UPDATE: As of mid October the new availability date for the ATS-4B is November 2011. Also Steven Weber is developing a daughter board to enable the ATS-4B to decode PSK and CW – which has a January 2012 delivery date. This board can’t be added to the earlier ATS-4A.
Since late June, Steven Weber’s site at http://kd1jv.qrpradio.com has displayed a short announcement that the next batch of ATS-4a kits will be available in the “fall of 2011″.
On the AT_Sprint Yahoo group Steven has just confirmed that he anticipates having the kits available from late September or early October. He’s expecting the boards to be delivered “soon”.
This will be a revision ‘b’ as there are some minor circuit and layout changes. These include
- a simple AGC circuit to add to the audio output to limit the volume of very strong signals. The AGC should limit the audio output to about 200 mV p-p.
- a change of LCD display, reverting back to the graphics type used in the first run ATS-4 rigs.
- using the 28 pin version of the now scarce 20 pin SOIC MSP430 chip in the new board layout.
These kits enjoy a passionate following – especially the ATS-3b – and they sell out very quickly. Monitoring the AT_Sprint group closely over the next few weeks is the best way to avoid disappointment. An automated alert (such as changedetection.com) when the kd1jv.qrpradio.com page changes might help.
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