Another week of amateur radio has expired. Expired Ham, get it? 🙂
Welcome to another issue of Expired Ham, a weekly newsletter where I discuss the ways I participated in the amateur radio hobby this week.
So, fun fact. I got my new-to-me Elecraft KX3 at a huge steal, it turns out. Just out of curiosity, I pieced together all of what I purchased and added it to my cart on the Elecraft site and realized I saved about 51% off retail. I also realized after taken receipt of the new rig, that the seller either had forgotten about or didn’t know that the KXFL3 roofing filter was installed. I asked about it prior to purchase and they stated that they didn’t think it was installed, but it is. The entire kit consists of the KX3, the KXPD3 paddle, MH-3 hand mic, KXAT3 antenna tuner unit, KXFL3 roofing filter module, the AX1 whip antenna and AXT1 tripod mount, a power cord, as well as a set of rails, protective cover, and heatsink by Windcamp. I think I got a really good deal, especially since I’ve tested everything out and it all checks out as “in working condition”. I’ve purchased the rest of the kit contents that I’ll need to create a full EDC-type kit containing this radio, with plans to purchase and install the KXBC3 battery charger module at some point so that I can charge the NiMH batteries I’m currently using with this charger without having to take them out of the radio first. I’ll maybe end up carrying it with me quite a bit, or at least that’s the idea. Between the KX3 and the QMX kit that I just put together, I’m not sure which I’d use most. Both offer CW and data modes operation, and with the latest firmware on the QMX, both offer SSB capabilities. The KX3 is less picky about power supplies though, so it might be less cumbersome to carry around the KX3 since I can power it with between 9 and 13.8 V while the QMX doesn’t like anything over 12 V. Maybe I’m being nitpicky here, though. Hell, the QMX is so small, that I could put both radios in the same bag and take both everywhere together.
I’m really pleased with the RG316 cables I’ve purchased to fill out these QRP kits. I purchased the 20-foot length to allow me to connect up to the EFHW Biscuit antenna from Andy, N0APX, which I did deploy during a camping trip last weekend. I found that I need to tune it a bit, but realized I did not take any of the tools needed to get that done while there. I activated Powhatan State Park that weekend, on FT8, using my FT-710 and Wolf River Coils antenna. I plan to get my end-fed half-wave antennas tuned as soon as possible since they don’t do me any good if they never get used. To help with that, and learning from last weekend’s deployment efforts, I purchased a throw line bag from Weaver which should be a lot better than trying to unspool the throw line from a cardboard tube when I want to sling a weight into a tree. I found that trying to unspool the line from the cardboard tube it was wound around from the manufacturer was a headache and led to tangles too easily. I got the idea of using the bag from Thomas, K4SWL, since he uses one in almost all of his POTA activation videos.
Radio work was light for the most part this week. Band conditions didn’t look great this weekend. According to NOAA, we had a G4 magnetic storm on Sunday, with conditions predicted to reach G4 on June 2 as well. I wanted to go out and play around with the KX3 a bit more, but stayed home and hopped on vBand for a bit instead to practice my CW sending skills.
Until next week, 73.
Matthew, K2MAS
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