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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A $40, 5-band QRPp transceiver for FT8

A very unique transceiver kit is set to hit the airwaves soon.

The DX-FT8 is a tiny, highly portable, stand-alone 5-band QRPp transceiver for FT8 that can be powered by a 5V USB connection.

Bands covered are 10, 12, 15, 17 and 20 meters - perfect for this point in the solar cycle.

Details can be found here.

Kees K5BCQ is handling the orders and shipping for the DX-FT8 and has a backlog of orders in the queue. Orders placed now won't ship until Feb 2025 due to temporary lack of availability of one of the parts (RF transformer) that make up the kit.

A few other items (purchased separately) are required to make the radio operational - all inexpensive. They are listed at the link above.

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Video: Destruction, dolphins, KX2 and POTA

Cedar Key, Florida has been a favorite motorcycle-ride destination of mine for a couple of years now. It's

a laid-back "Old Florida" town, off the beaten track. A couple restaurants, three bars and a few shops - not too much else.

The real Margaritaville.

Hurricane Milton passed this way a few weeks ago and I was expecting to see large-scale devastation.

While the waterfront shops did suffer significant damage, the overall damage from the storm were less than I'd expected.

Coulda been much worse - I'm glad it wasn't.

The harbor separating Cedar Key from Atsena Otie Key is a playground for dolphins and makes for a fun kayaking trip to Atsena Otie, a POTA site accessible only by boat.

No kayaking for me today but the splashes I saw from the shore quickly distracted me from the hurricane damaged town and I sent my drone over for a look.

Moto-POTA in Mississippi with KX2

 

With a good (and quite cool) forecast for the week throughout Dixie, I left Florida for a nice three-day ride to Texas.

I stayed off the interstate and let the back roads take me past cotton fields, farms, pastures and unhealthy-but-delicious places to eat.

The KX2 allowed me to have some after-dark distraction in the tent. 

Sunset comes early this time of year and it was nice to be able to play radio after chatting with the campground neighbors in the evening.

Two of my neighbors at Natchez State Park were a couple from Germany, touring American Civil War sites in a rental RV.  It was very interesting to get their perspective on things.

I stuck to CW even though I had the KX2's mini-mic with me. The antenna was my 17' (5m) whip screwed into its mount, which is bolted onto the motorcycle. Contacts were made on 20 and 40 meters with some DX worked as well.

Is a 2-tone IMD measurement possible with the tinySA Ultra?

I no longer have my old Siglent, Rigol or other spectrum analyzers I once had access to - the ones used (among other things) to measure IMD of SSB rigs.

But I do have everything else I need: 2-tone generator, directional coupler, fixed attenuators and a tinySA Ultra.

With Hans G0UPL making great progress in developing firmware that will allow SSB operation with QMX/QMX+ transceivers, I wanted to know if the tinySA Ultra will allow measurement of IMD.

Hans' method of SSB generation is unique and it will be interesting to see how the transmitter output looks compared to more traditional rigs.

The original tinySA does not have the resolution bandwidth needed to make IMD measurements, but the newer Ultra version, with 200 Hz minimum RBW, does.

My test subject was the KX2 on 20m phone.