I wouldn't assume you have a problem in the BS170s.
My newly built QMX mini draws 125mA on idle/receive, and all diagnostic tests work correctly, and it seems to receive and transmit correctly.? There may be something wrong that I am not aware of, but all seems ok so far.
On transmit it draws about 1.25A.
I also have a cross-needle power/swr meter (MFJ-880), and its power readings match almost exactly the ones from the QMX diagnostic menu.? So I don't know what the issue is there for you.? The QMX reads the power directly from its SWR bridge at the output, so there isn't much in the pathway between that and an external meter except cables and connectors.
It is a well-known fact that the QMX (and QDX and QCX) output lower power on the upper bands.? Full 5W power on the low two bands, and gradually decreasing to 3W or so the top band.? Your 20M power is lower than it should be, but since the other bands seem correct, it is likely not a BS170 issue.? Search the prior messages here for 20M low power or low power and you will find several threads discussing this and what people have done to try and remedy.? I think mostly it is adjusting the position of windings on toroids.? You may also have a bad/wrong value capacitor in the 20M filter which could contribute to this.? Does the LPF sweep and Bandpass filter sweep function from the diagnostic menu for 20M give results that look very much like the ones in the operations manual? If not, the filters are the first place to check.
