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Reviews For: Bitx40 HFSignals Kit 40m SSB Transciever

Category: Ham Radio Kits

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Review Summary For : Bitx40 HFSignals Kit 40m SSB Transciever
Reviews: 10MSRP: 59
Description:
The BITX40 board is a two board, 40 meter SSB transceiver module kit with digital control.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.hfsigs.com/
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
15104.8
E78CB Rating: 2023-09-16
Nice learning expirence but also practical kit too Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Very nice rig designed and produced by Ashhar Farhan VU2ESE and "HF Signals" from India and really capable station. Originally built for 40m LSB 5-7W. You can call it a semi-kit (just solder controls and ins/outs). I use it in SSB contest in QRP class and as portable rig. I added couple mods: RF gain (very useful), filters for 80m and 60m band, SP/Mic/PTT in/out so now with Raduino module I have LSB/USB/CW/Digi QRP rig for 160/80/60/40m. . Found no need for changing the original mic! Very sensitive on RX but sometimes suffer from strong AM BC stations. I played with QRP CW before, but I was very surprised at what can be done with 5-10W on SSB too.
KI5GKD Rating: 2021-08-18
Great little radio for working 40M Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I'm a bit late to the BITX40 party having recently bought a couple out of production BITX40 V3 boards from a fellow Ham and have had a lot of fun playing around with them. The boards came with one "Raduino" board and after I finished that radio I bought another Raduino from HF-Signals for the other one.

It's a small board which allows you to build a very compact single band radio (it can be modified to work on 20M) and has a surprisingly good receiver. I have installed numerous mods to improve it's CW ability, AGC, fine tuning, etc., and it has turned out to be an enjoyable little radio.
N2DTS Rating: 2019-03-12
very good for the price Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Just worked a 1000 mile qso at 10 watts out, RX audio is quite good.
I mounted the kit in a chassis with a rack mount panel. I used a 10 turn pot and the up down button mod. I used a hifi condensor mic, and I have a preamp kit on order so I can use a dynamic mic and have a mic gain control.
At 15 volts in the radio puts out 10 watts pep.

Its very stable, no issue there, it tunes kind of funky in somewhat big steps and makes thumps in the audio. I added a 27 ohm resistor to the audio output as I found the thumps were loudest with the volume low or off???
After that mod, it sounds good, and it has a lot of audio output.

Very fun to play and experiment with.
I got two kits and gave one to a co worker who just got his licence, maybe we can connect on the air with our bitx 40's!
This is what ham radio is all about.
WA4THR Rating: 2018-04-25
More fun than a barrel of morsekeys Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I received a BitX40 as a Christmas Gift from my XYL (after some hinting) and began to assemble it shortly thereafter. While still scattered on the desk with clip lead wiring to various components I had a QSO with a station over 300 miles away who gave me a good report, so I proceeded to provide an enclosure for it. Since then I have had a blast making hardware and software modifications as both are “open sourced” and there is a fantastic group of enthusiasts on https://groups.io/g/BITX20 that provide ideas, Arduino sketches, construction ideas, and support for this amazing little rig. As it is supplied it makes a fully functional 40m SSB radio with a digital VFO, but some relatively simple mods increase functionality to add more modes, add features like band scanning and split operation, add panel info like an S-meter or SWR displays, add interfaces for digital mode operation, and much more. The radio is designed to be experimented with and the international group of hams on that group freely share their experiences and ideas. There is even a weekly roundtable net on 7277 each week where you can be amazed at how many folks you can talk to with all running only 5-10 watts. This is a remarkable piece of engineering providing surprising features for almost no money, and more fun than, well, a barrel of monkeys?
KB1OIQ Rating: 2017-12-26
Excellent kit for HW and SW hacking Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
The radio as supplied works quite well, but the beauty of this kit is that the hardware schematics and software source code are freely available. This opens up a world of possible hardware and software modifications! I've thoroughly enjoyed machining my own metal enclosure, and hacking the hardware and Arduino code. If you like to tinker, you'll love this kit, and for the price, it is a great value.
AC2JB Rating: 2017-12-14
Revised review Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Please read my first review of the BitX40.
I now have the Bitx40 working quite well. Some receiver noise ( birdies) mentioned in my first review were in fact coming from external sources. The clicking when tuning was an easy fix and I could have lived with it as it was.
My rig is working well with a wire dipole antenna and I have made some long distance contacts.
The receiver seems very sensitive.
I’m upgrading my initial review from a ‘’2’ to a ‘4’
( good) , keeping in mind that the BitX40’is a complete circuit board all parts installed SSB xceiver for $59 dollars.
It is a good buy.

K6BCT Rating: 2017-05-25
For the price, it's fantastic. Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
For the price, it's fantastic. Nice clean analog receiver that you just have to hear to believe. 20+ watts of clean output if powering the PA with 24v. At $60 shipped, this is a steal of a kit.
W4JLE Rating: 2017-04-12
Fantastic learning experience Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I bought my first one not knowing a thing about the Arduino VFO. Wow, the chance to modify it is endless! My first contact was with a ZS station! This is a no fail "kit". I put the kit in quotes because everything is built and the user only needs to connect a few components such as the antenna jack, tuning pot etc. I operated mine for a few weeks mounted in the plastic case used for shipping. My present version uses a GPS module to keep the frequency within .003 Hz. I have used the Arduino to act as a VFO for and old Globe transmitter playing around. The best $59.00 I ever spent on tuition. Tons of help on the BITX forum and folks are always making improvements you can upload to the radio. Best part is the software to do all the neat stuff meets that critical HAM need... It's FREE. I can not recommend this high enough I would give it a 10 if the review would let me!
KD8CGH Rating: 2017-04-12
Great kit radio Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
The BITX40 got me back into kit building. The kit as received makes a serviceable 40 meter SSB transceiver, but it really is a starting point for hardware and software modification. There is a very active user community that provides assistance and many good ideas for mods. Great fun!
KC8WBK Rating: 2017-01-25
Low cost 40m QRP transciever Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
The Bitx40 kit is a great way to get an excellent 40m receiver and QRP transmitter in an easy to build kit. The kit uses the Raduino VFO, an arduino-based tuner which provides a screen readout of the operating frequency.

Building the kit means soldering wires to various components and then plugging them into jacks, about an hour or two of work with a soldering iron and wire stripper. All of the parts on the board are already mounted, you only have to connect the peripheral components. You can take more time to mount the board in a case (not provided) if you would like. You will have to provide your own small speaker, 12V power supply, case and headphones.

Instructions could be more detailed, however the build is fairly simple. A growing group of builders are here: https://groups.io/g/BITX20/ . Note that the group is named BITX20 after previous versions of the Bitx.

The Bitx40 covers the 40m ham band from 7.00 to 7.30 Mhz. With the Raduino, there is no drift, which is a big improvement from the old analog model of the Bitx, and makes the user experience much better.

This kit is simple enough for a beginner, and also provides the radio electronics tech many opportunities to mod and enhance the radio. The design is a good one to learn about the workings of an SSB transceiver. The Raduino, an arduino based VFO (variable frequency oscillator), offers the ability to modify the program controlling frequency control, and may lead to future mods.

As of January, 2017, there have been some reports of damaged kits in the mail, however the manufacturer is working on improving packaging. Paypal offers buyers some protection.

I rated the Bitx40 kit as 5-Great! because it is a low cost way to get a fully functional 40m SSB transceiver. I think the receiver is excellent. I am still evaluating the transmitter. At 7 watts, the quality of the antenna, band conditions and operator skills are a big part of successfully making QRP SSB contacts. I have made contacts in the range of 700 to 1000 km, but generally with low audio reports. I am still testing and evaluating the transmitter.