Zero Retries Interesting Small Vendors Catalog

Compiled by Steve Stroh N8GNJ
Last updated 2024-07-29

This is a directory of small companies, products, projects, and persons that manufacture and sell items for Zero Retries Interesting activity in Amateur Radio such as data communications, microwave networking, and space communications.

These companies, products, projects, and persons generally don’t advertise, and generally don’t distribute through Amateur Radio retailers, thus they rely on “word of mouth” for Amateur Radio Operators to know about them and their products.

This started as a “one off” mention in Zero Retries 0150, but it was so popular I decided it needed its own page. Beyond those items, these are the some of the hardware items by small, independent vendors mentioned on the Zero Retries 0090 Omnibus of Zero Retries Interesting Information (that appear to be available at the time of the inclusion of each item on this list).

To be included on this list, items must be generally be “stocked” and readily available for sale. An exception is made for non-commercial projects that manufacture units in batches. An example is the KiwiSDR.

A future update of this list will include Zero Retries Interesting items that are widely available through Amateur Radio retailers such as Ham Radio Outlet and DX Engineering (in the US). An example is the Icom IC-905 radio.

Suggestions of companies, products, projects, and persons are welcome for inclusion on this list.

🆕 Indicates new or updated entries within the previous 30 days from most recent update.

Each company, product, project, or person mentioned here is considered to be “Zero Retries Interesting solely in the opinion of Zero Retries Editor Steve Stroh N8GNJ.

The mention of a company, product, project, or person does not imply an endorsement or recommendation, or any representation that the company, product, project, or person is realistically / faithfully presented on the linked website.

Unless indicated, there is no compensation involved in a mention of a company, product, project, or person.

🆕 AMSAT-UK 5 watt 2.4 GHz Amplifier Kit for QO-100 Kit
A 5 watt 2.4 GHz amplifier kit for use with the QO-100 geostationary satellite.

Analog Devices ADALM-PLUTO
Software Defined Transceiver for VHF / UHF / microwave intended for student lab experimentation, but widely used in Amateur Radio. Sold through DigiKey and other distributors (US).

Argent Data Systems (Scott Miller N1VG)
Products for Automatic Packet Reporting System (APRS) including the OpenTracker.

Audio Test Solutions

🆕 BI7JTA (Huang Huorong BI7JTA)
On Facebook , this vendor is Amateur Radio Toys. Products for Multimode Digital Voice Modem (MMDVM).

Broadcast Warehouse
EX9T Pallet Amplifiers for 50 MHz and 144 MHz. (Specs are only shown on the 50 MHz product.)

Byonics (Byon Garrabrant N6BG)
Products for Automatic Packet Reporting System (APRS) and transmitter hunting.

Caribou Labs
CaribouLite RPi HAT - Software Defined Transceiver for VHF / UHF / microwave, form factor matches Raspberry Pi Zero series. Sold in the US through Crowd Supply.

🆕 ComJot CJ-1
Open Source Android DMR Dual Band Radio

Computer and Telemetry Systems (CATS)
New implementation of Automatic Packet Reporting System (APRS) using Frequency Shift Keying (FSK), 420-450 MHz, and a new protocol.

Connect Systems (Jerry Wanger KK6LFS)
M17 Portable Radios - first Amateur Radio transceivers with M17 system as standard.

CubeSat Simulator (CubeSatSim)
A working, life-size model of a 1U Amateur Radio CubeSat.

Digirig
Small audio interfaces ideal for portable or mobile radios.

DigiLink
Small audio interfaces ideal for portable or mobile radios.

🆕 DXPATROL

🆕 E-REON 2.4 Ghz amplifiers for QO-100

🆕 ELEKITSORPARTS

ezDV
Interface to add FreeDV mode to compatible HF radios such as FlexRadio 6000 (and later) and Icom IC-705.

G1LRO (Mark Herbert G1LRO)
Universal Radio Controller and All In One Controller (AIOC).

GL-iNet

  • Some of these inexpensive Wi-Fi travel routers can be refreshed with Amateur Radio Emergency Data Network (AREDN) firmware - see Supported Devices for details.

Great Scott Gadgets

  • HackRF One Software Defined Transceiver for VHF / UHF / microwave

  • YARD Stick One simplified Software Defined Transceiver for VHF / UHF

Halibut Electronics (Mark Smith N6MTS)

  • Open Headset Interconnect System (OHIS)

  • (future) EggNOGS antenna

  • (future) Satellite Optimized Amateur Radio transceiver.

🆕 HAM DIY (Yu Hongbo BG2FX)
FX-4CR and FX4L portable HF transceivers “optimized for digital” with built-in sound card and Bluetooth or USB interfaces.

Ham Made Parts (Les Poston WY0GTR)
Custom cables and other accessories for Amateur Radio, especially data communications devices.

Hermes-Lite 2.0
Software Defined Transceiver for HF.

HF Signals (Ashhar Farhan VU2ESE)
sBitxV3 - Software Defined Transceiver for HF, based on Raspberry Pi.

HobbyPCB
RadioShield RS-UV3A 144 / 222 / 440 radio is remotely controllable and configurable.

Inovato Quadra HamPC
Small appliance computer that comes standard with HamClock application.

🆕 IRLP Node (David Cameron VE7LTD)
Units for Internet Radio Linking Project (IRLP)

KH6HTV Video (Jim Andrews KH6HTV)
Products for Amateur Radio Television (ATV)

KiwiSDR
Software Defined Receiver integrated into self-hosted web server.

KrakenRF
KrakenSDR - 5 channel coherent Software Defined Receiver

Lime Microsystems
LimeSDR Mini 2.0 - Software Defined Transceiver for VHF / UHF - Sold through Crowd Supply.

Localino
New Packet Radio Modem Version 2, NPR-H 2.0 - Sold through Tindie.

Masters Communications (Kevin Custer W3KKC)
High resolution audio interfaces (DRA series) suitable for maximum performance for high speed data modes such as VARA FM. Also makes several adapters for radios with non-standard “flat audio” connections to the industry standard 6-pin Mini-DIN “data” connector.

Microsat (Mateusz Plocinski SQ3PLX)
Standalone and network connected APRS appliances.

Mimosa
10 GHz microwave radios, some of which are compatible with the Amateur Radio 10.0 - 10.5 GHz band.

Mobilinkd (Rob Riggs WX9O)
TNC4 is battery powered Terminal Node Controller (TNC) with Bluetooth; ideal for interfacing between a portable radio and a mobile phone, including iPhone.

Mord Technologies SOCRADIO32
Portable radio based on ESP32 module. Available through Crowd Supply.

🆕 Mostly DIY RF (Todd Carney K7TFC)
(Open Source) Hardware for Hardware-Defined Amateur Radio.

N7EBB (Randy Robinson N7EBB)
DigiPi Radio Interface Board.

NA6D AIOC - Ham Radio All-In-One-Cable (Nigel Armstrong NA6D)
Small interface for portable radios that is an audio interface and a programming interface.

Nuand
Blade RF Micro 2.0 Software Defined Transceiver for VHF / UHF / microwave.

NW Digital Radio (Bryan Hoyer K7UDR)
Amateur Radio ThumbDV (DVSI CODEC chip on USB) and Digital Radio Workstation (DRAWS) audio interface.

PicoAPRS Transceiver
Palm-size portable radio primarily for data, with KISS TNC, Bluetooth, and APRS. Available through WiMO.

Pluto SDR Plus
Software Defined Transceiver for VHF / UHF / Microwave with two TX and two RX ports. Sold in Europe (?) through ELEKITSORPARTS.

Q5 Signal
VHF / UHF transverters including the 5-Band High Power VHF/UHF Transverter High-Power Transverter for 144, 222, 432, 902, and 1296 MHz bands, easily interfaces to FlexRadio HF transceivers.

QRP Labs (Hans Summers G0UPL)

🆕 RadioMail (Georges Auberger WH6AZ)
B.B. Link Adapter interfaces between Kenwood TH-D74A / TH-D75A Bluetooth to iPhone Bluetooth.

Red Pitaya
Software Defined Transceiver for VHF / UHF / microwave.

Repeater Builder Products (Scott Zimmerman N3XCC)
Accessories for repeaters, including audio interfaces suitable for use for adding data capabilities and Internet linking.

RFzero
Software Defined Transmitter based on Arduino.

🆕 RTL-SDR.COM
One of the original, and higher quality, low cost “USB Dongle” software defined receivers.

RPC Electronics (Jason Rausch K4APR)

  • SMT TARPN NinoTNC

  • Also makes several adapters for radios with non-standard “flat audio” connections to the industry standard 6-pin Mini-DIN “data” connector.

🆕 SharkRF (Ákos Marton, HG1MA / ES1AKOS and Norbert Varga, HA2NON)
OpenSPOT4 Pro battery powered Internet (via Wi-Fi) / Amateur Radio digital voice mode gateway. Notably it is capable of transcoding between different digital voice modes in the unit.

🆕 SG Laboratory

TAPR
Products related to high resolution timing. Also a source for the ezDV for FreeDV operation.

Terrestrial Amateur Packet Radio Network (TARPN)
NinoTNC N9600A Terminal Node Controller (TNC) kit.

The Old Net RS232 Serial Wifi Modem for Vintage Computers V4
Inexpensive RS-232 to Wi-Fi adapter, useful for vintage TNCs with RS-232 ports. Available through Tindie.

Tigertronics
SignaLinkUSB Audio Interface and wide range of radio connection cables.

Turn Island Systems (Paul Elliott WB6CXC)
Products for High Frequency band propagation study.

WB7FHC Nexus DR-X (Budd Churchward WB7FHC)
Audio interface for Raspberry Pi units.

ZachTek
Weak Signal Propagation Reporter (WSPR) transmitters.

ZUMRadio
Products based on the Multimode Digital Voice Modem (MMDVM)

Change Log:

  • 2024-07-31

    • Added BJ1JTA, HAM DIY, and IRLP Node

  • 2024-07-30

    • Added SharkRF

    • Updated TAPR entry to mention ezDV

  • 2024-07-29

    • Updated info for QRP Labs

  • 2024-07-26

    • Added Microsat.

  • 2024-07-24

    • Added Broadcast Warehouse products.

  • 2024-07-14

    • Added:

      • AMSAT-UK 5 watt 2.4 GHz Amplifier Kit for QO-100 Kit

      • ComJot CJ-1

      • DXPATROL

      • E-REON 2.4 Ghz amplifiers for QO-100

      • ELEKITSORPARTS

      • SG Laboratory

      • Mostly DIY RF

    • Updated:

      • RadioMail info

      • RTL-SDR

      • Cleaned up messy notes at the end.

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