Preparation:

This was a repeat of an activation tried the previous Friday which failed with no contacts being made due to bad propagation and too many “Alligator” Contest stations on the bands plus I found a nasty problem in my new 30W amplifier box that I had built, that on speech peaks, the relay board which controls the low pass filter board, would change bands. This only affected 40 metres but was very annoying. Having tried ferrites on all DC leads, I added a “Mantle Sperre” on the antenna lead, and this was to be tested along with a “buck/boost” box to keep the available voltage to the amplifier at 13.8V, as it had been dropping drastically on speech peaks previously. The danger is that such a box can create QRM for the receiver on the HF bands.

As usual, the equipment was set up in the back seat of the car, and the three-magnet antenna base was put on the roof of the car the day before the activation, so that I could leave at 7 am the following day.

The Activation

POTA DE-00968 / DE-0858

This is a new location for me, which is just 15-20 minutes away from home, as well as being a little way away from buildings. It also has a nice grassy area that could be useful in future for a “real” park activation, away from the car.

After arriving at the car park, the setup was prompt, and I had good hopes as the Kp Index of 5 from last time had dropped to 1. Mike (M9MMM/P) was also out, and Ernie in Victoria, Australia, had also agreed to be in the shack. Mike and I agreed we would try 40m first, which we did, but conditions between us at the time (05:30 UTC) were not good. We managed a contact; however, with an exchange of 4-3 in both directions. The main thing for me was that the clattering relays and switching LPF bands had stopped, so that modification appears to have worked.

As Ernie was waiting, and the band seemed to be more active, we moved up to 20 metres. 20 metres was only just opening long path to VK at 0600 UTC, but I managed a contact with Ernie, VK3DET, at 0600 UTC, with him being 5-5, and he gave me a (perhaps generous) 3-3. An hour later, Ernie came up to almost 5-9 before dropping down again to me, but improving with Mike in the UK. This is normal on 20 metres.

When I spotted myself on the POTA site and put out several CQs on 20m, I got no response. The problem being (perhaps) that I could not hear someone relatively close to me on the same frequency, and hence blocking others from hearing me. This is one of the difficulties of operating QRP on 20m from Central Europe. That be as it may, a move back to 40m was fruitful, and at the end of the activation, I had 18 completed QSOs in the log.

Photos:

Equipment taken:

• Xiegu X6200 radio plus amplifier.
• Three magnet car roof antenna mount.
• Komunica Power HF-PRO2-PLUS-T loaded vertical whip.
• 8 Ah LifePO4 battery.
• Lightweight headphones.
• Smartphone for spotting.

Log:

POTA DE-0968 / DE-0858

Conclusions:

The test was to see if the RF Ingress had been stopped. In that way, the activation was a success. I did, however, also do a comparison with my G90 radio and at the same power level, the G90 got better reports. I put this down to the speech compressor in the G90 outclassing by a mile the one in the X-6200. I will look into adapting the RF Speech clipper module, which I have used with my little G106 radio, to be usable with the X6200 and see if that helps – I believe it will.

I also tested with and without the buck convertor and I am still not sure if it (or something else) creates QRM on receive. On transmit, it keeps the battery voltage constant. LifePO4 batteries, it seems, have a high internal resistance and hence under higher current draw, drop the voltage.

On arriving home and putting the LiFePO4 battery on charge, it refused to charge. This seems to have been a cable issue, which, when resolved, meant the battery could now be charged. This bad connection “could” have reduced the voltage and hence available power from the radios during the activation.

 73 ’til the next activation!