As there is so much gloom in the news these days here is my attempt to cheer folk up.
I recently completed making a 20m QCX+ from QRP Labs. I didn’t think it was transmitting at first as there was no voltage at the dummy load. I also couldn’t see any signs of a signal using a USB SDR connected to my PC. So it was dead then?
No, the cheap SDR can’t detect 14MHz signals even when only a short distance from the transmitter. Adding an upconverter between the antenna and the SDR sorted this problem as it brought the HF signal into the range the SDR could recognize. And a signal to recognize there was! The lack of voltage at the dummy load was down to me measuring from the wrong place. When I did it correctly I found 13.8 volts.
That was yesterday’s breakthrough, today’s efforts were to try and send a signal a little further than the distance across my bench.
I had learned of something called the Reverse Beacon Network recently and decided to give this a try. The QCX+ has memory slots you can load with a message and the radio will transmit this with a quick button push. Given my stuttering attempts to learn Morse this feature was perfect for me.
So I entered TEST DE M7WIV M7WIV M7WIV, strung up the antenna and pressed send after finding a quiet frequency.
No response, I tried again then after a few more minutes of futile beeping I spotted the QCX+ was in Practice mode and though it might have been beeping in the headphones not a single mW was reaching the antenna!
Take two: Switching off Practice mode I tried again and within a few minutes I started being “spotted” on the RBN map. Things got better a little later when the sun crept over the Atlantic and I had a few spots from North America. Not bad I thought for about 4W or less from an end fed wire strung across my garden and with no earth connection as I haven’t created one yet.
I was eager to see how things might look from a hill so this afternoon I walked up to the summit of Pen Beacon on the southern edge of Dartmoor. It isn’t a SOTA summit but the ground falls away quite sharply to the west so I was expecting to reach further than I had this morning, perhaps even the west coast of the US?
At the summit, a 45 minute walk from the car, I started unpacking but a sinking feeling I had forgotten something began to grow. I had almost everything but what I didn’t have because it was left behind was the co-ax to connect the radio to the balun. Oops!
On the positive side my dog enjoyed the walk.
But a valuable lesson was learned - create a SOTA packing list.
Sadly, the weather forecast is poor for the next few, days but when it improves I will try again. And while I’m waiting for the rain to stop I’ll have a go at making the 30m QCX Mini which arrived this week. 
