As a QRP voice operator it’s quite a rarity to work the UK or EU from W6-land.
This weekend is ARRL Sweepstakes SSB competition which is a thoroughly retro contest dating back to 1929.
In the spirit of this, I’ve broken out my most retro radio, a K2/100 I built 10+ years ago while recovering from a hiking mishap.
I had pretty good luck with it early in the week with the same antenna and location I’ll be at Sunday.
Alert posted and happy to work any S2S or UK/European stations.
Are you going to run 100 watts, Paul? Which battery? I recommend a donkey to carry the battery and a second donkey to carry you.
EL
Thanks for the donkey suggestion but it’s a 7 minute drive from home and a 5 minute walk to the peak.
100 watts for as long as my 50 ampHr Bioenno lasts.
Paul
That was a mixed bag but a lot of fun!!
We have a desert wind condition that made for great blue skies but after a few hours the heat and sun begins to wear on you.
Yesterday with the K2/100 was a bit of a bust. I knew my transmit was off by 100Hz but Helium Paul was still readable earlier in the week. Somehow I enabled the K2 DSP (which i forgot was installed) and most all reports had me at the bottom of a well operating with the mic wrapped in a sock.
Today, Sunday I dragged an equally retro radio, K3/100 up.
Operated all bands 20-10 and worked England, Spain, Slovenia, France, Belgium and of course US and Canada.
Should have thought more about maintaining separate logs for SOTA and ARRL SS but you live and learn.
I had forgotten how good the buddipole at 100w can be. Easy to set up and reasonably efficient.
Well Done Paul!
Heard a long-path chaser who was working you early on.
All Best, Ken
Mine has that option… if you don’t futz with the settings continuously it’s almost impossible to remember how you drive it. I carry a copy of the manual for it on my phone nowadays.
I worked HB9GBR long path on 17m. Great copy.
In general 17m was great today and I had an arm chair copy QSO with a club station in England for what seemed like ages.
Trying to make the most of cycle 25!!
This weeks project ahead of thanksgiving is a stacked 10m portable yagi system I have assembled and ready to sling up on my postage stamp sized lot. Specs suggest somewhere between 8 and 13db gain but as I know you know the real value is in broader elevation performance.
Hopefully with that I’ll get VK stations activating with 100mw phone … well maybe!!
You’re right Andy, don’t mess with it once it works!!
Truth is I need to spend a bit of time and ensure it’s really working as best it can and refamiliarize myself with it. It’s a great radio from the all analog era.
Indeed!
The HB9 was armchair copy in AZ.
Hell, In the field, I’m afraid to do anything different even on the KX2, for fear I’ll do something I won’t be able to undo!
Ken
Wow, impresive deluxe setup!
Thanks for the QSO in 15m, I was very glad to hear you and be part of the EU in you log.
You audio was great as well.
73 de Ignacio EA2BD
Paul,
Where is this nice location with the table for operation?
73! Oleh
KD7WPJ
