The QRPer Board

Seeing the video Thomas did recently on the MTR4B V2 reminded me to refresh myself with using mine. It had been since early summer when it last had any exercise. I don't recall having any issue my first couple of uses, but yesterday I could barely hear many stations calling me. I happened to have my TR-35, so I plugged it in and stations were putting out very loud signals well above S9. The same signals with the MTR4B were what I would call a 449 or even a 339 or less; often barely discernable. I tried two sets of earbuds with no volume pot in the chain. Same issue. This was using a dipole in a very quiet RF environment.

I am scratching my head on what I could change. I know it has the internal pot, but I think that only adjusts the side tone level (which is plenty loud). Is there something I am missing. I have no idea what the specs are on the ear buds I was trying, but that is the only component I think I could change in the system.

Does anyone know these well enough to have any suggestions?

I think I solved my MTR volume issue. I set out to test different headphones at home the next day, and when I went to turn on the radio I only got a lit display. There was no text and the unit did not initialize. At first I wondered if I had a hardware failure that was contributing to the sound issue, and I sent a message to LNR asking for recommendations. A friend with the same radio told me to change the coin battery, which had not occurred to me given it had 12+ volts. Sure enough, a new battery solved the radio issue and it appears to have solved the volume issue.

I would have assumed the battery was there for time and stored settings, but it appears to be required to allow the radio to run and anecdotally it seemed to impact performance at least with my audio.