I must apologise to all who attempted to chase my activation of Sugar Loaf, GW/SW-011, today (05/04/2026). The problems that affected my previous activation of Gwaunceste Hill, GW/MW-010, were supposed to have been resolved. Apologies too to those who attempted to chase that one.
My very sincere and grateful thanks to those who were persistent (or lucky) enough to make valid QSOs, in particular Allan, GW4VPX, who was able to work through the intermittence and reassure me that some sort of signal was being transmitted from MW-010.
There were apparently two problems on MW-010 - one was an unreliable connection from the EFHW to the 9:1 matching transformer. The other remains undiagnosed and evidently caused today’s problems. The end result on both hills was that the extensive protection system in the QMX seems to have been activated and shut down transmission. I found it difficult to operate with both the power output indicator and the SWR indicator showing completely blank for much of the time. The varying signal reports suggest that the fault may be partial or complete which will make it even more of a challenge to deal with.
If we go out again on Saturday (07/03/2026) or otherwise sooner than successful diagnosis and cure I intend to use a different radio and probably carry two aerials. Hoping to make more successful QSOs then.
Whilst we managed to make contact today and exchange signal reports, notwithstanding band conditions/QSB etc, you were just very low, just above the noise floor.
When you did come up, your audio was fine.
Rod, In case you don’t know, the QMX can be prone to shut down tx due to a GPS input overload triggering. This happens on the mic. lead, when some RF goes into the mic./paddle port. If you don’t use an external GPS input, disable this feature. Go into the menu and turn off the GPS protection mode. This may help.
That caught me out on my first outing. “G” displayed on the screen. It didn’t lock the radio - just intermittently stopped TX whenever RF caused a problem.
If SWR protection kicks in during Tx, the radio locks, requiring a power cycle to clear it. Entering and exiting the menu works too.
Frustrating.
In my case, it was caused by an intermittent problem with my coax/connector which only chose to reveal itself overseas. Argh!!
