Couldn’t get out yesterday as the weather was absolute trousers. Took Barry and the KX2 up to a POTA spot and just tried to test things out, get used to tuning the RHM-12 and so on.
This is a snap of how I set it up. Couple of points of note:
- I only used 2 radials. I haven’t made 2 more yet.
- I didn’t bring a whopper tripod, just a portable Manfrotto. I will test though at some stage.
- I ran 10w on the KX2 voice only as I was short on time.
Here’s some snaps. You can see tuning on 40m was super easy. 20m not so much but I think it was more due to the set up and proximity etc. Sorry for the rubbish Rigexpert snaps, it was strong sunlight even with the colours inverted. Usually I use the black and orange setting.
Also, the second I switched on the KX2 I was on a frequency where a chap in Belgium was doing a QRP WWFF. I got a 57 RST and he was a 59 to me. What a fluke!
Tried another contact on 20m in Germany but he couldn’t copy my whole callsign due to noise. A shame but nice I was heard.
I did set up the 70cm antenna and radial, also the 2m setup using the enclosed string to measure the whip. Worked a treat as I was able to break squelch on repeaters (no sod was listening so no contacts, but break squelch I call that a success!).
Barry seems to be performing amicably. Next I am going to try using my FT891 with 100 full-fat, premium Yaesu Watts and we’ll see how that goes!
