AmateurRadio.com

So,   I have now had the X1M since Friday.  I have to say that overall, I like it.  Friday night (as previously posted) I checked in to the

Brothers Net, and was heard clearly in Virginia, and again on Saturday night, when one of the members in Virginia relayed my check in to the operator in Maryland.  Also on Saturday I logged 5 of the 7 Florida QSO Party spelling bee stations from my living room, as well as a couple of other Florida stations.  Reports ranged from good for QRP, to Wow!  Only 5 Watts?  Keep in mind this is in a much-less-than-ideal setup.

In our apartment, KD2CHE and I are extremely limited on space, inside AND out.  The X1M is attached to an L-shaped random wire in the front yard, by way of a Balun Designs 9:1 Unun, and an Emtech ZM2 tuner.  Emtech recommends not using an additional balun or unun, but it seems to perform a little better with this crazy antenna.

It tunes up on most bands, and appears to tune  up on 75, but signal reports were bad on 75, with a lot of RF feedback, and I can hear myself in the  speakers I have attached to our TV when I transmit.  17 meters seems to be an issue with the TV speakers as well.  I’d love to put up something better in the front yard, but we’ll see what the landlord and neighbors are willing to put up with.  160, by the way is a no-go, but I don’t think that’s a surprise.

I’ve gotten the hang of using the X1M pretty quickly.  I haven’t used the memories yet, but I use the dual VFOs quite a bit, as well all of the different tuning speeds.  Everything is fairly straight forward once you get the hang of it.  Audio is what you would expect for a radio of this size (this thing is SMALL!), and fine through headphones.  The receiver is very sensitive.  I’ll get some actual numbers next weekend.  I like that you can kill the display light to conserve batteries, which will help when portable.

I’ve tried battery power.  With 8 alkaline AAs the radio seems to perform OK, however, 8 LiIon batteries are not quite enough voltage for the rig, producing some howls and distortion with the volume above about 40%.  I guess I’m not too surprised at this, since 8 FULLY charged AA Eneloops only put out 9.6 volts.  I will supplement that with 4 more Eneloops in series for a max of 14.4 volts.  Later on, I can pick up something a little more sophisticated.  I also made a coax-to-powerpole cable for mobile use, so I can always just set up next to the car when needed.

A coax power plug for making your own power cord, and a 1/8″ stereo (3 cond) plug for wiring to a key/paddle are included.  The power connector is a very common size, 5.5mm OD x 2.1mm ID, or Radio Shack size M, which made powering the radio up easy, since I had a size M-to-tinned-leads cable already.  I wired a straight-key up to the 1/8″ plug, and had to set the keyer mode to manual, which was also not hard to figure out.  The instructions are in Chinese, but an English translated manual is available from Import Communications, or in the X1M Yahoo group.

I think the little X1M has a nice future in my collection.  It’s no KX3, but for about $300, it’s a nice little radio.

To be continued………..

 

 

Neil Goldstein, W2NDG, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New York, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

The Iler 40 QRP SSB transceiver kit proceeds apace – a snail’s pace. I wasted a lot of time correcting stupid errors – like soldering a resistor in the wrong place and putting a diode in back to front. I mean, I know diodes have to go the right way round and the banded end is clearly enough marked on the board. Removing parts from boards with plated through holes is a nightmare. Why didn’t I check it?

Part completed Iler 40 board

Another reason for the slow progress is that building circuits does my back in. It’s the bending forward to see the parts under the magnifying lens that does it. Eventually there is a twinge from my lower back that says: time to take a break. So I’ll put everything to one side and do something else for a bit.

Julian Moss, G4ILO, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Cumbria, England. Contact him at [email protected].

Click on the link below to check out this very impressive collection of World War II German military radios. I just wanted to pass the info on to you. Check out the SE 108/10 Agent/Spy Radio.

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2QHV5Z


Mike Crownover, AD5A, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Texas, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

This afternoon I was planning on setting up the Alexloop into the living room and try some operating with the KX3. I was wanting to see how the loop worked in the living room. I was going to bring it on the deck but there was the threat of rain. Out of the blue when I was on 15m  in CW mode whenever I keyed a letter and then released the key I would hear a very loud "ping" in the headphones. This only happened on 17m, 10m and 15m. I tried changing the headphones, using a dummy load and reducing the power to 0 but there was always a ping noise heard in my ear? I am not sure if I inadvertently changed a menu option that is causing this. This brought the living room KX3 operations to an abrupt end and off to the internet to see what was going on with the rig. I have posted the question on the Elecraft reflector as well as here on the blog.
Problem has just been solved seems if I have the rig on dual RX and VFO A and B are very close to each other I am picking up "me" on VFO B. Which makes sense and when in dual mod the head phones are split with VFO A in one ear and VFO B in the other. This would explain why the ping was only heard in one ear!
Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

How to Save Ham Radio – Modes – Part 3 (5 Part Series)

 

I have been thinking and getting feedback about this series and Ham Radio overall there are several great points I have been hearing from people and I as I have said in the past… yet maybe SAVE is to strong of a word… Strengthen is a good one or expand is another… but let’s stick with SAVE for the article.

 

In a long list of items I think about the next one are modes of operation –

 

http://nicktoday.com/how-to-save-ham-radio-modes-part-3-5-part-series/

Nick Palomba, N1IC, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Florida, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

The QRPTTF event yesterday was way more fun than I had envisioned. The theme of the event was "Happy Trails" with the idea to operate QRP from or near a historic trail. Also included as a muliplier in the event were SOTA  qualifying summits. While I know there were several "Trail" stations out there, the summits seemed to dominate. I was able to work 21 summits during the event for over 100 chaser points. All of these QSO's within a couple of hours time. My rotor was getting a workout as the activity was coast to coast. I was even able to work 3 summits in Europe as well, all operating QRP. Lots of fun.

If you missed the event or just wondering what it's about, this is the link to this years event, http://www.zianet.com/qrp/qrpttf/2013.htm

Happy Trails (and Summits) to  you.
Mike Crownover, AD5A, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Texas, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

Multiple decodes at 100 Hz spacing of K1JT on 30 m on 28 April 2013, 0101 UTC

From time to time I receive duplicate ‘ghost’ decodes at 100 Hz intervals on either side of the main signal. Last night I saw the phenomenon on 30 m. You will notice here that I have decoded the message: “TNX 73 GL” four times (press image for better readability):

• -24 dB, 1063 Hz
• -19 dB, 1163 Hz
• -8 dB, 1263 Hz
• -18 dB, 1363 Hz

Sverre Holm, LA3ZA, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Norway. Contact him at [email protected].