Equipment
Many of the larger, more powerful commercial transceivers permit the operator to lower their output level to QRP levels. Commercial transceivers specially designed to operate at or near QRP power levels have been commercially available since the late 1960s. In 1969, American manufacturer, Ten-Tec, produced the Powermite-1 (PM-1). This radio was one of Ten-Tec's first assembled transceivers. (The MR-1 was available, and it was essentially the same radio, albeit in kit form.) This radio featured modular construction (all stages of the transceiver were on individual circuit boards): the transmitter was capable of about one or two watts of RF, and the receiver was a direct-conversion unit, similar to that found in the Heathkit HW-7 and HW-8 lines. Many amateurs became quite adept at QRP'ing through their use of these early, trend-setting radios. As QRP has become more popular in recent years, radio manufacturers have introduced radios specifically intended for the QRP enthusiast. Popular US models include Elecraft K2 and K1, the Yaesu FT-817, the Icom IC-703, and the Argonaut V from TenTec. Popular German QRP transceiver kits include the Moskita, Sparrow, Hegau, Hohentwiel, Tramp-8 CW and others. Another popular source is Hendricks QRP Kits, which offers a variety of popular kits. HFPack enthusiasts operate QRP radios on the HF bands in portable modes, usually carrying the radios in backpacks, with whip antennas.
Some QRPers prefer to construct their equipment from kits or homebrew it from scratch.
Read more about this topic: QRP Operation
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