Saturday 13 March 2021

QRP TO ABERDEEN 100mW (SSB)

ICOM IC-705 / G5RV


I was just messing around with the IC-705 at home when I heard MM0UDI chatting with a few people on 40M. Conditions were poor and I couldn't hear any of the stations Robbie was speaking with.

During a pause, I thought I'd put in a call, not really expecting much. To my surprise, Robbie caught my callsign and invited me in. I tried speaking with his friends but had no joy (I've no idea where they where).

Upon hearing which radio I was using, Robbie asked me to drop my power to see how it performed, so I dropped down from 10W to 5W. He asked me to go lower so I dropped to 1W. He asked me to go lower so I reduced power to half a Watt!

Lower! he demanded 😂 so I went to 100mW and although he struggled to make out what I was saying, he could still hear me in the distance. I increased to 200mW and again he could hear me but not quite understand my words so I went back to 10W to thank him for his time and give him my 73.

If we'd had more time and if I'd switched over to the EFHW, I think we could have easily have chatted at 100mW. I was very pleased with this little QSO and offer my thanks to Robbie for taking the time to experiment with the power levels.

Here's the recording of the conversation. If the YouTube video doesn't seem to work, CLICK HERE INSTEAD.

YouTube Video MM0UDI / M7MCQ


I know this isn't DX or anything, but I enjoyed the contact nonetheless and look forward to more attempts to using less and less power.



Thanks for visiting - please take a minute to leave a comment below 

73, Tom, M7MCQ.

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