Category Archives: Soapbox

Rants, opinions, grouchiness, self-righteousness, etc.

CQ WW WPX CW Contest – May 25th, 2019

In this video, I get a chance to talk a little philosophy while driving to a local park. I then set up my Mountain Topper and SOTABEAMS dipole and work 11 stations… 8 of which were 5,000+ miles away! This will show you that a tiny, battery-powered radio can produce excellent results and allow you to have a ton of fun.

 

Gear seen in this video:

MTR-5B HF radio: https://www.lnrprecision.com/store/MT…

3Ah lithium ion battery: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01…

Mini Speaker: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01…

Palm Mini Paddle – no longer available

Zoom H6 Audio Recorder: https://www.sweetwater.com/store/deta…

GoPro Hero7 Black camera: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc…

2″ Drive-On Mast Mount: https://tn07.com/mast-supports

Green 33′ fiberglass telescopic mast: https://tn07.com/telescoping-masts

The Case for Morse Code

If you’re into QRP, I want to encourage you to consider learning morse code. While you can make plenty of contacts with voice or digital, it’s hard to beat the “cw” (continuous wave) mode for efficiency.

With voice, everything you say is stretched out and occupies about 3 kHz of bandwidth. With morse code, that energy is compressed/condensed into a sliver of the bandwidth, concentrating the energy like a laser pointer!