usDX 3 Band Portable HF Transceiver - Any Good?

Here we take a look at a 3 Band usDX HF Transceiver. This radio covers 40/20/15 ham bands.

Purchase here:

00:00 Intro
00:22 Look around the radio
01:45 Menu and Settings
05:40 Listening to HF bands
07:14 Transmit Audio Test
08:12 CW Test
08:40 Taking a look inside
10:00 Outro Summary

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#TechMinds #SDR #HamRadio

[normnpat]

Ordered from Ali Express and want compliment them on their quick delivery and the radio
works great. First day hooked up to 12volt power supply and made several contacts on
40 meters, all at a distance of about 250 miles from my qth. Qrp is my favorite part of ham radio and this little radio makes an excellent addition to my collection of tranceivers.

[VSA]

Just sent one of these back as it was putting out very low power, even after fiddling with the PA bias. Some notes:

1 There is definitely room for a battery about 95x70x15mm inside. There is a chip inside that will activate the USB connector as a power input and a boost charger chip as well. But you would need to faff around with fitting a SMD type USB connector, making an extra hole in the end plate, and of course to supply the battery. By which time you may as well have got a proper kit (see below)

2 The relays switch over the band pass filtering so that 160-30m is all on the lowest range LPF, then it clicks up for 20-17m and clicks up again from 15m and shorter bands. It will transmit and receive on all bands but I guess the LPFs, which are only a 5-pole networks, don't do an acceptable job on anything other than 40-20-15m so that's why its indicated as such.

3 I was looking at the rig for QRP CW only and the tiny inbuilt speaker is probably ok for that. The version I had is definitely not serviceable for transmitting SSB, unless you are a Dalek. No idea why it says FT8 as a mode on the front. You could perhaps do it through the audio connections but given the really hopeless SSB modulation I am not sure you would radiate anything decodeable. If you want to do digital modes, a QRP Labs QDX kit would be infinitely better, cheaper and designed for the job.

4 There is a load of weirdness about the birdies, the internal oscillation that seems to start when you turn up the software volume control beyond about 10, or the strange noises you hear on 60m and longer wavebands. The hand mic supplied is unserviceable.

Overall if you wanted one of these very cheap USDX clones then for a few dollars more you could get one with more bands but be prepared for very low output above 21MHz. For more or less the same money you could buy a QRP Labs QDX kit, and get a whole better class of radio. I was hoping for something self contained for CW POTA, lighter in weight than my IC-705, that I would not have to worry about getting knocked about. But actually I think these are quite fragile and if you actually want to operate rather than spend all your time fixing quirkiness then there are better alternatives.

[onrev]

I ordered one from Aliexpress a few days ago which should arrive soon. I am looking forward to using this /P POTA in CW (which is what, after seeing the video, it's good for). It looks like it's got plenty of room as well for modification/expansion, rechargable battery, even an ATU mod maybe.. USB port etc. Should be fun... and it's cheep enough that if I cock it up, I'm not going to cry about it.. 🙂

[johnnorth]

I have the larger 'black brick' version and have hours of fun playing around with it . Cleaning the circuit board is a must if you don't want (even more) strange things happening and junk the supplied microphone - they are rubbish. The internal mic works well and get the settings right and you can work condittions to very acceptable distances at QRP power. For a cheap portable bit of fun they are brilliant because if you drop them (I have) it's not an instant gasp of horror. I use mine on a small magnetic loop and on a EFHW which it seems to work best on. The black brick has an internal battery (great and lasts for hours) but the extra bands are rubbish as the tx power is so low. 73 M7BLC. NB - SWR needs to be well below 1.5 for good results.

[riflemaster]

Hello I do want to mention that this neat little radio does in fact transmit on the other bands but with less power

[Bueromensch]

i have one and it works so well (in CW) on my FD3 Antenne.. i use a Atu-100 tuner. I have QSO, s almost every day with europe (20m often with 599 Rprt). Great nice qrp rig! i love it. 72 & 73 de HB9LBX

[paul-ip]

I ordered one via ebay within 1 day delivery for under 100 €, using it at home with my sloper wire and autotuner system.
The output / input at the tuner after 10 m of RG 58 cable is about 2 W estimated. The little TRX makes a lot of fun.
Because of these losses I work only on 40 m.
The sensitivity is about the same as of my main station FT 897 from 2010. Nice box for me ( only CW op ) !

72 from Peter, DF 2 JY

[heinerrambold]

Bought a truSDX kit some time ago. It features a small oled display and I could choose if I wanted the lower bands oder the higher bands. Wired it so that now it covers 80, 60, 40, 30 and 20m. It is quite ok for such a small radio. It has a proper tx signal ; not standard with chinese qrp rigs. Thanks for the video!!!

[dogastus]

The Chinese writing on the end plate translates as "I have you in my dream, very nice!"

[eacuatrogndecoalfagnd]

the ssb audio quality is much good than usdx v2 plus thanks for this review goog job EA4GND thanks

[DarthTater]

For that price you may as well get the 5 band trusdx

[pastorlarry]

I just got one of these. My standards 1/4 cw plug when i plug it in the CW starts transmitting.
But the microphone works normal
I noticed that the end of my cw plug has three areas where the microphone that came with it four.
Am I missing something
I have changed the CW settings to different settings straight, A or B doesn’t help

[johnsinclair]

Just ordered one a couple days ago. Love the form factor as it's more like the qcx mini than any other of the SDX variants. Time to start planning an internal battery and usb-c mod.
Thanks for the run down.

[MRSZ]

I want to ask a question do you need a roof top radio antenna to get good TX/REC?

[Rlaay]

1) How much does the actual transceiver weight?
2) Is the CW key connector 3 or 4 pin?

[vds]

Какова частота установленного туда кварцевого резонатора? 16 или 20 МГц?

[TheBrynu]

if you put the mic element on the outside of the mic casing they sound 100 percent better (baofeng mic)

[dimitristl]

I Bought it a couple of weeks ago, I believe it needs new firmware because it is for three bands and the software supports all HF bands, and also the software has SWR/PWR indication but there is no ferrite core inside detecting SWR/PWR. The last problem have turned me to open the cabinet to check why the SWR /PWR indication was Inop, it was showing permanent SWR 9, 9 when it was ON, and I found that there is no SWR/PWR sensor Hi Hi I have also installed pins to ISP programing provision on PCB for future firmware update, and the last, in order to save money they used two M3 screws to support the display board on mother board instead of four as it happens to your radio too Hi Hi

[johnmine]

this Radio and a 40 meter EFHW a rechargeable 12 volt battery and a BOOFWang UV-5r
and a rollup up Jpole and you have a nice small and cheap go box com setup for the ShoeString Budget folks

[MagicRoosterBluesBand]

Looks like a great cheap radio for JS8Call.