Weber MTR

[KK0G]

WOO HOO!! Just reserved my MTR!  ;D ;D
I've been patiently watching the reflector waiting for it to be released, now just need to wait a little longer for them to ship.

[gil]

Awesome! I hope to get one too!

Gil.

[KK0G]

Gil, I'll try not to make too much noise about it so that there will still be some left to order 8) .

This will be my first attempt at SMT so I probably won't finish it at my usual break neck kit building speed of one or two days.

[gil]

Are you going to try the solder paste method or use your soldering station?
I used my soldering station with mine.. Worked fine, though the ICs were pretty hard.

Gil.

[KK0G]

I've heard guys that swear by the paste method but I plan on going with what I know and am good at which is my solder station. I have an extremely fine needle tip that will hopefully work well, I used it once to replace four SMT resistors in the display of my old TS-2000 so technically I've done SMT parts before but four resistors is a far cry from an entire kit. 8)

[gil]

I really like the SMT kit building with a soldering iron.. It isn't as hard as it looks, the difficulty of course being the microscopic size of the components.. I use 2x glasses and a magnifying lens. I put a little solder on one pad then place the component and melt the solder, then solder the other side. I like the fact that you don't have to cut component leads, which always end-up everywhere..

This new MTR will be awesome. I love mine. Fortunately it still works after the "fire" incident.. Still no idea what that was about and which component fried itself open.. Oh well. I hope to build the latest model the same way, with my soldering iron. It would be great to have 30m in case I go camping and it turns out to be a contest week-end. I hope to go camping soon by the way, not this coming week-end, but probably the next one, for three nights. The MTR will come with me of course, we'll see if it will be the two-bander or the three-bander, let's just hope. I doubt it would be there on time though, as I'd need a couple days to build it, marathon style like you do! That's how I built all my other kits. They all worked 8)

Rigs like the KX1, MTR, even the Rock-Mite (I have a 30m RM on order!) are awesome. What else fits in your shirt pocket and allows global communications? Thanks to CW! Building them ourselves is the cherry on the cake! When someone asks "Where can I get one," you can smile and say that 1. They're rarely for sale (MTR), and 2. You must build it yourself. A little self aggrandizing, but oh well.. ;)

Everyone should at least build a Rock-Mite. Maybe I should get a Radio Preppers special model with a specific crystal so we can all find each-other.. Now that's an idea! It could have a special silk-screened box with our logo! :o

If we both build it, no competition! But we'll have to manage a MTR-to-MTR QSO. Which we can do with my older model anyway.. Let's try sometimes to find out what bands and times would work for us.. I chat with Ray a few times a week on 20m at 11AM EST.

Good luck, but if you ordered that early, you'll probably get it!

Gil.

[KC3AOL]

I ordered one too. I'm going to try to order a second one later today once he opens up ordering to everyone.

I've also never done SMT soldering, but I'm a member of the local maker space, so I figured I could get someone there to show me how.

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[KK0G]

Yeah, I'm not too worried about the fact I have very limited experience with SMT, I'm betting that most of the tales of caution heard on forums is nothing more than tiny grains of truth blown way out of proportion by folks that have never done it, combined with some peoples natural human reaction of resisting change and fear of the unknown.  You hear the same type of scared reaction to winding torroids which anyone who's done a few will tell you is a piece of cake. I will be investigating visor mounted magnifiers though. 8)

[cockpitbob]

I've been watching like a hawk but was gone all day yesterday (working comms in a first aid tent at the Boston Marathon) and didn't place my order at about 9:30(eastern) last night.  I guess I have to wait to see if I was too late.

[KC3AOL]

Sorry Gil, all sold out.  :(

[cockpitbob]

Sorry Gil, all sold out.  :(

Yeah, they went quick.  I got my order in about 5hrs after the announcement so I'm hopeful.
I'll be putting my board together with a soldering iron.  No coffee allowed.

[KC3AOL]

Sent my check the other day and watched a few videos on doing SMT soldering. The soldering really does not look that difficult. I did order some magnifiers to help out though.

So now the question is which frequencies? Two of them will definitely be 20 &40. I was thinking of 80 for the third, but if I go with the end fed tuner from qrpkits, that would take a second tuner. Plus, I was reading about how noisy 80 is and not sure how well that would work for QRP. So 17 or 30? Which do you guys think is better and why?

I guess I should start learning Morse ;-)


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[cockpitbob]

I'm going through the same indecision process.  I really want 30, but most daytime Dx happens on wavelengths shorter than 20.  Maybe one of our propagation experts can give advice.  I'm thinking 30 fills a big hole between 20 and 40 while there isn't much difference between 20 and 17.

[KK0G]

Personally I'll be going with 40/30/20 for mine. 80 meters is out for the simple reason that this is a highly portable rig that I'll be using out in the field and there's no way I'm lugging around enough wire for an 80 meter antenna. In addition, 80 meter propagation is not very hot during summer months and especially not during day time hours in the summer which is the main time I will be using this rig.

I seldom venture much above 20 meters mainly because propagation can be less predictable/reliable on the higher bands although highly efficient, compact, light weight antennas are an advantage here.

Which leaves us with my choices:

40 meters - How could you possibly have a portable, multi band, QRP CW rig and not include 40 meters? It has good daytime propagation for relatively close in contacts that can stretch out quite nicely in the evening, it's usually not too noisy, there's always plenty of CW activity there practically 24 hours a day and antennas, while starting to get somewhat large, are still very managable.

30 meters - The great reprieve from contesters and other than a little digital activity we have the entire band to ourselves for CW. The 200 watt PEP limit also makes for a more level playing field for QRP. Being almost smack dab in the middle between 40 and 20 meters, it perfectly fills in the propagation gap between those two bands.

20 meters - The DX band that is open to somewhere in the world 24 hours a day and always has lots of activity. Unlike bands above it, propagation is usually fairly predictable, plus highly efficient antennas are still pretty compact and easy to deploy.

[gil]

I'll second Chris here, 40/30/20 is the best combination.

So, how many here bought the MTR, three?

That's a lot of MTRs for such a small forum :D

Gil.