Just board, no DX last few days. radio swap time.

Pulling the Kenwood TS 450s out of line for a bit. Going to give the Xiegu G90 anothe r try.   Have to dig out the RMItaly KL 203 to pair with it, Not sure I could do "just" 20watts on SSB mode.  Having the "switch" to flip may give assurance I "could" make that contact as well as the TS 450s, just being fair. lol  The strange side of my radio hobby says, "work that 20watts"  better bragging rights I suppose if it were to happen.  2CT351 N Colorado 73

Savwafare10 wrote:

 The strange side of my radio hobby says, "work that 20watts"  better bragging rights I suppose if it were to happen.

This element of the hobby interests me. Not 'bragging' so much, but I do get a feeling of accomplishment when I make a contact with someone whilst I am using very low power. Whilst knowing their fantastic beam antenna with pin point directivity and gain upon their tall tower is helping tremendously to pull in my little signal, the fact that my signal is reaching them is still testament that my little setup is working efficiently.

It's a good feeling knowing all CB contacts I have made since coming back to the hobby have been with just the output power of the 6900n and other bands max 10 watts all into home made antennas, mostly indoors. I am looking to go even lower in power in the future... Peter Parker (not Spiderman) VK3YE has done some amazing QRP work down to just using a few milliwatts and still made "DX" contacts. His writeups and videos have been inspirational and I am looking for an good accurate attenuator at the moment to take my G90 lower than its current 1 watt lowest setting.

But we're all different. I do remember the confidence boost of keying up with big power. My father-in-law recently said he has found some of my old '80s kit in a cupboard, including a 500W amp. I'm still waiting to see what he's uncovered, but for sure nothing like that will be put inline at home now.. not sure what would happen first, the balun burning out or the ends of the fan dipole arcing and setting my roof insulation on fire

I hope you pick some DX up soon Jeremy. It has been quiet for me too this week, I think mainly because I haven't been able to use the radio during the day times. But it's the weekend now, so fingers crossed we all get to work a bit, be that with big power or not

Nicely put there Neal.  

Big fan of Mr. Peter Parker VK3YE myself even digging back through past Australian Amateur Radio magazine archives to read his old articles. Could thank him many times for his useful insight and yes, the thrill of 'homebrew' and QRP is just something else!

Just don't fall into the trap that QRP is only possible due to the 'Big-Gun' stations......I don't mind their beams picking up my meagre transmissions but they could tone down theirs and save my S-meter needle flying off its swivel!!!

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Have fun with your radios there Jeremy.  

If you can make a contact with the burners on, give them a quick switch off and see if you still make the contact - heck of a buzz and sense of achievement if you do.


I've never been a fan of 'signal reports' where that un-calibrated scale is concerned - If you can hear me and can understand me and I you, then it's a successful transmission as far as I'm concerned.


All the best,
Victor

Plenty of DX on the ham bands.....maybe use the ham gear on the bands it was intended to be?

@ Northern Crusader, Maybe some day,  If they would  do a HF test only , I'm all in.  27Mhz is part of the HF band, so is it really not intended for 27mhz only?  lol .  I know I am "Limiting" myself in the Transmitt dept using HF gear for the 11m band. But? I like Freeband/11m. The Antennas are somewhat easy to build and work with as opposed to 20m,40m.80m ect ect.  Small house lot, so can't get crazy with a HF beam here anyways.  I do know both my neighbors fairly well. I don't think they would oppose a Boom lingering over there back yard.   I listen, and enjoy. I like what I like and have met alot of people via Freeband over the yrs.  I choose HF gear, because, lets face it, after "modding"  a CB to death ($$$) its cheaper to perchase a older HF radio by then. And still have more features over a modded CB.  Well in SSB mode anyways.  I don't compete on "the super bowl", but it is entertaining to say  the least.  Another side of having such gear is the "Prepper" . If things go south here, I'd hate to just have a CB. ;-)  2CT351 Jeremy

Not a huge fan of contesting, Digi, Ft8 ect ect.  I like "phone"    Conversation, Roundtable type stuff, I listen to  the "night owls"  on 75m alot. Thats more what I am about. DXing  is alot more had on  the lower HF bands , yes, I'll grant that.  Thats why I stated if they had a HF only test.  But I feel we all know that is not likely to happen.

There certainly is a huge difference between the US and UK on what permissions are granted for each level of licence obtained, bands and power levels. I wonder how many people here would have taken the Foundation if HF was not open as much as it is to us.

Contesting is not for me, but I have joined in a little on some of them purely because the bands are so active then and there is a good chance to make contact with a new to me entity.

SangueG wrote:

There certainly is a huge difference between the US and UK on what permissions are granted for each level of licence obtained, bands and power levels. I wonder how many people here would have taken the Foundation if HF was not open as much as it is to us.

UK foundation license holders are extremely spoilt.  The US, as you infer, gives very little HF privileges to Technician class.  They can run 1500w on VHF though. 

Here in Aus, in addition to a 10w limit (and that’s 10w out of the radio, not into the antenna like the UK), Foundation calls cannot use a heap of bands, including 20m, all the WARC bands, the SSB part of 6m, and 160m, plus none of the microwave bands.  Until recently, they weren’t allowed digital modes, or to build their own kit either!