N2ADV James@VE6LK I tried but the band fell right out from under us. Conditions went south super fast!
Good: my #zBitX #AmateurRadio V2 arrived.
Not-so-good: looks like a standoff was forced through the back of the case during shipping.
I was really looking forward to this one, too.
Ugh.
Bharath M. PalavalliAll set for a field day, the aim is to test a home-brewed vertical coil (have an EFHW as backup) with the QMX and zbitx v1, test-driving a Gigaparts POTA20 mast, and the portable ESP32 powered HAM Clock I’ve been working on with the local club. In case, all goes well, might attempt a POTA.
#fieldoperations #qrp #qmx #zbitx #amateurradio #hamradio #pota #esp
The radio weekend comes to a nice end, two quick videos and a blog post about the #zbitx #wrp radio are up: https://ham.bharathpalavalli.com/posts/20260502144921-making_the_zbitx_field_worthy/.
USB PD trigger is at: https://tilvids.com/w/tsKhLFmZhTBzje7MFSNZ9s
zBitx case mod is at: https://tilvids.com/w/tkTbZraFVJZihiyRD9zgWC
Making the zBitx field-worthy
Figure 1: Labour day well spent with modifications to the zBitx and powering it using a USB-C PD trigger This promises to be yet another long post, so please bear with me1! And as always, the TLDR; version: Challenges I have with the zBitx -Modifications I would like to make
I'd say #LabourDay well spent, finally got around to powering the #zBitx from a powerbank and some bug fixes on the HAM Clock using an #esp32 CYD to get it up and running. A few more fixes and I'm all set for the next field day in better conditions :-).
It was fun to activate the park, managed to get 36 QSOs on FT8, and Rx the HF Nets in India. Managed to make a QSO with stations as far away as Samoa & Poland in under 4W on the #zbitx. Lots of things to plan for the next #pota. I’ll hopefully write up a detailed report.
Not to mention, spotted half a dozen tigers, a leaped and a merry number of birds! A good way to end the year!
I will be attempting my first ever #pota, IN-0067, tomorrow with a QRP setup (given the flight restrictions, etc.), seem to have ticked most boxes with the prep. I'll be on 80m-10m on SSB and #FT8, using an EFHW and a #zbitx. It goes upto 5W. I had previously tested the EFHW during an impromptu trip (https://ham.bharathpalavalli.com/posts/20251014143716-my_first_field_ops/), but haven’t ever tested the zbitx. Given the quirks on it, would be interesting.
Shawn Rutledge K7IHZ / LB2JKAnother SOTA hike yesterday. This one was relatively easy for being a 4-pointer: not steep, not even terribly long, just a bit of a drive to get there, and I paid a lot of road tolls through Eggedal, to have a look. https://sotl.as/summits/LA/BU-062 Such a stiff breeze that not only was I a bit cold, but even the #zbitx managed to stay cool. I used the /P suffix this time: maybe I always should have. The software handled it fine. Had to start separate logbooks on LOTW and QRZ.
I finally got back to SOTA activation of Gyrihaugen yesterday https://sotl.as/summits/LA/BU-027 after trying last spring and failing to get the #zbitx battery polarity right that time (fried a PCB trace, had to fix it). Much better results this time: pskreporter said I was also heard in Australia and North America, just didn't have any QSOs with them. Not bad for 3-4 watts. But it's a rather tiring hike for a mere 2 points. I doubt that I will repeat that one very often.