Its easier to give you a pic to describe how the bands are today rather that type “Bloody Awful” 500 times.
73bob
If you went to the Smith Falls Hamfest hope you had fun… I’ve got a 2m halo antenna (for my 991a) and a 9:1 unun (yes another one) being delivered later today as I was unable to make it there. More details on the new toys after I get to test them out
AFTERTHOUGHT: Not sure if EARCHI is still offering the unun but the website is still up so perhaps would be better to email them first before you send funds.
Recently (at least for me) the bands have not been the best (understatement) and so rather than tell you about the contacts I have (or not) made …. Here is a bit on a new radio coming that if it lives up to its hype might wake up the QRP market a bit.
DISCLAIMER: THE FOLLOWING POST IS NOT A ENDORSEMENT OF THE PRODUCT LISTED BELOW. IN THE PAST WE ALL OF HEARD ABOUT GOOD THINGS AND BAD THINGS ABOUT 1ST ATTEMPTS OF A NEW RADIO.
If the early info give to us by XIEGU is accurate this could be a welcome addition to the QRP part of the hobby.
Draw your own conclusions from the post and then make your own decisions….Buyer Beware
==========================================
The radio is the Xiegu 6200 which is from the company that has given us the G90 and the X5105 both of which are excellent radios once the “gremlins” were removed from the firmware.
Although I never operated a G90 I know quite a few operators from the POTA world who did (and still do) and they never complained about it (at least to me) and their signals always sounded great
I did operate a X5105 as my POTA radio for a while and foolishly sold it.
Xiegu X6200 – A new generation flagship ultra-portable transceiver that uses a high-performance DRFS platform architecture and offers a convenient user experience for amateur radio enthusiasts.
It has a 4-inch color screen, a built-in battery pack, an automatic antenna tuner, a microphone, and a recorder. It also supports various SDR features, such as digital filters, noise reduction, pulse interference elimination, and spectrum/waterfall display. It has two USB interfaces, an ACC interface, a 3.5mmKEY interface, and an S/P interface. It has two external expansion component slots for additional applications and peripherals.
Xiegu X6200 Sneak Peek on March 21, 2024 1. The images currently displayed are only of the engineering prototype, they do not represent the final form of the product. 2. For more latest news, please subscribe to the Radioddity newsletter. 3. Please credit the source when reposting the images.
All the data used in this blog posting has been provided by the Radioditty Website and or the groups i/o site via a link on the above mentioned website and I thank them for it
My comments follow:
Yes…. its output is 5w….. but it is a QRP radio so….
From what I see so far this radio could/might be a contender against the IC705 and the KX3 from the expected price point. How will the 6200 perform? This depends on the firmware and has yet to be seen.
DISCLAIMER: THE ABOVE POST IS NOT A ENDORSEMENT OF THE PRODUCT(s) LISTED ABOVE . IN THE PAST WE ALL OF HEARD ABOUT GOOD THINGS AND BAD THINGS ABOUT 1ST ATTEMPTS OF A NEW RADIO.
If the early info give to us by XIEGU is accurate this could be a welcome addition to the QRP part of the hobby.
Draw your own conclusions from the post and then make your own decisions….Buyer Beware
Am I rushing out to buy one? NO!!! but it does have my attention and I will be following the reviews and if they are good…. you never know it might make it into my radio kit
If you were checking the Trans Provincial Net Website you might of noticed a small blurb mentioning I will be taking the summer off.
“Bob VA3QV will be away starting 18th May till September 2024.”
I currently cover the 11am (EST) hour 5 days a week and I do enjoy being a NCS…. But… Now that the nicer weather is finally looking like it might arrive… I decided I would prefer to spend it doing other stuff compared to sitting in the shack for a while.
No doubt that radio will be a big part of my summer but it won’t be from the shack unless its raining.
As always if I am doing (or have done) anything interesting in radio you will be able to read about it right here.
This post although started a few days ago seems to fit right in with my previous posting….
I got the following in an email from (as I call them) the “Toy store in Toronto”….
Join us May 4th!
  We are thrilled to announce that this year marks a significant milestone for Radioworld – our 25th anniversary! It’s been a remarkable journey, and we owe much of our success to loyal customers like you. To express our gratitude, we invite you to join us for our anniversary celebration.
Date: May 4th
Location: Radioworld – 4335 Steeles Ave. West
Throughout the day our pro staff will be on site to help answer questions and offer first-hand advice. We’ll also offer a special gift with in-store purchases (while supplies last, of course), just a little something to take home with you.
For lunch, we’ll fire up the barbeque for some hot dogs and serve a variety of refreshing beverages. It’s our way of saying thank you for being an integral part of our story.
We hope you can make it, as we look back on 25 years of memories and forward to many more to come.
Thank you once again for your continued support.
Now no doubt the email was not sent to my mailbox only, but to the Amateurs who are on their Client List and those who asked to be put on their “mailing list”.
I would also like to mention that they did not solicit this post and I will receive NOTHING in return for making it.
But, here is my reasoning…. Radioworld in Toronto and GPS Central in Western Canada (I believe they are owned by Radioworld) are the last of a rare breed. A storefront that sells most of the major lines of Amateur Radio Equipment in Canada.
Yes we can order gear from Amazoon or from one of the Major US Retailers (DXE or HRO) among others, but for me at least there is something nice about supporting a Canadian Business that has been supporting our hobby for over 25 years.
There is a bit of an enjoyable “Human Touch” to be able to call them up on the phone and make a contact with a sales person rather than just clicking a mouse.
Get everything confirmed and be told it will ship tonight/tomorrow depending on if I ordered before the shipments go out for the day.
Now every retailer has a few “horror stories” but I can say I have nothing to share about them. The worst was at one time the delivery service they were using at the time could not find my address and it got returned to sender. A quick email to me to confirm my address and it was re-shipped with a different delivery service and was in my hands the next day.
So Happy Anniversary Radioworld, with the hope for many more….
This evening I learned that MFJ is planning to shut down. I really got to spend more time reading the newsgroups….
Anyway…. Here is what I have on it….
Dear Fellow Hams and Friends, April 25, 2024 Dear Fellow Hams and Friends,
It is with a sad heart as I write this letter.
As many of you have heard by now, MFJ is ceasing its on-site production in Starkville, Mississippi on May 17, 2024. This is also the same for our sister companies’ Ameritron, Hygain, Cushcraft, Mirage and Vectronics.
Times have changed since I started this business 52 years ago. Our product line grew and grew and prospered. Covid changed everything in businesses including ours. It was the hardest hit that we have ever had and we never fully recovered.
I turned 80 this year. I had never really considered retirement but life is so short and my time with my family is so precious.
I want to thank all of our employees who have helped build this company with me over the years. We have many employees who have made MFJ their career for 10, 20, 30, 40 and more years.
We are going to continue to sell MFJ products past May 17, 2024. We have a lot of stock on hand. We will continue to offer repair service work for out-of-warranty and in-warranty units for the foreseeable future.
Finally, a special thanks to all of our customers and our dealers who have made MFJ a worldwide name and a profitable business for so many years. You all are so much appreciated.
Sincerely Yours, 73s
Martin F. Jue, K5FLU
Now not only the MFJ brand but remember the other brands they own…
I enjoy chasing DX. But operating a “Stealth Station” sometimes has its disadvantages when the pile ups are massive.
Often when listening you will hear the DX station giving out their callsign along with “listening up or up 5-10 or???”
Now the operators who can’t figure it out will toss their callsign out where no one is listening for it and then the DX COPS will jump in and scream at the operator for not following the instructions which now means the people who followed the instructions are not hearing anything but Lids and Cops…
Now here is the best video I have found (so far) that covers the topic so well that I wanted to share it with you.
Seems fairly simple and easy to understand… and although he is using a IC7300 for his example…. Most (if not all) of the newer HF Radios will work in the same way.
Thanks to Matt K0LWC for the video. If you like it head over to his YOUTUBE site more more content.
And that my friends is the view from the “Cheap Seats”
The weather this weekend was not nice enough (for me) to seriously consider taking the Portable Station out any of the local POTA Parks as I had previously mentioned. Although the temps were above the freezing mark I find the cold harsher now and it was a bit too cold for me to be sitting at a picnic table.
Now it was not as bad as the above but it sure felt like it so…
So my Plan “B” was to just operate from the shack and give out contacts….
So starting on Saturday (0000hrs utc) I started spinning the dial and giving out contacts to whoever I could hear in whatever contest/event they were participating in. Contacts were made in the following contests/event:
POTA Support Your Parks, Ontario QSO Party, Michigan QSO Party, Nebraska QSO Party and the Quebec QSO Party. A few Special Event Stations were also in the log as well.
All the contacts were given a 5/9 ON exchange with the Ontario QP Participants getting a “5/9 FRO (Frontenac County)”.
I managed to give out 40 OQP exchanges .
The POTA activators were really busy and I found (in some cases) hard to break the pileups. That part of our hobby is growing in leaps and bounds. I hope that some of the newer operators were not discouraged by the sheer numbers of stations calling.
According to my records I managed to raise my Unique Parks worked count to 2565 logged. Slowly heading towards the 3000 mark which is my next goal.
With the promises (would the Weather Person lie to me?) of better (warmer/dryer) weather in the next week I am still planning to give the Portable station’s new 17 1/2 foot vertical a testing out from the field. Don’t know which day (yet) as the band conditions have to cooperate along with a bit warmer weather from “Mother Nature”
This morning (after coffee) I went out into the back yard with a 33 foot pole with a hook on the end of it and about 60 feet of wire.
Above pic… Wishful thinking on my part
After about 1 hour of hooking thin green wire over the green cedar tree branches its back in the air and working so far. Its the same length as it was before but I was able to get the wire hooked over the branches a bit higher than before.
It seems to work… Using my SGC 237 auto tuner I was able to get a suitable match on all bands between 10 and 80m. 160 was a poor match before and it still is now. First contact was into the Mid Cars Net on 7.258. I received a 5/7 signal report from the NCS who was in OHIO.
As with any stealthy/portable/wire antenna that you re install there is a very good chance that I’ll never get it in the exact same location that I had it in before.
This means that it might work better (hoping) than before or it might work worse (with my luck) but no matter what it will be working at least.
I used to say that I would rather be on the air with a poor antenna than not having an antenna… I made that statement about 30 years ago and I still feel that way today.
Woke up this morning and after coffee went to the shack. Noticed that the signals were way down and I had no static showing on the meter… Went to the back yard and found 2 sections of green wire on the ground.
A short (25 foot) section still attached to the tuner and then the remainder of the wire laying across some tree branches then on the ground. This means that the break happened about 20 feet above the ground and after looking at the ends of the wire it was a clean cut/break.
No teeth marks on the wire so I’m thinking it as it happened in the tree it must of been the clean cut of a bird beak??? The support tree is not strong enough for someone to climb up 20 feet (or so) with a pair of side cutters so….
Anyway…. I’m heading off to the Kingston Antenna Parts store (some of you might of heard of Princess Auto) and pick up a roll of 18 gauge green insulated wire and try and hide it in the tree this weekend. If successful I will be back on the lower bands and if not then its 10m to 20m for a while.
This could be an issue with my plans for several radio events this coming weekend.
Lets see how this plays out
73bob
ps… I do have an EFHW I could put out as a temporary antenna but would have to take it down when not using it so….
It was brought to my attention via a posting on the Ottawa Valley QRP Society – Digest #1381 on Groups IO that Alex of “Alexloops” had passed away.
Although I had no dealings with Alex I know several hams in my immediate circle who knew the value of his product.
Most recently I was amazed by the performance of his loop when Martin VA3SIE and myself activated POTA CA-4877 (Murney Tower) in November 2022.
For this activation I used my XIEGU X5105 and a 40m End Fed Half Wave and Martin used his KX3 along with his “ALEXLOOP”. I think that if you were to compare our logs for the event the loop out performed the EFHW.
Alex made quality antennas and the proof would be in the logs….
73 Alex and thanks for what you have contributed to our hobby….
VA3QV and his Amateur Radio Hobby 