Tuesday, March 26, 2024

CQ magazine and Roadrunner magazine - differing methods of media distribution

With CQ Magazine now having given up the ghost, I find myself wondering if (or how) it might be possible for an individual or entity to pick up the where CQ left off. The magazine contained many excellent articles and topical columns that I'll miss.

A unique way of distributing a magazine, in a way I have not seen elsewhere, comes from Roadrunner magazine.

Roadrunner is a magazine about motorcycle touring. It is available in print, and even on newsstands (Barne & Noble), but it is also available electronically - with a twist.

Friday, March 22, 2024

A few thoughts on the QMX transceiver

 

A recent get-together of Central Florida POTA ops, led, of course, by Bill N4NYM, allowed me the opportunity of meeting a dozen or so kindred spirits at Lake Louisa State Park where I very much enjoyed seeing their set-ups and eating their food.

One of those in attendance was a newbie CW op, Glenn KO4NTA, and somehow Glenn and I got to talking about QRP. He had several rigs with him but the radio he most wanted to show me was his new Army-green (tr)uSDX.

"It costs about $100, covers 5 bands and is super tiny!"

That very statement - since it applies equally - got me to thinking about my inbound QMX, and I asked Glenn if he'd heard of it.

To my surprise, he had not heard of QRP Labs at all.

At that point, I think I may have unwittingly become a bit of a salesman. Glenn had not yet been on the air with his (tr)uSDX and I had not yet been on the air with a QMX. I do have a (tr)uSDX though, and have made a number of hard-won contacts with it on both CW and SSB.

I know the shortcomings of the (tr)uSDX and, now that I've made almost 100 contacts (and two POTA activations) with my new QMX, I have a pretty good idea of where it stands in the $100-Rig Department.

Wednesday, March 20, 2024

UHSDR aligned: Where does the mcHF clone excel?

I spent about an hour and a half today with the mcHF clone on the bench undergoing a full alignment. The radio, not me.

Alignment of this radio is simple and the instructions are menu-driven & easy to follow - but there are a lot of optional settings that go a long way toward configuring the radio to operate in a manner that makes ergonomic and operational sense.

If I had not owned a mcHF for a number of years, I would not know about those settings without delving more deeply into the various menu items available.

So why a mcHF clone?

  • Genuine mcHF's are no longer available new
  • For $350 I have a 10-80m, all mode QRP transceiver that is a real performer, not a gimmick radio
  • Built-in sound card for easy digital operation with CAT, audio in, audio out - all on a single USB cable
  • The mcHF firmware is now mature. But there are at least two others developing new features into this rig, with different functionality and different on-screen info/accessibility
  • For the price, I can take the rig motorcycling and not worry about heat or mechanical vibration possibly damaging an expensive radio. It's not a $1500 KX2 if I accidentally leave it in the car on a summer day.
  • The alignments are great for learning the new test equipment that many hams now have, ie, the TinySA.

With my old mcHF, I worked 84 DXCC entities on CW and 53 on FT8. This new clone seems identical in performance. I bought my original mcHF as a back-up portable rig and ended up using it more than the radio(s) it was meant to back up.

For $350, it's too capable of a radio not to have.

First contact after the alignment was a 15m CW contact with Stu M0TTQ who was activating a park near Portsmouth, England:


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Tuesday, March 19, 2024

QMX on CW: demo of thumping at the end of CW characters

A thread currently running on the QRP Labs group discusses the "thumping" issue on CW.

I received my pre-built QMX yesterday and was able to hear for myself how this it sounds on the 5 bands, 20 to 80 meters. As noted on the group, the issue is more pronounced on 80 meters and is present to a smaller degree on higher bands, although 40m seems the least affected.

The sound is the same whether using a powered speaker or headphones, and regardless of RF power out. Others on the forum note that it exists even when the output power is entirely disabled.\

There are numerous configuration settings possible in the QMX and some owners have adjusted AGC and other values to mitigate this sound. My values are all default except that I have made the sidetone volume track the AF gain by setting that value to 'Relative' from the default of 'Absolute'.

Hans G0UPL is prioritizing a fix for this issue.


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Monday, March 18, 2024

Long-awaited QMX arrives

Ordered 7 months ago, my pre-built QRP Labs QMX arrived today.

There is a much shorter waiting time for those who order the kit version of this rig.

It's a 20-80m version and I will be putting it through its paces on CW over the next few days and will eventually configure it for FT8.

I was happy to see that a test sheet was included, indicating the results of various parameters obtained before it was shipped to me. 

The QMX is almost identical in size to the (tr)uSDX and they cover the same 5 bands. However, I believe the similarities will end there with the QMX having drastically better performance in every way.