100% Homebrew POTA Activation

QRP Labs QMX: shop.qrp-labs....
KM4CFT Iambic Paddle: www.ebay.com/i...
QRP Guys Antenna: qrpguys.com/qr...
BNTECHGO Wire: www.amazon.com...

[@K6ARK]

Awesome! It's so satisfying operating on gear you built. I built a QCX, a QCX mini, and a QMX most recent and have been very happy eith them.

[@Utahforrest]

@@K6ARK Great to find you on my channel, Adam. :) couldn’t agree more, operating with homebrew equipment is super satisfying. One thing I forgot to mention at the end of the video was 5/10 of my QSOs gave me a 599 signal report too which might be my best ever average for a QRP activation! Not too shabby with gear I built. Thanks for watching 73 de KI7QCF!

[@JonathanKayne]

Thanks for the shoutout Forrest! Glad that you like my paddle design, and I knew you wuld like the custom callsign in the print! Luckily you caught me right as I finished up printing all the parts for the CFT1 kits so I was able to run a cover for you. The QMX and QCX mini are incredibly capable radios and I love to take them on activations. My first CW activation (and CW QSO) was on the QCX mini! 73, Jonathan KM4CFT

[@Utahforrest]

I really enjoyed using your paddle on this activation and it’ll come on many more activations with me! There’s just something special about using a paddle that I got to build! Excited for your transceiver to hit the market! 73

[@Wetuptheparty5]

Yo can we please get an update on the bikes lol. Love seeing them with your garage setup and on the rugs. Absolutely stunning.

[@NsixVHF]

What a fraudster with the non-homebrew ATU. LMAO. I have an 817ND laying in the garage. I should make a small "go kit" like that. That would be pretty cool. Always awesome to work you and see your videos Forrest! 73 de N6VHF dit-dit

[@Utahforrest]

@@NsixVHF haha! Great to get you in the log recently as well! I’d love to see the 817ND go kit! :) 73

[@haletd]

I've been rocking the Gerber Shard on my keys since 2014! You had a great signal here yesterday. I usually try to direct my antennas to the northeast as well.

[@Utahforrest]

@@haletd Gerber Shard FTW. I only recently began directing my antennas (didn’t realize EFHW configurations were directional haha) and it’s made a huge difference especially QRP in some of these canyons I’m in. Great to get you in the log again!

[@haletd]

@@Utahforrest Yep EFHW tend to radiate off the ends. However each harmonic has increasingly wild radiation patterns.

[@KYFriedHam]

That was a heck of a throw OM! I thought that thing was gonna keep on sailin' ! I noticed you're getting a bit over 4 watts on your QMX, did you build it for 9V or 12V? I built mine for 12V and I get about 3.2W to 3.6W depending on band.

[@Kinetic79]

Did you play with the spacing on your LPF for 20m? You don't need to change the BPF (the larger toroid that's shared across all bands), since that is out of line on transmit;; and therefore only matters for receive. I think the best trick is to try to spread or squeeze the turns on that baby toroid while you've got the QMX plugged into your computer in terminal mode, on the diagnostics screen -- you actually don't need the LCD plugged in while you do it. I did it the sort of hard way, but I figured that out later. 3.6 isn't terrible. I have 3.7-3.9 on a 9V battery (which is what I built mine for), with some tweaking but I wouldn't say I necessarily "optimized" fully.

[@KYFriedHam]

@@Kinetic79 Thanks for the tip! I did try messing with that but my toroids are very close together and it was impacting other bands. I think for now, I'll "leave well enough alone" 😀

[@Utahforrest]

@@KYFriedHam 9v! I honestly had no rhyme or reason to it just randomly did both QMX builds at 9v. I have an assembled high band arriving any day and I’m sure it’ll be 12v from the factory.

[@wkjagt]

@@Utahforrest I built my QMX for 9 volt. USB-C PD can do 9 volt but not 12. I use a small Anker USB-C power bank and a USB-C PD trigger module to get 9 volt out of the Anker. Voltage seems to stay constant, and the power bank has a small display that shows percentage of battery left.

[@Utahforrest]

@@wkjagt That’s awesome. Funny thing about the Bioenno is it’s actually 10v when fully charged and needs about 5 minutes to die off a little before the QMX can operate. I love Anker products I’ll need to check that out!

[@brianve7jyd943]

i had a QCX Mini and loved it - but when i got my G90 i passed it onto a ham that was trying to get back into Ham Radio on a budget so i gifted it to them to get started - ive since replace it with the SW-3B which i like but i think a QCX is in the future gain - thanks for the vidios and the contacts - what ATU are u using Forrest 73 ditdit

[@Utahforrest]

You’re a good man for gifting your QCX! Yeah they’re really fun rigs! And gotta love that QRP Labs makes them so affordable. But that’s also why there’s a 5+ month wait on assembled units!!

[@brianve7jyd943]

@@Utahforrest what ATU is that ur using Sir

[@Utahforrest]

@@brianve7jyd943 ATU 10!

[@F_Tim1961]

The think about the SW 3B is hat is near unkillable because the output MOSFET is rather oversized. THere's also the possibly of replacing that Mosfet the 510 with RD 16HH or even better RD15HVF1 which will give you another + 3.5 W out possibly ie 9 W out . The Datasheet for the RD16HH shows that it can produce up to 19 W out in class C with a 12.5 V supply but only within a small band of frequencies optimum for the Feed system and LPF I think. THe SW 3B is a little over priced for what it is (about USD 210 in your and in the US ) but there are not that many players in the market now. (QRP , CW only kit or fully built up item) . You can easily get a Second hand G1M Xiegu 4 band SSB and CW, 7 W out for that sort of money or around $ USD 250 was the new price when in production and the item was sold on US market . So the Venus Wuxi has some competition just above it's standard price. It's only if you get a kit that you save some serious money. I'm not even sure they sell the 3B as a kit at the moment.

[@Kinetic79]

Pretty good throw -- I do the same technique. Nice to have a convenient POTA spot like that--wish I had a quiet/peaceful one that close by. I like that the QMX is seeing some firmware updates lately. I also like mine... glad for the semi-QSK b/c the switching back & forth isn't quite smooth enough for me, despite the lack of physical relay clicks. Do you prefer the AGC off, or just haven't really messed with it enough to dial it in for your taste? I forget if yours is a high-band or low-band... I have both, and I was able to make them sound more similar to each other by increasing the "S9 sounds like ___" AGC setting to like 13-14 on my HB.

[@Utahforrest]

@@Kinetic79 that’s a great reminder to go update my firmware! I need to go check my QSK and AGC settings it’s been a while. For someone that has built 2 QMX I am not the best at comprehending the overall functionality. In fact I usually have people comment on my videos with advice and recommendations that I greatly appreciate haha! This is the mid-band I have a high band I ordered in March that finally shipped this week hope to get it soon. Have you seen the QMX +? Curious what your thoughts are on that rig seems like a fun build! 73 de KI7QCF

[@Kinetic79]

​@@Utahforrest While I haven't built the QMX+, another member of my club has been 4 QMX's and a QMX+... and he sent a bit of commentary in reply to another club member who had bought his kit at Dayton and inquired about feedback, just a few days ago. I'll check ur QRZ and forward that to you. I sorta wish I had a QMX mid-band, too, but I don't think I wanna gamble on building a 3rd QMX (mini)--in case it gives me grief :). My sense is that it probably makes sense to do a QMX+ at some point when some crafty people have built and recommended some cool hacks for it--and we're not quite there yet.