Yesterday, I managed to do a short test of the FT-818 from the beach. I was interested to see, for the first time in a long while, how well 6W and then 2.5W PEP would get out on SSB. No digimodes.
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| Just a tiny rig, 6W and a 1/4 wave vertical. |
Well, it was a bad day to be anything other than a Dutch station! It was of course a PA contest weekend, meaning lots of very interesting stations, none of which wanted to hear from Wales!
But I did find Sergey, EW2W busy doing non-contest QSOs. I gave him a call and was picked up with a 57, later 59 report. I was particularly impressed with the audio from the 818, as a small number of people claimed the lower frequencies were a bit cut off. I didn't find that at all.
To finish this very short test, I went to the internal NiMH batteries, which gives 2.5W PEP on SSB. I have to confess, even though it wasn't a DX contact, that I was amazed to easily have a mini-ragchew with frank, EA5HJV. OK, the beach does boost the signal by a good 10dB, possibly more. But, you know, 2.5W from internal power? It's amazing, even if the receiving station has an enormous contest antenna!
When lockdown finishes, it will be very interesting to do long path work with low power SSB. being free of digimodes is actually quite a nice feeling. With long path peak signals lasting roughly 30 minutes as we move towards equinox time, it's unlikely I'll need to take an external battery, not least as there are plenty of videos online already showing QRPp contact from the UK to Australia.
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