5W/365/2022 Challenge, And a Surprise.

 Here is a small update on my personal 5W challenge, attempting to work at least 365 QSOs in 2022 with just 5W, and not using weak signal modes, i.e. CW,SSB,AM,FM only.

The status right now is 239 QSOs. 

Several of the QSOs have been on 29.6MHz FM in the last few weeks, so I am not complaining.

By far the most QSOs have been made with CW, and a few with SSB. All bands from 80m all the way to 6m have been in use.

Tonight I had a surprise. I was checking 30m, and heard a decent signal, about S6, from FY5FY He was not having a pile up, but stations calling most of the time. When I finally tried to call, I made it in just 3 attempts. Not bad for 5W in a low hanging wire in the garden.

Who knows, maybe this autumn I will make more, as I expect the F2 propagation on the HF bands to improve from now on, as we are already in the late summer season.

Taking into account that I have not been particularly active, I should fulfil the challenge this year.

If I do that, I will make up another challenge. Maybe a single band with an optimized antenna.

Since we are on the upward slope of solar cycle 25, I should probably get up a decent antenna for 6m, as I have not had much time in OZ to work on 6m with F2 propagation. Who knows, maybe already this year ?

10 FM QSOs, and the HB-1B CW Transceiver.

10m FM. 

Having a receiver running on 29.600 FM gave results today.

Twice this evening French stations were coming in with S9 signals, so QSOs were attempted calling them with just 5W, as a part of my 5W challenge this year. Both stations came back and I had two real QSOs, as I call them. exchanging more than just reports.

The sporadic E (Es) season is still going on, and 10m has been quite good today. Yes, it is up and down, but there is a reason we name it "sporadic".

HB-1B transceiver.

Also I did some listening with my small Chinese CW transceiver, the HB-1B transceiver for 80,40,30 and 20m. The sensitivity is absolutely sufficient, on 40 and 80 I usually have the attenuator switched in. As the TRX has only about 5W output the sensitivity is not all too critical. 

The variable crystal filter works nicely, but the AGC is not quite as good as I would like - it has a slow attack, but it does give some protection against signals that are very strong. Most of the time it actually works well enough to listen to (not all too strong) signals. I need to be able to extend my CW keyer "distributor", so this radio can be added to my CW system. 

This could be a nice addition to use in my 5W challenge on the 20-30-40-80m bands. I should probably make myself a diplexer, so my 10-15-20-40-80m dipole can be used on the lowest bands (40 and 80m) with the HB-1B, and another transceiver on 10-15-20m simultaneously. Long term I might make some more multiplexing, so the antenna can be used on all 5 bands (plus 4 and 6m) with different transceivers, or receivers .