Traditionally held on “The Last Rainy Weekend” in June but for the sticklers for the rules its actual date is the 4th weekend in June…

This year it would be on June 22nd and ending on June 23rd

So what will VA3QV be doing???? Its safe to say that my Field Day Station will look a bit like this:

or like this from back in 2017….

So I plan to be operating as a 1B Battery Station from the RAC Ontario East Section (ONE)

The actual location has not been determined yet but there is a good chance the location could be one of the Parks on the Air location in the City of Kingston.

That’s the plan for good weather… and so far the long range forecast is calling for nice (dry). If the weather is not dry then the plan is to operate as a home station in the 1D catagory just to give out points to the participants

If you are new at this then the rules can be found here:

Years ago Field Day was considered a test of our emergency operating skills specifically to set up and operate a station for 24 hours and somehow it has morphed into more of contest with groups of operators putting up equipment that would not be used in a real emergency at power levels that could not be maintained unless you had a generator and an endless supply of gasoline.

I’m a little more primitive by setting up my QRP (5w of power) radio with a wire antenna and using a solar panel to top up the battery as needed.

I will have the option of being under cover (see above pic) as protection from the sun and/or rain most likely be needed at some time . Not sure how long I will be operating but it won’t be for the full 24 hours.

Overnight all I would be doing is listening to static and feeding the mosquitoes…

No egos to stroke…. Just operate and make some contacts with the emphasis of having fun and not taking myself too seriously.

Hope to hear you and be heard by you during the event

73bob

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

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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