zBitx from HF Signals

It was only a few years ago Ashhar Farhan's small company HF Signals from India launched the Bitx40, a small 40m rig that was sold as a completed PCB, it was up to you how you housed it and cased it up. It sold in droves, and paved the way for the uBitx a fully functioning multi band HF rig cased, and complete, for a bargain price of HF entry to our hobby.

 Since then sBitx was developed and again opened the SDR path of development, powered by a Raspberry Pi as it's engine.

Well Ashhar has done it again! With the launch of zBitx.

 

This is what he has had to say launching it on Christmas day on the Bitx forum:

After months of work, we finally have the zBitx in production! We were able to price it at an incredible $149 USD for a 5 watt, 80M to 10 M QRP radio with a large 480x320 touch screen that allows you to run CW, FT8 and other modes without needing even the phone that the original zBitx used.

There are many things in the zbitx that will interest the tinkerers here. 

The size. It is just 15.5 cm(6 inches) by 80cm(3-1/2 inches) by 3.5cm(1-1/2 inch). You could slip it into your pocket (if large enough). This includes the battery case that holds the two LiPo batteries.

Power: The zbitx runs off two LiPo 18650 cells. You could ofcourse power it by external DC source (max 9v). This is meant to be a field radio that also works as a great base station. 

Touch Screen: The radio sports a 480x320 resistive touch screen with large text that is easy to read and type. 

Base station: By plugging an HDMI monitor, keyboard and mouse, the zbitx transforms into an sbitx category base station with reduced power.

Software: The zBitx sports the same software that runs the sBitx radios. The zbitx will ship with 64-bit software upgraded to handle the small screen.

Schematics and Software: They will all be released in open source, GPL v3 on github in a few weeks.

 

 

 

 

Deliveries will start in February.

 

Further details and sales get down to the HF Signals Website: https://www.hfsignals.com/index.php/zbitx/

You can certainly bet this is going to be a hot winner in 2025.

The new QMX+

Last week without any fanfare, Hans Summers small company QRP Labs, launched the bigger QMX+. 

A full blown 160m-6m. CW and Digital modes. 5W QRP rig. (SSB to come in a future firmware release).

 

The radio is available as either a kit, or as a ready built option. With optional metal case and GPS Unit to aid frequency alignment, RTC, and Location.

Anything which Hans designs, is engineered and tuned for high performance! With an easy step by step documentation for those who are competent enough to understand and build.

The radio is based on the proven QMX SDR. But where the smaller sister is limited to 5 bands, the QMX+ comes with a full hat of HF bands including 6m.

 

Price starts at $125 + case + options + carriage. (Price may also be subject to import charges, duty etc.)

Further details: https://shop.qrp-labs.com/qmxp

QRP Labs forum:  https://groups.io/g/QRPLabs/

G3XBM informs me he has ordered a fully assembled unit. So it is well worth keeping an eye on his blog for details when it arrives in his shack: https://g3xbm-qrp.blogspot.com/