Interesting QSO's with QRPp'er Alexey RT7O

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:

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And here's the amazing result:

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A video (from Alexey's perspective) of our QSO with his 300mW transmitter and Malamute receiver:

 

It's always interesting to hear how our signal sounds on the other end of a QSO, particularly when low-power and homebrew rigs are being used.

Other radios in Alexey's homebrew collection:

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Alexey, your radios are works of art - thanks for sharing all the info provided and for the contacts!

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