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….
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.
I got this from the Rideau Lakes Amateur Radio Club Website….
Its just a quick cut-n-paste to keep you updated…. I’m hoping to get there as well.
RLARC Hamfest 2024
Rideau Lakes ARC Hamfest 2024
Preliminary Information
May 11, 2024
38th Annual Smiths Falls Hamfest
Our 38th Hamfest of amateur radio equipment, we hope to include a large number of commercial and private vendors, a canteen, a consignment table and equipment testing table.
This event, and amenities will depend on the Personal Health Measures in Place at the time.
Tables and Admission
Vendors: Tables (approximately 2.5 ft x 5 ft) $20 (includes admission for one). Doors open for vendors at 7 AM.
Admission: $5 per person (includes door prize ticket), youth under 16 admitted for free.
Doors open for the public at 8:30 AM.
Location
Civitan Club 12468 ON-15, Smiths Falls, ON K7A 4S4, Smiths Falls (new location!)
Talk-In
VE3RLR 147.210 + PL 151.4Hz AMS IN/OUT
Information and Table Reservations
Contact ve3rlr@gmail.com
Amateur Radio Exams
Basic, Advanced and Morse Code examinations will be available at the Hamfest. Exam fee: $25, includes Hamfest admission. Age 25 or younger: free. Candidates must preregister by Wednesday 8 May 2024. Please e-mail Accredited Examiner Dave VE3KG at ve3kg@myrac.ca
If you look back to my previous post in which I had covered my successful POTA activation of CA5143 I mentioned that I had used my 40m EFHW antenna to make the 23 contacts made.
Well one thing I neglected to mention was the difficulty I had getting 62 feet (or so) wire stretched out in the rather dense brush just off the trail. In the past I had mentioned about getting a 2nd antenna in the kit for when the EFHW was just not able to be deployed easily.
I had tried a BuddiPole but it did not (could not) do exactly what I wanted…. Using some parts from the BuddiPole and then adding a “Imitation” Shock Corded 9 foot whip (In my opinion…FWIW the Amazoon 9.5 ft shock cord whip is a real POS)was not doing it for me either. I tried following the instructions and when those did not work I tried (to no avail) to use what I tried in the past with other portable antennas but just no joy…
Fast forward to yesterday. The LDG 9:1 UNUN that I ordered on the Monday had arrived and so I decided to duplicate the “Coastal-20” antenna that I use at home for 10-12-15-17 & 20m. If you “Google Coastal-20 you should see the basic plans. Its a 9:1 UNUN along with a 17.5 foot vertical with a short counterpoise.
Now on my first build I found the short counterpoise version did not perform exactly as I had hoped so I decided to go with 3 elevated counterpoises. I cut 1 for 10-15 &20m and it worked quite well for me on 10 to 20m. By well I mean that I was making contacts and the SWR on all the needed bands was low or low enough that the internal tuner in my Yaesu FT991a was handling it.
Mostly copying my first version with the exception of swapping out 3 counterpoises for a single 11 foot counterpoise seemed to make no difference with the SWR and it was loading up just as well as the previous one did.
The next test for the new antenna will be when I get out into the Park (hopefully this weekend) if the forecasted rain ever stops. The plan is to have both antennas available for when I participate in the POTA Support your Parks event which happens April 20th and 21st and by strange luck is also the same weekend as the Ontario QSO Party, The Michigan QSO Party and the Quebec QSO Party so there should be no problems getting contacts to activate what ever park (parks) I head out to…
VA3QV and his Amateur Radio Hobby 