Category: QRP

2m and 70cm Range Testing

Today I got all excited and thought about seeing what kind of range of usable range i could muster by connecting a small amp to the DMR hotspot and connecting it to the outdoors antenna. I was putting about 0.5w out into a slim jim about 3m off the ground. I could still hear the kerchunkers about 1km away. Nothing stellar but you really could not expect to much giving the setup.

So after that I got all excited and connected the Hackrf to the same little amp and again to the outdoor antenna and fired it up in FM CW beacon mode and got an ultimate range of about 3Km. Again nothing stellar but considering everything, not to bad either.

So the moral of the story here is I really need to get the antenna much higher into the air if I want to be able to turn this into something a little more usable without resorting to much higher power.

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I Can Do QRP, ME

I got excited last night and grabbed some of the piles of junk out of the piles of junk draw to give a go and see if i could do anything with them. First off the ranks was the Pixie, its god awful but works. I did not manage a contact with it last night but was spotted by the guy up the road on RBN.

This morning I sent a mate in Sydney a message and got him to listen out for me and after he opened his filters up to find where I was, we made the exchange. Brisbane to Sydney with a Pixie, 750km or there abouts, so that was SUCCESS.

Next I busted out the Frog Sounds, I dont know why but its not working on receive, but it transmits just fine and is making 1/2 to 1 w. So i called CQ a few times just to see if I could make some RBN spots and low and behold i got a spot in New Zealand. 2600km. So that was a success also.

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