It all started last February when I was induced into purchasing a 250-watt dummy load resistor for a couple of bucks from AliExpress. Since then, I’ve been bombarded with emails from AliExpress almost daily.
Normally, I’d unsubscribe from such mailings, or send them immediately to spam, but I’ve become really intrigued by the stuff they sell. Not only are the items for sale very cheap, some of them look like they could actually be useful.
I’m thinking that I’ll start a series of posts reviewing some of the ham radio gear you can buy on Ali Express. With that in mind, here’s my first review…
A cheap (but very usable) paddle
I made my second purchase a couple of weeks ago: a Putikeeg Auto Morse Keyer Double Oars Telegraph Key. The cost of this key was $77.16, including 6% sales tax. It arrived in two weeks from China.
One of my motivations for buying this key was to check out the quality. I’m always being asked about what would be a good key for a beginner, and this seemed to fit the bill. The price is right, but I was afraid that, despite the nice photo, the key would be mechanical disaster.
I’m happy to report that this key is actually well worth the money. It arrived nicely packaged in a padded box, and after unboxing the key, I spent maybe ten minutes adjusting the contact spacing, Adjusting the contacts was relatively easy as the adjusting screws have a pretty fine pitch, which meant I didn’t have to fuss around too much to get the spacing I wanted.
There are four magnets in the base, meaning that you can place the key on a metal base so that it doesn’t slide around on your desk. The magnets have rubber feet, though, and it was very stable on the silicone shelf liner that I use on my desk to prevent keys from slipping.
I made several contacts with it that evening at 23 wpm, and the key worked very well. I couldn’t attribute any of the errors I made to the key.
One reviewer on eHam gave the key a poor rating because the finger pieces on his key were kind of rough. That wasn’t the case with my key at all. Both the metal and plastic finger pieces were very smooth and had a nice feel.
This key is not a Begali, but for less than 80 bucks, it’s certainly a decent key for a beginner. I will not be hesitant to recommend it when I’m asked again.
Onward and upward
There are a lot of other things on Ali Express that I’m thinking of buying. In some cases, I’ll keep the device. In others, I’ll sell it at a hamfest. The prices shown below all include shipping.
- Open CW Keyer MK2 KIT with Metal Case ($21.57). This little keyer uses an Arduino Nano. The description doesn’t say what software it’s supposed to run, but I’m guessing that I could get some subset of the K3NG Keyer code to run on it.
- 87-108MHz AM/FM Medium Wave FM 2 Band Stereo Digital Tuning Headphone Radio Kit ($5.13). I need another AM/FM radio like I need a hole in the head, but it looks like a cute kit, and the parts are easily worth five bucks if nothing else.
- 30W 3-28MHz Shortwave Power Amplifier Board ($23.73). I don’t know how clean the signal that this amplifier produces, but Ali Express also sells inexpense band-pass and low-pass filters.
I could go on, but it’s dinnertime, and I’m getting hungry. If you are curious about something on Ali Express, but just can’t seem to pull the trigger on it, let me know. If it’s inexpensive, there’s a good chance that I’ll just buy it and then do a review on it.
Good luck trying to get that resistor to dissipate 250 Watts.. You really need to do a thermal analysis, but that requires math and specifications that were not provided. Since you only have a few dollars at risk, just give it the old smoke test with 110 VAC. (242 Watts for 50 Ohms). Use the largest heat sink you can find and take appropriate safety measures such as the AC neutral goes to the heat sink, fusing, GFI, quick power disconnect, safety goggles and a fire extinguisher. It won’t take long, LOL
Don’t worry. I’m not expecting that resistor to dissipate 250 W. I’d guess that it will dissipate 100 W at a low duty cycle when mounted to decent heatsink, though. And, it only cost a couple of bucks, so it’s no big loss if it fails.
AliExpress, TEMU, Banggood, eBay and Amazon, are all “toy boxes” for Hams, often with separate sections for Amateur radio gear.
It is a case of “Buyer beware” however, as I have had a couple of occurences on AliExpress where I have been shipped the wrong product and on complaining have been told that the correct one will be shipped but as they will send it the cheapest way, it may take a while. it takes long enough to be too late to complain to the AliExpress company and the replacement never comes. when you are dealing with things under $10, you let this drop as its simply not worth your time and that’s what these sellers rely on, to make their money.
I will say however that such incidents are rare (in my experience) and in 95% of the cases, the orders arrive correctly (and relatively quickly). Here in the EU, there are new regulations being implemented which may make it more difficult for the China based platforms to sell into Europe. So these “goodie boxes” of cheap, sometimes useful, products may soon go away or their prices increase to be able to work with the new regulations.
Time will tell, 73 Ed DD5LP.
I don’t think those LPFs work so well with their toroids lined up and nearly touching. I’d be careful with those
One advantage of toroid coils is the magnetic fields are self contained.
However cheap toroids can be quite lossy (low Q) and generate heat.
RF capacitors are typically high Q at least in comparison to inductors.
Air wound (solenoid) coils have magnetic fields that extend outside.
Coils mounted closely together on the same axis are RF transformers.
They should be mounted orthogonal to each other on X,Y and Z axis.
I stopped buying the CCP, Chinese COUNTERFEIT (crap) Products, as much as possible.
They don’t meet specs.
They counterfeit Logos, packaging, and products with great precision, making the fakes hard to identify.
They take the products they manufacture legit companies, pull the seconds that don’t meet the OEM specs, and dump them on the open market,
They copy patents from every country they can, and produce knockoffs.
They reverse engineer products that they can’t get the patents for.. then return the products for their money back.
There are millions in China working as slave laborers, for food and a cot to sleep on.. the unregistered babies born illegally during China’s “one child law”..
No western company, or country, can compete with millions of slave laborers.
73, Chuck, ND5CH
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