This morning I successfully QSO'd with ON4ASG in jo10nx through AO-51 using a HT that I bought in Jinan, China for the equivalent of £12 or 25USD. It's called a PU GUANG PG-5118 and has 2.5 watts out from a Li-ion battery (no CTCSS though). Similar rigs are on ebay.
I was using my Arrow of course, and an adaptor to change the SMA male antenna plug on the HT to BNC, on a 67 degree pass.
Downlink was heard full duplex on another cheap radio, Hora C408, costing about £40-50 here, tuning in 5kHz steps. Runs on 2 AA cells. No desensing whatsoever. Bit fiddly to doppler tune a second rig, and the tape ran out before the end (!), so lost IW8RRF.
Watch out for an announcement coming up soon about EW/G0SFJ!
73 de andy G0SFJ
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