[Elecraft] QRP FD KX2 Batteries & FT8 Report

[Carl Jón Denbow]

Peter,

I am curious how you got FT8 to do the proper FD exchange?  I read a post where some hams were discussing this and it sounded very difficult and complex, so I decided against trying it.  One guy actually had two FT8 programs running simultaneously, with one connected to HRD, which somehow enabled him to do the proper exchange.  His description made absolutely no sense to me, so though I’m an experienced FT8 op, I decided to forgo FT8 for this FD.  I’m curious how you accomplished this feat! 

73,

Carl

Sent from my iPhone
===========================
Carl Jón Denbow, N8VZ
17 Coventry Lane
Athens, Ohio 45701-3718
 
carl at n8vz.com
www.n8vz.com
EM89wh
 
IRLP 4533   Echolink 116070
 
PSK and JT65 Forever!
===========================

> On Jun 25, 2019, at 9:37 AM, Peter West <peter at peterwest.ca> wrote:
> 
> When our club’s plans for FD fell through at the last minute I set up 1B with my trusty KX-2 with a Bioenno battery and two internal KX2 battery pacs on my back porch. Got a Par 40-20-10 end-fed up about 40’ in a north-south orientation only to find band conditions here were pretty bad here in the north with QRN, QSB and faint signals at best. So switched to FT-8. I was forced to run QRP (which isn’t an issue as I am primarily a QRP contester anyway) as anything over 5 watts caused the rig to overheat to the point of automatically reducing power to 5 watts. Had WSJT, JT Alerts and even N1MM all cooperating and auto logging so all I had to do was stop reading the newspaper and occasionally glance over to the computer to see if I had worked anybody since the last time I clicked on a callsign. Then I started to notice my setup wasn’t completing a lot of calls which I had initiated. I started to pay more attention to the screen and discovered that it appeared to me that my signal was getting swamped out by QRO (100 watts or more on FD) signals which I couldn’t readily detect. At a suggestion from the FT8 FB group switched on the hold-my-transmit-frequency button. On CW my rates aren’t much different from QRP to 100 watts as I’m only 2 S-units down and aggressive operating skills can compensate for a lot of differences in power and I can deal with QRM I can hear and see. Not so on FT-8. I am rebuilding my contest station and only have the end-fed and an HF-2 vertical up right now and know that better results on QRP are largely antenna and location dependent (oh to live on a saltwater marsh). Running FT8 with the KX-2 on FD was an education and I’ve got to do some thinking about how to improve my chances if I decide to try this again. All in all great fun with some learning but can’t wait for more future propagation. Maybe I should by the Elecraft amp LOL.
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