LAFF-0060, NO-2581 Svartskog

A HF rig to less than NOK 1300, would that work? I got an offer of a uSDX transceiver which (on sale) cost a little les than NOK 1300,-. Before I purchased it, I consulted SaltyWalty. He owns all these cheap Chinese rigs, and in one of his videos, he claims that it would work. I decided to test it.

I tested it a little at home, and I was a little curious about how this would work. I have heard someone who claimed that the modulation wasn’t very good. However, it seemed to me that it works. Obviously, it is not a KX-2 or an IC-705, but actually it seemed to work quite well.

However, “the proof of the pudding is the eating”.I thus went out to my local area/park for testing. I used a 20 meter EFHW erected an inverted vee.

I started to call on 20 meter SSB, and I got 11 in the log without any modulation complaints. Then, I QSYed to CW, and got 16 more QSOs. Finally, I made a few calls on 15 meter, and got three QSOs. I had plans to be active on 40 meter as well, but I run out of time. I just made a few test calls in order to be spotted on reversed beacon network, which I in fact was.

In total, I had 30 QSOs from 11 DCXXs.

DXCC: CT, DL, F, G, HB9, I, LY, OH, PA, SV, 9A.

LAFF-0060, NO-2581 Svartskog

It was the first Tuesday in May, and I went out to Svartskog for an activation. First Tuesday means Nordic Activity Test on 2 meter. Knowing that it was unlikely to obtain the necessary 10 QSOs on 2 meter, I also brought with me whips for HF work. I only got 2 QSOs on 2 meter. 20 meter was also tough, but I 40 meter was quite OK. Finally, I made a few calls on 60 meter, which resulted in 2 QSOs. Totally, I achieved 15 QSOs from 11 DXCCs.

DXCC: DL, E7, EA, G, I, LA, OH, OM, PA, SM, SP.