QRP Labs July 2018 newsletter
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If this newsletter is not displayed clearly, please read it online at? 1. New Product: QCX aluminium enclosure kit 1. New Product: QCX aluminium enclosure kitMarkus DL6YYM of BaMaTech Precision Engineering has designed and produced a smart aluminium enclosure for the QCX 5W CW transceiver kit . For more details of the enclosure see . This enclosure kit has been popular since it became available at the end of May 2018, already we have shipped 550 of these.? This enclosure kit includes all mounting hardware, rubber feet, and extenders for the rotary encoder, gain control and buttons. The panel is drilled, cut and printed for the . The must be built exactly as per the standard assembly instructions, with all original controls and connectors board-mounted. The price is $37 plus $8 for international shipping with tracking code. If you order at the same time as a or other QRP Labs kits the shipping costs are combined as usual. This German-designed and produced enclosure may be ordered in the QRP Labs shop at??- at the moment we are waiting for more stock to arrive from the manufacturer, which should arrive in early August.? 2. QRP Labs shipment backlog cleared!
The chart (right) shows my statistics on the average delay between order placement, and order shipment, since the launch of the on 21st August 2017. Although the delay was almost eliminated by around March 2018, in my view the shipment operations had become unsustainable, expensive and error-prone - which was why the decision was taken to relocate the shipment operations and hire a full-time person to manage the shipments. It took about 2 months to get the kit stock shipped from Japan, finally arriving 14-May-2018.? Going forward we will stop sending a serial number notification email for orders. However since a lot of people like the serial number, we will include a label showing the serial number of your kit, with your kit shipment. From now, we aim?to ship all orders within 1 business day of the order placement. All QRP Labs kits are in stock, with the exception of the new , which has been in heavy demand; we are waiting for more stock from the manufacturer.? Photo: Frantic packing operations at QRP Labs HQ...
3. QRP Labs at Dayton FDIM and Hamvention, 17-20th May!Four Days In May (FDIM) is an annual gathering of QRP enthusiasts taking place in Dayton OH, US alongside the famous . This year, QRP Labs' Hans G0UPL presented the first of the FDIM seminars on Thursday 17-May-2018?with the title "Modern QRP Rigs and the Development of the QCX CW Transceiver Kit". The Slides and conference proceedings article are available (see below) and the presentation audio was recorded by the Ham Radio Workbench podcast. QRP Labs also had a table at FDIM vendor's evening and a booth at the main hamvention. It was great to meet so many QRP Labbers! Dave VE3KCL (a.k.a. "Balloon Dave") and Hans G0UPL manned the booth (see right). Thanks for all the help Dave! We were very busy.? on the Dayton 2018 expedition, on this page you can find the following:
4. QRP Labs at Friedrichshafen Hamfest, 1st-3rd June!QRP Labs had a booth at Friedrichshafen, Germany, right next to good friends . It was another hectic 3 days, but a huge amount of fun!? Some highlights: Left: Hotel DL9SCO (Thanks Hannes for all the help, accommodation, and good laughs).
Left: Selfie with Steve G0XAR, old-type comrade?
?Amazing SOTA station by Luc ON7DQ. It includes a QCX CW transceiver kit built for 20m, in homemade enclosure; carrying case, earphones, endfed wire anteanna, matching unit, homebrew paddle, and through-ferrite LED SWR indicator.
Wolfgang OE1WBS showed me his QCX kit, with his own 3-D printed angled replacement for the supplied 12mm nylon spacers. This puts the LCD at a comfortable 45-degree angle!
5. QCX 5W CW transceiver kits donation for Kosovo Pristina UniversityQRP Labs is a proud sponsor of the . Some time ago, QRP Labs' Hans G0UPL was QSO Today's episode 125 see?. For episode 193 QSO Today met?Vjollca Z61VB and you can listen to this fascinating episode here:??.? that Eric Guth 4Z1UG?would be donating several to Vjollca's Pristina University's radio club, to help re-birth amateur radio in Kosova. QRP Labs matched these donations one-for-one and we invited donations from other QRP Labs customers.? As a result of this scheme, we are pleased to confirm that we?have shipped?Vjollca a total of
Many thanks to Eric 4Z1UG and all other donors of QRP Labs kits for making this possible. Vjollca is very happy and will be able to use these 22 in her Winter semester.? 6. QRP Labs on Ham Radio Workbench podcastQRP Labs' Hans G0UPL was interviewed by Ham Radio Workbench podcast at the Dayton hamvention and you can hear the interview here??near the start of the podcast.? Ham Radio Workbench also recorded the FDIM seminar presentation?"Modern QRP Rigs and the Development of the QCX CW Transceiver Kit"?and you can listen to it here:?? 7. QRP Labs on ICQ PodcastQRP Labs' Hans G0UPL was interviewed by ICQ Podcast at Friedrichshafen "Ham Radio" hamfest in June 2018, discussing the process of designing and producing a kit such as the . Here's the link to the video:?? 8. QLG1 GPS Kit problemAfter sending out 182 of the manufactured in the latest batch, it was determined that the entire batch were faulty. They did not produce any 1 pulse-per-second output. This was a chip manufacturer error.? Garland K6GOG was able to perfect a method of using a Raspberry Pi to re-flash the firmware of the . This produced can be undertaken by anyone with a Raspberry Pi, we have documented the procedure here??.? There is no problem with any currently being shipped by QRP Labs. We have set up a re-flashing facility here in HQ using a first edition Raspberry Pi, VGA monitor fortuitously purchased in the Dayton 2018 hamvention fleamarket for $5, and a $3 HDMI->VGA adapter. We have also attempted to contact all 182 owners of the defective units, and offer them all a replacement unit if they wish. There are still several people who have not replied; perhaps these have re-flashed their units according to K6GOG's procedure??but, if you have one of these defective units (no 1pps output), if you did not see the email, but if you ARE reading this newsletter, then please ? 9. "MyDream" Pacific sailboat crossing by Dan KI7UBD tracked by QRP Labs Ultimate3S transmitter"My Dream" is a trans-Pacific sailboat voyage by Dan KI7UBD, using an ?with for tracking. with assistance from Bob ZL1RS. The system transmits "extended" WSPR with 6-character Maidenhead Locator on the 30m band, with 2W transmitter power to a whip antenna. Live tracking is hosted by QRP Labs at ?. You can read more details about the voyage, installation and more, at ?. Dan and his crew set?sail from New Zealand on 07-May-2018 and stopped briefly in Tahiti and Hawaii for supplies. They are now on the final leg of their trip to US.?The tracking has worked very well so far!
10. Balloon flights update: ZL1RS BB05 circumnavigation and moreThere have been lots of QRP Labs balloon flights since the last newsletter... below is a round-up of some of the interesting flights and paths, including two circumnavigation flights by Dave VE3KCL. Much of the Northern hemisphere is experiencing an unusually hot summer, with drought and high temperatures creating many new records. Aside from the obvious underlying long-term global warming potentially making such events more commonplace, the most likely immediate culprit is that the jet stream is not flowing quickly this year. This can also be seen in these high altitude balloon flight paths. Normally the jet stream flows at around the altitude of these flights, flowing by-and-large from West to East and driving the global weather systems. This is why we usually see the balloon flights fly generally East. Maybe a little up and down oscillations but the trend is clearly towards the East. When the jet stream slows down or stops, it allows areas of high pressure to stay in one place for an unusually long time, allowing hot weather to stay and intensify. This theory can quite easily be seen in some of the balloon paths - circumnavigations which have taken much longer to complete than usual; or unusual balloon tracks. See more below! BB05 circumnavigation? Bob ZL1RS's?first circumnavigation flight, BB05 went on to complete another circumnavigation. The flight used the special modified firmware on a custom-made lightweight PCB. The balloon was a larger-than-normal custom-made balloon envelope flying high at around 13,000m. See??for photos and more details! The whole path is shown below. The balloon flew for about 6 weeks before landing in the South Atlantic ocean on 06-Jun-2018. No problems for BB05, flying in the southern hemisphere.?
U3S25 by Jim N2NXZ Jim N2NXZ's U3S25 flight flew as far as Kyrgyzstan but took 15 days to do so and executed a little loop in the North Atlantic. Quite a slow flight. See ?for details.? U3B17 by Dave VE3KCL U3B17 is the 17th in the U3B test flight series. It was launched on 30th Aptil and made it back to Canada in 22 days, but was not quite able to complete a circumnavigation! It made a very slow Atlantic crossing. See ?for more details.? U3B18 by Dave VE3KCL (CIRCUMNAVIGATION flight) U3B18 was the 18th in the U3B test series and was launched on 06-May-2018. It cruised at around 10,000m for over 31 days and did complete a circumnavigation, but it took a very interesting path, way up North. It is another demonstration of the unusual jetstream patterns this year. See ?for more details.?
U3B19 by Dave VE3KCL (CIRCUMNAVIGATION flight) U3B19 also completed a circumnavigation and flew for almost a month. Again it took an usual Northerly path on the first lap. See ?for more details.?
U3B21 by Dave VE3KCL Even more fascinating was U3B21, launched on 12-Jun-2018 and flying for just over a month; this flight executed a huge loop over Asia. It is very unusual to see a balloon flight at this altitude (around 10,000m) fly so far back in a Western direction. It finally landed somewhere in China on its second huge Asian loop! See ?for more details.?
U3B22 by Dave VE3KCL U3B33 was launched on 07-Jul-2018 and has taken another unusually wiggly path; it is still flying, now far up North near Alaska but is turning back for some loops before perhaps coming home for a circumnavigation. See ?for more information, photos and LIVE TRACKING.?
11. Social media, feedback, unsubscribingSocial media:?QRP Labs has the following presence on social media. If you use these social media then please join or follow QRP Labs! Announcements such as new products, balloon launches, etc., will be made first in these media! 1) QRP Labs discussion group /g/QRPLabs for discussion and support on all QRP Labs products Feedback:?As always, please ?with any comments, ideas, criticism, feedback of any kind! Unsubscribing:?If you want to unsubscribe from this monthly newsletter, then either log in to your ?and un-check your newsletter preference, OR, ?and we'll take care of it.? ?Vy 73 de QRP Labs |
I am pleased to report that the backlog of QRP Labs shipments, which has plagued us ever since August 2017 when the tremendously popular was introduced, has now been CLEARED! The entire shipment operations relocation which I wrote about in the May newsletter has now been successfully completed. The kit stock finally arrived from Japan on 14-May-2018 and we spent 2 months fighting to clear the backlog of pending orders. Two things conspired against us, making it take longer to catch up than anticipated:
