Anyone who has been with me for awhile knows that every now and again “Murphy” of Murphy’s Law fame comes for a visit.

Things here have been going fairly well (Ham Radio wise) recently. I have been able to some contacts (mostly 20m SSB) during the daytime and also in the evenings (mostly 40m SSB) and considering the band conditions I think that’s pretty good.

But (and you know there had to be a “but”!

After making some evening 40m ssb contacts last night I shut off the power supply and left the shack. I came back to the shack and turned on the power supply and the radio would not turn on.

I did a quick check and the power supply now had an output of 4v dc. Not what I was expecting as before I shut it down it was steady at 13.5v dc which is normal for this unit.

I then took the cover off and could not smell the “magic smoke” and there was no visible issues on the board itself. No burn marks on the board, everything attached and no signs of any thing out of the ordinary.

I did have a backup PS so I’m still on the air with a 25 amp unit rather than the 30 amp unit that now is a paperweight.

The replacement from “The Toronto Toystore” will set me back around $220.00 after shipping/taxes, so it won’t break the bank and they have one in stock so “fingers crossed”.

So, this morning I look out into my backyard and notice the counterweight attached to the end of my “Stealthy Inverted L” is laying on the ground. A quick check found that the wire itself was intact but…. (yup but again) the wire had slipped off on of the branches that support the horizontal section of the wire. This does happen every now and again so…. 30 minutes later I’m back on the air.

The plan now is to see if the band comes to life (the numbers are looking good) and I can get (more than) a few contacts in the log.

.

Ending on a positive note I was able to contact VE3FI Bill as he activated POTA CA-2376 as part of his cross Canada tour. I guess the antenna is working after all that.

73bob

Anyone who has been with me for awhile knows that every now and again “Murphy” of Murphy’s Law fame comes for a visit.

Things here have been going fairly well (Ham Radio wise) recently. I have been able to some contacts (mostly 20m SSB) during the daytime and also in the evenings (mostly 40m SSB) and considering the band conditions I think that’s pretty good.

But (and you know there had to be a “but”!

After making some evening 40m ssb contacts last night I shut off the power supply and left the shack. I came back to the shack and turned on the power supply and the radio would not turn on.

I did a quick check and the power supply now had an output of 4v dc. Not what I was expecting as before I shut it down it was steady at 13.5v dc which is normal for this unit.

I then took the cover off and could not smell the “magic smoke” and there was no visible issues on the board itself. No burn marks on the board, everything attached and no signs of any thing out of the ordinary.

I did have a backup PS so I’m still on the air with a 25 amp unit rather than the 30 amp unit that now is a paperweight.

The replacement from “The Toronto Toystore” will set me back around $220.00 after shipping/taxes, so it won’t break the bank and they have one in stock so “fingers crossed”.

So, this morning I look out into my backyard and notice the counterweight attached to the end of my “Stealthy Inverted L” is laying on the ground. A quick check found that the wire itself was intact but…. (yup but again) the wire had slipped off on of the branches that support the horizontal section of the wire. This does happen every now and again so…. 30 minutes later I’m back on the air.

The plan now is to see if the band comes to life (the numbers are looking good) and I can get (more than) a few contacts in the log.

.

Ending on a positive note I was able to contact VE3FI Bill as he activated POTA CA-2376 as part of his cross Canada tour. I guess the antenna is working after all that.

73bob

Well as you know the bands have been fairly poor so I have no stories to share with you about “Rare DX” and even my Parks on The Air (POTA) activities have been less than usual.

A while back I did post about the “New” Xiegu X6200 and how it looked impressive “on paper” and was waiting to get more info before making any opinions (good or bad) on the unit.

Here is a link to that post.

Above picture from Xiegu website.

Well the X6200 is now available for sale and from some actual dealers rather than the usual Chinese companies…

The information I comment on today is from the Waters & Stanton website who are selling the unit in the UK….

The prices I quote are from their website including their estimation of Duties and Taxes in Canadian $$$.

The price of the radio is 795.00 in Pound Sterling and from there the websites calculates the following…

So if you take in the above sub totals it looks like the converted price of the radio is $1389.70 (CDN) then you add the Duties and taxes of $226.73 (CDN) giving a total of $1616.43 (CDN)

But remember the disclaimer from above:

The estimated duties and taxes are based on CA$1,389.70 of product and may fluctuate due to changes in currencies, shipping costs, clearance fees or how the items are classified by customs. Duties and taxes may be collected upon delivery of the items.

So at this point I am guessing (yes guessing) that the retail North American Price will be fairly close to the above price in the range of $1600 -$1700 (CDN) but remember that is my “Best Guess”.

From what I can see of the details of the 6100 they will be in competition with the ICOM IC705 and the ELECRAFT KX3.

Lets see the reviews that should be available on YouTube very soon and then make your decisions from there.

If it is as good as it seems… It still could be a contender in the upper end of the QRP rigs.

73bob

Disclaimer: This post is me thinking out loud. I am not recommending or endorsing any of the products listed above. I believe that you if you are thinking of purchasing one…. That you should do all your research and draw your own conclusions before you buy one from whatever source you choose.

Its all up to you.

Well as you know the bands have been fairly poor so I have no stories to share with you about “Rare DX” and even my Parks on The Air (POTA) activities have been less than usual.

A while back I did post about the “New” Xiegu X6200 and how it looked impressive “on paper” and was waiting to get more info before making any opinions (good or bad) on the unit.

Here is a link to that post.

Above picture from Xiegu website.

Well the X6200 is now available for sale and from some actual dealers rather than the usual Chinese companies…

The information I comment on today is from the Waters & Stanton website who are selling the unit in the UK….

The prices I quote are from their website including their estimation of Duties and Taxes in Canadian $$$.

The price of the radio is 795.00 in Pound Sterling and from there the websites calculates the following…

So if you take in the above sub totals it looks like the converted price of the radio is $1389.70 (CDN) then you add the Duties and taxes of $226.73 (CDN) giving a total of $1616.43 (CDN)

But remember the disclaimer from above:

The estimated duties and taxes are based on CA$1,389.70 of product and may fluctuate due to changes in currencies, shipping costs, clearance fees or how the items are classified by customs. Duties and taxes may be collected upon delivery of the items.

So at this point I am guessing (yes guessing) that the retail North American Price will be fairly close to the above price in the range of $1600 -$1700 (CDN) but remember that is my “Best Guess”.

From what I can see of the details of the 6100 they will be in competition with the ICOM IC705 and the ELECRAFT KX3.

Lets see the reviews that should be available on YouTube very soon and then make your decisions from there.

If it is as good as it seems… It still could be a contender in the upper end of the QRP rigs.

73bob

Disclaimer: This post is me thinking out loud. I am not recommending or endorsing any of the products listed above. I believe that you if you are thinking of purchasing one…. That you should do all your research and draw your own conclusions before you buy one from whatever source you choose.

Its all up to you.

Recently (at least for me) the bands have not been the best (understatement) and so rather than tell you about the contacts I have (or not) made …. Here is a bit on a new radio coming that if it lives up to its hype might wake up the QRP market a bit.

DISCLAIMER: THE FOLLOWING POST IS NOT A ENDORSEMENT OF THE PRODUCT LISTED BELOW. IN THE PAST WE ALL OF HEARD ABOUT GOOD THINGS AND BAD THINGS ABOUT 1ST ATTEMPTS OF A NEW RADIO.

If the early info give to us by XIEGU is accurate this could be a welcome addition to the QRP part of the hobby.

Draw your own conclusions from the post and then make your own decisions…. Buyer Beware

==========================================

The radio is the Xiegu 6200 which is from the company that has given us the G90 and the X5105 both of which are excellent radios once the “gremlins” were removed from the firmware.

Although I never operated a G90 I know quite a few operators from the POTA world who did (and still do) and they never complained about it (at least to me) and their signals always sounded great

I did operate a X5105 as my POTA radio for a while and foolishly sold it.

So let me show you the Xeigu X6200

All the following info comes from the Radioddity site: https://www.radioddity.com/products/xiegu-x6200

so once again do your research and come up with your own opinions…

Looks good but looks can be (might be) deceiving.

So its “eye candy” Looks great but what about the stats?

Once again from their website.

Xiegu X6200 – A new generation flagship ultra-portable transceiver that uses a high-performance DRFS platform architecture and offers a convenient user experience for amateur radio enthusiasts.

It has a 4-inch color screen, a built-in battery pack, an automatic antenna tuner, a microphone, and a recorder. It also supports various SDR features, such as digital filters, noise reduction, pulse interference elimination, and spectrum/waterfall display. It has two USB interfaces, an ACC interface, a 3.5mmKEY interface, and an S/P interface. It has two external expansion component slots for additional applications and peripherals.

Highlights
– HF/50MHz all-mode
– Detachable battery pack
– Built-in efficient automatic antenna tuner
– Integrated standing wave scanner and voice pager
– Integrated modem, preset message, CW automatic call
– Integrated USB line control/transmission, built-in sound card
– Support remote control, wireless FT8 operation
– WFM broadcast reception, aviation band reception

But what about the specs?:

Xiegu X6200 Sneak Peek
on March 21, 2024
1. The images currently displayed are only of the engineering prototype, they do not represent the final form of the product.
2. For more latest news, please subscribe to the Radioddity newsletter.
3. Please credit the source when reposting the images.

All the data used in this blog posting has been provided by the Radioditty Website and or the groups i/o site via a link on the above mentioned website and I thank them for it

My comments follow:

Yes…. its output is 5w….. but it is a QRP radio so….

From what I see so far this radio could/might be a contender against the IC705 and the KX3 from the expected price point. How will the 6200 perform? This depends on the firmware and has yet to be seen.

DISCLAIMER: THE ABOVE POST IS NOT A ENDORSEMENT OF THE PRODUCT(s) LISTED ABOVE . IN THE PAST WE ALL OF HEARD ABOUT GOOD THINGS AND BAD THINGS ABOUT 1ST ATTEMPTS OF A NEW RADIO.

If the early info give to us by XIEGU is accurate this could be a welcome addition to the QRP part of the hobby.

Draw your own conclusions from the post and then make your own decisions…. Buyer Beware

Am I rushing out to buy one? NO!!! but it does have my attention and I will be following the reviews and if they are good…. you never know it might make it into my radio kit

73bob

I didn't realize that our "Amateur Radio Day at the Library" was so close to World Amateur Radio Day. Too bad they couldn't have exactly coincided.

Here's the list of stuff I'll be bringing:

KX3

Speaker / earbuds and "Y" cable

Straight key / Paddle and "Y" cable

Battery

Antenna - PARENDFEDZ (primary choice)

Jackite mast and support system

Laptop and AC adapter

USB adapter for straight key and paddle to laptop.

Morse Code charts

Alexloop (as a backup) if putting up the PAR is mot feasible

Pad and pen for logging any possible QSOs.

UTC Clock

Some QSL cards for display purposes.

And I think that should do it. Tonight we have a SPARC meeting via Zoom. A couple of the guys were going to visit the library this week to get an actual eyeball on the space we'll be dealing with. Hopefully, I'll get a better idea as to what will be possible for antennas.

One of the things I want to mention during the meeting is that someone needs to take photos and perhaps a video or two. These would look good on both the SPARC website and our social media page on Facebook. Maybe we can get another article in QST, like we did for Maker's Day a few years back.

Last night, I spent more time than I should have setting up the new weather station console that arrived from Ambient Weather Systems. I thought you could just set it up from the cell phone app, and be done with it. No, you actually have to go into the device via your laptop or a web browser on your phone, via the IP Address they mention in the instruction book. If I had read the manual more closely, and had not just assumed that I knew what I was doing, I would have been done much sooner.

In any case, I had to rename the weather station with the new console. It was KNJSOUTH60 - it is now KNJSOUTH208 for any weather geeks out there, like myself, who like to look at what the weather is in different locations around the country.

Which leads me to another topic. I can't tell you how many times I've seen a Ham Radio Newbie ask a question on one of the Amateur Radio groups on Facebook, only to be told "RTFM"! I wonder how many of us "veterans" have screwed up because we didn't read the manual? I know I did last night!

No questions from newcomers to the hobby are "stupid". Always be kind and helpful, so that your positive attitude will carry forward to the next generation of Hams.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

When you think you have it even somewhat figured out ...... you don't.

I had two VHF ARES Nets to check into last night. One for the Southern District of NNJ at 7:30 PM and then the actual NNJ Section ARES Net at 8:00 PM. Before, between and after I decided to do some POTA hunting. I worked Dave AB9CA in New Mexico easy enough, but there was a station in Illinois on 40 Meters that I could not get as hard as I might try.

This is unusual, because I normally have a pipeline on 40 Meters to Illinois, Indiana and that part of the country. It was a bit frustrating to say the least. Most times, I can connect with a station from that part of the US after a call or two. Not last night, as I tried switching between the Butternut and the W3EDP, as well as adjusting my frequency so that I would not be zero beat with the activator. He finally went QRT just as about the Section Net was starting. This did not bode well for later in the evening as Don K9DRP in Illinois was one of the 40 Meter Foxes last night.

The other Fox was John AJ1DM in Rhode Island. John was an easy find and was loud enough, but there was constant QRM on him as QRO stations were all around him.  It took some really tight KX3 filtering to isolate John well enough to be able to easily hear who he was working. Finally at 0147 UTC, I got in his log.

As I suspected, Don K9DRP was another story. Not only did I have to utilize the KX3's Audio Peak Frequency feature in order to hear Don well enough, there was also a ton of QRM on him as well. This QRM (in both cases) wasn't intentional. It was just QRO stations who didn't hear the QRP stations underneath them.  That happens and we get used to it. Again, as with the POTA station earlier in the evening, I was trying everything I knew to get Don to hear me. I switched between vertical and wire, and I kept track of who he was working and tried to anticipate his next listening spot. I even tried adjusting my CW speed, thinking maybe a slower or faster speed might catch his ear. All to no avail.

I was about to throw in the towel, as I was tired after a long day at work and it was getting late, but I decided to stick with it to the bitter end. My perseverance was rewarded by hearing "W2LJ" come back to me at 0221 UTC - with only 9 minutes to go before QRT time! A quick exchange with no requests for repeats from me, and I was in the log. Whew!

One other thing this Fox hunting is teaching me, besides perseverance, is that I really do need hearing aids, or at least one hearing aid. My right ear is almost totally shot. The nice thing about the KX3 is that it has the built in sub-receiver and it also has dual listening mode. When you utilize it, the main VFO, in this case the Fox, will be in my left headphone and the the second VFO, the Hounds, will be heard in my right headphone. I cannot hear anything from the right headphone as things stand. I literally have to take the headphones off and flip them so I can figure out where the Fox is working the Hounds. What a pain!

Last week, I went for my annual physical and my Doctor looked in my ears, as I told him I was going to need hearing aids. He told me that there is some rumen (ear wax) build up in my left ear and that I should get that taken care of, but my right ear was totally clean. He was a bit surprised when I told him that the right ear was the ear I could not hear well with! I have looked into Over the Counter hearing aids, but they are mostly for folks with mild to moderate hearing loss. An OTC hearing aid would be good enough for my left ear, but my right ear falls under the severe hearing loss category. "Regular" hearing aids are expensive, but several friends who use hearing aids have recommended the ones available through Costco.

Maybe this summer - yeah, along with a lot of other things.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

I mentioned in an earlier post that I bought my Elecraft AX1 antenna not long after they came out. Although I carried in my pack as a backup antenna for a few years, I never used it much. That changed last year, when I started giving it some serious use. It’s now one of my go-to options for casual, impromptu portable operation.

Of course I bought a few accessories for the AX1. I typically use the AXB1 Bipod with the AX1 attached directly to my KX3. While that works fine, I saw mention of an interesting alternative to the bipod, the Byonics KX3 AX1 Stand. My curiosity got the better of me, so I ordered one.

It’s a clever little 3D printed stand that weighs next to nothing. To use it, attach the BNC elbow adapter to the AX1 and set it in the stand. Scoot the stand up to the radio and connect the AX1 to the radio. That’s it!

I set it up at home, and it seems pretty stable. The thing I like about it is that there are no adjustments. Since Byonics makes these stands for specific radios, the KX3 version won’t fit a KX2 and vice versa. That’s not a problem for me, since I don’t currently own a KX2. The Elecraft bi-pod, of course, can be adjusted to fit either radio. 

I’m looking forward to trying it out in the field sometime soon.

73, Craig WB3GCK

Another successful activation at Brookhaven state park, POTA K-2019 21 contacts with 2 park to park contacts today. Setup was the KX3, Bioenno 12V 3aH LifePO, MFJ 1979 vertical with the homebrew Tripod trucker mount combo and 2 sloping 17.1 foot radials. Best to the west was Utah and to the east Italy. Who says you can’t work DX (haha) with a night light bulb? QRP just never fails!

SOTA summit: Ben Nevis  GM/WS-001

Activation Date: September 1, 2022

Unique: 251st

Call sign used: MM0SNA/P

Portable operation: Yes

Radios: Elecraft KX3 and Yaesu VX 8G

Antennas: LNR 40/20/10 Trail friendly end fed and J Pole

Band/Modes used: 40m 20m SSB and 2m FM (all voice)

Operating highlights:

• ~50 shortwave contacts across UK and EU
• Spectacular views
• UK’s tallest is in the “bag”

Pack weight: Approximately 25 lbs

Drive: Fort William, Ben Nevis visitor center parking lot

Hike:  ~10 miles R/T with 4,400 ft ascent along an incredible trail. 

Hike and AZ profile:

• Trail is legendary and labelled the tourist route
• AZ is huge and very rocky
• GaiaPro track here –> Ben Nevis

Recommend: Absolutely

Solo operation: Yes

Cell Coverage: Good O2 coverage 

Photos: Copyright Paul Gacek 2022

I’ve stumbled into the clouds that thicken and then break to reveal three large man sized cairns. The opaque view of a door wide open, many feet above me entering into a dark and uninviting chamber is like something out of a Steven King film. Ahead, the trig point is perched eight feet above me on a pile of rocks. The metal frame, rusted and padlocked together adds to the oddness of this place that I currently share with no-one

This isn’t Burning Man but the rather the surreal peak of Ben Nevis, the UK’s high point very early on a September morning.

I push up my mast that now seems to be rid of that pungent odor that set in having never properly drying out after recent wet activations.

I’ve been plagued with problems recently.

My simple VHF role up antenna that has been a gem seems to have netted zero contacts on the last three activations. Putting this down to time of day and local mountains blocking my signal, I sally on until it dawned on me that maybe it is broken.

It was and today my jerry rigged repair seems to work. I contemplated bring just this small VHF radio. Others have successfully nabbed four plus contacts. I reach down to Glasgow and over to Mallaig. Silence, I call, listen, get colder and eventually give up.

My second realization of failure was my KX2. I had dropped it off my desk a few weeks back and optimistically believed it worked as it powered up, appear to send and made all the right noises. Hart Fell was a shortwave (HF) struggle and I’m now convinced its generating a virtually imperceptible signal. Weak to start with and now essentially useless.

Ben Nevis isn’t a jaunt in the park. The trail might be manicured, contoured and everything a tourist might want, but it’s still 4,400 ft ascent over 5 miles and with that pack weight is a consideration. Hiking Scotland year round can offer anything from winds, to rain, to snow, to bright sunshine within the same day and Ben Nevis is a notoriously capricious peak that can appear sunny at the trailhead only to be engulfed in a blizzard once you arrive.

A variety of clothing seems sensible. Fluids to drink seem essential. Something to nibble on can revive the body and the ten essentials (first aid, compass,…) may heal or save the body and so the weight goes up and up. With all of that I really debated about an HF rig given my ultra lite KX2 was hors de combat but as a well trained Boy Scout leaving little to chance I brought one.

The ground below me seems to occasionally rock from side to side as I deploy my fishing rod with guy lines and a flimsy and less than optimal bit of wire pretending to be an antenna.

My near solitary journey up hauling my gear found me creating my own rain forest that despite being captured by wool had me progressively getting colder and colder while putting my antenna up. A down parka goes on, a rain shell, a woolly hat, another hat. Hot tea goes in, a chocolate power drinking but I simply can’t reverse or stem the shakes. People are calling, lots of them. I can’t write, I can’t read what I write, I try to correct my pencil scratchings and they keep calling. I have to stop, get up, swing my arms. move around, rock across the rocks again and settle back in.

Operating over almost two and half hours I net almost 50 contacts across Europe from Greece to Portugal and over to Finland and points between. Its a great haul for me plus 6 coveted contacts with other people like me up a mountain with a radio.

I had fretted about parking. A run thorough the parking lot the afternoon before revealed zippo free spaces. At 5:15am, I had the choice of any of 80 spaces bar three. Civil twilight, that time before sunrise that the sky begins to lighten wasn’t far off and my headlamp lit the bridge, the trail, the stile and all the nuances of this exquisitely built and maintained trail.

Three teenagers pass me heading back to the trailhead sharing that they set out at 2am. Wow.

The sunrises, lights the surrounding hills and reveals my first glimpse of Fort William the the sea lochs and land lochs all around. It’s breath taking.

They pass me and I ask for a snap. He obliges and hands my phone to his partner and she takes it very seriously with various backgrounds and orientations. Thank you, strangers.

That’s it, no one else goes by and I have a solitary and I think unique experience of ascending Ben Nevis, tourist free with sunshine vistas.

It’s taken me 2 hours and 59 minutes from my car to the set of the Steven King film that is the collapsed volcanic peak of Ben Nevis. I’m happy.

I’m getting impatient or maybe it’s boredom. Descents are always hard on my knees and I’m 30 minutes from my car.

She passed me by and I commented that she’d picked up her pace. Sharing that her friends had released her of companion duty reveals a US accent.

“Where you from in the US?, I ask. “San Francisco Bay Area”, she responds. As a twenty year Bay Area resident I’m intrigued. Sebastopol is a great town in Sonoma County, most famous as the home of Schultz, the Charlie Brown comic author. Frequent visitors in the 90s, my wife and I always enjoyed it as a destination with its mix of historic California bungalows, Hippy feel and that extra sense of safety having declared it self a “Nuclear Free Zone”.

She works for FaceBook and we talk about possible changes in the way people interact with her given FaceBooks perceived influence on politics and all things divisive. She’s on a hiking tour. I share my passion for mountain tops and radios. She laughed saying that explains why my pack was so big. It was all welcome and made that last 30 minute disappear in a heart beat.

“Do you have flights?”, I ask staring at the 22 options. “No but you can get thirds”. I look at the details and share she’s gone over to the dark side. So many West Coast IPAs. She laughs and pours me my first three beer tasters.

I believe in rewards.

Add amateur radio to your beach trip keeping in mind family life balance.

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