88th Mt.Ezkaba EA2/NV-119 by EA2IF/P on 15/11/2020

Activation Reports
1

On Sunday, November 15th, I headed again to my training field. The ascent took me 35 minutes. The averaged hearbeat rate was 155 with a max peak of 169 beats/min achieved during the 3m 12s I exceded my own upper limit of 165 beats/minute set by (220 - my age). My training watch tells me I burnt 498 Kcal equivalents to 23g of fat.
This time I didn’t carry my usual rucksack with the FT-817ND and the MFJ-941B antenna tunner plus all the accesories preconnected inside a customized wooden box. I carried a small fabric rucksack instead with a MTR-2B I have owned for quite a long time, but have used in very few occasions. Ignacio EA2BD gave me this little rig and the 40m band wasn’t working at that time. During the spring time lockdown, I sent my MTR to a good SOTA friend in the UK and it’s now working perfectly on 20 and 40m bands. My first trial with the repaired MTR wasn’t good, but it was because the earbuds I used at that time had a wrong impedance. After having purchased brand new earbuds with the right impedance, I had the pleasure to operate with this little rig from SOTA Mt. Ezkaba and not only did I log 47 CW QSOs on 20 and 40m, but one of these was with ZL1TM in New Zealand when I was powering my MTR with a 9V NiMH rechargeable battery.
I made about 10 QSOs with the 9V battery and the output power was probably 2W or even less. Then I changed to my LiFePo4, so the output power was arounf 5W for the rest of the activation.
This was my endfed antenna as a sloper from the top of my so many times repaired telescopic fishing rod.

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You can see here a picture of my MTR, the 9V battery, a SWR meter and my home made 2 lever paddle.

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The following picture shows the antenna tunner I was using, which I recently bought as a kit to QRPguys and I assembled not too long ago. It worked fine tuning on 20 and 40m bands my 10m long endfed antenna + 6m long counterpoise. The only problem I find is with the built-in SWR LED indicator, which is very difficult for me to see in the outside daylight. That’s why I used a small external SWR meter.

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You can see the location of my chasers on the map:

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Thanks dear chasers for your calls and QSOs.
I’ll be looking forward to copying you all again from a summit.
73,

Guru

7 Likes
2

Hello Guru, Maybe regarding the difficulty to see LED light of the SWR indicator, you could simply put your tuner in a box, and put a short plastic tube (16 or 20mm Outer diameter like those used by electricians) of - let say - 3 or 4 cm long, just ahead of the LED itself, that should help.

Vy 73s

Laurent

3

Hi Laurent,
Thanks for your message and suggestion. Now that my MTR portable station has been tested and found 100% OK, I will think about a small box, a clipboard or something to have the rig, SWR meter, paddle and earbuds with all the wires preconnected and neatly routed. I think I’ll keep the antenna tuner out and independent.
Regarding the LED for SWR indicator, I think a needle indicator will always allow me a more accurate tune than a LED showing SWR upon its brightness, but I’ll think about your proposal.

73,

Guru

4

Hi Guru,
Tnx QSO, it was pleasure as always !
73, Jarek

1 Like
5

Hi Guru,

as a user of another MTR, I was willing that you had a great satisfaction with this little jewel.
You did it well; having the right the earphone impedance is the key factor to enjoy with this rig.

Just one point we discussed before: to ensure you can make hundreds of activation with it; be careful when powering the rig with the LiFePO4 batt, i wouldn’t advise to exceed above 12,5 volts. Adding some diodes in line the power lead will protect it easily.

Look forward many more qso with you, perhaps a MTR2MTR next time?
73 de Ignacio.

1 Like