A tale of two activations in G/WB

Activation Reports
1

Thursday 16/10/2025, and time to get back to activating after a few months of lounging about following a couple of surgical interventions in the last year or so. What better than to try out my QMX for the first time with its SSB firmware.
Caer Caradoc G/WB-006 is a local summit for me, and one of my favourites. I set off with a small and hastily packed rucksack, leaving behind the usual anvil and full set of accessories.
The walk up was good, the weather a little hazy, but mild with a gentle breeze.
I set up the linked dipole, QMX, battery, connecting leads, paddle and microphone. Ah. No headphones.

In the anvil accessory pack, there is a small pair of earbuds which would have been useful in a case like this. I didn’t even have the anvil to bang my head against.
Luckily, I did have the FT70D handheld, so having packed up the HF kit and hoisted a wire Jpole, the activation was saved with 10 nice QSOs on 2m FM. For the last few I reduced power to 500mW, as the battery icon was showing empty - I was chuffed to work best dx Frank GW1OFA near Cardigan at this power level, a distance of around 150Km, Q5 reports both ways.

Looking North, with the Wrekin G/WB-010 on the horizon to the right of centre:

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So, back into the swing of things, and now with added headphones, I set out again on Friday 17/10/2025 for High Vinnals G/WB-012. This was again at fairly short notice, but the weather was good, no wind this time, and glorious Autumn colours emerging despite the lack of sunshine to show them at their best.
The QMX behaved well, with good reports on 40m SSB, and a run of CW contacts on 20m. I rounded off with a quick visit to 2m FM and picked up a few more, including Barry G4BUD/AM who was flying North over the Cotswolds - my first /AM contact, I think (if I discount working “Father Christmas” who claimed to be flying back from EU to USA in a B52 in 197_?)
It felt really good to catch up with SOTA friends once again.

Luxury, a seat:

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QMX with tiny home brew “junk box” microphone, sitting on battery box, 3AH nominal of recovered vape batteries:

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It is a lot lighter and smaller than the FT817, and very nice to operate.

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Thanks again to everyone who called in, much appreciated.

73

Adrian

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2

Nice Adrian! Glad to see you back out, it must have felt a long time not being able to get out. Thanks for the High Vinnals contact, but missed you on WB-006, I must have been in a meeting with the volume on the radio turned down.

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3

Of course it was! Let the power of 270 compel you! :raised_fist:

Good work Adrian and nice repurposing of those batteries. Do those vape shops sell 18650’s? I can never seem to find any online to buy other than from dubious-looking ecommerce sites created in Wix or something.

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4

Check out fogstar for quality cells. Friday discounts if you subscribe to their emailing list.

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5

Great to see that you were able to get back out onto the hills. Looks like two successful activations, despite the lack of headphones on G/WB-006! Glad the QMX worked well on SSB too.

73, Matthew M0JSB

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I bought one of these 3s packs for the QMX, it’s cheaper than buying the individual cells. You do need to use a balanced charger though.

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Those are some good prices. Shame they don’t ship to EI alas. Thanks though for the link all the same. :+1:

8

You’re not trying very hard:

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9

Hi Adrian

Great report and photos. So good to get you in my chaser log with such a fb signal on 40m. 73 till the next time.

Allan

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10

Glad you are back.

I do feel a wee bit of pride that I wrote about how I was using recovered vape batteries and now see other people are doing likewise having read what I had written.

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Cheers for the link, appreciated. Looks like it points back to two different sites though one of them at least has an actual shop in Waterford on Google Maps.

Might give them a call to see are they legit and get some Samsung batteries.I like those fancy ones with the skulls on them that Fraser linked to though! Ah well, ti’s only a battery all the same!

12

Very glad to see (hope it will be ‘hear’ before too long!) that you are up and about again Adrian and on some of our favourtie local hills. I was pleased (and surprised) to discover that there is now a choice of 2 seats on High Vinnalls now but am hoping to keep quiet about the one buried in the bracken so it becomes a dedicated ‘SOTA’ seat! This saves me having to cart my personal anvil (a 3 legged stool) to the top of the summit as standing or sitting on flattish ground are personal ‘no-nos’,

Keep up the good work and glad to hear that the QMX is working well. its rather popular round here I gather…

73 Viki

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Thank you!

Yes, it is well appointed for the purpose, having just room to run out a 40m dipole without it getting tangled in the bracken!

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