QRO again, indeed!
There was a reason for the "Duracell experiment" here in northeast Georgia. I started out just wanting to see whether I could work any of the three Mode-J satellites on "flea power," as Rick, WA4NVM, has dubbed it. Back on July 8th, I put a fresh set of two AA Duracells in the BCA-23 battery case for my Yaesu VX-7R HT, and replaced the standard rechargeable battery pack with it. On alkalines, the radio wlll operate either at 300 mW RF out or 50 mW RF out.
I worked a few stations on 300 mW, then decided to see what I could do on 50 mW. Four states and Ontario later, I realized there was an opportunity here to indulge my addiction to QRP!
I switched back to the rechargeable pack and ran full power - 5 watts into an Arrow handheld yagi - for a couple more weeks before deciding to launch the "Duracell experiment" full-on. From July 31 through Aug.3, I operated exclusively on Duracells running 50mW RF out. At 13:58 UTC on Aug. 3, I was thrilled to make my first-ever contact with W1AW (any band, any mode) - via AO-51 - with Mark, WA8SME, at the controls up there. That contact also gave me the last one I needed to apply for (subject to receiving all the QSL cards, of course) the AMSAT Satellite Communications Achievement Award using ALL 50 mW contacts, and on the SAME SET of Duracells!
I worked Mark again on Aug. 5 - during a demo he was doing for teachers - on 50mW RF out. I was able to squeeze one more contact out of those batteries - with K4DLG in Florida, the next day. In all, I made 50 contacts on 50 mW RF out and three contacts on 300 mW RF out on those two Duracells, with stations in 20 states, Ontario, Mexico and Venezuela. I'm going to find a small, nice piece of wood and mount those Duracells for display in my shack!
Kyle is one of the contacts whose card will be included in the AMSAT award application. Thank you for that! And thanks to everyone who has worked so hard to get all of our amateur satellites into orbit. I hope to join Patrick (WD9EWK) on some of the other-mode satellites before too much longer.
73 to all,
Tim - N3TL -------------- Original message from "K & R Yoksh" [email protected]: --------------
Clint Bradford said:
lo and behold, Athens, Georgia's own N3TL came through. It was a 4.1 degree of elevation pass for him. Let me repeat that, in case you thought there was a typo: FOUR POINT ONE DEGREES OF ELEVATION for Tim in Georgia. But he was cheating: he was using a full five Watts output on his Yaesu FT-60. I refuse to use high power during my demos...(grin)
N3TL has gone QRO!?! I worked him the other day on AO-51 when was using 50 mW!
Kyle Yoksh K0KN Olathe, Kansas
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