Amateur Radio

[HeavyDuty]

I broke down and ordered a uSDR+ with internal battery.

[mtnbkr]

I broke down and ordered a uSDR+ with internal battery.

Now get it on the air!

BTW, I routinely work and am worked by a ham in NH, AC1Z, even when he's running at 5w from a summit (we're both into SOTA).

Chris

[HeavyDuty]

Now get it on the air!

BTW, I routinely work and am worked by a ham in NH, AC1Z, even when he's running at 5w from a summit (we're both into SOTA).

Chris

That’s the plan! I’ll probably start out playing with it and my AX2 on a tabletop, I just need a little antenna tuner.

[mtnbkr]

That’s the plan! I’ll probably start out playing with it and my AX2 on a tabletop, I just need a little antenna tuner.

What I did when using the MFJ whips (the Elecraft AX-2 will respond roughly the same) with my Yaesu 817 is to adjust the length of the whip and monitoring the SWR meter. The adjustments were fairly small, a few fractions of an inch. My buddy, who uses an 818 and the same whips, does the same. No tuner required. If the radio does not have an SWR meter, there are a couple SWR indicator kits (I have this one: http://www.qrpkits.com/ezseries.html#ezswr) that will work if you are using a tripod mount for the whip.

Or, you can roughly tune via "noise". Just adjust the whip for maximum "white noise" on an unused frequency and that will get you close.

Apologies if I'm mansplaining how to adjust an antenna.

Chris

[HeavyDuty]

What I did when using the MFJ whips (the Elecraft AX-2 will respond roughly the same) with my Yaesu 817 is to adjust the length of the whip and monitoring the SWR meter. The adjustments were fairly small, a few fractions of an inch. My buddy, who uses an 818 and the same whips, does the same. No tuner required. If the radio does not have an SWR meter, there are a couple SWR indicator kits (I have this one: http://www.qrpkits.com/ezseries.html#ezswr) that will work if you are using a tripod mount for the whip.

Or, you can roughly tune via "noise". Just adjust the whip for maximum "white noise" on an unused frequency and that will get you close.

Apologies if I'm mansplaining how to adjust an antenna.

Chris

Pretty much how I used to do it with a radio that has robust foldback protection, but these uSDRs have a rep for toasting finals in high SWR situations. I’ll have to see if the radio has a tune function, if it does I’ll try the tune-length-for-noise method. Or, I’ll just grab one of my wire dipoles and drive on until I figure out the tuner situation. QRP Guys used to make a little 10 or 15 through 40 tuner kit that would work.

I remember someone made a cute little manual QRP tuner with a collapsable whip, it was a project box flat its back with a BNC and knobs on the flat face. I need to look around, I’ve gotten spoiled by my KX3’s ATU and the relative robustness of my monoband CW kit radios.

(Edit) That SWR indicator you linked may be a good solution, and useful for other situations too. Ordered - thank you!

[mtnbkr]

Pretty much how I used to do it with a radio that has robust foldback protection, but these uSDRs have a rep for toasting finals in high SWR situations. I’ll have to see if the radio has a tune function, if it does I’ll try the tune-length-for-noise method. Or, I’ll just grab one of my wire dipoles and drive on until I figure out the tuner situation. QRP Guys used to make a little 10 or 15 through 40 tuner kit that would work.

I remember someone made a cute little manual QRP tuner with a collapsable whip, it was a project box flat its back with a BNC and knobs on the flat face. I need to look around, I’ve gotten spoiled by my KX3’s ATU and the relative robustness of my monoband CW kit radios.

(Edit) That SWR indicator you linked may be a good solution, and useful for other situations too. Ordered - thank you!

If that QRP Guys tuner is the one I'm thinking of, I had the same type from QRPKits (same folks that make the SWR indicator I linked to). That's a great little tuner. I used it with my 817. It does 15, 17, 20, and 40. There's also an 80m version. Like yourself, I'm spoiled by the ATU in my KX2.

Chris

[HeavyDuty]

Found the tuner I was thinking about: Emtech ZM-2

https://steadynet.com/emtech/zm2-pre...bnc-connectors

[mtnbkr]

Found the tuner I was thinking about: Emtech ZM-2

https://steadynet.com/emtech/zm2-pre...bnc-connectors

That's a good one. I built and used one of those for most of the time I owned the 817 (roughly 14 years). When I sold the 817, I sold the tuner to my buddy who continues to use it (though he just got the QRPKits SOTA tuner to reduce weight/bulk).

That said, knowing what I know now, I'd probably build a linked or trapped EFHW on a 1:49 or 1:64 transformer and do away with the tuner altogether.

Chris

[HeavyDuty]

That's a good one. I built and used one of those for most of the time I owned the 817 (roughly 14 years). When I sold the 817, I sold the tuner to my buddy who continues to use it (though he just got the QRPKits SOTA tuner to reduce weight/bulk).

That said, knowing what I know now, I'd probably build a linked or trapped EFHW on a 1:49 or 1:64 transformer and do away with the tuner altogether.

Chris

You really are a bad influence.

I went ahead and ordered one - I’d like to use it with the small verticals I already have for fast setup without looking for trees. The AX1 and AX2, but also the wander lead multibander I have. There are times wires are too much of a pain for super casual ops.

Also, I just found out about POTA - that’s more my speed right now, the ankle and knee has really limited my off the flats mobility. I can see doing POTA activations on weekend days.

[HeavyDuty]

I got the TX-500. It arrived at the house a couple weeks ago. I'm a long TDY and haven't been home to try it out yet. I'm hoping for some 6m SOTA QSOs but I've heard 6m is difficult at best.

I’m really looking forward to hearing how you like it once you’re back. It attracted my attention when first announced, it has a lot of very nice features.