A recent get-together of Central Florida POTA ops, led, of course, by Bill N4NYM, allowed me the opportunity of meeting a dozen or so kindred spirits at Lake Louisa State Park where I very much enjoyed seeing their set-ups and eating their food.
One of those in attendance was a newbie CW op, Glenn KO4NTA, and somehow Glenn and I got to talking about QRP. He had several rigs with him but the radio he most wanted to show me was his new Army-green (tr)uSDX.
"It costs about $100, covers 5 bands and is super tiny!"
That very statement - since it applies equally - got me to thinking about my inbound QMX, and I asked Glenn if he'd heard of it.
To my surprise, he had not heard of QRP Labs at all.
At that point, I think I may have unwittingly become a bit of a salesman. Glenn had not yet been on the air with his (tr)uSDX and I had not yet been on the air with a QMX. I do have a (tr)uSDX though, and have made a number of hard-won contacts with it on both CW and SSB.
I know the shortcomings of the (tr)uSDX and, now that I've made almost 100 contacts (and two POTA activations) with my new QMX, I have a pretty good idea of where it stands in the $100-Rig Department.