Needed to produce a RF signal at around 1.7GHz to test my receive setup for GOES-19, but finally realized that the signal generator has been sitting on my desk all this time... Turned my HT to 430.125MHz and the 4-th harmonic showed up at 1720.5MHz. I have a narrow saw filter before an LNA and I think this the reason why it worked so well. If I did not have it the SDR could've been saturated with the main signal. The antenna for my HT was a tiny mini-circuit dummy load, power setting EL (50mW).

Finally finished building my OCX-mini kit. The output power adjustment procedure has already been done (see L1-L3 coils spread/compacted). I do not have means of measuring the absolute power value directly, but used a comparative method which gave me 4.5 Watts. Before the power adjustment the output was around 0.5 Watts. Sounds good, now it is time to test TX on the air...

I ordered this device from Amazon.ca a couple days ago. Kind of pricey but works very well with my Diamond HF40CL on the car roof. SWR dropped from 8.4 to 1.5. To verify things further I made a quick contact using 5W and no turner (thank you, W1NVT). Did not expect it to work so well...

This is the faulty encoder I removed from my Elecraft KX3. I know it looks ugly but I had no choice but to cut the pins to remove it. Tried a de-soldering kit that supposed to keep multiple soldering spots in a liquid state long enough to remove the component but it did not work for me... In the end the replacement was soldered rather nicely. I have no picture as I was eager to try it as soon as possible... The radio is working again!

My #hamradio projects go at a snail pace... Still, the 20m delta loop and a home brew 2:1 current BALUN seem to be working. Not spot on but close enough. Some wire trimming will be required...