Code rehab forever - Make CW a 2nd language
The last one! The Villages, FL to KL7AC in North Pole, AK, about 3712 miles (1,030 miles/watt)
Using my tiny QMX transceiver – 3.6 watts – 10M CW – TW2010 antenna
THANKS Andre! That brought me to 49 states + DC, all POTA contacts, all CW, all QRP.
While not technically on the coast, my QTH in Central Florida is on a peninsula hanging out into the Atlantic Ocean, and the other end of these QSOs is in a Pacific Palisades costal park in Oregon. I had 2 CW QSOs with Zack, K7FC, who was in the Oregon Coast State Trail park, US-10007, along the coast west of Salem. One was on 15m, the other a few minutes later on 20m. Zach reported the 15m QSO was the stronger one. Distance calculations show that to be 2533 miles, 4076 km, as the radio waves fly. The fun part was making these QSOs using 2-3 watts with a quirky little orange radio.
Every review I’ve read about the (tr)uSDX radio praises how much function is packed into a tiny package. It’s a 5 watt, 5 band, multimode radio developed by 2 hams, DL2MAN and PE1NNZ. Nearly all reviews praise good performance, but complain of poor quality audio and quirky audio behavior. Much of that criticism stems from a miniscule “emergency use only” speaker coupled with a design deficiency which allows unexpected audio overdrive, squeal, in certain situations. I complete the name “Quirky Lil Orange” with that color because mine is housed in a printed case that is indeed very orange.
I like building things. So, I built the “High Band” version of the radio which operates on the 20M, 17M, 15M, 12M, 10M bands. Information about the radio warns of lower performance on the higher bands, but they are exactly why I wanted it. Yes, performance / output is lower, in the 2 to 3 watt neighborhood, but experience, like the Oregon QSOs, shows me that sheer power isn’t everything.
Now, about the audio quirks… The squeal monster is uncaged when the audio level is at or above 12 (out of 16). Avoid the problem by staying at or below volume level 12 … and not hearing weak signals. My answer is to use headphones, which is what I prefer anyway. I bump up the volume with an inline eSynic (quirky spelling) headphone amplifier (NOT an affiliate link). For power, I use a Talentcell 12.6v Lithium Ion battery (also NOT an affiliate link). Not liking to string all the parts out in a chain across a table, and since they’re all similar sizes, I used a couple of velcro strips to bundle them together in a sandwich. Neat, and compact. A little stick of nice mahogany held in place with double sided tape makes the kickstand.
For the record, since the (tr)uSDX offers so many measurements, here are power outputs it reports for the various bands today. As an aside, tedious tweaking of the torroids can offer slight changes.
| 20M | 2.32 watts |
| 17M | 2.31 watts |
| 15M | 3.45 watts |
| 12M | 2.69 watts |
| 10M | 3.65 watts |
Those who have tripped across my QRZ page know that my primary interests are QRP, CW and POTA (Parks On The Air). It’s also true that I’m in perpetual CW rehab, which is coming along more slowly than I would like. Some of that might be due to my addiction as a POTA hunter. For an old ham returning to the hobby after a 30+ year lapse, and trying to relearn CW the right way, POTA is an easy entry point. The protocol for POTA is very simple (I need simple) and brief. It is almost spoils one because the 2 most important things one need listen for is their own callsign and a signal report. Know when someone is answering you and know that right after the signal report it’s your turn to send the expected reply. The good news is that I’ve become comfortable with POTA to the tune of about 1200 QSOs over the past 6 months. The bad news is that my CW comprehension is slowly improving, but not as much as I would like.
A while ago I made a determination to do 2 things (1) break out of my “POTA plateau” into other types of CW exchanges, and (2) apply to get into a CWInnovations class. Both were involved in a strange QSO I had today.
There weren’t many activators in parks today, and after I worked all that I could hear, I wandered around looking for other activity. I heard K3Y/4 on 20M at about 21:00z this afternoon, and answered. I foolishly answered in POTA style with only my callsign and was pleasantly surprised to hear a return. That’s where “pleasant” ended. I suddenly realized “Ohhhhh, this is a special events station… and I don’t know the protocol.” The response was coming quickly now (did I mention I need comprehension improvement?) It slowly sank in that K3Y was part of the month long event for the Straight Key Century Club, SKCC. … and my cheat sheet for SKCC exchanges wasn’t within reach. I fumbled terribly through QTH and RST information and then heard the respondent send a string of numbers (among other stuff that I missed). Numbers? Oh yeah; that must be their SKCC membership number. I have one of those, remembered it, and sent it off. We managed to close the QSO peacefully, but I thought it a very ragged mess on my part. I missed a lot, and fumbled a lot.
OK. So, who was that person behind the K3Y/4 callsign? Digging around enough in the K3Y website one can find a schedule of operators for the event. Hmmmm, let’s see… 20:00z to 22:00z on Jan 10 K3Y/4 is operated by K04WFP, Teri Beard. YIKES!!! Teri is one of my CW coaches on an upcoming CWInnovations class.
Great goin’ Bob, what a way to have a first QSO with a future coach!
I should also note that I violated one of my own practices. I failed to listen first, to get an idea from the previous QSOs of how they go. Many say part of learning is being uncomfortable. Been there, done that.