I used my TR-35 with ZM-2 at a recent SOTA activation! ( I set the ZM-2 on the ground 5-ft away, plugged in an MFJ 20m whip directly to the ZM-2 and attached a couple radials) de AC7PB
A few nice contacts there. 5 Watts c.w. is plenty. I like the idea of a memory keyer as it can be disheartening sometimes calling CQ and no response for a while. I'll have to see if I can make one. I got an FT817 to go portable but only got out once before covid and conditions were not good and I didn't contact anybody. I've been on 17m and 10m from my home QTH, both great with 1 and 5 Watts c.w. G4GHB.
Making my own memory keyer is something I've though of for a while that would be a fun hardware and software project. Operating CW is definitely like a superpower sometimes...it just works when other modes won't!
Thanks for entertaining me on lunch break :) Great activation and nice DX! An 84ft efrw is my goto portable antenna. I like the flexibility and ease of setup. The key is inserting the tuner at the feedpoint like you did here, in my opinion. This way, you don't have coax working in an unmatched impedance situation, so power should theoretically flow freely. Losses seem minimal in my experience. Thanks again for taking us along, OM. 73 de K4FR
Glad you enjoyed it! I agree about feedpoint tuning. I think the longer you have an impedance mismatch, the more loss you will have. I also use a 41' EFRW sometimes but so far, I've had better luck with just 2 pieces of wire!
I used my TR-35 with ZM-2 at a recent SOTA activation!
( I set the ZM-2 on the ground 5-ft away, plugged in an MFJ 20m whip directly to the ZM-2 and attached a couple radials)
de AC7PB
The TR-35 and ZM-2 are a great pair! Nice idea, just plugging the whip into the tuner directly, I'll have to give that one a try!
A few nice contacts there. 5 Watts c.w. is plenty.
I like the idea of a memory keyer as it can be disheartening sometimes calling CQ and no response for a while. I'll have to see if I can make one.
I got an FT817 to go portable but only got out once before covid and conditions were not good and I didn't contact anybody. I've been on 17m and 10m from my home QTH, both great with 1 and 5 Watts c.w.
G4GHB.
Making my own memory keyer is something I've though of for a while that would be a fun hardware and software project. Operating CW is definitely like a superpower sometimes...it just works when other modes won't!
Thanks for entertaining me on lunch break :) Great activation and nice DX! An 84ft efrw is my goto portable antenna. I like the flexibility and ease of setup. The key is inserting the tuner at the feedpoint like you did here, in my opinion. This way, you don't have coax working in an unmatched impedance situation, so power should theoretically flow freely. Losses seem minimal in my experience. Thanks again for taking us along, OM. 73 de K4FR
Glad you enjoyed it! I agree about feedpoint tuning. I think the longer you have an impedance mismatch, the more loss you will have. I also use a 41' EFRW sometimes but so far, I've had better luck with just 2 pieces of wire!
I agree with you about the tuner, it's what I like to do.
G4GHB.