

 

 

 

Deliveries will start in February.

 

Further details and sales get down to the HF Signals Website: https://www.hfsignals.com/index.php/zbitx/

You can certainly bet this is going to be a hot winner in 2025.

Last week without any fanfare, Hans Summers small company QRP Labs, launched the bigger QMX+. 

A full blown 160m-6m CW and Digital modes QRP rig. (SSB to come in a future firmware release).

The radio is available as either a kit, or as a ready built option. With optional metal case and GPS Unit to aid frequency alignment, RTC, and Location.

Anything which Hans designs is tuned for high performance!  With easy step by step documentation for those who are competent enough to understand and build.

Price starts at $125 + case + options + carriage. (Price may also be subject to import charges, duty etc.)

Further details: https://shop.qrp-labs.com/qmxp

QRP Labs forum:  https://groups.io/g/QRPLabs/

 G3XBM informs me he has ordered a fully assembled unit. So it is well worth keeping an eye on his blog for details when it arrives in his shack: https://g3xbm-qrp.blogspot.com/

 All ARRL fees are up from the 1st January 2024.

An international 3 year ARRL membership, including QST, rises from $217 to $282 a rise of 30% from the 1st January. That's another one I won't be renewing.

Something that is supposed to represent Amateur radio, does not provide good value for money for it's membership.With that sort of hike many members will leave and it will do nothing to encourage new members into the ARRL.

 

It is always good to see someone having a go. Especially an electronic parts distribution company, something that can benefit our hobby.

Read the story below:

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/teen-turns-500-ebay-side-31700456?utm_source=newsshowcase&utm_medium=gnews&utm_campaign=CDAqDwgAKgcICjCprqAJMK6gcDDCqJUC&utm_content=bullets&gaa_at=g&gaa_n=AYRtylYUOteSGP8ytmQ9N0wy0vei9ouxxHaq6bHpBRr7wrIGdoneje7rQdjNDRHwT_LSjba0i6FY9qjuETwDHAnokgkM&gaa_ts=6588c6f2&gaa_sig=Xe6g3-6uFkLuk7NVHYRANjHe6GIrGyYQ9o91-BLGd-Vkj-CyNgaLgOkmqo4opTG1xtrGnCGlALoxZzgWSZLobw%3D%3D&fbclid=IwAR03aljBTG2wgFMGXa8SuGK6Ftt0AFpPMB9rCCh2dAwI3f0f-Xo6RBl-8N4 

Website for Switch electronics: https://www.switchelectronics.co.uk/

There has been a sudden upping of the UK cashback offer on the Yaesu FTDX101D. Infact it has been doubled from the original cashback offer of £170 to £340!! Taking the price after cashback down to £2659.95.

This makes this quite an exceptional saving over the list price for a big base HF station rig.

Check out here for further detail: Yaesu FTDX101D

 If you still have the old Southgate Amateur Radio News URL in your bookmarks. You will now find it redirects you to ARD Amateur Radio Daily.. 

Click on the link above for more detail. 

QRP Labs have announced the new QMX 5 band digital transceiver.

Initially the firmware supports CW and Single tone FSK modes, but may be upgraded to SSB in future firmware updates:

Available as a kit or fully assembled, you can bet that this is going to be the hottest QRP product of the year.
 

Further details:https://shop.qrp-labs.com/qmx