Klaus & Lita

Portable Operation – FT818 Go Kit

Presentation of my FT-818 go kit and portable operation to Coron, Palawan on the February SARTS monthly meeting.

WPX 2018 CW Contest

Surprise in the mail: plaque for CQ WPX CW contest 2018

FT-818 portable setup

Finished the setup of my portable station. All components are mounted together using maker beam profiles: FT-818, PA MX-P50M, ATM Z817, Solar charge controller and Computer interface.

Computer interface and solar charge controller

Endfed Antenna 20 m – 40 m – 60 m

Endfed as inverted vee on the 6 m portable fiberglass pole

Fiberglass pole top with coil and guy wires

The results for the CQWW WPX Contest 2018 are out for CW and SSB. I was able to achieve in both modes #1 in the Philippines for all bands, low power. In CW, first time ever, I became continental winner for Oceania.

Equipment: IC-718, 100W, Inv. Vee dipole for 40 and 80 and 3 el Spider beam for 15 m and 20 m. For 10 m I just matched the Spider beam with a matchbox.

cqww-wpx-ssb-2018 — Reached 1 Mio Pts. #3 in Oceania, #16 world wide, not too bad

cqww-pfx-cw-2018 — Didn’t manage 1 Mio Its, but still enough to become #1 in Oceania

Solar Power for portable Operations

Today I tested the first time my new solar power setup for portable operations. I am using a 60 W PowerFilm foldable solar panel and a 5 A MPPT charge controller for a LiFePo4 4S battery. The whole weight is 1600 g including the 5 m connection cable.

60 W foldable solar panel with MPPT charge controller

Hanging solar panel on the balcony – testing

It was cloudy day and the sun was most often covered by clouds. The panel is only exposed to 1/3 up to max. 1/2 to the full sunlight, if it is there.

Using a power analyzer to measure the incoming power and charge.

Using a power analyzer, the data show a 1.4 A peak current and 19 W peak power. I was able to charge 10 Wh in about 2 hours. Next time I will try to get the panel under full illumination in the sun and measure again.

The analyzer shows current, voltage and power and in addition peak values for current and power as well as total energy (power integrated over time) in Wh.

QRP tranceiver FT-818ND

CQ WPX SSB Contest 2018

Over the weekend March 25th/25th I participated in the CQ WPX Contest SSB, category Single Operator, Non-assisted, Low Power. Although propagation was not favourable, I could make more than 1000 contacts and achieve more than 1 Mio points (raw score). Having fun!

Klaus, 4E1A, during WPX SSB contest 2018

The analysis of log data gives a good snapshot for the current propagation conditions from the Philippines.

CQ zones reached with time (local Philippines) and average frequency. Yellow: long path.

10 m band was open to Japan, Korea and China