When 5 Watts is TOO MUCH!

Hi gang, 

The bands have been absolute garbage for most of this weekend. Lot's of state QSO parties going on and virtually all of Saturday and Saturday night, I was hearing nothing. I got a chance to get back on the air Sunday night (May the 4th be with you!) and instead of breaking out the Elecraft radios, I decided to dig out an old monoband kit rig I built in 2001.  

The Norcal SMK-1 Transceiver - Designed by Dave Fifield AD6A -  April 2000

I built this radio in 2001 and decided to take it to the QRP gathering know as Four Days in May over near Dayton Ohio.  I entered it in the show-n-tell competition and was awarded "Honorable Mention - Best Attempt at Bribing Judges with Food".  

The following is an excerpt from the SMK-1 construction manual:

This little radio was capable of about 350 milliwatts on 40m.  It was one of the first kits to be primarily surface mount.  Norcal put this together to see if a hobby builder, like me for instance, would be able to build a kit that was constructed of surface mount parts.  It's a very cool kit.  

The SMK-1 circuit is basically a modified Tuna Tin 2 transmitter integrated with a modified MRX-40 receiver. It is a further modification of the modified TT2/MRX-40 that I built for the indoor foxhunt at Pacificon 1999.

All this is fitted onto a small 2.475” x 2.25” PCB. The transmitter consists basically of the two 2N2222A transistor lineup of the original TT2 but with electronic keying. A key-switched crystal oscillator that has some degree of VXO feeds a medium power packaged version of the 2N2222A as a final in class A mode. 

After harmonic filtering, the result is about 350mW of fairly clean transmit power on 7.040MHz (+/- a bit). The RX front end uses the ubiquitous NE602 mixer/oscillator with a crystal VXO. The RX is a direct conversion receiver, so you will hear both sidebands as you tune through a station. 

The input stage of the NE602 has been biased a bit harder than normal by R1, a 22K resistor (this resistor may need tweaking, if your receiver is overdriven, increase the value of this resistor. Try 27K or 39K). This gives the device more conversion gain. 

The audio output of the NE602 direct conversion front end goes through a FET switch that serves to mute the audio to an acceptable sidetone level during TX and then on to a standard LM386 audio power amplifier running as much gain as it can. 

End of excerpt from the SMK-1 Construction Manual

Here is a shot of the front knobs.  I mounted this in a plastic food storage container. 

This is a shot of my finished circuit board.  Even though it was almost a quarter century ago when I built this, I remember it very well.  It was super fun but man did you need a magnifying glass to make sure the parts got in the right place. 

Here's how I wired it up:

Here it is, all ready to go.  The round thing on top is a speaker, I also had a WM-2 Wattmeter connected and set on the ONE WATT setting. 

So I started listening.  The SST contest was in full force so I heard a LOT of stations.  The one I heard the loudest was Mike AD9CA over in Newton Illinois, which is about 125 miles due west of me.  He gave me a signal report of 449, I gave him a 579.  The frequency was 7039.6 Khz. This is what my signal looked like on the Kiwi Receiver in Edinburgh Indiana (about 30 miles south).  This receiver is owned and operated by Bob WA8VZY and he allows people to connect over the internet and use it to listen to the bands. 

Mike AD9CA was the red signal, I am the Green signal

One last picture, my wattmeter showing about 300 milliwatts of output.  I think the most I ever got on this little radio was about 340 milliwatts.  My battery may not be totally charged.   My contact with Mike 125 miles away is equal to about 500 miles per watt!! 

WM2 Wattmeter showing right at 300 Milliwatts on the 1W Scale

Just goes to show, when the band is open, you don't need mega power to make a CW contact!! Try milliwatting sometime, it's a hoot! A Giant THANK YOU to Mike AD9CA for taking the time to tune me in and pull me out of the ether!! It absolutely made my weekend. 

73 de KB9BVN

Brian

Cikana State Fish Hatchery Part Deux

Today was the first really nice day we've had in a week.  So after work I grabbed my POTA station in a carrying case and headed out to play radio in the outdoors. 

I had originally planned on heading down to US-4183 Atterbury Fish and Wildlife Area but I've been there so much I decided to drive out a little further and try another Parks on the Air entity.  It just so happens the Cikana State Fish Hatchery is only about 7 or 8 minutes further than going to Atterbury, so that's where I headed! 

It was pretty much a straight shot south on I-69 (or State Road 37 as we Hoosiers know it) to State Route 44 near the city of Martinsville.  I visited here briefly about a month ago.

I arrived at my spot at 4:40PM and by the time I got setup and on the air it was right at 5:00PM.  Today I was going to go out on a limb and try something new with antennas.  I almost ALWAYS use my 10m tall, collapsible, trailer hitch mounted, venerable Eagle One vertical, but today I wanted to try something different with my Elecraft AX1 antenna and a new way of mounting it.  One of my buddies used his 3D printer and made me a puck looking thing that the antenna mounts in to, then you screw in a set of legs and attach the coax and you're off to the races! 

Elecraft AX-1 Antenna set for 20 meters 

The AX-1 antenna from Elecraft is not much more than 4 maybe 5 feet in length when full extended. The coil I am using here today will work on 17 meters, and 20 meters.  There is another coil you can buy that will allow the little antenna to tune up on 40 meters as well.  The wire coming off the puck to the right, over the top of my truck, is a single radial I clipped on that is about 30 feet in length...the wrong size for 20m I know...but hey...it was what I had on hand.  The auto tuner in my KX-2 had NO problem getting a 1:1 match...BUT would it radiate? 

Elecraft KX-2 set for 8 watts, connected to Antenna and CW paddles - Empty Log

I started out on the air today at 20:57Z (4:57PM), called CQ POTA a few times and my first contact of the day was Joe WA2SPL up in Vermont.  So I guess it's working. By the time I left I had 13 contacts, ranging from Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Texas, Florida, and Louisiana. I was really happy with the way this worked out.  It was so much easier than setting up the big antenna.  

The Cikana State Fish Hatchery is great place to birdwatch, and they have a few relatively mild hiking trails, and a few picnic tables hanging around just waiting for an impromptu pitch in lunch or dinner.  Just click the link to learn more about it. 

Three of the 16 fish ponds for Indiana DNR to raise hatchlings

Map of today's contacts - W8APS was in Florida 
Using 8 Watts and the Elecraft AX-1 on 20 Meters

Well that's the report from today in the wilderness.  Until next time! 

73 de KB9BVN

Brian

And then...the rains came...

I think it started raining about a month ago but the last week has been incredible.  Thunderstorms, tornadoes, hail, snow flurries, and more thunderstorms.  Ahhh..the joys of living in Tornado Alley in the Springtime.  This is not conducive to POTA activations around here, and it may be a week or 10 days before I will be able to venture out into the soggy bottom of Camp Swampy, also known as the Atterbury Fish and Wildlife Area. 

So what's a rained out, bored to death, CW operator supposed to do?  Well I have been enjoying doing some SWLing, shortwave radio listening.  I get a kick out of finding the strange and odd CW signals out there and then trying to figure out what it all means.  This week I have been logging in to a Kiwi SDR receiver in Michigan.  This one is run by Bruce Johnson KX4AZ out of Athens Georgia.  Bruce has SDR receivers in Michigan and Georgia.  The particular one I was listening to was KX4AZ/T - the T means Tustin Michigan. which is about 315 miles due north of my location.  You can tune in by aiming your web browser here: http://kx4az_t1.proxy.kiwisdr.com:8073/

On the night of April 3rd, I copied a Canadian Coast Guard transmitter located in Fort Caldonia, Nova Scotia.  The time was 22:30Z and the mode was CW.  It looked like this: 

VVVVVVVVVVVV DE VCO/B FN15

So what they were sending were 12 V's  (It's a CW way to gather attention) DE (from) VCO/B (a beacon station with a call sign of VCO) and finally FN15 (This is a maidenhead grid square reference, you can look on a maidenhead map and tell the general area of the globe the signal is coming from).  My maidenhead grid square at home is EM69.  

What was interesting is this was copied on a frequency of 6770.15 Khz.  I have done some google checking and VCO hasn't been heard on this frequency before...at least that I can find.   

The same night, I also copied a CW signal sending the same three letters over and over.  This was on a frequency of 6782 Khz and it looked like this:

ODX    ODX    ODX    ODX    ODX    ODX 

This one is a stumper.  I have checked Google, and chatGPT and I am not coming up with anything. Normally beacons will have a /B after the call sign, but this just keeps repeating the same three letters over and over.  I logged it at 22:20Z on April 3 2025.  If anyone has any idea on this one, please leave a comment. I think it is some kind of channel marker...but not sure. 

Another thing I have had fun doing is listening to some pirate radio stations that like to hang out in the 6935-6980 Khz range.  Usually these stations only pop up on weekends, or holidays.  They use names like Syco Radio, Wolverine Radio, Thunder Chicken Radio, and Appalachia Radio (Great bluegrass and bluegrass gospel) .  You can go to HF Underground forums on the web and read about the reports and their activities.  Most of these stations operate in Upper Side Band mode, but you'll also find a few running AM.  Just another way to kill time until the ground dries out. 

So today I decided to take my Norcal 40A off the shelf and get on the air with it, while it CONTINUES to rain. 

I built this little 1 watt or less radio in the fall of 1998, and I used this radio to make my very first ever CW (Morse Code) contact.  It was with a station in Mississippi on Spetember 7, 1998, from the picnic table in my backyard. KF4EWO Brian Kusler in De Soto Mississippi. I was so excited I could hardly breathe.  By this time I had been a amateur radio operator for just over 10 years, but this was the first time I had a radio that would allow me to operate in the HF bands.  Up to then all my other stuff was geared for UHF/VHF radio.  What's the difference?   I can use UHF/VHF to communicate across town, maybe a few counties.  With HF, I could work the world. 

Norcal 40A 

Norcal 40A - Back 

Norcal 40A - The guts. Built by hand in 1998

Homemade Battery Pack for Norcal 40A

My sorry antenna for this first contact was a pair of 22 gauge telephone cross connect wires that I had made a rudimentary dipole from and had slung it over the roof of my house.  I tuned it with a antenna tuner I also made from a kit, the venerable ZM-2 Z match antenna tuner.  

I get the old girl off the shelf probably once a month to make sure it's still working, and every contact with it is exciting to me.  So today while messing around, I tuned to 7041 Khz and heard a station calling CQ CQ DE N0SS MOQP  - this was N0SS The Mid Missouri Amateur Radio Club.  MOQP meant they were looking for contacts to log in the Missouri QSO Party.  A QSO Party is normally run over a 12-24 hour period, and the mission is to make as many contacts as you can in the time period.  Then you turn in your logs and we see who wins.  

This is what the Kiwi SDR screen looks like at Tustin Michigan.  That yellow line under the green bracket thingie is me calling CQ from home, and that's my 1 watt signal in Michigan!  

Kiwi SDR - KX4AZ/T in Tustin Michigan

This next picture is N0SS working KB9BVN in the Missouri QSO Party, he gave me a 599 signal report, which is about as good as it gets.  Likewise he was loud and clear here in New Whiteland Indiana.  It's amazing that my one watt radio is making it in good shape.  The SDR in Michigan is 315 miles, and the N0SS station in Jefferson City MO is 335 miles as the crow flies. 

A little bit later I worked station W0I, which is a special event station participating in the Missouri QSO Party.  It is being operated by Kevin in Olathe Kansas.  He gave me a 599 signal report and I returned the same. We were on a frequency of 7044 Khz.  This time we're out 510 miles! 

OH BOY...hung out a bit longer...used the Kiwi SDR in Michigan to visually see the CW stations on 40m.  Wow what a nice aid to operating...but is it cheating?  Only the shadow knows.  So I just tuned to 7038 Khz and managed to get a 599 from station W0R in Missouri.  He was a solid 599 here as well. 

Well that's about it for today, I think I will continue playing on the air with the Norcal 40A and using the Kiwi SDR that KX4AZ/T has up for some extra help. I hope my next post will be a report on my next great outdoors adventure. I'm tired of being cooped up in the shack.  Thoughts and prayers going out to all the flooding victims, this has really been a wet few weeks and from the vids I have been seeing, the flooding is terrible in many parts of the central US.  

72 es OO

de KB9BVN

Brian

My 50th Park Activation!

Obey the Rules or Pay the Fines

Sometimes reaching goals can be so exciting, and so anti-climatic at the same time.  Today I completed my 40th POTA activation at US-4183 Atterbury Fish and Wildlife Area.  That makes 50 times I have gone to a park and made at least ten contacts. The goal of 50 activations was something I was sure I'd hit last year but life isn't all ham radio and playing outside, other things happen.  As you can see here, my operating position was on the shore of beautiful, bug infested, Beaver Bottom Lake in the Atterbury Fish and Wildlife Area.  This place is almost uninhabitable in the early summer, as the bugs are so thick you're certain to be carried off and drained of all bodily fluids. This time of year the lake is clear of weeds, the bugs haven't come up out of the ground yet, and it's just a great place to spend an afternoon hour or two enjoying the hobby of amateur radio. 

So today I loaded up the Trailblazer as soon as work was finished at 4:15PM, traffic this time of day can be thick, and it was.  I arrived at Beaver Bottom around 4:45PM, I had the antenna up, the table installed, my chair unfolded and the 10 Watt KX-2 connected to the Eagle One antenna by 5PM.  The first contact rolled in on 14.046 Khz at 5:02PM...which is always a good sign.  The first station logged was Steve in Texas, K5SJC and I ended up with 19 total this time before I decided to pack up and head to the home shack.  Signal was getting out well.  Montana to the west, New York to the east so almost coast to coast.  I can setup the Eagle One and the coax with a couple radials in less than 10 minutes. 

DNR Supplied Ham Shack

I was very surprised to see the DNR had already installed the portable ham shacks this early in the year.  Usually this doesn't happen until mid April.  The lake was busy today, I counted close to two dozen fishermen scattered around on the bank.  This lake also has a nice aluminum walkway that provides wheelchair access to some nice spots to fish from. 

I don't think I could have asked for better weather today, it was sunny and it was warm, and not a raindrop in sight. That might change later this week, here in Indiana, this time of year can bring on some pretty treacherous weather, including tornadoes, hail storms, and high winds. 

Here's my basic setup, the KX-2 of course, my little 3D printed paddles, the round ball looking thing is an external amplified speaker to pull out the really weak ones. I found these little notebook things at Dollar Twenty Five Tree. 

KX-2 Station for POTA Action

My QSO Map from Today 

Reverse Beacon Spots the last half of my Activation of US-4183

Well that's about all for now. Until the next adventure! 

de KB9BVN

Brian

New Park for Me!

US-12023 Cikana State Fish Hatchery

The Cikana State Fish Hatchery is one of the newer parks that has been added to the Parks on the Air program. It's a very nice state property that has hiking trails, and picnic tables for observing the local wildlife.  Where there are fish ponds, there are numerous birds and other animals around for your viewing pleasure.  

The fish raised here are not for sale to the public.  These fish are for stocking the public waters of Indiana.  Indiana currently uses the site for raising bluegill, largemouth bass, red ear sunfish, black crappie, sauger, channel catfish, and walleye. 

This state property is open from dawn to dusk, and the office here is opened Monday through Friday from 8AM to 4:00PM, closed for all state holidays. 

When I got to the site, I came in off State Road 44, on my way home from Martinsville.  The entrance is clearly marked and there is a information kiosk thing about 250 yards into the property.  Behind the kiosk is a couple of picnic tables overlooking some of the ponds, and the woods. 

Information Kiosk at Cikana 

A couple of the hatchery ponds 

Welcome and some information about the property

Since I was going to be using my KX-2 and the portable AX-1 antenna, I was perfectly at home at this picnic table.  I was ready to get on the air about 3PM EDT.  Like my beer glass coffee mug? 

KB9BVN about to jump into action

Spotted, on 14062 Khz, and ready to copy the POTA hunters!

So, here's where things started to not go as planned.  I fired up the KX-2 at 10 watts...in almost an hour I had worked one station.  N4CD at a park in Oklahoma.  So I shut down, and raised the Eagle One hitch mounted vertical on my SUV, tossed out a couple of radials, and tried it again. 

This was a good move, I nailed down another eleven contacts in about 30 more minutes.  Covering OK, TX, LA, MO, ID, NY, MN, SD, and FL.  Not a bad effort.  I had 12 in the log and it was time to pack up and go home.  

I checked the space weather for band conditions and today it wasn't good.  Normally I don't have any issues working DX with the AX-1 antenna...but that was not happening today.

Band Conditions: SSN:90 SFI:148 A:34 K:3  

NOT GREAT!!!

Lots of opportunities when I come back! 

73 de KB9BVN

Homemade Battery Packs for KX-2/KH-1

Operating KX-1 on Field Day 2007 

The bane of operating portable is running out of battery power before you are ready to QRT and close the station.  Now that I am using the KX-2 as my primary out and about radio, I needed to find a way to supplement the battery situation.  I have two of the batteries that Elecraft sells, and they are about 3 or 4 years old and they work fine, but I thought I might start looking for some spares.  

Being a frugal (aka tighfisted) ham, I was deterred when I saw the pricing for brand new Elecraft batteries.  

Now I am certain they are worth every penny, as Elecraft makes nothing but good goods in my experience with them over the years.  My ham brain just insisted I dig deeper and see if I could cobble some battery packs up on my own.  This is what I came up with. 

The battery pack that is used in the KX-2 and the KH-1 is a pack made from three Lithium Ion cells, commonly known as 18650's.  If you have an EV, you probably own a thousand of them and maybe did not know it. 

The Lithium Ion cell is not to be confused with the Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries.  The Lithium Ion batteries used by the KX-2 and KH-1 are not smart batteries.  They have no built in battery management chip (BMS), so you CAN overcharge them, and they CAN catch fire. 

I found these battery packs on Amazon.  They were marked about $32 for the pair. I think they are $39 now so keep an eye out. 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BJ5QJ2GS

The power connector for the KX-2 and KH-1 is a male DC plug, 5.5mm by 2.1mm in size.  So I bought a bag of plugs, snipped off the 2 pin connectors on the batteries and soldered on the DC plugs. 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B083J24LTZ

You need to do some thinking ahead on this.  I used a piece of shrink tube on each of the two connections, and then I used a bigger piece of shrink tube to cover the connections and help to support the connection at the plug.  Harbor Freight sells a fantastic little heat gun that is perfect for shrinking shrink tube, shrink wrap or softening hot glue.  It runs about ten bucks. 

Super Cheap Harbor Freight heat gun

So basically for less than fifty dollars I was able to make two spare battery packs.  I charge them with the Elecraft Tenergy Lithium Ion charger that I bought with the KX-2.  Any smart charger that is acceptable for use with Lithium Ion batteries will work.  Never leave Lithium Ion batteries on the charger unattended.  They ARE a fire hazard. 

Still cold here this week...we're promised temperatures in the 60F-70F range next week.  Fingers crossed.  Looking forward to getting back out in the parks and operating. 

On another note these batteries run my K1, K2, KX-2, and Hilltopper rig very well, apparently they all accept the 5.5mm by 2.1mm DC power plug.  Nice. 

73 de KB9BVN

Brian