Monday, March 13, 2017

QRPver 20m PSK version test

I already announced on several sites I won a QRPver transceiver. Yes, I won! Remember the post from AE5X about the QRPver? Well, I did....and a few posts later John did a "give away". Well actually you had to do something for it. To keep a long story short: I won! The QRPver surprisingly arrived the same Saturday as the PACC contest started and John wrote me a e-mail if I received the package just that day. Of course it was just the QRPver and no cables so I had to search for those first. Then I had no spare moments to properly test and document my findings. So things moved on till last week. I finally hooked up the small transceiver to my old laptop and after some fiddling I could receive something. Of course it was late in the evening and normally 20m band is dead at that time. So it surprised me that the little thing was actually receiving DX, it has to be quite sensitive. I also made a small transmitting test and monitored myself to see if the signal was clear. The QRPver is very easy to setup, just a 12V power supply and 2 cables with 3,5mm stereo jack plugs are enough to connect it to your computer. It switches to TX internally by VOX as soon as audio is detected.


The next day I was at home in the afternoon and could finally test if I was able to make a QSO. That was no problem at all. RW3QW answered my 1W PSK63 signal. Actually the QRPver is a complete 1W output single frequency transceiver and it does a surprisingly good job. It is as small as a package of sigarettes and consumes approx 300mA when transmitting and only 20mA when receiving. You can imagine all kind of ideas you can do with this 20m transceiver like a 1W DX station working as many DXCC you can on 20m PSK, monitoring station, beacon station or whatever you like. Find a tranceiver that fits you best on the QRPver site. I'm shure it is possible to pick any frequency you want if you want to buy one. Personally I think I would like to have a 20m JT65 version but I know if you want to use it for example in portable communications a 40m model would be a good choice.

Well John, I really enjoy playing with it. Although I've not yet decided what to do with it?
I might set it up as a beacon for a while. Or keep it as a demonstration transceiver if someone likes to know how digimode works. It is easy to bring with you. The only other thing you need is a 12V battery or small PSU, some coax and a 20m antenna. Thanks very much for this tiny gem and the best wishes from northern part Netherlands.



11 comments:

Hans said...

Gefeliciteerd Bas met deze mooie aanwinst. Leuk man!
Heel veel plezier er mee en dat zal jou best wel lukken.
73 Hans, PE1BVQ.

John AE5X said...

Glad to see it works well for you Bas. The best thing about psk31 is that you can listen to music while you operate! 73,

John AE5X

PE4BAS, Bas said...

You noticed that John, that's why I like digital modes. The QRPver works very well. 73, Bas

PE4BAS, Bas said...

Hallo Hans, lukken doet het vast. Dit was al een hel mooie test. 73, Bas

Paul Stam PAØK said...

Hallo Bas, gefeliciteerd met deze pocket transceiver. Hij doet het nog goed ook. Leuk om op vakantie mee te nemen. Succes, 73 Paul PC4T

G1KQH said...

I like it, but it would have to be cheaper before I purchased one..

£ Vs the $ exchange rate is not good here at the moment.

73 Steve


G1KQH

PE4BAS, Bas said...

Misschien neem ik hem wel mee op vakantie. Ik wil hem ook nog eens testen op de MP-1 antenne. Leuk gadget is het zeker en erg eenvoudig. Een computer een zendontvanger en een antenne meer heb je niet nodig. Met een kleine tablet of telefoon zou je een heel klein station kunnen hebben met toch nog een flinke reikwijdte (afhankelijk van de condities). 73, Bas

PE4BAS, Bas said...

Well, it's just how much money you want to spend I guess. I think 80 USD is a high price for just a monoband one frequency transceiver. Look at the cheap baofeng ht's which can do a lot more. I'm shure if some clever chinese had made and produced this design the price would be about 20 USD including postage worldwide. 73, Bas

G1KQH said...

Don't speak too quick Bas, you can bet they will be on the copying bandwagon soon!

Casey Bahr said...

Hi Bas, I was studying up on these types of standalone digi-modes rigs and lo and behold ran across your blog! Long time no see I'm afraid. Anyway, thanks for the hands-on review, looks like a lot of fun! 73, TI2/NA7U

PE4BAS, Bas said...

You're welcome Casey, long time no see! 73, Bas