Any ideas for 2008 ? ;-)

Old Reflector
1

hi all,
last days i thinking about my sota-activity .
first year i was qrv only on 40m-cw,later also on 30m-cw,
the second sota-year i started ssb as a regular mode and in moment with regular qrg´s on 40m cw/ssb, 30m-cw and 80m-cw…in summer also higher bands.
and now the third year of dm/bw comes :wink:
what should i do as new in 2008 actvitys…any ideas ?? maybe qro next year ?
first i think´d about to buy a ft-857 or something else, but i love the superb rx and the modulation on my homebrew rig.i love it to operate with homebrew radios.
should i build a little hf-amp abt. 50 to 100watt ?
if i compare my activations to others i see there no big difference in the qso-rate/log-entries by qro stns.
i can´t listen to my signal on the chaser side, so i don´t have any idea if qro needed or not.
next year i will use the same antennas…no little ones :wink:

can anyone sending me info of Amperes a FT-857 need by 10w,25w and 50watt,please.
the other idea i use my speaky hf-trx with a hf-amp. so i can start all qrg´s with normal low power, and to the end of operating on the band i can use qro.so i don´t need too much amperes from my slab.

my now used hombrew trx can do up to 15watts on ssb and cw, and for only 1s-unit i need 60watts…mmhhhhh. with the 15watts i can do 3 summits with 4 bands allmode ( abt. 1.5h operating-time on each summit ) with only one 7ah-slab.
the most important for me is, that i can handle the growing pile-ups also in future. 15 to 60watt is only 1s-unit, but in a pile up its a big difference. its easier to handle a pile-up as qro-stn.

next days i thinking about to build a hf-amp or not :slight_smile:

greetings from the cold black-forest

klaus DF2GN…maybe qrv at the weekend from local summits

2

In reply to DF2GN:

Hi Klaus,

Could you let us know what your antenna was during 2007.

73 Heinz, OE5EEP

3

In reply to OE5EEP:
hi heinz ,
i use 3 different antennas ;-), due to what summits and bands are planned…

most of my activations i use a inverted V with 2 x 18.5m ( feedpoint 6 - 8m ) with 300ohm twincable as feeder and a elecraft T-1 or Z-Match as tuner.
before i have used a 2x26m long dipole, but i think the new one is better.

if i have more time i set up a 60m ( 197feet) longwire with 3 groundradials of 20 m length. on summits with trees i come up about 10m or more over the ground with the wire on full lenght.

my shortest and not much used antenna is a 2x6.5m long dipole with symetric feeder. but since i use 80m as a regular band never used again…

vy 73 klaus

ohhh, i forgotten one :wink:
also using a linked dipole sometimes, like GW4BVE-style . another very good antenna.

4

In reply to OE5EEP:

Hi Klaus, I think Steve G1INK and Mick 2E0HJD are best qualified to advise you on the 857 and QRO and SLAB, I take 2 X 7ah SLABs when I use my 857 but usually only use 1 on a QRO activation.
To be honest you are such a big signal on your 15w homebrew rig, you needn’t worry to much, hi.

vy 73 Mike GW0DSP

5

In reply to DF2GN:

Hi Klaus,

I carried out some experiments with my IC706 Mk2 G. It has many similarities to the 857. I can send you the results in excel but I have extracted some of them here for you. I think you will be very disappointed!

The tests were carried out with a fully charged, 6 month old, Camden 7.5 Ah battery, with the rig set to 7MHz FM into a dummy load. The IC706 has power settings L, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, H and the mic was keyed for the minimum time to take the DMM readings. The voltage readings were taken at the rig’s input terminal.

I have no absolute power meter so I simply calibrated an in-line meter to ‘100’ with the rig set on H. The real powers shown below should be factored down by 2/3 because of the battery voltage being less than 13.8V at which the rig’s parameters are specified. With 13.8V and full power it should take 20A.

This gives you an idea though. You will see that it is a fantastically inefficient way to produce QRP.

At power setting L: 2W? 5.4 Amps, 12.2V
At power setting 2: 4W? 6.6 Amps, 12.0V
At power setting 4: 9W? 7.8 Amps, 11.8V
At power setting 5: 36W? 10.3 Amps, 11.6V
At power setting 7: 55W? 13.0 Amps, 11.3V
At power setting 9: 90W? 15.7 Amps, 11.1V
At power setting H: 100W? 16.3 Amps, 11.2V.

I use a 7.5 Ah and it usually does one SOTA on 80CW 80SSB 40CW (160CW) but I must use minimum power as much as I can (30W SSB / 10W CW) and 100W only for difficult reports. These 7.5 Ah batteries test out at between 60 and 78 minutes at 4.8 Amps (H4 headlamp bulb) depending on manufacturer.

I agree with Mike. If you have a good antenna and conditions are reasonable, you don’t need QRO on CW at least. There are only two conditions when I simply must have 100W:

  1. 160m during the day, with a range of around 80km.
  2. Solar flare!

You will feel a big increase in pack weight too. QRO: about 13 to 16 kg including winter ‘safety’ equipment needed in the UK.

G4SSH tells me every week that he hardly ever has any problem with your signal and Roy has only a modest antenna. You put out one of the best signals from D.

73, John G4YSS.

6

In reply to G4YSS:

Hi John,
thanks for the table with datas from different power levels

At power setting L: 2W? 5.4 Amps, 12.2V :wink: have a 3A Fuse in my trx :wink:
my sota-rucksack abt. 10kg with accu and antenna…

only thinking abt. something new in my sota next year . maybe i try to be qrv on 144mhz cw/ssb 145mhz fm , because of the lack of activity in DM/BW. sometimes i think i´m the only activator in BW. maybe a bit of new sota-friends i find on the vhf-bands…but main activity will be on hf…sure

vy 73 Klaus

will do my next activations with full power of 15watts and hope of some nice reports.

7

In reply to GW0DSP:

To be honest you are such a big signal on your 15w homebrew rig,
you needn’t worry to much, hi.

That, I can’t agree. You are looking on your end, only. There are areas where the 15W signal ist barely (read not at all) readable. This goes for 99% for Klaus’s activities. Sometimes, only sometimes, he’s audible on my end and I need a lot of attempts since he’s always disappearing in the QSB (that’s why I’m sending at 35wpm or more just to get a chance in the opening gap to hear his answer).

My only chance is 80m, if at all.

I don’t agree with that theoretical 1 s-unit improvement. It’s a hugh difference between 15 and 60W and I can easily do 5 summits running abt 40W out of my 12Ah battery. (sri, I don’t have a smaller battery). My rucksack weights 12kg, including a blanket to sit comfortably.

Since I operate only on one band, I like to give most operators a chance to hear me.

73 Norby

8

In reply to DF2GN:
Klaus - of the big, big signal! - one suggestion is that you might consider doing 80m SSB after your 80m CW activations. Would your ATU let you give top band a try?

73

Brian G8ADD

9

In reply to G8ADD:
Hi Brian,
now back home from the local DM/BW-157.
yes, we have fb propagation today :wink: tnx nice rst.

but i have to say to Norby LX1NO, u are right in your words about the 1-s-unit.
if calculate the 15w and the 60watts , theres only 6db tn theroie.
but i´m also not a hardcore qrp´er and sometimes i use also more power ( a lot of power in my old contest times in the team :wink: )
theres only 1s-unit difference, but in the praxis on the band with real conditions the qro signal shows not so a big problem with sometimes heavy qsb as a qrp . the qro-sigs to be more stable…
also the qro reduces the callers who call and call without listen to my signal.
so i give qro a try. in 2 or 3months i´m ready with my hf-amp. enough time to build one in these cold winter days.
my plans are to stay at multiband / multimode operations who beginns at qrp on each band, and to the end i will do some qro for the areas there´s the signal not so good.
hope i´m ready with the pa earlier in januar/februar.

thanks all callers today…
vy 73 Klaus DF2GN

10

In reply to G8ADD:
sorry brian,
i tried 80m ssb a few times before, but it´s hard to find a free qrg in the 80m-band ssb as a qrp´er :wink:
but no problem, i try it out on next activations . i will spotlite the qrg on 80m ssb in my next activations…

vy 73 Klaus