Sunday, September 19, 2010

Active on the HF bands



During last week of August me and my second operator visited my parents and there was a Icom 707 for me to borrow, so why not try some QSOs on the shortwave bands for the first time ever. I operated as SA5BKE/4 and made around 15-20 QSOs around Europe on 80 m up to 17 meters. Great fun! I also promised to send out some QSLs but haven´t made any attempts yet. I am thinking about making some custom ones with this method.



Some week later I saw a Kenwood TS-450SAT for sale at a good price. As it was only 30 minutes drive from here I went there and took a look. Seemed to be a nice rig so I bought it! On 12 September I could try it with my 15,5 m longwire on 4 m height with my home made 9:1 unun. I only made 2 QSOs on 80 m and 17 m, but everything seemed to be fine business. I used a car battery but I now started to look for a power supply. Maybe I find a good one on the upcoming ham radio flea market here in Norrköping in a couple weeks or maybe try to convert a PC power supply?