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Update 31/12/2023: The last post of the year on the last day of the year!

This has been a good year for me in general with good health and low stress, as far as amateur radio goes it has also been a good year for me. Conditions have not always been great especially taking into account that we are heading towards the peak of a solar cycle but I have still managed to make some memorable contacts and work quite a few new DXCC band-slots.

I even managed to add 5 (confirmed, at least 8 in total) new DXCC entities to my CW QRP totals. One of the most memorable ones was Bouvet Isle, I managed to work them on a few bands when many with better stations failed, and all of it with 5W!

I also added quite a few radios to my collection, I have already had a lot of fun with them and I am sure I will still enjoy them in 2024. I also added a few antennas to the station, the 6 band hex beam being the most important, I really love that antenna. My upgraded 2 element 40m "dipole" really performed well, I have worked more DX stations on 40m this year than in the 27 years as a licensed ham before that.

This year I joined the CWOps group, a privilege and lots of fun to work the 4 CWT slots every week, lots of new friends!

After many years of just working CW DX and contests I started making SSB and CW "rag-chew" contacts again this year, nice to chat to like minded people again! It was great to chat to so many old friends and make new ones. My almost daily 1 hour plus CW chat with a friend has become a great tradition and helps to keep the CW skills tuned.

I did enter 2 contests this year, the CQWW DX CW contest and the ARRL 10m CW contest, I was not really prepared for either as in both cases I did not really plan for a serious entry but in both cases I was having so much fun that I ended up spending more time on the air than planned. I am not expecting great results but I am still looking forward to the results of the contests once they are released.

I think in 2024 I will make a more serious effort for at least a few contests like the CQ WPX CW and CQWW CW contests, I think it will even be fun to enter a few SSB contests but then I will be running high power to reduce the frustration levels! I just need to setup my head phones with microphone and foot pedal again.

The last few days have produced more DX on the higher bands, lets hope this is a sign of even better things to come!

If I look at this "blog", the 2023 one, it is the largest file with the most entries of any year since I started doing this, let's see how large the 2024 file will become?

See/hear you on the air in 2024!

Last sunrise of 2023

Update 28/12/2023: The band conditions have been slowly improving over the last few days, I have been hearing more stations on the higher HF bands during the evenings, last night during the CWT test I managed to make contacts on 20m, 15m and 10m till 10pm local time when the contest stopped. Signals are still not extremely strong but at least there are signals!

This morning 40m was not great to the North America, not sure why that is but after a record number of contacts during the same timeslot last week this week was rather poor.

I have not managed to work any rare DX lately, the only really interesting station I managed to work was OL750HOL, a special event station in the Czech Republic commemorating the 750'th birthday of a town.

OL750HOL

Hopefully by this time next week my new Yaesu FTdx-10 would be shipped and on the way to me. Looking forward to comparing the receiver with the radios currently in use this side.

Update 25/12/2023: Merry Christmas!

Normally I would not be posting on 25 December but it has been a quiet and relaxing day, the only notable thing was that for the first time in over 10 days I actually heard some signals on 10m again and I even worked a few, noting special but hopefully it is an indication that things will be improving again!

This week during the CWT time slots I am going to try to work some European stations during the 1900Z session in addition to the fun I normally have on 40m during the 0300Z session, that is if there is propagation!

Working DX on 10m under the watchful eye of one of my fur-babies.

Update 24/12/2023: Christmas eve! Almost Merry Christmas to everyone!

The DX conditions are still bad, seems like the sun is rather busy throwing stuff our way! I know conditions are bad when I am happy to work a station in Finland and one in Latvia like today, normally those contacts won't be noteworthy but when they are the only stations you can hear they become noteworthy!

It was interesting that there would suddenly be an opening towards a very specific area with reasonable signals while nothing else is heard from anywhere else! I am pretty sure it was "long path" propagation over both poles as the signals had that peculiar "polar flutter" to them that made them quite difficult to copy even though they were not that weak! That would also explain why there would be propagation while there was a CME as the propagation would be over the dark side of the globe.

Yuris,YL3FT in Latvia, worked him across both poles!

I was happy to see that my QSL for the DX'pedition to  Laos, XW4DX I worked a while ago, has arrived, it is not a new country but it is new on 15 and with the pickings being so slim at the moment every new band-slot is special!

Confirmation of my 15m CW QRP contacts with XW4DX

Another nice addition to the collection was V44KAI Saint Kitts and Nevis, one of the islands in the leeward islands in the Lesser Antilles, Caribbean, on 40m, hopefully I will get a QSL via LoTW as this will be a new one on 40m. I have worked a station in Saint Kitts and Nevis before on 40m but I never received a QSL.

The tropical paradise of Saint Kitts and Nevis.

With the band conditions being bad with very weak signals and often lots of QRM and static from summer storms it has not been easy to dig out new stations, one thing I have noticed is that when things are really bad the FTdx-5000MP is the best radio to hear the station, nothing else in my collection gets close, not even the IC-7610. It will be interesting to see how the Yaesu FTdx-10 will stack up to this. On paper it has a better receiver but I do not think it has as many noise fighting tools as the FTdx-5000MP, time will tell.

Update 21/12/2023: Sadly I have not been making updates here recently, mostly due to extremely poor band conditions. I must say right now conditions are worse than what I have ever experienced in 3 solar cycles, well it feels that way anyway! This is due to almost 2 weeks of solar flares and CME's, every time the bands start to recover there is another event.

I have worked a few stations on 10m and 12m but signals have been extremely weak. 40m do open to the USA and Canada at around dawn but the opening only lasts around 45 minutes every day. Locally 40m is open, but not great in the mornings till about 8am local time and then it opens again after 5pm local time. Once it is open in the evenings it stays open till late with booming signals. Most of the time I only run 10W for my evening rag-chew on 40m. Most of these sessions last around 90 minutes till I have other commitments.

With the 40m band open to the USA in the mornings the 0300Z CWT sessions have been fun. With my higher antenna it is definitely easier to work US stations running 5W, most of the time I can work every station I can hear. This morning I managed 38 stations in the 40 minutes the band was open, lots of fun! Unfortunately no Wyoming station yet but I am patient. I did notice last night at 2000Z that I could hear CW stations on 20m during the CWT session, unfortunately it was right at the end of the session but I am planning to be on the air at the start of the 1900Z session next week, it should get some stations from Europe in the log for a change.

After running the superb (yes, I love it!) Yaesu FTdx-5000MP for my 40m activities and DX'ing for a while I decided to give another radio a chance yesterday. I have not used the Yaesu FT-1000MP mk5 for a while but it was fun to use it again and the receiver sounds fantastic! It does not have the same noise fighting features as the 5000 but it is still better than many more modern radios and with a full set of the optional roofing and CW filters it is a great CW radio. The one thing I do not like that much is how hot it runs during long TX sessions. Strangely it runs hot even at 20W or below. I have been told it was designed to run at that temperature but I still don't like it!

Yaesu FT-1000MP mk5 on 40m cw.

After using the Icom IC-7300 for a while I decided I like that size modern radio quite a lot, even though it only has a single RX it is still fine for local rag-chews and working casual contests like the CWT tests. The one thing I would like is a slightly better receiver with better filters, noise reduction and dynamic range.

This has led me to do some research on what is available around the same size and what is best value for money. I did seriously consider the Yaesu FTdx-710 but what I do not like is the fact that it takes a few button presses and screen taps to get to the filter settings. Since I often change filter settings during a contact that will be a real pain, like it is on the IC-7300.

The option that is only slightly more expensive and has a slightly better receiver is the Yaesu FTdx-10. It has dedicated controls for the filters and it has the same receiver and front-end as the "best in the world at any price" FTdx-101 radio. Not only will this make a superb every day radio as well as a field/holiday radio it will also give me the opportunity to see how good the Yaesu hybrid SDR receiver really is. If it is that much better than what I have maybe a FTdx-101MP is worth the cost.

I have found a "new in box" FTdx-10 locally, it is in an estate  and I do have first option on it but the price still needs to be set by the people handling the estate. Hopefully a price will be set soon as I am keen to try this radio!

New baby on the way, Yaesu FTdx-10

Update on FTdx-10: Shortly after writing the above I was contacted by the person handling the estate and the deal was done! So I will have a Yaesu FTdx-10 with SP-30 speaker in the shack soon. Unfortunately it will only be shipped after 2 January 2024 due to the holidays and the widow being away but I can live with that.

Update 14/12/2023: The CWT test this morning was fun, as per usual the during the 0300Z time slot only 40m was open and again as per usual the opening did not even last the full hour but today signals were a lot stronger that what I have heard over the last few months. I am not sure if this was simply better conditions or it if it is due to my antenna that is now 4m higher.

Either way the result was double the usual number of contacts, was great to hear signals way above the noise for a change !

Lots of signals to choose from!


By around 0340 the band suddenly started closing, only the strongest signals remained.

Unfortunately the good conditions did not continue on the other bands after the contest, the rest of the morning and afternoon there was simply no signals, well at least I managed to work a bunch of stations on 40m.

Not long after the contest I received news that a parcel arrived for me at the local courier agent, I did not waste time to go pick it up!

As expected it was my Yaesu FTdx-5000MP. Fortunately there was no shipping damage, always a worry especially with items that are large and heavy like this. I must say when I saw the box I was worried, it was a rather flimsy box and it showed signs of being banged around a bit. At least it had lots of bubble wrap that protected the radio.

After checking that there was no visible damage I connected it up and had it on air in no time at all. Unfortunately the bands were terrible so I could not make any QSO's, that will have to wait for early evening I suppose. At least I will be able to test it during my evening 40m CW chat.

I spent some time familiarizing myself with the radio again, it has been a while since i used one. I also had to setup a few things to work the way I like it. I wonder if the previous owner really used it, some things like the "key press confirmation beep" was not setup in a usable way. With the 2 large speakers on to of the radio the beep was so loud it made your toes curl!

Yaesu FTdx-5000MP ready to go! I sure missed this radio in the shack.

I had forgotten what a great radio this is, in the photo above you can see the "QRM Eliminator" on top of it. I had to used this unit on 40m as the QRM on 40m is so bad that without it I cannot hear much. Well I have now disconnected it for the FTdx-5000MP, no need for it as the noise fighting tools on the radio is so good. Suddenly the noise levels have dropped. I think this radio will stay in the main operating position for quite a while!

Update 11/12/2023: The day after the ARRL 10m contest, I can still hear CW when things are quiet!

Unfortunately conditions only improved slightly on the second day, this was as predicted.

Sunday conditions very similar to Saturday.

Even though the prediction for 10m on Sunday was still fair to poor I could hear a few more stations but most of them were just in or above the noise. There were around 15 - 20 stations that were very loud both days, always wonder how that happens, do the have special antennas or do they run huge power? I think in most cases it is good antennas since they hear well as well, you can work most of them on first call.

The morning started with a weak opening to Japan and the far east, it only produced around 10 contacts but it did add 3 multipliers, one for Japan, Singapore and India each. After that I worked a few European stations but after scanning up and down the band a few times I gave up. After lunch I could hear more stations in Europe but unfortunately I had already worked most of them.

As the afternoon progressed the totals slowly increased but far slower than I would have liked. By late afternoon I started hearing US and Canadian stations so the rate increased a bit. There were also a few surprises like Caribbean stations and one from Columbia.

By 1830Z I finally shut down as the signals were dropping and every single station I could hear was already in the log.

The totals were not great, this is the third time I have competed in this contest and by far the worst I have done. I think it is mostly due to conditions, the previous two times were at solar cycle peaks and I had stations right across the band many with strong signals.

I ended up with 225 QSO's (and 1 duplicate!), there were 40 countries and 46 US states including a very weak station from Wyoming, I just hope he got my call correct as I had to repeat many times.

My total operating time was 10 hours.

Looking at the scores posted by other competitors on the 3830scores page it appears that I am not the only one who found the conditions difficult. Looking at the scores posted there I should end up in the top 10 work wide in the QRP category and with a bit of luck maybe in the top 5, we will see!

A more complete report of the contest can be read HERE.

I enjoyed the contest despite the difficult conditions, when signals are weak every contact becomes a little victory! At least I did not have that horrible QRM I had on the Sunday of the CQWW CW contest. I am looking forward to the next contest and I am already planning a few improvements to my station.

Other than the CWT tests I suppose the next major contest will be the CQWW WPX contest, 25-26 May 2024, a contest I really enjoy and have done well in in the past. I might just try a SSB contest again, the CQWW WPX SSB contest a month earlier than the CW one would be a good candidate but I will NOT be running QRP!

Update 9/12/2023: This weekend we have the ARRL 10m DX contest, always a great contest to collect some new DXCC band-slots even if you don't want to compete.

After the fun I had in thee recent CQWW CW contest I was looking forward to this, both for hopefully collecting a few "new" ones but also to actually compete. The last time I tried to compete in this contest was in 2014, see the results and report HERE, it was fun but due to my mom falling ill I only ended up spending 5 hours out of the 48 on the air making 372 QRP contacts. It did result on a first place in class in Africa and 7'th in the world.

Unfortunately it looks like this weekend won't be as productive, the recent solar CME's have really messed up the bands with the prediction for 10m only being Fair during the day and Poor at night. We will see, as I write this it is still morning and the band is totally closed, it might just open up sometime this afternoon but I do not expect strong signals.

If it does work out I will post an update later!

Propagation predictions for today, not great for 10m!

Update early evening, the band opened up better than expected, it was not spectacular but still fun even running 5W. First I had a quick opening to the far east and then it moved west to Europe. By around 1300Z the signals dropped and I took a quick break. By the time I got back at about 1400Z the band started opening to the east. By the time signals dropped to the point where it became difficult to hear them at 1800Z I had managed to work quite a few interesting stations, I will list them after the contest, and then I also worked the usual bunch of US and Canadian stations. There was even a Wyoming station in the batch, hope he QSL's.

So far the total QSO's stand at 125, not a lot but with conditions less than optimal I spent a lot of time working the rarer stations, more for my DXCC totals than the contest but at least they are multipliers so that helps. I will still see if I will actually submit the log, I suppose it depends on how well it goes tomorrow.

Seem like I still enjoy contesting!

On a different note, after reluctantly selling my Yaesu FTdx-5000MP in 2018 I have been missing it, it really is a special radio and the last of the full-size flagship radios with more controls than menu options, the king of the era. Well today, during the contest I spotted an advert popping up on a local amateur radio group for a pristine FTdx-5000MP, within 15 minutes the deal was done!

Update 6/12/2023: DX conditions have not been great the last few days, I did manage to work a few stations but the bands seem rather quiet most of the time. One surprise was a rather lonely D2EB, Angola, calling on 10m. Angola is normally a bit close for 10m but he was loud and gave me a 599 report. Unfortunately it is not a new one but still a nice contact.

D2EB, he has been on the air from Angola for a while

I was surprised to see that I have already received the QSL for 5H3MB, Tanzania on 12m, that was quick, often you have to wait a while for these contacts into "Dark Africa".

Other than my usual evening CW QSO on 40m I have worked a few other local stations on 40m as well, it is great to see that there are new CW operators coming on-air in South Africa.

As a change I decided to use a different radio for a while this week, I do seem to get bored with a radio after a while, this time I chose the Yaesu FT-2000D, a radio that I have had for years but I have hardly used it. I acquired it, along with a FT-950 in a new, still boxed and unopened state from an estate in 2014. I received them the same week as my FTdx-5000MP arrived (it was delayed more than 6 months in customs) so the 2 radio did not see any service as I was having too much fun with the FTdx-5000MP.

The FT-2000D is equipped with the optional Inrad roofing filters. I must say it is a great radio with fantastic sound and really effective filters. On 40m I do not even need the external QRM Eliminator that I have to use with radios like the IC-7300, the internal noise blanker and DSP noise reduction along with the exclusive to Yaesu IPO function is really effective.

I have added an internal SDR dongle on this radio, easy to do as there is already an IF tap plug available internally and plenty space. Using this along with the superb SDR Console and Omnirig software the radio has a better user interface and spectrum scope/waterfall display than most modern radios, a great combination.

FT-2000 in action.

Update 3/12/2024: December already, this year has flown! I have been on the air every day but I have been a bit lazy and I have not updated here. Conditions have been very poor the last 2 day, mostly due to 2 huge CME events, today things seem a bit better that is good news.

Yesterday did produce the QSL's from D4C, Cape Verde for 10, 20 and 40m, it is a new one for me on 40m so that is great. Two more "important" QSL's to go then I will have all the new ones worked in CQWW CW 2023.

I have been trying the last 2 days to work a station in Wyoming, USA but so far no luck due to the CME's, maybe we nab try again tomorrow. Last night at 1900Z we tried but nothing, the higher bands were all dead quiet, while tuning around I did come across one station calling CQ, ZS7ANF, Antarctica. He was easy to work and since here were no other stations calling him we could have a nice chat and not just the normal signal exchange, nice! I do not think it is a new QRP DXCC but I need to check.

I did briefly listen on the bands this afternoon to see if conditions were better and to my surprise I heard 5H3MB, Tanzania on 12m with a strong signal. It is a new one on 12m so I am glad I made the effort to listen even though I did not expect much.

5H3MB shack, always nice to know what the setup on the other side looks like.

Now I am hoping for better conditions this week, it will be a bit cooler than last week, Friday it was 46C here, so I will hopefully have more energy to sit in front of the radio.

Update 30/11/2023: The DX bands have not been great the last few days, at least not when I have been on air. Yes, there are stations to work but they are often weak and mostly from active countries so no "rare DX" to chase. Other than my evening CW chat the only time I have made more than 1 or to contacts in a session was during the CWT test session this morning.

Even during the CWT test session 40m that normally works quite well at 03h00 only opened about 20 minutes into the contest and just about closed 30 minutes later. 40m also behaved strangely last night, normally by 7pm local time it is open for local contacts it only really opened up 45 minutes later.

Talking about CWOps test sessions, I am enjoying these sessions even if they are only producing from 25 to 30 QSO's in the hour most of the time. I see I have so far, in my first month, worked 135 different CWOps members, chasing more will be fun!

135 different CWOps members worked in my first month.

On the subject of awards, I finally got around to importing my CQWW CW log into my regular log, this allowed me to see what was new, see the result below, the effort and drama with the hectic QRM was worth it!

PS5CO - Surinam - 20m - QSL received
PJ2T - Curacao = 20m - QSL received
CE2LR - Chile = 20m - QSL received
4K6FO - Azerbaijan - 10m - QSL received
D4C - Cape Verde - 10m, 20m and 40m - No QSL yet
KP4AA - Puerto Rico - 40m - No QSL yet
9M8YY - Eastern Malaysia - 20m - No QSL yet

So 7 new CW QRP DXCC slots was not too bad, I seldom add that many in a month or more!

Update 28/11/2023: I did sent in my log for the CQWW CW contest yesterday. I am not expecting a great result but according to logs posted on 3830scores.com I should end up in the top third worldwide and with a bit of luck top ten in Africa. In South Africa I might just win my class, we will see!

So far I have not heard the QRM again, I can just hope it won't surprise me again during the next contest!

The good news is that the QSL's are streaming in for the contest, so far I have received about 85 confirmations that include 3 new CW QRP "band-slots", better than expected!

The new DXCC band slots so far are:

CE2LR - Chile - 20m
PJ2T - Curacao - 20m
4K6FO - Azerbaijan - 10m

Other QSL's that are special but not new ones for me include the following countries:

Kenya, Nepal, Latvia, Rodrigues Isle (10, 15 and 20m) and Serbia plus a lot of the more common ones.

The one QSL I am still hoping for is Wyoming, I did work quite a few US stations mostly on 20m and 40m so there is hope! There are also a few of the more obscure islands that I worked that I am hoping will still send QSL confirmations.   

Update 27/11/2023: The day after the CQWW CW contest. The contest had highs and lows, you can read my full report HERE.

A quick summery would be that it went ok on the first day but on the second day, from about 11h00 UTC I suddenly had huge QRM right across the bands coming from the North. It was so bad that I gave up. The sad thing is that the QRM is still there this morning, yesterday it was worst on 10m but it has now moved down to 40m to the point where I can't even hear strong local stations.
 
This source of interference must be found as it makes amateur radio totally unusable at my QTH at the moment. It is something that was switched on as it appeared full strength suddenly with no warning..

Update 24/11/2023: The day before the CQWW CW! I have not made a final decision on if I am going to compete or just try to work some nice DX stations. I think the final decision will only be made tomorrow morning after I have made some contacts. I was quite keen to make this as serious effort, my first since 2015 but a few things have not worked out as planned. I wanted to compete in the  "all band" category, more stressful due to the long hours and less chance of being competitive but my motivation is to make it possible to work some new DXCC band slots.

In the past I have mostly chosen single band as it allows you to rest a bit when the band is closed. I was planning on putting up a 80m antenna, I have none at the moment, as well as to raise my 2 40m "phased" dipoles, they are only about 8m high at the moment. My hex beam also needs attention as the retaining screw that prevents rotation relative to the rotator is loose/stripped (stupid design!) so the antenna moves around in the wind and you cannot trust your direction indictor in the rotator controller.

Well, due to various reasons, mostly the extremely hot weather and high winds we have had recently, non of these things happened, so no 80m, terrible 40m antenna and a hex beam that points where ever the wind pushes it.

The last few days have produced some good DX, conditions were not great with low signal strengths but all the contest stations with their superb CW operators are active from obscure locations setting up and testing equipment, This makes for some interesting DX!

Notable stations worked in the last few days:

3B8/4O3A - Mauritius on 15m CW
as well as a bunch of Caribbean islands and other Indian ocean islands.

I have also noticed that my OX3XR - Greenland QSL has arrived, good news.

Hopefully my next entry here will be a report on the 2023 CQWW CW contest.

Update 21/11/2023: I had a look at the XW4DX log this morning and my contact is there, good news! Since they sounded really lonely yesterday I also worked them with my ZS6DX/2 call and that contact is there as well. Good news!

It is extremely hot and windy here again today with high static so I am not expecting much during the day but maybe the late afternoon will produce a few surprises again.

I did notice an advertisement for a "Wolf RS-998 SDR" radio on the internet today. I searched a bit and it does look like an interesting new radio, similar to my R928+ in some ways but with many new features like a larger screen, internal tuner, VHF and UHF added and 100W output!

From photos and dimensions it looks quite compact so it might well be a great radio for field station and hiking when, due to less than perfect antennas, you might need more power than QRP.

Now I just need to find one, they can be ordered online but from places like Aliexpress, the problem then becomes shipping as they often use normal, non courier shipping and with our dysfunctional postal services here in South Africa chances are you will never see the radio. I need to find a supplier that offers courier shipment as an option.

Wolf RS-998, 1-750MHz 100W transceiver

Update 20/11/2023: I did not spend much time in the shack this weekend, other than my normal CW chat to a friend in the evening and a morning chat on 40m I was not on the air. I did check band conditions a few times but mostly only weak signals.

Late afternoon I did scan across the bands but again only noise, we had hectic winds today so the static was bad! I switched off and left the shack turning my interest to other things.

About 15 minutes after I scanned the bands I got a message from a friend that XW4DX, Laos was on the air on 15m CW with a decent signal. I switched on and yes, could hear them quite well! It took about 4 calls but they heard me, good news! Not a new one but a new QRP CW contact on 15m, thanks Andy - ZS3ADY, I owe you one!

Laos DX expedition worked!

While I was working XW4DX I received a message from another friend that 4W8X was on the air, 20m SSB. Well, I decided it was worth a try to work them, a frantic search produced a microphone for the IC-7600. I decided that since it was SSB I would be wasting my time with 5W so I tried with 10W (most amateurs accept 10W SSB as "QRP"). It took a few calls but within minutes they heard me and the call was completed! Thanks Jeets - ZS6JKN, I owe you one as well! Great to have ham friends who think of you! I feel the almost lost enthusiasm for DXing has come right back!

Now I just hope I am in the log this time!

Stunning view overlooking Timor-Leste.

Evening Update, I just had a look at the online 4W8X log, my 20m SSB contact is there but even more amazing is the fact that suddenly my 20m CW contact is there as well! I can only think that they had some issue with a log upload that they have now sorted out.

Timor-Leste log, finally!

It just shows you must never be discouraged by a few setbacks.

Update 19/11/2023: I had a look at the 4W8X online log again, there has been updates since I last looked but my call is still not there.

Update 18/11/2023: Band conditions have been up and down a bit recently, some days there are great openings and then suddenly there is nothing but noise!

After a long chase I managed to work 4W8X, Timor-Leste this afternoon on 20m. I have seen them spotted on the cluster a few times but I have heard nothing more than a weak signal in the noise up till now. I did try over the last few days to work them on 10m and 15m but no luck, not surprising as I am sure they are running high power and even with that I can hardly hear them, my 5W has no chance.

So my surprise was great when I tuned across 20m this afternoon and heard them S7! It only took 3 calls to work them with a solid copy on my call! Now I am waiting for the update on the online log to see if I am in the log.

I noticed a while ago that I was only getting about 65W maximum from my iC-7600, I did not really worry about it since I only run 5W from it but this afternoon I wanted to chat to a friend on SSB where more power was needed, we did manage the QSO but I again noticed what appeared to be low power.

A quick test on CW key down confirmed only 65-70W max on all bands. M first thought was that maybe my external meter, a Diawa was not correct so I unplugged the coax (from my hex beam) from the IC-7600 and plugged it into the IC-7300. Bad news was that the IC-7300 produced a solid 100W into the same antenna and measured with the same meter. A test with the IC-7610 produced around 110W so fingers were pointing at the IC-7600.

I downloaded the service manual and found the adjustment for "Max  power", seemed easy. I also decided that since something was not right I would do the whole driver bias, final bias and drive level setup first.

Just before opening the radio I decided to do one more test. When I acquired the radio it came with an Icom PS-125 power supply with integrated power cord. I checked the voltage from the power supply and it seemed fine but I decided to test the IC-7600 with the IC-7300 power cord and power supply, one of my trusty Diawa 60A units.

To my surprise, and delight the radio suddenly produced over 100W on all bands! Seems like the problem is the power supply, I changed the power cord and it made no difference. I looked up the specifications for the PS-125 power supply, max current is 20A, not good since the radio needs 23A! I wonder how Icom can sell this radio and power supply as a combination?

Anyway, problem solved, will use the power supply for radios that need less current! I am glad the IC-7600 is fine!

Evening update, after the "high" today after finally working 4W8X and finding out that the IC-7600 was fine I was quite disappointed to see that I am NOT in the 4W8X log! The log shows it was updated after my QSO so it should be there. I really cannot understand how that happened, they definitely had my call correct! I will check again tomorrow morning, maybe they newest update is not online yet.

Rather disappointing to say the least, maybe it is time for a bit of a break from amateur radio?

Update 16/11/2023: The late afternoon CWT test yesterday did not produce many contacts, I actually gave up after about 15 minutes and 4 contacts. I could hear almost no stations and as it was 3pm local time the shack was still very hot. Fortunately this morning's 5 to 6am (local) session was a lot better with 40m being open to the USA and Canada. I managed to work 35 stations in the hour, not a great total but I think it was great for QRP, I am sure it was my best score yet on 40m running QRP.

Unfortunately still now Wyoming!

As an interesting side I was outside this morning and quite by chance I noticed a strange bend in one of my feed lines. It turned out to be the new LMR400 feed line I installed recently for my hex beam. The "kink" turned out to be a cut in the feed line! The coax was almost cut through completely and the strands of shielding that remained was shorting out with the core that was cut through completely! This would explain why I could hardly hear any stations on the higher HF bands yesterday! With me only running 5W the radio did not even complain, the internal tuner simply compensated I suppose!

I can only assume this happened yesterday morning when I had someone working in the garden. Only option was to replace the feed line, no real way to join it without inducing losses, something you need to avoid at all costs when you run QRP! It is all sorted out so now I can look for DX again, unfortunately by the time I had made up a new cable the second CWT period of the day was history so no contacts for me.

I noticed a new QSL I received from Bulgaria today, nothing unusual or special, I have plenty QSL's from Bulgaria but what was interesting was the date! It is for a contact I made in 2000, 23 years ago!

This QSL confirmation took only 23 years to reach me.

I have been updating my logbook today, importing all the separate contest ADIF and other ADIF files, once it was done I ran a report on outstanding DXCC entities I need, see the result below.

Wanted DXCC entities.

I am not so sure I trust the list completely, I know for a fact that I have worked Z6, Kosovo, I found the call in my log. I am also quite sure I have worked at least 2 of the other "outstanding" DXCC entities. I think I need to export the whole logbook and import in into another logbook program, I am sure I am going to get different results!

On the equipment front I have been looking out for Black Friday specials on radios, so far nothing of interest but I am hoping!

Update 14/11/2023: This morning I was a bit lazy to go to the shack early to look for DX on 40m but eventually did, I am so glad I did go! I heard the TJ9MD station in Cameroon again on 40m, but unlike yesterday he came back to me almost immediately! Patience pays when you re DX'ing, especially at 5W.

After working TJ9MD I tuned around a bit on 40m, I did not expect much as the sun was up quite high already so 40m was closed for DX. Big was my surprise when I heard KL7SB, Alaska, on 40m. I managed to work him without any problems. Alaska on 40m is not a new one for me but it does show that DX can show up on any band at unusual times. It is always worth listening.

It was extremely hot today, the temperature peaked around 42-43C so I did not spend much time in the shack as it is the warmest room in the house. I have started the process of installing air-conditioning in the hobby room, about time!

I did get back on the air early evening for my usual CW chat on 40m. I was on the air a few minutes early to I tuned around a bit, that time of the day, just before 7pm local time, the bands were not that active, but I did hear a pileup on 20m. Listening down soon resulted in me identifying the station that was causing the pileup as V62S, Micronesia. Since it would be a new one for me on 20m I immediately turned my antenna in his direction and started listening to the pileup to try and figure out where he was listening.

My main problem was time, I only had about 8 minutes before my sked and I hate being late! Fortunately the operator on the V62S side was great and he heard me quickly, nice one bagged!

I have now worked V62S, the operator is heading to V62P next, hope I can work him there s well!

 
Update 13/11/2023: I spent a frustrating 90 minutes this morning trying to work TJ9MD, Cameroon, on 40m. Initially his signal was loud but he could not hear me. I can only assume that he had a noise issue because he kept on calling CQ, lots of stations came back to him but he did not hear them. This would have been a new one for me on 40m, but that is the way DX'ing is, sometimes you land the fish and sometimes the fish swims away.

Oh well, maybe I will hear him again on 40m!

The bands have been reasonable most of the time, especially 10m has been great. Unfortunately I have not heard any new DXCC entities on 10m the last few days. I did manage to work a new one on 12m, OX3XR, Greenland was S1 on my side but he replied to me quickly, great operator! I hope he is on LoTW as I need a QSL card from him.

OX3XR, nice QSL card! I remember how colorful houses in Greenland are, good memories!

I am looking forward to the CWT test sessions this coming week, always fun plus there is a chance I will find the elusive Wyoming station. So far I have resisted asking on the CWOps group is there is someone in Wyoming for a sked but eventually that might be the only solution.

Update 11/11/2023: I was pleasantly surprised to see that my TO8FH, Mayotte, QSL's have arrived via LoTW, a lot quicker than I expected!

I managed to work them on 6 bands! I also worked them a few "extra" times on a few bands, not because I needed the contacts but because I heard them calling a few times without any replies so it was nice to have a bit of a "rag-chew", or at least longer contact with them. At least they knew they were getting out! The 6 bands I worked them on were all new band slots and Mayotte was also an all time new QRP DXCC entity for me.

TO8FH QSL confirmations, the QSL's with the "tick" are the new band-slots.

Another notable station I worked was TJ9MD in Cameroon, I did work them earlier but my QSO did not appear on their searchable log on Clublog so I worked them again on 10m, strangely when I looked for my call in their log later both contacts were there, oh well, at least I know it is in the bag now!

For my local evening CW QSO I decided to change radios again. I have had a brand new Yaesu FT-950 in a box for years, acquired it as part of a larger deal and never really used it other than to test it. Well, all I can say is I have forgotten how nice this generation of Yaesu radios were! 40m can be really noisy here, most of the time I use my QRM Eliminator but with the FT-950 I have not felt the need for the Eliminator, the IPO function is simply amazing!  Last night the noise dropped from S7 to below S1 with the push of a button.

The sound from the receiver is also very "full" and "smooth" with none of the high frequency "noise" that you can hear on most of the modern radios. This noise can be quite fatiguing when listening for long periods.

The FT-950 is such a pleasure to use I think the next radio I will put into operation will be the FT-2000D, would be nice to compare the 2 radios.

Yaesu FT-950 in action.

I am looking forward to the CQWW CW contest at the end of the month, still no firm plans or strategy but I will be on the air even if it just to work a few scarce stations!

It is 11/11 today, I just want to take a moment to think about all the soldiers over the ages who died to give us the freedom we have today, I am also especially thinking of friends and family from my generation who paid the ultimate price during the war we fought on the Namibian border, I clearly remember the horror of war up there, we went from boys to men very quickly, around 1987 I got a taste of that first hand, I/we will never forget...

We remember.

 
Update 9/11/2023: I have been quite active on the air with daily DX chasing as well as my regular chat on 40m in the evening. Unfortunately I have not had much time to update this page!

The 40m band has been great lately staying open late into the evening with both local and DX stations that can be worked. This morning at 0300Z I spent an hour on 40m working stations in the weekly CWT test hour. With the band in good condition I managed to work 29 US stations with 5W and a dipole antenna during the hour, really satisfying! Unfortunately none of them were in Wyoming so I am still looking for Wyoming on CW.

I did hear a loud SSB station from Wyoming later but when asked he does not do CW so still no luck. I think I need to put out a request for a Wyoming QSO on the CWOps reflector, just maybe that will produce results.

DX'ing has been good, notable contacts include:

A25R, Botswana, on a few bands including 40m, one I still needed.
YO8AD, Yemen, on 40m for an all time new one (QRP)

I got a lead on an Icom IC-7851 but it turns out the radio has an intermittent issue that Icom has not been able to sort out it I decided to give it a pass.

Talking about equipment, I am considering importing a new "flagship" radio to be used as my main DX and contest radio. I am considering importing as the local suppliers carry no stock and they are quite a bit more expensive than a direct import. Support is also not an issue, there is no-one locally who can fix (or who I would trust to fix) a modern top-end radio anyway so if there is an issue even a locally bought one would need to be sent back to the USA or Japan. I can do that myself so I am not worried.

Now I am looking for a nice "special", did someone say "black Friday"?

Update 7/11/2023: I spent quite a bit of time today re-doing the setup of the R928+ radio, it is amazing how complicated these little SDR radios can be if you want to get the most out of them, at least the setup and alignment can be done from the menus, no need for signal generators, oscilloscopes and other equipment like with conventional radios!

So far I have done the basic hardware setup and the CW side, not the SSB side, might do that sometime but it is not an priority as the radio will seldom or ever see a microphone!

The bands were dead most of the day but did open up late afternoon. I heard a large pile-up from 28.020 up, a bit of listening soon showed that the pile-up was caused by TJ9MD Cameroon. I fortunately managed to work them, I need to check but I am pretty sure it is a new QRP DXCC entity on 10m.

Nice catch, TJ9MD, Cameroon.

While chasing the DX I also managed to work a few local friends, I love the fact that with CW it is quite easy to work 2 stations at the same time!

Working 2 stations on differed bands at the same time.

My evening CW rag chew session went well again after the poor band conditions we had yesterday. There was also a new station that joined us, hope he will join again in the future!

Tomorrow it is time for the weekly CWT tests again, I will be looking for Wyoming again!

Update 6/11/2023: I was thinking about the situation with the R928+ (see 5/11/2023 post) and I decided to see if I could fix the problem.

Ideally I could just replace the switch, but I an not sure where I could find a little surface mount switch like that, it needs to be exactly the same else the rubber button that presses on it wont work. Then it dawned on me it is the M1 button, a button you can setup as a custom button and a button I never use!

So why not simply disconnect it and not use it? Challenge accepted, heat up the soldering iron!

With the radio disassembled you can see the S9(M1) button/switch that is causing the problem.

I soon had the radio open, I carefully de-soldered the offending surface mount switch, you need a fine-tipped soldering iron and good eyes not to damage anything when you do this!

So a quick test before re-assembling the radio, oh no, still the same error! I checked the switch with a multi meter and it worked 100%, not good news. I next removed the top PCB and had a look at the circuit below. I could see nothing wrong but one a few of the solder joints looked less than perfect. I traced the tracks coming from the switch, they pass through the PCB, one goes to ground and the other runs across the PCB to a surface mount CPU.

Here I found something interesting. The solder joints o the CPU are tiny, not much wider than a hair but I could see right where the switch trace was connected there was a tiny piece of material, looked like a bit of solder, that looked like it was potentially creating a short!

I carefully removed the bit of solder, before re-assembling the PCB I also re-soldered the few solder joints I did not like.

After carefully assembling the radio again, there are quite a few connectors you need to seat correctly, I applied power and switched the radio on again, this time it booted correctly! Fantastic!

The R928+ running again! You can see on the left-hand bottom side that the M1 switch is still missing.

Since a test showed that there was nothing wrong with the switch I decided to re-install it.

M1 switch re-installed.

I re-assembled the radio and it is working perfectly again, the M1 button is also working! I can only guess that the almost microscopy piece of solder that caused the trouble has always been inside the radio but only recently moved to a spot where it could cause an issue.

PCB and switch re-installed, radio is still working.


Everything re-assembled and working.

I am really glad I managed to "rescue" the radio, I would have missed it. Ok, so now I can start planning an overnight hike again, oh the nostalgia that would bring! I just need to buy or build a small CW paddle, will most like simply 3D print one.  

Update 5/11/2023: With us finally getting some decent weather the last few days I have not been on air that much, it is fun to do a bit of hiking and photography again. I did manage a bit of on-air time here and there, with the bands being open most of the time I enjoy a quick scan every now and then to look for interesting stations to work.

With the better weather my thoughts have also turned to some SOTA/POTA operation or simply taking a QRP radio on a hike. I remember reading an article in the CQ magazine when I was still at school about a guy who took a QRP radio with him when hiking and camping, his description of sitting next to the fire at night making contacts with stations around the world on 5W or less was one of the things that got me hooked on amateur radio and QRP/CW originally!

So I think it will be fun to go camping in the wild with a radio again. With this in mind I connected up my little R928+ QRP rig to make a few contacts using a simple wire antenna, the plan was to make sure it works well before taking it on a trip.

To my shock the moment I switched on the R928+ it went into a diagnostic screen saying the "M1" key was pressed. This is a subroutine in firmware that you can use when you build the radio to check that all the controls work, you press any button and switch on, it will then go into the diagnostic subroutine and you can press any key, the radio will display the key pressed on the screen. Now this is great but there is no way to bypass the routine if the radio thinks a key is pressed at switch on!

Looks like the M1 key is stuck rendering the radio useless! I did loo to see if the key is stuck, even opened up the radio but they key is not physically stuck, bad news!

R928+ with the message showing the M1 key is stuck

I am quite sad about this, I love the little radio and will miss it! Maybe I can find another one? If not I will be using my Yaesu FT-817 again I suppose!

Update 2/11/2023: I have been quite busy lately so I have not been updating this page recently. I did manage to find some time to get on the air, with good conditions I have managed to work a few interesting stations, always fun!

Notable recent contacts include:

7Q6M, Malawi on 10m, the station will be on air for 6 months but it is casual operation, maybe I can work him on other bands!
W1AW/0, ARRL HQ station on 40m
GU4FOC, Guernsey on 12m for a new one on 12m

I have also worked a few CWT sessions recently, the normal 40m opening during the early morning session produced a bunch of US stations but still not the much wanted Wyoming contact. The afternoon session coincided with a 10m opening to Europe so for a change I could work some CWOps members outside the USA.

The Flex 5000A is back on the shelve, it is a superb radio on SSB with great filters and a nice user interface but it is really not a usable CW radio. Both Flex innovations and the developer of the software simply refuse to admit there is an issue, they have a real "head in the sand" attitude so when you ask questions they walk circles around the issue. Oh well, think I will sell it as it does not fit in with the rest of my collection, it is just taking up space! Shame on you Flex Innovations!

I am still having my 1 hour plus CW QSO's in the evening on 40m as well as the odd long chat to other stations, fun plus good practice!

Update 30/10/2023: I ended up only making a few contacts during the CQ WW SSB contest the weekend. It was due to a combination of not feeling well, less than perfect band conditions and it being SSB, not a good thing when your voice is not happy!

I did work a bit of DX on the weekend. First notable contact was the A25R expedition in Botswana. I did not really expect to work them with 5W while their antennas were pointing somewhere else, they had substantial pile-ups but I did manage to sneak in a quick contact on 20m early in the morning before the pile-up became too loud. It was quite easy once I figured out the way they were working stations up and down the band.

A25R o 20m before the band opened to the rest of the world.

A second nice surprise was working T2C, Tuvalu, on 17m CW, a new band slot! They were almost in my noise but still came back to me after only two calls from my side.

T2C expedition members.

I was happy to see that I have received 2 QSL's for Eastern Malaysia recently on 12m and 17m, both new band slots.

Another pleasant surprise was to receive a certificate for our local "Spring day SOTA", I managed to work 3 local SOTA stations on the designated day but did not expect anything, so thanks Adele and Sid, it was a pleasant surprise!

SOTA (Summits On The Air) certificate.

I have been using the Flex-5000A the last few days. I must say it is much improved with the latest software update, it now seems to work perfectly on SSB but on CW there are still two issues that has caused me to put it back up on the shelve. The first problem is the bug in the software that does not allow you to set the volume of the CW side tone when you are working split. The moment you activate the split option the CW side-tone volume goes to maximum, not pleasant especially if you are using headphones!

I did report this to the developer of the software but so far no reaction, hopefully he is working on it!

The second issue is still latency. It seems to be fine when you start but I have noticed if you have a long QSO or if you call many times like you would when trying to work a DX pile-up the latency slowly gets worse to the point where it is no longer acceptable. This seems to happen quicker if you are running high speed CW. The only way to get the latency back down is to stop the software, exit and then re-run the software. This clears it up for a while. The fact that you need to re-stat the software and not the PC points to an issue with latency and/or buffers in the software and NOT to an issue with the PC and Firewire connection as the developer seems to think when I mentioned this. This problem makes the Flex-5000A not really suitable for CW. I will wait a while to see what happens but if the problems are not solved I will sell the radio to SSB operator who can enjoy the great receiver and filters! 

Update 27/10/2023: I am feeling better today, after all the medicine I have been taking I should feel better, at least I feel like doing something other than sleeping for a change!

I noticed that there was a new version of PowerSDR, the software I use to run the Flex-5000A radio available. A while ago I played quite extensively with the Flex-5000A and with a lot of playing around with the many settings available I got it to the point where it was working well on SSB. Unfortunately even my best efforts still gave me too much latency on CW plus the software would hang/crash every now and then if you were not careful when changing parameters or even basic settings.

I downloaded and installed the newest PowerSDR software. It started ok but I immediately noticed that there was no waterfall display. I tried all the normal sensitivity settings but the waterfall remained black. The normal panadaptor was working well. A search on the internet produced a few cases where other users has the same issue. The suggestion was to reload the software.

Rather than a complete re-install that would delete all my settings I tried to re-install using the "Repair" option and it worked! I think one of the files or modules that runs the FFT routines for the waterfall display most likely did not update correctly the first time.

So with it now working I tried CW again. There was still quite a bit of latency but at least it no longer chopped of characters when you started sending, a good start. I had a look at the RX buffer settings as I know this can have a large effect on the latency and you need a smaller buffer on CW than on SSB, after trying in the past to lower it from the normal 2048 byte default I had reset it to 2048 bytes as lower values caused the software to simply crash. So I tried to reduce it again to 1024 bytes for CW only.

This time it did not crash the software AND the latency dropped to perfectly acceptable levels! Great news, I just hope it stays like this as sometimes background activity on windows can cause things to change.

I also noticed that when you now make changes to settings and when you apply the settings the radio is paused first, the settings are saved and then the radio resumes, takes less than a second but it has stopped the hangs/crashes I had before! In his documentation the person updating PowerSDR did mention that he did this to improve stability. Well it works, thanks KE9NS!

Flex-5000A, does not look like much but once you start using the software you will be amazed!

So with the radio now working better I looked around for some stations to work. It was still a bit early for the bands to open but I did manage to work a few DX stations on 15m, 12m and 10m. One interesting station was E2YOTA from Thailand, there were also quite a few eastern European stations on 12m. I managed to work all stations I heard without any problems, as in the past I was amazed at how quiet the Flex receiver was, a pleasure to listen to!

E2YOTA, Youth On The Air special event station from Thailand.

Some CW activity on 15m, the filters on the Flex is really amazing!
Also take note of the DX Spots displayed above the spectrum display.

The radio and software behaved itself perfectly, with the updated software and settings the Flex-5000A is now definitely usable on CW. With it's superb filters I think it will be a welcome addition to the DX side of operations, I just hope it stays like this, I do not quite trust it yet.

I think I will use it for while on CW and see, if it behaves for a few days and also a few long CW rag-chews I might just change my mind on the range of Flex SDR radios, time will tell. Maybe I will buy a Flex radio again in the future? Time will tell. 

Update 26/10/2023: I have not done an update here for almost a week, this is mostly due to not being well so I did not spend much time in the shack. I have not even switched on a radio the last 2 days. I am feeling a bit better today so hopefully I will be on the air this weekend.

Only QSO's the last week has been my 40m evening chat, also listening for DX on the second RX, IC-7610

It is CQ WW SSB this weekend, normally I would not compete but I would look around for interesting stations. I might do the same this year but unless my voice recovers a lot before the weekend I will most likely only hang out on the WARC bands and try to work some CW DX.

I am looking forward to CQ WW CW end of next month, with a good chance that conditions will be great I am sure the bands will be packed with interesting stations to work, maybe I can even add one or more DXCC entities to my QRP CW totals.

Update 20/10/2023: I have not worked any rare DX the last few days, the band conditions were average, not exceptional. I did hear the ZD9W expedition again but they were still to low to work with 5W, I am pretty sure I would have struggled with 1KW as well as the pile-up was rather unruly and between the QSB and the "tuner-uppers" I could only hear them for short periods.

I did spend an hour on one of the four weekly CWT sessions. As per usual I worked a bunch of US stations, most of them great operators other than the one who insisted calling me ZS1C even after I tried to correct him 4 times!

The one surprise during the CWT session was a contact with XQ6CF, Chile, on 40m, a nice one as working Chile on 40 does not happen often!

XQ6CF station

Unfortunately XQ6CF only QSL's direct ($2) and not via LoTW or any other electronic QSL service, the problem with that is not the cost it is the fact that the QSL will have to go via our local postal system so chances are you will never see it! Fortunately I already have a QSL from another station in Chile for 40m CW.

The weekend is almost here so I am hoping for a bit more DX activity. I do have a birthday lunch to attend on Sunday but that should not really interfere with a bit of DX'ing, now we just need decent conditions, the sunspot number has been in the 50's this week so not ideal.

Update 18/10/2023: I managed to get time to connect the FL-2100Z to my 40m station yesterday. I am running the amplifier at reduced voltage (1500V) since it produces 400W on 40m at that voltage and that is more than enough for what I use it for, if needed I can flick a switch and the plate voltage goes up to 2200V.

The amplifier still runs a bit warm but I do now that is the way it is, I am simply not used to these valve amplifiers that generate so much heat anymore. Maybe I must look at an extra, external fan to keep things cooler like the one I installed on my Heathkit SB-200. That amplifier used to run even hotter than the FL-2100Z!

Yaesu FL-2100Z amplifier ready for action.

DX conditions have been good the last few days, with quite a few DX'peditions in rare locations there is always something to try and work.

Notable contacts added to the logbook include:

OY1CT - Faroe Isle - 10 CW
T2C - Tuvalu - 30M CW
SV5AZK - Dodecanese isle - 12M CW
D2UY - Angola - 12M CW
WP3A - Puerto Rico - 12M CW

I have worked OY1CT on quite a few bands in the past, he is normally on 12m so it was a pleasant surprise to hear and work him on 10m.

OY1CT, very active and a great CW operator!

T2C was a nice surprise, I was looking for TO8FH on 30m but could hear nothing on the band other than a very weak signal in the noise. Eventually I could make out the call and it was T2C, Tuvalu! Even though he was so weak I just had to try.

Well, it took at least 30 minutes, maybe more, sometimes he dropped right into the noise so I had to stop calling but eventually he came back with "Z??", a few more repeats of my call and we completed the QSO. I assume he was running at least 100W, most likely more so if he was so weak on my side my 5W must also have been very weak!

T2C, I have now worked them on 2 bands but it was not easy!

Another surprise was D2UY, Angola on 12m, we are a bit close to Angola for 12m so I did not expect to hear him but I am not complaining!

D2UY, Angola, in his shack.

With the DX conditions improving it looks like we are going to have lots of fun over the next few years. I am also looking forward to CQWW CW end of November, I can just imagine how busy the bands will be. I have not decided if I am going to try to compete or just look for interesting stations but either way it will be fun! 

Update 17/10/2023: I was quite busy yesterday so I did not spend much time in the shack but I did mange to work a bit of DX late afternoon and I also had my regular CW sked on 40m.

I did not work anything special, the TO8FH signal was strong on all bands other than where I need him, seems like they do not spend much time on 30m. 6m was also open late afternoon but I only heard activity on FT8 and it was the usual mix of Southern European stations so I did not bother to work any stations, FT8 is not only boring it seems too easy, you click and the computer does the rest. You can even automate the whole thing (and I know some people do) so you do not even need to be in the shack to "work DX", no thanks!

These 2 contacts did stand out in the log:

E70Y - Marin Pavlovic - Bosnia and Herzegovina on 10m CW. not many stations on the air from this country!
FR5FC - Reunion Isle - BENARD PATRICK - on 10m SSB

E70Y, Marin Pavlovic

I actually worked FR5FC on SSB (yes, I do own a microphone!) running 5W, he was 59+30db on my side and gave me a 58-59 report. What made it notable was that we actually had a nice chat and not just the normal signal report exchange. Interestingly he was also running an IC-7600 like me but he was outputting 400W against my 5W.

I was nicely surprised to see that the FO/F6BCW QSL has arrived and it is not only a new one on 10m but it is an all-time new one on QRP, I have worked a FO station before with QRP but never received a QSL.

FO/F6BCW, French Polynesia QSL

So far the bands have been quiet today, maybe things will improve later. I did manage to have a nice QSO with a ZS1 station I have not worked before, always great to hear some new local CW operators.

With little activity on the bands I decided to give my old Yaesu FL-2100Z amplifier a bit of a service as I want to use it for the local morning and afternoon SSB nets. I switched it on a while ago but it seemed to run quite hot with little airflow so I had a suspicion that the fans needed cleaning and oiling.

It turned out that the amplifier was nice and clean inside, it has hardly been used in the 25 years I have had it but the problem was the old oil in the fan bearings, the fans were hardly turning. I removed the fans and cleaned the bearings with solvent before oiling them again. Now the fans are running nicely and they now move quite a bit of air. I will connect the amplifier to a radio and use it this afternoon if I have time to get on air.

I might not get time though as I still need to do a few things to prepare for a hike and a photo shoot tomorrow, lets see what happens....

Cleaning and re-oiling the Yaesu FL-2100Z fans.

Update 15/10/2023: The number of solar spots were a bit down today, only 85, but even though signals were a bit weaker there was still plenty DX to be worked.

Here are a few of the more interesting stations I managed to work today:

FO/F6BCW French Polynesia on 10m, I need to check but I think is might be a new one on QRP!
4U1A United Nations Amateur Radio Contest DX Club on 10m
EE7RW Special event on 10m and 17m

EE7RW special event station commemorating the life of EA7RW.


4U1A station location at the UN


4U1A station.

I could hear TO8FH on all bands other than 30m again. It seems that they only work 30m certain times of the day and unfortunately those times do not coincide with good propagation on 30m in that direction. But I will keep a lookout for them, should be easy to work them if they are on the air at the right time.

Listening to a pile-up on 12m, was a Greenland station but his signal was really weak and his CW was terrible!

I decided to split my station into three sections today, I will have a radio with antennas (dipoles) dedicated to 80m, 40m and 30m. Since I will also use this setup for local SSB chats a linear amplifier will also  be connected.

The second setup will be dedicated to DX'ing on 20m to 10m using the hex beam antenna. There will be no amplifier connected here as it will be QRP only.

The third setup will be dedicated to 6m using my 6 element 6m yagi, I will most likely also connect one of my Henri 6N2 amplifiers here if I feel it is needed, right now I will be running only 200W from the Yaesu FTdx-5000MP. I might add 8m to this setup as well I just need to either buy or build a decent antenna.

There will also be a dedicated satellite and VHF/UHF station.

This setup will allow me to monitor other bands when I am busy working DX on one, hopefully this will result in less missed opportunities and more DX contacts in the log!

Update 14/10/2023: DX conditions have been good the last couple of days and it is still getting better! I am still only hunting for new DXCC entities or at least interesting stations. As conditions improve the pile-ups are getting bigger but it is also becoming easier to work the stations with 5W. The next few years should be quite exciting on the HF bands!

Notable recent captures include:

TO8FH Mayotte on 10m, 12m and 17m, still looking for 30m
T2C - Tuvalu on 17m, was quite surprised to hear them here as I have not been able to hear them on any other band. They replied after my first 5W call!
W8S - Swains Isl. on 17m. Also the first band I could hear them on.

Bands I have worked TO8FH on, only 30m remaining unless I put up a 80m antenna!


T2C DX'pedition to Tuvalu.

After a long period of not adding much to my QRP DXCC totals it is great to see them climbing again!

I have been using the IC-7300 for DX'ing and chatting the last 10 days or so. I decided I need to give the radio a decent chance by getting to know it well and I must say I do like the radio. I think it might well be one of the, if not best radios as far as the price/performance ratio goes. The one radio that could give it competition could be the Yaesu FTdx-710, it is a bit cheaper and it has a substantially better RX but I cannot vouch for "usability" until I have used one. It sure is on my list of radios to look out for

Update 12/10/2023: I have been having lots of fun with amateur radio recently. Band conditions have improved so I am making regular DX contacts mostly searching for rare stations and expeditions.

Recent notable captures include:

TO8FH - Mayotte on 20m and 40m
5W0LM - Samoa on 20m

As I mentioned a few days ago I was nominated to become a member of the CWOps group, a group dedicated to CW. After nomination enough members must confirm recent contacts with you at 25wpm or faster. I received the good news yesterday that I have now qualified! I am now a proud member of this exclusive club, my membership number is 3420.

CWOps membership certificate.

I have been taking part in the 4 one hour CWOps cw test sessions every week, lots of fun to work stations at high speed, all the stations have operators who are really great at CW, a pleasure to have contacts like these! I am still hoping all these contacts with mostly US stations will produce that elusive contact with a Wyoming station.

Lots of CW activity on 20m during CWT session.


Recently I have seen these strange signals on quite a few bands, wonder what it is?

We have had a few 6m TEP openings to Europe recently, something that happens this time of the year. What I did find interesting was that my transmission was received by Dick, ZS6BUN about 860km from me. This distance on 6m is a bit unusual and was mostly likely caused by sporadic E, he received me at +4db so the signal was quite strong. Unfortunately he did not reply, most likely his station was in monitor mode only so there was no QSO.

6m signal report from ZS6BUN

Encouraged by the 6m activity I have now assembled my long boom 6m yagi, have not used it for more than a decade! Now I must just get it high up in the air, that is another challenge!

Update 10/10/2023: DX conditions have been up and down the last few days, when the higher bands are open they are great but then suddenly there will be nothing!

Over the last few days I did manage to catch some notable DX, here are a few of the stations that I have worked for new CW QRP band slots, these are the ones that have already confirmed via LoTW.

V31DL - Belize
A61R - UAE
9V1ZW - Singapore
9A7AA - Nepal on a few bands
EL2BG - Liberia
ET3AA - Ethiopia
3C3CA - Equatorial Guinea on a few bands

I also heard ZD9W (Tristan da Cunha & Gough) on 12m but his signal was in and out of the noise. Strangely I could hear him best with my antenna pointing south, not the direction that should be best. The signal also had a strange "flutter" so I think we had some unusual propagation at work. I did try to work him but his pile-up was huge so between his weak signal, my 5W, all the stations running high power and also a few tuning up right on top of him I had little chance. I do not need ZD9 for a new country but it would have been fun!

ZD9W pileup on 12m, I have not seen/heard this many CW stations for a while!

I have been making my semi regular sked on 40m in the evening. It is interesting to note that 40m now seem to open for DX every morning and evening after a long period with little activity. I managed to work quite a few DX stations including a bunch of US stations in the morning. I am still looking for Wyoming on CW running QRP so I m working more US stations than usual. In the afternoon the DX that can be heard is usually the unruly mob from Indonesia so I don't even try.

The 40m band has also been quite active locally during early evening, also quite unusual, normally it is only CW that is usable locally on 40m during the evening due to the weak signals but recently I have seen/heard quite a few SSB QSO's as well.

Here I am busy with my evening sked on 7.025 but you can see quite a few SSB QSO's in progress higher up the band.

I have still received no news on the 2.4GHz pre-amplifier for my satellite station, actually even worse than that my last 3 messages to the supplier on other equipment has not been answered/ignored so I am now looking for a new supplier. Seems like I would have to unfortunately import the equipment direct. So much for "support the local small business".

I am looking forward to the 4 CWOps mini contests this week, love working the stations with great CW operators at a decent speed and since many of them are from the USA maybe, just maybe I will snag Wyoming this week, there is always hope!

Update 6/10/2023: I have been rather busy the last few days so did not get much time to update here. The good news is that some of the "busy" was working DX!

The bands have been a lot better the last few days with 10 and 12m open quite late into the evening. Signals are often weak but workable. I often call CQ a few times, even if I do not get a reply as it often happens during a working day I then have a look at the Reverse Beacon network to see where I was heard and how strong my signal was. This gives me a good indication of where to beam and also what DX'peditions I can expect to work.

In general I seldom call CQ as I am more interested in "rare DX" than just working volumes of calls from the countries with lots of amateurs.

Results from a CQ call on 12m, band is open!

A few notable stations worked the last few days include 5X3K (Uganda) and S01WS (Western Sahara), both new band-slots. There are also a few other DX'peditions on the air at the moment so with the better conditions the hunt is on!

I was recently asked if I would like to become a member of the CWOps group (cwops.org). This is a group that caters for more advanced CW operators, they try to promote CW in general and specifically better and faster CW. They also run a CW academy where you can improve your CW. To join you first need to be nominated by a current member who needs to state why he/she thinks you qualify to become a member. Once that is done you need 3 members to support your nomination by specifying that they have worked you at least twice in the last 12 months at 25wpm or faster.

I have been nominated but the "problem" is that since the majority of the members are from the USA, and I don't really work US stations unless in a competition, I do not think I have the required contacts to become a full member. Fortunately the CWOps group run 4 one hour CW "contest" sessions a week where you can make contacts with members. These 4 timeslots are spread over Wednesday and Thursday every week. I have so far managed to be active during 3 of those sessions. Conditions were terrible during once session, it was simply the wrong time of the day, mid morning, for the band to be open.

The early evening session was quite productive on 20m and so was the early morning session on 40m. I have not heard that many CW signals on 40m for a long time! The signals on 20m were reasonably strong but the 40m signals were quite weak. I did manage to work about 35 CWOps members during those sessions with my 5W. Now I need to do it again next week to hopefully get contacts with some of the same stations so that they can then support my nomination.

It is fun chasing some contacts again plus, with a bit of luck, I might just end up working a station in Wyoming, the one US state I still need for WAS CW QRP. I am having fun and that is always a good thing!

Lots of CW activity on 40m

Not much news on the equipment side. I did get a lead on a IC-7800 but I must admit after doing a bit of homework on the radio I am not that sure I really want the (rather expensive) radio in my collection. Main issues are dim screens, something fixed in the later IC-7850/1 model and also many reports of blow finals, some of them many times! Since there is almost no technical support locally for Icom radios either of those problems would make the radio worthless.

Since the receiver has a  rather average performance I am trying to decide if it is worthwhile adding it to the collection and maybe not using it, I need to decide soon......

If I could get an IC-7851 it would be a lot better but at the moment, with our bad exchange rate they are horrendously expensive! A new Yaesu FTdx-101MP would not only be cheaper it is a far superior radio as far as performance goes.

Update 4/10/2023: I managed to work some decent DX yesterday late afternoon and early evening. 10 and 12m were wide open. Amongst the interesting stations worked were 5X3K (Uganda) on 12m CW and 9N7AA (Nepal) on 10 and 12m CW. Both these new ones were easy to work with 5W despite the fact that they were working split with large pile-ups and I was at the back of their antennas. Having a "full/real" second receiver complete with it's own VFO knob on the FT-1000D helped so did the spectrum display zoomed in that allowed me to see where the station was they last worked.

I did call CQ (with 5W) on 10m and it was interesting to see that I was heard in Europe and North America, did not try to turn my antennas east or west to see in those directions, if the band opens again today I will try that.

Reverse beacon results showing a few stations that heard my 5W CW CQ call.

May there be many more openings on the higher bands this solar cycle!

Update 1/10/2023: I decided to add a spectrum display to my trusty FT-1000D, since the FT-1000D has an external IF output (73.62MHz) this was quite easy. Using a RTL SDR dongle and the superb SDR Console software I only needed to make up a cable with a RCA plug between the dongle and the radio.

The results are great! You can see a huge section of the band or zoom right in. You can also control the radio directly from SDR Console, using the CAT connection and Omni rig software, this allows you to click on a signal displayed on  the screen and the radio will QSY there. You also have the option to listen to the signal directly on the computer where you can change modes and use the DSP filters and noise blankers provided! This gives the radio features that competes with the newest top end radios at a better price and build quality. I think I will use this as my "main radio" for a while to see if there are any issues that might make it less perfect than what it appears to be! It would be easy to do this with other similar radios, I intend to do it with a few radios in my collection.

Listening to a SSB signal on a rather noisy 40m band using the FT-1000D and SDR Console software.

Update 30/9/2023: Unfortunately it turns out that I was right about the fact that the TX pre-amplifier I received from the supplier for my QO-100 station is in fact not the correct one. The output is very low, more like what you would expect from a receive pre-amplifier. The result is that you do not have enough power to drive the final amplifier to a decent level. I did discuss this with the supplier but he simply said no, it is the correct one. I have now received a message from him saying he is getting better pre-amplifiers in that will provide more drive, oh well, won't say "I told you so!"

So for now the QO-100 station is on hold.

DX has been quiet, there are some stations but nothing interesting, I hope it will get better soon. There is a 5X DX'pedition starting I think today, since I need Uganda on a few bands for my QRP CW DXCC I will be listening for them.

Update 27/9/2023: With some better weather I managed to get some work done on my QO-100 Satellite station today. After trying one more time to get the 120cm dish going I gave up and removed it (not fun!) and replaced it with the little 70cm dish. I used the same LNB and cabling.

My first attempt to get it aligned did not go well, same results as with the larger dish! Could not believe it! I decided to see if there was another issue. I did ask my supplier if the LNB he supplied was standard or modified but he never replied (guess the items I have in my shopping cart on his web page will stay right there!)

Anyway, I decided to give and old DSTV LNB I had lying around a go. Once it was on the dish I could actually see very weak signals! I quick trip up the ladder armed with a laptop and a spanner was all that was needed, finally decent signals from QO-100! To say I was happy would be a mayor understatement!

What a fantastic sight! Signals from QO-100!

The LNB was drifting quite a bit but fortunately the SDR Console software allows you to lock on the beacon, once I had that configured the frequency was rock solid.

Next task was to setup the transmit side. I did not expect much due to a few things. Firstly there was the dish that is a lot smaller than the one used in the original "power needed" computations. Next there was the suspect pre-amplifier and to crown it all the transmit antenna is only a small, linear polarized yagi antenna, not circular polarized as it should be for QO-100.

Test showed that I could just see my transmission on the QO-100 transponder. At least the signal was strong enough that I could calibrate the TX/RX frequency so that I can transmit on the frequency I am listening on. I might just have enough power (no idea how much but most likely around 1W) to make a CW contact, will try tomorrow if I have time.

So how to improve my signal into the bird? There are a few options. I can try the larger dish again, but I am reluctant due to it's mounting requirements especially taking the high winds we often have into consideration. Next I could (and I should) replace the TX Yagi with a decent helical antenna. I would have to build my own as there are non available locally. They are not that difficult to build if you have a 3D printer (I do have one) but my problem is that at this stage I gave no way to measure the SWR on 24GHz. If I get it wrong I could damage my (expensive) amplifier.

I think I need to acquire a VNA, it will be useful to build antennas at the higher frequencies and will also be usable on my HF antennas.

Another option would be to increase my transmitted power, firstly I could (and again I should) get a decent pre-amplifier that outputs at least 200mW, not the measly 12mW I am getting now according to the specs of the one I have now. A second option would be to run my amplifier on 24V. It can run on 12-24V but will only produce it's rated power at 24V.

I think I will take as many of the steps above as I can and see where I end up. I did listen to a few QSO's CW and SSB, reception and signal strengths are fine on the small dish.

A CW signal received on 10GHz, a first in my shack, the signal has travelled around 70 000km to get to my receiver!

No DX'ing today, I was too busy, tomorrow also does not look good as I will spend most of the day on a 300km shopping trip, oh well, sometimes you have to do other things as well....

Update 25/9/2023: Not much activity on the dx bands, well maybe there was activity but not many strong signals. We had lots of rain, very strong winds, over 80km/h and lightning for 2 days so the static levels were horrible! Even if there were weak signals I would not have heard them!

Due to the weather I have also not made much progress on the QO-100 station, during a brief break in the weather I did attempt a quick adjustment of the dish, just guessing and yes, it did make a slight improvement but not much. I did notice something that could be a problem, when I was finished and went to remove the ladder the wind had increased in strength again, maybe gusting around 20-23km/h. There was quite a bit of movement in the dish, enough to surely cause a problem.

I think my mounting arrangement for the dish is simply not sturdy enough, the bracket, that I did reinforce a bit, was used for a 70cm DSTV dish in the past. I really need a more sturdy mount but there is nothing available locally. I will try to order something but I think I will give the 120cm dish one more try, if I cannot get it aimed accurately and consistently I will take it down and replace it with the 70cm dish.

I know people are making contacts from EU with dishes as small as 35cm so I should be able to make contacts with the 70cm dish from a position where the satellite is higher above the horizon (and thus closer) than in Europe. Lets see what the weather does over the next few days. Unfortunately I have a day trip to make this week for some shopping and then I most likely need to go to the yacht, a 1000km each way trip, for a week or so. Would love to get the station working before the interruption!

I have been using the IC-7300 again for the last few days, mostly to get to know it better before taking it to the yacht. I am enjoying the little radio but I do find one thing irritating. When looking for DX I would often jump around bands and modes to see where there is action, easy to do on most radios, you simply press the desired band button once and you are on the band, a second press of the button will move me between the CW and SSB segments of the band. Very convenient.

To do the same on the IC-7300 I need to press the MHz portion of the frequency on the display (make sure you tap accurately!), then I need to tap the correct band on the display. This will take me to the band, if I want to move between the different segments on the band without spinning the VFO a lot I need to repeat the tapping exercise. It takes at least 3 times as long!

I do like touch screens, they make life easy in many applications but they are not a solution to everything.

For my evening CW chat I decided I needed a change so I connected up the trusty old FT-1000D. My first impression was again how great the receiver sounds, QRM/QRN simply seems less disturbing and signals jump out from the noise. The modern SDR's are great but old school radios do have advantages!

Having a CW QSO while also listening to a bulletin on the FT-1000D, love the full second receiver!

Update 23/9/2023: Not much to report today other than a bit of progress on my QO-100 station.

After initial alignment using a compass and inclination app on my phone I connected everything up and started looking for the QO-100 signals. It was a bit of a "hunt in the dark" as there were many variables. I had to get direction (azimuth) and elevation within 1 degree and then I had to search for the signal. The problem was where to find the signal from the down converter. Depending on who you speak to or where you read the info there were 3 options. Around 950MHz (according to the official specs of the LNB) or either around 750MHz or 739MHz according to the internet.

The "around" bit is due to tolerances in reference oscillators, not that accurate at the high frequencies. Once you have the reference beacon you can calibrate your system but you first need to find it.

My first attempt produced no signals on any of the potential spots. I realigned the dish, thinking maybe it moved a bit when I attached all the cables. It was a bit off but still no signals. When I checked it again and it was off again in direction I became suspicious.

A few test quickly showed where the problem was, it was not the dish moving it was inconsistency on the compass app! I tried 3 different phones getting different results, the one app was so bad it was sometimes 90 degrees off! The best app I tried on the apple phone was still not consistent with up to 6 degree variations between attempts on something a solid as a brick wall.

So a plan B was needed. I checked the wall of the house against Google Earth, interestingly my "north facing" house was almost 18 degrees off from north, actually it is aligned with the streets in my town but the whole town is at an angle, and it is not even in the direction of magnetic deviation so that cannot be used as an excuse!

Anyway, it is difficult to get the exact variance of the "north facing" wall and true north but I managed to make a rough calculation and point the dish where I guessed north is. Searching for the signal again I finally found weak signals around 739.550MHz. Unfortunately by then it started raining so I had to abandon my efforts but at least I have now eliminated a lot of the guess work.

Once the rain clears (prediction is for the rain to persist for 2 more days!) I will take a laptop outside up the ladder (about 5m high) and adjust the dish in real time for best signal.

It is really time to get this station going, there is still a question mark over the transmit pre-amplifier so my next problem could well be producing enough RF to get into the satellite, oh well, we will see.

The DX bands and especially 10m was open till early evening today, there was a RTTY contest (CQ WW RTTY) going so all the bands were crowded but it was fun.

Talking about crowded bands, I am sad to say the behavior of some of the local hams leave a lot to be desired, they will simply go and park on a frequency, regardless if there is DX activity there, run maximum power and simply talk over the DX. If you should dare to point out to them that the frequency is in use you get blasted. Even worse they have no problem sitting chatting on SSB in the CW portion of the band or right on top of a beacon. I must stress it is not everyone, but there are a few.....

Update 22/9/2023: As a change I decided to connect up my old FT-1000D for my CW sked last night, have not used the old lady for a while! My first impression was how quiet it was but the signals were still strong, there is much to be said for older top-end radios!

As it turned out my sked was cancelled at the last moment, since I was already in the shack with the radio on I decided to tune around a bit, glad I did! I managed to catch, amongst others, EL2BG (Liberia) on 12m as well as E750ESP (Radio club "Stjepan Polje" - Bosnia-Herzegovina) on 30m, both new band-slots. Should do this more often!

I managed to get the satellite station dish mounted this morning and roughly aligned with the QO-100 satellite as well. I have now measured, cut and soldered all the cables as well other than the TX cable that still needs one connector. I found a nice 12V to 5V converter, used to be a power supply for a GPS so I will use that to supply the 5V needed by the Pluto Plus 2 SDR and the 2.4GHz pre-amplifier. My 2.4GHz amplifier can be run on 12-24V so I think I will initially try it on 12V, I should only need 5W but if it proves to low I do have a 12-24V converter, used to be a mobile charge adaptor for a laptop, that can be used to boost the output.

Finding all these bits and pieces in my "scrap" store just shows that you should never dump anything!

I should be able to start testing the satellite station tomorrow. First I need to get the receiver to hear the signal from QO-100, hopefully the dish alignment is close enough that I can get some kind of signal. Once I can see the 3 beacons on the waterfall I can fine-tune the dish and the LNB skew to get a better signal.

Next would be frequency calibration and locking the frequency to the center beacon. Once that is done TX testing can start, I need to get the TX setup to the point where I can get a decent signal into the satellite. Then the TX frequency must be aligned to the RX frequency.

We do have extreme weather conditions predicted for the next 3 days, up too 100km/h wind gusts, hope the dish mounting bracket survives!

When I looked at Logbook of The World today I was pleasantly surprised to see a QSL from 9N7AA (Nepal), I was worried he might not QSL, thanks!

9N7AA confirmation, new one on 12m CW QRP for me.

Update 21/9/2023: I tried to upload a video yesterday but it did not work, the server reported "Format not supported", oh well, I might still upload it to YouTube and post the link here. The only problem with that is that I will have to do more editing, to maintain the "rating" of my YouTube channel the videos need to be of a certain quality. What I wanted to show was how well the QRM Eliminator works and also a clip showing a CW contact on the IC-7600.

I did manage to make a few DX contacts yesterday but in general the conditions were still very poor. Late afternoon things improved a bit but by that time I was busy on a local net. My evening CW sked also went well with a few more people joining.

I did not make any progress with my QO-100 station yesterday, it was windy again and I was rather busy.

This morning there was little wind so I started early with the project to get the dish mounted. I managed to get it into place, with no help, but that did not really help! Once mounted I started aiming it, it needs to aim 2.7 deg east of north with an elevation of 51.2 degrees, and that is where things went wrong! I can only get up to about 47 deg elevation before that back of the dish touches the rain gutter! So back to the drawing board. I have 2 options, get a mounting bracket that sits a bit further from the wall, but none are available locally and even if I order online the longest one I can find will still be marginal.

The second option is to modify the bracket I have so that the dish sits about 100mm higher. Fortunately I have the materials (pipe) required to do that so that is the way I will go. Unfortunately the wind came up again so maybe tomorrow morning.

I did make up the RX and TX feed lines and I mounted the LNB and the 2.4GHz transmit antenna on the dish before getting it into place. I noticed that it will be rather difficult to do it once the dish is in place, at least that is now done.

Slowly but surely we are getting there....

While listening around the DX bands today I came across a strong signal on 12m, it was 9N7AA, Nepal, I quickly worked him (on CW) for a new one on 12m. I do hope he QSL's, I notice that I have worked him on 15m and 20m in 2000 and he never QSL'ed.

The IC-7600 is working well and I am enjoying using it both on SSB and CW, I think this one might just remain at the "operating" position for a while.

Update 19/9/2023: As I suspected the issue with the IC-7600 delivery was simply tracking as it arrived early this morning!

A quick check confirmed that there was no transport damage, everything looked good and as reported the radio is in a good condition. Once I had it running I noticed it was running ancient firmware, version 1.01! Lots of nice features, like a waterfall display and more filter options, were added in later versions so my first task was to upgrade to the latest (V2.0) before doing anything else.

Once that was done it was time to setup the radio and make a few contacts. Setting it up was easy, the setup is somewhere between the IC-756Pro3 and the IC-7610. Unfortunately by the time I had all that sorted out there was a solar flare that wiped out the bands completely! Oh well, maybe things will get better later in the day or tonight.

IC-7600 up and running with the updated firmware.


Different screen configuration with a larger spectrum scope and smaller meter and frequency display.

One thing I did notice while setting up the radio is that for some obscure reason only Icom will know you cannot key the radio in CW mode via the USB connection. It is not a major issue but now you need an extra cable, it would have been so easy to implement this feature in software like they have done on the other radios that have a USB interface.

The radio sounds good on RX and the filters and noise reduction seem to work well but I will only really know once the bands improve and I can make a few contacts.

The wind was blowing again today so no real progress on the QO-100 station or the dish installation, I need to get the dish sorted out before I can finalize all the cables and get the station running.

Update 18/9/2023: I spent most of the day working on the QO-100 station. The mounting bracket for the dish is also installed but I could not install the dish. It is a bit large to get it to the top single handedly and get it mounted on the bracket all while balancing on a tall ladder! The fact that the wind came up and was gusting up to 50km/h did not help either!

I would either need help to get it up or I need to devise a way to hoist it and keep it there while I then maneuver it into place. Once that is done I need to align it with the satellite, it is not going to be easy being high and with very little space to get behind the dish and make measurements and adjustments. Not going to be fun!

Still waiting for the IC-7600, if the tracking is accurate it has been sitting in one place for 4 days, if there is no action by tomorrow I will call the courier company, it might just be the tracking that stopped, it has happened before, suddenly you just get the delivery.

Late afternoon produced some DX on 10m and a good chat on 40m, conditions seemed to be slightly better. Interestingly the 40m band now opens very late in the afternoon (after 16:30 local) for local contacts and about 30 minutes later it also opens for DX! Had my usual CW sked as well at 19:00 local (17h00 UTC) and conditions were good enough to run 5W for easy copy.

Update 17/9/2023: I was up and in the shack quite early this morning to try and catch some DX. I found some activity on 40m and 20m. There was a "salmon run" contest running in the USA so I made quite a few contacts including the "bonus/control" station of W7DX. Was fun to work a bit of CW DX, signals were not strong, maybe around S2-3 but no problem working the station on 5W from the IC-7300 into a dipole for 40m and hex beam at about 8m for 20m.

I am making progress on the assembly of my QO-100 ground station. I have now done all the soldering and cable assembly with the exception of the final connections to the dish. I will only do that one the dish is installed and everything is where it should be, that way I can make sure the cables are exactly the right length, at these high frequencies losses are high in the cables so they should only be as long as absolutely needed. I still need to make up the power harness as well, also waiting to complete the installation first.

I do need to decide what I am going to do for the 5V power supply, the Pluto Plus 2 needs 5V, up to 3A and the little 2.4GHz pre-amplifier also needs 5V, what amperage I have no idea as it is not mentioned anywhere. Will check the current draw once it is running, should not be more than 1A I think. The Pluto will get power via the USB cable but it does have a second USB connector for additional power so I want to connect that as well.

All the software is setup and the Pluto is working well, I tested the receive side with 145MHz and 30MHz transmissions. I have now completed the assembly of the 2.4GHz transmit antenna that will feed the dish. I connected this antenna to the Pluto and used it to TX tones on 2.4GHz (drive set to 0 gain so no idea how much power but very little). Since the Pluto is full duplex I could monitor the signal on the RX side and it sounds good and looks clean on the scope.

I still need to test the CW TX but since I will be using a tone injected on a SSB signal I am sure it will be fine. To generate the tone I will use the CWType program. It allows you to connect a key or paddle to a serial port, works well. It can either key a transmitter through a serial port (real or virtual for a SDR) and/or sent the tones to a sound device. By using a virtual sound cable you can then use the tone output as input on the SDR software to transmit the CW. It works on the Flex so it should work the same on the Pluto.

The 1.2M dish is now also assembled and I have the mounting hardware ready and the location has been decided. All I need are 4 rawl bolts, will hopefully be able to get them tomorrow morning from the local hardware store.

Almost ready to begin the bit I am not looking forward too, aligning the dish! But it needs to be done before the fun can start.

I was hoping for some more DX late afternoon but conditions were not great. I did end up having a few nice CW QSO's with locals, sometimes it is nice to have a good chat not just a signal report exchange.

Hopefully I can make some good progress on the QO-100 station plus the IC-7600 might just arrive.

Update 16/9/2023: I received a call early this morning from the local courier agent asking if I can please come and pick up a parcel that would not fit in his car, I was there in a flash!

The parcel was my QO-100 satellite station equipment. The component that made it so large it would not fit in his car was the 1.2m dish, fortunately it did fit in my car!

I had a quick look and everything seems to be there with no shipping damage. I am still concerned that I was supplied with the wrong pre-amplifier but the supplier insists that it is the correct one, we will soon see!

There are a few small things missing, some like 2 power supplies because he did not have stock and a few other things like cables and connectors because they were forgotten. No big problem, I have power supplies, spare coax cable (for the LNB) and connectors for the LNB cable. I received 1 power injector, all he had in stock but I need two, again no problem as I can supply the pre-amplifier direct with the needed 5V as it is going to be close enough to a power supply.

I loaded the Pluto plus 2 drivers and installed the SDR Console software on my shack computer. Once I connected the Pluto plus 2, via a USB cable, the software detected the Pluto and it is receiving. I will test transmitting later when I have an antenna. The Pluto can also be connected to the computer with an Ethernet cable, will try that later but I think I will run it connected with a USB cable as the whole "station" will be mounted outside just below the dish and that is less than 2m away from my shack computer.

I am writing a separate blog on assembling the station and using it, you can find it HERE, there is  also be a link from my main page.

The Pluto Plus 2 SDR transceiver, 2 separate 70MHZ to 6GHz transceivers in a very small box.

Now I am still waiting for the IC-7600, hopefully it will be here Monday, at least I have something new to play with this weekend!

Update 15/9/2023: The DX bands were not great today but there were a few stations around. I managed to make a few contacts but nothing special. One call that did attract my attention was OH73ELK. I looked it up and it is a Finnish holiday home (you can rent it) on a forest island in a lake! Looks like a wonderful place for a holiday with some DX'ing added. They have quite an impressive antenna array that visitors can use.

I am still using the IC-7300 in the shack and will most likely use it till the IC-7600 arrives. It is working well and I am really glad that I decided to finally get one. Hopefully I can complete my mini review soon.

Looks like my QO-100 satellite station equipment can arrive any moment, I am really looking forward to getting it running. Interestingly many people on the forums are saying that it is difficult to do CW using a SDR on QO-100. I do believe I have a solution (based on what I did to get CW running on the Flex-5000A without high latency). I hope it works, if it does I will share the details.

The IC-7600 will most likely only be here on Monday but that is ok as it gives me more time to test and get to know the IC-7300.

I did receive the roll of LMR-400 coax cable I ordered today, I am still waiting for the connectors but as soon as they arrive I will be replacing all the old RG-213 cable in my station.

I have a CW sked later tonight with an old friend, I am just hoping my antenna will still be up by that time, we are having a huge wind storm today with winds up to 100km/h, so far it is ok but the way it is blown around something could break any moment.

Late evening update: Well my CW sked did not work out, most likely due to load shedding on the other side. I listened a bit up and down the 40m band and I was amazed at all the strong signals! The band was open not only locally but there was also DX all over the place. Had a nice chat to a few guys and received great unsolicited audio reports, looks like the IC-7300 is a great all-round radio!

Update 14/9/2023: The bands were not great for DX'ing most of today but I did manage to work a few CW stations on 20m early evening. It was fun to use the IC-7300 on CW running only 5W. I have not tested the receiver under crowded conditions yet but it seems to perform well.

One option that I am missing from my "larger" (more expensive...) radios is the dual watch (Icom) or dual receiver (Yaesu) option. I think it will be more difficult to work a DX station running split, yes, it can be done but you will either have to guess where to transmit or keep on pressing a button to listen to your TX frequency. Having said that it needs to be remembered that other radios in this price class also do not have that option, I am just spoiled.

While on the subject of the IC-7300, I am busy writing a little "mini" review on it, mostly just about what I like, and what not, about the radio. I opened it up today to have a look at the quality of the components and general quality of things like the soldering. I can just say I am impressed! I will post a link to the review as soon as it is finished, I just want to use the radio under more crowed conditions first, hopefully this weekend will produce more activity.

I received confirmation this afternoon that the IC-7600 has been shipped, should have it early next week.

Talking about shipping, I ordered a roll of LMR-400 coax cable and it arrived today. I need it to run new coax up the mast of the yacht but I also want to replace all the coax at my home station. Most if not all of it is RG-213 and at least 30 years old. I recently replaced a few connectors and I must say I was shocked to see how corroded (blackened) the shielding is, over the years the coax has been exposed to a lot of heat and moisture. It can only improve my station!

While looking at the tracking information I noticed that the equipment for my QO-100 ground station is also close now, might even get it before or during the weekend.

While DX'ing and chatting to locals today I used the QRM eliminator again as especially 40m was really noisy. It is amazing how well it works! Look at the IC-7300 screen capture below to see the difference between the QRM Eliminator being on and off!

QRM eliminator off for the top half of the waterfall and on for the bottom half, huge difference!

Update 13/9/2013: I received good news this morning, we (myself and the supplier) managed to configure a complete QO-100 system from what was available in stock at the supplier! The only missing items are a 2.4GHz TX antenna that I can build and a power supply that I do not really need as I have similar supplies.

The equipment was shipped this morning so I should have it early next week, going to be fun setting up this station, many new things to learn.

The Icom IC-7300 that I acquired yesterday is in the shack after I agreed with the seller to meet him half way rather than ship it. A nice drive and now I do not have to worry about shipping damage!

Icom IC-7300 up and running!


Size comparison between the IC-7300 and my trusty IC-756Pro2

First impressions are good. The radio is really compact, more so than I thought and that is great. It will be perfect for the yacht and also as a field station. The ability to interface with a computer via the USB port is great, it makes CW keying from contest software like N1MM easy and with the included Win4IcomSuite software remote operation is also an option.

The noise blanker and DSP noise reduction seems quite effective, will try the radio on my afternoon SSB net, should be a good test. At the moment I need to choose between using an amplifier or the QRM Eliminator till I make up a second keying cable. Icom have changed the plugs on the accessory ports so my normal Icom cables won't work. Shame on you Icom!

I only had it running for a few minutes before I hear some decent CW signals from South America on 10m. Was a real pleasure to work some DX on the new radio! I think I might just (really) like this compact little radio, we have already started "bonding"!

Update early evening: I used the IC-7300 on our late afternoon net and it performed well. Even though I could not use the QRM Eliminator due to the plug issue it coped well with the noise, careful use of NR and Notch filers allowed me to hear everyone, quite impressive! I also received good audio reports, and the group can be brutal if your audio is not good! The radio ran cold, I am not sure if the fan ever switched on, if it did it was so quiet I could not hear it.

In other equipment news, it looks like my collection might grow even more, I found a pristine IC-7600 to add to my collection, it will complete the whole IC-756/76xx range!

Enough radios for now.... (Hmm, really?)

Update 12/9/2023: I had my regular chat on 40m SSB yesterday afternoon, as usual, due to the noisy band, I was running 400W so that especially the stations in ZS6 could hear me without issues. A bit later I also had my now regular CW chat with my friend Andy (ZS6ADY). What was interesting was that with CW I was running only 5W and got a 5NN report. It is amazing how much more efficient CW is than SSB.

I have been doing a lot of reading and watched a few YouTube videos on the QO-100 satellite. I also spoke to a local supplier to see what is available. Fortunately it looks like I will be able to get most if not all the components from him.

I still need to finalize the list with him but I have decided on a full SDR station. Initially I was against that because none of the SDR solutions really offer CW as an option. Some research and a few experiments with the SDR software I plan to use has convinced me that I will be able to get a decent CW signal from the SDR using software keying, a nice challenge!

Here are the components I am going to acquire for my station.

Main radio: Pluto Plus 2 SDR, this a dual RX/TX radio that covers from 70MHz to 6GHz out of the box. This is a very versatile radio and I can see that I will use it for a few other things as well!

Antenna will be a 1.2m dish. One of the components not available is the 2.4GHz feed antenna for the dish but I will build my own, most likely a 3D printed helical antenna.

The SDR will output RF into a small pre-amplifier, the output from the pre-amplifier will then feed a 20W 2.4GHz amplifier, from there the signal goes to a 2.4GHz helix antenna mounted at the focal point of the dish.

On the RX side the dish will focus the 10GHz signal on a low noise, high stability LNB that will down convert the signal to around 700MHz. This signal will then be received by the Pluto Plus 2 SDR.

There are also a few small things needed like a "power injector" to provide power to the LNB via the coax cable, a 5V and a 28V power supplies, a heat-sink plus fan for the amplifier plus a bunch of coax and connectors.

I am planning on running SDR Console software as main software.

Hopefully everything is in stock so that I can start the project soon.

Late afternoon update: Unfortunately a few needed items are not in stock and it will take about 3 weeks to get them, so it does not look like I would be "on the birds" as soon as I hoped. Oh well, such is life!

On a different note, this morning I was offered a pristine Icom IC-7300 at a great price. The radio also includes a license for the Icom remote software that is also compatible with my IC-7610. I have always kind of "ignored" the IC-7300 as a "well priced but average performing radio" and I suppose that is true, but maybe I was simply comparing it to top end equipment at many times the price. For normal use, rag-chewing and DX'ing it is actually a very nice radio and also compact. With the controls and menus very similar to my IC-7610 getting used to it should be quick.

So I decided to take the radio, I am not sure if it will end up in my shack as an "everyday rag chew" radio, the competition for that position is stiff, or maybe I will end up using it on my yacht? Time will tell but for now I hope to have some fun with it!

Band conditions on 40m was not great this afternoon so I ended up not reporting in with the usual net. I could hear some stations but not all and it is not fun if it is a struggle to hear everyone. My later CW session also did not work out, not sure if it was conditions or if the other stations was simply not there.

Update 11/9/2023: I have been looking for a new challenge in amateur radio for a while, I love DX'ing and chatting to friends as well as restoring/fixing older equipment and I will continue doing that but what I need to stay enthusiastic and active is something different.

One possibility is to get involved with satellite communications again (did play with satellites many years ago), it is technical and fun plus you are not so restricted by band conditions. Often I have time during the day or evening but then the bands are dead so my interest turns to other hobbies. With satellite communication you do not have that issue, your only limit is that you have to wait for a satellite to come over the horizon but even that has changed!

The Es`hail 2 (QO-100) is a geo-stationary satellite, that means that it is visible 24 hours a day plus you do not have to track it as it does not move relative to your position! It uses a 2.4GHz up link and a 10GHz downlink. Since I am not equipped for either of those frequencies in the shack I would need additional equipment for the shack but that is half the fun! There are no "brand name" radios available that covers those frequencies so the way to go is normally an up-converter (usually from 432MHz, 144MHz or 28MHz) for transmit and a down converter or SDR receiver "dongle" that covers 10GHz or the 700MHz that is output by a LNB. Home-brew or at least matching of different modules is normally the way to go and I love the challenge!

I would also most likely need a 2.4GHz RF amplifier (10-30W) and a pre-amplifier for 10GHz. A dish antenna would be needed as well but that I do have as it is the same as what I have been using for my long distance FPV video and RC radio links.

The challenge is to now to source the needed bits and pieces, hopefully local to reduce waiting time. I am already excited!

I do need to make a few decisions, how will I drive the up-converter? From a "satellite" ready radio like my Yaesu FT-847? But a satellite ready radio is not really needed as you do not have a fast moving satellite so there is no need to compensate for Doppler effect. Easier might will be to use a radio with a good spectrum display like the IC-7610 or Flex-5000A so that you can "see" other stations in the satellite's pass-band. Fun times ahead! I think if I stick to an up (and maybe down) converter that uses 28MHz I have many different radios to select from and to play with.

The satellite I am most interested in as it offers 24/7 contacts and a nice technical challenge


QO-100 "Footprint", lots of DX to work!

Other satellites will also be fun and I think I will start with them while I am waiting for the QO-100 equipment, see you on the "birds"!

I will report back here as I make decisions and acquire equipment.   

Update 10/9/2023: I have had time to experiment a bit more with the QRM Eliminator and I am really impressed. It works well for strong carriers but also for high noise floor levels due to random noise on the band. I can often hear stations that were below the noise level after adjustment of the device.

I must say at one point I was not impressed with this unit, the first one I received failed after a bit of use, appeared to be an issue with the switching circuit but it was replaced by the supplier, this second unit worked ok but it had an intermittent relay, after when going back from TX to RX there would be no signal getting to the radio. A few TX/RX cycles and the signal would re-appear. I replaced the offending relay and then all was well. Many of these "Made in China" products suffer from low quality components and little if any quality control but with a bit of work they can be made to work well.

I think one of the reasons it works so well is that it "eliminates" the noise before it enters the radio so the radio does not have to deal with strong unwanted signals that de-senses the front end of the radio. It eliminates the noise by moving the phase of the interference a bit as received from the AUX antenna and then mixing that signal with the signal received from the main antenna. The two noise signals that are out of phase then cancel each other leaving just the wanted signal to enter the receiver.

The only equivalent would be the pre-select filters available on some Yaesu radios and that does not use the phase shift they simply use band-pass filters and tuned circuits. I like it so much I have decided to acquire a second unit to be installed permanently on my yacht where QRM is a real problem.

QRM Eliminator now working well. The first unit I had was faulty and this one had a bad relay that I replaced.

I have now been using the little Daiwa manual tuner to tune mostly my 40m antenna that was cut for the CW portion of the band to the SSB portion. Normally I would just use the internal tuner on the radio for that but if you want to run an amplifier that is not feasible. The unit has been performing well, that is after I sorted out the intermittent IN/OUT switch on it. It is rated at 2.5KW PEP (It does not have a PEP meter but will measure average power up to 2KW), I am not so sure about that but it is quite happy up to our legal limit of 1KW. The build quality is far better than the MFJ tuner I used in the past!

Daiwa CNW-518 tuner.


The inside of the tuner, well made but I am not convinced those switch contacts will handle 2.5KW PEP! Not going to try!

I was keen to try some DX'ing today, even got up early but the bands were real quiet. Not feeling to great today, not sure what it is so I think I will spend the day reading, maybe I will have more energy later in the day.

Update 9/9/2023: I had a look at the QRM Eliminator (by DK9NL) and the good news is that it does switch the "AUX" antenna to ground when in the TX mode. So it should be safe to use it with an amplifier and antennas that are on the same mast.

Will give it a try this afternoon with the net!

QRM Eliminator circuit, on the right hand side you can see the relay (K2 contact 2) that switches the AUX antenna to ground when you transmit.

Update on the QRM Eliminator: The good news is that it worked really well and allowed me to have a decent net session! It does take careful adjustment and yes, I do need to use a decent "AUX" antenna (I used a second 40m dipole) but when setup correctly the carrier as well as general band noise simply disappears! Great news! With the radio not desensitized by the noise the actual signals are up 2 to 3 S points, really makes a difference especially on the lower noisy bands

I did notice strange behavior when I use it in CW mode, when transmitting the relays in the QRM Eliminator "chatters" at high speed, I need to investigate if this is due to RFI or more likely a QSK setting on the radio, hope I can sort it out.

Ok, now later in the day I can report that it looks like the issue with the QRM Eliminator's relays going crazy was caused by a very long cable between the radio and the unit to switch the Eliminator from RX to TX. I used a long cable because when I connected the unit the first time the cable was on the workbench. I have now changed it to a shorter cable and no more issues. I can only assume that I got RF into the system switching the relays randomly. It only seemed to happen at 25W and above.

10m was open early afternoon so I managed to work some DX, there was a CW contest going so it was fun to work a few EU stations, signals were S3 to S7 and even with 5W I could work most stations on the first call, hopefully this is a sign of things to come this summer!

Now I want to get by 6 element 6m yagi up, with 10m this good chances are we will get some 6m openings towards the north.

Special Update 8/9/2023: Just a further, separate note for today!

I have been asked why I keep a running log/blog of my activities here, well, there are many reasons. Quite a few people read what I post here, I can see it from the page hits and also from the number of emails I receive with comments, questions and notes of thanks.

But there is another reason I post here, it is for my own benefit to sometimes read what I have been up to years ago, just like people will do with a personal diary. Often when I go back and look for information on something I did in the past I am inspired to do new radio related things, it has been a "kick start" for me more than once after an extended period of inactivity.

Update 8/9/2023: The DX bands are still not great. I do hear some stations on 15m in the evening, mostly SSB, but so far no interesting stations that I really want to work.

While playing around yesterday connecting the FL-7000 amplifier with various radios I noticed something strange. When I connect my IC-756Pro3 to the amplifier and I connect the ALC line as well the radio behaves strangely when keyed on CW (And FM/AM as well). When keyed the radio will take up to 1 second before producing power, this makes this combination absolutely useless for CW! It does not seem to do it on SSB but I need to investigate to be sure.

If I disconnect the ALC line it is fine but then you need to run very low drive, and thus get low output, around 200W max else the amplifier will complain and trip. I think the problem is most likely a high power spike from the radio when first keyed causing the amplifier to "throttle" the output back.

I tested 5 other radios including the IC-756Pro2 and original IC-756 and none had this issue. More investigation is needed!

The high noise levels of the last 2 days are persisting, it is spread evenly over the bands so I am convinced it is man-made. I will connect my "QRM Eliminator" again to see if that helps as it helped with this in the past. I think I also  need to take a walk around my area with a HF receiver to see if I can find the source of the noise that suddenly appeared again. The little R928+ would be perfect for that, it has an internal battery and the spectrum display will show what is happening.

Just look at the noise! Almost S9! Trying to listen to my local 40m net.


Also on the CW portion of the band. Captured with the "screen shot" feature on the IC-7610.


Closer look at the noise "bands", these bands are wide enough to completely block a weak signal, not even the great IC-7610 filters can help!

My 40m afternoon net was a bust again yesterday, same S9+15 carrier again right on the net frequency! I played around a bit with my QRM Eliminator and it works well, can get rid of the QRM but I have to use a 40m dipole as a "second" antenna to get the QRM signal strong enough to phase cancel. That in itself is not a problem, I have a second dipole but it is very close to the main antenna so my concern is if I run 400-500W as I need to do to make sure everyone on the net can hear me chances are the signal will be so strong in the QRM Eliminator that it will blow the unprotected circuit.

I need to see if I can setup a relay in the QRM Eliminator that will ground the second antenna when the unit goes into TX mode, next project.....

At least I had a nice, more than 45 minute, CW QSO with my friend Andy (ZS6ADY) later in the evening, when conditions are not ideal CW always wins!

Hoping for better conditions, and less noise, tonight so that I can work some DX!

Update 7/9/2023: I had no luck with my 40m net late yesterday afternoon, a S9+15 carrier was right on the net frequency. I tried to use a notch filter to remove the signal and it worked but the signal was so wide that nothing was left of the signals that I wanted to hear, oh well, maybe I will have better luck today.

Later in the evening my CW sked did not happen either, the band was closed locally, I could hear DX stations on 40m but they were weak, I did manage to make a few QSO's, there was some CW contest running.

Icom IC-7610 on a rather noisy band.

Look at all the carriers on the SSB segment of 40m

I upgraded the firmware on my IC-7610 to the latest version, an easy process and very quick. I have not really played with the new features, they seem to be mostly spectrum scope related, will try them later so I think I will use the IC-7610 for a while. I have had it for a few years already but I have hardly used it, a bit of a waste.

Update 6/9/2023: While working on and testing the Transworld T-1000 amplifier I was looking through a collection of inter-connect cables searching for the cable that connects the T-1000 with a transmitter to allow automatic band changes on the amplifier. I found a cable marked "FT-1000/990 to FL-7000" reminding me of the FL-7000 amplifier that I fixed a few years ago after a lightning induced problem. After fixing it and a few tests I put it in storage. I decided it was time to take the FL-7000 out and play with it a bit especially as I am playing with the FT-1000D and FT-990 at the moment.

Distracted again! Oh well, I am having fun.....

These two radios have now been use mostly on 40m for my rag-chewing nets and I thought the FL-7000 would be a nice addition to the set.

After retrieving the amplifier and giving it a quick clean I connected all the cables needed and fired it up along with the FT-990. Everything worked perfectly! It also worked perfectly with the FT-1000D so it was used for my 40m afternoon net. I love this amplifier, quiet and clean power when you need it. It is "only" 500W but the difference between 500W and 1KW is only half a S point so no issue. The lower power consumption is also nice as I run everything from an invertor and batteries, at night if I run something like a TL-922 the "wasted" energy used by the filaments even when you are not transmitting adds up.

Yaesu FT-1000D on top of the FL-7000 amplifier, a classic combination!

I also want to try the amplifier with my Icom radios, the automatic band changing won't work but doing it from the front panel of the amplifier is not a problem been doing it for years on other amplifiers!

The internal tuner o the FL-7000 is also useful. The first time you tune an antenna on a band it can be quite slow, it can take between 30 an 60 seconds but next time you change to that band it will remember the setting and it will only take a second or two. So I no longer need a manual external tuner when using my "CW tuned" antennas on the SSB portions of the bands.

Today's "dusty toys", from the top Yaesu FT-1000MP mkV, FT-990 and FT-2000

Update 5/9/2023: Conditions were really bad today with a major magnetic storm on the go, oh well, maybe tomorrow! I did have a nice chat with my normal net this afternoon, always interesting discussions going on!

I decided to take my Transworld T1000 amplifier out of storage today. I have not used it in over 20 years! It was fine when I put it in storage but when I fired it up today it appears like there are some issues. The input SWR is around 2:1 but it seems to change with time ,first it is relatively low then spikes up high and then slowly drifts down again. Because of the high input SWR the radio reduces power to protect itself but then slowly increases power again as the SWR improves, this causes the output to wildly fluctuate.

The amplifier is producing output but the max of 400W that I saw is far from the rated 1KW with 100% duty cycle. I have a suspicion there might be a problem with the input power splitter (or even the output power combiner). I can see some of the resistors on the combiner has been exposed to a lot of heat. I will investigate further when I have time and the energy to move the 46kg amplifier around.

Update 4/9/2023: I did manage to work some DX stations today, all CW but signals were not that strong with the exception of some South American stations on 10m. I need to point my antenna in that direction more often.

I was using the Flex-5000A and it behaved itself well, most of the time anyway. It did lock up once while I was sending CW. It just suddenly stopped with no signal going out or anything happening on the screen. After 2-3 seconds it continued like nothing happened, it had buffered what I had sent and simply continued where it stopped! Rather confusing for me and the station on the other side!

This is rather concerning, just as I started to trust it dropped me again. The CPU utilization when it happened was not high so I do not think anything else was running but it is still a possibility. I need to investigate further I suppose.

If it was not for the wonderful RX and nice user interface this radio would have been gone already, might still get rid of it if I cannot trust it. It seems fine on SSB but CW is more my thing so I most likely won't keep a radio that is not good for CW.

I could look at the newer Flex models but it would be an (expensive) step backwards in many ways as the Software on the 5000A that has been developed and enhanced by someone outside of Flex and is far advanced compared to the software now supplied by Flex. Some of those "extra" features are exactly what attracts me to the radio. Unfortunately the 5000A software won't run on the newer models.

Update 3/9/2023: Early morning I started looking for local field stations but also for a bit of DX on 40m, hopefully I will have something to report later!

Update: Turned out I was not on air much today other than the normal Sunday bulletins and a bit of DX. I ended up watching the F1 GP at Monza and had some family time after that, maybe tomorrow will be more productive am the radio side.


Update 2/9/2023: The SARL Field day contest started at 10am local time today. I had no plans to enter the contest but decided it will be fun to setup a portable station and make some contacts. I did consider setting up a station in the foothills of a local mountain range but the weather is not great here and it really gets cold at night so I changed to plans to a "garden station", it is actually a class in the competition!

I decided to use the little R928+ SDR radio as the plan was to enter as a QRP station. I have just redone all the settings on the radio after some audio problems, it now seems fine. I also built a "field" dipole quickly just 40m for now (15m will also work) as I know that 90% of the contest QSO's are on 40m.

I only operated about 1 hour in the contest today but I did manage to make quite a few contacts. I did find one "interchange" funny. I heard a club station call CQ so I replied to him with my call. He came back immediately with "frequency in use" so I though maybe someone else called over me. I waited a few call cycles, I could hear no other stations before replying to him again with only my call. He replied AGAIN with "frequency in use" so I waited again for a while, when it happened the third time I said to him "all I want to do is give you a point" to which he replied "but the frequency is in use"! I just kept quiet. He called again and someone else replied but the "club station" told the guy the frequency was in use. I am not sure if the operator was drunk, confused or something else but I decide to move on.....

Soon after that I had a quick listen on 15m and ended up working a few nice CW DX stations, the little field antenna is working well!

R928+ ready for the field station.

I might work a few more DX stations tonight and some field stations tomorrow morning if conditions are ok, 40m dropped out late afternoon.

Later in the evening I did make a few DX contacts from the shack with the Flex. I am now quite happy with the way it runs on both SSB and CW. The RX/waterfall still locks up every now and then but it rests itself within a second or so, I think it is caused by a process running on my freshly setup laptop that seems to be malware even though it comes from the Micro$oft distribution of Windows 10, somehow I am not surprised. The High CPU load leading to the "lock" only seems to happen if you just leave it running without any interaction for a while, at least the whole program and the laptop is no longer crashing every time. The file that runs can be deleted but it keeps replicating in different folders.

I will investigate this and solve it one way or the other, M$ you still suck!

I really wish the SDR software could be run on a Linux system, none of this would be happening.....

Update 31/8/2023: Last night I went briefly into the shack to just have a quick listen on the bands. Since I last used the IC-756Pro2 I fired that up and then changed antennas to the hex-beam on the recently acquired Daiwa tuner, I then took the tuner off-line is it is not needed on the hex-beam. A quick scan on 20-10 meters showed quiet bands with almost no signals.

It was so quiet that I though I had the wrong antenna selected on the tuner or the radio but a quick check confirmed my selections were correct. I was just about to switch off but decided I will switch the radio and tuner/antenna back to 40m for my early morning net today. I started with putting the tuner back on-line, as I touched to online/off-line button the noise on the radio, still on 20m suddenly jumped for a second before disappearing again!

A bit of investigation soon showed that the online/off-line switch seldom if ever makes decent contact in the off-line position! You have to wiggle it and hold it just right for the connection to be made decently. I wonder how many times I recently listened across the higher bands only to switch off disgusted with the lack of signals because the new (to me) tuner that was bought as "in a great condition" had a basic problem like this? In the "online" position the switch is fine, that is why I never noticed it on 40m.

Time to open the tuner and see if it can be fixed....

Ok, update a few hours later. I have opened up the tuner, I can see I am not the first person to do so, some of the screws are not even the original ones and all screws have been taken out many times, and maybe with the wrong screw drivers so it looks like this is not a new problem. Unfortunately the switch that switches the tuner in/out of circuit is a sealed unit and by the looks of it maybe a custom part. So it is not easy to clean the contacts, actually just about impossible! I did soak the switch with contact cleaner and operated it many times to try and clean the contacts. Then I re-assembled the tuner I also did it in such a way that there is a bit more pressure on the switch in the one position.

Testing it shows that the switch now works 100% but i have to admit I do not trust it and I think eventually it will fail again so I will be on the lookout for a replacement, even if it is a different switch and I have to do some modifications.

Over the last 30 odd years I have made many deals with local guys and I must say most of the time I have been very happy, but, and this is a sad but, it seems like times are changing. If I look at the last 4 pieces of equipment I acquired one was exactly as described by the seller, actually in a better shape than I expected but the other 3 items all had "undeclared" issues. Some of them were from the same guy though so I suppose the problem might not be that general?

I have also had a few other items offered to me recently that were initially described as "in great condition" or "just about perfect" but as I asked questions and asked for photos it became apparent they were far from great. One radio even turned out to be non working!

Such is life, have to be more careful I suppose.

With some spare time I decide to tackle the Icom IC-728 again that I have had for years but even after a few tries I could not get it sorted out. Way back when I got it I was told it had low output power and potentially other issues so it was just about free as it came along with a larger deal there was never a real incentive to fix it I suppose.

I managed to sort out the output power relatively easily but once I had a running I noticed that the frequency would suddenly jump about 700Hz. I went through the frequency calibration procedure in the service manual but it did not really help. Eventually the frequency jump became permanent and it was more than what the adjustments allowed. So the radio went back into storage for a few years.

Recently I have been chatting to a fellow ham who was also working on a IC-728 so I decided to try again.

Well, looks like I managed to solve the issue today. It was a bad preset cap in the reference oscillator, there were also a few suspect solder joints on the PCB so I "re-flowed" them as well. After sorting that out I could get it on frequency again and it now seems stable. I will use it for my afternoon net today, if it behaves during that, with long QSO's and lots of heat generated, I think it will be fine. I might have to re-align the RX to make sure the USB/LSB carrier balance is right but for now LSB is fine so I will try it.

Icom IC-728 complete with AT-160 auto tuner on the workbench, seems to be fine now!

I am not sure what I am going to do with the IC-728 as it does not really fit in with my "Older top end radios" collection and I really do not need another small/simple radio. Maybe there is someone who can use it better than I would because once I put it in storage again it will stay there.

Next I need to tackle the IC-738 but I am not looking forward to unsoldering all those 100's of pins to replace the LCD backlight.

I am hoping that with the tuner switch now fixed I will hear a few DX stations later today on the higher bands, I really hope so! 

Update 30/8/2023: The DX bands are still quiet with only weak signals to be heard, most of the time it is not even worth trying to work these weak stations with 5W. Since antennas are seldom pointed towards "Dark" Africa it is even more difficult.

I did spend some time working on my old TS-930S today, it seems like the PLL issue (it was unlocking when hot) is now solved. I still have the problem with the broken mode switch. I am getting a "spares" TS-940 soon (Thanks William!) so maybe I can use a switch from that, time will tell.

Had a nice chat on 40m again today with some friends, I now seldom miss a day, nice to talk to some technical people. Today I felt like a change, have played around with the Flex-5000A enough for a while so I fired up my old Icom IC-756Pro2. It is still a nice radio and it drives my Metron MA1000 amplifier nicely. I think I will use it for a few days before moving on to the next radio, maybe it is time for the FTdx-5000MP again? Have not used it for a while, the FT-2000D has also been neglected.

Chatting on a noisy 40m band with the IC-756 Pro 2 (It does need a good clean!).

Tomorrow I really need to build an antenna I can use portable since I am still considering setting up a field station this weekend, the easiest might well be just a fan dipole for 80, 40 and 20m. So far the weather has been nice but there is still a cold front approaching that will be here Friday afternoon. Hopefully it does not get too cold as spending a night camping in the cold is not my idea of fun! Will make the final call Friday.

Update 28/8/2023: Not much DX activity today but that is usual during the week, some people have to work!

The Flex-5000A is now behaving itself, I have been playing around a bit with the RX buffers, latency and process priority as well as the virtual audio cable setting to try and get the delay that has been bothering me on CW down to a minimum and I think I might have succeeded. The delay is now a LOT less and might well no longer be an issue, I will wait for the next pile-up before finally passing judgment but it looks good.

During our afternoon chat there was some horrible interference, I was not the only one to hear it so I am not sure it was local. It did give me the opportunity to play around with the filters and specifically the "Tracking Notch Filter". What a fantastic feature! It worked well enough that I could now hear stations that I could not hear at all before running the filter! I am really happy with the performance of the Flex receiver and these filters (you can setup as many as you want) really puts it in a different class.

Here you can see a single Tracking Notch Filter used to get rid of the strong signal on top of the frequency I am trying to listen too, it really works well!

Here you can see two Tracking Notch Filters either side of my pass-band cleaning up the signal I am trying to listen too. Since these are IF filters they prevent the interference from "pumping" the AGC de-sensitizing the receiver.

These filters and the normal noise blanker and NR filter really makes operating on a noisy band for more feasible and less frustrating. You can adjust how wide every filter is as well as how "deep" each notch is.

Update 27/8/2023: Contest Sunday, today it is the CW leg of the SARL HF contest. Unfortunately the same silly rules apply where the 3 bands you can use are run at separate times PLUS there is a 30 minute gap between bands, found it very frustrating in the SSB portion. It not only causes confusion but the "gaps" are a waste of time. With so few local competitors the whole contest should be run for only an hour or two with all bands at the same time, just like any "real" contest in the world, come on SARL....

There was some activity on the higher HF bands today, I managed to make CW contacts on 10 and 15m during a contest (not even sure what contest it was as there is more than one running at the same time today. The strongest signals were only around S2-S3 but workable, looks like conditions are improving. I also saw the E51D (North Cook Isl.) pile-up again but I could not hear the DX'pedition. they are either running low power and/or pointing away from me, not even a whisper short or long path. Oh well...

I can see the E51D pile-up but cannot hear E51D, notice the DX spots at the top of the band display.


Lots of weak DX stations on 15m but also lots of noise, managed to work a few.

I am enjoying working DX on the Flex but on CW there is still a noticeable delay on receiving CW making it difficult to get timing right to TX at the right time in a pile-up. I also think it will be a problem in a contest, I think the Flex is great for casual DX'ing and rag-chewing but I can't see myself using it for a contest or chasing rare DX, would also not be great on the receiving side of a DX pile-up. So it looks like I still need something like a FTdx-101MP to optimize my station.

Had a few local contacts as well, as usual on a Sunday do we have lots of nets and bulletins in the morning, lots of strong signals today but a few were VERY wide! You can hear that the operators are driving their radios and amplifiers way beyond linearity, just look at the spectrum display below!

VERY wide signal with lots of splatter!

I want to build a fan dipole for 40m and maybe 20m and 80m as well to use for portable work. This is in preparation for MAYBE setting up a field station next weekend. If the weather is nice Saturday morning I want to be able to grab my equipment and head to the mountains. The will tell if this is going to happen. If the nights are still very cold I might just do a Saturday stint (from 10am local time till early evening and not sleep over.

Update 26/8/2023: Today was the perfect day to play with radios! Lots of wind and cold outside!

The Flex-5000A behaved itself perfectly today, no issues. I was pointed to a YouTube video on how to setup the Flex audio by Matt - ZS1O, really interesting, you need to setup each stage in the audio chain before you move to the next making sure no stage has levels above 0 db and that you do not have any ALC clipping, it takes a while the first time but the results are worth it! I am now getting good audio reports. Once you have done the setup and you are happy with the results you can save the profile so you do have to do it again. You can also have as many profiles as you like with different settings for contesting, DX'ing and rag-chewing as well as different microphone.

My confidence has been restored in Flex, hopefully I can work some good DX on it this coming summer!

Lots of weak DX stations on 15m, some contest! Very few strong enough to work with 5W though...

After some DX I heard a few guys on 40m that I know so had I nice chat on a rather noisy band, this is where the Flex shines! I again received good audio reports.

What I do think I need is a nice desk mike.

Hoping for some more radio activity tomorrow, really looking forward to some CW QRP DX'ing soon. Next weekend it is the local HF field day, I am considering putting up a station on the mountain not far from home but the weather predictions shows that it is going to be rather cold. Will keep an eye on it and only make a decision later in the week.

Update 25/8/023: I am happy to report that I have finally managed to sort out the issues with the Flex-5000A!

I ended up loading a clean copy of Windows 10 Pro onto a laptop with no other software than what is needed for the Flex-5000A plus a logbook program. This laptop does have a Firewire port on the motherboard, according to the Flex documentation this port with a Ricoh chipset is not supported but I decide to give it a try and it works, far better than the card supplied with the radio. Not only does it work but no more computer crashes even when the software crashes.

And yes I can still get the software to crash if you "apply" changes and click "OK" without waiting for it to finish, that is simply a bug in the software that I will report to the developer. The software also stopped working once when I left it alone for a while but it might have been the screen saver, I clicked stop and then start again and all was well. While using it, and I used it a LOT today it never crashed so that is progress.

On CW it is fine, love it! Now I just need to setup the SSB audio as the default setting produces no output with my microphone and if I use the DX or Compress setups the audio is horrible. But I am sure it is just a case of setting the audio mixer and making sure the compression is not too high and I do not over drive the radio, will sort it out this weekend.

I really hope the bands will be reasonable this weekend and we will have some activity, I could hear some stations today but most were very weak. Our weather prediction for the weekend is cold and windy so I think I will be spending lots of time in my cozy shack!

Update 24/8/20237: The Flex-5000A is giving me a hard time, every time I think I have it sorted it crashes again. This morning I tried it on 40m SSB and it crashed the moment I went into TX, a few test showed this happened only on 40m and this time the crash also locked out the radio so that had to be reset as well.

This sounded a lot like RFI getting into the radio so I added clip-on ferrites on both end of the Firewire cable, that immediately solved the problem.

So I looked around and heard some DX on 12m, first QSO was almost perfect but right at the end the software and computer locked up again. So, what now? I changed the config so that the software now runs in "Safe 2" mode supposedly the most robust mode but with more latency. After that I made a few contacts and all was well! I did try this in the past but it did not help.

I shut down and went to do a few other things, later I came back, started up everything and clicked the "Start" button on the software, well it ran for about 4 seconds and crashed again! So next I loaded the "legacy" Firewire drivers and tried again. All went well for more than a hour till I shut down and later restarted again, CRASH!! I played around a bit and it does help if I wait about 30 seconds after starting the software before clicking start.

This seems to work most of the time and once it runs for about a minute it seems stable, manage to make quite a few contacts but I do not trust it.

I think next I will try and find a different brand FireWire card for the laptop, the one I have, "VIA", is "not recommended" by the guy who has been improving the software, now I just need to find a card that uses the TI chipset, according to him that is best.

If that does not work? Well I think that will be the end of my "relationship" with Flex, maybe I should try an Anan? Or just wait till one of the big 3 produces a radio like this....

Working some DX after many reboots....

Update 23/8/2023: The Flex software crashed again a few times today, crashing the laptop as well. It always happens a few seconds after you open the software and click "start", it will run and then suddenly lock up the computer after 5-10 seconds. I did notice that if you start the software and leave it for a while, maybe 30 seconds to a minute before you click "start" it seems to behave but I still need to confirm that.

Sloppy programming indeed, I think I must look for some of the original PowerSDR software by Flex, not the third party modified software that is now available. This instability is really killing what is a really nice radio.

I pulled out my old homebrew amplifier from storage today and cleaned it. I checked everything I could and the fired it up. Seems to be working well other than the fact that it was never designed with a tuned input stage, back when it was designed radios with valve finals that used pi-matching networks were what was used to the radio could be matched to the amplifier.

I can use the internal tuner in a modern radio but it is not ideal, maybe I must get my old Yaesu FT-901DM running again, it should match nicely to the amplifier. The only problem might be that the 6146B valves in the final of the FT-901DM are quite old and did  not produce much power the last time I checked and I do not think I have spares. Will try it tomorrow, maybe it produces enough power to drive the amplifier to a decent output level.

The amplifier uses a single 4-250A or 4-400A valve. The power supply is based on a transformer from an old microwave oven, the combination of the valve and the power supply is good for 400-500W output. Would be perfect and fun to use on the local nets.

A bit dusty but still working!

If I do decide to use the amplifier I think I need to add a small fan below the tube, it does have a fan blowing across the tube as recommended by Eimac, it is supposed to be cooled from the bottom as well, the socket makes provision for that. Other than that I think the casing (made from sheet metal) also deserves new paint as the old paint is really ugly and faded.

I could hear a few DX stations today but signals were weak, on 12m I worked 4K4K but strangely he kept sending my call as ZS2MMO even after I repeated my call many times during our extended QSO, not sure I will get a confirmation of this one! Might be a new one on 12m if he did correct my call after I sent my call 5 times slowly as we finished the QSO.

Update 22/8/2023: I tried for a hour to work E51D, North Cook Isl. on 20m this afternoon with no luck, his signal was extremely weak and the pile-up huge, eventually he faded into the noise, oh well, maybe tonight or tomorrow? DX'ing with QRP is not easy, but that makes it so much fun!

I used the Flex-5000A and I have to admit some of the features makes DX'ing and working a pile-up easy! Being able to see the pile-up and then move you TX frequency, visible on screen, makes life easy. I also tried the integrated spotting option, you get a list of calls in a window, if you click on anyone the radio will QSY there and put you into the correct mode.

I also tried running CW Skimmer along with the PowerSDR software, on CW Simmer you can then see the calling station with his call sign but more importantly you can see stations in the pile-up with their calls, makes it easy to see where the DX station is listening. If you click on a call on CW Skimmer PowerSDR will also QSY to that frequency making use of the CAT connection.

E51D pile-up. Grey band on top is where I listen and yellow line to the right is where I will TX.


Here you can see the spotted call sign at the top of the screen (YD2UWF)

I had another nice session on 40m chatting with a bunch of regulars this afternoon, most fascinating subjects with lots of technical talk, thanks guys! Today I was running the FT-1000D with the Kenwood FL-922 amplifier as I wanted to run higher power than usual to make sure a few of the ZS5 stations with weak signals could hear me, the extra power (was outputting about 40W from the radio resulting in around 650-700W from the amplifier, just loafing along) made a huge difference. It was great to use the amplifier again after years of just sitting there. Think I will use it for a few days while I clean the other TL-922 and then swap them around.

Later in the evening I was browsing around the bands and came across a booming signal on 20m, turned out it was a A25 (Botswana) station. He was working by numbers and 5 up. Unfortunately he is not a very good operator (putting it mildly), long periods of silence, then he calls for everyone to stay quiet (without saying who he wants to talk to!!) and eventually he works one station and then the cycle starts again, he works 2 or 3 per number (sometimes just 1) and then moves on, extremely inefficient........

Update 21/8/2023: I setup a different computer for the Flex-5000A today going from a 4 core Intel i3 to a 4 core Intel i7. It did improve things with lower CPU usage, now I can run other programs at the same time without fearing a crash. I still had a few issues, after an upgrade to the latest version of the software the software could suddenly not see the radio. So I uninstalled all the software and reinstalled, then it was working and I had no further issues while working a stations on 10 and 12m.

I think it is a stunning radio and the software has great features and is easy to use but the whole system is let down a bit by the instability of the software, not sure I will trust it in a contest or to work that rare DX station, maybe I will feel different if I use it for a while and it behaves.

Anyway, after messing around with the Flex I spent some time re-arranging my shack, cleaning up the cable mess and setting up the new operating positions. I only had time to do part of it but the rag-chew side is done for now anyway.

Rag-chew setup, Yaesu FT-1000D with Yaesu FL-7000 amplifier

Late afternoon I reported in at my normal afternoon 40m net, had a nice discussion with the guys and the radio setup got good reports and was a joy to use, the FT-1000D has great sound and even running 200W for long overs never caused it to heat up the fan never even turned on, no need for the amplifier when the conditions are reasonable.

Update 20/8/2023: The light house weekend was fun, managed to work quite a few of them but the bands were far better on Saturday than on Sunday. A few of the guys were activating the same light house under different personal calls, a bit confusing but it did make for more contacts.

I worked some DX this morning with the Flex-5000A on CW but I was not happy, at higher speeds, from around 25wpm and up when you transmit the radio would often miss the first dot/dash or truncate it. Playing around with the buffers again caused a crash. I now know that when you make a setup change and click "apply" you have to wait for it to say "saving complete" before you click OK or anything else, if you do not wait the program will crash every time!

Eventually I made the DSP RX buffers smaller, this, along with setting the SDR software process priority higher seem to cure the CW issue, I worked quite a few stations on 10m and 12m after that with no further issues, or crashes, there is hope!

While listening around the bands I picked up a very faint signal on 6m inside the beacon band. The spectrum scope is actually amazing on this radio, you can actually see a signal before you can hear it unlike the spectrum scopes on some of the other brands where I can hear and work stations I cannot see on the scope. As the signal slowly waxed and waned I could almost make out the call, but not quite. I had a look in the beacon list it could be either OX3VHF or YU1AVQ but I think I heard a V in the call more than once so my money is on OX3VHF, the direction of the strongest signal confirms that. The signal soon disappeared but I did take a screenshot of it, see below.

The only thing that makes me not feel 100% confident is that the official beacon frequency is slightly above where I heard it but it was close. It was definitely a beacon.

Maybe OX3VHF? Not sure.

As our summer gets closer and the TEP season starts I will make a point of monitoring 6m more often.

I have now setup my dedicated "rag-chew" station, for now it is a Yaesu FT-1000D (Love the radio!) paired with a Yaesu FL-7000 amplifier. Will use it like this for a while but then maybe rotate other radios and amplifiers into the position. Tomorrow I want to re-setup my DX/Contest station, still not sure what radios will feature.

Update 19/8/2023: As much as I am enjoying the Flex-5000A it is also very frustrating. I switched it on today to work a few light houses. Everything seemed fine till I tried to change frequency and the software crashed. Rebooted the laptop and tried again same result. Tried a few options but same result, I was NOT impressed.

I do know that crashes like that is normally caused by an interrupt clash on the Firewire card. When I initially installed it I checked and it was the only device on IRQ 20. I decided to check again and now suddenly it is on IRQ 17, same as the network card and the internal sound card! Since you cannot move the IRQ of the Firewire card I disabled the network card, anyway not using it as I run a wireless network. The sound card was not that easy as I need it to route the sound from the radio, I ended up moving it to a "soft" interrupt so now the Firewire card is the only device on IRQ 17.

All was well or so I thought. Then I noticed the radio outputs power when in tune mode or CW mode but not in SSB. I am running the microphone connected directly to the radio so it does not use any sound device on the laptop. PTT still worked but no audio,  when I switched on "monitor" I could hear the sound so the microphone was active but no RF going out, very strange....

After a LOT of messing around I got fed-up and reset all the settings on the Flex software to defaults. After a reboot the microphone worked again! Ok, I had to reconfigure all the ports, the virtual cables, virtual CAT control and sound output again. Grrrrrr!! But all was not well yet, now suddenly I could not change the volume using the slider on the screen! More messing around till I finally solved that.

I think the problem started with Microsoft (I HATE MICROSOFT!) deciding for some obscure reason to re-assign the interrupts (With PCI on a PC this happens when you move a card from one slot to another but there is only one slot on a laptop). At least the software now seems more stable (it still crashed later with a programming error, no error trapping? Sloppy programming...).

I can only assume that the IRQ change happened a while ago as I did not have issues for a while after the install but then it started sometime yesterday. I will now keep an eye on the IRQ used by the Firewire Express card.

I have to admit that while all this was going on I looked longingly at my "normal" radios, just plug in the antenna and switch on and it will work! But I am not one to give up, will try my best to get this Flex to be as reliable as my other radios, I would miss the RX if I decided to "dump" it.

After all that I did manage to make a few contacts, hopefully I can make a few more later today when I have time.

Update, managed to work quite a few more lighthouse stations on 40m as well as a few CW stations on 15 and 20m, the Flex behaved itself and the great RX allowed me to work a few very weak CW stations, so far so good.

Lots of activity on 40m SSB during the Light house weekend.

2 Receiver "slices" running at same time.

Update 18/8/2023: Just a quick update on the Flex-5000A. I have now used it for quite a few QSO's and the feedback problem via the audio system is solved. I think the issue I had with the PC speakers had nothing to do with the Flex, it was the "Made in China" speakers. I now route the audio via the laptop speakers via a virtual audio cable and it works perfectly.

The software also seems to be more stable after I played a bit with the buffers and process priority. I have only had one more crash and that was while I messed around in the menus quite a bit. A long, more than 80 minute long QSO was fine even though I played around with the filters, bandwidth and other features while in the QSO. Audio reports were again great even with the speech processor on.

The laptop I am using has a LOT of software on it, not ideal as it could cause timing issues, I have a spare laptop that I want to do a clean windows install on and then install just the Flex software.

Interestingly the TX seems nice and clean with no spikes on keying, unlike some of my other (Icom) radios, this allows me to drive solid state amplifiers like the Metron 1000, FL-7000 or Transworld T-1000 to a higher level without the amplifier's protection circuits tripping the circuit breaker when you key the mike.

Not much DX today but I did hear reports of long path openings towards the east early afternoon when I was not in the shack.

I did manage to work RI0FS (SHIKOTAN Is.) last night on 20 CW QRP with the Flex. He was right in the noise but the RX on the Flex is amazing! I am getting to love the point click and QSY operation of the Flex, split operation with a pile-up is also easy. The Zero Beat function also works really well, I love it!

Talking about the RX in the Flex, I have been having problems with huge 50Hz QRM on mostly 40 and 80 but also on the higher bands some days. sometimes it is so bad that all I can do is switch off and go do something else. I have tried a "QRM Eliminator" and it works to some degree but after the second one died I gave up. Anyway, the Flex solves the problem COPLETELY! With S9 noise you click the NB or NB2 button and the noise disappears completely! Suddenly the spectrum is clean and you can actually hear (and see) weak stations again! For this one feature I will keep the Flex and it will become my main radio. None of my other radios, even the ones with the most modern DSP can do this so efficiently. Well done Flex!

I am using a software keyer at the moment that is connected to the radio via a virtual com cable, it work well but there is a slight delay from when you start keying till when it actually starts keying, nothing major BUT it messes up your timing a bit if you want to send your call at exactly the right moment in a pile-up. I think I could get used to it but it might well be easier to just use my normal keyer and connect it directly to the radio, will try it tomorrow.

Update late afternoon: I have now connected my normal keyer directly to the radio and the delay is gone, feels a lot smoother, so I just need a few stations I can work.

I have also removed my old FC-901 tuner (good for up to 500W) and replaced it with the Diawa tuner that can handle up to 2.5KW PEP, no more fears of over stressing the tuner when I play with amplifiers. I mostly use the tuner to tune my antennas that are optimized for the CW portions of the bands in the SSB portions. The tuner works really well with smooth tuning capacitors and quality switches.

This weekend it is the "Light houses on the air" event, I have a few friends who are going to activate light houses so I am hoping to work quite a few stations!

Update 17/8/2023: After a detour or two the Flex-5000A is finally here! It arrived in a good condition with no transport damage. I had it connected and running in no time at all. The software installation was easy, no issues. I managed to get CW running and had a nice contact with Paul ZS1NN. The only problem I had during the contact was that while I was sending I noticed that the TX stopped transmitting at some point and a "Timeout" message appeared on the screen. I managed to get it going again but after the QSO I had a look in the manual but a search for "timeout" produced nothing.

I ended up going through the menus and found a "TX timeout" that was set to 150 seconds! Really? Fine for DX'ing or contesting on CW I suppose but useless for rag chewing! Well, it is now disabled!

At some point I also noticed an echo on the received signal, need to try and find out what is causing it!

On SSB I had an immediate problem with feedback through the external speakers, the Flex-5000A does not have an internal speaker and Flex recommends you connect "amplified PC speakers" to the radio, just what I did but the speakers were picking up a lot of RF. I tried to install Ferrite chokes on the power and audio leads but it made no difference.

I ended up disconnecting the speakers and routing the audio, via a virtual cable, to the sound card and speakers on the laptop, that seemed to cure the issue but I still need to make a longer SSB QSO at high power to be sure.

The spectrum display is fantastic, better than any of my other radios and the same can be said for the DSP filters and noise reduction.

The bands are in a terrible shape today but I am hoping it will get better soon, would love to make a few good contacts with this radio.

There she is, does not get much simpler (uglier?) than this!


Great user interface! Look at all the noise on 40m!

A few strong SSB signals on 40m

I still have lots to experiment with on this radio ad lots to learn! First I need to try and optimize the buffers to see if I can get rid of the annoying echo I got briefly on CW.

Update: I have not encountered the echo again, maybe I have solved the problem, time will tell. I did make a few long SSB contacts and everyone gave me good signal and audio reports. At the moment I am just using the first hand mike I could find, an old Yaesu unit but it seems to work well. I am also using a headset at the moment and I must admit I am enjoying it, the headset is really comfortable, should be as I have worn it for thousands of hours while flying. Maybe I can get the microphone to work as well, would be great for SSB contesting.

I am still not happy with the stability of the software as I have had a few crashes mostly when scrolling across the band really fast and twice when change mode from FM to SSB. It has been totally stable while in QSO so that helps.

I have noticed that the radio is quite happy to output around 140W and even at that power level it runs cool though I would normally never run it that high. My few long SSB QSO's were done running about 14W into my Metron T1000 amplifier gives me 400-450W perfect for a very noisy 40m so that the other stations do not have to struggle to hear me.

You can see a few more photos of the inside of the radio in the equipment section (Station information), click HERE.

Since today also happens to be my birthday I suppose it is only fair that I have a new toy to play with!

Update 16/8/2023: I normally log onto LoTW in the morning while having my first cup of coffee, it is nice to start the day with new QSL's! Well, this morning did not disappoint, 3 new QSL's for Ethiopia, (ET3AA) one of them, 17m, is a new band-slot! Slowly the QRP totals are growing.

There are still lots of contacts for unconfirmed entities that I have uploaded to LoTW so there is always the hope of something new even if I have not worked something new recently.

With the bands particularly bad today I decided to tackle an irritating problem I have had with my FT-1000MP mkV for a while. Every now and then the (bar graph) S meter would just go all the way to the right and stay there regardless of signal strength, after a while it would suddenly be normal again. Everything else was working fine so this did not effect how the radio worked, it was only a problem if you wanted to give a signal report!

I had a good look at the service manual and found two potentiometers that had an effect on the S meter. I opened the radio and found them on the relevant PCB. As soon as I touched the "max S meter defection" one the problem went away so I cleaned both with switch cleaner and moved them around a bit. They now seem stable to I re-calibrated the S meter according to the procedure in the service manual. Now the FT-1000MP mkV was perfect again!

With even more time on my hands (it was a less than pleasant day outside) I made up a cable to connect the IF-out of the FT-1000D to a little RTL SRD dongle. Running HDSDR (also tried SDR#) on the PC and setting the frequency to the IF frequency of the radio (73.620MHz) I soon had a nice pan adaptor running! Now I can see signals, and go to them with a mouse-click on the old FT-1000D just like I can on my more modern radios!

HDSDR display of the IF signal from the FT-1000D, not much happening on the band!

IF display with SDR#, only a few FT8 signals on 15m

On a different note. I have 4 laptop computers that I use in my "hobby room", this includes the one I use at my radio station, the others are used for microscopy, astro photography and 3D printing. They are now all getting a bit old but their configurations (all 4 core i3/i7 CPUs with 8GB RAM) are still good enough for what I use them for as they never run out of CPU power or memory. Even their disks (320GB) are not full as they are not really used to store data, that is all done on external drives. What has been a source of frustration is how slow they boot and how long some programs take to open.

A local online dealer had a special on SSD drives last week so I ordered a few. I have now cloned all the original drives and transferred the images to the new SSD drives so I do not have to reload or re-configure any of the stacks of programs I have on them. The result is amazing! They all feel like brand new computers, I am sure they will be fine for many years of duty in the hobby room again, best thing I have done in a long time!

My Flex-5000A is still traveling around the country after some confusion at the courier company, at least it is heading back in my direction again, should have it in a day or two, at least the computer I want to use with it is now a LOT faster! 

Update 15/8/2023: The Yaesu FT-1000D arrived safely yesterday. It is in great condition with no shipping damage, always a concern especially with a 21kg radio! A few quick tests show that everything seems to work I have not had a chance to test it on CW but the filters sound great.

Yaesu FT-1000D joining the museum collection, isn't she pretty!

I love the way her RX sounds, even bad QRM sounds better on her. I have received great SSB audio reports on her so now to test her on CW, the bands seem a lot better than on the weekend so hopefully it will remain like that for a few days so that I can make a few contacts.

The radio has a very convenient "IF Out" plug on the back so I am keen to connect a SDR dongle to it to ass a spectrum display, just need to make up a cable.

Tomorrow I hope to get some time to re-arrange my shack to make a bit to make more space at the operating position. Hopefully the Flex-5000A will also arrive soon but looking at the tracking it seems like the courier company does not have a map as they have now sent it to completely the wrong town, idiots, third time they have made this mistake.

Update 14/8/2023: Well the weekend is history and the WAEU contest was a "bust" as they say. Less than perfect conditions, terrible QRM and restrictive rules messed it up for me. Interestingly late Sunday afternoon I switched on the radio to see if the interference was still there and yes it was, but while I was jumping between bands it suddenly dropped away, came back a few times and then got weak and was gone, really strange!

I made use of the now VERY quiet bands and worked a few stations, not going to send in my log but it was fun. Unfortunately a few hours later the QRM was back it can only be something that switches on and off most likely at my neighbor as he had lots of electrical and electronic tools, need to go and have a chat with him....

We had a local digital contest Sunday afternoon, it also included 6m so a few of us decided to give 6m a go and maybe make a contact or 2. Unfortunately after 3 hours of staring at a FT8 screen all I ever saw were a few bursts none of them long enough to decode so I suppose it was most likely meteor scatter?

Trying to make some FT8 contacts on 6m.

On a different subject, got a message last night from the local courier agent, they
 receive a "heavy" package for me, as far as I can see looking at tracking it must be my FT-1000D. Happy times! Will go and pick it up later this morning. The Flex-5000A (and Daiwa tuner) should be here tomorrow or the day after. I will post photos as the equipment arrives.

Update 12/8/2023: Contest weekend! Well, not so much... I was up early this morning to work some stations on 80m and 40m. Unfortunately after 4 hours of "operations" I have exactly zero, yes ZERO contacts! Why? Well, conditions were not too bad, I could hear plenty stations on 40m, unfortunately all the stations I could hear were outside Europe so I could not work them. VERY FRUSTRATING!

I have not made a final call on this contest, maybe I will try to work some EU stations later when I can hear them but I have decided not to send in my log as a silent protest to the rules. I think it would be far better for contests like these to allow everyone to work everyone. To still make it an EU focused contest you simply make the EU-Outside EU contacts count more than the other contacts.

There is nothing worse than hearing a station you really want to work and you cannot work him because of some rule. Think I will stick to the CQ WW contests, I can now remember why I have never competed in this Worked all Europe contest.

On a different note, I have received "bad" audio reports a few times recently on my FT-1000P mkV, people saying my voice sounds very high pitched, so I decided to have a look, turned out it was a menu setting shifting the carrier on SSB, not sure why or when I set that! Seems like the audio is now fine. The FT-1000MP mkV menu system can be quite cryptic, I actually had to read the manual to figure out what to change. Interestingly the model that replaced it, the FT-2000's menu system is far easier to use, it even has a "menu" button to access it, on the mkV you need to press "Fast and ENT" to get into the menu!

Update late afternoon: Now I cannot hear any stations, noise on all bands is now around S9, either I have a new source of local QRM or more likely there has been another solar flare like earlier in the week. Ok, so not much HF today, maybe some hope after sunset. I did put up a 2m/70cm yagi to see if there is any semi local activity or even repeaters to get into but I have not really tried it yet. I actually want to try some satellite operation again as well. The plan is to setup a small VHF/UHF operating position in my "hobby room" close to the main operating position, think I will get stuck into that today.

Ok, final update, it is now evening. I did manage to work a few stations earlier but with S9 noise on all bands it was not fun. It is now long after sunset but the noise is still there. Well, I can just hope that this noise will disappear sometime as it will kill HF for me completely. I need to try and find out if it is local but it seems like it as no one else is complaining. When we moved into this QTH 3 1/2 years ago it was dead quiet, something has drastically changed.....

Update 11/8/2023: I was hoping that the Flex-5000A would be here already, unfortunately it was only shipped yesterday due to strikes and disruptions by the taxi industry in Cape Town.

The Flex comes with a Firewire card that plugs into a laptop and from what I understand it is a 6 pin to 6 pin cable. The laptop I intend to use to run the Flex-5000A does have a slot that should accommodate this card (no details on if it is a PC-II or Express card) but the laptop also has an internal Firewire controller with a 4 pin port. Fortunately I found a 4 pin to 6 pin Firewire cable in my collection, actually a few of them! They came with my Canon EOS 1 series cameras and were intended for tethered shooting. Never used them but now I am glad I have them!

On the subject of new equipment, I received confirmation that the Yaesu FT-1000D I have acquired was shipped yesterday afternoon as well so I should have it sometime next week, at least I can track it, looks like both the new "toys" might get here at the same time. I have always wanted a FT-1000D, it will get a special spot in my collection! The FT-1000D, FT-1000MP mkV and the FT-990 makes a nice set! I also have a lead on a FT-920 but negotiations are at an early stage so it is too early to get excited, negotiations are progressing a bit slow.

With all the additions to the Yaesu collection I a hoping to find a few other radios as well, I had a "confirmed" deal on a nice Kenwood TS-950SDX but the seller changed his mind at the last moment. I know where to find another sample but it is cosmetically not great, has a huge external 220V to 120V transformer and it is a bit expensive for it's condition. I am also still looking for an Icom IC-775DSP and IC-781 but both seem to be scarce.

Still not 100% sure about the "Worked all Europe" contest this weekend, it sounds like it could be fun but I have not competed for a very long time in a long duration contest like this so I am not sure if I have the energy or stamina to do this. Combine that with the "no QRP class" and complicated exchange rules I am a bit reluctant, will most likely only make the final decision early Saturday morning depending on what the bands and levels of activity sound like.

On the local front I can report that I have been calling into a local net on 40m just about every afternoon recently. The number of people on the net varies but it is normally around 5 to 10 with some interesting technical and other discussions between the guys, nice to hear what others are up to, it is really nice to have some contact with other hams, something I have missed after leaving the big city and the local radio clubs in the city.

Update 10/8/2023: Yesterday while re-arranging radios in the shack and comparing receivers I heard a 3C3 station calling on 15m, I worked him and forgot about the contact. Before shutting down for the evening I uploaded my log to LoTW as I do every day that I make contacts.

A bit later I logged on at LoTW and to my great surprise the QSL was already there, but even better was the fact that it was an all time new one on QRP, I cannot believe I have either never worked Equatorial Guinea before or I have never received a QSL card before! I need to go check my full log but it was a rather pleasant surprise.

Update 9/8/2023: I managed to work a few SOTA peaks this morning on 40m and 20m, unfortunately DX conditions are not great, maybe it will improve later today, it is a cloudy, wet and cold day here so perfect to spend on the air!

I am still using the FT-990, mostly for SSB contacts, it is now working well, I have forgotten what a nice and solid radio it is with a quiet receiver, I now need to either find a permanent place for it in the shack, tempting, or move it back into storage. My main problem is space at the primary operating position, very little space!

Another complication that will most likely force the FT-990 back into storage is the fact that I have at least 2, maybe even 3 "new" radios that will join the collection in the next few days. Till then I will have a bit of fun with the FT-990.

FT-990 in the Classic Yaesu stack, FT-2000 below and FT-1000MP mkV above it.

I worked a few contacts last weekend during the local SARL SSB contest, it ended up only being a few contacts because of the strange rules. You start the contest on 20m at 14:00 till 14:30. From 14:30 till 15:00 there is a 30 minute break before you can move to 40m from 15:00 till 1600, then another gap and then 80m for 30 minutes. Well, during the first gap I got bored and worked a few DX stations, never went back to the "contest".

When I asked why the strange rules (others asked as well) I was told it was suggested by a "well know contester", I know who it is but I have not heard him in a contest for years, especially a local contest. First time I have seen rules like this! Anyway, "whatever" as they say, will stick to DX contests.

Talking about contests, this coming weekend it is the Europe DX CW contest, sounds like fun so I am planning to compete. How serious I am not sure yet, would depend on conditions but I would love to make it a semi-serious effort, have not done that for years! I have not decided on equipment to use, unfortunately there is no QRP class, only low power (100W) and high power. I might well run 5W and enter the low power section, at least if I work something new I can log it as a QRP contact for my QRP CW DXCC totals.

Update 8/8/2023: I have been slowly going through my radios in "hospital", all the radios with issues that prevent me from using them. Yesterday I took the Yaesu FT-990 from the store room and took it to the shack. I have to admit I was a bit reluctant to start on it as I have spent quite a few hours of it in the past only to end up right where I started.

The problem with the radio started a few years ago (about 5?) when I was listening to a CW station, I decided to reply only to find out that I had no CW key connected, no problem, unplugged a key from another radio and plugged it into the FT-990 (jack at the back, not front panel). As I plugged it in, the radio was on, the radio died immediately. I unplugged the key, switched the radio off and on again but it was dead, only the light in the S meter came on.

To make a long story short, firstly I did not managed to work the station I heard but far more serious was the dead radio, even though the FT-990 was in my museum collection I still really enjoyed using it. I opened up the radio and managed to narrow the problem down to no 5V on the 5V rail. I found the workshop manual and ordered replacement parts for the 5V regulator. A week or 2 later I installed the parts and switched on the radio full of confidence, well it did switch on, the display came on, then dimmed and disappeared again. 5V regulator blown again! I looked for a short but could not find anything so the radio went into long term storage to be fixed sometime in the future.

Roll forward to today, I did have one more regulator in my stock but I was not going to blow it again. After a lot of searching around I found the culprit, the CW key jack had a short shorting the 5V rail to ground. I fixed it and replaced the regulator again. This time it switched on and stayed on but the digital readout was running and none of the controls worked.

I have to admit at this point the radio very nearly went back into storage but I remembered reading somewhere that if the radio does not start correctly you need to do a "hard reset". I did that and suddenly the radio was back to normal! I made a few QSO's and even a long rag-chew session, all seems well! Really happy I managed to get the old lady going again!

Yaesu FT-990, fixed after 5 years!

In other, none related news it seems like I have made a deal on a nice Yaesu FT-1000D for my collection! With a bit of luck it will be shipped later this week! Now for the other "deal" being negotiated, hope I can share some more good news soon!

Looks like I need to make space in the shack for a few new toys....

Update 6/8/2023: I added a "new" rig to my collection today, something a bit different! I have acquired a Flex-5000A SDR radio, should be here by the end of the week. Hope I can get it working with the Fire wire port on my Shack laptop else with the provided PCIExpress card that will fit into the laptop.

I have started reading the manual (yes, rather unusual for me!) as well as downloading software. It looks like it will be something that will keep me busy for a while, lots of options and software to play with. If I like it I might well be looking for something like a Flex-6700 soon, time will tell.

I will post some photos of the Flex-5000A and report on my results with it as soon as it is here and I have played with it a bit.

Really enjoying a bit of "rag chewing" lately, I was "QRP CW only" for so long I have forgotten how much fun it can be to just chat to fellow hams. I have already had some nice technical discussions and I am sure more will follow. Since I am now sometimes running higher power into less than ideal antennas (and on the SSB portions of the bands, my antennas are all tuned for best results on the CW segments) I have  also acquired a Diawa 1KW tuner, always wanted one since it is such a nicely made piece of equipment but I never had use for it.

I also have 2 other more conventional "classic" radios lined up for my collection but the deals have not been concluded yet, will report when they are "done deals"! The one I have been looking for . a long time, had one way back but sold it and always regretted it. Exciting times!

Update 5/8/2023: I have recently started making a few SSB contacts, mostly local, fun to talk to like minded people again! Being out of the city and no longer ember of a club (nothing locally) I miss technical discussions, well even more fun to have them on the air! Since conditions are not always perfect I have even dusted off an amplifier or two, good excuse to play with amplifiers again!

I am slowly working through my amplifier collection, so far I have just used the Metron 1000, the Yaesu FL-2100Z and the Collins 30L1, more will follow soon.

Update 4/8/2023: I had a pleasant surprise when I logged into LoTW and saw that I have finally received the QSL's for by Bouvet (3Y0J) , contacts! Always nice to add a new confirmed DXCC entity to my QRP tally!

Conditions have been reasonable and getting better lately, I am sure we are going to have fun this summer!

Update 1/8/2023: I have been quite active recently, both on the air and playing with equipment. I recently acquired a small amplifier to use with my field/SOTA/POTA station. I normally run the QRP R928+ or my old FT-817 in the field and the 5W work well on CW but sometimes it is just not enough for SSB and for SOTA/POTA SSB is important here in South Africa.

The amplifier is a small unit from China, reasonably well made and at least it has band pass filters. With 5W in it produces an easy 75-85W depending on band, as it is rated for up to 120W it runs nice and cool at those power levels. It is about the same size at the FT-817 and quite light, a nice addition to the ham backpack!

Update 30/7/2023: I just returned from 8 days on the yacht getting a few things done to prepare it for the next trip. I took a FT-890 and a G5RV antenna along this time. With the center of the antenna bout 20m above the deck and the legs tied to the bow and stern in an inverted V configuration the tuner on the FT-890 could tune it to all bands from 80-10m.

In my limited "free" time I made quite a few local and even DX QSOs, the antenna works surprisingly well! The only negative was the extreme amount of QRM in the Durban harbor, at least that will improve once I lease that dirty place....

Update 6/7/2023: The bands have been really bad the last few days, I can hear almost no DX, just a very weak station every now and then, very frustrating when you have the time and motivation to spend some time on the air! The best I have managed have been a few local chats on 40m, also fun I suppose! I have also managed to work a few SOTA peaks, think I will try harder to work them in the future. There is another activation tomorrow so hoping conditions are not too bad.

If the weather predictions are right we are heading towards a very cold weekend so I will most likely spend most of it in the shack, I am just hoping there will be a few stations to contact! Might also be a good idea to fire up a few of my amplifiers to heat up the shack a bit.

Local CW activity has also dropped, sad but I suppose when there are so few people active it happens because people do not want to contact the same handful of stations every day.

Hoping that as we move towards summer things will improve, time will tell.

Update 3/7/2023: The IC-756 Pro 3 arrived today, a bit quicker than what I expected but I am not complaining.

It was well packed, in it's original box plus another box so there was no damage. I had it connected and running in no time at all. Everything seems to be fine so I made a few direct comparisons between the Pro 2 and the Pro 3. The Pro 3 does seem to have a quieter receiver and better filters but the band conditions were really bad so I did not have the opportunity to test them under crowded conditions. maybe I will write a little article comparing them and also comparing them with the IC-7610.

Icom IC-756 Pro 3 at the top and IC-76 Pro 2 at the bottom.

So now my IC-756 collection is complete again. Maybe I now need to add an IC-7600? I would love to add an IC-775 as well but I have not seen or heard any of those locally.

As mentioned above band conditions have been quite bad, for DX anyway, did not hear a single CW signal on any band today just some locals chatting on 40 and 80m. Hopefully things will improve soon.

Update 1/7/2023: It has been a while since I have posted here, it is not that I have not been on the air, most day I have the radio on for at least a few hours it is more a case of being too busy and never getting around to posting! Band conditions have been up and down, some days decent signals all the way up to 10m and then suddenly nothing, just a few locals guys chatting on 40m with the odd semi local QSO on 20m.

I have been concentrating mostly on 17m and 12m and I have managed to add a few new QRP contacts on those bands. I still do not have a decent station installed on the yacht but I will be driving to her (and thus I can take more equipment) towards the second half of July, the plan is to then at least install a semi permanent setup including winmail facility on her. I still do not have a radio for her that I am really happy with, I have been hoping to find something locally but nothing yet.

Talking about equipment. About 2 years ago I sold my Icom IC-756 Pro3 to someone who was desperate for a radio. I immediately regretted it as I now no longer have the full IC-756 range of radios in my collection plus I really enjoyed using the radio. In many ways I still prefer the older radios with more controls on the face plus somehow the older analogue radios simply sound better to me than the newer SDR radios, yes, I know, a very personal thing and for serious contesting I still use the more modern radios but for everyday operating radios like the IC-756 Pro3 and my much loved FT-1000MP mkV is still king!

Anyway, I recently saw a Pro3 advertised but I was just too slow, it was sold by the time I tried to buy it. The seller did say he has a second one that might be for sale soon as well. The good news is that he contacted me this week saying it is available and I immediately bought it. Now I have to wait for the courier to deliver it, hopefully next week. Need to make space for it in the shack!

Update 6/6/2023: I have managed to make time for a few contacts recently. Mostly CW, including a nice few hours having fun during the CQWW WPX CW contest! Nothing new worked but still fun. I did manage to add Kenya on 17m CW as well after the contest, a new one on the band!

I am still searching for the perfect radio to install in the yacht, unfortunately there is very little available locally, seems like I will have to import.

I have recently started making a few SSB contacts again as well, mostly to chat to old friends, also planning on starting to report into the maritime nets soon.

Update 18/5/2023: It has been a while since I posted here! Well, firstly I have not been very active, I do switch on the radio most mornings but seldom make contacts unless I hear a "rare" DX station. The second reason is that I have been rather busy, first looking for a new yacht. I found one and bought it, now I need to do some work on it so that I can sail it from Durban to Knysna where I can spend some time getting to know it and upgrading some systems.

I also want to make a few changes to the layout on the inside. Firstly I want to build in a few more cupboards, redo some of the woodwork and install a new stove. More importantly I want to convert one of the cabins into a study/shack. At the moment the space is wasted, there are 3 other double cabins and we will never have that many people onboard.

I still need to decide what I am going to do for a HF antenna, when I stayed on the yacht for a few days recently I just put up an EFLW, seemed to work well with the one end up about 22m and the other side on the deck. Running the R928+ I had good results. I will install a radio permanently as soon as the "shack" is ready! Look out for ZS2M/mm or ZS6DX/mm soon!

SV Katti, Roberts 53

Update 16/2/2023: OQRS has now been opened for the 3Y0J expedition. While looking at the QSL manager's web page I noticed that there is an option to request a log check for "missing" or  "busted" calls.

So I though I have nothing to loose and requested a check for my missing 30m contact. You supply your call, date, time, mode and band and the log is then checked to see if there is a call similar to yours in that time slot, a nice feature as it is easy to make a typing mistake and get one character wrong in the log.

I was pleasantly surprised to get an email fro the QSL manager confirming my contact and that it was fixed in the log! Thanks Charles (M0OXO)!

So now I am happy with my results, I did miss 12m and 10m, never heard them on those bands. I did see spots for them on 10m and 12m but though it was a pirate as the frequencies published by the "pilot" stations did not include those bands at those times. My mistake, it was the real station, the pilot stations were simply not up to date, lesson learned, "work them first and worry later".

Here are my results for this expedition.

So now we wait for the next DX'pedition, I really enjoyed this one despite the frustrations! I will pay more attention to planned expeditions in the future, I see there are quite a few semi rare stations on the air at the moment, combine that with decent propagation at the moment and it is the ideal opportunity to fill some "band-slots"

Update 12/2/2023: With the Bouvet expedition just about done they have managed to upload the SSB and CW logs to Clublog. Sadly I see my 30m contact is not in the log!

Since I clearly heard my call, signals were good, and I got a confirmation I can only think that either my call was logged incorrectly or I worked a pirate. There were lots of pirates around but I do not think I worked one, the signal strength and direction was consistent with the real 3Y0J. It is unfortunate as I heard them again after that but did not work them again wanting "to give smaller stations a chance" as well as requested by the team. Not that I can think my 5W and low 2 element antenna would be a thread to any decent station....

I understand they have limitations especially with an internet connection but if they managed to upload logs sooner things like this would not have happened, also many stations would not have felt the need to make "insurance" contacts exactly to prevent something like this.

Anyway, it is what it is.....

Update 8/2/2023: Bouvet, 3Y0J still featuring in this shack! They are still only on 15, 17 and 30m, those I have worked on CW. There is a chance that they will put up a 20m antenna after the storm they are having now, maybe Friday? I would love to work them on 20m as well.

Anyway, saw on the DX cluster that they were on 21.105 FT8. Decided to listen there, OMW, what a complete circus! I cannot believe some of these FT8 operators...... I must say this is curing me from any thoughts of FT8, the better I get to know it the less I like it...

Screenshot of spots on the cluster, really sad....

The comments on the cluster and behavior in general is quite disgusting. I must say in the 27 years that I have been on the air things have really slipped backwards. DX pile-up used to be well behaved with great operators and courtesy on both sides, now it is really bad.

A bit later they moved to 21.225 SSB. Not normally my thing but I decided to listen. I could hear them well, around S7 with no QRM, wish there were more stations to out south, nice and quite from that direction! I found my (always missing) microphone and decided to try my luck.

I almost fell of my chair when he replied to me on my second call! Ok, so now 15m SSB is also in the log.

The Hex Beam is really working well, it seems a lot quieter than my A4S with signals as strong or sometimes stronger. The front/side and front/back ratios are noticeably better than the A4S as well. I can only hope that the construction will stand the test of time.

Update 7/2/2023: I was awake really early this morning, was far too hot to sleep comfortably so I headed to the shack just after 4am local time.

A quick scan of the bands produced mostly silence other than the 3Y0J pile-up on 30m, I think every single ham on the air was trying to work them! I could just hear them above the noise so I spent time trying to figure out the operator's preferred way of scanning a pile-up.

By the time it was breakfast time they were even weaker so I had breakfast and then I had to head out to drop a vehicle off for a service. Once all that was done I headed directly back to the shack, I was really getting excited as I could now hear them clearly, that is when some idiot/lid was not transmitting simplex, tuning up or calling "up right on top of them!

I decide to try and work them, the pile-up was huge and unruly, but it was worth a shot. There was also slow QSB, every now and then they would drop below the noise and a bit later peak again. I tried to call only when they peaked. After about an hour of this, to my great joy, they replied and I was in the log!

Not bad for 5W and a dipole at 8m.

A few chores and a few hours later I listened out for them again. This time I found them on 17m. I turned my hex beam in their direction and the signal was really strong! This time it took only 2 calls to work them! All the effort getting the hex beam setup and lifted was worthwhile for this contact!

At the moment they are only working 12-30m and it looks like they only have a vertical antenna and maybe a dipole. I will keep an eye on the situation, would love to work them on more bands!

I need to go and check but I believe this is DXCC entity number 328 or 329 on QRP, can't remember if FT8WW was also a new one.

Update late afternoon: After more that an hour of sending my call and trying to predict where they are listening I finally managed to work 3Y0J on 15m! What I have found is that with the great front-to-back ratio of the hex beam I hear very little on the back of the beam, normally that is great but with Bouvet so far South most of the world, and especially Japan is at the back of the bean so I cannot hear the pile up!

Since I normally try to find the station they are working in the pileup and then TX close to him, above or below depending on the observed direction the operator is moving, I now cannot do this, rather frustrating! Just shows you there is always a compromise.

Anyway, been a really good day, managed to work 3Y0J on 3 bands!

Update 6/2/2023: I was in the shack early this morning again. Did not hear much on 40m but there were a few stations on 30m, worked 27 before it was time for other things, nothing special, mostly US stations with the odd EU call every now and then.

Could not upload logs to LoTW this morning, we have had internet issues since yesterday afternoon, apparently it will be fixed today, then I can upload this update as well as the latest log file.

My normal afternoon session only produced a few weak signals on 10m, listened around for a while but heard nothing exciting so I switched off, maybe later this evening I will listen on 30 and 40m.

Update 5/2/2023: The good news is that TZ4AM, Mali, already QSL'ed for yesterday's contact!
today did not produce much, in the morning 40m was filled with contest stations but most were US stations only calling NA...
In the afternoon the bands were very noisy, think there was so semi local thunder storms. I did make a few contacts but nothing special. For the first time in a long time I even made a few contacts on 17m, I seldom hear anything there.

Update 4/2/2023: I was in the shack just before dawn this morning. I could hear lots of stations on 40m, most of them FOC (Fists only Club) contest stations. I worked a few of them just for fun, since they were mostly US stations I was hoping that one of them would be from Wyoming, the only state still needed for my WAS CW QRP award.

One notable non contest station I worked was V31XX, Belize, for a new one on 40m CW QRP, hope he QSL's!

Later I spent some time connecting up some of the older radios in my collection while listening to the local AWA (Antique Wireless Association) net. Always some interesting discussions! While I was busy with this, one of my cats, Kazzi (Not the same of as the one who caused the "QRC" yesterday, that was Pieta) decided he wanted to chat as well, you can see him below with the microphone and the vintage but still nice Icom IC-756 behind him.

12m Netted a new one TZ4AM (Mali) on CW QRP, was a bit of a struggle as he was working EU and US stations so I was most likely on the back of his beam but that is something we get used to here at the tip of Africa, antennas are VERY seldom pointed our way.

Some bad news on 3Y0J, looks like they are struggling to setup the station due to bad weather and specifically high winds. Latest news is that they are back on the boat waiting for better weather. They are making plans for a more limited operation so sadly it will be a lot more difficult to work them. I still live in hope....

Update 3/2/2023: Band conditions were a bit better today. I made a few contacts this afternoon on 15, 12 and 10m, mostly to see what conditions are like. Nothing special worked, most notable was a A75 and an AP2. I also had a long chat with a US station (N1MX) but unfortunately towards the end of the QSO I experienced "QRC", What is "QRC"? QRC is interference caused by a cat! Or maybe in this case it was CAT control?

While I was DX'ing one of my cats were sleeping on my lap. Halfway through the last QSO she woke up and started demanding attention. Every time I reached for the CW paddle she would bump my hand away! I though I had it under control but no, she is far too clever, unable to reach the key she changed focus to the radio and managed to move the VFO far away from where it was! So sorry Mike (N1MX), I could not close the QSO like I wanted...

I see the 3Y0J team are on Bouvet island setting up camp and the station, hopefully they will be on the air soon!

The weekend is here and I am planning on spending some time in the shack, it will be far too hot to do anything outside anyway!

Update 2/2/2023: I made a few contacts yesterday after the storm passed. Seems like the antenna work a lot better now that it is even higher up. There is also considerably less noise than on my dipole antennas.

I was busy this morning so did not get time to play with the radio but this afternoon at about 15:00 UTC I did get some time. The bands seemed quiet other than 12m that had some activity. I did a quick SWR check and then started hunting around. I did not take long to work a few stations including LY2PX and OY1CT I received 579 reports from both. I noticed that I could not see much movement on my external SWR/Power meter. When I investigated I was surprised to find that the radio was still set at around 1W output, this was from when I did SWR checks!

This little radio keep on surprising me!

So it does look like the antenna is working! Now I feel I am ready for 3Y0J (Bouvet island).

On a DX note, a while ago I published a list of DXCC entities I still need, this was generated by Clublog. On the list was the republic of Kosovo. I did find that strange at the time but hey, if Clublog says so. Anyway, was looking at my logbook today and decided to search for Z6 (Kosovo) contacts, well I found 2! So, sorry Clublog, you suck! This is not the first time that I found that Clublog is not accurate, and they even sometimes just decide a contact you made is not valid and remove your credit for it for the DXCC standings. And this is often for QSO's that I already have LoTW confirmation? Sorry, I think the ARRL LoTW is a far more robust and trustworthy system. Time to delete my logs from Clublog.


Update 1/2/2023: February already!

Things have been quiet on the amateur radio front with only the odd QSO every few days while I was checking propagation. I have been looking forward to the Bouvet island expedition this month. I need them for an all time new one, will be trying to get into the log running QRP so that is going to be fun! They arrived at the island yesterday so weather permitting they should be on the air in the next few days.

Keeping the above in mind I really had too make a plan to get my Hex Beam up a bit higher. With a bit of help I managed to raise it up to about 7.5m with the top element, 20m, sitting at about 8m. I could immediately hear the difference! The bands were not great earlier and as I write this we are experiencing a thunder storm (hope the antenna/mast holds!) but I am hoping to make a few contacts later today once the lightning is done.

The Hex Beam with a stormy sky behind it.

Update 18/1/2023: Yesterday conditions were really bad, during the day I heard almost nothing and even after sunset when 30 an 40m normally open there was just static with a few faint stations in the background. Maybe conditions improved later but we had a hectic thunderstorm around 18h00 local so I unplugged the antennas and never went back to the shack. I reconnected everything around 4:30 this morning but the bands were still very noisy as there was still lightning to be seen in the distance.

I did assemble a fan dipole for 10, 12, 15 and 20m during the day yesterday. I wanted to put up the fan dipole to use as a reference to see how well the hex beam works. After laying out the coax I decided it was too hot to continue work so I postponed it till this morning.

Today I decided to do a bit of antenna work early while it was still cool. I soldered up the temporary connections on the 30/40m fan dipole, since it works so well I wanted to make sure it keeps on working so well.

Once that was done I put up the 10/12/15/20m fan dipole. It was quite a tedious job as you have 8 legs to secure in differed positions! I just managed to get it done before the sun appeared and I had to rush inside. A quick check with the antenna analyzer showed that resonance was exactly where I wanted on 15 and 20m but on 10 and 12m it was too high in the band. I know my calculations and measurements were fine so I can only think it is because of the angle of the legs on those bands. The way the fan spreads out the legs are not 180deg from each other, more like 140 degrees.

I will still decide if I will try to fix it, maybe adding some wire would do it.

First tests showed that the hex beam was far better, even at 2.5m high it outperforms the 8m high fan dipole by at least 3S points plus a lot lower noise. Taking this into account I might not bother to fix the fan dipole. Maybe the next time I take down the dipoles I will convert the fan dipole to 80 and 160m?

While I was playing with the antennas I heard TN8K on 12m CW. It was quite easy to work him despite some QRM coming that time of the day from my neighbor's solar array. Listening up the band I heard a decent SSB signal. I had to quickly find a microphone! Once I had the microphone connected and the radio setup correctly I had a nice chat with Andre C5YK in Gabon. I have not checked but I am pretty sure it is a new one on 12m SSB and maybe even on 12m!

I think I will leave the microphone connected and listen on the SSB portions of the bands more often. Not all good DX work CW!

Update 16/1/2023: Despite the bad conditions on all the HF bands during the day yesterday 30m did open up after sunset and I spent many hours working DX. I have not done a full log check yet but I have already received QSL's confirming 5 new DXCC entities on 30m. Was fun!

Unfortunately after sunrise today the bands slowly died again. I am not sure why as the predictions showed "Good" conditions during the day on 10-20m. Maybe there was a solar storm.

Below you can see my totals as they stand today.

I am really hoping that conditions would soon improve during the day. We are having really hot weather at the moment and I seldom go outside during the day so I have lots of time on my hands, would have been great if I could DX a bit.

Oh well, maybe tomorrow....

Update 15/1/2023: The bands were really bad today. I only managed a few contacts early in the morning before sunrise. The rest of they day I never heard a DX signal above S1 so QRP contacts were not possible.

I spent a bit of time today merging my logs and uploading them to LoTW and Clublog. I also updated and merged my local logs into the two logbook programs I use, Logger32 and Winlog.

The updates gave me a more complete picture of where my DXCC standings are and where I should concentrate my time.

DXCC standings on 15/01/2023.

From the above it is clear that I need to concentrate on the WARC bands and 40/80m. Maybe 160m sometime in the future but before I go to all that static I will work on the other bands first! The lower the band the more difficult it becomes with QRP power levels.

My "Wanted" list, the DXCC entities I have not worked.

Seeing the list of DXCC entities I still need to work I can see that it will take some time, most of them would need an expedition, patience will be needed.....

Update #2 14/1/2023: Turns out the bands were quite bad today, during the daytime anyway. I could hear signals on 15, 12 and 10m but mostly just above the noise. The only station of note I worked was TN8K on 10m after working him on 30m last night. I could hear the FT8WW pile-up but never heard FT8WW.

Oh well, can't always have great conditions! Still hoping for some good conditions on 30m after sunset.

Update 14/1/2023: 30m did open last night and it was great!

A few days ago I decide to take down my old G5RV as I was no longer using it since I now have the Hex Beam. On the same mast I have a 40m dipole. Once I had it down I decided, just for fun, to cut the G5RV legs to the correct length for a 30m dipole. It was a very rough measurement and I just connected the legs onto the 40mm dipole feed line "fan-dipole" style.

I did not expect much but a quick check with the antenna analyzer showed that it resonated perfectly at the bottom end of the band, I think some good luck was involved!

Well, this "quick and dirty" dipole proved itself last night! I could work just about everything I could hear! 56 Contacts in around an hour including TN8K for a new one on 30m as well as a D2 station! I am sure this antenna will help me to get those 30m totals up!

Talking about totals, for the first time in years I uploaded my logs to Clublog. I have all my QSO's on Clublog, not just the QRP contacts like I do on LoTW. Below you can see my all time totals, QRP and QRO as they stand today.

As far as the DXCC entities I have not worked I see that with the exception of one, Kosovo, they are all uninhabited islands.

Lets see what today produces, early this morning 30m was wide open again but mostly to the USA, will try again after sunset today.

Update 13/1/2023: Friday the 13'th, funny, never bother with things like this but this morning I headed to the shack before sunrise to try and work a few stations on 30 and 40m. Fired everything up only to discover that my logging laptop refuses to boot. Made few contacts but I was distracted, I needed to figure out what was wrong with the laptop and more importantly if I needed to setup all the software again. The ham software was not my biggest worry, the same laptop also serves as my Astrophotography laptop and it has a LOT of integrated and complex software running on it that controls my telescope and everything that goes with it.

Figured out the hard-drive failed, took me half the day to sort it out, anyway, the laptop now has a new disk and I managed to image the old drive and transfer all the software and setups to the new one. Well, on the positive side, the laptop now boots a lot faster!

I have received the QSL confirmation for DXCC 100 on 12m! Turned out it was Northern Ireland! Now I need to work on 17, 30 and 40m! Looks like 30m is opening up as I write this just before sunset so time to head to the shack!

Update 11/1/2023: The last 2 days have been quite productive. I have been concentrating on 12m as it is a band I have neglected in the past but I also worked a few new ones on other bands including Australia (VK) on 40m CW QRP and Lebanon on 15m.

My Hex Beam is still low, I wanted to lift it early yesterday morning, while it was still cool but I noticed that a few of the ropes/cords that keep it tight had slipped. The way they are attached (actually just slipped over) the end of the spreaders is not very secure. I fixed them by leaning the antenna over and getting on a ladder but for long term security I think I will add zip-ties over them. I did do that to 2 of the spreaders so while waiting for the weather to cool down I will monitor them.

Other than this little problem the antenna is working well and seems quite robust, I have dropped it on it's side from about 3m (ladder moved on the lawn and I almost fell) and it survived without any damage. We also had a lot of wind and it does not seem to be bothered.

I managed to work a few new ones on 12m, my "confirmed" total for 12m QRP in LoTW is no 99, just need one more for DXCC!

While checking my totals on LoTW I noticed the I need only one state (Wyoming) on CW QRP for WAS. I need to go chase Wyoming!

On a similar note, I only need one zone, Zone 23, for WAZ CW QRP. Since zone 23 is central Asia I am sure it can be done, I most likely have the QSO I just need the QSL. Something else to "chase"!

Update 9/1/2023: Conditions were really not great yesterday! I tried for hours to crack the TN8K pileup but 5W was  simply not enough. I suppose his antenna was pointing to EU anyway, no chance on 3 different bands. I have to admit the thought of connecting one of my large amplifiers did cross my mind but I resisted the temptation....

I did manage to work Luxembourg and Faroe islands on 17m, both new on that band, in both cases the signals were just above the noise.

When I tried to upload the day's QSO's to LoTW last night there was a server error! I see other guys are also complaining on the ARRL forum, hopefully the problem will be solved soon. Will try again today when I am finished with my contacts for the day.

Hopefully conditions will improve over the next few days!

I still need to lift the Hex Beam but the next 6 days are going to be extremely hot, maybe I can make a plan early one morning?!

Update 8/1/2023: The little R928 Plus still amazes me. Initially I had a few issues with it, all firmware related, there are so many versions of the firmware out there and not all of them work equally well on all versions of these radios as there are subtle hardware differences. Once I figured that out and found a stable firmware version all was well. Since there are no bugs or missing features in the firmware that I am running now I have no desire to upgrade and potentially create more problems!

Chasing DX with the little R928 Plus.

The receiver on this radio is great, sensitive and selective and the digital noise reduction works great. The CW filters are really effective with sharp skirts and no AGC pumping from nearby strong signals. I am glad I stuck with it and did not give up after initial problems.

One really irritating thing about the radio when I got it were the two little metal plates that were supposed to serve as a stand. They kept on falling of and you had to be careful when operating as they tended to move and then the radio would suddenly drop to a level position. I sorted the problem out by 3D printing a stand as can be seen in the photos, now it is stable on the bench and a real pleasure to use!

The latest FT8WW log was uploaded this morning and I was really happy to see my confirmation!

Seems like there is still a chance to work him on 15m (I have never seen a 15m spot for him but it seems like he has been active there) and also 30m. Since I am NOT interested in FT8 there is no chance of 17m at the moment.

Update 7/1/2023: I heard FT8WW again yesterday afternoon. Initially the signal was in the noise but it slowly improved up to the point where I had hope. I ran outside to manually rotate the Hex Beam in the right direction, as I moved the antenna I could hear his signal get stronger through the open window. I rushed back inside to see that his signal was now peaking around S8!

Just as I sat down to give him a call he announced that he was going QRT! Oh no, missed him again! But now I knew the signal can be strong enough to hopefully work and that the antenna is at least reasonably directional.

Fast forward to this morning, just after making coffee I rushed to the shack, around 5am local time. I could see the pileup on the band scope (was using the R928+) so I knew there was hope. Back outside to move the antenna again and now I could just hear him.

R928+ on top of the rotator controller, hunting FT8WW and other DX

I called a few times but decided to wait as the signal was slowly improving. Finally he was up to S5-7 with some QSB so I started calling, the pileup was quite wide so it took me a while to figure out where he was listening and in what direction he was scanning.

I found an open spot just ahead of the last station he worked and called when he was done! What a nice thing to hear "ZS2?" I replied and he came back with a ZS2M 599! I sent him a 599 and then to my surprise he came back and said "ZS2M, fb signal, 599+ fb!". I could not believe it, he never said something like that while I was listening! He did not even know I was only running 5W! Well, now FT8WW is in the bag, on 20 at least, a new QRP DXCC entity and also an all time new one!

Well after that I was really inspired to work on my station so the rest of the morning was spent getting cables ready for the rotator and RG-213 feed line for the antenna. It was getting hot outside in the sun but with the antenna now on the ground I had to at least get it up again. I managed to get it back up before the sun chased me inside, it is still low, now about 3m high but the rotator is now mounted and I will be able to lift the antenna, when it is safe to go outside again, in 2m steps so the hard work is done.

6 Band Hex beam on the rotator ready to go.

Now I am hoping for some DX this afternoon, will be concentrating on 12 and 17m.

Update: Late afternoon produced some results on 15m and later on 20m but other than a TN8K pileup, where I could hear the callers but not the DX station, there was not much on 12 or 17m.

On 15m I did work a new QRP band-country, Algeria, I am hoping he will QSL vie LoTW! So far I am having fun with the hex beam, now that I can turn it I can report that it has a better front to back and front to side ratio than any of the Yagi's I have used in the past like the A4S, TH4 and TH7DX, this is good news!

Unfortunately after assembling it and setting it up I do not think that the antenna will be usable for field station or semi-portable operation, it is simply too difficult to setup and clumsy to move around. But I still need to see if there is a way I can make the spreaders foldable and then find a way to fold up the wires so they do not tangle, time will tell....

Update 6/1/2023: After a bit of confusion, on the couriers side, my 6 band Hex beam kit arrived yesterday. I immediately started assembling it between rain showers (yes, it does rain in the desert!)

It went together quiet well, no real issues. My only concern, and this may be groundless, is how well the plastic clips that retain the wire elements will handle harsh sun and UV. They seem quite soft and flexible, maybe the material was made to be extra UV resistant? Time will tell but somehow I do not think it will last as long as my Yagi antennas.

Once assembly was completed I stuck it on a 3m pole, the plan was to keep it low so that I could make any adjustments if needed. A sweep with my antenna analyzer showed that it dipped perfectly for a very low SWR on all 6 bands! Great news. I connected it up to a radio and the first impression was that it was nice and quiet, most likely due to the good front to back ratio as it was pointing away from the solar array to the South that can generate lots of noise.

Rain interfered again so the antenna is still low, will raise it when the weather is better but for now I will try to make a few contacts.

Update: I managed to make some contacts on the new antenna. The bands were really dead but I did manage to work Faroe Islands on 2 bands but more importantly I managed to work a new one on 12m, French Guiana. It is great to finally have a directional antenna on 12! I had to drop the antenna a bit on it's temporary mount due to really high winds, it is on a thin pole stuck into the lawn and not very stable so it was only 2.1m high when I made the contacts.

Update 5/1/2023: Had a weak opening on 15m yesterday afternoon. I only switched on the radio at 14:00 UTC and heard a few stations, started working them but the signals were dropping quickly! I think I need to try again today but a bit earlier. Might also try 10m around 18:00 UTC, saw some spots that time of the day.

Update 4/1/2023: Unfortunately it looks like the FT8WW station I worked on 14.031 CW was indeed a pirate. It was a bit surprising when he came back to me and sounded stronger than before but you never know, it was worth the chance! A search in the online FT8WW log shows that I am not logged, oh well...

He was active on 14.031 CW again this morning but there was no way I could hear him as I had a constant S8-9 QRM signal right on 14.031! This is what is sounded like, Recording. There was no way I could hear him. He seems to be only active on 2 frequencies on CW, 20 and 30m so if the QRM stays on that frequency it is bad news. The good news is that apparently he will be there till 26 March 2023 so there is still hope.

I am really hoping that the Hex Beam will arrive today, I traced the parcel to the courier depot closest to me yesterday (about 200km away) so with a bit of luck it will be delivered today or at the latest tomorrow morning. It has been really hot the last few days, 41-43C but the prediction is for the low 20's tomorrow, would be perfect weather to assemble the antenna!

On a different note, a year ago we decided to go completely off-grid for our power. We decided on this due to the constant  load shedding and power failures and little hope of things getting better. I worked out what we needed and sourced the components and then installed it. Over the last 12 months it worked perfectly and we are no longer affected by the power issues South Africa is suffering from. As a matter of interest over the first 12 months we "harvested" 2.5MWh of sun energy.

The system is capable of a lot more but that is what we used. With 20KWh of storage we are covered for cloudy days as even on cloudy days we still produce at least 25% of our solar array's full rating. The highest wattage I have seen from the array is 3.85KW so it does not take long on a sunny day to charge the storage bank back to 100%.

The nice thing is that my entire station is now affectively solar powered!

Update 2/1/2023: As I have mentioned I have ordered a 6 band hex beam that I am hoping could be modified for quick setup and fold-up for transport. If I can make it work it will become my portable and field station antenna, specifically to be used with the motorhome. I am hoping to receive the bits next week. At first I will test it at home, if all is well I need to see if my collapsible portable mast, a Comet CP-80, will support it. Maybe not at the full 8m height but I would be happy if it would work at maybe 5m?

Time will tell! Now it is just the choice of a new radio that remains, maybe for initial shorter test trips I will just use one of the radios I already have.

Update 2 of 1/1/2023:  I could hear FT8WW again on 20m this morning. Today his signal varied between S0 and S2 with noise most of the time around S1. I decided I will try today since the pile-up seemed a bit better. I called quite a few times, FT8WW was on 14.031 and the split was from 14.032 to about 14.042.

I eventually received a reply that sounded like ZS2M, well, 2M at least but, as before, there were so many guys calling on 14.031 and shouting "up on 14.031 that even after repeating 3 times I was not sure he was replying to me. I ended up sending 599 and heard "TU" and then he worked the next station. So I am not sure if I worked him or not, will have to wait till he uploads his log so I can check. Again a bunch of idiots ruined it for many of us.....

Ok, trying to stay positive, hopefully I did work him and it is a great start to DX'ing in 2023 with a brand new QRP DXCC entity.

Update 1/1/2023:  Happy new year! Hopefully this will be a radio filled year for all of us!

I heard FT8WW again on 20m CW yesterday morning, this time the signal was a bit stronger and the pile-up not as wide and better behaved. Unfortunately I had other commitments and did not have time to try and work him, maybe today? I am not so sure how long he is going to be there, need to find out today.

The rest of the day yesterday was a waste of time due to a geomagnetic storm that shut down long distance propagation.

No real "new years" resolutions this side other than to travel more this year and have more fun! Hopefully some of that fun will be amateur radio related. Hope to hear you on the air in 2023!