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Reviews For: Warbler PSK-31 transceiver by NJ QRP club

Category: QRP Radios (5 watts or less)

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Review Summary For : Warbler PSK-31 transceiver by NJ QRP club
Reviews: 4MSRP: 40
Description:
A complete 80m PSK-31 transceiver, computer-ready!
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.njqrp.org/
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0044.8
VE3FAX Rating: 2011-12-19
Fun to build and use!..BUT needs soldering atten! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Lots of fun to build and amazing QRP fun!. Works Great!

Service/Repair Help:
Earlier versions had some RF power transistor problems (low or no power if I recall correctly).
I was shipped updated replacements N/C and they worked better.

I also later had some intermittent problems. The problem was one experienced by two or three other Radio Club members who built this kit. It seems to be caused by the double-sided, through hole cct board. It is very easy to overheat these, causing intermittent connections. I have lots of experiencing soldering this type of board and found these boards had more problems than most.

I you have transmit or intermittent problems, THREE areas to suspect are where the toroids solder (perhaps do to small wire size-cold joint-or over heating), the Crystal Filter area (I had to replace a few crystals after finding small fractures where their leads enter their casing- likely from my handling while soldering) AND the power transistors, where their replacement especially provides an opportunity for lifted traces.

So be extra careful working with theses solder points that pass through to both sides of the board. Make sure solder flows to both sides, but DON'T overheat them. And suspect most problems to occur with trace lifting and holes pulling away from traces at a nearly invisible level.

Once working, It has a few watts of RF and has been great fun with Digi-Pan.

There are also mods on the web to convert it to a CW only rig, and there may possibly be uses for other digital modes.

Have Fun!
W5WS Rating: 2008-03-16
Wow, just wow Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Dave Benson at Small Wonder Labs recently started selling the Warbler again after a short hiatus to built new home in Vermont. The new run of kits is as good as the rest of the SWL products. Only made 2 qso's so far, but at 550 miles and 955 miles, I'm impressed. The kit goes together in an evening or and the only difficult parts are two surface mount IC's and a toroid that can be a bit of a challenge. I think I'm going to get our club to do a group build of these. If you can build a RockMite, you can build this one. A lot of fun to build and use.
VA3DXV Rating: 2007-02-13
Very impressed! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This kit is now being sold by Small Wonder Labs - http://www.smallwonderlabs.com

They do a fantastic job of packaging the kit, and making it very easy to assemble. The 2 surface mount ic's do require very good soldering skills though. All the components are of good quality, especially the PCB which is very well done.

The rig works great, and one of my first contacts with it was also using a Warbler!

If you want to try out digital, and/or QRP kit building, I highly recommend this kit.
WY3X Rating: 2001-06-24
I like it a lot! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This is an extremely well-designed PSK-31 complete radio-on-a-circuit-board that you build yourself (a-la Heathkit). The documentation is not as good as Heathkit building instructions; There are no step-by-step parts installation instructions, rather, there is a list of components and descriptions with which to identify them. I installed all resistors first, then capacitors, etc. It took me about four hours over three days from start to finish, not counting disturbing phone calls, dinner bell, etc. The circuit board is EXCELLENT! It is well-marked and pre-soldered to make it easy to solder to. And masked to help prevent solder bridges. There are two multi-pin surface mount components that require the soldering skill of a gnome with a micro-soldering iron, so I don't recommend this kit unless you have superior soldering skills. BEWARE that this is a rock-bound rig, stuck on ONE frequency on 75m. This should not be a problem if this rig is what you want. There are three toriods which require the ability to count and the skills of a fine seamstress. After assembly, alignment is a snap- only ONE adjustment to perform! How easy could it possibly be? I aligned it per the instructions with W1AW, and took it to Field Day to try for a first QSO. Wouldn't you know it? Murphy decided to make me leave ONE wire at home! Everyone was pretty impressed by it! I can't wait to put her on the air for the first time, perhaps in a few hours. Will you be the first QSO on my new PSK-31 rig?