A quick look at the HB-1A QRP transceiver

Last Summer Gerry, VA3GLT, and myself attended the first Maplecon QRP convention.  At this event Gerry was lucky enough to win one of two HB-1A transceivers that had been kindly donated to the event by Youkits who were in attendance.

Gerry received the transceiver in the post and I recently got to see the rig when he can around to my shack with it.  We connected it up and I had a quick investigation of its capabilities.

This is a small form QRP transceiver of the field portable type like the Elecraft KX1, Hendricks PFR 3, the ATS series by KD1JV and the new dual band Ten Tec QRP rigs (which are effectively the same as the HB-1A but only offer 2 bands).  The HB-1A covers the 40m, 30m and  20m bands and although it is a CW only rig it does allow listening to SSB.  We powered Gerry’s radio from my 13.8V power supply and measure 5W output on 40m and 30m and about 3.75W on 20m.  The receive seemed sensitive and comparable to the KX1 and when the audio was routed through some powered computer speakers (there is ony a headphone jack, no speaker in the radio) the audio was good to listen to.  The CW filter bandwidth was adjustable from 900Hz to 400Hz.

The display was very nice, being a blue LCD as the photograph below shows.  The main tuning dial had a positive ‘click’ as it was turned.

This certainly is not intended to be a review, but I was pleased with what I saw of the performance of the HB-1A and I know Gerry is very happy with it.  It is a good addition to the ultra-portable group of transceivers that are out there on the market and worthy of consideration.

I did not make an audio recording when looking at the HB-1A but below is a video showing the performance by JE1TRV.  If you watch carefully you will see him adjust the filter bandwidth.

If you want to listen to my recorded interview with Yimin, the founder of Youkits then go to this post.