did this happen on power up, with pressing a key or keyer?? first, insure you don't have a short circuit making the QCX stay in transmit.?
my QCX experienced plenty of smoke - but I sense my BS170 devices likely were not damaged (I replaced them unnecessarily).? the PNP transistor feeding them is more likely to be damaged (mine still worked by constrained output power to 1.8 watts - replacing it I have 3 watts again).?
I suggest inspection to rule out simple problems before replacing anything.? put a load on the antenna port while troubleshooting - a 5 watt dummy load is not hard to make.? then check to see if the unit is transmitting at power up.? if all is well, then I would consider replacing only the PNP transistor - for CW operation any common type than can handle at least 600 mA should work.?
the hot regulator deserves a look, and I don't know if it is related.? it can only be hot with a short somewhere, and doesn't feed the PA parts as I remember.?
proceed with care - most of us that have built things are experienced these things.? I hope its a simple fix when you find it, avoid actions that damage the unit (unnecessary replacement, being stuck in trasmit with no antenna load).?
Curt
