The Bitx design has been around for close to a decade and is a proven design. The designer, a native of India, wanted to help the poor in rural areas around his home, so he created a SMD based design with large size SMD components that can be hand assembled. These boards are hand assembled in rural villiages and then functionally tested before shipping.
For $45 you get everything but a project case and speaker…
That’s badass!
Cool to get a radio for a killer price AND you get to help people who are doing the building. It’s a win-win. 
And the assemblers are getting a good portion of the money from what I understand. Ashar was saying a few years ago that he was helping hams in India build these radios for about $5 US.
Walter, would you be interested in teaching an assembly class for this radio if several of us purchased the board? The assembly looks pretty easy mind you, but I’m sure I’d screw it up.
I was thinking that would be a great idea. Just ordered one for myself.
These boards offer a lot of customization options we could cover beyond the basic assembly.
Ok, I will offer either a class or workshop for any HAM who wants to build this radio. Since this is a ham band transceiver, I don’t want to help someone get a radio they are not licensed to use. However, if you are not currently licensed, talk to me and I will show you how to do so. It is VERY EASY.
So if interested, go ahead and order one of these and we can shoot for sometime around Thanksgiving (or a little after) to put them together.
For those who are not currently licensed but would like to be I suggest using the material on QRZ.COM for study guides and practice tests (don’t bother purchasing one of the test guides).
When your ready to take the test(s) you bring your $15 to anyone of dozens of locations. You can find location, date, and time through this page
If all goes to plan, I take my technician test Saturday.
I received notice this morning that my order has shipped. From what I have heard it will take about three weeks for delivery.
Well the box arrived today (well actually yesterday, but the Post Office had one of its customer service issues)!
The web site you purchase it from has information on final assembly, and this yahoo group has tons of information about this and earlier designs. Including various modifications you can make to the radio.
This is a radio to play with!
