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Reviews For: Glowbug Kits AC-1 Junior

Category: QRP Radios (5 watts or less)

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Review Summary For : Glowbug Kits AC-1 Junior
Reviews: 6MSRP: 99.97
Description:
Single Tube QRP CW Transmitter
40 or 30 meters
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.glowbugkits.com/
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0065
KC6SWL Rating: 2012-12-10
You'll Love It! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I just built the Glowbug AC-1 Junior and I have to tell you it was blast. The kit build quality was perfect in every way. Just like the other posts, at first power up, just a small teak of the cap and it broke into oscillation and she was off and running. Putting out a screaming watt and a quarter. One thing I want to mention, I had a question about the tone I was receiving in the receiver. It wasn’t as solid as I was use too. (With my $5K rid!!) hihi Dwight answered my email in about an hour! It was more than likely my antenna “swaying in the breeze” that was causing the funky load that wouldn’t settle down. He said, if that’s not the problem, it could be a faulty 6AQ6 and he offered to send a new one. At his direction, I loaded it up on a dummy load and the problem all but went away. I also tried an old 6AQ6 that I found in my tube box and the problem went away completely. I reported back to Dwight and he immediately sent me a new 6AQ6. That’s what I call customer service. Once I got the antenna squared away, I have stacked up several contacts using my new GlowBug and an old beat up Radio Shack SW receiver that I had out in the shop gather dust. Here I sit with a Yaesu FTDX 5000 in the shack and I am here in the shop with my new Glow Bug and an old Radio Shack receiver having the time of my life. Go figure.. All that to say, you can’t go wrong with this kit or this company. Dwight, U-DA-MAN! This kit Rocks!
WB0FDJ Rating: 2012-11-27
A very neat little QRP transmitter. Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This is a terrific little transmitter kit. Came very well packaged. All parts present and accounted for. The instructions were very clear. It went together easily enough, it could be a first time kit if you take your time. Once assembled it fired up the first time. You get two crystals and fortunately I had ordered a bunch already from QRPME, so I put 7.015 in. It's nice to have three freq's to choose from. The tone, as monitored here it very nice. Ten minutes after getting it all together made a QSO into Ohio from here in MN. Love it and it's got a real tube! If you do QRP you just gotta get one of these.
K3XR Rating: 2012-03-14
GREAT LITTLE KIT Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
This is a very nice kit to assemble and operate. Dwight is a great guy to do business with, works well with his customers. Hook it up to a decent antenna and be surprised what will result with about 1 watt.
VE2HAR Rating: 2012-02-11
Very Nice Kit Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
It has been long time I haven't built a kit like this, it took me four hours to assemble it and I really enjoyed it. Assembly instructions were clear and easy to understand. It puts out exactly 1 Watt, after calling couple of times CQ I had my first QSO.
You may see my QSL card for this QSO and the map:
http://files.qrz.com/r/ve2har/ve2har_qrp_qsl.jpg
http://files.qrz.com/r/ve2har/QSO_map_bmp.jpg
I used Hallicrafters SW-500 as a receiver. I received 559 report with a sloper dipole.
N2KTV Rating: 2011-12-30
Fun and easy to build Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This was an easy kit to build - it took about 2 hours. Still, I would not consider this suitable for a first time kit builder as the instructions assume you have a basic understanding of electronic components. The transmitter put out the advertised one watt and was very stable. The enclosure is high qualty and the pcb board mounted securely in the enclosure using supplied standoffs.
AB7KT Rating: 2011-06-09
Neat Kit Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I bought the kit after seeing it in the June 2011 CQ magazine article. Shipping was prompt. Instructions were good. Built mine for 40 meters. I intended to build it for 30 meters but since it came with 3, 40 meter rocks, I went with 40. Build time was about two hours. Worked perfectly the first time I fired it up. Kit was very easy to build.
Mine puts out right at 1 watt into a Bird Wattmeter with a 50 watt slug.
Just worked my first contact with it. Distance was only a couple hundred miles but got a good signal report. Had it mated with a Ramsey DC receiver. 1 watt and a Ramsey DC receiver is an accomplishment in my book.