AmateurRadio.com

First off I want to thank Ed (Import Communications) for his patience and time with the arrival, shipment and many questions he has been asked about the X108.
Mine arrived yesterday and was packed well. The radio requires no building at all and came assembled with handles attached, power cable and USB cable and microphone.
The power connector is very small, short wires and no fuse, this would be first thing that I would change out. The other problem I have is the antenna connector, i wish all radio makers would use the BNC to prevent cross threading, cheap ends etc..

The radio display looks good, but for some of the display I need my magnifying cheaters on, but for the better part very nice.
The microphone has multifunction’s like band select, last frequency, and a whole lot more.

I made a contact on SSB on 18 megs with my windom and 10 watts into TX last night, I got a 5×4 and peaked a 5×6, audio report was good as per the chap on the other end.
This morning a made a SKCC qso on 40 meters at 1204z with a member down in Alabama, I was running 5 watts and got a 579 with Bill.

I find one does not need or require the PREAMP, I find the radio is sensitive enough and picks up stations and then some that my VX1700 does not hear, receive is fairly quiet. I need to play a bit more with the ATT as well, I can hear some slight ghosting of the very strong stations from time to time when tuning.

Have used HRD and FLDIGI/FLRIG using the IC718 settings and been able to copy psk using just the audio out jack on the back of the radio and using microphone in on netbook. Need a cable now for PTT and transmit for digital modes. CAT control seems to work well and fast.

Power output is stable on this radio, measured into a digital meter and attached a dummy load I get the following:(using cw to key rig)
160 meters 10 w
80 meter 15 w
40,30,20,17,15,12,10 18 w

Have not checked current draw yet, but I can tell you that in a dead keydown on 80 meters I popped a 5 a fuse in my power bar.

I also have yet to check out the keyer portion of the rig to see how that works, for now just trying to get to know the rig.

Looking forward to hearing from others who have received their X108’s and what their thoughts are.

Fred VE3FAL

I am a great supporter of the GQRP club. Their quarterly magazine SPRAT represents the very best in Amateur Radio. If you are interested in QRP then please join the GQRP Club. It is excellent.

There is now a new, up to date version of the DVD with all back copies of the excellent SPRAT magazine.  If I had to stop all subscriptions and magazines then the GQRP club (and SPRAT every quarter) would be the only one I’d keep  – it is that good.

Hi

Tony & I have been working away and we have produced the latest version of the Sprat-on-DVD. This includes all Sprats right up to the one that has just been sent to members (number 160).

It is now available to members at £5 plus £1.20 postage. I will have them at the Galashiels rally and at Rishworth of course. The local guys who represent us at some of the other rallies will also have some shortly.

As we have known that this issue has been on the way for a while, as a concession, we will let anyone who bought the current DVD (1 to 148) after 1st August this year, have a copy of the new DVD for the special price of £2.50 including postage. To get this deal, you have to tell me when you bought the old DVD – if at a rally, which rally it was, and send me the CD case paper label together with the £2.50 in stamps. I do not want the actual DVD, just an assurance that you will destroy it when you receive the new one.

I should add that this is for members only of course, and applies just to UK members! Overseas members who think they also qualify should contact me direct and we may be able to work out a deal for them also.

Overseas prices are on the club website – http://gqrp.com/sales.htm

The new DVD is available to non-members at £12 plus the appropriate postage.

Thanks

73

Graham

G3MFJ

http://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/K1JT/WSPR4.00r4171.exe

This is a beta release of WSPR (version 4.0). It has worked fine for me.

This is the version I currently use on all bands. Unfortunately, it does not have the real-time waterfall. You see the action only after a 2 minute TX period and not during the transmission as was the case for WSPRX.

The interface looks very similar to WSPR V2.2.

Please let me, and others, know if there are more recent releases by adding a comment and link.

By now, you probably realise that I just love WSPR. With quite simple equipment it is possible to be decoded across the planet consistently with real QRP power levels.   I am always on the look-out for new ideas, although until my health improves I am not in a position to build too much myself. See http://www.knology.net/~gmarcus/WSPR/wspr_v4.pdf for an example of a complete 30m WSPR transceiver.

This is NOT a new circuit  – it has been around for some years – and it still needs a PC for the WSPR software. Some TX-only WSPR beacons use microprocessors to generate the WSPR TX messages, thereby freeing up the PC and consuming little power overall. Some sync to GPS to avoid timing issues too.

From their website:

Airspy is an advanced software defined radio receiver capable of sampling 10MHz of spectrum anywhere between 24MHz and 1.7GHz – and even beyond with extensions. It all started when we needed a good performing receiver that’s still affordable but could not find a good solution in the market, so we designed ours. We believe that as of today, Airspy is the only serious wide band receiver solution that’s high performance and yet affordable.

Some specs:

• Continuous 24 – 1750 MHz RX range with no gaps
• 3.5 dB NF between 42 and 1002 MHz
• Tracking RF filters
• 35dBm IIP3 RF front end
• 12bit ADC @ 20 MSPS (80dB Dynamic Range, 64dB SNR, 10.4 ENOB) – Yeah, size does matter.
• Up to 80 MSPS for custom applications
• Cortex M4F @ up to 204MHz with Multi Core support (dual M0)
• 1.5 ppm high precision, low phase noise clock
• 1 RTC clock (for packet time-stamping)
• External clock input (10 MHz to 100 MHz via MCX connector) – Ideal for phase coherent radios
• 10 MHz panoramic spectrum view with 9MHz alias/image free
• IQ or Real, 16bit fixed or 32bit float output streams
• No IQ imbalance, DC offset or 1/F noise at the center of the spectrum that plagues all the other SDRs
• Extension ports: 16 x SGPIO
• 1 x RF Input (SMA)
• 1 x RF Output (Loopthrough, U-FL)
• 2 x High Speed ADC inputs (up to 80 MSPS, U-FL)
• 4.5v software switched Bias-Tee to power LNA’s and up/down-converters

Thoughts:

From what I’ve read, the big advantage of this over a standard RTL-SDR dongle is much less noise. I haven’t used one, but if it really lives up to their claims the $199 price point is actually pretty reasonable.

http://www.airspy.com / $199

It’s still beautiful even though most of the leaves are off the trees. I’ve gotten out the last two days. Yesterday a bike ride in East Andover… today I used the DSW in a field on Shute Hill to work Curacao, the Netherlands and a 2-way QRP QSO with Pennsylvania. I’ll start with today.

Judy and I hiked up the Rufus Colby Road and down the lane way into Will Ellis’s field. The beech trees are still glowing orange. I brought the beautiful DSW for 20 meters and a dipole. I decided to put the dipole up as a sloper… one end in a pine tree… the other end tied to a line and held down by a rock in the field. It didn’t go smoothly. I pulled off the PL259 connector from the RG-174 when it caught on some stubble in the field. Fortunately I had a knife and a little screw driver in the backpack, and I cobbled a connection together.

What a sweet rig. 2 watts… digital VFO with a built in keyer and nice filtering. As soon as I got set up, I worked Al WA3PTY in Pennsylvania! He was only running 1 watt. Wow… We’ve worked each other a dozen times before, but what a hoot to make this QSO from Shute Hill… 2-way QRP.

After that I went down the band and worked PA2EVR in the Netherlands. It was a quick 599/599 exchange. Then I worked PJ2/DL8OBQ in Curacao, an island just north of the Venezuelan coast. This was also a quick exchange. But what a lot of fun! A tiny rig, low power, simple antenna from the top of Shute Hill. It doesn’t get much better. Thanks Dave for designing the little DSW!

Bike Ride in East Andover

Yesterday, Judy and I rode our bikes about 5 miles on the old rail trail in East Andover. There were so many leaves on the trail, we couldn’t even see the ground.

I stopped at a little brook to operate and discovered that I’d left the backpack and the rig in the camper. This is not a good sign. Before heading home, we stopped at Highland Lake.

I tossed 33 feet of wire into a maple tree and sat down on the grass with the KX3. I started on 12 meters. W1AW/7 in Nevada was very strong and we made a quick exchange. Then I switched to 15 meters and called Oscar EA1DR. I’ve worked him in Spain at least a dozen times from the field. He’s always a welcomed QSO.

Things may look a lot different in a few days. There’s a forecast of snow for Sunday.