QRP – Page 2 – M0AWS Amateur Radio

2 May 20225 May 2022

Begali Pearl Twin Paddle Morse Key

After my disappointment with the Vine RST-TP1 twin paddle that I bought and subsequently returned to Martin Lynch and Sons due to the poor build quality and finish I continued my hunt for a morse key.

During my conversation with Tony, the sales manager at ML&S one thing he did say to me was that if I was really serious about morse code then there really was only one key to buy these days, a Begali from Italy.

Morse Code has always been my main mode ever since I passed my 12wpm morse test and obtained my M0AWS A class licence, it’s a mode I dearly love and get a huge amount of pleasure from. (It also helps to keep the little grey cells alive in retirement!)

So without delay I googled the Begali website and started looking at their offerings.

Begali do a fine range of twin paddle keys starting from €131.00 +VAT and shipping right up to almost €700+VAT and shipping, far more than I wanted to spend.

Having spent almost £180.00 inc VAT and shipping for the Vine RST-TP1 and being extremely disappointed with it I decided to spend a little more to ensure I bought something of quality that was going to last.

After much research and emails back and forth with Bruna at Begali I decided to buy the Begali Pearl in Palladium and Gold with red paddles.

My Begali Pearl with Palladium base, gold top and red paddles, a thing of beauty

A couple of weeks after ordering the key arrived hassle free, a miracle considering the hassle Brexit has caused with import and export of goods between the U.K. and Europe.

Bruna at Begali assured me that they had a system in place that takes care of all the import taxes etc and that the delivery process would be smooth and trouble free, and indeed it was!

Upon opening the box I was taken by the sheer beauty of the key, beautifully finished, perfectly put together and well engineered. I knew this was going to be a pleasure to use before I’d even touched the paddles!

Being left handed I’ve had to setup both my Yaesu FTDX10 and Icom IC-705 such that the dit and dah are reversed on the paddles but, once done I felt at home with the key very quickly.

Having been out of the hobby for some 15 years my morse is a little rusty so I set about doing a fair bit of listening before trying to work stations. To my surprise I was soon decoding stations at 20wpm in my head albeit with a little more thought than it used to take but, accurate enough to have a go at working a few stations.

Working CW stations on 20m with the Begali Pearl Twin Paddle and Icom IC-705

Using the key is pure delight, it’s light to the touch, responsive, infinitely adjustable, comfortable and a joy to use. I knew right away that I had made the right decision.

At 1.7kg it’s a heavy key which ensures it doesn’t move around the desk no matter how hard you lean on it. I find the key really relaxing to use as it only needs a gentle touch to bring the contacts together. Adjustment is super accurate thanks to the very fine threaded adjuster screws that have been beautifully machined.

It’s clear from the moment you get a Begali Pearl out of the box that it has been made with care and pride, something that is a rarity today.

Laser engraving on the Begali Pearl Twin Paddle Morse Key

I’ve decided that this key is going to be my main station key and will spend most of it’s life connected to my Yaesu FTDX10 radio, that means I need another key to go into my portable case with my IC-705. I’ve already made the decision what it’s going to be, of course it’ll be another Begali, the Simplex Basic Twin Paddle.

I’ll be putting the order in very soon Bruna!

More soon ….

26 April 202226 April 2022

A little IC-705/AH-705 fun

I spent some time this morning in the garden with the Icom IC-705/AH-705 combo connected to my End Fed Half Wave (EFHW) vertical for the 30m band. This is a great antenna that works superbly on the 30m band. Being a resonant half wave fed via a 49:1 Unun it doesn’t require any ATU inline normally and so it’s quick and easy to use with any radio.

Today I decided to disconnect and remove the 49:1 Unun and hook up the Icom AH-705 instead. I thought it would be an interesting exercise to see how well it handled the EFHW vertical on both 30m and the other bands.

Icom AH-705 connected to the 30m Band EFHW Vertical Antenna

I purchased a couple of 5m leads for the AH-705 so that I could setup the radio on the picnic table in the garden and be a comfortable distance from the antenna. They worked great and allow me to use the radio in the spring/summer sun with ease.

Icom IC-705 setup on the picnic table in the garden

The little AH-705 remote auto ATU really does work well with the IC-705. Each time you change bands all you have to do is give a quick press of the PTT on the mic and it automagically goes into tune mode and matches the antenna to the 50 Ohm radio in seconds.

I was was really pleased to see that the AH-705 ATU matched the EFHW Vertical for 30m on the 80m, 60m, 40m, 30m and 20m bands with a perfect 1:1 SWR. With the antenna consisting of 14.81m of wire this makes it somewhat short of a 1/4 wave on the 80m band and I’m not too sure how well it will work. On the 40m band it is a 3/8 wave antenna so should work well. It’s a 1/4 wave on the 60m band and of course a half wave on 30m band as per it’s original design. On the 20m band it is just under 3/4 wavelength long so hopefully should work reasonably well. Of course it won’t be as good as my 20m band EFHW Vertical that has a much lower angle of radiation but, will make an interesting comparison.

The antenna also tunes up nicely on all the other higher bands including the WARC bands. On 17m it is getting close to a full wave length and on 15m it is just over a full wavelength and so should work fairly well on these two bands albeit with a higher than optimal angle of maximum radiation.

On the 12m band it is 1.25 wavelengths long and of course on the 10m band it is almost 1.5 wavelengths long. I’m not sure how well it is going to work on these two higher bands but, for a 14.81m long piece of wire it certainly gives me a good chance on a wide spectrum of frequencies.

30m Band EFHW Vertical Antenna in the breeze

The bands weren’t in particularly good shape this morning but, I found some SSB signals on the 20m band and so decided to see if I could make some contacts.

First contact was with S51DX in Slovenia. He was using 1kw into a 5 element beam pointed pretty much directly at me. The little IC-705 S meter took a pounding with him peaking +30db over S9 most of the time. I was really pleased to get a 5/9 report from him using just 5w from the IC-705 on the standard 7v battery. Of course his station was doing all the work but, it’s good to take advantage of these big stations when running QRP power levels.

Next I had a QSO with John, EA7JUR in Almeria Spain. But this time the battery on the IC-705 was pretty much exhausted and so I hooked it up to the 12v supply to get it charging whilst I was on air. This of course gave me the ability to increase my O/P power by 100% to a massive 10w!

I wasn’t so strong at John’s end, only getting 5/5 report at best whilst he was 5/5-5/9 with me with some QSB. John was using a mini beam antenna again pointed towards me so once again all the work was being done at his end. We had a good chat for a number of minutes until it was time for lunch.

Listening on the 40m band I did hear a very interesting station, KN6IPA/Aeronautical-Mobile. Justin, KN6IPA is part of the crew on a USAF KC135 air-to-air refuelling tanker that flies out of RAF Lakenheath in the U.K. He was transmitting from the aircraft whilst in flight over Germany. His signal was between 5/9 and 5/9+20dB on my vertical antenna and had a massive pileup of people calling him from all over Europe.

I did try calling him with my punchy 10w of power but, couldn’t compete with the huge pileup of very loud, powerful stations all incessantly calling. It was really interesting to just sit back and listen to Justin’s information. He was using 300w into a wire antenna that runs from the fuselage to the vertical stabiliser. Of course being so high up he had a massive advantage and could be heard for hundreds of miles with ease, hence every one and their dog was calling him.

Photo of the KC135 tanker that KN6IPA was transmitting from courtesy of his QRZ.COM page

If you look closely at the photo above of the KC135 that Justin is a crew member on you can just make out the wire antenna on the vertical stabiliser.

I have to admit that I would love to spend a few hours on the radio aboard the KC135 whilst it was flying around, just imagine the DX you could work!

More soon …

20 April 202225 April 2022

IC-705 and EFHW Vertical for 20m = DX

My IC-705 and AH-705 arrived today from ML&S, I wasted no time getting it hooked up to an antenna and started working my way through the manual getting to know the menu system.

After a few hours tinkering I piped up on 20m SSB and worked a couple of stations with ease using 10w. No problems getting through and to my surprise got a 5/9 report from both stations.

Later in the evening I decided to give it a go on 20m FT8 using just 5w O/P using the battery on the back of the radio that was now fully charged. It’s interesting to note that I didn’t need any drivers on my MacBook Pro to use the CAT and Audio via USB on the IC-705. It was simply plug and go. Much easier than it was with the FTDX10.

There was a fair amount of DX about on 20m including a few stations from Australia and Japan. I never managed to get a response back from either but, PSKReporter was showing that I was heard!

PSKReporter showing M0AWS being heard by BG7BDB

I also noticed that a station in China was hearing me too. BG7BDB in LinXiang City reported hearing me at -17dB. I quickly hunted around the waterfall and found him and gave a call.

To my amazement he came straight back to me and we exchanged SNR reports, 73 and he was in the log.

Looking at my WSJT-X log the distance to BG7BDB is 5467 Miles, at 5w O/P that equates to 0.91mW/Mile!

FT8 really is an impressive mode, it allows QRP stations to work the DX that just wouldn’t be possible on SSB. I have to say I’m really impressed with the Icom IC-705. The receiver and filtering isn’t as good as my Yaesu FTDX10 but, it’s an impressive little package. Portable operations with this radio is going to be a lot of fun!

More soon …

19 April 202220 April 2022

Something for the weekend?

Since purchasing the Yaesu FTDX10 and getting some wire into the air I’ve been working DX all over the world with ease. So far I’ve not exceeded 25w total output and yet I’ve worked as far as Australia, South America and West Coast USA and Canada. I’m often found to be using far less than 25w, even 5w on the 60m band is a huge amount of fun!

The FTDX10 has an incredible receiver, the best I have ever owned, for the money it really is an amazing bit of kit. The only thing about it that doesn’t work for me is the size when trying to go portable. It’s just a tad too big and requires a huge battery to power it. I love everything else about the FTDX10 apart from this one thing.

So, with the FTDX10 now being the prime shack radio I decided to look into a solution for portable operations. There are many options available today from the cheap Chinese made radios to the old reliable FT817/818 (which I used to own and had a lot of fun with) through to a multitude of newer, more modern full functionality radios. We are truly spoilt for choice these days!

One radio I have read a lot about is the Icom IC-705, it’s an incredibly feature packed little radio with a max output of 10w that covers 160m all the way up to 70cms. With its large super clear colour touch screen and easy swap battery solution it ticks all the boxes.

Icom IC-705 Portable HF/VHF/UHF Transceiver

One thing many people complain about is the fact that the IC-705 doesn’t have a built in ATU. This has never bothered me as I am a firm believer that the ATU should be at the antenna and not in the radio at the end of a long coax run. Running various antenna models on my EzNEC software has shown that keeping the ATU at the antenna is by far the best solution.

Of course Icom have this covered with their AH-705 remote auto ATU that’s specifically designed to compliment the IC-705. Powered by just two AA batteries and utilising latching relays the unit is both very quick to tune and uses next to no power at all, ideal for those Parks on the Air (POTA) or in my case, Beaches on the Air (BOTA) activations.

Being a quality Icom product the AH-705 isn’t cheap, at £299.99 it’s actually one of the most expensive auto ATUs available for the IC-705.

The other thing I wanted was some kind of stand for the IC-705 that would allow me to angle the radio such that the display and controls are always easily useable. On the ML&S site I found a nifty little tripod that will do the job nicely and so, that had to be included in the bundle.

Fortunately for me the AH-705 was on special offer over the Easter Bank Holiday with 40% off making it the same price as the cheaper MAT tuner from china.

So I have now ordered an IC-705, matching AH-705 and the tripod all for the bundle price of £1504.87 including VAT, I even got free shipping thrown in too!

So that leaves just one more thing that I need to complete my radio solution, a morse key!

Having sold my Schurr Profi II Twin Paddle key (Been kicking myself ever since!!) a few years ago when I decided to take a break from radio I’m now in the position of not owning a morse key.

I did order a Vine Antenna RST-TP1 key from ML&S but, that had to go back (There’ll be an article about it coming very soon!) and so, I decided to spend a bit more and get a much better quality key.

Talking to many people online and Tony at ML&S it’s apparent that the Begali Morse keys are some of the best available these days. Looking on the Begali website they certainly have a great selection of high quality keys available, some for much more than I want to spend.

So after much consideration I decided to purchase a Begali Pearl Twin Paddle Morse key in Palladium and Gold with red paddles. It’s a super looking key and gets great write ups. It’s also their biggest seller, that says a lot.

More soon …

14 April 202214 April 2022

HMQ Platinum Jubilee NoV

During the month of June 2022 U.K. radio HAMs will be able to use the “Q” regional secondary locator in their callsigns to celebrate Her Majesty the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.

I now have my notice of variation (NOV) for my HAM Radio licence that will allow me to use the callsign of MQ0AWS throughout the month of June 2022.

I’ll be active on all HF bands using CW and FT4/8 mostly. I may do some SSB on 40/60m depending on how it goes.

I’m hoping many stations world wide will want to contact the GQ/MQ/2Q stations throughout the celebration period and that you’ll all be able to collect the 70 necessary callsigns and contacts to win an RSGB certificate.

I will be logging all contacts on EQSL.CC at the end of June 2022.

More information is available on the RSGB website.

I look forward to using the MQ callsign and hope to have many pileups on the bands!

More soon …

26 January 202229 January 2022

Fun evening on 30m FT8

I spent yesterday evening on the 30m band running WSJT-X in FT8 mode whilst getting to know the new radio. I must say I am impressed with the Yaesu FTDX10, the receiver really is extremely good at pulling out the weakest of stations.

WSJT-X in FT8 mode running on my MacBook Pro

I have a very simple setup at the moment, just the one antenna for 30m currently so I don’t have a lot of bands available. Hopefully this will change in the coming months as I work on building a new multi band antenna for the station.

I’m still getting to know WSJT-X and FT8, it’s a new mode for me and quite different to how things were 15 years ago when I was last active.

With a little perseverance I soon got the hang of it and was working stations with ease. I’m very much a wait and pounce type DXer, so my QSO turn over is low but, I get the stations I want to work rather than just a multitude of European stations who are all on my doorstep.

It was interesting to watch the band conditions change as the grey line moved across the Atlantic. One by one countries further west started popping up on the band.

At 18:00GMT PSKReporter was showing mainly the multitude of European stations running FT8 on 30m with the Azore and Canary Islands starting to appear along with a couple of stations from the East Coast USA.

As the grey line continued west more and more DX stations started to appear including a station in South Africa. I worked a bunch of stations in the Ukraine and Russia and then started picking off the stations in the USA one by one.

30m FT8 all stations heard (Screenshot taken next day)

By the end of the evening there were stations from South America and the Caribbean coming through. I spent over an hour trying to work CO8LY in Cuba, he was coming in at -10dB at my end but, sadly he never heard my 15w signal. I did try splitting the RX and TX frequency in WSJT-X so that my signal was to the side of the pileup but alas I never got through. Later in the evening I found CO8LY calling CQ over and over but, once again he never heard my replies. A real shame as it’s rare to hear Cuba over here on the East Coast of the U.K.

At 22:30GMT I closed the station down and headed to bed, I didn’t work a huge number of stations but, I had a lot of fun chasing the ones I wanted to get.

It’s interesting to note that the closest stations worked was 800 miles away, I think that is the first hop for my 30m Delta Loop Antenna. With the antenna being so quiet on receive and the FTDX10 having such a good receiver, it was very easy to pick out the stations 2000 miles or more away from my QTH. Most of the time I was able to exchange signal reports with stations that I called. It’s impressive to be able to exchange reports with stations that are -18dB or more below the noise level.

RUMlogNG List of stations worked on 30m FT8 mode

It was nice to get into Lebanon and Israel, two countries that have always been difficult to get into from my U.K. QTH.

A total of 20 stations worked, not a huge count but, it gave me some time to get used to the radio and it’s settings.

I also had a tune around 40m, the FT8 section was packed with stations from all over the world. I can’t wait to get onto 40m, it’s one of my favourite bands and I’m hoping to be able to work some good DX with QRP power levels.

I also listened on 80m and 160m, both were very active with mainly European stations on FT8 and SSB.

With my roll of coax arriving today I’l spend some time putting together a new coaxial run to the antenna and start working on an LC tuning unit for the new vertical I’m designing.

More soon …

18 January 202219 January 2022

First time on air in 15 years!

I had a fun couple of hours this afternoon. I found my 30m band Delta Loop antenna packed away in the loft, got it out and put it up in the garden, 1.2:1 SWR across the band and I was soon listening to Morse conversations on the band.

Connecting my MacBook Pro to the Yaesu FTDX10 I soon had WSJT-X FT8 mode running and started working a few stations. I found I needed to reduce the output from the Apple MacBook so that the ALC on the radio barely moved, this tidied up the transmitted signal and ensured I wasn’t splattering. Setting the radio O/P to 10w my first contact was into Cyprus, followed by a couple of contacts into Ukraine.

One thing I did notice was how strong many of the signals were. I’m sure some operators are using huge power levels on the FT8 part of the band with some of the signals +10db or more over S9. FT8 is supposed to be a weak signal mode, there really is no need for huge power levels. The funny thing is, many of these high powered stations are heard by DX stations but, they don’t hear the them coming back to them, classic case of shouting louder than they can hear. There really is no point being heard if your station isn’t capable of hearing the replies coming back.

I’d forgotten how good my Delta Loop antennas are, super quiet on receive and great for finding weak signals on the band.

I checked the PSK Reporter site to see where I’d been heard and was pleasantly surprised to see I was heard in Australia! I did call an Australian station but, never got a reply from him, so it was great to get confirmation that my signal was making the trip.

PSK Reporter showing where my signal was heard

Due to the direction of my garden the antenna is beaming north west / south east, long path to Australia. It’s amazing how 10w of RF can cover almost 9000 miles!

So what next?

Well, I need to purchase some coaxial cable as the bits I have from France have gone stiff/brittle and really are past their shelf life.

I also need to buy some wire to start making some antennas. I’m going to put together a top loaded vertical for the 160/80/40m bands and some delta loops for the higher bands.

I’m also going to make some end fed half wave verticals for 20m and upwards.

Lots to do, if only the weather would improve!

More soon …

2 January 20228 February 2023

New Radio

Sometime back I decided to sell all my HAM radio equipment as I’d completely lost interest in the hobby and decided to utilise the money to build a custom motorcycle. (Yes I build and ride motorcycles http://www.trailsoftheunexpected.co.uk ). Selling all the equipment raised a few thousand pounds which covered the cost of building the motorcycle.

So after a 10+ year break from HAM radio I’ve decided to get back into it, this means I need to buy a transceiver. The HAM radio market has changed considerably over the time I’ve been away from the hobby and there are a lot more manufacturers from China selling some interesting looking radios.

I’m currently considering two QRP transceivers, the Xiegu X6100 and the Icom IC705. These two SDR based QRP radios offer a lot of the facilities that I had with my Flex3000 and have peaked my interest for different reasons.

Firstly the Xiegu X6100 HF/6m transceiver is an Arm CPU based unit that runs a somewhat cutdown Linux operating system, being a UNIX/Linux admin professionally for many years this really appeals to me.

This little radio has a small colour screen that displays the normal waterfall, VFO frequency and more however, it’s not a touch screen which is a shame. The plus for this radio is that it has a built in ATU, amazing considering the size of the unit.

I’ve joined the TOADS Discord group that are actively working on the O/S side of this little radio together with the manufacturer to try and get the code released into the Open Source world so that a community group can start developing it to its full potential. There’s some interesting reading in this group from some very knowledgable people and is well worth joining if you’re considering buying this radio.

Sadly the current firmware for the radio is very buggy and a fair bit of the functionality doesn’t work but, overtime I’m sure this will be resolved however, it’s a concern especially since it will be my only radio.

I’ve not been able to find any receiver test details for the transceiver so I’ve no idea how it performs. Since I’m only looking to use weak signal modes having a good receiver is paramount and is top of my list of priorities at the moment.

At £589.95 it’s at the lower end of the price spectrum for SDR radios but, it’s still a fair chunk of money to spend if it turns out problematic.

The Icom IC705 HF/6M/VHF/UHF QRP SDR transceiver is getting rave reviews and has a huge following. Coming from a long standing radio manufacturer you just know that this radio is going to be a high quality device that will just work out of the box.

With a price of £1299.99 here in the U.K. it’s more than double the price of the Xiegu X6100 but, it covers the VHF/UHF bands as well as the HF/6m bands and has a touch screen with GPS built in, there’s a lot packed into this little package!

When I look back at the little Yaesu FT817 I had years ago and how much fun I had with it, the Icom IC705 takes QRP radio to a new level.

What I really need to do is visit a HAM Radio store and sit down and try out these two radios side by side. Sadly the nearest store is over a hundred miles away!