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Reviews For: YOUKITS - TJ2B

Category: QRP Radios (5 watts or less)

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Review Summary For : YOUKITS - TJ2B
Reviews: 11MSRP: 269
Description:
An HT-sized 5W HF SSB transceiver - covers 5-18MHZ
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.youkits.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00113.5
VE3EGA Rating: 2013-06-27
A QRP Radio that 'delivers'.. Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I purchased this radio with the intention of using it while traveling. This review is based upon my experiences so far, as I have only just taken delivery of my TJ2B..

I was curious to find out more about the Company and its products: Talking with Yimin, he explained that while he is the driving force behind their ham products he wants to bring 'fun' back into building and using QRP radios and accessories - he certainly appears to be delivering on that promise!

I learned a little bit about his Company in China in that that the ham-radio side of the business was developed almost as an 'enthusiastic side-line to their main-stream electronics industries. It is completely family run - with radio-hams at the helm!

The small TJ2B is by toted by YOUKITS as a 4-Band SSB Transceiver - which I suppose it is, however in Canada (Ontario, specifically) 5MHz is not yet available to us and 30M is CW/Digital and the radio doesn't do CW. That leaves 40M and 20M to play with!

Personally, I only really wanted those two bands (and maybe 17M) so I settled for what I got...

The radio works as it should and on 40M I was able to work into the UK and the mid-West with 5W via an ELECRAFT T1 tuner to a (20ft high) Carolina Windom. Modulation reports were just ok, and it was hard to reach 5W PEP however, heeding the suggestion of YOUKITS, I looked around for a suitable external mic that would give me more audio punch!

Luckily, I was able to try a few mics out before I purchased one, as my local store had a mic-tester - Ideally, I wanted a small mic but was largely disappointed in those that I tried!

I settled for a (wait for it) CB mic. The brand was 'Astatic' Road Devil. Designed for overcoming noisy truck cabs, the frequency response was just what I was looking for - plus there was an adjustable pre-amplifier built in. I took it home and replaced the plug and was delighted to see the needle kick-up to where it should be on voice peaks!

On-air reports were excellent.

Overall Radio Performance:

On 40M the TX output was peaking 5-6W but on 20M it was slightly under 5W. The RX was able to hear pretty much anything my other radios could hear but an outboard DSP accessory might appeal to some?

Tests are still ongoing but so far I am not disappointed and can enthusiastically recommend adding a TJ2B to your QRP 'go-bag'.

73

Terry VE3EGA/VA3IP