At this point (0200Z on 8 March), I'm up to 9 contacts, from 30 to 10m, on all 3 modes - in fact, I just worked them on 30m RTTY a few minutes ago.
I wouldn't consider a K3 "inexpensive hardware", but in the spirit of the discussion, I'll state that I don't have an amplifier, nor a tower, nor a beam. My antenna is a 20m quarter-wave vertical (16ft/5m high), with a 40ft/12m wire strung from its tip to an avocado tree branch at about 8ft/2.5m above ground. Technically, it's an Inverted-L, fed with about 50ft/30m of RG-8X straight into the shack to the KAT3. There are two quarter-wave radials for each band strung in the sand, and the base of the antenna is supported by a four foot (1.25m) steel fence post buried in the ground (which is very sandy). HASL is 8ft/2.5m. 24kV power lines are 60 feet away in one direction and 95 feet in another. I also snagged XT2TT the other day on 12 CW. So, yes, it's an awesome rig - it hears well, and it works well, once the operator figures it all out! Bayard R. "Brandy" Coolidge, N1HO Lighthouse Point, FL (DX to TX5K = 2250mi, according to RUMlog) ________________________________ From: "Rick McClelland, AA5S" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Thursday, March 7, 2013 8:11 AM Subject: [Elecraft] TX5K - Managing with inexpensive hardware Something that should be heartening for the less well-heeled amongst us (it certainly was to me), I was able to work TX5K on five bands with a Flex 1500, a very inexpensive second-hand RM Italy HLA-150v amplifier and a single wire antenna. The beams and K3/KPA500 combos are nice to have for these types of events but aren't absolutely necessary. Of course, one might suggest that all this success would have been quite impossible had I not employed an Elecraft KAT500 tuner to make things right with my signal :-) Still chasing Jim, K9YC, for those little green boxes, though. Apparently, he doesn't sleep much. -- Rick McClelland, AA5S Fort Collins, CO ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
