Thursday, December 26, 2024

Fully assembled 10-watt, 10-80m zBitx released - $149


Ashhar Farhan VU2ESE merrily announced late yesterday that the zBitx is now available for purchase at HF Signals

This is a fully assembled radio, not a kit, and should be regarded as an experimental, tinkerer's radio.

Here is the schematic.

I have one on the way.

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8 comments:

  1. wow, a robust feature set. I'll be interested in hearing your thoughts on the delivered unit.
    Pat WF7ABC

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    1. I'm tempering my expectations, having owned two sBITX's, but the price of the zBITX makes that an easy thing to do.

      73,
      John

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  2. I was looking for another radio to take the place of my Penntek TR-25. I am wondering if this could be a successor? David AE4LH

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    1. If the zBitx is anything like its predecessors, its CW operation will be quite inferior to that of the TR-25. The bitx series of radios are primarily for digital operation and, even then, implementation of features are often not as smooth as more "mature" radios. They are innovative and inexpensive RF-experimentation devices.

      73,
      John

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    2. John, thank you very much for your experience & knowledge. I feel I need the AGC option that had been available for the TR-25. The original owner didn’t get it & now I can’t find one. I saw one offered for the uBitx, but don’t know if it would work. TÚ es 73 de David AE4LH

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    3. John, thank you for your quick response. And, thank you for your honesty with the zBitx's CW ability against the TR-25. Maybe you have some other insights and hints that I draw upon. Today's search began with trying to find the AGC module that was an add-on for the TR-25. The original owner did not get that option. It is no longer available. I found one on the uBitx, but even if it fits I would not have a matching installation manual. Guess I'm out in the cold on an AGC. My workaround? I do not use headphones. I use an external speaker. Maybe it is a good advertisement for ham radio when I'm doing POTA!! :) TNX es vy 73 de David AE4LH

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    4. John, I'm looking forward to reading your review of the zBitx. When I first heard about it I thought it might be a KX2/3 killer, but it sounds like it really is more targeted at the digital crowd (no problem with that, but I was hoping it might be a good CW rig too). I'd order one today if it were offered as a kit - I like building radios more that I enjoy using them!

      73,
      Mike, KL7MJ

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    5. Hello Mike, several of the early bitx radios were offered as modular kits. Maybe that turned out to be more of a hassle than it was worth for Ashhar. These days the radios are assembled by a co-op team of women in support of the local economy.

      I'm looking forward to finding out how the rig performs on CW myself!

      73,
      John

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