Last activation on my low price " Biltema" brand PP3 9volt battery.
Nice to QSO HB9BIN/P on HB/BL-009 S2S
After two qso and a lot of CQ I noticed a change in radio.
Battery was now 5.1v and radio did not function correct any more.
After 11 activations and 55 qso the battery was empty.
This is about 1/10 of the number of qso possible with a Rockmite with 100mW.
But still a lot of fun, so thanks to you all.
Stats:02/05/2016
Battery: #7 Biltema low price brand.
Activation: #11
Summit: LA/TM-049
Band: 30m
Finish Voltage: 5.10V@7C no signals more.
QSOs: 3
DXCCs: 3 DL, HB9 and SP
Cumulative QSOs: 55
Cumulative DXCC: 13 (DL ,F, G ,GI,HA, HB9,LA,OE,OK,ON,OM,PA,SP)
Edit -
Just looking back through the thread, I note that my battery was first used on 1st December 2012, four years ago! I looked for the ābest before dateā on the battery and itās stamped with 01 2017. I suppose I ought to activate more often!
Reviving this thread prompted me to read it again. It was like a mystery novel, you didnāt know what would happen next.
Mobile phone technology apparently uses 3v devices and I wonder if that is a good direction to go for lower power usage. it might even be worth using an inverter from a 9v battery to produce 3v, but a CR2032-powered āSandmiteā radio could set a new goal for this type of challenge.
I read through the entire thread last night, it was interesting to rediscover my journey from struggling to cope with 10 wpm using a straight key, to where I am now. If it wasnāt for Kjellās challenge, I would probably be still activating on 2m FM.
Thereās no doubt that I owe a lot of my successes to the challenge, it pushed me to build more home brew rigs and also to modify designs. My drive of the last few years to get to a usable level of competency in CW was also very much rooted in the challenge.
I donāt think Iāll ever top the scores in the challenge achieved by Kjell or Richard, I simply donāt have enough time to operate. I do find it amazing at how long a PP3 will last though and it certainly seems as though itās more likely that you will lose interest before the battery runs out!
I think the main issue is current demand, not voltage. My feeling is that these small cells donāt like to supply a large chunk of current all at once. Despite the great efficiency of the KD1JV MTR rigs, the current demand in TX, say 400 - 500 mA really knocks a PP3 for 6, you get a big voltake sag which really pulls the output power down. Itās not that Iām picking a fault with the MTR rigs, itās that a PP3 is a poor power source. Minimising TX current is the way to go for the challenge I think.
Rather than trying to use batteries, maybe we should be looking to use solar, kinetic or heat energy to power our rigs. Candle powered radio anyone?
Back on LA/TM-049 for some more activation with PP3 9v battery and Rockmite for 10.120Mc and a dipole.
Got some X-tal for 10.106 and 10.116 and think soon is time for making a switch for more xtals.
Some RTTY stations are active on or near 10.120 so it is dificult to qso.
I belive that in R1 we are to only use CW on 10.100 to 10.130( with some ZA on phone privileges)
Battery: "Philips Extreme life PP3
Cumulative QSOs: 7
Cumulative DXCC: 7 (DL, F, G, HB9, LA, OE and PA)
Logg see sota or below.
Stats:22/01/2017
Battery: #8
Activation: #1
Summit: LA/TM-049
Band: 30m
Finish Voltage: not measured
QSOs: 4
DXCCs: 2 F, G, HB9 and PA
Cumulative QSOs: 2
Cumulative DXCC: 4 (F, G, HB9 and PA)
I listened for you on the 23rd, but I heard nothing here. I have been working Ć ge LA1ENA in the afternoons from my garden with reasonable sigs on 30m. I find it fascinating that I was unable to detect a trace of signal from Ć ge on 14MHz, but yet there were good signals on 10MHz. Those guys who think the next band down from 20m is 40m are really missing out!
I do hope to get some more PP3 QSOs in the log during the coming months.
30m seemed to be in very good shape today. I had a nice run of callers in 20 minutes. At one point a few stations were calling at once and I struggled to pick out a call, then I heard āupā āupā. I took the āupā to mean work split. I would work split but I havenāt found the right button or menu setting yet.
My Panasonic Evolta battery has a best before date of 01/2017, itās living in borrowed time!!
73, Colin
Edit -
Just looked back through the thread, I first started using my Panasonic Evolta battery back in December 2012. I canāt believe Iāve had the battery so long!
