ON7DQ Winter SOTA Tour - 8-12 March 2018

March 15th approaching ... it was time for my regular tour of the Belgian summits again.
Also the Bergheimer Funkflohmarkt (hamfest) was held this weekend, so a visit was planned, and even more ... read on !

The summits with altitude of more than 500m give me some winter bonus points, so this year I decided to do only those, and leave the other summits for summer.
I may do a couple of those on my tour to Friedrichshafen in May/June.

Day 1

On Thursday March 8th, I left my home in the dark of the night at 05:30, clearly not early enough to avoid the traffic around Brussels and elsewhere ... and with a short stop for breakfast, I only arrived at my first summit with a considerable delay, at 09:10 local time. Time for the first activation of the day.

ON/ON-001 Signal de Botrange

The parking lot was still covered with snow, the temperature was abt 2°C and there was a dense fog and some drizzle, so not the most pleasant operating conditions. I decided not to walk too far, and just operate at the border of the parking lot near the forest. It is in the AZ, so no problem. 
What was a problem though ... was that  I couldn't get my ground anchor into the ground, it was frozen !
After trying several other places, I finally planted it in a pile of snow, and it seemed to hold my 6m pole quite well.
The 9.15m endfed was attached to the top, and hung as a sloper to my umbrella, where the 9:1 UNUN and the KX3 were kept dry ... and the operator too , hi.

Only 11 qso's here, in about half an hour. Bands in use : 14, 10 and 5 MHz, strangely enough, I got no replies to my cq on 40m. In the meantime it had started snowing, so it was time to move on to the next summit. 

PS : sorry to PA7ZEE ... because of the bad weather coming up, I missed his request to try 20m CW again. But I was lucky to work Geert on two other summits !

ON/ON-009 (Iverst)

I arrived at the summit around 11:00 local time. There was less snow there, and it was dry to set up. I used my 12m Spiderbeam pole this time, so the random endfed was setup as a vertical.

I was going to go up the bands in SSB , starting with 60m, then going down again in CW.

On 60m, I only heard G4WSB calling, but we couldn't make a qso.
Then a pile-up followed on 40m, resulting in 22 qso's in 18 minutes ... but then rain started pouring down, and I had to qrt before I could finish my tour of the bands ... also had no time to take pictures of my setup. Here all my stuff packed up to leave the operating spot.

So far for SOTA for this day, I had to do some shopping in Aachen, and find my AirBnB place in Würselen (where I had a very nice appartment with all amenities).

Day 2 was spent in a nice swimming pool/wellness center in Würselen, so we go directly to 

Day 3

This was going to be an exciting day !
On the programme : a visit to the Funkflohmarkt in Bergheim, and in the afternoon a SOTA activation on the Sophienhöhe DM/NW-143. 

Now I had looked if there were any interesting presentations at the hamfest, but to my surprise ... there were NONE. So I had the idea of volunteering to give a short presentation about SOTA.

I got in contact with Simon, DL2KSB, and we agreed on two short presentations : one about SOTA in general, and one with a report on my Mallorca Trip of last year. 

Of course, stupid me hadn't thought this through ... Simon expected me to give the presentations in German ! Now that was going to be an adventure in itself.

This was the announcement on their website, looks good, eh ?.

(as long as it stays online, you can also find it here : G20 Vortraege  )

I arrived at the hamfest at 9:00, and Simon made sure I could put all my stuff in a safe place. 

So I started by doing a tour of the two halls where the fleamarket was. I did buy some PowerPoles for my next projects, and some other small stuff. My main purchase was an original Junker key. 
For SOTA work, I normally use paddles on the KX3, but at home I like to make a qso with a straight key every now and then, mainly as a member of the SKCC. 

I was also pleased to see some homebrew stuff, like  this Bitx40 transceiver, which I also built.

Then, at 11:00 it was time for my presentation. Some 10 - 15 people attended, and Iwas surprised that my German didn't seem so bad after all, at least nobody ran away from the conference room ... hi !
I explained the basic principles of SOTA, but when I opened my backpack to show what I take on a typical activation ... everyone seemed more interested.

I showed the KX3, my endfed antenna with 9:1 UNUN, and all kinds of accessories I use, and of course my newest toy : the QCX transceiver.
After I finished, I had some nice talks with Jochen , DL4KCA (who is also a SOTA activator) and some others.

After the first part, we had a 30' break, and then came a little disappointment ... nobody showed up for my second part ! Well, 12:15 local time is probably not the best time for a presentation, right ?
The cafetaria was full of people though !

Anyway, I did not take it too heavy, if I left early for my summit, I would have more time or could finish a bit sooner. 

Sophienhöhe DM/NW-143

Now, I had asked if any local hams would like to join me for a walk up the hill and having maybe their first SOTA activation. But nobody showed up .. so I left alone, for a 1 hour walk. 
This was my second visit to the Sophienhöhe, and this time I started at the parking to the West, as suggested by Franz, ON9CQ. Parking position is here 50.926768, 6.421960.
I did not record the track, but this screenshot from Google Maps should get you to the summit without problems.

The Sophienhöhe is not really that high (301.8 m, and only 200m ascent from the parking), but it has steep slopes, so the trail is winding slowly up the hill, and it is a long walk.

Actually it seems to be the largest artificial hill worldwide, according to this source :
Sophienhoehe. So even though it is only one point for SOTA, it is still worth a visit.

I started the walk in my tshirt, since there was some sun and temperature around 15 °C .. but as we will see later, I ended in a raincoat and with a raincover over my backpack ... wx can change quickly on a summit !

At the summit there is a replica of a Roman lookout tower, and two nice benches, where one can setup. As you can see in the picture above, the weather was already changing ...

Now, this place is visited by a lot of people (walkers and mountainbikers), so if you prefer a more quit place, there is another interesting spot nearby, called Höller Horn, where there is a wooden ornamental tower. You cannot climb the tower, and it does not protect from the rain, but is maybe a good support for antennas.

NOTE : on some maps you will find an indication for the summit cross or "Gipfelkreuz". This location is NOT in the Activation Zone, because there is a saddle of more than 25m between this point and the summit.

I did set up near the Römerturm, and got only a few visitors this time. One of them was so friendly to take this picture from a distance.

I then started my activation, but after a while it started raining ... and I had to stop operating, with only 8 qso's in the log. Still not a bad result, if you consider that I made 3 S2S contacts, and two DX qso's with the USA.

 After descent from the summit in the rain, I went shopping and found a nice Italian restaurant in Würselen, and with a pizza and a good beer*, the bad weather was quickly forgotten.
(*Yes I know, who drinks beer with a pizza ? Well, I do !)

Day 4

This sunday I had to leave my AirBnb place in Würselen, and move to another one in Bastogne for one more night before returning home.

Along the road, three more summits : 

ON/ON-011 Sur Clair Fa

ON/ON-013 Bois de Hodinfosse

ON/ON-010 Baraque Fraiture

Since I have done all Belgian summits several times before, I had no trouble finding my favourite operating spots. The only trouble I had was with the weather. To make a long story short : a lot of rain, a little rain, mostly dry but cold wind, and more rain ... well, typical Belgian weather that is !

ON/ON-011 Sur Clair Fa

It was already raingin when I arrived at the summit, so it was time to test my "bothy bag" for the first time. This is a kind of mini-tent for two persons, but since I was alone, it would be difficult to keep it up. Also, I didn't have a walking pole to put into the little hole in the top.

I finally put my backpack in one side, and placed a small table and tripod stool at the other end, and pulled the bothy bag over my back, it kind of worked but was not too comfortable.

Anyway, I was dry and could operate !

I made 10 qso's , all in CW on 40m, and then was lucky to find EA5FV/P for a S2S qso on 14 MHz. Nice !

ON/ON-013 Bois de Hodinfosse

As I did before, iI drove up the forest  track as far as my car would take me, and parked at the crossing of two forest tracks (see picture above). Had a sandwich first, and then started walking the steep path up the summit. WX was fairly nice, at least compared to the first summit !

I put my antenna along the track, and hid myself between the sparse trees ... it didn't help much against the cold wind :-(

The activation was quite a succes, with 24 qso's in the log.

Four of those were S2S, and to my surprise the very last caller on 14 MHz CW was Geert, PA7ZEE from Gran Canaria !

(Those that follow my adventures closely will already know I'm going to Gran Canaria EA8 in April/May ;-)

ON/ON-010 Baraque Fraiture

Here I operated from the parking lot, which was deserted, sonce most snow had already disappeared by now. But again , the soil was frozen, so I was lucky to still find a pile of snow to put my fishing pole into. It held up the whole activation.

Despite some light drizzle, I had a good activation with 32 qso's, with 3 more S2S, and well well, look who's there ... another call from PA7ZEE !

Day 4

This was the trip back home, with only two more "winter bonus" summits to activate.


ON/ON-004 Bois de Hazeille

This summit is very easy to find, it's just a drive up, to a spot behind the St.-Hubert radar towers.

Since I didn't have to walk a lot, I could set up my 12m Spiderbeam pole again, and use the random endfed as a vertical. Here the big ground anchor I use for the Spiderbeam pole, I was lucky that the ground was not frozen !

Also using my comfy folding chair ...everything was in place for a nice activation and ... "armchair" copy !

All went well for 26 nice qso's ... and then the rain chased me away again !
Bands in use were 20/40/60, and a mix of SSB and CW.
But I want to mention one special qso : I was able to use the 9.15m endfed on 80m, and worked HB9CGA on 80m CW.
Well done for such a simple piece of wire !

ON/ON-006 La Croix Scaille 

This was the worst activation of my whole trip !

I arrived at the summit and rain was pouring down ...

I still had to eat a sandwhich, so I stayed in my car. And waited ... and waited ...

But it kept raining !

So I found a spot where I operated before in nice sunshine, but had to improvise now.

Hanging the 9:1 UNUN under a small "roof" over an information sign, to keep it dry, and using an umbrella for myself and the rig, I managed to setup as dry as I could make it. As an extra protection, I kept a towel over the KX3 all the time.

As such, I managed to make 13 qso's on 7 MHz, CW and SSB.

After putting all the wet stuff in the car ... I drove home, satisfied with another succesful SOTA trip ! See you all on the next one !

73 de Luc - ON7DQ

My build of the QCX 5W CW transceiver

The biggest hype in homebrewingland in 2017 must have been the QCX transceiver kit by QRP LABS (http://qrp-labs.com/qcx.html) in the UK. The designer of this little wonder is Hans Summers, G0UPL. 

He had already a very popular website (http://hanssummers.com/) which is a “homebrewers heaven” … it contains an endless collection of nice little projects.

Later on, Hans was very successful with a whole range of WSPR kits and addons, with his company QRP LABS. Now WSPR is a very nice tool to check the propagation but still, you can’t make a two way qso in WSPR … so here comes the QCX !

It is a small monoband CW transceiver which puts out between 3W - 5W (depending on supply voltage). It was designed as a building project for the RSGB Youths On The Air summer camp in August 2017. Since then, over 3000 of these kits have been shipped worldwide.

I won’t praise all it’s wonderful specs, have a look at the website for an overview.

Also , a lot has already been written about this kit, one of the best write-ups is this one by PD7MAA http://pa-11019.blogspot.be/2017/08/qrp-labs-qcx-5-watt-cw-trx-kit.html

And I want to warn potential builders : this is definitely not a beginners kit !

There are no SMD’s to solder, but the resistors and chokes are small in size and easily damaged, and almost impossible to remove without breaking, if you make  an error. Another problem area may be the 4 toroids and 1 transformer which you must wind yourself. Make sure you thoroughly pre-tin the wires, almost half of the problems arise from bad contacts with the toroids.

That said,  if you intend to build one … read the FAQ and the MODS page BEFORE you start, and make note of which components should NOT be mounted, even if the manual says so (Note : in the mean time, all mods are gradually included in the manual, so make sure to download the latest version).

http://qrp-labs.com/qcx/qcxfaq.html

http://qrp-labs.com/qcx/qcxmods

If it all goes wrong , there is an excellent troubleshooting guide too

http://qrp-labs.com/qcx/qcxtrouble.html

But don’t let me scare you off, if you work slowly and with good care, you can do it !

It all starts with placing your order, for just 49$ you are in line for a cardboard box, shipped from Japan. And the wait can be long … the kit is getting more popular by the day …

I ordered a 20m version in October, and had to wait until end of December to receive my kit, because the 20m LPF components were out of stock.

And then your box arrives … this is what you get.

The two SMD chips are pre-soldered, all other components are through hole. Everything is very close together so just take care nothing touches where it shouldn’t touch and you’re fine.

The 133 page manual will guide you step by step, and the drawings show exactly what goes where. But remember to skip the components that are not needed, as explained on the mod page. Also don’t be surprised if some trimmers have other values … did you really read the whole MOD page ?

After a couple of hours, your board should look like this.

Then come the toroids !

The 4 single layer coils shouldn’t give you much trouble, but transformer T1 is the tricky one, especially if you order a 40m or lower band kit. The manual suggests you wind all wire at once , and make loops to cut open later and separate the 4 different windings.

I did it a bit differently : I wound all windings separately, scraped off the enamel and tinned the wires. I made every wire a bit longer than the next, and so could fit each wire in the corresponding hole , one after another with tweezers. Then I pulled all wires one by one, until T1 sat at its final position. This is my transformer “going in” …

Here the kit is finished, after more or less 8 hours of work.

And of course I had to make a qso with the board just lying on the table .. I worked Italy after a few CQ’s , so that looked promising.

Now came the next problem, what case to put it in ?

I had a number of boxes from old DSL modems, etc , but none really fitted the kit. So I decided to construct my own box from pcb material, inspired by the work of Ken, WA4MNT. You can admire his box in this document

http://qrpguys.apps-1and1.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/qcx_pcb_chassis_110317.pdf

I wanted this rig to be a backup for my KX3 when hiking for SOTA, so it had to be as small as possible, and use the same accessories as the KX3, so the same power plug etc …

I made a chassis of a bottom plate and three sidings (front, back and left) soldered together. The cover is an L-shape, made from the top panel and the right siding. That way, I can slide it over the fairly large BNC connector and click it over the LCD and the two extension shafts for the pushbuttons. Inside the cover I soldered small pieces of pcb and drilled a hole, then 4 small countersunk parker screws go into those pcb supports. Under the board, I added a separate round DC jack and an ON/OFF switch.

Here you see the completed box before painting (the screws in the picture were not the final ones).

I didn’t use the knobs that came with the kit, because they stick out at different heights. Instead, I

found two knobs in my junkbox which made the controls equal in height, perfect !

After sanding the box with coarse, then fine sandpaper, rinsing with water and dish wash liquid, I sprayed the box with tho layers of matte grey paint.

Then came the problem of how to put the lettering on the box. I didn’t have the decals , as suggested by Ken, so I wanted to test the “toner transfer method”, as shown in many YouTube videos.

I made an error in drilling the top panel, so I had a “test object” to try this out …

This method may work fine for transferring a pcb layout onto a layer of copper, but as I found out, a painted surface didn’t withstand the heat, or when I used a lower temperature, the toner didn’t transfer …

So finally, I used my old quick method of printing on paper and fixing it with some clear Scotch tape … works well enough for me.

This is the final product, note the SOTA logo on the bottom left. Below is a microswitch which can be used as a straight key. But I intend to use an external key or paddle all the time, so I didn’t bother making a hole for it.

Then I also needed a paddle ...

Again inspired by the QRPGuys paddle in Ken’s document, I made a iambic paddle from two relay contacts and four pieces of pcb, each 3cm x 1.3 cm.

The paddle just sticks to the case with “blue tack” (although my blue tack is white, hi)

This paddle wheighs just 14 grams, including the cable and jack.

In a kind of competition with Ignacio EA2BD (see full story on the SOTA Reflector here ), I later made an even lighter version of this paddle, that was only 9 grams ! This one sticks to the side of the rig, close to the key/paddle connector.

Next April/May I will be in EA8 Gran Canaria for some SOTA fun, if you hear me give me a call … 

UPDATE 1 : I did take the rig on one summit on Gran Canaria, and after spotting, I made 5 QSO's in just 4 minutes !

UPDATE 2 : In June 2018, I met Hans G0UPL in Friedrichshafen, and showed him my build. 
He took some pictures and my rig features in the QRP Labs July 2018 newsletter, read it here

UPDATE 3 : The QCX has gone through several revisions, many of the mods that I mentioned are no longer needed. Make sure you download the correct assembly manual for your version.

UPDATE 4 : I removed the SOTA sticker and drilled a hole above the microswitch key, and glued a soft rubber "nipple" on it ... feels great when keying ! HI
So now it looks like this:

73,

Luc – ON7DQ