Callsign	Required
Password

If you've forgotten and/or need to reset your password, please enter your Callsign and use the button below.

You *must* have a verified email address on the account.

If you are not a member of the eHam community

Please consider registering to e-Ham.

Manager

Manager - NA4M
Manager Notes

Reviews For: QRPver Minion Mini DC-3001

Category: QRP Radios (5 watts or less)

eMail Subscription

Registered users are allowed to subscribe to specific review topics and receive eMail notifications when new reviews are posted.

Review Summary For : QRPver Minion Mini DC-3001
	Reviews: 2	MSRP: $350
	Description: QRPver Minion Mini DC-3001 small size direct conversion transceiver, HF 10 bands. The device is controlled by a microcontroller STM32F100. As a local oscillator, a frequency synthesizer it uses a SI5351 chip This transceiver is designed to work in SSB LSB, USB and CW. It is possible to work in digital communication modes "DIGI" (JT / PSK / BPSK / FSQ and all the others ...). On board the transceiver is a USB (UART to USB) port for connecting to a computer to control the transceiver from amateur programs, using the CAT protocol "Kenwood TS-440" The transceiver has small dimensions 100x103x30 mm. and is light weight only 430 grams. It will suit both at work, on the field trip, on nature, at the cabin .... So for everyday work, at home.
	Product is in production
More Info: https://qrpver.com/transceivers/all-band-hf-direct-conversion-transceiver-qrpver-dc-3001-minion-mini.html
# last 180 days	Avg. Rating last 180 days	Total reviews	Avg. overall rating
0	0	2	3.5

K3OX	Rating:	2020-12-07
Tiny and terrific			Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
ATTN. Addendum to review. I recently found out that the radio I have does not have any output filtering. Fortunately, I always used it with an antenna tuner, so there was SOME attenuation of harmonics, but if you order this radio, you should order it with the OPTIONAL (should be mandatory) output filter board!!! Since I already have mine, I guess I am out of luck and may just have to build an external filter bank. At least this earlier model doesn't have the CW switching problems of the successor model. As it stands, I can only recommend this as a receiver, at least without some kind of bandpass filtering. So order it with the filter board installed! It's a shame that the manufacturer will not provide an upgrade kit to allow the filter board to be added in the field. 73, Kevin First things first. The big reason why you might want to buy this xcvr is its tiny size, especially considering its capabilities and it's reasonable price. As I go on, I will talk about some things that could be considered omissions, but remember this is compared to units larger and more expensive. The intention is not so much to be critical as it is to let you know what this radio is and what it isn't. There is no internal battery or tuner. Considering its size (the radio fits in both the front and rear pockets of the jeans I am wearing), this shouldn't be shocking, but it isn't an all in one shack-in-the-box (TM, hi hi) like the Elecraft KX-3 or KX-2. But, a small battery pack and the Elecraft T-1 tuner still makes for a small station broken up into small pieces rather than one bigger "brick". So you may need to use 2 or three pockets, depending on your pockets :) I was surprised to find that the radio does not have an on/off switch! You just plug the radio into your power source and it boots. Really, it doesn't need a power switch when you think about it, it's just an unusual omission that I figured I should mention. The front panel has a readout, two knobs and four pushbuttons, simplicity itself, it only takes a few minutes to get familiar with the radio. The back panel has a BNC RF connector, a power connector for 12 to 14 volts DC, audio in and out, mic, cw key (and has a keyer built in), and external speaker jacks. There is also a USB port which I think is for programming and updates. The audio in and out jacks are intended for digital mode operation if desired. In terms of radio performance, I measured about 5 watts output on TX with 13 vdc. I did not measure the receiver performance, but it seemed sensitive enough and on my home antennas did not seem overly subject to overload, a good showing for what the radio is. The filtering is good, the bandwidth is adjustable between 1.6 and 3.2 on SSB and .4 to 1.5 on CW. I would have liked bandwidths below 400 hz, but there you are. The receiver includes General Coverage, but no dedicated AM rx mode is available. However, the RX does well on AM receive by zero beating on the SSB mode, so I don't consider this a real drawback. Slow, Fast and OFF AGC settings are available, but cannot be remembered by mode. The internal speaker actually does a pretty good job with enough level to be heard even in less than completely quiet environments. The dearth of knobs and switches referred to above do have drawbacks. Adjustments and functions often commonly found are not available here. There are no gain adjustments and no built in SWR/Power readout on transmit, so you need to know that your antenna SWR is under control. And any external antenna tuner should be autotuned or have SWR measurement capabilities (the Elecraft T-1 would be great here). I don't find these requirements a problem, but YMMV. There are also no memories and no A/B VFO capabilities. The lack of the B VFO means no split operation, which in my mind is the biggest lack of all (actually the only one that rises to the level of a real problem in my mind) and is the one thing that I would really like to see in a firmware update, though I don't know if the hardware would allow this. Oh, and a noise blanker would be nice. Maybe in the DC-3000A... When the radio is turned off, it will retain the last frequencies used per band unless the last frequency on a band was outside the ham band (if you were SWLing, for example). That band will default upon power up to the bottom of the ham band. I know this seems like I have expressed a lot of complaints, but this does not express how neat a radio this really is. I can easily live with all the aforementioned potential issues (but the A/B VFO thing which I realize will not be a problem for many) while completely digging the stealthily small size and enormous cool factor of this radio. Whip one out of your jeans pocket at the next radio club meeting and unless your club only has no-code techs (not that there is anything wrong with no-code techs... ), the wow factor will be a knockout!

AE7YD	Rating:	2018-05-02
Small in size great in performance.			Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I received the radio last week after ordering it mid March. The wait was long but it was worth it. The radio is now on my desk and takes hardly any space. The sensibility is as specified, the sound quality is better than expected with an internal speaker. Not that small at nearly 2" for such a small radio. All connections are 3.5mm stereo jacks, the antenna is a BNC and the USB is a Mini USB. My computer did immediately recognize the radio. There is only one menu to set some parameters like CW key and speed. It has a build in keyer. The CW tone is clean and I received good reports on the modulation. The functions are very intuitive. I had some questions and Yurii at QRPVer did reply in 24 hours. The build is impeccable in and out. Would I buy it again? A big Yes. Yes, there is a surcharge on Paypal but that is because of their banking system and even with that it is still a good deal.

Category:

QRP Radios (5 watts or less)

Product:

QRPver Minion Mini DC-3001

Summary:

Rating:	Time Owned:
Great! Good OK Needs Help Poor Awful!	0 - 3 Months 3 - 6 Months 6 - 12 Months More than 12 Months

Remarks:

Describe your experience with the QRPver Minion Mini DC-3001 and tell us why you give it the rating you did (required). Other useful information would include your experience with similar products, infomation on a product that you would purchase instead of this one, and so on.