QRP portable on PSK31 - five watts and five QSOs!

The car at Red Mountain with the antenna on the roof.

This evening after work I finally got a chance to test my new portable set-up for real. Previously, I had only tested it in the main shack connected to my home antennas. But today I wanted to give it a REAL test. So I took the portable station in my car to a hill about two miles from where I live called Red Mountain, just overlooking Donore village in County Meath. I wanted to run five watts only on either digi modes or CW, running off a separate battery, not the car battery. I didn't know what to expect . . . or even if it would work properly, although having tested it at home I felt it would.

It took me a few minutes to get everything out of the box and connected up. Eventually I would like to make a proper "go box", but for now I have to connect all the leads and that's OK. It only took a few minutes. I was using the Watson Multi-Ranger antenna on the roof of the car. I decided to use PSK31 so I didn't bother connecting a mic to the radio, or indeed the K1EL keyer. All I had to do was connect the radio to the battery, the antenna to the ATU, and the Signalink to both the computer and the radio. Oh, and I used the new Icom CI-V interface so that HRD could read the frequency and mode from the rig.

Everything fit on the passenger seat. It was a little uncomfortable because
I had to turn sideways to operate, but it all worked very well.

With all that done, I tuned up and then started CQing on 14.070.85 using just five watts. I was chatting to a couple of the local guys on two metres also. After five minutes of Cqing there was nothing, so I was thinking I might change to CW, but all of a sudden a F5 station was calling me! So I successfully made a QSO with him. I finished, thinking how delighted I was to have successfully made a contact with five watts when a German station called me. I worked him too. Then an Italian called me and I logged him. In total, I worked five stations in half an hour. The last one was the best DX contact - into Ukraine. 

Working DL9KW Karl-Heinz on PSK31 with 5 watts.

It was great fun - and very rewarding. The location helped. The hill falls away steeply towards the east so there would be good take-off into Europe. I packed everything away into the EI2KC portable case with a smile on my face.

I'm hoping to do more portable work soon - perhaps with a couple of the local hams in tow. We could maybe bring a flask of tea and some sandwiches and biscuits and make a nice social event out of it too...

Just a couple of things I need to do for next time. I need to get better clamps or connectors to keep the power lead connected to the battery. I also need to get a shorter RJ45 cable to connect the Signalink to the rig - it's too long currently. 

EI2KC selfie . . . in the car doing QRP PSK.

Another new Pacific DXCC: H44PA Solomon Islands

Above is a video of my QSO this morning with Greg, H44PA, in the Solomon Islands, on 17m CW. This is another new country for me, my 275th DXCC worked and my tenth new DXCC since putting up the hexbeam. If you listen you can hear my obvious excitement at working the new one. His signal, with QSB, was up to 579 at times. Really, really thrilled with this one. There were very few people calling him, so obviously there was just good propagation between us at that moment. He had just worked a JA (Japan) station immediately before me. I think from his reaction he was pretty happy to work EI himself. I will definitely be sending a QSL card to Greg for this contact!! Cheers Greg!

AREN training exercise in Drogheda

I participated in an AREN training exercise with other local hams in Drogheda today. AREN stands for Amateur Radio Emergency Network, which is a public service voluntary radio emergency network run by the Irish Radio Transmitters Society (IRTS) in conjunction with ComReg.

Taking shelter from a heavy rain shower. Pictured are: Thos EI2JD, Derek EI7CHB,
Tony EI4DIB, Ben EI4IN, Sean EI4IP, Pat EI2HX and Seamus EI3KE.

The training consisted of using radio communications plus a GPS device to track down various 'clues' which had been hidden in various areas of a park known as 'The Glen' at Newfoundwell in Drogheda. It was interesting, fun and educational.

The 'team', for which I did the radio comms, managed to find all five items using the GPS. When we found each item, there was a code written on the front which we had to relay to control. Control was manned by Thos EI2JD and Tony EI4DIB, who is the AREN Co-ordinator for the North East. After successful transmission of the code, we were then sent a question from control, relating to information on the back of each clue. On receipt of the question, we had to find the answer and relay it back to control before being given the coordinates for the next clue.

Pat EI2HX leads the team towards
the correct coordinates.

All going well, there will be weekly exercises in various parts of Drogheda and beyond. This training followed a very recent successful outing to Clogherhead, where local AREN volunteers provided emergency and backup communications for a 10 kilometre road race.

If you are interested in becoming an AREN volunteer, you can contact Tony Allen EI4DIB through his blog.