We had twelve folks show up for the 25 July Michigan QRP Zoom chat. The topic was Favorite QRP Rigs.

Pete WK8S

Ed AB8DF

Ernie W3ETE

Yvon AE7YD

Rick K8BMA

Muhsin TA1MHS

Glen WB4KTF

Dave N8SBE

Dan NM3A

Harry K9DXA

William KR8L

Casey KC9IH

Initial discussions were on powering the QRP Labs QMX+ and not being very tolerant with input power. There were several new folks that showed up so we had a round of introductions.

Rick started off by showing his SW-3B. We discussed encoder issues that QRP rigs can have. Rick described his POTA hunter set up.

Dan loves his QCX and has a TR-35 but the QMX is his favorite and uses a 84 ft long wire 3 AH biennia battery. Dan has a ZM-2 tuner ,T1 Elecraft tuner, LDG tuners and uses the SWR test feature in QMX to tune.

Dave showed QRP Guys tuning indicator that helps prevent high SWR while tuning. Dave’s first rig was a FT-817 but now uses a KX-2 because it is small, fits into packs and covers all the bands. His KX-2 has an internal battery, side rails and knob covers.

William uses a FT-817 running digital to chase DX. His best DX was VK. He also loves CW and POTA using a AX-1 antenna.

Muhsin has a collection of QRP Labs rigs. He uses a battery brick and FT-818, AT-10 ATU and a whip tuner. He also has a WB2CBA turner. He strongly recommends the Hermes Lite 2.

Glenn’s favorite rig is a TX-599x with a K5CBQ watt meter and dummy load. K5BCQ has a good collection of kits for QRP.

Casey has a collection of Ten Tec Century 21 transceivers and a Ramsey 40 tranceiver.

Pete loves his Wolf transceiver with LDG auto tuner in the shack. He uses his TR-45 lite for potable. You can get the Wolf transceiver from E Bay. It is a Russian design but now it is manufactured in China. The Russian hams still support it.

Yvon had some pics that he e-mailed of his rigs.

Next weeks topic is Favorite Antennas.

Please join us Thursday (and every Thursday) at 4PM Eastern for the Michigan QRP Club weekly QRP Chat where the main topics will be QRP and other ham interests. It's fun, it's easy, and it's free. You only need a computer, a smart phone, or a tablet that can connect to the Internet. OR if you can't be close to any of those you can join by audio with any standard phone. Just follow the directions below. No software needs be loaded or installed. Anyone can join and non members are welcome. Details are here:

Ed

AB8DF