CW Ham Radio Go Kit and New Battery Review! | What's in our Kit?
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- Опубликовано: 12 окт 2024
- Emergencies or POTA, $120 of gear gets you on the air and activating POTA / SOTA within minutes! We break down our favorite low cost and light weight gear bag that you can set up really quickly and be on the air. To have fun or even in an emergency situation, we specifically go over our new battery that could send signals out for days!
🌀 Want to help with Hurricane Relief? Josh from Ham Radio Crash Course's recommendations:
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Grindstone Ministries emergency coordination: grindstonemini...
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⚙️ GEAR (featured in this video):
Battery: amzn.to/3XPo3oi
12V Trigger Cable: amzn.to/3XSHBbj
Radio : QRP Labs : QCX-mini 5W CW Transceiver - 20m: qrp-labs.com/q...
Antenna : K6ARK EFHW: amzn.to/4gNt8X3
Key: K6ARK 3D printed paddle: www.printables...
Headphones: amzn.to/4gW1hnC
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❓WHO ARE WE?
We're Michael & Becky, also known as N4FFF and N4BKY. We're an adventure couple who also loves CW (morse code) and radio stuff. We are both trying to get better at CW so having two of us there trying to copy really helps us figure most of it out! We love adventures and this is another way for us to get out there and have fun together.
If you catch one of us on the air most likely we are both at the ready. We like to hunt POTA's and each make contact so don't be surprised if you hear from us both.
Please email us or leave a comment if you watch along and make contact with us someday. We'd love to hear from you!
73,
Michael and Becky
N4FFF / N4BK
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#hamradio #qrp #cw #pota #morsecode #qrz #sota #rv #rvlife #adventure #camping #travel #travelcouple #licw #skcc #cwpractice #hurricane #emergencypreparedness
Do you have a ham radio "go bag" for emergencies or POTA/SOTA?
This just goes to prove that Ham Radio does not have to be an expensive hobby. Thanks for sharing!
Agreed 100%. It's easy to eventually end up with a lot of gear if you want, but you don't have to in order to get out there and get started. Simple is fun!! 73, Becky es Mike
Mike, Great, presentation! Tnx fer mention. 73, Rick K8BMA
Rick, thanks for the education. It makes me much more confident looking at batteries as options after reading the spec. 73 Mike N4FFF es Becky N4BKY
@HamRadioDuo Mike, It's unfortunate that most advertisers of USB-C PD equipment don't state the spec level compliance. All of the batteries and chargers I have purchased have had the spec compliance printed on the case.
Knowing that 12V may or may not be supported, in the case of QMX rigs, 9V is a buy or build decision, and matches all levels of the spec.
Rick K8BMA
Another excellent video! When I go out to activate I can almost fit everything I need in the side pockets of my cargo shorts. 😄
Hey Stu, it's definitely fun to just grab so little and have a great activation. We are always surprised just how small our pack can be when we head out! 73, Becky es Mike
Wow! Thank you for the video of your new porter go bag battery use it reminds me of a power bank good luck! 73's G0HDA
Thank you, we really like the new battery and how long it will last for out QRP activations. Definitely easier and safer than the Lipo! 73, Becky es Mike
Informative and fun: another great video, you guys! 73 and GL de HB9FAB 😄
Awww, thanks! Thanks for being here! 73 Mike N4FFF es Becky N4BKY
Nice kit. These little radios sure do sip the battery. I was surprised recently when my FT-817 drained a 3Ah battery in just a couple hours. The QCX would have survived several activations on the same battery.
I tried for a 3 park run the other day and brought my QCX Mini kit. I got all setup and went to power it up... no power cable. The day before, with the FT-817 kit, required two trips home to get missing parts.
Lesson: Don't pillage from your kits.
Great comparison! It never ceases to surprise us! And that's a great lesson that we all learn the hard way 🤣 73, Mike N4FFF es Becky N4BKY
A small canvas pack is what I use. I like bigger cans for my ears and kh1. I like a taller mast like the explorer 20. A small axe, saw, and knife also get loaded with a small ground cloth and pad.
Nice! Besides ham gear, those are all good things to have in case of emergencies for sure. 73 Mike and Becky
You might look at a USB digital tester. You can monitor the output of the battery and its status. Great video! 73
Good idea! I suspect this is just our first PD battery and it would probably be worth it! 73 Mike and Becky
Great video! I currently have a larger backpack with my TX-500, QMX, 6Ah LiFePo battery, and several antennas. I recently purchased the QMX to make a much smaller kit as you show here. I will have to investigate the PD battery as I like the smaller size and it appears to get the job done. TU es 72
Thank you! We love our tiny little kit. We have a larger bag we bring on trips, but we always grab this one. We're very glad that we found this PD battery. It's so much better than what we were using before. 72 Mike N4FFF es Becky N4BKY
@@HamRadioDuo Even though it is not really on the Prime Day special, I did buy the battery and cable from the links that you provided. Looking forward to getting the battery and testing it with my QMX. TU
special guest, POTA PUPPY! 🤣
That was a surprise that we noticed when editing ... HiHi 🤣 We were wondering if anyone would comment on it! 73, Becky es Mike
@@HamRadioDuo Great share on the power bank and PD trigger cable btw! That's all I've been using for my x6100 doing mostly FT8. Even runs a dual CPU fan under the radio to keep it cool 😎
Hey Lovers 😊 spot on video as I was wondering why you were using a Lipo battery in a previous video and was a bit concerned about all the hurdle of charging it and not having it catching fire. I'll have a look at the PD battery you are using. Thanks for all the detailed videos you are producing as it's really useful to get all those details that may seem obvious for the experimented ham but not that much for the one who is starting.
Thank you! Our current kit is the result of many cycles of trial and error. I'm sure we have even more to learn and swap out in the future. 73 Mike and Becky
Keep those prayers coming. Florida is about to get hit by a Category 5 hurricane. Hurricane Milton and some of the areas were hit by Helene.
Very very true! We have lots of family in Florida and have been paying tons of attention and praying for everyone! 73 Mike N4FFF es Becky N4BKY
@@HamRadioDuo 51 of 67 counties are under threat and many have given evacuation orders.
@@Plasmastorm73_n5evv wow, hope everyone can get out if needed. 73 Becky es Mike
Hola 👋
Ustedes hacen que QRP /p sea fácil 👏🏻, creo que serán muy pronto una pareja referente en el mundo de la radio, sobretodo en Telegrafía.
Para mí ya lo son 👏🏻🤝
Gracias por estos vídeo 😃
73/72
¡Oh, Dios mío, gracias por tus amables palabras! Mike todavía no puede creer que, después de años de ver tus videos, estés comentando y disfrutando de los nuestros. ¡Agradecidos por tu inspiración para salir a la naturaleza y jugar con la radio! 73, Becky y Mike
(Oh my gosh, thank you for the kind words. Mike still can't believe that after years of watching your videos that you're commenting and enjoying ours. Thankful for your inspiration to get out in nature and play radio!!)
I just worked Sweden long path from my car 3watts on my QMX+ ….radio never ceases to amaze me. Thanks for the battery info 73 de VK2AOE
That's amazing! Anytime we get a DX while QRP we are amazed and that makes it so fun! 73, Becky es Mike
you convinced me! Just ordered the QCX, battery & cable. Unfortunately the K6ARK antenna is out of stock, but I have a few EFHWs already
@@stevecook7279 That's awesome!!! Did you order the kit to build yourself or the built one? 73 Mike N4FFF es Becky N4BKY
@@HamRadioDuo I ordered the built one; too many projects ongoing right now :)
@@stevecook7279 we did the same with our QMX, but are on the waiting list. Hopefully we get it this month or next.
Nice. I’m looking at going CW. Have you made a video about learning? 73 KM4AT
Great question and you're not the first to ask. We definitely plan to do a video about how we learned CW. In the meantime, here is something we typed up for another question on a different video 😊:
We have had similar questions on other videos as well. Most likely we will be doing a video on this topic, but here is a copy of a previously written response that we posted...
We are both self-taught. We both want to be good at having conversational qsos and being able to head copy and not write everything down, so we're both currently in a course so that we make sure we're learning correctly.
Until we make a video about it, here's The short version from what we've learned.
My number one thing is to think about it as a journey and enjoy all the steps along the way. I first carved off a weekend thinking I was just going to check off learning CW over a weekend. By the end I was humbled 😂 I think it's kind of like being a teenager and wanting to be a rockstar and getting a guitar and expecting to be really good at playing an instrument in a weekend. Instead, if you enjoy music you enjoy getting better practicing and looking back at your accomplishments. I think it's more like that. There's plenty of steps along the way where we've had tons of fun as we're slowly getting better.
My next tip would be to practice a little everyday and keep it fun. Like many things in life, it requires consistent practice. Like you, we are always very limited on time. It only takes 5 to 15 minutes here or there a few times a day.
Learn the letters by sound. Whatever you use to learn, I would listen to them at 30 words per minute as you learn the letters. That forces your brain to not be able to memorize the dits and dahs. l learned the wrong way by memorizing in struggles still to turn that part of my brain off. Becky learned by sound from the start and has gone much faster. That being said, we both ended up accidentally memorizing to different degrees, and a primary focus for us right now is learning how to transition it into the subconscious.
Last, a few specific suggestions on tools for learning. We both learned on an app called morsemania that's available for both iOS and Android. As long as you start off by setting the letter speed to 27-30 words per minute, or something that makes you memorize the sound of the letters instead of memorizing the map to dits and dahs, we still think it's a great way to gamify learning the letters the first time and kind of makes it fun. After we pretty much had the sound of the letters and numbers memorized with that tool, we moved into listening to words. That's a little bit of a longer story, and making a video will give us a chance to go over the long version.
We were self-taught primarily because we also had very little time. The only way for us to be able to learn was to fill cracks in our day a little bit here and there. We are just now investing in being part of a class because now we're hooked and we've seen how much fun it is for us and so we put a few things aside so that we could take the class.
Whatever path you take, we personally find it tons of fun. There are aspects that are very challenging, but like other things, that's the same reason why it's so fun. Just learning your first handful of letters by sound is an accomplishment. Getting to the point where you know all of them is an accomplishment. Listening to other people on the air and being able to pick out letters or States here and there is an accomplishment. I remember the first time I was listening to a RUclips video of a pota and starting to recognize States and thinking how cool it is. I've now been able to have slow conversations and picked up the gist of all of it without writing anything down. Being able to talk to someone from 2,000 miles away, with qrp, where it is kind of like a digital mode but all the processing is going on in my own head is just so much fun! It's probably one of those things where you never finish learning, and we're still learning and enjoying it along the way!
We are happy to help anyway we can and email is on QRZ.
73 Mike N4FFF es Becky N4BKY
After the video, I ordered a USB typce to DC cable. thanks. De ta2bku 73
Thank you, glad the information was helpful. We really like the new battery and a way to make sure the power is correct. 73, Becky es Mike
I am having a lot of fun with my QCX Mini! I am currently #271 on the list for my QMX! They have been shipping abouy 250 radios a month, so I hope to havr mine in November. N7BBQ
We love the QCX and are in the 100's for the QMX and can't wait to try it out with different bands. Fingers crossed we get it soon!! 73, Becky es Mike
@@HamRadioDuo maybe we can do a QMX2QMX P2P 😀
The link that goes to Amazon for the battery states in the specs that the output is 5 volts…how do you get 12 volts to power the QCX-mini out of this battery?
72 de Bill N5IM
@@billjennings2931 if you click on additional details, you should see the user guide. If you open up that PDF, it has a specifications section. In that table, you can see the list of output voltages. That's where it says that it will output 12 volts at 1.5 amps. This is only the case if you use a correct 12 volt cable with it. We tested it using the 12 volt PD cable that is also linked in the description.
If you used a regular USB cable, it works just like a normal USB power bank and will output 5 volts. I assume that's why they have that in that summary.
If you plug something into it, like one of the 12-volt cables, that uses PD power delivery, it will negotiate a different voltage.
Hopefully that makes sense and helps! I verified that the links to both of these items are the same ones that we purchased and tested over the weekend.
73 Mike N4FFF es Becky N4BKY
@@HamRadioDuo Thanks for the fast reply! Guess I need to order that cable!
GL es 72 de Bill N5IM
@@billjennings2931 let us know how it ends up working for you!
Matter what, I would definitely check it with a multimeter before I plugged it into my radio😂
@@HamRadioDuo RR guaranteed!
Another great video. I use TalentCell battery pack from Amazon works well. TalentCell Rechargeable 36W 12V/3000mAh Lithium Ion Battery Pack, 12V/5V Dual Output External Battery Power Bank with Charger 73 Phil G0BVD
Nice! Heard good things about them! 73 Mike N4FFF es Becky N4BKY
If you want a QMX or QMX+, I would be pleased to build it for you. I have built several and can promise a good-working rig. Larry - W7LDT
Larry, oh my goodness! What a great offer. Have you ever built a QCX mini? I wonder how much easier or harder the QMX is. I built a QCX mini and it let out the magic smoke the first time I turned it on! I was able to replace some parts and get it going again.... for 2 contacts and then I over voltaged it and let out too much magic smoke. Becky says she thinks it might be fun to build one (not me HI HI). 73 Mike N4FFF es Becky N4BKY
@@HamRadioDuo I have built a QCX Mini, 2 QDX, 4 QCX Classics, a QCX+, High and Low Band QMX, and a QMX+. The QMX is much more “Fiddley” than the QCX Mini. Several more toroids, etc. The QMX+ has a lot more toroids but a lot more space to work inside. Letting smoke out is part of the learning process. If you go with a QMX, DO NOT put in more than 12 volts. Good luck and let me know if I can help in any way.