Pebble HF Radio

Pebble HF

An ultra-affordable HF radio for anyone.

Why?

Amateur radio is a fantastic hobby for learning, connection, and adventure. Small and portable radios are perfect for learning HF radio, connecting with people, and outdoor radio adventures (POTA and SOTA).

Pebble HF is an ultra-affordable, ultra-portable HF radio kit for anyone to get into HF amateur radio.

Pebble HF was created to get more people into the wonderful hobby, encourage people to upgrade their license to have fun with HF, or simply encourage more people to have fun with outdoor radio!

Check out the backstory

What makes Pebble HF different?

Pebble HF was born from the idea of how to make a capable QRP radio ultra-affordable and easy to build. It is ultra-affordable by being a single band radio with minimal parts and almost all pre-populated surface mount parts, which makes it easy to build. It uses an existing and well proven design, the uSDX, which suites these goals. **

Pebble HF is a low power QRP radio for morse code (CW), voice, and digital modes*. Pebble HF can output ~5W on battery power but can also output ~1W powered by USB, so that you can get started even without investing a special battery yet. Weighing less than 0.5 lbs (8oz), it is a great option for trying out portable radio.

* digital modes requires an external adapter.

** Pebble HF is an open source design based on the classic uSDX. Hardware design by Barb WB2CBA and firmware by Guido PE1NNZ and modified by Mike N4FFF.

Pebble HF on a scale showing weight
Pebble HF - All Mode QRP Radio

Features

* digital modes requires an external adapter.

Build

Building the Pebble HF kit

Pebble HF comes as a kit that is uniquely easy to build.

With almost all parts pre-soldered and ready to go, there are only 10 easy through-hole parts to install. Most people are able to completely build the radio in less than an hour.

Backstory

Pebble HF was born out of passion from HamRadioDuo, in collaboration with Barb wb2cba, as a way to give back. The backbone of Pebble HF is from Barb wb2cba's hardware design and an existing firmware design by Guido PE1NNZ. Thank you so much to both of them!

This project is a day dream that Mike, N4FFF, has had since before becoming a ham. He got started in amateur radio with the believe that a cheap kit radio called the PIXIE is all he needed. He never was able to make a single contact on the PIXIE, but it was it's existance that allowed him to get started. The PIXIE's lack of filterning and tuning ended up being a problem he couldn't get past. Now we are on a mission to make sure that a great option exists for anyone needting to get started!

Mike was introduced to Barb wb2cba by a viewer who was using his TinyDX QRPp radio for digital use. After a decade of actively looking for someone with the right experience, Barb's existing uSDX design was a perfect baseline. He modiied the design to make it ultra-affordable by making it a single band and, importantly, making as much of the design as possible surface mount so that it can be ordered super low cost. It is a brilliant design for this purpose because the base open source project is a software defined radio making it possible to pack a ton into a tiny package with super low cost!

There are many fantastic QPR radios already (QMX and CFT1 are great examples). If you are already interested in one of those, please get one! Pebble HF was created for all of those people who need an ultra low cost option with minimal effort to build as a kit.

How to Purchase

Buy Now at shop.hamradioduo.com

Click the link above to purchase one now. If it is sold out, or if you want to wait for the final (less expensive) version, fill out the form below to get notified.

* As an open source project, this is a community supported project. There is no warranty or guaranteed support. This is being sold as a kit to simplify the logistics of a group purchase of boards, parts, and so forth.