Mikel Forcada EA5IYL @Ea5iyl@mastodon.radio

Yesterday I activated #SotA EA5/MU-087 for the first time on 40 metres, CW and SSB. The climb was hard at the end (left some info here https://sotl.as/summits/EA5/MU-087) with help from future ham and friend Moisés. I hang the dipole between two trees that were on the south cliff: the cliff is curved and the dipole was in the air! Had a hard time managing a large SSB pileup.

The TX SMA PCB-border connector from my NanoVNA came off. I replaced it with another SMA connector (opposite sex, no problem though). Then that one came off again. When I tried to replace it, there was no copper track in the PCB where the center of the connector attaches. Gone with the second SMA. Any ideas on what to do?

This is #EA5IDZ received last week on 144.174 MHz, FT8, about 74 km from home. Note the main signal and the ghost reflection shifting from higher to lower frequency. Aircraft scatter #Döppler very likely (higher is later, frequency grows from left to right). Was the plane here or there?

Yesterday around noon I worked from IM98rh a bunch of European (mainly UK) stations in SSB and CW #4mband with My Xiegu G90, an Ukrainian 28/70 MHz transverter, and the slim Jim antenna #EB5GPG kindly made for me, placed roughly horizontally, NW–SE.

The RSGB NFD contest was on.

Two stretched coat hangers, one Nivea cream box, an electrical block, a coax choke wound to the PVC pipe with duck tape: a rotatable horizontal-polarization centre-fed half-wave dipole for the 70 MHz band. Nice QSOs with EA5IYK Mark, EA5IZX Carsten and EA5IZO Richard, in a range of 8 to 40 km from me. It happens to be quite directional. When working EA5IYK, (about 40 km), having my dipole off by 60° reduced my signal by about two S-meter points.

Doing licence-free "amateur radio" with #PMR466 sets without breaking any of the EU-wide rules for the band may involve physical exercise, #SOTA style: since one can only do simplex, with the built-in antenna, 500 mW, and HT in hand, one has to walk up to high places. That does not exclude interesting contacts and even DX when tropospheric propagation kicks in.

Last Saturday I climbed (again) to foggy Serra Mitjana (EA5/AT-099) but this time I convinced friends to try a #PMR446 activation; I brought my Cobra Microtalk MT-600. I made 15 contacts, of which 4 qualified as "legal" PMR446 to-PMR446 contacts. Blog post https://ea5iyl.blogspot.com/2021/02/a-pmr-446-activation-experiment.html:

Chinese #pixie transceivers have a very basic 3-pole filter and are known to produce strong (non-conformant) harmonics in TX. But wouldn't using a resonant antenna further attenuate at least the even harmonics?

I started a blog and published a post describing my #Pixie #SOTA experience, just in case it is helpful to other fellow hams: https://ea5iyl.blogspot.com/2021/02/my-first-pixie-sota-experience.html

The 47 kΩ BFO potentiometer in one of my Pixies was broken. Having no replacement, I installed two resistors (22 kΩ and 33 kΩ). Now RX is 7023.68 kHz, 540 Hz above TX, 7023.14 kHz. A tone of 540 Hz when a station zero-beats me (chirp allowing) is a bit 'bass' but should work.

It kind of worked! Ops were very kind to me: thanks
#ea2eow
#f5jkk
#F5LKW
#ea3avv
#ea7gv
#f4wbn
#ea2if
!
It was hard to pick up their signal and my keying was awful. My antenna connection was flaky, and I broke my Chinese key at ~09:40Z. Nice flat summit for my dipole! I also broke my glasses, but that's not a radio-related accident ;-)

Decided. I'll hike this morning to EA5/AT-099 Serra Mitjana with a 7023.2-kHz 0.3-W Pixie and a CFHW inverted-V dipole. I'll be there around ~0900Z, QRPp and QRSs. Receiving with a DSB receiver will be tricky, as I'll also hear OMs in other nearby frequencies. I'll spot myself at SOTAWatch. #SOTA #crazy

This is what happens when you erect a "temporary" dipole with the first rope you find (don't look at the"knot"). Ten months later, the rope, burned by the sun and bruised by the winds, is about to snap. I may be off the waves while I replace it. I am not happy to have to climb...

Oh, and I brought a new straight key, one miniature key I bought in AliExpress. Much better than logging my good-old MFJ-550 on a piece of wood.

Today I activated #SOTA peak EA5/AT-071 "Manzorrilla" for the 1st time. It seemed a leisurely climb, 1 km away from a main road, 161 m ascent. Ha! No path! Rocks, pines and bushes. Could stay only 1 hour → 18 QSOs (FM, SSB and some CW): Xiegu G90, DX-HF-20 whip+counterpoise. As to #CW, I was very, very clumsy managing the mini pile-up in 14065 kHz. I apologize if I couldn't work all who called. All very nice and QRS for the newbie CW-er!! VY 73 ES TNX!

This morning I activated #SOTA peak EA5/AT-099 "Serra Mitjana" for the first time. It was also my first time doing some #CW from #SOTA, very QRSs and with a rather bulky MFJ-550 straight key and a whip antenna. My contacts were very nice in slowing down for me!

Broke the SMA connector in my #NanoVNA. While connector arrives, temporary setup (photo). Recalibrated. Known SWR readings are now higher. My dipole used to have a nice 1.2:1 minimum around 14 MHz, now 2.4:1. Does anyone have an explanation?