Round Hill G/TW-001 with HB1B Tomorrow

I’m planning to go up Urra Moor / Round Hill tomorrow. This is SOTA G/TW-001, about an hours walk from Clay Bank Car Park. I’ve had a YouKits HB1B Chinese QRP 4 Band CW TX/RX for over 10 years and it needs using again! It must be 5 years since it was on the air - it’s only done a handfull of activations in its life, as I have a KX3 which well outperforms it and gives me multipde operation of course. When I got ithe HB1B out of the cupboard there was something rattling about inside. I needed to find out what this was… I also noticed that there was a small Philips screw on the side of the case near to the BNC without anything attached to it - “it came away in my hand Chief” as we used to to say in the RAF! You can see the screw in the last picture near the external battery… Knobs removed and the case came apart no problem.

Turns out that the nut rattling about inside was for the screw and a small insulated pad. They were meant to be holding the output transistor Q12 to the case and provide heat sinking. I don’t have a circuit diagram for the HB1B. Good job I checked before, I headed up Round Hill tomorrow with the QRP rig in my rucksack!

ScreenHunter 663

All screwed back together again now and an on air radio check from home was conducted… Around ten CQ QRP de G4OBK calls on 7030 KHz produced nothing, but there were several hits on PSK reporter. I moved to 20m 14061 KHz and there was @CT7AUP/P QRV on SOTA summit CT/BL-009 (10 points). Second call with my 3.75 Watts and David was in the log, a successful SOTA chase.

I am confident with this radio that when I am on G/TW-001 tomorrow I will get some HF CW QSOs.

As insurance I will also be taking my FT65 and RH-770 Whip and will endeavour to make a few 2m FM contacts with that.

Accompanying me on my activation will be Pippa, a Border Terrier on her first activation, aged 18 months. We got her in September 2023 after Treacle died a month previous. I hope she has the patience to sit around for an hour like Treacle used to do while I complete my activation! :grinning:

73 Phil G4OBK

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GL with the activation. I have the same HB1B rig. It is surprisingly decent. I have a schematic for it - I will email it to you.

I 3D printed a new bottom case with rails just for fun. It made the rig quite a bit lighter because that steel case is THICK! I also made a lid that uses some strong magnets to keep it in place so the knobs don’t get damaged during transport.


P.S. the original 3D model was designed by KN6EZE for the HB-1B Mark 4. I modified it to fit the older model that we have.

73,

-Josh

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GL with the activation Phil !
If I’m around, I’ll try to work you with my HB1B.
73,
Luc - ON7DQ

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It’s turned into a bit of a TW outing - 001, 002 & 004! Sorry I can’t get out but I’m hound sitting without a dog proof car. I’ll try and chase you all instead. I might even try CW if the pile ups ease and you promise to be gentle.

Good luck with Pippa’s first activation Phil. Will you be near the trig or sheltering in a grouse butt?

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Thanks Phil, for giving me a reason to get the old HB1B out of its box.
Last year, I had to replace the internal battery pack, and hadn’t done much with the rig since, apart from checking that it still worked.

The qso on 7.030 was not a big succes, I could just barely hear you in the noise, and when a PD station started calling CQ on 7029.50, the fun was over, no more copy of your faint signal. On 14.062 no copy at all, RBN showed you shooting over my head, as expected.

Too bad you didn’t get on 30m (maybe no antenna for that band ?).

I played a little longer with my HB1B, and worked a few more stations:
@IW2OGY on 20m, and @DL6GCA and @G4OOE on 30m.
All gave me a 599 report, I hope that were real reports, hi.

HB1B is a good rig to have as a backup, but selectivity is not the best. The adjustable xtal filter works … sort of, but at the very narrow bandwidth it dampens the signal too much.

73,
Luc ON7DQ

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hi… everything is real, I also use that radio in activation like today…

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I thought you Would have been ODX @IW2OGY Luca, however I worked @YO6CFB so I think Lacy takes it! However your QSO was S2S of course, so ODX S2S best 1 of 5. More later…

73 Phil G4OBK

ok …to me today it didn’t seem like a good activation regarding propagation then it arrived in a certain BA4TB :sweat_smile:… (confirmed QSO on clublog)

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Luc, how do you think the HB1B compares against a single band QCX? i.e. is it as good on 20m as a 20m QCX is?

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No Andy, if it were just for 20m, I would prefer a QCX. The HB1B receiver is noisier than the QCX. The advantage of an adjustable xtal filter disappears when the signal is very weak, setting it to narrow, the signal disappears as well.

And then there are all the bells and whistles of the QCX : CW decoder, free text messages (HB1B can only store your callsign and then sends a standard CQ message, it’s not possible to program “CQ SOTA DE …”), etc
Of course the QCX needs an external battery, but total weight will still be less than the HB1B (540g with internal battery, vs 250g for a QCX Mini with similar external battery (3-cell 18560))

For multiband, a QMX will be a better solution, for a much lower price, so the decision should not be too difficult :wink:

73
Luc ON7DQ

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Interesting. The RX on my HB1B is VERY hot. I almost always have to keep the attenuator turned on, and many times I wish it had even more attenuation (or RF Gain control). I wonder if yours needs some adjustments to get the sensitivity up?

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I had to turn my attenuator on when I was on G/TW-001 but only for @G4OOE/P who was operating on the adjacent summit G/TW-002 less than 4 miles away. Blowing my windows out Nick was! Normally don’t run with the attenuation in even on 40m so @WU7H has one hot radio there.

For what it is, and what it cost me secondhand, the HB1B is excellent and it was nice to air it once again after carrying it on several overseas trips as an unused back up tour radio to my KX3.

Shame they went out of business or their business model changed, they don’t seem to be available anymore other than on the secondhand market. I will be keeping mine until my XYL or a living ham friend at the time announces my SK sale on the @G3CWI Fleamarket site (BUY RICHARD A BEER), whenever that is…

73 Phil G4OBK

My HB-1B receives as good as my KX3 on some bands but is a bit deaf on 17m and tx power down to 3 watts there too. But generally its been a great back yard radio, only ever took it on a couple activations. on SOTA. Knowing me I can not be trusted and leave my ear buds home or something.
Regards
Ian vk5cz …

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Hi Ian,

Yes earbuds. I guess you mean the wired ones. I took a set out with my HB1B last Thursday. I usually use a lightweight Seinheiser headset with the KX3 as I often do phone as well with that radio. No microphone needed with the HB1B, so I took a pair of cheap white earbuds as described by you. They were a beggar to keep inside my ears, they kept falling out - probably as I had a hat on that comes down over the ears to keep out the cold. If I run the HB1B again I’ll be taking the headset and not the ear buds.

73 Phil

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I had that problem but these are the solution:

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It’s been a busy week since I activated G/TW-001 last Friday. This was the first HF activation for me where I have had to walk some distance to reach the summit since I was in Germany with @GI4ONL on 3rd July 2024. Since then in the hobby, I’ve done a lot of SOTA Chasing, taking part in RSGB VHF contests and improving my equipment and antennas in the home QTH. I did activate two drive on summits in the G/TW area in the summer during the good weather we had, including trying out FT8 from a summit on the 10m band. I also activated Place Fell in the G/LD with a handheld in November. I’m trying to maintain my interest in SOTA after many years but I have other interests in the hobby and outside of it and sometimes they take precadence.

Our dog Treacle, a cross Lakeland - Border Terrier who started off the Dogs On Summits Thread sadly passed away with failing health aged 15 in August 2023. A month or so later we went to a farm in Westerdale on the North York Moors and brought home a Border Terrier puppy that we called Pippa. She’s a very loyal friend who has matured into a fine, chunky and tough excitable dog! I felt the time was right to take her on an activation with the YouKits HB1B and see how Pippa adapted to sitting around for an hour or so while I activated the summit.

I arrived at Clay Bank on the B1257, the usual parking place for G/TW-001. Forestry England are charging £3 to park there now on the large car park, however there is free plenty of roadside parking so I used that and saved my money. Pippa and I readied ourselves and left the car. SENIOR MOMENT! . After walking 100m with my coat on and gear in the rucksack, hat, gloves sorted etc I realised I hadn’t booted up! Isn’t old age marvellous… I went back and shed my shoes and put on my Scarpa’s. We passed the trig point in less than an hour and went on leaving the moorland bridleway to find the line of grouse butts where I set up the station inside one. Most of the previous weeks snow on the moor had melted, but the sunken grouse butts still contained a good cob of snow. I decided to set the station up with on a snow cob in the second butt, with the cob supporting the pole without guying by ramming the butt end of the LIfesabreeze 5m pole into the snow. Sit mat on the cap of snow, me on top. No I did not get piles, thanks to my Paramor trousers! I was able to dangle my legs off the snow pile and it was relatively comfortable activation.

Meanwhile, as far as Pippa was concerned she was having a great time. There were no people or sheep on the moor as I walked up on the Cleveland Way so I was able to let her have freedom without the lead. She doesn’t stray far and followed me no problem at all. Great news that, something that Treacle never accomplished! Any scent and Treacle would have been off chasing the scent so it was never safe to let her loose on SOTA territory since she got lost a couple of times for long periods of time! Pippa is not like that - she has a different mind set. As the grouse butts are off the Cleveland Way no one came close to the activation area so I was able to allow Pippa to rome freely around the activation spot and she never went further than about 50m away for the whole time I was there. There were grouse around, and plenty of them too,although she chased a few they were too fast for her. I felt that was OK to let here off losse as it wasn’t nesting season and the gamekeeper wasn’t around and neither were the shooters.

It wasn’t a bad activation with the HB1B on 40m and then 20m. 33 minutes activity produced 24 CW QSOs including 3 HF X S2S, @DL6GCA/P, @DL1CR/P, @G4OOE/P and @IW2OGY/P.

I had already worked Nick @G4OOE 4 miles away on G/TW-002 on 2m FM, along with stations in Leeds, Darlington, Wetherby and Barnsley. Pretty good for a plateau summit using an FT-65 handheld and an RH-770 whip. The aerial on HF was an home made OCFD cut for the 40m band, a wire aerial that I am a big fan of. The YouKIts HB1B performed well considering it is a cheap Chinese 5 watt radio that puts out less than 4 watts. I doubt I would have made any more contacts if I had used my KX3 instead. The HB1B had been carried abroad several times in recent years on SOTA Tours in Europe as a backup rig but had never been used for a very long time. It was great to work Luc @ON7DQ two way QRP on 40m as Luc was also excercising his own HB1B!

I packed up and walked back to the car for my lunch before returning the 20 odd miles drive home.
I had chance to Chase a few stations before we lost progation after dark to USA and I put @DL2DVE, @WB2LJK and @N6AN into the logbook before I had my dinner.

Here are some photos of Pippa at the activation site on Urra Moor / Round Hill, the highest point in the North Yorks Moors National Park that does not qualify for the winter bonus.

73 Phil G4OBK

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Sorry I missed you Phil. I guessed you might be in the butts; I could hear you well enough to put a spot up, but not really well enough to bother you with a call on 2m. I’m glad Pippa enjoyed the walk!

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