I had to cut Field Day a bit short this year, so I went up to the
mountains for the afternoon.
A couple of our QRP club members have set up a 6m/2m/432 MHz station the
past two years, in conjunction with the famous Zuni Loop QRP
Expeditionary Force.
Bill, K6WHP, urged me to bring my new 526 all-mode 6m/2m Ten-Tec radio.
This was a good opportunity to see how it performed, since I've had it all
of about 10 days and haven't hooked it up to anything better than a 2m
mag-mount antenna - what a waste of a fine product! :-)
The 2m band was pretty bad, but I pulled the coax to the 3-element 6m
Yagi off Bill's Icom 706MKIIG and connected it to the 526. Within 30
minutes, I had worked New Mexico, Oklahoma, two stations in North Texas,
and Louisiana from the LAX Section here in southern California, using
4 watts of output power (I did mention that we are a QRP bunch, right?)
It took some work to get the Louisiana contact into the log, but the
gentleman was patient and worked with me through several repeats. The
other contacts took only the one exchange.
Now, a lot of credit goes to our location at 7000 feet, and the great
propagation that has been widely reported on 6 meters, but I can say that
I'm very pleased with the 526. Also pleased to hear a bit of CW on 6m,
but I hadn't brought a paddle.
After an inauspicious start (I had set the power to 4 watts, but forgot
that the mic gain was at zero; normally I don't work much phone) and these
good contacts, the band sort of fell flat. It seemed like I'd worked
about everyone who was on.
This is a fun and straightforward radio to work, and I look forward to
giving the CQ VHF contest a go next month. I have an Icom 706 also, and
all the menus drove me nuts. The 526 has everything on the front panel,
just the way I like it.
73 de Jim - AD6CW
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