QRP-comparison: EFHW vs. vertical; SW-3B vs. QCX mini

Рет қаралды 18,370

3 жыл бұрын

In this video I'll try to compare two nice QRP antennas, the end fed half wave and a telescope vertical and two QRP radios, the venus SW-3B and the QRP Labs QCX mini. All tests was made on 20m.
To gain the real QRP feeling, the comparison was made outdoor.
I bought both transceivers by my own. There was no sponsoring. The conclution is my own opinion.
Where to buy?
QCX: www.qrp-labs.com
SW-3B: www.venus-itech.com/shop/
Antennas: You can find it on eBay.
Vy 73 de Björn, DL2NEP

Пікірлер: 36

@davidsradioroom9678 2 жыл бұрын

It's nice to see a complete station in a small package.

@royramdeen8864 2 жыл бұрын

What a nice simple vlog Bjorn. thanks for sharing.

@gsansoucie 2 жыл бұрын

Well now, I learned something new today. I didn’t realize my mini could send WSPR on its own. I completely skipped that part of the manual, I just wanted to build it and use it. Now I want to try this out. W1ND

@rheslip20 3 жыл бұрын

I think if you did a more quantitative test of the antennas you would find the EFHW is much better on TX. As a weak signal mode WSPR can make contacts at miniscule levels of radiated power - CW or SSB contacts would be better to compare the relative performance of the antennas. Short loaded vertical is easier to set up and very compact but it's an inefficient radiator. Fun and entertaining video nonetheless - great job!

@echopapaqrp8166 3 жыл бұрын

You are right. I think I explained the topic not deep enought. I thought about a QRP setup on the top of an hill. In this case the vertical is very easy to setup and the TX loses don't matters because of the location. The EFHW is the better performer. Im my case I find the EFHW very late. before I was working with normal dipol antennas. I think there is no perfect antenna. The usecase deside wich antenna is the best. During this outdoor tour the vertical performed very well. I had vertical telescopic antennas before but they all works like an dummyload. One model goes from 80m to 2m. But I could not do a contact 30km away... So I was very surprised that the monoband vertical works. Thank you very much for your commend! Vy 73

@ys1rs 2 жыл бұрын

Nice video! Have a question.... Are you using a counterpoise with the EFHW? Looks like you added one on 0:38 but is hard to see as it is on the back of the circuit board of the EFHW. If you added one... Kindly confirm how long is the counterpoise and how long is the feed cable for the EFHW? I see you are getting very good results with the QRPGUYS EFHW design. 73 Rob, YS1RS.

@barrykery1175 3 жыл бұрын

Those are neat little radios. I'd like to have either one of them. Barry, KU3X/QRP

@mikesmithg0rfd356 3 жыл бұрын

thank you

@stefanopassarella1334 3 жыл бұрын

Nice video, really intersting. I would ask you which vertical antenna are you using and about the Qcx mini qrp, it's the assembling and allignament easy to do? Thanks

@echopapaqrp8166 3 жыл бұрын

The antenna is a "noname". On the telescope there is a sticker "MRW-HF20". But it works fine. The assembly of the QCX mini is easy. But I have to say I have worked for years at a hardware developing department. But I think it is easy. Only the bandpass coil is a little bit tricky. But Hans included many drawings about it in the manual. Allignment is ok. The bar graph is jumping a lot but it is possible and take only 5min. Don't forget to repeat all steps multible times. I compared the receiver sensitivity to an SGC SG2020 and it is nearby the same. Maybe I will take a video of this comparison if there is interest. Vy73

@stefanopassarella1334 3 жыл бұрын

@@echopapaqrp8166 Thanks for the info Bjorn. I had a lot of fun building a little tiny radio called Pixie, but I was impressed from the Qcx features. I'm also going to build a 40m rock mite qrp cw rtx. Best regards IW2LMJ Stefano

@patring620 3 жыл бұрын

Hmmm...The EFHW looks like a QRPGuys EFHW kit. I was surprised to see the silkscreen print read "Eed Fed" rather than "End Fed" at 0:37 in the video. haha. Enjoyed your video. I used it as a guide to test WSPR with my 40m QCX-Mini, which worked pretty well.

@echopapaqrp8166 3 жыл бұрын

OK... so now I know that I have the chinese version....

@SpeakingArrow 3 жыл бұрын

Interesting overview Bjorn of the QCXmini and antennas. I use QRPGuys UnUnTenna Plus. Easy to use with any of my 5 QCX rigs. Like Pat said I intend to use your setup outline for WSPR to guide me in trying it for the first time. I built the QRP-Labs GPS but have not learned to use it as of now. So many projects so little time. 72 N4NRL

@mikej-38qso22 3 жыл бұрын

Great Video. I bought the first CQX and had a bad experience. The receiver did not work. I contacted Hans the developer, he hooked me up with an American contact that would diagnose it and work on it, however, it was found that the on board surface mount chip was bad. Hans offered to fix it or rebuild me another one but no fault of his own he never received it. between mailing the receiver around America and Tuckey it was over a 100 + $. So I bought the The SW-3B Transceiver it has 3 bands which are my favorite bands, ( 40, 30, and 20) and if you buy all 3 kits from QRP LABs, (40, 30, and 20) it would cost nearly the same. You can even even listen to voice on 40 and 20 meters and its the same size as the QCX. If I didn't have shell shock from the CQX experience I would most likely buy the Mini. I think Hans has contributed a lot to ham radio and kids. 73

@echopapaqrp8166 3 жыл бұрын

I think many things changed when Hans moved from Tokyo to Turkey. May be nowadays your problem would not happen again. The qcx mini is my third kit from Hans (First SSCW beacon, Ultimate2, QCXmini). All kits works without trouble. The QCXmini was wasy to build (in my opinion). The result is realy nice. But there are also bad points. You can hear the tuning steps (I think noise from the serial communication between CPU and DDS) and arround 14,004.5 there is an big fat birdy. The SW-3B does not have this tuning noise. But birdies you can find as well. Thank you very much for your commend! Vy 73

@F_Tim1961 2 жыл бұрын

if you bought all kit from Hans for the three bands and built up an din the case you would pay 2 x as much as for the SW-3c (3B is not available due to component supply issues). So your story about cost almost the same is not really correct. the 3C appears to be avail only in built up form and not as a partial kit. the output PA design of the 3C is vastly more robust than the PA design of the Qcx mini. If you buy a Qcx get the + version it seems to be far more robust but still has the PA issue. the Mitsub RD15HVF1 ** Probably will be an acceptabe subs for the BS170s in parallel. they have a combined input C of 180 pf The RD15 is a LOT liess than that . Don't comfuse it with the more common RD 16HF which is used in the Xiegu for example. The Mitsub RD15 is unkillable if you don't supply it with more than 15.2V. ** Hans won't do this change as it will add at least $5-6 USD to the price of the unit.

@msgaltman3075 Жыл бұрын

Thanks for the review. Very helpful. How many characters does the CW keyer memory hold? I have read several reviews stating that it can not hold a standard SOTA or POTA CQ call, for example "CQ SOTA CQ SOTA DE KO4YLZ".

@wd8dsb 9 ай бұрын

I have 3 QCX-mini transceivers and just got done with my first POTA activation. I was able to program CQ CQ CQ POTA WD8DSB WD8DSB K into the QCX-mini memory keyer and it worked great. Just FYI, Don

@doccpu7 10 ай бұрын

Be nice to see if a EFHW run vertically does as well as the short vertical. So many of these verts dont make it clear how the EFHW was run. Like any odd length wire or hor ant its going to have nulls. I have a 19 foot long EFHW vert at 15 feet next to my house. Using SDR's around the country and Hawaii I have found it does as well as my other antennas.But unlike my 3 band hor dipole it is omni directional. A fishing pole to run a line over a tree to pull up a nylon rope to pull up the wire of an efhw vertically does very nicely.

@forthy62 2 жыл бұрын

Schönes Video! Was mir am QCX nicht gefällt ist der mangelnde SSB Empfang. Manchmal möchte man ja einfach nur zuhören. Da punktet der SW3B. Kannst du ein paar Worte sagen zu der Halterung der kleinen Vertical? 73, Stephan, DF6PA

@echopapaqrp8166 2 жыл бұрын

Hallo Stephan, wenn man SSB hören will. OK das geht mit dem QCX nicht. Die Halterung für die Vertical ist einfach ein Fotostativ und ein Alublech mit entsprechendem Gewinde. Dann eine BNC Kupplung mit Schraubgewinde. Relativ einfach und man bekommt die Teile eigentlich überall. Funktioniert sehr gut. Auf dem Vulkan musste ich die Antenne aber mit einem Spanngurt festziehen, da einfach viel zu starker Wind war. 73

@paulkinas7926 3 жыл бұрын

The SW3B is out of production till at least October 2021 per Dale. Have had one on order for 2 months, and they just aren't shipping them any more due to component problems....

@F_Tim1961 2 жыл бұрын

Venus now has the SW 3C which is the small desk version in production with functional improvements over the older SW 3C design . The case size is about the same as the Xiegu G1M transceiver . they say they will eventually put the smaller 3B back into production once the issues with supply of Silabs oscillator chips is resolved. this current data as of August 2021. TE. Fidler (not associated with Venus PRC)

@RobertoPietrafesa 3 жыл бұрын

Thank you for video! Have you a link where to buy vertical antenna? Thank you so much. 73 de IZ7VHF.

@echopapaqrp8166 3 жыл бұрын

Hi, I bought the antenna at eBay. It is some kind of no-name antenna. You will find similar antennas from MFJ and so on. At the moment I am not sure about this antenna. Receiving is good but for transmit it is a too small antenna (keep in mind that nearby all of your power will burned in that black coil. Only a small part will transmitted trough the telescopic antenna) 73

@RobertoPietrafesa 3 жыл бұрын

@@echopapaqrp8166 Thank you gentleman for kind answer!

@larspregge6420 3 жыл бұрын

5m Teleskop wäre sicher besser und nicht viel schlechter zu transportieren gewesen und hätte mehr gebracht. Daß der QCX ein Menü hat, gut und schön, aber die Einstellungen, rein TRX mässig, gibts die auch beim SW-3B? Also die Alignmenteinstellungen zaehlen da nicht, da ist der QCX ja wohl einzigartig. Und im Vergleich, 3 QXC-Mini oder einen SW-3B? Bessere Bedienung und Preis als der MTR hat das SW-3B ja. Und umschalten ist einfacher als 10 mal umstecken bei Bandwechsel. Beim QCX scheint aber auch ein besseres Filtern drin zu sein, der SW hat da nicht viel eingebaut und das für 3 Bänder. Der Mini ist aber schon ein geiles Teil. Der Preis für den SW-3B wird jetzt wohl um einiges hoher gehen, durch die neuen Bestimmungen und die 6€ Abzocke der Post für Zollvorleistung.

@echopapaqrp8166 3 жыл бұрын

Der SW-3B hat schon einiges an Funktionen weniger. Es gibt zwei versteckte Menüs. 1x Licht AN/AUS/AUTO und ein Menü um den Quarz zu kalibrieren. Das wars. Dann gibt es z.B. keine CW-Speicher. Es gibt einen CQ-Rufer. Man gibt einmal sein Call ein und dann ruft er für einen nach einem festen Schema CQ. Die Ausstattung vom QCX ist deutlich mehr. 12 Speicher und wirkliche Einstellungen. WSPR, CW-Baken, ... Mir gefällt auch der Empfänger deutlich besser. Er ist feiner und das Grundrauschen ist niedriger. Monoband ist der einzige "Nachteil". Ich bin aber meist auf 20m unterwegs. ALso alles OK.

@hcy0 3 жыл бұрын

Den SW-3B finde ich auch sehr interessant, darüber kannst du gerne noch mehr Videos machen. Und gibt's in DL eine Bezugsquelle für die QRPGuys-Antenne, wenn man in den USA bestellt sind die Versandkosten fast so hoch wie das Teil selbst kostet. 73

@echopapaqrp8166 3 жыл бұрын

Ich werde den SW-3B in ebay verkaufen. Ich plane auf einen KX2 zu setzen. Trotzdem bin ich von dem SW-3B sehr überzeugt. Der Emfänger ist sehr sauber und das Gerät ist wirklich toll. Die Antenne habe ich bei ebay gekauft. Ich bin mir nicht wirklich sicher ob die Antenne gefälscht ist oder ein Original. QRPGuys hat ja auf der Webseite stehen das sich NICHT in ebay aktiv sind. Ich habe das aber auch erst nach dem Kauf gesehen. Selbstbau wäre ja auch eine Option. Das Geheimnis ist ja eigentlich nur der richtige Kern. 73

@hcy0 3 жыл бұрын

@@echopapaqrp8166 Ja stimmt, Selbstbau geht immer (ist ja auch ein Bausatz). Aber die Antenne ist so nett und (im Original) preiswert, dafür kriegt man kaum die Teile. KX2 ist natürlich eine ganz andere Preisklasse. 200 EUR vs. 1000 oder mehr. Wollte mir zuerst auch den SW-3B kaufen aber hab mich dann doch für einen FT-817 entschieden. 73

@hcy0 8 ай бұрын

Ich bin froh doch noch keinen SW-3B gekauft zu haben, der neue QMX sieht da doch vielversprechender aus für ungefähr den gleichen Preis.