[TenTec] QRP CONTESTING

[rick@dj0ip.de]

That is great.  Didn't know you were also into QRP.
The K3S is probably the best radio going right now.  
I can't afford one (and stay married). 

Besides, without the ability to put up good antennas, there's no sense in spending a lot of money on a radio. 

Unfortunately all I can put up here is one single wet string.  Landlord won't let me put up any more antennas and the 40 degree slope we live on prohibits me from putting up a Spiderbeam on a push-up mast.

It is quite amazing what one can work with QRP.
I was into that big time back in the years I was motorbiking (1974 to 1996).
The old Argonaut 509 was my trusty radio.

My SKY-SDR is on par with the Eagle, receiver wise.
Its receiver seems to be as good or better than the K3, or so the engineers who created it tell me.  They are Ops at LZ9W and have tested it in MM environment.
Of course the ergonomics, like with all other tiny radios, can't come close to those of the larger rigs.

I still have an Argonaut 515 and love to use it, but performance wise, compared to my SKY-SDR, it's about like comparing a VW Beetle to a Porsche Carrera. 

I've sent my two SKY-SDR radios (SN 000 and 001) back to Bulgaria to the factory to get the latest hardware updates.  They have promised at least one  of them back in time for WW CW.

We will soon bring out a tiny matching 40w amp (similar to the old Ten-Tec 405 but much smaller), and a matching ATU. 

Sales are slow, but picking up.
I signed up a reseller in the UK a month ago and just recently one in Australia.
Scott would like to sell them in the states, but we don't want to go thru the hassle and cost of FCC Type Approval. 

Bedtime here.
73
Rick


-----Original Message-----
From: TenTec [mailto:tentec-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Jim Brown
Sent: Sunday, October 29, 2017 9:36 PM
To: tentec at contesting.com
Subject: [TenTec] QRP CONTESTING

On 10/29/2017 12:25 PM, rick at dj0ip.de wrote:
> I am now at the other end of the scale:  contesting QRP.
> I am using my own brand of radio, the "Aerial-51, Model SKY-SDR".

Forgot to respond to this. For the last 3-4 years, all of my ARRL DX and CQWW DX operation has been QRP with my K3s. Last I looked, I have nearly
170 countries worked QRP, with more than 100 on both 20M and 15M, and I think 90 on 10M. I'm doing this with good antennas, not wet strings. :) Because WPX is far less east-coast centric, I run legal limit and put in serious SO2R efforts on all three modes, using our club's call, KU6W.

73, Jim K9YC

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