[Elecraft] Notable SSB QSO (HD8R)

Thu Nov 4 09:00:52 EDT 2021

My story is too good to pass up this bragfest.  On October 7 I had a
serious lightning strike.  It damaged five pieces of elecraft gear, K3s,
KX3, KPA500, KAT500, and P3.  All have been sent to Elecraft for repair and
I must say the response from them has been excellent.  I was left with two
radios, a homebrew tube Tx (10w) for 40 meters and a Drake 2B, plus my
venerable K2/10W, built in 2004.

On October 14 I had previously scheduled a 200 foot crane to install three
new JK antennas to replace all of the antennas on my 155 foot rotating
tower, which had been destroyed by a winter ice storm.  On the 14th, the
crane showed up and also 8 of my DXer friends to be ground crew.  All went
well and I now have a 2 stack on 40 and a 3 stack on 20-10.  There is only
one more problem.  The rotator motor was killed by the same lightning
strike.  The tower is bolted in a fixed position, pointing to S. America.
If anything shows from that direction, I work it.  It is a killer antenna
system and I live on the highest point in the county.  It's been a great
location for me for the past 32 years.

So HD8R appeared on the lower end of 40CW a couple of nights ago, pounding
in, because the antenna was "only" 25 degrees off line.  So I called and
worked them with 10 watts out of the huge pileup with the K2.  It took 30
minutes.

Getting back to the antenna party, one of my "buddies" took it upon himself
to escort each of the ground crew, one at a time (COVID) into the hamshack
to see the carnage, which included a three fingered sized hole in the back
of the KPA500 where the line cord module used to live.  As they came
through the door, I overheard him say, "please sign the guest book."  In a
way, I guess it was similar to the viewing of the deceased at a funeral.

A call from support has assured me that the KPA500 will live again with the
organ transplant of three modules and a few bucks.

BTW, it was the easiest I have ever put up an antenna in my 64 years.  I
just sat under a canopy and watched as I am almost 80 and gave up climbing
three months ago.

We ARE having fun, aren't we?

73,

Dave, K4TO

On Thu, Nov 4, 2021 at 8:20 AM Ted Edwards W3TB <w3tb.ted at gmail.com> wrote:

> With I could go back to Galapagos again!
>
> On Thu, Nov 4, 2021 at 06:20 Wes <wes_n7ws at triconet.org> wrote:
>
> > I own an upgraded K3, a K3S, a KPOD, a KPA500 and a KAT500.  I used the
> > latter
> > two with a brand K transceiver and very modest antennas to work them (so
> > far) on
> > 25 of the 29 slots they operated on.
> >
> > In my book six-meters doesn't count and they only made a handful of
> > 60-meter CW
> > and SSB Qs so that doesn't either.  They operated briefly on 20-meter
> RTTY
> > while
> > I wasn't home :-(
> >
> > My only nod to QRP is that the whole station runs on one 20A 120VAC
> > circuit.
> >
> > Wes  N7WS
> >
> > On 11/3/2021 9:07 PM, Tim Tucker wrote:
> > > While I own both the KX2 and KX3, when I was trying to work HD8R on 40m
> > > with an Inverted V in the early evening here in SoCal on FT8, there
> was a
> > > HUUUUGE pileup.  In my case, the K3 (upgraded to K3S) with the KPA1500
> > was
> > > the trick.  It took me an hour and a KW, but I finally got through.
>  So
> > I
> > > guess the story here is that, depending your circumstances, Elecraft
> has
> > > the tools to get the job done :)
> > >
> > > On Wed, Nov 3, 2021 at 5:42 PM Bill Lederer <w8lvn.9 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > >
> > >> By far it is the most fun per watt of any radio that I have ever
> owned.
> > >>
> > >> I worked HD8R on 15 with 10 watts to a random wire.
> > >>
> > >> w8vln
> > >>
> > >> On Mon, Nov 1, 2021 at 6:08 PM Wayne Burdick <n6kr at elecraft.com>
> wrote:
> > >>
> > >>> I took advantage of the excellent conditions today to work a little
> DX
> > >>> with the KX2. I was running 10 watts on 17 meters to a 20 meter
> > vertical.
> > >>>
> > >>> There was HD8M (Galapagos), loud and clear, calling CQ "up 5" on
> > 18.145.
> > >>>
> > >>> When I broke the pileup on the third call, I reflected on how many of
> > the
> > >>> KX2's features came into play to make this happen:
> > >>>
> > >>>    - ATU easily matched my 20 meter vertical on 17 meters (1.0:1)
> > >>>
> > >>>    - internal battery allowed transmit at a full 10 watts
> > >>>
> > >>>    - speech compression made it sound more like 20 or 30 watts :)
> > >>>
> > >>>    - used the KX2's stereo audio/dual-receive function to listen on
> > both
> > >>>      18.145 (RX) and 18.150 (TX) at the same time; transmitting SPLIT
> > >>>
> > >>>    - annoying S8 noise pulses were vanquished by the NB
> > >>>
> > >>>    - carriers from the inconsiderate were dealt with by auto-notch
> > >>>
> > >>>    - used one of the rig's two DVR messages to do the calling
> > >>>
> > >>> That's a lot of fully integrated fun in a radio that weighs less than
> > one
> > >>> pound and draws only about 170 mA in receive mode. And a great excuse
> > to
> > >>> get outdoors.
> > >>>
> > >>> Details on the KX2 can be found here:
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>
> >
> https://elecraft.com/collections/kx-line/products/kx2-ssb-cw-data-80-10-m-transceiver
> > >>> 73,
> > >>> Wayne
> > >>> N6KR
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>>
> >
> > ______________________________________________________________
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> >
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>
> --
> 73 de Ted Edwards, W3TB and GØPWW
>
> and thinking about operating CW:
> "Do today what others won't,
> so you can do tomorrow what others can't."
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