Why Albania?

Some readers know that my other hobbies are photography and videography with drones. The opportunity to go to Albania offered me a chance to participate in all of these hobbies plus do a heckuva lot of hiking. And just regular old walking.

My smartwatch says I walked 14km (9 miles) the first day in Tirana and 26km (16 miles) the second day. All of that was in the Blloku District of Tirana, previously off limits even to Albanians until 1991. Blloku was the upscale part of town, only open to political party officials.

I also have an interest in Cold War history and Albania offers an up-close chance to explore that interest. I may elaborate on that a bit in a future posting.

But really, I'm just a boy who likes his drone. 

The scenes below were shot with a DJI Avata 360 in an area about halfway between Bogë (pronounced Boga) and Theth in the northern part of the country.

This is the southern Alps, known in Albania as The Accursed Mountains. 

 

Or watch directly on YouTube 

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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.

News from Alexey RT7O:

Alexey sent me an email to inform me that he also recorded our QSO. He was using "a homebrew QRPp 700 mW transmitter—built with two rod tubes—to mark the "First Earth Satellite" activity event (organized by Club 72 and running from October 4 to 10)".

Alexey's recording of our QSO. 

Here are some photos of Alexey's FB rig (and be sure to check out his very interesting QRZ.com page):

 

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Thanks for the QSO, Alexey - and for the photos/audio! 

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QMX replaces KX2 for upcoming trip

I've spent the past few days getting used to new features in my QRP Labs QMX regarding the TUNE function and the high SWR shutdown capability meant to save the finals in the event of an operator error.

I'm running the latest firmware 1_04_015. 

As the departure date for my Albanian trip approaches, I've decided to take the QMX rather than the too-expensive KX2.

Economic ease-of-replacement overrules the integration of functionality built into the KX2.

A cheap Chinese antenna tuner, 12V USB-C cable and a USB power pack (that I was going to bring anyway) complete the package. The antenna will be as previously described.

Two local POTA activations have proven the set-up to my satisfaction and I'm getting 6 watts out on 20m CW.

If all goes according to plan, I'll be on the air October 8. 

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My travel antenna

An ongoing question on various online forums is "What is a good antenna for airline travel?"

Compact, inexpensive, easy to set up and effective - these are non-negotiable requirements for me:

17-foot (5m) whip -  offers a full 1/4-wavelength on any band, 10-20 meters. Collapses down to 19 inches (48cm). It has a 10mm thread so an adapter will be needed for the mount listed below. MFJ (sk) and other sources offer a similar whip (shown in photo) with a 3/8x24 thread but this version collapses only to 25 inches. I'd rather have the shorter whip even though it requires an adapter.

10mm to 3/8x24 adapter -  buy two because they're easy to lose ;-)

October: ZA/AE5X update

I've been getting a few emails asking for more info on our upcoming trip to Albania.

Thanks to Col at DX World for the image and to Bernie at the Daily DX - and to both of them for publicizing this holiday style operation that will begin in October.

I'd like to emphasize that this is a vacation, not a DXpedition. All radio ops will be a bit on the spur-of-the-moment but I will be able to pre-announce them on my blog and the POTA website a couple hours beforehand.

 

Rig: