# Low power SSB radio as a kit



## DKRinAK (Nov 21, 2011)

*The 'new' ALX-SSB transceiver. *









ALX-SSB transceiver - Front panel view.










ALX-SSB transceiver rear panel

What this review covers:
This review covers a 'new' to the North American market portable, low power SSB radio set. QRVtranics, out of Sugar City Idaho, sells the ALX-SSB radio. See *http://www.qrvtronics.com/CatHAM_Radio/Products/ALX_SSB.htm*

What is this radio?
The ALX-SSB is based on a modified board, sold as the CS series by QRVtranics. See *QRVTronics.com, KN-Q7A Kit. *

The base radio is the CS series from CRkits in China. See *http://crkits.com/*

What's the difference?
The *CS series from CRkits* has a digital VFO, but *no *display - past a simple tri-color LED. In other words, very hard to track your actual frequency.

The *CS series from QRVtranics* has a digital VFO _and_ the option of a digital display, two different types, in fact. More on this later.

*The ALX-SSB* is the CS main board, a new digital VFO and display as shown above. Multiband operation is possible.

Any of these versions of the radio may be purchased as a kit or as a fully assembled and tested radio. 
*Note* - _there are no SMD parts_ - this is fully thru-hole. Anyone that would have tried a Heathkit of old can easily build this radio set. There is _less_ point-to-point wring on this rig than in my old HW-7 or HW-8.

Full disclosure, I have no interest in QRVtranics, but I have provided some suggestions to the vendor for the documentation of the radio set. As an aside, I wrote a 60 page operations and technical manual for the MFJ-9296 (-9200) travel radio a couple years back. The radio has since neem discontinued and replaced by the You Kits HB-1B (2018) radio set - which sells for $299, is CW only, 5 watts and has almost no documentation.

Alright already_, what's the deal on this rig_?
I'm glad you asked. This is a small, HF radio that has full band coverage out of the box for any one band and up to five bands within the US Amateur Radio Service. Power out is 10 watts (slightly lower in the higher bands). The rig can be had as a kit or fully built by the vendor. It has full, English language, technical documentation. Yup - Native English, not the transliterated Chinese (Chinglish) crud normally seen on the low end market.

_Pretty cool,_ but the clincher for me is that the VFO is based on an Arduino chip and the software is open source!

One of the big concerns most hams have with the low cost QRP rigs seen on the market today is the proprietary MCU (control chip). Lose this and you own a brick. Add in densely packed SMD parts, parts that are unmarked for the most part, no technical documentation or schematics and you have a radio that - if it faults, goes into the trash.

The ALX-SSB radio is available as a kit, with full documentation. Repair, maintenance and hacking (more on this later) are a breeze as all the data needed is available. The parts are quality, not take-offs and are well marked.

Cost for the kit as a_ single band,_ with the speaker/mike is *$150* US dollars, plus shipping. All manuals are on line as PDF document with illustrations. Full band coverage and up to 10 watts output. This is available as 80/75 Meters, 40, 20, 17 or 15 meters. Ask for a quote for the multiband unit, as several options are available.

Specifications:
The radio is a common, single conversion, NE602/LM386 kind of setup. The final PA transistor is a IRF-510, which is noted for being more tolerant of high SWR at the antenna. The radio has a reverse polarity protection diode as well.

If you want to use this in the field, my suggestion is to add the QRPQuys antenna tuner (*EFHW Mini Tuner - QRPGuys*). I have and use this paired to the rig. The tuner is sold as an easy kit, taking less than an hour to assemble.

Dimension: 6.0 x 3.75 x 2.0 inches including feet not including connectors and knobs. 
Weight assembled: *12 oz.,* not including microphone. The dual/multi band version is slightly heavier.
. Power Supply: 12 to 13.8 V, 3 A
. Current consumption: 70 mA in RX and about 2 A in TX @ 13.8 V
. RF output: about 10 W PEP @ 13.8 V typical
. RF output for 15, 17 and 20 Meters will be lower
. Sandwich digital VFO integrated with the LED hole pre-drilled
. Stable and accurate frequency like a crystal
. Both USB and LSB are be supported by changing BFO frequency in calibration mode
. Sensitivity: about 0.5 uV at 10 dB SNR - or 0.1 uV for MSD.
. UNBAL jumper added to intentionally break the balance of NE602 to allow more convenient TX power peak alignment and antenna tuning (more on this later)
. Low dropout diode is used to allow a bit more battery life
. Final power amplifier IRF510
. Speaker microphone available
. IF filter: 6 pole crystal ladder filter + 1 pole post IF amplifier crystal filter
. IF bandwidth: about 2.0 KHz
. IF frequency: 8.467 MHz
. Connectors: Speaker, Microphone and Antenna
. Antenna Connector is: BNC type

My bench testing showed that full band overage and power output specs were easily met on my rig. The sensitivity levels were met with no problem. Actually, it took some tweaking to get my SIGEN to that low a power level.

*NOTE* - power output is input voltage dependent. On my 8xAA NiMH battery pack, power was 8 watts on 40M and just under 4 watts on 20M. On a fully charged AGM battery, full power was no problem. My new (Thanks to SM) 10 x AA battery packs work the treat with this rig.

Now&#8230;Operations:
The controls are basic. On/Off. Volume. VFO tuning. No Receiver Incremental Tuning (RIT) or Clarifier. The VFO does provide for very fine tuning. Just no offset.
USB'LSB selection is baked into the software and cannot be shifted _on the fly_. The software can be modified for USB on 40 meters for running PSK-31, for example.

The display may be either an OLED or LED. I chose OLED for the lower power use.
Attach battery, antenna, speaker/mike.
Turn the rig on. Set VFO. Communicate. Hard to get any easier than that.

The radio receiver has no ALC loop. The rear panel connector labeled "Speaker" means just that - use a speaker. Use of headphones is something I would strongly discourage. A near-frequency tuner-upper will leave your ears ringing&#8230;

The speaker/mike is a modified commercial unit with matching 8-pin connector. You can roll your own, but I doubt you could do this for $10 - your call.

Transmitter is clean and puts out enough power to be heard with a NVIS antenna setup for nearby (up t0 300 Miles) communications. This is a solid state, broad-band, no tuning required transmitter. If you are using a non-resonant antenna, _an external tuner is required_. With 10 watts output, you will need the distant station to do the heavy lifting, but the rig has more than enough power to work DX, if that is your thing. For disaster comms, 10 watts is a good compromise between power out and power consumption.

The rig can be had with up to five bands in this new ALX layout. I have the older two band setup for 40 and 20 meters, a good choice for Alaska.










Dual band filter board. That empty real estate on the side of the board is used for additional filters.

Digital VFO
The VFO runs on a Si5151 chip, controlled by an Arduino computer.



You can see the Arduino parks nicely on, the (modified) VFO board. It has on-board power conditioning (3.3VDC) to it is truly self-contained.

The software is simple and easy to modify&#8230;let me explain. The rig comes with full band coverage for the US ham bands.

In addition, the 40 Meter band is different for Alaska than in the L-48. I wanted the rig to come up in the middle of the Alaskan 40 meter band.

For that, I had to modify the software. Fortunately, that was fairly simple. The Arduino IDE (integrated development environment) software is a free download and the code for this rig is heavily commented.
Here is a sample of the code:

This software for the rig is available for download, if you wish to look at the entire package. Se QRVTronics.com, CRK-10A, ALX-SSB TRANSCEIVER, KN-Q7A Kit.

Bottom line:
This is a good quality, but relatively inexpensive SSB HF rig with 10 watts out. It's simple interface is so basic, a child can operate it. In a disaster situation, simple is better. No menus, no memories, no hassle. You can listen to AM SWBCB, with some care in tuning.

For disaster comms, an 80 meter version with a NVIS (near vertical incidental sky wave) antenna might be just the thing if your need to communicate out about 250 to 300 miles. You can search the 'web for morwe on the NVIS antenna system.

The rig offers the opportunity to modify the code for listening out of band, is made with through hole parts, so local repair is at least possible. Full documentation makes identification of parts simple. And the parts are both common use and are obtainable from any numbers of vendors on line. The kit assembly instructions offer trouble-shooting tips as well. Use the supplied links to check any details where you would like to know more.

I would say, it is at least worth a look!


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## FrankW (Mar 10, 2012)

I wish I was more competent with radio rigs.
The Bushbeater RTO class is something I want to take sometime soon.


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