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Update 3/05/2021: I had some radio fun yesterday and today with a local "Antique Wireless Association" QSO party. I fired up an old Yaesu FT-200 for the occasion. Yesterday it was AM only and today SSB. The AM section was quite a challenge, the radio only outputs about 25W on AM and AM is so noisy due to the large bandwidth it made QSO's difficult. It must have been tough working voice DX before SSB!

I am looking at procuring a small HF set that will run 100W for use on SOTA and POTA expeditions. In the past I used a QRP radio but with current band conditions it is quite difficult to make the minimum number of contacts running 5W, yes, CW helps but we have so few CW operators in this country you do need to make some SSB contacts and that needs more power.

A radio that has a low RX current consumption is also important so I still need to do some research on that. At the moment the Yaesu FT-881 and FT-991A are on the list. The one is nice and compact and the other has a nice display but the display eats power!

I did have a FT-991 (original model) a few years ago and I liked it but the problems users were having with blown finals and the fact that it did not have a real-time spectrum display made me decide to sell it after a short time. Both those issues have been solved in the FT-991A but the RX current consumption is around 2A!

Need to do some more research.

I did hear a Russian station on 20m CW this afternoon but he was low down and did not hear me, I miss the days of bands full of DX.

Since there is so little DX to work I have been chatting to local guys more often, I had quite a few long CW QSO's this week and I enjoyed it. Today I also had a nice chat to some locals on 40 and 80m SSB, might just do it again. 

Update 29/04/2021: With winter approaching I will be looking at activating a few local summits again soon, it is just too hot in summer to go climbing mountains here in this part of Africa!

I am now also interested in POTA (Parks On The Air), since I have quite a few parks that are quite close to my QTH I think it is time to activate a few. First I need to find a list of park and their POTA numbers, if there is such a list for South Africa.

Another dead day on the bands. I again called CQ on 20 and 15m and again I was heard in South America but no takers. Is CW dead unless there is a competition or major DX-pedition? Sure looks like it as the bands are open with no activity. Quite sad actually, well maybe SOTA/POTA can add some interest even if it is just local, I need to find something interesting else the hobby will soon go back into hibernation for a few years. I will see how much activity there is for the end of May CQ WW WPX CW contest, if I can keep my own interest up that long......

Update 26/04/2021: The HF bands have been shockingly bad! I do hear DX on 40m in the afternoon but mostly SSB. Conditions are the worst I have heard since 1996. I called CQ on 20 and 15m today. I was spotted (by Skimmer) , with a strong signal, in South America and the far east on 20m but no replies. I think everybody has given up! I did eventually work a AU2 station on 20m CW but his signal was right in the noise.

Locally 40m is wide open most of the day making 5W CW contacts easy. The problem is that there as so few local CW stations. I enjoy a good chat every now and then but it would be nice to not just chat to the same few people every day. In the evenings 80m is open locally but I have not heard any CW activity, only a few groups chatting every night (and in the morning) on SSB.

I am quite keen to go climb a mountain to activate a SOTA peak but I would really love to work some DX from the summit, does not look like that is going to happen soon. We also have some local POTA activity, also fun and at least you do not have to climb a mountain. Will see if there is a park I can activate locally just for fun.

At least some of my other hobbies are more productive! I captured the sunrise below this morning, and yes, I did have to climb a (small) mountain to capture it!

Since the bands are so dead I have been spending some time cleaning up a few old radios and putting them back on the air. The last few days I made QSO's with a FT-901DM, FT-850 and a Kenwood TS-120. They have all been gathering dust for years! Next I want to see if I can get a few sick radios back on the air. This includes an old FT-107M that I suspect has blown finals. I also have a TS-930 that is just dead, pretty sure it is a 5V regulator issue. I also have a pristine FT-990 with a 6V (I think it was 6V) regulator that keeps on blowing, must be a short somewhere. And then there is the beautiful FT-767GX that goes into TX the moment you switch it on and refused to go back to RX.

Sounds like my soldering iron is going to be busy, perfect for the coming winter days that are too cold to go "play" outside!

Update 19/04/2021: We had a small local "Sprint" style contest yesterday, both SSB and CW but only on 40m. I used the opportunity to get to know and test the little R928 Plus. She performed well and I must say the RX is really great even in a crowded band with lots of VERY strong signals. I did struggle a bit competing against many 1kW stations running only 5-7W but is was still fun. It did make me wonder if I should not maybe add a small amplifier, maybe running 50-100W for those days you are out portable or on a SOTA peak and conditions are really bad.

I know this will require more batteries but I would rather have a few QSO's and then the batteries are flat than no QSO's! Especially if I have just climbed a mountain. I have lots of LiPo packs I can use. Will see what I can find.

Yesterday was also World Amateur Radio day so locally 40 and 80m were quite active. I managed to work many SSB and CW stations on the little R928 Plus, must say I have fallen in love with the little radio!

I cannot believe how scarce DX stations are at the moment! I know I do not have my large antennas up yet but band conditions are really bad, plus I think unless there is a contest many guys are hanging out on the FT8 frequencies as I can hear lots of signals there. Someone said a while ago FT8 (and the fully automated operations possible running FT8) is killing amateur radio. I am starting to think that person was correct....

For the last few days my only DX QSO was a LU8 station on 40m CW, times are bad.... I am going to have to think very carefully what my band-contest strategy will be for the coming CQWW WPX CW contest. Maybe I will do 40m, or even 80m only as my noise levels are now so low.

Update 16/04/2021: This morning at about 7am we had a power outage. Since I had just completed my EFLW antenna I decided it was the perfect opportunity to take it out into the garden and test it. I connected 17.5m of wire to the output of the unun and made 8 x 4m radials. The feed side of the antenna was attached to a low branch of a nice shady tree and the other side I ran out to another tree and attached it about 3m above the ground. I wanted it low incase I needed to trim the wire a bit.

The MFJ antenna analizer showed that the antenna had SWR dips at 40m, 20m and very low SWR at 15m but all the dips were just below the bands. I trimmed the wire a bit and tried again. Eventually I removed about 0.5m of the wire, the dips were now inside the bands but other than 15m the SWR was too high to use just like that. I connected a MFJ manual tuner and tuned the antenna, now it was easy to match on all bands.

I experimented a bit with the radials, by far the best result was with the radials attached to the ground lug of the tuner and not to the unun. I then connected my trusty Yaesu FT-817 and listened around a bit. Since it was still early in the morning only 40m showed signs of life. The FT-817 was running from internal batteries so max power out was no more than 2.5W but soon I had made a few QSO's on CW and SSB with good reports. The antenna seems quiet and works better than what I expected after I saw the rather high SWR on most bands. I briefly took the FT-817 inside and connected it to my 40m dipole, the WFLW seemed to give better results, on RX anyway! Maybe I need to check the feed line (rather old) to the dipole, it is MUCH higher than the EFLW so it should produce better results.

Anyway, went outside again and made another QSO. I was just finished when I heard my name being called, not on the radio but from my gate! I was rally glad to see our local courier lady, she had my R928 Plus!

I had it unpacked and running in no time! What a nice little radio! I did disassemble it to check all the solder work. I am glad I did, I found the screws holding the PCB's together were loose to the point of falling out, the PCB's would not have moved but the metal screws could well have caused a short! I also found that the USB-C port had dry solder joints on the shell, this allowed a small amount of movement in the connector that would surely lead to broken connections. I re-soldered this carefully, everything now seems nice and solid!

Once I had it reassembled I ran into a problem. I normal CW key worked fine but when I tried to key the radio from a computer, using a standard interface I have used for 25 years on lots of different radios, I found that as soon as I plugged the interface into the computer the radio would key and not unkey until I unplugged again. I checked all the cables and connectors but no-go. Seems like there is tiny bit of current flowing even when the "contacts" in the keyer (transistor switch) is suppose to be open. It has never bothered and other radio. This is rather frustrating as for contesting I use the N1MM+ logger and the keyer that goes with it,

After testing a few other keyers I decided that this is not going to work without some mods to the radio or the keyer....

But there is another option! You can also key the radio via the USB port, I tried this and everything was up and running.

By now our power was back and I was in the shack playing with the radio and making a few contacts. First impressions are that the RX is really great and it seems nice and selective and not bothered with close-by strong signals. On CW the filters are really nice with steep skirts, far better than most of the other radios in my shack.

I still want to upgrade the firmware to the latest, it has really old firmware and then I want to setup everything from the bias to the EQ and power output on all bands. Talking about bands, this radio has the Si5251a synthesizer so it will go to 6m, I tested it there and it does TX, it might also work on 4m and 2m, it does RX there but I need to check TX, first I want to make sure the bias on the finals and output limits are fine as oscillation could be a problem on the higher bands.

R928 Plus up and running

I think I am going to love this little radio!

Update 14/04/2021: The new R928 Plus did not arrive today as I hoped but I can see on the tracking system that it is close. One of the very few disadvantages of living in a rural area like I do is that "Overnight shipping" can take a few days.

I spent some time this morning cleaning and started assembling my A4S yagi, it has been almost 18 months since I took it down! All seems to be well, I was hoping to assemble it all the way and redo all the measurement but by 10am it was too hot outside to work! Does not feel like it is almost winter! After I abandoned the yagi project I quickly built a 9:1 unun. I want to use it for a EFLW antenna that, if it work well, I hope to use for future portable QRP operations. I did not even put it in a case, want to try it first and only if it works well will I make it a bit neater. With a bit of luck I can test it tomorrow in the garden.

Late afternoon 40m opened locally, during the day I listened a few times on the bands but they were SO dead, not even weak DX! Anyway, had a nice CW chat to a few locals (around 1000km away, the old FT-817 feeding the 40m dipole is still doing the job! Hopefully when the R928 Plus arrives the bands will be in a reasonable condition. At the moment my main shack radios are getting neglected a bit but that is ok, soon we will start preparing for the WPX CW contest.

Update 13/04/2021: Good news! The R928 Plus has been procured and it is on it's way to me! I have been doing a lot of research on the radio and reading manuals and everything I can find on the software.

What I find really exciting is the fact that the firmware is open source. Lots of people are contributing to the project and the radio is really packed with some outstanding features! I will also have a look at the source code and maybe customize it a but to suit me. I will be fun to do some programming and compiling again!

R928 Plus, not my photo!

As soon as the radio is here I will take a few photos and post them here. Then I am going to upgrade the radio to the newest software before I start testing to see if it is all I am hoping it will be. The more I read about this little radio the more I like it! Exciting times ahead, a new "toy" like this might just be what I need to fan the "radio adventure" spark into a fire again! 

Update 12/04/2021: I have been keeping an ear on the bands but conditions are not great. The only interesting station I managed to work was a 5Z in Kenya on 40m CW for a new band/mode slot.

Locally there seems to be a lot of activity on 80 and 40m and even on 60m. I very seldom join in with the chats but I did "force" myself a few times to pick up the mike and chat, was more fun than expected! I have also been working a few local stations every now and then on CW, also fun.

I was surprised at how well my G5RV works on 60m! It is a band that I have never used but it seems to be nice and quiet with little noise but strong signals at my QTH.

I have identified a potential radio that can supplement or replace my FT-817 and give me the more modern features I want. The radio is the mcHF SRD radio or one of the other versions of this radio (it is open source so to call them clones is not correct) that is made in China. I did find a R928+ locally that seems to be a good deal. It is the newer version with 1mb flash memory and an internal Li-on battery, perfect for future upgrades and portable operations.

Let's see if I can secure this radio!

Update 10/04/2021: We had a local QRP contest today. Initially I thought I would just listen out and work a few stations but the thought of a QRP station and specifically a QRP field station brought back some really good memories of past operations and contests. When I was still at school I got my hands on a CQ magazine (the were not available from the local book shop), think it was from a guy at school who's father was a ham. Anyway, on the front cover was a photo of a guy sitting in a dimly lit tent at night with small radio making contacts.

I remember the article going with the photo described making QRP contacts with minimal equipment and talking (CW) to people around the world. I think that photo and article was the main thing that sparked my interest in amateur radio and specifically QRP. I have always been a nature lover and hiking plus camping has always been a favorite past-time for me. So combining hiking + camping with amateur radio was a natural thing.

Anyway, back to the present. I have not taken a radio into the bush with me for many years, lots of reasons for that including health and lots of work pressure but things have changed for the better so I an really excited to do it again.

I did use my FT-817 over the weekend, it is a great little radio but I do miss some features that I know more modern radios have. One of the main things is a spectrum display, yes, I know it does not really fit in with the minimal equipment QRP way of thinking but time has moved on and so should we. What I really missed was the ability to see activity away from my current frequency. This allows you to see and QSY to a new station when you see home and not spending most of your time turning the VFO dial up and down the band.

So the question is what is available that is small and light enough to work for me?

I did also notice that my old fan dipole for 40/20/10 is not really working that well anymore, at the moment 10m and even 20m is useless most of the time so I need something that will cover 80/40/20 and maybe 15 and 10 if needed. I know this might need a small tuner but I am ok with that.

Time to do some research.....

Update 07/04/2021: I got up early this morning hoping for a nice sunrise to go and shoot a YouTube video, alas it was not meant to be as the predicted clouds never materialized. I then listened around the bands and found a nice pile-up caused by C92RU on 80m. I was quite surprised to work him after only a few calls running 5W CW into my 89m dipole!

I did hear him later during the day on 21MHz as well but the signal was really low so I had no chance, maybe tomorrow?

This evening he was just above the noise on 40m, I think I switched on a bit late as the band was already closing. He had a HUGE unruly pile-up from EU, I am sure he was not having fun, lots of LIDS in the bunch when kept on calling, tuning, not running split etc.. Anyway, it took me a while but I did eventually managed to work him before the band closed. I think both 40 and 80m CW contacts are new QRP band/slots for me. At least the bands are not totally dead!

Will be on the air again tomorrow, also still have a IC-738 and a FT-990 to sort out as well. The IC-738 should be easy but the FT-990 developed a short somewhere on the 5V line after plugging in a CW key while the radio was on, now the 5V regulator keeps on dying. It is an old but nice radio with great filters so I would love to get it going again.

Update 06/04/2021: I spent some time today working on a few radios that have been in the "radios with issues" pile. The first one, a Yaesu FT-901DM from my antique radio collection just needed a decent cleanup, mostly the switches, did a quick align and all was well. The RX is amazingly good for it's age and a lot quitter than some modern radios. I am glad I have to old lady going again, will use it on the AWA net this weekend if conditions allow.

Next up was a Kenwood TS-930S also from the classic radio collection. This radio had had an intermittent problem with the PLL unlocking when it get's hot. I have reset the PLL voltages a few times but the issue kept coming back. Today I found a few dry solder joints. The era Kenwood radios (930/940/950) really have dry-joint issues! I found documentation from Kenwood showing lots of through-plate issues on the PCB's! I managed to get it going again and used to chat to some guys on 80m for about 2 hours. All seemed well. Shortly after saying 73 it died again! This time no display at all! Well, I have had enough of it for now, back to the "trouble makers" pile it goes, maybe sometime in the future when I am bored.

Next up was an Icom IC-728, got it as part of some deal a few years ago but never used it. When it gets hot the frequency will suddenly jump 0.5Hz up. Went through the checks but could not find any problem. I then noticed that when this happens if you toggle side-band it is fine again. I cleaned the side-band switch but I am not convinced that is the problem. Will watch it for a while. Problem is I never use it for long, I really dislike the radio, the RX is pathetic and the filters non-existent. I just want to make sure it is ok before I dispose it.

Update 05/04/2021: I spent quite a bit of time listening around the bands the last two days and I must say it is rather disappointing! When there is a contest I do hear signals but mostly quite weak, when there is no contest the bands are dead. This solar minimum is really a bad one! Yes, there are some local stations chatting on 40m and 80m but that is not really my thing! I love working DX but these days the pickings are slim. Yes, I could use FT8 but that is so boring I would rather do something else.

If things do not improve in the next day or so I think I will disconnect everything again and put the station in hibernation for another year or so......I am quite sad actually, yesterday was fun and I was all fired up to get really active again, but it was only local and the bands are as bad as they were a year ago.

Update 04/04/2021: Yesterday we had a RADAR contest, (Rapid Deployment Amateur Radio) I volunteered to be one of the monitor stations, the idea is that you monitor a single frequency and answer calls from the moving stations. They make 5 contacts from a location then they have to move a prescribed minimum distance. You can find more information and the rules here: http://radarops.co.za/index.php/radar-rules/

The plan was that most stations would be active from 14h00 to 18h00 local time but there could be a few outside that window. I ended up monitoring most of the day but the band (40m) was quiet. After 14h00 things started picking up, first a few very weak CW stations, most of the time in the noise but conditions slowly improved and by 15h30 there were quite a few CW and SSB stations around.

I volunteered to monitor both a CW and a SSB frequency, this turned out to be fun especially towards the end when both frequencies became busy.

I decided to use the IC-7610 in "Dual watch" mode, I have not really used the radio much in the past so I decided it will be a good opportunity to get to know it since I am planning on competing in the CQ WW WPX CW contest end of May. I need to decide what radio to use long before then and use it for a while since I have not really been active for so long. Well, the IC-7610 did well, I am more than happy with the performance.

Icom IC-7610 in action

Dual frequency/mode operation

I have not decided on what band/bands to compete in the WPX contest but at the moment I am considering a 40m only QRP entry. My logic is that it will allow me to add to my DXCC 40m totals (much needed!) and because there will only be band openings around sunrise/sunset it will limit the time I need to spend in the contest, I do not really feel like a 48 hour contest at the moment!

I will keep an eye on conditions on 40m, if conditions are bad as we get closer to the contest I might change to a different band or even all bands if conditions are really bad.

Well, I really had fun in the RADAR contest and it has re-awakened my love for  amateur radio, CW and contesting, thanks Eddie (ZS6BNE)! Maybe I will try being a mobile/portable station for the next RADAR challenge, sounds like fun.

Update 02/04/2021: Seems like I have neglected updating this page for such a long time! Shame on me..... I have not been very active for the last year or so. Band conditions have been really poor so I have changed my focus to other hobbies but I have been switching on the radios every now and then and even made a few contacts. With the first sunspots of the new cycle starting to appear I cleaned up my shack today and redid some wiring. I now need to het some better antennas up in the air.

I did put up the 80m antenna I was planning as well as a few other wire antennas including my trusty G5RV. Suddenly making 80m contacts are a lot easier and I even added a new DXCC entity on 80m without even trying. Think I will concentrate on 80m this coming winter!

I am planning on competing in the CQ WW WPX CW contest end of May, I am not sure what bands yet but I might just go for 40m or even 80m simply to boost my DXCC standings on this bands. Let's see how preparations goes....

I have been making a few FT8 contacts out of desperation on the dead bands but I have to admit I find it totally boring and after a few FT8 contacts I seldom switch the radio on for quite a while, it actually dampens my enthusiasm for ham radio.

While dusting off equipment today I put the old FT-1000MP mk5 on the air, the first time in a year and what a pleasure it is listening to the analog RX, think it is time I add a few classic radios to my collection.

Update 26/01/2020: I have been spending time slowly getting the shack sorted out. I am still waiting for shelving to be installed so the radios are simply stacked but it is functional at the moment.

I have been making a few CW contacts, mostly local as I still only have a 40m dipole up but I hope to change that today. Band conditions are rather poor so I am in no mayor hurry to get the yagi's up for the higher bands. At the moment I am having fun on 40m and hopefully I will have a 80m antenna up soon, something I have not had for many years!

The local CW interest group led by Mike ZS6MSW had an activity period yesterday from 4-5pm local time on 40m, I managed to make a few contacts. great to hear so many local CW stations on the air!

The ZS2M call is slowly but surely starting to sound right on CW but I still have to stop myself from sending ZS6DX every now and then! More than 20 years of sending ZS6DX will take a while to unlearn....

As I am slowly unpacking radios and connecting them up I am trying to give them all some airtime, fun as I have not used quite a few of my radios on the air for many years! This morning I connected up the Yeasu FT-1000MP MK-V and tried it on the air. What a nice surprise! I have forgotten what a nice radio it is and how effective the filters are on CW, the APF filter is really great and still better than many modern SDR based radios. I am glad I added the old beast to the collection after my original FT-1000MP expired.

Update 10/01/2020: The furniture has arrived and along with it the antennas and coax. We are still waiting for the truck with the vehicles...
I am still waiting for my tower(s) to be installed but I have managed to get a pole up about 8m high with a 40m dipole, I will add other dipoles soon. The first few contacts have been made with the ZS2M call, mostly CW with a few FT8 contacts to check propagation.

Noise levels in general are quite a bit down compared to the city, that is great news! Now I need to get more antennas in the air. The shack is also still a mess, at the moment it is only one radio, a Yaesu FT-950 on a desk in a room full of boxes! Things will improve with time.

Update 01/01/2020: We have finally moved! Well, kind of, still waiting for the furniture and motor vehicle truck to arrive, that should happen around 9 January. Busy getting the house ready for the unpacking job, unfortunately no time for amateur radio yet, but soon....