Earlier today, I activated EA5/AT-034 Sant Pasqual / San Pascual, and I had problems with both of my radios.
I started with 20 m CW QRPp (400 mW?) with a Foxx-3 that was given to me by Trev EA5NW.
After a couple of CQ, I was spotted and started to receive calls from chasers. Chasers were very patient with me while I had two problems: first, the radio was overloaded with at least two medium-wave broadcast stations; second, after every round of TX, the radio took about two seconds to recover and I usually missed the first part of what my chasers were sending. Here’s a picture of the set.
It listened as hard as I could and completed 15 QSOs; for 3 of them, I could not copy the RST the chaser gave me.
Then I tried a Chinese 3-band HamGeek uSDX on 20 m. I was startled to see that it gave me a reading of 22W when I transmitted. I decided to go ahead and activate on SSB anyway but speaking low so that I would not overload the finals. I had to use the internal microphone, as the handheld one got some weird coupling. I managed 5 QSOs and quit. I wouldn’t recommend this radio to anyone.
My EFHW was supposed to work also on 40 m but for some reason it gave high SWR. Perhaps there is something wrong with it. I will inspect.
Anyway, I managed to bag the 2 points and get home in time for Father’s Day lunch. 73!