Bands Dead?

Who says the bands are dead?

It's Saturday morning the 23rd of Dec around 10.00 am and on 14.190 I'm hearing ZL3JAS Jason in Christchurch in conversation with Roy VK7ROY and a station in Chile CE3YG! God I love this FTDX 9000!
Once again, just being patient and quietly listening to what's about, you can hear some amazing stations.

The interesting thing is I've been playing around with the Kenwood 950SD for a few weeks, deliberately keeping away from the Yaesu. So after a few weeks I thought I'd give it a try today and boy what a difference!

The Kenwood is an extremely good radio, but it's a whole different ball game when listening with the Yaesu. The clarity is amazing, I'm using the same antennas, just changing the radio. You can hear stuff on the Yaesu that just wont come up on the Kenwood no matter how hard you try.
I must admit at one stage I had my doubts about keeping the FTDX9000 simply because of it's size and of course the cost. It would be easy just to let it go and have some spare room on the desk and pick up a load of cash.
But on hearing and reminding myself just how good it is, I find myself thinking I must be nuts! ...........Happy Christmas everyone.

The Kenwood TS-950SD

Well I've got the Kenwood TS 950SD, I had to drive down to Paignton in Devon for it which was a bit of a pain, especially when having to drive in a 1.2  Terios 4 wheel drive, buts that's another story.

I must admit when I'd got home and set the radio up I was pleasantly surprised, the condition of the bodywork was exceptional, not a scratch anywhere, which you would have thought for its age there would be something and when I switched on the receive was very clear and quiet and by adding the filtering I could zero any CW signal right down. Which when you think about it is not strange, after all at one time this was along with the SDX and the S was Kenwood's Flagship Transceiver.

The difference with the SDX is there is no menu so you cannot alter the DSP, the SDX also had different types of final transistors and additional memory functions but the SD all the same filtering installed so I think I can live with that. Some Operators say the SDX is the bee all and end all of transceivers with totally different circuitry and I've seen one presently retail at £2295...Wow, think what new transceiver I could buy with that? There is no doubt the SDX is a better transceiver but you cannot knock the S or the SD.

 

My first QSO with the SD was with a German station who gave me a good 589 with just 20 watts, I knew straight away this radio was a winner. I've got to now try and find a few accessories like the speaker and a nice desk mike but I don't think that should cause too much of a problem.

A further update is I've managed to track down an SP-950 so all I need now is a decent desk mic and I should be OK.

Recently I've been playing with the Rockmites, digging them out from the back of the shelf in the shack, dusting them off and checking they are all working correctly. I'm always amazed at the fact that I have the FTDX 9000MP which can produce 400 watts of power and retails now at £8000 and yet at the other end of the scale I have three Rockmites, built by myself that produce 1.5/2 watts, and cost around £30 each. I can contact locals in the UK or Europe and have a good CW QSO, it does make you think.

 

I have three Rockmites, 20,30 and 40 meters

 

 If you ever want to have some cheap and cheerful fun with QRP, build a Rockmite! It's easy, it doesn't take long to assemble and with the right conditions you'll be amazed at what you distance you can achieve.