Interesting QSO's with QRPp'er Alexey RT7O

ZA/AE5X

While making several activations of Alpet e Shqipërisë National Park (AL-0001) in northern Albania earlier this week, I had a total of three QSO's with Alexey RT7O. Each time, Alexey used a different QRPp rig.

A pleasant series of emails followed over the next couple of days as Alexey described and sent photos of the radios he used - all of which he homebrewed.

The receiver in each case was a Malamute transceiver and its antenna consisted of two 41-meter wires running down from a balcony (set at a 90-degree angle to each other) and sloping down toward a tree and a pole.

The transmitting antenna for the rigs described below was a 14 MHz sloper aimed westward.

In my case, the rig in use was a QRP Labs QMX putting 6 watts into a 1/4-wave whip attached to a magnet mount on the roof of my rental car. No ground radials.

I was surrounded by mountains on all sides and didn't know what to expect of my ability to make contacts from an area with no unobstructed horizon in any direction. To my surprise, contacts came fast and furious thanks to the ZA prefix. 

All QSO's were on 20m CW. 

For our first QSO, Alexey was using a  700 mW transmitter - built with two rod tubes - to mark the "First Earth Satellite" activity event:

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An audio recording of this QSO is here (I was using a QMX). 

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For our next QSO's Alexey used the absolutely beautiful 300mW designed around an old Soviet 6P15P tube. The schematic is shown here:

Activating AL-0001 with the QMX - and a bit of drone flying

Last year, Hans G0UPL rushed me a QMX at my request so that I could operate during an impromptu trip to Vietnam. As it turned out, it was impossible to get permission to operate and I've felt guilty ever since at having taken advantage of Hans' willingness to expedite the QMX.

But as of today the QMX has finally gone on a bit of a DXpedition.

I am currently near Theth Albania and have just returned from activating the unpronounceable-by-me Alpet e Shqipërisë National Park with the QMX.

The entire operation was on 20m CW. I was surrounded by mountains but was able to easily work a good number of Europeans and one US station (K2UPD) in New York. 

The QMX performed well.

I hope to activate the same park from another (better) location tomorrow.

Interesting contacts with QRPp'er Alexey RT7O - click here.

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W7, VE7 ops...and booking ahead for ZA

We've arrived at cooler temps and have been at our AirBnB for several days now, located between Courtenay BC and Strathcona Provincial Park. We see snow on the mountaintops from our balcony - what a concept!

Mount Rainier was our last stop before taking the ferry over from Port Angeles WA to Victoria BC.

We did a 4 mile hike there and came face to face with a black bear heading  our way on the trail. We walked away from it slowly, it did the same. I walked backwards and opened my phone's camera app and made a brief video as the bear paralleled us on the other side of a small creek.

Yesterday consisted of a beautiful 7 mile hike in Strathcona PP followed by a frustrating activation. Were band conditions poor or does being surrounded by mountains adversely affect propagation?! 10 tough, well-earned contacts went into the log, all of them weak.

Later today we are headed to a beach where I'll see if saltwater offers an improvement in radio'ing. We'll be at Miracle Beach Provincial Park CA-3807 sometime between 1900-2200Z and may go to another nearby beach (and POTA site after that).

The set-up of my moto-POTA kit from Davy Crockett SP

A few folks have asked about what I'm using on the road, particularly in regard to the antenna and how it is mounted.

I'm currently taking a day off the ride to wait out the heavy rains due here in central Arkansas which gave me time to put a short video together. 

Back on the sure-to-be-muddy Trail tomorrow. 

 

Directly on YouTube 

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5-band QMX on this morning's 5-band POTA activation

The little QMX has come a long way since it was first released as a CW/digital transceiver, and I don't just mean the addition of SSB.

Far more significant to me are the very recent firmware updates that corrected two major shortcomings with the radio:

Strict DC input voltage limitations and

Common failure of the final BS170's during high SWR at full power.

These two issues prevented the QMX (and QMX+) from being a serious consideration for outdoor ops who don't use resonant antennas and don't want to take along a buck converter, LiPo battery or place "dropping diodes" in series with the DC source.

Those are a lot of things to contend with if you want to just set up and be on the air with minimal fuss.

They are no real issue at all though, if you don't mind taking the time to accommodate the radio rather than have the radio accommodate you.

Sometimes I like to savor the steps necessary to put a station on the air and don't mind taking extra time (and steps) to enjoy the process.

But for a roadtrip like the one I have planned, I want a minimal to-do list and a quick set up time - and I'm happy to say that the QMX/QMX+ now support this.

This morning's was my first activation with the 15-40m QMX. Hans built this one for me and expedited it to me a few months ago as I was trying to get permission to operate in Vietnam and Thailand. Thailand said 'Yes" but Vietnam said "No, don't even bring a radio here". So I had to leave the radio at home since VN was our first stop.

Now, with a different type of trip on the horizon, the little QMX again has become the front runner of the 4 radios I'm considering. 

South Dakota activations - two done; two to go

We've been in the Black Hills region of South Dakota for a few days now with about a week left before we head north.

The area is amazingly beautiful.

I finally got around to two very brief activations today, both CW-only with the FT-891 and magnet-mount 17' vertical on top of the car.

The first was the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site near Wall SD; the second was Badlands National Park.

A most unusual POTA activation

Scarecrow and Blue

 

I left the house early yesterday morning, driving north about 70 miles to the Suwannee River (Florida), whose shores contain a string of POTA sites.

They're back!

My destination was US-10594, known among civilians as Manatee Springs South State Conservation Area. This is distinct from Manatee Springs State Park just up the river.

The State Conservation Area became, for me, a State Conversation area, both on the air and off.

I arrived at about 8:30 am local time, not knowing what to expect in the way of amenities like picnic tables, BBQ grills or other devices whose true purposes are to support radios and antennas.

What's there is this: two picnic tables covered by a roof, located adjacent to the river at a canoe/kayak launching site.

One of the tables was occupied by a scruffy-looking man and his scruffier-looking white dog named Blue. Pulled up onshore was a loaded-for-bear kayak.

We said our hellos, then got to our "whatcha-doin's?".

Video: As much DX as domestic! POTA with the QMX+

The Crystal River area of west-central Florida contains several POTA sites within a small area. Crystal River Preserve State Park is my favorite for activations due to the covered picnic table and proximity to manatee-rich waterways.

Kayaks can be rented at the park but my purpose today was to exercise the QMX+ on the high bands and the bands did not disappoint. Contacts were made on all 5 bands 10-20 meters, including a good amount of EU DX and one station in Chile.

Several people have told me that previous videos that include text overlays of the callsigns being heard are helpful so I've included those in the video below. CW speed of myself and most callers is around 22 wpm.

 

Directly on YouTube

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Video: Iceland by drone and operating as TF/AE5X

I am amazed at the stunning scenery of Iceland - the trip was bucket-list incredible.

The video below is about 2/3 drone video (followed by 1/3 radio) of the places we saw as we drove around the country.

In all, we put 950 miles (1500km) on the car and I activated 4 parks. Each park was a first-activation for that park. I had no trouble making contacts but my time at each park was limited. The KX2 at ten watts into a roof-mounted vertical worked well and was portable enough to travel with easily.

Today's park activation from Iceland

I've activated two parks in Iceland since arriving 4 days ago - both times were first activations for those parks. It's been tough to put the camera down. Iceland is an amazing country and I'll have more to say about it later.

Today's activation of IS-0092 Blábjörg Natural Monument was a lesson in Exceeded Expectations 101. Just when you think you can predict certain aspects of this radio stuff, the unexpected happens.

The park is located near the small town of Djúpivogur on Iceland's eastern coast. It's pretty much a straight shot into parts of Europe but many mountains block the path to the US...or so I thought.

I called CQ POTA on 15, 17 and 20 meters and worked both continents on all bands.

Many US stations were quite strong and I worked a number of familiar calls. The QRN that I worried about was non-existent - the bands are quite, propagation over salt water works like a charm and my 10 watts was doing the trick.

DXing: KX2 masquerading as a KH1

A cheap 51" (130cm) telescoping CB walkie-talkie antenna and conditions on 10-15 meters gave me the idea to treat my KX2 like a KH1.

Tuesday mornings can offer slow POTA activity but I was pleased with the results anyway from a peaceful little park about half an hour from home.

The weather was perfect and this project served as the perfect excuse to be outside.

In the following video, I made 10 contacts in 20 minutes. Those 10 contacts included 7 DXCC entities - all with a short whip antenna and a single ground radial.

When the bands are hot, amazing things are possible. Earlier this week I was able to work 4W8X on 10m CW from home with the KX2.

This weekend I'll be building a short coil to supplement the CB whip's internal coil with the idea of using the whip on 17/20 meters.

Various online calculators say I'll need 30 turns on a 1-inch form.

YouTube

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POTA with FX-4CR - monitoring its temperature on a hot day

This video will probably be of limited use in determining the heat dissipation characteristics of the FX-4CR - but several people have commented on the radio's tendency to become very hot over the course of an operating session, even when operating CW at 5 watts.

In this video, I'm on CW at full output - 20 watts. In 30 minutes, the radio's case is 25F/14C above ambient. I cut the video short at that point since a mower started up. Florida must have the best-mowed parks in the US.

The video is only 10 minutes long since I edited out most of the parts where I'm answering stations or calling CQ.

If I'd continued operating at a POTA-type duty cycle, the temperature would have continued to rise. I know this from previous sessions on the air. The solution is to take breaks in the operation and to realize that this is a very small radio with a 20W output - a larger radio would run cooler; a smaller one would be even hotter.

Pota-graphy?

For a while now I've been wanting to include both of my hobbies - ham radio and photography - on this blog, with the realization the latter hobby is off-topic as far as postings go.

Textually, the blog will still be 100% 95% ham radio...but, from time to time, a bit of photography will creep in. Usually in the form of nothing more than the header image.

Blame it on POTA. The header image may appear off-topic but the fact is that it will probably POTA-derived.

A side effect of activations (coupled with retirement and time to travel) is that I'm usually bringing my camera along for the ride.

This image was from K-3013 Galveston Island (TX) State Park.

I took a break from the activation due to a passing storm and saw that a baptism ceremony was taking place as oil tankers passed in the distance. I shot the pic in color but thought the simple elements and textures made it a good candidate for B&W.

A 10-stop ND filter allowed a 20-second shutter speed, blurring the waves completely - the clouds & participants, partially.

OK, back to ham radio and awaiting my sBitx.

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POTA with the CW Flea/Belka twins

I chose the wrong day (a weekday morning) and the wrong time to make this activation and will return on a weekend soon.

If I worked you - thanks for your great receive capabilities in divining my Flea-ish signal from the ether. 17 contacts were made, all on 20m with a 200mW output.

The Belka DX performed well, as expected.

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Two POTA's in NJ

The road to the Stokes Forest campsites

After many, many years, I finally returned to New Jersey for a brief visit. I lived there (in West Milford) post-Navy while seeking a job in Texas that eventually, thankfully, came through.

New Jersey is a study in contrasts and I lived there long enough to see a fair amount of them.

One set of contrasts exists between the two POTA's - one beautiful; the other, industrial - and I activated them both. What they each have in common is a drive-up-able overlook, perfect for RF radiation to all parts of the world.

The rig in both cases was the trusty, ever-reliable FT-891 powered by a 12AH battery. The antenna was MFJ's 17-foot whip screwed into a magnet mount on top of the car. Simple, effective and quick to set up.

The first POTA was from beautiful and peaceful Stokes State Forest K-4999. Specifically, from Sunrise Mountain.

Peak fall color, as I recall from eons ago, is mid-October. I missed that but enjoyed the view outside the windshield regardless. It's not uncommon to see turkey and black bear in this park but I saw neither today.

I hiked around a bit, going down Memory Lane, recalling the specific locations of past outdoor QRP ops way before POTA and NPOTA.

"We ride the waves; distance is gone"

I had the absolute funnest POTA activation today. Ever.

First was the new rig. Awesomeness, encapsulated into a rectangular form. More on that in a future posting.

Then a QRP-QRP POTA contact with Thomas K4SWL. I've worked Thomas a number of times from Texas but this was the first time working him since moving to FL. He was one of my few contacts on 40m - the bulk of them were on 20.

To top it all off, I had two visitors, both of whom were so interested in what I was doing that they lingered. Not obtrusively, but with a sincerity of curiosity that made them a pleasure to have at the site.

White Sands National Park K-0970

Alamogordo, NM is 17 steep downhill miles and a 4000' descent from our Cloudcroft QTH - therefore, no liquified dinosaur bones are required to propel our car into town. Coming back up is another matter.

Just west of Alamogordo is White Sands NP - a sea of white gypsum, not sand - in a brown landscape. Sunglasses are recommended required.

The gypsum is of a very fine texture and is quite unlike beach sand. Being completely dry, it has no adhesive qualities at all, so it doesn't stick to the skin. Not even a little. It also doesn't absorb heat. After hours of direct desert sunlight, it remains cool to the touch.

 

After driving the park road and making some exploratory excursions among the dunes for future photographic possibilities, I attached the Hamstick to the car, plugged the battery into the FT-891 and started calling CQ.

Time-sync'ing a PC with a GPS dongle

In preparation for portable operation with my incoming QDX transceiver, I ordered a $12 GPS dongle from Amazon yesterday.

Reviews are almost universally 5-star and, at only $12 and a good refund policy, why not give it a try.

BktTimeSync is a small (and free) 3.7MB program that synchronizes a PC's clock with time signals received by the GPS dongle.

Propane conversion of Honda EU2200i generator

With Field Day almost here I thought some participants might be interested in the ease of converting a popular Honda generator model for use with propane.

This particular conversion kit from Hutch Mountain is for the Honda EU2200i. They also have other kits for different models of Honda generators to allow them to operate on gasoline, propane or LP gas. The LP gas conversion requires the installation of an included jet into the carburetor, but for propane/gasoline use, only one part is installed and no disassembly of the carb is required.

Total time for the mod is about 30 minutes and requires a drill, a stepper bit (or a 9/16th" bit) two wrenches, a screwdriver and a 9mm socket. Instructions are clearly written on good quality paper with plenty of photos.