μBITX QRP transceiver kit a possible addition to my shack

In June I posted briefly about the μBITX QRP transceiver kit from India sold by HF Signals, run by Ashhar Farhan VU2ESE, the kit is sold as a board pre-populated with all the components, an Arduino dubbed the "raduino" with a 16x2 LCD display, connectors and wiring looms and a diode for reverse polarity protection, it is up to the end user to supply a chassis, preferably a metal one.

Despite a bit of scaremongering by a couple of American amateurs (something that Ashhar has tried to put an end to best he can using information he knows about the kit, given that every single one is tested before it leaves the factory) that suggest the kit is non-compliant, there are still many people worldwide using it and I'm certainly not put off using it, as there is nothing out there that conclusively proves the kit is non-compliant with any Amateur radio regulations, I still intend to order one and I hope to do that either next payday or the payday after depending on what I still need for the National Hamfest, though if I order it next payday it should arrive from India in time for the Hamfest and I can potentially operate 40 and 80 there on a non-interference basis, if the scaremongering done by the American hams (whose callsigns I will not publish at this time) does ring true then there is nothing stopping me or anyone attaching a filter to the antenna jack.

As the kit can be modified I intend to replace the mic jack with a 4-pin CB type (wired to Uniden CB wiring without the RX wire as this isn't needed) which means any off-the-shelf CB mic should work (though not my desk mic as I imagine that is atrocious with SSB), the only 4-pin mic I do have is from my TTI TCB-550 and although that's plugged into the PC interface right now I can easily swap it for use here, my second modification to the kit is fitting of an internal speaker in the case, and though not a modification I plan to add a fan to the area near the finals to keep them as cool as possible, even though this thing is 10-watts on 40 and 80 it does not mean the finals will not get warm in use.

I have seen modifications to this radio that run touch screens in place of the standard 2-line display, this is something I won't do just yet, the only display change I will make is to replace the black on green display as supplied with a white on blue display I am reusing from my now abandoned Internet radio project as it simply looks more modern than the black on green ones.

I'll follow this up should I get one, and hopefully put a video onto YouTube about it though of course there is still the small matter of building the custom desk for the shack, that is to come too.

73 de 2E0EIJ