Comments | filkerdave: Going out of my comfort zone again

filkerdave

Going out of my comfort zone again

Apr 18, 2016 17:31

This past Sunday I decided, more or less at the last moment, to try and do a NPOTA activation of Sagamore Hill, a site quite close to home. It was a gorgeous day, but propagation wasn't being kind to me. I wasn't able to make any voice contacts, so I decided, with some trepidation, to switch to CW. My code speed isn't great. At my best, I can do ( Read more... )

npota, ham radio, long island, links

Comments 16

hrrunka April 19 2016, 03:21:54 UTC

Yeah, conditions on Sunday were a bit rubbish by the time I got back to the radio some time past 13:00z, and what there was of the bands was full of contest.

Yesterday was marginally better. I even heard a bit of activity on 15 metres, but it was sparse. 17 metres was the daytime band of choice, and 20 in the evening. Both were wall-to-wall, though.

Trouble is most of the CW CQs I've been hearing have been over 20wpm...

filkerdave April 19 2016, 03:29:29 UTC

And by me, 20 wasn't busy at all and 17 was a silent wasteland.

hrrunka April 19 2016, 04:54:17 UTC

Signs of things to come as the Sun gets quieter, I guess; nothing on the higher bands and kilowatt-plus big guns swamping the bands that are open...

filkerdave April 19 2016, 13:12:32 UTC

Yeah, I that looks like the case. And unlike one of friends here, I don't make my own propagation (I swear, every time he fires up his rig he probably boosts the ionosphere for everyone else)

Thread 10

rinioth April 19 2016, 07:21:43 UTC

Remember that the 817 will do 5 watts even when the battery voltage is a bit low, it just *defaults* to 2.5W and you have to use the menu buttons to turn it back up to 5. It's designed that way because the internal 9.6v battery really can't produce enough current to run 5W.

Nice to see you joining the Steve Weber, KD1JV clan, I think you will be happy with the MTR, you do remember that I've got 3 of his rigs?

filkerdave April 19 2016, 13:10:48 UTC

Yeah, but I thought I was running on the external so I was expecting 5W rather than 2.5W.

I don't actually know what kind of kit you have. But I'm really looking forward to getting my hands on the MTR. I can practically fit it in my pocket!

rinioth April 19 2016, 13:25:29 UTC

Okay on the battery problem, cables are the nemesis of the portable operator.

Re the MTR, I've got an ATS3B which was a 6 band radio and I've built an extra band module and modified the firmware so that it also has 60m so it's now a *7* band radio. I've also got two of the original 2-band MTRs, one from the first run (no case provided, so it's in an Altoids tin) which is on 60m and 40m. The other one is a second run kit so it includes the blue/black case, that one is on 30m and 20m.

filkerdave April 19 2016, 17:48:52 UTC

Yeah, the cables are good, though. I verified that last night. And the power socket in the rig (a known issue with the 817) looks fine (I do have a Wulfden kit I need to put together; that'll let me connect with Anderson Powerpoles).

It's almost certainly the battery pack. I had it plugged in to the external battery, not transmitting, no internal battery, and watched the voltage drop and drop and drop from a fully-charged pack.

Fortunately, a battery pack is easily replaceable!

They have a new 5-band MTR just out. It's a bit bigger than the current one, although not by much, but it's quite a bit pricier!

Thread 6