No time to spend in the shack, so no celebration. Also picked up a little plastic box for 37 NT$ and today I fitted the AA0ZZ keyer in there. Went to Taipei last Saturday to get some parts for the PSU. No world shocking events, but nice to see that 10 meters vertical in the air is getting my signal out in the world. Wow, real QRP again! Later that night I tried 80 meters and finally made my first 80 meter QSO with JO4CTB and later one with BA5HAM. Turned down the TS-440S to less than 5 Watts and made a successful QSO with VK2IG on 15 meters. No QSO in 9 days, so I hooked up the 10 meter vertical and tested the setup. Never mind, I am really surprised my 100 Watts and meagre 10 meter vertical took me 10,677 km to California. I could take his report, but he was weak and the local noise increased so he quickly gave me a 73. To my surprise WA5VGI came back to my call, all the way from California. Later that night I turned to 80 meters again and since I wanted to test my new AA0ZZ keyer I put out a CQ. On this Christmas eve I made a quick 20 meter CW QSO with LZ1MS. Hopefully the missing dots problem will have been cured, but I haven't tested the thing yet, so the verdict is still out there. With that problem out of the way I took the Kent paddles apart, cleaned them with naphtha en oiled them. I haven't tested it extensively, but it seems to have helped. The touch paddle was oscillating too much and especially on 20 meters this was noticeable. December 25, 2011Ĭame down with a nasty cough and it was too windy to be outside, so I did something I should have done ages ago: I used copper tape to shield my touch paddle/keyer combo. It can be powered by a wall wart, so no big damage there. The only thing I can't figure out is why the CG3000 can't be powered by the PSU, because on some bands I get some RF feedback which produces a buzz. The trimming pot turned out to be a 1k one, not 10M and I put in two new 15000 uF caps. Still tried to make the most of it by writing out all my QSL cards and finally fixing the power supply permanently. December 27, 2011Ī 38.5 C fever kept me home today, also because my voice was almost gone. A QSO between Mexico and Croatia, heard in Taiwan! Radio keeps being amazing. Couldn't work him, but heard XE2/K6PT and he worked him. 40 meters is also rocking: heard a Norwegian station two days ago, this time it was 9A9A from Croatia with booming signals. Worked him easily, so I am making it all around Taiwan on 160 meters. He is BV8BC from Taitung and he was stronger than BV100ROC. Still worked him and then afterwards BQ100 came on. Later that night BV100ROC was active from Taipei, but he was weak. A whopping 36 kilometers, but he heard me. So when I heard the booming signal from BU2AQ in early evening I answered him. I've been reading about top loading 5 meter verticals, but my CG3000 auto-tuner tunes 160 meters without problems when I use my 10 meter vertical. Never had a single QSO on that band, even back in Holland. Now that I know I can get a signal out on 80 meters it was time to try 160 meters. His keying was quite slow, so I could take him by hand, not the computer. At night finally a 160 meter QSO outside Taiwan: JR6EA in Okinawa was the lucky one. December 30, 2011ĭid some CW QSOs today and slipped in an RTTY and psk31 one too. OK7FL was the last one, in CW on 15 meters. Brought my total QSO count for 2011 to 396.