The Transportable Small Station

摘要

Of course; you are right. It may be a long time before it actually I reaches our shores. But I can be patient. At least for a while; anyway. What am I talking about? The latest and greatest in transceivers; that's what I'm on about. Last month I explained my reasoning; so if you want the details read last month's piece. You may disagree with my conclusions; but each to their own; as they say. So; the wait continues. (Yes; I'm talking about the Elecraft K4; which holds great promise but is taking its time to be produced in quantity. And; to put you out of your misery; the three back panels shown last month were the FTdx101D; the FTdx10 and the Elecraft K4). Meantime; there is a contest this weekend - the annual ARRL SSB contest; which some would probably agree is one of the biggest. Yeah; I told you before; many times in fact; that I am not a contester. But I am interested in this one for several reasons. One of these is my annual '59 73' with my friend Tom (you know of whom I speak); and the chance to work stateside when there are lots of US stations on the air. For the past few years; I have been making this contest more and more difficult for myself. Just for fun. I started off a few years ago with 100W; then moved into QRP range with 10W; and then tried 5W although; to be fair; this latter didn't work very well. This year; I've decided to set the bar even higher - or maybe not! Read on. You will be aware that I favour portable operations. This gets me away from the man-made noise sources all around me; and it also gets me out of the 'house'; so to speak. A fine Spring day; jump in the car; pull into a nice spot; maybe by a river; set up my small station and see what happens. I have not done /M operations for maybe 30 years; most of my life as an amateur radio operator. I did look at this quite recently; but apart from the need to drill holes in the new car; I'm less than certain that driving on UK roads while operating an amateur radio station is a very good idea. Others may have a different view. There isn't a mobile transceiver (yet) that can be operated by means of a digital voice assistant (such as Siri). But this does not mean that it is impossible to operate from a car. And this is what I am planning to do for the ARRL SSB contest.